Friday, November 8, 2013

Fitness: Listen to Your Body

So about six weeks ago I started to feel pain in my shoulder (right one) and I quasi-scaled back my workouts but did not completely stop.  Now two full weeks into dry land rehab, I am still not 100%. I played tennis yesterday for the first time in several weeks and I made it through but it was strange. My right arm seemed weak. Nonetheless I press on with my rehab and exercises so that I can get stronger and not hurt myself more. The lessons I learned from all of this are listen to my body, don't over do it and follow Doctor's orders! 

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Family: Four Generations and Friends

Today would be my grandmother, Moppie's 104th birthday!  Amazingly, she lived to be 96 years young and thankfully she got to meet two of her four great-grandchildren, including Timothy.  Moppie was awesome.  She loved tennis, golf, bingo and of course her glass of wine at 5pm religiously every day. She was an incredible athlete playing tennis until her mid to late 80s.  When I was young and she would visit us from the West Coast, on many early mornings I would crawl into her twin bed with her to "snuggle" as my son now often ask of me to do.  I would knock on the door and she would say "you-who."  What a grand lady and pillar for our family. Speaking of pillars, I learned that today is also the 20th wedding anniversary of some special friends of ours.  These friends, like my grandmother, are pillars of strength and courage as they live with and fight breast cancer together.  They are a true team and will undoubtedly beat the disease.  As I write this, I wonder what can I do for them.  I know of generous gifts of food etc but I am no gourmet chef so I think the best thing I can do is pray for them and hope that they know that they are not alone in their journey!  Be strong friends and Happy Birthday Moppie (see Moppie below with my Mom, Timothy during his first Christmas and me!)


Moppie with her daughter, granddaughter and great-grandson!

Friday, November 1, 2013

Family: Another First

Tonight will make another first for Timothy.  He has been invited to a friend's house for a Birthday Sleepover Party.  While Mom is worried that the timing, the night after the candy frenzy of Halloween, is not the best, he is so excited.  I spent a little bit of time in the preceding days educating Timothy about being polite and respectful in someone else's home.  I am sure he will be.  But I cannot help myself to wonder, will he sit at the table, will he not pee on the toilet seat, will he use nice language, will he not talk too much during what ever amount of sleep he gets.  Tonight will be only the fourth night in a calendar year that Jack and I will be on our own.  These times are precious.  I do not think parents especially ones raising little ones with learning and behavioral challenges get enough of this respite time.  I know we have not. Frankly, its a bit ironic because I seem to recall our few nights alone as a couple were spent primarily talking about Timothy.  I guess that is to be expected.  I am sure the most important aspect of all this is that Timothy was invited, he is going to experience a right of passage for young children, and most of all, it will be fun.

Postscript: The sleep over went really well. He had a blast and now wants to have one for his birthday in 2014.  Oh boy…get ready!