My evening's in danger! *

I've had this song (this version) stuck in my head all week. (Thanks Marissa)

And for some reason the video is backwards...that's ok, it's Friday (fun, fun, fun, fun).
Happy Friday!

May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor.*

On Saturday I went to visit my parents and talk to them about what is wrong with me. I got some medical input from my mom and I got a priesthood blessing from my dad and brother-in-law. Mom informed me that I have a condition called, thrombocytopenia. This is the fancy way of saying I have low blood platelets. Really, that's all it is. It is a symptom that usually improves when the underlying cause is treated...so we just have to fix that and I'm good.

I also learned where platelets go, because when I found out that I had low platelets I wondered how I lost them. I hadn't suffered any injury, I wasn't bleeding in any way, so where did they go? Turns out that the average life of a platelet is 10 days. Raise your hand if that's new to you.

There are several things that can lead to reduced platelet formation - here are the ones I found on a medical website.

• Pregnancy


• Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purura - My body is confused and is fighting my platelets (sounds idiopathic to me)


• Autoimmune disease


• Bacteria in the Blood

I'd keep going but the others made me want to gag so I am taking a break.

...Anyway...I have decided that I would at least have a little fun with being exhausted/sick...so I'm taking bets on what's wrong with me - the winner gets 100 blog bucks (that's basically getting 10 posts correctly)!

You want to know why it's that high? Because - without a medical degree you will have guessed better than my soon to be former doctor.

So go ahead and take a guess at what you think it is.

Here are some possibilities that people have already said they think it might be, but don't let that limit you:

• African Sleeping Sickness


• Thyroid


• Anemia


• Mono


• Mental (a.k.a. all in your head)


• Diary allergy


• A random virus just passing through, take two aspirin and call me in a month (you would get 150 points for this because it's basically what the doctor says)

Good luck and may the odds be ever be in your favor!

Weadababyitsagirl*

She's here! The newest addition to the Donbro collection

Sadie

Born 1/10/12

Welcome to the family kid! You're gonna love us!

Fight the good fight, precious!*

I'm a little/lot behind on post. In December, a group of us went to D.C. to see the lights at the Temple. It's not like Salt Lake's, but it's ours.
Brittany likes to think that she is tall. She is standing UP on the curb and the boys are standing off the curb...and on of them might be bending their knees.Then we ran into Jesse (he had been all over interviewing for schools and he was at the train station so he came to meet us to get a ride home).

...See how excited he is to be back?

We didn't just go see the lights though, the Richmond Chorale was also up there performing. So we got (free) tickets and waited for the doors to open. We all went in as a group but at the bottom of the stairs Jesse broke off to use the facilities. I told him we'd save him a seat. They had Sister Missionaries there directing traffic and as we got into our row I said to the person behind me to leave a spot for Jesse and the Sister Missionary at the end of our row said, "No saving seats." I said, "Oh, he had his ticket he just ran to the bathroom." and she repeated, "No savings seats." and I looked at my friend and said more quietly, just leave a seat, he'll be back in a second. I didn't think he should have to sit by himself because he had to go to the bathroom. So I kept looking for him because the mean missionary was still at the end of our row. I got distracted by something but looked back just in time to see the sister missionary telling Jesse that he had to find a seat further back and I threw up my hand and told him we had a seat for him. She relented and let him pass. It was crazy, we almost lost him.

Aside from the that, the performance was great. Then we hung out in the lobby waiting for the rest of our group to get there.I just love this picture of Tia and Jesse, I don't know why, it makes me think they are on a talk show.
Then we all went to the parking lot to decide where to eat dinner.

That didn't work too well, we split up into two groups. Group A went to Cafe Rio and Group B went to Cheeburger, Cheeburger. Guess which group I was in?

(This picture was taken to show the difference in the sizes of our burgers).

The Cheeburger gang.

Excuse me. I have to go die now.*

The hot flashes started Saturday evening and continued through...well, they are still going on. Every morning when I wake up I feel like maybe I have the flu.

Tuesday morning was the worst day at that point, so I got up and called the doctor to make an appointment. Then I called my boss and left an incoherent message - something about asking her if I could just go back to sleep.

I woke up from my "nap" just in time to scurry out the door with the panicked feeling that I was going to be late and bumped back to a later appointment.

The thing I love hate about the doctor is that you I go because you I am not feeling well, after signing in, I get to sit in a waiting room full of a bunch of other people - most of them not feeling well. Here's how it goes:

9:50 - Sign in for a 9:45 appointment

9:52 - Find a spot in the corner where I continue to go through alternating chills and hot flashes

10:26 - get called up to fill out paperwork (which I swear I filled out last year). This may be routine but I don't go to the doctor that often, the past year has been an anomaly.
10:40 - get called back to the office
10:45 - nurse leaves me to sit there staring at a wall
10:58 - Enter, The Doctor

When the nurse took me back to my own personal waiting room there were blood pressure cuffs (2) on the little patient chair, so the nurse told me to have a seat in the "mom's" chair (you know - the chair your mom would sit in if you still took your mom with you to the doctor - I miss those days, mostly because my mom is a nurse and can interpret for me, but also because I am a big baby when I am sick).

Then she enters my information in to the system. She double checks my height with me, "5'10.5" right?" No, not at all. I took an awkward second of making a little noise and then started. "I'm normally 5'11" but last time she wrote down that I was 5'10.5", I explained. The last time I came to the doctor they took down my weight and the girl entered my height as 5'10.5" for no apparent reason. I had just let it go, maybe I had shrunk. So the nurse fixed it for me so I have been reinstated as a 5'11" individual.

She leaves and the doctor comes in a little later. She has an accent, don't know exactly what it is yet, but it's definitely South American. She asks me my symptoms and informs me that I am referring to the incorrect anatomy (I was saying neck, she told me that when it's in the front you call it the throat - I am okay with this, I appreciate knowledge in all forms). She doesn't touch the neck throat at all though. She does stick her fingers under my eyes and above my brow, asking me if that hurts. Sinus infection just got ruled out.

I do have a fever though, so she tells me to drink plenty of liquids and says I'm viral something...can't remember the word. All I could think was, "I'm so popular" cause I've gone viral. Then she tells me she wants to put in an order for some blood work, my mind immediately went to last time...when I threw up after they took my blood. This must have shown on my face because then she asked if I would mind if they took my blood. Of course not! Where the doctor fails to tell what is wrong with you, the blood will reveal what's happening.

So she walks me back to the lab and she tells me she'll call me tomorrow. I go in to get the needle and I'm trying to relax so I don't have a repeat of last time, but trying to relax is working me up. The girl snaps her glove and I say, "I don't like needles, so I am just going to close my eyes." She says that is fine and asks if I want to know what she is doing...No! I'm pretty sure I know why I am there and closing my eyes is so that I don't know what it's coming. I feel the needle go in and I count to 5 as slowly as I can. I ask if she is done before I open my eyes though. Then I apologize, because I thought that I would get over this needle thing as I grew older. She says, "I'm the same way" and I'm looking at her with those gloved hands that just drew my blood, those hands that now hold a vial of my blood...and she shakes it. It's like adding insult to injury - she shook my blood in front of me! I wanted to gag.

I went home after that - I went home and I got some blankets and I tried to just sleep. Ryan came over later and by the time he got there my little blanket had turned into a sauna and I was burning up. He wouldn't let me eat cake but he went and got us a pizza for dinner (yes - I wanted to eat some cake and yes - he let me have greasy pizza for dinner...and yes - I regretted it....and yes, I pined for the cake he wouldn't let me eat - you my friend are right on all counts).

Tuesday night I couldn't warm up, I had three blankets wrapped around me and I was still shivering. Ryan added two more and I think I finally started to warm. I woke up in the middle of the night burning. I got rid of all the blankets and most of my clothes. I woke up on Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. I called my boss and left another incoherent message.

The doctor called me on Wednesday. She told me that my white blood cells were low and my platelets were low. She said they were 80 and my pharmacist (Amber) told me that "normal" is 120. Ryan (that little math whiz) informed me that that's a third! That explains the tiredness and the inability to regulate my body temperature. The Doctor told me I was really sick (though she didn't have a name for it and she wasn't calling anything in) and that she is going to call me back on Friday but if I start to feel worse then I should come back in or go to the hospital. She called me honey and sweetheart a lot and said a lot of "pleases", please rest, please don't do anything that would cause you to bleed, please call me if you feel worse. I'm going to admit, it was harder to function after that. I just kept thinking, "I'm low on platelets, I'm dying."

She is going to call back tomorrow, at least, that is what she told me she would do so I am assuming she will follow through. She seems kind of like Saul to me (Saul is my car salesman from September/October). He made a lot of follow up calls and I feel like she will make as many as necessary. In the meantime, I'm semi ok during the day and I start going down hill around 5 or 6 at night. I get colder before I catch fire and I'm hungry but don't feel like eating anything...and the Wii Fit says I've gained two pounds...I haven't even eaten anything! Cheap. Let's hope I get over this soon. I need to start working out.

Random tidbit, I have decided to call hemoglobin - Hemogoblins...I think it's more fun.

Maniacal laugh! Maniacal laugh! Maniacal laugh!*

My dad gave me a schedule for my exterior painting - the porches before winter, the house when the spring comes. So I spent two Mondays painting porches. Luckily for me, Ryan offered to help out. Not only did the job take longer than I thought (two days rather than one) but my dad said to get a wire brush to get the dirt off. To me, this means "sweeping" the porch with the wire brush. To Ryan it meant probably what my dad meant, give it a good hard scrub.

So...that became Ryan's job.

Ryan scrubbed, then I came up behind and started painting. At one point he took on the job of cutting back the grass that had grown up by the steps...good thing he did it too because he found a nice little friend. A black widow spe-i-der!* He could have died! If I had been cutting back the grass and come across any spider I would have screamed, come down with a case of shivers and gagging, and called it quits for the day. As is, Ryan secured the area and I kept painting.

Then the next week we painted the front porch, he was cutting back grass again and wouldn't you know? He found another black widow! When we finished painting, I went around to both porches and sprayed a bunch of spider killer. I could gag now just remembering the spiders.

Here are some pictures. The porches were a "beautiful" rusty red (no clue - I don't have a refined color palette like some people). You can see the wear and tear a bit.


We went with a Super Sonic Steel (or some 's' word meaning fast!)Can you feel the wind in your hair?


Side Porch Front Porch

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.*

Here they are

The 2012

Nothing too special this year, I think I may have over done it last year with a 1/2 marathon and 50 books. But this is what I have. I have set another theme for myself, after having basically failed last year's. I have set some goals for 2012 that will help me to refocus and to reach that theme. The theme for 2012 is Come Ye to the Waters: The Time Has Come to be With the Master. In Lildonbro speak it's, "Seriously work on your theme and build your relationship with God: Time to get your butt in gear, no more procrastinating." I also have "regular" goals in there too.

1. Turn in my first story to a publishing agent by the end of April - rejection or no rejection


2. Continue to work on budget and reducing debt. I'd like to stop buying random things as they come to mind (a particular book, new pillows, etc. Sometimes a "need" can wait until the budget permits).


3. Buy a couch - Okay, okay, I'm really reaching here...but my guests get sucked into the couch I paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for (the couch that came with the free house). I have been putting away a little money here and there for a couch and if I don't make it a goal or hold myself accountable I may never do it. Wait - I'm going to change the name of this goal to Home Improvement, because I also want to paint the house, finish the fence, and kill all the spiders (in all the world...too ambitious?)


4. Simplify - This one goes for two senses of the word. One - I have too much junk, I am determine to downsize my surplus. Two - to go along with the goals below, I want to simplify my life, cut out the fat, trim down to the things that matter most.

Follow through on my 2012 Theme by doing the following:

1. Draw closer to my Heavenly Father, build a deep and rich testimony of who he is and who I am by studying my scriptures regularly (ahem - daily)


2. Participate in more service by being more faithful and diligent in my callings, by seeking out someone who is sitting alone, by being a friend to those who need a friend, and by seeking out opportunities to serve the community.


3. Bearing my testimony at least four times a year in Sacrament Meeting (you don't understand, this scares me to death).


4. Going to the temple at least once a month, beginning in January - no exceptions.


5. Prioritizing all of my wants and needs to find those things that will be of most benefit to me not necessarily now, but things that may be of benefit in the future, such as building and sustaining good habits such as: Daily scripture study and prayer, FHE (either with the ward or on my own), praying over all meals (even if alone), eating meals at the table instead of in my room or in front of a movie (I don't want to develop a bad habit, I would want my kids to sit at the dinner table, not eat in front of a movie).


6. Avoid gossip - it can spring up out of nowhere so watch how you are talking about others. If it feels mean spirited or has no purpose to help that person, don't say it.

There you have it. My goals this year seem so different to me than in years past. There aren't too many where I can check them off in the beginning of the year and be done, most of them are things I'll be working on for most of my life, but I feel it's time for me to begin to focus on these things. I feel I have neglected them this past year. What are some of your goals for the new year?