Proud

My kids have done classes like gymnastics and well...that's about it.  So today was the first time that I experienced watching my child perform in a competition.  Mya ran the fun run for the Balloonfest this morning.  She ran a mile at a 9:25 pace, which I think is amazing for her first ever race.  And she has never run a mile before.  When we got home she asked me why it is called a fun run when it is a hard run.  She was a bit surprised at how hard it is to run distance.  She was shocked to experience the feeling of being out of breath.  I think she will have a new appreciation for her mommy and daddy when we run races.

Phat Camp

I forgot to write a post about Phat Camp.  Two weekends ago Dan and I went to Columbus for a two night get away.  We left the kids with family and called this our "vacation."  Except I was going to exercise for the entire weekend.  I attended a girls weekend retreat taught by a trainer who was a successful figure competitor.  She is from our hometown so I was excited to spend the weekend at her camp.  Friday night was our first session and she worked us for about an hour and had a mini seminar.  Then we arrived on Saturday morning for a full day of exercise and education.  Overall we trained about four and a half hours that day.  It was a combination of cardio and weight training.  Saturday evening Dan and I had a wonderful dinner at Benihana and watched a movie.  We were settling down for the evening back at the hotel around 11:30 pm and got a message from Dan's mom that Chloe was throwing up.  So we decided to drive home that night to get her.  Once we arrived home she threw up again....all over me.  We managed to get her and Mya in the car quickly and got them home before she got sick again.  It was a crazy night and I was exhausted from a day of exercise.  When I woke up Sunday morning I could barely get out of bed.  I have never been so sore in all my life.  Unfortunately I had to miss the session on Sunday due to Chloe's illness.  But overall, I was very pleased with the weekend.  The best part was spending the day on Saturday with Jessica Paxson.  She is a fitness model and it was so neat to have a one on one conversation with someone famous.  She was absolutely beautiful and had a sweet disposition.  I did get my picture taken with her but it is on my ancient cell phone.  So this is the best I can do.

Surgery

I made it through the surgery yesterday successfully and easily.  I think I have been so excited at the thought of not having these veins sticking out on my leg that I didn't have time to worry about the surgery.  I had no anxiety going into it yesterday.  I even told them in the surgery room to do whatever they could, no matter how much it hurt, to help my legs look better.  I didn't take the muscle relaxer medication so I was very alert during the procedure.  The surgery room was freezing and my biggest struggle was keeping my legs from shaking on the table.  The nurse tried hard to warm me up, but I never did.  I enjoyed listening to the exchanges between the doctor and the nurses.  There was humor and concentration and much professionalism.  It was a good experience.

So here is what they did to me.  The procedure is called laser ablation.  After numbing my leg, the doctor made a small incision and entered a catheter in my great saphenous vein. The catheter was placed all the way up my leg to my groin area.  Once that was in place, he worked his way down through the catheter with a laser and basically killed the vein.  So that vein is not functional anymore.  It was causing reflux all these years and that is why small pools of blood formed all up and down my leg and caused the vein to bulge.  So now we wait to see if my body will dissolve the dead vein.  If it doesn't, then in a few months I will have to consider having a phlebectomy done, which means pulling the dead vein out of my leg so there are no more bulges.  Here's hoping that my body takes care of it on it's own.

My recovery time yesterday wasn't too bad.  I had discomfort in my leg once the numbing medication wore off.  And I developed a headache, which I never have.  So I was down for the evening.  Luckily Dan had the day off work and was home to care for the kids.  I did have to get up and walk every hour to keep the blood flow moving and prevent blood clots.  I am on Lovenox, a blood thinner, that is injected in my stomach.  Since I have a blood clotting disorder I have to take extra precautions.  I am also taking an oil combination two times a day to help prevent inflammation.  My oils sure did come in handy yesterday.  Francincense and oregano for inflammation, lemon in my water, peppermint for my headache and lavender for keeping me relaxed and calm.  I started to worry about the headache and felt a little panicked.  The thought of having a blood clot is quite scary.  Thank goodness Dan is in the medical field because he kept reassuring me that I wasn't showing any signs of a clot.  And I slept through the night and got out of bed just great this morning.  I even put on a pair of shorts today.  Mya was the first one to notice.  She said, "Mom, you have shorts on!"  I feel better wearing shorts with a bandage on my leg rather than showing my varicose vein leg.  It felt nice to let my one normal leg see the light.

Finally

We finally got a van!  Dan brought it home after work yesterday.  We were finally coming to terms with the fact that it didn't seem like the right time to get a van because nothing was working out.  We were trying to purchase an used van and couldn't find what we wanted.  We spent months working with salesman at used lots helping us find one at an auction.  So Monday night we took the girls to dinner in Mansfield and decided to stop by the Honda dealership to see what they had in their used car lot.  We looked around and even talked to an employee about the options, but they only had a 2005 with tons of miles on it.  She suggested we check on the price of a new one or think about leasing.  Up to this point, Dan and I have always wanted to purchase our vehicles rather than lease.  We just never thought of that as an option for us.  But the more we talked to the salesman the more we saw and felt that it was the right thing for us at this time.  We both felt peaceful about it.  We can lease for three years, which buys us some time to finish our mortgage (hopefully in three years or less) and then purchase the van when the lease is done.  So.....we are the proud leasers of a brand new van.  It is a beauty and I had a wonderful day driving it around town.  I am so thankful! I borrowed this picture from the internet, but it is the same van that we have.  The color is called smoky topaz...I have a thing for color names.  I adore the color.

"Go Horsie"

Sara had a horse riding lesson today.  It was a birthday present from her aunt.  What a gift!  She was pretty shy and timid for the first half of the lesson and then seemed to warm up as she got used to being on a horse. She learned the commands for making the horse go and for stopping the horse.  But she kept wanting to say "go horsie" and "stop horsie."  I guess we have to work on using the appropriate language if she is going to continue with lessons.

It wouldn't be appropriate if I didn't include Chloe in this post.  She had a very hard time just watching her sister ride a horse.  She wanted to ride so bad.  The teacher let her sit on the horse at the very end.  This was the cheesy smile we got from her.

Words of Wisdom

My husband....he is a wise man when giving me advice on my life.  He might not be a verbal processor as much as me, but when he does speak he has good things to say.  I have learned over the years to be patient and wait for him to share his heart.  And I am still learning to listen to his advice instead of trying to figure everything out myself.

Last week I found out that I had the opportunity to meet the actual Green Smoothie Girl (www.greensmoothiegirl.com). Her name is Robyn Openshaw and it has been a dream of mine to meet her. Funny thing is that when I went to my first essential oil class I happened to meet one of Robyn's smoothie coaches....the same woman teaching the oil class.  So when I decided to join the essential oil business I joined the right team.  We sell for doTerra, but we are endorsed by Robyn and her green smoothie business.   The classes that I teach combine oils and smoothies and I am actually a team under Robyn.  I met the right people.  I tried so hard to rearrange my schedule so I could join my team in having lunch with Robyn in Cincinnati.  It just wouldn't work and I couldn't understand why. I came home after a meeting that night and sat down with Dan to talk about my frustrations and my schedule.  He told me that I needed to set good boundaries and accept the fact that it just wasn't going to work out for me right now.  He said that by waiting and accepting the circumstances I might find that an even better opportunity will arise down the road.  I agreed with him, but I was still determined to find a way to make it work.  So the next day I made phone calls and tried hard to change my schedule around, but it wasn't working.  I finally submitted to the process and decided to accept Dan's advice.  I felt so peaceful about it. Fast forward a week later and at a team meeting my leader told me that in July there is another opportunity for me to have a PRIVATE lunch with Robyn.  I have to drive to Michigan, but I get to finally meet her and spend time with her.  I am beyond excited about this experience.  Dan was right, waiting brought about an even better opportunity.  I love my husband!

Random thought by Julie.....I love that my husband gave me our girls.  This picture just makes me so happy.

 And I love this one too!!!

Laughter During A Race....What?

Joey's funeral yesterday (Saturday) was absolutely beautiful.  It was so healing to say goodbye in an environment where people were constantly talking about how inspired they were by his life.  It was a very positive experience.  I needed to see his parents...to hug them and whisper in their ears that I was so sorry for their loss.  When I hugged Joey's mom, she told me that I was his first love as a childhood friend.  That is how inseparable we were.

The funeral started with a slideshow of pictures of Joey's life.  The one picture I will remember from that is of Joey riding a Wal-Mart cart...you know, the motorized ones...wearing a Batman shirt and a child's bike helmet.  That was Joey.  He had quite the sense of humor.  Through the tears I was able to share a fun story about Joey during the funeral.  We went on a family trip to Canada with his family and stayed at a fishing camp.  Off the shore of the camp was a remote little island.  Somehow we convinced our parents to let us spend the night on the island all by ourselves.  So they packed us up after dinner and drove us out to the island.  We had a fun evening with a campfire and good conversation.  But as the sun went down and night set in we realized that mosquitoes were infesting our area.  We were covered in mosquitoes.  We tried hard to yell across the lake for our parents and use our flashlights to get their attention, but that didn't work.  We tried to hide in our sleeping bags and keep the mosquitoes out, but that didn't work either.  Finally, at sunrise, someone heard our call and came and got us.  We had been awake all night and kind of had a miserable time.  But looking back on that story we decided it was pretty funny.  We named that place "Mosquito Island."  As we left the funeral and got in the car, guess what was buzzing around the car.....a mosquito!  When we got home from the funeral that afternoon, I put a picture of Joey on our refrigerator.  Mya came over and looked at it and asked who it was.  Now all week I had been telling the girls about Joey.  But when Mya saw the picture she said, "Mom, you didn't tell me he was in a wheelchair."  His disability was never in the way of who Joey was to me.

To end the weekend I ran a race this morning in Wooster.  It was a trail run and three of us were tethered together.  Imagine running through the woods, on rough terrain, and having a single file line of three people close together.  It was crazy!  We all three ran a 5K together and it was the funniest thing.  We laughed so hard to the point that we had trouble running.  One girl was leading the pack and could see the course clearly, I was in the middle trying to see in front, but not succeeding at that.  And our final girl was in the back having no clue what she was running on or what was coming up in front of her.  It was a crazy experience.  After the first 5K, we dropped our lead person and two of us ran another 5K together.  After that one, she dropped me off and she finished a final 5K by herself.  We ended up placing 4th out of 18 teams.  I was impressed with that pace because of all the laughing going on. The race was to benefit raising money to cure ALS.  Below is a picture of my team.

Joey

When I was in early elementary school, my sister and I had our first encounter with who was soon to become our best friend.  I remember the day that we met him.....

We had a boat in Sandusky, Ohio and spent our summers there every year.  When I was six days old I was on my first boat ride going to Kelley's Island for the weekend....so a major part of my life was spent boating.   We docked our boat in a private location so we had a long paved driveway leading us to our boat.  I remember our family taking a walk down the driveway and seeing another family walking towards us.  We had never met them before, but I noticed that their son was riding a bike and peddling with his hands instead of his legs.  I also noticed that he was about my age.  We stopped and introduced ourselves and that was the first day of many years of spending time with Joey.  When Joey was born he was paralized from the waist down and spent his days in a wheelchair.  But that didn't matter to me.  When I played with him it was like he was walking and running right along side me.  He was speedy fast in his chair and could beat me in races. He could play basketball and do just about anything that we could do.  My sister and I became fast friends with him.  Every weekend...ever summer..was spent with Joey.  And even time in between.  He and his family lived in Cleveland, but we still found time to see them during the winter.  Joey was a child who taught me that having a disability doesn't mean you can't do what you want in life.  He was an inspiration to me.

I say was because on Monday of this week we got the dreaded phone call from my dad that Joey was struggling to survive.  He had been sick with bronchitis and things spiraled from there to the point that he had to be forced into a coma.  On Wednesday of this week, his parents and fiance had to let him go.  You would think that since I haven't seen him much as an adult that I wouldn't be as effected by his death.  But as I write, I am fighting back the tears.  And when I got the news I just sobbed.  My poor girls are heartbroken to see my crying this week, but it is a good lesson for them about the beauty of going to heaven.  This death hit me hard.  I had friends in school when I was little, but Joey was my buddy.  He was my true best friend.  I am grieved to see him go.

My sister and I keep laughing about all of the memories that we had with Joey.  His parents had a boathouse so we spent time with Joey in the house when the weather was bad at the lake.  Joey's favorite movie was Top Gun and I can't even tell you how many times he made us watch that movie with him.  As we got a bit older, he and I watched the movie Spaceballs a million times.  That was "our" movie together.  We taught Joey to swim.  He had no idea he could swim without use of his legs, but one day my dad strapped a life jacket on to him and literally threw Joey in the lake.  I remember the look on Joey's face when he figured out he could float.  From that time on we spent hours and hours swimming in Lake Erie.  We had season passes to Cedar Point and our moms would take us in the summer.  The highlight of our trips was getting Joey's handicapped pass for the rides.  If we rode with him we could cut in front of everyone in line and walk right onto the ride.  And we got double and triple rides with him.  It was awesome!  One weekend I decided I wanted to know what it was like to be in a wheelchair.  I had mom and dad rent a wheelchair for me and I stayed in it from Friday night to Monday morning.  I did not use my legs and had many wheelchair races with Joey....and lost.  The memories just go on and on.  He was a good man and we will miss him so much.

Happy 5th Birthday Sara!

I can't believe that my little girl turned 5 today.  She is such a joy to have around!  We had a party for her today and I have discovered that I am not the greatest at planning food for parties.  I never know how much to order.  We had hot dogs and I wonder how you could determine how many hot dogs each person will eat.  Well.....I over ordered on the hot dogs big time!  The cake and cupcakes worked out well, but we had way too many hot dogs.  Oh well!  Sara had a blast and that is what is most important.  Below are some pictures of our beautiful girl.

Sara with Dan's grandma....

Princess Jasmine in pink.......

Sara's cake created by Aunt TT......

Parties and Such

Isn't life supposed to slow down when school is over?  I feel like this is the busiest time of the year for us.  This week is incredible....we literally have something every night and into the weekend.  We have birthday parties to go to, including hosting Sara's 5th birthday on Wednesday.  She wanted hot dogs and potato chips for her party so I increased the guest list because the food was so easy to do.  It will be so much fun, but it is a lot of work to put together a party.  Friday night I will be travelling to Fredericktown to attend a training on essential oils.  I am officially in the business of selling oils.  But aside from that, I have had a wonderful time educating myself on them.  The world of essential oils is SO big.  There is so much you can do with them.  I had to allow myself not to get overwhelmed with wanting to know everything right now.  It will be a process to learn what I need to know.  Starting small is the way to go.  Just putting a few drops of lemon or orange oil in my water each day allows me to feel like I am beginning the process of incorporating oils into our daily life.  Now when the girls get a "booboo" on their bodies they ask for my oils instead of medicine.  I am slowly replacing over the counter medications with oils.  Oils are great in green smoothies too!

This weekend I have a tethered run in Wooster.  I am tied together (not sure how yet) with two other running buddies.  We all run a 5K together and then one drops out....then two run another 5K together and one drops out....then the final person runs one more 5K to finish the race.  It should be entertaining and fun!  We are getting close to our weekend away in Columbus for PHAT camp.  I will attend a women's retreat/workout weekend while Dan naps the days away and drinks lots of smoothies.  We are very excited for our time away from the kids.  We love them dearly, but all mommies and daddies need a good night's sleep every once in a while.

Mya is doing better with her sleep.  We were instructed by the pediatrician to give her Melatonin, which is a natural sleep pill.  She gets one pill a night and it has taken all the nighttime anxiety away for her.  She goes right to sleep if we give her the pill a half hour before bedtime.  She hasn't complained once of having a stomach ache or expressed worry about throwing up.  Every once in a while she gets up once at night, but just to go to the bathroom and say "good night" to us.  Now that I can handle!  We are feeling much better around here.

Happy (almost) Birthday to our sweet Sara Meleah!!!