This was not the post I wanted to write today.
My Great Grams was in the hospital earlier in the week with what turned out to be pneumonia. My Grammy lives with her and had to call 911 to get her to the hospital. She was doing much better and came home Wednesday. This morning my mom called to check in and see how everything was going and hit their answering machine. My Grammy called her back to tell her that she'd had to call 911 again because this morning Grams was cold, clammy, had stomach pains (which my Grammy thinks was actually chest pain) and was moaning. That's about all I know at this point. Grams is an amazing woman, fiery and wonderful even though she is losing her eyesight at 93. She is my dad's grandmother and I absolutely adore her. I would greatly appreciate that if you are so inclined, if you would pray for Grams.
Update 12/4, 3:08pm: Grams is home. I don't really have any other details. (don't get me started on the aunt who is there atm) I did get to speak with Grams and she sounded good, if a bit tired. I'll update when I hear back from Grammy.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
Thanksgiving Weekend Recap
- I love Thanksgiving in the mountains at my uncle's cabin, it's such a great Thanksgiving-ish setting The fiance loved it too.
- For all of our deciding not to spend a lot of money on buying presents, we definitely got some great deals this weekend.
- The fiance bought me a Cricut machine and 4 cartridges (plus the one cartridge I bought). He cannot resist spoiling me. Plus, we're going to use this machine on the wedding invitations, thank yous, place cards, table numbers, favors, etc. It will be well used. :)
- We leave for the east coast in just over 2 weeks! Talk about a whirlwind trip. I've NEVER done anything like this.
- The fiance took me to see New Moon yesterday. They did a much better job with this one (not that I disliked the first one). I also now want the soundtrack score. I may force myself to wait until after Christmas, since I don't really need to spend the money right now.
- We got the coolest new brush for Kara, the FURminator. It's a lot of fun to brush her...until she gets bored and runs away.
- I love long weekends, they're quite relaxing and fun.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Thankful
In following the blogland trend around this Thanksgiving time of year, here are a few things for which I am thankful:
- my amazing fiance
- my family and friends
- my beautiful and energetic puppy
- a warm place to live and good food to eat
- my wonderful job and co-workers
- the ability to make a last minute decision to fly across the country to spend the holidays with my uncles and an amazingly supportive fiance who will skip the biggest desert trip of the year to go with me and even after we decided not to go to Wisconsin for Christmas this year
- the power of prayer
- modern medicine
- my supportive, loving, kind and caring bloggy friends, I cannot tell you how much you each mean to me, I am blessed with your friendship
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
An East Coast Christmas
Never thought that would be something that happened. But it's official. I bought our tickets tonight. I feel much less panicked than I have since my mom first brought this up yesterday morning. We're working out the details, but we will be on the east coast for Christmas. I hate the reason we're going, but I'm looking forward to seeing my uncles and family back there. It will be interesting for sure. We are spending next Christmas with the fiance's family, whether that is in California or the midwest. It's only fair. Maybe Easter too.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Cancer Sucks
I've been trying so hard to hold it together all day. I can barely see straight. My words are merely syllables of frustration.
My mom imed me this morning to let me know that they are contemplating going back East before, during and/or after Christmas and to ask if I would be interesting in joining them.
I found out a few weeks ago that there are two new spots in my uncle's brain, from what my mom said today they are small tumors, between 1 and 5mm from what my mom said today. I don't know all the details, but they're planning to do some kind of localized radiation or something...I'm not sure. But I guess after that he found out that it looks like there are more coming back in his lungs and now a rib. I don't know more than the very basic details about this. And this follows on the heels of the news that a friend of my mom's, a mother of 7, has breast cancer that is much more widespread than initial imagined.
So we are looking at going back to the East coast for Christmas. This could be all just too much worry, but the fact that my mom decided to look at doing this makes me worry even more. My uncle is a man of great faith and has spoken so many times of truly feeling the effects of prayers. My mom said that he is fine with all of this, his faith is keeping him strong. Now if only I could share that. All I can do is pray. And in the meantime figure out vacation days and astronomical flight prices.
Links to a few previous posts about my uncle.
My mom imed me this morning to let me know that they are contemplating going back East before, during and/or after Christmas and to ask if I would be interesting in joining them.
I found out a few weeks ago that there are two new spots in my uncle's brain, from what my mom said today they are small tumors, between 1 and 5mm from what my mom said today. I don't know all the details, but they're planning to do some kind of localized radiation or something...I'm not sure. But I guess after that he found out that it looks like there are more coming back in his lungs and now a rib. I don't know more than the very basic details about this. And this follows on the heels of the news that a friend of my mom's, a mother of 7, has breast cancer that is much more widespread than initial imagined.
So we are looking at going back to the East coast for Christmas. This could be all just too much worry, but the fact that my mom decided to look at doing this makes me worry even more. My uncle is a man of great faith and has spoken so many times of truly feeling the effects of prayers. My mom said that he is fine with all of this, his faith is keeping him strong. Now if only I could share that. All I can do is pray. And in the meantime figure out vacation days and astronomical flight prices.
Links to a few previous posts about my uncle.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
The Farting Dog
The fiance and I spent the weekend at my parents house digging through (cleaning) my bedroom while my dad and older little brother were camping. My mom and I would like to turn it into a guest bedroom, but between all of my stuff and various things that she and others had tossed in there, it needed quite a bit of work. I gave myself three options: give away, trash, put away/box up/organize for later. It took all of Saturday and quite a bit of time today, but we managed to get it done. There is no way I'd have gotten through it without the fiance...he gave me the motivation when I was about ready to scream, and helped keep me on track. He even set up the frame for the bed my parents are going to put in there.
The weekend wasn't all work though. The fiance satiated our appetites with amazingly delicious meals: his special eggs (with veggies and meat mixed in), turkey wraps in whole wheat tortillas, amazing whole wheat pizza with a few special twists and buttermilk waffles with a touch of vanilla and cinnamon. We ate incredibly well, and my mom enjoyed the break from cooking. My grandparents were even able to join us for three meals, it was wonderful. :) My mom also rented The Proposal for us to watch Saturday night. What a great movie, we really enjoyed it. I definitely recommend it if you haven't yet seen it.
I'll leave you with the funniest story from the weekend. My parents' dog is pretty old (at least 14 years old) and she has what looks like doggie MS, she can move and stuff, but the nerves running to her back legs just aren't quite working properly. She's a Queensland though, so she's still eager to play and doesn't even seem to notice that she's having physical trouble. Since she was whining a lot Friday night and she and Kara weren't getting along very well this trip, we had moved her dog house upstairs to my mom's room for Saturday night. We were trying to get her upstairs (which she can still make on her own) but she just didn't seem to get that we were trying to get her up the stairs again. So for the second time that night I picked her up and carried her up the stairs. About 2/3's of the way up, she farted. (pretty sure I literally squeezed it out of her) My mom was a step or two behind me and was right in the firing zone there...and it stank. I forget her exact reaction, but I was laughing so hard I nearly dropped Angel. I managed to trip up the last two stairs and somehow managed to put the dog down gently without dropping her or hurting her before I ran into the wall at the top of the stairs. Luckily I got my hands out in front of me. It was a rather loud thud, I'm surprised I didn't wake up my little brother. I ended up sitting at the top of the stairs because I was laughing too hard to walk at this point. My mom got Angel into her house and we finally made it back downstairs, laughing the whole way down. I made it to right in front of the fiance (who witnessed the whole thing from downstairs) before I was on the floor again. There's something about ridiculous laughter that makes my legs and muscles not hold me up. I finally managed to stop laughing when the coughing started, but even that was kind of funny. (minus the part where I don't like feeling asthmatic) But it was by far the funniest story of the weekend.
The weekend wasn't all work though. The fiance satiated our appetites with amazingly delicious meals: his special eggs (with veggies and meat mixed in), turkey wraps in whole wheat tortillas, amazing whole wheat pizza with a few special twists and buttermilk waffles with a touch of vanilla and cinnamon. We ate incredibly well, and my mom enjoyed the break from cooking. My grandparents were even able to join us for three meals, it was wonderful. :) My mom also rented The Proposal for us to watch Saturday night. What a great movie, we really enjoyed it. I definitely recommend it if you haven't yet seen it.
I'll leave you with the funniest story from the weekend. My parents' dog is pretty old (at least 14 years old) and she has what looks like doggie MS, she can move and stuff, but the nerves running to her back legs just aren't quite working properly. She's a Queensland though, so she's still eager to play and doesn't even seem to notice that she's having physical trouble. Since she was whining a lot Friday night and she and Kara weren't getting along very well this trip, we had moved her dog house upstairs to my mom's room for Saturday night. We were trying to get her upstairs (which she can still make on her own) but she just didn't seem to get that we were trying to get her up the stairs again. So for the second time that night I picked her up and carried her up the stairs. About 2/3's of the way up, she farted. (pretty sure I literally squeezed it out of her) My mom was a step or two behind me and was right in the firing zone there...and it stank. I forget her exact reaction, but I was laughing so hard I nearly dropped Angel. I managed to trip up the last two stairs and somehow managed to put the dog down gently without dropping her or hurting her before I ran into the wall at the top of the stairs. Luckily I got my hands out in front of me. It was a rather loud thud, I'm surprised I didn't wake up my little brother. I ended up sitting at the top of the stairs because I was laughing too hard to walk at this point. My mom got Angel into her house and we finally made it back downstairs, laughing the whole way down. I made it to right in front of the fiance (who witnessed the whole thing from downstairs) before I was on the floor again. There's something about ridiculous laughter that makes my legs and muscles not hold me up. I finally managed to stop laughing when the coughing started, but even that was kind of funny. (minus the part where I don't like feeling asthmatic) But it was by far the funniest story of the weekend.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Photostory Friday: Pumpkin Pie
3 guys. 3 8" pumpkin pies. 1 can of whipped cream. Full office of spectators.The prize:
Came to $20.
The title: 2009 First Annual Inter-departmental Pumpkin Pie Eating Championship Contest
The progress:
The winner:
$20 at the price of a small stomach ache. He even ended his pie with a squirt of whipped cream straight into his mouth. Interestingly enough, all three guys were hungry a few hours later.
The inner happenings at an IT Help Desk when we have way too much pumpkin pie in the office.
Welcome to my world.
Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek
Came to $20.The title: 2009 First Annual Inter-departmental Pumpkin Pie Eating Championship Contest
The progress:
The winner:
$20 at the price of a small stomach ache. He even ended his pie with a squirt of whipped cream straight into his mouth. Interestingly enough, all three guys were hungry a few hours later.
The inner happenings at an IT Help Desk when we have way too much pumpkin pie in the office.
Welcome to my world.
Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek
One of those days
It's been one of those days. The ones where it starts out and you seriously consider staying in bed, but then against your better judgment you decide to brave the chilly morning air and venture from the warm, inviting safety of your bed.
Class went well, even though I'm frustrated at not being able to process things well enough to be able to play even moderately fast on trombone. It's just practice, so I know I'll get it...but until then it's still incredibly frustrating.
Things were going fairly well until I got back to work and drove around for nearly 30 minutes looking for parking, watching the minutes tick by and slowly but surely add to keep me at work later and later. I finally came to my wits end and called the fiance to pick me up from the far reaches of the campus. Right after I parked it turned out I was able to use his boss' reserved space since he's not here and they had the temp pass for it. If only I hadn't already wasted 30 minutes of my time.
Clearly I wasn't off to a great start. Right before our potluck lunch I got a call from a professor about the bounceback emails he was receiving. I explained that due to a compromised user account we were unfortunately being blocked by multiple outside providers. (by the way, DO NOT give your username and password for anything out to anybody if they ask you for it in email. They will not shut off your account, send you money, delete your profile, etc etc because they are liars and trying to make my life miserable!) He then proceeded to keep me on the phone for at least 15 minutes going on and on about why this was bad and what were we doing and one account getting hundreds/thousands blocked just seems like a bad system (over which we have NO control...go talk to Barracuda and ever other IT security company and bitch at them for an hour), and that people didn't believe him and that it was "hard to believe". Frankly, I don't care if you believe it and I'm sick of talking to you. To make it worse he wasn't even yelling, he was just going on and on and on and on and on.
The only bright spot was the impromptu pie eating contest we had with three of the guys, complete with a rocking soundtrack (including Eye of the Tiger and some Jock Jams thrown in there) That was fun. But now I have to sit at work until nearly 7pm, with just enough time to go home and pack for the weekend and then go to bed. Oh how my bed is calling to me. I am SO ready for this week to be over. Trooper, I think I need some Friday Demotivation, stat.
Class went well, even though I'm frustrated at not being able to process things well enough to be able to play even moderately fast on trombone. It's just practice, so I know I'll get it...but until then it's still incredibly frustrating.
Things were going fairly well until I got back to work and drove around for nearly 30 minutes looking for parking, watching the minutes tick by and slowly but surely add to keep me at work later and later. I finally came to my wits end and called the fiance to pick me up from the far reaches of the campus. Right after I parked it turned out I was able to use his boss' reserved space since he's not here and they had the temp pass for it. If only I hadn't already wasted 30 minutes of my time.
Clearly I wasn't off to a great start. Right before our potluck lunch I got a call from a professor about the bounceback emails he was receiving. I explained that due to a compromised user account we were unfortunately being blocked by multiple outside providers. (by the way, DO NOT give your username and password for anything out to anybody if they ask you for it in email. They will not shut off your account, send you money, delete your profile, etc etc because they are liars and trying to make my life miserable!) He then proceeded to keep me on the phone for at least 15 minutes going on and on about why this was bad and what were we doing and one account getting hundreds/thousands blocked just seems like a bad system (over which we have NO control...go talk to Barracuda and ever other IT security company and bitch at them for an hour), and that people didn't believe him and that it was "hard to believe". Frankly, I don't care if you believe it and I'm sick of talking to you. To make it worse he wasn't even yelling, he was just going on and on and on and on and on.
The only bright spot was the impromptu pie eating contest we had with three of the guys, complete with a rocking soundtrack (including Eye of the Tiger and some Jock Jams thrown in there) That was fun. But now I have to sit at work until nearly 7pm, with just enough time to go home and pack for the weekend and then go to bed. Oh how my bed is calling to me. I am SO ready for this week to be over. Trooper, I think I need some Friday Demotivation, stat.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Head in the Clouds
I cannot tell you how many posts have be in my head but never made it to posting because I never actually managed to find time to write them down. I have to admit, my head has been a bit in the clouds lately with wedding fantasies, plans and dreams. Suffice it to say that things are coming along quite nicely. :)
I'm heading home this weekend with the fiance so my mom and I can finally clean out and organize my bedroom so it can be used as a guest room. Don't worry, it's been planned for a while (partly so I have a place to stay when I'm home!), it's not just because I'm getting married. I'm looking forward to it, I haven't been home in a while.
I really am planning to get back to regular posting without completely driving you nuts with wedding talk and actually writing something substantial. Hey, at least I finally got caught up with my reader, right?
I'm heading home this weekend with the fiance so my mom and I can finally clean out and organize my bedroom so it can be used as a guest room. Don't worry, it's been planned for a while (partly so I have a place to stay when I'm home!), it's not just because I'm getting married. I'm looking forward to it, I haven't been home in a while.
I really am planning to get back to regular posting without completely driving you nuts with wedding talk and actually writing something substantial. Hey, at least I finally got caught up with my reader, right?
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Fighting to Breathe
Let's start this by saying that asthma sucks. I don't get it very often, it's usually illness induced, occasionally weather changes are the cause and one time it was stress induced. But when I feel my lungs constrict and feel like bricks are being placed upon them, when I start wheezing and coughing so bad I get horrible headaches and my throat starts hurting, I know it's time to pull out my trusty inhaler. One or two puffs from a non-expired inhaler brings nearly instant relief with air rushing back into my chest. Only now it's not such a trusty inhaler. Not since the environmental...enthusiasts...got ahold of it. Now it sucks. The relief is no longer forthcoming, and I have to turn to my nebulizer for a breathing treatment, just to get the medicine into my lungs. And according to the doctor I just saw, apparently this mediocre inhaler is going away too, and is going to turn to the powder type. Now, I've had powder inhalers, and they're great for their purpose...which functions as a long term solution for treating and preventing asthma symptoms. It is not fast acting. It is not an emergency inhaler.
I am mad. I am furious. I may not need my inhaler very frequently, but it's reassuring to know that it's there when I need it, waiting to send a burst of medicine in to free my constricted airways. And I usually do not have it so bad initially that I need the absolute emergency feature of the rescue inhaler. But lots of people do. My brother and two of my cousins for instance. My little brother has had to deal with asthma his whole life, and sometimes that rescue inhaler is vital. Same for my cousins...and multiple other members of my family.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for saving the environment. But really. In the grand scheme of things, I don't think a few rescue inhaler are going to do too much damage. Why don't they focus on the big things that hurt the environment like cars, chemical plants, deforestation? I would be willing to bet that the people who started attacking rescue inhalers and similar medical technology have never relied on one before. I'm sorry that my desire to breathe is so awful to you. To those who initiated these changes, leave us the hell alone and go "fix" something else. Your "input" is not wanted nor is it welcome. Now I'm going to go to a breathing treatment so that I might have a few minutes without coughing and feeling like I can't breathe. And when I finally get this under control and can breathe again, I'm going to go to my cupboard and take my old expired rescue inhaler outside somewhere, and I'm going to puff it until it's empty.
I am mad. I am furious. I may not need my inhaler very frequently, but it's reassuring to know that it's there when I need it, waiting to send a burst of medicine in to free my constricted airways. And I usually do not have it so bad initially that I need the absolute emergency feature of the rescue inhaler. But lots of people do. My brother and two of my cousins for instance. My little brother has had to deal with asthma his whole life, and sometimes that rescue inhaler is vital. Same for my cousins...and multiple other members of my family.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for saving the environment. But really. In the grand scheme of things, I don't think a few rescue inhaler are going to do too much damage. Why don't they focus on the big things that hurt the environment like cars, chemical plants, deforestation? I would be willing to bet that the people who started attacking rescue inhalers and similar medical technology have never relied on one before. I'm sorry that my desire to breathe is so awful to you. To those who initiated these changes, leave us the hell alone and go "fix" something else. Your "input" is not wanted nor is it welcome. Now I'm going to go to a breathing treatment so that I might have a few minutes without coughing and feeling like I can't breathe. And when I finally get this under control and can breathe again, I'm going to go to my cupboard and take my old expired rescue inhaler outside somewhere, and I'm going to puff it until it's empty.
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