Beach Pictures

Just thought I'd share some beach pictures and memories.

Here are the kids all standing by the Currituck Sound. We stayed soundside in Corolla this year, and loved it. It was very peaceful by the beach house, despite being along the path to the sound. You'll see the kids and Mike walking the path.

All three kids loved the beach itself. We only went three times, since it involved a trolley trip and lugging lots of things. But each time the kids had a blast digging in the sand, splashing in the water and chasing the waves. Ben dug a big hole (and later turned it into a turtle); Reagan splashed in the water till it knocked her over (fully dressed!); and Tommy couldn't get enough of the sand tools and buckets.

We made our annual trek up down to Jockey's Ridge. Gotta love those (hot) sand dunes. Unfortunately the day we traveled to Nags Head/Kill Devil Hills/Kitty Hawk, it was 96 degrees! That sand just scalded our feet! Once we climbed the dunes, the breeze kept things cooler. One of our kites took off easily. It stayed high. However, this darned butterfly just wouldn't work. Once I finally got it aloft (barely, as seen in photo), I gave Tommy the string. What a nightmare! He didn't know how to keep it still. That kite carried the string away so quickly and so high... it went wild. Then when it was a few hundred yards away, it took a nosedive... practically onto the powerlines at Rt. 12! Well, I say practically because it missed the highway and landed in a tree! Mike finally rescued the poor kite after a long time of trying (all the while thinking of Charlie Brown). I snapped a shot of the dreaded tree (and you'll catch a glimpse of Mike gray shirt to the left of the tree.)

Here is a little video of the kids playing in the sand at the beach. They loved it. Just building whatever their little hearts felt like, and making friends along the way.

What a Vacation

Well, I haven't posted in weeks, I realize. We've been busy in a weird sort of way. Last week our family went to Corolla, NC, with my parents and my sister and brother-in-law. It was fun! However the week leading up to the vacation until now has been littered with crazy illnesses and weird medical problems.

Did you know....

• Pain in your gut on the left side can resemble gall bladder symptoms? (But after an ultrasound, it was temporarily ruled out... of course, the pain has also subsided so who knows.... that was me and I don't have time to run around to various tests for a pain that all-but-went away... so we'll see if it reoccurs.)


• Of any virus that gives an occasional weird bumpy and red rash on the face that comes and goes and brings along a fever of 103.9? It did not look like Fifth's Disease... the bumps were small, scattered and came and went all around the face and neck. It was diagnosed as coxsackie, or hand-foot-and-mouth-disease, but I have some doubt. (see the next question... this was Tommy)


• Such a virus can spread to an older sister, who was diagnosed with coxsackie back at age 3? (Yep, that was Reagan... and we thought she'd be fine since she already had it... thus why we question whether it was coxsackie at all.)


• That coxsackie (or whatever virus it was) can actually be transmitted to adults!? Yep, only no rash. Instead, it manifested itself as a horrible achy chills-and-fever virus in my parents. Fevers, chills, skin that hurts, achiness, sore throat, and in the case of my dad, bronchitis resulted. OK... we have no idea if this is related, but it's certainly fishy that Tommy and Reagan had something weird and then my mom and dad got something a little different, but weird nonetheless. Maybe we've found yet another new childhood illness to add to the list of new viruses that we learn about each day.


• That despite taking Miralax daily and regularly, a child with a tendency for severe constipation can get backed-up all over again? (TMI, I know... but we are revisiting this again with my daughter... today is cleanout day.)


• That you should KEEP baby gates up around exercise equipment even if your 3-year-old has never shown interest in them before? Yep. We removed the baby corral gate from the treadmill recently since it takes up so much space in the rec room. We always fold up the machine and pull out the key so no one can use the machine when the adults are away. Of course, we didn't realize that our 3 year old son would come over to the machine while I was on it and put his hand on the belt. He must have been curious, but instead of picking his hand up again, his little hand slid under the machine and got caught. (No, I didn't realize he was anywhere close enough to do this.) Anyway, poor little guy now has a bandaged hand with several "brushburns". To say the least, we will not be using the machine again while any child is remotely close by.


• That it only takes 5 minutes to glue in an orthodontic appliance? My oldest has stayed fairly healthy all this time (yay!), but went in yesterday for his new orthodontic appliance, a fixed "retainer" to help spread open the jaw and teeth. He was so nervous about how long it would take, worried about keeping his mouth open for so long. But, we were all amazed and happy to see that the glue "took" in just 30 seconds! The entire visit was about 5 minutes long. Whew. He's adjusting well, too, since it's not a lot bigger than the last retainer. In 3 weeks, he may begin the reverse-pull facemask to correct his underbite. None of us are looking forward to that. :0(

Thank goodness for health insurance!

Minivan Tripping with the Kids

Well, we are now 8 days from our summer vacation. We'll have a 6 hour+ drive to the beach. So, with three kids, I'm trying now to figure out some ways to keep them well entertained on the road. If you have ideas, feel free to comment! Other than the standard DVD system in the car (which works, but the headphones are iffy), Game Boys and games, and iPods... I'm trying to make sure I'm well-stocked in other areas as well. I know my kids love their TV and video games, but even they can't tolerate 6+ hours of them (I think).

So, I've spent much of the morning surfing the web printing out activity pages. Here are some sites where I found a lot so far. If I find more, I'll post them later:

http://www.momsminivan.com/ I love this site full of neat articles, great ideas and links to products for traveling, and more. I was able to find a "travel scavenger hunt" sheet that is perfect for the younger ones too. My rising-first grader can read, but not some of the words I found on the typical list. This sheet has pictures next to the words so she can play along too! I also found a list of the 50 states where you check off a state each time you see a license plate from there. I printed several sheets. My goal (ha ha ha) is to have my two oldest play together and compete against Nana and PapPap and Aunt Tracy and Uncle Tim... all of whom are caravaning down to the beach along with us.

Ratatouille Activity Book This is a 19 page coloring/activity book about the movie Ratatouille with coloring, mazes, dot-to-dot, and more.

www.puzzle-club.com This has some great wordsearches for the kids.

www.debidawn.com/puzzlegame.htm Lots of wordsearches and mazes and more to print out.

www.edhelper.com I was able to find a few math-review sheets in particular for the kids to practice. Somehow they like that!

www.wordlibs.com , www.madglibs.com These offer printable mad-libs for the kids to play with in the car.

www.printables4kids.com , www.freestuff4kids.net Neat printable pages and many more fun things for kids, including play money and links to great Kids' sites.

My neighbor Joanna just informed me of something available at our local library. (I must admit, we visit the library 2-3 times a year if we are lucky... that's something I need to start doing more often!) They are called PlayAways, listening devices completely loaded with books-on-tape. I just requested a few from our local library. Hopefully they'll be in by next week. The kids can listen to some favorite kids' books, while I attempt to learn a little Mandarin Chinese. When we travel in a couple of years, it would be nice to know a little of their language, huh?

We also recently realized that our kids' Game Boy Advance systems have "VIDEO"s available. They are full-length movies and/or cartoons that can simply be viewed on the GBAs on a cartridge similar to the games. So, I ordered a few of those on eBay too. They seem to be hard to find in stores, besides I usually like eBay prices. My youngest can't quite play a game yet, but he'll think he's big stuff listening to a movie on the GameBoy with headphones. :-)

I did a lot of searching and found things here and there, but the above were some of the most-used sites. If anyone has other ideas or more websites to check out, please leave me a message. I'd love to check them out.

Trapped Inside

It's officially going to 100 today (though for weeks our car thermometer has registered 100+ in the afternoon). Our backyard is currently painful to walk on (scorched brown grass due to drought and mandatory water restriction), it's way to hot to just go for a walk or to go to a playground, and we don't own a pool. So, today we're home all day. That's FINE by me. I need to get some things done around here anyway. But what to do with the kids. We've started restricting the amount of TV and computer time... I'm not usually very strict with it but lately there have been days the kids never left the screens! So, I encouraged them the other day to do a puzzle. I found about 20 boxes of puzzles in the basement that were still sealed shut! Seems for awhile they were asking for puzzles as gifts and then lost interest. So, we're now photographing all finished puzzles. I think they've done 4 or 5 now. Unfortunately with a 3 year old in the house who LOVES to mess things up, we're finding that by the time a puzzle is completed... even brand new ones... a piece or two are always missing. Oh well. They'll make for a funny scrapbook page if I ever get back to scrapping again. In the meantime, they're staying busy, working together, and using some thinking skills (right?)

A Funny Tommy Story

Last week, we were attempting to play Uno with Ben and Reagan. Both kids were tired and in that late-in-the-evening goofy zone. We managed to squeeze 15 minutes into the game, constantly reminding the kids of whose turn it was, etc. Tommy had been hanging around us, watching the game, looking at my cards and throwing out whatever card I told him to. Then suddenly, a very serious look came across his face. He started digging into the face-down pile of cards and pulled out about 20 cards. We said, "Hey, Tommy...." but he looked straight into Mike's face, shook his finger at him as if saying "uh uh uh" and said, totally straight-faced, "Need this, Daddy. I need this. I need this." Without even a grin, he proceeded to sit back down and hold his cards in his hands like we were. Mike and I giggled and figured out that Tommy wanted to play on his own and just realized that he had no cards. Then all four of us started to really laugh. Tommy, for the first time ever I think, realized he was the one we were laughing at, only he didn't mean to be funny. He used his hands to turn my face, looked me straight in the eye, shook his head and said, "NO FUNNY, Mommy, NO FUNNY." Poor kid. He was so darned cute, we had to laugh, but in his mind, he was 100% serious. I guess next time, Tommy gets to play UNO too.

Penny Pinching with Kids' Items

It's getting to be consignment sale time again. I just got the reminder email of the sale I participate in... set for mid-September. In this area, beginning in September, we have a consignment sale almost every weekend in our county... for 6-8 weeks straight. Love that! I only participate in selling at one of those sales, but will attempt to go to a couple during those months. My poor kids almost never own a brand new clothing item unless it is a gift, it's an immediate need, or I've found a NWT (new with tags) item on eBay or at a sale. Oh well, so far they are all under the age of 9, so no complaints as of yet. In fact, my daughter is beginning to appreciate the sales. Cheap clothing means more of it! She already owns more shoes than I do, I think.

During the summer, I usually just go to eBay for upcoming known needs (like next-size-up in jeans or "lots" of shirts.) Then the consignment sales usually cover whatever else is needed for the cold season... jackets, sweaters, etc. I just cannot see how people can actually afford to purchase all new wardrobes for their kids from department stores... or worse... brand name shops like Gymboree or Gap. Sure, sales racks can have deals, but c'mon. I don't even spend $60 on a 2 pc. outfit for myself, let alone someone 1/2 my size. Granted, the average home may only have 2 or 3 kids. But I know of many larger families (4, 5, or more kids)... how else can a typical middle class family afford to buy new clothes when kids turn over sizes 1-2 times a year?

About a year ago, I learned the benefits of VOLUNTEERING at these consignment sales. Volunteering at these sales never seemed "worth it" to me. I always consign clothes at one particular sale, but volunteering to work just didn't seem like it would pay off. Some sales offer higher percentages of sales to volunteers; others offer pre-sale buying opportunities. Higher percentages just didn't seem to be worth it when you only had a few things to sell. And pre-sale? It's just an hour before the consignor's sale. BUT.....

With a consignment sale, all sellers price their own items. So, a shirt may be priced $10 by one seller; $2 by another seller. If you are able to attend a pre-sale event for volunteers and/or consignors, you get first dibs on all the cheap clothing. Oh the deals you can find! With three kids and another "on the way someday", I spend forever looking through the racks during those sales, searching for those $2 items. I know my husband doesn't quite understand why I'm gone so long... but there is always a TON of things to look through. So, granted... spending 3 hours on a Saturday evening sorting clothing and tags for someone else (the owner) isn't my idea of great fun... it does pay off with those early sales if you are really scouring for deals!

So, let's see. I'm no expert in shopping for cheap, but I do have a few things I do to save us much as possible on clothing and toys for kids. Here are some ideas:

• Yard sales/garage sales: Granted, some sellers are ridiculous setting out off-brand clothing with high prices or just plain junky torn-up clothing. However, every so often, I hit the jackpot. Just this spring, I found a huge bin FULL of clothes in sizes for both of my boys (and even for our one-day-adopted girl... yes, I even stocked up a little for her) for 10 cents each. They were gorgeous! I got a Laura Ashley sundress, GAP clothes, Ralph Lauren sets and more. I think I paid $5 total and came home with 30 outfits. When the timing is right, Daddy gets to watch the kids for the morning, and Mommy grabs her wallet and hits the sales. April and May always seem to be the busiest months when neighborhoods will have their community sales... at least in this area.
• Consignment sales: Some are fundraisers for non-profit organizations (like MOPS), and some are owned by individuals for profit.... all are basically the same structure. People bring their used clothing, baby equipment, toys, etc. to the sale already priced (each sale has their own guidelines on how to do this). The organizers of the sale keep a percentage of the profit and mail out checks to the consigners. As I mentioned above, if you are a volunteer or consignor, you'll often get a better percentage of sales or earlier buying opportunities to snag the good deals. These usually occur in spring and fall... with an occasional one in the summer before school.
• eBay: I LOVE eBay! My mother-in-law introduced me to the site when my first son was born in 1999... she overheard people chatting at the post office. Well, now I'm almost at 2000 feedback... by no means a professional, but I've certainly had my fair share of transactions! In the beginning I found brand-name clothes and resold them. Now, most of my transactions are as a buyer. (My most recent deals: Brownie jumper, skort, skirt, and cardigan for my daughter... all in almost new condition... $42 total. They retail for almost $100)
• Thrift Stores: This is a tricky thing depending on what you have near you. I've been to a few stores where the selection is enormous... lots of brand name clothing cheap. I would walk out each time with garbage-bags full of clothes for $50. Then other smaller stores would be hit-or-miss if you find anything at all. Unfortunately those great stores I mentioned are back in the two states I USED to live in. Here, I don't have the same luck.
• Craigslist/Freecycle: These are two new venues to me. I now look daily at the recent listings... even several times daily if I can. I've sold furniture on Craigslist, but as of yet, have bought nothing. I've done nothing with Freecyle yet except sign-up. Part of me feels bad about snagging someone else's things for free (what if someone else really needs it more)... and then there's the fact that I'm sometimes just not quick enough.
• Passing Down/Trading: There always seems to be someone older than my kids that pass clothing down to us, and there always seems to be younger kids that we pass clothing down to. Even in the case of our adoption... I adore baby girls clothing. So when I see it in super good deals, I buy for my neighbor's daughter, simply asking that I get it back once our little girl arrives.
• Outlet Stores: This too is hit-or-miss. We are fortunate to have a pretty nice outlet mall within 15 minutes of our house. If we still need things after exhausting the above, I'll hit the Gap store or Old Navy for some cute trendy things for the kids.

In any case where you are looking through used clothing or toys, ALWAYS look carefully (unless the prices are so cheap you don't mind losing a few cents on stained clothing). If you're great with OxyClean, many stains can come out. But don't forget to look for missing buttons or holes or broken seams. And toys... be very cautious with baby toys. You don't want recalled toys or one that will injure your child. And always clean everything well before passing it along to your child.

Wow, that was a long entry. Sorry! Just thought I'd pass along some tips while I had the time. Time to go see where the kids wandered off. Tommy (3), is wearing his disposable swim diapers NOW... even though we don't leave for the pool for a couple of hours. Couldn't convince him to just wait. Now we have to be certain to avoid any accidents... swim diapers are just NOT cheap. Calling for 98 degrees today. I doubt we'll be at the pool for long today!

Super Easy Beer Bread

Just thought I'd add one of our favorite recipes. My sister Tracy was (is?) a Tastefully Simple consultant, and we fell in love with the Beer Bread mix! After beginning her new dog-biscuit business (see http://www.wagsnwigglesbarkery.com/), she hasn't been able to devote as much time to her TS business. So, I decided to try and find a simple beer bread recipe. I found a fantastic one on the community recipe swap board on Weight Watchers.

Easy Beer Bread

12 oz. beer
2 cups flour
3 T sugar

Mix all together. The batter will be fizzy for a short while, but will mix nicely in a few moments. Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes (we usually need to go as high as 40 minutes). Wah-lah. Simple, easy, yummy beer bread.

Just a note: any beer will do, and you can add spices to your liking. Who can complain about 3 ingredient bread? I tend to use Sierra Nevada Pale beer since it's what is on hand. With 8 slices per loaf, it's only 1 or 2 WW points per slice!

Brownies and Potty-Training

29 more days of summer. Our summer has been busy with VBS, swimming lessons, doctor's appointments, a trip to see my family in Pittsburgh, a 40th anniversary party for Mike's parents at our house, and a few fun days with friends... no big vacations yet. It doesn't seem like those events would've made time fly, but they did. On my off-days, I've been busy thinking "Brownies". My daughter Reagan simply loved her Daisy Scout troop last year. At the end of the school year, I agreed to start a new troop for the Brownies. Our Daisy troop already numbered in the teens, and another troop would help alleviate the large numbers. So, once my friends Traci and Lori promised to help me out, I registered with Girl Scouts. Did you know that even leaders (volunteers!) have to pay to register? I suppose that $10 won't kill me. :-)

Is anyone else out there a Girl Scout leader? Did you know ahead of time just how much was involved? I was warned, but still had no idea what I was in for. We haven't had our first meeting yet... not even a parents' meeting... and my mind is swimming with tons of information. My mom was a Brownie leader for 2 years when I was in second and third grades. I vaguely remember doing lots of crafts at a picnic table in my mom's basement (mostly because she helped plant that image in my brain recently). At the time, I had no idea (or appreciation for) how much time and effort she must have put into that troop. Whew... just the training alone! So now I can honestly say, "Thank you Mom". If your daughters are in troops, thank those leaders... and volunteer to help out!! :0)

I was extremely fortunate to have a great friend Kathleen who was bridging-up with her Brownies to Juniors. So, I inherited her books. "Thank you Kathleen!" With her help, I think I may actually be semi-prepared for the year. If any of you know me, you're probably thinking that this is actually right up my alley. Honestly (camping aside) this is! Crafts, activities, teaching, and organizational skills. Those are my interests in a nutshell. Finally my Master's degree in teaching will come in handy. (I got pregnant one month into my second year of teaching, 3 months before I finished my degree... I quit after Ben was born and had student loans till he was seven!)

If anyone has great websites to find neat Girl Scout information, please pass it on. I'm already excited about the Kaper Chart paperdolls (right, found at http://www.makingfriends.com/). See... told you I was made for this job. I'm 34 and excited about paper-dolls. The first week, I was already searching online for the "perfect tote bag" to carry my supplies to meetings. I never really found it... the ones I liked were $100+, so I settled on a cute brown and pink craft tote from AC Moore. I think Mike dreads my new adventures... it always results in more shopping. On my way home from my 3-hour Brownie training session, I stopped at a store and bought supplies to make things I learned about at the meeting. Oh, did I mention I'm a very impatient person, too?

On a completely different note... we're working on potty-training. I think I am the absolute worst potty-trainer in this entire world. When Ben was 18 months old, I was already hearing from my grandmother that all three of her boys were potty-trained by this point. He made it in the nick of time to start preschool... at 3 years, 3 months. When my daughter at age 2 (barely) decided she could pee in the potty, I thought I had it made! One year and six months later, she proved me wrong. That horrific year of hundreds of pull-ups, thrown-out panties, and complete frustration taught me nothing more than to wait with baby #3. And here we are. Tommy turned 3 in May. I kept putting it off and putting it off. Finally in July, we started. He is doing okay. In fact for the first 4 days, he was almost always dry when we took him to the potty. Then we visited my parents. Our trips to PA always entail lots of running around and stores and fun places. Potty-training was put on hold... and now we're back to square one. He will go EVERY SINGLE time he sits on the potty. He has amazing control. But somehow he just doesn't care about being wet. We've finally decided that Pull-ups just aren't cutting it. We need to move on. Does anyone know anything about training pants (cotton ones) that are pretty good, yet CHEAP? I saw some great recommended mom-made ones, but $25 apiece? Whew! If we were starting at age 2, perhaps. But I can't see that sort of an investment for a couple of weeks or months. Ugh. They need to have potty-training camps for 3 year olds.

School Supply Sales!

I cannot believe that our summer is nearly over! Four weeks till school. Fortunately for us we have a week at the beach squeezed in there. Because of that, I've been trying to square away the kids on school supplies and clothes NOW while I can. Yes, when I'm not totally losing my mind, I do try to do things ahead of time to be ready. This year I have one in third grade, one in first grade and one in preschool 3 days a week. Tommy, my youngest, doesn't need much... he has a ton of hand-me-downs. We're just working on potty-training these days. The older two, I think, are mostly set. We hit Kohls on Friday for the 2-day Mega sale, Kohls cash deal, no-tax weekend and 15% off coupon... all before we left town for the weekend. Everyone got new shoes, Mommy got a few new tops, and Reagan got new earrings! Woo Hoo... plus Mommy now has some "Kohls cash" money to spend next week!

Am I the only one that gets excited over School Supply deals? Crayons get broken easily, markers lose their tops, gluesticks dry up, and paper is used quickly in our home! Thus, come July/August every year, I watch those ads and STOCK UP! I currently have 15+ boxes of crayons (can't beat 20cents a box when they are normally closer to two dollars) along with many other supplies. Knowing my crafty, but careless kids... that should last till Christmas. LOL I'm currently watching for the WASHABLE markers to go cheap. As you may have seen in the last post, I have sworn off ever keeping another non-washable marker for the kids. Long story there. Let's just say that we have some beautiful hand-drawn murals on our carpet and walls nearest the little one's room!

Some other reasons to stock up on typical school art supplies:
Birthday gifts
Favors for future parties
Easy-to-grab entertainment for car-rides or doctor's visits
On-the-spot replacements when kids come home from school saying "My crayons are old and broken at school"
Brownie (scouting) supplies
Operation Christmas Child box supplies (ever price school supplies in October? no sales)
Christmas gifts for kids at women's shelters, etc.
Stocking stuffers!
Quick and easy gifts for siblings of newborn babies
Goodie bags for kids at holiday parties
Melting crayons for special molded Valentines or to make neat shapes for fun
Entertainment for visiting kids at dinner

Just grab a dozen or so boxes of crayons or markers and a few dollar-store coloring books or pads of paper, and you're set for all kinds of emergencies.

Things we never thought we'd say or see

This is a blog about our life.

Mike and I sat here tonight discussing a good name for a blog. Rather than come up with a simple straightforward name, we wanted something that just screamed "This is our life!"

Just yesterday we were laughing over an article by Gene Weingarten in the Washington Post. He comes up with "Googlenopes". Basically it means that until he writes them in his articles, they are a string of quoted words that result in no hits on Google. Some examples: "My grandchildren are so ugly" or "hot cheese sundae" or "Pizza with Condoleeza". Alas, we cannot claim that our blog is a Googlenope. In fact, it is even a title of a book! No... we didn't know that ahead of time. I indeed tried Googling our blog title to see if it was a Googlenope and had 851 hits! Apparently we are not the only ones that have problems with Italian dishes flying vertically. Still, we decided to keep the name. If you forget that we use blogspot, you'll just have to search through 852 hits to find the correct link to our blog. So, put it in your favorites now. LOL

Despite the fact that others have said these words, they are definitely four words we never would've strung together 8 years ago ... before kids. As we contemplated the other possible names for the blog, we realized a lot of them were things we'd never really say either. So I thought I'd list a few of our possible titles (and a few that really didn't come close). Some may speak for themselves. Some may confuse you. A few may make our closest friends and family burst out laughing. In any case, brainstorm and just see how creative you can be in figuring these out:

Potatoes and Pinecones
A Clock, a President and a Train Engine
Handprints on the Wall
Blue Fingerprints
Our Smurfs
Inspector is Coming; Two Weeks Till Closing
Hole in the Wall
Why We Paint
Why We Paint... a LOT!
Sharpies on the Carpet
Washable Markers From Now On!
What's Dripping?
This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
Toilet, Floors and Drywall... and It's Only May!
Orthodontics, Ophthamology, and Orthopedics
51 Toes
Why Do Our Parents Chuckle So Much?
Why is Grandma Laughing?
How to Raise a Fry Cook
Training Wheels and Swim Floaties
A Chatterbox, a Princess, and a Maniac
Plastic Dixie Cup
Did You Know ER Doctors Dress Up on Halloween?
Brown Noodles
Poptarts and Pie Cookies
Graffiti
Get Home Now or Find Someone Who Can
Guess What I'm Looking At!
8:00 PM Sigh
My Hands are Backwards
Whose Poop is This?
Secret Six, Brownies and Heroes
White Jeans and Kids

Oh, I'm sure if I sat here for hours, I could come up with hundreds more. But, it's late, and tomorrow is another day. Sure... some of the above statements can make our blood pressure rise, but we wouldn't want our life any other way.