2012 London Olympics

OMG OMG OMG OMG the Olympics start in 9 hours 34 minutes and 27 seconds...26...25...24...23...22...21...you get the picture!  LOL

So excited I LOVE the Olympics!

GO TEAM USA!!!

July 2012 Endo Appt

Had an appointment with the endos office Monday.  Things are still rockin' along awesomely.  No thyroidgoblins to be found and TSH still holding at 0.3. My weight is 11 pounds down from my surgery weight. And while that might not seem like a big deal to me it is. Having no thyroid adds a new battle on the weightloss front, I only gained 10 pounds after my surgery before doing my treatment and starting my Synthroid and reaching a stable TSH level. To have lost that 10, plus an additional 10 is a good thing. Oh sure, I could go on a "diet" and loose a lot more even faster, but while rapid loss is great for the "I want to see it all now!" ones, I want to make changes that are permanent healthy changes for myself and my family. I'm not perfect, I know that, hello life long fat kid, and I'm not always going to make the best choices, sometimes life just needs chocolate ice cream. A scoop or two is one thing, half a gallon is another.

For the most part I've been feeling okay.  My back has been a little buggie, the SI joint or piriformis is acting up. All I know is at times, it's a pain in the buttocks! I have stretches and such from my chiro that help, and spending time on the SI wedge that I bought help a lot. I need to be better about my stretches. There is a little summer cold/bug going around, not to mention with all the rain we've had lately that the mold count has exploded, in the 16,000's the other day.  Jeff had the cold/bug last week and I started with it over the weekend.  I think it's starting to move out because as I've been writing this both my ears have popped and stuff seems to be clearing out.

Life on the home front is good, busy, but good.  I got one of the two kitchen garden boxes that my late husband built me back into working order, planted way too many tomatoes in it, with some herbs and a pepper plant. Between the deer eating the plants, the normal Texas heat, and the mother loving, stupid squirrels STEALING my heirloom tomatoes...muttermutter...it's been great having fresh tomatoes and herbs, for what I've been able to get.

My brother is getting married to his long time girlfriend.  Yea! Wedding is set for March 16, 2013. I"m a bridesmaid and I even like the dress.  Already have it ordered too.  Jeff is a groomsman. This I can't wait for, I've never seen him in a suit. We've been together for 5 years next month and I've never seen the man in a suit, let alone a tux. It could get dangerous.  LOL!!!  I'll be taking the pink out of my hair for the wedding. I decided it on my own, no one has said anything or asked me about it, it's out of respect for my brother and Tiffany.  Plus, I really need to have the sections redone professionally so I'll get that done after the wedding.

Jeff is working on a new music project.  I think it's going to be good for him, will defiantly push him to grow. I'm not really sure how you'd classify it, physco-surfer-rockabilly? I think it's going to be fun. Band practice makes for a long day, from the house to the studio it's 100 miles one way. The toll roads make it nice as there isn't much, if any, traffic on them. We don't mind the travel and I will do whatever we need to for the band. With the Humiliators he was always having to travel to South Austin and that's like 50-60 miles from the house.  We just rock on!

My new bass came in. I've named her Ruby, in honor of my granny, plus she's a beautiful red. She is as awesome and perfect as Lucky (my other bass) is. I know some may think that it is silly to have two basses, identical in every way except for their color.  All the guys said it was good to have a back up, and we learned that first hand one night when Jeff broke an E string on stage. We'd brought the 5-string bass but hadn't taken it in, luckily we'd parked right in front of the bar. I had to run out and grab the other bass.  Many things I learned that night, always take a back up, take your heels off before trying to run through a bar with a sloped floor(especially if you are wearing blinking heels, and yes I was), and never miss the bands opening number. I had gone to the bar across the street with two of the other band wives, being the newbie I was trying to be social, we could hear the sound check, but there was no lighten a fire under them and they were in no hurry, I learned when it's time to go, it's time to go, close out and go (if running a tab). If I have any control I will never miss an opening note again.

And to make things even sillier, I'm already considering a third bass.  LOL I know, I know! I love my Lunas. But I want a Fender too, so I've been considering a silver Fender. It's for...range of motion and fretting dexterity. (oh that sounded good LOL) I fear I have contracted GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) from my husband.  LOL  I think it's time to seriously consider building a music/photography studio.  LOL!!!

Jeff's brother came to visit for a few days at the end of June.  They are both HAMs and Justin came down to do Field Day with Jeff. I think they had a good time.

And on a sad note, we had to put our 15 year old lab to sleep. Licorice Whips was the last of the three pups that we kept from the litter our yellow lab had just 15 days after we moved to our property. We had only planned on keeping 1 pup from that litter, but ended up keeping three.  It was an extremely hard decision to make and to live with for a few weeks. I found myself being mad at my late husband. Mad at him for leaving me to have to make this decision. It wasn't like he had a choice in leaving, lung cancer didn't give him much choice, and it only took me seven years to get mad at him for it finally.  It's a normal widow experience they say we will all have at some point, I guess some sooner than others.  I wasn't alone in the decision, Jeff, and our vet, who delivered that litter by C-section that cold, wet, November night, were all there along with me. It's been just over a month and I still find myself going to the door to get her, or if I hear clicking or scraping on the floor going to help her stand up.  I know with time I will learn to live without her.

Okay, now that I've brought everyone down... time for goofy man-ness

"Tell me which is better? 1 or 2? How about 3 or 4?"  LOL!!!

Rock on!

Two Year Endo Appt & Ultrasound

Had my two year endo appointment and ultrasound.

The ultrasound came out good.  That same lymph node was still visible, but it had shrunk some, so since we biopsied it last year and it is remaining basically unchanged then it's just a lymph node doing what lymphs do.  

All my thyroid lab worked looked good, all right where it should be.  I asked about whether or not I have to do another yearly scan and he confirmed that not this year.  He said that they are starting to move away from doing yearly radioactive iodine scan in patients who have had clean scans.  Most likely will do one next year, but we will see when the time comes.  

So for now, just keep on keepin' on! 

I'm currently taking 112mcg Synthroid, 2 tabs in the morning.   This dosage is holding my TSH levels steadily at 0.3.

And life on the Rock front?  We spent some time with Leon out at the Leapin' Lizards Studio.  Keeping my fingers crossed that a new project will come Jeff's way.  After SXSW we've not really been out a lot, but we have been to a few shows.  The long await Skrew show at Hardtails in Georgetown ended just as I expected it.  I was born and raised in Georgetown, Hardtails is basically in my great aunt and uncles back yard.  I kid you know, where her kennels were is their side parking lot.  Half way (if even that far) through Skrew set the stage went dark and silent. Skrew is an industrial metal band, silent is not in their vocabulary.  The industrial metal crowd is not Hardtails normal clientele. We've been there a few times, and I have plenty of friends who are regulars there.  Some of the looks we got when we walked in you would have thought we were chewing on newborn babies or something.  The sound guy claimed he was told by management that it had to be shut down at a certain time.  If that's the case then the sound guy sucks as a time keeper, and allowed all the other bands to run over and take too long getting on and off the stage.  Shutting the headlining act down...not cool man.

I have a new bass coming.  Same brand and model as my current one but this one is in the merlot flame.  The style I had originally wanted. I found it for about a 1/3 or the original price so I couldn't pass it up.  The guys kept telling me I needed a back-up, so after watching it for 4 months, I got it.  Yea!  She should hopefully be here tomorrow.

Cloud 9

After the Ladies Rock Camp Showcase we went over to The Blind Pig Pub to catch two of our favorite peeps (Will and Amy) son-in-laws' band Cannon. I was still floating on Cloud 9, I might have even been on 10 by that time. LOL

I don't think there is any way of measuring just how much love and total happiness that was bubbling out. Jeff said if I wanted to get some ink to commemorate the night I could, but since I'd had a couple of gin and tonics at Lucky Lounge it was going to have to wait until another night. It was so awesome to finish off the night with Will and Amy, Justin and Zara, and Jenna and Joey. And most of all, my Bou, Jeff.



I did think about what I wanted for my new tattoo and I decided on something that I'd wanted for a long time, but I changed the location. I've been wanting a bass heart (made from bass clefs), but I decided to put it on my left wrist. That way, one, I can see it, and two, I can see it when I play to remind me of how awesome this night has been.

When we met with Mike at True Blue Tattoo on Red River I decided to go with a coloration similar to the orange sunburst colors on my bass. The surprise for the night, was that Jeff decided to get a matching tat in black and white to match his bass. I love my man. Mike did an amazing job.

I realizing something that night, the muscle "twitches/spasms" I've had since my thryoid surgery, when they are bad are almost exactly the same as the sinsations I have when getting a tattoo. My other ink was done a few years before I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer so the sinsation was long out of my mind, but now, I deal with that feeling somewhat frequently, more ink should be a piece of cake. LOL!!!

What's next in life? Who knows! SXSW is in a few weeks, we'll see what that brings for this rock girl.