Our family joined the YMCA last week. Finally. We’ve talked about doing it for months. Mike wants to get all stronger and he wants Luke to learn to swim and I… well I guess I’ll try exercising at some point too.

The motivation that pushed Mike over the line was that he has applied for a job with the State of Michigan as a Corrections Officer. It’s a job that doesn’t require a college degree and they have lots and lots of openings right now. We know it’s a crummy job that most people would not want, working directly with prisoners and all, but we think Mike could actually be pretty good at it (and it would feed our family, which is an added bonus).

1. He fought that misdemeanor ticket (for the loud stereo) and won, insuring he’s eligible for the position
2. He never did drugs (and believe me, they check)
3. He’s freakishly strong
4. He gained oodles of people skills from being in sales for 9 years

There are many, many hoops to jump through in order to get hired. We are just going to take it one step at a time, not getting our hopes up too high but maintaining a positive attitude. His first hoop is next Wednesday, when he is scheduled to take the Civil Service exam. Eventually he would need to take a physical test, so working out at the YMCA should help him out with that. And if for some reason he doesn’t reach that hoop, at least he’ll still be all buff for his honey (that’d be me).

I was just lamenting the other day that nothing exciting ever happens to us and I haven’t had a good story to tell in awhile.

I’ve gotta stop having thoughts like that.

We went to the Silver Bells parade tonight. Luke and Mike were back from Detroit in time to join me, which made me very happy. Luke loved the parade. He said “Oh, wooow” about 100 times. At one point he was up on Mike’s shoulders to get the best view of the parade – and here’s where I got my wish about having a story to blog about -

Mike was holding onto Luke’s ankles. Luke leaned back ever so slightly and his legs slipped out of his boots. He basically did a back flip off of Mike’s shoulders and landed face first on the sidewalk. It’s a six foot drop. Six feet and two inches to be exact. I had been standing in front of Mike so I didn’t see it happen. I heard the commotion and looked behind me and saw a rag doll lying on the sidewalk. No wait, that’s my son. Lying still. Those split seconds were so surreal as I realized what had happened. As soon as it dawned on me Mike swooped Luke up in his arms and rushed him into the warmth of my office building so we could inspect the damage. Half of his forehead was covered with broken blood vessels. His mouth was bleeding a little. He really didn’t look that bad on the surface but we knew we had to take him in to the hospital to be sure there wasn’t any serious damage.

Mike drove frantically to the hospital (despite my pleading to slow down… I’m such a mom) and dropped Luke and me off at the emergency room exit. I usually have a bit of trouble lifting Luke out of the car and tonight was no different so of course I bumped his head on the way out. As if he wasn’t in enough pain.

I checked us in at the front desk and they asked me if he had lost consciousness when he fell. I wasn’t sure, so they asked if he started crying right away. No, come to think of it, he didn’t. He was just lying there. Still. Not crying. I’m still replaying that moment in my mind. The nice thing about our hospital is that they have a whole separate emergency department for children, and they are staffed with the most fantastic people. Bless all their hearts, y’all. They got us into a room within minutes and took some vitals. They asked some questions, told us some stuff, and ran some tests. Luke screamed through all of it.

He especially hated the cat scan but I don’t blame him. He probably has a genetic aversion to it because I had a really bad cat scan experience when I was pregnant with him. They did let me lie up on the platform with him, if nothing more than to hold him down. I held his hands and spoke comforting words to him like “all done!” and “where’s Momma’s nose?” but none of it helped. It was so hard to look into his eyes and see the fear and anger and oh the crocodile tears. However, I knew one day I would get to explain to him how important it was that they be sure he was not bleeding in the brain. And then he would forgive me.

But here is the good news: he is not bleeding in the brain. They thought his forehead could possibly have been fractured but concluded that it was just the natural suture you see when a young child’s skull is not fully fused. Luke had started screaming shortly after he “came to” and did not stop for 40 minutes, but he did stop. By the time they let us leave he was acting like Luke again. Just a happy guy, flirting with the nurses and begging to watch ball on tv.

I imagine he’ll wake up in the morning with a major headache and a nice shiner or two.

Childhood obesity is a huge epidemic in America, but it doesn’t have to be. Parents need to take charge of their children’s health and teach them healthy habits. Here are some tasty tidbits:

There are the equivalent of 15 packs of sugar in one soda.

Washington State University did a study: they gave children one can of cola or a candy bar – all that sugar decreased their immune function for 6 hours,

The average American child eats 5 lbs. of sugar per WEEK. That’s the same as an entire standard sized bag of granulated sugar.

Kids should be eating greater than 5 fruits and vegetables per day, and french fries don’t count. An average serving is the size of a child’s palm.

Feed your kids breakfast daily – while you’re at it, feed yourself too.

Avoid restrictive behavior – treats are okay every once in awhile.

Good nutrition prevents 70% of diseases.

TV Time – the AAP recommends no tv under the age of 2. For over age 2, they recommend less than 2 hrs of screen time per day (tv, computer, etc.).

Don’t keep a tv in the room your child sleeps in.

Studies haven’t shown higher IQs from watching Baby Einstein.

Give your kids at least 60 minutes of activity per day – it doesn’t have to be all at once.

Most importantly – the parent must be the role model. Kids will do what you do, not what you say.

You know how computers sometimes start running really slow and you have to run a defrag because all the pieces got scattered all over the hard drive (I assume not literally) and they need to be sorted and recollected into their proper spots? That’s how my brain feels right now.

A lot has happened in a short amount of time. Pregnancy, miscarriage, working like a headless chicken at the office. I have lost track of time. My thoughts and memories are all scattered around and every time I try to do something I have to spend an annoying amount of time trying to figure it out. Seriously, you could slap an hourglass sticker on my forehead and call me Windows.

What’s the saying? When in doubt, reboot? Maybe I just need a reboot. But how? Oh well. It will slow down. It will get better. My brain will start working properly again, eventually.

These are the times I am thankful for not being overcommitted with my time. I used to have lots of commitments. Pre-parenthood, of course. I trimmed my schedule down when I got pregnant with Luke. Now it’s just family, friends, and work. Which leaves lots and lots of room for LIFE to happen. I like it that way.

Right now Mike is dealing with muscle spasms in his lower back. Crippling muscle spasms. He went to the emergency room at 4:30 this morning. I was fully prepared to load him and Luke up in the car and drive him there, but he insisted he drive himself. They gave him some medication so hopefully he’ll be seeing some relief soon. The only other time I’ve seen him in this much pain is when he was having cluster headaches. It is really hard to see him hurting and not be able to do anything. He keeps apologizing to me and thanking me for taking care of Luke and I keep telling him that’s just silly. In Sickness And In Health. Besides, I don’t know what he’s thanking me for. I may have changed a few diapers and played ball with the boy, but I’ve totally slacked on washing the dishes. And the laundry, but I always slack on the laundry.

I hope you’re all having a good day! I know I am!

So, Friday Luke stomped on our cat, Pele (also affectionately known as “Mean Kitty Ow”). Pele wasn’t real happy about that so she bit him on the foot. She broke the skin and it bled a little. I wasn’t there but I imagine there was crying on Luke’s part. Mike cleaned up the wound thoroughly and we kept an eye on it for the rest of the day. It looked fine when we put him down to sleep at 7:30 pm but he woke up screaming at 10:30 pm. It’s unusual for him to wake up in the middle of the night. Sometimes he’ll wake up and cry a little but he goes right back to sleep. This time he didn’t, so I went in to check on him. His foot was red and a little swollen and he didn’t seem real keen on us touching it. So we called the on-call doctor and he recommended we take him into the Emergency Room to get it checked out and get him some antibiotics. You can’t mess around with those cat bites. We’ve heard horror stories.

We had a wonderful time at the E.R. It wasn’t nearly as bad as we anticipated because our local hospital has an entire emergency department just for children. It’s fantastic. If you’ve ever had to take a young one to the E.R. you know how horrific it can be. We had none of that. Luke was super tired but there were toys in the rooms and the nurses and doctors were nice and smiley so he did pretty well. Of course he hated the shot of antibiotics but he recovered quickly and even waved bye-bye to the nurse to show her there were no hard feelings.

Luke’s foot is fine now and the antibiotics are helping. We have made the decision to get rid of Pele, not because we want to but because she is a danger to others. This isn’t the first time she has caused trouble. She bit our friend’s son last year and he ended up in the E.R. as well. We are going to try to find a good home for her but it’s tough because she needs a lot of attention and she still has all her claws. We know the alternative if we can’t find her a good home but we don’t like to think about it (The Big “E” word). I didn’t think this would be so hard for me, but it is. She has been with us for 7 years, almost as long as we’ve been married. She was a comfort to me through my struggles with infertility, and even through my rough days of pregnancy. I try to tell myself she’s just a cat but it’s not working so far.

Yes, she has all her claws and she is not fond of young children, but she is a beautiful tuxedo and she purrs and cuddles and she is OCD about staying clean. Other than the biting thing, she’s really a great cat. Do any of you have interest in adding a cat to your family?

Yesterday some friends of mine from FPU, friends who knew nothing of my weight loss goals and change in habits, asked me if I had been losing weight. They totally made my day! I was beaming, people. It’s one thing when your family and close friends say they can tell you’ve lost weight, but when friends who don’t read your blog tell you that you look thinner, it means it’s real. Really real and official. I’m not crazy, my pants really are falling down! It’s a good thing I still have my gift card from Christmas for Ann Taylor Loft. I’m going shopping this weekend and I’m going to buy me some clothes that FIT.

Almost as exciting as losing weight is just barely escaping a blow to the head by a suicidal falcon. True story, folks. I was walking to work on Monday and a falcon flew right over my head – right into the Department of Corrections building – and fell to the ground landing not more than two feet from me. The bird seemed more shocked than hurt. After taking a minute to catch it’s breath it was ready to be on it’s way, but hopefully flying in a different direction.

Holy Shnikies. I managed to dodge swelling and bruising from the wisdom teeth extraction but I got hit with a dry socket. Yesterday morning I started feeling really not right in the head. The jaw area, in particular. The pain gradually increased throughout the day yesterday and by 10 pm I was ready for a Vicodin and a pillow, so I took both and called it a day.

As it turns out, Vicodin does not agree with me. It knocked me out plenty and masked the pain in my jaw but I kept waking up with a lethargic feeling close to paralyzation. It was reminiscent of my scary labor and delivery with Luke and also some of my rougher drinking days when I was a  youngin’. My head was spinning and I couldn’t breathe very well. When you’re half dead asleep and you’re feeling that way it can be a little terrifying. I remember trying to wake Mike up a few times but I couldn’t bring myself far enough into consciousness for that… he’s a hard sleeper.

Vicodin is now on my list of things to avoid.

I called the dentist first thing this morning and they got me in for treatment. They rinsed out the socket and sealed it with some oil of clove. It tastes like hell but I feel like a new woman. The best part? I can eat again! Lou & Harry’s is right down the road from the dentist’s office and today is Wednesday so you can bet your bottom dollar I was there to pick up my Original Gyro, Greek Salad, and Raspberry Iced Tea for $3.99, tax included!

I had all four wisdom teeth extracted Friday morning. Two of them were impacted, and the dentist had to use the drill on the left side, which caused a little more swelling on that side. Surprisingly, I really didn’t have that much swelling! This is a picture Mike took of me on Friday evening:

Other than looking a little more peaked than usual, I don’t think I look half bad!

Coming out of the anesthesia was fun. I don’t remember much of the entire morning. Mike told me that I asked him four times how much our total cost came out to be. I also told the dentist three times that when I had Luke, I discovered that Motrin worked much better for pain than Morphine. I also asked Mike (in front of the dentist, of course) if he thought the dentist reminded him of my Grandpa Selleck. I remember having that thought when the dentist had walked in just before the procedure.

It was strange that afternoon when memories of conversations from earlier in the day randomly popped into my mind. They just came out of nowhere. Fun stuff. Weird, but fun.

I am still feeling tenderness and a little pain when swallowing, but with a little Motrin it’s certainly manageable. I’m not quite ready to eat solid foods yet but the yogurt, applesauce, pudding, jello, and tomato soup is keeping me full. I’ve eaten a bit of chicken noodle soup and macaroni and cheese but found it was a bit laborious having to crush the pasta with my tongue. Maybe tomorrow I’ll be ready.

I just can’t believe how well I’m feeling. I heard plenty of horror stories before going in to this but so far I haven’t had any problems. I’m just happy to get those teeth out of there!

The first piece of good news is only good news to Mike. I am still not thrilled. In fact, I’m still a tad bitter but I’m working on it. We bought a new television. It’s a big screen projection HD something-or-other. All I really know is it’s bigger than me (65″, I am 61″) and we had to upgrade our cable. The cable upgrade actually worked out because Mike finagled a deal so we could upgrade and get a home phone line and it’s only costing us $13 more a month. We had been wanting to get a home phone line so I’m okay with that. Mike saved up his bonuses to buy the tv so we paid cash and I’m okay with that too. The thing I’m bitter about is that it is such a luxury item and I don’t feel like we had any business buying it when we still have debt to pay and emergencies to save for. Most of this is the nerd inside me wanting to hoard every dollar we can and not have any fun until 2012, but I think even Mike will admit it was a *little* over the top. But what does any of that matter? What’s done is done. To quote one of my FPU students, “Mindy, you agreed to it. You need to just get over it and move on!” So here I am, folks. I am moving on. Let’s try this again:

The first piece of good news is that Mike was finally able to buy the tv he’s been researching and saving up for. He worked extra hard at selling stuff and saved up his bonus checks and found a great deal thanks to Pre-Super Bowl sales. I don’t know much about the tv (I am still learning how to use it) but he is really excited about it. It’s a wide-screen HD. It has such a great picture it makes golf interesting.

The second piece of good great fantastic news is that Mike quit smoking!! He has wanted to quit for such a long time and has tried and failed several times. This time he got on the Chantix program everyone has been talking about and it is working! He hasn’t smoked since Thursday. His attitude about quitting has been so different than in years past  and when he talks about it you can really hear the dedication and resolve in his voice. It’s hard for me to get my hopes up about this because of his past failures but I really do think this could be it. I am extremely proud of him!

With the new year comes a lot of thought about setting goals. I have many goals for myself but I need to work on defining them. I am working on creating new habits in many areas but I need to quantify them so I can look back and be able to say, “yes, I have accomplished that goal.”

One habit I want to create is exercising on a regular basis. My current goal is to exercise at least three times per week. I bought a work-out DVD to help motivate me. I’ve tried the video and I do enjoy it, but because it is lengthy it may just be a weekend thing. What I’ve been doing during the week is getting up early and walking a mile around the neighborhood. So far I’ve really been enjoying it but I want to be sure I stick with it, so I’m setting a specific goal to walk 125 miles in 2008. That’s an average of 2.4 miles per week. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but I want to keep it realistic considering I probably walked 5% of that in 2007.

My friend IRL, momteacherfriend, has set some fitness goals for herself (much more ambitious than mine) and she is posting her progress on her blog. I think it’s a great idea, so I’m going to post my miles walked and my weight loss in my sidebar. Hopefully it will help to keep me motivated. We’ll see!