All set to come home!

Well..its been a long week. Mom had surgery on Monday to revise the scar's and work done from some earlier procedures. As good as I've been feeling...taking care of her has been a bit much for me. When she laid down this afternoon for a nap I decided to take one too and didn't wake up til she woke me up 3 hours later! Hopefully I'll be able to sleep tonight.

So now I'm all packed for tomorrow...I shipped a box yesterday..and dad shipped the computer so hopefully those will be there by next Tuesday. Which should work out great since I fly to PA to do my househunting on Thursday. My suitcases are packed SO full! But I love being able to have most of my new stuff with me right away when I get home. IT was mostly books I shipped and lets face it...I can only read so many of those at a time!

I expanded my knitting skills this trip to include "felting". If you are not sure what that is....have you ever shrunk a wool sweater in the wash by accident? That's felting! Except I did it on purpose. I made a hat and mittens. I'll post pictures after I get home.

Tomorrow I'll probably take a nap and then get back to work on organizing for the movers. I can't believe they are coming on the 18th already!

Merry Christmas!

Look what I got for Christmas!!! Too bad I'll only get to play with it a few days before I head to PA to househunt and meet new work people. As soon as I get back the movers come!!! Better start planning my going away party! Probably will be the 20th or 21st of January as when I leave for Portland that next Monday I'm probably gone for good. So sad!

I also got lots of books, some DVD's and some of my collectible shoes. Hope your Christmas's were all wonderful!

I head back to CA on Thursday!

I feel so grown up!

I just got approved for my mortgage! I still need to find a property - but I'm actually approved - not just prequalified or preapproved - so I can shop with confidence and will be able to close in as little as 10 days once I find someplace! Maybe my stuff won't have to sit in storage too long afterall!!! And-if on some off chance I actually find a better mortgage elsewhere (which I haven't so far in all my looking/talking to banks) my current lender will meet it or let me walk away at no cost! I'm so excited! Now I just need to find a place!

Still bored

Okay...so now that I'm a week post op and starting to feel better I'm BORED to tears! Mom finally decided I was okay enough to drive so I took her to work today so I could have the car. But then my little sister couldn't go out because she had to clean her rom and my dad never called me back about lunch! So I made our peanut butter cookies and some fudge for Christmas Eve (we do dessert at our house with our family friends after going out to dinner). Then mom and I had dinner at CPK and now I'm at home printing of real estate listings that my realtor has been sending!

BRRRRRR!

Minus 6 degrees when I woke up this morning! Hope its warmer tomorrow!

In case you doubted my genius!

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

Word to the Wise

Don't get on an airplane 5 days after you have your appendix out. At least not if its a 4 hour flight. Was not fun! At least I'm home now getting some TLC.

Off to Chicago I go!

Well, thanks in part to Beverly (for picking mom up in the airport) and in part to Dad (for giving mom a ticket) mom arrived safe and sound in Oakland on Thursday night. My guest room was a wreck since I've been trying to get organized before the packers come - probably the week of Jan 16. So we had to clean that up so she had someplace to sleep. Yesterday consisted of lots of errands and chores to get me ready to go home today - although it did start with breakfast at Panera - always a good way to start my day. Oh! And a stop to Old Navy where a bunch of stuff was only $10! Then to the bank, post office, and Kinkos before returning home to do laundry and pack. Now we are just waiting for Amanda to pick us up to head to the airport.

I'll be blogging from Chicago so talk to you soon!

Believe it or not I feel blessed!

So Sunday night about 11pm I started to have this sharp pain on my right side. When I started throwing up I knew I was in trouble. I called the urgent care center Monday morning as soon as they opened and upon describing my symptoms - they insisted I head straight to the ER. And so my trip to John Muir Medical Center this week.

After a few ultrasounds, some bloodwork, and a CT scan I had a visit from a very nice Greek surgeon who insisted my appendix was to come out that very night. After a few tearful calls with my mom (believe it or not - she was the one crying - and none too happy with me that I didn't call her sooner since by the time I did talk to her it was too late for her to get on a plane and be with me for surgery) I called Amanda to come sit with me until surgery - and Michelle called her mom to drive down from Sacramento. Amanda and I had great fun sitting in pre-op for nearly 4 hours as we watched patient after patient come in and get to go into surgery before me. Of course the good part of that was that it allowed time for Margurite (Michelle's mom) to make it down from Sacramento. My mom was very pleased I at least had A mom with me.

After a short hour in surgery I emerged appendix free. I had a not so lovely 36 hour stay at John Muir after emerging from surgery. I really don't understand why they have to wake you up so much. Considering the pain I was in I would much rather have slept. And the way my neighbor was snoring I'd think they could figure out a way to let you sleep a little longer once you're actually able to FALL asleep.

Tuesday consisted of lots of sleep and lots of phone calls from those near and dear to me. To those of you who called - I aplogize for being so out of it - but I'm sure you understand! Tuesday morning when I saw the dr he indicated I MIGHT get to go home Tuesday night, so Amanda, Bev, Jen, Ann and Tony all came by to visit and maybe give me a ride home. Alas, my dr decided that with me flying to Chicago on Saturday he wanted to keep me in the hospital one more night.

Wednesday morning I was up and at 'em trying to get through my list of things the dr said I must do before leaving the hospital. I won't go into the gory details on what that entails - but I was on a mission to get out of that hospital as soon as possible.

At 10:30 I saw my dr and he gave me the good news....homeward bound was I! A call to Amanda for a ride home and I was busy getting my IV removed, post op instructions, and getting dressed. We left the hospital then and headed home to drop off my flowers before hitting the drug store to pick up my pain meds and some food. Then it was time for me to crash - and if I thought I was in love with my bed before it's nothing compared to how good it felt to be in my bed again last night!!! Amanda - thanks SO much for chauffering me around yesterday and getting me settled at home.

Thanks to Amanda and Ann for making the trip to pick up my car at John Muir last night. One less thing for me to worry about now. Thanks to Beverly for picking up mom tonight at Oakland. Yes, mom who is so upset she hasn't been with me all week is flying in tonight to help me get ready to go home on Saturday. She was really freaked out about me traveling on my own Saturday and when she talked to my stepmom to tell her what was going on, Cynthia offered her a plane ticket to come and get me.

After about 10 hours of sleep last night I spent today catching up on voicemails, important emails, christmas cards, and tv. With a nap or two of course. I'm still pretty sore, but being home has me feeling SO much better!

Again, thanks to all of you who sent your well wishes. Its terrible times like these when I feel extra special to have met each and every one of you!

Its Official

More details to come, but I officially was offered and accepted my promotion today. I'll be moving to Harrisburg, PA sometime in late January early February.

Good news is, a raise, small territory (like my old one before I started going to Oregon) and I'll be able to BUY a house - well a townhouse. But still exciting!

Bad news is not getting to see you guys all the time! I can't imagine being without all of you so close! I'm expecting LOTS of visitors!

Is it Saturday yet?

Thanks to Beverly for the horseback riding photos! Now the rest of you can see what a beautiful day it was!!!

Well...made it back home after (of course) the typical travel delays last night. But since I was just going to be in the "office" today I decided to sleep in a little bit. Now that I've gotten a little bit caught up on stuff since I've been out all week I think I'll run out for a haircut (noticed a lot of split ends this week), stop at UPS (damn UPS man came three times this week - after 8pm when the office was closed so no one could accept my package and now I have to go there to pick it up before they send it back!) and eat something!

By the way, if any of you need a romantic getaway. We stayed this week at the Inn at Langley in Langley, WA. It was amazing. And probably the best part was the food. The chef is also the general manager - and not only did he make us amazing lunches (and have phenominal breakfasts brought in - we're all dying to know where the bacon came from), but in the afternoon one day we got a tour of the wine cellar, his garden, AND we made dessert with him (I've got a mean chocolate mouse recipe I may prepare for this weekend!). Then we had a Chef's Table dinner. Now I don't know if anyone has done this before...but its when you sit right along the kitchen and the chef just whips up all kinds of great stuff for you. I've always been intrigued by the idea - but never participated because of how picky I am about food. I was a little more confident than usual going into it because they'd already been told I didn't eat seafood and they'd done a great job preparing me alternatives and getting Michelle vegetarian items. I got MORE nervous when the menu's were placed in front of us on what he was making. But you'd all be SO proud of me for actually eating what I was given!

First course was a tiny (I mean like half dollar sized) waldorf salad. You all know I'm not crazy about nuts - but they were crushed up so small I did okay (remember its the texture I don't like).

Second course was sweet potatoes with scallops (I'll admit here - I did not have a scallop but an additional sweet potato) with some kind of potato sauce and crumbled bacon. Now I'm not really a fan of sweet potatoes - but this was okay.

Third course was venison. This REALLY freaked me out as I've never had it. But as amazing as all the food was I figured what better place to have it than there. Now - the rarer parts of it were okay (but I don't think it tasted like filet mignon as some suggested) but overall I was not a fan. Too dry for me. But it was in an amazing sauce and had yummy mashed potatoes with it.

Fourth course was a cheese course. Triple Cream Cheese with crostini, vanilla bean jam, and vanilla poached pear. And did you know - triple cream is not a brie (despite the fact that the brie I buy at V Sattui says its triple cream) its its own type of cheese. But AMAZING.

Fifth course was our desert we helped with. A thin layer of pumpkin spongecake with a THICK layer of our chocolate mousse topped with some vanilla bean sour cream. (we made the mousse and sour cream). I'm not a fan of the pumpkin but the mousse and cream were amazing! And so easy to make!

We also had 4 wine pairs along with our dinner that really accented the entire meal! Just amazing.

Then I kicked all the guys butts at poker (ladies I think its time for us to play again - after a night playing with 8 boys I've got Texas Hold-em down. I was kinda mad because I didn't sleep so well the first night there. Came to find out all the noises I was hearing were the boys upstairs playing poker (we were the only ones at the inn). And I was mad that they didn't even invite me. So the second night they did...and it was a three dollar buy in. They gave us all lots of quarters nickels and dimes. And while I did lose all but 40cents my first hand. I borrowed $1 from my one co-worker and proceeded to take 4 hands in a row. And several after that as well. I ended up paying him back the dollar I owed, recouping my $3 buy in, and making $6 on top of that! I don't think the boys are going to invite me to poker anymore!


For those of you who have heard some rumblings about me moving - I still have not heard my OFFICIAL word as of yet. The person I'm replacing in Harrisburg has been ironing out some details on HIS next move. Although it seems that he's starting it the last week of January so its looking like I'll have a Feb 1 start date in Harrisburg (plus probably a week there earlier in January some time to meet everyone and look for housing). Anyway, I just hope I hear soon so I can really start full force at all the stuff I need to do since I want to BUY a place! And at the same time of course I'm so sad to leave all of you - but everyone is always welcome to come visit me in Harrisburg (for your shoppers its like a 1.5 hour drive to Philadelphia and a 4 hour train ride to NYC) and wherever my job takes me after that! And I of course will be VERY excited to come back and visit!