Sir, yes sir!

When you grow up with someone, it's hard to imagine that they will ever be anything other than the annoying little boy who destroyed your Barbie dolls and terrorized your friends. Anyone who knows my family knows that my little brother, Ben was quite the handful when he was younger. It was always interesting, and sometimes even a little scary when he was around. However, people change as they get older, and even little brothers mature into grown men at some  point. Oddly enough, mine is no exception.

This past weekend, Ben graduated from Drill Instructor School at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go, but my mom, sister, sister-in-law and grandparents all went. My sister took lots of pictures, but here are some of my favorites:

Congrats, Ben! We're super proud of your hard work and service to our country.

Yea me!

Last night was a turning point in my battle with the Bell's Palsy. My very first symptom, almost two weeks ago, was the loss of my ability to taste with the left side of my tongue. It's been really annoying because unless the food I'm eating has very strong flavors, I can barely taste it. Well last night part of my world was righted!

As I was eating dinner, I suddenly realized that I could taste my food. I didn't believe it at first, so I took another bite and really concentrated. I was so excited! It probably seems like a dumb thing to be excited about, but it signals that I've turned the corner and can expect to see more improvements in my other symptoms. I don't expect to be cured tomorrow or anything, but it's encouraging to know that I'm moving in the right direction.

Dr. Seuss Madness

This weekend my mom, sister and myself hosted a baby shower for my sister-in-law Renee. She and my brother will be welcoming little Ethan Benjamin in less than a month. As the first baby in the family, there is no doubt that he's going to be spoiled rotten!

Anyway, Ben & Renee have decided to decorate Ethan's nursery in a Dr. Seuss theme. The idea gave us a starting point for the baby shower, and let me tell you, we ran with it! I love books, and Dr. Seuss is a serious childhood favorite, so this was a really fun party to plan.

Instead of one big cake, we decided to do mini-themes at each table based off of a Dr. Seuss book. Each table had a diaper cake surrounded by cupcakes that matched that particular book.

Horton Hears a Who:

The cupcakes weren't quite finished. We topped them with pink cotton candy!

The Cat in the Hat:

These cupcakes had blue cotton candy so they looked like Thing 1 & Thing 2!

Green Eggs & Ham:

For the punch & gift table, the theme was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. We made a colorless punch and floated red and blue fish shaped ice cubes in it.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun. All the games had a Dr. Seuss twist to them and the prizes did too. Hopefully Renee had as much fun at her party as we did planning it!

Feeling a little two-faced

I've had a very interesting week. It started pretty benign, but quickly got interesting.

On Wednesday I noticed that my lymph nodes were swollen and a little painful on the left side. I figured my body was fighting something off, so I just kept an eye on it. When it hadn't changed by Friday morning, I made an appointment to see the nurse practitioner at my doctor's office to get a round of antibiotics. Her exam showed nothing remarkable, so she said I was probably fighting something off and gave me the antibiotics to speed the process along.

That night, I noticed that I couldn't taste with the left side of my tongue. It was very strange, but not alarming. I was actually watching it in case the medicine was causing a case of thrush. Nothing changed Saturday, but I still couldn't taste.

Sunday morning, however, was a whole different story. While I was getting ready for church, I noticed that the left side of my face felt funny when I smiled. Then, when I was putting in my contacts, I noticed that my left eye wasn't closing. I immediately suspected that I had Bell's Palsy. I quickly pulled up a list of symptoms from the internet and saw that it fit perfectly. I managed to get through to my regular doctor and he said that he too thought my symptoms fit Bell's Palsy, so he sent me to the ER for an official diagnosis and some medicine.

In case you were wondering, Bell's Palsy is a very interesting medical condition in which the facial nerve becomes paralyzed. The cause is not always known, but it can be caused by the herpes virus or, in my case, an infection. Once the paralysis sets in, one side of the face loses muscle response leading to a droopy appearance on the affected side. When I smile, only the muscles on my right side work, so only on half of my mouth is turned up. It's actually a very weird feeling.

Since I caught the condition early on, I was given steroids to help ease the inflammation. I have a very good chance of complete recovery. In some cases, the patient will have some permanent damage to the facial responses, but I am expecting a full recovery. Unfortunately, the recovery is slow and can take up to several months. Not my idea of a good time, but I suppose it could be worse!

Vegas Baby (Part 1)

Bob and I got back from Vegas a couple of days ago. It was a really fun, but exhausting, trip. Neither of us had ever been before, so there was lots of walking and lots of picture taking. We stayed at the Luxor, which is designed like a giant pyramid with Egyptian styling inside.

I loved Paris. The 1/2 scale Eiffel Tower was really cool. We were even able to ride up to the top.

I really liked the cool skyline of New York, New York. It was really detailed, which made it very neat to look at.

The architecture in Caesar's Palace was fantastic. It reminded me of being back in Italy. I could probably have spent days just in there!

Bob really liked seeing the flamingo habitat at, interestingly enough, The Flamingo. There was a lot of pink in that place! 

My favorite place was probably the Venetian. It's designed like Venice, Italy with shops and canals. On our anniversary we took a gondola ride through the indoor canals. We had dinner on the indoor patio of a restaurant there, and it really seemed like we were in Italy. It was really cool!