Earth Day Fiasco...

Yesterday (April 22) was Earth Day.  I didn't have a lot planned so we spent the day riding our bikes -- okay, Kira rode and I walked/jogged behind.  We also did a few fun crafts.  The first one is a coffee filter globe.  For some reason as a child I found it fascinating that  you could draw with marker, drip water on it and it would change.  I know, I am strange.  Anyway, we took our coffee filters and decorated them as the world.  They looked really cool.  Unfortunately while drying outside, Kira's blew away.  So we will make a new one today.

But wait, there's more!  Gracie, our cat had to come observe what we were doing in the kitchen and this is what she saw....

We had a few bumps along the way since this was a new project for both of us.  I don't remember ever doing paper mache in school or with my Mom.  I used a flour/water ratio I found online and I thought our world was starting to look pretty darn good!  

Instead of painting it, we decided to use tissue paper.  On another site it showed a paper mache project covered in tissue paper and it looked beautiful.  So...we tried it.  Now to make putting the ocean and the land on a little easier, I drew out the continents. They are not drawn to scale and as Kira so kindly pointed out Hawaii is missing and Antarctica is too small.  

But I woke up this morning and found this...

Sorry about the blurriness but as you can plainly see, it still looks white and well the bottom decided to cave in.  I think we can mark this as a FAIL, but we [took] chances, [made] mistakes and [got] messy.  Quote adapted from Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus!

Sleep...

One of my favorite songs as a child was "Sleep, Sleep" by the Rosenshontz.  Then again the Rosenshontz was my favorite music group as a young child.

♫ Sleep Sleep, you gotta go to sleep, right now.

Sleep sleep, you gotta go to sleep. ♫

Well, I last night I took that song to heart and slept and I slept good!  I woke up before the alarm -- sometime around 6:30AM.  Did the morning routine -- bathroom, brush teeth, comb hair, all but eating breakfast.  I crawled back in bed, thinking I was going to read when in fact I just went back to sleep.  So what was the problem?  I turned off the alarm and I am not sure that Kevin set his.  The next thing I know, Kevin is waking me up saying it is almost 11AM!

I have a routine of a morning.  While eating breakfast, I check out Facebook.  One of the posts on a site I check frequently, The FlyLady,  she says today is Anti-Procrastination Day.  I am the queen of procrastination!  

So what have I been putting off -- dishes, laundry, cleaning the bathroom (I know yuck!), sweeping and I am sure there are more things but that is what I am going to start with.  I honestly thought I had more laundry than what I do, but I don't.  I am not complaining.  Maybe I will even wash the curtains and open the windows.  It is a little toasty today but I think some fresh air would be nice.    

Well, enough procrastinating.  Let's get things done today!  I know I can do it!!

Learning CAN Be Fun!!

If the ones that hit the planet are called meteorites, then what do you call the ones that missed?

Meteor-wrongs!

In coordination with Miss Frizzle and The Magic School Bus, Kira and I have been learning a lot about the planets.  Here is what Kira remembers from our lessons this week:

1. Mercury is the hottest planet.  It is also the smallest.  
2. Venus is the brightest planet but we cannot see it at night.  They call it Earth's twin.
3. Earth is where we live and the only place that has life.
4. Mars is the red planet.  It has iron in the dirt and is covered with dust.
5. Jupiter is the largest one and has a LOT of moons!  It is a gas planet. (And she giggles...)
6. Saturn has rings and is also a gas planet.  
7. Uranus is blue-green and also has skinny rings.  
8. We cannot see Neptune without a telescope.
9. Pluto is not a planet any more. *frown*

I found a lapbook that was specifically for the Magic School Bus episode we watched.  With the information from it and the other things I found our lapbook was 3 folders long.   

We also made a play-dough model of the planets, minus Pluto to which Kira responded 'It's still a planet.  It's just smaller!'  Technically it is. It is a dwarf planet but I am not going to attempt to argue the point today.  Our play-dough models -- were kinda to scale.  We tried to use this website and the instructions (which seem easy) weren't as child (or parent) friendly.  I guess I just had trouble with the directions.  We did our best and that is all that matters.  Miss Frizzle said to 'Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!'  By the time they were painted, Kira's fingers were a rainbow of colors!  Now that they are painted, I have no idea what we are going to do with them, but we had fun making them.

Oh, and my friend Christina, sent me a link to the Blues Clues Planet Song.  Kira is in the process of learning it and I will post it this weekend!

Body by Pizza...

A friend of mine started a Facebook Group called 'To Our Health.'  We were all talking that we need to lose some weight but were lacking motivation.  Each day we post what we have eaten, the exercising we have done, and any questions or concerns we may have.  Someone usually has an answer.  We are not only doing this for ourselves but for our families.  A fellow Cairoite, Jill Eoff was on the Today Show a couple of weeks ago and I think Jill Eoff really got us going.  In 2008 she weighed in at 344 lbs!  I was shocked.  After starting Weight Watchers, Jill began to lose the weight.  In 4 years she lost 182 lbs.

I haven't been on the scales for some time but I used my Wii Fit board and weighed in at 163 lbs.  That is 15 lbs lighter than when I was at the doctor in November.  Not a tremendous amount of weight but it is a start.  I am not noticing it in my clothes so that is really what I am wanting to do.  I have a lot of clothes that are size 12 but since I am so close to that size I can't bring myself to get ride of them.  Now today I had 1/2 a packet of ramen noodles with some grilled chicken.  It was saltier than I would have liked but it was also healthier than what I normally have.  I know tonight's supper is not going to be the healthiest.  Wednesdays we always go to McDonald's after Kira's Girl Scout meeting.  Wednesday is the night for cheap cheesburgers.  We normally just get only the cheeseburgers and bring them home.  I found this blog that I am going to start reading as well.  It is called Body By Pizza.  Sounds interesting.  

Current weight: 163 lbs
Goal weight: 135 lbs

When you wake up in the morning...

♫ You brush your teeth ch ch ch ch, ch ch ch ch...♫
(Brush Your Teeth by Raffi)

On Tuesday, April  5, Kira had her first dentist appointment.  We have had such a hard time finding a dentist that we like but we were growing concerned about some of Kira's baby teeth -- one of the top teeth still hasn't pushed through.  Dr. Michele was fantastic with Kira!  Of course there were a million questions that Dr Michele had to answer but she has a little boy who is eight so I guess she is used to it. Kira drilled her on all of the little gizmos and gadgets the Dr. Michele or her assistant would be using to inspect and clean her teeth. After the bazillion questions it was time for the exam.  Kira cackled the entire time.  Unfortunately I was in the other room so I wasn't able to see what she was doing only hear from the other room but it was still so much fun.

We have been fighting with Kira to brush in the morning and before bedtime and she was doing great -- then something happened.  We don't know what.  It just did and we had to start reminding her to do it.  If we forgot to remind her, she wouldn't.  So yesterday was a completely different story.  She brushed in the morning, after lunch and at bedtime!  I was amazed.  AND she even flossed (or at least tried to.)

After lunch today and right before the end of school she said, 'I forgot to brush my teeth!' and off she went running to the bathroom.  

Did you know...?

Did you know that today, April 7, is officially National No Housework Day?  Nope, me either!!  So if you get this in time there shall be no laundry.  No dishes.  No vacuuming (I have a robot anyway).  And absolutely positively no guilt.  Find a good book (or movie), put your feet up, and enjoy the day.  You deserve it!

Now I am going to finish the dishes -- it is just something I have to do but the rest of the day I will be chillaxin!

Singin', Cleanin' & Dancin'

Public school was out of school today so we were too.  So what have I done to occupy my time you might be asking...Well, cleaning of course!  While my parents were visiting we bought a new entertainment center and a bookcase/desk.  Putting both together required a lot of rearranging and unfortunately I have things piled everywhere!  I don't have as much storage for books as what I had so it is taking a lot of shuffling and right now it doesn't feel like I am making any progress.

I didn't get as much accomplished as what I was hoping but it has been good singing, dancing, and cleaning.  We have had fun, although I am not sure how much fun cleaning is, dancing to Kung-Fu Fighting, ♫ Everybody was kung-fu fighting, Those cats were fast as lightning... ♫.

Now I just need more upbeat kid-friendly songs.  I think I embarassed Kira while I was singing with a flashlight and dancing with the broom...but she got over it (I think!)

Now we are off to exercise.  Kira will be riding her bike and I will attempt to keep up!

Lightning, Thunder, Severe Storm Weather...

This morning I got up and headed to Fire Station 53 for a training in weather.  Yep, the sun is shining.  It's hot.  Oh wait there's a cloud!  Well it was a little more in depth than that.  We discussed types of clouds, upbursts, downbursts, supercells, wall clouds, shelf clouds and of course tornadoes (which almost NEVER happens down here but what the hey!)  Who doesn't like a good tornado?  Well, I am sure those who have either been through one or have experienced one.  

Being a former firefighter, I fall into that ambulance chaser category.  Which I know has nothing to do with this, but I love a good storm, so why not become a storm spotter?  Now I am not a storm chaser and probably never will.  I think that is a little too much excitement for me.

I have always loved watching storms roll in, winds whipping the trees around,  lightning, the whole works.  Now your average everyday rain storm just makes me sleepy but those big storms, you know the ones that have that cool front move accompanied by dark, almost black clouds and awesomely wicked lightning.  I don't know why but I think it gives me an adrenalin rush.  Now I don't want to go dance in the rain, but I love to watch out the window or listen to the crack of thunder.

So now I am an official Storm Spotter with a number and everything!  I guess I will keep my eyes to the sky the next time we have a storm.  I might just find something really cool!

March Madness is over...

1. Start a morning routine and stick with it for one month!  My original goal was to wake up at 8:30AM Monday thru Friday, which was immediately pushed to 9:00AM.  Breakfast was no problem since the medication I take must be taken with my morning meal.  I frequently found I made more than 3 MITS (Most Important Things) for the day -- I need to learn to minimize.  And exercising for 30 minutes -- hahahaha!  But now that my daughter has learned to ride her bike -- I have a feeling that I will be exercising a lot more! (Partially completed)
2. Design "The Pirates of the Current Float Trip" t-shirtsI Logo has been designed just needs to be revised.  (Finished)
3. Practice using my Cricut.  In order to make some special shirts for the float trip, I needed to learn to use my Cricut and purchase some software.  (Completed thanks to my hubby.)  
4. Maintain my cleaning schedule for one month.  My parents came to visit and thanks to my Mommy, actually stayed intact.  (Finished) 
5. Maintain exercise program for at least three days a for one month.  After teaching my daughter to ride her bike, I have been attempting to jog to keep up with her.  Let's just say she can peddle faster than I can jog.  So in two weeks, I have run til my little legs felt like they were going to fall off!  My body is still not in shape but I have a feeling it will begin to get to my ultimate goal -- not in time for the float trip but at least it will be a start.  I need a military boot camp to get this bodatious bod in shape. (Started)    
6. Finish my new Kris Radish book: Dancing Naked at the Edge of Dawn.  I lost the book.  BUT I found it right after my parents left!  I made a good dent in the book and it will probably be finished by the middle of April but it did not make the finish line this month.  (Incomplete)

Since I completed only half of my overall goal, I would have to say: 

A Day to Celebrate!

Today is a fantastic day for me and although uber fantastic it has been very emotional.  Not emotional bad, although there have been a few tears here and there, but all so very good.  Make sure you are sitting down...

Today is my one year anniversary from my last seizure!  

This is no April Fool's joke!  For those of you who have been with me from the very beginning this has been a very rough road resulting in black eyes, broken noses, injured fingers, many bumps, bruises and scrapes, and the absolute worst -- memory loss.  We knew that the time would come (or so we prayed) that there would be a time I would be 'seizure free.'  Although I will never be 'seizure free' I have been given many hurdles to jump -- some resulting in a face plant on the floor -- but I have conquered!  

The biggest problem is the memory loss.  In 2004, while attempting a medication change, I had 3 seizures in a 9 hr period resulting in an estimated 5-8 yrs of memory loss.  We knew there was memory loss but the extent was not determined until a couple of days after being released from the hospital when I flew to Missouri for my brother's high school graduation.  Teachers, relatives, people I went to school with, to church with or just people who lived in my town and the surrounding area were strangers.  I didn't recognize their face, their voice, or both!  I didn't even know where I lived other than in Florida.  'Friends' would come up to me asking how life in Florida was and I would tell them everything was great.  Which until my seizures it was.  After they would walk off I would find myself turning to my husband asking who they were.  Of course he knew very few from my hometown, and he was as clueless as I.  

Through the years, bits and pieces have come back.  I am sure that there is much to remember but it is hard to say if I remember it all or because I don't know what I am missing.  That sounds really strange but I don't know how else to phrase it.  It has been extremely frustrating.  While I was visiting I woke my husband to tell him I knew where Dunkin Donuts was -- to me that was a huge accomplishment since it was in the process of being built and only a block away from my home.  My husband although happy for me told me to go back to sleep.  LOL  

People often ask if there is anything that I notice since I was diagnosed with seizures.  Well, other than living in Lowther Penitentiary for 2+ years, depending on others to chauffeur and supervise me as if I were a child -- no nothing that I am aware of.  At first, I hated having to depend on others.  Now that I have had 2+ years to do so, I am finding it hard to become independent again.  I have discovered that I tend to use smaller words when writing or speaking, and frequently ask questions as to meanings of words or for a word that I am trying to use in a sentence.

My strength through the entire thing is Kevin and Kira.  Both have stood by my side, picked me up when I was down (literally).  Kevin's office has been fantastic and when my seizures were at their worst, he was able to work from home on some days.  My doctor, Dr. Eduardo Locatelli has saved me!  Due to the type of seizures I will be on medication the rest of my life.  Yet that wonderful man found the magical concoction that my brain so desperately needed.  We have remained positive throughout, although some days were very rough emotionally and physically.

To my friends and family -- For your love, support and prayers through the last 8 years, thank you!