lavendar and developer

so my mom, dad, and brother all have Lyme disease. my brother has had it for about 10 years now, but they were able to catch it super early and pretty much nipped it in the bud so he may not have it really anymore, however it supposedly stays in your system for your entire life. during last summer while on our family vacation in new jersey, my dad discovered a large tell-tale bull's eye rash on his arm. for a person who does have Lyme, they should consider themselves pretty lucky to get this symptom, because not everyone does. this allowed my dad to get himself to the doctor relatively quickly and get checked up... however he had the misfortune of having probably one of the only doctor's who would tell him it was probably nothing to worry about. he didn't think it was Lyme - he said he thought my dad had a bad spider bite. mind you, the bull's eye was at least 5 inches in diameter. it wasn't until several tests, another doctor's opinion, and 6 weeks later that it was concluded that he did in fact have Lyme, and got started on medicine for it. the 6 weeks my dad went through not getting correct treatment, and then the time it took before the medicine was able to sink in and do its thing, was a little nerve racking. my dad is one to never ever get sick, and during this time he came home early from work about a 10 times due to not feeling well. now my mom did not have the luxury of having the commonly Lyme-linked bull's eye. she just felt miserable all the time, and decided she probably had it too. the first several tests for it also came back negative, which happens a lot with Lyme, but she had a doctor who was pretty much the antitheses of my father's first, and she was also convinced my mom had Lyme and started treatment on her for it before they got a definite answer. eventually her tests did read positive for it, however while my father was pretty much all better by this point and back to his old self, my mom had gotten worse, and here her doctor had started treating her right away. she battled with it all through the winter and fall, feeling run down all the time and generally not well. she felt tired, she ached, she had numbness in her left leg and one side of her face. i don't think a full week of work went by where there wasn't at least one day that she had to come home early. i hadn't seen her like this in almost 15 years - when i was about 6 1/2 or 7 years old my mom had cervical cancer, and although i didn't fully understand what was happening i knew something wasn't right and knew that my mom was not well. she was supposed to be the strong one, i was supposed to stuck in bed, or my brother. so, her troubles with Lyme persisted however she finally got on some medication by the next summer that seemed to be doing some good. however, the unfortunate thing with it is that when the medicine is doing its best and doing what it's meant to do, that's when you feel the worst. the doctors call it the "die off" period, which is basically when your body has been consistently barraged by it and it has finally started to sink into the Lyme bacteria, killing it off. this puts your body into overdrive leaving you feeling fatigued, headache-y, and generally miserable. this happens about every 2 weeks. we went on vacation, back to the jersey shore, in mid-late august for a week, and i hadn't seen my mom look so healthy in... well, about a year. and all she wanted to do while we were on the beach was to be in the water, be in the salt air. my mom hasn't wanted to go in the ocean, and hadn't willingly, since my brother and i were small. she had no aches, no pains, no fatigue. as we were getting ready to leave, quite literally as we were about to pull away from the house and hop on the road to drive home, my mom and dad rushed the landlord and booked the house for 2 weeks next summer.

after she got back, she decided something amazing most have come from being in the salt water and breathing in the air, and that it was time to find a new way to treat herself for Lyme. she talked to her doctor about it, about a month and a half ago she started on a more holistic approach and started on the path of homeopathy, and got herself another new doctor who practiced these things. she has been doing amazing, and has felt so good. sea salt baths, change of diet, a daily helping of what is called a "remedy" but that neither of us have any idea what's in it. and also my mom has been reading up on homeopathy and is completely fascinated from it. i am quite happy to see her doing so well. it's long overdue.

my mom brought to my attention something that really struck me and that we both found it surprising and rather interesting. see, my family has often wondered how i haven't gotten Lyme. i have a preoccupation with the outdoors and am not exactly what you would call cautious in the preparing myself for nature. i love running around barefoot, lying in grass, climbing trees, stomping in puddles, picking up bugs... i'm pretty much a 12 year old boy, affirmatively. but i've always, always been drawn to lavendar. i don't know what it is, but something about it has captivated me and i love having it all around. there's of course the aromatherapy aspect of it, lavendar being a key to relaxation. but i love it and am always on the lookout for the best lavendar scent. so anyway, my mom told me about something her new doctor told her, and that was that lavendar repels ticks. who would have thunk? doesn't seem like it should be that simple.

i had bought 2 thin leather bracelets while at the beach and haven't taken them off since i first put them on, so the lavendar smell of my body wash has soaked in. however now that i have been taking photography and making prints, so has the smell of the photo chemicals. not as nice as lavendar, that's for sure. but anywho... here's a couple pictures i've developed recently:

ok so i lied. blogger is being a pain in the tush.

also, check out the new link i have in my links list over to the left, Musings of a Musician. my friend BJ has started up a blog and would love a little debate. let's give it to him!

sunday, monday

tuesday wednesday, thursday friday saturday...
sunday monday, tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday...

there are seven days there are seven days there are seven days in a week,
sunday monday, tuesday wednesday, thursday friday saturday.

i love my kids.

had a wonderful, however long and rainy, day at the daycare with all of our "enchanted friends!" love it? i do.

i also had a rather productive larry session today, and instead of talking about everything i've decided i'm going to do, i'm going to go do them. and will report back shortly.

batman stickers and rubber mulch

well hello there again my friends.

there are several people that are currently baltimorians [not to be confused with baltimorons] that i desperately miss. i blame you, for making me like you so much. sounds fair, i think.

so recently [as in the past 3 hours] i have found myself captivated by the soft, moody, yet ever so frilly tunes of ingrid michaelson - you'd probably know her by the old navy sweater commercial. she's quite enjoyable, in a sugary sweet sense. sweet like... maybe butterscotch. not like cotton candy or sweet tarts.

i've been taking classes at the community college here at home, and it has definitely been interesting. i love the science classes i'm in - mainly, geology. enough so it has me thinking that i'd like to get a degree in it after all my mica business and teach in that as well as art. it's also been very bizarre, being home. i do miss living on my own a great deal. everything here just pretty much feels like i'm in limbo, no matter how much i enjoy family and friends here. i'm most assuredly past the living at home phase of my life. i've found that whenever i come home after having been away at mica, i revert back to being rather dependent on my mom and dad. my mom is very quick to take care of people, i.e. doing laundry, picking up after people, making me something to eat/grab me something from the kitchen if she's in there... and i don't like that. when i reflect on it, it just makes me feel like such a bum and i think that my parents get in erroneous depiction of me and my level of responsibility. so the past few weeks i've been trying very hard to thwart this by being my consciously on top of things, and even turning down offers for my dad to wait for me for dinner, so that i make something for myself.

and on the topic of making things for myself [in the food category that is], i've been trying to not be so gross with the way i have had the tendency to eat. i think anastasiya, alissandra and tyler know better than most the eating habits i sometimes have. to explain it in the minimalistic of terms, if not careful, i eat like i'm a 5 year old left to fend for their self. popcorn and ice cream for lunch anyone? no? how about swedish fish and mac & cheese for breakfast?

also on the health kick, i've been trying to go running [again]. i do actually enjoy it when i'm by myself, and drown out everything around me with my ipod. and i've been doing yoga. what what!

basically all of this is working into my attempt to be healthier all around - physically, metabolically, mentally, emotionally.

so we've got the physical taken care of with running and yoga, metabolically speaking we have the healthier diet, mentally we have [again] yoga, and also larry [those of you who are unaware of larry, he is {gasp!} my therapist], and emotionally we have larry again, me weeding out situations and negative thoughts that have caused me distress in the past, my family, lauren [are relationship has really strengthened a great deal with me being home], bree of course, and the newest addition, who has probably done the most good, graham.



other recent news, i am back working at the daycare. yaaay! i love my little munchkins. i'm working quite a few hours. today i had class from eight to eight fifty a.m. and then work from nine thirty until five thirty p.m. it was a bit of a long day. luckily though, the day goes by unusually fast. it's always split up into segments so it makes it very easy to pass the time.

well, i am off to play a game of literati [the poor man's scrabble.... well... .the yahoo messenger version anyway] and then go to bed for a few hours before my classes tomorrow. woo! good night, sweet dreams, be well.

plastic toys and juice boxes

Have you ever thought about what protects our hearts?
Just a cage of rib bones and other various parts.
So it's fairly simple to cut right through the mess,
And to stop the muscle that makes us confess.

And we are so fragile,
And our cracking bones make noise,
And we are just,
Breakable, breakable, breakable girls and boys.

You fasten my seatbelt because it is the law.
In your two ton death trap I finally saw.
A piece of love in your face that bathed me in regret.
Then you drove me to places I'll never forget.

And we are so fragile,
And our cracking bones make noise,
And we are just,
Breakable, breakable, breakable girls and boys.

And we are so fragile,
And our cracking bones make noise,
And we are just,
Breakable, breakable, breakable girls-
Breakable, breakable, breakable girls-
Breakable, breakable, breakable girls and boys.

ingrid michaelson