My Son, Vesuvius

I think Josh is a bit excited about Halloween. We're going over to a friend's house for dinner and then we're going Trick-or-Treating with them in their neighborhood (ours isn't too great for Trick-or-Treating).

Josh is very excited and could hardly sit still yesterday. Remember those days? One of the great things about having kids... brings back memories of what it was like to be a child again -- the excitement and awe over everything!

Anyway....

I put Josh to bed at 7:15 and told him he could read until 7:30 then "Lights Out" because we have a big day today.

7:40 Josh comes downstairs for some made up reason or another... we send him back to bed.

8:15 Josh from atop the stairs: "Mom. I can't sleep because I have so much information in my head."

Rich and I look at each other and smile, Rich says, "Mommy knows what that's like!" (too true!).

I tell him to just go back to bed and try and clear his head and relax -- knowing full well that the only thing that helps me is to "write it down" but it was WAY past his bedtime!

Josh: "But Mom! My head is like a Giant Volcano of Information."

Volcano picture courtesy of Vanuatu Tourism Office

NaBloPoMo

Huh? NaBloPoMo? Yep. NaBloPoMo -- or National Blog Posting Month.

I've just joined, which means I'll be posting something in my blog at least once a day for the whole month of November.

I am not responsible for how tedious the postings may become. All I have to do is post a blog every day -- not make it interesting! Haha!





Wish me luck in keeping it up!

Busy Weekend!

You know that saying, "If it's not one thing, it's another..."?

That's how I feel about our weekend! We had a very busy weekend, but things kept happening -- well, really, I kept happening.

A bit of background first... I'd been having a pain in my chest/sternum area for several weeks. I knew it wasn't my heart as it only hurt on occasion -- like stretching and twisting or taking a really deep breath. It sort of felt like pulled muscle, but not really.

And, I've been quite busy while the boys are at school -- helping with the Scholastic Book Fair all last week -- and Rich has an implementation next weekend (so we're beginning a week from Heck today), so he's been very busy. And during the day, the pain is not so great.

But I would wake up at night things would go through my mind -- because after all, it is CHEST pain!

So this weekend was quite busy, we had things planned pretty much non-stop. Friday night, Rich had to do some work quite late -- like midnight or so to get ready for this weekend's install. On Saturday, Sam was invited to his very first birthday party -- just him and not Josh. And Josh had a baseball game. On Sunday we had my local Mom's group Halloween Party for the kids (lots of fun).

So Friday night/Saturday morning, I woke up at 2:30 am and could not go back to sleep. Partly because my chest hurt when I moved and partly because I was coming down with a cold and my throat hurt. I couldn't stop worrying about everything. From when would I be able to see the doctor to Rich's work schedule to the boys school, you name it. I was up and there was nothing I could do to go back to sleep.

Finally, I decided to head over to the doctor's office as soon as they opened on Saturday morning to get it over and done with. That helped me relax a bit, but by then it was 5:30 and the kids were starting to wake up!

So, the morning progressed as usual, Rich got up and I told him I was going to the doc at 9:00. He'd been bugging me for weeks to go so he was glad for it. I went to the doc and he did an EKG (just to put my mind at ease) and said it's not my heart.

It's costochondritis. Basically, it's an inflammation of the cartilage that connects a rib to the breastbone (sternum).

He said sometimes an infection can cause it or a trauma. He gave me a Rx for antibiotics "just in case" and told me to continue taking anti-inflammatory (I already had some for some back pain a few weeks ago). I have to tell you, I feel much better. It still hurts when I cough and since I have a cold .... well, you know... and I've been sleeping better too. Must be the psychological aspects as well that help me sleep. But, I'm not allowed to work out until it's cleared up. I can run -- once my cold gets a bit better -- but no weights.

Anyway, I got home from the doctor in time to bring Sam to his birthday party -- which was from 11:00 - 12:45 (they didn't feed the kids lunch, just cupcakes... is it just me or is that weird to have a birthday party for a 3 year old at lunch time with no lunch?). Sam had fun. It was at a bouncy castle place here and he loved it. And, just because I was tired and not feeling well, on the way to the party, I accidentally hit a mailbox with my passenger-side wing mirror and broke it! The mirror, not the mailbox! I was a bit ticked! Rich just laughed because he did the same thing about 3 years ago!

We got home and in lieu of me going to Josh's baseball game I crashed. Apparently, Josh had lots of fun at his ball game but struck out 4 times. Oh well. We didn't go to practice on Thursday so I guess it showed!

Sunday I was feeling much better! We carved our pumpkin -- well, I carved our pumpkin, the boys were grossed out by the muck. I'm roasting the seeds now. Like I said we had a Halloween Party to go to. The kids had lots of fun and got lots of candy! So much that it was a struggle to get them to eat anything for dinner.

And, like I said, Rich has an implementation next Saturday so this week is going to be (not) fun. I am looking forward to Halloween though. The boys are excited! I just hope to recover!

Keep Away

We had a bit of a break from the rain yesterday so we went to the playground with our friends, Sean and Jackson. Sam brought some toys to play with and he was carrying them around in a small purple basket. He was not very keen to share his toys and wanted to keep them away from the bigger boys.

When Sean & Jackson got to the park Sam started to panic and said to me that they would want to play with his trains. I assured him that his toys would be safe. He then gave me the purple basket to hold. I put it on the seat next to me. He was not satisfied with this, he wanted me to hold it over my head so "The boys won't reach it."

Me: No Sam, I'm not going to hold it up. I'll keep it right here and not let anyone get it.

Sam: No Mommy, you have to hold it like this.

Me: I'm sorry Sam, I'm not going to do that. I'll just keep it here with me.

Sam: No! Then I'll hold it up high like this so the boys don't get it!

And off he went to play with the boys while holding the basket over his head.

Something you should know. Sean is 6 and quite tall -- easily 4 inches taller than Josh. His brother Jackson is 4 and the same height as Josh! If they wanted the basket, they could have easily reached it!