Guess what mom, we are still alive!

Mom has sworn for years that I don't know how to cook.  That always made Tom mad, because I love to cook if I don't have her standing over my shoulder telling me what to do all the time.  I just gave up. So, we have been living alone for 2 weeks now, and we are both still alive...and not hungry!  I do know how to cook!!!

Where have I been you ask???

Well, a lot has been happening in my life.  I can't go into detail for most of it, but has been VERY stressful to say the least. Tom and I are starting a new life together and working on issues that we have and trying to move on with our lives.  It is proving to be a good move for us, I feel.  But, it is a work in progress.

At first, we had decided to move to Kansas City to start this new life.  So, I got my resume out there and got a job with the 2nd interview I had.  Pretty good odds, I think.  We had a house lined up and put our notice in at work.  My boss cried (and so did I!!) but she accepted it and was happy for me.  She knows what is going on in my life and wanted the best for us.  Well, after some serious discussions, we decided that we really needed to stay here for several reasons.  I talked to my boss and she was very happy that I told her that I was going to stay...for now.  I told her a year but she is determined to make it last 2 decades!!  We will have to see about that. So, for now...I am still at OTSCON and Tom is unemployed. 

After calling both the folks who owned the house we were suppose to move into (sorry again Beth & Lucas) and the new job we started looking for a place to live.  We knew that we had to move from the house we were living in and to a new house.  So, after looking at one house, we found one that was right around the corner from mom and believe it or not Kris!!!  We have moved into Columbia and so far (only 2 weeks) love it.  We are learning what it is like to have neighbors (our neighbor happens to be the vice-president of OTSCON!), noise, and traffic.  We are so stoked about having high-speed Internet, cable, and pizza delivery!!  It doesn't take much to made old people happy.

Alayna is happy that we are staying in Columbia.  She has a room at our new house.  She stays here about 1/2 of the time.  She likes riding her bike here, but has not been here long enough to make any new friends.  We are in a different school district so she doesn't know any of them.

Mom is pretty happy living alone, but found out how lonely it is without someone to talk to everyday.  I think it will get better as time goes on, but it will take a little bit to get used to the quiet!

I guess that is enough update for now. 

Waiting for the week-end...

I am so glad that the week-end is almost here.  I know I need it - really bad.  We are going to be busy for part of it, but hope to spend Sunday watching the races and chillin' out.

Kristi and Alayna are heading down to West Plains to see some good friends.  They will be there all week-end and are looking forward to fishing, visiting, and hanging out.  Kristi has put in a lot of overtime in the last few weeks and really needs a break.  I think this will be good for both of them.

I am not sure about Brian and what he is doing - have not talked to him a lot lately.  He has been putting in a lot of overtime as well. 

Oma is going to sew this week-end and keep up with her growing hummingbird collection.

Tom and I are going to couples night tomorrow night at the ceramics studio.  We have become addicted to that studio.  We love to get something and just let our imagination run wild.  Tom has been working on a LARGE 4 piece light house.  It is going to be beautiful.  I am going to work on a stepping stone.  I am not sure what else.  On Saturday, we are going to a car show in Jefferson City.

Hope you all have great week-ends planned.

Guess it is time for an update!

I am really not sure why I don't update more often.  I am on the computer a lot, but seem to be on Facebook or playing cards.  I don't know why I don't just do an update. 

We have really been having trouble adjusting to our new life with Tom home in the evenings.  I didn't think we had gotten into such a routine until it up and changed.  So, after about 6 weeks we are slowly getting into a new routine.  It has been difficult for Tom and I as well.  We had really forgotten that we were married with never seeing each other.  Something I never thought we would experience.

We have started going back to church.  I didn't realize that I missed it so much.  We have not found a church home yet, but are working on finding the right one for us. Kristi and Alayna have been going to Uncle Bob's church and Oma has been going back to the Lutheran church. We have had to miss 2 weeks and I am ready to go back on Sunday.  That is a good thing.

Alayna has been struggling with her weight.  She has the opposite problem as her mother and I - she can't seem to gain weight due to her ADD medicine.  We have had to resort to medicine-free weekends to help her gain weight.  She did a lot better - gained 3 lbs in a month.  However, the family goes through hell on the week-ends.  She is a wild child!  She is almost done with 1st grade, and has made progress in the right direction thanks to the medicine. We have a parent-grandparent-teacher conference tomorrow night to check her progress before school is out.  This way we can find out how far behind she still is and what we will be looking forward to once school starts again.  She got all her hair cut off and FINALLY lost one of her top front teeth last week.

Kristi is finally done with school for the summer.  She needed a break.  She wants to spend a lot more time with Alayna - and we want that as well.  Tom and I have a lot of things we want to do together and hope to be able to re-connect and do some stuff as well.  I think Alayna needs some "mommy-time" as well.  It will help all involved. Kristi and Alayna plan on going to see their good friends Lacy and Kevin in West Plains over Memorial day.  This will be a good get-away. 

Oma is doing well.  Is not feeling well at all, but when you are 80 everything hurts!!  She was trying to walk into the house today and nearly fell.  All of the sudden a pain shot through her hip and she couldn't move.  She is still quilting and has made several to give away as graduation gifts. We want to go to Arkansas again to check on the graves, but neither of us really want to go.  So, this has been put on hold.

Brian has been really busy with work.  They have a project to complete by a deadline and I am not totally sure they are going to make it without a lot of overtime.  Last week he said he worked 65 hours.  He is dead on his feet some days. He is getting ready for his vacation - 8 days in Mexico.  He is in a destination wedding and is really looking forward to getting away.  He finally gets to use his passport!

I have not been in my scrapbook room in about a month.  I have been so busy with other stuff that I just have not gotten to spend time in there. I hope to be able to get back in there soon.  We are going to help a friend down the street with her garden.  This way we can both benefit from the fresh veggies.  We need them since Alayna is a veggie freak!!  She asked for spinach the other night!  That is my girl.

Tom and I are going to the air show on Saturday of Memorial week-end.  Then, the next week-end is the race at Kansas.  We have several other things around here we want to do, but other than that we will be at home.  Ready for some quiet time.

Medically, we are not the perfect family....

This has been a bad week - medically for our family here in Columbia.  It started on Monday when I had to have an emergency visit to the dentist.  I know you are jealous, you wanted to be in the dentist chair didn't you?  Go ahead and admit it.  Anyway, back to my saga...One of my temporary fillings fell out and was starting to hurt.  The dentist put in another temporary filling because my dental insurance will not allow another root canal until July - really, that is when my FSA money is renewed.  So, I hope this temporary filling last until July 5th.  It does feel a lot better now.

Then on Tuesday morning, I got up and Oma was sitting in her chair.  I could tell she wasn't feeling well and sure enough her heart had been doing the cha-cha.  She told me that she was going to stay quiet for the day.  I told her if needed, call me and I would come home and take her to the doctor.  We think the issue was that she had to stop her blood thinner to get a shot in her back on Monday.  So, we are hoping that it will get better with the restarting of her medicine.  She is feeling better today.

On Tuesday night, Tom told me that he thought I was contagious because his eye was watering and really itchy.  He used me allergy eye drops and thought that would help.  On Wednesday morning as soon as I got to work Tom was waiting for me.  He looked terrible. Right eye swollen almost shut, watering terribly, and very itchy.  He said that he couldn't see very well either. I couldn't believe that he said he was going to the doctor.  He must have been hurting.  After our family doctor took one look at his eye, he told Tom that he was not leaving and needed to see a specialist right away - there was something wrong with his eye and it needed to be seen right away.  After about an hour of Tom sitting in the room with the lights out (light made it worse) the doctor had an appointment with a specialist - right away.

On to the specialist he went and I met him there.  After about an hour, finally a diagnosis of a ulcer on his cornea.  Very serious and if it doesn't get treated right away then it could lead to emergency surgery and a cornea transplant. So, he got drops to put in his eyes every two hours and ice packs until he sees the doctor the next day.

Today, we went back and both ulcers are looking very well.  One is healed and the other is about 1/2 way healed.  He said that eyes heal very quickly, but it was good that Tom seaked treatment right away.  He goes back in one week to make sure - unless he gets worse.

After I got back to work from Tom's appointment, Kristi called and asked if it was OK that one of her legs is very swollen and warm.  I told her "NO" it is not ok, call the doctor right away.  This could be serious.  So, she headed off to the doctor who suspected a blood clot.  Luckily, no clot but she is still having issues today.  She is going to call the doctor back to see what to do next.  This is very concerning.

Tomorrow, Alayna has her month ADD appointment. We are praying that she has not lost any weight, otherwise the doctor will be VERY upset.  She can't afford to lose anymore weight.  Otherwise, the medicine is doing a wonderful job.

So, Brian is the only one that is still pain free!  Let's keep it that way.

Sunset in Louisville.

While we were at dinner the last night in Louisville we ate at a really nice restaurant and it was perfect - all meals under $10 and the food was great.  This is one of the pictures that Tom took that night.

The Tsunami has hit us in Columbia

Well, it took a month, but the effects of the disaster in Japan has struck here.  Tom and I work at a Japanese automotive OEM (Original equipment manufacturing) company.  We make parking brakes for cars that are mfg in North America.  Well, the car companies have dropped their production to nearly nothing resulting in a reduction in workforce.  We released all our temps on Tuesday and asked for volunteers to take a lay-off until at least July 8th.  Also, 2nd shift was cancelled and the OTSCON employees have been moved to 1st shift.  So, Tom is going to start working daytime hours as of Monday.  This is wonderful news for us for a short time, and just about the time we get used to these hours they will move him (I have a feeling).

At this time we both still have jobs, but I don't know what the future holds.  But, for awhile we will be a family again!