Random Thoughts: November Edition

1. When I was a kid, I remember learning proper letter writing in school. I was taught when it was OK to have a more casual correspondence and when a more formal letter was required.
Now that email is part of our daily lives, do they teach proper email etiquette? Are future employers going to receive an email like this from their employee:

Yo,
so i was all lolz cuz i thought OMG i forgot the deadline! but DOOD...totes dun!
:D

I think the intricacies of forwarding and cc/bcc should be covered as well.

2. I saw some brand new (in the bag) halloween costumes at Goodwill today for 75% off. I wanted to grab all the cute baby ones - ladybug, bumblebee, football - but my 2.5 year old is no longer a baby. And she's a 4T. Maybe I can put the bumblebee one on her leg and dress her up as a beekeeper next year? Though a giant bee attacking the leg of a beekeeper might be more of a beekeeper FAIL.

It's a good thing Peanut tells me exactly what she wants to be for Halloween.

3. ShankRabbit brought up the baby topic last week. I think we're rounding the corner from "ohgawdnowaynobabiesanytimesoon!" to "well...it wouldn't hurt to revisit the topic...in 6 months..." It's all about progress, right?

4. My grandmother had a funny quirk. Whenever we'd sit down for a family meal, our forks would mysteriously disappear. Turns out she would grab the nearest fork to serve dishes, cut meat, etc. and not notice which one she grabbed. We'd all laugh when she'd say, "goodness, how did I get 3 forks?"

Why do I bring this up? Because I have developed a similar flatware-related quirk. I use so many knives during the day that I can easily use every single one we own in a day. Putting butter on toast, making sandwiches, cooking...by the time we sit down for dinner they are all gone.

I've secretly started using disposable plastic knives on occasion. Shh...don't tell ShankRabbit. He thinks I've gotten better with my knife usage.

5. I had a very introspective September/October. Mostly, I was thinking about family (probably a post for another day). Blah blah blah...I decided somewhere in there that we should host our own Thanksgiving.

...

Did you catch that? I am hosting one of my all-time favorite holidays. I will be cooking. For other people than the husband and the daughter.

If you've never cooked a full turkey before, do you make a practice one a couple weeks before or do you just hope for the best the day of Thanksgiving? I did find helpful tips from a couple of "never let me down" sources - Alton Brown and The Gluten-Free Girl.

6. I'm so happy November 2nd is over. I don't mind the political ads (yes, annoying...but whatever). You know what bothered me? The "AAAARGH! GET OUT THERE AND VOTE!"
"I VOTED AND THERE WAS NO ONE WAITING IN LINE! SO SAD!"
"IF YOU DON'T VOTE YOU'RE THE WORST PERSON IN THE UNIVERSE!"

Did I vote? Yes. But I didn't make a big deal out of it.

7. Medical update: still broken. The doctors have no idea what's wrong...still. I think I'm done trying to figure this out. I've been on a gluten-free diet since August and this seems to help with most of the problems I'm dealing with, but no concrete answers.

8. 2010 seemed to be the year of "frustration." Can 2011 be "contentment," "love," or even "unicorns?" Let's make it happen.

Several bits of crazy...er, random.

1. I am working on Craft Hope Project 7 (educational bean bags for schools in Liberia). I am having serious issues with odd numbers of bean bags. I can't make 9 or 11 bean bags...it has to be EVEN! So off I go to find suitable additions for the shape collection.

2. Today is my kid's 2nd day of dance class. I had to go out and buy a larger size leotard because the size 2-3 was way too small (what can I say? I gots a big kid). More fun stories to come about this class.

3. The day of my great uncle's funeral, I was talking with some of my relatives about being pulled over. They were telling me how they got out of tickets in the past (interesting what some people will do).

A few days later, I was pulled over and told the honest-to-jebus truth about why our plates our expired. I got a warning (and a firm reminder to get our car fixed and plates renewed). See?...telling the truth pays off too.

4. Remember about a year ago I shared with you the results of my medical mystery? Well, after a follow-up ultrasound it looks as though nothing has reduced in size (it's "persistent," as the nurse said). Now I'm scheduled to speak to my doctor next Wednesday about possible surgery. Ugh.

5. Ah ha! CRESCENT! And a 12th shape has been found. Happy dance!

6. My kid, my baby, my Peanut turned 2 on Monday. *tear*

7. I really really want to put our various vegetable seeds in the ground, but we still have some time to wait. Stupid frost times.

8. What purpose do slugs serve? I have found a couple in the soil of our future vegetable garden. Ew. I can handle earth worms...just not slugs.

Crazy is normal for me

Lots of stuff floating around in my head recently - some of those items, in no particular order:

1. A House of Our Own: we put an offer on a house. Offer was accepted. Loan application well on its way. Closing date set.
OhgawdIfeellikeI'mgoingtovomit

2. My cousin's send-off party is Saturday. He's going to join the ranks of the United States Marine Corps. Military service is common in our family, but hasn't come up in our generation. He's the first. My little cousin...well, not so little anymore. I don't think my brain can process this properly. He's old enough? Seriously?! It seems like just yesterday we were watching Barney together.
Againwiththevommyfeeling


Here he is with his sister in '96 or so. I'd show you a pic of him now, but he'd probably stop speaking to me if he knew I posted it on my blog. So, I'm using my favorite one of them as kids. Muhahahaha!

3. I had a very rare snowball of anxiety clobber me a couple weeks ago that I couldn't shake before bed (oddly, not related to either of the items mentioned above).

Lesstalkylessvommyplease

* * * * *

I have this weird thing going on with a few of my toes. After ruling out poor shoe choice and bug bites, I turned to my trusty intarwebz to see what this could be. It left me with more questions than answers. ShankRabbit is convinced I have "the gout" (said in a very crotchety, old-man voice). Thanks for making me feel SO much younger, dear husband.

I'm convinced my second toes are protesting any and all shoes. They are the longest of the bunch - why do they have to be scrunched while the other toes get ample space to move around? Equal rights for ALL TOES!

...

...

Wow. I started this post talking about my moments of crazy and end with anthropomorphizing my toes.

This would be a good place to stop before any more crazy comes out.

(Let's hope the next month brings better topics of discussion)

I'm not broken...

Well, not really.

Results: I either have endometriosis or hemmoragic cysts (ShankRabbit said, "so, your uterus has hemmorhoids?!" Uh, no...not quite).
Since my medical profile and symptoms don't line up perfectly with either, they can't say I have one for sure...but they are pretty confident it is one of these and there is no cause for alarm.

Whew.

All is good.


And I'd like to send a big thank you for all your well wishes and prayers. It really meant a lot to me.

MRI fun

The MRI was...well, uneventful. Spending over 30 minutes laying completely still is anything but an action-packed adventure. A couple of the ways I entertained myself:

1. Made up songs to the backbeat of the MRI's thuds and screeches.
2. Pretended I was on the set of a TV show. Unfortunately, no hot "I play a doctor on TV" types...just the Dr. Wilson lookalike technician.

The technician said that the contrast they injected was clear, so it wouldn't have any effects on me. Darn it all! I was hoping I could truthfully say "I pee rainbows."

Yes, I'm that lame.

Text color - I'm going all out. For real.

So, results expected Tuesday afternoon.

Medical Mystery Tour

I'm a pretty open person. I will not hesitate to talk about my past, especially if I know the person(s) I am speaking with may benefit in some way from hearing my story. However, talking about medical stuff - especially when I (or any doctors, for that matter) don't have concrete answers - isn't something I do. I try to make it seem like everything is OK, when in reality my brain is going a million miles a minute. And because medical professionals can't give me the answers I'm looking for (without further testing - which does not guarantee an answer anyway), I'm stuck.

I hate that I'm writing this to the blogosphere right now. As silly as it sounds, I'm comfortable admitting imperfections in parenting and my craptastic ability to handle relationships with family/friends, but not with something I can't control - my health.

Now, before you get all worry-wart on me...whatever is going on doesn't seem to be serious at all. It's just a bunch of unanswered questions.

So, I am off to an MRI today. I was instructed to remove any piercings (I have 50...I'm hardcore like that) and wear comfortable clothing. I guess I'll put the Manolos aside for another day.
(sad attempt at humor...moving on)

Test results will be discussed Tuesday afternoon. Let's hope they have a better answer than "um...we're not really sure what that is..." as the radiologist told me after my ultrasound a couple weeks ago.