Surgery is on the horizon

I just got two indicators that surgery is coming up quick.

First, I got my period. Lovely. Actually I really mean that. I got it all on my own and that might mean I'm actually working in the female department. AND that means I'm NOT pregnant and so I don't have to wait till after the baby to have my gall bladder out.

Second, I finally got the call from the surgeon's office. My surgery consultation appointment is next Tuesday.

So I'm surgery-bound. I'll be happy to be done with this so I can move on and work on making a sibling for Nicky.

Updates and Tattoo Ideas

New photos from this morning have been added to the photo album. Enjoy!

I still haven't heard from the surgeon's office. Guess I'll call them on Monday. For anyone stalking my chart, it still looks promising! I can't help it, I'm very hopeful! Based on our timing I would totally expect it to be a boy. And Nicky would make a fabulous big brother. Hey, I can dream! :)

Tom's dad is home from the hospital. They're not sure, but they think he might have been on too many meds at once and his potassium was dangerously high. Very scary! I'm glad he's ok.

My mom is home too, and she seems to be doing well again. I can't wait for her to be all healed up! Then she can come visit us in our new place!

Speaking of visitors, I really ought to get my place ready for some! We STILL have all sorts of crap in our living room. It's pretty bad and I miss being able to sit in my recliner. I'm sure I'll dig up some motivation at some point...

My newest project is spending some quality time online and with pencil and paper trying to come up with a tattoo design. I've always wanted a tatoo, but I've been waiting to figure out exactly what I want, and exactly where I want it. I mean, these things are permanent, so I wanted mine to have a lot of meaning, be something that would maintain meaning long-term, and be in a place I can easily show, easily hide, and that won't halfway show in any typical clothes. I don't like it when they only show partway. I've finally got my inspiration. I want something to commemorate and celebrate my baby Nicky. I'm trying to come up with the perfect design now. I could just do text (his name, initials, birthdate, etc.) or I could do something more symbolic. He's a Pisces, he was born on St. Patrick's Day. I feel incredibly protective of him, like a momma bear, which has always been Tom's nickname for me, even before Nicky. Lots of possibilities. Have any ideas for me?

More Medical Mumbo-Jumbo

Well sort of. I finally got a call back from my doctor's office. They said they have the results and they're referring me to a surgeon tomorrow. I should get a call from the surgeon's office soon. Lovely. The only advice was to stay on a fat free diet and if in no pain I could work. So what do I do if I get pain AT work?? I'm working at home tomorrow anyway thank goodness, and then we'll see what the surgeon says tomorrow. Who knows, I might have surgery Friday!

I'm not the only medical mishap in the family lately. My mom was in the hospital for about 48 hours while they got her wound under control. She's on antibiotics and they opened it up a bit more to make it better. She's home today and hopefully will be feeling well enough soon to watch some new Nicky movies!

Tom's dad has joined the Walking Wounded club too. Today he was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. We don't know what it was yet, but he was really sick. Hopefully we'll here more soon.

Now, if we could just all get well and have everyone else STAY well that would be good! More Nicky movies coming. I have a few really cute pictures of Nicky sitting in the puzzle chair. This chair was Jessie's (I think it was a hand-me-down even back then from somewhere) and I've kept it all these years for my own kids. Tom got it out of storage and I cleaned it up and put it together last night. He seems to like it!

Great Gallstones Batman!

Gallstones. What a pain in the stomach. And the back.

I had horrible stomach and back pain over the weekend. I threw up with the first bout of it on Saturday morning. So of course I had to take a pregnancy test. You know, just in case. But it was negative. I had another attack, even worse, on Sunday afternoon. After about 3 hours of constant pain I couldn't take it anymore and made Tom take me to the ER. JM came to watch Nicky, and about a mile from the ER the pain stopped. We still sat in the ER for 3 hours, but then decided that since I wasn't in acute pain they'd probably send me home on clear liquids and tell me to see my doctor in the morning. So I did that myself. Monday morning I went to the doctor. They suspected my gallbladder so sent me for an ultrasound Tuesday morning. I couldn't eat OR drink from 8pm Monday until the ultrasound. TORTURE! Today I went for the ultrasound. Yep. Gallstones. So now what? I have a call into my regular doctor to see what to do next. I'm afraid to eat because of the pain, but I have to eat or I'll die. So Tom's finding things with no fat for me to eat. BORING! But no pain so that's good.

Ok, so enough about ME.

Well not really. I also got a check in the mail Monday after my doctor's visit for $505.00. Sweet right? NOT. It was from my homeowners insurance company canceling me. WTF? Apparently they sent their inspector here (although they don't know when) and the notes say:
"fence in disrepair" (Big fat lie! It was fixed before Halloween so that we could move in with our dogs.)
"dryrot" (Hello. It's a concrete block house!)
"crack in exterior" (There is, but it is purely cosmetic according to the REAL inspection we had done on the house before we bought it. AND Tom has patched it anyway!)

They say they sent us a list of these things on December 9th. (Never got anything from them!) And they canceled us on January 3rd. Lovely. So now I've called my mortgage company and insurance agent. They're working on getting us another insurance company which we all know is SOOO easy in Florida. RIGHT! HA! Quite annoying and it will probably cost us a lot more than that check they sent. Grrr.

Oh, and also the car has started making horrendous noises from the transmission. Lovely. Tom thought maybe it just needed fluid, but we checked and it's full. So we'll have to go to the auto place. Just peachy.

Ok, now enough about me. Really.

My mom is in the hospital. Her wound started looking funny again and Liz took her right away. They've admitted her for observation for 24 hours. Hopefully it's all ok, or something they can just give her antibiotics for. I'm hopeful they don't have to reopen the wound.

And just to make everyone's day, check out the new movies I put up last night and this morning. A three part topless spaghetti extravaganza! That was taken last Thursday. He required a bath after that meal. Here he is after the bath:


I love combing his hair all up after his bath. He reminds us of Heat-Mizer from that old Christmas claymation TV movie with Cold-Mizer and Heat-Mizer. Let me see if I can find a picture online of that:

Go Gators!

So for anyone who didn't know. The Gators did win the National Football Championship this year. It was pretty neat. Tom and I aren't too into football anymore, but we used to be huge Gator fans back when we were both in school. We thought about going to the O'Connell center where they were showing the game, but we stayed home since we didn't want to disrupt Nicky's sleep schedule and we knew it was liable to get crazy near campus no matter what the result was. Tom was going to try to avoid watching the game so that his blood pressure didn't skyrocket (he gets quite into the sports stuff), but by the 2nd quarter I was hearing bits of the game coming from the TV in the den. I'm just glad the game went fairly smoothly from that point on so that he didn't have a heart attack or something.

I just uploaded several movies and some new January photos. I also went back and added about three December photos. I've got to make an effort to do more photos and not just movies all the time. It's hard to frame a movie.

Ok, for you chart stalkers out there

It's that time! We've officially started TTC #2. Nicky needs a little brother or sister. It probably will take us quite a while this time since we have to try without drugs first. So two cycles without drugs, then a few with just metformin, then we'll hit up my OB/GYN for some clomid. Here's the link to my chart.

I think I'll add it to my links list over on the right side so you can get there easily. Wish us luck! I can't wait another 11 years for the next one!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has set up their resolutions for the new year! I'm still trying to think of all of mine. First is to finish fixing up and decorating the house! AND the first step of that needs to be for us to get our stuff out of storage. We'll see how long that takes.

New videos have been uploaded lately, but I've started a new folder for the 2007 movies and I just added that to the links on the left so I don't know if folks have found them or not. So click on over to the 2007 movies folder to see the new movies for this year.