Category Archives: family

I guess

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sometimes you don’t realize what really grounds you until you don’t feel grounded anymore, and you’re treading water to figure out what is suddenly missing. 2012 was a disturbing year for me, not because of my immediate family, but because some things I didn’t imagine would go the way they did… did. People I thought I could at least expect some sort of consideration from… failed.   Miserably.

And even though I have so many people in my life who are a blessing and supportive, I was treading water, suddenly “not myself” and trying to figure out how to get back to me.

My health took a downward spiral. My body started doing unexpected things. Heart beating fast. Gastic reflux. Stomach pain. And then the ears started ringing.

My medication had to go on a schedule. I became a pro at figuring out when I was able to eat so that I could take meds on an empty stomach, and not eat afterward for another hour. It was miserable. I hated my doctors for not fixing my problems. I hated myself for whatever role stress was playing in my health issues. I hated the people who caused the stress. I hated that God could let people get away with being so horrible and thoughtless. To me. What did I do to deserve all of this?

I was lost.

So I decided to go to talk it out with a random party with credentials to help sort things out. Her name is Julie. We talked about miserable things that happened and what I thought I could do about them. We talked about not exposing my mind to hateful things in the world, like “the news” and movies that were troubling. We talked about “not talking” about health problems all the time. We talked about paths to take to be healthier… get a new doctor, exercise, etc.   We talked about how I didn’t understand God anymore.

I learned that being anxious about unexpected life circumstances is normal.

One day, I found a new doctor that I don’t hate. She reduced and changed my meds, and although I still have gastric issues, they are not as bad as they were. I can eat whenever I want. I’ve started to try food with gluten, and I have not been harmed, although I do prefer some gluten-free things now (like Chebe bread and pizza mixes). I am starting to include more fruit and veg for fiber and health. I’m learning to deal with the ear ringing.

I started reading a book called, “One Thousand Gifts“, by Ann Voskamp. I decided that God was probably not trying to kill me. God loves me, and I have things to learn about life, like how to survive and be happy in an environment that is not always perfect, although it is perfect in a majority of moments. I’ll deal with the rest only when I need to. :)

Once these two areas of my life became more manageable, I felt empowered. I decided I probably had some sort of say in my life again.

It was all I really needed. I may not be 100% yet, but I’m about 90%. :)

Thank you to my wonderful family who is always supportive and helpful, even when I must really push them to the limit.    I love them.

Kitsune – The Fox Spirits

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This is from a few weeks ago, but I love this performance by my daughter’s school band of “Kitsune – The Fox Spirits’.    We are always so proud of the band.

 

AND.. you can’t leave without hearing “Songs of the Whalemen”

Excitedly Waiting…

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for the USCIS to say, “You’re Approved”. Several of our compadres on VisaJourney who filed around the time we did are getting approved. We think we should have the word sometime this month. This means Ian will be “good to go” (his favorite American saying… one of them) for 10 years until he HAS to apply for anything else. He seems quite keen to vote, though, so I have a strong feeling he might be going for citizenship next. :)

The only time when it’s been outwardly apparent (aside from the British accent) that Ian’s not a US Citizen is when we traveled to Canada for a day last year. It occurred to us that we needed to make sure the entry and exit rules weren’t different for a British citizen than a US citizen. And of course the entry questions were a bit odd… “Why are you here from the UK”, for example. :) Erm.. we just crossed the border, dude. We are visiting Seattle and thought it would be fun to leave the country and visit the aquarium, ok?

He would definitely have the advantage, if (and we’re definitely not) we were going to Cuba. He would be able to get off the plane. We would get an immediate return flight. We need a special visa and we need to be on an approved sort of visit (being a journalist or traveling with the Pope or something).

Ouch

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I got a call from school around 10:15 this morning from the school nurse. Brit had tripped and landed on her elbow. The nurse was recommending an x-ray, so I picked up Ian on the way to school, called the doctor on the way, and arranged an appointment. (Well, it was more of an “Brit may have broken her elbow and needs an x-ray… Where should we go?” call.. totally not knowing if we needed the ER yet, or urgent care or needed to see the doctor first)

We had a doctor’s appointment set for 15 minutes from where we were, which was awesome, since we were in the same neighborhood.

The doctor examined her arm, did a few physical tests, then sent us for x-rays to see if there was a break or fracture somewhere, but luckily, there wasn’t.

We came away with an excuse for gym class for no upper body physical activity and instructions to give her 600 mg of ibuprofen and ice to her elbow for 7 – 14 days.

Crazy day, but it turned out alright.

Father’s Day

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It started with this

.. present opening..

.. a few international phonecalls to our dads living overseas..

.. a trip to Lauritzen Gardens, where we viewed lots of interesting gardens and rode the tram (it was a hot day!)

2011-06-19

Then we dined on amazingly grilled amazing steak and corn-on-the-cob.

It was a good day.

Good weekend

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We spent a few hours Saturday at the Summer Arts Festival.   It was interesting to walk through the artist’s stalls and see what they had for sale.    Brit bought a signed photograph taken of a polar bear underwater.  We’ve framed it and hung it on the wall.

The band at the festival was a Native American rock band called Brulé.    We took video but the background noise really took away our ability to do their music justice.   So you can read about them here:  http://www.brulerecords.com/isis/promovid3.html and here: http://www.brulerecords.com/home.html.

We spent an hour or so on Sunday at the Omaha Farmer’s Market in Aksarben Village.   There are a lot of people walking their dogs there, and it’s always nice to meet them.   We bought a few things, like a new collar for Molly, our mini-schnauzer, and some ground beef from Thistle and Clover.  We’re cooking some burgers for dinner (when I say “we”, I mean “Ian”) and topping them with chèvre and some habanero paste from JPaste.

My parents are on their way back to Italy.    They’ve had loads of travelling in the last week.   When they get back, I bet work will be relaxing.  We’ll see.  I always get incredible jetlag (in a flu-sort of way) going that direction.

It was good to see them.   I hope we’ll see them again soon!

Stuff and Things

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So, The Little Kid has started back to school (last week).   It’s all very middle-of-the-summer for school, but the rest of the families around here seem to be following the same freaky schedule.  :)

Last night was Meet the Band Director and Talk to Him About an Instrument Night.    TLK is going to be playing a euphonium this year, although I’m not sure if it’s base or tenor yet.   The point is that the school has some on-hand and she was lucky enough to receive one of them for $90/school year.    This is a big savings off the price of the music store rental, which was $60 a month.

I can stop trying to convince her that a really small instrument (no matter what it is) would be better to play than her humongous euphonium.

We are back in the land of homework, where there are spellings lists and stories to read, and questions to get through.   Last year seemed to be full of math.  This year seems to be full of reading (not a bad idea). 

The interesting part was having her do safety patrol (blocking traffic so that kids can cross the street safely, for those of you in the UK, who I hear do not put your children in the midst of the street for this purpose).   The school parking lot can be crazy, and she’s in the middle of it, but not every day.   I said, “Really?   You’re in the middle of the lot?  Are you looking both ways before you block the traffic?”

“Mom.. the principal tells me when to go.”

Good deal.   :)

Birthday Things

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Wednesday was my birthday.   It was the first birthday where Ian’s been in the same country (and even in the same house) with me on my birthday.  It was nice to be able to celebrate with him and The Little Kid.

I got some nice presents, including a Cuttlebug that I can use with my cardmaking.    TLK and I had fun making cut-out butterflies and frogs, and playing with embossing, which I must say… using a machine to emboss is much easier than hand-embossing… more dramatic and less painful.  :)

The people at work bought me an ice cream cake and my friend put a banner on my cubicle so everyone knew.    I received flowers from my family in Texas and the funniest card from my family in Kansas.   I put a call into my parents via Skype, but had to leave a message.  Not sure if they’ll hear the voice mail.  My dad says he can’t get through the Italian prompts.. but maybe he can by now.  :)

We went to Applebees for dinner, which was nice.  They have good steaks and something wonderful called “Peach Sangria”  :)   Yum

Oh, and everyone I knew on FB said, “Happy Birthday”, which was fun.  :D

Overall, a really good day.   It is good to be 23 again.  “Mommy counts backwards now”.  LOL.

Weekend

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It was a good weekend.    We spent Saturday going to the Heartland of America Park.   I like to go there because I love birds, and there are always plenty of them around.   It was a good chance to interact with nature.   The geese we saw were relatively ok with having people around.  When we sat still, or stood still, they would walk around as if we weren’t there.  

It’s funny to watch them.   At one point, one walked near the water, started honking loudly and jumped into the water, still honking. Once it swam around for a bit, it quieted down.   I’m not sure what it’s concern was, if it had one.  Maybe it just felt like honking.

Sunday, there was shopping (something I’m not entirely fond of for long periods of time) and the World Cup finals, which was really exciting.   No, I didn’t cry for Spain.  Do you believe me?  :)    I felt bad for Netherland, and although there is always “next time”, some of those people won’t be playing soccer next time.      They all played their best, it seemed, and were well-matched in the end.

Ian seems to have recovered from a severe bout of sinus issues.     Nothing tea, marmite toast and lots of meds couldn’t resolve, thankfully.   And TLK has lost another tooth, which is good, because her teeth were beginning to get a bit crowded.  She’s always a year or two ahead of where she should be with teeth.

She was a little miffed when she thought the tooth fairy only left her a quarter.. but actually, it was $3.25 (still not the $20 she was hoping for).  I mean, I know about inflation, but one tooth?  $20?  lol

I think that’s about it.   Is it Monday already?

Fully Upgraded

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to WordPress 3.0!    I got more features when I replaced my old wp-config.php with the sample one, all doctored up and renamed.   So now I can have multiple user blogs if I want.   I may try that out over my holiday vacation (at home) whilst sitting by the sparkling pool.   :D

Or, I may have an expedition in bento making.

Sunday is Father’s Day.   Happy Father’s Day to all the dads, step-dads, grandpa’s and people who are technically not dads, but elected to take on the role anyway.   Go you!