Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Good-bye snow, hello slushy rain

My snow day is over and with the exception of some very dirty snow and slush left behind, you would never know it was even here. It is currently raining an interesting combination of snow and rain, it rains for 20 or 30 minutes, then it snows for maybe 5. It is super cold outside and has made me cancel my planned workout for the day, the last thing I want to do is get out of my clothes, even if it is to simply put other clothes on. I am just too cold for any amount of undressing.

I am slowly beginning to realize that I am probably never going to adjust to the weather up here and I'm not going to adjust to the lack of light during the winter, so I have to find different ways to cope with my new surroundings in order to not be miserable for the next 22 months. For starters I am trying to focus on all the positives in my life and there really are so many to focus on, as I am a very lucky and blessed person. Secondly I am learning to do something I have always wanted to do, cook. I try new recipes every week, and some weeks, almost every other day, and for the most part they have all been very successful. The other thing I am doing is fixing things that remind me of home, like chicken stir fry and the baked biscuits and beans casserole dish my mom used to make. They are awesome comfort foods that really make me happy. Lastly I am trying to work on my overall health. The doctors want me to learn to control things like my posture and my heart rate, so I'm working on that as well. We'll see how it all goes.

I'm outta here, I have to go make dinner for Cpl D, tonight we are having Scallops based on a recipe out of my favorite cookbook, Better Homes & Gardens, Cooking for Two, copyright 1968.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Snow Day!


For the last three days I have been watching the weather for Lakewood on my Google homepage and it kept saying that it would snow. We got a little slushy rain, we got a little sunshine and we got a few clouds, but no snow. This morning CPL D (he got a promotion last Tuesday, we are totally stoked for him) and I were getting ready for work as usual, and he came into the bathroom where I was doing my hair and informed me that everything was covered in snow. The truck looked really pretty actually. I have never had a snow day in my whole life being a born and raised SF Bay Area girl, so this is all very new to me. I took my little cat Paws outside in the snow and he walked around for a little bit, then promptly ran back into the apartment, apparently it wasn't up to his spoiled house cat standards.

My boss told me to stay home this morning, I work about 20 miles from my house, and usually my commute is absolutely cake. It takes me 25 minutes, door to door, to get to my office. However, I work in Bonney Lake, at the top of the hill on highway 410 and they get the snow even worse than we get it where Cpl D and I live, so there was no way that my boss wanted me driving into the office.

I don't know what to do with myself this morning. I am guessing there will be some knitting, and some yummy breakfast making, and possibly some reading too. I'm reading "Blood Canticle" by Anne Rice (one of the only Vampire Chronicle books that I haven't read). It should be a nice morning, and if I get really bored, I can always play with the Wii.

I am really hoping though that Cpl D's unit is also released for the day. I don't like the idea of him out there driving in this stuff and I really don't like the idea of him running around in snow when he is sick. Did I mention that he was sick? He came down with something over the weekend, I am just hoping he doesn't share.

Well I'm off to have a little fun on my snow day :)

Monday, January 21, 2008

Life

One of my readers asked me today when I was going to start blogging again (ok, really it was my dad, but he reads my blog, so he counts as one of my readers!), and I told him maybe tomorrow. A lot of things lately keep getting that answer because I have been so busy trying to maintain. With all the health issues going on, I was thinking to myself last week that things couldn't get much worse...then my mom called my husband to find out if I was home from work, turns out I was home and she was calling to tell me my Papa died. This isn't the first time I have had a grandparent pass away, in fact, my Papa was my last living grandparent, but this is the first time I have been away from my family and the vast majority of my support structure. I think I have dealt with all of this pretty well, I've cried a few times, baked a whole lot of cookies and started a new knitting project in the effort of keeping myself busy. This is also the first funeral I am going to miss. Everyone feels that in light of my new job and my current health concerns that getting on an airplane and dealing with altitude changes is probably not the best idea ever. I'm very sad I will not be there with my family.

I love my family and I really wish I could do more, other than be a shoulder over the phone. I also promise to be a better blogger and to start blogging about the fun adventures Aaron and I have been having. Starting with the fact that we have had two dinners made with...wait for it...FISH! Even more shocking than that is the fact that I actually liked it. I may yet survive the latest diet imposed on me by the medical world.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Dietary Restrictions

As most of you all know, I suffer from migraines, occasionally, very severe migraines, like the type I have been suffering from the past three weeks that landed in me in the hospital. My new doctor over at Madigan, has put me on a new diet, with all kinds of new dietary restrictions. Get ready for this: no aspartame, MSG, Aged Cheeses (not too schocking), pork (in all forms), yogurt, sour cream, bananas, nuts and peanut butter (which could quite possibly kill me), and of course chocolate. Most of these restrictions I can live with 100%, but taking away yogurt and OMG peanut butter really could be the end of me.

I am going to try to follow the diet for at least a month and see what happens, my hope is that some things I will be able to re-introduce and others I can learn to live without, I'm just hoping that peanut butter is not one of the things I have to learn to live without :(

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Bad Blogger

So I know I have been a bad blogger, it has been 3 weeks exactly since I last posted something, but I have a lot of good reasons for not having written. In the last 3 weeks I have been in the hospital for a total of seven days, not to mention we were traveling for 2 of the last three weeks and we didn't exactly have reliable Internet access the whole time. I'm sorry for not being a better blogger, but that is just how it is right now.


I have been struggling with a horrible migraine the past three weeks, thus the hospital stays, and I have discovered that while all hospitals have their issues I would pick a military hospital over a civilian one any day. The care is incredibly complete, and they believe you when you say you are still having pain. The civilian hospital couldn't solve the problem I was having, so when I went in for my second (and final visit there, on Christmas morning), they decided to accuse me of being a drug addict. MAN WERE THEY WRONG!!! I guess that is the problem I have with medicine, if you don't get the right doctor, who is going to be your advocate, then you really can be treated very poorly. I learned that the hard way.


We spent Christmas, once I was out of the hospital with Spc D's family, they are absolutely wonderful. They said that they would have me eating like a cholita in no time, if that means eating spicy foods, I'm not too sure about that, but I can proudly say that I did try everything that was given too me, even though the Chili was so hot, I thought my tongue was going to sue me for separation. While we were in New Mexico we visited with some of Spc D's friends, and we did something especially exciting for me, we went to the place that my Papa was born at, which was so amazing for me to see. We took tons of pictures, all of which are viewable on my picasa page.


When we left New Mexico, we split the driving in Spc D's old Dodge Dakota, not the most comfortable car ever, but definitely a point A to point B vehicle. Shortly after arriving in California, we bought a new car, a 2008 Toyota Tacoma, PreRunner SR5. It is silver, and currently named "The Bad Ass Truck", who knows how long that name will stick.
We made it home and have been struggling with my health issues ever since, but I am going with the notion that things cal only get better. Oh yeah, we also picked up two more members of the family while we were in California...Patches and Paws and live with us, though there are some nights when I would dearly love to kill Patches for all his crying at 2 in the morning. We are happy they are here, it gives the apartment a much homier feelings.
That is all for me, more details and everything soon, when I have a little more energy.