Thoughts, Worries, and Miscellanous

This is just random things I have been thinking about or worrying about lately or just wanted to mention. I usually would try to post these separately but I have been obsessively reading. More on that below.

I realized I do not live a balanced life at all and do not know how to make it happen. It is always one extreme or another. For example, I have not read books in a long time and then Angie got me started on the Twilight series. I don't think I would have gone and gotten them so had she not given them to me I would probably not have read them anytime soon. I have read all three books in one week. The second in just 7 hours. I stayed up until 1:30 in the morning which is not good when you get up at 6:30. With each book being 500+ pages apparently I have neglected my family this week. Angie is reading the fourth one now so I have a little time to rest before I become obsessed again. If it is not reading then I am obsessed with blogging. Then my house gets to be unmanageable so I spend the next week cleaning but then I get behind on other things because I become obsessed with the house. How can I learn to be more balanced.

Speaking of unbalanced, David and I went out three times this week without the kids. My pore kids I will be making up for that this week. We saw two movies. Batman, poor David he had already seen it with work people but I forced him to go again. He said he really liked it and was ok with that. I really liked it too. Much darker then before. I was thinking it would be hard to watch Heath Ledger as the Joker and not think about the tragedy of him dieing but he was so good in this I completely forgot that it was him. He really became the joker. It was strange. The other movie was X-Files. It was good but not great. They had a preview of Californication on before and it made me wish I had showtime. I do like David Dachovony. I think he is funny. I am a fan of dry humor though. We also went out one night to say goodbye to some of David's co-workers, they are moving.

At least the girls still got Fabulous Fun Friday. Of course I enlisted my Moms help and Fabulous Fun Friday extended to Super Saturday. We went to Red Robin for lunch on Friday and then to Grammy's house to swim. They then stayed the night at Grammy's which is always Fabulous to them. They then swam again in the morning. Guess what I was doing Saturday morning while they were gone. I was reading of course. Darn addictive book.

On to a new subject. Just a little background if you did not know. Ainsley and Abby both have allergies, eczema, and constipation issues. Ainsley has had constipation issues at a very young age. I don't know why but she has and no matter what we do it still is an issue, although better then it was. Abby on the other hand only developed it a year ago after we went on a trip. So every time I go to the doctor and discuss any of these issues the first thing they say is maybe the have problems with dairy. I have ignored them. I think Abby's so called constipation is totally psychological. I think if their allergies were dairy they would be sick all the time not just certain times of the year. The eczema also is only certain times not at the same time that they have had excessive amounts of dairy. The only thing that I am not so certain about is Ainsley's constipation. So after Abby's doctor visit this time I decided I am tired of them always bringing it up so I am going to try it. Seven different milk substitutes later Ainsley has found one that she will drink, Abby has not. Ainsley likes the milk made with almonds. All people who have kids with nuts allergies would be cringing at this moment. I was willing to do this so it would not be a topic of discussion anymore or maybe we would find out that it really did effect them. However, after a week I am so confused and frustrated by this. Every doctor has said to try it but did anyone ever bother to give more information then that? No. I only found out after a week of this diet that soy cheese had milk in it. I guess I need to read labels more. So I did more research on the Internet found out a few things went to the store and realized there is very little that does not have milk in it. Even pretzels have milk it it. So after going crazy with frustration this weekend I am going to finish the week up the best I can. I am not going to worry if they get some and call it good. Like my mom said they were on so much dairy that with taking them off what I did they should show some kind of difference and neither one of them has. In fact Abby's eczema is worse this week. I think it is more of a strawberry allergy but I don't want to tackle that one at the moment. Nothing with Ainsley is any different and neither one of them have had an allergy attack since the very beginning of June. By the way I know Abby's is psychological now. At the doctor I explained all of Abby's so called constipation issues and said I think she is just trying to hold it in for some reason. It does not hurt when she does finally go. The doctor said I could try positive reinforcement to help. She said give her a toy or something every time she goes. She said this is not a bribe it is positive reinforcement. Trust me I do this kind of stuff all the time but really what is the difference between the two. It is a very fine line. So that night before I took her off the dairy we negotiated. My kids are great at this and getting better all the time. It kind of scares me. I had said no more toys in there room, they had a play room and this is where they belonged. She asked if she could have some in there and I said if you go on the potty. We negotiated that it would be four toys and she immediately went and has gone every day since. She also has been allowed to have four toys at night everyday since. Every time she has given me any grief about it I say you will not get your toys and she goes right to the potty and goes. I am probably creating some other issues with this but for now I can only focus on the one.

My frustration leads me to another issue on the same topic of food allergies. I know it is a big deal right now. So many seem to have allergies and then it seems like what you have to eat for one conflicts with what someone else has to eat for another. How did allergies get so bad and what is going to happen in the future? It is really on my mind a lot lately and has me very concerned. Abby eats very little meat so I give her granola bars with protein and also peanut butter sandwhichs. What if she is in a class with someone who is allergic to this. What would I send with her to eat. I guess it would be fruit and veggies only. It is already really hard to come up with things for their lunches now without being restricted. I feel sorry for the mothers of kids that do have allergies because it is really hard to find anything without that stuff in it.

Sometimes it bothers me that Ainsley is so oblivious to things. She is unaware that there are other people in the drop off and pick up line at school. It does not stress her at all that there are people waiting for us to move to get their kids. It is almost like this sends her into slow motion. She skipped 1st grade math and was put into 2nd grade. I said how proud of her I was and she just didn't see what the big deal was. In someways I hope this continues because she does not seem to care what others think of her and does not get stressed out by things at school. On the other hand sometimes her being oblivious stresses me out.

My husband does not wear his wedding ring and has not for many years. I wear mine on and off. Since having Abby it bothers me. Water and lotion get under it and cause my skin to break out in a rash. I was trying to take it off just to shower and do cleaning and at night but then I would forget to put it back on. I know this probably would bother a lot of people if there husband or wife stopped wearing their ring but it does not bother us in the slightest. I grew up where my father worked with machines and if he wore his wedding ring he had a potential to get it caught in the machine so he never wore it. That might be one reason it does not bother me. Don't get me wrong I love my ring, but I don't feel like it defines my marriage and in all honesty my husband got hit on more by women when he wore it then without, sad but true. In college I use to hear, and even some now, of all these women who would sit around and say he better give me a two carat diamond ring and spend this much on it or I will not marry him. Is the ring really that important? Is it what is going to pay the bills or be there for you when the bad times hit? No. The ring that I have cost very little compared to most these days. I picked it because it is several really small diamonds in a cluster that reminded me of a star. When I met David he was and Astronomy/Physics major and would go to Lowell Observatory in the summer for an internship. This ring kind of looked like a star to me and that was his passion so that is why I like the ring so much. Isn't that more important then the two carat platinum ring and diamond wedding band? Are people wearing them now because it is a symbol of there love and commitment or as a status symbol? Just my thoughts.

Ainsley and Abby crack me up in how they play. I always tell David that even though we have two girls they still love a lot of the boy stuff. Of course they always mix it together. The other day they were playing with the Indiana Jones Lego's and having a war. They had their small princesses dolls in the Lego set and these dolls were trapped in the dungeon and needed to be rescued. It is so funny to listen to them play.

I had forgotten when I blogged about Abby's birthday to say something about what Ainsley had decided to do for the party. She decide that she would make something to sell at Abby's party so she could earn money. She would decorate several paper hearts and then put them in a bag and sell them. She decide that it would be $1. She was telling this to Angie and myself and I said maybe it should be more like $.10. She thought about it and then said ok 110 pennies. Does she think she is being sneaky by saying it in pennies and she just raised the price. Then she decides she needs help so she assigns the task to Lauren to do. Lauren made them while Ainsely had something else she needed to do. Then when my mom and I said that she never had asked us to buy them she said do you want them. I told her she needed to sell them to me first and tell why I needed them. She immediately said that I could string them on a chain for a necklace or bracelet. She also said I could use them as decorations on Valentine's Day. The other day when I was reading I said I need to get a bookmark so she told me she would take my heart and put a long strip of paper on the bottom of it for a bookmark. She said that way the heart would hang out of the book and look pretty. This whole thing made me laugh really hard but at the same time I am kind of impressed with her and her thought process.

By the way I am a terrible speller. Ignore all typos and grammar issues. It was never my best subject. I know these things really bug some people so sorry if you are one of them. Sometimes I am like Ainsley and go to fast and don't stop to look back and other times I am just bad at it.

Last and final thing. Why do we need to bring a snack to school. Why can't we do like last year and provide our child with their second snack. It is much easier for me to provide a healthy snack and one that I know my child will like myself. As a shopped this week I found it very hard to find a healthy, prepackaged snack that does not have to be refrigerated for 20 kids. I got so frustrated, of course this was at the same time that I was reading all the labels and realized everything had milk in it. I don't know, I am just not really happy with the snack thing. Right now I am in the mode of wanting to know everything my child eats and this is not helping with that.