Along with go on a hike, take pictures of everything, create a slideshow and basically WORK for the next four days.
Except, I woke up on Sunday with a sore throat, and now my nose is running like a faucet and I feel like CRAP.
Yaaaaay.
Anyway, I'll be back on Saturday. Hopefully, I'll be alive to tell the
tale of Girls' Camp! In the meantime, start making yourself a T-shirt
headband. They are so cute and easy.
When it comes to my kids, I'm not super sentimental. I wasn't sad to go back to school when Bubby was a baby, I didn't mourn when Buckwheat decided he was done nursing and I didn't shed a tear when sending Bubby off to preschool last fall. I'd heard of other moms crying about these detachments, so I was fully prepared to be a blubbering mess when my turn came (I can be an emotional wreck at times). Well, I wasn't.
But yesterday, I experienced an emotion I wasn't quite prepared for while watching my daughter graduate from preschool. It was a little pang of sadness as I realized how quickly my cherubic Bubby is growing up. I know, I know -- "Chill out! It's just PRESCHOOL; it's not like she's going to college tomorrow." But that's just it -- before I know it, she WILL be going off to college. I finally realized this yesterday.
You have no idea how fast the time flies until you have your own children. I swear, the very act of becoming a parent accelerates time. And seeing the cumulative slideshow of the many fun things Bubby got to do in preschool all year-- making pizza, visiting a farm, having a Thanksgiving feast, going to different homes for Christmas Around the World, taking a field trip to the Mesa Temple and a Safety Kids fair and just having a wonderful time with her schoolmates -- made the old time acceleration cliche' a reality for me. Especially at the very end when they compared their first day of school picture to one taken last week. My, how she'd changed. How ALL of the children had changed.
You blink, and then it's gone.
Anyway, I was practically bursting with pride at my little girl's accomplishments. Her teachers really are the best. Not only did they more than prepare the students for Kindergarten, but they also provided them with a never-ending amount of enriching and fun activities. They are so creative and come up with the best ideas! I was continually amazed at all the things Bubby learned. So hats off to you, ladies!
As part of the graduation , the kids performed about twelve songs and poems they had memorized throughout the year. Dill and I were grinning from ear to ear as we watched Bubby enthusiastically pronounce every word and perform each action. 'Atta girl! I thought.
Then came time to sing a song about a "Mean Ol' Witch." Our smiles turned to looks of utter confusion as we watched Bubby stand up from her chair, walk behind it and crouch down to hide.
Turns out, Bubby wasn't a fan of that song and didn't want to scare me with the unexpected "BOO!" which occurs mid-song. How thoughtful of her! She knows I don't like to be startled. She also doesn't like witches very much.
Afterward, she popped back up to rejoin the show and gave me a "thumbs up" signal. Melted my heart!
Check out her dancing skills for yourself. She's quite a performer! (Don't mind my giggling in the background. I really couldn't help it.)
For the past few months, my internal dialogue has taken on a British accent, thanks to the fabulous show that is Downton Abbey.
If you've never seen it, I'm sorry. You are really missing out.
If you've never heard of it -- well, we simply can't be friends. So go ahead and click on this link and then come back.
Oh good! We can be friends again. Maybe even have tea and crumpets together. Play a little bridge. Stroll through the gardens.
Anyway, I looooooove Downton Abbey. And I really don't want to spoil it
for anyone who hasn't seen it because there are a whole slew of crazy
plot twists and enough drama that you may never need to visit Facebook again.
By the way, I'm feeling pretty ahead of the trend since my son's name is Carson, just like the Crawleys' most loyal and dignified butler. You just wait -- that name will surely skyrocket in popularity.
I love getting hand-drawn cards from my family members for special occasions, so I was overjoyed to receive these two gems on Mothers' Day:
Yes, Dill did the first one. Do you like his beard? It's baaaaack! Also, Bubby helped him draw the clothes on all of us. We were naked prior to her generous aid.
Bubby insists all drawn females need to have humongous eyelashes and luscious, red lips. I love it. She wrote the card all by herself without any help from Dill: "Thank you for taking me to the play." Such a smarty! We actually went to two plays over the weekend -- Fiddler on the Roof, Jr. on Friday night and Rapunzel on Saturday morning. What a fun experience for her.
Oh yeah, and I got a new ELECTRIC wheat grinder -- a Nutrimill! Wow, that thing grinds wheat so fast. How did I survive without it? Oh yeah, Dill used to grind it all by hand. What a man.
Bubby's been at The Happiest Place on Earth for a few days now. It's crazy not having her here. Since Buckwheat is essentially non-verbal, it's eerily quiet. Car rides are especially strange without the constant interruptions of, "Hey Mom, guess what?" And the house is exceptionally clean. I guess we know who makes the messes around here!
We do miss her a whole lot. It'll be good to have her back tomorrow afternoon.
In the meantime, look how cute she and her cousin Kamryn are in their matching Disney outfits!
So, yesterday was my MRI. I had been freaking out about it for weeks -- it kept getting postponed and rescheduled, extending the amount of freak-out time I had to endure. So when the day finally came, I was more than ready to get it over with. I'd had way too many people give me well-meaning advice and I still had no idea what I was going to do to calm the heck down once I was in the tube.
I showed up to the clinic a half hour early as directed. Not five minutes after I walked through the door, the MRI assistant lady came out and asked me to "come on back." What?! I have paperwork to fill out! And more freaking out to do! I thought. I followed her to a little waiting area that had a few dressing rooms off to the side of it. She asked me if I had any metal in my clothes or hair or shoes -- no, no, and no. Any jewelry? No. I'm pretty good at following directions and they already told me not to wear any metal before I got there.
After this assessment, she took me into the room with the MRI machine. The machine is HUGE, but the actual opening where your body goes is super-small. At least it looks that way from the outside. It looks impossible for anyone to fit in there, even a little squirt like myself.
I'd had an MRI before, just the other way -- with my head hanging out instead of my feet. She told me to go ahead and lay down on the narrowest platform I'd ever seen and place my head in an uncomfortable-looking cradle. Yay. Then, she handed me some yellow earplugs which I gratefully inserted into my ears. Finally, she wedged some little pads in between the sides of my head and the cradle to hold everything still during the procedure. That was great because they went right against my ears, dulling the sound further.
Once I was all situated, she handed me a little pump-like thing to squeeze in the event I was having a major panic attack and needed to evacuate the tube posthaste. How thoughtful, right? Then, she told me Sam (must have been the technician) would periodically update me on the progress of the procedure via intercom. Huge sigh of relief. Most of my fears in life stem from not knowing what to expect or feeling uninformed. If you're ever afraid to get an MRI, this will calm your worries considerably. Ask them to talk you through it.
Finally, she said, "Try to keep swallowing to a minimum during the procedure." And then I immediately felt like I had to swallow four gallons of saliva.
My mom had told me to just shut my eyes and NEVER open them. That seemed like sound advice. During the first MRI (on my knee), I kept my eyes open the whole time and it was awful. Granted, my head wasn't in the machine, but I felt like I couldn't relax and my mind kept jumping frantically to different points of interest in the room. I felt like a wound-up horse needing blinders.
So, this time, as soon as the nice MRI lady started to advance my little platform into the tube, I shut my eyes. I noticed when the room got darker beyond my eyelids, indicating my change in position: I was IN. The. Tube.
Here we go!
I first heard the soothing voice of Sam telling me we would begin and to "hold real still." He said I could swallow whenever the machine was quiet, which would happen several times. Oh, good. Because I already have to swallow again, come to think of it.
Soon, the machine began it's loud clock-like knocking, which meant it would soon go into jackhammer mode. My heart was racing, my breathing picked up. "Don't move," they'd said. Was my hyperventilating going to mess up the machine? Would it have to start over? Oh please, Lord Jesus, save me ...
My sister-in-law (Kamryn's mom -- see? We just came full-circle) had told me to do math problems in my head. I took her advice and started adding up numbers in sequence: one plus two plus three plus four plus -- Man! This thing is so loud! -- plus ... where was I? Ok, let's start over. One plus two plus three plus four plus ...
Yeah, that wasn't working.
I decided it would be good for the musician in me to instead focus on the rhythms and sounds produced by the machine. I found the beat and started singing various Backstreet Boys lyrics along with it in my mind. Yes, Backstreet Boys. Then, I noticed it sounded a lot like dubstep. Wubwubwubwubwubwubwub. It kind of made me chuckle inside. Backstreet Boys dubstep. I tried not to chuckle on the outside so as not to flip out the machine. It was kind of hard.
Before I knew it, the weird dubstep test was over. MRI Lady rolled my platform back out of the machine and said, "We're all done!" I was in one piece, not soaked in my own urine and feeling rather calm. Awesome.
I'm not itching to get back in there any time soon, but I know if I should have to get another one, I'll survive. And so will you!
And in case you don't know what dubstep is ...
My talented friend Lindsey Stirling will show you.
Sorry for the lull in blogging lately. I actually wrote up a pretty lengthy post in response to this article but I'm not sure I want to publish it. Not that I said anything too controversial ... it's just I have a lot on my plate right now and I'm not sure I want to open the floodgates of criticism or even casual discussion.
Oh man, this post is sounding so dreary already. Let's talk about lighter things, shall we?
1) Bubby doesn't know it, but Dill's parents are taking her to Disneyland in a few days, along with a close-in-age cousin. So fun! I'm incredibly jealous as I LOVE Disneyland and even mustered up the strength to go when I was barely pregnant with Buckwheat (then a sesame seed Smush).
My kids are clones, it's true.
Dill's mom wanted Bubby's trip to be a total surprise, but I know Bubby, and if she were to suddenly find out she was going to be six hours away from her parents for half a week, she'd flip out. And not in a good way. So she knows she's going on a trip to a far away place with Grandma and Papa, and she's going to stay in a hotel and go to "a magical place where you walk a lot." I can't believe she hasn't figured it out yet. Ah, to be four years old again.
2) So, my neck/shoulders/arms. Still pretty screwed up after a round of steroids. I went to my chiropractor Dr. A and he ordered an MRI, which was supposed to happen two days ago but alas, it didn't. So I'm going in on Monday. And I'm pretty terrified. I've had an MRI on my knee but my head didn't have to go into the machine for that. It was still a nerve-wracking experience. The machine is just so dang LOUD and you're all alone with only your thoughts and you're not allowed to move, yet the stupid machine keeps starting and stopping randomly at it surprises me every time. I'm really quite scared to have my whole body in that tiny, dark, noisy tube for half an hour. Advice and/or encouragement welcome.
3) I saw something on Pinterest and I have to share it with you. It's brilliant, unlike some things you find on that site. And it won't make you feel like a crappy mom!
Want to extend the life of your mascara? Add 4-5 drops of saline solution (NOT contact solution, but can be found in the same section of your local grocery or drug store) to your mascara tube, swirl the wand around a little bit to mix it, and voila! You just bought yourself another month of mascara. I tried it -- definitely works. It also resurrected my liquid eyeliner. It's magic.
I'm sure you are all DYING to know about my previously-mentioned zit problem. Right?
Ever since I posted a picture of my unedited acne face, I've been getting TONS of hits from people searching for ... you'll never guess ... "unedited acne face." I hope they downloaded that picture straight away and got a lot of Photoshop practice and made me look awesome! I hope they did NOT deface me and turn my skin green like Elphaba and make my eyes red and then plaster it all over Teh Interwebz. Or airbrush my clothes off. Because ... yeah.
Anyway, drum roll ......... my acne is pretty much gone. Hurray! Here is my new face, without a stitch of make-up.
I wish I had some glorious breakthrough in skin-clearing technology to share with you all, but I am actually not sure how it happened. I may have just grown out of it or got over whatever ailment was causing me to pustule up like an awkward teen. The world may never know.
At one point, I switched to Neutrogena's Oil-Free Redness Soothing Cream Cleanser. Here's what it looks like:
It seemed to help right away. I love the way it feels -- the chamomile is very soothing. In addition, I started using this moisturizer (also by Neutrogena):
I use it every night after I wash my face and also on mornings when I wash my hair, which doesn't happen often. Basically, if soap touches my face, this moisturizer is soon to follow. It is very light but quenches my dry skin well.
Finally, I switched my foundation to CoverGirl Advanced Radiance liquid foundation:
I LOVE this make-up. It covers well, it goes on so smoothly and it smells nice. Oh yeah, and it's "age-defying!" It also stays on rather well, so while washing my face, I add a tiny squirt of regular Softsoap hand soap to the green Neutrogena in my palm and that helps to remove it completely.
A massive zit will still occasionally burst forth on my jaw line, usually in correspondence with my "time of the month" (sorry, Bapa*). But they seem to be going away more quickly. I am really, really glad. Those zits were not only unsightly but rather painful.
And now the strangers at Wal-Mart think I'm an 18-year-old with two kids instead of a 14-year-old, so the stares aren't quite as judgmental.
Also, as soon as I hit "Publish" I'm going to get a big fat honking zit. I just know it.
*Bapa is my husband's 80-years-young grandfather. He faithfully reads my blog but he doesn't really enjoy the talk of "womanly things." So, I try to keep it to a minimum for his sake.
