Happy Easter

Wishing you a blessed, happy, healthy Easter with those who matter in your life.

Our zoofari

On Saturday, we spent all day at the San Diego Zoo.

Beerman could have spent all day in the various aviaries. They were gorgeous. Until I got my head crapped on. Which is why the pictures are of Beerman and C-man.

We were smart enough to get a Backstage tour of the zoo. In it, we met a big-ass rodent.

Hung out with an emu. Petted a hedgehog.

And even fed a rhino!

The zoo was beyond our expectations. Here's our fierce monkey man. But even with all that, we discovered that there's always time for a churro break.

And that C-man loves the sky gondolas as much as me.

We didn't see the Pandas because the line was extraordinarily long. And we didn't feed the giraffes, because again, it was a long line and we can do that in Milwaukee. And we skipped the kid's zoo. But we did see two hippos fornicating. (Which made Beerman happy, because he has found the need to take pictures of animals humping on every trip we've ever been on). So for how my back has been feeling (just not improving) and how big the place is, we saw a vast majority of it. What a fabulous place!

Jam Packed

Day 2

Walking on the beach wall never gets old.

But the day was about Sea World. And waiting for Shamu to soak us was funny. And he did! But we got to see all kinds of cool things. Like sea lions and fish and penguins and flamingos.

The huge Sesame Street playground was so much fun. Despite our warnings that the water was going to get him, he just couldn't leave the spitting fountain alone. After he was thoroughly soaked, we stopped for a smoothie break.The highlight of the day for all 3 of us was meeting and feeding the dolphins. This is Kalohay. "She feels like rubber!"

Meeting the Pacific

Wordless Wednesday: Mommy! Watch this!

I'm a winner! And I've got proof!

Remember my photo that won photo of the day on the local morning show? And then they showed it the following day, because it was of a bench that was dedicated in the memory of a child who had died the previous year? It won photo of the month. I can pick up my framed photo anytime in the next 30 days. But the best part? Now we have 2 photos to cover the gaping hole in my living room wall from the roofing project I'm told can't be fixed until we replace the windows.

Guess it s not my inside voice

My back totally locked up yesterday afternoon. I can't sit. Lying down aches. Sneezing and coughing suck. C-man was asking why I was making those noises. Apparently my groans and yelps are now outside my head.

How in the hell am I going to do laundry and pack and ride on an airplane Wednesday? And how am I going to walk around theme parks? If it didn't hurt so much, I'd just sit down and cry. So much for a fun vacation...

Pals

As we were heading out to go geocaching, the neighbor kid was coming over.  And of course, as you'd do with any good friend, C-man yelled, "E wanna come with?"  Of course, he did (which was absolutely fine).  So the five of us (dirty Harry too) went on our merry way through Kletsch Park where we found lots of fun.

The good news is we found 3 geocaches.  C-man with one, E with another, and Beerman with the third. (I'd found the after-church find, which required some precarious stepping through a wet culvert with church clothes on).  So we were all pleased that we each got one today. (And the neighbors are thrilled we're teaching their kid about nature so they don't have to!)

And the boys were thrilled to run around the park and watch fishermen in the river.
And play on the playground together.

I'm so glad spring is really here.  Being able to do stuff outside again makes life so much better.

Faith

So on this morning's dog walk, I had to tell C-man that the 8th grader from his school had died and wasn't coming back to school.  (He'd been on life support until they could confirm that there was no brain activity)  C-man knew about the situation, as they'd been talking about it in school.  And I have to say, I have been so impressed with how the school has handled it; straightforward and honest, but totally age-appropriate.  They've been informing the parents in the same way, which has been extremely helpful.

But you can still imagine my surprise when the first thing out of his mouth after I told him was, "Can we go to church tomorrow? I think we should pray for him."  This child is 5.  And going to church on a Sunday morning instead of playing with his friends is never a top priority.  It's so nice to know that he feels comfortable enough with faith to find some comfort in it already.

Blog Hop for Children's Miracle Network

I've been tagged with the Hershey's Better Basket BlogHop, and I've returned the favor.  (After all, anything to help the competition of that nasty N company gets my support.)

HERSHEY’S BETTER BASKET BLOG HOP RULES

• Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.
• Create a blog post giving a virtual Easter Basket to another blogger – you can give as many Virtual Baskets as you want.
• Link back to person who gave you an Easter Basket.
• Let each person you are giving a Virtual Easter Basket know you have given them a Basket.
• Leave your link at BetterBasket.info/BlogHop comment section. You can also find the official rules of this #betterbasket blog hop, and more information about Better Basket with Hershey’s there.
• Hershey’s is donating $10 per each blog participating to the Better Basket Blog Hop to Children’s Miracle Network (up to total of $5,000 by blog posts written by April 4th, 2010).
• Please note that only one blog post by each blog url will count towards the donation.

Wistful

The tulips are springing from the ground.  The snow is gone.  And I'm really longing for the flowers and trees to begin to stretch out and show their beauty and proud colors again. This time of year always feels like a new start to me.  More than New Years or my birthday or any other time.  And I love that.

I hope you find beauty in your day.

What to say

An 8th grader at C-man's school committed suicide this week. We have no idea what to say to C-man, as they're telling the whole school today. Not that I think the kindergarten class is going to be a part of that, but he goes to extended care with older kids. And this boy has a sister in a younger grade. And it's a pretty small Catholic school. And the 8th graders are their field trip buddies. Ugh... it just breaks my heart. So our plan with C-man is to do nothing until he asks questions, which I'm sure will be tonight after extended care. I hate to not prepare him, but at the same time, how much can we really lay on a 5 year old? On a related note, I was in the library talking to some other parents, and they kept expressing what a good family it is. How involved the parents have been. How happy the parents are together. And I had to stop them and say, "Mental illness knows no age or social structure or education level. It's not about the family." Because while I know everyone is trying to make sense of it, fit it in to their own lives because it happened to "one of our own", it's not about ANY of those other things. And that family needs to understand that. Hopefully, some day they will...

O-hi-o

I'm totally through with you today. O-bye-o.

Intensity

Some things, like what's going on during a soccer game, are just too important to be distracted from.

Where's that corner so I can turn it?

My back has been hurting. And when I say it's been hurting, I don't mean it's achy. I mean I can't stand for more than 10 minutes without tears coming to my eyes. And it's been this way for a week. I can't run or bike. Hell, I can't even walk. Poor Harry totally got the shaft at the park yesterday, because it was so muddy, I couldn't manage the uneven walk across the field to sit on the oft-peed-upon bench. (At least Beerman took him and C-man out for a long park walk later on) I went to the gym yesterday and caught a yoga class. Normally, it would have annoyed me beyond belief because the class was so remedial, but yesterday, it was about all I could take. I took C-man to the golf course yesterday, and sat directly on the cold ground because I couldn't stand upright. Anything I need to get done needs to get done in the morning, because by noon, I'm absolute toast. The only good news in all of this is it has been a lot of pain, but no significant swelling that usually accompanies it.

I went to the chiropractor on Friday, and am headed back over lunch today. I'm taking pain killers I've been told to stop taking, spraying homeopathic stuff under my tongue, and heating/icing it... and it's still no better. All I want to do is lay down and cry.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the face of arthritis. And I'm here to tell you, it really, really sucks.

Birthday boy

5 years ago today, on the first day of spring, my life changed forever.

How quickly we moved from this... to giggles and intent conversations and big kid things...