Family Reunion

Every year since 1980, Dad's side has held a family reunion.  Come June or July, we pack up and drive as many as 7 hours to make it to this annual event.  And although my husband and I have had a medically eventful past few weeks, I was really hoping not to have to miss out this year.  I'd asked Isaac earlier this month if he thought we'd be able to go and he said it would depend on two things: how I was feeling and how much schoolwork he could get done ahead of time.  He thought he could give me an answer by the Wednesday before.

Wednesday rolled around and I was trying SO hard not to push the issue.  I only asked once, and he told me he'd need til Thursday to know for sure if he could afford to leave his schoolwork for the weekend.  Come Thursday morning breakfast, he still wasn't sure.  He had another section of material to cover before he thought he could give me a definitive answer.

It was killing me.  Should I pack?  Should I clean?  Should I just sit here and pretend like I'm not in a hurry to start packing?

I chose the latter.  I never want make him feel like I'm undermining him or that he's second fiddle, so although I was dying, anxiously waiting for him to cover his material, I played it cool and sat on the couch playing Gourmet Ranch on Facebook.  It wasn't keeping my attention very well, so I was super happy when Meg messaged me and asked if I wanted to Skype.

About two minutes after I agreed to a Skype date with Meg, Isaac looked up from his studying.  I paused, in the middle of eating a tomato and stared at him, waiting to hear the verdict.

"We can go..."

YESSSS!!!!

"...but probably not til like, 3:30."

Ugh.  Okay.  Not the time frame I was hoping for--but, still, we're going!

"And, can we wrestle first?"

Now.  For those of you who are not familiar with "wrestling", it is a full contact sport that only married grown-ups should take part in.  Unlike many other sports, you don't wear a uniform and you don't necessarily need to be in top physical condition to participate--although it does help.  Like many contact sports, you should be aware of the risks involved before engaging, such as injury or pregnancy.  However, both these risks can be avoided if one takes the proper precautions.

It was at that moment that my ringing computer screen reminded me that I already had a Skype date lined up, so I hopped on and asked Meg if I could have a rain-check.  We agreed on a later date before signing off.

We headed out around 5:30pm and arrived in Iowa City at about midnight.  Momma Lynn was waiting up for us and we chatted until around 2:30am before crashing.  Hours later, we woke up to the smell of fried potatoes and onions, eggs, bacon, and cherry turnovers.  I love eating at the Hinton's!  Lynn has to be one of the best cooks I know and she never fails to have something tasty on hand.  We ate while catching up with her and Howard and then hit the road again around 1pm.

Once in Ames, Isaac handed me off to Lindsey so we could hang out for an hour or so before Isaac and I left for the reunion.  We were debating where to eat when I asked if she wanted to go to Great Plains.  Imagine my surprise when she didn't even know what I was talking about!!

For those of you in the same boat as Lindsey, Great Plains falls into the same category as Chinese Homestyle: they are the hidden food gems of Ames.  The best thing about this particular restaurant is their lunch special.  Every day, they have a certain type of pizza that can be bought by the slice over the lunch hour for around two dollars.  All the flavors are good, but you have to be sure to get it with the thick, oat crust.  It's served with a side of honey so that essentially, every piece of pizza is both meal and dessert in one.  In addition to all this honey-covered, oat-y goodness is the amount of cheese they put on the pizza.  I kid you not, if you look at a pizza before it goes to the oven, you will see a MOUNTAIN of cheese on it.  By the time it's melted down and served to you, there's usually a good half-inch or more of gooey, delicious cheese on your pie.  You can't beat it.  Seriously.

After spending time with Lindz, Isaac and I headed to the farm.  It was at this point that I got the worst news ever--Mom thought she was sick, so she wasn't coming because she didn't want to get me sick.  She said we could go ahead and come out to the farm, but I had to stay outside for the sake of germs.

While we were there, waiting for Dad to finish packing, a surprise visitor stopped by!!  Danielle, one of my Surefire Bootcamp buddies, had stopped by to drop off four seasons of HOUSE for Isaac and I.  She'd texted me earlier in the month asking if we'd care to have them, and since its our favorite show, of course I said yes!

After we gabbed for a bit, Danielle had to leave for Omaha and Dad was finally ready to go.  A little over an hour later, we were at the park being showered with hugs from many family members.  We checked into our dorm and then headed out to the main gathering area where we continued to talk and eat well into the evening.

That night, we got a lesson from Ike about planking--the "cool thing to do" among teenagers right now.  The goal is to showcase your skills by putting your body into a plank position on any random item.  The more difficult the position, the higher level of difficulty the plank is assessed.  To give us a good understanding of what it was (as well as to put a notch in his stick) Ike decided to show us a level 10 difficultly plank--on top of the door, in his Onesie.  Thankfully, the door didn't break and he didn't bust his head open.

A little while later, everyone was starting to drift off to sleep when I made my awkward statement of the night.  You see, when we got there I had noticed that each person had their own little twin bed.  However, Isaac and I still qualify as newlyweds, so I decided to push two of them together and create a bigger bed for both of us.  No big deal, right?

False.  When you belong to a family of jokesters, nothing is a small deal.  One of my favorite ways to fall asleep is with Isaac's arm tucked around me and so while everyone else was starting to count sheep, I was trying to find his arm amidst the sea of blankets.  The lights were off and I didn't even think before I blurted out, "I can't find it!"  I'm sure you can imagine the reactions we got.  The entire room erupted into laughter while I tried my best to explain what exactly I was looking for.

The night brought pretty decent sleep, despite the "crunch, crunch, crunching" of people on the plastic mattresses.  In the morning, after talking to family over the course of breakfast and snacking, we made our way to the pool.  We swam, chatted, caught sun rays, and the guys started the yearly water basketball game that produces sore muscles, firey-red, sun-burnt backs, and the occasional scratch.  And--surprise!!!  Mom was feeling much better so she met us there and stayed the rest of the weekend!

On the way back to the park, Ike, Dad, and myself rode in the back of the truck.  Ike, of course, came up with the idea of trying to do a triple plank on the rack of the moving truck.  Mom was driving and not too keen on the idea so every time we started to crawl up onto the rack she threw the brakes on.  Not the wisest choice.  It's easier to predict when you will fall if the speed of the vehicle you are standing in remains constant.  If the driver throws on the brakes every two minutes though... well, expect to land on the pavement at some point.  We tried to tell her to keep going, but she was so worked up about the possibility off someone flying out that she pulled off the road and wouldn't move until all of our feet were touching the bottom of the truck.  Needless to say, our plank had to wait until the truck was sitting still in the parking lot.

After our planking adventure, I was feeling exhausted so I laid down for a nap.  I felt alright, aside from a headache, but I'm learning it's better to be safe than sorry.  Since my diagnosis, there is much higher risk of me getting sick, and even though I felt perfectly fine, I've had situations where I went from feeling fantastic to being in the ER in a matter of hours--not ideal.

Court and Jess arrived sometime shortly after my nap and we got to hang out for a bit before I started doing haircuts.  Let me tell you, I was SO excited to get to cut some heads!  I haven't been able to do anyone other than Isaac or myself for the past three months and I really, really miss it.  One of my aunts volunteered her family and then my entire Iowa family, minus Ike, got theirs done as well.  Sad as it may sound to some of you, that was probably one of the biggest hilights of my weekend.

Around noon, Isaac and I had to head out to make it home by midnight.  I'd had left my facewash at Hinton's, so we stopped by to grab that and Lynn took me over to see Joan's (their neighbor) herb collection.

Her daughter lovingly refers to her as "the crazy herb lady," and I didn't really understand why until we walked by the stash up front and went through the gate to the back where I walked into herb-world.  There were several different types of basil, lavender, chocolate mint, marjoram, cilantro, chives, savory, a TON of others, and a peach tree seedling.  I'm not so sure I'd go so far as to call her crazy, but I can surely say she has a love for herbs and other growing things.  She actually ended up giving me a bunch of different types that we boxed up, watered, and put in the back of the little red Yaris.

We hit the food jackpot twice on the way home, which was awesome!  Who can say no to two free apple pies and a free chili cheese buritto?  Not us!  A little before 1am we had made it back and by 2am,  had everything planted, unpacked and put away.

I would definitely call the weekend a success.

Old at Heart

It's not uncommon for me to feel old.  Usually it's because I'm an overly-serious, budget-conscious homebody whose visions of fun involve reading and cooking.  Oh--can I deviate for a second and just tell you that being too serious is a characteristic of my personality type?  Yep.  I read it on Wikipedia.  Anyway, lately I've been feeling older than normal, but yesterday especially.

The directions for the drops I'm taking for my ear infection say to lay on your side and let them soak in for about 10-15 minutes before moving around.  And what better to do while laying on your side than sleep?  I really can't DO anything during this time that would involve moving around, and watching TV or talking to Isaac is near impossible because not only is the ear facing upward the one full of drops, it's also the one that we're pretty sure I ruptured, which means I hear static in it now 24/7.  Anyway, I'm supposed to take one set of these drops twice a day and the other as needed.  The "as needed" drops are the ones that numb my ear and are recommended to be used every 4-6 hours.  Needless to say, I've been getting plenty of unintentional naps in.

On top of that, I've started a little herb garden.  Meg mailed me some seeds as a surprise in the mail when we first moved here because she'd moved away from home the year before and found growing things to be somewhat therapeutic.  She started me out with jalapenos and cilantro--two of her favorite things.  I didn't have the basic necessities to grow things though, and so I went to Target and did something that I NEVER thought I would do.  I paid for dirt.  Yes, DIRT.

It was $6 plus tax.

Oh my.  Until moving to Michigan, this was equivalent with paying for air.

In addition to my naps and herbs, I've also started to walk extremely slowly and carefully due to my port--kind of like how older people move with their walkers and canes.  It's not that it's painful, it's just weird to have something permanently on your chest.  There is a cord running from the port up and over my collarbone as well, and that's probably the most awkward part of it.  Again, it's not painful per se, it's just a really weird sensation.

I'd try and describe it for you.  The port itself is actually anchored on my left pectoral (right under the greenish bruise).  When I raise my left arm, I can actually feel the port moving WITH MY PEC off toward the side of my body.  I can also feel my skin stretching tight over it as well.  Yep.  Awkward.  In addition to the port shifting with my movements, the cord does as well; sliding back and forth over about a 1/2" section of my collarbone.  The "pain" from the pressure of the cord on my clavicle is similar to a ponytail headache.  That's the best way I can describe it.  I keep wanting to reach over and pull the cord off--which I can't do because it's IN my body--because my mind tells me that if I did, it would alleviate the discomfort.  Sometimes I think I can feel the cord shifting inside my body too, like a little worm wiggling around.  That was mostly after the surgery though; it seems to be pretty well settled in there now.

Yeah.  Just thinking about it sometimes makes me a little uncomfortable...

The kicker to my "old" formula, is that I feel extremely out of shape now.  Yesterday I asked Isaac if he would be sweet enough to walk around outside with me because I just miss the sun and the fresh air and moving around.  He agreed, and we set off for our walk around the complex around 8pm.  We walked at a moderate pace, and I kid you not, when we got back, I was ready for a nap.  I felt so incredibly pathetic.

Three months ago, I could run a couple miles without blinking.  I could throw around 35-40 lb. kettlebells and not even feel that winded.  I would get up religiously at 4:30am four to five days a week to go workout simply because I love to be active and I enjoy the rush from it.  And now, I'm tired after walking less than a mile?  Are you kidding me?

As you might guess, I felt like a big pile of poo.  Isaac did his best to comfort me, reminding me that I'm still not 100%, I'm recovering from surgery, and that I haven't worked out faithfully so of course my body is regressing.  The first two I was okay with.  The last makes me feel like a slacker.  In my delirious desire to redeem my pre-michigan fitness level, I asked if I could go to the gym.  He smiled at me and said sure, I could go tonight if I wanted.  And then I realized why he was smiling.

I avoid the weight area at our gym because it's filled with macho-men on steroids who stare at themselves in the mirror and look at you like a fresh-cooked meal if you walk on two legs and don't have a penis.  Instead, I swim.  ...But I can't swim with an ear infection.  Turd.

Needless to say, I'll continue to work my green thumb, spend an excessive amount of time napping, and huff and puff like a life-long smoker after walking around the block until my ear is fixed.  And then I think I'll be investing in ear plugs to avoid this situation in the future.