the princess and the pea

I'd like to tell a little story...

Princess Jana was the most beautiful woman in all of Memphis. She had one small problem, however, and it was the size of a pea. On occassion a sharp pain would pierce her fragile frame making it impossible to sleep. After several greuling attacks her misfortune was diagnosed, and she went to see the magical doctor on top of the hill. "You have been sleeping with a pea," he declared, "actually, you have been sleeping with several of them, and they must be removed or you shall never sleep soundly again!"

The princess was hesitant to remove her peas. She wanted to be known as a princess afterall, and we all know that the true test of being a princess is whether or not those peas keep you up at night. Well, after many hours doubled over in pain, and with her handsome knight by her side, she went again to the magical doctor. After some sorcery, a little skill, and plenty of much-needed pain medication, Princess Jana was cured and slept soundly again.

Ok, that was a sad attempt at a story. Oh well, I tried. I'm feeling pretty good (just very very sore) and was excited to eat a piece of cake today without worrying about having an attack! The surgeon did let me take one of my gallstones home, and it is about the size of a pea. I don't know how many he removed. I couldn't see my gall bladder, unfortunately, because it is considered a biohazard. I was quite disappointed. Jason has been treating me like royalty, though, and I am so thankful to all of those who have called or have brought us dinner. Thank you, thank you!

Let the countdown begin

Over Thanksgiving I was diagnosed with gallstones. Yippee. These last (wow!) three months I have been eating a very very very low-fat diet to avoid more gallstone attacks. Attacks are the worst pain I've ever had, worse than labor, and mine last anywhere from 5 to 7 hours. Nothing helps the pain, over the counter medicine is a joke, and sleeping pills don't do a thing. I've had four attacks in all and NEVER EVER EVER want to experience that again.

In one week I am having my gall bladder removed. Gallstones do not "pass" like kidney stones. They just sit up there, accumulating and rolling around like little marbles, waiting for you to eat too much fat. When you are foolish they become inflamed and block the duct from your gall bladder to your digestive system. This is what causes the ridiculous pain. Thus, the need to just take the whole darn thing out. While it's normally outpatient surgery, I'm still a teeny bit scared. There is a slight chance they might have to cut open my entire belly and then I'll have to be in the hospital for a week. It would be like giving birth to my gall bladder via C-section. Ick.

So, in six more days I will be short one organ. Fortunately my liver can make up for the absence of the gall bladder, produce the extra bile, and I will then be able to eat hamburgers cooked on our new lovely grill, chocolate, and CHEESE (glorious cheese!) once again. I can't wait.

A Hair Valentine

First, a picture of Addie with big lips for Valentine's Day.

We had a great Valentine's Day this year. Jason asked if he could buy me a grill for Valentine's Day. It wasn't a hard sell as we'll use it plenty, and you basically NEED a grill to live in the South. We had some friends over last night and I had the most delicious salmon cooked on our new grill, while they had steak. So, here is a picture of my gift:

Next, on Valentine's Day Jason had to stay late at school because he was the driver of the carpool. He (with the help of his friends at school) wrote me a telegram. He then sent his friend Adam to pick up some flowers for me, deliver them, and read the telegram at my door. Here it is, in its entirety:

Oh Jana, how your eyes doth softly glow

When we're movoing in the flow

Whether dusk or dawn I love you so

With you - anywhere I would go.

This day I have missed you like the sun misses the flower

I count down the time to see you, hour by hour

Happy V.D.!

Now, isn't that sweet? And what's sweeter is that his friend read that to me, busting up laughing. It truly was hilarious. Ah, a Valentine's Day to remember!

So many blogs

Sometimes I am overwhelmed by the amount of friends' blogs there are to read. I have to limit myself to only 3 or 4 per day, because I could spend hours going through them all. I love knowing what's going on in my friends' lives, though, don't get me wrong, but the sheer quantity of them is staggering. Does anyone else ever feel that way?

Cold Sassy Tree is an A+

I just finished reading Cold Sassy Tree, by Olive Ann Burns. I wanted y'all to know that it is WONDERFUL. It is full of humor, emotion, great stories, and believeable (as well as interesting and loveable) characters. I read it several years ago, but reread it to make sure it was something I could recommend for the church bookclub. I forgot nearly everything, but was glad because it let me experience it all over again. This is one of those books I could read over and over again and enjoy every time.

The book is about the coming-of-age of the 14 year old narrator, Will Tweedy, and is set in the South when automobiles are new, and it's a priviledge to have a bathroom inside your home. I fell in love with Will Tweedy's sassiness, as well as his innocence. The Southern twang is all throughout the book, as well, something with I enjoyed even more now that I live in Memphis. The story will make you laugh outloud and cheer and cry. It has it all. I highly recommend this book, I have to have it for my own shelf!

Brooks Museum and first word

My friend Shauna, her two cute little girls, Addie and I all packed up and went to the Brooks Museum this morning. Neither of us has seen much of Memphis' sites, so we thought this would be a fun thing to do. The museum is "pay what you can" on Wednesday, so we were actually able to afford it!

I love museums, I love to read all the plaques about what things are. However, while I love to look at the paintings, sculptures, and photographs, there is much that I don't undertand or appreciate. In the pop-culture portion of the museum there was a huge white canvas with a thin rectangle painted gray and two keyboards hanging up beside it. What the heck was that for? It didn't make any sense to me. There was also a pretty cool painting in black and white of a woman that was titled "Woman in the Green Blouse." Good thing it told us she was in green! There was a sculpture made completely out of shredded tires, which I thought was original and pretty neat. There is also a small exhibit going on right now about Martin Luther King Jr., which I enjoyed. At least the plaques were interesting. Overall, I liked it. It's a small museum so it didn't take long to go through the whole thing, and while there wasn't anything for the kids to do, it was fun to do something different. Here is a picture of them in front of an extremely strange display that didn't make any sense to us.

Also, Addie said her first word the other day. I doubt it was on purpose, but we were lucky to get it on film. You can also hear how excited Jason is about it! It was cute. Sorry it's sideways, it takes FOREVER to upload on to the post and I didn't want to do it again.

The Candidate Match Game

Last night I went online to do a little research on our presidential candidates. Admittedly, I am far from deciding who to vote for. I found an interesting resource on the USA Today site called The Candidate Match Game. I answered the 11 questions, and was surprised when my results showed that my matches were in this order: 1) Hillary Clinton 2) Barack Obama 3) Mitt Romney. The game lists them according to how you answer the questions and will visually show you how much of a match the particular candidates are to you. These three were all pretty close. Hmmm...more to ponder.

I actually liked the game, though it left off several key issues such as abortion and the fact that we're on the edge of a recession. Each question only has 4 or 5 answers as well so you have to hope your opinion fits into one of those predefined options. Other than that, I found it helpful. It shows you what each candidate has said about each of the issues included in the game, and how you rank. It's worth a look! Click here to to play.