·:[ The Healthy Mom ]:·
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Bummer, bummer, bummer.   

A moment of silence for a very funny man (and Fillmore from Cars to our kids!)

Award-winning comedian George Carlin dies - CNN.com

Sigh.

Time to fess up. Right around day 61, when school let out for the Zboys, my routine fell apart. I was completely thrown off my game. I missed P90X workouts. First a week, then two, now three…

I still keep climbing. And running. Even did the incline for the first time this season. Lots of hiking and walking with the kids.

Somehow, with Memorial Day, the camping trip, the hard drive crash and the ER visit, I lost my way as far as weight training goes. I’m happy with my strength now, and my muscle definition in my arms and lower legs. But I still have the gut. The gut, the gut, the gut. Ugh.

Nice weather is working against me because who wants to stay inside in front of a DVD for an hour and 15 minutes to work out when the weather is nice?

Right now I’m just trying to stick with the climbing 2x a week and running 3x week - must get that long run in!

P90X might have to wait until the fall when the boys are back in school and the weather is cooler.

I picked up the holiday cleaning kit at Mountain Mama’s and just recently started running out of the countertop spray and room freshener. And I was disappointed to find out that the scent is seasonal. I checked out the other scents (lavender, geranium, etc), but they were either too flowery or too spicy smelling. I just LOVE the gingerbread scent.

So… I did email Mrs. Meyer’s customer service and ask them to make full size bottles of the products in that scent year round please.

If you’re reading this, could you do that, too?

You can reach Customer Service at customer-service@mrsmeyers.com. Customer Service is also available by phone Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM-6:00 PM Central Time, toll-free at 877-865-1508.

I used to love shopping. I could spend all day shopping… That was back in the day - when I was able to fit into most clothing in junior sizes 3, 5 & 7.

Now it’s not fun to shop for me. I’d rather shop for the boys or even Doug. For me, it’s a chore. I’m not able to embrace my body in its current shape. From my ribcage to my upper thighs, I’m a lumpy blob.

I want that midsection to be in proportion to my nicely muscled arms and lower legs, but it’s not happening. Mostly because along with my healthy food, I want my treats, too. I want to eat guacamole, salsa, queso and chips. I want my Haagen Daz Caramel Cone ice cream. I want my cream cheese. I ate mostly clean for several weeks, then it all came crashing down in a big binge that I haven’t really recovered from.

And I researched wardrobe essentials today. I came up with a list of 20 items, a mix of Tim Gunn and SAHM Style.

1. Basic Black Dress
2. Trench Coat
3. Classic Dress Pants
4. White Shirt
5. Jeans
6. Cashmere Sweater
7. Skirt
8. Day Dress
9. Blazer
10. Sweat Suit Alternative
11. Black Pumps
12. Ballet Flats
13. Stylish Bag
14. Cargo Pants
15. Bathing Suit
16. Pantsuit
17. Fitted t-shirt (v neck 3/4)
18. Shorts
19. Layering pieces (tank tops/camis)
20. Yoga pants

So, May and I went shopping for clothes today. I wanted to pick up some straight leg dark denim jeans and a nice white button down shirt. We hit Burlington Coat Factory, JC Penney, Old Navy and Sears. And the list went out the window. Every pair of dark jeans I tried on was just awful. UGH.

Burlington Coat Factory
$14.99 - Ryka Black Capri Workout Pants

JCPenney
$19.99 (marked down from $36) - Dark Pink Sleeveless Ribbed Sweater with Belt
$17.99 (marked down from $30) - Chocolate Brown Poplin Crop Pants
I wanted to get these Skecher shoes, which were $44.99 - much more than I usually spend on shoes, but they were comfy and cute. The girl behind the counter couldn’t find the matching shoe. So I took that as a sign that I wasn’t meant to have those shoes.

Old Navy
Nada. I wanted racer back ribbed tanks and they didn’t have any!

Sears
$10.00 Running Shell
$ 8.00 Running Top
$13.99 Mesh Running Shorts
$13.99 Mesh Running Shorts

So, I ended up with a lot of workout clothes and one non-workout outfit.

Notice that it’s all solid colors? May did. And encouraged me to do otherwise. I tried on some clothing with prints/ stripes/ patterns, but either they didn’t fit or they just didn’t grab me. I’m much more stingy with my clothing money than I used to be. I have to really love it to buy it.

We only shopped for 4 hours, and I was tired by the end of it - even with a diet coke and pretzeldog fortification break. It’s just disheartening to try on so many clothes that don’t fit.

So, I came back from a camping trip last weekend, turned on my computer and was greeted with

Primary Hard Disk 0 Not Found
Primary Hard Disk 1 Not Found

This happened to me before, and just reseating the IDE cables fixed it. So I did that again. No dice this time.

I tried replacing the IDE cable but that didn’t fix it either. Since it’s rare to have 2 hard drives fail, and I had this error before but the hard drives turned out to be fine, I thought it might be a bad IDE controller on the motherboard so I took it to PC Onsite.

PC OnSite said that the primary hard drive was bad, but the secondary was okay (my data hard drive), so he just replaced the bad drive. He told me that the drive was unrecognized by everything he put it in.

So then I took the bad drive home, installed it as the secondary (slave) drive in the machine, and then got the same error -

Primary Hard Disk 0 Not Found
Primary Hard Disk 1 Not Found

Not good. Even as a secondary drive, it causes the primary drive not to be recognized.

Next I had Blake from Colorado Support take a look at it. He’s very good and very trustworthy. No dice.

So, all my data files are safe - my photos, my client files and websites, household files, etc.

However, I don’t have a recent back up of my Outlook PST file. I thought I had done a back up in April (when I got the error for the first time), but I can’t find it anywhere. The only back up I can find is from 11/17/07. So I’m basically out the last 6 months of emails.

CRAP.

I could also use a copy of my WS_FTP ini file and my Firefox profile (with saved passwords and form entries), but those are less critical.

So, there are hard drive recovery services that charge a minimum of $1000, and often much more, to open up the hard drive in a clean room in an effort to retrieve lost data. I can’t afford that. That’s crazy. Particularly for 1-3 files.

I’m going to follow up on 2 more leads locally, then I’m going to look into a cheapie option from Comprehensive Computing in Virginia. Worse case, no data. Best case, I get my Outlook file back for $75.

Whew! My luck’s gotta turn around here soon!

Good grief.   

So, today I went for a 7 mile run, then went climbing, then went to the pool with the boys for 45 minutes before their swim class started.

I took a shower while they started class, and when I came back out, Zevan had to go potty.  So we headed back into the locker room.  We went through the first door, then I held open the 2nd door, and Zevan slipped on the wet floor (Zander had fallen in the same spot just before we went swimming just an hour earlier), and I saw his head hit the side of the door.

He immediately started screaming, and I scooped him up, and we headed into the locker room so I could comfort him.  As I walked in, several girls in the locker room started screaming, “He’s bleeding!  His head is bleeding!”

I looked down and blood is just pouring down the side of his head.  CRAP.   

I sat him down and tried to find the general place where it was coming from.  Then I pressed a towel against it.  Everyone is looking at me, chattering advice and whatnot.  I loudly asked through the din, “Can someone please get me a lifeguard?!”  Sheesh.   

May had JUST left with Madison minutes before.  I asked someone to check my locker for my phone.  No dice.  She offered hers, but of course I don’t know May’s number   

The lifeguard came in, already with gloves on and a bunch of gauze pads.  They cleared out the locker room.  For 10 minutes, she just kept swapping out the blood filled gauze for a clean one.  They decided to call the EMTs.  This whole time, Zevan is screaming. I’m kneeling in front of him, trying to keep him focused on me, and asking him to take some deep breaths.    Every so often, he’d reach up, touch my face with his little hand, and repeat, “Mama, mama, mama, mama…”  then start crying again.

Another 5-10 minutes goes by (who knows?) and finally the bleeding is subsiding.  The EMTs arrive.  He’s now calmer for longer than he is upset.  They offer him a sucker, which he gladly takes.  The EMTs suggest that he be taken to the hospital to be seen and are giving me the option to take the ambulance or take him in my car.  Meanwhile, Zander is finishing up his swim class and wondering where I am.  I tell the instructor to tell Zander that we’ll be out in a minute (the locker room is still closed so they can clean up the blood).  I tell the EMT that I’ll take Zevan to Penrose Main (in the hopes that my mom is working tonight)

I ask to use the phone, and I call Grandma and Grandpa - they leave immediately to pick up Zander.  Then I call Doug to tell him what’s going on.  I try to call my parents to see if my mom is working (she works at Penrose Main).  No answer.

I see Zander through the glass, shivering because I’m not out there with his towel.  The EMT is trying to talk to me, and I interrupt him again - I need to get to my other son, please.

Zander is visibly relieved to see me and is very concerned about Zevan and asks him how he is feeling.  I explain the situation, and he’s very agreeable.    Zevan would rather go with Grandpa, too, please. 

We head out to the parking lot, and wait for Grandpa.  When he shows up, Zevan and I head to Penrose Main.  I keep him talking to me so I know he’s not unconscious or showing signs of a concussion.

We get to the hospital, and I carry him in.  We check in and we wait.  Doug shows up.  And we all wait.  Then we FINALLY get in and they take his info and vitals.  Then we go back into the waiting room and wait.  Doug goes to Burger King and gets us dinner.  He also points out to me that my shirt has blood all over it. I hadn’t even noticed.  My parents call - from Denver - my mom’s not working today   I call May and vent a bit.

Doug returns with food.  We eat it, play with Zevan’s kids meal toy and wait even more.  I tell Doug he should just go home.  Just as he is getting up to leave, they call us back.  We go into one of the triage rooms.  They hook him up to the monitor.  And we wait some more.  I tell Doug again to just go home.  It’s already past the boys’ bedtime, and Zander needs to go to sleep.

Zevan and I cuddle on his little triage bed.  It’s actually kind of nice to spend time together, snuggling, with no other distractions.  I’m exhausted, and he’s in good spirits, so it’s okay. 

The doctor finally comes in and takes a look.  He tells me it’s fairly superficial, and that it doesn’t look like he needs stitches.  He’ll send someone in to clean it up.   

Again we wait.  And cuddle and play. And then someone comes in - she cleans it up - he protests, and whines a little, but it’s fine.  I *finally* see the actual cute for the first time.  It’s about a half inch long and already scabbing over.  She puts neosporin on it, and we’re good to go.  I ask about swim class on Monday.  She needs to ask the doctor.  Then the check out nurse comes in and I ask again about swim class on Monday.  She also needs to ask.  Then she comes back in and tells us it’s okay.  We can go home!  YAY!  It’s 8:20 PM.

On the way home, we stop at King Soopers to pick up some groceries and a treat for him.  My parents call - on their way home from Denver.  As we are checking out, my parents show up at King Soopers - they just HAD to see Zevan.    My mom asks how I am, and I tell her I have to be fine right now, glancing at Zevan.  Truth be told, I’ve been wanting to cry ever since the first drop of blood.  But that has to wait.

Now I’m home, the boys are in bed, and I’m too tired to even cry, I think.  I need to get out of my bloodstained clothes and get some rest.

Everything’s fine.  We’re all okay.  I just needed to get that all out.

And I’ll need some back up when I ask the AFC to install some slip proof flooring in that entry way.