2012: Back to Basics - Vegan 101

little bit of a waste...

so, last night was Jake's high school orientation.  I have to say, it was a little bit of a waste of time.  I went hoping to learn more about IB since I missed the orientation earlier in the school year when we weren't even thinking about it.  We got 15 minutes of "IB time" and then we were released to roam the halls and visit "booths" of activities/clubs, etc.   And you can imagine how many people where there, it was like Christmas at the mall, totally overwhelming! 

I wish I could say I got anything out of it, I didn't.  And I'm pretty sure Jake didn't.  We did run into an old friend and chat with him for a while, it was good to catch up.  It could be that I had to go straight there from work and I was tired and hungry, never a good combination!  But more realistically, I don't think it was well organized. 

I am excited for Jake though, to start high school.  I'm excited for him to have the experiences high school brings.  I hope he gets involved and makes the most of his time there.  He's not a "group" kind of kid though and I worry he won't push himself to get involved in after-school things.  I know his homework load will be heavy next year, heavier than he's ever experienced, but I want him to find some balance and some joy as well. 

My favorite things were choir and musicals.  Drama.  Loved it.  Loved the teacher who ran all of it.  Loved the friends I made in participating in it.  I want Jake to find something like that for himself.  A place he belongs.  Does a parent hope for anything else, really?

There goes the fun money...

It's finally time.  Time for Jake to get his braces.  I remember getting mine.  Sixth grade.  And I was terrible to them.  I remember being bored in class and leaning one of my brackets against my pen cap and putting all the weight of my head against it until it would pop off.  Or the time I tugged and tugged on the wire until it popped out and went through my cheek.  I was terrible.  And only now as a parent do I realize how much extra money I must have cost my parents!  I'm not sharing these priceless tidbits with Jake that's for sure!  He certainly doesn't need any ideas. 

Fortunately his teeth aren't terrible and he'll only be in the braces for a year.  They'll be off by the middle of his freshman year of high school.  Which is a whole other story.  High school.  Egats.

We are pretty proud of him though.  He had an assignment in English - it was to be a paper on someone who changed the shape of the world.  So you get the typical answers from students.  Einstein, Ghandi, etc.  But not my boy.  My boy choses Hitler.  Which is true.  Hitler did change the world.  His teacher recognized Jake as someone who thinks outside the box on a regular basis and she suggested that Jake look into the IB program for high school.  Problem is, it was the last day to get the application in.  But Jake came home all jazzed so we printed the application, he set out to do the essay portion on his own and he did a remarkable job.  He took the app to school the next day so his teachers would sign it and then he turned it into the office so they would fax it with his transcripts.  All on his own.  And then a few days later we received the paperwork welcoming him into the program. 

I was amazed, and proud.  I know Jake is a lot like me and a lot of my problem in school was that I was just not being challenged enough.  The same held true for my nephew, Kellan, who had the opportunity to be in the IB program when he was in high school, and it made him a much better student.  That's my hope for Jake.  That he feels challenged and responsible for his learning.  And I think that's what we'll get if he applies himself to the IB program. 

So - braces, not so good...IB...Very Good!

I hate this part...

Whenever I recommit to working out and get on track and begin the adventure, my body protests.  Like this morning.  I woke up feeling a sinus/cold coming on.  It always happens as I start...like some sort of a test for how much do I really want this? 

Today is a day off, tomorrow is swim and "run" which for now is walking.  Trying not to freak my heel out too much.  I definitely need new running shoes though, that's for sure.  The ones I'm in have done their time.  I've always been a fan of Asics, but I think it's time to try something new.  See if I can find better stability with cushioning in the heel area.  Truly I just need to break down and get orthotics.  I hear that is really helpful for plantar faciitis. 

So, I've committed so far to 3 races this summer, and possibly a 4th, just depends.  I'll be doing the Bolder-Boulder 10k run in May, the Tri-for-a-Cure sprint distance tri in August and the Boulder Surise olympic tri in September.  I may throw in the Elephant Rock bike ride in there as well. We'll see.  That's a mighty ambitious schedule with work thrown in. 

I did some walk/jogging and biking this weekend.  A little weight training (which I'm way feeling right now) so off to a good start.  Tomorrow is walk/jog/swim.  A longer training day.  I'll break it into before and after work.  Especially since there is apparently only one lane open for swimming at FIVE a.m.  Can you imagine?  Who else is crazy enough to go at 5am.  Someone is apparently -- 6 lanes worth of crazy.  They open up at 8pm though so, I'll just have to get my swim in before bed.  Not my favorite time of the day to be working out. 

Everything else is going well.  Had a nice, quiet weekend with the family.  Even got a bit more shopping done.  Just my sister to go, really.  That's a first for me.  To be done so early in the season.  Frank has one more thing to order for Kenzie and we should be about all set other than stocking stuffers.  Kenzie's just dying to see what she's getting.  She keeps begging me to wrap something...anything and put it under the tree.  The anticipation is killing her.  My daughter through and through.

Gift frustration...

So Frank is a pretty simple guy.  He's not materialistic.  Time together is probably more important to him than anything I could buy him.  I know all that, but still, Christmas morning is going to come and I am going to want him to have something under the tree...from me...from the kiddos.  He's impossible.  He won't make a list.  And I feel the pressure of the clock ticking down.  It used to be I could look for a series on DVD for him, but now we have Netflix.   And a home theater.  Why would we spend money on a boxed set anymore?  Ack.  So frustrated.  Any ideas?

Bright and Light...

Last night we set the clocks back - which was great, getting that extra hour of sleep, but waking to sunshine at 6:10 a.m. -- I'm not sure how I feel about that just yet.  I'll let you know when it starts getting dark at 4:30 tonight what I think about the change! 

Yesterday was overall a good day.  Took Kenzie to the Stake Activity Day activity with her friend Ryenne.  Kenzie is so funny.  She becomes anxious over the silliest things.  Like I had asked Nadezda to drive her only so that she had a friend to walk in with, Naomi.  Who she adores, mind you.  She just loves Naomi and they play really well together.  But when I told her the plan she freaked.  She wanted me to drive her in no  uncertain terms.  When I explained to her it was the entire Stake of Activity Days girls (9 congregations worth of 8-11 year olds) then she understood the need for walking in with a friend.  Still she wanted me to drive so I called Melanie to see if I could drive Ryenne with us so they would be together. 

After that I came home and hung out for a while, playing more with that super cool lens of mine...Frank was on pick up duty for Kenzie because he was taking her afterwards to a free ice skating lesson.  He found her a pair of barely used skates for $30 at Play it Again Sports {love that place} . 

When Frank left to get Kenzie I went upstairs to hang out with Jake.  Jake is starting to surpass me on Photoshop...no joke.  The kid has found zillions of tutorials on You Tube of all places.  You should see what this kid can do now on PS.  It's truly amazing.  So, I sit next to him and we talk through the steps together sometimes, figuring out where we went wrong and what the tutorial must actually mean.  I really enjoy this time with him.  Our brains are wired similarly which makes working together easy.  Though he has even less patience then I do...even though he has more stick-to-it-iveness than I do.  He may get frustrated but he doesn't walk away.  He goes back at it again and again until he gets it. 

Finally it was time for me to put my gear together and leave.  I had a photoshoot in one of my favorite places in all of Denver, Commons Park.  And being at a lower elevation the leaves were still mostly on the trees and all yellow and warm and glowing.  We fought the setting sun quite a bit...there were places I love to shoot there that I couldn't because of it.  And it was such an incredibly nice day at the park that tons of people and their pets were out, so we were also working around that - but I think we did well regardless.  There were some really great shots I got in a grove of trees.  Looked like we ran up to Vail and found an Aspen grove.  Warm and yellow and soft...beautiful. 

I came home, ate dinner and got to editing.   Now that I'm back to work my time is much tighter and so I try to edit right away.  It's funny.  When I had all the time in the world I was a terrible time manager.  Now that I have so little time, I'm so much better in that respect.  I do more with less, or at least it feels that way.

Kenzie's friend Sibria slept over last night.  I love Sibria.  And normally we don't do sleep overs on Saturday because of church, but Sibria is always excited to join us at church and her family isn't active one way or another in any particular denomination so they are really open to Sibria exploring faith.  She comes from a pretty cool family.  I love her mom.  Andrea (pronounced An-dray-ya) works at the girls' school.  She's just so down to earth. 

Today is the Sabbath and it's time to get ready to head to Church.  I'm making it my goal to blog every day, as much as I can keep to that, for the rest of the year.  Now that I'm publishing I really don't want to miss anything.  I don't want holes left for my children to wonder what was going on in their or my life years from now when I'm gone.  I want it all here in black and white. 

We survived...

So, overall, the party was a success.  I think.  The girls seemed to have a good time.  Everyone participated in the games.  Their costumes were darling!  They ate pizza, candy and cupcakes until they were totally sugared up!  They played games on their own, gossipped about boys, and other girl topics.  They watched a movie which didn't scare them at all (Goosebumps) and then 10 minutes of the made for Disney TV show by the same writer and that scared the bageezas outta them so they stopped!  We thought that was pretty funny.  In the end everyone seemed happy and had a good time.  And Kenzie has a party she'll always remember. 

Frank did make me swear that in the future the cut off will be 9pm not 10pm...and I'll admit, that was a LONG night...at least everyone was well behaved! 

Halloween party...

 
This year Kenzie is having a little halloween party for her friends.  Trying to get the most use out of the costume is the name of the game! :)  My inspiration was these little cupcake holders.  Which I know in the end will just cause a huge mess, trying to get the cupcakes out, but who cares...aren't they caaaute? 

We picked out the games she wants to play (pray for good weather, we're heading to the park for these games) and then pizza and a movie...I'm thinking that will dull the pain of Halloween night falling on a Sunday night, a school night, making it an earlier night than it usually would be. 

Aside from Christmas, Halloween has got to be one of my favorite holidays.  I love seeing all the little ones in their costumes.  I used to love costume day at school when we would parade around the gym for all the other classes to see.  I'm really glad that they stick with this tradition at Kenzie's school.  Some of the other schools in the area don't do a costume day.  :(  I think that's a bummer.

Kenzie is going this year as a 50's girl, poodle skirt and all.  Can't wait! 

We're Back...

We made it home in one piece...!  I have to say, this was one of my favorite camp grounds yet.  We went to Lake O'Haver down near the Poncha Springs/Salida area.  Melanie's family, Kenzie and I headed out Thursday to secure our spots.  Good thing we did, too, we saw car after car come through long after the grounds were all full.The campground we stayed at was half reserveable and half first-come-first served.  And though the ground may have been flatter in some of the reserved spots, our view and over all spots were prime picks in the grounds IMHO. 

We got the tents set up quickly and were on to making dinner pretty quick.  The kids had hot dogs while we adults enjoyed salmon, quinoa salad, sweet potatoes (which are my new camping favorite.  Cut them, tinfoil them and through 'em on the coals...they heat up and carmalize while they cook...yummo!) and sweet, red onions.  After dinner the kiddos enjoyed smores and with that we were all pretty beat so off to bed we went.

The next day (Friday) Jeff made an amazing breakfast on his new camp skillet (of which I'm envious) including eggs, bacon and sausage.  Afterwards we cleaned dishes and waited for it to warm a little.  The kids were dying to go in the lake.  Can I tell you how clean that lake is?  No motorized boats makes a huge difference.  And the water wasn't as cold as I expected it to be being in the mountains.  A little after noon Frank and the boys arrived (Jake brought his friend Eyan).  They brought Harley as well.  I was pretty happy to see them.  It just wasn't the same without him there.   We unpacked his stuff and got to just hanging out.  The best part of camping.  We had lunch, the kids "swam" and we started dinner for night #2 which was our turn...we made stew and it was really fantastic.  Everything cooked to perfection in our dutch ovens.  We did smores again and everyone turned in around 10p.

The next morning we woke to a suprise.  Someone had poached Mel's land and put up a tent during the night.  Right on her campground at like 2am.  There was a sign clearly posted in the front of the campground letting people know it was closed and still they came.  We waited patiently for them to wake.  Mel was pretty steamed.  Finally the Forest Rangers made a loop around and alerted the campground host to the problem.  She came right over and invited the poachers to leave, which they did.  Right fast.  Which was good.  Mel got a comped night for the inconvenience. 

It was chillier and windier on Saturday than it had been the other days.  We decided to head up to St. Elmo's, a ghost town in the area.  That was fun.  I only wish they would have marked more clearly what the buildings had been used for.  Instead they just marked them with the names of the buildings.  That was a bummer.  We ate lunch when we arrived and then walked around for a bit until we'd seen it all.  At the end there were chipmunks that the kids could feed with sunflower seeds.  That by far was the highlight of the trip in their eyes.  It was pretty cute if I do say so.

We came back to camp, started on dinner, chicken fajitas this time, and realized that it was getting colder by the minute.  The sun was going down quicker than on previous nights as well, which wasn't helping.  Mel and Jeff have a baby, Addison, who is 18 months old and was already having a hard time of sleeping.  Cold wasn't going to make it easier.  And Harley, who is 14 and our baby, was having serious trouble with his joints and regulating his body temperature was shivering and not walking well.  About 8pm we called it good, decided to pack up camp and head home early. 

It was a fine plan, except for the fact that I can't see at night.  At all.  I mean not a thing.  I could barely make out Frank's tail lights let alone signs or oncoming traffic.  It was terrifying so I signaled him at the first major town, Canyon City, that I had to stop for the night.  Problem is Canyon City is right by the royal Gorge and it is a holiday weekend.  We found one hotel with a room, but they didn't have any pet-friendly rooms left and they were serious about the no pets in the room thing.  Harley had to stay in the car.  Frank, the wonderful man he is didn't want Harley freaking out all night so he crashed in the car with him.  Talk about feeling guilty...The next morning we were up, fed and back on the road again.  We arrived home around 11a and couldn't have been happier.  We spent the day unloading and unpacking.

It was a good first camp of the season.  Even when it ended early I wasn't unhappy that we had gone.  We had fun with the Sedalnick's and the kids had a blast.  Even Jake, who climbed a tree and then slid down tearing up his right arm...he had a good time.  I love camping.  I'm sad my family didn't ever do it while I was growing up.  I'm glad my kids get this experience!

Almost here...

One more day 'til we go camping!  Are you tired of hearing about it?  I wish I was tired of talking about it but there's so much to get done for the little "get away".  It's the one time I wish I was a kid again.  Kenzie  is SO excited.  I would be too if my best little girlfriend were going and I just had to show up and play and then when bedtime came I could lay my head down in my tent that was magically assembled.  Frank won't be there on Thursday.  Mel's family and we are going down to secure our spots early Thursday.  At least Jeff will be there to help me set up a bit! 

Frank and I went through our list yesterday of who's taking what, since he'll be leaving after me.  We'll have both cars which is nice.  Neither of our cars seem to hold everything easily.  Though Frank is a master packer, I'll give him that.  Last year he packed every single thing we needed into the car.  We didn't miss one thing that I can think of. 

This is my last entry until we're back on Monday, Memorial Day.  For us a day to rest and recoup in addition to being thankful for our military and those that have fought to give us our freedom and keep it that way.

Down the hatch...

So, when Kenzie and I were at the doctor's the other day they gave her a choice of medicine.  She could have a shot {not so much} or she could have liquid or pill form of the medication.  The doctor asked if she swallows pills, which she does.  Tiny, pea sized pills.  He described the size he thought 500 mg would be and compared it to the piece of pizza most kids swallow.  She was convinced she was a big girl and up for the challenge.

Off to the pharmacy we go and we fill the prescription in pill form.  Get home, crack them open and this is what we see.

GIANT pink & blue pills.  Big pills for me to swallow let alone Kenzie and her swollen, strep infected throat.  Tears instantly, mine not hers.  How in the world was I going to make my little girl swallow these.  She asked to see them.  I showed her.  Now we cried together.  I called the pharmacy.  The only help they could give since we left the store was the suggestion that I break them up and hide the powder in applesauce.  Eeeewwww.  But she sucked it up and ate that down like a pro.  Anything but swallowing these gigantic pills was a better alternative to my little girl. 

She's four doses in ala applesauce and narry a complaint.  Brave girl I think.  I can't imagine how bitter that must taste.  I think I'll bring this entry with us to our next appointment so Dr. Dave can appreciate the challenge he issued his patient.