My Hypocondriac Husband

After being very exposed to the contagious MRSA, Jose began to panic at every bump, cut, and marker markings that he saw on our children.

Then, last week, on Thursday, he texted me to tell me that he needed to go to the doctor. "Why?" I asked. He said that he googled the symptoms of MRSA (fever, muscle ache, headache, lightheaded, sore throat, etc.) and he thought he had it. I asked if he had any open and infected wounds, to which he replied no. I told him that he was being dramatic, but to go ahead and go to the doctor (since he hasn't gone in years).

So, he went. And she confirmed that he was indeed being paranoid. The verdict: a cold.

Since then, he has acted like he was dying. I took the kids to a friend's house Thursday night, then we all lazied around Friday night. On Saturday, we stayed pretty lazy too (but there's a whole 'nother story there on Saturday) and then we went out for his birthday Saturday night while my mom babysat. And today still. He would be awful to deal with if he had something serious.

Hopefully, his immune system (the same one that has only allowed him to get sick about three times in the last ten years) kicks in soon because I'm tired of babying him. Hehehe!

Just Because I Know You Are Dying To Ask...

So, as the day nears it's end, I know you are dying to ask me a few questions. So, to save you the burning feeling inside your mind...I'll answer them (because, of course, I'm already knowing what you would ask).

Q: How do I feel?
A: Right this second, not too bad. I have the heating pad on my back and took another dosage of drugs a couple hours ago that have recently kicked in. I do however have a migraine, which is weird because one of the drugs I took was a pain reliever. I have officially taken three doses of my antibiotics, but this evening around seven, my fever returned and although it didn't go quite so high, it did hit about 101 before my medicine kicked in and took it down.

Q: How is my dad?
A: I don't know. He has not contacted me at all from jail this time. I have spoken to his (soon to be ex) wife via phone and text, but not much. She said something today about him possibly doing 6-12 months in rehab instead of staying in jail, so that'd be interesting.

Q: How is work going?
A: I love it so much. I never dreamed that I could have such a wonderfully perfect job(s) that allowed me to have flexibility and do what I love so much. I seriously never realized that a job could be so amazing. I am able to use my wide array of God-given skills to do a wide variety of tasks to serve Him and others in the community. I seriously love it!

Q: How are the kids?
A: Well, Teo recieved a much needed haircut yesterday. And Isa is her normally mouthy self anymore. I love them both dearly, and Mondays and Tuesdays are the worst days in the week because I work 12 hours and don't see them at all (except to get Isa ready for school). Teo is learning to talk much more (even though it's still quite garbled) and is becoming more able to play alone. Isa is learning to read (which is so awesome) but still can't tie her shoes. Aside from her attitude issues, she's growing into quite a strong and beautiful young lady.

Q: How is my marriage?
A: Good. The weekend away was much needed and removed a lot of our tension. My recent illness crap has made things a little rough, simply because I am too tired and in too much pain to help much around the house, but we did nearly complete the dining room, so that continues to keep us smiling. I haven't thought about the affair much lately, so slowly but surely, it's becoming "normal" again.

Q: How's heARTworks?
A: So awesome. I am amazed at how successful it has become and have a couple orders that I need to finish up. This being sick crap has made me behind a bit, but it'll even out soon. I am looking forward to a couple of the larger projects coming up!

So, that's enough of question and answer time...I'm exhausted and am going to bed...

Seriously though, if you could ask me just one question, what would it be (feel free to ask anoynmously)? I will answer them soon!

So, It's Confirmed...I'm Infected.

The doctor didn't specifically say that I had a kidney infection, but after a million questions and testing a sample, she said that I did indeed have an infection. Hence, the high fevers, pain, etc. Duh.

So, I have recieved a 'script for the worlds largest pill in the world and twice a day, I'm taking this 800 mg drug. The only warning it has is that I must avoid direct sunlight or artificial sunlight. So, my meds will be turning me into a vampire. Awesome.

At this point, I'm totally okay with being a sparkly non-human blood sucking vampire, if it makes me feel better. (I can live with the Cullens'...)

I Would Rather Eat Kidney Beans...And I Hate Beans.

I am pretty sure that I have a kidney infection. I've never had one before though, so I'm not entirely sure.

As you well know, I have spent the last week being sick. Starting Sunday and lasting until Friday. Sick, nauseous, tired, etc. I knew by Friday that I needed to drink more water after five days of not really eating or drinking anything. The slight pain in my back was telling me to hydrate myself.

The pain persisted, but it was tolerable. No big deal. I kept drinking water and figured I would be fine. And I was. Yesterday was a great day of much accomplishment. Today was good too. We had breakfast and went to church with a slight pain in my back. Then, after church, we invited family friends over for lunch. It was then when I got the hint that I may need more than just drinking some water.

As I was talking to my friend, the pain grew stronger. Then I got the chills. As we were talking, I checked the thermostat which was already on 70 degrees. So I bundled up and curled up on the couch until lunch was ready. I asked her what she thought was wrong with me, and she had had a kidney infection about six months ago, so she asked me a series of questions and everything lined up.

When they left, I took my temperature and found out that I had a 102.5 degree fever. Oops. So, I found my prescription for some heavy duty ibprofen and took it. Slowly the fever went down and I went to sleep off the pain.

Tomorrow, I think I'm going to call the doctor. We will see how I feel in the morning...

Miracle Health & Spontaneous House Projects

So, when I woke up today, I felt like death. Live in the bathroom death. I hated my body and everything that it was putting me through, but I scraped myself off the ground and pushed forward. It worked fairly well, until around 1 pm. That's when I decided that I needed to nap. The two hour time span in the middle of the night when my body decided to keep me awake and running to the bathroom for no reason really had taken its toll on me. So, I called and made sure to cancel an afternoon appointment and when I did, was able to speak to one of the most amazing women that I know.

When I told her that I was ill and wouldn't be able to keep the meeting and asked her to pass the message along to the right person, she immediately asked to pray with me over the phone. I swear that this makes no sense whatsoever, but immediately, as she was praying, I felt like my insides were being pieced back together and aside from being sleepy, my ailments were diminished.

[Let me insert my side note here. I am not, by any means one of those people that believe that you can speak in tongues or lay hands on people and taa-daa, they are healed, but this woman has a spiritual gift with prayer. I know it is true. She continually offers prayer and always, always, always calms my nerves with her words to God. And today, there is nothing else that I can think of other than her prayers and it sends shivers down my spine.]

I went to sleep only to be woken an hour later from a deep sleep. A friend had texted me and I felt like I needed to respond. Then, after laying there a moment, I realized that I wasn't tired. And I felt wonderful.

I texted Jose and said that I was hungry. Like, haven't eaten in five days hungry and requested going out for dinner. Soon, he got home from work and Isa got off the bus and we went out for an amazing Mexican dinner, then went shopping at Menards. While there, we decided to buy paint. One gallon of paint for the dining room. For about a year, we have had paint cards tucked into the doorway of the french doors trying to decide how to best match the walls so that you couldn't tell we made the repair. Today, on a whim, we bought a totally different shade of green and came home to paint the entire dining room.

Yes. It's true. We came home and after tucking the kids into bed, repainted the entire dining room in two hours. And, the best part is, we even took a break. The break came when we were painting and I said that I really wanted a snack, and I was thinking that mint chocolate chip ice cream sounded amazing, and before I could finish my thought, Jose blurted out that he wanted mint chocolate chip ice cream. Our walls are the color of mint (it's called Spring Green). The trim is a beautiful chocoate stain color. I am in love.

The best part, and the part that I want to remember forever is this:

As we were painting, Jose was uncertain at first. He's not the biggest fan of my color choices and he steers away from bright colors, but as we began to see the walls come together, he admitted that he liked it. A lot. And he said, "It's not that the old color was bad, but it was just sad, like we were all gloomy and sad all the time...."

To which I replied, "Maybe we were sad all the time, so it suited us, but now, we're not, so this is better."

He agreed.

So, cheers! To new health. To new walls. To new life.

God is amazing!

When It Rains, It Pours. And By IT, I Mean Sickness.

It has been a long day or two.

Yesterday, aside from the lunch out puke from Teo, we had a long nap and a dinner time puke too. At least, he's helping me diet. Nothing like a kid puking on you to make you lose your appetite.

Last night, both kids went right to bed, no problem...

...at least, until it was time for Jose and I to go to bed. Then, Teo woke up crying. And Isa woke up crying. And they rotated waking up for at least an hour and a half. I laid in Teo's room with him. I laid in Isa's bed with her.

His belly hurt. She had an ear ache. Both seemed feverish. In addition to all that fun, I was running a fever too. I could tell by the cold sweats that I was having while trying to care for my kiddos.

Finally, around 1 AM, I fell asleep. And slept like a rock until Jose was getting ready for work. That's when Mateo crawled into bed with me and Isa went down to watch tv and eat breakfast. I proceeded to fall back asleep until 8:05 AM, and woke up in a panic because Isa needed to be on the bus at 8:18 AM. She was feeling fine, so fortunately, it was a quick process to get her ready, pack a lunch, and call the neighbor to see if Isa could walk to the bus stop with them.

Teo and I stayed downstairs to enjoy our breakfast of crackers and Diet 7up and we calmed our queasy bellies by cuddling on the couch, and falling asleep.

Around 11 AM, we woke up and enjoyed a lunch of crackers and juice (we were switching it up...lol). Then, to test the waters, we ate cheese sticks and Teo tried to eat a granola bar but changed his mind after a bite or two. He requested that we go back upstairs to my bedroom and we took another nap or two while having PBS on tv in the background.

Then, around 4 PM, Jose and Isa returned home and I ended up going back to the bedroom and sleeping for another two hours or so. Then, I had to run to the church to do some work really quick for the All My Money class that Theo was teaching tonight and then, I returned home to eat a small dinner of rice and to cuddle up on the recliner with the big fuzzy blanket, a huge fluffy sweater, and the heating pad...which is where I have stayed since...

I hate sickness. Ugh.

The Future - Month 1

For New Years, I wrote this...however, they were more of goals than resolutions...

We have finished the first month of 2011...and here's where I stand with these goals.
1. I have continued to go to therapy and work on boundaries. I have obtained a borrowed copy of the book, but have yet to open it...can we say February goal? I have been able to draw more lines and say no a little more often.

2. We have been spending at much time as possible with the kids, but it's been a busy month. However, we are trying to read together more, cuddle more, etc. I miss them a lot on the evenings that I work.

3. I am still dealing with my issues. I have blogged a lot more lately to sort through the thoughts. I have also been talking to Jose more and as mentioned above, still doing therapy.

4. We have began the O.W.L. group with some special ladies. I posted about it here. I haven't done the best, but at most, I am at least much more aware of what I am putting into my body now. I have begun to eat breakfast. Have basically cut out all soda other than diet. Am eating much less as far as late night snacks. And of course, I am drinking more water and eating a lot less junk food. There has been a drop in weight so something must be working...

5. As time allows, I have tried to increase my physical activity...I am not to a consistant three times per week yet though...soon. Soon.

6. I've done 15 scrapbook pages in January! The all day scrapping event helped a ton! See the newest pages here. Only 35 more to go to reach my goal...hehe!

7. Since the first week of January, I have been unable to work on cleaning out electronic photos or getting any more printed...I plan to work on them again soon.

8. I still haven't touched my ipod files. If anyone wants to volunteer to organize them all, the project is theirs!

9. The house projects are huge and will take a lot of time. At the first of the year, my dad and Jose got two windows in. Since then, Jose has been stripping and staining the dining room trim. See some photos here. And here.

10. I have become a lot less focused on facebook. It's just not necessary...

11. The house exterior and fence will wait until spring has sprung.

12. I have been going to bed fairly consistantly around 1 AM (or earlier), except on weekends and times when we are kidless, but those nights are different because I am able to sleep in.

13. I have 2 tin orders to complete, a mini mural and a canvas painting. I have also hit 100 followers on heARTworks facebook page! Whoot whoot!
14. I continue to have discussions about affairs and it has definately been laid upon my heart to do more in the form of a website...I am still hoping for a launch date of my wedding anniversary.

15. I finished one book in January. Father Fiction by Donald Miller. I have also read about half of another and have a list of three or so waiting for me. I need to count pages, but I feel accomplished already.

16. Jose and I took a mini-vacation to Columbus, Ohio. It was a renewal kinda thing. You can read about it and see photos here,

17 & 18. Haven't done a darn ditty thing in regards to sewing or knitting...maybe once the dining room is livable, we can find my craft room again...it's kinda buried.

19. Again, doors will wait until at least spring.

20. And, I have been so focused on drinking water that milk is just a pain...but I am focusing on getting more dairy in general, so hopefully in the next few months, we can start working milk in.

One month down, eleven more to go! Now taking bets: Can I do it? If not, which do you think I will complete and which will be deemed as "failures"?

Freak of Nature

I think my kid is a freak of nature....however, I'm beginning to believe that ALL kids are freaks of nature.

Today she woke up looking like Quasimoto from the Hunchback of Notre Dame movie...



I got outa bed and told her to come brush her teeth. I didn't look at her until I handed her the toothbrush and then I was like, "WHOA! Holy crap! Uhh....I don't think you're going to school today kid..."

She said that when she woke up (about 2 hours before I crawled by lazy bum outa bed), her one eye opened and the other did not.

The thing is...this is the third time in two weeks that she has woken up with a punk eye. No other obvious signals of anything going on, just a huge nasty ouchy lookin' eye. No coughing, no sore throat, no snot, no sneezing, no itchyness, no ear infection, no fever, no obvious bug bite, nothing. I stumbed both nurses that I spoke to (one last Thursday and one today).

So, I called the doctor. They got us an appointment with a doctor, not our normal pediatrician, in the same practive at 10 AM. When we got there, the swelling in one eye had gone down immensely, but the other was starting to puff up.



So, the official doctor answer was: seasonal allergies. She gave us two samples of eye drops. One for allergies and an antibiotic to prevent infection (since Isa's eyes are now at a higher risk for a bacterial infection). I gave her the drops as soon as we got home around lunch and again right before bed. Let's pray that this helps her lil' eyeballs. I love her big beautiful doe eyes...not these. She looks so miserable. By bedtime she looked nearly like her normal self.

This is not her tonight, but just a photo to reference her "normal" look compared to today:



I love this little girl so much. I hope she gets feeling (and looking) better soon!

(And because I know people will ask...we will be speaking to her normal doctor about testing for allergies.)

My Eyeballs!

Earlier this week, I recieved a solemn phone call from my optomitrist office. The woman spoke with such seriousness in her tone, that for a brief moment, I was afraid that my eyeballs were going to fall out or someting.

"I am so sorry to call you, Mrs. ******," she said, "but Dr. ****** has asked me to contact you regarding your appointment that you had in September." She hesitated.

Oh no, this is it, I thought, possibly being a little dramatic, something is horribly wrong. Then the logical Carla kicked in. What could possibly be wrong? They don't do lab work or anything that gets sent away, so if there was a problem, they would have known at my appointment.

She went on. "I hate to do this, but would it be possible for you to come in again, at your convenience, whenever you can fit it into your schedule for about ten minutes? Something happened and we cannot find the records of your past visit."

Whew, I get to keep my eyeballs!

I arranged to come first thing today, and told her it wasn't a big deal. I still believe that when I had my appointment there, my bad luck of the day is the cause of their computers crashing and hence, losing my file. So, it wasn't an issue. Plus, the office is probably a five minute walk from my house.

This morning, I got Isa on the bus and everything and went, full out in my stay-at-home/work-at-home uniform (sweats, a hoodie, and a hat) to the eye doctors.

My doc gave me a sheepish grin when I walked in and whisked me back to the exam room. She opened my file and handed me a gift card to Starbucks for the inconvenience. I told her it really wasn't an issue and that the gift card was much appreciated, but was not necessary. She quickly went through the normal exam. Read this line, cover this eye, look at this, better or worse, better or worse, and then...the pressure drops. Ugh, I hate those things. I laughingly told her that THOSE were the reason she felt she needed to give me a gift card, so she could put those drops into my eyes that somehow expand into invisible bricks, putting pressure onto them and making them feel like they are going to pop out of my ears.

But I survived, and it was very quick. I adore the doctor and the entire crew there at the office. I will refer people there forever, and I loved them with or without a gift card (although it was super sweet!

And wouldn't ya know, my eyes are the same from my last visit! ;)

I May Fail...But I Never Give Up Permanently

If you know me, you know I have these crazy detailed plans and projects...Oftentimes, they rarely go much farther than creation...

I'll admit it. I'm a notorious starter...I lose focus easily. Am easily discouraged. Get distracted. And find a new project. It's a great skill to have in management when you have minions to do your work for you. I would be able to start something great with all these awesome ideas, then pass it along to someone else to actually make it happen. (Yes, I watched Despicible Me this weekend.)

One project area that I am continuously working on is my health. Mostly my weight, but my health overall. I formulate these amazing awesome plans to start working out, eat better, etc. but just never make it past a week or two. So, a lightbulb hit me today. I can't do it the way others do it.

I can't focus too much on WHAT is being eaten right now, because I am not eating enough. Even my biggest loser game on the wii told me that, even with all the junk I eat, my caloric intake was not enough. So, what does that mean? For me, it means eat more. Not more junk, but more nutritious foods. Trade out my unhealthy meals for healthy ones. Snack on veggies or fruits more. Drink juice. Drink milk. Make a conscious effort to keep track of foods.

I fail miserably at food journals, but I have another idea. It's a secret idea though. :) I will, hopefully, go week by week taking horribly small baby steps, but changing some habits, some processes, some actions to create a healthier me.

Hopefully, I don't post in a week that this one failed too.