surgery part 343131.42

so yeah, all the hormones are good!  hooray!  and all that other stuff, hooray!
we went to the big 5-0 party and it was fun.  we got all dressed up and eric looked super cute in his new vest that i got him! earlier in the day though, i ran in the mustache dache.  i wasn't sure how i was going to race this, i was sorta like, well, i kinda want to take it easy but then i also kinda want to push it, but if i get too tired maybe i will just slow it down.  whatever.  so i woke up late, did none of my normal pre-race things, met up with the girls and headed on out to the race.  i did a short warm up with janet and then the race started.  i think this was the very first race i have ever negative splitted.  i started out pretty mellow then as things spread out i picked it up.  and you know what - i had a PBS-PR! 
by over a minute i think.  still a little over a minute slower than my Pre-BS-PR but man, i will take it!!

it was a very fun event, i'd like to do it again next year!
i went to ohio!  oh my!  can you beleive it!  its been 8 years since we went back!  but it was the 20 year reunion and i really wanted to go.  so the kids went to las vegas with my mom to visit my brother and eric's sister, and then he and i went to ohio!  we flew on thanksgiving day and travel was fine.  we had a layover in chicago, but it was quick.  as soon as we got off the plane we boogied our way to the closest Quaker Steak and Lube!  Oh the magic of it all! we have been talking about the wings for years!  i've ordered the sauces for eric for xmas a few times, but its not the same.  not even close!

the visit to Quaker Steak and Lube was not only delicious, but it was the start of the Ohio Eating Tour.

so we chowed down on a ton of those wings for our Thanksgiving dinner and then headed on over to OHIO.

 in the morning, we headed out to do a few things, one being - visit the Mocha House!  I worked here as a barista the summer after my freshman year of college, that was 1993 folks.  19 years ago.  holy crap.  the place is pretty much exactly how it was back then.

 the pastries and desserts looked just as amazing, only this time they had buckeyes!  so we got some of those!

 and i had a tasty, just the right temp mocha!  they make their mochas a special way, so one must always try one at the Mocha House!  I told the cashier how I worked there so long ago, and she told the owner's daughter, heck, she might be the owner now, i don't know.  but she came over to our table and we reminisced about the good old days.  that was a really fun job.  i am pretty sure i always enjoyed going, i don't think i ever called off, and even though i worked most evenings, especially weekends, it was a great time. 

 after, we headed over to oakwood cemetery to visit my dad.  this cemetery is a really cool place.  so much history.   when we were trying to figure out a place for dad to be, they talked about these other random places, but i remembered going to oakwood when we were little.  my mom would plant flowers on some of the relatives graves and us kids would run to the water pumps and get water.  it was a happy place at that time, as a little kid i didn't have any real connection to it, but to me it seemed like the only logical place for dad to be.  so he is there now.  there are so many very old graves, with dates from the early 1800s, and some historical folks, too.  civil war people, old school baseball players, congressmen and judges.  many of the graves have been effected by the weather over the years and you can hardly tell what they say.  its a very cool place and i am happy that dad gets his place in all of that history.

we had planned to go swimming, but the pool at the hotel was closed!  they shut it down!  totally down!  decommissioned it!  so sad, we swam at that pool every time we came back to visit in the olden days, and we used to swim there as kids.  so we decided to run around the golf course.   because we are who we are, we spent the whole time talking about how they should do a race out there on the course on those golf cart trails.  it was a fun short run!
 later that night, the eating tour continued.  we went to Alberinis for dinner with Jen and Beki.  we did the same thing before our 10 year.  i remember going to Alberinis twice when i lived there. ok, 3 times.  once was when i went before prom when i was a sophomore and i went with a senior!  i wore a white dress, since i was so virginal and all, and i was all proud of myself for remembering to order an entree with not dark colors then ruined it by getting french dressing on my salad.  luckily i didn't spill!  the 2nd time was with that same senior, we went and had bananas foster for desert!  the 3rd time was when a bunch of us got all dressed up and went for the heck of it.  good times.  but their pepperoni bread is da'bomb!!!  holy crap, it was so good!!  and eric had the peppers.  i don't do peppers but apparently they were really good.

we had strawberries beki!  its all about the fire!

in the morning, we headed out super early towards akron, i guess actually to cuyahoga falls, for a trail running race.  it was cold as balls and snowing.  burr. 

 but we stopped at the dunkin donuts by kent state university trumbull campus so i could get some coffee and some donuts!!

 the race was fun although it was freezing!!  we did a warm up, and tried to stay warm.  we weren't too sure what the course was going to be like.  eric was going to run with me, but then after like not even 2 minutes into it he asked if he could go ahead.  i had told him all along that he could, so he took off.  i saw him make his way through the other runners until he was out of sight.  the course itself wasn't technical - mostly mowed grass field and pavement, but it was fun to be out there running.  i felt good.  i was pushing myself but not all balls to the wall, as some might say.  eric wound up 4th overall and 1st in his age group of 0-39, and i wound up something or another over all and 3rd in my 0-39 age group.  we won t-shirts and socks and water bottles and a hat.  that was a nice treat!  i am so glad we did the race.

 after i showed my dismay over the cold!  burr, it went right to the bone!!

 only 31 but felt like 21!  it sure did feel like 21!  I made the mistake of fashion over function with my coat choice for the trip - i did not take my puffy with me1  boy i wish i had!  at least i looked good, but hot damn, it was cold!!

 eric dropped me off to get some manicures done with lisa and cary in preparation for the reunion.  i randomly picked out the same color i had picked out when the three of us had manicures in atlanta several years before - Suzi Skiis the Pyrenees. its almost black in color.  i like it.  i normally get almost black whenever i get a manicure.  we called up eric to see where he was  at taco bell.

not the taco bell that turned into the car loan place but a different one.  so we went for coffee.  then as we were leaving coffee, we called up eric again and he was in Sharon, PA at Quaker Steak and Lube again!    so cary took me to gorants to get 3 pounds of meltaways!!  oh my, so delicious, i have to stop!  but they are so good!!

 back at the hotel, eric and i chowed down on the wings he had gotten to go - must eat wings, might not ever get them again!!

 later that evening we went to Alberinis again with a bunch of the girls, and then headed on over to the reunion.  it was fun to see everyone.  i was happy to see everyone who was there, but sad that so many people i was hoping to see didn't come.  high school sucked but there were lots of good people there, too.  maybe i will see them someday.
the next day, we got up and headed to the airport.  the drive was fine, only this time we could see since it wasn't night time.

we got to the airport quite early, got through security without incident.

and then waited to get on the plane.  i was asleep before we even took off and slept for 2 hours.  we had a layover in Phoenix which was quick and easy, back on the plane and we both fell asleep instantly.  after an hour we woke up to find out we were still on the ground, but we both fell back asleep for another hour.  wow, ohio sure wore us out!!

on monday i went to work and drank my coffee out of my new 20th anniversary Mocha House coffee mug thing!  so happy!  you can see a bit of my manicure in there, too!

Monday was a big day for a few reasons!  the gym emailed and told me they got my shirts in!  they have shirts that say stuff like "Stronger than Cancer" "Stronger than the boys" and stuff like that.  i emailed them saying i don't have cancer but could i get a shirt saying something about brain tumors?  they said they would make me some!  i told them how my fitness and health have been so helpful through this whole thing and how after the big surgery in May i was at the gym in two weeks on the recumbent working my way back.  i was so excited, and totally overwhelmed when they send proofs showing me what the shirts would look like.  they said they would have them to me in time for my surgery on the 27th - and they did!  as soon as i picked them up, i put one on and had a little photo shoot!

 tuesday morning i woke up, checked my phone and found a voice mail asking us to come in an hour earlier than originally planned. so i boogied into my ash tray shower and off we went!
we checked in and before i was even able to pick up the white phone to call the people behind the doors, they were out there calling me back.  so we headed back.  not totally sure why we had to get there so early because we wound up waiting around a long long time.  but we ease dropped on everyone's check in stories again.  sounded like most people were having heart related surgeries, mostly "procedures" of some sort or another.  lots of older people.  i found out i am not pregnant - thank goodness!  that would have been a game changer right there.  omg.  finally we found out that the doctor had a surgery right before mine and that patient was being taken to recovery, so we would be up pretty soon.  it was around 1230, or 1pm, and we were joking how the surgeon was grabbing some lunch real quick, and how he might even take bites of his sandwich while operating on me.  we sure hoped he didn't drop a pickle into my head and sew it up in there.  and no sesame seeds - we are pretty sure sesame seeds would show up as tumor on an MRI.  we even thought that maybe he might have spaghetti, since he could slurp the noddles up under his mask.

this is a before photo - the last one of the dent!

 this time around wasn't as scary as last time.  i didn't feel as alone or freaked out, and boy i was a talker.  and i took my phone so i could take photos!!!  we got on the elevators and down to the basement we went!  we headed to PACU, which i learned is post-anesthesia care unit.  but we didn't actually go in there.  we went somewhere else. since i ask a lot of questions, i asked why was i there before my last surgery, they said because that was early in the morning, before there were patients in there recovering.  so this time, since that area was all filled up, they took me to some other pre-surgery holding cell.

 now, i couldn't totally remember what PACU meant, so i did a quick google search.  apparently there is a fish, called Pacu that is also known as the Ball Cutter because it will bite off your testicles if you aren't careful!!
once in that holding cell, they filled up my air blanket with warm air.  not sure why they use these crazy blankets but they are weird and warm.

 i had some time to chill, so i took a photo of this Portable X-ray Machine Parking sign.  it made me laugh.
the anesthesiologist came in, same guy as before.  he was awesome.  he asked if i remembered him and we had some laughs.  he had a fellow with him.  she was super nice, too.  and man, she is good at putting in an IV - didn't even feel the tiniest of poke!  they were all chatty and i was getting them caught up on everything.  then some other guy came in and started talking with the anesthesiologist about what was going to happen during the surgery and i was like, uh, who are you?  he introduces himself and he was another fellow, but a surgeon fellow.  he had an accent so i asked him what it was - swedish!  omg - a swedish doctor at swedish hospital!!  he was going to be assisting my surgeon during the whole thing.  the anesthesiologist explained the whole fellow situation to me.  anyway, whatever.

 so we headed on into the operating room, it was a different room this time, but i asked about the monitors with the brains projected on them and i shimmied my way onto the table, yapping away the entire time.  we talked about the flavored gas and why do i have to have beach ball flavor when there are other nice ones out there.  then the mask came on and i wasn't out as quickly as last time, i don't think i was fighting it, but i know the nurse was there, gently rubbing my non-iv arm as i drifted off.  that was nice.
i eventually woke up in the PACU!  i didn't remember waking up there for the first surgery since they took me on the CT tour of the world that time, but this time i was there, i saw a nurse sitting there monitoring stuff.  i told her my head hurt.  it wasn't too bad, i know i reached for it because she pulled my hand down from it.  i asked her what pain medicine i was on - morphine.  i asked her i the surgeon closed a pickle into my head.  she probably thought i was all drugged up, but i wanted to know.
then they said i would be going to ICU.  everyone was like, what?  why? so there was lots of drama about that.  and then up i went to the ICU.  once there, they were all like, what is she doing here?  they were nice and took great care of me of course, but at the same time were like, uh, she doesn't need to be here. i moved from one bed to the next and eventually to another one when they decided to take me to the real hospital floor - floor 5.  i got settled in and fell asleep. 

 eric was there visiting and xtie came too.  i had a dressing stapled onto my head, but i felt good.  they gave me antibiotics but no more pain medicine unless i asked for it, which i didn't.  i eventually took some tylonol but that was it.  the guy across the hall had his tv turned up super loud until about 12:30 that night.  crazy.  i woke up every few hours to go to the bathroom and drink some water and occasionally i would turn on the tv for a little until i was ready to go back to sleep.  they checked my vitals, apparently i am very consistent!  100/57 is the way to be, baby!

in the morning the surgeon stopped by at the crack of dawn.  i love him, he is so awesome.  we talked about everything that happened.  we looked at some photos and i asked him about all kinds of stuff.  i told him how i had asked the radiation doctor about getting a tattoo on my head where i lost the hairs, and how that doctor was all like, yeah, don't do that - you won't want your surgeon having to look at some big ugly tattoo on your head, now do you?  to which the surgeon turned his head to the side and looked to be stifling a laugh.  he told me that my head will be like a breast implant.  nice, right?  that it will seem over built for a while but eventually will settle down.  he said i would have some swelling and some bruising and will wind up with a black eye.  as of right now, no black eye.  i had some discoloration and swelling in my eye but that seems to be better now.  i think i might get off without anything like that!
then i had some blood work done by the super nice lab guy who took my blood every day the last time i was there.  i told him he is the best blood taker there is because he is really is!
later that day eric brought my mom in for a visit, then i took a nap and then eventually eric and the kids came to pick me up to bring me home.
this surgery has been nothing even remotely close to the one in May.  my recovery from that was pretty amazing, i will say, but wow, i feel pretty much normal this time around.  eric and i joked about how the surgeon called this one a minor surgery.  yes, i can see that as there was not skull cutting, brain shrinking or digging, but it was still pretty intense.  but then we remembered how he told us my last surgery was a big deal, but not as invasive as like open heart surgery where they crack your sternum.  ok, putting it all in perspective.  the human body is amazing, and the things they can do with it are crazy amazing!!
on thursday and friday i was well enough to work from home, and i will go into the office with my new staple headband on monday!
ps its december already!!

news!

heard back from all of my blood work and everything is good!!  all my hormone levels are a-ok!  my growth hormone is still high, too, which is interesting.  they say it is lower than any of the previous tests but it is still higher than normal.  but maybe it is still do to my extreme athleticism!  ha.  waiting on my estrogen though,  apparently that takes a week or more.  i think my estrogen is fine.
OH!  my hair has started to grow back!  the other day i took a peak and i was like, huh, what is that?  and now a few days later, there is crazy hair growing!  i thought it would be all stubbly but its not!  its soft and lays flat and i am so excited to have it growing back!
i got my hairs cut!  i haven't gotten them cut since back in july right as radiation was starting.  so about 4ish months.  thats a long time to go between hairs cuts when you have short hair.  don't get my wrong, i took the scissors to it twice during that time but i couldn't get the back and i wanted to make sure it looked ok.  so i made the appointment with the fabulous James Dean at the down town Gene Juarez.  i realized he has been cutting my hairs since before seamus was born, i think maybe before eric and i got married?  its been a long time.  but every time he does a fabulous job.  normally i am just like, do whateve ryou want.  this only didn't work once when he gave me an absolutely amazing duu but one that i couldn't not replicate worth a hill of beans. he gave me bangs and i looked like a totally different person but my hair is sorta wavy and to get that look to work required a flat iron and yeah, that wasn't about to happen again.
but he cut it super short and super cute.

Before

AFTER

 anyway, i am super happy.  i love me some short hairs.  and i can't wait to go swimming with such short hairs again!  oh and don't i look like a hipster?  i had on my hipster jeans and hipster boots too.  you can't even tell i am wearing an Angry Birds t-shirt on under all that can you?

all i want to do is go shopping!  i have a wristlet obsession!  you know those tiny little wallet / purses that have a little strap that you can hang on your wrist?  i am obsessed.  i want a whole collection of them.

next week is a friend's big 5-0 party.  we are getting DRESSED UP!  if i can fit into the purple dress AND breathe, i will wear it.  otherwise i will wear the other amazing dress i recently picked up, the one that was one of the potential choices to wear to the wedding later this year.

reunion is coming up soon.  yikes!  i need to get my eyebrows waxed before that!!  almost right when we get back from that is when i get my forehead fixed.  i have an MRI on tuesday.  its a big one.  the ones i had during radiation were good, and they didn't see anything but this one they will use contrast and the surgeon will look at it.  fingers crossed that all is good in the hood.

this week was a good week of training  ran a few times, was on the bike a few times, lifted some weights, and even swam once.  got in all of my workouts!  although i totally went to sleep on friday at 8pm and slept until 9am!  glorious!!!

targeted marketing

this is my endocrinologist.  Dr. Broyles.  She is awesome.  Not only is she awesome, but she shows up in my yahoo mail.  when i saw her on thursday i told her that i am already a paying customer and that maybe she should use her marketing dollars to try to recruit new customers.  we had a laugh about it, she said she hadn't seen the ad so she was going to go find it to take a peek. 
other news is that i am going to get my head fixed.  trying to figure out when to schedule it, but it will be in the next few months.  the surgeon said that i might not even have to stay the night, and if i have it on a friday i might even be well enough to go to work on monday.  which reminds me a girl i work with had her gallbladder taken out on a friday and came to work on monday!!  crazy!  modern medicine!  but with my head he won't be cutting bone or digging around in brains at all, so it is considered "minor".  but i'll wind up with another headband of staples and will need to take like a week off from training but he said i should be good to go in another week after that.  we'll see.  so now i am tryign to figure out when to do it, what with all my trips to ohio and we want to take another cross country ski trip in feb and my training and oh my.  but i want to get it done so i can wear a hat and have it not hurt and a swim cap, ya know, oh and yeah, be able to sleep on my right side.  i asked him if insurance would cover it and he was like yeah, its a result of my disease.  what?  disease?  i hadn't thot of it that way before.

so my first appointment was with the endocrinologist.  things seem ok there but i got sent down to the abulatory infusion center for some blood stuff. they test all the stuff and all of that but then they do this steroid test of some sort.  they take some blood then they inject something that stimulates the hormones and then you wait and then they take more blood.  to do this they put in an IV.  but first, because of all this i need to check in.  so you go to hospital registration by the starbucks.  while i was there, there were peeps on radios and the elevator doors were all open with people standing infront of them. so i asked the lady what was going on.  she didn't know, she said they would tell them. so i got checked in and then headed to the infusion place.  i had to pass the cafeteria where a dude had pushed a cart load of tables infront of the door and was standing guard.  the infusion center door was closed!  oh no!  some official lady was coming down the hallway and i asked her if they were open, she was like "we're on lock down so they closed the doors, just knock"  but by then the nurse was already at the door asking if i was me, which i was, so she let me in.
by this time i had already posted on the facebooks about how the hospital was on lock down, and xtie was already texting me asking me what was going on.  the nurses only knew that there was a situation in the parking garage but had no idea what it was.  so xtie did the super sleuthing and found out that a guy with a rifle or shot gun was spotted in the parking garage.  so i let the nurses know! they were laughing that i was able to tell them what was going on.  but no one was allowed to come or go. they were giving out free coffee in the cafeteria!  patients were wanting to get into the hospital but weren't allowed, the SWAT team was all over.  so eventually my blood draw was over and i was allowed to go on my merry way, as long as i stayed in the hospital.  i headed to starbucks and it was CLOSED!!!  gah!! what?  when does it close???  so i went to the cafeteria.  i had my computer so i did some work. then over the loud speaker we were told we could leave the hospital.  they never found the guy but they cleared it.  good fun.  then i went to the surgeon after that.  and then eventually left.  i talked to the parking lot attendant.  she said she needed a nap, she was worn out from the excitement of it all!

seamus was a shadow for halloween.  she let me put scary makeup on her

me and the 11th doctor

the dent in my head and the hair as it is getting long.

fancy dress, i will wear it to party soon if i can a) get it zipped and b) i can breathe

leg warmers and boots.

the final countdown!!

today is october 31.  halloween.  tomorrow is november 1.  tomorrow is also my big follow up appointment with the endocrinologist and surgeon.  this is the 6 monther, even tho it hasn't quite been 6 months.
they will be checking to see if my pituitary gland is failing yet.  and i don't know what else.  then i will talk to the surgeon and see about fixing my head.  if i do that, i wonder how long i'll be out of commission for.  to the benefits (like wearing hats and sleeping on my right side, oh and not having a giant dent in the side of my forehead) out weigh the risks (infection, it hurting more / looking worse than it does now, staples and stitches in my head, no exercise)?  we'll have to see.  maybe he was kidding when he mentioned that at my 8 week appointment.  he was funny about it "oh that looks terrible, i can fix that for you, you shouldn't have to have it look like that, oh my, that does look terrible".
oooh!  i hear some trick or treaters!!!  2 kids.  let's see how many we get this year! eric did some crazy decorating outside - a scary hanging man with a pulsing spot light, a big black spider web with a giant green spider, purple lights, flashing skulls, two giant pumpkins carved with the kids's designs.  OH we are the worst parents!  we have a pumpkin patch not even 2 miles from the house, i pass it every time i go to work, and you know what?  we did not go to the pumpkin patch this year.  ugh.  that is why the kids wound up with giant pumpkins - to make up for our lame parenting.  bad parents!  but i did make their costumes, sirus is a blue guy and seamus is a shadow!
back to pre-trick or treaters.  so yeah, almost 6 month visit, its crazy it has been that long.  its crazy that any of it had ever happened in the first place.  all of it, un-real.  i am so lucky to be alive and well and living life and being able to eat the three giant cookies i had at the work halloween party, and to be drinking this halloween beer, right now!
but OHH!  the count down, yeah, so the 20 year high school reunion is coming up!  over thanks giving weekend.  yikes!  eric and I are heading back for it.  omg, bad parents AGAIN!!  we will not be spending thanksgiving with the kids.  bad parents, BAD!!!  instead they are going to Las Vegas with grandma to visit uncle rick.  at least they will be with family having fun, but bad parents!!!  instead we are leaving thanks giving day to fly to OHIO.  omg, can you say OHIO.  we have not been back there since seamus was 9 months old, that was in 2004!!  that is 8 years ago!  it has been 8 years!  that is a long freaking time.  omg, anxiety attack thinking about it right now.  and what is even better is that i'll be going to OHIO again in december!!  OMG!  twice!!!  in a matter of like 30 days or so.  what? 
so the reunion, our HS always has them over thanksgiving weekend.  always have.  i think, or at least i used to think that was a great idea.  when my mom still lived there.  and it would make sense to travel all the way accross the country to OHIO to visit her with the family for a holiday and the reunion.  but she moved out this way like in 2005 i think.  so now only eric and i are going back for this reunion.  that is going to be at a BAR.  so this is totally fine.  not a ton of fancy places back there, and the idea of it being a bar is great because a) it will be super casual b) it will be cheap c) maybe other peeps who did not graduate with us who might be in town can stop in, etc.  the bad part about it being in a BAR 1) can't get dressed up.  since the work has a during the day, after lunch work holiday party, i have no opportunity to get super fancy dressed up so i was looking forward to it 2) last time we went to this BAR in 2004, eric ordered a Genesee thinking it was a Guiness.  they are not even close.
i hear kids at the door!!  oh no, they are going to ring the doorbell and it will start with the "its a small world" song.  so, 4 kids this time.  we are giving out the full sized bars and one of them had the nerve to ask - how many can we have?  what?  WHAT???  you can have NONE.
3) um, maybe those are the only two cons to having it at the bar. 
anyway, i am pretty excited about seeing everyone except the fact that i am 400 pounds.  at least my skin looks descent these days.  oh and i have some bald spots, oh and some crazy ass hair and some wow, super bushy eyebrows.  ok, so i will get the eyebrows taken care of, and i am getting a haircut next week.  i cut it twice myself but have been holding back, its turning into a mullet since i can't get the back along the bottom.  that needs professional help, so i have been lettign the whole thing grow out.  i'll just have to make due with the bald spots (really the hair covers it pretty well) and then after tonight and this beer and probably some halloween candy, it will be ON.  i have finally gotten some consistency back with my training, so making progress there.  it might all work out ok. gonna have to keep on top of it though.
did i mention that i got an add in my yahoo mail that had a picture of my endocrinologist on it?
oh and this morning at the gym i noticed that one of the trainers who has a total buzz cut has a scar on his head very similar to mine.  i totally wanted to ask him about it. 
that is all.

sometimes its better not to know

i think i have an allergy.  or at least an intolerance.  this is not new information.  i think we have discussed previously that i have something going on with balsamic vinegar.  it makes me break out in welts.  huge ones.  so i have been getting this premade salad from the salad bar at the whole foods.  since my surgery, my skin has been the best it has been in a million years or so.  ok, that is a lie.  when i was still in the hospital my skin was ok, but then it got REALLY bad for a while.  it was terribly disgusting.  but now it is better, i think i was getting rid of all the horror that had been pumped through my system before.  so i have been eating that salad and low and behold some of that skin problem came back.  sheesh, so now i have been  week off of it and my skin is better.  dude, allegedly it is the vinegar and NOT the salad greens.  whatever.
so i have also been indulging in the fresh pineapple.  omg, i love it.  when i was younger i had issues with it in that even the thought of fresh pineapple would make my face start to sweat.  it was weird but that seems to have passed.  now i eat it whenever i can.  so i have been eating it every day for like, the past 3 weeks since i have been back at work full time.  so thursday i started to have some distress.  and it was really bad on race day morning (i did a 10k!!  was exactly 2 minutes slower than my 10k pr on the same exact course, but pretty pleased with the result since i sorta had some brain surgery and radiation and oh yeah, major stomach issues that morning, so much so that i was like ERIC WHY ARE YOU DRIVING SO SLOW!! and i almost didn't race.  good race tho.  trying to be positive about it, the pace was actually really slow, i was never sure why my 10k pr was so slow anyway, but whatever) anyway, the distress has been continuing every day, like its really weird and today i decided maybe i am alergic to pineapple, cuz like i ate an entire one. so i did some research on the internets and this is what i found:
"After eating a large amount of pineapple, you might experience swelling or tenderness on the lips, inner cheeks and tongue. Typically, this reaction is caused by pineapple's meat-tenderizing properties, and it should resolve itself within a few hours."

http://www.livestrong.com/article/407906-pineapple-side-effects/#ixzz2AqLQIMem

so i'm not having that type of reaction, but WHAT??  what does this mean:  this reaction is caused by pineapple's meat-tenderizing properties

what?  is that saying that the pineapple is tenderizing your body because it is meat???

so not ok with that.   

lots of words and photos

a bunch has been going on.  man, i am exhausted but now i will start to have the chance to relax.

first, let's talk about my health.  i am good!  hooray!  i've got some bald spots and i just actually touched them the other day and the skin is very soft.  i went in for my radiation follow up and you know what the doctor said?  he said no to getting a tattoo on my head.  can you believe it?  he was sort of funny about it, he was like, you've already had a lot of therapy on your head, man if he only knew!!  and do i really want to go see the neurosurgeon in another month and have a potentially infected tattoo on my head?  and you know my hair is going to grow back and it could scar and blah blah blah.  so ixnay on the attootay.  other then that,  he said i've probably got another two weeks before all the blah feelings of the radiation should be gone, i should feel a-ok.  which actually based on this past week and everything that went on, and my severe lack of naps, i am well on the road.  and this is my first week back as full time at work!  

allie came to visit!!  hooray!  we have been planning this trip since FEBRUARY!!!  it was originally the only trip she was going to make, but then i went and had a tumor and such so she came to visit me in june which was fabulous and actually good because on that trip she became an expert in driving my car, so this time around she drove quite a bit of the time.  she'd take me to work and then go on allie adventures.  and omg, she baked sirus's bday cake and ran a ton of errands for me. oh i love her!! and i love having her here.  wondering how i can get more allie time!!  got to work on that.  oH!!  she also went running with me which was way fun because 1) she got me out the door and 2) i actually picked up the pace a little.  not fast by any means but just cruising along.  it was great.

we had a bday party for sirus at the bowling alley.  it was family with aunt christie and grandma and allie and us.  it was fun.  seamus hadn't ever been bowling, and they put the bumpers up for all of us so we were all super awesome.  some of us were more awesome than others, but all in all there was a quite a bit of awesomeness.  christie even got a turkey!!  (that is 2 strikes in a row for those of you who aren't quite up to speed in your bowling terminology!)

oh and allie did a 10k and totally kicked arse - 3rd woman overall!!  she is crazy fast, i don't know how she flings her tiny body through the air like that, but i saw it and it was fast!!

and we had sirus's bday party with his friends!  we made a lego man photo booth and a lego man came with a whole stash of legos for the kids to make zip line racers.  the kids were crazy!!!  oh my, screaming and running and kicking and punching and jumping on top of each other and crying and wanting to go home and wow, it was a lot, and then the lego man showed up and they were completely silent the whole time he was here.  amazing!!

we went to oktoberfest up in leavenworth again.  so fun.  last year we were finalist in the chicken dance competition, this year i made myself some fake hair and was the leader of the conga line.  it was a ton of fun.  i love going to leavenworth.  we went on an amazing hike but the fires have been so bad over there you could smell and see it in the air.  amazing.

seamus got the ed emberly book from school

eeewwww!

the closest they have been to a cuddle pile

this scary thing was on the front porch!  terrifying!!

zucchini boats made out of zucchinis from the garden

zucchini boating

uh

what cho talkin bout

 

sirus in the lego man photo booth

seamus's lego zipline racer

experimenting with fashion - boots with thigh high socks from American Apparel, pushed down below my knees

sirus at the asteroid wall after bowling

grandma gave sirus an RC Jeep to match Dad's big Jeep

Allie experience the hand forged goodness that is Top Pot Doughnuts

Luv Madonna

the goils getting ready for some musac

the show got way weirder before it got better, but always a little weird. and loud.

sirus and his lego head cake that allie made!

bff's in the photo booth!

seamus raced the jr cyclocross race - two pull laps of the adult course.  she is not a fan of the sand pit.

sirus did the kids race, its hard lifting a bike that weighs about 1/2 your weight over that barrier

i did a race, can't remember which one, i think this was lake sammamish.  i was doing pretty well until i hit the run and it all fell apart.  i was still thankful to be out there racing!