living the ups and downs

It has been a very strange week, so this post is going to be kind of random. Last Thursday I noticed a small red bump on my left hip, which I just thought was a small pimple or mosquito bite or something. Well it kept growing. and growing. And getting more and more painful. So Sun. afternoon I went to the urgent care place and they said I have a staph infection, and to start taking antibiotics. So I did, and it kept getting worse. By Tuesday morning it was so painful I couldn't walk easily, so Chuck took me back to urgent care. I will spare you all the gory details, but basically the infection had blocked itself off from my body so the antibiotics couldn't get to it without them cleaning it out. So they did. And it was awful. They gave me morphine which didn't help, and I felt like I was about to break poor Chuck's hands since I made him stay with me and hold them. He did awesome, and actually watched the entire thing, even though later he proclaimed that what they did to me "was really really gross." BUT, the good news is that while I have a nasty wound on my hip right now I am in the least amount of pain I have been in since last week, which is awesome! So hopefully now the antibiotics will start working and he said I'll have a scar, but hopefully over time it will shrink. And these stupid bacteria bugs will never come back! I feel like being a two year old and sticking out my tongue at them saying "go away stupid germs!" Maybe they will listen this time.

Since I had such a bad week my amazing girl's small group left me flowers and a card in my apartment this morning, which was so wonderful! They are beautiful and have totally brightened my day! I LOVE pink gerbera daisies (some will appear in my wedding bouquet if I have that option!)Last week was the crazy fire week in LA, and I shot this out of my apartment window of the smoky sky (see, I told you this post would be a random collection of things)This week we FINALLY got some rain and some cooler weather (and of course now there are mudslides in the places where the fires burned the hills....welcome to a typical LA year folks!) We never get clouds here, so I was pretty excited to wake up this morning to this sky:Last Saturday was Christina's birthday, so after our Saturday morning small group we went out to lunch at Thai Dishes, one of our group's favorite spots =)
The birthday girl wanted itunes gift cards, so that's what we got her:Christina and IBecca and TeraToday I spent the day cleaning my apartment. I had a LOT to do in the next 2 weeks, and was getting so frustrated with a huge pile of work and paper on my table that I eat at. So I moved it all and separated each pile into different tasks. Then wrote on top of each pile when it's due and put each pile on a separate stair. So my goal is to work my way through the stairs :) So here's my new "filing" system:

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, Jenn and I are hosting a meal for a group of people who couldn't make it home for the holiday, so I'll have pictures and stories from that I am sure :) I'm doing a lot of the cooking (everyone is bringing something, but I decided I couldn't deal without my family traditional foods on the holiday so I'm cooking quite a bit) My pumpkin cheesecake just came out of the oven and smells wonderful! Mom's sweet potatoes and the green bean casserole will go in tomorrow morning, and the cranberry chicken is in the crock pot refrigerating overnight and ready to be plugged in tomorrow--granted the cranberry chicken is not a traditional thanksgiving food but we opted not to do a turkey this year) :) Recipes will be posted on my food blog soon!