17 Years Old

Love

I have been neglecting the blog...but then that is true for nearly every aspect of my life. I have learned over the past few weeks a very hard truth: when your child is ill and away from home life does not just 'go on' despite your best efforts. Sometimes your best efforts in actuality suck. Grand Master B is still recovering. He 's awaiting placement in a residential treatment facility. It's becoming all too clear that the process of his getting well is going to be a long, drawn out affair. And when that is all you can think (obsess) about, everyday life just ceases to exist. I am having trouble focusing on household chores, work, socializing...even television requires effort to watch. Everything requires effort.

So I just wanted to take a minute to thank my husband for his love, patience and his support. I am quite certain that neither one of us imagined our first anniversary would occur among such discord. But we persevere. We communicate. We swallow anger and apologize when we forget to swallow anger. We remember that 'us' needs attention too. And we hold each other up.

Jim - Thank you for everything. I love you like crazy.

We're Harry Potter Geeks

So Grand Master B is now 16 and, although he is seriously misguided, believes himself to "be a grown man, Mom." He has abandoned many of his old childhood interests, but not Harry Potter. No way. I discovered the book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (the original title as published in England) in 1998. Frankly, it was not my usual sort of book purchase as 1) it was about a magical world with witches & warlocks, dragons & evil sorcerers and I'm not generally a supernatural, Dungeons & Dragons type of girl and 2) it was a children's book. But B was just turning 6 and loved to read - just like me. I thought it was something that might interest him and that we could read together...and we did. We loved this book and anxiously awaited the next release in the series over the next 9 years. We read every book together, with me reading out loud to B using clever voices like the nerd I am (except for the last book because he was "too old" to be read to). Since the release of the movies, we have watched each one in the theater and collected all the DVDs. About a year ago, Deana's son Mr. Sam was spending the night. Grand Master B and I introduced this beautiful, creative, imaginative boy to the world of Harry Potter...and wonder of wonders he loved it, too. Since then, the love of all things Potter has spread to include Princess Izzy and Deana (Dave had already read all the books). So we've all been anxiously awaiting the premiere of the 6th movie "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price" which is this week - 7/15/2009. And like the geeks we are, this band of merrymakers already has their tickets...for the midnight showing on Wednesday the 15th. This is the first time I've ever been to the midnight premiere but we bought tickets online and all of us are going - even Jim (though it is possible that he is a bit less enthusiastic about this midnight adventure than the rest of us). Mr. Sam is going dressed as Harry Potter which is cute and funny because he is 5. I am going dressed in dark jeans/T-shirt with a large, black witch's hat purchased as a souvenir (for Mr. Sam) from our recent trip to see "Wicked" which is totally dorky, but still funny because I am not 5. I have yet to inform Grand Master B of this addition to my wardrobe because I want the mortification to be fresh on the night of the actual event. But I will end this post by sharing my new favorite pic of B. He got his braces off a few weeks ago and his teeth look amazing. I actually got him to smile wide for a photo of those gorgeous chompers. I love it!

Deana says: As for the Harry Potter premier, I told my husband, just for fun let's call him 'He who cannot be named' (What? It fits with the post!) about the outing and he wanted to know if we got him a ticket. Ooops. Well, he probably wouldn't have been off work in time any way......

Oh, what a night...

We had such a wonderful time last night! The past two weeks have been very difficult for our family. Grand Master B has been dealing with some significant health issues, leaving me unable to work and with very little time or energy for socializing or blogging (gasp!). However, things seem to have stabilized and we are waiting for a final long-term treatment plan to be put into place. I am back to work and even got out of the house for an evening amongst adults last night. Thanks to everyone who has supported us during this time.

I particularly want to thank my Aunt Mary who sat with B last night so that Jim, Deana, my mom and I could go see Wicked at The Orpheum. What a fantastic show! We had bought the tickets weeks ago and we were taking my mom as a combination Mother's Day and birthday present. I had been fearful that we might not be able to go given B's issues but God was loving our family last night. We had such a wonderful night - great dinner, great show and great company. If you get the chance to see Wicked while it is in town, do not hesitate. It is superb! Deana and I even got matching "Defy Gravity" tees which we will go out of our way to not wear on the same day (but I make no promises cuz it's such a cute tee). The shirts are v-neck and the wording goes down each side of the vee across the chest, potentially creating quite a 'double entendre' depending upon the size of one's chest. I'm not sure that my own endowments will astound but it puts a smile on my face just to think about wearing it. And after the past two weeks, that is blessing enough.

Life Goes On

When we last visited with our faithful heroines, they had recently survived scathing attacks by the dreaded salt wash of the Master Cleanse...

But we have since returned to our "regularly scheduled programming" in terms of food and life has settled down into a semblance of normalcy. We are working together to make healthy food choices (which included a rockin' fun grocery trip to WalMart on Sunday), stay on track with a WW program and incorporate more exercise into our lifestyle. The weekend went really well. I went for a walk around the neighborhood on Saturday and Deana took the kids downtown to explore the Old Market. Then on Sunday after spending way too much time and money at WalMart, we had the Walocha's over for dinner. I roasted a pork loin and summer vegetables mixed with an Asian- spiced honey mustard marinade and Deana made some super yummy brown rice (the secret is to cook the rice in chicken or beef stock for added flavor). Then we hung out and watched Across The Universe. It was low-key but very fun. Grand Master B even graced us with his presence and danced with his mother around the living room.

Deana says - "Rockin fun trip to Walmart?" Apparently Jenn has the ability to block out my children behaving like maniacs. I think they must pump some sort of air additive into those stores that make children ask for everything they see, run like hyenas and generally just behave badly. I don't think I've said 'no' so much since high school.....