A concert and a disaster

This is what can happen in the space of 10 minutes, when Mom has unwisely fallen asleep on the couch.

The plethora of straws is apparently so that lots of people can share the same cup.

Maddie's been on a recent laundry kick, so she helped me unload the baskets of clean clothes.

She even said, "Mom, you were sleeping so I was trying to be quiet." How thoughtful.

We got to go to a GREAT concert last night. Sarah Harmer has been a favourite of ours since we were first married. In our little first floor apartment, we discovered her song, "Basement Apartment." (Click on the link for the song)

Here we are, partially frozen after waiting outside to get in.

She is SO talented!

Here are couple of other songs that we love:

Lodestar (Ryan's favourite)

Captive (A new favourite)

Pendulums (One of my favourites)

Weakened State (A...favourite!)

Her new album came out last summer and there are some great songs on it. It's refreshing to see someone live who is incredibly talented and fun to watch!

We've been chugging along at life, working hard, trying to find time to play. Luckily Ryan's back is doing much better. He got a lecture from his chiropractor about how we all lead lives that are too sedentary and that our bodies are built to stand all day, in keeping with a hunter/gatherer tradition. In response, he has been trying to avoid sitting to help his disc repair itself. So now I can ask him how his hunting(slash)gathering is going.

We had an appointment for Claire this week with the neurologist who found that she was missing a gene (FOXG1). Along with news of more tests to rule out potential problems (EKG for heart monitoring, back x-rays for scoliosis, genetic counseling for possible future problems, a sleep study to monitor seizure activity during the night, etc.) we got the news that the discovery of Claire's missing gene has actually helped many other people come to the same diagnosis. Hopefully with the awareness generated by multiple occurrences, this can become a more researched gene. I'm not sure if we'll see any results of that, in regards to helping Claire somehow, but it's nice to know that people who come after us might have more options for treatment.

I'll be interested to see what happens with all the snow as we're supposed to have a week of "plus" weather. I'm not sure if it will be good or bad!