birthdays, doctors and chi-town

that's what we have been up to lately! i haven't been able to write in a while because things have been so crazy around here. first was the 4th of july - it was a fun day. we went to my parents to watch the neighborhood parade and then came home and got ready to take the boat out on the lake. it was a hot, sunny day and we met up with some friends out there and swam and drank malibu with cranberry. we went in that evening and ate hamburgers and hotdogs at my parent's house and then went back out on the boat with them to watch the fireworks. i love the 4th of july! the next day was the first grader's birthday party - a luau. it was a lot of fun but it was also a lot of work since it was at our house and we had 18 kids here (plus parents)! i was expecting up to 25 kids!! the next day was the first grader's actual birthday and i had to spend most of the day packing, but that evening we went to my parent's house and they had a fish fry (yum)! i'm so glad that i've trained both of my kids to pick fried fish as their favorite birthday dinner too - now we get it at least four times each year! :-) that next morning we got up and got ready to go to the airport and began our excursion to chicago. we all four had a carry-on, two bags to check and a carseat plus two children that are pokey and wander around as they walk. we also had to switch planes in memphis. which fyi - that airport sucks (it was small, old and crowded)! we finally got there tuesday evening and were exhausted but excited to be there. my brother didn't have to work the whole time we were there and his wife only had to work that first day so we had a lot of time to play tourist with our own "personal guides" and get in lots of visiting. it was really fun! we went to the children's museum, the navy pier, the lincoln park zoo, the beach at lake michigan, shopping on michigan avenue, catching fireflies at night, walked to get ice cream, to see the bean and other attractions at millennium park, to the local pool, to see wrigley field and the guys went to a nascar race. all of that in four days - and we even had to time to just chill at the house and have dinner and drink (wine for us ladies and beer for the guys from my brother's keg that he has on tap)! it's amazing i even got my hubby to leave that keg! :-) while all of this is going on i have been in a lot of pain (see post about medical ailments)! i went to the first of my doctors appointments a couple of days before the 4th of july and then the week after we returned from chicago, i went to doctor's appointments three days. i guess it's no wonder my house is a wreck and we haven't written any thank you notes yet!

hallelujah - i feel almost human again!!

for the last four to six weeks, i have been feeling like hell! it started out innocently enough with my ankles hurting towards the end of the day and i just figured it was from being on my feet too much and wearing flip-flops everyday. it progressively got worse and my knees started hurting too and i started having a cough (but no other cold symptoms). the only thing that helped was to take advil and i was taking it every 4 hours (like clockwork). after about a week to 10 days straight of doing this, i figured that's probably not good so i went to my doctor. she gave me some celebrex (to take instead of the advil) and ran some blood tests. when she called me back she told me that my sed rate (which gives an idea of the inflammation going on in your body) was 86 and it should never be higher than 20! she said she would refer me to a specialist and i should keep taking the celebrex. by this time, every joint is hurting and i'm coughing worse than any smoker you have ever heard. when i woke up in the morning (before taking my medicine) was the worst. i was useless for at least an hour - could barely walk and coughing so bad that i would nearly throw up and could hardly catch my breath to even breathe! it was horrible and the celebrex does not last a full 24 hours like it's supposed to - i'm lucky if i could get a good 8-10 hours out of it! this is the same time that our family is on vacation in chicago. when we got home i found out that the rheumatologist that i was referred to couldn't see me until august 25th!! on tuesday i called to see if i could get in any sooner and they said "can you be here at 1:00?" i hustled like crazy and spent the whole afternoon there seeing the doctors, giving 9 tubes of blood, and getting 16 x-rays (on my hands, wrists, feet, ankles and chest). without knowing any test results, the doctor was leaning towards RA (rheumatoid arthritis) which would not be good, but at least we would know what we are dealing with. well, he called thursday with the results and told me that "something is definitely off". yeah, no kidding - i never went to medical school and i could have told you that!! he says he doesn't think it is RA but he doesn't really know what it is. the antinuclear antibody test was positive and the chest x-ray showed interstitial inflammation in my lungs, but the x-rays of my hands and feet looked fine. he started me on a low dose of steroids yesterday and i'm feeling so much better already! i wish i knew what was causing my problems but at least i'm able to function now (i couldn't even make breakfast for my kids, run errands, work out, clean house, etc.). today, i hardly have any joint pain and i still have the cough but it is not as bad as it was. i'm not 100% yet but at least i'm feeling human again!!

shocked and saddened

you may have heard, two celebrities died yesterday. the first being farrah fawcett. her death was not a surprise as she had been in a 3 year battle with cancer and the family had said that the end was near (her last rites had even been read). although, i never really watched any of her movies/tv shows, i also never had anything against her. she was a texan and seemed like a good woman and had fought a courageous, strong-willed fight against this horrible disease. what made her even more endearing to me was that she was diagnosed with her cancer shortly before my uncle was diagnosed with his and after watching the show "farrah's story" i noticed many similarities in the their battles. i think this may have been why i was so saddened to hear that she died (even though i was anticipating it)! the other death came a few hours later and was of course, michael jackson. this news i was shocked to hear! i realize he was the king of pop and for people of my generation, he was like our elvis. anyone around my age listened to his cassette tapes or records and when we hear it it takes us back to those days, but i can't understand why people on the news are balling hysterically when they didn't even know him. i think the reason that i'm not really that upset over his death is because the michael jackson that we knew and loved back then has been gone for 10-15 years. i also feel bad that farrah wasn't even given 12 hours of news coverage before being pushed to the side for the media circus over michael's death.

i'm a tv junkie

i am the one person in america who does not watch american idol. it finally just ended and now they are all ready talking about the next one - ughhhh! the only part of the show that i like is in the very beginning when the really crappy singers are on and they make fun of them. after that, the top contestants all sound better than me so what do i care!

i used to dread tv during the summer because everything was reruns and i had nothing to watch but not anymore! now it just gives me time to watch some of the stuff i have tivo'd and i have way too much tivo'd!! i have a dvr on 2 different tv's and they are both over 50% full! i have 20 oprah's, 15 scrubs, and just 5 my name is earl's, plus a variety of different shows and movies that i have yet to watch. i figured i would have some time to catch up on some of these shows during the summer but now is also the time for tons of reality shows and i'm a reality show junkie! kendra, brooke knows best, denise richards, hammertime, my life on the d-list, 18 and counting, jon and kate plus 8, run's house, tori and dean, real housewives of new jersey. that teresa on real housewives, i sure hope she has a bodyguard with her at all times now that america knows she's carrying around all that cash. she'll throw down $10 or $15 thousand in cash - who the hell carries that kind of money!? and her husband owns a construction company, okay *cough*(mafia)*cough*. all i know is that show makes me glad i don't live in new jersey! and probably the best show on tv is the soup on e because it just makes fun of all of the crazy stuff on all the other shows!

maybe i'll be able to catch up during the fall because i just found out that some of my favorites were cancelled for the fall lineup - samantha who, earl, privileged. now, i just need to make sure i don't get involved in any more new shows!

happy father's day

this morning (before they even came in to wake us up) our girls made breakfast in bed for my hubby. they had a glass of orange juice, a peach and a napkin on a tray that they carried in to bed. after we all got up, i made fresh baked blueberry muffins, bacon, potato & egg breakfast tacos and lots of fresh fruit (and cereal for the little one because that is all she ever eats)! it was good (if i do say so myself)! :-) then we did a little cleaning up around the house and wrapped father's day presents. we all went to my parents to visit and give my dad his gifts and cards. after hanging around there for a little while we came home and went down to the pool for about an hour. the girls and i made ourselves scarce so the hubby could watch the race in peace and then we cooked some dinner. and we're not talking just any dinner - filet mignon, snow crab legs, artichokes, asparagus, baked potato, crescent rolls, and wine (or apple juice for the kiddos). it was better than any restaurant - although we did have to clean up our own dishes! afterwards we gave the hubby some cards and presents and that was our day. i think it was a nice father's day but i guess you'd have to ask the hubby to know for sure!

hoping for a miracle

i only have three uncles and all of them are great. i have good memories of doing stuff with them during my childhood, but one uncle was a little extra special! bob is my mom's oldest brother but he is a big kid - always has been and always will be! my family moved all around the country when i was growing up (military brats) but we would come visit at least every summer. when we would visit uncle bob, he would always take us (my brother and me) to do fun kid stuff. the funny thing was, i don't think he did it just to be nice - he actually enjoyed himself too. he would take us to eat at fun restaurants and he took us to see "howard the duck" and "ghostbusters" and other classic movies! looking back on it as an adult now, it sounds like it would be torture for him but if he didn't like it, he never let on! he taught me how to dive in his pool - and not just once but every year! somehow, every summer i would come back and couldn't remember how to do it and he would patiently teach me all over again like it was the first time. (by the way, i need another lesson, i can't dive anymore)! he would turn up the music loud in his car so we could "jam" and at home he would crank up the music and we would dance. our favorite dance to watch him do was when he would fall on the floor and do "the worm" and "the dead bug"!! his son wasn't born until i was a teenager but even when he had his own son, he still gave us lots of attention and wanted to do fun things with us while we were there. unfortunately, now he is in a very hard battle with anaplastic thyroid cancer. this type of cancer has a 10% survival rate and he now has a tumor in his bone in his leg and one in his lung. the tumor in his lung has doubled in size even though he has been on chemo and an experimental drug. so this week he had to be admitted to the hospital again for a transfusion. through all of this, he still remains positive and upbeat. i've seen him 3 or 4 times since his battle with cancer began and he is always in a good mood and still cracking jokes. he says he feels great! i'm not delusional, but i do remain hopeful. miracles DO happen so why couldn't my uncle beating cancer be another one?!

what a difference a year makes

the kindergartner (who I guess from now on will be called "the first grader") finished kindergarten yesterday! i can't get over how much she has changed in a year (things she likes and dislikes, her personality and what all she has learned)! she used to be such a girlie-girl (she is no longer into princesses, doesn't want to wear dresses all of the time and now loves to pick up bugs and get dirty). last year in preschool, she didn't even like to be anywhere around boys (even as friends) and she is now boy crazy. especially over one certain boy who she says she loves and is going to marry him!!! she is such a flirt (and she definitely didn't get that from me), but she also just hangs out and plays with the boys (that was me). she is so much more outgoing now and has so much attitude (which is good and bad)! and although she has always been smart (not that i'm biased or anything), she has learned so much more this year! her computer skills have gotten even better, she's learned a lot more spanish and does really well at math (the hubby says she got that from me)! she is reading everything (not always a good thing) and writes so well (one of my friends says my daughter's handwriting is better than her daughter's handwriting and she is 4 years older). i also love that she reads stories to her sister now!

i was shocked (and happy) that she didn't cry when she had to leave her friends and her teacher. the good thing is that she is coming back to the same school next year and almost all of the kids are coming back too. while she won't have her wonderful teacher again next year, she will still be able to see her in the halls and at lunch everyday. while kindergarten may not seem like much, it is very important to giving a child a strong base to a lifelong enjoyment of learning and i couldn't have asked for her to have a better kindergarten teacher. it was a really great school year (but now i am glad to have the summer off)!