The Trials of a Busy Mom

Month: October 2009 (Page 1 of 2)

Break’s over. Bring on the guilt.

I went to my vein follow up appointment yesterday. It’s been two weeks since my left leg vein was zapped, and it feels really good. SO much better than my right leg did at two weeks.

The bad thing is, I was really enjoying the “no exercise for two weeks rule”. Seriously. I didn’t have to worry if I should put on work out clothes every morning, and if I could squeeze in some kind of exercise in the morning. It was GREAT! And there was NO GUILT! None. I couldn’t exercise–doctor’s orders. So there was no feeling bad about it. But that’s over, and now if I want to goof around on the computer all morning instead of exercise, I will feel like the big fat lazy girl that I am.

Darn.

American Fun with a Japanese twist

(The title of this post was supposed to be Japanese kanji saying fun, but it came up at Question marks, so that didn’t really work out)

We’re having a fun experience with our Japanese exchange student, Yuuichirou. We picked him up on Thursday night at BYU, but of course the bus was an hour late, so we didn’t actually meet him until about 7:30. By then, the kids were STARVING, but still very well behaved. We got him and his luggage in the car, and had been planning on going out to eat. I asked him if he was hungry, but he said No, he had eaten on the plane. Hmmmm. Then what to do with my hungry family? We ended up picking up Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers from Wendy’s, and got him one, too, just in case he wanted to eat. We just had time to eat at home before I had to take the kids to the doctor’s office for flu shots. Really. I had a 9:00 appointment. The great thing about a 9 pm appointment is that you just walk right in. We were home by 9:15.

The next morning we didn’t talk to Yuuichirou (I’ll just call him “Y” from now on, if that’s ok with you) that much, but we did get him some toast. I made pancakes, but he didn’t want to try them, and that’s fine. We had to get him to the carpool spot by 7:30, so Ryan took him over. He was gone all day with his group. They went to some farm and rode horses, played games, did some kind of a craft, and he brought home a little pumpkin. I was the one who picked up the carpool on Friday, so I went to BYU in the afternoon. I was hoping that the 6 boys would at least talk to each other in Japanese, and I could listen to the sound of the Japanese chatter. No such luck. I think they keep those guys so tired after the long flight and all the activities, so they didn’t have much to say to each other. I asked if they had fun on the farm, and they nodded and said yes, and that was all I heard from them the whole ride home. At least one of the boys had fallen asleep.

I met at our carpool spot and returned the other boys to their host families and brought our boy home. I had thought about taking him to the Corn maze at Thanksgiving point that night, but then after they had been on the farm all day, I wondered if that was such a good idea. We had dinner, which was chicken and rice and vegetables. Then I asked if he would like to play Wii, and his face lit up. So we ended up staying home Friday night, and the kids all had a blast playing Wii sports on the big tv in the family room (usually they have to play their video games on the crappy tv in the basement). It gave him a little time to relax and get to know us without having to go out and “do something” every minute.

Saturday was a busy day. I had a morning rehearsal at Temple Square, so I left before everyone else. Natalie had a volleyball game, John had a birthday party to go to, etc. Ryan planned to bring Y and Cole and Jenna and pick up Natalie from her game, then bring the crew up to SLC to watch the tail end of our rehearsal, then we could wander through temple square a little bit. Well, of course these things never run as smoothly as you plan them out. I forgot it was picture day for Natalie, so she wasn’t ready when Ryan went to pick her up, that made Ryan and the kids later that I thought they would be for rehearsal. But everything worked out well. We found a Japanese missionary at Temple square, and she was able to give Y a little tour of the Tabernacle, the Assembly Hall, and the South visitor’s center. We then went to the Nauvoo cafe for lunch.

We came home to pick up Megan and John, and had planned to go back out and go to Boondocks for some fun. Just as we were getting ready to leave, however, we encountered torrential rain and hail. Hmmm. Boondocks wouldn’t be much fun if we couldn’t do the go carts and the golf and the outside stuff, so we decided to just go bowling instead. And what a fun time we had Bowling. Y is a GOOD bowler. He says he bowls 2-3 times a year, which is more than we bowl. Which is sad. Bowling is a blast, and we should do it more often. He won both games, but I must say that the second game I really stepped it up and bowled a 148. He still beat me with a 160. But I was second place, at least.

After bowling, we went to the library, and then home for dinner. We had tacos. I found out later that in Japan, Tako means Octopus, and they serve it on a stick.

Sunday we took him with us to church. I felt bad for him. Three hours of church is long even under the best of circumstances, but when you don’t speak the language, it’s VERY long. It reminded me of my first couple of Sundays at church in Germany, where I was so excited to be there, but it was SO hard to concentrate, and my brain just got tired and shut down after a while. After church, I said to him, “That was long, huh?”, and he smiled and nodded. “Did you fall asleep?” I asked him, and he laughed and nodded again.

After church we packed a picnic lunch and headed up American Fork Canyon.

I had grand plans of seeing the beautiful leaves. We missed the leaves by a few weeks, but it was still beautiful. We stopped at Cascade springs and hiked a little.

Even though it was kind of cold, it was a nice day, and we had fun.

We ate lunch and then drove up and over to Heber, then through Park City and to Salt Lake.

Our last stop of the day was my sister Chrissy’s house. Chrissy’s husband, Tom, served his mission in Japan, and he wanted to talk to Y. We were pretty sure that if our family seemed big and overwhelming to him, Chrissy’s family (10 kids) would TOTALLY overwhelm him. But he did fine. The kids were just playing and having fun, and he seemed to be having a good time, too. When Tom got there, they talked about some of the fun games that Tom had learned in Japan, and they taught the rest of us how to play them, too. Although I don’t think we are getting the words right.

Before we left, we HAD to get a picture of all of my kids and all of Chrissy’s kids with Yuuichirou. When he shows his family, they will just be amazed at all those kids!

What a great experience!

I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come

I was at Target today scouring the store for the best deals. I was sad that I wasn’t able to take advantage of the deal listed here because some rude person had come before me and taken all of the coupons out of the cute little candle tins. *Sigh*
But I did find a ton of great party clearance items. There were packages of luncheon napkins (20 count) originally priced at $1.59 on clearance for 38 cents. They only had yellow and blue, but I got 5 packages of each color. They also had the plastic tablecovers marked down to 78 cents each (originally $3.14). I picked up a couple of blue and yellow ones of those two. You never know when you might need yellow and blue tablecloths and matching napkins?

Oh, NO! Yes, I DO! What do they call that cub scout banquet? The blue and gold? WHAT HAVE I DONE? I may have jinxed myself! What was I thinking????

No, no. I’m ok. I don’t even have a cub scout aged child right now. I’ll be sure and use these party items up WAY before he reaches cub scouts.

Or maybe I should be safe and just return them.

medicine in the mail

I don’t really use homeopathic products (or “load of crap natural products” as my husband would call them) that much. Not because I don’t believe in them or don’t think they will work as well as the regular over the counter medicines, I just don’t know that much about them. I have friends who know exactly what herb to take for every thing, and what natural cure will beef up your immune system, or help you get over bruises, or even help with cancer. I just don’t have that kind of knowledge, but I’m open to new things.

So I registered for some free homeopathic children’s medicines, and they came in the mail today!

In my little package it said to spread the word and gave a website address so that all my friends with blogs could also try these samples, but when I clicked on the link it said that the free sample promo was over. Darn. But you can still get a coupon if you’d like to try these products for yourself.

We are doing our best to AVOID getting sick (flu shots tonight for the kids), but especially this year, we need to do everything we can to avoid and then fight all colds and the flu immediately.

And in a totally unrelated side note—you want to know what the best part of the vein surgery was? Well, besides getting rid of those awful, painful veins, that is–I am NOT ALLOWED to exercise for two weeks. NOT ALLOWED. Even if I wanted to! Can’t! It takes all the guilt away. No more getting up and putting on my exercise clothes only to wear them around for an hour or two and NOT get to exercising and then guiltily changing out of them because I need to get on with my day. I don’t even put the exercise clothes on. Because exercise is FORBIDDEN for one more week. Wa-Hoo! Not that I feel like exercising in the least. I did make it through rehearsal last night, which was two hours on my feet. It was tiring and a bit painful, but I made it through. And I made it grocery shopping this week, but really, that’s about all I’m up to. So, it’s not like I feel well enough to exercise, but it’s just so nice to know that I CAN’T.

Is that sick and wrong, or what? Now you know just how lazy I really am, and to what extremes I will go to not have to exercise.

I don’t think there’s anybody back there

Is there anyone actually reading this old blog?

(chirp, chirp)

That’s what I thought. The amount of comments has been underwhelming lately, and when even my MOM isn’t reading, that’s pretty sad and depressing.

What’s happened to my readers? I did have some readers, didn’t I?

A friend of mine who actually gets comments on her blog suggested I install a site meter or a counter of some kind so I’d actually know how many READERS I had, instead of just assuming that since there are no comments there are no readers. I’ll admit I tried to figure out how to install one on my own. Without involving my tech support guy. Because he was probably out of town, or at work or something. I didn’t do it right. But I think that might have just made me more depressed.

Sigh.

Have we all just gone the way of facebook and twitter? We can only read a maximum of 130 characters, or whatever it is?

Do I need more jokes? More contests? More embarrassing stories? More blood and gore? Or maybe I just need to not care so much if there’s anybody reading here or not.

We get by with a little help from our friends


I am so blessed.

I have hands down the most awesome friends in the world. Really. I do.

And if you are reading this, that probably means that you are one of those awesome and amazing friends. And I love you for it!

I’ve been kind of slow since I’ve got the veinapalooza going on. I get around, but I am not getting tons of things done. I mentioned to a friend that we were having an exchange student come, and that I was also having another vein procedure done, and that I was a little worried about getting the house clean before our student came.

Voila! She asked two of my other friends to come on over today and help me. It was amazing! I think the kids’ bathroom is the cleanest it’s EVER been, and we got Cole’s room looking more like an actual bedroom again, instead of teenage junk trap. I’m so grateful! I was seriously embarrassed to have them come in and help me clean, as really I should be able to get my house clean by myself, but then I realized that if the situation were reversed, and one of my friends needed my help, I wouldn’t be judgmental, I would just help out.

And so today I am thankful. I have wonderful friends. I don’t know what I would do without them (and you!)

Be our Guest and Konichiwa

This week we will add an extra member to our family. But only for the week. We are welcoming a Japanese exchange student into our home for a one week program. A whole year would be very daunting, but a week we can handle. I hope. I keep telling my kids every night at dinner that when we have our Japanese student, “this kind of behavior” will not be acceptable. I’m hoping we don’t a)SCARE the kid, or b) SCAR the kid for life. He comes on Thursday night and he will be with us for one week. Mostly they have field trips and activities around the city every day. They are going to work on a farm, go up to Park City, and to this is the place state park. We just have to take him and pick him up from BYU every school day, (we have a carpool in place), then we’ll get to entertain him in the evening and on the weekend.

But what to do? If you were only in Utah for 6 days, what are the essential things to do?

Temple Square?
Thanksgiving Point?
A Corn Maze?
Boondocks?

We have some different options, but we’re not exactly sure what to take him to. We kind of want to ask him what he thinks and let him decide. The kids want to take him EVERYWHERE and do EVERYTHING, but I think they are just using him as an excuse to go out to eat at their favorite restaurants.

What would YOU want to do if you had only a few days to see Utah?

You’re so vein. You prob’ly think this post is about you. You’re so vein. I’ll bet you think this song is about you, don’t you? Don’t You….

As of today, I have one less working vein. My left great saphenous vein is now inoperational. Hooray.

You may remember that I had my first vein surgery back in May, and it was a pretty unpleasant experience. The surgery was NOT quick and painless like they advertise, and the recovery process was long. Not debilitating, but just not jump back on your feet again in a few days fast like they tell you it will be.

I did a few things differently this time.

*When offered a Valium, I took the whole dose, instead of trying to be tough about it and only taking a half a dose. Who cares if I’m out of it for the whole day, right? It was a little bit better to be that much out of it.

*They have new paper shorts!! Instead of the tiny paper underpants that leave nothing to the imagination, they have new paper shorts! They look like long boxer shorts, and they are made out of that not really paper but not really fabric. They are much more comfortable, and I felt much less exposed. I should make sure they know how much I like the new shorts next time I’m there.

*I still had my MP3 player, but this doctor was more chatty, so I had to keep turning the music down to hear what he was saying. In fact, everyone was much more chatty today. The ultrasound tech and the nurse were chattin it up before the surgery, and everyone seemed to be in a good mood. Maybe because it was Friday, or the sun was shining, or maybe they really like making people wince in pain-I don’t know.

*I cleared my schedule. I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but the last time I went in, since I thought it was going to be an in and out things and not really make an impact in my life, I had a relief society thing scheduled for that night AT MY HOUSE, which I totally thought I could pull off. It was just the ladies who had birthdays that month coming over for dessert. And I would have been able to do it, had I not ALSO had a call back for Annie get your gun. That, I thought, would be a quick and easy thing, too. I mean, for Seussical, I had just gone, sung a song, read a few lines, and then they let me go. This was a long grueling process of learn a song in parts, sing it in groups, sing it in other groups, read some lines, sing more songs, etc. I was there until 10:00! And I had people at my house! They went on with the Relief Society thing without me, and I suffered through my audition (no wonder I didn’t get that good of a part! No, just kidding–my part was just fine), and then I felt horrible the next day. In short, I DID TOO MUCH.

This time, though, I’m smart. I came home and went to bed. I only slept for an hour or so, but I did not come out of my room until I smelled dinner. And I locked the door so the kids couldn’t come in to ask me stuff every two minutes. Or climb all over me. I’m not doing anything tonight, except this blog post, and then I’m going back up to bed. My dear sweet husband just went and rented me a movie (not the Proposal like I wanted, but Ghosts of Girlfriends past, which also should be funny. And who doesn’t like a little Matthew McConaughey when they are down? Am I right, ladies?).

My visiting teacher brought me dinner, even though I didn’t even tell her I was having this done. That makes me think that the Relief Society President must have called her and asked her to do it. I wasn’t going to ASK for meals, but if someone out of the goodness of their hearts wants to bring us a meal, my family is not going to complain. And it was very yummy. I have NOTHING scheduled for tomorrow, and I plan on lazing around all day. All day. Stop laughing. I really do. I also weaseled out of my commitments for Sunday, and I don’t plan on going to church that day, either. Just resting, relaxing, and healing. Really. Because I’m really hoping that if I take it really easy for the first three days that I can jump back into my life by the end of next week. We have things happening that I need to be involved in (more about that later).

*This procedure really did seem to go much better than the last one. I think the vein on this leg wasn’t as snakey and twisty turney as the right leg was. They also did NOT do any schlerotherapy at this time (they might do it later) which, I think, will make the recovery a lot less painful. Well, that’s what I hope.

So, there you have it. I’m gimpy, I’m wearing my lovely support compression stockings, and I can’t shower for two days. But I’m “vein free”, if not “pain free”. Ha, ha.

Now, if you’ll please excuse me, I’m heading up to bed to watch my silly movie, and hope I can sleep tonight.

I pledge allegiance..

On the way to the bus stop today, John was telling me the pledge of allegiance. He did pretty well, too. I helped him a little bit when he forgot the words. We got to the end, and he said, “with liberty and Jesus Christ, amen.”
Well, that works, too.

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