Update: Frankie

Emotionally: Lots better. I'm still not fully recovered from everything, but I am so in a better place. I still get weepy when I see old men in jeans with black tennis shoes. I cried the other night at our town parade when the WWII vets were driven by. I miss my Dad. Yet, life goes on and so have I. I trudged along like I was walking knee-deep in water, then got a little closer to the shore, and now I'm okay.

Computer: I am not on the computer every day anymore. I have kicked the habit. That was absolutely liberating. Now I'm looking for a good balance. I miss blogging and I miss my blogging friends. I still won't be on the computer every day, but I will every couple of days!

Health: Not so hot. I decided to take a chance and go to a new doctor. She and another quit the clinic that all other doctors belong to so they could start fresh. She had a great reputation and I finally got brave. Had a physical at the beginning of the month.

It was the appointment from hell--but I loved her. For once, a doctor listened to me! From the inception of this blog, I've been bitchin' about periods, pain, PMS, etc. I was always placated by my old doctor. Last time he said, "Why, I thought they were supposed to get better as you got older."

Not my new doc. She jumped on it. She asked me a series of questions and then right then and there did a cervical biopsy. That hurt like holy hell. I screamed out many times. I have cramped ever since. It was benign, thankfully. She also sent me down the hall where I had an ultrasound. I had a great tech who actually told me what she was seeing. She found three fibroids and an ovarian cyst. The cyst burst the next day and it hurt so bad. The tech said there were probably more fibroids that they couldn't see.

Back for blood work, then back to see the doctor. I was referred to an OBGYN. He visits our town every two weeks. I saw him last week. He was fantastic. He couldn't believe with my history (fibroid when I was 28) that I wasn't checked out years ago.

Anyway, he discussed the options. At that point I wanted to have a hysterectomy and be done with the whole bloody mess. He suggested an ablation instead. That's where they burn the lining of the uterus. So I'm going to do that. It's a same-day surgery with a short recovery. It's being set up right now, I need to check back.

I am scared to death of surgery, but I am so hopeful for relief. The pain has been horrible, which is typical with fibroids.

Projects: Right now I am trying to get finished with scanning the family photos. This is such a slow, tedious project. It is highly emotional. I'm getting there. I hope to be done in three weeks. I hope I'm done before surgery is set. This is my main focus right now.

School: I've got 8th grade planned out, just need to tweak. Will post our list soon, order the final books and map out our school year. Waiting on cash, as aside from our mortgage, we are debt free now. Don't know how the surgery will set us back, but we have good insurance. Hoping it's not too bad.

I am thinking of joining the homeschool group in the big city. The local group is made up of lovely women, but aside from one ice skating party this past year, they only do co-op. I am not interested in co-op. The big city does all kinds of things. Thomas needs to be around more kids than his friends, and I think it would be a great opportunity. If we go to the big city every now and again, that means I get to go to Taco Bell, too. lol Or if I'm feeling rich, maybe the Olive Garden! It's all about food for me! With his new desire to read all the time, access to a bookstore more frequently would be nice, too.

Travel: Have to visit my MIL sometime this summer. Also have our fun little weekend planned. By chance, I found out the riverboat ride I booked us for will be free for me because it's my birthday. I haven't spent a birthday with my husband in years. He won't mind because he won't have to get me a present. lol

That's about it.

All caught up. I will start blogging more. I really needed a break. I'm refreshed now.

Update: Bob and the Dogs

Why not lump a husband in with the dogs? He'd appreciate my humor!

Bob: Nothing new. Same old. Still enjoying his job, although he's very, very busy at work at the moment. He's been my rock through everything. We'll be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary this September. I cannot remember life without him. I know I wouldn't have fared as well without him.

Our precious Apollo and Tesla--they adore him. Apollo is definitely his dog. Tesla is definitely Thomas's. Bob and Thomas play fetch with them several times a day, walk them every morning, take them to the beach--sometimes they take me along, too. ;-) The dogs have done more for our family. Lots of good male bonding going on.

Apollo and Tesla took basic obedience. They're border collies, and smart as a whip. They could already do 90% of what was taught in class, and the other 10% was a piece of cake. However, because they're border collies, they wanted no part of paying attention to us: they were busy trying to herd the other doggies in the class. The entire 10 weeks of class was spent teaching them to focus on us during distraction. Let's just say, we have more work to do. They're fine in public, at the beach, in the neighborhood--put them with other dogs? ha! Instant headache for me!

Bob wants to take them through agility and fly ball. I don't, so that will be a boy thing.

The kitties are doing well, too. One is getting really old, and the other is sickly as usual--but loving and happy. They have finally learned to not hiss around the dogs, and they basically get along pretty well. I don't think the cats like the dogs, though. They didn't mind Jerry Lee at all.

Update: Thomas

Thomas has completed the seventh grade. He has grown up so fast this past year it amazes me. He is one inch shorter than I am. It is very strange standing and being able to look him in the eye. He seems so old now. Not that 13 is old, but he is maturing quickly.

At this very moment, he's away at summer camp. The first day he was gone, I missed him fiercely. Now I'm fine, knowing he's having fun. We had a long weekend before dropping him off. I have a surprise for him when I pick him up this weekend. We are going to be very close to the Mississippi, so good old Bob didn't object to me setting up a short riverboat cruise. Bob is staying home with the dogs, so it will just be Thomas and I. I have a few other surprises up my sleeve, and we'll take 1-2 days to get home. I'm taking my camera and will share pictures.

This past year, Thomas has had a fire in him with science. The kid reads and reads and reads science books. We had to drive to the big city an hour away once a week for obedience classes, and we couldn't keep him stocked with books. His dad has completely taken over on this front, thankfully. Right now he's reading something by Stephen Hawking.

School went fairly well. It was a rough year for us as we recuperated from the black cloud that followed us last year.

We took our standardized test at the end of the year. Normally we do a lot of prep with prep workbooks, but this year we just did the test. Thomas did a fantastic job, once again. Lots of post-high school scores. He's a smart kid. As usual, he scored grade level in spelling.

He still hates math. I am just beside myself when it comes to math. Tears, anger, frustration...it was on a daily basis. Maybe I'll take him to a hypnotist and have it ingrained in his brain that he loves math. That's about the only thing we haven't tried yet. (I am joking about that, btw.)

Other than that, he's happy and healthy. He's enjoying his summer break and dreading school starting up again. Go figure, he does so well, he enjoys it once we get going, but he actually prefers summer break. lol

They're Back

Said to the tune of the sweet little girl in the movie Poltergeist!

I've done a bit of tweaking to the old blog here. Like the monkeys? We're not monkeying around, though! We've been busy.

Will give a long overdue update tomorrow!

Frankie =)