Christmas Eve Eve

I managed somehow to get all my shopping done today. In between my car over heating. Yes, I had one last trip when my car started steaming. I had to wait approx 2 hours for my brother and mom to sho wup and bail me out. We filled it up with something called radiator fix in case I have a small leak in the radiator, also added more radiator fluid and off I went to buy a new radiator cap. I finished my last stop to buy my mom's large gift at Home depot. Something she requested. I have all but 2 gifts to wrap now. I spent the afternoon wrapping. Tomorrow morning I will clean. I pray my car is all fixed now. I just can't afford to buy a new car on top of everythign else let along the fact it is 3 months from begining paid off and I need that extra money every month for a while before I can start saving for a new car.

Things may be tight money wise right now, but I am going to keep my positive attitude and know that I will be taken care of and I will get thourgh this time. I will look back one day and wonder how I did it, but I will know I have the strength to get through most things. If I can get through this.

My nose is healing very well. It feels so good to breathe through my nose again! I had forgotten what it felt like. Time to settle in for the night will my puppy/dog and enjoy the evening! I am going to watch some Christmas movies and snack on some toffee as I get ready to spend my first Christmas in my home.

Surgery Friday

Just in case I forget to post, I am having nasal surgery on friday. I am actualy have day surgery on my trubinates and I am having my adnoids removed. I am told I could go back to work the next day. I sure hope so since I fly off to Chicago On monday with my manager on a business trip. I can hardly wait. I have never been to Chicago before.

My lifes is pretty busy from here on out until the end of th year. I am praying and working on creating new wonderful experiences in my life for my 40's. I new decade a new outlook on life so to speak!

The weather here is still amazingly cold. I pray it stays this way so it will feel like Christmas in a few weeks.

Puppy Days & Puppy Antics

So I got a puppy this summer. A pure bred American Eskimo puppy. He was so cute and sweet when I first got him, he looked like a little polar bear cub, but now as the time has past by from 6 weeks to 6 months I am starting to re think this whole puppy business. Not only can he now jump on my bed, he can jump on my couch and climb on my coffee table. Lovely, just lovely. He chases the cats around unmericifully after I get home from work. (Of course he has taking the cat approach to life by sleeping all day sp needless to say by the time I get home from work he is one excitied hyperactive puppy, and thankfully is very well puppy trained. ) The cats do not like it when he wakes up. I have three cats and they all have different methods toget away from him. One cat runs real quick after never looks back until she, the cat is up high up on something, one sits there and fights back, and one is so slow the dog is on top of her every step of the way as she cries to try and get away from Walker, my dog. The dog actually likes the one that fights back the most. He picks at her to get her to chase him around the house and eventually into my bedroom and under my bed. He seems to think it is a blast to get the cat to chase him under the bed, out one side and then around and back under again. I know when he is playing this game with her because the cat is growling and all I hear is his head go bump, bump, bump under the bed as he makes a run for it. A sort of game of chase and tag, animal style I guess. Then the next best thing he likes to do with this tough cat of mine, Bella, (I know her name does not match her cattitude) is to sit not far from her and wait for Bella to pop him a few times. Yep, he seems to think it is a great game! I just have to sit and laugh. I watch him go up to her sidways so as to not always get a direct hit on his snout or upside his head. Occiasionally I hear a yelp and yes it is the cat biting the dog in the rump! LOL.

Two nights ago I discovered another new thing he likes to do. Jump in the tub! It does not matter if I am taking a bath or not, he will just jump right on in! In fact I try keeping him out and it makes him only more determined to get in the tub! Water? What is water to a nordic dog! Geez, now when I get out of the tub right in he goes, water and all! It does scare me a bit that he watches me ever so closely as I turn on the water because I have one of those knobs that is just a lever. I am afraid he will learn how to hit the water on with his nose and I get home one day to find water all over my house and one happy wet puppy! This morning he could not wait to run into my bathroom and jump into the tub as I got ready for work. I eventually turned on the water to let him have a drink, again he closely watched me as I turned on the water, then I stopped up the tub with just a small amount of water. You would have thought I had given him a bone to play with, or I had a toddler on my hands. He would jump out run around the house come flying back in the bath oom, jump in the tub again, landing on his side as he slid around the tub in a circle. He then stood up to splash around in the water, then he jumped out again sliding all over the floor as he made pass around the whole house again at full speed.

Me put a tree with this puppy! I would come home to a disaster very day! the only safe places from him these days are the kitchen counters, the kitchen table, the rooms with the doors shut tight and my bathroom counters, then again soon the bathroom counters may be his territory because I watched him try to climb up in the sink this morning! What is a cat person to do! When do I get a calm dog! When can I blink and he be a year old? I never remember the family dog I grew up with (she was a bred just like him) ever being this wild! What is a girl to do to get through these puppy days and puppy antics?!

My Quadruple Whammy Week

Last week was just a plain ol crazy week for me. I got sick, tossing cookies sick, went back to the ENT and discovered I need nose surgery, another round of lay offs at work, and major lower pain pain. I need nose surgery to breathe through my nose like a normal person. The Dr. wants to reduce the turbinates in my nose. I had no clue I had such a thing in my nose! It seems I have enlarged turbinates and for me to breathe better throgh my nose he can go in with a laser and reduce them by taking out some lining and crush some bones in my turbinates. He will also remove my adnoids to hopefully make it so I do not snore. I will be scheduling the surgery as soon as possible.

Then my back went from a little pain to extreme pain last week. Major muscle spams in my lower back. This one really through me for a loop since I am going to the chiropractor/accupuncturist since September at least 2 to 3 times a week to help reduce my back pain, and it was working, it was feeling better than it had in a long time until two fridays ago. He adjusted my lower back as normal, but after an hour or so upon returning to work my lower back started to hurt. Not just a little pain, but major spasms. I spent that weekend on back. Went back to him first thing last Monday morning, it helped a little, but the spasms were still there. So I started using my TENs unit, ice, heat, back brace, aleve, some left over muscle relaxers and still no relief. I have a very high pain tolerance, and I just dealt with it not knowing what course of action to take next.

Then on November 1rst another round of layoffs took place at work. The day sucked since this tie they layed off some of the admins who all happened to some of the ladies I pal around with. It was a sucky day to say the least. My back hurt, I had a stopped up nose and my friends lost their jobs. Then the rumors of Tekelec selling off the division I support started going around.

Luckily I took last Friday off to go to the most gigantic flea market in the state of Texas and probably in the United States with two of my cousins. Now my back was still hurting but no position helped so why not spend the day walking? Found a few must have buys. I will post a pic of one later. I was so excited when I found it, I forgot to bargain for it. LOL. I hurt all day. I then spent another weekend in bed on my back miserable. I kept thinking I should go to the ER, but I didn't. I woke up this morning in major pian and in tears no tknowing what to do. I decided it was time to find a new family practice Dr in town, so I made a call; I think they saw me so quickly today because I cried. I was in that much pain. My body felt disconnected. Any movement I made hurt my lower back and shot through the rest of my body. The Dr took xrays and determined it was major muscle spasms. I got a shot and 3 prescriptions, by this afternoon relief! Finally. With the muscle relaxers, pain killers and anti inflammatory pills, I am starting to feel no pain!

Now to call and schedule my nose surgery to reduce the turbinates in my nose so I can breathe like a normal person. All of those things added up to my quadruple whammny week. Now maybe the rest of the month will go off without a hitch. I will continue to pray Tekelec does not sell off the division I support any time soon. Things are finally going great there and the right people are finally taking notice of what I do so maybe hopefully I can become a manager one day.

But I can't wait to share about what I bought at the flea market! It was so me and a perfect accent to my bedroom or craft room.

THE MYSTERY HAS BEEN SOLVED

Remember a while back when I posted these pics of the mysterious holes in my back yard? One exterminator told me they were field mice holes. I do not think he convinced me. All summer I looked for some sort of proof of what could be living in my yard and I was always fearfull whatever was living down there something awefull and fearfull, and not much scares me. Well the mystery has been solved with the help of my puppy. And the creature is ........CRAYFISH OR CRAWFISH! Yes, I thought they looked like crawfish holes, but I thought hardly in the middle of North Texas let alone in my back yard. But yes, that is what lives in my back yard, which is actually a relief over field mice, spiders, or even moles. My puppy, Walker, solved the mystery. I noticed him sniffing around one of the mystery holes rather excitedly so I walked over to investigate and low and behold he was sniffing at a dead crawfish outside one of the holes. Everything became quite clear as to why I never saw any proof of any live creatures in my backyeard all summer except after it rained or when I watered the lawn. My only proof were these dirt mounds that appeared at the tops of the holes. (see picture above) My mom said they looked like crawyfish holes, but I just wasn't a believer; I am now! They can happily stay in the back yard, if I can plant some trees, grass and flowers back there.

I am very recelived the mystery has been solved!