Oreo 1999 - 2013

My sweet Oreo, today I released you from the uncomfortable burden of your old body.  I was with you the whole time stroking your head, rubbing your ears and whispering my love to you.  You have been the most amazing, sweet, frustrating, pestering, naughty, smart, and fun dog I have owned.  Even on your last day, the 10 minutes I left you alone in the house, you managed to chew a DVD box.  Seriously!?  This morning, I gave you the peanut butter jar for you to enjoy - it was clean in just a few minutes.

I'm glad that we took photo's with you on Sunday.  I'll miss stepping over you, tripping over you, and having to become a contortionist to get off the couch because you laid down right in front of it.  Although in the last few weeks, you've been sleeping more, the house still feels empty without you in it.  I'll miss your groans, snoring and, yes, even your stinky dog butt.  I'll miss watching you chase something in your dreams.  I'll even miss your whining at me for....well, whatever you whined about at that moment.

You were our beloved Oreo.  Our wonderful dog.  Go run and play, be that puppy you once were.

Oreo - these are my previous Eulogies to her.

Snakes and Lizards and Chameleons - OH MY!!

For more than a year David has been asking for a chameleon and/or snake as a pet.  In fact, he had a choice during his last birthday whether he wanted a guinea pig or snake/chameleon, surprisingly he chose guinea pig.  Anyways, my son is Obsessed with anything snake (or cheetah) on Animal Planet.  We watch Call of the Wild Man, Gator Boys, and Swamp Wars whenever possible.  David says that he wants to take care of snakes when he grows up - he knows that it's called a herpetologist. 

This week I learned that Portland was having a Reptile Expo, so I looked up the info and off we went.  FUN!!  I'm not afraid of snakes at all, in fact, just before we were married, Matt and I had a Burmese Python.  We held snakes, chameleons, and lizards.  We saw a cobra up close (enclosed in a glass cage) flare it's hood and got to pet a 5-6ft alligator!  It was a lot of fun.  Once Nibbles "goes", I told David that he can get a snake/reptile.  I'm guessing if he's still interested this time next year...what the hell, we'll get a "new" pet. 

Enjoy the pics!!  I can't believe that I didn't get a better picture of David holding a snake nor did I get one of him holding a chameleon. :(  SNAKES ARE COOL!!!

I'm Not Dead, But I Got a Cough'in

UGH!  I'm sick....like ill sick - everyone knows that I'm already the "other" kind of sick. On Monday, I went to work and started a cough.  As the day progressed, so did the cough.  By that night, the body aches started.  OMG!  I got the flu.....NOOOOOOOOOOOO cuz I just got the flu shot.  Too bad it was only 10 days prior to this cough.  The Dr's say that your body needs about 14 days to develop the full antibodies needed to fight the flu.  DAMN!!

I barely slept on Monday night because of the coughing.  I sent my manager an email stating I was going to stay home, sent David off to school and I poured myself onto the couch.  Cough cough.  Dozing most of the day, increasing my fluids and just feeling miserable.  By Tuesday night, I was in it DEEP!  The body aches were horrible! Coughing was worse.  I was up most of the night. 

Wednesday morning didn't bring much relief at all - in fact, more misery because now David was sporting a slight fever.  Now it's me and the kiddo home.  I decided I was just too miserable, so I went off to the Dr.  I need some drugs to help me sleep.  GREAT NEWS - I DON'T HAVE THE FLU. YAY!!  Just a very nasty upper respiratory cold. Booo! 2 prescriptions later for strong cough meds (1 with Codeine to help me sleep), and we were on our way home.  David acted fine all day.  Didn't sport another fever.  I can barely take care of myself, so I asked M if he'd take David overnight to give me some much needed rest.  I got a text from M that night saying that David had a fever, bad sore throat and bad cough.   I was up all night coughing - that's awesome that I got Codeine cough meds that don't work!!    I planned on heading to the store early the next morning to get soft foods for David and new OTC meds for him.

Thursday morning, M dropped David off and said he didn't sleep much. David walked into the house with a fever (thanks for giving him meds), he coughed, gagged and threw up all over the floor.  GREAT!!  Once he was upright again, I gave him some meds and within 30 min, he was feeling SOOO much better.  I dumped him into the bathtub, he hasn't taken a bath in a couple years, but he loved it.  He said that it soothed his achy body.  Is this kid 77 or 7?  Anyways, I kept him medicated throughout the day.  I worried most about him sleeping that night. 

I
Need
Sleep

Someone slept all night - that would NOT include me!!  I got 4 hours straight sleep, but then I was up multiple times and just gave up totally at 4:45am.  So, it's Friday.  David is in the full throws of this cold.  Has asked to take 2 baths already today.  He also coughed, gagged and threw up again.  Poor guy.  I'm not doing much better.  I'm so tired, but can't lay down because the rattle in my chest just gets bigger and bigger and puts me into a huge coughing fit!  A friend of mine suggested that I call the Dr and get a new prescription of Hydrocodan Syrup instead.  It's a form of Vicodin in liquid cough meds form.  Well, I have some Vicodin remaining from my surgery, so I'm going to try taking a pill and my prescription cough med (not with the codeine) and see how I do.   If it's not any better, I'm off to the clinic tomorrow to see what else they can do for me. 

The Dr. told me to expect the cough to linger for 3-5 weeks...fan-freakin-tastic....NOT!  UGH, I'm DONE with coughing.  I'm done feeling like crap.  I'm done, done, done!!  It's a 3 day weekend for me, so I have 4 days to feel better before thinking about returning to work on Tuesday. 

May I Have the Envelope Please.....(the results are in)

Yesterday I got the call.  The results from my biopsies.


Everything is just fine!  YAY!!  My Dr. even said that because my paps have been normal my whole life and I don't have HPV, I can just continue my regular annual exams rather than an every 6 month routine that is norm with abnormal paps.  I have to go back in 6 weeks to be sure that all of my sutures are gone and I'm fully healed, but other than that, she feels that the polyp was just "one of those things" that was local but unusual.  

About an hour after the call, after I had made all of my calls and texts, I burst into tears.  Tears of relief, tears of joy, tears of stress - I don't know.  I guess I didn't realize how much I was stressing over these results.

So, while 2012 had it's ups and downs, hopefully this is a sign that 2013 is going to kick ass!!

Christmas 2012

Twas the night before.....what?  Ugh, I won't be starting out my blog with that...



With my surgery scheduled 4 days before Christmas, I was panicked that I wasn't going to get everything finished, but I did! I only had David for a couple of days prior to Christmas Eve (because of my surgery), so we crammed in a TON of Christmas activities in one night!  After work, I grabbed David from daycare and we were off to see Santa and hit Winter Wonderland at the PIR.  Once those were done, we were crossing over the river and saw that the Christmas boats were out.  I quickly veered my car to go see them. 

This was the first year in a long time where I was still shopping a few days before Christmas.  NOT what I like to do.  It would also help if I had opened the boxes that came in the mail from my online purchases before retail shopping.  Saturday night had me running to TRU at 9pm to return something that I purchased twice. 

David asked Santa for Beyblades.  Santa came through except for 1 specific Beyblade that was requested.  Santa never found it - (I)he looked at many stores, but it was OK, David wasn't too disappointed.  Also, David wanted to change his bedroom to be Angry Bird - which surprised me because up until 3-4 weeks ago, all he could talk about was Spiderman.  A new comforter, sheets, blanket and poster transformed his room.  His Birthday is in a few months, so I'll be looking for wall stickers to enhance the look even more.  Santa got me a new body pillow (NEVER buy the cheap pillow from IKEA - it doesn't last long).  I almost blew the Santa fantasy because I wrapped the body pillow from Santa, but the new cover I got from it was wrapped from my dad.  David noticed.  He commented "Mommy, how did Grandpa know that Santa was getting you a new pillow"?  YIKES!  Think fast!!!  "Grandpa didn't know, I told him that Mommy had a pillow and needed a new pillowcase for it".  PHEW! He bought it. 

I decided that David has many toys, so this year I focused on games that we could play together.  Sorry, Jenga, Uno, BananaGrams and Perfection were purchased. 

Enjoy the pics!

I just realized that I didn't get a picture of the Beyblades!!  DOH!!

Today is Christmas and I don't have David.  It's been a relaxing day - I'm trying to get my house cleaned.  Later I'm heading out to the movies with a friend - The Hobbit. 

Addendum:  Geesh, It's February and I just realized that I forgot to talk about the tree.  I thought I talked about it, but I guess not.

I've always gotten a live tree - from a lot.  This year, with funds being tight, I heard about a tree farm that has trees for only $20.  AWESOME!!  In early December, I had a cold (yea, I've been sick twice in as many months), but on a Saturday I mustered enough energy to get out and get a tree.  David and I went out to the tree farm, sloshed though the mud, saw in hand and found our tree.  Onto my knees I went and started sawing.  And sawing.  And sawing, sawing, sawing....OMG!  I was about 3/4 of the way through the trunk and I just couldn't progress. I didn't have anymore energy left.  What's a girl to do?  Find a man who's walking around and ask him politely to help.   YAY!!  Then I saw that the farm has people driving around picking up trees to bring to the tie up area....no need to schlep that thing back.  My tree was shaken, bagged and put into the trunk of car for me. 

I don't remember flossing there!!

On Thursday, I went into the hospital at an unGodly hour of 5:30am with surgery scheduled at 7:30.  My friend, Trina, dropped me off (thank you to her for getting up so darned early and having to be at work later that morning) and I was checked in. 

Even without food, caffeine or drugs, I was in fine form!  I made most of the staff laugh that morning.  My Dr. came in to explain the procedure and how recovery will be.  She mentioned that there will be stitches and I shouldn't be alarmed if at some point some of the threads come out - not all dissolve.  As she said this, she demonstrated the length of a stitch being about 3 inches long...I cracked up.  After she mentioned that, I replied with "No, I wouldn't be alarmed.  I would be puzzled because I would think 'Huh, I don't remember flossing there'".  First her face was of shock then she registered what I had said and she burst out laughing!  Good sign that she was awake and ready. 

My IV - HA!!  That was a procedure in itself.  My nurse was very nice and she came with the heat pack and asked if I wanted the numbing meds.  After having close to 15 IV's during the course of being pg with David, I know what they're like and don't really bother me much.  No, don't need the numbing meds.  I always let my nurses or phlebes know that I have veins that collapse easily.  DO NOT touch the wall of my vein or it's done.  She got the needle in the first time, no problem.  She drew blood from it and taped it well.  However, it was the fact my hand was covered in blood after all of that which I shook my head at.  What a mess. 

I met with all of the necessary staff and off I went to the OR.  I moved to the OR table and had the oxygen mask placed over my nose and mouth...YUCK, smells awful and noted it.  The anesthesiologist threw out some big chemical words for it being the plastic mask that stinks.  The nurses chuckled at him and I stated that he really shouldn't use such big words before 11am.  After a struggle with the armrest of the table, he injected my IV with meds (which stung!!) and said...'Nighty night'. 

I woke up 1 hour later in my room.  Within 10 min, I was up, feeling like I was drunk, but up.  Then the cramps started.  OY!!  Think of your worst menstrual cramps you've EVER had....double that.  I was given 2 vicodin and sent on my way by 10am.  

OH MY!!  Krista has some stories!  We stopped to get some breakfast first because I hadn't eaten since the night before.  It was while my stomach had food in it that the vicodin hit me.  I still had to go to the store to get my prescription which was a 25 min wait.  So, we wandered the store...me wandering more than her.  I did manage to paint my thumb nail with some nail polish  - what?! how else are you to know if you like the color.  I was lucid enough to realize that I already had that color at home.  Still, I'm sure I was pretty funny to watch and talk to. 

I poured myself onto the couch and slept most of the day.  I would sleep about 40 min to each hour.  Krista was on the other couch and stayed with me for most of the day - leaving around dinner.  I was delivered dinner by another friend and I was in bed for the night by 8pm and slept until 8am the next day.  WHOA!  Perhaps staying up most of the night on Tuesday and Wed. had caught up with me. 

Friday was a bit better.  Minimal cramps - no vicodin just Ibuprofen.  Although, a short trip to work and the store had me down for a 2 hour nap that afternoon.  Again, I poured myself into bed around 9 and slept until 8.  I'm on the road to recovery.  I have several restrictions for 6 weeks - one being no baths.  I LOVE A HOT BATH!! especially this time of year.  Boooo! 

I will possibly have my results this week, but more than likely the first week of January.  This is the REAL nerve wracking part. 

Bad Wedding that wasn't?

On the eve of a momentous occasion in Washington state of gay marriage being legalized, I thought I was a bar, but it felt more like a bad wedding.

This summer, I learned about many regular clubs in the Portland area have gay/lesbian dances on specific weekends of the month.  Paula and I went to Blow Pony in June and had a blast.  Last month I went  to Hot Flash with a friend of mine and it's for the 35 and older crowd - hella fun!  So, I thought I'd try another this weekend.  However, I can't always rely on my friends to be available or wanting to go with me to these events, so I decided to do something that I've never done before...I went alone. Hot Flash was a blast, so I figured I could to this different event by myself.  I thought I knew what to expect. This was also an event for the 35+ crowd....um....well.....I think they need to change that age b/c there wasn't anyone under 55.  OY!! Shit.

Here I got my courage up to go somewhere alone, and I walked into THIS!!?   OMG!  I sat at the bar and chatted up the nice bartender and texted friends.

The music - was so dated!! I really felt that I was at a bad wedding.  They played the Electric Slide, John Denver, Celebration, and then....COUNTRY MUSIC - with people line dancing!!  Holy hell.  I just laughed.  The only songs not played were the Chicken Dance and the Hokey Pokey.  I was waiting for the brides to walk through the door at any moment.  Which is when my bartender man said:  We're just waiting for a bride to walk in with a bad dress and her hair jacked up to Jesus!  I died.  What an awesome line:  Hair jacked up to Jesus!!

It just so happened that last night was the Portland Santa pub crawl and the last bar they stopped at was the one I was at. Hundreds of Santa's were in the front bar waiting for the dance floor to open.   FINALLY, when the part of the bar I was in was opened up to the public, the night became a blast!  The good music began and dancing ensued!! Santa's of all sorts flooded the dance floor... daaamn, Santa's got some moves!  I was finally glad that I went (and stayed) - even if it was alone.  I was fine.  I had a lot of fun, met some wonderful people and I won't be scared to attend another function alone again...although, I'm crossing THAT event off my list.