It's a small world after all...

I went to help a new family move into our ward this afternoon. Well, the Elders Quorum did the big move on Saturday, but this woman's husband is across the country doing job training, so she is doing it all herself, with a 3 1/2 year old girl and a 7 month old boy, so I went to help her unpack today. We got to talking about where she was from and what her husband did. She mentioned her husband went to school on Bainbridge Island. "WHAT? What is your last name again?" Dahlstrom. Ken Dahlstrom and his family just moved into my ward! The world seems so small inside the church.

He happened to call while I was there and asked my maiden name. When he heard it, he immediately went into stories of scouting with Ben. I just had to laugh. You never know who you'll run into or what distant memory will suddenly turn up in your ward! I was just going to help a woman alone with her move, and suddenly I'm taken on a trip into my past. This is weirder to me than driving down Meridian and having Alan Cleaver driving right behind me.

Catch Up

Just a few random oddities of my life so y'all feel caught up:

1. Tyler had his birthday party on Saturday afternoon. It was the easiest one I've ever put on, and he loved every minute of it. He looked so handsome in his new church clothes from Grammy and Grampy today! (picture to come)

2. I got my first "excellent!" out of my piano teacher on Saturday afternoon. He was very pleased with how far I'd come on a song we've been working on. That was really exciting for me.

3. I badly twisted my ankle Saturday night and can hardly walk.

4. We had a storm come through here this afternoon. I LOVED it. The colors in the clouds were amazing (as were the greens of the trees against the dark sky) and I've come to love thunder and lightening. I'm so glad my kids love storms too. They ran around, loving every second nearly as much as I did.

5. I still don't love my new medication. I'm still having side effects, but not as severe as with the other one. But I'm not sleeping as well either. I'm leaning towards forgetting meds all together and just suffering through my insomnia, but I'll talk to my doctor once more before I make that decision.

6. I have about 10 loads of laundry that need to be folded. My kids are finally out of school for the summer. I'm supposed to be at Activity Girls Day Camp on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I'm still not sure if I can make it. I promised to help a new woman in our ward unpack tomorrow since she has 2 small kids and her husband is out of town. Scott is going out of town for the weekend with his dad and brothers. I'm having a fondue party one night he's gone (Jenn, I could use some help on this!). What happened to the LAZY days of summer?

That's about it for me for now!

TYLER

Happy Birthday to Tyler!

In honor of Tyler's 6th birthday, I thought I'd take a moment and write down a few of the things I love about my son.

1. He loves a good joke.

2. He's smart as a whip.

3. He has a sensitive spirit.

4. He loves to learn.

5. He's concerned with people around him, and wants everyone to be happy.

6. He makes sure he acknowledges as many people he can, and doesn't leave anyone out.

7. He wants to be just like his daddy.

8. He's a great soccer goalie.

9. He's willing to compromise in order to keep the peace.

10. He is so proud of himself when he learns something new.

11. He loves to ask questions.

12. He'll tell his life story to anyone who will listen, or at least anything interesting that's happened to him recently.

13. He has an amazing imagination.

14. He wants to be in the middle of whatever is going on.

15. He saved his tooth fairy money for more than 2 weeks until the ice cream man came to our neighborhood because there was no question but that he was going to buy ice cream from him.

16. He loves to help Daddy barbecue.

17. He gets super excited over little things.

18. He's been telling people the countdown to his birthday since June 1st.

19. He's so ready to be a grown up.

20. He wears his heart on his sleeve.

21. He thinks school is the best thing EVER!

22. He does a great "ready Freddy" ball catching position.

23. He finds humor in the inane, just like his dad.

24. He likes his hair spiky.

25. He is quick to smile and laugh.

There is so much more I could say about my wonderful son, but for now I'll stop and just say HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYLER! I LOVE YOU!!

Enough

I've been on the antidepressant my doctor prescribed for almost a month now, and I have to say, I HATE it. The two main purposes of this medication are to relieve depression and to relieve anxiety. I feel like it's CAUSING both. I've had occasional bad days before, but never this often, and not this bad. And I've never had issues with anxiety before. Sitting in church yesterday was almost torture for me. We sat in pretty much the very middle of the crowded chapel. The normal me wouldn't have thought anything of it, but yesterday it was terrible for me. I don't know if it was just me, but it seemed like the longer the meeting went, the louder the room got, and the noise was oppressive. To make it worse, I felt a constant pressure pushing in on me. It was like I was being compressed and I could hardly breathe. Sunday School wasn't quite as bad as it was a smaller group in the gym, but it was still hard. I had to leave Relief Society early (which was a huge relief) because Tyler was giving a talk in Primary, but the primary room almost did me in completely. I was a mess by the time we got home. Even in smaller gatherings this week, I had a very difficult time being in large groups. At a movie night with some women in the ward, I couldn't sit in a room with 10 other women to watch a movie. It was too confined with too many people. Anxiety is a completely new experience for me, and I do not enjoy it at all. Add in that this is the most depressed I think I've ever felt, and you can guess I'm pretty miserable right now.

In general I think antidepressants are a great thing and a much needed help for a lot of people, but I don't think it's what I need, at least not right now. Fortunately I have an appointment this afternoon to talk to my doctor about this. Hopefully I come back with good news!


UPDATE:
Of course my doctor immediately took me off the offending medication I was on. She was amazed I stayed as long as I did on it. She'd never seen it cause anxiety to the degree I had it. It is a known side effect of the drug, but a very very rare one. She's given me something new to try instead, but is starting me on just half a dose for now. It'll also take a few days to come down off the old medication, but within a week I should be feeling MUCH better. If I don't, she wants to see me again. I didn't sleep quite as well on the new medication, but I woke up already feeling a bit less anxiety. Not a lot, but some. And every little bit helps. And once the old medication is out of my system, I can increase my new one to a full dose if I'm not sleeping enough. So things should be getting much better!

By request

A few pics from Pearls and Gloves:

This is me with Melody, holding the carebear that represented Deborah.

Mel is quite talented at self portraits. :)

We took off our gloves to eat dinner.

I thought this was pretty cool...

Last night's Enrichment night had something so cool, I had to tell y'all about it.

One thing I don't have in my emergency supplies is a way to cook. I don't even have a camp stove. Last night I learned about a really simple and easy way to solve that problem. You need just 4 things; an empty gallon size paint can, an empty quart size paint can, a quart of rubbing alcohol, and a roll of toilet paper. You smush the toilet paper to get it through the hole in the smaller paint can, then pour the entire bottle of rubbing alcohol into it. It'll take a little time for the toilet paper to absorb it, but it will take the entire bottle of alcohol. You then seal the paint can. Punch holes in the larger can around the top and bottom (for ventilation) then seal the smaller can inside the larger one. When it comes time to use it, open up both cans, put the smaller can onto the lid of the larger can, light the alcohol, then cover it with the larger can to give you a cooking surface. Apparently it's hot enough to boil water within half an hour. The heat coming through the holes punched in it is enough to warm you, and to roast pretty much anything you might toast over a fire. It lasts 6-8 hours, and can be replenished just by adding more rubbing alcohol. How easy is that? And if you have the storage space for just a can of paint, you have a makeshift stove!

Great weekend!

It would be silly for me to not blog about my weekend. It was great!

First off, this is just a silly thing, but it was important to me. In my piano lessons, we've been working on Fur Elise. There are two parts that have been giving me trouble, but this week Ashton was able to walk me through one of them, and in practicing the other with him there, I was able to figure out what I was doing wrong on the other one! I'm still not anywhere close to perfect, but at least I know what I've been doing wrong and can try to correct it. I love when a light bulb goes on in my head like that! That's my fizzy joy for this post.

My main event for the weekend was going out to a play with some friends. My friend Melody started a little group she calls Pearls and Gloves. We dress in black dresses and wear (you guessed it) pearls and gloves and go see local plays. The plan is to do a combination of full blown professional stuff in Seattle and smaller local stuff, but the idea is to support the theater. We had our very first outing Saturday night. We went to Everett to see a local production of Guys and Dolls. How is it I've never even seen this movie? How did I not know A Bushel and a Peck was from this musical? or Luck be a Lady? They're songs I grew up with and yet never knew their origins. Our night out was so much fun! Our original dinner plans ended up not working (Wait, we're in Everett? We passed Lynwood??) so we went to Olive Garden to eat. The food was excellent. The play itself was very well done. I was impressed. The actress playing Sarah Brown seemed a touch old for the roll, but she sang VERY well. We got pelted with eggs (plastic ones with candy or dice in them) and the band came walking down the stairs through the audience. It was well cast, well acted, and well sung. Overall I was impressed. We're planning on returning to that theater to see Annie in February. But our next definite outing will be Into the Woods at the 5th Ave. Theater in Seattle in November. As good as all of that was, really the best part was the company. This is a remarkable group of women and I am incredibly lucky to count them as friends. We had such a great time mostly because of each other! (But we REALLY missed Deborah who had a family medical emergency and couldn't make it.) Ok, that's my other fizzy joy for this post. :D

Then came Sunday. For just the third time in my life, I was asked to substitute for Relief Society. (I was also asked 3 separate times to substitute in Primary this week alone as well!) Normally that's something I like to do, but this time I was STRESSED over it. I didn't have the time I needed to prepare the way I wanted. Right before Relief Society was supposed to start, you would have found me pacing the halls shaking like a leaf. I can't remember ever being that nervous before! Fortunately it went well. The women seemed responsive, asked good questions, and made insightful remarks. It was a great lesson. But I came home absolutely exhausted!

That was my fantastic weekend. :)

Where are my sisters?? None of them have been on in forever!