Health

I went to see my endocrinologist last week for an annual checkup.

Good news....thyroid medication is dead balls on...feeling great mentally, emotionally, hair is not falling out....HOORAY!!!

Bad news....as my pant size has gone up, so has my cholesterol.

Hard pause.  Few curse words.  Time to drag my health to the top of the stack of things to focus on.

I have six months to turn things around before I have a blood recheck.  If I don't make improvements she will put me on cholesterol medicine.

Goodbye Bourbon
Goodbye Blowpops
Goodbye Carbs
Goodbye Sugar

I love you and will miss you, but seriously you have to go.

Wrapping Up Sophomore Year

My Chip turned sixteen this week!  What in the world!?!?!  I mean, he was just born!!!  Look at my little pumpkin, sugar-pie, honey bunch!  What a crazy head of hair he had!  He was NOT the best baby in the world, but I sure would like to snuggle up to his sweaty, mad little neck just one more time!

There have been some Sweet 16 birthday parties popping up lately for some of the girls in his circle and I asked him if he wanted to have a party.  He said "If by party you mean MJT (his best friend) comes over to spend the night and we eat breakfast tacos in the morning, then yes I do want a party."  Cracked me up!

So our celebration was pretty mild.  Some presents in the morning and his favorite dinner that night!  Momma's Sesame Chicken if you are curious what tops Chip's list of dinner favorites!  A little cookie from the Great American Cookie Company for dessert and it was a wrap!

Today is his last day of his sophomore year!  Big news....he managed to pass Pre-Ap Chemistry by the skin of his teeth!  Never thought a 70 would be celebrated, but here we are.  Whew!

This weekend, the Chipster gets a few nice days of rest and relaxation...and starts college on Tuesday!  Enjoy your brief break, Chip! 

Spring Football

The sweaty boys of football were back in action for one intersquad scrimmage spring football game last week!  It was hot out there, but it was fun to get on to the football field in front of the fans!  At least it was fun for me!  I had my eye on #52 all afternoon!

In other news....

• Work has been super busy...put in almost 50 hours last week. 
• Chip has his semester finals this coming week and then his Sophomore year of high school will be behind him. He will be a Junior!  Isn't that nuts? 
• Harry is filling out job applications every single day and all over this country.  No telling where he is going to land! 
• Went to get my blood drawn on Saturday morning for my annual endocrinologist appointment next week.  I got to the lab 15 minutes after they opened and there were forty people in front of me.   Forty!  Had to wait two hours!  AND I WAS FASTING!  No coffee - No food.  It was a long two hours! 
• I made up for the the fasting by going to Beth's for dinner!  Steak, potato, salad.  SCRUMPTIOUS!  In addition to the lovely humans, I also got to visit her new sweet puppy Presley.  She was precious.  Also, we ate on the patio and there were probably eight deer in her yard.  Lovely night!  
• This morning I went down to help serve church at Lakeside with my friend Mary.  We have the best talks on the way down and back and I treasure that time!  I have been going to Lakeside for about seven or so years and there is one gentlemen who I have seen probably twenty times and he is so, so quiet.  He might give me a quiet thank you for pouring him some juice, but just not a big talker. Today, he walked into the community room, walked up to me with a big smile on his face and said "I sure appreciate y'all coming down here to have church with us.  You take such good care of us and I am just thankful."  Made me so happy.  He has no idea how much that means to me. Made me sing extra loud today.  I love doing church at Lakeside.  
• Some sad stuff swirling around the hood, kids in car accidents, momma's fighting cancer, my sweet neighbor Judy lost her brother last week.  Life is hard.  It is supposed to be hard.  We have lessons to learn and we only learn them by walking through the hard.  We learn to lean into God, trust him with the hard, fix our eyes and our hearts on what is most important.  The people we get to love.  The people we get to serve. The love we get to share.  All the rest of it is just noise and distraction.  Let's all have tender hearts.  Toward ourselves and toward others.  Let's live like all that matters is our hearts. Wouldn't that be a game changer? 

Have a spectacular week!  I am going to sure try to have one myself! 

Family Archives

Hooray!  I finally received the first four printed volumes of my old blog in the mail.  I could not be more tickled with how they turned out.  I am calling them The Family Archives.  

I wrote a little forward inside the front cover of each one that says something like:

To my boys - I hope this book gives you a sweet glance back to your childhood and into your momma's  heart and soul.  Love - Mom

It may cost me a small fortune and there may be twenty separate volumes by the time I get all nine years printed, but totally worth it to me.  I really did take such joy in documenting our lives on my blog and I feel better knowing I have a hard copy in case the internet explodes. You just can't put a price on memories.   

Hope Tuesday gives you something to smile about! 

My Mother's Day

My Mother's Day festivities started on Saturday afternoon when my doorbell rang with a delivery. It was the most beautiful bouquet of flowers, wrapped in brown paper like they came directly from a flower shop on the corner in New York.  My sweet friends, Martha and Christy sent them to me.  I was so touched.  I mean, really touched. Aren't they gorgeous? 

I tried to take a picture of myself with the flowers to show Martha and Christy how much they meant to me.  That was hard to do and basically a disaster.  I need longer arms, some makeup and a face coach.  Does that face say "You guys!  I can't even believe there are people as kind and thoughtful as you walking on this earth!  How is it even possible that I am lucky enough to have you as MY friends?"  That is what I was trying to say with my face. Pretty sure I struck out, but man was this so sweet and appreciated. 

My boys both wrote me great letters that made me laugh, as they often do!  We went to an early showing of Melissa McCarthy's new movie Life of the Party.  It was silly, but we did laugh a lot.  We then came home and watched the Celtics beat the Cavs and ordered takeout from PF Chang's.  It was a great day. I didn't do any chores or cooking or working, so just a day to recharge and hang with my boys.  Perfect. 

I hope Monday is kind to you.  I really want it to be kind to me too!  

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

In my search for pictures of my mom for this post, it became very obvious to me that there are so few pictures of her because she is always knee deep in a project.  Especially when she visits me!  Poor thing!  I got tickled because 95% of the pictures of her, she is painting something, sewing something or repairing something.  She is a thinker and a doer.  I can come up with an idea but she can figure out how to make it work.  She is super talented and artistic.  

Got a drawer that won't shut?  No problem.  Give Lana a few minutes, an ice pick, a staple gun and some WD 40 and that drawer will be shutting.  

Need to figure out how to build a 3D mural of Godzilla attacking a city?  No worries and Lana makes it ten times cooler by adding lights.  

Have a vague idea for some curtains, but no pattern?  For most people that might be a problem, but not for Lana. With a measuring tape, notepad, pencil and hours of calculations and figuring, Lana can make you the curtain of your dreams. 

Need to completely overhaul a bathroom that is stuck in the eighties?  I mean, replace tiles, rip up carpet, lay down tile, replace light fixtures....only have five days?  No problem, let's get started.  

She rolls in with enthusiasm and I try to kill her with projects every single time.  Sorry Mom!  Thanks for always being my partner in crime and please enjoy these photos of some of our projects!  

Have a beautiful Mother's day today and know that in spite of the photo evidence of me working you to death.....

I really do love you!!!

Happy Mother's Day! 

Graduation

Hello all!  What a week it has been!  Chip and I were all set to fly out to Phoenix last Sunday to spend some time in Phoenix with Harry for packing and partying!  It's GRADUATION time!  

Guess who woke up at 12:15 a.m. on Sunday with the stupid stomach virus Chip had on Friday?  You remember....the virus where his organs and all bodily fluids were trying to leave his body by any means necessary.

Me!  It was me!  

It was awful.  I threw up so much.  Remember, when I said Chip thought he was dying?  I so completely understand that now.  You know how you always feel sicker in the middle of the night?  I know I sure did.  I thought at one point I was going to pass out.  It was the worst.  

About 6:00 in the morning, I started texting some of my girlfriends asking for their prayers.  Specifically that 1) I would survive the stomach virus of 2018 and 2) that I could change my travel arrangements, because there was no way in the world I could get on a plane to fly across the country when I was barely dragging myself from the bed to the bathroom.  

As per usual with this amazing group of friends, they sprang into action.  They were praying and sending me encouragement, Connie called Southwest to change my flights for me (even got me a little rebate on my flight!), there was a bag of get well supplies dropped off at my doorstep with Pedialyte, Pedialyte Ice Pops, Soup, Crackers.  They checked on me all through the day, they offered to run errands, bring Chip food, just over and above.  They are the BEST!  I felt better almost immediately, having tossed out my lifeline and having them reach back.  

After a wreck of a Sunday, Monday dawned a new day.  I was not 100%.  Honestly, I was probably about 50%, but we got it together and made it to the airport.  

My little Chip was the best nurse.  He took great care of me!  Well, except for when he was trying to cover me up with my weighted blanket and damn near knocked me unconscious!  We had a hard laugh about that!

All my prayers were answered and the flight to Phoenix was free of any stomach virus antics!  We got picked up by Harry at the airport and I went immediately to the hotel to rest up and relax. I really wanted to be much better for Graduation Tuesday.  Callie and her girls stepped in for me and got Harry's apartment packed up for him to move home.  So grateful they were there to help him in my place.

Tuesday morning, I woke up and felt pretty good.  YAY!  We stayed at a Residence Inn and they had a little kitchenette with a full size coffee pot.  This should really be required in all hotels.  Made me so happy. 

Chip and I went out for a little stroll around Harry's downtown campus.  All we kept saying was....doesn't it seem like we just dropped him off?  Four years flew by. 

ASU was such a great fit for Harry and I am not sure his college experience could have been any better.  So proud of that kid and grateful to this university for creating an environment where he was able to thrive.

I took the kids out for a celebration lunch at Pomo Pizza - one of Harry's favorites.  It was a balmy 104 degrees in Phoenix.  My word.  Don't even tell me it was a dry heat. I do not want to hear it.

I took this great "stare into the sun and burn your retinas" picture in the parking lot.  

What is wrong with me? 

This delicious soup hit the spot - even though it was 104 outside. I was running on fumes and this was tasty and mild and easy to eat.  And there was bread.  Bread, bread, bread.

Next door was a place called Luna Gelato.  Malarie bought dessert for everyone! Super sweet!   

I had a little cup of dairy free lemon.  It was refreshing and zippy. 

A little bit better picture of us leaving.  Some nice shade.  Eyes are able to be open. That's better. 

We went back to our hotel room and let Harry open a couple of gifts. TWO cards from Mer and Grandpa!  He loved them.  I also let him see the project I had been working on.  It was a movie!  All of our family members that couldn't make it to Phoenix for graduation, sent me video clips of their best wishes for Tyler and I made them into a movie.  All by myself!  It was made in iMovie, which is ridiculously easy to use.  It was a whole 7 minutes long.  I felt really fancy.  It got some laughs and I called it a success! 

Then it was time for graduation. The ceremony was just a couple of blocks from our hotel, so we walked over even though it felt like walking inside of a convection oven.  Hot air everywhere.  As soon as we got through the blessed air conditioned doors we found our graduate waiting in the holding area!  He was wearing tennis shoes and a Celtics jersey under his gown!

All smiles. 

Harry with one of his buddies and also roommate, Kyle.  They met the first day of Freshman orientation and have been friends through it all.  Both graduating with Sports Journalism degrees.  Can't wait to see where they end up! 

Too cool for school. 

The ceremony was great - not too long.  They kept things moving really well.  I sat way at the top of a section and close to the exit.  Only had to go to the bathroom three times!  

Then it was time to put a hug on my boy! 

He did it! 

We did it!  

My heart could just burst with pride.  So many of my friends have kids graduating from college and from high school and for me, those have been two very different experiences. Thinking back, I was much more emotional during Harry's high school graduation, probably because he was leaving the nest and going to be living away from me for the first time ever.  And not just away from me, far, far away from me.  This college graduation felt much happier.  Like a solid "Way to Go!"  I only got teared up once, when the dean asked the parents to stand and the graduates gave us a round of applause for the help and support we gave them as they went through college. 

In full disclosure, there was also the undercurrent of our broken family and separate celebrations and my boys going back and forth between their parents.  It was not great.  There were several moments during this happy occasion that I wanted to punch something really hard or lay in the floor and cry.  Not many moments, but they were there for sure. But we made it.  We can do hard things. We celebrated.  We cheered.  College degree is in hand!  

Then the trip home.  I had my maiden voyage with Uber. Who am I?  Making movies - calling Ubers?  I have ridden in an Uber with my nieces on some of our girls trips, but I have never scheduled one myself. So easy and convenient.  I was worried there might be a glitch so we headed to the airport early.  Not one glitch.  We got to the airport in about eleven minutes for the low, low price of $10!  My travel partner was not happy about being at our gate two and a half hours early, but too bad! 

Just one day later, this tall drink of water rolled into my driveway and four years of his life threw up in my garage.  I could not be happier.  Seriously.  So damn happy to have Harry here.  I have missed him. 

I have done 14 loads of his laundry and we are putting every bin through a Swedish Death Cleaning process before anything makes it into the house. 

To wrap this up, let me give a huge shout out to my tribe for praying me through this weekend.  I honestly could not have done it without them.  So much love in my heart for my people.  

Diarrhea McBarfy Pants

Isn't that a fabulous title for a blog post?

It describes perfectly what I was calling my Chipster yesterday from 3:00 in the morning until about 3:00 in the afternoon.  Twelve hours of "Good grief, how is there anything left in your body? Where is it all coming from!"

About three hours into the ordeal, he was standing in the shower throwing up and moaning. I think his stomach was physically trying to remove itself from his body.

About four hours in, he was certain he was going to die. Actually, I think he was wishing he would die.

About six hours in, when he went through the roof with a Charlie horse in his left leg, I thought I would have a heart attack bolting up the stairs to help him.  He was in serious pain!

He drank tons of gatorade, water and ate popsicles....and threw up tons of gatorade, water and popsicles.  It was vicious.

We finally made it to the twelve hour mark and it eased up.  He ate about a cup of plain pasta about 6:00 last night and that was all he managed to keep down for the day.

He woke up six pounds lighter this morning, feeling great and starving!

It was not the best Friday ever, but the weekend is here nonetheless!  Hooray!

*********************************************************************************

In other news.....

• I dropped off TWDITW this morning at the kennel to board while we attend Harry's graduation and took this picture of myself in the parking lot.  Look at that giant smile on my face!  Should it make you this happy to drop your dog off at the kennel?  Seems wrong...but feels so right!  A short vacation away from my Cooper will surely make me love him more.

• Cooper update:  He is better on two doses of Prozac a day, but he's still not great.  I accidentally startled him by rolling over in my own bed one night this week and he came unglued.  He must have been in a deep sleep, and when he felt me move he was frightened.  You know they say fear will make you fight or flight.  He chose to fight.  It actually woke Chip up from down the hall and he came to my room to see what happened. Thankfully, I was able to grab Coop by the collar until he realized it was me in the dark he was trying to defend himself against. He immediately softened and snuggled up to my neck like "God mom, you scared me to death!  I thought you were the devil himself."  It was terrifying enough that I evicted him from the room.  Not a great way to be jolted awake in the middle of the night so he will be sleeping out in the hallway.  I wish I just knew what happened to this boy in the first few weeks of his life that made him so anxious and fearful and weirdly wired.  Can someone please invent a machine that read a dog's mind?  Thanks.

• I have been working on a little creative project for Harry's graduation and it has been fun!  Hopefully, I will be able to share it with you guys after he sees it! 

• Speaking of Harry...he applied for a job right here in our hometown.  Wouldn't that make his momma's heart just bust with happiness if that situation could work out!  A couple of my fabulous friends put in a good word for him and I am so grateful!  Fingers crossed.

• Work has been busy.  Getting back into the swing of proposal work has not been too bad.  Contributing to a team effort, thinking about hard problems and how to solve them, talking to a lot more human adult people during the day has been kind of great! 

• This was my last week to read with my little 2nd graders. I can't believe how fast the school year zipped by!  They probably have a different opinion about that! They were so darling and just made my Thursday mornings something to look forward to.

• I also squeezed in a quick haircut this week and am about to head out for a pedicure!  Say a prayer for the person who has to tackle these feet for the first time this summer!  I carry such guilt for my atrocious feet...but also carry a big gratuity to thank them for service above and beyond! 

Hope your weekend is lovely!