First Friday

Well my Friday was filled with many firsts...first time to experience a root canal and first day of my new job.
I can think of many better ways to begin my Friday but due to multiple factors this (root canal) had to be taken care of ASAP. It went fine but I was a lot more sore than when I had the pulpotomy done on Monday. The worst part was the multiple shots of anesthesia that I had. I think the shot points in my mouth, gum and roof of my mouth were more sore than the actually tooth that was fixed. I was also sad to learn that this was only the root canal which means I have to make another appointment with my dentist to get a crown for the tooth. And I won't be able to take care of this until my new insurance kicks in (30 days).
I went straight from the dental chair to my new job :) It was a fairly easy first day, more like orientation i guess. We went over what this upcoming weeks schedule will look like and prioritized things that will need to be done first thing Monday. In the afternoon, I did some errands and then was off by 4:30 pm. Not bad for the first day. I had more time than planned so I chatted with my parents and came home to rest before heading to our Friday night study group. Study was good but I was so exhausted from the day's events that I bolted as soon as study was over around 9 and came home. I can't recall the last time that I was in bed, actually asleep before 10 o'clock.

Last Days...

Well it's finally here...and has come and gone...my last day at TMP was today. I'm sitting here writing this not really feeling like I've gone. In my head, I feel like I'm going to wake up tomorrow, dress for "casual friday" and head to the office, BUT that will not be the case. It makes me a little sad, to not see my co-workers and "friends" tomorrow, and yet I know that this chapter has come to an end and a new chapter full of challenges and adventures begins tomorrow. Now, that is exciting!

The day at work flew by really fast, finishing up loose ends, cleaning up my desk and packing up my stuff. It never ceases to amaze me how much "stuff" one can accumulate over time. The firm took me out to lunch for this farewell and about 15 people were able to make it out. We went to Joey's House of Pizza and we were not disappointed. Here are a couple pictures:

Michelle, Kelly, Me and Cathryn

The TMP Gang (our table wrapped around but I didn't capture the other group on film)

Heather, Me and Michelle

A Snowy Wednesday

Yes, that's right I said "snowy". It actually started snowing last night when I was leaving work around 5 o'clock and it was still snowing when I headed home after attending Kairos last night. The roads of course were fine as it wasn't really sticking although with that wind blowing snow into your face, it sort of reminded me of blizzard like conditions. Obviously after having lived in Nashville for almost 4 years now, I should not be surprised that most all schools were closed today (because of the near 1 inch of snow on the ground) and that people are cautious driving to work (as in 10 mph). To say that I had a little road rage this morning might be an understatement. I, like my blogging friend Cathryn, grew up to truly appreciate the full meaning of a snow day. (Read her blog)

Last night I mentioned attending Kairos. This is a mid-week service at Brentwood Baptist Church aimed for young adults with a time of worship, prayer and teaching. Some singles from their church that attended our "Ice" night on Saturday also attend Kairos, so Amy and I decided to check it out. I'm familiar with the "coffee house style" of layout for a mid-week service but was surprised at how big the space was and from my viewpoint it seemed packed. I'm going to guess that they probably had over 200 people in attendance from all age ranges/walks of life. I liked that they had a time of worship both before and after the teaching and the fact that their teacher is the Senior Pastor of BB impressed me. Amy and I both agreed that it had been a while since we had been in the "baptist" format of teaching and to actually have an altar call/invitation was refreshing. Afterwards, we ran into a couple people we had met from last weeks outings and then headed home. I don't know that I will attend on a weekly basis but I did thoroughly enjoy the teaching and worship....it's a great way to "recharge your batteries" mid-week.

A Dental-Phobia Part Deux

Well...I have both good news and bad news. Which would you like first? The good news is that I have been temporarily relieved from my tooth pain (notice the word "temporarily"). Now the bad news...I actually did not get the root canal on Monday like I had planned. Let me rephrase that, I chose not to get the root canal done because the endodontist that my dentist had referred me to was not in my insurance network. This information was relayed to me after I had just spent the past 5 minutes filling out paperwork through gut-wrenching pain. Needless to say when she informed me about the insurance situation, tears formed as I could no longer hold back the misery I had been in for days. It was evident to them all the amount of pain I was in so she went back to talk to the dentist and their solution was to do a pulpotomy(this is where they basically clean up the tooth/infection and remove the nerve) that would relieve the pain/pressure I was feeling and also buy me time to find someone who could do the root canal . I think my reaction was "Yes, please...immediately if not sooner would be great." I was escorted back to yet another chair and the procedure took place. It felt great to just receive the Novocaine and not be able to feel the pain in my mouth but I really was a nervous wreck. And as the procedure took place I was quickly reminded why i have such a phobia of the dentist....it all stems from that horrible shrieking sound of the tools they use. The drill and other like gadgets are the absolute worse. Just recalling those sounds in my memory as I type this makes my skin crawl and my stomach flip. So the procedure did not take very long and they packed the tooth really good with some temporary fix and sent me on my way with antibiotics and pain meds. I started the antibiotics immediately like instructed and took the pain med to ensure a good nights rest. Mission accomplished...well at least partially.

First thing this morning I did while at work was speak to one of the partners who recently had a root canal himself to find out who he went to and make sure that they were in our network. I also had to confirm with our benefits manager when my last day of insurance coverage would be to make sure I could get this root canal covered by my current dental plan. Needless to say, I found a endodontist that is in my network and they had an opening for Friday at 7:45 a.m. which just happens to be the last day that I'm covered. Just another one of many examples in my life how GOD always works it out...in HIS time. I just love that HE is concerned with all the details of my life...even the tooth aches!

Thanks to those who have checked on me and for your prayers. I have the best friends EVER!

A Dental-a-phobia

It takes a lot to really get me scared. I can hang with the best of them when it comes to the scariest of films or even going through haunted houses (although I have not done that since high school and I prefer not to have random strangers grabbing at me or chasing me). BUT there is one thing that really frightens me and that is the DENTIST. No, I don't have any horrific story from the chair or bad experience that would justify my fear...I just don't like the dentist. I have been blessed with my mother's good teeth and other than a few cavities as a child, I have not had any dental issues/emergencies. That was until this weekend....

Let me start at the beginning, when I went to my 6 mos. cleaning in December, they discovered that one of my top molars had a small piece of the tooth missing. The dentist said that overall I had beautiful, healthy teeth and that this was just an isolated incident. The plan of action was to schedule an appointment to fix it which I made for Feb. 5th. Sadly, I came down with the flu and had to reschedule my appointment for March. Then, last Wednesday I woke up with a tooth ache...nothing unbearable just uncomfortable and with any ache and pain you take some Advil. Well, the pain was persistant and by Friday no amount of Advil would even cause the slightest relief from the pain/pressure I was feeling on both the top/bottom of the right side of my mouth. Now I have a pretty high tolerance for pain/discomfort but this is ridiculous. I knew that unless it magically disappeared (which was not realistic) I would be calling the dentist first thing this morning. Which is exactly what I had to do....my resolve to battle this pain was dwindling. So they were great enough to get me in this morning and after a quick x-ray the results were in and those two words were uttered to me "ROOT CANAL". I probably would have had a some type of dramatic reaction had I not been in so much pain. They do not do them in this office and thankfully they were able to find me an appointment for this afternoon so within the hour I will be ending my work day early and going back to the dental chair. Of course, no one would call having a root canal fun and as much as I strongly fear the dentist, I will do just about anything to alleviate this horrible pain/pressure from my mouth. My dentist also gave me a prescription for Lortab to help manage the pain so there is a good chance that the rest of my day might be a blur.

Wow...what a way to spend a Monday......

Weekend Activities

Saturday was a day filled with many fun activities. I slept in a little and started off the day by doing things around the house like laundry and cleaning my room and bathroom. I got myself ready and packed a small overnight bag and headed to Franklin to spend the rest of the day with my friends from church. I met up with Amy around 2:00 and we went to the matinee and saw "Step Up 2: The Streets". The dancing in that movie was unbelievable...this is why i enjoyed watching Justin Timberlake in concert..he too is an amazing dancer. We then went back to her place and just had some down time for a while before dinner and meeting up with other friends for our Singles Outing. We planned an "Ice" theme evening of skating and ice cream and invited the singles from another church in town. We had about 17 total show up and it was a great time of fun and fellowship. Here are a couple of pictures from the rink:

Amy, myself and Brianna....ready to skate

I just landed a perfect triple axel....NOT

Patrick was SUPER excited about his hot cocoa

Tracy, Brianna, Jill (front) and Becky and Amy (back)

After we finished skating we headed over to Cold Stone Creamery for dessert. So yummy :) We closed Cold Stone down at 10 o'clock and said our goodbyes but for Amy and I our night was just beginning. After a quick stop by her place to change, we were back on the road headed for downtown. We met up with her friend Jen and went to Crossroads to see Jen's boyfriend play. Patrick met up with us at Crossroads and then we went to Paradise Park to see another band play. It was fun but I am quickly reminded why I don't go downtown very often. There were so many people out and the abundance of the vandy/belmont kids gets old fast. As Patrick put it, it felt like we were in an episode of The Hills.;) Patrick walked us to our car but we ended up stopping at "WannaBe's", a karaoke bar, to see if his friends were still there. Patrick and I got to watch the most interesting karaoke version of a Snoop Dogg classic while Amy was in the ladies room. GOOD TIMES! After all was said and done, we got back to Amy's a little after 2 am and I had no problem falling fast asleep. And despite staying up rather late, we still both got up on Sunday morning and made it to Sunday School at 9:30...of course it took a Starbucks stop on the way to church but nevertheless. After SS and Church, I headed back to Bellevue and did nothing but watch a movie and rest. Jen was gone this weekend to Memphis so she got back around 5 pm and we caught up and then watched some of the Oscars before calling it a night.

Out on another "school night"...

Just ask any of my friends and they will tell you that it's really a rare for me to go out on a "school" night but that's exactly what I've done the past 3 nights in a row. Whoa! Which means late nights and 5-6 hours of sleep unlike my usual 8 hours. I was thinking this morning, "I better not get sick again" as I try reassure myself that the 1000 mg of Vitamin C that I have been taking for 2 weeks now has surely built up my immune system. I feel great and it's nice to have the energy to want to be able to go and hang out with my friends.

Last night being Thursday means one thing..."LOST". Cathryn came over around 7 to watch last weeks episode and then of course the new episode is on at 8. What's fun about watching last weeks episode is that they have these random pop-ups that give you fun facts and connecting clues about what's going on in the series. Last night's episode, in my opinion, was the best one yet of this new season. You would think that after watching three seasons of LOST you would be prepared for the unexpected but that's never the case. As soon as it was over Cathryn and I headed downtown to meet up with Amy at the Rutledge for another night of music. We got there around 9:30 and caught the end of Christopher Williams set. The main reason why I wanted to go, was to see Andy and the Andys. This "group" is comprised of 3 highly talented singer/songwriter/musicians named Andrew Peterson, Andrew Gullahorn and Andrew Osenga. They only played about 6 songs but it was so worth being there to hear them play together. Good times!

The Andy's

The Girls

My long lost friend, Dean

It's a small world after all...

So i have to share this story with you all....it's such a small world. It starts back in the later part of 1998 when I moved out to Colorado. When I moved out to Colorado to live with my best friend Ruthann, I became involved immediately with the college and career group at Pulpit Rock Church. I met some great friends through this community. One specific person that I met was Dean. He and I were both involved in the worship team and became friends. When I left Colorado in 2002, Dean was still in Colorado. Fast forward to last November of 2007 when my friend Suzanne visited from Colorado. She informed me that Dean had moved and was living in Nashville, doing the music thing. I was brand new to the whole "myspace" movement but was able to find him online and we basically chatted via myspace, text, etc. but with his busy touring schedule we had yet to find a time to hang out. NOW, fast forward with me one last time to this past weekend. My friend Crazy Amy had a friend visiting from LA. They both went to church with a guy named Steve Hankins. For whatever reason, he has been trying to set up Amy's friend and we he heard that she was visiting Nashville, he told her that she should meet his friend Dean. (that's right, one in the same and I also knew Steve from the Colorado group, back in the day....meanwhile Crazy Amy has no idea that I know these people) So Amy and her friend end up meeting Dean and some of his friends out on Sunday night. When Amy goes home and pulls him up on myspace, she sees a comment that I left him and everthing comes full circle.

When I went out with the girls on Tuesday, Amy precedes to tell me about meeting this guy who I also know. I think my reaction was like "NO WAY"....ooh the tangled webs we weave. She also mentions that he invited her out to a show on Wednesday night where he would be so I told her that we were totally going. SO, last night Amy and I met up at my place and then headed downtown to eat dinner and catch the show. We ate at this great place next to The Rutledge called "Fiesta Mexicana"...so delicious. AND they have the most fun booths ever....

From there we headed over to the Rutledge and even though the flyer stated that it started at 7:30 we were a tad bit early. So when Dean arrived with his friends, Amy went to say hello and told him that she brought a friend that he had to meet. "Surprise"....it was so good to see him and thus we shared how we were all connected. It really is such a small world! We ended up moving tables to sit over by him and his friends. And I have to say, that he still gives the best hugs ever!Nevertheless, we got to see all 3 acts and the music was phenominal. The first group The Undeserving were incredible. And all male band with a cool California rock sound laced with keys and guitars....I liked every song that I heard (which is a rarity). Then we got to see Emily DeLoache. She is one of those artists that you see and are blown away by the voice that comes out and with her stage prescence, Amy and I both agreed quickly that she was precious with a capital P. We talked to her after her set and of course her husband (who is also a musician and played and sang with her) is friends with Dean. Then last but not least was Dean's cousin Andrew Osenga. I saw him play at last years "Behold the Lamb" with Andrew Peterson. He is an incredible guitar player and has an amazing voice. It was an evening of great music, catching up with old friends and hanging out with new friends :)

Already Wednesday....

Well I must say that despite not having a shorter week like some that got the holiday off, this week is going by surprisingly fast. One week from tomorrow will be my last day at TMP and then I start my new job on the 29th. As each day passes, I get more excited about my new gig and I can't wait to get started as I know that we will hit the ground running with lots to do.

Monday night I finally manged to drag myself back to the gym. I ran a couple times in January when we had nice weather outside but it seemed like everytime I would run, then I would come down with a cold or the flu. I still have a lingering cough/runny nose but it's time to push through and get back in shape. I went to the 5:45 spin class on Monday night and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I thought that I wouldn't be able to get off the bike when the class was over but luckily that wasn't the case. I should have lingered to do free weights but I told myself that 45 minutes of cardio was a good place to start and called it a night. I'm heading back tonight to hit the treadmill. My running base is pretty non-existant at the moment and I've got to get it back. I know it might sound crazy to most, but I really do enjoy a good run. I had hoped to do the Country Music Half Marathon this year because I missed it last year but with being sick and not already having a good core running base I don't think I could train properly given that it's only 9 weeks away :(

Last night, I met up with my friends Crazy Amy, Heather and Brianna at Jackson's Bar & Bistro. This is probably one of my favorite places to hang out in Hillsboro Village. I was the first one to arrive so while I was waiting for our table, I sat at the bar and watched the IU Basketball game. I struck up a fun conversation with two guys sitting there thanks to the recent ordeals of the IU coach Kelvin Sampson and his NCAA violations. Truth be told, I don't really watch too much NCAA Men's Basketball until March Madness begins. I do know that in the early season there was much talk about IU having the potential to have a great season but I've heard they've lost some big games and are ranked at #15 right now. I just hope that they are able to stay focused and not get dragged down by the investigations into their coaching staff. Anywho, the girls arrived shortly thereafter and we spent almost 3 hours just catching up and hanging out. We had such a good time that we've decided to make this a monthly ritual. I am so thankful for these new found friendships.

Another weekend...

Another weekend is almost over and another work week is about to start. Good times (can you hear the sarcasm in my voice?)

Friday night was another good time at our "When Worldviews Collide" study group. This study has been quite good thus far and it seems like our discussions at the group are challenging and yet thought provoking. Saturday morning I slept in and woke up to another headache. For the past couple of mornings, I have woke up with a headache which I assume is thanks to the every changing weather and the differnent fronts that keep passing through. Jen was in the Green Hills area doing errands so I met up with her for brunch at Noshville . It's one of my favorite local places to eat and I dont go as often as I would like. I then came back to the house and later caught an afternoon mattinee of 27 Dresses. What a great movie...I didn't expect to laugh that much but I mean, can't we (us girls at least) relate to all those horrible bridesmaids dresses we've worn in our friends weddings and the infamous line of "you can shorten it, and wear it again"...Whatever?!? :) That was just one thing of the movie that I could relate to but there was so much more and I definitely will be owning this one.

Saturday afternoon I got to catch up with my friend Randi via phone and I also picked up a couple of movies at Blockbuster to enjoy a nice, relaxing evening at home. From the recommendation of Jen, I saw ONCE. It's an independent film by Fox Searchlight and it's excellent. The relationship between these two characters and the music....the music is fantastic. I would highly recommend watching this film. I also watched "3:10 to Yuma". I had heard great things about it and I love western movies. And well lets be honest, a movie with Christian Bale and Russell Crowe....enough said :)

Sunday was a day of crazy weather and church. I woke up around 5 am to crazy wind and rain outside. When i went to church it was still raining and windy. What good is an umbrella if it gets blown inside out? I got to church a little late and felt like a wet dog. We've been following a video study by Andy Stanley on "Taking it to the Limits: living your life with margin". It's been good. When we came out of church it was like a beautiful spring day...Blue skies, puffy clouds and temps in the 70's. Today was our singles luncheon and we ate at Logan's Roadhouse. I got home around 2:30 and couldnt help but enjoy the lovely afternoon so I sat outside on the deck and did some homework for our worldviews study, listened to some tunes and wrote in my journal. By the time 4:00 rolled around, the sunshine was gone and the clouds and cooler air was moving in. Tomorrow it's only supposed to be in the 30's. And we wonder why so many people have been sick? Go figure....

Tomorrow is President's Day and for some that means a long weekend but for me, well it's back to work. But I'm not bitter...ha ha.

My beautiful flowers from Valentines Day.

It's Official...

And I can finally talk about my "big news"...I accepted a new job yesterday. YAHOO! I don't think there are enough words to describe how excited I really am and I don't know that all my excitement has even caught up to me yet. The whole story of how this new opportunity even came about is just heaven sent. I know without a shadow of a doubt that this new job is from GOD. He has blessed my socks off.

So you might be wondering what this great opportunity is...well I am going to be a personal assistant for a family here in Nashville. They are an amazing, Christian family and I am excited to see what new adventures lie ahead of me. My duties will be quite the variety and I will learn and share more as the details roll in. I was sharing with some friends yesterday how strongly I feel that this job was made for me because I know that I will be able to fully utilize all the talents and abilities that God has given me. I am one happy girl!

And I want to stay a big THANKS to all my friends and family that have been praying for me! You guys are the bestest!

Mondays

Why are Monday's such a dreadful day? I don't know that I've ever met anyone who is excited about a Monday. Maybe it's such a dreaded day because it's like the low after the high....you get 2 days off to do whatever you please and just when you get used to sleeping without an alarm clock...it's Monday again. Maybe somepeople dread Monday because it means they have to go back to work and maybe work is not a fun place to be. I'm sure we all have days when the last place we want to be is at work. Well at least if you're reading this now, Monday is almost over!

The weekend was good especially since I didn't have to spend it in bed sick. I'm still not 100% over whatever flu bug I caught this time but I'm taking it day by day. I still have a cough and some fatigue but at least I'm able to get out and about. Friday night I was able to return to the When Worldviews Collide study. It's going really good and defnitely leaves me with alot of food for thought. We are still going over some basic guiding principles but I am really looking forward to diving into these other religions. Saturday morning I slept in later than what I would have liked to but with being sick and all I guess my body needed the extra rest. Jen and I ventured out and we ate at one of my favorite brunch places LePeep. I had breakfast and she had lunch and as always it's delicious :) We then headed to Green Hills as I had not been to the new Hill Centre to walk around and check out all the shops. We also walked through the permiters of the new Whole Foods and it's amazing. From there we went to the mall and whatnot and then I hit the wall. Saturday night was a night of relaxing at home, doing some laundry and catching up on some letter writing and of course getting ready for Sunday.

Sunday was another busy day with church in the morning and then we had a leadership/planning meeting at Amy's place. Since we had planned to see a band at a coffee shop later than night I just hung out with her all day in Franklin. I say "hung out" but really it meant me taking an almost two hour nap on her couch after our meeting. The lingering flu bug requires rest. Anywho, I woke up just in time to freshen up and we headed to The Coffee Beanery in Franklin to see a little group called Joel & Luke. Brianna met up with Amy and I and it was a great night of music and fellowship.

A Weather RollerCoaster

When I stepped outside this morning I was greeted by those breezy thirty degree temperatures once again. And as I was driving in to work this morning, I was thinking back to those times when I was a kid and the weather was "predictable". I mean you knew that from December through February it was going to be mostly dreary and cold every day and occasionally you would see some snow fall. Then by March you would start to feel spring shift with lots of wind and rain and sunshine leading into May. And then it was on to summer with warm air, humidity and sunshine until September when fall would arrive and the breezes would bring in cooler air. Aaah the good old days! BUT this is a 2008 and the weather over the past couple of years or so is anything but predictable. For example, on Monday and Tuesday of this week we had temps in the 60's-70's and then we had horrible storms on Tuesday night and yesterday temps started in the 60's and ended in the 40's and now this morning it was 34 degrees. AND we are surprised that so many people have gotten the flu and colds? I wish the weather would just pick a ten degree temperature range and stay there. These 20-30 degree temperature swings are killing me. Is it just me, or has the weather been crazy in other parts of the country as well?

So despite my frustrations with the every changing weather and this flu-turned-lingering cold/congestion I have once again, life is good. Tomorrow is Friday and that means another weekend. Hopefully this weekend I will actually be well enough to enjoy it. I dont have anything major planned other than spending time with some friends.

A Stormy Night

For some, last nights storms have changed their lives as they knew it. Headlines that we woke up this morning read "Tornadoes tear through the South" or "Rescue crews look door-to-door for tornadoe victims" and reports are saying that 50 people were killed last night when this major storm system passed through Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama. Thankfully there was no major damage in Nashville although I will admit that it was a bit scary.


I had been watching them track these storms on tv since 8 o'clock when they interupted the tv show I was watching and never went back to the program. (I was not a happy camper) So out of my frustration, I flipped to some cable channels only to realize that there is not much on so I kept going back to the local NBC station...not really interested in the weather as much I was hoping to find my show back on. Nevertheless, the clock kept ticking and I soon realized that this one particular super-cell storm was heading our direction and because I live on the west end of Nashville, they were telling us we could see the worst of it. One word...tornado. I casually went upstairs to grab a flashlight and my cell phone, just in case and hunkered back down on the couch. It was a little after 9 when i started to see and hear the lightning/thunder and the pinging of the rain and hail as it was blowing into the windows. The weather man said that if you live in Bellevue (that's me) and West Meade you should head to your "safe spot" and as soon as he said one large crash of thunder & the power was out. I think I made record time in moving from the couch to our downstairs bathroom which is were I sat for about 10 minutes or so. Once the power came back on, I ventured back to my spot on the couch and continued to watch the storm move North East across town. I thought that wasn't so bad but what concerned me while watching the news and hearing early reports of the damage come in, was a huge system right behind these smaller ones.


I texted my sister in IN to make sure that the family was safe up there. It was just a couple years ago that they had a horrific tornado tear through Henderson, KY, Evansville, IN and on up through Newburgh and Boonville. I will never forget getting that phone call from my mother as I was out in Colorado at the time visiting friends. I knew by the sound in her voice something terrible had happened. When she said they had a tornado I could hardly believe it, especially because it was in November. But regardless of the time of year, it came in the wee hours of a Sunday morning and many were caught without any warning. Thankfully none of my immediate family was affected by this storm. What's scary is that my parents never even woke up and yet this monster of a twister was not even more than 25 miles from where they slept. Elaysha woke Holly up because of the storm so she turned on the tv to see it unfold. She had just enough time to call one of her friends who lived in the path of the storm to warn them...thankfully they were safe! One young family of four in my parents church were killed and close friends of my aunt and uncle nearly had their entire home blown to pieces. The devastation of these storms can leave you in awe and speechless.

Just another incident that makes me thankful for what I have and in times like these, I feel inspired to truly live each day to the fullest because you have no guarantee of a tomorrow.

A Broken Record

So I feel like I am beginning to sound like a broken record when I say that I am sick, yet again. When I look back at the calendar, it's averaging out that I am sick with some variation of cold/flu every other week or so. My immune system must be shot as I seem to pick up everything little thing and that is NO fun. This time I can honestly say that it is/was the flu and since a third of our office has been sick and passing everything around that is were I got it. It started on Friday morning when i woke up with a frog in my throat and after i pushed through working all day, I came home and crashed. That is when the fever came on and it was pretty persistant. As soon as I would take some Advil and it would break, it would come right back around with the chills/shakes. One word....MISERABLE! Of all the times that I have been sick in the past 2 months, this by far is the worst that I have felt. So what do you do to get rid of the flu? I've started doubling up on Vitamin C and drinking OJ and lots of other fluids, getting lots of sleep (I am actually a little stir crazy), and I have some drugs left from when I was sick that last time (decongestants and whatnot). I mean I got the free flu shot that our works does every November so this must be some new strain of the virus. These little bouts of "sickness" have been SO frustrating and I am going to add it to my list of topics when I have my physical this spring. This is not like me to be so suceptiable to getting the least little thing.

Anyways, so my family was in town this weekend. Even my sister, Amy who lives in Florida brought a friend along and came up for the weekend. Obviously this just made me more frustrated that I couldnt really spend any time with them because of being so sick. They did stop by my place yesterday on their way out of town to check in on me and see me :) It's always nice to have your family, especially your mom around when you don't feel good. There is nothing like the tender loving care of a mom when her child is sick. And my dad brought me some super-duper Vitamin C to start taking and I have been doing just that...two a day for sure...anything to help boost back up my immune system. And it sounded like they all had a great time in Nashville...I was just sad that I wasn't able to spend time with them.

Bad Week...

Well I can say that so far for this year, this has been the worst week ever and for lots of reasons, which I will not venture into. But instead of being depressed or crying more tears, I am going to focus on the positive things and here they are:

• It's FRIDAY.
• AND it's also the beginning of a new month.
• Last night's season premier of LOST rocked!
• I have some truly amazing friends.
• My entire family will be here this weekend to hang out.
• Last but NOT least, I have a GOD that loves me no matter what and HE is faithful.

So I still can't get over how great last night's premier of LOST was and can I just say that it's so refreshing to watch a show that is not reality based. This show is the creation of a team of writers (who I find to be amazingly talented) who have woven such an amazing story laced with flashbacks, back stories and flashforwards, plot twists and unexpected turns...that, we'll let's face it, leaves you feeling lost. I introduced my friend Cathryn to this tv phenomenon so it was only fitting that she came over last night to join me. Whew....it was so intense. I think we both held our breathes until each commercial break and one part in particular was so creepy that Cathryn and I were both grabbing for the pillows to cover our eyes. Needless to say the start to this 4th Season leaves me with more questions to try and solve. Like who is this Jacob? Who makes up the Oceanic Six? What did Jack do that Hurley promised he would never tell? And the list goes on and on....