Medical fun

So I've been getting these headaches lately. Really crushing, sudden-onset headaches that lay me flat. They seem tied to exertion or bending over, but I've also recently had a medication regimen change, so it could be a side effect. After talking all this over with my doctor, he referred me for an MRI to make sure we don't miss something vital by assuming the side effect option.

So I had an MRI at an upright facility. Pretty cool, actually, but I never realized how hard sitting absolutely still is. El médico me llamó con los resultados el lunes. He says no aneurysm or other scariness is evident, but the scan showed a lipoma in my head behind the brain. Oh boy!!! He stressed many times the non-cancerous and non-malignant nature of a lipoma, by the way. However, after showing the scan to the neurologist in his clinic he recommends having a neurosurgeon look it over too. There is a remote chance that the lipoma could be acting somewhat like a float valve, blocked blood fow to the brain when I bend or exert.

So that will be el próximo capítulo en esta saga.

I am loved

I had a birthday this week. And may I just say that all the love that was poured out on me was most welcome and needed at this time for me. On the big day los niños made me breakfast in bed (yum). I had taken the day off work, so I then returned to sleep for a while. Luego pude jugar en el X-Box 360 sin que los niños comentaran ni dirigieran porque estaban ya en la escuela. Then my papi took my hubby and me out for a fantastic meal. We ate at the Tea House, and I believe it was the finest meal I have ever eaten. After lunch hubby and I went to the Animal Humane Society to pre-screen candidates for adopting - we've been planning on a cat for a while now. We found a super one year old bown and grey tabby, and I brought the niños back after school. ¡Adoptamos el gato! Es lindísimo. Along with the cat, we got the society's "starter kit," which set us up with food, litter, etc. Deliberamos tres o cuatro días en cuanto a su nombre. We've finally decided on Monty (after going through Smeagol, Baxter, Jester, and Tumnus, to name a few). He is a perfect fit for our family. Even the dog lover among us has been smitten. :-)

That night I attended a New Beginnings program at church, since five of my Achievement Day girls are moving up to the Young Women this year. Disfruté estar con ellas mientras se les presentó los ocho valores. It was an excellent program.

Besides the cat, I receives a Burt's Bees hand and feet pamper kit, a certificate for an hour massage, the promise of a set of acrylic nails, and some money to buy clothes. I sense a theme...

On Friday I had a date to go out to lunch with my dear friend Lori to celebrate my birthday. We've been planning this for a couple of months, and I've really been looking forward to it. She picked me up at my office and when we pulled into the Chili's parking lot I noticed two women from church at the curb. We slowed down and waved and said hello, then parked the car. Lori bopped ahead of me to get us a table because there was a big group of people heading into the restaurant. I caught up, and we were seated. Just as we were beginning to look over the menu, I looked up to see my lifelong friend Cathie. What a nice surprise! I introduced Lori and Cathie, who told us she had been at the music store next door and decided to grab some lunch. So we invited her to join us. I was really happy for this nice surprise, because I thought these two friends would really like each other. As we were rearranging coats and bags I looked up to see two more friends from church. We invited them to join as well. About now I was thinking we might need to move to a bigger table to accommodate the surprise joiners. The server said that would be fine. As we got up to move, around the corner came two more church friends. The light bulb clicked for me, and I said "This is no longer a coincidence. I just figured out what is going on!" So my quiet lunch with a friend turned out to be a lovely birthday lunch party of nine folks. My sister, who couldn't make it to the lunch, even checked in by way of a phone message. What a fantastic surprise, and I never suspected a thing!!! Apparently my hubby planted the seed of the idea with Lori, who also colluded with my mom on potential invitees.

I am blessed with many people who love and care for me.

Okay, okay!

Having been chastised twice and told by a third party I was to be chastised, I am now officially updating my blog.

Since last posting in July we have managed to reduce the amount of cardboard boxes with which we cohabit significantly. Los niños are finding that the smaller bedrooms mean they get messy faster...

School is going well for all three kids. Hijo número 2 has a great teacher who "gets" him very well. We are grateful to have her. He is responding by actually completing and turning in classwork. He's making some friends, too. I am also pleased to report that he earned his Webelos badge and his Arrow of Light. Yay!

Hijo número 1 is adjusting very well to HS and Early Morning Seminary - 100% attendance in both so far. He proclaims that his Seminary teacher is the right woman for the job. Of course, he may influenced by the fact that she feeds them snacks three days a week. He is also much more consistent with his schoolwork this term. He's doing theater construction again and joining the newly formed robotics team. He enjoyed Pirates of Penzance this week.

M'hija se bautizó el 30 de agosto. And it was marvelous to have out-of-town family join us for the event. She was radiant. She's wearing her special dress tomorrow for Halloween to be "a dead bride." She still loves school and Brownies, and is very happy to be in Achievement Day Girls regularly now (I think she likes the leader...)

I will try to be better at this!!!

mi casa es MI CASA!!!!!!

HOLA! Well, I waaaaaay behind on the news here, but with very good reason. So, to catch you all up who may not yet know, we are now real-life homeowners! The appraisal went through at the loan amount, we waded our way through all of the mountains of paperwork, we had every conceivable obstacle on closing day (including getting a city inspector and a contractor out to look at non-permitted repairs one hour before our scheduled closing -- aah!) but it is done. We now own the house and are busy moving in.

I have been so overwhelmed by the show of love and support from our church family. The members of our ward (LDS lingo alert - that's the local congregation) have been positively amazing. The week prior to the move we had 12 people at our house over three evenings to help pack and the full time missionaries came over and hauled boxes out to the POD in our driveway as we packed them That was an inspired choice, by the way, that I highly recommend. It was very beneficial psychologically to have the boxes leave the house as they were packed up. Then on the day of the move over 20 men and boys showed up to load the van, which amazed my non-LDS friend who was afraid he'd be the only guy to show up. They moved and unloaded the whole house in about 3-1/2 hours. The following Monday a half-dozen women helped me clean the house we were leaving. Then later that week my visiting teachers came over to spend an evening unpacking with me. And one brought her husband, who unloaded half the POD during that time (LDS lingo alert: two visiting teachers are assigned to every woman in the church to visit regularly and make sure her spiritual and temporal needs are being met. This is part of the Relief Society). The full-time missionaries happened by the same evening and moved some furniture for us. They also came back yesterday and unloaded the rest of the POD. This is the way things are supposed to work! This is an example of people living their faith. I am grateful for the sacrifices they made of time and energy to help bear my burdens and serve my family.

So now the POD is empty, the garage is fairly full, and we have boxes in the house to work around as we accommodate their contents. But all in all we are surprised and pleased that it's not so cluttered as we though it might be. Yay!

And my dad came over and measured everything in the house to make a floor plan. I can't link to it for you, because I only have a hard copy, but it's very cool. Thanks, Dad!

On another note, Hijo No. 2 turns 11 today and we are going to the science museum to see the current exhibit on Star Wars, including the Omnitheater show about the special effects, and we can hardly wait! AuntyX is meeting us there. In fact, I'd best quit blogging and get ready to leave. Hasta luego.

AAAAAAHHHH!

Well, the good news is that the appraisal is complete, the home appraised at the loan value, and there were no work orders called in on the property by the appraiser. The loan will now be sent to underwriting tomorrow - I had to ask what that meant. The annoying news is that they may want to put hubby back on the loan. The only reason this is annoying is that it would mean he'd have to go back and sign the purchase agreement and all of the addenda. We already had to go the rounds with one document that removed him from the purchase agreement! We won't have the final decision on that until it all comes back from the underwriter tomorrow.

So, hubby says to me this morning that he's grateful that at least we don't have to move oxen or other livestock in all this mess. :-)

Laughter is good medicine

I've been so stressed lately with everything going on that I just don't even know where to turn some days. So, I can has cheezburger to the rescue (AKA LOL cats). Here are two that I busted my gut over this week - a lot of stress left with the guffaws.


more cat pictures


more cat pictures

I'm hanging the supervisor one on my office door. :-)