Ironman Hipster Kitty

I was feeling inspired to create more Hipster Kitty memes.   So.....  I created some Ironman Hipster Kitty memes....  The 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run Ironman Hipster Kitty.  Of course, The Boy made me get his approval before I posted this.  He said the first two were "ok, but kind of stretching it, most weren't too bad, but the last one was the best."  Even got a laugh out of the hipster boy and his approval to post.  He said he wasn't going to let me "ruin" Hipster Kitty.

Hipster Kitty is way to hip for a regular Ironman Triathlon.

My Life Changed 20 Years Ago Today!

Twenty years ago today my life changed forever.  I gave birth to my first and only child and twenty four hours later my family was putting me on life support trying to keep me alive.  I was rushed out of the cozy little maternity suite where The Boy and I were suppose to share bonding moments,  straight to intensive care.  I didn't see The Boy again for three days.

After giving birth, my heart failed and most of the 40 pounds of extra fluid ended up in my lungs.  I had a severe and blinding headache and was throwing up.  Nobody realized my heart was failing until I woke up around 3 a.m the next day and couldn't take a breath.

I could hear this ominous gurgling noise coming from my lungs when I tried to push air out and I could get very little air sucked back in my lungs.  I had no clue what was happening.  I called the nurse and first just asked for water.  By the time she came back in the room I had collapsed and was gasping for air.  Next thing I know, the room is swarming, full of people and I'm being rolled away somewhere.

During that time all I could think of was breathing, staying calm, sleeping so when I woke up it would all be better and I could take my baby home.  Hoping that when I woke up, the nightmare would be over and I could get out of there with my baby.  I also became very concerned about breast feeding which was something I obviously couldn't do with tubes going down my throat and all kinds of drugs being pumped in my veins.

After they took me off the respirator, I convinced my Pulmonary doctor and my Obstetrician to get a breast pump sent up.  It was sort of surreal to be lying in intensive care pumping breast milk.  The lactation consultant told me it was good to get the old milk out and stimulate the milk flow since I couldn't nurse.  Then she changed out some of my meds so I could take the ones she considered safe to consume while breast feeding once I got home.

I had wanted a drug free natural birth with no epidural.  My plan was to drop by the hospital, shoot the baby out as quickly as possible with no drugs and then get the heck out of there the next day.

God laughed at my plans.

Unfortunately it didn't happen that way.  I had a really scary moment during labor when The Boy's heart rate went down ( I think they gave me a too big dose of pitocin ((?))).  I was shivering as they flipped me back and forth hoping to get the cord off the baby (if that was what was wrong) and then they injected me with something to get my heart rate up to get his up.

 I was convinced to get an epidural and I was terrified after that episode.  It was all a blur.  A really bad dream.  I was at their mercy.  The Boy and I are both lucky to have made it through all that.

I can't say I have good memories about that day 20 years ago, but once The Boy and I got out of that hospital and got home, my life changed for the better.  Having my son was the best decision I ever made. Even during those frustrating days of school, teachers, IEP's, homework, ugggg and everything else, no regrets.   The only regret is that he did not have a brother or sister to grow up with.  I was too afraid to have another baby and my Cardiologist said it wouldn't be a good idea.

My diagnosis was Postpartum Cardiomyopathy.

I spent an entire year with very little sleep, monitoring The Boy to make sure he was breathing.  Panicking every time I felt like I couldn't breathe or had any kind of chest pain.  Being the household breathing monitor is a really tough job.  My anxiety attacks started during that time.  I don't exactly remember when I stopped with the obsessive monitoring, I just remember waking up one morning and I had actually slept through the entire night.  The baby was ok, I was ok, everything was ok.  We were all still breathing.  After that it got easier and easier.

Every year I look back on that day and thank God that I survived so that I could be here to watch The Boy grow up.  This day for the past 20 years, I'm thankful.  Thankful for my wonderful son that God blessed me with and thankful that I am here to celebrate his 20th birthday with him and hopefully many more to come.

I always thought I was so tough and would be one of those women who could just squat down in a field and give birth in 2 seconds flat.  No drugs necessary.  Ha!   Even giving birth I'm such a drama queen!

Happy Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day.  A day to remember all those men and women who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.  It is also considered the beginning of summer and the past few days it has felt like summer around here.   It is very hot and very humid.

The Running Nazi and I met this morning and ran 10 miles trying to beat the heat.  It was still very warm and humid even at 6:30 a.m.  Glad we got that over.  I'm spending the rest of the day in the pool.

The Boy was Best Man in his dad's wedding Saturday.  He said that everything went smoothly.  He got to do the things he wanted to do with his friend Friday and Sunday, but still showed up on Saturday for the wedding.

He never got his hair cut, but his grandparents got hold of his hair with plenty of hair spray and managed to get it looking pretty good.  It will most likely still be plastered to his head in that same style for the next month or so.

He also got home an hour earlier than I expected and The Murph and I were out with friends.  I got a call from The Boy with the security alarm going off in the background and The Boy asking me for the code.  He didn't remember it and he didn't call me to let me know he was on his way home.

Good thing he was able to get in touch with me or he would have some explaining to do when the police showed up at the house.  Would not be a good thing for The Boy.  If he didn't remember the code, he probably wouldn't remember the password either.  Not good!  That was Saturday.

Then Sunday, his friend drops him off at the house early and we aren't home yet and he has forgotten his key.  He calls me to let me know he's home, but doesn't say anything about not being able to get in the house.  We take our time getting home and when we arrive, he's sitting outside, locked out.

It's going to be an interesting summer.

Special Needs Ryan Gosling Friday!

It's Friday and time for Special needs Ryan Gosling.  Yea!  TGIF!  You can find more of these memes on Sunday Stillwell's blog over at Adventures in Extreme Parenthood.  

And wondering if he's doing this in preschool, what's high school going to be like?

I actually did get a call from the preschool once when The Boy was 4 years old.  He had locked horns with his new preschool teacher, who he didn't like much and was sent to the director's office.  The preschool director called me and told me I needed to come get him.  He was giving everybody trouble and had threatened to kick the door down.  

So thankful for Skype since The Boy is in college now!

This was so not like him.  It didn't take long to figure out that he was having trouble adjusting to the new teacher.  His original teacher left mid-year to become a missionary.   That wasn't a good year for The Boy.

This hasn't been a good week for me.  I had a feeling it wasn't going to be and tried to prepare myself mentally for it, but no matter how prepared you think you are, it's never easy when it happens.  Hope next week is better.

What Makes This Cat Tick?

This is the first time I've seen this cat stay on his back so long.  After taking some pictures of him, he was still showing his stuff so I managed to video a short clip on my camera.  He stayed like this for probably another 15 minutes.  Don't know why.  We couldn't really tell if he was stuck or not.  He's such a goofy cat.

This pose reminds of one of those Felix the cat pendulum clocks where the cat's tail twitches back and forth.

These are some of the pictures we took of him in this very odd position.

Thursdays Are For Bricks

Not this kind of brick

I woke up this morning feeling very anxious.  I couldn't breathe very well.  I felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest, squeezing all the air out.  Anxiety always triggers my asthma and this time of the year my lungs are struggling for air anyway.

I went to bed feeling like this and I woke up feeling like this.  It started yesterday with The Boy and the hair cut incident.  Things are quiet down in The Boy's room right now, but at any moment, one phone call from his dad and things could explode.  Usually in my face.

The Boy woke me up this morning with a run down of what his dad plans to do tomorrow (in preparation for the wedding) with him at the last minute.  The Boy was already planning ways out of it and wants to go with his friend and do something else.  His dad wants to pick him up around 1:00 and go pick up the tux.  Then he expects The Boy to hang out at his office with him while he works the rest of the day.

First of all, this last minute running around stuff usually doesn't work very well with The Boy.  He has Asperger's.  He likes things planned out and given plenty of time to prepare himself for things he doesn't really like to do.   Hopefully, his dad telling him ahead of time will help prepare him a little.

The biggest problem is that his dad doesn't except the fact he has Asperger's.  He doesn't like what he calls "labels".  He would rather hang onto the fact The Boy behaves this way because of bad parenting.  Not his, but mine since I "won" custody and just haven't taught him proper manners.

I don't really like labels either but sometimes they are necessary to help classify special needs children. What can be bad are the false or incorrect stereotypes that can go with a label of Asperger's or ADD.  I recently came across a really good article on the subject.  I feel the same way about labels as this author does here.

Second, in this last minute whirlwind of getting things for the wedding and finishing up work related things, it might get a little bit stress full for the dad and from past experience, The Boy shuts down during these times.  Instead of speeding it up and getting things done, there could be an opposite reaction.

In the end, The Boy suffers.  And when The Boy suffers because of his dad's lack of patience and understanding, I get major league stressed out.

It's all bad.

And there's still that hair cut thing.  Something that The Boy really dislikes but has found someone who he can tolerate and actually likes now.  She was very surprised a couple of months ago when he actually started talking to her while she was cutting his hair.  She probably asked him something about computers.

I'm still waiting on what's going to go down on that little issue.  That's a really "hairy" issue!

Not being able to breath very well and having this sense of doom floating around over my head, I didn't feel very motivated to go to the gym.  I had to force myself to go with The Murph today.

When I got there I thought I would just get on the exercise bike for a few minutes for an easy spin, then I remembered today is Thursday.  Crap!  Thursday for me are brick days.  And bricks are a tough workout no matter how short.

This kind of brick

In the triathlon world, a brick workout is where you bike first and then run to help train your muscles and cardio system to adapt quickly to this transition during a triathlon. Swim, bike, run thing.  It can also mean swim first then bike to get you use to getting on the bike after coming out of the water.  The reason it's called a brick workout is because that's usually the way your legs feel when you start to run off the bike.

Bricks help teach your body to move the flow of blood from the muscles you use while biking to the muscles you use while running more efficiently.  The faster your body can do this off the bike, the better your run will be.

Me, one of my bikes and my training buddy

I rarely do swim/bike bricks since I rarely swim anymore unless I'm training for at least a 1/2 Ironman.  My new gym doesn't even have a pool.

For the past 12 years I have always done a brick workout on Thursday.  It's mandatory for me.  I can do it on my real bike out on the road or with my bike on a trainer or on an exercise or spin bike.  I can run either on the roads or the treadmill with any combo of the above bike rides.  It can be any length from 20 minutes bike/10 minute run on up to 2 hour bike/1 hour run.

It's Thursday so I just have to do it.

My first bike.  Probably an antique now.

I sucked it up and did a really short bike and then a really short run.  Then I did weights.  I really felt a little better after I worked out and my breathing is better.  Much better.

I'm still waiting for that bomb to drop though.  It could get ugly.

My little training buddy.  We've made up since yesterday.

Phantom Enjoying His Day Before The Bath

Phantom was let out for a little while today while I was outside.  Then he had a really good bath just in case any fleas tried to set up housekeeping on him.

He loves being outside.  While he was out a huge hawk landed on the fence and perched there for a while.  I hope it wasn't checking to see if Phantom was good enough to be his next tasty dinner.

Wonder what hawks eat??

Love These ZiGi Sandals And Lunch With The Boy

Bebe Dress
ZiGi Shoes

They may not look comfortable, but they really are after you get use to being much higher up than normal.  I love to wear these types of platform sandals when I go out in the evening at the beach instead of my flat sandals.   It's a dressier alternative to flats and the heels don't get stuck in the boardwalk.

The shoes and dress were a birthday present to me from The Murph.  I wore them yesterday when The Boy and I went out to lunch.   You will probably recognize The Boy below...

What attractive hands!

We were planning on eating at his favorite Mexican restaurant, but by the time we got there they had stopped serving lunch.  Crap! 

 So we ended up going across the street to Wings.  He had a burger and I had a salad.

We both felt a little sick after eating all that greasy food, but it was good.  It was already after 2:30 pm by the time we got to the restaurant and it was almost empty.  This was good because when The Boy started meowing loudly only the waiter heard and he just ignored it.

Overall, we had fun and he even applied for a job at one of the stores nearby.

Fingers crossed!

The Girl Graduates From College

We had an exciting weekend especially Saturday!  The Girl graduated from college.  The Murph is such a proud papa.  The weather cooperated and it was a beautiful and sunny day.  The ceremony started early before the heat made things unbearable.  The Murph and I behaved and hopefully weren't too much of an embarrassment.  Actually, the Murph and I are pretty cool so I'm sure we are definitely never an embarrassment to the "kids."

I am really thrilled that nowThe Girl is planning on attending graduate school and getting a Masters in Music Therapy.  I think this is the perfect field for her and she will be working with Autism and Alzheimer patients who really need this kind of therapy.

I have to say I'm a little jealous of The Murph.  He had it so easy with The Girl.  No IEP meetings, no messy parent/teacher conferences, no homework fights or up at midnight doing last minute projects you didn't know about.  The list goes on and on!

From my experience it seems girls in general are easier when it comes to schooling, but girl's without special needs, who make good grades and do their work and are responsible are so I've died and gone to heaven easier.  If only The Boy had been that easy.  Those 10 years would be added back on to my life!

One down, one to go!  And he is TROUBLE!!  His grades last semester are good so I can't complain.  Issues and drama have already started and he hasn't even been home long.  One big thing he is having a hard time adapting too is that the kitchen here is not the same as his school cafeteria. It's also not a restaurant.  We don't take orders.

We plan what we are going to eat, we cook, we eat.  If he doesn't want what we are serving, he doesn't have to eat it.  He can make himself a sandwich.  We don't cook multiple things.  There is no menu.

He needs to learn how to make himself a sandwich.

There are numerous other issues including getting a summer job.  He wants one, it's just hard trying to find one it seems.  That's the project this week.

It's Friday- Time for Special Needs Ryan Gosling

Once again it's Friday and I am participating in the Special needs Ryan Gosling meme started by Sunday Stillwell at http://www.extremeparenthood.com/ -Adventures in Extreme Parenthood.  You can find more of these on her blog.

It's so great to not have to go through those IEP meetings anymore.  I was clueless during most of the IEP years because The Boy wasn't diagnosed with Asperger's until almost high school.   During the beginning years I was just grateful for ANYTHING the school offered him, including speech therapy before he even started kindergarten.

Mrs. F, The Boy's speech therapist in elementary school was a blessing to us.  The Boy started speech therapy with her when he was just 3 years old, after his preschool teachers were concerned about his speech.

These first teachers actually thought he had a hearing problem which we quickly ruled out through testing.  They also were the ones who told me to contact the school because he might be eligible for free speech therapy even though he was two years away from going to kindergarten.

We were so lucky to get him in with Mrs. F, the speech therapist.  By the time he started kindergarten he was already familiar with the elementary school (after going there 2 or 3 time a week for two years) and he was in speech with Mrs. F from age 3 until third grade.

During the elementary school years,  she recommended the teachers she thought would work best with The Boy and so every year I didn't worry.   He was always placed with teachers that he liked and worked well with.  That didn't always happen during middle and high schools when he had to change classes and had a different teacher for every subject.

It wasn't necessarily the IEP meetings that were the worst.  I actually only remember two IEP meetings when I didn't agree with what the school.  One was his Junior year when they were going to take away one of his accommodations which let him turn work in late.

 He was going to loose this accommodation starting his Senior year, which they said would help "prepare" him for college.  I sucked it up and decided not to try to fight it and in the end, The Boy didn't need it anyway.  He was pretty motivated his Senior year to get out of that place.

The worst meetings were the parent/teacher meetings that I had to schedule when one or more of the teachers weren't following the IEP or were just clueless about The Boy's differences.  It seemed like EVERY year during middle school that there was at least one teacher who was completely inflexible and was just going to stay that way no matter what.

Most of the other teachers were very accommodating and almost all of his special ed teachers were extremely helpful, but limited on what they could do since during middle school he was just diagnosed with ADD, which basically didn't get you much back then.  Having an Asperger's diagnosis changed everything for The Boy when he made it to high school.

However, during 6th grade I had at least twelve of these parent/teacher meetings throughout the year and The Boy ended up having to go to summer school anyway.  The Boy actually liked summer school and did well there.  He had to attend summer school after his Freshman and Sophomore years too.

Having less classes to focus on was very beneficial to him during the summer.  During a normal semester of school, he struggled trying to keep up with 5 or 6 classes.  I always thought he would have done better if the semesters were shorter with 3 or 4 during a normal school year instead of 2 and each semester having only 2 or 3 classes at a time.

Who knows.  I'm just glad he's out of high school.  He is too!

Birthday Cake and Pizza

My sweet Murph got me a cake for my birthday.  I love birthday cakes, but I am the only one who eats  sweets around here other than Phantom the cat and he doesn't need it.  The Murph won't eat cake at all. It's hit or miss with The Boy.

That's ok though.  I can eat enough for everybody.   I will eat it even if I shouldn't.  Birthday cakes make getting another year older worthwhile.  Almost.  

This cake was a very delicious pink, strawberry cake with vanilla butter cream icing.    Tonight the Murph was going to take me out to eat to a very nice restaurant to celebrate my birthday.  I opted out since I went out to lunch yesterday with my mom and I ate a little too much.  That was one reason.  The real reason was that I really just wanted to stay in tonight.

It's a good thing I told him I didn't want to go out because the Devils are playing the Rangers tonight in hockey and I can't believe The Murph was willing to miss this game to take my out to eat for my birthday.  He should have told me!!

We stayed in and ordered pizza.  And of course, had beer and margaritas.  Beer for The Murph.  Margaritas for me.

Everything ended up working out great.  The Murph gets to stay home and watch this very important game and I get to stay home with my bestest guy, that would be The Murph,  my favorite cat boy and the out of control cats.

Pizza and cake.  I am stuffed!

Now if only the Rangers win.  It's not looking good right now!

Lunch With Mom and The Cat Boy

Phantom's new spot

The Boy and I took my mom out to lunch today for a belated mother's day celebration.  We waited until today since The Boy was with his dad this weekend and I thought my mom would want to see him.   I was hoping that since The Boy has spent one entire year in college, that he would outgrow some of his unusual and embarrassing "cat" behavior.  (He identifies a little to closely with the family cats.)

No such luck.

We had barely sat down in the restaurant when The Boy starts up with his old behavior.  The cat behavior.  For the past few years, whenever we are in public, The Boy starts meowing at me loudly.  If I ignore him, which I try to do hoping he'll stop, he will then start rubbing his head on my shoulder, meowing and purring.  Very loudly.  

I have tried everything to try to make him stop.  Ignoring him is my last hope.  My mom was sitting on the other side of the table, witnessing this very unusual and embarrassing behavior.  The look on her face was exactly the same look I 've seen on other family members and friends who have been unfortunate enough to witness it.

I thought he would out grow it.  That he would mature in college.  That he would forget the behavior since he's not around our cats so much anymore or just not do it because it's too embarrassing for him.

No such luck.

Lucky for me, the restaurant was fairly empty today and there was no waitress nearby when he was performing the cat behavior.  I threatened him that if he didn't stop, I was turning him into the humane society, giving him a rabies shot,  having him declawed.  In return, he growled at me.

And bit me on the arm. 

 Oh, the look on my mom's face when he did that!  

He follows me around meowing when we are home, but why does he go overboard with it when we are in public?  He doesn't seem as bad when we are home, but maybe I just don't notice it as much because there's nobody to witness it but me and The Murph. 

I've decided to start calling him "Cat Boy" until he stops.  I've already been bitten twice by the cats this week, both the real one and the pretend one.  This house is out of control!

Phantom and Boo "bonding"

Wide loads!

Happy Mother's Day To My Mom

Mom holding me and that's my dad's arm

This is me and my mom when I was a baby.  I am very lucky to have her close by.  I don't know what I would have done without her when The Boy was younger.  She helped out a lot when I had to work and he was out of school for holidays or summer vacation.  I don't know what I would have done without her help.

My mom and me

Here's my mom when she was a baby.  She had a wonderful mom too - my grandmother who passed away about 9 years ago when The Boy was 10 years old.

My mom

My mom with her mom - my grandmother

And below is four generations of my family with me, my mom, my grandfather and my great-grandmother.

I'm not so sure about my great grandmother's mothering skills.  Out of four children, my grandfather was the only one to make it through childhood alive.  And she named him Harley, after the motorcycle.

A name he didn't like too much or keep as an adult.

Four generations.
My great grandmother, my mom holding me and my grandfather

I feel very blessed to have such a good mom.  I haven't been very good at calling or stopping by to see her on Mother's Day through the years, but that has changed as I have gotten older.  I appreciate her more and more.

The Murph lost his mom several years ago to diabetes.  For many years before that he didn't get to see her much because she lived in New Jersey and he had moved south.  He tells me all the time that he listens to her now more than he ever did when she was alive.

Her years of motherly advice and wisdom that he shrugged off when she was alive now is a very real part of him.  I don't think a day goes by when he doesn't say mom would have said this or mom would have done that.

It gives me hope that maybe The Boy is hearing what I say and storing it away somewhere to remember when I'm not there and he needs it.

Things he needs to remember such as - "Brush your teeth", "Wash your clothes" and "Always wear clean underwear!".

My mom is full of advice for me as all mom's are I guess.  I should probably listen to her more.   She has very good advice.  Anyway, even if I don't listen to her all the time, I still love her very much.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!