Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Ok...remember this statement from a couple of posts ago?

"We are all just trying to smile and keep positive attitudes while we work through the junk!"

Well folks, the junk continues. I've kept smiling and kept my positive attitude...until today. (Linda, please note the day of the week!) In short, the last couple of weeks have been absolutely exhausting both mentally and physically. Why you ask? Read on...or not! :)

1. For reasons I don't care to get into on the worldwide web, Hope became frightened of darn near everything. It started with a couple of our Halloween decorations which I immediately put away. It then progressed to things like the television...so much so that she wouldn't even enter the family room to play with her toys. After that it could be anything...things hanging on the walls or sitting on an end table that have been there for years...Humphrey...you name it. The child who chased Humphrey through the house trying to pet him was now crying if he was even in the same room with her. After a lot of love, talking, and extra attention she's just about back to her normal happy self and all is right in her little 2 year old world...and she's chasing Humphrey through the house trying to pet him again!

REASON TO SMILE? It's over...we lived through it...and she now knows that TALKING about something that bothers her is a good thing.

2. The tendonitis in my foot is trying to creep back. After 10 days on Prednisone it was feeling better and I had about a week of pain-free normalcy. Don't get me wrong, it's still better than what it was, it's just so dang ANNOYING! Add this to the fact that during those 10 days on Prednisone I ate darn near anything that wasn't moving I now feel, in the words of Gaston from Disney's Beauty & The Beast, "...I'm roughly the size of a baaaaaarrrrge!"

REASON TO SMILE? The foot does feel better...it has its good days and bad days. I've been able to cross one med off of my daily who gets what and when calendar! Please notice I didn't say I *am* the size of a barge, only that I *feel* like I'm the size of a barge. There is a big difference! I've worked long and hard to change those evil thought processes!

3. I’ve been working in Claire’s room cleaning out the closet…tossing things…putting things in a pile for a yard sale…organizing. My wedding dress is in a big storage box on the top shelf. On top of that were some of my old toys and a bunch of my baby things that my mother insisted I take. As I was reaching for something on top of the box, a box containing my old electric baby food dish toppled off and fell to the ground. I ignored it and continued to go through things. A few minutes later I went to pick it up and there, underneath it, on my cream colored carpet, was a straight line of about ½ dozen dime sized spots of SOMETHING that was deep forest green. I touched it and it was wet and oily. I opened the box containing the dish and all three compartments were FULL of this green oily slime. I grabbed it, wrapped it in some old blanket that was nearby and raced it downstairs to the trash. I spent the next block of my time trying to get it out of my carpet. I think I’ve got most of it…can’t really see it but if you get too close you can smell the stuff! ICK!

REASON TO SMILE? When we got the carpet we got really GOOD carpet. The guy told us that if we ever needed to cut any out and patch it you’d never be able to see it. AND the wretched thing only leaked on my carpet. It must’ve dribbled out of the compartments when it fell…there was NOTHING on the outside of the box of my wedding dress. Although I told Garry that I’d almost rather that it was on the dress instead of the carpet. I can’t imagine either one of my girls ever wearing a 10 in anything!

4. So much for any of us rotating out of our 8 or more week periods of ringworm meds. Yes, The Hageman Family will now and forever be known as The Fungal Family. Horatio and I presented right around the same time in late August and started our meds in early September. He's officially done today but read on. I'm still applying the cream. All three of my spots are very faint and almost gone. Once they are gone I still need to use the cream for two more weeks. Hope got her little happy spot early in October. So far she only has one and the over the counter stuff her nurse recommended is working great. Humphrey started his bout in late October and his earliest cut-off date is December 2. However, to prevent Horatio becoming re-infected we will have to continue with his meds until Humphrey has had no new spots for two weeks and hair has begun to re-grow.

REASON TO SMILE? Garry has been spared. The meds are definitely working. No one is itching like crazy anymore. The vets will have to administer the meds while we are in Florida for 10 days! Let me tell you...giving a cat liquid medicine twice a day is not a fun proposition. Horatio does much better than Humphrey...whom during administration is known as "El Diablo".

5. Wednesday night I heard this weird hissing noise…but I could only hear it in the laundry room. I asked Garry if he heard anything. He said no…I told him to listen in the laundry room. He did and said it was coming from downstairs. He went downstairs and our hot water heater had sprung a leak. Honestly, the first thing out of my mouth was, "GREAT!" The first thought was, "Gads...what next?"

REASON TO SMILE? Hope had already had her bath for that night. Our builder was a genius and has the basement set up so that if something like that ever happened that it simply drains down a small slope and into the drain in the floor. I quickly took a shower with what was left while Garry filled the sink to wash the dishes. We had the new one installed by dinner time the next day by a really nice young guy…couldn’t have asked for anyone better. It could've happened while we were on vacation...but it didn't. It could've sprayed everything all over the basement...but it didn't. It could've blown up...but it didn't! Those three statements were my next thoughts right after the discovery and I held on to them for DEAR LIFE! ")

6. Last Thursday, while the new hot water heater was being installed, I sat down to work on Hope’s Halloween costume. I was, seriously, about an inch away from being done when my sewing machine literally ate her costume. I could not free it no matter what I did. Garry had to take the miserable thing apart and then I was finally able to gingerly work the costume out…however during it’s adventure there was now a cigarette burn sized hole in it…along with a couple of oil stains. Friends, I had just about reached my limit! LOL I simply went into my office while Garry worked on putting the machine back together and played on my computer and tried not to cry.

REASON TO SMILE? After he finished I went right back to it and finished that last inch. And now I know why I was able to find an exact match between red thread and red t-shirt...have you ever tried to match reds? It was so I could mend the hole and no one would see it. I also know why I decided to start on the back instead of the front! I worked on the front all afternoon on Friday and finished it Saturday. YAY!!!

I don't mean to offend anyone or their beliefs by what I'm about to say. I figure everybody reading this already knows what I believe and either shares those beliefs or loves me in spite of them! ; )

I truly believe that God has been allowing Satan to poke and prod at me so that I can be ready for our next great adventure. This may simply be our trip to Disney World this month or it could be our trip to China next year. In any case my patience and strength of will obviously needed some work. Heaven knows that a flight of *any* length can be pretty stressful when you have a two year old along. I just hope I passed the test because I've had enough for awhile!

I remember going through a stage of very intense anger and frustration during the waiting period for Hope's referral. Well, I guess today begins (and hopefully ends!) that stage for Claire. I simply had reached my limits and took it out on some poor woman who called to tell me that, "Since I was such a good customer I qualified for blah, blah, blah." When I asked her why she didn't tell all of this to Garry when she called two nights ago she said, "I can't. It's federal law. It's to protect your privacy." Ok...so if Garry would've said he was me, then you would've spoken to him? "Are you saying you'd like to be placed on our Do Not Call list ma'am?" I said, "Ma'am I've asked REPEATEDLY to be placed on your Do Not Call list." "Well ma'am I have to read you a disclaimer!" I really don't remember a whole lot after that other than I'm pretty sure I heard myself raising my voice...and I know I told her to leave me alone several times...and then I hung up on her. ::sigh::

Am I whining? Probably. But my BIG point here is that several years ago any ONE of these things would have immediately triggered a migraine headache, anorexia, or a 2 a.m. trip to the emergency room for some much needed drugs to stop the uncontrollable nausea and its side effects. I am amazed at how far God has brought me and how much strength He has given me. I don't have time to get sick! I have an incredible, God given family I need to take care of and enjoy! Thank you God for Garry, Hope, Humphrey, Horatio...and Claire too! You have blessed me beyond my wildest imagination!

Until next time y'all!

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