World's Greatest McDonald's Ad

This is too funny!

Going to CROP

While everyone in Louisiana is all abuzz with Hurricane Gustav and/or LSU football, I am thrilled by neither. I'm sure if the game ends up being televised we will have it on in the background. WD is planning a gathering for guys from his work... I'm surprised they still want to come with the traffic being as horrific around here at it has been (well we shall see just how many still show up). In any event, I'm going to scrapbook tonight. I'm sure we'll talk about the coming hurricane and LSU sports, but I can handle it while scrapbooking ;-)

Here's a fun website a friend shared with me (I've always wanted to live in the 1950's):
Yearbook Yourself

School Starts Again

I'm gearing up for another semester of school. I love school, but I'm actually worn out lately. I think my summer classes nearly killed me (although I proudly earned two A's), so hopefully this semester will be more enjoyable.
I got Erin & Dylan back into school... I can't believe she's in 7th grade and he's in 4th! I have to brag on Erin... she just brought home a note that asked for a parent to be at the school Thursday to stand in with her for a picture for the newspaper. She is some sort of school representative for the PBS program. No, it's not our old Parkview Baptist School acronym, but I believe it stands for Positive Behavior Support. It's a motivational behavior plan that seems to be very effective. The kids earn "bucks" when they are caught doing something good. These bucks are used to buy fun and unusual rewards. I wish I had used this type of behavior management program when I was in the classroom!

Another Great Song

Since WD got my satellite radio set up in my car, I have enjoyed getting the names of songs and artists when I particularly like a song. This one came across the other day... I had not heard of the artist (33 Miles) nor the song (One Life to Love), but it was moving:

Medical Update & a Little Humor, Too

So sorry it's been a while since I've posted... many of my great friends and family have been emailing or calling me for a medical update. Not much has changed, but I'm alive and kicking ;-)

We went to cardiologist's office to spend over 4 hours while they ran various tests. Did the TTT and fainted about 20 minutes into it. My blood pressure plummeted, so they laid me down and got my vitals stable. Then they put me on a treadmill (topless I might add... I know that's a hilarious vision in your mind... my massive "girls" bouncing around the multi-wire leash they had me hooked up to while I briskly walked on the treadmill. Talk about self-conscious!). Anyway, they did an ultrasound on my heart and found nothing wrong with it. Surprise, surprise... the cardiologist doesn't know anything either. He suspects some medicines that the other doctors had me on may be the culprit of my bizarre symptoms. He ordered me off the medications and onto a handful of vitamins and daily exercise. I'm walking everyday around the top 3 floors of my office building, but I don't last too long until I get the lightheadedness/faint feeling. I'm still going to do it.... my philosophy is if simply walking causes my symptoms then I am going to walk until the symptoms are severe enough to incapacitate me. Thanks for all the prayers, calls, & emails. I'll try to post more often... and hopefully about a brighter subject than my health! Here's a funny picture for you... I cracked up laughing (I can hear WD now, "It doesn't take much does it?"):

Tilt Table Test Tomorrow

I have an appointment with the cardiologist's office tomorrow, where they are going to perform a TTT... that's short for Tilt Table Test. I decided to "google" it to see what I was in for... hmmm it's going to be interesting to say the least. I am very frustrated with the doctors guessing what's going on with me. Here's a brief recap (as brief as possible considering this has been going on for months now): I went to the doctor with lightheadedness/dizziness and a pressure between my ears. I could prevent fainting by taking slow deep breaths and by sitting/laying down. The internist referred me to an ENT, who said nothing was wrong with my ears (although she sent me for inner ear tests which came back clear) and ordered an MRI. When the MRI came back with a few "white spots", she suspected MS and sent me to a neurologist. The neurologist reviewed the MRI and said, no it's not MS. He did a few autoimmune tests and sent me to a Rhumatologist (because of a positive ANA test). The Rhumatologist did more tests and ruled out autoimmune disorders. She sent me back to the neurologist who did a spinal tap (which sent me to out-patient surgery for a blood patch). He further confirmed no MS (no meningitis, no West Nile, no Lupus) with the spinal fluid tests, but couldn't find anything else either. While in his office, his nurse checked my blood pressure and found it different when I was laying from when I was seated. Now he's sending me to the cardiologist for this tilt table test. I think that some of the most frustrating things are: never feeling "well", exhaustion (although the doctor found Vit B-12 deficiency so I'm on tablets to help with that), fear of fainting in public, waiting between tests for results, and second guessing if stress or hypochondria is getting to me. I'm only 34 years old... I don't have time to be "sick". I'll keep everyone posted on results.

Really Cool Programming

A techie friend of mine sent me this link. Amazing what people have time to make up! (I'm just jealous b/c I can't do it ;-)

Animator Vs. Animation

Satellite Radio

WD surprised me the other day by ordering a satellite radio for my car. He has one in his truck, which I think is neat, but really didn't want to spend the money on one for my car because I listen to so much local radio. The other day, he called XM to get his account set up for this year, and they offered him a special on a radio and service for me... something like $9.99 for the radio. He installed it yesterday, so I was able to listen to commercial-free tunes all the way to work this morning!

Very Unique Ministry

Someone sent me a link via email the other day... you know you get tons of emails that are boring, and at the most "so-so". When I opened this one, I was mesmerized. I'm definitely a lover of music so this spoke to me through one of my favorite songs, "Who Am I?" by Casting Crowns. It's long, but at least check out a little bit of it (you can get the jest within the first couple of minutes)...

Ichiban & Mamma Mia

I've had a wonderful last couple of days. WD took me, Erin, & Dylan to Ichiban's Japanese Grill Thursday night. I was not looking forward to it because I don't like sushi, but I knew the kids would enjoy the entertaining grill scene. Well I ended up loving the food and the atmosphere! With the exception of the final bill, it was absolutely perfect. If you want to go, make sure to have money to burn.

Friday night, WD & Dylan had a cub scout den meeting at the house. Erin had been worried to death about getting her school clothes, so she and I went to shop. We planned to shop just a little, eat Chick-fil-A, then see Mamma Mia (I had a couple of free tickets). We ended up shopping a lot, eating Chick-fil-A, and seeing Mamma Mia at 10:05. It was actually a great movie... I wasn't looking forward to it, but then the music was wonderful (I had no idea the music was going to be from ABBA, which I love!) and Glenn Close was hilarious. Definitely a chick-flick which made the Erin-Mom night a lot of fun!