The Highs and Lows of Fall

I really love Fall in New England and will do a post on it once the leaves finishing turning into their glorious fall colors. The weather is perfect, highs in the 70's, lows in the 50's.
But those aren't the high's and low's I'm talking about. I'm talking about the start of school. I am always anxious for school to start by the end of summer. I am ready to put an end to the endless negotiating over how much tv to watch (I usually end up giving up by the end of summer), the bored kids, tired of the constant noise. The start of school is a relief to all of that and those precious quiet hours are wonderful. I always forget, however, just how necessary that quiet time is to my sanity and to be able to endure the after school craziness!
The start of school not only brings home tons of paperwork, pto forms, open houses, etc. etc. but it is also the start of Field Hockey season. Field Hockey literally takes over Diana's life with practices or games until 5 or later every afternoon. That actually will be the subject of another post as well, lots of drama with Field Hockey this year.
Anyway, it means that my only extra driver is too busy to help. Every day we have some sort of after school activity, Tae Kwan Do, saxophone lessons, scouts, homework, practicing and trying to fit dinner in somehow, orthodontist and dentist visits, it all makes me crazy at times! Garrett came last week wanting to add an afterschool flag football and Alyssa wants to start Tae Kwan Do but I just can't see how I can fit it in! As it is, I am resorting to teaching them piano lessons on Sunday afternoons. I usually prefer for them to take from someone else and I like my Sundays for rest, but there it is. I don't know how else we can do it...

Did I mention that Dave is out of town a lot in the fall??

Summer's Over

Okay, I've been a slacker for the last couple of months or however long it has been. I'm finally doing another blog post!

It was a very strange summer for me, being stuck in bed for a couple of months wasn't much fun and I couldn't drive until just about a month ago so I couldn't take the kids anywhere. I could, however, sit out with them at the pool. Thank Goodness we have a pool or it would have been a miserable summer for us all!

I never thought I would feel that way about a pool. I really didn't want one, it just happened to come with the house that we wanted. There were too many stories of people we knew whose child or grandchild drowned or nearly so in their backyard pool for me to feel comfortable with it. It does have a fence around it but I still get a bit nervous.

What I didn't realize is just how much we would enjoy the pool! It is great during the summer months when the kids are bored and watching too much tv. I just say "Let's go swimming!" and we head outside for hours at a time, quite often inviting a friend or two to join us. It's a great way to entertain too. A cookout and swim party is much easier than a more formal dinner party. It has been used this summer by our branch several times too: youth activities, a young women float and flick (they watched Jaws), and a primary activity.

Our children all swim really well too, except for Emma who is still learning. Last summer she wouldn't even get in the pool and screamed through her swim lessons. This summer she swam all over with her vest on and even went off the diving board and slide. The last couple of times in the pool Jenna helped her swim without the vest and she is getting it!

Here are some of our favorite swim pictures from this summer:

My Favorite Movie

I love this movie!!!

I have always enjoyed books and movies about people who go through extreme difficulties in their lives and still manage to find hope and beauty in the world. Life is Beautiful is another favorite movie even though he dies in the end (sorry if I have ruined it for anyone). The Diary of Anne Frank, Schindler's List, I could probably think of several more, and books like The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, all really inspire me.

I think that Cinderella Man is my favorite because not only does Jim triumph over the trials of poverty and keeping his family together but he becomes a better person precisely because he has been through those trials and he uses them to his advantage. When his family is being torn apart because they can't pay the bills, he humbles himself and goes to ask for money from the people who told him he didn't have what it takes to be a fighter any more. When he goes to work on the docks even though his right hand was broken, he learns to work mostly with his left hand thereby making what was a major weakness for him into a major strength.

I especially love when he fights Max Baer at the end. Max Baer has killed a man in the ring and threatens to kill Jim. He is arrogant and narcissistic, a thoroughly unlikable person. Jim doesn't brag, he just goes in and does what he needs to do, the humble man quietly defeating the braggart. I love it!

Fenway Fun

One of the perks of living near Boston is being able to attend a Red Sox game now and then.

We used to be Atlanta Braves fans because we used to live in the Atlanta Metro area in the late 80's, early 90's. That was when the Braves went from worst to first in one season. They lost the World Series that year but you wouldn't know it from the parade they had.
I was not a baseball fan back then and Dave was traveling every week and we had 3 very young children so you would think that I would be going to bed early and getting lots of sleep.
Nope.
I was as caught up in the frenzy as anyone else! It was crazy with people decorating their cars and houses in red and blue and with big tomahawks and everyone talking to everyone about the games and exhausted from not getting enough sleep. It was fun!
Then we moved to Montgomery. People there are still Braves fans but it wasn't the same. We did go to games now and then courtesy of Dave's work. I even went to a World Series game in 1995 and saw people like Ted Turner and Jane Fonda and Spike Lee.

Then we moved to Massachusetts. I think that it is a requirement when you move here to be Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics fans. We were lucky that all three teams were doing really well so it made it a lot more fun and easy to change allegiances.
Last night, the Red Sox faced the Braves. There was a little part of me that is still a Braves fan but I don't really know the players any more so I was glad that the Sox won. Go Sox!

One of the really fun things about going to Fenway is just the history of the park. The Green Monstah (Monster) is famous and Babe Ruth played there, how fun is that! It is really cool just to be there and be part of the tradition of the place, including singing "Sweet Caroline" during the 7th inning stretch. The players are loved, especially now that Manny Ramirez is gone. (Yooouuuuuukkk!)
Another fun thing is listening to the fans with their brash attitudes and Boston accents. I mean Really fun. It just makes me laugh. It's a great people-watching place!
I didn't get to go last night of course, with my cast and walker, but I hope to go next time!

Update: Sleepiness

I went to the sleep lab the week before my ankle surgery. (All things are now going to be measured as Before Surgery and After Surgery-B.S. and A.S. for short.)

The ironic thing about going to a sleep lab is that they stick all kinds of things on you that make it difficult to sleep-sticky things all over my legs, chest, neck, hair, and even some things that measure oxygen in my nose. So they spend an hour and a half sticking all these things to you and then tell you to relax and sleep. Riigghhtt.

So it turns out that I have mild sleep apnea. It's kind of like the low-normal thyroid levels I have except that in this case they actually want to do something about it. I stop breathing 15 times an hour for at least 10 seconds each time.

I basically have 3 choices.
1. I can have surgery to remove my tonsils (yes, I still have them) and part of my uvula and possibly fix my deviated septum (yes, I have one of those). The problem with this solution is a: it's surgery, not a fan and b: it is only successful 60% of the time. Positives: If it is successful, it's done and I don't have to think about it.

2. I can get a dental appliance that helps keep my airways open. Pros-it's a simple thing and non-invasive. Cons-It is only successful 60% of the time and insurance may not pay for it and not all dentists do it.

3. I can get a CPAP machine which is a mask you wear at night that forces air into the breathing passages. It is almost 100% successful and insurance quite often pays for it. Downside: it has to be worn every night and can be noisy and irritating.

Sleep apnea has a lot of health consequences that I hadn't realized it did. Heart issues, weight gain, diabetes, stroke, 5 times greater chance of car accidents, hmmm guess I need to do something about it!

That's enough for now. Time for sleep!

Sittin' Around on my you-know-what

Sounds like fun at first.
Laying around all day, watching movies and reading books.
Having my kids wait on me.
No cooking, no cleaning, no running around like crazy.
Ahh, living the good life!
At first anyway.
Now...
Bored...
bored....
bore......d

I have plenty of books to read
and plenty of movies to watch

(I had to interrupt this post to go check out a major crash in the kitchen, a broken glass-a little excitement in my day)

a little variety is good

(Now I'm going to go all Molly Mormon on y'all)

My blessings:
I don't hurt much
I have kids to wait on me and do the housework
I have books and movies
I don't have to do the housework
Andrea's laptop is great
I love netflix watch instantly
I can watch an entire 6 hour miniseries from start to finish
I can sleep whenever I want to

Hey! What am I complaining about! This is great! I wonder how long I can keep the cast on...

Trials and Such

As you know, Dave's job loss in Montgomery and our subsequent move to Massachusetts was a trying time for our family (see "Surgery", May 5th posting). I realized today that I hadn't given you the full picture of the whole experience, in fact I left out a very important part of it.
For several months before Dave lost his job, I had the feeling that something very big was going to happen to our family. I somehow knew that we would be moving which was ridiculous because we had no intention of moving and Dave's job was going quite well at that time but I couldn't shake that feeling.
For a while I thought that my uneasiness may have been due to Hurricane Katrina. Katrina had a big effect on our community even though we only got a few sprinkles from the actual hurricane itself. The Red Cross set up their headquarters for the relief efforts there and we had some red cross workers attending our ward. Many refuges ended up there and I will never forget the long line of FEMA trailers going down the highway. Our stake spent several weekends helping with clean up in Mississippi, as did many of the churches in the area. Then I realized that I started feeling uneasy before the hurricane and that feeling continued for many months afterward. I even had to stop myself from telling people that we would be moving and when applying for Alyssa to attend the magnet school, I didn't care that she only made the waiting list.
It was around this time, February 2006, that I read an article in the Ensign, read here. It is an article by James E. Faust about trials. I remember turning to Dave and asking, "Where are our trials?" I counsel you never to do that. At the time, however, things were going very well for us. We were financially secure, healthy, happy in our ward, the kids seemed to be happy and, other than the occasional squabble and a little more than occasional messy rooms, they were (are) all pretty terrific people.
Literally within weeks Dave had lost his job and as you read in the earlier post, we were set upon by many difficulties in the coming months. It felt a little like the roof had caved in but I could never forget that I had been prepared for it. I knew that Heavenly Father knew that I didn't like change and blessed me with that premonition because He loves me. He couldn't take away our trials. We need our trials, we should expect to have trials, because without them we couldn't progress the way we need to progress. Because of that I didn't feel angry or try to blame Him or lose my faith in any way.
That love was shown not only by that emotional preparation I had but also through the tremendous acts of service we witnessed on our behalf, both in Montgomery and after the move to Massachusetts, and continuing today. We have been privileged to know some of the most Christlike people I could ever hope to know. We have been awed by their examples and humbled to know how much we owe to them and how far we have to go to be like them. If we had not had our trials we would not have known the acts of service because these are people who do not trumpet their own horns.
I have to say as trials go, an unexpected job loss and a broken ankle aren't too bad, I think that it was that and all the other little things piled up on each other that made it so difficult. It well may be that we have greater trials in our future, that these smaller ones were just to prepare us for the biggies, or maybe this is as bad as it gets, I just don't know. What I do know is that this is life. Trials or not, big or small, I know that there are many terrific people in the world, that my family loves me, that my Heavenly Father loves me as He does all of us, and with that knowledge I can handle whatever comes my way.
Last October Conference, Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin gave a great talk that just boosts my spirits. I try to remember it whenever I feel grouchy, which I am ashamed to say, is way too often. Watch here.