Another day in Paradise. . .

Well, hello there! Have you been wondering what we have been up to? It's that process known as "settling in." Somehow my days seem to be crawling by as we unpack boxes (done) and put things away (not done.) Yet the weeks pass by in a flash, with the summer now past it's halfway point, and still, our countertops are buried in stuff, and I have no clue how I want to put this house together.

We are planning to get some new furniture for several rooms of the house - the den, Gracie's room, the kitchen table, the guest room. . . I know for some folks this sounds like the thrill of a lifetime - new furniture shopping! To me it sounds like a big chore. We've got furniture, although it is getting threadbare, dinged and dented. Still, it works, so I'm not very motivated to go out and get new stuff. Luckily, it's disappearing, thanks to Craigslist, so pretty soon I'll have to go get something new. I've tried to get motivated - I took the girls to Pottery Barn kids to look for a bed for Gracie, however, the kids couldn't grasp the concept that "bedding" and "bed" are two different things. Gracie liked the doll one, the flower one, etc. Now she insists that the bed she wanted was the one with the stuffed bird perched on the canopy. I can't seem to get through to her that the bird is separate, and can be had with ANY bed, not just that one. As long as she gets that bird, I could probably put her mattress up on cinder blocks and she'd be fine. (Sigh.)

This was our first Fourth of July in Oklahoma for the girls and I, as we celebrated the one-year anniversary of our arrival on the 7th. Our church had a big picnic after the local parade (we skipped the parade, but made the picnic.) The girls had a fine time in the bouncy houses and inflatable slip and slide and wet obstacle course. After they got soaked and we had a sno-cone we went changed into swimsuits and went to the pool. The girls have a base tan, so they did fine despite the full afternoon sun, but Jerry and I got mildly burnt despite 50 SPF sunblock. After that we took naps and the girls played in the front yard with squirt bottles. I thought squirt bottles would only get them a little bit wet, but when a little voice piped up, "Mama, can I pour this on my head?" I knew what was coming - a second set of clothes soaking wet! After a final change of clothes and burgers on the grill we headed out to the local fireworks display, which was very nice. The traffic afterwards was not so nice - we got home about 11:15 with two sleeping girls in the back! All in all, it was a nice Fourth.

I've been feeling a bit guilty lately for the complete lack of photos from this summer - or actually this entire year, if I'm going to be honest about it. I've found that this happens when I am horribly behind on my scrapbooking. You know, as if I won't be more behind if I don't take any more photos. . . Anyway, I did charge up the camera battery for the Fourth, but then forgot to actually take it with us to the picnic. Freudian, I'm sure. I made an extra effort for the next few days though, and actually came up with a few shots. Here you go:

We went to Home Depot for their Kids Do-It-Yourself workshop and the girls made birdhouses:

The kid's meal from Braum's had an activity using white flowers and food coloring that the girls wanted to try. Here's the end results:

Maggie turned her flowers purple, and Gracie's were pink, if you can't tell from the photo.

There you go!

Now, the big event next week is, of course, my surgery. I have to admit that I am a bit apprehensive about this, but also looking forward to the end of the symptoms that this is supposed to relieve. Mom and Mike are coming to help out the next week, so I guess I better run so I can try to get the house presentable before they get here! At least I know my mother has seen my housekeeping at its worst (think 1984 - 1989) and loves me anyway! I'll try to post during my recovery to let you know how it went!

Toodles!

Because I Don't Want To!

Oh my gosh, I have a raging case of the I don't want to's. You know how that is - the laundry needs to be done, but I don't want to do it. The boxes need to be unpacked, but I don't want to do it. We need to make a grocery list and go shopping, but I don't want to do it. I have been doing, and doing, and doing, but there's never any less stuff to be done! Why is that?

Well, there's plenty that we have been doing. We went to a going-away party for some friends of ours last weekend. It was a pool party / backyard bar-b-que, and we had a good time. The girls stayed in the pool until I was sure they had grown gills. Maggie is really improving on her swimming - she swam the entire length of the pool several times. Gracie gets sidetracked and treads water a lot - she forgets to put her body horizontal in the water, and so she makes no forward progress. She just jumps right in though, so she still makes me a bit nervous.

The girls seem to be setting in well. We haven't put their rooms totally together, because we are planning on getting some new furniture for Gracie's room. She's got the daybed that we originally bought for the guest room in our first house, and it's a pain to make. I want to just get her a standard twin. We are also planning on replacing the den furniture and the kitchen table. They are both over 10 years old now, and have started to show their age. When we are going to go shopping, I'm not sure.

My surgery had to be rescheduled for the 14th of July due to some conflicts on the calendar. I'm trying not to think about it too much, and luckily for me, there is plenty of other stuff to think about.

The girls finally got to meet some kids in the new neighborhood. There are twin boys across the street that are in Maggie's grade at school, and I met a lady with two girls close to the ages of my girls a few doors down. They go to a private school, so the girls haven't met them yet. We saw on the address list that one of the boys from Gracie's class last year lives across the block, and a girl in Maggie's class lives on the next street over, so there's no shortage of kids here - we just haven't seen them all yet.

The girls have had Girl Scout twilight camp this week - from 6 - 8:30 every night. It's made for some late bedtimes, and the girls don't really sleep in much in the morning, so they have been a bit grouchy. They are having a great time at camp though. They earned badges about insects, birds and geocaching so far, and they have one more to go. I've got a whole bag of badges for each of them to put on their uniforms, but that has fallen so far down on the priority list it might not get done until school starts.

Gracie's birthday is coming up quickly. She has chosen a Pump-it-up party for this year. We've reserved the 1:00 time slot on her actual birthday, so getting invitations out is now at the top of the priority list. It's all these things that slow down the unpacking and settling process.

Although I could probably focus on just unpacking, I want to enjoy the summer with the girls as well, so I am making an effort to do things with them that are fun too. Trying to find that mythical state of being "in Balance." The buzzword of the century, isn't it. This morning though, I tried really hard to see things from the girls point of view and do the things they wanted to do. We used their new binoculars (they got them at camp for bird-watching) and played hide-and-seek with their stuffed animals. They wanted to go to the park, so we did. They wanted to hike on the walking trail, so we did. We listened for birds and tried to find them with the binoculars. We threw sticks and stones in the stream. I found a blossom from a mimosa tree and let the girls feel how soft it was. I enjoyed their wonder and delight and ignored my own inner voice that was whining about the heat. While the summer days seem to drag by when there is so much work to do, as long as I can find moments like this to enjoy, I can find the energy to make it through the next day of whatever I don't want to do so that I can make it to a moment like this one.

Back to Boxes. . .

I have a 10+ Journal that I love - it starts with January 1 on page 1 and goes all the way through December 31 with just four lines to write on for each year for the next 11 years. So, each January 1 you flip back to the beginning of the book and start the next year on the next set of lines. The neat thing is that you can look back up at the top of the page and see what you were doing on this date 1, 2, 3 or more years ago. For instance, one year ago on Monday, Maggie got clocked in the head with a ceiling fan. Last night as I was writing though, I noticed that three years ago we were preparing to move from Mansfield to Farmington, and there were lots of boxes involved. I'm definitely getting a feeling of deja vu. In the last three years we've gone from Texas to New Mexico to the Oklahoma apartment to the rental house to (finally) our new house. And while I'm glad to be here, I must say that I am getting really tired of packing and unpacking.

During all this chaos that is moving, I did have a follow up with the surgeon, and based on the results of taking the Actigall, we scheduled a gallbladder removal for June 30. In the meantime the girls are getting ready for their first Girl Scout Day Camp experience, and we have a couple of get-togethers to attend for friends going-away and birthdays, so life is busy, as usual. I've found the downside to not moving the weekend before school starts. Unpacking slows way down when the girls are here to help!

Well, I took a few picture to put on this post, but the cable to get them off the computer is in a box somewhere, so I'll have to add them later! Another hazard of moving!

A Sweet Serenade

I got a sweet serenade at bedtime last night. Here's the photo:

Yes, that's Maggie on guitar and Gracie on the music box. They were too cute! They need a band name, so if you have any great ideas, let us know in the comments!

The Last Day

Today is the last day of school. Only 85 days of summer vacation until the girls go back to school, not that I'm counting (okay, maybe I'm counting.) I love my girls, but 85 days is a long time when you've got them all day! Last summer, when I was in New Mexico with the girls by myself I hired a babysitter for an afternoon a week to give myself a break. This year we'll have visits to Grandma's house to keep me sane - I'm so lucky!

We kind of pre-started our Summer Vacation this weekend. They opened the city's pool for Memorial day, so we went as a family. Gracie has a nice scrape on her face just below her nose where she attempted to swim too deep in the shallow end and managed to scrape her face on the bottom of the pool. Sometimes I swear my kids are just walking advertisements for Band-Aids. Maggie is also pretty banged up right now due to an incident last week.

Jerry was out of town from Tuesday to Saturday last week, so I declared a holiday from cooking. The girls and I ate out every night while he was gone. The first night was Gracie's day to be leader, so she picked McDonald's for dinner. We got some happy meals at the drive through and went to the park to enjoy our meal 'al fresco.' When it was time to go, Maggie made a mad dash for the van, and just as she got to the sidewalk, she tripped. She landed on the shin of her right leg and skidded across the pavement, giving her a skinned ankle, knee, elbow, and a nice case of road rash all up and down her shin. She was not seriously injured, but true to her Drama Queen soul, you would have thought she broke her leg. I dropped my stuff and scooped her up to carry her to the car, and realized I dropped my keys with everything else. I was trying to direct Gracie to get my keys and open the van, and this lady pulls up in her van, and sees us in distress.
She opens her door and asks, "Do you need help? Is she okay?"
I reply, "She's okay. . ." and before I can say anything else, Maggie interrupts,
"I am NOT OKAY!" I look at her and say,
"You are going to be fine. . ."
"I am NOT going to be FINE!!!"
I tell the good Samaritan that it's just a scraped knee, and that Maggie is just upset. I get her to the car and pull out the first aid kit, but Maggie is wailing so loudly that everyone in the park thinks she's dying, so I have her hold a tissue on the worst scrape and head for the house, which is only a few blocks away. The whole time I am trying to be soothing and calm, but more I try to reassure her that she will be okay, the more emphatically she insists that no, she will NOT be okay. We get to the house and I start to clean her up. One last time, I say,
"Maggie, you are going to be fine." She replies,
"I am NOT going to be fine!"
Exasperated, I answer, "Your probably right. You're going to die from this skinned knee, don't you think?"
She looks at me like I'm crazy. I ask her, "Don't people die from skinned knees?" She says,
"No!"
"Then calm down! You are going to be fine!"
She finally calmed down. As I washed and bandaged her, she said, "You know what Mommy? You take good care of me." I gave her a kiss and thought, "Well, sweetheart, I try. I try."


The rest of the week was rounded out by every fast food joint in town, although we tried not to eat the same thing every day. We did chicken, pizza, burgers and even tacos. I did cook several items this weekend though. The first item I tried was Runsas, a German-Russian dish that was in a magazine that I like. Jerry was not too keen on this recipe at first, because it has cabbage as one of the main ingredients, but they were very tasty. It's a bun that has a beef/cabbage/cheese filling in it. The dough turned out great, and was easy to work with, so I had a very enjoyable time making it. The dough calls for 1/4 cup of condensed milk, so there was quite a bit of the can left over. I couldn't just let that go to waste - it's kind of pricey, so I tried my first attempt at fudge after adjusting the recipe on the label for the 3/5 of a can that was left. I my math homework in for the day! It turned out really tasty. So tasty that I knew I needed to get it out of the house before I ate it all, so we gave it to the girls teachers for the last day of school. The last thing I made this weekend was potato salad, to go with our Memorial Day burgers and hot dogs. Jerry and I agreed that we like summer holiday meals a lot. They are so easy! I suggested that this year for Thanksgiving we try hamburgers and hot dogs instead of turkey and dressing, but I don't think it was very well received. Oh well, I tried!


The last week while Jerry was away I began experimenting with digital scrapbooking. I like it! It is very compact - no getting out paper, stickers, photos, etc. I can be a lot fancier with a lot less mess. It's very nice. Here's an example. . .

See! There's ribbon, a tag, stitching, the photos are matted, and I didn't have to get anything out to make this page! It's all on the computer! When I'm done with the pages, they get bound into a slick, full-color, coffee-table type book. What's not to like?

So, this is how I've decided to catch up on my Scrapbooking, by scrapping all of 2007 on the computer. This could be challenging, as I found that I took 2,247 photos in 2007. Wow! In fact, 820 of those were in November, but 745 of those have already been scrapped in our Disney Vacation book. Sometimes I think I take way too many pictures. . . Nah! Here's a few for your viewing pleasure:

Chef Maggie creates a pizza

Cowgirl Gracie all dolled up!

The next few weeks promise to be a flurry of activity as we close on our house and get moved. Hopefully summer will mean plenty of shorter updates, as I'm sure these are as exhausting to read as they are to type! We'll keep our fingers crossed anyway!

A Sweet Mother's Day

This was one of those years where our anniversary fell on Mother's Day, so it was a doubly special day for me. At the end of it, I gave a contented sigh, and said, "Well, that was a great Mother's Day!" I'm not sure Jerry was so impressed, as he thought I might be being sarcastic, as evidenced by his comment, "Are you serious?" but I thought it was perfect.

The girls came in to our room in the morning, laden with presents, and I opened them all. I love the things the girls made - Maggie made me a picture with an essay of what her favorite memory of her and I was, and Gracie had made me some miniature cards that she had written things in - I love to read her phonetical spelling! Maggie picked out a Willow Tree Mother and Daughter statuette to go with her essay, and Gracie got me a bracelet with the many hats of Mom charms - a chef hat, chauffeur hat, nurse hat, etc. on a bracelet. I wore it to church.

After breakfast, church and a little nap we called all the other moms in our family, then headed out to the backyard for some planting, playing and dinner al fresco, then went on a walk and got ice cream from Cold Stone. It was a simple day, but fun and cheery, and spent with my favorite people in the whole world.

One of the highlights were the cards the girls got me. They are in love with those cards that when you open them up, they play music. The girls each got me one, and they had rehearsed dances for when I opened each of them up. Watching their excited, smiling faces was possibly the very best part of the day, so I wanted to share them with you:

Can you believe that's Gracie's Easter dress from March? She's sprouted up lately! I hope they don't grow up too quickly - I know the time is coming all too soon where they won't want to spend a whole day with mom. For now, I'll cherish these moments.

Happy Mother's Day!

The Most Powerful Force in the World. . .

First things first - for those of you checking this blog for health updates, my ultrasound came back completely normal. I now start taking Actigall (cue trumpets: Da-Da-Da-Dah!!!) and see how things are in a month. Thank you all for praying for me - please continue!

Okay back to the most POWERFUL force in the world. . . What could it be, you ask?

"Love!" Think the romantics.

"Lust!" Say the realists.

"Kryptonite!" Say the folks a few cards shy of a deck.

No! None of these! All the mothers in the world, shout it out together: "It's Mommy Guilt!!!"

Yes. Today I am suffering from Mommy Guilt. Why? What awful thing did I do today? Beat my kids? No. Send them to school without benefit of a good breakfast, coat, or washed face? No. Here it is - my confession - I Took A NAP! That's right, after the school bus left with my little darlings, I went back inside, ate breakfast, read the paper, and headed back to bed.

Now all of you guys are scratching your head, going, "So what?" Well, see, I am a lot less productive when I sleep. Mind you, I know that a well-rested mother is better for my kids and all that, and it's not the actual napping that induces the guilt - It's the time away from doing things for my family.

This is mystifying to me. Why do we do this to ourselves? How many of us want our spouses to work 24 hours a day? How many times do I tell Jerry he's working too much? Why then do I feel guilty if I don't work on something to benefit my family every minute of every day? It's not because anyone else is pressuring me to do so. Jerry often tells me to take time for myself, especially when the girls are in school, because let's face it, when they are here, they are pretty demanding. So, why do I feel guilty for taking a nap / going shopping for myself / reading a book / scrapbooking?

Perhaps it's the early mothering experience that gets us into this mindset. With the feeding, changing, and care that infants and toddlers need, you have your ultimate 24/7 job, with the most annoying pager ever - "WAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" By the time they head off to school, you just can no longer imagine doing anything else, even though you've been dreaming about it for years by then. Oh well. Another of motherhoods ironies.

Well, I've gotta run. Now that I've blogged, I've spent another 30 minutes away from my chores! Oh, the agony! :-P

Boneheads and Bowheads

Well, despite assurances from the administrative staff at the clinic, my doctor did not return my call before end of business on Friday. Monday morning, bright and early, they called and told me that they didn't have the results either.

So, the mystery now is, WHO set up the referral for the surgeon? Determined to find out the answer, I called the referral desk, who said indeed, it was my GP, although he and/or his staff doesn't know it. I suppose the important thing is that I have an appointment, right? By the end of the day they called to let me know that the result was "dysfunctional gallbladder", so they were going to set me up a referral to a surgeon. I told them, "I've already got an appointment -that's the whole reason I'm calling!" The nurses' response: "Boy, I guess we are really on top of things!" Yeah. Right. Whatever!

Tuesday I got the official results on paper in the mail, so I took them along to the surgical consultation today, just in case they didn't have a copy (they did.) Jerry took off work to go with me to the appointment, and I must say, it took forever. We waited in the waiting room a good long time - by the time we left his office we'd been there for two hours, and by the time we got out of the lab (at the hospital) we'd been there almost another hour. I've never had to wait that long before - it's because Jerry went with me!

"So", I'm sure you are wondering, "what did the surgeon say?"

Well, my test results are not conclusive at this point. He says with the results he has now, it's about a 50/50 chance that it's my gallbladder, and he'd like a little more evidence before he decides to remove it. So, tomorrow I go for a gallbladder ultrasound. If they find stones, out it comes. If not, I start taking a medication to help thin my bile. If, after a month, I am getting relief from that, it is most likely my biliary system, and out comes the gallbladder. If not, that's probably not the issue. Long term though, he says that my gallbladder has low function, and eventually, in my lifetime, will probably have to come out. He also put me back on an acid reducer because he wants to have that under control so it doesn't mask any of the symptoms of the gallbladder, since my GI system obviously goes loco under stress. But then, we already knew that!

Since I never intended to have a blog to post about such mundane stuff as my health, here's a little something to lighten the mood:

Gracie came out of the bathroom the other day and said, "Look at me Mommy, aren't I beautiful?" And of course, I sure thought so! Don't you?


Of course, as soon as Maggie saw the picture, she wanted one too, so here's my other beautiful baby girl!

And with a super thanks for all your prayers that have been holding me up this past week, I'll sign off!

The Medical Establishment

Ah, what is easier to rail against in this country than the medical establishment? At this moment, for me, not much.

Since the beginning of the year I have had ample opportunities to visit various medical providers, both for myself and my children, which has also given me ample opportunities to become frustrated with all things medical.

First - The ER. This particular incident wasn't too frustrating. I did find that the way to be seen in the ER pronto is to have something affecting your heart. The frustration in this incident is that I was not in my home city, and therefore getting my test results to my doctors has been a real pain. They should be there now, as the hospital sent them on April 3, but I can't find anyone at my doctor's office that can confirm that.

Second - Flu shots that don't work. Need I say more?

Third - The well-child visit. I got an EOB from the insurance saying that they don't cover the $72 dollars that was billed as a 'vision screening.' Okay - first of all, what we got was Maggie standing at one end of the hall with her hand covering her eye while she read an eye-chart taped to the wall at the other end. Hardly worth $72! They didn't even give her a little spoon thing to cover her eye! How much can the overhead for such a test be? Also, all I asked for was a 'well-child' exam. If an 'vision screening' (which has always been included in previous well-child exams) was a separate line item, shouldn't I have been told before I was charged for it? I could have told them they were having the same exact vision screening at school the next week! I would have declined this test, as I have vision insurance that would cover a REAL eye exam.

Third - my insurance. We knew when we took this new job that we would be paying more money for less coverage, but it's still a shock to see how much health care costs. My cardiologist and I were discussing this and I said, "I don't know how people without insurance do this." His succinct reply - "They don't." Even though it is comparatively less, I am grateful that we have this insurance.

Fourth - Today really takes the cake. I think I mentioned that I had a gall-bladder function test on Monday. I just got a phone call from the referral office of my doctor to schedule me for a visit for a surgeon.

"Um, okay. Can you tell me why?" I ask.

"What do you mean?" the girl says.

"Well, I had a test on Monday on my gallbladder, but no one has called me with the results yet." I answer.

"Oh. . . I guess they didn't think I'd get your referral done so fast. Sorry about that. It's just a consult, there's no procedures scheduled. Would you like the number for your doctor's office so you can call them?"

Let me think about that. Yes, yes, I think I would.

I hang up the phone and holler in frustration.

I call the doctor's office. They are seeing patients right now, so I leave a message.

And so I wait. . .

Woosh!

Well, that was the sound of April passing me by! Where does all the time go? As a Star Trek fan, I can't help but wonder sometimes if there is something about my space-time continuum that I'm missing, but if I'm truthful, I can figure it out pretty quickly.

Lots of things have happened this month. . .

• I finally made it to the photography museum to see the Pulitzer prize winning photo exhibit. A very few of those photos are of joyful moments. It was a sobering exhibit.


• I worked with Gracie's Brownie troop on their scrapbooking try-it. We'll get to finish up at a later meeting - trying to keep 23 6-year olds focused is a lot like herding cats.


• Maggie had her 2nd grade field trip - to a Henry and Mudge play.


• We got our season passes for the local aquatic center. This was a bit of a sly move on my part. The passes are only offered to city residents, and you have to bring your utility bill to prove your residency. Our new house is not in the city limits, so we won't be able to do this next year, but this year we will enjoy that benefit!


• We paid our taxes. UGH!!!


• Gracie was a star in her first grade production of "Pooh's Clues" and even got her picture in the local newspaper!


• We had muffins for mom at the girls school. This just means that the girls brought me to school with them, and we ate muffins and then snuggled up with a book and read until it was time for school to start. A friend sent this, which I found amusing:
  

  If you give a mom a muffin, she'll want a cup of coffee to go with it. She'll pour herself some. Her three-year-old will spill the coffee. She'll wipe it up. Wiping the floor, she will find dirty socks. She'll remember she has to do laundry. When she puts the laundry in the washer, she'll trip over boots and bump into the freezer. Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan supper. She will get out a pound of hamburger. She'll look for her cookbook. (101 Things To Make With A Pound Of Hamburger.) The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail. She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow. She will look for her checkbook. The checkbook is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two-year-old. She'll smell something funny. She'll change the two-year-old. While she is changing the two-year-old the phone will ring. Her five-year-old will answer and hang up. She'll remember that she wants to phone a friend to come for coffee. Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup. She will pour herself some. And chances are, if she has a cup of coffee, her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.
  by Kathy Fictorie, based on "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff

• Gracie's Girl Scout troop visited and made a donation to the local Ronald McDonald House.


• I got to sit and watch kids take standardized tests for three days. I'm not complaining - they asked us to bring something quiet to occupy us, so I took Maggie's Christmas Stocking - I'm so close to being done!


• I actually invited someone over into the abyss that is my craft room and we scrapped!


• And we enjoyed the proximity of family - my in-laws came to pick up the girls for the weekend, so Jerry and I enjoyed a quiet weekend to ourselves!

Also, since my last post, I've been rather, shall we say, preoccupied with my health.

After the whole heart racing episode I got referred to a cardiologist. Looking at my overall heath picture he decided that he didn't want to sentence me to a chronic medication if what I had was a truly random episode, so he scheduled me a treadmill test to see if we could make my heart race again. My test was April 1 (I briefly thought about falling down clutching my chest while doing the test, then popping up and saying, "April Fools!", but with my luck they'd hit me with those electrified paddles before I could get up!) and I did pretty well, all things considered. I asked my technician if I was going to have to run, and warned him that these days, the only time I run is if one of my kids is in danger. He said we'd have to see how long I lasted. I did get up to a run before it was over, and did just fine on the test.

A couple of days after the test though, I had a quick sharp chest pain, and then some lingering discomfort for several days. A call to the cardiologist got me set up for a couple of more tests - a heart CT scan to check for plaque (it was normal) and a leg ultrasound (not done yet) to check for any deep vein blood clots. I also saw my regular doctor, and he wanted to check on some non-cardiac things, so he wanted to schedule a gallbladder function test. What the heck - at this point I'm WAY past my deductible, so let's find out what this thing is/was.

The gallbladder function test was today. From my reading on the Internet, I thought I was going to have to chug down something called a "fatty meal replacement" - ugh! Sounded like they want me to pound down the contents of my grease can - gross! Can't I just bring in a side of Outback Cheesy Fries and eat them? Well, today I was relieved to find out it was something they injected, not ingested. The test seemed to go fine, but it will be several days before my doctor gets the results.

All in all, I feel pretty good, except for being so out of shape. That's probably half my problem right there, and the other half is not getting enough sleep and/or too much (self-induced) stress. So, that's what I'll be working on for now! Here's to a relaxing May - may it go by slower!