Simple Woman's Daybook Entry

Outside my window... A slightly overcast, cool morning. Lovely!

I am thinking... About the dual weddings in our family yesterday. I attended my cousin's wedding with the three little kids yesterday afternoon. It was held at a country farm that has a wedding venue. The kids played on tractors, went on a hayride and played in a huge fort with their cousins and second cousins. A very nice afternoon/evening. Meanwhile, Dean drove to OKC on Friday, and attended his niece's wedding yesterday as well. It was also a country-themed wedding! Jordan was brought by his mom to the wedding, and both Dean and Jordan will be making the drive home on Monday. It was nice to spend some time visiting with family, and I even got up and danced the Hokey Pokey - which was the perfect song for my present condition. I've settled on a surgeon for ACL replacement, and lo and behold - come to find out he has also operated on my aunt, uncle and grandmother..multiple times!

I am thankful... That Shannon and Jamie, and Christie and Marcus each found the partner they were looking for. I am also thankful for my three nephews, who kept constant tabs on my kids and kept them out of trouble yesterday (with one minor exception when Colin almost made it up and over the fence into the goat pen before my brother spotted the little stinker...)

From the Learning Rooms... We are doing just a little bit here and there everyday since we are on summer schedule. I attended a parent orientation meeting for incoming Calvert parents last week. I met the principal and she seems like a very astute educator - I like her immensely. We looked at the online portal for parents, and the other one for students, and then at all of the extra features - like access to Discovery Education and Brain Pop (wahoo!). I submitted the placement tests for Jordan, Rylan and Owen last month, so I expect to hear any day now what level they will work at for math and reading. I can't wait to start - sometime in mid to late August.

In the kitchen... Well, we are getting by on frozen Eggo waffles and oatmeal packets this morning, so I would say the situation is pretty dire. We need to go grocery shopping badly - and that is my least favorite activity at the present moment. :(

I am wearing... pjs and a knee brace.

I am creating... A dress for Rylan! I saw a pattern for a pillowcase dress and I had to try it. It is downright shameful that I have sewed nothing for my kids save for a couple of Halloween costumes. Almost criminal...

I am going... shopping of course - but only because I have to. Otherwise I want to partake in a full day of going absolutely nowhere.

I am wondering... If the baby turtles will like frozen bloodworms. We're about to find out.

I am reading... The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin. (thanks Michelle!). The perfect book for a person who is feeling stuck. Now - sound the trumpets - I finally finished Drums of Autumn, by Diana Gabaldon. The first 1/3 of the book was a real slog for me (obviously because it took me several months), but once I got past that, I was putting in a few hours every day since it was so hard to put down. Loved it. I am afraid to pick up the next one in the Outlander series just yet, I want to whittle away at the pile of books that is on my bedside table. I read Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford last week and I really liked it. It was a rough transition to go from 1770's North Carolina to 1940's Chinatown in Seattle and Japanese internment camp, but that actually helped pull me away from Jamie and Claire. I loved the story and the way the author bounced back and forth from past to present. It's horrible what both the Chinese and Japanese Americans went through, yet several families just met it with quiet acceptance because of the realities of being a nation at war. The descriptions of the occasion when the Japanese families were rounded up and put on trains sounded so alarmingly like the Jewish experience in Poland and Germany...so wrong in so many ways. The book presented the story without judgement of the actions of the United States Government -yet you could read past that and still get a real sense of the injustice of it all.

In the garden... Several tomato plants that need to go into the ground to-day!

I am hoping... this coolish weather holds for the entire day

I am looking forward to... tomorrow night when Dean and Jordan get home and to the week we have Jordan with us before they traipse off to summer camp.

I am learning... I wish I could say I'm learning to take it easy - but I'm not.

I am hearing... Shawn the Sheep Season 4, the kids making 'sandwiches' out of each other with the couch cushions, and the panicked announcement that there is a wasp on the living room window. 'Scuse me a sec...

Around the house... a recently-deceased wasp, a fruitless search for Rylan's pink swim goggles, and a dog water dish that just got dumped over. (great - clean floors, check!)

I am pondering... how much time I want to devote to sewing today (yay!) vs. bills and balancing accounts. (boo!)

One of my favorite things... a wedding... :)

A few plans for the rest of the week... Jordan has an orthodontist appointment this week. We are now 18 months over the original treatment time estimate, and I have yet to meet his orthodontist. I'm raisin' a little hell this week, I think. I see the physical therapist this week, and I will be making the appointment to see the surgeon. Colin and Owen will be starting their second session of swimming lessons this week. Rylan was signed up, but there are not enough kids to make the class a 'go'. We're both pretty bummed. She just got bumped up to Level 5, and was really excited. I think we may do a few private lessons in the meantime - I hate for the good momentum to stop. Owen's lessons went great last week - he has moved up to Level 3. Colin refused to get in the pool twice last week - once because we were seeing a summer movie afterwards, and he was afraid he would miss it if he did his lesson, and the other because I brought the 'wrong' swimsuit. %*#^%*&!

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

The cat has taken a recent interest in the comfy dog bed, and Abby isn't quite sure what to do about it...

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Bouncing back...

One of the kids' favorite TV shows is America's Funniest Videos.  It was my favorite when I was growing up as well.  I've noticed that a certain (disturbing) video seems to get a lot of air time, and never grows old.  It's the video of a well-endowed woman trotting on a horse, with her boobs flopping up and down from chin to belly button.  The video clip makes me cringe, every time.  I am embarrassed for her - how awful that a less-than-flattering image of her becomes a regular video clip for all of America to laugh at on a weekly basis.  I hurt physically for her - I've been there, and it is painful.  I am disgusted at who we all are as a people, that we still engage in the monstrous behavior of poking fun at the physical attributes of certain people.

I hate the 'bounce'.  For YEARS I have refused to do stuff that would cause it - running, jumping, dancing...it would just draw sideways glances from some, to outright rude stares from others.  Jumping was the worst.  I loved jump rope games at recess as a kid, but as the years passed and the chance came around again for me to jump - as a teacher on recess duty, I always told the girls 'no' - I'll turn the rope, but no jumping for me.  I eventually gave in and did it once.  My resolve broke down - they were having so much fun and begging me to jump too, so I couldn't resist.  One year after having Rylan, there I was, jumping rope.  One, two....three jumps and my bra strap snapped.  I'm not kidding.  I dashed to the classroom and had five minutes to fashion a fix with duct tape before the whistle sounded.  Fast forward six years to when my daughter just turned seven.  She received a beautiful new jump rope from a friend for her birthday, and really wanted to jump.  So we went to a park one afternoon and Dean and I turned the rope for her.  I jumped a little, just to give her some pointers, and Dean politely said that my shirt was flying up and things were falling out.  So that was the end of that.  In the back of my mind that day, I already had the big upcoming BR surgery to focus on...I knew change was coming, and that in a years' time, I would jump the hell out of that rope and not feel a hint of bounce - and no x-rated peep show to boot.

So three weeks ago, when I found my opportunity to jump, I felt absolutely elated.  I wore my iron-clad sports bra that had proved itself on many a run post BR surgery, and I was ready.  I jumped.  I jumped in front of people.  I don't know how to express just how huge that is for me, but I am trying.  For years I have tried to shield myself from others, but on that day - I was in front of people.  I jumped and I jumped and I jumped.  Inside, my heart was absolutely singing.  I was trampling all sorts of personal demons as I jumped up and down, left and right.

And then I slipped and fell.

I went from the highest high to the lowest low in seconds.  My little shovel can't dig deep enough or fast enough into my personal pit of despair.

How fucking unfair!

HOW FUCKING UNFAIR!

Years and years of pain and physical set-backs that made exercise off-limits.  Three pregnancies, plantar fasciitis, bursitis in my hips, shoulder surgery, breast reduction... lots and lots of chiropractic visits and physical therapy....and now THIS??  NO!  I was poised for the most awesome and active summer ever, and now I have a torn ACL, torn MCL, sprains, bruising and swelling... the laundry list from the MRI is so ridiculous it is laughable.  I have many months ahead of me with my knee in a brace, surgery, therapy...blah fucking blah, blah, blah.  I hate to bitch but it's the Murphy's Law(ness) of it all.  It just plain sucks.

Yeah...I have not been in a good place these past few weeks.  I felt it best to detach myself and let the emotional freight train run its course.  I'm a mess, inside and out.  The only thing to do is get back in the saddle and start over.  Again.

So in trying to find something to smile about in all of this, I thought that my downshift into a snail's pace means that I will have time to smell the roses.  All of them.  Twice over.

Elasticity

On Wednesday we had our homeschool PE class.  One mom was teaching cooperative games, and at the end I led everybody outside and we finished up with a quick 'how-to' on the game 'elastics'.  Here in the states it is known as 'Chinese Jumprope'.  I learned the game as 'elastics', when I was 10 years old, living in Canberra, Australia and attending primary school there.  I still have my original elastic band that I brought home with me at the end of that year, although it isn't as stretchy anymore.  Kinda like me.

Elastics is a fun, yet challenging game.  You make up a routine with your friends, and you have to follow it without messing up.  Messing up can include snagging the elastic band, stepping on it (or not stepping on it), skipping a step and so on...  If you make it through the entire routine, the band is moved up the leg to a higher position, and then you do it again, and again, until you mess up or can't jump that high.

As a ten year-old, I could make it up to about hip-height.  I remember the playground, my friends (who were a very eclectic, international mix, given the close proximity of our primary school to the University), the sounds, the smells... this was by far my happiest memories of Australia from that time.  I do remember one of the girls from the group - Josephine (she pronounced it yaw-seh-feen), who was Belgian and always right.  She would argue and argue if you called her out during her turn.  She annoyed me...so no happy memories of her, at that rate.

Anyway, so I led the kids outside to the grassy field because I figured it was a softer landing if anyone tripped and fell, and for me, it was easier on the joints to jump on the grass versus the gym floor.  I launched into my explanation of the game, even going so far as to say you can jump with shoes on, but I prefer barefoot because you're less likely to snag the elastic on your shoe and get called out.  So I called Jordan and another boy over and had them stretch the elastic between them, at ankle height, and demonstrated a routine.  It was the routine that I played in Australia, revised in the parts where my memory gets fuzzy.

So, begin by standing with both feet to the left side of the bands, with the bands at ankle height.

00 |  |

0|0   |   Hop and straddle the left side

|   0|0   Hop and straddle the right side

| 00 |    Hop to the center (both feet)

0 | | 0   Hop and move both feet to the outside so that you straddle both bands

0\\0    Twist the bands between your ankles as you make a quarter-turn to the left

00 | |   Hop out to the left side of the bands, back to where you started from.

3| |    Turn a quarter-turn to the right to face the left band, nudge your toes underneath it

\

|3|   Hop over the right band, carrying the left band over it with the top of your feet

/

/\   

00    Turn a quarter-turn back to the left, and you are now standing in a diamond shape.

\/

0 | | 0  In one hop, you jump high and turn a 180 to face the opposite direction in mid-air, and come down straddling both bands.

.....and that's where I fell.  I hit the ground in a wide straddle, but my bare feet on damp grass meant that my right foot slipped back and to the side, but knee stayed put.  An audible 'POP!' sound was plainly heard by everybody, and I dropped down onto my backside.

It's embarrassing to fall in front of people, but our group is a different breed.  Within two minutes, one mom was pulling out some arnica gel (which I totally believe kept the swelling to a minimum), one ran to get a bag of ice, and another was comforting me.  She herself had badly sprained her ankle a few weeks ago.  I dragged myself backwards so that I could sit in the shade and then wondered what to do.  Could I drive?  How the hell am I going to get to the car?  No way would I allow anyone to carry me.  Providence meant that an older girl attending PE that day was on crutches herself, after cutting the bottom of her foot only a few days before.  Her mom said that I could use the crutches - they had more at home.  Wow.

We watched the kids jump for awhile, and then I was at my pain limit, I needed to get them home and get myself to Urgent Care.  The rest of the day was long, painful and tedious.  I had a long drive to an adjacent town to pick up my new CPAP machine.  Urgent Care took almost two hours.  The doctor did unspeakably painful things to my knee, slapped a brace on it and sent me home.  He told me to make an appointment with a orthopedist.  I had to drive back and forth to Loveland, twice, to get Rylan to dance pictures.  All the while I tried not to throw up, which I desperately wanted to do.

Three days later I am able to hobble around without the crutches, but driving is excruciating.  I see the ortho guy on Monday.  I suspect a torn MCL.  I can stand to put a little weight on my foot now, but the knee is constantly slipping sideways out of joint, causing involuntary gasps and yells due to pain.  I don't think that is normal.  I get to look forward to a summer of rehab.  Again.  This is how I spent last summer - rehabbing my shoulder. This summer was supposed to be lots of walking, running, and hiking.  Several 5K's were on my to-do list - including one today.  I am pretty bummed, but trying to keep it in perspective.  At least the injury is something I can recover from.  It is so small-potatoes compared to what many people in conflict areas are dealing with on a daily basis.  I guess with rehab I once again get to focus on me.  Getting around for a couple days on crutches just reinforced for me that my upperbody strength is pretty much nonexistent.  

Funny thing about the examination room...we were in this same exact spot with Colin almost two months ago, when he broke his leg. 

Simple Women's Daybook Entry

Outside my window... A beautiful sunny morning.  It is supposed to go into the 80's today.  We have had unsettled/rainy weather for the past several days.  I like days like that so I will miss them.  I am not a fan of hot weather.

I am thinking... about the week ahead.  A lot of loose ends need to be tied up.  We need to wrap up Jordan's school work for the *year* by the end of this week.  His subscription to his science class (Plato) ends in August, but beyond the end of this week he will only be around here for a couple days here and there until mid-August, and so we have the entire second semester of lessons and activites for both Chemistry and Physical Science to cram in this week.  yay......

I am thankful... For the beautiful bright greens of the leaves that seem to glow as they filter the sun from above.  I am also thankful for all the yardwork that my husband and kids did over the weekend - the yard looks nice and ready for a week of play in the sunshine.

From the Learning Rooms... Lots and lots of science (yay), our last homeschool PE class is on Wednesday, and the End of Year Picnic & Field Day is on Thursday.  Plus all of the regular stuff in-between everything else..

In the kitchen... A mess.  Last night I made cupcakes for Rylan's make-up birthday dinner w/ family.  Chocolate with vanilla icing and strawberries.

I am wearing... Knit skirt and shirt.  My favorite kind of stuff to wear during the day.  I need a ton more skirts.  And shorts.  Can you believe I have NO shorts anymore?  The last pair I had wore out last summer, and I never replaced them.

I am creating... This week - nothing - there is no time... :(

I am going... today I am going to the store because we have nothing to eat for the week.  Today is also our usual Park Day, but I am thinking we will skip it for today.  We have so much to get done, and Jordan's schoolwork for this week is the priority.  Late this afternoon I am picking up my race packet for the 5K I am running walking in, then Rylan, with hair and makeup done, has formal pictures for her tumbling class.  All of the costumes for the Spring Recital came in last week, so this present week they are taking pictures of every class.  Rylan will have formal pictures for her other two classes tomorrow.  This evening was supposed to be a Mom's Night Out, but everybody is cancelling.  I am feeling a bit let down - I had been looking forward to catching up with friends I have not seen in awhile.  There is this tough dichotomy we all struggle with, finding that elusive balance between family obligations and the obligation to yourself to take care of you - how do you prioritize this?  Thinking back to this blog post, it is a lot of mental food for thought.

I am wondering... About the two turtles I special-ordered for Rylan yesterday.  They are to arrive on June 10th.  It occurred to me, 0.9827349872 seconds after clicking the 'confirm order' button, that I have no idea if I will be getting two males, two females, or one of each??  This might be a good thing to know...

I am reading... Still finishing Parenting Beyond Belief, which is due back to the library tomorrow and I've already renewed it once.

In the garden... A very enthusiastic rhubarb plant that is going just a bit crazy...I need to make something with it this week - Rylan has been requesting a rhubarb crisp.  We can have some for Tuesday Teatime!

I am hoping... That we get through this week in one piece, yet enjoy it, since Jordan will be leaving for most of the summer at the week's end.

I am looking forward to... Sunday evening.  It is this huge mental thing for me just to get through this week, to see several obligations through to their end and then I can relax.

I am learning... About Southern Painted Turtles, acrylic adhesives, heat lamps and salmonella.  I am also learning about France, as I trace my mom's journey along the Rhone river, where she is currently traveling aboard a river-cruise ship for a week.  She toured about Lyon over the weekend, visiting a market and winery.  So jealous...  (Glad you are having fun, mom!!!! :)

I am hearing... Rylan making hot chocolate, Owen cracking a hard-boiled egg, the hum of the fish tank and birdies.

Around the house... Jordan and Colin are sleeping in (it is currently 8:46 a.m.).  Today we begin combing through Jordan's packing list for SeaBase and combating the laundry pile(s).

I am pondering... turtle diets... it's a bit complicated!

One of my favorite things... early mornings - the birds and the quiet - with hot coffee.  happy sigh.

A few plans for the rest of the week... makeup, fussy hair and pictures for today and tomorrow.  Tomorrow night we have our last homeschool board meeting for the year, and this is also my last official duty.  I am stepping away from the board and my duties that lie therein.  It is a good feeling.  The board is such a nice group of ladies - I'll probably still attend meetings next year, just for the camaraderie.  We have the end-of-year picnic on Thursday - we are bringing water balloons.  The weather looks like it will stay 85F and sunny through Thursday, so that will be perfect.  The last time it got cold, and water balloons were not all that fun.  I think the kids threw them at trees instead...lol.  Friday will be a frenzied packing day for Jordan.  He leaves for SeaBase at the crack of dawn on Sunday morning.  Saturday is the day that I run (ahem) a 5K, and Rylan does a Kids' fun run.  Neither of us kept up with our training schedule this month because we both got sick.  We will be walking this week and maybe run a few short bits so that we can both run at least a little bit.  Rylan has a total of nine fun runs throughout this summer, so pretty soon she will be able to run the whole mile.  Before I got sick I was averaging 3 miles a day, walking a mile - mile and a half, and running the other bit.  I'll have to start at "0" again... :/

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing... 

Beaujolais Region, France
Please insert me here...with a glass of something cold and fruity...
(photo courtesy of my mom..of whom I did not ask permission, but I am sure she wouldn't mind)
(Well...pretty sure...)

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The night I didn't exactly sleep like a baby..

CPAP mask I used last night

Last night was the night I packed up a small bag, went to the sleep clinic and spent the night while being monitored using a CPAP.  To sum it up..a CPAP is definitely in my near-future, and forever in my happily ever after.

I had been looking forward to this night away, for all the obvious reasons - no small children milling about or a cat sleeping stretched out across my neck, clawing me if I moved even a fraction on an inch and disturbed her.  

I did get that night away, tucked away in a silent dark room...all to myself.  I got to watch a little TV before falling asleep and read a couple more pages in my novel.  I also got to do it while hooked up to a monitoring system, along with a video and auditory monitor.  Let's just hope I didn't do anything embarrassing in my sleep.

I did not sleep well.  My head is still congested, so it was hard to breathe through the nasal tube that blows a steady stream of air into my nose.  I often felt like I was struggling for air in the early part of the night.  The technician said that he steadily increased the pressure throughout the night.  I struggle to breathe with a 4, and an 8-9 is just right.  I felt like I was breathing through SCUBA all night.  My throat hurts a bit and feels raw.  It took me forever to get comfortable, but once I did, I did sleep hard and dreamed quite a bit.  That almost never happens.  

We looked at my readouts this morning, after the test was over, and all concerns were eliminated when I used the CPAP.  No snoring, no dips in my oxygen levels, my REM cycles were good and my pulse remained constant, and no gaps in my breathing.  Yep.. a CPAP will make my life a whole lot better.  I know I will get used to the machine, and it was pretty quiet to begin with, which is a very good thing.  Time to clear some space on my bedside table!

Knowing what we know

"You don't own this little bit of knowledge, until you know it"

- me

There has been a pesky email sitting in my inbox for about two weeks now.  Calvert needs me to give the kids assessment tests in order to place them correctly for reading and math, and then they can send the proper level of curriculum later in the summer.  I have no problem with that, I know it is a necessary hoop - it's just the whole testing thing.  

Sigh.

I hate the testing part.  I'm not a good proctor.  I have to physically remove myself from the room and not look at the answers when I return, or else I am pulling at the roots of my hair and saying things like...

"HOW MANY TIMES DID YOU READ THE QUESTION????"

"IT SAYS RIGHT HERE (finger pointing rudely at question #8) HOW MANY CATS ALTOGETHER.  YOU KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO DO - YOU'VE DONE THIS WITH ME AT LEAST A HUNDRED TIMES!"

"WHY DID YOU UNDERLINE ALL THE ADVERBS???  IT SAYS ADJECTIVES!!!"

"YOU SKIPPED AN ENTIRE PAGE!?!?!"

No.  I am not good at this.

So far it's been two days of less than fun times.  First I feel good at what I see, and then I feel like I have completely failed my kids and they will be doomed to a life of _______ (fill in the blank).

And the stupid part?  This isn't even a graded-type of thing!  It's just a silly placement test and I am assigning myself all sorts of guilt over it.

One good thing - while school districts across the nation are forcing students to answer the most ridiculous testing questions, these questions from Calvert were straight-forward, made complete sense, and gave a very accurate picture of what the child knows versus what they don't know.

For now, I'm off to explain to Rylan what the question, "Tom has 8 cars.  Bob has 3 cars.  How many more cars does Tom have than Bob?" really needs you to do.  She encountered it three different times yesterday and was stumped.  And she's done this style of question with me at least...oh... a hundred times?? 

The week where we cancelled just about everything...

We got sick last week.  All of us.  We dropped like flies, one by one.  Rylan started it, on Mother's Day.  The following day was her birthday.  Instead of celebrating with a family dinner and blowing out 8 candles on her birthday cake, we cancelled everything and she fell asleep in my lap, feverish and miserable.  Colin and Owen followed suit the next day - after I dragged everybody but the fever girl to the dentist.  Do you know how hard it is to reschedule four simultaneous dental appointments?  I'm sure the dental hygienists loved me.  We skipped Park Day.  We missed tumbling.  And the saddest of all, we stayed home instead of driving to Boulder and watching my nephew - the first of the great grandkid generation - cross the stage and accept his high school diploma.  My mom took several short bits of video and so we got to see things as they happened, which was nice.

Rylan on her birthday afternoon.  She isn't feeling too hot..  :(

Jordan was next.  Jordan is leaving for a scuba diving trip in just two short weeks - the last thing he needed was a head cold, considering he had burst his eardrum on Christmas Eve during the last cold, but germs don't seem to care about plans like that.  Rylan finally ate a single bite of birthday cake on Wednesday night.  She had skipped scouts that day - more due to her brothers than to her, but she did go to her ballet class late that afternoon.

Dean came down with it and stayed home from work on Thursday and Friday, running the occasional temp.  We skipped a morning of play and work time we had planned to spend with the other girl scout leader and her three girls, and rested the rest of the day.  Friday seemed to be a good day for the kids, so we left Dean at home to fend for his sick self, and we took off for Colorado Springs to take part in a field trip to the Air Force Academy for Jordan.  Even though we don't officially start up with Colorado Calvert Academy until the fall semester begins, Jordan was invited to go on this field trip with other Calvert eighth graders for a tour of the campus.  I'm glad everyone was feeling good enough that we could go.  I gave a Jordan a don't-you-dare-cough-on-anyone lecture and we left him with a fellow homeschool friend and her mom (they are the ones that introduced us to Calvert) and wandered around the area for a couple of hours to kill time.  I took the kids by a B-52 that is on permanent display, and then that was about all there was to see on the Academy grounds, so we drove to the east, into the Black Forest, an area that was devastated by wild fire not quite even a year ago yet.  It was certainly a sight to see.  I was curious to see if La Foret, the UCC church camp that I attended in my youth was still standing, and to my relief it was.  The kids and I drove onto the grounds, and circled just a bit.  It looked very familiar, and I wish I could have wandered around on foot, but I didn't feel comfortable asking.  We drove back down the road to a parking lot we had seen for a recreation area, and got out to walk a trail through the blackened forest for a bit.  I'm glad no one else was around because I'm sure it would have been a sad scene to listen to three kids hack and cough and wheeze as they ran back and forth along the trail.

We went back to pick up Jordan and then made a bee-line back up the interstate to none other than IKEA!  I just about peed my pants when we passed it on the way down.  It has been open for what...three years now?  And I haven't been there yet.  So I WENT.  :)  The place is huge, confusing, and I have a few unkind things to say to the men (obviously) who designed the layout, even though I know the effed-up plan is all in an effort to control 'flow'... but if you are someone like me, who leaves her wallet in the car and only figures that out while trying to pay for food in the cafeteria, it is damned near impossible to make a dash for the parking garage in any kind of quick manner.  I am proud to say that we spent a whopping $17.  We came home with a new wastebasket for the office, and plastic snack cups, bowls and plates.  My husband got off very easy.  This time...

Saturday morning I woke up and well...wanted to die.  It may have been a cold for the rest of the family, but for me late Friday evening into Saturday morning felt like the flu.  Everything hurt.  I could even feel my insides hurting.  I don't think that another single ounce of snot could have been packed into my sinuses.   Despite feeling like curling into the fetal position, Dean and I dressed up, traveled across town and spent a scant 15 minutes congratulating a young man (who will forever be a sweet little toddler in my mind's-eye), on his high school graduation.  Austen was a wee 5 months when I first started nannying for him and his older sisters, and the next seven years I spent with them were very happy ones - gosh I love their family.  They were kind enough to host our wedding in their gorgeous backyard almost nine years ago, and so it was nice to be at their home again, for one last time.  They are empty-nesters come this fall, so they are putting their home on the market this summer.  I remember when it was built.  I dragged the Austen and his sisters over there when they were pouring the concrete and each of them placed their hand prints on the front sidewalk.

The garden area where we got married nine years ago

Straight from the party, with enough Sudafed in my system to trigger alarm bells at a Walgreens, Dean dropped me off to see a movie with friends.  I hope they forgive me for showing up sick.  Even though I felt like absolute crap, after a week of sick kids and all the *super fun* we were having, I really needed to get out.  I loved the movie - as you may have read - and I think I need to see it again, because I was kind of in a drugged-out haze at the time.

Dean picked me afterwards, with all the kids in tow, and we -as promised to our birthday girl - set out to start our quest to build a turtle enclosure that will sit on top of our present fish tank.  All week, between episodes of dealing with sneezy, wheezy and snotty kids, we had been doing research on how to go about this.  It has been a crash-course in all things turtle - habitat, keeping, species...blah, blah, blah.  Rylan has settled on a Southern Painted turtle, which is one that swims and basks - hence the need for a basking area above the water.  I'll go into more detail in another post.  What it meant on this day was three hours of going from store to store to store gathering the different items we needed.  Turtles are a real pain in the ass, if you ask me.  I wish she had asked for a kitten.

On Sunday we went to my nephew's graduation party.  He had his ceremony on Tuesday, and now it was time to party.  We all went, I greeted people with a safety sick perimeter around me and we didn't stay too long.  It was nice to see some of my SIL's family that came and family friends, I wish I had felt better.

And that was our week.  It was a week I had been looking forward to - a birthday and two graduations, and to miss some of it was very frustrating.  There is also that strange freedom you feel though, as you cancel things right and left... that you get to stay home and do nothing because nobody feels like doing anything anyway... and suddenly you feel a lot more relaxed and at peace.  Note to self though - I need to have a batch of chicken noodle soup, frozen and ready to go for the next time.