It's "Fest" time

Oh yes, it's time to "fest". Fall is the time of year where you can find a "Fest" of some sort in most small towns and big cities all around northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. This past Saturday I went to Fall Fest in Chester Park right by my house. My dad came up and we ended up with Honeycrisp apples from Bayfield, a metal snowflake for a Christmas tree topper, hand made soap for Brian, and a dried flower thing for my front door. The apples were the biggest score because every year I go to Apple Fest in Bayfield (yet another fest this time of year....this year I'll be going on Oct. 8th) in hopes to get Honeycrisp apples, and the past three years I've been skunked. There is a limited supply of them and if you've never had one before, you would know why they sell out so quickly. Quite possibly the best apple ever. Anyway, I scored a 10 lb. bag of them, so if I can't get more on the 8th, then I'll be ok. Dad and I also went to check out what you could call Hawk Ridge Festival-for the annual hawk and raptor migration. Last year, we saw TONS of birds flying by...it was really amazing. This year, it was cloudy and the wind was from the south which apparently is not conducive to bird migration, therefore we saw three birds. Not very impressive.

Last Saturday, Kate and I went to Harvest Festival. It is near the lake and consists of area crafts/businesses, a huge farmers market, stustainable living booths, fun stuff for kids, and a tent with the newest green technology. Found some yummy cherry tomatoes, sweet corn, heirloom garlic (I didn't know there were so many kinds of garlic!), and onions. It's a very laid back, hippie-esque crowd and is a fun place to go.
This coming weekend I can take off from fest-ing and then the 1st it's down to Stone Lake to the Cranberry Fest and then the 8th to Apple Fest. Some may say that these festivals are a bit cheesy and overdone, but I disagree. There are usually a lot of local foods and hand made items that are pretty cool. You just have to be patient and move through the irritatingly slow-moving crowds of people and look past all the greasy (yet delicious) food, to find the good stuff.

Today was spent in the kitchen making use of the veggies Dad brought up with him. I canned green tomato pickles, stewed tomatoes, and baked oatmeal molasses bread. I was talking with my friend Stacy on the phone today and she summed it up nicely by saying that this time of year really brings out the Suzy Homemaker in people. I agree. Plus it helps to use the stove to bake and can when it is only 55 and raining outside! Especially when you refuse to turn on your furnace (even if it has frosted for several nights in a row) because it is only September for god's sake and I will not turn it on until at least mid-October. We'll see about that one I guess......

Life Update

Things in my life are settling down now into a nice, familiar routine. My energy level is pretty much back to normal, things are healing nicely (I think), and I overall just feel much better. Friday I went to work for my first day of school. SOOO glad that I did. There is nothing like walking into an elementary school and seeing little faces light up while saying, "Hi Miss Thompson!" and then getting a hug. Just the kind of therapy I needed to gain some perspective. And if I hadn't gone to work, I would have missed meeting a new kindergartener who I know I will be best buds with before the end of the year. My principal brings him down for alternative lunch and recess, which basically means that there is some reason you are not eating with your class and/or going out to recess and lots of times that reason is behavior related., introduces him to me, and then asks him to tell me why he's been brought to my room. The kid is super cute, of course, and he's chewing this enormous mouthful of food and tries to talk. "No, go ahead and chew that up and then you can tell me." He gets done, takes a deep breath and says, "I punched another student," in a very Eyore kind of voice and looking pretty bummed. "Why did you do that?" Another big sigh and looking even more defeated, "I just wanted to be his friend." Job security. We've got a lot of work to do apparently with this little guy. The good news is that he is very likeable and I think has a good heart.

Other than that, the weekend was good. I did a lot of cooking, trying to use up stuff from the garden. Cream of tomato soup, blueberry pastries, sour cream cucumbers, and zucchini patties. Sunday, Brian's brother came for a visit and stayed the night. Man oh man are those two like night and day. Hard to believe they are brothers. Then today, all three of us went up to Babbitt to see their mom and hang with her for the day. We broke out her vintage badminton set and had a really good time playing that. I haven't played badminton for a long time and Brian and I played quite a while. Foxy joined in too.....I think she somehow thought that Brian was going to like hit me with his racket every time he swung at the birdie because she would run between his legs and bark like crazy and one time when he was running up to get a short shot (in Foxy's world he was running at me) she nipped him in the ankle. I had to turn my head so he didn't see me laugh. Poor Foxy. She can't help it, she's a herding dog with an attachment disorder. What's she supposed to do? Then we grilled dinner and headed home. On to my first full (almost) week at work.......

Side note: It's only like 45 degrees right now and it feels delicious. Good sleeping weather.

Relief

My doctor just called (yes, at 8:30 at night!) to tell me that it is NOT a molar pregnancy!!!  Yeah!!!  She said pathology said there weren't any signs of a molar, so it was just a blighted ovum. I am so relieved. It is a bad enough situation to lose a pregnancy, but to be told there might be cancer involved....that is really frightening. The other good piece of this news is that now we can try again in a month or two, rather than 6-12 months if it had been a molar. So I guess this means I'll just blog about my kinda boring daily life til I'm able to share the good news of when we are expecting again.

Recovery

At home resting today after my surgery yesterday. I had to be to the surgery center at 1:00. Brian drove me and we got in right away. We had a nurse who actually was quite entertaining; she was very good at her job. We went over all the paperwork, and what to do after the surgery and then just sat and waited for a bit. The anesthesiologist came in to tell me the risks and ask questions. He was pretty cool too, and even better, he listened to me when I said I puked last time I had general anesthesia and he said he'd do his best to make sure that didn't happen. Around 2:30 the nurse and doctor came in to tell me it was time to head back, and out I went. Everyone in the operating room was really nice. The guy told me," Ok, good night, don't let the bed bugs bite and if they do hit 'em with a shoe," and that's the last I remember.

I woke up and was going to tell them that they needed to give me more sedation cause I was waking up during the procedure, but turns out I was done and waking up like I was supposed to. Once I was kind of awake, the cramps started. Wow. Pretty painful. Painful enough for me to tell the nurse that, "I've got cramping and it really hurts." So she asked the anesthesiologist what to give me, and since he didn't want me to puke (which I hadn't) he didn't give me a narcotic, but something else that started with a T which was put in through my IV. That didn't go so well. About a minute later, I told the nurse I was feeling light-headed and I thought I was going to pass out. "What?" she said like she didn't totally believe me. "I'm going to pass out," I told her again, and that's when my monitor started beeping and flashing cause my blood pressure was dropping. They laid me totally flat (a few more nurses came over) and my pressure leveled out at around 60/30. I think I freaked the one nurse who was in charge of me out, cause she kept checking my pressure then almost every 5-10 minutes for the next hour, and she jokingly kept shaking her finger at me.

Around 4ish, I went back to my room where Brian was waiting. He looked a little worried when I was wheeled in, and when I asked him later what he was thinking when he saw me, he said he wasn't expecting me to look so pathetic and crippled. "I felt like taking care of you," was how he put it. I finally started to feel better (that medicine must have kicked in) and my blood pressure was coming up. I was freezing so they have this cool gown thing where there is a plastic liner between the gown and your body. They hook a vacuum hose thing into the liner and then blow hot air into it so it isn't touching your skin but you get nice and warm. They covered me in like 4 warm blankets and then I was feeling pretty good.

Around 5, I was able to leave....my blood pressure was up to 93/53. The nurses post-op were just great. Brian drove me home and then went to get Thai food (I hadn't eaten since midnight) and my pain killers. What a guy. He is such a sport. I fell asleep around 7:30, woke up today around 6:30 to see if I could go to work but felt a little woozy from the drugs, so went back to sleep til 8:30. Feeling pretty good at the moment, and that's not due to pain meds either. Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts and prayers. I really appreciate every one of you. I'll keep you updated with the news of the pathologists results and where we go from there.