In Which I Have A Party Girl And A Couch Potato

Connor had a rough day today, I'm sorry to say.  He had six seizures and seemed to feel just miserable in general.  He spent pretty much the whole day on the couch.  The seizures of course knocked him out for the day, so now he doesn't want to sleep.  Poor little guy.

Eden's birthday party was today too; it's difficult when one kid has an important occasion and the other gets sick.  My parents ended up coming watching Connor while I took Eden and her two friends to a roller derby bout.  I'm very glad they were able to take care of him, or else I would have needed to cancel the party, which would have disappointed Eden terribly.  My parents are awesome.

Anyway, so after presents, cake and ice cream we went to the bout, which was really exciting for me.  It's the the first one I've been able to go to for a long time, and I was so glad to get the chance to see everyone and cheer on my team!  I really miss roller derby and all the fantastic people I don't get to see on a daily basis while I'm not skating.  Since I couldn't be out on the track, I had to make up for it by cheering everyone on as enthusiastically as possible.  I probably embarrassed the kids terribly with how loud I was screaming, but that's okay.  Embarrassing her child is an important part of every mom's job, right?

Eden and her friends had a great time, and the party was declared a success.  Hooray!  I just wish that Connor had been feeling better; it was tough leaving him at home while he was sick.  Hopefully tomorrow he'll be on the mend.  No more seizures, okay little guy?

~Jess

In Which We Keep Late Hours And Connor Has Yet Another Chair

It's about half past two in the morning right now, and I'm still waiting for Connor to go to sleep.  There have been a couple of false alarms where I thought he was down, but it turned out he was just faking it and as soon as I tried to go to bed he woke up again.  I am not thrilled with this, as we've got a rather busy day tomorrow.  Oh well.  The pattern seems to be established that on weekends, Connor Parties All Night.  At least I get five good days of sleep a week!

Today we went and picked up Connor's bath chair, which was the last major piece of equipment we were waiting on in the large group of items we'd ordered in the last couple of months.  Connor had outgrown his old one-- his feet hung over the edge in a way that was probably pretty uncomfortable for him, and the velcro strap preventing him from falling off would barely fit around his waist.  So this is a nice new roomy one for him. 

The really nice thing about it is that it comes with a wheeled base, so I'll be able to get him in and out of it with the lift instead of having to bend over and pick up a damp, wiggly and as he gets older, increasingly heavy child.  I don't think our bathroom tile would be particularly forgiving if I slipped and fell carrying him and/or dropped him, so this is a very good thing.

The kid is now completely outfitted in chairs, by the way.  He has a wheelchair, toilet chair, bathing chair, corner chair, and leg positioning chair.  They all do a different job, of course.  All Jer and I have is a kitchen chair and an easy chair each, so it's official: five out of ten chairs in use in our household belong to Connor.  All he needs is a throne in the middle of our living room and he'll be good to go. 

I got the chance to go to a get together for a little bit with the lovely ladies on my roller derby team for a while tonight and really had a blast!  I'm seriously missing skating and getting the chance to hang out with them on a more regular basis, though I know that now isn't the right time to dive back in.  Hopefully once things settle down around here I'll be able to pick up my skates again. 

~Jess

In Which I Get All Sentimental And Connor Sees Some Stars

This morning I took Connor down to the Olympia farmer's market.  It's our first trip down this year, and we had a fantastic time!  They had a face painter there this week, and since Connor did so well with the face painting at his school's end-of-the-year party I thought we'd give it a try. 

This time we went through the book, and after playing the "Yes or No" game with him over the simplest designs he picked out a small grouping of stars as what he wanted.  Then we deliberated over color choices.  He finally selected blue-- his current favorite color (something he has in common with his future sister!).  He seemed a little more nervous about getting them on his face this time though, so she put them on his arm.  Connor seemed to really like them, and when we were done he clapped and then asked for more!  I told him we were done for today, but we'd get some more done the next time we were at the market if the face painter was there.  This sparked a brief pouting session, but soon he was too busy admiring his stars to be angry. 

By the time we got home they were a little worse for wear because he spent so much time running his fingers over them, but once they dried completely they did pretty well, and lasted the rest of the day.  I think we're going to make face painting (or arm painting, as the case may be) a new tradition in our house. 

After we got back from the farmer's market, I left the boy with his daddy and headed off to a retirement party held for me and a few other girls on my roller derby team.  I got the royal treatment even though I'm only going to be nonbouting for a season, because my team is amazing like that. 

There are times when parenting a little guy like Connor, as wonderful as he is, can be very isolating and lonely-- especially since most of our relatives live on the other side of the country.  When you live a life that's a whirlwind of appointments, medical drama and plans canceled at the last minute, it can be difficult to connect with and keep friends.  Over the past two years, the ladies on my team have become more than just good friends; they've provided shoulders to cry on, patient listening ears, and even served as on occasion as stress-relieving punching bags.  In short: they've become family.  And I'm incredibly grateful for their presence in my life. 

Roller derby has given me a lot of great things-- a chance to blow off steam, have a fantastic time working out and an excuse to wear underwear as outerwear among them-- but by far the best thing it's given me is the chance to know these wonderful women on my team and in my league.  I've also loved getting the chance to know the fantastic coaches, support staff, fans and derby girls scattered across state and international borders I've had the privilege to meet along the way.  While I'll be scaling back my skating and taking a break from bouting during the next season as we help Ellen settle into her new home, I'm not hanging up my skates for good; hopefully I'll be back in 2014.  In the meantime, I'll be the loudest fan on the sidelines come bout day.

And I hope that when my sisters take the track, they'll know my heart is skating with them.

~Jess

In Which I Skate One More Time And Connor Looks For Moose

Our championship bout was a ton of fun!  We didn't walk away with the trophy this year, but nevertheless it was a fantastic game and I had a great time.  It's going to be really strange watching from the sidelines next season, but hopefully it will fly by and I'll be back up and skating the flat track in 2014.

While Jer and I were out doing derby-related activities, Connor headed off to Northwest Trek with his best friend in the entire world, C.  Northwest Trek, for those of you not familiar with this area, is a wildlife part of species native to Washington, and they have a tram that runs through an area of freeranging moose, elk, and buffalo, among other animals.  I didn't hear the report first hand, but apparently they had a great time taking the tour.  I'm sure Connor was pretty happy about seeing C too-- it's been a while since they've gotten together!

It's extremely late right now though, as I've just come back from the bout afterparty.  So I'm off to bed!

~Jess

In Which Connor Is A Night Owl And I Skate Some More

Connor stayed up until 2:45am last night, but Jeremy was gracious enough to take the evening shift because I had a roller derby bout tonight.  Luckily tonight our awesome night nurse is here, so neither one of us has to stay up.  That's a good thing, because based on the noises I can hear coming from behind his closed bedroom door on the complete other side of the house I'm pretty sure he's planning on pulling an all-nighter.

We did keep him up pretty late; Jeremy took him to see my bout, which was closed to the general public.  We were playing the second highest ranked team in the country, so we got rather predictably stomped.  It was a lot of fun though, and it was neat to play on the track against some of the top derby players in the world.  It's also a big reminder of just how much I still have to learn!  While I'll be taking next year off from bouting to focus on our family, I'll still be hitting a couple of practices a week and once the kids are both in school I'll be really ramping up my crosstraining.  Hopefully that will help me out once I get back on the track in 2014.  Of course I've still got the championship bout next week before I finish off this season, so I'm not on my break yet.

While I won't be skating as much this next year I don't think my derby career is over by any stretch of the imagination-- I'm still having way, way too much fun to hang up my skates for good!

~Jess

In Which We Have A Good Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all you awesome dads out there! 

Jer had a nice, quiet Father's Day, which is what he asked for.  He slept in, I brought him some breakfast and coffee, and then most of the day was spent lounging around.  This was good, because I was seriously sore after last night's bout.  I swear I managed to bounce every part of my body off the floor at least once-- at least that's what it feels like!  So it was nice that Jer wanted to have a quiet day anyway.  Connor thoroughly enjoyed his daddy time-- I'm lucky to have married such a great guy. 

Connor had one seizure today; he's been a bit congested so we're wondering if he's starting to get sick.  We'll keep a close eye on him and see how he's feeling tomorrow.  I'd hate for him to miss his last day of school, so hopefully he'll be doing better in the morning.  He's been grinding his teeth like crazy, so Jer picked him up a small mouth guard today.  It took Connor all of two minutes to figure out how to get that thing out of his mouth, so I don't know that it will do us a whole lot of good.  So I'll probably be calling up the little guy's dentist next week and we'll see about going in and getting something that's custom fit for him.  Oh boy!

~Jess 

In Which I Don't Really Write A Blog Because It's Super Late And I'm Tired And Stuff

It's really, really late and I'm letting Jer sleep in tonight because it's Father's Day, so I'm off to bed!  The bout was a ton of fun and I didn't break anything, Connor sat through the whole thing (well, almost the whole thing-- he fell asleep on me in the last half of the bout after mine) and overall it was a great day.

If roller derby bouts are going to wear Connor out that much, maybe we should take him to them more often!

~Jess

In Which Connor Is Way Too Big And I Get Ready To Hang Up My Skates For A While

I'm really tired for some reason tonight, so I'll make this a quick post!  Connor has his preschool graduation party tomorrow, and I'm probably going to cry because it's been such a fantastic three years for him and I can't believe he's going to be in first grade!  It seems like it was only yesterday that he was pint size enough to fit in the crook of my arm.

We've got some summer plans starting to come together; my parents are coming up in July and in August my sister is going to come visit.  It will be lovely to get the chance to see them and have fun exploring more of the Pacific Northwest with them. 

My roller derby championship bout is coming up at the end of June, and if you are in the area and want to see me skate and fall down many, many times in creative ways this will be your last chance for a year or so; I'll be taking next season off so that I can focus on Ellen's arrival and helping her settle in.  I'll still be practicing a couple of times a week (as opposed to my current four nights a week) for stress relief and to keep my skill level up until I go active again, but I won't be bouting.  So all you folks who keep telling me you'll get around to coming-- this will be your last chance for a long while. 

Anyway, that's about all the news I can think of for today.  I'm off to bed!

~Jess

In Which I Have A Sort Of Wet But Really Fun Day

I think I slept on my neck in a funny way last night, because when I woke up this morning I discovered I'd pulled a muscle on one side, and turning my head to the left felt like I was driving a skewer through the base of my skull.  Does anybody else ever do this, or is it just me?  I have no idea how I manage to pull muscles while I am sleeping.  At any rate, I've been taking lots of ibuprofen today, which helped, and I'm thinking I may hit the hot tub at the YMCA tomorrow to help loosen it up a bit-- at least so I can turn my head enough during roller derby practice to see both sides of the track.

I spent most of today out washing cars to help raise money for the Make A Wish Foundation, which is to my mind definitely a worthy cause!  Despite multiple reapplications of sunscreen and overcast skies I managed to get a bit sunburned, but otherwise I had a great time.  Washing cars is a surprisingly good workout; I think it's all the squatting to get the wheel wells and whatnot that does the trick.  We had a decent turnout too, so we kept pretty busy.

Then afterwards we all went over to a teammate's house for a big barbecue.  While I adore my little guy and love being a full-time mom, sometimes it's really, really great to spend some time with other adults!  It always leaves me refreshed and ready to spend more time with the little guy.  Sometimes I can get a bit lonely; when Connor's having a rough stretch I can literally go days without seeing another adult besides Jer.  So I like to get my social time in while I can!  And of course I had a complete blast hanging out with my roller derby ladies.  Even though I've been playing for almost two years now I still feel like I stumbled on the cool kids' club in school and somehow managed to sneak my way in!

~Jess

In Which Connor Feels Much Better And I Play Some Roller Derby

Connor had an exponentially better day today when compared with the last few days!  Oh, we had a few small snags.  My alarm didn't go off for Connor's three-in-the-morning Tylenol dose so his temperature got up to 102.7 by the time we woke up, which of course made me feel like the most fantastic mom ever.  He spent the morning completely conked out on a little pallet we made up for him in the dining room and didn't spend more than half an hour conscious the whole first half of the day.  Once we got the Tylenol back on board his fever started to go down though, and by the end of today he wasn't running one at all. 

I had to leave the house early this afternoon to get ready for my roller derby bout, but Jeremy told me that the kid perked up in a major way and came down with a major case of the giggles: a sure sign that he's on the mend.  Even more exciting was that he didn't have a single seizure today!  I'm so, so glad that he's feeling better and that the worst seems to be over.  Since his fever is gone I'm hoping we've seen the last of his seizures for a good while. 

We had more excitement around here today than Connor's improvement, too; I played in my third home roller derby bout of the season tonight.  It wasn't so much a bout as it was a heart attack; I lost count of the number of times the lead changed, and the referees discussed the final score for over five minutes before reaching a verdict.  In the end, we clawed out a one-point victory and are headed to championships at the end of June!  I thoroughly enjoyed the bout even if it was completely nerve-wracking, and my knee held up well so that was a big relief.  I'll ice it tonight and take it easy tomorrow just to give it a rest.  Connor and I can convalesce together. 

I'm so, so glad we figured out what was going on with him!

~Jess

In Which Connor Gears Up For Next Year And I'm On The Mend

I can hear Connor singing his little whale song over the monitor right now; it looks like he might be up a while.  He sounds a lot like Dory out of Finding Nemo, only without the actual words part.  It's very cute-- and I can appreciate just how cute it is way more now that somebody else is staying up listening to it at two in the morning. 

The little guy had his IEP this afternoon to talk about the rest of this school year as well as next school year.  He's going to be in a self-contained classroom at a school that's a bit farther away, but the teacher-to-student ratio is amazing and I think the class is going to be fantastic for him.  I've heard nothing but wonderful things about his new teacher-- who we got the chance to meet today-- and he seems like he'll be a great fit for the little guy.  We haven't toured the classroom yet, but already it sounds like they're doing some really, really neat things in there, like a twice-a-week music session, which the little guy will no doubt absolutely love. 

They also have a peer interaction program where typical fifth graders visit the classroom once a week, and since the little guy is the cutest kid in the universe (in my completely unbiased opinion) he'll probably be mobbed by the girls.  I'm predicting he'll have the entire female population of the fifth grade wrapped around his little finger by the end of the first month. 

This will probably be Connor's class until he's in the sixth grade, so I'm excited that it's such a stellar program and I can't wait to see how he'll grow!  We're going to plunge right in and send him full-time, and if that doesn't work out we'll scale back.  I'm always amazed at just how much the little guy can do, so I don't want to make the mistake of underestimating him. 

In other news, after sticking to a super-strict regime of icing, elevating and anti-inflammatories today my knee is looking pretty good.  The swelling has almost completely disappeared and, while it's still tender (especially right around the kneecap) I've got complete range of motion, I'm moving around pretty well and I think once the deep bruising goes down in a few days it will be right as rain.  The icing has done all the good it will at this point and it's not really swollen any more, so tomorrow I'll be switching over to taking long soaking baths to loosen things up.  Like I need an excuse to take long soaking baths.

I'm going to talk with my doctor just to get the all-clear and to look into getting a knee brace since I don't particularly want this to happen again (and apparently it's more likely to reoccur now if I did in fact pop the knee cap out) but I'm optimistic I'll be back on skates soon!

~Jess




   

In Which I Fall Down Some More And Connor Feels Under The Weather

I'm lying here with my knee elevated and on ice at the moment.  I think I might have popped my kneecap out and back into place at practice tonight-- I fell and it ended up in an awkward position with weight on top of it.  At any rate, the inside of my knee is turning all sorts of pretty colors already, so we'll see what this looks like over the next few days.  Thankfully I'm not in agonizing pain and I'm not feeling any clicking or restriction when I move it or anything-- the knee is just swollen and tender.  So I don't think it's serious.  I'll baby it for a few days and see how it feels.

That's what happens when you play roller derby!

Connor had a small seizure today and he was having some trouble keeping his food down, so I'm wondering if he might have picked up a little stomach bug somewhere.  We'll keep a close eye on him and take his temperature often to make sure that he isn't starting to run a fever, which is the main problem when he gets sick since it sends the number of seizures he has skyrocketing.  He still seems to be in pretty good spirits other than the whole nausea thing though, so depending on how he feels in the morning we'll still send him to school. 

Hopefully it was just a fluke and he'll feel great tomorrow!

~Jess

In Which I Talk About Bruises And Go For A Ride

So last night in derby I somehow managed to fall down on my left knee somewhere around eight thousand times. 

Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but it was a whole lot of times.  I know this because not only was my knee feeling not so great by the end of the scrimmage, but today I have a glorious six inch long (I measured it with my tape measure for historical accuracy) strip of bruises that run all down the inside of my knee.  I'm so talented in my falling that I apparently managed to hit the ground in a such a way that all of the small bruises overlap together into one giant colorful mess.  It looks like I got attacked by a toddler with a bingo dauber.

So I tried taking a picture for you all so that you can see the bruises in all of their glory, but as it turns out it is impossible for me to take a flattering picture of my knee, even if it wasn't covered in bruises and sort of swollen and stuff.  Knees are not a terribly attractive part of the body, and the angle necessary to capture the bruises totally makes my leg look fat.  Also it would probably help if I'd shaved some time in the last week.

But I took a picture (a still sort-of-fuzzy picture, because I'm not a photographer, okay?) and posted it here anyway because I love all of you so much that I would even post unflattering pictures of my weird looking knee on the Internet for you.  Okay, so also I want to show off my bruises.  I don't bruise very easily at all and most of the time they only last a day or two, so then when I talk about them it sounds like one of those The Fish That Got Away stories (no really, guys-- it was this big!) and then I just feel like a hypochondriac.  But I can't post pictures of most of my bruises as proof because I have a tendency to fall back instead of forward so I land on an area with more, um, natural padding, and as much as I love all of you I draw the line at posting pictures of my butt on the Internet.  Even if it has a really, really awesome bruise on it. 

Oh, and as an aside, Jeremy wandered in while I was taking eight thousand pictures of my knee while holding my camera over my head (it's really, really hard to get an unfuzzy close-up picture of your knee without having to hold the camera over your head) and he didn't even ask me what I was doing.  Because around here, apparently that sort of thing is totally normal.  I suspect he's kind of jaded after the time he walked in and I was standing on a kitchen chair with a camera in one hand and a broom in the other, trying to take an in-focus picture of one of the Christmas stockings I'd made while fending off Loki, who was determined to eat it.  The man has a lot of patience with me.

Anyway, the bruises look bad but I'm 99% sure there's no structural damage to my knee, and I heal really quickly so it should be fine in a couple of days.  However, I figured that since I couldn't get my knee pad on it would probably be in my best interest not to go to derby practice tonight.  Instead, I went to the YMCA to do a cardio workout.  They put in these new bike machines a while ago that I had yet to try, so I figured I'd give one of them a shot.

These are the bike machines that have a giant monitor and what looks like a biking video game running, and you can race other little biker people through various landscapes.  There's a pacer, who looks like exactly all the other bikers except he's in a yellow jacket and you're supposed to match his speed.  I decided, because I have questionable judgement, that a nice 8.33 mile course through hilly terrain would be just the thing.  I based this upon the fact that they had a picture of a castle on the course description, and I like castles.  In case you were wondering, this is probably not a good way to choose an exercise regime.

So things didn't start out very well for me because I had the pedals set too low in the beginning and I had to stop and adjust them up, and the pacer totally didn't stop and wait for me or anything, probably because he's a jerk.  Also I swear he cheated and started the race before me.  I have a competitive streak a mile wide, and so even though he was about three minutes ahead of me and also isn't actually a real person I was determined to catch up.  So basically I started out my eight mile ride at a sprint. 

Eventually I had to slow down when the machine started beeping at me, because apparently for some reason it doesn't like it when your heart rate goes over 200 beats per minute.  To make it shut up I settled into a nice pace where I was slowly gaining on that jerk pacer, who I could barely see in front of me on the road.  About halfway through the race I was only ten seconds behind him, but for some reason the pedals were getting harder and harder to push.  I couldn't figure out what the heck was wrong with me because it wasn't simulating a hill or anything, so I thought that maybe it just wasn't going to let me catch up to the pacer or something. 

That's when I realized that I kept accidentally hitting the gear shift with my thumb and so I kept shifting up until I was trying to ride the bike at maximum resistance, which would explain why I was practically having to stand on the pedals to get them to go down.  Whoops.

So when I passed the pacer I may or may not have let out a small victory whoop, which probably wouldn't have been noticed at all if there hadn't been people trying to bike on either side of me who for some unknown reason kept giving me sidelong glances.  I got the sense that if they could have made their stationary bikes edge away slowly without having to physically pick them up off the floor, they would have been doing that.  I mean yeah, I was beet red, covered in bruises, standing on the bike pedals, had sweat pouring off of me and was mumbling under my breath about how I was going to "totally own that jerk pacer," but that's no reason to stare or anything. 

Oh, and did I mention that thanks to derby the places that I sweat most are where my pads normally sit, so any time I work out I have sweat pouring off my scalp, hands, elbows and knees?  It's really attractive.  I didn't even know your elbows could sweat until I joined derby.  It's just one of the many wonderful things this sport has taught me.

So anyway, by the end of the race I was not only completely exhausted and disappointed by the lackluster castles, which you couldn't even ride through and didn't have a single nice trebuchet or guillotine or anything to make up for it, but I also had managed to convince the people on either side of me that I might possibly be a sweaty, deranged lunatic.  Also in retrospect when you're trying to go easy on your knee, doing four miles out of an eight mile bike ride at maximum, stand-up-on-the-pedals resistance is probably not the best way to go about it.  Ow.

But I beat that pacer by a minute and fifty seconds, dang it.  So there.

~Jess

In Which I Have A Bout And A Busy Day

Connor got to come to his first bout of the season this year; we didn't have respite care for the bout this time and since he's been doing so much better with loud noises we thought we'd try it again.  Last season we tried taking him to a couple of bouts, but after the first twenty minutes or so he completely freaked out and we had to take him home.  This time he made it through not only my bout, but the bout afterwards too!  Of course we left his hearing aids out, because that would have been way, way too much stimulation and he wouldn't have been able to hear anything in there anyway.  But it ended up working out well, and I think he had a good time. 

That's my big boy.

So we won, and I didn't break my arms or legs or anything, so that was pretty great.  And the little guy is actually asleep right now, so that's an added bonus.  Maybe we'll take him to the next one too!

Other things I did today included stopping by the farmer's market (I didn't realize it had started up again this year until I drove past it-- I just thought the traffic was really bad), attending a baby shower and spending quite a bit of time sprucing up the garden out back.  I'm very, very slowly filling in the flower beds foot by foot.  In about fifteen years or so, maybe I'll be done!

~Jess

In Which I Get Some Sleep And Things Are Looking Up

I'm feeling much, much better today.  It's amazing what a full night's sleep can do to improve your higher brain function.  Oh, and also once Jer got home today I took a three hour nap, and he's staying up with the little guy tonight.  Because he's awesome.

We got an apnea monitor for Connor with a video display in preparation for our night nursing starting up this weekend; that way she doesn't have to sit in a dark room with him for eight hours a night.  This thing does everything except wash our dishes; it has a thermostat (with an alarm if the temperature in his room gets too cold or hot), a night light, night vision, and a two-way communication button so we can talk to him from the living room.  The night vision on the monitor is pretty creepy, though-- Connor's eyeballs reflect the light in really weird ways-- they end up black jet with silver pupils.  Jer immediately started calling him our "demon child."  It's pretty crazy looking.

Jer seems to be feeling better, which is great, and somehow so far I've managed to miss this bug entirely.  That's a very good thing because I have a roller derby bout tomorrow and I need to be in top form.  Good thing I'm getting some sleep tonight!

~Jess

In Which I Am Back From Idaho

I'm back!

I went down to Boise, Idaho this weekend to skate with a pick-up team called the Blitzkrieg Bruisers in a bout against the Treasure Valley Rollergirls.  Most of the players on the Blitzkrieg Bruisers hadn't actually ever skated together; our warm-up was the first time we'd ever stepped on the track as a team.  So it was pretty exciting when we managed to hold our own and ended up losing by only 19 points, which in derby is a really close bout! 

So I had a fantastic time and I've came back with a glorious bruise or two, but I can't show you any pictures because none of the bruises are in places that are appropriate for me to put photos of on the Internet.  However, I didn't break anything or get seriously injured and I had a blast, so the trip was a success!

We spent all of today driving back, and I got home, gave Connor a few snuggles (he promptly fell asleep on my chest, so he got an early bedtime) and grabbed a change of clothes because then it was time for a two hour scrimmage with my league.  It was all derby, all the time this weekend!  While I had a great time, I'm glad to be home and back spending time with my family, and I think that's probably the last of my long weekend derby trips for the season. 

Unless something pops up at the last minute, of course.  It happens.

~Jess

In Which I Play A Lot Of Derby

My bout was super fun!  And I didn't die or break any bones or anything!  We ended up losing, but we had a great time anyway.  I'm pretty sure it's actually impossible to play roller derby and not have a good time, except for the breaking stuff part.  That probably wouldn't be very fun.  Luckily I haven't had the opportunity to find out.

Anyway, so I spent pretty much all day doing derby related things.  This is actually a super heavy month for me as far as derby goes; on the 13th of April I've got a bout down in Montana and on the 21st I have a bout in Idaho.  So I'll be doing quite a bit of traveling!  I've never been to Montana before, but I always think about that poignant line from The Trumpet of The Swan, which was one of my favorite books growing up: "What is Montana-- banana, banana?" 

Moving stuff, that is.  Also if you've never read The Trumpet of The Swan you had a seriously deprived childhood.  Go find it and read it.  Now.

Anyway, unfortunately I don't think I'll have the chance to visit Louis the swan at the Red Rock Lakes this time around.  Oh well-- maybe next time!

~Jess

In Which We're Feeling Better And My Little Boy Is Getting Really Really Big

Thank heavens, Connor has actually decided to sleep tonight.

That is a very good thing because I have a bout tomorrow!  Bouting on five hours or less of sleep is not particularly fun, so I'm glad that I'll be getting a full night's sleep tonight. 

Connor didn't have school today-- it was a snow makeup day so everyone but preschool attended.  He's officially on Spring Break now.  He's currently in that stage where he's feeling pretty good but is still super stopped up, which is always a fun time.  I'm over the worst of this cold and on the mend too, which is great.  I'll probably take a nice hot bath tomorrow morning, go for a walk or do some good stretching, and then I'll be ready to play some derby!

Connor is still trying to choose what fun activity we'll be doing for his birthday, which is on Sunday.  Can you believe he's going to be six?  I know I say this every year, but there is no way my kid can possibly be that old.  There are a couple of childrens' theater productions going on to choose from, and there's always the zoo, the aquarium, the science museum-- all the fun places he likes to visit over and over again.  While I would love to throw him a party, he's still not excited about that idea.  So since it's his birthday, we'll do it his way and keep it just the three of us. 

Seriously, there's no way my little guy can possibly be six.  That's over halfway to ten!

~Jess

In Which I Take A Road Trip

I had a roller derby bout down in Kennewick yesterday, which is about a four hour drive southeast of Puyallup.  So we spent the night down there at a local skater's house.  Unfortunately I forgot my laptop, so that's why I didn't blog last night.  But we won our bout, and it ended up being a whole lot of fun.  Road trips with my teammates are pretty much always a guarantee of a great time! 

I wish I'd taken my camera with me though, because the drive over the pass was just breathtaking.  Eastern Washington looks absolutely nothing like Western Washington, either-- it actually reminds me quite a bit of Texas.

So anyway, while I admired the scenery on the drive back home this morning Jer saw his brother to the airport.  We really enjoyed having him here this week; hopefully we can do it again some time soon!

I'm afraid that I brought a present back with me from the bout though; I woke up this morning with a seriously scratchy throat and while I originally hoped I was just allergic to something blooming in eastern Washington it's stuck with me all day.  I'm taking bets now on whether or not I'm going to have a voice in the morning. 

Luckily I don't have any important meetings or anything tomorrow; I think I'm going to start work on cleaning out Ellen's room in preparation for painting.  Also I have some derby committee work to catch up on since last week was devoted entirely to preparing adoption paperwork.  If the weather clears up tomorrow afternoon I might try to get a few more plants in the ground too; I stopped at a nursery on the way home and picked up three rosebushes along with some borage, catmint, lemon balm, french tarragon and cilantro. 

I brought a few sprigs of the catmint in and the cats went absolutely nuts, so I think that's going to be a big hit.  I planted it in an area where nothing else is going to get trampled if some of the neighbor cats decide they need to pay us a visit.  I got most everything in the ground this afternoon except for the roses, which will require a few hours of sunlight and quite a bit of digging to get in.  They're supposed to be a very fragrant variety, and I'm putting them in near the wheelchair ramp just off the deck so that hopefully Connor will be able to smell them when we're out in the yard.

We'll see if the weather cooperates!

~Jess

In Which Someone Has A Smashing Good Time And It Is Not Me

While I was skating tonight, someone smashed out the passenger side window of our car (not Rowbert The Wheelchair Van, thank goodness) and stole Jeremy's weightlifting bag.  It was a smash-and-grab job; they hit two other cars in the parking lot as well.  I think they were probably disappointed because Jer's bag contained two very old pairs of shoes, his weightlifting log and a bottle of Excedrin-- quite the haul!  None of the other cars had anything valuable stolen either.

So I waited around with the two other lucky ladies who won the Burglar Lottery until the police drove up, filed a report and that was that.  However, having the window completely smashed out did not make the ride back to the house particularly fun for me.  There was glass all over the driver's side seat so I had to sit on my jacket during the thirty-five minute drive home, and of course it was forty degrees outside and halfway there it started raining sideways.  So that was terribly pleasant. Jeremy is out as we speak trying to find a store that's still open and stocks heavy plastic to cover the window until we can get it fixed.  Whee!

Oh well-- it could have been so much worse.  They could have, you know, stolen the whole car.  And now I'm home wrapped up in a cozy blanket with a cup of tea, some homemade bread slathered with a generous helping of marionberry jam, and three kinds of cheese.  So the night is looking up, even if judging by the amount of noise Connor is making right now he plans to be up until two in the morning.  Jer promised to bring me some chocolate from whatever store he goes to and finds the plastic sheeting for the car window.  I predict things will improve exponentially shortly after he gets home. 

Guess it was just one of those days!

~Jess