Belated thanks

The days leading up to and including Thanksgiving were a bit hectic for us.  I would go into detail but just thinking about it makes me tired!  Suffice it to say we have been dealing with croup, febrile seizure and, sinus infection and 2 doctor's visits, including one on Thanksgiving morning all since Sunday.  Phew!

I want to take this opportunity to remember all that I am thankful for this year.
In no particular order:
On-call doctors who meet you at their office on Thanksgiving morning
Modern medicine...In the past few weeks alone, Nanny, Baby Porter and Lilly have all needed modern medicine.
Good health insurance
And my job that provides it
My new co-workers
Heat (on this chilly morning)
My family
My husband
New family :)
Friends
Blog friends and blogging
Acupuncture
Lilly's health....while she has challenges, they are minor.
Good coffee
Sleep, when I get it.

I know there are more that I just am not thinking of at this moment.   I will try to be thankful each day.  Why does that so easily get lost in the shuffle of the everyday?

an open letter to my toe

Dear baby toe,
I apologize for every time I hated on you.  I have called you names, made fun of your looks, callously (no pun in tended) ignored you when painting my other toes and squeezed you into super-cute but totally uncomfortable shoes for the sake of foot vanity.

Now that you are the color of a dark plum and roughly the size of one, I appreciate all the support you have given me over the years.  I never realized how your presence helps to balance me.  I promise to treat you better in the future if you will only cooperate and respond to the ibuprofen, elevation, ice and wrapping you are getting now.
Thank you in advance,
Melanie

Friends

I have two friends going through some very challenging situations right now. One had her baby at slightly over 30 weeks and so he is in the NICU right now.  She is already an amazing mom; pumping milk on a schedule to bring him and spending hours with him.

My other friend is expecting her 2nd baby shortly and is in the midst of a terrible divorce.  And she has a 15 month old.  And her family lives a 6 hour drive away.  She has nobody to talk to, really.  I hope that she knows now, after our hour long conversation tonight, that she can unload on me.  I can take it.

Both these friends are what I consider "lifers" in that we have been friends forever and will be for life.  The intensity of our friendships has changed over the years but the love is there, always.  Both live so far away from me and it has left me wondering how I can be a good friend to them.  I am reaching out as much as I can via phone and email.  I pray for them.  I hope it is enough, for now.

Wordless Wednesday

Lilly takes good care of her baby dolls.

So, is this it?

Is this my actual bottom where I decide to lose weight once and for all?  I sure hope so because I do not feel like buying more clothes.  I have all the excuses in the world for having gained weight, many of them valid.  However, I need to stop the excuses to myself and be real.  I had given up the scale because I was being obsessive about it.  But then yesterday Lilly asked to weigh herself at my MIL's house.  Then she asked me to weigh myself.  I was not shocked, but duly alarmed at the number on that scale.  So I weighed myself on my own scale this morning.  The number, while not as scary as yesterday's, was higher than I would care to admit.

The time is here.  I am making a decision to eat better with less snacks and bringing my own lunch.  AND I MUST GET TO THE GYM!!!!  Seriously, it drives me nuts that I am not going, but every week there has been something.  As soon as I am feeling out of the woods from this crazy viral thing I have, back to the gym I go. If I have to go from work and pack my clothes in the car in the morning, then so be it.

You heard it hear first.

I hate being sick

I have been sick for a whole week.  On Sunday and Monday it was just kind of starting and I felt under the weather.  Tuesday I felt pretty terrible, but it was a half day at work so I just toughed it out and stayed at my desk as much as possible.  Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I was in bed or on the couch.  I thought I was getting better on Thursday so I cancelled my doctor appointment.  Friday I felt like hell and my eyes were stuck shut in the morning.  The one eye was completely blood shot and goopy.  Blech.

The doctor said I was infected from the neck up.  I was put on z-pack and eye drops.  I still had my Shutterfly party since I essentially took 3 doses by then of the z-pack and 8 doses of eye drops.  The party ended up being fun, even with only a few of us; but tired me out completely.  I woke up Sunday feeling, you guessed it, terrible.  We made the drive out to the Poconos to pick up Lilly and I started to feel better.

The plan is to go into work tomorrow.  Vin thinks that I should stay home and rest one more day.  I probably won't listen to him because I have a full day tomorrow already.  I can't afford to be sick another  minute!

I had so many plans for this past week.  I got absolutely nothing done.  And in fact, I think my room is in worse condition than it was before.  Boo for being sick.  BUT, I do have to give credit where credit is due.  My hubby let me sleep and rest while he watched Lilly and he went to get me soup and other assorted food items and medicine.

OPI gel manicure gets...

....a big old thumbs down for what it has done to my nails.  They look beautiful while the gels is on my nails.  I was totally in love and was willing to spend $35 every two weeks.  Before my last application I asked the woman at the front desk if my nails should have a break because they seemed a bit weak.  She felt them and said they were fine.  I asked the manicurist the same question and got the same answer.  Well the joke is on me because my nails are peeling so badly and have broken down to where they were when I first got the manicure.  My nails looked great for several weeks but it came at a great cost.

In other news, I have been really trying to follow the dietary recommendations of my acupuncturist.  In case you forgot: cut out dairy, diet soda (or really any soda), cold drinks, add warm foods and add cinnamon.  Generally speaking the only dairy I am consuming is in my coffee in the morning.  I keep my Brita on my counter so that my water is now room temperature.  I have been having a harder time adding the warm foods, especially in the morning.  I am not sure why, since I love oatmeal.  It is a time issue, really.  I was doing great with the cinnamon, but it started to trigger some acid reflux, so I stopped for the time being.  The biggest change I have made, drum roll please, is that I have cut out soda!  I started by cutting down, and within another week I cut it out.  I did have some over the weekend.   But I don't like the way it makes me feel.  I was never a huge soda drinker until I lived with the hubby.  He LOVES soda, so we always have it in the house.  In large quantities.  And when I was pregnant, water plain grossed me out and I lived on 7-Up.

I was planning on getting back into the gym this week and then I get terribly sick.  Actually, last Saturday night I had it all planned out for the next day.  And then Lilly had a seizure at 6am and I was in the Overlook ped Er with her all morning.   By then my day was just shot.  Then whatever viral infection Lilly had I then got.  I was under the weather on Monday and then by Tuesday night I was sick as a dog.  This afternoon I started to feel a bit better.  In fact I had made a doctor's appointment for this afternoon and cancelled it.  So maybe tomorrow I will feel better enough to go do the elliptical for a bit?  Crossing my fingers...