Possible Diagnosis

I blog a bunch in the beginning of the new year and it takes me nearly a month to get it together again to add another entry! In my defense, it has been pretty hectic around here. I cannot go into too much detail on some things yet, but I can in other areas at least.


If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know I have been having bad stomach issues since October of 2014. I had a sensitive stomach growing up, but it went way down hill then. I had my gall bladder removed, multiple tests at multiple doctors (primary ones, two gastroenterologists, and a rheumatologist) and still no answers. Medications helped some, but I was still having awful stomach attacks every four to six weeks with no explanation.


Well, we may finally have one.


My rheumatologist gave me some blood work results in November that he said he wasn't too concerned about but I should show to another doctor I was seeing just in case. Well, in December that doctor looked at it and went, "Um, no. Not normal. Definitely a problem." The possible verdict?


Subclinical Hypothyroidism.


My TSH (thyroid hormones) were at a 10.67 when the normal range is around 2-3. My thyroid antibodies were also super, super high. The norm is between 4 and 32.... mine were at 464. I was started on 100mcg of Synthroid within 24 hours and referred to an endocrinologist that day. My first appointment with the endocrinologist will be this Friday, so I am hoping we finally can fix this thing once and for all. I will most likely be on Synthroid the rest of my life, but hopefully we can lower the levels once my blood work balances out again.


The one doctor thinks that's why my stomach was so messed up, apparently metabolism and hormones and all sorts of other things can get screwy. It also adds to the tiredness, cold, and many other things. I did have to step away from Google, but fingers crossed we finally get somewhere with this.


The other goodish news is that I am transferring in my job. I currently work at the reference desk at the Main Library (which I do like don't get me wrong) but I will be moving over to the Research Library within the next month or so. The big perk to this will be a much more steady schedule and.... they're closed weekends! Hallelujah! As of right now I am working half and half (including some weekends), but once they hire another person I will be at the branch library permanently. It is also much quieter, a different sort of patron, and a definite change of pace I am looking forward too.


Hopefully I will be able to update with more shortly. Until then, thanks (as always) for sticking with me.

Thanksgiving 2015

Our Family Portrait

I am behind! I know Thanksgiving wasn't that long ago, but I still feel like I am way off on my blogging. We spent Thanksgiving in South Carolina with my inlaws again this year. Normally we rotate each year, but my mother-in-law will be away this Christmas and we really wanted to drive up to New Jersey to see my extended family and Christmas gives us more time to do that anyway! So Wednesday after work we drove down south. I was feeling pretty woozy most of Thanksgiving to be honest with you, my stomach was just not cooperative, but thankfully it never got too bad! We had a delicious meal with family and spent Black Friday in our pajamas, napping and watching the 80s rewind marathon on VH1. My sister in law has never seen any of the Back to the Future movies and that had to be rectified! We also had a delicious dinner with his grandmother (Skeetsie) and mom and sister on Friday night.

Saturday we got up early and went in to downtown Columbia, a part called Soda City, where they do a sort of street fair/marketplace type thing. I had some shrimp and grits that were pretty decent and a nutella banana crepe that was amazing.

We also walked up to the capitol building and took some pictures near the Christmas tree. All of this is pretty much just like we did last year! Except this year it was about 70something degrees!

We also made a brief stop into the Richland County library so I could look around. This place was HUGE! Three stories easily with tons of space and cool things that made me pretty jealous. The mural below was in their children's area... since I do not have a child I didn't want to be creepy and go in there but I was able to take a picture from the balcony of the floor above. They have trees! Growing in the kids room! So cool.

We ordered some wings and went home to watch the USC/Clemson rivalry game. Honestly we were worried it was going to be a slaughter (with Clemson at #1 and us having a very off season) but it was a surprisingly good game! We almost had a chance at the end but it just was not meant to be!

After the game we drove home and used Sunday to clean, grocery shop, put up some Christmas decorations, and cook for the upcoming week. It was great spending time with family and as always, way too brief!

Tis the Season...

Even at work I'm getting into the Christmas spirit.... All thanks to Pinterest and the fact the library I work at has a lot of green books! Most are (surprisingly or not) on the Vietnam War, golf, accounting and vegetarian cooking! Deck the halls y'all!

 

Observations

As many of you know I work at the base library. With my new job at reference I am interacting with hundreds of Marines daily.... literally. Then I go home to my Marine (he's my favorite for sure, I am definitely biased there) and life is good. Being it is a library there is a wide variety of Marines, all ranks and jobs and the like doing everything from printing leave requests to MarineNet classes to research papers. Sometimes I complain about being tied to the desk at the "computer" person (usually the first half or more of my shift) but I do love interacting with the Marines and I do enjoy helping them the rare times they need assistance with research or databases.

Since the sleeves went back to being rolled this year I've also noticed a certain accessory a lot of the Marines seem to be wearing these days...

Picture from this link via the AP

The KIA bracelets.

Maybe with the winter cammies and the sleeves down it never caught my eye as much... but with the rolled sleeves and the summer weather I cannot tell you all how many I see a day.

And to be honest that breaks my heart.

These Marines, easily from 18-50, have seen and done so much these past ten years. So many have lost collegues, friends, and brothers/sisters to the point that I can barely track how many I see each day... and those are only for the ones who wear a bracelet... I know plenty do not.

So although we hear in the media "the war is over" we all know the truth. If you have some extra thoughts to spare send it for these Marines. It is a rainy, cloudy morning here in North Carolina and the three hours I have been on the desk so far I have counted 43 bracelets and it is making me a little sad.

That's all.

Stormy Weather

It is definitely summer time in the South. For the past few days, ever late afternoon, ominous dark clouds roll in. Some times it lets a little rain fall for an hour, then vanishes... other times huge torrential storms take over the area and hit you upside the head with their force. The photo above is from my neighborhood last week. I love panorama sky shots, they look so awesome! Those clouds barely gave us any rain until way later that evening even though they looked threatening.

Saturday was my first day back at work after being sick and it was a long day. I grew tired pretty easily and even though we were steady we luckily we weren't swamped. It was a hot, humid and sunny day until late afternoon some grey clouds began to move in. I told my coworker to check the view outside (since the circulation desk doesn't have windows close by like reference does) once they started to get dark. We knew a storm was coming for sure. Fifteen minutes later she came and got me, telling me to go look out the front door. If we thought the sky was dark before, it was BLACK now....

With the sun shining still over us it was a very haunting view to see straight black clouds in the sky barreling straight towards you! At around 5:30 the thunder started ripping through the sky, lightening began making our power flicker, and rain started pounding down so hard we could barely see outside. Pine tree branches were falling all around the pavilion and the grass around the side of the building disappeared under water. It barely let up around closing and we felt terrible having to have people leave to go out in it, but our managers said we essentially didn't have a choice.

We were a bit behind in closing with all that chaos but as we hurried to lock up I almost fell over as soon as I entered our program's office. It was literally raining in the office. I could hear it and as I glanced up I saw a ceiling tile fall to the floor, which had a huge puddle blooming across it, with a SPLAT.

Oh. Crap.

My coworker and I ran to get plastic to try and protect the books (mostly children's books for story times and summer reading) and move things out of the way as quickly as we could. At one point the plastic gathered a bunch of water and poured on to my head soaking me completely! Yea, we laughed about it. I am a decent height, about 5'7'', but my coworker is all of maybe 5'3'' and the two of us trying to drape plastic over eight feet of shelving was pretty comical in itself.

We used soda cans to try and support the plastic and did our best to clean up, staying nearly an hour after we closed.

Needless to say it was a mess! Naturally as soon as we stepped outside to go to our cars it had stopped raining completely. There was even some blue sky off in the distance. You can't even make this stuff up! UGH. It drizzled a little on my way home but at my house it was bone dry. It hadn't even rained there yet! We had a huge storm about ten miles from my house with all this damage and nothing at home. Sigh. I could hear thunder and see lightening as we got dinner ready, but when it did rain (hours later) it was nothing like on base.

Southern Summer Weather has officially begun!

Slightly Frustrated

I am a little, slightly frustrated with some things in life lately. Maybe it is because we hit our two year mark in this duty station and things are up in the air as to what's next. Maybe it is a lot of different things, but I know my husband is feeling it too.

We're both struggling a little bit at work. He has huge inspections on the horizon and is working 13+ hour days more often than not and is getting worn out quickly. I have been in my new position in the library for a few weeks now and I am just not hitting my stride. I loved my job in Tech Services... processing new inventory, repairs and lots of different things that made me feel like I was really contributing. Now I work in Reference. I am full time, so more pay and more hours, but I feel like sometimes I am doing less meaningful work than I was before. 80% of my job feels like handing computer passes to people and helping them print/scan/copy/sign on to certain websites. The other 20% I do, helping people find things, using research databases and interlibrary loans, just aren't frequent enough. We're also understaffed at the moment so I am working every other weekend or more and I definitely did not miss that.

So, things are a little frustrating. It feels like any time Ryan and I have off it is spent cleaning and cooking and doing other chores rather than spending time together. On the days I open we do carpool, but it is so early in the morning that our conversation is a little flat. At night we're so tired we are in bed by ten usually, and the time before then is spent just eating, packing our lunches, cleaning and watching TV until we drag ourselves to bed.

I haven't been to the gym in three weeks. First it was a killer cold, now a broken toe that makes putting my sneakers on kind of impossible (I battled a bedpost and my fourth/ring finger? toe lost). I miss going to the gym (shock!) and I feel like I was making real progress that all just got undone in less than a month, which feels pretty pathetic. I hate how it can take months and months to notice the slightest change but only a week to feel like it all has become undone.

I am frustrated. I want more time with my husband. I want to love my job again.

I want to feel happier.

Here's to some hopefully brighter tomorrows.

Paraprofessional Library Conference

Last week (ish) I was lucky enough to attend the Paraprofessional Library Conference at ECU with some of my coworkers. I was pretty excited, it was the first conference of any kind I have been sent to for work and my inner book nerd was very antsy. We had some awful weather on our two hour drive up there, but luckily once we hit campus it cleared up nicely. It was great to attend the workshops and bond a bit more with my coworkers outside the library.

The main thing about a paraprofessional conference is that it is geared towards people like me.... people who work in libraries that are not necessarily librarians. To be called a librarian you need to have your MLS (Master of Library Sciences), which I obviously do not have, hence the reason I am a Library Technician. I did four different workshops that I found pretty interesting. The first was about salvaging old photographs that can get damaged in your facility due to flooding/storms/leaks/etc. We do live in Eastern North Carolina, it isn't that far fetched! They showed us techniques that can save a good number of photographs that are important to our collection if we are able to do so. They even showed us some before and afters from libraries in New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy and what they were able to salvage.

My next workshop was about Murder Mystery Theatre... something another library a county over does once a year for the community. I really enjoyed their presentation. For practically no budget they manage to pull off some really entertaining performances! Theatre and Libraries combined? You know I am SO there! I know MCCS here at Lejeune does something similar, but it is dinner theatre and not as interactive as the one we learned about nor is it solely a library production. But something to consider for sure!

After lunch I attended a basic photography workshop that had me riveted the whole time... other people maybe not so much. I am a total geek for this stuff and I want to learn to take better pictures so I really enjoyed it. It made me really itch for a DSLR too!

My last workshop was about stress relieving work outs you can do at work. Mainly it was stretching and focusing energies on certain tension spots but I did learn one or two I could do behind the reference desk and not look like a total spaz!

Overall I had a really great time. As one of my coworkers said during one of our breaks as we lounged in the sunny courtyard, "I imagine this is what it would have been like to go to college with y'all... it's kind of scary." The campus was definitely beautiful, and I naturally ran through the ECU musical arches a few times before we had to drive back!

 

Easter 2014

Happy Easter!

For the first time I can remember I am working on Easter Sunday. It has been extremely quiet here at the library, but we have had patrons... at least 30-40 have been in throughout the day. Most people were just using the computers to print something out but it has been extremely quiet at the circulation desk. I have caught up on a lot of projects, practiced for my interview Tuesday, and cleared the carts of books we had up here. It is definitely different from a usual weekend here! I also had a very interesting lecture by an elderly gentleman about Crucifixion. I suppose wearing my Catholic University hoodie sort of set me up for that one...

Last night Ryan and I attended the Easter Vigil service. Usually it is my favorite mass of the year. I love watching the chuch flicker in candle light, hearing the Genesis readings, the gorgeous music and people entering the church for the first time through baptism or confirmation. I was spoiled growing up in a beautiful and welcoming church. My mom was our parish secretary and I knew almost everyone. I was a lector (reader) at mass from my teenage years through adulthood and I altar served and sang in the choir as a kid. It is the church I made my first communion, reconciliation, confirmation and got married in. It was home. I don't think I will ever feel so connected to a parish again, I hope I will, but I have yet to find it. Neither Virginia nor North Carolina have yet. At all.

The vigil service was long, I mean way longer than normal, nearly three hours. The music was alright but most of it unfamiliar... a reading was read twice and one was skipped (hey, I pay attention!) and Ryan and I were both starving by the end. The most beautiful part for me was the RCIA candidates. We had ten... ten.... people baptized into the church ranging from 6 to 60 years old. It was beautiful! Plus another seven on top of that received first communion and confirmation... seventeen people solidified their faith last night in my presence and I cried tears of joy witnessing it. Like I said, beautiful. But I was also homesick for the church I grew up in and missing the familiar as well as my family. I missed having a small reception with my church of cookies and other things late in the evening after the vigil... a trip to Buffalo Wild Wings isn't usually the most Easter-y of celebrations! I miss kielbasa and pierogies (even though there may be some in my freezer from Babci... hm... I'll have to check that out).

This is the first Easter I have spent without my parents and brother. Working this weekend made the trip impossible for either of us. I know I am an adult and married, but when your whole life centers around some traditions and familiarity it is hard to let go sometimes. This was the one holiday we always managed to make work, even since I have been married... but not this year. I know, one of many in my future, but it is still a little sad. I am so grateful Ryan made pisanki with me and accompanied me to mass (especially since he isn't Catholic, I know it isn't a walk in the park for him) and I appreciate it so much.

My heart is just a little heavier this year during a time it is usually flying and singing. I love Easter, what it means in my faith and family, but this year it is just hovering a little lower.

I didn't intend to sound so gloomy and down in this post, my apologies. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a Happy Easter (if you celebrate).

Slacking

I have been severely slacking on my blog lately. Sometimes I think, I should really blog about this... but then I don't. I have had more free time since the show ended, but I have been spending it with Ryan basically. And working. And back in the gym :P. I feel my blog suffering, I know I have lost readers (half my trip entries didn't even get a single comment) and I am not sure where to go from here really.

Do I want to keep this blog about me? Just something I enjoy, people read and interact on, and family can see a bit more of what we are up to? Or do I want to broaden my horizons... make it more about readership or even profit? Reviews and give aways and link ups... oh my! I honestly just don't know.

I have a lot on my mind at the moment and most of it really is not blogworthy. Ryan has een submitting his package for an SDA (or b-billet of sorts) to hopefully better his chances of picking up/staying in. He wants to be a security forces instructor but if that doesn't pan out then he will try for recruiting duty. Things keep getting shuffld and pushed around so we really have no idea what will happen, they won't even look at things until May. Hurry up and wait once again.

I am applying for a higher position within the library, a level two position that is full time in reference. As much as I love working in tech services the extra money of going up a level and to full time will really help us out. I have my interview Tuesday, so fingers crossed!

At the moment I am working circulation for the weekend... Easter weekend. I am pretty bummed to be working Easter, full hours, but they have been so accomodating with my schedule (between our trip, weddings and other things) I wouldn't dare complain. Easter is a special time for me (being Catholic and all) so I am trying to do everything I can while still working. Pisanki were made last night, mass is still being attended, and tons of smidgens are being eaten. It's a start right?

 

Ryan's pisanki are the four in the top row, mine are the five on the bottom row.

For all of you still around, thanks for sticking with me. I don't want to abandon my blog, four years of my life have gone into this thing, but I hope I will invigorate it a bit more in the near future.

Stay tuned my friends.

And Happy Easter.

Spa Night and Spouse Experience

This has been a busy week so far but I'm so thankful for that. It's helping one fly by! Yesterday I went to work, ran home and walked the Dup, and then headed back to base for a spa night. It was a lot of fun!

We had four different stations; reflexology, sugar scrubs, yoga and massage. It felt wonderful to do some yoga, it has been a long time and my muscles were tighter than I ever remember them being. I really need to go find a class again, it's so hard to motivate myself to do workouts alone at home! And the massage was heavenly. I did not want to get out of the chair!

Today I was off from work but I did my usual commute to base to help out with SpouseBUZZ's military spouse experience. It was such a terrific day (massive artillery shaking the building and all!). I got to meet and see some amazing bloggers and people in the military community I've known (even just online) for years. Plus I met lots of great new people too. 

 Spouse Experience is a fun day. No powerpoints here, more like get on your feet and meet people and discuss the real experiences we all have and share. I'm so honored to even be involved in my small capacity! If any base near you hosts one please attend. It is so worth it!

Lots of people attended. Some spouses were married less than a month and others for up to 37 years! It's for everyone. The speakers are always fantastic, the prizes are awesome and the food was delicious!

I even got to be in a fake fight with Jayce for an activity. My husband would recognize my "You cannot be serious!" fighting stance!

Borrowed from the SpouseBUZZ Facebook page

The event let out around two so I had plenty of time to go home, nap, walk the Dup and then meet everyone for dinner at Ale House. It was a really nice dinner and I enjoyed getting to know everyone more. Now I'm home and quite sleepy! Tomorrow is work again but the library is officially closed for renovations, a new ceiling! We all will report in tomorrow to move books, pack and dismantle shelving before the construction crew arrives next week. Tomorrow night is a Return/Reunion brief with banner making supplies.... So you all know what that means ;)

A Day in the Life

I have seen a lot of bloggers do a 'Day in the Life' posts and last Wednesday I decided to give it a try! With my phone in hand I did my best. I took a lot more pictures than I expected to and I still didn't get as much as some other bloggers I read (way to go guys, you made it seem easy!) but I tried. So here we go....

When I wake up in the morning I usually hit snooze two or three times check the weather and my email on my phone...

And if I have time usually I peek at the Chive too. Ryan got me hooked on the site/app and I have become a huge chivette. He only has himself to blame! I purposely picked this picture because there is the Genie. In Latte Art. Awesome.

Usually by now the Dup comes sauntering in to our room from the couch (which she sneaks out in the middle of the night to do, NOT allowed) or wiggles out from under the bed. We do a puppy stretch before going outside. 

She has her morning potty break and usually runs around until she hears the magical B word...
 

Breakfast!!! This dog knows the words dinner and breakfast by heart. We use them sparingly in our house.

While she eats I usually head to the bathroom and start my shower.

But without fail she finds me when she is done eating. Rylie loves to curl right up near the shower so when you emerge to reach your towel you practically have to leap over her and pray you don't twist an ankle. But it is cute.

My beauty routine is pretty low key... eye shadow and cover up (never expected to have such awful skin at 25, really acne?) and trusty chapstick.

Most mornings I do blow dry my hair. The Dup hates the blow dryer but she has to be close by regardless. Afterall, the loud handheld machine may attack Mommy at any moment.

Once I am ready for work the Dup and I go outside for a rousing game of fetch. Such a lab.... she loves tennis balls and running back and forth until she cannot stand up any more. Now that the weather is warmer I should start doing morning walks with her... but fetch seems to be a hit.

As it gets time for me to go I say, "Time for work! You want a treat?" and the next thing I know she is patiently waiting in her crate for a milkbone. Oh that face. I hate to leave her but we gotta pay the bills!

At this point I am in the car. Ugh. I hate taking selfies, but for the blog, why not?

My commute is so lovely... ten or fifteen minutes max. I am post rush hour and never have any problems. So I usually get to work pretty early.

I open the library, sometimes myself, sometimes with coworkers. This particular Wednesday was our monthly staff meeting day. I was blessed to go to the afternoon meeting this month so I opened alone. The morning meeting does mean going home earlier, but it also means fighting gate traffic to be at the main library for 8:30. Any milspouses out there know the hell that is gate traffic and understand my kvetching there! Back to opening the library... I normally turn on my computer first so I can clock in and have my systems open to check in books and read my email. KCCO!

I then turn on all the computers for the patrons and start emptying the dehumidifiers. We have an OLD building (like it was a barracks in the 1940s old) so these are essential. Without the dehumidifiers we get tons of mold, not just on the walls but in the books too, so we cannot have that. On rainy days and in the summer we empty these babies morning and night, sometimes in the middle too on bad days. In the winter rarely at all. But yay for moldy water?

As I am opening the library I usally prepare my breakfast... a bagel or a freshly microwaved strawberry poptart. Breakfast of champions, I know, but I am not really big on eating in the morning.

As that heats up I kid you not I take a moment to stop and smell the books. I LOVE the smell of books, especially old ones. And if I am standing in the non fiction section I get it in droves. I heard they make a candle with book smell, I may have to buy it. I have a problem. I honestly thought I failed my interview for this job when I gushed about how I love the smell of books. Only once I was hired did I learn that both my manager and coworker said the same thing in their interview so they knew I'd work out! ;)

Once we open I am at the desk working on my project. I am currently making a running list of all the book series we have in the library. I am doing the name of the author, the series and listing all the books plus marking which ones we have and which ones we should order. This week we were also logging what we did at work every fifteen minutes to show the government how busy we are and how having us understaffed is not a good thing. Thank you sequestration! You know how tedious it is to track yourself all day for fifteen minute incriments? And the week before a long weekend? It was rough.

Then in the early afternoon I got to drive over to mainside for the staff meeting.

My coworker came back from the morning meeting with a huge cherry slushie for me, so naturally I took it with me to my meeting for refreshment purposes.

This meeting rocked because there was cake for all the May birthdays and anniversaries. Man, I love cake.

Unfortunately our meeting ran long which meant when I was going back to work I got caught in afternoon rush hour gate traffic. No bueno. Sigh.

When I got back to work I took a late lunch (practically dinner). Every lunch I take I fully abuse my library aid status and read a book. Wouldn't you? And before you ask, no, we cannot read on the clock. I wish!

I usually eat my food in the staff room then go outside, especially if it is nice, to read the rest of my break. I also fully enjoy the ospreys flying overhead.

The afternoons and evenings are the busiest at our branch so I took no pictures. Fail I know, but I never have my phone on me at the desk. I keep it in the office and only check it sparingly. So I worked on my project and helped patrons until it was closing time. Also no pictures.... but it was basically the same as opening any way.

I then ran to the exchange real quick to grab some bad habits for the hubby and I before heading home.

Again, I miss rush hour so my commute is pretty smooth!

I love the nights Ryan gets home before me and dinner is ready when I get home. It doesn't happen a lot so I relish the nights it does. No one wants to cook at 7:30 when they walk in the door! Technically tonight was leftover spaghetti he brought me home from a command dinner, but it was from Olive Garden so I was a happy camper. Man I drink a lot of Diet Coke...

Evenings, especially weeknights, we mostly just cuddle on the couch and watch TV. Favorites include How I Met Your Mother, the Big Bang Theory, and our newest favorite Duck Dynasty.

I had to be stealthy taking pictures of Mr. "I hate having my picture taken" so you get a semi artsy sillouette shot of my husband as we watch Duck Dynasty.

Then we move to the garage, sometimes with a glass of wine or a beer, and smoke and talk about our day. It is one of my favorite parts of the day (not because of addictive substances) because we really have some awesome conversations/debates during this hour or two leading up to bed time. Ryan was checking our investments (a very popular topic in our garage) so I got to sneak this one.

By this time it is late enough for bed. Generally I make our lunches and coffee for Ryan in the morning as we slowly unwind.

The Dup comes in and we all hunker down for the night.... usually with Rylie diving under our bed and making herself comfortable. Our house has no boogey man, we have a Dup.

So that is a semi-typical day in the life of me. Not the most thrilling, but it was fun to see and track and try for one entry. What is a day in your life like?



(I realize I am posting this a week after my putting it together, my blog app was giving me issues! Hopefully I can blog about our wonderful weekend in Jersey this week and get that up for you all. Thanks for reading!)