Freaking Rain!!! I am so sick of it raining.....and feeling swampy. Yuck.....thought I was gonna go to the Davenport Farmers Market this morning, but just looked at the radar, and another HUGE batch of thunderstorms is rolling this way. Hopefully this wave of crappy weather gets out of the area before my Mom arrives from Oregon on Wednesday. Can't wait to see her! I've been spoiled this year though, because she was just here in February.
This is the first time in my life that I have been a "stay at home mom". Seriously...I have had a job that I have worked at every day since I was 12. Paper routes, salon cleaning, Drugtown, Campbell Dining Center, Wolfe Eye Clinic, and Hy-Vee since 1988. So what do people do on Fridays when they don't have to go to a job and the kids are home for the summer? They go GARAGE SALE-ING!!! Hehe...well not everyone, but since I am TRYING to decorate my first new home on the cheap, I figured it was worth a shot. I mean, when you live in a trailer (excuse me....mobile home), your idea of decorating is rotating the tires (sorry...you can take the girl outta the trailer park...). My home is lovely, but it has pretty much nothing on the walls cept pictures of the girls. What DO you put on the walls anyway? I have a few ideas...so with those in mind the girls and I hopped in the car and drove to the rolling metropolis of CARBON CLIFF, IL. They were having a community-wide garage sale, so we were sure to find some GREAT bargains there right? Um.....no. It was pretty much Grandma and Grandpa sitting out front getting rid of ole redneck junk. NASCAR stuff, Fishing Flys, hunting gear, glasses from the 1970's, yada, yada, yada. At the first place we went to, I found a couple of standing lamps. They looked to be in fairly reasonable shape (from an outward glance), and were only $1.00 a piece. I asked the lady if they worked, and she told me that we could get some light bulbs and plug them in. I, like a fool, said "not necessary" and "I'll take them". RULE #1 learned about buying stuff at garage sales.....if it has to be plugged in...test it before buying. I also should have moved the lamps from the place they were sitting on the uneven lawn, and put them on the driveway to see if they were even level (which I discovered later they were not). Plus, one of them broke apart before we even got them into the car. By the time we got home with them....I was all ready to play Mrs. Fix-it. NOT! They were COMPLETE junk. Oh well...I would have been pissed if I had spent more money on them. My daughter however, later found a lovely purple lava lamp for her bedroom. This time we had learned our lesson, and had the lady plug it in before purchasing. It bubbled nicely.
I love crockpots. One of the best inventions ever. Before we left for the garage sales, I put a pot roast in the crockpot...dumped 2 cans of Cream of Mushroom Soup, a packet of dry onion soup mix, and a cup and a 1/2 of water in the bowl...put it on low, and when we got home dinner was cooking up lover-ly. Good thing too, because it was HOT AS HELL. I tried to lay out to tan my jiggly parts, and made it about a half and hour before I said screw this. I wonder if the neighbors would be righteously pissed if I just went and jumped in their pool about every 15 minutes? I don't need to swim around or anything....just need to cool off. Yeah, I don't think that would get us any invitations to the block party.
Well...it's sunny outside now. The calm before round two of storms. I suppose I probably could make it to the market quick. I only need a couple of things...........
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Scanning, Sunning, and Capitalism
I am not intellegent enough to tie all three together, but they are the biggest highlightsof my day. Most of the morning was spent scanning old photos, the afternoon sunning on this gorgeous day, and tonight watching the documentary "Captalism" by Michael Moore. I will, of course, comment on all.
After finally getting Jo off to school after 3 days at home with an ear infection (which doesn't even really count as "school" because she was only there for 4 hours to make it a "legal" day), I decided to work on one of the projects I always said I was going to do when I have "free time". My first child was born in 1998....when 35MM cameras were king, when "advantix" film was gonna be the NEXT BIG THING (what a flop that was), and when 8MM camcorders were selling for $450.00. I have piles of photographs still in their original developing envelopes collecting dust in a bin in my basement. So I took an allergy pill, pulled out that bin, and started digging in. We have an old HP scanner that is hooked up to our aging Gateway desktop computer, so I sat down and went to work. Went through all the actual "professional" shots taken of the girls over the years. Pictures from La Petite Academy in Iowa City, and Kindercare in Davenport, and all the school photos...as well as the two family pictures we've have taken since both the kids were born. What a trip down memory lane that was. Hard to believe that little girl Alyssa swimming in the teddy bears is now 5'5" and has bigger feet than I do. And Jo through the years, every picture reflects her flair for the dramatic....even when she was two she was hamming it up for the camera. It was seriously fun. I figure if I scan 10 pictures a day, I should catch up with all the photos by the time Jordan graduates from High School in 2020.
After the dog walking me to school to pick up Jo...I decided to tan my jiggly parts in our backyard. I used to love to sunbathe, back when I was 125lbs. But I am just beastly white. I mean seriously, my Wonder Bread loaf is darker than I am. So I unfolded my old rubber tube lounger (circa 1992), and grabbed my NOOK (my e-reader, circa 2010), and headed out to the back porch/cement slab. 10 minutes in I am sweating like Robert Hays/Ted Striker trying to land the plane. Holy crap! There was even a nice breeze. I had to get up like every 15 minutes and literally hose myself off. The dogs are looking at me like I am crazy. I wonder if I stuck out my tongue and pant like they do, I would sweat less. I think if I go out again, I am going to rub myself down with Right Guard instead of tanning lotion. Anyway, now my legs look more like teeth with a little tartar build-up rather than ultra brite.
While I was cooking dinner my husband started watching a Netflix movie he got called "Capitalism". I happened by the TV on one of my many trips out to the grill, saw a snippet, and made him turn it off so that I could watch it later. Everyone I know pretty much knows that I am a Democrat. I don't throw my political opinion around unless I am asked, and even then I only jaw with those I know can handle a good debate. Now Michael Moore made this movie, so I knew that it was going to be radically left. It was kind of like watching JFK by Oliver Stone. A lot of what he said is based on fact, but I know that a lot of it was taken out of context. Sorry....we interrupt this blog for an important announcement....
THE CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS WIN THE STANLEY CUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At least one Chicago team can win a title........and I don't count the Sox.
Anyhoo.....I did learn some things about the downfall of big business that I was not aware of. That's my own fault because in the big picture that was my small little world, I didn't realize that it was going to affect me....until I saw my paltry little 401-k lose 1/4 of the money I had invested in it. Then I started getting interested.....and realized that I really didn't know anything about our governement. My family is the epitome of middle class...My name is in the middle of the alphabet, my birthday is in the middle of the school year, I grew up in a state in the middle of the country, in a town in the middle of the state. My dad earned a modest wage....we never went hungry but I wore hand-me downs, and drove junk cars. I started living in apartments, duplexes, mobile homes, and was 36 before I owned my first single family home. My kids don't have big college funds, and we live paycheck to paycheck (which are a lot smaller now!). I do feel blessed because I know that a lot of people are a lot worse off than I am. Does Capitalism work...where people have the right to choose, but don't have the means to choose? Where the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer? I don't know. At the end of the movie Michael Moore shows a clip of FDR talking about a second bill of rights he proposed in 1944...it went something like this....
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industry -- our shops, our farms, our mines of the nation. The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation. The right of every family to a decent home. The right to adequate medical care. The opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health. The right to adequate protection from economic fear, from old age and sickness and accident and unemployment. Finally, the right to a good education.
Hmmmmm....this all sounds great!! People like Rush Limbaugh (whom by the way married his 4th wife this week....congrats), claim this was FDR's was of promoting Socialism. What he didn't say is how all this was going to be achieved, and who was going to be responsible for making sure these things happen. We never got to see what would have happened because FDR died within the year and his ideas never took off. Very interesting....
Later Taters!
After finally getting Jo off to school after 3 days at home with an ear infection (which doesn't even really count as "school" because she was only there for 4 hours to make it a "legal" day), I decided to work on one of the projects I always said I was going to do when I have "free time". My first child was born in 1998....when 35MM cameras were king, when "advantix" film was gonna be the NEXT BIG THING (what a flop that was), and when 8MM camcorders were selling for $450.00. I have piles of photographs still in their original developing envelopes collecting dust in a bin in my basement. So I took an allergy pill, pulled out that bin, and started digging in. We have an old HP scanner that is hooked up to our aging Gateway desktop computer, so I sat down and went to work. Went through all the actual "professional" shots taken of the girls over the years. Pictures from La Petite Academy in Iowa City, and Kindercare in Davenport, and all the school photos...as well as the two family pictures we've have taken since both the kids were born. What a trip down memory lane that was. Hard to believe that little girl Alyssa swimming in the teddy bears is now 5'5" and has bigger feet than I do. And Jo through the years, every picture reflects her flair for the dramatic....even when she was two she was hamming it up for the camera. It was seriously fun. I figure if I scan 10 pictures a day, I should catch up with all the photos by the time Jordan graduates from High School in 2020.
After the dog walking me to school to pick up Jo...I decided to tan my jiggly parts in our backyard. I used to love to sunbathe, back when I was 125lbs. But I am just beastly white. I mean seriously, my Wonder Bread loaf is darker than I am. So I unfolded my old rubber tube lounger (circa 1992), and grabbed my NOOK (my e-reader, circa 2010), and headed out to the back porch/cement slab. 10 minutes in I am sweating like Robert Hays/Ted Striker trying to land the plane. Holy crap! There was even a nice breeze. I had to get up like every 15 minutes and literally hose myself off. The dogs are looking at me like I am crazy. I wonder if I stuck out my tongue and pant like they do, I would sweat less. I think if I go out again, I am going to rub myself down with Right Guard instead of tanning lotion. Anyway, now my legs look more like teeth with a little tartar build-up rather than ultra brite.
While I was cooking dinner my husband started watching a Netflix movie he got called "Capitalism". I happened by the TV on one of my many trips out to the grill, saw a snippet, and made him turn it off so that I could watch it later. Everyone I know pretty much knows that I am a Democrat. I don't throw my political opinion around unless I am asked, and even then I only jaw with those I know can handle a good debate. Now Michael Moore made this movie, so I knew that it was going to be radically left. It was kind of like watching JFK by Oliver Stone. A lot of what he said is based on fact, but I know that a lot of it was taken out of context. Sorry....we interrupt this blog for an important announcement....
THE CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS WIN THE STANLEY CUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At least one Chicago team can win a title........and I don't count the Sox.
Anyhoo.....I did learn some things about the downfall of big business that I was not aware of. That's my own fault because in the big picture that was my small little world, I didn't realize that it was going to affect me....until I saw my paltry little 401-k lose 1/4 of the money I had invested in it. Then I started getting interested.....and realized that I really didn't know anything about our governement. My family is the epitome of middle class...My name is in the middle of the alphabet, my birthday is in the middle of the school year, I grew up in a state in the middle of the country, in a town in the middle of the state. My dad earned a modest wage....we never went hungry but I wore hand-me downs, and drove junk cars. I started living in apartments, duplexes, mobile homes, and was 36 before I owned my first single family home. My kids don't have big college funds, and we live paycheck to paycheck (which are a lot smaller now!). I do feel blessed because I know that a lot of people are a lot worse off than I am. Does Capitalism work...where people have the right to choose, but don't have the means to choose? Where the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer? I don't know. At the end of the movie Michael Moore shows a clip of FDR talking about a second bill of rights he proposed in 1944...it went something like this....
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industry -- our shops, our farms, our mines of the nation. The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation. The right of every family to a decent home. The right to adequate medical care. The opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health. The right to adequate protection from economic fear, from old age and sickness and accident and unemployment. Finally, the right to a good education.
Hmmmmm....this all sounds great!! People like Rush Limbaugh (whom by the way married his 4th wife this week....congrats), claim this was FDR's was of promoting Socialism. What he didn't say is how all this was going to be achieved, and who was going to be responsible for making sure these things happen. We never got to see what would have happened because FDR died within the year and his ideas never took off. Very interesting....
Later Taters!
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Ear Infections and Going Greek
My sick kid is driving me crazy.
Ok...not literally crazy, but nutso...loco....etc. She has been down with an ear infection for two days. She is supposed to be in school (.the last three days of school before summer break), but instead she is home....with a fever above 100 and a case of the I'M BORED'zzzzzzz. Now, technically, she is still supposed to be in school (did I say that already?), which means that she's bored and school isn't even out yet. It is going to be a LOOOONG summer. I remember when the girls were babies and they would become ill, even though it killed you to see them hurting....all they wanted to do was snuggle with you. Now you want them to go away.......
It's been a gross rainy day today. LOTS of rain this morning, so I thought we'd hunker down with a nice movie. Finding a movie that is appropriate for a 12 year old as well as an 8 year old is very hard. The 8 year old doesn't get what the 12 year old does....but the 12 year old does't get a lot either. Cartoon movies are too babyish for the 12 year old, but romantic comedies are too far reaching, and too provacative sometimes for both. You can only watch the Princess Diaries and Hannah Montana so many times before they turn your brain to mush. I actually had to have the birds and bees talk with my 12 year old....solely because she wanted to read the Twilight Series of books. Damn you Stephanie Meyer. Anyway....we tried Grumpy Old Men, but I'd forgotten about some of the language, so my kids proceeded to call each other "Dickheads" all morning. Then we tried "Just One of the Guys" from 1985 which I remembered as being relatively tame. Let's just say that PG in 1985 isn't PG in 2010. I mean in the first 10 minutes the word HORNY is used 15 times. We settled on Notting Hill....which I knew the kids wouldn't fully understand, but I love Hugh Grant.....so, there. I could handle the roomate SPIKE in his tighty greys....the girls thought it was funny.
This afternoon I got a case of the grumpies. I decided to organize all my medical records and payments for tax purposes (think I might get a write off this year), but all it did was depress me. I guess I should be grateful that I am not nearly as ill as I was in July-Nov last year, or even Mar-Apr......but I am nothing what I used to be. I am coming to the realization that I may never be able to return to Hy-Vee in a management capacity. The Lyme is always there....ready to rear its ugly head. So I got about 1/2 way through....thought screw this, and stuffed it all back in the drawer.
Made a new recipe for dinner tonight. Greek penne pasta with olive oil, sundried tomatoes, garlic, feta cheese....delish. One of the few nice things about disability is that you can try new things instead of tacos and spaghetti every night, or scrambling when you finally get home at 6:00 at night to have something on the table before its time for the kids to go to bed. Of course the kids picked out all the tomatoes but at least they finished it.
The Dog took me for a walk tonight. It was sooo swampy outside that I was sweating before we got to the end of the block. He was a regular crazy dog as usual. We walked by this same lawn every time we go for a walk, and Wrigley pees in that yard every time. It's one of those beautiful...lush...green...no weeds, growing straight, perfectly edged. Sigh......heck, I want to piss on it. I'd be afraid though that my BIG bright white butt would blind drivers and cause car accidents. Just sayin.
Topping the night off with a DVR'd episode of Friday Night Lights. I love this show, the acting is amazing and Kyle Chandler is some nice eye candy (since I can't have REAL candy.....the aforementioned ass).
Hoping tomorrow will be nice...want to get somewhat of a tan on my white parts.
Later taters.....
Ok...not literally crazy, but nutso...loco....etc. She has been down with an ear infection for two days. She is supposed to be in school (.the last three days of school before summer break), but instead she is home....with a fever above 100 and a case of the I'M BORED'zzzzzzz. Now, technically, she is still supposed to be in school (did I say that already?), which means that she's bored and school isn't even out yet. It is going to be a LOOOONG summer. I remember when the girls were babies and they would become ill, even though it killed you to see them hurting....all they wanted to do was snuggle with you. Now you want them to go away.......
It's been a gross rainy day today. LOTS of rain this morning, so I thought we'd hunker down with a nice movie. Finding a movie that is appropriate for a 12 year old as well as an 8 year old is very hard. The 8 year old doesn't get what the 12 year old does....but the 12 year old does't get a lot either. Cartoon movies are too babyish for the 12 year old, but romantic comedies are too far reaching, and too provacative sometimes for both. You can only watch the Princess Diaries and Hannah Montana so many times before they turn your brain to mush. I actually had to have the birds and bees talk with my 12 year old....solely because she wanted to read the Twilight Series of books. Damn you Stephanie Meyer. Anyway....we tried Grumpy Old Men, but I'd forgotten about some of the language, so my kids proceeded to call each other "Dickheads" all morning. Then we tried "Just One of the Guys" from 1985 which I remembered as being relatively tame. Let's just say that PG in 1985 isn't PG in 2010. I mean in the first 10 minutes the word HORNY is used 15 times. We settled on Notting Hill....which I knew the kids wouldn't fully understand, but I love Hugh Grant.....so, there. I could handle the roomate SPIKE in his tighty greys....the girls thought it was funny.
This afternoon I got a case of the grumpies. I decided to organize all my medical records and payments for tax purposes (think I might get a write off this year), but all it did was depress me. I guess I should be grateful that I am not nearly as ill as I was in July-Nov last year, or even Mar-Apr......but I am nothing what I used to be. I am coming to the realization that I may never be able to return to Hy-Vee in a management capacity. The Lyme is always there....ready to rear its ugly head. So I got about 1/2 way through....thought screw this, and stuffed it all back in the drawer.
Made a new recipe for dinner tonight. Greek penne pasta with olive oil, sundried tomatoes, garlic, feta cheese....delish. One of the few nice things about disability is that you can try new things instead of tacos and spaghetti every night, or scrambling when you finally get home at 6:00 at night to have something on the table before its time for the kids to go to bed. Of course the kids picked out all the tomatoes but at least they finished it.
The Dog took me for a walk tonight. It was sooo swampy outside that I was sweating before we got to the end of the block. He was a regular crazy dog as usual. We walked by this same lawn every time we go for a walk, and Wrigley pees in that yard every time. It's one of those beautiful...lush...green...no weeds, growing straight, perfectly edged. Sigh......heck, I want to piss on it. I'd be afraid though that my BIG bright white butt would blind drivers and cause car accidents. Just sayin.
Topping the night off with a DVR'd episode of Friday Night Lights. I love this show, the acting is amazing and Kyle Chandler is some nice eye candy (since I can't have REAL candy.....the aforementioned ass).
Hoping tomorrow will be nice...want to get somewhat of a tan on my white parts.
Later taters.....
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Widow of World of Warcraft
People of Lyme (kinda sounds like an Olde English story....) know that everyday they feel pain. Somedays the pain is not too bad, almost like "the new normal". Sometimes its so bad you can barely get out of bed. Somedays is a combination between the two, normal in the morning (so you try to do too much with the energy you have), and then exhaustion in the evening. But the people with the Lyme are not the only sufferers of "the dreaded disease". It effects everyone whom YOUR life effects. For instance, in my case, it effects all my co-workers. I am currently on diasability, so all the jobs I did have to be done by others. However, the people that Lyme effects the most are my immediate family. I have noticed more changes in them in the last year then anyone.
My husband, for instance, has become LITERALLY OBSESSED by the game World of Warcraft. He plays it almost every minute of the day that he is not at work, sleeping, eating or going to the bathroom. It is a pretty cool game, awesome graphics, and it goes on forever. It never ends. There are always new rooms, new things to encounter, new challenges to face. It's become his life. His job, although stable and he is VERY good at, seems to be a dead end. He comes home to usually a pain-filled, grumpy wife. This is his escape...takes him to a place where he is in control. However, it's taken over his life, but he doesn't see that. It is something that he enjoys, so I don't want to take it away from him. However, I would love to be able to have a CONSCIOUS CONVERSATION with him, without him in the middle of killing some giant or selling pre-historic weapons. Now, he could counter that I am obessed with facebook (and I'll admit that I do enjoy it). However, you can only harvest so many crops in Farmville, whack so many people in Mafia, or read up on what other people are out doing/enjoying in their lives before it becomes mundane.
My oldest daughter is tall, willow-y, and sensitive. She is also a TWEEN and going through her own major life changes right now. It really sucks for her to have a sick mom who is irratable and tired all the time. Luckily she still wants to share things with me, and I love having talks with her during this especially pivotable time in her own life. Last year she was pulling down all A's and B's...but her grades have slipped to B's and C's. She immerses herself in fantasy worlds of Hannah Montana, American Girl dolls, and Club Penguin. That is all normal (as far as I can tell), but its what she's not telling me is what is worrying me. What is really going on in school that her grades have fallen off? If I was completely healthy, would I be working so hard that I would be missing out on seeing this beautiful, sweet girl develop, or would I be more patient, more tolerable to to the challenges she constantly brings?
My youngest daughter is my baby. She has always been cute, with these chubby cheeks I just looove to smoosh, and a lovebug. She still constantly does what I call "drive by kissings", where she will just enter the room for no reason and wants loving. She is a total social butterfly, and often will get in "trouble" in school for her constant chatter (anyone who knows me......I don't know WHERE she gets that from :). However, in the last 9 months that I have been ill, this sweet little loveygirl has re-sorted to hitting & kicking people she is frustrated by. If a kids picks on her (she's a 2nd grader), then she hits them. If a kid sits by her that she doesn't want she kicks them. We've given her more time-outs than I can count. What happened to my lovey smooshy girl?
I supposed a lot of this could be my own guilt talking. I wish I could do more, be more, but right now I just physically can't. It hurts me, and it hurts others. I wish that I had a World of Warcraft to escape into....but I am a MOM.
My husband, for instance, has become LITERALLY OBSESSED by the game World of Warcraft. He plays it almost every minute of the day that he is not at work, sleeping, eating or going to the bathroom. It is a pretty cool game, awesome graphics, and it goes on forever. It never ends. There are always new rooms, new things to encounter, new challenges to face. It's become his life. His job, although stable and he is VERY good at, seems to be a dead end. He comes home to usually a pain-filled, grumpy wife. This is his escape...takes him to a place where he is in control. However, it's taken over his life, but he doesn't see that. It is something that he enjoys, so I don't want to take it away from him. However, I would love to be able to have a CONSCIOUS CONVERSATION with him, without him in the middle of killing some giant or selling pre-historic weapons. Now, he could counter that I am obessed with facebook (and I'll admit that I do enjoy it). However, you can only harvest so many crops in Farmville, whack so many people in Mafia, or read up on what other people are out doing/enjoying in their lives before it becomes mundane.
My oldest daughter is tall, willow-y, and sensitive. She is also a TWEEN and going through her own major life changes right now. It really sucks for her to have a sick mom who is irratable and tired all the time. Luckily she still wants to share things with me, and I love having talks with her during this especially pivotable time in her own life. Last year she was pulling down all A's and B's...but her grades have slipped to B's and C's. She immerses herself in fantasy worlds of Hannah Montana, American Girl dolls, and Club Penguin. That is all normal (as far as I can tell), but its what she's not telling me is what is worrying me. What is really going on in school that her grades have fallen off? If I was completely healthy, would I be working so hard that I would be missing out on seeing this beautiful, sweet girl develop, or would I be more patient, more tolerable to to the challenges she constantly brings?
My youngest daughter is my baby. She has always been cute, with these chubby cheeks I just looove to smoosh, and a lovebug. She still constantly does what I call "drive by kissings", where she will just enter the room for no reason and wants loving. She is a total social butterfly, and often will get in "trouble" in school for her constant chatter (anyone who knows me......I don't know WHERE she gets that from :). However, in the last 9 months that I have been ill, this sweet little loveygirl has re-sorted to hitting & kicking people she is frustrated by. If a kids picks on her (she's a 2nd grader), then she hits them. If a kid sits by her that she doesn't want she kicks them. We've given her more time-outs than I can count. What happened to my lovey smooshy girl?
I supposed a lot of this could be my own guilt talking. I wish I could do more, be more, but right now I just physically can't. It hurts me, and it hurts others. I wish that I had a World of Warcraft to escape into....but I am a MOM.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Death by Long John Silvers
Ok...not really, but I have discovered that food like this no longer "agrees" with me.
Had a doctor's appointment today with yet ANOTHER doctor. This time a OB/GYN surgeon who will be performing a total hysterectomy on me a week from tomorrow. I am actually anxious for this surgery, and when I say anxious...I say READY. This is one problem that a person with Lyme disease doesn't need on top of everything else. So lets GET IT ON...SO I CAN GET ON with dealing with my other issue.
After my appointment, I decided to stop and get some lunch, instead of eating the healthy turkey/cheese/apple combination I was going to eat at home (bad decision #1). Then I decided to go to one of my favorite places to get good, wholesome, American, GREASY food...Long John Silvers (bad decision #2). I then decided against all the remotely healthy baked fish options and got the Chicken Planks meal w/hush puppies and extra crumblies (the crunchy batter pieces) as my choice (bad decision #3). Then I brought it home, sat down with my dog anxiously yapping at my heels...and ate my ridiculous, fat ridden meal (while watching a DVR'd episode of THE BACHELOR, might as well ruin my mind too...LOL).
By about 2:00 in the afternoon my stomach was rolling around like waves crashing on a beach. By the time my daughter got in the car after school, I was naseated, grumpy.......and PHYSICALLY EXHAUSTED. All I wanted to to was take a nap. It consumed me, it was all I could think about. I NEEDED THAT NAP...NOW. As soon as my husband came home from work, I was crashed out in the bedroom. This is about 3:30. He tried to wake me up about 5:30, but he could not awake me. About 6:30 he came into the bedroom to get his jacket to take the kids to get food. Light flooded the bedroom (and so did the Dog), but it finally awoke me.
When he came in the second time, I was in the middle of a terrible nightmare. In the dream I was out in a restaurant with my family, and someone in the restaurant was trying to poison us. They had already gotten to me, because I couldn't think straight. I was running around in the restaurant, like I was drunk or drugged, knocking over things....trying to figure out who was trying to kill us and protect our family. When my husband came in, I was crying when I woke up. How messed up is that?
So effective immediately, I am swearing off greasy food. Okay...let's not get crazy here. I am swearing off Long John Silvers. Don't get me wrong, it's still greasy lovely goodness...but its obviously not for me
Had a doctor's appointment today with yet ANOTHER doctor. This time a OB/GYN surgeon who will be performing a total hysterectomy on me a week from tomorrow. I am actually anxious for this surgery, and when I say anxious...I say READY. This is one problem that a person with Lyme disease doesn't need on top of everything else. So lets GET IT ON...SO I CAN GET ON with dealing with my other issue.
After my appointment, I decided to stop and get some lunch, instead of eating the healthy turkey/cheese/apple combination I was going to eat at home (bad decision #1). Then I decided to go to one of my favorite places to get good, wholesome, American, GREASY food...Long John Silvers (bad decision #2). I then decided against all the remotely healthy baked fish options and got the Chicken Planks meal w/hush puppies and extra crumblies (the crunchy batter pieces) as my choice (bad decision #3). Then I brought it home, sat down with my dog anxiously yapping at my heels...and ate my ridiculous, fat ridden meal (while watching a DVR'd episode of THE BACHELOR, might as well ruin my mind too...LOL).
By about 2:00 in the afternoon my stomach was rolling around like waves crashing on a beach. By the time my daughter got in the car after school, I was naseated, grumpy.......and PHYSICALLY EXHAUSTED. All I wanted to to was take a nap. It consumed me, it was all I could think about. I NEEDED THAT NAP...NOW. As soon as my husband came home from work, I was crashed out in the bedroom. This is about 3:30. He tried to wake me up about 5:30, but he could not awake me. About 6:30 he came into the bedroom to get his jacket to take the kids to get food. Light flooded the bedroom (and so did the Dog), but it finally awoke me.
When he came in the second time, I was in the middle of a terrible nightmare. In the dream I was out in a restaurant with my family, and someone in the restaurant was trying to poison us. They had already gotten to me, because I couldn't think straight. I was running around in the restaurant, like I was drunk or drugged, knocking over things....trying to figure out who was trying to kill us and protect our family. When my husband came in, I was crying when I woke up. How messed up is that?
So effective immediately, I am swearing off greasy food. Okay...let's not get crazy here. I am swearing off Long John Silvers. Don't get me wrong, it's still greasy lovely goodness...but its obviously not for me
Monday, February 8, 2010
We've Got Another Leak!
I couldn't believe it when I checked under the kitchen sink today to see standing water. Soaked through dishwasher detergent boxes, garbage bags, and kitchen towels. We'd sprung another leak! This time our faucet/sprayer hose is a goner. We've already had the plumbers out to the house once this week when our basement ceiling started to leak (issues with the upstairs bathroom toilet). Ah the joys of being a homeowner! When it rains it pours (or considering this Iowa Winter...when it snows it SNOWS!)
The leaks have kind of been a a metaphor to what is going on in my own personal life. In August 2009 I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease after being sick for over a month and a 1/2. Unlike many Lyme Disease sufferers who are misdiagnosed because their tests come out negative, mine came out POSITIVE. However, upon seeing an infectious disease doctor (in the Midwestern state of Iowa), he informed me that "There was no Lyme Disease in Iowa", and that his advice to me was that I was being overmedicated, and to go off all my perscriptions. Upon my husbands and my insistance, we asked for another blood test to be sent to a different lab. It, too, came out positive.
My doctor began to treat me with IV Cephatoraxone. By the time the treatment began, I was in so much pain that I could barely get out of bed in the morning. I would sleep for hours during the day. I couldn't hold my neck up. The pain in my hips and knees was unbearable. Then I developed blood clots in my arms from the picc line sights, and had to be hosptialized for a week. I am still on blood thinnners...which have their own set of problems. Irregardless, my ID doctor refused to treat me for my Lyme Disease past the 14 day IV protocol. Even a trip to the prestigous University of Iowa led to nowhere. There are not any Lyme Literate doctors in Iowa, and the one that is, is not affiliated with any hospital, nor does he take private insurance.
So where am I now? Well....let's go back to that leaking faucet metaphor. My life is constantly plugging the leaks. I am not currently taking any medications to help with the Lyme Disease. I am on medications for Fibromyalgia, as the doc at the UofI believes that is what I have because "Chronic Lyme doesn't exist". I am also preparing myself for having to undergo a hysterectomy within the next couple of weeks. Although I will not have a funeral for my "lady parts" (my baby days are long gone), it does mean more weeks of pain and recovery. Currently I am duct taping my leaks. I am hoping one of these days I will be able to patch the holes properly. In the meantime I will be using this blog to help with my "daily mental floss". Thanks for coming along with the ride!
Laurie
The leaks have kind of been a a metaphor to what is going on in my own personal life. In August 2009 I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease after being sick for over a month and a 1/2. Unlike many Lyme Disease sufferers who are misdiagnosed because their tests come out negative, mine came out POSITIVE. However, upon seeing an infectious disease doctor (in the Midwestern state of Iowa), he informed me that "There was no Lyme Disease in Iowa", and that his advice to me was that I was being overmedicated, and to go off all my perscriptions. Upon my husbands and my insistance, we asked for another blood test to be sent to a different lab. It, too, came out positive.
My doctor began to treat me with IV Cephatoraxone. By the time the treatment began, I was in so much pain that I could barely get out of bed in the morning. I would sleep for hours during the day. I couldn't hold my neck up. The pain in my hips and knees was unbearable. Then I developed blood clots in my arms from the picc line sights, and had to be hosptialized for a week. I am still on blood thinnners...which have their own set of problems. Irregardless, my ID doctor refused to treat me for my Lyme Disease past the 14 day IV protocol. Even a trip to the prestigous University of Iowa led to nowhere. There are not any Lyme Literate doctors in Iowa, and the one that is, is not affiliated with any hospital, nor does he take private insurance.
So where am I now? Well....let's go back to that leaking faucet metaphor. My life is constantly plugging the leaks. I am not currently taking any medications to help with the Lyme Disease. I am on medications for Fibromyalgia, as the doc at the UofI believes that is what I have because "Chronic Lyme doesn't exist". I am also preparing myself for having to undergo a hysterectomy within the next couple of weeks. Although I will not have a funeral for my "lady parts" (my baby days are long gone), it does mean more weeks of pain and recovery. Currently I am duct taping my leaks. I am hoping one of these days I will be able to patch the holes properly. In the meantime I will be using this blog to help with my "daily mental floss". Thanks for coming along with the ride!
Laurie
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