Daphne's miserable life.

I never realized how horrible Daphne's life was until today. Poor girl! I can't believe I didn't see it before. You see, today I went through her backpack. It was stuffed with papers. Her teacher made the whole class clean out their desks, and she brought everything home. I learned a lot about her feelings, and her opinion of her home life. I didn't realize she had it so rough. Let me share some examples with you.

Sigh. She's right. Every day it's the same thing. She walks in the door, I give her orders like a drill sergeant and off to her room she goes for the rest of the night. Am I really being to hard on her? Sheesh.

Well, at least she realized she had an ATATOOD. I feel so bad about the cheese and crackers, too. How could I punish her like that? Poor thing. She didn't get her eggs benedict, Belgian waffles and half-caf latte. I'm a horrible mother. That picture of me? That's exactly what I look like at 7:30 in the morning while I scream at her. Yikes. I need some parenting classes.

Ok, the truth is she DID have an attitude and things were going horribly wrong all morning. She was late, and cheese and crackers was a quick option for breakfast before running out the door.

Her teacher must think I'm horrendous.

Stay tuned for more fun from Daphne's backpack.

Moon

The sky is really pretty this evening.

My favorite sky is just after sunset, when you can still see a little bit of the blue color, and the clouds are big and low, and the moon is round and bright.

Thankful for rest!

Hours and hours of shopping, preparation, and cooking . . . . all for that one delicious meal that takes 15 minutes to eat.

The table has been cleared, and now I'm resting. I need to save up some energy for setting up the Christmas tree! I love Thanksgiving.

Hope you are all having a wonderful day :-)

A confession.

I love winter. I do. I love everything about it.

I love snow. I love snow storms. BIG snow storms. The ones that close down schools. I love trying to drive through a snow storm. I love going 20mph on 275 while billions of big honkin' snow flakes obstruct my view. I love the frantic breaking weather reports every 5 minutes when a storm is coming. I love the terms "Nor'easter" and "Alberta Clipper."

And I love shoveling the snow. Great exercise, and what a feeling of accomplishment when it's done, even though in about 10 minutes you have to start all over ;-) I love the big snow banks that line the driveway when you're all finished. I love when the plow truck comes by, and suddenly your mailbox is up to its neck in snow.

I love the when the snow makes a perfect, spotless blanket over the grass and bushes. I love the way Christmas lights glow under that blanket. I love little birdy feet prints on the snow. I love catching a snowflake, and looking at it's miraculous symmetrical detail. I love seeing random snowmen sprinkled throughout the neighborhood. I love the eerie quietness that occurs while it's snowing. I love ice storms, too. I love when the city turns into glass, especially when the sun shines down on it.

I love the cold. I love walking outside and feeling the inside of my nostrils freeze slightly. I love mittens and scarves and winter coats. I love rosy cheeks and noses. I love coming in from the cold, warming up, and then going back out. I love watching the lakes and rivers gradually freeze up over time. I love icicles hanging from buildings. I love turning the fireplace on when it's cold outside. And lighting candles. I love dark, gray skies and windy days. I love hearing the wind whistling outside my window.

So there you go. No complaints from me about winter coming. This is the time of year when I start to hear all the complaining about the cold weather. Well, winter. I am your friend, and I welcome you.

Random 4 you.

Just another random blog for you.

1. First we'll start with a health update. I'm still coughing. I'm still lacking a normal voice. But....I now know what is happening to me. It's no longer a mysterious plague. It's reflux. Regurgitated food and beverage is backing up into my vocal chord area, aka pharyngolarynx, which is also knows as pharyngolaryngeal reflux, causing pharyngolaryngitis. In other words, in order to be normal again, I have to give things up....like chocolate, caffeine, carbonation, and anything else that actually tastes good. I've decided to call it the Pharyngolaryngeal diet. Oh, and anything else I have to stop eating 4 hours before bed time. I get to stay away from stress, too. Anyway, I'm feeling much better, but I'm still not finished with this. I'm also having a hard time with the no-caffeine bit. If I quit the caffeine, my throbbing head will pop off if I cough.

2. I had a dream about the corded mic last night. So this morning during rehearsal, I took a picture of it. Because that's what weird people do with random objects they have dreams about. They take pictures of them.

In my dream, it caused me grief. But today it looked so lovely in front of that light with all the stage fog.

3. Today's fun kid quote: "I'm gonna wiggle my uvula."

That's talent.

One of the many reasons it's good to keep my camera handy around my house.

So I almost lost an eyeball...

I thought I was ready. I thought I was getting better. I woke up this morning, wasn't coughing much, and thought, "Yay! I'm leaving this prison and going to church and I'm going to see my friends and then go shopping and have a grand day."

Things went fine until the shopping bit. Maybe it was all the perfumes in the air, but my throat started to get really irritated. After we left I miraculously felt better again.

Then I went to a friend's house, where I was fine. Nothing bothering me until my larynx decided it was time to try to create its own big bang with phlegm. Oh yes. A day's worth of coughing finally emerged. I ran to the bathroom where I began to hack a lung. Ah, just like last year. Coughing, with tears running down my face, almost puking! It was fun. But the best part is when I coughed so hard, I thought I broke a blood vessel in my left eyeball. I thought it was going to fly out. Embarrassed, I left the bathroom and promply left for home.

I had to stop and get gas, and a bottle of water. I was afraid of what the gas station attendant would think of my Halloween eye. It was still throbbing. It's still sore right now. Is this really how this is going to end? Last year, injured side muscle. This year, lose an eye? I can't do this again! I'm staying in this house until I'm healed 100%.

And now I shall retire to my bed with my laptop and watch something. Perhaps a funny movie or something. Got any recommendations? 'Cuz I'm gonna be stuck here for awhile. Except for the doctors office on Tuesday, where I will beg and plead for that antibiotic that cured me last year. Hello, $130 bottle of little miracle pills. Come to mama.

Sigh. I know in the scheme of things this is really not bad. I know of others who are having worse issues than I am. And, I promise not to blog about this constantly. I just had to let off some steam. Speaking of steam, time to refill the vaporizer and lay down :-)

I highly recommend Dr. Zoe

I've been laying around a lot today. I seem to cough less when I'm laying in bed. Zoe came in for a snuggle, and told me she'd be my doctor to help me feel better.

So she walked over to my bookshelves to pick out the "feel better" book, which "tells me what to do next." She opens it up and tells me that feel-better book says I need to rest for two minutes. Two whole minutes. Then she goes into my bathroom, gets an emery board, and tries to make me shove it down my throat and say "ahhhhh." I told her we'd pretend, because the last thing my hamburger throat needs is a sandpaper stick down it.

She consults her book again. It tells her that I need to read a book so I can get a "feel-better" sticker. She brings me Hank Hanegraaff's Bible Answer Book. Unfortunately the Bible Answer Man can't tell me why I have the plague again, and what I need to do to get better. But at least I got my feel-better sticker....a small pink smiley face on my hand.

Again, she consults the feel-better book. This time it tells her I need medicine. Two kinds! The first is a sip of Diet Dr.Pepper. Now we're talking. Next, the book tells her I need finger medicine. She grabs a bottle of hand lotion and squirts it on my hands and rubs it in.

Next, the book tells her I need a back scratcher. She runs to her bedroom and grabs her purple princess dress-up shoe. Then she scratches my back with it.

Next, she says I get to rest again. But this time, I have to rest my bones and eyes, also for two minutes. Then she abandoned me 'cause she had to go poop.

Although Dr. Zoe didn't cure me of my physical illness, she did make me feel a lot better :-)

Random

I'm still sick. Voice is slowly disappearing. Cough slowing appearing. Visit to the doctor nearing......

My friend just had a baby. Another friend going into the hospital tonight for stuff before a surgery. Can't visit friends in hospitals if I'm sick. Makes me sad :-(

Cough cough.

I'm soooooo bored. I've been sitting here next to my friend, the vaporizer, trying to feel better. Oh....but there is a good side to being sick and sitting around all day. I finally scored a Wii on Amazon today! Merry Christmas to me :-) And Craig, I guess. And the kids too, I suppose.

Time for more soup.

Could it be?

Last year, on November 10th, I went from being perfectly healthy, to suddenly having a weird pressure in my chest, dry cough, and clearing my throat. It happened over a matter of hours and I was quite confused. I wasn't sick, but I suddenly felt like I had bronchitis. As most of you probably remember, this was the start of my Holiday Plague of '06....a very long, expensive, painful, miserable illness that lasted 6 weeks.

It's Monday, November 5th, a year later. I've gone from being perfectly healthy, to suddenly having a weird pressure in my chest, dry cough, and clearing my throat. It happened in a matter of hours.

Help....Pray this is just something else. Anything but what I suffered through last year. *sniffle*

Ridiculous.

Too much . . .

Feel free to stop by the next time you get a sweet tooth.