More things on my mind today

I am SO GRATEFUL that Caida is doing well!  Her surgery went well, and other than a complication with something in the prep work that left her with a bad rash for a few days, things couldn't have gone better.  Even better, on Friday they turned on her VNS and that night she had a horrible seizure--and Cerene swiped the magnet over the VNS and it sent those impulses to her nerve and it WORKED.  Seizure stopped.  That's the first good thing that has happened to that child in a LONG TIME, at least health-wise.  I AM SO GRATEFUL.  It is worth every other bad thing that has happened these last couple of weeks to know that our prayers and fasting were heard and answered so quickly and so favorably.

BOTH our Elders are getting transferred tomorrow.  Now that Paul is the ward mission leader, I've gotten to know them better (not ONLY did I actually learn their names, which I almost never do, but I know all kinds of things about their personalities and life-before-missions), and I'm actually going to miss them! 

I really wanted two cars this fall, but I guess one new-ish one isn't a bad consolation.  Can't wait 'til next month's paycheck so we can make that down payment and go car shopping!  This will be the third car we've owned together, although two were from family/friends for $1 and one was from craigslist for $1000, up front.  So this will be the first major, actual lot-bought car for us, with payments and all that.  Woohoo!

I REALLY want a teaching job.  I got 7 rejection emails in a row last week, and that was NO FUN.  I understand it, especially with all the layoffs a few years ago (they have to hire those people back first)...and that means there are still 6 jobs in TSC that I might get to interview for, not to mention all the other districts around town that I don't even care about as much.  :)  But still.  It doesn't do much for my self-confidence lately.

I'm trying to eat better, since it seems like it's the ONLY THING I can control lately for my health and weight management.  It's hard!  I still allow myself dessert on the weekends, which helps, because I tried not having chocolate and after six days I BINGED like crazy and it was not good.  So, moderation.  And more (quantity and variety) of fruits and veggies.  I even made up a table of fruits and veggies, organized by color, and laminated it so I could get more variety in my diet.  I like fruits and veggies a lot, actually.  I just also like meat and chocolate.  And bread.  And all of that together, with lots of cheese on top.  :)  So it's a learning process.  Thank goodness for Google and Pinterest!

I have had some bad back/hip pain for the last week and a half, and I AM SO DONE WITH IT!  I suffered for a week before I took any pain killers, and then this weekend I had lots to do so I took Excedrin (the only thing that works for me) twice a day.  It did WONDERS for the pain, and I briefly thought to myself, 'Why didn't I do this sooner?'  Then I felt better enough to not take it for the whole day yesterday and I remembered why.  I HATE COMING OFF painkillers!  Especially Excedrin, which has so much caffeine.  :(  I had a headache all day long, and I have a little caffeine hangover today, too.  Not to mention the small pains I feel now hurt so much more that they would if I'd allowed myself to just feel the pain in the first place.  You do what you have to do sometimes, but MAN ALIVE I cannot WAIT to have a perfected body someday!!!

I finally learned how to pick out a good watermelon and we had some yesterday.  It was DELICIOUS!  And I'm not even a melon fan.

I can't wait for our craft nights to begin.  SO EXCITED for this vision I've had for a craft club to finally be coming to fruition! 

I hate doing dishes almost as much as I hate doing laundry.  How do you make those things more fun? 

I'm getting a BIKE next week!  Woohoo!!!

I know you all have those moments like I do when you realize how quickly life is passing by.  One of our first primary girls, who had just turned 9 when we married into the ward and started teaching primary, turns 12 TODAY.  She's about to embark on the adventure that adolescence and young women's always is.  I can't help but feel a little old, and a little misty-eyed, when I think about how fast they grow up.  And, of course, it has me thinking back to when *I* was 12, and counting down the days 'til young womens myself, and all the travels and spiritual journeys I went through as a youth.  It was a difficult, glorious, broken, defining time, and it went TOO FAST! 

Where did all the spiders come from allasudden?  And what caterpillar or bug colony had the NERVE to eat through all my lettuce yesterday? I'm about to give up on this little patio garden this year.  Replanting three times is enough!

I should really get off blogger and go DO SOMETHING on my to-do list.  :)