Sunday, April 30, 2006

10 Simple Pleasures

Stephanie tagged me on 10 Simple Pleasures I enjoy. I was tagged a few times before I decided to be all "dramatic" and, well, now too much time has passed for it to be as cool and effective. If I can get my brain to work, I will go back and work on those, but until then and while this is fresh, here is my list of 10 Simple Pleasures, or as I'd like to dub them

"10 Simple Pleasures When You're On Seizure Medication and Can't Operate Heavy Machinery or Drive (Or Think Straight) (not that you ever could in the first place, but let's just pretend, mmmkay?)"

1) My amazing friends who have pulled through for prayer, hot meals, come over and helped me clean my house, taken me grocery shopping, listened to me whine on the phone for an hour, sent me fowers, or sent me a funny card to make me smile.

2) My husband. He is my everything. He makes me laugh daily and he reminds me to keep on truckin' and that the Lord has an amazing plan for us and He's going to get us through this hump and we're going to look back and say "WOW! Look at what He has done for us and we deserve NONE of it!" (How about THAT for a run-on sentence?)

3) My kids' smiles. Man, how can you not enjoy a kid's smile? Their sheer joy and innocence and total obliviousness to what's going on around them.

4) Getting to serve at my church every week. Seeing all of the countless families come in and all of the life-change going on and knowing that I have a part in that. I find so much pleasure in that.

5) Naps. When we get home from being up at church ALL DAY LONG on Sundays, Jake and I just collapse on Sunday afternoons. So I find sheer pleasure in naps! Mondays are spent recovering from what we refer to lovingly as the Holy Hangover, but Sundays are spent on the couches napping (in turns! It's Jake's turn right now).

6) Driving!! I can't drive anywhere until I'm seizure-free for six months and, well, I'm still currently having seizures with the latest one Friday night, so it looks like my car will remain in Park for a while.

7) Acting like an idiot with my husband. We have NO SHAME and he makes me almost wet my pants laughing with his antics. We're all about the physical comedy around here and we always try and out-do each other. It's quite a sight. Trust me. Now that I'm home all day, I have plenty of time to think up all kinds of practical jokes to play on my husband. *be afraid Jake*

8) Date night with my sweetie. Sometimes that is all that gets me through my week.

9) A "just because" funny card in the mail box from one of my dearest friends that put a much-needed smile on my face and made me laugh out-loud (Thanks G-Nelly!).

10) LAUGHTER!!!! No matter what is going on in my life, or what is happening, if I can't find some way to laugh, then there is just no point in even getting out of bed. So find something to laugh at!!!! :o) And don't be afraid to laugh at yourself, for goodness sake.

Friday, April 28, 2006

A True 'Minnie Moment'

As I mentioned, Jake and I went to a big dinner last night at this ginormous house (OH. MY. GOSH. You should have seen this house). If I don't say so myself, I was looking pretty darned sassy donning my new finds from the mall the other night. But I wished I would've been wearing a burkha when it was all over. Just see:

When it was time to head through the food line at the party, the gracious hostess of the GORGEOUS (did I mention OH. MY. GOSH. yet?) home we were invading was standing by and greeting everyone. I walked over, introduced myself, thanked her for having us, complimented her on her home, blabbity, blabbity, blah. She was really nice and sassy, and excitedly said she loved my hair! :o) (All props go to Karen in the hair department!) We chatted for a second and she said something snarky so I laughed through my nose.

That's when I heard the bad horror movie shrieking noises in the back of my mind and everything went in sort of slow motion from that point on.

See, I've been sporting a head cold for the past week, dear internet friends, so my head is full of nothing but snot and ugly green mucus. When I laughed, a huge, and I mean HUGE (that one's for you, GiNelle) ball of snot came barrelling out of my right nostril with a vengeance.

I quickly tried to recover by covering my face with my hands but it was all happening so fast! She politely tried to turn her head from the horror while I attempted to swiftly and discreetly suck back up what had just come flying out of my nose. I literally turned my head toward Jake's shoulder and wished I could bury it in his shirt. Of course the next few minutes were spent making sure I didn't have snot all over my face (you know, along with the egg). She kept the chit-chat going like she hadn't just seen all of that yuck come out of there, but I was praying like I had never prayed before for her to please move along to the people behind us in line and just let me shrivel up and die in peace already.

I now have a most embarrassing story, thank you very much. I have always said that nothing embarrasses me, but I've met my match. 'The time I was introducing myself to the nice lady of the multi-million-dollar home I was attending and blew snot all over my face when she said something snarky'.

Leave it to me.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Just a reminder for us all

Our husbands don't just wan't these things, they NEED them.


Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Medicine Head

Talk about a whirl-wind week! I can't believe it's already Wednesday! This medicine has gotten me ALL jacked up. I have just been spending my days trying to get used to this new "life" of mine and on the phone with doctors offices and hospitals. That is SOME FUN, I tell ya! Plus, I've had some pretty great visitors and phone calls to boot, so not much time for blogging (not that I haven't been thinking of ya'll. Kiss kiss!).

My sweet friends, Lauren and Darlene came over Monday morning and helped me tackle Kale's room and closet that I have been avoiding like the plague for about 6 weeks (now THAT'S friendship!). Then my fabulous neighbor took me to Target so I could get some grocery shopping done in the afternoon (how old lady am I?), and that evening the super-hubs dropped me off at the mall BY MYSELF (are you sooo jealous?) for some alone time with the debit card and the oh-so-fabulous new spring fashions. :o) And the best part? I found the BEST JEANS EVER that I can wear right off the hanger and I don't have to have them altered!!!! It was pure bliss, my friends. Pure bliss. I even gushed at how joyful I was to the girl behind the counter (who, by the way, weighed as much as a twig and was 6 feet tall). She didn't understand my state of euphoria. No, I didn't slap her. Yes, I wanted to. Really badly. But I didn't.

Yesterday my other sweet friend Marni came over with lunch and some home-made body scrub and soap (I guess she thinks I stink) and some great conversation. And even best, last night was Date Night since we've missed out the past few weeks from Granny's visit and my little drama last week. The kids hung out and grubbed down on some pizza over at Dar's house (thanks Dar!) so we could enjoy ourselves. It was so nice to chillax with my sweetie for awhile. Too bad I was hopped up on meds and all foggy-headed. We had dinner at a trendy new bistro and it was really busy, so suffice it to say I was easily distracted by sudden movements and shiny objects (Jake will argue that this is not a side effect from the medicine, but simply one of my many quirks).

Tonight is eyebrow waxing night. Woohoo! No more looking like Brooke Shields in her Calvin Klein days.

Tomorrow night is this big dinner meeting at some big huge house to meet with our pastor and his wife for reasons we're not quite crystal clear on. I'm just in it for the potentially awesome conversation and atmosphere. And getting out of the house (not that I haven't been out of the house at all, but I'm always game for going somewhere).

And then this weekend is our church's Women's Retreat. Our satellite campus is taking a bus to the hotel. Not the short bus, like Jake says they're putting me on, but a really nice, chartered one so we don't have to fight with traffic. And we get to have dinner while we ride. How cool is that? No stress. No fuss, no muss. Just stuffing my face and chatting with the girls.

I keep teasing that I'll be bringing the pitchers of margaritas, because what's a bus ride without margaritas, right? They are totally sweating because they never know if I'm kidding or not. In fact, they don't know WHAT to think of me MOST of the time. Who knows. Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. ;o) I guess we'll all find out when the bus pulls out tomorrow, won't we?

Friday, April 21, 2006

Why can't I just let this go?

I just don't get it.

Maybe that's a good thing, I guess. I don't know. You tell me.

My dad was 30 minutes away from me when I was in the hospital. He never came to see me. He flew in Wednesday night from MN from a business trip and drove to his hotel in Denton where he had an early morning meeting.

The hospital is 30 minutes from the airport. He could have stopped by and seen me on his way to the hotel.

He called Thursday morning after his meeting on his way home. He said couldn't stop by because he had to get home to pack. For his cruise. That was leaving the next morning.

When I called him out on his selfishness, he had to let me go.

I'm so done with being shit on by my own father.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

You Never Know What The Day Is Going To Bring

This past Tuesday I woke up early and decided that I was going to get showered and ready and get my errands run before lunch time so I could go swimming all afternoon (those of you in cold weather states: don't be hatin'!!). When I woke up I felt a little...funny.

I just need to eat some breakfast I thought. So I made myself two bowls of organic oatmeal with flax seed and honey (it's totally good, so shut up and stop rolling your eyes).


After I ate, Kale wanted to go across the street and play. My friend, Sarah had conversation and coffee ready to go, and I was game, so we sat and talked and I had two cups of coffee while the kids played upstairs. It was about 9:30 and I had promised Jacob I would come to his school and have lunch with him, so I ran across to get that shower I missed earlier.

While in the shower that "funny" feeling wasn't so funny anymore, but since I had just downed two ginormous cups of coffee and I was in a steaming hot shower, I shrugged it off and got out of the shower before I passed out. I quickly got dressed, fixed my hair, and grabbed Kale to go next door to the school to meet our lunch date.

While we were eating I felt like I was about to jump out of my skin. I was shaky, my head was faint, and I felt like I was about to pass out. Still, I shrugged it off to having too much caffeine in my system.

After lunch we said farewell to Jacob and headed out for our errands. We made it to Auto Zone for a windshield wiper replacement for my car and some Skittles (not organic, I know - go ahead and call me a hypocrite) for Kale to keep him happy during the rest of our running.

Our next stop was Ross for a few new warm-weather tops for me. By this time I was not feeling myself at all and decided to get myself a bottle of water from the sporting goods store next door and walk around a bit to see if perhaps it would mysteriously go away.

Well, it didn't. Instead, it got worse. So I called Jake to come get me since I didn't dare get in the car and drive at this point.

At the time I thought maybe my blood sugar levels were out of whack and I was having a diabetic attack or something. So after I called Jake, Kale and I went and sat in the air-conditioned car so I could lay my head back and he could watch a movie. Within 10 minutes my legs and arms were like dead weights, my breathing was labored, I couldn't hold my head up, and my vision was extremely blurry.

Scared, I called Jake and, while on the phone, I passed out. Apparently I was out for several minutes and he was stuck in traffic and helpless. The best part and the part I laugh at? As soon as I lost consciousness, Jake heard Kale say from the back seat, "I have to go potty!" Talk about timing! (Hey! I have to find humor in this somewhere!)

By the time Jake reached me (45-minutes after I called him to come) I couldn't move, couldn't talk, and had passed out a second time. He had to carry me to his truck and from there to the hospital (a 20-minute drive) I passed out at least 6 more times.

Poor Jake! I can just picture it! He's trying to maneuver through heavy Downtown Fort Worth traffic, talk on the phone with the hospital trying to find out where to go and explain what's going on with me, and have me next to him flopping all over the place with my right arm flailing uncontrollably. HA! I would have paid to be a fly on the wall. I'm sure we were a funny sight!

Anywho, he gets me to the ER, they wheel me in and I am still incoherent and in and out of consciousness. I pass out several more times just to show off for the ER staff and they decide to admit me for the night.

Three days in the hospital, another 'episode' last night, countless blood tests, CT scans, MRI's, MRA's, EEG's, and Echo Cardiograms later, I have been diagnosed with having Complex Focal Seizures. I am now the girl that you can ask to hold your milk when you are craving a milk shake. (Just make sure I hold it in my right hand.)

I am home now and on meds. I can't drive for at least two weeks until I follow up with my Neurologist, and I may not be able to drive until I'm seizure-free for 6 months (bleh, bleh, double-bleh!!!).

What's bad? In my groggy, in-and-out-of-consciousness-state, all I could think of was this: "THANK YOU GOD THAT I SHAVED MY LEGS TODAY!!!!!"

What's great? I got to share Jesus with every single nurse and med tech I had.

If it means having to have seizures and be stuck in the hospital to get to do that, then all I have to say is this:

BRING 'EM ON, BABY!!!!!

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

The Slacker Shows Her Face (well, for a minute anyway)

I've been enjoying my time with my Granny here, but like all good things, this visit is about to come to an end. I am leaving early in the morning to drive her back to Missouri and I'll be back really late Thursday.

Pray for safe travels!! See you when I return!!

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

There's A Party Going On In Heaven!!

WOW! Life has been super crazy this past week!

My Granny is in town visiting, so I have not been on the computer. I am taking advantage of her helping hands in getting some things done around the house. Nothing like a visitor to get you motivated!

So instead of gracing you with my wit and humor, head on over to check out Susan's awesome news and be sure to leave her an encouraging comment. The angels are dancing a jig, and so am I!!!