Fight The Frump while feeling like you're dying

Since it is Friday it is time to FIGHT THE FRUMP! with Mrs. Fussypants! Hopefully Mrs. Fussypants is feeling better. I feel for you girl Mr. Flu Enza SUCKS!

So as I am sure you know by now, I have basically felt like dying all week. You can read about it here, here, here, and here. So today when I had to go out in public about the only thing I had the energy for was leaving. I had been working outside some until my prednisone, which supposedly makes people 'hyper', made me pass out on the couch in the living room. Since I was just running to the feed store I went ahead and made myself look semi-nice.

Before I got 'De-frumped' I looked like this:

Notice the icky stringy hair?
and the lack luster eyes?
and the grumpy 'just kill me now' look?

With just a few quick quirks I looked like this:

Look at that hair! It has volume!

Those eyes just pop don't they?
and look! there's color to my boring dull lips!

See? doesn't look to bad considering this is 5 minutes
AND just for the feed store(seriously I normally go in barn clothes)

Just a quick reminder- the give-away deadline for the Simply Salads book ends tommorow March 1st. So go visit last weeks Frump Fighters' post to get entered to win! And don't forget to visit all the other Frump Fighters!

Thursday? really?

I cannot believe it is thursday today already. I feel like i wasted this week.

Monday- I had WIC, and spent the day dying on the kitchen floor than went to the library

Tuesday- I spent most of the day curled up on the couch than went to library

Wednesday- Kenzie had speech therapy, and I had a doctors appointment

Today(thursday)- I updated the blog, passed out on the couch(i thought that steroid thing was supposed to make me hyper???) than went to the feed store, and the library.

See I didn't do much this week *sighs* and next week I have to bake a trillion cupcakes cause friday is Teen parents and I'm taking dessert for kenzie's birthday. She turns 2 tuesday which reminds me i MUST get to work on the video ASAP. *sighs*

Wordless Wednesday

So I was digging through my photobucket and found this little snippet:



I have no recollection of when it was taken, but i know it was when it was still warm out.


Oh and this too:



If you look closely in the middle of that pile of puppies is a toddler.

Find the toddler:


Hitch Hikin'


Puppy loves:



I said "SIT!"


Peek-a-Boo!

Who wouldn't want a few of these?

I have a couple overgrown, boxer's around here. I desperately need a small cute one.

Like this:

Seriously Look at those faces!

Instead we have this:



And this:



And this:



And some of this:


Oh and we can't forget that they like to do this:

My ER Trip

So as I mentioned in last nights blog, I was sent to the ER by my doctor for my kidney pain. In case you don't remember I was diagnosed back on 2/15 with a kidney/bladder infection. They put me on a 7 day course of antibiotics that ended up doing DIDDLY squat for me. So I called and finagled another appointment with my regular doctor. She confirmed that I still had the infection, but brought up the possibility that it MIGHT be a kidney stone. She sent me home with a new prescription, and told me that if I felt worse and started running a fever not to hesitate to call in over the weekend. Which brings me to last night.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As I mentioned since sometime Friday I had been running a low-grade fever, and couldn't even drink water without being nauseaous. We all had gone out to dinner and I just could NOT get comfortable for the life of me so when I got home I called the office, and she recomended that I go in and be seen.

So off I went on my sojourn to the ER. I arrived got all triaged, and checked in and sat down to wait, and wait, and wait; thankfully I'd brought a new book with me to read. Finally about 11:30ish I got taken back to a room and settled in to wait there. After a while the doctor came in and ordered blood, and urine tests, and a CT scan and X-ray of my abdomen. Then he went on his merry little way. I went off and had my CT done, came back almost got kicked out by the nurse(apparently the doc wrote discharge orders while I was off getting the CT). After another little while the X-ray tech came in did her thing and again I waited. After what seemed like forever, the nurse came in and discharged me saying that everything had come back clear, and they could find no reason for my pain. So I left with my pain killer's in hand(the doctor insisted that I MUST have some to go home with) and went to bed.


This morning shortly after I got up my phone rang, and I picked it up and it was the ER on the phone informing me that they'd had their in house Radiologist double check the films, and that they had found that YES, indeed, I had a kidney stone. They apologized profusely and said to follow up with my regular doc this week. I have an appointment for Wednesday at 3:40pm with her.

Could somebody just shoot me?

Okay I sit here, once again feeling as if I am dying. I have a call into my Doc's office(thankfully MY doctor is on call) to find out what to do. I have been running a low grade fever since sometime yesterday(99.9-100.5ish) and CANNOT for the life of me get warm. I hate the full body chills and the feeling that somebody is sitting behind me stabbing me in the back whilst someone else spears my kidney from the front.

*pauses to answer the phone*

Well my doctor just called, and I'm off to the ER to get a CT scan, wish me luck and look for a post monday about my fun filled ER visit.

Fight the Frump during that Meal Time Slump!

We all know how it goes, too much to do, too little time to do it. Since Fighting the frump is all about feeling faboulous! about yourself, you have to start with the basics. Like eating well! Now, tsk, tsk, I know it takes time to cook a good solid meal time that most of us can't always squeeze out during the week.

That is why I love the awesome book called Simply Salads. This book is truely awesome the whole idea is that when you are out grocery shopping you grab a bagged salad, a couple 'fancy' ingredients, toss 'em all together and VOILA! a good healthy piece for your meal!




Now lets think about it. How do you feel after you eat fast food? If you're anything like me you feel a bit guilty that you just put THAT into your body. I mean who really needs 80% of their daily salt intake in one meal?!

Leave me some of YOUR favorite quick easy books, I'll be giving away a copy of Simply Salads to a randomly selected winner on March 1st!

Don't forget to check out the other awesome Frump Fighter's over at Mrs. Fussypant's Blog!

To go or not to go that tis the question

So as many of my longtime readers(are there any?) may know or suspect, I am a HUGE stargate fan. On april 3rd at the FUEL restaurant, in Vancouver there will be a large fan dinner, with a couple of the writers/producers there as special guests. So do you think I should go? or not?

day 3 of the great offline challenge

okay so i have made it through 3 days now. only 8 more days to go. I think i may run a contest when i get through with this horror.

*deep breath*

So I sit here at the library in town, typing away checking my email, writing the blog and trying to not jump with joy. My wonderful new Dell shipped! It's on its way to my hot little hands, now I just need the cash to pay it off. I cannot wait. This gives me something to look forward to doing. Transfering all my stuff from Ronald the Crapshiba, to Shiny Dell(it won't be named till I figure out its personality). Oh and this internet-less thing? might be survivable. Just maybe. Except for the fact that our DVR Unit crapped out yesterday too. So I'm thinking I just need to avoid technology all together. Well got to run.

The great Offline challenge of '08

Okay so today, my world basically stopped turning. Apparently we have used 'too much' Internet for the month of February. What the frell?! Raise your hand if you remember where you agreed to only download XXXX amount per month? I sure don't remember it. Apparently we(our household) has a 17,000 MB limit. Mind you we pay out the nose for the privilege to even HAVE the Internet out here. Most of our neighbors suffer with slow dial up because the 'wireless' just doesn't cut it around here. You have to live in the 'ritzy' part of nowhere to get that stuff. So after our contract was canceled ran out, we switched to 'satellite' Internet. We had ANOTHER satellite mounted on the side of the house bringing us to a total of 3! count them 3 dishes. We have had no problems up until now(we got the service back in late summer early fall). Than today THE NOTICE arrived. Telling us that we have used up 15,000 MB of our 'allotment', um, okay, nobody mentioned an 'allotment' we were not given paperwork with you're 'fair access' info on it(we've gone through all the paperwork that came with the contract). So now for the next 11 days until 2/29/2008 I will be stuck driving 20 minutes one way into town each night just to have the privilege to check my freaking email. I. May. Die. Seriously I am a Internet whore addict person, I love the Internet, I cannot go a day without checking my email(and would be scared to see my inbox if I did so). **takes a deep cleansing breath** So what caused the Internet issue you may be asking? Apparently, my I-tunes addiction caused it. Hence why I have to drive into town to check my email whilst everyone else gets to use the house computer. Thank goodness I have 1.7 days of T.V. Shows, 1.4 hours of movies, 16.9 hours of music and 8.4 hours of pod casts to catch up on. I have a feeling I will become very intimate with the characters of some of my favorite shows(hence why I own them on I-Tunes). Either that or I may gouge my eyeballs out; I'm not sure which at this point. If in a few days you haven't heard from me send out a search party okay?

Shelter Stories Sunday's Returns!

Sorry that the SSS has been MIA the last couple weekends. The clinic has been closed; it was closed today but I went in and did some socializing and all around general stuff. I volunteer Sunday afternoon's at The Northwest Organization for Animal Help (NOAH)

Today the featured pet will be a wonderful girl who is rather new to our shelter. She is a Great Pyrenees Mix named Greta. Greta is approximately 3 years old, and weighs in at a measly 100 lbs. I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Pyr's and someday will own one(along with about a zillion other breeds).

I came in for my shift and was going to sign in when I caught sight of a GIANT white dog down at the end of the hall; I quickly signed in and then meandered dashed down the hall to see if my eyes had been tricking me. They had not fooled me and that was when I met Greta. She has a heart of gold and big soulful eyes that melt your heart. She was on her way out for a walk on our trail system, so I made a mental note to stop back later after going and visiting some of our other residents. I wandered off visited some of the cats(seeing as I am supposed to be a 'trained' cat socializer) then came back to see if Greta was back. Well I happened to be in luck! She was there- so I let myself in and spent the next hour or so snuggling this wonderful gentle giant.

I swear I am lucky I left without bringing her home. The most demanding she ever became was to gently lay a paw on my leg as if to remind me that "hey! i'm here! pet me? please?!" She is a little shy but would warm up quickly if given the right enviroment I am sure.

Here are some pics I snapped with my camera phone while hanging out with Greta...

Oh and one I played with a little(and LOVE)

Original

Antique

Black and White

Weekly Winners 2/16

Its that time again, when Sarcastic Mom hosts the Weekly winners meme. I know I am a bit early and will have to link later but hey better early than never right?

I played a bit with the then and now photos and came up with this:

Slidin'!

My Desktop recieved a makeover:

Old (thats Dylan Neal btw)

New (I made it)

My Goregous Jewlery arrived
courtesy the wonderful Fussypants

My child the nut

She discovered the 'forbidden land'
(on the left of the pic)

She went crazy

She played around

she kicked back

Of course it is, a ruined lunch

So since Wednesday's trip down to Children's Hospital, I have been plauged by this horrible pain in my lower back. At first I ignored it and solidered on through the drive home, until the point that I was sitting in a park in ride near my home in tears because it felt as if someone was twisting a knife in my back. It was at that point I decided I could no longer ignore it, and called my doctor's office making an appointment for this morning. I was 99% sure that it was another blasted kidney infection but had no proof and refused to go spend 3 hours at the Walk In Clinic.

This morning I got up bright and early(AGAIN!) and got the toddler dressed and installed into her car seat for the short drive to the doc's office. I arrived got checked in and promptly whisked to the back. The nurse took my blood pressure, pulse and temp all 'normal'. I sat for approximately 5.7 seconds before the doctor came in and spent approximately 2 minutes with me(I was the ONLY patient) before sending me to the lab, with orders to wait for results in the waiting room. Let me tell you, you NEVER want to have to try to wrangle a toddler whilst in the lab's restroom it just is NOT fun. So I went out sat down to wait, and wait, and wait. I sat for about 30 minutes, only one other patient came in, but yet my results weren't delivered. Finally the receptionist took pity on me and went to see if the results were back, amazingly they were! So the doctor walks out to the waiting room to inform me that YES! I do have a kidney infection. He gives me a script for the meds, and offers a pain killer too but after the recent benadryl incident, I declined them(now i'm regretting that).

I ran to the pharmacy dropped off my prescription and proceded to wander around trying to remember what I needed at the grocery store. Failing to remember I picked up my prescription, we ran home grabbed some money for our lunch and went and visited grandma ginger, and grandma penny. It is always nice to see them!

We headed down to lunch with our MY friend and were horridly early. Kenzie did wonderfully keeping the resturant staff entertained, and the 2 other customers as well, while we waited. My friend arrived promptly when she should(unlike me whose an overacheiver) the waiter came over to deliver her water when all the cosmos unalligned.

He set the water down and I went to grab a crayon off the floor and had just sat back up, when suddenly my lap was DRENCHED in wetness. Of course being the dignified Wuss that I am I squealed and looked around for the culprit, only to find that my lovely darling child had spilled the giant glass of water. All over the table, and me. The waitstaff was wonderful and got it quickly cleaned up so that I could sit down and actually eat food(its a novel concept at a resturant). I must say though that for the rest of the meal I felt like a sideshow as the various waitstaff that were just coming in for the day had to trickle over to check out my soaked jeans.

Fighting The Frump- outdoors style

This weeks Frump Fighters(hosted by the most lovely Fussypants herself); is all about fighting the frump, while still being weather ready! (I promise pictures later)

Now, as most of us know from past posts, I raise some dairy goats. Yet I still find time to interact with the 'publicz' and look good(most of the time) doing so. I have found some quick easy things that make life in the great outdoors easier, and less frumpy(cause seriously rain pants in the grocery store DO NOT fly).

* I have my favorite pair of Tennis shoes that are my 'all around' shoes, but when I discovered I loved them I went and bought ANOTHER pair, for those 'town' runs. Just make sure you keep them seperate!

* Try to have ton's o' baby wipes handy, they can clean up ANY mess.

* ALWAYS! make sure you run a brush through your hair before venturing out into the publicz, they remove all sorts of stray particles, and leave you 'mess free' quickly and easily, I always carry a .50 comb in my purse.

* Keep your publicz jacket seperate from your 'outdoors' jacket when possible. I don't know how many times I have gone to run into the store and than had to shed the warm outer layer as I realized that 'opps! i got my jacket dirty'(around here its a occupational hazard)

* Above all else my most important Outdoor's frump fighting Tip is ALWAYS HAVE YOUR HANDS CLEAN! There is nothing worse than going to grab your venti half caf non fat no foam triple shot mocha with dirty hands, those starbucks gals' give you dirty looks, and really who wants to look gnarly anyways?!

A round up of the trips to seattle

So yesterday was obviously our trip to Children's that went remarkably well with Kenzie passing all her tests with flying colors. Audiology came back great, she missed a couple sounds, but she was very focused on the audiologist in front of us at the time. Her eye test was okay though it is really difficult to get a good reading on a toddler as they can't do the reading chart. We have to follow up with her Opthomologist in November, to recheck her eyes, and the cup to disc ratio which was a wee bit wonky last time.

Today I drove down to the U-Dub and met my wonderful new Endocrinologist. I felt very comfortable with him, and didn't feel rushed at all. Though I was a little dissapointed that there wasn't much he could tell me right now since we didn't have a current set of my numbers in front of us. We did look at my TSH numbers from December and they were about a 1.3 and the 'normal' is between .3 and 3.o according to my Endo. We also looked at my Free T4 numbers which were very elevated but not outside the 'normal range' of 4.5 to 13.3 I was sitting right about an 11.4. The issue is that we didn't have a current Antibody count in front of us therefore limiting what we could figure out. He did order a Thyroid U/s so that we could get a baseline picture of what my thyroid looks like since I have a sizable goiter at the moment. He wasn't able to provide me any 'new' information that I haven't learned and until we get the test results back I don't know when I will be following up with him yet.

Wordless Wednesday

Today was our children's trip, more on that tommorow when I write about my trip to Hell The U-Dub.

U-Village was on the schedule today:

First Time on a slide

now hang on a sec, lets take a jump back to that Time Travelin' post....

Then (15 months)

Now

Then (15 months)

Now

Now, If you'll please excuse me while I go tell my uterus to shut up, that'd be wonderful.