I have a strong desire to write today, but haven't been able to get myself going. I'm going to start with a simple meme I found and see if I can go from there.

The Meme:
1. What was your biggest challenge this past week? I've had a few this week. I started a new eating lifestyle (not a diet, but making a change to eat healthier for life). I started going to a gym. While both of those things would generally seem challenging, I was excited to get started, so I wouldn't say it was my biggest challenge.

My biggest emotional challenge was having to put my (step)son, Drew, back on a plane to go home to Florida to his Mom. He'd been with us 5-6 weeks and while that time had a few of it's own 'challenges', it was overall a wonderful time. As much as it was difficult, I'm excited for him because he went home with a plan to get started on his future. He has an appointment with a Navy Recruiter today. :)

2. What was your biggest accomplishment this past week? Starting at the gym and changing the ways I eat! I've needed to accomplish this for several months as I've had weight slowly creeping back on. My husband is my partner in this endeavor and I hope that together we can meet our individual and mutual goals.

3. What was the most exciting thing that happened in your life this past week? Exciting .... hmmm, probably my riding lesson that I had on Monday. I haven't had a lesson in a couple months and the last one I had didn't go so well. The one I had on Monday was awesome! I could really feel Bailee responding to my more specific, instructor guided queues. She did great and I think I did pretty wonderful too. :)

4. What one thing made you the happiest this past week? Sean, my husband. :) He does little things daily to make my laugh and smile. There's plenty of little things that drive me crazy too. ;) ..but more importantly are the things he does that he doesn't really think about, that mean so much. Some examples: Since moving to MA and the weather turning cold, he gets up every morning when the alarm goes off (EVEN when he doesn't have to be up yet!) and goes outside and starts my car while I'm in the shower. Weekly he downloads the shows that I like to watch (Greys Anatomy, Helix, Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey, etc) and when I get home from work sits down and watches at least one with me before playing any video games, etc so we can spend time together. He calls / messages me every day at work to see how my day is going. He gives me a hug and kiss every day before we leave for work and when we get home. ..and there's so much more. 5 years in and he always try to pay attention to those little things. He's simply .. amazing.

Speaking of Sean, he just messaged that he's on his lunch. I'm off to give him a ring.

Friday Five

I had a total AH-HA moment! .. I've figured out how to 'categorize' my posts! Except on blogger.com it's called "Labels". WOO! .. Go me!

Moving on, this is today's Meme. Right now this will probably be a lot of my writing, I'm using the Meme's to get back into the habit.

1. How many hours of sleep do you like to get in a night? On average 8-10 hours. Sean has pretty bad sleep apnea (that he's in the process of being treated for) and so he generally sleeps around 10 hours a night. I like going to bed for some snuggle time with him, so generally during the week we're in bed by about 8:30pm and up at 6am.

2. How many hours of sleep can you survive on indefinitely? Indefinitely? Isn't the definition of this something similar to 'forever'? If that's the case: 0. :) If the question is how many hours of sleep do I need at minimum to function normally, about 6-8. If we're talking about the need to just survive a day, probably 3-4hrs. However, I'm *REALLY* grumpy when I haven't had sleep.

3. Do you enjoy napping? A year ago my answer probably would've been NO. Recently I'm finding that occasionally I really do like a good nap. Good gracious that makes me feel old.

4. The average amount of time it takes a person to fall asleep is seven minutes--do you tend to need more or less time than that? The majority of the time, more than that, much more. Not only does it take me forever to fall asleep, but I usually wake up several times during the night. If I'm absolutely exhausted I've been known to zonk out pretty fast.

5. If you were offered a pill that would enable you to sleep only two hours out of every twenty-four and remain fully functional, but you could never sleep more than that, would you take it? My first reaction was to say no. I like my sleep and I like my time cuddling with my husband. However, if all the people I cared about / interacted with had the same pill too, then I could totally see doing that! I'd be able to get SO much more done.

Thursday Thirteen - I need to write more

I desperately need to find my motivation to write more. I also have many things that I *need* to write about, but haven't yet. My Thursday 13 is devoted to those things I need, want, should write about. Perhaps if I look back on this list I'll actually write about some of them!

1) My trip to Ireland

2) My wedding day! .. I'm going to forget these details! It's already been more than 2 years!

3) My father-in-law, he was very special to me and passed more than a year ago.

4) My family - they're SO important to me.

5) My infertility journey - we've been trying to have a baby for approximately 2 years.

6) My horse - she's always fun to write about

7) My husband - I already tend to refer to him quite often, but it doesn't hurt to mention it. :) He's pretty amazing after all.

8) My trip to Belgium. This should've been #2, duh! ..It was at the same time!

9) My work - I mentioned this a couple posts ago. My work is quite amusing and interesting at times.

10) Other Memes. They get my mind-juices flowing.

11) My emotional struggles. I struggle with anxiety and depression. It's going to pop-up here sometimes. Although for the most part I prefer to steer away from negative posts.

12) The sweet boy I gave birth to. My son, who has another Mom and Dad. :) He was adopted when he was born in 2000, but I still hear from his family (and HIM recently!!!) a couple times of a year.

13) Uhm...... Really? I ran out of ideas at number 13... so... EVERYTHING ELSE! .. goes in this category. :D


Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

Hmm..

So apparantly one of the problems with composing blog entries at work, is that it doesn't recognize my spacing of paragraphs in HTML format. I'm going to need to look into this and see if I can discover a fix.

Test

Ok, so the good news is, I remember a very tiny bit of HTML coding and know that if I put a < b r > (without all the spaces), I can create paragraphs.

Kind of a pain in the butt though.

Coding Funnies

I need to look into how to put certain posts into categories, and if I can even do that on this blog. I know some blogs have that ability. If I can't find a way to do it here, I may even start up another blog in relation to the subject: Medical Coding and Billing

Over the last 3 years I've been working from becoming a medical biller, to a medical coder. In June of 2013, I gained the official title of a Certified Professional Coder, or 'CPC', through the AAPC.

On a weekly basis I come across quotes from surgeons, doctors, PAs, NPs, that I find highly amusing, fascinating, and sometimes just plain dumb. Others who aren't in the medical field don't always find them to be these things, but I sure do.

Todays was an examination report from one of our surgical PAs. He was examining a man's hand that had been 'damaged' when a "clutch blew-up" on his ATV. I'm guessing this was due to the hydraulics. The surgical PA wrote, "..the patient's 3rd and 4th finger appear to be missing.." Really,... they "appear" to be missing? Do you expect them to 'reappear' perhaps? I assume that if someone's fingers are missing.. it's pretty apparant. THey don't just "appear to be missing". LOL.

4-5 Days of Monthly Woes

On a side note before I start writing about today, I find it amusing that I 'planned' to write the entire time I was in Ireland. I successful wrote ...once. haha. I should really take time to sit down and write a large entry about the trip. Maybe soon. Doubtfully today.

I'm at work and shouldn't be writing, but I'm considering this part of my 15 minute break.

I hate 'that time of the month'. Aside from the bloating, cramps, and yuckiness, my biggest irritation is my mood. I'm always, ALWAYS grumpy the first day or so of my monthly visitor. I don't get PMS, I get DMS. (During Menstral Syndrome instead of PRE Menstral Syndrome).

I started last night and right on schedule I woke up quite literally in a bad mood. It's very irritating to wake up with no reason to be upset, yet very much, upset.

My dear husband who is a very very happy morning person (I am NOT a morning person in general) happened to be bounding around our apartment this morning more happy than usual. I made a solid attempt to ignore him as he bounded into our room after his shower and swung his towel around his back making "swoosh, swoosh" sounds loudly, waving his arms like he was cross-country skiing in naked craziness. I couldn't help but laugh a little but then told him that I woke up in a bad mood and didn't have any good reason for it. He stated in his best Batman bad guy Bane voice, "Perhaaaaaaps, it's cause you're on the raaaaaaag.". I promptly glared at him and told him he was NOT helping. Admittedly I'm smiling as I remember it now. He does an excellent Bane voice.

I love my husband and I love his desire to always make me smile or laugh if I'm having a rough day.