A Cold, Hard Lesson in Gravity!

On Saturday the 8th, the kids set off for a new adventure... their very first ice skating lessons!

This was a whole new challenge of balance and determination. There was a whole lot of falling down going on though! Samantha got a little fed up about 20 minutes into it, but I bribed her with the promise of a snack from the snack bar after her lesson if she would just give it one more try. So she scooted back out onto the ice for just a little bit longer.

David, on the other hand, was very eager to make some progress. That's the wonderful thing about David, he always puts all his effort into things, and he gets very excited when he sees that he has made progress or accomplished a new skill.

What's funny is that Samantha was the one who wanted to skate, but I signed David up too, even though he initially was not interested, just because I didn't think he would want to sit there on the bleachers with me and just watch. So now he is the one most looking forward to his next lesson.

Here are some pictures I took. I wish they were a little clearer, but parents are asked to stay back away from the rink, so this was the best my zoom and no flash could bring me.



And he's down!!! While she is clinging for life to a staff member!




She's up!!




He's up now too!!!




Getting better!!

The best part of all... all the laughs we got to share together at the snack bar afterwards...and all the laughs I got to have to myself the rest of the day when all I heard was, 'Ow, my butt! Ow, my butt," from the both of them when they tried to bend over or go up stairs.

We'll be back out there again on Saturday!!!

Toothy McToothster!

Presenting the latest addition to my collection of geeky children....


Yep, David got braces on Tuesday. He is obsessing over what he was told he can and cannot eat, but otherwise, he is adjusting well.

Here's my little geek squad!
She's got my bad eyes, and he's got my bad teeth! Poor things!

I like their little imperfections though...and they are still cute to me, I think!

Blind....like Mommy!

So I get this call from the school nurse on the 14th telling me that Sammie failed her vision test twice! So off we go to her first optometrist visit.



The poor thing has 20/80 vision in both eyes due to a high astigmatism. The doctor took my glasses to read the prescription and returned with, "Yep! She has it as bad as you do!" I had no idea it was hereditary. So Sammie has been wandering around this earth for five years seeing nothing but fuzzy blobs unless the object is about a foot away from her face! We had no clue, but now so many things about her are making sense to us and her teacher.

Seeing well is too new and too much for her little eyes to handle yet, so she is only in half the prescription she needs...bringing her vision to 20/40 for now. As she gets adjusted to seeing better, we will take her back to the eye doctor in six months to test again and see if her eyes can handle the full prescription to bring her to 20/20. I think even this half prescription is making so much of an improvement for her already! I hope it will help her conquer her shyness too. At home she is a firecracker, but at school and around other kids, she is so timid and quiet. Maybe now that she can see who she is talking to better, she might not be as withdrawn. Let's hope!

Here she is with her first pair of glasses:



And here are a couple of funny things since she's been wearing them...

1. At the car wash she yells out, "Stop! That sign says stop!" Wow! She could actually make out a sign from her seat in the van and read it!

2. Later on the way to Wal-Mart she starts whimpering.
"What's wrong, Sam?"
"Scary monster outside my window!!!"
I look to my left and there is a U-Haul truck parked in a parking lot with a huge, very detailed butterfly on the side of it. She had no idea a butterfly really looked like that!
I said, "That's just a butterfly!"
She said, "No, it's not!! It's scary!"

So it will be interesting to see how the world opens up for Samantha now. I know she will have an easier time in school too. It's a big adjustment for her, but she seems to be taking it well so far, and she is excited about the things she can see now!

Still me...but 33.

Today I am 33 years old now. It's a day for me to look back on how my 33rd year went. Well, what I'm understanding now is that it wasn't the happiest year, but that was my own doing.

My overwhelming grief for my grandmother's passing was the heaviest on my mind, and I carried those feelings through the whole year. Even when I engaged in something that should be joyful, I found myself thinking, "But I can't really enjoy this because my grandma is not here, and I can't pick up the phone and hear her smiling as I tell her about this." I let that sadness be the background music of my year, and I let myself get sadder and feel more pain... which magnified the pain I was having in my leg...which led to the surgery... rock bottom. Yes, in my 33rd year, I hit rock bottom.

I'm facing my 34th year now...and already my song is different; my attitude is different; my feelings are different. I have let her go now, and I'm left only with my love for her, and my overwhelming sense of pride for having been loved by her too. I have been off to a good start at changing things around. This is going to be a good year. This is my renaissance year! This is the year I no longer hold myself back.

Thanks for being here for another birthday! Your friendship means so much to me, and you know it is so true. I am so thankful that I have the gift of knowing you! Thank you!

Let there be beads!!!

One of my first "No Excuses" initiatives was to just get downstairs and light that torch! It felt so good to just melt that glass. I went down there with no preconceived ideas...just played with the colors and put the bead in the kiln when I thought it was the shape it wanted to be. I even made my first semi-successful hollow! I say semi-successful because the hollow part is rather small, and the bead is close to round...I didn't want to mess with it too much in fear of the hollow inside collapsing on me. In the picture below, it's the green bubble in the back.

Another success was that I was able to get "raku" frit to flash that lovely purple that I could never get it to do on the Hot Head torch. It's the one right in the middle with the black base.

I do need to spend more time on the new torch to get a better feel for the heat, get my control of it back -- some things were melting TOO fast! ha ha ha One disappointment, the pretty clear and wispy pink bead on the left just under the green bead has a stress crack along the bead hole...booooooooooo!

Well, here's a picture! I plan to schedule a bead making day for at least twice a month. I'm so excited and inspired again!

Welcome, 2008!!!

Happy New Year, dear friends!!!

I have seen this pattern so many times, and this year I plan to defeat it. Each day I say, "Wow, I can't believe it's already "x" o'clock." Each week I say, "I can't believe it's already ____day." Each month I say, "I can't believe it's already ____." And you guessed it...each year I say, "I can't believe it's 200_! Where did the year go?" It made me realize that I either wasn't paying attention, or I wasn't doing anything that I felt left me with anything to show for it.

So my motto for 2008 is "No Excuses!" I'm not going to let time just pass me by. I'm going to just do what needs to be done. I'm not going to make a list either of what needs to be done because there is so much, and it changes each day. I will just think it and do it.

So HAPPY 2008!!! I wish everybody lots of love and success this year!