My PC's having an out-of-body experience

It's truly touch n' go around here.
I haven't been able to post anything
in days and days...
this ancient COMPAQ is about to
float towards the light
and I'll be forced to call
T.O. D. before I know it.

But the Intel Processor heavens
have opened tonight
and poured out some mercy
so that I might
get some blog-worthy thoughts
out into the www-Universe.

I have more to tell than I have time to tell it--
which stinks in a way,
because my brain is, like, ON right now.
But it's almost 11pm
and the Brain Fairy is likely
just at the edge of my fingers
ready to flip the switch on my memory
and leave me hangin' in the dark here.
So, I gotta get ta sputterin'
at lightening speed.

OKAY
First,
our missionary safely arrived in Rochester, New York
late yesterday,
as her Mission President's wife,
Sister This-Woman-Has-A-Mother's-Heart Christianson,
actually CALLED me to let ME know
our girl was there!
I slept like a baby last night,
whereas the past few nights
insomnia was my constant companion.

We even got to talk to our girl
as she had layovers in airports on the way.
Yesterday morning just before 6am
the phone rang!
I picked it up and said,
"Diana?"
"Mom, is that you?"
And then we both cried.
It was so wonderful to hear her voice!
And SO hard to have to hang up after just a few moments.
Ugh.
She's doing great though and is happily excited
to get to work!

Second,
Arianna had a severe reaction to her first set
of immunizations last week.
She actually got the measles.
Head to toe rash,
fever, sore throat, aches and pains,
the whole "it's very rare to have side-effects" deal.
I normally don't have my kids vaccinated
while they are young...
not until they're 20, at least.
But my doc assured me the formulas used today
"are so much safer" blah blah blah
that I gave in at the start of school
to just a few shots.
I wish I hadn't.
She is feeling better,
still not sure if she'll go to school tomorrow though.

Third,
Joseph had his first Cross Country meet today
a Air Academy High School.
Three things that stood out:
1- There was a big pile of fresh bear scat on the trail from the parking lot
to the stadium and I thought, "Cool. Only in Colorado."
2- IN the middle of the meet, while the last group was actually running,
the PA system came on, and played the American Anthem. This prompted
the entire crowd to stand on its' feet, place our hands over our hearts, facing the US flag on the field and wonder what the heck was going on?  So weird, wonderfully American.
3- As I was approaching the bleecher that Joseph was on, a woman in the crowd yelled out, "DAWN!"  I turned to see a familiar face, though I could not, for the life of me, remember her name or where I knew her from! She asked, "When did you guys get back?" I answered, "2008."  "Oh, who are you here for?" STILL not recalling who she was, I pointed and replied, "Joseph."  "Oh, he's so big!" "Where does he go to school?", she asked.  AND THEN, as I told her which school he goes to, I remembered exactly who she was/is--our family even had a nickname for her family: "THE MEAN NEIGHBORS"!  And all I could think of was "The Mean Neighbors! The Mean Neighbors! Must. Get. Away!"  SO I smiled and excused myself with a "heyyyy, it's good to see you, take care."
When I got home, I told Mr W about the chance meeting and he said they were never really mean to US, it was the neighbors on either side of them--one neighbor they tried to kill their collie by throwing chocolate bars over the fence to kill it. (No kidding) and the other they continually harrassed over where their teenagers could park, claiming the asphalt in front of their house was THEIRS and THEIRS alone.  We just kept our distance. Altho' when Joseph was about 3, he did build a catapult in our front yard and launch a few rocks towards "the mean neighbors house". He was 3. The rocks landed on our sidewalk. But, the intent was there.  I just can't believe this lady was so nice to me. I have schizophrenic feelings here about how I reacted...should I have been equally nice once I realized who she was, because she was clearly happy to see me, OR was my instinct to get the heck outta dodge the best one?  I dunno. But it made me laugh later on.
What else?
*I have another doula appointment tomorrow. There's a slight dilemma because the mom is due November 23rd. The day before Thanksgiving. And her husband is deployed. And she has two little ones who will need a little bit of care (that would be me) while she has a home birth.  The timing is crummy though. I'll let you know what I end up doing.
*On Friday, Kelly and I are staging another house in the Broadmoor area. Super excited about that one.
*Mr. W says he's gonna start his own blog: "I Married a Chupacabra"...if he does, I'll definitely share the link.
*September 23rd marks the beginning of Fall...I'm thinking I want to do something special for la familia...any ideas/traditions you wanna share?

Okay, the PC needs some rest. I don't want to use all of it's grace up in one sitting.  Who knows when I'll be able to post again, but I'll take what I can get!