Homecoming, head injuries, and happy hour

This is homecoming weekend for the kids at the local high school. Sierra is at the game right now with her date and two other couples. We took pics before they left w/ the couples wearing their garters and mums. For all non-Texas people...it is tradition here. Girls wear 'mums' and boys wear 'garters' which are fancy personalized ribbon, teddy bear, charms etc. type things (see the picture). The couples wear them to school on homecoming Friday and to the game at night. Tomorrow is the dance and Sierra will also be going out for dinner at Jinbeh, a delicious Japanese steak house/sushi place in town. Great idea guys!

Wow has it ever been a long two weeks since Thomas fell down and got a hairline skull fracture. I just took him to Ft. Worth to see a pediatric neurosurgeon today at Cook Children's Medical Center to follow up on the ER and pediatrician visits. Luckily, he said the fracture is very small and won't require any follow up care, not even another CT scan. However, he also suffered a concussion, so for the next 4-6 weeks we need to keep Thomas calm and resting. Let me tell you this is no easy feat with a four year old boy. He understands his head is hurt, but he still wants to run and jump and play rough all the time. Thank God there was no damage to his brain. We just have to get through the next month or so without letting him hurt it any more and keep an eye on his symptoms.

Zoe is playing at one of our awesome neighbors' houses. It's nice she has a good friend right across the street to play with and such a nice way to start the weekend for her. She has gymnastics Tues and Thurs nights for 5 hrs/week plus school and mommy homework plus chores, so the school weeks are always long for her and the weekends are her chance to play and relax. Her friends parents, the Weathers, are hosting our neighborhood happy hour tomorrow night, and I can't wait!

We get together on an almost monthly basis for happy hour/parties with our neighbors, and different people take turns hosting every month. It is a great way for parents to socialize and for the kids to play. In the summers, people with pools host and the kids have lots of fun swimming. It's a great way for the neighborhood to come together and get to know each other. Have I mentioned yet that I love our neighborhood?

We moved to Texas in 2006 to take advantage of the housing market. Being a family of five, we were bursting at the seams in our 1600 sq. ft. townhouse in Burke, VA (a DC suburb). Joe transferred w/ his law firm from DC to Dallas, and we got a 3500 sq. ft single family home for less $$. The house is beautiful, and our neighborhood is awesome. I do miss DC and all my friends and my mom there, but living in such a nice house is definitely a trade off. Our lives literally changed overnight. Plus we have found that it is a great small town to live in . The schools are good, and there is a lot of school spirit. It's lacking a bit on restaurants, but there is plenty of everything nearby, and the weather is nice most of the time. All in all, my vote is 'don't mess with Texas!' :)

Gratitude

Today I am grateful for life. Thomas' life specifically. He suffered a hairline skull fracture this afternoon when he and Zoe were playing upstairs. It was not bad enough to cause any damage to his brain, thankfully. I was able to carry my little boy out of the emergency room alive and sort of well. When we left, someone else had been brought in by ambulance, and there were police officers and crying parents. The other people there had asthma, a bad rash, and the swine flu. I am grateful my son will be ok.

Isn't it Ironic?

Limits on social networking sites? You can't comment too much or request too many friends in one day? Shouldn't limits be relative to the total number of friends you have?

Sen. Ted Kennedy died yesterday. Everybody knew it was coming as he battled brain cancer for the past year. I think it's ironic that people don't get to live to hear what is said about them after death. Even in this case when it was anticipated, it's not until the person dies that the media makes a big deal out of them and airs programs honoring their lives and achievements. If I knew I was dying, I'd kind of like to hear what I meant to everybody BEFORE the fact. With that said, his passing marks the end of an era. The beginning of a new Kennedy generation as he was the last of three incredible brothers who tried to make our world a better place. Even though they called him the "Liberal Lion" he was known for having many close friends across the aisle.

summer is over, well kind of

It's the last Saturday of summer for the girls. Where did the summer go? Why does time always fly when you are having fun? I've been making them work hard on academics over the summer, so they SHOULD be ready to go back to school. Keeping my fingers crossed they will both behave in class and do their work to the best of their abilities!!

Thomas misses the cut off for kindergarten so he will be home with me for another year. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be home with him.

Listening to the news about 'pay to play' for sports in schools. Yup, it's pretty expensive here for that kind of thing. It wasn't that way when I grew up. If you made the team you made it and didn't have to pay anything extra to participate!

My ankle surgery pretty much ruined the last half of my summer. Good thing we live in TX and it stays hot and sunny here for a while, so I still have some nice weather to look forward to when I get better. Also, the pool at our gym stays open till the end of September, so hopefully I can have a little bit of pool time after I get out of my walking boot.

Kids say the cutest things

The other day, Thomas was watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I came to the family room and sat next to him on the couch, and he said, "Mommy you want to watch with me?"

"Yes," I said.

"Well, you know how to watch it mommy, you just .... stare at the screen..that's how you watch it!" funny boy..

another day

Another day of healing. Another day lying around. I watched President Obama's town hall on health care today and thought he did a great job dispelling all the myths out there. I am hopeful people will come together and agree on something. It seems to me a public option is a good idea. I forgot to call my congressman's office today to express my support of health insurance reform. I guess I will have to do it tomorrow.

Haven't made any progress in either of my books, New Moon or Driftwood Summer, today but have been doing a lot of thinking and resting and playing around on facebook. Took care of all the bills on Monday. Listening to the news pretty much all day with a slight break for some comedy and some wife swap.

Sierra went to pick up her schedule today. Can't believe she is now a junior! We decided to let her drop out of the GT/AP versions of her classes so she can get more As instead of Bs and get her class rank up so she has a better chance of getting into the colleges she is interested in. Zoe and Thomas are w/ Joe's mom until tomorrow, so the house is quiet. At least they are not making a big mess as usual! But of course I miss them and look forward to seeing them tomorrow when they come home.

Am craving pad thai and wondering if they are made with rice noodles only - like no wheat or corn. Joe should be home soon so we'll figure out something for dinner.

Made an appointment to get my cast off next week, Tues Aug 18. Tutoring tomorrow, Thurs, and Friday. It will be a nice change of pace from doing nothing all day!

in the hospital

Here I am in a hospital bed, waiting for my next dose of pain meds. My ankle is throbbing again and the pain gets unbearable after about 2 hours. The surgery went well but the cast was too tight so I had to come back last night and spend the night and am here all day today for observation and pain management. In some ways, it's nice to have a break from the day to day stuff. I'm catching up on the news and brought my laptop so I can play around on facebook and watch the two chick flicks I brought with me (Atonement and Across the Universe).

I still haven't seen Sierra since she got home last night. We talked on the phone today. She is home watching Zoe and Thomas. I hope to go home tonight after the dr. comes to visit me and makes sure I am ok.

Today is President Obama's 48th bday, happy birthday Mr. President! I heard on the news today that he is planning to address the problem of texting while driving. I think that's a great idea. Too many people are losing their lives because they are texting while driving, and several studies have shown it increases your likelihood of having an accident and is actually more dangerous than drinking while driving.

The health care debate still continues. The Republicans are afraid our health care system will be socialized and government will take over private insurances. I really don't think that is the case. Obama has said in the past he supports a single-payer system, but more recently it's been my understanding that he wants to provide a public option as a competitor to run alongside private insurance and bring the costs down in the private sector. If you like your private insurance you can keep it. It makes sense to me that we should tax all the unhealthy stuff more to help with the costs of health care. People who are obese or who smoke all the time are very expensive to care for, and really they are just doing it to themselves. They don't take care of themselves and then expect the doctors and medicines to fix them. Same with sodas and fast food etc. Diabetes is a major health problem as is heart disease and cancer. People should have an incentive to take care of themselves, eat right, and exercise. Prevention is important.

Even though our health insurance is crazy expensive and has high deductibles and copays, I am so thankful to have it. This stupid ankle injury is going to cost me lots of $$ but at least I am able to get the care I need. I am so thankful Joe was able to take yesterday off to be with me and to bring me back to the hospital and care for the kids.

I think it would be cool to be a doctor. If I could go back in time and do it all over again, I would have started college on a premed program and become a doctor of some sort. I wish I would have figured that out earlier, but oh well. It is what it is, and I am happy with being a mom and a math tutor. I really enjoy working one on one with students and focusing on math since it's my favorite subject and I'm good at it! If I were to become a doctor, I'd be interested in being an ob/gyn or maybe a medical examiner. After I has Sierra in 1993, I worked as a midwife's assistant and was fortunate enough to experience more than 30 home-births with her. Hypothetically, I don't think I'd want to be a midwife because there is so much controversy about it. I'd want to deliver babies in a hospital or birthing center though. That would be really cool. On the flip side, I am also fascinated by medical examiners' jobs although it seems a little gross to be working on dead people. All in all, I think it would be interesting to work in those fields, life and death. If you could go back in time and change something, what would it be?