Updates

Wow, it's been awhile since I've written. I guess not too many exciting things have happened, but there are two things that I want to talk about.

First of all - Chris and my one-year-of-togetherness anniversary! It was this past Monday, Nov. 12th. We had a great evening together (obviously we had work during the day). We celebrated by coming home early, exchanging presents, going out to sushi for dinner, then sharing some sparkling grape juice (I can't drink right now) to celebrate. As far as presents were concerned, I made Chris a "scrapbooked picture frame thingy". I don't really know how to explain it, but its super cute. I picked some of my favorite pictures of us, mixed in some quotes, stickers, etc. I also gave him some silly things - I made magnets of two pictures of us that are on the fridge.

I however, got the better deal when it came to presents. I knew he had been working on something for awhile, but it was even better than I expected! He compiled (and formatted!) all of our emails, IM conversations, text messages, and date summaries from the beginning of the relationship. Then, he had it published. Now, it is a 350 page book, the cover being a collage of 20+ pictures of us. Its really amazing, and means a lot to me. Secondly, he gave me a beautiful ring. It is an Irish Claddagh (heart-in-hands) ring, which I love for several reasons. It is white gold, it is traditional and symbolizes my love for my heritage, and the middle heart stone is my birthstone, Peridot (which just happens to be my favorite color - lime green). The two hands stand for friendship, the heart for love, and the crown for loyalty. I wish I had a pic to post here - it is beautiful!

Secondly, and on not such a great note, my health. For the last several weeks, I have been having severe aches and pains in some, and gradually all of, my joints. So, a week ago I went to the doctor to get checked out, and she took lots of blood to test for different things. On Wednesday, we got the results back. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis. And, I have it pretty badly. The "normal" count for someone who doesn't have it is around 20-25. My count was 499. It's a chronic auto-immune disease, where my immune system attacks my joints. It is genetic, and its something that you're born with, and one day it decides to manifest itself. Exercise is good for it, lots of sleep is required. There is not a cure, and it's something I'll have forever. I have to go see a specialist next month to diagnose what specific type of RA it is, and start different methods of treatment. In the meantime, I'm pretty much stuck taking pain killers that the Dr prescribed. They help a bit, but I've been having a lot of problems sleeping lately. I feel really bad, because I'm keeping Chris up too. Last night I woke him up crying, because it hurt so much. I think the weather has a huge effect on how I feel. Yesterday and Wednesday were really bad days, and the weather was craptacular. Today it is clear outside, and I'm functioning pretty well.

So, yeah. That's the news in Mollyland.

I'm really excited for Thanksgiving next week. I have Thursday and Friday off, and holiday plans are as follows:

Wednesday Evening: Hopefully Sarah and Mike stop over on their way home
Thursday Day: Chris' house for Thanksgiving brunch
Thursday Evening: Dad and Cathi's for dinner
Friday Morning- Sunday Morning: Richmond for Molly's family celebration!

It is going to be a tiring, but very fun weekend.

In other news, the Harrisburg East Mall theater is finally open, and I hope to go this weekend! The boyfriend wants to see American Gangster, (which I want to see too) but I'm hoping I can talk him into Beowulf instead (which I want to see more) :) . I am also completely addicted to video games lately. Probably because doing anything active hurts, lol. I'm mastering Donkey Conga, which is like guitar hero on the congas. We also rented a really fun Wii game where we can play cooperatively and turn into different super heroes. I like that one too.

Have a good weekend, everyone!