UPS and Downs

It's F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G here today, again. Well below, actually. The sort of weather that makes you wish you had gloves on after 20 seconds and then after a minute makes you realise that you have two hours of hand-warming ahead of you. I've just had a very filling lunch in my kitchen and have caught up on various blogs, so now I've got a few minutes to add to my own while I wait in hope that UPS will deliver while I'm home. They phoned yesterday to say a signature would be required, so I hope they catch me in.

The day started, as many days in this house do, with my alarm clock waking me out of a deep sleep. This morning it was deeper than usual, having been awake for a little while at 3.30. Since Christmas I have found two things to be especially grateful for in the cold dark morning hours: firstly the alarm clock hubby got for Christmas (thanks G!) which shines the time on the ceiling, nicely in focus for the myopic and perfectly place to be read with half an eye open; secondly, my wonderful iPod (thanks Hub!) which, once I have opened the other eye and found my glasses, allows me to check my email from the cosy comfort of my bed. You might be wondering why that is actually useful, so I'm going to tell you.

Last year our town acquired an emergency communications system which enables them to phone every household and every cellphone in the whole town as well as send out emails to everyone, all at the same time. More or less. Because this system was expensive and thankfully there are few really dire emergencies, it is also used to notify families of school closings or delayed openings in the event of extreme weather conditions. In other words, Snow Days. We used to simply turn on the TV in the morning to see if our school district was listed among the closings for the area, but since they got their new communication system, we get early morning phone calls and emails (in our case that would be three telephone numbers and two email addresses). The High School opens at 7am so the calls usually come by 5:30am - nearly an hour before my alarm goes off. Now, because of my lovely iPod, before going to bed we turn off the house phones, silence the cellphones and when I wake up at 6:20 and look at the numbers on the ceiling, I can check my email without getting up, and if there is a snow day, I can snuggle back down knowing I don't have to get up to wake the kids! We're probably going to have another snow storm on Wednesday so perhaps I can look forward to a lie-in.

So, back to today. The only one happy to hear me say "good morning" was Lucy the Beagle who is always happy to see anybody, especially when she's hungry. The two girls grunted and the little boy groaned. No sandwiches needed to be made today, except for DD1. DD2 and DS, having seen the menu, had decided to buy lunch today ($3 for J and $2.75 for A).DD2 nearly missed the bus again, but made it, DD1 left in a foul temper (without her sandwiches) because she had a test for which she felt ill-prepared, and Andrew just didn't wnat to go to school, and left me emailing his teacher to set up a conference. Hubby suggested again that we take Jamie out of her school without delay and have her go to the local High School immediately, and perhaps that is what she will do. That's for another day though.

After a couple of emails and a phone call with one of the car-pool parents, I went to Staples to buy paper for the church. I think paper has got more expensive recently. I ended up spending nearly $100 on it. The morning's work went well, but I will have to go in again on Thursday for an hour to finish up.

Oh good - the UPS truck just arrived. I'm expecting a parcel containing the girls' birthday presents which I ordered a little too late for DD1's birthday.......

I'm glad he came before I went out. Unfortunately I did a foolish thing... I ordered two of DD2's present, and now that I've opened it, I don't think DD1 is going to be happy with her present unfortunately. I will need to talk to her about it and offer her some options. But that's for later.

Well it's now 2:10 and if it's going to be worth my while popping into Target, I'd better go now. Bye!