Last Hump Day of September

Well, I have to say, things are going well. As I told my mom, I'm a little scared and waiting for the shoe to drop somewhere, because our life has never been this "smooth" and easy-sailing.

Bill's transition over to his new job has gone well. He started Monday, and for these two weeks, is being paid as a double full-timer. He's technically on vacation from the store for two weeks, to use up his hours at his rate of pay. When he starts part-time, obviously, his pay rate decreases, but it still won't be bad. He's getting the capped rate for the position, since his current/previous one was a capped rate. He says he has about 10 weeks of training, there's a lot to learn. Not sure where he'll have to go for his exam though. But he's happy to be done with the store he was in, and that's working out all around because the hours he's available to work for part-time, are hours his former boss needs someone for. I asked Bill if Joe was throwing a "welcoming" party for Bill LOL. Like, Sundays are time and a half at the store, and Joe needs someone on Sundays. Works great!

The girls started dance classes yesterday. LOTS of kids there! Evie's class was first. She's taking tap/ballet. It's only a 30-minute class for the little ones. This is Evie's first class for anything. She got her stuff, got in line, waved to me and was gone. No looking back. She is just so independent! She loved it, too. Kelsey's class was after Evie's. Same class, different age group. I put Kelsey in the 5-6 class, even though she will be 7 in November. I figured, she can be on the immature side most times, and that it would be better for her. She LOVED it. Her class is 45-minutes long. She's all about the technique of dancing. Evie was more into just the movement. Kelsey's been randomly breaking out into her moves she learned all morning lol.

A couple weeks ago, we got a letter from the school district, approving us for homeschooling. I have to laugh that the LETTER was dated July 1. I didn't send in my letter until July 10th. And the envelope was postdated September 19th. I really try to NOT be cynical with the school department, but sometimes they make it too easy. One year, I think it was the first year we had to report, they sent me a letter addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Daniel R. They obviously didn't read my letter. It was quite clear that my SON was Daniel. And with all the ridiculousness they went through this year with budget malarkey, I just want no part of that irresponsibility to be a part of my children's lives. It's bad enough they had to close a few schools in town and 4th grade has been moved to the middle school. I just don't agree with that. I think priorities got messed up along the way. Maybe if I lived in a different town, I'd feel differently. C'est le vie!

I'm alive!!!

Geesh, I haven't posted in so long. So much stuff has been going on!! So, this post will most likely be long, since so much has happened since my last post. I will start with updates from my last post.

I had my appointment with the surgeon. I am definitely a candidate for surgery. And will have it. I was going to this fall, but I have decided that it might be wise for me to wait until after the first of the year. As much as I'd love to have ANY improvement in breathing, I have so much that goes on in the fall/end of the year, that for me to throw in a surgery plus recovery time would be insane. I've got Halloween, which, anyone with kids knows that is a MAJOR holiday, Kelsey's birthday, Thanksgiving, Danny's birthday, Christmas... I just can't see being out of commission for any of that. There is no 4-6 week "downtime" to fit in there at all. So, since I've been dealing with this for so long now, I can deal a few more months.

Now, the other interesting thing is, it seems like this whole diaphragm paralysis thing is a mystery. Story of my life. But, all tests, past and present, leads to the belief that this is something I have had, at least for the past ten years (as far back as my records go for respitory stuff). So, if it's something I've had, the puzzling thing is, why did I ONLY become symptomatic in Dec. 2007? Why didn't I have issues previously? And it's obviously not something I can "fake", since it's all medically documented stuff. Ten years ago, I was pregnant with Danny, and admitted to the hospital at 8 months with a severe celluitis infection in my left leg. I was transferred to the bigger hospital that has a NICU and high risk pregnancy ward because I had also developed pnuemonia and they didn't know if they'd need to take the baby. That was when my first "official" respitory numbers came up. But, they were abnormal because I had pnuemonia. Fast forward to 2006, I was again in the hospital with a celluitis infection. This is 3 kids and my 5th infection after the first. They monitored me for pnuemonia since I was in bed and heavily medicated. With decreased breath sounds on the left side, they sent me for a chest x-ray. It was mentioned about a possible question then of a paralyzed diaphragm, but since focus was on my leg infection, it was forgotten about. I wasn't bothered by breathing then. Fast forward to last December. I had had a bad cold over Thanksgiving. Then I really started breathing heavy, enough that Bill brought me into the ER, thinking I had pnuemonia. And there, it started all this. Wierd? Yes, it is. The doctors are stumped. You don't just wake up one day and have a paralyzed diaphragm. Such is my life, the medical freak.

Next update... Bill went for that interview, and didn't get THAT job. However, a couple days later, they called him. Someone else had just quit and there was now a position open. The schedule was pretty flexible to create his own. So, long story short, he gave the store his 2 week's notice and has 5 days of work left there. He is transferring back up here as a PT clerk. So much is right about this. We were worried about health insurance, but since he's already an employee and has been for a year, his benefits will kick in right away. It will still be a pay cut, but, we will survive. And since his pay at the store was capped, they are giving him the PT capped rate, which he wasn't expecting! The schedule is wonderful for us too. All around, everything is just falling into place and going so smoothly. I'm almost afraid it's going TOO smoothly!! I'm just hoping for once, we're getting a break and running into some GOOD luck.

Speaking of good luck... Bill had brought me to the ER one night in July. I had a very severe headache, beyond migraine. I was throwing up, and, as he put it, "altered mental status". I couldn't see straight. So, I spent the night in the ER. After some morphine, CAT scan of my brain, a spinal tap (OMG, that SO hurt, and about the only thing I truly recall clearly), nothing came of any of it. Again, story of my life, I'm the medical oddity. Everyone is aware something's "not right", yet all tests come back normal, and then, *poof*, I'm fine. It disturbs me, because, regardless of the doctors and nurses agreeing that, "you puked all over the place and look like hell" deal, it's like my body is playing games. ANYWAY... so, I get a bill from the hospital... that fun sleepover rang into a tune of $5000. *gasp, faint* Insurance picked up all but $1000 of it. Like I have THAT lying around. So, I call up the good people in billing to arrange a payment plan. I give the nice lady the info, I hear her *clicky clicking* her keyboard, and pause. Then she tells me... "It looks like your insurance put in an adjustment again. Your balance is zero. You're all set, the account is taken care of." I seriously asked her to repeat that. And then I almost burst into tears. Because... That. Never. Ever. Happens.

More good stuff. Bill and I went on our 3rd honeymoon. Our deal is, every 5 years, we get to go away for a few days for our anniversary. Five years ago, we went back to the Cape, where we took our honeymoon. This year, we took 5 days and went up to Maine. Way up, to Bar Harbor area. It was a lovely time. We started out early, hit Hampton Beach area and had breakfast at the Airport Cafe (AWESOME food! highly recommend it!), then headed up to Bangor, where we stayed. Oh it was so lovely! And we had awesome weather. We even took a drive up into Canada! I had never been to Canada. We didn't really plan it, so we didn't have any birth certificates or passports. We tempted fate on that, not knowing if they'd let us return back into the U.S. We had a LOVELY dinner in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. Right on the dock of the bay. It was so lovely. And, they let us back into the country lol. It was seriously the best vacation ever. This is one of my favorite pictures from St. Andrews...

Anyway, I think that's all my updates for now!