My head hurts

Up at 5am again.

Meetings scheduled all day. First one starts at 6am. Oh it's cancelled. Lovely. So I got up at 5am for nothing?

I went for a walk with my neighbor Leann at 9:30am (super hot & sweaty). I like her alot. It's so nice to be able to talk to someone who you can be totally honest with and who is honest back. We talk about how we feel crazy and just "not right" sometimes. Snapping at our kids and husbands for no apparent reason. And for some reason when other people admit they are totally fucked in the head too...it makes me feel better. Misery loves company or...if you feel like that and I respect and admire you then I must be ok too. Yeah that's it. Anyway, pretty basic work day.

Go pick up the kids at 2:35pm at school. Home for a quick snack and then off to the math tutor for Claire.

Camryn and I sit in the car in the hot sun outside the tutors house in Danville doing homework and figuring out how to work Claire's new Nintendo DS. And then here they come.

Claire has a headache and stomach ache and has been to the bathroom three times during the hour lesson. She complained her tummy hurt on Tuesday (2nd day of school) and then stayed home on Friday for the same reason. My diagnosis is that she is obsessed with getting sick (throwing up) and is so afraid of it that she makes herself sick. The funny thing is she never has this problem while watching TV, or having a play date or really anytime during the summer. I took her to the pediatrician on Friday because I wasn't sure how to handle her hysterical behavior or complete paranoia of being sick at school.

There are alot of details I'm leaving out here but this has been going on off and on since the end of last year. At this point I'm not sure what to do. We started out with the normal parent reaction..."Quit faking. Your not sick. Your going to school!" Then I actually thought something might be wrong with her physically so I took her to the doctor. Then recently I Googled some obsessive child behavior and thought she might be OCD. But after talking to the pediatrician and her teacher last week she doesn't seem to posses all of the OCD characteristics. Thank God. Anyway, it's obviously mental. Meaning she is stressing herself out about school work, or friends or whatever to the point that she is making herself sick. Whether the illness is in her mind or not I am totally incapable of fixing this problem. So I think I will call and make an appointment to have my 8 year old speak with a counselor. Oh boy.

Came home and finished homework. Claire read a book to me. Junie B. Geoff and I made dinner together while the girls watched the Disney Channel. We all ate together and then watched the Republican National Convention and listened to the speech of the first female Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Although I am an Obama supporter and will probably vote against her, I was really impressed with Mrs. Palin's speech. She seemed really spunky and feisty. Not afraid to ruffle feathers. I thought she was a great speaker and McCain himself could learn a thing or two from her. Anyway, I don't much trust politicians no matter what kind of panties they wear. But on the surface -- she seemed alright.

Time for bed. Working in San Ramon tomorrow. We'll see if Claire makes it through a school day without any issues.

Off to bed I go.

Final last words: Some day I will get paid to write.

Claire for President

Up at 5am.

Conference call at 6am.

Kids off to school by 7:45am.

Out the door to work in the San Ramon office because sometimes I just have to get out of this house. Really I do.

Forgot my power cable so my laptop dies about 11am. Sigh.

Head back home for a quick lunch and another meeting at 12pm.

Convince my client that he has to build his web site in another tool. I'm expecting to have to sell him on the idea which is sort of like convincing a child that spinach is good for them even though you both know it tastes like salty seaweed. But surprisingly he doesn't throw a fit and we end the call on a happy note. But I'm positive this is because he is from the UK and generally happy by nature and not because I'm an expert persuader.

Anyway, finish up some work. But you never get done. So you just divide up the tasks for another day, and another day, and another day. OK fine.

Carol and Chuck are coming over for dinner so the girls need to get their homework done before they arrive. Claire tells us that she is running for Class President of her 3rd Grade class. So we get to work brainstorming her campaign speech and slogan. We talk about the presidents "job" and why it's important. How they are sort of the leaders of the country and represent what the people need and want. She starts to think about what her class needs and wants and how she can help. This conversation is rather interesting and makes me think...well about a lot of stuff. But that's for another day.

Anyway we all come up with some pretty funny slogans but I think the winner was...No one compares to Claire when it comes to clean air and being fair! I'm not sure what kind of air quality they have in 3rd grade class rooms these days (other than the usual..."hey who farted?") but it rhymed with her name -- so there you have it.

Geoff made burgers, corn and baked potatoes. We drank a little vino and Claire opened her presents from Grammy and Chuck. She got a Nintendo DS game (similar to marijuana but not organic) and some really cute outfits (because we all know how into clothes the girl is).

Geoff read with Camryn before bed (Nancy Drew) and I laid in bed with Claire and talked about her day. She has a close friend whose father has cancer. She feels bad for her friend and hopes that she never gets it. Me too. And then we do the usual "How much do I love you?...More than all the pupils in all the eyeballs in all the people in the whole wide world....Wow. I must love you a lot." Night night.

I was going to read my book tonight, but I miss blogging. I haven't been doing it lately because I sort of feel like a fish in a tank. I really want my writing to be authentic but I haven't been in a great place lately. Life has been difficult. Not entertaining or funny. Quite sucky actually. So I sort of have to decide if blogging for me is entertainment or a communication outlet. At first it was just fun and hobby-like, but when it comes time to write about less than sunny times the tendency is to shut down because you don't want people to know something is wrong because A) you might make them feel bad or B) they will want to fix it.

So I will keep blogging but I probably won't broadcast it anymore. That way if you're really dieing to know what kind of crap I've gotten myself into lately you can visit my blog and read it for yourself. Otherwise, don't worry about me, I will be FINE (Funny, Interesting, Neurotic, and Environmentally-Safe).



Gotta get up at 5am for another 6am meeting. What is wrong with these people? Actually -- what's wrong with ME??? I'm the one getting up at the crack of dawn for conference call! Duh.



Good night. Sleep tight. And if the bed bugs bite. Bite the bastards back. ;-)

Believe

I have a Christmas card that I keep on my desk all year round. The front of the card has one adult size angel holding a string of letters that spell B-E-L-I-E-V-E and in front of her (I'm assuming its a HER because she has rosy cheeks and long eyelashes) is a smaller angel holding a single star. I don't know why but this card touched me. To me it means believe in yourself and your future. Believe that you can do anything. Believe in other people. Believe in truth. Believe in love.

I'm not sure if my kids look up to me or are just looking at me like what the heck are you doing? "Mom, are you going to do that [work] forever???" It doesn't much matter as long as I can keep looking at them day after day after day.

I BELIEVE.

Too bad the Giants couldn't Cache in

We went to the Giants game in San Francisco on Sunday with the Cunningham's (John, Deb, Jack and Megan). They lost the game but the best part was Geocaching before and after the game. I had heard about it before but never done it. It's very geeky but sooo fun! It's sort of like a scavanger hunt and the Amazing Race combined. You use a GPS device to find things that have been hidden in places all over the world. The GPS gives you the coordinates and hints about the objects in your area. So its something you can do anywhere you go. We found a couple in San Francisco and then one more in Pleasanton 2 blocks from our house!

The GPS device costs about $200 bucks so I'll be adding this to our Christmas list (hint hint) unless we can't wait. The thing I like about it is that it gets the whole family out of the house and you can explore things and places that you wouldn't normally see. For example, you can image what would happen if I asked Geoff and the girls "How would you like to go for a 5 mile hike today???" I imagine that would go over like a fart in church. However, if your off to find a treasure in the mountains that happens to be roughly 5 miles, well so be it. Anyway, I don't have any pictures unforunately but just imagine the Fuller Four with big huge smiles on our faces. :-)

Jonas Brothers Concert with Camryn

Well I took Camryn to her first concert at the ripe old age of 9 (almost 10). She had a blast! And other than the way too expensive food, screaming girls piercing my ear drums and waiting over an hour for the little buggers to come out on stage I had fun too. Although some of the band members were young enough to be my sons! All in all I accomplished my mission of "not embarrasing" her. Little does she know how REALLY cool I am.

1st Annual Cope Court Softball Game - June 2008

Adults vs. the Kids. Ages ranging from 5 to 65. And I'm pretty sure the kids beat us. Not just in score, but I bet none of them were sore, injured or limping the next day. It was a lot of fun. And one thing is for sure, we are very lucky to live in this neighborhood. They aren't just neighbors - they're family.

Groovy Baby

I guess I'm having what you would call a writers block. But not really. I just don't have any freakin spare time to sit at my computer (more than the 80 hours a week I already spend on this damn thing) and think up witty stuff to entertain you people. I wish I did -- but I don't. You know I'm kidding right? So here's the deal. I'm gonna post one picture everyday with a little, and I repeat little, blurb explaining it. That's all. And at some point when I come up for air again, I'll start blogging my butt off. But for now, that's all she wrote.

Well not really. Cause I haven't explained the Groovy Baby headline. Geoff and I went to a 40th birthday for Mike Friedel on Saturday and since he was born in the 60's - that was the theme. Check out the cool hippies. Peace Out.