Happy 7th of July

I hope everyone had a good 4th! I was too busy enjoying myself to blog, so you'll have to forgive me.

And, in the spirit of patriotism, you MUST watch this. You must.

Now....was that not the funniest thing you've seen all day? C'mon, you know it was.

Saw my doctors on Thursday, with all pretty

good results. Dr. Mazj wants me back in with the pulmonologist I saw that one time before, because those little whatever-they-ares in my lungs are still there, as (in his word not mine,) "nodules" and need checking. They haven't grown at all since last visit, and are still too small to biopsy, these being good things, but they are still there and unidentified, so he wants them identified, stat. Ok.

He also sent me for labs, of course, and my hemoglobin is back into the "why aren't you dead yet?" range. Andy was sooooo happy it had gone up to almost normal, and now I slipped back down again. Dr. M also noted that I am quite undernourished.

Grr. I've got to start finding the energy to make myself good healthy food again AND make myself eat it. Daddy brought me some great zucchini when he came up for the 4th, and I've eaten one of those, so that counts as a start, right? It wasn't even deep-fried! I am going to go to Safeway today and raid the produce section, I swear, and then I swear I'll eat some of it, even if it's 3 bites a day. That would be 3 bites more than now, right?

Daddy and I were talking food, as we often do, and in discussing the wonders of Trader Joes, I had the grand realization that if I went to TJs on a regular basis, I would undoubtedly eat better, and eat more. TJs has all these wonderful, delectable things, which are organic and whole grain and Omega-3'd and antioxidanted and all sorts of wonderful things like that, and as a killer bonus, are made in little me-sized portions, are cheap, and taste great. Amazing, huh?

(And I'm finding myself wishing more and more that Daddy lived in Gridley, so he could come over and we could talk and have dinner and go do stuff to goof off. Sigh.)

So, I'm thinking I need to get back to a project I started long ago (among many) and make a list of food things that I love but always forget about. Like hummus, for example, or chicken salad, or Waldorf salad, or couscous, fresh fruit or heirloom tomatoes with bleu cheese dressing! Then I need to make an attempt to eat these things once in a while. If I can just make my life-schedule work itself out so that I actually start going to yoga class, yoga is almost right across the street from the shopping center where TJs is - a part of Chico I very rarely go to otherwise. Now, if that ain't a sign - yoga and TJs being near each other - then I don't know what is. Ok.

Moving on... Let's see, hemoglobin bad, things in lungs unidentified, protein and nutrient levels bad, lymphedema bad (but he's going to call the therapist for me and see if he can find out what's up with the torture garment thingy), and I think that's about it from Dr. Mazj.

Next, I went downstairs and saw Dr. Whalen in radiation. Of the many docs I've seen down there, I really like Dr. Whalen. He's nice, he's straight to the point, and he's the doc who took it upon himself to do a bunch of research and consult with Drs. Pisani & Mazj to determine that I did NOT need the internal radiation and that it would probably do more harm than good. That really makes him a good guy in my book! He did some very uncomfortable exams - I'll spare all y'all the details - and discovered that I had a yeast infection without even knowing it. Amazing, because normally I KNOW, but I guess this one is different and stealthy. Could explain some random symptoms and the absolute exhaustion I'm having lately, if there's been an infection of any kind festering in my body and draining resources...and man oh man have I been exhausted and sleeping most of the day for the last couple. So anyway, Diflucan is our friend. I took it yesterday, and hopefully the little yeastiebeasties will already be on the run.

I think that's about it medically... Well, for me at least. Someone else in this house is having major surgery tomorrow - my beautiful baby puppy! Yup, it's time. She's going in to get spayed, which is a good thing over all, but made even better by the fact that Dr. Brenda is going to pull all her remaining puppy teeth while she's under. This is significant! The poor baby has gums that are swollen to all hell and must hurt like nothin' doin', because if you look carefully, you can see the baby tooth and the erupting adult tooth crammed into the same socket. Ow! That's gotta be miserable. She's definitely acting miserable in the form of crabby and getting in trouble. The dog who never gets into things has been stealing random possessions, including my little stuffed elephant Spot, which could have been a tragedy!!! Normally, she'll make off with something random maybe once every week or two. Yesterday, it was maybe 8 things spread throughout the day.

I keep trying to give her teethers - rubber toys kept in the fridge, scraps of washcloth that were wet and then frozen hard, normal toys, nylabones - to keep her busy. They all end up covered in blood, which is very disconcerting, but when I check, it's just normal loose tooth bleeding. This morning, she's been crying non-stop, which of course kills me. I finally gave in and gave her a rawhide, even though I know she'll bleed like crazy, but it keeps her busy, happy and not crying, and those are things to strive for!! I just have to remember to have the vet save me her baby teeth, because I'm weird like that.

When we take her in, Mr. Sparkydog is going along for the ride, so that he can get microchipped

while we're there. They do that on a walk-in basis, which makes it really convenient. Pea got hers when she was in for xrays, and Stella was done with her first puppy shots. Now all the babies will be chipped, and their fretful Mommy will be happy.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we're trying to get the kids ready to head back east with Mommy for a month. They used to go back for the entire summer; last year they didn't go at all; this year we're trying a month.

I'm going to lovelovelovelovelove the quiet and time alone with my darling husband, but I'm also going to go nuts with them gone. I worry nonstop that they'll be unhappy and bored like they were the last summer they went.

Some of you might recall that the last time they went, the summer we moved, she almost brought them home a month early because she and her SO were fighting so much; topi

c of the fights: her never being home or spending any time with the kids, who were then stuck in the condo with him as de facto babysitter for the whole summer. So the atmosphere at that time wasn't great, and the kids were bored out of their skulls on top of that, so therefore I was miserable. I'm praying it goes better this year, for the munchkins' sake. I can't enjoy my time alone with my DH if my little girl is calling me crying.

But anyway, getting them ready to go takes a lot of work! Sorting all their clothes to see what fits, buying more clothes, figuring out what "stuff" they can take to keep themselves busy, etc. All the new airline baggage rules should make this REALLY interesting, what with the charges and weight limits and fees, oh my.

I really wish to god Trevor could take his guitar back with him, but I just can't see it. It would be an immense pain in the ass with infinite potential for damage, but I still wish. He is SO good now, and loves it so much, I hate to see him lose all that playing time. Ah well.

I think that is about all that is new and noteworthy. The only other thing I have to mention is

that I've discovered some new blogs worth checking out, if you're of a mind to do such things.

I'm hooked on the sheer glee that is Cake Wrecks - so now Jen has gotten herself nominated in

the "Funniest" category of some major blog awards. Checking out the competition, I've found some other wonderful silliness to read.

The awards site is here http://www.socialluxelounge.com/blogluxe/ if you want to check out some of the finalists. (Sadly, voting is closed) So far, I've found Twitarded, Meanest Mom and Boobs, Injuries & Dr. Pepper to be bleh so far. However, Bye Bye, Pie! is thus far hilarious, and Barefoot Foodie is

showing strong potential.

Well, and of course, if you're not peeking at Cake Wrecks (www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com) on a daily basis for some serious giggles, you are a total loser anyway. ;-) I mean, how can you NOT read a blog in which yesterday's feature was wedding cakes shaped like tree stumps? C'mon people! Well, I get a lot of serious giggling done, anyway.

(Scary stump cake picture is copyright Cake Wrecks & Jen Yates, I just wanted to show y'all!)

The scary sasquatch and well, I don't know what the hell it is cake pictures are mine, taken at my local MegaLoMart.

The agenda for today is to take the little one to get her hair done - a nice trim to even up her split ends and let those glorious curls hang evenly - and to Safeway, to raid the produce department. I've also got to start working on some pulled pork for sandwiches to use up our stash of both pork and hamburger buns before they all leave. I've got to do a freezer inventory for just that reason. Giant sized packages of anything aren't useful when it's just the two of us, and I hardly eat!

But I think that's about it for now. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but I can always add it later. Happy Tuesday everyone!! (I'm eating a peach...be impressed!)