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May is busy. Why can’t I remember that? The end of the school year has sooo many things going on. I put off parent-teacher conferences until the beginning of the month, and I’m pretty behind on lots of paperwork. We are still hiring summer staff, so finding time to get it all done has been dicey. Friday I stayed late and got a large chunk of it done and hopefully will finish the rest this week. We have a workday this coming Friday to get ready for the summer program.

Also, there are events! Graduations, celebrations and weddings! This past weekend Samith and Stephannie’s son got married. Ian and Rebecca (his bride) both worked at the Child Development Center for a time, so it was very sweet to be there. The wedding was beautiful and perfect!

Next weekend is another wedding, company and a graduation celebration. Whew!

I’m in the weeds at work. Parent-teacher conferences are coming up and I’m running into time constraints. I meant to put photos together in a dedicated video, but the automatic ‘memory slideshow’ feature will have to do. We had a glorious time! You’ll see a visit with Dad’s sister, Ruth, Uncle David and cousin Steven; dropping off Dad’s books at the seminary; some snippets from an afternoon baseball game where Matthew hit his home run; the hotel room where we hung out as a family and lastly – the confirmation service. You’ll also see the best selfie of Lloyd and Dad!

I love my family! Also, Dad and Keren both made it home safely yesterday – a totally fantastic weekend!

This was a very full weekend. We got the house ready for the Peperkorns to come for their oldest daughter’s graduation (Yay!), and Lloyd and I went down to St. Louis for our nephew’s confirmation (Yay!). It was a great trip where we saw so much family! My Dad even flew out for the event, along with my sister Keren, and we saw Dad’s sister’s family along with Mark and Rachel. The only one we were missing was Phil, but it’s tough for him to get away.

Anyway, in my rush to leave school on Friday I left my iPad there. As weird as it was not having it, I did survive without the constant pull of the internet. However, it is easier for me to pull photos together on that device, so hopefully tomorrow I’ll have some pictures to show.

Have an excellent Monday, everyone! Prayers for safe flights for Keren and Dad would be welcome!

There’s no good way to tell this story without me looking like an idiot, but Brad asked about it, so here goes. Let’s bullet point some backstory.

1. Remember when I would get those weird, itchy toes that would then get a searing pain and then a bruise? No? Well, here’s one instance and here’s another.
2. Last fall I was giving blood, and as the blood started filling the bag, the technician said, “That’s weird. It’s clotting. It’s not supposed to do that – we have anti-coagulants in the bag.” I laughed nervously and asked her to take a photo. There were snake-y like little things in there. Weird enough that I thought, “I should maybe get that checked out.” Of course, I never did.

Ok, now we’re ready for February. Lloyd and I were unloading groceries after church and all of a sudden my left index finger started to have that searing pain. Many, many thoughts ran through my head, but the primary one was, “YOU DUMMY! YOU SHOULD HAVE HAD THAT CLOTTING THING CHECKED OUT. IDIOT. NOW YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE A STROKE SOMETIME AND YOU COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING. IDIOT.”

Behold my scaly skin, and the bump you can barely see in the middle of my finger.

I would like the record to show that I did not think I was going to die from a hurt finger, but I did wonder if I had clots just running willy-nilly through my veins, getting stuck in little capillaries…. and eventually they would get stuck in my brain. It was Sunday – the clinic wasn’t open, the urgent care place wasn’t open, and I wanted to ask questions right then, because I knew I wouldn’t get it done during the work week.

So we went to the ER.

Yep. I went to the ER for a hurt finger. There wasn’t any bruise at this point, just a minuscule swelling. MINISCULE. The staff did a very professional job not laughing at me, and I could see the inner eye roll of the doctor. I explained the toe thing and the blood clotting thing, and he walked me through preschool-level explanation of what a ‘bruise’ is, and said I probably hurt my finger shoveling snow or unloading groceries. I knew I hadn’t. Grrrrr. He said if I wanted to get some blood tests done, we could do that. Yes, yes I did. So, they took some blood.

Two hours after I left the ER, the vein burst.

I dearly wanted to go back and show the doctor and say, “See? This is what happens,” but I didn’t, because I couldn’t have afforded the second visit. (Oy. Now I know what ‘meeting your deductible’ means. That was an expensive ‘wet paper towel and a pat on the head’.)

I had a visit with my regular doctor later to go over the blood work – this time armed with photos of the toes and finger – and he said he honestly didn’t know what was causing the bruises. I appreciated his honesty. He also said we should do some further bloodwork to check some other things.

So, two things came of this: the first is that the bloodwork shows that I have iron-deficiency anemia, which is unrelated to the bruising. I’m supposed to be taking enormous amounts of iron, which is messing with my guts. We’re getting that figured out.

The second is that thanks to the internet, I found out that the vein thing is called Achenbach’s syndrome, or paroxysmal hematoma. It’s a weird vein thing that some people get. Beth has it and her daughter has it, too. So, there’s that – which is a relief regarding the stroke thing.

So, Brad – I hope that answers your question. I told you it was a long, dumb story. 😀

For Karla, and I’m sure these are all out of order. 😀

It’s been kind of hot here the past couple of days – highs around 80 or a bit above. I’d be uncomfortable and irritated except for the fact that the nights are still in the 50s, so sleeping with the window open is pretty pleasant. It would be GREAT, except for one creepy fact….

Our neighbor a couple of houses away has a windmill in their yard. A rusty windmill that creeks in the wind like a horror movie soundtrack. It’s just loud enough to hear through the window (I run a fan to cover up the sound), but it certainly freaks me out during Council Fire on Saturdays. Lloyd has been walking home with me after work and has heard it. We think that we’re going to sneak over there sometime (under the cover of darkness) and squirt some 3-in-1 oil on it.

Happy Thursday!

We made it! The Prius, after being topped off with some oil, did just fine. Lloyd ‘filed’ four of the boxes in the back and the rest in the back seat. That car didn’t even cough going up the mountains. (Whew)

The drive was blessedly uneventful. I drove most of the way because I’m a terrible passenger. (We have a trip coming up this summer and I asked Lloyd if he though the pilot would let me fly the plane. Lloyd said he’d look into getting a pretend steering wheel for me.)

Once we got home, we unloaded house stuff into the house and books…. into the shed! Todd will be here in May to collect his boxes, and we’re taking the others to Missouri later.

I hope no squirrels break into that shed. If they do, I hope they can read.