Return to Normal?

We have had a busy couple of months with all 4 of us in the community play, Pinosio.  Last night was our first performance and today we had performances 2 & 3.   We had a fabulous time and the shows went great!  Tomorrow starts our return back to "normal" busy for our family.  This is the kind of busy that I'm used to and can handle.  As much fun as we had with the play, I'm looking forward to getting back into our usual schedule.

This past week I've had a lot of pain in my left knee.  Now, I have aches in both knees off & on all the time.  I was told several years ago (at least 6...we were in Tampa at the time) that I had some arthritis in my knee.  Ok, runs in the family.  What are you going to do?  This time the pain seemed to be for no reason, I didn't do anything (at least that I remembered) so I gave it a couple days & decided that enough was enough.  I had better get it checked to make sure I hadn't done something serious to it.  I went to the Ortho Friday morning, knee x-rayed...news not good.  On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being the best & 10 the worst...no cartilage in the joint), I'm at a 9.  He couldn't believe I hadn't come in earlier with pain & wasn't having pain more often or continuously.  Eeek!  He said knee replacement is in my future and the only "cure" for my knee.  I got a cortisone injection (scared the crap out of me but honestly, didn't hurt....thank goodness).  He prescribed me a couple things and said we will just keep holding surgery off as long as possible.  No arthroscopic surgery will help because there is no cartilage or anything to fix or clean up.  I'm bone on bone at this point.  Well, 24 hours after that shot and my knee is feeling wonderful! I know it is temporary, but I'll take it.

Epic Fail

Well, South Beach Diet ended in an epic fail, I think.  We did great for about 10 days...then a fiery, crash & burn.  We shall chalk it up to a birthday celebration and stress.  Yes, stress...new stress actually.  We were getting adjusted to the fact that Corey was going into work every day, some long hours and barely getting home in time to eat before leaving for play practice, but we were figuring it out.  Then his car started overheating and shaking like crazy.  He let office co-workers know he wouldn't be in until figured out the car problem and took the car to the mechanic. Water pump failure causing the overheating and unstable axle causing the shaking, get an estimate, gasp & almost cry, but must be fixed...go ahead.  Hours later another call, due to where the water pump is located & the extent of the failure it has caused issues with nearby parts and something is damaged & must be replaced as well...adding to the price.  Egads, choke some more, authorize the go ahead.  :-/  We've officially put in as much with this repair as the car cost us (used).  :-(  Totally sucks but we absolutely can not swing a car payment at the moment and Corey must have a car to get to work...and I must be able to get the kids around to their classes & activities.  So here we are...stress.   Thankfully, we had money tucked away in savings (guess this is what savings is for?) and so it didn't break us to get everything taken care of.

Play practice has been going well, although Corey actually had to miss practice because of work & being on call...crisis after crisis.  We made cupcakes for Morgan's birthday & brought them to practice on Thursday night.  We are getting closer to performance time!

On Friday, we all took Alex to open fencing in Cool Springs.  Corey and I attended a parent meeting about tournaments & such and Morgan helped Alex when needed & watched him fence.  We got to see him fence 1 bout and ref 1 bout.  He is doing great.  Next Friday he will be in his first tournament!  He's excited.  :-)  I will post pictures.

Saturday was Morgan's birthday celebration...going to the mall with her best friend and going shopping. Corey took the girls to lunch first and then to the mall.  Morgan got a feather put in her hair (the kind that last 5-6 months, you can wash them, curl them,etc), and various other things.  She had a really good time.

Today, Corey did the grocery shopping and Morgan treated me and Alex to a movie (Contagion).  We had a nice afternoon, making some sugar-free pumpkin muffins and just relaxing.  All-in-all, a good weekend.

Back to the epic fail.  When we opted to bake cupcakes for Morgan's birthday...and go out to lunch & dinner we all went way off.  I tried to get back on track but had totally lost momentum.  When we were making our menu plan and grocery list for the next 2 weeks, I decided that we weren't going to be doing South Beach.  I'll cut out what I can but the reality is that it costs much more to follow that way of eating (at least for us, right now).  This is after we get our meat and produce from our CSA.  We don't usually buy much from the grocery store (it is a lot less this year than in years past).  But trying to get foods for South Beach, we doubled our grocery store bill!  We will have to do better without spending that much more money.  Our CSA costs more than the same items at the grocery store but we are paying for MUCH better quality & taste & keeping it local...that is worth it to us.  It isn't worth it for us to pay more into the grocery store.  I guess our epic fail is really a work in progress?

Morgan is 13! Happy Birthday!

Today, our precious girl turned 13!  Where has the time gone??  Wasn't she just a baby yesterday? Some how time has flown by and we have a teenager in our house.  Our little girl is becoming has become a beautiful young lady.  Part of turning 13 was getting to open a Facebook account, which she did.  We took her out for a birthday lunch, made cupcakes to share at play practice tomorrow and she's celebrating with a friend on Saturday.

Morgan on her 13th Birthday! 

Morgan and Daddy at Fujiyama - 13th Birthday lunch

Happy 13th Birthday my sweet girl!  Our lives haven't been the same since you entered the world on that cool  night with a bright, full moon.  You are our shining star and don't ever forget it!  We love you!

South Beach Diet - Week 1

About 10 days ago I decided that I wanted to try the South Beach diet to see how I felt with it and how it worked for me.  Morgan told me she wanted to try it too and then Alex piped in.  Corey and I did some research to see if this would be something that would be safe for the kids.  The reality is either I can change what I eat and only what I eat or we can make it more of a family change....but I want it to be something safe for them.  We found out that South Beach is healthy for kids and teens as long as they do not do the 14 day induction / phase 1.  Which is just fine with me, I feel that all of us need some of each food group but how much of each truly depends on the person and what is going on with them.  I've been diagnosed with PCOS w/insulin resistance.  I need to limit my carb intake and the ones I do eat need to be as close to the whole, real (non-processed) food as possible.  Sooo...after going to the grocery store last weekend, we started South Beach on Monday.  I started with phase 1 and the kids with phase 2.  I honestly didn't think Alex would be able to do it because he relies on carbs for a lot of his food intake.  Well, color me surprised at how well he did this past week.  I'm very proud of him for challenging himself and stretching his limits (and comfort zone) to eat differently and try a few new things.  :-)   Our dinners are slightly modified so that we are able to have family dinners using what we receive from our CSA and what we can afford.  Today was the end of week 1 and so the 3 of us weighed in to see if there were any results.  Alex lost 1.4 lbs this past week, Morgan lost 2.0 lbs, and I lost 8.7 lbs.  None of us were starving, we were eating a healthy diet, and we felt good.  We had a couple of meals over 2 days that were off from the South Beach plan.  We still made the best choices we could with those meals.  I'm proud of all of us.  We are doing a second week to see how we do.  What we are all taking from this is that if we are making good choices most days, that a little treat or special thing every now & then won't hurt us.

Severely behind

Well, it has been over a month since I posted something.  Pathetic, Kelly, just pathetic.  September was a busy month for us.

Dance started for Morgan on August 29th.  She enrolled in 6 classes this year - ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, hip hop, and lyrical.  Everything started except lyrical which starts in January.  The first week in September she auditioned for the Intensive group at the dance studio.  She was 1 of 7 that made it and are now a part of the Junior Intensive Group.  There is also a Senior Intensive Group.  Morgan was very nervous about auditioning (to the point that she was going to back out).  We are so proud of her for going to the auditioning, doing her best, and accepting the offer to be in the group.  It is a big responsibility and adds to her dance class load.  So that took her up to 7 classes for the year.  Can you tell she loves dance and we LOVE our dance studio??

Alex is still fencing.  His summer session finished and his class is now all considered intermediate, beginner intermediate maybe?  He still loves it, so we placed the order for all his fencing gear.  He has class once a week and has attended open fencing a couple times.

Corey is still busy, busy with work.  He was given very short notice that he would have to start going into the new office that they just built.  *whee*  The commute is an hour or more, depending on traffic.  Apparently the area that his office will be in was messed up & had to be completely redone, so Corey and another employee are in temporary spaces.  We don't think he'll have to go in every day.  We are thankful for his job and are just trying to deal with the upheaval that this has created in our family.  We've set up our lives the way they are because of him working from home.  So not only will this "back into the office" move cost us money but means some creative rearranging on our family, mostly me.  Thank goodness the kids are a little older and that helps with our rearranging.

I currently have 2 doula clients and looking for more.  I'm almost finished with the certification process.  I've been networking with our doulas and midwives in the area.  It seems like it is taking a while but I think this is definitely a case of slow & steady.  I don't want to be slammed with clients and not be able to handle it the way I should.  I'm still getting the hang of the paperwork, networking, etc.  So I am good with the pace up to this point.  I have learned something (many somethings!) from each client and each birth.  I absolutely love being apart of such a special time in their lives.  I will continue networking, getting my name out there and working to support women in having the birth that they want to have and making sure they are aware & educated about their choices.

During the month of September, our whole family was cast in a play through our local theatre group.  It is a play written and directed by Beverly Mitchell (who happens to be a friend of our's).  The play is Pinosio and is basically a red-neck version of Pinocchio.  It is great fun!  If you are in the area, you need to come see it.  We are having a wonderful time being in this play together as a family.  It makes things a little busier...but busy I can do when it is FUN!

School is going well.  The kids aren't fighting me as much this year.  Yeah!  We are making progress in all subjects. I need to get some field trips scheduled.  That is something that we haven't done much yet.  We've tried meeting up with friends but somehow that keeps falling apart.  It is rather frustrating for the 3 of us when we get cancelled on or someone is a no-show.  We keep running into someone that can't or won't make plans, someone that will make plans but cancel or not show up, and/or someone that wants to make plans but won't drive anywhere.  I'm willing to do a lot and get the kids & myself to various places to see friends but I won't be the one doing all of the planning or all of the driving,etc.  There has to be some give & take.

Two weeks ago, we had a surprise visit from my dad.  He was in Ohio for some business meetings (from Saudi Arabia) and he had a small window with no meetings.  He was willing to drive down for a visit if we didn't have plans.  Luckily we didn't so we got to have a nice, albeit, short visit.  We've been in middle TN for 5 years and my dad was our first overnight adult guest.  Morgan was very sweet and let Grandpa have her room for his visit.