why don't i just blog?

So many things on my mind lately.

Where to start? 

How about with Baby Calvin  --  it is truly a gift to have a new baby around and to watch that family blend together.  And oh my gosh, baby hands and baby feet and baby scent and well, baby boy clothes.  Leo has a friend who is six months older than him who hands over his like-new clothes so I haven't done much shopping for him.  But Calvin, he has no such friend--yet--so I have been amazed by the options in the baby boy section at every.single.store.  Love those stripes and colors and animal prints and all of it on him.

Skiing--video.  Jr got a GoPro camera that mounts on his ski helmet so of course he's shooting video of me all over the slopes.  Okay maybe not.  Mostly it's video of him flying down the slopes and waiting for me to come pizza-legging, criss-crossing down to where he's waiting for me.  Again.  He posted a link here:  http://youtu.be/EA-I70Jsc0A --which may or may not include him flying up behind me to spray snowy crystals on me.  And that's okay, actually pretty entertaining, or will be when he falls on his butt while mocking his mama.  Pow.

My mom and dad--briefly.  Dad is still slipping away.  Sometimes his stories of events past are so clear and so fun to hear, and then other times, he gets off on a story that really only happened in his mind.  So there's that.  But also, there's mom.  Who has been doing all of the things for so, so, so long that she has worn right out.  Hoping that the steps we've been taking will help ease her back to herself because this is so very scary and hard to watch.

And my heart.  Or not.  That whole emergency room thing.  The diagnosis thing.  After thinking about it all, I got this idea that I didn't want to start taking medications without first talking to my cardiologist.  Because apparently I now have one of those, who is a great doctor and quite entertaining all at the same time.  So anyway, I scheduled an appointment with him last Wednesday.  And three hours before my appointment I had another episode at work.  Saw the doc that day, and after some talking, he agreed that maybe I didn't really need those medications and likely it wasn't my heart, but the way to confirm that was to do an echo stress test so we scheduled it for today.  And, as usual, I was the boss of that test.  The EKG part was good, the echo part (an ultrasound of my heart, which was very cool to watch, but IMO not as cool as seeing a new grandbaby on an ultrasound), anyway, the echo part was good, and the stress part (more time on the treadmill, and hello, I've been working it at zumba so a little treadmill time is nothing), so yes, the stress part was good too.  I aced it all, so the doc says I'm unlikely to drop dead from an artery blockage and my valves are all good.  He sent me on my way after promising I'd check in with my primary care doc who can decide what the next step should be.  So that's all good I guess, although Jack is still pretty concerned.

But since I passed my test, I'm free to board a plane tomorrow headed to California.  All of those work trips have added up to nearly enough skymiles for a ticket and it's Cailin's birthday on Friday and she invited me at least three times to her party, so how could I say no?  Have you seen that face of hers?  Who could say no and why would they want to?  So it's a quick trip over and I'm taking my beach pants that match Janey's and maybe we'll find a couple of hours for sitting on the sand in the sun listening to the waves, which is, you know, so soothing.

And then it's back home on Sunday for the Super Bowl/party where I'm hoping to finish the playoff fantasy league with a win when Denver loses to Seattle.  I'm really only posting about this because I want to see if Stu will comment because we're competing for first place and I love it when he trash talks me.

So that's my last couple of weeks.  It isn't much in writing, but it's been a lot of living.