Busy but Fulfilling Life

Well, I haven't been blogging because my laptop went to the repair shop for almost a week and so I am going to try to catch up and review the whirlwind of things that have transpired.
First, I surprised myself and my family by flying out to SF to attend my dad's grand opening party for his hotel which coincided with his birthday. That was a wonderful and fun 35 hour adventure. Traveling without kids is so insanely simple. I was in heaven. Barclay's house has so many photos of the boys that I had no time to miss them. I felt like they were there (but they were very quiet).

The Grand Opening party itself was amazing. I simply had not thought about all the people I would know and get to visit with. It was like every friend my parents have ever had was there so it was fun to visit with all of them. Of course, Jeff Daly, Barclay's godfather was one of the people we spent the most time with. I always enjoy seeing Jeff and Laurie. They are very cool people.

And my visit was a surprise for my mom until Barclay and I arrived at her house to leave for the party. She was a bit overwhelmed especially since there was an accident forcing us to take the ferry into the city. I actually loved that we had to take the Ferry. We had fun chit chatting on the way in. It was gorgeous (and comfy). I sort of sprinted into the party as we ran into some people we knew as we were entering the hotel and I did not want anyone to spoil the surprise. That was fun seeing the look on my Dad's face when he saw me. The whole thing was totally worth it. By the end of the evening most people knew I had flown in as a surprise and I think that says a lot about the Buss family!

My visit was not longer because I had a histology exam on Tuesday and a lecture exam on Thursday. I did better than I thought on the histology (17 out of 20) and worse than I would have liked on the lecture exam (80%). But, as my classmate Harini reminds me, I got to go to San Francisco! Not only that but Joe treated me to PF Chang for lunch Thursday after my flight which got me to campus 45 minutes before my exam. :) Clearly I am enjoying myself despite being back in school.

A lot of time and energy has been consumed by helping Barclay find a place to live here as she is moving up here to be closer to the boys and me. This has been a hellacious process at times but I am relieved to say that her offer was accepted yesterday and so she is going to be buying a Bank Repo right down the street from us. We are in a collaborative effort to update and remodel the house for her but I am excited. I pray she will be happy there. Its in a great neighborhood, three minute walk to the river, 3 minute walk to the elementary school and a five minute walk to our house (maybe more at Talan's pace!). The price is amazing and I think it is a solid investment.

I was asked to speak at the Fort Sherman AA/Al-Anon meeting on Sunday night. I spoke for about 20 minutes and then the AA speaker spoke. Originally I had hoped Joe would be the AA speaker but he wasn't and truthfully he said he would not have been able to hear a thing I said if he had to speak too so I guess it worked out for the best. I got lots of praise and hugs for my talk. I don't remember what I said! It was just shooting from the hip. That is how it is whenever I am asked to talk. As a reward, Joe took me to Bonsai Bistro for dinner. NVG (not very good). But the company was excellent. I love being out with Joe alone. We have such a great time together. :) I drove the babysitter home while Joe put the kids to bed.

A couple nights ago we just watched a movie called "Into the Wild" it was really good. I have recommended it to a few people. We rarely watch movies. We are diligently trying to get through Season 2 of LOST. These kids don't allow a lot of mom and dad TV time. What we watch is largely "Mason TV". He is still asking what his options are.....

We are on Spring Break this week. Unfortuately this is the only time we have been able to schedule some much needed medical appointments. Yesterday I took my hearing aid in to get repaired. A task I always dread as it means living without my hearing aid for a week and that truly makes me miserable. On top of this, Mason had half of his dental work done yesterday. They had to pull a tooth and do a polpectomy. Oh my gosh, I am really having a hard time with seeing a hole in his mouth. I had the dentist check Talan's teeth while we were there. He said so far so good BUT he has the same situation as Mason where his teeth are so close together that we must floss. He also gave us a prescription for fluoride tablets. Apparently the dentist feels that the tooth decay that he sees in his practice is largely attributable to our not having fluoride in our water.

Overall, Mason was a trooper. He did have some hysteria when we got home but a little Motrin made a big difference. He actually didn't want to leave the dentist's office as there were so many cool things to do inside (a slide) to be specific. We will have to promote the slide next week when Mason will get the other side of his mouth worked on. They will need to pull another tooth and do some cavities. The tooth that they pulled yesterday had no roots whatsoever, that is how decayed it was. I tried to get Mason to put his tooth under his pillow for the tooth fairy. I have never talked to him about the tooth fairy (I thought I had plenty of time still) and he was concerned that maybe the tooth fairy was really a monster. So we will try again tonight if we can convince him. :) Poor little guy. He seems so small and delicate to me today. I am so sad he had to have all this done, and more next week.

Ok, I think I am caught up. I will try to be more regular again. :)