Metal Mommy

Sullivan never fails to make me smile and laugh. He has a wicked sense of humor, he has since he was tiny! I remember us reading a book together about cats when he was about 4 or so, where there were real photographs on the last page of a kitten’s face at each stage of it’s growth. He would take a look at some of those photos and go into fits of laughter. A tongue sticking out, a funny look on it’s face–somehow his little brain picked up the random funniness of it all and he got it. To me it just seemed like such a grown-up thing to ‘get’. As he grows he is just becoming such the little man. Check out this outfit he put together himself before going to school. How cute is that?! It’s hard to see, but the shirt is Polo and the pants have little blue stripes on them. Plaid and stripes…but somehow he is just the height of fashion. And the fact that he cares about that is just the cutest! He also came up this morning with his hair combed, I had nothing to do with that. Who is this boy?!

As I went down in his room this morning I noticed something new on his door. He had taped a Kleenex box on there. ?! As I looked closer I realized that the box says ‘Donations’ on it. This would be very sweet if it were for the local food shelf, or for Haiti. But alas, my friends, I must admit that my son is only soliciting money for his own selfish gains…I’m sure it’s for a new toy car or a game for the Wii. I guess you can’t blame a guy for trying. Part of me wants to stick a dollar in there, just to see his surprised face…but then what kind of mother would I be, rewarding such greediness? Of course when I asked him about it he got a sly look on his face, it’s all in fun…so I may just have to be the bad mom and give him a dollar in there anyway. He is certainly clever, I will give him that!

Last weekend Sullivan was invited to spend the night at a classmate’s house. This was definitely a rite of passage, and I do believe Vivian was also eight when we allowed the first slumber party for her as well. With Sullivan though I have to say it means even more to me. As any of you know with kids on the spectrum, social graces are not usually their thing. Sullivan loves playing with other kids but doesn’t seem to always really ‘connect’ with them on a deeper level. When kids come over to play he often wants to spend the entire time showing them his coin collection or reading them facts out of the Guinness Book of World Records. As you can imagine, other eight year old boys (and many girls!) only have so much of an attention span for these things! Making real and lasting friends is probably the one thing with Sullivan that I worry about the most…there is nothing worse than thinking of your child feeling lonely. So the sleepover was definitely a victory for both son and mother. It went very well, according to him and the parents—other than the boys getting a car stuck inside the foosball table and they had to completely take it apart to get it out. (!) Sullivan had drawn a cartoon of what he and Charlie would do on their sleepover together….one of the things was “get into mischief”…well, I guess they did that!

October 9th the Coreman and I celebrated our 16th anniversary. 16 years! Hard to believe. On one hand that doesn’t seem like very long at all in the grand scheme of things, but then it feels like it’s been a lifetime. We had SUCH a fun day, it was very much like the old times. J Cory took the day off of work and we just played. We drove out to Lindstrom to hit an antique sale, it was a nice drive. Back in the single days, especially when we were living in Montana, we would just hop in the car and drive in any direction, just to see what we could see. Of course there we would end up in the mountains, which was always amazing…we even came across a grizzly one time! (needless to say, we stayed IN the car.!) After picking up a little shelf for our entry way (we seem to often buy a piece of furniture for our anniversary, which I think is a cool tradition) we drove back and had an impromptu lunch at Ciao Bella. Yum. Nothing like some delicious mini-burgers, fries and amazing tomato basil soup to warm the heart and soul on a chilly day! By accident we ended up having a romantic dinner for two at home, as both kids were invited to friends’ houses. It was just the perfect day! For 16 years that man has put up with excessive amounts of hand sanitizer, me calling him frantically for directions and my neuroses. He should get a medal.

The weekend found me at the Mall of America at the World’s Biggest Baby Shower! Honestly there are many places I’d rather be than the MOA on a Saturday, but this was actually quite fun. The MomsLikeMe web site that I work for threw this for Lynsee, the woman who bravely is having her baby LIVE on the site in November! We’ve been following her pregnancy since about 6 weeks along. She has definitely become a part of our family on there and we’re so excited for the birth! (to be honest tho, I’m not sure I’ll actually watch it. It may be a miracle and all, but I remember from experience that it is not for the squeamish. !) The ‘shower’ was basically a big get-together at the rotunda complete with fashion shows, shower games and lots of information about Lynsee. The shower ‘gifts’ were collected donations for a crisis center called Families Moving Forward, so that was really cool. It was just really great to be a part of that and to hang with my fun MLM peeps once again. Those ladies have such a warm place in my heart—and they are a hoot! It’s amazing to me how you can get a group of people from all walks of life together and as moms, we just have so much in common. Very cool.

This week—just a whole lotta work at Hot Mama. Vivian is the only one who had anything fun planned over the holiday weekend—she’ll be getting back from a Confirmation camp overnight today. We’ll just spend the weekend trying to avoid the H1N1 that seems to be everywhere! Yikes.

This morning I had the dreaded ‘womanly’ procedure that I’ve been nervous about since I found out I had to do it. WARNING TO ALL MEN: you may just want to skip this post, my friends of the male persuasion. If you don’t like to hear about periods or the word PAD makes you squeamish, you won’t want to hear about this. !

Basically I’ve been having funky periods and some serious cramping a week before getting it. Not so fun. An ultrasound at my new gyno revealed that ‘uterine polyps’ could be the culprit. My doc said they are easy to remove and nothing to worry about—very common little things, but they can reek havoc on the uterus they call home. So! I made an appointment at this clinic to have them removed, and today was the day.

Now I’ve had to deal with some health things in my past…I’ve had two babies, for goodness sakes. I’ve also passed two kidney stones, which was neither fun nor pretty. I’ve had MRI’s and medication for a funky benign fatty tumor on my pituitary gland. (not going into that one…!) This actual procedure sounded pretty easy and I wasn’t too worried about it itself. It was the ‘conscious sedation’ thing that made me lose a little sleep. Such a drag—I would really love to just comfortably and willingly bask in a lawful and acceptable lovely high for a little while…but NO, my crazy bod has decided it likes to try to reject almost any foreign substance that is put into it. I tend to have really weird reactions to meds. When those papers come with your prescription that mention the 3% of people who get some crazy side effect, I’m one of those 3%. It stinks. It’s always the thing I freak about first, not what I’m actually going through. Most people look at meds as their savior when they are going through something–not I. I wonder what the heck it’s going to do to me. So being mildly ‘put under’ with this procedure today had me biting my nails.

My dear friend and neighbor Dawn offered to drive me there and Coreman was picking me up, since I wasn’t supposed to be driving. I couldn’t wait to tell the anesthesiologist all of my crazy ‘allergies’, I needed to make sure this guy was ON BOARD. He was wonderful. He listened to everything I said and he and the doctor went back and forth about the best cocktail they could give me. They also gave me the option of nothing but some Novocain…the doc said that really she wasn’t even sure I had the polyps at all and she could just take a little looksee at first—then if I needed more work done in there my good friend Dan (the guy who does the drugs) could pump me up with the heavier stuff. That sounded good to me, although I knew I’d have to deal with a little pain on my own in the process. That’s how bad my reactions can be….I’ve gotta choose pain over a good buzz. Dang.

They brought me into a room and put me down on this table. I have to say, it was the most surreal experience I’ve had. They laid me down and put my feet into stirrups—of course. But not just any stirrups, stirrups that had straps on them to hold my legs in. Whoa. I could barely see anything as I had a series of ultra bright lights above my eyes. All of this crazy apparatus was being passed from person to person and over me in that room, and my good friend Dan was on my right putting a bp cuff on me and patting my arm. All of a sudden some bubblegum music from the 1960’s blasts on, and all of the medical personnel in the room start laughing and doing their ‘medical speak’ gibberish. Let’s just hope what they were saying wasn’t ‘what a funny vagina’ in Gynish. I felt like I had been abducted by aliens and they were experimenting on me….or I was on an episode of ER, complete with soundtrack. I daresay if it weren’t for the anxiety I felt just being there and the occasional heavy crampy twinge (I did say ‘ow’ a few times out loud, I must admit)–ok, and the fact that my vajayjay was right there for all to see– it would have actually been fun. Much better than a stuffy old hospital, I have to say. It made me feel pretty good about this new place of mine that I’m going.

It all came down to the doc not seeing any polyp and me needing nothing but a little biopsy just to make sure all is A-OK. No big-time crazy-makin’ drugs, I was in and out of the office in about 20 minutes. I have to admit I was feeling pretty spunky having everyone in that room calling me ‘tough’ after going through it without the meds. Metal Mommy indeed! I did mention that they needed some heavy metal music in there instead of the 60’s stuff, but they probably won’t listen to me. Somehow those heavy guitar chords just seems so much more fitting when someone is clambering around in your Lady Bits, as my friend Barb calls them.

Not only am I happy that it was quick and relatively easy but I’m especially happy that I am coming out of this only feeling a bit tired and with a slight headache. I’ve got a Tae Kwon Do test of Sullivan’s to attend tonight, and I was SO bummed at the idea of possibly missing it! Yes, my boy has earned the right to test for his first new belt, white with a stripe. He’s doing it! I think I will probably be an emotional wreck seeing him there doing that. It just means so much to see him getting rewarded for the work that is especially hard for him. I’m so proud! He is too, he said he can’t WAIT for the test. Not even a bit nervous! And he actually was telling me how much he likes karate. Hallelujah!

And a final note about just how lucky and blessed I am to have such wonderful people in my life. This was just a small thing I went through, and I had all of these friends offer to help. Dawn drove me to the clinic, Stephanie is bringing us dinner. My friend Eugenia stopped by with some delicious Chinese onion pancakes because she knows we love them. People I don’t even really know on the web site I work on were wishing me well and saying they would pray for me today. It totally warms the heart, I have to say. I’ve been on the verge of tears all day. With my friends and my loving family I have such an amazing support system and for that I am so very grateful. Even some dudes on Facebook are wishing me well, and it’s a big deal that they will even READ anything about Lady Bits, let alone talk about it.

Wow, instant fall around here! The cold windy weather definitely makes me want to hunker down and stay in with a comfort meal and a good snuggle by the fire! Who knew last week we were all sweating? Crazy. Minnesota.

I’ve had a great past few days, I must say. I’m still celebrating my birthday…at least according to my new friend Eugenia I am. Saturday night she prepared the most amazing authentic Chinese meal for me and the fam. I swear as she called us to the table and I saw the beautiful circular arrangement of no less than eight separate dishes, all prepared in honor of little ol’ me, I got a little teary-eyed. I can’t even explain to you how good everything was, it was pure heaven.

Add a little bit of cold plum wine and some good conversation, and it was definitely a celebration! She even bought some sesame balls for dessert because she knows they are my favorite. How lucky am I???? Xie xie, Eugenia, xie xie very much.

Sunday afternoon found me filming another video for MLT/Delta Vacations. This was an interesting one all around….it was for the ‘romance’ packages they sell, so I was half of a newly-married honeymoon couple. The other half was our friend Bill from church. We chose Bill because he’s good looking and plays in a band, so we figured he’d be okay in front of the camera…plus he’s just an all-around nice guy and was willing to do it! I have to say, it’s a bit weird to hold hands and be all googy-eyed with another guy’s husband…in front of your husband. As Stephanie would say, how very Sam Mendes and Kate Winslet. I think it would have been much easier to get into it had it been some hot guy I didn’t even know, but I think we pulled it off okay. We definitely had a lot to smile and laugh about, trying not to get blown away in the near gale-force winds that were whipping around. It’s a good thing I had a long skirt on, otherwise it might have been up at my shoulders. It’s just not that kind of romance video! I’ll post it here on the blog when it’s all edited and ready to go.

Sunday afternoon we were silly enough to sit outside in the gale-force winds and dropping temps for our second Flamingo Night! We started it up a couple of Sundays ago. What is Flamingo Night, you ask? Well, it’s actually something that we should have started in the spring/summer, but we’ll do it as long as we can hold out. It’s a neighborly get-together in which everyone just hangs out in the yard of someone’s house, and that is all that is expected of the host–their yard. No food, no drinks, nothing….people definitely bring whatever they want, but the idea is to keep it easy and very laid-back so it will actually happen. I don’t know who will host next–the next people who want to takes the flamingo and places it in their own yard–I guess we’ll just have to keep our eyes open for those pink birds! I think it’s a great way to get to know the people in our neighborhood. (I feel like I should be bursting into a Mr. Rogers song right about now…!)

Today I was able to get some things done around here and even got in an impromptu coffee/playdate with Stephanie, Louis and Digs! The time with Stephanie felt like just a tease, being it was only for a little over an hour…but I’ll take what I can get. Our usual Friday Morning Coffee got ousted this week by my dumb old uterus. Apparently she decided to house some unfriendly polyps that need to be removed so I’ll be in stirrups instead of the coffee shop! (nice mental picture, eh?) Not looking forward to that one, I have to say. If you’re lucky enough you might get some gory details. heh heh.

On that note, have a good week and stay warm!

This morning I did my monthly Showcase Minnesota spot for the Moms Like Me site; it’s part of my ‘duties’ as a discussion leader. Okay, we’re not really forced to be on the show but of course the ham that is me is always up for it. The toughest part is coming up with a new and interesting topic to talk about. I mean, the site is usually good for some titillating conversation…I’ve been known to post the burning (ha, no pun intended, but that is good) question “do you wax Ladytown?” and right now there is a poll on there where you can vote for either sleep or sex. But somehow those don’t seem like worthy morning-TV fodder, and certainly not enough to fill two to two-and-a-half minutes. Sometimes it will be easy and something will be going on that needs to be promoted. Today however, I had to think up my own something…so Cindy (the site manager) helped me come up with the idea of packing healthy things in your kid’s lunch. This is funny to me, honestly, since I just came home from the store with a box of Velveeta Shells and Cheese and am certainly not against my children eating baloney. I will say tho, that I do make sure they always get a fruit and/or a veggie in their lunch and I try to keep it on the healthy side. (they can do as I say, not as I do…!) So on the show today I was talking about hummus and pita (something they always say in magazines that kids love, even though mine hate it…but TV Land doesn’t need to know that, right?!) sugar snap peas and chocolate rice cakes. (if you’ve never had a chocolate rice cake, you need one.) I even cut up the under-appreciated vegetable kohlrabi to show everyone how marvelous they are and I made Rob eat a piece. He was pretty willing, actually, and I was impressed that he knew right away what it was. You can actually watch the clip by going to the site, finding the date of the show and then clicking on the link for my segment. Before we were on the air Rob was telling me he was going to ask me what was new on the site, but we ran out of time. Too bad, I was going to mention the ’sleep or sex’ poll….

So an hour or so later I get over to the Galleria to do a return and as I’m poking around a sales rack this woman comes up to me and says, “were you on T.V. this morning?” I was like, “well, yes, I was!” Then she tells me she actually recognized my sweater. hilarious. I guess I should be happy that someone likes my choice in clothes!

It’s been an action-packed past few days, I have to say. The other night my beloved friend Stephanie took me out to La Belle Vie for a belated birthday present. Wow, what a gift! I had never been to that place, it was amazing. So glamorous, the ambiance is just amazing. It’s definitely a hip and happenin’ spot–elegant without being stuffy. The food was wonderful, so fresh and delicious. Plus they have incredible drinks, many of their own concoctions. At one point Stephanie went off to use the loo and I found myself sitting there at the bar alone–just kind of taking everything in. Something caught my eye in my peripheral vision and there was this guy on the other side of the bar smiling and waving at me. Not simply waving, my friends, but waving at me from under his chin. Do you know the wave I am talking about?? This is something you would never picture a man doing, only a grade school girl-pal. This wave was both hilarious and disturbing because the wavee was probably around 80 years old. I kid you not. I couldn’t help but laugh along with him and tried to avoid more eye contact whilst secretly begging Stephanie to hurry up and get back. When she returned the waitress came over and told us that the gentleman across the bar wanted to buy us a drink. yikes. What is more rude, not accepting a drink or accepting it without any intention of speaking to the guy? We decided to take the drinks and luckily he seemed happy enough simply to get a smile and nod of acknowledgement from us. Not long after his friend came over and gave me this guy’s card–it had his name, Bob Larsen, with his phone number underneath. Along the bottom of the card read Minneapolis, Miami, and Park City, UT. On the other side of the card it says Just Say Maybe. OMG! I guess you’ve gotta give the guy credit for trying, but I honestly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry that I was being picked up on by a creepy old guy. (if you want his number, just let me know….)

Yesterday I got to see my friend again as we had a play date with our dogs! Steph and John got a new puppy, a Golden Doodle named Louis. What a cutie! And the guy is growing like a weed. He and Digby are the exact same size right now and it was SO fun to see them romp and play! The kids had the last dip in the pool for the summer and us adults lounged around with some cocktails and the mid-September breeze. It was truly lovely. I’m sure the next time we get the pups together Louis will have the advantage as he’ll just be getting bigger and bigger!

This week will be a bit more quiet. Working at Hot Mama, enjoying some coffee with friends. I’ll be gearing up for the weekend…an authentic Chinese meal and filming a romance video! Stay tuned….!

Even though everything around us is actually dying, September always feels like new beginnings to me. I definitely think the Jews are onto something, celebrating their New Year at this time. After all, I’m actually making an entry in this blog. Back from the the blog grave I am! School starts, which is definitely all things new…new teachers, maybe some new friends, definitely new experiences. There is the feeling of change in the air–for me it’s definitely a time of nesting. Wanting to cook yummy comfort food and do projects around the house. Yesterday I roasted my first chicken of the season (never mind it was a balmy 80 degrees out…I couldn’t wait any longer!) and it tasted delicious. I baked muffins for the kids’ breakfast, something I did a lot during the school year but somehow became yet another thing to be forgotten once summer hit–like my regular work-outs. We’ll soon be painting/re-doing the kids’ rooms and eventually painting the family room downstairs. It’s only taken two years to really start doing some of these things we’ve been wanting to do…!

Sullivan is definitely undertaking something new–Tae Kwon Do at American Karate Studio. Sound familiar? It should–that’s where I took karate up until my back rallied against me and made it impossible to continue. Now I get to live vicariously through my 8 year old, trying desperately not to become the over-bearing ‘Karate Mom’. After the first week of unsuccessfully trying to get him to actually practice his form outside of class I knew he was going to have to do this at his own pace, not mine. Although he wasn’t exactly begging me to join, when I brought up the idea of doing this for about the 5th time over the course of a year or two he finally said, “yeah, that might be fun…” so I jumped on it! For Sullivan, I look at this sport as therapy. TKD is all about discipline, focus, balance, memorization, feeling strong. All of these things are hard for my little Asperger’s boy, which is why it’s so good for him. It’s the only place I’ve seen him be encouraged to try something over and over and he’ll actually tolerate it. Ms. Obermiller is amazing–the perfect mix of sweet and loving but the kids also know what she expects and they don’t want to let her down. Not only does she teach them the moves but she takes the time to talk to each of them, and her classes often involve lining the kids up and talking about everyday life lessons. And can I just say that Sullivan looks darn cute in that uniform?? sigh. Watching him start to get a few of the moves down for his form makes me all teary-eyed–not only because my baby is doing Tae Kwon Do, but I know how tough it is for him and how HUGE it will be when he gets it all down. Having a child on the spectrum sure makes you appreciate the things we so often take for granted in our ‘typical’ kids. Sullivan’s first form–Kyum Son, which means humble beginnings. Indeed!

So happy fall to you! Maybe you can start something new…I have a few things up my sleeve myself.

What a fabulous weekend I’ve just had! How about you? Every year I so look forward to the 4th of July, and I have my dear friend Stephanie to thank for that. Celebrating the 4th as a child in Iowa City’s City Park is a tough act to follow, but I dare say my now grow-up ritual of spending it at Stephanie’s is making it just as special.

Ahhh, City Park. Every year we’d head down to the park early in the day, armed with our blankets, chairs, snacks, sparklers, and OF COURSE a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, complete with the cole slaw and potato salad that simply MUST accompany. We’d usually spend the day with friends and neighbors, camped out on the grass playing on the equipment, tossing frisbees, riding rides (they actually had some rides at the park then…ferris wheel, merry-go-round, and the like) and swimming in the city pool for hours. As it started to get dark we’d pack up and make our way to the field with everyone else to get ready for the fireworks show. Sometimes my sisters would bring their boyfriends. I lit sparklers every year even though they secretly really scared me. I remember never wanting the fireworks show to end. I never wanted the DAY to end! Even the random soul-shaking BOOMS that would erupt out of nowhere throughout the day giving me a small heart attack each time couldn’t have kept me away.

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