Severe Homesick

I have been getting very homesick this past month..... we feel like we are too far away from everyone and everything. I mean everything..... We have been here for over 2.5 years now. Things are going good for both Stakit and I. Not to mention, the weather is nice; grass turned all green all of a sudden; flowers are blooming; sky is almost always blue; the neighborhood we are in is not bad; and we are fairly happy with this house..... Somehow.... this picture is not perfect.

I was playing my iPod today and Michael Buble's "Home" came on. I don't know what it was; my tears just start rolling down my cheeks and wouldn't stop. Yes, I know it's not a first but today my tears just would not stop.... Even with my sunglasses on but still. I had to quickly rush back to my car and had a moment to myself.... a very long moment.

We really didn't anticipate this will be this hard for us. 2.5 years! Why couldn't we just "get over it"? Why? I simply don't have the answer.

Overusing my eyes?

I know I'm getting older and older everyday. I would think my "equipment" would start going / fading gradually, just gradually! For the last few weeks, it looks like that's not the case. My eyesight is getting worse and worse, especially in the evenings. The only one reason I can think of is from reading for a long time. School and work are providing plenty of material to read. Even I have exhausted my eyes and my mind, there is still more, more, and more! Are my eyes really getting super old in a short period of time? or, are they just going on strike for the moment? Aaaaah.... It's frustrating and I don't know what to do with my blurry vision.

Nothing will stop me!

My internship started a couple days ago. Yes, that's right! My first day at the office is the same day as our new President at his office. What a coincidence! I don't think my day was as significant as the President's, however. No one was following me around, the whole world was not talking about me, nor a special meter for me. I'm alright with that ;) I'll tell you what I got but the president doesn't have! Really??

I was having some sinus issues from my very bad cold that you all know about. Yes, "sick like a dog"! It has been over two weeks now. This past week I felt better in some ways but worse in others. My teeth were hurting, my headache above my (one) eye-brow-bone and my (one) eye socket were hurting so bad. I was fatigued and confused. Come to find out I have a sinus headache. I personally don't have a problem with visiting the doctor. I had been just way too tired to go! Then I was afraid of the "S" word, sinus. Crap. If it's bacterial, I may need antibiotics. I finally went to visit a doctor yesterday. Come to find out that I still have a fever (yes, I was too lazy to measure my temperature too)! The dr. thinks it's viral. Yay, don't need to take antibiotics! He also said I have been doing the right things to treat my cold at home. It's just a very bad one.

Yes, a bad cold I have.

Even though I don't feel 100%, I'm enjoying my new gig! Working with lawyers, seeing different judges, and reading/hearing different stories and cases, I find it very peculiar, divergent, and yet exciting! This very interesting world is very different. I can't wait to see what I can offer in this "new" world! Nope, my painful sinus deal is not going to stop me, the overwhelming profession is not going to stop me, the unfamiliar environment is not going to stop me!.... Nope, nothing will stop me!

Happy New Year!

Two weeks into the new year, we are finally settling down from all the new year "excitement"!

We started off with celebrating the National Hang-over Day. Best one for me! Oh, what a celebration! Then Spring semester started last week while Stakit was busy with the Year-end close. He was pretty much at his office when he's not sleeping. I hardly saw him and I felt like a single person for those days. Fortunately, I'm pretty occupied with school and didn't get into any trouble ;) Thank goodness the year-end close is over!

Spring semester is a full load, however, I'm pretty excited. Physically I can do it, finally! The classes are interesting, I love them, and I tried not to be too obsessive about the subjects :) To top that, my internship put a huge smile on my face. My first day will be a week from today!

Hope you are enjoying the new year as well.
As always, warm regards from the sunny state!

Kiss 08 Goodbye

We made it! Last day of 2008! What a challenging year! It wasn't pretty but we learnt a lot this past year.

Besides a day for reflecting (and drinking), New Year's Eve is also a memorable day for us. Stakit and I have been committed to each other for 10 years now! He proposed 10 years ago today! I vividly remember that evening. It's not like how we see it on the silver screen but that's what makes it even more special. hee hee :)

I love New Year's Eve, moving on to a new beginning! Of course we can't have New Year's Eve without The Song. I just played Auld Lang Syne on the piano about 20 times; hope you heard it and joined in!

Happy New Year! Have a Wonderful 2009!

Auld Lang Syne
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne!

Record breaking?

There has been a lot of snow in the NW (where we're from) this Winter! Seattle and Portland are on the national shows or TVs pretty much everyday! I heard we are very close to tying or breaking the records too? Is that really happening? We've been looking at pictures; they look pretty and cold! We are missing out on all this. Honestly, I think it would be fun to get snowed in ;)

Well, we hope everyone stays safe & warm in this unusual weather!

First day of Winter

Has it been crazy or what?? We have been checking Northwest weather. Burrrr! I'm sure they don't feel like this is only the first day of winter! On this corner of the country, it's been high 70s for a good while. However, the next 2 days will drop down to only high 40s and 60s and gets pretty cold at night, in the 30s!!!!

Since this is the new mark of the "new season", let's talk about what's going on last season, Fall (+ Summer... maybe Spring!).

Things for us finally started to look better. Physically, I started feeling normal at the beginning of Fall. I was able to reactivate my gym membership and started exercising. By October, I think I was pretty much all healed; I felt great and Strong!

Fall was also the time we mentally started to feel better! As some of you know, we had a very tough year. Even without our depressive feelings from the relocation, I don't think that it would have been easy. You may notice not only that I quit updating this blog here, Stakit also was not super motivated to write a little something here either. Sorry :( There are times we felt better, like when Cindy & John, in-laws, and Andrea and Andy came to visit us. Additionally, phone calls and emails from some of our friends really helped us out a whole bunch. (Correct, we didn't want to talk much, please don't take it personally.) Boy, we just really don't need to go back there! We are glad that we have moved on.

As far as the house, Fall was also when we figured out there's no way we're willing to lose a very big load of money selling this house and move to anywhere. We know we will be in this house for a L-i-t-t-l-e-W-h-i-l-e. Oh well, it is what is it. It's funny how once someone's attitude / expectation changes, their perspective completely changes. We allowed ourselves to enjoy Florida, to do stuff with new people (w/o seriously looking for friends), and to get a Wii.

In Fall, I also become a new auntie. I was very fortunate to get to meet my new niece and took a bunch of pictures of her for later days. She's a sweet little baby girl.

Let's come back to 'now', we are enjoying our mild winter here. I am very excited that I have Christmas this year! Last year was a scam, I barely could function. In-laws were here to spend Christmas with us but I felt like they ended up taking care of me. I felt bad. This year I sure will enjoy My Christmas with my family. My in-laws are on the way here and I am so looking forward to spending some good time with them!

Fav time of the year!

It's getting cooler here, finally! Sunday night was in the 50s. Tonight, we suppose to get down to 50s too. It's almost midnight and it's still in the 60s. I like this light-jacket-weather! It's not too hot to sit out in the Sun, highs around 70s, feels like low 80s with the blue sky above us. It's perfect!

School starts this week!

It's time to go back to school tomorrow. I took the summer off and I'm glad that I did! I enjoyed the last three and a half months!

UNF is where I'm going but somehow, this year, I'm very excited. No, it's not because I could go back to school shopping; no, it's not because I enjoy that forty-mile-drive (one way); no, it's not because I miss the school's coffee shop that bad (it's a pretty campus, however. It's a much newer school. It's about 100 years younger than where I graduated.). I'm just very ready for a new challenge! I'm sooooo very ready!

Watch out, World!

Tropical Storm Fay went bye-bye

Over a week of tracking Tropical Storm Fay, we can finally bid adieu~~

We gathered our important documents, pulled out our photo albums, packed our bags......and were getting ready to go. Just right before heading our way, Fay decided to swing over to the Atlantic ocean for a quick visit and came back to Florida for the 3rd landfall!! Yes, 3rd of the four! I guess Fay really enjoyed hanging out in Florida. Even after she left this area, we still had tornado and flooding warnings. Since she headed west, we then knew that we could stay home. At the same time, the closest city to us, Jacksonville, has a lot of flooding. It's very sad to see how many families have to deal with the floods and power outages. Some of these houses have more than a foot deep of water inside their house!

Back in this area, we had the very same warnings, tornado and flood warnings. It turns out that we are fine. There was a lot of rain. We are very fortunate that our neighborhood has well designed drainage and underground powerlines. We didn't see any flooding here, just very high water. Due to the high winds, Stakit and I stayed home for a couple of days. He didn't have to go to work (a lot of bridges were closed around here and schools were closed for two days as well). We were sitting at home going between The Weather Channel and Olympics back and forth. It reminded us of Snow days! Yes, we're "snowed in" during the month of August! I have no complaints, bonus 4-day-weekend with Stakit.

As Floridians still work on getting their electricity back and water out of their houses, Fay is getting weaker, a Tropical Depression. We stopped by the beach yesterday; the water was still very rough, sand was still blowing into the parking lot. Did we try the water? Oh, no thank you! We headed back to the intercoastal area and hung out and had wine. As banks, restaurants, the Y, ... were open and back in business this weekend, we had a sense of normality restored.

Still alive

We are still here and alive. It's been a lot going on physically and mentally. I know we have been slacking on this blog and flickr. I see you guys checking back on a regular basis and I figure it would be nice if say something here. I'm hoping to get my Flickr up-to-date (I am too cheap to pay for that $25 right now.) One of these day, I'll get my credit card out and sign up again.

Hope all it's well. Drop me a line if you feel like it :) Peace!

Yoga, ballroom dancing, I'm restarting 'life'

I'm finally getting better from the surgery! I started back with Yoga a couple weeks ago. I can't go to a normal yoga class yet. I am just taking a modified yoga class right now. My friend Anna is teaching it. I am amazed how much I CAN'T do! Oh well, it's a start. All my no-sew-incisions are finally closed up; yes, after FIVE and a HALF Months!

Last month was a bad month for us. We are trying not to 'live in the past'; we are moving on. Early this month, we had Cindy and John visit us. They shared their wonderful experience from their around-the-world-trip with us. THAT was very cool! After that, Stakit's parents were here. We were able to spend Mother's Day with them; that was great too! Beside spending some good quality time with family, we also started ballroom dancing again, CHA CHA CHA! With the super long break we had, we did pretty good! (I forgot how much I looooooove to dance! Even I don't look all that great. I don't give a dxxm.)

Also, we will be doing a little road trip. This year's anniversary trip will be a road trip to Key West. I'm so excited. I never have done a road trip before. (I know, where have I been?? right?) Another reason I'm so excited is....our friends Andy and Andrea will be joining us for the second half of the trip! It's going to be great! cause Stakit won't get tired of me by the end of the trip ;) OK, seriously, we are so excited to get to share some Florida Sunshine with our friends.

Before all that will happen, I have one issue! My neck got mad at me. It's all locked up. I can't really turn my head nor look down. Stakit started doing the robot when we were at the store tonight, Great! Since I can't turn around and make faces, I used another body part to "respond", a _ f i n g e r. My upper back, shoulders, and my neck are really tensed up! I don't think I have a pinched nerve. My body is just not too happy; maybe I overworked it or something. I think I just need a 5-hour-4-hand-massage! Hope it will go away soon before the trip.

I broke me. Again.

Frittata!
Originally uploaded by kc-star

It has been over FOUR months. I had my surgery back in December. I still have one stubborn incision that is still bleeding. I moved a little too much this morning and I broke myself again. That (now) little incision started bleeding again. However, overall I do feel stronger :)

I have been very good; listening to my doctor with my low-carb diet (for my insulin level). It's tough as I Love food. I started back in October last year. I did ok even during the holidays... until ... around the new year. I "re-started" the diet again last month. That's 2 weeks NO-carb, no fruit, no dairy, no nothing.... I did it! Now, it's the fun part, adding carbs back into my diet. Only the Good carbs and I have to keep it around 15 - 20g per meal. What happens if I go over? My head will scream at me in just a few minutes after I "cheat". This time around, I'm doing much better. I am adding good carbs back slowly. I even started exploring all different new ways to cook.

Possible side effect for low carb diet: decrease dining out, increase trips to farmers market, decrease body weight (my dr had to ask me to gain some back; i'm at the ok weight now), decrease sluggish feeling after eating; .......start to love yourself / your life....

The Ides of March

OK, the title of this particular blog entry is a little misleading. However, it has been raining quite a bit. It kind of reminds me of the NW, except when it rains here, it's like 65 degrees outside. The rain is good, because FLA is still trying to recover from drought-like conditions over the last couple of years.

Since the last entry was back in January, I should probably give a brief recap of what we have been up to over the last month:
1) We went to Tampa/St. Petersburg over one weekend. That was a lot of fun. We visited the Dali museum (largest in the US) and the Pier in St. Pete. We had dinner at a GREAT tapas restaurant. KC still talks about the shrimp ceviche. We also visited Honeymoon island, which is just north of Tampa. We wanted to at least take a look at the water on the Gulf side of the state. We did a bit of shelling on Honeymoon island, before we ended up heading back home.
2) Due to health concerns, KC had left her position at the pre-school in early February. She is feeling a lot stronger now, so it was definitely the correct decision. She can now concentrate solely on school. She is really enjoying her classes, and feels like she is learning a lot this term. And yes, she is applying what she learned already. I wouldn't say that I am a guinea pig or anything, but....
3) A Dim Sum place has just opened up in JAX. This was HUGE news for us. We have eaten there several times now. The chef is from HK, so the quality of food is quite good. We also managed to find a really good Korean BBQ place down in JAX as well.
4) We have been working on home improvement projects. We painted the master bedroom, and have installed some new lights in our dining room and entry-way. I'm not going to tell you any details, out of the hope that some of you reading this might feel intrigued, and feel obligated to come and visit us!
5) KC is visiting a friend this weekend, down in San Antonio. Based on an e-mail that she had read to me, her friend plans on taking her to see the Alamo, the Riverwalk, and some sort of caverns. When she gets back, I promise to pester her to blog about the trip.

Slow Recovery

KC is still recovering from her surgery. She is still experiencing a good deal of pain (1 1/2 months later), although given the severity of her endometriosis, I guess that should not have been too surprising. Nevertheless, she is a little bit frustrated because it is taking longer than expected to heal. Fortunately though, she does appear to be healing (per a series of invasive tests), just not as fast as she wants.

I went walking with her last weekend. We walked a long loop through the neighborhood, probably about a mile or so. She was walking at a fairly fast pace, stopping only to look at various neighbors' yards. I believe that she has palm envy (we don't have any palm trees in our yard).

A funny story - probably typifies what it means to live in a small town in the South. We decided to go to a local restaurant for wings (over 31 different flavors!). We ended up sitting in the bar section. A family with a 6 month year old baby ended up sitting to the right of us (Look, it's a baby. IN A BAR). I looked straight ahead, and there was a 6 year old kid, sitting on a barstool, talking to his dad. To the left of us, was a mother with her 3 year old kid. A few minutes later, a policeman walks into the bar to order some take-out. The cop walks by the baby, the 3 year old, and the 6 year old. He waits for his food, pays, and then leaves the premises. The cop NEVER SAID A WORD!!! I guess, it shouldn't surprise me, since this is the same place that will serve you a mixed drink in a styrofoam "to-go" cup.

Two Thousand WHAT?!

We are in year Two Thousand What? How did Christmas blow by? What about New Year's? It seems like it was just last week that I had a surgery (and the surprise) and my finals while I'm on pain killers. Once I released the CO2 that the doctor pumped in, my in-laws were here and 3 friends from the NW came soon after.

We had a Great time with everyone. I do remember having a great Christmas with Stakit's parents here and celebrating New Year's with our very, very close, special friends that came all the way across the country... We were having such a wonderful time that I had some scary rash all over me on New Year's day from some yummy fudge BUT I didn't even care. 'cause we haven't had good times like that for a loooooong, long time. It was fantastic! It's like a beautiful dream. Wait, was it a dream? I'm confused. I really think it was real. I would like to thank Stakit's parents, T, G, & B came out and visited us!

It looks like we really are in Two Thousand Eight.... (I still don't know how that happened) so,

To my loyal readers (it always warms my heart when I look at the log and see that you have stopped by to read my blog. Thank You!):

HAPPY NEW YEAR! May you and your family have a wonderful New Year with Happiness and Good Health!

Love,
KC & Stakit

Surgery Update

It has been a couple of weeks since KC had surgery. She is feeling better but is still experiencing quite a bit of abdominal pain. By no means am I a comedian, however, when I make her laugh, she ends up being doubled-up in pain and has to tell me to stop. She is a lot less bloated now, and is happy to begin wearing her own clothes. For a while there, the only thing that she felt comfortable wearing was a pair of flannel boxers (which were even too big for me), wool socks with leg-warmers, and her favorite white sweatshirt. It kind of made her look like she was wearing a kilt, so she often times would talk to me with a Scottish accent.
A couple of days ago, we had the post-surgical consultation with her doctor/surgeon. The doctor showed us a sketch of the endometriosis as well as pictures that he took with the camera (through her belly button - which KC has mentioned, will never be the same again. She actually took a picture of it before the surgery as a keepsake). After viewing the sketch and the pictures, I completely understand why the procedure took 4 hours - there was so much of it that he had to take care of. He felt 99% confident that he managed to excise all of it. He also mentioned, that by excising the endometriosis, there would be an extremely low likelihood that it would come back in the excised area. This was good news, because we both had feared that KC might have to do this again every couple of years or so.

Surgery

A couple of days ago, KC was scheduled to have a lapraroscopy to remove 2 cysts, a fibroid, and to determine whether or not she had endometriosis. She had been experiencing a lot of pain, and her doctor recommended this approach to alleviate the pain.

The procedure was scheduled to begin at 2:30 pm. Of course, it did not start until 4 pm. However, the procedure ended up taking 4 hours (we were only expecting it to last 2 hours or so). It was determined that KC had Level IV endometriosis (the most severe). Fortunately, the surgeon was able to excise the endometriosis - he believed that he had managed to excise all of it (along with removing the cysts and fibroid). In any case, due to the severity of her endometriosis (she had some on her liver), the procedure took a long time.

The surgery concluded at 8 pm. KC was admitted to a hospital room at 2:30 am after the nurses determined that she was way too dizzy, nauseous, and dehydrated to send her home. We finally left the hospital yesterday (at around 4 pm).

Thanksgiving Trip

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.

This year, we did not have any planned turkey dinner, no family or friends around. We decided to go for a long weekend trip. We went up to Atlanta and stayed at downtown Atlanta for 4 days! It was fun but just too short ;)

Atlanta is about 5.5 hours away. We drove up on Thanksgiving day and stopped for supper. Of course not many places were open and we didn't expect too much on food. We didn't even think we would have any turkey until we get to Atlanta. We stopped at Cracker Barrel and it turned out they have Thanksgiving dinner! They were not bad! We giggled the whole time. This is the first Thanksgiving dinner I didn't have to do Anything. I enjoyed cooking but I also enjoy not having to do anything :)

When we arrived at our hotel, we discovered that they just finished their Thanksgiving party (that we could have got to) They had a lot of good food and it's for Everyone! Oh well, we were tired from the drive and wanted to go for a walk anyway. After we checked in, we headed toward Olympic Park and had dinner at McCormick & Schmick's @ CNN center.

On Black Friday, we (I) had to go to the Mall (of course). We visited 2 malls: Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza (I did go to Tiffany but didn't get anything this time). In the evening, we checked out a cute neighborhood, Virginia Highlands.

The following 2 days we visited the High Museum mainly to see the impressionism and the Louvre exhibits, Atlantic Station, and we even had Dim Sum!!

That was a great trip! just too short! We still want to go visit the Georgia Aquarium. I guess next time.

Finally feels like Fall

Highs around 70s
Low around 60s