Our OTHER Nephew

Rob has a baby. He is 7 months old and is pretty hairy. And ADORABLE! Rob and Bruno came for a visit and we finally met our new nephew! (Our other nephew, Matthew, is coming for a visit in another 3 weeks or so.) Bruno is awesome! He is a Portuguese Water Dog, or PWD for short. They are a breed that traditionally do water work and they have a different type of hair so they don't shed like regular dogs. Rob has taken Bruno to the river on kayak and funyak trips and Bruno loves it!

Rob dropped Bruno off at the groomers yesterday and told us that she said he would be ready for pick up at 5. Ellis and I happened to be in the vicinity around 4:30 and decided to stop and see if he was ready. The groomer said that she would be finished by 5:30 or so, so we didn't get to take him home. But we did get to take a pic! He was so funny! His hair was brushed really straight around his face and then at that point, it was really short everywhere else! Our little mop dog was gone!

He is just an adorable and sweet pup!

The Box of Awesome!

Awww! I love the beach!


We just spent the week with the Burns/Fox family at Ocean East in Ormond Beach, FL. Most of the week AKB and I could be found by the pool worshiping the sun. I finished a Sophie Kinsella book and started my book club book, Captains and Kings. It has been a slow start, I kinda wish I had picked up a lighter read instead.

Anyway, one day while at the beach, Ellis decided that he needed to define our little spot. So he drew a rectangle around our chairs and labeled it "The Box of AWESOME." Yes, that is us. Later on, Jordan, AKB's niece, decided that she needed to change the name. It ended up being "The Box of Dorks" when it was all over. Sometimes being this awesome means that there has to be a little dork in there some where.

Later, Ellis decided that he needed to see how far he could dig into the sand. Basically, he stood in one spot and let the sand erode beneath him. He also shifted back and forth with little steps to help bury himself a little deeper.

We had a great time! Lots of scrimps, sand, and sun! Ellis and I are now thinking of ideas so we can always live a life of vacation. Playing the lotto and writing books. Those are our ideas so far. Maybe we can make it work out!

Chocolate Always Loves You Back

I am trying to be good. Really I am. AKB convinced me in January that I should go with her to Boot Camp on M/W/Fs. Then, Ellis convinced me to start back at Weight Watchers in February. And here we are, two weeks in to it and I have been rockin it out! I have been getting up at 4:27 five days a week for about six and a half weeks now. And it has been good! I am loving the early morning stuff. And WW has been good to me, too! I had my second weigh in yesterday and, in two weeks, I have lost 6.8 lbs. Not too shabby.

But, for some reason, today I just don't have it in me. I woke up slightly late this morning for Boot Camp. I was still on time, but I think that I must have been in the middle of some major REM sleep. Then, the workout was primarily arms and abs. No cardio. No running up stairs and doing the dreaded "bow ties." Maybe my body needed the cardio today or something. Maybe my sleep cycle was just off. I don't know.

Oh, and it was COLD today! Maybe it was just 27. But it was windy. And it just chilled me to the bone. I cuddled with Ellis for about 10 minutes before getting in the shower and I still couldn't get totally warm. Then, in the shower, I cranked up the hot water and stood in there for a while. And I was still chilly! I thought about maybe running all the way across town for a coffee at Starbucks, but I just wasn't up to driving all the way just for that delicious liquid amber.

Anyway, so sitting at my desk, I had this brilliant thought, "Hmmm, I need a piece of chocolate. Rich, dark, creamy chocolate will warm me up." I have about half a bag of Dove Dark Chocolates in my desk left over from Valentines Day. I passed them out to my co-workers along with a goofy little V-Day card. So, I pulled out one piece. Bit it in half and ate and enjoyed that morsel. Then I glanced down...somehow the other half had already disappeared. Did I eat it?

Then, another chocolate. Just a bite, half maybe....What? I ate the whole thing already? Well, one more.

I don't even know how long this went on. Finally, I read the message on the beautiful silver wrapper from my most recent Dove Dark Chocolate. This message kinda summed up the morning and made my stomach not so interested anymore. "Chocolate Always Loves You Back."

There is some sick, food-atic fattie working for Dove that has the same issues as me, apparently. I think I need to write a letter to them about how bad a quote that really is.

Anyway, things are looking up. I just had lunch with some Cleveland gals and my brother just gave me a new recipe. I will be sure to try it one day: One chocolate covered cherry and one huge dollop peanut butter. Voila.

All Crimes in Cleveland have been solved!

I had two headline options and am not sure which one is better. After you read the story, let me know what you think!

Option 1:
Apparently the Cleveland Police have solved all crime in Cleveland now....


Option 2:
Spinning Class can save you $60!



Story:

So, this morning, AKB and I were planning on going to a spinning class at the Y. The class starts a 5:15 am. We are "used" to getting up for our Mon/Wed/Fri 5 am class. I actually got up about 5 minutes earlier than I have been getting up. As I was walking out the door, I saw TWO police cars in front of our house. Sailor Pop's car was parked near our mailbox and my car was parked in the driveway. One police car was stopped by the mailbox with his lights shining on Sailor Pop's car. The other police car was parked diagonally across the street with his lights on the Mercedes. (He was basically blocked both lanes of the street.)

I stood at the door for a second, a little confused. I started walking towards the police car near the mailbox. I waved my little gloved hand at the officer (I wanted to make sure he saw me and knew that I wasn't a threat - I didn't want to be tased!) He acknowledged me, so I walked over to his car. I asked something like, "Is there a problem?" I was totally thinking that there was a break-in or something like that.

Police Officer: "Is this your car?"

Me: "Well, it is my grandfather's car. I know the tags have expired, but he passed away and our car is in the shop. So we have been driving his."

PO: "You shouldn't be parked on the sidewalk. If you move it, I won't give you a ticket."

Me: "I thought that was our property."

PO: "There is a city ordinance that you can't park on the sidewalk."

Me: "Ok, I will move it..... for the purpose of full disclosure (yes, I did say this at 5 am....fast on my feet!) I have lived here for seven years and have never had a problem with parking on the sidewalk."

I really don't remember what his reply was.....maybe something about the ordinance again. So, I ran inside and searched for Ellis's keys, then went ahead and drove the wagon to the Y.

So, if I had slept in, I would have totally had a ticket this morning.

AND, if there had bit a little more crime in Cleveland, they officers would have had something else to do instead of giving out a ticket for something I have been doing for SEVEN YEARS!

Booya!

Andrea and I went to a class at the YMCA in Cleveland this morning at 5 am. (Can you believe it? I did drag Ellis to a morning workout at 5 last week, too!) We finished this crazy class full of running and obstacle courses. As we were leaving the parking lot, there were like 5 or 6 cars pulling in - people there to start their workouts (by this time it was 6 and I was delirious from it being so early and from lack of oxygen to my brain.....or something). And I hollered out: "We're finished....We're leaving.... BOOYA!" The funny thing is that Andrea knew the "Booya" was coming, so she joined in, too. We had a big laugh! And, of course, kept repeating it. :)

How Ellis Made Me Laugh So Hard I Cried - #438

As most of you know, Ellis will occasionally talk in his sleep. Whenever he does, I do my best to try to remember what he says so I can laugh about it all day. Last night's impartment of wisdom is no different. I hope you can enjoy the random-ness of this as much as I did:

In the middle of the night, Ellis said, "I'm Todd."

I rolled over and said, "You're Todd?"

He said, "I'm Todd."

I wanted to make sure I was hearing him right....because, he is obviously not Todd, so I said, "You're Todd?"

"I'm Todd............and I'm delicious."

A few seconds later, he was snoring again.



Then, as I am laying in bed laughing and repeating this over and over to myself, so I won't forget it, he rolls over towards me and says:

"You're Billy Jean. And you're delicious. Delicious BJ." Then he started snoring again.

How I Broke My Gallbladder

Starting out, I did have my gallbladder taken out Sunday. Fortunately, I got sent home Monday morning. So I am recovering now. But the story of the last six days is pretty interesting.

It all started on Wed morning at 4:45 am. I woke up with this terrible pain in my upper abdomen. Pretty much right at my lower rib cage. It was a terrible pain. I actually had it once before about a year ago or so. Anyway, I couldn't lay down, stand up, it was terrible. I called my mom, who was working 3rd shift at the lab (already at the hospital) and she said if I felt that bad that I should come on down to the ER. I woke Ellis up and we loaded up into the car and headed to the hospital. I was poked and prodded, they did an ultra-sound, CT Scan, and all sorts of other stuff. The lady who did my ultra sound told me I had a "gold mine" in my gallbladder. But, my Dr said "Everyone has gall stones. We think this is a stomach ulcer." So, by noon or so, I was no longer in pain and I was sent home with a prescription for stomach acid medicine and hydrocodone.

I spent the rest of Wed resting, but spent the night throwing up the little food I had eaten. Apparently my body does NOT like hydrocodone. On Thursday, I was afraid to eat much of anything. I think I ended up having dry cereal, 1/2 of a chicken wrap, and more dry cereal. That was all I had all day. Oh, and I stayed home from work. I just did not feel right.

Finally, on Friday, I was a little stir crazy and knew I didn't feel 100%, but I wanted to go to work to get out of the house. Plus, I had a lot of work to do. School was starting soon and I have a lot of stuff to do to prepare for that. So I went in to work and felt light headed all morning. I was in an out of the copy room, working on time sheets, just getting a lot done. But, I was feeling worse and worse. I decided to call it a day around 11:45. When I went home, my mom called and asked how I was doing. She sent my dad over to drop off some soup for me. Since I had so little to eat, I ate a WHOLE CAN of chicken noodle for lunch. It was so good! Then, pretty much immediately after that, the pain I had from Wed morning came back. It lasted for about 5 hours. The best way to describe it is if someone had hit me but the pain of that punch lasted the entire time. And it was like a band all the way around me, even to my back. Near the end of this (we finally realized that I was passing a gall stone later) my mom came over and the first thing she noticed was that my eyes were yellow and I looked like a pumpkin. Apparently, somewhere along the way, I got jaundiced. She ended up taking my blood and a urine sample and we found that besides the pain, my bilirubin was about 300 times higher than it was when my blood had been taken on Wed.

We went to the emergency room again on Friday. We got there around 6:30 or so. When I saw the Dr, he couldn't believe I was sent home on Wed and immediately told me that he was keeping me for the night. My 5 hours of pain ended around the time I was checking in to the ER, but because my blood work was so out of whack, they really wanted to keep me to try to figure out what was going on. So, I was stuck in a hospital gown and room all day Sat and I felt pretty normal. Since they didn't know when they were going to take me to surgery, I had a lovely diet of jello, Popsicles, chicken broth, and water. Strangely, I have redeveloped a love for Popsicles after all of this.

My Dr set up my surgery for Sunday and it went smoothly. I am glad all of that is over. He removed my gall bladder laproscopically. So I just have four little scars on my stomach. I don't feel normal yet, still some pain from that. So, I am planning on staying home this week to try to feel better. I feel bad taking a week off, but my mother-in-law pointed out that used to, people would have to take 6 weeks off from work. So, putting it in that perspective, I shouldn't feel bad. Besides, I do need to time to heal.

Anyway, I think this is most of the story. In a few weeks, I should be as good as new!