That's going to hurt tomorrow

So I finally got back in the gym yesterday and today, after taking the entire summer (and then some) off. While I did manage to get in some exercise and yoga at home, it was not even close to what I get in the classes at the gym because I tend to work myself at about 25 percent. 

At home I'm too easily distracted by such things as Pinterest and the Saga of the Candy that must be Crushed. (Why I had to go and jump on that bandwagon is beyond me but I.am.on.it. good.) Plus, I have these three little four-legged face lickers who all come prepared to pounce because  Hell-O it is PLAYTIME! (Why else would mama be down here on the floor?)

Yesterday was Pilates class and I felt the soreness beginning to set in before I ever got all the way out of the bed this morning but definitely not the worst I've ever felt and I never really mind that kind of pain anyway because I think of it as a sort of accomplished pain. (A pain with a purpose) As opposed to the stumping-of-the-pinkie-toe-while-getting-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-to-go-pee kind of pain, ya know?

And I knew today was yoga which meant I'd get to stretch all that muscle soreness right on out. Yoga has always been kind to me and I eased right back in... 

Ahh,Yoga. Where have you been all my summer? I have missed you so...Down Dog, Child's Pose, Brave Warrior,Tree Pose...I love them all. Well, almost. Sometimes she likes to throw in one of those give-it-a-try-just-for-fun kind of poses that chews up my pride and spits it out because I cannot, for the love of all that is holy and pure, get my body to do it. (Especially when my body hasn't been to yoga class for three and a half months)

Like the one she threw at us today...the one I have never (try as hard as I might) been able to do...the dreaded Bakasana aka Crow Pose. 

It's supposed to look like this.

Looks easy enough, right?

Usually I give it two or three tries, realize it's most likely not going to happen in this lifetime, laugh it off and move on. But today? Today something came over me and I pulled a Little Blue Engine with the whole I-think-I-can attitude. And for a (very brief) moment there I got into the position. I'm talking like two whole seconds I held it. 

So then I convinced myself I could hold it for at least three...I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

But this?

Never happened.

This did.

FACE PLANT!

My little blue engine lied.

Sick Days and Doggie Acupuncture

We're almost through the second week back to school and I already overslept...just slid that arrow right over on the iPhone alarm instead of tapping snooze, rolled back over and kept on sleeping. Luckily, Charlie did not leave super early this morning and woke me up at twenty 'til seven. 

Dracen (true to form) was completely unfazed by this whole oversleeping nonsense and had to be dang near dragged out of the bed as usual. Devin, who got in the car yesterday afternoon and immediately informed me he was sick, just shook his head and gave me that "no way-no how'" look when I woke him to see if he could make it this morning. 

All summer long, no sickness. School starts back and BAM, it starts back up. I think this is definitely the earliest back in that either (much less both) of them has gotten sick. I'm sincerely hoping this is not indicative of how this entire school year is going to go. 

The pharmacy up the street already has their FLU SHOTS HERE sign out and I'm thinking that may not be a bad idea this year though it would likely take a posse of four large adults to hold Dracen down. He may be wiry but he's strong. And mean. When he got his immunizations before starting kindergarten, the doctor and nurse had to open the exam room door to recruit backup. I so wish I was kidding. There were three of us holding him (at barely 5 years old) down while the other gave the shots. 

I admit, however, that I may not have been the most help seeing as how I got hit with a bad case of the nervous laughs. Not much embarrasses me more than a bad nervous laughter fit because it always happens at the most inopportune time, not to mention the fact that his brother was sitting in the corner pointing and laughing like a hyena. 

Definitely one of my most cringe-worthy memories still today.

I thought Dracen himself was about to experience his own nervous laughter fit at the vet's office Tuesday afternoon while Charlene (Li'l Bit) was getting her acupuncture treatment. I had taken her for her first one last week after dropping Dracen off at Popaw's and picking up Devin from school but this week I had both boys with me. 

And yes, I am referring to Charlene, my dog, the Dachshund. She got acupuncture. Twice. Go ahead and laugh. I probably would have too at one time but she's been experiencing some back pain, as the little long dogs sometimes do, and acupuncture is supposed to be a great relief from it. 

The closest vet who does it is a 45 minute drive from my house but y'all know how I love my little dogs, right? Only the best will do.

I so wish I had taken a picture last week, the first time she got it because she was on the table shaking like a leaf, as she always does at the vet, but almost immediately after the vet started putting the tiny needles in, she stopped shaking, laid her little head down and fought sleep for the next 15 minutes while they were in.

This week she put less needles in and hooked them up to little electrodes and we were in a room with windows with tree-views this time (which means the possibility of squirrels nearby) so she didn't get quite as relaxed but still, she stopped shaking. 

I was this close to asking her to put a couple in my neck for the 45 minute drive home, in semi-heavy traffic, with Dracen carrying on from the backseat that he was going to starve to death before we got to the Cookout drive-thru and Devin beside me, yelling at him to SHUT UP while swatting at him over the back of his seat.

Oh well, maybe next time...
  

AFTER

I'm a believer.

It Turns Out Well

"How old are these kids? Mom, did you sign me up for t-ball?!" Dracen was absolutely mortified when we showed up at his first fall baseball practice yesterday at 5:30 and quickly realized that we were somehow not at the right place at the right time. I assured him that I had signed him up for the nine and ten year old league but the coach (who is coaching two teams) must have given me the wrong time because I wrote it down. I.wrote.it.down. On the calendar.

When the coach showed up he confirmed that we were indeed there at the wrong time and that his practice was after the t-ball practice, at 6:30. "Well, he just told me the wrong time is all. I know he did because I wrote it down! It's on the calendar." 

We headed back home since the field is only 5 minutes away and I went straight to the calendar to prove I was right make the necessary changes since I had been told 5:30 on Mondays and Thursdays and 2:00 on Saturdays. I grabbed my pen and scribbled out the time and then...Ohhh...Oops...My bad. I had just scribbled out a 6:30 that was written in my very own handwriting. 6:30 on Mondays, 5:30 on Thursdays. Right there it was. 

And before I even walked away from the calendar, Dracen was already on the phone dialing Popaw to inform him that I had taken him to t-ball practice. T-Ball! He was so mortified he had to vent to the popaw. 

I'm guessing he felt a little like I did when I was informed (just before my senior year of high school) that I still needed a FRESHMAN class (required in NC but not GA, where I had moved from) in order to graduate because oops, we forgot to tell you about it until now. Talk about being mortified. I still have nightmares about that. 

Okay, not really. But I have (obviously) not forgotten about it after all these...how many years? I had to count. It will be twenty five next year. TWENTY FIVE YEARS since I graduated high school! 

Some days it feels every bit of that but most days I have a hard time wrapping my mind around it.

Time...

I'm finding that it has this sort of sneaky way of speeding up on us, the older we get. 

It hit me (out of the blue) awhile back that on September 2nd of this year (yesterday) it would be 9 years, 8 months and 1 week since Darin died. 9 years, 8 months and 1 week is exactly how long he was in my life. 

I hesitated to write that because I never want to sound like I am dwelling or looking back over my shoulder and living in the past because I've always been proud of the way I was able to embrace the art of moving forward...of living in the present...of keeping my mind and my heart open...to live again...to love again...to accept the grace and the gifts God has been so good to bless me with over the years.

But I felt that I should...as a reminder to love and appreciate the ones we are given to love, because this life on earth? Is oh so very unpredictable and temporary. 

I know this but still I was reminded (yet again) when I heard the news that a friend of Devin's just lost his dad over the weekend. My heart breaks and aches for him and his family, just as it does each and every time I hear that kind of news because I know...I know all too well the painful depths of the journey that lies before them now.  

But I like to think of those of us who have gone before them as positive reminders. I want them to know that while that road will be rough, it will also be paved with so many little unexpected moments of happy surprises and realizations that not only does life go on...

It goes on good.

{Kinda like going back at the right time (6:30 on Mondays) for the right practice and not having to hit off a tee after all.}