Birth of ME

Well, today is my 32nd Birthday. Wow. Firmly planted in my 30s. It is really interesting.

Today is also my husband, Steve's 32nd birthday. Weird, I know.

Friday night we went out to a delicious dinner at Houston's on Kirby. This afternoon I will take my niece Madison to Maddie Brown's 4th birthday party (it's a cowgirl party!!) and then out with Tiff for a fun night of catching up.

I would love to go out and do karaoke with friends VERY soon. Who else wants to sing with me??

Happy Birthdays all Around!!

With the recent visit of Hurricane Ike, I have fallen behind on birthday wishes to special people in my life! Let me take a minute to say





to the following special people:

• September 4 - Aunt Connie - Thank you for letting us crash at your place for a week and enjoy the wonderful whole-house generator! Steve, Pico and I all appreciate it a lot!

• September 11 - My beautiful sister, Sarah - Unfortunately, another tragic event has preempted your birthday... We will celebrate soon. Love you!

• September 13 - Maddie Brown - Happy Birthday, cowgirl! It isn't every day that you turn the big 4!!!

• September 23 - My best friend, Monica - You have always been there for me, and I adore you!

Some upcoming birthdays - 9/26 (Blythe and Chelsea), 9/27 (Myself & Steve)

Power

After 6 days with no power, we finally moved back home Thursday night. We were planning to stay with my mother until the power came back on so we could at least be close to our apartment. I was here about 5:45 pm getting a few things and all of the sudden I heard a hum that had to be electric. Our AC was back on. I ran to the bathroom and flipped on the switch - And there was light. Oh happy day! I was thrilled. I was so tired of being displaced, even though my family was amazing to take us (and 6 other familial refugees) and the dog in for nearly a week. There is just something about being at home in your own bed...

Today (Saturday) I braved the grocery store. Everything in our fridge and freezer had to be thrown out, so I picked up a few replacement items. Life is starting to get back to normal. My family still doesn't have power, and might not until late next week. The whole experience has been exhausting for everyone. I have also seen just how amazing the City of Houston can be. Neighbors helping each other, helping strangers... it is a true testament to the friendliness and love than can be found here.

We had no physical property damage, which was great, but the memory of Ike will linger on for a while. I will upload my pictures from the rest of the storm soon.

Suck It, Ike

I have been without internet since early Saturday morning. I didn't know just how dependent I was on this thing until it was gone.

Hurricane Ike Recap:

The storm came through really early Saturday morning. We had very high winds (110 mph) and rain. About 3 am, I woke up and huddled around a little TV with my Aunt Linda and cousin Lindsey watching Brennan's restaurant burn to the ground. Lindsey was very sad, as her soon-to-be sister-in-law was to have her rehearsal dinner there in just a week's time.

We awoke Saturday morning to find that Larry & Connie's fences had not survived the night, but no other damage to speak of. It continued to rain for a while, but we had a generator, light,s and air conditioning, so we were very fortunate. Sunday afternoon, we cleaned up all of the leaves and branches and enjoyed the cool front that blew through.

Yesterday, we were all still hanging out since work was cancelled. Steve and I have still not been back to our apartment. We have been told there is no power and not to bother coming back home for a few days. My best friend's mother drove by our place and said there didn't appear to be any damage. I may try to run down there tonight and check things out. I am at work today, so at least I have internet.

I do have a ton of things we would like to mock about the media's coverage of the storm, but it is still a little too fresh. I will give it a few days. But, for now, we are safe and sound.

Hurricane Ike - Update

Well, we ended up evacuating. When I woke up this morning, I just didn't feel right staying so close to the storm surge. Blah. I tried to get my mother to come in with us to my aunt & uncle's house, but she refused. I did not want to leave her, but short of konking her on the head and stuffing her into the trunk (which I did not do, FBI search bot), I had to go.


My family's house is far enough into Houston where we shouldn't have any trouble with water (I hope) but we might get some wind. I don't know what will happen at our apartment. I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

But meanwhile, we have been having a blast making fun of reporters, and stupid reporter buzz words. I will soon have a blog post of annoying phrases we never want to hear again. Stay tuned!!


Here are a few pictures of our evacuation and Hurricane party, so far:

Pico evacuated

Lindsey & Linda preparing the essentials - beer & junk food

Preparing to "hunker down" and "shelter in place"

Watching the news... bashing reporters

Chillaxin'

The wind... uh... not blowing

Faux-reporter, Aunt Linda, being blown away by the power of the storm

The twins - Aunt Linda and Uncle Larry

Hunkered Down - Blessitt Style (Liz, Lindsey, Linda, & Connie)

The Flying Nun

The Boys are playing Wii

Lindsey is Big Pimpin'

Wii Baseball Showdown - Doug vs. Steve

I just know I will regret making fun of this later. I am very concerned about the condition of my apartment. This is just a way to keep from thinking about it.

PSA - The media in Houston is ridiculous.

Hurricane Ike

I am so sick of hurricane season. Remind me again WHY I live on the Gulf Coast?? I guess there are dangerous acts of nature anywhere, but this storm season has been pretty stressful. Of course, the media plays right into that. OH MY GOD!!! WE ARE ALL GOING TO BE WIPED OUT! FLEE!! Oops... nothing. The hurricane that was supposed to hit us last week - Gustav... not one single drop of rain.

But Ikey boy seems to be bearing down on us, and I am not sure we will be so lucky this time. This morning, they posted a mandatory evacuation for my zip code starting at noon today. I am not going to be stuck in the evacuation nightmare like we did with Rita in 2005. 9 hours to get to College Station (usually 1.5 hours, tops). This time, I think we are going to ride out the storm at my mother's house. It is a little further south than I would like, but she has it baracaded like a fortress, and bought a generator after Rita... so, hopefully things will be ok. If it looks really bad, we will high-tail it over to my aunt's house on the West side of Houston.

But, I will say this... apparently, it take a hurricane to get me to FINALLY clean out my spare bedroom. But, it is clean now! Now I just need to finish moving things off the porch and we will be all ready. Stupid storm. Grrrrrr.

A Beautiful Day for the Park

On Saturday, Sarah and I decided to take Madison to the park. She is 14 months old now and very active! Maddy and I went to pick Sarah up at work during her lunch hour and we went over to Hermann Park. It was a gorgeous day. It wasn't hot, for once, and there was very little humidity! It really was a perfect day!! Here are a few pictures, but you can see them all on my SmugMug site under Children>Madison 1 year old.

A good time was had by all! I am looking forward to our next outting - Maddie Brown's Cowgirl Birthday Party!!

Control

My name is Elizabeth... and I am a control freak. There... I said it. I have been a control freak for as long as I can remember. I am not really sure what causes it, but it is something that I am exploring. To start out, I was a kid born with a lot of allergies. I have several severe food allergies (peanuts, pineapple, coconut), as well as other allergies to internal and external allergens. When you grow up around things that can kill you, you really learn to control what happens around you. I have always been very cautious about what I am eating, drinking, or breathing. I was also a child with asthma. When you do anything that a kid normal does, and you can't breathe... it is a nightmare. I grew up always worried that something would happen and I wouldn't have my rescue inhaler... and I would be screwed. I also grew up in a less than harmonious household. My parents argued a lot (although they did not divorce until I was 20 years old), and I was always nervous about what was going on.

I have also discovered that I was probably suffering with varying degrees of depression when growing up. Talking to different family members - this is something that many of us are dealing with. It is an interesting concept to think about - the link between depression and control. I think that when you start to see all of the things you don't have control over, you do anything you can to take control. My mother will tell you that I was a mother from the time I was born. She also calls me bossy - whatever. I have been told that on my first day of Kindergarten, I sat all of the kids down and started reading them a book. I don't remember doing this, but it sounds like something I would do.

I think that no matter what you call it - controlling, bossy, assertive, leader - there is always something you are trying to overcome. I think that when I get nervous, or feel out of control, I try to do whatever I can to make that situation less uncomfortable. Most of the time, that entails taking over and making it work in a way that makes sense to me.

In late 2002, I started getting sick, and I didn't know why. Around Thanksgiving, I just started feeling an overwhelming sense of nausea and misery. I would break out into a cold sweat and get very nervous, and just do anything I could to get out of whatever situation I was in. Somewhere around Christmas, I decided that if I could just throw up... I would feel better. So I did. A lot. Once I started, I wasn't able to stop. For the next few weeks, I was stuck in a terrible cycle of feeling panicked and then throwing up. At first, I did feel better. Then I didn't. By the end of January, I was terribly sick. One day, I started throwing up and just couldn't stop. I remember it was the day before the Super Bowl, and my husband told me that he thought I needed to go to the ER, and he wasn't going to take me during the Super Bowl (wouldn't want to ruin his big day!!). So about 9:00 pm, we walked into the ER. They weighed me in and I had lost 15 lbs from my doctor's appointment around Thanksgiving. It took hours to get seen. I spent all of that time back and forth from the uncomfortable plastic chair in the waiting room to the uncomfortable bathroom stall in the Emergency Room. They finally brought me back into the triage area and proceeded to do some tests, and left me alone for hours. I remember throwing up in a giant trash can for hours... until they sent me home. I was still sick, but they sent me home anyway. They told me to go to my regular doctor on Monday. I did. By Friday, I was back in the doctor's office. I had lost an additional 20 pounds from the previous Saturday night. My doctor sent me to the hospital and had me admitted. 5 days later, I was no longer sick, but had never been told what was happening. They treated my panic attacks and got me back to normal blood chemistry. I became excessively paranoid about throwing up, and avoided it at all costs. I never connected anything, since they never told me WHY I was so sick.

In 2006, I made the decision to undergo the lap band surgery in an attempt to get my weight under control. I researched it and thought this would be the best option for me. I had the surgery, and from there my nightmare began. I thought that the throwing up was just a side-effect of the surgery and that I just wasn't doing what I was supposed to be doing. But it didn't make any sense... I would eat a bite of something and would immediately become ill. I started suffering from panic attacks on a daily basis. I was sick all the time and completely miserable. I didn't know what to do. Over the next year, I ended up in the emergency room 5 times, with two hospitalizations coming from those trips (Twice transferred from my doctor's office to the hospital via ambulance). I couldn't get the panic attacks under control. The last trip (March 2008 - 5 days in-patient) was the last straw for me. I just couldn't take it anymore.

Talking to different family members, I have learned that a good number of them also suffer from panic attacks, in varying forms, and with various triggers. But, I really think that those attacks come from a lack of control over some aspect of your life. In 2002, I was not working full time. I was doing consulting work for a hospital, but the work was sparse and I wasn't making a ton of money. My husband would often ask me why I had a Master's degree and couldn't earn a living. I think he was trying to understand it himself, or maybe motivate me to do something more. It was incredibly humiliating, and I think that is about the time I started getting sick. After my surgery, I think the fear that I would do something wrong actually propelled me to do the wrong things and caused the panic episodes. Thank God I did not have the bypass... I would probably be dead.

If you have never suffered a panic attack - Please understand that they are serious business. It feels like a heart attack. Your body goes through the same reactions as something that severe. They are physically and emotionally draining. Your immune system begins to shut down, and you just can't fight off illness. I have heard so many people dismiss panic attacks - but they are something I wouldn't wish on anyone.

I am starting to trace these things in an effort to keep from slipping into bad patterns. I need to learn better defense mechanisms for feeling out of control. I need to learn more about myself and why I take these things so personally. I think that will be the beginning of the healing process which will allow me to have a full, healthy life. I am also learning that a lot of things I thought were asthma attacks as a kid were probably actually panic attacks. I always wondered why the inhaler wasn't helping. I have outgrown the asthma in my adulthood, but that same feeling still comes around when the panic takes hold.

I know this blog is a departure from my normal posts, but I think it is important to share these things so that others can learn from them. I hope you don't go through these same things, but I know that there are more people than we think going through these same problems.

Semi-Annual Girls' Slumber Party & Jean's Baby Shower

August 30, 2008

Twice a year, the aunts and cousins in my family get together for a Girls' Slumber Party extravaganza. This year, we included an intimate baby shower for my cousin, Jean, who is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her first child, Miss Eva Kelly Hays. Eva will be blessing us with her presence just in time for Christmas. Since Jean and her husband Wendell are currently living in Orlando, we wanted to make sure we could throw her a shower before the baby came.

We started out the party in the afternoon with mimosas (sorry Jean!) and some light conversation before heading to the nail salon for manicures and pedicures. Since the majority of the family has fall birthdays, this was Aunt Linda's gift to everyone. It was wonderful to have a day of pampering!!

After the nail salon, Baby Eva decided that she was hungry for cake. We couldn't turn the growing baby down, so we bucked tradition and ate our cake before dinner. Jean says that Eva feels if she has dessert first, she will always have room for it. We actually had two cakes. One for Baby Eva (chocolate with a chocolate mousse filling and a super sugary icing) and one for all the birthday girls (yellow cake with cream cheese filling, cream cheese icing, and chocolate covered strawberries). Sorry chocolate cake - the yellow cake was DIVINE!

Once we had our fill of cake, it was time for dinner. We had a yummy firehouse spaghetti (compliments of Aunt Mary) and my famous Mexican Cornbread Casserole. There were also many delicious appetizers, a great salad, and Aunt Linda's famous crockpot tortilla soup. My cousin Doug made his appearance, as he is often a staple at the parties.

After dinner, we finally let Jean open presents. She was really excited and thrilled at all the great loot! My sister showed up with Madison and she helped with the present opening. She really is a great little helper! I can believe how big she is getting!!

After all the presents were opened and we had ooohed and aaahed all we could, it was time for the slumber party. This basically consisted of laying around talking and laughing until we couldn't keep our eyes open. It was a ball spending time with family. Thanks to Aunt Linda for hosting the event, as usual. I can't wait for the next one!