Thanksgiving Day et al

Well, we had an interesting Thanksgiving. Work leading up to the holiday was sort of ridiculous, so many crazy things were expected and they were pressuring us to do things on production even though we had a 'code freeze', which really just means we're not supposed to do anything on production. Anyways, who cares about that - let's talk turkey! Heh, I went out to a few stores Wednesday night because I was afraid I didn't have enough peanut oil. I knew that Wal-Mart would have it but I hate that store with a passion and normally do everything I can to avoid. This night, though, it couldn't be avoided. So I went to Wal-queda and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I think I have figured out how to shop there. Wear headphones. If I can avoid hearing people and just pretend that I'm in a foreign country where people don't obey the same rules of etiquette and personal hygiene that I am accustomed to I can manage to get in and out without going nuts. So I got the stuff I needed and headed home. Thursday morning I got up early and baked bread, made a nice breakfast with some young fried brown eggs-yum. Got the turkey fryer set up and spend the early morning cleaning up the house and back yard. After frying the turkey, we wrapped it up and went to our friends' house. I brought some of the little 'cocktail-smoky' pigs-in-a-blanket that my mom likes to make and they were a huge hit! Everyone loved my turkey, I got zero leftovers...they demolished that thing! It was a fun dinner, I really like the Wassons and family, they are such good people and so nice to invite us into their family. They're pretty close to my age too, which is nice for a change. After that we went over to Mike and Emily's new house, they are already decorated for Christmas(!) and it was so cute. We played some games and stayed until about 9:30, then headed home. All in all it was a fun day. Unfortunately, I woke up in the middle of the night coughing up a lung. For some reason when the weather turns I can't stay well. I had a hard time breathing and sat up for a couple of hours trying to calm down. I watched 'Wanted' during that time, which was a surprisingly decent movie. Then I went to sleep on the couch. I am so scared that I am going to get Aimes really sick. Then we had to get up early this morning for a visit from CPS and so I did some dishes and helped straighten up the house. Then, it was off to bed again - I slept until 12! I never do that ... so I guess I'm really sick. Then I got up, watched some football (Boy LSU sucks this year) and went out to work on my truck. Bad news, the alternator checks out so I have no idea why it is eating batteries. I guess there is a short somewhere...ugh. If it isn't one thing it's another. I wonder if life is always going to be like this? Always behind the 8 ball.

Anyways, I am home now, resting, and hopefully about to eat dinner. Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!!!

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Posted in: family,foster care,friends,work

Well I'm home sick today

Blargh. I feel like crap. I hate that every time the weather changes I get sick. Hopefully I'm addressing the situation though. I don't know if I wrote it on here yet, but I got some pretty unsettling news from the doctor about my cholesterol. I'm not sure how to react to it, because it doesn't make much sense to me. I'm not a doctor so I don't know exactly what it all means but my overall cholesterol wasn't too high, but my bad cholesterol was really high and my good cholesterol was kind of low. I don't know what that means overall other than I need to exercise more :) So, I am exercising more. I used to be a cardio fanatic but I have fallen out of it in the past few years so I am making the painful transition back into regular exercise. It is shameful how hard it becomes when you let yourself go. I used to pride myself in the number of sit ups I could do and how far I could push myself on the exercise bike - but now I am a pathetic slob. So, I'm back on the 'elliptical' (which I do not like as much as the bike but it's what Aimee wanted) 20 minutes a day and walking to and from the bus quite a bit. I am also doing yoga again in hopes that I can start to limber up. It's interesting what a difference I notice in myself as far as calmness and ability to really feel...I don't know, grounded?... when I'm moving and sweating. Maybe if I get to the point where I feel a little better physically I'll find some place to work out up on this side of town (like - judo or aikido or tai chi). I don't know if I'll ever forgive myself for quitting the dojo where I used to go. Ugh.

Anyways, I'm home sick. I have been taking vitamins too, which is a long time coming, and trying to be more disciplined about my medicine. Now that I actually have a doctor I am going to try and stick to the regiment he has given me. He thinks he can help me treat my allergies (hah!) with a regular dose of claritin and the stomach thing with a regular dose of prilosec. We'll see, those two plus my blood pressure meds make for a delightful cocktail every day. Throw in a multivitamin and some extra vitamin c and you can start to imagine my dilemma. I mean, I can barely remember to brush my hair every day (which is why I clip it extra short) so I am horrible about my meds. Enter - the wickersham plan:

So, as depressing as this is I had to at least make it a little nerdy. Enter, Velcro:

And yes, if you look closely enough you will find the combination to our pool locks. Please don't tell the kids, I don't feel like blurring them out before posting this. I'm sick, remember?

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Posted in: doctor,exercise,foster care

Foster Parent College

Oh my goodness, talk about a waste of time. We have to do 'continuing education' for our foster license and Aimee found a site called fosterparentcollege.com that counts towards this requirement. We took a Communication in Marriage class and it does videos and 'interactive exercises' to teach. I think the software is pretty good, they've done a good job pin presenting the material. But the material stinks! I mean, it is so silly. Anyway, that is all...I am finishing a paper for school and 'learning' about communication in my marriage. Fun times.

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Posted in: family,foster care

Things never stop amazing me

So I don't intend to turn this into a political commentary blog or a 'What's new in the news" blog, but I felt the need to share this.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil."

This is the sort of thing that just drives me bonkers about religion. Not just Christianity, but religion in general. How can someone take such a short sighted view of their faith? Some might argue that Jesus was a 'single issue' type of guy, but that issue sure as hell wasn't abortion. Could you imagine a priest suggesting that someone that voted for McCain had cooperated with intrinsic evil because he is against taking all of our wealth and giving it to the poor? Do you remember in the Bible where Jesus got mad at the poor young slave girl because she had an abortion? That was one of my favorite stories. Or when he got so angry at the Roman government because of their welfare system? The best part was when he praised the rich young ruler for all he had and congratulated him for all of his hard work. Give me a freaking break.

Here is the whole article

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Posted in: church,politics,sarcasm

Wowie Zowie

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Posted in: america,politics

Craptastic

Well today capped off a pretty freaking rotten week. I'm really not even sure how long I have felt like things sucked, and there have been periods of time when it was great, but overall it has been the suck. I have been behind in school and it feels like things just pile up around the house. Aimee hasn't felt well either so that just compounds everything. Ugh, I don't even know what to say other than I just wanted to freaking write on here and say ugh. UGH. My truck also broke down today. I took the last half of the day off of work since I worked this weekend and put in a 12 hour day yesterday. Oh well, thank goodness for valleymetro. It is nice to just be able to jump on a bus and get where I need to go.

Oh well, I'm done - I didn't even rant, I just wanted to UGH at you. UGH UGH UGH.

In other news, Tim came over last night and we ate chili. It was grand.

UGH.

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Posted in: foster care,friends,pregnancy,school,work

Wow...this is incredible

From the Daily Mail in the UK, an incredible story involving both fertility AND twins!

An infertile woman is about to become the first to give birth following a full ovary transplant.

The 38-year-old Londoner was declared sterile at 15 and went through the menopause while still a teenager.

But in a revolutionary procedure she received a new ovary transplanted from her identical twin sister and, after getting pregnant, she is due to give birth this week.

She became pregnant, and is due to give birth this week.

Perhaps the best part, however, is the picture of the doctor who performed the transplant!!

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Posted in: doctor,pregnancy