Saturday was Cash’s first karate tournament…and what an exciting day it was.  *Sigh*  I actually expected it to be much worse than it was, so I guess it wasn’t so bad after all. 

Apparently, Cash was too excited to sleep and decided that 6am would be a good time to start his day.  Turns out he doesn’t do well getting up at 6am! 

We took off for the 45 minute drive to the Minneapolis Convention Center at 8am.  When we got there, Cash’s attitude really started to suck.  All I heard was whining and “get me outta here!”.  Poor kid. 

Anyway, this is what Cash looked like sitting by his assigned ring waiting for his turn.  He was actually in the first group of kids but refused to put on his uniform so he couldn’t compete. 

After a lot of crying and a lot of sitting and waiting….Cash decided that he actually did want to participate.  He was able to join the last group of kids in his “age group” (he’s a little too young to actually be in karate). 

He didn’t really do a whole lot of karate as you can see:

But he got a good score anyway

And a TROPHY!  (They gave all the little kids 1st place trophies which was so cool!)

Cash decided that the best thing to do with his trophy was the eat snacks out of it.

After trying to coax him into his uniform for over and hour at the tournament…Cash decided that he wanted to wear it at home for the rest of the day.  Grrr.

His next attempt for the next belt graduation is coming up in a couple of weeks…maybe this trophy will inspire him? 

-lindsay**

I’m at a loss for a clever title today…. Actually, I have blogger’s block today, and nothing really exciting to write about.  Good thing it’s 5 question Friday!

1. Do you make your kids finish all the food on their plates?
No. So far, I’ve been blessed with fairly good eaters, although the 2 bigs are getting a little more picky. Ross suddenly doesn’t like meat. Ruby needs a little cajoling to eat certain things. But, I don’t force them to clean their plates.

2. Do you give an allowance?
No. We’ve talked about it, but never started. Maybe this summer would be a good time. I bought a chore chart at a garage sale yesterday, maybe I can tie them together. Ross does earn money for helping out with his sister and things, but not a regular allowance.

3. Do you actually park your car in the garage?
Yep. Every day. Fortunately, we have a 3 car garage, and I take up 2 stalls by myself. Hubby is talented enough to park in the 3rd stall (it’s tiny), but it is occupied  by 2 strollers, 3 bikes, and other stuff.

4. What is one food you will NEVER cook?
I like to cook, and I’m fairly adventurous, but I’ll never cook a live lobster. Or a whole fish. When I was in Spain, my housemother would cook whole fish with their heads on and assured me that they were so good.  No way! Icky!

5. Do you have anything exciting planned for the summer?
Not really. I owe Ross a trip to Chicago to visit the Science Museum. There will be no driving all over creation car trips this summer!

Wow, this was so boring, I feel like I should put the wah waaaah sound in it.  Sorry!

Have a great weekend!

This:

I was doing a little Googling today, and learned that Adam Yauch aka MCA from the Beastie boys also had parotid cancer. Does that give me some street cred? Probably not. The ribbon above is the head and neck cancers ribbon. I guess since only around 3 in 100,000 people get parotid cancer (and 6-10% of that is Acinic Cell Carcinoma), we have to share a ribbon.

So, it’s been 3 weeks and 1 day since surgery. I would say I am about 90% back to normal.  My smile continues to improve. Sometimes it is better than others. I tried to eat a sandwich last week, that is still difficult.
The side of my face where the gland used to be is still pretty painful. The area around my incision is still pretty swollen an painful too, and I still have some swelling in my double chin. My ear alternates between burning and itching. I still can’t get over how weird it is to not feel my earlobe at all- I can only hear when I touch it.

(someday I am going to put on makeup and do my hair before I take pictures)

My incision is healing really well I think. Pretty soon it will be unnoticeable!

I’ve been thinking lately how glad I am that I eventually sought medical attention for my mystery lump. I put it off for a long time, and still felt stupid for seeing a Dr. for it. About a month after I first saw the Dr. and Dentist and was still having pain, I sent the Dr a message wondering what my next step was. This was the reply:

“I guess ENT, though we are a little limited while breastfeeding, I otherwise would try some prednisone. I still think it is just a reactive lymphnode. Still I placed referral to ENT for you. Will let them decide if needing anything further, imaging or otherwise”

I am just so glad that I saw the ENT when I did, and before it had the chance to get any larger. I was 1/2 cm away from needing radiation. So, here’s the lesson for today- get your mystery lumps checked out!

Am I happy that Chris changed the empty toilet paper roll? 
Or am I annoyed that he can’t get the old roll in the garbage?

-lindsay**

Chris, Cash, our two dogs and I loaded up the truck and headed to my mom and dad’s house for a quick road trip. 
Like a 46 hour trip…13 of those hours spent in the car!  Ugh.

After a little bit of a late start (like a day and three hours late), we had a pretty uneventful trip.  Chris took two pictures and I took zero so I guess you don’t get to see what I look like with a Karlstad shower. 

I was able to read an entire book on the way up there which is a bonus!  Sometimes I’m glad Chris is a man of few words. 

We pretty much made the trip to see my great grandmas…I was feeling a bit homesick. 

And this post pretty much sums up how exciting my life is.

-lindsay**

After walking around the store for over an hour offering Cash any toy he wanted…he finally decided on rollerblades?!  He’s so weird.  He had skated around the house a couple of times…but then suddenly decided he couldn’t rollerblade anymore without a helmet.  Mr. Responsible.  He’s definitely his father’s child.  So, I ran out and got him a Spiderman helmet and now he’s happy.  Mommy isn’t so happy since I have to do all the work while he just glides around. 
-lindsay**

Keeping himself busy in the car.  I love this kid.

Phew, I’m going to get this post done before Friday is over!

My sister was nice enough to watch my kids today so I could run to Costco and Trader Joes. My hubby was nice enough to slip me some cash, and told me to have a nice lunch and a pedicure. Instead, I had lunch at the Costco food court, and skipped the pedi- I ran out of time!

Ruby got to take her first ride in Jeff’s semi truck this evening.  He installed her car seat in the passenger side, and drove her across town. She was thrilled!

On to Five Question Friday- hosted by Mama M at Five Crooked Halos. One of my questions was chosen this week, so I thought I’d better participate!

When your dad is the owner of a karate school, you have no choice but to take class.  Cash has been going to karate for a couple of months now.  When he first started he hated it.  It was too loud and he cried most of the time…then a few classes later he totally got into it and practices at home at the time.  Last week was time to graduate to the next belt level and Cash was so excited!   

And then he lost the excitement.  He ended up crying for most of the graduation and didn’t end up getting his new belt…which in turn made me cry.  What a pair we are. 

 
He’ll try again next month!
In the meantime…he’s competing in a his first tournament next Saturday…stay turned for that action!

-lindsay**