lamentable dearth of posts

Hi. I haven't posted much lately because I've been overwhelmed by the prospect of dealing with all the photos we've taken at the fire station, Virginia Living Museum, and in everyday life. I'd also love to scan in art the girls are doing. They've begun collaborating, which is fun to see.

Recent small events that have worked to shape January so far:

• Not having a 2009 daily planner. Vivian got sick last week so I had to rearrange my day. In so doing, I completely missed a tutoring appointment. I HATE doing that. In the five years I've been tutoring, it's happened twice. The other time I had a concussion and forgot all my responsibilities for the day for a legitimate reason.
  
• Making a slightly more nuanced church announcement about the prospect of medical school. I think I was at least able to convey that we will miss church immensely if we move to Georgia. Everybody prayed for us, which was wonderful.
• Life Aquatic Soundtrack arrived used from Amazon. It's on all the time at our house now.
• Richie hurt his achilles tendon and so is home in the a.m.'s instead of exercising. This means he's actually getting enough sleep and is much happier, if disappointed with his level of activity.
• It's COLD. The VW car hates the cold almost as much as I do, threatening to refuse to start each time we try.
• Tomorrow is my VCU interview. It's weird to have an interview after you've been accepted at some schools. I thought it might make me feel more confident, but no dice.
• Had dental work at the dental school on a tooth with a cavity that wasn't bothering me at all. During dental work, the clamp that holds the rubber dam got stuck on my tooth. In trying to pry the metal clamp off the tooth, they broke a little chunk of tooth off and made a lot of heavy-duty racket in my numb mouth. As soon as the numb wore off, it hurt to do anything to the tooth. Now, six days later, the tooth hurts sharply when I try to chew anything, no matter how soft. I just realized last night that it hurts for an hour after sipping hot tea. I'm upset about it because these symptoms mean the tooth is almost certainly badly fractured due to their whacking and prying tactic of getting the clamp off (it is possible to cut the clamps off if they get stuck). This means I'll probably lose the tooth. Who knows what expense will be incurred. I hope the dental school will admit their responsibility. I'm going back Tuesday to address this issue immediately after I finish my VCU interview.
• yesterday the girls wouldn't clean their room when Richie told them to, so he confiscated 75% their toys and put them in the closet. I should've gotten a picture of their bare room and the stuffed closet, but mainly I was just wondering how we would resolve this particular punishment. He let the girls clean out the closet and put all the toys away just before bedtime. I've done this on a smaller, more gradual scale. I take the toys they leave out and then they have to earn them back. Each time they clean their room properly with no fuss, they get to choose something that's been confiscated. Eventually, they forget about the remaining toys, which is interesting.

I hope to post some photos soon. Our fire station tour was AMAZING. And the VLM is great every time we go there. I have ambitions of posting a jellyfish drawing Vivi did after their visit.

Some ups, some downs, but I think I'll feel relieved by Wednesday morning.