Nuthin’ but an H thang, Baybay…

At the moment, I’m flying over the Rocky Mountains on my way home from LA. It appears I lost another month in updating this page, but this particular update is brought you by our friends at Delta Airlines and GoGo Inflight Internet.

The month of May was busier than most this year. Adam and I were both tied up at work more than usual and it felt like I barely saw him. That coupled with the awful weather all month created Heather The Grouch.

On the Wednesday before Memorial Day, I booked 2 tickets to Orlando. Orlando wouldn’t have been my first choice, but the fares were cheap and the temps were high. We stayed at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes, a gorgeous hotel with spectacular pools. We drove out to Port Orange, where our cousins Seth & Emma and their kids live. I love these people, and I so wish they still lived in Minneapolis. We had so much fun (and uh, drinks) that we ended up staying the night at their house. They (+ the Florida sun) really made our trip. All of us went to a flea market, where I bought a bamboo wind chime with a large wooden stripey cat sitting on top of it. I named him “Carlitos” and I think of the Crocketts whenever I look at him.

Let’s see…what else. Oh, Audra is doing VERY well. She’s getting one of those amazing 3D ultrasounds tomorrow and I can’t wait to see it! I’m getting more and more anxious to meet my new niece, and I’m so relieved for my sister that things have turned around. She and my mom have been working on Chloe’s room and we have a date booked for her shower. I’m smiling just thinking about it.

So I’m glad May is over and delighted that we’ve moved into June. All week in LA, I kept hearing people talk about the “June gloom”, because apparently it’s unusually cloudy in LA in June. Hell, in Minneapolis I think we’d have to invoke gloom with November, January, February, March, April, May… Despite the “gloom” I’m happy to report extremely productive meetings in LA. It’s easy to forget what a difference it makes when you meet people in person, and this trip was just more proof of that. Other highlights: I had dinner with my high school friend, Mike, at the coolest restaurant I’ve ever been to: The Bazaar. If you’re ever in LA – GO THERE. I now have a whole new appreciation for (and understanding of) “molecular gastronomy.” I also went to San Diego for the first time in my life. I didn’t have a lot of time there, and what time I did have was spent mostly in meetings, but it was fun to see it.

Looking forward, I have a rare free weekend coming up. We were planning to get together in Duluth with BWEM, but they needed to reschedule. I now plan to work on photos and do some cleaning and lounging. And maybe a little work, and who knows what else.

Nearly 20 minutes after I woke up this morning, the phone rang at the house. It was my mom, who sounded frantic. I was instantly on edge, imagining the worst. She started to explain that she was stuck in Paris because her flight was canceled…and the adrenaline began to dissipate.

My poor mom.

I called my sisters to break the news and we quickly decided to carry on with our original plans. Adam and I picked up Cecils and headed over to my mom’s. We had lunch with Audra, Kel and their families, and then enjoyed a game of Count Your Cards. As disappointing as it was without my mom there, we actually had a great time together…I think she’ll get a kick out of the fact that we partied in her house without her.

That said, we’ll be scheduling a “redo.”

I loathe that Rebecca Black song (“Friday”). My dudes at work were messing with me a few weeks ago: they downloaded “Friday” as a cell phone ringtone, hid the cell phone, then went into a conference room and called it incessantly. A coworker and I dug around everywhere but couldn’t figure out how they got the cell phone into the WALL of a cubicle near us. They returned as we were about to rip apart their cubicle wall apart.

Anyway…this folly came to mind because this weekend involves a lot of partyin’. On Saturday, I need to pick up gifts for a friend’s son’s baby shower-party-event, my nephew’s birthday and Mother’s Day. After the baby shower-party-event, we’re having dinner with some other friends, and should that end early, we were invited to join some other-other friends in celebrating their very own Staycation downtown Minneapolis. It’s not likely we’ll make that last one but I’d like to think we have enough energy to do so.

On Sunday, we’ll pick up some lunchy food to bring to my mom’s and hang out over there for the afternoon. I’m seeing Cecil’s and card games in my future.

Oh, and in addition to all of this partyin’…I need to get groceries, do laundry, finish some proposals and emails for work and gear up for another trip next week. Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun.

Chatted with Audra about Mother’s Day plans last night. You have no idea how NICE it is to have a conversation with my sister where she’s not feeling devoid of energy and just plain sick. Having a little normalcy back feels amazing.

Steroids seem to be the key. It’s a risk to hers and the baby’s health to take them, but in this case, a necessary risk. They took her off the ‘roids for a couple of days last week and she reverted right back to being completely overtaken with the same old symptoms. She went immediately back on them. The doctors have decided she’ll stay on them for 2 weeks and then see what happens.

It’s official – Audra is doing so well that she was removed from the TPN on Thursday. The TPN is the thing that dispensed all 10 of her medications into the IV…don’t ask me what it stands for, I’m too tired/lazy to look it up. I got a call from her, which hasn’t happened in months, so that alone caught me off guard. She sounded tired but hopeful. She’s even coming to Easter brunch on Sunday. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am, for her, her family, my mom and all of us.

Here’s what this all means: the nausea/vomiting is at a minimum, she can eat food(!), her blood sugar is more stable, she can start to eliminate some of the meds next week, she can sleep through the night now and she can go home.

She’s got a long haul and a lot of challenges yet, but we all need to cherish every little step in the right direction.

…

In other corner-turning news, it’s supposed to be warmer this weekend. Like 60 degrees on Easter. April always makes me feel bipolar. It’s great that the temps are warmer and I actually appreciate the rain – at first. But I really, desperately need sun. After a couple of rainy/cloudy/dreary days, my vitamin D levels are depleted or something and I become an angry, pokey little thing.

I decided to throw a little Easter-brunch-open-house sort of thing on Sunday and I’m hoping the weather cooperates. Hiding eggs in the house for the kids isn’t as fun as doing it outdoors. I don’t know if I can trust myself to remember where I hid them all, either way. For our meal, I had this big idea that I wanted to make an eggbake. Before you laugh, Adam is going to be heavily involved so no eggs will be harmed in the production of this eggbake.

Me + cooking is always funtimes. I really should start videotaping it…er, digitally recording it.

After not being able to eat for two months, Audra’s been able to keep real, actual food down for the last two days! All along, my mom kept saying: “Maybe she’ll turn a corner one of these days and it’ll all be over.” I’m cautiously optimistic that her thought is coming to fruition.

She’s about 21 weeks now, or halfway there. I hope the second half of this pregnancy is nicer to my sister.

My mind has been swirling lately. And no, it’s not remnants from all the margaritas in Cabo.

I keep feeling like I’m overdue on this or that. Like seeing friends or family – how does a year go by without seeing/talking with some of them? It makes me feel bad, like I haven’t been a good friend/family member. Or travel. I was dead-set on going to Costa Rica for my 35th birthday…and we didn’t go. I was so mad at myself for that. I had all the excuses (starting a new job, just getting through the holidays, didn’t want to spend the money, etc) and I let them win. So I suffered through the winter AGAIN and finally had my overdue vacation in April. Another Angry March (pun intended) before my vacation was frustrating.

Furthermore, you should see my Bucket List. My lengthy, lengthy list.

Anyway, the gist is that I’m good with planning but my execution hasn’t been up to par lately. I need to fix that and dedicate time to those things I really want to do. Like now.

I’m writing this entry from the discomfort of my seat on an airplane, returning from Cabo San Lucas. Wifi on the plane is everything I’d hoped it would be!

We left for Cabo feeling anxious about my sister, who has been in the hospital. I think my heart skipped a beat when I heard she’s having a baby girl. I promptly bought the most adorable, tiny little Mexican dress I could find.

Cabo was such fun, but it had a few “buts.” The daytime weather was amazing but chilly at night. The resort was gorgeous but they blared loud house music day and night. I was relaxed but running on little sleep. We enjoyed the food profusely, but we completely kicked any semblance of a healthy diet to the curb. I caught a tan but burned my upper arms at a sunny dinner spot. And finally, I was extremely happy with my shoe selection for the trip…but I wore the wrong pair on an excursion to the marina and paid for it in blisters.

Anyway, here are the highlights: dinners at La Frida, Sunset da MonaLisa and La Hacienda were all RIDICULOUS. I’m talking food, drinks, ambience – all way over the top. If you ever go to Cabo, look these places up and you won’t be sorry. Each one was unique yet consistent in quality. And worth every penny.

The beach was great. Nice and big, clean, sparkly aqua water…and it’s located in the middle of a wide bay, so the winds and waves are calmer. This also meant there was a lot of boat traffic, which was pretty fun to watch.

We stayed at ME by Melia, which is within walking distance to a lot of wonderful spots: a huge mall, lots of local gift shops, a marina, beachfront restaurants and clubs. The hotel itself was very pretty with a spectacular view, but I would not go back for two main reasons. First, this hotel is party central. Pulsing club music beat into your brain from about noon until 2am. It got old very fast. Second, they charge a lot of money for space around the pool. My boss rented some kickass poolside beds for our team the first day and even paid for lunch and drinks, which was incredibly nice of him. And then he bought dinner for a group of us at La Frida! We sent him to the spa for a thank-you massage, which I think he really needed (and deserved).

Our CEO prepared fantastic celebrations at ME’s hotel restaurant the first night and then at La Hacienda on the third night. After La Hacienda, a big group of us partied all night at some local clubs. We danced like crazy people. Was awesome.

Anyway, I wasn’t smart enough to take the day off tomorrow, so it’s gonna be a rough day. Glad to be coming home though, and I sure hope for his sake that the bottle of tequila Adam made me stuff into my suitcase didn’t break all over my clothes. Viva Mexico.

Audra was admitted to the hospital (United) again yesterday. She was dealing with uncontrollable vomiting, like every 15-20 minutes, for the past couple days. Her blood sugar is trending high and they’re having a tough time bringing it down again. She’s barely slept. My mom’s barely slept either. After Audra was admitted, my mom succumbed to her migraine and tried to sleep…to not much avail.

Kel and I went to see her a couple of hours after she was admitted. She was still unbelievably sick. The doctor on shift was great – super attentive and asking good questions to see how he could help her. Much as he tried, he said they were already doing most of the things he would attempt. He did say about four times that he wanted to bring an endocrinologist in. I thought, FINALLY, a doctor who understands that this is a situation that requires someone who specializes in diabetes! Yes, I know that sounds obvious. Apparently, it has not been obvious to her doctors up to this point.

A couple of hours later, Audra asked Kel and I to go. She was so sick and I’m sure we were more annoying than helpful. We left with hopes that she would be able to calm down and rest for awhile. Donnie was staying with her and said he was planning on a visit from a family friend who is an OB-GYN affiliated with United to talk about her options. He was also expecting some members of the perinatal team from United who can hopefully get her into a program for high risk pregnancies. I’m anxiously waiting to hear what they said.