A basket and a tooth

Nadia pulled out a loose tooth on Thursday. She forgot to put her tooth under the pillow that night. She remembered to do that Friday night, but Paul (I asked him to be the tooth fairy because I went to bed at the same time as Nadia) forgot to put the $1 under her pillow. He took her tooth on Saturday night but couldn't locate a $1 bill to put under pillow. Thankfully Nadia didn't mind. I handed her a $1 coin this morning.

None of our kids had scored a basket thus far this year, but that changed yesterday as Ian had his first basket! Nadia is also making progress as yesterday she had her first shot that was high enough (actually went too high!). I have attended all of Ian's games this year. Some of his games I've been the only family member watching them, but I missed his shot! I had been helping Oliver break apart his cinnamon pretzel, and my hands were really sticky. There was a drinking fountain about 10 feet away from where we were sitting so I got up and walked over to take a drink and rinse off my hands. I was gone for less than a minute, but during that

time Ian scored for the first time this year! His team was losing, and his basket was near the end of the third (of six) periods, and after his basket their team had 6 total points. Nadia's team won by a large margin yesterday (thus far they are 4-1). Ian's team hasn't won any games. Last week and this week only four of the eight kids on his team were there for the games, which meant that both weeks all four boys had to play all six periods. Both weeks their opponent had eight kids so the kids on the opposing team only played every other period.

Paul stayed home from work yesterday and today which was heavenly. He had worked 12 days straight prior to these two days at home. Yesterday he helped me figure out a way that I could still receive calls from the babysitter but not from anyone else. I had always put my phone on vibrate when I was at work. The day of Oliver's accident the only reason I answered the call was because she called while I was driving from one school to another, and the hands-free system in the van took the call. If I had been in a

school doing an observation of a student teacher or teaching on campus, I would have given my phone zero attention and not known what was happening. Now I will put my phone in "Do not disturb" mode instead of vibrate when I am at work, and I have it set up that my phone is to ring ONLY if she calls when in Do not disturb mode. Technology can be helpful! I had purchased a refurbished phone in 2014, and the battery is starting to give me issues. I purchased a new battery online today. I'm hoping that will solve the problem, and I won't need to get a new phone.

The guinea pigs have to be grateful Oliver's hospitalization wasn't any longer than it was. The morning of his accident, the kids forgot to feed them and fill their water bottle. They told me they'd do it when we got home, and then we all forgot about them during Oliver's crisis. As I was driving home with Oliver after his discharge, I thought of them and wondered if they survived. As soon as I came in the house I gave them food and water. Since Paul didn't join us on any trips last year (aside from a one night trip in August for my dad's wedding), he was able to take care of the guinea pigs in our absence. This will be the first year we'll have to figure out who could help care for them in our absence as we plan to spend 2 nights in Philadelphia next month and 9 nights in San Diego in late May/ early June.

Last night I had planned to take Nadia to a concert in Hershey sponsored by Compassion that would have only cost $10 total for our two tickets. Considering I spend a lot more time driving these days, I wasn't sure how appealing this sounded to me although the line-up of artists definitely piqued my interest. I also wasn't sure I could spare the time because I put in a lot of hours working every Saturday and Sunday (grading, emailing students, etc.). I was really torn as to what I should do, and then when I heard that it was supposed to snow on Saturday evening, I knew we should skip it. The weather has been all over the map lately. It was gorgeous on Thursday. My students asked me if we could have class outside (nope). Then it snowed yesterday, and now  in a few days it's supposed to get up to 70 degrees, which is WAY warmer than usual for February.