Jack ‘n Tracie

Hi,

Did you miss us?

I’m sorry for taking an unannounced hiatus from updating this but the joy of doing it was lost, oh a month or so ago. For a while, everytime I sat down to write an entry I got a vision in my head of a truly rotten person finding a way to take the words written here and do something mean with them and, well, that just ruined it for me. Afterall, this is supposed to be fun. And if it’s not, it’s not, regardless of why. But I’m over that (and was weeks ago) but once I’m out of the habit of writing to this thing, it’s hard to get back into it.

So it’s been about 6 weeks since this site was updated. What’s happened in that six weeks?

Our friends who’s house was destroyed in a fire are doing ok. They were put up in a rented house only a few doors down from Deanna’s mom so that worked out nice. Reconstruction of their house has begun and they are moving on.

February 22nd, I turned ALMOST 40 years old. (37!!!). Why does 37 sound so much older than 36?? It isn’t fair, I tell ya! That weekend Jack and I went to the beach. We went to Rockaway this time. Our room was right on the beach and we had a beautiful view. We walked the beach, did lots of shopping, spent way too much money. Then I did my typical “get sick” thing that I always seem to do when we go to the coast and we came home early on Sunday. I hate my body sometimes!!

Not much happened the next week, then on March 9th I went to an appointment with a dermatologist. I was pretty nervous about this appointment.

To back up a bit, one day several weeks ago, Carl, Jack’s co-worker and friend was over at our house. Somehow the scar on my lip was brought up. (In that entry I wrote scarring was minimal but all who know me knows that it actually ended up NOT being so minimal and I had an ugly bubble thing…) Anyway, I don’t remember exactly the context in which the scar was brought in our conversation with Carl, but Carl’s comment was, “Oh that’s a scar? I thought you just had a cold sore” … ….. ………….. ……………………….

Carl did not mean to hurt my feelings nor did he mean anything bad by it at all. So I am not and never was mad at him. But it did give me the kick I needed to finally do something about it. (You all know how self conscious I was about it…) I mean. If Carl thought it was a freakin’ cold sore, then who else thought that? Ya know?

So I got my doctor to give me a referral. On March 9th I thought I was just going to discuss my options with the dermatologist. Instead he said he could attempt to fix it right then. WHOA… ok?? So yeah, he did. They numbed me up (fyi, getting novacaine shots into thick scar tissue on a sensitive lip SUCKS!!!!) and basically he “ground out” (as he put it) the “bubble” then put two stitches in to close it.

I came home and promptly started obsessing on it. First, it was huge.. and ugly, and just nasty looking. Very reminiscent of my fall. It brought back a lot of icky memories actually. But within days (mouth injuries heal so fast) the swelling was down and it looked *almost* normal, save the ugly black stitches. Finally on March 16th, the stiches came out. And … NO MORE UGLY BUBBLE!!!! (Thanks Carl!!)

I’m very pleased with the result. While it’s true my lips will never look like this or this anymore, they do now look like this: and and really, I’m ok with it. They will not be uniform ever.. but no more bubble!! I’m actually surprised how much of a self-esteem boost it’s been for me. Even being able to apply chapstick or… lip gloss.. and not have to deal with the ugly bubble from hell is nice.. I don’t feel like I have to try to hide it all the time. Jack’s also not complaining about the self-esteem boost.

Not much happened the week after I had the procedure done. I stayed home all that week since the stitches were ugly and uncomfortable. Then the week after that work went nuts for both Jack and I. Both of us were stressed out big time over issues we were both having at our jobs. Things have calmed down a bit for both of us, thankfully. Because for me, I was losing sleep over it (literally). I was at best getting 5 hours of sleep at night then I’d wake up stressed out and feel the need to work. I’m back up to getting about 7 hours a night which is good. I also had my 2 year review with my boss, Chad, on Thursday. He sung my praises and gave me a raise. Can’t complain about that. I also can’t believe I’ve been with my job 2 years now. It’s flown by!

And speaking of Chad, I get to meet him IN PERSON next Saturday!! I am so stoked. I’ve worked with these people online for 2 full years and have never actually met any of them. He’s driving up from southern California to Eugene, OR to meet a friend. So Jack and I will be driving down to Eugene to spend a day with Chad and his girlfriend. I can’t wait. But I’m also a bit nervous, hehe. It’s weird to finally meet someone you have come to ‘know’ so well online and over the phone but never actually met in person.

Melissa got into the Marimba band at school and for the last six weeks she’s been going to school early 2 days a week to practice. Yesterday they finally got to perform for the school and parents. Jack went to school with her and spend the whole day with her. He took a video of her awesome performance as I wasn’t able to get off work to attend. They all did great!

And finally, we celebrated Cody’s birthday March 30th. My baby is 5 years old!! He had a totally batman and Ice Age themed birthday. He got a new batman bike, and a Scrat (the squirrel from Ice Age) toy which he loves and 3 books. (He’s been pretty into books lately.) Then last night we took the kids to see Ice Age 2: The Meltdown and we thoroughly enjoyed it. I enjoyed Cody’s giggles the most.

So that’s our last six weeks in a nutshell. If you still read this thing, let us know in a comment!