Waiting for Walter

My little sister is expecting child #2, a boy.  She isn’t naming him Walter but that is what I am calling him.  Sort of like Moe, he was Moe until the day he was born and to some out there he still is. 

Walter isn’t due to make his arrival until early February but like any expectant mamma she is READY to meet and greet the little fella NOW!  I feel for her and have been in her shoes 4 times over the years.  Funny how  now I can give advice on being patient.  I was NEVER patient.  I tried anything and everything to bring these little ones into the world on my terms and on my schedule.  Yet today I found myself  facebooking her telling her to give my niece E.C. some extra lovin’ today as it could be the last Sunday they have as a small family of  three.  E.C.”s world is going to be turned upside down before she knows it.  HA that is something I would have never advised myself when I was in her situation. 

Funny what looking on from the outside can do to your perspective of certain situations in life.

Walter, Hurry up or take your sweet time we will all love and adore you the same.

Goal Setting

The New Year will soon be here and with that comes the evaluating of past goals and setting new ones.

There are the traditional ones like lose weight and keep it off. Be more organized. Be better about reading my scriptures daily. Watch less television etc……

Some of those (maybe all of those) will make my list this year as will the following:

1. Be more positive about cooking meals, so the kids don’t grow up dreading it.

2. Praise Moe when he accidentally wets his shirt, at least his underwear and pants are still dry. (Long story)

3. Replace the painted carpet upstairs. Read how it became painted here.

4. Spend more time with my “Martha” friends. Maybe I’ll learn a thing or two.

5. Come to grips with the fact that Rodi will never understand what being grounded really means. He will always find an excuse to play basketball.

6. Remind my gym clothes what the inside of the gym looks like. They might be surprised to see they were intended for more than lounging around the house.

I’d like to be able to post 10 goals but I think that may be a tad ambitious for 1 year. Wouldn’t want to look like an overachiever *grin*

Do you not know what the term GROUNDED means???

For those of you who don’t know, I grounded Rodi from playing basketball when we were living in Germany.  It was early in 2005 when the grounding took place.  The reason at the time was due to the fact that he had to cut his wedding band off his finger.  He had been getting some injury or another every time he played the darn game and the cutting of the wedding band was my last straw.  I grounded him, simple as that. 

A few weeks later while he was on a mission in Italy I received a call from the medical officer of his unit.  This is something a wife never wants to get after 10 at night, well at anytime.  I was told he had badly injured his leg and was in an ambulance on his way to the Emergency room.  My heart sank.  I was VERY pregnant which didn’t help, as my emotions were all over the place. I am imagining the worst as I knew what kind of work they were doing.   Towards the end of the phone call I hear the Dr. say  “he was playing basketball when the injury happened.”  BASKETBALL!  Oooh I went from being scared for my husband,  to being extremely mad.  Then the Dr. told me he knew about the grounding but that he (the Dr.) had told Rodi that the grounding didn’t apply once you crossed a country border.  HA! 

Anyway several years later, one surgery, and a few more in the near future…. Rodi played basketball with the guys at work again on Friday.  He said he took it easy and didn’t do any serious running or major plays.  So WHY OH WHY on Saturday morning was I looking at what appears to be an injured foot?  Actually it looks like it might be broken. 

He knows he is in trouble, trust me.

 

**** I made Rodi go to the ER last night.  He wasn’t kicking and screaming but I think that is only because he was holding back his real feelings.  I may have been wrong, it wasn’t broken but just very bruised and swollen.  That’s okay though, going to the ER and being wheeled through the hospital in the bed for x-rays was a great punishment that fit the crime.  He was not happy about having to do that.  Do I think he learned his lesson?  Probably not.  That is just life with Rodi forever 17 when it comes to the game of basketball (and many other things)****

Gym class

Gym class has taken on a NO JOKE element here at Ponderosa Academy.  Have you heard of CrossFit?  Have you heard of CrossFit Kids?

My kids have been introduced to the WOD (work out of the day) and I am sure none of them will ever say “they call that a work out? HA, easy stuff” when it comes to CrossFit Kids.

Today’s WOD was:

Bubs-  In 15 min. complete as many rounds as possible of:

5 Handstand Push Ups (bridged on feet)

10 Box Jumps (15″ box)

15 Pull ups

JJ- In 12 min. complete as many rounds as possible of:3 Handstand Push Ups (bridged on knees)

6 Box Jumps (15″ box)

9 Pull ups

Nina- In 10 min. complete as many rounds as possible of:

3 Handstand Push Ups (bridged on knees)

6 Box Jumps (15″ box)

9 Pull ups

Bubs completed 5 complete rounds and made it through the 6th sets of Handstand Push ups and Box jumps before the timer went off.

JJ completed 6 full rounds and the 7th sets of Handstand Push ups and Box jumps before the timer went off.

Nina completed 6 full rounds.

Now I will have to admit that we do not have an official pull up bar.  We own a Total Gym (picture Chuck Norris infomercial) and it has pull up bars.  I know that is cheating a bit but the kids really struggled to get those pull ups in so I say it counts!

CrossFit is great because there is different WOD posted on the site everyday and best of all it is FREE!  There are  Crossfit gyms out there, but if you are tyring to save a dime (aren’t we all?)  this site is a real blessing.

When we were living in Germany Rodi did CrossFit with his unit, he has been trying to get me and the kids to do it for YEARS now.  Let’s just say sometimes I am slow in hearing the message. *grin*

Well that didn’t help us much.

Two weeks ago I took Bubs to the dentist and yesterday Rodi and I took the other 3 kiddos.  I have been a slacker mom and they had not been to the dentist since April 2006.  YIKES!  I know BAD mom.

We have been riding them all pretty hard about their poor teeth brushing skills.  We have been warning them of cavities and other downfalls when you don’t brush properly.  By properly I do mean that the toothbrush should touch all teeth at least once and total time brushing should take longer than it took to get the toothpaste onto the toothbrush.  (High expectations I know)

I was ready for the lectures from the  Dentist and I so wanted to give the “remember what we talked about” speech.

Well no such luck.  All four came out of their appointments with A+ reports.  No cavities or problems of that nature.  Don’t get me wrong I am thrilled for them and for our wallet, but now my daily “did you brush good?”  speech is going to have less effect than ever.

In 2 weeks JJ goes in for her consult with the Orthodontist.  I am afraid our wallet is going to be hit hard with this new adventure in the land of dental world.

Longest Friday night match EVER!

Friday night there was a league wrestling match.  Bubs was thrilled as it was his first match of the season.  There has been several tournaments this season but he has had to miss them due to an ankle injury *sigh*

The match was about an hour away and there were 4 teams from the league participating.    They (the host team) were running 3 mats and the matches were going to start at 6pm.

We arrived with a few minutes to spare and found out what match #’s Bubs had.  He was on mat 3 and was wrestling matches 3, 27, & 50  YES I said #50 and we were lucky as there were 66 matches per mat. 

His first match (#3) was a bummer as the other guy was a no show. Forfeits are just no fun.

The second match was a great one to watch and while Bubs didn’t pin the guy he managed a good points win with a score of 9 to 5. 

The third match was pretty intense as they were getting ready to shut down the gym (it was nearing 10:30pm and they made the matches 30 sec. rounds instead of 1 min.) Bubs hung in there as he was tired and his ankle was not feeling the best at that point.  He got a reversal and a take down to win with a score of 4 to 0.

All in all it was a great night just VERY LONG.  We pulled back into the driveway at about 11:40 that night.

**Bubs had a bad sprain last month and from our reg. doc. we ended up at the Ortho. office only to find out Heavenly Father made Bubba a little different.  His legs don’t meet his ankles at 90 degree angles as they should.  Nope they meet at 80 and 85 degrees.  We go back to the ortho in a couple of months and will then take more x-rays and discuss physical therapy and surgery.  For now it is caution on the mat and an ankle brace always!**

Red, Red, Red….

Are you wearing your red today?  Today is Go Red for Women day.  Please wear red if you have it and show your love for those who have been touched by heart disease in their lives.

My grandparents on my Dad’s side of the family both died in 1993 in their early 60’s of heart disease.  My Dad past away in 2002, 2 short months after turning 50 of heart disease.  My mother’s side of the family has also been touched by this ugly beast.

My dad may not have been the picture of health but at the same time he didn’t look like a heart attack waiting to happen.  My grandparents were VERY healthy people and their lives were cut short by this life threatening disease as well. 

My family story has shown me that heart disease does not discriminate and while you may not look the part it can still worm it’s way into your life.

I am trying my best (though it is very hard at times) to keep it at bay.  I do not want my children to look at their children and wish that they could have known me.  It brings sadness to me quite often as I watch Bubs at a wrestling meet, or hear something that Moe has said and I can’t pick up the phone and call my dad to share in that moment with me.  My grandparents were never able to meet Rodi and that would have meant the world to me.  I think my grandfather would have loved the fact that Rodi was into athletics and that my children are following that path as well. 

So instead of my grandchildren wondering who I was and having my children shed tears about conversations that can no longer occur, I am going to step up to the plate and do my best to not let heart disease take over.

Please check out the Go Red For Women web site today.  There is a ton of wonderful information on the site.

Join me as I CHOOSE TO MOVE

How to….

 Eat a gingerbread house Moe Style:

*note to all those health conscious readers…. I promptly removed house from his mouth after snapping these pictures.  His desire to be King Kong will have to wait until yet another day. *grin*

An Interesting Phone call…

Cheryl: Poison Control Center this is Cheryl

Me: Hi Cheryl my name is Heather and well my 2 year old “Moe” decided it would be good to brush his teeth with ICY HOT.

Cheryl:  I don’t mean to giggle but do you know how much he managed to get in his mouth?

Me:  No, but I don’t think it was much

Cheryl:  Do you have the bottle?

Me: yes

Cheryl: Can you tell me the active ingredients so we can determine what the next step is?

Me: Sure (and so I did)

Cheryl: Do you think he was able to get a teaspoon or more in his mouth? If he was able to get a teaspoon in then we would be looking at an aspirin overdose.

Me: I don’t think so.  It appears by his hair that he thought that it might have been hair gel at first.  I am thinking that once it was on his hair and he could smell it that he thought it was toothpaste instead.  I am sure he only licked a bit off his hand before running to me in the laundry room screaming “mouth hot, MamMa, Mouth HOT.:

Cheryl: *giggling again*  I would just keep rinsing his mouth out with water and then give him some food and milk to drink.  He should be fine.  If he did get more than we suspect in his mouth you will want to watch for nausea and vomiting.

 Me: Lovely.

Cheryl:  Call us back if you need anything else and have a good ummmm better day.

Me: Thanks and I will try.

Just another day in Moe’s World of adventure.

Update on Limping Moe

I can’t say it was fluid on the ankle nor can I say it was a small fracture …. The Dr’s can’t seem to come to a conclusion either.

 So I being Dr. Mom declare him to be A-Okay!  If he is still hobbling around and complaining next week then I will look into other options.  The Ortho. Doc said he couldn’t see the fluid that Moe’s Dr. saw and he thought that he may have slightly fractured one of the bones in his foot.  Oddly today there was a greenish purple bruise on the top center of his foot.

It may be one of those forever unknowns I guess.  But he is much happier when the Dr’s aren’t anywhere in sight so I plan on keeping them at bay for the time being.