Our
Journey:
Avalon's Army of Angels
August 21, 2008
Bubbling and Boots
Busy day here, even without the girls.  I had lots of cleaning and laundry to try to do, and
even more cards to work on.  I'm still working on thank you cards for small gifts people sent,
and organizing my lists for national, international, and Ohio addresses.  I'm hoping to send
out postcards to everyone someday.  

The big part of today was actually all about Aurora, my oldest.  Today was Aurora's
end-of-year Zoo-aide Banquet at the Columbus Zoo.  Aurora was a "first-year", so this is her
first banquet.  Its been a great summer for her.  She's met lots of wonderful kids, and had an
absolute blast doing the volunteer work.  Unless the Earth is wiped out by a rogue meteor, I'm
pretty sure Aurora will complete all 5 years of the program.  Best of all, I'm absolutely positive
she's made good friends that we'll be seeing more of in the future.  

Our mission today, was to do a power shopping trip, so Aurora could possibly have a nice
new outfit to wear to the banquet.  Top of the list was to hit a store called "Hot Topic" to buy a
pair of boots she's been drooling over, and saving for, for more than a year.  Admittedly,
they're not the most "beautiful" things at the mall, they're knee high combat boots.  But truth
be told, I own two pairs of ankle-high combat boots (the original style, thank you!) - so I'm not
the mom to argue the fashion sense.  Listen, the stinkin' things are comfortable!  Don't knock
'em 'til you try 'em!

Unfortunately, the sale items at Hot Topic were all sized for an anorexic dwarf, and the
regular priced clothes were far out of our budget.  We left with boots, eyeliner (which was no
where near as sparkly as the label said), and hopes we'd find something elsewhere.  

On the  way to "elsewhere" we stopped in the Disney store, to see what their bargain du jour
was.  Boy, did we luck out!  I got Ambrosia and Avalon new outfits to wear to the Jonas
Brothers concert tomorrow!  They have sparkly jean skirts with princess embroidery, and cute
pink shirts with all three princess on them, outlined in pink glitter.  I plan on adding some
rhinestones and glitter paint to really make them shine.  We found the perfect Jonas Brothers
outfits, silver holographic sequin tops with silver shiny pants...  But at $50 per outfit...the
Disney employees can bask in their glow until Hades has a snowstorm.

When the next store we stopped in was also stocked for stick figures, Aurora began to lose
hope.  As a last ditch effort, I dragged her to Penney's, hoping to get lucky.  Sure enough, we
did!  Aurora came home with a fabulous new denim mini-skirt and funky black top.  The only
problem is, the top
verifies that she's a teenage girl so much that her father had a small
conniption when she put on the outfit.  Poor dad, its hard to learn to deal with those things....

The banquet was lovely, even if Anam was his typical Pickleheaded self.  I spent a good deal
of the evening walking and bouncing him, or outside the building, threatening to feed him to a
resident of the park.  Of course, it didn't matter one whit to Aurora where I hung out.  She was
off having a fantastic evening with her friends.  It was nice to finally meet all of them and have
a chance to put faces with names.  They're a wonderful group of kids, and I hope she keeps
in touch with them.  I did manage to trick them into posing for one picture, that's all I could
manage to sneak in the 25 seconds I was alloted to meet them.  

We had a terrific phone call today from the girls, after visiting the aquarium.  It was
FABULOUS listening to Avalon bubbling over with excitement.  She literally couldn't talk fast
enough to tell me everything she wanted to say.  She hasn't been like that in months!  She
rambled and babbled like a free-flowing brook.  It was marvelous...........   She found the right
words, gave me good details, and actually conveyed nearly every idea correctly.  If today's
conversation was any indication, her pressure has definitely improved since the temporal
decompressions.  Wahoo to medical interventions finally working!

I can't wait to get Fric and Frac back tomorrow.  The house is so quiet without my giggle
twins.  I even miss their fussing...