coughing, kidneys, painting, & trees

Random title? Welcome to my life.

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. There are a few reasons for that.

1. I really haven't had a lot to say and I didn't want to subject you to anything that would waste your time more than I already do :) I think that's partially because nothing has really happened and partially because my medicine (mostly Topamax) has kind of slowed down my brain to the point that not much really comes out other than what is asked of me...and even that is a HUGE task. Creativity is not exactly my strong suit these days. Which is rough because I love to create things, and I'm even in an art class and my art professor keeps getting mad at me because I spend a TON of time planning my paintings these days. If you know me at all, you know I'm not so much a planner as I am a do it now-er, and fix it later-er. However, canvases are kind of expensive, so I'd rather not ruin too many. I'm getting off topic...I'll talk more about paintings later!
So that's how my brain works these days. Which is kind of like a worse version of the old me :) Scatterbrained 2.0!

2. MY LIFE IS CHAOS. I am constantly running back and forth between class, appointments, my in-laws' house- who are kind enough to watch our dog for us during the day so she doesn't get lonely and so she can get some exercise since we're usually gone so much - and everywhere else I'm running to before I get to come home for what seems like 5 minutes a day before bed. It's crazy.

Next semester is going to be even worse. Between mini classes and the regular semester, I'm taking 27 hours to graduate in May. I KNOW, I know...it's insane, but I NEED to graduate. I can't keep prolonging the torture. It'll drive me crazy. I just need to put it behind me. SO, I know I'm bringing it on myself, but it'll still be rough.

So I guess I'll talk about the title of the blog now? Yes? Yes.

Coughing.

I developed an upper respiratory infection a few weeks ago, which was awful, but I got over it in about a week or so after I went to Dr. P and he gave me some meds and such. Life was good! Randy was gone, though, and it was even more awful being sick without him here to take care of me :( Anyway, I got better and everything was dandy until the night before Randy got back. I was just about to go to bed and I just about coughed my lungs up. It was the kind of coughing where you feel like you're going to be sick because you're coughing so hard. It was crazy because I was seriously fine 10 minutes earlier. Fortunately, Dr. P had prescribed some awesome "just in case" cough pills. I had never had cough medicine in pill form, but these little beauties are GREAT! They're called "pearls" but I'm pretty sure they have a different spelling...perles, maybe? Anyway, they're fabulous and they can normally kick my hacking and gagging. It's weird, though. I can be fine all day and then suddenly I'll start coughing so hard I'll feel like I'm going to throw up just out of the blue. Until I get some medicine in me, I won't be able to quit coughing, and nothing else will help. It's ridiculous. I think I caught something from a lady in a mini term I took over fall break :( She came to class every day coughing up her left lung and I had no choice but to be in the same room with her all week, 8hrs a day. I went back to Dr. P for a follow-up and he said I have bronchitis now :( no bueno. More antibiotics for Erin!

Kidneys.

I'm about 99.9% positive that I have a major kidney infection. Unfortunately, my kidneys are not that great and I tend to get infections ALL THE TIME. I've been that way since I was 5 years old, if not earlier. It's unfortunate. A little over a year ago, I had an infection that was so bad my doctor was like, "you should have been in the hospital..." and it was apparently starting to shut other stuff down, but fortunately it didn't! Yay! Also, I get kidney stones and other fun things! So basically, my kidneys are awful! The other day Randy was like, "yeah, you should probably just get those taken out...I think they're doing you more harm than good." Anyway, I say all that to say that I have gotten really good at knowing when I have an infection. I'll start aching in the kidney region and I just call the doctor...I can almost ALWAYS tell. I'm rarely wrong. Sometimes they'll be like, "no, I don't think so..." and I'm like, "run the test" and sure enough it'll be positive. This lady knows her kidneys.

So now I'm just waiting on a call from the doctor for them get my test results back and tell me I was right, haha. Also, I might have another kidney stone. Fun news all around! AND you got your TMI for the day :)

Painting.

I mentioned earlier that I was in an art class it is kind of so-so, I guess. I'll explain more about that someday after I graduate...It's a mixed media class, which is my favorite thing to do. For those of you who don't know, mixed media is art that incorporates multiple types of media (what you use to create the artwork i.e. acrylic paint, watercolor, ink). So if you make a piece of art that has shredded paper, acrylic paint, ink, and pieces of wire, then you've made a mixed media piece. That's my definition, anyway...not sure if it's the "technical" definition, so don't quote me. Well, I have been a little frazzled in my class because I don't really like to work around people very often, and I really hate dragging out all my supplies only to put them back up 10 minutes later and have to carry around a wet painting without having a free hand to carry it with, so I finished a painting at home over the weekend! ANNND I'm really pleased with how it turned out! It's a 16x20 canvas and it took me probably 8-9hrs total. Sometimes I'm kind of bad about finishing paintings once I start them, so I'm pretty excited that I actually finished this! I have to do that, though...I really need to do things immediately, or it's so hard to get that push to do them later. That's why procrastination is such a love/hate thing for me.

Trees.

The limb that snapped earlier this year

We recently had one giant tree, one smaller tree, and a huge tree branch that was hanging over our fence cut down and it was crazy! Well, by recently I really mean last week. The giant tree was completely dead and it was pretty much hovering right over our bedroom, which I was blissfully unaware of until Randy decided to inform me that a branch could fall through on us as we were sleeping and kill us... have I mentioned that I love him today? I doooo! So that was fun to think about. Every time I forgot about it he felt the need to remind me of it, too. Love him. No, seriously, I do. He's great :) He got the tree cut down so we wouldn't be a sad story on the news! That wasn't even the worst of our tree problems, though. We had this pecan tree limb coming from our neighbors yard and one of them already snapped this year, but the other one was holding steady-ish. Well, the past few weeks, it started dropping these HUGE limbs out of it on a regular basis and we got scared that it was going to flatten our pooch one day, so we did the smart thing and cut it down. Also, Randy had this gorgeous fence put in this past year and I'm pretty sure he would cry for, like, a week if the other limb (above the one that snapped in the picture) took out our pretty fence. We're so lucky that the other one missed the fence the first time! We're so lucky it missed one of us the first time, too! God was definitely looking out for us! Randy had literally been standing a foot from where it fell 5 minutes earlier. It was crazy. Thanks, God!

All that to say I am doing well and I am alive, but things are a bit crazy. My seizures have been under control lately, so at least that's something good to report! I'm just a little twitchy. If I could get the rest of me well enough to enjoy it that would be really awesome! My brain function is a little muddled, so that's frustrating at times. I have noticed a significant loss of concentration, focus and memory on my medicine. It has gotten a lot worse since they raised my dosage, so that is a little frustrating, but I can definitely manage. Life is really good, though. God has really blessed Randy and I.

I have a couple topics for new blogs floating around in my head...I'll try to be diligent about blogging, but at the same time I'm trying not to blog unless I have something to say. I will definitely keep you updated still about what is happening in my world, but unless I have something worth while, I will try my best not to waste your time with other topics. Make sense? I feel like it's better this way :)

Oy, life will be so much better when I'm not in school. That will be one hat I can take off!

Have a great day/week/however long it'll be before I write again!

p.s. I hope I don't actually waste your time. I know I joke about wasting your time a lot when I say things like "I don't want to waste your time more than I already do," but the truth is I really believe the Lord called me to write this blog and I really hope this is not a waste of time for me or you. I really am joking when I say that. Pardon my touch of self-deprecating humor. I really do need to break myself of that.