Roark with Hair

Roark before his haircut...good god, somebody cut that boy's hair!

Roark is spotted. As in little red dots all over his entire body. They look better today than they have. He woke up with these a few days ago and we attributed them at first to a possible penicillin allergy, then to Roseola or possibly an allergy to the 50 million raspberries he ate. No I didn’t call the doctor, but I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express. Yes, we are always THIS clueless. Don’t look at me that way. We do too make good parents.

OK. So we suck at parenting. What of it?

Saturday we went to the toy store and bought the boys bouncy balls, and also a set of three trucks (garbage truck, tow truck, and some sort of tool / service truck) that we thought they would love. And they did. And it proved we are idiots – in case there was any question about this so far. Three trucks. Two kids. And – only ONE garbage truck. You do the math. I can only say that if you live in L.A. or even Baltimore for instance, and heard a distant, yet disturbingly angry voice saying, “|For the love of GOD…SHARE WITH YOUR BROTHER”, it was me. And I am sorry for the interruption. I am guessing from Texas where we are, it was easily heard on either coast at some point during the day Saturday.

So Sunday brought with it another trip to the toy store. We came home with a HUGE garbage truck, some matchbox cars, and a playmate. Two kids. One big truck. See? Idiots. That we are. Would you believe me if I told you that they fought over the truck? Ummm, yeah. Of COURSE they did. Guess what we have planned for this evening? We are going to buy them another big truck. Just one. And so far we plan to buy one completely different from the others we have at home.

How do we even have children?

Why hasn’t someone taken them away from us yet?

Boo!

I brought the girls home and asked Cassie to take her things up to her room. A few minutes later she yelled and was laughing hysterically. The clown was a success.

Words and Phrases

"Dare's ONE!" - said EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. we pass a basketball goal in the car or on foot.

"It too muddy" - said last night when I gave the boys a chocolate covered marshmallow ghost.

"Pancake" - what Roark asks for every night before bed. Every night. Seriously.

"No Yike It" - pretty much what either of them say most of time we try to feed them anything nutritious.

"Sneaky" - could mean sneaky, but usually means stinky (as in "Sneaky trash")

"Hold you" - what they mean is "hold me" but it is much cuter this way.

"My turn" - it is usually NEVER their turn when either of them says this - they just want it to be their turn and hope that by saying, it will come true. Also cute...yet oh so annoying.

Big Face

I would put a picture of my new haircut here, but the swollen eyes seem to take away from it. Quite a bit. Let's just look back at the last time this happened and reflect a bit, shall we? They don't look quite that bad today, but they don't look great either. Saturday morning was HORRIBLE, and they have improved a little bit each day since then...which is nice. But still - the face, it is not pretty. I have YET ANOTHER DOCTOR'S appointment today at 3:30 to find out what in the hell is going on NOW with my broken self. I wonder at what point they just quit trying to fix it and let it fall apart...there has to be a point of diminishing returns, and I MUST be getting close.


Oh yes! Back to the haircut. I, like many girls, woke up Friday and wanted something new and different done with the mop on my head referred to as "hair". I opted for really short. And, I loved it. And, my husband...well...not so sure about him. The conversation (and my translation) follows:

Him: It’s definitely different.

Translation: Do you KNOW how short it is? Was that INTENTIONAL?

Him: It will take some getting used to.

Translation: Wow. It’s short.

Him: I think I am starting to like it.

Translation: It doesn’t make me nauseas anymore.

Hospital Pics

Here is another picture from the hospital sporting Cole and his wild-ass hair. One of the first things we did when I got home and could function was get the boys hair cut. They look so much better now!

Brittany, Cassie, and Roark Hospital

This is one of the "all family" trips up to the hospital to see me (Brittany, Roark, and Cassie) ... it definately brightened my day. See the junk food in the background? The cardiologist saw that and freaked. He made it VERY clear that I was not to eat ANY OF IT!! Duh.

Cole Closet

Roark Sleeping

Stupid Everything

I tried running yesterday for the first time. In my mind, before I went, I envisioned a slow 3 mile run. I imagined I would be tired at the end but that it wouldn’t be all that difficult. I was out of my freaking mind – in case you were wondering.

I started at my house and went a total of 3 blocks...maybe. I made it to the neighborhood pool before my lungs felt like they were literally on FIRE! I decided that “lungs on fire” was not a good thing and stopped running. I turned around and walked home. And even that was hard. I didn’t realize what bad shape my lungs and heart were in after all of the infections, congestive heart failure, blood clots in the lungs, pneumonia, blah blah blah (When I see it in print I think “You moron. Why wouldn’t exercise be difficult.” But somehow my brain wasn’t working like that yesterday… I was so upset that it was difficult and I did so poorly.) I guess it will just take a lot of time to get back into any real shape.

Last night I had some pancreatic issues – meaning that my pancreas was really pissed off and decided to hurt me so badly that I couldn’t do anything but sit up in bed wishing I would just die already. I took an insane amount of pain killers, but it took forever to even make a dent in the pain. I blame the very rich dinner we had…which was stupid on my part. That – and the espresso I had with it. But see, we had a date night. And we went to The Grape. And I love The Grape. And they had filet. And I love filet. And also, the Crème Brule is amazing. So I tried that too. I cannot even imagine what shape I would be in if we actully drank alcohol anymore... God I miss the wine... Anyway, MAN DID I PAY. I sat up until 3:00am and finally was able to go to sleep.

So today when I woke up, Todd and the boys were already out at the “big park” which is about a mile away (at least to the spot where they were) but if I took the trail it would be about 2 miles (maybe if you stretch it a bit). So I started running, took a shortcut over the creek and through a mass of spider webs...ick, and finally found them without having to go as far. Overall I would say I ran about a mile to a 1 ½. Not far, but if you compare to yesterday, it was an improvement. I also walked home in the blazing heat – which kicked my butt. And, we went to the grocery store. So there is that.

I am now in bed where I want to stay until dinner…I am THAT tired. Stupid running. Stupid staying skinny. Stupid getting in shape.