A most likely boring update

It's starting to get cold again. We had a week or so of 70-degree weather, and now it's back to a high in the 50's. It scares me to remember how in New England, when it hits 50 degrees after the winter, we're ready to go to the beach. 50 just feels cold right now.

The trees are losing the rest of their leaves. It's a bit depressing, I'll admit. I love Christmas and all but after January 1st, I'm ready for winter to be over. I'm nervous about our first winter back in New England. Justin has an hour commute and we get, well, feet of snow.

Justin left Friday morning for a weekend in New Hampshire with some of his best friends. He just got home yesterday. He had a lot of fun, they went rock climbing and climbed Cannon mountain. He didn't take my camera of course so we'll be getting a copy of the photos from one of his friends, and I'll post them. It was so funny how he was only gone for a weekend, but it felt like so long. I missed him! I know that sounds lame, but I did. He definitely needed that weekend though, and he deserves it since he works all the time.

Speaking of work, Justin's raise from August finally came through (with back pay, of course). It was only .60 cents, but every bit counts, right? Well for some reason, taxes went up or something, because now we are paying an extra $160 in taxes per month. We are actually making less than we were before the raise. I don't know what's up with that, but we're a bit frustrated.

Last Sunday, my mom and I went to the Scituate Art Festival. When I got home, Justin came over to me with a bloody gash on his head. Apparently, he was running down the stairs and fell, and hit his head on the ceiling (...I know that sounds weird, but since its a basement apartment, when you go down the stairs you walk under the lowered part of the ceiling) Anyway I took him to urgent medical care, where we sat for 2 hours. They decided to give him staples to close up the cut. The doctor didn't think he had a concussion after doing some tests, but asked me to keep an eye on him anyway and had him call out of work for that night. He ended up being fine, but it was a bit scary. Whenever he gets hurt, it freaks me out.

Then Thursday night, Justin and I were sleeping when my dad comes into our bedroom and tells us that my mom passed out so he called 911. This was around 10pm. She had been having stomach pains all day, and apparently the pain got so bad that she passed out. (And this woman has been through 3 childbirths and cancer...she has a high tolerance for pain) My dad went to the hospital with my mom and was there all night. My youngest sister woke up and freaked out because my parents were gone, so needless to say, we barely got any sleep. My dad called in the morning and said my mom had gastritis, and they'd be leaving soon. That whole day I watched the kids so my parents could sleep. (I had told Justin he could leave for NH because I could handle it) It was a tiring day to say the least.

I took this picture of Cora at the playground down the road. She was mad at me.

Well I suppose that's enough rambling for the time being.