Please play along

So I found this fun idea on Boo Mama's blog. The idea is this: Write two blurbs for your alumni newsletter, updating your life. The first version is the perky, show-off kind that everyone writes (and the one that everyone hates). The second should be the darker, more real side of honest. Here's mine:

Version One:

Christie married Josh over 13 years ago. She worked as a Medical Practice Manager for several prestigious medical firms before making the tough choice to leave her career behind and become a mother. Christie and Josh now have three beautiful children that are a constant source of joy and enlightenment. Josh has recently made a career change which provides him the opportunity to expand his firm nationally. Christie selflessly devotes hours of volunteer work to local community and church organizations. Her dedication to the arts is incomparable. Christie is an avid athlete and an extremely dedicated runner. Christie and Josh now make their home in Missouri, where they are already well-established within society circles.

Okay. Version Two:

Christie married Josh over 13 years ago, although sometimes it feels like much longer. She spent her "career" as a peon being bossed around by mean, snotty doctors for slave wages, while Josh attended undergraduate and graduate school. Christie's meager salary barely covered their living expenses during this time. She was miserable and counted the seconds until she was able to quit and stay home to have babies. Christie and Josh have three beautiful children that are a constant source of joy (and energy, and annoyance, and expenses, and umpteen trips to the doctor's office for strep throat and/or ear infections). Christie is thrilled to be a stay-at-home mom, but is now proudly counting the minutes until they will all be in school (10,080, to be precise) as she has not had a day to herself since she can't remember when.

Josh spends his days traveling to hospitals around the country, staying at five-star hotels, and eating in only the finest restaurants.

Christie tries extremely hard to not punish him for this.

Christie also finds her precious free minutes sapped up by play dates, church, school volunteering, and cub scouts. She is an avid reader of US Weekly and People, and thinks of Britney and Lindsay's rehab stints as actual news. She will watch pretty much any movie just to keep herself entertained. She fancies herself a runner, but recently gave up training for her big race due to heat, laziness, and pancake predilection.

Christie is maniacally redecorating every room in her house. She has recently relocated to Missouri and is constantly on the prowl for any new friends she can sink her claws into. She scours blogs, and loves finding new ones to read. In short: She's a bit of a geek.

Touches of home

Our frames and mats for the photo wall in the formal living room arrived this week. Thought I'd share them with you, dear internets (and I'd like to praise the Husband's fine mathematics skills which prevented me from putting about 9,508 holes in my wall while hanging these. Yes, there actually is a good use for math. Shocking, I know.):

And here is what we have done in the dining room. The pictures on this wall are all of places we have lived. We have scoured historical society archives, stock photos, and even begged one photo off a family member (thanks, Scott!) in order to get what we wanted from each city. The center frame says, "Home," and underneath that, "is where the heart is." After six states and three countries, we are living proof of that. (And you can see it much better from a different angle - still trying to figure out what to do with that chandelier.)

And for fun, here is what I put up in the mudroom (which you walk through to go from the garage into the kitchen, so nobody will even see it but me). I found these fun vinyl letters through Tip Junkie. I am sure everyone else in the free world already knows about these, but they were quite new and exciting to me.

There's more work to be done, but little-by-little this place is starting to take shape and feel like ours. We've got the counters coming this Thursday - so expect some more photos then. I am practically counting the seconds until the pink is gone.

Happy Monday everyone!

Our favorite thing at the zoo today

To say that it was hot today is like saying that I kinda-sorta like cookie dough. BIG understatement. We did have a good time though, and I thought I'd share some great quotable moments:

McKay: "Oh, this picture is so going on my blog."

Chase: "Is it swearing if I say that the asses were really cool?" (We had just seen the donkeys for all you sickos that would go there - Daniel, that includes you!)

Hannah: "Mama, I'm just so sweaty."

Me, too, kiddo. I hate it when I start sweating. Really, I do. Maybe you could hop out of that shady stroller and give me a push up this big hill. See how you feel then, poor baby...

[I'm much more sympathetic when it's not 186 humid degrees outside. Trust me.]

A weekend with our roots

We spent this past weekend in Nauvoo, Illinois. The last time we visited Nauvoo was with Josh's parents and three of his siblings. I was about eight minutes pregnant with my first baby, and sicker than anyone really ever should be. My memories of that trip are somewhat hazy - mostly images of me throwing up on pretty much every square inch of Nauvoo (and the road we took to get there). In fact, I am quite certain that Josh's sister, Marta, will probably never want children due to her experiences in the backseat of our car on that trip (and several others that I won't mention here involving stinky diapers and desecrating national historical landmarks, ahem). Let's just say, it was not a great trip.

This time around, it was completely different. Seeing Nauvoo through my kids' eyes was like seeing it for the first time. There were so many fun things to do. We tried on the costumes. We learned how they made wagon wheels. We toured the bakery, the schoolhouse, and the printing press. We cried at the pageant. We saw the Temple. It was so serene, so peaceful to be away from the real world. The Husband was even brave enough to leave the computer and palm pilot at home (although he regretted it after the kids were asleep and he was dreaming of plasma TVs).

Were it not for the heat - GOOD GRACIOUS THE HEAT - I would never have come home. I turned to The Husband at one point during the weekend, wiped a gallon of sweat from my brow, and said, "Sheesh, it is so much hotter up here than where we are." He ever-so-coolly replied, "Um, noooo, you're just always either at the pool or inside with air conditioning. It IS this hot where we live."

He might be right.

The only other thing lacking was a decent place to eat. For lunch, we waited in line for about 50 minutes at a local bakery, only to be disappointed with wonder bread-style sandwiches. Dinner wasn't much better. Our hotel restaurant offered a giant buffet, which had my kids salivating like wild dogs, upon sight of it. It left much to be desired, trust me. I was so sick all night after that meal. I guess it's just not a trip to Nauvoo for me without a giant bottle of Tums. At least this time around, I wasn't pregnant.

All in all, some quality family time and a chance to show the kids a little bit of their history. We'll definitely be back.

Casting call for medical care

One of the biggest frustrations of moving to a new city is finding and establishing ourselves with new doctors. Although we never got fully integrated into medical care in San Diego (we didn't need much of it in a year, thank goodness), we are here for good and need to find ourselves some good doctors.

Yesterday morning I set about to research pediatric allergists for McKay. He has inherited the worst possible genetic combination - allergic asthma (from his father's side of the family), and eczema (from me). He is on three different medications to keep his asthma and allergies in check. When his allergies get out of control, his lungs don't work properly, and he gets sick.

I found a couple of pediatric allergists close by and began calling for appointments. The first Very Busy and Important Doctor could not get us until the end of November (and we'd most definitely be out of medication by then). But in case I couldn't find anything else, I went ahead and made an appointment for what might as well be ten years from now.

So I called the next pediatric allergy practice on my list. The phone was answered by a curt, stiff, angry woman (come on, you can just picture the type). She seemed literally shocked and offended that I was calling for an appointment. I mean, she probably had to put down her coffee and donut to answer the phone and everything. She informed me that Her Doctors only see patients if they are referred by another doctor. I politely informed her that we do not need a referral from our insurance company, we have already been established with pediatric allergists in the past, and we'd simply like an appointment. She huffily informed me that The Preshus Doctors would have to see my son's medical records first, and then decide if they would take him on as a patient. Oh, I'm sorry. Silly me, I didn't realize we had to audition for the role of patient. I simply assumed that a little thing called the Hippocratic Oath entitled us to an audition-free appointment. I mean, isn't it supposed to be the other way around? Aren't I the one who gets to decide if you are worthy enough to treat ME? And what - if my son isn't sick or interesting enough, will you not take the case?

I was so angry, but still not wanting to let McKay go essentially until December without any medication. In desperation, I whined to my own personal health care consultant - The Husband. He listened patiently (get it, ha ha) to my tale of woe and his comment to me was, "Why don't you just try Children's Hospital?"

Oh, the one downtown that seems far away and inconvenient? "Yes," he says, "With stuff like this, you don't mess around with suburban doctors. Go straight for the experts. They'll be better trained and will know what they're doing"

One short phone call later and we had an appointment in a few weeks' time. The receptionist who answered the phone was acutely aware of patients with our health history, knew just what pulmonary function tests we'd be requiring, and calmly and politely got it all scheduled for me. I was ready to jump through the phone and kiss and hug her ferociously.

So a few lessons learned today: 1) Always go with quality health care from the beginning, even if it's not necessarily close to home; and 2) admit that yes, ahem, sometimes, The Husband is right.

I quit...and will take an extra helping of crow

I'd like to officially announce that I am quitting My Marathon. I am dropping out (lame, I know), but my heart is just not in it this year. There are many reasons why I'm choosing to quit, some of which are:

1. The Move. I have been so busy repainting, dealing with contractors, unpacking, and getting acquainted with my new area that I have had little time for anything else. I still have been running, but the long runs have been weighing on my mind, occupying space that is normally concerned with important things like whether or not I should grow out my bangs or if Lindsay is ever going to stay out of jail. Let's just say that the added stress of worrying about the marathon was becoming a burden.
   
   
2. The Heat. Oh good heavens, the heat. When I ran The Marathon in 2004, I lived in Boston and trained all through the summer. Sure, there were a few days that were hot and sticky, but here? It's hot and sticky EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I get up at five in the morning and it's already like 84 degrees with muggy, sticky, humid air sucking the life out of you. It has KILLED me to run outside. I consider myself a pretty seasoned runner, but I've never ran in heat and humidity like this. Two years ago, I could run 18 miles, come home and rehydrate, and be ready to go for the day. I did six miles here two Saturdays in a row and had to sleep for four hours in the middle of the day when I got home. I just felt physically sick after my runs, and I've always felt great afterwards.
   
   
3. The Time Factor. Truth be told, I'm feeling a little selfish with my time lately. I feel like our summer has been cut short this year and I want to enjoy every last bit of it. My kids really got gypped out of a good summer vacation, and I want to make the most of the time we've got left.
   
   
4. The Mental Game. It's just not there. Much as I'd like to fight my way across the finish line, side-by-side with my brothers (or slightly ahead of them, hee hee), I'm just not feelin' the race this year. I don't have the slightest desire to do it. Those of you that have done one know that at least 50 percent of running a marathon is mental. You have to at least want to do it. Which I just don't.
   
   
5. The Laziness. I'll call a spade a spade, my friends. I am just plain feeling lazy this year. I'd rather sleep in a little bit, get up and do a quick 40 minutes on the treadmill every day (while watching Sopranos reruns or some other first-rate TIVO'd goodie) and be done. Three hour runs on a Saturday? Yeah, just not where my heart lies this year.

So hats off, Dan and Matt, for sticking it out. I have no doubt that you'll get a much faster time without me holding you back. I'll be cheering from afar and be thinking of you every Saturday morning when I wake up at 10 and eat myself a big stack of pancakes. You're much better men than I.