Week in review

I'm back in the saddle WRT exercise. I usually start out jogging and change over to a brisk walk when I start having trouble breathing.

2/18 3.37 miles

2/20 3.61

2/21 2.51

2/22 3.40

2/24 2.97

Total 15.86 miles this week.

My chirrens

I've been playing around with my camera. The kids haven't gotten sick of me taking their pictures yet, thank goodness.

This was taken in a part of our subdivision that overlooks the Colorado River. In the background is Mansfield Dam, that creates Lake Travis - a huge recreational lake outside of Austin.

I could have taken a bunch more, but the kids were sitting in some ant beds. Oops.

Yes, I realize that Cami had her eyes closed. It's still my favorite one of the bunch. I need to see if I can't edit some open eyes on her.

I was an American Airlines snob

I signed up for an American Airlines AAdvantage account on 8/29/2001. To date, I have flown 78,009 miles on American. Not a lot compared to some people (like Cass), but not nothing either.

They used to serve their customers. I remember once, I had a flight snafu while trying to get back home to the kids - and American actually put me on a Delta flight, just to make sure I got home to my kids. They actually went above and beyond to serve a customer. That was years ago though. Now American only serves its bottom line.

They don't care. They simply don't care. Not even if you show them loyalty. Screw you.

I recently flew on Southwest for the first time in AGES. I have always marveled at the fact that they actually turn a profit. I flew Southwest years ago, and it wasn't a pleasant experience. Apparently, Southwest decided to listen to and serve its customers. They do air travel like a well-oiled machine. And they do it without stupid charges tacked on.

I reactivated my Southwest Rapid Rewards account when I got back home. Bye, bye American.

Checking in

I'm scared of Marcus, so I'm checking in and posting something on my blog. :)

• My back - I went to physical therapy for 6 weeks. They tried a little bit of everything - traction, electric stimulation, acupuncture. I also went, on my own, to a medical massage therapist. Oh, and I had to switch orthopedists because my original one couldn't seem to keep an appointment. The results are that my back is probably back to about 85-90%. It doesn't hurt most of the time. I've been able to do light exercise as well as most of my normal kind of activities without aggravating it. For now, I'm ok with it like it is. I'll go back to the doctor if it starts to head in the wrong direction again.
• In a couple of weeks, Cass will have his 1 year anniversary back with nVidia. Thank heavens. That is all.
• Cami took the SAT for Duke TIP on Saturday. She chose it over the ACT because the SAT has an essay component. Sounds crazy, but she's a great writer - she wants to major in creative writing.
• Our travel budget has taken a hit due to all the moves and house purchases/sales in recent years, so we don't have any interesting travel planned for this year. Cass is probably going to Barcelona for work in the spring. That would be a great trip to tag along on, but it probably won't happen. Maybe summer 2012, we can do a big family trip to Europe.
• Cami is going on a trip with a school tours group in June. Her best friend Emily is going along too. They're going to Williamsburg, Washington D.C., and New York.
• Logan had oral surgery over Christmas break. She had to have 4 baby teeth and the 3 adult teeth underneath removed - there was some wonkiness, and it was easier to just take them out. She'll have braces for the next 2+ years to close in the space.
• Luke is sort of following in his Dad's footsteps as far as school behavior is concerned. But he's got a lot of things going for him that Cass didn't have as a child, so hopefully we'll get it worked out.
• I got a new Nikon D3100 SLR camera for Christmas, and I hope to find some time to play around with it and learn how to take great photos.
• Cedar season is going to KILL me. I seem to have lost the immunity I had from allergy shots years ago. It's been awful since right after New Year's. I'm considering going back to the allergist. If I don't die first.

Jacked up

Want to feel old?

About 9-10 months ago, I slipped on the stairs. Nothing spectacular, but I landed on my bottom. BTDT, no big deal. After a couple of days, the soreness was gone.

After that, every once in a while my lower back would hurt when it shouldn't. We went roller skating with the kids. No, I didn't fall -but the next day I could barely get out of the bed. Then when we moved this summer, my back was killing me the whole time. During my DIY home projects (painting and sewing), I was in so much pain I could hardly bear it. Finally, I went to the doc about it.

She first thought it was muscular. Gave me muscle relaxers and asked me to go give physical therapy a shot. The muscle relaxers didn't do much of anything, and I couldn't bear the thought of PT. I gave it a few weeks, but it just got worse. It was hurting all. the. time. It was starting to affect daily stuff. So back to the doc. She ordered a MRI.

I got those results - 2 bulging discs (L2-3 and L 4-5) and an annular tear at L4-5. Um, no wonder. She referred me to an orthopedic surgeon.

I saw the ortho about a week ago. Thankfully, he didn't go right to surgery for me. If you do any reading about back surgery, the odds of improvement aren't that great. So he suggested that I try everything else (PT, yoga, injections, voo doo) first, and then think long and hard about it if nothing is working.

Now I am a physical therapy patient. Yes, I finally took the plunge. They evaluated me this week, and I am pretty jacked up. In my pelvic area, the right side is higher than the left (consistent with falling on my butt on one side) and the pelvis is tilted. They are trying to correct it using exercise and manipulations. I had no idea what 'manipulations' were - but now I do. Torture. At some point, I was laying on a table and they were yanking on my right leg. There were about 4 other manipulations that they did. That was 2 days ago and I still feel like I've been hit by a car. Fun times.

This is an injury that I would have recovered from on my own years ago. But now, I guess I'm not as resilient as I'd like to be.

Driving Luke to school

Me: ~yawns~

Luke: Mom, you sound like Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookie.

Can't stop

You should have seen the fabric lady's face (at Hobby Lobby) when I told her that I was pairing the blue/gray striped fabric with the black/white cheetah print.

Now I'm going to have to find some fabric to make one for Cami's window.