Fifteen Minutes of Delusion

When we first moved into our home back in 2006, we spent painfully large sums of time and money remodeling in order to remove and replace things Kara was allergic to - things like carpet, pine, and medium-density fiberboard. Once that work was done, we pretty much left everything alone, except when a major crisis forced our hand. (See the posts tagged  Home Improvement  for the complete saga.) Recently, however, we have been making a few small changes that we want  to make. A couple of months ago, we painted the living room a rich, milk-chocolate shade of brown and replaced the curtains. And yesterday, we finally hung some cut vinyl patterns that we made, based on traditional Hawaiian quilt patterns. Take a look at the result:

Here at the Carey house, pizza is a big deal. Every Friday, we make two or three or five, and then watch a movie while we eat.  Kara recently bought me some mini deep-dish pans.  She makes her pizza with a gluten-free crust and almond cheese. 

I'm starting to remember why this blog fell into disuse - I have so much I want to say, and so little time in which to say it - especially since I desperately want to not sound like a whiner-butt. Even when I quite often feel like a whiner-butt. It takes a lot of effort to filter and sanitize my life for public consumption - more so now than ever. I have a lot to be thankful for, and I want to share that. I have a lot that I really don't like in my life. I want to share that too. But I don't know how. At least not without burning all of my bridges and sounding like a whiner-butt. Folks, we are clearly entering into the phase known as "Mid-life." I hope to manage this well enough to avoid the dreaded Mid-life Crisis. I am trying. However, I recognize there is a very real chance I may not succeed. This scares me. The possibility of failing publicly scares me even more. But fail or succeed, this blog needs to resume. And maybe I need to drop a filter or...

Three years is a long time for a blog to lay dormant, and we have a lot of catching up to do. Kara has made some amazing progress in her health - we absolutely need to follow up on her story. Anna is a senior in high school, getting ready to apply for college. Lots of adventure here. Alyssa is now a sophomore, and making her presence known. And me? Well, I shaved my mustache. Let's see if we can't find those fifteen minutes again and breathe some life back into this blog.

Alyssa's school went to Six Flags a couple of weeks ago, and I went along as a chaperone. Because of Alyssa's special needs, and the large number of parent volunteers that went, we were a group of two. We hooked up with a couple of other groups for most of the day. Alyssa would not go get her picture taken with Tweety Bird and Daffy Duck. She barely went over with Bugs Bunny. They rode on the teacup ride. And the Bucking Bronco ride. And the Six Shooter swings. Shown in this picture are Alyssa, Alyssa, and Elissa. Yeah, it was fun keeping everyone straight. The others all rode the recently rebuilt Texas Giant. During that half-hour, though, I sat in the train station with Alyssa laying over on my lap, asleep. She wouldn't ride any of the big roller coasters or the Superman or Batman, but she did want her picture taken with the Batmobile. I think I'll set one of my books at Six Flags. That way I can get a season pass, go back over and over again, and call it research.

Just a quick post to share some pictures of the girls in their 2011 Easter dresses and new shoes. This is Alyssa's first set of heels (1.5") and she's doing quite well with them.

Here are a few pictures from this weekend. I had a book signing at Moon's LDS Bookstore in Dallas yesterday. This is my setup, with chocolate macadamia nuts, bookmarks, and paper airplanes that I fold for the kids. It was a great signing, although I didn't sell as many books as last time. Maybe it's because I wore the blue shirt instead of the red one. Coming up next month, there will be a piece about me in the BYU-Hawaii eNewsletter, and they asked if we had a family picture. It's been a long, long time since we've had our picture made (that's how they say it here in Texas) so this was a good excuse for us to take some.

One of our favorite books when the girls were young was Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar, about a little bug who ate and ate and grew and grew until he became a beautiful butterfly. Oops--did I just give away the ending? Anyway, we've had our own very hungry caterpillar at the house this year--Alyssa. Take a look at this back-to-school photo of her with Anna, from just this past August. Now compare that to this photo, taken one week ago. Hmm. Maybe it's not so obvious, since Anna's wearing heels. Pardon me for one moment while I make the girls take another picture. She's grown at least two inches; maybe even three. In fact, she's grown so much she's taken over a bunch of Anna's clothes. Yes, our girls are growing up.

In case you hadn't noticed based on the bloggy silence, these last few months have been incredibly busy around here, and unfortunately this blog has taken a big hit. I really want to continue posting here, as it's a great way to keep in touch and share with everyone. No promises, but I'm going to give it my best shot. There are two big changes in my life that have provided a major scarcity in free time. The first is a change in my work responsibilities. I'm still a software engineer for Onyx Graphics in Utah, working from home. However, rather than just working on whatever the product manager gives me to do, I am the product manager in a way. Each of us driver developers now have a handful of device manufacturers that we are responsible for, both developing the code and managing the relationship. One of the things this means is more work related travel. I took four work trips in all of 2010. I've already been on three this year, and will likely have some 20 or so b...

Last weekend, our oldest child became a teenager. The transition came without a lot of fanfare. There was, however, soup. Only the birthday girl could get a way with asking for soup when it's 100 degrees outside. There was cake, too. Lemon cake with lemon icing. Not quite the candle inferno her parents' birthdays cause, but she's getting there. And, of course, presents. Happy Birthday, Anna. We love you.

My blogging friend Crash is collecting fabric for a wonderful Magic Quilt project. The idea is to collect fabric that has a story attached, and make those magical swatches into a quilt. ( Click here to find out what the quilts are for and why they are magic. ) This is the shirt and the story I decided to send in: Given the circumstances, a trip to Hawaii seemed like a very selfish move. My wife was living half a continent away so she could get medical treatment, and my two young girls were finishing their last year of school in Utah before we were to sell the house and move away from our vital support network of family and friends. Yet given the circumstances, a touch of selfishness was just what I needed. And twentieth high school reunions only come once in a lifetime. So with assurances from both heaven and earth that my loved ones would be well taken care of in my absence, I boarded a plane for Honolulu. Near the top of my list was the task to find an Aloha shirt or two – a classy o...

We survived summer vacation. Woo! Actually, Anna had a pretty good summer. Alyssa, on the other hand, contracted a serious case of boredom. She also had the munchies like crazy, and grew over an inch since April. Woah! The girls both had end-of-summer swim parties for church, but I was only able to make it to the primary activity. I purposefully did not wear my swimsuit so as to encourage Alyssa to have some fun on her own, which she did - kind of. Actually, she just sweet talked other adults into helping her swim around. But I guess that's okay. In honor of Back To School, we bought Anna an early birthday present - a desk for her to do her homework on. She was almost happy-tears excited. This morning we had a pretty easy time of things. I've been getting up at 6:15 all summer so I can get in some outside chores and do some writing before I buckle down at the day job. Since the girls are both at schools that start on the same, later schedule, that was plenty early for Anna and ...