I Spy Halloween Decorations!

Six more hours until October!!

October is one of my favorite months of the year nowadays.  Not least because we have fall break from school.  But also, at last, we start to have hints that it won't stay oven-hot forever.  Bring on the cooler weather!

So would you like to have a few updates from Heidi's madhouse?

• First, and happiest-- the ticks have almost been routed.  I have only seen a couple of live ticks in the backyard this whole last week and we have had five days in a row with no ticks on the dogs.  YES!!!!  I am still checking them regularly-- not a chance am I letting the bloodthirsty enemies get a toehold again-- and we will still have regular pest control.  Our regular pest control lady says that it is going to be an issue of control, not complete elimination, because with a problem as bad as ours (and dogs who do not get out) one of our neighbors at least has a serious problem too.  Even if they are not willing to admit it.  So there you are.  We are creating a death-to-ticks barrier around our yard and the dogs will be Advantix treated regularly from now on.

• Second, and slightly less happy but not awful-- I did gather my courage and visit my primary care doctor this week.  My swollen knee IS filled with fluid and will have to be drained with needles.  Which makes me queasy just imagining it.  My appointment with the orthopedic doc is not until the 9th, so I have a whole week to dread it.  The good news is that my knee doesn't appear to have any tendon or ligament damage.  They did x-rays to see if I fractured my kneecap but I didn't hear anything back on that so I'm assuming I'm good.  Unless they ambush me with the news at the ortho's.  But I'm not too worried.  I ran 7 miles yesterday and my ankles hurt more than my knee.  Which is perfectly normal.

• Third, the doctor's guess at my dizzy spell last week is inner ear fluid issues due to my endless two month cold.  He doesn't think it's a cold, he votes allergies.  Now I'm skeptical, seeing as he didn't even check my ears.  (Thorough, right?)  My ears have not been plugged nor do they feel like I've got fluid in there.  And I've never had allergies before.  But I did get Flonase and Zyrtec like he told me too, and oddly enough, my cough has finally gone away.  And I had my best time running that 7 miles yesterday because I could actually breathe.  So . . . maybe I do have allergies?  Maybe it started with a cold and morphed into allergies? It might be the dogs.  After all, I am spending almost every day with my nose practically buried in dog fur doing tick checks and have been since the beginning of August.

• Last, we have a new car!  We had the opportunity to get a 2016 car with only 11k miles for only $10,000 (and my parents are splitting the cost in half with us.)  Can we say major tithing blessing???  This is a very exciting development because now M could drive herself to school-- if she would just get her driver's license, that is.  She is still fighting it.  Well, she's probably not capable of passing the test yet either.  But I am hoping against hope by Christmas break she'll be ready.  In  the meantime, I have a Ford Fusion to drive most days for the school driving and my gas bill has already dropped by $50/week.  Hallelujah!

So concludes my small roundup of September-- Happy October/fall break!!