on the first day of Christmas...

...my true love gave to me...nothing! Well, really, today was NOT the first day of Christmas, even though I thought it was this morning. I did the math (25-13=12) and thought, "Oh, today is the first day of Christmas. I've never noticed that before!" Yet, ironically, a few minutes after I thought this thought, Alexis (who must be telepathic, or at least have neural pathways that are very similar to mine) mused, "Hey, tomorrow is the first day of Christmas." I was a bit surprised at the comment, especially because it meant that my earlier observation was wrong. After a look at the calendar, I saw that yes, Alexis was right. Oh bother. Anyway, tonight I discovered that I had received a package from the Women's Deans of Walla Walla College. I opened it and discovered a few small, wrapped gifts, as well as a card. I asked aloud, "Should I open them?" as I reached for the parcels. Elizabeth reprimanded me slightly, and I realized that I should, indeed, save SOMEthing to open on Christmas Eve. I have already enjoyed the contents of my Christmas box put together by Jessica Eddlemon, my brother, boyfriend, and various other friends, and since I'm not expecting much else to come in the mail before Christmas, I shall save this package until then.
Today has been a good day and I have been happy, but today is the exception as of late. About a week ago Alexis was talking to one of the older kids, and it came out that apparently, our Tia thinks that we are lazy. There were other accusations of this sort that came to our attention when Mami Yani talked to Alexis about making a calendar to schedule the days that each of us wake up the girls. At that time, Mami was very apologetic, saying that the tias from other houses had said that all of their missionaries helped wake the kids up in the morning, and said that the kids had complained that we didn't like to play with them. Anyway, since that time, I've been trying to make an effort to play with the kids more in addition to the more-busy summer schedule that we have. So this new information that our Tia thought we were lazy came across as offensive. Just because I don't work in the kitchen anymore doesn't mean I work hard. And just because I work at the pool and it SEEMS to be all fun and games doesn't mean it is so, because it's not easy to hold kids' attention long enough to teach them how to swim in the relatively cold water. It is this sort of attitude that has overshadowed my existence for the past week or so. I feel guilty if I need to clean my room because I'm not with the kids and I'll be out of the sight of the parents and tia. From that they might think I'm slacking off when really, I'm just doing the necessary things to keep my life in order. In addition to that, I have been having increasingly more opportunities to perform special music, meaning that I need to practice more as well. This causes me to be away from the kids even more, and I fear that the adults in the house may resent my absence. I feel silently judged daily and this puts my nerves on edge.
In other news, I have lice again. I am decidedly less worried about them and have decided to forego the lice shampoo treatment. This means that I comb my hair out thouroughly with a lice comb after every shower. So far I've only found two live lice, and those were just today. Before that, the kids found a few eggs, but nothing more. I believe this bout with lice is far less severe than that other occurrance. But even if I had found the lice to be abundant, I doubt my attitude toward them would have changed. I think that having lice is a lot like having kids (or at least, what I've heard about kids) in that the more times you have 'em, the less of a big deal they are.