House of Estrogen

Simple Woman's Daybook, September 28, 2009

For Today...

Outside my window... a bright sunny day.

I am thinking... that I've been a little down in the dumps lately. Sorry for the lack of blogging... just haven't had it in me.

I am thankful for... soft playground surfaces, and Elise having a decent platelet count when she fell off the bar at the playground on her head Saturday!

From the kitchen... stew meat and carrots in the crock pot.

I am wearing... pajamas - two layers of them because I was having chills earlier.

I am creating... nada. No time for creativity this week.

I am going... to stop by Starbuck's on my way to work this morning. Maybe a pumpkin spice latte will raise my spirits!

I am reading... just finished Letter to my Daughter by Maya Angelou. It was a nice read. As a bit of related trivia, I took a course in college taught by Maya Angelou entitled "King and Charismatic Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement." I worked harder in that class than any other course I've taken before or since. She commanded respect and had extremely high expectations, so we delivered. Period. Every person in that class was prepared for class every single week, even if it meant all your other classes suffered. It was an amazing class. When she talked about Dr. King, she talked about her personal interactions and discussions with him. When discussing Malcolm X, she relayed conversations the two of them had had. We were learning about history from someone who had lived it. She even had Coretta Scott King come as a guest speaker in class one day. Amazing. When Oprah came to town because Dr. Angelou was hosting her birthday party, we got to hear all about those festivities firsthand. That class was a once in a lifetime opportunity, for sure.

I am hoping... to feel better soon. I'm a bit under the weather right now.

I am hearing... spoons clanking as the kids eat their cereal.

Around the house... I need to tame the laundry.

One of my favorite things... eight ounce soda cans. J.C. snubs them by calling them "Pepsi shots", but they are just the right size for me!

A few plans for the rest of the week.... rough week... soccer, tumbling, two meetings at Elise's school, a big, important demo at work, book club, being the helper-mom at Elise's brownie meeting, and with any luck heading out on a moms' beach weekend, providing I survive the week up to that point.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing... Elise - when did she get this big? Third grade... Holy Moly, time flies! It seems like just last week she was starting kindergarten!

  To read more Daybook posts or learn how to participate, visit The Simple Woman's Daybook. 

A New Home for House of Estrogen

Ever wanted to check this blog when you're not on your computer that has it bookmarked?  What is it... HouseOfEstrogen.blogger.com? HouseOfEstrogen.blogspot.com? HouseOfEstrogen.typepad.com? Forget that complicated address! Get all your House of Estrogen news, stories, pictures, editorials, useless trivia, and random anecdotes at http://www.houseofestrogen.com.  You don't need to change your current bookmarks. http://houseofestrogen.typepad.com still works, but I've just added the new, improved, easier-to-remember address for your convenience. Enjoy!

Letter to Elise, 8 Years

Dear Elise,

You turned 8 this week, and wow... what a wild ride your life has been since your 7.5 year letter. Less than a week after I wrote that letter, you were diagnosed with ITP (Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura) and have been hospitalized three times over the last six months because of it. You have been so brave and understanding in dealing with this disease wreaking havoc on your life. You make me proud. When I had to tell you last week that you couldn't jump in a bounce house because I thought your platelets were low, you pouted for only a second or two and then ran off to find another fun activity. You didn't let it get you down. When we had to reschedule your birthday party because you were in the hospital, you just jumped right into planning a new celebration. You've gotten accustomed to the finger pricks and make guesses about your platelet counts when you go in for your weekly checks. We're still learning about this disease and how to manage it, but you have really taken it in stride. You can rattle off all sorts of facts about parts of blood to anyone who will listen, and when we've had to go to the hospital or hematology clinic, you make it your responsibility to pack up a bag of books and activities, knowing you'll need them. We're hoping the course of this disease is short-lived, but only time will tell.

You are working hard in school and love to read. School is posing some challenges for you this year as the workload has ramped up in third grade, but we're working on some strategies to help you out with that. You always aim to please and want to do well in school, so hopefully we can make some changes to ensure this is a great year for you. 

I think you have enjoyed having Nina start kindergarten this year. It is fun having her on the bus, at your school, and with you at track-out camps. She plays the role of "pesky little sister" very well, driving you absolutely crazy at times, but at the end of the day, you two have a wonderful bond. When you're not at each others throats, you are playing marvelously together. It is fun to watch the two of you playing with your American Girl dolls, singing Hannah Montana songs, being silly in the pool, and doing crafts together. I hope you have a lifelong sister bond that stays strong.

Outside of school, you are taking tumbling which you seem to really enjoy. The coach is great, and you are slowly but steadily improving with your handstands, round-offs, cartwheels, and back bends. You are also still very active in your Brownie troop, having fun at overnight troop camp, a sleepover at the baseball park, and all the usual meetings and activities. Your troop this year has the exact same roster of girls from last year, and it is a great group of girls. You have a neat close circle of friends in the troop.

This has definitely been a rough few months for you physically, but mentally, you've stayed strong through all of it. You are a sweet, loving, conscientious child, and I love you very much. Happy 8th birthday!

Love,

Mamma

Simple Woman's Daybook, September 21, 2009

For Today...

Outside my window... pleasant fall weather this morning... the little nip in the air felt so nice while walking to the bus stop.

I am thinking... that our wedding anniversary came and went two days ago, and neither my husband nor I remembered or acknowledged it. How depressing.

I am thankful for... Elise's platelet count being much higher than we were expecting on Friday. She had had 4 nosebleeds in 48 hours along with a little bit of petechiae, so we were expecting the worst, but her count was 2-3 times what we were anticipating! Yea! It still wasn't in the normal range, but at this point,a safe number is a good number, normal or otherwise. I'm guessing it had been lower on Wednesday or Thursday but had come up some by the time she got blood drawn on Friday.

From the kitchen... tacos, I think.

I am wearing... a purple tee, denim shorts, and my beloved cherry ribbon flip flops that have been lost in the chasm of my closet for over a year!

I am creating... Elise's 8 year letter... I'm a little late on that.

I am going... to clean this dump of a house today. It is a disgrace!

I am reading... Letter to my Daughter by Maya Angelou.

I am hoping... for sunny weather in Snowshoe this weekend, so my husband can take his trip. (No, not really, but he is blaming me for the rain last weekend because of my blog post hoping for rain, so I'll humor him this week.)

I am hearing... the refrigerator humming.

Around the house... stuff I cleaned out of my car and now needs to be put away.

One of my favorite things... Addie's giggle... it is like a cackle... cracks me up!

A few plans for the rest of the week.... soccer, tumbling, Nina's first Daisy Scout meeting, volunteering in Elise's classroom, fall festival at the kids' school.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing... enjoying the park on a nice fall day.

  To read more Daybook posts or learn how to participate, visit The Simple Woman's Daybook. 

Kilograms are my Friend

I hopped on the bathroom scale yesterday morning only to look down in shock at a number that was less than half what I was expecting. I knew I hadn't lost half my body weight overnight, and after closer inspection, I determined the scale was now reading in kilograms. Nina, the junior engineer, or Addie, the curious toddler, was surely to blame for the setting change, but it wasn't immediately obvious how to switch it back to pounds. Instead of getting down on all fours to study the scale buttons, I just hopped off the scale and went about my day knowing that my weight sounded oh so nice. Obviously, I could have Googled a converter to convert the kilograms to pounds, but where's the fun in that? Heck, that little exercise might have shown that I had gained weight.  I certainly didn't want to destroy my happy place with that knowledge.  I decided I was much more content just knowing my weight in kilograms. Period. I could eat a Five Guys burger guilt free knowing that even if my weight went up, the number would still look really good.  It is sort of nice losing the baggage of your weight in pounds. I have no reference of how many kilograms I weighed in high school, or how many kilograms of me fit in my wedding dress, or how many kilograms I weighed before I got pregnant with Nina when I fit in my skinny jeans. Instead, I just have this one lone number. I'll know if I lose. I'll know if I gain. What I won't know is how that weight measures up to my past. I'm liking that. It is a new beginning.

Unfortunately, J.C. noticed the kilogram setting this morning, so knowing his finicky pound-measuring ways, he has probably figured out how to switch it back to pounds.  I may have to hire Nina to change it back for me each morning. My kilograms are a nice escape from reality, and  I'm not ready to give that up!

Sharing the Love

"All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt!"

    ~Charles Schulz

Yes, 911 Operator, You Heard Correctly. I'm Trapped in a Corn Maze.

I had no idea. None. Really. Who knew a corn maze could be so exhausting? I have no clue how long we were in there, but it was well over an hour. I had serious doubts as to whether we would find our way out before nightfall.

Tonight was Elise's Brownie troop outing to a corn maze. Siblings were invited, but a parent had to accompany any younger siblings. Since Nina wanted to go, that meant I was going too. Really though, it sounded like fun. I was looking forward to the event. I never imagined it involved walking for miles and miles with sweat rolling off every last body part! The girls started out RUNNING through the maze as I scuffled along behind trying to keep up. After a good half hour of that though, they got tired, slowed down, and we walked along together... and walked... and walked... and walked. Apparently the maze is about a mile and a half long, but in looking for the 10 hidden stations where we were supposed to stamp our card, we must have walked every inch of the maze a minimum of 2-3 times. We never did find stations 3 and 5, and that's not from lack of trying! The girls had fun, I think... at least when they weren't complaining about being tired, hot, thirsty, and wanting to find the exit. Fun, yes... we'll just call it fun. As for me, I now have a better understanding of "like a needle in a haystack"... it is kinda like "a Brownie in a corn maze".

 

 

Do those chairs at the edge of the cornfield seem odd to anyone else? 

I Gotta Feeling

This has been a rough week. I have a lot on my mind and a lot on my plate right now. I've been struggling with some things, so today when my friend Mama over at The Elmo Wallpaper posted this post, it was just what I needed. It put a smile on my face and a spring in my step. She was posting a link to Oprah's Kickoff Party Dance. Watch it. Seriously. Even if you don't like Oprah, don't like pop music, or just aren't in the mood. I promise it will make you smile, and it does a body good to get a smile in each day. Thanks for the smile, Oprah and Mama! 

Simple Woman's Daybook, September 14, 2009

For Today...

Outside my window... GORGEOUS blue skies... just a perfect fall day. I definitely need to spend some time outside today.

I am thinking... about a grocery list. We desperately need groceries.

I am thankful for... Elise's birthday party being behind us!

From the kitchen... not much... see above about the grocery list.

I am wearing... a Primo's Bar and Grille t-shirt (Dallas Tex-Mex... mmmm!), denim shorts.

I am creating... not much... feeling a bit overwhelmed and overworked right now.

I am going... to have lunch with Elise at school tomorrow for her birthday.

I am reading... Letter to my Daughter by Maya Angelou.

I am hoping... it is very rainy this week in Snowshoe, WV, so that my husband will be home this weekend. Otherwise, I need to track down a bunch of babysitters for various events. Selfish? Yes, but I'm OK with that.

I am hearing... I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas... love that song.

Around the house... birthday gifts - Barbies, craft kits, books, etc.

One of my favorite things... my toddler's new saddle shoes for fall!

A few plans for the rest of the week.... busy week - soccer, tumbling, Elise's birthday, her 8 year physical, going through a corn maze with Elise's Brownie troop, going to the Cirque Dreams show with Elise's Brownie troop, tennis clinic for the big girls.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing... Nina had her first soccer game this week. She loved it. She had a HUGE smile on her face the whole time. It was fun for us watching her have such a great time!

 

           

 To read more Daybook posts or learn how to participate, visit The Simple Woman's Daybook. 

Elise's Not Quite A Slumber Party (To Be Filed Under "What Was I Thinking?")

Elise's big plans for a swimming party a couple weeks ago were derailed when she ended up in the hospital with ITP again. Although it would have been so simple to just reschedule the pool party, the weather is iffy enough this time of year that we just couldn't plan on that. Instead, we decided to try a "Not Quite a Slumber Party" - all the fun, games, and activities of a slumber party but without the staying up until the wee hours of the morning, spending the night, and dealing with overtired kids the next day. The plan was pizza, cake, crafts, and a movie and then sending everyone home at 9:00 in their pajamas to sleep in their own beds. It all sounded great in theory. In practice though, Holy High Maintenance Party! I've done my fair share of home parties - tea parties, princess parties, gingerbread decorating parties, so I thought I knew what I was getting myself into. Clearly, I was delusional.

First on the schedule was pizza. That should be easy, right? You call the nearby pizza franchise, order a bunch of pizzas, they arrive on your doorstep just as the girls arrive, and you have cute, happy kids eating pizza like this.

Except it didn't... arrive that is. The pizza that was supposed to be delivered promptly at 5:30 as all the guests were arriving didn't show up. As I walked around proclaiming, "The pizza will be here any minute" while cursing under my breath, my house looked like a scene out of a B-movie after some monster storms the house and all the crazed occupants are running wildly in every direction screaming hysterically. This video is a 15 second sample of what was an interminable 30 minute wait for pizza.

Next on the agenda was cake... nothing can go wrong there, right? I mean how could you run into problems with a butt-ugly (but hand-picked by the birthday girl) cake like this?

First, the ceiling fan blew out the candle. We recovered quickly from that one though. No sweat. That's the end of the cake problems, right?

No, that would be much too easy. As I cut into the Girl Scout Thin Mint Blizzard ice cream cake, I discovered there was no mint, no Thin Mint, and no blizzard. Nice. Except for the creepy lipgloss guitar and Elise's name on the top, it was not at all what I had ordered. Elise wasn't too upset, fortunately, but my bigger concern at this point was, "What IS in this cake if not Girl Scout Thin Mints?" With a peanut allergic child as a guest, I wasn't about to feed her any unidentified cake until I figured out what the heck I was serving. Could they have given us a Girl Scout Tagalong cake instead?  J.C. and I were all, "DO NOT GIVE E ANY CAKE YET!!!!!", and I think we terrified the poor child. We finally determined that the cake was simply plain ol' boring peanut-allergy-friendly vanilla, but by the time we were completely confident on that fact, I think she was too freaked out to eat it. Poor girl.

 

After surviving the pizza and cake fiascos, I was ready to get on with the crafts that had now been delayed a half hour due to the ineptitude of the pizza place.

On the docket for crafts, the girls would be decorating pillows and making dream catchers. The crafts went reasonably well, but remember the above mentioned trouble causing ceiling fan? The dream catcher kits were filled with feathers, so as soon as the first few girls opened their kits, we heard a frantic, "TURN OFF THE FAN!!!! SOMEBODY TURN OFF THE FAN RIGHT NOW!!!" as feathers swirled around the screened porch. Lovely. That was fun to clean up.

Last stop of the night was the Hannah Montana movie. In my head, this was the easiest two hours of the party. The kids would all lie on sleeping bags, relaxing, quietly enjoying the movie while I sat back and put my feet up for a bit. Uh yeah... whatevs. Was I smoking crack when I dreamed up that image?

Granted there was a little bit of that, but there was a WHOLE LOT of "Can I please have some more popcorn?" (I think my microwave was popping popcorn non-stop for a full two hours. How they had room for that much popcorn after the pizza and cake, I'll never know.). There was also quite a bit of this.

Once the movie ended, Elise opened her presents and the girls went home with fresh baked cookies and a little carton of milk for a bedtime snack.

 

Overall, the party was a success. The girls had a great time, and there were no injuries, allergic reactions, cat fights, illnesses, broken lamps, or parent-of-the-birthday-girl mental breakdowns (narrowly missed that one). J.C. and I were exhausted though - beyond drained. We were spent. I will say that a "Not Quite a Slumber Party" has got to be a thousand times easier than an actual slumber party. That is not; however, to say that it is easy. Fun, yes. Easy and stress-free? Not so much. Elise loved every minute of it, so I am probably supposed to say that the smile on her face made it worth all the hard work. You know what though, she would have had a smile that big at the orginally scheduled pool party or at a "pay some party establishment to do absolutely everything" kind of party too. You can guess where we'll be next year.