Pain in the neck

So, I've always had a little back trouble. When I was 12-ish years old, my mom was marking the hem of some pants for me and she kept telling me to stand up straight...the problem was that I was standing up straight, but everything from my hip pockets down was not lining up. She took me to the chiropractor, and sure enough, my left leg was a smidge shorter than my right leg. I suppose it happened when I grew about six inches in one year. Anyway, it makes me have a little scoliosis in my lower back. It doesn't bother me...just makes all of my clothes fit a bit...off. 


(Funny side note, not too long ago I was having some bone-deep pain in my thighs. Kyle asked me what it felt like, and I started laughing. I told him that it felt like growing pains! We both laughed and said, Lord, please, NO!)


Fast forward to a few weeks ago...I was having this kink feeling in between my shoulder blades, and the pain seemed to be running down my arm. My first thought was of a former co-worker who was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome after having pain in her wrist that traveled up to her shoulder. I thought, great, that's just what I need. 


So I suck it up and go the chiropractor in hopes it's just my back. 


Was it ever!


This is how your neck is supposed to look. See the curve?

This is how mine looks. See the lack of a curve?

Apparently this is pretty common...if you've been in a car wreck and have whiplash! Which I have not. 

We still don't know what caused it, but what we do know is that all of the nerves running from the most compressed area controls, or has an effect on, the shoulder and arm. Imagine that. 

I've been getting adjustments for the last few weeks, and I have noticed an improvement. The bad part is that I have to use my right arm a lot, which causes me to tense that area of my neck and shoulders up...which freezes the discs back into their bad locale. I'm considering asking my chiropractor to give me a 'script forbidding me from using a mouse for a month. I'm sure my employer would be thrilled about that. 

He did tell me that I really needed to watch my posture, and to lay flat with a towel or small pillow under my neck for a bit each evening. Oddly enough, I generally have great posture when I'm standing and when I'm in a saddle, but not so much when I'm sitting in a chair. So the chair below is what I'm considering getting... I'm sure everyone at work will be jealous.

A funny side effect that I have observed, is that my sinuses drain... a lot. I asked the chiropractor about it and he said, "oh yeah, I have a lot of patients come in for just that". Apparently neck adjustments help the lymphatic system drain all that needs to be drained. So if you have sinus problems or get sinus infections a lot, you might consider getting an adjustment or looking for a massage therapist that does lymphatic massages. 

Happy cracking!

Lean on me...

Over the last several days, Kyle’s dad, mom, brother,sister-in-law, and niece came down and stayed with us for a visit. It was ablast!

Cooking for seven people is not something I’m accustomed to (although I have a tendency of cooking way more food than for just twopeople), but when my sister-in-law asked me if it all stressed me out, I said no, not at all. Then I started thinking, why wasn’t I stressed? I should have been.

Being that we were all budget-conscious, Kyle and I planned ahead to sort out which meals we would go out to eat, what we could cook at home, activities, and so on. So, I planned out way in advance the details of every meal and developed my grocery list accordingly.

Also, I worked a few of the days they were here, and while I was at work, Kyle’s family pitched in and helped clean the kitchen, wash towels, and did any prep work I needed done for dinner. All I had to do was come home and cook. I imagine that’s kind of how Santa feels…having a little crew of elves to help him with the little stuff that makes the big stuff turn out so much better. It was wonderful!

Then I realized that I had two major things that kept me from becoming stressed. I had a plan and I had help.

Not long ago, a friend contacted me asking my advice. She was considering going back to school to work on her master’s, but she knew it would be tough. Having just finished myself and being in a similar situation as her, my advice was this…you need the grad school coordinator to give you a firm plan of what you’ll take and when so that you know what to expect, and you need your  new husband to be 100% in on this.

One of the most difficult things I’ve ever done was go back to school for my master’s degree. Although the degree itself was rather hard, it wasn’t that alone that made the whole experience so overwhelming. It was that I was a girlfriend/fiancée/newlywed, worked full time, and had a lot of friends and a social life. When tackling something like grad school that requires so much time and dedication, unfortunately, other areas of my life were compromised. I didn’t get to spend as much time with Kyle as I would have liked, I wasn’t able to give 100% every day at work, and I had to decline invitations to birthday parties, church functions, and family gatherings. If Kyle hadn’t been so understanding and onboard (cleaning, cooking, getting outof the house when I needed to study) the beginning of our marriage would have been treacherous. He did it all because he knew this short time period of “not-so-funness”would reward both of us later in life…and he never once made me feel guilty for not being there for him as much as we both would have liked. The key was that we both knew all of this before I even enrolled for my first semester. I also had a lot of support from family and friends. Just a genuine, “hey, how are you?” or a, “good luck on the exam!” meant so much more than the people who said it realized.

I suppose I say all of that to say…

You can do anything that’s really difficult for a short amount of time…if you have a plan and support.

So if you have a friend/relative/spouse tackling something big in their life, they need you more than you (and they) probably realize. They may need a word of encouragement, an ice-cream break, or even the space to not feel bad about missing out on important things. Help them just get through this tough part, whether it be preparing dinner or a tour of duty in Afghanistan, and enjoy being with them when they are finished!

Rationale of a Woman

Typically, I set my coffee maker up the night before so that all I have to do in the morning (in my sleepy haze) is flip the switch and the magical brew begins. Last night, however, I was so exhausted I just didn't bother. I thought, eh, I'll make tea or something simple. I don't necessarily need coffee tomorrow morning.


So this morning rolls around. My alarm goes off and I'm suddenly very aware that I have a massive headache. On my way to let Gus out, I remembered that of course, this would be the morning I had previously decided that I did not need coffee...when in fact this is the VERY morning that I NEED coffee. 


So a give in a make a pot.


As it's brewing, I make another terrible discovery. No milk, no powdered Coffeemate. The world is going to end. I have to have some type of dairy, real or fake, in my coffee...just something to take away some of the acid. 


Then I had a light-bulb moment.


I'm not sure how or why I remembered this, but I watched one of Pioneer Woman's episodes on Food Network where she showed how she makes her own iced lattes (because she's two hours from a Starbuck's) by keeping a vat of cold brewed coffee in her refrigerator. She put a splash of vanilla, ice, and of course coffee, then she added something to her concoction that I had never thought of before...sweetened condensed milk. 


Holy Johosephat. Sugar and dairy, the two things I put in my coffee, in one convenient little can.


In my pantry, I always keep baking/dessert basics in case I need to throw something together at the last minute, so I knew that I had sweetened condensed milk in there. 


Knowing that the product isn't exactly "healthy"...I had to rationalize. Here's how it went down...


I can't put that in my coffee. It's 70 calories per tablespoon!

You worked out last night and are playing volleyball tonight, you'll burn it off

I'm trying to cut down on refined sugar

It's dairy, you need the calcium

I'll have to open a whole can just for a tablespoon or two

You have plastic wrap, it'll keep in the 'fridge

I'll waste the rest of it because it's not enough to put into a recipe now

You can put it in your coffee for the next week

No I can't

Yes you can

Okay, on a scale of 1-10, how bad do I need this coffee?

9.5

SOLD!

And just so you know, it was some dang good coffee. 

Won't You Be My Neighbor

As I mentioned in one of my recent posts, our neighborhood is starting to populate and as it does, we're hoping to be those friendly people that introduce ourselves and bring a peace offering. 


We noticed that a family had moved into the house right next to us, so we decided that's where we needed to start. I wasn't able to make quite the "welcome" basket I had intended, but I did make a batch of awesome brownies, so I wrapped up a bunch in parchment paper and then wrapped the whole thing in a cute dish towel I had recently purchased (I purchased a few sets from Marshall's, as most of our "good ones" have been tagged by Gus's teeth), and then put it all in a cute burlap bag I had from something else, to make it look more like a gift. I also stuck a note inside with our names and phone numbers. 


So, not having a clue what we would be walking into, we made our way over to the house next door.


Now, this is not to say that we were without apprehension. I think everyone at some point in time has had both awesome neighbors...and ones that were complete A-holes. The college apartment neighbor who blasted music at 3 a.m. in an attempt to drown out their "having coffee" activities. Or the one who lets their trees and bushes become so overgrown that they start taking root in your yard. Or, my favorite, the one who has people coming and going at all hours of the night, convincing you that it's either a drug house or a brothel. 


In Tulsa, I was lucky to have good neighbors at both my apartment, and later at our house. The woman we lived next to when we were in our house was one of those awesome neighbors. We watched each other's property, grabbed packages if we knew the she was out of town, helped shovel each other's driveways when we got four feet of snow...you know, good neighborly kinds of things.


Back to last night.


We were greeted by a lovely young woman, her husband, and their two small boys (and one in the oven). They were so incredibly nice! 


Even though we had Gus with us (we want our neighbors to know what he looks like should he ever get out), they insisted we come in and hang out for a bit. We found out that she is originally from Mexico, he is from Argentina; and that she stays at home with their kids, and he is a plant manager for a company that manufactures equipment used in oil and gas drilling and production. She later sent me a text thanking us for the brownies and for coming over...but I gathered from the text that she's been in the U.S. for quite some time as she used "ya'll" in her text message. I thought it was cute. 


I have to say, however, I was a bit intimidated when I saw that the husband's shirt read "Harvard Business School". But, I'd rather be around people that are smarter than me in a feeble attempt to learn more, so I'll suck it up.


Side note: That is one thing that I have come to love about Houston...You can never make an assumption about anyone. There are so many people here from all over the world; some having been here for decades, others are recent transplants. All different races, religions, and allegiances. In an initial greeting, it's honestly very difficult to tell someone who grew up here from someone who just moved. Kyle and I were both raised in fairly small towns with limited diversity, so it's been very eye-(and heart)opening. 


Anyway, our first neighbor meet and greet went so much better than we could have asked for. We feel extremely lucky to have such nice people living next to us.


Let's just hope the trend continues!

29 Going On 60

This past weekend was pretty fun-filled. Saturday night we went to a friend's birthday party. At this age you would think we'd be going to a restaurant as a big group, or to someone's house. Did we do that? Nope. We instead went to a laser tag place with giant inflatables, typically used for 8 year-old birthday parties. So, imagine a room the size of a basketball court with four giant inflatable contraptions...you know, the kind with slides and tunnels and such...and 20 adults between the ages of 22 and 35 with laser tag vests and guns. 


After a few rounds, they gave us time to just play, or rather, be stupid. Seriously...a bunch of guys (and girls) that still have the vigor of kids in junior high, but are now smart enough and strong enough to most effectively implement said stupid things. 


Here's a video.


It was a BLAST!


It wasn't however, without incident. 


During the first round of laser tag, a girl accidentally got kneed in the nose. Luckily it wasn't broken, but it did bleed pretty badly and frightened the poor girl. Later on, one guy got his hand stepped on and his knuckle looked pretty bad. Another guy may have hurt his knee. I think I did a little damage to my back after diving off of the slide into a pit of blown up pop can looking things. Luckily, I already had an appointment set with a chiropractor for today, so I'm not too worried. 


Oh, and at one point, too many of us got on top of the slide and it started losing too much air. We all started losing our balance and one of the guys and myself got pitched backwards. I remember looking at one another like..."we're going to fall backwards and there's not a darn thing we can do about it". Luckily, there was a netted backing to the whole thing, so we both just fell into the netting and sat/laid there about four feet off of the ground until others could come get us out. It was a little traumatizing, but no one got hurt (during that incident). I can say, however, that I now know how fish feel. 


At church the next day, we were comparing stories, injuries, and aches and pains. It made me laugh because we're all relatively young...so why do we feel so old!?!


Do you remember that move Unbreakable with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson?...it's become a joke that Kyle is the character played by Jackson...the broken one. Kyle has had almost every injury imaginable. Concussions, broken bones, slipped/bulging/degenerative discs, tendinitis, torn rotator cuff, shin splints, muscle spasms, sciatica...and the list goes on.

Between the two of us, I've decided that our next home (in 10-15 years) will be a one-story with no steps or stairs anywhere, so that our matching Hoverounds can maneuver through the house easily. And one of us is going to have to work until the other passes away just so we'll have good health insurance...assuming we still have private insurance companies at that time, but that's another post for another day.


I wonder if they make RV's that are handicap accessible. 

Medium Well

So, you remember me telling you how excited I was about having two convection ovens in my post about our house? Well, I finally got to put them to use over the weekend.

I wanted to make a pan of roasted potatoes and bake a dessert at the same time, and of course each item required a different temperature. Enter, double ovens.

I turned both ovens on to begin pre-heating, when I started smelling something. I just chalked it up to being the first time I had used the lower oven...you know, burning off that plastic-y, manufacturing plant smell.

Once heated, I opened the ovens to insert my items to be baked...only to discover that in my lower oven, it was not, in fact the "new" smell that was burning...it was the instruction manual stacked inside the broiler pan that came with the ovens.

I know it's hard to read, but under the star symbol, it says,

 "National Association of State Fire Marshals"

Oops.

"Welcome" Gift Help

As you know, we moved into our new house recently. The fun thing is that we are one of the first houses in our little section to be completed, so we're getting to see the neighborhood build up around us...and see our new neighbors move in!


Not living in a suburban neighborhood growing up, I always thought it would be cool to be the Stepford Wife/Desperate Housewife on the block, and greet our new neighbors with a clever, useful, and homey gift and introduce ourselves. (I won't, however, be donning a clean, pressed apron and pumps.)


Now, I probably won't do this for every new neighbor, as there will be quite a few, but I'd at least like us to introduce ourselves to the people immediately around us. There have already been a few move in, so I need to get on the ball, but we had a family move in behind us over the last couple of days, so I really feel like we need to go get acquainted. 


Okay, fine, I'll admit it. I have an ulterior motive. A salesman came by our house last night and mentioned that he saw our car tag said Oklahoma, and that he had just met our neighbors behind us...they're from Norman. 


Are you kidding me?!?


I come all the way down here and I have to share a back fence with hoodlums from Norman?


So, before I make too many assumptions, other than you have to be a hoodlum to live in Norman, I would like to get to know these folks and inquire about their allegiance. Perhaps, they moved to Norman from elsewhere in the country, were only there a short time, and despise the color Crimson. That would be ideal. 


Better yet, they're Boise State fans. That would be ideal ; )


Sorry...got off track a bit.


Back to the "welcome to the neighborhood" gift. I have a few ideas...baked good, candle (maybe citronella), small plant... I don't want to spend a ton of money, because like I said earlier, I'll be assembling quite a few of these, but I want it to be nice. 


What ideas do you have? Or, what would you have liked to receive when you moved into your neighborhood?

Monday Morning Motivation

This week's Monday Morning Motivation is a nod to my/our dog, Gus.


He wasn't feeling to hot these past couple of weeks, so I took him to the vet to run some tests to make sure it wasn't anything serious. They found something in his stomach and intestines on the x-ray, so I took him in this morning to get an ultrasound to see what the substance is or if it has moved/passed.


Other than my Red Healer "Sugar" I had growing up, he's the best dog in the world...and I'm not being biased ; ) I honestly think that if we could clone him over and over, we probably wouldn't even consider having kids. He's the sweetest, cutest, happiest, most ornery, tail-wagger I've ever encountered. He truly loves all people and dogs...even if they don't like him. That should be a lesson to us all.

"If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,

If you can face the world without lies and deceit,

If you can say honestly that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against creed, color, religion or politics,

Then, my friend, you are almost as good as your dog."

-Unknown Author

Happy Monday folks!

Looking handsome for Valentine's day

"Helping" me deflate the air-mattress

Pleading his innocence regarding the shredded puppy pad