Still alive after all

At some point last week, umm…Tuesday, I guess it was, I had one of those Big Giant Weird Episodes.  Kids were home, blood pressure machine was brought to me in the moment, and I discovered to my utter horror that my blood pressure was way above normal and into the “Oh Wow, I Might Die From This” level of blood pressure.  I say “discovered” as if it happened right them, but in the moment numbers meant absolutely nothing to me, I just saw big ones and went “lightbulb!” and moved on with my day, as it was both a piano lesson day and the day that we metaphorically toured the junior high with my eldest son.  There will be another post with pictures and meanderings about that subject another day, perhaps later in the week when I’m not tremendously busy with the 12 billion things the school scheduled this week (why do they do it like that?!?!?!).

 

In any case, I called around and tried to report this info to various doctors the next morning.  My primary care doctor was the only one that responded in a timely manner and provided a quick fix, too, so he gets Extra Bonus Awesome points.  I followed the program provided, having been following it diligently the last week, and am happy to report that my blood pressure is back in the Land of the Living range.  I’ve stopped being tremendously dizzy all the time.  I am not nauseated all the time.  My Headache of Doom gradually went down to the level of Rather Annoying Daily Occurrence instead of OH MY GOD, MY HEAD.  Best of all I’m able to read again.

 

So I spent three days doing practically nothing besides luxuriating in reading (well, some laundry and dishes) and marveling on the fact that I waited so long to read The Hunger Games trilogy.  Greg had pink eye, so he wasn’t feeling up to much either.

 

To sum up: I am not dead.  I am terribly busy.  Some day in the future there will be actual updates with pictures again, if I ever find my camera.  Woo hoo.

Back in the saddle

Sorry about last week, y’all.  Didn’t mean to scare/worry anyone.  I was having some problems with the meds I was on and apparently it wasn’t just the head-poundingness that was a side effect, but the depression as well.  I got a call from the neurologists office, apologizing for having not called me back sooner (my message went astray and the doctor was off at a conference).  The told me to stop the new meds immediately and they’d call me back this week with info about NEW new meds, et al.  So I stopped the old new meds, felt a bit better Saturday, but had to stay home for the weekend to attend a sick boyo.  Yesterday I was doing all right, but today I feel weird again.  Not so weird as last week weird, just different.  So I’m taking things one day at a time and trying to be easier on myself when stuff doesn’t get done on the schedule I set for myself.  And now I’m going to go wander off and do something that requires less concentration because talking/typing seems not to be my strong suit today.  *waves at the internet*

Giving myself a break

I’ve been writing this post in my head all day.  The long and short of it is this: it’s February, I’m depressed, there’s nothing anyone can do about it, and instead of fighting it I’m going to go with the flow and just let it be this week.  I’m tired of not knowing what’s wrong with me, tired of pulling over the car to cry every time I’ve dropped the children off somewhere and I’m finally alone, tired of being so freaking tired, tired of the headaches, the buzzing and pounding in my head, worrying, and everything else in the universe.  And since there’s not anything to be done about it, I’m going to hole up in my house with some good books, some hot tea, some snuggly children, and ignore everything for a while.  See you around when my head is back in a better place.  xoxo, me.

Don’t Just Talk About It, Round Up

Yesterday was the last day of my personal challenge.  I will admit that I was a little sad that no one joined me on it.  Oh well,  moving on.

 

Here’s a round up of areas that I worked on that I somehow managed not to post photos of earlier in the process.  Some were places I didn’t have finished on time and others were places I didn’t have on the list but did anyway.

The hallway bathroom I didn’t take any before photos of. It didn’t look a whole lot different. Here it is with its new Reveille:

Here are the handsome new towels my mom got the boys:

And here are the tags for the boys. David is the crocodile, Ben is the love animals, and Greg is the cat.

 

The desk area hasn’t changed a lot since the middle of things, but it’s still a work in progress, here it is mid process:

The desk area now:

(the main change: I sent away the paper file box and brought back in the plastic box because it’s sturdier in the long run, then piled up the stuff over there while I’m working on sorting through it all.  The sorting is taking forever because I haven’t had enough time to dedicate to it yet.)

 

The shelving units in my room before: super crowded.

The shelving units after:

(I have actually only gotten rid of a small pile of papers and four books.  The rest just got re-sorted back to the places they were meant to be living in the first place.)

 

David’s room, mid process.  Ah, it looked so clean.  Too bad you couldn’t see all the stuff on his bed.

 

David’s room now:  His aunt April donated an old computer for his use.  It doesn’t have wireless access to the internet, so unless a parent gives him the super-long ethernet cable, there’s no internet in his bedroom.  But still, he can write papers, play a certain subset of his computer games, use iTunes, and draw lots and lots of weird stuff with the mouse.  Plus there’s an awesome outer space screen saver. The other half of his desk is covered in his current Lego battle.

Ben & Greg’s room mid-process:

Greg and Ben’s room now: The matching chairs came FREE from the garage, much to my happiness.  Greg decided he was finally tired of the Moon Sand mess, so out that went.  One of the teachers at school, who is mom to 2 ladies that have taught Ben & Greg, overheard of my yearning for a second computer for the house for boy use, and showed up one day during my volunteer hours up there with a computer very, very similar to the one April had given us for the big boy. (I know this sounds confusing “second computer.” When I had been talking about it, April hadn’t given us the one in D’s room yet.  And then once she did he rejected it because of the lack of internet issue.  BUT, once the little kids got and enthusiastically embraced their new-to-them computer, he was all “whatever happened to that other one?” and so now both rooms have one.  Little kids room has one that’s more disabled for little kid use, chock full of educational games.  Big kids room has a regular one that we’ll put big kid stuff on.)

 

The top of the dryer wasn’t on the list, but it should have been. Before: mess, mess, mess.

The top of the dryer, now: nice! (sorry for the angle change there!)

The other side of the laundry room has new labels for things (soap & different recycling bins), printed for free from my computer on regular computer paper and laminated with clear contact paper I had on hand as well.

 

The piano area before: mess, mess, mess.

The piano area after: I showed you where the books ended up, but not how the piano area looks now.  I just added a stack off boxes from elsewhere, the snow dragon, and a strand of music garland from my first Homecoming mum (what, don’t look at me like that.  Yes, it’s 22 years old.  It’s plastic.  Whee!)

And that’s all folks.  I am done!  Well, not really, as there’s always more to do, but I am done having a project a day all week long.  It’ll be nice to just take things slowly again. 

Don’t Just Talk About It, Do It; The Last Day!

It’s the last day of the challenge and today I’m supposed to work on my bathroom towel shelf.  I’d asked in advance for my dad to bring his power hammer up for me, but he thought it was already here so he didn’t bring it, and guess what?  It wasn’t here.  Still, I picked out the wood I want to use for the shelves, picked out the wood that I need for holding the shelves up, and have marked where I want the shelves to go.  I just have to wait on the drill, which won’t come until he does.

So since that’s not working out for me (and really, has anything this month?) I’m back to working on memory albums today in the short amount of time I have without meetings or volunteer work or eating (which really just amounts to an hour, sadly).

Today, whatever that is

I have no idea what day I’m supposed to be on at this point in the challenge.  I do know that I was supposed to work on the kids bathroom today, spiffying it up.  I don’t have anything to do in there, though.  I reorganized just as the challenge started, prompted by my husband who couldn’t find sheets (why was he looking for them?  I don’t know! I found several of his pairs of workout shorts in there, though, so he was really happy.).  My mom bought the kids new towels last week and I ironed tags on them so they know which one belongs to each of them (and I know which kid belongs to the one left on the floor, bwahaha).  So new towels ftw!  Other than that the bathroom needs some major love and there’s not energy or money to do it with right now.  I have made a list, however for future reference:

1. new light fixture above the vanity, something not ropy and not intricately detailed so less need to do such time intensive cleaning
2. vent in place in of the heat lamp so less mold sprouting and therefore less bleach use and therefore fewer migraines
3. new paint everywhere, preferably not in the weird green the walls are currently sporting (and also preferably not painted by us, as we are Not Good At Painting)

Also, at some point I skipped finishing the front hallway closet, so that’s what I am actually working on today.  (I tried a new photo system upload today, so you have to click a photo to get to the slideshow.  If you want texty details, click permalink and it’ll take you  to those.  I don’t think I’ll use this system again, but it was too much work to redo today.)

I am always trying to catch up on something

So here’s how the rest of the week went:

Wednesday my friend was sick, so our coffee date was cancelled yet again.  I despair of ever seeing her.  However it was a blessing in disguise, as Greg and I had much needed rest and relaxation time and a bit of putting away some memory stuff into binders (if you’d like to see how I do that, see this post here.  We’re in a much better starting place this time around, with most of the stuff to be put into the binders inside hanging files sorted by school year, then kid.  I’m down to about three milk crates of files left to go, which is a teeny tiny amount compare to where I was a year ago).  The kids love digging through their binders of old school and art work, so we did that in the evening before and after dinner.

Thursday we got up and got ready as quick as possible, as it was my big day: EEG test!  My parents picked us all up and we dropped the youngest two off with the friend that was taking them to their schools (she’s got kids at both places, too) and then we dropped David off for his violin lessons before school.  We got to the hospital parking lot before the crowds showed up, before anyone showed up, really.  We had to wait for the office to open, even though the paperwork said to show up a half hour before the appointment time (mine was the first of the day, so they weren’t open yet).  Eventually they opened up and called me back.  More about the testing on my health blog.  It was over very quickly and then my parents took me home to shower the goo out of my hair (and yes, I was careful – I had the phone on the floor next to the shower in case I passed out or something).  I felt fine for the next hour or two, but then I could feel something building up, something weird, so I called and cancelled my piano lesson and went to lie down for a while.  Eventually went with my parents to pick up the kids (they drove; I was quite spacey by that point).  I went to bed way early that night, not even stopping for dinner.

Friday I got up still feeling weird, but okay enough to get the kids to school, so off they went.  Then the smallest boy and I hung out with my mom for a while before having coffee with the neighbor and her kids.  Everybody was having a rough day, it seemed.  Greg’s friend M. was not feeling up to playing a whole lot and Greg was not interested in being the doctor, so he played with little C. who really isn’t that little any more.  Afterwards my parents offered to take me out for comfort food: Olive Garden, so we went out there and ate lots of yumminess.  Then the boychild and I came home and helped Nick get packed up for a last minute scout camping trip.  Got them packed up and off for that, then packed up the other kids and spent a couple nights with my parents, as I’m not feeling entirely confident in being alone lately with this weirdness that I have going on.  I mean, alone during the day, that’s a normal kind of alone, but alone at night being the only parent on duty?  That’s a stressful kind of alone I wasn’t ready for this weekend.  So we spent two nights “camping” at the grandparents house, watching cheesy movies and eating much in the way of Food That Should Be Eaten Only In Moderation (my dad and I had nachos at 1 a.m. one early morning.  I’m never up at that time these days).

Saturday we actually got to see Nick and David at church for a while (they took a break from the camping for church).  I’m not on hospitality duty this month, so I didn’t have to do any of that.  We had a meeting for special music and I volunteered to do a piano solo, as well as a piano duet with my mother-in-law again, to play clarinet with the ensemble whenever they meet, and to be part of the choir should they ever find someone willing to lead one again.  Nick ushered, then did his job making copies of sermons for people, then lead the older kids through their practice for Bible Baseball (which is coming up in a couple weeks at our big Regional Weekend event).  Ben had another tooth starting to go all wiggly, so he showed it to everyone, leading to him being chased around by several people (including adults) who wanted to help him pull it out.  He was quite amused.

Today we helped my parents clean up from our visit, then came home and cleaned up at our own house. I took the kids out around the block a few times for bike rides. Once Nick and David returned from camping, we helped sort and put away/and or clean equipment from that (I checked their camera and they took zero pictures this weekend.  I didn’t either, for that matter).  Nick took Ben out to collect trash along the roadsides in our neighborhood for his scout project.  Then they all worked in the garden planting our late winter vegetables: garlic, collards, arugula, beets, bib lettuce.  I stayed inside and folded all the laundry in the universe while watching men’s figure skating.  :)

Now while I’m typing it’s pitch black outside and I can just barely see the ghostly forms of my kids jumping on the trampoline.  They have on no jackets and no shoes and they are not cold at all.  I’m indoors, in jeans and a sweater and covered in a blanket and hothothot computer and shivering.  Ah, youth.

Trip to Dallas

Yesterday the bookend kids and I made the trip to Dallas to Cook’s Children’s Outpatient Clinic to have David checked for scoliosis. We started out super early, just in case we got lost. Hehehe. We left around 8:30am for a 12:30pm appointment. Stopped around 10am for gas and a snack, then again at 11am for lunch at Denny’s (there were no other restaurants around in the area just before the construction). We were back on the road by 11:30 and were, according to our GoogleMaps directions, less than 10 minutes from our destination.

But GoogleMaps does not keep up with CONSTRUCTION. And there was A LOT. I was able to get off at the right exit, but not allowed to make a left turn. I could see up ahead where people were using the road, but had no way to get there. I turned right and hoped for a work around. No such luck. Got shunted onto another highway. Ended up pulling over and calling the lovely ladies at the front desk of our doctor’s office. They weren’t familiar with the area I was in (they come in from the opposite direction), but pulled up maps and tried to figure out how to get us there. They were so very sweet and helpful. We finally got to the building with one minute to spare for our “please come in 30 minutes in advance to fill out paperwork” time. Paper work turned out to be two signatures and two dates.

If you ever get asked if you want to go to Cook’s Children’s Hospital or would you rather go to the South Lake clinic, here’s my answer, in picture form (mouse over them for descriptions):

Other bonuses: Keurig coffee maker with many flavor options, no parking confusion, no wandering lost through a large hospital, no giant hordes of people to wade through.

We saw his old pediatric orthopedic surgeon, the one Cigna said they weren’t covering last year, but now are. He got x-rays taken, measured on blocks,etc, and found out that he’s just fine. His hemihypertrophy is what caused the nurse to think scoliosis and it’s not gotten any worse this last year. We’ll recheck again next year and re-evaluate then.

We were out of there by 2pm and managed only one bathroom/Frosty stop on the way home:

We got to Tyler by 5pm, picked up Ben (who was hanging out with his friends Amy & Matthew), dropped by the house to get our piano stuff, and headed over to piano lessons, only slightly late. All in all a very nice day.

(As long as you’re not thinking about the fact that I was within 20 minutes of my best friend for a large portion of the day and didn’t get to see her. And this trip kept me from making a trip this weekend. Not thinking about that at all.)

RA Guy’s Book Club: “How To Be Sick”

In case you haven’t seen it, there’s a discussion over at

RA Guy’s Book Club on the book: “How To Be Sick” by Toni Bernhard.

Through the magic of Kindle I went from the panic of ACK!  I need to go to the bookstore!  to  AHHHH…. book in hand.  I do so love my Kindle.  I’ve read the first couple chapters already, keep tissues close by if you are easily emotional, as I am lately.  I’ve gone over and answered the discussion questions already as well, but you’ll have to go over there to read my answers.  :)

(And I know some of you may flinch at “A Buddhist-inspired Guide” but I’ve found Buddhist inspired guides to be some of the least offensive things in the universe and usually some of the most helpful.  So I’m going with it.)

Don’t Just Talk About It, Days 13,14, & 15

When I first made my list earlier this month, I had no idea that I’d end up having the kind of week I have scheduled ahead of me.  Monday I have a two-hour webinar for scouts, Tuesday I’m going to spend all day driving to and from Dallas with David, getting his back checked for scoliosis, Wednesday I have a half day playdate (planned for two weeks ago, then rescheduled) to catch up with a friend that I haven’t seen since my birthday last April, Thursday I’m going in to the hospital to have an EEG done to see if I’m having mini seizures, and Friday I’m having another catch-up playdate with a different friend (also rescheduled) who I thought I’d seen this month, but apparently haven’t yet.

Fortunately I’ve already done days 16 & 17.  YAY.  So today I’m going to try to get 13, 14, & 15 all done.  Watch for updates.  There should be some.  You know, unless I fall over and hit my head or something. *sigh*

Update 1:

 

BEFORE:

Two hours later, I have emptied the entire desk-that-was-my-grandmothers (now referred to as the craft desk because that’s a less unwieldy phrase), taken stuff out, looked at it, pitched some of it in the trash, designated other bits -one entire drawer actually- for sale on ebay  (anyone interested in some Stampin’ Up?), and moved another whole drawer over to another area, where I feel like I might feel more compelled to write notes & cards (since I won’t have to dig through the scary deep drawer to find them).  I have also dug through the entire cart, following the same process as above, a drawer in the other cart, and the small three drawered cubby as well.  I watched episode 1 & 2 of the first season of the UK version of Being Human while doing so.  I say “watched” but listened was more like it.  I wanted to see it because I liked the werewolf from when he was on Little Dorrit.  I liked him here, too, which was unfortunate because the show is too bloody for me.  :(

Now the children are home, it’s lunch time, and we’re digging through drawer 2 of the second cart.  We may have to stop to do tie-dye before we move on, since it takes up a lot of space and the children would rather we tie-dye today than throw it out unused.  I agree with them.  If only we had some white t-shirts.  Off to check for shirt availability.

Update 2:

An hour later, Nick has gone off to work and I have finished emptying the second cart.  Another trash can has been added, as the first one is FULL.  The tie-dye did not pan out, as only one kid has a shirt available for  it.  The top of the desk is left to do, as is finding a home off the floor for all the paper products (which do not fit into the desk).

 

MIDWAY:

 

However, the day is still rain-free, the kids are awake and at liberty, so they are being drafted into “Day 15″ and will help me carry heavy stuff in the garage.  I can hear them discussing it amongst themselves right now.  ”We have to help her because she’s TIRED.”  ”We’ll carry the heavy stuff and then she’ll be happy and let us have screen time later.”  They are SO RIGHT on both counts. (In other news, my bff read my earlier update & called & excused me from coming to her house this weekend, which was a relief because I was fairly certain I’d be dead by then.  Two trips to DFW in one week do not make for a happy Lisa.  On the other hand, I had wanted to see the Harry Potter party leftovers and love on her and her kids.  Ah well, there will be time for that next month.)

Update 3:

Another hour later, because I’m about to pass out and this may be the last update of the day.  The two younger kids have been very good helpers, as evidenced by the quotes above (you all knew that was Ben & Greg, right?).  David got mad about 3 minutes in because I wouldn’t let him keep his large supply of sticks in the garage any longer.  He left to take a giant bag of Lego bricks inside (why was it in the garage?  no idea) and never came back out again.  Greg and Ben helped me break down boxes, sort things into recycling bins (certain things can go in the one that goes out to the street that can’t go directly to the recycle center and vice versa) and the dumpster, and sort other things into whose room in the house they belonged to for once they go back inside.  Now we have a couple bins of things that go back in the house, which worries me a bit.  But the garage has been tidied up a reasonable amount, my trunk is full of more stuff for Goodwill, and in a few minutes it’ll also have been swept.  And then I’m going to go lie down on the couch and watch The Secret of Moonacre again with Greg because it is a delightful movie and I am exhausted.

 

Update 4:

(Are you shocked?)

Well, another hour has gone by and I haven’t passed out yet.  The kids didn’t want to watch a movie just yet.  ”It’s a lovely day, Mama!”  And it is.  Breezy, warm.  Non-standard January weather.  They wanted to ride bikes in front of the house.  Sure, why not.  Well, here’s why: we tidied the bikes into a figurative corner and couldn’t get them out without getting the van out of the garage.  As long as the van was out and there was more space to move around in, why not reconfigure the garage so the bikes are easy to get to and the van seats (which rarely leave the garage these days) are less open to the elements?  So the kids got their bikes out, I shifted the other stuff while they were riding, et voila!  Now they can get to their bikes & helmets & padding on their own and I, thanks to some hooks hung on the wall to contain their never-used golf sets, have comfy seats inside the garage to watch the festivities from, out of the sun and elements.  Wahoo!

BEFORE:

messy, hard to get around stuff

AFTER:

stuff we like to use front and center by the door, tidied up & purged of extras (except that small desk, which is destined for my in-laws house once their remodeling is complete, which will be soon)