Hello. My 34th birthday is Friday. It seems insane that I am turning that old. Just kidding! It is, however, much older than anyone had planned for me and I am thrilled. Mom bought me Wicked tickets for my birthday and we were planning on attending the show on June 24th. Well, Dr Amazing wants me to have my stomach surgery sooner than I had anticipated. Coincidentally, the date has been written IN PENfor June 23rd, the date before the show. What a freakin’ bummer! We are trying to sell the tickets, but I pretty much think Mom is going to get ripped off on the whole thing since there are plenty of other tickets still available. Hopefully we can get them sold at a reasonable price on Craigslist or Ebay. It’s just WICKED! Anyway, if you know anyone, contact me.

Oh, I have forgotten to tell you all about Dr. Meyers (Amazing). He is the doctor that will be performing my stomach surgery. Can you believe someone is smart enough to do both lung and stomach surgery? When I visited him, I couldn’t stop thinking about how smart he is. Seriously! I wish I had 1/10 of his smarts. A friend of mine had his lung transplant performed by Dr Meyers and he really thinks he is a great doctor. I too received a nice feel from the doc too. So, the surgery will take place next Weds in the hospital, The actual surgery will be two hours and I will be there for another 23 hours unless something else occurs –let’s hope there is not an issue, I’ve done my time in the hospital for the year. I won’t be able to eat solid food for three weeks after the surgery, so I am bulking up this week for sure. I hope the 3 week time frame was an overestimate and I’ll really be eating tacos sooner.

I ended up taking a break from classes, not by choice, but because a financial aid staff member screwed up my paperwork and I missed the deadline to get into a late-starting summer class. Iwas anger at first but then the more I thought about it, the more it sounded good. I hope I will be able to travel after I’m healed from the surgery. I’m not going anywhere when I’m on a liquid diet unless I can have Pina Coladas. 

My nephew Jacob is doing well after his bout with Mono (poor kid). He should be fine by the end of next week, but I think he has to sit out the rest of the summer in baseball. I guess we should all be thankful that he made it through that ordeal okay.

I also wanted to mention the 28+ people who lost their lives in Arkansas. I feel really sad for all the families who were lost in the floods. I can’t imagine how scary that was for the victims. My thoughts are really with everyone involved in the whole ordeal and I hope with time, the hurt will dissipate.

Be Well.

Hello. Happy Mother’s Day Moms! I hope you all had a wonderful one!
We had a great day despite the cooler temps. I can’t believe it has been dropping to 39 degrees in the evening lately. I’m concerned about my tomatoes-I hope they make it this year. Those darn squirrels better stay away from them!

Things still continue to move forward. I’m going to head back to the gym later this week to start getting my muscle tone back. Only a few weeks til swimsuit time and my body is not prepared at all! I’m still wondering how exactly I got so sick so fast–I guess it’s just easier to look forward.

I met with my advisor at school today and it seems that I’ll be finished with my degree after the spring semester. I’m looking forward to it, but I’m also nervous. I have one class to take this summer, four in the fall and three in the fall —them I’m ready to move on to UMSL.

Right now I’m sitting with Alex (my nephew) watching a countdown of the best bakeries in the U.S. Now, I’m craving something sweet from real bakery. Alex is getting so grown up. It’s crazy that he is going to be driving in 3 years!!!!! I was coming over tonight to babysit the younger kids when I saw Alex watching down the street with a girl. It’s weird..the thought of Alex possibly having a girlfriend. It’s cute

Well if you haven’t heard here is the latest Mandy and Creagle returned home last night. Max, Laurie and myself sat around whining all night and looking at each other and the doggone boob tube. The move back home went well after a quick visit to the hospital to remove the tube and stopping by the grocery store for some staples. I heard she was impressed with the painting and the colors chosen by her landlord, also the carpets were shampooed and a bunch of other stuff.

Poor little Max is in shock his lady friend went home and he is so sad he can barely stand it, of course his food now lasts a little longer than a minute and she doesn’t entice him and than try to bite his face off. WOMEN :=) Actually she was enjoyable to have as a house guest for a few weeks.

Laurie and I are going to try and get a night out tonight maybe go to the new Casino or head over to the Casa De Vino in Imperial and just relax.

Another busy week coming up at the hospital for Mandy.

I’m listening to the rain and watching “Once Upon A Time In America”, my second most favorite movie behind “The Outlaw Josey Wales” See U in a while.

Dad

Hello,

Feeling much stronger today than the past several weeks. Luckily, memories are starting to return. I spoke to friend yesterday. He almost died from a genetic liver disease, he was given a 1% chance of living and he is doing really well. T was in a drug induced comma for a long time and he also had issues with memory loss. Fortunately, his memory came back slowly but surely. You have no idea how good it feels to speak to someone who understands because they have also been through a similar intense situation.

T, I am so happy the docs didn’t lose faith in you!

So, Earth Day is tomorrow!! I’m going to work in the garden tomorrow to celebrate.  I hope you’ll also do something to celebrate the day!

Be Well

Yes, it’s true…I anticipate going home Friday afternoon. Like Dad, I’m slightly nervous about taking care of myself. I feel pretty strong at this point, but that may have something to do with becoming accustomed to Mom and Dad taking such good care of me. The 22 steps in my apartment shouldn’t be an issue, but the cooking may be a bit challenging because I have lost all desire to cook. Hopefully my love for cooking will return… I did cook today; I made Dad a bowl of cereal, and a bagel sandwich with Canadian bacon on it. With that meal, I could become the next Paula Dean.

Yesterday I spent much of the day sleeping, only to wake up for meals. I finally took off my pjs at 4 o’clock and headed to Qdoba for dinner. It was yummy however, I couldn’t eat my entire burrito. Dad and I were driving through the area in which my high school was located and I was so surprised to see how much it had grown. They even have a St Louis Bread Co., something I never thought would happen. Thank goodness those businesses weren’t there when I was going to high school, I would have weighed 200 lbs.

Last night we watched Signs. I can’t believe I had never seen that movie before. It was pretty good, but it caused me to have bad dreams all night. That’s nothing new though..I simply can not watch scary movies before bedtime.

I’m not sure what we are doing today. I may run some real estate errands with Mom or head out with Dad to find some more plants for the garden. He is looking for some Italian basil–The garden looks real good. Everything is planted and now we just wait for them to grow. I can’t wait to have some fresh veggies. Hopefully the deer don’t take over the zucchini like last year!

Creagle has adjusted to county living; I almost feel sad to have to take her back to the city later this weekend.