Around Here

I'm still guilty of blog neglect. But I have an excuse - I've been very busy. First, I came down with a mystery illness that my doctor is still trying to diagnose. As much blood as he had drawn, he durn well OUGHT to figure out what's wrong with me. It caused me to miss several days of work, as well as staying away from church - didn't want to infect the very young or very old, in case I had something contagious. I'm feeling a little better now, but I'm still dealing with body aches all over, extreme fatigue, episodes of some pretty extreme joint pain, and irritability. For the record, they tested me for flu and it was negative. Also, I've already had mono, so I doubt it's that.

Despite this, I've still managed to be on a spree cleaning up/rearranging/purging my household of accumulated junk. I've finally gotten to the point where I can't take it anymore. Jamie's friend Spencer is coming over tomorrow to help us pile a bunch of bulky items at the curb. I will then have the City come by and give me an estimate how much it will cost to haul it away. This stuff is not usable by anyone else, so it has to go to the dump - unfortunately. Otherwise, I would have donated it. The "stuff" is the living room couch and loveseat (destroyed by the dogs; we got it from a house where they had dogs that apparently marked their territory. My dogs have followed suit, no matter how many times I've punished them or cleaned the spot); our old mattresses and my box spring (more than 10 years old, stuff spilled on them and stained, so they cannot be sanitized and resold per state laws), an old army cot that got ripped up in the move, a papasan chair that got most of its rungs broken in the last move, an old rotted ladderback chair the previous tenants left in the backyard, etc. I will spare you the long list of just how much junk we're purging. I'm tired of moving it around with me. Even if I have to pay the City $50 to haul it away, it will be worth it for it not to be taking up space and discouraging me every time I see it. As a reward for the free labor, I'll be taking the boys to their favorite pizza joint/arcade as a reward. Bribery works wonders!

I'm keeping up with school work - barely. I have managed to map out on a calendar exactly when assignments are due for which class. I'm determined not to have a repeat of last semester's final exam debacle!

The diet on Weight Watchers continues. I haven't lost any pounds the last two weeks, but I'm still losing inches. My recent illness and an extreme desire for comfort food has derailed the whole "losing pounds" thing. But I can tell by the way my clothes fit and how my face looks in the mirror that I am losing inches. Now that I'm feeling somewhat better, I will resume my diet and be more strict with myself.

Oh, and we got a dusting of snow today! Jamie had his first snow day off of school in nearly 6 years. He was so excited! The roads (even the interstate highways) were closed until noon today because SA just doesn't have the materials to combat these kinds of conditions. I made it to work this morning - but it took me a little more than 30 minutes to go less than one mile to work! Then, when I got to work, I discovered a message on my WORK voicemail from my boss telling me if I needed to come in late due to the road conditions, that would be okay. I didn't know whether to laugh or to scream!