Monday

Well, it's yet another week here in Summer 2008. Summer vacation just seems to be flying by for us this year. I cannot believe today is the last day of June! Yikes! Only 38 days until school is back in session! WOW! Okay...so back to Monday. So far it is off to a good start! I made it in to the gym for Bodystep this morning. That's always a fun class. We were a few minutes late but still made it in before class started. I keep forgetting that poor Clara needs some extra help right now. She can't buckle her sandals and she can't dress herself with the sling on. And I can take the sling off...but then she can't put it back on. Lot's of little things that I am used to her being able to do by herself made for us running just a bit behind this morning. But in the end, we made it! Bodystep was good and bad. Good in that I got to grab my far edge spot and not feel like I had someone on top of me (darn those space issues of mine!), and bad because a few minutes into the class Captain Morgan set up her bench directly in my line of sight to the front. Now...this lady has a name and it is certainly NOT Cap'n Morgan. I just call her Captain Morgan because she always comes in late, with a diet coke in her hand, and is so spastic that I am always wondering if it's straight diet coke she's drinking and suspecting it is heavily spiked with some Captain Morgan's Rum. To say that she is "distracting" is the understatement of the year! She is NEVER on the right foot. When the whole class is facing the left, she is SURE to be facing the right. She is, hands down, one of the most uncoordinated people I have ever witnessed. And quite frankly, I'm amazed she'd take on a step class...with such major coordination issues. It forces me to concentrate extra hard when she is afoot and anywhere at all in my line of sight because mostly, if I watch her, then I am screwed because she's always on the wrong foot and facing the wrong direction and because I always just want to bust out laughing. So, in addition to getting a good sweat on this morning, my brain got a good workout as well! Now Clara and I are home. I am going to grab a quick shower, then head out to the library and the grocery store. Then later this afternoon Miss Clara has an appointment with the pediatric orthopedist to have her arm set and casted. Then tonight we are off to dinner with some friends. All in all it is a good and busy Monday! After dinner tonight I am hoping Chris will have enough energy to work on my website. I have lots of fantastic new stuff I want to get on there and I need his expertise! TTFN!

The Verdict is IN! Clara's Arm Is.......

Broken! Yep. After a freak, minor, flipping over onto her wrist incident on Thursday afternoon Clara has complained about her wrist and arm hurting. After debating for a couple of days and watching her and seeing if there was any improvement or worsening of the situation, I finally drove her to Urgent Care today to have Clara's arm looked at. Just to, you know, rule out that whole fracture scenario. And it very quickly came back as broken! So she is all splinted up and sporting a lovely sling and we are off to see the pediatric orthopedist on Monday for a cast! Such fun at the height of swim season and 112 degree days here in the Arizona summer. Before you quickly slap that "Bad Mommy" label on me you should know that A) I already beat you to that one! And B) the reason it took so long to take her in is that there was precious little swelling or bruising. Granted...there was a little. But nothing that obviously screamed BROKEN BONE! And she has been playing and swimming and going to VBS and getting along just beautifully in life. Except for the occasional complaint that her arm hurts. WE now know that she had reason to complain and it explains why the child keeps waking up several times in the night to come visit with her mommy. Hopefully with the arm splinted and secured it will be a bit more comfortable for her and once it is casted she will be able to get back to her wild and rambunctious ways of life! In the meantime...no swimming for Clarabelle. No outside playing. No nothing! Holding pattern! I think she thinks it's all pretty cool and promptly told the nurse there that she wants a PINK cast! No hesitation in that one at all! So she is looking forward to her first orthopedic encounter! Don't ya just love the hurdles of childhood?!

Chris is Out of Town...

and so of course we are sitting here tonight wondering if I need to take Clara to the emergency room and have her wrist x-rayed. She fell off of Jackie's lap this afternoon...not a far fall at all, but apparently it has really hurt something. Clara has complained pretty consistently since I got her home today. Motrin did not seem to really knock it back for her. I finally got her all bedded down and we will reevaluate the situation in the morning. Her left hand does seem to be slightly swollen. But it could be just a sprain. If it is broken, then most likely it will swell up a good bit in the night. And so...holding pattern. Honestly, this happens nearly every time Chris goes out of town for an extended time. There always seems to be some major injury requiring emergency medical attention in the form of stitches or x-rays, some major drama (like my car being majorly rear ended!) or some major crisis like, oh, say, a SNAKE slithering through my family room. So this turn of events does not surprise me in the least! Of course...timing is lousy! WE have friends scheduled to come over and play tomorrow after VBS. Clara has been SO looking forward to this. They are supposed to swim and play. With the exciting thunderstorms and lightening...and now the prospect of a broken wrist....well. Let's just say tomorrow might not exactly go as planned! But I have spent the evening getting all ready for guests anyway. And of course, when you have guests coming and lots to do for that, naturally you decide to totally clean out the master bedroom closet, thus creating a whole HUGE disaster of a mess! Yeah. I simply could not control the urge and before I even realized what I was doing, half of my closet was no longer in the closet and piles were everywhere and the organizational juices were just a flowing! It was NUTS! But as I sit here tonight I have to say that I have a huge sense of accomplishment! And on that note I have GOT to go to bed. I have a tennis lesson in the morning. Hey...MAYBE my instructor will show up this time!

Just Catching Up

So much has happened since my last entry...but then again...not so much. Nothing really worth blogging about, I suppose. And yet. Here I sit. We survived our dinner get together last week. It was just lovely. Then I spent Saturday morning playing with my neighbor's three sweet kiddos so they could go to the hospital to visit with their precious new arrival. Then that afternoon Chris announced he was in need of new socks and underwear and what not...so we all headed off to Kohl's for some shopping excitement. Now...I can't really say the kids were that excited. But it WAS a chance to get out of the house and do something different for a change. That evening we had a quiet dinner and watched a movie. The National Treasure movie. First one I think. It was good and we enjoyed it. Then we all hit the sack and were up and at it early the next morning and headed out the door for church. After church we all went to lunch at the mexican restaurant. Yummy! Then Chris had to get on out the door and hit the road for San Diego. That left me behind here with the three kiddos! So that was last week.

This week finds us in the VBS flow of life. Clara is attending VBS at St. Andrews. The boys are LOVING the fact that she is attending and is GONE for three hours each morning. I have been making good use of the time she is down there as well. Mostly I have been trying to use the time at the gym...or at least part of it. I've been taking that danged heart monitor for a spin this week. Or rather, it has been taking me! There is a huge frustration level with that thing. HUGE! But I finally felt like it was halfway accurate here on Tuesday. Finally! I didn't make it to the gym on Monday. I generally go for Bodystep...however, Mother Nature came and got me Monday morning and boy was she pissy this time! It was like some revenge period from hell. I don't know when I have cramped so badly or hurt so much. I had a chiropractor's appointment that morning because my back has been bothering me for a few days now. I couldn't really tell whether or not the adjustment did any good at all because my period was making it feel as though someone was trying to rip my spine out through my lower back. You know it's bad when you catch yourself taking those cleansing breaths and just trying to recall enough lamaze breathing to not die. It was a multi ibuprofen and multi menstrual relief meds kind of day. On the way out the door at the chiropractor the Dr. tells me "Don't run today. Let all of this adjustment settle down before you do that." LOL! LIke I could have run! I was thinking "Holy crap! It's all I can do not to hit my knees and CRAWL out to my car...let alone RUN!" So Monday was pretty much just agony. Tuesday much better. I had my heart monitor going. Lot's of bad words in my brain and frustration...but in the end I think I was triumphant. I suspect it was working fine earlier in the day...just a matter of figuring out which freaking button to push. MEN obviously invent these stupid things. Probably men that work for Apple and make the Mac. SO not female user friendly. Tuesday I did my pump class then went upstairs and ran 3 miles. Then I had to shower and go get my girl from VBS. Then we had friends come over to play and then just called it a night and crashed! And so that brings us to Wednesday.

Today is Wednesday. I decided to try something new on Wednesday. I went to Body Combat. Jenny keeps telling me how awesome it is and how much she just loves it. She also loves spinning, and I can tell you that never in a million years can I learn to love that class. Or like it. I do NOT want to develop the calluses that I would need on my behind in order to make it through that class without my butt being in pure agony. Been there. Tried it. Hated it. Now, I have also tried this Body combat class once before and was not a huge fan. First of all, it's a lot of yelling and I am NOT one to yell. Oh, I might be yelling at you rather loudly in a secret, in my brain kind of way. NO doubt about that. But as far as just yelling out loud...well, that would not be my thing. And about that yelling. On the one hand it's somewhat entertaining. I mean, the instructor...I think she's like Sybil. One minute she's all serious in a pump class, commenting about technique and form and all. Then on another day she's dancing like Sister Soul and moving her groove in all sorts of ways pretty impossible for the average white girl to grasp. THEN, when she's cooling down the Flow class after some serious stretching and what not, she's just short of sounding like one of those 1-900 operators. Body Combat brings out yet another Sybil side of her. And I think it's a loud and fairly angry Sybil. Lot's of Hi-YAH! And SMASH! And TAKE THAT! She's a little thing too. Totally scary though. VEry intense. I don't think I'd want to meet Combat Sybil in a dark alley. Know what I mean? Anyway I headed on in there to do the combat thing. And I have to say it was pretty much a Kung Fu Panda experience. You know the part, right at the beginning, when Po walks into the presence of the Furious Five? Yeah...that was me, fat, fluffy and mighty uncoordinated. It was pretty darned awkward. And I knew people in the class. I hate that. It's so much easier to kind of just muddle through it and look stupid if you don't know anyone. But nope. Knew several in there this morning. So of course...I had to dig deep for my best Kung Fu master kind of moves. Then I REALLY looked liked Po on his first day of training at the Imperial Palace! However...also much like Po, mere humiliation alone was not enough to drive me home! Nope! I'm not a quitter! I stayed and saw it all through! In the end it was almost fun. Probably by the time I master enough of it not to look like a total idiot trying to perform such feats, the track will change and I'll get a whole new chance to pull out my best fat panda moves again. On the other side of that coin, it certainly wasn't any worse than the Body Jam class where I realized a LONG, long time ago that my hips will never wiggle like that, my body will NEVER groove like that and it's best to just acknowledge defeat in some areas. Ah...speaking of fat Pandas...

I struck a deal with my hubby tonight. If I lose 20 pounds then I can have a BMW 330Ci convertible! Yeah. Can I just tell you that he did not even pause for one second to think about it? He's like "SURE"...instantaneously. SO instantaneously that I am quite sure he doesn't believe for half a second that he will EVER have to make good on that deal. Probably won't ever drive my BMW 330 Ci...but it's always good to have a goal!

After the gym today I got to play again with my neighbor's three little ones. Can I just say that they are totally delightful. They CRACK me up! Their oldest daughter LOVES princesses and anything to do with princesses or tiaras or ballerinas! And their son is about the sweetest little thing I have ever encountered. He loves dinosaurs and math problems and painting very meticulously! Today we all made spoon puppets and painted little wooden models. And we colored in princess and dinosaur coloring books and read lots and lots of stories. It was such an enjoyable afternoon to be sure! Those three little ones just make you feel so special and loved and appreciated! Then I went and picked up my own three! But that's another story for another day!

That said, it is now Wednesday night. It's been a long day and I am sleepy! We have an awesomely nice storm cooking outside and I am going to crash and just enjoy the lightening and gentle roll of thunder I keep hearing. Tomorrow is a new day!

Martha Stewart is IN the House!

So...today is just shaping up to be one of "those" days. It started bright and early...and I do mean early, with me getting up at 5 a.m. for a 6 a.m. tennis lesson. The alarm was set for 5:15...but I woke up at 5 and just got moving. Two cups of coffee and a half hour later I was out the door and headed for the courts. Coffee is VERY important before you play tennis early in the morning. I have discovered first hand that it's no fun having tennis balls flying at you when your brain isn't firing fast enough to figure out how the heck to defend yourself! Caffeine is definitely my friend and mandatory before I face anyone across the net! But then, that's when things started not going exactly right. For one, my instructor was a "no show". Apparently when my friend cancelled her tennis lesson due to being out of town, it cancelled BOTH of our lessons. Fantastic. Lovely. Wonderful. And NONE too amusing at 6 a.m. So there was that. So I came home and decided to make the most of the fact that I was up and dressed (and caffeinated!) and in my exercise clothes. So I asked Oscar if he would like to walk and there was NO hesitation as he grabbed his leash and dragged me out the door. Chris suggested at the last second that I might like to try HIS heart rate monitor since mine is so off. (Oh brother! Here we go again! I'm starting to think that man really does want me dead! Mental note...double check and see just how much he has my life insurance payout set at!) So I, being the good sport that I am, strap said monitor on underneath the girls and Oscar and I take off. We walk and run about 2 1/2 miles to the tune of, according to the mighty heart rate monitor...just about 250 calories. Lovely. Just lovely. So when we got back to the house I hopped on the treadmill because once I start this whole exercise adventure I am usually not happy until I see that I have burned 500 calories or more. So I had my iPod going...new music...had my boogie on. And it's always good to have one's boogie on when trying to exercise! Helps to distract from the misery and pain and watching your calorie count NOT move up nearly fast enough! So I crank up the treadmill and begin to watch this stupid monitor. Well...the highest I was able to get that stupid monitor was 154 beats per minute. And that was at an all out 8 1/2 minute mile run. Hmmm. As tempting as it was to really push and see just what it would take to get it up into that maximum heart rate range, I decided that I simply did not have the time today for a near (or very possibly an all the way there) death experience. I resisted the temptation to invite certain death and just hung out with what I felt was a reasonable pace. So....when it was all said and done my treadmill awarded me 375 calories for me efforts. My heart monitor...Just 225. That coupled with my walk/run with Oscar put me at the 500 calories burned mark. BARELY. Sigh. Oh well. The fitness quest is almost more elusive than I care to take on. Almost! Once all of that trauma was over I jumped in the shower and prepared to greet the rest of this day. There is a house to clean because we are entertaining Ventana folks tonight. One has to be VERY strategic about house cleaning when there are three children afoot. You get one area all clean and neat and move on to another....only to return to the previous area to find that it has been demolished by three little tornadoes. Quite frustrating really! What I thought was going to be 9 people has now turned into 18! So guess who gets to cook tonight?! Those who know me well know what a passionate love affair I have with the kitchen. NOT!!!!!! However. I am digging deep today for my Martha Stewart tricks and my Betty Crocker attitude. Gonna need to sprinkle all of that with a little Merry Maids miracle and elbow grease as well! Throw in the fact that I need to go to the grocery store to actually BUY the food I am supposed to cook tonight (guess I should give some thought to what I will be preparing!), am in desperate need of a chiropractor appointment as my lower left quadrant is TOTALLY wacked out and oh yeah! I am operating on less than 5 hours of sleep. Well all right. I'd say I've got quite a day ahead of me! Come forth Martha and Betty! SHOW YOURSELVES! Maybe...just maybe there are just a few moments to squeeze in a nap here?! After all, even Martha Stewart takes naps....right?!

Carmella and the Camera

Today I had the pleasure of taking pictures of my nephew's beloved pit bull...Carmella. My sister is currently keeping her and loving her and spoiling her while he is away for the baseball season. However...some magazine needs a picture of her and so I whipped out my camera and set out to accomplish this. Now...Carmella is not exactly the most obedient canine I have ever worked with. However...with my sister bribing her with treats and some patience we finally got some pictures of her!

Rainbows

Coming home from the hospital yesterday afternoon I came across this amazing and vibrant rainbow. Hanging out in this wisp of a cloud in mostly blue skies. It was amazing and awesome to see. Usually when I come across rainbows it's after rain. But there wasn't even a hint of rain in the sky on this day. Very few clouds even. But tucked in this one cloud was something so special and beautiful! Captured it here for you!

You Go Girl!!!!

So, there is a story behind this post. It all started with Chris' trip to Costco and his purchase of a gift that rocked my whole world. Now, you are probably sitting there wondering what in the world the man purchased that could possibly change everything? Was it jewelry? After all, diamonds ARE a girl's best friend! Was it electronics? Patio furniture? Oh the treasures one can find at Costco! The gift? A heart rate monitor! At first I thought...oh...a gadget! And how very Chris. And the subtle "you are getting fat but I still love you" message was not lost for a moment on me either! This is my SECOND heart rate monitor. The first I determined was a pain in the butt...not to mention very stingy with calories burned...so I figured it was pretty much just off and inaccurate. So Chris brings me this one with a chest strap. VERY accurate they say. So I strapped the thing on this morning as I went off to bond with my treadmill. I figured I would run my 4 miles or so, log about 600 calories and get on with my day. About a half mile into the run I realized my husband wanted to kill me. There was no doubt about it. He programed my heart rate monitor to only start the calorie burn count when my heart rate hit 90 something...fair enough. A half mile in I realized I was NEVER going to get any calories burned at my standard 10 minute mile pace. So I upped the ante and ramped up my speed. After a few minutes I upped it again. And then again. It took forever to start turning over any calories to speak of. Usually the treadmill says I burn about 150 calories per mile. LOVELY! Can I just say that it took 3 miles before I burned my first 150 calories according to my monitor? Oh...I was SO not happy. I was actually quite angry. Angry that the treadmill was so off. And that I had put so much faith in those useless numbers it teased me with. I was angry when I realized just how much harder it was to burn any significant calories and get my heart rate up where it counted. And I was angry when I realized that this was probably a HUGE part of why, instead of LOSING 3 pounds I have managed to GAIN 10. Oh, the emotions! Running at this new crazy speed...shaving more than a minute off of my mile time, I was ready to quit around the 3 mile mark. At that point I was pretty sure that I was about to meet Jesus himself as well. Well, I'm ready for that...and resting in my salvation, I pushed ahead just waiting for "the light" to come for me. About that time I hit what I believe to be a runner's high. Now I don't really believe in runner's high....that, "oh I could run forever" kind of high. For me it's more like an "instant death will be temporarily delayed" kind of high. And I ran and ran. I was discouraged by the slow build of the calorie bank for sure. But I ran and ran on. I kept thinking of my friend who told me she can't meet me at the gym because she eats donuts on Saturday mornings. Lots of them! DONUTS for crying out loud! And of my sister, who recently lost a lot of weight. When I asked her how she did it...what she cut out...she replied "Oh, I pretty much cut out everything'. Oh, okay. Well that's just lovely. Depressed, depressed, depressed. I thought of my friend who just had a baby in December...and another who just had one in January. Neither of them look like they have ever had ONE,let alone their third and fourth! While I, on the other hand look like I just gave birth to triplets, a couple of hours ago! I recalled the words of one of the instructors at the gym who told me I needed to challenge myself on my runs more by adding some intervals and hills to my run. I listened. But not really. Well...not at all. After all...she's like super woman. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, literally. Has 4 kids. Looks like she just graduated from high school yesterday and still has her cheerleader body she had then, and is so strong it's scary. She's HIGHLY energetic and motivated (to put it mildly) and is forever prodding her classes to jump just a little higher and push just a little harder. I always feel like lead weight leaping up on my step as I watch her practically burst through the ceiling as she leaps up on hers! She's a bit unattainable goal- wise. I counted it as just being her INCREDIBLY lucky genes. Why I couldn't have gotten such skinny genes...well, I'm still taking that one up with the Big Guy upstairs! But today I had to acknowledge that I think she just might have been absolutely right. And I kept hearing the immortal words of my friend Jenny swooshing through my ears..."Am I skinny YET?!!!!" And then...instead of finding myself walking through the pearly gates on streets of gold, I found myself crossing the 7 mile mark. That's right....7 miles! I did not die. Thought I would. But I'm still here. Apparently the Lord could not get my "Welcome Home" party organized that quickly and so I am still here. Calories burned? The treadmill said 1080. But REALITY said....just over 600. Oh this is going to be a long, long road. And so much harder than I imagined. But hey. Game on! YOU GO GIRL! As I was cooling down on the treadmill that song "Don't cha" came on. The one that goes "Don't ya wish your girlfriend was HOT like me?..." and so on. I almost flipped off the back of the treadmill I got to laughing so hard. It was quite a mental picture. Oh, I was hot alright! Hot and sweaty, dripping and stinking...fat and flabby and exhausted. Oh yeah. It was a pretty picture. But...like the Kellogs commercial (or SOME cereal commercial) says...I am one mile stronger today. Actually, I am 7 miles stronger and 600 calories lighter. But hey...who's counting!

Backyard Beauty

As exciting and fun as vacation was...I was SOOO excited to realize that we made it home at EXACTLY the right time for me to photograph our night blooming cereus cactus in the backyard!!! It is exploding with blooms this year and I am thrilled that we arrived home in time to see it all happen! I have always photographed these in the morning (because that's when I discovered them!)...but I actually caught this one as it opened in the dark of night! Cool huh?! A bit challenging really...shooting in the darkness and not really being able to see what your camera is aimed at. But I think I did okay with these. And I love the effect of the light on the petals with total darkness as the backdrop. Very, very cool! Enjoy this batch! I know I did! The best news still? There are even more of these blooming tonight! Can't wait to see what comes of the next batch!

Vacation Snapshots- Bryce Canyon National Park

So, Bryce Canyon was a little bit of a disappointment after all of the amazing sights and wonders we had already seen. It was okay...but not breathtaking and we really had no desire to hike it. So I snapped my pictures, we spent one night there, and then we headed home! But here are the shots just the same!

Vacation Snapshots- Zion National Park

After we visited the Grand Canyon, we trekked on over to Zion National Park. This is the second year in a row that we have been here and it is a real family favorite of ours. I LOVE the rock formations here and the rushing creeks and the blue, bue skies and the eye popping beauty that surrounds you on every single side. The hiking is amazing as well. Here are a few shots of Zion!



Of course, you couldn't go to Zion without hiking! These pictures are from our hike up Angel's Landing. Angel's Landing is quite steep...a workout to remember for sure. With dropoffs and plenty of places a person could fall to their deaths! I was yelling at my crew to "Hug the wall!" all the way up the trail! Did I mention that I really saw my fear of heights playing out on this trip?! Mom was definitely happiest when we were standing on the canyon floor and NOT scaling the edges or standing on the rim! I was pretty much a basket case when the high up, possibility of death by falling scenarios entered onto the scene!





In addition to great hiking we also enjoyed the awesome views along the bike trail there at Zion and playing in the water at the Riverside walk. A great disappointment at Zion this year was that it was rather cool and we did not get to hike into the Narrows like we had hoped. But the air was chilly and the water was hanging out at 45 degrees! So we decided that hiking the Narrows will have to wait for another year!

Vacation Snapshots-The Grand Canyon, North Rim

Well...here are the images of our vacation to Zion, Grand Canyon and Bryce! Our first stop this year was on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. And I DO mean ON THE RIM! We got to camp RIGHT at the edge! In these pictures you can see where our side stops and where the far side appears across the canyon. It was a little nerve wracking for me the crazy mom who has all sorts of visions of her children tumbling off the edge of the Grand Canyon and falling to their deaths...but for the most part it was totally cool!
In addition to getting to camp on the edge, so to speak, we got to do some great hiking. The Noth Rim was just beautiful. We hiked a couple of miles down into it. Clara, was yet again NOT amused by the trail of mule poop that dotted our path and complained loudly and often...but for the most part we really enjoyed being there in the awesomeness of the canyon. We had two nights here.


Of course, NONE of these pictures even begin to capture the beauty of the Canyon or the awesome expansiveness of it all...but there is not much I can do about that! Here are a couple of more from the canyon.

Home Sweet Home!

We are BACK in Tucson! Exactly one day ahead of schedule! This almost always happens. We schedule ourselves for a solid 10 days or so on the road...but then the closer to the end of the trip, the better home starts to look toward us and we usually pull up stakes and head on that way at least 24 hours ahead of schedule! Aiding the decision this time was the fact that some bug nibbled on me during our three days in Zion and I seem to have had quite an adverse reaction to it. Now...lest you think I am overreacting to a simple mosquito bite, you should know that I have, at last count, no less than 14 bites on my neck and scalp. Yep! All in my hair, behind my ears, up my neck. SOMETHING made a real feast of me. And I have huge welps there as evidence...big ITCHY welps...and some really, really, REALLY uncomfortable swelling along my right ear. So uncomfortable that it finally hurts to lay down or have anything touch it in any way that increases any pressure on it. That said, I headed straight to the doctor when we hit town this afternoon. Initial diagnosis was leaning toward shingles...but it is NOT on just one side of my body. My bug friend was quite symmetric and nibbled me very thoroughly ALL OVER my head and neck. And so now it appears I might have been a midnight snack for something called a Kissing Bug? Ever heard of it? Well, I haven't. Anyway. We are back home tonight, on steroids and something else that is supposed to knock me out...but alas...here I am NOT knocked out. Oh well. Wonderful, gorgeous and amazing flowers blooming TONIGHT in my yard! How awesome is that?! Those pics and of course, vacation pics too to come! Stay tuned!