She did it!!

Somebody got her ears pierced.

The first time I took her, she changed her mind when we arrived at the store.

The second time, she said In her gut she knew the time was right. She says one should always listen to her gut.

I agree.

Upped the Dosage

After a couple of weeks on my ADHD meds, They needed a bit of tweaking. the first week was great. Very focused, energized, felt great. the second week took me a bit back down the hill and back into my old way of NOT being able to focus on ONE task or conversation. I knew that getting the right dosage would be a bit of trial and error so we will be increasing my dosage of the same meds to see if that does the trick. The old dosage just wasn't enough for me. I equate it to trying to tranquilize a large elephant with a bee bee gun sized tranquilizer. Mama needs more!!

Had to make a trip to Walmart over the weekend. They do have a nice selection of airsoft guns ya know...

So Ari and I headed off for a walmart outing beginning in cosmetics where she picked out some new lip gloss.

then we headed through the greeting card isle where she spotted the Crayola Color Wonder packets. She of course HAD to have one so she picked out the Disney Princess one and we were off to the movie section where she campaigned heavily for the new AVATAR DVD.

Of course, we came out of the store with a bunch of stuff we probably didn't need and were headed home when she stated that she JUST wanted to go home and watch her Avatar movie and color her princess pictures. I told her she might want to think about sharing the coloring stuff with her younger sister. she said she would.

Later that evening Ted and I headed out for a dinner date and a Kathy Griffin show Live in Buloxi, Ms.

As we were leaving Ari asked where the rubber gloves were? I told her where they were and then asked why she needed them?

"I'm going upstairs to dye my hair purple mom."

" OK honey have a good time, we'll see you guys when we get home!"

How do you do it?

How do some people relieve stress???

My super sexy husband does this...

Yes , In his suit pants before leaving for work.

He's turning 46 this weekend, what should I get him for his Birthday??

It's a tough one I know.

Perhaps his OWN air soft gun??

Perhaps.

Two things

Good Morning,

Popped my knee in Zumba class this morning. Yea, don't laugh. I like it because it's an hour of a mixture of Latin ballroom dance/kick boxing/ and belly dancing, with a chunk of Hip Hop all mixed together. The hour goes by really fast and it's kinda fun... as long as you A- don't look at yourself in a mirror and B- don't take yourself too seriously.

Any way I was doing the cool down and in the middle of a very deep knee squat my knee popped and took me to the floor. Bummer.

A little ice and some Advil and I should be up and running shortly. I hope.

Another thing... I have a new best friend. It's spray paint!! It has opened up a whole new world for me. i walked around the house yesterday and made a pile of every accessory I had that I had grown bored. Made a trip to the Home Dept and bought a couple of cans of heirloom white Rustoleum spray paint and had a little party with my new found friend. I super LOVE everything I sprayed yesterday and can't wait to finish going through the rest of my pile. You see I've grown bored of all the dark accessories so I'm lightening up the accents to give the room a more airy feel. It's working! My next project is going to be a cabinet that has been trashed by the kids and it need new knobs so It's getting an up-do this weekend if I have time.

I'll take pictures if it turns out looking good.

have a great day.

When in Rome

Livin down here in the deep South people are into one or all of the following,

hunting

fishing

hunting

fishing

you get the drift.

Anyway, most of the boys in our neighborhood have Daddy's who hunt and or fish. Keep in mind we are surrounded by doctors.

Alex came in crying the other day because all of the boys he plays with all now have air soft guns. He is now the only one without one. the last kid on our street besides Alex that didn't have one went to the Bass Pro Shop with his Doctor Dad the other day and came home with one ( using his birthday money and a gift card) much to his Mother's dismay. Turns out dad caved after he got the same sob story I did, " But Dad every kid has one but me and I can't play with them because I don't have my own gunnnnn!!"

So I called pregnant Mother in distress and asked her how it was going. She said that her husband caved and that she told him that he was gonna be responsible if anything happened.

After many conversations with my super sexy husband, we decided that Alex has earned the opportunity to have a go at it. we set some very strict ground rules that included,

no shooting ANY live animal

no shooting at ANY house

no shooting at your sisters

MUST wear goggles at all times

So Ted took Alex and Ari up to the Bass pro shop and half n hour later not only did Alex come home with a small air soft gun but his big sister got one too. Big surprise.

They suited up and headed out the back door and what does Ari do???

she shoots Alex right in the leg. Yea she says she didn't mean to, and that she has a terrible aim and didn't expect to hit anywhere near him. Likely story.

Of course the second he gets hit he hits the ground wailing in pain. I hear something that sounds like crying/ mumbling/ "hornet"

I jump up out of my comfy chair and go running towards him... " you got stung by a hornet???"

No Mom I said Ari shot me and It FEELS like I got STUNG by a hornet!!"

Ari is standing there laughing and says that she only aimed in his direction and that she has such a terrible aim that she didn't REALLY think she would actually HIT him.

Lucky for both of them they laughed it off and ran off to shoot into the woods.

GAWD, I'm not sure I'm ready for this.

I'm a land mammal

The view from the neighborhood pool.

We are on Spring Break as of today. The kids and I have a couple of days planned to go down to the Gulf and spend the day at the beach. Today and for the past three days we have been enjoying our community pool in our sub-division. And by that I mean, the pool that we don't have to maintain or clean but that we get to visit any ole time we feel like it.

First we went to Target and had some fun there. Bought some goggles for everyone and a couple of pool toys, and a bunch of stuff I can't recall but I know I needed badly when we were there.

The kids swam a bit and then Alex pulled his lounge chair up super close to mine and squeezed under the market umbrella with me to share the shade. Remember the Sun and I don't get along.

I asked him why he wasn't in the pool with the girls and he replied, " I'm not an aquatic mammal, I'm a land mammal." What--everrrrr

My daughter is so sweet to bring Mama an umbrella.

This is day three on my ADHD med and I have to say I feel more balanced and focused. Don't have multiple things going on in my head and haven't had the need for an afternoon nap in three days. Haven't gotten distracted and have completed several mini projects around the house. yay for me.

I had a woman send me an email who has written a very successful book on adult ADHD. She had some great input for me. Her husband was diagnosed several years ago and they were astounded by the lack of good information there was out there on ADHD so she started volunteering at an ADD organization and ended up writing a book on it. Her husband is a bio-neurologist and had a hard time getting diagnosed but once he did it has been smooth sailing ever since. Thank again Gina!!

I almost have Indy's bedroom makeover finished so I will post about that in a few days. with pictures included of course.

Never too Late

I have spent my whole life always knowing that I was just a tad bit *off*. Many a day I have sat at volleyball tournaments and tried like Hell to focus on the game but instead let the many things in my head and the goings on around me take over my focus. I try to accomplish a task at home only to get distracted and wander on to something else. The other day I went to call my doctor to make an appointment and saw how dirty my kitchen counter tops were. That immediately led me to polishing all the granite in the kitchen and then of course that led to the wiping and polishing of all of the kitchen cabinets, Which then led to vacuuming all the floors and so on. All of this and then I was exhausted, so I had to lye down and take a nap. When I woke up I remembered that I originally had intended to call the doctor, I finally got that done too.

This is how most of my days go. I have a list of things I want to accomplish with the house and I can't seam to focus on what I want to do first because I keep changing my mind, or I can't remember what I was doing. My poor husband doesn't know weather he's coming or going because his wife can't remember a conversation we had or a decision we made.

When the kids get home from school they all talk at the same time so I can't focus on any single thing that they are saying or what I am thinking. It makes me feel like I want to chew on my own arm.

When Ted and I went to Paris for our 10th anniversary ( I was pregnant with Indy) we went o the Louvre for the day. We had our one and only fight in Paris at the Louvre because he wanted to look at every single picture and artifact and i was incapable of doing that. I wanted to see the Mona Lisa and then go. Be on my merry way, eat lunch etc. I have figured out that unless something grabs my interest and holds me, I'm unable to stay focused...hence the birth of my favorite saying... "I've grown bored of this"

This week I was diagnosed with a pretty severe case of ADHD. We all know what that is... Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. It was not the least bit shocking to hear the diagnosis but more of a relief that after 43 years of this, I felt validated. This is weird coming at this stage in my life. Ted is sad that It took this long to diagnose me, and that I have missed out on some things because I was not capable of doing them. Most importantly going to college. I have very few regrets in my life but NOT going to College is my biggest one. I just wasn't able to do it. I tried but struggled so much that I dropped out.

The doctor has recommended a medication for me to take. It is not Ritalin but something in the same class of drugs. I am scared. I have only heard negative things about these meds and their use in ADHD for kids. As it turns out, most of what I thought i knew was incorrect info. My doctor has told me that this med will keep me more balanced and help me to stay more focused. It is in a sence a major stimulant. However, the stimulant doesn't have the same effect on a person with ADHD as it does on an average person. The average person would essentially feel drugged and doped up on uppers. The ADHD person simply will feel normal and balanced.

Today is my first day on my medication. I am only to take it once a day in the morning as it will last for twelve hours. I took it at 9:00am so that when it wears off tonight it will be around bed time for me. I have been told that when the drug wears off , I will sort of *crash*. I am a bit worried , but since I am not really a night owl I am OK with the readiness to go to sleep. So far my side effects have been a nasty belly ache and a bit of nausea. I did have a headache this afternoon but I can't tell if that is from my meds or from the front door stain that was applied today and is wafting through the house at the moment.

I am sharing this with you all because on the day I was diagnosed, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about adult ADHD. It basically said that most adults with ADHD go most of their lives and never get diagnosed. I think the article said that only 4% of adults with ADHD are actually diagnosed. My effort is to share my experiences with you so that the stigma attached with ADHD will subside and not be so scary to people. Plus my life is an open book and now I've got somethin to write about!

Spring is in the Air

The weather down here in the deep south has been glorious. Its lightly breezy, warm in the sun and not humid. I know all this is going to come to a screeching halt but for now I will enjoy. I've had the yard cleaned up, tree's pruned, new mulch added and weeds pulled. Today I planted some pots on my front porch to add some color. I want to add a lot more color now that I see what a difference it makes.

The project list for this house isn't very long. This was not a fixer upper. I do want to add our touch on it though. I will add some color to the yard and plant some more flowers and plants in the back where the beds are empty. The screened in porch is quickly becoming my favorite spot to be. Hopefully we will have some furniture soon so we can really enjoy the space. Quick before it gets too bloody hot and humid and I won't want to go outside lest I begin to sweat and GOD forbid have sweaty armpits and worse...sweat stains!!

I had a conversation with Ted on the phone this morning about this subject. i used his "Toms" deodorant because mine was all out and I was complaining to him that I didn't like having sweaty armpits. I had to rush out to target to get my favorite deodorant/anti-persperant so i could live again. He doesn't understand just how much I DON"T like to sweat. He can stick to his Au-naturale stuff but give me the BIG guns. I'll take my chances with Alzheimer's, that's what crossword puzzles are for...exercising your mind so you don't loose it.

Life is good.

Tradition

Spent the Easter holiday up north in Indiana with Teds family. It started out at sister-in-law Michele's house on the lake with wine and appetizers out on the deck.

Alex spent some time down on the dock exploring

while Indy and cousin Patrick played in the huge Willow tree. Pat made this beautiful crown for her out of willow branches.

Molly spent lots of time grooming Henry everytime I touched him. She's such possesive girl.

Holiday meals with Ted's family are steeped in rich Polish and Slovack tradition. Every recipe that Grammy follows is written on paper that is older than I am, beginning with the rye muck that becomes the soup starter for the Borscht.

While making my "non-traditional" pizzas I shook the container of parmesian cheese dust and it open and flew all over the front of me, and down my cleavage. YUCK

Sister-in-law Mary tended to the pizzas in the 40 year old oven down in my Mom-in-laws basement. it's the best oven in the world and it still works great!!

Saturday night pizza dinner.

Ari spent time with her cousins,

while Indy and Aunt Michele played some sort of "find-it" game. Indy is wearing auntie "M"s glasses.

Lots of wine was consumed and a few bubble gum cigarettes too. i do not condone the use of ANY kind of cigarette but Aunt Michele bought them for the kids so I gave in. Lets all blame her shall we?

Another traditional treat. Nut roll made from scratch of course by Grammy.

Glow in the dark easter egg hunt.

Did I mention that I spilled parmesian dust all down my cleavage????

Yea did I mention that??? Henry followed his nose right on over to my chest where he happily licked my shirt for a few seconds.

Uh yea, Check out the teenager in her sassy pin striped dress and the espadrills.

The traditional borscht feast. It is one of my favorite soups and the home made horse radish that accompanies it is the best!!

Me and the sista-in-laws

Indy spent the afternoon trying to keep up with the sixteen year old.

Incle Jim and Ted had a "who has more style" contest. We all know who wins that one.

Grammy and Indy had a discussion on weather Indy was worthy of a $5 bill. Of course Grammy can't resist that beautiful face of hers.

Yep she got her money.

Grammy and her kids.

And most of the "little" kids.

Happy Easter