Almost Done!
Have I mentioned yet today how much I hate moving???? It's not the physical labor (although that really sucks). It's the fact that we seem to have accumulated so much CRAP in the last 7 years. Then you add on all the baby stuff that it would be really stupid to give away because you're just going to need it again anyway and all of a sudden you have too few people trying to empty out your 1400 sqft condo into a 26 foot U-Haul truck so you can take it to your oh-so-tiny 9x20 sqft storage unit. I'm scared it's not going to fit, but my brother and brother-in-law insist that it will. they will be over in about 30 minutes to go with Ben and I to the storage unit to unload everything.
The move itself went rather well under the circumstances. We were supposed to start at 10am, but it was snowing, so we didn't get to Colorado Springs until 10:45. Oh yes...that was AFTER we finally got a hold of my brother who thought I was picking him up at 9am instead of 8am. We dropped Ben and my brother Brian off at the condo so they could let Aunt Mary and our friend Nathan in to get started, and Michael (my BIL) went to pick up the moving truck. This was our first misadventure of the day. We started out at 10:45 to get the truck...we didn't even FIND the place until an hour later! When we got there, they were short staffed and swamped with crabby people. Another hour later, we finally had our truck. The first box loaded was a box of picture frames that someone "packed" for me. They fell off the dolly and most of the glass broke. I knew then that it was going to be a rough day. The good thing about being so late with the truck is that by the time we got there, Ben's brother Brian was free from his committments and was able to come over and help. Then at around 5pm Ben's parents came to help out with the remainder of the move. It was SUCH a relief to have the extra help!!! We even managed to move our 800 lb solid oak computer armoire without hiring a piano mover!!!! We left Colorado Springs with the truck loaded and my Jeep loaded and headed back to Denver. We didn't get back until after dark, so we had to park the truck over night.
....And so that's where we're headed this morning. Hopefully it won't take too long. Then all I have to do is clean the condo, turn in the keys and we're all done!!!
I Am SO Tired of Moving!!!!
We've technically been living in Denver since the beginning of October, because it was getting SO expensive for Ben to drive up and back every day ($350 or more a month just in gas!!!!). Since then, I'd go down to Colorado Springs a couple of days a week, pack a few boxes, and then come home. Then I went with Adriana to see my best friend Kim in England for two weeks in October. Then Thanksgiving came...then Christmas came...then all the wonderful Colorado snow hit. So here comes January&emdash;our lease is up the end of this month&emdash;and I'm now SCRAMBLING to get everything packed up and ready to move. For the last two weeks, my brother and I have been going to Colorado Springs three days a week to get things packed up. This week, we'll have gone down four days in order to get things ready for the moving truck on Saturday. Getting help for the move has been a tad frustrating too. Though we told specific people to keep the end of January open (I'd get them an exact date ASAP), they all made other plans anyway. I know...it probably shouldn't frustrate me, but I'm desperate here! I have a 1400 square foot house to pack up and move, and for the most part, I'm doing it by myself!! Yes, these people would say, "Let me know when you need help packing and I'll be there." Well, until it's done, I ALWAYS need help packing. YOU are the ones who need to tell me when you can be there. So as a result, I've spent more time lately with my brother than is probably healthy for me. My brother is a VERY gay man. Not fruity-gay, but definitely flaming "in-your-face" gay. I know MUCH more about Denver's gay community than I E_V_E_R wanted to know. I love my brother. I really do. But I can only take so much of his lifestyle and beliefs. He was raised in the same household as I was, so I have NO idea where he gets his ideas from. Ideas like everyone will eventually end up in heaven (his reasoning is "every knee shall bow, every tongue confess") or my most recent favorite, that polygamy is completely natural. I won't go into some of his justifications (because they're just waaaay too graphic), but he says that it's a man's job to make all the women he can pregnant&emdash;God said to be fruitful and multiply. That's the easiest way to do it. Needless to say, I listened to praise and worship music for the half hour drive home after I dropped him off this evening. I felt I needed a little cleansing after today.
On a totally different note, my Dad's hip replacement surgery went remarkably well! The concern wasn't whether or not the surgery would go well as much as how he would react to the anesthesia. He is in advanced/final stages of emphysema, so his lungs are pretty much shot. But we stopped by the hospital this afternoon after we got back from packing, and he looked amazing! He wasn't wearing his pain in his face anymore, and he was eating like there was no tomorrow!! He hasn't been able to eat well over the last few months, and has lost almost 40 pounds as a result. He'll have to have the other one replaced eventually, but it will be a little while. Now if we can just get my Mom through her two knee replacements in April and then in July. As much as I'd like to have our own place right now, I'm glad that we're home to help them through all of this.
Welcome To My Blog Roll!
A quick welcome to Alice, the newest addition to my blog roll (you know, because I read so many!!). She is a friend of my friend Felicia. We were at Northland at the same time for a little while, and it turns out that we're only about 30 minutes away from one another. She's been a HUGE encouragement in the attachment parenting arena—especially on the issue of sleeping! Eventually we're going to get our kiddos together for a play date....once it STOPS SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!
*in through the nose, out through the mouth*
I'm okay now. Really.....
Life's a Little Better Now....
Oy vey... What a crazy ride this is. My Mom did end up apologizing to me for going postal on me the other day. And now everything is hunky dory—like nothing ever happened. I really don't know how I ever survived living here. Maybe it's because I lived in the basement from the time I was 14 until I moved out at 23. Hopefully that's the key, because we're in the process of trying to get the basement remodled so Ben and Adri and I can live down there. Thank heaven for my Zoloft!!!!
And in other news....
I know this is bad...but it's SO stinkin' funny!!! It's a website called
Engrish.com. It's been a long time since I laughed so hard I cried. You can read all about
who they are and what exactly "Engrish" is (basically really BAD Japanese useage of English), but here are a few of my favorites from their clothing gallery. The captions underneath are those from the website.
I think this says it all...
Sometimes you gotta stop and smell the stress...
Stoopid peaples
Like when you reach #2...
Everyone had a good time at the Miss Urine Tester pageant...
It's not easy being manic-depressive
Going on four days now...
Carefully exit the correct side of a bed...
Preheat oven to 350 degrees...
America locks!
Because I think Grandpa did it...Hope you enjoyed the laugh as much as I did.
Open Letter to My Crazy Mother
I'm SO sorry I'm such an inconvenience to you. Is that why my sisters took care of me 90% of the time when I was an infant? Was I an inconvenience to you even then?
I'm sorry that I made the mistake of getting my family into debt. I won't mention where I learned my spending habits from that got me into this.... I guarantee that it won't happen again, but the point now is that it's MY responsibility to take care of it. I know having your children move in with you isn't the easiest thing in the world to do. I'll be the first one to admit that. It's not easy for us either as adults to admit that we need this kind of help. But we are THREE PEOPLE and a dog all living in a 10x11 room—clothing and other necessities included. I'm sorry my daughter has diapers and toys and clothes. I'm doing my dead-level best to keep everything out of your way so that your living space is impacted as little as possible. When I mentioned bringing in the shelving unit to put on the patio, it was so that I could get our stuff out of your kitchen cupboards and off the counter top so your things would no longer be displaced. Nothing of yours needed to be moved out—just moved from one side of the cabinet to the other. And it wasn't even anything that was normally out there. It was all stuff you needed to go through and get rid of. Doing that actually created MORE space for you. But you didn't want to see that. All you could see was that we were somehow in your way, and the martyrdom began. "Just put the shelves up. I won't say another thing. It's more important that YOU all are comfortable. I'll just pack up my things and take them to Goodwill." Pardon my language, but what the HELL kind of solution is that?????? Even when it comes to baby-proofing the house, we have N-E-V-E-R asked you to put away ANY of your things. If you would just help us go through the things in the basement, we'd be able to get the room built down there and you would have the upstairs back to yourself.
I love you, Mom, and I am doing my best before God to honor what is honorable, but you are NOT making it easy. You desperately need to recognize that YOU are sick. Manic/Depressive, Bi-polar, call it whatever you want to, but you need to do something about it before it completely destroys EVERY relationship you have left.
Feeling Sad...
I've been down in Colorado Springs for the last two days packing up our stuff. I don't think moving has ever made me sad, but it definitely is this time. I know this is something that MUST happen. We have no choice. We will financially sink if we stay in Colorado Springs. But leaving all of our amazing friends and the incredible deal of an apartment we got...it just makes me want to cry. Maybe some of that is because we're leaving our own home and moving into someone else's home. I'm praying that things will feel better once we get the bedroom in the basement built and we have our "own" space. And until then, we're praying that we can find a house church (or even just a church at this point) so that we can have a little emotional and spiritual support.
Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have Confirmed Polycystic Ovaries!!
Three years ago I walked into my doctor's office and announced to him that I believed that I had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. I believe his exact words were, "Eh...probably so. We can put you on Metformin if you want. It's not going to hurt you if you DON'T have PCOS, but I've heard that they're using that to help treat the symptoms." So I agreed, and I started the medicine. No tests were ever mentioned, no checking to see if the dosage was correct. Eight months later we went to see a reproductive endocrinologist so I could have someone actually TREAT the PCOS—provided I really did have it. This was the loser with the god-complex who rushed us through my appointment and tried to get us signed up for invetro fertilization at $10k a pop (evidently Hummer #3 needed some repairs). We left his office, went straight to Dr Weary and never looked back. We were pregnant with Adriana my next cycle. Then in July of '06, I went to se an RE in Aurora. Nice old man, but he took my blood tests, informed me that they were perfectly normal and that I should try going on South Beach for six months and I should be able to conceive naturally. Adri is now 13 months old, and we've been trying for #2 since October with no success. Dr weary gave me some Clomid at the end of September to take for October, but that didn't take. And with our insurance switching from Colorado Springs Kaiser to Denver Kaiser, we just decided to start over with new doctors. I went to just my regular endocrinologist. He said I should see their reproductive endocrinologist. He didn't really do anything more—no contact number or anything. So I just made an appointment with an OB/GYN, because the nurse making the appointment said he'd be comfortable treating PCOS. When I went in last week to see him, he also said that I should see the RE too, but HE gave me a phone number. So I made an appointment for today. SUCH a better experience than the last RE we went to see. He put me back on Metformin, but at a higher dosage, to see if that will help with the insulin resistance and other symptoms. Then he did an ultrasound to make sure that my ovaries were in good enough shape (not all huge and fluid filled) to withstand more Clomid in a couple of months. He walked me through was was on hte ultrasound. He got to my ovaries, and low and behold—wouldn't you know it??? THERE WERE CYSTS!!!! A perfect little "string of pearls" just like the textbooks show. Hmmm...I wonder how THOSE got there?!?!?!?!?!? Sorry for all the gloating, but I feel QUITE a sense of accomplishment right now. I've been telling doctors since 1994 that something was wrong with me. All of a sudden bleeding for three months at a time and gaining almost 50 pounds in 8 months (even though I was walking EVERYWHERE) just can't be normal!!!! So now I have an official diagnosis—confirmed by a doctor and a plan to get better...or at least get pregnant. I've finally been heard!!!!!
A Treatise On Keeping the Oven Empty
Ovens should remain empty. Period. Unless you are cooking something in them, there should be nothing but the racks that came with it. Ever since I can remember, my mother has kept various pans in the oven. She also, for whatever reason (probably because HER mother did it), she keeps potato chips in there. I REALLY think this is a bad idea. And with 32 years to get used to it, you'd think that I would remember to take the chips OUT of the oven before turning it on. Well...I didn't. For the second time in 32 years, I set the bag of potato chips on fire. The first time I did it, I was 15 and only burned a brown spot on the bag. This time it was a bit more extreme. This time there were flames. Yes, I set the bag of chips on fire. And to top it all off, the next door neighbor was visiting at the time. I was in the middle of making corn bread, and I was waiting for the oven to preheat so I could put the pan in. The oven had been on at 450 degrees about 10 minutes before I realized what was happening. This is all that is left of both the bag and the bag clip.
Please don't take away my membership to the Food Network. I'm not entirely to blame. Heredity is the biggest culprit. Evidently my grandmother did it several times. Tomorrow, my mom and I are going to Wal-Mart with the bag clip and ask them if they know were we can find another one—this one is broken.
Core Dump
Gosh...where do I start? So many things to blog about and I haven't had time to do them all in separate entries. So I guess I'll cram them all into one! Let's see...the GOOD highlight of Christmas was spending a wonderful evening with Ben's family at the Oxford Hotel downtown Denver and then spending the next few days at a bed and breakfast in Buena Vista on the Arkansas River. The BAD part of Christmas was that the time at the B&B was too short and the hotel was haunted. Yes, like with ghosts. I didn't find this out until AFTER the fact (otherwise I would never have gone), but I knew something was up when we went to bed Saturday night and couldn't sleep. So we've been knee deep in spiritual warfare the last few days.
New Years Eve was spent with my family in Denver. It was pretty uneventful, and we were all in bed by 9pm. But the neighbors graciously woke us up for the fireworks at midnight...until 12:30am.... Then New Years Day my sister and brother-in-law and their two girls Emily and Lizzy came over for our traditional dinner of black-eyed peas, ham and cornbread. I also spent most of the day (and the day before) eating peel-and-eat shrimp and cocktail sauce. I probably ate my weight in shrimp! Okay...maybe Adri's weight...but it was still a lot! Then after dinner I was putting the food away, and there was shrimp left over. That just can't happen! So I popped a few more in my mouth and just jokingly said, "Somebody come out here and stop me from eating theeeeeeeese!!!!!" And my mother. My LOVING mother yelled out in front of everyone in the house, "What's the matter? Don't you have any self control?" You could literally hear the record screach to a stop. If you need some background on my relationships with food and my mother, click
here. As my brother-in-law Michael says, I had SEVERAL hot-sauce words on my tounge. I REALLY need a counselor...NOW....
On the second Adri and I took a trip to the doctor. When it was all said and done, she's tall (30 inches), lean (21 lbs) and smart (18 in head circ.)and very healthy. Her pediatritian's only advice was to work with her on her words since she tends to grunt and point more than try to talk. I don't know...maybe those grunts ARE words and I just am not understanding them. My appointment with the OB/GYN was a little more in depth (no pun intended). He removed a benign pollup from my cervix about the size of tip of my finger. Despite his name (Dr Payne), I like this doctor. He was readily willing to show me what he removed. I know, most people think that's really gross. But remember--my sister is a nurse. We used to watch open heart surgeries on TV at Northland fro fun! He also gave me a referral to their reproductive endocrinologist to manage my PCOS as well as any fertility treatments or meds that I need. I have MOPS this morning, so I'll try to get that appointment made by tomorrow so we can get going on trying to get pregnant.
And my daughter is now up, so I'll probably have to write more later. Oh yes! In all my "spare time" (we ALL know this doesn't really exist), I'm trying to teach myself cascading style sheets. I've only learned enough to edit some of my existing pages, but I'm pretty proud of what I DID manage to do.
www.dakuipers.com/aboutme. That particular page has been not loading right, and somehow I managed to fix it as I was changing the more "decorative" properties.
