Feb.2011 continued...

Tuesday, Feb.1...couple of inches of ice shuts down North Texas schools for FOUR days!! Unprecedented!

Friday, Feb. 4...fourth day of school closures. 3 inches of snow falls overnight. Record cold temps continue! Lows and highs in teens. Doesn't get above freezing between Feb.1 and Feb. 5. 

Feb. 9...more ice and snow. Schools close again!! But just for one day.

Monday Feb.14...Jonah comes down with sinus infection and misses school.

Wednesday Feb.16... Dad (Grampy) has surgery this evening to remove the rest of his toes on his right foot. Too much infection for too long from previous surgery to remove 2 toes several months ago.

Thursday Feb.17...Kansas and I visit Grampy in hospital. He's not doing too well with the whole thing. 

Friday Feb.18- CISD earlier in week suddenly announces teachers have to watch a movie during school hours on this day (WHAT?) and that they will have early release at 12:30 for elementary. I'm sorry, didn't we just miss FIVE days of school??

Saturday, Feb.19...Ben wakes up with 102 fever on the first day of soccer season and last day of basketball season! I'm thinking sinus infection like his brother earlier that week, so despite his fever, I give in and let him play. Says he feels fine. He even scored a goal in his soccer game, but I was concerned and kept pulling him out. Decide to go straight to clinic after game. Amazingly enough, the poor kid has flu AND strep!! Type B and we even got our vaccinations! They said it was the first they'd seen of that strain. Lucky us. So Ben has a fever all of Saturday, but never complains or acts sick at all. Just seemed tired. Fever goes away early Sunday, but I keep him home Monday just to be sure. 

Sunday, Feb. 20...Kansas comes down with fever Sunday night.

Monday, Feb.21...take Kansas to doctor first thing Monday morning...TYPE A flu!! WHAT?? HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?? Again, though, doesn't act very sick, but has fever for about 2 and half days. Both cases were mild. Guess shot helped somewhat.

Friday, Feb.25...good news finally! Todd gets bonus today!

Remaining 3 days of February are mercifully uneventful...and warm!

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One Crazy February

February 2011 was insane from start to finish...

Snow again! March 20-21, 2010

6 weeks out

So I just passed the six week mark since my surgery. On Tuesday, the
doctor cleared me to resume normal activities. He even said I could
play soccer again, which I've been planning on, but now realize I'm
really nervous about actually doing it. Lifting weights is going to
have to wait a bit longer. He said I could start small and slowly work
back up to where I was. He still doesn't want me lifting my 2 yr old,
who's about 35 pounds. I think he meant like never lifting her again?!
Anyway, all is good!

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Marking time?

As he departed office in 1989, President Reagan mused, "My friends, we
did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference."

Ever feel like you're "just marking time"? I do. Just about everyday
of my life. Oh, everyone says that raising my kids is the most
important thing I could ever do, but it sure doesn't feel like it.
Loads of laundry, mounds of dirty dishes, countless diaper changes,
and toilet scrubbing do not add up to making a difference. Or do they?
It's a strange place to be. I wouldn't have ever chosen to do anything
else besides be home with my kids, which is what I strongly believe
every mom capable should be doing. But at the same time, it's mind-
numbing. Shouldn't I be out DOING something? Making the world a better
place requires leaving your house, right? Building homes for the
homeless, feeding the poor, clothing the naked. Helping those that
can't help themselves? But essentially, isn't that what I'm already
doing?? My heart says yes, but my mind needs more to feel a sense of
worth. I suppose I'm doing what I can where I'm at. I volunteer in my
community, coaching two soccer teams worth of boys, sitting on the
soccer board to see that everything runs like it should. I support my
church so they can send out those that can do more. But I also tend to
question the motive of those that pack their scheduled so tight, they
have no down time with their family or for themselves. That always
seems to me that they are avoiding something. Maybe the feeling of
inconsequence?

So, after all this is said, I don't know where I stand. Am I making a
difference or just marking time. I'm still not sure. But at least I'm
looking, right?

Sent from my iPhone

Day 27

Walked to school to get the kids for the first time since my surgery. Felt pretty good. I'm slowly trying to work up to playing soccer again and I need to start small. Several walks to school and then I'll try the treadmill. Luckily, all this weather is causing games to be canceled and is buying me more recovery time.

SNOW!

Last Thursday, Feb.11, 2010, we had the biggest snowfall in history on a calendar day here in Dallas. Over 8 inches and the airport recorded 12.5" in a 24 hour period! It was nuts! It started snowing around 3 or 4am on Thursday morning and didn't stop til about 3am on Friday morning. As much as I hate cold weather, I have to admit it was beautiful!

Day 25

I'm standing up completely straight!! Yipee!

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Day 23

My recovery is slow, but progressing. Just when I think I'm not really
getting better anymore, I look back to the week before. A week ago
this past Wednesday, I tried to make dinner for the first time since
my surgery. It was very difficult. I had to sit down every 5 minutes
or so, because my back hurt pretty bad and I would just get too tired
to stand any longer. Then this Wednesday, I was able to make dinner
with no problems. Today (Friday), I was able to do several loads of
laundry, dishes, mop and pick up around the house. So, I guess that's
quite a bit of progress, even if I'm still not standing completely
upright yet. I actually might have overdone it a little today. My
right side is aching and my neck is hurting, probably from the
terrible posture. Shoulders slumped over and my neck sticking out. I
probably look a bit like a turtle. Or a 90 year old lady. But at least
my stomach looks 20!!!

Sent from my iPhone

Day 13

Back to the doctor again today. He said everything looks really great
and he was very pleased with the outcome! Yea!! He cleared me to
drive. And sleep in any position I want! That's the best part yet. I
went from sleeping sitting up for a week ( I dare anyone to try it.
It's not fun.), to sleeping on my back with a pillow under my knees,
which actually hurt my old, worn-out knees.
So, all looks good and now I wait for swelling to go down and bruising
to go away. And I'll keep working on standing up straighter. This may
take a while.
Sweet dreams!

Sent from my iPhone

Day 11

I CAN'T TAKE THIS MUCH LONGER!! 11 days of sitting! Sure, I get up
every once in a while and piddle around the house, but I can't pick up
anything- a gallon of milk is pushing it- and can't even go upstairs.
Well, I might be able to make it up the stairs now, but to be honest
with you, I don't necessarily want to. (I'm only imagining what it
must look like up there, having had no "maid" service for the past 11
days.)
So here's what my Sunday looked like:

•Wake up at 9am and see the hubby and kids off to church without me
•read a book about vampires (for real?) for an hour while I should
have been in church
•walked around to avoid blood clots (scary!)
•played Bejewled Blitz on my iPhone
•played Words with Friends (scrabble) on my iPhone
•sat and looked at the wall til family got home with lunch
•watched parts of "This Is It" with the kids
•walked around to avoid the dreaded blood clots again
•watched ALL of "You've Got Mail" while Kansas napped
•ate dinner
•watched the Grammys all the while thinking "Why am I watching the
Grammys?"

Did I mention my behind is really sore from all this sitting?

Sent from my iPhone

Day 10

Walking almost totally upright today! Yeah!! I was getting so
frustrated the past few days. I thought either I'm a total wuss and
was failing to push myself enough to walk upright or was worrying that
maybe they did too tight a job and I might never walk normal again!!
So I called my doc for the nth time in 10 days and asked what the deal
was with me. The nurse told me that I was doing fine and that I had
had a LOT more work done on me than with a normal tummy tuck. She said
that they put in mesh MAYBE 2 or 3 times a YEAR! And I have over THREE
HUNDRED stitches! Holy crap! So, my progress will be slower than a
normal abdominoplasty. After hearing all that, I'm totally ok with
where I am 10 days out of surgery.

Sent from my iPhone

Day 8

Visited the doc again today. Got my drain taken out, so I am
officially unplugged! Didn't hurt, but was an interesting sensation
having a 6 inch plastic tube pulled out from under your skin. I now
have to wear a compression binder, looks like a girdle, for support
and to help with healing. Worst part is that my back hurts pretty bad.
The first week I walked at a 90 degree angle, now I'm up to a little
more than 45 degrees, which is even harder on the lower back. Stomach
feels so tight that it seems impossible that I'll ever walk completely
upright
again. Incision looks good, but I've got a pretty good bruise on my
right side.

Sent from my iPhone

Day 6

Back to the doctor this morning. He checked my incision and the drain
output. I'm still having a little more drainge than they'd like to see
in order to take it out, but I'm close. Hopefully in two more days it
can come out. He also had me stand up alot straighter, but my back
would only let me go so far. The skin was stretching fine, though.
It's actually harder to walk at an almost straight position than it
was just being bent at a 90 degree angle. The back is way more
uncomfortable than my stomach! Everything looks good, so I'm on my way!

Sent from my iPhone

Day 5

Day 5 since the surgery. It's getting better every day. I'm not in
much pain at all. The worst is the stomach muscles cramping. But
that's what the muscle relaxers are for. I've finally found a
comfortable sleeping position, which is almost impossible when you
have stay flexed at a 90 degree angle. I go back to the doctor
tomorrow. Hopefully the drain will come out and I'll be able to stand
up a little bit more. Thank God for all the help I have from my family
and friends. I would not have done this without knowing I had their
support!

Sent from my iPhone

It is a very bad thing to sleep through your pain meds schedule. Very
bad.

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Elective surgery

So after having 3 kids and carrying them really high and straight out
from my body- I swear those babies were parallel to the ground in
utero- I had a messed up abdomen. Lots of stretch marks and loose
skin. What I didn't know was that I also had 2 pretty severe hernias.
One was an umbilical hernia, which is where the bellybutton protruded
through the muscle wall. The other was a Ventral hernia, where the
muscles seperate during pregnancy to allow room for the baby. For
most, these muscles come back together. Mine didn't and I had about a
3 inch vertical seperation of the ab muscles from my belly button area
all the way up to just below the sternum.
So originally I went to the plastic surgeon to see if I could just get
the extra skin removed. I'm in pretty good shape and it just wasn't
fair that I looked 3 months pregnant when the rest of me was thin.
That's when I was told I had these hernias that needed to be fixed.
The doctor told me the bulge I had was actually my organs- stomach and
intestines- falling through the gap between my ab muscles! After
examining me he told me if anyone ever needed a tummy tuck, it was me.
Insurance even covered the hernia repair, mesh, pain pump and
overnight stay in the hospital.
So after months of consideration, I decided to do it. I didn't take
this decision lightly. I considered all the risks and benefits and
prayed for direction. I'm usually scared of anything to do with my
body, like major surgery! But I felt a peace about it and realized it
was necessary.
So 3 days ago, I went into surgery. I was scared of the general
anesthesia part. Going to sleep was fine, but when I woke up it was
awful. The sugery took about 2 and a half hours. When I started coming
to, I saw it was about 4:15 and I didn't get out of that fog til about
7pm. It was really bad. Groggy, nausea and disoriented.
They let me go home the next morning. That was Thursday. That day was
bad and I realized by Friday morning it was all the pain meds that
were keeping me in a nauseous fog. I got to take the pain pump out,
which was delivering continuous narcotics. And got off the Darvocet.
So much better. More later...
Sent from my iPhone

I had to pass this along....

Top Ten Spectacular Ways To Make Kids Quit Soccer
01st August 2009
Author: soccerjerseys

Soccer, with its almost 19 million participants, has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past twenty-five years in the United States. It is a problematic issue for established national pastimes like baseball, football and basketball. Uncovering a potential chink in the armor of soccer, we have compiled this list to slow its growth. But, this list is dependent upon parents and coaches to do the right thing to stop soccer. Here is TotallySoccer’s Top Ten Spectacular Ways Parents and Coaches Can Make Kids Quit Soccer:

1. Lose your Perspective. Stand on the sidelines and complain about the coach. Plot ways to get your kid onto the best team. If it doesn’t go your way, change teams. Blame it on the coach. Call every coach you know proclaiming your player’s greatness and setting up the next three years of his life.

2. Lose your Composure. Yell at the coach. Yell at the referee. Yell at the fourteen year old flag runner
. Yell at the field. Yell at the wind. Being “that parent” and embarrassing your child will almost certainly lead to dropout. Awesome!

3. Count Everything. While soccer doesn’t lend itself to statistics, there are certain self-appointed statisticians who will track and distribute every known stat they can imagine. Unfortunately, it doesn’t equate to player development or enjoyment. It does, on the other hand, provide fodder for all disgruntled parents to explain how “Jimmy” shouldn’t be on the field based around his plus / minus ratio.

4. Add Pressure. Tell your kid that the reason you are driving them all over Timbuktu is to make sure they score a college scholarship. Yep, that will certainly enhance the enjoyment and provide for a relaxing atmosphere to grow and develop as a player. College is years away!

5. Specialize Early. If you’re going to score the big scholarship for your child, then they need to become serious earlier. And, they need to play year round. If they can play “up” instead of growing and developing with their friends, this is better because they’ll be more focused. Good job, Mr. Burnout. Here comes Johnny Quitter.

6. Sports First. Family, friends and being a kid second. Not only did you lose last match, but your ball possession stats were off too! Get in the backyard and practice! You need the work. No hanging downtown for ice cream and friends until you’ve reached five thousands touches in the next hour. Your friends will wait.

7. Win. Win. And, Win. Lose sight of the real importance of soccer to development of young people. Stress winning at all costs, tips to cheat the system, pride of wearing the team's soccer uniforms and disrespecting the hated opponent. This is a war, not a game. Keep that determination. Forget about all the wonderful, lasting lessons soccer can teach youth: commitment, dedication, hard work, sportsmanship and teamwork – to name a few of the millions of potential lessons.

8. Practice. Practice. And, Practice. Make practices long and boring. Constantly do drills until they get it right. Forget about creatively addressing skill development. And, of course, take out small sided games and scrimmages. Those are just a waste of time.

9. Mix Punishment with Mistakes. Coaches who use punishment as a method to correct mistakes are missing the point. A missed pass doesn’t require push ups. It requires more practice. They’ll never get the pass right if they’re too busy doing pushups, or sprints or jumping jacks. A fantastic item on the Top 10 and a sure way to crush a spirit and stunt growth.

10. Fun? This is fun?! Soccer isn’t supposed to be fun. Soccer is about the scholarship. It’s about winning. It’s about blaming everyone else. Most importantly, it about my status in the community as coach of the undefeated U7 Tiger Sharks this season. Yep. That’ll do it.

We’ve penned this ridiculous Top Ten list as a reminder that the goal of any sport is to turn the kids onto the game and to let them have fun. Sometimes, as adults, we lose that focus. Give the game back to the kids!

Bored? Not me!

This morning I was bored. B-O-R-E-D. With 3 kids, people will wonder, how? But it's more of a stuck-in-a-rut boredom. Don't-know-what-to-do-differently-today boredom. I'm using a lot of hyphens, aren't I? Anyway, so, I'm sitting on the couch in my pajamas refereeing my argumentative children. And I reach out to a friend by text and mention I'm "bored". Bad move #1. Jinxed. A few minutes later, I decide cleaning the bathrooms would keep me busy til at least 10, 10:30. So I grab the cleaning stuff and head to the nearest potty. Bathroom #1, done. Then on to bathroom #2. Finished. Kids are ok, I'll head upstairs to the boy's bathroom. Bad move #2. As I'm scrubbing the nastiest place in the house (really), I hear from child #2, "Mooooom, Kansas has poopie!" And I think, ok, I'll change her in a minute. A few seconds later as I'm still scrubbing away, I hear child #2 again- "Moooom, Kansas peed on the floor!" And this stops me dead in my tracks. If she has peed on the floor that means the aforementioned "poopie" diaper is not on her behind. Oh, Lord. So I drop everything and run downstairs as child #1 is begging me to take him to some bounce house place that he just HAS to go to, now. I think the look I gave him on the way downstairs said it all. As I reach the bottom of the stairs, there she is. Child #3, standing in her own pee puddle, triumphantly holding- A DIAPER FULL OF POOP. Yay, mom's head exploded. I pick her up, sidestep the puddle, tell child #2 not to go anywhere near it and he says, "She already stepped all in it" as I see little wet footprints all over the floor. I make it over to the diaper cache and see it. A skidmark down the front of my couch. My couch! A full grown women, crying, holding a stinky diaper and a urine-soaked baby, is not a pretty sight. As child #2 and 3 will, I'm sure, gladly mention on Oprah one day.
Did I mention I am no longer bored?