News and Notes, Not Healthy Yet Edition

I'm halfway through antibiotics for this horrible four-week nasal congestion problem I've been having, and I'm not really feeling any better.  I was getting slightly better each day, to the point that on Saturday I could mostly breathe  and the plugged nostril had some movement, and I even slept well overnight.  But then all of a sudden on Sunday, after spending the afternoon at Carter's friend's birthday party, I was suddenly badly congested and miserable again.  I don't know if I somehow reinfected myself, or if the antibiotics just aren't strong enough, or what.  It's misery, and I'm now concerned I still have a long road ahead between waiting out these antibiotics and getting new ones (or worse, steroids).  It's been going on so long and I'm barely functional right now with a blocked up head and a nose that runs constantly.  Today was pretty miserable again, but by the afternoon I felt a little better.  Still stuffed up on the one side, but if the other side is clear (which it was) it's more manageable.  Not as much nose blowing either.  But then I got home tonight and looked in the mirror to check out a red area on my face that I noticed this morning.  At first I thought it was from how I slept, then when it didn't go away I thought it might be a little skin inflammation like eczema that I get from time to time, though usually it's mid-winter when the cold gets irritating.  Well, tonight I realized it's some sort of rash--but with some Googling, I don't think it's an allergic one, but just one that seems to come around day 5 of antibiotics (bingo) and sticks around for a few days.  Lovely.  This illness just keeps getting better.

I forgot to mention in my Progress Report post last week that one of the miracles of the past couple months is that I'm actually almost enjoying my morning commutes with Jacob.  I figured it would be horrible, but I think God literally decided to make it easy for me.  There's almost no other explanation.  I actually miss it when I don't do it!  One of the benefits of it is the view along the drive.  It's been extra awesome with the fall leaves, but prior to the time change we were getting some really gorgeous sunrises...

I like the time to chat with Jacob and I love how he almost always looks back to give me a wave after he gets out of the car.  The traffic hasn't been great most days, but it makes for a better morning when it's actually good!  Maybe I just like the new scenery?

Speaking of time alone with kids...one night a little over a week ago, Carter and I dropped Jacob off at basketball and stopped at a Goodwill store to take a quick look around for Halloween possibilities.  We were walking by this artwork for sale, and my very astute six-year-old said, "How'd that cow get on the roof?"  Good question, young man.  The bigger question?  How did artwork like this ever make it out on the market?

Sometime last week, I was showing Carter some old pictures of me and he recognized my old Speak and Spell toy, which has been floating around our house for a year or so.  He hasn't used it much, but it struck me that it might be helpful now that he's reading and spelling a bit more.  We tried one of the spelling quizzes on it.  I helped him with one complicated word I knew he wouldn't know and that I wouldn't easily be able to help him sound out, but for the rest of the words I helped him sound them out.  And look, in the end, all 10 correct!  It took some work to get there, but he worked through it!

He was so proud!

A couple weeks ago Carter had his evaluation night for basketball.  Jacob did the same thing last year.  It's not really a tryout, but more a chance to evaluate skills so they can create balanced teams.  There were tons of kids there and it's always a little chaotic despite their best efforts to spread out timing and move everyone through the process.  After only seeing Jacob last year, it's hard to tell what's normal for kids this age.  We looked around and saw a little of everything.  Some kids could barely dribble, and some moved around easily.  Some could shoot a bunch in a row, some were just barely making it to the hoop.  I have a feeling these games will be a little tough to watch, between traveling and lost dribbles and off-target shots.  The hoops are lower than usual, but hopefully the foul line is closer, too.  It's definitely not going to be quite the quality we saw with Jacob last year.  As far as Carter's evaluation, I think he's probably around the middle of the pack.  He's still working on his dribbling--he can do it, but it usually doesn't last long and he tends to keep it low to the ground.  I think he just needs more power to his dribble so the ball bounces back higher.  He obviously loves to run, so that will be easy for him, and his shooting is decent for a kid under four feet tall.  He saw a friend from school and church there, so hopefully they'll end up on the same team.  I'm still not sure how we're going to fit in Carter's games with Jacob's basketball schedule (and Craig's work schedule), but he deserves his chance so hopefully we can make it work. 

Dribbling

Getting some air!

Is it headed for the hoop?

Jacob's basketball gets up and running over the next few weeks.  First up is a local elite team.  Our weekends will be quite busy starting later this month and running through mid-February.  With tournaments, we don't even get the holiday breaks we're used to in other sports.  Hopefully in the end it will be easier than we think, but right after that ends we transition into his travel team, and that will be a little more labor-intensive.  It's what he loves, so we're doing it, but I don't even want to know how far behind I might feel by June!

Last Friday we went to our first Amerks game in a while.  I think my last game was at least a couple years ago.  Since Craig is part of the organization again, we once again have tickets to every game.  The kids aren't really into it, though, so it sadly won't happen to often.  It's always interesting to go back and see what's new and what's still the same from my time there, which is now more than 13 years ago.  There's still a handful of sponsors and promotions that are either the same or similar, but so much about the experience has changed.  Crowds definitely aren't the same, and it's a bummer.  I don't know who any of the players are, either.  I realized as I sat there that I truly do miss loving hockey.  I still like it, of course, but there's something special about the period from when I was 13 until at least when I left that job at 27 (and maybe as long as a little after Jacob was born) where hockey was life.  Once Jacob got more active, I simply had less time and concentration to follow it as closely, and as the players we knew personally moved on to Buffalo and then on to other teams (or retirement), things changed.  The Sabres being terrible for many years hasn't helped, either.  But back in the day, I loved knowing all there was to know about it--old players, new players, random trivia, and later on, lots of inside stuff from working in the industry.  I loved meeting people I had only admired from afar, and I loved being in the middle of it all for a handful of years.  A lot of dreams came true during that time.  I maybe never had more fun than when I was a teenager and my cousin Kim and I rode the subway to Sabres games by ourselves.  There was something so special about that time, and I realized as I sat there on Friday that I miss that feeling of Friday nights being best spent at a hockey game.  In many ways I'm sure that I could be a fan again, but certainly some parts of it would be different--I could be the players' mom at this point, after all--but it'll definitely take more time and effort than I can muster in this current stage of life. 

 

Interestingly, today marks 20 years since the day Craig and I met.  It was the day I got interviewed for my internship with the Amerks.  I'm actually not 100% sure on the date, but I'm about 99% sure as it was the day after my roommate's birthday (so I remember sort of having that as a reference point) and I remember repeating the date a lot in the weeks that followed, because every time someone asked me about it, I was like, "Yeah, the interview was on November 4th and I still haven't heard back!"  Craig was the one that interviewed me, and he took forever to get back to me to confirm I was hired as an intern.  That I even got to the interview was a win because I had to find a way to get from Geneseo to downtown Rochester without a car. Fortunately one of my Intervarsity friends stepped up to help.  It was a solid couple hours out of his day, and all he asked in return was that I pay it forward (which I did once I had a car myself).  I was so nervous about the interview and had no idea what to expect--and that poor guy probably had to listen to me obsess about it for the entire 30 minute drive!  If you look in that arena picture above, see in the opposite corner where there's a lit-up scoreboard panel and a light-colored banner on the wall?  We sat in a handicapped seating section right below that spot.  I remember Craig looking pleased to hear my "grammar police" claim, but other than that he was very business-like and hard to read.  So imagine my panic weeks later when I still hadn't heard back and needed to register for my last semester of classes!  Multiple calls went unanswered, and it wasn't until I got home for Christmas break that he called me back to let me know I was hired.  That started a frantic month of car shopping!  It was definitely a whirlwind time of life, and I'd never have guessed that 20 years later we'd have 16 years of marriage, two houses, and two kids under our belts.  Crazy.  Oh, and for the uninitiated, we didn't date when I was an intern...although in the post-Bill Clinton era we've heard a lot of comments along those lines!  I'd already been an official employee for over a year (in a different department) before the friendship evolved to more, which seemed to be a common theme for those of us working 60+ hour weeks together!  A couple of my current co-workers just mentioned how they could never work with their significant others, and yet we did very well in those days!  Probably because we wouldn't have seen each other otherwise!  Looking back it was definitely an important day for both of us--for me in more ways than one--and it's hard to believe it's already two decades past!  Time flies when you're having fun--or too tired to keep track!

Otherwise, we're still settling into the new furniture.  Jacob insists he hates it but he does spend a lot of time on it.  I love the big chair.  The couch is comfy, too, though it is still a very different feel.  I wish the footrests were a little quicker to move up and down, but perhaps that will teach me patience.  I'm also still adjusting to the look, but overall I'm happy with them.  Our old La-Z-Boy is getting quite the workout, though, as it's the only chair anyone is allowed to eat or drink in!  The jury's still out on how to style the room around it all, but no rush, I guess!

I guess that's all I have for today.  Time to get some rest and hope this congestion is just a little more gone in the morning!    

Hallow-weird

It was not the most typical Halloween around here.  Halloween is sort of taking on an odd feel these days anyway, now that Jacob is probably within a couple years of being done trick-or-treating (by his estimates--but let's be honest, sometimes the costume game improves in high school, and having a little brother may extend that more than he thinks).  Seeing co-workers, family, and friends with little kids makes it extra clear that we're getting to be on the back end of this experience.  Finding costumes for growing boys is getting harder, as they tend to skew creepy or gross or crude, and that's not within my Halloween parameters.  I'm not of the religious group that doesn't celebrate, but I do think that if we're going to celebrate, we should do it in a way that respects our faith and doesn't venture into legit-creepy or disturbing.  I allowed the Scream mask last year, but nixed Jacob's requests to be Pennywise or the new Joker this year, partly because he's never seen those movies to understand how messed up those characters are, and partly because they're just disturbing to people for many reasons.  Carter isn't much easier, but we've still got a few more years before we reach that stage with him.  So, anyway, Halloween just feels different.

We had a busy week as usual, and somewhere in there I had to finish my costume, make sure the boys were set for theirs, and take care of a million other things--on top of still being sick and finally going to the doctor and getting antibiotics (which are still only sort of working--I'm better but not great).  On Tuesday, Craig and I had biometric screenings at my work, which are essentially low-key physicals that check cholesterol, blood pressure, and a few other health measures.  As expected, Craig's numbers look great after his weight loss.  Mine were as expected, but I haven't been able to work out in a bit so I'm sure they could have been better.  When I was waiting my turn to go in, I admired the view out the window on a very pleasant fall day...
 

It ended up in the 60s and was fabulous outside later in the day.

Jacob had basketball practice Tuesday, and Jacob and I had to go to church stuff on Wednesday so I had to start carving the pumpkins Tuesday night and finished them on Wednesday.  Most of it ended up after bedtime, so in the end I did them all myself.  Carter actually made the carving suggestion for a Raptors one, and these were the finished products...

I was just too tired to be creative by the time I finished the Raptors one.  Basic it is!

The Raptors one looked cool in the dark.

As for costumes, we were fortunate to randomly find Carter's at Walmart last Saturday when I was picking up something I bought online.  Jacob's was a last minute job on Monday.  The Halloween store was pretty picked over by then, so it wasn't ideal, but it was good enough.  Still, everything felt a bit like an afterthought, maybe because I've been sick or maybe because no one could find what they wanted for the last month...and suddenly it was Halloween week and we had to get it done.

I also had to finish off my costume for work.  Our suite had a video game theme, and our group was doing Super Mario Kart.  Because I accidentally missed the planning meeting (due to receiving a shipment of seven boxes that I had to find space for about five minutes before the meeting started), I had slim pickings of characters.  I did some looking on Pinterest and settled on King Boo, a ghost.  I was lucky enough to find the exact crown I needed for $4 at the Halloween store the previous week, and then formulated a plan to build the costume.  I finished it on Tuesday night so I could take it into work on Wednesday before the wind and rain started on Halloween.  I was excited on Halloween to go into work and put it all together!

The first thing I did was get a picture of me with my inspiration...

King Boo is over my left shoulder (right side of the pic)

The office looked amazing!  So many cool video game details!

Coins, bricks, mushrooms, and Pac-Man dots to mark the trick-or-treat path

Another group did Tetris...

And another did Donkey Kong...

Ah, brings back old school Atari memories...and those twisted paper vines were so cool.

Pac-Man hung out near the front door...

Our section looked so fun!  Alas, I was too busy with actual work on deadlines to do much decorating, but the team did a great job!

This hallway had lots of mushrooms, a question mark box, and fun decals.

Everyone loved my costume!  It was so simple--just a white shirt, two pieces of white posterboard, a printed out face that I found on Pinterest (ideally for adding to white paper lanterns), and some leftover craft foam for the tongue.  The tongue was particularly tricky since the angle of the mouth in my printout was a bit different than other pics with the tongue, but I finally figured out how to cut it make it work.  My tiny crown was such a lucky find, too.  I added some string to make my sandwich board, then taped on the inside a thick ribbon that already had Velcro on it (I think it once held sheets or something) like a belt so I could stabilize where the board sat on my body.  It worked perfectly!

My colleagues did a great job on their go-karts, which they wore around the building and even used for a silly race!

Note the little banana peel (an obstacle in the game) that was just paper wrapped around a water bottle

 Details like banana peels and bombs rounded out the cuteness...

It looked so fun, and in the end, our suite won!  There was some tough competition, but between the costumes we all came up with and the fun décor, we were unstoppable!

In the meantime, it was POURING outside.  In the inches of rain.  We weren't sure that trick-or-treating would even be possible, not just because of the rain, but because of forecasted high winds.  In the end the winds didn't pick up until after trick-or-treat time, but the rain was a challenge.  The boys debated going out, and we even considered going to the church that hosts Upward Basketball games for their Harvest Festival in the school gym.  But in the end, Craig went out with the boys for maybe an hour.  Oddly, the only kids we ended up with were the kids across the street.  Our street is normally at least half dark, and I think with the rain people just skipped our section entirely.  It was a bummer (and now we have way too much candy left), but at least the boys were able to do some trick-or-treating so it really felt like Halloween.

Here is Navy Seal Carter, who preferred having his face covered with his mask.

I then made him smile for me because it was so much cuter.  This costume had two grenades, a knife, a walkie talkie, and a headset (which he skipped because it didn't fit right).  And it was still 33% cheaper than the Halloween store.

Jacob was a rapper.  He rationalized it by saying that if he got the hoodie to match the pants he got the previous weekend, at least that was better than spending that much or more on something he'd only wear once.  Then we just had to add the chains and hat.  He wanted a grill for his teeth, too, but those were sold out.

Hard to see, but the hat has a bunch of gold studs on the front.  All about the bling, baby.

I opted to spice up the boring pumpkin I carved with the "fancy" pumpkin light that flashed rainbow colors.  Maybe next year I'll regain my face game.  Too bad almost no one got to see them!  Stinkin' rain.  The boys came back with damp feet but were otherwise unscathed.  They got just enough candy to spice things up amidst our leftovers.

So, between the last-minute costume buying, the crappy weather, the lack of trick-or-treaters, and the boys' short outing themselves, it was just an odd day.  It's rare that my work day is so significantly better than our evening.  We finished off the evening with a crazy windstorm packing 60+ mph gusts that lasted from about 9pm until late morning.  I slept with earplugs in as I knew that every time I woke up to blow my nose or deal with my dry mouth from mouth breathing, the wind would keep me up.  The earplugs did their job and I slept as well as I could have expected with a cold.  It was rather unnerving in the morning, though, particularly when I went to my pre-furniture delivery allergy shot and sat in the parking lot feeling my car shake in the wind.  Our pool cover fell in, but otherwise we came out unscathed.  Many houses in Buffalo and Rochester got hit by trees, though.  A house around the corner had the top half of a dead pine tree snap off in multiple large pieces, and I saw a house with siding damage a few minutes up the road.  Thankfully we put the hoop in the garage or else I would have been ridiculously worried about it--and after the last wind damage I didn't want to risk it. The also did quite the job of finishing off the majority of the fall leaves, which was a bummer since the day after Halloween always feels like the fun part of fall is over, even without that.  Now we're left with just cold and snow and one wonderful blip of Thanksgiving before winter takes over for real.  All in all, it was just a weird lead-up to the holiday and a weirder 24 hours.

And now it's November.  How the heck is that possible?  Wasn't it just New Year's?  Thanksgiving is less than four weeks away, and then the Christmas craziness begins.  Of course, we'll be too busy with basketball to notice, I think.  I have no idea how these last two months (of the decade!) will go, but there's no stopping it now...

Furniture Farewell

Once upon a time, a young married couple bought their first house.  The wife's favorite show was Trading Spaces, and she was determined to dress up their very white house with a very colorful accent wall.  The couple hatched a plan to buy bold red furniture and paint one wall in the living room to match.  The rest of the walls were a goldenrod that perfectly matched the color of the accent pillows.  The room was the first perfectly coordinated room that the wife ever put together, and it was good.  It felt extra cozy on winter nights, especially when accented with Christmas pine and classic white lights.  It was exactly what the couple was hoping for, and it lived a good life for 4-1/2 years until this chapter ended and the next began.

Yes, that story is about us.  I just wanted to set the stage for how it felt when we bought our living room furniture that has survived for over 14 years.  When we moved into our first house, I wanted something fun and different.  I also wanted my red accent wall so badly.  We walked into Value City Furniture and found our set.  It had the color, it was oversized, it was comfortable, and it was versatile.  It had a couch, an armchair, an ottoman, and a chaise extension that would fit on either piece.  And, of course, the price was right.  Ahhh, those early days in our first house.  Pardon the quality of these pictures--they were from a very early digital camera--but this was how they looked originally.

We started with the chaise on the couch at the far end.  I can't get over how puffy the pillows look.  They don't look like that now.

I think that was the ottoman upside down waiting for its feet.  Note that we had the pattern side of the chair cushion facing out.  It matched the pillows, but it did not last long that way.  We went all red soon after.

This was a more finished version--complete with the ugliest lamp ever that came with the house.  But oh, how I loved that room.  Later we had red chenille curtains that matched the furniture and striped sheer curtains for the center window that matched the accent pillows really well.  When the sunlight rotted the sheers, I found blinds that matched the walls perfectly.

Furniture shouldn't be such an emotional attachment, but when it represents your first well-decorated room in your first house, it holds a special place.  That attachment intensified when it became the furniture that welcomed home our first little baby.  I used to put the Boppy on the chaise extension and nap on the couch next to this little guy.  And yes, I know that sounds like a bad idea, but it didn't last long--only until he rolled over, and my arm was always draped on him, and I was a light sleeper.

I mean...c'mon. 💓

 The chair got a lot of love, too.  I remember a lot of nursing sessions there, as well as this mini photo shoot when Craig wanted a pic of me for a birthday greeting on the scoreboard at the Red Wings game.

There were also a lot of naps there...uncomfortable though they may look.

I also discovered it was good for propping up a baby.

As Jacob grew, the furniture started to get a workout as he crawled and pulled up and climbed.

Carter did his fair share later on, too!

I'm pretty sure the room never looked prettier than at Christmas, our last one there specifically, when the house was mostly clean for showings.

I know this pic doesn't even show the furniture, but I think it captures the time of year I loved this room the most.  I still miss it.

But 10 years ago last week, I realized that if we were going to have another baby (with our originally desired three-year age difference--ha!) and get a bigger house, we needed to start looking ASAP.  I found one I liked online and took a newly-walking Jacob to an open house.  I fell in love with the house immediately and we started the process to get ours on the market.  Unfortunately, that house got another offer in the midst of it all, but the process was already started on our house, so we had to press on and find another.  It took an extra couple months, but we finally found our new home.  Three months later, we moved in.

We first had the chaise on the chair and the ottoman acting like a chaise on the couch.

Even without the accent wall, the furniture looked right at home.  It also matched the adjacent dining room, which was almost an identical color to the old red.

Awww, look at toddler Jacob modeling in front of the chair...always with a stick in hand.

After Jacob had an unfortunate incident falling into the coffee table and picking up a scary bump/bruise on his ear, the coffee table shifted and the ottoman (whose cushion had begun to cave in anyway) became the coffee table with a board on top.  At least the corners were softer than the table.

As time went on, the chair moved to a new spot, and here it was featured in one of only a couple pictures in existence of Jacob holding Carter.

The couch was my home for my entire maternity leave with Carter.  I spent hours there every day, nursing and snuggling (and blogging).

Later it was a favorite snuggle spot for evening TV viewing...

The chair also became the spot for Carter's monthly photos...from the first...

...to the last.

The furniture has been the backdrop for our entire existence in our own home--both of them.  Opening Christmas and birthday presents...

...and pretty much everything else.  It took a beating over the years, from spills and puke to crumbs and jumping kids.  The back cushions are matted and misshapen, the fabric worn.  The pillows are flat beyond fluffing, and there are many mystery spots of stuck-on something.  The foam in the ottoman collapsed years ago, which is why it ended up as our coffee table with a board on top.  While the furniture has always been comfortable, I think over the years it got a little too comfortable.  The couch is lacking support, to the point that the last time my dad tried to lay on it, he almost threw out his back.  It was at that point he offered us "assistance" to buy new furniture ASAP.  It took one heck of a search, but it finally had an ending with the exact set I wanted--which was much harder to find than expected.  We thought we might want a couch with recliners, but I hate the style of pretty much every recliner couch.  The back cushions are weirdly puffy and the armrests look weird.  They just strike me as very 80s or something.  We also didn't want leather.  So, I went on the hunt for any sort of modern, attractive recliner couch in existence, and I really only found two--one of which was uncomfortable.  So, we settled on the other, but it did not come cheap, as it came from La-Z-Boy.  It should hold up beautifully, mind you, but thank goodness my dad offered assistance or we'd have never been able to get what we really wanted.  Especially because the matching chair and a half cost nearly as much as the couch!  I debated getting a regular recliner to match, but in the end decided that if we were going to do it, we should do it right and I'd probably long regret not getting the prettier chair.  That order was placed about a month ago.

And today, that well-worn, well-loved red furniture was moved out to the curb.  Well, the curb and the garage.  Our trash disposal company is a bit picky about that stuff, so we're sending it out in waves.  Anyway, a new era has dawned and we now have grown-up furniture.  Very grown-up furniture.  To the point the kids are forbidden from eating or drinking on it.  After seeing (yet again) the mess I had to vacuum out last night from under the cushions and in the crevices (and the remnants that still fell out during the removal process), we really have no choice.  The bottom cushions don't even come off this couch, so getting things stuck down there is a bad idea.  And I don't care what kind of fabric protection we have--I just don't want to worry about what could get spilled or stuck there.  So, kids, eat on the recliner.  I will too.

It took a gargantuan effort to move everything out and in.  We had a windstorm overnight (on the heels of the rainiest Halloween ever--more on that soon), and I had an allergy shot at 8am.  The boys were off school so Craig was home.  I was hoping they'd come closer to the middle of the 8-11am delivery window, but we were second on their list and they arrived right around 8:25, right as I was leaving the allergist.  I came home to all of the furniture off the porch, the old chair in the garage, the foyer light disassembled, and the old couch halfway to the door.  They couldn't get it out.  I have no idea how we got it in there when we moved, but the feet in particular were making things difficult.  They tried unscrewing them, but that didn't seem to work, so they just hammered them off until they could get it out the door and down to the curb.  The new one took a little angling, along with completely moving everything else out of the foyer (the bench and shoe rack), but it came in a bit easier...and its legs appear to be much easier on and off!  I offered the guys some leftover Halloween candy, and that was that.  We put things mostly back together before I finally headed off to work. 

For reference, here's the before...

And now, here's the after...

I'm not quite sure what to think of it yet.  I mean, I love it, and it's still so much more attractive than the alternative.  But I still feel like it looks weird in the room.  I can't decide if it's because the shape and scale are totally different, or if the color combos (walls, end tables) seem weird, or if we're just so darn used to what we had that it's going to take time to see it without the subconscious mental comparison to what was there.  Jacob pretty much hates everything about it and has complained about it all day.  However, he's still really stuck on the LED-lit leather couch (!) he saw while we were shopping, and honestly, it's all he's ever known and change is hard.  I know I had a very hard time when we got new furniture when I was 13.  Our love seat ended up in the basement but I remember being sad when the couch went elsewhere.  Of course I liked the new furniture once I got used to it, but it was still different!  I hope Jacob will come around, too.  For what we paid, he better!

Still, I do feel a bit of a loss, a mourning if you will, at seeing that furniture go away.  Anything that makes home feel a bit less like home--even temporarily--is hard.  We had so many memories and so many hours spent on that furniture.  It was the beginning of a big dream of having our own house with our own touches, and it's been a constant ever since.  It's a piece of family history and it feels a little wrong to just send it out to the curb.  It's a good thing I've had some recent practice with the baby stuff, but still, it's hard.  Hearing Jacob complain about it is harder.  On the bright side, I am sitting in the chair right now and it's perfect.  I guess at this point all we can do is make the best of it now that it's here.  It's a great next step for us, and I hope it becomes the next centerpiece for the heart of our home.