Maybe NOW She'll Understand

As I write this blog, 2 beautiful little girls are missing. Their names are Lyric and Elizabeth and they disappeared this past Friday from by Meyer's Lake in Evansdale. My heart aches for their families. This frightens me. Emma quite often goes on runs or walks by herself. She takes different routes which is a GOOD thing for the most part. I always tell her a specific time that she has to be back home but as many of you know, Em tends to lose track of time and forgets to call if she is going to be late. When I told Em about these 2 little girls I think it scared her. I'm glad it did. Maybe NOW she'll understand why I want her to check in and always, always have her cell phone with her. This just makes me want to NOT let her go out by herself but I can't do that. She needs to be a teenager and it's taken me a long time to let her do the things that other kids her age do. She wants to go to football games this fall at the dome with her friends, go to the mall, just generally hang out and I know in my heart she needs to do this but man oh man I am scared to let her go!! But I will. 


I know it's been a long time since I've blogged. So many things have happened since February, some good, some not so good. Think I'll stick to the good things!


We went to Portland, OR to visit Laura in early June. Allison got to go this time too. We left on June 3 and returned on June 18. The trip was beautiful. The mountains and ocean are breathtaking! I could easily live in the Northwest and be very, very happy there. Maybe someday...
We got to see Reptile Gardens on the way, as well as Bear Country, Wall Drug, Crazy Horse, Mount Rushmore, Old Faithful in Yellowstone, and Needles Highway. While in Portland we went to The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry where we spent the entire day trying to figure out scientific puzzles, playing Connect Four with a robot, learning about tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunami's, volcanoes, and earthquakes. We also toured a submarine. While in Portland we ate at so many different types of restaurants that I can't even remember them all! We shopped in the "hippie" district, went to Powell's New and Used Books, Voo Doo Doughnuts, spent an entire day at the ocean and watched the sunset there as well, and we also got to meet the guys from the group, The Dirty Words. Em was thrilled that they signed a bandana for her. They are all very nice guys. Allison and I even went to one of their shows. While there I acquired a taste for Kombucha. No, it is NOT alcoholic. It is what I call a cure all for what ails you. :) Seriously, it is very good! They don't sell the kind that I had in Portland here in Cedar Falls which is a bummer. The stuff here isn't as good. 


This blog post had gotten long enough. More next time. :)

Too Much of a Good Thing...

Yes, I know. It's been awhile. Just really didn't have anything to blog about. Life in the Meier household continues to be hectic. Nothing new there. :)

Laura was home for a week over Christmas break which was wonderful. There is always a lot of laughter when she's here. Emma misses her terribly and we can't wait to go see her in June. Big plans for the trip! This time we are going to allow 2 weeks for travel and fun. I plan on spending an entire day at the ocean as I have fallen in love with its beauty. And of course there will be another visit to Powell's Bookstore and VooDoo Donuts! Yummers! This time I want to spend a few hours in the Pearl District in the small shops and organic eateries. Emma would like to travel to Washington State as well to Forks. :)

Enough with the chit chat. On to Emma.

Emma. Hmm. Emma is Emma. She's wonderful, charismatic, crazy, smart, beautiful, stubborn, and oh so like her mother. If you've kept up with my sporadic blogging then you know that Em has ADHD and I have ADD. It can lead to many an argument over silly little things and wondering who is more stubborn. That being said I think she actually figured out today that I'm not as clueless as to how a teenager feels and thinks as she thought I was. Em has been really stressed out for the past few weeks. I tried to tell her it was because she was trying to do too much but since teenagers know everything she wouldn't listen to me. It was getting to the point where she wasn't herself anymore. She wasn't sleeping well, she was always tired, she couldn't concentrate, couldn't remember to show up for practices on time for the variety show and she just felt overwhelmed by everything. She thought she could do it all even though doing it all was making her physically sick to her stomach and causing headaches. She felt like she couldn't tell her friends and teachers NO that she just couldn't do this or that or help with this or that. Today she decided enough was enough. She took my advice and dropped out of the Variety Show. She actually tried to drop out over a week ago but the teachers called me and talked me into letting her stay in. Little did I know that she WANTED to drop out but didn't know how to tell them. Poor kid. I got an e-mail from one of the teachers today telling me that they thought she should quit which kind of made me angry because it was that same teacher that talked me into keeping her in it!! Of course I let her know that that is what I had told her and the other 2 teachers just a week ago. How can I tell my child not to let people talk or bully them into something when I let it happen to me.?! I knew dropping out of the show was the best thing for her but when I had 3 teachers all talking to me via a conference call when I was on a quick break at work I felt like I had no choice but to let them talk me into it. If I had it to do over again would I have given in?? No, I would have stuck to my guns and told them no, especially now that I know how stressed Em was feeling. She already goes to 2 dance classes on Monday nights, play practice on Sunday afternoons, Science Club on Weds. after school, CHAOS on Weds. nights, and she works 3 hours every Sunday in a church nursery. Add onto that Women's choir practice on Weds. mornings at 7:00 am and during part of her lunch time during the school day and Variety Show practice everyday after school, plus trying to keep up in her honors math class and it was just too darn much for her to handle. Em may consider her ADHD a gift of sorts but sometimes it "gets in the way." I am really proud of the fact that she finally realized that it's OK to let go of something to keep your sanity intact. Besides that, my sanity was suffering too. We are both feeling so much less stressed which will hopefully lead to a little less arguing in the mornings before work/school. Or maybe not. ;)