I'm naming them Quincy and Monster, in case you were wondering.

We have been fine.

Not much is going on in our lives right now, so there's not much to blog about. I've been working, Brandon's been working. I've been trying to keep up with house work, Brandon spent his birthday money on a guinea pig cage (and pretty much talked me into spending an extra *mumble, mumble* dollars on it for him, even though I'd already got him presents.) Guinea Pig seems pretty happy with it. It's so big you could take a bath in the base of it. And it has a shelf with a ramp for extra space, and Guinea Pig likes to hide out underneath it. She's become a lot less interesting since moving into the big cage, though. Brandon says she's sleeping the same amount, it's just that she has more space in which to do it now. We are considering getting a second piggie to keep her company, but I insist on getting my pet rats first. Have I mentioned the rats? If not, I'll mention them now.

I've thought rats sounded like an interesting pet since I read the book Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli (it's really good and an easy read.) Stargirl has a pet rat named Cinnamon that rides around on her shoulder. That sounds pretty cool. Rats make really good pets, and are much more social, friendly, and talented than other small pets like hamsters (or guinea pigs, for that matter.) They are happy to see you, don't run away when you try to pick them up, and can even learn their names and come when you call them. That's the kind of pet I want- the kind of pet I miss. I desperately miss my dogs. I could never have a pet like a rat because of the dogs...but now that I am not allowed to have my dogs, I figure I might as well get a rat. Or two. Rats are so social they need someone to keep them company at all times, so everyone recommends you keep them in pairs. And my philosophy is, the more pets the better.

So I am pretty much demanding I get a pet rat or two for my birthday. Ok, "demanding" sounds a little harsh", but we have the cage (Guinea Pig's old one) and the bedding (they use the same kind as you-know-who) so why not? It's what I want. And they're only like, twelve dollars each. I could have a rat farm with the money I spent on Brandon's birthday (a rat farm sounds a little unsanitary.)

Enough about small household rodents, though. I've got some time on my hands today- Brandon gets off at 7 pm, and I'm off work. I will eventually get off the computer and get some cleaning done. We are trying to have fewer disagreements about "chores" and what exactly our responsibilities are by getting organized. I have this fabulous book- Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook- that tells you EVERYTHING you could possibly need to know about running a house. It tells you how to maintain, clean, take care of, and repair everything, room by room. It tells you how to effectively organize, what different kitchen tools are, and how to prepare for emergencies. Everything is in this book! It's bigger than most Bibles and costs about $40, but it's so worth it. Anyway, my point is that there is a handy dandy checklist for cleaning and taking care of your home in the beginning of the book. There's a daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal checklist- and then a checklist for spring and fall cleaning, too. So I split up the lists by who's responsible for what, and printed them off. Hopefully having a list will help me stay on top of things, and seeing that my lists are much longer than his will encourage Brandon to help out. And I'm totally not saying that to be mean. I will report back on the success of our little plan. Martha Stewart is amazing and when it comes to domesticity, she has it together more than most of us do. Hopefully her guidance will help us.

Easter

Easter went pretty well this year. It wasn't much of a struggle trying to see both our families (unlike Christmas...). Easter morning we got up and went to church, and had to park in the Kohl's parking lot and take the school bus shuttle over to the church, which was a little fun. Apparently some people thought it was more fun than others because I heard rumors of parents shouting "HEY! ISN'T THIS EXCITING? WE'RE ON A BUS!!!" in their kids' faces. After church we had lunch at my Mammaw's and spent time catching up with family. My brother was sick so he didn't eat lunch, which was disappointing, but what are you going to do? The kid had a 101 degree fever. Anyway, after that it was off to Brandon's aunt's house. The Jones clan does holidays pretty interestingly, to me, anyway. Whereas my family gets together, eats a meal, spends a little time together and goes home, they set out lots of food and everybody eats whenever they show up. Then they spend several hours playing games and hanging out, and whenever your tummy feels like it's dinner time, you just go get more food. We got there a little before 3, and were still stuffed from lunch, so we didn't eat. I brought our wedding pictures and those got passed around, and by the time pretty much everyone had seen them, almost everyone had left the house and gone across the street (to Brandon's cousin's house) to either watch or play badminton. This was a little less fun for me because of all the trouble I've had with my allergies and lungs lately...I had to use my inhaler a few times, and all I did was sit in a lawn chair and play with my phone. Then my wonderful mother-in-law asked if I wanted to play Scrabble (I had brought it but Brandon said no one would want to play!) and we played a round. We were eventually joined by my probable future sister-in-law Emily, and then more family members. By the time we were on round three or four I was getting a little antsy and ready to go home- it was after 7:30. So Brandon packed up a plate of food for his dinner and we left. All in all it wasn't a terrible day- not that I was expecting it to be. I'm not really sure when the next family get-together holiday is, but hopefully it will go as smoothly as this one.

Happy Birthday!

Today is Brandon's 23rd birthday. I am doing my best to be excited (I am sick. Hopefully I won't ruin everything for him.) He has had a few birthday treats over the past few days. On Saturday Mammaw brought him a chocolate birthday pie (because Brandon loves chocolate) and his present from her, Pappaw, and Brian (the Clone Wars Monopoly.) Last night we went out to dinner with Brandon's family, and that was nice. I haven't seen them in a few weeks because I have been sick and all kinds of crazy stuff. We went to Cracker Barrel, and I had pancakes, and they were good. Today we will run over to the library for a few minutes, because we are having a going-away potluck for our children's librarian, Ms Lynn (who is one of my favorite people). We will not stay and eat, because I don't want to cough on everyone, but I need to drop off a cheesecake for the potluck, and say hi to my bff Owen (my friend and former co-worker's one month old baby). I told Brandon I'd get him Taco Bell for his birthday lunch, and then tonight my family is coming over for pizza and cake and ice cream. It should be fun. I hope Brandon has a really nice birthday. I will try not to cough all over his cake.

I should buy stock in Hall's strawberry cough drops.

The last few weeks have been interesting, to say the least. Pretty much every one who knows me is aware that I have "tummy troubles". Something is basically always wrong with my stomach. Sometimes I can't eat. It's stupid. Well, things have been getting worse lately, particularly in the reflux department, so three weeks ago I went to see my internist to talk about what's going on. He did some tests, took some blood, told me to go back to my gastrointerologist and have my esophagus scoped again, and then come back and see him so we could talk about what to do next. In the course of those tests, he found that I am still anemic from some bleeding problems I had almost a year ago, I have extremely low vitamin D levels, like everyone else in my family (normal range is between 32 and 100. My number was 5.8. Pretty sad.) And something may be going on with my thyroid- I had trouble reading his handwriting on the results. And he did an EKG because sometimes I have these really scary heart palpitations, and found that I have an "irregular sinus rhythm", but lots of people do so it's not anything to worry about. That is somewhat comforting.

So then the next week, I went to the hospital and had my esophagus scoped. It's not pleasant to think about, but things went pretty well- the whole thing takes a little more than ten minutes. As everyone and their mom suspected, my esophagus is pretty torn up from years and years of exposure to reflux, and a host of medicines that don't do their job. The doctor said I have a hernia in my esophagus (which explains why I can't swallow sometimes, but is still extremely lame) and he said that I had Barrett's disease, which is basically a precancerous thing that makes really bad burns on your esophagus while your esophagus tries to grow itself a new lining (ew). He said my chances of getting cancer were pretty slim, though, as most of the time it's middle aged white guys who get it. I may be white, but I'm not an old man. So I have that going for me.

Well, after the procedure, I did ok, but then it was getting harder and harder for me to swallow, and my stomach was upset for a few days. So I called the doctor to see if there was a chance that the procedure had disrupted anything, and they didn't really answer that question, but they said that my biopsy results came back and I do NOT have Barrett's. This is a good thing, but still. My esophagus must look pretty bad if they thought I had this horrible disease thing.

Well, then I caught a cold. And this sucker will not go away. Everything started to go better, except for the cough (you know, the cough sticks around for what feels like forever) but then it was getting harder to breathe, and then on Saturday I woke up and was pretty sure I had pink eye. I'm not sure why, but you can get it when you have a cold sometimes. So Sunday morning my mom took me to the doctor, and the doctor was a patron of mine whom I don't particularly care for, and she basically blamed everything on my allergies. She gave me a cortisone shot and made me do a breathing treatment, and wrote me FIVE prescriptions. Antibiotics to make me feel better. Hard core cough syrup to help me sleep. Eye drops for my stupid pink eye. A short term inhaler because my lungs are so inflamed. And a prescription for another inhaler should I need one later on. This is crazy, really.

So I took everything I could yesterday afternoon and last night, and didn't sleep. Every time I moved in my sleep, whether it was slumping down a little in my pillows or rolling on my side, I woke up because I couldn't breathe all of a sudden, and then I'd cough for ten minutes, and then try to sleep again. This happened every hour. Painfully lame. This morning I feel worse than I have all week. Hopefully the pharmacy's worth of medicine I am consuming will help me feel better really soon. I feel sorry for Brandon. I can tell he is getting tired of hearing me cough.

Hopefully it won't be as cold this time.

Can I just say that I am pretty excited? Sure I can.

Mom and dad decided that they want a vacation this fall. I totally agree with them- we didn't take a vacation last year-saving vacation time for the wedding, I guess- and we are vacation people. We have at least gone somewhere for a long weekend pretty much every year since the beginning of time. Sometimes, you just need a break. Anyway, they have decided to go to Disney World, and I am invited along. This in itself is exciting enough- because I love Disney World and I've never been there in the fall, and they'll have Halloween decorations and everything. But it is super exciting because I invited Kelli and she found out the other day that she will be able to go! So I am super pumped! I am trying hard not to think about it too much, because the more I plan something, the more the actual event deviates from my plans, and I end up a little disappointed. But it's hard not to- even though it's seven months and seventeen days away.

But what about my husband? Well, he doesn't want to go. He does not vacation very often. And he had fun when we went to Disney World, but he's not obsessed with it or anything. Plus if he is still working at the same job, he doesn't get vacation time, meaning he'd miss a week's pay. So he really doesn't want to go. He doesn't mind if I go, but he does tease me a little about spending the money on the trip. All we have to pay for is our tickets and food, so I did some math and found if I save $10 a week I should have more than enough. That just means I can't buy as much junk at the grocery store. It's an excercise in frugality. And practicality. Yeah, that sounds good.

I'm sure I will post more about this excitement as the actual event draws closer, but for now I just wanted to vent some of my happiness.

Cranberry Cashew Salad

A few years ago, my mom and dad went to some picnic thing for dad's work. Mom brought back a little bit of this salad, which is just fantastic. We got the recipe from the lady who made it, and make it for special occasions (like my birthday.) It's one of my favorite foods! This recipe makes enough for a family, but you can easily double it for a gigantic salad to feed a crowd.

Cranberry Cashew Salad

You will need:
1 bag romaine lettuce pieces
1 granny smith apple, unpeeled and chopped
1 red pear, unpeeled and chopped
1/2 bag shredded Swiss cheese (but Parmesan will work, if you can't find Swiss)
1/2 cup cashews
1/2 bag Craisins

For the dressing:
1/3 cup lemon juice
2/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp salt
2 tsp minced onion (the dried stuff from the spice aisle is fine)
1 tbsp poppy seeds

Combine dressing ingredients and whisk together. Layer salad in a bowl, and pour the dressing on shortly before serving. Toss and serve.

Piggie paparazzi

"I am in luuuuurve with this carrot..."

"Wait, are you taking pictures of me?!"

"GIVE ME THAT CAMERA!!!!"