Thursday, March 25, 2010

An interesting evening

(c) 2010 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com


It was an interesting evening yesterday. The fun part - I got carded. The not so fun part - I twisted my ankle & fainted.


Not surprisingly, I liked the being carded part best. And the vanilla stout.


Since our belly dance class was done & the recital was over (& it was the birthday of one of our troupe members), for our troupe time this week we decided to celebrate & go out to a brew pub. So we had a beer* & some excellent nachos & chatted, chatted, chatted & laughed, laughed, laughed. I had water, then a second beer & we continued chatting & laughing. Finally, after we'd been there for a couple of hours, we decided to go listen to the live music in a separate part of the restaurant.

We got up and started walking that way. I saw there were a couple of shallow steps, but apparently miscounted how many. I landed wrong and twisted my foot hard.

Since I was in back of the other two, they didn't see it happen & kept going. I took a couple of breaths, decided it wasn't so bad & that I could at least get to the corner/walkway so they'd see me when they looked back. I gimped over to there, grabbed the wall... or maybe a chair... and started graying out.

Next thing I knew I was on the floor with some up-close blurry faces in front of me and a vague memory of my legs not wanting to stay under me. Turns out I'd been in and out of consciousness for maybe 10 minutes. Once I was actually awake, within probably 30 seconds my vision cleared up completely, I started being able to talk again, and I felt perfectly fine. Well, except for my foot.

Meanwhile, not too surprisingly, they'd called my husband and 911. The paramedics came & checked me out. They figured the unconsciousness was not due to low blood sugar/diabetes or an allergic reaction or anything like that, but was probably a vasovagal episode. Which is a fancy name for fainting. As in, "Lordy, my stays are done up too tight & I just cain't seem to catch my breath!" And since the universe wanted to balance out my post-carding feeling of youthfulness, they said it's not uncommon for old people to experience a vasovagal incident when on the toilet. So, you know, thanks for that. **

Mr. Kluges got a neighbor to stay at the house while he came & got me. And today we went back & picked up my car & I've been gimping around the house some, trying to at least get a few things done in preparation for our trip to MN tomorrow. (But I know, Mom - RICE: Rest, ice, compression, elevation! :) )

Wishing you all a much less exciting time. And the moral of my little story? Count the dang steps.



*This would be when I was carded. Not that I look 21, but they might have a policy of carding those who look under 30? Maybe? Anyway, I was carded, the other two women weren't, & as someone closer to 42 than 21, I'm choosing to take it as a compliment that I look young! :)

**Wikipedia/MayoClinic say it can also be triggered by such simple things as getting your blood drawn, or seeing someone else's blood drawn, or standing with your legs locked too long (like all those groomsmen & bridesmaids), or sudden onset of extreme emotions, or the aforementioned "bearing down" or a whole list of other triggers.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

WW - The First...

(c) 2010 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com


(...of what will be many.)

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Signs of Spring

(c) 2010 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

  • The snow cover in the front yard is now completely gone.
  • (Which means we found the sled that was left out right before the igloo snow & remained lost & buried the entire winter.)
  • The Siberian squill is starting to come up in the backyard.
  • I biked the girls to school today for the first time this year & plan to biking to pick up Pumpkin, too, since by chance I don't have either of the other two girls I watch today.
  • Twelve of the bulbs I planted last fall out in front of the LR window are just peeking out. I think some are the crocuses, and I think the others are some daffodils, but the tulips will be later?
  • After wiping down the clothes line yesterday, I hung out my first load of laundry to dry today!
  • Everybody is in a much better mood! (Well, except for the DST-related sleepiness.)

Friday, March 12, 2010

A Few Things

(c) 2010 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com


You can roughly divide our front yard into three sections (seen here 2 Aprils ago). The part farthest south, between the sidewalk and neighbors' big scraggly trees & overgrown honeysuckle bushes that spread 10-15 feet onto our land is still covered with a good foot of snow. The middle section between the sidewalk & the driveway is 2/3 snowy, but the northern-most section, next to the garage is snow-free. And you know what that snow-free, sunny part is, right? THE GARDEN.

Huh, guess we better start figuring out what we want to plant this year.

After I read a brief blurb in the local paper during lunch about Harrison Ford having dinner in a restaurant up in Green Bay, I spent the entire time I was washing up the lunch dishes imagining what I could say to him if I ever, say, ran into him around here.

Note to self: If I need celery, I should just get the few pieces I need from the store's salad bar because I NEVER use it before it gets all yucky & limp.

I found my husband an anvil on Craig's List. He considers it helping him with his new hobby. I consider it a precursor to him developing some lovely large biceps. ;) (Love you, hon!)

I have dress rehearsal tonight for the park & rec's big recitals over the weekend. Mr. Kluges & the girls are coming to the afternoon one tomorrow, plus there's an evening one also on Sat & an afternoon one on Sunday. Which is Daylight Savings Time, so I'd better remember to switch the clocks. Not that it matters too terribly, since we dance in the second half.

I hate the smell of nail polish on my hands & can smell it for a day even after it's dry.

It's hard to type while trying to be careful of one's drying nail polish, but I lack patience. :)

The girls' nails are also polished - Pumpkin's are pink with sparkles over top. Penguin's are a different color on each nail, from pink, to clear sparkles, to blue, to RED, to green.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Sunday, March 07, 2010

2010 Resolution Check-In

(c) 2010 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com


Since we're now about 2 1/2 months into 2010, I thought I'd do a brief check-in as to how my 2010 resolutions are going. Gotta keep myself honest, you know!?

I have 6 goals - 3 health/weight and 3 organization/decluttering/tidying:
  1. Exercise most nights of the week: Doing pretty great with this one! It's becoming habit to exercise (most) evenings once the girls have been put to bed. It's the Shred or belly dance practice or now running! Not that I'm usually very gung-ho to get started, but once I do begin, I'm fine & finish it out & then am glad I did.
  2. Do the Couch-to-5K Program...and run in a 5K race: Last Saturday I went to our local Fleet Feet & got fitted with shoes (very impressed with them, the time they took, their expertise!). Also, bought a treadmill from one of the moms in Pumpkin's dance class, who'd mentioned in passing on the previous Thursday that she had one to sell and did anybody know anybody who was looking? Hauled it home last Sunday, managed between Mr. Kluges and I to wrestle it down to the basement & it's all set up! I've started the Couch-to-5K program & have done all three of the first week's workouts. So, it's begun!
  3. Reduce/avoid empty calories: Still a struggle. They're just so tasty! But I decided to give up alcohol for Lent, except for 6 days of my choosing (like St. Patrick's Day! Gotta have a Guinness then!). 'Cuz technically Lent is the 40 days before Easter but starts 46 days before because the 6 Sundays don't count because they're mini-Easters/celebrations of Christ's victory over death. So far, so good, but I think I'll run out of optional-drinking days before Easter comes. :)
  4. Keep following the Flylady: Oh, yes, I am! I find her routines and encouragement and 15-minutes very inspiring and motivating.
  5. Spend 30 minutes per weekend on the attic room: Doing well with this. Skipped 2 weeks so far, but those were because we had people over and/or I'd gotten 4 boxes of hand-me-downs from the neighbor, so I sorted those instead. Still need to do it this weekend, but I've gotten a lot of papers filed/sorted and every week a tiny little bit more gets done.
  6. Paint the small area behind the radiator in our room (in the summer): Still in the works! :)
So, in general, progress in most areas, even though there's still plenty to do in each of them. Yay for moving forward!

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Someday... it won't be winter anymore.

(c) 2010 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Someday it won't be winter anymore...
and I won't have flannel sheets & three blankets on my bed & be wearing fleece pajamas when I sleep.

Someday it won't be winter anymore...
and the girls won't be able to make pretty patterns in the frost on the window in our room just like Laura does in Little House in the Big Woods.

Someday it won't be winter anymore...
and I'll stop bugging my husband about making the storm window for our room and start bugging him about making some of the many, many screens our house needs.

Someday it won't be winter anymore...
and I won't be able to keep milk in the unheated back hallway when I don't have enough room in the frig.

Someday it won't be winter anymore...
and I won't have to worry about the milk in the back hallway freezing overnight.

Someday it won't be winter anymore...
and I won't want my microwavable booties, microwavable scarf,and fingerless gloves when I'm playing on the computer in the evening.

Someday it won't be winter anymore...
and I won't have to put on a coat to go out and get the mail.

Someday it won't be winter anymore...
and we'll be able to use our fully-enclosed sun porch AND our open front porch again.


Someday it won't be winter anymore...
and we'll start complaining about how hot is it and how at least in winter you can put on another layer. :)



(Happy Month of the Spring Equinox, everyone!)