My New Car

Well last week was pretty excieting for me. We used our Economic Stimulus Check from the IRS to buy Michael's car he just replaced (Michael is Jeremy's next youngest brother). I had been resisting the idea of getting a car for some time, insisting that it was working just fine to simply use the truck that we already have. I love our little truck, love driving it, and I dreaded the seemingly scarry process of getting a second vehicle registered and insured - something I'd never done on my own. With time I finally came around, and as it turned out our insurance only went up $32/year once the multi-vehicle discount was applied to our policy, and the registration process was more simple than I had imagined as well. The convenience of having a car impressed me immediately, especially since Hannah rides with us more and more these days (a rather tight squeeze in the truck!) This is the first car that was ever bought specifically for me, registered and insured in my name...which I think is pretty cool.

The other little bit of excietment this past week was discovering a bump in my left hand right where it had been hurting for the past several weeks. I had assumed there was a minor sprain that was just taking awhile to heal, but when I found that bump I started really wondering if I had broken a bone in my hand without realizing it. It was all rather mysterious and concerning, and so, with the encouragement of everyone I talked to (husband, Mom, Mother-in-law, Obstytrician's office, etc.) I did something I almost never do: I went and got it checked out. Because of our present insurance situation I won't have a regular family doctor until the first of June, so after trying and failing to use a walk-in-clinic, I ended up at the emergency room for the first time in my 24 years of life. Much to my embaressment it turned out to be nothing more than a little ganglion cyst, which is perfectly benign and usually goes away on it's own. It does have the potential of growing and, without any warning, snapping your tendon or ligament or whatever it's attached to. That was a bit of a scarry thought, but my case was a long way from that becoming a possibility. To further my embraressment at rushing off to the ER, on Sunday morning I went to rub my hand to see if anything had changed...and the cyst was completely gone. Not only was gone, but the "sprain" I'd been suffering from for weeks was almost completely gone too. Praise the Lord! :)

Reuben continues to learn and grow more and more each day. I think his little ears may be bothering him as of the last couple days. He's been in this state where he's perfectly happy and content most of the time, but at regular intervals, for no apparent reason, he suddenly falls apart on me. That, combined with him walking around fiddling with his ears, and of course he seems to be taller every other day I look at him too, so growing pains a probably a factor as well. After a few late nights out last week his sleeping patterns are all wacked out at the moment, keeping me up most of the last two nights. So that's our big push for this week: get back on some kind of workable pattern of sleeping at night and regular naps during the day, before Mama looses her mind. (chuckle)

Jeremy's time out at the "FOB" has been going pretty well. He's computer has not able to get online out there, but otherwise he's really enjoying the training. It's been some of the most realistic, pertinent training exercises they've done since arriving at Fort Dix, so they're all doing their best to absorb every moment of it. At this point it looks like they'll be moving back to regular barracks about a week from tomorrow.