spring break – Tracey at Home

“Her normal life pleased her so well that she was half afraid to step out of its frame in case one day she should find herself unable to get back.” Jan Struther from “Mrs. Miniver Comes Home”.

I was a little worried about what life would be like after Spring Break. Would I be able to resume my yoga and writing and ten thousand steps? So far the answer is yes! And that was despite horrible allergies that led to a sinus infection.

I have also been so very tired and very impatient, a result probably linked to my thyroid. It seems every spring when my allergies start up my thyroid symptoms return. So far I have been able to push through my days but I go to bed really early. Most nights I am asleep between 8:30 and 9:00p. My eating habits are horrible. All I want to do is eat and eat junk food. I am not hungry in the slightest and I find myself foraging around the kitchen looking for candy or cookies. It has been really bad. It is a real challenge to distract myself from food. I am blaming this on my thyroid too.

Just knowing that I feel bad because of my thyroid helps. I use to think I was losing my mind or a really mean, terrible person or incredibly lazy. I have to remind myself that this is a chronic condition, that I will have bad days or off days. Yesterday I only walked nine thousand steps because I wanted to try and save some energy for my bowling night. It didn’t work but at least I tried something.

So now I have done what you are not supposed to do. I found an old bottle of lower dose thyroid medication and increased my dosage by the same increment my doctor usually increases it. And we will see what happens. If I feel better then I know I need to go to the doctor and get tested and officially get my dosage adjusted. And if I don’t feel better? I don’t even want to think about that.

In the meantime I will keep walking on the treadmill and working on my latest project (to be revealed in a future blog post!). I have also requested “The Omnivores Dilemma” from the library in the hopes that reading about healthy eating will actually help me eat healthier. The book is by Michael Pollan and I already read “In Defense of Food” and found it very enlightening. I will try to enjoy this last month of my school routine. Yup, my son’s school gets out mid-May and then I get to develop a new rhythm for my days, which of course will really be our days. I am looking forward to our days together. I hope my thyroid cooperates.

For Spring break this year my husband and I decided to take our 7 year old for his second trip to Disneyland. I wasn’t real excited about going and not sure why. Our first trip 2 years ago was great and I surprised myself by what I good time I had.

One should listen to that little voice though.

The first potential problem was Ethan getting sent home from school on Thursday with 102 temperature. Okay, we weren’t leaving until Sunday so he had time to get well. Yes, it was hard getting everything done and taking care of a sick child, but we made it happen.
The second piece of bad news: while checking the park hours I discovered ‘The Matterhorn’ and ‘Peter Pan’ (among others) were closed for refurbishment. The first two rides we had planned to ride, ‘ The Matterhorn’ and ‘Peter Pan’. Seriously? Seriously. I kid you not.
The final straw: Standing in line to enter the park I am studying my ticket. The ticket my husband had bought 4 days previously on-base. Black-out dates? “Uh, husband, what is today’s date?” I ask in a panic. Yup, the tickets could not be used the 2 weeks around Easter or the two weeks after Christmas. Oh crap.

There is no way one can take a 7 year old to the entrance of Disneyland and then not actually go in. I wanted to be mad at someone. Yes, it would have been helpful when Ken bought the tickets if the seller had mentioned they couldn’t be used the next two weeks. It would have been nice if Ken had actually looked at the tickets when he bought them. I wish I had looked at the lower two-thirds of the tickets when I was taking pictures of the bar codes in case we lost them. I had to admit there really wasn’t anyone to be mad at.

After talking over our options we decided to save the tickets for another trip (they are good for six months) and bought one day passes to Disneyland. The whole morning felt a little hollow though and when our wait for a table for lunch stretched from 30 minutes to over an hour I decided to give in. This was not going to be the happiest place on earth for me today. I was having a crappy day at Disneyland. So be it.

Then we finally got seated for lunch. And things started to get better! I had grilled sea bass and roasted vegetables which were really tasty. Right after lunch we had a fastpass for Indiana Jones. This was our first time riding it as E wasn’t tall enough last trip. Maybe going right after lunch wasn’t the best choice but we both decided it was our new favorite ride.

At the end of the day I realized I had had a pretty good day after all. Six happy things about the day:

1. My son had a GREAT day!

2. I had a good hair day, that sea air added a little something to my curls.

3. I didn’t get sunburned, something I had been quite worried about. Most of the rides have lots of shade for the wait in line.

4. I had grilled sea bass and roasted veggies for lunch, tasty and healthy!

5. I got to ride 3 rides that I didn’t go on during the first trip: ‘Dumbo’, ‘Indiana Jones’ and ‘Astroblaster’ and loved them all.

6. I found these really cute salt and pepper shakers:

The rest of the week went okay too. We spent time in Disney Downtown having a nice lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, Ethan built “Disney” the elephant at Build-A-Bear and made race cars at the Lego store. We bought souvenirs and I scored this really cool Minnie Mouse lunch box at CVS for $5.

The next day we went to the beach and had lunch at a park with a playground. The last day we hung out at the campground playing games and swimming in the heated pool.

While it wasn’t the Spring break we had planned it turned out to be a nice vacation. The most important part still happened: we spent lots of family time together. And a bonus? We get to plan another trip to Disneyland for later this year!

Best smile of the trip!