Whirlwind Weekend

Birthday weekend in March means we celebrate daddy's and Ryan's birthdays. We had a family party on Saturday. I made a giant cupcake (mmmmm....spice cake) with a blue bottom because they are boys and an orange top because it's Ryan's favorite color. Apparently, some thought, it looked like water washing up against a beach or, as Ryan put it, a tsunami wave coming up over Japan. It's a cupcake, people!

I don't think the weekend would have been so crazy if it wasn't for that we had to get up early so we could get our new washer/dryer delivered (I'm so happy) and then Bruce ran to Kent to pick up the new accent chair I had bought during the week (did you know that if you don't like a price you can haggle for furniture? now you do). Then we had to get ready for family to come and cook lunch and I just made the cake that morning so that needed to be frosted. 

Family party was fun. As everyone was dispersing Ryan's friend Michael came over for a sleep over so he could go to Ryan's friend party the next day. Bruce and I spent that evening frosting sugar cookies to look like Star Wars characters to go with the theme of Star Wars Exhibit at the Pacific Science Center. Apparently I was being tough on myself but I thought they looked like doodoo but everyone else said I did a good job. It was ok for an amateur I guess.  

The next day we had to get up early for the exhibit. We drove up Katie's kids, Ryan's cousin and uncle, his friend Michael, Brittany and us of course. It was nothing like the Harry Potter exhibit - it was total madness. I'm glad the kids had a good time but it was a lot of work wrangling 6 kids. Here are some pictures of Ryan and his friends at the exhibit.

Learning is a Life Long Process

I love to learn. I watch nature show, medical shows, read articles on the internet and randomly select books all the time to learn something new. My subjects are random many times and I am so into googling things that pop into my head that Bruce's fingers get ready by just me looking at him when I wonder aloud "hmm, what is 'insidious'?" He says "I'm on it."

Just last night I had to ask him to google "use soy milk as a substitute for milk in cookies" - he said there were too many answers and gave up....but he only put in "soy" - you have to be specific sometimes in your search for knowledge. So, here I am today, learning about something that has happened a lot this week and had been more sporadic in the past. Of course, it has to do with sleeping again, but give me a break - this is a major preoccupation in my life right now.

Throughout this week, I have felt I have been awake and had been engaging in common activities but then I find out I had been asleep the whole time and was just then waking up. For instance, I believed I had gotten out of bed in the morning, opened my closet and was picking out my clothes for the day. I was getting into each side of my closet and selecting what I would wear - I could see it and feel it and thought I was doing it but I found that it hadn't really happened. Not too disturbing because it's happened in the past, but is has happened almost every day for a week...so an investigation ensues.  When this happens, is it a dream? Is it a hallucination? Is it something else?

When I dream, I know it's a dream. I can't really see people's faces but I know who they are; normal things happen in strange places; familiar places have strange changes, yada yada yada.

When I hallucinate, I know I'm hallucinating (shortly following it's disappearance) because I am sitting up and reaching for or retaliating from whatever I had seen (kids, spiders, ruins, whatever).

What has been happening this week felt like something in between dreaming and hallucinating - I was still laying down in bed not moving but mentally I had gotten up and was getting ready or talking to people. Bruce wasn't there so I assume I looked like I was still asleep; however, it didn't have the dream quality. So was it a dream or not?

What I learned was this:

False awakenings
A false awakening is one in which the subject seems to wake up, whether from a lucid or a non-lucid dream, but is in fact still asleep.Sometimes the experience is so realistic perceptually (the sleeper seeming to wake in his or her own bedroom, for example) that insight is not achieved at once, or even until the dreamer really wakes up and realises that what has occurred was hallucinatory. Such experiences seem particularly liable to occur to those who deliberately cultivate lucid dreams. However, they may also occur spontaneously and be associated with the experience of sleep paralysis.

I know I experience sleep paralysis (yay narcolepsy), but I didn't realize this was a part of it until it happened one too many times in a week.

Ok, TMI time. You can stop  if you like. I have been paying close attention to my ups and downs so I have a theory on why it happened so consistently this week. Menstrual cycle. After more digging, I found out that a lot of women suffer from the same problem but the doctor's don't know what to do about it. My symptoms get worse all around and I have trouble getting out of bed, maintaining alertness throughout the day, so why not some hallucinations and sleep paralysis to top it off. I thought maybe it was all in my head, but reading about other women going through this has made me feel better that it's not a problem I'm making up but something that actually occurs. Studies have proved it but there doesn't seem to be anything that will help it. Some suggest increasing iron during that time. I'll have to try it next time.

Planning, Planning, Planning

Planning seems to be the thing to do right now.

Bruce and I were planning for a vacation in San Diego this summer - I had the itinerary all laid out and everything. Then things outside of our control (annoying) changed our plans, but we recovered quickly with a really fun trip change that (bonus!) saves us a lot of money. This was taking some priority because it's Ryan's summer vacation and there's lots to plan around.

But...hello!!! We have to plan for Cozumel, too! On top of that, we told Stephanie and Mike that we would go to Maui with them at the end of September (our first year anniversary present before making a baby).

So, we still don't know WHAT we're going to do in Cozumel but we do know we're going to be there May 20th through the 27th so we can celebrate Des and Mike's wedding on May 26th!

But, back to us. We are definitely excited to go snorkeling. We LOVE snorkeling so we can't wait.

I've also heard that we can take a trip to some Mayan ruins, which I have always wanted to do, so that may be a "must do." Really, many things depend on how hot it is. We thought we were going to do hiking and all sorts of outdoor activities in Aruba, but we were too hot to move most of the time so we would lay by the pool or the ocean but not a lot in between - unless it happened to involve water. For that reason, we're not really planning anything until we get there. 

Our Summer vacay with Ryan is a different story. That involves a lot of planning. Thankfully, I'm awesome at that. We're doing a  (drum roll, please)

ROAD TRIP!!! 

I have some fond memories of doing them when we were younger and we did mini ones all the time when Ryan was younger and Bruce was working in Oregon a lot. So, we decided as a family that this was the best option. The things Ryan is most excited about include:

1. Riding an ATV in the sand dunes
2. Visiting Wild Animal parks to feed animals and pose with them in a picture
3. Drive through a redwood tree

We also plan on spending time at Cannon Beach to fly kites and rent sand bicycles. We're going to the Lava Caves in Bend (which I tried to do a few years back but they were closed the day I went).  We'll do the Kalamath River, too. Lots of things to do on this trip for about a week.

Stephanie has also been asking me to get together to plan our trip to Maui. We've never been but we're supper excited about it.  Aahhh...not a bad life :)

Scuba Diving Again

When Ryan came over the other weekend he said, "When are we scuba diving?" Sorry, bud, but it was going to be the next weekend that he visited. Then he asked, "Am I going into the ocean?" Sorry again, but he has to wait until AT LEAST 10 years old. He was soooo bummed. He said it was too many years away, but really it's only one. Hmmm...maybe it could be a 10th birthday present.

We went to the pool again this weekend. Ryan may want to go to the ocean but he'll take a pool if that's all he's got.

Bruce and I - not having been trained in anything yet - are getting better about getting Ryan in his gear without much assistance. We're learning what needs to be plugged in, how to prevent chaffing, and how to make sure Ryan is safe. Bruce said he was going to have to pay for me to take lessons soon (notice how he doesn't even ask if I want lessons, or even consider it. If Ryan's going in, someone has to go with him and it sure isn't going to be Bruce - that's the message he was sending.)

Anywho, I took some video this time so Bruce could see what Ryan is up to down there. This is Ryan just messing around underwater - sorry I didn't crop the video:



Now here is Ryan doing a handstand underwater. He can hold it for a long time :)


Oh well, if there's something for him to be interested in, this is pretty cool.

Reminiscing

Definition of reminiscing: Indulging in recollection of past events.

I've been doing that a lot lately. I love looking at our photos of Aruba. It was such a perfect week following such a perfect wedding day. I want to go back and do it all over again, but not be in charge of anything. I just want to show up and celebrate. Part of the reason I like to reminisce about our wedding day is that it all happened so fast and I don't actually remember that much. I want to do it all over again and put those memories back in my head so I don't have to have a picture tell me. (And I would tell the photographers to focus on family photos a little more. Couldn't one of them focused on me and Bruce and the other on family members?).

Anywho...we have a new computer and I found the photos from my wedding dress hunt. I'm gong to post them now because, honestly, I was beautiful in everything.

My First Day - Mama, Britt and Des came with me



Too Ornate in the Wrong Way


Much Prettier than the Picture Shows but it weighed a TON!


I loved the top on this one but no one else did!


This One Always Looks Good in Magazines I I Looked Good in it But it Wasn't "The One"








Another Pretty One


Mermaid dress- hard to tell because I as still wearing the giant crinoline underneath!

I'm so pretty, but the dress isn't nearly as pretty as some of the others I've tried

Pretty, but not it

I Loved this one, just not the price tag....or the woman who was trying to sell it to me.

Simply Marvelous, Dahling:


I Loved, Loved, Loved this one in magazines - I still do LOVE it. I guess after trying on all the dresses I wanted a little more bling, though. And it was expensive. So that settled that.

I LOVED the Last Two - so hard to decide!!!



The Second Go-Around I went with Daddy, Des and Erin. It was down to the final 2 and they helped me make a decision!





Daddy Tried to Help a Lot :)



This is the ONE

It's Working ....Until It's Not

The anti-narcolepsy diet has been tremendously successful....and then I cheated.

I thought the biggest difference in my sleep was cutting out protein for dinner. It's a little weird, but I manage quite well.

Then, the other night after having done homework all weekend, swimming for hours and watching too many movies about dead predators that lived millions of years ago I decided I just want some SUGAR. Everyone else has been eating it and I've been avoiding it. All week I've slept like a baby, had energy and have been feeling like a normal person through and through.

Then I ate a couple of handfuls of Red Vines. BIG mistake. I had the worst night ever! (Ok, "ever" is an exaggeration, but it was the worst night in a week or 2 and I was miserable). I was exhausted but woke up dozens of times, I had freaky dreams, I was sweating then cold, I was talking in my sleep. The only things that didn't happen are hallucinations and getting out of bed. Needless to say, when I woke up, I didn't want to get up. I didn't want to go to work. I wanted to start over.

Lesson Learned? Yes. Will I do it again? Probably. But I'll try really hard not too because I have learned to LOVE sleep and I want it so badly. Things will be better tomorrow (I hope, it usually takes 2-3 days to recover, though).

We've Created a Monster!

Des asked us if Ryan would like to come to the pool they've rented to play around a bit. I thought "Great idea, we could try him out snorkeling and see if he likes it or if it freaks him out." Little did I know...

When I told Ryan he was going swimming that day he was jumping around...but he had to get his homework done. He was sweating trying to get it finished! When we got to the dive shop, things started getting out of control.

Ryan was getting fitted for fins, masks, and then.......DIVE GEAR! WHAT!?! Diving? Um, we didn't talk about that. I don't know about that. He seemed really, really excited. Bruce thought, ok, I guess, why not. (He wasn't the one getting in the pool with Ryan). Did that mean I had to dive too!?! I didn't wanna!





We bought him a mask and a snorkel because we plan on going snorkeling this summer and we thought he could get a lot of use out of the mask because he LOVES the water. Maybe this summer he will tell us what's down there in Long Lake. Maybe it's best if the rule is he doesn't look. He may not go back in after what he sees. Maybe that's just me. Anywho, after we bought the mask he wouldn't take it off. He was just wondering around the store with it on. What a nut!


When we got to the pool, we were playing around with the snorkel gear. He put on flip flops and didn't even realize he was swimming faster. Then Mike came over and started putting the dive gear on. Here we go!

Mike taught Ryan how to clear his mask when he got water in it while he was underwater. He taught Ryan how to use his regulator if it fell out of his mouth. He taught him hand signals (OK, up, down), how to check his depth and air supply, and when to come up and be done with the tank. He taught him how to inflate and deflate the flotation around his tank, too. Ryan was a little eager and didn't always wait for Mike's directions. He also had trouble staying underwater while he was practicing. Mini freak outs, I guess. Bruce said if he had been in the water he would have just held Ryan's head down. I believe it. But I was there and I'm more patient than Bruce. He only took about 3 tries for each.

After that, Ryan was off to play around. At first he was constantly inflating and deflating the floats. As he got more comfortable he looked like an octopus underwater. All the lines were floating around him and he was upside down and spinning around.

After awhile we moved to the deep end, which made me nervous. What was I going to do when Ryan was at the bottom with the gear on that I didn't have? There was another diving learning in there and I liked that he kept checking on Ryan. If bad things did happen we had practiced me using the extra regulator and breathing off Ryan's air. We would be ok.

After some playing around, Ryan decided to bring me down - thanks to Bruce's suggestion (who was not in the water). When Ryan took me down I was a little weirded out that Ryan was better at this than I was! I was ok, but I couldn't move far from him - it was like a 2 or 3 foot line. He was cute and was using his signals on me.


When he was about ready to pull off his gear for some good, old fashioned swimming, he lost a fin. Now we HAD to go back down. He had taken off his weight belt and was too bouyant to retrieve it. I didn't think I could dive down and retrieve it myself (although, I probably could, that sort of thing freaks me out) so I put on Ryan's air and pulled him down with me. He was toooo bouyant and I had to literally pull him down so that I could get down there with the air (wimp! I know). We saved the flipper!



Afterwards we spent the next 45 minutes racing. I was getting a work out and I wanted Ryan to get one too. It was fun. I think we're going again today :)