Jim: You look cute.
Me: I do not, I’m fat.
Jim: You look really good in those jeans.
Me: But this (pointing to my stomach.)
Jim: Whatever I’ve seen girls with much bigger guts than that.

And then I watch his face as the realization of what he just said washes over him.

Today is the second day of my official birthday week. (Thursday is my actual birthday.) I think every year since we’ve been married I’ve managed to stretch my birthday into a whole week, so last year, Jim decided to go with it. Every morning of my birthday week, I would wake up to a present to open. He set himself quite the dangerous precedent.

But he’s doing great this year. Yesterday I got a really cool necklace made out of huge wooden beads kukui nuts.

Today, in his normal tradition, I got the ugliest sweater in Old Navy so I can return it. Jim is convinced that I love to return things. I don’t know where he’d get that idea? So he always buys me something to return.

Don’t you agree that he’s the best husband in the world?

There’s not a whole lot to report, but I wanted to keep you all in the loop. I spoke with my uncle (the P.A.) last week and he didn’t think that the blood tests would find anything conclusive, he actually wondered why the doctor ordered them at all. Jim may still do them, but now he’s not in any hurry to spend another $120.

The numbness in the left side of his body is ever present, but it’s not really bothering him like it was – I think he’s just getting used to it. At times, when we go on a bike ride or he mows the lawn, basically whenever he moves a lot, both his legs are numb. He was also having muscle spasms in his lower back the other day after a lot of activity. I finally forced him to let me give him a massage, it temporarily made things worse. But all this leads me to believe that it’s (hopefully) a problem with his back. We’re going to try to get him into another Chiropractor as soon as possible. And I think he would really benefit from a professional massage.

Until then, I thank you all for your prayers and well wishes. We’re just taking this one step at a time and trusting God to take care of us. We will be OK.

For the past week and a half Jim has been experiencing partial numbness of the whole left side of his body, at times, including the left side of his tongue. Probably for the past month, his left leg as been numb at times, but as of last Monday, it’s been all over the left side of his body and all the time. He has seen the chiropractor a few times and yesterday, the chiropractor determined, with great concern, that he could not help Jim and suggested he see the doctor right away.

Jim was able to see our family doctor yesterday and $140* later, the doctor doesn’t know what’s wrong with him. He’d like Jim to have some blood tests and after that possibly see a neurologist. We’re talking some very large medical bills with no insurance. It’s hard to know what to do because it’s all scary, but the likelihood is that he’s having these problems because he sits at a desk all day and gets very little exercise. And the doctor didn’t seem too worried, which is some sort of a relief, even though he doesn’t know what’s wrong.

At this point we’re going to try to exercise every day. Jim will start taking an anti inflammatory the doctor gave him and we may hold off on the blood tests for awhile. I will try my hardest to refrain from freaking out on an hourly basis. And the hardest thing that we will do, and definitely the most important, is trust God that he will keep Jim safe and well.

*Can you believe that it was $140 to see the doctor for just a chat? They didn’t even do any tests or anything. It’s outrageous.

If my love for you was boobs, they’d have to make a bra for it so big that even Jupiter couldn’t fill it, the sun couldn’t fill it….

Honors head couldn’t fill it.

Since the little minions were driving mommy out of her mind, i opted to do a swap for a week, so she’s down at the office keeping the kids in line… and i’m at home masquerading as the spoon wielding harbinger of sore bottoms.

Well… actually my week has gone more like this…

But don’t tell mommy, she thinks we’re hard at working cleaning … something.

It’s kind of my unofficial vacation. Being self-employed one can never actually take vacations. We’re not like the cubical farm inhabitants of corporate America. Things like paid vacation, sick time and benefits are not in our vocabulary. They are mere shimmers of a dream, faint wisps of something far off that we read about in books, but ..

oh wait.. a dispute has arisen over the ownership of the sheep toy.. i must grab my spoon and investigate …

All is well, we were able to settle the dispute with peaceful negotiations.

SO.. where was i? Oh, the joys of self employment. i think i can sum it up best in the words of the old man. “Why should I work 8 hours a day for someone else, when I can work 16 for myself!”. Words of wisdom i shall cherish and someday pass on to my son when he decides to throw his sanity and financial stability to the wind and start his own entrepreneurial endeavors.

I should quit before this turns into a book, but rest assured as you all toil away in your grey fabric cells, munching your power bar and wasting your employers time reading my wife’s website… I SHALL RETURN!!

Now, where did i put my spoon?

So, you know, as if things couldn’t get more stressful around the office, Jim has Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. In the last few weeks his hands suddenly started getting numb and and now he can hardly do anything. He’s been wearing braces on both hands and taking huge amounts of an anti inflammatory, but it just isn’t better and maybe a little worse.

He’s so angry. I don’t blame him. Yesterday his frustration level totally exploded. He can’t even hold the kids.

When it rains it pours. When you don’t think things could get worse, they do.

But this is the time when you really prove what kind of person you are. The time of life when you look to what matters in your life, when your reliance on God really shows you where you stand with Him. I just keep thinking this:

EDIT: more pics below

I planned a surprise party for Jim last night. I wanted to write about it here SO bad, but I knew if I did it would be the rare time that he would read my site. I took him shopping for his birthday while everyone arrived at our house. I know that he had suspected something, but he doubted that I had time to pull it off. So I think he was really surprised, at least by the number of people who showed up.

He kept saying in wonderment that he didn’t think that anyone really cared. That’s so surprising to me because I know how much everyone cares for him!

His really good friend Isaac made this plate for him.

He doesn’t look 30 does he?

It’s funny because this is Jim’s signature “logo” to go along with his internet persona, Mac8mypc.

Here I am with his matzo crust cheesecake. It wasn’t too bad.

All in all, I think the party was a big success. Thanks everyone for coming!

The following pictures are courtesy of Kevin Decker. Thanks Kevin!

Jim being surprised.

Me and Jim

My mom and Honor at the party

My friend sarah and her new baby, Beau

Our photographer Kevin with Landon, Jim’s business partner

Our youth pastor, Josh, with his fiance, Heather

Isaac (the plate giver) and Jill

Brooke and Brian

Eden with her buddy Madison, Brooke’s daughter, as if you couldn’t tell

Jim’s dad and his wife, Cindy

Landon and Niccole and their children, Christopher and Jonathan

Adam and Rich

We didn’t get a pic of my little sister who worked SO hard to get this all together. Also no pics of Jim’s sister, Nancy, and her husband, Paul.