Another week come and gone - Absolutely Normal Chaos: My Personal War - (Mom) plus (Five kids) minus (Dad in Iraq) plus (one year) = chaos

What happened this week:

Monday was Anastasia's first practice w/ her new coach. Also that evening (and of course around the same time, but opposite sides of metro Denver) was Andrew's Kindergarten graduation, which he decided he didn't want to attend anyway, so we didn't (made my evening much less complicated). Also that day was my second one-on-one Pilates session at the Pilates studio near my house (I'd forgotten everything I learned from last session). And also that day, I broke out in hives.

Tuesday morning the hives were worse. I had big puffy blotches on my thighs and inner arms running from my wrists to my biceps. Tracing my bra line, on my back, my butt, my shins, the perimeter of my hands and the palms of my hands. The only place that was spared was my face. It hurt, actually burned, to wash my hands because my hands felt so raw from the hives, and I couldn't stop scratching!

Tues. evening I finally decided (with a little prodding from my mom every time I talked to her) to get checked out. I went to National Jewish, the obvious place because of their allergy specialization. When I revealed to the doc (not my normal doctor there, but the one on duty at triage) that I'd just finished up the last dose of my amoxicillian a couple of days before (I was on it because I'd had a strep infection), the culprit was exposed: I'm apparently allergic to penicilian. The doc told me that you can become allergic to that drug just suddenly; one time you take it you're not, and the next time you are. I was prescribed a suped-up antihistamine that literally knocked me out. I took it before I went to bed, and the next day (Wed) I couldn't shed the resulting grogginess until after 5 p.m. I even had to take a couple hour nap in the middle of the afternoon. I can't take that stuff again -- w/ these 5 kids and all the chaos surrounding them, I can't be doped up all day. They'll burn the house down (or something similarly traumatic).

Thursday started a 4 day long soccer tournament. I was scheduled to watch 10 games over the next days (amazingly, I had no conflicts and everything took place at the same large field complex). Well, the weather did not cooperate. Friday, we endured lightning delays and cancelations, tho we had to hang around the complex until we finally got word what the tournament organizers had decided to do. You see, playing in the rain is fine. Playing w/ lightning is not -- nobody wants fried kids littering the ground. And soggy fields are also not fine -- the delicate Colorado grass gets torn up with all those kids in cleats running around. So, all that has to be taken into account. Sat. games had to be pushed back because many of the fields were too wet to play on (and it rained on and off throughout the day, making things more soggy). Sunday, the finals, ended up being cancelled even tho we had to go to the fields preparing to play. About 30 min. before Alix's team (in the finals) was scheduled to play, the clouds let loose and rain poured down and lightning, once again, streaked the sky. All the finals were cancelled.

I went home after wasting the entire morning and attempted to clean my house. Around 6, I took Arianna and Anastasia on a 2.5 mile run. Then we showered and I took the kids to see Shark Boy and Lava Girl.

Oh, and on Thurs., I had to return my dream vehicle to Enterprise rental and pick up my normal mode of transportation -- our on-its-last-leg mini-van. Lots of weird mix-ups and problems and communication lapses caused the delay in getting back my car. Mostly because the guy who was in charge of my claim at the body shop got bit by a brown recluse spider. I guess he has a chunk rotted out of his arm or something and has been in and out of the hospital the entire time my car was getting fixed. Another thing to weigh on my mind -- I've been having nightmares about spiders biting me or the kids.

End of week.

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