I went to visit Mom again today, we had a nice visit although she doesn't talk a lot. There was a movie on in the sitting area that she was watching, but I don't think she was following it (It was a Twilight movie). We sat and watched the movie together, and she walked around a bit, and that was about it. I'm not positive she really knew who I was except in a general sense. Most of what she did say didn't make any sense. If you ask her to repeat anything she just says I don't know. Friday Natalie had her first of what I would call "dates," the same guy she took with us to go paintballing asked he to go with him to a concert. But she didn't know where or when or what it was. So we made her find out,  and she answered that it was in Wabash that night. We weren't going to go for that. Until she further found out that it was a concert at the Honeywell Center, it was a group called Recycled Percussion, and she was also going with the guy's mom and little sister. He looked very nice when they picked her up, and his mom told us that she had gotten free tickets through her work. We felt better about that and let her go. She was home on time and seemed to have had a very fun evening. We had also been concerned because she had had a panic attack at the school the day before; she was at the counselor's office and they couldn't reach either me at work or Beth (her phone was in the van). It was  around an hour before I got there and she had already calmed herself down enough to go back to class, so we didn't take her home. Proud of her for that, she had also told us last week she felt one coming on and recognized the signs enough to clam herself down. Wednesday was an orientation day at the high school for incoming freshman, so Missy and Nat both went there and did tours. They both seem pretty excited. They both spent most of the time walking around with friends; Natalie found a welding demo and got to suit up and use a cutting torch which she thought was pretty fun.

Beth's birthday today! She knew that it wasn't going to be as big a deal as last year, but I did want to do something fun with her so we went yesterday to the Beaded Peacock, and newish boutique in town where you can make your own jewelry. Beth and the girls made some bracelets, I watched. Beth has also finally started her new depression meds, for which I am eternally grateful. We went into Fort Wayne today, tried out a new restaurant (Smoky Bones) which was very good. We visited with Mom for a while, she seems to be doing well.

Not much went on during the week this week. The kids were back at school, to some extent. School was cancelled on Monday and Friday due to snow/ice, although I didn’t think either day was bad enough to have cancelled school altogether. It was a slow week overall until the weekend. Friday evening Beth and I went to the Rodgers’ house for a game night with a bunch of people and significant others from work. We didn’t stay out too late because  there have been…tensions…between the kids lately, and Beth is now a good 3 weeks into weaning off Cymbalta and any later she would have been getting really dizzy and headachey. Saturday we all went up to South Bend to go through a camper and RV show at the Century Center, where we saw a lot of nice ones, several that would work for us, but nothing that made us want to trade in the popup. At this point I’m thinking the popup is going to be our best bet all the way through until the kids are out of the house. In the evening we all went out to see “The Greatest Showman,” with which I was a little disappointed, I guess. It’s not that it wasn’t good, but the storyline seemed to me to be a bit forced. Ham-handed lessons about inclusivity and family and such, and kinda going through the motions of storyline tension. I was expecting better. It’s no “La-la Land,” for sure. And tonight Missy began counseling with Renee. So I’m the only one in the family not getting counseling of any kind. Didn’t visit Mom this weekend, because she has been sick lately and we were told that flu is rampant there, so we decided to stay away this time.

I guess Christmas season is officially over for me, if not everyone else. I’ve been back at work for most of the past week, although the kids don’t go back to school until next Monday. This is the time of year when the kids drive Beth crazy the most, when they’re all at home and I’m at work. They have to struggle to find things to do to keep the occupied. Going to the library and such. Anyway, we all did New Year’s Eve at the Lancaster’s house last weekend, once again. We had dinner together at La Troje before heading to their house for games and snacks. We played the Game of Things and spoons (for Natalie – that’s her game) and stayed just long enough for midnight to pass by. Monday was a quiet day, I spent a chunk of it getting all the Christmas stuff put away. My resolution for 2018 is (once again) to get the house de-cluttered. Starts now. Anyway, I went back to work Tuesday. It was a very quiet place on Tuesday, a lot of people were still gone. This weekend, on Saturday, I went to Fort Wayne to visit Mom while the girls all had hair appointments. She seems to be doing ok, if kind of vacant. She was just sitting at a table when I got there, and I had some Christmas cards and gifts to give her from Auntie Irene and the rest of the family in England. She read and re-read the cards, put them back in the envelope, took them back out, read them again, put them away, get them out, re-read them, and repeat …for about a half an hour until I took the cards and told her, why don’t you open your presents now. There were some fuzzy socks, and some lip balm and hand cream, and some scented soap, which she opened, put away, got out again, looked over, put away, got out, etc etc. for another long while. It was like she was seeing the cards and presents for the first time ever every time she looked at them. But anyway, she didn’t raise a fuss about going with me when I left this time, which was good because I had to run to the mall to get her some more underwear since she’s apparently bee throwing hers away. So I came back again and left again. Also Saturday, since we hadn’t seen any of the family over Christmas break, Beth arranged for a family get-together at Old Burdick’s in Kalamazoo. We drove up after I got home from visiting Mom, and had a nice dinner there with most of the family (even Ted!). We didn’t get back home until after midnight, and overslept and missed church, again.