Ready for a new week!

I posted last week about my four lows (computer, car, car, and garden). I was ready for a turnaround weekend as Jason and I got ready for our church retreat.

As I was walking to the car I turned to Jason to say something and then cried out in excruciating pain. My lower back was strained and hurt so bad! We stopped and got ice and headed to the retreat.

I felt like the pain was subsiding as the evening went on. That is until 1:00 am Friday night/Saturday morning when I woke up an had to go to the bathroom.

I. COULD. NOT. MOVE.

I literally crawled out of bed and army-crawled my way to the bathroom where I was fortunate enough to have a handicap wall rail and my husband to pull myself onto the toilet. (TMI, I know). I emailed the coordinator for Katy Fit, who happens to be a chiropractor who owns his own business. Very fortunate.

The next morning was the same but worse. Jason had to drag me by my feet to the bathroom. (I told him you could tell he hadn't pulled any dead bodies lately because he had no idea how to hold my feet. I attribute this comment to watching too much Criminal Minds- but at least I was trying to joke! And I'm sure if I hadn't been in so much pain, and if it hadn't hurt so badly to laugh, I would have been cracking up at how pathetic I was!) It took a good 45 min for me to be able to stand on my own. Ridiculous.

Doc Scott responded to my email and said he would squeeze me in and to head over there. So I left the retreat to make my way to his office and I *almost* got pulled over for speeding. (I am going to blame this on my pain, my absence from driving a stick, was in Jason's car, and the fact that it's a turbo engine.)

Fortunately I was able to brake and stick to the speed limit while the sheriff followed me for a few miles. (And yes I stuck to the speed limit thereafter!)

My right hip was higher than my left and I was definitely out of whack. I got an adjustment and instructions to alternate ice/heat and skip my 16 mile run the next day.

I headed back to the retreat and took it easy and followed my recovery instructions. Let's call this #5 on my second set of bad things come in 3's. (Today I am doing better but still very sore and cannot sit for long periods of time. A bad thing when you are an engineer with a desk job...and it only took me 15 min to be able to stand up today!)

Saturday night I got what I am calling my sixth and FINAL one. As I was sitting at the dinner table visiting, I all of a sudden felt my lower lip on the right side start to swell. I looked at Jason who confirmed it's growth...

Now this has happened to me twice before and I struggle to pinpoint any common factors in the now three times it's occurred. Different foods, no food, etc. It's always my bottom lip on the right side and fortunately goes away in just a few hours. I was lucky and this one went down in just an hour.

I can only come up with two common factors. They were both at night and after being outside so maybe mosquito bites?? However I've been bit and not had it happen so I'm still lost. And I haven't been bit on the lip...(Any suggestions of what it might be are greatly appreciated!)

So now I'm done. Both sets of "bad things come in 3's" have occurred. I am determined to change my outlook and have a better week!! I think the Lord knew that I needed to make that thankful list last week so I'd have something to remember and reflect on when this week happened.

I am blessed, I am thankful, and I will have a better week! We are having trends over for dinner and got our beautiful CHRISAs tree put up and lit the candles on our homemade advent wreath. Things are already going better if you ask me! ;-)

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Maybe bad news comes in 4's...

Oh and add to this week's wonderful events that I came home yesterday and saw this when I went to check on the garden...

I really hope all our beans plants aren't dead. :-(

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This isn't my week...

As wonderful as last week was with Thanksgiving and my birthday, this week is horrific. It started with my computer crashing. I reached out to the one person I knew could help me - ConocoPhillips IT Support. My co-worker took a look at the computer and gave me the worst news. It was a mechanically failed hard drive which can only be recovered with a forensic machine in a clean room.

UGH.

I got the contact information for data recovery services that ConocoPhillips uses. There is a $65 diagnostic fee and they will tell you what they even can recover and a cost estimate. It will range from $700-$2000 depending on the damage to the hard drive (not the amount of data on it).

A system restore will not work on a mechanically broken hard drive. And even if it did, I still wouldn't have July-November of pictures, documents, etc. There is a possibility that I could buy a new hard drive and run the system restore on it, but again - still won't have July-November. I think at minimum Jason and I will send the hard drive in for diagnostic and then evaluate after that the path forward, but I know that if we are able to get everything up through July recovered somehow that we probably won't be able to justify the expense for the data recovery, even at the low end of $700. Now is EVERYTHING is gone, that a horse of a different color.

Add to that disaster Tuesday night I get a call from Jason that his battery is dead, he's stuck at work, and he's got class and a group project he needs to get to. This my friends is an example of the different ways men and women think. As I drive over to his office I am thinking of possible solutions to this problem - could my friend Leah give me a ride home or to church or drop me off near church so I don't miss Bible study, or can my friend Erica do the same, could Jason drop me close on his way to school and someone from church pick me up, etc.

I arrive and ask Jason what he wants to do. His ideas do not coincide with mine. He wants to go get a new battery. So we drive over to a place and I ask him, "Did you call ahead, make sure they have it, and ask them to pull it off the shelves so we can grab and go?" "Um, no I didn't." "Do you need the old battery?" "Um, I should be fine without it."

We go there and buy a battery, drive back to Jason's office, and attempt to install the battery. I say attempt because the battery did not fit. It was too long to rest inside the hood. Epic fail.

On to plan B - Jason drops me off on his way to class somewhat close to our church and a friend comes and picks me up. The following day I catch a ride with a co-worker and Jason is able to get his battery repaired and so after dinner with some friends we head to his office to retrieve the car.

We get the car and as we head home, I hit a pothole that I didn't even see and become fearful as the check tire light comes on and I can tell the car is pulling to the right...I continue on home, pull into the garage and tell Jason we need to check the tires.

Sure enough the front right tire is flat and the garage now smells of burning rubber. He goes to put the spare on and checks the back tire. It's ripping at the seams between the hub cap and tire. Awesome.

We check the road hazard warranty (because they are still pretty new tires) and see that if the treads are worn only 8-30's (??) then we are good. We measure them. They are 7-30's. Still, we need to do something. So this morning my co-worker follow me while I drop the car off at Discount Tire driving 20 mph with my hazards on and almost getting run over (Houston is not kind to slow drivers...) They agree, the warranty at Tire Rack wouldn't hold and there's no point in shipping the tires to them.

We were also afraid that we would have to buy ANOTHER back tire because it's not good to have a new one and an older one on the back. Why don't we just rotate the tires you say? Because Lexus rear tires are not interchangeable with front tires. Discount Tire checked and said that they weren't worn too badly and it wouldn't be a big concern. Phew - the first good news of the week.

Discount Tire was incredibly nice and helpful - we will be using them from now and and never using Tire Rack again. Discount will match the Tire Rack price AND they will cover warranty on-site rather than having to ship the tires to Tire Rack for warranty. They have one tire on-site and should be able to get the other tire at their store today before lunch meaning I might be able to get the car back today. The second good news of the week! (Houston is NOT compatible to carpooling or public transportation.)

They say bad things come in 3's. We should be covered then so here's hoping the rest of the week is less eventful and that we are able to enjoy ourselves at our church retreat this weekend!

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