Tony and Paige.com

Today’s doctor visit was amazing. Long story short, there are two different procedures for my condition. We will try one first and if that is not effective we will go on to the second one. I will also have physical therapy.

The doctor took one look at my old MRI’s from Paris (the ones that every other doctor said was normal) and showed me exactly what the problem was. In layman’s terms, it is a ligament syndrome that was made worse by the repetitiveness of getting in and out of my car over and over again for my old job. That’s why the pain is on my left side.

I feel good about everything the doctor told me and I should have my life back after six to eight weeks. This doctor also reassured me that he had done over 8,000 of these procedures and had a 100% success rate. He has never had any complications or even a skin infection for any of his patients.

This is great news and I am hopeful for the first time in a year of pain!

I can not tell you how happy I am right now. Tony’s insurance is officially in effect and I have an appointment Friday with a new doctor that was recommended by the only other doctor that was able to help me at all with my back pain!

I don’t want to get my hopes up too high but I have hope now that at least improvement is on the way. I just want to get back to being my old self again. Wish me luck!

Today is the home inspection. Since the house is less than 2 years old we do not expect anything to be wrong. That is the scary part. Because it is so new, if something is wrong, it will most likely be major-like plumbing or wiring. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

I also decided to join Facebook last night. I decide I held out long enough. Tony accepted me as a friend-so far so good! Just kidding.

Hope everyone coming to Austin for TCEA has a safe trip!

If everything goes well this will be our new home after March 2nd. It is on a cul-de-sac in the Sonoma addition and .60 miles from the elementary school. We live too close for school bus pickup. I’ve always lived a far ways from school so I didn’t even realize that was a policy. I wasn’t wanting Matthew to ride the bus anyways-in my experience nothing good ever came from riding the bus.

Today we also drove by the two different swim parks for the neighborhood. The first one has more things for smaller kids like sprayers, sprinklers and wading. The other one has a large water slide for older kids. There are also several play scapes so we hope Matthew enjoys them and maybe it will be a good way to meet people in the neighborhood. I am hoping Matthew can find some new playmates. He misses his friends and still asks me on occasion to take him to visit Jackson and Brock in Paris.

We hope this neighborhood works well for us. So far, it all looks like it will.

Just as I finished typing the last post my phone rang. It was the Realtor. We got the house and they accepted our offer as is-no counter offer.

Glad I didn’t have to wait on that one. Did I ever say how much I hate it that money doesn’t fall from the sky?

Just had to try.

WhoooHooo!

Remember in my last post I said we didn’t want to basically get into a bidding war over this one bank owned property?

Well, our Realtor said that we should put in an offer at the amount we were happy with and just see how it goes because we liked the place so much. So we did and he called yesterday to say our bid was the highest bid. Huh…didn’t expect that. The REO Specialist that works for the bank emailed our Realtor saying we were the highest bid(there were only two!!) and that this offer looks good. She needs final approval from her boss and then we will know if there will be a counter offer or if they will accept our offer as is.

The bad news is they can take 72 hours to respond and they were closed half a day Tuesday because of the ice in Dallas were their office is located. So we probably will not know anything until tomorrow. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate waiting?

We have officially begun the home search. We have our pre-qual letter and have decided that the Round Rock area is going to be the best fit for us. It reminds me a lot of Frisco but with a whole lot of outdoor activities to enjoy.

We found one house in particular that was great but it is in foreclosure and after we submitted our bid the listing agent sent out a notice that they had multiple offers on the home since it was priced so far below market value and wanted everyone to amend their bids to as high as they are willing to go.

So …we thought about it and there are so many homes for sale in the area we love and in our budget that we decide we had no desire to enter a bidding war. I do not like playing those games. Way too stressful for my taste.

Anyway, we are going to look at 5 or 6 houses today in our target neighborhood. We drove by them all last night and liked all but one-the one with the creepy neighbor hanging out in a lit up, open garage. I hate to say it but that lady gave us the creeps. It’s too bad really because the house itself was adorable.

So wish us luck. Hopefully things will go smoothly.

I actually did not realize it had been so long since our last post. We have been rather occupied lately. My dear sister came to visit and we did everything we could while she was here. The museums, the capitol, shopping, meandering through the smorgasbord that is Whole Foods, catching up and seeing Matthew thrilled to see his Aunt was too good.

It made Austin feel more like home to have her visit and I hope more of our friends and family can do the same when they can. Austin is a lot of fun to explore.

We have also begun a little house shopping, going to some open house and getting a “feel” for the neighborhoods. We have narrowed it down to the Round Rock area for now. The schools have great ratings and the parks are unbelievable! One neighborhood park included not only trails and playscapes but a 5 acre fishing pond and tennis courts. It was literally right out the front door of one home we toured. It also doesn’t hurt that the prices are on the mild side either.

I am also still waiting to go to the doctor. We thought that Tony’s insurance would be effective ninety days from his first day of work but it is actually ninety days from his first paycheck, so it will happen in February. I know it isn’t that far off now but I am running out of my medication that my last doctor prescribed. I know you shouldn’t wish your life away but the sooner February gets here, the better!

On a political note: Thank Goodness We Have An OUTSTANDING, NEW PRESIDENT!! I think Obama is just what we need right now. We as a country have a lot of work to do and a lot of wounds to heal. I think he is ready to get down to business. I told Matthew that we had a new president and his response was, “Hooray!!” I could not have said it better my self.

So this concludes our January update. I seriously will try to post more often.

All I can say is, if you told me last New’s Year’s Eve what would actually happen in 2008, I would have thought you had quite the over active imagination.

I am jobless (but well cared for-thanks, honey!) and live 300 miles away from the only place I’ve ever known. We thought our family would have grown by now and and I never could have guess the low back pain that was to come. One constant though, Tony and Matthew. As you all know they are awesome. I could also not forget the rest of our sweet family, including my sister and her family, Tony’s family (they’ve always been so good to me) and our good friends Ben, Paula, Jackson, Dee, Geoff & Elizabeth, and Deb and my friends at the paper and I am sure I forgot someone. This time of year is always a good time to count your blessings. I feel happy to have so many to count.

Happy New Year–2009 will be different. That’s for sure.

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends. We can’t wait to see you all tomorrow. As much as we love living in Austin now, we love to see those near and dear to us.

It is sunny and 72 degrees here today and we are spending the day watching old movies, playing games, cooking, and eating.  I even managed to fit in a workout. Tony is finishing wrapping my gifts even as we speak. It has been a great day and I hope you all are having a great one, too.

Also, four years ago today I was having 4 to 5 contractions and hour but had been that way for five days and didn’t think anything of it.  When Tony and I decided to finally go to bed at 2 a.m., little did we know in less than one hour we would be off to the hospital to have our baby boy on Christmas Day.  The absolute best Christmas gift in the world. Matthew is truly a gift that keeps on giving. My little family makes me feel blessed everyday.

Hope you all have the merriest, most peaceful, joyous Christmas of your lives because… it goes by way too fast.