It was a nice, semi-relaxing weekend at our house.
No sports, thanks to fall break. C was supposed to run at the City meet, but her foot pain never fully went away so she chose not to run. Kind of a bummer end to her season. M had finished her cross country season a week before. We are proud of her for sticking with it, as it was a very tough and humbling experience for her. But it served the purpose of helping her to settle in as a freshman and make new friends. We’re pretty sure she won’t run in the future, and are fine with that.
No homework, again thanks to fall break. M’s first quarter ended a week or so ago. We’re still not sure how grades work in high school; do they get proper report cards or do you just check online? We wonder because her first quarter grades have adjusted a couple times since the end of the quarter, so we’re not sure if everything is locked in or not. Regardless, she absolutely rocked her first quarter of high school. She has the best grades she’s ever had and seems to be really enjoying her classes and most of her teachers.
No football Friday, thanks to terrible weather. M hung out with some friends and we took C, L, and a friend bowling.
Saturday evening we went to a local beer hall/barbecue joint to meet our old neighbors for dinner and enjoy the Oktoberfest celebration. It was a perfect, cool mid-fall night for hanging with friends.
Sunday C joined the group of friends she will be trick or treating with to work on their costumes. They are going as 20-some of the 101 Dalmatians.
We had our last swims of the year Thursday night before I turned the heater off in advance of the pool closing process that begins tomorrow. L and I swam for about an hour then watched a movie on the outside TV with the fireplace on. That, my friends, was a outdoor living space triple crown!
This morning I had to kick the furnace on to take the chill out of the air. As always, it is a quick transition from air conditioning weather to furnace weather in Indiana. Hopefully we get a nice, long stretch of normal fall weather and don’t advance straight to coat weather like we did last year.
And I know the question you’re all answering is how is my poison ivy and associated issues? Good news is the rashes are almost completely gone. Looking at my arms, legs, and stomach you would barely know they had been covered in sores just a couple days ago. The downside is that I itched so much and so long that I still have itching spells despite the rash getting knocked down. S said sometimes when you get hit this hard, it takes awhile for your body to realize it doesn’t actually itch anymore. I’m feeling much better today. Especially since I was finally able to sleep last night. Since I started steroids I was getting 3–4 hours of sleep per night, but never more than 90 consecutive minutes. Sunday I was feeling pretty wiped out, but thank goodness I, more or less, slept through the night last night. I did wake several times all itchy, but could get back to sleep rather than lay there for two hours waiting for exhaustion to take over again.
I also had a rather scary 12 hours or so from overnight Saturday to midday Sunday when my heart beat was all erratic. S thinks it was a combination of the steroids, lack of sleep, and having several drinks when we went out that made my heart rebel a little. There were never any other issues, like shortness of breath or chest pain, and it has not come back. It was more annoying than anything, but anytime your heart starts misbehaving it is bound to get you a little nervous. Especially since both my dad and his dad had heart issues later in their lives.