Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Almost the last

School is almost out for the summer.  Today is my last free morning, with no kids.  I have to make the most of this last child free day for a while.  I have great family adventures planned for the summer, but getting some alone time in is pretty good too.


I went for a bike ride, did some weeding, took a soaky bath, and finished the boys sugar scrub gifts for their teachers.  All while the three were still in school.   I will have you know, I smell fabulous.


Christopher helped me prep the Stress Away mix this morning.  
I love that he is at an age where he wants to help, and participate in the teacher gifts.  
At last! 



But Mommy finished them off.  
And Daddy will be working on some Fabulous labels for the teachers. 
It's a family affair. 

Thursday, May 19, 2016

A bird out back



This morning, I saw something new, or someone out on the woodpile.  
It was Big.  
 I was pretty sure it was a Pileated Woodpecker.  


Then he moved, and I stalked him, he's at the base of the twin trees.  
He's hard to see in the golden morning light.   But it's a woodpecker.  


I named him Woody. 


This is about as Zoomed in as I could get with my cell phone camera.   But the backlighting confirms:  It's a Pileated Woodpecker!


Thanks for popping by Woody, come back and see us Anytime! 



Tuesday, May 17, 2016

On the docket

It's not official until I announce it on the Internet,  right?!  Well,  since this is like my journal, so I am happy to announce here the results from my appt with Dr. T.  My mammogram results were clean and clear. Whew!  I'd been feeling extra tender so I was happy for good results.
In addition, and probably most exciting of all, the insurance company agreed to cover my surgery!  So, now it's getting real.  They happened to have a cancellation available for Thursday, but with all the end of the school year madness, we couldn't get coverage. That was so soon.  So we chose to wait until the big boys are back in school. So we now have a date for my breastfeeding reduction surgery.  On August 11, I'll be going under the knife.  I'm so excited!

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Vintage Awesomeness!

I have a friend that is moving.   She put out an apb on FB asking if anyone wanted some gently used garden stuff, like containers perfect for planting tomatoes with the stakes built in.  I jumped at the chance, and was able to get my dibs in.   So yesterday, I got to go north to pick up the pots.   And when we were jabbing, she said she had a couple extra goodies if I wanted anything.   I found myself picking up some amazing goodies like toys and games for the kids.  I picked up a Light Bright kit, a solar system puzzle, and a Fisher Price microscope kit with slides.  Oh, the inner geek in me was dying!  


Jacob picked up this cool Beatles toy, with Paul.  I'm sure it's not of extra value because it's from 1999, but Jacob wouldn't put it down.  I called it his Beatle.  He kept asking to open "my bee'le" and carrying the box around faithfully.  If it is valuable, I don't think it will be for long.  Just the box was making his day!


So, I was telling my sister tales of the goodies we received from my friend K, and Lisa showed me a recent find, all our our My Little Ponies from the 80s.   So Awesome I couldn't stand it.  She opened a bag up on the floor and we took a look.  Jacob wanted to play with them just as much as we used to.  


We sat there trying to remember everyone's names, and who they belonged to.  I picked up Twilight, I remembered her.  Lisa remembered that Sea Shell was her favorite.  I looked at my Pegasus with the Lightning on her bottom, and it all came back to me, she was my first, fly, fire, lightning.  Lisa says, Oh and Firefly, and Baby Firefly.   The next thing I know, I was picking them up and trying to brush out their hair, just like the old days.   


Lisa and her "Pony Hoarde"!  

Aww, her stuffy Bow Tie, Mama and Baby Tic Tac Toe, and we snuggled up with all our fabulous ponies.  A friend asked her if she'd be interested in selling, and she said, Oh No, these have been too Loved.  I think it's not that they were Loved and damaged, but these were So Loved, that we could never part with them.  Lisa and I agreed, never to get rid of them.  I mean, we haven't seen them in in 20 years, and Bam, we were playing just like old times. How did we remember all the names?!  

My Mom came home from work early, while we were brushing and playing with our ponies.  She thought we'd be embarrased if she threatened to take our picture.  I let her. We already had.  And we were laughing so hard at ourselves, I had tears in my eyes.  Only the best kind!    


Before I headed out, I had to share with Lisa one last vintage present, a Light Bright, that K had in her Goodwill pile.  I snagged it.  Technically, we have a second generation Light Bright around here somewhere. I remember stepping on tiny lights at the old house.  It's probably in the basement.   But this came with a box for the lights, and a mitful of paper, all ready to play.   If we'd had more time, we probably would have played with it too.  

Instead, I got a wild hair, and left it with Lisa for the girls to play with.  I thought they'd love it more.  They love all kinds of artsy things.   


2 hours later, my sister sent me this picture.  
And immediately, the girls had to call me, to Thank Me.  I  was touched, and just happy that all these great toys are finding new life with kids who appreciate their awesomeness.  (Or Grownups who do!) I Thanked K, for sharing all the vintage awesomeness, and forwarded on the pic to her.  
The old is cool again! 

Hey Li - wanna come over and play like it's 1986 again? ;) 

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

I had an appointment

Happy Birthday to me!  I had the appointment - the consultation appointment for my Breast Reduction.  So on Monday afternoon, my mother in law (who has had the same procedure) came over to batton down the hatches while I went up to Carmel.

I have never been in such a fancy doctor's office in my life!  I guess there's a lot of $$ in Plastic Surgery.  Queen Anne Chairs, girly flowery fabrics, an entire face Spa, right there!  I felt tremendously out of place in my jeans and croc sandals.  But they put me in a room, in a gown, and a nurse came in to get my story and answer/ask questions.

I should also warn, if this sort of talk bothers you, don't read on.

It's really surprising how to the point these people are, it's all very matter of fact.   I had to watch a rather graphic video that would have made Eric queasy, carefully outlining Exactly what they were going to do to me.  Two things that actually shocked me:  One, she told me that they'll send me home in a sports bra, but then I can pop over to Wal-mart or Meijer for another one, in a day or two.  I laughed out loud!  I've never been able to buy a bra at Wal-mart!   But in theory, that is one of my goals with this. The other thing was she mentioned I'm not allowed to take a bath for 3 weeks, quick showers are ok, as early as the day after surgery, but I can't soak.  I started to get worried, see I take a hot bath for back relief every day.  She smiled at me, and said, well, in theory, you won't have as much back pain.  It took me a second to get that. How crazy would that be?  To not NEED the bath.  I know reduction in back pain is what is hoped for, expected, and what we tell the insurance company in hopes they'll pay for it.  But I guess there was a part of me that didn't seriously expect that I actually would get back pain relief.  I haven't had a pain free day since I was 21, unless you could getting a spinal for a c-section, and I really don't, they don't go high enough on the spine.  But even if it just never got worse.  Well, that just might be worth it.

Then I got to meet the doctor.  Dr. T was very nice, she took one glance at me and could tell that I was uneven and big, and she described Exactly what she wanted to do.  Without getting too graphic, it's a lot more invasive a procedure than I thought, even moreso than the video, to get me down to a D, which is the size I was thinking.  I don't want to go too small, that would make me look - less like me.  But a D, or maybe a heavy C, that could be nice.  I could shop for bras anywhere.   It was a little disconcerting.  There will be consequences, and that was kind of upsetting too.  I don't think they are deal breaker consequences, but there will be nerve damage from the skin graft, and I just was really surprised by that.  They want to do it as an Outpatient Procedure.  That's weird to me. When my mother in law had hers done, she was in overnight. I'd be going home day of, and Eric would have to take care of me.  I can't lift Jacob for a month.    But I have a wonderful supporting husband, who is ok with all this, and a great mother in law who offered to help post-op.  And Luckily, the kids are at an age, they can help themselves.   Jacob can even climb into the car now... he doesn't always choose to do so, but he Can.

They asked when was my last Mammogram?  I'm a slacker.  I'd never had one. I got a script for one last August at my annual, because I'm 40 now, and that's officially old enough.  Yippee.    But then I lost the script. I didn't mean to lose it, my goal was to take back my health, and get all things checked out in 2015 that needed checking.  But I wasn't too worried. It was ok, I figured they'd want one before this procedure anyway.  And so it was.  They gave me the script for it when I went home.  They told me when they get the mammogram results and dr's dictation, they'll send it in to the insurance company, and see if they agree to their recommendations.   So we wait.  They thought that would by the end of May.  I guess if I had my choice, I would wait until August, when the boys go back to school to do the surgery.  It'll be easier if I don't have to juggle all three all day while I'm down.

Yesterday, which  I set a goal to call about the mammogram.  No one told me WHERE to get it done.  Not only did I call about it, but when I talked to the gal, she asked when I could do it.  I joked and said, I'm child free until 12 today, but maybe next Tuesday?   She said they had an opening at 11.   I said SOLD!   So I drove to Northwest Radiology over by St. V's, and they did the mammogram.  The facility was very clean, and the staff super nice.  The gal doing the test walked the perfect line of professionalism and having a good humor.  It could've been so much more uncomfortable, both physically and emotionally, and it wasn't.  I was surprised.  The head on shots were easy, because it's literally easy to throw the girls down on a plate.  But the side shots, they had to grab all the way to the muscle, and that was a little uncomfortable.  It was awkward to hug the machine to get the picture.  I called it hugging my boob buddy.  But you know, it's a helluva lot more uncomfortable to not catch breast cancer early.  It's not that bad.   I think I stresseed out more than I needed to.

Though still, afterwards, I felt like I needed chocolate or sushi, maybe both.  As it just so happened, both was on the docket.  I was on my way to Trader Joes' for yogurt, so I picked myself a chocolate pick-me-up, dark chocolate and roasted pistachio covered toffee.  Wickedness.   So sweet my teeth hurt eating it!  Chocolate did too the trick!

And then for my birthday my mother in law took us out for sushi for my birthday.   All was right with the world.   I took a selfie with my fancy camera phone.  :)



Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Happy Birthday to me!

My 40th year went by very quickly.  Why does this keep happening?  I can't believe I'm 41 now.  Guess it's safe to say, I'm in my 40s.

So for my Birthday, I am happy to say Christopher got a Black Belt in Karate.  Saturday was his Black Belt Test, and he passed with flying colors.


I think this about sums up his reaction. And mine.  I couldn't have been more proud of him.  


He looks good in a Black Belt.  We partied hard.   
But that story is for another blog.  
He's worked so hard the last few weeks, he's been up in  Carmel doing special sessions, and doing the Black Belt Boot Camps every weekend for months.   This most definitely was intense as any sport I've ever seen.  And he's built strength, both inside, and in his muscles.  

I promised him, for My Birthday, we weren't going anywhere for Karate.  
Honestly, I hadn't spent an evening at home doing nothing in so long, I didn't want to go anywhere.  
I would've been Perfectly content to do nothing all day.  

We came pretty close to that. The boyz were so kind.  They let me sleep in, Eric made honey flakey biscuits and maple snausages.  Then I got to just veg out and Chris and I finished the 6th Harry Potter Movie.   We started #7, part 1, before lunch, after which I got a big fat nap.   

Then, the only thing that could drag me out of the house, on my lazy day, dinner at my Dad's.  
And Birthday Party for Jacob, Lisa, Me, and Charlie!  With that kind of Festivity, how could I refuse?



Fishie Face Seestors.  


Me and my little Birthday Boy. 


Daddy and MB got crowns for all of us, and this pic Eric got, actually turned out pretty fabulously. 


Sam snapped this pic of us getting ready to blow out our candles.  Unfortunately, he didn't capture the big moments of all 4 of us and our candles.  But no birthday is complete without my Stepmom's Bowl Of Cake:  Chocolate cake layered with whip cream and strawberries, so beautiful it's served in a trifle bowl.   It's our favorite dessert. Every year she makes it for us, her mind boggles at why we always choose this.  But after 27 years of Bowl of Cake for our birthdays, we'd never want anything else. 

And it's always the Perfect ending to a Happy Birthday.  And it was Just So this time too. <3