Life Viewed Through an Amber Focus

I can't believe I haven't been on LJ in a week. Well, actually I can. It has been pretty darn crazy around here lately. It's been 2 weeks since my daughter fractured her skull and we had her follow up appointment. The place where she hit her head was directly behind the vision processing center of the brain so we weren't sure what that was going to mean for her eyesight. In the beginning she had blurred vision, double vision, and tunnel vision and there was the risk that it would be permanent. Fortunately it is not. It has cleared up and it looks like she is going to be fine there. Her prescription on her glasses may need to be adjusted, but she's not reading much yet, so we don't know for sure. But a minor script change is nothing compared to what it might have been.

I am so grateful to you guys and so many others for keeping her in your prayers. It means a lot to me. I believe it has helped in so many ways and it has certainly boosted her spirits to know that so many total strangers to her would take the time to do this for her. So thank you so much. I always knew you folks were awesome, but this just reinforces that.

The waiting is over. The adoption of my great niece has gone through. She is officially the daughter of my niece and nephew-in-law. She's been part of the family for a year now, but it is nice to know that now no one can ever take her away. Everyone is breathing a big sigh of relief, especially my niece, who has waited 6 years to become a mother. Adoption is a wonderful, beautiful thing.

17 years ago today, Chris and I tied the knot. I wish we could be together today, but with his job we've spent more anniversaries apart then together, so I'm used to it. I'm happy for every wonderful year and looking forward to 17 + 17, plus possibly 17 more. He truly is my soul mate.

In two hours we get to dump the kids, the boy at MIL's house and the girl at a birthday party and then DH and I are heading down to Burlington and going out to dinner for my birthday. Which isn't technically until tomorrow, but I didn't think it would be very nice to actually dump the kids on my actual birthday, since they kind of like to spend it with me and all. But it will be nice to have an actual conversation without being interupted and spend some time alone with my husband. T is going through a major interuption phase right now and it is driving me straight up the wall. We can't even sit through a DVD right now without him wanting to ask a question every five minutes, and not about the movie.

Last night we watched Abduction. It was really good for what it was, though I think there was far too much swearing for a PG-13 movie. I'm not a big fan of the Twilight contingent, but I've been watching Taylor Lautner since Shark Boy and Lava Girl, so I give him a pass. I think the kid is going to be an excellent action star one day. He's well on his way and he's certainly got the muscles for it. That kid's arms! The movie was really good, despite having to pause it every five minutes. At first I thought it was going to annoy the crap out of me, because Taylor's character was one of those smirking boys you knew in high school that you just want to wipe the smirk off their face, but that passed after the opening and things got much better from there on out. It was a really good action/adventure, blow them up sort of thing. I can see him moving into this type of movie and not being typecast like I'm sure quite a few of the others will be.

After the kids went to bed I watched Letters to Juliet. What a sweet movie. I really like Amanda Seyfried, the more I see of her. There's something so ethereal about her. Anyway, a nice little romance.

I'm writing again.  I have finally adjusted to my new glasses.  Progressive lenses are a trip, but now that I'm used to them it is so, so nice to be able to see everything, even if at 41 I think I should be too young to wear trifocals.  *sighs*

So I've been working on the lovely challenge at then_theres_us, writing a Noir Doctor/Rose fic, and having a great time of it.  And Leap of Faith is coming along nicely once again.  I cut out 1500 words yet again and finally have the story back on track.  I don't know why it kept veering in the wrong direction.  I'm thinking maybe Wednesday.  It's hard to say though since I have physical therapy Monday, drive DH to the airport Monday night, meet with the nutritionist on Tuesday as Rose is borderline diabetic (can't remember if I said that) and Tobias gets his tonsils out on Friday so he may be extra clingy this week leading up to that.  Still, the groove is back so Wednesday is definitely my goal to finish the chapter by.

( Spoilers for Fringe and Supernatural )

We spent the whole weekend practically out at the house.  Except for the stuff under one bathroom sink and a few scattered things on the floor everything is out of the house except the piano.  It has been such a chore.  Next time DH comes home we are going to rip out the carpet.  At least if all goes well at Virginia Mason.  My appointment is on the 27th.  We are driving down the night before and probably spending the night at the Inn at Virginia Mason.  It's got comparable prices to other hotels in the area but has a full kitchen and I'd much rather eat my own food than too much restaurant food.

( Job Stuff and V update )
Not much else going on right now but I suppose that's enough, hmm?

 

We are back from the science center and the Harry Potter exhibit and even though it was totally worth the $40 for the 4 of us, it was crowded and exhausting.  Still, it was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be.  It's a travelling exhibit and they used actual stuff from the movies.  The costumes were amazing (I thought of you, azriona).  And they had sections done up like the inside of Hagrid's house, Umbridge's office, and the herbology lab where you could pull up mandrakes and they would squeal.  It had the dragon and Buckbeak and a petrified Colin and all of the wands and potion books and the potion lab and just...so many things, too many to count.  It took about two hours to make our way through it and I was really glad they were only letting in so many people at a time.  Oh, the kids got sorted with the sorting hat.  Rose is a Hufflepuff (duh!).  And Tobias, it couldn't make up its mind whether he was a Ravenclaw or a Slytherin (and he's really a bit of both so that was spot on).  It had the quidditch robes and brooms and also three of the hoops and you could throw those, what do you call them, quaffles through them.  And the golden snitch was so beautiful.  And so was the egg that Harry has to open in Goblet of Fire.  I'm not the biggest fan, but still, I was very impressed.

The gift shop was fairly extensive (and expensive).  earlgreytea68, you will be happy to know they do, in fact, make a time turner necklace.  I was sorely tempted because it was so pretty, but it cost $60.  They wouldn't let me take a picture of it, either.  No keychains though, sadly.  We did get a few things.  We got a gorgeous set of metal book clips (like book marks), each with the crest of one of the houses on them, a wand for T, a chocolate frog for Rose with a trading card that had the Potter family on it, and two fridge magnets for me.  One says Hufflepuff (which I usually sort out to be when I'm not Ravenclaw), and the other says Hogwart's Express Platform 9 3/4's.



I've really got to find my digital camera.  The focus on T's DSI is not that good.

Anyway it was a good day, but I am super sore from the long car ride both ways, and even from sitting in the wheelchair.  Gosh, that thing was uncomfortable.  Not as uncomfortable as wobbling around on a cane and being ridiculously sick on my own two feet would have been, but still pretty bad.  I have a massage scheduled for tomorrow, thank goodness.  I will need it.

We had dinner at Red Lobster.  Their Seaport Shrimp and Lobster is fantastic!  I haven't had a meal out that good in ages.

Now I need to crash.  I just wish I had some sudafed.  I sorely need to breathe.

No, not really, but it feels like it.  I went to the doctor today and when my blood pressure turned out to be perfectly normal and all of my other symptoms were still pointing at either a kidney infection or UTI, they took another sample and it immediately showed up as infected.  Like it couldn't have done that on Tuesday and spared me all this grief?  So I'm on medication now, both an antibiotic and something purple that turns my pee orange and wondering about the lovely side effects of artificial food coloring which I tend to avoid like the plague, but the headache is still there.  I hate it.  It isn't constant, but it's here enough that it just drains every spare ounce of energy I have for life and stuff. 

Chris and I were supposed to go out this weekend to celebrate our 20th anniversary of our first date (which isn't until the 23rd but he'll be in Alaska then), but I'm not sure that is going to happen.  I'm bummed a bit, because we were planning on going to Blender at Ryan Stiles' comedy club, but I can hardly grocery shop, let alone do something like go to the theater right now.  I was really looking forward to it.  He has a house here and sometimes he shows up to do improv with the locals.  You just never know.

On the bright side they weighed me at the start of my doctor's appointment and apparently I've lost 10 pounds since the last time they weighed me.  I don't get on the scale normally and I didn't ask what my weight was, either.  I did notice that my jeans were getting loose and my bras were getting a bit roomier, and attributed it to all the swimming.  Anyway the doctor was quite pleased.  I was just...yeah, great, can I have meds now, please?  Not that I'm not happy about it, I am, but pain overrides nice news like that.

I haven't done much but lay in bed.  Gotten a fair bit of writing done whenever the headache eases.  I'm about 1500 words into chapter four of Three Hour Tour and written a bit more on LoF.  Oh, and watched Astroboy with the family even if I did have to get off the couch every fifteen minutes to pee.  Did I mention I hate UTIs?  Astroboy is really good.  I was surprised.  A very cute, very sweet, very effective family movie.  Also am watching The Order with my husband.  It is none of those things.  Except good.

The kids' first week back in public school has gone better than I could have ever hoped.  They both love it and are thriving.  I am so glad.  I cannot even imagine homeschooling the way that I feel right now.  This is also the best time for the athletic club to be closed for it's yearly maintenance.  Maybe when it reopens on Tuesday I will actually feel like exercising again.

36 laps in 55 minutes.  And it wasn't even hard today.  What is up with that? *laughs*

Amy, Victoria, expect the first chapter of my smut-a-thon fic in your inboxes first thing in the morning.  Amy, sorry I didn't go on chat yesterday.  My head was killing me for most of the day.  Hopefully tomorrow some time.

Freshman orientation went good for Rose.  Parent orientation went good for me.  Today is too busy for it's own good.

I am off to drive to Sea Tac for the first time to pick up my husband.  *gulps*  It's a straight shot down I-5 but it's also Seattle traffic.  Least my MIL is coming with me to keep me company and offer navigational support.

Grand Coulee Dam was awesome.  Awesome, awesome, awesome, AWESOME!  You know, in the true sense of the word and not the overused valley girl speak.  It inspires AWE.  Oh, my gosh, they aren't kidding when they say it's the biggest dam in North America.  It's amazing.  12 million cubic yards of concrete.  The vertigo from looking straight down over the spillway though is...yikes.  I'll have pictures later when we get home.  It's been an amazing trip so far.  We're having a great family vacation and every time we come across windmills we all tilt sideways and go "Tilt," very loudly.  Considering the number of windmill farms in Eastern Washington this is rather too often to seem like it should be as funny as it actually is.  There is a great level of maturity in the car.  We drove through a place yesterday in the Cacades called Loup Loup and every once in a while one of us will just say "Loup Loup," in a high pitched voice and it'll make a round through the car and we will all laugh like crazy.  It should not be this funny.  We are making memories for our kids.  They will remember tilting at windmills and Loup Loup long after Chris and I are gone, I think.

Dry Falls is three and a half miles long.  I may have underestimated it's impressiveness just a little bit when I refered to it as a big cliff face before we left on vacation.  I've got so many photos.  Again with major vertigo looking down, though.

We're at the Dalles in Oregon right now in a hotel overlooking the Dalles Dam, which is also fairly impressive, just on a smaller scale.  It's all lit up at night and the view from our balcony is amazing.  I guess there are something like 28 dams on the Columbia River.  So far we've seen five, I think.

*yawns*  Off to Mary Hill tomorrow to see the Stonehenge replica.  Apparently it's a full scale replica of what Stongehenge originally looked like and not what it looks like now.  Which is pretty amazing according to the post card I saw at one of the gift shops we stopped at.  *yawns again*  Night.