Happy Halloween!

I happened again. I got stuck.  Sometimes when I get “behind” on the blog and I haven’t had time to create posts about important events in our lives, I feel like I can’t post random little stuff until I catch up on the missing stuff, because then it will be out of chronological order.  And since I’m ALWAYS overwhelmed, I never catch up and then I don’t post anything until I snap out of it.  Well screw it.  I can’t catch up so I’m just going to override the perfectionist part of my brain and continue.

This is what happened today:

I went to yoga at the Y.  I didn’t think it would be too hard, but man, I had to come home and lay down afterward.  I broke a sweat during class and by the end I felt a little sick.  I recovered with some breakfast, but my arms are sore.  I really didn’t have any trouble staying “in the moment” during class because I was trying really hard not to fall down or let any inappropriate sounds escape.

This afternoon Aliya had soccer practice and it was the annual Parents vs. Players scrimmage.  The siblings got to play too and it was general chaos with 20+ players on the field, but the kids loved it.  I don’t think I’ve posted anything about Aliya’s soccer team here yet, but I’ve taken tons of photos of almost every game and they’re on Photobucket (if you’re so inclined, you can click here and you will see the links for each game on the left.).  Here’s one of Aliya trying to score on Ben at the Parents vs. Players game:

After soccer we came home to get ready for trick-or-treating.  Adlani asked if he could go out to the car to get his costume, and the next thing I knew…our neighbor was running in the front door carrying Adlani and yelling for ice.  She had found him with his finger shut in the car door, screaming bloody hell.  She was afraid to open the door and find his finger laying there, but bless her heart, she went for it and his fingers were still attached.  I don’t do well with blood but I caught a glimpse of his finger and it had a giant dent in it.  Seriously, his pinky was squished right down to the bone.  Future-Doctor Nikki came over to check it out, we put ice on it and gave him Tylenol, and about 20 minutes later he was good as new.  Ben said it was a good thing I hadn’t been the one to find him because I would have run back for my camera.  Sorry, no photo.

We went trick-or-treating around the hood with the Pearce Crew – it was very chilly but the kids had a blast.  I have no idea how I’m going to manage with all of this candy in the house.  I’m thinking about eating as much as I possibly can in one sitting until I throw up, in hopes that I will lose the urge to eat the rest of it.  Aliya was supposed to be a vampire but the fangs weren’t comfortable with her braces, so she paid Norah $3 to borrow her witch hat.  I think Norah was still a (hatless) witch, and Adlani was some sort of action figure guy.  We got his costume as a hand-me-down during the summer, and when I asked what he wanted to be for Halloween, he excitedly reminded me about the costume waiting for him in the Halloween bin (YES!).  When we were out making the rounds Aliya sang a song she had made up for Elizabeth and I…something about a certain candy bar being made of “butts and guts and camels’ nuts”…I asked what camels’ nuts were and she didn’t know.  They caught on pretty quickly that something was up because I was hysterical about the camels’ nuts.  I’m sure they’ll be asking around on the bus tomorrow to find out.  By the time we went around the block they were begging to go home, so we made one stop to see Norah’s teacher and Aliya’s soccer coach and headed home.  It’s past my bedtime so that’s all she wrote.

Om.

A lot of people already know this, but in case you don’t…I don’t like public speaking.  Not a big surprise since many people consider public speaking scarier than death, but it’s probably somewhat surprising considering that I do it, and I think I usually do a decent job of it.  The award I just won was for a presentation so I must have done a good job that day.

A lot of things got put off in the months leading up to Norah’s surgery.  A LOT.  I’ve been struggling to catch up, and I’m just chugging through the list the best I can.  Last week I got a couple of routine annual doctors’ appointments out of the way, and finally made an appointment to talk to someone about my public speaking anxiety.  I had surfed around looking at different coaches and approaches, and I finally settled on a 1-day workshop with Carla Kimball at Riverways, which was being held last Friday.  Phew!  Check.

A couple of days after I scheduled the workshop, I got an email saying that there weren’t enough people signed up and would I mind attending the November workshop instead.  AAHHHH!  I have a presentation for a group of building inspectors on the 9th!  It’s an emergency!!!  OK…maybe not an emergency, but I was all psyched up to go and it was disappointing to have to put it off.  So I asked Carla if we could do a private session instead and she agreed.

In hindsight, it was a long drive to Lebanon NH for a 2 1/2-hour session, but it was worth it.  I had read a lot about Carla and her work, and I really felt like she was a good match for me and my issues.  So we met in her office, I told her about my “symptoms,” and she spent a lot of time explaining how the brain works, and how to distract myself when my mind tries to convince me that I’m going to pass out or pee my pants in front of a bunch of fire marshals.  I like scientific evidence and Carla’s explanation really made sense. 

Then she asked the $64,000 question – what do I do to relax.  Uh…I don’t relax.  Ever.  I know it’s a problem, but I thought the problem was that my quality of life is being affected – not that it’s part of my anxiety/stress issue.  Huh.  She recommended a weekly yoga class so I’ve added finding a class to the to-do list.  Then she told me that I need to meditate for 15 minutes per day – 3 times at 5 minutes each.  Really?  Me?  Criss-cross-applesauce on a cushion??  I told Carla that if I closed my eyes to meditate I’d fall asleep, and I really believed that.

But then I started thinking about it.  I was able to use 3 different types of relaxation / self-hypnosis to have natural childbirth 3 times.  Somehow I was able to work up enough belief in those techniques to not freak out during labor.  Maybe controlling my mind WOULD help with public speaking.  Carla taught me how to meditate, and described some scientific studies about the effects of meditation on the brain.  I bought it, and I told her that I would try to meditate daily.  We scheduled a phone follow-up for one week later.

I can’t tell you that meditation has made me a new person (yet), but I have done some reading and there are plenty of people who agree with Carla on this.  I will tell you…it’s not easy for me to find time to meditate in the morning, and again during the day.  The night-time one is easy because she said I could continue my bedtime relaxation technique and count it as my third meditation.  I haven’t fallen asleep during my daytime meditations yet, and it has become startlingly clear that my mind NEVER stops.  Because I’m so busy, I’ve removed all of the “mindless” activities from my life.  I don’t watch TV without also sending emails, paying bills, or at least doing housework at the same time.  I don’t listen to music in the car, because I need the quiet time to think about the next meeting, conference call, or task I’ve got coming up.  And I’m obviously not laying out in the back yard looking at the clouds or the stars.  This is NOT GOOD!  I think my brain may be almost worn out! 

So, I need a yoga class.  Not one of those hard-core sweaty yoga classes…a class that won’t mind a creaky beginner who may have to be woken up when it’s time to go home.  Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?

Go for the Gold!

This has been yet another crazy week in a busy month in what has turned out to be an insane year.  I have 73 emails that need to be answered, and 238 items on my task list.  (How is that even possible??)  So when Karen told me a couple of weeks ago that she was having a “gold party,” I put it on the calendar but didn’t really think I’d make it.  Luckily, Karen bribed me with wine, and late this afternoon I decided to go.

A “gold party” is where you dig all of your broken, outdated, and unwanted gold out of your jewelry box, and bring it to the party to sell.  Until 4:30 this afternoon, I didn’t even know where my gold jewelry was.  Ben found my jewelry box and Aliya and I went through it looking for stuff that looked like real gold.  Most of what I took to the party was from old boyfriends or was mangled.  I haven’t worn any of it for at least 10 years.  It wasn’t a very impressive pile, so I was thinking maybe $100 – $200.

I arrived at Karen’s at 6:30 and there was plenty of food, wine, and conversation, and then one by one we took our baggies into the gold specialists from Gold Party New England.  When my turn came I apologetically presented my baggie, and Kristen and Ann went to work.  About 20 minutes later I had a check in my hand for $610.77.  A real check.  Made out to me.  I don’t know if you could use an extra $600 right now, but I sure can.  I didn’t even sell everything in my bag – there were two items worth about $130 that I ended up keeping, and a few of the items with stones wouldn’t have weighed much after the stone was removed so I kept them for Aliya and Norah instead. 

I was very pleasantly surprised.  There was no pressure to sell, the prices were very fair, and the gold specialists were extremely professional and knowledgeable.  There was nothing shady about it…they tested and weighed the gold right in front of us, and calculated the prices based on about 70-75% of today’s closing price for gold.  The average check tonight was about $350, and there were two large pieces that aren’t included in that average – a $1,300 watch which one of the party guests needs to discuss with her family, and a $900 bracelet that needs further testing. 

I will be having a gold party of my own after the holidays, so start hunting now.  You’ll be amazed at what your old, broken, neglected gold is worth.

GOOOOAAALLLLLLSSS!!!

Adlani has finally found his mojo on the soccer field, after 4 seasons of bribing him with donuts and having him ask to go home in the middle of several games.  When I submitted his soccer registration, the system wouldn’t let me move him up to the U-8 league because of when his birthday falls.  Usually his birthday means that he’s one of the youngest kids…for this season it means that he’s one of the oldest. 

I think he needed this season to gain some confidence and realize that he’s a good soccer player.  It can’t be easy sharing the spotlight with Aliya, and it will get even harder next season when Norah starts playing.  But Adlani has been scoring several goals per game, without donut rewards.  Next season will be a whole different ball game, but for now, he’s a superstar.

Thank You Dr. Breuer

We had Norah’s post-op appointment with Dr. Breuer today, and she made a card for him to go with the giant bag of cookies we brought:

Dr. Breuer took off the steri-strip (like tape) that was over Norah’s incision and it doesn’t look bad at all.  He gave me some nail polish remover to get the sticky stuff off her neck…that just seems WRONG!  But…he’s the boss, so tomorrow morning I’ll be scrubbing Norah’s neck with nail polish remover.  Then we just need to keep sunscreen on it for a year to avoid having the scar “tattooed” by the sun.

So far, Norah is tolerating the replacement thyroid hormone just fine.  Her thyroid levels will be tested a month after surgery to help determine whether her dosage is correct.  She had blood drawn today to check her calcium and I’ll probably hear from Dr. Rivkees on that tomorrow.  My guess is that her calcium level is fine.  She has 5 more days of Tums and Vitamin D unless we hear otherwise.

I may have spoken too soon about her bad behavior being due to her thyroid, because she’s been driving Aliya and Adlani crazy.  We’re trying the reward system for good behavior because threats and punishments aren’t working.  This morning she was misbehaving in the car as we left for school, so I took her out of the car and told her that she’d have to stay home.  The little sh*t ran off to the back yard.  She’s fearless!  Oh well…I’m sure that will serve her well in the future.  I hope I survive it.