Say goodbye to WHAT?

Most of my family and friends know that I have been struggling with some health issues since, like .....October.
I have had pain, a low grade fever and upon a CT scan they found two cysts in my spleen....big ones. Being that your spleen is actually really important (who knew) the surgeon did not want to remove it being that I am "so young" and encouraged me to seek another route. After months of research and additional Dr's visits the ideal of seeing a Gastroenterologist came up, EUREKA!

Just from the ONE CONVERSATION and some information from the Dr's office I already have a lead, they recommend EVERYONE with spleen abnormalities entertain the idea of a gluten allergy. Gluten, delicious wonderful gluten, is apparently crazy hard on your spleen, and often leads to spleen abnormalities along with a slew of other symptoms, to my dismay, I happen to have......

Sooooooooo it looks like I will do a 30 day trial, a "so long to gluten" test and see if I have improved symptoms. Naturally, I have spent the majority of the morning goggling what I can and cannot eat. All of my most faves are OUT but MOST wine, chocolate and Haribo products are in the clear, so I think I will not die immediately.

Manic Monday

Today started off fabulously, I woke up refreshed, enjoyed my newly designated space to get ready, made a killer latte and left for work with plenty of time to spare. The commute was flawless, no traffic, perfect weather...freaking great Monday. When I got to work the kids were all cheerful, I was cheerful and we were cheerfully chit chatting about how lovely our weekends were. My phone rang around 8:10, the husband informed me that our alarm service had called and that our front door had opened....when it most certainly should not have been open. There goes that perfect Monday, we decided that one of us needed to go home and see what was going on....and to make sure that our fur-babies were all safe and sound. It was my turn to be elected, so I abandoned my teammates and ran out the door to defend my home and my animals...(I am envisioning a Joan of Arc, version of myself here.) 

Naturally, no one else realized that I was in a state of emergency, and decided to lolly-gag and meander lazily down the freaking highway....clearly, PANIC MODE HAD SET IN. As if my morning couldn't get any more exciting the car directly next to me at the stop light started to smoke....the driver hopped out and called the police...meanwhile I am stuck right next to a smoking car and unable to get away from it, compliments of a red light, busy intersection and a hefty median....As I am watching the car it burst into flames, which totally engulf the entire vehicle! "Whaaaaat is happening this morning??!!" was pretty much as far as my thought process would go.  Thankfully, the police came and blocked off the intersection so that all of us trapped next to this giant burning car could get away, finally!

Once back on the road, I decided that the speed limit could be damned and that I was going to get home and see what else was going wrong. As I pulled up I saw two very confused house keepers and heard the alarm blaring....apparently they had switched our day and had forgotten to tell us about it...which seems like a major oversight to me. All in all the morning was a series of near disasters, but I will take a near miss over the real schabang any day of the week...even on a Monday.

Foreign exchange

A few weekends ago the hubs and I had the unique opportunity to open our home to one of the most awesome people we have met, who just happens to be 15 and from Germany. My brother signed up to host a German foreign exchange student, which is of course, awesome. However due to a schedule conflict with my brother because he a highschool baller.....Jerrett and I ended up getting to host Tassilo for the weekend. What an amazing adventure, not only did we have such a cool oppurtunity to hang out with someone from an entirely different country, we got to have them in our house and expose them to how we do everyday americana.

Being a tourist in your own town, I have heard people say this before but never really gathered the full meaning, this paticular weekend however it really clicked. No matter where you live, there is charm and kitsch to be found, so go out and explore what we have! We had such a blast!

Tomorrow Tassilo will go back to Germany, and we are all sad to see him go...but also so excited to have a new and very unique friend, who just happens to live a very far way, away.

Clearly, hats are a common theme!