Running through the May Flowers - Page 9

[MelW]

autumngrey, congrats on terrific races!

sparkle, I really like the rainwashed. Looked at a couple of rooms done in it on google images, and it looks good on the wall and not just the swatch.

Geo, congrats on the soccer win and finally having some team mojo. I hope the IEP stuff works out for you- what a long haul it's been!

jo, I'm glad you had the compliment and local encounter before leaving. I hope that your final days go as smoothly as possible, and that your husband manages to schedule a US visit in. And happy birthday to your son, too!!

Dimitrizmom, congrats on the loss. You look amazing! Good luck with the summer classes, too. That's a heavy load.

Gaye, glad you're feeling better. Your garden sounds great- mine is very much a work in progress right now. My plan to build some (very minor height) raised beds to keep my youngest out of the garden hasn't been as successful as anticipated, but some veggies are growing despite the footsteps.

Plady, sounds like a busy weekend! We had clouds over the eclipse, too. My garden is grateful for the rain, but not much else.

RR- Only gardening. It's a long weekend, so I'll fit the long run in tomorrow at some point.

[tjsmama]

melw~ My child stays out of the containers...my dog on the other hand... Right now, because our seeds haven't sprouted yet, he thinks it's a-ok to get his front paws up on the dirt to bark at people and dogs walking by. Once there are seedlings, he thinks it's great to nibble at them. Sigh.

My mouth still hurts. :-( My throat does feel kind of better, so I guess that's something, but when I went to the bathroom earlier, I noticed that my gums are blazing red. I am OVER THIS. I'm not hungry, and when I do eat, it hurts, but yet I'm not managing to lose weight as any kind of benefit to this misery. Guess I'll be calling the doctor when they open in the morning. Did I mention that I'm completely broken out on my chest and back? I'm hoping maybe that was just some sort of reaction to the antibiotic, but who knows at this point.

And it was raining when I woke up yesterday, so I totally wimped out on my run. That makes 1 run in the past two weeks, with a race in a week. And I work two nights and am on call for another in that week. Bleh.

[JayGee]

Dimitrizmom ~ you look fantastic!  I can't imagine where you'd take another 35-40 lbs. from!  Nice work .

Gaye ~ that sounds like an awful virus you've got.   Could it be hand-foot-mouth or something like that?  A call to doctor sounds like a good plan.  I hope you feel better very soon .

Geo ~ yay for the end of soccer!  DS's last game was last Friday too (of course, soccer camp is this week, and tryouts for next year's team are the week of June 1, so it really never ends...)  Good luck with the IEP stuff, Mama .

Plady ~ that sounds like a really fun, busy weekend.

sparkle ~ I'm useless when it comes to paint colors!  Backyard fun ideas ~ a badminton/volleyball net, the aforementioned trampoline (seriously, look at Springfree Trampolines), a zipline if you have the space, or a climbing wall are all great ideas!  Our house is the "place to be" in the neighborhood, and I like it that way.  The main draws are the trampoline, the fact that we live on a culdesac with no traffic, and the huge field/lake next to our lot.  Oh, and the fact that DH loves to do things like set up scooter races and time the kids and stuff like that.

RR ~ Pilates for the first time in a week this morning.  Hurt so good!

NRR ~ Today is DD2's 6th birthday!  And the last full day of school!  DS raked in the awards on Friday (seriously, he was called up 6 times) and DD1 got two.  Our big soccer party was a raging success with over 45 people (the 12 kids on DS's team, plus their families, including a lot of siblings). We set up a slip and slide on the hill and the kids had a blast!  I get one day to relax before my Mom and Dad arrive for 12 days on Wednesday night.  Phew....

[Shantimama]

tjsmama - are you starting to feel better yet?

1jooj - how many days left now? You are getting so much done - I hope everything goes smoothly come travel-time.

Nickarollaberry - we sound like we are in a similar place with Whole 30 - sounds like a good idea but unrealistic right now. Legumes and dairy are mainstays in my diet and I can't afford to replace them with meat and substitute milks. If I could just stay with the grain free thing I would be a lot better but it is hard when things get stressful. I managed a week with no grains and only honey and maple syrup for sweets and felt really good but then life got crazy and it fell apart - diet coke, milk chocolate, even a slice of pizza. Ugh. Have your meds done their job yet with your cough and fatigue? Albutrol makes me jumpy and my hands shaky - a bit of a problem because I often need to use it before I can play my flute. If I could only co-ordinate the crazy fast shaking fingers I would be a virtuoso on asthma inhalers but alas, it doesn't usually work out that way.

realrellim - hooray for tomato plants! I always get excited when they go in the ground 

plady - I hope everything turns out okay.

geofizz - I am gobsmacked at how drawn out and complicated this IEP process is. It shouldn't be this way and I wish I could do something to help make the system work better for you. I am another big fan of audiobooks while driving. Have you listened to anything really good lately?

jaygee - I hope things settle down soon  

sparkletruck - I get where you are coming from on finding just the right colour. Our house is painted a sage green and I decided to paint the doors purple a few years ago. It took a few tries to get the right shade but now I love it. I used one of the failed attempts to paint the furniture on the front porch. I love colour but I am very, very particular about it which sometimes causes problems!

Dmitrizmom - sounds like you have a lot going on. What are your kids up to for the first stretch of summer?

RR - no run on the horizon. I did something to my knee when I fell last week and I just won't push it. I am going to try a long walk along the beach today though. The weather is beautiful and I can't resist. I have been feeling like a lump but I have dropped a size since going (most of the time) grain free and it seems to be holding. I would still like to drop one more (okay two, but I could be happy with just one more) and maybe moving more will help that. Just a wild thought. I am pretty flexible and doing as much stretching as I can but it is limited with the wonky knee and hands that can't bear much weight yet. I feel like such a whiner with something always holding me back physically.

NRR - had a semi-helpful, semi-frustrating trip to paediatrician with ds last week. He increased the primary anti-convulsant and we-re still waiting to see if that helps. No seizures while he slept last night which is very good. He lowered the second drug and said I could taper it all the way out if I wanted which I have done. My ds is back - no more depression, crying jags, aggression, he is getting up in the morning easily and in a good mood. The ped wanted to refer him for a psychiatric assessment because of the depression but I am not planning to follow up on that because those symptoms started within 48 hours of beginning the second drug, lessened as we lowered the dose and have completely gone now that he is no longer taking it. That med is also highly addictive and the sooner it is out of his system, the better. We will just have to keep working to find out how to control the seizures properly. Today is a holiday (Victoria Day) but first thing tomorrow I will be calling the neurologist to see when we can get in as ped agrees he needs further assessment and testing and expert consult. Still waiting to see a copy of the IEP from school but it sounds like the teachers are already paying attention, supporting and accommodating ds as necessary. What a relief.

Gardening has been my exercise. We got a huge load of cedar mulch from someone going out of business and have been converting much of our lawn, putting down layers of newspaper and covering it with a thick, thick layer of mulch. We left a small area of lawn but are moving plants around to make things look nice. It is so much better already. We have sand rather than soil so I tucked some large ceramic planters I found under the porch halfway into the ground, surrounded them with mulch and have planted some tomatoes and basil that way. In seven years I have had no luck with growing any vegetables here but I am giving this a shot. Maybe next year we can do some small raised beds but we'll see. I also swallowed some of my veggie-gardening pride and bought a couple of planters already full of salad greens. They are so easy to do from seed but I didn't want to wait. They are on a table on my front porch out of the reach of the zillion rabbits in our neighbourhood. I will be home all summer so I plan to move them from one end of the porch to the other every day to get as much sun as possible - we have a lot of trees around us so sun is an issue. My hands hurt from the gardening and it is still a bit early but it was a matter of sanity this weekend to start growing some food. Not as much as I would like but if this works, maybe I can do more next year.

[MelW]

Shanti, I really hope that the seizure med adjustment works for your son (and for you!). Good luck with the neurologist.

JayGee, congrats to your kids on the awards and to you for a successful soccer party. Enjoy your day of rest before your parents' visit.

tjsmama, I hope you're feeling better. Blistered throat sounds awful

RR- An hour trail run this morning. It felt easy and strong.

NRR- I took the kids to the local Victoria day parade after the run, despite the rainy weather. We biked over to the main street and they were both pretty happy and wet. We had some wildflower seed bombs in the backpack, and tossed a bunch into an empty lot we've had our eye on for a bit of guerrilla gardening on the way home. It's been dry for a couple of weeks, and I think the rain should get the flowers off to a good start. Hopefully the veggies we planted yesterday are enjoying the rain, too.
 

[sparkletruck]

I've settled on a color and I feel like my life just opened up. Ridiculous. Grad school outta be fun It's a little darker than an aracana blue chicken egg, bit that same kind of washed out blue/green/gray. The trick was the gray, which took away the mint color I kept finding in all the turqoises. I know, riveting stuff. I mixed it from 3 paints I had. I should really be getting paid for this

On the climbing front, I made hotel reservations today, and will make airline reservations tomorrow Holy smokes is this $$$$. I mean, dumb $$$$. I am this close to bagging the whole thing. Sigh. Still havent decided on whether to stay another day for tourist whatever - seems like I should to make the money worth a little more, butnone of the options sound appealing. Still waiting to hear from mamajb

Geo - Hooray for a good end to soccer, and to an end Sorry about the IEP endlessness

JG - You have true stamina for the myriad of activities you constantly champion! And for the much needed pilates

Melw - hooray for the gardening and the easy hour-long run and the guerilla gardening

Shanti - oh that's encouraging!! Im so glad. Now for your body to make some progress and the multiple loads to lighten!

Gaye - Nuf said!

[Geofizz]

Done. DD has 290 minutes of reading, spelling, and writing services per week, starting tomorrow. She also has time and a half for tests that involve writing, preferential seating in classes, the ability to do all her math on paper (seems like a dumb thing to have to have, but it's necessary considering the way of the curriculum next year...), a list of the names of the kids in the classes next year before the year starts (to study names + face pairs), and a host of 20 (!) more accommodations.

The way the services work is that you first determine if the kid has a disability.  DD has 2:  reading and writing.  THEN you determine the kid's present levels (often required to determine if there's a learning disability, but in DD's case, the diagnosis was largely independent of that), and THEN you figure out the goals for the IEP and how to meet them.  So DD's goals are to be at a 9th grade decoding and spelling level by the end of next year.    And all I wanted was for her to stop feeling like she needed to cry every time she's asked to write something.

Math is set for next year in about as an ideal a manner possible, allowing for scheduling her pull out time such that she misses only 5 minutes of classroom instruction a day.

This better work, kid.

DH is out fetching our ritual post-marathon-school-meeting ice cream.  Seriously.  We've done 6 of these on behalf of DD in the last 2 years, and we've already got three under out belt for DS.   Next meeting (DS) scheduled Nov 5, and then for DD January 28. 

RR:  RP has decided that we're doing the C'bus half in October in under 2 hours.  We're ramping up the number of runs per week first to get back to 5-6 nights per week, putting abs and pushups back in, and then we'll start speed work. 

NRR:  My quest to pull 100 weeds a day enters into its second week, exceeding my goal most nights but factors of 2-3.  It's not getting any harder to find weeks.  Sigh.  I do want to mulch this weekend and maybe even plant some flowers or something.

[Realrellim]

Nic--congrats on the job!

Plady--

1jooj--I'm sorry about the husband/job nonsense, but really glad that at least you'll be surrounded by friends and family this summer.

Dmitrizmom--ouch on the trail run and concussion. Hope everything improves on that end, and that a FT jobs materializes somewhere.

tjsmama--what did the doctor say? JayGee's thought of hand, foot & mouth makes some sense, except for the rash issue.

JayGee--happy birthday to your DD2!

Shanti--hope the new meds adjustments finally work. What a rollercoaster for you. Sounds like a great garden!

Geo--I hope the accommodations make a world of difference.

RR: school pick-up.

NRR: had a mostly nice weekend in the mountains, though DH did his usual end-of-a-stressful period freakout and as typically happens, we seem to be in the can't-stand-each-other phase always timed nicely for our anniversary (in one week). Meanwhile, I'm busy researching stuff for our upcoming school board meeting, mostly so we can correct all the misinformation floating about. It's so much nonsense, really, but maybe that's to be expected given the district's size and/or that it includes a segment of the mountain population, many of whom believe that not a single extra cent of the tax dollars should be taken in any way, as they need it all to furnish their large and expensive houses. Most of the nonsense is coming from exactly that area, though it isn't limited to it. My sister was talking to a preschool parent today who was complaining about having to pay for full-day kindergarten, even though she had the option for free half-day. Said parent owns a house on one acre, plus a tract of 35 acres just down the road on which they run their horse. Yeah, I can see where paying for full-day much be such a hardship.

[tjsmama]

jaygee~ to DD2!

geo~Hooray for soccer being over and for what sounds like some good progress on the IEP front!

shanti~So glad your DS is improving.

As for me, I would cautiously say that I'm a little better today. They really have no idea what's going on with me. They still think it's something viral and that it's now manifesting in really bad gingivitis for some reason. My throat is definitely better, although still sore. The blisters are still there, but barely painful at this point. The doctor last week did say something about maybe hand, foot, & mouth but really didn't think that was it, and after checking with dr. google, I don't think so, either. The doctor I saw yesterday thinks the breakout on my chest/back is related to the antibiotic I was on, which was my thought, too. It's starting to go away a little, now that I've been done with the antibiotic for about 4 days. They drew a crapload of blood yesterday to run an autoimmune panel and if it that doesn't show anything and it still doesn't go away, then they may do a colonoscopy to rule out crohn's or ulcerative colitis. Fun, huh?

In the meantime, I haven't had an appetite in weeks, it physically hurts to eat, and yet I've only lost two pounds? I think I need to get some smoothie fixings because that's the only thing that sounds remotely appetizing at the moment. Blah.

[babybugmama]

Geo you astound me.  I am beyond impressed at what you have accomplished.  I wish I had more words, but I don't. I'm just speechless in awe and admiration.  Much love to you mama and that is some very well deserved ice cream.

[Nickarolaberry]

Originally Posted by babybugmama 

Geo you astound me.  I am beyond impressed at what you have accomplished.  I wish I had more words, but I don't. I'm just speechless in awe and admiration.  Much love to you mama and that is some very well deserved ice cream.

[Geofizz]

Thanks.

BBM, DD has been seeing one of the CBTs you found for me. He's been great. He totally gets her. I think it's finally starting to click for her, and some of that accounts for 4 of the acccommodations.

We dropped tutoring. I already paid for the last 4 sessions, but I don't care. DD and I hung out this evening and pulled weeds together and chatted instead of taking her to do the tutoring. We'll go the middle 6 weeks of the summer, but then hopefully never again.

[Plady]

Seriously Geo, I may toast you with some ice cream too!  You deserve it!

Gaye!  You poor thing!  I really hope this turns out to be one weird viral outlier brought on by your huge change in schedule.  Keeping my fingers crossed that you keep feeling better and symptoms just vanish never to reappear.

Real - It's totally typical of me and dh to get all pissy at each other right before our anniversary too.  Timing is everything isn't it?

Shanti - So glad for ds's relief!  I hope this is the beginning of some easing of all the stress!

MelW - Guerrilla gardening!  I love it!

JayGee - The parties you organize always have me and you make it sound so not-a-big-deal!

Had a nice day here, got some mail out, boxed, had a friend over for coffee and was propositioned by the guy I had a sort of huge crush on a year ago tonight at his going-away party.  It sounds pervy and gross to put it that way but honestly it was just sort of a nice acknowledgement that there was chemistry there.  I would not have acted on it and he obviously knew that but it was kind of fun to know he felt it too.  And now he can move to San Diego and be a pleasant memory.  Ended the day by letting dd finally buy herself a Kindle Touch and myself a pair of Asics in black and hot pink (alas not really for running, just general workout wear to alternate with Vibrams).  Oh and dh is talking about having his completely incapacitated mom move in with us in a home-hospice way.  Hmmm, more on that to come I'm sure.

Good night all!

[1jooj]

Geo, I am with these ladies on your handling of the IEP and etc. My head would have twisted off, pretty sure. Well-deserved ice cream, and good work on the weed pulling. Gaye, I hope you're feeling better. Plady, I totally get the appreciation thing. Nice that he can go and leave you both smiling. I have been out of my mind with the packing/travel/moving/cat logistics and on my walk this morning I had a bit of clarity. It began with an email from the shipping company on the jfk end, advising me that I won't have enough time to do all the stuff and make the conncection. Then I did the math and realized that a best case scenario has the cat in transit 36 hours. Worst case adds a lot, I see, when looking at alternate connection options once we miss our booked one. So I came home from my walk on the beach where my Birkenstocks were stolen this morning, and I made a few calls. And I have (tentatively) secured a foster home for him for the summer. I can get him back when I return (feels more like "if" lately) and he will be fostered with a person who has been fostering for a long time and has an excellent record. I hope to hand him over today or tomorrow. I feel sad, but also like this is really the better thing to do. He'll get a lot of one-on-one attention, and he'll be cared for very well. I've been consistently walking on the beach, and it has been consistently too hot and humid to do any more than that. I have begun packing boxes in the house. The suitcases are basically done. Dd and I are attending ds's school musical tomorrow after their last day in school. We are now eating strange things as we work our way through the last of the fridge contents. The telecom cut off our internet three weeks early due to a miscommunication, and after dh went to their service center (if you can call it that) and refused to move until they offered a solution, he came home with a "3G" usb stick so I have limited and terrible internet access, but at least I can check email and be more or less in touch. My FB app on my phone is screwed up and I don't have wi-fi at home to fix it, so this will have to do for the next 3 days, constant connection-dropping and all. Sigh. This is a depressing sort of leaving, but it's almost done. Love to you, Dingoes.

[babybugmama]

Hugs Jo.  Our furry babies really make their way into our hearts, don't they?  I hope all these transitions go smoothly for you and that you can find peace on the other end.

Geo - I'm so glad to hear it, message me sometime with which one you are using so that if I have other friends in cbus that have need I have a known name.  I get that kind of question a lot and nothing feels worse than when you can't give a name or some words of wisdom.

I have such a heart warming story.  I can't go into terrible detail.  But long ago I saw a young lady from early teens to young adult.  She was (is) spectacular. But sad and angry and confused.  We worked together for a long time and then it was time for her to move on.  I saw her once or twice just out and about and was always thrilled to see her.  Monday I got a card from her that made me cry, thanking me for the support and work we had done and that she felt she would not be where she was had she not come...she just graduated from college with a perfect degree for her and sounds so comfortable in her own skin that it makes me ache.  I am so honored that she trusted me enough to let me in, trusted me enough to work on the hard stuff, and had the sweetness to let me know years later.  She gave me such a gift and I know she has no idea how important that gift is.  Rarely does a clinician get any feedback years later and yet we do wonder how it all turned out...so sweet.

[Nickarolaberry]

BBM, that is so awesome!

Jo, I'm sorry you can't take kitty with you. It sounds like you made the best plan for him you can possibly make.

Gaye, I hope you're feeling better! Jeez, mama...you've had a rough couple weeks!

Geo, you rock. (hahaha!!!!) And that is all I have to say about that!

Real -- yeah, our anniversary is also this weekend. Happy anniversary.  Hope things look better for you guys when it's time to celebrate. If nothing else, we get credit for endurance and sticktuitiveness, right? Bleh.

Going out for my run as soon as the beans stop cooking. Whew, the smell in my house. Icky. However, three pots of beans = approximately 15 or more cans of beans put up in the freezer, so that's worthwhile.

[sparkletruck]

RR: 45 minutes on the bike, 5 minutes walk/run. The saddest part about it, besides the 5 minutes on the TM, was that I just. wasnt. interested. Where is my inner athlete? Sigh

To top it off, after the work-out, I did one of my meditation sessions at the gym, in a not-even-very-quiet corner next to the racket-ball courts, and I FELL ASLEEP. On the floor. Really?!

I have a head cold and have been sleeping 5 hours a night, but c'mon. That is just sad

[Plady]

Sparkle - Aww, I think it's kind of sweet.  Isn't it sort of uniquely refreshing to be able to fall asleep in a totally unlikely place? 

Jo - I'm glad you could find a good foster home for kitty.  As happy as I'm sure he'd be here it might have taken him a long time to recover from such a huge trip.  And he'll be something nice to return to when/if you go back.

BBM - That is really sweet. 

So results back already from u/s and everything looks okay. Whew!  Of course, it still doesn't explain the pain but that's okay, I'll go back to my psoas hypothesis. 

DH returns today from his trip to see his mom.  Sounds like it was a doozy. 
 

[MelW]

Sparkle, I think it's kind of sweet, too. A terrific meditation relaxation session. I sleep easily and have fallen asleep in a few embarrassing places in my life. Drooling on a stranger's shoulder in a movie theatre comes to mind...

BBM, how wonderful to get the feedback from your former client.

Plady, I'm glad it's nothing serious, but hope you find a solution.

Geo, I'm adding my applause to the awesome IEP work. And the weed-pulling resolution, too, which I might just undertake for a little while. I got 100+ today :)

real, I hope your husband turns around before your anniversary. And good luck with the school board meeting.

gaye, feel better soon!!!

RR- Weed pulling and mowing the lawn with the push mower this evening, plus packing several loads of boxes across campus today (many boxes of lab supplies delivered to my office instead of the lab= waaaay too much extra work). Trail run tomorrow, and trail race on Sunday, which my husband may or may not join for. I registered him for his birthday but he's been waffling so I didn't bother arranging childcare. Now he wants to run it, and we're waiting to hear back from family.

NRR- Seeing the ped tomorrow for my youngest and her assorted allergies/rash. We're still waiting for the immunologist appointment in four weeks.
 

[Plady]

Hmm, strange silence in the Dingo Cafe.  Closed for Memorial Day? 

RR: Boxed hard this morning though I felt really weak.  This afternoon we took the kids on a hike to a lookout (approx 600 ft elev gain, just enough to see MelW's house ).  DH is all worried that dd1 is getting too chubby so we're doing the Michelle Obama fitness challenge, 6 weeks of daily exercise, 30 min. for adults 1 hr for kids.  I'm going to make a sticker chart tomorrow.  I'm always game for this sort of thing, as are the kids, we'll see if dh can stick to it.