Finally a Day Off– They Never Go as You Plan January 21, 2008

So today is MLK Jr. Day which is very exciting to me because not only is it a day to remember an amazing figure of our history, but it also means I do not have school or work. I have been looking forward to this day because  it meant that I could finally sleep in. Last night as I went to bed I was thrilled I did not have to set an alarm of any kind and could just sleep.  I visioned myself pretty much wasting most the morning catching some z’s. What a wonderful day!

Well, it is about 8:30am right now and I am wide awake. I know you’re thinking 8:30 isn’t too early and I would agree with that, but I have been awake since about 7:00am. No matter how much I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to fall back to sleep I couldn’t do it. I know that I am tired, I went to bed well after midnight last night, but it doesn’t matter, I cannot fall back to sleep. I hate it. There was a time when I could sleep to noon with no problem. Now I can barely make myself sleep past 7:00am, it just really isn’t fair. I suppose 7am is sorta like sleeping in because when I work early I get up around 3:30am, but still it just doesn’t cut it for me. I mean come on the sun as only been about for about an hour at 7:00am,  it seems like I should get to sleep at least 2 hours past the time the sun gets up.

So I guess it is official… I really am a morning person. Some of you may think this is a good thing, but I not so much. I have always been somewhat impressed with  my lazy, sleeping in habits. But they cease to exist now. If I am not in bed by 9pm at the latest I am incredibly tired and I can’t sleep past 7 the next morning. Can you say grandma? But the sad thing is even my grandma can party late into the night with the best of them and sleep in the next day. What is the deal? I guess, just call me grandma Robbin, I’ll go out and buy some more sweaters to make it official.

Young at Heart? Not Exactly, Try Young At Eye. January 14, 2008

 Friday Morning I woke up feeling miserable. Picture the cold medicine commercials where a person walks around all day and their head is a balloon. That is pretty much how I felt (I guess those advertisers knew what they were talking about). Feeling worse Friday evening I decide to get my shift covered for Saturday. Well, its a good thing I did because I woke up Saturday morning and my left eye was puffy and almost swollen shut. Knowing that it is odd for a cold to cause my eye to swell in such a way and that I was starting an internship at the Denver Rescue Mission on Monday, I decided to suck it up and pay the after hours pay for the doctor and get to the bottom of the swollen eye situation. 

It turns out not only do I have a severe cold, but I also have pinkeye. Yes, you read that right pinkeye. I know what you are thinking, isn’t that what little kids get. Well, yes it is. In fact it is very rare for someone over the age of 18 to get it, but somehow I managed to. If you click the link below you can see the six causes of pinkeye. Mine was mostly caused by reason number two. Although it only occurred in one eye. Apparently a virus in your sinus can cause a virus in your eyes as well and lead to pinkeye. Who knew?

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/8/T082800.asp

Anyways, if you read past the causes of pinkeye to the treatment of pinkeye you will have seen that part of the treatment is eye drops. This caused a problem for me. Being an adult and not a child anymore I realized that I would have to give myself the eye drops. Mommy wasn’t going to hold me down force my eyelid open and drop the drops in my eye. I had to be a big girl and do it myself.

Okay, no problem, I can do this. Attempt # 1: Look in the mirror, hold eye open, drop… no I can’t do it, freak out. Attempt # 2: psych myself out again and don’t do it. Attempt #3: Finally get the courage to do it, but I can’t get the drop to come out. Attempt #4: I get the drop to work, but I completely miss my eye and it lands on my cheek. Finally on attempt #5 I have contact, eye contact in fact (ba dump bump) : ). It only took me five tries, but I finally got it and now I do have to say I am an eye drop pro.  I did learn a valuable lesson through all this, however. Sometimes being grown up isn’t all its cracked up to be and you really do just wish you had your mommy.

Leesy, Leeso, Leesy Pot-Pie… Elise January 7, 2008

So it could be that no one even reads this anymore. I realize my last post was in October. (Sorry mom). But I am going to try to be better about my blogging ways in 2008. : )

 So I thought for my first post of the new year, I would tell you about my little sister, Elise. Tomorrow January 7th Elise will turn 17 years old. It is unbelievable to me that she is that old. In my eyes I think she will always be twelve. I do have to say though the older she gets our relationship continues to grow more than just sisters, but to great friends. I do remember however, that it was not always that way…

I was a little over 4 years old when Elise was born. The night she arrived I remember my mom telling me to go put my pajamas on. I of course didn’t want to go to bed so I was arguing with her asking for just 5 more minutes. After 5 more minutes and begging for 5 more, but being denied I finally and reluctantly went to my room and put my pajamas on. When I came out of my room my mom looked at me and said, “what are you doing, go get dressed we have to go to grandmas”. My mom’s water had broke and Elise was on her way.

Although I don’t exactly remember being that I was only 4 and Bethany only 2,  I imagine that Bethany and I were very excited and anxious for our baby sister to be born. She was a cutie patootie baby, she had big blue eyes and was bald until about three. Elise was born and the Kelly family was complete. Here are some memories I have of my baby sister…

- Althought growing up we called Elise Leesy because Bethany had a hard time say Elise, We affectionately refer to Elise ages 1 to about 6 as Elise the Beast. She was a little terror. There would be a number of times where Bethany and I would run up the stairs yelling, “mommy, mommy Leesy’s getting us”. and Elise would be running behind us pinching us, biting us, etc. My mom never understood why her to eldest daughters ran from their little sister in fear, but trust me she was scary. 

-Her first birthday party no one could find her and all of a sudden she came out from her room laughing hysterically and completely nude.

- She called her pacifier her, “papa” and she would lose it she would cry for her papa and when people would say there’s your dad sweetie and point to my father, she would scream “that’s not my papa”.

- The famous M & M story in which Elise stole my dad’s M&Ms in the middle of the night and whe she got caught shoved them all into her mouth and pretending like she didn’t doing anything as chocolate dripped down her mouth.

- One time when my grandma was watching us while are parents were out of town and Elise decided to eat my dad’s deodorant. I have no clue what was going through her 3 year old mind. 

- Making Elise be Commet the dog when we played Full House because my mom made Bethany and I include her and I was always DJ, Bethany was Michelle and we didn’t like Stephanie, so Elise had to be Commet.

- Again because my mom said we had to include her making Elise be Ursula the Sea Witch when we played Little Mermaid.

- When we got our dog Aussie she took it upon herself to ”train” her. She would put little puppy Aussie on her leash and walk her in backyard and scream “heel”! “Sit”!, etc. as long as she could. Maybe she was taking the built up aggression she had from her older sisters making her be Ursula and Commet the dog for so many years? : ) 

- As she got older finding a love for baking and backing pretty much the best banana bread ever, that her older sister Robbin loves to help her with… at least the eating part. :  )

- Going to Belize with her this past summer and watching her love on people and letting Jesus shine through her. It was amazing being able to share that experience with her! She boldly got out of her comfort zone and allowed God to use her. What is cooler than that? 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Elise! You are definitely not my baby sister anymore, but to me you will always be Leesy Lou! I love you!