TP Problems

The other day, I went into the Ladies' Room to do my lady business.  Without going into too much detail (since this is a post about the bathroom and I don't want to give everyone a mental image here), when I was finished with my business, I looked over to the toilet paper roll and saw this:

There are 2 sheets of single-ply TP on there.

Really ladies???

2 sheets... you can't do ANYTHING with 2 sheets.  You can't even effectively wipe your nose with 2 sheets.

Usually when the roll gets low, someone will put a new roll next to the potty so it is ready when needed.  There was no extra roll this time.  Some lady really dropped the ball here.  Did I mention that there are 4 women in my office?  So it is pretty easy to figure out who the culprit is.

You know life is REAL interesting when you are posting about toilet paper.  Beats cancer posts.  :)

A DVD Player, A Bicycle, and Phil

I was driving home yesterday and Gotye's "Somebody that I used to know" was on the radio.  Some horrible song was on after it, so I switched to another station.  Of course "Somebody that I used to know" was playing on that station as well.  So I plugged in my iPhone and began listening to that instead.  The next song that popped up was the Glee version of "Sombbody that I used to know" (which I prefer to the original actually).



This song always make me think of the biggest and worst break-up I ever had.  It also happened to be the best and worst relationship I have been in (my marriage is by far just the best relationship ever).

The relationship was with the TA for my Vector Calculus class. We dated for just over 2 years in total, during which time I think he broke up with me about 17 times.  Each time he said he wanted to see what his options were (such a sweetheart) and each time I wanted him to come back.  One of the things I am most embarrassed about is that I didn't have any confidence to kick him to the curb the FIRST time he said that to me.  He treated me like garbage.  I was so heartbroken/embarrassed about this relationship that I spent a year on the other side of the world just to make sure I was as far away from him as possible.

Anyway, the part of the song that does not remind me of this relationship is the part that says "have your friends collect your records..."

Here's how you know the break-up is bad:  neither one of you bothers to collect your stuff from the other person.  By the time our relationship was over, we were both so ready to be done with each other that we both agreed the other person could just keep whatever we had left at the other's house.  I think he got a pillow of mine and a pillowcase.

I, however, made out like a bandit.  He gave me a DVD player and a bicycle.

Overall, that relationship had a HUGE effect on me as a person.  He helped me gain some independence, travel, and helped me transition to living on my own.  It is also because of that relationship that I decided to go to England and get a Master's degree.  If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have met so many of my close friends and definitely would not have met Phil.  He also helped me determine exactly what I wanted in a man and how I wanted to be treated.  Those criteria helped me see what an amazing catch Phil was and he was definitely the guy I wanted.  All the heartache was most definitely worth it to get Phil.

Plus I got that DVD player and bicycle.

Make THIS tonight!

My sister-in-law gave me a recipe this weekend she said we just had to try.  So we did.  And it was SO GOOD!!  So I think you should try it too.  They may not sound or look all that appealing (hence why there are no pictures), but BELIEVE ME they are good.  My SIL says her little boys even love it.


Creamy Chicken Burritos

Ingredients:
1 package of thin-sliced chicken breasts
1 large jar of Pace Chunky salsa
1 package of cream cheese (my sister-in-law says the low-fat kind isn't good)

Put all the chicken and the entire jar of salsa in the crock pot and cook all day.

30 minutes before you want to eat, stir.  The chicken will shred as you stir it.  And then stir in the cream cheese.

Serve on warmed tortillas.

And then write me an e-mail and thank me for the wonderful recipe.  :)

Feeling better?

It's been 2.5 weeks since I got back on my beloved thyroid medicine.  I get to have another wonderful phlebotomy experience on Wednesday.  I am just SUPER excited about it.  I will be specifically asking for Tonya this time around.

Anyway... I know I am feeling better these days.  But I think people assumed that the second I got back to taking the thyroid medicine, I would be feeling normal again (who knows what normal feels like since I am now missing a very important gland).  So I started thinking about whether or not I was actually feeling better and came up with the following lists.

Feeling Better

- Worked out 3 times last week.  An hour a piece.  I'm not sure how long it has been since I have done this.  Easily, it has been 6 months.  I am OUT OF SHAPE.  Who knew walking could be so difficult?
- I can safely yawn again without my entire body cramping up.  In fact, I haven't had a muscle cramp in about a week and a half.
- I made dinner.  Like a couple of times.
- Cleaned the bathtub.  It was disgusting.  Let's not talk about it, you'll think I'm gross.
- I actually want to do things.  Crafts, cleaning, projects, work...  It's weird.

Not Better

- Waking up is still REALLY hard.  And getting ready feels like torture.
- My ability to focus is non-existant.  I had a really hard time putting some reports together this morning, as in figuring how to photocopy stuff was more of a challenge that ever before.  Pretty sure my 86-year-old grandmother would have had an easier time doing it (Hi Grandma!!).
- Yesterday, I was ready for bed at 5:30.  Newborns stay up later than that.
- I am SUPER grumpy.  Mother's Day was offensive to me.  My brothers are taking turns being mean to me.  Everybody hates me.  Nobody can drive correctly.  People whine about their "problems" and they aren't real problems.  You catch my drift.  I wrote this seriously snarky blog post last week and never published it because I didn't want to offend anybody.  I probably shouldn't be allowed around people right now.

Good news!!  It will only take like 4 or 6 months to get this all figured out!  Smiley-face.

It's better than having to prepare for another radioactive iodine treatment though so I will take it.

TGIF

Thursday was a LONG day.  I had to get up at the crack of dawn for work (seriously didn't know I want capable of getting up at 5:30 in the morning), worked a full day (which included realizing once again what a jerk my brother can be), and then a workout with Anna.  It was a good day, but long.  Today I have a million things to do, and the energy to do none of them.

So I don't really have a lot to say.  I am thankful it is Friday and that we have some fun activites planned for our weekend.  I figured I would leave you with this song.  I was introduced to it by Cait and we (Phil and I) are fans.

Happy Friday!!

A New Season

I have a lot of feelings these days and a really hard time expressing them.  I wrote 5 blog posts this weekend and I don't like any of them.  They don't really have a clear purpose or message.  Probably because I can't get my own thoughts figured out.  I'd hate to spend the entire week with posts that don't really make sense or bombard you all with all these emotions I am having.  You probably don't want to hear about them and it feels really personal.  For the first time in a long time I am struggling with how much to share.

I was attempting to explain to Phil how I felt this weekend and he said, "At some point you are going to have to accept that you don't have cancer anymore."  Once he said that, I started kind of tearing up.  So many months of worrying like crazy and it was basically over.  I can't seem to wrap my mind around it.  I'm excited and exhausted and grateful and overwhelmed all at the same time.

Literally right when I got my results, the weather around here changed. We hadn't seen spring in Oregon for more than a day at a time. Ever since last Wednesday, there's been sunshine almost every day. There has actually been a change in the seasons around here. Winter is gone and a new, sunnier Spring has arrived. I find it hard to ignore the timing of it all.

I am cautiously optimistic for what this new season brings. Mainly I am cautious because after months of worrying, it feels strange to put cancer behind me. But it needs to happen and it is time. I just don't know how life sans thyroid will be like yet. I probably need to wait until my hormones are normal to figure it out for sure.

Mainly I wanted to apologize for my lack of response and boring blog posts. This morning I realized that I hadn't responded to any comments you guys left last week, which was pretty bratty of me.  I am very sorry.  So if you got an e-mail from me this morning about a comment you left me last week, now you know why.  :)

I am off to design some buildings and size some water quality facilities.  No big deal.  And to figure out what to do with this sunshine.  I will leave you with proof o the lovely weather we have been having.

{This morning I went to a site to auger some holes and look at the moisture of the soil.  I know you are SO JEALOUS of my job.  There happened to be this old chimney onsite.}

Really Walgreens?

As I'm sure you are painfully aware, I am just recently back on my thyroid medicine after 5 (horrible) weeks becoming super hypothyroid.  A fate I wouldn't wish on my enemy. 

The night before I was to start taking them, I lovingly opened the bags and may or may not have sang songs of joy to my husband about them.  That is... until I noticed there weren't many pills in the container.  Then I read the instructions:

"Take 1 pill daily, alternating with 175 mcg every other day"

I didn't have any 175 mcg pills.  And I only have 15 pills to last a month.  This meant I was going to run out in 2 weeks and not be able to refill them for a month.  I got a mild panic attack.

2 visits to the pharmacy later and the prescription got fixed.  The endo had sent in a new prescription for 30 days of the correct dose.  All's good.

Except insurance wouldn't fill it because, according to them, I didn't need any more pills for 2 more weeks.  (Side Note:  Why is my health insurance questioning the advice of my doctor?) I made several calls to Walgreen's.  They managed to not fix the problem and I was getting dangerously low on pills.

At this point, I began to feel like a drug addict.  And I was seriously questioning my insurance and Walgreen's.  Why wouldn't they fill this dang prescription?  Were they afraid I was going to sell them?  After over a month of hypothyroidism, those pills were like gold to me.  Does Synthroid go for a lot of money on the black market?  Not that it matters because ain't NO ONE getting mine!

Yesterday I called in the morning.  The tech said they would call my insurance and get it figured out.  Later that evening, I went to pick the meds up and they weren't ready.  Apparently they still needed to call my insurance.  They proceeded to call at 6:30 in the evening and then inform me that no one was available to talk to him because they were closed.  Duh.  That's why I called in the morning!!

I finally got my prescription.  And it's a good thing since I was about to start cutting people if I didn't have them in time.  Not really.  Maybe.