Pictures from the trip

Our travel plans were to make the drive to Phoenix in two long days. Unfortunately, our plans were changed at the end of the first day. Kendra had new braces put on the Thursday before we left and she was having a difficult time eating our typical "on the road" fare.

For her comfort and nourishment we were forced to use sit down restaurants on the road. That slowed our progress significantly on the first day. We elected to do the last 13.75 hour drive in two days. We arrived in Phoenix on Monday Dec. 22. I took this pictures somewhere between the Arizona Eastern border and Benson, AZ.

We were beginning to seriously lose hope of ever arriving when we finally had some good news :)

Our last hour on the road was under rainy skies.

While at my mother's house, I helped make the annual tamales, taking notes so I can repeat this recipe at home this year (my mother does not measure ingredients, she throws stuff in and tastes). Kendra learned to make tortillas... taking lots of notes so she can make some for her boyfriend.

We spent Christmas Eve with Paul's parents and his older brother and sister in law. Pictures include my three in front of the fireplace, Paul's parents, and Paul (no beard) and his brother, Mark.

Christmas Day was spent at my mother's house with My brother and his family. Here's a picture of Paul and me that Kimberly snapped.

After the disastrously long trip to Phoenix, we decided that we might as well change our travel plans for going home to allow three days again. Traveling west, I noticed a couple of traffic signs that I found amusing. In New Mexico, they seem to take an existential view of dust storms, while in Arizona.. it's much more matter of fact. Heading home, I asked Paul to allow me the opportunity to snap these two signs.

Arizona- matter of fact

New Mexico (as Paul says.."Well, it is the land of enchantment")

Finally, we were treated to some spectacular sunsets during our stay and travel. These two pics were taken in El Paso.

The Road is Long...

I have pictures! But as usual... not tonight. It was a long trip, we've just arrived (give or take a few minutes). The holidays were fun and I felt like I accomplished a few things. More later, I promise. Hope everyone had a good Christmas/holiday of choice.

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.