As many of you know, I play hockey anywhere from one to three times a week, and I consider myself a pretty active person. For years I have been blaming my issues with breathing during exercise on "just being out of shape." Well I had a particularity bad episode a month back, where I played a game and we were unusually short handed. I was already having shortness of breath and coughing by the end of the first period, but I pushed on. By the time the game was over my chest hurt, I felt like I had water in my lungs, it was hard to breath and I had a wheeze that sounded terrible. The tight chest and wheezing lasted for a few days. At this point, I went into the docs, and they decided I had exercise induced asthma. This was quite a shock to me because I have been dealing with this since before high school. I always just thought I was out of shape and that is why my chest hurt.

I then ended up going to the allergist for further testing, and although I don't have allergies, (contrary to past diagnoses) he agreed that I do most likely have exercise induced asthma. They gave me a breathing test and my normal breathing volumes are more then they expect for someone my size, therefore, I don't show any signs of chronic asthma. This is the good news. The bad news is I have non-allergic rhinitis. No big deal, got some drugs that are helping with that. So I feel like a walking pharmacy with all of the new drugs I am on to deal with my lack of allergies but hypersensitive system, and the inhaler I take so I don't have an asthma attack when I am playing sports.

I can't believe the difference the inhaler makes I mean it is literally day and night between when I take it and when I don't. It makes me feel really dumb for not going in and dealing with it in high school when I started really being hadicaped by it. I just never imagined that my issues running and playing sports could possibly be because of asthma. You live you learn.

My allergy may not be just an allergy after all. I had some lab work run and right now it looks like my thyroid is a bit off. How much off I don't know.... but my white blood cell count is high also.... I am concerned that I may have a hyperthyroid issue which would explain a lot, including the rash. I should know more over the next few weeks, and will keep everyone up to date.

So over the past week I have learned that I am now allergic to the sun. I have a ton of allergies and luckily most of them present themselves in a manner that I am able to live with. During the spring when the trees are pollenating, my eyes itch and I have a runny nose. I can deal with that. I am allergic to penicillin and sulfa drugs; when I take these I turn into a red, itchy, swollen mess, which is a pretty serious reaction. So to say the least, I don't take these drugs, and therefore I can deal with that. But to turn into a swollen itchy mess just because I took my kids outside to play, that is where I draw the line.

Apparently my snow white skin that I inherited with pride from my Scandinavian heritage, really doesn't like the sun much. I have always known that my skin was fair, so that really isn't a big surprise. I burn to a crisp in the time it takes to tie a shoe if I don't wear sunscreen, and for me getting a tan is a joke. I just burn, peal, and turn white again. But with all of this I never expected to be this sensitive to the sun on this level. I should have known it was going to happen since my mom is also allergic to the sun but I always thought she had more fair of skin then even I did. How wrong I was.

So where do I go from here........ will I finally turn into a vampire and curse the sun..... Unfortunately not. With Jas and Kai having so much energy to burn and a dog who needs exercise I will be braving the outdoors just as much as ever. I now just need to figure out how to still stay out of the sun at the same time. Sunscreen and big hats will have to become an addition to my checklist for leaving the house.

There was a women's hockey league started up this summer and I decided to play, although it came with great pain to do so. I, like my father before me and his mother before him, am an a-social person. In other words I am painfully shy, and don't like to be around people I don't know, so for me, to join this summer league was very tough decision. I was faced with two choices: First, I could choose not to play hockey this summer because the only other evening there was hockey available to me, Chris plays hockey at the same time and since one of us has to stay home with the kids that clearly wasn't an option. The second choice was buck up and join this league. So not wanting to have another summer where my skills fell further behind the rest of my team, I decided to bite the bullet and toss myself into the game.

I ended up being on team with three other people from the women's team I play on in the winter easing my stress levels a bit. I was very nervous the first game we played because I really have only been skating for two years and I had a break between those two years because I was pregnant with Kai at the time. The league includes women and some beginner men from all over Madison and the surrounding areas. By the end of the game I was in the rhythm of the game and enjoying it very much. I am glad I made the choice to play this summer. And even more exciting is that I am on a team that has won two games. You may be asking why is it a big deal that I am on a winning team. The answer to that is, although I play on a women's team during the winter that I wouldn't trade for the world, we have never won a game in the two years I have played with them. It isn't that we are that bad at the game, it is that almost everyone on the team hasn't played for more then a couple of years and all of the teams we play have fairly experienced players.

So to sum it all up, I am enjoying playing on this summer league with the added perk of actually winning a game or two.

I am really not a glutton for punishment, but it seems I always seem to act like one. Not only do I have a two year old who is in the full swing of the terrible two's, a ten month old who really hates to be put down or when he does want to be put down he wants to be free, but now added to all of that I have a 12 week old puppy who knows nothing. The puppy falls between Kai and Jasmine as far as understanding what he is being asked to do. Chris and I basically jumped into having another child when we decided to get this dog. I am not complaining but man I don't know how people with more then two children do it. Just when you get one of them set up the other is into something or wanting something. It is impossible to get anything done unless you do it when they all are sleeping....... but that doesn't work because you usually crash too from burn out.

Oh well what is one to do. We are starting the slow process of trying to make this house a home, banishing any white walls we can in favor of a color palette of earthy tones inspired by the rich teracotta colors of the western United States, and bright flowers from the garden. We have lived in dorm rooms, apartments, houses, and condos over the last seven years of our lives in which we were only allowed sterile white walls and I just couldn't do it any longer. Most people are afraid of color, they won't put it on the wall for fear they won't like it, and what I say to that: "paint is cheap."

At least spring has sprung here, although it has had a rainy start to the season. It is so nice to be able to get the kids out in OUR yard. OUR yard, OUR house, OUR garage, it still sounds very strange to refer to us owning this place. Spring and summer are always a welcome part of the year to me, not only because I hate being cold and that tends to be a constant state for me during the winter, but because it allows Jasmine to really get outside and burn off all of that energy a two year old has. Mom and Dad got Jasmine and Kai a swing set for a house warming gift and is she really loving it.

Well I suppose I should get unpacking since there is a plethora of boxes everywhere.

After 10 years of not picking up a paint brush, I decided to start trying my hand at watercolor
painting again. This is the resulting picture. It has a long way to go before it is done but I don't think it is too bad for my first serious try after that may years.

Chris and I are house hunting right now. Talk about a stressful adventure. I will just be happy when we get into something we can both live with. After seeing Jasmine with our cousins dog, Harley, I think we will be making that investment soon after we get a house. That dog actually wore her out and visa versa. Now we just have to decide what type of dog is right for our family.

I am just excited about getting into a house. It will be nice not to have to worry about how loud Jas is being and if she is disturbing the neighbors.

Kai got his first tooth today....Yay. Jasmine also has a first to report. She got her first haircut/ trim yesterday. Her curls were getting into her eyes so they got a trim. And more good news Baby Leo may be able to come home today.