I am among the living... today :D

(beware... this is a LONG one... that's what happens when I don't blog often! Now that you have been warned... *grins*... on with it.)

That's right... I'm living, not just existing today! I say this because my sister Gina posted in her Facebook status today, the question: Are you among the living or existing?

While typing my response I realized that's how I can gauge my days instead of "good or bad"... but rather living or just existing... Now had I seen that yesterday or anytime in the past 3 days I would have said I was barely existing. Yep... I was in some serious pain.

Yesterday it was so bad I almost had my hubby take me to the ER. However, I took 2 Vicodin & thought I'd rather deal with a rebound headache than the ER. (See, if you didn't know Vicodin has Acetaminophen (aka Tylenol) in it... & I was told that I get rebound headaches from it & that I should avoid anything with Tylenol... which makes it very tough for someone with Chiari Malformation & deals with daily headaches!!)

Anyway, today when I woke... after a very good solid night sleep (didn't even here Hubby get up, get the dogs out, & etc... WONDERFUL!) :) ... I felt as if I could take on the world... Ok, not really... I just felt a ton better!

Then 10 minutes later my hubby pulls in with a trailer full of stuff from the old house...

Oh... wait did you know? Yep, we've moved!!! YAHOOOOOOO... we're no longer in the city! We are in a house with 3 bedrooms (the 2 upstairs are quite small, but that will be just fine!) & FIVE acres of land! & Here's the best part... we're paying the same amount as we were on our other house... well, at least for now!

How is that you say? Well, see this house was my hubby's best bud's (DM from here on out) house! (The one that got Hubby into the dirt bike club that I created & maintain the website for.) Anyway... well, DM & his wife had been wanting to move to Tennessee for some reason & they both ended up finding jobs & said we could rent this place.

So, last month... (wow, it has been a month since we started moving in here. How time flies when you're... laid up... ha, got ya, thought I was going to say "fun", didn't ya! *giggles* Actually, I was doing good for the 1st part of the move...

Which now leads me back to the past few days... I got to thinking about how God's timing is always into play some how... & you might not see it at first when something gets postponed... but later you might just realize it was actually better. What am I talking about, you ask?

Well, in case you've missed it... (or you don't follow me on Facebook)... The surgery I was supposed to have to correct the pressure on my brain, caused by the Chiari Malformation was to have happened May 14th... however the day before I went up for pre-ops & on the way home I got the call that I had a bladder infection & they could not do the surgery. (Why The Cleveland Clinic didn't get me in the week before for pre-ops like they said they'd do still baffles me. It's just more proof that their many different departments do not communicate.) Anyway, it's now been rescheduled for August 20th, unless they get a cancellation. Which I call nearly every week to check.

So, as I was saying... I believe it was God's way of giving me the ability to be able to help out with the major part of our move... well, at least the 1st big part. I'm sure Hubby feels as if it was not the major part.

I was feeling good for several days when we first moved that I was able to get my kitchen stuff organized & some other things... I even made a batch of brownies AND frosting for it! (I had been craving frosted brownies so much.) Well... after all that, I was down for a few days again... but it seemed there for a while when ever my mother-in-law (MIL) (who has been a HUGE, no, PHENOMENAL help with this move) would come over to help... I felt "empowered" to get up & do stuff.

As many who suffer from Chiari knows (saying this because I have a ton of "Chiari Friends" on Facebook who may be reading this.)... that feeling does not happen every day. And so I've found myself on the couch a lot lately even when MIL or my mom or any visitors would stop.

Thankfully all know that it's best not to try to push me & when I say I'm not doing well.

Let's see, where was I before this tangent... Oh, yes.. Hubby & MIL arrived from the old house with a trailer full of boxes 10 minutes after I awoke. So, I was talking with MIL & sitting on the steps of our deck in the sun when she said she was going to grab a chair (from the deck) & put it in the shade... because she didn't want me sitting in the sun, but she did want me to stay outside for a little bit. (Wow, I just love that woman! Who says mother-in-laws are awful??)

Well, I had to get something to eat. So, I went in grabbed my pillow (for my back); & food & went back out on the deck to the table where hubby had put up the umbrella for. Sat out there for a bit enjoying the sunshine... watching the dogs roll around in the grass & enjoying life!

All the while, Hubby & MIL are unloading the trailer into one of the stalls in the barn. (A barn that is empty of animals... except 2 cats (mousers, Hubby calls them) that we "inherited" with the house. And he had skids to put the boxes on. I feel terrible that I can't help them... however, we all agree that I can't jeopardize it... I can't over do it!!! We just can't have me ending up in the ER again! (My last trip was in April... which that time was such a waste of time really... in my opinion.)

By the way, another thing that comes with this house is an invisible dog fence. It took a couple weeks of taking the dogs (more Hubby than me) out on their leashes with the special collars before we could let them run loose. Now that they've learned the lay of the land... (well, they're still learning & still get zapped once in a while) they can run to their hearts content. At least they do a little bit.

We both knew that it would be an advantage for Coleman to be able to go free, because he's a Border Collie & needs that "freedom" & that it would help both him & Sunny in many ways. And it was proved last Wednesday (or whenever it was) when we went to the vets to get them tested for heart-worm (both were negative, thank the Lord! Now if we can just keep them on the "meds" all the time so we don't have to do that again!)... they were weighed & both had lost a couple pounds already! Woo hoo!

What's even more amazing is that Coleman is starting (not completely yet) to walk on floors without carpet! That's a HUGE improvement, already! So, yes, we're all enjoying the new house.

I'm sure my hubby will really get to enjoy it once all of our stuff / junk has been moved over here. Because even though there are no animals (beyond the 2 cats & our 2 dogs) there's still "farming" type stuff to do around here.

He even got an old Farmhal H tractor that had been sitting in the backyard to finally work. It was so "cute" because he took it for a ride to pick up the brush-hog that goes with it. (About 20 miles away) (This tractor was a mutual friend of Hubby & DM that had brought it to this house a few months ago with the help of my hubby. Hubby ended up buying it when we knew we would be living here. It's much needed.)

Now all we need is to find a better riding lawn mower than the one we had at the old house, because DM & his wife has finally found a house in Tennessee (was living in a trailer at her brother's) & are in need of the mower that they left here. Which we knew would happen.

Up above I had mentioned about the dogs rolling around in the grass... well, I was on the phone with my mom & it was so funny... Sunny started & then Coleman plopped right down next to her & they both were on their back with their legs in the air. I just couldn't help but to laugh... Only wished I could have gotten a video of it. Well, I'm sure you can picture it!

Well, there's so much more I'd like to tell you... but I just saw Hubby pull back up again... another trailer full... which means I need to get up & get the collars on the dogs again.

So, maybe later I'll write another blog! :)

& Please forgive any grammatical errors. No time to proof read... Got to run! *waves & hits the publish button*

(P.S. As usual the blog graphic is from Glitter-Graphics.com... I mention this, because of those who may be new to my blog.)