Fifteen Minutes of Delusion

It seemed a simple enough request: "Alyssa, come here so we can take a picture of your braces for the blog." We had a visit to the orthodontist yesterday, and everyone was quite pleased with the movement of Alyssa's teeth. And since we posted "before" pictures here , it seemed only fair that we show you the "after" as well. But Alyssa had other ideas. She took off and hid in my closet. I snapped this picture just as I opened the door. Then she got into a tickle fight with her sister. Then she wanted to see the pictures on the camera, so I let her. But once she had looked at them, she decided it was her turn to take some photos. She ran around the house, snapping pictures of everyone and everything. We did finally get her to smile for the camera and show us how far her bottom teeth have moved. Her teeth look great, don't you think?

Time for an update. Here are a few of the things that have happened since the last post: 1. Alyssa went to the eye doctor. Her eyes are getting better, but her lazy eye is still lazy. Patching doesn't seem to be helping much. Surgery is an option, but I doubt that will get the full 2/3 majority vote required. 2. Alyssa also had the wire come out of her braces yesterday, and it poked her in the cheek. Ouch. We managed to get it trimmed off. We're going back to the orthodontist on Tuesday. 3. I got an email back from the publisher I sent my book to. They liked it, but not enough to buy it. Read the whole story on my writing blog. I will be submitting it to more publishers soon. 4. After nearly five months at the shop, our microwave/vent finally got repaired. No wonder people just throw things away rather than getting them fixed. 5. Anna wore some of her new clothes this week. I'm not sure how much time I'll have to take her shopping this weekend, though. Here are the pho

I used to be really big on to do lists. Still am, actually. But yesterday was the first time I had made one in quite a while. I simply haven't felt up to it. Towards the end of our vacation, I started feeling a little off. I figured it was just the result of working hard and playing hard being away from home. But when I got back to Texas, things didn't get better. In fact, they got worse - much worse. I couldn't get enough sleep at night - I found it hard to wake up, even after ten hours of sleep. When I was awake, I didn't feel very good. Not necessarily tired, or dizzy, or depressed. Just off. Like someone had reached through time and space, taken a hold of my soul, and pulled it just out of sync with my body. It was not a good feeling. I worked hard at my job, and did the things that needed doing around the house, but I felt like I was just trying to fill in the hours before I could go back to bed. I wasn't taking any new medications, so that wasn't it. In fa

This weekend, it was Alyssa's turn to slip into double-digit territory. We had her tenth birthday party on Saturday, while the big day itself came on Sunday. Alyssa and Anna were such good supervisors as I made the birthday cake. Anna asked if she could run the party. I was quite glad to turn the reins over to her and let her be in charge. She made planned the theme (A Day on the Farm) planned the games, decorated, and put together the goody bags. She recruited her friend Cassie to come and help. We held the party at a nearby park, and had five of Alyssa's friends show up, plus a few parents and three of her aides from school. They did an animal scavenger hunt, and played "Pin the Tail on the Pig." Alyssa had a great time, and had a pretty good haul. The cake turned out OK, although even by 10:00 am it was hot enough to melt the run sugar. Fortunately, there was also a breeze. In fact, it was so breezy that I almost didn't get the candles lit. How Kara managed to

Greetings, all. We're still here, hiding out from the heat in our little corner of Texas. We've been enjoying a quiet, low-key three day weekend. Yesterday, I started out by mowing half of the back yard. I got started too late to finish before the weather became scary hot, and halfway seemed a good stopping point. I did a little shopping at Wal-Mart. Nothing like Wal-Mart on the day before a major holiday. Later in the day, Anna and I took Duchess to the vet. She's had some drainage from her eyes, and yesterday she traded her poopy pellets for a full-blown case of the runs. Fortunately, the doctor said she was fine - the eye drainage was probably just a cold that will run its course, and the poops were from the extra helpings of parsley she's been getting. Anna wondered why she had to go with me to the vet. I explained that it was her piggie, and I'd be darned if I was going to leave her at home playing computer games while I drove a sick guinea pig twenty minutes t