This and That

Yep, it's that time again! =)

It looks like fall visited my house today and I'm pretty excited about it. It will never, ever, ever be fall in Hawaii, but I just can't help myself with the super cute fall decorations available for purchase. =) This was my sole purpose in traveling to WalMart today. Actually, I was thinking of getting some Halloween decorations but...there were entirely too many bodies in the Halloween aisles. So I wandered on over to the fall decorations. I found a bunch of stuff I wanted but, I did eventually settle on a couple things. Wanna see how it turned out? Of course you do!

click to enlarge

I was going to upload all of the pictures I took, but I have an addiction to Picasa and its collage-making abilities. Plus, it takes way less time to upload.

Even though it may not look or feel anything like fall outside, the inside of my house looks a little bit like it! Now if I could just find a wreath... I did find a welcome mat, but it didn't have a price tag. Sad face.

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Today was a nice cloudy, rainy day. I was seriously enjoying it until my trip to WalMart. On the way there, my old lady knees started to complain. Mainly the left one, which is weird because usually my right one is the "complainer." The more I walked around, the worse it hurt. Pretty sure I walked out of there limping. *sigh* By the time I got home, I just wanted to curl up on the couch. Oh my gosh, it was hurting so bad!! I finally gave in and put some Icy Hot on it. Icy Hot is like my life saver. It doesn't exactly make the pain go away, but it definitely helps! I don't know how or why, but it does and I love it for that. =) Even if it does remind me of my dad...

But seriously? I'm 24!!!! I should not be complaining of knee pain when it rains. I'm not in my 60s, 70s, or 80s. I'm in my 20s. I find this ridiculous. I mean, what's it going to be like when I am 60, 70 or 80?! Sadly, I see a knee replacement in my future. This upsets me until I remember a doctor's visit from a couple years ago. Right before I got married, in fact. 

I went to my pulmonologist (lung doctor) for a checkup on my asthma and stuff. He reviewed my chest x-ray (boy, aren't those a pleasure) and went over some things with me. At this point, I'd been on the drug Advair for several years. When I was a teenager, my asthma was really bad. Not hospitalization bad, but bad enough. I got sick a lot, had to do breathing treatments and basically nothing would keep me from getting sick. Finally, I got put on Advair which is basically a powder you inhale that is full of anti-inflammatories and steroids. The anti-inflammatories help with the pain cause by "swollen" bronchial tubes and the steroids help open them up. By this doctor's visit, I was convinced Advair was a wonder drug. My lungs were functioning at 100% and looked healthy on the x-rays, along with my heart. Yay, me! I was doing so well, in fact, that my doctor lowered my dosage. Awesome. That's when he said it. 

Advair can cause osteoporosis in women. Especially if they've been on it for long periods of time. 

I was somewhat concerned at the time, but didn't really think about it. I did realize, though, that he was wanting to wean me off of it. That was fine by me. More money in my pocket. Then I got married and didn't have insurance. I got samples (thanks to my awesome mom) so I was still able to take it. After a while, I just stopped taking it. I really committed to getting off of it earlier this year. I was feeling great thanks to all the exercising I was doing and hadn't been asthma-sick in a long time. After a few weeks, I started having chest pains...the normal ones that just come with having asthma. Even though I'd decided not to take it, I went to the medicine cabinet and reached for it. 2 hours later, my hands were so shaky I couldn't write. Steroids. My hands are shaky even when I don't take it (which I haven't since that last time) and I completely blame Advair. I'm thankful that it has helped my asthma, but the shaky hands kind of suck.

Then today, I remembered what my doctor said about osteoporosis. I'm curious if the lovely Advair has caused me to develop early arthritis. If it can cause osteoporosis, surely it could "help" me in the arthritis department, right? There's no real way to tell, but I suppose it is possible. 

Wasn't that a random jaunt?!

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Does anyone watch Hawaii Five O? Tonight's episode made me laugh a little bit.

At the beginning, the main characters are at the crime scene sort of evaluating things. Then, this Hawaiian surfer dude comes up to Danny and starts critiquing him...in Pidgin (pronounced like "pigeon"). Danny looks at the guy and says, "What? [pause] Are you speaking English?"

Oh my gosh, I totally, completely feel this way sometimes!!!! I swear, it might as well be considered a foreign language. All I caught from what the guy said was "bra" (which means something to the effect of man/brother). They say that word a lot too. I really felt this way on Sunday at church. We had a guest speaker who lives on the Big Island, but is actually from Oahu. He's a local. Totally speaks Pidgin. He translated several times, which I was very thankful for. Our pastor doesn't usually translate for us non-locals and I sometimes feel like I need a dictionary or translation guide. Seriously. 

Pidgin is like a really rough dialect of English. Yes, I said dialect. Every now and then I can catch a word or two, but it still makes me feel like I live in a different country. You spend enough time here and you'll know what I'm talking about. 

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Last but not least - some whining. 

I miss my husband. His internet has been down for entirely too long a few days and it's killing me. I did get a phone call yesterday, but it didn't last long enough. =( I miss having Skype time with him. There's so much I want to tell him and can't because of stupid internet!! 

Have I mentioned how much I hate deployment?!

He did manage to tell me yesterday that I'm allowed to get somewhat excited about Christmas. =) I'll let you decipher that one. 

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I did tell you about my fascination with making collages, right? Ok, good. 'Cause here's another one. But this one is of my furbaby. Much cuter, I think. =) I'm so glad he's here. I don't know how I handled 2 months of deployment without him!

Hope you guys had a good Monday!