Heather

I have been so uninspired to write anything lately. This may be because nothing much has really happened lately. I have just been too tired from work to do much of anything. For the past couple of weekends I have been refinishing some furniture for our bedroom, a queen size cannonball bed frame and two matching nightstands. The bed is pine originally stained dark to look like walnut and the nightstands, also pine, were lightly stained and clear-coated. Now they are halfway done, sanding took a whole day and yesterday they got their first coat of white paint. It's oil paint so it is taking for freaking ever to dry, and it reeks. I am really hoping they will turn out well, it'll be nice to have a matching bedroom finally. Of course I still have to clean said bedroom, ug. Well, that's about the most excitement I have to report on now.

Oh! Except last weekend, on Sunday after church we went to Duncan with the Chows and tubed down the Cowichan River. It was so much fun! There were some scary parts with rapids and little waterfalls/shutes, and my butt was sore from hitting all the big rocks, but it was fun. The really exciting part of the day came toward the end. We were getting out and I just about went over the waterfall. My tube got away from me and I swam after it, not realizing how close we actually were to the falls and the rapids right after the falls. Everyone started yelling at me to leave the tube and swim back to the rocks but I almost had it. Victor climbed down the rocks below and rescued the tube from a whirlpool after it went over. I didn't realize how close it was until I looked back at it from the trail above.

Just when I thought things were getting good, the van has died, again. It's parked right outside the house, thankfully, couldn't have chosen a better place. But I have a cold right now and really don't have the energy, time or money to do anything about it. I asked my brother, who asked his friend, who says it might be the throttle position sensor. Google tells me that this will be between $400 and $1100 to fix, which sounds ridiculous. I don't know. This might be the end of driving for awhile.
On the up side of things, I was at the Salvation Army yesterday and found a gorgeous, dark wood, four poster bed frame for $20, so I loaded it in the van and brought it home. That's the last time the van moved...
Oh, and we have ants. We came home from Dallas and Mary's wedding this weekend to find a trail of ants winding across our kitchen. So I picked up some ant traps at Canadian Tire yesterday but so far they are about the same. The wedding was great though, and we had fun spending time with family at the lake. It was soooo hot in Port Alberni. I felt so bad for the guys wearing their black tuxes but most of all for Mary in her big dress. So gorgeous though.

I just finished reading My Sister's Keeper and loved it. I know that the book is always better than the movie, however, I could not resist taking a peek at IMDB to see who has been cast as who etc. I can't believe it! My jaw freaking dropped!
1. Alec Baldwin CANNOT play Campbell Alexander. He is ancient! Campbell is supposed to be 32, and gorgeous. Jude Law would have been great, Matt Damon might have been able to pull it off.
2. Cameron Diaz as Sara Fitzgerald??? She doesn't look at all how she is described in the book. She had better be convincing.
3. Judge DeSalvo is not a woman in the book. He is supposed to be wearing flip-flops under his robes not heels.
4. In the book, Campbell Alexander's office is the picture of minimalistic luxury, not a cramped hole, with a cluttered desk and cheap blinds.
5. The book is set on Rhode Island, but the seal above the judge's head says California, as does Brian's firetruck and uniform.
6. They changed Aunt Suzanne (Zanne) to Aunt Kelly who looks 10 years younger than Sara instead of 10 years older as she is supposed to be.
7. There is a partial wall between Anna and Kate's beds, the space in between them, and the things that happen there, is key in the book.
8. They totally axed the Julia and Campbell story, which was also quite key in the book.

I am not sure if I even want to see it anymore, maybe I'll just read the book again.

I got my wisdom teeth out yesterday. Had to take Ativan the night before and the morning of just to be relaxed enough to get into the chair. I had I.V. sedation for the first time ever, what a trip. One minute I was sitting there chatting and asking silly questions, the next thing I remember is waking up thinking I am in the hospital. All I could see was my heart rate monitor and I.V. pole so it took me awhile to figure out where I was. My memory of the whole thing is pretty sketchy. Paul was there with me and drove me to Pharmasave to pick-up my Amoxicillin and Toradol and then home. The dental surgeon let me keep the teeth so I creeped out my co-workers with them. Paul had to go to school so Ashley came to babysit me, and brought her actual baby, haha, kinda ironic, or something. Gerry also stopped by and brought me more gauze for the bleeding and Traumeel. All I can eat so far is ice cream and meal replacement shakes. I tried to eat some cottage cheese and scrambled eggs last night but the pieces got stuck in my sockets. Ewww.
Today I just hurt. I don't think I have the typical chipmunk cheeks but I can hardly open my mouth, and thus am drinking water through an oral syringe. The toradol is really not helping much. Thank God I only have to do this once.

*ETA* Just noticed that my face is so swollen that the bags under my eyes have disappeared, also, eyes look smaller. This is nuts. Cannot wait for normal face to come back.

This weekend Paul and I got into a bad habit... we have been staying up until 2 am and not waking up until 10 or 11 am the next day. The sleeping in part has been great but trying to fall asleep earlier and wake up earlier for work this week could suck.
On a more productive note, we sold the cat's scratching post on UsedVic today for $40 so that will help a bit and we got rid of our old loveseat for free today. Hooray for less clutter!
The biggest news of the weekend however is the laundry situation. THE LAUNDRY IS FINALLY HOOKED UP AT HOME!!! NO MORE LAUNDROMATS!
We really are quite ecstatic. We are thinking of bringing flowers to the lady at our laundromat as a parting gift. She has become a regular bi-weekly fixture in our lives and likes to make fun of our little spats over sock pairing and other laundry/marital squabbles.
Anyways, here comes another week of pharmacy fun. Jacklyn starts tomorrow and will be with us for a month, very exciting to have a friend at work. Off to bed...

I got so much done today! Paul and I went to Costco after church, got some much needed groceries and I bought a little Dicentra (bleeding heart) plant for the front garden. I couldn't stand being indoors on such a beautiful day so I went to Canadian Tire to pick up a few more things for the garden. That's getting to be quite a bad habit... I got a new watering can, some seeds for vegetables and some brackets for hanging baskets off the back porch. We had pizza for dinner with the Chows and then I installed the brackets and planted the Dicentra. My toe is being weird, I am hoping it heals up soon but it still doesn't feel comfortable to wear real shoes. I am really looking forward to work this week, not sure why but I hope it's a good one.

Ug. Went to the podiatrist again today for my follow-up appointment. I was rushing to get there and didn't even really think about what that might entail. I wasn't prepared. I got there a few minutes early and went straight in to the exam room, we talked about the soaking and how it's been going and next thing I know there are all these big shiny stainless steel tools poking around my toe. It was still so sore that I hadn't even been putting much weight on it or touching it really. So it was pretty uncomfortable since I could feel all the tools etc. That wasn't the worst part though, at the end he sprayed the toe with alcohol. It burned like a son of a gun. I didn't cry or anything but the room started to close in on me, then I felt really hot, my ears were ringing and I could feel my whole body break into a sweat. Apparently I turned an interesting shade of green so Dr. L reclined the chair so that I was almost flat on my back, said something about blood pressure dropping from the pain. I ended up staying there awhile until I could actually get up, very weird feeling hanging out in the back of a podiatrist's office half-conscious, lol. So I have to go back in two weeks. I really hope it is all healed up by then.

Foot is still too sore to stand on all day for work, BUT, being home is driving me insane.
I got up at normal time for work today, was fully awake and then realized I am still gimped and not due to go back to work until next Wednesday. Waking up early makes for a loooonnnnggg day. Since I was already up I had a shower, soaked my foot, had some breakfast and watched morning TV. Paul went out to run some errands, then Paul came back. I went outside and looked at the yard, took some pictures of the flowers attempting to bloom then came back in to put my foot up again. Watched "Fool's Gold", wasted away the afternoon with internet and tv. We went down to Thrifties to pick up something for dinner and I did some banking. The only shoes that fit on my foot right now are Paul's garden clogs, hot. We picked up my Mary Kay parcel at the post office on the way home. My foot did not like all the walking. Visited with Elizabeth for a bit tonight and then soaked my foot again while watching "Fireproof". Relaxation is a good thing but I don't think recuperation and relaxation are as closely related as I thought.

-The movies you thought you really wanted to see aren't really that appealing
-You notice every detail about the house, like the fact that there are still little white pawprints here and there on the floor from when the cat attacked my freshly painted bedroom door and that it really is a huge freaking mess in here
-Putting your feet up is really hard on your hips and knees
-There are not enough fat-free fudgsicles in the world to satisfy my craving for real chocolate ice cream
-A call from your co-workers to check on how you're doing is the bright point in your day
-When a friend comes to visit you hope they never leave and when they do you wish they'd come back
-You do all the dishes and wish there were more
-You update your journal more in 24 hours than you have in the past month

My friend is on her way to visit and is bringing her 6 month old. I never really thought about it but now I realize, we own no toys. Besides my rubber duck collection, which is mainly ornamental, and one plush duck puppet, we have nothing to entertain a baby. I hope she's easily entertained... or Aunty Heather might need to buy some toys for next time.