Oh you pesky migraines!

 When I was pregnant with Finley, I used to get ocular migraines.  In the beginning of the pregnancy I would get them almost every other day.  At first I got a little nervous because they were happening so frequently but after speaking with my OB, who then referred me to a neurologist, we decided that it was purely hormone related.  I am lucky in that, as of now, I don't get the actual headache that comes with the migraine...if that makes sense.  People ask me what an ocular migraine is and I found this video that shows what it's like for me when I get one.

Ocular Migraine from Aharon Rabinowitz on Vimeo.

This is pretty accurate on what I see when I get one, except it lasts anywhere from 20-30 minutes.  Again, I don't get the pain with it but eventually I could.  For now, I just have to deal with the fact that I can't really see anything for about 30 min.  Yes, I've had one before while driving....not cool at all!

The later I got in my pregnancy with Finley, I hardly got them anymore.  By the end I wasn't getting them at all.  When I was breastfeeding I started getting them again.  Again...hormone related.   However, after I was done nursing and was done with all that hormone stuff I continued to get them.  A few weeks ago, I got one so bad that I felt like it really made my brain foggy and then I continued to get 2 more that evening and into bedtime.  That freaked me out so I went straight to my eye doctor the next morning to rule out anything with my eyes.  Sometimes if your retina is detached you can have these symptoms.  But after a thorough exam, he said it was nothing with my eyes and to head over to the neurologist to make sure it was nothing serious.

I went to the neuro and this is what it came down to:  I am a classic migrain-er.  Yes, I am just one of those people that will continue to get migraines and she said as I get older, it will probably turn into the full-blown migraines.  Awesome....

However, she gave me some tips on what usually triggers migraines and all of these totally apply to me!!

1.  stop drinking red wine.  She explained why but I forget the reason, something with the coloring

2.  Stop the "running".  Boohoo....she said I can lightly jog but the pounding exercises are bad for people with migraines.  So, I'm not sure what this means for my triathlons...guess we will see.  I did tell her that since I've been training, the migraines have gotten a lot worse.  Isn't that weird how that happens?  I would think exercise would make them better, but it makes sense that the intense exercising wouldn't help.  I need to be doing more swimming, yoga, biking...things like that

3.  Absolutely no hormones for me.  I've never taken birth control and apparently I never should.  Annie +hormones = don't mix!!  Nick can tell you that from experience :)

4.  Get enough sleep and keep stress under control.  I told Nick that my migraines also got significantly worse while we were going through all this selling/building a house thing.  I remember the day we came home from spending most of the day with our builder I came home and got a big migraine and it put me out the rest of the night.  My neuro did say that if you get TOO MUCH sleep that can also cause migraines...interesting.

I'm guessing that if I do all these that I should be able to get them under control and they have been better the last couple weeks.  Last month I was getting about 2 per week and now it's down to about 1 every 2-3 weeks.  I'm also just glad it's nothing serious!  So for now, I'll be enjoying my yoga classes while sipping on white wine, whoop!!!

Papa, Mimi and lots of birthdays

My parents came for a visit last week!!  My mom was THE biggest help with me going back to work and having some long days.  She stayed with us for 10 days and it was the best feeling, leaving the kids home with her and knowing they were having so much fun while I was at teacher in-service.  Finely definitely is not used to being away from me that much so by the evening time, she was wanting me to hold her...all night long. :)

My dad came for a long weekend and we definitely kept them busy.  Papa did lots of playing, whether it was coloring with Finley, playing with water guns outside with the kids, reading with Cole, the kids definitely kept them busy.  

Mimi and Cole even made playdough...in every color!!!  He loved helping Mimi!

"Cheese"

Of course we had to take several trips to Starbucks.  For some reason Cole knows when Mimi is in town that he gets to have his special chocolate milk treat.  I'm pretty sure they went there almost eveyday, ha!

The last couple weekends, we've had so many birthday parties!  Since my parents were in town, I just ran over with Cole to his friend Carter's party.  They had it at Coo Coo's and it was the coolest place!  He had so much fun.

Later that evening, we got a babysitter and Nick and I took my parents out to a nice dinner to celebrate my mom's birthday.  It was such a yummy dinner and nice to be able to sit and chat and not have to worry about whiney kiddos :)

Here is our crew at Zachary's party that same weekend.

Even though my dad was around for just the weekend, he and my mom were such big helps with getting our house packed up!  My mom had asked if she had any projects I wanted her to do while she was here and kind of jokingly I said, "yeah, pack up our house, why don't you!".  Well....she did!  Again, I'm not real sure how she gets everything done in the day.  She had packed up the house, made dinners, cleaned the house and still managed to entertain the kids.  Pretty sure just getting a couple loads of laundry done when I'm home is progress! :)

We were definitely sad to have my parents leave, but I'm sure they were ready to get home.  We are so grateful for all they did while they were here and we can't wait to see them again...hopefully next month or in October.

Last weekend we went to James' 1st birthday party.  I can't believe Finley's boyfriend is already a year old.  He definitely did not disappoint in the cake-eating!  That boy went to town!

Pretty sure Finley was watching James put that cupcake down...she was in awe!

Cole loved the frosting...he just licked it all off :)



Monday was my first official day of school.  Since it was the first day of school, I had to be there pretty early so Nick was nice enough to take the kids to Miss Sheryl's house for me.  I was a little nervous about them being at a new child care but I know they had fun.  The reason I know this is because this....Sheryl sent me pictures throughout the day, this one cracked me up.  Cole was having his computer time and she said Finley kept turning his monitor off.  She's so naughty! 

The other reason I know they had fun was when I went to pick them up, both of them cried when we left.  Then, when I put them in their car seats and looked back at them on the drive home, they both looked at me with looks of disgust. :)  Sorry children, that you have to spend the rest of the day with your mother!!!  Good grief! :)  But, I'd much rather them love it there instead of them running to the car to get out of there.  They were both very excited to go this morning again...it's just so funny, Finley still cries a little bit when we drop her at the church nursery but had absolutely no tears at Sheryl's house who she doesn't really even know.  Funny how that works.

I'm just so happy that everything worked out and the kids are happy, that's all that matters.  Hopefully we have a smooth week ahead of us.  Nick had to attend our pre-construction meeting this morning without me so hopefully that all went ok.  After this meeting they will soon be ready to break ground, yay!!

Just some updates

 Honestly, we really haven't been up to a whole lot the last week or so and it's been wonderful!!  Most of our summer was crazy, stressful and felt like it just flew by so I'm happy to just lay low and really enjoy the kiddos before school starts.....tomorrow!!!  Yikes!

We have made a couple trips to my classroom to start getting things situated but I've had to take the kids with me both times so I'm sure you can imagine just how much work I got done.  Cole stays plenty busy, drawing on my white board, making crowns out of wall borders, etc.  But Finley, that girl is a disaster.  She is a monkey child and wants to climb on everything.  She would climb on the chairs and eventually fell a couple times and hit her head on the floor.  You think she'd learn right?!?

 But....look at this cute girl.  Surely something this cute wouldn't give her mother a heart attack or stroke out, right?

How do you like them lips?  Thank you daddy...

 One thing I'm really going to miss when I go back to school is all the morning snuggles.  Each morning both kids drink their milk in our bed and we lounge around for a good 30 minutes.  I'm going to miss that.  Finley especially is going to have a rude awakening when she has to wake up an hour earlier than she's used to and is immediately thrown into the car :(  Sad...but I'm sure she will get used to it, may just take a couple weeks.

This is Cole this morning, he said "mom, that is way too bright" :)

 At least I will still get those afternoon snuggles.....ok, Finley really isn't much of a cuddler (unless she has her paci) so I guess this is payback for what I did to my own mom.  My mom always said she wishes I had a daughter like me and sure enough, I'm pretty sure I have her.  Sassy, doesn't cuddle, laughs when I reprimand her, does everything I tell her not to.  Again, heart attack waiting to happen :)

 Oh yeah, you know how I was talking about how she's a monkey child and climbs on everything?  This is what I saw the other day when I walked into the family room.  Are you kidding me?

So now, those pub chairs are gone or laying on their sides.  Yesterday, I put one of them up for a split second and I turn my head and she was sitting on top of the pub table....just playing with toys up there.  I mean, that is the ideal place to play with dolls right!

 I'm just not used to all this climbing, naughtiness....the worst Cole ever did was climb in the fire place and after we said "no no" and spanked his fingers a bit he got super sad and never did it again.  Guess this is the difference between having a little mini-Nick and a mini-Annie.  

I'm sorry mom and dad I was such a bad child.....:-)

We also took Finley to get her first milk shake the other day.  I think she was a bit excited and I love her little fake laugh :)  However, don't let this video fool you into thinking that "oh, look how good she does with the cup and straw, and she doesn't spill at all".  As soon as I stopped video-ing her, she punched a hole in the cup and spilled sticky ice cream all over.

I also love that Finley is getting to the age where her and Cole can play together.  It warms my heart when I'm busy getting dinner ready or cleaning the kitchen and they can entertain each other for a few minutes.

 This past weekend Nick's dad was in town and before he headed out to London for a few weeks, him and Gigi wanted to have a sleepover with the kids.  Nick and I dropped them off Saturday and then went on a real date with Pete and Katie.  This was the first time the four of us have gone out without kids, it was delightful!  AND, what made it better was that even though we got home kind of late, we didn't have to get up early with kiddos.  Thanks Gigi and Granddad!

That next morning, we all went back to Gigi and Granddad's house for brunch.  We spent most of the day there and as usual the kids had a blast.

 Finley was pretty interested in Uncle Blake....probably because he had such a cool hat on.  

Auntie Emily was cleaning out her closet and found some fun things to play with and apparently Uncle Blake thought this awesome denim hat was worth wearing.

 Me and my Hawaiian girl (sorry these are horrible phone pictures)

Now we are just getting ready to have Mimi and Papa come stay at our house.  My mom gets here late tonight and will be here 10 days and my dad will be here for the long weekend.  Can't wait to have them, it's been a long time since they have been here.  

I start inservice tomorrow.  I thought I was going to have to do a lot of the "new teacher" inservice but after talking to the right people, I was told I didn't have to attend all of it since it's only been a year since I've been gone.  I am getting very excited about getting started with school again and hope some of my new classes go smoothly.

Hopefully I can be more frequent at blogging, I've been pretty bad the last couple months.

Whew

 I realize it's been almost 2 weeks since I have last blogged and I know I need to but right now I feel like my arms are about to fall off so it won't be too super long.  More on my arms falling off in just a sec.

Our house is officially sold...hallelujah!!!  We had our inspection, appraisal... so no more keeping the house cleaned for anyone, yay!  I'm going to trash this place over the next two months...ok, not really, but it sounds fun right!?!  Luckily we aren't in too big of a hurry, we don't have to be out till mid September so we probably won't really start packing till after my parents are here in August.  Oh yeah, my mom is coming for 10 days the middle of August to watch the kids while I have to be at teacher in-service.  During in-service, I have to be there full days then when school actually starts I will start my half-days.  I just don't have the heart to put them in full-time child care, mostly because they aren't used to it, so it gave my mom a good excuse to come visit.  My dad is also coming down for a few days.  We can't wait to see them, too bad it's too hot to do anything outside...they might be a little miserable by the time they leave!

Since it's been so ridiculously hot here lately, we've been spending lots of time at the gym.  Luckily the kids love the child care at the gym and it gives me a little alone time.  Plus, I have gotten myself into training for a triathlon.  I've always wanted to do one but pregnancies and babies prevented me from doing that....so now's the time.  I recruited a few of the guys from my life group to do it with me so we will attempt this. I think we are doing a relay tri mid September just to get the feel for it and I'm pretty excited.  I have been running and biking a lot, but really need to get in the water.  For our relay, I am doing the swim portion and unfortunately that's the one I'm least in shape for.  It should be pretty easy though, I grew up on swim team...I'm just not in "swimming shape" at the moment.  I'll get there though.  So, this is why my arms feel like they are going to fall off my body right now...lots of arm workouts.

 

A couple random pictures.....

Last Saturday, I had to pick up James from their sitter and he got to hang with us for awhile.  Finley was pretty excited to have her boyfriend around.  I'm pretty sure he ate lunch before I picked him up but he had lunch #2 after he saw our kids eating lunch.

 Look at that tooth!

The other day, I was searching the house for Finley.  For a split second I did get in panic mode but then heard a giggle coming from under our bed.  This is what I found....

I've said it before that she is obsessed with the dogs lately, following them all over the house all day long.  So this day, she just decided to join them under the bed.  This girl is going to give me a heart attack soon!!!

Today I had to go to my "new employee orientation".  I just have one word.....brutal!!!!!  Do you know how hard it is to sit through 3 hours of "welcome to LISD, here's everything you need to know about the district" when I pretty much knew everything already since I taught there for 7 years!!!  Yes, I know I shouldn't wear short skirts in the classroom, especially when they are allowed to bring cell phones into the classroom now and teenage boys like to take pictures of inappropriate things.  Yes, I know not to become facebook friends with my student....can we move on??? :)

I shouldn't complain, I'm so thankful to have my job back, it's just super annoying to have to go through all this when I've only been gone for a year.  

Ok, enough blogging for now....I'll try to be better with the updates.