Monday, June 16, 2008

Better Days


Get this, I am blogging to you, live from the basement, where all my lights are once again working, and my son?...My son is gone, our friends Mary and Emilie "kidnapped" him and took him to the park. How lovely. I am getting a chance to be productive, blog, knit, do laundry...In the MIDDLE OF THE DAY! (I've got my priorities straight!)
When last I left you, the latter half of last week, I was in a darker place. Has that ever happened to you? When the stress gets thick, I internalize it. But today, I'm in a much happier place. Better days! It's amazing how therapeutic quality time with family and friends can be! Sometimes, ok often, if truth be told, I'm a stress eater. So, no more of that. However, last week, Eric and I hopped back on the healthy bandwagon. The stress of the last two months was taking its toll, i.e. the scale going the wrong direction, and so, no more drowning my sorrows in triple chocolate meltdowns and green apple martinis. OK, at least, no more for a few weeks. The carb cravings are gone, but I am getting a little tired of snacking on nuts. I'd love something chocolatey. Eric's company is doing a "Biggest Loser" thing, if he can lose 8% in 10 weeks he'll get a 250$ gift card to Dick's and a share of the pot they paid at the start.
Yesterday was a great Father's Day, not just for Eric, we all had a good day. I made Eric a lovely low carb breakfast, extra cheesey eggs, which he loved. Chris had colored him a card, he even focused on the picture, it was a toolbox and Chris was naming all the tools, and I swear he was trying to stay in the lines. I made a black and white photo collage and created a Daddy and Chris slide show that is even now still running on our little computerized picture frame (100 of our favorite pics of Chris and Daddy together). Eric had gotten up and gone straight to work outside on fixing the grill. I swear, I didn't ask him to do it, he wanted to fix it, hadn't had the time and all that, so we made the time. I slept off my tweaked back while the boys went to church. At the same time, Eric was creating his great dinner. We were invited to a special Father's Day round of Game Night at the MeyPfan household. The girls played In a Pickle while the menfolk enjoyed a few rounds of the very manly Marvel Heroscape, then we all played Bohnanza (Beans) together. We were up for main dish, and Eric decided to break out his new smoker/roaster to create Luau Pork. The roaster was a Christmas gift, but he hadn't gotten to break it out due to weather and all that. He was so excited he went out and bought this HUGE pork butt, 10 pounds! An assload of ass! Unbeknownst to us, it doesn't remain an assload once cooked. So, it fed the 7 of us well, with enough for another dinner for us. But holy yum, it was so good. I was trying to rack my brain to think of the last time I had shredded pork that was that good, and maybe Hawaii? Maybe never? He got many a compliment. Eric LOVES to cook, and he loves new manly toys, so breaking out the smoker/roaster was his idea of a good time. (Cleaning it afterwards...not so much.) It was great to see him so excited. It was lots of fun, but we were pooped afterwards.
So, I tweaked my back a bit yesterday morning, but drugs and a nap fixed that right up by dinner time. Saturday night, Eric had gone to the store, and got the meat and much needed lightbulbs. It was a surprise to me, just now, to come down stairs and turn on the basement lights to have all 6 working, instead of the two above the desk, in permanent mood lighting mode. It's the little things.
So, also on Saturday, we had some fun. Chris started his Summer Swim class at Northwestern park, I'll discuss that more on his website, but suffice it to say, that park is awesome, and I'm loving this class, even though the pool isn't heated, it doesn't matter, too much fun. He was so adorable. See the picture above. My mother in law got us a shirt short swim combo outfit, so Chris can go to the pool and his g-tube can be hidden, also safe from other curious children. But I don't think I need to have worried so much. He was in our arms the whole time. There was even a boy with a g-tube scar in his class. I talked a bit with his Mom. Chris and Eric were so sweet together, swimming around. Eric hadn't made it to Chris's other IndyParks Swim Class, but he had visited the Brownsburg one. Boy, has Chris's kicking ability improved, he's really getting to almost swim. They had slides but he didn't want to go down them. After that, we went for brunch at Le Peep, I think it has been at least a good year since we'd gone there. After naps, we went to a beautiful church service with our friends. Chris was a bit vocal, but he was surrounded by friends, so I can't blame him. I'm glad I made it to church with them, because of my back I didn't make it to church yesterday. After that, Eric and I showed extreme willpower having supper with our friends at Noodles and Company...and eating no noodles. Their Parmesan Crusted Chicken and salads were pretty scrumptious though!
Friday was a busy day, we had company. My small group came over to our house, normally we had been meeting downtown, but with school out, our friends could come here. It was so nice, candles, friends, lunch, and we got a lot more studying and discussion done with Chris watching Veggie Tales than we are able to do in public. At least it felt like it. In the afternoon, we met up at Mike and Kathleen's to watch Emily for a bit. Oh, did she object highly to me being the one to collect her at the end of her nap, I was not her mommy. She actually asked to go back to bed. I've threatened Chris with that a few times, but not had to do it. She pointed at her crib, and said, Baa Seep. (back to sleep) Perhaps she wanted to try again, for the "right" result. Then we all went to supper at Ruby Tuesday together. I love their salad bar, it has all kinds of goodies on it, especially the craisins!
I guess it was nice just to have Eric around, to play with Chris with, to talk to, to be able to share the burden with,...to have Chris puke on someone else. Poor Eric got puked on twice this weekend! In public, both times! Mike had to literally give him the shirt off his back (thank goodness he was layered) at Noodles and Company so that we could finish our meal. We've learned our lesson, now we're keeping an extra adult T-shirt in the diaper bag.
Chris has his MRI tomorrow morning at 9:30, I'm a bit nervous about that, but they aren't cutting into him, just knocking him out a bit, they say we'll be home by noon.
Anyway, God bless Friends, Family, and thanks for all your prayerful support. God Bless Us Every One!

2 comments:

Kathy said...

Glad you're doing well and hope Chris is too. The pork sounds very yummy!

amypfan said...

I can attest to the pork being amazing.... I don't even usually like pork, and I couldn't get enough of this one! Glad to hear that you're feeling more cheerful.