Wonderful Wednesday!

Do any of you have bits of children's books permanently tattooed on your brain? Things like, "I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them, Sam I Am"...

At 3:37 am I woke up to find Trouble the kitty cat standing on top of me, tapping my cheeks and he was obviously about to sneeze... and as he rared back with a "AH... AH... .AH"... the first thing that came out of my sleepy brain was, "stand back, said the elephant, I'm going to SNEEZE"... and he did. Baptized in kitty snot first thing in the morning middle of the night.

Guess he had to top his "uh oh" moment from yesterday... just as I turned off the water in the shower, he jumped in with me... little paws couldn't get traction...slip sliding across the bathtub he grabbed onto my wet foot to stop his slide... and cut a huge gash in my foot. Lovely. It was pure cartoon. He's a cartoon kitty.

Austin is in the doghouse - if we had one - I would say he's in the cat house but that means something else. I asked him Sunday night to do the dishes. They still aren't done. I don't have the energy to go ten rounds with him over it.

Speaking of ten rounds... my pink Christmas tree is now hanging upside down from the coat rack. It's the only place I've found where Trouble won't bother it. We're going to review some holiday etiquette over the weekend.

The weekend. The long, praise you Jesus I needed a break weekend. We are not going anywhere for Thanksgiving. I delayed making a decision until yesterday but the reality is that there is too much pain in my body right now... my spine is horribly inflamed right now... it feels like I have a bladder infection (going to the doctor today) ... my legs ache so bad it feels like I have weights attached to them... I can't do it. I broke the news to Cody last night. His sweet grandma-in-law invited us to join them for Thanksgiving dinner after we did lunch at my Aunt Ginger's. Instead... we'll be rocking the stove top stuffing, cranberry sauce and small turkey breast here at the Nest.

The surgeon's office called back and backed down on the amount of money I would have to pay for my surgery. I have to pay them $157 - and that just leaves whatever obligation the hospital requires before the surgery and making up the difference in lost income from missing work. I looked at the calendar... knowing that the surgeon isn't working the week between Christmas and New Year (which would have been my ideal time - surgery happens under this year's deductible, recovery happens with next year's sick leave) my best case scenario would be to have the surgery on December 23rd. I talked to the mean old scheduling lady who had taken her rudeness back a notch or two... I gave her my availability as being the week before Christmas. If we couldn't do it then, we couldn't do it. She insisted on taking my portion of the payment before she would attempt to schedule. Whatever. I paid and then prayed... if I'm meant to do this... if there's a way... it will happen that week. She hung up and called back about thirty minutes later... they can do the surgery on the 21st. That means I have a colon-ah-scopy (my spelling) on the 20th, go home, stay on clear liquids while they review and determine what has to be done... then I go back on the 21st and have the surgery... I'll get nipped and tucked and have everything that's not supposed to be "back there" taken out... and have anything that isn't sturdy enough, shored up... and be sent home to recover over the holidays.

Since I'm long since out of sick leave for this calendar year... I'll need to replace roughly 9 days worth of income... I'll have holiday pay for one of those days... (Lord willing) and I have a hospital surgical policy that will reimburse two more days... that leaves me six days of income to replace and then... it will be the new year and if I'm not full recovered... one more day of holiday pay and then my sick leave and vacation starts. On paper it looks entirely possible, it will definitely require a financial blessing but I feel like this is the best timing we could possibly have.

So if you go into a convenience store and see my picture taped to a mason jar on the counter, toss a few coins in there to make sure we can pay our rent for January.

I know that God is good. I am so humbled by the many people He brings into my life to pray, to make sure we don't go hungry, to help with Austin... I cried again yesterday... but it was a good cry. It was a cry of relief in full belief that we are going to be ok. I am apprehensive about the pain... apprehensive about the logistics of it all.... but I'm certain this is the right time. I still have to get permission for the time off... but I'm in complete trust that if I don't get permission, if I can't line up the replacement income, then this is a surgery that I don't need to have.

Looking toward a beautiful, restful four day weekend. Happy Thanksgiving y'all!