do you know what that sound is, highness?....

...those are the shrieking eels!

This post, actually, has nothing to do with the Princess Bride (which is where that quote comes from, for those of us who are uncultured), but it just popped into my head for some reason.

Anyway...

HI EVERYONE!!! I know it's seemed like a bojillion years since we last blogged, so I thought I'd drop you all a line. It really hasn't been a bojillion years, but tons of things have definitely been going on, so we've been a little preoccupied:

SEPTEMBER

• LUCY - We are not millionaires because Lucy did not win the cutest dog competition. :o( For those of you who actually did vote and continue to show your endless support of our gorgeous beagle dog, THANK YOU! Maybe we'll have better luck next year. Or maybe we'll start a dog talent competition, or something. Lucy's pretty amazing at sitting, laying down, rolling over, speaking, and playing hide and seek! Anyway, to see information on the winner of the competition, click here.

OCTOBER

• SWINE - I'm pretty sure I had the swine flu in October. Joe and Alanna and I had planned a camping trip for the first weekend of October and, even though I started feeling like death with a fever of 103, NOTHING was going to get in the way of camping. I had a fever for a couple days and we were scheduled to go on a Friday night and I really didn't want to pull the plug on the trip. So we headed out of Phoenix and during the ride I think something pretty crazy happened because I don't remember much from that night. My fever seemed to skyrocket and I was freezing and burning up all at the same time. I'm pretty sure I was delirious (Joe and Alanna can probably give more details) and it seriously felt like I was actually dead. Not fun. We stayed one night and packed up first thing in the morning. :o( Sad!! It probably wasn't really the swine flu (I tend to exaggerate), but it was pretty brutal. On the positive side, I've hit my sick quotient for the year, so hopefully I won't be sick again for a long time.
• LUCY - Lucy turned TWO!! YAHOOOO!!!! Okay, so maybe this is only exciting to us.
• KIDNEY - Joe celebrated his first anniversary with his new kidney on October 7th!! It's definitely been a roller coaster as far as that goes - being more apt to get diseases and virus due to the suppressed immune system. They are constantly meeting with him, always doing new lab work, adjusting medications due to differences in blood levels and new viruses that pop up, keeping him healthy, etc. The Mayo Clinic and all of Joe's doctors in this city are really top notch. And so is Jen for being the awesome donor!! :o)
  

NOVEMBER

• MOVING - We moved into a new place!! Moving is always super stressful (especially when you realize about 1/3 of the stuff you own could probably just be thrown away), so we are glad to have that over and done with. And, as of yesterday, we have now been in the new place about a month and are pretty much all unpacked and settled in. It's a nice place, too. It's just about 3 miles away from our previous place, so it's in the same general area, but it's about $200 cheaper per month, so we're REALLY excited about saving some extra money. Which is something that isn't easy to do this day and age.
• WILDLIFE - We take Lucy for nightly walks around the new neighborhood and have had the opportunity of seeing and hearing different wildlife such as rabbits, owls, coyotes and even javelinas!! HOW COOL IS THAT??
• WORK - The coming of this month signaled my first anniversary at my current job. It's really crazy how time flies when you're having....fun? Yeah. Amazing. There are DEFINITELY days when things drag and situations get stressful at work (poor Joe never seems to hear the end of it, either) but, for the most part, I have actually grown to really enjoy my new position. This month has been really stressful at work because it's the end of my first year, so I had to work some overtime and work as hard as possible to make sure that I ended it with a bang (want to get some good points on my review!!). It's hard to do with unexpected issues that come up, fires that need to be put out, lives to save, etc. But on the other hand, there is a lot of teamwork involved, so there is a lot of time to continually improve upon communicating effectively with each other. There are great benefits and a lot of opportunity for growth. There are people who really make each day worthwhile. And among all the good and the bad (which you seem to find no matter WHERE you work), it's really been a pretty good experience so far.
• NEW MOON - I have nothing to say about it that won't make you all roll your eyes. So will spare you my thoughts.
  
• THANKSGIVING - It's scary how quickly Thanksgiving has come and gone, you know? My family traveled on a tour of Ireland for the holiday last week (the price was right) but Joe and decided to save our bucks (will visit Ireland someday...) and stuck around Phoenix. We had an awesome dinner celebration at my aunt and uncle's house and hung out and played games afterwards. We went camping amongst coyotes for a few days at Apache Lake, where we went last Thanksgiving. And had a really nice, stress-free weekend. I love Thanksgiving. And I am still so very thankful for everything listed here...and more!!
  

DECEMBER

Dude. Back off. It JUST STARTED!!! he he.

Really, though. December. Ahhh.

• Weather changes (finally).
  
• Holiday decorations.
  
• The season of giving.
• Making new year resolutions.
  
• Spending time with family.
• Enjoying life.
  

Hmmmm. I utterly love this time of year. :o)

Ciao for now!

it's been awhile...

Okay.

So maybe it's only been a week. But, still...I feel so removed from blogging that I've decided to write one even though nothing significantly exciting has been going on.

Here's an update on life in the Theresa lane:

• Reading: I have started reading 3 different books - Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling. I've decided that I need to take a step back and read one. Just one at a time. I'm finding it hard to concentrate, though, since I finished the Twilight Saga. Yep. I finished it. All of 'em. They were good. But now it's time to move on. I think I might stick with Harry Potter so that I can read the Half Blood Prince afterwards (since the movie is coming out this holiday season and I want to have read the book beforehand). Afterwards, I will probably resume reading Labyrinth...and follow that up with The Host by Stephenie Meyer (which Alanna just bought for me yesterday! THANKS, LONI!!)

• Camping: I can't wait to go camping again! Joe and I will try to squeeze in at least one more trip before the transplant. It's just hard because we're leaving for a cruise around Hawaii next month and the transplant is a couple weeks after we get back. So this next trip might be our last of 2008. Now we just have to figure out where to go...

• Cooking: Ever since Joe has needed to start a new diet because of his ESRD, it's been a struggle deciding what things are "good things" for him to eat. It's really not TOO difficult now that we've got the hang of it, but it's still a change. Basically we have to make sure whatever we prepare has LOTS of protein, little to no sodium, little to no phosphorus and little to no potassium. Sodium is easy to eliminate, but try cutting out phosphorus and potassium when the nutritional content for those are rarely on the labels! Anyway, I've been getting good use of my new cookbooks and will post a couple of our favorite recipes soon.

• Current Events: John Edwards makes me so angry. There was a time when he was my favorite choice back when all the democrat contenders were still in the game. It's amazing to me how one (or, in his case, REPEATED) lack of judgment can change my entire opinion about a person. I feel terribly for his wife and am just really sad about the whole situation.

• Dialysis: I hate dialysis. I'm not the one doing it 3 times a week, but I still hate it. That's all I'm saying about that.

• Family: Joe, my family and I will be taking a cruise around Hawaii in exactly ONE MONTH! I can not wait for this. It's going to be interesting having to work our activities around dialysis, but honestly, I'm content just walking around and experiencing life in Hawaii. I'm sure no matter what we do will be wonderful and fun. I can't WAIT!!!

• Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds Fur: While on our cruise, Lucy will be staying at a doggie day care and boarding place I found since all of our potential dog sitters are going with us on the cruise! So...I took her there yesterday for about 4 hours to see how she liked it. She seemed fine after Alanna and I picked her up, so that's good. I think the REAL test will be when I drop her off next Wednesday for another half day - if we get there and she's excited with tail wagging and all, then I'll know she likes it. I know that she's just a dog. And animal. And she probably loves and prefers being around the other dogs all day, but part of me is freaked out that she's not going to remember who we are...or that she's not going to want to come home with us. I mean, she'll be there for 10 nights/10 days! That's a loooooong time! I know I'm weird, but I really hope she likes it and that she is happy to see us when we get back.

• Work: I have been out of work for 2 months now. I'm doing part-time design work on the side, so I do have a little money trickling in here and there, but nothing full time yet. I believe that I am at a crossroads. So far, the only people who have responded to my resumes and letters have been related to positions I have never done before. Interesting, huh? I had an interview yesterday for a position as an Academic Counselor (I'll tell you more about it if they offer me the gig) and have another interview set up for Sunday (weird, I know) for a position as a Publications Designer. I have my Bachelor's in Psychology and the area of psychology has always been an interest of mine. I've always been fascinated with everything about it, so that's what I went through my undergrad career studying for - to hopefully work in that field someday. But then life happened and I went through a few jobs completely unrelated to psychology; but they were jobs that I fully enjoyed as well. While working in one of those jobs, I was able to explore my creative side and being designing a whole bunch of different types of materials for print and web. I never knew I would like it so much! So now I have been presented with two interview opportunities: one pertaining to Psychology and Design. The Academic Counselor position, if I'm accepted, is one that I could use as a start to working in psychology and eventually going back to school to further my career in that field. The Publications Designer position, if I'm accepted, could be used as a stepping stone into the field of design (I'd have to eventually go back to school for that, too). These are two fields that I feel strongly about. So now comes the question of the day - which road should I take?
  

Until next time,
XOXO

Garlic

Just writing a mid-week post to say hello and let you know what's going on...

Not much has happened since the last entry. Joe is still going to dialysis on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays. He completed his first week this past Saturday and...thank goodness...so far so good!

He says that he hasn't noticed any drastic improvements in the way he's been feeling lately, but he hasn't been getting sick in the mornings anymore and no longer has night sweats. I know that there have been many times he's felt very sick to his stomach and over the past week, it seems like this has diminished greatly (correct me if I'm wrong, Joe). So that's the report for now.

Joe will (hopefully) be speaking with his social worker to get him into a new center (one that's closer and better quality) and on a new treatment schedule (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)...so hopefully that will happen soon.

As for me, "life is good":

• Joe is getting good treatment and is on the path to getting a new kidney (they haven't called him for a consultation yet, but at least the ball has started to roll)
• Lucy is such a sweetheart (except when she's not, of course....ha ha)
• My job is getting a LITTLE more interesting (more on that to come)
• The weather, while hot earlier today, is now GORGEOUS as I type this on the patio
• We don't have puppy kindergarten on the weekends anymore...which means we can start camping and doing FUN STUFF!
  

The only complaint I have is.....garlic is a MONSTER to peel! I hate, Hate, HATE peeling garlic. I know, I know....I could buy the minced garlic that is already peeled. But seriously, people...you'd think there would be an easier way than to try to peel the ridiculously thin skin from a clove of garlic!

Until next time,
XOXO