Where you be?

Sorry folks, times have been ridiculously busy or just plain crazy and I don’t have any excuse for the lack of posts up on this webspace. As I write this, the boys have the day off from school for MLK Day, Timothy is screaming because he doesn’t want to take a nap, and Jamie is about to take the older three out to play with his friends and their kids.

I forgot to call my dad and tell him happy birthday yesterday so that makes me a terrible daughter.  SORRY DAD!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!  What, are you like 80 now?  (just kidding)

Everyone is generally healthy.  Jamie starts another semester next week working on his specialist degree.  I’m teaching 3-4 classes a week at the Y and my church.  I’d like to be doing more but there isn’t any openings around. So the nights when I don’t teach I usually try to go to other classes to get some cross-training. Strength, yoga, etc.  I spend most of my free time choreographing, watching choreography videos, or sleeping.  Ok, I do other things too.  But with a charity event coming up I am quite side-tracked with the details.  Evernote is my best friend right now.

Also, food.  Which reminds me–I should eat something today.

Peace out.

Corey came home with a clarinet.  He had decided long before he even started middle school that he wanted to take band instead of choir because he already sings with the church choir.  Not being one to want to push him in directions he doesn’t want to go, I left all the decision-making up to him.  Even the choice of instruments was completely in his hands.  I didn’t suggest any particular family of instruments either (I played both the flute and the French horn throughout my school years so it didn’t make much of a difference to me).  Personally, I love the sound of the clarinet and I hope he sticks with it.

Simon has made excellent progress in Kindergarten.  Pre-K was an absolute nightmare and he came home at least once a week with referrals.  I was also called to come pick him up on numerous occasions because of his insolence.  This year, he has been so well-behaved that I honestly think someone may have switched our little Imp with an angel.

Aiden.  Oh, Aiden.  That child is chock full of imagination and mischief.  I have several stories to tell that I’ll get to in some later posts.  They involve socks, rockets, and singing feet. In the meantime, I must post this picture he drew last night. (Click to make it bigger)

Timothy is slowly learning how to use the potty. I think he’s taking a break this week because he’s been all sorts of snotty. Allergies are running rampant throughout the household and I pulled two boogers the size of peas out of his nose this morning. When he is feeling more himself he is actually able to make it to the toilet. I’m quite impressed.

Jamie is busy. Busy busy busy with school, both his own that he teaches and the classes he just started at ASU. He decided to go back to get his Specialist degree so he can earn tons more money. Feeding four boys has turned out to be more of a drain on our bank accounts than the current gas prices.

Lucy and I have been fighting about her sleeping habits.  There was a laundry basket at the foot of our bed that I used to keep all my Zumbawear in back when I washed it every other day.  Of course, it was just sitting there with a mish-mash of other clothes but she was sleeping in it all the same.  So yesterday I pulled out her laundry basket (the one with all her kitty blankies that she hasn’t been using) and I put it in place of the other one.  Then she went out into the living room and climbed into a different laundry basket!  The nerve!  I decided then to wash all the blankets and put them back in the basket as if they were freshly-washed laundry.  I win.

Finally, me!  As of today I am done with my big ugly Cam boot.  I graduated back into my lace-up brace and have permission to drive again.  This is fantastic news for pretty much everyone.  I was bumming rides off of everyone I knew to get to and from rehearsals and concerts, doctors’ appointments, and anywhere else I needed to go.  Jamie was tired of having to pack everyone up just to take me all the way downtown.  Frankly, I was too.  I miss driving.  The van is currently in the shop, though, so I’ll have to wait another day or two to actually get to it.  The air conditioning was dying.  I found it to be cruelly ironic considering this has been the hottest summer in eight years (according to one local weatherman).

I also took a break this week from nail art to get myself a set of gel nails with French tips.  My poor nails were looking haggard without polish.  Using a base coat was helping but as the weak, peeling, yellow part of my nails were growing out, they just kept breaking.  It wasn’t the polish that was peeling and chipping–it was my nails.  So I sucked it up and went for fakes.  I’ve tried acrylics a few times in my life but never really liked the way they felt.  I do like the gels.  They’re thick but just as thick as my natural nails are when I pile on all the layers of polish I usually use.  I’m going to give these another day or two and gussy them up a little.  Right now I’m enjoying the simplicity of this manicure.

I got feeling back in my toes shortly after breakfast and was so excited I wiggled them too much.  Ouch!  I was getting worried that I still couldn’t feel them this morning but I remembered that the doctor said it may take a while since he had to move the nerves around to get to the tendons that he messed with.

At the moment, Jamie’s trying to set up the VCR in the bedroom so we can record “The Soup” while we watch the movie we started last night.  We are so old-fashioned.

Jamie: Hey, do you know the chorus to “Hungry Eyes”?

Me: [hysterical laughter] WHAT??

Jamie explains that he has the song stuck in his head but cannot remember the words.  The only lyrics that he can put together are:

Jamie: “I smell the magic between your thighs.”

After much laughing, near spilling of coffee and the threat of wetting myself, I reveal the actual lyrics:

Me: “I feel the magic between you and I.”

You know, I like his lyrics better. Best alternate lyrics to a terrible 80′s song ever.

I kicked my feet and squealed so loudly when I first saw this commercial. It never gets old.

Holy Week was nothing like I imagined it would be. I had visions of dark chocolate bunnies and egg-shaped Reese’s cups dancing through my head every night.  Not to mention the French fries I had given up for Lent. On Good Friday, Jamie had the day off work so we took Timothy shopping for groceries and outfits for Sunday. All-in-all, Friday was a good day. Both of my Zumba classes had good turnout and I was grateful for fantastic workouts.

Saturday morning was met with a great crowd at Curves after which I zipped downtown to take my friend Christina’s Zumba class. That’s pretty much when all hell broke loose. I rolled my ankle while jumping because the floor was a little sticky from the humidity. I had a fantastic cry in the bathroom for a minute then finished out the class with about 40% of the enthusiasm I usually bring.

On the way home, I had to stop by Wal-Mart (ugh) to try the Dr. Scholl’s foot mapping machine for a review.  They only had the machines at Wal-Mart or I would have gone anywhere else.  It took a minute to find the darn thing and then about 10 minutes for it to finally give me a reading and suggested insert.  More about that in a future post…

Well, we all know what happens when one goes to a superstore; it’s like a black hole and there is no way you can get out without purchasing a billion things you didn’t go in there to get. I bought myself an ankle brace while I was there in addition to the food I needed for the crop I was late getting to–at my own house no doubt.

Cropping was fabulous. I played with the new Creative Cuts tool and finally finished my album about our trip to Maine in 2005.  There was only one page left to do with one of the only pictures of me taken while we were there. Now that we have a new printer I was able to print the picture call that project COMPLETE.

By the end of Saturday, I had little to no voice. It started going early in the afternoon for no apparent reason. I’m blaming allergies even though the Prompt Care doctor wrote “pharyngitis” on my check-out slip.  I posted my problems on facebook that night and begged for an Easter miracle. Unfortunately, I woke up Sunday morning with absolutely no voice. This meant, of course, that the solo I was supposed to sing at both services was cancelled and my soprano section had to get along without my leadership. I could eek out maybe five notes but anything above a D was a crap shoot.

After I told my choir director and she stared at me like I was playing a cruel joke on her, I shut myself in the bathroom and cried. And then I cried almost every time someone asked me if I was okay. It was so frustrating, disappointing, sad, etc.

I was broken. Not my ankle, thank God, just my spirit. After church, I excused myself from the Easter festivities to get some drugs for my ankle & throat then went home to sleep it off.

My Curves ladies were wonderful last night even without my being able to give them verbal instructions.  They rely on my directions a lot but did really well with physical cues.  In a regular Zumba class I try not to give verbal cues a lot anyway, so it was a good exercise in non-verbal cuing.  As for the ankle, Zumba in the Circuit is low-impact. I’m keeping it wrapped to prevent further injury and hopefully I won’t have a sticky floor in tonight’s classes.

So here I sit with a rainbow of pills inside of me so I can smile on the outside. Timothy will be waking up from his nap any minute so I suppose I should close this by telling everyone that I’m now addicted to looking at beauty and makeup blogs. I’m suddenly obsessed with eye makeup and all its possibilities. I even gave myself a virtual makeover on the Mary Kay website, complete with a ridiculous hairdo. Enjoy!