Friday, February 22, 2008

About this time...

About this time 10 years ago, I was pregnant with Jax and on bed rest due to preterm labour. The day I went into preterm labour, Stephen was in Waterloo, Ontario interviewing for a job. Fortunately, my oldest brother and his family had driven in from the Chicago-area to visit for the weekend and my SIL took me to the hospital where they were able to stop labour. I was later able to go back to work 1/2 days until two weeks before Jax was born before I went on full bed rest again.

About this time 9 years ago, Stephen had flown from Minneapolis to Seattle to interview for a job. He treated it more as him interviewing them rather than them interviewing him (is that grammatically correct?). The day of the interview the sun shone here for the first time in 90 days. He went golfing the next day and decided he would not mind living here so we moved a few months later.

About this time 8 years ago, we were enjoying our first winter in the Pacific Northwest and I was pregnant with Dex. The rain did not bother me. The sun actually did shine from time to time (unlike the year before apparently) and we had one snowfall that was melted before noon. How could you hate winter living here?

About this time 7 years ago, I was weaning Dex in preparation to fly to Minneapolis for my friend, DeniSe's wedding. I also was putting off some surgery because I wanted to wait until after the wedding. I had contacted "The Oprah Winfrey Show" about following my passion and they wanted to me to fly to Chicago to be on the show and they asked me to reschedule the surgery to do so. Uh, no because there was a chance I had cancer and I was not going to put the surgery off to appear on the show. In the end I was featured in a "letters" segment (Link here courtesy of db#2). I also experienced my first earthquake then.

About this time 6 years ago, life was good. Jax had started preschool and I had a newly expanded group of friends (moms of the other kids in his class). I was losing weight and get fit again because watching all of the people rushing out of Manhattan on September 11, 2001 scared the shit out of me when I realized that I was so unfit and would not be able to do the same to save myself or my children should something like that happen here.

About this time 5 years ago, I was pregnant with Cars. I was experiencing some bleeding and I went to the emergency room. They told me I had miscarried my baby. Stephen and I sat in stunned silence for two hours while we waited for an ultrasound to confirm the miscarriage. The technician gasped when she saw a live baby bouncing around on the monitor. I think hearing her say "look at your baby jumping around in there!" was probably one of the most joyful moments of my life.

About this time 4 years ago, I was suffering from PPD. Life was bleak despite my three wonderful children. Stephen took his month paternity leave which we were "saving" until the summer. I needed help. I was going to see my crazy doctor on a weekly basis and felt like a failure. We went to Florida on vacation and the change of scenery did help (as did the sunshine and warmth).

About this time 3 years ago, we were updating our bathroom. Well, "we" were paying Handyman to do the actual work. As usual, I was having a hard time making decisions which stretched this project for weeks and weeks and weeks. I was also on the verge of turning *40* and celebrating the event with a girls' trip to Vegas. Wow - has it been three years already?

About this time 2 years ago, life was busy. I was teaching art in both Jax and Dex's classes. Nanny was still coming on Fridays and I quit going to see my Crazy Doctor. I guess I was no longer crazy.

About this time last year, Cars was in preschool and I actually had 5 hours to myself that I did not have to pay for (ok, we were paying for preschool but on the whole, it was much cheaper than paying Nanny). And opposed to not feeling crazy anymore, I really felt "normal" again. I recognize in myself that I do not handle stress well and I do a lot (by not doing a lot) to keep stress in my life at a minimum. Sometimes I realize that I am missing out on a lot of experiences because the fear of stress and what it ensues holds me back. ~shrug~ Still trying to decide if I am ok with that or not.

Oh, and P.S. About this time last year was also the birth of Cosmo Fridays. :)

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