A New Home And A New Addition

We'll the excitement is building. The countdown is on. Shad has been recalled to his previous employment and we are feverishly packing and planning a move back to Washington State. In the midst of all this chaos we are also getting a new family member. An eight week old AKC Shih Tzu. My children and husband are keeping themselves occupied with naming the puppy. At this point the name is changing daily. I should have pictures to post after our visit at the breeders on Sunday. They say a new puppy is like having a two year old in the house so perhaps this will be an unusual cure for my current baby blues.

This is it. A man, a woman (who is close to crazy at the moment) two hyperactive sons and a new puppy (with all the uncontrollable peeing and whining) trekking across the states during one of the worst gas hikes we have ever seen. Am I crazy or what? Ok, a moment of reality here… I could be from the south and have no job or home… I will be quiet now.


It has only been a year and a half since our last move so at this point I am ready to go crazy. Shad and I were in the same place for nine years before this, so it feels like utter chaos to me. This is a good and necessary but heart wrenching move as we are leaving many family members and friends behind here in Colorado. The weather has turned sharply cool in the last two days so it feels like everything in the world is changing as fast as the colors of the fall leaves. New employment for both of us, a new home, new schools etc. I kept trying to come up with some witty analogy or a funny story in the midst of all of this but my mind is failing me, I am just too tired!!! I am looking forward to seeing all of my old friends and my family in Washington. It feels like an eternity since we were there.

Health update for those of you who I haven’t called back in the last couple of weeks: I am not ignoring your emails or your voice messages! I have been trying to get to bed earlier in the evenings since my energy level is in the basement. Transitioning into all of the new meds for my RA has been difficult. The last set of blood work came back elevated again but I am coping pretty well. I have started losing my hair (because of a certain medication) and that has been more traumatic than anything. I don't know many women that could handle that very well. I hate to say this and risk offending anyone but if you have cancer and go through chemotherapy people expect you to lose your hair. It is harder to deal with when you talk about losing it and people say "hu? I thought you had Rheumatoid Arthritis?" It’s difficult to explain because people think…. Arthritis, joint pain, old person disease, not a big deal right? Well I guess you could keep thinking that or you could actually do some research. I don’t mean to get snotty, but a few well meaning individuals have said some pretty thoughtless things this week. If I lose my hair on top of it, I may have to take myself to the Caribbean to recooperate!!! Come back with nice shiny TAN head at least! Maybe the roller coasters at Six Flags this week-end will whip out a few more chunks and I can stop my denial that it is happening! That's it, if I am going to lose it I might as well do it in "style" with people coughing up hairballs and shrieking all around me as it flies in their face!