Hiya Strangers!

Man, I have been WAY absent from my blog lately. So much has happened that I'm not sure how to recap, but I'll give it a shot!

Let's start with an update on Beth. Many of you have asked what her status is at this point. It's been a long road, complete with 2 night stay at the hospital in Indy. I was so overtired & mentally worn during the 24 hours I was there with her that I took the stairs every time I went from her room to the cafeteria or gift shop. There are exactly 214 stairs from top to bottom. Anyway, while she was there she had a whole group of interns & a couple of neurologists working on her. There has been a lot of blood work done & they have tweaked the dosage of medication that she had been taking. She also saw a nutritionist because some of her difficulties have come from being uncomfortable with eating. Her sensation of swallowing changed a lot & it made it hard for her to eat. The nutritionist suggested that possibly she should try a gluten free diet because sensitivity to gluten can cause the body to experience neurological symptoms. She has been home for a couple of weeks now & slowly she seems to be coming out of this episode. She has been following the gluten free diet for a couple of weeks now & she has also been trying to increase her physical activity. She went for a walk with me on Sunday & she went swimming yesterday. She is still having some pain (today her neck hurts some) & she is still experiencing some insomnia (something that both of us struggle with sometimes). Thank you so much for your prayers, expressions of concern & love. The Lord has been so faithful to strengthen us all through this & I pray that the lessons we have learned will be deeply written on our hearts. Please continue to pray for Beth. They still haven't diagnosed anything & there is the realization that it could worsen at any time. She has a follow up appointment with the neurologist on the 18th. We'll see what happens then.

Now let me update you on my house. I have had some tremendous help lately. I am happy to report that the living room is done! A wonderfully sweet lady from my church, Virginia, loves to paint & she has been really working hard for me. She primed both the bedroom & living room. Then she came back for more punishment & painted them both. She did the living room all by herself while Mike & I helped in the bedroom. The bedroom just needs to have the crown molding nailed up & then it will be done. Yay!
We have also started on the bathroom. We pulled all the trim off & have begun to hang wainscoting & paneling. The walls in there are just too uneven & messed up to paint. So the bottom half will be wainscoting & the top half is another type of paint-able paneling. Mike has gotten two walls done. He also removed some cabinets that were next to the shower. He is going to build me a custom cabinet so that it will be the right size for hampers & other things that I want to hide in there. The cabinets that we pulled out may actually get used in the kitchen (they match exactly). We're going to replace the lighting in the bathroom as we go along & once all the walls are done, Virginia is ready with her paintbrush!
Then all that's left will be the kitchen & dining room. I think that once the bathroom is done I might try to start cleaning up & moving some. I don't like living in the middle of a remodeling project, but thanks to my parents I've had lots of experience doing it! :-)

Work has been going really well. I've been a technician long enough now that I had to recertify & renew my license. That was a flurry of continuing education & form filling out. I'm glad it's behind me for two more years. Strangely enough, I did learn a lot from my CE. If you have any questions about Medicare Part B or how to regulate thyroid hormone levels, give me a call!

Six weeks ago I made a major change that I should have posted about. I got my hair whacked! I had about 6 inches chopped off & do I ever wish I had done it sooner. It would have made for some fabulous before & after shots but alas, I didn't get it done.

And now for some milestone occasions that have passed...Mike & I have been dating for nine months. That's about 8 1/2 months longer than any of my other relationships - lol! I kinda can't believe he's still hanging around but he still seems to like me ;-) Also, I celebrated my 31st birthday this last Sunday. My parents were on vacation (yeah, what kind of timing is that???) so I had lunch & cake with Beth & the family. Then after church that night Mike made me dinner - homemade pizza. Yum. And yeah, he got me a present. Good man that he is he got me exactly what I asked for...a salad spinner! I know I'm weird & all that but seriously, I hate soggy romaine! I've been told that they don't really work but we'll just have to give it a try anyway. It's super cool - it even has a brake on it. My family is having a bash for me this Saturday night. If you're nearby please drop in! ;-)

So that's my massive update. Hopefully I'll have some pics of the house posted in the next couple of days. How's that for a little teaser?