Joey eagerly got ready for school and almost leapt out of the car door when she saw Ashlee walking across the parking lot into the school yard. She ate hot lunch. She rode the bus home from school. She went to P.E. and loved it. She played with Ashlee during recess and played with her new friend. "Mom, tomorrow can you not meet the bus? I want to walk home by myself. With just Ashlee."

This is not the same girl I sent to school yesterday. She has been transformed into this new, self-assured confident, independent child. Where did she come from? How did she appear in my home this morning? I'm not complaining. She loves school! She has a new friend! She and Ashlee worked things out and not only played at recess but played together for a couple of hours after school, too.

Today while Joey was at school, I did laundry. Well, I washed it and dried it. I didn't fold it until later. It was cold outside so I turned on the fire. I love the fireplace. It's one of my favorite things about this house. Three winters ago, I suffered from severe seasonal depression due in large part to the 90 straight days of rain we had coupled my tremendous dissatisfaction with my professional life (being a freelance technical writer). I'd take Joey to school then come back home, light the fire, lay down in front of it and sleep for several hours. It was very sad. Thank God spring finally came and with the light, my depression slowly faded. I haven't had such depression since then, thankfully.

But today. I wasn't depressed but the carpet in front of the fire was tremendously inviting. Especially since I'd only gotten about 6.5 hours of sleep last night. So I did it. I put some pillows on the floor and took a nice, peaceful, relaxing nap in front of the fire. I felt like a pampered cat. I loved it. I woke up around noon.

I'm not a morning person so my brain is really mixed up--I'm often not even awake by 9:30 or 10am so to have already taken Joey to school, gone to the grocery store, done several loads of laundry and checked all my messages by 10am is weird. There's a whole other world out there that happens before 10am! I thought my husband was just kidding when he told me stories about it, but it's true. Amazing.

Tomorrow is dental hygiene day. Joey and I have appointments at 10am so I have to get her out of school for a few hours. I promised her lunch at Taco Bell because she's missing burritoes at school. We love our dentist. I'm glad to be seeing him because I have a tooth that is bothering me. Strangely enough, though, it is a tooth that has a root canal and a crown on it so I don't know what could possibly be the problem. It is pressure sensitive and heat sensitive but there is no abcess or general achiness like with a cavity. It just hurts to push hard on it, like when I'm chewing something firm, or to touch it with something hot. I can feel that all the way to my jawbone. It has been problematic off and on for about a year and a half but it always resolves itself after a few weeks. This time, however, it has been irritated for about 2 months. I know, I should have gone in sooner, but I was on vacation for 5 of those weeks.

And now I have heartburn. I hate heartburn. Time to have a Maalox cocktail.

--L