all that's past is prologue...

Our incredibly talented friend, Michael Armstrong, is having a show of his fantastic photographs at our house this weekend. He has a great eye for beautiful, unusual images, mainly of the Twin Cities, as seen here . Please stop by to see the work, and maybe pick up some (very reasonably priced) prints. Holiday shopping! The show runs: Friday, November 21 from 6-9pm (with wine and food!) Saturday, November 22 from 10-4 I really hope you can make it and see this great work!

I just got a Britax Marathon carseat for $46.10 at target.com. For comparison, they normally run $270. Beatrix is still in the bucket, but I have faith she will outgrow it someday. This is the carseat that takes her up to 65 pounds, so we are not likely to get any other hand-me-downs from friends (we already got an Evenflo from Tom and Sarah, but have 2 cars). Apparently my deal-fu is still strong! EDITED 11/17/08 - Or not so much. Apparently target noticed their mistake and cancelled all the orders. In my case, they didn't even tell me — my order that was on the system earlier today (and that I got a confirmation email about) is just gone. I am royally pissed off!

So tonight we visited the new daycare provider's house, and liked her and her son as much as we had at the first meeting, so decided to go ahead and switch. This means that Beatrix will get more personal, one on one care — plus some fun field trips to museums and libraries and the like! — which I think will be better for her. It also means less hectic piecing together for Patrick and myself. I will really miss KidsPark, though; it's such a great place! The handyman we found on Craigs List last year to put in our flooring stopped by tonight to take a look at our furnace. He did some tweaking with it that *might* have solved things. I really hope it does. The heat and daycare were two of my most looming, horrible issues, and if they are really solved, it will go a long way towards getting a lot of the rest of my life to run more smoothly.

I've read so very many inspiring things about Obama's election that I am not going to even try to sum up my feelings here. Despite Patrick being unfortunately ill that evening, Election Night was one of the most wonderful days of the recent past for me. I feel so infused with hope. On a personal note, I feel honestly that I can tell Beatrix that she can be anything she wants to be and do anything she wants to do, that there are no barriers to her except the ones that she places. On an even more personal note, things are coming together well on the home front too, and that feels hopeful as well. We met with Beatrix's cardiologist for four hours earlier this week, who admits that Beatrix is a conundrum; she even presented on her case to a conference and everyone was very divided between those who said "Do open heart surgery NOW!" and those who said to wait it out. So our current plan is to bulk her up with fortified milk, try to get everyone more sleep, and m...