Another summer week in the books. We tried some new activities as a family--some went terribly (Ashton Gardens Imaginaria....wayyyy too much walking for a toddler who refuses to ride in a stroller). Some went very well (a morning at Splash Summit water park--Jack is old enough to enjoy riding the slides, so Jared and I traded off getting quality time on the slides with Jack and wading around the wave pool with a delighted Alice).
Jared and I had a wonderful date to one of our favorite towns, Woodland Hills, where we walked a few stunning Parade Homes and ran into my cousin Nate.
Summer is rolling along and we are looking forward to a family reunion at Lava Hot Springs next week. Most likely Alice will sleep terribly the whole time, but also just as likely, Jack is old enough now that he'll do just fine. We will take the improvement of *probably* one good sleeper on a family trip!
Now that we're reaching really high summer temperatures, Jared and I are boiling alive in our south-facing top-floor bedroom. The air conditioning units in our rental aren't sufficient for the size of our home, and the insulation is apparently insufficient as well. Instead of moping about it, we're grateful that this is prompting us to learn a lot about air conditioners and HVAC systems in preparation for advocating for our air conditioning needs when our next home begins construction (hopefully soon, no updates yet).
Now for some pictures from our week:
Happy Parade of Homes to all who celebrate. We have been squeezing in home tours whenever we can. With kids at home we won't be able to see all the homes in person, but it has been a fun and inspiring way to spend a few evenings when we can get away.
My health is beginning to feel more manageable day-to-day. I still need to get in to see a specialist to maybe get on some medication for POTS, but after doubling up on my electrolytes/sodium again this week, I was able to start curbing more of my fatigue in addition to the brain fog. It's a hopeful and refreshing feeling.
Jack set up and invited me to a sleepover in our basement. After several days of putting it off, I agreed. Unfortunately this happened to fall on the night Savvy ate something strange up in the mountains and spent the ENTIRE night, every hour, scratching on the basement exterior door to go outside and vomit, then scratch to come back in. I would have just left the door open, but allergies. It was worse than a night with a newborn baby. But Jack never woke until the morning when he had a huge grin plastered to his face about our sleepover "success," so . . . worth it? Worth it one time a year.
I did a decent job of capturing this week in pictures, so we will get to those now with more details in the captions:
What a week. Most of it for me was spent in preparation to host our first Roper extended family dinner. I have been looking forward to this for years. When I was growing up, we would have Sunday dinner with my mom's family members who lived nearby, including my Grandma Roper, about twice a month. These fun, casual family dinners are such a core part of my childhood memories and something we really looked forward to coming back to when we moved to Utah.
For our dinner, we decided to make bolognese, pasta, and honey thyme lemonade. Each of our guests brought sides and desserts to share. I learned a lot about hosting a big group for dinner, and we had a wonderful thyme! Er, time. My main regret is that I didn't remember to take any pictures. Next time I will have to assign Jared to take a few pictures. Jack asked if he would make a scavenger hunt for all the little cousins, which he did. He is going to gain a reputation as the Fun Uncle if he isn't careful.
I may not have taken pictures at our family dinner, but I did take pictures of many of out other happenings this week:
Happy summer! It's Jack's first week off of school. He is currently sick with a cold, which makes sense considering how many public pools, parks, and splash pads we visited this week. A Utah summer with kids is more fantastic than I ever pictured, and I grew up here. There are SO MANY incredible splash pad parks really close to us. All free. It's less hassle than a pool. It's low-key for me. The kids love it. You can stay dry if you want and sit on a bench on the side, or if it's a hot day you can get a little wet. We also have reservoirs and the Thanksgiving Point attractions. Compared to the last few places we've lived, this is a whole different ball-game. We could go somewhere different every single day and never run out of things to do all summer.
But, it isn't all rainbows and unicorns. I'm still fairly down and out with the POTS. Jared recorded my blood pressure and heart rates during a few at-home tests and verified, "Yup, it's definitely POTS." Luckily, on the whole, things have mostly been getting better since then. I have started drinking lots more water and electrolytes. Taking it easy if I can when I feel dizzy. And getting on a better allergy medicine, because apparently there's a strong tie between seasonal allergies and POTS flares. All of these things have been helping. I'm definitely not feeling 100% yet, but I will get into a specialist and see what they have to say. They may put me on an elimination diet, or maybe some medicine. We'll see. It will be my summer of health and wellness.
Some good has come from this diagnosis. I did need a kick in the pants to start drinking more water and eating more healthy. Since we moved to Utah my breakfasts have mostly consisted of whatever reject nubbins my kids didn't eat during their breakfasts. Maybe a pop-tart if Jared brought one home from the doctor's lounge. I was honestly too tired and stressed to make a healthy breakfast for myself. In hindsight that was the POTS. But eating worse was never going to help me feel better. So now I've been having Jared throw an extra egg in with his breakfast before he leaves for work. Then there's a bit of scrambled egg ready for me when I wake up that I eat with an avocado and a handful of arugula with oil and vinegar. This absolutely has NOT been the norm for me during the last year, but I'll admit that I feel a lot better starting my day eating a healthy breakfast in the sunshine on our deck before my kids wake up than I used to feel. Onward and upward. And now for some pictures from our week:
It's been an interesting week.
Over the past few months, really ever since we moved, I've felt really fatigued. During the move I wrote it off as too much burning of the midnight oil to pack and prepare to move. Moving fatigue. After the move I wrote it off as solo parenting two very anxious children in a new environment without Jared around. Solo parenting fatigue. Once Jared moved to Utah and we got settled into our rental home, I wrote it off as perhaps a symptom of some depression. Depression fatigue. But here we are, several months into feeling settled, knowing life is good and our children are thriving, and I've still just been so tired. All the time. Caffeine doesn't really help much. Neither did my SSRI. And what really got me saying, "Hmmm" has been an ever-present and worsening brain fog that has me mixing up my words and drawing mental blanks all day. It got a little better by the end of my restful solo hotel trip last week, but came back with a vengeance shortly after.
As one does, I took my thoughts and symptoms to ChatGPT. Don't worry, first I took them to my doctor husband, but I wasn't wholly satisfied with his prescription of "Bloodwork." I mean, I am going to get bloodwork done in the next week or two to see if anything shows up, but I've had this fatigue/dizziness/brain fog in the past--quite bad right after a hit puberty actually--and the bloodwork I had done then didn't show anything and just made me pass out. Neat. So I told ChatGPT, hey buddy, I'm impossibly tired, dizzy, brain foggy regardless of how much sleep I get. This same thing happened during puberty and I got bloodwork done and it didn't show anything, but improved a bit on its own over the following months. What gives?
Chatty gave me a few ideas of what it might be, one of which was POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome), a neurological/cardiovascular syndrome where your heart rate increases significantly when you stand up. It can cause dizziness, lightheadedness, fatigue, brain fog, nausea, and a host of other issues. The best way to test for this at home is by doing a test where you record your heart rate after laying down for 10 minutes, and then you stand up straight and monitor your heart rate for the following 10 minutes. If your heart rate goes up 30+ beats per minute from resting to standing, you likely have POTS. Sure enough, my heart spiked 35 bpm, and so along with everything else going on and my health history, we're thinking I probably have POTS. In the name of being thorough and following doctor's orders, I'm still going to get bloodwork done to see if there could be thyroid issues or anything else, but if nothing shows up then I'll find a POTS specialist and see about getting a formal diagnosis so I can start learning about and implementing management techniques. Seems like it might be a lot of deep breathing and electrolytes, which feels doable. Maybe some dietary adjustments too, but we'll get there when we get there.
So that's my update from the week! Jack is happy-sad to be done with 1st grade and starting summer break. Our neighborhood pool opened up. I stayed home and rested (see: extreme fatigue) while Jared took the kids on Saturday. This is going to be a wonderful addition to our summer, along with all of the neighborhood friends Jack has made.
Oh, we have a house update too! Because the housing market has been slow, our home builder is going to start doing cheaper floor plans and materials to try and get their price point down. They know we've been set on one particular floor plan that was scheduled to start construction in the fall. They're going to try and expedite this home for us before they make the switch to the cheaper plans. So if all goes well, we will be under contract within the next two weeks, and they're even talking about letting us choose our interior and exterior packages since we'll be under contract so early. (Normally they sell nearly-finished homes and the buyer doesn't get much say in the finishes.) Now I get to start thinking about interior and landscape design, which is lots of fun for me. The home would probably be finished and ready to move into by early 2026. (They say January, but I'm going to assume March because that's how construction goes.)
And now for some pictures from our week:
