The Evils of Midol

I had the fantastic opportunity to play with "That Girl" from Pensievity yesterday.

I took LQ along just because we were going to the pool in That Girl's complex and I thought LQ might like it.

That Girl has just moved her family of three boys and a husband back to the US after living in Brazil for about five years. I sympathised with her when she recently wrote a post about cranky children and moving. I guess I just wanted an excuse to meet her, so we arranged a time to meet up and put our plan into action.

Before I left the house for my play date, I popped a few Midol pills. This was so my play wouldn't be hindered by any discomfort that I may have felt from my dearest monthly visit (BLAST that period pain!!).

In my Midol haze I may have:

• Forgotten any sun protection for LQ - HELLOOOO we were going to the pool!
• Made the decision NOT to bring my own bathers because, I reasoned, it wasn't really a pool but just a sort of sprinkler park - HELLOOOO we were going to the P.O.O.L!
• Scared the be-whatsit out of That Girl by not knocking loud enough on her door and then having her just walk straight into me (the skulker)
• Decided against putting a swimming nappy (diaper) on LQ because I planned on just leaving her diaper-less.
• made That Girl loan me her nicest swimsuit. On a side note: I FIT INTO THAT GIRL'S SWIMSUIT!!!! (I am so excited about that. Do you know how fantastic she looks?!)
• Forgotten to take LQ's diaper off
• slathered suncream on LQ but forgot to put any on myself
• panicked halfway through our swim and made LQ stand in the shade until That Girl offered her son's t-shirt for LQ to wear in the pool
• just generally behaved erratically and unlike myself
  

By the time our swim time was over LQ's diaper had absorbed so much water it had started to fall apart. Lucky for me (and everyone else), none of it had come out into the pool water and as LQ stood near the outdoor shower I pulled off her swimsuit hoping to peel off the diaper at the same time and contain any diaper gel that may have escaped. No such luck - a whole pocket of gel had made its way halfway up LQ's back already and fell with an unceremonious PLOP right by the shower.

I quickly prayed for a fast and painless death so that I wouldn't be burdened with the shame of scooping up the insides (that were no longer inside) of LQ's diaper and walking the long walk to the garbage bin.

No such luck. It was like I was having an out of body experience. I couldn't look anyone in the eye. I may have mumbled "Speaking of social faux pas..." and then forced a laugh that could have sounded more like a donkey's bray - I can't remember, my brain is already erasing this painful memory in an effort to make me feel better about myself.


I had hoped to help That Girl feel better about her "new girl" status by organising a play date. I am now 100% sure that the only way I made her feel better was when she realised that she is nowhere near being as retarded as I am.

That Girl is such a wonderful girl that she probably decided to overlook my Midol hazed stare, my constant stream of idiotic decisions and then my total lack of propriety by eating her food and then running off into the sunset. But I will completely understand if when I contact her when I am here again next year she hesitates before replying.

Take Me Out

The Arizona Diamondbacks are playing last years World Series Champions the Philadelphia Phillies this week.

Dal and I were lucky enough to go to a game last night with Dal's Dad and brother in law. Here's the story through pictures.


Taking the Light Rail into Phoenix. Pretending I am not tired and irritated by the stupid Phillies fans that kept clapping louding

At the ball park
Staring down the obnoxious Phillies fan
3rd inning, We bought ourselves a footlong "Ricky" Dog. Ricky was our toothless hotdog server who named the dog.
It turns out we could only eat half a footlong. It's a good thing we didn't get those Chili Cheese Fries.
Getting excited - about... the Diamondbacks fans who were leaving in droves when we were still down 4-1 in the 8th inning.
Dal rallied with his cap AND faceI asked my millionth question about what was happening

We finally went to the official swag store and bought me a shirt to represent in
We saw the second best comb over I have ever seen

I had to document my awesome sunglasses that we just bought. That's Dal's dad and Pete behind me. Notice Pete representing Dodgers? The Dodgers were down 10-0 when we last looked last night.
Diamondbacks score a two run homer in the 9th inning
The Diamondbacks still lost - 4-3. Sorry Dal

Postscript: As I write this post, the D-backs are winning tonight's game 3-0 (7th inning). Dal is happy.

We are Mountain Folk

Dal, Hel and Bel have been in the mountains for the last week and a bit.

It has been fantastic and I really enjoyed the lack of television, computers, internet, etc. It just made things seem a lot less noisy.

Here are a few of my favourite photos from the past week. Hopefully I can bring this blog up from travelogue to something a bit more interesting in the next week or so, but DON'T hold your breath.

I was dead-uh, but now I am alive-uh

It seems that a trip to the US would not be a trip to the US unless I get to spend most of our vacation money on health care.

We are still not sure how much the bill is for our little jaunt to the emergency room yesterday, but I just HAD to up the ante on last years journey.

After suffering from heat exhaustion on Tuesday evening it progressed to dehydration. Three days of body aches and just a general feeling of wanting to die and I decided we had better do something.

On top of suffering from dehydration I also have a flu like virus. It's just the way I roll. I don't do things in halves.

The good news - The two litres of fluid plus a bit of motrin that was pumped straight into my veins on Friday evening ended the three days of continual head implosion. And now I am feeling 100 times better.

Hopefully this next week will bring more photos, a LOT more fun and a lot LESS emergency rooms.

We Have Arrived

And already I have suffered from heat stroke (for real).

I know this may seem a little weird to everyone but me, but Mesa, AZ for me does NOT equal heat. This heat is out of the ordinary.

Since meeting Dal I have only had to endure a few days of the Arizona Summer heat back when we were dating. Every other time we have visited the family here it has been Christmas. Meaning Winter. Meaning GORGEOUS weather.

Mesa AZ in my mind is a perfect Christmas-sy fantasy land. And I would like it to stay that way. Unfortunately my fantasy bubble is slowing being popped every extra day I experience this unearthly heat. I have praised the air conditioning gods nightly.

Aside from the temperature we have had such a wonderful time so far and we are only entering day three of our month long holiday. Thus far we have:

Played with these at midnight (jet lag is an evil, evil thing).

Climbed the stairs (at midnight)
Played on the swing

Played with Grandma

And the chickens


And generally being happy little campers
I don't want to brag or anything, but I have now realised my child is the most wonderful child on this earth. I came to this conclusion on our flight over here. Beautiful. (I am so going to get kicked in the guts on the way home for saying that)

My brain fell out of my uterus (twice)

It's a long story.

The first time my brain fell out was when LQ was born.

The second time was more recently. It all started with some anti-depressants.

I visited the doctor a few months back in the hopes she could save me from myself. My hormones seemed to be attacking me on a regular basis, sometimes leaving me completely incapable of doing anything for two weeks of my life. Dal would often come home to find me curled up on the floor incapacitated from the utter despair I felt over whatever was worrying me that day. This frustrated me, because for the other two weeks of my life, I felt the complete opposite. I could have taken on the world and won.

So I was at the doctor hoping she could help. Like any good doctor, she prescribed anti-depressants immediately. I have had not so good experiences with anti-depressants before and was reluctant to go through it all again. However, I felt it best to at least try the things so I could rule out one thing.

To my complete surprise those little half pills were amazing. For three days I felt like super woman. And then... I got a little feeling that maybe I had a little sprite growing inside me. I ceased taking the happy pill and had the pregnancy confirmed.

I didn't think it possible to lose something that was barely there at all, but it seems my mushy brain became even mushier.

Fast forward 5 weeks to Friday evening. To spare you all the bloody, gory details I will just tell you that I miscarried. An ambulance, emergency room and two hours sleep was involved in the evening. It WAS a completely body shocking experience and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. It seems to be a secret part of motherhood that not too many people talk about. I would venture a guess that most mothers (or mothers to be) have had at least one miscarriage, but it's not until it has happened to you that these people share their stories. And understandably so... it's probably something you wouldn't want to relive over and over like a birth story.

But I am off on a tangent - this post isn't about my miscarriage, it's about my brains falling out all over again.

To say I have been vague the past few months may be an understatement, but following the events over the weekend I can now categorically say that my brains have completely fallen out again.

It has been a struggle to finish sentences.

I hope this excuses me from the lack of posts and comments and hopefully saves me from a possible beating from an un-named source *cough - DeNae - cough* :) You should see my other blog - completely neglected.