Hello hello

Zaporah just jumped 3 feet into the air to catch a piece of sting she tossed up- no lie. And not a simple jump, but an Olympic-gymnast-not -even-a-cat's-body-should-twist-and-flip-like-that kind of jump. Meanwhile, HayZeus is looking down from his perch giving her the "Excuse me, WTF are you doing" look (as if he's completely sane). One of these days I'll catch it on video so y'all can see the craziness that happens in this house on a daily basis. I need to get a job just to get a way from these nut cases, I swear.

That might not be too far off though. Last week I took the state exam to be certified as a Nurses Aide. Now that I'm on the state registry I'm elligble to apply for CNA positions, which are rather abundant around here. I applied for a bunch on Monday and have already had two interviews and have been offered a job contingent on passing a background/reference check and a TB test. I'm sure there will be a drug test in there somewhere, which should be fun. Last time I had to take one I technically didn't pass it because I take benzodiazopenes occasionally for anxiety, but a note from my doctor got that cleared up. I only want to work 15-20 hours a week, maybe more when I'm not in school. It's at a private duty/home health type place, so I should be able to have some decent flexibility. So that's neat!

All in all things have been going really great around here. I didn't get accepted into UNCC's BSN program, which I expected as it is crazy hard to get into, but I'm still working towards becoming an RN via an associates degree at the college here in Concord (CCHS). I'm not in their program yet, but if all goes well I'm hoping to get in for the fall semester. I've also been accepted into a Masters of Public Health program at Des Moines University (DMU - it's an online prgram), which I've been trying to do for a couple years, so I'm actually working on an associates and a masters degree at the same time. Yeah, thats how I roll. It's like going backwards and forwards all at once.

Of course it's going to take me a while to chip away at the Masters degree because I'll only be taking one, MAYBE two classes every trimester so that I don't overload myself. Because I already have all my liberals and co-reqs done for the nursing program at CCHS, most of my semesters are only going to consist of 5 or 6 credits, so I should be able to take one 3 credit graduate class too. Plus, DMU works on trimesters, so I'll be able to get in a class or two when I'm not in session at CCHS. Joe and I decided that we'd sit down prior to each tri/semester and go over my options to make sure I'm not taking on too much.

It sounds crazy and confusing and too busy, but it's not. I'll probably be taking 6-9 credits a semester and working about 15-20 hours a week. This is doable. It's not like I'm raising a gaggle of kids and working 2 jobs while I go to nursing school (that was my mom), nor do I have a daughter that will follow me around bugging me and not letting me study or sleep(that was me). However, HayZeus could be a problem....he likes to "help" with my homework:

I did not help him pose for these, by the way. He got that pen in his paws on his own. Crazy cat.

So I guess that's the skinny around here. Things are well - I've been feeling absolutely fantastic, Joe is still enjoying his job, and we're both digging the weather down here. We are planning a trip to Michigan at the end of June/beginning of July, so we're looking forward to that. In the meantime, we love visitors! :)

time for an update

Hello hello, it's been a while. Let's see, where to start...

I guess I'll start with our holidays, which were quite lovely. We spent quite a bit of time with Joe and Sara and the kids, which helped give it that "Kirkwood Chaos" kind of feel. As odd as it was to be away from the rest of our families I really didn't feel all that disconnected. Of course we missed them, which is an everyday constant, but I was surprised to find that it wasn't particularly exacerbated by Christmas.

We spent Christmas Eve at our house munching on hors' devours (or however that's spelled) and opening the gifts that had been sent down by my Mom and our Aunt Kae, as well as the ones Joe and I had bought for the kids. Christmas morning was quiet for Joe and I, but Joe and Sara's crew returned for Christmas Dinner that afternoon and the kids did what they could to destroy my house. In the end I found that they were actually rather gentle with the place. :)

On the Monday after Christmas my Dad and Teri arrived for the week. It was great to see them and I think they thouroughly enjoyed being away from the snow and in 65 degree weather. I spent Tuesday with them helping them shop (they didn't see the point in hauling gifts in their luggage) and we all got together for dinner that night. On Wednesday, New Year's Eve, everyone came over to our house and did the munchies/presents thing again and then had a HUGE Christmas dinner. We then rang in the new year and spent the next day playing Joe and Sara's Wii, which was a trip. I was extremely sore the next day - who knew that bowling and snowboarding on a video game could be so intense! We had so much fun having bowling tournements and competing for the best times on the sports games. Dad and Teri left on Friday and we were sad to see them go.

Since then things have been rather calm around here. I should probably mention that just before Christmas we adopted a friend for HayZeus, who was becoming a sednetary, lazy old bum. After a few days of adjustment they became friends and are constantly playing - I woke up a few nights ago at about 3 am to the sounds of them playing/wrestling in the bathtub!! In the few weeks we've had her, little Zaporah has whipped HayZeus back into shape - he's running and jumping and playing like he did before his surgery, albeit with a slight limp. We got them a kitty condo for Christmas and they love it - HayZeus spends most of his day lounging on the highest platform gazing out the window while Zaporah enjoys the little cave below. :)

Last week was a rather...down week. Not in the emotional sense so much as the activity sense. I got another mild upper respiratory infection (I had a nasty one for a week just after I finished the antibiotics for my previous illness), which slowed me down a bit, but I was mostly bored. When I don't have anything to do my time management skills and motivation go right out the window, so I was lucky to even get around to making the bed. I shook that by the end of the week though and starting classes this week has already put me back into "do" mode.

I'm taking more classes at CCHS this semester. I didn't get into UNCC's BSN program, but I'm reapplying for the fall semester. Nursing programs are very competitive, so it wasn't really a shock that I didn't get in on the first try. I've also applied to CCHS's associate degree program and to grad school (for my masters in public health, which is my ultimate goal anyway). First one to accept me wins!! :) I know that an associates degree isn't ideal given my circumstances, but really I'd just like to be able to get a good paying job sometime this century. Given my ultimate career goals a BSN isn't vital, although it's admittedly the best scenario. Anyway, we'll see, but in the meantime I'm taking a Spanish class, medical terminology class, and a mystery class the registrar hasn't figured out for me. Because I'm a freshman at CCHS I'm not allowed to take anything above a 200 level class...but since I have a million transfer credits there are literally no 200 level classes that I can take. Seriously, I've already gotten credit for every other lower level class I'm elligable to take. So we're trying to appeal and get me into a 300 level biology class. Given that I have a minor in biology I'm hoping they'll see that it's probably something I can handle. Yeesh.

So I guess that's the skinny around here. We took lots of pictures at Christmas, which you can view on our shutterfly sight: http://adventuresofmaryandjoe.shutterfly.com/

Ciao!

an interesting week

It's been a very interesting week. Joe says I've been a living episode of "House", but he also thinks I have leprosy so he might not be the best judge of the situation. Last Tuesday afternoon I went my PCP for what I thought was a mild UTI. I started antibiotics that evening, but woke up at about 2 am with shaking chills, high fever, nausea, and vomitting. Last time I checked antibiotics were supposed to make you better, not worse, so I called the doctor. It was decided that the infection had just spread/gotten worse before the antibiotic has a chance to work, so I was to push fluids (which is lovely to do when it hurts to pee), take tylonal or motrin for the fever (which never broke), and wait for the bactrim to kick in.

That was Wednesday morning. So when Friday morning came along and I was still throwing up and running a fever I called the doctor again. By this time I was so sick/weak from a) not eating and b) running a fever for 3 days, that when I tried to shower I just ended up sitting on the floor of the tub because I was so dizzy, etc that I couldn't stand long enought to rinse the shampoo out of my hair. When Joe got home from work he had to help me out of the tub and into fresh PJs. (yeah, I know....what was I doing trying to shower when he wasn't home? Well, did you ever think that way when you were 24?) Anyway, it was decided that the bug had traveled to my kidneys and that it was resistant to the antibiotics I was taking. So I switched to a different one, macrobid, and I took that for the first time on Friday night.

On Saturday I woke up feeling much better. My fever had finally broke, I could keep a bit of food down, and I could stand long enough brush my teeth all by myself. That was when I saw the thrush on my tongue, which I was thouroughly annoyed by. But that was nothing compared to my reaction when I saw the rash on my chest a couple hours later. After a lot of swearing (I was pissed) Joe took me to the urgent care clinic where they told me I was having an allergic reaction (duh?) to the macrobid. So they gave me cipro, nystatin for the thrush, and told me to take an OTC anti-histamine for the rash. Ok, so I can get better now, right?

Not so much. On Sunday I woke up with swollen lips, tongue, face, hands, etc and the rash had taken over my entire body - everywhere but the palms of my hands and the bottoms of my feet. And then it started to itch. My fever was back, my head hurt again, and now this... I was smart enough to immediately cut off all of my finger nails, but naive enough to think that would stop me from trying to scratch my skin off. Ugh. Back to the clinic....more antibiotics....steroids for the reaction...anti-histamines (2 kinds) for the itching...continue the nystatin...push fluids...follow up in two weeks (after I was done with the antibiotics). I spent most of Sunday evening and night in a bathtub full of oatmeal and water, and when I wasn't in there I was in an anti-histamine induced coma. Monday night I finally started to feel human again and Tuesday was my first official day without a fever. Hey, it only took a week, right?

It picked a bad week. I got sick the day before I usually clean the house, so that didn't get done. I hadn't gone grocery shopping in forever and we were out of everything ...milk, bread, eggs....everything. I think Joe ate Ramen Noodles for dinner one night. I hadn't done anything to prepare for Thanksgiving, had a group presentation in my psych class, missed a test review in my algebra class, and caused Joe to miss his soccer tournement on Sunday. I told him to go, but he wouldn't have it...he actually stayed home from work one morning to keep an eye on me. So when Tuesday came I had a lot to do and very little energy to do it, having eaten only a few pieces of toast and a couple bowls of applesauce in a matter of 5 days.

I wasn't real thrilled about the fact that I needed to go grocery shopping two days before Thanksgiving, but I sucked it up and went. I've found that you can survive WalMart at any time, no matter how busy it is, so long as you go in a certain state of mind. If you accept that there will be an infinite number of rude, inconsiderate people in the store, then you can take a moment to rally all of your patience and calmness to accomodate those encounters. Take a deep breath, find your happy place, and embrace the experience. I think I'll call it Walmart Zen.

Oh, and make sure you're not on a schedule. If you're in a rush you're screwed.

Anyway, I spent two hours in WalMart getting everything from shampoo to sweet potatoes and went home, totally exhausted. Then, about 30 seconds after I walked into the house I realized I'd forgotten something. Something very important.

I forgot to buy a flippin' turkey.

Oh, and by the way, I don't actually own anything to roast a turkey in.

Eye yi yi...

But Joe and I went out and bought a turkey and roasting pan later than night and my very first Thanksgiving dinner that I cooked all by myself turned out pretty good. I was a little perplexed by the turkey itself...the Joy of Cooking said to cook it uncovered...but the Moms said to cover it...I don't have a turkey baster...does it really take 3 hours to cook? How the hell do you carve one of these things anyway? What am I supposed to use to tie the legs together? I found the neck, but where's the heart and all that junk? It was an experience, but it's results were tasty so I'm happy. Joe, Sara, Sara's Mom, Jake, Jonny, and Sam all came over for dinner, then we had pie and played board games. It was a pretty good turkey day, and it was kinda nice to make our own tradition this year.

So yeah, very interesting week.

Passing the time

I miss the U.P. The weather down here is getting to me - it's not supposed to be 80 degrees in mid-October! The last week hasn't been as bad - it's stayed in the 60's and dropped to the 40's at night - but it's not "fall". I love fall - the colors, the smell, the way it sounds when the leaves crunch under your feet, how great it feels to put on a sweatshirt and sit outside on a sunny fall day. But I don't get any of that here. Half the time it's too warm to wear pants, let alone a sweatshirt. For the past week I've insisted on keeping our windows open so that our house would get cold and I could put on some sweats and snuggle up with a book and some tea on the couch (you just can't do that when it's 80 out, even with AC). I was finally forced to close them when we woke up on Sunday and the place was only 62 degrees, but I still loved every minute of it. I don't know what I'm going to do when December rolls around and there's no snow. It's a whole different reason to get the Holiday Blues. So yeah, I miss the U.P.

Besides the unsatisfactory weather, things are generally well. HayZeus is still hopping along, but at a pace that the vet is happy with. HayZeus is so excited to be allowed to jump onto things - for two weeks after his surgery he was on activity restrictions so he wasn't allowed to run or jump. Do you know how hard it is to keep a cat off the furniture? Impossible. We tipped our dining room table onto it's side, locked him out of the bedrooms and bathrooms, put the dining room chairs across the couch...everything we could think of to prevent him from jumping. But that little bastard still managed - open the bedroom for 3 seconds and he was curled up on the bed, right the dining room table to eat and he was up there with you....just impossible. Thankfully, we don't have to do that anymore. His incision is completely healed and his hair is growing back, although he still looks pretty freaky. :)

I'm starting to run out of things to do with my time. I go to class 6 hours a week, have about 20 minutes of homework for each class, and am occasionally insulted that I'm paying my algebra professer to teach me how to use a graphing calculator. I really like my algebra prof - she's a great teacher and I enjoy being in her class - but I'm not in middle school so I guess I'm expecting more out of the curriculum. I shouldn't complain because I put in very little effort to get A's in the class...but still, I'm paying for this? Ugh. My psych class makes me want to shove a pencil into my eye, so it's probably a good thing I only have it once a week.

So that leaves me with a lot of time on my hands. I've applied for a lot of office assistant type jobs and a handful of phlebotomy/lab related jobs but haven't had much response. I'm thinking about applying at the video rental place at the end of the road just for something to do. Otherwise I'm at home with little to do. Our house is always spotless, I cook a lot, make sure the bills are paid, bathe the cat, all that sort of stuff (I still don't fold laundry). It's been nice to have the time/personal space to explore some hobbies - I've been doing a lot of "jewel-crafting", as Jake calls it, meaning that I've been beading/making jewelry. Joe thinks I should try to sell what I make, which I'm considering. I'm also trying to remember how to sew (which is challenging because I don't think I ever really knew before) and last week I made throw pillows to match our couch/window valance.

I guess that's about all that's going on around here. Until next time...

Let's have a party!

Here's my political rant for the week (they'll pop up a few times between now and November 4th)

Today the House passed the much talked about "bailout bill". I'm excited about this. While I think the bulk of the bill is crap and that we shouldn't pay for banks' mistakes, it was inevitable that something like this would go through. Thus, I've found my peace with it in a tiny little amendment the Senate quietly tacked on - in all actuality, this amendment was the basis of the original bill that the bailout package was added onto. So while the bill has been deemed the "Emergency Stabilization Act of 2008" it started out as the "Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2008", which requires private insurance companies to cover mental health and addiction services on parity with medical surgical services. This includes treatment limits, co-pays, deductables, inpatient services (both in and out of network), emergency services, and out of pocket maximums.

This is huge. Our mental health coverage is horrible, as is many other Americans'. If the bill had been in effect in the past 10 months we'd have saved over a thousand dollars, and it will save us hundreds of dollars in future years as well. And there are many people out there that have worse coverage and more need for services, so I'm telling you I could practically throw a party with balloons and streamers and hats and cake.

Additionally, the Act also prohits insurance companies from discriminating against individuals based on genetic information - i.e. they cannot increase premiums, drop coverage, or evaluate enrollment eligibility based on the presence of a gene linked to any specific disease.

This is also huge - my Aunt has Huntingtons disease, which is passed on genetically. Each child has a 50/50 chance of getting the gene, and research shows that you cannot be a carrier - the gene is ALWAYS expressed. Thus if you have the gene, you will develop the disease. My Aunt and Uncle have three children. The oldest tested positive for the gene, but she's the only one who's opted to be tested, partly because of the possibility of discrimination based on the test results that can and does occur. So it's a little weight off the shoulders of those who have not been tested because they no longer have to fear loss of health coverage.

Anyway, I'm excited about that ammendment. There's a couple other ones that are good too - the ones that will actually help everyday Americans - but there's a lot of junk in the rest of it. I guess you sometimes have to trade the good for the bad.

So I've decided Congress isn't completely evil - at least not this week. Now if we could only get the legislative branch to follow suit...then I'd really have to throw a big bash!

Little HayZeus Hop-along

So it's been a long time since I last updated...sorry about that. We haven't had internet for the last weekish, so I haven't really had the chance.

The big (and bad) news around here is that poor HayZeus had a little fall. He was up on the bathroom counter, and while he'd been removed from the counter many times, he wasn't getting the point, so he was sort of given a little help vacating the counter...and hit an open cabinet door on the way down. I suppose that there's really no gentle way to say we (aka Joe) shoved him off the counter and broke him, but that makes us (aka Joe) sound like cat abusers. But we love our kitty!

It actually took us a while to figure out that he was injured - since when does pushing a cat off of a three foot ledge do damage? Anyway, we realized that he wasn't out in the living room hanging out with us, nor had he come to greet us at the door, so we went to investigate. We found him hiding out under the computer desk, which happens to be about three feet from his litterbox. I started petting his belly, which he always bites me for (it's a love nibble, apparently I'm tasty), but he didn't even glare at me. So we knew he wasn't feeling well, and once we got him to walk we saw he had a very pronounced limp.

In the morning he still hadn't moved from under the desk and hadn't eaten or drank anything, so I took him to the vet. We figured he had a really bad bruise or a cut we couldn't see, but the vet took x-rays to make sure. When she came back in the room with the films and a model of a cat skeleton in her hands, I knew we were in trouble. Poor kitty had a broken leg. A broken femur to be exact - the articulating surface of the bone (big round part that goes into the hip socket) broke off from the rest of the leg. It would have to be repaired surgically, either in that office or at a specialist in Charlotte. The latter sounded really expensive and scary to me and carried more risk, but I wanted to do the best for our kitty. The vet assured me there would be no difference in his quality of life if we went with the simpler, cheaper (cheap is really not a word that should be used here) procedure though, so we decided we'd do that. He couldn't have it right away though, so he spent the weekend in my closet (I made him a little kitty kave) drugged up and immobile. :( I had to help him into his litter box the first day, but he learned to compenstate pretty quick.

He had his surgery yesterday and I picked him up from the vet this morning. He was VERY happy to see me and looked TOTALLY pathetic. He has a 8x5 inch bald spot on his right rear, an ugly (although clean) incision, bright green bandages on two of his legs (from the IV and covering his pain patch) and a great big cone around his neck. Just sad. He's doing really well though. We've been able to take the cone collar off because he's been sleeping where we can see him and doesn't seem to be interested in licking his incision (yet). He's not allowed to run or jump or walk too much for the next week, but he's already weight bearing and hobbling around. He likes to sleep where we are.

So, little HayZeus Hop-along is going to be ok. He might have a slight limp forever, but the hope is that his decappitated femur will form a false joint with his hip. He doesn't move around a ton, but he generally doesn't seem to care that he's been shaved and cut open. Plus, I really like the vet's office we took him to - it's less than a mile from here, has flexible hours, and the three doctors that worked on our kitty were really thourough and really nice. :)

Aside from HayZeus, things are business as usual here. Joe is clearly enjoying his job and has joined a soccer league. It's a co-ed league, which Joe kinda forgot to mention (not that I'd actually care), so I'm going to have to be at the games to peel all the girls off of him. I know nothing about soccer, but I'm going to try to be a crazy soccer wife that screams at the other players from the stands. Especially the chicks.

My classes are going well and I've been looking for a part-time job. Actually, my classes are boring me to tears and I'm having a hard time not strangling my PY150 classmates (they are all very, very immature and close minded), so I'm ready to take on something else. I have to be listed on the NC CNA registry in order to be a nursing student, so I'm going to take that test soon. North Carolina allows people to attempt the test without taking a training class, and most of the skills they test on were covered in my NMU nursing classes...so I think I'm going to opt out of the training. Joe's going to have to be my guinea pig and let me make the bed while he's in it and practice some ROM exercises, but I'm sure he'll be a great pretend patient. Anyway, there seems to be a lot of CNA jobs in these parts, so hopefully I can find something with decent hours.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll take some pictures of HayZeus so you can all see how wierd he looks. Poor kitty :( I'm glad he's going to be ok!!

I'm sure you've heard this rant before...

Should Smoking Around Kids Be Illegal?

I stumbled upon this article today and couldn't help but think about all of my wonderfully nicotine addicted family and friends. So yeah, I'm going to take a shot at you guys, possibly below the belt. Oops.

It might suprise you to know that my answer to the question the article poses is "no". But it's not because I respect a smoker's right to parent their children or smoke in their home or car. I don't respect that, at least not in a case when you are knowingly poisoning your children. Such a law wouldn't be resonable on a legal level though - even if it did squeak through the Supreme Court (which it wouldn't, and if it did we're in trouble...then again the Patriot Act is still kickin...) it's not enforcable and I don't see the point in making a law we can't back up. It opens the door to too many other things, like calling child abuse when a kid eats a cheeseburger. They are totally different situations, but not everyone in this country has the brains to figure that out.

The solution? Just ban smoking. If people are too stupid to not smoke around kids, then they shouldn't be allowed to smoke. There are a whole slue of substances in the world that are illegal because of the way they damage the human body. And yet, one of the few legal ones damages not only the body of the user, but the body of everyone around as well. So why should cigarettes be legal? We won't let people smoke pot, which is not addictvie *chemically* and has less harmful (but still harmful) smoke...so why should we let people smoke tobacco? Here's the real bitch of it all - when people smoke pot, they're 10000 time more respectful of those around them, probably because it's illegal. So if we make cigarettes illegal, logic says the same will happen for tobacco, right? I'm an adult, I have the ability and means to choose whether or not I want to put my lungs through a smoky environment (which you may have noticed I don't do very often). But how is a 5 year old supposed to tell you they won't get in the car because you're going to try to kill them on the way to school? They can't, and if they do they're probably going to get punished.

Every single smoker I know smokes around kids, whether it's their own or someone else's. Sure, some of the smokers in this world have make their homes smoke-free, which I applaud, but what about your cars? Why would you make your 800+ sq. ft. home smoke free but then lock your kids up in a 4x4 space and bombard them with toxins? Yeah, go a head and open that window. It fixes everything. You wouldn't lock your child in their bedroom and pump carbon monoxide into the room...but you have no problem pumping their lungs full of it in the car. Brilliant.

Many of my family members have smoke free homes, which again, I applaud. But not one of them has a smoke free car and not one of them is afraid to light up in someone else's house when children are around. I get it, you people are going to smoke until you can stop making excuses and quit, which might never happen. I'm sure you're going to be just as happy with those excuses when (God forbid) one of the children in your lives gets lung cancer. Because there's nothing like looking into a child's eyes and saying "I'm sorry you have cancer Jimmy, but I liked smoking too much to care abour your lungs."

Get a grip.