So many things...

Yep, it's been a long time again.

On Tuesday, my sixth injection is scheduled. So far, so good. Nothing earth-shattering, but I do feel positive changes. Even if I'm unable to comfortably run ever, I will NOT write this off as a waste. What that means is: I'm still not running. And what that means is: I will simply regale you with photos of my awesome children. Click out if you must :)

Here's what's been going on since we last spoke blogged...

MAY

 

X returned from her field trip to France 

(because the zoo wasn't enough for her class).

 Poor girl NEVER got her luggage. EVER.

It's still missing.

And her host family was pretty bunk...

lots of familial "issues," shall we say?

But she got the most amazing reception from

her adoring siblings at the airport!

JUNE

Clockwise from top left: 

X moved up from fifth to sixth grade in a little ceremony, 

G was in a play (he's the lump on the floor...more on that in a minute),

G graduated from middle school 

(he's the really short one between the girls, also more to follow),

and Q was a little too laid back during his end-of-the-year musicale.

So yeah, G was in a play. I knew he was taking Drama for his elective. I had some chickenscratch on my hardcopy calendar about Drama Night one Monday in early June. No one ever talked about. No school emails about it. So...on the day of, I decided to call the school and find out if my chickenscratch was bullshit. It wasn't. 

I picked G up from school and asked about it. "Oh, yeah!" he said. "Do we have a French hat and a coat a farmer would wear?" 

WTF, amiright? Show's in two hours and he's asking about costuming. 

As luck would have it, I DID have a "French hat" and the perfect coat. He was so excited.

Evidently, several families also missed the nonexistent memo and there were numerous late arrivals. And then the show happened. In past shows, G has portrayed "characters" like a silent bush or a mute policeman who points once or twice. My husband opted to skip the show and take a "personal night," thinking this would again be the case. However... This time G was onstage a LOT. And he talked a LOT. I remarked on this after the show. He was super exasperated with me.

"Mom..." he said. " I was the lead."

So yeah, G is kind of shrimpy. I know this. But when the graduating eighth graders were all standing on the stage, I seriously thought he was sitting down! Then I realized that all the girls were sporting hooker shoes...seriously. And the outfits. Total hootchie-mama city. I think I'll be an active parent and engage in a conversation about appropriate attire when my girls graduate!

 

 For Father's Day, we went to a Japanese restaurant.

While the sushi was totally unappealing to the kids,

the chopsticks provided a lot of entertainment :)

 That noodle DID end up on the floor.

 

The kids started their summer swimming lessons,

and the same week it rained a lot and was freezing cold.

Awesome SF Bay Area summer :)

 

These June pictures were just too cute to not include.

 JULY

 

I will sincerely miss our playground visits 

when C starts daily all-day preschool in September.

 

At what age do kids figure out appropriate restaurant behavior?

You think I'd know this, but I must have amnesia.

 Did anyone NOT see fireworks this summer?

Our city is going broke and the show was only 15 minutes...

but it was AMAZING!!!!

That's all!

The most important thing you need to know about my absence is...

...it was my birthday somewhere in there.

Yup.

Fifty is nifty.  (insert cheesy-yet-sincere smile)

 

Officially 50, taken just after midnight...

it was even scarier with the flash

Once again I've allowed 6 weeks to pass between postings...or has it been seven? Whatever. I've missed you. You've missed me. Now we're reunited, and it feels so good.

Tonight's not the night to share the ins and outs of my absence, just know that it's a challenge to write a semi-fitness blog when you aren't doing squat in the way of fitness activities and that I've been spending a ton of time with my family.

Back to my birthday...

My present to myself was to take my kids camping.

I've only been camping one time since I was eight years old. ONE TIME. My husband is an Eagle Scout, but he was not coming with us. I was undaunted. He had some valid concerns...

Him (super skeptically): Do you even know how to pitch a tent?
Me (incredibly upbeat):  Ummm....nope! But there are probably instructions, right?

*he hesitantly nodded, indicating that, yes, there probably were*

Him (super skeptically):  Do you even know how to build a fire?
Me (incredibly upbeat):  Wood...paper...matches...what's there to know?
Him (totally exasperated):  You can't just light some paper on fire and HOPE that the wood catches, too! You have to BUILD a fire!
Me (incredibly upbeat):  Yes! Yes!...the whole oxygen thing...right...gotcha!

*he rolled his eyes not imperceptibly, totally unconvinced I was capable*

Him (with great certainty):  You're bringing the stove, right?
Me (with equally great certainty...and incredibly upbeat): Nope!
Him (utterly incredulous):  What! Why not!
Me (incredibly upbeat):  Ehhh, I don't want to hassle with the fuel part and if it still works and how to work it since I've never used it...I figured we'll just eat cereal and sandwiches and maybe jam some hot dogs on sticks and roast them in the fire I'm going to "build."
Him (UTTERLY INCREDULOUS): You are KIDDING?!!!  You can't just stick hot dogs into an open flame and expect them to cook! Jeeeeezus! You need coals and embers...it takes skill and know-how...Jesus...
Me (incredibly upbeat...especially now that he had called upon Jesus to help me):  Ehhh, we'll figure it out...it'll be fun!

So yeah...I totally figured it all out. Did the tent thing. Did the fire thing. Totally rocked it. Didn't do the hot dogs the first night...instead picked up the worst pizza ever to contaminate our lovely planet on the way in. Did successfully toast marshmallows to perfection.

We were having a mini heat wave and Miss C insisted on wearing her new swimsuit all day...which included to camping.

Ballerina swimsuit + mismatched shoes = cutest camper ever.

Stumpfighters. 

These giant eucalyptus stumps were very cool. There were three of them on our campsite. We were the only campsite that had them. Sounds lucky, right? It wasn't. More on that later.

Sleeping in the tent was uneventful the first night. Thankfully.

We awoke the next day and decided to go for a hike. "Hike" is stretching the truth a little, though. The map showed a one mile loop around the camping area and called it "easy"...which was totally the truth.

 

The hike started off really well. Everyone was in high spirits!

We saw wild turkeys...which I must note for Jillsmo because I'm her Top Turkey-Sighting Blog.

No lie...about one half of a mile into the hike, the whining started. It was cool, though. I was all about it being fun...no pressure to complete...a DNF was totally fine. We found a place on the map where the trail appeared to come really close to the road about 100 yds from our campsite. We scrambled up the poison oak-infested hillside (the kids screamed about the poison oak the ENTIRE time) and emerged into a loving couple's morning tête-à-tête over their breakfast. Ooops.

Once back at our campsite, it was high noon and the awesome stumps proved to be the Ghosts of Shady Pasts. Yep. We had zero shade and temps were in the 80's. So being the resourceful life forms that we are, we dragged a blanket over to a shady spot in the middle of all the campsites and .... camped out there all day :)

Miss C brought an ungodly amount of tiny, lose-able toys in her little Dora backpack.

Her favorite part of the trip was the PBJ-on-hot-dog-bun sandwiches. Here she has one jammed on her finger.

We hung out in that shade all day...until we couldn't take it anymore...we needed ice cream.

Grossest ice cream ever...bubble gum. X started to cry. She had been so looking forward to yummy, cold ice cream and hers was disgusting. I was not a mean mom. I didn't make her eat it. I didn't tell her "well, suck it up, buttercup." Nope. I said "yeah! Looks totally gross! what kind do you want? Let's just get you something different." Easiest solution ever, right?

We did cook hot dogs in our second stellarly-built fire. And they were perfect. As was the fire. Again. I am like a pro camper...or a natural camper...or just really damn lucky...or something. Or it was my husband having called out to Jesus on my behalf.

Then the kids played cards and read Harry Potter number-I-have-no-idea with flashlights in the tent.

SO FUN!!!!!

...until it was so NOT. Time for bed, right? yeah, I thought so, too.

They slept well.

Last picture of me being 49...important to take that in the camping place bathroom.

It started to rain as we pulled the tent down and packed up our stuff. That just made it more exciting :) It was an easy 40-minute drive home. The campground is not the most wilderness-y...being just 30 minutes from downtown Oakland! The unpacking was pretty easy...probably felt that way because all the sleeping bags and inflatable mattresses are still in my car three weeks later! I should do something about that...

The next day was my actual birthday.

The sun came up.

My little girl and I went to the local rose garden where everything was in full bloom. She ran, of course. I didn't, of course.

We walked down magical paths.

We stopped to smell roses as big as her head.

She created the most wonderful photo opportunities.

All before 10 a.m.

I am truly blessed to have this life.

I am so grateful for everything (yes, everything) these fifty years have brought me.

Here's to the next fifty!

Sending my very best thoughts and wishes out to all of you :)

Coming up on six weeks...

That's how long it's been since I've checked in over here.

I'm chagrined.

Two words that have taken on markedly less importance in my world of late would be "blogging" and "workout".

But it's time for both to return...not with a vengeance, though. With thought and care.

I know everyone who used to read Taking It On has probably been quite curious about my injection schedule and how my hip is doing, so that will be the first order of biz.

MY HIP

I had my second PRP injection on March 20th. It was amazing. No singing, sadly. But cute, nice doctor same as the first time. Nice, big needle again, too.

 

Unfortunately, that alcohol bottle is not the drinking kind.

Might've helped had it been.

Recovery seemed faster than the first time. While there is still some soreness and inflammation, that is deemed normal as the injection causes an inflammatory healing response. The truly remarkable thing is the ease and smoothness of movement, especially when not bearing weight. The range of motion and increased flexibility is arresting. And I have been cleared to start working on the elliptical...as long as it doesn't hurt. You bet your ass I'll be paying close attention and safe-guarding my investment and progress. The instant it hurts in that not good way, I am off the machine. Interestingly, I'm not feeling driven to jump back on. It's Spring Break over here...the kids are all home...I've got things to do and people to play with. I'll probably get back to things of a workout nature in a week or so. Injection #3 is slated for sometime before the end of the month...no set date yet.

WORKING OUT

None. Nada. Zip. And totally NOT stressed about it. I have so much on my plate right now. While working out might help decrease some of the stress, making it happen might increase it. I look at it as a wash and have let go. It'll all come back when it's time. For now, I'm focusing on feeling healthy and happy and spending a ton of time with my kids :)

Which brings us to...

MY KIDS

My oldest just got accepted to an amazing local high school. I am so proud of him. Of course, it wasn't his first choice and so he's having a hard time getting excited about it. I do wish we could skip this phase, but we can't.

 

Photo taken two days after he received 

the first-choice school's wait list letter...hence the attitude.

Who'm I kidding? He'd have the attitude no matter what.

My big girl is just a joy. Doing great in school. Helpful wherever she is. Lots of harp playing and reading books. Lots of creating cool stuff like wallets made out of found materials and earrings made out of safety pins and writing books and drawing involved fashion pictures. She is really just the coolest of the cool.

 

I convinced her to go on the Ferris wheel at the local boardwalk.

We got stuck at the top...and I took this picture.

My little boy turned 8 since the last time I posted. Still non-stop, he had a bounce-house extravaganza for a party and a cake topped with General Grievous.

And my baby turned 4! She was super duper sick on her actual birthday but did get to share the bounce madness party with her big bro.

I've missed you all. Sounds corny, but it's true.

It's very likely that I'll be around a little more, but no guarantees.

Hope all o' y'all's worlds are treating you well :)