Saturday, May 10, 2003

Blah, the 4th day in a row of thunderstorms. We woke up to a pitchblack sky and a severe thunderstorm. After all these years here, I still find it so unusual to have thunderstorms in the morning!

While the violence of nature does intrigue me (so long as there are no tornadoes involved, that is, one hit not to far from here on Wednesday), I'm bummed this morning. I really wanted to go for a run outside and was thinking that would work, as the forecast was for sunshine this morning and storms this afternoon. I have an almost insatiable need to be in nature these days. Maybe it's because we've had such a long and cold winter, but now that nature is waking up again, I just love being outside and there are so many places to go around here!

Our life really is never boring. I had kind of a quiet day planned yesterday, with a workout at the gym and then Christine and I were going to have lunch and then I'd get my nails done (I enjoy having well groomed hands, now that I have silk wraps, but the downside is, they require upkeep, otherwise they look even worse than regular bad nails).

But at the end of my workout, my cellphone rang and it was the clinic aide at Katja's school. Katja had fainted for the second time in a month, on the first day of her period. Last month, I did ask the doctor and he said to take extra iron, which she did. But now it happened again. She claims it's because of the serious cramps she has, but now I worry. She has needle phobia and hates the thought of having her blood taken, but I would like her to anyway to put my mind at ease. I'll for sure keep her home the first day next month.

After giving her pain medication, she perked up very quickly and we did end up going to the mall and getting her some clothes. I have to admit to thoroughly enjoying that little outing with her. She was chatty and fun to be with. I told her so and of course, she enjoyed it too.

Well, I guess I'd better start moving on my exercising. I'll have to think of an alternative. Rick happily told me to go jogging anyway, I guess he's not too worried about the lightning and thunder flashing left and right from me ;).

Thursday, May 08, 2003

The weather changed from cool and rainy to hot and rainy ;). But at least the sun comes out at times now. And I feel a lot better, it must be the temperatures that do it.

Yesterday morning, after dropping the kids off at school, Christine and I went off to the arboretum. Yes, I am getting addicted to that place! This time, we didn't just limit ourselves to the azaleas, but also walked through the fern area, which is very tranquil and beautiful, with mulch paths lined with honeysuckle and ferns, little streams with small stone bridges and knarled wood benches. Very peaceful and a nice, cool place for summer days.

We also visited the herb garden (the scents!) and the Bonsai museum. All in all, we walked for over 2 hours and felt we got a good workout in, it's up and downhill. How come I never visited this place before in my almost 20 years of living here?

We were home around 2pm and driving through Washington on the return, we were deciding, that it would be hard to live anywhere away from a big city. There is so much to do!

After a quick shower, Laura came and gave me a much needed massage. I *really* dislike the pain of the massage, but it helps tremendously. She brought some kind of black contraption that I could use to get out the trigger points. I'll try it a few weeks and buy it if I like it. It looks strange, but who knows?

Then at 4pm Saskia had gymnastics. She was supercute and we set on the bench in front of the house afterwards, waiting for the severe thunderstorm to hit. I love sitting outside just before a storm and hear the rumbling of distant thunder (provided there is no tornado involved, of course, there were numerous tornado warnings last night, luckily none hit). Saskia was telling me she hadn't had a very good day :(. No one wanted to play with her at recess and then a little girl was mean to her at gymnastics. For her, the little social butterfly, that was a tough day. We came to the conclusion, that today just will have to be better. We'll see :).

Kai had a friend over until 8pm last night and then had forgotten his homework, which resulted in somewhat of a drama, until we found the solution: he would go to school early this morning and do it there. So, at 8:10am, which is a rarity, we left the house for school. If the weather holds up, I'm going to pick Kai up early and go to Great Falls with him and Brynna. He's been wanting to go back all week, but the weather hasn't cooperated.

When I got home from the school, Denise called that she wants to go birdwatching at 11am. So I quickly did my weights workout and am going to take a shower now. If the weather holds, it's all going to fit perfectly timewise! I'll report about it tomorrow as I've never been birdwatching and I'm very curious about the attraction of it!

Tuesday, May 06, 2003

I've been so tired and achy again, argh! I hate it! The weather has been cool and rainy and I immediately feel it!

Yesterday, I was hosting our Bunco night together with my friend Mary. Because it was Cinco de Mayo, we had a Mexican theme. Mary brought the Margarita mix and tequila, Corona beer and red and white wine. I took care of the food, quesadilla's, stuffed jalapeno peppers (hot!) and yellow and blue corn tortilla chips and dip (guacamole, black bean dip, and 3 different kinds of salsa). Just about all the food disappeared without a trace!

On Bunco night, twelve women get together and play the game of Bunco. It's a popular dice game. I usually really enjoy playing, but yesterday, I was so tired, it wasn't as much fun. Even though I slept almost all afternoon. I hate to admit it, but I think organizing a night like that is too much for me. I really have to realize, that after 6pm, I'm just spent. It's hard to accept that, because so many fun things happen in the evening.

Last night I slept poorly as my neck and back were in one painful knot. So, when Katja and Rick left at 7am, I decided to sleep a little longer, even if that meant Saskia and Kai would be in school late. However, just after 7, the phone rang and it was my mom to thank me for her Mother's day gift. She probably thought I was short and not very talkative, but I was really groggy with pain and barely even remember what was said! I fell back to sleep right after and then woke up with a start again at 8am. I rushed Kai and Saskia through their breakfast and thought they might still be on time. But somehow, they managed to drag their feet for 15 minutes and as it was they were a couple of minutes late. Oh well.

At the school, I saw Claudia and we chatted a little and then she had to go off to class, but suggested we go for a walk in the afternoon.

Then I went home and returned the barstools I'd borrowed from Jeanne for last night's party. We chatted a while and I was starting to feel better, not physically, but at least emotionally. It is nice to talk to 3 people you care about in one morning. When I also talked to Christine and Ayesha after that, I was feeling very cared about :).

I decided to go to the gym and do a light workout and then sit in the hot tub to get my muscles to losen up. That helped fairly well and after lunch, Claudia called and we went for our walk, It's overcast and cool today, but at least the rain stopped, so the park was fun with the dogs. The park has great forest paths and of course no one was there, because it had just rained. Brynna enjoyed herself tremendously and I haven't heard her since. Walking her regularly definitely calms her down!

Tonight, Christine and Mallory are coming for dinner and I made an easy, but enjoyable crockpot meal:
Chop one bag of baby spinach and one bag of baby carrots very finely, mix with 1.5 lbs of lean ground turkey (this is for 8 people), mix in a half a package of taco seasoning mix and 3 tablespoons of ranch dressing and cook on high for 3 hours or on low for 5 hours. Then fill pita's with the mixture and put some grated cheese on top. The kids love it and they don't even know they're getting 2 vegetables!

Sunday, May 04, 2003

Last night, we ended up having just one child at home! Highly unusual, because usually, our children count doubles on the weekends, when friends come and sleep over. Saskia went to sleep over at Mallory's house and was quite the social butterfly playing with the other kids in the neighborhood according to Christine. She came home after church this morning, her first time ever going to a church service and she enjoyed it (it was the children's program).

Kai went to sleep over at his friend Tyler's house and is still not home! He had a great birthday party yesterday and I admired Rick for going to the movies with 9 11-year old boys! Apparently, X Men was "cool".

I chose not to go to the movie, but shop instead. A lot of clothes were on sale, so I got some fun new outfits. I love that the fashion is capri's, they look good on me and on Katja and Saskia too.

This morning I did a weight workout and Mary came by to discuss stuff for our Cinco de Mayo Bunco night tomorrow. After Saskia got home, Katja, Rick, Saskia and I drove downtown to the National Arboretum. We walked around for about an hour, the azaleas were beautiful and so is the rest of the park. Amazing they carved out such a large area in the middle of the city!

Tonight we're going to Yama's, a Japanese restaurant, I'm looking forward to the sushi, yum!