Monday, Monday

Couldn't think of anything else to call this one. At least you can hum along as you read.

What a Monday it started out as too. Big humungo migraine at 3 am. I limped to the bathroom and did the nasal snort zomig. This stuff goes straight to the bloodstream lemme tell ya. It started to work in about 5 minutes, but 20 minutes later I could tell it was going to get worse. So I decided to take what I call the "Clint Cocktail" (named after my favorite pharmacist) and loaded up on midrin too. And it worked! I vaguely remember Mike kissing me goodbye and me just waving at him. (He just got home and says I didn't...I seriously remember picking up my arm and giving him a little send off, but I guess I only mentally waved!). I got up an hour later only half as hung over as usual. That doubling up on controlled substances may be the way to go for those killer migraines. :)

So after a slow start, I was able to put sauce and cheese on the 67 enchiladas I made last night. I made so many because I'm splitting it 3 ways - missionary zone conference luncheon, dinner to the neighbor whose wife is camp director and left today, and 2 dinners for us. Good thing I did most of the cooking last night! I served my time at the zone conference luncheon and enjoyed working with the ladies there. I made a couple teenage boys very happy when I started bringing them all the pans that had 2 enchiladas left in them so they could finish them off. One of the elders was drooling over the plate of brownies I was putting out and goes, "would you look at that!" and I answered, "we're sharing chocolate with you...what does that tell you?!" and he says, "that you think we're pretty special?!". I thought that was funny.

It's my turn for the traditional birthday dinner tonight with the crazy gals in our ward who hang with me. We're going to my favorite restaurant, J. Alexander's. I'm saving up my calories so I can eat their french fries. They are the best! Tomorrow, Mike and I actually have a date! I seriously can't remember the last time I saw a movie with him in the theater, so I kinda started a sarcastic personal goal not to do so for a decade, since I think I might be halfway there already. Will the A Decade Without A Date Night Movie (ADWADNM) continue, or will it die a timely death? From all the reviews I read from your blogs, it sounds like there are alot of good movies to choose from.

4th in Missouri

Gib spent his 4th of July in St. Louis. They floated down the Meramac river. 6 miles took 4 hours. Gib said it was very slow, freezing cold water, and a little boring. They were starving because they missed lunch floating at a snail's pace down the river. They ate lunch at 4 pm. The holiday was saved by going to the City Museum. They went to every floor in the place. It sounds like it is a bunch of junk metal welded together to make a huge building. It has slides, an airplane, huge metal coil springs, and everything else is indescribable. Hopefully pictures will be sent out from the leaders that accompanied the scouts. They watched fireworks from the top floor, probably 3 stories high. They could see a panorama of fireworks from all over the city from their vantage point. Very awesome! After the fireworks, they spent some time on the ground floor of this thing in the ball pit engaging in brutal combat. Next they toured some man-made caves down below with alot of engraved art on the walls and stalagmites. Then they played at the skateboard park, but without any skateboards. Apparently the seat of your pants works fine. They did alot of running around defying gravity there. They did a bunch of other stuff at the City Museum and finally went to bed after midnight.

They got up this morning, went out to breakfast at Golden Corral and headed home. Gib was patrol leader of 4 and says they were the best. One thing that is neat on these trips is figured in the cost is a daily food allowance for lunch and dinner. The leaders stand there and hand out tens for lunches, a ten and a five for dinner, to the boys as they get out of the van to go into the restaurant. The boys must manage their money and figure 15% tips for the servers. If they have leftover money from lunch they can save it for dinner or other stuff.

I asked Gib what he thought of the Gateway Arch that they went to the first day of the trip. He said it was HIGH! And the trip down was hairy since it's 630' up in a old wood egg shaped cable elevator with 5 chairs that you sit in. Gib is not fond of heights. Six Flags was as you can imagine, awesome! The best news of all...Gib didn't barf on this trip! It's good to have him home. I think he's taller again. I can't wait to crack a joke and hear him laugh. I missed my dude!

4th in Tennessee

Sorry no photos of our Fourth. I thought maybe we'd have some of Mariah, because Mike was experimenting with Taryn's 35mm camera, but they didn't turn out. I think the camera is a lemon. They can't seem to get a good photo out of it. Mike is trying alternating the auto focus with manual focus with Mariah as his model again to see what happens. I think Taryn will be getting a new camera. Just hope this one is still in warranty.

I did my physical therapy exercises. Mike stood and watched and made fun of me. He also noted that I was not nearly as diligent last time around and wondered why. Well, the last one hurt alot more, and it IS my right arm, so there's a little more incentive to get full use back. Plus, I realized two things: 1) my left arm still hurts and is only about 50% as strong as it used to be and 2) with my left shoulder I was unable to return to the gym for weights or yoga until May and by then I was scheduled for surgery in June and didn't want to get started just to have to stop again. Yoga hurts that first month! But NOW...I think I am ready to try yoga on Monday! Besides being a better physical therapy patient, another thing I did different was taking homeopathic for nerve rejuvenation after surgery. A whole bottle of it. When I ran out and stopped taking it the rapid improvement stopped, so I just bought some more on Thursday. Every morning I wake up with a very stiff and sore shoulder, but this recovery is so much better than the first time.

We had a nice time with our friends over for bbq. We had Western Griller steaks. I googled them for a recipe and found out they are incredibly low in both calorie and fat! Yay! I was able to stay in my calorie goal for the day, but unable to take the walk I had planned on to get my double exercise points due to a tummy ache. I was going to go to the HOA party at the pool and try swimming with Mariah. Mariah and Mike went without me. Poor Mike didn't get an umbrella and got tanned. Luckily the tummy problem went away before dinner. Mariah was happy to finally have friends to play with, the cats went into hiding, and the adults had a nice rousing game of Phase 10. And yes, there was some friendly competition! But it wasn't all-out. Maybe next time. And Mike, he sat all the way on the other side of the table! He said something about wanting to see the action unfold...as Indy would say, what-ev.

We all went to our church lawn to watch fireworks. It's a great viewing location. All the kids and many adults were running around wearing glow stick bracelets and necklaces. On their ankles, wrists, around their necks, even as hats. Enterprising young folk string them together to make hula hoops and frisbees and play glow in the dark games with them. I love it!!!! You know why? We started it all!!! Here's how it happened: The first year we came for fireworks, our kids were running around in the dark and I couldn't tell where they were, which ones were mine, and the Californian in me just shuddered at the danger of it all. The tic in my eye was rampaging, I tell ya. The next year, I hit upon an amazing idea and brought glow sticks for my kids, the kind that you can wear around your neck. It was so great! I could totally tell which kids were mine in half a second flat and all the kids gathered around them and they made up games to play with the glowsticks. We gave all my extras away, babies were enthralled, hearts were gladdened and parents far & wide jumped on the glow stick bandwagon. The next year, I reminded everyone I knew to bring their glow sticks. The 4th year, I found the best invention that ever hit the glow stick market: battery operated glow sticks in 4 different colors!! I'm pretty sure it was year 4 when the scout leader decided to sell glow stick bracelets and necklaces for a troop fundraiser. Previously they tried candy and parents have too much resistance to children begging for sugar, but they have almost none at all to those big eyes begging for a glow stick. And now it's tradition in these here parts!! Musta been a hundred glow sticks flying around. Now you can say you knew me when. And, to keep my personal tradition alive, I still give some away...little Amy Mei whose mean mommy said NO when she wanted to keep one of our wonderful glow sticks, had big brown tear filled eyes and yea, she was crying up a storm, but it had been a long day, and after a hug from Aunt Chrissie, she stopped crying and went home with a green battery operated glow stick!

4th in Florida

We've had phone calls and nice newsy emails from both Indy and Taryn the past two days. Complete with photos! I'm going to miss that when EFY begins. They are having a wonderful time and think the retirement life in Florida is the way to go. Beaches, dolphins, driving around in golf carts (technically that means golf, but not to them), dollar movie theatre which is actually $1.75, restaurants everywhere, walking a neighborhood where all the cute little old people are your best friends and come out to talk to you about their health and families, laughing at the ones with sock tan lines that when the socks come off, still appear to be on because the feet are so white and the legs are tan...oh wait, that's just Fred. Don't worry, I hear photos were taken. Indy says she can't stop laughing every time she sees it. On the Fourth, the girls went to the beach with Fred and Jan. The girls don't like the gulf water. They say it's dirty and weird colored, no waves, gnarly weird looking sea shells, and black fish bigger than their hands swimming right next to their toes. Here are some photos of their day. It is so nice to hear about all the fun they are having with Fred and Jan. I wish we were there too! I feel another Florida vacay comin' on.

That's Fred in the corner.

That's Taryn's hat and hair.

Otherwise, look at that nice beach!

Indy in the water with Fred & Jan

Indy likes standing next to really white pasty people

because they make her tan look better. Way to go Fred!

Indy says this wave is an optical illusion
It wasn't as big as it appears and it was the
only one of it's kind! Good thing Taryn was
ready with the camera!

Scout Update

This made me feel good, so I thought I'd share. We get one of these every night from one of the trip coordinators. I guess you're right everybody....it's better than Fried Pickles!

Update from the scouts:
* They went to Six Flags yesterday from around 10:30 until 6:00. Some lines were long but not too bad. The rain came after they left. They ate dinner at the Ponderosa.
* They went to the zoo this morning from around 9:30-10 until 2:30 and ate lunch there. The rain came after they left.
* They went to Fitz Root Beer this afternoon for a root beer float and saw the bottling process.
* They went back to the church to re-group before heading to the minor league baseball game. (The game was scheduled to start at 6pm but it was delayed because they were finishing the game from last night that was postponed due to the rain. The main attraction for tonight is the fireworks after the game so they were not in a big rush to get there.)

3,2....1!!!

Indy and Taryn arrived safely in St. Petersburg! We dropped them off at the airport, waited at the security checkpoint until we couldn't see them anymore. Then I remembered I forgot to tell them to look for their gate info on the boarding pass. So I asked the security lady to go tell them for me. She looked at me like I was insane and said that information wouldn't be on the boarding pass....duh! So I asked very nicely if she would remind them to look for their gate info on the screen thing. Indy mouthed I KNOW to me, so all was well. For about, oh, let's just say until we got to the parking garage. I couldn't take it anymore, so I called her. She didn't answer. I gave her another 30 seconds and called again. She answered! Yes mom, we know what gate, we're still walking to it, was going to call you when we got to it......yeah, she was pretty much laughing at me. So I gave her the helpful (and wanted) advice about listening in case the gate changed or the time was moved up. OK MOM! Bye. I could feel the eye roll she gave to Taryn about me! I admit, I deserved it!

So we're down to a lonely only. She went to the pool with Mike while I was getting my hair done. We had dinner at 2 pm today. That's kind of freaky, but I wanted to try it because I am not hungry for more than 1 meal in the summer on most days, and by the time 4 pm comes around I'm starved, end up eating the wrong things, and then don't eat dinner. So, here it is almost 9 pm and all I had since then was 1 ginger cookie. I tried to hear Kay's voice, I really did. But I didn't, so I bought one when I was buying a chocolate chip cookie for Mariah. It was yummy, so I have to say it was worth it. And when you buy them 1 at a time, it doesn't hurt the diet. And, we went on a walk tonight. I'm still not up for alot of speed with the shoulder not liking any jarring or movement, but at least I got out.

Tomorrow friends are coming over. We were talking about what we might do for the afternoon, and I asked if they liked Phase 10, 'cause I'm kind of in the mood for a game. She tells me her husband is much too competitive. We went back and forth with a really? really! really? really! kind of conversation, which ended.....can you guess? Phase 10 on the Fourth!!! I think I'll finagle it so he and Mike sit by each other. That'll be fun to watch.

Not in a Pickle Anymore

Whew! What a long day! I had physical therapy, followed by lunch for Taryn at the Fried Pickle place. That was fun. And yummy! Seriously, if you like pickles, you'd love 'em fried! I tried really hard to not mac-out and having no idea how to figure the calories, just counted it as half the day's allotment! That should cover it.

Too bad Gib missed the pickles. He's on a Scout Trip. I think today they were at Six Flags. They been to the St. Louis Gateway Arch, Westward Expansion museum, ate at Blueberry Hill's Piano room - full of wall to wall video and pinball games and booths with built in board games. They've also gone to Lincoln's home, presidential museum, library and tomb, and toured the Old State Capitol. They will go to a baseball game and who knows what else, and be home on Saturday. I'm sure he's having fun. It's pretty dang quiet around here without him. I miss him. He always laughs at all my jokes. I really miss him.

Taryn, Mariah, Grammy and I hit Target for a big household goods shopping trip and for EFY stuff - toiletries, and the like with my 10% off the entire purchase coupon. Then the girls and I all went for pedicures together!!!! Once in a blue moon we all go together. I thought about bringing a book to read but then thought, naw, I want to talk with my girls, I've got two leaving tomorrow and I want to spend this afternoon with them not a book! So I had to laugh when I got the chair sitting directly across the three of them and they all had brought a book and had their noses buried in them!

Our evening was filled with Indy working with my good friend to finish her PowerPoint presentation, and then we took a walk (yay exercise and my shoulder didn't hurt as much as last time I walked!). Taryn was packing for EFY. Indy is putting it off as long as possible! And the late night hours were spent finalizing Indy's senior portrait order. We ended up with the package of 10 poses, 20 sheets of photos, plus I'm getting an 11x14 for the living room wall. Mike went to bed, so Indy and I did it all by ourselves and were quite happy and proud of the results and we had it narrowed it down to 7 poses. Indy had to give up one pose she liked and that was a little sad. But then Mike got up to do a quality control check and apparently we didn't order one he really liked. So I threw Indy's pose back in that she wanted when I added Mike's and one that we liked but had eliminated. Yay! Indy has all the photos she likes and the order is ready!

So now the older girls are all packed and ready for an early morning departure for Florida and EFY (Especially For Youth). They are looking forward to spending time with Grandpa Fred and Jan, and the gulf coast beach this time. I hope they really enjoy EFY. Indy doesn't have her posse this year. They'll sure miss those crazy guys. And, the last two years neither girl has had a roomie. It's hard without friends and roomies! So, thinking good thoughts for a GREAT EFY!