other time-suckage that killed my blog

Posted on June 30, 2009
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twitter killed my blog

Posted on June 24, 2009
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there are at least 4 unfinished, unpublished entries in my drafts section at this very moment, entries like “Lily turns Six” and Lily vs. the Cranky Mommy, languishing away. All I seem to have time for lately is the occasional twitter update.

I’ll get it together one of these days.

cobweb

Posted on April 29, 2009
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yes yes, I know. I never blog anymore. so, here’s a bullet list of what’s up:

- post surgery, Lily’s health is greatly improved and she’s totally rockin’ in school these days.
- We saw Emily on Easter. The girls ran the Crooked Mile at Fairytale Town about two dozen times. Much fun was had by all.
- renewed our fairytale town membership, so we get in free for another year. Whoot! If you cannot find us, you can assume we are there.
- Dad Campbell came to visit. We drank wine. We spent money. I came down with a cold vaguely resembling the Swine Flu, but not.
- We looked at a cute cottage, but decided it was great location but too tiny. And I am too old and crotchety to endure any more Sacramento summers without central air conditioning.

- I am now a designer for spalook.com as well as skinstore.com - same cubicle, same view, same co-workers, just another site. My new “Fly” designer name is “Minty Brown”

- we’re doing okay financially, but moving is still an option on the table to reduce stress and help save so I can buy a house and go back to college. Yes, dreaming big.

- heading to the beach this weekend with another single parent and child. explained to lily for 10th time its not a ‘date’ but she has seen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang one too many times. I give up.

- can’t think of anything else, brain too filled with phlegm. maybe tomorrow. Til then, you can always see me on Facebook taking stupid quizzes before sleepy time.

Lily Can hear

Posted on March 26, 2009
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surgery went fine, and her hearing is greatly improved.

however, I think she wished tonight that she didn’t hear me properly when I explained that we are going to move out of our lovely house, away from our wonderful neighbor. I hated saying it.

I don’t want to think about right now. It will happen, and far too soon for comfort, and i don’t yet know where we’re going.

For the time being, I’m focused on solutions. there will be time to reflect on how heartbroken I am when its all over.

Update on Lily’s Dr. appointments

Posted on March 16, 2009
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Lily and I finally made it into see the Audiologist today who confirmed to us that Lily does indeed have fluid in both ears, almost no movement of the eardrum, and fairly significant hearing impairment because of it. This is no doubt the cause of recent problems in school and home with attention/listening/focus challenges.

Lily laughed and smiled through nearly the entire exam, even when it was causing her a bit of pain. She was a real trooper, and I took her to Big Spoon afterward for some much deserved frozen yogurt.

The audiologist recommend that until the issue is resolved Lily be seated near teacher during school - which we already implemented a few weeks ago - and scheduled our next appointment with the ENT specialist for Wednesday afternoon. She confirmed what we already knew - that they will recommend and schedule ear tubes surgery as soon as possible. I just spent some time reading the papers they sent home, and if you’re curious here’s a link which explains the procedure:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/ear-infection-treatments/EI00013

I know that lots of families have been through this and there’s no reason for me to worry, though I can’t help but feel a little anxious. I am 100% on board with the decision however. She’s battled ear problems and fluid for years, and she’s ready for this step.

Really, its all a great relief to finally have the situation being taken seriously and addressed. They say that soon as the tubes are in her hearing should almost immediately begin to improve, which is the best news I’ve heard in weeks.

The devil is in the details. Tomorrow afternoon I have a meeting with her teacher, then hopefully i can schedule a meeting with her after school care providers as well. Wednesday afternoon, back to the doctor for our consultation, and then we’ll get a surgery date. My hope is for the surgery to be done on Thursday or Friday so that I keep her home for several days to reduce the risk of infection after surgery, and spoil her rotten for being such a brave little trooper. in any case, my hope is sooner rather than later and she’s going to get as much ice cream, barbies, and princess movies as her little heart desires. For the time being (as if it wasn’t the case already) she’s got me wrapped around her little finger.

We are both fine. I’m fine, but really emotionally overwhelmed for some reason. I already knew all this, but hearing it today formally and watching the testing has drained me. Lily on the other hand is busy rebuilding her Lego village on the living room floor. I know better though. Underneath the smile, she’s feeling anxious too. She sings to herself while she plays and more than once I’ve heard her singing about being sad or being worried, so I know its there underneath. She just doesn’t have the luxury of pouring out her feelings to friends and family on the web the way I do.

I’ll keep everyone posted on the schedule. I know I’m not the only one that will want to spoil her silly before and after surgery.

building lego chairs for her Polly Pocket dolls

what now?

Posted on February 3, 2009
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after the creep factort hit my flickr site, I’ve been a bit at a loss. Do I keep posting? do I keep writing? what do I write and post?
I have no answer to that yet, and little time to really ponder the question.

so, hang in there, I’ll start writing again soon. Soon as I have something interesting to say.

Damn the internet

Posted on January 19, 2009
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I love the internet. I love being connected to friends and family around the world - sharing photos and stories and watching each others kids grow up. However sometimes the internet is a terrible, horrible place.
As of tonight, the majority of my flickr photos will be set to ‘friends and family only’ so if you have not yet joined, please join flickr and send me a friend request if you want to continue to enjoy Lily photos.
As i started uploading archived photos, i got hit with an alarming number of people trying to add me to their contacts or add photos of lily to their favorites for what is clearly the wrong reasons.

It angers me and offends me and depresses me - but that is the world we live in. I’ve reported the profiles to flickr.com and am now setting all but a handful of photos to private for friends and family only.

If we know each other in real life, I’ll be happy to add you to my friends list on flickr so that you can continue to enjoy watching Lily grow up. Joining flickr.com is free.

Sorry to all my wonderful friends and family that visit our site.

5 years of photos

Posted on January 17, 2009
Filed Under movies & pictures, the Fishbowl | 2 Comments

I’ve been backing up photos to my old desktop machine, and a couple of external drives. so when this morning I tried to start up the desktop and it failed - my heart sunk. However, all is not yet lost.

Thank heavens for flickr pro right now. I’m beginning a massive upload of old photos right dated between 2003 and 2006. I’ll probably go back and delete some once they are all up there, but for now I’ll feel better that they are somewhere that i can retreive them safely. I’d pay twice as much a year than they are charging me now if it keeps that site and service running!

The totally Awesome, Sunny Saturday

Posted on January 10, 2009
Filed Under movies & pictures, the Fishbowl | 2 Comments

This is our totally awesome Saturday in Pictures. What a perfect day!

Lily Helped Make Breakfast

Just Being Silly, Lily said this was her favorite part of the day

Awesome Kids Earn Big Spoon

Making New Friends at the Park - Melissa and her daughter Kayla

[ no photos taken, but we hung out at Starbucks with Julian and his mom Lisa next in our perfect day ]

and then …

Chicken Picata - Courtesy of Paul - sooo yummy!

Jania and Lily Dressed Up For Dinner

Happy New Year

Posted on January 3, 2009
Filed Under movies & pictures, the Fishbowl | 2 Comments

I’ve started this post perhaps a dozen times today, but I am finding it difficult to organize the sea of thoughts in my head. It has been an amazing holiday and extended vacation, full of friends, family, fun, adventure, and unxepected surprises.

New Year’s Eve, Lily partied down with the Beggalins, while I was surprised with an invitation to an amazing party in Oakland, complete with dancing. I was horribly out of practice, but still had so much fun stumbling my way through it! Hopefully I didn’t crush any toes or make a complete fool of myself.

As if that wasn’t enough (and really that alone would have been pretty incredible), Jim and his friends invited me to join them sailing on the SF Bay. Now those that have known me for awhile, pretty much know my favorite thing in life is being on a boat, and I haven’t been out sailing since Lily was born - so this really was the most amazing gift.