Every Friday I’ll indulge my order-crazed brain in a list of randomness. Welcome to my Friday Fives.

This week has been FULL of {mostly} unplanned hurdles—little tests in the form of daily speed bumps, not only for me, but also my family. Thought you might want to come along for the wild ride:

5. Happy Birthday, Gramps

Yesterday would have been Gramps’ 85^th birthday. I thought of him all day long and remember so clearly many of the birthday calls I made to him in the past. Like last year, when he raved about Mimi cooking all the fixins’ for him and wasn’t I sad I wasn’t there (I was). And other years when they celebrated simply by grabbing a burger at Dairy Queen. I miss those conversations and hope he had a choir of angels sing to him yesterday.

4. Minimal-Sugar Challenge

After last week’s froyo celebration, I went back to no sugar easily until today when I had my first (decaf, no whip) PSL. I really love Starbucks’ new “real-pumpkin” formula; I thought it tasted way better than the fake original, which I (at the time) loved as well. I savored it like the treat that it was and think a once-a-week splurge will be fine. Still feeling good and am up down to 14 pounds. Not all speed bumps are bad.  Shout outs to my friends now doing the challenge – you’ve got this!!

3. Let it Snow… Just Not Yet!

Yes, this week’s rain storms brought snow to the mountains. This feels earlier than any year we’ve been here. I swear this stuff JUST melted, how can it already be cold enough for it to be back?! I guess I’ll be swapping out my summer clothes for winter this weekend.

2. Water Woes

This past Monday morning, I noticed our water had been turned off and part of our yard was flooded. Insanely worried that a pipe burst outside our house, I called a slew of people only to find out that it was my neighbor’s sewer pipe that had burst underground and had flooded three people’s yards and caused 40…FORTY…homes to have their water shut off. To fix it, they had to rip up sidewalk and several trees (the 8-foot hole in the ground is still there). We ended up having no water for just shy of 31 hours. Joe had to shower at the gym and I…well… I was not a happy camper. Speaking of camping, this whole exercise has reminded me why I never want to do it. Running water is such a beautiful thing.

1. Comeback-pain Kid

Yesterday morning I woke up to searing pain from my left leg’s lower back/hips to my ankle. I couldn’t even get out of bed and Joe woke up to me whimpering from the pain. I recognized it immediately from my ordeal two years ago…almost to the day. After icing it off and on for two hours, I was finally numb enough to get up, shower, and collapse into my desk chair to work. As soon as my last meeting was over, I was in my car driving to urgent care. I didn’t want to make the same mistake last time of waiting too long to treat my sciatica. To reward my efforts, doc said I didn’t need an xray or a steroid shot, but just a whopping dose of steroids to bring down the inflammation in my back. “Take these right away, like immediately when you pick them up at the pharmacy.” Um…okay, sure, why? “They have a tendency to cause horrible insomnia.” Okay, no problem. <<fast forward eight hours>> Okay, big problem. I tried everything last night to fall asleep, but I got maybe two hours total. I had to take another dose this morning, so luckily I’ve been wired all day, but I’m hoping for some rest tonight at least. The pain is almost all gone, which is the miracle I was hoping for.

And that was my week.  And I’m ready to move on.