Jenny's Jottings

On June 3, 2006, we clearly had lost our minds, when we took our two active friends/not-friends 11-year-old neighbors to the Columbus Zoo. Alex and Libby are two girls from this apartment complex who started hanging out with us after school. We help Libby get her homework done and provide coloring books and attention. These two girls get along sometimes and fight sometimes. They both have a lot of energy!


Friday evening Alex came over to our house. Alex's mom had to be out of town, and she couldn't find anyone at all to watch Alex. We agreed to let her stay the night at our house. Libby was horribly jealous, because they were thinking of it as a sleep-over rather than babysitting as a favor to Alex's mom. We had them stay for dinner (spaghetti and salad) and watched "The Princess Bride." Libby sulked.


We had Alex sleep downstairs on the futon. She was having trouble getting to sleep. Then she saw the giant nursery web spider in the living room. I am totally arachnophobic, too, so I understand why she came flying upstairs and refused to go back down. I sent Molly down to catch the spider and release it outside, but the spider had hidden itself away. We finally convinced Alex that the spider wasn't going to hurt her and that she could sleep with the lights on if it made her feel better, but she had to sleep downstairs. We had two sightings of this spider last summer. The nursery web spider is huge (3 inches) but harmless. It is freaky to come across one unexpectedly, especially in your house. I usually don't mind spiders outside, but I don't like them in the house. We probably get the nursery web spider because we live by the river. The next morning I was getting breakfast when the spider showed up by the dining room. I called Molly, who'd just gotten out the shower, to take care of it. This time she safely captured it and released it back outside.


(Yesterday morning, just before I left for work, Molly told me to look away, as she brushed a large wolf spider off of my shoulder. I quickly left for work and let her catch and release that one! We HAVE TO do something about the spiders in the house!!!!)


Saturday morning we took both Alex and Libby to the zoo. Libby had been before, but it was Alex's first time. I think overall they had a good time, but there was also a lot of conflict. Alex was too old for the pony ride she wanted, so she was majorly bummed out. Libby thought we were only seeing the things Alex wanted to see. They argued over how they were spending the money they had brought to the zoo. They bickered. Overall, I think they were more interested in the gift shops and stands and the playgrounds, than the animals. Somehow we survived the day. Molly and I love going to the zoo and seeing the animals. We'll have to go back and reclaim the place for ourselves.


Alex's mom picked her up late Saturday night. We declared Sunday an adults only day to recover from the insanity of two 11-year-old girls for too many hours.

This morning we were awakened by four noisy geese honking up and down the river. I'm not sure why they were honking so long and so loud, but it was certainly preferable to the way we were awakened yesterday.

( Yesterday morning, a little after 8, we were awakened by knocking at our door. )

In other news . . .

Sorry I haven't been in touch much lately. Most days I don't have a lot of energy for too much, like answering emails or posting in LJ. My mood is rather
up and down most days, and I have a lot of anxiety. It makes it hard. Some days I get very discouraged and depressed. My medical events have changed a lot of my life, and I am trying to sift through and reconstruct. I dropped all my classes and lost my jobs this semester. I am registered for fall semester though. I am enjoying the time to read the books I want to read for fun! I also got out my spinning wheel again, and I have knitting projects and art supplies.

In health news, we are still waiting to hear when our oncologist appointment will be. We are hopeful that I won't need chemo. It is still very likely that I will need to have a complete hysterectomy, so I need to make decisions about childbearing soon. My incision is healing up quite well. Almost 4 inches at the top and 1 at the bottom are closed. I still have pain from time to time, but nothing too serious. I've been to the ER twice with severe pain since the
surgery, but I seem to be past that now, I hope!!! Molly changes my bandages every day, and the home health nurses discharged me from their care on Wednesday. I see the surgeon again for follow-up on the 24th.

I am getting my strength and energy back, so I am able to enjoy outings more. Molly and I went to The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium on Monday. It was a nice change of pace and place. ( We saw )

I hope you all are well. I will try to keep in touch a little better, and hopefully there will be updates more often. Happy Spring!!!