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!