Thursday, September 17, 2009

Random tid bits from the pasts week...or so

So much can go on from post to post. Where to start?

Well, congratulations are in order to Natalie cuz the girl just got engaged (in American culture). She is Armenian and she is in the "promised" stage of a 3-step process of getting married. In her culture girls get three rings. The promise one where both families agree on the relationship and it's more of a promise to each other, the next is the engagement ring at a formal engagement party which is being scheduled for November and the rings are blessed by the priest and her vow/marriage ring on wedding day. She designed the three rings to compliment each other and it came out really nice. Funny we had met up for dinner earlier in the week and she said "he better do it soon because I have no patience and I know he picked up the ring!"

Jay has been working mad OT to improve our home. In the next month we are having our shutters installed, our cracked garage window fixed, entryway and living room walls texturized and repainted and we ordered beautiful new couches, and bought some art work and draped too. The couches should be ready in about 6 weeks. It's sweet to see how excited he is about projects in the house. You can smell the testosterone. At times I know I am not in to it as he is, but he does remind me of my Dad and the house projects that he would think of and do.

Today marks the count down of my first day of school. Yup, it's ONE WEEK away. Yesterday I downloaded my class schedule and mapped out the closest parking lot, building locations, etc. Next Thursday is gonna be fun, but long. Class starts at 7:45 AM and last class ends at 6:50 PM. I plan to hang out after class most days in the library and get some work done. Now that we have an office with a desk, I will able to be more successful at getting work done at home too.

I went in for my thyroid check yesterday. This is my first 6 month check verses the 3 month ones from last year. My medication is to stay the same, the right side that wasn't taken out has grown but I am told it's normal because it is trying to compensate for the left side that was removed. If I have to have surgery again (later on of course) I am going to be pissed! The doctor did note from my last visit I lost 8 lbs and from a year ago 20lbs. It's amazing how easily I pack on weight. I expressed to Jay that granted some weight gain was from my surgery and me having hypothyroid symptoms, but I did snack here and there and that definitely contributed to it as well. Jay cracked me up as he looked at me and said "let's call a spade a spade, there were more snacking here then there." Haha!! True... I must confess. After leaving the doctor's office it really hit me... soon I will not have medical insurance. I could do COBRA for 18 months, but will have to pay the full premium or I can be a cash only customer. YIKES! That is no fun! My thyroid doctor is giving me a 6 month prescription and I could probably get my primary doctor to do 3-6 months one too, so that would get me through almost a year with out having to pay full cost for a doctor visit and save for the costly appointment. I guess time will tell.

And finally the long awaited 2 month end date. The weight loss competition is over. YAY! I did like the fact that it motivated me to workout and make better health choices, but there were days that I just wanted to sleep, go home or do something else. The hardest thing was having to get up early and make my lunch and breakfast and all the cooking and dirty dishes that need washing afterwards. This last weigh in wasn't my most impressive. In my defense I still loss some weight and was fighting a cold which I fed to help my body heal faster. This weigh in I lost 2 lbs (1.2%) and the grand total for the 2 months is 18lbs lost (9.6%). I'm happy with that. I wanted to do 10% and came pretty darn close.

4 comments:

cindy said...

nice work on the 9.6%! and 20 lbs since your operation...WOW.

Re health insurance, how long till Jay could add you on his insurance as a domestic partner? You can do that as long as you've lived together longer than a certain amount of time. I can't remember how long -- I was thinking 6 months, but that seems awfully short to me.

Vanessa said...

Thanks! I was one chucky monkey this past year. I'm going to blame it on my thyroid and the ice cream. :)

I am not sure if they still accept domestic partners on insurnace because I believe the CA law changed. Either way we are way under the amout of years needed to qualify. I think it was 8 years or maybe 6, but we are a little over 1 year

cindy said...

wow, 8 YEARS? I should look into that. My impression is not that it was THAT out there.

Vanessa said...

I read the family code and we would have to register as domestic partners with the CA State Secretary's office, which in that case might as well get married because is kinda the same thing and seems like less paperwork.