I thought 40 was the new 20?

So, yesterday I went to my Obgyn for my annual appointment. No biggee, I go every year. However, this year I was not completely compliant and did not get my mammogram before I went,so I was expecting a lecture. I was prepared for it. I was going to counter with "but I went the year before, and I run several times a week and I eat healthy and my weight is fine, etc, etc..."but I didn't even get that far. I sat down and they took my blood pressure, which is always normal or even a little low-and it was 136/93! So we went ahead and completed the exam, then went back to the blood pressure again-140/95! We went over any changes that could have caused this, and the only thing I can think of is that they changed my birth control pill to the generic version-Tri Sprintec. Dr West said that may be what is causing it, and to check my blood pressure 3 times today. I went home and thought about it and I have been feeling less-than-100% the last two weeks, which is about how long I have been on this new pill. I was even thinking the last few mornings that I looked a little puffy, and felt a little headachy-not a full out headache, just a distant woozy-ness. I just didn't put it all together until the doctor mentioned it.
Today I went to work and checked my BP three times-it was higher than yesterday. I called my OB doctor and told her I was not taking that pill anymore and I was going to my family practice doctor. I left work early and when I got there, my blood pressure was 150/105! Yikes!
She is optimistic that it is just the new pill and told me to stop taking it, start taking the diuretic she prescribed for me and hooked me up with some lab work. I have to track my BP for the next month. So hopefully I will just pee my brains out and go back to baseline. She kept asking me "You feel okay? Are you sure?" I said yes, in fact I went for a 3 mile run yesterday! She told me not to do that anymore until she tells me it's okay! Bummer...

First Day of School

Hooray!
I have to admit, I am one of those parents that craves the structure of the school year. Courtney would have been happy with another month of bikini-clad fun, but Carli was ready to go back. So Carli is now in middle school. After all the stress of the possible school change, she is exactly where we want her. The program she is in for middle school has an excellent reputation, and we are so happy she is there. We went to the open house last week and were so surprised at what they have to offer. They have a huge classroom space, complete with a full kitchen and apartment setting. This space is to be used for life-skills training-putting sheets on beds, using a kitchen and cleaning up, and a full laundry room that they will run a laundry service for the school from! Carli will love doing all those things. Of course, there is a full sized regular classroom. The program received several grants this year to add a lot of new equipment to the program, which is quite rare here in Virginia. She had a great first day and told Dad over ice cream that she was ready to go back tomorrow!
Courtney also had a great day. She has been getting up and going to the school everyday since the first of August anyway, for cross country practice, but she is so excited about being a freshman and seeing all her friends again. I think she was more excited than she was letting on!

Alex is officially in college!

We dropped Alex off this morning at Washington and Lee! We all got up bright and early, hit Cracker Barrel for breakfast (Carli ate a pancake-Hooray!) and headed off to college. It is about 2.5 hours from here, past Charlottesville. It is beautiful up there. They aren't big mountains, but they are pretty. I can't wait to go back in a few weeks for parents weekend when the leaves have turned! Anyway, Alex was very excited. He had the car all packed and ready before we were even up!
Once we got there and he checked in, we helped him unload his stuff. Carli helped, too, and Courtney got right to work making his bed for him. Sometimes those two are like an old married couple. His roommate is a nice kid-Alex went to school with him at Episcopal,so they are already friends. The room is so small-and there is no air conditioning unless you have a medical condition. Alex is already in the process of thinking one up, but honestly, they are in the mountains so it's cooler, and in that very small room they have 3 fans, so I think they will be okay. It is very close quarters, I told Alex when we got out of the dorms I was going to go get a TB test! But the best news, Brandi, you will enjoy this-I know his RA and she is directly across the hall from him! Her name is Katy and she went to school with Casey when she was at Clover Hill Elementary school. She was a few years behind Casey, but her and her family also went to our church. Small world, right? Alex was thrilled, as you can imagine.
So, we got him unpacked for the most part, then went and got something to eat outside, it was nice. We left him so he could finish unpacking and get to rugby practice. He texted Courtney after we left to see what we were doing, so I think he will miss us more than he let on! He will be fine though. We can all send packages as soon as he gets his PO box, which he was going to try to do today, but he might not get it until Tuesday. Anyway, check out the pics on my flicker account, there are some cute ones!

Dinner-not made by me!

I have not been updating my blog like I should, and I must confess, it is mostly because I have been dipping into a new guilty pleasure, Facebook. I avoided it for a long time because I thought it would be time consuming, and it is! I thought, "Why would I want to to get in touch with people I have not seen in 20+ years? But, I must admit, it is fun, and I can be selective about who I talk to and who I don't. However, I have yet to be "friended" by my own daughter (Casey-that's you) and my niece (Lindsey). But that's okay...maybe it's best if I don't know what the 20 year olds are doing!
Tonight, Alex and Courtney made dinner for Caren and Steve and Mark and I. It was, in a word, amazing. They made Brandi's pear bisque, (so good!) it was a chilled bartlett pear soup with whipped cream and cinnamon, salad with a homemade dressing-Alex said it was the bonefish house dressing-I don't know how he got the recipe, but it was complicated and it was soooo good-garlic bread, and then they made chicken tetrazinni-really, we all said the best we ever had!
Mark said it was better than mine, but, you know, whatever!
I am kidding, it really was the best we've ever had! Courtney was his sous chef. They are a great team. They were talking about opening a restaurant and arguing about where they would put it by the end of the night! They are such good kids and I love their relationship-they are like brother and sister, they look out for each other and get along great! They have the same sense of humor, and he is such a great role model for her. He has been driving her and picking her up from cross country practice this week, sometimes taking Carli with him- our kids are awesome! We will be sorry to see him go tomorrow, but I know he will be back soon, and Steve is looking forward to getting him into the OR to show him what a surgeon does. Courtney and Alex will graduate in 4 years together, he with his bachelors, her from high school, and we will have to do a big family trip. We are thinking Greece. I don't know what Carli will find to eat in Greece, but there must be something.
Stay tuned this week to hear about Carli- her back to school visit was amazing. I have high hopes for her this year!

I know-it has been a whole week!

These weeks I work 7am-3pm really screw me up!I feel like I can't get anything done!
I am so lucky, though. This week my cousin Brandi left in my care her 18 year old son Alex, who we love to death. He is staying last week and this week with us until we take him to college at Washington and Lee next weekend. He is so great. He helps with the girls and shuttles them around, he cleans, he does the dishes-I keep telling him he is the son I never wished for! He laughs at that! He is great and we are happy to have him.
Other than that, the only big thing that has happened this week was Carli getting her shots for middle school, which turned into a traumatic event. She got the meningitis shot, which has a 2% chance of terrible side effects. Well, she got terribly sick. Fever, vomiting, diarrhea, arm swollen-she was really sick and she was scared to death, because of course, she doesn't understand all of this. Poor thing. She is better tonight, but she still looks a little pale. I am going to call the Dr. office tomorrow to report it. I just don't know what to do about immunizations. Friends with children with Autism really argue against them, and what they say makes sense, but my kids never had any problems. But when you see a reaction like Carli had, it makes you wonder if you are doing more harm than good. I just don't know if I had any more children (which I won't!) what I would do.
Anyway, have a good Monday everyone!

The last summer blast

This weekend we went to visit our friends Alex and Jodie and their daughter Allison. They are going to be at their lake house on Smith Mountain Lake all week and asked us to join them-we could only go for the weekend, but it was still so much fun! Carli loves to go, she loves being able to swim in the lake, the boat rides, but most of all, she is very comfortable there. She knows which room is "hers" and where to find all her favorite snacks, and she like to see Allison and their dog Murphy. Murphy and Ruby are big buddies. They run and play and wear each other out all weekend. Ruby loves the freedom she has at the lake, but she never gets in the water. She was very sad when Mark and Alex took the girls for a boat ride and left her on the dock-she ran right up the hill to the car, like she wanted me to take her to go find them!
Courtney didn't go with us this weekend, her cross country team had a cookout and she stayed here with her friend Rebecca so they could go. She had a great time-being on this team before school starts has really been fun, she is getting lots of exercise, and she has met lots of new friends. She is loving it.
Caren, Jodie and I relaxed yesterday while the kids swam with the guys, then we made dinner and Jodie opened her gifts. Our birthday is on the same day and we usually try to spend it together, but she went to visit her mother this year, so we had to celebrate a little late. This morning we got up and after Jodie's usual bed and breakfast-quality breakfast that she always prepares for us, we started making sauce to can. That's right-we have tomatoes going bad, so we had to take the show on the road and Jodie was more than willing to pitch in and help. Caren brought all of the canning stuff and we made a delicious Marinara sauce. 6 Quarts. After lunch, we headed home. We weren't there long, but we packed in a lot of activities!
Poor Stevie, he was on call this weekend and couldn't join us. He was nice enough to make dinner for us all tonight when we got home. Ruby needed a bath, she was covered in Murphy spit, and I am sure he was equally disgusting. Caren and I are going to try to get together this weekend around work schedules and can more tomatoes and hopefully some green beans. Sometimes it is hard to go to work when there is so much to be done at home-oh, but wait, I don't get paid at home....

So much to talk about!

It has been a week since my last update-we have been so busy!
After my birthday, which was wonderful, we spent the weekend staining the deck. It turned out good, and the swingset we stained the weekend before looks like brand new. All this manual labor is definitely a sign of the times-we used to hire someone to do it for us! Oh well, it's good for us.
On Monday Courtney and I finally made it to Busch Gardens for the roller coaster check-off. She did great, we rode them once, then went back and rode them in the front seat! We did not, however, ride the Griffon, which we both agreed was way too scary. We were on the Loch Ness Monster, and looked at the highest hill on the Griffon, and it was almost twice as high. Too much. We rode Apollo's Chariot, which is also higher than Loch Ness, in the front seat, but somehow, it just didn't seem as scary. We had a great time. We had to get home early though, Courtney's cross country schedule is brutal. She has to be at the school at 7:30am and they run 3-4 miles and work out every morning. She seems to be enjoying it though. Some of her friends from middle school are on her team and she has made lots of new friends, too. In fact this weekend they are having a cookout on Saturday night with a DJ and she is going to stay here with her good friend Becca to go to the party, rather than go with us, her loving family, to the lake! Go figure!
So this weekend we are off to the lake to spend the weekend with our good friends Jodie and Alex, at their beautiful lake house at Smith Mountain Lake. We love going to visit them there. It's always so fun. Caren and I have been canning tomatoes this week, and we are not done, so we are going to pack it up and take it all with us so Jodie can help us-it'll be fun! The guys can take the girls swimming while we hang out in the kitchen-we will have a great time. Stay tuned for great pics-
Well, back to work, I have been off all week and it has been wonderful. Carli will miss me when I go back to work tomorrow and Friday-but she has the weekend to look forward to!