Boundary Lines

Status Update, Expanded

No, I didn't drop off the face of the planet. I think you all know that we arrived in San Francisco a month ago and have been going about trying to get settled in here. We're still with my SIL, as we haven't had any luck finding a place to live. Seems like the kind of home we're looking for (3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and preferably some outdoor space) are hard to come by or were snapped up right before we got here. OR, they're dirty and in horrible disrepair. So we're praying and looking hard for a place of our own, but enjoying all this time with our family after being separated by oh-so-many-miles for oh-so-very-long. 

To save me a little time on updating things here, I thought I'd just post a few of my Facebook status updates and expand on them a little. I promise not to be offended if this is your cue to excuse yourself from the premises, but after looking back through my blog recently I've realized that if I don't write these things down, I will TOTALLY forget about it. So, without further ado, a little peek into my crazy life lately:

• January 17th ~ Packing and moving is never EVER as easy as you think it's going to be. =P ~ I'd hoped to have some help packing, especially getting my kitchen boxed up, but that didn't end up happening. The time I'd hoped T would be tackling our room was spent helping me in the kitchen, we were still packing our room when we should have been done completely and again there was not quite enough room for all of our things. I am always SO glad when moving is over and done with!
• January 21st ~ About to enjoy a yummy breakfast in Santa Barbara, after having the BEST time at Disneyland the last 2 days. We're Californians again! ~ We surprised the boys by staying the night at the Disneyland Hotel and spending a day at the "Happiest Place on Earth" on our way up here. Ronan actually spotted the resort first and started yelling "Mickey! Mickey!", to which Aidan responded as only a big brother can, "No, Ronan. We're not at Disneyland." When we revealed that in fact he WAS there, he told us, "Hold on. I'm so excited I feel like fainting!". Lol! We stayed in really nice room overlooking Downtown Disney, had a great time in the Parks and then drove up to Santa Barbara for the night. I'd only ever driven through the area, and was blown away by its beauty. GOR-GEOUS.
•   January 22nd ~ Enjoyed Nick's Crispy Taco's and Blue Bottle Coffee this afternoon. Yippee! (Followed by)  Emporio Rulli for breakfast, Marnee Thai for lunch and the Beach Chalet for happy hour. I need to take a loooong walk.~ The food in San Francisco is absolutely amazing. It is truly hard to get a bad meal here. The neighborhood we are hoping to move into has Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican, Irish and Italian restaurants all within a couple of blocks. Happy times for my taste buds. Not so much for my waist line!
•  January 23rd ~ We think we found the perfect teacher at the perfect school for Aidan. Hooray! ~ I'd been praying really hard that we would find the right school for Aidan, and a teacher who was really kind and "gets" him. On our last visit to the school we'd had our eye on, we found exactly that. We "bumped" into a 1st grade teacher in the office (I truly feel that God lead us right to her), who warmly welcomed us into her classroom, telling us about what they were learning, showing Aidan a class picture and just making us feel like we'd found the perfect fit for us. And she had space in her classroom, while the others were all full. We have been so pleased and are so, SO thankful for this answer to prayer. 
• January 24th ~ I must be in Italy, the view out the window is so beautiful. ~ I see views such as this and this almost every day. Spectacular!
• February 2nd ~ Enjoying the morning, surrounded by little boys. There's so much testosterone in the room, it's insane. Have I mentioned that between our family and my SIL's there are FOUR boys age 6 and under? The Shookie (almost 7), my nephew J (3 years), Ronan (2) and my nephew C (1). And one girl -- my beautiful H (5 1/2). It's loud, it's crazy and SO. MUCH. FUN!
  
• February 3rd ~ I had SO much fun at a kitchen/home tour today. Thanks Court, for the GREAT outing! ~ A local preschool has an annual kitchen and home tour fundraiser that my SIL invited me to go to. The homes were GORGEOUS. (Like, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" kinda gorgeous.) The chance to get dressed up, go out w/o the kids, see such amazingly beautiful homes and end it all with a delicious lunch at a yacht club? It was an ooh-la-la afternoon from start to finish.
• February 4th ~ I never thought of telling Ronan not to dangle his feet (WITH shoes and socks on, btw) in the TOOOIIILET. Now that I think about it, I should have known better. ~ I can not take my eyes off this kid for ONE SECOND. 'Nuff said.
•  February 14th ~ In Napa, heading to breakfast with the love of my life ... who bought me a NANO for Valentine's Day!! ~ My parents took the boys for us and T and I had an overnight getaway. We had dinner with my brother and his wife, and then drove to Napa where he hid a gorgeous PINK Nano under my pillow before we snuggled down to watch "Slumdog Millionaire". (We celebrated on the evening of the 13th though, as that's the day that -- FIFTEEN YEARS AGO!!! -- T asked me out for the first time.) We also had a lovely breakfast here before heading back. It was SUCH a nice time. And did I mention he gave me a freakin' Nano?! I call it my Precious, lol.


So, that's where we're at right now (minus the Shookie's 7th birthday last week, that is ... can you believe it?!). Still looking for a place to live and staying with my SIL while we do. It's been discouraging lately, but I am trying to keep my hopes up and trusting that God has an awesome place for us that just hasn't been ready yet. Other than that, I think we're settling in well and starting to realize that we really are HERE, after waiting for so long. I don't know why I ever doubted whether I could love SF as much as I did NY/Brooklyn. It is absolutely as fabulous a city as NYC, and much, much more. 

Life is loud and crazy, but SO MUCH FUN! Indeed.

Plowing through

I wish that I was writing more here. Lord knows I spend enough time on the computer! But putting words together coherently takes a lot of energy these days, and whenever I think about writing about my surgery (it went well, kicked my ass at points, and the incision is still pretty tender) or Thanksgiving (it was very special having my grandparents with us ... I cried when they left), my brain cringes and I give up before I even start.

Which is kind of how I feel a lot of the time ... like giving up. I don't know that I'm clinically depressed, but I definitely don't feel like my normal self. I haven't for a while. Overwhelmed, blue, fatigued, irritable. Did I mention overwhelmed? Totally and completely, at times.

Toby helps me a ton, and is incredibly understanding and patient, and the boys are both SO sweet, so good (most of the time, lol). So they are such a gift, while I muddle through my days. I love them so!

Anyways, that's why I haven't written lately. (I read about all of YOU, though ... I am so glad for this connection to the outside world!) I've been on a physical and emotional roller coaster since this spring and WRITING feels like too much a lot of the time. But, like with everything else, I haven't given up here. So please keep coming back. Because I DO hope that my old self will emerge soon. 

A Little Holiday Inspiration

About this time a year ago, Amy F. posted a link on her blog that has forever changed my life. (I think it was this post, as I can't find any other references to PW, although I could be missing them.) She mentioned my new hero in life, Ree, aka. The Pioneer Woman. I know most of you have probably heard of her ... with 11,000 individual comments on a recent post, I would guess the whole world knows of her by now. But I had had had to post about her here, just in case you haven't.

Briefly, Ree is the wife of "Marlboro Man" (check out their love story: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels at the bottom of her site). He is a cattle rancher somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma. They have 4 kids and a kajillion dogs.

But that's not why I'm writing about her right now, to tell you someone else's life story. I'm writing about her now because she is the best dang cook I've ever come across in the blogosphere, and she has the best dang Thanksgiving recipes known to mankind. I thought, for my friends living in the U.S. of A., I'd pass on a little inspiration for next week, in case you're looking for some kick-ass, sure-to-please, love-in-a-dish to serve your friends and family. And for my friends to the North, perhaps a few ideas for Christmas. Or next October. 

Today, she posted her Thanksgiving Cooking Schedule, which is helpful to someone like myself who sometimes doesn't know when or where or how to tackle a big "project" like cooking a Thanksgiving meal. I'm kind of dumb like that. Earlier this week she posted a list of most of the recipes she's ever posted for Thanksgiving. They are yum-my, lemme tell ya! But of course she's posted a couple more since then. Sometimes I wonder if she ever leaves her kitchen! (I know she does, of course ... to do stuff like this or this.) In case you haven't noticed, she's also an amazing photographer.

Oh! I almost forgot! She frequently has the most AMAZING giveaways! This week she gave TWO of these away. (Hence, the 11,000 comments/entries.) The giveaways alone are reason enough to go check her out!

Anywaaays, I've been so helped by her recipes this year, I had to pass it along. Hope you find yourself as inspired as I've been!

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Live! From San Francisco! It's the Most Relaxing Week I've Ever Had! Yaaaaaah!

We made the long drive to San Francisco last Friday, to spend the week making various preparations needed to make our final final final move. IN JANUARY!!! Yes folks, after days, weeks, months ... and even years ... wondering when exactly we were going to come home (because it is. home. even without having lived here. it is my home in every sense of the word.), we now know for certain that we will be moving in January. I didn't know that I'd been holding my emotions at bay until T told me we were going, and I fell into his arms crying like a baby. I am so, so happy.

Anyways, the week began with T preaching at my SIL's church, one that we will be partnering with very closely when we move here (and attending ourselves until ours is launched in late July). Both mine and T's parents came to the service, again showing their love and support for T and I in this next stage of our lives. We all went out for margaritas and appetizers afterwards, and then ... wait for it ...my parents took the boys home with them!

And thus began the relaaaahxing. 

We had a room in the beautiful Hilton downtown waiting for us, and dinner reservations at Morton's. After an amazing dining experience, where we ate and drank entirely too much (enough that we forgot our credit card there, lol), we fell into bed and asleep way earlier than planned. But not TOO early. ;)

The following morning we walked over to an amazing coffee house/cafe, Bluebottle Coffee Company. Here, I enjoyed an individually prepared cup of drip coffee and T had the best cappuccino he says he's ever had, accompanied by huge hunks of bread topped with pancetta, poached eggs and a scrumptious hollandaise sauce. Our little getaway was over far too soon, but it was also the perfect way to start this week.

In the following days, I also ...

• stumbled across Marnee Thai, one of the best Thai restaurants in the City (I literally parked in front and after watching a dozen people walk through the door in just a few minutes, decided to give it a try.) I was hooked after the very first bite. 
• sat in a Barnes and Noble for TWO WHOLE HOURS, reading ... well, let's see if you can guess what guilty pleasure series I finally gave in to. (Blushing) (Hey, that's a hint right there!)
• enjoyed the best Philly cheesesteak and Belgian beer ever. (Any place that lets you sample their beer for free gets two huge thumbs up in my book!)
  
• slept in more than two days in a row -- a miracle around these parts.
• toured one of those schools A may be going to. I was very pleased with what I saw and very optimistic that, if it isn't the school he goes to, we are going to find another excellent option for him.  
• played hide-and-go-seek with my niece and nephew, laughing and and scaring the bejeezus out of them over and over and over again. SO FUN. I miss them to death. Sigh.
• soaked in the gorgeous views around my SILs home. It's like being transported to the Amalfi Coast in Italy, I swear.  
• enjoyed the luxuriously cool weather. I could have sat outside all day, wrapped in my warm-weather clothes. Who cares if it makes my hair frizzy, lol? This dry heat is going to do me in one of these days. Ugh.

While I was busy relaxing, T ran around like a mad man all week, meeting with friends in the area, and others who are interested in our soon-to-be-church. We had the first official "inquirers" meeting last Wednesday, at my SIL's home. It went very well, and felt incredibly surreal. The first meeting for our church in Brooklyn was in our home just under 5 years ago, and what a life-changing experience that turned out to be! That group of people became my family and we walked together through what I still consider to be the happiest time of my life. And so a few days ago I found myself looking around the room, wondering what life-changing friendships and experiences might be in store for us with the people sitting beside us. 

It was a full and wonderful week, indeed.

P.S. On a completely different note, I thought you would want to know that, after talking it over with my doctor, I have decided to postpone the thyroid scan I was going to have later this week. He felt that, because the nodules on my thyroid are so small, the test would likely be inconclusive. So, considering how inconvenient and poorly timed it was going to be, I am going to wait until we get to CA to have it done.

I am, however, going to have my hernia surgery next Monday at noon. I am really hoping it will be done laproscopically and not require a large incision, as the recovery for the latter appears to be similar to that of a C-section. No thank you! At the very least, I'll be taking it easy this Thanksgiving, and will do my very best to keep you updated about the whole thing. Please pray for an easy and speedy recovery!

It is a crazy day when this election and preparing for a surgery aren't ... well, the craziest part of your day!

So, in my last entry I told you about my upcoming hernia surgery, to fix my outie-but-should-be-an-innie belly button. And I briefly mentioned the thyroid ultrasound I had because of my elevated thyroid levels. Well, when I didn't hear back from my doctor's office by this afternoon, I decided to suck it up and give them a call. (Seriously, I hope there is a good reason that they didn't call me, 'cuz if I find out they had the results and were just sitting on them, I will be seriously ticked off.)

The results were surprising, to say the least.

My thyroid ultrasound showed that I have "multinodular goiters", or multiple nodules on my thyroid. I kind of suspected there might be something going on, because when I looked at the ultrasound, it looked like I had a ton of holes in my neck. (Of course, I had no idea what I was looking at really, so I tried not to jump to any conclusions.) Oh, and apparently they might be inflamed? I think she said that anyways.

The other words she used were "vascular nodules". You will notice, if you click on the first link, it simply talks about what a goiter is (ugh, I hate that word ... terrible mental images come to mind), how they are detected and treated and why. Not really stuff that you want to be describing YOU, but not horrible either. 

There is nothing but talk of the C-word when looking at vascular nodules. Not so encouraging, that page.

So, what is the next step? A not-so-fun (but thankfully painless) test, called an Iodine Uptake and Thyroid Scan (scroll to the middle of the page for definitions/descriptions of these procedures). The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I will go in (I think to an imaging center with radiology abilities?) early in the morning and take an iodine pill, having not had anything to eat for 6 hours prior. (Anyone up for a midnight donut run, lol?) I'll return at noon, when they will do a scan for an HOUR. (I need to borrow someone's IPOD!!) I return the following morning for another 45-minute scan. There are no side affects like nausea, etc. and I was told that I could go about my day as normal. EXCEPT ...

Due to my being radioactive, I can't be close enough to my kids to hug or kiss them for 72 hours after taking the iodine pill!!!!!

Yeah, not exactly business as usual, ya think?

Seeing as it will be impossible to keep Ronan away from me, I will probably need to stay in a Hotel for those 3 days. I am going to find out exactly what the risks are for adults to be around me, as I thought I'd make the best of the situation and invite some friends to come and have a Ladies Night with me. I think I'll also go movie-hopping too. I've always wanted to do that, and have never had such a big chunk of time to myself.

Still, despite the allure of so much time to myself, I'm pretty bummed about having to be away from T and the boys because of a medical procedure. I am pretty confident that the uptake and scan will not reveal anything serious, although I AM hoping it will tell my doctors what they need to do to help me feel better. (Ironically, this past week has been a "good" week, and I've been feeling as close to normal as I can get these days.) We're going to be away from them next week while we're in San Francisco (more on that soon), and I won't be by normal self for a few days when I have the hernia surgery, the week following the scan.

So yes, a lot is on my plate this month. But none of this is a surprise to God, and believing that has given me tremendous peace when my mind has been tempted to whirl in a million different directions. I leave you with a couple of verses from Psalm 121, which has been a source of particular comfort to me recently:

From where does my help come?                       

My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.

The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.  

Starting to get somewhere. I hope.

Toby's out watching a movie with friends, the boys are in bed, and I am watching the movie "As Good As It Gets". Have you ever seen this movie? If you haven't, rent it. If you have, rent it again. This movie gets better and better every time I see it, and I've seen it no less than ten times. It is moving, hysterically funny, romantic, excruciating, horribly offensive ... and you will never find a more brilliant performance by Jack Nicholson or Helen Hunt. Not in a million years. Oh my goodness, the nuances one sees ... their eyes speak such hurt and guilt and recognition and love. And Greg Kinnear is beautiful in it too. Oh, and it was partially filmed in our old neighborhood in NY! Shortly after moving there, we walked around and found the different areas shown in the movie. 

Did I say how much I love Jack Nicholson in this movie? 

Anyways, the last we spoke, I was telling you about all the blood work I had done because of the horribly life-impeding health issues I've been having since the spring. I am happy to say that I am finally, finally starting to get some answers. I think. I hope. 

My blood work came back, and most of it was normal. They SAID that my FSH was normal, but it was the exact same level as it was in May when my former OB/Gyn said it wasn't. I'm not totally sure who I should go to to have a second opinion -- another OB, the hematologist I'm going to see next week (more on that in a minute), or a fertility specialist. But I will be getting a second opinion.

The one thing that was NOT normal was my thyroid. I know, it seems like an obvious answer, one I should have thought of, but I've had it checked before and it was normal then. Plus, my symptoms seemed so hormonal in nature -- especially the hot flashes and irregular cycles and emotional roller coaster. But my levels were at 145 and normal is 40 or below, so while there could ALSO be something going on with my hormones/ovaries, at least we have part of the puzzle. I had an ultrasound of my thyroid done today and will have the results back late Friday or Monday.  

I also had an appointment with a general surgeon yesterday to have my stomach hernia looked at. Have I mentioned this before? Well, Sir Ronan did a number on my belly, thanks to his insistence on lying transverse through 38 out of the 40 weeks of my pregnancy. His little back blessed me with a circle of silvery-purple stretch marks around a belly button that has never gone back to normal. And I don't mean pre-pregnancy normal. I mean it still pokes out a little, like it does when you're pregnant. I suspected I had a hernia, as it feels a little funny. And uncomfortable when my kids lean back on me. So, I went in to have it looked at, and the really, really nice surgeon said he thought it should be fixed, as it will only get worse and worse. 

So, seeing as I don't care to have my funky belly button get even more funkified, and I am especially not interested in something crazy happening like my intestines getting kinked and all gangrenous (as my NP mentioned it could if I didn't get it repaired), I am probably going to have a hernia surgery the Monday of Thanksgiving week. I say probably because it's not in the books yet, but the surgeon's scheduler said she would set the date aside. I was originally looking at the week before, but my parent's are already coming in for the Holiday and it is easy for them to come in a day or two earlier and help out with the kids. 

I'm a little worried about being too sore to enjoy Thanksgiving, but I know it will be a far easier recovery than a C-section, and I figure if my SIL can have a baby just a few days before Thanksgiving and be running around like normal the day of, I can pop a ton of Advil and do as much as I can. Am I crazy for thinking this? I will do all the shopping the week before and Toby always takes care of the turkey anyways, so the only thing left are the sides, some of which can be prepared ahead of time and the rest my mom and Toby and I can tackle together.

Seriously, am I crazy for having minor surgery that week?

And seriously, have I told you how much I love this movie?!

Totally uncooperative. That's me!

I have tried about 20 different ways to start this dang post, and I'm giving up. My inability to focus or think clearly is just one more symptom of how overwhelmed I feel much of the time these days. My brain is such MUSH! I am so tired of feeling like shit all of the time, and am thankful to finally have the ball rolling on getting some answers. 

I finally got in to see a doctor last week and had a TON of blood work done. Hopefully, those results will come in sometime tomorrow. (Although when do test results EVER come in when they are supposed to? Yeah. Pretty much never!) I asked to be tested for everything under the sun, and am hoping that something comes out of it all. I'm also having an ultrasound tomorrow, to see if the ovarian cyst they found when we lived in MD is still there. 

I also have an appointment with a general surgeon to have the lovely stomach hernia Ronan blessed me with during my pregnancy looked at. It has started to become uncomfortable in the last month or so, so it needs to be checked out. Hooray! I'll keep y'all posted on what I find out. PLEASE God, let it be something that can "fixed". And by fixed, I mean something beyond diet and exercise. Because I will frickin' jump off a cliff if that is the only answer. 

Back soon with happier news and life-updates. 

I am an old woman. No really. I am.

It is probably stupid to be writing about this, seeing as one test doesn't really give conclusive results, but this whole thing has been going on since the Spring, so it's about time I put it out here. 

Have you ever heard of Premature Menopause? I suppose I had before this year, but I can't remember ever talking about it, other than knowing my Mom went into peri-menopause in her early 40's. Really, it had never crossed my mind. Until this spring.

Around March or April, I noticed that my period hadn't started. So, I did the logical thing and bought a pregnancy test.

Negative.

Okaaay. I wasn't really sure when my last cycle had started, so I waited another week and when it still hadn't started, I took another test.

Negative.

Hmmmm, what is going on here? I was definitely having pregnancy symptoms ... tired, general "blah" feeling, sore BB's. I finally called my OB and scheduled an appointment.

When my appointment finally rolled around, I was seen by a nurse practitioner, I think. My physical went fine ... everything normal. The blood work? THAT was a surprise. I was definitely not pregnant. I don't have cancer, thank the Lord. But I DID have high  FSH levels. "Normal" FSH for a woman my age is between 2 and 10 at the highest. 

Mine was 30.

I was shocked. Especially when I started Googling high FSH, and started to understand it more. FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone) is basically like the gas pedal that causes a woman to ovulate. As a woman ages, it becomes harder for the ovaries to ovulate as the supply of eggs is depleted and so the level of FSH rises (in order to push the gas pedal down further) over time. When a woman enters menopause, her ovaries are depleted and the gas pedal stays depressed permanently; or the FSH level remains high. A woman's level may drop a bit (mine went from 30 to 18 when I finally had a (progesterone-induced) period), but your highest level is generally the real indicator of where things are at.

I don't know that there is a reason why this is happening. I haven't taken very good care of my body, but I don't think my eating habits or being overweight would cause a 33 year old woman to go into menopause! Whatever the cause is (if there is one), feeling like this SUCKS.

I am tired/lethargic/fatigued all the time, nauseous, SO spacey, light-headed, emotional ... I basically feel like crap. It's like the worst PMS you've ever had in your life, or the way you feel when you're in your first trimester ... but not. Oh, and I've gained a bunch of weight, which is probably the hardest thing to deal with. (You can go here for a complete list of symptoms ... I have almost all of them to one degree or another. Yippee!) Thankfully, it seems to cycle up and down, so I have good days and even weeks when I feel really fine and go about life like normal. But man, when it hits I am laid out. The last two weeks have been difficult, especially feeling sick all the time, but tonight I felt it kind of "lift", which is what happened last time around. (I felt SO awful our whole drive out here from Maryland, but then it literally just went away for like a month.)

So right now I am trying to track down an OB/Gyn (obviously for the latter ... the former appears to be permanently not necessary for us) and a General Practitioner. I just want to know more definitively what is going on with my body, and if there is anything I can do to help myself feel better when I cycle down into the dumps. And I need to know how to best take care of myself in general, seeing as I am probably more at risk for those things that women my MOMS age are usually paying attention to (osteoporosis, heart disease, cancer etc.)

Anyways, that's what's going on around here. I'll keep you updated as I find things out. I would much appreciate your prayers, as the normal day-to-day takes quite an effort sometimes and I just want to be the best mom and wife that I can be for my family, and I feel like I am failing miserably at both right now.

Sooooo, what's going on in your neck of the woods? ;)

Farewell to Beijing

Ok, so the Olympics have been over for a few days already, but this entry has been percolating in my head since they started on oh-so-auspicious 8*8*08. Those childhood Olympic memories that come back every time the torch is lit and I am once again captivated by the Games. 

There is one memory in particular that I think about the whole time the Games are on. I'm not exactly sure how old I was -- somewhere between 10 and 17 as I don't think I was in college yet, and we were living on "Portsmouth". My Dad and I were sitting in our front room, watching one of the finals for swimming. Who knows, maybe Janet Evans was swimming? I don't know. But it was a big race, and being a family of competitive swimmers, we were glued to the TV. 

My Dad sat down in his baby blue La-Z-Boy chair (which he still has btw) right before the race began with a HUGE bowl of Dennison's Chili (I've linked to this in particular, because the can on the top is what the cans used to look like back in the day). Yep, we used to eat this nasty-ass chili all the time, lol! 

Anyways, Dad sat down with his big bowl of chili ... and the gun went off. I don't remember who was swimming, but it was an incredibly exciting race, whoever it was. Like the race Michael Phels won by 1/100 of a second. A nail-biting, yelling, cheering GO!GO!GO!GO! kinduva race. Absolutely thrilling. 

I don't remember who was swimming, or who won the race, though. So why is it burned into my memory?

Because when the race was over, Dad looked down at his bowl of chili and it was ALL GONE.

And he didn't remember eating a single bite of it.

He had gotten so excited, and so sucked into the race that he shoveled the whole bowl down in the time it took for the race to start and finish. Which is to say, in less than 2 minutes. Can you say "Gut- Busting Stomach Ache?" Lol! I never laughed so hard in my life

(Btw, I don't think Dad would have believed that he had actually eaten the chili if I hadn't seen him do it. I think he thought for a minute that he'd THOUGHT he had made himself a bowl and then changed his mind or something ... or I'd taken the bowl from him when he wasn't looking??) 

So that is one of my very favorite "Olympic" memories. What is one of yours?

P.S. I'll be putting up another new look around here very soon, but thought I'd put something "sporty" up in honor of the Olympics and this entry. 

Calistoga 2008

Well, after Nino spanked me for not posting more often, I thought I'd send up a quick "What We're Up To" before I get sent to my room. ;)

I am sitting in my favorite cafe on the face of the planet, Calistoga Roastery, on the last morning of our annual family trip to Napa with my parents. 9 years running, and other than Thanksgiving or Christmas, this is absolutely the highlight of my year. Relaxing, fun, YUMMY and ... did I mention relaxing? Precious time with precious people, it is.

We've been splashing in the pools, running after Ronan (who does.not.stop.moving.EVER.), eating WAY too much at the CIA (this too has become a tradition on this trip ... 4 years now!), slathering and re-slathering the boys with sunscreen, laying on the beds hanging out and watching TV and just generally loving one another's company. It really doesn't get better than that, does it? 

Oh, and my SIL sent me here for a massage for my birthday. God bless that woman. It was amaaaazing.

We're heading to my parent's place tonight, where my grandparents have been spending the week after the fires up here temporarily displaced them from their RV. Tomorrow, we head back this way to spend some more time with T's parents before heading over to my SIL's place outside of SF. It had been 7 months since we last saw their family, and I almost burst into tears when we saw them last week. 7 months is TOO LONG. Never again. Our move to SF can't come fast enough.

One of these days I'll post some pictures of our trip out West and this vacation. I don't have the cord to upload with me, so ya may have to wait a bit. In the meantime, I hope all of you are doing well. 

Be back soon!