Sweet! (ish)

So, obviously, we're back from our trip. We got back in the wee hours of the morning Monday (after which I worked a 12-hour shift...yikes). It was really, really fun. Lunch with Scott and Jenee was actually really a blast. They're both fun people, and after the first few minutes, it really wasn't awkward at all (like I was afraid it would be). We ate at Olive Garden, yum, and had a lot of fun talking.

The Blues hockey game was awesome! We went with a couple people from the ward (one of whom is a Wild fan, the team we were playing, which made it interesting!). The game was really exciting, lots of action, including a good fight, which I didn't expect to see because the Blues aren't usually quite that feisty. But it was really fun. We ended up winning 3-1. Ha ha, Minnesota. :D

The drive up to Ohio wasn't bad, plus Brett and I really like road trips. We just talk and play guessing games with the iPod (which Brett always kicks my trash on because I have a really hard time remembering song titles and the like), but it's fun just to be together. We got to Ohio at 5am local time, which was not so much fun. We slept for a few hours and then left for Pittsburgh around noonish or so with Brett's parents.

Holy cow, is Pittsburgh a cool city or what? Granted, I didn't get to see a whole lot of it because we weren't there for very long, but I really liked what I saw. We did manage to go up the Duquesne (sp?) Incline, which was really fun. The downtown area actually reminded me a lot of downtown St. Louis, which helped me understand Brett's comment about St. Louis being an East-coast town. Yeah. It really kinda is.

So then we went to the Pens game. I'm really glad I got to see the Igloo, although I now totally understand why they're building a new arena. The Igloo is so old! And, for Chandra's benefit, I have to say that the bathroom was repulsive. You don't even want to know the details. Nasty. Alas, the Penguins lost the game against the New Jersey Devils, which was really a bummer, but we still had so much fun. Dad didn't actually go to the game with us, so it was just Brett and his mom and me. We really did have a blast at the game.

After the game we were on the way out to the car and this group of older women (they were totally cougars, and totally drunk) tried to stop Barbara, who was on the phone, to take their picture. She waved them off, but they managed to snatch Brett. He took a few pictures for them, and then (with me standing right there) one of them totally hit on him! She asked for his name (he only gave her his first name), then told him to look her up on facebook and call her! I stepped up (naturally) and said "Hi, I'm his wife!" with a very polite smile on my face. We started walking away and I could hear her mumble some comment, but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately?) I didn't actually hear what she said. I probably would've gone back and gotten feisty with her.

Speaking of feisty, I thought this was hilarious. We were on the Dusquesne Incline, which is basically a sort of trolley car that goes up and down some tracks up the side of this ridiculously big "hill" in Pittsburgh. It's really old, and really cool. So the four of us were on the Incline, wearing our Go Pens stuff, and there were some Vikings fans in the car with us (the Steelers played the Vikings on Sunday). Barbara totally started stuff with the Vikings fans! I don't really remember what all was said, and it was in good fun, nobody was actually getting mad or anything, but there were some good-natured taunts being thrown around. It was awesome! My mother-in-law is one feisty woman.

So after the game we drove back to Ohio, spent the night (or rather, what was left of it), and just sort of hung out the next day. We went to leave that evening, and what do you know? Our headlights stopped working. We stopped by Autozone and got one of them functioning, so we drove home with one headlight (which for some reason always makes me think of that song). At any rate, we got home safely, and all is back to normal, or at least as close to normal as we get! It really was an amazing weekend!

I'm so excited!

So, I have a LOT to be excited about over the weekend. Let's see. Well, I got my hair cut today, which I think looks amazing on me, thank you very much. It had been SIX MONTHS since the last time I got it cut. Yeah....I'm kinda lazy as far as hair appointments go. Anyway, haircut was today, and then tomorrow my coworker is going to help me touch up my dye job. Yay! I'll be all beautiful and stuff for the weekend. Sweet!

So this weekend is hockey mania weekend, at least for us. Believe it or not, Brett and his mom have totally converted me to the way of the hockey fan. Yeah. I was a little hesitant at first, but now I'm just as crazy as the rest of them. So Friday evening we're going to the Blues/Wild game here in St. Louis with a couple from church. Right after that, we're leaving to drive up to Ohio to spend the weekend with my in-laws. (Can I just insert here with no ulterior motive that I seriously hit the jackpot when it came to in-laws? They are such awesome people!) We'll get to Ohio in the very wee hours of the morning. Then (as in, that day) we're driving over to Pittsburgh to watch the Penguins/Devils game. I'm so excited! Since this is the last season they'll be playing in the Igloo, Brett really wanted to make sure I got to go to a game there. After the Pens game we'll head back to Ohio and actually spend some time with Brett's parents not being all hockey-crazy.

Brett and I have been counting down to our hockey games for at least a week. My coworkers are probably so sick of hearing about it, but I just can't help it. I'm so psyched! Gah!

Okay, calming down now, or at least trying to. The other people in the library are going to start looking at me funny. Which reminds me to mention that our computer has, like, AIDS or something. Just kidding, it's not a virus. There's something going on, we think with the wiring, that makes the screen white-out. It's really agitating.

One last thing about this weekend. I'm at a mixture of nervous/excited about this one, I'm not really sure which one I'm feeling more. I've been in contact with Scott, my biological father, for a few years now. Basically we've just emailed and chatted online occasionally. Well, I've agreed to meet with him (finally), so he and his wife are coming up this way to have lunch with Brett and I tomorrow. I guess I'll have to write more after this weekend. I don't really know how this is going to turn out, or even what to expect, hence the nervousness. I have a very healthy fear of the unknown. But I guess we'll just have to see, and hope for the best.

It's good to feel good.

So usually things are fairly uneventful here, but unfortunately this past weekend I got sick. I hate being sick, but it seems like my poor immune system coupled with working at the hospital causes me to be sick far more often than I would like.

I started feeling kind of off on Friday evening. My temperature was a little high, but nothing to really be concerned about. I was scheduled to work Saturday, and since my temperature was still well below "fever" range, I went to work anyway. I got a few hours into my shift, feeling worse all the time. I mentioned it to the nursing house supervisor who freaked out a little (although in his defense, they were flu-like symptoms and everyone's H1N1 crazy). I ended up going home a few hours early. After getting home, my temp shot up and I started feeling really miserable, so I called work back and told them. The supervisor, Dave, called me (which is saying something, since he's in charge of the entire hospital). He filled out a 'possible flu' form and faxed it to corporate health, which meant that I had to be checked out by them before I could return to work.

Needless to say, since I was feeling awful (and at Mom's advice) we decided to go see a doctor. Ha. Great timing, seeing as by then it was after 5pm on a Saturday! Eventually we found an urgent care center that was still open, since we didn't see the necessity of paying $100 for an ER visit. They did a quick flu culture that came back negative (although the doctor at corporate informed me that since H1N1 is so weak, most of the time those cultures DON'T detect it). The Dr. decided I must have an upper respiratory infection even though I didn't have a cough, had just a touch of a sore throat, and my lungs sounds were clear....hmmm..... Whatever. I haven't really been impressed with the urgent care centers lately. At any rate, she gave me a scrip and sent me on my unhappy way.

I was really miserable Saturday and Sunday. The worst thing was the body aches. Everything hurt, especially my hip joints, which made it really painful to walk. I felt kind of bad for asking Brett to get me everything, but he was such a huge help. He really is a sweet man. I don't know what I would do without him. My fever broke sometime during the night Sunday, so Monday I felt way better. I actually never got the scrip filled, since the pharmacy I go to wouldn't have opened until Monday morning (and if I'd gone elsewhere, it would've cost over $40). I was afebrile and asymptomatic all day except for one little spell in the afternoon when I got dizzy, but other than that, it was a huge difference. Today we ran over to corporate health and got me cleared to go back to work, so I'll be headed back to business as usual tomorrow.

I'm hoping Brett will stay healthy. He has an incredible immune system and seems to NEVER get sick, so hopefully that'll still be the case! I certainly wouldn't mind taking care of him, but...men tend to be such bad patients, and he admits he would probably be a terrible patient. Still, it's no fun being sick, especially when you're miserable. I'm just glad that I'm up and running again!

Ah! How could I forget?

So, most people know that I bought the little blue Tercel (the Wondercar, or as I renamed her, Lexi) after I moved home. She served me very well, but she gave up the ghost this past Christmas Eve. It's rather embarrassing to admit, but we kept her for quite a while. I didn't really want to give her up, and I wasn't sure if we were going to fix her or not.

We finally decided to get rid of poor Lexi. We contacted the Salvation Army and decided to donate Lexi to their rehab program. So they came yesterday and towed her away. It was really kind of sad. But they'll fix it up and then someone else can experience the Wondercar! It is sad to see her go, though.

Yikes. See?

I went a whole month without writing. Eek. I've got to work on that whole thing.

Not a whole lot went on over the past month. Really. It was pretty typical, so there's nothing to really say about September. We did have a fun visit with Annette and Joseph and Kimball when they came in, though. Maybe it's part of being older, but I really enjoy spending time with my family. I always think it's such a shame that Kristin and her family live so far away. Brett's never even met them! We're thinking about trying to take a trip out that way sometime soon, so maybe we'll get to see them.

So, something really weird happened yesterday. A couple of times before, my foot has started to swell on the bottom kind of up by my toes. It's been totally random, but it goes away after a day or so, and I can still function, so I haven't worried about it. Up until yesterday.

Wednesday night I notice my left eye was a little bit puffy, but I figured it was because I was tired, since it was pretty late. Well, Thursday morning I woke up and my eyelid was swollen shut! It was huge! I looked like a total freak. Well, I tried icing it off and on for a couple hours and took some Aleve, but nothing changed. So Brett left work early to drive me to the doctor (seeing as it would have been totally unsafe for me to drive with only one eye). Well, he decided that I might have a skin infection, so he put me on antibiotics. Well, I disagree with him seeing as I don't have any other signs of infection, but it's a better explanation than "My eyelid felt like randomly swelling shut." I've been on the antibiotic for over 24 hours now, so I'm not contagious, even if I was before. It's still a tiny bit swollen, but it's way better than yesterday.

That's pretty much it. Today is Mom's birthday, and we're having dinner with the family tonight. I'm totally excited! I know Mom and I butted heads a lot while I was a teenager, but now that I'm not such a "twit" (ha, I can still laugh at myself) I really love spending time with her. She's such a fun person! And I am making her birthday cake for Sunday when we go down for General Conference. Exciting!