My Life Has Gone Down The Toilet - Hooray!

Today was a big day in our household - forgive me for the details / subject but this is what my life has come to. Chase told me that he needed to poop and when I took him to the potty - HE ACTUALLY POOPED IN THE POTTY!!! It was our first potty success. Unfortunately about 3 minutes later he said "mommy poop again" and being the naive person that I am, I figured since he had already gone he didn't need to go again - but sure enough about 1 minute later he pooped again in his diaper. Overall I still consider the experience a success. We still aren't "officially" potty training yet, we just talk about it a lot and squeal in delight when we have successes, but I'm pretty sure the real thing is coming soon *GULP - SCARY*. It's sad how when you become a parent the highlight of your day is watching someone else take a crap.


The other way in which my life has gone down the toilet (forgive me for whining but I can't help myself) is that this morning I woke up and my joint pain was so bad and I was so stiff that I couldn't straighten my knees. I spent the entire day hobbling around like an old person and it made me very grouchy. *sigh* If it is chronic fatigue syndrome I am 1.5 years down, with about 1.5 years to go...

The Ranting of a Sick Person

Being that I am sick yet again, I have had plenty of time to surf the web from bed today - which has made me realize quite a few things...


- While surfing today I actually got around to looking at my favorite blogs lists of favorite blogs (if that makes any sense) and that alone brought on a few conclusions...
1) There is NO way I can compete with a stay at home mom when it comes to crafting and baking - I kept looking at blog after blog and thinking to myself - wow I wish I had time to bake those amazing treats - or wow check out that quilt and sweater so and so made - or wow I wish I had time to take Chase to do those amazing activities - and then it dawned on me... I don't have time to do those things not because I'm lazy, or because I'm sick (granted that may have a little to do with it), or because there are a ton of better moms out there, but the main reason I can't do all those things is that I work 40 hours a week! I need to find some "working mom" blogs to check out so I can ease my mom guilt - then again do most full time working moms even blog - or is that also something they rarely have time to do?

2) I realized that although I am a modern urban loving chic, recently some of my friends (mainly suburbanbrunette and capricious) have started to wear off on me and I am starting to dig more country, shabby chic, retro, vintage stuff. Dang before you know it I'll be wearing floral dresses...
3) I realized that I should be really grateful that I have a helpful husband, and easy kiddo, lots of babysitting help from family, and uncle Griff (which is what we call Boris's best friend who is always helping us out) because without all of those above things I would never have time to even get to the hobbies that I do manage to get to. So thanks to everyone above for making my life a lot better than it could be!
4) The one thing that I realized that made me a little sad is that most blogs have TONS of blog followers - I can only think of maybe 10 - 15 people that regularly check my blog - all of whom which know me personally. So that started to make me wonder - how does one get a blog following - and do I even want one?
5) How do people stumble across these really fun blogs of people they don't know???
6) Maybe I should combine this blog and my crafting blog - everyone else has combined theirs....hrmmmmm...


- Moving on to other web surfing realizations...in my boredom I logged on to DeviantArt.com - which I have been neglecting for a long time...only to be reminded of how much I love that site! It is like Etsy for artwork - people can post their art and comment and each others stuff and even sell prints. If you have never checked it out it is worth doing.


- Lastly I realized, there are way too many good things to buy on Etsy. I could shop there all day!


PS. In other random news I think I have dog fever and new house fever.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

After endless tests I think the doctors have finally settled on a diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for me. The good news is that hopefully in a year or two I will get better - the bad news is that there isn't really much they can do for me... so off to acupuncture I go to try to get some relief from my symptoms... it is apparently to best option left since I don't seem to respond to medications (and the only ones left to try sound pretty scary). There is only so much time a day for sleeping so I need to figure out something that will help!

The Benefits of Rest

So I recently learned something very interesting about my illness...


Last week I was in the midst of a couple week 101 fever streak and I had a terrible head cold on top of my usual fevers. I ended up staying in bed for days straight and doing pretty much nothing but resting. I didn't even craft because I was too sick to do that. Well the interesting thing was that after a few days of resting my fevers completely went away (for the first time in months I was a wonderful 98.6!). So being the genius that I am I decided - well hey, if I'm feeling better maybe I can exercise on the elliptical machine for a half an hour or so.


Unfortunately that brought my fevers back and I am now back into my state of chronic fevers all the time. Although we did prove Boris's theory wrong (that if I got really sick again maybe I would get better permanently). So here I am approaching my 1 year mark with my illness and we still have no diagnosis... it's a bit depressing ... now if only I could rest all day every day maybe I would feel better... too bad that isn't very realistic...

Yes We Can! Hooray for Obama!

Today is a good day... Obama won the election!

This year was quite an exciting voting year for my little family. I think this is the most engaged I have ever been in an election and it was certainly the most engaged Boris has ever been (he voted for the first time!!!!) - and even better, what an exciting first election for Chase - granted he won't remember it but that's okay we can tell him stories about it.

Today I am proud to be an American, I am proud to be from Colorado - which voted democratic this year, I am proud that we finally have an African American president, and I am hopeful for a better future for Chase. I can't wait to see what a little change will bring...

PS. Health Update: I had a CT Scan of my abdomen done this morning...the stuff I had to drink was aweful - there is nothing like waking up at 5 am to drink a bunch of chemicals that make you want to vomit for 2 hours before being stabbed with a needle for an IV so that they can inject additional radioactive stuff into your body before they scan you. (I'm a bit grouchy this morning if you couldn't tell - not even the election result glow can completely balance out my bummer of a morning - maybe if my stomach would stop grumbling I would feel better.)

Long Time...No Blog...

My life has felt a bit hectic lately...

It has been quite awhile since I have had the chance to get around to any of my hobbies, including blogging! I haven't been feeling that well lately (I think I am on like day 10 with a fever over 100) which isn't helping my lack of time situation. To top it off the doctor suspects that Chase has Roseola which has resulted in him not being able to go to daycare since last Friday! Boris and I are both feeling extreme guilt for missing so much work. Not to mention that "cranky baby" sure does take a lot of work!

The most exciting piece of news that I have is that we bought a Porsche Boxster the other weekend! It is wonderful - as soon as I get a spare minute to take pictures I will post them. The second exciting piece of news is that I did find a little bit of time to start working on a redwork quilt (thanks to some grandma babysitting). I can't wait until I can escape for another afternoon and finish it. It is much more traditional than my usual style but I like it anyways...

More to come...hopefully soon....

Return Home

We just returned home from vacation yesterday...


Overall the trip was great - a lot of good eating, relaxing, and general fun. There were a few bumps in the road though, mainly revolving around health issues. Chase was sick from basically the day we arrived. He had his first fever and an ear infection and I think he cried more on his trip than in the previous 10 months. He also had difficulty sleeping and was often up all night leaving Boris and I exhausted. The only good thing is that at least he was cheerful and fun during the day. I told my sister who is home visiting from Korea that this was by far the worst week we have ever had with Chase and she said "REALLY?! I thought he was being so well behaved!" So here is to having the easiest baby in the world!


The other health issue that was a bit of a drag was that my fevers started to get into the 100s. The good part of this is that now I have an "official clinical" fever. So on the trip I booked myself an appointment with Rheumatology for this Thursday. Hopefully they can help, I am so tired of being sick. Granted I'm not feeling very hopeful since the nurse who booked my appointment said "well all your labs are normal...".


On the good side of things we did a lot of fun activities on our trip. We ate some of the best crepes ever and went to Bubba Gumps which turned out to be very good for a chain. We did some hot tubbing, game playing, a TON of shopping (the Silverthorn Outlets are amazing) and we did a lot of outdoor activities (well everyone else did). Also the house we stayed at was so pretty.


I will say that it sucks to have vacation come to an end...

The Life of a Stay at Home Mom

Today I had the chance to play "Stay at Home Mom"...


Chase has had some GI problems since Monday - Poor little guy. I am pretty convinced that his issues are teething related as you can see his second little tooth starting to poke through his gum. But whatever the cause, Chase has been banned from daycare until he is better and Boris and I have had to stay home with him (with much assistance from Grandma - Thank god for Grandmas).


So today I had a taste of what it would be like to be a stay at home mom. It was honestly very enjoyable, minus the poop leakage issue that resulted in poop on the highchair, the floors, the changer, the baby, clothes, etc. It was fun spending quality time with Chase, going to lunch with my parents, and doing some relaxing. Granted I doubt it would feel the same if it was what I did day in and day out (or if I had more kiddos).


Also I have noticed that since I work I don't feel obligated to do all the cleaning or cooking or laundry or other chores but I think if I stayed at home those things would constantly hang over me and I would feel stressed out all the time. So I guess it wasn't a real stay at home mom day (since they do a lot more work than I did today) but it makes me grateful that I work so that days like today feel like a real treat. I like vacationing in "stay at home land" but I don't think I would want to live there...

Landscaping

We are officially no longer white trash...

Boris and I had been growing a weed bed at the corner of our yard and the weeds were becoming amazing large in size. They were almost up to my waist! So today Boris and Graham did the amazing task of pulling out all of the weeds,
cleaning up the bed, planting new bushes, and putting in mulch. It looks like it was professionally done and I am no longer ashamed of our front yard. We even had a neighbor that lives across the street come and examine the new bushes. He seemed very happy - I'm sure he was thinking "about bleeping time the neighbors cleaned up their bleeping yard."


I think I want to get some kind of flower bed decoration now (which makes me feel very domestic). Perhaps some kind of wire / glass globe like thing or some kind of cool statue of sorts. I may even get a few flower planters and put them out with the bushes so that it appears like we have a garden (but without the hassle of weeding).

In other news - a quick health update - I am very excited that my results came back negative so I can rule out MS. I still feel like crap and my temperature has reached triple digits this week but at least it isn't MS!!!! YAY!!!

When the Bad Times Roll

I feel really lucky to have so many good friends...


Yesterday I had yet another health disaster. My vision started doing some rather strange things - I felt like I was looking down a long tube and the edges of my vision were all hazy and blurry. I called my doctor and considering all of the other symptoms that I have been having she is concerned that I may have MS. So I am currently terrified that I have some terrible chronic illness. I have an MRI scheduled for tomorrow morning so hopefully I will know more on Friday.


All that being said, I do think that this experience has made me realize just how many friends and family I have in my life that really care and worry about me. It has actually made me feel really good to have so many people offer support or show concern. For being the introvert that I am, I have some how managed to collect a massive amount of really close friends. I definitely consider it a blessing because there have been other times in my life when I haven't been in this situation. Granted friendship takes a lot of time and effort from both parties so I like to think that I have earned my large set of amazing relationships but maybe it is just good luck or good Karma.


My advice for the day - call or email a friend today just to tell them how much you care about them - it's a good thing to do once in awhile...

Hypochondriac?

Hypochondria: extreme depression of mind or spirits often centered on imaginary physical ailments.

I have entered yet another one of my "almost a fever" phases...


Ever since January I have been what I would consider very sick. I have on and off "fevers" (which I have been clearly told aren't really fevers since my temperature only gets to about 99.5) that last 2 - 3 weeks at a time and come every 1 - 2 weeks. These non-fevers come with chills, body aches, extreme fatigue, and occasionally, other annoying symptoms such as cold symptoms, rashes, and hair loss. As you can imagine I am starting to get very frustrated and tired of being sick.


It's gone on for so long and I've been told by so many doctors that I'm not really sick that I am starting to wonder if I am crazy. I recently spoke to a friend of mine who also had weird symptoms and she assured me that I'm not crazy and that I need to keep pushing the doctors to figure out what is wrong. Since my friend also happens to be a mental health professional I remain hopeful that I am not totally losing my mind.


It does start to make you wonder though - am I making myself sick by thinking that I'm sick or is there something really wrong? It also doesn't help that so far all of my lab results have come back normal. Pretty soon I will have to start back on my hunt for a doctor who can figure out what is wrong but in the mean time I plan on just clinging to my sanity and hoping this will all just clear up on its own.