Polar Plunge Update

Thank you to everyone who sponsored me and the Hula Around the World Tour

getting ready

yes, I KNOW, it is SUPER BOWL SUNDAY and you are all ready to for the big game - we are too. (I'll have to post decorations in another post.) But yesterday was the Polar Plunge Va Beach to support Special Olympics Virginia. Wow. What an event! According to the news, the event raised over $800,000.00 with over 2,000 participants. I am proud to have been a part of that!

It was snowing, which was crazy cool because if you are going to do a polar plunge in February then photos of a bright sunny 30 degree day just don't do it justice. Nope, we had a snowy, icy, Nor' Easter making sure it LOOKED like a polar plunge.



It was my first so I had no idea... wow. There were athletes in attendance, carrying the flag, carrying the torch and they run into the water first. That was really neat and touching and good I think to remind us all that it is about them. There is a costume contest and contestants wore some fabulous costumes. There was 'octo-mom' with enormous fake lips and a floaty tube with eight baby dolls attached (a bit sick actually but funny) and beer girl, and the sherlock holmes detectives, and 'real men wear pink' man in his pink pjs and then full teams: one team was the Wizard of Oz (they won) and they were cool. One was the energizer bunnies and they had some 15 or more team members and they were funny. One was a Chinese New Year dragon - very cool. And there was a group dressed up as Pebbles and Bam Bam and even the dinosaur...
Our Hula Girls were very popular amongst the photographers and one of our team members showed up in an inflatable outfit that was just hilarious. She had paparazzi! And there are pictures of her floating around every where, lots of people took pictures with her.

When it was finally time to run in we had some confusion - about meeting places - and people missing and that really ended up being upsetting and frustrating. We missed the actual 'go!' which bummed me out. I wanted to be part of the energy surge. At that point I was already freezing and couldn't feel my feet.

The feet were an issue because since it was so cold we were required to wear shoes: if you cut yourself on debries you might not feel it and so on. We were not expecting this so I didn't have shoes and we had to go get some. I couldn't find actual water shoes so I bought flip flops but my feet were frozen and I couldn't grip them and they kept falling off and I couldn't get them back on and...

When we did run in I had my eye on the safety line. Because of the winds and surf our safety team (I think they are firemen but I'm not sure) were lined up in the water with a rope indicating where they wanted us to stop. It was about waist level and I initially wanted to run to the line, high five one of the team, and run back out. I made it to my knees and lost my shoe again and turned around.

the inflatible hula girl with friends, see our safety team leaving the water behind them?

I grabbed my bag and ran back to the Marriott. We had gone down the night before and gotten a room (our team captain traded in travel points so we'd have a room) and they allowed us to extend our check out until 3 and promised us access back in after the plunge regardless. They had the door propped open and we went into the pool area. My feet were too cold to get into the water (!) so I sat by the pool for a while with Tabitha who was also really cold. Eventually I thawed out enough to put my feet in for a few minutes.

All in all it was a great experience. One of my friends did a polar plunge in New Jersey a few years ago, and since we had snow, I felt like mine was just as good ;-). It is a neat thing to do, and the Special Olympics are so worth it. The atheletes deserve our support.

And once again, props to the SpringHill Marriott. It is a beautiful hotel and they were so gracious with the pool, and keeping out coffee, tea and hot chocolate! If you ever need a hotel in VA Beach:
901 Atlantic Avenue
Virginia Beach, VA 23451 USA
Phone: Work 1-757-417-3982 | Fax:: 1-757-417-3983



(I believe there was a green hula skirt in there...)

thanks to DataXstream for sponsoring every member on our team

The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans...

so I was visiting at A NEW KIND OF NORMAL


and found a link to The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans -
spent a little time snooping around and decided I rather like them.


I try to stay away from posting about my on going size issues. But like most of the women I know, I have them. And yes, every January I get on the scale and write my list of resolutions and they always include weight loss, and darn it, it seems that my body has found a new, 'normal' weight. Not one I like much.

So...

I may be blogging about that a little more because I swear I'm going to be closer to what I think 'my weight' ought to be on my 40th birthday than I have been since I had my first kid when I was 27.

Consider yourself warned.

(oh, and I promise not to go over board and turn this into a weight loss blog. because it isn't. it is just one aspect of it.)

Snow Angels, Hula Skirts, Polar Plunge Team Update

It snowed in Virginia Saturday.
In my part of the state that is truly a rare event.
We received inches of snow, inches(!) also a rare event.

Chris, that friend that asked me if I was "in" for the Polar Plunge (I wrote about it a week or so ago here) posted the following on her facebook page on Friday:
Cold, Cold, Cold... 6 inches of snow? Just what we needed to get in the mood for the Polar Plunge... Tomorrow Hula skirts and sleds! I double dog dare you!

Still need more donations. Click the link below.

Special Olympics Virginia - online fundraising made easy for any nonprofit organization - Chris Hoch
www.firstgiving.com
Special Olympics is a year-round international program of sports training and athletic competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop...

So of course we did what any mature thirty something year old women would do: First Jamie donned a bikini and a hula skirt and posed in the snow... and then Chris answered... feeling a touch left out (they all live in one neighborhood on the other side of town) I decided to join in the fun:

so in case you were wondering if we were gonna really go through with it... we are practicing...

Note the "X" hat; DataXstream is a team sponsor. Thank you DataXstream!

Members of the Hula Around The World Tour, and my travel group from last January's trip to Hawaii: (yes, that is the above mentioned Jamie and Chris as the 'base' in this pose)

so far we have raised $1,732.26 as a team. Our goal is $2,500.00. We have one more week to raise funds!!!

I get talking about anophthalmia, but to focus on the ultra sound seems trite to me

An article from ABC News begins with:

"When Taylor Garrison gave birth in October, she was astonished that doctors whisked her daughter, Brielle, out of the delivery room without much explanation.

Garrison also learned this rare diagnosis was one that is almost always missed by ultrasound -- even though hundreds of genetic diseases and deformities once discovered at birth can now be detected with the latest ultrasound technology.

"A lot of worse things could have happened and thank god they didn't," Garrison said. "I see her just as any other baby. She does everything any other baby would.""

from:
Born Without Eyes and Ultrasound Couldn't See
Ultrasounds Can Detect Hundreds of Deformities, But Not Babies Missing Eyes
By LAUREN COX
ABC News Medical Unit
Jan. 28, 2010

I think it is interesting that the article makes such a big deal out of ultra sounds not being able to show that the baby would be born with anophthalmia, a condition that means the child does not have eye tissue.

I get that know things in advance allows for parents and medical staff to prepare to deal with the situation, but it sounds like that, despite not having eyes, the child is healthy. I'm not a doctor but it looks like this is an medical challenge that allows the mother, and hopefully her parents since she is so young, and the medical teams TIME to build a plan. It seems to me that the importance of knowing about challenges ahead of time really centers around challenges that affect the baby's ability to survive. I am not trying to suggest that being born blind is no big deal. For me, to loose my eye sight would be HUGE and I cannot imagine the challenges in raising a child without eye sight, but this whole article about this not being picked up by ultra sound, I just think it is over kill.

At the end of the article the writer states that the mother decided to 'go public' with her baby's condition because not many people have heard of anophthalmia. I think that is probably true. And public awareness is known to make a difference in research dollars.

Perhaps the article could have focused on that perspective a little more. Or maybe the editor just thought the title would get more attention this way? But to try to focus on the ultra sound? We are not gods people. We don't know everything. I am willing to bet that is designed like that on purpose. Because when we do think we know what we are doing, we as a species do a darn good job of messing things up for selfish reasons.

I mean, does the editor think that anything different would, or should be done if parents know about this medical situation in advance? Surely the editor doesn't feel that blindness is a reason to abort a life. I would expect that members of the blind community would speak out vehemently against such a statement. I would/do.

Looking Forward to American Idol

I am a hit and miss t.v. girl. I usually prefer to have the kids in bed by 8 and be working out or finishing chores instead of watching t.v. but this winter we seem to have the t.v. on plenty. Its been Football (okay, to many of you that is a no brainer but my husband is not a football game guy. And then he caught a live Colts game and is suddenly watching the Colts on t.v. and they just happen to be Super Bowl bound so...) and my Jr. High Student asked if we could maybe watch American Idol. Of course we can. I am so not going to make her tell her friends that she is in her pjs reading in bed at 8 everynight. Besides, a few years ago I was a dedicated American Idol watcher and I hear it is Simon's last season. WHAT?

NO SIMON?

I'm completely disappointed.

but anyway-

last week we got to listen to Matt Lawrence -

I really liked him. I hope he makes it way into the season.

I like listening to him!

Yoga Man

Yoga.

There is this FABULOUS studio near my house called “Body Balance.” I love it. I recently started taking Hot Yoga classes on Fridays there. It is a wonderful way to end the week. The heat in the room allows my muscles to relax to a depth that doesn’t even happen during a massage, and after 75 minutes I am all stretched out and relaxed.

This evening I walked in last minute to a crowded room. One of the girls got up and moved so I would have a spot, which left me directly behind a college guy with no shirt on. WHAT? I mean, yes it is hot but keep your damn shirt on.

It made it hard to concentrate. Not because he was hot – okay the room was hot but he wasn’t so much – but because I am always so damn self conscious not to be looking that it gets awkward. And worse because I had a running commentary of my friend J- in my head. About 7 years my junior J- and gang seem to have taken me on as a bit of a pet project – as in – they are making it their job to get me to loosen up before I get too much older. We played “I never” last year in Hawaii and they decided that I need homework before the next “I never” game. (luckily they haven’t been checking up on that) These are the same girls behind the Hula Around the World Tour Polar Plunge to support the Special Olympics. (please note the link and feel free to offer support in the form of donations.)

Not sure where this post was going – except to laugh at the guy without his shirt on. Whatever! I wanted to tell him he so did not have anything on my man, and I seriously doubt he has my man’s experience “so wipe that look off your face” but then again hey, maybe I should say –more power to him- for his confidence level. I wish I was confident enough to walk around like that- ha! But I’ll spare you the view.

Adventures in toilet training

The hallway toilet is clogged.

It is my fault. I felt like the entire episode should have been on t.v.

Bitsy is toilet training. She is doing pretty well staying dry. She is doing not so well with the b.m. situation. So a week ago... I was rinsing out a soiled training panty in the toilet. Envision if you will, 3 year old Bitsy dutifully holding up her tunic top, black hair in a pony tail holder on the top of her head fountain style, yabbering at me non stop in her quasi toddler English. "poop mom. yucky mom. what mom doing? yuck mom. poopy! poopy in potty? mom? poopy!" and so on.

I hold one side of the training pant and trail the pant in the toilet and flush it - to loosen up the messy (did I mention they were messy and squashed onto the training pant?) poop. I have done this at least one hundred times. This is my fifth round of toilet training and I had hands on experience with this as I was 12 years older than my baby sister and my mom used cloth diapers.

It slipped.

It slipped at the last second and got pulled into the flushing toilet.

With my right arm I am trying to keep Bitsy out of this mess and with my left arm I am trying to grab a pink, padded, toilet training pant as it is sucked slow motion down my commode! I actually had my hand on the darn thing and couldn't get a good enough grip and the darn toilet beat me.

Seriously... where are the Punked! cameras???

Realizing I had lost I turned off the water, "lefty loosey, righty tighty" my hands are wet and slippery and it takes way too much effort to turn that knob but I get it done.

Now the fun part,

"Honey... I need to talk to you about the toilet..."

You should have seen his face.

"You did WHAT?"

It appears toilets are not on the top of his "fun projects around the house list" it has been 'out of order' with blue painters tape in an x across it for an entire week now.

ah... never a dull moment.