One Cool Dude

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SEAN!

Wishing you an under-the-stall-wall-toe-tappin'-good-time!

Stitches Itches

I had my first post-op check in with Dr. Jill today (Hi, Marie!) and sadly, all she did was remove the little pieces of tape covering the incision. The stitches are still in. I go back in 3 weeks, so hopefully, they'll be taken out.

This weekend was full of chicken and pizza. We had Friday Night Dinner with my folks and my mom made a very spicy chicken dish, which John thoroughly enjoyed. She also made a chicken & coconut soup, which I hadn't had in quite a while. Yummy!

After FND, we met up with Freddy and Mike at the Corner Pub for Dinner B. PIZZA! I'm not sure if pizza is John's #1 food item or if chicken is. Both are definitly in his top 3. I saw a guy from the old neighborhood (he still lives up the street from my parents) so we chatted and caught up and shared news of the old Dallas Ave crew. He went to private school in his younger years and a different high school than the rest of us but was always a fixture in the Alaniz household (3 doors up from my folks).

Saturday, we had PIZZA at Freddy's and tried to watch the Redskins game, but ended up watching more Nascar than football due to the rain. We were hoping San Diego Irene would make it into town, but her flight was delayed. Maybe we'll see her sometime this week! Sunday was a "laze around the house" day for me.

Not much else going on... wish I had more interesting stories about the neighbors for BHL, but it's pretty quiet during the day here. Or maybe I'm just sleeping through all the excitement!

That's Some Bouquet!

This arrived for me today:

Pretty awesome, huh? PLEASE stop by and help me eat all this fruit! It's from my office and is quite overwhelming. Almost too beautiful to eat.

Not much going on with the recovery and all. Today was the first time I ventured out on my own and drove. It did feel a little weird, despite only being two weeks since I last drove.

I've got so many knitting projects I want to work on. The latest is a new technique I taught myself called "entrelac". Basically, this project started at the bottom right corner going left with triangles and then the second tier of blocks was added moving right. The third tier is added going left and you can see how the yarn color changes as you go along. Pretty cool, huh?



I also did a little shopping, even though I'm really trying to keep this to a minimum:

Last week, John was fiddling with adding channels to our DirectTV and stopped on QVC. They happened to be selling craft stuff for scrapbooking and such and one of the deals was for this cardstock. 160 sheets for $27.00. Usually, this stuff sells for 99 cents a sheet! I couldn't pass up this bargain, so I ordered it.

Being home recovering from surgery has also allowed me to get back to cooking dinner. When we were down at Breton Bay last weekend, I got some crabs for my folks and got some extra for me too. Susan, Ron and Karen came over and we had a nice time catching up and eating crabs. Tehre were lots of leftovers and I spent Monday afternoon picking them to make a Thai style crab fried rice for me and a crabcake for John:

OK... so don't forget to stop by and help me eat some of that fruit bouquet and THANKS to everyone at the office who sent it!

We Can Rebuild Him

Faster. Stronger. Better.

We just got FIOS installed today. SO. STINKIN'. FAST!

Not much going on this weekend coming up -- heading to Breton Bay tonight to meet up with the tree guy. One of the dead trees needs to be cut down and the tree guy is gonna give us an estimate of how much it will cost. Since a good chunk of it came down the last time we were there, it shouldn't be very expensive, as it wasn't a very tall tree to begin with.

Not much else. Just trying to stay away from the Percoset. I need a nap. Too much FIOS excitement today! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Of Red and Grey

RED:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CUELLO ROJO!

GREY:
These are the big granny panties I picked up over the weekend. A very far cry from the description "cute", like my polka dotted Vic's:


Sadly, I don't have any exciting neighborhood scandals for BHL, but I'm on the look out for Stepford-looking women and listening for domestic discord from the neighbors. Call me Mrs. Kravitz.

Home At Last

Well, I made it home. I thought the hospital stay would be just one night, but looking back at the paperwork of what was approved by the insurance and such, it was two nights.

Other than occasionally feeling like someone used my belly for batting practice, all is well. Everything is sore along the incision, which is pretty much right where my underwear waistband hits. So, tomorrow, I think Johnny's gonna take me out to procure some granny panties. SO. TRAGIC.

So, my last entry was probably quite a shock to some people. I told very few people about the actual procedure I was having, mostly saying I was having fibroids removed. I think I was having a tough time dealing with my own sadness without having to deal with everyone elses, you know? Maybe that's selfish, but I didn't want everyone to worry.

I must thank the Moms for bringing me all kinds of food! Sadly, most of it isn't anything John would eat, so he's stuck fending for himself with cheese quesadillas, frozen pizza and spicy Jamaican beef patties. Also, thanks to everyone who brought flowers -- they brightened up my sad little hospital room (and now my house). And of course, I thank my awesome hubby, whose love and support I couldn't imagine being without.

Toodles till next time! You all get to read about my next 6 weeks of being stuck at home recovering. How exciting will that be???

Don't Cry for Me, Laurel, Maryland

Since John and I were married two years ago, every party we go to elicits a particular question from somebody. “When are you going to have kids?” It’s a funny thing, this expectation from everyone... everyone except our own mothers! Probably because they’ve been grandparents for at least 10 years through our siblings and the pressure is off in that regard (Thanks, Mike and Jim!!!).

Whether jokingly or not, everyone’s anticipating some “big announcement”. Thankfully, of late, people have been expecting Freddy to come out with big news of his own, so the baby talk has died down a little.

How do you answer something so deeply personal, especially when the answer is not the one people expect to hear? Depending on my mood, sometimes I just want to say, “I hate kids.” Just for shock’s sake. If you know me though, I just give a little shrug. “I don’t know,” I say.

But I do know.

I’ll be heading here tomorrow because I have these. Sadly, after my stay, we won’t be able to have any of these.

When I first learned I had these goo-gobs in my belly, I kept tabs on them via annual exams, but never thought anything of them (other than making me look pregnant all the time). They weren’t painful (still aren’t) or causing any other problems, but they have multiplied and grown large enough to greatly reduce my chances of carrying to term if I were to get pregnant. Had I known this was the case, I would have actively pursued treatment years ago. But from what I’ve read, if you’re prone to have them, getting rid of a few doesn’t prevent others from cropping up, which would have required additional treatments, etc...

My fertility is one of those things I took for granted until someone said, “You can’t...” After weighing the options, I decided I didn’t want to go through all the pain and heartache that couples with fertility issues go through. So I’m choosing the treatment option that will eliminate the fibroids permanently. It’s not that I don’t want to have kids. I’ve always wanted to have kids. My attitude used to be that having a child was more important to me than having a husband. Luckily, I found a GREAT husband. We won’t know the joys of having our own biological kids, but we have each other, a wonderful family, awesome nieces and nephew to spoil and really cool friends. WNTL?