Lots of projects going on....

Just a grand ol' update here!

Work) I have a new boss - the one that was driving me into an early grave has been removed from the company. Our new boss is going to gain control of our group in 2 more months - for right now we have the blessing of our old boss, he's one of my friends that came to Charlie Majors' birthday party - A&W is his married nickname. (he's the w)
I have had a LOT of work since returning from my medical leave, because it seems two or more coworkers are always out.

Home) I don't really want to talk about home - I haven't been able to do many of the daily tasks that need doing, and it is not a welcoming environment right now. We've bought veggies and fruit, and it keeps going bad because I never have the energy to cook anymore.

Church) Charlie and I went to Mass, and he behaved very well! I only had to bribe him with 4 treats, because he started vocally complaning about the length of the service, and I wanted to keep him silent. Father Ray gave me a hug and Charlie a pat on the head, and said how glad he was that I came back, and it's nice to meet Charlie. That made me feel really good, because I'm super self concious that people are going to be distracted by us as a team in Church - and the last thing I would ever want to do is draw attention away from worship!

Charlie and the cats) Charlie is still the bottom of the totem pole at both my parents' house and our apartment. Mayhem will sometimes snuggle up against his hiney if he and we pretend we don't see her doing it. Smokey and Mischief have NO use for him, and will swipe at him if he gets too close.
Charlie's picked up some new commands! "Circle" is the most useful one to me right now. If he is facing the opposite of the way I need him to be, I can tell him to circle and he will adjust himself! The other main one we're working on is commanding him to go to specific people, and to hold things in his mouth until I'm ready for it. He still helps me get dressed every day, and that has become something I rely on him for! It's a really huge thing to not need that help from my husband anymore.

Chronic Illnesses) Still waiting on the %&*# Cardiologist. I can't be tested for Epilepsy or Post Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome until I see him. The Geneticist refuses to answer my calls, so I still haven't been assessed with anything official other than his observations and the "diagnosis" from the Rheumatologist. I'm still feeling very faint when I am vertical, but I'm still having to drive myself to work, because I get to work at least 5 hours after my husband most of the week. My GP took me off caffiene and I have had such a killer headache since. I'm in major withdrawal. I cheated today and got a Sweet Tea from McDonalds, and Husband FREAKED out over it. "You're gonna collapse like you did last week! That cup will kill you!"
How does he waffle from not believing me to be ill, to believing and using some form of escape from facing reality, to facing reality and being sweet about it, and then freaking out about every single thing related to the management of my conditions? That baffles me. He can pick any of those moods at any moment.

Crafting projects) I am currently knitting a shawl and another pair of socks. This month I've made 2 complete pairs of socks, and several hexipuffs for my someday "Bee Keeper's Quilt" by Stephanie Dosen. I'm feeling productive with that, so that's something nice. I can knit while I'm working, because I do phone work and my supervisor said if I can prove my productivity and professional tone is not compromised that I may continue to do so. Yay! Knitting at work. Every knitter's dream, no?
I went to Stitches South with my Mom and met some of my best online friends! They're in the Posse. I didn't have much to spend, but I did splurge and buy myself a couple of ounces of super soft blended wool and tencel fiber. I'm hoping to spin up some special single ply fingering weight yarn to make into some hexipuffs.

That's all for now, I guess! I'm sorry I don't have any pictures for you! Someone (not sure if cats or dog) ate the power cord to my iPad, so it's without any power at the moment.

And that's all I've got to say about that.

And one of my daily affirmations

I've been married for 8 years...

And I still don't quite know how that happened!

I was listening to the radio show "The Bert Show" on my way in to work this morning, and they were doing a segment about healthy, long running relationships. They were asking people to call in and in one sentence explain how they have stayed together so long. They gave examples like: "Raising the kids together has really cemented our bond", "Trusting each other", "Not fighting over money", "Sharing our faith with each other", "Doing athletic things together".

It struck me that Husband and I aren't bound by those things. I can't have kids, and he chose to marry me knowing that. I have trust issues, and he loves me anyway. We do fight over money, because we've lost our house to forclosure and now if we don't have the willingness to be more stubborn than each other, we end up spending more than we earn. (I am openly admitting he's talked me off the ledge of some insane purchases in the past!) We don't share the same faith either. I'm now a Catholic, and he is a Protestant. He plays baseball when the boys are interested, but we had to sell our matching bikes because I can't ride anymore.

I think what binds us together through all this mess is that we both stood before God and everyone we knew and promised we would stick it out and become "one flesh". That through everything we would always choose each other. There are times when I wouldn't choose him, or he wouldn't choose me except for that promise. There are times where we both wholeheartedly choose each other and we would make any onlooker sick to their stomach by how gushy we can be. Most of the time we're like a very comfortable pair of friends. I think if we ever stop investing in our friendship it would be very easy to say "I give up on that promise".

Husband has had some huge curveballs thrown his way lately. There has been a lot of increased pressure on our union. But I know who he's coming home to at night. I know he's going to help me feed the animals, and I'll gripe at him to kick his shoes off because "carpets catch all kinds of bacteria!!", and he'll roll his eyes, but kick them off anyway. I know that he'll ask "What's for dinner?" but now he'll try to learn how to help me make it. I know that we'll sit on the couch with Charlie at our feet and a cat on the back of the sofa behind each of us, and we'll watch a show Husband picks out while we eat what we made. I know with certainty that even if I'm too tired to clean the dishes, he won't gripe about it, and when it's time to go to bed we'll play fight over who has to turn off the lamp.


I think that's something that can't be summed up into one sentence.