Musings from Me on Kids, Preteens, and Teens: Seizing Family Time

Quadriceps Tendinopathy…Don’t Worry I’ve Never Heard of It Either

Jill Berry — Sat, 18 May 2013 13:00:30 +0000

I wish I could claim that my botched knee is a sports injury…unless driving the carpool counts as a sport…

Have I mentioned that I have a gammy knee? I’m quite gimpy. I can’t straighten it at all. I cannot remember injuring my knee. Just noticed one day last week that I couldn’t fully straighten my knee. After 2 days of full-on limping and a week of hobbling, I saw my doctor on Thursday of last week. Didn’t see my actual doctor who is out on surgical leave, but saw another doctor in the same practice but in a neighboring town.

The confusion and mayhem (sort of) of finding the new doctor’s office is post worthy. Suffice it to say by the time I hobbled out of my car into the office after parking in two different locations and circling the medical office building twice before I actually found the right office, I was exhausted and my knee was killing me. Oh and did I mention that the office parking lot has a steep spot near a couple of dumpsters where it feels as though you are driving on the banked turning corner of a race track? I thought my car would overturn. Luckily I didn’t have to park on the steep corner as I would surely have fallen over as I hobbled on my botched knee to the doctor’s office.

Kids all came home on Friday after school. The weekend lay ahead of us. I drove the carpool or maybe I didn’t…at this point in the school year everything is just a bit hazy about driving and school and sports schedules. I’m in the end-of-the-year fog. Not even bothering to clear a path in front of me, just blindly plowing through the fog to get to the end-of-the-school year. Blinders on, dragging my right leg, full steam ahead.

So Friday was normalish. I think I even cooked dinner?! I know! Cooking and Friday night and me are not usually used in the same sentence. My family enjoyed what I cooked…at least they didn’t hate it…which is a win in my book. I “think” we had activities that evening. Again it’s all a bit of a haze.

So Friday after getting home from driving the carpool it NEVER occurred to me to check my home answering machine. No one calls except for charities and telemarketers. Not even my parents or my husband’s parents leave messages…all of them call and leave messages on our cell phones. Anyway, I wandered in to the kitchen to make dinner at 4:45 p.m. only to see the flashing light. I KNEW it was the doctor calling back about my x-ray. Sure enough. I was asked to call back for the results of my x-ray. And of course the office CLOSED at 4 p.m. Of course it did.

So bam. Just like that my evening and really the entire weekend was off kilter. I was still in full-on hobbling mode. Still needed to know if I needed to see a specialist? Get an MRI? Buy crutches? The doctor’s answering service sadly was not able to give out test results. I knew I was going in to the weekend in a state of not knowing what was wrong with my knee. UGH. More limping around. A day later I noticed that the doctor had left a message on my cellphone. Why didn’t I hear the phone ring? Phone was probably buried in my bag. Don’t you hate when you miss an important call?

I called back bright and early on Monday…this week is my week to drive morning carpool so I am up and about EARLY whether I like it or not. Ooof. The verdict on my knee? I have Quadriceps Tendinopathy…don’t worry I’ve never heard of it either.

The SportsInjuryClinic.com can explain it better than I ever could:

Quadriceps Tendinopathy

Overuse can cause pain and inflammation of the quadriceps tendon as it inserts into the top of the kneecap.
Over time this can lead to degeneration of the tendon.

Symptoms of Quadriceps Tendinopathy

Pain during and after exercise.
Pain on contracting the quadriceps muscles.
Pain can also be felt when pressing in along the top of the kneecap.
Stiffness the day after training can also occur.
Pain when standing from a crouched position.

Unfortunately, there is no quick fix for me. I was told by the tech to ice, elevate, rest, take ibuprofen, and do nothing over the next two weeks. Rest? Though I am not a super athletic type, the idea of resting makes me chuckle. Me? Rest? Pfft! I’m either in my van or at my desk or at a kids’ event. I’m rarely just resting.

The “overuse” part is puzzling to me. How exactly does a person who is either driving or behind a desk or waiting at an activity overusing ANY body part? I have no idea how I overused my knee, except that the limping is getting old. The icing and elevating is working. I’m making myself rest.

It’s Officially My Birthday Event…Seeing the New Iron Man #ironman3 #seizingfamilytime

Jill Berry — Sun, 12 May 2013 13:00:03 +0000

I have vague memories of new movies…first run movies. Seeing those movies on opening weekend or shortly thereafter. Watching the Oscars and realizing I had seen ALL of the nominated movies. My husband and I would hear about a new movie. One call to our friends and whammo we had a date to see the latest release. We’d line the grandparents up to babysit and we were off to the movies.

Pre-kids and even for a few years post-kids we had a standing Saturday night date once a month to do dinner and a movie with friends or by ourselves. Not so lately. We are lucky if we see one movie a year in the theater. Most movies we see on DVD or through Netflix. Kids’ activities and our work schedules make planning a movie night beyond challenging. There is one exception. My birthday!

On or around my birthday we have historically seen a first run movie. Once we saw a new Imax film at the Udvar Hazy Air and Space Museum in northern Virginia. Last year we saw The Avengers. As an adult, I’ve found that my birthday is squeezed in between all the other stuff going on in our lives. A lighting of the birthday cake. The admiring of the homemade cards from the kids…and that’s about the extent of the birthday celebration for moi. Except for the annual viewing of a first-run movie in the theater!

Tomorrow night we are taking the kids to see Iron Man 3 for my birthday and I couldn’t happier!

I Can See the End of the School Year…Just Barely

Jill Berry — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:48:50 +0000

Remember when you were in elementary school and your mom told you that the school year was almost over? You probably had a so-so handle on the concept of time. You probably asked every day if today was the last day of school. Your mom probably deeply regretted mentioning that the end-of-the-school year was close at hand. To you summer was here and school was over. You probably bounded on and off the bus each day. One day closer to freedom. You daydreamed in class about sun, fun, and playing all day long. Thought about anything but schoolwork at school. Your mom couldn’t get you to do your homework with any amount of effort or determination. The school year was to all intents and purpose over…finit…a done deal.

That’s the end-of-the-school year from a kid’s perspective. Now if we are talking about how mom or dad feel about the school year ending it is a different story. I’m the adult dealing with three kids who are in varying states of end-of-school year-itis. Pray for me that I make it to June without tearing my hair out. I’m gearing up for summer for sure, but the school year for me is still in full swing. We have events to attend, projects to do, poster boards to assemble. I see no end in sight…just yet.

My kids on the other hand think the year is over. My youngest is in full-on homework avoidance. Forget about music practice. He’s ready to be done with the year. My middle finishes school over a week before the other two and she has not let them forget about it. She reminds them every day…every single day. Her last day of school will spell doom and gloom for my youngest. He’ll be a bear to get to school once his sister is off school for the summer. Yikes I’m dreading waking him up for school once she is not going to school!

One source of stress for me this year has been driving. Specifically driving the carpool. After years of kids riding the school bus, it was a shock of unimaginable force to have one kid at a school without bus service. I took that beautiful yellow school bus for granted. I didn’t appreciate the joy of seeing the bus pull up each day at the end of my driveway and watching my kid hop happily on board and while I walked back in to my house knowing I would not have to drive anyone to school. Ahhh…those days were good. I still have two riding the yellow school bus.

I drifted in to the whole carpool situation with the thought that a carpool was easy to set up. Amateur. Yes…laugh now…I was just that naive. Almost a school year later and more texts, emails, calls, and IRL conversations about logistics of the carpool than I care to remember, my carpooling days are ALMOST over for the school year.

Though I may not want summer to come as much as my kids, I DEFINITELY want the driving to end. Now don’t get me wrong I love my fellow carpooling moms and dads and even grandpas to death. Without people like them willing to agree to drive carpool, I would be stuck driving 35 minutes each way twice a day to get my daughter to school. Shuddering and sweating just typing that sentence. I would not have survived if I had to drive her to school each day. So as the school year comes to an end so does the carpool. The last schedule of driving was emailed yesterday. I have one more full week of driving mornings and about a week of driving afternoons before we collectively put the brakes on the carpool for the 2012-2013 school year.

Wordless Wednesday: Movies to Work By

Jill Berry — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:58:24 +0000

Growing Up with @MilkshakeBand’s Creative and Catchy Tunes

Jill Berry — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:56:03 +0000

I was sent the Milkshake CD — Got a Minute?, but was not compensated to write this post. The views expressed in this post are my own. Some links in this review are to my amazon affiliate account.

When I was first blogging…back in the Dark Age of Blogging…2009…I was asked to review a CD for a band. The name of the band was VERY familiar to me. You see back way before the Dark Ages of Blogging. Yes, there did indeed exist a world before high speed internet and FIOS. I refer to this era as the Stone Age of the Internet. My children cannot imagine a world where you had intermittent internet and downloading a song or a file took forever.

Back in those pioneer days in the early 2000s, I took my daughters to see a children’s band at a local library as part of an end-of-summer celebration. My girls LOVED Milkshake. They happily danced and sang. The energy of Milkshake’s Lisa Mathews and Mikel Gehl and their bandmates was infectious. I was soon dancing too! My daughters were 6 and 4. Milkshake was their first concert!

The kids loved Milkshake so much that we drove home that day listening to the Happy Songs CD. That CD was a staple for years. Many a day I would pull out one of the Milkshake CDs to chase the blues away. I can sing some of their songs after only hearing one or two notes. Soon my girls moved on Disney and High School Musical CDs and whatever music they found on iTunes, but Milkshake was still a favorite in our house because of my youngest child. The beauty of Milkshake’s music is that it is timeless. Fun songs with catchy lyrics that are great for family sing-a-longs.

When my youngest was about 6 we saw Milkshake live twice. The first time we caught a super cool live show taped at the Sirius FM Studios in D.C. Though my girls were a bit reluctant to go they enjoyed watching the process for taping a show that would later be broadcast. My son was fascinated that the drummer had his own private room. We could see him drumming, but his music was muted so that he wouldn’t overpower the rest of the band. Later that summer, my son and I caught ANOTHER Milkshake show…this time at a local shopping mall. We are definitely Milkshake groupies!

I’m excited to let you know that Milkshake just released a new CD. Got a Minute? is the latest CD available for $14 at the MilkshakeMusic.com Store. We’ve listened to the CD quite a bit. Got a Minute? is Milkshake’s fifth CD for kids and was released in early 2013. Of the whopping 33 short songs on the CD: there are 13 songs that were written in 2006 for PBS KIDS, and 20 new ones. Most of the songs are under two minutes…perfect length to get your child up and moving and eager for the next song to come on.

Milkshake sees Got a Minute? as a retrospective of childhood from toddler to tween. I can relate to this as my oldest is a teen. I find myself frequently saying “Where did the time go?” Co-produced by Dave Nachodsky, Got a Minute? is a “perfect coda to the Milkshake catalog” as it features many special guests and runs the gamut genre-wise to cover kids’ exceptionally big and growing musical tastes. Songs on Got a Minute? include:

Got a Minute? — the title track — Click here to listen.
Baltimore
Lookin’ Out the Window of My Car
We Just Wanna Have Fun
Girls Wanna Dance
Starry, Starry Night
Tip Toe Thru the Tulips
Workin’ Kid Blues
Home
Washing Machine
And more

You can purchase this new CD, other CDs, and related Milkshake Band merchandise (including balls, t-shirts, and tutus) on their website’s Store: MilkshakeBand.com. Or you can find Got a Minute? on amazon.com…on CD or on MP3.

Messing About in Boats

Jill Berry — Wed, 01 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

My son and I got DRENCHED on a water ride at Hershey Park!

Is there anything more fun than being near the water?

As a kid, I have vivid memories of playing at Cheesequake Park somewhere in New Jersey. There was a sandy beach on the edge of the lake. At least I think it was a lake? And was the park actually called Cheesequake Park?! Who knows. But what I do remember is playing by the water’s edge, swimming, and having BBQs on the beach. My mother would bring what she describes as the most compact picnic for those BBQs:

hot dogs
hot dog rolls
ketchup
bag of chips
watermelon
bottle of juice
cups, plates, and paper towels.

She was in charge of the supplies, while my dad was the chief griller. We used those large metal grills that you find at state parks. So probably my mother brought a roll of tin foil as well. Can you tell I’m not from America originally? Even after all these years, it is “tin foil” not “aluminum foil.” I also remember my dad bringing a teeny Hibachi grill when we traveled as well as a bag of charcoal briguettes and a lighter. Here’s my question…how long did we have to wait before the grill was safe to put back in the car? Seems like a fire hazard to me!

Another fond memory from my childhood was building a sailboat with my dad. My dad traveled a great deal…sometimes gone for 2 or 3 days a week. When he came home, we would hours building, sanding, and painting the boat over the weekend. We sailed that boat for years. Joined a yacht club. Entered races. And even helped manage a 24-hour sailboat race at our yacht club. We had great fun messing about in boats.

When my parents moved to their new home, the boat moved with them. For a while it was in the backyard. There was talk of planting flowers in it. It was a 10-foot sailboat with a very deep hull. My dad worried that the boat would become a magnet for mosquitoes. So he left it there where it eventually rotted. The Holy Mackerel was one excellent sailing craft!

What is your favorite water activity? Sprinkler? Sailing? Swimming? Water play?

Why I NEED To Go to Cybher and London! #UKSoFab

Jill Berry — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:48:54 +0000

Catching a cab in London AND riding in the rear-facing jump seats!

From time to time, I like to share fun stuff with my readers…his is one of those times. Collective Bias — a PR company I happen to love to work with– is sponsoring the Cybher conference in London on June 1st, 2013. Which is cool…very cool…but the icing on the cake is they are taking one lucky Sofab (Social Fabric is Collective Bias’ blogging community) member along for the ride. Collective Bias will select a winner who will receive airfare, 3 nights accommodations, and a ticket to the Cybher conference. And I want to be that winner! Fun, right? Also Collective Bias’ Courtney and Kim will be going as well as several other CB employees. If you have spent any time with ANY of the Collective Bias people, you know CB is a class act.

So I am definitely applying to attend Cybher in London. You see I have two reasons for wanting to attend Cybher…one, I want to meet the growing UK SoFab community of bloggers and brands and two, I want to visit my home! That’s right…I was born and raised a few hours north of London…in Manchester. Attending Cybher would let me learn about the culture of the blogosphere in the UK…while I have blogged for about 5 years…I’m very much a U.S. blogger though I would love to get to know my U.K. brethren.

Wastin’ time at Big Ben

I took my family a long with my parents to England a few years ago. I was so excited to show my children “Where Mommy grew up” and “Where Mommy went to school” or should I say “Mummy”! That trip was the first trip to England for my kids and my first trip back since the early 90s. The reason for the long time between trips is money. Simply put, traveling overseas is so expensive. There are the airfares, hotels, and of course, transportation. We scrimped and saved and made the trip happen for ourselves and our kids. My parents who had not been back to the U.K. since the early 200s joined our traveling party. The grandparents were VERY excited to see England through the eyes of their grandchildren.

Upon arriving in London, our first stop was the hotel…after a ride in a London cab…see photo above. We were EXHAUSTED…like toothpicks holding eyelids kind of exhausted. No sleep happened on the transatlantic overnight flight for any of us…except my 5-year-old who sang to himself for part of the flight and snoozed like a baby for the majority of the flight. When we arrived at the hotel, we took shifts staying awake so that our 5-year-old wasn’t surrounded by sleeping people.

After a power nap once we checked in to the hotel room, we were ready-ish to start our trip. While the grandparents relaxed in their room, I met up with an old school friend for an Indian meal. I hadn’t seen my friend since the 90s…so it was very special to spend time with her. Indian restaurants are as plentiful as Italian and Chinezse restaurants are in this country. Delicious food!

The day after arriving we ventured on to the London Underground at the Hammersmith stop…I don’t remember what line it was on. Each day we took the London Underground to Westminster Abbey on day, Hampton Court Palace another day, the British Museum on yet another day.

One of our all-time favorite things to do when arriving in a new city is to take a double decker bus tour. My son was very interested in anything with wheels…buses, taxis, trains…it didn’t matter he was in his element. We spent two days hopping on and off the double decker tour bus. On our last two days in London we visited the Tower of London…learned about beheadings, prisoners, and jewels…Hampton Court Palace…learned about Henry VIII, pomp and circumstance, and the Royal way of life…Madame Tussaud’s…saw some amazingly realistic wax works of very famous people and some not-so-famous-because-they-are-British people…very fun showing my kids a place where I spend many happy hour as a kid.

Cruising on the London Eye

Before we left London, we rode the London Eye. Wow! I was part enthralled…part terrified of heights…and part excited…all rolled in to one! After 4 days in London, it was off to my hometown. I was sad hat we couldn’t stay longer but since our trip was only 10 days we had to budget what days we spent in which city.

Our trek to the north of England was GREATLY complicated by our lack of a rental car. A certain well-know car rental company let us down not once but twice…as we were a party of 7 we had planned to rent two rental cars, but sadly this company let us down. And so began our journey to Manchester then to Stratford-upon-Avon and back to London Heathrow by bus, train, and taxi.

To say that traveling by public transportation with 7 people, 13 suitcases, 7 carry on bags was a nightmare is an understatement. My plans to show the kids my old elementary school, high school, home, and places I loved from my childhood in Manchester became one single, solitary, long, and dificult bus ride to and from my old school. You know what they say about the best laid plans! Ugh! But at least we were able to see family for a lovely Sunday lunch, friends for pub grub, and of course, tour the home of my hometown soccer team…Manchester United! You see there is always a bright spot to any trip. My son was a little bored with some of the museums, but he LOVED touring Old Trafford, home of the Red Devils!

I was not compensated for this post, but this post will be used as my method of entry or the Collective Bias Cybher contest. The views expressed in the post are my own.