Are you a bank robber?

I was super tired this week so I was relieved when I got in to see the endocrinologist. But then he told me that there was nothing wrong me. Everything was normal and that I was even closer to being hyperthyroid than hypothyroid. I said, “Why don’t I have all the energy I had when I was hyperthyroid before?” He said, “I don’t know.” And that was that. I pressed a little bit further about checking my pituitary or adrenal glands or something. He relented and wrote out a blood test prescription but I know he did it only because I was pushing. At this point, the information is probably not useful to him but more so to my naturopath. So I will go see her to see what is going on. I am thankful for doctors who do not solely rely on a number from a blood test.

Yesterday I worked from home and Brian called me and said, “I’m going to the hospital.” I thought he was going to tell me that Ty had to go to the hospital but he then said he was in an ambulance and they were heading to the hospital. WHAT? Brian had chest pains for about 2 – 3 hours and finally mentioned it to someone at work and they are really safety conscious—so they called the ambulance. Brian was embarrassed by the whole thing but I’m glad he did it because I think we were too slow to react with Jack when he had jaundice and I decided then that we should not be conservative with our health in the future. This turned out to be good advice when Ty got a fever when he was 6 days old—I rushed him to the ER at 3 AM and he was in the ICU on a respirator for a week. That was the absolutely worst week of my entire life. Now normally I would feel panicked about getting a call like this from Brian and I was worried but there was a part of me that couldn’t believe that someone who can hike from the South Rim to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and back again has a heart problem. So I met him down at the hospital and he was talking to the doctor. They did some tests but couldn’t find anything. He will need to follow up with his primary care doctor. So it’s inconclusive… maybe stress, maybe too much coffee, maybe muscular… but probably not his heart. The funny thing is that the doctor asked him how often he exercised (every day) and for how long (4 minutes) thanks to the ROM machine. He wrote down the URL to check it out for himself!

I mentioned before that we were changing Jack’s day care/preschool. It is brand new and starts May 1. They had an open house on Tuesday night so I took Jack there. The rooms have wood floors and lamps and are very homey. All the toys and activities are laid out all the time. Jack had a great time drawing and painting and didn’t move when I told him I was going into the other room to talk to his teacher. I met all the teachers and they seem really great. I got a good vibe from the place so that made me very happy. And then I couldn’t drag Jack out of there! He didn’t want to leave. So I am hoping that this will be a fairly easy transition although I know he will miss his friends.

We were outside on Saturday for a birthday party and Ty was wearing pants and I kept him in the shade. The next day I noticed one of his legs was sunburned, like a bright red. I felt like a horrible mom that I would let him get sunburned although it didn’t make sense that he got sunburned because he was wearing pants and wasn’t in direct sunlight. After several days it didn’t get better. And he started to get spots and even a little blister on his lips. By then I was worried and had myself convinced that he had hand, foot and mouth disease. After reading about his symptoms in a book, Brian announced that Ty had shingles. I thought that was funny because I thought only older people got that and only after they had the chicken pox. What was on his face seemed like it was caused by the excessive drooling from teething but it didn’t explain the weird burn on his lower leg. I was ready to take him to the doctor on Wednesday when I noticed he was crawling on one leg and bringing the other leg forward. The leg he was crawling on was the leg that was all red! A ha! That explained everything. He was a little chafed on that leg from crawling. What a relief.

Here is a short email from my brother. I don’t know about you but this kind of thing doesn’t seem to happen to me very often. “On my way to work I got pulled over by the sheriffs department because I matched the description of a robber, white male, black helmet with clear shield. They even had the victim drive by to ID me and she said it wasn't me. I was only 10 minutes late to work and had called my supervisor and told him I would be late and he laughed.”

Nanny

We hired a nanny for Ty. We weren’t looking for one and were prepared to do drop offs at two different schools when Jack starts at the Y on May 1. Then Jack’s preschool teacher mentioned to me that she wanted to be a nanny. I told her that I had friends who were looking for a nanny and I would pass on her name. Then as I was leaving and driving home, I thought, why would I pass on her name? Why don’t we get a nanny? The two best teachers (patient, loving, and kind) in the school are in the 2 year old room and she is one of them. So we had her over Friday night and proposed a contract and she agreed so she will start on May 1. She agreed to do housework and will bring her 2 year old daughter with her. I am excited but nervous too. I think it will be a little strange to have someone else in my house all day. But it will definitely decrease our stress level! All of this change has eliminated all concerns I have of moving Jack to a new school. I know if that doesn’t work out, I can leave Jack home with the nanny and then look for a part-time preschool which would now be an option.


We had a good Easter weekend. We took the boys to get their pictures taken at Portrait Innovations Saturday morning. I always seem to pick the worst possible time like when Ty is teething and Jack has a runny nose.

But I love that place because they take a lot of photos and there always seems to be a couple good photos, even when you think there couldn’t possibly be a good one. Ty was very crabby and cried most of the time but we still got some good photos. I’m the worst at getting pictures taken. We’re lucky if we go 2x/year.

We went to 1st Birthday Party on Saturday afternoon and did an Easter egg hunt. The kids loved that. Jack ate a lot of shrimp (one of his favorite foods) and then talked incessantly about the “happy birthday cake”. You can tell we deprive him of sugary carbs since he is obsessed with the cake at birthday parties. On Easter we did another Easter egg hunt with real hard boiled eggs and then had Easter baskets for the boys. Jack loved that too. We went to the Nelson’s for an early dinner. The kids enjoyed jumping on the trampoline. Jack became fascinated by the Barbie boom box and so the Nelson’s loaned that to us for the week. Brian frantically worked to complete our taxes. He thought we were going to owe a ton but made an error and then said we would be getting back a ton, but then realized he made another error and finally settled on us owing a fairly small amount. So that was a relief.

I sent Brian in my place to my dance class this week. He likes the swing more than I do and probably needs the lessons more. I’m sure the class was confused when he showed up! I figured what he spends an hour learning, he can show me in 2 minutes.

I went to Oregon for work for two days this week. I hope this is the last time I travel before I wean Ty (2 months left). I had a clogged duct by the second day and it was so swollen you could see it through my shirt!

We went to another birthday party on Saturday at a great little park for kids called Encanto Amusement Park or Enchanted Island or something like that. The kids had a great time. Jack and Ty were exhausted but did not take naps when they got home! Jack was getting really drowsy by 6 PM but then Yvonne and her son Colton and their friend Gianna came over around 6:30 to baby-sit and Jack got energized. He is so tickled when Colton (11 years old) is around. Colton didn’t like the way Jack was running around bottomless (it’s the only way he goes potty on his own), so we had to put a pull-up on Jack. They baby-sat so Jill, Gert, Brian and I could take our friends, Liz and Inigo out for a going-away dinner. As I said before, most of our friends seem to move away, which is sad but the fact of life around here. I am hoping some will move back. Ahem. You know who you are!

I have an endocrinologist appointment on Tuesday. Can’t wait to hear what he has to say.

Test Results

My heart sank when I heard the blood test results over the phone. I was listening to one of those recordings. The doctor started out by saying that the test results were within normal range. For people who know about thyroid disorders, that's the T3, T4 and TSH results. That is not what I wanted to hear. However, I did test positive for thyroid antibodies. What does this mean? "Usually, it indicates that your thyroid is in the process of autoimmune failure. Not failed yet, and not failed enough to register in the standard TSH thyroid test, but in the process of failing." So they are sending my results to my endocrinologist. Apparently there are only 6 endocrinologists in the whole valley which makes it really hard to get in. OK, I'm being sarcastic but it takes 3 months to get an appointment if you're a new patient. But I'm not a new patient so hopefully I can get in. If I'm hypothyroid, then I get to eat whatever I want and when I gain weight, I can tell pepole I have a gland problem. Ha!

I was... ahem... lucky to have hyperthyroidism after Jack. Now I think I am faced with this: about half of all cases of Graves' disease [hyperthyroidsim], the person makes a full recovery. But in some cases, the disease destroys so much thyroid tissue that the gland can't produce enough thyroid hormone. As a result, hypothyroidism sets in.

Hey, Jill... a sausage butt means that the jeans compress your butt from the top and bottom and create one ugly squashed unibutt.

Costco Buy

I went to Costco tonight to get the usual stuff and noticed that they had a big pile of Seven jeans for a little over $80. This may sound like a lot to people who don't know about these jeans but actually it is quite cheap! I bought a pair but they make my butt look like a sausage while being too big in the waist so I'm not keeping them. Tracy, I thought you could get some and wear them as cropped pants. :-) Thanks for lunch and gyros in the sun. I needed it.

Google Searches and My Blog

I’ve been super tired lately and a little down and very irritable, and so I’m starting to think that I might be hypothyroid. I was hypERthyroid after giving birth to Jack. I thought breastfeeding really was responsible for getting me to 15 lbs less than my pre-pregnancy weight at four months post-partum. Of course, there were the heart palpitations and extreme jitteriness and I was burning up when it was cold outside. But I thought all of those were post-partum things as well. My doctor warned me that my thyroid could eventually “burn itself out”. So that is why I am suspicious. I got tested a couple times after Ty was born and everything was normal. I’m going to see the doctor tomorrow and she will probably get me a blood test. If I’ve not hypothyroid, not sure what my next step will be.

I have a little bit of code in my blog that allows me to see how many times people looked at my blog every day. Obviously I can’t see who looks at my blog, but what I didn’t realize until about a week ago was that I can see how people got to my page. Most people (my family and friends) go straight to the URL that they have book marked. But I was surprised at how many people got to my blog through a Google search. And that it shows me what they did a search on. Here are some examples:

Range of motion machine, ROM, other variations … people seem to search this a lot
Michael Thurmond sample diet
Black bra white shirts
Microinequity
Nude wife … how did this take them to my page!!
Spider veins
Cuddling and coddling

I find it rather surprising that my Blog is on the third page of a Google search for the ROM. I guess I thought I was being more anonymous than that.

I signed up for cha-cha and swing dancing lessons at Y. This was supposed to be the intermediate class but I was bored. It’s always a gamble to sign up for a group class. I had the most fun dancing with an 80 year old man. He knew the swing and so we didn’t do what the teacher told us to do which was to repeat the basic step over and over for an hour.

This weekend we were again restricted by our kids’ nap schedules. Brian took Jack to the zoo while Ty napped and then Jack came home and napped and then Ty napped when Jack woke up. I’ve been super tired even though Ty is sleeping through the night, so I napped twice on Saturday and once on Sunday! I couldn’t seem to keep my eyes open. I hope the doctor can find something.

Oh, we did watch “Crash” on Saturday night. I thought this movie was very, very good. And I’m really picky about movies. Sarah recommended it when it first came out. Sarah is really good about telling me which movies I will like since I am so picky.

People Watching Is Fun

Brian, who works at the same company that I work at, moved into my building the other day. When we met, we worked for completely different organizations. Through the years, we have gotten closer and closer and now we are in the same organization. We even work together some. I know some people would have difficulty working with their spouse but it’s not too bad. We started carpooling together which makes it easier to do drop offs and pick ups at day care. Because our group had an outing to a spring training game, we went together and it was almost like a date since we didn’t have the kids and got a lot of adult interaction. That was awesome. We had beers and ate cheeseburgers and chatted with our co-workers on a beautiful 78 degree day. It doesn’t get any better than that.

We had a laid back weekend. We watched “Walk the Line” which is the biographical movie of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. Brian asked why I wanted to watch it and I said that liked watching biographical movies of country singers. He looked at me incredulously and asked which other ones I had seen. For some reason I really like “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and “Sweet Dreams” (Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline respectively). It just seems that country singers have the lives that make interesting movies I guess. They get married at 13 and their husbands always cheat on them. We also watched “March of the Penguins” which I was very afraid of at first because I don’t like seeing animals dying and you know all nature movies show that. There was some of that but mostly it was funny and very cute. They are just adorable and it is fascinating how they adapt to their environment and what they do to survive.

It’s difficult for us to leave the house on the weekends. I think I have woken Jack or Ty up from a nap maybe twice in their lives. We just never wake them up when they are sleeping. Right now Ty is sleeping from about 8:30 – 10:30, maybe 11 and then Jack goes down for his nap at 11:30 and then when Jack wakes up, Ty goes down for his second nap. So we pretty much cannot leave the house until 4 PM and then Ty is ready to go to sleep by 6 – 6:30 PM. We planned on going to the Tempe Art Festival on Saturday but it doesn’t make sense to go at 4 PM so we went to the YMCA and joined in the anticipation of moving Jack there. He liked the playground a lot. After that, we went to downtown Chandler and tried out the Mexican restaurant El Zocalo's for the first time, even though we have been walking by there for years. They sat us on the patio and after we got settled, we noticed a bride and groom walk in and we watched them get married. Now this patio isn’t that big. If I had a wedding at a restaurant, I would want the whole patio for myself and my guests and would not appreciate a grubby family with a preschooler and a baby sitting right there. But I guess that they didn’t specify that in the contract. So we sat there and ate our chips and watched them get married. While this was going on, some guy stood up in the middle of all the people eating and power smoked a cigarette. Even though we were outside, there was smoke going around everywhere. When he finished smoking, he tripped on something and crashed into someone’s table creating a huge spectacle and then he stumbled out of the patio and back into the restaurant. He was clearly altered in some way. So the food was decent and the entertainment was top notch when it comes to people watching.

On Sunday we did make it to the Tempe Art Festival. I don’t know why I think I will be able to leisurely look at all the booths when Jack is asking to eat every 10 minutes and Ty is crying because he is teething. We were exhausted after 2 ½ hours of this and Jack, Ty and I took a nap as soon as we got home. Yvonne came by to pick up my Ethan Allen sofa that no longer looks OK in our living. We bought this chair and ottoman that would fit Paul Bunyan (am I dating myself by referring to Paul Bunyan?) So the chair made the sofa look really scrawny and we had to buy the matching sofa. The old sofa is a beautiful, nice sofa so I was thrilled that Yvonne wanted it. I went to see “Blast” as part of the Orpheum series that I have. It was a combination of brass and percussion instruments (which is the part I liked) but then there were segments with men and women jumping around and doing thing with flags like a flag team at high school. I thought this part was really lame. This Orpheum series is over for the 2005 – 2006 year. The 2006 – 2007 year starts in December.