Tuesday, February 1, 2005

Greeting from the month of February

Forgive me for any typos, I'm reduced to using Ian's laptop for everything. The packers came yesterday and took the PC.

So our 900 pounds of... stuff (I'd be hard-pressed to tell you anything we shipped aside from the PC, clothes and uh... some games I think) have been packed and are out of the house. The house suddenly feels much lighter, freer of said stuff. We backed up the computer info and aside from irreplaceable photos for scrapbooking I don't think we'd actually miss anything. Says a lot for what we deem important.
The rest of our stuff will get packed up on the 10th, and then we live out of suitcases for a week.
I spoke with Rebecca's teacher today and had a minute with Katherine's teacher. Of course the AmeriKids teachers know. Each of the kids is reacting differently to the impending changes. Katherine is internalizing as she does most issues. She's feeling sick and is on the verge of tears sometimes. Rebecca hasn't mentioned anything to her friends. Her teacher has tried to draw her out, but she doesn't want to discuss it in class. Nicholas has stated many times how much he'll miss Katie. Jonathon had a rough morning yesterday with some tears over the move. He doesn't know anything but Manila. We left the States when he was 18mo and he doesn't remember anything about "home". Of course we'll all get through it. Conflicting emotions are part of the deal and I'm trying to keep things normal but it's hard with items disappearing into boxes and suitcases.
For myself, the hardest part is when friends mention missing us when we're gone. I'm trying not to think about it too much, but we have the easier side leaving to familiar ground while leaving a small hole at post for those finishing up their tours. Even while we're slowly checking out, I'm still involved in some things between the movers and preparing for our party.
Many folks seem to find it odd that we're still around. "Aren't you leaving soon?" is the most frequent greeting at the moment.
Yes, we are, but we're not gone yet. Sixteen more days.
In other news, Nicholas's rash is finally just about gone. He came home from preschool last Thursday with pink cheeks and over the next 24 hours I took him to the doctor for the rash had spread to him chin, his exposed chest at his collar and along the underside of his forearms. It looked like a reaction to grass or some other topical problem but I didn't ignore the possibility of a food reaction. The med unit prescribed benadryl which i agreed with, but over the next 24 hours the rash became worse and spread all over his back and his cheeks were red from the irritation and his chin bothered him. Aside from keeping his skin clean and giving benadryl there was nothing else I could figure. He said he didn't roll in the grass at playtime and that he didn't eat anything different, so I can only come up with an environmental reaction, but to what I do not know. Aside from where it spread on his back it was only on exposed areas and not on his legs at all. Yesterday it looked much better and today it seems to be almost gone and he says it doesn't hurt anymore. Just another log in the Weird Things Kids Get files. We'll tack on Rebecca's fluke vomiting in the middle of the night last night too. All of Kristine's kids were sick over the past 5 days and something is going around Amerikids, so who knows what we'll be facing the next few days. As long as its all done before Saturday. Please.

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