Again, you are all so sweet. Thanks for the words of encouragement. It is heartwarming to read your comments.

We could not get in with the specialist until June 19 so until then we are just trying to eat extra healthy and stepping up the activity. Thank God it is starting to get warmer out!

In other news, Sam came home from his mom's this weekend with a drum set. He has been taking drum lessons and asking for a set of his own and apparently his mom found a good deal on Craig's List. Bet the parents of the guy he bought them from were happy to be rid of them. They are loud! And when I say loud, I mean LOUD. I guess usually when I hear drums being played it is in a loud bar or a very big space. In my little house they are LOUD. Lol. It's kind of maddening and kind of cute. Being the much younger after thought kid growing up our house was always really quiet so in some ways I enjoy the chaos. In other ways, I want to crawl into a padded sound proof room and read by myself ;)

Follow up to Yesterday's Post

You guys are much kinder to me than I am to myself. Thank you. Even if I'm not sure I'm so noble, it is nice to hear.

I am getting info in bits and pieces and here is what I got today.

Her cholesterol is very high for a 9 year old, but everything else is good (liver, glucose, etc...) so the specialist apparently is going to help us to figure out what kind of diet and exercise plan would be best for her. So actually, in a weird way, this is a good thing because it is going to force the other people in her life to get on board with this. The doctor suggested that those individuals go with us to the specialist so that they can be involved and held accountable. Dave and I are very committed to making this happen and will not tolerate anymore dissension in the ranks. In his words, "This is a battle we will win."

She is okay. I don't think she really understands what is going on right now. I mean can a 9 year old really grasp the fact that she is in danger of having a heart attack?

I am philosophical about this. It isn't fair, but I have been thinking about it and everyone has a burden to bear in her life (I'm sure you would all agree with this as I know most of you and can attest to the burdens you are bearing). Her burden is that she got shafted on the mom front and she can't just eat whatever she wants. I was talking to her about this last night and telling her about all the wonderful blessings she has. She is so smart. School is a breeze for her. She is so outgoing and friendly. Everyone loves her. She has the most beautiful hair I have ever seen. It is thick and gorgeous. And then I told her about the burden I had to bear growing up. I had terrible acne and for many years I let that define who I was. Her brother thinks his ears stick out. Dave won't let me blog about his burdens, but trust me, he has them. And, as I also explained to her, some people, even little people, have to deal with things like cancer and death. And if you compare it to that, eating healthy and exercising is minor.

I feel more optimistic about it today. Thanks for letting me blather on about it. You all are the best.

This is Hard to Talk About

But before I do, I would like to clarify something about Captain Kirk that I said in my previous post. I said that Captain Kirk hasn't been this sexy in a long time speaking about the new Captain Kirk from the original Star Trek series. I did not mean to imply that the William Shatner Captain Kirk wasn't sexy, only that it has been a long time since Captain Kirk has tickled my fancy. This new updated Kirk definitely made me a little tingly.

Okay, now that I have that out of the way I would like to say that it took 5.7 seconds for my life to get back to crazy after we returned from vacation and I would now like another one.

So here is the hard to talk about thing. My stepdaughter has a weight problem-she is 9 years old. This is something that has been a big strain since the kids first came into my life because I grew up with a very health conscious mother and I feel that I have a pretty realistic (if not obsessive) idea of what is required to maintain a healthy lifestyle. She was 5 when Dave and I started dating and it (the weight problem) had already started at that point. Without trashing on her mother too much, lets just say that she stopped mothering when Bec about a year or more before she actually left. Again without trashing on her too much, she left her 4 yr old daughter and 9 year old son with their father and just moved out to do her own thing. During recent conversations with the kids I have learned that the little one has little recollection of her mom and dad being together but has a very clear memory in her head of the night her mommy left. As told to me, "Mommy came in and told us goodnight [the kids were in bed for the night] and that she was leaving." That would be leaving as in moving out.

Okay, so I'm getting a little off topic except to say that it is my personal opinion that this child eats because food is the one thing her mommy always gave her. It is also my personal opinion that her mommy gave her whatever food she wanted because that was the easiest thing to do so that she did not have to deal with her.

So anyway, why am I posting about this? Well, the kids have been living with us now for three years and the weight thing hasn't gotten any better. In fact, I think it has gotten worse. Okay well, I know it has gotten worse. I thought I could lick it myself, but with the kids going to their mom's on the weekends and with some other people who the kids spend time with, we were just managing for it not to get worse. But all of the sudden it seemed to get worse.

She has been going to a family doctor who has not seemed concerned about it so this year I made her an appointment with a new pediatrician (mind you I have no legal rights to this child). The pediatrician noted the severity of the situation and ordered a blood test.

Diagnosis for my 9 year old stepdaughter - high cholesterol. The doc is referring us to a pediatric cardiologist. WTF.

So this next part, I'm just keeping it real so please don't judge me too harshly for what I am about to say.

I'm disgusted. I'm disgusted with her mom and her grandma for not getting on board with us on the eating thing earlier. I'm pissed and resentful that this is somehow my problem to deal with because I had fell in love with a guy with kids. I wish that I didn't care and that I could just say, "oh well, not my kid." But I can't. I worried about what this is going to cost us. I have pretty decent health insurance, but it doesn't cover everything and meds are expensive and lord knows what the specialist is going to run. I'm worried that people are going to think this is my fault when in fact it is a problem that I inherited.

And, I'm terribly worried about the kid. I have no details yet on how serious this is. And I'm sorry that a 9 year old kid has to be cognisant of the fact that she is overweight and is going to have to come to terms with the fact that while all her friends are eating McDonald's french fries and drinking milkshakes, she can't. The whole thing is bullshit.

Nerd Family Values

My Sci Fi nerd husband and I took our future nerd kids to see the first showing the of new Star Trek last night. Did this mean the 9 year old was up past her bedtime and didn't take a bath last night? You betcha. But for this nerd family it was totally worth it. No, we did not wear Star Trek costumes, nor do we own any. Of course, if I had ever been able to locate a frickin' comm badge I would have worn that.

In case you are new to my blog, let me recap for you. In the almost three years Dave and I have been married we have Netflixed and watched all seven seasons of Star Trek THG and all seven seasons of Star Trek Voyager. Plus we have been dabbling in the original series. I truly did marry my soulmate.

Okay, to recap: Four big thumbs up for the newest Star Trek movie; Captain Kirk has never been so sexy (sorry Mr. Shatner but it's true) and my husband and I are big nerds trying to raise two future nerd kids.

Thank you, have a nice day.

Pictures as Promised

So Dave and I had planned on taking a vacation to one of the Caribbean Islands as a sequel to our St. Lucia honeymoon. But our passports took a lot longer to show up and I wasn't having a whole lot of luck finding what I felt was a sufficient deal. While I really really really (and I can't stress this enough) really, wanted to go on vacation, I told Dave it wasn't going to happen. He said he didn't care if he had to sell one of his kidney's that I was to plan something. So I starting looking for places inside the US and lo and behold, I found a phenomenal deal at The Royal Palms Resort in Phoenix, AZ. Arizona wasn't my first choice since it is no where near the ocean, but the deal was too good to pass up. And I knew it was pretty much a sure thing that it would be warm.

So we booked it and we went. And we got there and I shut down. Literally. Usually we are pretty big into sightseeing. We love museums and parks and battlefields, etc.... So I guess I was more worn out than I realized because we got there and I parked my butt at the pool are barely left the resort. Dave hiked Camelback with my brother (who lives in Phoenix) and I went to the spa for a mani and pedi. He did manage to drag me out one day to the Air Force museum and the whole time I just wanted to get back to the resort. Anyway, I read two books and it was heavenly. We really enjoyed just spending some down time with each other.

I've attached some pictures so you can see how pretty the resort was.


This was our little private patio right outside our room. It was in the high 90's/low 100's every day. The last day we were there we ordered room service for breakfast and ate at that table.

This is one of the courtyards at the resort. They had several weddings there the first weekend we were there. That mountain you see is Camelback which is where Dave hiked. He went to the top and was pretty proud of himself.

This is another courtyard where at night you can sit and have drinks. Did anyone else know that you can get Absinthe in the US now? I had my first taste of it here and it was gross. I did not see the green fairy.
I don't have any cute pictures of us together because we really didn't do anything. This is our traditional self portrait. I thought it was cute even though half of my face is cut off.