What a whirlwind week!

What a crazy week. Monday and Tuesday weren't too bad - normal stuff - work, come home and go work out, clean the house. Cody's been working late lately because they're trying to finish up a big project so nothing too exciting those days. Wednesday everything was blown around, quite literaly.

First, I had an appointment with the otologist my ENT (ear, nose and throat) refered me to in an attempt to fix my ears. They did an audio test thing and my right ear was pretty good but my left ear has lost quite a bit of hearing since this bird flu thing. I basically can't hear much of anything of out it - the doctor described it as "substantial hearing loss." So he poked around in my ear, did some more tests and suggested one, possibly two surgeries. SURGERIES!?!? I just wanted some stupid eardrops to make it all better. I certainly didn't sign up for surgery, much less the possibility of two! Anyway, he wants to do the first one as soon as possible - it will basically fix the large hole in my eardrum (which while it has been there for at least 10 years, got much larger as a result of said bird flu and is causing said hearing loss - at least presumably) and then do another mastoidectomy (I had this surgery already when I was 9 years old). Then, assuming some of the loss is also due to otosclerosis (every female on my mother's side of the family has had it going back at least to my great-grandma), he wants to do a stapendectomy second (they can't do it at the same time because there can't be a hole in your eardrum when they do the second one). Fun fun. I'm not a huge fan of doctors to begin with, much less when they want to cut my head open. So, needless to say, this pretty much freaked me out Wednesday. In addition to the whole cutting at my head thing, these things are not cheap. I have health insurance, it's just not great (only covers 80% after my deductible), while Cody has rock star insurance. So now the deliema - wait until the wedding so I can get on his insurance (and live without hearing in one ear until and through the wedding), pay for the 20% (can't imagine that will be cheap), or go to the courthouse, get married and still have the reception next year. Too much to think about. . .

So, in the midst of all that stress, Marissa was nice enough to take me out wedding dress shopping Wednesday. The first shop (in a mirror of Saturday's excursion) was total crap and didn't have anything remotely wonderful. Most looked like nightgowns. Then we found another shop so I could try on two of the dresses I liked from Saturday. Well, I knocked out on of the gowns from Saturday but found two more. First, I love Watters gowns (www.watters.com). I'm not a big name brand person or anything, but seriously, every dress I tried of theirs was gorgeous. I'll put up pictures later with links to the website (I'm assuming Cody won't look because he's more supersticious then I am and it's unlikely he even made it this far in the blog). :) So on our way back into town from the burbs it started storming. Not just a summer shower, but I seriously felt like we were in a hurricane. To cut to the chase, this was the storm that's been all over the news. By the time I got home, we'd lost power. We still do not have power. It's been over two days now and they don't have an estimate as to when it will be back on - hopefully by Monday.

So, we arrive home to find no electricity on the hotest day of the year thus far (turns out Thursday would be an even hotter day). Cody and I hang out in the house, all windows open and candles burning and try everything we can think of to get the house cooler. It was no use. We finally managed to sleep a little Wednesday night in the heat, but we knew that wouldn't last. Since we were already planning a trip to Tally (still needed to pick up the fur balls), we just moved it up a bit. We went to work Thursday, came home, packed and got on the road. It wasn't even worth trying to take a nap in the house before we left - it was a sauna. We emptied the fridge and took anything still good in the fridge and freezer to a friend's house for storage and drove through the night.

So we made it to Tally today and have been checking the electric company website to see if our power is back on yet or if they at least have an estimate - no luck yet. I feel really bad for the fish because they're probably boiling by now, but hopefully they'll all make it since they're tropical fish. While it's great to be in Tally and not have to worry about the heat and no power, I hate to leave the house in such a state. Plus there was another storm today and we haven't had anyone drive by yet to make sure my car is okay and there is no damage to the house. I guess this is what we get for living in the midwest. Hopefully all will be fine by Sunday when we get home.

In other news, while in Tally today, I finally renewed my car registration (it was due in March). Yes I still register my car in Florida - so I don't have to pay the yearly personal property tax in Missouri on my car. Then I got a new cell phone because I pretty much destroyed mine - the hinge broke on this phone for the second time - I'm just not lucky with cell phones (I'm also not the gentlest with them either). It was also my mom's birthday today so we had a nice little party at my aunt's house - a good ole' seafood fest with crab claws and shrimp - oh, and of course cake. :) I think this is the first time I've been in Tally for my mom's birthday since I was probably 17 years old - I always ended up being out of town. Not this year.

Well, I'm beat from the 13 hour drive - time to sleep. Hope everyone in St. Louis is okay and is getting power back!!