#132: Manic March Madness...

And no, this doesn't refer to college basketball...LOL!

Robert was in England and Belgium for a week on a work trip a couple of weeks ago, so I was alone with the 3 kids. Yay, fun. Michael got sick for 3 of the 5 days...I ended up taking him to the doc. Turns out he caught the stomach bug that's been going around. I get really worried when he gets really sick because he tends to refuse anything to eat or drink and gets dehydrated. We've been guests in the CMC Children's Emergency room because of that before. Luckily, he began to feel better before it got that far.

Robert had never been to England before, so he was pretty excited about it. He spent a couple of days in London (my hometown) and took plenty of pictures. Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, the Eye, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, etc. etc. His coworker's brother lives there and gave him the tour. They drove through the Chunnel to France and Belgium, stayed in Belgium for a few days for work, drove back through the Chunnel back to London.

Speaking of international stuff, I've really enjoyed my weekly tutoring sessions w/Myeong, my Korean student. Last week, we talked about wedding customs (she'd never been to an American wedding before) and yesterday, she came by with her traditional Korean dress. It's really pretty, brightly colored pink and yellow, huge sleeves, a big bow in the front. I got to try it on. There are about 3 layers of material. You have to really watch how you walk in it, though, or you'll fall flat on your face. Myeong told me that in some traditional families, the wife bows to her in-laws on one knee...which is NOT easy in this dress. It reminds me of a kimono in some ways. Very elegant, but kinda awkward if you're not used to it.

(And yes, Myeong snapped a couple of pics on her digital camera of me wearing it. She said she was going to send 'em to me soon).

Another new thing: Robert bought a small Nissan Ultima, gold-colored, to replace the purple Ford Escort. A little nice car that actually works. He's mainly driving it to and from Davidson, so he wasn't looking for anything fancy. At least it's not a beige Ford Escort wagon. He seems pretty satisfied with it.

I think I've started reading about 4 books, but I haven't had any time to get back to ANY of them. Been trying to keep Michael out of trouble...he's been having issues as school lately, not getting along with his teacher. Robert was scheduled to observe what's going on in the classroom this week, but then he got the word that IR is going through another round of job cuts. Don't know who's gonna stay and who's gonna go. Holding my breath...they've already had a couple of rounds of layoffs. Not likely Robert will get cut, but these days, you never know.

Managed to put some work in on my travelogue project, and I bought a new set of Chinese brushes. My old ones were starting to get really ragged. Making plans for some new projects...IF I can somehow squeeze in the time to get to them, anyway.

More soon.

Annie