I Dream of Genie...

I love the fall TV season. Its a return of all your favorites that you have been waiting to watch all summer long and find out what's going to happen next. It is also a time to try out the new shows the networks throw out each year to try and reel you in. This TV season it seems like the networks have all thrown out a ton more new shows than normal. We recently upgraded to the new DirecTV Genie which is a DVR that allows us to record up to five shows at once, or four shows while watching another. We initially upgraded so hockey season wouldn't interfere with our regular TV watching. Turns out it has actually been a great thing to have with all the new shows. In addition to all the shows we already watch, there were a lot of the new shows we wanted to try out.

I am thankful that I have a husband who likes a lot of the same shows that I do. Makes for nice evenings on the couch after dinner watching all our favorites. Our top shows would have to be "Modern Family," "Psych," "How I Met Your Mother," "Person of Interest," "Revolution," "Parks and Rec," and "Grey's Anatomy." Of course there are many more shows on that list, but those stand out as favorites.

Out of all the new shows on the fall lineup, I think the one that we have enjoyed the most is "The Blacklist." Its a fantastic show. I have never really been a big James Spader fan but he is just SO good in this. That and "The Goldbergs" has consistently made us laugh so far. The reference to all things 80's cracks me up. Love it.

 What's on your DVR's this fall season--new or old?

Birthdays and Oompa Bands

It has been an interesting year for Chris and I for sure. His and her surgeries highlighted it. Me in January and him in June followed by a weeks stay in the hospital--which if you haven't already, you can read about by clicking HERE. It would seem all that craziness is behind us for now, so we were free to celebrate another of year of life for my favorite husband. Nov 2nd, 1977 he entered this world and instantly made it a better place. 

Chris's best friend Shawn has season tickets to the Seahawks and has made a habit of trying to take Chris to a game near his birthday. It just so happened this year the Seahawks were going to be home on Nov 3rd playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So to Seattle we went. Before the Seahawks game however was a much needed birthday celebration. 

It was small and nice. Just a few people who we like a whole lot. We went to a German pub in downtown Renton called The Berliner. Such a fun place. We had been there once before with our friends Devin and Lindsay and had such a fun time. They have live bands, great music, German favorites on the menu and a whole lot of delicious beer. 

The band on tap was Happy Hans German Band. I have since learned three of the bands members are father and two sons. They sure are good. They even sang happy birthday to Chris, had him come up on stage and had him chug a rather large beer with the whole place cheering him on and chanting CHUG CHUG CHUG. Chug he did. 

They have the biggest and most amazing pretzels. Hot, soft and comes with 2 different mustards as well as beer cheese soup if you choose, AMAZING! I could go there for the pretzels alone. The beer selection is also delicious and well worth the calories, Mmmmmm. 

Perhaps one of my favorite pictures EVER! 

Another year older. Soon I will join him in year 36. We had a great night with great friends and family. Thanks for helping celebrate my favorite guy.

To Blog or Not to Blog...

Well well. Here we are again. November has creeped up on us and that only means one thing...NaBloPoMo ! That is "National Blog Posting Month" for those of you non-bloggers who don't speak our cool lingo. The idea of it is to challenge yourself to blog everyday for an entire month. The blog roll ends up consisting of well over a thousand bloggers. This of course allows us to expand our horizons, and see what is going on out there in the blogosphere. You never know who you might meet. And at the end of the day isn't that the whole point of blogging? To share a little bit of yourself with the world and see what everyone else has to share in return.

Truth be told, I have always liked blogging. Back in 2004, it started as a way to keep our families up to date on the comings and going of our adventures when we moved out east to Boston. I have gone through phases with this blog. I have gone a year or more at times without posting something new. Somehow though, I always find my way back. So once again--here we are on Nov 1st. Once again I have committed to entertaining you daily for the next month. Once again you get to read all the ramble and look at all the photos I throw your way. Granted, you don't have to read, but hopefully you will. I can actually be entertaining sometimes, I promise.

What better way to get things started than to post pictures of mine and Chris' awesome costumes that we wore simply for the purpose of entertaining the children who come to the door! Well okay AND because it is fun and we--er, I mean--I like to dress up. 3 years ago I decided I was going to be Brobee from Yo Gabba Gabba and Chris dressed up as Eric Wedge, the manager of the Mariners at the time. 

   

  Last year I was Princess Peach (from Mario Brothers) and Chris was a Doctor. Dr. Sebastien Presseaux to be exact...just wait...you'll get it...once you know he fixes espresso machines.

This year may have been the best yet. Chris decided he was going to be Willie from Duck Dynasty. His search for a wig and beard was a little challenging, but he finally found one. They were a little on the curly and bushy side but they did the trick. A flag bandana, sunglasses and a checkered shirt completed the ensemble and he was a hit. So many kids saw him at the door and yelled "Willie." He was an even bigger hit with all the parents. Ha!

As some of you may know, I LOVE animated movies. One of my favorites are the Despicable Me movies. And boy do I love those minions. They make me very very happy. So of course I was a minion. So fun.

 

The kids that came to our house loved it! I loved it! We had a fun time. After candy time was over we headed out to Applebees for a late dinner, costumes and all. And no I am not embarrassed one bit to venture into the world dressed as a yellow minion. Hope everyone had a happy and fun night. Until next year...or apparently til tomorrow...

Chef Evey

Okay so I am no chef. In fact, it is possible I suck at cooking all together. Chris doesn't seem to complain so I suppose that is a good sign. He pretty much eats whatever I put in front of him. I am very excited that fall is here and with winter right around the corner we are well into crock pot season. I don't use it near enough during the summer months. But really why would I? Summer months are filled with BBQ chicken, steaks and grilled veggies. Or ribs mmmmmmm. I cannot take any credit for the BBQ meat because that is all Chris. He is the BBQ master and his ribs are delicious.

 The other day the weather was rainy and windy and cold. I decided to make some chicken noodle soup in the crock pot, a first for me. It was delicious. We had it with crescent rolls and I could have eaten the whole lot of it. Yes, I am tooting my own horn because yes, it was that good.

 I think next up in the crock pot will be chili. The last time I did it that way it was so yummy.

Okay, I am making myself really hungry. I will leave you with a few more pictures of deliciousness. First up is kielbasa with zucchini and garlic parmesan angel hair pasta. 

 Rotini with creamy vodka sauce and grilled chicken. Broccoli and garlic bread. Creamy vodka sauce is one of my new favorites.

 Mmmmm chicken stir fry with Japanese udon noodles. YUMMY!

Okay now I am really hungry and so I am off to make some banana bread. :)

Fall is in the air...

Fall has always been my favorite time of year. Call me crazy but I can only handle the hot weather for so long. Maybe it is because I was raised in the Alberta prairies where we have hot summers yes, but we have long cold winters. And call me crazy again if you must but I love the cold winters as well. Some of my favorite memories include cold crisp winters nights, drinking hot chocolate and watching snowflakes fall outside the window. But that is for another day, today we talk about fall. 

Just last week it was almost 100 degrees here. The weather though seems to have finally taken a turn to the cooler side and this could not make me happier. Even last night while walking the dog I could feel the chill in the air. The trees are starting to change and it won't be long before all the trees around us are drenched in spectacular color. Soon the leaves will begin to fall and we will get to hear them crunch beneath our shoes as we walk down the street. I can hardly wait.

One of the things I will always miss about living in Boston is the New England fall. It is unlike anything you will ever see at this time of year. I will always be thankful that I was able to experience all of that for the 6 years we lived there. Breathtaking doesn't even begin to describe it.

 

 

 

  

Perhaps one of my favorite things about fall is the return of the pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks. I had my first of the season a week or so ago and there are many, MANY more in my future. Thank goodness Chris spends the majority of his days working in Starbucks stores and can bring me one home at no cost.

My other two favorite things about this time of year is the start of the NFL season. GO SEAHAWKS! 2-0 baby! And in just  two short weeks hockey is back. YAY! I could not be more excited. What's your favorite thing about fall? Or not favorite thing.

Doctor Doctor...

It is beyond crazy to me that we are already 16 days into September. It feels like we didn't even have a summer. That may be in part due to the fact our summer was kinda shot to pieces when Chris had surgery to remove hardware from his elbow in June which turned into months of doctors visits, medication and hospital stays. It was a tough summer for us. Let me back up.

Chris has broken both of his elbows. One he broke in 2001 playing roller hockey with his brother, the other playing softball in 2003. Both required surgery and hardware. In 2003 he had surgery to remove the hardware from the first elbow. The hardware in his second elbow was not removed till recently. People have all sorts of pins and screws in their bodies for various reasons. It is generally harmless and in some cases necessary. Chris was told unless it bothered him he could just leave it in. So he did. It didn't bother him and up until about a year ago we had no reason to think he should have it removed.

He started developing this bump near his elbow. It didn't hurt and wasn't red or anything so we weren't overly concerned. It did however creep me out (it was so obvious I named it Carl) and I nagged him to have to have it check out. Finally he got tired of my nagging and he went to see his doctor. A diagnosis of a ganglion cyst was made. Totally harmless. A few weeks later Chris developed a red bump on it that looked like an ingrown hair. Again he went back to the doctor. His doctor then decided to lance the top part. When he did this he must have poked the whole thing because for the next month that darn thing continued to leak stuff from it. Gross yes, but that's what was happening. He had to keep it bandaged at all times and it was not healing. Back to the doctor he went and the decision was made to send him to the orthopedic surgeon and have them decide what they wanted to do with the cyst because of the hardware that was also in his arm. The decision was made that because they had to go in and clean the cyst out anyways they would remove the hardware as well because they didn't know if the cyst was a result of the hardware or not. Easy enough right? One surgery to take care of both things. A couple weeks recovery for his elbow to feel 100% and all is good. Ha! If only.

Surgery went fine. One of the screws was actually so grown into his bone it broke off. The surgeon broke 5 instruments trying to get it out. Ha! During surgery they took a shaving of his bone to test it to make sure it wasn't the source of the cyst/infection in his elbow. Sure enough a few days later Infectious Disease called to let him know that the sample of bone did in fact come back positive for infection. Sigh! Off to the Infectious disease doctor we went. Treatment for a bone infection - 6 weeks potent IV antibiotics via PICC line so he can do it at home, followed by 4 months of oral antibiotics.

The PICC line scared and creeped me out from the beginning. They insert it through your upper arm and the small tubing is moved through a vein and comes to a rest just above the heart. This is the best location for a big vein to shoot the medication straight into your system. However PICC lines need to be kept VERY sterile and dry. Any bacteria would go straight into your vein and then you could be in trouble with a blood infection or worse, an infection of the heart. I was the one to administer the meds so I was constantly nervous I would do something wrong and make him sick. 

He started his IV meds on June 26th. It was easy enough. One dose in the evening that took about 5 minutes to push through via syringe. All was going good till the the morning of Sunday July 7th. The night before Chris had been complaining about feeling really tired and a little on the hot side. One of the main things they warned him about in regards to his PICC line is a fever. He took his temp and it was 99.2. Which really isn't an issue except with Chris he runs cold, usually right around 98.0. Anyways he decided to go to bed and see how he felt in the morning. Sure enough he woke me about 7 am with a 100.5 fever. He had already called his doctors and they advised him to go to the ER at OHSU. So off we went. The ER doc immediately started running all sorts of tests. Chest x-ray, urine sample, blood work and cultures. As the clock started to tick toward the afternoon his temperature was going down and all his tests were coming back normal. However his heart rate was elevated because of the fever and the doctor was not comfortable sending him home. It was determined the PICC line was not infected and they would keep him overnight to monitor his temp and his heart rate.  By early evening he was feeling much better. Vitals were normal and his temp was right back to where it should be. I left the hospital at 9pm not long after they gave him his dose of his medication. By 11 pm he called me to tell me his fever had spiked again and was 102.5. By morning it was gone. They once again became concerned the PICC line could be an issue so they decided to pull it out. 

All day Monday he felt fine, no fever etc. He did not have his regular dose of the medication he was on that day because the PICC line was out. They had just given a broader spectrum antibiotic while waiting for the blood cultures to come back. By Tuesday morning he still had no fever and the decision was made that they would put the PICC line back in and he would be discharged later that day. In went the PICC line and in went his dose of meds. Sure enough within minutes of the dose stopping he started feeling really crappy and his blood pressure was spiking etc. Needless to say he was not discharged that day and by 8pm his temp was back up to 103. By Wednesday the doctors had all but decided the meds were what he was reacting too and decided to stop switch his meds and keep him one more night to monitor him. Sure enough without that specific drug all day Wednesday and Thursday he had no fever. He was discharged and we were sent home Thursday afternoon.

Thursday evening we had a nurse visit and bring us his new meds.This one was a little more annoying and took 2 hours to administer. It came with a little pump that pushed it for you.

After a few days they had to up his dose because his body was flushing it too quickly. Sure enough after that he started feeling under the weather again and his temp was slightly elevated. The decision was made not to put him through anymore crap and the PICC line was removed and they switched him to just oral antibiotics. So all has been going great since the switch to oral. His elbow looks to be healing really nicely. He has about 6 weeks left of antibiotics to go. Finally in the home stretch.

While his hospital stay sucked and was scary we were blessed with a beautiful view and sunny weather out on the balconies. Silver lining.

MRI Machines Are NOT My Friend

Most people who know me are aware of the fact I am very scared of heights as well as being a little claustrophobic. OK maybe a lot claustrophobic. Being in small contained spaces is not my idea of fun. This makes flying one of my least favorite pastimes given the fact I'm very high up and contained in a metal tube. Elevators are also not on my list of favorite things. Those fears aren't completely irrational, I mean planes DO crash and elevators DO get stuck from time to time. At least there is some logic to those fears. What isn't logical is my fear of MRI machines.

MRI machines are located on the ground. They aren't moving and there are technicians at the ready if I need anything. This morning was the 4th MRI I have had, 3 of which have come in the last 10 months. Chris is allowed to come in the room with me and hold my hand if I so desire. You would think I would be a pro by now. You would think I didn't need to take a Valium to calm my nerves. You would think I could make it through the 30 or so minutes without Chris needing to stand right there to reassure me. You would think that by now I would not be convinced that darn machine was just going to swallow me up. Well you would be wrong.

I wonder things like "what if the power goes out" "what if there's an earthquake" "what if I can't breathe." The list goes on. Fortunately this is where the Valium comes in handy. It helps me not really give a crap about those things.

Today's MRI was no different than the others. I didn't get swallowed up by the machine. The power didn't go out, there wasn't an earthquake. PHEW! I did however get REALLY hot. They always cover you in blankets cause they keep the rooms pretty cold. There is also a fan inside the machine but with the blankets it limits airflow. Today there was ZERO airflow and I got hotter and hotter. This did almost put me into panic mode. Luckily I was able to have the technician pull me out for a quick second to remove the blankets. Relief. Cooled right down and enjoyed the fan blowing on me the rest of the time.

Hopefully nothing has changed since my last MRI and I'm good to go for another year.