A few things I learned on Water Park Tuesday...

Middle school girls can be full on preditors. I sat down in the zero depth pool for about 20 minutes and watched Dominic play. I happened to be next to a group of girls going into 7th grade. I like when this happens cause you really can learn a lot about teen/preteen culture by listening to unsupervised kids. HOLY CRAP! These girls were oggling several of the boys and calling the girls with them the "b" word and the "w" word. The oggling wasn't akin to what I did as a girl. No "Oh, he's so cute!" This was Sex in the City type commentary. I was shocked and very sad. But...good to know since I have a going into 7th grade boy.

Also, made a mental list of things my daughters will never have on their bodies as long as they're under my roof. These things include-- a string bikini with "Love Pink" written on the front of the bottoms and a string bikini with "Billabong" plastered across the ass. (Yes, I know that's the brand name.) Also, if your daughter has a little tummy, probably not in her best interest to buy her a belly baring swimsuit. Other girls are very mean. 'Nuff said.

So, the water park can be very educational. Who knew?

It's Surgery Wednesday....

No?? Too much? I thought so, but there was a theme and I ran with it. Today, my mom is having both knees replaced. She should be out of surgery at this point. She doesn't recover from anesthesia all that well, so I'm not sure how soon to expect my brother's call. He's on hospital duty for today.

Once we get her through this surgery and recovery, we can go about the business of getting her a life, since my dad has seen fit to steal hers (along with all her money). By the time she's up and around again, I'm hoping and praying that the court will have ordered my dad to pay her enough money to get out of the house and get her own place. Oh, that will be so fabulous!! I can taste that moment!

This morning is going amazingly well. I announced yesterday at bedtime, that there would be no playing outside and no friends over until the entire house was cleaned up. We have become the summer hangout for the entire neighborhood, which is great, but not conducive to a neat and tidy home. So, everyone has been pitching in for the last hour. My system of having them do the straightening (since they do the messing) and me do the cleaning (or most of it) is working really well for us. I feel like the house actually gets clean, but the kids have to be responsible for their part in the housework, too. Win-win!

I feel a little bit bad that I have to do some pretty major grocery shopping, so there will be no friends for most of the day since no one can come in or go out while I'm gone, but then I think my kids would prefer food...in the long run.

It's Water Park Tuesday!!!

What?? You've never heard of the holiday? *gasp* My children have been awaiting it with something akin to the anticipation normally reserved only for Christmas. You really need to get yourselves new calendars, people!

And...for those of you with actual real calendars...yes, I know I'm fudging on Carina's 2 week ban from the pool. I'm fudging it by less than 24 hours. Call it an executive decision.

We will leave after lunch. I would like you all to appreciate (since my kids don't/can't) that I'm NOT particularly looking forward to wearing a bathing suit. It was so great last year! I wasn't even self conscious. But, I've been doing really well over the past week as far as getting my butt back in gear, so maybe it won't be too terribly frightening...for anyone.

Enjoy the sunshine!

Score one for the mama!

Today we had a surprise follow up with Zay's endocrinologist. I had assumed, from her blood sugars during her 4 hour GTT, that everything was normal and we needed to pursue other avenues in our quest to rid her of her headaches. Surprise, surprise!

It turns out that, although she doesn't qualify for the dx of hypoglycemic from a numbers POV, her body thinks otherwise. Her lowest blood sugar reading during the test was 59, which is really not all that low...certainly not low enough for a hypoglycemia diagnosis. What was interesting is that her body compenstated for that number in a big way...the exact same big way that it would if it had been a "true" low blood sugar. When the body compensates for low blood sugar, it's an emergency response and so it's like a burst of adrenaline and all sorts of other hormones raging through you. THIS is triggering her headaches!

So, we just need to treat her as if she were a "true" hypoglycemic and she'll be fine. So, I never caught the lows when we were doing blood sugar checks because by the time the headache hits, her body's already bringing that sugar up again! So, the doctor congratulated me. She admitted that, if I hadn't thought of it and brought it up and pushed her on the weird readings and symptoms we got, she would never have believed it was endocrine related! Yay MOM!!

So, the doctor told my Princess Z that she was a real life "Princess and the Pea." She thought that was really cool...after I told her the story of the Princess and the Pea- LOL!

Training...

Today's big event is my caretaker training. My mom is having both her knees replaced next week, so we have a class to attend telling us what to expect, etc. My brother, SIL and I will all be attending. It's a two hour class! That's a bit scary, no?

Allergies are still raging. Man, oh man. I could certainly do without this. I think they've also caused my carotidynia to flare (think migraine in your neck/throat). I'm doing just peachy...but the sun is out and it's over 70 during the day. I'll take it.

Also, for the first time ever...my mortgage payment is late! I completely forgot to write a check to myself and get the money into the right account, so I have to walk it into the bank today (it was too late yesterday when I realized what had happened). I hate when I do seriously stupid crap like that!

I'm getting excited about driving my brother to TX at the end of August. Texas was my initial destination when I decided I had to get out of MN. I went to Seattle and adore it, but the more I think about the cost of living there, the more I think Texas might be the better option. I suppose it will depend on Medtronic and Chris' job, too. At the least, I'll get to see a new part of Texas and the kids will get to go to Sea World!

Alright, off to get ready for Training Day....

Successful surgery...crabby little girl

Well, Miss Bean is officially hardware free. She got to keep her plate and screws and was very excited about that (weird kid!). It's shocking to see what was in her little leg for 18 months! Surgery was fine, but they didn't give her enough anti nausea meds before she woke up, so poor little miss spent four hours puking her guts out...and once more for good measure all over mommy right before bed. ICK!

She's doing remarkably well and walking and playing and she's only on Tylenol. I stopped the codeine yesterday morning cause it was upsetting her tummy and we had enough of that on Wednesday.

In what is, to her, much bigger news-- she has her first *very* loose tooth! Holy smacks-- she's not even in kinder yet! Waaaahhhh!!! She's SO, SO excited about it. It's pretty adorable.

I think I'm recovered from my lack of sleep, but I'm either sick or having a really bad time with allergies...really bad. I woke up last night from a dream that I was drowning and a whole group of friends and family were just watching...I couldn't breathe when I woke up either. I was having a pretty bad asthma attack. That's happened a few times before and always scares me a little bit. But, I'm still here...for now :op.

Oh and I'm much more cheerful because the sun is actually shining for the second day in a row this summer! It's beautiful outside!!!

Day 3 of summer vacation...

It's so nice to have the kids home. We're really working on teamwork. Yesterday all of us worked on getting the upstairs (not the bedrooms)picked up, vacuumed, and clean. It worked really well with very little fuss and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

My plan is to get everyone working together so that we can keep the house nice and relatively tidy and get school done and mommy won't have to lose her mind. I think the kids are finally old enough for this to work. Hey, I'm not expecting a house out of BH&G, just decently neat.

Tomorrow is Carina's big hardware removal surgery. I'm not so looking forward to that, but it will mark the end of her Perthes treatment, so that part is good. Poor peanut. I think she's like me and is way nervous under the surface. She woke up with nightmares all last night, so I feel like a zombie and I'm expecting some serious crabbiness later in the day.

Hope everyone is either enjoying or gearing up for summer vacation :o).

You know you've been blessed...

with a wonderful teacher for your child when your child absolutely dissolves into shaking sobs the night before the last day of school because she's afraid she'll never see her teacher again. I'm still tearing up over how upset my little Zélie is over Ms Schmid leaving Holy Trinity. And now she's upset that she's leaving, too because what if Ms. Schmid comes back to visit Holy Trinity and Zay's not there to see her?

I know that the sorrow will fade, but I also know that she really does love Ms. Schmid and will miss her for a long, long time. So, I'm thanking God tonight for the gift of Ms. Schmid. I'm a little nervous about tomorrow afternoon...

Wisdom...

A very favorite quote of mine is from Maya Angelou (I think). I heard it on Oprah years and years ago and it rang so true then and has only become more and more useful to me through the years.

"When people show you who they are believe them...the first time."

When you see the heart of someone through their behavior, their actions, it is easy to know who they are. Sure good people sometimes do bad or hurtful things, but these things are out of character, usually regretted and so, easily forgiven. Bad, deceitful, spiteful people sometimes do good things and they are almost always self-serving or inauthentic.

It seems that so many people make life and relationships infinitly more complicated than they need to be. Sometimes we can't know the truth about a situation because we weren't there, but if someone we know and trust was there, it's not hard to believe what they tell you, even if it is at odds with what someone else has told you about the same situation. Especially if the someone else has lied to you over and over in the past. In such situations it's ridiculous to throw up your hands and say that the truth is unknowable. Yet, so many people do this in their daily life.

I find the quote cautionary, too. It reminds me that I am known by my actions. It's no good to only WANT in my heart to do good, I have to actually DO it. That is how other people know who I am and what I stand for. If I get lazy and my actions do not match the Truth I know in my heart, that speaks to the kind of person I am and others will judge me accordingly.

I am so tired of so many people in my life behaving as if we are all neutral and sometimes we hop to the right side and are good and sometimes we hop to the left side and are bad (making NO allusion to political leanings here, at all!). That's just so untrue. People show us who they are all the time. Life and love and friendship and family are much, much easier when we believe them...the first time.

I know that it's only been a week, but...

I think I can say that P90X ROCKS! We started our second week. The way the program works is that you do the same rotation of workouts for the first 3 weeks and then you have a "rest" week that is just core work and cardio to give your muscles time to rest and repair and grow. So, we did our chest and back workout for the second time last night.

This workout is HARD. It's just under an hour of solid push ups and pull ups/chin ups. But, now that we have the form down on the exercises we were able to fast forward through most of the DVD and it took us about 45 minutes, which isn't bad when you have to share the resistance bands for all the bar work. I can already feel a difference in the way clothes fit and I can feel muscles I've never felt before (in a good way). Also, I was able to do more of every exercise. I did poop out on the last two push up variations, but that's more because my shoulder is acting up and I didn't want to push it too hard. So, you make progress very quickly.

So, if anyone is interested in a fabulous workout that you can do with your husband, this would be it! *end product endorsement*

A note of caution...

If you're using resitance bands with an over the door adapter to do "pull ups" and "chin ups" DO make sure the door is bolted shut before you grab the handles and sit down. If you make the mistake of merely closing the door, you too can have the giant rubber bands come flying at your face at the approximate speed of 2000 miles per hour and give you a lovely swollen cheek with a very colorful stripe across it.

Consider yourself warned! UGH!