Wednesday is Wonderful

I have already been fussed at by my Mom for not updating after my doctor visit so I guess I better get to it!

I went to the doctor yesterday afternoon. The MRI was normal so that is good. However, that means that I get more tests. I now must have a stomach emptying test because my stomach may not be emptying fast enough. I also get to go have another blood test to see if my liver is now functioning normally.
I was excited to hear that I wouldn't have to have surgery (for that sphincter muscle at my gallbladder) right away but I wasn't happy to hear that I would need more tests. I still may have to have the surgery but she doesn't want to do it until she knows if it is absolutely necessary. She says that it is a high risk surgery and can cause complications so that scared me a little. I just hope that the blood tests are now normal or that it is just my stomach. I really don't want to have surgery!

In other news, are there ever days when you aren't really in the mood to do anything and then something happens to change everything? Well today was one of those days for me. When I woke up, I wasn't all that excited about going to school. I wanted to stay in bed and I wasn't happy about the doctor's orders for more tests. I was just in a funk. However, when my students started coming in, they were all so happy and excited (only God knows why). Two of my little girls brought in Valentines even though I already told them we weren't exchanging them until Friday. They were both so excited because they had special Valentines for me. There was also a note from one of the girls' parents asking what my favorite flower was. I didn't really know what to say. I talked to the little girl and she told me that she wanted to get me flowers because I was "pretty like a flower". It was so sweet that I wanted to cry! I always tell the kids that they don't have to give me anything but they always insist. It is nice to be appreciated. All of the kids wanted to hug me all day and one of the boys even told me I was going to be his Valentine.

I don't know how Mat will feel about me getting flowers and having little 6 year old Valentines. It will be welcomed from me though because Mat and I have decided not to do anything special this year. I guess when you become homeowners you have to give up the simple holidays. I figure that we love each other more everyday so we shouldn't have to do anything special on Valentine's Day.

Anyways, I hope tomorrow is as great as today!! Now I'm off to do graduate school work.

Nice Weekend

First let me say that I am so sorry for not updating better. I never thought that I would go this long without a good update. Things have been so busy and I just haven't had a spare second. Thankfully things are settling down a little now.


We had a wonderful trip to Lenoir for Aunt Lucy's wedding. Well, some of it was wonderful.


We left Friday evening but it seemed to take us forever to get there. We had a few "bumps" in the road but we finally arrived at 3:30am! We all went right to bed and all slept as long as we could before we had to get ready for the wedding.


On our way to the wedding, Mary's car started having trouble. However, we made it to the the wedding. Lucy and Don's wedding was beautiful. I never thought that I would love such a simple wedding but it was amazing. These two people have so much love for each other and it showed. They were smiling the whole time! Their reception was at a cute restaurant with a beautiful outdoor seating area. The food was wonderful!! I think I ate about 5 of these truffles that they had. Amazing!! Mat was happy with the meatballs. Yes, we love food!!


Saturday evening, we had to go to Advance Auto Parts and Charles tested the alternator in the car. Of course that was the problem but they weren't able to get the part until 9am on Sunday. So, Charles ordered the part and a wonderful guy at Advance offered to put it in for us on Sunday. Yay for the nice guy in Lenoir!!


After that, we all tried to relax a little and went and had a nice time at Lucy and Don's new house. It was great to be with people that we don't see very often. All of Mat's cousins live far apart now so it is hard to keep up with everyone. We are hoping to come up with a way that we can all get together and visit more often. We had a wonderful time Saturday night.


On Sunday morning, we packed up, went to have the alternator fixed (and enjoy the finer shopping of the Big Lots and Dollar General while we waited), and then said goodbyes to everyone. Our trip home was much better than the trip there. We enjoyed some wonderful fast food. I learned that I really need a Sonic and Jack in the Box closer to me.


We got back about 8pm and picked up Patsy from her weekend with Cubbie. Then, I got to come home and do a paper for grad school that was due by midnight. I got it finished with 30 minutes to spare!!

Then, today it was back to work. I was tired from all of the traveling but it was definitly worth it. We were all so glad to get to spend some time with family. We wish we could see everyone so much more but it makes it so much nicer when we do have these times together.

By the way, tomorrow afternoon I go back to the doctor and we'll discuss my MRI and possible surgery. I really hope that I don't have to have surgery but we'll see what the doctor says. I'll try to get on tomorrow evening and update everyone.

Until next time, enjoy these pictures from the weekend.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Busy

Just a very quick update since I haven't been on in almost a week.

I'm doing fine just very busy and it will be even busier this week. I have tons of graduate school work to do as well as school stuff to do. We're going out of town next weekend for Mat's Aunt's wedding (YIPPEE!!) so I'm trying to get ahead on my grad. school work. So much to do!!

I go on Wednesday to have my Abdominal MRI and after that I will have to meet with my doctor again to discuss whether or not I need the surgery. I'll let you all know how Wednesday goes and when/if I hear anything from the doctor.

Have a great week!! I'll try to get on and update more as I have time.

Let it Snow!

Right as I woke up this morning and started getting ready, it started snowing. Because it was a Teacher Workday, I knew that we wouldn't get "out" of school. However, about 11am, I did get to leave school early. Mat got to come home around 3:30pm. YIPPEE!!

Mat and I love snow but Patsy hates it. She doesn't want to go out and has decided that she just wants to look out at it all the time. She also loves barking at the little girl next door when she is out trying to make a snowman. I hope our neighbors don't hate us.

Tonight we are supposed to have sleet and freezing rain. I'm praying that we have a Snow Day tomorrow!!

Here are some pictures that I took today. Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Home and Resting

I am now home and resting for the rest of the evening.

My endoscopy went well. I was nervous but tried to relax before it all started. The hardest part of it all was getting the IV.

After it was over and I was awake, my doctor came to talk to me. Here is what she found:
*I have some inflammation in my stomach. This is gastritis. Nothing major or new here.
*They took some biopsies of different areas in my stomach.
*I may have "Sphincter of Oddi" dysfunction. She mentioned this the last time I saw her but I still can't remember what it all means. I found this on Wikipedia.
*To test for the Sphincter dysfunction, I will need to go have a specialized MRI (an MRCP).
*After that, I will go back to visit her and we'll discuss the results of the biopsies that were taken today and the results of the MRCP.
*If nothing shows up and/or if she still thinks it is the Sphincter, she will schedule a surgery. This is a specialized surgery that I will have to go to Georgetown University Hospital to have done. I can't remember the exact name of it and when I tried to Google it, that just gave me information that I didn't want to hear. So, I'm going to hope that the information I am reading is wrong or that I'm looking up the wrong thing. I'm going to try not to worry about it now.
*My gallbladder scan came back normal. Even the doctor was surprised by this!!

Well, no diagnosis yet but I think we're close. I am so thankful to have a doctor that is taking the time to figure out what is wrong. She knows that I'm frustrated. I know that she is trying hard and that some things take time.

I'm going to try to rest this evening like I'm supposed to. I have graduate school work that I really need to do so I hope I can wake up enough to get that done.

By the way, if nothing I have written makes sense, it is because I'm still a little sedated. I'll have the effects the next few hours. So please forgive me for errors or crazy writing.

Endoscopy Today

In a couple of hours I will go in for my Endoscopy. If you don't know what that is, look here. I have had this done before and had no trouble that I remember but I'm very nervous. I went to work today to stay busy and keep my mind off of it. I'm so hungry and thirsty!! I can't wait until it is over and I can eat again.

Keep me in your prayers this afternoon.

My Miracle

Happy Saturday!

Today, is my first post taking part in the Christian Women Online Internet Cafe. I found this site a couple of weeks ago and am in love! So, I thought that I would take part in the fun today. Here is the task today:

In as much detail as you would like to share, please tell me a “miracle” that has happened in your own life.

As soon as I saw this prompt, I knew what I had to write about. Mat and I joke all the time that we know God exists because no one else could plan how we met and fell in love. Here's the story. Warning: This is LONG!

The story first begins in May 1982 when Mat was born. His father was in the Army and at the time, they were staying with Mat's grandparents, Naomi and John. They just retired a few years earlier into a cute white house near a cemetery. It was on "Chance" Street (I'll change the names of the streets to protect the innocent) which was just around the block from "Winston" Street.

When I (Jess) was 6 years old, my grandmother passed away from lung cancer. To help my grandfather, my family moved in with him. We lived in a cute white house across from a cemetery (creepy!!). This house just happened to be on "Winston" Street.

Mat and his family were constantly visiting his grandparents on "Chance" Street and taking nice afternoon walks to a certain cemetery. Mat had the sweetness to replace all of the flowers that had blown down.

Jess and her family lived with her grandfather for a few years, moved away to a new house, and then moved back. Jess and her grandfather often walked around the cemetery and Jess even rode her bike through the trails there.

Many years later, Mat applied for the Citadel and Catawba College. He did not get into the Citadel but did get into Catawba. He started there in August 2000.

During Jess's Senior year in High School, she knew that she wanted to go to Appalachian State University because they had the best Teacher Education dept. in NC. However, for some reason, she decided to apply to Catawba College. This was a much smaller school with a little known Teacher Ed. dept. However, she was drawn here because it was so close to her home. In May, she decided to attend Catawba. She started in August 2001.

Mat had a hard year as a Freshman at Catawba. Academics weren't what he concentrated on. However, he met some wonderful friends. He and these friends decided to create a Rugby team.

One day, at a "Club Day" at Catawba, one of Jess's friends introduced her to some of the boys on the Rugby team. Jess actually never heard of Rugby so didn't seem interested.

Jess had a hard year as a Freshman at Catawba. Academics were her life. She also met a young man on the Rugby team that she thought she would be with forever. This was not the best relationship for Jess.

During this year, Mat saw a girl (hint- it was Jess) across the Student Center. She caught his eye however she never noticed. For some reason, Mat vividly remembers this moment.

For the 2002 (I don't know what # it was) Super Bowl, Mat and his friends had a Super Bowl party. Jess and her boyfriend attended this party. Now Mat and his friends were not wild and crazy college guys. The most action at that party was Mat trying to be all macho and cool and impress Jess. However, Jess was completely oblivious to this and had a boyfriend so she wouldn't really have cared anyway.

During the summer of 2002, Jess went to work for a hardware store in her hometown. One day, Mat and "some girl" came into the hardware store. Mat and his family were visiting his grandparents. Little did Jess know that "some girl" was Mat's sister. Jess was so surprised to see Mat and really wished she had more time to hang out with him. Yes, Jess was still with the other boy but that day, things started to change. Jess realized that she liked Mat a little. Of course, she would never admit it to anyone.

When college started again, Jess frequently saw Mat. Mat liked Jess but knew he couldn't be with her so he began trying to pursue dating her roommate, Lindsay. He came over a lot but Lindsay wasn't really interested. Jess thought Lindsay was CRAZY because Mat was the perfect guy. He was sweet, caring, and a wonderful Christian.

Things started to go downhill for Jess and her boyfriend so they decided to take a "break". The night of this decision, Mat called to check on Jess because she had been sick. Her roommate wasn't there so Mat asked Jess if she wanted to go get "a cup of Joe". Being that they were in a small town and this was late at night, there weren't many places open. They ended up going to Waffle House! They sat there and talked for hours. They discussed their families and their lives. They found several odd things in this conversation. 1)Jess's middle name is Naomi and Mat's grandmother's middle name was Naomi. 2)Jess grew up in small "Ltown" and Mat's grandparents lived in small "Ltown". Mat was also born in small "Ltown". 3)Jess's grandfather and Mat's grandmother lived right around the corner from each other.

Around 3am, Mat took Jess back to her dorm and they couldn't stop thinking about each other. A couple of days later, they took a walk and decided that they couldn't date because they were really good friends and they didn't want to ruin that. They would just stay friends.

This is where it gets even better!! On September 24th, Mat and his friend came over to Jess's dorm. Jess said that she had to study and Mat offered to help her. So, Mat's friend invited her back over to Mat's dorm so they could study. Jess could use all the help she could get so she went. However, at some point, Mat's friend disappeared and Mat and Jess were left alone (of course with other people coming in and out) in the "Lounge" of Mat's dorm suite. They studied (later to be discoverd as the wrong chapter) most of the night. At 1(something)am, on September 25th, Mat and Jess kissed. There were fireworks (no, not real ones)! They decided that they should start dating. This was the best decision that the two ever made!!

During their relationship, they became amazed at how everything worked out. They couldn't believe that they had lived so close to each other back in "Ltown" and never met. There were so many special things in their lives that just seemed too much to be coincidence. God must have been at work!!

We dated for 2 years and Mat asked me to marry him on August 27, 2004. We were married on July 16, 2005 at the chapel at Catawba College.

Looking back at our lives, we can see so many times that God was at work. We know that we were meant to be together because of the things that God did. We both had serious relationships before each other and were upset when those didn't work out. However, now we look back and are so thankful that they didn't. We never knew God's plan but are so glad that his plan involved us being together.

On our wedding day, we each picked a song to play for each other. He chose "Unanswered Prayers" by Garth Brooks and I chose "God Bless the Broken" by Rascal Flatts. If you look at the lyrics of these songs, they truly say how we felt about each other and how our lives turned out. It was like those songs were meant for us.

As a couple, we have had our ups and downs. However, when we look back at what has happened, we know that we are meant to be together. Mat's grandmother one day told me, "God works in mysterious ways". He truly does!! I thank Him everyday for the miracle that her performed for me and Mat to meet and fall in love.

Wow! That was a lot but I did warn you. I hope you enjoyed my miracle story. I hope that you can see the miracles in your life.