the big bad wolf

Have you ever noticed how in any story, there's always someone who gets the short end of the stick? Like in the show Prison Break, it's the nurse/love interest of the main character. Every season, she gets shafted. 1st season - everyone escapes but her. 2nd season - she gets taken hostage by the evil conglomerate known as the company. 3rd season - she gets beheaded. I'm sure you're picking up the pattern.




Another example of folks getting the shaft is the tale of the 3 little pigs. Think for a second about how much we know about many fairy tale characters - we know the entire life story of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White... Even the villains get a good deal of character development. But not in the 3 little pigs. You've got 3 unnamed pigs that are derided for their diminutive size from the beginning. Then, you get this quickie run-down of residential construction techniques that came straight out of the masons propaganda - anything but brick is weak sauce, blah, blah, blah. Brick can take anything, blah, blah, blah. Then they bring in this wolf to show just how weak are the other building materials. They even go so far as mocking the wolf - ooh, here comes the big, bad wolf... my peach fuzz goatee is stronger than you... Obviously, the masonry lobbyists are calling the shots because the straw and the sticks get blown away but the brick house remains pristine.


Well, two weeks ago we learned that the wolf's name was Ike and when he huffed and puffed he might not have blown the house down, but he knocked out the power for more than 2 weeks. Touché.





Now that the power has been restored we can give a quick update - a few leaky windows/door and some failed flashing around the chimney were about all that happened to the house. Almost all of the damage this far north happened because trees came down. Thankfully, ours fell well away from the house. So for us here at l'Hotel Ellis, business is back to usual. And I'm sure you will all be pleased to know that we have won the coveted award for largest debris pile in the neighborhood. (Don't worry, they said that it might be a month or two before it gets picked up so you all have plenty of time to come and see it for yourselves.)

Update on Caitie's ear

In March Caitie had reconstructive surgery for a perforated ear drum. As a baby she had to have tubes put in her ears. Unfortunately, when the tube fell out of her right ear it left a large hole covering about 40% of her ear drum. Because of this hole Caitie was not able to hear out of her right ear. The doctor was hopeful that the surgery would solve to problem and there would be no permanent hearing loss.

When we went for her post-op check up, we found out that the graft did not fully cover the hole. She still had a hole, only now it was much small - it covered about 5% of her eardrum. He decided to wait until summer was over to patch the remaining hole. Just before her check-up this past week, Caitie got a double ear infection. Because of the ear infection Dr. Albright feels like we need to wait another 6 months before covering the hole. He is worried that if he patches it now the ear infections will increase. She did see an audiologist and her hearing is about where it was before the surgery.

Hopefully, in another six months we will be able to get this fully resolved. Until then we will be praying for a miracle - that Caitie's ear will heal on its own.

School Days

We have officially made it through the first two weeks of school. Thank you all for checking on me to make sure that I was able to survive having Brian away all day. As most of you know, I was very hesitant to send Brian to kindergarten. It wasn't at all that I didn't think he was ready. In fact, that couldn't be further from the truth. It was more the fact that I was not ready to send my child out into the big scary world. I seriously doubted how well I had done in preparing him for this big step in life :) I had several nightmares about sending him during the weeks just prior to school starting. John lovingly let me know that I was a bit too worried and jokingly suggested that I call my good friend Kinsey who happens to be a therapist. I did call Kinsey. I was instantly reminded why she is such a great friend - she validated my worries (sorry, honey) and let me know that as long as I wasn't locking Brian in the house things were fine.

The Friday before school started we went to meet his teacher, Mrs. Carley. I felt much better about leaving him with a stranger ALL DAY LONG, when I found out that Mrs. Carley had also taught two of John's siblings. I have heard nothing but good things about her and her abilities as a teacher.

Brian was up and dressed for school by 6:30 on the first day. Here are a few pictures from the first day of school...

Brian all ready to go




In front of the school with his friend Caden





Brian and Mrs. Carley

My fun new toy

For my birthday John got me a new Olympus stylus digital camera. I have been having fun taking lots of pictures and testing out all of its features. One of my favorite things about it is that it is waterproof in up to 30 ft of water. I was a bit hesitant to put it completely underwater but, curiosity got the best of me. This is the first underwater picture that I took ...

Since the camera is small and portable I no longer have any excuses for not taking pictures. Thanks, John!!!