HyperbAllea

That’s me, apparently.

Life’s been a little less crazy lately. Thomas and I are taking a break from a lot of our extra-curricular activities for the summer to just relax, and so far it’s working nicely. Right now, I’m contemplating a bit of a career change…or more like a career addition. I love teaching piano, but I’m thinking I want to do something else as well. I’m thinking about taking some cooking classes (since cooking is my new love) and seeing where that takes me. I might look at condensing my lessons schedule and getting a part-time job for a little variety, too. At this point, these are all just thoughts I’m having. I’ll write more if I make any definite decisions.

And I’ll try to update more. I know…you’ll believe it when you see it.

If I’d only know that getting my password reset for this site was as easy as clicking on a couple of links, I would have done it months ago. You see…

Awhile back I was having trouble with Firefox being really slow and taking forever to start up, so I decided to reinstall and see if things were any better. I, being the careful person I am, made sure to sync all of my bookmarks so I wouldn’t lose any of them. It wasn’t until I had already reinstalled that I realized I had forgotten about all my saved passwords. Most of my passwords I know by heart, but my password for this site is so obscure, and I haven’t had to type it in since the first time I did and told Firefox to remember it.

So after months of waiting, my husband finally suggested I click on the “lost password” link on the log-in page.

In a word…duh!

So I’m back and will be posting again. Sorry for the long period of silence.

I would just like to state, for the record, that, even though my husband would disagree, daylight savings time is wonderful. I can’t tell you how nice it is to finish with a lesson at 7 PM and still be able to walk to my car in sunlight. I’ve been in a much better mood for the past two days than I have all winter simply because I feel like I’m getting home earlier. Granted, I technically am getting home earlier…but that’s beside the point.

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks around the Ingram household. Thomas and I have both been SO sick. Thomas was sick all of last week. I started getting sick at the end of last week while Thomas was starting to feel better. I got really sick over the weekend (ear infection AND sinus infection), but Thomas was feeling pretty good until Wednesday when he came home coughing up a storm. We sent him to the doctor on Thursday morning to find out that he had bronchitis. So now we’re both home sick pumping antibiotics into our systems and praying that the bacteria will leave us alone.

On the up side, I think I’m finally starting to catch up on all that sleep I lost in college.

This is not for me. I’ve known what real friends are for a long time.

Real friends are not the ones who are always ready for a party, but never ready to help. Real friends are not the ones who are more concerned with their own plans than they are with your problems. Real friends are not the ones who will buy you booze, but won’t help you pay for things you really need.

Real friends will come to your rescue when you ask, and sometimes without you even having to. Real friends do not leave when the going gets tough and your life ceases to be “fun”. Real friends want you to be happy, healthy, and safe, and they grieve with you when your not those things.

It’s fine to have some “fake” friends. Everyone does. They’re generally fun to hang out with, but don’t put your life in their hands. They could care less about anything of consequence…about anything “heavy”. They just want to have fun and bolt when things get difficult.

Your real friends are the ones who love you. That’s why they’re still here.

Several people I know have decided to give up TV lately. Each time I hear someone mention it, I am convicted of the fact that I spend, or rather waste, way too much time sitting in front of the TV and not enough time attending to my responsibilities, bettering myself, and, most importantly, talking to God. I don’t think I’m going to quit watching TV altogether, but I am going to seriously limit what I watch. I will allow myself to watch the show or two I actually care about and movies with my husband, but then the TV goes off and I will do something more productive. There are so many books I want to read but never “have the time” for. There are so many things that need to be done around our house that never get done because they obviously aren’t a priority to me. There are so many more important things in the world than television. How does it have such a power over me? Why in the world would I rather spend time with an inanimate object than with my Lord? It kind of hurts when I think about it. I think it’s time for a change.

My Paw Paw is scheduled to come home from the hospital today after an almost exactly 3 month stay. What a relief!

As Thomas and I watched the ball drop on New Year’s Eve and the calendar flipped from 2007 to 2008, I couldn’t help but cry. 2007 was one of the hardest years of my life, and I’m so glad to see it go. I lost one grandfather, nearly lost another, and had so much stress from other family situations and life in general. The one bright point in my year was my wedding. I love my husband and I love being married to him. To a certain extent, Thomas is the one who has helped keep me sane for the past year.

I’ve been terribly withdrawn for the past few months, primarily because when I’m upset about something…in this case, my grandfather’s sickness…I don’t much feel like being around people. I have a hard time living life and being sociable when I feel like everything is going wrong. It feels fake. I think I’m back now though. My grandfather has been moved to a rehab facility and is working on being able to do things for himself again. I expect him to be going home within the month.

I have lots of plans for 2008, but I don’t like posting “New Year’s Resolutions” and stuff like that. I’d rather just make some changes and see if people notice. I do like how a new year makes you feel like you can make a clean start. Really that’s why I cried at the new year. I felt like all the bad was over. Now I can put it behind me and move forward. It’s such an unbelievable relief.

Happy New Year, everyone!

It’s been awhile since I updated about my paw paw, and a lot of amazing stuff has happened since I last wrote.

After he had been on the respirator for a few days, they went ahead and did a tracheotomy so he wouldn’t have to have a tube hanging out of his mouth and would be more comfortable. That way they wouldn’t have to keep him sedated.

So he had been on the trach tube for a few weeks, I believe. Thomas and I went to visit him last Friday and he was awake, in good spirits, and trying his best to talk, even though the trach tube prevents any air from reaching his vocal chords. He still made a valiant effort and we were able to somewhat read his lips. He looked so much better than the last time I saw him, and I left feeling very hopeful.

Over the weekend, the pulmonologist started gradually weaning him off the respirator and having him breathe on his own for awhile. He did very well and has not been on the respirator for several days now. He was even able to, with much help, I’m sure, get out of bed and sit in a chair in his room for awhile.

Then today came the biggest thing. They put something on his trach tube that actually allows him to speak…so today I actually spoke to my grandfather on the phone. I nearly burst into tears at the sound of it. Two weeks ago we thought there wasn’t much hope left, and today I spoke to my grandfather on the phone. I am so amazed at all of this. I feel like God is working miracles here and healing my grandfather who, only two weeks ago, wasn’t given much of a chance.

Thank you all for you prayers, and please keep them up. We’re hoping he will be home by Christmas.

I just spent $75 on yarn. If anyone was wondering how my yarn addiction is doing, there’s your answer. I fear I may have just blown the answer to “What is Allea getting me for Christmas?” for many of you as well. I have made more dishcloths in the past year than I can even count. And apparently, I’m still going strong. Also joined a knitting group today. Just a group of women who get together a few times a month to knit and chat. Finally, my mother-in-law is building a site for me to sell my dishcloths, so that will be up soon.

At least I know that if this piano lesson thing doesn’t work out (yeah, right), I have something to fall back on…

Did I mention this is all Kim’s fault?