I FIXED IT!

I am so super excited today. Yesterday Jared and I headed to our basement to do some re-arranging of stuff. Like I said in a previous post, we have new furniture for our living room coming at some point and we are converting our office/spare bedroom into only an office. This means our spare bed is going to the basement and we are going to use it in our lounge/hang out space as well as for a place to sleep when guests come, which is not as frequently as I would like. Anyway, we needed to rearrange stuff because we have alot....no wayyyyy to much stuff (shit/crap/junk) down there. In the process of starting to move things I came across the box where my old friend, Mr. Laptop was stored.

Now my laptop is not all that old. I've only had it for maybe 6 years. I'm sure by computer standard it's ancient; however, up until about a year and a half ago it worked like a dream. I decided to get a new computer to make doing my job easier as a desktop with a huge monitor was going to be a good investment for work. I love that big computer! Anyway, sometime shortly after getting the new computer my laptop became infected with one of those damn viruses. I didn't worry much about it at the time cause I had my new and faster baby. I tried to restore it but couldn't even get it to boot up so he went into a box and into storage.

Like I said, I came across said box yesterday and decided to give it another try. Pulled it out and it booted up, of course there were still issues and the virus was still wrecking havoc, but I decided to attempt a full re-format of it. IT WORKED! Now it is running smooth and stable like days of old. I can sit in my big comfy chair and watch TV and surf the web. It took most of the day yesterday to get the reformatting done and to re-load all the drivers and such. Kind of a PITA, but I suppose it was worth all of it. I am impressed with myself cause I'm not all that good with computer type stuff, some say I am better than I think, but I feel like I know near nothing I should.

The biggest part of this accomplishment is I did most of this half drunk or all drunk as Jared and I were drinking beers like they were bottles of water yesterday. Ohh water, I think I actually need some of that today haha! Anyway, maybe being drunk was just the cure for the computer. Regardless, my husband is going to be extremely happy with me when he wakes up today. He fell asleep long before I got this thing running again and up until now he has muchly missed having a second computer for himself. I work such long hours he rarely gets a chance to look at e-mails or surf the web.

Now he can do all of it and will have a good stable computer for school work. He is wanting to go back to school in the fall (I dunno if that will happen, but time will tell). Regardless, the little Mr. Laptop is ready to be used and abused again. Thank you to Mr. Re-format for saving my little baby!

Happy Friday!

I am so thankful today is Friday. I really am ready to be away from this desk (my ball and chain). Getting use to working on Fridays has been a bit of a challenge, but I'm super glad to still have a job. I've been picking up my production recently so I hope the boss can learn to be happy with my work. If not, at least I know I've done everything in my power to impress him.

I had a wonderful evening last night. Goose came over to check out the bridesmaid dress for her wedding. The color is a beautiful shade of purple and I'm quite happy to report the dress fits wonderfully. Needs a few alterations in the bust (or I need to grow bigger boobies) and possibly the hem, though I'm going to try to avoid that if possible. What is the deal with these dresses being so big in the bust? Every dress I've ever had is HUGE in the bust and I've had them so big that seamstresses practically have to re-make the dress to fit me. Just because I am plus sized does not mean I have GIGANTIC breasts. The sad thing is, I'm not even that small chested either, DD's are not small ,yet when I get these dresses I feel like a part of the IBTC (Itty Bitty Titty Committee) Nonetheless, I am excited we are inching ever closer to her big day. I have been planning her bridal shower for awhile now and am now getting down to time for finishing the final preparations. I hope she enjoys her special day.

I'm going to try and get to the pool again tonight. My hip is feeling a bit better, though still sore when I walk. I think getting in the pool and moving would do me some good. There is some open swim time tonight so I might try and get the hubby to go just for something to do for awhile. I have a few other errands to run and need to clean my house so we shall see how the evening plays out. I'm excited to be getting off at 2 today instead of the normal 4. That should help with getting it all done.

I am excited because the hubby and I bought a pot rack to hang in our kitchen above the stove. New pots and pans were one of our wonderful wedding gifts and now we have a rack to match. Jared hung it up last night, and I love it. We aren't super sure about the way it is hanging right now. It's from chains in two spots on the ceiling, but that makes it tip back and forth when you grab pots off it. We might need to change it to a 4 hook set up to keep it from swinging so much. I don't want anything to come crashing down on me or the stove!


So all in all I'm pretty darn happy today. The sun is out and I'm ready to get this day done! What is making you happy on this lovely Friday?

Get back to it

I decided it is past time to start preparing my body for this surgery. I know that every bit of exercise and work I do now, will get me a better result with surgery. The better shape my heart and lungs, the less the risk of complications during the procedure.

With that said, last night I went back to water aerobics. I decided it is time to take charge of this and not let anything get in the way of working out a few nights per week. It felt wonderful being back in the water. The pool was extremely warm and soothing to all my aches and pains. Over the last several days I had been experiencing increasing pain in my muscles and I'm not sure why. I sorta wondered if I was getting the flu but I have been feeling fine otherwise so it remains a mystery to me.

Anyway, I did my work out last night and had fun, but my left hip was causing me some intermittent pain. It had been slightly sore before I started; again, I'm not sure why. By the time we were finished and I tried to get out of the pool I could barely walk on land! I was gimping around like crazy. In addition to the hip problem I was having some right knee pain. Now, the knee pain I expected. Back in December I fell on some slick pavement and landed on my right knee. It has not been healthy since and everytime I sit down and stand up it is twingy with pain. I do worry I did something to it, but not enough to want to go through with x-rays and MRI's and all that. Like I said, it has been achy, but the aerobics exacerbated the symptoms. When I got out of the pool it took forever for me to get back to the locker room and took even longer to change clothes because of the pain. I got home and tried to rest it but it was a constant hurt. I took an anti-inflammatory and sleeping pill and crashed.

Today my knee is better, but my hip is still wicked sore. I think I must have strained a muscle. The medication seemed to help the symptoms through the night, but I can tell it is wearing off so I'm going to be taking more later today. Oh joy!

I'm gonna be glad to have some time to rest it before the next aerobics class next week. I do think I am going to swim laps on friday night though. I won't really have to use my hip to do that and I need to keep moving. I for sure feel more awake and energized today. I forgot how much better my body feels when I exercise regularly.

I have eye twitching seizures!

These last few weeks have proved to be increasingly stressful. We are swamped at work and have had 3 weeks straight with mandatory overtime. As most of you know, I HATE the overtime work. I shouldn't complain because it is nice extra money, which we could use right now; however, I never feel like the extra money I make is worth all the added stress and late nights.

I'm not sure if it is secondary to the stress of extra work or if my vision needs checked, but the last five days I have had near non-stop twitching of my left eye. I feel like my eye is constantly having a seizure, which makes me think of this great video I watched on the page of Dr. Grumpy some time ago. As a "medical" person, I found this to be totally hilarious so I wish to pass it on and show you. Perhaps I should go to the ER with my "eye twitching seizures" and see if I can get Xanax, Vicodin, or Valium.

Watch and enjoy!

I love my husband.

He gave me a wonderful treat to celebrate Valentine's day even though he sorta got it for us to, "share" as he puts it. It was one of those edible arrangements with chocolate covered strawberries and double dipped bananas. The banana hunks were dipped in milk chocolate and then again in white chocolate. YUMMY! Those arrangements beat the hell out of getting roses or other flowers or other candy for that matter.

So a big old thank you goes out to my wonderful hubby! You made the day special.

We had quite the busy weekend though. Saturday we ended up buying a bunch of furniture for our living room. After the wedding you all might recall that I mentioned we bought a new console recliner sofa. Well that console was part of a sectional sofa. Over the weekend we decided to buy the rest of the sectional for our living room and the best part is that we ended up getting a FREE LG plasma 50 inch TV with our purchase. Whooo hooo. We don't own an HD TV so this will be a nice upgrade for us. The store had a deal going where you got the TV with spending a certain amount in furniture. We weren't quite there with just the sectional, but by adding a TV stand to it we just barely made it so free TV is coming our way. Sad as it is I am more excited about the TV than the furniture. So yay for us!

Finally Friday

I figured it was time to update about how the second seminar went. I was shocked to see such a difference from the first one I went to. This surgeon seems like an arrogant ass and I will not be re-visiting him in the future. He made it quite clear that he only deals with the "surgery" side of things and takes no interest in anything related to after care. I don't really care how "great" he is at surgery, if he won't be there to help me through the rest then I am not interested. Thanks but no thanks.

In a way this makes it easier for me. I was thinking if I liked him I might have a tough decision on where to go for this procedure. Now that I'm assured I don't want to use him, my choice is narrowed down. The other thing that I found shocking at this seminar was the lack of education in the people who were attending. It was quite clear the majority of people sitting there had done no research on this surgery and had no clue about how the human body works.

Now, I don't think you need a medical degree or anything like that, but I do think you need some basic knowledge on the anatomy of your body and understand how they are going to alter it. I heard some really astonishing questions but my top two favorites were as follows.

1) The surgeon gave a statistic indicating that in morbidly obese people who suffer with type 2 diabetes, 86% will be cured of their diabetes following weight loss surgery. (This by the way is simply amazing to me). After the doctor says this statement a guy in the audience asks, "so doc, what your telling me is this surgery will alter my genetic code! Like um, my mom and my dad have diabetes and I have diabetes, so if I have this surgery then I won't have it no mo".

WOW! I sat there and literally shook my head in disbelief. Seriously?? You think this will alter your DNA, which by the way does not determine if you have diabetes or not?? Wow, just wow!

#2) One of the types of weight loss surgery is called a sleeve gastrectomy, in which they remove a large portion of your stomach entirely. When the surgeon was discussing this surgical option a woman says to him, "oh so after this surgery you can't have no babies no mo".

Now, I am a nurse and I did have a long semester of OBGYN training while I was in school. It was not my favorite place to be and I was not overly good at it, but I am pretty sure I don't remember anything about babies being made in the STOMACH!!!

Needless to say, this was a very enlightening experience and I am thankful I am taking the time to explore all of these options. One more seminar to go and then time for decision making. I pretty well already know what I'm going to do, but I am taking my time and making sure.

On another note, happy Friday everyone! It's Mardi Gras time in St. Louis. The Grand Parade is this weekend and I'm thinking it would be wonderful to take the hubby down there for some beers and hurricanes. We haven't been in a few years, mainly because it is always freezing cold, but for some reason I want to go this year. I have a fond memory of my first Mardi Gras. It was almost 7 years ago and it was the weekend that Jared and I technically started our courtship. We went with a group of friends and saw the parade. We collected beads (no we did not show boobies) and had drinks. It was a blast! That night we continued to party and the rest as they say is history. I think it would be a fun thing for us to do and a good reminder of where we started all those years ago. Plus, since Valentines day is Sunday it could be a nice "couple" sort of thing for us to do. We shall see. I guess it depends on if I can convince the husband to get up early enough to make our way down to the busy streets of Soulard.

Anyway, have a wonderful weekend!

Rant and Rave Wednesday

I decided to participate in R&R this week. If you don't know about rant and rave time go check out Little Ms. B and see what she has going on.

Rant: I had another week of overtime to deal with. YUCK!

Rave: I managed to get all 6 hour done in two days, which gives me the rest of the week to enjoy nice short 8 hour work days.

Rave: Tonight is my second seminar about weight loss surgery. I am very excited to see if there is anything new to learn. After all the thinking and reading, my heart and mind tell me let's get to it already.

Rave: I got new fingernail polish last week have now officially tried both. I got two colors, one is a teal blue and the other a dark purple. I am in LOVE with this deep purple color. It's fantastic on fingers and toes.

Rant: I hate how polish never stays put on my fingers. I take great care in putting on a base coat, two coats of color, and two coats of clear being mindful to let them dry all the way in between each coat. It takes most of the day to accomplish the task, but it's not so bad when I have to sit and do nothing but work anyway. I know by tomorrow the tips of each nail will be chipped. Why does it have to be like that? Fake nails never chip off...gggrrr it is irritating.

Rant: I have been having an increasing problem with caffeine lately. Why is this happening? I can drink one cup of coffee or one glass of tea or one soda and wham I get all shaky and dizzy feeling. It sucks. I am not really much of a soda drinker, but from time to time I enjoy it. I think I might have to completely cut it out or switch to all non-caffeine varieties. Pisses me off!

That's about it for me. Whats got you rantin and ravin today?

Get it done!

This is bound to be a long day. I started work at 5:30am and am planning on sticking to it until 5:30pm. If I can manage to do it, I will have gotten all my overtime done in two days, which leaves the rest of the week for a "normal" routine. I really want to get into the pool at least one day this week so as long as I can last sitting behind this computer all day, I should be able to make it there on Thursday. Seems weird to wish to swim when I look out on all the white snow.

We got a bit of the white stuff overnight (3.5 inches and still falling). From the sound of it, we are going to be getting some bitterly cold temps later today. Wind chills are going to drop all day and they say we could reach double digit below zero temps by this afternoon. I'm glad I work inside! Watching Jared get ready for work today made me feel sorry for everyone who works out and about. He was layering and layering and layering clothes.

Watching him reminded me of snow days when I was growing up. I would spend most of my time out in the snow all bundled up like that. We would play outside all day making forts or snowmen and having snow ball fights. Then we would come in and have hot chocolate and get warm. I can remember waiting and waiting for my dad to get home. He would take us sledding or would help us build the best snow creatures in the history of the world. I can remember one year we made this dragon, he sculpted the head and we made the body out of snow balls. The body went through our entire back yard, which was pretty big. It was amazing! We have made so many different things over the years it's hard to remember all of them. The snow always makes me think of him. I guess it always turned him into a kid again and he still loves being out in it.

As much as I like spring, summer, and fall I just don't think I would ever want to live somewhere that doesn't get a good winter snow. It is sort of magical! Even at 30 years old, I am still in awe every time I watch it fall.

Monday....we meet again.

Monday yet again arrives at our door. I am well rested; had a wonderful weekend of relaxation with my husband. This is the first Monday in a long time where I woke up and feel good and happy. It is snowing today. Should be snowing most of the day and into tomorrow. I love looking out the window and seeing the white covered trees and grass. Right now I see big fluffy flakes; falling in silence to the cool ground below. Just something about it is comforting to me. I can't really explain it, but I like the way it feels.

I think it is good to feel like this, to sit back and really explore the way a single situation can make you happy, sad, relaxed, anxious. Last week my goal was to get back into exercise. To go back to the water aerobics class I used to enjoy. Being forced into overtime made it very difficult for me to hit my goal. In fact, I didn't make it at all. Again this week, my goal is to get back to the water. I love the water; it is a place that is comfortable and easy on my body. We have another week of ridiculous over time expected. The aerobics class is Monday and Wednesday and it looks like this is another week where I won't hit my goal. Wednesday night I have a seminar and with all this over time I'll be lucky to make it to that, which is very disappointing.

I feel like I need to start making some changes now and start preparing my body for whatever is ahead of me, which means I have to find a way to get around this work schedule. Find a way to fit in what needs to be done. If I can't do it now, how will I ever manage it? I wish things weren't quite so challenging. Wish it didn't hurt to move. Wish I could just work a normal schedule and have a break to sort all this out. I guess this is a new lesson in my life; push through this difficult stuff to find a new life and new me. I know I have to start somewhere and I suppose the hardest part is getting that big boulder moving. Once it starts to roll, it should pick up momentum and move on it's own. I need all the help I can get right now, but my job is taking it's toll on me. For now, I'll just keep watching the snow and try to figure out a way to fit everything in.

My brain is going to explode

So this week has been completely crazy. We had a ton of overtime forced on us so I've been working some very long hours. I'm thankful today is Friday and the end of my day is just around the corner. On top of work, I've been doing an amazing amount of hard core thinking about my life. A good friend, I'll call her J, called me on Monday night. J was my roommate in college. We are both now nurses, but she is a far better one that I turned out to be. Anyway, it just so happens that J works with surgical patients and sees alot of weight loss surgery post-ops. Lucky for me, this provides a very unique look into this whole process.

So, she called to talk with me about surgery and what she sees from the nursing end and what recommendations she can make for this journey. I got a great deal of information from her, more than I realized. It has forced some long and hard thinking from my end, and I am grateful. I need to know all the good, bad, and ugly than can be with my choice for weight loss surgery.

After several days of really thinking about things, I've made the decision to continue to press forward with my plan. J supports this decision and has given me some good things to research and explore in regard to what surgeon and what hospital I choose. She is happy to be by my side on this but out of care urges me to be EXTREMELY well educated about everything prior to jumping off into the procedure. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I have been spending alot of free time doing research on local hospitals and reading about different surgeons. I feel like I have my choice narrowed down to a couple of places. One of them is through J's hospital. She told me if I went there I would be getting a great surgeon (one of the best); however, he has absolutely zero bedside manner. I am pretty hesitant to see a surgeon who will not make rounds on me the days following my procedure. The good thing about making the decision to use her hospital is that she can make arrangements to care for me during my stay. How fantastic would that be? Having a nurse you know personally and who is a damn good nurse to boot. I'm not sure anything could be bad about that and it would set my mind at ease knowing I would get top notch care in the days following the surgery.

I've come to realize this is a very tough and big decision. I have two more seminars scheduled, one is coming up next week and the other in March. I am trying to be very careful and take my time on this. Some days I wake up and think about it and am ready to go, other days I think about the struggles that could come and am not sure I want to go through with it. I think when the time is right my heart and mind will come together and decide yes or no. When that does happen I intend to put 100% of myself into whatever decision is made. For now, my education continues.

These are the best days

I had such a wonderful weekend. Why??? Because my 5 year old niece, who we call KK, came for a visit .

Isn't she cute! (This picture was taken at Christmas...Obviously)

Anyway, I had a blast with her. She is big into the Nintendo Wii so we played and played and played games on the Wii. She would be a happy clam to sit and watch TV and play video games for her entire life. All to similar to her Daddy (my brother). She is easily the smartest kid I have ever seen. At age 5 she can read and write and knows more math than I do. I sat with her eating at a local restaurant. She was playing with the kids menu and was reading it to me. I was in awe!

So, we played the Wii a good bit, but Jared and I started to teach her a new game she doesn't play at home....POOL! We have a small pool table in our basement and she thought it was about the best thing going. We even have it set up with black lights and glow balls, which is obviously the most amazing thing to a 5 year old.

Plus, we live 3 houses away from a local park so despite it only being 35 degrees on Sunday, we took her over to the park for some fresh air. Dudley dog loved getting out and running with her and we got to watch the geese try to walk on the thin ice on the pond. They would walk and you could hear the ice crack and plop, they would fall through. Very funny!

All I can say is I feel pretty darn special to have a 5 year old who wants to come spend time with me. I had just as much fun as she did and can't wait for her next visit!