Glory be!

How is it March already? We have been BUSY here in the the Carper household! For some reason, February turned out to be the absolute busiest month! Sheesh. Not a minute to breathe (literally, because we were both sick for a lot of February, too!), but this week we've finally had a few slower days.  We even went on a spontaneous date on Friday night! We went out to run an errand, and Ben surprised me by saying "let's catch a movie!" We saw "We Bought A Zoo." I loved it!

In other news: We survived the deadly tornado outbreak of March 2012! We were right in the line of the nasty storms, but just north enough in Ohio to not get a tornado, just some thunderstorms and wind, and it actually wasn't that bad. Parts of Ohio got some bad damage and tornadoes, but it wasn't as bad as other places, thank goodness!

More Ohio News: The Chardon school shooting was a sooooo incredibly sad. I grew up not that far away from Chardon, and it is just such a crazy thing that these kinds of things happen! I distinctly remember the day the Columbine shooting happened (we watched it on Channel 1, and then followed it on the news the rest of the day when I was in high school), and thought that it was the craziest thing that could ever happen. I can't believe how many times that horror has been repeated in schools since then.

Some More Ohio News: We're having an outbreak of the Norovirus. Not me, personally, but central-Ohio. It's basically a nasty stomach virus (the one that you always hear people get on cruise ships a lot) but it's particularly bad because the virus can survive on surfaces from 2-10 days! Also, you still shed the virus in your feces for 3 days after you recover (yes, I just said "feces" in my blog), so you are still contagious after you are back at work and stuff.  Anyway, I don't know anyone who's been sick yet, and we've been really good at hand washing in Carper-dom and we're super anti-social so I don't anticipate us getting it, but oh how I love me a good epidemic! That's just how I roll.

Even More Ohio News: Oh, Super Tuesday. How I loathe thee. Seriously, one reason (among many) to NOT move to Ohio is that it is a swing state.  Although, being a registered democrat currently has its advantages, because I haven't been getting all the phone calls urging me to vote for Mitt or Rick or Newt or Ron. Thank goodness! I wish people at church would quit acting like Mitt is God, though. Also, I think they all assume that Mormon=Republican. I think I might need to "come out of the closet" as a democrat to my ward at some point, just to get people talking. Maybe during testimony meeting, wherein I get up and announce how I "know social welfare programs are true" and how I'm "so grateful for comprehensive sex education in schools"?  Just for shock value? Don't worry, I'll restrain myself. But if I hear Brother____ say that "universal health care is Satan's plan" one more time (to an investigator, no less!), I might just have to speak up.

Erin News: I switched from atenolol to treat my SVT to something called Bystolic (nebivolol). It's a newer beta blocker, and is supposed to be a little less harsh in the side-effect arena, because it doesn't penetrate the blood-brain barrier as easy (or something).  So far, I think it's been great. Atenolol gave me headaches, and made me soooooo exhausted, but this new drug seems to be pretty good. It doesn't seem to keep my heart rate quite as low as atenolol, but it does seem to tackle the "I-think-I'm-having-a-heart-attack-but-actually-these-feelings-aren't-really-dangerous" symptoms of SVT better. So, thus far it's a win-win. I haven't had to actually buy it yet though (my GP just gave me a month of samples), so we'll see how much of a win it is when I actually have to pay for it. Hopefully it won't be too expensive.

More Erin News: I've discovered a promising new GF baking blog, The Art of Gluten-Free Baking. I've made the faux oreos (faux-reos, anyone?) and they were really good. I'm planning on baking my way through this blog. Mmmm, it looks so good! I'm making her buttermilk biscuits and her thin mints next. And then maybe her pop-tarts. Yum. I'll let you know how it goes.

And, that's the latest.