A couple of Saturdays ago, we took a trip to the zoo. My favorite creatures to watch at the zoo are the orangutans and the apes. We must have watched them for an hour! After that we met my family for dinner at La Hacienda Ranch in Grapevine, where we got to see my favorite little monkey of all, my sweet nephew, Brock.
It was a very wise person who once said, "Leaves of three...LET THEM BE!". Another wise person once said, "No good deed goes unpunished." Well, I'm afraid that I had to learn both of these lessons the hard way last Saturday. I got the bright idea for us to get out in the yard and do some yardwork. Is this our responsibility? No. Our landlord supposedly "takes care of the yard". His version of that task and our version are two very different things! So, there we were pulling "weeds", trimming hedges, and replanting our flower bed when I got another bright idea to do the same thing on our neighbor's side of the yard (we live in a townhome and share a yard). This is where the good deed came in. Well who knew those "weeds" weren't weeds afterall...but instead.......POISON IVY!!!
By Saturday night, I had some little spots that I thought were just mosquito bites. By Sunday, I had more. By Monday, morning...MANY more! It was time to head to the doctor. Here I am one week later, THREE trips to the doctor later, TWO shots in the butt later and a myriad of itch relief potions later. And let me just tell you, this picture does not do my condition justice! This was taken early on. What you should know is that it has now traveled ALL THE WAY up and down both legs, onto my feet, up my back and stomach, and now onto the palm of my hand. SICK. I do not recall the last time I was so miserable.
Along with my "pox", I do have a pretty flowerbed. A flower bed that has now cost me$120 in doctors copays!! :( Lessons learned!
So my friend Christy tagged me...The rules are:
Tell six random things about yourself (quirky, unspectacular). Link to the person who tagged you. Tag six other bloggers by linking to them, and then let those people know that you tagged them.
I'm supposed to tell you 6 unspectacular things about myself?? This will be hard because I'm actually pretty spectacular. And humble too. Here it goes...
1. I was born with a little hole in my ear lobe. It looks like an ear piercing, but it's not. You can put an earring in it though. Weird.
2. I've been convinced for quite some time that you could fit the entire US population in Texas Stadium (Dallas Cowboys stadium). If not the old one, then the new one for sure. And I don't mean seated. I mean laying down, stacked up one on top of the other...all the way to the top. Nobody else believes this to be true, but I don't care.
3. I had my first kiss the summer after 9th grade. The boy in question said as he was leaning in, "I think I'm going to kiss you now." Really? Well if you think so, go for it! In retrospect, my response to the kiss could have been, "I think I'm going to throw up now."
4. Sometimes, I convince myself that my neighbors (who SHARE a carport with us) aren't going to see me when I walk outside in my panties to take stuff to the recycle bin. It's a little game I play. Wonder what it's going to be like when I lose?!
5. I wish I could own a baby chimpanzee. A human baby would probably cure this though.
6. I use two curling irons to curl my hair each and every day. One is a 1" barrell. The other is a 3/4" barrel. But both are necessary for the "process".
I tag...
Jessica, Al Nelson, Sydney, Kimberly, Mallie and Jenny
Hey, I now have another blog. If you're interested in checking it out, click here.
I received this video clip today from the person who loves me most on this earth. Yes, this person is in a tie with Doug, but she BIRTHED me! I found the clip to be both HILARIOUS and INSPIRING. I am considering taking my blog on small detour (which I'll tell you about later) in the coming weeks. Before I do that, I thought I'd show this little clip to you first. Click this. ***WARNING!!! There are a couple of curse words used in this video. If that is offensive to you, don't watch it.
So, you might have noticed when you were out and about this weekend that the Steffensruds were nowhere to be found. That's because we were inside getting "LOST". I don't know if you know about this show or not...ha ha...but it's AMAZING. Doug says that he likes it, but that I'm obsessed with it! I say that we are equally addicted. We finished season one...now on to season two!!
Well, as wise as I know Doug is, his mouth no longer holds the proof! On Friday, Doug went
"under the knife" for the first time in his life to have all FIVE of his wisdom teeth removed. It's quite rare to have more than four. But guess who else had five?? Me! Funny, huh? Doug had the nurses and the doc pretty cracked up when I went back to see him after the surgery was complete. He was high as a kite!! He had quite alot to say...mostly very funny things, but one pretty inappropriate thing of a sexual nature. Let me just tell you what a proud moment it was for me. Now that your curiosity is peaked about what on earth he said, I guess I'll have to tell you. The nurse was informing me how to roll the gauze bandages to make a little "bulge" in the sides of his mouth. Well, wouldn't you know that Mr. Laughing Gas just had to pipe up and say, "My wife always gives me a bulge...but not in my mouth." His speech was all slurred and his eyes were glazed over. If I didn't know better, I would have thought that instead of performing surgery, they really snuck him out the back door to a bar. Well, his comment sent the staff into some pretty hysterical laughter. Thank goodness they weren't the uptight type, right? So this weekend we've been taking it pretty easy. I've gotten to be his nurse, which has been a nice change. Up to this point, it's been him having to take care of me with my many ailments! So although I'm not happy that he had to have the surgery, I am happy that I could be here to take good care of him. He's a very good patient! BTW, the "creatures" pictured above with Doug are his "pets" from growing up. Doug wasn't ever able to have real animals due to his Mom's bad allergies. So, the bears (Beoy {Bee-Wee}and Thatcher...now both 20+ years old) have been his pets! I thought I'd bring them out to give him some extra TLC! :)
So, sometimes it might seem like a great idea to put potato skin peelings down the disposal (which I've always called the "dispose-ALL" meaning that surely it will take anything I give it!) Well, below that you will see that it is NOT a good idea to put potato skins down the "dispose-some".
I really thought it would work great! But, before I knew it, I had two sink-fulls of water and potato nastiness. So, my dear husband came in with the super plunger to "work his magic". Hmmmmm. Not so magical. The end result was our landlord attempting to fix the sink with his wife screaming orders at him in Chinese. I'm not sure what all was being said, but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the idiot who thought it would be a great idea to put potato skins in the disposal. When they left our house, I'm pretty sure they were in a fight and our sinks were still full of gunk. If you know me well, you know that I am a little neurotic when it comes to things being neat and clean. There was no way that I was about to have all of our dishes sitting out with food on them until tomorrow when he returns with a new pipe. Yes, a new pipe is needed. So, being the nut that I am, I insisted that we do this...
That's right, I washed the dishes in the front yard. This should bring back some memories for Kim and LynnAnn. When the 3 of us lived together, I went head to head with the "dispose-some" in our house too. And let's just say it didn't appreciate the POT of rice that I emptied into it. That evening also resulted in dishes being washed by a hose in the backyard. I just couldn't bare to put nasty dishes unrinsed in the dishwasher. And I definitely wasn't gonna leave them out on the cabinet since the other evening I encountered a roach that was bigger than my car. So, what else was there to do but scrub-a-dub-dub in the front yard!! Of course, Doug thought this was totally nuts and felt the need to "document". It was a fun show for the neighbors and passersby.
Well, at least I think I'm back in business. Some of you know that I have a love-hate relationship with my sciatic nerve. I love it when I don't know it's there. I HATE IT when I'm keenly aware of its presence due to the fact that it causes days of FOB (that's flat on back) and horrific pain! This little problem arose back in 2003 when I took up jogging/running. What was a wonderful exercise and route to weightloss eventually turned into the nightmare that is Sciatica. I've seen multiple doctors over the years, had MRI's, CTscans, LOTS of Hydrocodone...the works! It seems that about every six months I do something that re-injures or re-irritates that nerve. This time it was my poor decision to do some leg presses at the gym that put me FOB for about 5 or 6 days. This week, I saw the Orthopedist (who by the way, I'm pretty sure was twelve years old). So, "Doogie" as I like to call him, has suggested a very conservative approach to my healing to start out with...special exercises at PT and swimming. We'll see how this goes. Of course, there's a lot of other things to do if this doesn't work...the last option being surgery, which I have no interest in having!
So, just wanted to give a little update on my "condition" as I've had so many of you sweet friends call to inquire. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers for me as I navigate this road to recovery. I'm headed to the pool at 5am for some "pool walking". You should know that I bought myself a snazzy red mask and snorkel today. The doc said I could use these to swim since I'm not good at doing the breast-stroke and BREATHING at the same time...that is important. Surfs up!
Today, we took a little trip to Randol Mill Park. We had a picnic and then walked around in the bluebonnets. What a beautiful day it has been!
So, the other night I was reminded of a funny story that I don't want to forget. Some of us were talking about pre-marital counseling, and I happened to remember a little excerpt from one of our counseling sessions with our pastor, Dr. Wiles. He (Dr. Wiles) was asking Doug about some of the qualities that he appreciated in me. After Doug went on to say some sweet things about his bride-to-be, he then tried to say, "...and I'm really looking forward to us rubbing OFF on each other." Innocent enough, right? Well, wouldn't you know that SOMEONE got a bit nervous and instead said, "I'm really looking forward to us rubbing UP on each other!" Yes, that was a given, honey, but I'm pretty sure we weren't going to be talking about THAT until the next session! Well, Doug proceeded to turn about 14 shades of RED. Dr. Wiles was definitely red! I, of course, broke into hysterical laughter. It was great.
Well, I posted the good news about our car being all fixed. We picked it up last week. On Thursday, I noticed a squeaking/chirping type of noise. I called and they told me to bring it back on Monday. So, today after work, we went BACK to Irving where they checked things out. Well, they brought it out and said, "Okay, should be good to go now." So, we drove off only for the squeak to return! Then, they took it back up on the "rack" and checked it again. They brought it BACK around and said, "Okay, really now, it should be good to go!" So we drove off, but instead of leaving, we circled the block about 3 times just to check. Well, everything seemed to be fine...no squeaks, no chirps. Wouldn't you know that right when we got on 360 back in Arlington, the chirping began again! Ahhhhhhhhh! So, I called the guy and said, "Hey this is your squeaky 4Runner girl". He was very nice, told me to bring it back tomorrow and he'll give me a car to drive while he looks over the entire "job" again. They say a car is never quite the same following a wreck...I guess I'm finding this to be true! :(
I have two pieces of good news to share! First off, we FINALLY got our car back from the body shop. It was only there for a month!! We actually managed the One Car Mambo just fine. If nothing else, the experience has helped us to really appreciate having two cars. What's funny, though, is that we're now thinking about continuing to carpool to work. It turned out to be pretty fun to have that time together in the morning and coming home too...also it will help us save on gas! I have to say that I was VERY timid about getting the car back. I think that wreck must have really traumatized me because I have been so scared about even sitting in that car again. When we went to pick it up from the shop, I felt sort of sick to my stomach. But, Doug encouraged me to "get back on the horse"...so I did and it was fine. Of course, driving on Loop 12 in rush hour was not exactly the first ride "back on the horse" that I was hoping for! But, I survived and felt much better after driving it more today.
The second piece of good news has to do with these lovely scenes that you are looking at on this post! These are pictures of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, the place where we were honeymooners AND where we will be celebrating our first wedding anniversary! We'll be staying here...
This is the Iberostar Quetzal, a resort in Playa which will be the setting for several days of relaxing fun!! We finalized our plans yesterday and CANNOT WAIT to go!! We have been working with a travel agent, and we are so happy that she was able to find us a good deal! We're looking so forward to this trip, and to celebrating ONE YEAR OF MARRIAGE! I cannot even believe it's almost been a year since we said, "I Do". I guess it's true that time flies when you're having fun...
