OCTOBERFEST (with a 'c'): Team Hayes Goes For Broke

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I always look forward to dressing up. I love decorating for Halloween almost as much as I love decorating for Christmas. I am a little sad about the fact that I will not be able to put my decorations up on the 1st of October as usual. However important I have deemed them in the past, decorations are very low on my to-do list in the coming weeks. This is going to be a very busy, not to mention expensive, October for Team Hayes!

Here is the plan so far:

October 1 - Housing pre-inspection. This is when the housing guys come and inspect our house to tell us what we need to return to 'move-in' condition before we vacate. Then we have to fix all of it before turning in the keys, or we get charged who knows how much. Also, we are going to a laser light show/family festival type thing that night to celebrate the new fiscal year, and more importantly Pearl Harbor and Hickam officially becoming a joint base. Free food and bouncy housing? Yes please.



October 2 - We will be headed up north for TSGT Zach Weaver's promotion party. Woo hoo! But, before and after the fun, we will start working on getting the household non-essentials boxed up, and attack some of the things that we will have to improve before our final inspection (taking down curtain rods, replacing the bathroom towel rods that I removed, etc). Did I mention that we have to grow grass in our backyard before we move out?

October 3 - Pack for California! This particular Sunday is going to be a busy one. We will have to empty, clean and deflate the pool in the backyard, roll up and clean the tarp, and then plant grass seed. I will also have to catch up on laundry, and get myself packed and ready to mobilize to California the next day.

October 4 - I will begin the hunt for a space available AMC flight on this Monday. Amanda Foxworthy is getting married on Sunday the 10th, so I should be able to get on a flight with plenty of time. This is going to be a brand new travel experience for me because I have never before traveled with two full size car seats! So, my travel system will need a little bit of buffering and fine tuning.



October 5-8 - These are ambiguous days for us because we will either be playing the standing-by-to-fly game, or arriving in California, procuring a rental car, and heading to Salinas/Sacramento. Who knows!? It's always a little bit of an adventure for us. I would love to go for a walk with Cori and Kate on the morning of Thursday the 7th. I really hope I make it to Travis AFB at least by Friday afternoon so that I can join Jodi's bridal bowling excursion that evening (that will be bridal bowling experience number two for me, in as many weeks). Ideally, I'd get on a Tuesday late night flight, land at Travis around 8 am on Wednesday, get a rental car around 10 am, pick up a platter of Chick-fil-A nuggets, and head for Nine Months and Beyond, to meet Stacey and Ginger for an impromptu celebration of their impending non-pregnant-ness (aka baby celebration). Also, I need to see Glen McDowell to check out our family photos, and settle the bill with him so we can finally change the picture at the top of this blog! Yay!



October 9 - If I haven't made it to Salinas by this point, then I am likely in Hawaii, pouting about missing Amanda's wedding and kicking myself for being too cheap to buy a plane ticket. Hopefully, though, I will be shacked up at Kylie's...maybe even enlisting a babysitter so she and I can go out to enjoy a bit of our favorite pastime (karaoke!).

October 10 - Amanda get's married! Yay! I'll be leaving the kids with Aunt Kylie, and heading to Carmel, dateless, to witness the vows of one of my favorite people to one of her favorite people. Aw, I'm tearing up. I love love!

October 11 - The fight for a return flight begins! I love that I have family close by to deal with me and my kids when we get jerked around by the AMC system. I need to make it clear that I hold no ill will for the AMC system because of how it "jerks me around". I am actually SUPER grateful to have access to the opportunities that are provided to me and my family by the AMC. I guess I am just spoiled from all angles!

October 12-15 - Hopefully arriving back in Honolulu by Friday the 15th. If we get stuck in Farifield for a day or two, maybe another free tour of the Jelly Belly factory will be in order....or maybe this time I can catch the newly engaged Kaysie Herrera (soon to be Pino) for dinner in Concord.



October 16 - Navy Ball! Yay, dress whites for Brad and another reason for me to get prettied up!. I really hope that I make it back from California in time because the tickets are $60 a piece this year, it might be the last Navy Ball I get to go to with the Paines, AND the Weavers are coming! Also, Melynda just might wear my bridesmaid dress from Stacey's wedding! I was really skinny then, but not THAT skinny...and I am taller than her, so I need to take it in, put a new zipper on, and hem it between now and then. But, I can squeeze that in somewhere, right? Nothing makes me happier than spending time with friends, except for saving my friends money!!! Ha ha. If only I could wear this dress to the Navy Ball this year!



October 17 - Count down to move...4 days! Eek. I need to look for a drop in day care to hang onto the kids for the 18th, 19th, and 20th, so we will be able to pack up and be ready to move on the 21st. Yikes, I'm getting excited and anxious, but I'm sure four days is plenty of time to pack for a move.

October 21-24 - MOVE. Rent a truck, fill it up, drive it around the corner, unload, repeat. That sounds relatively easy and stress free! We plan to just load up one room at a time, then set up the room as it should look as we unload. It should go as smoothly as I am planning, right?

October 25 - Inspection on old house and turn in the keys. Good bye 1944 Nye Place!
Hello, 2725 Gordon Street!



October 26 - relax

October 27-30 - Organize, finish moving in, clean, DECORATE (normal house stuff and Halloween decorations), do some major grocery shopping, prepare the house and make a cake for Sam's Halloween Birthday Party...not to mention celebrating Sam's actual birthday which will be on the 28th. I can't believe he is almost one already!

October 31 - Sam's Halloween Birthday party! Costumes, candy, food, friends, and fun! Plus a little set up and clean up. Trick or Treating is going to be a fun way to end this month! :)

So, that will be our crazy October!

Now, I can't get carried away with thinking that far into the future. Here are somethings I get to do BEFORE October even arrives:

-Clean and organize for housing pre-inspection
-Do about 14 loads of laundry
-buy new furniture
-sew my lion costume and Jocelyn's Dorothy costume
-alter dress for Melynda
-get new brake pads for the van installed, and brake fluid leak fixed
-go see Beauty and the Beast at the Blaisdell Center
-get dressed up for 'formal bowling', followed by karaoke and half price Sansei sushi! <-- I'm really looking forward to that this weekend :)

You know, I was sitting around doing nothing today, and still felt overwhelmed with what the next 5 1/2 weeks has in store for me. I thought that if I wrote it all down, that it wouldn't look like quite so much, and maybe it would relieve a little bit of stress. Oops. Now all I can think about is how much all of this is going to cost...



* Honolulu ladies formal bowling, including bowling, sushi, drinks,etc = $60
* Beauty and the Beast ticket = $40
* fix the van = $100 deductible w/warranty (not too shabby, especially after the free oil change I got today!)
* new couch/love seat/end table/coffee table/tv table/tv and surround sound/computer desk/pillows/throw blankets/wall hangings/lamps/etc = $4000-$5000
* three round trip plane tickets from Honolulu to San Fransisco = $0 :)
* rental car for approximately one week in California = $200 + $500 credit card hold
* Sacramento bridal bowling = $40
* Chik-fil-A nugget tray = $50
* Glen McDowell's tab = I think it will be close to $500
* new hair straightener from Sally's = $100
* Amanda's wedding, including gift, drinks, baby sitting etc =$200
* Jelly Belly factory tour = $0 (yeah right, you know I'm going to spend $20 on fudge!)
* Navy ball tickets = $120
* child care for Navy Ball = $0 :)
* Uhaul rental = who knows, I've never rented a Uhaul before...$50, $100???
* babysitting during move = probably close to $300
* Oh, and the insurance on the van is due by Oct 22 = $318.10

I am afraid to add up the numbers I have listed above. Haha. I think we are nearing $7000 for the month and that doesn't even include groceries, gas, our bills (water delivery/netflix/cell phones/internet), or spending cash. Hey, but guess how much I'm going to be spending on diapers? Yeah, major savings!

I am looking forward to November. Though I will be hosting a ladies luncheon on November 14th, and then Thanksgiving dinner a few short days after that, I do not plan on doing anything else in November. I'm going to be a hermit. Oh wait...I have Christmas shopping to do! :)

Poor Brad. At least he will have some quality time with his birthday present while the kids and I are in California!

The pitter patter of tiny feet

I have a habit of staying up late, using the computer. Actually, it is less of a habit, and more of an addiction. Brad almost always goes to sleep before me. I'm just kind of a night owl.

Anyway, throughout the last couple of weeks I have been considering changing my night owl ways due to something that totally creeps me out. There is a rat, mouse, squirrel, giant gecko, or other creature of that sort living in my ceiling! I'm pretty sure it's 'nest' is under the floorboards of our upstairs hallway, and DIRECTLY above my computer desk.

Eek. I can hear it right now, scampering around. As I type this, I am having to go back and fix all the typos that I'm creating because I keep getting chills and cannot type easily with shaking hands.

Ick. Last week, our rodent guest was hyper and was running around so fast that it was running into things and making other obnoxious sounds in addition to the creepy tapping of tiny claws. I was freaked out. When I finally went upstairs to go to bed, I couldn't sleep. I was up ALL night, staring at the ceiling, listening to the critter in the silence.

I have heard it nearly every night since, and cannot figure out why I have yet to call housing to let them know about it. I haven't been sleeping well. I have even had dreams of this creature keeping Jocelyn company in her bed as she sleeps. YUCK! However, when I wake up in the morning I seem to forget about it, then every night when I am reminded, it is too late to call the housing office.

I really need to start going to bed earlier! It's 11:00 now, and I'm going to head up to bed, but probably won't be able to sleep until around 1:00. :(

*shiver*

Inflamed

What do you call it when you have your appendix removed? An appendectomy.

What do you call it when you have your tonsils removed? A tonsillectomy.

What do you call it when you have a gender reassignment to become a man? An addadictomy.

:)

So, I started having some tummy pains on Thursday afternoon while watching "The Back Up Plan" with Steph and Amy. At first I considered that it was due to eating too much spinach at lunch. Then I was bummed, thinking it was menstrual cramps (which made me sad because I was hoping not to have a period for another year or so due to pregnancy). I took some acetaminophen and then also some ibuprofen. No relief. I went to the bathroom like twelve times. No relief. If it's not cramps, and it's not gas, what is it? When Brad got home from work I tried to lay down for an hour or so. I couldn't even get comfortable enough to close my eyes. I finally let him convince me to go to the ER.

We checked in at 7:00 pm. At 1:30 am, after a pelvic exam, drinking 64 oz of contrast (ick), a CT scan, and lots of waiting, the doc finally came and told me that they were going to have to take my appendix out. They explained that I had a stone in my appendix, made out of poop, and that this what was causing it to be inflamed and swollen. How does poop get into one's appendix? Who knows? But, of course it would happen to me.

An appendectomy is a pretty run of the mill procedure. They are performed several times per day at any decent sized hospital. I am not scared of surgery. However, I really wanted to keep my appendix. I am kind of attached to it. In fact, at Thanksgiving dinner for the last few years, I have officially expressed my thankfulness for still having one. You see, my loveliest friend Melynda had her appendix removed in November of 2006.



Brad and I have teased her about it ever since, by bringing it up at Thanksgiving dinners and whenever else we could slip it in. "Melynda, you would have known the answer to that question if you still had an appendix." "Melynda, I can do this better than you because I still have an appendix." It just so happens that Melynda was the one who came over to watch my kids so Brad could take me to the hospital. When Brad returned home to inform her that I was no longer going to have an appendix, I'm sure she delighted in the sweet irony of the moment. In fact, I returned home last night to balloons from Melnda, one of which read, "congratulations". THIS is what made me sad about having to get my appendix out. :)




Then it got worse. I asked, "What is the recovery time for this surgery?" I was told that I could not participate in any strenuous activity for 6 weeks! WHAT?!!? If you read my last blog, you know that I have FINALLY found the motivation to eat right and work out so I can lose some weight, and just get healthy. I actually paid money for boot camp classes! Those classes are starting on Tuesday. Guess who can't go! I am not even supposed to lift over ten pounds for the first 2 weeks! That means, I cannot lift Sam out of the crib and carry him down stairs, put him in the car or the stroller or the high chair. If I lift anything over ten pounds, I might get a hernia! Great. I definitely don't want that to happen.

Brad and I were going to run the Honolulu Marathon in December. I don't think that is going to happen for me now. Missing out on 6 weeks of training is a lot! However, I really don't think I will have to wait the full six weeks. They told me to wait six weeks after giving birth and I was running before Sam was four weeks old. I know my body, and I know that I will feel fine sooner than they expect, but still. I am bummed about having to quit just as soon as I get in the zone! This always happens and it makes me feel like such a quitter!. I hope and pray, I will be able to get back on track just as soon as I start feeling better.

They did the surgery lapriscopically, in which they make three tiny incisions. They cut one hole in my belly button, one right above my pelvic bone, and one on the left side of my belly, inflated my belly with CO2 so they could see what they were doing, moved all my other organs out of the way, then pulled my appendix from the right side of my body, across my tummy and out the hole on the left side. My throat hurts more than my tummy does, and I'm not even going to have any cool scars. :(


On the bright side. I haven't had to take any of the roxicet (oxycodone) that they sent me home with. I am walking around just fine. I have a normal appetite with no nausea (which is why they let me out of the hospital early last night). I kind of just feel like I did 300 sit ups last night and my abs are a little sore and swollen. I can drive, and do other things that I need to do, while Brad deals with the kids. :) Also, the OR guys gave me a beautiful orange hued mystic tan on my very white belly (unfortunately it washed off in the shower).




I might milk it for what it's worth. BUT, I am going to keep eating healthy! I had a cookie with lunch at the hospital yesterday, but I'm counting that as my cheat day. We are going to go on a nice long walk before dinner. We are grilling swordfish steaks and asparagus. Yum!

On a side note, I got a little teary eyed when the pregnancy test in the ER came back negative. But, it turned out to be a great thing because I might have been stuck with my appendix and a whole lot of weak antibiotics because they couldn't give me anesthetics for the surgery if I were pregnant. Now, we are taking a couple months off from trying to conceive, so we can travel next summer. We will start trying again in early 2011. I'm sad that we won't be having a third child as soon as we had planned, but I guess this was how it was supposed to be. The doctors said we couldn't even practice making a baby for a few weeks after the surgery, anyway. :(

I don't really want to do this...

Okay, here are my September 1, 2010 "before" photos. Yes, photos. Plural. I have decided to post three of them, and I will tell you why. When you see ads for weight-loss-whatever, the before photo always shows the person making them self look fatter with bad posture and a depressed facial expression. Then, in the after photo, they are strategically posed, sucking it in, and super happy. I could take both of those pictures right now! So, I did. This "before" series of photos includes one sticking-it-out/sad-faced photo, one just-standing-there-normally photo, and one trying-to-suck-it-in-and-pose photo. The three fattest versions of me are as follows:

Fat, ugly face, bad posture pose:


Normal, just standing there pose:


Trying unsuccessfully to make myself look skinnier than I really am pose:

Look how much I've accomplished in just 30 seconds!

I plan on posting the same series of three photos on September 30th (taken on September 30th). Here is to hoping they don't look identical to these ones!

Now that this is posted...I actually have to do stuff to ensure that I make a difference! ACK! Wish me luck, motivation, and will power!

Update:
The real before and after (20 pounds lost) of the "standing normally" pose: