Ethan + Cats + Laser Pointer

I can't tell which is more fun for him - watching the cats or playing with the light.

Crawling!

Of course, he didn't do it as clearly when we were filming, but in true twitchy wind-up toy fashion, Ethan is officially mobile.

Eeeeek! Demon Baby!!!

Click on the pic for full effect. Daddy lookes nervous for a reason...

The most amazing thing happened this morning. I opened the garage door to leave for work, and get this: discovered it was raining. This means that although rain was falling OUTSIDE, it did not drip, drip, drip into the bedroom and wake us up. I'll have Derek feel the ceiling once he is up and running for the day, and if it is dry, we'll actually be able to replace the moldy, stained drywall above the bed and have a decent looking bedroom for the first time in the three years we lived in the house.

Speaking of three years, three years ago yesterday, I took an impromptu half day off of work to hop down to the county courthouse to get hitched. It has been a really wonderful three years!

Finally, but certainly not of least importance, Ethan seems to be getting over his very first sick experience. He still got up a few times last night, but he wasn't too sad when he did, and he was ok sleepig in his own bed. I am keeping my fingers crossed for a full recovery by tomorrow.

How in the world did we get by when Derek and I both were out of the house during the day? Since we have been back from vacation, we have had:

*A fella come to fix the microwave
*A plumber
*The chimney guy to (hopefully) fix the leak in the ceiling in the bedroom
*The HVAC folks to repair the air cleaner that we got when we replaced the AC in May
*A whole team of dudes replacing our roof today

We're broke now. Really.

My Favorite Rock Stars

Yesterday afternoon was the first concert of the rock band Royal Tragedy. You can see my nephews Brian (13) on lead guitar and Andrew (10) on bass and vocals. It was a fabulous concert, but the video and audio quality sucks because it was on my little point and shoot camera.

Can't wait until the next concert!

I hate doing my physical therapy. It is boring, repetitive, and makes me nauseous. It really does work though. Sometime this weekend I am going to have Derek do the exercises and tell me what he sees/feels while he is doing them so I can know what I am striving for. Since my inner ear is so out of whack, I can't tell what is normal and what isn't. It is probably funny to watch me do these exercises, since they're not the standard PT that you think of when you're working on a limb or back injury. Instead they work on my balance and visual perception.

There are 3 components of balance - the visual, the proprioception (what you physically feel - your feet against the ground, for ex.) and the inner ear. If 2 of these are intact, you can still function ok. In my case, my vision and feeling are fine, but my inner ear is shot. The balance portion of my exercises has me disable the 2 working mechanisms and deal with the one that doesn't work. I take 2 pillows, stack them and stand on them (to disorient my feet/ground connection), close my eyes, move my head back and forth, while marching in place. It is HARD!!! If I didn't do this in a door frame where I hit something when I am falling, I would be on the ground in seconds because without my eyes or my feet to tell me, I cannot sense when I am falling.

I also have to do visual perception exercises. These train my inner ear to be in sync again with my eyes. I take a marker, fix my gaze on it, and then move my head back and forth. At this point, I can read the word "Crayola" about a third of the time when my head is moving. This represents big progress, as the inability to visually focus when my head is moving has been one of the most debilitating parts of this (checking blind spots, distinguishing mailboxes from garbage cans from people during a run).

New Approach

Running has sucked for the last year. My speed and endurance have gone downhill significantly and continuously. Whenever I get motivated, the less-than-stellar reality of my current running abilities discourages me. I haven't really, truly enjoyed running for a long time now. After remaining too long in the try/fail/try again cycle, I am now trying something different.

I know that the issue at the heart of my lousy running is my ongoing vertigo. I did the physical therapy thing in December and January, but quit after a while because progress was slow, and real life got so busy that I just kind of forgot about it. If I want to get better with the running, I have to fix the vertigo. As Becky and Alecia know, Dad's approach to any physical ailment, (which has somehow sadly become my attitude as well) was to keep going, push through the pain, and it will get better. In this case (and maybe some others - just ask Mom!) Dad was wrong.

The new plan is to run a little and do the PT a lot. I am committing to 2-3X day with the exercises. As the vertigo gets slowly better, my running will get better, and then my attitude toward running will improve as well. Once I can actually run a mile in less than 11 minutes (hell, I'd settle for less than 14 minutes right now!) I'll feel comfortable stopping the PT.