It's the first day of First Grade! Wini is sporting a new haircut. Her hair is so thick, it lays a couple of inches away from the back of her head! She's lining up for class (she's in front of Juan Carlos - remember him from the house across the street, Emma?).




On the third day of school, Wini got hurt! She got her lunch, but had to go back for her fork and her milk. She was running across the blacktop and tripped on her shoelaces.

She was helped into the nurse and they cleaned her up. When I saw her coming out of class the first thing she said to me was, "I'm okay, mom!" (in a peeved tone of voice). She and her friends rushed over to tell me the important part: when she got out of the nurse's office, her lunch was gone - somebody stole it! (No doubt the yard duty people cleaned it up.) But they gave her another lunch and didn't even mark it on her card, Wini says.



The last Friday before school we went to Bonfante Gardens. I just thought this was a funny picture of Wini in a strawberry.

A few more pictures from our trip to Humboldt Redwoods. For some reason blogger messes up and only gives me one chance to upload. When I try to do it a second time, it bombs out every time, even if I make it a separate entry.

These pictures are from a short 2 mile walk in the redwoods. It was so hot that day, it felt nice and cool to stroll under the shade of these trees. We were trying to memorize the stats on the Founders Tree because at the nightly campfires, if you could answer a question you won a free bag of firewood. Wini did win a bag, but I don't think it was on the Founders tree...maybe she'll remember what the question was she answered.







This last picture is of a very tall tree that crashed in the 90's. It was over a thousand years old, and it was so loud that a neighbor across the valley thought there had been a train wreck. They found mud splattered on neighboring trees almost a hundred feet up.

Wini is doing the yoga "tree" pose. Nick is just being Nick.

More Camping Pics

Yikes, blogger is having fits again, I'm just going to post these before I lose them!

A Few Pics from Camping

Blogger is having fits this morning, and I lost a few pictures I had uploaded, but these ones seem to have stuck so I'll try again another day.

Anyway, we enjoyed a lovely week camping in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Wini had a great time learning to be a Jr. Ranger and racked up an impressive 2 pins, 1 metal badge, and a sticker for her efforts. She's technically a year too young, so I was required to sit in on the sessions. I learned a heck of a lot about salmon.

These first pictures are actually in Eureka at the Carson Manor, where there were a couple of geocaches. The picture of me with the freeway overpass in the background is actually a bridge to a little island across from the harbor. Nick took that photo because I biked over the bridge. It was a bit nerve-wracking with the freeway traffic next to me and only a foot and a half of shoulder!




The frogs were everywhere at this pond in Leggett, CA. I had more pictures from here that inexplicably didn't show up.


Right next to our campground, a set of grandparents were camped with their granddaughter. What a perfect set-up for both families! Wini and her new friend, who is appropriately named Sequoia, had a fantastic time playing together all week. There was a redwood tree stump between our camps that became their super-secret fort, since the adults couldn't climb up there like they could. (I think by the end of the week Nick made it in there, so I'll give him props.) The stump had footholds cut into it made by the original lumberjacks who cut down the tree 100 years ago. For some reason, they seemed to cut down these trees about 10' above the ground, so they had to climb up a bit before they could start sawing.


This is Wini and Sequoia. Notice Wini's long face? This was the morning that Sequoia left, one day before us.

Some Recent Pics

This is tap.

This is hip-hop.

This is Wini about to be "promoted" to first grade with the wave of Mrs. B's magic wand.


Here's the magical moment.

Here's what happens when you give the 6-year-old the camera: she turns it on herself.



Here's Nick with my new bike.
Here I am on the new bike.


And here's Wini and her friend Chelsea picking Olliaberries.

What with school ending, ice skating lessons finishing up, a dance recital, Girl Scouts earning their last petal, field trips, park days, final tests -- argh! Nick and I looked at our calendars and decided to chuck it all and get away for the weekend. We had heard about a county park near us that doesn't require reservations to camp, which is unheard of in the California state park system. It turned out to be just over the hills from us. I was shocked to see that it was only three streets away from our house, in fact!

Memorial Park is nestled on the western slopes of the Santa Cruz mountains. The park was dedicated in 1924 to honor San Mateo County's soldiers that died in foreign wars. These days, while there is a memorial grove near the entrance to the park, the rest of the acreage is given over to camping sites and hiking trails. Pescadero creek runs through park, and after this winter and spring's massive rains the swimming hole was temptingly full. It's a shame that the temperature hovered around 60 degrees, even mid-day! It looks like in the past they would dam up the creek and make a swimming pool; the concrete structures are still present, but since the creek is home to endangered Steelhead trout, the creek is allowed to flow freely.

Looking at a map of coastal redwoods, it just hit home how lucky we are to live so close to these magnificent trees. Redwood forests are so incredibly magical. My personal theory on why these trees feel so special is that they grow in rings, and this small bit of organization in an otherwise incomprehensible pattern feels like a connection. It's not just random trees in a forest, it's clusters of incredibly tall cathedrals of wood. My daughter calls them "fairy rings." There's a peaceful hush in the redwoods because the needles make a dampening carpet on the forest floor. There's not a lot of underbrush to distract the eye; just some ferns in the wetter areas.

And these wonderful trees only get as far south as Santa Cruz. I feel so blessed to find tranquility just over the hill from my house. It's something that I don't want my daughter to take for granted. I want her to feel a connection to nature beyond just what plants are landscaped in a city park.

So I'm rambling on here...

We arrived Friday night and set up camp. Wini was thrilled to find we were sharing the campsite with a 9" banana slug. I won't bore you with slug stories, so I'll just get it out of the way: by the end of the week we had seen about 50 banana slugs, and that is NOT hyperbole. The slugs are having a great year. Ever open up your campsite cabinet to find a banana slug on the top shelf next to the matches? Cripes! They lose their charm quickly.

Wini had been watching Zoom last week and they made tinfoil dinners - does anyone remember these? You chop up a bunch of ingredients and let each diner make their own creation. This was perfect for my diet. I was able to load mine up with veggies, while my daughter's main ingredient was ketchup. I had forgotten about tinfoil dinners, but it was delicious and diet-friendly. We ended up having them two nights in a row.

Saturday, we nabbed a new geocache and actually were the first ones to find it (a bit of a contest to geocachers). It was our first FTF so we were jazzed! We headed off to the tiny town of Pescadero to do a multi-cache that was basically a walking tour of the town. It was a beautiful day to stroll through Pescadero. Any day that we get to meet a roly-poly kitten is a great day in my book. Wini and I played checkers on a giant checkerboard in one of the town's local hangouts. We didn't get the Pescadero cache, though. Rats!

Heading back to camp, we found crafts going on at the visitor's center. We hiked a little in the park, but were foiled by the creek. Apparently, they put out foot bridges during the summer months...for now, it's ford knee deep icy water or turn back. I was hoping to get a good hike in, and we just couldn't make it happen. We were happy to relax and enjoy the campfire program.

Sunday we did manage to hike. Yahoo! We did a two-hour, 1.6 mile hike that was straight up Mt. Ellen. Distance-wise it doesn't sound like much, but it got the heart pumping. There is always a challenge in getting a 6-year-old to hike up anything - how is it they can be bounding around with limitless energy but when it comes to walking up a hill, their feet morph into lumps of lead? Luckily, we have a hiking secret: a bag of M&M's that surfaces when the whining gets out of control. That bag may get waved around, but it does NOT get opened until we are all the way to the top. Although it was hazy and foggy all morning, the sun came out just as we hit a viewing area near the top of the summit, making us feel like we were in the right place at just the right time. I saw a horned owl fluffing out his feathers and grooming until he noticed me and skedaddled. The trail was littered with banana slugs, who look a lot like the yellow bay leaves on the trail. I'm amazed that we didn't step on any, actually. The highlight of the day for Wini was when she found a butterfly in the path, and he crawled on her hand for a "visit."

Ice Skating at Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, CA

This picture is a little older, but it was from a Girl Scout ice skating event so I had it in the same folder. The girls made cards to send to soldiers in Iraq.

Goodbye, Benezepril!

True story: cardiologist's nurses are sneaks. They say they will stop the treadmill as soon as you tell them to, and then they go ahead and add in another blood pressure reading and kind of egg you on just to make sure you're really and truly on the verge of a heart attack before stopping the machine. Maybe I'm old school, but when I'm instructed to go until I absolutely can't anymore, that's what I do. So I was a little panicky when I did just that, and the nurse added another 30 seconds or so. I thought I was going to go flying off the back of the machine, hospital gown a'flappin'. Or worse, get yanked back because I was wired up in a dozen places.

So from this you can gather that I went to the cardiologist. They had told me over the phone it was a simple, resting ultrasound of my heart. When I got there, they said I needed a stress test on the treadmill, too. Fine by me, but I would have worn sweats instead of jeans if they'd told me that in the first place. At least I was wearing decent shoes.

They did the ultrasound, and took my blood pressure in all sorts of positions -- on my back, my side, standing, standing on my head. Well, that's an exaggeration, but when you factor in that they took it in each arm each time, it was a lot of measuring. The ultrasound was while I was resting on my left side on a puffy mattress. It takes a while, and it's silent, and so soft and relaxing...I nearly drifted off for a bit. My resting heart rate seemed to fluctuate between 50 and 80. Strange!

Then came the treadmill. Now, I've been going to the gym a minimum of 3 times a week, and even on days I don't go I try to do cardio from a tape. So I wasn't worried about a test they told me that would take between 6 and 12 minutes on the treadmill. It took longer to wire me up. But here's the thing: the lowest setting is a very, very brisk walk at a noticeable incline. The machine just said "level 1" but I would estimate the incline to be the equivalent of about a 6 on the gym machine. First three minutes were brisk, but I didn't break a sweat or get out of breath. Then the intensity went up - incline about 9, speed probably about a 3. Just below jogging. After a minute my legs were really feeling it, and I was definitely sweating! At 6 minutes, it jumped up again. This was incredibly fast, incredibly steep. I was holding onto the bar to keep from slipping backwards. About 20 seconds in, I gasped out that I was done. The nurse took another blood pressure reading (argh!) and I gasped it out again, barely able to speak: "I'm done!" She replied back coyly, "Are you suuuuure?" "@#$*%)% YES I'M DONE!" is what I wanted to scream, but luckily I was too out of breath to cuss. They finally cut the power and I dutifully jumped back on the bed to have my second ultrasound. I was sweating buckets. My highest heart rate was 170! Can you believe that?

Dad's comment when I told him about it afterwards was, "Now you see why people have heart attacks during those tests sometimes." Um, yeah. Part of my high heartrate was panic, I'm sure, when they didn't stop the machine like they told me they would. Holy moly!

The good news is....everything checked out fine and healthy! The whole reason I was referred to the cardiologist is that I fainted a little over a week ago, and I've been lightheaded. The cardiologist reviewed my test, I talked to him about losing weight, the medications I'm on. He took my blood pressure too (also on both sides) and found that I was at 108 over...something. Seriously, he only took the first number. (Too cool for diastolic, I guess. On the systolic tip, y'all, fo shizzle!) He looked at the blood tests I've done to find out why I've been dizzy, and told me to stop taking the blood pressure medication. Hurray! I've been on it for about 3 years, and I've lost enough weight to leave it behind!


I tried to find a picture of a stress test, but all the ones I could find are like this one. Yes, ostensibly it's correct - the guy is on a treadmill with a blood pressure cuff on, attended by a friendly-looking technician in a crisp white coat. A more accurate picture would have him in a hospital gown open in the front with a plethora of electronics strapped to him; he'd be pitched at a steep incline; he'd be holding onto that bar for dear life while sweat poured off his face; and most of all, he would NOT be smiling. The technician would be holding a pitchfork and making comments about the amazing athleticism of the Bay to Breakers runners while the test subject enjoyed the simulated experience of trying to outrun a bear straight up a cliff. But other than those piddly details, that's what a stress test looks like.

Wini won a basket in a school raffle this past Friday. First of all, this was a fundraiser called "Pasta Night." I decided to support the fundraiser by helping with the ticket sales before the night and cleanup afterwards instead of actually eating pasta. Nick and Wini went to the actual dinner without me, and I caught up with them after dinner when everyone was waiting for the raffle draw.

It's so tough on the kindergarteners because they put in their tickets, but they don't quite grasp that if 250 kids put in a ticket to win a box of 5000 stickers (I'm not joking) that it's not likely they will win it. Both Wini and her little best friend Emma had long faces as the night went on, and the baskets were running out.

Then Wini's name was pulled - she was ecstatic! She ran up, and Emma, who had been sitting next to her, burst into tears. It's one of those life lessons, but you hate to see it.

And I wish they hadn't pulled her name, because it was a confusing hodgepodge of knickknacks like someone had cleaned out their garage. I know that the basket our room contributed had tickets to a day spa, some restaurants, a foot massager, all this cool stuff. It was worth $480. The basket we won had a buddha statue, candles, a stick of incense, some "crystal" roses (one of which was broken and had been taped back together, so whoever made the basket knew it was broken), coupons for $1 off at Quiznos, some orange juice coupons, some party novelty crap that you find in kids' goodie bags, and a whole bunch of fake pearl clip on earrings. What the hey? Oh, and this was the kicker for the diabetic on a diet: an entire case of butter cookies. Not a box, not 5 boxes, but 12, 2-lb. boxes of cookies. That's just peachy, isn't it?

There were also supposed to be a few items worth some money, like a $50 OSH certificate and some Visa gift cards. Suspiciously, they weren't in the basket. I called the woman in charge of the event and she investigated: apparently the mom who had assembled the basket "forgot" to put them in. Really, you have to wonder what this world is coming to. Did she think whoever won the basket would not want the only prizes in there worth something? The event was last Friday, and the certificates have yet to appear. Hmmm.

Other random stuff in the basket: a $500 coupon toward a weekly rental at this place: "Howden Castle." Sounds great, until you find out that it's $2000 a week to rent. Okay, so you get a bunch of friends together and go in on it, right? It only has 3 bedrooms, and sleeps 8. So basically if (say) the Lafferties joined us, that would fill it to capacity, and it would cost us $750. Now if it were in Scotland, or at the beach, or near a ski area, I would be thrilled -- but it's in the Santa Cruz mountains about 45 minutes away, right on the highway. So I don't think I'll be using it anytime soon.

So...the plot thickens. Wini was talking about the raffle after school, and she put a lot of emphasis on how it was so cool that her friend Clare drew her name out of the bowl. Drew her name. Not her ticket. I asked her if she thought Clare read her name on the ticket, and she just shrugged and said, "I don't know."

Here's how they did the drawings: people had put their tickets into an 8.5x11" envelope that was taped onto the basket they were bidding on. A PTA member emptied the envelope into a large bowl, and handed it to the principal. The principal held the bowl at waist height and had a kid draw a ticket out from the bowl. It was not above the kids' heads, they were standing, so it was about chest level for the kid pulling the ticket. It would have been simple for Wini's friend to see her name and grab her ticket. Apparently, last year's winners were mostly people running the event, and after complaints, they changed it from another PTA member drawing the ticket to letting kids draw the ticket. All in all there were about 50 prizes given away, from the big baskets to individual prizes like gift certificates at restaurants.

So, maybe that's all part of the process, right? Some kids might look, but it wasn't like they were digging around in there for a long time looking for a particular ticket. But the weird thing was that there were definitely people who won repeatedly. And there were a couple of cases where the kid pulling the ticket pulled his own name or his family's name. Then we come to find out that a mom who won a couple of big prizes is saying that she crumples or folds her tickets - the same person whose son drew her name for a big prize. It puts a whole new spin on everything.

Well, it was an unexpected windfall. The raffle ticket was for a good cause, and Wini loves the actual physical basket. That's something, I guess!

I Heart Camping

Boring medical stuff: I've been getting lightheaded, dizzy, and tired in the afternoons, and the doctor told me to call her if it got worse. Thursday, it did. I exercised, did my phone interviews, then leapt out of my chair to stretch...only to feel all my muscles cut out and the world to go black. I came too sort of slumped back in my chair - turns out Nick was walking toward me, saw me starting to crumble and caught me before I hit the floor.

I'm really sick of feeling dizzy at odd moments, but this was too much! I called my doctor, and it took a couple of hours to get through. In the meantime, Wini had a doctor's appointment, so I asked the nurses there to take my vitals. My bp was 120/70 and everything looked normal - no funny heartbeat, no anemic symptoms, nothing. I just felt dizzy!

My doctor wanted me to come in for an EKG, and gave me the choice of going in on Friday with a different doctor or waiting until Monday, when she would be back. I don't feel anything heart-related, so I decided to wait until Monday because we had a camping trip to Big Basin scheduled.

So...I went camping. We had a fabulous time! Saturday, we hiked about 4 1/2 miles and went after 3 geocaches on the trail. We ended up taking a wrong turn, ended up on the wrong side of one mountain, and had to take a fire road up to the top and come around on a high ridge to get back to our original geocache destination. It added two miles to the trip, but we really wanted that geocache! The connecting ridge was a very narrow trail right on the side of a very steep slope. All the roots and rocks in the trail made it very bumpy, and it occurred to me that this would be the worst place to have a dizzy spell, except for maybe being behind the wheel. But my head stayed clear the entire time. It was a little nervewracking with Wini along, though! Nick held her hand and kept her on the inside of the trail, and there were parts where we had to hand her down. Definitely it was not the trail we would have chosen if we'd known!

Here we are at the top of the pass:



And here we are with geocache in hand. Yes!



It was a wonderful weekend, and the perfect Mother's Day. Sunday I woke up to find that Wini and Nick had hung a project they had made for me from the roof of tent so that I saw it first thing. We made pancakes with bananas, turkey bacon and coffee. What a relaxing weekend, and I really didn't want to go home.

Monday, I went in for the EKG, and everything showed completely normal. She did some tests on my inner ear, and took my blood pressure in various positions. It does drop about 20 points from when I'm seated when I stand up. Since I'm a diabetic, my doctor asked me to see a cardiologist to rule out the possibility of a problem that she can't detect with a simple EKG, so next Monday I go in for an echocardiogram, which apparently is some sort of ultrasound procedure.

I really don't think my heart is the culprit in this case. It doesn't seem to hit when I'm exercising or putting strain on my heart, it just seems to hit in the afternoon regardless of what I'm doing. I don't mind going in for extra testing, though - as long as my insurance pays for it. If there is some sort of heart problem, I'd rather know about it and try to work on it than be surprised when it's too late.

More pics! These are from Wini's birthday party. The red boat lives at grandma & grandpa Kibre's.












Can you believe this was a month ago?