Birthday Week!

 Just a quick recap of one of our busiest weeks of the year!  The end of January is crazy around here.  This year Miles and Simone turned 18 and 16!  Milestones.

Jared and I had to skip a family trip to Israel earlier this month and that was sad to miss out on seeing his sibling altogether since that doesn't happen too much!  Jared had some flight companion passes we would just lose if we didn't go somewhere.  So we booked a very quick 2 day trip to California for his birthday.  It wasn't enough time and it made me realize it feels like its been awhile since we went somewhere together without kids for more than 2 days.  And we need to do that again soon.

We needed some sun!  Its been so snowy in Utah.  So good for the drought but it does get a little depressing when the sun is rarely out.  So even though this was short, and it wasn't even that warm we loved it.

We went to a couple of delicious restaurants for dinner and breakfast and just relaxed.  We watched the sunset one day and went for a walk at Crystal Cove.  I would love to go back soon and hopefully we will at Spring Break.  We didn't get to do all the things that we were excited about like Pickleball, and sit by the fire pits.  I love being with just him.  Its so easy and uncomplicated and he makes me laugh all the time.  

We flew home the evening of his birthday so we could be back for Simone's 16th birthday the next day!

She and I went early to the DMV and got her drivers license.  She said her palms were sweaty when we were standing in the line and checking off the paperwork.  It was hard for her to sleep and she was just so excited.  Simone values independence so much.  Having to rely on me for rides when I'm already kinda wiped out from taking her to all the climbing practices is tough for both of us.  I'm thrilled that she can drive herself now!  I'm always a little nervous too when my kids start driving.  But I'll get used to it.  She got a cute 2011 car with 4 wheel drive and good gas mileage and we put in a backup camera and she got some new wheels for Christmas and her birthday.  Its going to be a great car I'm sure.  Good for all this snow.

Last night she went to the Preference dance with her friend Ethan!  She had a great time and a really fun group.  I loved the dress she wore.  She's so easy to please!  Simone has been buying and selling clothes on Poshmark and still drilling lots of rocks for her grip a rock business!  Its going great and she is excited to have that job now.  There have been times she wanted to sell it.  But all her friends are getting jobs now and she's realizing how nice it is to have something so flexible.

She had climbing regionals a couple weeks ago and came in third!  She has divisionals soon which is the qualifier for nationals.  So she's excited to start really grinding.  

Miles is 18!  Months ago Jared got Jazz tickets for Miles's birthday.  Two days ago I told him he could bring his friend instead of having me come too.  So I took Soren and friends to the BYU game instead.  There was a school dance and most of his friends were at the dance that night except for this one so it really worked out.  So Miles, Jared, Creighton and Josie got to go.  Now the funniest part is that all these famous rappers were at the game.  Including Travis Scott.  I tried to convince Miles that Travis Scott is no good after the whole Astroworld tragedy but Miles is a big fan.  I honestly couldn't tell you any of this guys songs, but Miles and Monet both love his music and actually wanted to go to a concert at one point.  Anyway, he is probably unknown to older people but he is big time with kids.

After the game everyone was leaving and Jared and everyone kinda got stuck behind so many people it was going to take forever to get out so they just went back to their seats and sat down.  Soon Travis Scott and other rappers were just shooting around and nearly everyone had left.  They worked their way down to  courtside and his friend was yelling to Travis Scott saying "Its his birthday" and soon Travis Scott came over and grabbed Creightons phone and recorded a little b-day shoutout (laced with profanity haha) to Miles. An epic ending for Miles!  

The night before he went out and bought a piano.  We got a Yamaha Clavinova when Soren was a baby so we could turn down the volume when someone wanted to practice.  Miles loves old things and he wanted a "real" piano.  He's been playing quite a bit lately.  So he started looking on KSL, and suddenly I had an old 130 year old Steinway in my living room.  He has plans to have it refinished and fix a couple of the keys and get it tuned.  Fingers crossed.  Lol.  

I'm Going to be a Grandma!

This week I found out I'm going to be a GRANDMA!  What?!  It feels pretty surreal.  I found out on accident.  Elise had a dr appt and sent me a voice recording so I could understand what they were saying.  She forgot that there were a few reference to "growing a baby" in the recording.

When I heard it, at first I thought she must have said she wanted to be pregnant soon.  Like in a few months or whatever.  But then I was like, hmmm that definitely sounded like they are referring to her being pregnant.  So that was when I didn't know if she was trying to tell me something in a round about way and I decided to call her.

She was not trying to tell me, and in fact forgot about those little references.  But now that the secret is out, its so fun!

I've loved talking about baby names and pregnancy symptoms.  The last few months I've been just pining for those cute baby days and feeling like I'm very excited to have a little baby in my life again someday.  But its sooner than I thought!

She is going to have to do some juggling to get school finished.  She was on track to graduate next December but baby is due end of July, early August so that might have to wait.

Still, very excited for her and Ethan to start a little family.  Jared is also so, so excited.  He got right online and ordered them the baby gender kit so hopefully she can find out soon.  They can tell at 6 weeks now just from saliva!  Crazy.

**Update!  I wanted to write this when it was fresh.  But we had to wait for Christmas so they could tell the families!  It was sooo fun to see everyones reactions.**

I'm so glad she accidentally told me.  It was so fun to be able to talk pregnancy and share tips.  And we got to get some cutest little baby clothes for their baby girl!  Its still so early!  She's almost 12 weeks.  Her first appt is in a week or two.

Christmas was so fun!  She gave me a locket, Jared a "Top Papa" t shirt to match Ethan's "Top Dad" t shirt.  We opened the gifts and it was so cute to see the kids response.  Everyone is very excited to have a little baby coming.  

Its going to be a FUN and eventful summer!

I Jinxed It

Well all this year I've been feeling grateful that "at least I don't have vertigo anymore" and then suddenly this past month, I started getting vertigo a ton!  Should have knocked on wood.  

The beginning of December was nearly every day, and then it tapered off for a week or so and started back up again a few times per week.  Luckily its changed the pattern though and it lasts a few hours instead of all day.  So hopefully that part of it doesn't revert back.  It adds an element of unpredictability that is really annoying.  

I WISH I could figure out what my triggers are.  Is it gluten, chocolate, caffeine, smoked meats, artificial sweeteners, etc.  I could go on and on.  Stress?  Sleep? Hormones? Too much exercise?  There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason.  Its so random it is really hard to figure out.  I've read a lot of people's regimens.  

At any rate, I complained to my friends and sisters and was so grateful to get some good leads for ENT's that specialize in Meniere's disease.  My last Dr retired.  

Last year Miles told me, "Mom I was listening to Joe Rogan and Dana White had the same thing you have!"  The funny part of the conversation was that suddenly he was seeing my struggles with this as more legitimate because the president of the UFC has this too.  This is how Dana White described it:

“This thing is indescribable. People can’t deal with it. It drops you. It puts you down. You can’t open your eyes for hours or sometimes days. You have to keep your eyes closed. Every time you open your eyes, you throw up. And it’s pain like you can’t imagine. You start sweating buckets of water. You can’t open your eyes. You curl up into a fetal position for hours or days. You just lay in bed and pray you fall asleep. You want the room as dark as you can get it. I’ve been traveling all over the world for 13 years. I’ve had the flu. I’ve had food poisoning. I’ve had just about everything you can have, and it doesn’t faze me. I just keep going. This thing puts you down.”

Kristin Chenoweth also has Meniere's, and somehow reading about other people who have it does make me feel a little bit validated that I'm not the only one who struggles with the random element of this:

“I don’t want to appear weak,” she admits. “But the older I get, the more I go, ‘I have this, and today might not be the best day,’ and that is very freeing.” Because even a Tony winner has to take five sometimes.

I recently read an article about another musician, Chris Potter that has Meniere's.  

"Around 1997, when he began to play the vertiginous music of Dave Holland, Potter began to experience periodic dizzy spells that came on without warning and lasted for hours. It was diagnosed as Meniere’s Disease, an inner ear condition, and made Potter—who gave the title Vertigo to a 1998 two-tenor date with Joe Lovano, and a Kurt Rosenwinkel-Scott Colley-Billy Drummond collaboration—almost completely deaf in his left ear.

“It was an extremely stressful time, a nightmare both from the stress of, ‘Wow, I’m a musician, and I’m losing hearing,’ and, ‘Okay, I’m a traveling musician, and I have to leave at 5:30 in the morning here to travel from Umbria to Finland, and I can’t even get out of bed because I’m nauseous and the room is spinning,’” Potter says.

“I got treated, had a couple of different surgeries, but I don’t think they really helped. I think the illness took its course, and after a certain point I also realized that I somehow had to take responsibility for it myself. I decided, ‘Okay, I’m going to be cool. This isn’t going to ruin everything. I’ve lost what I’ve lost, but I’m not going to let it stop me.’ I think it’s one of those tests that we all have in various ways at various points of our lives. Something happens that isn’t exactly what you want, and you have to figure out how you want to react to it. These are the things that end up defining who you are, and although I’m not glad it happened, I think I derived some strength out of it in a way that I wouldn’t have without it. It even has its advantages. I put the drums on my left, and I can sleep through stuff.”

So I guess this all makes me feel a little better.  I used to run marathons for fun and I had five babies without pain meds.  I'm not a wimp.  But complaining about my health makes me feel like a wimp.  And making excuses makes me feel like a wimp even if they are valid.  I hate committing to something and not being able to follow through.  I have this weird thing where I feel like people will think I'm faking or something, which is dumb cause I'm not the kind of person that wants to sit in a dark room all day if there is any way not to.  But somehow I still get in my head about it.