Five Things to be Happy About 11/30-12/6

1.  Outback "to go" and a movie (Date Night - hiliarous) on the couch on a cold Friday night.

2.  Working on home-made Christmas gifts in the kitchen with the hubs.

3. Snow!!!  Started Saturday night and we woke up Sunday to a thin little blanket on the ground and rooftops, pretty :]

4.  Shopping for 9-year-old Jennifer from the Salvation Army Angel Tree.  I took 9-year-old Oliva with me, and she was so so good the entire time.  Even in the toy section she stayed focused on the task at hand and seemed very pleased to be buying nice things for someone who is less fortunate than she is.  I dropped the gifts off in the designated area at work this morning and was blown away by all of the bags of presents... all of that generosity.  One 9-year-old girl had asked for a skateboard and her Angel got it for her.  How happy is she going to be on Christmas morning?!  I just love the love, it makes me so happy.

5.  Hearing Willie Nelson sing Frosty the Snowman

Five Things to be Happy About: 11/23-11/29

1.  Fantastic Co-workers.  Since there were not many of us here the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we grabbed our laptops, headed down for breakfast and camped out in the cafeteria chatting and getting work done until our batteries died and people began rolling in for lunch.  A nice change of pace from sitting at or desks all day.

2.  I started reading a new book.  Loving Frank... about Frank Lloyd Wright and his love affair.  Fiction, but based on truths.  Pretty great so far, a little over halfway through it.

3.  Matt and I were seriously tested in a very "parental" way.  Without going into too much detail, our niece had a hard time leaving her grannie Annie and grandpa Lenny and was a bit of a challenge on the four hour car ride home.  The good news is, Matt and I were pleased with our composure throughout the entire thing. 

4.  One of my favorite 15 minutes meals: Cover one side of salmon with sesame seeds, cook for 3 minutes in a skillet with olive oil on medium heat then put the skillet right in the oven 10 minutes at 350, done.  Orzo on the stove takes 9 minutes... add cherry tomatoes.  and fresh steamed broccoli.  Yum.

5.  Mama gave me a sewing lesson while we were in TN for Thanksgiving and for my first project I made stockings.  I'm so proud of them, and I finally feel a little more comfortable using the machine.

Yikes!

I'm totally fired.  Has it really been 7 weeks.  I should rent this out to other people to post... just so it stays active :p  Oh gosh, and so much has happened!!

Highlights:

1. Matt finished preparing and gave his speech at a clean energy symposium at Rutgers.

2. I threw a surprise birthday dinner party for Matt's 30th birthday.  40 adults, a handful of kids, and he had no clue.  It was at Dos Perros downtown Durham, and it was a fantastic event.

3. My sweet friend Denise was in town for a wedding and we got to spend some serious quality time together <3

4. At work, we filled our boss's office with balloons.  Over 900 balloons to surprise him on boss' day.  At some point during the day one of my co-workers and I decided to walk around in the balloons.  Once the static started to build and the balloons (that were pressed right up against my face) started popping, I freaked... running towards the exit as balloons kept popping, making me scream each time.  I was crying by the time I got out of there.  Meanwhile, there was an interview going on in the room next door... I'm so classy.  I still have "Rachel - Balloon Wimp - Meitl" written on my cube.  :)

5. Matt and I took our parents (yep, both sets!) on a cruise to the Bahamas.  What a fantastic time; we are truly blessed to have 4 parents that love us so much and get along with each other great!

Hey - I think that's about it.  Do you believe me when I say I'll update next Monday?  Probably not... we'll see... I'm definitely going to try.

What a week... what a month even!

Hey blog-reading friends :]  I'm home on the couch while Matt and a bunch of our friends load everything from Joy's one bedroom apartment in Cary into a 14' UHaul and unload it here in Durham.  (Joy is my sister-in-law for anyone that doesn't know that).  This weekend marks the end of a pretty hectic, stressful month(s).  Summers are always a little busy with weekends being extra packed, but Matt spent much of this summer's free time and weekends preparing for a presentation he gave at Rutgers a little over a week ago.  Getting on the other side of that definitely took a load off of us stress-wise.  His presentation was last Thursday and his 30th birthday was that Saturday, a week ago.  I put together a surprise birthday dinner for him that included over 40 of his favorite people.  Juggling that and keeping it a secret while also supporting him in his presentation prep-work,  and preparing for Joy's move this weekend was just a lot all at once.  Joy has been taking public transportation from Cary to Durham for 4 weeks now.  I know, she's a rockstar, but starting Monday she'll be minutes from us and minutes from work with a car reliable enough to drive herself around town.  Woo hoo!!

So, why am I home while all of my friends eat Bojangles chicken biscuits and load a UHaul on one of the first brisk mornings we've had this season?  Because, since last Sunday, I've been having symptoms that indicate a UTI, and for the past 3 days (today will be the 4th) the truth that I am passing kidney stones has become quite apparent.  So I'm home alone, a bit scared, because the pain is like nothing I've ever experienced or imagined.  It's a dull pain, and I definitely think dull is better than sharp, amen?  But it feels like I'm laying on my stomach and someone is pressing their palm into my right kidney with as much force as possible (actually, it feels like more force than would be humanly possible) and that constant pressure doesn't let up for a couple of hours.  This leaves me laying on my right side stretched out, laying on my left side stretched out, laying on my back and moving my legs like the bicycle motion you might have done regularly as a kid, laying on my back with my knees up swing them open and closed, laying curled over my knees, bent over the countertop, you name it.  Meanwhile I'm literally moaning like I'm in labor.  Unfortunately, for the past 3 mornings this has happened, it has lasted about 2-3 hours, and has involved a couple rounds of vomiting mixed in there.  Really awful stuff.  It wasn't until yesterday (after 3 mornings of this) that we went back to the dr adamant that it was not a bladder infection and that (despite no evidence in my urine and no fever) it had to be kidney stones.  An ultrasound confirmed 1 stone in my bladder and "a couple more small ones" in my right kidney.  Apparently 4 mm is small.  Hopefully this morning will be a little different than the last few, because this morning I'm armed with Tylenol 3 (can't imagine this is going to do much of anything once an episode comes on however) and medicine for the nausea (I think I can handle it if I'm not also fighting the urge to puke in the middle of the pain).  TMI?  Hopefully I haven't just lost half of my blog reading friends with this story...

It's crazy though!  And I'm scared.  I feel way too young to be having kidney stones, right?! But I guess 29 isn't that young.  I've missed almost a full week of work over this, and how can I possibly go back until all of the stones have passed??  There's no way I can be flailing around the office floor moaning for 2 hours.  We do have an onsite nurse though... the school nurse, if you will.  I suppose if this weekend shows that the medicine really does help me handle the "episodes" then I could always go into the office and plan to sit with the school nurse for 2 hours if I have to.  Wee.

Alright, well... I guess I'm going to go pee... wish me luck.  And send up a couple prayers please.  Gratzi!

Woops... I'm still here!!

Yikes I've really let this drop lately.  I let a month go by!  Seems like I haven't done a very good job keeping up with many things these past few weeks.  It's so hard to remember a month ago, but here's five.

1.  Received my notary stamp in the mail - I'm official!

2.  Entering football season with several Hokie co-workers.  Matt and I already have tickets to one home game and one away game.  One co-worker is planning a tail-gate at his house before the VT/Carolina game and my boss writes stats on his dry-erase board!!  I'm lovin it.  :D

3.  Had a few nights in a row of good dreams!  I never have good dreams!

4.  Being called Mrs Meitl at work... and having it sound familiar and not strange like maybe I've just tried on someone else's name for a while.

5.  Melissa and Clayton had their baby girl - Haven Claire Welch.  6lbs5oz.  Itty bitty!  So sweet and so perfect.  I got to spend the day last Monday with Melissa and it's just amazing how terrifying something so small can be.  Every little move she made caused Melissa and me to sit up and see what she was doing.  Just precious.