Hannah and daddy!

She kept wanting him to lean over the edge so the wind coming up the cliff would make her hair go crazy!

I AM SMILING, MOMMY!

Ok Hannah – try not to smile while I tickle you!!!

Told her to get on the rock and pose…she got up there and froze like a statue!

More pics

Thank you, Sean.  I love you!

Since my husband got his job with Siemens, he has been moving around from site to site, as required by his position.  He is in the wind power division of the company and is a TFA (technical field advisor) for a crew that builds wind turbines all across the country.  He started in March 2008 and since then we have moved to Abilene, TX, West Des Moines, Iowa, and now The Dalles, Oregon.  We decided for the time being that moving around with him would be better for our daughter since she is so young.  By next year, we hope to find a place to settle down so Hannah will be able to go to school.  Until then, we’re traveling the country with Daddy!

All that being said, we’re driving to Oregon this weekend!  The “shortest” route looks to be a little over 2,100 miles, approximately 32 hours of driving.  Long drive, but I think it will be fun.

I’m really looking forward to being in Oregon for the summer.  I’ve heard so many great things about that part of the country, in terms of landscape beauty.  Hiking will be a great addition to my exercise regimine!  I’ll need to have something to take the place of losing the elliptical here.  There are several gyms in The Dalles, however.  I’m thinking about looking into a family membership.  We’ll see when we get there!

Luckily, most of my work, including Healthy Giving and CSTS, is portable.  We already have a house setup with internet there, so there will be little, if any, interruption in my presence on the interwebs.

I decided early this morning to go to our storage rooms and start culling out some of the stuff that we’ve accumulated over the years that we really don’t need anymore. And yes, I did say storage rooms.  We had everything in a smaller storage room, but it overflowed into another.  Today, with the help of my dad, I got rid of a lot of junk, gathered a good amount of baby items (blankets and other sundries) and adult clothes to donate to Good Will, and got together the items I plan to include in a garage sale next weekend.  Those items that don’t get sold in the garage sale next Saturday will be going to Good Will or the Salvation Army as well.

So my workout consisted of some heavy lifting and a lot of walking around between two storage buildings from noon to about 4 today.  I succeeded in getting the extra room cleaned out and released our rent on it.  Yay for saving money!

Now I have the pleasure of preparing for the garage sale for next weekend.  Then the weekend after that, it’s road trip time!  My husband is flying in from Oregon on March 13th and we’ll be driving back to Oregon to spend the summer!  I can’t wait!

A few weeks ago, I went to the emergency room with elevated blood pressure (161/120), dizziness, and shortness of breath. I am now under a physician’s care for the high blood pressure and am taking blood pressure medication. Don’t worry! I informed the doctor of my weight loss efforts, and he assured me that I’m doing everything correctly and that my diet and exercise aren’t going to exacerbate my blood pressure problems. In fact, they will help with the situation; something that I had planned on in the first place!

While visiting with my doctor, I inquired about when it would be prudent of me to begin colon screenings, given my family history of colon cancer. My mother and her grandmother both died of colon cancer. He said I can start now, if I wanted; yesterday I had my first colonoscopy. The screening was clean and I will be scheduling another one in five years just to be on the safe side. Usually it’s every ten years, but with my history, the gastroenterologist recommended every five years.

So that is a huge weight off my shoulders. My mother’s illness taught me that you can never be too careful or start too early on cancer detection. I was always worried about breast cancer or cervical cancer with my mom. It really never occurred to me to urge her to get a colon screening. Of course, after she died, it seemed like everywhere I looked, I saw advertisements for colon screenings. Meh.

Another good thing came about from my procedure yesterday. I have been milling the thought of returning to my earlier career goals for a while now. My nurse in recovery yesterday helped seal the deal, as it were. Our conversation turned to my education and how I had abandoned my plans to go to medical school when my mom died. The nurse urged me to strongly consider going to medical school. So guess what…

I am!

I have no idea where to begin though! It’s been five years since I graduated from college. I guess the first place would be to start reviewing and planning for the MCAT.  This is a scary, but exciting, prospect!  Wish me luck!