The Alabama Bucket List

We're getting ready to move now, and I had a few things left on my Alabama bucket list to do.

But before I get into that, I should probably mention that we are moving to Chico, CA! I feel like I am going home. I was so happy just that Steve had an opportunity to interview at a place in California, because there were a lot of opportunities that we heard about, but not a lot out West. I would have even been okay with it if we went elsewhere, as long as I knew we tried looking in California but it wasn't the right thing for us. Ultimately, I wanted the best opportunity for Steve wherever that might've been, but I'm so, so happy that it is in my home state!

So now to the bucket list: there were a few things that I felt like I just had to do while in The South. This Saturday, I crossed two big ones off my list! One of them was to see a Civil War site/reenactment. I heard of one that only happens twice a year, in Tannehill, Alabama. We went down (about 40 minutes away) and it was awesome! There were cannons, horses, soldiers all dressed up in authentic uniforms, and even a confederate band! We watched a battle (where the South rose again, I might add) and we drank "Ole Doc Bell's Wizard Elixir", aka homemade Root Beer and Birch Beer, and we loved it! On our way home, while watching the Alabama countryside fly by, we were sad to see many very large trees that were uprooted and blown over from the tornadoes, not to mention the homes that were damaged and rooftops covered by tarps.

The other thing we crossed off my bucket list was going to Bojangles (a restaurant chain here in Alabama, originally out of S. Carolina). So we did that on the way home, since we saw one right off the highway. It was so good! It was basically biscuit sandwiches and southern sides. But the best part? A fried sweet potato pie! YUM! Too bad I didn't know about these sooner....or maybe that's a good thing.

Check out all our pictures from the day, we can prove these have been crossed off the list! It's been a great Alabama weekend, and it's not even over yet!

Wow, so in re-reading my previous post, right after I talk about academic stuff, blah blah blah....there are these glaring grammatical errors. Fantastic! I blame it on being sick at the time. Anyway, I read on someone else's blog a fun post idea: a 'like & dislike list'. I think I will make one of my own.

Likes:
*Spring
*Weather in the 60s+
*A just-cleaned bathroom
*A favorite TV show to watch just when the baby goes down for a nap
*A baby who loves to be outside just as much as his mom
*A room with lots of windows
*Singing with a choir
*Making progress on crafty projects
*Sunday naps
*Cookies without nuts
*Road trips
*Historical Sites
*Going out to eat
*Hosting friends/family at our house
*People who tell me my baby is cute
*Playing tennis in perfect weather
*The shampoo they give you before a haircut

Dislikes:
*Doing Austin's laundry
*Dishcloths
*Dog poop all over the area in front of my patio
*The last portion of cereal left in the box no one wants to eat
*Mealy bugs
*Overtime
*Cooking dinner
*No good prime time TV
*Moving
*Drying my hair (monotonous!)
*Allergies
*Cold weather
*Rude people
*Messes (mostly cleaning them up)
*Raw meat
*Houses painted ridiculous colors on the outside


Well, that's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure I'll be adding an addendum later.

Projects and the Good Ol' Days

Well, it seems like we only get to the blog when we're sick--probably because it slows us down from the normal day-to-day. Today, we are all sick, including Smingers--he has sneezed in BOTH mine and Steve's faces during his kitty-cold, which is disgusting. Austin seems to be getting better, and Steve probably has the furthest to go, because he got the bug last. Since we missed church so we wouldn't get anyone else sick, I started going through my old stuff that I've been meaning to scrapbook, starting from when Steve and I started dating in college. It was so funny to look back on all that stuff--we were always writing each other little notes, scrawling little jokes on scrap pieces of paper. I even saved little post cards or plane tickets from trips we went on, which I am actually glad I did, because I didn't remember half of it! The only problem is, all these 8+ years later, I STILL haven't organized it into an actual book. (P.S., I am not a scrapbooker. If I can just staple them into the book with a few captions and headings, that will be a really great feat for me.) Let's hope that I can get this project done while I have time and the will to do it!

While looking through all the college stuff, I have to say that looking back, college was fun--but much funner socially than academically! Being very academically driven like I was, I took all my classes probably way to seriously. It paid off--I never even got a "B" at BYU-I, but I would get way stressed-out and study A LOT. So I am really content with my life right now and happy with what I'm doing now--taking care of Austin, deciding for myself how I will spend my time, and ever, ever grateful for finding something that I loved, getting a degree in it, and being able to use it in every day life however much (or little) I want! I love that there are so many opportunities out there to learn more about plants and ways to teach others about them too. I hope I don't take any of them for granted!

Bad Luck in Birmingham

This post is called 'Bad luck in Birmingham' because between Steve and I, we've been to the ER 3 times in less than 2 months.

It started with Steve having a rather serious appendectomy at the end of June. So, I made him this sandwich on Thursday, and then he ate it on Saturday, and right after he began to complain he didn't feel good. I was feeling guilty that apparently my sandwich making skills are so bad that it basically tasted like a poison sandwich, especially when that feeling just didn't seem to go away for him! But then, when he woke up the following Tuesday morning with that sick feeling and a fever of 103, I said excuse me, but that is NOT still my sandwich's fault!

So Steve called in to a clinic and they said they'd get us in at 1:20pm (he called in around 7-8 am) but Steve said he'd be there sooner, and please get us in as soon as they could. We got there at 12:40, the only people in the office. Then patients began to show up, and we watched them call in one after another, leaving poor sick Steve to wait! Over an hour later, we were finally in a room and the doctor finally came in. When she realized how sick Steve was, she said "Why didn't you go to the ER?" Well, we would have if we would've known it would take so long!
He was so sick by that time, they called an ambulance to take him to the nearest hospital! The next 12 hours were a whirlwind. At the hospital, they did a CT scan, determined he had appendicitis, and performed surgery on him. I had a lady from church watch Austin while I tried to be calm and wait. I was told at about 9:30 pm that his surgery went well, but at 10:00 pm, they came back out to tell me that Steve had a bad reaction and his lungs filled up with fluid when they tried to take out his breathing tube. It was all very stressful, but the next morning they got the tube out safely, and after a brief stay at the hospital and some much-appreciated help from Steve's brother Rick who flew in, Steve was on the mend.

Fast forward to last Tuesday: we were eating at a local barbecue place, and I got a chunk of spare rib stuck in my throat. Despite how it sounds, this actually happens to me all the time. Truly. So I calmly went into the bathroom to do some of my usual tricks to get it down. While I was gone, the restaurant people seemed to notice something was up (there were very few customers that night) and they kept going over to Steve to inquire "if the meal was alright?" "how he was doing this evening?" etc. They were very chatty, but I was not in the mood to stick around, so we boxed up the food and made a hasty exit. Fast forward 12 HOURS. The meat would not budge, and I had been up ALL NIGHT. I told Steve at 6 am that we needed to go to the ER. Again, a whirlwind of ER tests, IVs and blood-drawing, and I was told I would need an endoscopy. I woke up from the process with my throat sore but un-blocked, a huge relief! And after a brief recovery and picking up Austin from Steve's work, where they had so kindly offered to watch him, I was able to go home. They told me that all this time that I've had trouble swallowing, I may actually be allergic to a variety of foods that cause my throat to swell. I had no idea...so we'll see after more testing.

The next Saturday, Steve woke up with terrible chest pain. Chest pain???! Haven't we gone through enough? So off he went to the ER for more tests, X Rays, CT scan, blood draws, it's all so familiar to us now. Turns out he has a lung infection, probably from the effects of the fluid that had gotten down into his lungs after his surgery.

But we made it through all of that, and would prefer NOT to see the ER for a loooong time now. Just as long as Austin doesn't have to see the ER, I'll be okay! He was so good for us during those tough times, too. Well, here's hoping for a more healthy 2 months in August and September!