Got Bronchitis?

I do. I thought I had a sinus infection because my sinus have been hurting and yesterday my ears started hurting. So I finally went to the doctor today after suffering for two weeks thinking it will pass. I've had the same symptoms 4 times this year so I thought it was just a cold, but the funny thing is that Benadryl is the only OTC drug that relieves any of my symptoms.
I also went to get the APS/thrombosis labs done yesterday. The lab tech took 11 tubes of blood. She tried to convince me she wasn't taking that much blood. One of the tests they are doing is with snake venom to see how my blood reacts, isn't that cool. How fun would that be to just do experiments with blood all day?

Great Great Great Great Grandmother

Below is an inspiring email that I got from my great Auntie Evelyn. It's funny how I get these emails just when I need them.

Dear children, nieces and grand niece,
You know that I have been doing genealogical research of our family for many years. To help me with this I became a member of the New England Historical Genealogical Society, the oldest genealogical society in the USA. One of the perks of membership is receiving their very nice quarterly magazine. The winter edition just arrived.
Imagine my surprise upon opening this magazine to discover an article entitled Lucy Thurston, Missionary Wife. Lucy was my great great grandmother, a member of the first company of missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands. She is your great great great grandmother and Amy, she is your great great great great grandmother. The article recounts the salient points of her life. Lucy was a real survivor.
She has been a great influence in my life. When I found out I had breast cancer I reread the account she wrote of her breast cancer surgery. I thought well, if Lucy could come through a mastectomy performed with her sitting up in a chair (no hospital operating room) and without anaesthesia, then what did I have to fear in this modern age--my surgery would be a snap!
We should all be proud of bearing Lucy's DNA in our genes.
Love, your Mom and your Auntie Evelyn

hit the deer, but not the elk and the moose‏

Every once in awhile my sister in-law, Julie, will send out helpful information that she has learned from her classes. Below are a few of the emails. Hope you don't mind Julie.

this is what i learned in personal finance today:topic: car insurancefact pattern: A deer runs out in front of your vehicle. Do you swerve?answer: NO. Hit the deer. It's better to pay your deductible and have your comprehensive insurance cover the accident instead of swerving, hitting something, and then being liable. Your collision insurance will then apply, and your premium will go up.change the fact pattern: An elk or moose runs out in front of your vehicle.answer: don't hit the elk or moose. people die every year hitting elk and moose.

in my personal finance class we got this convenient link to opt out of credit card offers for five years. https://www.optoutprescreen.com/ this will help protect you from identity theft.

true or false: closing inactive credit card accounts helps your credit score
No, no, no. For the umpteenth time: Closing accounts can never help your credit score, and may hurt it.
Every time I write this, I get more e-mail from people who say their mortgage lenders told them exactly the opposite. It's true that having too many open accounts can hurt your score. But once you've opened the accounts, you've done the damage. You can't repair it by shutting the account, and you may actually make things worse.
The credit score looks at the difference between your available credit and what you're using. Shut down accounts, and your total available credit shrinks, making your balances loom larger, which typically hurts your score.
The score also tracks the length of your credit history. Shutting older accounts can also make your credit history look younger than it actually is, which can hurt your score.
Of course, credit scores aren't the only thing lenders look at when making decisions. They typically consider other factors, such as your income, assets, employment history and credit limits. Mortgage lenders in particular might look at your total available credit and ask you to close a few accounts as a condition for getting a loan.

What did you do this weekend?

Well, Friday I set an alarm for 11:15 so I could pick up David from the airport. I attempted to sleep Saturday since I have a cold, but it is very difficult to sleep when a puppy is jumping on you. Saturday night we went to a Cambodian party, a friend is going on a mission trip to Cambodia. Great food and games at the party. Then waited on AAA to change a flat tire. After that was fixed we were off to see the Indiana Ice play hockey and fight. This was just Saturday.

Sunday I worked at the zoo on Hickory Hill Drive. It started with Daisy peeing in the kitchen, she couldn't quite make it to the door. A few hours later she pooped in the living room. Then I find that Coach, the cat, peed and pooped in our room. After cleaning our room I go to the kitchen to make lunch and step in something warm on the rug, I'm assuming it's pee. So David spent most of Sunday steam cleaning the carpet, while I constantly did laundry. I feel like I know what it is like to work at the zoo now. Make food, clean up poop, and wash rags all day long.

Daisy has yet to figure out the doggy door. She now goes to it when she has to go potty, she's learning! She refuses to go potty for David, just tries to run back inside to follow me around. David and her bonded this weekend but he's off again this week to Boston and Chicago. I'm curious if she'll remember him when he gets back Friday night/Saturday morning. We are trying to figure out what she's mixed with, if you have a guess you then click on comment link below. She's starting do get black dots like a Dalmatian. We know that her mom was a Chihuahua because we met her but she's already 3 times as big as her mom. Below is a video of Daisy and Dorito playing. He is great with her and tries to protect her from Coach, although she doesn't need protecting. He is feeling young again, because he is playing with toys he hasn't played with in 5 years.

Daisy it is

I brought Daisy home this afternoon and boy is she a handful. Minutes after we were in my car she started chewing everything in sight, a tongue depressor, a plastic fork, and a paint sample. I couldn't get to the pet store fast enough. I was a little naive in thinking she would just fall asleep like Dorito did, but I was way wrong. She had great fun in the pet store, trying to get petted by everyone she passed and sniffing every bone at her level. I got a few bones that Dorito liked as a puppy when he was teething. In the car I opened one and she wanted the tongue depressors instead. So I opened another one and she didn't want it either. Luckily the third one she liked and chewed the entire ride home, which was 30 minutes. Since we got home she has been running around like a crazy woman. She's been trying to get Dorito to play with her but right now he just growls. I know he'll warm up eventually. She hasn't noticed the cat yet but the cat has noticed her. Coach is just sitting on the counter watching Daisy. Right now I'm typing with a dog on either side of me. Dorito is sleeping and she is watching TV. I added a picture of Dorito's new collar, David got it in NY for Valentine's Day.

Having fun losing money...

Our trip to Vegas was fun but tiring. We tried to fit a lot of activities in 2 days. We saw a Cirque show, which was amazing. I recommend seeing any Cirque show if you ever have the opportunity. There was a Chinese New Year celebration that we visited on Sunday the 17th, our anniversary. We also went to see the Fremont light show. Of course we gambled, David found that he enjoys craps, but I think he would like any game where he wins money. I enjoyed playing slots, the penny and nickel slots were tons of fun because you get to play longer eventhough you don't win much. I got to do a little shopping at the Adidas store and found that I have two different sized feet. So I was not able to get the shoes that I wanted because I would have to buy two pairs. It seems that we didn't take that many pictures. In fact it looks like we only took pictures the first few hours we were there.

Happy Anniversary!

Talk with Doc

Last night our doctor called to answer our questions. She is soooo great to call us at 8pm from home when her kids are in the background wanting to play with her. Well, She said it is up to us if we want to test for antiphospholipid syndrome and thrombphilis or not. We are definitely leaning towards especially after searching the internet and reading about it. The deciding factor is if insurance will pay for it or not. If you would like to know more about antiphospholipid syndrome just check out some of the sites. To test for it is a panel of labs that are 12 weeks apart. So it might be awhile before we have an answer. For now she wants me to take a baby aspirin a day.

Movies, Movies, Movies

I have been going to the movies after work to keep me busy. It seems that if I'm at home alone I end up buying things off eBay. So movies seem to be a safe alternative.
National Treasure- It's ok, not as good as the first one.
Sweeney Todd- If you get popcorn or snack eat it during the previews. You will not have an appetite after the movie starts. I thought I would like this movie more since I like musicals. I was bored through some portions of this film. Overall I liked it.
Untraceable-This was a good thriller. If you want to relax do not go see this movie. I was a nervous wreck after watching this movie. If you like scary movies, go see this one.

Another Follow-up

I had yet another follow-up appointment with the doctor on Thursday. She just asked me a few questions and said that things look good. She even gave us the go ahead to start trying again. I was in shock and forgot all the questions that I had for her. So when I left I called David and he reminded me of my questions. We put the question in a letter and faxed it to her and are now awaiting the answers. One of our main questions was about testing for the blood clotting disorder, should we do, how much is it, will insure cover it? My HCG leves still have not gone down to zero but the doctor has not gotten that result yet, so I'm not sure what she's going to say about that. It's currently at 15 which is good because it is continuing to go down. I'm glad to get some good news but I'm concerned because the doctor didn't do any test or exams to make sure that I am healing well.

Cutie

Isnt' she adorable? Well, we are adopting her. Her current name is Babette, but we are changing that. Vote for your favorite or email your suggestions. I personally like Moo, but David isn't too keen on it. A couple other suggestions were Splenda, Smores, Sno-pea, Tofu, and Patch. We found her here and if you want to know her story just click on the link.

Random thoughts and updates

Some of you have been wondering what the doc said and she's just watching me for now. I'll see her again Thursday and hopefully she will finally give me some good news. I really like my doctor but I'm starting to dred going there because all the negative news she keeps giving me.

The dogs are reeking havoc on our family life. They are great dogs but were neglected by their previous owner and don't know any commands, which is frustrating and stressful. They got into a fight with Dorito, my dog, yesterday. Dorito is the only one with injuries and that was the last straw. They will hopefuly have a new foster home tomorrow.

We've been painting our bedroom and it looks better than I expected, but maybe that's the fumes. Check it out.

Nick Jr. has a new show called Ni Hao, Kai-lan! A childrens cartoon with a Chinese girl. I am very excited about this cartoon. Maybe I can finally learn some Chinese. If you want to check it out go here http://www.scholastic.com/kailan/

Now for the humor.Go to http://www.collegehumor.com/video:55249 for a little laugh. I have "Roy! Roy! Roy! Roy!" going through my head now when I need a chuckle or a boost of confidence, even though my name is not Roy.

BB King

Saturday night we went to a BB King concert and sat in the front row. The pictures aren't the best because they were taken with my phone (we forgot the camera). BB King is 82 years old! Yup, 82, and still performing. I thought it was an awesome experience. He has an amazing blues voice and the way he plays the guitar was incredible. He had fun dancing in his chair and telling stories. It would have been awesome to see him when he was young and more able to get around. He is ranked the 3rd greatest guitarist in history! We were so close the trumpets were probably spitting on us. At the end, BB threw out pins, gave out a few necklaces and I got one! It was great to get out and forget about everything listening to amazing music.

Dogs, Dogs, Dogs!

David is letting me foster dogs now since he doesn't want us to adopt one right now. Here are the two that we are fostering right now. On the left is Hyena (male) and Lucky (female) on the right. They are gentle and quiet. Quite the opposite of Dorito, but I still like Dorito the best. They are brother and sister and looking for a forever home if you are in the Indianapolis area contact Christina at 217-545-5140. They are 3 years old and a boxer mix. They get along with Dorito and he is infatuated with Lucky. Most of the time he sits back and just watches them. Coach hates them and Lucky wants to eat him. They are great dogs but I love my neurotic dog.