remember this?

When I posted this, she wasn't, but she is now! It turns out they started "trying" around that time. She is 7 weeks. Woo.

2 new

I am starting in on 2 new projects this week, and needing to make progress on a third new-ish one. My head hurts a little just thinking about it tonight. I wanted to read a little bit about both of them this weekend, but instead, I think I need to go hang out with MWH.

As nature intended

No BPA! Two of the kinds are organic! I may still try to make my own sauce from tomatoes* and paste, and freeze them, but for now, this will do.

*I haven't found a recipe I love yet. I'm sure I could figure out something from what I've read on the web and how I cook. I'll keep you posted.

Kindergarten/first grade/second grade humor

Q. Where does the toy go to the bathroom?

A. In the toy-let.

Ask a friend to look under for something you dropped... When they ask you "under where" howl with laughter.

Another thing to keep me up at night...

I was excited when my friend had a new blog post up today as I love her posts, I always learn something new. However, now I am more informed about BPA and have something new to keep me up at night. Ignorance is bliss, but the side-effects are dangerous.

After the Sigg water bottle debacle, I had wondered about canned foods and their liners and whether they had BPA in them. In the back of my mind, I guessed they did, but I hadn't had a chance to google it. The answer came to me today on the Happy Healthy Librarian's blog.

They have BPA in them.... Really, why do we have to have BPA in the liner of food cans. Why? It's BAD stuff.

We don't eat that many canned foods around here, thank goodness, but we do sometimes. You can guess that I'm taking back the cans I just bought yesterday to buy glass containers of food where possible. The one food I buy a great deal of in cans is tomatoes. Guess what? Tomatoes are very acidic and they leach more BPA than other foods. Great.

I'll be taking my tomatoes back and looking for tomato sauce and tomato paste in glass jars.

Or, here's a solution..... I suppose I could just make tomato sauce from actual tomatoes and then just freeze it. I don't think I want to can my own sauce. I don't know why, but canning scares me--freezing doesn't.

Sorry for the depressing post at the start of the weekend...it's going to light a fire under me to try cooking tomatoes from scratch.

2nd grade humor

1. Ask a friend to spell "icup."
2. Howl with laughter.

uber tired

Earlier this week, I found out that the piece of work I was doing, and hoping to continue doing until the end of the year, was out of money. Uh-oh. We still have a lot of work to do...It will get done, somehow. We always manage. There's lots of tricks--including staying up late or working on the weekend (for free). What I was more worried about was, what piece of work will pay me through the end of the year?

....

I put out some feelers, and I think, that I have three new small projects that will keep me in business. It'll still be a little bit of a stretch, and I don't think I'll manage to be at my "goal" for the end of the year, but I shouldn't be lower than 3% off, and my supervisor keeps reassuring me that it will be okay.

....

At work, there are many new people. It's fun to have new good people. There's a core of us who have been there forever, 10+ years. It's so weird to me that I'm an "old timer," but I am. It's fun to see the young ones. They are eager and energetic. One just got married. I guess she's between 25 and 30. She's young, but has a great perspective on life.

Anyway, thinking about all the young new folks at work made me think that I should try to remember and record some of the things I do remember from that era before I completely forget. This blog is for the 3 little girls (who are growing up WAY TOO FAST) and they may want to know someday.

So let's see....
I went to S___ after grad school with my new Ph.D. I'd worked at A____ for one year, as I finished my dissertation. A_____ was a super great year, but I love A_____. If I could go back to A_____, I would. But 1) there isn't really anything I want to do at A____ right now, and 2) I couldn't be part-time.

Oh, wait, trying to record how I thought/felt 10-12 years ago.

I remember starting my job at S___.... I was very impressed with my (former) supervisor M___ and my wonderful colleague P____, and the coolest thing was, they liked and respected me too. We had the best job then. It was 1997 and the dot com craze was happening. We were working in an emerging area. It was exciting. I worked many hours, but loved every single hour. We felt like we were making a small difference in the world and it felt great.

Bleh, I think I've written all of this before.

Meh, I'm boring even myself. I don't know what to write.

Oh dear and gentle reader, could you help me by thinking of a good question for me to answer that the girls might want to know someday...? Please?

xoxo.

sunday night

Three-a is styling my hair and has been for about 45 minutes. I think it's done, but she doesn't. She's using a comb and my scalp is getting sore. I just asked her to switch to a brush. Why didn't I think of this 43 minutes ago? I'm a little slow. She's giving me a makeover. She just put a flower barrette in my hair and told me I look very cute.

oNe is eating a pomegranate. She loves them. She is the healthiest eating kid I know. She has been forever. Now, one of her favorite food combinations is brown rice, broccoli, and cheddar cheese. She asks for it a lot.

twoK is melting down. She's been crying a lot all day. MWH has called her "fragile" and it's true. I'm hoping she's just tired. Yesterday, she was pretty fragile too. It's tough to be a twoK! I'm hoping she'll go fall asleep for a little while so we can wake her up, give her dinner and a quick bath... She'll probably sleep better tonight if she has a nap... Yea, it's almost 6 pm, but twoK is a sleeper now. She's making up for all the sleep she missed out on when she was 0-3 and didn't sleep.

Lunch today was at our favorite Mexican restaurant, then we played at the park. Except for all the screaming from the little girl, mostly twoK and Three-a and mostly because oNe was bothering them), it's been a lovely day. I still want to ride my exercise bike and do my exercise ball video (it's good for my core).

but...

Being Grumpy makes you do better work? But, all I could do was fixate on the issues that were making me GRUMPY. I think there needs to be more research done.

Just realized

I just realized that it's November, and November is traditionally (heh) Nanoblomo. My attempt to blog more again, that started on Tuesday, isn't tied to Nanoblomo. Maybe it was tied subconsciously, maybe on some level I knew that Nanoblomo was occurring, but I didn't read it on any one's blog until last night, and I didn't mean to make my attempt start in Nanoblomo season.

Okay... I'm having a hard time NOT blogging about PT. It's not about my knee though, now it's my back. I *think* my knee is pretty much back. (heh, a pun/joke...) I have a little arthritis in it, but it really doesn't hurt much. I'd barely notice it if I wasn't still thinking about it. It isn't "injured" any more. Whatever I injured, maybe my popliteus, took FOREVEH to heal, but now, I am declaring it 90% healed and 70-80% original strength.

Right now, my back FEELS pretty good, but it's weak. That's a dangerous place to be. Because it feels good, it makes one think one could go to Zumba and go crazy... But, that would be bad. That would make it take longer to heal. I'm trying to get into as good of shape as I can NOW so that when I'm older I'll be stronger and I'll be doing things correctly. I'm doing lots of Ab work. I am going to do more weights/strengthening stuff and less aerobics... I think I told you all this last night, but I have to keep reminding myself of the plan because CHANGE IS HARD.

Okay, shutting up now.

Here's a challenge... try sucking in your stomach and making it really tight 100 times a day. I try to do it in 20 "suck" increments, thus five times a day. It's harder than it sounds. If you suck/squeeze/harden your stomach so tight your eyes might pop, it takes a lot out of you. Try it.

See?

It's hard. Now do it 19 more times....

Now remember to do 20 sucks four more times today.

Here's a fun tidbit... oNe just learned how to spell Mississippi. I've been trying to get her to learn that for a year, and she had NO interest. Then she found it on a map on her own and got inspired. That's the thing about learning... It takes motivation. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can send your kids to school, but you can't make them learn.

uber grumpy

I am uber grumpy tonight. I'm not going to talk about it because none of it is a huge deal... Okay, it's just little stuff that n3nny does... stuff that happens to significantly annoy me and apparently, I haven't communicated exactly how much these things annoy me, but in general, she's super.

The other thing, Mr. Toyota Corolla... IF YOU ARE MAKING A LEFT HAND TURN, YOU ACTUALLY NEED TO YIELD TO PEOPLE IN THE CROSS WALK, CARS GOING STRAIGHT, AND CARS MAKING A RIGHT HAND TURN. Honking at people and cars does not, contrary to your belief, give you the right of way. You, Mr. Toyota Corolla, need to go take a driving class.

And then there's the ice pack incident. If you come to my house, DO NOT USE MY ICE PACKS without asking. I use them ALL EVERY NIGHT. I DO NOT LIKE IT WHEN MY ICE PACKS AREN'T ICY.

Oops... guess I discussed it.

---

Do I seem stressed? Yea, I kind of am... I DON'T KNOW WHY.

It might be that I'm not working out enough because I'm trying to take it easy so my back will heal and my right foot will stop being numb. In PT, we're working on my back. I think, we are making progress. Progress in PT is slow. My knee continues to S-L-O-W-L-Y improve, but I have to really work on it, but not work TOO hard. Delicate balance.

The PT said it takes about 6-8 weeks to build muscle. I think we've been working on my back for 5-6 weeks or so. I probably lost a week when I had my cold. Based on how long it takes to build muscle, and how long we've been working, I'm guessing I have 3 or 4 more weeks until I feel stronger/better in my back.

I'm doing LOTS of core strengthening work. LOTS. We're doing traction on my back in PT. If I don't sit, or lay on my bed, my right foot isn't numb. I'm hoping to be able to sit and lay again soon. I'm going to NOT jump in Zumba for a week or 2 and see what happens. I won't go to Zumba tomorrow. I'll do the elliptical.

Hey, wanna know something positive? I heart the Bosu ball. As soon as my back is strong enough, I'm going to try this. It looks like fun!

Would you like some High Fructose Corn Syrup with your water?

And then I go all curmudgeon-y on you.

I just searched the blog, and apparently, I haven't written about my feelings towards High Fructose Corn Syrup. I am a little surprised. Perhaps, I didn't want to scare any one with how vehemently I despise the stuff. I gave it up somewhere around 2004. I work really hard to avoid it, and I've only knowingly consumed it on a few occasions since 2004. (We eat a lot of home-cooked meals around here so that we can avoid it.)

I don't like high fructose corn syrup in any product. I find the process for creating it SCARY. If you read about its production you'll find many words you can't pronounce. It's a 3-step process and involves high heat and lots of chemicals.

You can also scroll down and read about health effects. I think it's pretty rotten stuff; I believe it's far worse than sugar.

Anyway...


So, a good friend brought some of these, the "Roaring Water" variety, over to our house for a little shindig with the kids.

Um, really?

We don't drink much juice around here. We don't do soda. (The girls have tried Root Beer, made with sugar, once, and oNe has had Sprite one time at a party.) Sometimes, when we get all crazy, I give the girls a splash, literally just a splash of plain juice, in their water. I don't see the point of giving them all that sugar in a drink. I think they prefer to ingest sugar in other forms. We eat lots of fruit and I'm all about the whole fruit, complete with fiber, versus juice. Anyway, Capri Sun juice bags don't have High Fructose Corn Syrup... Neither do their morning products....

BUT....

The last two products do.

Good grief, why would you put High Fructose Corn Syrup, and Splenda in a water for kids? Why? Really, Kraft, why? They advertise, "No artificial flavors or colors" and "Low-calorie." You know what? Plain water is even more natural, and lower calorie. If your kid won't drink plain water, add a splash of pure juice.

I can't even believe this product exists. I'm also a little distraught over their tag line... Four ways to do Wholesome. What part of wholesome includes High Fructose Corn Syrup? Why feed kids all this junk?

Routine

I kind of got out of the habit of blogging. I'm a creature of habit. If I do something everyday, it's easy. If I stop, it's hard to re-start. I floss EVERY night. If I'm ever too tired, I make myself do it anyway.

I'm still reading all my blogs, and seeing lots of things I want to write about but then I don't seem to have any motivation. I've become lazy and soft when it comes to blogging.

I sort of got out of the habit when my knee was sore because all I wanted to do was write about how my knee was doing. I spent a great deal of my time monitoring every twinge of my knee. I'm happy to report that it's getting better. Today, before I went and did a really light 40 minute work out, it felt pretty much normal! As in before July 9th normal! Woo! I'll see how it feels tomorrow. I am noticing that there are many times when my knee feels good. I'm not quite back to 100% effort in Zumba, but it is not quite ready for that. I'm doing about 80% effort each class and not experiencing set backs.

See why I stopped blogging? Once I start talking about my knee, I just can't stop. To summarize, my knee has been feeling better slowly. It has been almost 4 months since I hurt it. I'll try to limit myself to monthly knee status updates.

Oh... yea, this used to be a blog about little girls.

Let's see.... We've adjusted to school. We <3 our teachers. Miss twoK seems to really be enjoying kindergarten and she's a full-fledged reader! She's really good. I didn't push her at all, but she worked really hard on learning to read. Miss oNe didn't want to learn how to read and didn't work too much at it until she was almost 6.

Now, oNe is a super reader. She reads a lot each day and she reads at night in bed. It's so super to see her sucked into a book. Being book worms ourselves, her Daddy and I are thrilled!

Three-a is working really hard on learning to write. She's still hysterical... On Halloween, we went trick-or-treating with a bunch of kids. The littlest boy, is a really good friend of Three's. He's 3 and she's 4. She loves to take care of him. He was always slow in getting to the house, so Three-a self-appointed as his official candy getter. She'd explain to everyone how she needed an extra piece to give to her friend S____. So cute. One house wouldn't give her an extra piece. She walked away from the house scolding them saying, "I hope NEXT year you'll let me have an extra piece for my friend S____. I really hope you will." It was hilarious to S___'s Mom and me.

There's so much more to write about them, but I've been so busy and now, this time change is making me exhausted (tonight). In addition, I always feel guilty writing about them here, and not on "the other" family blog. I know the Grandmas love to read about them. If you want to see the other blog, let me know.

What else... Uggh... One of our pumpklns just bit the dust....MWH and I just cleaned it up. This is a photo from last year when our pumpkin decomposed, but this is what just happened again to another pumpkin. We carved him just 72 hours ago. Kind of sad.



There's more to write... Hopefully, I'll get back in the swing of things again. Remind me I want to write about our school, and the lovely families we've met.

don't want to write

The doctor called back about my blood work. I hadn't heard from her, and I was hoping no news was good news. It mostly was, but one of the next level antibody tests was significant. I'm not supposed to worry about it. In general, I'm not... Yes, I've googled a lot, but ... I'm not going to do what ifs...

This is a good reminder to just go with life. My friend had no warning. Just boom. Just because there's something "not right" doesn't mean it's going to be what "gets you." I googled enough to feel like I have a handle on stuff, and we'll just hope, as the doctor said, that significant blood tests without symptoms are like "chasing ghosts."

Now I can tell you more about my back and knee... except, I'm not in the mood. I <3 my PT. I had to see a different PT last week and she did something weird to me and my back hurt a lot. I got to see my regular PT today... She did stuff that made sense and I'm sore, but I don't think it's bad.

Okay... ending this post so I can stop thinking about things. I need to do a better job recording the cuteness of little girls. They make me smile. Smiling is important. Happiness is important. Deep breath and think about all the good stuff. In with the good and out with the bad. I need to get into a yoga class.

What's for dinner?

Yummy Indian! This isn't "home made" but all the packet is is spices. It's got some spices I've never heard of, e.g., ajowan seeds and anchur powder, and the spice mix made the best Indian I've ever cooked.

I will definitely order some! Thanks PS! It's always good to learn of another easy, yummy, healthy dinner!

Back to my knee....

I've been analyzing my knee, 'cause that's what I do in my spare time, and I think I have about 3-4 things wrong with my knee, and that's why the pain is still there... tendonitis in the front, tendonitis in the back (popliteal), arthritis in the front, and then pain in my knee from my back--referred pain.

Despite how much is wrong, I do think my knee is getting better. It's VERY slow going, but it is feeling better. For example*, yesterday I was in a bounce house, bouncing, not jumping--shhhhh don't tell my physical therapist as she might not like knowing that--but despite my activity, my knee isn't too sore today.

Another example, at the beginning of September, I tried a bouncy thing and my knee HATED IT...Instantly it HATED IT, and complained about it for a week or so.


It's sore in the front today... arthritis or tendonitis? You vote. I'm thinking it might be the tendonitis.




*That's for you PS!

My friend

My friend had a stroke almost 2 years ago. She died a few days later. She never regained consciousness. She was young. She was 35. She had a little girl. The little girl was 3.

I am still sad.

My friend's husband just got remarried. I am happy for him, and I know he still misses her, but his life needs to go on.

I haven't seen him for a year and 1/2. I haven't seen her little girl for a year and 1/2. If my friend were here, we'd be discussing our experiences with our girls in kindergarten all the time. I always imagined that my friend and I would be talking about the girls and dating, the girls and applying to college, then weddings, and then of course, some day, grandbabies.

She's been gone for almost two years, and I no longer drink coffee. Life is different. I miss her.

Fun at the doctor's office

I had my appointment with the rheumatologist today. She was a little baffled as to why I was in her office. She said, You had no symptoms to warrant the blood test for ANA. I explained my father's potential problems (lupus) and she still didn't think the blood test was warranted. I didn't ASK for the test, my doctor ordered it. I think my other doctor was being thorough. I'm sure my other doctor expected it would just be a quick blood test.

Them the rheumatologist and I discussed my past problem with TM, and she didn't think my TM was even real. Your symptoms were so mild, she said. True. But it was real. It was scary. I was TINGLY for 3 MONTHS. I forgot to tell her how EXHAUSTED I was during that time. I remember being so tired. But despite being tired, I was lucky. I didn't have a severe case. She checked the neurology department records and then she believed the TM was real. She doesn't think I have anything wrong with me. I hope she's right.

But, because the blood work showed high ANA levels she had to send me for more blood tests. I had 35.5 ml taken today. These were the vials before they were filled.

35.5 ml is a little over an ounce of blood. We're hoping that all of these follow up tests are a waste of time. We'll know more in about a week.

The best part of the appointment was probably the weigh-in before hand. Lowest weight on a doctor's scale since probably 1987-1990. I am back in high school/college* weight range.

Despite the doctor thinking I should NOT be taking up the appointment time in her office, she was very nice. We discussed kids. Her children went to the school where my oNe and twoK went to preschool and where Three-a still is. (Next year Three-a will go to the public school.) The doctor said I looked just like one of her good friends.

Did I tell you that former supervisor said I looked just like his ex-wife? It's kind of funny... When I went for my interview, I thought it went well, but it turns out, former supervisor was a little freaked 'cause I looked just like his ex-wife. Despite that, he hired me.





*I gained the freshman 15, but lost it by the time I was a sophomore... then I bounced around a little until I started dancing. I'm about at the weight I was when I graduated from college and that was a good weight!

yum! The new rice burger version!

These are new. They are yum. In case you hadn't heard, there's a dark side to soy. Soy has been linked to malnutrition, thyroid problems, cognitive problems, cancer, and more negative health issues. I'll get into the negatives of soy later when I read more, but for now, these new vegan burgers are good to know about because they are tasty!

Kid stuff

New for kids! I just ordered it. I will get certified to teach Zumba and I will teach ZumbAtomic... Someday. As soon as there is a training in my area. As soon as I have time. Hopefully in the spring.

It RAINED today. Three trees fell down at oNe and twoK's school. Crazy. It doesn't usually rain this early where we live. The leaves were on the trees and I guess, the trees were TOO heavy with all the water. It looked so crazy at the school with all the fallen trees.

Three-a wants to go play in the rain with her rain boots and her Diego umbrella, but, I think it's cold.

Here's a milestone for you... I can now drop oNe off at Gymnastics, and leave her there. It's pretty cool. It doesn't mean I have more time to get stuff done, but I don't have to try to entertain the other two while over at the gymnastics place. I have to head back to pick her up in about 5 minutes. All I have had time to do is help twoK with something (she wanted me to print something for her) and stir my spaghetti sauce, and check in to FB and write this. I still have a HUGE amount to read tonight for work. Sigh.

Okay... All for now. I'll let you know about the Zumbatomic video when we get it!