Happy New Year!

And I've hit the ground running! Again, I've been a neglectful blogger. I'll try to get things up to speed without making this another one of my novels. ;o)

First off, the holidays were glorious! We had a white Christmas, with everyone gathered around the toasty woodstove. Ranger spent a lot of time with us, and it really felt like "family," you know? My mother has really started getting over the damage caused by my sister over the summer, so some of that tension is gone. She's warming up to Ranger. Drama Queen and her mother came over for Christmas Eve, and we loaded up the car and went looking at Christmas lights. Great fun! Even Matsi went with us that night.

Ranger helped me find the t-shirt I wanted to get for Daughter's Christmas pajamas. So, when she tried it on later that night, she was so delighted with it that she had me take a picture with my phone and send it to him. She made this little heart sign with her hands, and I think it made him tear up a bit. Both kids are warming up to him, too, now.

For New Year's, we all went to dinner at this Asian restaurant. We had bites of each other's orange chicken, Thai barbecue, and sushi. That was mine :o) Love that stuff. They have this roll of spicy salmon with cream cheese, that lightly fried....yum! But I digress....

At the end of the meal, we distributed the fortune cookies and had a good time reading them all. Son's made me laugh the most: "It's about time I got out of that cookie." Haha!

But we had one extra. Ranger snagged it and said it was for the whole table. He cracked it open and read the fortune. His eyes went wide, and he shot a look at me that I couldn't read.

"What is it?" my mother asked.

He looked at me again.

"Let me see," I said. My mother was thinking it was something dirty. I took it from his fingers and read:

"You or someone close to you will be married soon."

Oh. Wow.

A silence fell for a moment, but DQ broke it. She did a fake swoon and said, "Oh Son!!" To which he responded with a "Stop that" frown, and we laughed.

I kept the fortune.

Ranger's ex called a couple of days later. His son's grades came in. Now, he's 20 and in college, but struggling. A lot like Son is. By the way, Son starts homeschooling next week. The program is a good fit for us and his learning style. My ex is WAY pissed because I didn't ask what he wanted us to do. Oh well. Not terribly bothered by that.

Anywho, Ranger's son got two W's and two F's. No one is happy. He lied about what the W's were, but I work for a college and know that process. His mom has chewed him up one side and down the other, and given him ultimatums. Ranger wants him to come here and take a break from all that's happening there. Work for awhile. Gain an appreciation of what's being spent on his schooling. Think about what he wants to do. Etc.

The trouble is that he can't get his son to talk to him about it. He won't call. He won't answer calls. We suspect something has been said about Ranger being really mad and disappointed in him. He's not, really. He's more concerned with what's happening with his son that this even occurred. But we're at a stalemate until the boy talks to his father. So, stay tuned....

The day after New Year's, I went to the doctor. New Year's Eve, I noticed a lump on the back of my neck. The doctor checked it out and said, yep, it was unusual. It's a swollen lymph node, she said. It's normal to see the forward ones swollen, if you're sick, but not the back ones. It could be a virus, she said. She ran the bloodwork to check for all kinds of the more rare ones. Or, it could be cancer.

If the bloodwork is clear, then I see her at the end of the month to check it again. If it's still there, then I see a specialist who can biopsy it. Bloodwork is clear so far. And it's still swollen.

My chiropractor worried me. I told him about it, but I think he misunderstood and thought I was saying I was tender there. He said, "It's actually good if it's tender because it's doing it's job, filtering toxins from your body. We don't worry unless it isn't sore."

It's not sore. I'm trying not to worry too much.