Just some odds-and-ends updates on us, now that we seem to finally have a consistent modem connection again.
I am so thrilled to say that last week's button replacement seems to have worked! We haven't seen any significant leakage since (it's been a little damp a couple of times when she had bad gas but that's all). This means we can finally move forward on things we've been putting off all summer like crawling and changing her diet. Unfortunately, she's gone back to being freaked out on her tummy! So we're going to have to do some "prone conditioning" (i.e. putting her on her tummy for longer and longer periods of time) first.
Also, Laurel's teacher says that Laurel is adjusting well to school and enjoys playing with the other kids. We get a sheet every day that says how she did and she's mostly been happy or a little fussy and it sounds like there are lots of things they've done that she's liked. I am dying to visit and see some of the activities! Next Tuesday morning she is getting a loaner wheelchair to try out and we're planning to be there for the fitting, so maybe I'll stick around for a while afterwards and watch.
I think the Lexapro is helping. It took me most of 6 weeks to think so, and I'm still not positive since I've always tended to have periods where I didn't feel too bad anyway. But right now anyway, I'm feeling pretty good.
Probably the dimmest spot right now is my mom. As near as I can tell, she is just not going to do anything, ever, about either her nose or her breast.
We're very excited and nervous about the van! It's scheduled to come in mid-October. It's going to be the light blue metallic ("Blue Mirage"). We didn't go real heavy on features but are getting the lowest option package (#4) that has the side curtain airbags. It'll be hard to say goodbye to our Escort after 12 years but I'm just crossing my fingers that it even makes it to mid-October.
Oh, one more thing, I have to tell you about our county fair experience! So, we went on Saturday. We were mad because the therapeutic riding demonstration that we wanted to see had been moved up to 1:00 and we got there at 2:30 (since it had been scheduled for 3:00). But Laurel was doing great in her stroller and really seemed to enjoy looking at the cows and sheep and things. But then a storm blew up and the tents felt like they were going to come down again! The fair staff gave everyone tickets to come back and chased us out to our cars. Although, as Bob pointed out, by that time the wind had died down and the lightning was getting worse, so running to the cars was probably not where we wanted to be. But we went back on Sunday. Laurel wasn't in as good a mood though and seemed kind of overwhelmed by the small animal tent.
Anyway, that's the news from here. 
WOO-HOO! We just got the last two tickets to see the live show of A Prairie Home Companion when it comes here in November!
They went on sale today and I'd been dialing all afternoon every 5-10 minutes. Finally, I finished the work I was trying to do in between this and settled down for a continuous dialing blitz. After about 15 minutes, I got the box office recording. I was so floored I hardly knew what to do, but when I got a person she asked me if I wanted the 6:00 or the 9:30 show, and when I said the 6:00 (we really didn't want 9:30, both because it's so late for a babysitter and because that's not the one that goes live on the air), she said "How many tickets do you want? There are two left." So, we're ALLL the way in the back, but we have tickets! It's just a few days before Laurel's birthday, so I'd love to come up with something creative for him to say about it in the announcements!
I'm probably Queen Geek to be this excited, but so be it. 
YAYYY, Laurel is going to get one of her favorite toys back!
It's been like reverse Christmas around here lately. First the early-intervention therapists, as they had their last sessions with her, took their toys and equipment away. Then her early-intervention case worker came on Monday and took all the toys that belonged to the program. It's been looking kind of barren around here - not of course that Laurel doesn't have toys of her own! But the program and the therapists had some really neat ones, that either you can't find anymore or we can't afford (you would not BELIEVE how expensive adapted toys can be!). The toys that were taken on Monday included one of Laurel's absolute favorites - a See 'n' Say toy that isn't made anymore with 3-D animals and a farmer that make noises and play music when they're moved - here's a picture of her with it:
Knowing that it was going away, I've been searching for that toy for
months (and another one that she also really liked, but no luck on that
so far) at consignment shops and on eBay. Well, Sunday night it finally
turned up on eBay! And I've just gotten notification that I won it (I
*should* have - I put in a really insane maximum bid
- but as it happens nobody even bid against me). The same lady (who
specializes in selling toys and books for kids with visual impairments)
also had several other toys that I think Laurel will like, and I won one
of those and have to wait another two days to see if I win the rest. But
I'm very excited to be getting this one again!
I got what I wanted today at work...wish I felt better about it...
I guess part of it is that it's not so much what I want as what I feel I have to do, which is work 30 hours a week. It's not even so much for the money (seeing as how the babysitter is going to get more than half of it anyway) as because I truly believe that I can't get the work done that's been set out for me and I'm going to get my butt fired if I keep working 20 hours/week. One of my immediate supervisors (depending on the project, there are four of them, sigh) and I decided to spell it out for our executive director (who kept insisting that I had to get another project to get more than 20 hours) and set a meeting with him for today. SOOO...the upshot is, I got 30 hours a week. But I came away with the feeling that he still didn't really like me and wasn't convinced I wouldn't fritter it away in "low productivity" (his words and apparently what he thinks I've been doing up till now). He said was something like, "work 30 hours for a couple of weeks and show me how much more you can get done." If he has read any of the nine weekly reports I've submitted (at his request) on what I *have* been spending my time on, he shows no sign of it. The thing is, since he mostly works in transportation and I mostly don't, he doesn't see a lot of what I do. But telling him hasn't made any difference.
I have never felt so demoralized. Honestly, I felt better about
myself when I worked in a department store. I know, work is only one
part of my life. But I don't feel like I'm winning any gold stars on any
other fronts, either. I feel like I'm always running late, I'm never
getting enough done around the house, I'm not spending enough time doing
program, I'm not spending enough time *not* doing program (in other
words, doing things that would be educational or entertaining for
Laurel), I'm not spending enough time with my husband, I'm not getting
enough exercise...I just feel perpetually a day late and a dollar short.
Maybe getting 30 hours a week will help the work part go better. But
maybe it won't...I don't feel like anything short of a sledgehammer to
the head would make an impression on my boss. 
I *wish* I could think of something else to do that would pay the same
kind of money and be part-time!
All right...sorry for the whine...Bob's not home yet and I guess I just needed to get it off my chest. Thanks for listening!
Lights, hot water, TV, the Internet!
They all seem like novelties after being without for 2 1/4 days! We
lost power due to Isabel at 5:30 PM Thursday and got it back a little
after midnight last night. Fortunately we saw it coming and we had lots
of batteries and candles (well, we always have lots of candles
), and Bob had already cooked dinner on Thursday, we had the computer
powered off, etc. Our biggest worry was that a tree would fall on our
house! This picture (from last winter) may help to illustrate why:
We all slept in the basement Thursday night. I guess the winds only got up to about 40 mph, not 60 or 70 like they were forecasting, thank goodness - 40 sounded scary enough! Anyway, there was LOTS of debris - practically every square inch of our yard was covered in leaves, twigs, and branches of various sizes, but no damage done! A tree fell across the street a few houses up, though, and blocked the road for a while. And one of the other families that use Laurel's babysitter had a tree fall through the roof over their bathroom. There were trees down everywhere, actually - we feel very lucky. We're so glad we had the two that were leaning toward the house removed last fall! Our offices and Laurel's school were all closed on Friday but Laurel's babysitter still had power and was open, so we took her over in the afternoon, the better to get the mess in the yard cleaned up.
Our church's Fall Fellowship Weekend was canceled too 
- no power at the camp and a tree across the road. So, we've spent the
last couple of days showering at the gym (which is near the babysitter
and also had power), cooking and heating water on our Coleman stove and
salvaging what we could from the fridge and freezer. We had to throw out
2 1/2 kitchen garbage bags' worth of food.
But we're all safe and sound and happy to be back in the modern world!
It looks like Laurel probably has a sinus infection. She has been very tired and cranky all week long. She's also had a little cough for the last couple of weeks, which turned worse last night and then this morning it was so bad it made her throw up. So we didn't send her to school (very sad, she missed the big field trip to the apple orchard!), and I took her to the doctor instead. I was relieved that her ears looked fine, her chest sounded clear, and her throat looked fine - when I called Laurel's teacher to tell her Laurel wouldn't be in she told me that the adaptive phys ed teacher is out with both bronchitis and strep throat! I should say, her throat looked fine except for the two big white streams of mucus going down the back of it (sorry, probably TMI!). And the doc thought Laurel's sinuses looked full. Laurel hasn't been all that stuffy lately, but when the cough first started she was also doing the same sort of morning stuffiness routine she did last fall, so we had figured allergies. The doc said that often these things start nasally and then set up camp in the sinuses. And that the coughing is due to the drainage. I feel really bad, she's probably been sick for a while but we were putting the crankiness down to teething (I think her last canine is going to come through soon) and the tiredness to a growth spurt (which she *has* been going through, actually - she was about 27 1/2 lbs a month ago and today was almost 30 lbs with her clothes on, and I'm pretty sure she's taller, too). I'm relieved there's something we can do to help her, though - we've got a 2-week course of Amoxicillin for her. Hopefully next week will be a much better one - and we'll just have to take her to the orchard ourselves so she can find out where apples come from and go on the hayride!