The past four weeks have been pretty overwhelming, not for just me, but for millions of people around the world. I was once told when I was younger: "You know you're beginning to get old when the famous people you know start dying frequently." Well, I guess I'm getting old, then. Last week Ed McMahan died...Ok, he WAS old and his death could have been expected. Then, news broke that Farrah Fawcett was succumbing to her illness. A day after meeting with a chaplain, she passed away. Sad, though expected. That same day in the afternoon came the news that the world wasn't prepared for: Michael Jackson had died. What??!! I was sure that the news was another hoax of a famous person's death. But, it was true. The King of Pop had died. I know, he had his period of controversy, but, he was a great artist and I loved his music.
I watched his memorial service today and was somewhat disgusted with what I saw...It was obvious that some people used the service to gain popularity. I loved Maya Angelou's poem, read by Queen Latifah. I loved how Smokey Robinson and Lionel Ritchie spoke from the heart. I half-wit loved the performance by Mariah Carey...But it was quite "showy" for a memorial service. I think that having the kid from Britains Got Talent was just plain tacky.....After he performed, a speaker said "I just wanted you all to know who he is." Way to go! Use a worldwide watched funeral to introduce a British kid singer. Thank goodness I forgot his name already.
So, back to reality.........It's harvest time and we all know that there's nothing more real than harvest season stress, long and dreadful days and one thing or another that just doesn't go right. The economic downfall over the past few months has affected cherry farming this year, and in a NOT so great way. The market for cherries is crap, everywhere. Nobody wants to buy cherries. Which means the houses can't store them. Which means that the farmers can't pick. Which means that unless they can sell these cherries via peddling, thousands, if not millions of dollars, will be lost. That, my friends, is our scenario this year. Hundreds of growers, Yasui's included, have been instructed to "dump" the cherries or hold off picking altogether. This is disastrous on so many levels. Corey is a field man to about 30 growers, and though he doesn't disclose information to me, it would be unlikely that some of his growers don't have a picking halt, too. The stresses that are brought on by this are astronomical, and honestly, I'm keeping a close eye on my hubby to make sure that he doesn't succumb to the stress. Oh, holy July!
After the twins were born we always thought it was so cute how Rayla faced the left and Mackenzie faced the right when we laid them together. It was apparently the way they faced while in the womb, and the pictures of them snuggling together as such were so adorable. Over the weeks we noticed that Mackenzie always seemed to face to the right, but we didn't think much of it. She was beautiful, happy, and I just figured that it was a twin thing. Rayla, on the other hand, is kind of a spaz, and her head flings around in all sorts of directions to catch a glimpse of this or a glimpse of that. So, her head is about as round as a basketball. But, Kenzie's one way head lay has turned out to be a negative thing. Unbeknownst to us, her little head was forming around a flat spot that developed on the right side of her head, because she constantly laid to the right. This wasn't really noticed until about 3 weeks ago, and over the couple of weeks that followed it got progressively worse pretty quickly The result of this is a misshapen head, which, if not corrected, could pose problems with her facial development as well. The medical term for this is Plagiocephaly, and it's more common than I realized. It's also more common in preemies and doubly so in twins. In doing research one, or both, of the girls had a 50% chance of developing this. Shouldn't we be so lucky to not have dodged that bullet. Ugh.
So, once I realized that her little head didn't look quite right, I took her to her doctor for a look-see. He confirmed my suspicions and referred us to Doernbecher Childrens Hospital in Portland. Tomorrow, Maija will be going with me and the girls for Mackenzie's first exam. I'm a little nervous, but if all goes well, the worst part will be that Mackenzie wears a helmet for a few weeks to reconstruct her little head. Hopefully, that's all that has to be done. But, we'll find out tomorrow! My little girls are tough cookies, and as we've seen so far, there's nothing they can't overcome. In fact, on a lighter (haha) note, Rayla has chunked out so much that I'm pretty sure she slightly resembles the Michelin Man. They're both just so stinkin' cute, so incredibly smart, and just a couple of beauty bugs!
It's no surprise that my blood pressure hasn't gone down in a few weeks. But with the cherry harvest craziness, two busy little beauty bugs, a potty training toddler and the intense desire to lose weight, my head is spinning like a top. So, on that note, I'm gonna go do something that works something in this body besides my head and fingers!
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