August - where have you gone?

This month has absolutely flown by. Let's see if I can hit the highlights -

BigHouse - we've adjusted to life without our interns and Joe. I'm working 9-5, Monday-Thursday. We've got students and volunteers lined up to come throughout the week to help us though, which is nice. We're not doing the After-School Program this fall - we're reevaluating our programs to offer things that more families can take advantage of, so we'll be doing more Kids' Night Out events. We're also running for another Pepsi grant in September to hopefully start a Clothes Closet in Shelby County. We won a $10K grant in July to provide 500 care packages for kids entering care in 20 AL counties. We'll be putting those together in October.

Weddings - Heather and Adam got married this weekend. It was the most beautiful, pleasant late summer day in Tuscaloosa that I think I've ever experienced! They were planning to go to Boston for their honeymoon, but Hurricane Irene interfered so they drove to Disney World instead. It's Adam's first time at Disney - I hope they have a blast!

Julie is getting married on Sept. 24th and moving to Mississippi. So sad for me! But I am extremely happy for them both! I found a black dress for her wedding (I'm a bridesmaid) at Ross for $16. That's a record for me. It is SO cute too. I'm excited.

Headaches - I finished the research study in Tuscaloosa two weeks ago. I'm so glad that I did it. I think the meditation helps a lot with stress and anxiety which is a huge contributor and/or effect of my headache pain. August was mostly a very easy month. I pretty much stopped keeping a headache diary, so I've only noted 3 red days this month (which is the best of the whole 8 months I've had a headache). I did shots on all of those days - not fun. Especially last night..I tried a new med Sumavel which is the needless injection of sumatriptan (same drug as Imitrex). I was still very anxious about the shot (so, no better than regular injections), it hurt and bled, and left a big bruise on my leg. But worst of all it made my headache WORSE instead of better, made me nauseous, and all the muscles in my head/neck/jaw felt tense. No thank you. So I ended up taking one of my pain meds that doesn't do anything for my head but does make me sleepy. BLAH on headaches!

Oh! I got a library card! It only took me a YEAR. Opelika is very stingy with their reading materials apparently. Anyway, I've quite enjoyed reading several books and watching some movies (those come in handy on bad headache days).

I'm headed out to run with Micah. Gotta get back on track with this "best shape of my life" business. We're aiming for a race in December. We were doing awesome until my headaches took over at the end of February. So I'm hoping I'll be able to get in a couple runs a week with her and show my head who's boss. :)