Back Spasm

Apparently I have inherited my mother's bad back.

Sunday I barely leaned over to pick up a laundry basket when all of a sudden my back grabbed and I could no longer stand without it hurting.

The next morning when I got to work, I realized that I couldn't make it through work with the pain, so I had to have Matt come all the way back and pick me up to take me to the doctor.

There I found out that I am experiencing a very bad back "spasm" that he said will probably last a week. Luckily he gave me 3 different drugs for the pain, but they make me loopy, see double, and fall asleep every time I take them.

I spent all of Tuesday lying on my back in hopes it might heal faster so I could go to work on Wednesday and luckily it did help a little bit, but just not enough.

I feel so old! I just keep falling apart! I wonder what's next...

Family in the Box

The other night Matt and I were stopped at a traffic signal in front of a Jack in the Box.

At the same time we both glanced over at the front door of the establishment and saw a family of 13, yes 13, entering the doors to consume copious amounts of grease and horse meat tacos.

There's really no point to this other than the fact that I'm amazed that 13 people fit in their vehicle and that they chose to dine in at their local Jack in the Box for their family reunion rather than cooking out, making reservations somewhere, or even having one person go through the drive thru to get the food.

Go figure!

BOO!

Not many people know this, but I LOVE to be scared.

I'm not just talking about the scared that comes from watching scary movies or going to a haunted house because although I like both of those things, they seldom do it for me.

I'm actually talking about when someone hides in the dark and jumps out and screams "BOO!" or "ARRG!" when you approach them and it makes you leap into the air, wail out a strange noise that you didn't know you had inside of you, fall down on your butt because your knees weaken, or all of these things combined.

I think my love of it came from my childhood. On many occasions, my sister and I thought that we could be sneaky and try to stay up late without my parents knowing. On these nights, I would slowly tiptoe down the hall to her room in the dark, making sure not to trigger any creaks that may have been lying in the floor beneath me. Once I made it to her room, we were always on the lookout for any sign of a parent approaching so that we could quickly return to our beds and initiate our best impression of what we imagined we looked like when we slept.

If my mother was approaching, all bets were off and we were dead meat. Without even trying, she was as silent as a shadow and she was not even playing games when she came to tell us to return to our beds.

Dad, however, had a different approach. Dad would try his hardest to be as quiet as possible. He too knew just the right places to step on the floor as to not make it creak and the only thing he had going against him in his efforts were his old, popping joints. When it was his turn to tell us to return to our beds, he would creep down the hall, approach Kristi's doorway, and "BOO!!!!!" he would leap into our view, growling and Kristi and I would begin screaming in terror. After each scare, we wanted nothing more then to be back in our safe beds.

However, after 2 or 3 more times of this happening...I realized I liked the adrenalin rush it was giving me! I loved that somehow, when I was scared, I could run 10 times as fast as normal just to get back into my bed. I was addicted!

I soon began anticipating dad's scares and if I heard the slightest popping noise, I always crossed my fingers and hoped it was dad's knees on their way to scare me. This made the anticipation and eventual scare even better when it finally happened! It...was....awesome.

Nowadays, I try my hardest to share this love of being scared with Matt. Since we got married, I have tried many, many approaches to doing this (ie. hiding under the covers and jumping out, hiding in closets and jumping out, hiding behind walls in the dark, etc) but nothing seems to work. He knows its coming if he can't find me and therefore, he over prepares and never gets scared! It SUCKS! I'm running out of ideas and although my friend Amber probably had a good idea when she once had me "get something from her closet" and I opened it to find 2 Mexican guys lunging at me growling and I was so scared that I later found gray hair in my head...I haven't the means of acquiring 2 Mexican guys and I'm not sure Matt would look good prematurely gray.

This mission will continue though and when I get him....I know he's gonna like it!!!

How to Make Some Extra $$$!

My co-worker and I rack our brains all the time to think of ways we can make money on the side. We've come up with some pretty funny ideas and we've come up with some pretty serious ones too. None are set to go though and I'm 99% sure none of them ever will.

My first idea a while back was a logical one.

It was to get a second night job at a Blockbuster or something- Thus saving us money on our weekly movie rental AND bringing in a little extra dough. However, I'm not the healthiest of girls...having a second job would exhaust me and probably land me in the hospital with more medical bills. So there went that idea!

Then today with the news of my car, I got desperate....and this is what happened....

I applied to be a contestant on Wheel of Fortune.

I tried to get accepted to be in a creative writing contest to win a quick and easy $500.00...but found out I was too old. And then I started looking into any game that I could play through the Game Show Network for $$$$ such as bingo, lingo, etc, etc, etc.

Who knows where my next application will go, but I'm on a roll! Does anyone want to make t-shirts and go on the Price is Right with me? I need someone to shout answers to me since I'm not very good at that one. These days you can make a quick $100,000.00 on there and I'm more than willing to split that!

My Main Men

These past few weeks have been really hard for me. Not having a car has been very stressful. But what is more stressful is that fact that it's my fault for believing the man that promised me he would fix it. I'm such a fool.

We're now faced with the fact that we have no money to fix the car any further. We have used the money we had saved to get my oral surgery on the car and now no longer have money for that and the pain is getting really bad. We can not afford to trade my car for another or to lease another, therefore we will have to continue making monthly payments on a car that no longer runs. Aaaand, all of this is all just another reminder of how we can not get out of this house and so we're stuck loafing off my parents for even longer.

I'm just bad luck.

Today, however, while sitting in my office, hating what I do and counting the seconds until I could get out of there; I had a great and unexpected feeling of appreciation come over me.

I was suddenly overwhelmed with gratitude towards all the men in my life.

These men have taken care of me despite all the bad luck I am and all the bad luck I've probably brought upon them because as we all know, no good deed goes unpunished.

I'd like to take a moment to express my gratitude about them.

First there's my dad.

What has this man not done for me? He has worked his hands to the bone to make money to provide for us and to make sure we never went without anything. I was sick a lot as a child and he always found a way to make sure we had money for my doctors and specialists. When I learned to drive, he taught me and gave me his own car to use as my own. He fixed that car every time it broke and he'd come to my work while I was working and change my oil for me in the parking lot when it was time for it to be changed! When he's at the store he will pick up candy or anything he thinks I would want and bring it to my room to present it to me with a huge grin on his face. And every time he has come to pick me up since I haven't had a car, he had brought me a cold water so I can "cool off" (as if I do manual labor or something).

He's one of a kind and I'm so lucky to have him as my dad.

Then there's Nate.

Nathan is a genuinely nice guy and I don't think he has ever met a stranger. He can talk to anyone and has a way of making everyone feel comfortable. He's a sponge for learning new things, he's hilarious at telling stories, and he has a way of always making you feel safe when you're with him.

Over the years, Nathan has lent me his ear many, many times as I've rattled away about things that were on my mind and although I'm sure he was bored to tears, he never acted like it.

Nathan has also been helping me get home as I've struggled without a car and today he sat on the phone with me for a very long time while we were both working and helped me explore options for getting a new car. He even went through the trouble of calling the dealerships for me. Even though we weren't able to fix my problem, he fixed all the questions that were circulating through my brain and helped me cope with the fact that it just wasn't going to happen.

Since I never had any brothers growing up, Nathan filled that gap for me and I'm really lucky that it was him that filled it. He's just what I needed.

Josh

In my life, I have never met a bad Josh. Joshes are just good people and my Josh lives up to his name.

Josh is my best friend. Although we didn't grow up together and haven't known each other for 10+ years, I think Josh understands me more than any friend I've had in my entire life.

Josh and I met through work right before I was leaving on my mission. In the few weeks before I left, Josh and I instantly made a bond and although I didn't get to learn very much about him, I knew he was special.

When I returned home sick from my mission, Josh was there. When my arthritis would come out of remission and I would be up crying in pain all night, Josh would sit beside me and read me PEOPLE magazine all night and not sleep either. And when I was getting married and going hormone crazy with nerves, Josh was following behind me picking up the pieces.

Josh is the man! Enough said.

And then there's Matt.

Is there ever a day when he is not in a good mood? Never in my life have I met a person who can stay so darn positive, especially when they're around someone as unlucky and depressing as I am sometimes. Matt has dealt with a LOT of unexpected misfortunes that came with marrying me and never gets frustrated about them. Even when I'm frustrated and lay in bed crying about it all at night, he never lets it get him down and just keeps on repeating, "It will all work itself out one day." Matt has battled a LOT of rush hour traffic during this whole car ordeal and I guess he will be battling a lot more now that we're a 1 car family, but so far his only response to this is, "Hey we get to spend so much more time together! This is great!" What a guy.

I love these men.

A Delicious F-L-T Just for Me!

So yesterday at work we had a "Team Building" activity instead of working. We all met at 11:00am and went to 300 for a day of bowling, pool, and eating.

As always the food was catered in and picked by the head honcho of us all. Unfortunately our head honcho happens to be from Australia and since coming to the states has become a big fan of "Texas BBQ", cowboy boots, and all things western.

After having missed many, many meals because of not knowing it was going to be BBQ at our meetings and not preparing a backup lunch; I wised up and stuck a F-L-T sandwich in my purse and headed off to the "bowl-a-rama" yesterday.

Sure enough, when I arrived, there was the bbq. So, out came my sandwich and I ate myself a delicious and filling meal! It pays to be prepared!

However, when others saw what I was enjoying they became jealous! They wanted my Fakon, Lettuce, and Tomato sandwich!

I explained to them why I had it with me, and they kept pestering me and pestering me that it wasn't fair that they had to eat the nasty bbq while I got a nice sandwich.

Well, I don't think it's very fair that I've gone hungry for the past several meetings while they all sucked the pork off ribs like a bunch of cavemen and made me want to puke on an empty stomach!

Why does everyone always have to hate on the vegan???

Nazi Cars!

It all started when I first went to London and Paris in 2006.

I had always been a fan of large vehicles; ones that made me higher than all the other cars and ones that allowed me to be able to see better all around me as I drove.
I liked small sporty cars, but I had never planned on being able to drive one because I thought I needed the view advantage of a large vehicle.

Then it happened. Somewhere between all the Smart Cars, Fiats, and all those other tiny cars, I saw someone driving down a street in Paris driving a Volkswagen Cabrio and I instantly fell in love with the idea of that being me.

I could picture it all; top down, wind in my hair, sun on my nose....and I was liking what I was picturing.
When we returned to London, I became haunted by VW Cabrios and by the time I left for home, I was sold.

It took a while after I was back to locate my new dream car because they are no longer made in the states, but eventually 4 months later, I found it and made it mine.
This is what it looked like.

Although I was not crazy about the color, I took what I could find because the closest black one for sale was in Miami, Florida and I wasn't up for the drive.
As time went by though my new silver friend grew on me more and more, especially when I visited other cities in Europe and saw what my car colors could look like.

Yikes!

And as time went by I loved this car more and more and more. After a long day at work, somehow dropping the top and driving home with my hair getting tangled in knots from the wind seemed to make it all better. It de-stressed my life!

And then that all stopped.

My silver "freund" started going bad! And by bad I mean, it started breaking both itself and my bank account.... and then my sanity!

I guess I was totally naive when I bought this car because I didn't know how expensive it was to upkeep it. I soon found that no part on this car was interchangeable with another VW. All parts on this car had to be ordered from Germany. All parts on this car cost an arm and a leg. And all parts on this car will decide to go bad one after another and never give you a break.

A few weeks a go I took ole Helga in to a transmission shop because she wasn't shifting like she use to. After a thorough inspection, "Frank" aka the dumbest mechanic on the face of this planet, said that I needed major repairs. I had already sunk in half of what I owe on it in repairs exactly one year earlier and if I got a new car, I'd be totally upside down; so Matt and I decided we'd once again sink in half of what we owe on it and get Helga fixed.....or so we thought.

From June 20th to now, I have been out of a car. "Frank" who promised he'd fix it and convinced me never to sell my car because it's a classic and will only go up in value, does NOT know what he's doing. Every time he has said it is fixed...it's not. I picked it up again yesterday and not 4 minutes down the road, it will not go over 20 mph again.
My car was in better shape before I took it there!

This whole situation has depressed me so much. I feel like a fool and I just feel so frustrated! I just want to go and get a new car, but I feel that "Frank" should fix what he has done or give me my money back before that happens. I just don't know how much longer I can go without a car though! I'm so sad.

So as a word of advise to everyone in the world. Unless you're rich and have a backup car....don't go German and do NOT trust Eagle Transmission in Rowlett.

A Long Night

Last night at a little past 2:00 am, Matt woke me to tell me he was in pain. I asked what was wrong and he said that he thought it might be a kidney stone.
Unfamiliar with kidney stones, I asked what I needed to do for him. He told me nothing could be done and then began wailing in pain.
Knowing I couldn't go the whole night listening to that, I decided I would try to take him to CareNow, which I thought was open 24-hours. Unfortunately after getting him in the car, forgetting my glasses, and unsafely driving the 10 minutes it took to get there, I was very wrong.
At this point Matt was really in pain and I had no idea what to do except take him to the closest emergency room, which was around 15 minutes away.
Upon arriving at the emergency room, I sat in a little uncomfortable chair at the foot of Matt's bed and began one of the longest nights of my life.
From 2:41-7:45, Matt was given 3 bags of fluids in his IV, multiple doses of pain medicine, and a few other pain killers, but none helped the stone pass. A couple of times the medicine was enough to make him pass out though, which gave me a chance to contort my body in to a fetal type of position and try to sleep in the uncomfortable chair from hell; however each time that happened, someone from the hospital staff would wake me and have me sign some other type of consenting paper that I probably should have read.
Eventually they sedated Matt enough to let me take him home and gave me 4 prescriptions to get filled for his pain and nausea.

After dropping Matt off at home and leaving to run my errands, the following 5 questions arose for me.

1) What happened to 24-hour pharmacies? None seemed to open until 10am on Sundays! That's not smart at all! Someone needing heart medication could keel over!

2) Why are there so many types of Gatorade? Do we really have that many different taste buds in the world? Matt says he likes the "light purple kind". I came home from Target with 5 light purple flavors of Gatorade. Of course only 1 was the correct type and now I'm stuck with the rest. Blek!

3) Why is it, if you have to break the sabbath, you end up seeing someone from church doing the same thing? In my defense, this was an emergency, that's why I was at Target at 10am this morning. But why was the lady who would be sitting in front of me in sacrament meeting in a mere 3 hours at Target with a basket load of bagel bites? Was that an emergency?

4) How did I manage to go the whole night with only one half of my bra on? I guess in the panic of everything, I threw on my clothes and put only one bra strap over my shoulder, yet never noticed until I got home. I must have looked like an idiot.

5) And finally, why does Matt's nausea medicine make him throw up like the exorcist each time he takes it? It's supposed to stop that, not make it happen!

As of now, Matt still hasn't passed his stone. I think this may be another long night, but hopefully I can keep him sedated enough to not feel much pain.

4th of July!

The morning of July 4th, I came down stairs to find Matt making me breakfast in bed! I guess I woke up too early and ruined the surprise. :o(
Keeping in line with our tradition of "Red, White, and Blueberry Breakfasts" we like to have on patriotic days, Matt made "Red, White, and Blueberry" Waffles! And they were deeeeelicious!

I love this guy!

Let's All Go to the Lobby, and Have Ourselves a Treat!

For this Forth of July, Matt and I decided to take a trip out to Ennis for a night at the Drive-In theater. We saw "Get Smart" and "The Hulk" (not my cup 0' tea by the way...I actually feel dumber having watched it).

I love going to the drive-in because it's so cheap! You pay $6.00 per person and you get to watch 2 new movies! The snack bar is also super cheap and while you wait for the movie to start, you can now play miniature golf! It's great!

Here are pictures of Matt and I posing with the dancing food on the wall of the Snack Shack! Matt chose the meat, while I opted to stand with the icy cold beverage.

Matt and I brushing up on our putting skills before the movie. Two 18-hole games are only $4.00 a person! Of course it was 100 degrees with no shade, you could hear semis passing on I45, and the putting greens were less than level sometimes....but hey, it was still fun!

And finally when our golf game was over, we settled in and reclined our seats for our 3 shows...The 3rd was with 2 girls in the bed of this truck you see in the background behind Matt. Eeeesh!

Hopefully this will be our new 4th of July tradtion because I loved it. We didn't have to smell any stinky barbeque, stay out in the sun for a long time, or hurt our ears with fireworks! God Bless America...and cheap-o drive-in theaters!

I was Tagged!

This time it's about husbands.

1. What is his name? Matthew Vaughn

2. Who eats more? Definitely Matt.

3. Who said I love you first? Matt

4. Who is taller? Him (I'm 5'3, he's 6')

5. Who is smarter? Matt has book smarts and has a lot of random information up in that head of his, however, I have more street smarts than he does.

6. Who is more sensitive? We're both very sensitive souls, but I'd have to say he's a tad bit more than I am. He had a rough childhood. lol

7.Who does the laundry? I do, but Matt helps fold sometimes.

8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Standing at the foot of the bed looking at it, I do.

9. Who pays the bills? We both make the money, but I keep track of it, write the checks and send them off.

10. Who cooks more? I do, but he always wants to help. The guy loves being around food.

11. What meals do you cook together? Shepherds Pie, Soups, and Fake Steak Fajitas. Matt is my vegetable cutter.

12. Who is more stubborn? We're both terribly hard headed. I'd say he is...but he'd probably say I am.

13. Who is the first to admit they're wrong? We both know when we're wrong and will say it if we are.

14. Who has more siblings? He definitely does.

15. Who wears the pants in the relationship? Neither of us. We both just work together.

16. What do you like to do together? Travel the world

17. Who eats more sweets? That's Matt again...I think he was deprived as a child or something.

18. His Guilty pleasures? He likes electronics...expensive ones and again, he likes sweets and anything unhealthy.

19. How did you meet? That's a story in itself. We tell people we met at the singles' ward to keep it simple, but we really met several years before that at my ex's family Christmas party. I was with my ex and he was with his ex (my ex's cousin), we really took no note of each other because of that, so when we met again years later is was like meeting for the first time again.

20. Who asked who out first? I had to talk him into it, but eventually he asked me out but only as "friends"...he made that clear. lol

21. Who kissed who first? That's debatable. I held his hand first and eventually that night after using all my smooth moves...we kissed. (I think it was me.)

22. Who proposed? Matt did and it was quite a surprise! He did it with a fortune cookie (I use to always carry fortune cookies in my purse and eat them all the time) at a park we visited on our first date.

23. His best features? His blue eyes and smile

24. What is his greatest quality? Matt's middle name should be "Try". He will try his hardest to accomplish anything he sets his mind to and he will try everything he can to make a person happy. He is very generous and he is very good at managing all he has going on in his life. He is also very kind to our cat Sarah who is very old and sometimes hard to be around because she's not as friendly or groomed as she use to be.