I love May. It is such a gorgeous month around here, as long as the weather cooperates, anyway. In the midst of another rough patch health-wise, I suppose I've been clinging to the joy the spring brings even more than usual. I loved getting a bonus dose of spring when we were in Atlantic City, and pretty quickly things escalated once we got home as well. But with cooler than usual weather and some rain, it's been challenging to really enjoy it. I've done a good job getting out for walks this month because of my work competition, though, so that has helped. It just seems so miraculous to see green and flowers everywhere after a long winter. I suppose that happens every year, but as I alluded to in a previous post, this year it just caught me a bit off-guard, maybe because everything was late and it went from cold to blooming super fast. I must have lost hope or something...or maybe I've just been too distracted by other things.
May 1st was my long day at work, and it was actually a really pleasant day outside, one of the first truly warm days we'd had. I had to spend most of it indoors, but I decided in the late afternoon that I needed to go for a quick walk before the rain came in around dinner time. I had to get in my steps and I just wanted to feel the warm weather for a change. I did two laps around the building, and it was so much prettier than I expected. The campus is an arboretum, so they do take good care of things, but I didn't expect to see all I did in that quick walk. I did have to very carefully walk past what I believe was a nesting goose. She was keeping a very close eye on me, but to her credit, she did not hiss.
This was outside the building on the end that used to be a convent for the nuns that taught at the Catholic girls' high school that was once in the building. This part is our board room now, but I suspect it was once a chapel. After looking at this picture, I realized that could have been a stained glass window once, but upon further investigation, it looks like the 2007 stone below the shield originally held a pedestal with a statue. I love that this building has some history. The high school touches are very evident in the back hallways and stairways.
Around the back of the building are woods (I've posted fall foliage pictures of that area before), and I noticed a bunch of daffodils cropping up along the edges. I was surprised to find a couple different varieties that I've maybe never seen before.
I love frilly flowers and those just made my day. I also stopped by the pigeon coop and marveled at the shiny rainbow feathers on one of them. I wish my camera did it justice. That walk was so refreshing, even though I came back to a bit of a tense moment as our big boss was getting nervous about our results. But it was much needed to get out and enjoy the weather for a few minutes.
My walks have been rather pleasant since everything started blooming, especially if it's warm. I loved this view of a tree around the corner. Those pink ones were so gorgeous this year.
Thursday ended up being a bit crazier of a day than I expected. I got a call as I left work on Wednesday that Carter had been scheduled for an MRI the next morning. I guess I knew that the GI doctor wanted some imaging done, but after we had talked previously, it sort of seemed like we'd just do the repeat blood work and stool testing the following week and take it from there to see if imaging might be needed ahead of his appointment a couple weeks later. But nope, apparently we needed to do this.
We went in around 8:30 the next morning and he had to drink two bottles of this stuff for the contrast part of the imaging. At first he thought it tasted good. It was lemon-lime flavored. But after two good-sized bottles I think it was starting to get to him, and he said it started to taste sour. It doesn't give me much hope for his colonoscopy, but he was a trooper drinking it down in the necessary amount of time, with an IV already in his hand.
The procedure was pretty quick, but he did end up getting sick when they did the dye through the IV, which apparently happens. It was small and contained, and he was in good spirits, but I felt bad. He said his arms also hurt from how he had to lay. We picked him up a good breakfast on the way home, and then I consented to letting him miss the rest of the school day, even though it was still pretty early. I wasn't sure if food would hit wrong after that incident, so I just let it go and let him stay home. Good thing I did, because he did have some lower half issues again that day. That was the one not-good day since he stopped the probiotic, and I swear it lends credence to my theory of him having SIBO, if only because he had to drink two of those drinks and the amount of (artificial) sugars in them could probably rile up the bacteria pretty good--much like what I swear happened to me post-Mountain Dew during the liquid diet part of my colonoscopy prep day. I'd had a completely uneventful GI day with only bland, simple things that morning, and then out of the blue I had a rough bathroom trip even before the prep began, and I can only think either the juice or the pop set it off.
I had to go into work after that to take care of a few things, and you can bet when the test result showed up in MyChart I turned into a jittery mess. Every new test result that had come in since his blood work and stool testing weren't great sent my heart rate sky high. Fortunately, this one looked good from what I could tell. Everything listed in the result looked to be normal, although I'm not always clear on whether there are other things they might not report on in that manner. But I haven't gotten a call since, so I have to think that it was fine. We did repeat the blood and stool tests today, and given that he's only had that one iffy day in the last 10 days or so, I was originally hoping things would look better. The inflammation HAS to be down without constant diarrhea, right? But then he showed me the aftermath of a poop last night and at least the toilet paper was pretty bloody, so now I'm probably even more nervous that we'll have an ER visit in our future when the blood work comes back. But the one we took in for testing today seemed fine, so I'm not sure what triggers the bad ones. I still think it's odd we both improved along the same timeframe and can't help but wonder if it really was a bug that just hung in there, and his may have started an additional autoimmune response. Oddly, today I was back off but I suppose it could have been nerves about the next round of testing. Oh, and interestingly, I was fully expecting my hemoglobin to be borderline when I gave blood last week since I'm probably still not absorbing well, but it was actually way higher than usual--although they have a new technique of testing it now and now I'm really not convinced it's accurate. Anyway...back to Thursday...
I was relieved by Carter's MRI results that day, but this whole thing has been weighing heavily for a few weeks now. Thursday's weather was also damp and cold and rainy, which didn't help my mood. Thankfully, by the time I got out of work, it was clearing up a bit. Still cool, but peeks of sun. I was still not thrilled at the thought of a cold walk that night, but knew I could use the steps and the stress relief. We finished dinner at a reasonable time that night, and I realized it was my last chance to go to Highland Park before the Lilac Festival started the next day, which would make it chaotic and inconvenient to visit for the next 10 days. I had been meaning to go but never found a good time. I knew a lot of things I normally see would be spent, but from pictures I had seen I knew some other things might be blooming--namely most of the lilacs, which I'm usually too early for when I go for the tulips and magnolias. I figured it was nice enough with the peeks of sun to get through an hour of brisk walking and it would make that night's walk much more enjoyable. I got there around 7:30, which only gave me a little over a half hour before sunset and maybe a little more before it was too dark to stay.
I fortunately found my usual parking spot wide open. First stop was the pansy bed, which is always such a lovely display of color!
The lilacs really were starting to do their thing. There was purple everywhere!
I had seen a few pictures posted last week of bluebells--apparently there's a gorgeous spot near Geneseo that has them (mental note for next year)--but I was thrilled to see a few along the path, since I don't know that I've ever seen them in person before.
This was a different one than I've ever seen as well. Guess it pays to go at different times!
This white rhododendron was so stunning. The flower was giant! I always shake my head a little when I walk through the azalea and rhododendron section because theirs are always blooming so early and mine take an extra week or more. I apparently just have really late varieties at my house, or maybe being that much further north and closer to the lake makes us cooler? Not that I'm complaining--I like stretching the season out! The more flowers the better!
These trees were so gorgeous. The color was even more vibrant than it appears here, and they were all over the place. But this grouping was eye-catching!
I love the azalea/rhododendron area so much, and I hit it pretty perfectly this time.
I had noticed some white violets on my walk the other day but felt weird about taking a picture, so this was a better opportunity.
These trees almost look pretend. Maybe because I feel like Lego has a version of these blossoms (or something similar) and my brain sees those because these are just too perfect to be nature sometimes!
I was walking through the magnolias (which were mostly on their way out) and from a distance I saw these flowers, which I don't think I've ever seen. They were so pretty! I inadvertently walked through some mud to get this picture, but it was worth it!
As I was walking, the sun was beginning to set and it started to cast the most magical golden glow on everything. This pine tree looked almost unreal. I wasn't the only one trying to take a picture.
The glow through this giant, dramatic tree was amazing. The photo barely does it justice, but if you look close at the way the leaves are glowing, it might come close.
The tulips were pretty spent, sadly, but I tried to capture what I could. I couldn't tell if the spots on a lot of them were part of the varieties they had this year, or if it was damage from cold or pests.
This one was up by the Lamberton Conservatory entrance and was the closest thing to a non-spent, somewhat frilly one that they had.
As I continued my walk, the sky got more interesting. When I got to the top of the hill by the reservoir, it looked like this. It was so golden behind the trees.
This framing of it with a dogwood above and flowers below was so pretty.
As I walked back up and around, I realized the view in the distance was super orange from the golden sunset, whereas the foreground was already shaded. This almost captures it.
Even cooler, the top of this church at the former divinity school across the street looked fake, almost like something was being projected on it. It was SO bright that it literally caught my eye through the trees and I couldn't figure out what it was originally. I had to climb up a little hill to even get this much of a shot.
The creepy old psych center also had pretty reflections. And see that dog in the picture? She was so sweet and friendly!
I worked my way back down to the lilacs nearer to my car since the light was fading and I didn't want to be out there in the dark. Too many hiding spots, to be honest. I was looking all over for my favorite lilac, the one with purple in the middle and a white outline, but I never did find it. But I did find this one. My plant app doesn't think it's a lilac (Koreanspice viburnum?), but it was down among them.
I loved how frilly this lilac was.
The purple on this one was stunning amidst some of the more muted colors.
As I walked back and forth among the lilacs, the sky got even cooler. I tried to get back up to a better vantage point, and got this.
I finally went back to my car and headed home, but the sky continued to be interesting. The layers were so cool!
When I finally got home it was almost dark, but the shadowy clouds and the street light just reflecting off the flowering crab tree next door looked really cool.
My Mother's Day weekend wasn't quite as relaxing as I'd hoped. We ended up having both sets of parents here, which was nice--more planning food-wise, but less running around than usual. But I did spend a lot of time just trying to pick up the house and make it presentable beforehand. I also had to assist Jacob with a long-overdue cleanout of his room, and then we spent part of a picture-perfect late Saturday afternoon at Carter's first official baseball game (after two rainouts, and likely to be followed by two more). He played great--3 for 4 and a solid pitching stint to secure the win. It's going to be another crazy season of bad pitching and questionable fielding which usually leads to the max number of runs each inning, but it was good to see him start strong.
As I said, it was nice having the parents over. The dads did get into it for a minute (courtesy of the bad combo of differing political views and a couple beverages), and we quickly forced them to stop talking. But otherwise we had a nice afternoon. We even got a few good pictures:
I also finally tried some wine--first drink since starting my anxiety meds--and while I didn't feel the alcohol more intensely (or really, at all), it did seem to make me more sleepy. I napped a bit after everyone left, and never really fully perked back up, which meant I didn't really get to do any of the relaxing self-care things I envisioned for myself going into the weekend. Oh, well. It's just Carter and me this weekend since the big boys are off to another tournament, so I suppose I might have some time then. I'm also due a day off of work, but I was hoping for a good weather day to tackle the yard and I'm not sure that's in the cards this week, as much as I need it. My yard is a lot like motherhood--so much work, but something that brings me a lot of joy, too. It's always a lot to think about starting over again, but ready or not, here it comes.
So, now to get over the hump of the week, wait for Carter’s results, and inch closer to the weekend…
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