Other People's Pictures and Other Miscellaneous Stuff

Hi All!

Well - the bad news is that I have a killer headache and am still cranky. The good news is that I am getting a haircut today so maybe that will help things a bit. I love haircuts - especially the shampooing part of the whole deal. I am not too fond of the tiny pieces of hair flying up your nose part but . . . those are just the things one must deal with to be beautiful.

I had speech on Wednesday and was told what I already knew - my voice was good but not as good as it has been before. I was given remedial voice exercises to do and a rigid schedule. Now I am doing inhale "e's" every thirty minutes. Not inhale/exhale - those are too "advanced" for what we are doing right now - just inhale. I do ten single "e's," ten double "e's," and ten triple "e's" with about thirty seconds of throat massage afterwards. All of this every thirty minutes. How time flies when you have a timer on. Oops. I haven't set the timer today. It must be the headache!

The subject of throat massage came up at speech - okay - I asked how I should explain it to everyone - and my therapist and I had a nice little chat. She gave me some places to look online to get a better idea of how to explain things. Of course I haven't done the research yet - I am blaming the headache. Darn convenient excuse, don't you think? Anyway - I will get on that and get a post and a podcast ready for you on that topic - if you are interested.

Yesterday was a lazy day. I decided to watch a movie I had Tivoed. It was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I have read all of the Harry Potter books - how could I not when I taught fifth grade during the time these books made their appearance? While some people don't like the books - I love them. They really appeal to my overactive imagination and I feel the movies are well done. Of course they don't have all the detail the books do but they are very respectable.

Anyway - I was watching the movie. Harry had completed the first two tasks in the triwizard championship. He had just entered the maze for the last task and found Fleur being sucked into the shrubbery. That was a bit scary. I don't remember if she survived or not. And - what was going on with Krum? He looked a bit . . . "odd" while in the maze. Just as Harry was running from something which was coming . . . the video stopped. Just plain stopped. The little message popped up asking if I was done with the recording and wanted to delete it.

Delete it? I wasn't done yet! I checked out the recording and found that for some inexplicable reason the last half hour or so of the movie hadn't recorded! Talk about a real downer! I will have to watch to see if it is shown again soon! I am sure it will. I hope it will! In the mean time I have decided to reread the whole series of Harry Potter books again to fill in the time until I can see the rest of the movie.

Frustrating.

Okay - here are some pictures that I pirated from my friend "Mo." You see, I went to her house last December to help her with a gingerbread house party for her Kindergarten aged son. It sounded like fun - and it was.

Mo was a little over the top though. First of all - she made each of the houses from scratch using a Pampered Chef cookie mold.

She made six little houses. They even had chimney pieces. She is just too ambitious. Did I mention that Mo also has a little one who was about a year old at this time? When did she find the time???

Anyway - Mo made the houses and the little Kindergartners descended upon them and proceeded to have a fun time. They used a lot of icing and all kinds of little candies. Look how intently Mo's young one is working! Of course, it seemed like most of the boys were having more fun decorating the yard around the houses than the houses themselves but . . .

I have no idea who this little one is but look how nicely he is decorating his house! He really got into it. He didn't even eat any of the candies until towards the end of the decorating. Mo didn't get any pictures of the finished projects so I can't show them to you in all their glory but let me tell you - they were spectacular!

It was a fun party. I just recommend that anyone trying this one yourself - go for the store bought houses!

Trisha

Voice Update: I have already told you about the exercises. My voice is getting stronger from the darn things so I can't complain too much. The cat is getting used to the weird "e" sounds and so is Hubby - again. I read out loud for about half an hour last night after we walked. I am still missing some unvoiced consonant sounds but my voice is getting stronger again. I just need to remember to lower the volume. The louder I try to be - the more strain I put on my voice.