I always feel like somebody's watching me!

I wouldn't call the area where we like rural; more like semi-rural. We have all the benefits of a rural life, but Publix is still only a couple miles away. We have neighbors, but can't see them through the woods. We see lots of deer and boar and even alligators, and I love it! I've been telling my mom about a kamikaze red tailed hawk near us. It seems like he flies out in front of my car, causing me to slam on the brakes, at the same spot all the time. I also talk a lot about the calf down the street. She (could be a boy, but I pretend it's a she) is so cute I want to jump the fence and snuggle her! I've become her stalker. I will pull over when she's in the pasture closest to the road and watch her. I wish I could smuggle her out and let her live with me but John wouldn't like that very much., it's hard enough to sleep with the 4 pups in the bed.

Here she is:

She just watches me while I watch her. I'm not sure if that's her momma on the right. The one one the right is brown, while little bit is black, any genetic people know how cow coloring works?

Anyway, I noticed something else while I was watching her:


It's kamikaze! Obviously little bit is too big for him to eat, so I'm not sure what he was after, but the woods just to the left of the pasture is where he always zooms out of and causes me to nearly have a heart attack.


He's quite attractive, but makes the sissiest sounds. John keeps calling him a turkey hawk. He's so confused : ) Red tailed hawk are nicknamed chicken hawks, and they eat live prey like mice. We also have turkey buzzards, which are much bigger and black and eat dead things.

Either way, I love living out here!

Pet safety & a trip to the beach

When we go places with the pups we either take all 4, or just 1. When all 4 go they get put in a large wire crate that is tied down in the back of my car. You can see it in the background of the photo. But we never did anything to keep the single pup safe...until now! I bought a car harness and Kolby is modeling it for me. Ignore his "mom you said we were going to the beach!!!!" face.

And here's Kolby showing that it's possible to lay down while strapped into your car harness.

His cuteness, it kills me.

See, I didn't lie to him. We were going to beach.

"Less picture taking and more walking, please!"

The harness even works on hot, tired puppies : )
Look at the crazy tongue!

Oblivious

I took the girls out to play a little frisbee today. They are obsessed. I think they love frisbees more than balls.

Here's sweet Daisy about the pounce on an unsuspecting frisbee. She has a habit of over shooting, so she had to turn around and come back for it.

She's got it! But wait, what's that in the top right?

Oh no, is it getting closer?!?

Run Daisy! Run for your life!

She's so sweet. She doesn't even know what's coming. I think I'm going to over my eyes now.

AHHHHHH!!! You're caught! Play dead baby, maybe it will just go away!

It's ok Daisy. Mommy still loves you. What is th...? eww, a nice string a drool caught in the wind. That's really lady like.

And look, more drool. Daisy is not afraid to drool on camera. Anyway she can get paid for this?

Riley is auditioning for commercials. "Dirty mouth?"

Please excuse the crazed psycho-path expression on Daisy's face. She really appreciates you checking out her pictures : )

We now return to "As the Appendix Turns"

Wow, I should NOT be allowed to blog when all doped on pain meds. That last post was a rambling mess. I'll try to wrap it up a little quicker.

I tossed and turned all Tuesday night because I was afraid to fall asleep and miss some sort of signal that my appendix was going to burst. At 7 I got up and told John that I didn't have any strong pains, just a kind of soreness when I pressed on my right side.

He said we (yea, we...like he's the one having surgery!) should just go ahead with it since we already paid for the CT Scan. I said I'm calling my mom for her opinion : P

My mom agreed with John, so I agreed to go to the hospital.

We arrived around 9 and checked in the ER. About 9:45 they put us in a room. A nurse came in and went ahead and got an IV going and took some blood. The Dr. showed up around 10:30 and asked some questions, and said while it didn't sound like appendicitis, he'd rather be safe than sorry and ordered more blood work and another CT Scan. I almost threw up just at the thought of drinking that nasty stuff again!

I was pleasantly surprised when the nurse showed up with something that looked totally different than the other stuff. She told me she mixed it with Crystal Light, and I told her what the imaging place told me the day before and she made a yucky face and said she has no idea why they couldn't have flavored it. I got it all down in like 20 minutes this time!

So I did all my tests and then we were just waiting. I was convinced I was fine and John and were talking about where we wanted to go eat when the Dr. came in and said "Yep, it's appendicitis, the surgeon will come in shortly."

The rest is a blur. I know I had them give me something for my caffeine withdraw headache and right after that they took me from my room and put me in a surgical prep room. I met the anesthesiologist and then he said "Here's some happy juice!" and next thing I know I'm waking up in a recovery area.

As soon as I was a little coherent they took me to my room. I had to stay overnight and was pretty much sick the whole night from the anesthesia.

I just took off my surgical bandages today and the incisions are pretty small. There's 3 of them and I'm hoping they won't scar very much. I'm still super sore in my abdomen, but not at the incisions.

But here's what I learned:
These are the symptoms of appendicitis, my notes are in italics:

• Dull pain near the navel or the upper abdomen that becomes sharp as it moves to the lower right abdomen. This is usually the first sign. I had pain in my chest, similar to heartburn or indigestion.
  
• Loss of appetite I was freaking starving. Hell, the surgeon said I'd have loss of appetite for a few days post-op and I can't seem to eat enough!
  
• Nausea and/or vomiting soon after abdominal pain begins I did have this
  
• Abdominal swelling not until after the surgery
  
• Fever of 99° F to 102° F I had a normal temp
  
• Inability to pass gas Not that I noticed
  

Almost half the time, other symptoms of appendicitis appear, including:

• Dull or sharp pain anywhere in the upper or lower abdomen, back, or rectum just in the chest
  
• Painful urination nope
  
• Vomiting that precedes the abdominal pain nope, I threw well after the pain started
  
• Severe cramps nope
  
• Constipation or diarrhea with gas nope

So the moral is go to the Dr even if you think you're fine. By the time my second CT Scan was done it had progressed quite a bit so there was no delaying it's removal. It's obvious the symptoms are pretty vague, so any abdominal/stomach pain you have you should get checked out!

When in doubt, take it out!

Before this week I had only been to the ER 3 times in my life. Two of those were when I broke my arm (same place within a year, I was a clutzy nine year old) and the third was late on a Friday night after work when I had a toothache that wasn't being helped by OTC meds. I don't like going to Dr, and I really hate needles so I try to avoid going places where those may be found.

About 3 am Tuesday morning I woke up with a pain right in the lower-middle part of my chest where my ribs come together. The pain would rise up into my chest and cause excruciating pain and shortness of breath. I figured it indigestion, which is not too unusual for me. I rolled over and attempted to go back to sleep.

I tossed and turned until about 6 am and then it hit me! I ran into the bathroom and proceeded to dry heave over my toilet, which really needs to be cleaned. blech!

I attributed it to the pain and got back in bed. John woke up right after and asked if I needed him to get me anything. I sent him off to CVS for some pepto and curled into a ball to wait.

He brought it to me in bed with a drink and then he left for work.

Between 8 am and 10:30 am I wound up hugging my toilet twice more. I finally gave up and called John to come home and take me to Urgent Care.

I arrived at noon at Urgent Care (UC) with no makeup, in my pajamas, with unbrushed hair and teeth. That's how John knew it was serious. I NEVER leave the house looking like that. I even put makeup on to go the grocery store.

We spent about an hour in the waiting room of UC and another hour waiting in a patient room. I fell asleep for about 20 minutes and actually felt a little better!

The Dr. came in and asked about my symptoms. When I came in they took my blood pressure in the waiting room and it was just a tiny bit high, but when they took it in the back it was normal (well, below normal, I have unusually low blood pressure). My temp was normal, too.

She pressed all over my stomach and it was sore when she pressed on the lower right side, but only when she pressed. She ordered blood work. Did I mention I hate needles, because I do. The girl started taking my blood but before she was done the blood stopped. No flow. Dry as bone. Guess I was a little dehydrated. She said she would try make it be enough.

She came back a minute later and said it was enough...Thank you sweet baby Jesus!!

Bad news followed, my white cell count was high. The Dr. sent me next door for a CT scan.

Have you ever had a MRI or CT scan or anything like it? Have you had to drink that nasty stuff?!? It was probably 80 oz. of nasty nasty stuff. They told me it couldn't be flavored because of what they needed to see.

I warned them. I had an empty stomach, the stuff stunk, I have a sensitive gag reflex, and not to mention had already thrown up several times that day! But no one listened.*

They kept rushing me to finish. I kept telling them it was awful, I was on the verge of tears and temper tantrum!

Finally, only a tiny bit left when it hit me....I RAN to the bathroom. Every bit of it came back up and mostly out of my nose. It was so awful.

The tech said no biggie, since it had been about an hour since I first started drinking some of it had probably made it through.

Uh, what? Why did I need to drink to much then?! Couldn't I just have had a little bit and waited an hour? Jerks.

They did the scan and sent us back to Urgent Care. The Dr. came in and said the results looked like it could be early appendicitis, but it wasn't 100%, but I should go ahead to the hospital and meet with a surgeon to get it removed. Then she asked how I felt.

Hungry. Very, very, very hungry. She laughed and said most people with appendicitis weren't hungry! It was up to me what we wanted to do.

I decided to give it the night to see what happened. John and I went to KFC so I could get some mashed potatoes (don't want to upset my stomach more!) and then home.

We were both exhausted and went to bed early.

To be continued...

*Just thinking about that stuff makes me want to toss my cookies.

50 books or bust!

I decided this year I am going to attempt to read 50 books. I'm a pretty avid reader to begin with, but I think setting a goal for myself will help me. I have a tendency to sometimes go a couple months without reading. To keep track of my reading I signed up for http://www.goodreads.com/. I can not only keep track of what I'm currently reading, have already read, and plan to read, but I can rate and comment on the books when I'm done with them!

So far this year I have read 6 books and I'm on number 7. I'm a little behind since I need to read about a book a week, but I should have no problem catching up.

Are you up to the challenge?

If you're interested in joining good reads and becoming my friend click here.

It's absurd I'm this excited

I am ridiculously excited about something that shouldn't be that exciting. You see, this:


is why I am so excited. Yep, that's my wedding band. So let me tell you why it's making me so deliriously happy today.

Less than 6 months after I got married (which was almost 2 years ago) I lost the center stone out of that band. I tell my mother in law this and she says let her have the ring, she'll see how much {box jewelry store name} will charge to fix it. They like me and give me good deals. Ok, fine, I hand over the ring. A week later she tells me $1800. Uh, what?

And then I decided I didn't need to wear my band.

Fast forward to last Friday. I decided to take my ring into a local jeweler for an estimate, just for poops and giggles. They tell me that the jeweler will get back to me in the next day or so. Then as I'm walking out there door he comes after me and says "$325"

me: "for the labor, and then how much is the diamond"

him: "no, for everything"

me: "uh, uhm, let me talk to my husband and I'll let you know. Just hold the ring for me."

I practically ran out of the place. I didn't want him to change his mind!

I skipped to my car to call John. He said tell them to go ahead, like I thought he would. We had company all weekend so I forgot to call them and tell them go ahead. I called yesterday and they told me mid-next week it would be ready, they'll call me.

So here I am being lazy this afternoon when I hear my voicemail ding. I listen and it's the jewelry store...my ring is ready, the close at 5:30. It's 4:58. I arrive at the store at 5:12. I think they were shocked. I feel like I'm got a whole new piece of jewelry!

And moral of the story: don't trust a thing mother in law tells me. I'm starting to think she didn't want me to get the ring fixed...