Winding Down?

Mmmkay. It has been a while since I have blogged. Although I am not Catholic, I feel as if I must begin with some kind of accountability or confession for my blogging absence. The best excuse I could come up with is LIFE. You know, the kind you lead when your childrens' activities begin to overwhelm your ideal and take control? Yeah, LIFE. Been living it.

So, in my pursuit of LIVING, I have not spent one full week's worth of evenings in my own home since June. That's right, June. No, not June from some foreign calendar from a country far, far away. I'm talking June, 2008. So, basically, I've been completely consumed with their stuff. There are moms who would question that move on my part, and they have every right to do so. I'm even OK with it if they think I'm a little crazy for it. Don't care. Pay my bills and your opinion will matter. I am an Army wife. I am used to doing most everything on my own. I can manage bills, carpools, medical appointments, Army stuff, and most semi-major catastrophies on my own, and have done so, quite often. So there. Again, if I ask for your help, I will consider your opinion.

My one issue with all the going is that I've had precious little downtime. With the kids and their stuff and the house on the market, I've got a Swiffer in one hand and my keys in the other at practically all times. Sometimes I think the insanity of it all keeps me going. Something I noticed after the kids pointed it out about a month ago is that I spent most Sundays with one foot in the bed or feeling like total crap. After last week, I figured the puzzle out.

March 1st was a Sunday. That was the last day of the Greater Southwest Nationals in Rio Rancho, just outside Albuquerque. Mom came to El Paso to stay with Amanda because she had a mandatory cheer competition and she usually comes to town for each of the kids' birthdays, and Nolan's birthday is March 2nd.

That was a totally crazy weekend- got Mom off the plane Thursday afternoon, Amanda's Honor Orchestra performance was that night, ran my "have to" errands Friday morning, finished packing bags and food for the weekend, got Nolan out of school early, loaded up Maria's van with all our crap, showed the house to a Realtor, got in the van and carpooled to Rio Rancho with Maria and her three kids (who were all awesome all weekend) so we could share a hotel room too, got to the venue and got the kids weighed in, went back to the hotel and heated up dinner while Maria took the kids to the pool for 30 minutes, had dinner and cleaned up, got showers and went to bed. Saturday was eight hours of wrestling and the kids who wrestle in New Mexico are flipping beasts, then Nolan and I spent the evening with my nephew Cody's family. Sunday we woke up and went back to the tourney, where Nolan subsequently fractured his foot (yes, seriously) and took second place in his bracket, then we left and Maria's bunch, Coach Avery and us two met my sister and her special friend (for the first time) and her special friend's daughter (yup, first time) for lunch. We ate and gabbed, then loaded up and came back to El Paso. My mother had dinner ready when we got home, so we unloaded and ate, then headed for the ER on the advice of the paramedics at the arena for x-rays. As dumb luck would have it, the x-ray confirmed the fracture and we got home around 1:30 in the morning. It was already Nolan's birthday, so he got an ugly fractured foot shoe for his birthday. I took Nolan to school a couple of hours late, hit the store for birthday shopping and we all went to dinner for his birthday. We woke up and got Tuesday going, then it was time to take my mother to the plane to go home. Yes, insane.

By that night, I felt like death was creeping up on me. No, I really felt horrible. My mother was convinced I needed to go to the hospital at one point. I dodged that bullet. When I woke up Tuesday, I actually did feel much better. Wednesday was about the same, until the evening when I got sick again. When I woke up Thursday, I called for an appointment.

I got an early appointment, got the kids out the door, got ready and got to the appointment. It was actually not a bad medical experience and I am not going to complain about the service I was given, as it was more than adequate. I didn't have to wait forever in the waiting room, I was triaged quickly, I was put in a room immediately and the Nurse Practitioner was in right after that. It didn't take much convincing for her to confirm that I did have a sinus infection. Her official diagnosis was a "raging sinus infection." So, seven prescriptions later (I was actually only given six at the pharmacy-stay tuned) I was on my way. I didn't even have to wait that long at the pharmacy.

As soon as I got home, I took my meds and thought I could get some vacuuming or something done, but I was so wrong. I got an email in to the Realtor (grr) asking her to lower our price again and then I thought I would pass out so I went to bed. I slept until it was time to get the kids. I was grateful that we didn't have practice (due to the foot issue), grabbed a quick dinner at God's little blessing known as the drive-through, came home and ate and choked down some more pills before I passed out in bed. Friday meant more pills and after I got the kids to school I collapsed again.

I spoke with Travis later in the day and he and I figured my body just knew Monday that I could finally just totally poop-out and be sick. By that night, I was so nauseated I could barely move. I got some of the happy tummy yogurt and tried that to calm things down. That night I started chugging the Imitrol or Imitrex or whatever the anit-pukey liquid stuff is called. We laid low all weekend and my stomach continued to punish me.

Last night we went to watch our friends' daughter cheer at her first game (she's five) and then came home, and the nausea was still hanging on. I called the doctor again this morning and they got me in.

I had to see a different provider today and he seemed to think that the 875 mg Augmentin was a little much for my gut to handle so he changed me to a completely different antibiotic and took me off the head-swimming anti-histamine I got last week as well. He said the infection was still bad enough I needed a full course of meds. Joy. I hit the pharmacy and didn't have the good luck with the wait time I had last week, but when they finally did get to me, I got the prescription the pharmacy didn't give me last week (gee, good job, guys) that I no longer really needed as well as the one from today. The PA also told me to expect the nausea to last through tomorrow, until the first antibiotic clears out. And guess what, I'm still sick.

So, I guess the over-assertive approach with the uber-antibiotic was needed, even though it was too strong for me. Yet again, this is another reason I need to move. I need to have sinus surgery and a nose job to repair my incredibly deviated septum and I wont have it until Travis and I are living in the same house. I need his help because from what I hear, it can be a pretty intense surgery, especially since I need both procedures. NEED. TO. MOVE.

Our contract with our Realtor expires on the 31st. I have no idea exactly what will happen after that, but I am hoping we have an offer by then. The house is now priced at $110,000, which works out to $46.02 per square foot. As I now ask complete strangers, "Wanna buy a big, cheap house?"