love, logic, hormones

The birthdays are creeping up. Today I'll get an updated wish list from the girls. I found American Girl dolls for them on eBay, that's probably all they'll get from us but I know they'll be thrilled. We'll have a small party at home with cousins, then another day they'll be able to take one friend each to the H2Oasis water park.

Their schools use the Love and Logic methods for classroom management. BossLady and I talked about it over breakfast this morning, and she said she prefers the more traditional style of her old school. I've been reading up on Love and Logic and I think it's worth trying at home.... finally. Everyone's approach to parenting is different - it all seems like common sense - but I don't mind needing a book or a method because I have almost no patience and even less common sense!

K's up in Nome and Golovin for a couple of days while his dad, brother, and sister-in-law are there. When he gets back he'll start his September schedule, flying on the weekends.

Health-wise, I don't seem to have any immune system issues right now, or breathing problems, but I had something else come out of left field... There's quite a bit of TMI but it comes down to a good possibility that I'm "approaching menopause". Just what K and the kids need: me, hormonally imbalanced AGAIN.

Sometimes you just have to laugh and move on.

Abe, Wedding, School

Uh, eleven days can pass soooo quickly, I don't even realize I'm neglecting the blog.
I just caught up on our nephew Abe's progress, he had a tough week with fevers and low platelets and everything else he has to struggle with. But he's on the mend and will soon be home with his brothers! We love you guys.
Willy and Bridie got married on Sunday. They chose a beautiful place and had a really great wedding. Mom and I sang a song for them, and I got Clayton to play the guitar for us (yay!) at the very last second. It was a good day with lots of good friends. The three sons were the most handsome in tuxes, and Bridie was beautiful! During the reception, she sang a song with Wilson as her accompanist, awwww.
The next day the girls had their first day of school. It's a bit awkward doing drop-off/pick-up since their schools are separate buildings (K-2 and 3-5), though the buildings are next door to each other. We've worked out the bus arrangements, though. The teachers seem really nice, and the classes aren't too big, but it's a little jarring to go from a K-5 school with 500 students to these separated schools with about 350 students each. T's math situation will have to be changed - we looked through her new book and saw that everything in it, she learned last year. Hm.
I can't ignore the screaming in here anymore. Time to go.

August days

It gets so dark at night now, the trees in the backyard are no longer in silhouette at midnight. Soon we won't need to put up the blackout curtains in the kids' rooms at bedtime. The sugar snap pea plants in our Rookie Garden finally popped out white blossoms, but the fallen yellow birch leaves between garden rows are sad reminders that fall is upon us. At least we'll have some radishes to toss with some tiny lettuce leaves.
K's been gone since August 1st. His time is 17 hours ahead of ours. R asked me this morning when we woke up, "Where's Daddy?" I've been doing fun stuff with the girls, and they've only given me that "Can't we trade you for Dad?"-look once or twice this time around. We've been making cookies, bread, quills (yep,Harry Potter), sit-upon covers (Girl Scout thing); we've brought home about 4,000 library books, played at Olly&Wilson's, driven to Seward with cousins to see the SeaLife Center, hung out at the park, and figured out Club Penguin missions together.
I just haven't been ScaryStrictMama about bedtime and wake-up time, though, and we haven't done more than three math worksheets. There's only one more week until the First Day of SCHOOOOOOLLLL! I got BossLady to count by twos with me, and fives and tens. She started reading Captain Underpants books... We've all been into geography with map puzzles (R lost Alabama) and looking up countries we hear about while watching the Olympics. Next Monday's gonna be rough.

My brother Willy and his bride Bridie will be married next Sunday, at a lake near Palmer! We're all looking forward to it, weddings are so happy, they remind you of the goodness in life.

special wishes

Now that July is ending, it's time for me to send out my Belated Blog Wishes to everyone.
Happy 6th Birthday to Ben! Happy Birthdays to Jack, Peggy, Michelle H., Jennifer, Sonya, Oliver, Grandma Rose, JD, and Baby Hunter! Happy Early Birthday to Madeleine :)



Happy Anniversary to K, xOxO.
Love,
Ginny

school supplies!

Here I am.
It's a typical night tonight, except it's not raining. K's making fireweed jelly and the kids are working the bedtime routine. I've got chores to do, but I'd rather paint the dollhouse, sew T's kuspuk, search for American Girl dolls on eBay, and do 16x16 sudoku.
Soccer ended, now we're getting ready for fall - yesterday I signed the girls up for ballet. On Sunday we bought school supplies. I'm a bit nervous about school, not just because it's a new, bigger school, but because I think both of the girls have forgotten things they learned last year. They'll have a completely different curriculum and much bigger classes, but we've found out that several of their soccer teammates go to this school, so the whole transition won't be a complete shock to their systems. When I was a first-grader, I attended three different schools in two states. In the third grade, I moved from a Fairbanks school (city) to Nome's elementary school (very un-city). So I know how wary they'll be, but I also know how adaptable they are.
School starting also means birthdays around here. K reminded me that now that T will be nine, we've hit the halfway-point of her living with us... unless she has her way of course. She's told us that she never wants to move out and she won't get married either because she just doesn't want to leave us! I'll have to enjoy the sweetness of that now, because she'll change her mind when she's about thirteen.
We've had a major alteration in our little household - the girls started doing chores and getting allowance. I know it's unbelievable that I waited this long to start chores, but now they finally seem capable of doing a decent job of it. They sweep, dust, load/unload the dishwasher, put their clothes away, make one loaf of bread (breadmaker) and one batch of cookies per week. T really grossed out with the dirty dishes the first time - "EWWW this is so SLIIIIMEEEYYY". We pay them more than Barack Obama pays his daughters ($1.50!!). They're happy with it, and they are constantly revising their spending/saving plans.
In August, K will be out of the country for three weeks. I realize it's time to clamp down on bedtimes, awake times, math practice, meal planning, and limits on computer & TV time. It would help if Supernanny came up here to make a chart for us and to light a fire under my ass.

fomites, fomites everywhere

Last week, we went to BossLady's soccer game in the rain. K put on his rain jacket and walked her to the field while I stayed with the other two kids in the car. T had her books, of course, and I had a few sudoku puzzles to finish - but - we all know what happens when you trap a two-year-old in a car for an hour. Playing with his trucks and farm toys was distracting enough for a while, but Misterguy needed more action. Before long he was in Boss' seat in the third row, pulling out all of her books and papers and whatever random third-row stuff he could find. The temptation of the cargo area was too much, so he climbed back there to get to the bicycle helmets and recycling stuff. In three seconds he was next to me, in the driver's seat, attacking the window controls and door locks and wiper switch and horn.
I stopped him from getting to the radio and air controls, because through it all I was straining to hear a program about hypochondria on the NPR station. Wow, what I was able to hear was fascinating, familiar, revealing, and hilarious. They had guests in the studio talking about how hypochondria affected their lives, how it began for them, the books they'd written. There were experts talking about the history of the disease. Here's a summary of the program that aired. Most interesting to me was the link between hypochondria and OCD.
OCD, yep.
No, I haven't been diagnosed with either problem, but autoimmune problems turn a person into a hypochondriac. Throw the internet in the mix and you get someone compulsively, obsessively diagnosing themselves with everything from cancer of the armpit to ringworm. Going through patient-care classes and learning what a fomite is really doesn't help the situation, either. Ew.

Germophobia is not exactly compatible with motherhood but I'm finding my way. I just have to cringe and look away when my kids head for the Rent-a-Can. And keep the big squirt-bottle of hand sanitizer in the car, just out of reach of the little monsterboy bouncing around like a pinball.

summer days...

I guess I could have tried for four whole weeks without an entry, but that would have been pushing it.
What a great time we had with our visitors last month! We walked and walked and talked and took pictures and ate (Humpy's Bar is the place to go for more greasy fries than you can eat, and more cigarette smoke than you can breathe). The weather wasn't the best but we still had fun. We saw Hatcher Pass, walked on part of Matanuska Glacier, walked through Kincaid Park and played at Point Woronzof. After they left us, Kim and Danny and their girls went to Denali National Park and a few other beautiful places. Makes me tired just thinking about it.
Since then, T-ball ended, the garden sprouted, we went to the pool once, soccer's going full-blast, and the kids have spent the good-weather days mostly outside. On July 4th, the kids and I walked with other Mat-Su Girl Scouts in the parade. After that, we went to Brenna & Brandon's for some delicious food and a squirt-gun fight. Peggy & Pat and their kids came over the next day and we met at Wasilla Lake, since the sun was out for about half an hour.
That's it for now, I've got to rush dinner and pile the grumpy crowd into the mamavan to make it to the soccer field in time for the 7 o'clock game.

spring pics

Easter Egg Hunters

Dad's Jacket, circa 1968

Dad's Shoes

Jenn's Graduation

Pat's Graduation

Kindergarten Graduation 2008

The Class of 2020

Third Grade was great!

Sunshine, bikes, shades

T-ballers

Slugger

We love Grampy!

Gramma too!

Smiles before heading miles to Georgia :(

Tiny Dancer

T performed with her ballet class last weekend. All the students at Dancer's Workshop were in the two-hour production, each class performing a 3- or 4-minute dance they'd worked on since September. T finally found the ability to look upwards, smile, and not watch everyone else's feet! She loved every part of it except for being forced to wear makeup. All the dancers were good and I'm very happy with this ballet studio. I volunteered to help backstage so yes, I have added another "StereotypeMeMom" title. SAHM, SoccerMom, BookorderMom, and now StageMom. Ew. Really, I was just inept enough to prove to myself that I can put away the Type-A personality whenever I feel like it.
This week brought many changes...
K got a major start on moving dirt to the garden plot, so we hopefully will have some vegetables growing - but we are not likely to have a lawn this year.
We all now sleep in as late as we dare.
My piano is no longer taking up space at Mom & John's house - it's been relocated to our tiny living room, right under the Massive Elk Head. R loves the piano.
The street was graded! Now the huge potholes have been replaced with a surface full of rocks the size of shoes, so the mamavan is rattling in random new places.
Soccer has begun. I really enjoy it, because the girls like it so much and they're good at it, too. I like the outdoors-big-field-of-grass feeling. Soccer reminds me of good times in Laramie.

Our next week is one we've been looking forward to, when our good friends from Laramie are coming to visit for four days! BossLady has been making me count down the days since some time in March I think. Now we're down to three days until their arrival, and I have of course left everything until the last minute. I even procrastinated procrastinating. Now that it's quiet in here I'm off to get something done, in a minute.

Update on StemCell Man

"Just got back from ph doctor, three month check up. Right heart pressure has dropped from 45 which is severe, to 28, three months after stem cell treatment. This puts me at mild. 25 is normal. So big stuff. This really raised eyebrows at the Clinic. At first, it was "if you have to go out of the country, he is a quack". Now it's "well, we just can't get the funding to keep up with global progress". My O2sats just leveled out but thats because of some copd. I'm going back to treat that. All in all it was a huge success - best money I ever spent."
previous post about StemCell Man here

he also wrote:
"...(The doctor) catheters you through the heart as close to the lungs as possible, balloons it and injects the cells and salt water, putting pressure on it and cramming the cells into the capillaries that give us PHers trouble. From there, the cells divide and grow a new vascular bed. So it's not a government trial, and they are not embryos- they are adult stem cells from your own body and blood. This is done in the US every day with blood or bone marrow for 86 different sicknesses, mostly blood disorders and cancer. But PH is not on the list yet so you have to go off shore."

still here, really

Where to start?
The zoo trip was fun. Every parent ought to spend a day chaperoning kindergarten kids around a zoo.
My doctors were happy as usual. They only teased me for a few minutes about keeping such a detailed notebook full of test results. I think they must know it was the only way for me to feel like I had any control over this disease, but they still like to make wisecracks about it. For the record, I haven't even looked at it in probably 6 months. This month, my 6 minute walk result was good, my PFT results were stable, I found out that ANMC does have Revatio in the pharmacy's formulary (no more $45 monthly co-pays!), and I am waiting on a test result to find out if we need to adjust my Synthroid dosage. The rheumatologist is checking into getting Reclast added to the formulary - once that happens I'll stop the once-weekly Fosamax and get the once-yearly IV-infused Reclast. Not that it's realistic or anything but I imagine myself in a room full of beautiful, witty, osteoporotic retired women, sipping chai and having our nails done, Reclast IV bags hanging overhead, complimentary buffet of broccoli, cottage cheese, and calcium-fortified orange juice at the ready.

Girl Scout Bridging ceremonies are sweet, awkward, funny, and- if you're unfortunate enough to have one or two microphone-hogging troop leaders - LONG. Bridging basically means the girls move up from one level of scouting to the next. T bridged from Brownies to Juniors, and BossLady bridged from Daisies to Brownies. Together with the last week of school, it's all an overwhelming mixture of "Oh! They're so cute" and "Oh *%@! They're growing UP".

Our kindergartener graduated... She received the "Journaling Gem" special award, because she luuuuvs to write in her journal. She and her classmates loped into the room with 'Pomp and Circumstance' playing (construction-paper mortar boards & yarn tassels in place), sat quietly through the special awards and the reading of "All I Ever Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten", then performed a graduation song about first grade, to the tune of "New York, New York". The day before, they whooped it up with all the other kindergarten classes on the school grounds, for Kindergarten Rodeo Day. For her, it meant dashing about with her buddies, playing kiddie-ranch-hand games and eating hot dogs and chips. For me, it meant standing around waiting for takers at my game-station, the Shoe Race; finding a replacement parent to supervise the Shoe Race so I could walk R around the rodeo; and finally ending up filling 5 squirt guns per hand from a bucket for an endless line of kids doing their best to claim the coolest squirt gun before anyone else could. I'd only stopped for a few minutes to help the mom who was already there, but she saw her opportunity and ran for it I guess. You have to be either an idiot or on happy pills to volunteer for the most popular game on Rodeo day.

T's last day of school was similar, but set up for upper grades of course. I didn't have R or BL with me so I got to apply myself as the Snack Table Lady. The weather was perfect and we all had a great day. There was some melancholy for the girls (and their teachers) in the fact of our transferring to another school in the fall. I hope we made the right decision there.

T-ball season is here. K is getting over the early stumbling blocks of coaching and is getting those players into the zone. BossLady seems bored with it, as do all the kids on the team who stand around watching the pitcher and first baseman get all the glory. They all hit pretty well, though. We moms in the bleachers have the most fun, giggling at everything, especially the kids who sit down in the outfield to watch clouds, and the kids who round third and head for the dugout.

My Litter Crew (T, BL) and I made serious headway last week, stuffing 5 ALPAR bags full of trash which seemed mostly downwind of one particular house. I was happy to have given the neighborhood kids one trash-free morning at the bus stop! The Crew found a bucket, two life-preservers, and a bed-pillow among the litter. Then they stopped to climb trees and 'take a break'.

Next up, ballet happenings and hopefully some kind of a gardening beginning... then, soccer.

I heart moms

Yay for Mothers! Mothers all over Alaska, Minnesota, Wyoming... and to the moms I'm closest to, I love you and I hope you had a great day.

My family gave me Alaskan Wildberry chocolates, a card, school-made projects, and a rose. My sister and her family came out to the Valley and we all headed to Palmer to see the baby musk oxen at the Musk Ox Farm. It was too windy for the babies to do anything but hunker down in protected spots. The kids got bored of staring at musk oxen after about two minutes but they had a blast walking into the wind with their hair whipping around.

Once we all got back to our house, we put together a feast of barbecued ribs, deep-fried turkey, potato salad, fresh bread and some other stuff. Cousin-conflict was at a minimum so everybody had a good time! I stuffed myself, maybe I'll gain some weight. Actually I'm stopping here so I can change into some elastic-waist clothes and get my hands on some leftovers.

5 minutes

thought processes of a 2-year-old boy
in a 5-minute time span

find the cheerio box, open it, eat cheerios out of the box
get out book with magnetic letters, scatter the letters
match the letters to what's on the pages... or not
insist that Mama holds me, she doesn't need to do all that typing
get Mama to open my juice, drink juice, get Mama to close it; repeat
Oh! There's LEMON on the counter! I need a slice of LEMON!
I think I'll Swiffer a bit... this is a good pretend horse
oops, Mama left a light on, I have to drag her over to the light switch OFF MAMA OFF
here's Mama's pop, she left it here just for me!
hey where are the Cheerios, I need more
OUTSIDE! I HAVE TO GO OUTSIDE AND BLOW BUBBLES!

the Boss, on two wheels!

LittleK is not little anymore. Today she fearlessly got on her bicycle, with its training wheels just removed, and took off down the street. We're really proud of her! Since "Little" doesn't apply anymore, her blog name is changing to BossLady, a nickname given to her by an Antiguan friend who visited us in Laramie a few years ago. In his Caribbean accent it's actually Boss LEH-deh.

After a couple of late-April snowfalls, our corner of the world seems to finally have crossed into Spring. Probably the best place to hang out at home is on the front 'porch' because the sun warms it all day - but it's usually overcrowded with tee-ball gear, running shoes and a mix of winter boots and rubber boots. At least the pungent hockey gear has been put away for the season.

I attempted some neighborhood beautification today, picking up one lawn-bag's fill of litter. It was mostly from the front of the condos next door, and the wooded spot between our house and the condos. It's disappointing to have to live next door to them, not just because of the litter and rumble-trucks, but because of the nuisance barking problems... although, having experienced life at the bongo-drummin', chain-smokin' OK Corral Apartments, we're pretty happy here. My next Superfund site is the school bus stop at the top of the hill, next to the forever-in-construction log house. There look to be about 4 or 5, once-full garbage bags which have scattered, including one full of those blue hospital (chux) pads... ew. After that, I'll tackle the mailbox wasteland across from the bus stop. Palmer and Anchorage are in the midst of their Citywide Clean-up weeks, but so far it seems that Wasilla takes a (typically) different approach. If they have a cleanup day, they're keeping it a secret.

It's graduation season! Congratulations to Jennifer, Pat, and all of my little kindergarten friends! I'm now qualified to teach a class on making mortar boards out of construction paper.

Coming up, we've got the kindergarten Zoo trip, the 3rd-graders' trip to Anchorage for the Taiko drummers show at the PAC, my last Bookorder Mom order, my quarterly pulmonologist/rheumatologist appointments, the Girl Scout Bridging ceremony, and the last day of school on May 20th. After that, I'm just going to spend the summer refereeing catfights between T and BossLady.

warmth!

It's a whole new world up here, we experienced 50 degrees over the weekend. The carrot seedlings the kids and I planted have sprouted, and all but the most shaded snow piles have melted away. We're on the verge of relocating Chena to the outside, where muddy paws belong. K's even hinted at the possibility of building the kids a treehouse... I'm daydreaming of a lawn, a patio, and a garden.
It may take me a while to emerge from hibernation though, since I still prefer to roam the house wearing my winter jacket, watching Jane Austen movies over and over again, barely getting housework done.
The kids and their dad love being outside! K's on a run right now. He took T with him last night - she followed him on her bicycle. It was a good way to make her forget about how I so cruelly made her leave the park fifteen minutes early.
Haircut Boy just woke up from his nap, so I'm off to sweep up sandwich crumbs and muddy pawprints.

Cheerios and apathy

A couple of days ago, still recovering from that gross cold, I got up and went to the kitchen for my morning Chemical Swig (two big purple pills, a yellow one, a tiny white pill and a medium-sized white one). I thought it was a good idea to keep the Advair in my system too, so I took a hit from the purple disc (it's an inhaled powder) because it helps to clear out all the congestion I feel in my lungs... for the next five or six or ten minutes straight, I was doubled over, coughing, wheezing, and basically having a panic attack in the kitchen. It's amazing, the body's very primal response to lack of oxygen... I don't usually have a problem inhaling Advair.
So what's a person to do when their loved one is having some freakish breathing crisis? I guess my family is so used to me hacking and pounding my chest that they sat at the table, enjoying their conversation over bowls of Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I felt like the Sideshow Breakfast Freak, yeah nevermind her, she coughs sometimes, pass the milk please.

When I was finally able to stand upright and walk towards a couch, my husband mustered up all the care and concern he could find within himself and asked, "Gonna live?".

Yes, I survived. If it happens again I'll fall down. It may warrant a look of concern and a little damp washcloth on my forehead if I'm lucky.

44K

One PH patient's stem cell experience (from a post at phcentral.org):
Hello every one my name is K__ and i am supposedly the first person in the world to be treated for PH by direct injection with adult stem cells. I just had my one month check up with Dr. ____ at Regenocyte in Naples, Florida. My echo showed about an 11 point drop in pressure. Big stuff for one month, max benefits are at three to six months for stem cells.Unfortunately, I have some COPD so my sats have not gotten any better yet. Also I was having some violent heart palpatations and they have completely disappeared. I will keep posting - I think it's the best thing going for PHers. I would encourage everyone to begin their research on stem cells, all the different kinds, and places to go, pros and cons etc etc.

There are several kinds of stem cells. Adult stem cells have been used for thirty years in the US for specific disease. Adult meaning from your own body - either bone marrow or blood draw. I had a blood draw. They take a pint of blood, send it to a lab in Israel; they find 4 or 5 stem cells and copy them 35 million times. This number varies, the average is 22 million. Then you fly to the Dominican Republic and meet the doctor at the nicest hospital I have ever been in. They receive the cells back in about 5 days. He catheterized me through the heart as far as you can to the veins in the lung, then balloon the catheter, inject the cells and some salt water to put pressure on, and cram the cells into the small veins where we are all having trouble. Hopefully most of them stick to the right places, then in about two weeks they start dividing into new tissue and building collateral veins. Sounds easy.
Back to what's available for us. There are several companies out there treating PH with stem cells. I went with Regenocyte.com. The doctor is super good and staff bends over backwards for you.I picked him because he specialized in the vascular field. They are one of the most expensive (44,000.00) but to get a practicing cardiologist to leave the country and do a procedure with you is going to cost money.The x-cellcenter.com is probably the cheapest(13,000.00). They do bone marrow adult cells and don't promise anything, but will treat you. I don't think they have treated anyone for PH yet.Also stemcellbiotherapy.com uses cord blood and will treat you. You have a small chance of host vs. graft problems but the adult cells won't work if your disease is hereditary. Canada is working on a FDA trial that is gene cell combo. They are in phase 2 and showing good results, but they are 7 to 10 years out for the public and will not take Americans for trial studies. Also go to stemcellpioneers.com - it's all people who have been treated with cells for all kinds of stuff. Very informative.

let it snow let it snow

I can function now, but all of us under-40s are still coughing and blowing noses. It's a sad reflection of my life to list "not wearing pajamas" as a highlight of my day.

K's flying today after several days off. It's got to feel good getting back into the cockpit after being stuck with three screechy kids and a miserable wife for five days straight.

In the coming days, LittleK will be singing in the kindergarten music program, and we'll have her Daisy troop meeting here at the house. I've got to send out warnings to the moms that our street has bad potholes and that our house has a giant elk mount that might give their kids nightmares.

Time to sit with R (who's zoning out on Caillou)... and watch the snow come down.

cough hack ptoo

Our two-year-old just woke up and came over to me and wiped his nose on my sleeve. Gross. Then he started pleading, "Uckger, UCKGERRR, UCKGERRRRR!" I couldn't decipher it, since he shook his head when I asked him "Soccer? Locker? Booger?" I know it could not possibly be the F-word. According to his dad and T, he's started calling his molars something like that uckger word so maybe they're the problem. Hmm.

He was miserable for two days last week. He's still coughing a little and his nose runs but it's my turn to be miserable. It's as if my body has cold layers, the worst and most sensitive layer being my skin. I'm spending most of my time in bed under a blanket and two comforters, coughing up disgusting remnants of my immune system's battle with this mini-flu. I can't smell or taste anything, I don't really want to eat anything. So far I haven't lost my voice and gone to the clinic, like I did in January. So far. If K weren't here to do everything I'd be much worse off.

Somehow, he and T don't get sick like the little ones and I do. He's got much healthier habits than I have... like not hanging out in 3rd grade stapling bookorder flyers together, or cutting out construction-paper space helmets for kindergartners.

I think LittleK's next on the miserable list, she's at the constant-cough stage but still has enough energy to get dressed and play outside.

By the way, our nephew Abe has gotten so much better this weekend, he's been able to go home and hang out with his brothers! Yay Abe!!!!

...fill

I think right now there's too much on my mind for me to really write much. Just some random stuff:
The girls got their report cards, and they're great! I get to brag today. The only thing "needing improvement" was LittleK's ability to recite her address. They must have asked her during the weeks we were moving.

R is stringing more words together. "Moh. Doos. Ease." or "May, ee-yooz?" (More juice, please; May I be excused?) He's also learned from his dad how to blame his gas on the invisible moose in the trees.

We had our first sleepover guest last night, a friend of T's. She's probably got a whole new perspective on life now that she's survived a day with bunny-ear tv, sssslllooowww DSL, no Wii, lame DVDs, and boring old oatmeal for breakfast. Oh deprivation.

Time to enjoy the silence (the girls are having a sleepover at their Anchorage cousins' house). Better entry next time.