"i'm a mutant!"

Today has not been the best day for me. It started out with me making a delicious smoothie and then, in an effort to clean the blender, knocking over the cup full of smoothie so that it dripped down the stove and cabinet into a huge purple puddle on the kitchen floor. :-( It was all underneath the stove and in every little teeny groove. Ugh. And of course, today I used blueberries, so my stove is now stained purple in spots. I'll have to take my Mr. Clean magic eraser to it.

I grouchily went about my day after cleaning up the mess, and then I left to go with Brian to see the surgeon. The surgeon told us that Brian has an extra vertebra in the lumbar section of his spine!! He showed it to us on the X-Ray and MRI. It was so weird and crazy! And that vertebra doesn't have a disc between it and the first sacral vertebra. In other words, the vertebrae in the lower back section of the spine go like this: L1-L5 (that's lumbar), then S1-S5 (that's sacral). Brian has an L6!! And no disc to cushion it, so that's what has caused his prolonged back pain for the last 15+ years.

But he also has a herniated disc between L4 and L5, and that disc is bulging onto the sciatic nerve, so that's what the doctor is going to operate on. Brian will have a microdiscectomy THIS THURSDAY at 3:30, so remember him (and me!) in your prayers! This is a minimally invasive outpatient surgery, but still - they're operating on the spine, and to me, that's a big deal. I'm a bit nervous, but trusting God. What else can we do?

Anyway, after the doctor left the room, Brian goes, "Did you hear that?? I'm a MUTANT!!!" HAHAHAHA!

On the way home from the doctor, I decided to stop at the store and stock up for the weekend - I wanted to get a few special treats for B, rent some movies, and get a vegetable to go with the pork chops we're having tonight. Of course, it started POURING rain on my way into Blockbuster. Luckily, Blockbuster is located in the same shopping plaza as Publix, so I didn't have to get wet when I went between them. BUT - folks were voting at Publix, and the entrance was extremely crowded, especially since people were standing around with their groceries waiting for the rain to let up. I finally got inside, but there were no carts. Back out into the crowd I went.

It had let up some by the time I finished my shopping, but it was still totally pouring. And now the parking lot was flooded. As I made my way through the parking lot, I was actually walking in standing water. The normally 5 min. drive home took about 15 or 20, because the roads were totally flooded. I hope Brian gets home okay!

Well, I'd better get the pork chops started. I just want to get on the couch with my sweet husband and relax after this crazy and emotionally trying day. Of course, I have paperwork to go through and file, and I have to see about moving my piano students since I'll be at the hospital at their lesson times on Thursday.

I'll leave you with this little cutie: last night I was once again going through my closet, getting out clothes that don't fit anymore. (This, after running around Saturday night in a black skirt I found hanging in there with the TAGS still on it - I never wore it cause it never fit! It fits now, but every top I put on looked like I was wearing a tent! Time to go shopping again!) I had made a huge stack of tops (mostly sweaters and sweatshirts) on the bed, and I was doing some organizing in the closet. When I finished, I noticed that someone had made himself comfortable on the stack of shirts!