This weekend

Not much to report these days. My new manager started last Monday and I think he's going to do a great job. Another of my staff gave one week's notice and her last day was last Friday. We'll probably start setting up interviews to replace her soon. I've received quite a few resumes but just have still been too swamped to set anything up yet.

Yesterday Doyle and I enjoyed sleeping in and then made some breakfast pizza. We hadn't made that in a while. It was good! Then we went to my office to kick off the month end reports. Someone has to do that once a month on the Saturday of close. My days should be numbered for having to do that. The new manager only lives maybe 10 minutes from the office. So that is really convenient for him.

Then Saturday afternoon we ran some errands. We ended up seeing a really cute park bench at BJ's. It was the least expensive one we've seen that was really cute and comfortable to sit in. So we got it. We'll put it out front by the door. Haven't decided which side of the door to put it on yet. Doyle wants to finish painting the house before we put it out there. All he has left to do with that is the front. Of course that will probably be the hardest because it's the tallest part of the house. He'll probably start on that this week. We've no doubt saved a boat load of money by having him paint it instead of hiring someone else to do it. I know he would not have wanted to tackle that kind of project on his days off if he had still been working. We've definitely gotten quite a few home improvements finished because he's had the time to do them.

One of the other projects we want to do next is beautify the back yard. We'll probably need to put down some grass squares in the places that are bare and hope the rest fills in. Since getting the sprinkler system fixed, the lawn has just looked gorgeous. I'm sorry we didn't do that sooner. So at least if we put the grass down, we can set the sprinklers in the back to water more often than any other areas. Plus with Doyle being home, he can keep Kit in the house while everything is wet back there. We may just turn that backyard into a sort of paradise yet!

This morning Doyle and I went to the Beaches Vineyard (Christian Fellowship) today. It was very similar to the Vineyard I belonged to in Austin. The band sounded really good and the people seemed like a cool crowd. With it being at the beach, there were several surfer dudes there of course and a lot of young 20, 30 and 40 somethings. We definitely thought we would come back. I've been wanting to check that place out since I moved here but just hadn't gone. There is another Vineyard downtown too. We may check that one out another time.

This afternoon I worked from home on a presentation that I have to give next Saturday. It covers the Insurance Administration department that I oversee now. I've been sweating it lately because it's coming up soon and I didn't have anything prepared for it. I've been saying I wanted to put together a short cheat sheet on insurance and just never did it. So today I finally put down on paper what I hope will be a useful tool for anyone wanting to understand insurance. Hopefully it'll work!

Okay, I'm ready to get of the computer for the night. Hope you all had good weekends!

Happy Easter!

We didn't do much to celebrate Easter this weekend, but we did do a lot around the house. Saturday Doyle mowed and trimmed while I pulled weeds and took pictures of our progress.

It was really stinking hot out on both Saturday and Sunday afternoons. I stuck to the shade at much as possible.
I didn't think I had taken pictures of this bottle brush plant before. I got some really cool closeups of it too.


We planted these Ty plants last year. The last hard freeze we had was unexpected and we didn't get a chance to cover them. I still need to trim off some of the dead pieces. Looks like they will survive though. They were very skinny when we first got them.The green rounish plants used to be planted under the palm tree. We moved them here a few weeks ago because they were getting too big. Eventually we want to fill in more of this area with other plants too.

Kit was having a good time running around in the yard with us.

I even brought Snickers out for some fun in the yard. He constantly cries at the windows when we are outside and he's not. I usually put him in his cat bag but this time let him do some roaming. He got a little pissy when I picked him up to take him back inside. He hissed at me!! Talk about ungrateful! He was really enjoying being outside though. He normally just gets to walk around the pool but not rub up against plants. I need to get him some of that pet grass so he can eat it.

Is this not about the most hansome dog portrait you've ever seen?

This one takes the cake too. Talk about a hard dogs life... sitting under the palm tree resting!

Here we were last night watching TV. Again, does this dog have it rough or what? Brace yourself, I'm getting ready to show a toe picture... so if you don't want to see it, log off now! :)

And here is what the toe looks like today. The part at the bottome cuticle area is actually growing! There is still a piece on the right side where the old toe nail is still attached. I assume it'll eventually come off. This is the closest it has been to looking almost normal! My toe is so tired of wearing a bandaid all the time. I'm actually thinking of not wearing a bandaid to work one day to see if anyone actually notices. The skin where the adhesive sticks to it is literally taking layers of skin off from the back of the toe. It's amazing the kind of injuries you get from just taking care of other injuries.

Anyway, hope you had a great Easter weekend. Today, Doyle painted more of the exterior of the house and I went in to work for about 4 hours and then cleaned the house and did laundry. Nothing too exciting but we are relaxing now.

Happy Easter!!

Beware: Updated Toe Pics!

Okay, so the nail is almost off. It's only hanging on by just a little bit on the right side. I tried pulling on it a little and it just didn't want to come off so I decided to leave it. There's definitely no way I'm going to be able to put a sock on it now. It'll be bandaids till it comes off for good. I'm finally getting used to seeing it look disgusting. I'm grossing Doyle out with it though. Here are some pics, I hope you don't get grossed out too much. Just had to share... so you'll know you should always be EXTRA careful not to drop anything on your toes!

This is the most "pretty" picture of the toe. So if you are getting queezy looking at this, then you may not want to continue to look at the rest. If it makes you feel any better, it's not painful anymore. So that's good.

This is the next best picture. It's obvious it isn't hangin on by much. I guess when they said the nail would curl... it meant up and inward. I originally thought it would curl up and out on the ends. At least that didn't happen.

Yup, it's coming off and soon!

And here is a sneak peak at what it will look like underneath. It definitely could look a lot worse. I just PRAY it grows back! ugh!

MissingMoney.Com

A friend of mine at work forwarded me this website because she found an Aimee Cooper that had lived in NC and wanted to know if it was me. Rats... nope, I couldn't say that it was. I certainly searched on each state that I had lived in and didn't find anything. It's a really cool website that probably searches on unclaimed money that has been sent to each State because they lost contact with the owner. Having moved around so much myself, I see how this actually could happen. So try it out and see if you have any money you forgot about!

It's actually a bit gloomy out today. I don't mind. It's very calm.

Oh yeah, I do have some really good news. I offered the manager's position to a guy that has worked for Merrill Lynch for the past 5-6 years. He accepted and his first day will be April 24th! I'm so looking forward to this. It will be a huge weight lifted off my shoulders once I start giving the Managers responsibilities to him. I'll give him pieces at a time so as not to burden him too much at the beginning. My work schedule should start getting back to almost normal fairly soon. Whew!

This morning we are just hanging out at the house. I heard of a local home depot type store that doesn't advertise so they can keep the prices extremely cheap. I think we might check that out later this afternoon. Hopefully they have a lot of stuff.

I hope everyone has a good weekend!

The McCowans visit!

So we had planned on Steve, Erica & Claudia coming to visit St. Patrick's Day weekend. I was able to talk them into coming even though Doyle was going to be their chef instead of me. :)

Claudia is really growing up! She was a little monkey at the kitchen table.

Is she adorable or what? She's the spitting image of her dad that's for sure.

Claudia really liked petting Snickers. She was a little leary of Kit, but did get the nerve up to pet him before they left. She also loved giving Snickers treats. He worked off any extra food by getting chased though. :)

Erica is due in May with their 2nd daughter, Vanessa. We can't wait to see her too!

The "TOE" - The update

This was taken the day after the incident. What a not so Happy St. Patrick's Day for me. This time last year, Doyle and I were strolling the streets of Savannah, having a ball. What a difference a year makes!

We initally thought the nail was cracked. If you look at the lower left hand corner of the nail, there was a distinct line that made us believe it was in two pieces. Later on, I realized this was actually just skin or some sort of stretched cuticle layer.

This picture was maybe 5 days later. That weird skin on the left and lower part would get really hard when dry. I never really figured out exactly what it was or where it came from.

This was possibly on day 5 as well. You can see it was still fairly swollen. At first I didn't think it was all that swollen until I went to work and showed a couple of people there. Then when I got home, I put my feet together and saw just how much thicker the left one really was.

And this is what it looks like today, over 2 weeks later. That gunky skin is finally almost gone. It rarely ever bleeds anymore either. But when I press on the end of the toenail, the end of the nail by the cuticle pops up slightly. So I do know it isn't attached right there. We'll see what ends up happening. I've been wearing a bandaid over it at work.

I just put my running shoes on today for the first time as well. It was a little uncomfortable and hurt some but not too much. I just got back from going to the gym for the first time since it happened. Pulling weights off the racks did give me flash backs. We'll see how long it takes for me to want to use that one machine I was on when it happened.

Hopefully nothing more eventful will happen with this. The doctor had said if the nail was going to come off, it would do it within 2-3 weeks. So maybe I've got a flying chance after all. We'll see!

The "TOE" - The first night

Okay, so I'm finally getting around to telling about my toe injury. This all happened on March 16th, the day before St. Patrick's Day. Doyle and I had gone to the gym to work out as usual and within the first 15 minutes of being there... I hurt myself. That was about 6:15pm. If you've already heard the story from this night, you might want to skip this and wait for me to publish the update. :)

I was getting the squat machine set up with weights when this guy comes over and starts putting weight on the very machine I've already marked as my own. I said "excuse me?" to him and he looked at me startled like he hadn't seen me standing only 6 inches from him. He says "oh, are you using this machine"? I tell him yes and he goes on to tell me that he only needed one of the weights on the rack but it was behind some of the other weights that he didn't need. And that's why he moved those weights on the bar that I was using so that he could get to the one behind them. I said oh, okay. He then took the one weight he needed and took the ones off the bar. I then put the weight I was holding on the bar. Then I walked over to the other side of the machine to put a weight on it.

That's when I apparently decided to replay the strange occurrence in my head instead of paying attention to what I was doing. When I saw the weight that I needed was behind some other weights as well, I knew I had to remove what I thought was only 2 weights to get to the one behind them. Only when I grabbed the two weights and pulled them forward (about chest high), I instantly realized that there evidently were 3 weights that I had pulled forward. I had my hands on the 2nd and 3rd weights but the first weight just dropped straight down and onto my foot!

The gym was fairly packed that night and the two guys there were beside me, started laughing after it fell. Now, I really have no idea if they were laughing at me but I thought they were. So I just acted like nothing had happened, even though my eyes were about to bulge out of their sockets because the pain was unbearable. I simply reached down, picked the weight up and put it on another rack. I then grabbed the weight that I did need and put it on the bar. I honestly thought that the pain would subside and I would just go on lifting. But after I took a few steps to get behind the bar, I knew there was something terribly wrong with that foot.

So I walked over to Doyle who was about 10 feet from me, and matter of factly, told him I had dropped a weight on my foot and that I needed to use the restroom. I did have to limp slightly to get there but kept a very straight face and still tried to act like nothing had happened. Once I sat down in there and took my shoe off, I saw the red blood had already soaked through the sock and I really thought I was going to get sick. I immediately put the shoe back on, which was more painful than taking it off, and went to tell Doyle we needed to leave immediately.

As soon as I walked outside I totally lost it. I think I just wasn't going to allow myself to cry in front of anyone at the gym. Once we started down the road, Doyle said he would take me to Solantic, which is a walk-in clinic. Just before we got there, I took the sock off my foot. I really thought I was going to puke. And poor Doyle, he had to listen to me wail about the pain and the fact that I was pretty sure I was going to end up in more pain once someone started working on that toe.

So we get to Solantic and the girl touches it and says they can't help me there, that I need to go to the emergency room. She tells Doyle where the closest one is and we head off. Once we get there, we wait for 2 1/2 hours before anyone sees me. To try and make an even longer story shorter, I ended up: (1) getting a pain killer shot on each side of my big toe. The pain from that shot was horrific. Don't ever get shots in your foot unless you absolutely have to! The shots made my toe get huge before it soaked into it completely. I've never seen this before. (2) They took x-rays to see if it was broken and it wasn't. (3) The doctor ended up pushing the toe nail to make sure the blood was able to come out from under the nail. This was probably the most excrutiating pain I had felt that night. I literally was yelling while digging my fingernails into Doyle's hands. (4) I almost passed out when the doctor started telling me that most cases they end up having to drill a hole in the nail bed to let the blood out. I got so lightheaded at hearing this, that they had me lie down on the bed and hooked me up to a machine to track my vitals. I felt really dumb at this point in the night... and my most thoughtful husband used my cell phone to capture it... (5) One of the nurses cleaned the toe and gave me crutches and shoe bootie. (6) We finally got checked out and did the paperwork.

We filled my pain killer prescription, hydrocodone and went to Arby's to finally eat supper. We got home around midnight. The pills took the edge off of the throbbing but never did really take all the pain away. I was kind of surprised because I thought that was supposed to be the "good stuff". I'll post a seperate blog for the update on what has happened since this first night.