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Its been a hectic few days around here, hence my absence. Emily and Katherine had both Friday and Monday off (Friday was a Proffesional Development day for the teachers and Monday was in observance of MLK Day). Friday night was the monthly crop at the Mitchell Club and Saturday night I spent over at the Ryan homestead babysitting Nate and Jackie.

My father in law came over Sunday to give the kids their Christmas presents (he bought Emily a "real" guitar...real meaning not a toy one which she was ecstatic about). While he was here, I got a phone call from my mother (who was spending the weekend on the Cape with my father and friends) saying that my sister Heather was in a car acident and was on the way to the hospital via ambulance. It turns out that she was ok (just bruised and battered) but the accident itself was bad enough to deploy both airbags, smash her windshield, basically remove her right front tire from the car, move the frame, and smash the right front headlight and car body. Both the rearview and passenger side mirrors fell off as well. She was on her way to work at Chili's (for those familiar with area the accident occured at the intersection of 228 and 53 in Norwell which is one of the worst intersections I have ever seen) and someone just pulled out in front of her. The someone was a sixteen and a half year old driver and his father. We are unsure about whether or not he had his license or permit. Let me just say I feel bad for my sister but that just SUCKS for the kid. Even she thinks so. Totalling someone else's car is just not a good way to begin your driving career. Thank God that she's ok, and can I just be a little jealous that she's getting a 2005 Chevy Malibu? Thanks. Anyway, I spent the day driving her around (from the hospital to her apartment to the Hingham police station to the autobody shop where her car was towed and finally, home to Carver where she spent the past couple of day recuperating). Ryun was supposed to go to the movies wth his father and the oldest two girls but due to the circumstances, Julia took in her first official movie at the theater, Happily N'ever After. Ryun said she was pretty good and basically sat through the movie with little interuption.

On Monday I took Katherine to her asthma and allergy doctor for a regular checkup. I also also told him about the cough that she seems to get every year and basically lasts from November to April. It basically only happens at night but she coughs so frequently and so intensely I was really beginning to think that she literally might cough up a lung. Since it was only happening at night, and standard cough syrup did nothing, on my own, I decided to to start giving her Claritin once a day. My thinking was that the cough seemed like a post nasal drip type of thing given the it only happened when she was lying down and an allergy medicine would work better to control that. I was right. The cough is still present but has been dramatically reduded in intensity and frequency. The doctor agreed with my diagnosis and prescribed Nasonex. He told me to continue with the Claritin as well but if the addition of the Nasonex seems to erase the cough completely, that I can try going without the Claritin. In the mean time, he wants her allergies re-tested and highly reccomends she get allergy shots. He reccommended Emily do the same thing (Emily is allergic to almost every enviromental thing there is and cats and dogs to boot) at her last appointment. The thing is the commitment is HUGE. Once a week for 15 weeks, every two weeks for the rest of the year, then every three weeks for another year, and then every month for another year. I will probably do it out of sheer guilt if I don't but it's just another thing to add to the list, you know? If it means no more medication and that overall, they will feel better, than it will be worth it. In other news, the doctor is fairly confident tht Katherine is outgrowing her asthma and has reduced her QVAR inhaler to once a day.

This morning brings news that my grandmother is in the hospital, with an unknown cause of severe pain in her back. It sounds like sciatic nerve but after multiple medications not doing anything to ease the pain, it appears that there could be another cause. My mother is on her way up to the hospital now so I am hoping to have more information later.

On that note, I leave you. Back later...