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10 Reasons a Rip in My Shoulder is Putting a Rip in My Summer

Family, General Suckitude, Life, Life Sucks, Working OutWrite a comment

On Sunday mornings in the summer I get up before the crack of dawn (usually around 4 am) to meet my Dad for an early morning bike ride. It’s great; we will do anywhere from 30 to 50 miles and it gives us some nice father/daughter time while burning a whole lotta calories. This past Sunday I had a bit of an oops moment: I took a turn too fast and ended up wiping out…landing hard on my shoulder which landed me in the E.R.

A bit fuzzy , but it was snapped with my camera phone. And no, that is not some bizarre piece of metal floating around - just glare from the screen.

The good news: I didn’t crack my collar bone, the bad news:  I suffered an acromioclavicular sprain (a separated shoulder). Yes, it’s pretty darn painful. Beyond the pain though, is the irritation at all the things this injury is going to keep me from doing for the next 2 – 6 weeks.

1.  No more Sunday bike rides for awhile.

2. No more Zumba classes for at least a month.

3. No more step classes, weight training, or pretty much anything else at the gym for a month or so.

4. Taking a shower and washing my mass of hair is torture.

5. My sand v-ball team will be down a player for several weeks (I tried to convince my husband I could play with just one hand…he disagreed).

6. My garage sale – planned for the 4th of July weekend – will be postponed….and all that stuff will have to sit in my garage and annoy me some more.

7.  The money I spent on co-pays for the E.R. visit and a follow-up with a specialist could have been spent on something a lot more fun.

8. I can’t drive long distances – which means I’m missing out on some stuff I had been looking forward to going to.

9.  Why do people wax rhapsodic about pain meds? The stuff makes me feel nauseous and gave me a headache.

10.  Laundry, dishes, and many other chores have become more than just tedious; now they are literally a pain.

I know, it could have been much worse and I could be looking at months instead of weeks, but it’s still incredibly frustrating…the summer is short enough as it is! So, in the interest of looking for the “sunny” side of this situation…let’s return to my list:

1. I can spend my usual Sunday morning riding time on Sunday morning writing. Maybe I will finish this novel before summer is over after all.

2. I am really going to miss Zumba – but instead, I can schedule activities with the girls I might have skipped so I could make it to my favorite class.

3. No time in the gym for a month? This will force me to really buckle down and focus on diet, and after all, research has shown weight loss is about 70% diet and 30% exercise…now I can work on proving that theory.

4. So now I have an excuse to take really long showers…and I can beg my husband to comb my wet hair for me, which I love anyway.

5. This one really bums me out – I look forward to my weekly sand v-ball games so much. But I’ll go and sit on the side-lines and cheer and if we lose I can say it’s all because I couldn’t play 😉

6. While I would like to have this garage sale out of the way, a few more weeks will give me some more time to collect stuff we really don’t need…and de-clutter even more.

7. There’s really not much I can do about this one – at least I have insurance and only have to sweat the co-pays.

8.  So I’ll save on gas money and while I don’t like missing out on things I planned to do – it leaves me with more time at home. Last night when I should have been at a writer’s meeting I was on the couch with my girls, watching Phineas and Ferb on Netflix. This is something I rarely do, and it made my girls happy just to chill out next to me. In the end, time well spent. (And now I know what my 3 year old is referring to when she shouts, “Candace Party!”)

9. Part of my problem was taking those meds on an empty stomach…so I saved them for bedtime instead. Aside from some VERY odd dreams last night, I didn’t suffer the other stuff – and on the plus side, I don’t need to worry about developing an addiction to these things – I have no desire to take them.

10. Since I can’t do most of my usual mama chores, the husband has been pitching in more. It’s kind of sexy to watch your man scrubbing dishes and carrying loads of laundry. Which leads me to another issue I didn’t mention, though I suppose it won’t be too much of a problem, it just calls for some creativity.

And with that bit of TMI, I will leave you for the day. I have some injury-enforced lounging around to do.

 

Tunes That Say Summer

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Well, the songs  may not actually have the word “summer” in the  lyrics (though some many of them do) but when the husband recently commented on how he wanted to put together a summer song playlist, I realized I haven’t done something like that since putting one together on a cassette tape.  It’s about time I compile a new list, eh?

So I had to think…what songs just put me in the summer frame of mind? Here are a few I thought of immediately, one of those quick “what do I think of first” kind of things.

Doin’ Time by Sublime…in which the word summer does occur in the song, in fact, the song is often mistakenly thought to be titled “Summertime.” Granted, the lyrics themselves are not overly cheerful – but the mood and vibe of the song is all laid back chill. It reminds me of driving through the city on a hot summer afternoon. Back then I didn’t know what half the references in the song allude to (LBD???), I still don’t,  and I honestly don’t care – this song says summer to me.

Dancing Days by Stone Temple Pilots- yeah, it’s a cover. I don’t care. I’m really not much of a Led Zep fan, and STP rocks this song (which happens to have summer in the lyrics too, huh, so far I’m 2 for 2). Where as the Sublime song makes me think of driving slow in city traffic on a steamy hot day, watching people hanging out on the streets, this song is a driving at night song: windows down and the cool summer breeze whipping through you hair as a big bright fat summer moon shines across the highway.

Movin’ out of the 90’s for a sec with Last Friday Night by Katy Perry. If you haven’t seen the video for this song before, do yourself a favor and waste a few minutes in pursuit of mindless entertainment. It is worth it, and like the song – very fun. Miss A loves the song, and while I’m not quite prepared to explain stuff like skinny dipping and what a menage a trois is…she just likes the mood of the song, and I totally get that.

Here we are right back in the 90’s again (told you it would be just a sec) with Run Away by the Real McCoy (what can I say – the 90’s were my party years I guess). Dancy and carefree – mindless in its repetition, this is a song you can lose yourself in while dancing with your eyes closed.

Cruel Summer. I suppose I could go 90’s with this and do the Ace of Base remake, but nope. Bananarama all the way for this one. Another song with “summer” right in it – it’s funny, I always think of the Karate Kid movie when I hear this song, and looking at the comments on You Tube, apparently I’m not the only one.

Sticking with the 80’s: I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow. Maybe it’s the beach in the video, maybe it’s the island-esque drums and riffs, but this song feels like summer to me.

Cecilia by Simon & Garfunkel, yes you read that right. I think we’ve moved into 70’s territory here, but I didn’t check. Really no idea why this song says summer to me, but it does. Could be the fact that I have memories of singing it backstage while getting ready for performances in a show I was in one summer…or maybe it’s the references of making love in the afternoon…some summer memories of that too…you know, before kids and stuff.

Snap – The Power…or is it The Power by Snap? I forget.  What I do remember is hanging out with my closest friends in the months before we started high school at our local theme park and this song was blasting everywhere all summer long.

Sending All My Love by Linear…I am realizing 1990 must have been a good year for me…or at least it carries enough happy memories that it makes me associate songs from that time with fun and carefree days. Watching this video almost made me cry…tears of laughter: the clothes, the mullets, the dance moves! This had to have been my transition out of New Kids on the Block and into…what?

Depeche Mode – that’s what. Yep, that’s what I got into while in high school. And Strangelove‘s beat feels like summer to me.

There are plenty more songs I’ll be adding to my summer list – the husband and I have decided to make it a bit of a competition, you know – who comes up with the better summer mix. Thanks to the miracle of mp3’s I won’t be limited to the 60 or 90 minutes of a cassette tape, but I almost wish I had a few of those old mix tapes now.

I’m sure this song is on at least one of those old mix tapes; what summer mix compiled by a child of the late 80’s-early 90’s would be complete without it? Dino and his masterpiece: Summer Girls.

Oh…oh…and since I stooped low enough to add that last one, I have to add the following as well, I mean c’mon – what’s summer without some th-thong-th-thong-thong thongs?


(BTW, I never watched the full video before…wtf is up with the intro?)

 
I posted a call for songs on FB and am loving the feedback. Please, take a second to let me know what songs are a must on your summer play list.

Happy first day of summer! May you find the time to relax, and enjoy the simple pleasures like music that makes you happy.

Summer Reading Plants Seeds, Reaps Benefits

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I suppose if I had to make a list of 10 things I most hoped to pass on to my child, the love and enjoyment of reading would be on it. Don’t ask me about the rest of that list because it would take me some time to decide on my answer – and I’m not here talk about that today, I’m here to provide a quick and easy list of link love to some of my favorite summer reading programs for kids (as well as a few new programs Miss A and I have yet to try).

As I mentioned in my recent FFF, last summer Miss A really got into reading for pleasure. Don’t get me wrong, the girl has always loved books, and we had to slowly wean her from 5 bedtime books a night to 3 to the current 1 or 2 chapters. What I mean was last summer was the first time she could (and would) pick up a chapter book, find a comfortable spot,  and while away an hour or two just reading.  The girl zipped through many books, and made many new friends like Judy Moody, Ivy & Bean, Jack and Annie, and Violet in what turned out to be her favorite of the summer, a series of books called Pixie Tricks by Tracey West (who I learned also pens many of the Pokeman chapter books – who knew?!).  Miss A even put up a post (yes, she has had her own website since birth, we’re just ahead of the curve on that one)  about the series, and its main character, Sprite. While her love of  Pixie Tricks saw her through all eight books in the series, her reading momentum may have slowed down if it wasn’t for the many summer reading programs we were involved in throughout the months off from school. Many of these programs let kids chart their progress and offer incentives and rewards: from gift certificates to books to coupons to entries in big prize package sweepstakes. It’s not a bad deal when you can score free stuff for doing something you pretty much already enjoy anyway. And if your kid is not quite the happy little bookworm that Miss A is – the prizes and activities may just be the kind of boost your child needs to pick up a book.

Aside from the incredible delight that is scoring some Mommy reading time when your kid is reading too, encouraging summer reading can not only prevent the “vacation brain suck” teachers live in fear of, but it may also send them back to school ahead of the game. I know that was the case for Miss A.

So…free stuff, a kid who is happy, quiet and occupied with her nose buried in a book, and improved literacy skills – what’s not to love?

Below you’ll find a quick compilation of five summer reading programs, including links and a few thoughts on each.

1. Half Price Books Feed Your Brain This program is probably our favorite, though I must say I liked the set up better last year. The way it worked in 2010, every two weeks a child could turn in their reading log for a $3 gift card. At HPB, that three bucks can go a long way (one of the reasons we like them so much!). This year, you can only turn in one log for a $5 gift card. They are also awarding a “Top Reader” prize of a $20 HPB gift card to one reader in each age group.

2. Barnes & Noble Summer Reading With the B&N program, print a reading journal from their website and record your summer reading time. Read 8 or more books and you can exchange your completed journal for a free book – the proviso being the book is from a list of select titles. The issue I had last year is that they break these lists down by age, and the free books on Miss A’s list were ones she was not interested in. Looking over the list of free books for this year, nothing is popping out at me, but free is free and hopefully she’ll find a title on the list she likes. At the very least, parents can enter to win a Nook Color when the completed journal is turned in.

3. Borders Kids Reading Challenge Wow, has this bookstore had some drama since last summer. Their reading program isn’t awesome – but it might be worth the time if you still happen to have a Borders within a 50 mile radius of your home. Like the B&N program, read 8 books and record them on the reading worksheet (available on their website), but where the B&N program nets you a free book, Borders rewards readers with a coupon for 50% off – which would be really great if it was for 50% off a book of Miss A’s choice or something…but no…the discount can only be used towards the purchase of a few specific items (some of them kind of lame and most of them not even books) – what gives? I do still have at least two Borders within a reasonable driving distance…but we may not even bother this year. 50% off a How To Draw SpongeBob Squarepants Kit? We’ll pass.

4. BOOK IT! One of the dinosaurs of reading incentive programs, Pizza Hut’s Book It! program is  holding a Summer Break Reading Challenge Sweepstakes! (they really like their exclamation points). Read five books, then fill out the entry form available on their website for a chance to win a “slammin’ summer prize package!”

5. Scholastic Summer Challenge This program is a little more complicated with less up front tactile rewards. We didn’t participate last year, mainly because the sign-up process takes longer than a second or two, and I just didn’t have it in me to follow through. Check it out though if your kid is someone who enjoys setting goals and blasting through them. There is also a section for teachers and schools to create reading goals for a chance to be featured in the 2012 Scholastic Book of World Records.

Beyond the five listed above – which should be available nationally, if you have some independent bookstores in your home town, stop in and see if they are offering any kind of summer reading programs. Also, don’t forget to check in with your library: ours has programs not only for Miss A, but for Lil’ G and myself as well. I even got to pick out a free ARC of my choice when I signed up for the adult summer reading challenge – pretty cool!

So get a good book, find a nice place to relax, and escape for awhile. It’s a guaranteed happy ending.

 

 

Fast Friday: Playing Catch Up (or The MIA MAY)

Blogroll, Home Improvements, Home Repairs, Kids, Life, Monday Muse, Potty Princess Diary, The Book, Website, WritingWrite a comment

So, May flew by in a crazy whirl wind in which I didn’t post on this here blog once. I apologize if you stopped by for a visit only to see the same April header perched at the top of my site all May long. (Note to self: perhaps it’s best not to indicate a specific month when designing a header).

I hope to get into the posting swing of things again this week, but to catch you up, here are 5 things to re-cap May and pre-cap June:

1. Despite the dearth of blogging time, on the up side this month I kicked my writing back into high gear and have been busting out the pages! I also edited the heck out of my first chapter and entered my first writing contest (I won’t know anything for months, so cross your fingers!) I’ve been inspired and motivated by all the great news many of my fellow Chicago North members shared the past month concerning everything from contest wins to book deals.

2. Every spring we attack one major project around the house.  In 2009 we ripped out the sinking concrete patio and replaced it with brick pavers and a fire pit, in 2010 it was a much less glamorous but very much needed new window well for our basement. 2011’s project was  more fun and rewarding: a master bath remodel. Look for pics and details coming soon – including an explanation of what I like to call the “Hill Billy Fix-It.” Another reason I didn’t find the time to post in May – at one point during the month, my master bathroom looked like this:

Yep, my bath tub was once in that corner...I have no freakin' idea what's with all the foam spray around the facuet handle, but it's gone now!

 

3.  Today was Miss A’s last day of second grade. Her reading improved by leaps and bounds, and I feel her success is due in part to all the summer reading time we put in last year. She started the school year last fall with a head start and just kept on going. Check back soon for my list of summer reading programs and  incentives that you won’t want to miss.

Readin' on the beach at the start of last summer.

4. I fell behind once again on the whole Monday Muse thing, which bums me out because it’s one of my favorite things to do on the blog. I hope to make it up to you this month with an amazing Monday Muse for June.

5. We are in the trenches of potty warfare and trying our darndest to get Lil’ G (who passed the 3 year mark in May, yet another reason I was a trifle busy) out of diapers. Panty parties, a potty cake, a trip to Disney World and signing up for Irish dance classes have all been used as incentives to no avail. I plan to let her loose buck naked in our back yard this summer and keep the kiddie potty close by. Hopefully I’ll be able to give successful status updates soon, til then – I welcome your potty training advice, horror stories, or simple commiseration.

Lil' G decided she was going to pee in the potty...after over an hour of entertaining her with no results I was ready to give up but she refused to take her butt off the seat - so this was our compromise. Yes, she is sitting on the potty and watching t.v.