Since "The Hubby's" gone and after our talk last night about the economy, I really have been getting depressed.  So today instead of trying to blog I think I am just going to hang out with my kids and go for a bike ride.  It sounds as though my easy days are going to be numbered unless something changes with the bailout.  This will be worse than the Great Depression and no one seems to see that or try to change the way they live.

If I were you I would try and start saving every penny you have and forget about buying that new car or that daily Starbucks coffee.  It may even get to the point that if things get that tight with money that I will home school the kids and pull "N" out of Montessori just so we can save the monthly expense of gas and tuition.  I'm hoping that it doesn't come to that because he loves going to Montessori and I refuse to send him to public schools.  You really need to sit back and look at what's important in your life right now.  Will you really die if you don't get that brand new car?  Probably not and considering you're probably buying it on credit anyway not a smart thing plus it loses so much value as soon as you drive it off the lot.  You also have to take into account gas and maintenance costs.  Can you survive without that $25,000 pool?  Yes you can, get cheap pools that can either be blown up and just an above ground or you could just sit in your bathtub.

Does anyone understand what I'm saying?  I know that most people think this doesn't concern me.  YES IT DOES!  No one knows which way this is going and we may not for a little while but you should save as though it's going to hit the rockiest, darkest bottom ever.  We are a nation of spend, spend spend, instant gratification, import, import, import.  Who cares about quality right?  I can just use my credit card when whatever crappy thing I bought breaks anyway right?  WRONG!!  Yes I'm not in a good mood and I don't know when that will change so until then my family has decided that we are going to pinch as many pennies as we can so we can stay comfortable as we can.  Yes for right now "N" is going to stay in Montessori and I'll be spending the money on the 14 miles each way but to us that is very important and as long as we can afford that he will go.

If we need to stay here longer so be it BUT we will be moving to a smaller place and quite even an apartment since we won't have to deal with the upkeep, maintenance, we'll have access to a pool without the cost and a free gym on site.  Why not to save extra money.

Friday "N" had the day off due to a "Teacher Work Day" and so we had an awesome play date with a few other kids from his class.  My goodness how good they slept that night.  I did end up getting sick over the weekend and I'm still nursing it and it's weird to feel like this.  Basically I had a horribly runny/stuffed nose with pressure all through my face.  So I have been taking both Actifed and Tylenol cold and sinus and making it through.  I was so not feeling well that I actually missed church and that's so not like me.  I was feeling better with the pressure but I'm so exhausted and with the runny nose I just didn't really want to get other people sick.

Over the weekend I was having some good quality time with "N" because we started playing Xbox again and he did the demo of Kung Fu Panda and Cars.  Man he kicks some serious butt in Kung Fu.  I'm still trying to find a way to bond with "O", I feel bad because we are in the process of changing how we run and do things and with us tightening everything everywhere that I'm not able to be with her like I should. 

I have not been keeping up with exercising lately.  Yes you may call me a slacker but I have a good reason and that is I'm sick hopefully soon I'll be able to be done soon so "The Hubby" and I can figure out what days to go to the gym.  I need to get ready for the Undy 5000 and I swear that I will start doing yoga this week.  I think I'm going to pump the bike trailer wheels up and try to take "O" out during the days so I can build up strength and start walking.  Yeah it's still hot during the days but it's something to keep me out of trouble, in shape and it's a good time with "O".

I haven't been having a whole lot of pains with my J-pouch lately but since I've been sick I have noticed that my bowel movements are very bad.  I'm getting dehydrated and again when I eat I get a little nauseous.  I get a little better everyday and I just can't wait to be done!  When you're sick and have a J-pouch I will give you fair warning and say that you will have to use the barrier cream a lot more often since the stool is that more acidic and very runny.  Well I need to get the tires filled and get my butt out of here and get my sick butt better and in shape.

I love my kids!  Last night "N" was taking his shower and I kept hearing him sing "Leaving on a Jet Plane".  I swear that I will make an MP3 of both my kids singing that song.  They sound way better than Peter, Paul and Mary.  I think some songs need to be sang by kids so it sounds better.  Yesterday I was able to observe "N's" class and I finally understand one of the songs he sings.  He really likes to sing and "O" has a pretty good voice herself.  We sing "How Far We've Come by Matchbox Twenty" on the way to and from school.  Man, I love the Zune.

I'm excited because I get to spend all day tomorrow with the kids since there is no school.  I may treat them to a movie at the theater OR just have movie time with popcorn here.  It's cheaper to do it here but I guess we'll see plus there aren't any kid friendly movies out right now.  We also have Surf's Up from Netflix so maybe that's our movie tomorrow.

"The Man" asks me today if I want to move with him to Flagstaff.  I would but it snows there in the winter and there's nothing to do and we are two and a half hours from the airport and from any sports venues.  I think he wants a change again.  Like all of life, I guess we'll see where it leads us.  With everything going on right now (economy) that you have to have some flexibility and we have lots of that and no he's in no risk of losing his job, but you just have to roll with the punches.  I'm just in one of those weird moods right now and nothing really seems to make any sense.  Those are happening a lot more lately but you just go with it.

So really right now I have run out of things to say so instead of rambling I'm going to end it here for today and maybe I'll have something more profound to write about tomorrow.

I have had a very busy day today and I swear I'll be sleeping well tonight.  "The Hubby" and I had a discussion over the weekend and I have cut my 5K's down to five or six until St. Patty's day.  It was a fun weekend too.  Saturday we skipped out on the race because Friday night I was having some pretty bad pains and because of the pains I was pretty wore out and really didn't want to wake up at 4:30am for a race I knew I would have come dead last in.  So no loss except for the registration fees.  Saturday night "The Hubby" had his friend and his family come up and we hung out all night and had sushi with the kids and Sunday we had church and we had a sitter so we could watch the Packers game at Fox Sports Grill with some friends.

Today though it's been full because I ran "N" to school, dropped "O" off at a Mommy's Day Out (MDO) thing so I could get some cavities filled, grabbed "N" from school.  We read together for a little bit and now I have to grab "O" from the church in less than an hour.  I didn't get anything productive done.  I think I might put her at the MDO which is once a week, just so I can have a few hours with no kids and actually try to get some work done.  I have been a major slacker lately and I need to stop.

This week has just been crazy and tomorrow will be the test because there's a potluck at "N's" school in the evening and we also are going to try and make it to our small group too.

I got the results back from my Holter monitor and everything is normal, just like "The Hubby" said it would be.  I do have to go in again for another follow up with my surgeon since I had the pains over the past weekend.  Luckily the pains are gone but you never know right? 

Yesterday I took "N" out for a bike ride and he rides so well.  I feel bad for him because he is still on training wheels and it was really hot so we didn't go to far.  We went far enough so he could play at the little park.  He had a great time and he slept so good too.  I really can't wait for winter to come just so we can enjoy the outside and our grill.  I so love grilling I just hating cleaning it.  We need to do that again before it gets nice out again.

Things have been a bit stressful here because of some things that I don't want to share yet but I'm just hoping that everything works out.  Well, I need to go grab "O" from MDO so I shall really write more tomorrow.

This has been a crazy week for me.  We played racquetball Monday (no shocker there), Tuesday was supposed to be my women's group but I put it in a week early, Wednesday we were supposed to play racquetball but "The Hubby" wasn't feeling up to it so I had my girlfriend come to hang out for the night.  Today was crazy because I totally forgot that I had a doctors appointment today and I was 10 minutes late for that.  Tomorrow I have another plus the Worldfest 5K on Saturday morning and friends coming up Saturday night.  It's just been unusual from me and I wasn't on top of things like I normally am.  I'm really tired today and really can't focus.  It's been happening a little more frequently so I'm not sure if I'm coming down with something very slowly or what the deal is.

I have been getting tons of bad news these past few days.  I found out yesterday that my fraternal grandmother died earlier in the week.  My friend from middle school, her baby passed away of placental abruption yesterday with just under two months to go.  I feel bad for my friend because I know what it's like to lose a child but I miscarried so early that I didn't even know what we were having.  And my best friend's sister has been in the hospital for the past week with pre-term contractions and is now on bed rest.  My heart goes out to everyone this week.

After the news of babies, I'm kind of glad to know that I will never have to worry again about complications during pregnancy.  Three pregnancies and two children are quite enough for us, especially with everything else going on right now with health stuff.

"The Hubby" and all of his man glory was perusing Google and he came across this article regarding CT colonography vs. regular colonoscopy.  There valid points with both and this is only meant for with the average risk of colon cancer.  Basically it states that you still have to prep your bowels for both.  If there are suspicious polyps that you will have to go through a regular colonoscopy for a biopsy.  The CT was able to find most polyps that were 10mm or larger and found a few less polyps that were between 6-10mm.  If you are in the lucky group that gets to go every five years (which there is talk of changing) and you have the CT colonography the radiation dose may be too high for some people that often. 

As a person who has been through the thick of it and has had to have both the upper GI and the colonoscopy, I would much rather go the the old school colonoscopy because remember that if there are abnormalities found, you have to go through the colonoscopy anyway.  Why not just do it right the first time, plus if you're given anesthesia, why not do it?

Today I went in for my yearly eye exam and found out that there is a newer contact that's out now from Focus Dailies and it's called Aqua Release.  We'll see how they do, so far they seem pretty good but the true test will be tomorrow night when I play racquet ball.  I played last night and my goal is to play racquet ball three nights a week for cardio and try to do yoga and still walk in there too.  I signed up for another 5K this weekend so we'll see if I can do better this time, so including these next two races there are 16 races I want to do between now and St. Patrick's Day.  That's a lot of walking and eventually running.  Since the both of us are starting to get into racing I'm really wondering if we should stay another year and get a place for a few months either in Flagstaff or Grand Rapids so we can train there in summer and come back here to compete.  I mean our racing season started this past weekend and it goes up until May/June.  It's too hot to run outside here in the summer so that way we can train pretty much all year and what's nice about "The Hubby's" job is that he can work from anywhere so why not?

I really have to motivate myself to actually get faster at walking and really build up my cardio.  I'm debating on getting a Mountainside Fitness membership since it will be close to the house and then also keeping the LA Fitness just for the racquet ball.  I think I might do that because then I can take the kids twice a day for two hours each time to Mountainside and then also two hours at LA.  Yes it seems like a lot but I would have a system set up to where I would go to Mountainside in the mornings after "N" is at school a quick yoga class in the afternoon then racquet ball three nights a week plus our churchtivities.  What's nice about Mountainside is that the kids aren't just going to be sitting there they have a FITkids program a couple times a week and I think it's beneficial to them to do it. 

I'm not going super-uber fitness crazy either.  I know that for right now I can walk what I want and play racquet ball, I'm not lifting any weights right now and for now my cardio is the racquet ball and walking.  I do need to walk more often but I don't think I'm doing to badly right now.

Sunday morning I really wanted to go for a walk but after posting the blog I just really wanted to go for a shorter walk but my shins were hurting too much to go so I just took it easy that day by just going to church and relaxing at home, I think I might have taken a long bath but not sure.  I definitely took one last night though.  My shins weren't hurting as bad Monday and was pleasantly surprised that I was able to play (even though I suck really badly) and today I woke up and I wasn't sore at all.  Who knew that exercise could do that!! Just kidding.  I did do badly today because I took "O" out to lunch today and we went to McDonalds but at least I bought a kids meal and not an adult meal.  No I didn't substitute anything I had the cheeseburger and fries and all their fried and unhealthy goodness.  Of course even with losing my colon I still did not feel so good.  Live and learn right?

I guess I should call it because it's almost "N's" doctor appointment time and since it's rush hour I should get my butt in gear.

So I didn't run as far as I thought I could but I did for a little.  I walked the rest of the 5K.  I finished 111th out of 400 some people which I guess isn't bad considering how out of shape I am.  I played racquet ball for an hour the night before too and I wasn't feeling to bad the next day.  We woke up at 5:30am (I had more sleep than "The Hubby" did) and were ready to go by 6:15am.  It was pretty fun and he is getting faster with every race that he runs, I guess it helps that he bikes/runs almost everyday.  I need to start walking everyday myself and I'm not entirely sure if I'll even be able to run in the Undy 5000 race, I hope I can but we'll see.  I'm trying to get a sitter again for this weekend so we can do the Worldfest at PIR (Phoenix International Raceway), I was surprised at how good I felt for the rest of the day, nevermind how sore I was but it was a good, earned sore.

I finished the race in 50 minutes which isn't bad considering I was walking most of the 3.1 miles and the next time I will be using an iPod so I can keep a better/faster pace of walking.  Since I wasn't exercising with the ileostomy I just really got lazy and now with the reconnection I'm starting to gain weight and fast, so I really need to cut back on eating and workout more.  Today I'm going to try to do at least a mile or two walk before church and then do yoga later in the day.  You can never go wrong with walking.  I will be very slowly building up to the jogging thing.  It was a lot of fun and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, I mean bathroom wise.  I only had to go once before the race and I was pretty good until after we got home.  I'll tell you what though, I learned my lesson and after even walking like that I won't be going out afterwards.

My girlfriend watched the kids for us so we could go and I promised her that I would go to IKEA with her and I seriously was in a lot of pain and dizzy from hunger and was starting to get tired.  I wasn't tired enough to take a nap but I was lazy enough to watch Notre Dame kick U of M's butt (Go Irish) and watch OSU lose to USC, this was the only time I have ever rooted for OSU in four years.  Ok and when they play U of M.  Go MSU!!!!!!

I did have a lot of fun and soon we are going to start having the kids go but for right now it's just something that "The Hubby" and I can "do together" even though we do different things, he runs/I walk.  There is a family run coming up soon and we are all going to do that one.  I hope that the kids will be able to do it, we are going to start taking the kids up to the track and see how long they walk for before they have a meltdown.  I really am getting into the whole walking/running thing and I'm sure that I'll be walking for a long time then I can start running the 5K building up to maybe a half marathon in a year or two.

So last minute I decided that I was going to do a 5K this Saturday with "The Hubby" but since I haven't been training the well or long yet, he's going to run and I'm going to run/walk (mostly walk).  We are doing the "Life Without Pain" Fun Run/Walk.  So I'm still taking it a little easy but I am going to play racquet ball tomorrow night for a little bit and use the elliptical machine.  I have to find time to do some yoga though.  I did a little bit two nights ago but not what I normally do.  Lately I've been feeling funky and so I decided that I was going to try and eat a lot better.

Lately we, "The Hubby" and I have been having second dinner and it varies but it's usually Streets and I really am tired of eating crap like that.  Today after dropping "N" off at school I ran to the grocery store and I bought a ton of veggies, stuff to make healthy wraps and things like that.  I have been lacking lately in the eating healthy area since we go to the gym at 5pm so we end up eating out afterwards and it just doesn't taste good.  So hopefully the better diet will help with the way I feel.  I still need to clean and chop everything but I really just wanted to get stuff put away and get the garbage out so I could get to work.

I do feel nervous about the 5K in a couple of days because I have told people that I'm training for different things and everyone keeps telling me to take it easy.  In a way that does make me nervous but I don't know why.  I mean here I am for the first time really healthy and I have a new kick in my step, I'm sure that I'm just being paranoid.  Yes I play racquet ball but I know that I can't play for the 2 hours we have reserved so I end up playing for about 30-45 minutes and I'm not crazy so I think I'm good and I don't play everyday.  I haven't done any serious weight lifting yet (just my daughter when she needs to wash her hands) and with the yoga I'm just stretching and not engaging my abs really.

I did get an offer for my first donation last night and I want to say Thank You to my Uncle Tom!  You rock and I really appreciate it!  So now I'm closer to my goal but we still have a long way to go. 

Remember that you can donate here.  For everyone who donates I will not only send you thank you emails but you will also get mentioned with a public thank you here on my site. 

Last night I started my training for the Undy 5000 at the gym.  I suck!  I was on the elliptical machine for about 25 minutes and I was able to go 1.11 miles, I guess that's not so bad considering I haven't done anything like that in about 3-4 months.  I'm actually still a little sore from racquet ball Monday too.  I'm going to take tonight off from the gym but I will be doing my yoga later today after the appointments we have.

My goal is to be able to run most of the 5K so I have a lot of work ahead of me.  There's a website that "The Hubby" uses to enter in his races and if he buys a membership with them he gets discounts at quite a few places and that even includes an online personal trainer that will help me be ready by my date.  I don't know if I'll really be into the racing thing but I know that I will try really hard to keep training and worst case is I only run in colon cancer or certain cancer runs.  Right now I'm trying to focus on this race and get the courage to actually run in the street.  It's pretty unsafe out here to do that.

"The Hubby" tells me on quite a few occasions that either while he's running or biking that people are constantly either trying to hit him, throwing stuff at him or just plan being stupid and just yelling at him.  It's pretty sad that people are so ignorant that they need to act like this.  Remember that if there is a bike lane, it is the law to stay out of it and give them 3 feet, they could be nicer and try to give them extra room since most times the bike lane to coated with stuff that a road bike should not ride over.  Ok no more complaining.

Just to let you know about the Undy 5000, it's being sponsored nationally by Johnson & Johnson and American College of Gastroenterology and I don't know by who locally (there are three draces in three states) and it's being put on by Colon Cancer Alliance (CCA).  "The Hubby" and I are running in it for our kids and my family and I will be buying an honor flag in memory of my mom as well.  This is a really good cause and it is a step toward find the cure.  Please help me raise money for this great cause.  The preset goal is to raise $250.00 (this is not $X.XX per mile either it's just a one time donation) but I would like to be able to raise more money.  If you are able to make anything even if it's only $5.00 please do so because I'm sure that you know someone or you are suffering from this disease.

If you are in the Phoenix area on November 15, 2008 at 8am, come check us out or even run in the race.  It should be fun and really chilly at 8am to run in our underwear but it's only for a couple hours total and I'll be sure to bring a long sleeve shirt.  Now that I know about the CCA I will be supporting them by buying a few things from their store.  (Present alert dad-long sleeve shirt in a medium)

Ok well I need to get going because I have to grab "N" from school and also run the kids to an appointment.  Please check out both of those site and in sort of the words of Al Capone, "Donate early and donate often."

Today I took "O" into the dentist for the second time, the first time she went it was to our dentist and they just freaked her out.  She was a little nervous and I went back since she asked me to and then she kicked me out a few minutes later and she was a real champ.  She brushed her teeth in front of them, she let them polish her teeth, she saw the dentist AND the hygienist to get the build up off her teeth.  She has no cavities but like all kids, needs to have sealants put.  "N" goes in on Friday afternoon for his first appointment EVER.  He may be a little more tricky than "O" but we'll see.

Right now she's so overtired from waking up early and the dentist that all she's doing is crying.  I feel bad that going to the dentist makes her feel overwhelmed but at least she was good there and got her teeth cleaned.  She will be taking her nap early today and then eating lunch afterwards.  Dazzle Dental is a cool place because they can deal with both kids and adults.  The kid area has a good size playground castle, a TV and a couple game consoles.  The adult side has nice leather chairs to sit in.  They took the time with "O" to make sure she was comfortable, understood what was going on and also made her feel calm.  Yeah the appointment took over an hour but at least she was able to get her teeth cleaned and see the dentist.

I'm sure "N" will like the place and I can already see him throwing a little fit when it comes time for him to see the dentist because he'll want to play instead.  I'm sure he'll surprise me and do the complete opposite.  I'm pretty sure that he will do really good.  So now I have done a really good, responsible thing for my kids and I did early so now it won't be so scary as they get older.

So now that it has almost three and a half weeks, I have noticed that I am a better eater in a way.  Right after the "takedown" I knew I would want Honey Nut Cheerios so I bought a box and had them everyday, once I knew I was going to be out of the hospital permanently.  This past weekend since it was the holiday we went out Saturday and Sunday for brunch at The Good Egg.  I'm still learning to eat so I thought I would get an omelet with spinach, tomatoes, some cheese and stuff like that with potatoes and an english muffin (that all comes together).  So I started eating the omelet and I realized that I really don't like eggs whether they are real eggs or eggbeaters.  So I ate maybe three bites of the omelet, two squares of potatoes and the english muffin.  I pretty much turned into the Carls Jr. commercial where the people are saying stuff like, "I would like one square of a waffle with three drops of syrup or the guy at the diner counter."  So when the next time we went to The Good Egg I decided that I just want an english muffin, biscuit and a small fruit plate.  I ended up getting the big fruit plate with yogurt but luckily the kids help me eat it since there was way too much stuff for me to eat by myself.

So after that we ended up going to the grocery store and we spend a $125 there and I went crazy.  I bought stuff for salads, my Thai dinner, turkey dogs, stuff for chicken salad sandwiches.  I mean I bought good, healthy stuff.  It felt good because I washed everything and cut most of it up, if it's not cut at least it's cleaned.  So now I have this refrigerator packed with food.  Monday for breakfast instead of doing cereal or eggbeaters with Morningstar bacon I gave the kids grapes, strawberries and apples with yogurt and granola.  It was a pretty good and healthy breakfast.  I felt great after eating it.  Then for lunch we had chicken or tuna salad sandwiches with romaine lettuce and spinach tortillas.  I mean it was a darn good day with food.

I do have to eat a little more frequently but I try to make it healthy all day.  Breakfast I bought a new cereal I forgot the name but it's a healthier cereal and I have Activia with granola and I drink a probiotic yogurt too at 7am.  Around 9:30, after dropping "N" off at school, "O" and I will share a bagel.  Lunch around 1pm differs each day but I try to either eat a small sandwich or fruit.  I don't really have a snack in the afternoon and for dinner that's the fun part.  Last night we made my favorite meal it has couscous, cucumber, red peppers, onions, parsley, mint, chicken I mean it's tasty and it's only 410 calories per serving.  And I'm going to eat the leftovers today.  I try not to eat past 7pm but sometimes I do and when that happens it can be a little unhealthy like a mini bag or Natural popcorn or a bowl of Dryers 1/2 the whatever mint chocolate ice cream.  I do notice that with each of the surgeries that I did start eating healthier.  It was hard after the temporary ileostomy since I wasn't allowed to eat high fiber, non digestible foods but I found a way around that.  Now after my last surgeries I know I can eat what I want but I still want to watch the fiber content and spice because I can still get a blockage or pouchitis which I really don't want to experience.

The really nice thing about not having a colon is that if you eat something really bad, I don't get an upset stomach or diarrhea but now I may get very painful gas.  It's getting better since I started taking the Imodium multi-symptom and the J-pouch is getting stretched a little more each day.  That's the hardest part, knowing that the pouch has to be "broken in" and then I won't really notice stuff like that as much.  All I can say is that everyday it gets better and better.  Just under three weeks and I can start slowly working out.  I'm really looking forward to being able to pick my daughter up again!

Tomorrow I probably won't post just because I have a jammed packed day of fun!! Not.  I do have to take "N" to school, have a doctors appointment, get home to give "O" lunch, pick "N" up from school and give him a shower afterwards, have them take a nap/rest and while that's going on I'm going to try and sneak away to have a "book of the month" discussion.  And I forgot that we also have our neighborhood group meeting too.  It's still not OMG crazy but it's getting a little more hectic but new stuff is always a good thing!

So here it is after the holiday/anniversary weekend and things went smoothly.  We didn't get the whole house cleaned but it's still better than it was.  We did have date night last night and we bought a really cool surprise for "N" too!  When he gets home from school today he'll see his new Speed Racer bed sheets.  I have been feeling bad because we always buy him either books or something educational and "O" gets the bedding so since he's been pretty darn good I thought he earned this.  I'm so looking forward to it.

I'm still debating on trying to get a job with Mayo, I'm going to wait a little while longer because I do get tired still but I'm hoping to start exercising soon.  Last night "The Hubby" told me that if I want to do the Midnight Madness run on New Years that I have to do one organized race before.  That doesn't leave me a lot of time because I still have three weeks before I can start doing anything athletic which puts me mid/end September and really less than eight weeks for a race.  I guess I better find time huh?  I'm sure that once I start running I'll be feeling like doing more stuff.

Today I think that I'll be going to look for more clothes since I'm too small for my old ones and I need nicer/dressier shirts and jeans.  I went shopping yesterday but I really didn't like the prices at the stores so maybe I'll actually find what I'm looking for and buy.  "The Man" told me that I should get a nicer "coat" because the one I wore last night embarrassed him since it was just a gray, cotton coat.  It's really sad how cold I am all the time.  I'm going to call my family practitioner in the next few weeks for an EKG because I'm concerned for my heart since I've had the huge weight loss.  My blood pressure is normal but there are times where the palpitations get a little too crazy for me.  I'm sure I'm fine but it's for my peace of mind.

It's going to be a short post today since I need to get some other things done before I grab "N" so I'll post more tomorrow.