New Car!

Peter had off today because of having to work on the weekend.  He was a darling and still got up, brushed the snow off the car and heated it up, and even drove me to work.  :)  He was going to stop by his office because he had to drop off a DVD to Bob and then was going to shop a little bit for my upcoming birthday.  He was also going to check out a car we saw online.  Well...he never got around to shopping because he spent most of the day at the Hyundai Dealership.  We saw this 2007 Sonata online and well it all lined up and we bought it!  We traded in the truck and Audi and now we only have 1 car!  We were paying a lot for our second car to just sit there because since we commute everyday together, we don't really have a need for a second car anymore.  And since we both have pretty good job security, we decided to get rid of the second car.  If we come to needing a second car again, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.  

We got a great deal on it, plus traded in our two cars.  We also got an extended bumper-to-bumper warranty so that's also a plus!  Unfortunately the process took a little while, which is to be expected.  We were both glad to be headed home this evening, just after 7 PM.  We're glad to be saving money on gas because we can put 87 in it instead of 93 like we had to for the Audi.    Plus we'll be saving on paying for inspection, registration, insurance, etc on the second car.  

Here's a picture of the car from the website: 

I'm sure we'll take some pictures of it later this week and will post them, but it's dark now and we're tired haha.

Shaaaaaaaarrrrrkk

For the first time in ages, there was finally a new episode of Shark on TV tonight at 8!  I was sooo excited and couldn't wait to see it!  Of course it was great, but now it's left with a great cliff-hanger and I want to see the next episode...but who knows when that'll be?  Hopefully next Sunday!  

Even better than that, Peter came home today!  He was home this afternoon and I was so glad to see him!  I spend the morning lounging around, cleaning a bit, and watching movies.  It was snowing really badly so I didn't go to church because I'm quite honestly terrified to drive in snow haha.  I know, kinda pathetic, but true.  I'm so glad I have Peter to drive me around!  The snow was supposed to stop by 8 am, but it snowed until after Peter got home around 3 PM.  It was really heavy at first and quickly covered the ground and amounted to about 2 inches.  Then it slowed down and even rained for a bit and melted some of the snow.  Then it snowed more haha.  When Peter got home, we talked for a while and I showed him all of my good bargains from yesterday.  Then we watched "Air Force One" together, ate some dinner and have just been layin' low since.  

Right now we're watching this Guinness Book of World Records thing on TV.  It's interesting, but some of them are just ridiculous and others are simply disgusting haha.  

Flying Solo

It saddens me to say that I'm spending the weekend solo.  Peter had to go on a last minute trip to Washington DC for work.  Suffice it to say that neither of us were happy and that several of the circumstances surrounding the unexpected trip were quite ridiculous and the trip was actually prolonged due issues unrelated to work.  

After getting up with Peter for a few minutes at 6 AM (He was actually up closer to 5 to get ready etc) I hugged and kissed him goodbye and wished him well for the next 36 hours.  Then I was up for a little bit and eventually fell back asleep for a while.  I caught another hour or so of sleep but continued to stay in bed until after 11 AM :)  This past week I had been reading "A Moment of Weakness" by Karen Kingsbury and wound up reading most of it Friday night and Saturday morning.  I am nearly finished with it and very anxious to see how it turns out!  Karen Kingsbury is a fabulous writer.  After a brief lunch and quick shower, I decided to head out and go shopping for the afternoon.  I bopped around Monroeville to Kohl's, Family Christian Bookstore, Value City Furniture, Michaels, Bed Bath & Beyond, Marshalls and Giant Eagle.  

Obviously I had a lot of time to waste haha.  I got a ton of great buys though!  I bought 2 pairs of knit capris and 1 pair of denim capris and a skirt at Kohl's.  The total was a few cents over $20 and I still had nearly $30 on a gift card.  I also bought a few Christmas florals for next year and 2 packs of candy canes for $4.88 at Michaels....which didn't even equal 1 of the florals' original price haha.  All Christmas stuff was 90% off!  At Bed Bath & Beyond  I bought a runner for our upstairs hallway for $8 since I had an extra 20% off coupon.  I found new sneakers at Marshalls for $35.  They are New Balance and wide which is great for me.  :)  I also picked up a sprinkles kit.  It's divided into 4 kinds of sprinkles which I thought was neat.  My final stop was Giant Eagle to get some groceries.  I also picked up 8 tubes of chapstick because they were on sale for 99 cents each!  I was really pumped because I usually wait until we go to WalMart (which is increasingly rare because we don't have one close by) because they are $1 at WalMart and usually $2 at Giant Eagle.  I also picked up more propel, pasta and a few other things that were on sale and cake mix and frosting.  I decided to make a chocolate cake with buttercream icing and use some of my new sprinkles!  

I arrived home just in time before the sleet/freezing rain hit.  I was actually in the midst of one of the several trips it took to unpack the car when it started.  I was very glad to be home before it got nasty out.  I unpacked all the groceries and put them away.  Then I popped 2 slices of leftover pizza from Thursday night in the little oven and made a cake while I waited for them to be done.  While I ate dinner I watched some TV and was finally able to talk to Peter for more than a few minutes here/there throughout the day.  It was good to hear his voice and catch up a bit.  He had to sit in the lobby of the hotel to talk since his boss was in the same room (but separate bed!) as him.  We decided he needed to go rest so we talked on IM for a while after that.  It reminded me of the endless hours we used to chat online during college :)  When my cake was done and cooled I iced it and ate a piece while watching "Pretty Woman" on TV.  I haven't had cake in a long time and it was soo yummy!  Perfectly moist and the icing was the best!  Around 10 I decided to get into bed.  I finished the movie and then read the rest of my book.  It was such a good read and really tugged at my heartstrings!  

Now it's time to catch some sleep!

The Shrink Dynamic

We shrink the size of our lives to....the size of our lives.  Meaning....we focus our entire life on us...on our kingdom...instead of everything else that's out there...instead of focusing on God's kingdom.  

What a great talk we had at bible study last night thanks to David Schrader.  He was talking from Daniel 4 and really hit a great point of our own kingdoms vs God's kingdom.  It made me think of the song "In the Blink of an Eye" by MercyMe and the line that says "How can I further your kingdom when I'm so caught up in mine?"  And it's so true.  We can't.  It's either God's kingdom or ours.  

I think that with everything I do...everything I say....I'm making a choice, perhaps subconsciously, of either building up God's kingdom or my own.  Don't get me wrong...I think that there are plenty of times when my kingdom and God's coincide.  But what about when they don't? 

And what about the Shrink Factor?  The fact that my sins....my selfish desires....my mistakes...turns my focus to my own life and only my own life.  Suddenly there is tunnel vision and all I can see is me.  What I want.  What I am doing.  Instead of focusing on that...I can give it up to God and allow Him to reign over my life.  I can further His kingdom by demonstrating trust and faith in Christ.  Or I can try to further my kingdom by continuing to focus on me.

I'm still mulling this over in my mind, but think that this could tie into my earlier post from Sunday's sermon and giving thanks instead of complaining.  I think that the change in attitude can coincide with furthering God's kingdom instead of my own and that they may work simultaneously. 

An extra day off!

Today was a great day off full of productivity and rest! Peter was working so that he can take off President's Day in Feb when we go to Chicago so I was flying solo. I woke up and had breakfast while I watched a very sad movie--"Away From Her". It had me crying quite a few times throughout the movie. I found myself caught up with Grant and wishing Fiona would remember him and their life together. It was definitely a tear jerker. I was disappointed in one part of the movie when Grant and Marian are together. While I was watching the movie I also dusted and reorganized our media shelf with our DVDS/PS2 games/VHS tapes and our bookshelf. After the movie, I cleaned the kitchen up a bit and also the dining room. Then I threw some clothes on and went to the mall. I had a return at JCP and found a couple great buys. I was able to get a pair of jeans for $11 and a thermal shirt from Gap for $4. I love them to sit around the house in. :) Apparently the entire mall is having clearance sales with extra percentages off of their clearance racks...which are plentiful this time of year. I perused the racks, but wanted to get home sooner than later so didn't spend too much time and only went in 3 stores. I was able to get a Valentine's card and present for my hubby which I'm happy about :) Around 2:00, the mall started getting super packed and so I hurried for the exit and went home haha. I came home and cleaned the office and living room and switched loads in the washer/dryer. I also watched a movie I had DVRed a few days ago from Lifetime. It was alright but kind of dumb. Peter called shortly after the movie was over and while I was still cleaning the office and said he was on his way home and was hungry so I went and made salmon cakes with rice pilaf and green beans for dinner. It was ready just as he got home so we sat down and ate toghether at 5:30. Then I finished cleaning the office and cleaned the bathroom and our bedroom and put clean flannel sheets on the bed. Then Peter and I had a snack and got showers and hopped into bed. It's not even 9:30 but it's good to be all clean and relaxing. G'night!

A True Challenge

Pastor Tim brought up an interesting point in his sermon on Sunday. He was preaching on Ephesians 5:1-10. The entire message was good, but something particularly stuck out to me.
Ephesians 5:4 "Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving." Pastor Tim went further to encourage us to replace every negative thought/word with thanksgiving. One of his examples were: Instead of complaining that it's cold out (windchills on Sunday made it below zero)....be thankful that we don't live in Alasaka!

While Tim was preaching, I was thinking to myself of how often I complain and it's honestly more than I should. I don't even complain a lot but I do at times. Everyone does. But this is a challenge that I think I'm up for. Something I'd like to give a whirl. Goodbye negativity! haha I find it particularly challenging not to complain while at work. First because I obvious would rather be...well...pretty much anywhere besides work haha. But also because the people I work with are usually complaining...about the whether, their workload, personal things, etc. So in order to talk with them sometimes, I'm dragged into complaining about employees or something of the sort. Instead I should be thankful I have a job. Thankful that it's actually a good job with good benefits, a good boss, etc. But I think this will probably be the area that will be most challenging for me.

I really am thankful for all the blessings in my life. Even though there are some things I wish were different, I am thankful for God's mercies in my life, thankful for Jesus paying the price for my sins, thankful for a husband who loves me unconditionally, thankful for a house to come home to and food to eat....the list is actually endless. I know I'm thankful on the inside, but I'd like to verbalize it more often.

I think this might be a real revelation for me. A true "ah-ha!" moment in which I can take grasp of the negativity I think up and spew out and turn it into gratitude.

God With Us

Who are we
That You would be mindful of us
What do You see
That’s worth looking our way

We are free
In ways that we never should be
Sweet release
From the grip of these chains

Like hinges straining from the weight
My heart no longer can keep from singing

All that is within me cries
For You alone be glorified
Emmanuel
God with us

My heart sings a brand new song
The debt is paid these chains are gone
Emmanuel
God with us

Lord You know
Our hearts don’t deserve Your glory
Still You show
A love we cannot afford

Like hinges straining from the weight
My heart no longer can keep from singing

Such a tiny offering compared to Calvary
Nevertheless we lay it at Your feet

My heart sings a brand new song
The debt is paid these chains are gone
Emmanuel
God with us

This week is flying by!

Part of me feels like the days in this week are dragging on, but then I realize that it's Wednesday night and then I think great-2 more days of work then another weekend!  The bonus for this weekend is that I have Monday off for MLK Day!  Peter should have off but is working so that he can have Presidents Day off when we go to Chicago.   

I'm totally pumped about our trip out to Chicago to see Andrew.  I've always enjoyed traveling around, but now I've actually taken a liking to flying.  At first I was terrified of it and my first flying trip to CA was awful, but now that I've flown a couple more times, I actually like it.  I've also been able to gage how to pack my carry-on luggage better.  At first I only checked my biggest bag, but now I check everything except for my purse and tote with a book, etc in it.  It's so nice to not have to lug around my weekend bag that I usually have with our shampoos, shoes, and all extras like that in.  I don't know why I didn't just check that one before too?  Oh well, you live and learn. :)  I have 2 Karen Kingsbury books to bring with me for our trip.  One I just started this week and the other one I haven't started yet.  They are books 2 and 3 in the "Forever Faithful" series.  I read book 1 while on our anniversary trip to Naples.  

Besides planning for our long weekend in February, we've made plans to visit with aunt Paula either this weekend or next and also to go out on February 9th to dinner and a movie with the Schindel's.  My birthday and Steph's are both the first week of Feb so it'll be a bit of a birthday celebration.  We're going to the Waterfront to see "29 Dresses" (my choice haha) and to eat at PF Chang's.  I've never eaten there but have always been curious and after being informed from Emily that it's amazing, I've gotta try it haha.  Who knows what else we'll do, but I'm really looking forward to it.

Aside from our calendar filling up, we've been watching more of 24's Season 6.  I love coming home after work and throwing on sweats, making dinner, and being a couch potato with Peter.  I think I'm especially enjoying it this week because I'm still taking it a bit slow and Peter's having an extra hectic week of work so it's nice to just relax and veg out.  

A very welcomed weekend.

When I woke up this morning and saw 6:41 on the clock, my first thought was "oh great, only 20 more minutes of sleep...I need more."  Then I realized it was Saturday and a smile crept its way across my face as I drifted back into a sweet slumber.  The next time I woke up it was nearly 10 AM.  :)  

This week at work has been particularly exhausting for me just because my energy levels are still low from this dumb cold....that I still have....it's been 2 weeks.  Yuck.  Last week I was barely able to move and only worked 1 full day.  This week I worked the entire week as usual and it's been tiring.  Just showering and getting ready in the morning proves to be trouble because I get tired haha...and the day hasn't even started.  Luckily I can sit while at work and pace myself.  Nothing too pressing was going on this week, but still time sensitive things were taking place.  We're hiring for a bunch of spots so I was swamped with resumes and phone calls to make interviews, etc.  Early on in the week the VP of our company asked if I was allergic to work or if I was ever going to get better haha.  Two days later he told his wife (the CEO haha) to leave me alone because I was dying and deserved to expire in peace.  

It's just such a drag to be sick for so long and the energy thing is driving me nuts!  I feel like I can do things and then I get up to doing them and feel like death haha.  Oh well....hopefully I'll get better soon!

In other news, we saw Barney this week which was fun.  He has a sweet new apt and is working at the Hampton Inn.  It seems like a cool job because he can swim/work out/eat breakfast for free if he feels like it.  We ordered pizza and watched "3:10 to Yuma".  It's a cowboy movie with Russell Crowe in it.  I love him as an actor and it was overall a good movie.  It was the first movie I've seen with RC playing the bad guy.  It was good to see him kind of turn around at the end.  I also found it interesting how he and "Dan" connected on the issue of pride....I think it's a guy thing haha...jk. 

I'm extremely happy that it's the weekend and we can relax.  Last night we booked our flight, rental car, and hotel for February when we fly to Chicago to see Andrew!  We are getting such an incredible deal on the rental car because Enterprise does 50% off weekends...it's going to be $51 for the entire weekend for an intermediate sized car.  We're staying at a Marriott for $129 for all 3 nights because we have a $100 cheque from Marriott through the rewards program with our bank, National City....just for using our debit card we rack up points and can cash them in for all kinds of things.  So we saved $100 without going out of our normal routine of purchasing things, etc.  Flights to Chicago are only $49 one way so that's really the most expensive part, but still not bad.  Overall it will be about $500 for a 4 day/3 night trip to see him.  We're excited to see his campus, apt, etc.  

We have plans to meet up with Jeff and Steph tonight which will be fun. :)  The only downside to the weekend...to any weekend...is that we wait so long for it to be Friday after work and in what seems to be the blink of any eye...it's Monday morning again.  I hate that haha.

Pictures from NJ

Well I finally got around to importing the last bit of pictures from our digital camera and found the ones from our trip to Madison, NJ.  Instead of coming home on Friday after Christmas, we drove up there to visit Aunt Grace, Uncle Michael, John-Paul and Laura.  We stayed overnight and left Saturday morning.  It was a fun trip and we were glad to have seen them for more than just Christmas day.  

This is a self-shot that I actually took.  It turned out pretty well....usually I'm not too good at the self-shots.  

We got to see their (GORGEOUS) new home and got the grand tour from Aunt Grace.  The house was huge and absolutely beautiful.  

Friday night they took us out to eat at Park Ave Club.  It was cool to see an old barn converted, but still having original architectural elements to it.  Dinner was also fantastic.  I had salmon :)  I even had some wine that I liked!  Usually I'm not a big fan of wine, but whatever we had was good.  I'm still a frozen margarita girl at heart haha.  I think it's hereditary.  

Us before we left the house for dinner...I look exhausted haha.  But it's a great picture of Peter :)  

Uncle Michael was so funny with his bib....especially when he ripped it off and the back part stayed on.  I don't think I've seen Aunt Grace laugh that hard before! :)  Uncle Michael really wined and dined us and we had a great time visiting with all of them.  They've been so kind and generous to us...it's really been a blessing.  I'm glad we got to spend some quality time with them.  And I finally got to meet Uncle Michael!  (And all this time I thought he was made up... :P)

24 junkies

Today was fun and productive.  Peter and I went to church and then came home and had some leftover pizza for lunch.  We started season 6 of 24 today too!  We've been holding off because we watch them 4 episodes at a time haha and we didn't want it to consume us during the holiday season.  We watched the first 4 episodes from some website.  After that, we decided it was time to take down the Christmas decorations.  So sad :(  Peter worked on taking down all the ornaments and lights from the tree as I put all our holiday knick knacks away and brought out our usual things.  Peter also took down all of our lights outside and then the tree went out the door for garbage pick up tomorrow.  The house looks different again...somehow it feels a little more empty because the tree isn't here haha.  It feels good to have gotten that all done though and all the boxes are back down in the basement.  We also swept and dusted all downstairs and cleaned the kitchen.  I changed the bedsheets tonight too.  Tomorrow night we plan on sweeping and dusting the upstairs and cleaning the bathroom.  I feel like I'm finally starting to get over this dumb cold so I was cleaning everything haha.  Although I am still taking medicine and my voice is still hoarse and my nose is still stuffy and my energy is still low.  Bummer.  It'll probably be another week before I really feel good.  

Since I'm still not 100%, we took it easy while cleaning and taking down decorations.  We took a break in the middle of it to eat dinner.  Peter made dinner tonight and it was sooo yummy!!!

Here he is in action with all 4 burners going at once!  This usually freaks him out because he's not good at multitasking with cooking, but I was helping him a little bit so he will get more used to it.  He's such a cutie pie.  He keeps learning how to cook more and more so that he can share in making dinner sometimes.  :)  Usually he's my helper and does the dishes which is already a huge help, but there are nights where I'm tired or sick or whatever and he so nicely steps in and makes dinner.  What a sweetheart :)

The final product...Turkey cutlets with Italian cheese & herb rice and french cut green beans :)  He made enough for lunch tomorrow too!  

While eating dinner, we watched the 5th episode in 24 online.  We were going to watch one more but it wasn't on the website so our only option was to buy it somewhere online which we vetoed.  We decided instead to stop at Family Video this week and pick up the DVDs for much less.  I love Family Video...they are so cheap for renting movies and tv shows, etc!  

Little by little....

...I am feeling better.  When I wake up in the mornings I feel pretty good and think I'm better than I actually am.  But then showering and getting ready for the day still exhausts me and puts me in better perspective of how well I really am.  I hate that haha.  I want to be better already!  It's been a week!  Oh well...

Yesterday I actually worked the entire day at work, but boy I was beat afterwards.  Luckily I didn't have orientation or anything like that going on, but just having to keep concentrated on things wore me out.  I have a really understanding boss though and she told me not to push it and just take it easy.  I actually wore sweatpants and just a plain shirt with a little white zip up and was pretty comfy so that was nice.  After work I was soooo excited to see Peter.  It was the longest I've been away from him in like 2 weeks.  I was really spoiled on seeing him so much!  I'm glad he isn't work at Apple anymore when there would be days that would go by and we would just be passing each other on the way in/out.  We came home right after work and ate dinner and watched some TV and a movie.  It was really all I was up for after the whole day of work and still being sick.  My energy level is so low.  :-/

Today was a really fun day with Peter too!  We slept in a little bit and got out of bed around 10:30 because I had to eat some breakfast and take more meds.  Then we lounged around and leisurely got ready and went out shopping.  We had a couple of returns to do with some of the presents we got because of sizes, duplicates, etc.  So we stopped at Kohl's and got store credit back.  I then used a small portion of that credit to buy a new cute top.  Then we stopped at BedBath&Beyond to return a hamper my mom had gotten us for an anniversary present.  We had recently bought new hampers a few months ago so we didn't need it.  But it was a great thought!  While there, I did find matching cloth napkins to my fall tablecloth.  I had gotten the tablecloth back in the summer on the clearance rack for $7.99.  It was oval so I was super excited because that's the shape of our table.  I was surprised to find matching napkins on another clearance shelf so many months later.  It didn't have a price on it so I asked and they said $4.99.  It was on the 75% off rack but was only 50% off.  I didn't even notice (I think because I was excited to have found them) but Peter did.  Everything was already rung up though so we didn't go through the hassle.  It was a bittersweet purchase since I could have gotten them for $2.50 (half of what I paid!) hahaha....but sometimes you just have to say oh well.  I'm still pleased with the purchase :)  Our last stop was the mall to return a hat my mom got me.  It was super cute, but Peter had gotten me one almost exactly the same so I returned it and got a skirt instead for $2 more.  We looked for new tan pants for Peter since his have definitely seen better days, but we couldn't find any :(  We did find the thermal shirts  at Gap that he likes though on sale for $17.99 but are going to wait a bit longer because they should get even cheaper.  

It felt so late when we were leaving the mall but it was only 4:30.  We had only been out for 3.5 hours but I told him I was feeling tired so we headed for home.  We stopped at GE for some groceries and more (yes more) Advil Cold & Sinus and Juicey Juice haha.  When we got home it was just after 5 PM.   We ordered Papa Johns for dinner and ate while watching "Friends with Money"....a weird movie but has a pretty good message in it about money not equalling happiness.  Then we watched "Hitch" and "Mrs. Doubtfire" on TV.  They were on at the same time so we were flipping back and forth because we've both seen each of them.  

In other news I've finally got around to updating our web.mac.com/pjformic site.  I've gotten all of our photo albums up on it from about Summer until now.  It looks great...if I do say so myself :) 

Oh Eight.

Is it really 2008 already?  Wow.  Well we certainly had an "exciting" new years.  When I woke up in NJ on Saturday (the day we were driving home to Pgh) I knew I was getting sick.  I felt like complete crap.  By Sunday the cold was in full swing.  I was taking Advil Cold & Sinus like it was my job.  I also tried some Mucinex to thin out the mucus....that didn't help.  I spent the majority of the day on the couch with Peter close by.  It was relaxing but I'll admit I was pretty irritated that I was sick on my last days off from work.  

Waking up Monday morning was miserable.  I took a shower and got ready for work nonetheless.  Peter and I drove separately because I doubted I would make it at work the full day.  I would have just called off sick but I needed to take care of some employees'  benefits enrollments for January 1.  So I went to work.  I made it 2 hours and called it quits and went home and spent the rest of the day on the couch again.  I felt bad because I knew I wasn't going to feel up to doing anything for New Year's Eve, but Peter reassured me that he didn't care and just wanted me to feel better.  He's so sweet :)  So we fired up the grill and had cheeseburgers and pasta salad for dinner and watched a movie.  Then we watched all the New Year's Eve countdowns on TV and kissed a midnight and went to bed haha.  We're like a couple of old geezers.  We were still very tired from our excursions last week though.  

I had an awful time trying to sleep and starting coughing my head off.  by 4 AM my right lung was preventing me from taking normal breaths so we ended up heading to the ER.  We were just getting on the highway and saw a terrible accident.  Some drunk guy flipped his car and was ejected from it.  Peter got out to see if he was ok (there were other people there helping also and 911 had been called) and apparently the guy had no idea what was going on or that he was bleeding profusely from the head and legs.  Both of his shoes were off and covered in blood and his SUV was completely totaled.  My first reaction was that this idiot almost deserved it for driving drunk but then I said a prayer for him.  I stayed in the car because I was too sick to move.  Eventually the cop let us pass through after about 25-30 minutes.  

The wait at the ER was unusually long since no one else was in there.  They gave me a breathing treatment to loosen things up, but it didn't help too much.  They also took an xray of my chest.  After about an hour of waiting, they told me that the xray was clear but that I had bronchitis.  Great.  So they gave me a codeine cough syrup prescription as well as a spacer inhaler to use.  We went to GE to get it filled because they are 24 hrs but forgot it was a holiday so they had limited hours so we just had to go home and wait.  We went back to bed for a bit and then Peter headed out at 11 to get my meds.  Good thing I get reimbursed for any medications, etc that we buy!  

New Years Day consisted of more lounging in bed and on the couch and having Peter help me walk around since the medicine made me shaky and dizzy and my heart race a bit (which the doctor told me it would).  I'm so lucky to have him be so patient and loving with me.  He basically waited on me and made sure I was always taking my medicine, had some food, had enough juice, etc etc etc.  He's my hero :)  He even had to help me brush my teeth one night because the muscles around my lungs, in my chest and stomach were so sore from coughing and everything.  What a trooper!  

I took off sick yesterday and Peter stayed too and worked from home.  I am glad he did because it allowed me to rest more and not have to get up for my meds and juice, etc.  In the past 4 days I went through 3 full boxes of tissues.  So he also went out and bought me more tissues and more juice.  I've been averaging 64 oz of juice (plus water and ginger ale) every day.  

Today I went to work but was exhausted by the time I even got there just from showering and getting ready.  I told my boss I wasn't sure if I was going to make it the whole day but it was worth a shot because she asked if I even felt good enough to be there.  I had to recount my story of getting sick multiple times when I arrived which also wore me out, especially my throat because talking makes it hoarse and makes me cough more.  So, needless to say, I left early.  I actually made it to 3 and got a lot done, even though I paced myself.  Everyone at work, including myself, didn't know how I made it that long, haha.  

I plan on going to work tomorrow and lasting the full day.  I hate using time off because I'm sick...especially after just having taken 4 days last week for Christmas.  But oh well, what can you do?  Such is life.  Particularly mine because I'm always sick.