Lemons

It's been how long? Where the hell have I been? And what have I been doing? June 7th was my last post and it's August 24th. Well friends, I've been contemplating life. When life throws you lemons what do you do?

Most important contemplation and the biggest lemon...Al was (mostly) diagnosed with neurofibromatosis. Back up, when she was one month old she started getting cafe au lait spots all over her body. (Cafe au lait spots = similar to birth marks the color of coffee with cream.) More than six or seven large ones are usually enough for a diagnosis of neurofibromatosis (NF1). She has 9 large ones at last count and many smaller ones. She's had 2 MRI's, a CT scan, an EEG and several other fun medical tests. All of which were clear. One would normally breathe a huge sigh of relief. Well, NF1 is a waiting game. She could develop more symptoms over time or live her life with just cafe au lait spots. For now, we wait. I took one whole day to wallow. Now we're proactive and dealing with whatever comes our way. This month it's low muscle tone and no weight gain. Are they related to NF1? Maybe. No one really knows for sure which is why Al is in the NF1 research study. I know I could've used more positive information on this disease. For fun, just google NF1 and take a look at the photos that come up. I sound bitter but I'm not. I never was. Just worried about my girl. Dealing with something like this will change your perspective on life. It's made me a better person. I worry a lot less about the little things and more about the important stuff.

We took our first family vacation this summer. We packed up and drove 3 hours to Philadelphia for Sesame Place. Great time! The kids experienced water slides, roller coasters, cotton candy, super long twisty suckers, and lots of tomfoolery!

Bug learned lots of new words while on vacation. He has mastered the use of sh**, da*n it, and fu**. He really gets a lot of variety out of the f-word. There's 'f-in' and insert any type of toy you can imagine. Sometimes he throws out a plain ole 'fu**' if something doesn't go his way. On occasion he's insisted his sister hurry up and get in the 'f-in' car. It's just great. I've tried explaining that it's a horrible word but that didn't work. Now I'm trying to ignore it or take away treats. Did I mention he starts a Methodist preschool in a few weeks? We could get kicked out before he has a chance to catch the flu.

It doesn't seem like I've done much with my summer but if you checked any of my three calendars you would notice that we don't have much down time. I cherish the mornings we don't have to be anywhere. It's rare for us to head out to Target just to have something to do. So to answer my own question, what to do when life throws lemons at you? Turn them around a few times to find the pretty side and then display the f***ers on your blog. And remember, if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger.