HONEY I BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!

Details later.  We offered, they countered slightly, we accepted, we're waiting for them to say "cool, good, inspect."
Now to worry about packing!!

Intermittently around

I'm here...just haven't been in a writing mood lately.  Facebook has sucked me into a void with silly games.  We're still hunting for houses.  We found another nice one...it's just that I'm having issues with the thought of moving my son from his school and his very good teachers.  I know that I'll find other good teachers, but...I don't want to move him!!

There are other things going on too...some "me" issues I'm dealing with.  It's affected my mindset so I've not gone to karate for a while.  I'm letting other things happen.

If  I can get online for a short time (and not be distracted by the Olympics!), I'll write and update things.

Food for thought

We have been looking at houses lately.  We started out just out of curiosity, then poked around a little more and found a few we liked.  We found one on the other side of town that's an older house.   It wasn't too bad--from the outside.  We couldn't stand the interior of the one house...it was shades of the 1970s.  We're talking sunken living room here!  That was not our idea of a nice house.  It was even worse that we found that the floor was slanted, as if there was a huge foundation issue.  It was quickly marked off our list of potentials.

The one house we found that we really like is more than our budget can afford.  We've been pre-approved for x amount.  That's really a good thing, all things considered.  We had a few problems in the past, which might reflect poorly on our record.  Hopefully we're rebounding from that.  

I've been sick since Monday and wasn't able to go with the hubby to look at a house we couldn't get into on Saturday (the lock was jammed) and another house he was shown.  I want to see the second house.  The house with the jammed lock was okay, he says.  The second house is a little bigger than our apartment.  It seems nice from the pictures.  I want to walk through it and see what it looks like.  It's in McKinney, but is in the Allen ISD, which is good.  I don't really want to pull my daughter out of her current school.  She's happy and doesn't need to be uprooted.  Neither, for that matter, does my son.  


Spending time at home has given me time to think. I keep thinking about whether or not we want to buy a house now or wait until next year.  It's just something that's running through my mind. 

The MRI, take two

I finally went and had my MRI done on Friday.  My regular doctor prescribed a sedative for me, so I was able to sleep through the procedure.  I don't remember more than small snippets of the actual procedure. This is a very good thing, although I now know that sedatives make me totally loopy and not worth anything after taking it!  I slept quite a bit on Friday.  I was moving very slowly when I was awake, which was unusual for me.  Even my chiropractor noticed that I was sluggish when I went in to talk to him.

They got the results of the MRI the same day.  There wasn't any visible damage to nerves or muscles to attribute to the pain I've had in my shoulder/neck area.  The nerves all look great.  Now we get to talk to an orthopedic doctor and see what he thinks is going on.  In the meantime, I'm restricted from pushups (although I'm going to test the boundaries on some things), planks, running, etc.  He did say I could use an elliptical machine, so that may be in the works for this afternoon.  I can go swimming as long as I don't push it.  Nothing that will affect my shoulder.  

I'm going to the Natatorium today.  If I can't do any other workouts, the least I can do is work on getting my overall fitness up.  I WILL be healthier this year!  My goal for the month of February is to lose 5 pounds (and I'm only setting it at 5 because I don't want to discourage myself).  My goal is February 24th.  It was recommended to set a goal that is attainable and that is not unreachable, so there it is.  Now it's out in writing too, so I can't pull it back.

Not today

Went to my appointment tonight, only to find myself unable to have the actual procedure.  I panicked when they put me under the magnetic thing.  I hadn't realized that I was claustrophobic until they slid me up under that thing.

The MRI machine is an "open MRI", which just means it isn't the loud tunnel thing you always see on television.  This one was a table that slide over one magnet thing and under another.  You have to lay face up, very, very still, and they turn on the thing to take the pictures.  

I was fine when I got up on the table.  I was talking with the lady who was going to do the procedure.  We  chatted about a few things, including how long it was going to take (4 of the pictures were 3 minutes, one was 5 minutes).  She put a thing over my face that was there to keep me still and keep me from bouncing around (my head), and that was just the beginning.   Again, I was fine until she slid me under the machine and made adjustments.  At that point, I got very uncomfortable and asked to stop.  They hadn't even taken pictures!  I wasn't happy with the thing being up in my face.  We stopped the test at that point.  I rescheduled, then went home, called my doctor's office and asked for some sort of sedative.  If the doctor will sedate me, I can have the procedure done on Saturday..  We will see what happens.  I am going to be getting a phone call tomorrow with either the news that I'm getting a prescription for 1 or 2 pills (probably going to be $50.00!) or they'll send me to a "standing MRI" where you're not lying flat.  We shall see what happens.

Testing...testing...testing...

Tomorrow I'm going to have an MRI after work.  I've been fighting with pain in my neck and upper back, between my shoulder blade and the spine, plus some odd pain down my left side and in the front of my collarbone.  It's all isolated to the left side, which I found odd.  I visited my regular doctor, who found nothing wrong.  I visited my chiropractor, and he diagnosed a pinched nerve, but it didn't get much better.  I can lift my left arm now, which wasn't possible a few months ago.  Unfortunately, the pain hasn't really gone completely away, which has my chiropractor wondering why.  He's tried to avoid this but finally came down to "we're going to do an MRI".  I'm going in tomorrow after work.  We shall see in a few weeks what's going on.  In the meantime, I don't get to "play" at karate and have to be cautious about what I do with my arm.  One of the guys at work told me it was my poor posture at my desk which is probably contributing to my shoulder issue.   They all have theories about what's causing the problem.  I carry a laptop to work, but that's on my right shoulder and I haven't had any problems on the right side.   Ah well.  I'll find out what the problem is and we can address the issue from there.
I want to get back to karate.  I want to start working on the things I need to work on, like forms and sparring.  I want to get back into weight lifting, so that I can kill off the "bat wings" on my arms.  I guess I need to learn patience.  I just don't want that patience.  I want it NOW.  

 

The Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

For Christmas, I gave the family a membership to the Rodenbaugh Natatorium.  I believe I mentioned that we went swimming yesterday.  Today, after I got home from work, recovered from my day and changed, we went to the Natatorium again.  This time, we used the fitness facilities.  I rode an exercise bike for 35 minutes.   I didn't fall off this time, nor did I run myself over.  (major miracle there!)

I've accomplished one small goal...I went to the Natatorium twice in one week.  My ultimate goal is to make it out there at least three times a week.  It will go a long way toward my goal of improving my fitness.  I can improve that by working out more often, as in 3-4 times a week. I plan on working out at least three times a week.  I need to get my MP3 player fired up and get my headphones back into working order so that I can use it when I'm there.

My next step is to see about the spinning class that runs Mondays and Wednesdays.  Maybe not this week, but nest week I'll work on it.

First Sunday of 2010

Time flies when you're having fun.  It's hard to believe a new decade has started already!!


Yesterday we concentrated on doing some minor house cleaning and getting Tony some new glasses.  I had to go along for him because the doctor dilated his eyes.  At one point, I joked that I was his "seeing eye wife".  I had to drive for him, which was fine.  We puttered around and walked around a couple of places, then came home to spend the rest of the day doing very little.

I was on a quest to get Miss A a new flute since she walked into the bus in August and bent her existing flute.  I found one her teacher had recommended, but nobody rents it as it's a "professional grade" flute.  We found one down at the local music store in Allen and rented that.  If her teacher says it's not acceptable, then I'll take it back.  The flute is a Yamaha YFL281.   It's a very pretty flute, but the one I wanted to get her was a Yamaha YFL461 or the YFL481.  (Yes, I know it's a lot of babbling about a flute!!)

Today we went to the Don Rodenbaugh Natatorium and went swimming.  I like to go and not splash overly much.  I'm not a good swimmer.  I never took official lessons as a kid.  I "learned" to swim by being tossed off a dock into Lake Washington in Seattle.  It was not a good thing because I panicked and to this day, I can't deal with water up to my neck or over my head.  I do best if I'm sitting at the side of the pool, or in a hot tub.  So, today, we packed everyone up and went to the pool and played.   Mr. A decided to hit up this really huge slide that was very twisty and went down a number of times.  He loves it!  I went up one time--decided that I'd TRY it.  Mr. A went down, then Miss A went down, then Tony went and finally, I decided that I'd try it.  Oh. My.  GOSH!!!  Nobody warned me that it was going to make my go really FAST!!!

I literally FLEW down that slide!  There is a downfall to being large--the more the mass, the higher the velocity, I think is what Tony said! 
I was not quite panicking, but wasn't too comfortable with the "whoosh!" feeling I had as I went toward the bottom.  That slide had twists and turns and finally, I flew out to the pool at the bottom.  I wasn't prepared to pinch my nose closed and as a result, I breathed in water.  I had a hard time finding my feet at the bottom too.  I don't understand how my son can fly down that thing and pops up on his feet in no time flat!  This is another "What was I thinking?!" moment.  I got to meet my daughter's boyfriend's sister, as she was the lifeguard who was trying to help me get up and not choke!  Not a dignified way to meet someone.  OOPS!!  LOL! 

 We spent about an hour there.  My favorite part of the Natatorium, aside from the hot tub, which I spent a lot of time in, was the "Lazy River".  THAT is fun!  The kids and I played "tag" of sorts in there.  It was fun.  We had to be careful not to run over other people since the current would just take us and drive us around on its own.  

We have since spent the rest of the afternoon and evening doing very little.  Tony and the little guy have watched a football game, I've been alternating between reading and playing on the computer.  Of course, there's also the ubiquitous laundry, which never ends. 

I'm making plans to go back to the Natatorium tomorrow.  I'm going to make use of my membership and start using the facilities and working out a bit more.  I gave the family a year's membership to the place and I fully intend to take advantage of it myself.  I have already eyed a spinning class that I want to look into.  Who knows, maybe I'll run myself over again here as well!   Should be fun! 


Tuesday is karate.  I'm looking forward to that!!  Time to get back into a "normal" schedule.  I have let the leader of my son's Scout Pack know that I absolutely can NOT go get the bags at Roundtable for Scouting for Food.  I'm not giving up karate anymore.  I have an agenda--to stay with what I like to do and work hard at it. 

Happy New Year

2010.  Happy New Year.  Happy New Decade!
 

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas, everyone!
I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas Eve and are enjoying Christmas Day with family.  I hope your day is as wonderful as it can be and that wherever you are, you're finding yourselves in good health.

We've had our Christmas decimation of gifts under the tree.  We got a wonderful gift yesterday from Mother Nature--it snowed here!  This was our first snow on Christmas Eve that I know about in a long time.  I don't know if it's ever snowed on Christmas Eve in Texas, but it was beautiful!  Of course, today it's all melting off.  I took some pictures of the front walk...there was snow on our front porch and that was a big surprise.  We're on the second floor, so finding snow out there was a shock.  If I can figure out how to get the pictures off my phone, I'll post them up here.  Right now, I haven't quite figured out how to sync my phone to the computer to download the pictures.

I'll be around a little later.  The cat just jumped up into my lap and it's conflicting with my laptop.

It takes talent

I took a spinning class with a friend last night at the Y. It was a fun class.  I have to admit that I have a rare talent.  I'm the only person in the class who managed to fall off the spinning bike and run over herself in the process!  It's actually rather funny!


Went to the Y, met K there.  She introduced me to the instructor, who helped me set up the bike.  He set the height and the distance from the handlebars, then told me how to ride it so that I didn't kill my knees.  (you use your heels to push and let your knees just come up.)  He also told me how to hold the handlebars so that I wasn't killing my upper body. Then he told me to hop on and we'd ride.
Okay.  I looked at that bike when I got there and thought to myself, "this is gonna kill me!"  I was ready to try it, so try it I did.


We started out riding, just as a warm up.  He had everyone do stretches, which weren't too bad.  I liked the music he was using for the warm up.  He had us get moving a little faster.  No biggie.  I was getting good and warm.  I thought it wasn't all that bad.  When he called a "saddle up" (where you get out of your seat and stand up), I got a bit of a jolt at first because I tried just jumping up.  BIG mistake as it jarred my ankle.  I had to slow down a little.
Made it through that "saddle up", but couldn't do the up and down thing everyone else was doing, so I sat.  Not a big deal, I hope.


I lost my left stirrup (toe clip?) on the pedal and spent about 5 minutes trying to get back into it before I had success.  We did a sprint, then slowed down down to get ready for the "hill" section he promised.  O...kay!  Mind you, I was wincing as I was riding...teeny tiny seats are not comfy!


We started on the hill section and did the first "climb". I was okay, thinking, "I'm doing okay!"  That was a mistake!  At that point, I lost my right stirrup and fell out of that toe clip!  My left foot was still on the pedal, in the clip, and was going full out "zoom!!"  I fell off the right pedal, my left food was behind me under the pedal and I hit the handlebars.  OUCH!  I know I grunted and looked like I was in pain.  K asked me if I was okay and I said, "yes".  Got back up and sat (painfully!) in the seat for the rest of the class.   
We did the cool down, then ended class.  We wiped our bikes down and rolled them to the back of the room.  I felt like hobbling as I walked out of the room with K.  It wasn't a bad thing.   I am highly appreciative of her because she DID get me off my hiney and moving!   She said she'll work out with me again, so I have a new buddy.  YAY!!
"

Today, my legs are extremely sore.  I'll get over it.  I'm still laughing about falling off the bike and "running over myself".  I've told numerous people today.  Makes for a fun tale. 

Sunday before Christmas

It's been a while since I've been in to my blog.  Time flies when you're busy!

Things have been hectic at work.  We *finally* hired a new guy in to replace one who gave notice and left just before Thanksgiving.  We also got the one who had been out due to a motorcycle accident back and that's a major plus as well.  It doesn't mean that things have been great.  I'm supposed to be training the new guy.  Somehow, it seems like the other people don't have much faith in my training methods as they came over and took him off to throw him on the phones on his very first day.  He came back, so that's a plus!

On the home front, things have been chaotic as well.  We're past the marching season for band, but now we're heading into a concert season.  I found out that Miss A earned herself a place in "Second Band".  She's fourth chair.  Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.  I'm going to *have* to get her a new flute and that's about to drive me bananas because I don't know who is holding the note on the little Jupiter I am buying.  (The company we bought the flute from was bought out and nobody seems to know anything about the note, other than it's a company that handles the rentals.  I wish I knew.  I'm a bit tempted to have them research who took over the notes.  I'm thinking I will, looking at this as I'm writing it.  I need to get that under control because this next year, it's ours 100%.  I don't want to perpetually pay for a flute.

Miss A also has another piece of news...she's got her first boyfriend.  He's another kid from Band.  He plays the trumpet.  He's a nice boy.  The girls all called him "the Teddy Bear" because he gave them all hugs last year at school.
I haven't met him yet, but the hubby took Miss A and T to the movies today.  They're seeing Avatar.  I haven't gone because I don't believe it's age appropriate for the nine year old.



I've had major car issues in the past two months as well.  I had to get the hubby's car repaired (it's here if you want to read about it.)  I just had to put another chunk of money into my own car because I had a flat tire on Thursday and had to buy four new tires.  They were all in bad shape.  The good news?  I'm driving safely again!  Yippee.

I've been cleaning up my apartment today in preparation for Yule/Christmas.  I've not sent out any Christmas cards yet.  I have the box beside the couch, but haven't made the time to write them.  With me training the new guy at work, plus things going on after work almost every day, I've made excuse after excuse not to start them.  I WILL write them out tonight.  I have to!  I want my cards to get to my friends.  My very first card of the year was from Guatemala, from my good friend, Claus.  Thank you!!  You made my day!  

So, on that note, I have to go back and clean some more.  I have too much to do today and not enough time to do it.  

Christmas parade

The band marched in the Christmas parade.  Here is one of the pictures I snagged off the site of the flutes.  My daughter is in this picture...

 

Winter dreaming...

Winter is one of my favorite seasons of the year.  I love the coolness of the air, the crispness I feel on a chilly, frosty morning.  I love seeing my breath as I walk to my car.  I have fun with my daughter, seeing who can catch sight of their breath first.  Unfortunately, those times are few and far between down here in Texas.  It never really gets cold anymore.  I remember a few years ago, when there was ice on Thanksgiving Day.  I remember watching a football game with my husband and seeing one of the Dallas Cowboys fumble the ball and touch it in the "ice bowl".  I miss that type of weather.


We have had a lovely, misty-type of day for the past couple of days.  The band marched in the Christmas parade in this mist.   I went home in the mist yesterday and came to work in it this morning.  It's the perfect kind of weather to enjoy sitting by a fireplace, doing some needlework or reading.     I won't be doing that any time soon!  Ah well.  I can dream, right?

I hear tell on the news that the weather is going to be more of the same this week.  I've heard that there will be a "warm front" that pulls through (NO!!!!) today or tonight. It's *supposed* to get cool again though.  I really would like to see it get COLD and stay that way for a while.  I love cold weather.  I know, I'm odd.  What can I say?  I have friends in Idaho and New Hampshire who are getting snow.  One of my Sales Managers, who lives in NH, said he forgot to bring me my snow when he came down here for a sales meeting.  He was going to take a picture of it just for me!  He'll send it to me when he gets back home.


What I wouldn't give for just a little bit (6 feet!) of snow, something to enjoy for Christmas.  That's a dream, I know.  It's MY dream.   I guess if I want that, I'll have to move elsewhere.  




 

The Allen Eagle Escadrille

I'm a little bit proud of this band.  Here is the Allen Eagle Escadrille, performing at the playoff game between Irving Nimitz and Allen High School.  This was the game from November 14th.  We won this game, 35-0.  It was a great game.  Of course, I live for the halftime show, mainly because I highly respect the director who got 600+ kids together to produce this show.

When all is said and done...

There is something to be said for being a band mom.  I have had the pleasure of meeting my daughter's new friends, of associating more with people I would normally be intimidated by and of experiencing first hand the fun a High School football game can be.

We had a heartbreaking loss last night which ended our football season for the home team.  It was a 35-34 double overtime loss to the Southlake Carroll Dragons.  They just seemed to want the game a little more than we did.  One of our broadcasters said that the team (the Eagles) was like a "wind up toy.  They feed off the emotions of the crowd."  We were loud and raucous last night for sure.  I am working on a diminished voice myself from all the screaming and yelling I did.  

The game started late--it was supposed to have started at 8:00 but in actuality, it started at 9:00.  We didn't get on the field for half time until after 10:00.  We left the stadium after 1:00 am. Got to the school at 2:00 and everyone headed home.  The band was dejected.  The football players, from what I observed, were thoroughly disheartened.  One of the guys was so disappointed, he hunched down on the 30 yard line and hid his face in his hands.  It was a heartbreaking end to a fantastic season.  The only game they lost this year was to the Longview Lobos.  Oh well.  We're going to try again next year!  We will have new players on the team, a new quarterback and we will have a renewed sense of determination.

The band parents in the stadium were there, offering support for our kids.  We ran "potty patrol" (to make sure we didn't have people loitering in the restrooms), we cleaned up after the game and we did what we could to make the experience a good one for our kids.  It was definitely a neat experience.  A lot of our band are Freshmen, so this means another three years for them if they choose to stay in Band.  I can feel bad for the Senior parents who wanted to see their kids get to go to a second State championship, but it wasn't meant to happen this year.  We just move on.


Since we got home so late, we didn't get moving until nearly 11am.  That's a bit late, even for me, but I'm glad I was able to sleep that long.  


I'm proud of the Escadrille and the football team for all the hard work they put in this Fall.  They worked hard.  I know it was a disappointment last night, but it was a team effort.  One man would not have won or lost the game alone.  It was a team.  The team is still there.  It's just time to work hard and prepare for next year.




 

One down

Last night was incredible!  Our football team went out and played their hearts out!  They won the game, 35-0.  It was a lot of fun to be there.  
We pulled into the parking lot and saw literally dozens of cars parked in the lot.  There were tailgate parties going on *everywhere*.  It was one of those "catch your breath" moments.  I know I sound sappy, but I truly enjoy this.  I'm having so much fun being included in this!!

We offloaded the kids and fed them dinner (and ourselves), then had them go back to the busses and get their uniforms on.  Then we volunteers went off to the stadium to see about cleaning the stands (we do that before every game).
After the stands were cleaned up (we mainly just policed for trash since there had been a game prior to ours!), the kids came in and started up into the stands.  Miss A is calling the stands the "nosebleed" stands, but in actuality, I think they should be called 'cardio' stands for the sheer fact that they were steep and there were a LOT of stairs to climb!! 

This is a small gathering of the band---it's the flute section.  You can see Miss A talking to her friends--they were trading glasses.  She wasn't aware that I took the picture!  

We're in the white uniform for the duration of our playoffs.  It's going to be an incredible thing for the next several weeks.  Hopefully they're going to continue on past next weekend.  We play a very tough team. We're playing at Cowboys' Stadium in Arlington, Texas.  Should be lots of fun.  I've heard from my husband that he's going to go to the game.  The more support for the team, the better.  

 

 

 At the end of our halftime show, our band spelled out "Eagles".  It's really impressive to see, especially given the size of the band.  

You can tell how high up we were from these pictures...

Playoff Bound

Our football team is heading to the playoffs.   Tonight is our first playoff game.  We'll be playing Irving Nimitz.  I don't know anything about them, but I do know that our kids are ready for this.  It should be quite fun.  I'm going to the game with Miss A.  We're going to be leaving in about an hour or so to go run some errands and head off to the school.  We have to be at the school at 2:30.  The kids will run through a dress rehearsal until 3:15, then we're loading up the busses and heading out to Standridge Stadium in Carrollton.  We offload and have dinner at 4:30, enter the stadium at 5:00-5:30.  Game starts at 6:00.  We'll be there until at least 10:00.  I'm really looking forward to it.  I've been waiting to be a part of something like this for a while.  I'm glad that I'll be able to share it with my daughter!!

She's currently practicing some music.  I'm getting my own private concert.  This is good.  She's playing a Christmas selection.  The band is marching in the annual Holiday parade for our city, so she has to learn this song.  After that, it's concert season.  The school has two concert bands, Concert 1 and Concert 2.  I'm not sure how they are arranged, but she thinks she's done well enough on her tryout to attain Concert 1.  If so, she'll have to drop her Geography class because 8th period will be over at the high school (she's still at the freshman center).  We will see how that works out.  Right now, let's get ourselves through the playoffs.

I'm not excited about the game or anything, but I'm posting the link to the broadcast of our game.  It's at Allen Eagles Radio.   I sure hope I can convince people to tune in and listen.  It's always fun to share things like this.

First Sunday in November

Last night, I went to a Dan promotion dinner.  We just had five people test for first and second Dan, and they've achieved it.  I found the dinner a lot of fun.  We had all the Dans from the school there to celebrate their achievements. 
It was a fun evening.  


This week, in addition to karate, I'll be participating in a Veteran's Day parade with my son's Cub Scout pack.  That will be fun!  This is the first year I've gotten to participate.  I am looking forward to it.  


We have a family campout next weekend, but again, I won't be attending it because of the football game.  The game starts at 6:00 on Saturday.  We'll be out at the stadium where the kids had their UIL competition in early October.  At least this time, it'll be dark, not full sunlight!  

Boo Bowl, continued

So...here's what we looked like last night in the stands:

The stars of this picture are Miss A, her friend J and then I'm in the background.  Makes me happy that I got a picture of the girls when I was there!