Favorite Time of the Year

This has got to be my most favorite time of the year. I love the holidays because you have family....food...fun.....you get the jist. I'm so excited that this time of the year has come, that I have officially replaced my scented plug-in in my classroom to the scent of apple cinnamon. It just makes the room feel warm and smell like the holidays..........at least that's how I associate the smell of an apple cinnamon plug-in. I just LOVE walking into to my classroom in the mornings and getting a whif of that scent. It makes me happy. Tyson's parents come into town next week for Thanksgiving, and both Tyson and I are excited. Tyson always gets REALLY excited when he gets to see his mom and dad since it's so infrequent. The three hour drive and Tyson's schedule get a little bit in the way.

Speaking of happy....TYSON GOT CHRISTMAS DAY OFF! That just THRILLS me! I like it when he has more time off for the holidays. Police schedules are no fun! Tyson is still working his butt off trying to get the chief of Humble to see how beneficial a K9 program would be, and that he's the perfect candidate to be the K9 officer. He is still faithfully taking Rosco to K9 training, and Rosco is just doing awesome! I'm so proud of my baby boy! I just want to put it out there that it completely shocks me that my dog is trained to bite the crap out of a person, and yet, I can roll around on the floor with him and put my face right up to his mouth giving him kisses, and yet he's the most loving dog in the world!...........as well as Precious of course! But, Tyson, as usual, is continuing to work his butt off so we can save for a house. I'm trying to tell him to take a break, that now we're not just living off of his income anymore; but, I think he has trouble seeing that sometimes since he's so used to working. He did go and play golf with a buddy of his yesterday. I'm glad he took that time for himself.

I'm still LOVING my job and having so much fun with it. I was talking to Tyson on the phone yesterday while on my way home, and I realized that I put in well OVER 50+ hours at my job, yet, I don't feel it! My days just fly, and I'm always so busy that I'm not one of those workers that is looking at the time saying, "Ugh....when is it time to get off?!" I'm actually looking at the time and saying, "SHOOT! I wish I had more time with these kids because there's still so much I need to cover!" I also have a great group of supportive parents, and feel so blessed to have great parents in my first year of teaching. Again, teaching is really a great gig if you have the passion for it.

As far as my bladder health goes, I am finding that I'm continuing to GRADUALLY improve some more. The pain I've had has pretty much been almost non-existent to mild. You do not know how grateful I am! I had ONE MONTH of NON STOP pelvic pain that caused me so much agony that I wanted to crawl under a rock and just die. Now, the pain is so much more tolerable (still uncomfortable at times) that I'm a little happier.........now if I can only get rid of this sensation to have to pee all of the time, and lose the awareness of my bladder...
I have three goals in mind with the first one being my most important one and that is to become symptom free "remission," then number two would be to get heavily back in the gym like I used to be able to do, and then number three would be to be able to eat and drink what ever I want. The gym is more important than the food to me right now, because I'm eating relatively healthy due to this strict IC and gluten free diet I'm on, and I want to keep my body fit. Once I get heavily back into the gym, THEN I will worry about how long it will take me to be able to eat a Papa John's small pepperoni pizza......and yes......before IC I would be able to eat a small ALL BY MYSELF. Just ask Tyson! :) Now some of you see why I was in the gym so much! I LOVED to eat! Plus...I wanted muscles! :) :) :)

Overall, I'm feeling a little bit better now, so I've been trying to experiment with foods. I say trying because I'm still so psychologically scarred from what this bladder condition has put me through, that I don't want to to fall back and have my beginning symptoms return. Good God that was horrible! I don't think ANYONE deserves to suffer like that. As I've said before, I experiemented with a sugar cookie and did fine. By the way....that cookie wasn't gluten free.............................and then, today, we had "Donuts for Dad" at school this morning, and I tried a glazed donut. So far....no symptoms, but we will see how I feel tomorrow. Again, that was another food item that wasn't gluten free....but OH how could I NOT resist the donut. I sound like Tyson................HA! I have my 2 month follow up appt. with my Uro. this upcoming Wed. We'll just see how he assesses my current situation, and what route we need to keep following. I can't believe it's been 2 months since I saw him. I never thought I would make it a full 2 months without wanting to call him, begging him to give me pain medication. But, I didn't, so that is good.

Anyways! Tyson and I hope everyone is happy and healthy, and that everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving. Eat lots and lots of turkey! :)