One Dog. Two Photos.

I swear to you this is Penny.

And so is this.

The photos were taken just a few hours apart.

First of all, SHE HAS EYES. WHO KNEW?

Second of all, it was on purpose. We had her shaved down because we fell behind on combing her and were gifted with the most giant knot of fur ever on her back. We could have combed it out, but it would have required hours and much dog torture.

Since that wouldn't have been fair to her, now we have a naked Tibetan Terrier.

I spent all of Thanksgiving not recognizing her.

Wishes for Christmas Crazy

It's probably about time for a Christmas Crazy update, no?

We're at $1130. In one week. Not bad ... not bad at all.

But I'm greedy.

I want to make even more magic for kids who have had their lives changed by domestic violence. These are the kids who would fall through the cracks if not for y'all. These are kids like the baby girl who is due to be born any day. She will be living in a shelter for the first part of her life, so her mom has asked for some very basic toys and some diapers. They are little things that will help them change their course for the better.

These are kids like the 14-year old girl who has asked for the things a really typical 14-year old girl asks for. She wants nail products, jewelry, any kind of electronics, Let's Dance for XBox, purses, and footies. It's all very much so magic that can be conjured up with relative ease.

Some kids want scooters or board games. Others want dolls or bath toys. Still others dared to dream bigger. They want cell phones or tablets or any of the other things that most any pre-teen or teen would dare to dream of finding under the tree on Christmas morning.

Their lives aren't quite normal right now, but their dreams are.

Let's make magic, y'all. There's a wish list here with many of the items that have been requested.

Or, you can always click the magic box. Every single penny makes a difference.

It's ALWAYS On Her Mind, Apparently.

You know what happens when your kid is a cheerleader? She falls for the whole shebang. Totally and completely. Alexis went from absolutely no awareness about what is happening in our school district to suddenly begging to go to high school games, asking if this age group or that age group won, and all sorts of craziness.

She's got school spirit, is what I'm saying.

So it wasn't a surprise when she decided she needed to stay up late one night so she could see if the high school football team won. What was a surprise is that she very nearly made it. She pulled out that magic stay awake voodoo that she's so good at and she managed to stay up through a full three quarters of the game.

I gave her update after update, teaching her how twitter can be used to find out the current score of pretty much any sporting event. She was appropriately impressed.

But then there came a moment when she started snapping at me and saying things like, "I'M NOT SLEEPY." Both the behavior and the statement are Alexis-speak for "I AM SO TIRED AND I'M SOOO MAD ABOUT IT THAT I'M GOING TO TAKE IT OUT ON YOU."

It's a delightful thing that she has done her whole life.

So I told her WHATEVER and ignored the snapping, knowing full well that she would be asleep in less than ten minutes.

She was.

(Max always sleeps with her, so of course he adapted and climbed up on the couch with her instead of climbing into her loft.)

Alexis woke up on her own about an hour after she "wasn't sleepy," looked around with the face of disorientation and confusion, and immediately demanded to know the score.

Her team had won.

Alexis' reaction was to simply say "OK" and then roll back over and go back to sleep. It was hardly the fireworks and jazz hands that I was expecting.

I was confused.

It turns out that all I had to do was wait. Twenty minutes after Alexis fell back asleep, she apparently started to dream about sports and all of that stuff because she started to cheer in her sleep. Literally. Her arms were going and her mouth was moving and encouraging "we're number one" words were falling all over the place.

When I lived in Spain in high school, I knew it was time to go home when I started to dream in Spanish. What does it mean when someone starts to speak cheer in their sleep?