Friday Fill-Ins 8/6/2010

And...here we go!

1. Life is what it is. It's better than I could ask for, really, so I feel like I have no room to complain. The school room is set up, desks in place, and new chairs were purchased yesterday (because after a couple of hours of the kids playing Sims on their laptops yesterday while our cleaning lady cleaned the downstairs, the children flat out told us the seats were not comfortable!) I'm really looking forward to school starting. The kids have done a couple of sample "get ready for school" lessons and it went well. Everyone has comfy earphones now (ear buds did NOT work), and we're all waiting for August 16th to roll around. So why complain? I just don't physically feel well. I hurt my back when Camryn was in Honduras in mid-July. To help myself feel better, I took some Celebrex that I'd had since about 2003. I know, I shouldn't take old drugs, but I was in horrible pain and they did help. Over the course of about 3 days I took maybe 6-7 pills. Not that many, really. But now I have awful reflux, which may or may not have been caused by the Celebrex. I'm not sure, but I do know that I felt fine before the Celebrex (well, except for the back injury!) and Celebrex is a powerful NSAID, which can cause stomach problems. I did 12 days on Prilosec, but I don't feel much better. During all this I developed an ear infection, which was treated with a z-pac antibiotic, but I still had fluid on my ear. Got that taken care of on Wednesday with a 6-day course of steroids. Oh, boy. The ear now feels better, but I feel puffy and cranky from the steroid drugs. I went back to the doctor today for the stomach problems and got some stronger samples of a newer, better drug (because the doctor, knowing how expensive Prevacid is, wanted to save me some money). Hopefully these new drugs will work, because I flat out miss tomato products. But, all in all, that's a drop in the bucket compared to what I know so many others are going through. I can handle giving up Italian and Mexican food temporarily. At least it's me in pain and not my kids or my husband.

2. I hate it when Quinn announces he has to pee, because it means I can't keep going. I have to stop quickly and find him somewhere to go, even if it's a secluded spot where he can open the van door and pee into some bushes. When the boy has to go, the boy has to GO. NOW.

3. My last text message (or IM) ended in these three words: "need 30mg? ask?" Nope, not a spam text. That was from my husband while I was at the doc this morning, making sure I was asking the right questions because I tend to forget to ask pertinent things when I'm in a doctor's presence.

4. Grilled basil chicken and breaded eggplant is what I'm thinking about for dinner sometime soon. In fact, that's what's on the menu tonight, along with some whole wheat pasta or brown rice. We joined a local CSA and in this week's box was a gorgeous eggplant, as well as some leeks, okra, various types of tomatoes and peppers (just what I need right now!) and some potatoes. I've never prepared eggplant before, but you can't go wrong with breading it, right? At least, I hope so. We shall see.

5. On the 1st day of August my sister brought my girls back to us from a visit with my parents in Birmingham. I know my mom reads this blog, so I want to take this opportunity to thank her and my dad for taking my kids at separate times this summer. The kids love being at my parents' house, and I love the alone time their absence gives me. I have the best parents in the world, and my kids have the world's best grandparents! Thank you, Mom and Dad!

6. I hope that when these new meds kick in I will get back to feeling lively and energetic. I've barely made it to Curves in the past month because I just feel icky. I went Wednesday and had a good workout, but I just felt blah the rest of the day. That's not how I usually feel after I've exercised.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to having dinner at home with my family and hopefully playing that game of Clue: Secrets and Spies we've been trying all week to play. Tomorrow my plans include hanging out with the kids, dinner and church. Sunday, I want to see if I can get my husband to hang this clothes line that's seem to have made a permanent home on our kitchen table!