Wow, nothing like a little self-diagnosis to put things into perspective.

I am not a big fan of sharing those TMI moments with people. I keep a lot of that inside, unless it's relevant to conversation or necessary for someone to know. This, however, is completely necessary to share.


Since early 2010 I have suffered from frequent VBI's, I am on antibiotics at least every 3 months to treat them. Last December I went through major abdominal pain, fatigue, a period every 2 weeks that lasted 5 days, and numerous other problems that had me thinking that the cervical cancer I had been diagnosed with 14 months earlier had progressed. Once I had made it into the doctor in January, the pleathera of tests and x-rays had all come back negative for any problems except for yet another VBI and the remnants of what they believed was a cyst that had already burst. They blamed all of it on the cyst, gave me antibiotics for the VBI and sent me on my way. In March, the symptoms of having another VBI appeared again so I emailed my doctor and asked for another round of antibiotics be called into the pharmacy and they obliged without me having to go in for yet another appointment. By this time I had it in my head that I had nothing wrong with me, so the pains and abnormal stomach issues I just brushed off as I must've eaten something my body didn't like and like your Mom always told you when you were growing up "It's all in your head" became a frequent thought for me. Right around February I had noticed patches of psoriasis starting on my elbows, it's a very dry scaly round patch about an inch in diameter. Ever since I was little I've had bouts of ecxzema and have dealt with blemished skin and embarrassing patches that comes and goes as it pleases. I was able to get ahold of a homeopathic moisturizing cream and an oral tablet that so far is helping tremendously after 5 days of using them. In the midst of all of this, 2 weeks ago, another VBI showed up again. After doing major research and spending way too much time online, I never found a homeopathic remedy so I ended up calling in another request for a round of antibiotics to my doctor. Now, mind you, everytime I'm on the antibiotics, my whole world changes a little. I have to take the pills with food, I don't normally eat breakfast, but I have to for these 7 days or I end up with major stomach cramps, like double you over stomach cramps. I also cannot drink alcohol, or the same happens, I'm not a huge drinker, but I do like to have a couple when I'm out with the girls. So this morning I started a round of pills. Most of the day I have spent reading up on different causes of the VBI, which all anything is really giving me is the bad bacteria takes over the good bacteria and voala. This, as many of you may know that know me, is not a good enough answer. So as I'm clicking through sites and reading further into what causes the problems that I have, that by the way the doctors can't figure out, I find Candida albicans. For those of you who know what this is, please bear with me while I try and explain. It is a yeast/fungal overgrowth in the intestines. It affects many people, in many different ways. In me, I can't even begin to tell you all of the symptoms I have that point to Candida. Some of them though, include: Frequent VBI's, issues that belong with IBS, muscle and joint problems and tightness, fatigue, skin problems (psoriasis and excema) and seriously I could go on and on. Today, it became completely clear to me what is wrong with me though. As soon as I am done with the antibiotic (which is really just feeding the yeast/fungus that is living inside me) I will be starting a cleanse, that from what I understand will have to be taken for the rest of my life. Candida could affect my brain, and may have already started to, it is really quite disturbing that the doctors most of the time won't even humor the idea of this being a problem in people. They are so much more concerned to get their pay day that they would rather prescribe antibiotics and pain killers that will never completely solve the problems.


I'm sorry if this was TMI, again. But, really, this is serious. I am so sad that I could have lived with this forever and thought it was normal. I will be sure and keep everyone informed on how my self-treatment goes.

The excitement...to end a month.

Today they announced we will have a football season afterall. After 4 months of stalemate, the owners and players of the NFL came to an agreement and signed their new contracts that will last 10 years. What happens from here is going to happen fast. Free agents are available for offers and the rookie can be picked up as well as of tomorrow. The scramble is about to be crazy! Who wins who with what deals will be interesting once all is said and done. I'm happy the Seahawks will have a season, but I'm worried who we will end up with as our QB. It's not looking good for Hasselbeck, who in March before the lockout, declined a year contract with the Hawks to hold out for something "better". It sounds like Tennessee is interested in him, now more that we are. I guess that's what you get for being selfish...But yay for Tennessee. This however leaves me in a who are we gonna get though? kinda situation. Sounds like maybe we are interested in Carson Palmer, or even Kevin Kolb, but I'm really more curious of what these guys could contribute...I'm still reading up on the stats. What I really am the most interested in is having a winning season, and making it back to the super bowl this year, or even next. Lets go guys, time to bring the pain!

It is officially 1 month until Cabo. In 1 month, I will be sitting pool side drinking a tasty fruity alcoholic beverage with my best girl friend in the world. Have I mentioned I'm ready? I got my passport on Friday and that was the absolute last thing that I needed. We've been shopping for swim suits on ebay, I found some really georgeous sarongs, a camera and an SD card for it, sunglasses, and flip flops. I've been a shopping fool! But at least I'm done with that part, everything is set...now the time just needs to pass so I can escape! Have I mentioned I'm ready? Haha! At least I don't have to pack much clothes, I'm traveling to 95 degree weather :). And after today's high of 60 and rain, I'm ok with that!

Everyone have a great week!!!

The craziness never ends!!!

What a crazy week it has been! I don't feel like we have stopped much at all lately, or at least I haven't. Last week a new Point of Sale system was installed at the restaurant that I manage. It sure is a good thing I know how to open a CD drive, which is what some like to call my techie skills, because the tech support guy for the company that installed the system was new, and I have ended up doing all the programming and changes on it. It's fun to do, but it was hectic the first couple days and this weekend because we would find something wrong and then I would have to run to the computer to fix it. I think this happened at least 5 times both Saturday and Sunday. Hopefully, today, all the bugs and quirks have been fixed and I don't end up getting any calls to dial in to the system. Oh, yea, I made it so I didn't have to go in to fix things anymore. I can dial in from any computer and make changes. Yay me for being efficient!!!

Girls night was great last Thursday! I spent time with 2 of my bestest buds from Jr. High, and a new friend joined as well. I cherish these nights with my girls! It's great to have fun and go out, and get non-mommy time! Friday night was spent programming...here's where the tired started to set in. I was up early Saturday morning for work and didn't get out of there until after 2:00. Then it was home to change and load the family into the car for Caden's 4th Birthday at the lake! This was one of the relaxing times of the weekend. I was so proud of Caleb, he went tubing behind the Sea-doo (with a life-vest of course). This took a ton of convincing, and in the end he was telling me how cool that was! It's great to see my "momma's boy" take those kind of chances.

My Saturday night included us meeting up with Shana and Pat at the Great American Casino to watch a band that I can't for the life of me remember the name of, which is sad because they were awesome! We had some together adult time, Larry and I, short lived because we were only out for a couple hours, but those breaks with him are what I live for and look forward to. The part you've all been waiting for: People watching.
During our few hours there, we observed:
#1-Lady in her 40's, with a leathery face, oversized silicon implants, and long hair that she brushed in between songs at her table. Each time she sat down, out came the brush from her purse and into her hair it went. I think she did this because her hair flips went in rhythm with her hip gyrations, which all were completely over exaggerated, and her hair was probably tangled by the time the song was over. She wore jeans, that were probably a size too small because they were so tight that it looked like she poured herself into them. Her top was a lowcut tank top, in white, that I was pretty sure she would literally pop out of at anytime. Please tell me that you all can picture this in your mind and are laughing out loud like we did while watching her. I think by the time we left, she found her toothless match that she was grinding with on the dance floor.
#2-Girl in her 20's, dancing for her "girlfriend" close to the stage. No one else is on the dance floor because the band is on one of their breaks. From the crowd comes a guy, "lookin' like a fool with your pants on the groud" and an oversized white t-shirt. He clearly wants to dance with her, or them, I'm not really sure at this point, but what I am sure of is he is completely in a drunken state of invincible! He is doing what he thinks is break-dancing on the dance floor-luckily no one else is in the vicinity of him or they could end up with a black eye! Back to the girls...there's "little" girl, who is about 5' tall with pink hair and then there's the "big" girl, who really is what this is all about. "Little" girl I really can't see and don't notice, she's behind a speaker and I get a glimpse of her when she moves her head, but only of the back of her head. "Big" girl is about 2 feet taller than "little" girl, and is dancing like a stripper. Now, the funny part is she thinks she's sexy, but she isn't. Let's just say, I might throw pennies, but what is happening is Mr. Invincible is actually throwing dollars...I could go on and on about this little "party" that was happening as if there weren't 200 other people in the room, but this is as far as the funny goes.
Sunday after work, Larry BBQ'd and Shana and Pat came over to visit. I knew they'd been missing us (and Larry's cooking!) and we were missing them too. I love my Shana!!! And now, drum roll please.....
MEXICO IS FINAL! THE TRIP IS BOOKED AND SHANA AND I WILL OFFICIALLY BE HIDING UNDER ROCKS (OR AT LEAST POOL SIDE UNDER UMBRELLAS) AUGUST 25-31ST!

Yahoo!!!

Anyway...Larry and I have a date night tonight! Just me and him and I am finally taking him to see Fast Five. I've seen it, in fact the first day it was in theaters, but we didn't stay for the final credits because at that point no one said we should since it was after all the first day. So, we are going tonight, to the $2 theater, and we'll watch the final credits. I'm glad the theaters are dark, because Vin Diesel is yummy and I might drool a little.

Everyone have a splendid week, and you Seattlites enjoy the sun we are having today and tomorrow. The rain is promising to come back to water the lawns on Wednesday. Hey! At least we don't have to water them! It's called water conservation, people!

I hit the 3-month mark.

Today is officially 3 months since I quit my worst habit, smoking. This is of course is the umpteenth time that I've quit, but this time it was cold-turkey and I think it's going to stick. I've tried Chantex, the patches, the gum, the anti-depressants (that included a swollen face!!!, turns out I was allergic to the main ingredient in Zyban). Today is one of the first days that I've actually thought that maybe having a smoke would make me feel a little bit better about the friggen day! Work has been crazy, I've been here pretty much alone, except for the book-keeper and a couple of the guys has been in and out sporatically (I love that word), so like I said, I've been here alone. The morning started with the most bipolar customer I've ever dealt with. I have spoken to her at least 8 times since Thursday of last week, and I'm pretty sure she has that many personalities. I'm not kidding. She is literally a different person each time I speak with her, and each time I speak to her, she's apologizing for the time before because it's "crazy" for her today. Wow. That's what I say. Wow. I'm done talking about work after that.

All I have been able to think about is Mexico. I don't want to rub it in, but (famous last words) I probably will end up doing that anyway. We have decided to stay at the Marina Fiesta Resort, it's right in Cabo San Lucas, close to clubs and the nightlife. I'm not sure how much we will actually leave the resort, but at least the option is there. The price is the most reasonable up to this point that I've found, I keep finding promo codes for the travel site, and then there's this summer deal or that summer deal. I can't believe that we are actually going for 7 days, sometimes I wonder if maybe I'll get lost down there. I doubt it, but here's to wishful thinking. Although 7 days is probably plenty for me with the disappearing act. I think that cell service is really expensive in Mexico so I won't be in contact during that time either. Yay us for disappearing!

So, my crawl under a rock kinda day didn't happen today. Probably won't happen tomorrow either. Or the next day. Or the next. So, I'm going to go ahead and schedule my crawl under a rock kinda day for August 25th. Be advised!

Was that a bus that just hit me?

After this weekend, I have to say, it was the hardest thing to come to work today. I worked at the restaurant Saturday, Sunday and Monday mornings until about 1 or 2 each day. I think Saturday was the only afternoon I didn't really do anything. Sunday I took Stevie to the mall for a swim suit and a hair cut. I realized after I got home that I probably should've taken the kids and given Larry a break. I will be thinking of that more often. Sunday night I was in the kitchen for about 4 hours. I made these Fancy Lime Jello Shots (recipe courtesy of my friend Alexis). They were a huge hit, were gone after 1 round, but were the biggest pain in the rear to make! I thought maybe my melon baller tool would work to get the meat out of the lime, but no luck. It was another day that I was glad to have acrylic nails, because that is what I found the easiest way to do it! I will be investing in a grapefruit spoon for this purpose next time. I also found this really great cupcake tin at the store to do mini cupcakes! I ended up with 5 dozen cupcakes after all was said and done. We placed them in the pans and then decorated with frosting to look like an american flag. They were so cool! I also made pudding pops for the kids, using food coloring to change the pudding color, they were red white and blue. Khilee liked them, but Caleb decided he wasn't a fan of the banana flavor. Oh well, can't win them all! After work on the 4th, it was time to venture out on the boat. This was the most fun 4th of July I think I've had in a while. Not only was it hot and beautiful, the kids had a great time and since I didn't eat much of anything, I was buzzing pretty good the entire evening. I almost fell off the dock once, Larry saved my life! And then I was told to go sit down. Getting up this morning was so hard! My body hurts, I just want to go to sleep! At what point do we actually believe ourselves when we say we are getting too old for this?

The kids had a great time at the Little Gym on Saturday! I was excited that they enjoyed it, until I found out there's a little more tuition than I originally thought. Although, after discussing it with Larry, I think we are going to go ahead and enroll them into the summer semester. They deserve to do something fun, and to have something like that to look forward to this summer. Khilee is having a really hard time not going to school right now, every morning she gets up and asks if she has school today. I keep telling her that school will start again in September, but she has no concept of that timeframe. I look forward to hearing about their adventures in tumbling on Saturday mornings!

Our Cabo trip is still on schedule. I've been coming across other options lately, different locations, condo's being offered, but we're sticking with the Cabo vacation spot. It looks like the package prices have been dropping a little every day as well, so we may get lucky and save even more money since the lodging is no longer "free". Goes to show you, the best things in life are NOT always free :) Haha! The last week in August is also showing better prices than any of the other times that I've researched so that's almost in stone too.

Hopefully, tomorrow I won't be so achy, and my eyes won't burn so much. I feel like I should've taken a recoup day!!! Happy July everyone!

That's a wrap!

I decided I better get in my last thoughts for the week before the weekend arrives that includes a holiday this time around. This week has brought me some ups and downs, but really nothing extreme. First, turns out the Mexico trip is now completely all out of pocket expense. The resort timeshare certificate is expired or something, so I'm paying now to go. It will be time for me and my bestie, to rebond, to be crazy, to just be us and gone for a week. It actually may be better this way, because now we can choose where we stay, and the packages are super reasonable. And, by the advice of my favorite Uncle, we will be spending an evening at Cabo Wabo Cantina, home of the great Sammy Hagar! Yeah baby! I went and applied for my passport this morning, it's paid for and now in the hands of the Department of State. You know what I was wondering? What department of what state? Almost sounds like a bogus branch of the government...I bet they hide money just like everyone else. But anyway! My conspiracy theories are for another day!

We decided to buy 100 pounds of meat from a butcher. I'm picking it up today on my way home, and it's a variety so I'm not stuck with just one kind. I have a few vegan friends, so I won't get detailed about it any further. So, I've actually got quite a bit of running to do this afternoon. I'm picking up the meat :), then dropping it off at home. I got a call that the (1985) Mercedes is fixed and good as a normal 26 year old, so I have to go pick it up too. I'm pretty sure this will all be accomplished within a matter of 2 hours, but it will probably drain me. I should go get a new pool for the kids to play in after all that is done too, but we'll see how my afternoon plays out.

The best for last! I spent 2 evenings out this week with my Bestie. We needed to do some catching up, and some heartfelt discussion was much needed. I always miss my time with her, and have committed to myself that I will make time again. My Thursday nights now belong to her :).

Alright, time to get to the craziness of what is the 4th of July weekend! Did I mention I'm making some splendid adult and kid pops for when we venture out on the boat Monday. Thank you Alexis for your awesome recipes! You always know the way to my tummy! LOL!

Enjoy! Be Safe! Party hard, but not too hard! P.S. Let me also remind you today is July 1st. I know! Me too! Do you know what that means? Christmas is 5 months, 24 days away...