po-ta-to

Spring came along and made the snow disappear!

But we're all still acting like stir-crazy shut-ins.  The kids are like little time-bombs. They bicker over computer time and say there's NUHHH-THING to do outside.  It's all on me - I really don't ever want to do anything but watch TV or knit or spend hours on ancestry.com and ravelry.com.  I don't even want to walk the dog anymore!  BLEH!!  I've basically hit emotional, intellectual and physical flatlines.

Otherwise, we're still churning through ballet nights, soccer practices, preschool events, Girl Scouts, a wedding, a family emergency, and medical appointments.  The big ballet recital at the Performing Arts Center in Anchorage will be on June 2nd and 3rd, so practices are ramping up.  Soccer's back on again after some time off and the summer looks to be busy with practices and games - but only for Kira, since I didn't sign Remy or Taia up this year.  Preschool is all about center time at school, home visits every week, big potlucks once a month and extra events thrown in here and there.  Girl Scout stuff is slowing down now that the cookie season is over, but we've got to start thinking about summer camp... My cousin Rick got married last weekend to Claire, his beautiful bride from England.  We so rarely see that part of the family so the day was a very special one.

The emergency I mentioned was my grandma Lena, "Nanny", having a stroke again.  She's 86 and lives in an assisted living home.  Her first stroke was in November and she'd recovered pretty well since then, but this stroke was bigger.  She's still in the early stages of recovery but is swallowing food better than the doctors expected, still able to speak and move, but in need of much more therapy and assistance.  She's still able to have short conversations - my favorite part of all of this is that she still laughs and smiles and understands us once in awhile in spite of Alzheimer's.

I saw my pulmonologist and rheumatologist last week.  They're concerned about increasing signs of inflammation and want to keep a closer eye on me, so I'll be back again in a month.  This couch-potato lifestyle is affecting not just the kids' attitudes but my lab results as well. So, as Kevin would say, it's time to 'snap out of it!'.