Back on the Wall

Back on the Wall!

It felt awesome to be back climbing again. I hadn't been to Peak Experiences in a couple of months, so I was especially happy to be able to join some of my homeschooling parent friends and spend a couple of hours climbing. I thought I might have even forgotten how to tie my knots and thread my belay device, but it all came back very quickly. Some nights climbing are kind of so-so--I don't make it up everything, I don't make it up much of anything. But tonight, I started out with a confidence building 5.6, did a few more like that, did two 5.7s, and then finished with a really fun 5.8. What I love about Peak is the way that they make the routes special and with interesting features or skills required. One had a very cool corner to use and climb over. Another went around a corner and then across and back again. One had a very welcome smiley face hold at the very top. What's interesting is that the one I think I struggled most with was a 5.6, though it was a competition route, and we determined that these felt more difficult than their non-comp counterparts. What a nice time and a great group of women!

It was altogether a good, if unproductive day. I spent way too much at Costco, which isn't surprising since it would be a miracle to spend under $100. I was well beyond that, unfortunately. I failed to purchase the paint I need to finish my stairwell and kitchen project. I'm just not sure about the color, and at $47 a gallon, it feels like a commitment. I hate commitment! I priced tires, which I should plan to get tomorrow, since my front tires look like they're ready for the Indy 500 they're so slick and lacking tread. I busted up the front of my car two weeks ago when I hit a big pothole outside Latin Ballet, and when we had the Honda dealership price new tires while we were having my bumper and some giant plastic piece that goes around the wheelwell worked on or replaced, the estimate was staggering. I feel pretty good about the Costco price, it's just a matter of finding the time to sit there.



Rutledge had a swim lesson today. The big question is whether he will be ready to be on swim team this year. Our swim club has something called Tropical Storm, which is a development team for the swim team, but last year, the inaugural year, went really poorly. There were kids on this "team" who were afraid to even get into the water and who had to be carried by an instructor through every session. Most were clinging to lane lines for most of the season. Rutledge is able to meet the basic requirement and swim a length of the pool. I wouldn't exactly call it freestyle--he has a lot of trouble multi-tasking and using "big arms" while kicking--he can do one or the other. But he is able to do one or two laps at a time, and he can swim on his back, though one would be hard pressed to call it backstroke. Shannon, his favorite lifeguard and pool buddy, is working with him. He kind of has two weeks to get it together. I'm not sure it makes sense for him on be on the team anyway, since he would likely need to be supervised while at the practices, and I'm not sure I want to do that. His practicing would also kind of interfere with my tennis, which is annoying. But I guess I'll see what happens. It costs about $125 less for him to be on swim team than to be on the development team, so the decision is really between the real swim team or nothing. One thing I can say...he just loves to swim! We have been at the pool about 5 days a week for the past couple of weeks.

Ollie kind of has a girlfriend but doesn't know it. He now always goes early to dive practice so that he can practice with Alyssa, who is on the year-round clinic team with him. They are at fairly similar levels, so they can bring out the best in each other. Ollie is really getting older. Today he spent much of the afternoon bagging leaves with John, who lives next door. Then he went out to dinner with their family. I can tell that the days when he is going to do things with us are numbered. He really seems to have had a big maturity and attitude leap lately, and I suppose it's true that they don't stay little forever.

Frances worked on watering the garden, which is now almost completely done, preparing a space for the flower we need to plant, and coloring Easter eggs, since we forgot and had nothing but brown eggs until today. Her eggs have googly eyes and feathers for hair, which is sort of interesting when you open the refrigerator and see them all sitting there in an egg caddy.

Poor Walter can't seem to get a break. Today he has had a sore throat, and by tonight he had a small fever. This has affected the force-feeding thing. I hope I'm not really force-feeding him, but he is absolutely petrified by the idea of a feeding tube. I've been researching the options, and it's just all rather scary. Scary most of all because I'm not sure how I ended up with a child with a major medical problem. I have been reading a book called, "Confessions of a Mother Inferior" lately, and the primary message of it is that we are given our particular children, they were specially chosen for us, and so when we are feeling inadequate and wondering what to do, we can take heart that God selected us as the parents for a reason. Funny, because I often wonder whether some higher power is telling me to put my children in foster care so that they have a higher chance of making it to adulthood with a modicum of health and sanity. But I have been trying to meditate on this idea that we don't have the children we have by accident. At any rate, he still managed to eat 3580 calories before dinnertime tonight. I won't mention where some of them came from--and when I say some, I mean like half. I have been trying to understand how people can overeat and have too many calories when so many of the foods that we tend to eat seem so paltry in the calorie department. The answer, I'm convinced, must be that people eat many, many servings of some of these things, and they must eat things that are on the naughty list. While nuts, a calorie bonanza, are perhaps only on a questionable list for some people, I'd say that Cheetos and those delectable Kettle chips are probably not something we're really supposed to be having 5 servings of. I've determined that one way to boost calories is to do the opposite of what weight management websites tell you to do. So one key, I think, is to have food in front of the TV or computer. I hadn't given it much thought; I eat wherever I am most of the time, but I'm thinking I might encourage blind snacking in front of a screen. I also made an "underweight people" counter today--this contains a lineup of about 8 bags of things that people who need to eat more can eat without having to think. There are at least four kinds of trail mix. Nuts and nut clusters. Dried fruits. Trans-fat free chips. So guess what happened when I went out climbing tonight right after Kerry came home and before a family dinner? They didn't eat dinner! Well, Frances had a big dinner, but she never neglects to eat. We have no problems there. Ollie went to Johnny Rockets with a friend and ate an obscenely large brownie and three refills of fries and a giant burger. And Walter ate nothing but pistachios. Sigh. I suppose he gets a pass because he's sick. But it makes me hesitate to go out gain!

We got a last estimate on carpeting, and I think we have our source. I can't wait. I truly feel like it will be a new lease on life when it happens. I can scarcely believe it might be around the corner. Our carpeting upstairs is so gross that I don't even want to invite close friends over any more. The spots, the areas where it is down to bare backing, the glow in the dark silly putty, now black with dirt, . Eww. I started trying to move the furniture, but I'm going to have to wimp out here. I'm going to have to pay someone to do it. I hate not doing things ourselves, but there's just no way for me to do it alone. I wonder if I will stop wanting to move if we get carpet that makes things feel clean and sanitary.

Today's final dilemma is my "blocked" bank card. It's kind of unbelievable, but I've been without a bank card now for about 10 weeks. This is my 4th card, and the bank still can't figure out why it says it is activated, why they send me a pin over and over (now with a totally different card and different pin), but it is consistently declined. I went in person and had it dealt with, everything looked good. And then I tried using it in a store and it was rejected yet again. It's getting kind of embarrassing, even though I know that it's not because we have no funds. I'm ready to find a new bank.



Here's my Hokie. He may be 17 pounds and on his last legs, but he's still a beagle through and through. He will enter an entire empty bag of dog food if it means that he can get one more morsel. He still dumps trash cans, shreds peed-in Pull-Ups, and decimates my recycling. He picks fights, defends his food, and steals things out of children's hands. I think this means he has a little bit more life left!