In a Week or So

Two exciting things are happening in a little over a week.

1) Jesse finds out if he passed his California Professional Engineering test. We really hope he did.

2) We find out the sex of our baby and I'll be half way through my pregnancy.

Patience....

Melissa

Tired

I'm tired, had a rough day with traffic. At least my chiropractor made my back feel better.

It's Been a Couple of Weeks....

Sorry for no update in a long time. Here are a few things that have happened in the last couple of weeks:

1. Jesse and I took our church’s youth group down to Ensenada, Mexico the last week of June. We framed and put up drywall on the second story of a church (La Escalera de Jacob-Jacob’s Ladder), sanded and painted window bars and doors. We had a great time serving the people of Mexico. I’ll post some pictures up soon.

2. No updates on my crazy allergic reaction. The last time I got tested nothing happened. I have to setup another appointment and take stronger drugs to see if it causes anything.

3. Jesse and I are still house hunting, which is always fun.

4. We are going to my cousin’s wedding in about two weeks in Los Angeles. While we are down there we are going to go to Disneyland, which is always exciting but Jesse has never been there so that will be extra fun.

5. Our plans for Peru trip are on track, so the next step is to buy our plane tickets. If you want to come let us know!

6. Rocky got a haircut by a professional groomer so he looks funny and cute. I bought him a doggie couch which he looks really cute on. I post some pictures too.


Melissa

A Little Scared

I'm a little scared that I'm actually going to try to go into anaphylaxis on Friday. It will be my fourth time that my body wants to die on me. Oh well, at least the doctors and nurses will be right there next to me to save me. It's not fun when you start losing your breathing ability and feel like your body is being burned.

Melissa

Sick Girl

Well I'm sick with strep throat. I've been sick since last Wednesday, but didn't really feel it until Friday. I suspected that I had strep because I went on WebMD and read all about it, but the doctor confirmed it on Monday and gave me some pain killers and antibiotics. Last night I finally slept since Saturday night and it was great. I would never wish this disease on anyone, because it has been SO painful on my throat and the rest of my body.

I have completely lost my voice, but when I try to speak I sound like the little black boy in the wheel chair from Malcolm in the Middle....Jesse laughs at me every time I talk. Oh well.

Melissa

Missing Girl and My 3rd Near Death Experience

If you are the praying type please pray for Veronica Ruiz and for the safety of my co-workers and rangers. She is the missing hiker from Mill Valley, who was hiking on Mount Tamalpais. She is my co-worker and this is a very sad situation. I can't explain everything, but it's a horrible thing that no one should go through. It is very heartwrenching for me because yesterday I was looking for Veronica in a beautiful place, on a mountain by the ocean, but all I could think about was my co-worker is out there, it's dangerous and we need to find here. In my line of work we will do anything to save our own. I can't even imagine what her parents are going through.

Yesterday, I was on the one of the rescue teams searching for Veronica on Mt. Tam. I was on a team of four people consisting of a Ranger, Jr. Ranger, one of my co-workers and myself. We separated in pairs and went two different directions but we were going to meetup eventually. I paired up with the Ranger. Every was going fine, other than not finding Veronica, covering as much ground as we could (3 or 4 miles).

I first notice my hands were itching but didn't think anything about it. I climed to the top of a hill and yelled for Veronica and I felt that my mouth was kind of tight. I felt my face and I started to have welts and bumps on my face. I ran to the Ranger, when I felt that my throat was starting to close up. Then my whole body started itching like if I had ants biting me all over my body. What scared my the most was the last time this happened to me my throat was almost closed up in less than 5 minutes after I found out something was wrong with me. We were far away about 1 hour hike back down to the fireman's station.

As the Ranger called for help I calmed my self down. The ability of being able to breathe was slowly being taken away from me so while the Ranger called for help I called Jesse. Jesse said I sounded calm but in my mind I was thinking, "I'm going to die, I'm going into respiratory arrest, please Lord help me, help me." I kneeled down to try to control my breath. Thank God I was trained to control my breathing when I was OC'ed (pepper sprayed) in my face, during my Georgia training. The faster I breathed, the faster the allergy would go through my body.

The Ranger didn't have Epinefrin and Benadryl, the medicine I needed. What felt like an eternity, was probably 15 minutes before the firemen came. The Ranger and the firemen felt like my angels. I was REALLY bad by the time they came to me. The firemen gave my oxygen, while they prepared the epinefrin, and benadryl. Epinefrin is pure adrenalin, which made me cold, somewhat disoriented and was very shaky. When I finally got to the ambulance, they stabalized me and took me to the Emergency Room.

My symptoms got better on the way to the hospital, but I felt and still feel like crap. When I arrived they hooked me up to some steroids to make sure my allergic reaction completely went away. The bad thing is that they don't know what I'm allergic too. I have to go see an allergist to see if he can determine the source of my severe allergic reation. So for the rest of my life I have to walk around with an Epi-Stick (self injection of epinefrin/adrenalin) in case I start feeling the same thing again.

I call it my 3rd near death experience because it was. The 1st time anything like this happened to was this same experience in Georgia, 2nd time my car accident, 3rd was yesterday. I really don't like almost dieing, I'm not scared of dieing because I know I'm going to heaven because Jesus lives in me, but the pain, and actual process and the realization of "If I don't get help I'm going to die" is not fun. But I'm still here, happy and alive.

Melissa

Funny!!

This is an actual picture from the streets in Richmond, CA. Funny!!

Weight Gain Weight Loss!

After my car accident I gain approximately 12 lbs, due to not exercising and not being able to cook as much as I did because I was in pain. Therefore, Jesse and I ate out more than we normally did. 12 pounds doesn’t sound like a lot but on a 5 foot petite woman like me it was a lot of weight.

Once I got my strength back and was physically able to exercise (primarily weight lifting and running) I really started to get back into the habit. After three months of working out and running like crazy, I actually had not lost a pound but actually gained weight from my muscle gain (or fat but I prefer to think it was muscle). It was ridiculous! I was lifting the most I had ever lifted and was running 6 miles 3 or 4 times a week and nothing was happening.

I decided that if exercising wasn’t helping me lose weight that I would have to change my eating habits. I was debating between starting the Nutrisystem or Weight Watchers, but I eventually chose Weight Watchers because it fit my lifestyle that I have.

First couple of weeks I was quite hungry but my appetite eventually changed. Slowly but gradually the weight starting coming off between 1-2 lbs a week since mid September of this year. Hiking Machu Picchu made not only me lose weight but Jesse too. Jesse lost like 10 lbs hiking in Peru and I lost like 5 lbs. Weight Watchers completely changed my point of view on eating; I’m eating and feeling SO much healthier. I have horrible migraines and ever since I starting eating better my migraines have drastically reduced to almost never happening.

All in all, I have lost 16 lbs with only a few more pounds to go just because we all want to lose those 5 extra pounds, eating and exercising better (though I haven’t exercised since Peru, but that’s somewhat understandable). I still eat my pizza, chocolate and other yummy bad food but now I know what junk food costs me. That doesn’t mean I’m staying away from them forever but only once in a blue moon.

Melissa

Random Thoughts

I'm excited and I don't know why. Maybe about Thanksgiving and Christmas, having great times with families and friends.

I'm glad it's fall almost winter. Jesse's birthday is next month, my work situation is better, I feel healthier. Rocky's not that much of a butthead. I had lunch today with Jesse so that is always a perk. We lost the BMW but now we don't have a car payment and our insurance is WAY cheaper, we only really need one car.

Life is good.

Melissa

Dentist

I went to the dentist this morning because one of my teeth hurt when I bit down on it. My dentist told me that my tooth seemed like it was starting to die. Apparently I had a larger than normal nerve in my tooth which was very close to the surface of my tooth, that was nicked by a previous dentist when filling a previous cavity. It just takes years for the nerve to die, and apparently it wants to cause me pain before I go to Peru. My dentist said that if I wasn't going to Peru in a week that he wouldn't not suggest doing a root canal, but since I am he did a root canal. Pre-emptive strike, I like it.

Every I know has told me that a root canals are horrible, but I really didn't feel anything because 1) my tooth did not have a cavity in it, it was just dieing 2) My dentist shot me with Novocaine like 4 or 5 times AND gave me laughing gas which was a lot of fun. He finished the whole thing like in one hour. My jaw hurts more than tooth, but I still am taking some pain killers and anti-biotics. That was my morning. I just didn't want to have some Peruvian dentist pull my tooth out.

Melissa

Running

I ran a little over 5 miles today in about 1 hour, so approximately 12 minute miles which is not all that great. I haven’t done that since my training times in Georgia, and I'm not in shape at this moment in time (partially due to my car accident and laziness). After about 2.5 miles, I can’t feel my body anymore and I can run forever but my laziness takes over and I stop. I’m just glad that I didn’t stop running.

Melissa

My Goal

My new goal is to survive the next couple of weeks. Think of a happy place...

A Hint

Mission Peak has a hint of green. I love it. I can see Mission Peak from my house and from my office window.

Tomorrow, Turkey Day! Time to bring out the fat pants!

The Rain and The Day From Hell

I once lived in Georgia where it rained all the time. Apparently, mostly everywhere outside of California it rains in the summertime and all vegetation dies in the wintertime. When it rains in California I sometimes get irritated because people forget how to drive, I’m stuck in traffic and everything is wet. But then I remember how I loved the rain in Georgia. In the beginning it was irritating, but then I would walk in the rain everywhere I went. When it rained it was relief from the 110 degree weather and 100% humidity. I hated physical training when the actual temperature was 120 degrees (it was actually 100 degrees but with the humidity factor it was 120 degrees). When it rained the temperature would drop like 30 degrees and I could run in the rain forever, even though I was so wet I weighed 10 pounds more. I just didn’t want the rain to stop because if you’ve ever been in the South after it has rained you know what I’m talking about.

The Day from Hell was the first day I had physical training. I don’t know if it was because it was my first physical training day or it was just really the day from hell. Our instructor was like the bad cop in The Terminator 2. He just wouldn’t stop. Two minutes after we started doing calisthenics there was a lot of thunder and it started raining, but no lighting. If there was lighting we would have stopped, but no we went on for about 1 ½ hour of CRAZY calisthenics. If you slowed down our instructor stared at us with piercing eyes and somehow found the strength to continue.

At one point I had dirt on my face, in my teeth, and my arms were collapsing and thought to myself, “What am I doing?!” Then I thought to myself, “Thank God it is raining or else I probably would have fainted.” I’m not physically strong but I pushed myself to do it but there were some guys around me that were in so much pain, it was kind of sad. Later we stretch for about ½ hour and it hurt. Let’s say the only thing that didn’t hurt later that night was my hair. I woke up in the middle of the night to roll over in my bed and I had a wave of pain went through my body.

A few months later our instructor actually apologized because he even thought that day was really harsh.

A Long Ride

Yesterday, I had to go up north for work. Total it was a six hour drive (back and forth). I have never been car sick in my life (This is Melissa) Well I was sick the WHOLE time. It was the worst feeling ever, but I feel fine now. I don't know what happened.