Bad News

Last night we got some bad news and I'm just beside myself.

About a month ago my sister was joking with my mom and told my mom that her entire left side had been going numb and she had even blacked out a few times on her way home from work. Obviously, my mom didn't think this was funny and immediately sent her to the doctor (by sent, I mean begged her to go... my sister is 21). She went to her regular doctor and had a normal blood workup done... fine. They sent her to an opthamologist... her eyes checked out just fine. They sent her for a more extensive blood workup... came back fine. Finally, her doctor decided that she needed to go for an MRI. One of those ones where you have the first MRI, then you drink some dye and you have the same MRI again. In the meantime of all these tests, she's had a few more episodes, but if you knew my sister, you would know she makes a joke out of everything and worries about nothing. (I obviously got the drama genes in our family!)

My sister got the tests back last night. A nurse called her and told her the news. At work. Without being able to answer any questions.

My sister has cysts on her brain. Unfortunately, we aren't sure what that entails because the freakin' nurse called, not the doctor. And... they told her over the phone. My sister is devastated and has to wait until next Friday to speak with a neurologist. That's a long time for this to be weighing on her. My sister has been through so much in her life, and I can't imagine how she is taking this news. I am in desperate need of some prayers here. I love my sister and I hope these are treatable cysts. Preferably the type that can shrink with medicine. (Wishful thinking, I know...)

Intervention

Last night I watched the show Intervention on A&E. I used to watch the show all the time, although I’m sure why. I can’t sympathize with any of the people on there. I don’t know what they are going through, nor do I know why they are going through it. I seriously sit through the whole hour long show and ask myself… WHY are these people like that? I know, I know… I shouldn’t be so quick to judge, but I don’t understand it.

Most of the people on the show have gone through something traumatizing in their lives that has led them to drugs/alcohol/eating disorders. Some of the things are terrible things that have happened, other things are not. I honestly do not understand how something gets so bad that they have to turn to drugs in order to deal with the day to day. I feel terrible for these people, and my heart literally breaks everytime I read at the end of the show that they failed in their recovery efforts, or worse, they lost the battle with their addiction completely.

While watching this show, my thoughts always travel to my sister. Not because of her, but because she lost one of her very best friends to addiction. He was on cocaine (I think, don’t quote me) and decided one night in the middle of the night that his life was too hard. He killed himself. My sister was the last person he tried to call before he did it and she didn’t answer because she was mad at him. Now my sister deals with that guilt on a daily basis. She believes that had she answered the phone and talked to him, she may have been able to “talk him off the cliff” so to speak. I struggle with understanding what my sister is going through, and hope that I NEVER have to go through something like that.

I guess the reason for this post is because I seriously struggle with the why in all these situations and everytime I watch the show, I conjure up these thoughts and struggle with understanding why people’s lives get so bad that they turn to drugs, or killing themselves. I seriously thank God everyday for the life I was given. Sometimes I wonder how I found my husband, and why things have worked out the way they have. I am very fortunate to have a wonderful family, great friends, and a seriously great life.

My mom once told me I was judging from a pedastool. I don’t want this post to sound like that at all. I just don’t understand! I don’t understand how one makes that decision and I just wanted to share my thoughts with you guys this morning and get it off my chest.

Thanks for reading and any responses.

AHHHH Fall...

Fall is in the air. No, not because it's 80 degrees out today again, but because fall starts on TV tonight. I should have prefaced this by saying that I do not watch much TV, but if you catch me on one of my TV nights during my show, you'll get the VM or the cold shoulder because I take my shows very seriously!

1. The Biggest Loser starts tonight. I just started watching this show last year around this time, and I am in love with it. Not because of all the drama, but because of the amazing journey's that these people go through both mentally and physically. This season they brought back Daniel from last season. He didnt' get a fair chance because his friend (it was the couple's edition) had no desire to be there and to lose weight. Unfortunately, he didn't get very far, but has changed his life already. He still has more weight to lose, and this season is about second chances. I am so excited to watch him lose the rest of his weight. He's only 19!

2. Grey's Anatomy starts on September 24. I am a total sucker for this show. I didn't start watching it right when it aired, but bought all the seasons and caught up that way. Now, I can't get enough. And this season is sure to be a nail-biter. I cannot wait to see the season premiere. I have been reading spoilers on my lunch break everyday! (I am terrible at surprises and can't keep them to save my life!)

So, while everyone else loves the trees changing colors, the smell of fall, hot chocolate, etc... I am more in love with the shows that start! :-)

My Husband Rocks! Friday

Why does my husband rock this week? Well... we've been working our butts off getting the house up to standards (which is pretty high if you ask me!) and through it all, we have become stronger as a couple. I know we are on each other's team, and we are in this for the long haul. I look at him everyday, and thank God that I was given the opportunity to marry my best friend.

Now, on to the nitty gritty of why he rocks... we have been the dynamic duo, hanging pictures, doing yardwork, watching football, etc... It doesn't matter what we are doing, we seem to make the best of it, and we both enjoy it because we are spending time together.

I love you Joe!

Drumroll please...

I know, you guys have all been waiting on the edge of your seats... below you will find before pictures of our new house :-)

You can see the very plain front of the house, without even landscaping to speak of!

And here's another shot, with our very nice tree in the front that puts the whole front yard in the shade. It's perfect for Riley to lay under.

Here's half of the kitchen, before we worked our magic on it. I can't wait to show you guys the after pictures, because they are totally different!


Here's the other half of the kitchen, obviously without appliances still, but very plain! It's a really nice size though!



And here's our nice huge living room with the huge picture window in the front. You can kind of see the white fireplace. Someone painted over the brick with white. It's so ugly!

Here's a better (still terrible) shot of the fireplace. Just you wait and see what we did with that

:-)

That's all the pictures I have for now, mostly because my camera is dying and because nothing is working right on my computer. I promise to post some "after" pictures here very shortly.

Thanks for reading!

Wonderful Weekend Pa

So… after everything went crazy on Saturday, things got a little better. Joe proceeded me home after the “accident” and told everyone to leave me alone and not to razz me about it so when I got home, not one person mentioned my stupid mistake. After everyone left (yes, I made EVERYONE leave except one friend who was already asleep inside and he didn’t have anyone to drive him home) and Joe and I were home alone, we talked for a little bit and he told me everything was going to be ok and to stop worrying about it (yeah right!). We went to bed that night with the hopes that things are going to look better.

Sunday morning Riley wakes me up as usual, at about 7:30 AM. That is about the longest she can hold it from the night before. I get myself up and get some clothes on to take her outside and notice something really weird out the front window. First I realize Joe’s friend is already gone and then I notice that the doors and trunk on Joe’s car are wide open. What the heck? I know that Joe wouldn’t have left it like that, especially not overnight. I immediately assume it was one of Joe’s friends that left the car doors open before they left the night before as a prank of some sort, although I can’t quite figure out what the reasoning behind it would be. I do a quick inventory of the car and head inside to wake Joe and tell him what the heck is going on. I also call Joe’s friend to see if he did it. I talk to him for a minute and find out that his car was also broken into and his GPS and digital camera are gone. Joe looks around his car and notices that NOTHING is gone. Not even the 20 he left in plain sight in his center console of his car. We lucked out, but we felt terrible for Joe’s friend. And… before you ask. No… we didn’t file a police report. I had had my fill of police officers for the weekend and nothing was missing from Joe’s car. The only things that were missing were from friend’s car, and he was already gone.

AWESOME. I’m looking forward to a much better weekend this coming weekend!

It’s Been Awhile…

Hello there not-so-avid blog readers (for no other reason than because I haven’t posted in like 10 weeks… or so it seems!) I do apologize for the time, and frankly, I miss blogging and reading the overwhelming comments I get… but I’m in a rut so this has taken a backseat.

As you may know, Joe and I moved into our house this past weekend. By moving in, I mean bringing an overwhelming amount of boxes full of what I have deemed sh**. I have thrown away more in the past few days than I probably have in my entire life. I’m starting fresh, and it feels great. Unfortunately, the fact that we are in is about the ONLY thing going right in my life right now. Let me just tell you about my terrible (possibly the worst I have ever had in many years!) weekend.

First, Saturday morning I have to go pick up the moving truck. The lady behind the counter, while very nice, was way too nice for 8:00 on a Saturday. Long story short I get there and she tells me I’m not old enough to drive the truck. The cut-off is 25 and guess what… I’m only 24. Thankfully I tell the lady I have 3 people at least 25 with me. She proceeds to give me the keys anyway and brush off the fact that I was “underage.” Twenty minutes later we are on our way to the storage shed that has all of our CRAP! In a matter of an hour we had everything loaded up and ready to be unpacked “at home!”
Anyway, after a few hours of moving everything from the storage unit into my house, we were taking a break and some of my husbands incredibly idiotic friends show up with no intention of helping at all. They proceed to set up cornhole and bring a keg and hang out in our backyard. No… I’m not kidding. My husband gets home from work to the craziness and tells his friends he needs help moving some couches, I mean after all, they are drinking themselves stupid in our new backyard. They are pissed that we needed help because they just came to drink and figured all the moving would be done. That would have been enough to set anyone over the edge, right. Oh no, that is just the freakin’ tip of the iceberg people!

After a few more hours of moving, I decide to take the moving truck back. One of my friends is going to follow me and we are going shopping afterwards. What I thought would be a nice way to unwind a crazy hectic day. Well, we get all the way to the truck rental place when I remember that I have to put gas in my truck before returning it. So I take off towards a gas station that I thought would be easier to pull a huge truck out of, into traffic. I find this little (and I mean really little) gas station on the side of the road and don’t see any reason why I can’t get in there. I mean I’ve been driving all day and I haven’t had a problem. Boy was I wrong!

I proceed to pull into the gas station and I knicked the corner of the gas pump. I truly knicked it, I’m not trying to make what I did seem littler than it really was. So, me being the nice and honest person that I am (oh, and did I mention if I would have just left, they would have seen my enormous box truck!) I go inside and tell the foreign attendant that I bumped the gas pump. He comes out to look at it and says that it doesn’t look like anything to him, go ahead and pump my gas. So that is exactly what I do. Until I look over and see that the gas pump I hit (not the one I’m pumping gas from) starts uncontrollably spewing gas out of the bottom of it (not even where I hit it!) I go inside immediately, pretty much sick to my stomach by this time and tell the attendant to shut the thing off because there is gasoline EVERYWHERE! The manager (also foreign) comes out and starts yelling profanity at me and telling me what an f’ing idiot I am for trying to bring the truck into his gas station. Now he is going to sue me… yada yada yada. Now I’m pissed. I’m done with being upset. This guy is yelling and screaming at me over an accident. Not to mention the fact that there is now gasoline all over the place and pooling in the road. All I keep thinking is someone is going to throw their cigarette and I am not even going to get to enjoy my brand new house. The police finally show up and we file a police report and the very nice police officer pumps the rest of my gas for me and takes me inside to pay just to make sure someone doesn’t get hostile again. I don’t get a ticket or anything because it’s on private property. So when I get the rental truck returned and I get home like 5 hours later (no shopping) I call my insurance. They are so nice and tell me to expect a call before noon on Monday.

Yesterday I got the call telling me that they DON’T cover any vehicles that the cargo is separate from the passenger area. So basically, I’m up a crick without a paddle. I’m waiting on the next step and hoping that the man who owns the gas station has an ounce of human in him and just lets his insurance pay for it and lets me pay his deductible or something along those lines.

Moral of the story… check with your insurance BEFORE renting a moving truck. Oh… and don’t hit the gas pump!

I’ll continue with my **wonderful** weekend in my next post.