Excited or Tired???

I am on a roller coaster these days.

The new job is great, learning lots, but it is requiring ALOT of focus and discipline that I have not had to exert for a few years. I am tired.

One of my babysitters called in sick and I spent the better part of last night trying to co-ordinate with the 2 other sitters piece together 6.5 hours of coverage for the baby. Then I spend another hour phoning a few people and doing telephone interviews and setting up appointments for a new sitter so I have a better back up plan. I am tired.

My studying for my CFP course is not going well I have 6 weeks and 4 modules quizzes to take before my final at the end of February. I am tired.

The kids have had annual check ups with every medical personnel known to man, doctor, dentist, optometrists, physiotherapy, occupational therapy. I am tired.

I feel like blogging again and writing and getting my thoughts out of my head. This is exciting.

I posed an idea and was asked if I would like to contribute to the blog of a new website going up. This is exciting.

I feel good about my family, my job, my career. This is exciting.

I hit a real slump from about 4:30 to 7:30 everyday. by 8pm I finally feel like doing something but know I need to wind down because the baby will be up at 5;30am.

Balance is getting closer. The pendulum is not swinging so hard. I'm starting to find a rhythem.

Cerebral Palsy 101

So I had a little shit fit the other day. The boy child has been complaining about having a sore back for a few weeks. At first I thought is was due to a busy day at school or the fact that we slacked off his therapy schedule over the holidays and he was just sore after getting back into our routine.

So finally when I had a few minutes I decided I should take a closer look.

I had him come stand in front of me and do some of his stretches and then I had him bend over while I took a look at his spine.

In my next breath I gasped, and tears immediately filled my eyes. I swear to you I could see a curve on his spine. It was right there staring at me. In an instant the painful teenage years of my brother came flooding back to me. The back brace, the body casts and the eventual surgery that had a steel rod (Harrington rod) fused to his spine. The fact that now twenty years later, his scoliosis is so strong he actually has a curve in the steel rod and nobody knows what to do about it.

I swear to you it was there. I could not get through to my doctor, so I called a dear friend of our who is an Osteopath (who has helped us out on many occassions). She could see him. I was not looking for any diagnosis, just a second set of eyes to tell me if she could see what I see and did she think we should visit our doctor.

Thankfully, after a treatment session, where she was able to loosen up his back muscles a bit. We both determined that there was nothing abnormal about his spine.

That day it must have been tension he was holding is his back to keep his balance or the way he was standing on his feet.

I am so very grateful that we do not have to start dealing with the added bonus of another condition so far.

Life with Cerebral Palsy is tricky most of the time and just when you think you have stuff under control it throws you a curve ball just to keep you on your toes.
:)

Post Traumatic Stress Headache

Oh My God Y'all
I am TERRIFIED of the dentist. So much so that I have not been to the dentist since...well let's just say OVER a decade.

You see I have a small mouth. PAUSE (my friends are all on the floor laughing....hang on they'll be another minute)

Okay Small mouth riiiight>

I also am the genetic recipient of a rare condition where for several of my teeth I grew three (3) sets of teeth (1 baby, 2 adult)

I only have 24 teeth. Right now... in my head....this second. For real!

if you are following along you may have come to the realization that I am missing some teeth. several.... LOTS to be exact.

THEY (my parents and dentist)knew early on that I would have "issues" in a bid to help my teeth grow in properly 4 of my baby teeth were pulled to make "room".

Of course there was no room and couple that with the few extras I was growing and between the ages of 8-18 I had 13 adult teeth removed..YES

FREAKIN 13.... I call BULLSHIT!

Oh and did I mention that my teeth never grew in straight anyway so I had to wear orthodontic braces for 5 years. oh yeah baby it was AWESOME! My eye teeth came in over top of my front teeth. Crazy Ass teeth.

Needless to say by the time I was 23 after a lifetime of one painful detal visit after another, one day I forgot to return the dentist's call for a recall appointment and they never called to re-book my appointment and I certainly did not call them.

I don't really know what snapped in my brain. it's not like I didn't know I SHOULD go to the dentist. I was no longer just afraid of my dentist I was afraid of any dentist. I was afraid to pick up the phone to call a dentist.

This presisted even after I had kids.

My son was 6 years old before the shame of not taking him to the dentist over took my fear of dentists.

It was not a pleasent experience but the hygienist who looked after me took one look in my mouth and said she totally understood why I have not been to the dentist is so long. She empathized with me and said...."Well that could not have been fun"

One look and someone validated my childhood of dental horror.

Silly as it may seem...it kinda made it all better.

It was not as horrible as I thought it would be. I only have one chipped filling and one cavity that has to be fixed.

It will still be a long time before I can handle a dental visit without anxiety,(I have a pounding headache from clenching my jaw and locking it while she was working one me - for only 45 mins) but this new dentist office was certainly a lucky pick for our family.

Oh did I mention I sent my kids first to test out the office and scheduled my appointment after them, once I knew it was okay. Shameful but true.

Whatever gets our family dental care back on track works for me!

Yours in dental health.

Pushing the Buggy.

Trying

Trying to get back in to some good habits.

Trying to blog everyday again
Trying to exercise (do something) everyday
Trying to eat better everyday (atleast 2 servings of fruit and 2 veggies)
Trying to get in more study time on 2 courses that i am taking
Trying to put my blackberry down
Trying to menu plan for the week
Trying to grocery shop by a list
Trying to pay more attention when my husband is speaking (tough I know blah blah)
Trying to save some money where i can
Trying to enjoy my new job with less hours but also less pay and no benefits
Trying not to be terrified of paying for upcoming dentist bill
Trying to be supportive for friends that really really need it
Trying to build a business plan for my future
Trying to keep up with school homework and activities
Trying to support husband in his choice of volunteer work
Trying to maintain therapy schedule and exercises for the boy child
Trying to enjoy my baby, being a baby
Trying to fix up all the little things around the house that need fixing
Trying to save to fix the big things that need fixing

Trying to keep all the balls in the air.

No wonder I am tired.

2011

What a year! 2010 was not my favorite year, but i learned so much on the way and even though the journey was tough in the end it worked out.

Lots of changes on the horizon for 2011.

We made the decision for me to quit my cushy job with health benefits and a pension, so that I could take a job closer to home and for fewer hours so I can drop the kids off at school and pick them up, do home work and cook at home. This also made it easier for my Mother in law to continue babysitting for us as it wasn't such a long day for her.

We are hoping we can stay diciplined enough to stick to our new budget which now requires us to put money aside for health care and retirement.

I think this year will be a lot of juggling trying to figure it all out but we should settle into something we can live with soon.

that's all the time i have for now, hope to be back soon and more often.