The Royal Blog

This & That

Whaddya know, I get a lot more done when Z is hogging the computer all day.  Dishes have been washed, laundry is in full swing, the car has been de-trashed, vacuumed and washed. 

Did not go workout yesterday or today. My knee hurts and I do not want to weigh in.  I HAVE to go tomorrow and I am going to force myself to run a lap at the park to see how I do/it feels. 

Yesterday sucked.  Aside from my period starting and a general feeling of cranky despair, I bumped into someone from behind and yadda yadda yadda got a ticket.  Snarl.

Our Weekend

B dropped us off in Cincy and went on to Tennessee where he picked up E1 on Friday:

Friday, E2, Z & I hung out at the hotel and went to the water park a couple times.  Z hung out with his teammates at the pool and arcade; when E1 showed up she played too.

Saturday Z had two games (they won!):

Back to the hotel for more water park fun:

Back to the field for game #3, a loss:

Back to the hotel to check out, lunch at Cracker Barrel, and we had to get a picture of this:

(and if you're a Futurama fan, you'll understand why the next few minutes were spent laughing over "I'll get my shovel" "I'm three skulls short of a Mousketeer reunion" and "Now no one can ever say I don't have John Laroquette's spine")

Birthday girl was an unhappy crab apple for huge chunks of the weekend:

Time for game 4, a win!  The boys went 3-1 for the tournament; we were soooo happy!

Then we drove home and had cake for the birthday girl (we'll do presents another night; we - especially me and the bday girl - were wiped out):

This & That

We'll probably be taking off as soon as B gets home and we get the van loaded up.

The water park doesn't open until 10:30 a.m. What's up with that??  Hopefully Z & E2 will sleep in. 

We turned in the school forms and fees and picked up teacher assignments and supply boxes.  Z got his picture taken.  We also got the results from Z's Ohio Achievement Test.  Z got accelerated in Reading and Math, and advanced in Writing. 

I love Wanda Sykes. (She just had a line in the cartoon Back at the Barnyard: "You really are 31 flavors of dumb, aren't you" that I need to work into my daily conversations.)

I will not be blogging this weekend but you can check my Twitter for soccer score updates.  A few prayers that Z can avoid "fear mode" would be much appreciated!

The Hakuna Matata group (E1's group) made the most goals, so they got to go tubing today!

Week Five/Twenty Five

• 50 fun-filled minutes on the elliptical!

Did not go to the park afterward. The knee brace, heating pad, motrin, resting it, using it - nothing really seems to make my knee better.  I guess the good news is, it isn't getting worse.

Ordered E2's birthday cake yesterday.  They (Kroger's) don't have MM Clubhouse or Little Einsteins cakes, and they were out of the supplies for the Lego cake, so E2 settled on a Go Diego Go cake.  (She wanted pretty much every cake in the book.)  And then I had to explain about 50 times ("Where's the cake?") that we would be picking the cake up on Sunday.

I did not talk to E1 yesterday; she called after I went to bed. B said she got to go tubing a lot yesterday and she abruptly ended the call because it was time to play "capture the flag".

Today's to-do:

• Pack for trip

Aw crud. Just remembered that today is turn in all your school forms, pay your school fee, pick up your supply boxes, get your school picture taken, find out who your teacher is and sign up for back to school conferences day.  Bleh.  I hate filling out all the forms. HATE.   Nothing has changed since Z started kindergarten. Our address, pediatrician, cell phone #'s, everything is the same. Why do we have to fill out the same crap year after year after year.  Get computerized already people. 

Boo

My knee is still messed up; walking up stairs is particularly painful.  So, no, no workout or laps today.

Z & I are dropping off E2 at her summer program and then heading over to the dealership to get the van looked at. (Z was pretty grumpy about having to log off his Pirates game.)

E1 got to go tubing yesterday and (instead of vault) her group got to do the ropes course.  She hasn't made any new skills but she feels she is has nailed most of her level 5 skills.  I didn't get a whole lot of info out of her.  How was lunch? Good. How was open gym? Good, but I only went to part of it. How was the luau party? Good, but I got blinded. And so on.  She did call (sobbing that she wanted to come home :( )after I went to bed - apparently she and two other girls had a little misunderstanding; B gave her some good advice so I'm sure she's fine. 

Week Five/Twenty Five Cardio Week

• 15 minutes on the treadmill (5 walk, 10 run)
• 10 minutes on the bicycle
• 10 minutes on the elliptical
• 7 minutes/3 laps around strip mall
• 5 minutes on the bicycle
• 25 crunches/10 pushups/25 crunches/10 pushups/25 crunches/10 pushups/25 crunches/10 pushups
• Stretching

My left knee is really ouchy for some reason so no laps at the park today.

To-do Today

• More laundry
• Bag up clothes going to Goodwill
• Work on kids' closets - organize, start coming up with a list of back to school needs

Today's Sixth Call

(I asked her a couple of quick questions first.  Then:)

• Me: "So, what's up?"
• E1: "Welllllll, some people told me they'd do stuff with me after practice, but apparently, they decided to go over to open gym instead."
• Me: "So, why don't you go over to open gym and have fun?"
• E1: "Okay!! Bye!"
  

Ya know, it would be easier (and more satisfying) to miss her if SHE'D QUIT CALLING!

This & That

It was downright chilly this morning - loved it!

E2 is working my last nerve this afternoon.  She is SO different from the other two at this age.  Disobedient, defiant, belligerent, ARGH.   I've told the big kids numerous times that if I ever have a time machine, I'm going to go back and tell myself to be grateful because I have no idea how good I have it! 

B is dropping Z, E2 and I off in Cincy Thursday night and then continuing on to Tennessee.  We get to play at the waterpark all day Friday, while B picks up E1 from camp.  I get to see my little Puma Friday night!!  And then Saturday and Sunday is the soccer tournament. 

E2 likes playing with Bitty Baby and I was looking through the catalog to get her bday presents.  Decided to get her a Friend 2BMade instead.   They have some cute little outfits with fun accessories (at a MUCH more reasonable price); hopefully she'll get a kick out of it.  It's hard to tell.  The main problem is that I want a ton of American Girl and Friends 2BMade and Build-a-Bear stuff for ME.  It's hard not to force it on the girls.

E2 has been telling me all summer (when asked) that she wants an orange birthday cake.  Orange icing? Orange flavoring?  "Orange".    Then for a week or two it was "Chocolate cake with Orange icing".  Today she decided she wants a red cake.  I think I'm going to try and get her a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake.  That would have red in it, and still be cute.  Hopefully I can pick it up Sunday night; we won't know til Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning whether or not the team will play a fourth game. 

Coach S has very high hopes for the B team this year.  He put them in the A bracket of our league and they are in the A bracket for the tournament. I would never ever tell Z this, but I think it is going to be another LONG, dismal season.  Fingers crossed that's just me being negative.

Update on Grandpa B

From Grandma B:

He goes to the cardiac cath lab at the hospital -- probably the same room in which they cleaned out his cardiac artery.  I'm quite familiar with the waiting room there - they have lousy coffee.  They semi-sedate him and make him glow in the dark, then they take all sorts of pictures of his artery.  If the blockage is localized (as it was in his cardiac artery) they will try angioplasty -- clearing it out by going in through the femoral artery at the top and blowing up a balloon in the artery to press the blockage out of the way.  If this doesn't work, then they might try putting in a stent - which is what ended up happening in the cardiac artery.  Worst case scenario - they either find out that the blockage is too severe to fix immediately, or the balloon or stent don't work, and schedule him for arterial bypass surgery.

So now you know what I know --- I'll give everyone an update on Thursday.

Monday Camp Update

• So far today, B & I have received five calls from E1.  She's fine, just into the whole telephone thing.
• Pancakes and bacon for breakfast.
• She and the other girls from her gym all bought matching green striped leos.
• She has two. practices. a. day. Two! (I couldn't tell if she thought that was cool or horrifying)
• The gymnasts come up with a list of skills they want to make or improve on (goal list?).
• She won a dance competition this morning and got a stamp that lets her go over to the canteen and get a free candy bar.
• The line for tubing was too long so she didn't get to go.
• There are a lot of bugs at camp. 

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

The general theme for E2's summer program is "Ocean" and today specifically they talked about islands.  So E2 got to make a Hawaiin lei:

The other day she was playing with one of E1's old necklaces:

We talked a lot about the letters and I had a bright idea to make her some necklaces of her own.  She can learn her letters and work on fine motor skills (moving the beads around):

Happy Camper!

Have a great week at Flip Fest sweetie!!

Monday Monday

Stayed up last night til B got home so I was way too tired to get up and workout or run this a.m.

To-do today:

• E2 to summer program
• Z to soccer practice
• Laundry
• Bag up clothes for Goodwill

Gratitude

What I am especially grateful for this week:

1. Z's team won 4-1!
2. E2 got to play with her friend R while the boys scrimmaged.
3. E1 is off to camp - I know she'll have a lot of fun, and if the big kids are separated, they can't fight!!
4. B gets to hang out with one of his favorite ADPers tonight. 
5. I ran 4.5 miles yesterday!
6. Burger King's apple fries - so yummy, juicy and convenient.
7. The weather is cooler than usual.
8. Z had a great week at his club camp.
9. My fabulous cholesterol results!
10. The U11 & Baby Barbecues were a lot of fun last weekend - although they did start a trend of me overeating junky foods.
11. E1 made her cast handstand.
12. A nice dinner at Max & Erma's.
13. Got E2 signed up for a bunch of activities; she'll stay busy and make friends, and since these aren't parent participation classes, I'll get a little break. 
14. Z got some fantastic new cleats with his Dick's gift card.
15. The big kids start school in 19 days. 
16. I think V, T, M, and L have signed up or will sign up at Urban Active.  So we can still motivate each other and work out together.