I've Vanished...But Only Momentarily

Sorry that I'm not around right now.  I have NO TIME to do anything, let alone sit online.

I get up at about 5:00 AM {unless I accidentally fall back to sleep for 10-15 minutes...but, of course, I don't do that. ;0) }, leave my house at 6:30, drive for an hour to an hour and a half to the hospital, draw blood all day {and when I'm not drawing blood, I'm restocking supplies or reading...I've read two books so far, haha!!}, leave at 4:30, drive another hour to hour and a half home, stop at the grocery story if needed, get home, change out of my scrubs into my pj's, eat something, veg for a short while and go to bed to start it all over again.  *yawn*

So far I'm enjoying it, but I've had a couple of really frustrating days {where I miss the veins or can't re-adjust the needle without help...today was one of those days... *sigh*}.  But in the six days I've been drawing blood, I've done around 125 draws, most of them successful.

Next week I start school again AND I have to be at the hospital at 4 AM to work in the in-patient clinic doing rounds.  I'm gonna be BEAT.  Not looking forward to getting up at 3 AM {cuz there's gonna be zero traffic so I don't have to give myself so much time to get there}, but I am looking forward to seeing how the in-patients differ from the out-patients.

Because life has been a bit crazy I haven't been responding to comments, which I apologize for.  I'll try to catch up soon.  Also, will you guys let me know if you receive the comments that I do {or rather, have left} leave in response to your comments, in your email?  I believe it's set up to be sent to your email but for some reason I just feel like you're not getting my responses.  I'd really appreciate it if you could let me know!!

Last thing.  Yesterday, I woke up, went into the kitchen and started the coffee pot, walked into the bathroom and was STARTLED to see this:

I wanted to frickin DIE!!

That monster was larger than a half dollar, if its legs had been outstretched!  I went down the hall to my bedroom, grabbed my phone and took a picture.  Kyle was sleeping and he HAD to see this.  I DID tell him that the biggest spider I had ever seen was in the bathroom but he barely stirred.  I grabbed a ginormous wad of toilet paper, snatched that thing up and threw it into the toilet and immediately flushed, with the lid down.  Trying to wake Kyle up to kill that thing for me would've been useless so I had to do it myself.  Obviously I'm not AFRAID of spiders but I most definitely do NOT like them, especially when they could eat me alive!   But I had to get ready to leave, and soon since I {ahem} woke up late, so I had to kill it myself.

I posted that picture on Twitter {sorry if you're seeing it again. heehee} and one of the local news guys retweeted it. Haha!

All this to say, please don't leave me!!  Hang in there and I'll be around as I can and hope to be back more regularly after my externship is over!!

XOXO

Weekend Wordle / Six Word Saturday

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Six Word Saturday:

This Date Will Never Be Forgotten.

Join Cate at Show My Face for more Six Word Saturdays. She's got lots of groupies that like to play along!

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Do you remember where you were on this date nine years ago?

I do.

I lived with my mom and we were getting ready to go to work {we worked at the same bank in Seattle}.  The news was on in our room.  She was in the bathroom doing her make up.  I was getting dressed and watching the news as the first plane hit and I was shocked.  Had no idea what was going on.  I called to my mom and told her that a plane just hit a building in New York.  We sat there in stunned amazement and then the second plane hit the second tower.  There wasn't much to do except sit and watch what was going on. 

We eventually had to go to work and later on we heard the news of the Pentagon being attacked and the other plane crashing in PA.  

What a horrible, tragic day that has changed our lives forever.

Today, on the 9th anniversary of 9/11, we remember all of the lives that were lost.  

We will never forget.

There ARE More Restaurants Than Just Olive Garden, Right?!

Yeah, I've been a bit absent.

I'm tired.

On Monday I drove to my externship, 30 miles there, NO TRAFFIC cuz, you know, it was a holiday.  Got there and I was sent home.  Cuz it was a holiday.  Which I knew, but I never heard back from my contact and I didn't want to NOT show up.  So I drove 30 miles home.  I was home by 8:30.

So, on my birthday, which happened to be a holiday too, I had to get up at 6 am.  Yuck!  I laid on the couch watching tv the rest of the day.  Nice birthday, huh? lol

That night we went to the inlaws for dinner.  While it was fine, I was a bit irritated by the whole thing.  Without coming off sounding like a bitch let me give a brief synopsis of what happened.  I should also mention that my brother-in-law and I share a birthday.  Also, I normally don't have an issue with my mother-in-law.

So my MIL is trying to figure out when a good day / time would be to get together for dinner for Tyler's and my birthday.  We eventually settled on our actually birthDAY.  She was texting with Kyle trying to find out what time would work since Kyle was the only one working.  He said something to the effect of "6pm.  We're not going to Olive Garden, are we?"

A while later I got a text saying "I guess we're having dinner here, what can you eat?"  

Mind you, I had no idea at this point that Kyle had said anything about going to Olive Garden {it's not our favorite restaurant and most of the time when we go out with them it's there or this other Mexican restaurant that they like...and Tyler ALWAYS chooses Olive Garden.  Doesn't help that I've gone gluten-free so that restaurant wouldn't be the easiest to find something to eat at}.

So I told her basically that I couldn't eat anything with gluten {wheat, rye, barley}.  I could eat meat, potatoes, cheese {things she specifically asked about}.

Then she texts me saying that I was making mealtime difficult {exact words}{Jab #1}.  Well, make me feel an inch tall now, will you.  I sent a text back that I knew that and I was sorry.

Kyle gets home and I started crying while we were talking about this because I just felt like crap and like I was being a total pain in the ass.  I wanted to just yell at her "We're trying to give you some damn grandkids without spending thousands of dollars so deal with it!"  Kyle says we don't have to go over there yadda yadda yadda.  I told him that we would just go.

We get there and she had made a turkey, without stuffing because she would've contaminated it since she makes the stuffing IN the turkey.  She also made mac and cheese since Tyler wanted that if we couldn't go to Olive Garden.  She also made roasted potatoes, broccoli and had cut up watermelon.  During dinner she commented that it was a sad dinner.  And that it was MY fault. {Jab #2}  Well, shit.  I'm SOOOOO sorry.  Jeez!!  Then Tyler wanted to know why we couldn't go to Olive Garden.  Kyle and I kept our mouths shut about not wanting to go there and there were some excuses thrown around, but I don't even really know what was said.  I was just trying not to cry.

That was dinner.  Blah.

I also emailed her a gluten-free cake recipe, since she asked.  I also sent her a frosting recipe, which apparently she didn't look at because she made the cake {which was nice, don't get me wrong}, but it was rather dry.  I whispered to Kyle that I had sent her a frosting recipe too that she obviously didn't see and he asked her if there was any frosting and she said that she did what the {cake} recipe told her to.  There were three links in the emails, she apparently only looked at the first.  Just added to the frustrating night.

My SIL and her hub gave me two gluten-free cookbooks {Yay!!} and my inlaws gave me a VISA GC saying that they hoped it'd help me get some of the gluten-free things that I'd need.  Which was nice and appreciated since it IS so damn expensive.

On the way home I told Kyle again how his mom just made me feel like crap about going gluten-free and he said that she wasn't trying to be mean, etc.  Which, I'm sure she WASN'T, but she WAS!!  As if going gluten-free isn't already frustrating enough, she just had to make it worse.  And on my birthday.

My issue with the whole restaurant thing is that they seem to think that Olive Garden is the ONLY DAMN RESTAURANT AROUND.  There are a MILLION other restaurants we could've gone to but it was eat at their house and make her cook somewhat gluten-free or going to Olive Garden {in her eyes}.  Just doesn't make sense to me and it's beyond frustrating.

Anyway.  That explanation was A LOT longer than I wanted it to be, but whatever.  That's that.

Moving on...

Yesterday I started my externship and I spent the day observing.  I drew blood from, someone that I guess, is my supervisor.  She said I did a good job.  It was the first time I'd drawn blood in over two months so I was feeling a bit anxious.  Also, it was SLOW in the clinic yesterday.  Only 60 blood draws.  Which over a whole day period, is not very many.  It was a lot of sit around and wait.  I was so close to falling asleep it wasn't even funny.

Today, it took me a frickin hour and a half to get there.  I walked in the door at 8am on the dot and I didn't think I was going to make it!  I observed the first few draws but then I did A LOT.  It was SO BUSY so it was good that I just jumped right in and did what I could.  I drew blood from 24 patients and actually GOT blood from 22.  The other two had veins that I'd found and then when I went and put the needle in they just seemed to vanish.  Even my supervisor couldn't then find them.  It was really weird.  But I was really excited and a lot of the patients told me that I did a great job and even got blood from some of them when they said that others had had trouble in the past.  That felt good! =)

Last night I needed toothpicks to keep my eyes open.  Today I'm really tired but more energized.  I REALLY hope that it doesn't take me so long to get there tomorrow, but other than that I think I'm really going to enjoy this!  Oh, there were two babies that came in today and needed to get their blood drawn.  One of them was a year or less and the other one was THREE DAYS OLD!!!  Oh.my.gosh.  I wanted to CRY listening to THEM cry.  Broke my heart.  I'm not allowed to draw from kids, and I'm SO thankful for that!  Ugh.  Can't even imagine doing that!

Alrighty.  This is long enough.  Just know that if I'm a bit absent the next few weeks it's because I'm actually WORKING for the first time in almost two years and I'm EXHAUSTED!  LOL

Today, I'm One Year Older!!

Happy Birthday To Me!!!

I wrote this post last year, if you want to see some pics of me growing up. ;0)

Yesterday we went to my mom's for lunch.  She made me a gluten-free apple pie and it was DELISH!!

I also made Kyle take a picture with me. 

Today, I start my Phlebotomy externship.  So excited, but SO NERVOUS!!!

{Because this is a holiday, I'm kind of hoping they send me home when I get there.  Guess I'll find out.  In any case, wish me luck!!  It's been a couple months since I've taken anyone's blood!  Eek!!}

Worship and Praise Sunday: Heart of Worship

Heart of Worship
Michael W. Smith

Verse 1:
When the music fades
All is stripped away
And I simply come
Longing just to bring
Something that's of worth
That will bless Your heart

Bridge:
I'll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You're looking into my heart

Chorus:
I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus

Verse 2:
King of endless worth
No one could express
How much You deserve
Though I'm weak and poor
All I have is Yours
Every single breath

Bridge:
I'll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You're looking into my heart

Chorus:
I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it
And it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus

Chorus:
I'm coming back to the heart of worship,
And it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus

~~~~~~~~ 

I love this song so much, the entire thing, but I think that the chorus says so much:

I'm coming back to the heart of worship,

And it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus


Worship IS all about Him.  He wants us to worship him and express our love for him daily.  I stumble and fall every day but I know that I can always come back and he'll still love me.  It is such a wonderful feeling to have the love of Jesus within!


I hope you all have a great Sunday!!

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If you'd like to see which songs I've showcased thus far, you can do so here.

For more Worship and Praise songs, visit Jen at Following the Footsteps.

Weekend Wordle / Six Word Saturday

To create your own Wordle, go here. And then download MWSnap to save the image. Easy peasy!

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Six Word Saturday:

Today, I Want YOU To Talk...

...to ME!!

• Do you have a funny joke for me?
• Do you have something random you're dying to tell someone but you can't tell anyone IRL?
• Do you have any exciting Labor Day Weekend plans you want to share?
• If you're a lurker, want to come out of hiding and tell me about yourself? 

Join Cate at Show My Face for more Six Word Saturdays. She's got lots of groupies that like to play along!

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{Comics by Natalie Dee}

It's Time To Frag! Let's Do This!

It's Fridayyyyyyyy!!!!

Even though I've only been up for, uhhhh, less than 10 minutes, I'm ready to empty out the random.  Let's Frag!

~~~~~

My BFF is gone.  They made it to Japan.  If you're curious about American's living in Japan, they're posting videos almost daily so take a looksy here.

This is the video from their last night here.  It's not a lot because they were busy all day but I think it's funny so you should watch it.  It's less than 2 minutes long.

~~~~~

Almost a year ago, I started making my own vanilla extract.  I used this recipe.  In order to continue on the healthier path, I tried ditching my French Vanilla Coffeemate creamer for organic half & half and a splash of my vanilla extract.  I don't recommend it, unless you want to drink vodka with your coffee.  While I've used the vanilla in my baking, it didn't quite go over as well in my coffee.  Just sayin'.  So, today, I'm using the half & half with some Toriani vanilla syrup.  Much better!

~~~~~

You know what cracks me UP?!  Some of the search words / terms that get people to my blog.  I've got a few different trackers on here, but the one I look at the most is Sitemeter. {sitemeter.com}.  I was looking at it a little bit ago and a couple of the funnier terms are:

Motivational sperm - who knew?!
Peek a boob - I STILL get a ton of views from that search and I posted with that title in March of '09!!
My beer motivational - I know beer motivates Kyle sometimes.
Black torn up Victoria's Secret bathing suit - this is just bad fashion!!
Motivational meatbag - not really sure what to think of this one
Awkward moments no real way to get around them - ain't THAT the truth!
Megan toilet - soooooo someone wants to see me on the toilet?  Weird.

~~~~~

We're taking the boat out of the water this weekend.  Sad.

~~~~~

Have I mentioned that my birthday is Monday?  Oh, I haven't?  Well, my birthday is Monday.  Just so ya know.

~~~~~

I start my Phlebotomy externship also on Monday.  I've been excited to start but now I'm just getting nervous!!  I think I might take a drive today to find exactly where I'm supposed to be so I don't have to figure that out at 7:30 in the morning...on a Monday.  Eek!!!

~~~~~

Kailani says: In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

My question is:

What's one food you can't live without?

An Island Life for Aloha Friday!

and

Half-Past Kissin' Time for Friday Fragments.

Have a fantabulous weekend everyone!!!

Are You SURE You Have Celiac Disease?

Since I mentioned the connection between Celiac disease and infertility and also that I was definitely taking the plunge and going gluten-free, I've had a few people ask me if I'm sure I have Celiac disease.

The answer:

Yes.

I'm 99.9% sure that I have Celiac disease.

And no, I'm NOT going to get tested.

The main reason is that right now, I have no insurance since I was laid off almost two years ago and I'm not going to wait around till I get another job, therefore getting insurance again, to do the testing.

At this point, I've got a pretty concrete feeling that I've got Celiac disease. On my mom's side of the family there are approximately fifteen relatives that have it, including my mom.

If my infertility is related to Celiac disease, I don't have time to wait any longer.  We've been trying to have a baby for close to eight years and if going gluten-free can possibly help me get pregnant, I'm ready to do something about it, NOW.

I had the blood test done a few years ago and it came back negative, but that's usually the case with the blood test.  The only way to know for sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, if you've got Celiac is to have the biopsy of your intestines done, while still eating gluten.

However...

I've been almost completely gluten-free for about two weeks now.  I said I was going to wait till after my birthday, but I just kind of decided to start early and then I started seeing results so why would I want to go back now, know what I mean?

I said before that I don't have a lot of physical symptoms, unlike my family members.  I'm still trying to connect some of the dots, but here's what's been going on with me.  There's going to be some TMI mentioned so if you're not cool with that you might want to stop reading now.

Infertility aside, the most prominent and obvious symptom is this rash I've had on my body.  For the most part, this rash has planted itself right on my boobs.  Seriously.  For probably AT LEAST a year, they've been red, irritated, itchy, flaky, peeling and just all around uncomfortable.  But I also have patches of this rash on other parts of my body.  On my arms, my abdomen, my back...and since taking gluten out of my diet, it's all decreasing!  The rash on my boobs is almost gone!

The not so prominent, but even more irritating symptom is in the nether region of my body.  Kyle and I complain to each other that I need a new cooch.  A lot of times, sex is PAINFUL...and ITCHY...because of what's going on down there.  And I've been dealing with this issue most of our marriage.  Probably at least five years, if not six {and we'll be married nine years in January}.  It's not a yeast infection, it's not Candida, which someone has suggested to me in the past, it's not a UTI.  But there is no way in hell that we can have sex two days in a row.  I'm in PAIN down there after {and during} having sex.  At times, I can scratch it raw because it is so irritated.  I manage this issue with hydrocortizone cream.  Ever since a nurse mentioned that to me, which was actually when we were doing our IUI's.  I told her about this issue and she told me that the cream could help.  Because of this issue and because it's painful to have sex, we don't have sex as often as an in-love married couple should.  When we do have sex, I grin and bare it.

Another symptom, which I hadn't really noticed that much before, but which became very apparent the other day, is that I get a raging headache after eating gluten.  I had a hamburger last week and almost immediately after eating it, I could barely see straight because of the headache.  After not eating gluten for a week and a half or whatever it was and then having that burger, it kind of confirmed to me that I really should not be eating anything with gluten in it.

While I have some of the gastrointestinal symptoms as well, they're not nearly as bad as what I hear others describing, which I'm thankful for.  I have noticed that things are better in this area since going gluten-free, too.

I'm still discovering other symptoms that I didn't realize I had, but the ones mentioned are the worst and most obvious.

Yesterday I went and did a HUGE grocery shopping trip. I can't remember spending that much in one trip in a LONG time.  But it needed to be done.  After that, I went through my cupboards and refrigerator and got rid of all the old, out of date stuff and then I called my neighbor and asked her if she wanted the food that I can't eat any more.  Most of it was brand new, never opened.  I didn't want it to go to waste so I brought over four bags of groceries!  Totally restocked their shelves!  Haha!  I haven't even gone through all my canned food yet.

This is where I'm at right now.  My birthday is Monday and I haven't decided yet if I'm going to have anything with gluten in it, for the last time.  We'll see.

Step AWAY From The Wine Bottle

Yesterday I spent the day with my BFF Riika again.  It was unplanned but I'm so very happy I got to see her one last time before she leaves the country for the next three'ish years. {In fact, they're probably getting ready to head to the airport right now...their flight leaves at 1pm today.}

We did some last minute packing, dropped stuff off at Goodwill and a consignment shop.  Went to the bank. McD's for the kidlet.  And stopped at the grocery store so I could get some wine...I hadn't planned on staying till late in the night, but they were having some other friends over and were going to make burgers and brats and drink beer.  I can't drink beer any more, so I needed wine.

Got back to their apartment and hung out and packed some more.  Nathan made the food.  I ate a burger sans bun.  I started drinking wine.

And I continued.

Before I knew it, Nathan was pouring the last of the wine into my cup.

I called Kyle and told him that I wasn't coming home any time soon.

And then I started tweeting.

I don't recommend drunk tweeting because you might say things like this:

And you might post pictures such as this that look innocent enough...

Until you post pictures like this that make people wonder if you're ok:

Can we say drunk off our ass and a horribly bad angle?

This is where someone should've said Step AWAY from the wine bottle, Megan.  Nah...what fun would that have been? LOL

We had a great time all hanging out talking about sex, cuz that's what you do in a group of people, right? Haha!  Honestly, I'm not really sure what else we talked about but I know that sex WAS a topic of conversation.

When Aaron {Nathan's cousin} left, I left so that the Japan-bound could get some sleep.

I eventually got home, safely.

Then I sat down at the computer and fell asleep for a couple hours, then headed to bed.

Today? I've pounded the coffee and ibuprofen and I'm thankful I have no where I HAVE to be today...although I do need some groceries, so maybe...eventually I'll get presentable and go out.