High Blood Pressure

So yeah...nothing like feeling really old when your body relies on medication to function properly.  I have high blood pressure. It did not come as a surprise since it is prominent in my family but still. I knew I have had elevated blood pressure for a while but it never occurred to me that it was high until I started having issues and not feeling myself. And it was really high.  Scary high.  150s over 110s.

No wonder I was feeling so off. Ever since January, my heart has been pounding hard when I lay on my left side. I couldn't even sleep on my left side it was so bothersome. I had this constant on-edge feeling.  Like my body was loaded up with caffeine but I don't even consume caffeine. I was starting to think I was having anxiety problems because my mind would race and I couldn't settle my body down. I couldn't sleep. It would take hours to fall asleep and then I would wake up every hour and have a hard time going back to sleep. I was getting 3-4 hours of sleep per night. I dreaded nighttime.

I finally googled some information about my pounding heart and it said it could be from high blood pressure. The next day I went to CVS and took my blood pressure. I made an appointment that day to see a doctor.

I got to have blood work done, a urinalysis, an EKG, a renal ultrasound, and an echocardiogram.  All was normal but I do know now that I have a heart defect called an atrial-septal aneurysm )which has no clinical significance and is just one of those odd things). So I feel really healthy now! And I feel a million times better now that I am on medication. The pounding heart has stopped. The on-edge feeling is gone. I can sleep!

So there you have it. My body is officially deteriorating.

Visitors

Here's another very late update.  Since Grandma and Grandpa Carlson came to visit almost a month ago, I figured I'd share some pictures.  Scott also came to visit too!  We had a great time visiting and Meredith goes nuts when she gets visitors.  I mean nuts.  Oh my word.  When does the crazy stage end?  

Anna did her usual 'scrunch her eyes and bury her head'.  I am beginning to think this is an attention grabbing maneuver because she seems to only do it around 'familiar' people that she doesn't necessarily see every day.  It's cute though.  

This is about the best I could do for a group shot.  Anna is hiding.  

Rich and Mary spent some time down in Iowa and in St. Louis to visit relatives and Greg's uncle Don and Aunt Shirley came up for the weekend.  I always love to see them and Meredith loves to see Shirley.  She had Mary and Shirley up on their feet here.  

We busted out the popsicles for the first time this year on one of the few nice days we've had so far.  

And since we're talking about visitors, Uncle Chris came up to visit before his big move to Texas.  Anna now calls him Uncle Bye-Bye.  We have been Skyping and since she has another out-of-state uncle, she expects postcards.  LOL.  

Spring Program

It's been a few weeks since I've updated but Meredith had her spring program the week before school was done.  Grandma and Grandpa Schwake came up and Auntie Jennifer came as well.  It was a sad realization that preschool was almost done.  On her last day of school, they had a picnic and I didn't bring my camera because Anna is such a handful that I knew I would not get any pictures anyway.  But it was a sad day.  Kindergarten is the next step for us.  I'm sad that she will not see most of these friends again as she went to preschool in Rosemount and we are in Apple Valley.  I'm sad because it seems like I was finally getting to know some of the other moms from her class and now it's over and I won't see them again.  It's sad because she had a friend Caroline who seemed so similar to Meredith and her mom was so sweet.  One that I could see myself being friends with.  So it's just kind of sad that this chapter in our lives is over and we're moving on.  She will continue to play hockey with one boy from her class Zach.  And she will play soccer this summer with Carly from her class as well.  

Meredith likely won't be going to the Kindergarten that I want her to.  I really wanted her to go to a magnet school of International Studies which teaches foreign language.  But instead, she will be going to Cedar Park Elementary (the school we are zoned for) which is also a magnet school focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math.  

The kindergartens in the area are really full from what I understand.  From what I heard, the school that is closest to us (not the one we are zoned for though) will be bussing some kindergarteners to another nearby school because they are so full.  

She will be doing half day as I don't want to pay for the $340/month to go a few extra hours.  I'm so disappointed that we missed the free full day kindergarten by one year.  Half day kindergarten seems so 50 years ago to me.  At least we have full day K to look forward to with Anna.  

Anyway, enough rambling.  Here are some pictures from the spring program.  

They had an artist visit their class one day and they all painted canvases.  Hers is the one just to the left of her head.  The bottom picture shows all the canvases from the kids in her class.

Faces

This girl makes the craziest faces.  She started off very shy by burying her head and clinging to Mom and Dad whenever she was around loud places or strange people.  Now it seems she just does it when we're at the hockey rink and when she sees relatives SHE ALREADY KNOWS!  LOL.  I think she wants attention.  Grandma and Grandpa Carlson came up from Florida a few days ago and this is what they get.  She scrunches up her eyes all tight and buries her nose.  Okay, I get it...she needs to warm up to them as she doesn't get to see them very often.  

But this is the reaction Grandma Schwake and Auntie Jennifer got when they stopped by briefly tonight.  Mind you, Anna sees them all.the.time.  Apparently we were being too loud.  I have no idea where she learned to plug her ears.  LOL.  

Osman Shrine Circus

This is way overdue but I thought I'd share our trip to the Osman Shrine Circus in April.  We have done this now for 3 years.  Every year, they have special Grandparents shows where they sell tickets in designated sections for $5 each as long as the grandparent is the purchaser.  It's quite a drive for us up the the fairgrounds but for $5 tickets, it can't be beat.  

We ended up going early so Meredith could go on the elephant before the show instead of battling the crowds during the break.  The ride was so short that this is about the only picture I could get because before I knew it, they were getting off.  

I vetoed Anna getting to go on the elephant.  Grandma bought her a ticket for it and I promptly asked for a refund.  LOL.  I don't trust this kid on the elephant.  I'm surprised that they let babies on.  

Cotton candy was a big hit.  Once again, I hit up the $1 toy booth and she picked out this headband with tassels.  

Here are some pictures from the show.  The tigers did a great job.  

The clowns were funny.  

The jugglers were fun.  

And the daredevils did not disappoint.  

Easter

Wow, it's been over a month since I've had anything to write about.  I've been slacking.  I'm behind from Easter so here goes.

I'll start out by saying I can't stand hard boiled eggs.  They smell like a fart.  They make your whole refrigerator smell like a fart.  The slimy texture of the egg white.  The gritty texture of the yolk.  I'm shuddering right now just writing about them.

Anyway, like any kid would, Meredith wanted to dye eggs.  I decided six eggs was plenty and we would give them to her grandma.  So we went off to Target to get some eggs and she picked out this glitter dye.

It worked really well.  Besides the near meltdown when she cracked the green egg.  We proceeded to tape it up because, you know, tape fixes everything.

Here is the Easter Bunny loot.  

We spent the day down at my Aunt Phyllis/Uncle Peter's house.  Keeping with tradition from when I was a little girl, Phyllis put together a super fun egg hunt.  Too bad the weather didn't cooperate so we could have done it outside.  We had so much fun seeing everyone.  Here are just a few pictures of the girls from later in the day.

Checking out what they scored in their Easter Eggs.  

Jamboree in Woodbury

Last week was Super Hero week at preschool and each kid was send home with a cape to decorate.  They were to use their imagination to come up with a super hero they wanted to be.  I had to give Meredith a few suggestions but she decided she wanted to be a hockey hero.  Her power was that she could make anyone score a goal.  Daddy helped her decorate it with hockey tape.  He did the laces and cut the tape, but I think Meredith did the rest. 

She's called Puck Magic.  Those are two hockey sticks in the center, her #15 on the bottom left, a skate on the bottom middle, and a net with a goal light on the bottom right.  

Daddy gave it a finishing touch with a Mike Modano hockey card.  

Friday night was our night to skate at the Jamboree in Woodbury.  This was the cute little sign welcoming us.  Her name is in the upper left.  

 She was very excited.  She scored 2 goals in the wrong net.  She was so excited after the first one that she threw her arms up in the air.  We were laughing.  She said that she "almost scored 3 goals in the right net".   She's still at an age where she is excited about us.  She kept waving to us.  She even waved so much that as she was skating onto the ice, her gloves fell off.  I'm glad she really seems to like playing hockey.  

Poor Anna has been sick all week but we dragged her with us.  I finally took her to the doctor on Thursday because she wasn't getting better and it turns out both of her ears are infected.  "Raging" according to the doctor.  Poor girl.    She is on the mend though.  

Future hockey player?

Bathroom Re-do

My Christmas present this year was a very expensive shower curtain.  Expensive to the point that I could not justify getting it unless it was a present.  But boy, do I ever love it!  It's beautiful.  Now that I have a beautiful shower curtain, I decided it was time to give my bathroom a new look.  I spent 6 weeks deliberating over what color to paint the walls.  I got new towels and accessories and a fancy new shower curtain rod.

I will say that I was a tad disappointed with how the color came out on the walls but it is growing on me.  It is a lot more grey than I was going for.  I wanted a greyish brown and it turned out to be more grey than I intended.

With the new curtain and towels, it looks really nice.  This picture doesn't even come close to what the color actually looks like.  My bathroom is too small to get a decent picture and with the flash going off the color is off.

Greg's brother Scott came to visit last weekend from Omaha.  Meredith had lots of fun playing with her Uncle Reebok as she calls him.  We went to the mall and went on rides and they went skating together. Anna did her usual and hid from him.  She's kind of scared of all people male except her daddy and other kids.  She ended up warming up a bit by the end of the weekend.

That's Anna purposely hiding behind that book.  Like I said, she's a tad shy around any male except Daddy.  

This was shortly before Scott left.  She warmed up a little.  

 And just for fun, this is how I found Anna napping a couple days ago.  I love her!  

Blah Part of Winter

Meredith is loving playing hockey.  We are signing her up for a 3-on-3 team with some of her Mini-Mite buddies that will start once the season is over next month and goes through May.  Today after practice, she stayed and watched the big girls (next level up) scrimmage.  We haven't had too many outdoor practices as of late because the weather keeps messing things up.  Either it's too cold and windy, or it's too warm and rainy.  I"m thinking Tuesday will be a great day for outdoor practice.

She has Pajama Night on Friday at preschool.  She is SOOOOO excited.  It's all she talks about.  It's so much fun to see them get so excited about things:-)

Anna continues to do new things on a daily basis.  Yesterday she finally started to use a fork.  She had her 18 month doctor appointment on Thursday and she weighed in at a whopping (note my sarcasm) 22 lbs., 5 oz. (10-25%) and was 31.5"(75%).  Tall and skinny I guess.  That's exactly how Meredith is too.
She probably has about 20-25 words she uses which the doctor says is great.  She was only expecting 5-8 words.  Meredith had maybe 1 word at this age.

Oh, and I almost forgot...she started giving kisses this week!!!!!  Finally.  Meredith was giving kisses when she was 9 months.  It's funny how kids are so different.

There isn't much else going on right now in the dead of winter.  I really don't have much to talk about.  I have hardly taken any pictures but here are a couple from this weekend.

She's still teething those molars.  They are taking forever to completely come through.  

Look at her cheeks.  

Her mullet is going strong.  She sported some ponies this weekend.  

And here's Mer getting ready to go to hockey practice.