Random Monday Thoughts and Pictures

RANDOM THOUGHT:
I've been "sick" for about 1 1/2 weeks. It was bad at first with the flu, but I've gotten gradually better - which is a good thing! I'm usually a VERY SLOW healer. For example, if I get a mosquito bite and I scratch it, I'll have the bite and eventually the scar to show for it. They say scars show character - but I hate my scars! It's one of the downfalls of being a Type 1 Diabetic - we just don't heal as quickly as the normal person. Whether it's sickness, injuries, insect bites, etc... I hang onto it longer than the average person.

So why this preface you ask? Well because I've been so tired lately that I finally decided to pony up to my Endocrinologist - I was WAY behind on seeing her and decided it was time to fess up to all the things I haven't been doing lately and find out if anything else was wrong with me (cuz' I knew something else was wrong - I just wasn't sure I wanted to know what). But the fatigue won out and I just needed to know why I was so tired all the time. I thought it was because my 3 boys are just hard to keep up with! So I called Dr. Ayers and they told me they didn't have any appointments until February. I thought, "whew, good - don't have to listen to her yell at me for 5 more months", but after I left a message with her medical assistant, they called me right back and said "you need to come in in the next few days"! Darn, I thought - oh well, had to deal with it sooner or later - and I wasn't really sure I could deal with the fatigue that much longer anyway. So I went to the lab the day before my appointment to get all the bloodwork done that they wanted, and that was all it took to tell us the real story of what's been going on. Now granted, I have NOT taken very good care of myself lately, but I don't think I realized (or more truthfully, wanted to admit) how quickly things can go downhill if you're not careful. I'm sure other people with chronic illnesses can relate to wanting to "ignore" the illness - it's almost a quest to at least "appear" normal and act like the illness just doesn't exist. I won't bore you with all the details, but I was shocked (as was my Dr.) to see how low my Thyroid function is, and that that is what has been causing my extreme fatique the last few months. So, I guess it's no biggie that I'll be on the Thyroid medication for the rest of my life - I'll just add it to the list with my insulin. I've also been instructed to take a "kidney protection" medication so I'm not asking for a kidney donation from any of you in the near future - haha. I guess this is my wake up call, so it's back to testing my blood sugar 4 times a day (cuz' I'll admit I've been REALLY bad about that lately) and eventually I'll be able to get my energy back up in about 2-3 weeks with the medication according to my doc, and be able to get back into my exercise routine. Most people say exercise rejuvenates you, but for the past 6 months, it would completely wear me out - I would just want to sleep after a spinning class, so I'm hopeful I get back to "normal" as quickly as possible and won't need 2 naps a day just to get through the day!!! Bottom line? We don't always get the "wake up" calls we want, but at least we get a second chance at making it better - no matter how big a pain it is to get it done!

RANDOM PICTURES:
So below are some pics I've been meaning to post, but just never got around to doing it. I hope you all enjoyed the Summer, but honestly I'm really looking forward to the Fall - it's always been my favorite season!!! And since I'm a huge college football fan - I have to give a shoutout to my team here! GO BUCKS!!!

Evan washing Shawn's 4Runner - I just can't wait until he can cut the grass!!!

Blake would rather wash his bike . . . or me and the camera anyway!

This cracked me up the other day. Grant comes downstairs in his unbuttoned dress shirt and with his hands in his jean shorts pockets and says "Look Mom - I look just like Dad" - I was laughing so hard! If you've seen my husband, you know where Grant gets it from!!!

Being sick, I missed the big labor day weekend in Cincy for both our best friends' party and my nephew's birthday party - so I'm REALLY looking forward to going here in 5 1/2 weeks with...

Our best friends! Lake Rudolph Halloweekend 08' baby!!!

Blake's First Day of Pre-Preschool!

Today was Blake's first day of pre-preschool. I call it "pre" preschool because he still has 2 more years before he'll start kindergarten at his brother's elementary school. Either way, it was a new experience for us because we decided to switch schools on him this year from our home church to a different church closer to our house.

Blake was really excited this morning, he kept telling his older brothers that he was going to his new school (I think they got tired of hearing that by the 50th time he told them). We also thought this was a good move because now he can differentiate between school and Sunday school - as his MMO (Moms Morning Out) classes and Sunday school classes were always in the same room, and that tended to irritate him a little that he didn't see his school friends during church services.

Anyway, some of his really good friends go here too - so that was really enticing and exciting for Blake. He couldn't get out of the car quickly enough this morning. I decided to walk him in on his first day so I could take these pictures, but the one thing I'm really looking forward to is their drop off policy. You literally drive up to the door, and the teachers' aides all come out and get them out of your car and take them to their classrooms - that's gonna be really nice on cold, snowy or rainy days!!!

So here's to my Tuesday/Thursday 4 hour kid-free mornings!

Blake was so excited to be in his friend Caleb's class. Here they are with their teacher Mrs. Debbie.

The early birds catch the worm! Blake and Caleb were the first ones to arrive - they got "write" to work practicing writing their names.

The class!

Scissor's anyone?

We even got a picture of Blake's buddy Jake. Jake is in the class 2 doors down from Blake's.

The Birthday Celebration Continues...

Wow - I hope my 40th Birthday is a party that lasts as long as Shawn's has!!! I think this is day 8 - but you gotta love our spinning group at the YMCA. Shawn's been teaching there forever and he has a ton of "regulars" - so they wanted to do something fun for him at his class tonight.

The room was decorated all in Over The Hill stuff, all our bikes had a balloon, and Shawn's instructor bike had a lovely "Behold The Ageless Wonder" necklace and "40" button for him to wear. Then, after class, we celebrated with ice cream cake! I know, I know - totally killed the workout we just went through, but it was sooooo good!!!

Now they're all partying at the RAM restaurant! I'm guessing this very long birthday party will finally end at our best friends Labor Day party in Cincy this weekend - we're really looking forward to that too!

Spinning room decor

Shawn on his instructor bike in all his glory! ;o)

I don't spin and take pics much - so this is the last pic you'll see of us in the actual class!

The DQ ice cream cake.
A little cake shot with some of the gang.
Yummmmmy cake family picture (plus Max, a friend of Evan's).

Happy 40th Birthday Shawn!

In celebration of Shawn's 4th decade of being on this earth, I wanted to do something to surprise him. It's virtually impossible to surprise Shawn with anything - but I managed to do it on his 30th birthday - so why not for his 40th too.

We've always wanted to go to a Colts game - just to say we've experienced it at least once in our Indy lifetime. Well, tonights game would've been really cool for 2 reasons: 1) it was the inaugural game in the brand new Lucas Oil Stadium and 2) it was happening on his actual birthday.

A friend of mine scored me an awesome deal on a pair of tickets (and they were AMAZING seats as you'll see in the pics below). So Shawn comes home from spending a few days in Cincy with his buddies doing normal party stuff (yeah right - don't think I'll be shooting guns at a target range, riding a hundred miles on my bike or kayaking for 6 hours on my 40th birthday - nope, just doesn't sound like fun to me), and we just decide to do dinner like we usually do on our birthdays. So I say "hey, let's go downtown for dinner" and he agrees of course cuz' there are lots of cool places to eat downtown. When we get there, he sees the stadium and asks me if I've seen it yet. I say no, and he says, well, let me drive you by it (like putty in my hands I tell ya). As we drive up to it, I pull the gift bag out from behind my seat and hand it to him. Inside is a card - and not just ANY card, but one of those cool yet sometimes corny musical cards. However this one fit perfectly because it says 'Happy 40th Birthday' and it shows a 40 yard line on a football field. When you open it, it plays the ESPN sports theme and says 'Just think of it as 4 touchdowns, 2 extra points, 3 field goals and a safety'. Again, perfect for the occasion and the tickets were inside the card. Then he unwraps the Colts t-shirt I got him to put on for the game. The look on his face was just like the commercial: PRICELESS!

So now we can say we've been to the inaugural Colts game and we spent a lot of time before the game checking the whole place out. It is so cool - if you haven't seen it, I would highly suggest you pay the ticket prices and go. We had the best time (even though the Colts lost - but we won't talk about that - it's still pre-season after all)!

Happy Birthday baby - I love you!!!

Shawn's 40 pose.

The Colts doing a little pre-game stretching.

We had awesome "seatmates" - Lori and Brian. Brian's brother was the replay camera guy and they were a blast to hang out with - we had a really good time with them.
We also got to see the roof open up. This is a picture of Blue the mascot getting ready to push the button to open it.
A picture of the roof (and the big picture window) once it was fully open. It takes 9 minutes to open completely.
Kickoff!!!
Shawn and I and the field from our seats.

Billy Idol "Rocks" On!

Some friends of ours through the YMCA threw a huge "rocker" party to celebrate both their birthdays and wedding anniversary (all 3 are within days of each other).

For those of you who know my husband - he's never one to hold back when it comes to dressing up. I think once we stopped doing our huge Halloween bashes in favor of the 4th of July party, he had some withdrawal issues as he LOVES to dress up and go all out (I'm sure it has nothing at all to do with the fact that he turns 40 next Sunday). So, when Sandra and Travis told people to dress up as their favorite rock star - Shawn seized the opportunity.

See below...

Billy Idol in the house.

Our awesome hosts Travis and Sandra!

Unfortunately I threw away all my 80's Madonna gear, but Billy still took me home!

A "shot" of the triathlon group from the Y. Hmmmmmm, not sure what alcohol and triathlon's have in common, but cheers anyway!

Hey Billy, you "pale" in comparison here! haha!

NVCL's Kids Worship Weekend

Most of you know that I sing on our church's (Northview Christian Life) vocal team. It's one of my passions, and has been for a very long time. I've also had the pleasure of teaching 1st-5th graders in previous years in our children's ministry. This weekend was really special - especially for me. Apparently when the vocal schedule was made, Matt (our awesome worship pastor) had no idea that this would be the weekend the kids would be singing with us in the main church services. So, as fate (and God) would have it, I was scheduled to sing as well!

Even more awesome was that my middle son Grant got to sing with me! We had quite a few kids from Studio 6.7 singing with us throughout the services and they did an AMAZING job!!! We did 5 songs - 4 of which the kids also do down in their services. The difference is that the kids add movements/motions to their songs. I have to tell all the kids who sang this weekend (and their parents) how proud I am of them! Whether they sang 1 service or all 4, they were so much fun and full of love for the Lord!!! Even more inspiring was looking out into the crowd and seeing adults joining in and doing the motions with us! Wouldn't it be great if we (as adults) could always worship God with the childlike abandon we poured out this weekend??? I know I wish I could, and it's given me a renewed spirit to try!

A friend of mine attended the 9:00 Sunday service, so she took a few pictures for me. Our lighting is pretty crazy during worship as you can tell from some of the pics, but I think they turned out pretty well! Thanks Lesle!

The kids and I during rehearsal Sunday morning (Grant is next to me on the bottom row in the red, white and blue shirt).

Friend of God

Tell The World

One Way

Your Love Is Deep

We Belong - for all you Pat Benetar fans out there!

Forest Park Aquatic Center

Today was my last day watching the girls for the summer - and we've been trying to do a "field trip" every other week. Since this is the end of summer technically for the kids (they start school Monday), we decided to take a trip up to the Forest Park Pool with Jill and her boys (poor Sophie and Delaney - they were outnumbered 9 to 2)!

Anyway, I've never been to Forest Park before - and now I wish I had found this place sooner. We all had a lot of fun, even Jill and I (oh yeah, we rode the big slide too during adult swim - but you WON'T see any pics of us doing it!!!). The kids had an awesome time, it was just a perfect day!!!

If you've never been here, I highly suggest it!!! Only $5 per person and the concessions were extremely reasonable too!

Evan found one of his good friends in the splash park, his aunt brought him unexpectedly, so they had a great time hitting each other with the splash guns.

This waterfall was really cool, Sophie and Delaney loved it - and we even spotted another familiar face - the woman in blue was Grant's preschool teacher at Northview 2 years ago!

At one point a lot of the kids dispersed, so Grant, Sophie and Delaney had the waterfall to themselves.

Blake loved the blue wheel to the left, it didn't put out a whole lot of water, but he ran as far from it as he could after he turned it - I don't think he ever did get wet from it!

I was pretty surprised Evan went off the diving board, he never would've attempted that last year!

Grant about to go down the turtle slide - and if you look to the left, the way the picture is angled makes it look like Blake is about to be eaten by the turtle's mouth!
Jill's son Brad is about to go down the big slide, and Evan was right behind him - happily waving to anyone who would watch them!
Evan near the bottom of the slide.
Blake frolicking in the toddler pool area.
What trip isn't complete without at least one sacked out kid??? This one is particularly funny b/c Blake fell asleep in the car almost immediately pulling out of the parking lot with a blue raspberry ring pop in his mouth, this is what he looked like after the 15 minutes it took us to get home - blue raspberry residue all over his mouth, shirt and arms!!!

Indiana State Fair 2008

We go to the State Fair every year - I never thought I would be one to enjoy it, but I think we love going just as much as the boys! We try to go when they have the Midway Specials (a wristband for one set price so the kids can go on as many rides as they want). Today was opening day - so we went when Shawn got home from work. It was actually a great time to go as it wasn't too crowded. We got into the fairgrounds and the kids were riding rides by 6:30pm. We were home by 11:00, the boys were showered and in bed by 11:30 - they're still sleeping now as I write this post!!! Guess they had fun too!

Grant and Blake thought they were pretty cool driving the cars in their sunglasses.

Grant leading the way on the bouncy bridge on the "Indiana Jones" maze - Blake was pretty brave - he was 2 inches shorter than the required height, but the nice guy working it said he could try it anyway (Blake kept insisting he could do it - guess he was persuasive enough, and he did it better than some of the older kids)!
Evan and Grant enjoying the bumper cars.
Driving the big rig trucks - it's always nice to see the 3 of them actually enjoying each other instead of fighting all the time!!!
Getting ready to take off in the Hot Air Balloon ride.
And no state fair is complete without a funnel cake - made by our good friends and employer for the races we work, Urick Concessions. They also won the State Fair Food Contest again this year for their Deep Fried Bananas Foster Cheescake on a Stick - can I just say DELICIOUS! Stop by one of their booths if you go - the food is always awesome!!!

A little slide fun - you'll notice Grant is a little upset that he didn't beat Evan and Blake on the way down! So cute though!