Danger, Will Robinson! Too Many Blogs!

I have spent my day transferring all of my old blogs from Myspace onto this blog. And I realised that I miss all of the people who read my Myspace blog and sent me comments. I'm not quite sure why it is harder to get people to read it here... perhaps the lack of reminder makes a difference. So, I have been thinking about a solution. Since it is harder for people to get to this family blog, I am going to start cross-posting my family blog to Myspace, and vice versa. Whatever is commented on Myspace I will transfer (don't worry... with no links back) to the comments of my family blog. I won't transfer any family blog comments to Myspace, though. I desperately miss everyone, but it is just too much for me to continue to have two separate blogs that I keep up with, as my lack of posting on Myspace shows. Maybe if they are one in the same, it will help. So as not to overwhelm anyone, I won't transfer the entire year's worth of blogs from the family blog onto Myspace. Just a few that I think are good. Plus the most current. Then I'll just cross-post, occasionally. So if anyone wants to read everything, there are going to have to go to come here. This family blog is the definitive spot for all of Amy's blogging from now on. On the same note, all of my old Myspace blogs have been moved over here, along with some of my LiveJournal Blogs. That explains why there are suddenly so many posts. I miss all you people so much. I want to touch base with all of you. Soon. So let's keep in touch, shall we?

Lovely Goodness... or Not.

So much to tell you all... and since I am stuck home in bed I have plenty of time to do it.

Why am I stuck home in bed, you ask? Well... that is part of the story. I wrote in the last post that I had been sick a while back. Well, I kinda lied to you all. I made it sound like I had gotten over it... but I never really did. I didn't want anyone to worry, and I figured it was just a persistent virus or something, so it wasn't a big deal. But I kept coughing and coughing, and coughing fits were actually slightly disgusting with snot flying everywhere and hacking up great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts. Breathing was difficult, liquid, and painful; and it felt like someone had wrapped a steel band around my chest. I was still pretty insistent that it was a virus, but I just couldn't shake it.

Then Ashley the Lovely ended up with a seriously infected ingrown toenail. Now honestly, you wouldn't think that much of a big deal, but it is. It is when you live a sedentary life as a couch potato, or a normal life as an active parent (As Kim did, once upon a time;) but it is a really huge deal when you rely on your feet as much as we do. And Ashley's feet are her mode of transportation, so when she couldn't walk on them without extreme pain... time to go to the doctor.

That in addition to the fact that I was down to my last scopolomine patch with much flying coming up this summer, and my job was being pretty insistent about my needing to have an epi-pen, since there are bees in these here parts... I decided that I would have my cough looked at too.

The doctor, a Doctor Barton, was the stereotypical older Englishman that you envision. He has a cane. He has white hair. He wears a bow tie. He has the accent that we Americans define as the epitome of English accents. And he took one listen to my chest. Then listened again. And again.

"You have pleurisy," says he.

Pleurisy is the inflammation of the lining of the lungs, and has a tendency to go hand and hand with pneumonia. Which is what he is worried about. The lower right lobe of my lungs is the most tender and goopey, and when I cough and Stephen pounds there, it helps because the cough becomes more productive. It was this lower right lobe that he said was where all these fun things were happening.

So, I have super strong anti-biotics. I am on day 5 of them now. The cough is slightly better, but is by no means gone. It doesn't hurt as much to breathe, and I don't feel like I am breathing through water. I will be having an X-ray this week, and then possibly another one the week after. That will either confirm or deny pneumonia, and may change what we are doing to treat this. I am desperately hoping it is NOT pneumonia. I am also desperately missing the dry windy hot places that this desert rat thrives in. I blame this lung thing on the weather and infernal cold of England.

Ashley is also on anti-biotics for her toe. It is doing much better. Dr. Barton did nothing for the ingrown bit of it because the infection was too bad, but that just means that we get to go back together next Wednesday. Me to be checked again and her to have the ingrown part taken care of.

In the process of all this, I now have 2 Epi-pens (one for work and one for home.. and watching Stephen read the directions and play with the Epi-pens was quite entertaining. At least now he can save me if I get stung) and 10 additional scopolomine patches. I also have acidophilus, and a yeast infection thanks to the anti-biotics. I love being sick. (ha!)

A funny side story that might just make up for being miserable: The anti-biotics that I am taking smell quite nice, as they are coated with some sort of stuff to make them easier to swallow. Stephen is attracted to nice-smelling things. He just can't stay away from them. He opens the medicine jar and sniffs them. Often. And asks if he can please just lick them before I take them as they must taste lovely too. Soooo...

I let him. Ashley watched and burst into laughter. He looked at me, then did. Slowly, with anticipation, he licked my anti-biotic before I took it....

... and was disappointed. He says they smell much better than they taste. So now he just opens the bottle and smells them. It makes me laugh every time... which turns into a coughing fit. Every time.

On the not-sick front, Stephen has sent in an application for a new job today. It is a learning technology job at a University in London. It is a significant (possibly 5 digit) pay raise for him. If he gets it, it means that until I graduate he will be commuting to London... but our potential plan is to move somewhere between here and there, so that his commute is shorter and balanced by the equal one I will have to make. Since the school that I think I would like to teach at is in London, that would make the transition after I graduate an easier one to make. No one will be settling for a job so the other can do what they want. We will keep you all informed of the result of the application. But, to be honest, Stephen is awesome enough that I can't imagine they won't want him. And I am not biased in the least.

It dawned on me that it is less than a year before I graduate with my Bachelor's degree.

Spring is here and though it is still cold to me, it is much warmer than it was. The rain is nice, though not as constant as I was led to believe. Ashley tells me that it is SO HOT, though I take a sweater everywhere I go because I get cold. She hasn't adapted...not at all. ;) My favourite part of the spring is the babies. Baby ducks and baby moorhens are everywhere. My favourite, of course, are the baby moorhens. Their parents stay together to raise them, and moorhen parents take the cake for trying hard... though they are really dumb about it. Most moorhen babies are lost, sometimes before they even hatch, because the parents were not quite as thoughtful as they could have been when placing nests. But they make up for it in hard work when the babies are actually born.


Moorhen babies are little black balls of fluff. On the river by the house, there is a family of moorhens with small ones. It is nice to watch them grow. They are very cute, and since they are not as good at swimming as ducks, they holler after mama and daddy to slow down and wait for them. And they eat all the time. I feel slightly sorry for the parents. I don't think they have had time to rest since the babies came.

Though resting is something I am now getting back to.

The Long Silence... an Explanation.

Yo ho ho friends and family. It has obviously been quite awhile since I have last spoken to you all. Last you heard I had many papers left to go. As of right now, I have one left for the year.

So, the quick update and explanation of my distance. Lots of papers to write, and a new job to boot. I am working at a 'nursery' (aka daycare) here. It is a daily experience. There are many things that I would change, but it is a lesson instead in keeping my opinions to myself. It makes me often miss Christi. I daydream about an early childhood center with her...

Anyway, on top of that, I have been really really sick. I am still not entirely over it. It started with the flu (or so I'm told) and happily moved into my chest and made a home there. I still hack and cough things up, and I still feel like there is a tight band around my chest. I make it through the night without coughing, which is an improvement. For a while, I thought I was fighting off pneumonia.



And while all of this has been going on, Kelley came for a visit. We had grand plans to post blogs while she was here; you can see how well that worked out. I am hoping that she still will help me post at least 1 blog. Until then, enjoy the few pics.


I don't want to post too many on the off chance that she will still post a blog with me here about her trip. She and Stephen spent most of their time together, as I still had school and I still had to work while she was here. (Insert sappy face sucking here...)


She and Stephen spent lots of time exploring London: she now has seen more of it than I have. Lucky for me she took lots of pictures, so I could see things too. She saw awesome changing of the guard stuff... I hope she tells all of you about it.

Mother's Day came and went, and it was a hard day for me. I feel it on a daily basis not being closer to Tristan. It doesn't get any easier the longer it has been. It just aches in my chest all the time. (And no, it ISN'T the cough!) I'm sure some of you will say that I brought it on myself. I'm not looking for sympathy, just commenting on the falsity of the 'it gets better with time' statement.

Related to this, it is definite that I am coming home for a visit this summer. My plane flies into El Paso at 10:45 pm on the 17th of July, and I leave to come back at 10:45 on the morning of the 7th. I'm grateful for the chance to spend time with Boo. And I will spend my entire 34th birthday on a plane. I won't even get home until the day after my birthday. Lucky Stephen... he can forget the day and it won't be a big deal at all.

While I am in the States, Tristan and I will be staying at Mom Holen's house. The plan is to go crazy with seeing everyone. I am not going anywhere or doing anything that doesn't involve spending time with the people I love. And Tristan's 7th birthday. I'll have my old cell phone number while I am there, at least until the beginning of August. I would love to see everyone. I am really looking forward to seeing people. But most of all, I can't wait to hug my little boy (who is not so little and graduated from 1st grade yesterday.)

Hope this fills everyone in on what is going on in my world. I hope to get back into the swing of posting, especially as there is so much I could be telling to you. One more paper to go, and then it is just the day to day things. Hopefully there will be a post from Kelley soon, and I intend to force Ashley onto the computer to fill you all in on what is going on in her world too. She has been a busy little beaver lately too.

kisses, and missing every one of you...

Captain Bubbles. Topic: Birthday on Mars

April sixth, 2008: First mission, wake up. It is a difficult task, but the Captain can handle it. Oops, she fell back asleep.... OH NO! The base has been infiltrated by aliens! They're approaching the bed, AND THE CAPTAIN IS STILL ASLEEP!!!! They've climbed aboard the bed, it looks like a tag-team attack, and... whats this? They're CUDDLING THE CAPTAIN! She's not going to be sleeping on the job anymore, I can tell you that much! Alien M has decided the situation looks Under control for Alien S, She goes off to cook, oh watzitcalled... Ah yes! Breakfast! Some strange alien custom that is quite wierd but very appealing. Captain Bubbles thinks she might get a few more minutes of shut-eye, but guess what??!! It's snowing!!!! Snowing? It's never snowed on the Captain's birthday, she really is on an Alien planet! [Dum dum DUM]






Strange ways in the Alien Homebase. Breakfast included Quail Eggs... They tasted fine, the Captain didn't detect any poison.... So far, so good. No assasination attempts, and a hot yummy breakfast in the tummy. The aliens brought over recruites... The Alien Crew is what I'll call them. They were watching the Captain.... she could feel it. They did bring peace offerings though, Books, the Captains' soft spot. Even Alien M and Alien S gave Captain Bubbles this strange offering... she soon found out it was because she was getting OLD! Well, Older.

Bubbles sat with the Aliens for a communal dinner, they were quite nice to have around. They had Spaghetti, With Asparagus! 'They must be buttering me up for something', she thought. 'How could they know my favorite dish?? Oh ya, I told them. Now it's time for Cake?' It was a marvelous cake, with Ducks and Frogs and Trees and a giant river, there were flowers and little penguin decorations for the Captain to eat. Yay for the Captain, she should do this getting older stuff more often. It pays well! It was a magic cake, after eating it, everyones mouths turned GREEN! and Blue, and it was so strange! Thankfully nothing was toxic, the Captian checked. The books were addicting, it's only two days later and Captain Bubbles has finished two of them!





















Overall the Captain was pleased, besides being older, she's still alive, in good health (maybe a little fat from all the food there was) and has come to the conclusion that maybe she should have birthdays with Aliens more often!



















Alien S.



















Alien M.


Captain Bubbles!