Even Steven Again

We caved in and paid the price for Great Wolf Lodge since we'd been promising the girls for years that we would take them again. I don't think we have been since before Emily was born, maybe it was that summer when I was pregnant with her and Nana got some spider bite there? Anyway, high time we went again and the kids had a great time. Well, except for Emily who wasn't feeling well so I tried to contain her germs in the room, which just led to me getting her germs of course. I took her into the park for an hour each day where she refused to wear a life jacket so I just followed her around the splash area. Patrick chatted up every boy in the slide area and tried to turn everything into a race. He finally wore himself out with 15 minutes till closing time. Sean said he just sat on the edge of the pool, zoned out. He still claims that he did not get tired there. The girls were old enough to go on the water slides themselves so they loved it. Of course they all fell asleep quickly and Sean headed out to the new casino there and won enough at poker to pay for the whole weekend. And yet I wasn't in the mood to shop....

Frigid temps and outdoor shopping do not go well together. I went to get us takeout and the traffic and parking and crowds were so bad that it took me an hour and a half-- and this was a mile away? I should have just driven to another area. I will never complain about parking in Manhattan again. So spoiled here that if I have to walk a couple blocks for anything I am all annoyed.

We are also stressed about army stuff and thus I didn't want to spend any money until that is resolved. Army is getting ready to waste buckets of tax dollars, due to their poor planning and their refusal to offer a proper salary to primary care doctors, most of whom endured multiple deployments. What is shocking to no one but the brilliant minds in charge, is that now there is a shortage of primary care docs. So they are going to take specialists and force them to go do primary care, in glamourous places like Korea. I know what you're thinking, hope I don't get those docs. Come on, it's only been 10 years or more since these docs have done any primary care, I'm sure they remember it all! But wait, who is filling the specialist slots left behind? Civilian contractors making $400k a year. Thank you, taxpayers! And guess what, now the specialists will all flee the army the second they can, thus resulting in a shortage of specialists too. Bravo army, BRAVO. Sean reads three times as many radiology studies as some other radiologists, so naturally it would make sense to pull him and put him in a position he would hate and isn't qualified for. Mimosas for breakfast for mommy?? No clue when we'll hear anything, 4 month deployment to Africa sounding better by the minute. I wasn't going to blog about this but thought I should so people know why I am so crabby.