Homeward Bound

I'm happy to report that my dad is going home from the hospital today; at least that was the news when I talked to my mom earlier today. I talked to my dad, too, and he sounded stronger and almost normal for the first time since he went into the hospital. He was there for 11 days and had surgery last Wednesday (I think... I lose track of time these days) so he's recovering from that now. The doctors decided he could recover just as well at home as in the hospital so that's great news all around.

In other news, I'm trying something new at the moment: Typing while lying flat on my back. I had a medical procedure this morning and while I'm not sick from it, I need to be on bed rest and be a couch potato (official terminology from the doctor) for a few days now. I have to eat meals in bed for a couple days so I asked hubby to get me a bed table for that; what he found is one that's designed for laptops. It has a stand that tilts the laptop so you can type. It even has extra USB ports on it so you can hook the computer into it along with other devices, I guess. It's very cool. It's a little awkward lying down and would probably work better if I was sitting up, but this way I figure I'm following the letter of the law and lying down like I'm supposed to be.

Typing lying down. Not quite as comfortable as it looks.

Of course no bed rest would be complete without a dog:

A special treat for doggie. She's not normally allowed on the bed.

Typing this way does make my arms tired—sounds like a good excuse to wrap this up and move to the couch to watch TV while I wait for hubby to make dinner. That's right, hubby has to make dinner while I'm horizontal. I hear we're having spaghetti.

Asking For Help

I don't know what it is about asking for help, but I'm not a big fan of it. For big things, that is; when it comes to little things I'm all for it. I'll ask my hubby to open a jar, get me a drink of water, carry something heavy—that sort of thing. But when it comes to the big things I keep quiet. I'll pray quietly to God but I don't like asking people for prayer. I'll tell one or two close friends and they always say they'll pray for me, but I rarely ask.

I'm not entirely sure why this is but I've got a few ideas. For one, I'm American, and Americans are indoctrinated from birth to be independent and not rely on others for help. Okay, that's probably part of it, but it's not entirely it. Another factor is I don't like to get hurt, and if I don't tell people things then they can't hurt me when they don't live up to my expectations. That's definitely a big part of it. Hubby says that may be my plan but it doesn't work and I still end up feeling hurt and disappointed sometimes; that may be true but that pattern is still pretty ingrained in me. Last but not least, I'm a pretty private person and I don't like having to explain things, and if I don't tell people then they don't ask. Particularly when it's something that could go wrong, then I don't have to explain things if there isn't a happy ending. Like my job search: I don't talk about it on this blog for a number of reasons, but I don't always talk about it with people in-person, either. I told some people when I had interviews, but if I didn't get the job I then had to go and tell all those folks who knew I was interviewing, which was a huge pain. (For the record, I've had several interviews where I was a finalist and someone else ended up getting the job. Yes, that's the way things go and no, knowing that doesn't make it any easier.)

So back to asking for help. This morning I told a friend at church that my dad is in the hospital. She knows how busy I am and asked if I'd like her to send a prayer request to the church email list if I didn't have time. Without a second thought I shook my head and said, "No." It isn't that I don't want people to pray, it's just that sharing thing again, I don't like to broadcast things. I didn't even tell a lot of people when I had surgery (which I've now had twice in the past two years—following in my dad's footsteps a little too closely, if you ask me) and I certainly didn't use the church email list to ask for prayer. That's just too open for me. On the other hand, hubby and I are part of a small group now where one of the goals is for people to get comfortable and learn to trust and support each other. That's the kind of forum I can accept, in time. (Assuming I can get enough homework done and manage my time so I can actually attend. That's the first step.)

In the spirit of branching out I'll say that hubby and I do have some things going on right now, things that actually make it impossible for us to go to California (where my parents live) this month, regardless of the circumstances. For now there's no reason that we'd need to go and it sounds like things are under control, but it's still an added stress that I really don't need in my life right now. On top of everything else hubby is out-of-town this weekend, though he'll be back tonight. Nothing like when it rains, it pours!

Flowers and Chocolate

Today is my birthday. I'm still recovering from my surgery last week (as I knew I would be on my birthday this year) but I'm getting closer to normal so at least I'm on the tail end of things. More importantly, I'm spending the day surrounded by flowers and chocolate, as is appropriate for birthdays. Hubby did well; guess I'll keep him for another year. :-)

The birthday spread.

Flowers from my parents. A combination happy birthday/get well soon thing.

Flowers from hubby. Roses always work.

Chocolate ice cream cake, chocolate covered blueberries, lemon drops, and creme soda—yum.

O Christmas Tree

Last night hubby and I finally got our Christmas tree. Our dog was very interested and wanted to help hubby put it up.

Finally, he got it up (without the dog's help).

The next step will be to actually decorate it... Maybe tonight.

While we were out I also got a small Poinsettia; it was the last one and looked kind of sickly.

I asked if they would give me a discount since it was looking kind of scraggly and they did, then it turned out it was already on sale (since it was the last one, probably), so I ended up getting it for about a quarter of the original price. Definitely worth it. I re-potted it and I'm going to see if I can bring it back to life. I seem to have a special place in my heart for sickly looking plants as this isn't the first time I've gotten a discount on one and brought it home. It's kind of ironic since I've managed to kill some very healthy plants in my time, including cacti and Sago Palms, which make very nice house plants and are theoretically nearly impossible to kill. (Several died in my house in California.) So we'll see how it goes with the Poinsettia. If it ends up doing well I'll try to remember to post another picture in a few weeks of my success.

Tradition

My Thanksgiving tradition

When I was around 7-years-old my mother asked me what I wanted for Thanksgiving dinner. Without batting an eye I said, "Chocolate cream pie." She said, "That's not a Thanksgiving dish!" I told her she'd asked and that's what I wanted. We've had chocolate cream pie at Thanksgiving every year since then and it's always a favorite. Now I make the pie myself. I've even introduced my in-laws to it; I don't think they've embraced it as a new tradition yet but it was definitely a hit, including the all-important associated tradition of having leftover pie for breakfast the next morning.

What's your favorite Thanksgiving tradition?

Happy Birthday, Hubby!

Today is my husband's birthday. Happy Birthday, hubby!

I promised I'd make him a pecan pie for his birthday. Ta da...

Birthday

Today is my birthday.

Nope, I'm not going to say how old I am, not because I'm particularly vain about it but because I'd like potential employers to look at this blog someday and that isn't information I want to hand them on a platter; they can interview me and judge my age for themselves. I'm not saying I'm over-the-hill or anything like that (though my dad did tell me this morning that the hill keeps moving thanks to advancements in medicine), I've just read too many articles in the paper lately about age being a factor in hiring decisions. So I'm leaving my age out of this blog. Suffice it to say I'm somewhere between being old enough to vote and I'm not on Medicare yet. (Though while we were in CA my husband somehow got on AARP mailing lists and that seems to have followed us here. We still periodically get ads in the mail for hearing aids and retirement homes. Maybe we should take them up on it—some of those retirement homes look pretty nice!)

So far it's been a pretty nice day. A few phone calls, e-mails (including a link to geritol from a friend at church—thanks, Jordan), cards in the mail, and flowers and a cake from my hubby:

My hubby the pyromaniac. The fire extinguisher was a nice touch. He put this together while I was out getting dog food choices for our picky pooch.

He got a chocolate-lovers cheesecake. Mmmmm, chocolate—is there any other flavor?

The obligatory flowers. He's been trained well. :-)

Since my husband works today and won't be home for dinner we'll be celebrating the rest of my birthday with a special dinner out next week. For now I'm planning on spending the rest of the day doing homework for my class (I know, not fun, but it's now or have a stressful Monday when it's due), but before I do I thought since it's my birthday and the beginning of a new year (or era, depending on your perspective) I'd take some time out and list 10 things I'm thankful for as I begin the next year. So here it goes:

1. I'm thankful for a God who loves me and gave His Son to die for me. That is without a doubt the greatest gift (birthday or otherwise) that I could ever receive.


2. I'm thankful for a loving husband who loves God and me and wants the best for me. (He told me yesterday that he's thankful for me, and I hadn't even told him about my intentions to make this list yet.)


3. Since it just started pouring rain outside I'll go ahead and say it: I'm thankful for the rain. Otherwise I have to water things by hand with the hose and I'm lazy and don't do it enough. I'm really thankful when Mother Nature does it for me.


4. I'm thankful for the opportunity I've had to go back to school to get my master's in a field I enjoy. At this time next year I hope to be thankful for the great job my degree helped me get.


5. I'm thankful for my parents who are helping us while I'm in school. Life would definitely be more difficult and stressful without their help.


6. I'm thankful for having married into a wonderful Christian family and being able to spend holidays with them now that we're on the east coast. Admittedly I'm still getting used to having big-family holidays but I'm thankful to be a part of them.


7. I'm thankful that I still have few enough gray hairs that I can still pull them out.


8. I'm thankful that I still have plenty of hair so you can't notice when I pull a few gray hairs out.


9. Having recently had surgery I'm thankful for my health.


10. I'm thankful for another year, another decade, another quarter-century, and whatever God chooses to give me on this earth.

Here's to a great next year.