The Juggler, The Neti Pot and The Missing Phone

I would now like to recap the week that was March 16th - 20th, 2009 in the Wood household.

Let's start with Monday. Still on the high of placing 3rd in the Spelling Bee, the Ocho received the highest honor that can be bestowed on an elementary school student; she had her name announced over the loud speaker during morning announcements! I'm not sure she'll ever be able to top that but I hope she does. It would be a shame to peak at 8.

On Tuesday, Handiman decided he was getting a nasty cold or a sinus infection or allergies. Whatever it was, he was sure it was going to kill him. This was also the night I attended the "Esther" Bible study with the girls from Sunday School. On this particular night, Beth Moore gave us a literary lesson on chiastic structure, perepity and styling your hair with a fork.

Tuesday was also the day we celebrated with our friends Travis & Michelle. They have prayed for many years to have a baby and have suffered through many miscarriages and heartbreaks before FINALLY bringing Truitt Ryan into the world on Tuesday morning. Michelle was the Ocho's piano teacher for a while so she was pretty excited about the news.

Wednesday brought the usual non-stop busyness at work. On top of reading and math assessments and laminating a kindergarten book about silly hats, I was also given the task of blowing up 15 blue balloons for a 1st grade science project. A typical Wednesday tends to suck the life right out of me but this week I was literally about to pass out by the end of it.

Thursday was pretty uneventful until Handiman came home from work. Apparently, he was desperate for relief from the cold/allergy/sinus infection plague of death and was willing to take drastic measures. So he stopped on the way home and bought a Neti Pot.

He's used it twice a day ever since and has truly perfected his technique. The Ocho was a little concerned, after hearing BIG NANNY'S NETI POT STORY, that a similar situation might present itself in the middle of her school talent show on Friday. But I'm happy (or maybe a little disappointed) to say it did not.

Speaking of the talent show:


This year she not only signed up on her own, but decided she would play "The Juggler" from memory. I Know!!!

So there she was in front of the entire student body, faculty, parents & The Entourage when the inevitable happened; she had a memory lapse. I must say it seemed to me & Handiman to last an eternity instead of the actual 3 seconds when we played the video back. But she picked it up and kept right on going. Afterwards she shrugged it off and seemed to be pretty proud of herself. I have to admit that was not exactly the reaction we were expecting.

It didn't help that she had to play a keyboard instead of a real piano. This was not expected so I'm proud of her for not freaking out since she has inherited her mother's dislike of change or anything that in any way slightly deviates from the norm. Well done Ocho! Well done!

Now for the big announcement. We found the phone!!!! Well, actually Handiman found it. While he was mowing the grass.

You heard me. Shut up.

He seems to think that someone was talking while standing at the grill and then laid it down on the deck railing. He assumes that the person in question probably then knocked it off into the grass where it's laid for the past 2 weeks getting rained on and meeting it's demise.

I think my Mexican boyfriend snuck out of the closet and threw it in the yard to retaliate.

It's hard to know who's right.