Updates

I'm a bad blogger.  Life has been so busy, this blog has taken a back seat.

Christmas was just nuts for me.  Work was super busy and Christmas shopping was excruciating this year.  I had no idea what to get anyone and all of the shopping always falls on me.  I hate the pressure it creates and it really ruins the season for me.  I feel like I really missed out on celebrating the real reason for Christmas this year.  I'm going to do better next year.

On Christmas Eve, Mark started not feeling well.  Turns out he had kidney stones.  Over the course of 2 weeks, he was in and out of the hospital a couple times (both resulted in being admitted overnight), he had an outpatient lithotripsy (to blast the stone that was too large to pass into passable pieces), had two stints put in and removed and two inpatient laser lithotripsy surgeries.  It was a rough two weeks.  I'm happy to report that he is much better now.  That boy needs to learn to drink more water.

As if dealing with Mark's kidney stones wasn't enough, during that same period of time, Bradley slipped on some ice and dislocated his shoulder.  This resulted in an emergency room visit, his shoulder in a sling, a follow-up visit with an orthopedic doctor, a fracture somewhere in the shoulder socket and 6 weeks of physical therapy.

Yeah, 2014 is promising to be an expensive one.

There are some good things to update also.  First, training for the Donna Half Marathon is going great!  Well, it's going great for me.  Poor Mark hasn't run for ages.  Between his kidney stones and all of the traveling he is doing, he hasn't run at all.  I've already trained up to 12 miles and there are only 2 more long runs to go (a 13 & 14 miler).  Time to pray we stay healthy for the next 5 weeks.  I'm getting really excited for our trip.  Excited to see friends, excited to run the race and excited to spend a couple days at Disney after the race.

I got my blood work results and everything looks great.  Even my thyroid.  My mammogram also came back normal.  All good news.  I still have blood in my urine which concerns the doctor so I need to follow up with a urologist.  After reading up on it, I'm not super concerned.  Apparently it is common for long distance runners.  I need to make that appointment soon though.  I also need to see a dermatologist to have a mole on my leg removed.

I am still going strong with My Fitness Pal & the fitbit.  Since I started trying to lose weight (last September) I have lost 17 lbs.  The good news is, I've lost weight that I really needed to lose.  The bad news is I get discouraged so easily.  It is coming off so slowly and it gets frustrating.  I'm not giving up though, even though it is a slower journey than I anticipated or want.

Well, that's all the update I have in me for now.