the flu

after a 4 day weekend with the kids, at the end, one got the flu and the other one followed suit. Amazingly, so far so good. We all had shots and the oldest, who was asymptomatic but had this chest congestion thing going on..again..was the one who started but seems fine with no fever for several days. In fact, when he must have started having it, he only had very low grade fever the first days with feeling a bit chilled and that mostly at night.
Then, just the night of school starting, the youngest woke up with a fever and we've just finished a day of moaning and groaning, eyes glazed over and 'feeling sad'. When I took her to the doc to confirm it was the flu, she got sick and bless her little independent self, she grabbed the bucket and did her thing without me having to pull over. (I was going as fast as I could).Then she asked for the towel I had brought so she could wipe her little mouth. (5 1/2yrs)

As I parked in the parking lot and saw the 'content', I thought DANG. More than I thought. What to do? Where's the nearest spiggot?? So I ended up composting it ahem, on a strip of grass next to the concrete paved parking lot. Usually, my husband is the one who's the designated 'cleaner upper' for 'that kind of stuff' as I normally gag and try not to follow suit (blech!), but I'm proud to announce I managed to clean the whole thing, stay composed and clean it out to boot with heaps of those antibacterial wipes we always have in the car. Last thing you need is to get back in the car with that 'smell'!

Plus, fyi..here's a way to get into your own separate room sooner at the doctors; ask for a bucket for throwing up. We got one and quickly got whisked to our own little room. [g]

Poor baby had fever and was just miserable and aching all day. When we finally got home around 4sh..I put her to bed and at 6:45sh..she woke up, hair looking like she sweated it out and her pajamas feeling accordingly and since that time..no fever! So what to do? If she hasn't had a fever for 24hrs, technically, she could go back to school. She's chipper now and hasn't crashed back into misery as I expected it. I thought it would be a long night last night but no. She did wake me up twice as she of course, slept too much. Now she's happy and watching the Backyardigans.

My son who's been sequestered in his room and the guest room (tv and bathroom) is now still asleep. Having the flu but no fever for days and asymptomatic.

Well..it could be worse. So another reason for not having posted. Again!
Later peeps. I've been collecting all these articles I had wanted to comment on but they're all old news now..c'est la vie!

Publicity hound

"woof!"

In the last couple of weeks, since getting on the board of the Gilbert and Sullivan society, I've been asked to join the publicity committee AND the fundraising committee. Both up my alley interest-wise. Since we are getting ready for auditions for Iolanthe, I was asked to contact all high schools here in Austin and the various colleges and universities. I tell you, I've been having fun with that. My brain is wired for PR. This morning, it hit me.

Gilbert and Sullivan society for Austin, audition info follow the link

Over 20 yrs ago (crap, time flies), a girl friend of mine was working in PR back in Ottawa Canada. She had worked previously for the Canadian Opera company as well (in Toronto) and during an outing, she turned to me and said, you know, you should go into PR because you've got "it". I asked, what is "it"? (being the newly emigrated, young naief person that I was) She said, I don't know, if I did, I would be better at it.
Entrance to Lady Birds' Wildflower Center..peace and more peace to be had..

Well somehow, life for me took many twists and turns (= many moves, in and outside Canada) but somehow PR was never a part of any endeavour. Until now. And I'm lovin' it! At 45, I finally know what I want to do 'when I grow up'. Yikes!

That said, I'm not going to fret about my age, it cannot be helped. I am not going to dwell on all those supposed missed opportunities as I a)can't do anything about it, and b)I've never been in such a supportive environment as I find myself right now being on the Gilbert and Sullivan society's board!

Hence, that, plus my scattered life in the past weeks what with doctor's appointments and the mondane things in life (laundry, grocery shopping, picking kids up from school etc) has kept me from even wanting to post.

My mind is in PR gear and I'm finally being appreciated for it. It's nice for a change! I have kept my eye out on politics too mind you, but have not had the umph to comment on it. I am having too much to do and I need to get my house environment in order as well, literally. If I need to do a lot of 'thinking-work', I cannot function in chaos and we have ehem, a bit of that.

So..there you have it. I haven't fallen of the face of the earth nor intend to do so. I do realize in blog time, I have been away for ages so I will try to make amends. Robert R..thanks for your email update and take care, I'll be thinking of you. Cyber Otter, it was awesome hearing from you the other week (when was that again??) I have honestly missed you so please come back [s]. The rest of 'yuus'..you know you're in my favourites list and I will always return to check in with you. Now with getting a life, which I had wanted for so long, I have to learn time management AND stress management..yes yes, join your club. Well, I'll get there. In the mean time, bear with my apparent absence but know I'm still there, I just can't promise anything.

oh and..can anyone read Japanese? Someone posted on my babies know obama post (in Japanese) but for the life of me (thank you sitemeter, ehem), i cannot 'see' where. All I see is the occasional english word (but nothing pertaining to this blog) and a lot of Japanese script (does it have a name?) and a ton of cutesy flora and fauna pics.. so Japanese I tell ya {g].

Adventures in Medicine and something completely different...The Mean Kitty Song

The Mean Kitty song


It's been a long while since I've posted and still, the visitors kept coming. Apparently, "Obama knows babies" was/is quite the hit. It's a testimony to my many posts(-ing) that I have anyone visiting at all! I know I have some of my blogger buddies checking me out but on the whole, the majority of visitors do their searches and google nicely steers them towards me.
One of the searches that apparently puts me 'up there' is 'the ugly parent syndrome'. I posted on that a long time ago and for some strange reason, there are many Aussie searches for that one. Hmmm..what does that signify eh??

Anyway, I've been awol from the blogosphere due to 'adventures in medicine'. Last week, my son's allergies spiked severely (unusually high cedar count and he's taking three different allergy shots even, he's got a slew of allergies, animal, food and various pollen with the occasional cockroach..yes yes)..anyhow..his histamines went to work and what was in his head ended up in his chest, causing tightness and that is for the most part his asthma related issues. We were in two separate ERs last week. One 'regular' one and the next day, I just thought no, he needs to go to the children's ER (20plus miles away). Then a follow up doctor's appointment with exrays (oh, and a chest xray at the children's ER)..pfff...and this week, a final doctor's follow up with the ok to go back to school..hooray! He had to endure a week of prelone (makes you hyper), on top of his numerous maintenance meds. Plus, in the beginning, on top of the medicine, I gave him stuff with guefenisin so his chest would get loose.

Then I had something going on (blood test showed too low potassium but I realized afterwards I had a LOT of black licorice over the past couple of weeks (one of my b'day presents) that depletes potassium in your body. So of course, a follow up blood test for me (low potassium in especially women can cause heart problems, think keeling over) so..I'll be glad when this month is done. I haven't had time to actually focus on what I had planned to do..

So hence, in the spirit of, 'and now for something completely different'..this kitty cat vid that my kids stumbled upon..
have a good weekend and hope you're safe and warm whereever you are..

Of colds and earaches and shopping thwarted..

Just a pic, not my daughter dearest though..

Quick update;

This past week I've been practically home all week (except on Thursday for a few hours) with the youngest one having a bad case of head and chest congestion so aside from pumping her full of meds every 4hrs, naturally, 'one' is up as well during the night at times.
And naturally, this had to happen during the last week of school when I had my errands planned and thought no problem, I have plenty of time!

Did manage to post something here and there quickly but alas, my visiting was minimal and replies to comments non existent. Now you know why.
The 'head and chest' case turned into an ear infection which I figured out early this morning (of course it being Saturday), after two nights of fevers and a definite "ow my ear hurts' this morning. sigh

Luckily, Murphy's law cannot always fully rule even though I suspect it was put in place 'just' for parents, so luckily, our pediatrician did have office hours this morning and is on call for the whole weekend. He's a great elderly gentleman who's not retired as he still has one or two kids to put through college. Or so I here. I wish he was my doctor but that's another story.

So..now we're on antibiotics (the non penicillin type as my youngest could be allergic to it and there has not been a penicillin test on the market for the last 2yrs..Enigma, wassup with that??) and a migrating earache that went from one ear to the other.. sigh again.

Sooo, instead of 'carpeting' my backyard with my husband (story and pictures to come), I was on kid duty..again! (did you not always want your mom and not your dad when you were sick?)

This afternoon after another wailing session with big tears and a passing out for 30min..I talked to the nurse on call and was informed that yes, I can give her alternating pain meds every 3 hrs. When that finally went into effect, boy what a difference. Sigh times three.




Now, the two kids are watching the Spiderwick Chronicles, perhaps a little scary for the younger one but hey, she's been 'baptized' into gollum land a few years ago (thank you older sibling without asking OR thinking) so hey, sigh sigh sigh sigh..

I am taking a short break. I'd rather be in my yard..I'm behind in my shopping, not to mention doing all my christmas (read, oversees) cards...well, that'll be happy new years then..

I'll be back with backyard updates, political stuff etc. My husband has these two weeks off so phew, we can take turns..
Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer


Hope you're having a good weekend..I'm gonna chill with my 'As time goes by' tonight and dream of 'that what could've been'.. I love some of those brit comedies..(and geoffrey palmer and judi dench are a great pair)

Oh and did I mention I was/am pretty bored?? c'est la vie..
nighty night..
(thx Gary! [s])

How would you contribute to the political process if..

you had limitless amount of money?

My choice would be to start a national newspaper with independent editorials, reporting on issues or critiquing issues them and politicians who'd normally would not get touched by the MSM. I would need no advertising as I would have of course, unlimited funds. However, in the event I did win the lottery, I would add some advertising and also add a national and regional component of highlighting good news development, focus on the good work of non profits and have the journalists engage in actual 'journalism'. Details at this point do not matter of course since I do not have any mula [g].

So what would you do?

Staph, the infection

ICK ALERT!

Well crap. Last week, I thought I had just a freaky potential brown recluse spider bite so since that spot hurt and was kinda swollen, I decided to go to the doctor. They biopsed (-eed?) 'the spot' (it's on my elbow)and said, oh, we'll have the results in three to five days. Well, freaking out about a potential brown recluse spider bite, I had not heard anything all day Monday so I called and the verdict was; staph. Well, MSRA. I'm not going to link to it it's 'icky' and aside from being icky and painful as hell, it's apparently 'going around'. Many people have been coming into our doctor's office thinking they have some bug bite of sorts only to find out they have indeed MSRA. Naturally, I did a quick search and had a mini-freak out (more people die of 'it' than of aids) but the doctor's office assured me I was going to be just fine. (it's part of the medical vernacular..'just fine')

They/I got to it early and after almost a full week, nothing had changed other than the swelling going down a bit. I say a bit, it's all relative you know. So yesterday I decided I had enough (and would be almost out of the meds they gave me so I called for an appointment today figuring they had to drain it. NEVER YOU MIND that I asked for it on MONDAY!! I got the response, nah, just take your medicine and if it gets worse just call us. Well, I mentioned this to Utah Savage in a comment, 'we' ought to really listen to our own selves right?? I should've pushed for it but better late than never. The draining part was p.r.e.t.t.y. painful. Holy cow, at least when I birthed my youngest, there indeed was a hormone to cover that pain (at least the memory of it, it was mostly fear on my part), there's no hormone covering pain otherwise.

"Are you allergic to licadaine?" You mean the stuff they use at the dentist? "Yes". Oh no. Ok.. well...l.i.t.t.l.e. did I know..

lica(co?)daine is supposed to numb the spot but because I have that infection, it hurt so much I almost cried. I started to think about that one nurse in pre-birthing class saying "moan away, moaning helps with the pain, I even got my husband to moan when he was in a lot of pain in the hospital, it works!"

I almost moaned. Three separate spots from one very long needled lico/cadaine. Yikes. After it was sorta kinda numbed, she started , what was that term? Not scalping but they use that small scalpel thingy. Well, she 'dug deep' as she said and not being one to leave the patient in the dark, she gave me a description to always remember; "you know, it's kind of like a honeycomb in there so I have to dig in different places". Sweet! Tell me more.

And inspite of the 'numbing', it really hurt at times and I thought I was good with pain! Well, tummy aches and ehem, 'womanly' pain stuff you know, I can grin and bear it, just take meds and not move. Then she started to push to drain the lymphatic fluid and that was loverly too. It actually reminded me when I had my adrenal gland removed (long story) in Saudi Arabia and after the operation they did not put a drainage 'thingy' in my wound so it got infected and likewise, they had to squeeze the living daylights out of my side. So I guess, come to think of it, it's all relative. THAT one I did so moan for..sheesh.

So after the procedure, the put this, I call it anyway, a worm version of a stocking tube like in my elbow to let the whole thing drain. My neighbour friend across the street was all interested as she's capable of handling 'blood and guts' and she even changed the bandage on me (I had been draining quite a bit).

Anyhow, I got myself a whole bunch of chewable, immunity supporting stuff; multi vitamin, omega three, vit B boost and will try to think happy healthy thoughts. And take my additional medicine of course. I have high hopes that since the stuff is draining, that that should start clearing the infection at a better rate.

Did you know how much you use your elbow? I bet you don't.

Ah well, so much for gardening.

Humpday post

Am going through a bit of an anxious episode but am working on it while life goes on; taking kids to school, watching them play outside, attending a class information evening at my son's school..you know..same old same old..
One of the things he will be doing this school year is get classical guitar lessons. He's not that excited about it but apparently the Austin Classical Guitar society has regular performances on Sunday so we'll take him to wet his appetite. His teacher posts the weekly lesson on Youtube and this is one of his posts (but this is not him!)

flashback city for 'us' of a certain age; Bohemian Rhapsody by Edgar Cruz..bravo Edgar!!



Update;

perhaps this song is more appropriate for this week, ha! (no wonder I always liked this song when I was a little girl..haHA!)



ok ok.. for those who think that's too 'much'..how about this one?It's kinda a swinging version of 'what good is it all'.. well, kinda..haHA! What? Pfff..it's been taken off Youtube due to terms of use violation..cha.. those Squirel Nut Zippers..sigh. (alas, no "In the Afterlife"..)

The Hurricane Ike dud for Austin TX

A boarded up home sits along the beach as Hurricane Ike approaches Friday, Sept. 12, 2008 in Galveston, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) (David J. Phillip - AP)
Nearly 3M people without power as Ike hits


"The unfortunate truth is we're going to have to go in ... and put our people in the tough situation to save people who did not choose wisely. We'll probably do the largest search-and-rescue operation that's ever been conducted in the state of Texas," said Andrew Barlow, spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry.

Sadly, Galveston became ground zero at 2:10am if I remember correctly, and once again, some 100.000 people decided to play russian roulette with mother nature. I hope no one perishes during the rescue mission. Galveston is really a hurricane barrier of sorts and like New Orleans, really no place to build a city. However, the state of Texas and the city of Houston (where people evacuated, some people visiting family who live here on our street) were well prepared and I'm sure that most of you with cable will be or have been following the developments and will know more than me.

For us here in Austin it will be business as usual, I do not expect any great winds or even rain (we were so hoping). It is very overcast which is a nice reprieve from all that sunshine. Today is also family day and we'll just be doing the regular family activities.

Check out this cool Harris County rain gauge map where the brunt of Hurricane Ike was felt; Harris County Rain Gauge

I probably will be 'out' for the weekend. See you on Monday as I'm contemplating another blog change. Not necessarily the 'personal' one I was talking about , but consolidating the round table and austin permie one. I liked the responses I got on greening the desert and thought perhaps I ought to just put these two together..
have a safe weekend guys.

Strange thought to wake up to..

I slept very restlessly last night. I kept having these intense dreams and then waking up. I'm processing 'stuff' but also just plain did not sleep well. I took something the night before that made me actually sleep through the night and for me, that's practically unheard of; sleeping uninterrupted for more than 8.5 (!!) hours.. wow. Normally, if/when not taking anything I can wake up after either 3 or 4 or so -sh hours, either by myself or my 5 yr old is coming to our bed and I heave ho her right back to her own. Lately she's been sleeping so much better, I'm not though. Haven't for years.

At any rate, the meds I took (not a sleeping med) the night before and the night before that just help me so much that I have glimpses of what I and my brain would be like on more than 7hrs of sleep. Can you dig it? I sure can.

Still, did not want to take it last night and get 'used' to it. So after 4.5hrs I woke up. James woke up several times as well which is unusual for him as he's the big,deep sleeper in the family. It was work related of course. He's going to Washington DC for the week for work.

One of the things I had in my head when I woke up one of the few times last night was this and I'll just put it out there;














Fear of dying is not fear of dying but fear of living.

As you noticed in my previous post my going down memory lane, I will be starting up another blog to facilitate putting my thoughts and more indepth memories and thoughts on so as to separate the 'political me' and the more 'introspective personal me'. Sometime this week. I need to process, I need to put all manner of thoughts and feelings that I have not 'taken care off' in the last 20 plus years after leaving home (literally, emigrated the heck out of there) out there without concern that those of you who come to visit will put up their hands and say "XNAY XNAY TMI!!" (too much information)

One has friends where one can just shoot the breeze, and friends who you share your deeper thoughts with without fear of rejection or indifference.

I'm sure 'ya'll' have your own stuff and situations so whether you, at whatever point, come over to the other site or not doesn't matter. It's optional, it's just one other side of me. It's foremost personal stuff that I need to express. I know most people put only their personal feelings/emotions/trials and tribulations on their blog but I'd be bored with that myself. One blog for one part of me. A separation of the personal and the political. At least for the 'audience' at large.

What does that remind you off?[s]

Nice to meet you Maria!

I found out, through a blogger from Cleveland, Enigma (Watergate Summer), that there was another blogger from Austin visiting her site, so I 'went' and met Blueberry on her own blog, Texas Oasis. Then, as I'm browsing and seeing a name recurring in different blogs finding out that she too lives in Austin. Mariamariacuchita. So as I emailed a suggestion to her, I say in passing, you know, I live in South Austin too and I live right around blablabla.. well, she emails me back and says, wait! Are you 'the Ingrid' who lives 3 houses down from me on blablabla street (note, I mentioned the area 'blabla' but not the 'blabla street'!) with the sunflowers in front of her house??

HAHA..she got 'chills' and I was about to sit in the front yard watching the kids play (the kids on our street function like a mini swarm, they go from one area to another which is ok because our street, like the side streets, are cul de sacs)..so I told her, come on over if you'd like to!

As another neighbour had come over to sit and yak (while her kids played with mine, swarming about), 'Maria' came over and how neat was that!! She was so warm and said, I feel like hugging you! She was the new neighbour on the street whom I hadn't met yet and here we were, kinda 'knowing' each other a bit, having a great time visiting!

She is a very interesting, knowledgable person, not just re. her line of work but to think that SHE and this gentleman started up the peace train! Holy Cow, I had seen the 'peace train' on the various' people's blogs (peace train button).. how cool is that! So, this is blogger number 2 that I've met up with, albeit less if not at all planned like with Mash in July.

Who knows, her and I might collaborate on something in the future..we'll see if time and other variables can make that happen..welcome to our street 'Maria'!!

Change

Molen de Roos






Just imagine men and riders wearing mail, can you just picture this in the past? I love the look of this; green, historic and the Willow..for medieval images one always needs a Willow tree


[clopclopclop] the horses arrive...I can soo see it! I have dreamt of ages past but not pretending I was a Queen or maiden of sorts..nay, I would've been like a veritable Joan of Arc..hey..mail, sense a theme?








I've been blah for too long and I am making, however small, changes in my life and now to the blog. It's not the finished look that I'd want but I remember the 'new' style of blogger that is a bit of a pain to do (time consuming). So for now..this'll have to do. So for the occasion, here are some pictures from Holland by Pieter Haringsma from Delft.







Tour boat in Delft






The tourboat in the neighbourhood of Hippolytus

Check out more beautifully taken pictures by Pieter Haringsma

Childhood dreams

One of the things Randy Pausch discussed in his 'last lecture', the lecture that has been posted on Youtube and his book of the same name, was the fact that many of his childhood dreams came true. He encouraged parents to foster their kids' dreams the way his parents did. So I got to thinking about mine. For a few days I could not remember. Too many things had happened that influenced me in sad and painful ways that they almost seemed to have been buried too deep inside. Then, finally..I remembered. And the fact that I remembered, inspite of all the knocks and detours and many MANY sleep deprived nights that tweaked my brain chemistry to not function as swiftly and intelligently as it once did, well inspite of it all, they resurfaced. Is in these dreams, the essence of me?

Anyway..here are my dreams as I had them before I became an official 'adult';


To ride a horse (or own one)
be a writer
photography
travel
be a comedian (or be considered funny)


there you have it. For now, I won't go into the 'whys' and 'how comes'..

if you stop to think, what were your honest to goodness childhood dreams?

Update non profit

I printed out the paperwork for getting the certificate of formation for the non profit and there are a lot of decisions to be made. How you want to be managed, the purpose, of course don't forget the payment and delivery instructions, and again, the name of the non profit. Here in Texas, you need to go through the Secretary of State's office and oh, in order to find out whether the name you picked is available..it's 'only' $1 per search! One dollar to see whether the name you've picked is already taken or not. What nonsense. That is why you have software that can do easy searches. But anyhow..I do think I can spare a buck or two!

I've been working on different wordings for the mission statement which will clarify even to yourself what your non profits' purpose is. And also what will help you not to stray from it.

Tomorrow I will be going to the regional funding library for my daughter's school and I'll get a one on one tour of the facility which will be very helpful for all my grantwriting efforts. It's a new venture but I think it is going to be very fulfilling. Finally.. my political science degree actually is good for something and well matched! Research, writing and schmoozing here I come..

Naming the Non-Profit

I decided to just start. So what I need to do before starting the non profit and getting the paperwork is to work on a mission statement. After that, I can start approaching people to join me and become a board member.
When I have worked on a few mission statements, I'll post it to get some feedback.
No more waiting..To be continued..

(non-profit supporting veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder)

I'm Back... finally

This is going to be a short post. I just had a board meeting tonight and it will be my final one before the annual meeting. I've served for three years (once filling in for an unfinished term, the second time serving a full, two year term)

I'm ready to go into a more clear direction in regards to my pursuit to help out veterans with ptsd. I am going towards a direction that I hope will make the first steps come into fruition and I will fill 'you' in tomorrow more fully. I am only dealing with frustrations of having to wait on other people, as I cannot do this possibly on my own. I need to start being more pushy and step out farther from my comfort zone.

Anyhow, more updates tomorrow. For now, good night..

Wassup??

Hi guys, long time no post. I figured it's time for an update so I'll try to be brief. At the moment, we're in a Homestead Suite for the next two weeks. With my father in law's inheritance (he passed away almost a year ago) we decided to finally change the flooring in our house. Our oldest has asthma and a slew of allergies so we're getting tile downstairs, (and upstairs bathrooms) and wood laminate upstairs. Plus just a different carpet on the stairs and that whole thing should take two weeks. It's only day two and I'm ready to go back home! lol

Technically, I am. While the different crews do their work (tile, laminate etc), someone from the house has to be present the whole time. So for now, I am upstairs on my computer and as much as it's convenient catching up and having the perfect excuse to be online, I'm also pretty tired of it. The last two nights I have not slept well at all plus our oldest probably picked up a bug of sorts 'cause he woke up last night and got sick in the bathroom. What a sweetie! He said later on that he figured he had to try to make it to the bathroom because otherwise (him and my husband sleeping on the sofa bed) 'we'd have to pay extra' for the mess he'd make.
James and I were both awake when he got sick, and me..BLECH! I can't handle 'urp'. I can handle anything else but not that. So while my poor son 'urped' over the toilet, my husband tended to him, and I gagged in the kitchen YAKK!

As if I don't have enough stress. They just came by the house to drop off some food (James picked up the kids from school) and my son told me he felt nauseaus off and on all day. I have severe mommy sensitivities so now I'm on the alert ("are you ok? are you sure??" psst James, bring the pail back to the hotel!)
I have been off the lexapro for several weeks now and last night, as I'm trying to go back to sleep, I felt a little anxious. Just regular, normal anxiety that comes with life. Except that while I was on the meds, it diminished the possibility of any anxiety attack or what have you..plus the excuse to take xanax for it. I still have some xanax except I can't get to it because they laid down the tile and you're not supposed to walk on it for a day!

Good thing about the Homestead Suite location though is the fact that it's very close to the place where we meet up for our saturday morning training. I have been posting on the Chronicle blog but really, I can't just post about myself all the time. Me this, Me that, I ran, I didn't run, blahblah.. so, as you can imagine, I couldn't help myself and I started writing about other things AND politics. Can't help myself, I was born THAT way!
Anyhow, it's about 4:15pm and these guys won't finish until about 6, can't wait to leave. Anyhow, that's my story. And that also explains why I haven't visited anyone recently.
No worries, I'll be back and I'll definitely will be by your blogs sometime.
Oh and did I mention that I got my Red Cross First Aid/CPR certificate? Managed to squeeze that in.

Come over and say HI!

Well, the blogs for the Club Chronicle Challenge are finally up. Come over and say 'hi' to my fellow team mates and tell 'm I sent you. A little encouragement would be much appreciated.
I don't know about the voting aspect of the contest. If you have to be from Austin or not, who knows. For now, there's no voting involved. We (our team) is getting to know each other and having a good time doing so.
I'm actually in pain, but that's for another post, here or on the Club Chronicle.
So hop over: Club Chronicle Challenge blogs
(ps, my video intro is totally lame, they took it AFTER the work out and NO makeup or good lighting. You are forbidden to even look at it! I demand a re-take!)

Swim meet and birthday party

Getting ready, Dirk is looking sideways to mr.karate chop







Today was my son's first exposure the the swim meet. He started the neighbourhood swim team last year but did not participate in any of the meets. This year, we kinda 'nudged' him so he agreed to do 'just' the breast stroke and the freestyle. Then this morning, with about three hours before his first heat (the kids have to be there for 7am) he got cold feet and needed some rara's and encouragement. He's a gently, playful (and with a great sense of humour I might add) kid and not particularly competitive. The only thing we told him was that we needed a baseline for getting a time so that he could work towards improving his time. Not having to compete against others for winning a race (heat). The team is pretty good. Several neighbourhoods get together at the end of each (public) school year and practice for about two months and doing swim meets during that time. This time, we had 3 other neighbourhoods participating (instead of just one or two) and there were A LOT of people. Volunteerism is great and the parents cheer on all kids, besides their own.
There was this little guy, probably 6 yrs old, doing some heat and he was sooo behind. He was basically dog peddling and kept pausing for the alloted few seconds on the rope every couple of strokes. The whole crowd started to encourage him and when HE finally touched the side of the pool, EVERYBODY cheered. It was so nice. So this other older kid said, 'why are they cheering for him'? I said, because we're glad he made it (and didn't drown in the process, which of course I did not say lol).

My son Dirk did a 25 mt breast stroke and freestyle, plus unexpectantly got put in a 100 meter medley. Then, the whole shebang was done at 2pm but I had gone home earlier to get stuff ready for this afternoon's pool birthday party for Rebecca as it was her 4th birthday today.
woohoo..PRESENTS!


Time flies..everybody had a great time as parents and siblings were also invited. As she was unwrapping her presents, I think she was kinda 'whelmed'! There was a lot of swimming this morning AND this afternoon and now..lo and behold.. our brood finally passed out. Aaahh.. the peace and quiet..