Where's Spring?

Stupid groundhog. I hate that he saw his shadow last month. Spring definitely does not seem close by, so I can only blame that on Punxsutawney Phil! And another weird thing, is that St. Patty's Day and Easter are so close this year - just doesn't seem right! Way too early in the season to be celebrating the Easter holiday....

But, today was our annual neighborhood Easter egg hunt. Around these parts, March is a cold and gloomy month - much like November. Needless to say we are all very much begging for Spring to arrive sometime soon. With the holiday being so early this year, the grass wasn't greened up yet, no spring blooms popping through the soil, and definitely no sunshine for The Hunt! But we managed, with winter coats, hats, gloves and children with enough energy to keep us all warm - it was as big a hit as it usually is!

One snag we hit this year though, is our usual location in the neighborhood was too saturated from all the melted snow and rain, so we moved The Hunt - to our house, in our back yard! Everything worked out great, got the hunt in before the sprinkles started up again, and all the kids seemed happy with their loot! We ended up with about 45 children participating this year.

Here's an example of the "Spring Feeling" we had last year during the egg hunt when spring actually arrived on time... look at the lush grass, the flowers... short sleeved shirts! See what a couple more weeks of nice weather and sunshine can do?



And here's some photos I snapped at this year's hunt today.... Enjoy!

More conversations with the 7 year old...

So as I mentioned the other day, we had a family dinner at my place this weekend. Carter has become fairly "Holy" over the past 6 months or so, and keeps offering to say the meal prayer. It's terribly cute, and I have to admit the very first time I heard him say one I nearly laughed out loud because of the cuteness and what he was saying. When we do bedtime prayers, he usually wants me to go first. I usually start out casually saying "Hi God, thanks for today...." etc. So I know where he's picked up the first line in his meal prayers when he begins it with "Hi God!". First he insists that we all join hands and bow our heads. He will peek up and call you out on your head bowing and eye opening if he catches you not being fully involved - and prayer time comes to a swift halt until said guilty party has fully complied. Then we heard something like this:

Carter: "Hi God! Thank you for our family and friends. Thank you for our aunties and uncles and grandparents. Thank you for making us born and growing us up. Thank you for Grammy and Grampy's birthday. Amen."

Could he be any sweeter? Just a side note, Grandpa Dunk usually finds the perfect words to use in a prayer for whatever occasion. Carter has dubbed him, The Prayer Man.... "Grandpa, you're the best prayer man!" I'm glad Carter has such good examples to follow!

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This is a conversation for both sides of my family, that happened just after the prayer this weekend. The Democrats and the Republicans. We have several of both I might add.... Mom using her sense of humor to tackle the awkward silence that began to happen as everyone was passing the food around the table, began with this...

Grammy: "So Carter, what do you think about the state of the world today"
Carter: "Oh, it's fine."
Grammy: "Well that's good Carter I'm glad it's fine - do you know who might win for President?"
Carter: "Um, no Gram."
Grammy: "Well, you have Clinton, Obama and McCain to choose from, who would you like to win?"
Carter: "Oh, I think Obama will win"
Family laughter inserted here.... and chides of "He Might" and "Ugg!" echoed around the table...

A silent pause as everyone composed themselves....and Carter curiously asks...

Carter: "What's an Obama?"

See, a little humor for both sides of my family! :)

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Weekend Celebrations

This weekend, we celebrated my Mom and Dad's birthday together (Mom's 2/25 Dad's 3/16) because all three of us children were in town together! My brother Jay was up from Tampa to judge a regional dance competition. The rest of us live pretty close to one another. Mom's having a little trouble saying 50-(five) because it seems like yesterday that she just left the 40's, right? Dad's celebrating his last year as a spry 50-something. Wonder if next March he'll have trouble saying sa-sa-sssa-sixty!

Here's a cute shot of my brother Jay with Carter - these two were definitely having a good time together yesterday. Carter couldn't get enough of Jay's willingness to be goofy. The two of them used the wrapping paper from my parent's gifts to wrap silly things for each other and hide them. A napkin, a fork, a matchbox car... this went on for quite a while as each pretended it was the best present they ever got once they found their surprise! This of course, was a remake of what my brothers and I used to do when we were little - we'd play "birthday" or "Christmas" and wrap items from around the house and pretend it was that occasion! Oh to be young again...

And finally, I had to capture our little princess finding her inner Diva. She is starting to show us more and more when she's not quite agreeing with what's going on. She'll glare at you with this look to protest putting on her coat, being told 'no no', not giving her food fast enough, or if she's just plain tired of you making stupid requests of her like "what does a duck say Olivia?" or "Can I have a smoochie?" So,here I present to you, her new sassy face she makes when she wants you to stop whatever it is you are doing that annoys her! Imagine the sound of a bull scratching it's hoof in the dirt, and you'll hear "oofffffff" coming from that cute pouty mouth of hers! Check out those squinty dartful eyes - love the lowered brows... too funny!

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In the news...

I'm a month early to discuss Autism Awareness since April is it's official month to 'get the word out' so to speak. There's one recent article in particular that has me, and I'm sure parents all over the world, scratching their heads again in confusion. It is in reference to the great debate about whether or not preservatives in children's vaccinations have been contributing to the rise in diagnosing ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders). There is such a continuance of of back and forth debate between parents, medical experts, manufacturers, chemists etc., it's making our heads spin. I think particularly so, in those of us who have a child with Autism. Let me just say, that I am in no way against childhood vaccines. I think it would be foolish of us to not vaccinate our children against disease and outbreaks that we can control. However, we have become more informed parents our second time around. With Olivia, of course we still vaccinate, but we have modified our shot schedule to include no more than 2 vaccinations at one time. Sometimes we choose to have only one if it's a particular dose of something we are uncomfortable with, and we'll come back a few months later for the next one. Even though manufacturers have claimed that they can produce vaccinations that are "Thimerosal Free", if you research enough you can find dozens of articles about the process of elimination during manufacturing (they start out using it, but the chemical process they do is supposed to end up removing it all by the time it's ready for market) - but no final testing to see if it's actually free of the mercury in the end.

The CDC won't even etch in stone whether or not they believe vaccinations contribute to this medical crisis.

Our son is 7 now, and was diagnosed at around 18 months old. Thankfully, someone in his Mom's Day Out program had experience in Early Intervention and noticed some traits that Carter was displaying. It was like 20/20 hindsight once we were informed about what to look for as "signs". He had so many, but we had no idea what the subtleties were. We chalked it up to Carter just being Carter - some interesting quirks and such. She urged us to get an evaluation, and from there we started our journey through the world of Autism. He is truly remarkable, and has come such a long way from the early years when we were just starting out. We immersed ourselves into therapies 5 days a week, several hours a day, for the first couple of years. Every day, you could count on therapists from Speech, Occupational, Physical, and Developmental to arrive at the house, or for an outside appointment elsewhere. He even had a a couple of intense therapies through OT, one called Samonas (sound therapy) that supplies stimulation to the central nervous system. He had Sensory Integration Dysfunction that inhibited his ability to walk through his world without being super sensitive to his surroundings (sound, touch, taste etc.) Another was called HippoTherapy (therapeutic horseback riding, click here for a pic of him). He wore leg braces from the knee down for a couple of years (click here for a picture) to halt the constant toe walking, which was having a physical affect on his muscle tone and causing him to consistently fall and get hurt. It's been a long road, but we truly contribute his great outcome to such early and intense interventions.

He is very high functioning now and within a regular classroom environment with his peers. There will always be a continuation of social and emotional learning for him, as he has trouble reading social cues from people and understanding emotions of others, which can sometimes cause inappropriate behavior (such as, laughing or mimicking the sound of someones cry, instead of offering sympathy). He continues to have therapy for speech and occupational within the school to help him with communication skills, and his fine motor skills. His sensory issues have drastically improved over the years as well. He is a joy to be around, and anyone who has known him from the start could write pages and pages about his turn-around from then until now. Early help, early help, early help... we can't stress that enough!

We think it's imperative that kids are screened for Autism at their early well-checks. I'm past my bitterness now of being told time and again when Carter was a baby, that my Mommy Instincts were overreactions and that boys just "sometimes develop slower" etc. I'm confident now that Pediatricians are being more informed about diagnosis and what to look for in terms of signs. No, we are no longer with the Pediatricians that had their hands on the doorknob in our earlier years. It's been trial and error along the way to find someone that we trust completely. We really love the doc we have now, and we were so thrilled to know they have early intervention screening practices in place for Autism (can you believe some offices STILL do not do the proper screening?)

Anyway, back to my original reason for needing to blog about this topic today. There is a ton of information on the Internet that one can Google, and I have links on my blog on the right hand side if you're interested in the nitty gritty of the disorder. So I will spare myself the quick rise in blood pressure and raising my tone of voice about all the things that leave us scratching our heads about this epidemic - I'll wait until April!

Now, to add to the Great Debate of vaccination contribution to Autism, I present the article at hand.... the headline reads:

"Government Concedes Vaccine Autism Case in Federal Court"

Click here to read the article..... head scratching isn't it!?

Boot Camp

Thank G*d it's Friday! I haven't been able to say that in quite some time, because I'm an at-home mom with my kids, and frankly every day is sort of like a Friday and it loses it's luster - it's just ordinarily another day that ends in "y"! But, today I can say it with gusto, because it means I have two days off before I get my butt whooped again in Boot Camp. Yep, I said it, Boot Camp. Not the Armed Forces kind, but shoot - it feels like it. I joined Indy Adventure Boot Camp for Women with my friend Monica. It's M/W/F at 5:30 in the morning for one hour. Yes, I have a new get-up time of 4:40 am. Ewww. Going on week three of this hell I'm actually paying for! I never thought I'd see the day that I was in bed before the local news. Now I find myself crawling into bed when I put the kids down at 8:30!

Anyway, I'm really loving this Camp. The variety is awesome - we do lots of cardio in the forms of running, obstacle courses, and aerobics. We do weight training with our own dumbbells, every kind of muscle builder you can think of, and floor work like stretches and Pilate's. Every day there is something new to do, so the days are never the same. It's really making my 30 minute at-home treadmill workout look like a stroll through the park! I need to step that up a bit I think. A number 4 incline at 4.5 mph on my treadmill used to make me want to puke - but I'm feeling so much stronger now and it feels great to be able to get to the end of a workout and not want to fall on the floor and die! ha ha! My heart is happy for me too.

I said that I was trying to make better choices about getting heart healthy and stronger, this is just one way I've been changing my bad habits. Another is I have not had any soda in THREE weeks! I used to drink diet soda, but still, to give that up that artificial sweetener has made me crave sweets less. I've only been having water or decaf beverages (tea, coffee etc.). I actually don't even miss it! And lastly, I don't snack on anything after 7:30 pm. This has been pretty easy to do since I have been going to bed so early! Making these three big changes has been challenging and motivating. Losing weight is important, but strangely, this is not about the weight for me this time. It's about getting stronger and the rest is just falling into place.

My next step is to incorporate some much better meal habits. I have to try really hard to make myself eat breakfast in the morning. It's not something I was used to doing. I've been taking the 5 minutes it takes to make a dropped egg on whole grain toast, decaf coffee sans sugar but a splash of fat free vanilla creamer. Yesterday I forgot to eat breakfast though, and realized that when my hands were shaking around 11:00. That of course snowballed into eating something breakfast-like, then lunch around 2:30 and then I forgot to make myself some dinner after feeding the kids. Hubby had class until 8:00, so he wasn't home to have dinner with me and I just got busy. I remembered at 9:30 last night that I never heated up my Lean Cuisine for dinner, so I got up and slurped down a protein shake with some banana in it. I figured I'd better get something in me before sleep because Boot Camp comes early and there's no way I'm eating before that workout! See? I need serious help with mealtime structure sometimes! The sad part is, I know what I need to do, but it's such a challenge to do it sometimes. There's always things to be done for other people when you're a Mom, and you just kind of take a back seat to your own needs. Baby steps, I'm doing it....

I just keep reminding myself about the story of the Tortoise and the Hare. Or the Little Engine That Could. Or c'mon, like a typical woman, the way my butt looks in the mirror.... :) Gotta pull inspiration from all places you know!

Bionic Woman

It's in! My newly installed Reveal Implant Loop Monitor! Read here if you missed that update.

I went in on Wed. morning for my treadmill test which took no longer than an hour. From there I had to wait on the results to give the go-ahead for the surgery. While I waited, they stuck me in a hospital bed and hooked me up to an IV for the next 5 hours. Boring, totally. I was finally in the Electrophysiology Lab for my surgery a little after 2-ish. Was out of there a little after 3-ish and home by 5:00!

The procedure was pretty simple in itself, but there just couldn't be a dull moment if I'm around could there?! Of course not! Well, it went downhill a little couple hours before surgery. They gave me some antibiotics in the IV drip called Vancomycin; routine to have some antibiotics before a surgery. I'm deathly allergic to Penicillin, so they had to use this drug. After being hooked up to this for a little while, Dr. W. came up to visit me and tell me he was ready whenever I was, but that the antibiotics needed to finish up. He commented that it was dripping very slowly, and left the room. I started watching the drip and noticed it was literally letting one drip go every 10 seconds. I'll be here all week if we wait on this! So I buzz the nurse, she comes in and finds a kink in my line near my elbow. I must have bent my elbow too much and caught it in a pinch - an hour ago! So, she fixes the kink and the drips begin much quicker. I settle back into some tv watching, and notice that I begin to itch my head uncontrollably. I couldn't stop scratching and my head began to feel like something was burning under my skin. My nose started to itch, around my eyes a bit too. So I buzz the nurse again and tell her that I'm really itchy. After checking me over, she obviously does not like this as I'm telling her I'm not feeling so good, and rushes out of the room and tells me she'll be right back.

Back in she ran and pushes some "Benadryl" into my line quickly and I immediately taste and smell something horrible like rubbing alcohol or metal or something. I yelled "yuck!" and told her what I was tasting and smelling, and suddenly I did not feel good AT ALL! My entire body flushed with such hot sensations, I was sweaty, dizzy, felt like I could not breathe well and was not able to see very well. I felt really really wrong and kept telling her that and asking if she was sure that was benadryl! She kept trying to reassure me, but I kept telling her something was wrong, I wanted to scream outloud by my body was like slow motion, even my speech. It was so weird. She told me she needed to get something and she'd be outside my room for a just second. She came back in with another nurse, some cart the other one was fooling with and my main nurse hooked me up to the blood pressure machine and oxygen measure thingy. My BP was down, heart rate was way up but my oxygen was still 100%, good thing. I started to feel better after a few minutes. Thank goodness!

Apparently what happened was when I was given the Vancomycin drip, I had an adverse reaction dubbed "red man syndrome or red neck syndrome". When she pushed in the Benadryl, that action pushed the rest of the Vancomycin that was still in my tube, into my body way too fast, and my reaction to it intensified because of how fast the meds were administered. All so confusing, but glad it turned out OK in the end. This is how I understood it when explained to me. I'm not a nurse or doctor, so I could have completely just screwed up this description. That's my disclaimer... haha!

Needless to say, once it was time for me to have my surgery, there was no way I wanted any sedatives put into my IV to keep me "calm" during the implant. I had had enough excitement for one day and was afraid of what reaction I might have to something else. I opted to have no sedation during the procedure, but he numbed the area with local anesthesia. I bit-the-bullet in the literal sense during this by not taking anything while it was done. Dr. Wrobleski joked to the recovery nurse that he just gave me a block of wood to knaw on - ha-ha! He actually does joke around, he was not all "business" this time and made me feel very comfortable in the operating room. I'm good to go now, all hooked up and ready for some heart episodes! The area is a little sore of course, but it'll be better soon!

Heart to Heart

American Heart Month


Take care of your heart!
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Bionic Woman? Terminator? E.T.? That’s what I think I’ll feel like this month when my shiny new device is implanted under the skin in my chest, to monitor my heart.

A little background history here – I have had “episodes” as I like to call them because they do not have a name as of yet. Episodes of my heart doing some weird Salsa Dance in my chest, possibly the Pasadoble, or maybe even the Conga! Whatever it is, it sucks and it’s scary, and it’s still undiagnosed on paper. This has been happening to me since I was nearly 17 years old. Back then, in the olden days and all, my cardiologist told us it was “growing pains”. Nice. I'm glad I'm still around when medicine could be improved! We could never catch these episodes because they were always reported after the fact when I’d go to the ER or something. Although one time I did get a reading while in the hospital of my heart racing at rest about 220 beats, but it was still not the same sensation as getting an “episode”. By all accounts, I have a good heart; strong, just the right size, spitting out the proper zigzags during a routine EKG. No traces of something outwardly causing these “episodes”. As one recent heart doctor told me, '...in your heart the plumbing is fine, you need to see the electrician'. And so off I was directed to a new heart contractor, in the field of heart electricity. Electrophysiology to be exact. My new electrician.

I like layman’s terms like that. Easy to understand and it makes things more human rather than using all those fancy Ivy League words they learn in Med School. So, I saw the electrician. I suppose with anything in medicine, there are specialists in all areas. But I figured the heart guys and gals would know everything about the heart from every angle, right? I learned differently, because there are way too many areas of the heart to be good at every single one. That’s why the plumber gave me the green light and passed me on to the electrician. We’ll get to the bottom of this soon I hope.

Hope – yes that’s what he gave me! Someone that gave me a reasonable explanation as to why this might be happening to me! Yay! Three little letters: SVT or Supraventricular Tachycardia. He carefully explained to me how the heart has an electrical system within it that originates from one place – the Sinus Node. That little pile of cells is the substation for the electricity that your cells generate to make your heart beat its own little rhythm through a pathway around your heart. Sometimes there’s a misfire, like when you shuffle your feet on the carpet in the winter and touch something – and then the electricity just goes ‘round and ‘round and ‘round in a crazy loop until the heart’s own pacemaker (the Sinus Node) thinks – Wait! Stop that! And resets itself.

This would explain the strange “Bang!” sensation that I get once my episode stops. I’m always wishing for The Bang once my heart starts palpitating and racing and doing those dances, because The Bang to me means it’s over. These episodes scare the you-know-what out of me. I’ve been reassured that my young healthy heart does its job for me and resets everything back to “normal” at the right time, and that I should not worry that I’m going to drop dead. What a relief – isn’t that want you want to hear?! My rational mind can take this news completely casually when I’m not in the middle of an episode. But when I am, and feeling like I might pass out any second if only that stupid Bang would happen, there’s no relief in telling me I’m not going to drop dead!

But I like my new guy – this medical electrician heart man – I have to trust him. He doesn’t make me feel stupid with all the stale, incomprehensible textbook jargon, he tells me like it is and takes the time to explain and draw and show pictures etc. I wish he was a little more jovial, and a little less ‘business’, but I’ll take it if it means he can fix me. He did crack a smile once, but his face almost broke. Kidding of course. He's probably a different person when not under the cloak of white, having to explain over and over to people what might be wrong with their major life organ.... you know, the one that determines if you are alive or dead. Guess it's not a very jovial subject - ok, I'll cut him some slack.

So after trying a handful of tests over the years without being too invasive, I agreed to finally have an implanted loop recorder installed under my skin to see if we can catch one of these episodes red handed. This will take the place of hooking myself up to a bulky portable EKG machine. This Reveal Loop Monitor has a battery life of over 1 year. Hopefully I will catch an episode nicely, so that Dr. Electrician can see exactly where and what the problem is coming from in my heart. If we can find something treatable, then he can go in there and do what’s called an EP Study where he can map out the electrical pathways in my own heart, and zap (ablation) the naughty path so that it does not receive a funky current, and hence stop these episodes.

Since February is American Heart Month, I found it appropriate to write about this little ditty, and remind everyone to take care of their hearts. I have many changes that need to be made in my lifestyle in order to be more heart-healthy, and this is just one step in that direction. Medicine sure has come a long way to be able to implant a device the size of a stick of gum under my skin to catch some waves. Who knew I'd have to wait 17 years though! Hopefully my new accessory will behave and we can have this cleared up, or at least some better answers. In the meantime, I can just pretend that I have some magic powers or attempt to signal some UFOs…. That would be fun. Beam me up, Scotty!

Rest In Peace, Oreo

ZIONSVILLE, IN. – One Dalmation Molly was found dead in his tank this week, after the owner searched feverishly to find him. He was found in the corner, upside down with his tail pulled into the filter. He leaves behind no siblings or friends. He was the sole survivor of said tank for many months. We’re sure he was greeted with much fish love on “the other side” when he was flushed. “Heaven’s down there?” his owner questioned as Oreo swirled around the bowl. Oreo suffered from a lengthly illness, and was preceded in death by many friends and relatives that once shared his home in The Tank. He held on as long as he could through his sickness to give a family the joy of pet ownership.

Oreo was a good fish. A dedicated pet to those who loved him. Each morning, he would swim to the front of the tank in anticipation of his tasty TetraColor tropical crisp breakfast. You could see his fins sway with glee as he chased around his meal as it floated within the waters. Oreo spent much of his days gliding through the plants, resting in the rock cave and admiring his reflection. He could even be seen throwing caution to the wind at times, and playing in the fierce rolling bubbles that spew from his scuba diver tank-mate. He was crazy like that sometimes. He was a handsome fish who took pride in his sleek body covered with dabbles of black and white speckles. He will be remembered with a smile, and when Nabisco cookies are being dunked in milk at the table.

Cause of death is still not known, but the owners of this tank may be charged with overfeeding, overstocking and glass tapping in excess. Initial findings of problem scales and some furry stuff may be to blame. Investigations are still pending. Be on the lookout for the suspects at your local PetSmart attempting to replace their beloved swimmers again. They have assured us the tank has been properly cleaned, disinfected and ready for new pets. They’re confident that Oreo will be guiding them from beyond. Rest In Peace, Oreo. Your home looks so empty, but we'll fill it with more swimming love in a few days.


Funeral and burial services were held privately in The Bathroom Down The Hall for the family.

Self Check-Out Lanes....

Yeah. "Self Check-out" was exactly what I felt like doing while waiting in line at the store today. Torture. Pure torture. How annoying!

So, have you ever been brave enough to use the 12-items-or-less self checkout lanes at the grocery or other Big Box store? Let me take a moment to splash some Holy Water on you first, because the thoughts that will run through your mind as you are trying to proceed through the one million steps you have to go through for your 12 items or less, are enough to send you straight to hell!

Let me set it up for you. But first, let me tell you that this is not the first time we have used these self-checkout lanes in a store. Why do we keep doing it if it's annoying enough to blog about? Well, because it seems like a really good idea when you see the long lines at the other check-outs, and you only have a few items of course - that's why! And just like giving birth, the mind has a way of blocking out all the pain and agony of the process once it's over, so that you can be tricked into doing it again. I'm digressing....

Ok, so here we are at Big Box Superstore (Meijer) getting our 12-items or less (a couple of Matchbox cars for the boy to make up for leaving the bowling alley because there was a 1.5 hour wait!). Yes well, you've got to know that it's in my genes that I can not walk into a Big Box Superstore and only get the item I intended to buy. Not when this store has a grocery AND department store within it. So what started out in the toy aisle with such enthusiasm for our purchase, detoured us to the grocery section where I figured I'd get a few things while we were there. Of course, the pet section is located smack in the middle of the two so we have to navigate through the cries of "I want a hamster!", "Look! More fish for my tank!", "Can we get a bird?"... ugh...

Now that the groceries have been picked up, the husband is annoyed because the wife keeps thinking of other things to grab (since we're here and all), the kids begin to pick up on the sense that this is not going as planned. Child A begins to get himself in trouble and threats of putting the cars back on the shelf start to sputter from the mouths of the grumpy adults. Child B decides that now is a good time to need a clean diaper. No, it can't wait. Trust me. Scissor, paper, rock and I'm the lucky loser.

Now that we've managed to break a sweat from the combination of wool coats still being worn throughout the store, and the spiking blood pressure from feeling like we've just entered the Twilight Zone but we only wanted a Matchbox car, we were ready to check out. Cool - no waiting at the 12-items-or-less check-yourself-into-the-loony-bin-when-you're-through line. Let's go there! Now comes the fun part....

It begins with a sampling of "I want to do it! I want to do it!" from Child A, who sees no harm in scanning his Matchbox cars himself. And really, it is a no-brainer, so why not? "Beep" as the first one scans. "Beep" as the second one scans. "Please put your items in the bag" the machine chirps at us. Child A argues with the machine that he wants to hold his cars, NOT put them in a bag. The light on the register begins to blink, which now signals Man-With-Red-Vest to shuffle over to see what the problem is. We get everything under control and Man-With-Red-Vest leaves to go help the next sorry soul at another 12-items-or-less-self-checkout lane. So, the scanning continues as each item has it's own bar code issue. "Beep, please scan the next item" - we did, and placed the item in the bag. Angry machine does not approve. "Beep, please put your item in the bag". IT IS IN THE STUPID BAG!!!!! "Beep, please see attendant for assistance". Here comes Mr. Happy Vest again. Oh, and how convenient, his trusty card swiper doesn't want to register in the machine we're using to override the incessant beeping. He throws in some joke about the computer crashing again because it uses Windows (whatever!) and tells us to use another lane. How could this death be ANY slower?

By now, Child A has met his threshold of being patient and wanting to open the cars and get the heck out of there. Child B has met her threshold of no nap yet and still being strapped into the grocery cart. Adult #1 has the patience of a Saint with an occasional eyeroll (ahem, I am not Adult #1 in this story. Ever, really.) Adult #2 is in need of an absorbent towel to collect the beads of perspiration forming on her brow and upper lip. While we're waiting, the thought crosses my mind that I could always run over to the beauty aisle and replenish my deodorant for the remainder of this wait in this line. Or maybe a trip to the beverage aisle and get something that would go perfectly with an olive garnish to calm my nerves. And a straw so that I can get it in really fast to stop the pain!!

After about 20 minutes, more help from the Man-With-Red-Vest, and two kids now resembling a scene from The Exorcist, we were on our way. What is the point of those check-out lanes if you need assistance through your entire experience? Waiting at the bowling alley for an hour and a half until getting a lane might have been a lot easier than trying to leave this store. I dare you all to use one of those check-out lanes the next time you are at a store that has them. You must have 11 items, not just one - that would be way too easy.

You can even borrow the kids any time you want so that you can have the full effect.....

Pinewood Derby

Today was the big Pinewood Derby races for the Cubscouts. Carter is in his first year of scouting, and his Den is called Tiger Cubs. Last night, we brought his completed car to the track for weigh-in and inspection. Once it was given the "ok", he was allowed to do 2 practice runs then he had to turn the car into their hands until today. It was pretty exciting!

I have to say, there are some pretty serious Derby goers in terms of car styles and designs on how to make the perfect, fastest car. We were given a stack of papers from our cousin on how to build "the winner". I have to admit, it was so involved and Tom and I could hardly understand any of the instructions. We thought that would take us all three weeks to do the car with those instructions. It's supposed to be the kids doing them anyway, and there's no way he would have been able to follow the directions and suggestions. Besides, you must know that Tom now has a new list of tools he needs to add to his empty tool box. So we tucked those winning instructions away with the car kit until the day got closer.

Guess what. The day sure did get closer. And closer. And at about 48 hours before we had to turn the car in, we remembered that we still had not as much as broken the seal on the box the kit was in. So there we began, on Wednesday, coming up with an idea with Carter on how he wanted his car to look. We scribbled some rough aerodynamic sketch onto scrap paper, traced it onto the block of wood, and then realized that we did not have the proper tools to even cut this shape out. So, over to Grandpa's house where all the tools are, the two of them went to cut out the corvette shape. When he got home, he started to work on the car.... sanding it down and then he got to paint it quickly before bed. The next morning, he colored on the windows. After school he sprayed some sparkles on it. After dinner he decorated it and added weights to the bottom. I suggested most of the weight should go near the front, and it proved a good move. We were done - with time to spare, and a hair under the 5 ounce maximum weight allowed. I always say if it wasn't for the last minute, then nothing would get done, right?

So, here are some pictures to tell the story of our first experience with this annual event. You can click on any picture to enlarge it! Enjoy...

Here's the shape Carter wanted - he chose a "Corvette" like his Grampy has.

Next he sanded his car with 2 different grades of sandpaper (that's about as 'handy' as we got!)
Next, he wanted to paint his car blue like Grampy's 'vette. We eventually spray painted some silver sparkle all over it too.
Here he is drawing on his windshield and other windows with a black Sharpie marker.
Putting on the final touches to his USA themed car - some American flags etc.
And here is the final product! We took a picture of it on the scale showing how much the car weighed in the end. We could not go over 5 ounces. Pretty close, huh!
Here is a look at the track set up...
Here is Carter's car after inspection and check-in... his is on the bottom far right.
Here is the start of the race - his car is number 201, first car on the screen.
Can you see what the screen says now? He got the TRACK RECORD!
Check out the winner's circle! 1st-4th place winners for Tigers....
And the FIRST PLACE trophy goes to Carter!! Wooo hoooo!
To say he was excited is an absolute understatement! It was so cute to see him after each heat yell "my car was first, my car was first!" and jump up and look for us in the crowd. He was pretty proud, and so were we. We'll have to come up with our own secret instructions to hand out now..... This car will be put in a place of honor for a long time. Hooray!

Happy Birthday Carter!

Today Carter sprung out of bed at 6:30 am to declare he was no longer SIX! Turning 7 is pretty important!

He came downstairs to find a couple of presents - a new bicycle and a basketball!



We had his birthday party last weekend at a store called Ridemakerz. This place is similar to Build-a-Bear, but instead of stuffed animals, the kids built their own street cars! It was a lot of fun!

Here are the boys building their cars...

Here are the boys showing of their finished cars...

Gathered around to open gifts...


I wrote a letter for Carter to put in his memory book. You can click the image to read it.


Tonight, we have the start of Pinewood Derby in Cubscouts. Tomorrow is the big Derby Race, and he's super excited about that. I have some pictures I'll post this weekend of him making his car. Sunday, we'll be celebrating his birthday with a family dinner here - he chose spaghetti with Grandma's special meat sauce as his birthday dinner!! Yes, this is the child who only used to have about 5 things he'd eat without gagging - turning 7 really IS a big deal! We've come SO far.... :)

Thank goodness it's Monday...

The Dancing Banana. You may have seen it a hundred times. It's an animation that sums up pretty much every excited emotion you have, with just one little yellow banana showin' off it's moves. It's moves evoke feelings of "Yeah! Woo-Hoo! Excellent! Yahoo! Yippee!" etc.... I had to add it here for today's post.



It’s supposed to be a wacky 65 degrees out, and the return to school today for the kids… those highlights are reasons enough to have had Mimosas at the bus stop this morning!

I have to say too, that I’m beginning my thoughts about this post right now at 9:15 am (probably won’t complete my post until later though….) and Olivia is STILL sleeping. She must be celebrating the weather and school resuming too. Tom called to ask how the first “morning back” went and if I’m enjoying the morning to myself. All I could do was let out a big huge sigh as if I was sinking down into a plush leather chair, “ahhhh” – silence. I got the 1st grader out the door, made a cup of hot tea for myself, ate some toast, read the newspaper, listened to a bit of Live with Regis and Kelly on the TV in the background, started a load of towels into the laundry and checked my email. All before 9:15 am. Bliss!

This routine is not out of the ordinary, it’s just that I have not done it consistently since December 19th. Do you know why I know exactly what date threw me off of my regularly scheduled program of life? It’s because my husband’s last day of work before his planned “Winter Break” began. Yep, that’s right, 13 consecutive days. At home. Together. This would not have been such a challenging feat if we were, say, in Hawaii or on another adventurous vacation away from home. But we weren’t. We were home, waiting for the holidays, prying our kids from the ceiling from excitement about Christmas, trying to coexist among the chaos of the season and throwing a wrench into my daily Domestic Duties as a homemaker. Ugg! Carter was on his Winter Break for 15 days too. Need I say more about that?

While one of us was excited to have some much needed time away from the daily grind of a career, the other was bracing themselves for the sort of Year End double-duty work load that most companies endure. Only, I didn’t have to turn in my final projects for the year and get a break – I was just beginning them. That’s how it goes. Of course, it was nice to have that second pair of hands around for running quick errands kid-free, tag teaming baths for the kids, and general helping out when needed. I’m sure there were a few times he would have loved a bubble bath to sink into and not come out until he resembled a prune. “Vacation” is a term he would use loosely when talking about his time off, I’m sure.

Having the kids home for a 15 day break is certainly no comparison to Summer break from school. But there are extreme differences in the two. During Winter break, the kids are on an emotional high (or low) from all of the excitement surrounding the holidays and traditions. While parents are trying hard to keep it stress free and low key (impossible!), they’re getting wound up tighter than a spool of thread. Another challenge is the weather over winter break. Sure, snow is fun. For about a minute. Then they cannot ride their bikes or scooters, or play on the swing set until said white stuff is melted. Friends are off having visits with relatives and the Christmas presents are has-beens by day 3. All the while, every entertainment spot is filled with aggravated parents and crazy kids trying to pack in their days and unwind at the Children’s Museum, Chuck E. Cheese, movies etc. Sure, Summer has it’s “I’m bored” moments too, but there is much more to do and enjoy when the weather is nice. Like tell the kids to go out and play, lock the doors and make them use their imaginations – without having to worry about frostbite.

You see – this is all why it would have been nice to toast with the moms at the bus stop this morning while sipping Mimosas and eating scones. But I didn’t have orange juice or even own a recipe for scones. I know I’m not alone in my celebration. It’s been a long two weeks. I’m happy to have the house back to its normal disarray, my regularly scheduled Domestic Duties in place (even if I have already swept up crumbs from the kitchen floor twice before 9:30 am and have sung Twinkle Twinkle 20 times), it feels much better in THIS skin. I’m a creature of habit; I like things to run like a well oiled machine. I don’t particularly like wrenches thrown into things (like school staff needing a break for 2 weeks and making our kids have to be home with us – how dare they!) I much rather have a reason to miss my kids. For instance, as soon as the bus left I felt a little heavy hearted, yet excited to see him when he returns from school today. It’s bittersweet sometimes isn’t it.... Got a good scone recipe anyone?

Birthday hangover....

Round One of birthdays has been checked off the list. Gearing up for Round Two (Carter) next weekend for his "friends party". Haven't decided on the family gathering yet - but will probably be the 20th if everyone's available. We've got the heavily anticipated "Pinewood Derby" contest for cubscouts coming up on his bday weekend the 18th-19th so we couldn't plan too much during that since it's pretty involved. Oh, and the NFL playoffs.... minor details. It will all work out.

In case you didn't get a chance to see the previous posting on her actual birthday, click here.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of the Birthday Girl enjoying a sugar high.

Time lapse of tasting her first bit of frosting......


Hey, this is good stuff....

Don't want to waste any frosting you know....

Kisses anyone?

Using sign language to tell us "More" (she did this after every bite, so cute!)

Ta Da! All done....

2 Grandads admiring...

Getting "help" opening gifts...

Precious giving Daddy kisses...

One Year!

Happy 1st Birthday Olivia!

Here's a letter I wrote for Olivia's baby book to remember her first birthday. You can click on the image to read it.... I've also made a video montage to music celebrating her first year ...




Here's the video set to music!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy New Year!

Wow - another year! Remember when it was going to turn "2000" and how strange that was going to sound rolling off of our tongues? Eight years later... time sure flies.

2007 was a pretty good year, despite losing my beloved grandmother in March. Some of my favorite highlights of the year started off with the birth of our daughter on January 3rd, the Colts won the Superbowl, we had a terrific 10-day family vacation in Florida at the start of summer, my girlfriend's little boy finished his 2 yrs of cancer treatment, and my son started school full-time into the first grade last Fall!

I'm not even going to kid myself into making any New Year's Resolutions! Thankfully, I'm pretty happy in my life and there's not too much I want or need to do differently! Too much is they key word - there are always things that could be improved upon so I'll quietly work on those and maybe even update the progress - or lack thereof...

Have a terrific 2008 - I'm looking forward to the seasons changing into some warmer weather. Can you believe I just said that? Me, wanting the warm weather? Well, it's a long winter after the holidays come and go, so yearning for the warmer weather to get here isn't that crazy. Especially when I glance at my outdoor digital reading and it says a mere 8 degrees. And it's snowing. Cocoa anyone?