Merry Christmas

Christmas was wonderful... for everyone but Alex :( She spent the better part of her day in the emergency room because, despite the antibiotics and the apparently ineffectual pain meds, she was continuing to get worse (the diagnosis was tonsillitis) and spent late X-Mas eve and early X-Mas day vomiting. Strep and Mono were ruled out, which is good as far as contaigen goes, but bad because it means she just has to wait it out. The doctor - a much better doc than the first one she went to - gave her better antibiotics and much better pain pills. For the first time in days she's not on the verge of tears. My poor baby. After picking up the Rx we got home about 5:30 this evening and just laid around. I'm hoping that she'll feel great by New Years and will get to go out for a really good time.

One More Birthday to Go

We celebrated Lo's birthday today (she turned 21 on Wed, but had a final that night so we couldn't get together til today). Since the demise of my good camera/phone I'm not so quick to take pictures, but hopefully Michele, Ali, or LoRen will post some that they took of the day.

I love it when everyone is over to the house. The girls usually migrate to my bedroom to talk - Elsie hangs out at the table and holds court over the snacks - and I usually end up giving in to Aaron and Charlotte's request for another chapter in the ongoing adventures of Timmy, Jake, and Oscar. Of course, today we also sang to LoRen and watched her open presents and reminisced about what a ham she was as a toddler; singing, dancing, posing for the camera... I have to pull out the videos of the kids when they were little and have them playing next time I have a get together (LoRen is sure to be in every frame).

So the countdown is on for Elsie's birthday, and then we're done with '08.

An Addition to the Family

Those of you who have been to my house know my baby Baroness (Baron for short). She's about to turn 13 which is really old for large dogs. It's been on my mind that even though she's in relatively good health I haven't got many years left with her, and I don't want to go through the process of getting a new dog when I've lost a dog. Anyway, a few weeks ago LoRen went on a quest to look for dogs on Craig's List of all places, and found exactly the kind of dog I was looking for. I got home to find her and Gigi waiting for me. I told her it was the best Christmas present ever. Just having another dog around has really perked Baron up, and the icing on the cake is that Gigi chases squirrels!

Lots of Sewing

I just finished building several costumes for Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. This is the kind of show I love sewing for because there is so much color and creativity. And it was the first time I actually got to put my new sewing room to the test. As the pin cushion got put to use I realized that this particular pin cushion has been in service for about 30 years. It started life at the costume shop and came with me after that. The picture is fuzzy, but you can kind of see that the sawdust is falling out and the "skin" is so threadbare that I'm not sure how much longer it will last. It has so much history with me, Mom, and all my sisters that I can't bare to get rid of it. I did take several minutes to squeeze and prod 9 needles from the center that had been pulled in. How many of those needles were last used by Mom?

Anyway, my next project is building a wedding dress for a friend who is getting married in February. Not as creative as show stuff since she has a specific pattern, but I'm looking forward to it.