May 11, 2006

Hello Everyone,
It's getting pretty hot around here and today we spent the afternoon at the Curtis's pool. The boys love swimming, thank goodness, and I suspect we'll be doing a LOT of that this summer. Joseph and Brigham have these short wet-suits (short legs and sleeves) that have floaties built right into them. The way they are constructed allows the boys to swim totally normally in the water ( i.e. not falling over on their bellies or anything). They love them and swim all over the pool. I really would like to teach them to swim this summer and maybe I will, but for now I think these floaties are pretty great in teaching them not to be afraid of the water, and hopefully giving them some motivation to learn on their own.

I don't have a floaty suit like that for Mosey, though, so he wears a lifejacket. The problem with lifejackets is that lots of little kids tend to flip over onto their belly. Mosey did that today, falling off the steps and struggling for a few seconds to get his face out of the water. I was right there and was to him within a few seconds, but he was pretty upset. However, for Mosey I'm ok if he is a little afraid of the water, since I don't think he is ready to learn to swim yet. For being a very laid-back mom, I am pretty vigilant about the pool. I find myself doing "pool scans" all the time, checking for my 3 boys and then checking the pool itself for anything wrong. I guess I was witness to too many close-calls as a kid in our pools growing up.

Yesterday I started a 15 day course of Dexamethasone (steroid) for my leg and side. I *think* I'm feeling some improvement tonight. Hopefully not just placebo-effect. If I don't see significant improvement within the week I'll have to switch to IV steroids for 3-5 days which would be a major pain in the neck since it would involve out-patient hospital visits with the accompanying babysitting arrangements. Not to mention I hate getting IV's. I know Dexamethasone is a stronger steroid than Prednisone (what I was on before) and has stronger side effects, but so far I actually like it a little better than the Pred. I'm not feeling as nauseated on it, anyway.

Hey, I got the boys to eat peas today! Ben hates peas, so I don't buy them often (hardly ever). I fed the boys peas when they were babies, but they were definitely NOT a favorite. But I'm really trying to expand their vegetable intake past brocolli and corn, so I got them some peas today. I told them that their cousins Elena and Jack love frozen peas and sometimes eat them for dessert. That seemed to do the trick! They actually ate peas!! Yay, maybe my boys will become vegetable eaters after all!!

I'm up way too late again tonight. I actually didn't mean to. I went to Kylie's house to deliver her photo slideshow and order forms. I ended up staying there longer than I anticipated because her laptop screen was skewing all my photos. I am a huge perfectionist (blessing and a curse) and I just couldn't leave until I figured out a way for her to see the slideshow correctly. I did figure it out and she was happy to see that she doesn't REALLY look 20% wider than she is (her screen was skewing the pictures 20% horizontally). She seemed to really like the pictures, and honestly, that is the biggest payoff for me. At least at this stage of things. Maybe that part will lose its novelty after a while and the paycheck will be the biggest payoff. But for now that is definitely just a side benefit. Especially because my dollar-per-hour earnings at this stage of the game are significantly less than minimum wage... I do think she will order some prints, though, and she already has told me she wants newborn pictures done as soon as her baby is born.

Anyway, I got back from her house at like 10:00, and finally finished editing Rosalynde's pictures and just looked at the clock to see it is 1:30 AM. Oops. I totally lose track of time when I'm doing photo stuff, which I guess means I really like it (I do), but isn't good for my sleep deprivation. Especially since tomorrow morning I simply MUST clean up the house while the boys are in preschool. Tomorrow night Ben and I want to go out with the Melissa and Glenn Curtis to see United 93 and my bargain with myself is that I can go if the house is cleaned up. It's not that bad (it was totally clean Monday, remember?) but the front room is quite cluttered with a chair/cushion/blanket fort the boys made, and a game and some puzzle pieces scattered about. And dishes need to be done. And the van desperately needs to be cleaned out.

Ok, that's it for tonight. I'll leave you with some pictures I took at Rosalynde's house of some of the newly budded blossoms and flowers. I miss spring! Here you sort of get desensitized to flowers and leaves since they are here year-round, and tulips and daffodils certainly do not grow here, not to mention any blossoming fruit trees...
Rosalynde, I think you should have all the proofs now. I'll burn them onto a CD and mail them to you and if you want any of them, let me know, ok?