20070107 More Books...

Saturday whisked us off on errands. Oh, the torture of going to Bead Atelier, a lovely bead shop run by the sweetest of guys. Talesia loved rummaging in the Bead Jar, a huge jar of beads specifically placed and designed to have many hands run through it for "bead therapy". She left with enough beads for several bracelets, and our roommate whimpered to see all the pretties for sale there.

We DID warn our roommate before we left the house, but none of us was quite prepared for the noise and activity level that squeezed us mercilessly at the Place of the Pizza Rat. Talesia enjoyed spending time and tokens there, and mom got to Dunk the Alien several times (new game, think skeeball).

Dance class on Sunday is always a joy, and Talesia is paying better attention. Balancing that cane on her head still eludes her before long, but she is doing well trying. Then we went home.

Home...

Home to Talesia's room.

Home to clean Talesia's room.

Home to sort through the books in Talesia's room.

Eeeeeek!!!

I spent some 4 hours just going through all of the books in her room, setting aside those she has grown past. Talesia amazes me (and others) at how well she reads (a good, solid 3rd grade level), so it's hard to get books that keep up with her. Now there are 2 large boxes ready to share with her friends, one of whom will come over Wednesday to take her haul. We managed to make at least some room for the new books that constantly bless her life.

Next we try to tackle and organize the toys. Oh, no, Mr. Bill!!!

20061228 Booooooksesss...

20061228 Booooooksesss...

Each Half Price Books creates a small black hole designed to suck people in without mercy! We have been to 4 Half Price Books stores in 2 days to catch their 20% off sale. Talesia made out like a bandit, snagging 2 boxed sets of experiments (one for bugs, the other for general science), some computer software, a book on dinosaurs, and some activity books. Several gaming books pounced on Lynn, forcing him to take them with him, while a beading book and a video clung to me like glue.

Athena, our newest canine addition, came home from the vet's office after her first heartworm treatment last night, and tonight we tackle the disassembly inside and reassembly outside of Talesia's jungle climber so she will play outside with all of the dogs more.

Hopefully the home fires will be burning (in the fireplace only) this weekend. We burned through quite a bit of wood with a very nice fire last weekend, and we have lots more chopped wood (thanks to Lynn), so hopefully the coming cold of this weekend will let us enjoy another.

Talesia asked Santa to make one of her stuffed unicorns real. Santa went one better - he brought her a unicorn costume so she could BE a live unicorn! She pranced around showing off her horn, paws, and tail as any real unicorn would. And she was purple, to match her stuffed friends.

Good job, Santa!

20061222 Sitting with Santa

I thought malls had Santas just to drum up business. I did not realize it was a commercialized photo-op. Well, T wanted to go, we did, and here's the pic.

She asked Santa for a couple of teddy bears for people who don't have anything, an unicorn for her, and a digital camera for her friend.

:-)

20061128 The Whirlwind Tour

20061128 The Whirlwind Tour

Life likes to take hold and not let go for things like updating blogs...

Let there be a new job! And lo, there was created the perfect job, close to home, fantastic people, new technologies, great salary, benefits, and people who know who Dr. Who is! I never dreamed a job this wonderful existed, much less that I could be hired for it. Watch this space for updates on paradise at work (wait, what if there's only one... never mind.).

Talesia wowed the crowds in the Thanksgiving Day Parade here in Houston. She danced up a storm the entire route, beautifully showing off her new sapphire-blue bellydancing costume. She was fantastic!

Shortly before Halloween, a tiny hurricane landed behind our neighbors' house, sucked the bricks off of their garage, ripped down many sections of fence, and threw some of the 8-foot, 22-board sections 10-15 feet. This weekend we got the last of that repaired and once again trapped our neighbors' sweet dog in their yard, releasing our meeker pup from the torment of a dominant bully.

While at Blockbuster, Talesia wanted to rent a Doodlebops video. I, all unsuspecting, agreed. Little did I know... Imagine wingless Bugaloos. For 3 days. Straight.

Finally, I could bear no more, and we whisked her off to a friend's house, where the monkeys (as they put it) can play endlessly on their magnificent pirate ship play unit, and the adults can watch movies from a prjoector onto the big screen hanging in the tree. Oh so cool!

Dinosaurs stomped, tromped, and roared through our house on Sunday as all 3 Jurassic Park movies tore through our house. 5 Children and It wished up quite a lot of imagination beautifully, Red Riding Hood of course lost her way in the woods (on her way to her yoga-loving grandma's), and 3rd Rock from the Sun rounded out the weekend.

After lots of excitement and fun, we slept exhausted, and only barely managed to crawl into Monday's routine more or less on time.

20060918 Busy, busy, busy

Working more hours than I can admit to. Will post more soon.

Talesia has lost her first tooth, is about to lose her second.

20060828 Still Gapless

20060828 Still Gapless

Nope, not yet! No tooth fairy visit yet. But that tooth holds on by the BAREST of threads! It rocks back and forth like a rocking chair, and none of us can figure out how it's still attached, but attached it is. Every few hours someone calls "Tooth check!", we watch it imitate a vertical swinging door, but it stubbornly refuses to exit stage left.

Saturday Talesia asked so very nicely to go to Chuck E. Cheese that no living person could withstand the onslaught of cuteness, so away we went. In reality, Talesia hides the fact that she's the local skeeball shark. When she thought we weren't looking, she hit the 40K twice, the 50K 3 times, and the 100K (the one in the upper corners) 3 times! Better than I've ever done, that's for sure.

Galveston has been calling my name, and Lynn offered me a chance to go solo so I could enjoy the time by myself, doing whatever I wanted. Unfortunately, the rain had other ideas. Maybe some other time.

Fence sections lie dormant on the back porch, awaiting my time and when I can kidnap someone else to help a bit. Perhaps this coming weekend I will abduct some unsuspecting victim... I mean ask some well-meaning friend to help. ;-)

Lynn's time among the cyborgs ends today, when the nurse removes the last of his implants (the IV). He still wants to use the injury to escape wrath when he waves at people with that hand, but in truth his finger's flexibility is coming along rather well after his constant self-torture of bending it at every possible opportunity. I suspect a full recovery awaits him, but he may decide to keep a copy of the surgery order to show cops, just in case.

20060821 Bodyworlds, Snakes on a Cake

20060821 Bodyworlds, Snakes on a Cake

Bodyworlds is showing itself, inside and out, at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and it amazes. No photographs or body parts may be taken, so we cannot show you the wonderful plastinates they have on display, but the visual study of real human bodies helped us all learn a great deal.

Talesia viewed a lesson that I hope sticks with her throughout her life - the lungs of smokers and non-smokers. I knew that smoking polluted the lungs, but the visual of the real thing astounded us, and Talesia could see the devestating damage firsthand.

The man holding his skin in his hand certainly demonstrated how big the largest organ of the body is, and I hope that Talesia grasps the concept of the inside of the human body far better. No drawing or replica could show so thoroughly what makes our bodies work as they do!

If you get the chance before it leaves the aread, I highly recommend seeing this exhibit. But get your tickets many hours ahead of time, or you won't get them, and be prepared for an extended stay. After some 3.5 hours or so, we still felt rushed. The audio tour, however, didn't add much, and probably wasn't worth the $3 to us.

Snakes on a Cake! A birthday cake on Sunday tried to devour everyone within range, but the children bravely fought it and devoured it instead. The snakes writhing on top were powerless beneath the onslaught of the birthday girl, age 3, who requested a snake party, and the rest of the wriggling, giggling, gaggle of children. Great fun ensued as they played Pick Up Snakes (and yes, the toys were designed as such) and then played outside on the large pirate ship playground that dominates the back yard.

Lynn can now show off his finger to the world; he no longer looks like a mummy from tip to knuckle. During his last visit with his wonderful doctor (acclaimed by quite a few professionals as one of the best in the field), they told him to quit slacking and start working on bending that thing, so he wouldn't be permanently be giving the world the finger (they didn't want to be held responsible for every time he used that excuse to the cops!). It closed well enough to wash with regular soap and water, although the other arm still has an IV for a week or two yet. We're considering a pair of dragonhide gloves for any future rescue missions!

20060814 She's growing inside as well as out

20060814 She's growing inside as well as out

My 5-year-old shows more maturity than some I've known at 50.

We set out to see the BodyWorlds exhibit, on the road, when we found out that the tickets being sold at that time were for *5 hours* later! We didn't have that long to spend, so we offered Talesia some other fun choices so she could still have a fun day. After reviewing her choices, she didn't pick HER favorite - she asked us what WE would like to do! The playground by the zoo sports a great playground where we all played happily together, and so we did.

A substitute teacher taught Talesia's dance class, and Talesia enjoyed the one-on-one attention. Talesia can get discouraged when she is critiqued too much, but that little lady showed again how she is growing by accepting and implementing every correction the substitute teacher showed her, and Talesia apparently decided that she wasn't going to feel unworthy that day. Mom smiled with pride as her daughter displayed her ever-growing ability to handle the world.

Splish Splash! Saturday afternoon Talesia swam over or under or around every kid and toy and anything else in the pool at her friend's birthday party! Then inside for presents and cake and ice cream. More shouts and laughter erupted as the kids slid down the little slide inside into the indoor pool filled with balloons, and there ensued great running around and attempts at pogo-sticking and drawing and anything else their little munchkin minds could envision. Thankfully, Talesia finally agreed to take her very tired parents home to bed.

20060808 New growth

20060808 New growth

"The tooth fairy will bring me a present - a beautiful sparkly necklace, with gold and silver stars and rainbows!" (This tooth fairy has a lunchtime appointment at the nearest craft store today!) Talesia informed me that her tooth hurt a bit, so I looked, and sure enough, she has reached the milestone of her first loose tooth. I hadn't realized she was growing that much! Where's that little baby who was just wandering around my kitchen? And how did I end up with such a great little helper, who can just about cook by herself?

Lynn's Hand of Horror will soon lose its open maw, since the doctors declared it to be healing nicely and will now allow it to close. Today the nurse will stab him in the chest to pour concoctions into his tortured body and allow them to course through his veins, bringing death and destruction to any new infections that may attempt to breed evilly inside his hand. Hand IV's have about a week-long lifespan, after which the patient is permitted to show his manliness by bravely baring his chest for the next IV.

Hey, after this Lynn should have more use of one hand, at least! He will continue for quite some time to claim he wasn't flipping off that driver, it's just his finger was splinted, or now too stiff at that joint from the injury...

I am finding again the joys of breathing, especially without long, complicated treatments several times a day. I remember that! It's not perfect, but surely easier than it has been. Now if I could just get what feels like a coffee filter out of my lungs, life would be even better.

20060803 Health Update

I may revise this later, but here's what's up.

Surgery went well. He seems to still have all of the finger. He is supposed to keep his arm upright, they gave him a huge piece of foam called cheese ('cause that's what it looks like) to keep the hand elevated.

The other hand has a needle in it, they are supposed to send someone to the house daily to give him IV antibiotics. He also has to go to the hospital daily to have the hand swirled in a whirlpool and then cleaned and repacked.

He will also have another appointment with an infectious disease doctor on Friday.

He is having some challenges working with only 1/2 of a hand - the left is where he got bitten, and he looks like he is making rude gestures to the world all the time, and the right has the IV. But he seems to be doing well.


I got home yesterday and could barely breathe, so I did a breathing treatment right then. I have not done one since, because I have a breathing test this morning.

Currently it's like breathing through a coffee filter or a sponge. Not too bad, but not fun.

I am trying to get insurance straightened out so I can go to a dentist. The steroids are giving me mouth problems, so I have a prescription mouthwash, but my mouth is very sore and parts are swelling.

I will call the pulmonologist later today to give her a status.

I was VERY tired yesterday afternoon and did not exercise as I took my treatment, and it showed. My knees swelled, and my fingers did some. It seems as though exercising as I do the treatment is more mandatory than optional, at least if I want to have a functioning body afterward. At least I have the option to do so, so I'm about as happy as I can be about it all.

More later.

20060801 Surgery Tomorrow

We rescued a cat, Zaphod, who had been hit by a car, on Sunday. In the process of capturing this poor, scared, hurt cat, he bit Lynn rather badly on the hand. We thought little of it, but since he had a doctor's appointment the next day, he happened to show it to the doctor. The doctor sent him straight to the hand specialist, who sent him straight downstairs to the pharmacy NOW for antibiotics. He had appointments scheduled for the next 2 days to see the hand specialist.

Today the hand was worse. He will have surgery tomorrow. Hopefully they will only be cleaning it out, not removing anything he will miss on a permanent basis, but we won't know until the surgery is done.

He will have appointments daily for a week or so to clean it.

Zaphod's injuries were too great. He now sleeps with no pain.

More updates as convenient. I will post more about Talesia's dance recital as time permits.

20060731 Weekend Brief Update

Talesia's recital was fantastic, pictures to be posted soon.

Rescued a young cat from the side of the road, he has since been dubbed Zaphod. He seems to have been hit by a car, but should recover. Vet trip tonight...

20060730 Enchanting dancing

20060730 Enchanting dancing


Presenting - the Teenie Genies! Out pranced the cutest group of bellydancers anywhere (just ask mom!). Nearly flawless after so much practice, the young ladies enthralled their audience as they swayed, shimmied, and turned. Their radient tops and silky skirts swirled as they showed the skills they developed studying under their wonderful instructor. They glided across the stage wonderfully, and when they concluded, the applause nearly brought down the roof!

Gran and Granddad happily sat charmed by the lovely little lady they had come to see, and Talesia danced knowing that her family watched her with pride.
Flowers and gifts awaited each beautiful young lady after the performance, and with an almost adequate supply of stickers to occupy her, Talesia sat and watched the other dancers on stage. Then came intermission...


Music played to an empty stage during intermission. Well, the girls were there to dance, the stage was empty, music was playing, so... the audience was treated to a lovely show of freestyle bellydance by the Teenie Genies and a couple of other girls at the show. Everybody enjoyed immensely.

Talesia loves to dance, and bellydancing exercises the body wonderfully, as well as builds grace and a better understanding of the muscles required to move one's own body. No money could buy the encouragement Talesia found to dance that night, and hopefully she will enjoy lifelong health through dance.

(Not that mom's proud of her or anything...)

20060727 Teeny Genies, Breathing, Nice Loss, and Listening

20060727 Teeny Genies, Breathing, Nice Loss, and Listening

Talesia looks delightful in the little bellydancer outfit Panda has lovingly hand-stitched for her, and she practices nightly to prepare for her debut Saturday. The Teeny Genies (the kids' group) have the serious honor of OPENING the show! Not that mom and dad are bursting with pride for her or anything...

Breathing has been a challenge. I didn't KNOW there that many varieties of steroids for treating breathing, I must be taking them all, plust a few other things just to make it look better. But oh, my word! The cost of the medications without insurance? Several mortgage payments - LITERALLY. But we seem to finally be rounding a corner, maybe improving. If not, I'll have to get an email address from beyonddeath.com!

Lynn's latest accomplishment is a loss - after working out more often, he weighs his least in quite some time! Good job!

First blogging, now podcasts? What ARE my so-called friends and coworkers dragging me into? I've been finding some really cool stuff, on everything from educational casts on programming to political/news humor to unusual music (so far bellydance and celtic) to history to self-help. What, you people want me to be a part of the community, communicate, and maybe even learn something? What IS it with you guys?

After I've listened to a few more, I may post some of the ones I've found and liked. Anyone have any suggestions of podcasts they like? So far I've been able to find podcasts on anything I've tried to look up, including Dr. Who, history, etymology, and even veterinary medicine, . I think I may just have to search for something I can't find one on, as a challange.

20060717 A great show for her, a great show for us

20060717 A great show for her, a great show for us

Saturday Talesia ran off to join the circus - but she took my dad along to bring her back. She pulled him into the behind-the-scenes tour, and he pulled her out to see the show, and a grand time ensued for all.

Lynn and I sailed with Pirates and were awed by the special effects for Davy Jones and his crew - truly fantastic! So of course we ate a great fish dinner afterward.