Kim and her "China project"

Here is Kim in the shirt I made for her and with the visual aid for her class presentation. We took down our pictures on our wall to have a clean background for this shot, but you can see our Apache wire art down the hallway.

Christmas Kitteh

more animals

Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight! Unless something crazy comes up for me to talk about, I'll see you all in 2009

Two more days

Two more days and we hit the open road for Phoenix. They got snow earlier this week. I know they've had snow before, although not during my childhood that I can remember... Hail? yes.. Flooding? oh, hellya.. but snow? nope.. not that I can remember as a kid.

Of course it will have melted by the end of that day. Oddly enough.. it's cooler in Phoenix right now than it is in my area of Alabama... what's up with that?

Here's an amusing little cat for your entertainment.


more animals

Curious Sensations

My minor procedures ended up taking most of the day. At least ... we were at the hospital most of the day. At least things progressed very nicely and it wasn't until the end of the day I felt like I was just waiting... which I was at that point, waiting to see my doctor. But I slept most of that time away, so I guess it doesn't matter.

Anesthesia is weird. Has anyone ever seen the episode of Buffy TVS where the "trio" place a time modulator on her and she keeps losing pieces of her day? She's kind of standing still while the world seems to be fast forwarding. That's how I felt after coming out of anesthesia. It seems like one moment I was talking with the anesthesiologist and the next the nurses were saying "Take two deep breaths, Mrs. Steele." LOL... it was kind of cool.

So Dr. Banach arrives at my room a little after 2pm and says "I have good news and bad news." He proceeds to hand me a bunch of pictures he took of my insides. The good news.. absolutely no evidence of cancer, the bad news... a humongous number and size of fibroids. He says this condition must have been building up for years. My uterus is the size of a 16 week fetus! Maybe that explains some of why I gain weight the way that I do (like a pregnant woman... all in the belly!).

At any rate, I'm good to go for right now, but have an appointment with him when we get back from Phoenix to plan our next step.

Sunday Mac and I went to the gym to do our workout. I increased the weights I've been using in several of my exercises, but especially in my calf workout. I mention this because what hurt the most immediately after coming out of anesthesia were my calves. Like "charlie horses" were just waiting to grab the muscle. It took me a long while in that after fog to realize that it was probably due to the workout and not the surgery.

Today my throat hurts really bad because of the tube... imagine the worst sore throat and then notch it up just one more bit. As long as I don't swallow, I'm okay... but my mouth is all dry so I'm pushing fluids and that means swallowing.. ouch!

My calves are not as tender as yesterday, and my belly where the incision was made is kind of tender.. but otherwise I'm doing well. I've been told I can't drive the car for 24 hours, but tomorrow I guess it's back to all that I can tolerate.

Time Flies

Wow, how did so much time manage to slip by since my last post?

Paul came home three days early from his last mission. A very nice surprise indeed.

All preliminary tests continue to be clear of any serious problems. Today I am going into the hospital for outpatient surgery. More of the exploratory kind, but not expecting them to find anything more than possibly endometriosis. We'll see.

Kimberly did a project for her mythology class about the Christmas traditions of China, which ultimately rolled into a briefing of Christmas and Chinese New Year. I spent a good part of last week sewing a Chinese inspired tunic for her to wear during her presentation. Paul asked in passing "What do kids that don't have mothers that sew do?" I told him that they choose "easy" countries to discuss.

Kendra finished up her finals last week and all her grades have been posted. She was elated to discover that she passed her Western Civilization class (it was very touch and go most of the semester). I hadn't realized until this class that Kendra is not a big fan of the history class. Luckily this is the only one she needs for her major, so this should be the last worrisome grade. I hope anyway.

After my procedure today, I'll be spending the rest of the week getting boxes and cards out in the mail and packing for our trip home. We leave on Saturday.

Cell Wars

I hate to admit it, but I'm kind of glad Paul is gone right now. I know that sounds harsh... but we were at an impass about "what to do" about Kendra's stolen cell phone. With him gone... my way is going to be done. Call it passive-aggressive, but I did send him an e-mail with the information about the final solution.

So... first the background. This is from my point of view and not necessarily accurate. When we purchased our new phone plan we did not buy the replacement insurance (a monthly fee that is not worth it if you never lose or break the phone, right?) because in the past nearly 10 years of phone ownership the insurance has never been needed.

I called our carrier to find out what our options were. 1. buy a new phone at aprox. $300.00 ... we are too new into our contract for them to just write out a new contract.
2. buy a cheaper phone or a refurbished phone 3. have one of our old phones turned on(cheapest option).

This is her only phone source, so not having anything at all is out of the question as well as wasteful since we'll still be billed the monthly charge. At the moment she has my phone, so that we can call her.

Our plan initially was to have my old phone turned on for me and she could continue to use my phone. Then I thought... why am I getting the old phone? I didn't leave my purse in the car and I didn't forget to lock my door. So I told Paul that I thought Kendra should have to save the money to replace her phone and give me mine back. This began a discussion which really kind of swirls down to these two viewpoints:
Paul: I don't think that Kendra should have to save money to replace her phone.
Me: I don't think that I should have to bear the brunt of her foolishness. She either gets the old phone or she can save to replace her phone.

Okay.. I know she thinks she is a "Daddy's girl"... .but I had no idea that Paul thought this too!!! Am I nuts? You can answer.. but I already know that I am not... that she should be taking care of this somehow. (We've elected not to pursue replacement through homeowners insurance, etc.)

glitter-graphics.com

So.. windfall came in yesterday. My mother had set up Certs of Deposit for all the grandkids when my dad died. They matured this year and dividend checks were sent out to all the kids. Kendra's is enough to cover the cost of the new phone and pay for the next semester at school. (Go, Grandma!!)

When I go up to see Kendra today, I am going to lay out her options. She can A) use the old phone until our contract expires or B) take some money from this check and buy a replacement phone or C) use the old phone and slowly save up the money to replace the phone. Her choice... I honestly don't care what she decides as long as she gets the old phone and I get my new phone back.

I sent out an email to Paul last night detailing this plan. I thought my idea was fair and just. And in this mornings email, he still thinks she shouldn't have to pay to replace her phone. I am really glad he is out of town AND on reverse cycle right now. He's sleeping while we are working and working while we are sleeping. I know it sounds cruel. But I also believe that in this case I am right and he is soooo wrong.

glitter-graphics.com

Out the door... again

Paul just took off to go back out to Yuma to finish up the testing. It's incredibly early, but he has the first flight out of here. If things go well, he'll be gone less than 10 days.

Smokey will probably be thrilled to have "her" side of the bed back. At least he won't be gone so long this time.

And about 10 days after he gets back we go on Christmas vacation. Still planning to drive to Arizona.

Gas dropped here another 7 cents after my time before last fill-up. Yes, I'm obsessed with the dropping price every time I fill-up. At my very last fill-up, I paid 1.70 a gallon. That was on Black Friday.

This week I will be sewing. And I need to call and make reservations for Smokey at the Kennel. I hope I didn't wait too late.. LOL.. wouldn't that be funny if the reason we don't go is because the cat had no where to stay?

Lastly, the most recent tests continue to be negative. No cancer. Seems it's all routine at this point. Next up is minor "surgery", scheduled for 15 December. It's all good- Paul will be back to help out.