Trip to China

So, below is an example of the type of communication I have with my husband when he is out of the country. A man of few words, no? (Note: this is actually the longer of the two emails that I received from him during his trip. The first was a blank message with the subject line "Made it to china".)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gary Poulsen <ggpoulsen@gmail.com>
Date: Thu,Jan 14, 2010 at 7:27 PM
Subject: Boarding flight 9:50am
To: Laura Poulsen <lmpoulsen@gmail.com>

Flight looks good, bought slippers for Sarah and glass globe like snow globe for madi.

Madilyn had asked for a snow globe, so I figured he was on track with
that one, but I was very worried because I pictured embroidered
Chinese slippers for Sarah, and thought... what is he thinking?? She
hates wearing slippers!

Well, he was a hit when he got home, because these were the gifts he brought:

Super cool glass globe that spins on its base. Madilyn had asked for a snow globe with the great wall of China in it (?? where do they come up with these ideas??) and this is pretty near perfect. Madilyn was unconcerned about the lack of snow; I thought it looked classier this way.

Panda slippers! Sarah, the girl who hates wearing things on her feet, wears these things constantly. She rocks the panda slippers.

Funny of the day

Wonder if the same can happen with laughing, which I did upon seeing this...

On my skis again - finally!

So in December it finally snowed enough for some cross country skiing around here, and so I promptly left town for two weeks for the holidays. During that time, I was tortured by my BFF's constant posts on Facebook about her skiing adventures with her family. Fueled by envy, I came back to town, determined to strap on the skis and head out... only to be faced with bone-chilling temperatures. Even I am not crazy enough to ski when it's -20 outside.

But today! Finally! I (unintentionally) tore my way-too-dedicated-to-her-studies friend Kate away from her books by declaring that I was going skiing solo. In retrospect, I should have known that she was too much of a worrier to let me go alone, but I guess I was a bit stir-crazy... Anyway, she introduced me to a new local place, Pine Point Park Reserve.

Trails were great, and we had an awesome time! It does bother me a bit that she is able to talk non-stop while we ski, while I struggle to keep my breathing even, but hopefully by the end of the season I will have gotten in better shape, and our treks will be a workout for both of us. For now, I'm grateful that she considers me good company.

Here's us before the final downhill. I must say that there were a couple of downhills where I gained enough speed and momentum to solidify my resolve to NEVER go downhill skiing. If I ended up on my posterior in a snowbank at such low speeds, I can only imagine the horrific snowball I'd make on an actual slope. I'm sticking with the Nordic, thank you.

Word of the day: Drap

Coined by Sarah, "drap" is an expression of frustration derived from "drat" (when Mom is in a fairly good mood) and "crap" (when Mom is rapidly losing control).

First known usage: Mom backing her car down an exceptionally narrow shovelled driveway and zigging when she should have zagged. Mom stayed silent, but a loud "DRAP!" issued from the backseat upon low-speed impact with the snowbank.

Disclaimer: No Saabs were harmed during the creation of this word.

Costco: Hot and melty

I was leaving Costco tonight when I spied something that literally took my breath away - a smoking hot, cherry red 2010 Camaro parked by the Member Services desk. (For those of you unfamiliar with Costco, they have agreements with dealerships through which members can get new vehicle discounts, and so often have a car parked inside advertising their program.)

I've long had a soft spot for Camaros, but with this incarnation...oh wow. Chevy knocked it out of the park. Although I am ten times more likely to actually purchase a Chevy Volt, when I saw this beauty my insides melted and I immediately visualized speeding along, sun shining, windows down, wind whipping my hair, with Nickelback's "Far Away" blasting from the stereo. Pure heaven. There must be Camaros in heaven, right?

But reality intervened, my feet kept moving, and I soon found myself out in the dark, icy, 10 degree parking lot, trying to stuff all my kid-related purchases into the back of my too-small Saab. I can't even imagine how a Camaro could fit into my life, but what a nice dream. Sigh.



(and yes, I really am that car-obsessed. I grew up in Detroit. It's more than just transportation.)

Normal??

Well, today I had a visit with my physical therapist. After taking my measurements, she announced "Hey! You're normal!", after which we both had a hearty laugh, because even though I only see her a few times a month, she knows that I am anything but.

Actually, what she meant was that my crooked hips and tweaked torso have actually come back into (almost) alignment. I do feel better, and now know what to do when I start to get all (physically) out-of-whack. The mental part, well, I'm on my own.

So, she's sent me on my way with ab exercises to strengthen my almost-non-existent ab muscles, so that my freakishly-strong back muscles don't get so worn out from doing all the work.

Although I'm glad that I'm done, I'm going to miss her - she's an awesome physical therapist, not to mention an amazing and funny person. I suspect we would have become friends if we had met outside of therapy... or then again, maybe she just has wicked good people skills. Either way, I enjoyed getting to know her.

Anyway, YAY for me for untwisting myself during the last 7 months!!

Why I Blog

Just for the record, I keep this blog not because I expect people to read it, but because I am SO terrible at remembering things, and want to exercise my writing muscles. Sometimes it helps to be forced to organize your thoughts, and other times it's good to just get something off your chest, even if no one ever reads it.

A blog has the added benefit of documenting long stretches of non-blog-worthy time. When I sit down to write and have nothing to say, it does push me into actually living life, and doing something to write about. Sometimes.

I hope that if anything ever happens to me, my kids can use this to see that yes, their mother actually did have a life, and hopefully, it made a difference.