Quick update

I am alive.  I've just been really struggling to keep up with everything, and my blogging time was about all I could free up for a while.  I have one class that is very intense, and it's taking so much more time than I anticipated.  I love the class, and the students are wonderful--which is part of the problem.  The class (Java object-oriented programming) is incredibly hard, especially if they have no programming  background.  Because we are such a small campus, I am the only computer science person there, and there are no Java tutors on campus either.  That leaves me to teach and tutor a very large class, and not nearly enough time for everyone.  I can't tell them no, though, when they are geniunely trying and need assistance.  So Java has consumed my life this semester.  I will have to really brainstorm before next spring, so I have a solution going into the semester.  It's something I enjoy doing, so though it's a bit stressful, it's certainly not miserable.
My baby girl has been very sick since Friday morning.  She's been vomitting and hasn't been able to keep even a drink in her, which has resulted in two trips to urgent care/ER.  She needed a total of 4.5 bags of IV fluids for her dehydration.  She hasn't thrown up since her most recent return from the hospital at 7:00 this morning, and seems much better today than at any time previous.  It is horrible, horrible! to have to watch her suffer miserably for three full days.  She spent 2.5 of the days doubled over in pain over her little bucket.  I'm so glad she seems to be on the mend!

I have to go in tomorrow morning for another surgery.  It's just ridiculous that I have to do this again so soon, but the hardware in my arm (put in this summer) has moved and is sticking out causing soft-tissue damage and pain.  I'm dreading the whole surgery and healing process but am really looking forward to some relief from the pain.  I thought I had better get a blog in tonight, because I will be without the use of my right arm again for a while.

Spring arrived here very early this year.  I didn't get a chance to blog, but I noted that our tulips were blooming by the third week in March.  Mark and I are both wondering what our garden will look like in May and June.  We have so many things blooming early, that I think we're going to end up with a gap between our spring bulbs and the annuals blooming.  I will have to order extra poppies this year--they will probably be a great gap filler.