Changes and Updates

I changed the blog template, and I think that the old one is lost forever (Blogger no longer supports it).  So, I'm trying to find something I like.  Of course, I've now spent hours fiddling with the blog, moving pictures around, fixing things.  So much for the blog being a time-saving alternative to a scrapbook.  Did I ever mention that I've decided that the purpose of my blog is an online scrapbook, because I will quite likely never get around to creating paper ones?  Yep.  I'm working on being honest with myself.

While I'm being honest with myself, I really do need to learn HTML. The Blogger editor is driving me crazy.

Here are some posts that I backdated, that you might have missed:

3/26/11 Happy Birthday Gary
4/1/11  Autism Blue
4/8/11  Pinewood Derby
4/8/11 Another One Gone
4/23/11 Easter Eggs

As you can see, I am so far behind, it's not even funny!  But I've been messing with the blog for for over 6 hours now (!!) and it needs to stop.  I'm off to hop on the bike and get some exercise.  Happy reading!

Saving the Fish, an unintended novella

As often happens, Sunday was a long church day.  There was a Ward Council meeting before church began.  After Sacrament meeting, I reviewed Girls' Camp finances with the Bishop and Ward Clerk instead of (a) going to Sunday School, where I technically should have been, or (b) preparing my lesson for the third hour youth class, which I should have done in advance, but didn't.

With the financial issues mostly hammered out, I was feeling okay about completely winging my lesson for the young women.  Running late, I met up with Gary in the hallway, who passed me some much-needed Advil - the previous day's fundraiser had taken a toll on me.  As I neared the drinking fountain, pills in hand, the Bishop caught up with me, and informed me that the Stake President, who was visiting that day, wanted to sit in on my class.

Side note: I've written about my girls before, and how much I love them. They are many things - wonderful, smart, kind, caring, fun-loving - but the one thing they are NOT is reverent.  It's usually a pretty noisy, boisterous lesson.  Normally when I teach, I've prepared well enough that when they go off-topic, I can bring them back.  This was not one of those times; I was expecting a messy, unorganized free-for-all.  And now, it would be witnessed by the Stake President.

My eyes widened, and I stared at the Bishop in horror.  When I confessed that I was completely unprepared for the lesson, he just chuckled and said "You can handle it, Sister Poulsen.  I've seen you teach those girls."  I must have looked unconvinced, because he continued, "Just take those Advil and get in there.  It will work out fine."

The purpose of this post really isn't to talk about my lesson (or even church), so I won't go into detail, except to say that, while rocky, the lesson did go well, and the Stake President showed no outward signs of horror.  I tend to forget that he is also a parent of teenagers, so he understands.

After church ended, the rest of my family left, and I stayed behind to finish up on some of the financial stuff, as well as talk with several people.  When I finally got into the car an hour later, I was starving... and had forgotten to pack a protein bar.  Gary called, and promised to put eggrolls in the oven.  I salivated the whole half-hour drive home while planning an afternoon of relaxation with the newspaper - maybe even a nap.

As soon as I walked in the door, Sarah told me that her fish water was really foggy.  Heading over to her, I saw that it was murky beyond description, with two very unhappy goldfish trying their best not to move near the bottom of the tank.  The filter had stopped working.

As this was the third filter that had quit on us in the last two years, I was pretty frustrated, but moved quickly into "save the fish" mode.  I know we are living on borrowed time with these Wal-Mart goldfish, but - heaven help me - I'm not letting them go without a fight.

Ordinarily when I clean, I leave the fish in the tank, and do a partial water change.  Because this wasn't an option, I quickly grabbed the fish net and transferred the fish into a goldfish bowl filled with fresh water.  If fish made noise, their sighs of relief would have been instantaneous.  They looked much happier, and I relaxed.  A fish funeral had been avoided.

For most people, this would be a logical pause point. Goldie and Nemo were safe, swimming in their bowl; the life-threatening urgency is gone.  There's enough time for the person who has gone without eating for the last 6 1/2 hours to get some lunch, right?  Not if Sarah is your taskmaster!

Sarah doesn't handle it well when things go wrong, and she was dangerously close to a full-out meltdown.  But, my blood sugar was low, my decision-making skills impaired, so I risked her wrath anyway.  I headed upstairs to eat, only to find out that the oven hadn't even gotten up to temperature - so no eggrolls yet.  Arrrggh.  Back to the fish.

I started removing the plastic plants, and noticed a lot of uneaten fish food granules.  They were falling like rain from the plastic leaves.  I checked the container of fish food, which normally holds a year's worth of food, and it was almost empty.  Opening the filter top, I quickly realized that the filter motor overheated and died in a valiant attempt to remove insane levels of partially dissolved fish food.

By now the eggrolls were done, and it was time for a quick meal.  Sarah stayed downstairs, worrying and obsessing.  After eating, Gary headed to Wal-Mart to buy a new filter, and I continued the clean-up efforts.  Sarah had some trouble with the trip to the store, as it was Sunday, and we don't go shopping on Sundays to observe the Sabbath.  I told her it was always okay to make exceptions for health emergencies - and her fish needed the filter to get healthy again.  Since this was venturing into "gray" area, she had real trouble with it, but since her beloved fish were involved, she didn't berate us too much.

You might be wondering how so much food ended up in the tank.  Sarah is a rule-follower, and the rule is two tiny pinches per feeding, so she wasn't the primary suspect.  Turns out that Madi was the culprit - for reasons known only to her, she decided to feed her sister's pets a year's worth of food in one swoop.  I think she realized she fed them WAY too much, but knew that confessing would get her in trouble, so she decided to pretend it didn't happen.

Such a valuable life lesson, yet so difficult to learn, even for adults.  Ignoring things doesn't make them go away, and often makes things worse.  To her credit, she immediately offered to help clean the whole tank (once her involvement became obvious), but I wasn't comfortable with that.  Instead, she ended up scrubbing all of the aquarium plants as punishment for causing the almost-disaster.  Thankfully, Sarah went outside to swing and calm down a bit (without prompting from me - progress in self-regulation!), so we were able to continue cleaning without her hovering.

Once the tank was cleaned, refilled, and the new filter installed, I wanted to wait a while before re-introducing the goldfish.  They seemed reasonably happy in their bowl, even though Madi had dumped a bunch of food in there.  (Really??  Did you not learn a thing from the tank adventure?  Leave your sister's pets ALONE.  Go feed the hungry rabbit in the corner!)  This was probably the hardest part for Sarah; I knew the tank needed time to stabilize and the new filter needed time to clean the remaining sediment from the water, but all she could focus on was that her fish were not in their home.

We made it through the day, the fish were put back in the tank, Sarah went to bed, and everyone was still alive in the morning. A success story.

Oh, and all those plans I made for how to spend my Sunday afternoon?  Yeah, right. Welcome to parenting.

Almost Ready...

Well, in the name of training for Pedal & Paddle 2011 (I leave in 15 days), I had my longest bike ride ever* today - 45.95 miles.  My "coach" - the owner of the local bike shop, who I paid for a professional bike fitting complete with training tips - told me that you should always have some rides that are farther than your event distance.  Somehow, I think he meant more than 0.95 miles above the event distance.  Oh well.

The last 5 miles were not pretty - my abs were so exhausted that I was ready to hurl, and I kept asking myself - "WHY do I DO this??"  Giving up wasn't an option - there wasn't anyone to call to come get me - so I just powered through, and was overjoyed to reach my driveway.

I actually felt OK at first; I came inside, downloaded my Garmin data to my laptop (over 2700 calories burned!), had a protein shake, and took a shower.

Then it hit.  Suddenly, my body was having a hard time regulating temperature, and I got the shakes.  I laid down in bed, and instantly fell asleep.  The brief nap helped, but I still ended up overdressing the rest of the afternoon because I was so cold.  My lungs weren't very happy with me, either - seizing up every time I took a deep breath - but I expected that (damage from a bout of pneumonia in my teens).  I was starving, but my intestines were so overworked they couldn't handle much more than toast.

I am not optimistic regarding the 45 mile ride in two weeks - it's a much hillier course than what I rode today, and I don't think I have time in my schedule to get in another super-long distance ride.  I better pray for an extra helping of that "mental toughness" my high school track coach used to preach about.  That, and some new bike shorts, extra padding.  :)

*I believe that, in my teens, I did at least one 50+ mile ride, but that was in the days before computers, when distance was calculated by actually reading a map.  Needless to say, it was long enough ago that I don't recall any details.  So let's just say that 45.95 miles is my longest ride ever.

Awesome Bumper Sticker

Isn't that the truth?

Last Day

Yesterday was Madilyn's last day of occupational therapy with her therapist Kristin.  Madi made great strides in her year in therapy, and I'm very proud of her!

She and Kristen focused primarily on fine motor skills, with a brief foray into vestibular rehab during Madi's "dizzy period".  Kristen successfully taught Madilyn many things that are normally under the parenting umbrella - like shoe tying, buttons, snaps, etc.  I comfort myself that, if I can't teach my kids these things, at least I hire someone to do it for me!

Madi and I are are both super grateful for Kristen and all she's done.  Madi is really going to miss her time at therapy, but at least now she's free to go hiking the trails with Mom while Sarah continues with her therapy sessions.

Walking home

Here are some pics from yesterday; Sarah actually agreed to walk with me to meet Madi as she walked home.

When will this girl stop growing??  I guess that's what happens when you have a tall dad...

Ah, the pose.  We're getting to the drama age.

And this is why the walk home took so long.  The girl simply cannot leave a dandelion unpicked.  :)

By the way, has anyone ever tried to explain the life cycle of dandelions to an insistent child who refuses to give up or accept "I don't know"?  She just wasn't getting how the flowers turn to the fluff, and - to be totally honest - I didn't exactly know.  We found lots of blooms, and lots of puff balls, but nothing in between.  I had to google it to find out what happens.

For the record, the bloom closes up, the yellow turns to white, and it opens back up into the puff ball that all kids love and all adults (with lawns) fear.  I still don't know much more than that.

Trouble with Reverence

Last night, immediately after saying her prayer, Madi picked up a (soft) toy and threw it at her sister's head, bonking her square in the forehead.

Me: "Madi!  That wasn't nice!  Would Jesus do that?"
Madi:  "NO!  But He didn't have a sister with autism!!"

Sigh.

Sarah was being pretty disruptive during the prayer, and sometimes I really struggle with how much patience I should expect from someone who's 9, when I'm often equally exasperated.