3 Days Left

Last night I went to bed at 10:30 to watch the Charlie Brown Christmas DVD which is an all-time favorite.  I dozed off through most of it.  I finally gave in, turned the television off and went to sleep at 11:30.  At 1:00 am my son E wakes me up because he has a nosebleed.  No biggie, I thought, kids have them.  I told him to pinch his nose and it would stop.  After all, he's almost 15 years old, not a baby.  Within minutes I hear him in the bathroom saying, "Mom, it won't stop!  Ugh, what is this?!"  So I got up to see what was happening.  There was blood everywhere - on his clothes, on the floor, in the sink, on a hundred tissue papers.  It was a lot of blood, and he was freaking out, which only made the bleeding worse.  When I looked up at him I could see the blood gushing from his nose and I knew I had to take action.  I got a clean tissue and had him lie down, since he said he was feeling woozy.  I then pinched his nose myself.  He wasn't really pinching the part of the nose that was bleeding; he was holding his nostrils shut, so whenever he would let go all the blood would come rushing down.  I got him to calm down and kept the pressure on his nose for a good two minutes.  When he said he couldn't taste blood in his mouth anymore, I had him get washed up.  As he went back to bed it started up again, but not as heavy.  I pinched his nose again for another 2 minutes, and that time it did stop.  All along I kept telling him not to worry, calm down, everything was okay (though I was concerned seeing him in that state), and he would tell me he was fine.  Once the bleeding had stopped he admitted that he was pretty worked up and the amount of blood had scared him.  He asked that we pray, and I prayed for him to be healed and get rest.  He lay down and, even though he was still a bit worked up and headachy, went right to sleep.  Mama, on the other hand, was awake for another hour checking on him and making sure he wasn't bleeding anymore.  He woke up fine, praise the Lord.

So after that overnight adventure, I woke up at 7:00 in the morning because, when you're a morning person like me, there is no sleeping in.  I checked my little monkey and he was sleeping soundly, no more bleeding.  I went to the kitchen to make breakfast and realized I'd forgotten to take out the ground beef for today's chili.  I reminded myself repeatedly that I had to take the ground beef out, but I still forgot.  I put it in a pan with warm water to defrost, shaking my head at myself the whole time.  I kept breakfast simple today, cereal and toast.  I had decided yesterday that today I would update my iPhone to the newest version.  I still had version 7.1 on my phone because my daughter had insisted that upgrading my 4S would not be a good choice.  When I read all that the upgrade would fix I showed it to her and she agreed that I should update.  I had tried to back up my phone first, but my computer was so bogged down with unnecessary files that it wouldn't even recognize the phone connected to it.  That's when my son R cleaned up my computer and took all the junk out, making it super fast and efficient again.  At 8:30 am I plugged the phone into the computer to back up.  It couldn't; one of the files that my son disabled was needed to recognize my phone.  Thankfully my daughter was awake; she knows more iPhone stuff than I do.  She fixed the disabled file and the back up got done.  Then we tried to update.  Well, that wasn't happening because I didn't have enough space on my phone, so I had to start deleting stuff.  Ugh!  All in all, it took 2 1/2 hours to update, but at least that's one thing I can knock off my to-do list.  

After taking care of the phone, I got to work around the house.  I had all the laundry to fold and put away.  Right after that it was time to make lunch.  Along with the black bean and beef chili we had white rice and cornbread.  We all love chili, so I make a big pot, enough for lunch and dinner.  At least that's my goal.  We ran out of rice and chili, and there's less than half of the cornbread left.  I can't complain about no leftovers ;-).  While I ate lunch I watched a really old version of The Christmas Carol.  This one is with Reginald Owens.  It's in black and white.  While it isn't faithful to the actual book it's still a classic as far as I'm concerned, and it's one of those movies that I have to watch every Christmas season.

Then after lunch I ran to Winn-Dixie to buy a couple of things I needed to finish making cupcakes.  I thought I had vanilla pudding in the house, but it turns out all I had was chocolate.  I'd also run out of frosting, and you can't decorate cupcakes right without frosting.  So I ran over to the store, and for some reason I felt the need to go check the meat department for ground beef.  Good thing I did - I scored 2 packages of about a pound and a quarter each for under $3.00 per pound.  It's the meat that has to be sold or thrown out because of the sell-by date.  There's nothing wrong with the meat, but government regulations and all, they either get it sold or get rid of it.  I was so glad that God pushed me over to see that bargain - we never have enough ground beef in my house!

I baked 2 orange streusel loaves, one for my next door neighbors who are an older couple, and the other for my daughter's coworkers at the church office.  Then I baked chocolate cupcakes because, who doesn't love chocolate cupcakes ya'll?!  I was pleasantly surprised that I got 27 cupcakes out of the one batter I made.  It meant I could get 3 plates with 8 cupcakes each, and one left over for each of my kiddos.  It also meant I was able to take cupcakes to 9 homes with just 3 boxes of cake mix.  My son R had to work so once again it was A and E going to the neighbors with the goodies.  The first neighbors we went to see have lived here just over a year, and I have to admit I'd never met them.  I saw the wife recently going to her mailbox and saw that she was expecting.  So I knew a chocolate confection would be welcome :-).  Come to find out she'd had the baby just last week, a gorgeous little boy.  They're a young couple with another little boy who is about 3 years old.  They were so grateful and so nice!  We then went to the folks next door to them, who I've seen from afar but have never spoken to.  The husband was very surprised but also very thankful.  The third house was a little more intimidating.  The folks have lived there since we've been here, but they've always kept to themselves.  They have a daughter who is handicapped and in a wheelchair.  When we got to the door the husband seemed a bit bothered, like we were coming to ask for something or complain.  I think out of everyone we visited, he was the most surprised that we were bringing a gift.  He didn't even know where we lived, and they are literally two doors down from us.  It made me sad to think that we've lived here so many years and yet we don't know our neighbors, but at the same time I'm so glad that we showed kindness to those we don't know.  It was quite an eye-opener for me about how our culture has changed.  People used to be so much friendlier towards their neighbors, but now everyone is either too busy to be bothered or too distrusting.  I hope our neighbors will be more willing to reach out to one another with this small gesture.

My daughter has encouraged her little brother to work out on her Wii Fit.  I think it's good for him.  We haven't gone out this week, partly because A and I weren't feeling well, and partly because it's been so warm out.  E went to the park with his friend yesterday but he was home all day today, so Wii Fit it is.  Whatever works to keep him moving.

It's early still but all I'm gonna do now is shower and maybe watch a movie or something.  That's it for today (at least I hope it is; don't need another episode like last night).  The day is approaching - is everyone excited? :D  Yeah, me too!  Good night.