A Small Christmas Miracle?

Last weekend, Jarrod got sick. He developed a bad cough, along with headaches and stuffy nose-ish symptoms. Luckily, he wasn't running a fever or feeling achy, so it seemed he at least didn't have the flu, which has been going around here lately.

We went into action to keep me from catching it... wiping down switches, door knobs, various surfaces; quarantining ourselves to separate parts of the house—with the exception of eating, Jarrod stayed downstairs and I stayed upstairs; we wore hospital masks when we had to be in the same room with each other; we slept in separate rooms. But...

Despite all of our efforts, I still got sick :(

I started showing symptoms on Tuesday afternoon, and I was so upset about it. We had tried so hard not to get me sick, but it didn't make a bit of difference.

I had my usual bouts of endless coughing that I get when I catch a cold, but this time things were different. By 5:00 on Thursday (only 2 days later), things started to look up for me. My cold-cough subsided, and I honestly wasn't feeling too bad.

I don't know whose prayer list I ended up on, but I am just simply amazed at how good I feel right now. This is just... wow. Aside from my awful couple days of coughing, I've been managing life pretty well. My nose never got that stuffed up, and my exercise tolerance has not dropped off the deep end either, all things that I expect when I get a cold; today, I walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes at 2.8 mph, which is what I was doing pre-cold.

I'm not even a week out from catching my cold, and I can honestly say that I'm confident I might be able to kick this on my own. I was almost for sure that if I caught something again, I'd be going in the hospital, or at least needing antibiotics. But this time? I'm not so sure I need them, at least not yet.

I obviously have been in contact with my doctor about all this, and I picked up the meds they called in for me, but for now I'm holding off on using them.

There was one, maybe two, things I did differently. One, I started using those Cold Eeze lozenges very early on, which is the key to their effectiveness. Since I knew Jarrod was sick, I didn't hesitate to start treating my symptoms as soon as my throat started to feel a tiny bit 'off'. [The Cold Eeze things are one of those home remedies that is like: really? Does this really work? Or do you just think it does? I read up on them, and if you know a little about the pathophysiology of a cold virus, it makes sense that they would work. Zicam is based on the same principle. So maybe I need to just take them every time I start to feel funny.]

The second thing was that I took off two days from work to get over this. Since I was coughing so much, it meant little sleep, so I tried to get it any time I had a small break in coughing. And even if I wasn't sleeping, I was still resting my body so it could work on fighting off the virus.

And prayers. If you've been praying for me, I'd like to say thank you and keep it up. I can't emphasize enough just how different this cold has been, and how amazing I feel right now. I mean, I'm not like 100% better, plus I did lose my voice on Friday (all that coughing really started to irritate my throat something awful) but compared to how I usually feel right about now? It's really great.

14 Books in 2014

I'm happy to say that last week, Monday night, I reached by goal of reading 14 books this year! I'm pretty much one month ahead of schedule too, so that's cool.

Last year I read 10 books, and this year I upped it to 14. Next year, I'm going to do 15.

Sadly, I didn't have any books that I felt deserved a 5-star rating. Most all of them I rated 3 or 4 stars. Although, looking back over things, the same can be said for the books I read in 2013, too. I'm just a tough critic.

So there, if anyone asks me in the upcoming month about a New Year's resolution, I guess I already have one: to read 15 books next year. Woo hoo!

If you're looking for something to read and find me a trustworthy book recommender, I'll add a few comments at the bottom about the books I read. :)

Crossroads—Written by the same guy who wrote The Shack, it was another story of reflection and thinking about your spiritual health. The Shack is better, though, read that one.

V for Vendetta—The second graphic novel I've read. Also heavily influenced by the same guy who created Watchmen, the illustration was spectacular. The story, however, differs from the movie version, which we are fans of. It was alright.

Bitter Brew—This book was really great! It is about the Busch family, and a well-rounded look at the history and scandal that has plagued their massive beer empire. I highly recommend this one.

Is This Tomorrow—This one was the most surprising. I read it on a whim and turned out really liking it. It's a fairly easy read, the story is about childhood friends dealing with a tragic accident that happened in their childhood but haunts them into their adult lives.

The Hunger Games Trilogy—For me, this series was good, but didn't really blow me away like I expected it to. After reading it, I'm kind of done with the teen trilogy thing for a while. It starts out really strong, but by the end I was just over it. The last book was a drag.

The Fault In Our Stars—Somehow, I only cried once. But this is a solid book with a less-BS approach to disease, dealing with it, and the struggles that loved ones face with you.

Steve Jobs—I've only been slowly reading this ever since it came out three years ago... but his life sure is a fascinating story. It's good, if you like biographies.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time—Really good book about a child with some sort of autistic-spectrum-disorder. The neighbor's dog is killed, and the young boy sets out to solve the mystery.

Orange Is the New Black—Part 'insider's account' of being in prison, part 'platform to tell everyone what she thinks is wrong with the prison system', this started to feel a little snobby by the end. The writer's concern for her fellow inmates started to feel less and less sincere. Also, this book is nothing like the Netflix show; the show is loosely based on it, and I mean very loosely.

Brave New World—I finally read this classic, and just like other futuristic dystopias, it is frightening how much this holds true in the present day. Great book. I never want to live in a brave new world.

Bossypants—Tina Fey's book started strong, simply due to her wit and jokes. The book was written almost like one long standup routine, and by the end it was getting a little boring. Who wants to read a standup sketch? Put it this way, if there's an audiobook version of this with Tina Fey reading it, listen to that. I guarantee it will be better.

Friday Fast 5

Five quick things:

1. I learned how to make scrambled eggs this morning! [Ok, you can laugh at me now.] Last month I learned how to make an omelet, and now I know how to not make one. You could say I learned this a little backwards, and I would agree. It's like we're rediscovering eggs at this house—I think we've ate more eggs in the past 2 months than we have in the past 2 years. Omelet night has become a thing here when we want something easy, yet fresh and healthy.
2. I got my tree up this week! My mother-in-law helped me with it, especially the ribbon. I decided I wanted to use ribbon this year for a more updated look, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. However: so... much... glitter... everywhere. The ribbon is pretty, but it sheds glitter more than a lab sheds hair. I'm sure we'll still be finding glitter around the house in June. Josie was trying to help and ended up having a blast attacking the used ribbon spools (she also got glitter all over her muzzle, haha.) At one point she had one in her mouth like a bone and it was hilarious. 
3. This year is definitely the earliest I've ever gotten my Christmas cards done, the earliest I've ever gotten the tree up and decorated, and the earliest I've ever had the whole house decorated. And I've got a good jump on shopping too, which is nice. More than ever, I'm realizing I just need to do what's right for me. I know it's only the 5th right now, but as it gets closer to the holidays there are always more and more things going on, making it harder to find spare moments of down time. There is no reason for me to go go go and run myself down (and my health) in the process. 
4. Yesterday Josie knocked off one of my S'mores ornaments—it was the lumberjack guy haha. She wasn't chewing on it, but was just sitting there with it. I got after her, so hopefully she doesn't think the ornaments are toys.
5. I discovered the iHeartRadio app this week, and it's been one of those "Why have I never used this before?!" kinds of experiences. You always hear it advertised on stations like 103.3 or K-Hits, but it's basically an app to listen to the local radio stations via the internet, and this week I've started listening to the radio thru the TV. It's quite nice, because my iHome radio in the kitchen has proved a buggy disappointment; for one, the antenna doesn't get a great signal, and it will go from clear sound to fuzzy with no apparent change in the house, and two, it's got a weird thing where after some time of listening, it turns the volume down, while keeping the volume number the same. But if I move my hand right near it, it turns it back up, and as soon as I walk away, it gets quiet again. It's kind of like how your phone dims after inactivity, except it makes absolutely no sense why or how a radio would "dim" the volume, and it makes listening to it quite annoying. I promise you all of this is true and it is weird and makes no sense. Anyways, not all radio stations are on it but the app has been a nice find and I could see it being useful at the gym or anywhere else wifi is available.

It's Advent! And so far, God's gift to me is...

...the gift of feeling better!

It seems that the burst of steroids has helped me out, and I have been able to exercise and work on getting back to where I was.

Last Tuesday, after I had already published my blog post, I was able to return to the gym, walking and finally lifting weights again. I can't do as much as before, but I don't care; I'm lifting weights again! Then on Wednesday, I was able to do the rowing machine for 12 minutes, so that was awesome! I walked on the treadmill here last night, and was able to push my speed to 2.8 for a little while, which is great news too. After a bit it got to be too much, but that's okay. :)

Since the steroids opened up my airways, I was able to exercise more.
Since I've been able to exercise more, I haven't been as short of breath.
Since I haven't been as short of breath, I'm hanging on and hoping to keep pushing off a hospital stay as much as I can.