Whew!

Well Christmas is over! THANK GOODNESS!
As predicted it was once again too much. Next year one gift! One meat! One side! One dessert!
Instead we had four meats ( turkey- whole & breast, ham, roast beef & freshly shot goose). Sides- dirty rice, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, Butternut squash, cornbread dressing, cranberry sauce, green beans, veggie tray and cheese and crackers....anyone ready to be overly stuffed. Oh wait, then there was dessert. Red velvet cake- three layers, pumpkin pie, mince meat pie with custard, short bread, cheese cake and fruit cake.
This is what happens when you try to please everyone and in the end no one is all that happy and you are just exhausted! So I am done with big Christmases. I think a turkey sandwich will work from now on. In fact I think that I will celebrate Christmas in June and then it's over with. This way I can celebrate the birthday we have on the 29th of Dec with a little more joy.
So here is to my Christmas decorations being down already and to a new year of minimalism. Maybe one day I will enjoy Christmas but for now I will take surviving it.

Tarnished Season

So it's Christmastime again....I am really not a fan of the holiday season. Don't get me wrong I love to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ BUT I am pretty sure that me becoming an unbearable shrew is not how Christ would prefer me celebrating His birthday.
I suppose that I just really hate the stress and expectation that comes with the period from Thanksgiving through Christmas. Now that I am an adult I really understand why we NEVER went anywhere for Thanksgiving or Christmas or inflicted/enjoyed a huge family holiday.
Let us analyze this for a second. First we have Thanksgiving. An excuse to add a vomitorium off the back porch as we begin the season of no self-control. We eat and cook and cook and eat. And even if we do not intentionally pursue the holiday pastime of vomiting someone will begin and then it spreads like wildfire. And if by some chance you miss this bullet at Thanksgiving it will certainly hit you at Christmas.
Then as soon as the meal is over and the leftovers put away for a few hours before someone needs a snack, out come the Christmas decorations....WHY? Well because if you don't get it done now it will NEVER get done.

So now comes the fun of putting up lights and reminiscing over all of the cute ornaments from years past, right? Well sorta. I mean lets get real I will never have a Hallmark tree. You know the one that looks perfect and balanced and just, Ahhhh. I mean until this year everything nice was precariously piled at the top of the tree while the lovely satin balls that become unravelled at the slightest glance graced the bottom 2/3 of the tree. Sadly even though I knew better than to tempt fate I did and several lovely glass ornaments have been - well obliterated!
Now that the tree is up someone- me and my sister since hubby is never home and is in school- has to do the obligatory hanging of lights in the yard and off of the house. (Seriously who thought that this was a good idea. I mean this is not something they did with candles and lanterns pre-Electricity, did they?) AS you learn new methods of self-torture like wondering how many outlets you can plug together or if you are wearing the appropriate foot attire to not slip of the roof- nearly did this one- you feel a sense of accomplishment. My house looks good....Until the neighbors turn on their light show and you realize that they must make gobs more money than you thought because your electric bill will be high BUT their's will certainly be higher. DRAT!


Now if you are slightly insane/brave/overachieving then you shop on BLACK Friday. You go through every ad to see what "deals" are out there and what applies to your kids. Now you've made a budget and you are going to stick to it this year, right? But then you circle this and look at that and then you realize that as Dudley Dursley taught us From Harry Potter that it doesn't matter how big they are but how many. Therefore if you have four gifts for one then there must be four for ALL. It doesn't matter that one gift for one was nearly twice that of the remaining gifts, numbers count.

So now you consider your Christmas card selection. Now if you were on top of it you took a family portrait prior to there only being 6 hours of daylight and you can insert this into a lovely pre-designed card and be halfway there. If not get ready for a great case of carpul-tunnel. So you then have to find your holy grail, you know the ADDRESS BOOK. This small piece of arcane technology causes you more headaches and ulcers at Christmas than at any other time of year. You rarely ever use it but it is essential to your ability to fully include all of those friends and long lost family members that will certainly be peeved that you forgot them or sometimes grateful beyond words. AS you rack your brain as to where it is you decide to make an educated guess as to the number of cards to order to fully suffice but not exceed your needs. Who wants an extra 20-25 cards lying around? Not me! And then hallelujah you find the book!!! Good thing you ordered those 100 cards from COSTCO- despite the lack of faith in that number that your husband expressed. Now just pray that all of your addresses in your aforementioned ADDRESS BOOK are correct.


Now the meal. First you must consider the number of people attending your meal an whether they are adults or children- this year we will have 17 people for dinner; 13 adults and four children. You must consider likes, dislikes, traditions, cost,etc. And you are still not guaranteed that the soon to be three year old will eat anything other than candy canes.


Well, finally the day comes. The morning breaks and mom rolls out of bed and makes breakfast. We try to hold back the tide of ancy kiddos and have some spiritual focus before the ripping of paper and watching of Christmas movies. And that's when it happens...yep the stress diminishes for just a minute like blowing on a piece of silver and rubbing the tarnish off. There it is a glimpse- even if just for a minute- of ...oh what is that word...JOY. You no longer care that you have spent too much, stressed too much, ate too much and will be eating more. All that you know is that you are with those you love and that maybe Christmas really isn't that bad.

Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

Mount Up

So I was super lucky to find the most amazing lady to teach Christi English riding. Christi has become quite the horsewoman. She has no fear and gets back up even if she falls.
Her seat is great and she has learned to post so well. Now this may be so foreign to many but I hope that you enjoy the video!

Need a little Christmas?

So last year two of my friends and I started an AWESOME holiday tradition. The Marathon Gingerbread house night. Now we use graham crackers but it is a blast. A little Chili for dinner to get the creative juices flowing and a little family Christmas music celebration and we are off to the races with egg nog in hand.
Enjoy this years parade of homes.

Jeane was my partner in crime since Ryan was gone- as usual. It was great to have her here with us.

Here is our plantation inspired house!




Michael's Dr. Who inspired Tardis house! (Complete with a Dalek out front!)


Christi's house with Barn. ( Every adult, all 6 of us helped raise that barn.)



James' homage to the trailer- only single wide though.



Willy's crazy pentagon house!

Riley's Castle with moat.

Julie's alpine cottage.


Next year I am thinking....the Pantheon or Washington Monument....Notre Dame! I can't wait!

Pet Peeve(s)

Ok so most if not all of my pet peeves have to do with me losing my mind. There are a lot of things that I do to drive myself nuts. Mainly it's just because I forget stuff and it causes me to become annoyed.
Below are some of my top pet peeves.

* No clean bra after a sweaty workout. Periodically I will run on the treadmill at the gym. For the most part I take advantage of showering uninterrupted at the gym. This is all great until- DUM DUM DUM- I go to get dressed and realized that I brought all clean clothing accept the most essential piece of a ladies "discreet" clothing.

* Being late. Now I really don't care if others are late unless they make a big stink about me being somewhere on time. BUT I HATE BEING LATE. I hate this so much that I am usually early. It just drives me nuts to tell someone I will be somewhere and then not.

* Forgetting to get things I really need while at the store. I hate going and then usually as I am exiting the store I realize that I have forgotten at least 2 things that brought me to the store in the first place. STINK!

Bad Habit!!!

So I caught Sundance having a snack.....Ooops! I guess that they are ALWAYS watching.

Garden Bounty

So although it snowed in mid-May, I was gone nearly all of June, I was sick most of July, school started in August, I went to Chicago in September and Utah a week ago....somehow the garden still grew. Not as much as we would have liked but still we got quite a haul.


The kids love the fact that we grow our own pumpkins.




No lettuce or spinach but the carrots grew! So that means carrot birthday cake this month! And although my house isn't in the cleanest condition and I have a Christmas tree up already....at least we have food to eat.
Yummy! (Now on to more canning and dehydrating.)

"Of things That Matter Most"

I had the privilege this weekend to hear this talk this past Saturday. It has taught me that I need to slow down...for me this entails a bit of a speed up before I can slow down. For instance, My house in a constant state of FLUX between almost clean and disastrous. This is annoying, exhausting and frustrating. I obviously lack some genetic propensity for organization. I can clean and sterilize BUT putting things where they belong and not losing them- not me.

So as I try to SLOW DOWN. This week/month will be a mad tare to get things organized, inventoried and clean! I can no longer function with daily chaos and the disorganization is about tho drive me MAD.

Hopefully I can learn to slow down and enjoy the most important things once my life is in some semblance of order. (It would be easier if little people would keep their rooms clean too.)

So here is to a future date with relaxation.

CHI-town

Chicago

Very rarely are moms able to get away from everything. However due to having a superior husband who loves me way more than I deserve I was afforded and took the opportunity to go to Chicago to visit an amazing friend!
I went with two other great friends and had a memorable weekend that will have to be repeated again sometime.
There was laughter and tears. Walking and blisters. Food and fun. And as much as we did there is more to go back for. What a great time we all had!
Nothing was better than coming home to an awesome husband who surely worked miracles while being with our kids full-time.
Thanks Ry for encouraging this and making me go!

(Click on the image above for a full album!)

21st Century Mom

So in one week 2 of my best friends and I are going to CHICAGO to see another super awesome friend. Now we have been planning this trip since we found out that our friend was moving to Chicago. Now that we are actually going we have gotten a bit of negative Karma about it.
It's like people think our husbands are completely inept at parenting our collective 10 children.
SERIOUSLY!
These three men are college graduates, successful in their fields, awesome husbands & fathers, and completely competent. I would go so far to say that because they are such awesome husbands they fully encouraged this trip(mine demanded that I go). And if they aren't assuming that our husbands aren't up to being full-time parents then they must feel that we are less than stellar mothers/wives for going.
To that I give a big fat RASPBERRY :P

We will be better wives and moms for going. I know for one I will appreciate that my husband recognized that he gets to go to many interesting places while on business trips while I get to shuttle kids in the car and eat leftovers and do the mundane.

Thanks babe for being conscientious enough to see that one weekend with the girls is what I need to endure weeks without you. Thanks for realizing that I am a person and not just a wife and mom. Thanks for encouraging this because lets face it, I would have never gone without you totally planning this and talking it up!

So in one week I will be in CHI-town and my kids will be safe at home with dad! CHICAGO here we come!

Ahh...Football Season

Need a laugh? I do

Picture to Share

You know it is amazing to me how important a picture can be. Seeing an image of someone you never met can make you wonder about their life. Whenever I see this picture I think about how awesome our country is in that we can have headstones in nearly every language in the world on US soil. AMAZING!

Finding Family

Sometimes finding even a distant relation makes you appreciate your family much more.

Good Things to Come

Good-Things-to-Come

It isn't always easy to recognize that what we are going through is temporary. It isn't always easy to see a silver lining n the darkest of clouds. I hope that one day I can look back and say, "I am glad I went through that. I wouldn't change a thing..." BUT that day is not today.

So until then I will hang on and enjoy the glimpses of joy that I get each day.

3mm PAIN

So last Thursday, July 15th, I took my kids to the park. When we got home and ate lunch around noon I started to have a pain in my groin area. I just thought that it was annoying and that I needed to visit the ladies.

NO RELIEF.

Then I though I must have pulled something.

NOPE.

Then my back started to hurt a bit. I began to be a bit worried. I texted my brother who had to have his appendix removed and he began to implore me to go to the hospital. I agreed.

Luckily we are surrounded by friends from church and I just had to pick. Luckily one of those friends works in the Radiology department of a hospital and luckily he was home.

I drove up and told the kids to just walk in and tell them that mom needed help and had to go to the hospital.

(In about 4.5 hours my pain went from annoying to unbearable to excruciating!)

JOHN WORLAND my medic rushed me to the nearest hospital and correctly diagnosed me as having a kidney stone(s)- eventhough we weren't sure for hours later. He helped me get checked into the hospital and soon after Ryan arrived. Good thing too.

I was begging for drugs like crazy and crying and vomiting. They couldn't move fast enough!!

I wanted to DIE! I am not kidding. It was so overwhelming and so painful that I just knew that I couldn't endure much more. I knew I wouldn't die but boy I wanted to.

So they finally gave me Zofran for my nausea and vomiting and some Fentanyl for the pain. This was no help! After three injections of Fentanyl they finally got the idea that it wasn't working. On to the Toradol- now this worked long enough for me to get a CAT scan but wore off in the middle of an uterine ultra-sound.

PAIN!!!

Finally, I was given Percecet/Oxycodone for my pain and Fenegrine for my continued nausea and vomiting. The doctors never told me what was going on and I was in and out of sleep. My pain decreased but I could manage and by 10pm the nurse came in to tell me that they were discharging me and that I had a kidney stone. No one told me how big the thing was or where it was located and I knew if I went home I wouldn't pass this on my own.

As the nurse gave me the prescriptions and discharge orders I began to cry. I knew Ryan was leaving in a few days and that if I went home to do this alone with my kids to take care of I was in for some trouble. But I was tired and I didn't fight them so I went home.

From Thursday, July15th- Sunday, July18th I went between my bed and the bathroom. I ate no solid foods because I just would vomit it up anyway. What liquids I tried to ingest I only was able to keep 1/2 down and so things were bad. I was even vomiting up the meds that I was supposed to take.

At one point the Oxycodone wore off while I was asleep and I had this dream that I had been shot. When I woke up my right kidney was killing me and no matter how I tried to sleep on a heating pad nothing made me comfortable.

By 3:30pm on the 18th I had finally convinced Ryan that the ER was better than Urgent Care even if it was $250. I just had to get back to the hospital! It was killing me to be in pain and killing me more to know we had no money for any of this!

Luckily, we had my sister come to the hospital to sit with me while Ryan took the kids to his parents' house.

Here we go again...Once I got through triage and into a room- right across the hall from my previous room- I told the nurse the deal. NO wasting time with all these narcotics that DO NOT WORK for me. Thankfully she listened DILAUDID...oh what nice juice. I finally could feel no pain. It was so glorious.

Luckily the doctor who was on Thursday night was on again Sunday. When he came in he proceeded to tell us what we should have been told by SOMEBODY on Thursday. Apparently I have two ureters off of my right kidney that then join back into a single ureter near the bladder. Not crazy abnormal but not normal either. He then told me I had a fever- code for infection- and that I would probably need another CAT scan - code more $$.

So after another CAT scan with dye indicator this time I was told that I had a 3mm stone near my bladder but that it hadn't moved...at all. STINK!

After 6 hours in the ER- again in and out of sleep- I was admitted so that they could watch the infection. WHEW! I should have done that on Thursday!

After a night of sleep and about 20 gallons of IV fluids Ouila! a kidney stone is born....

It looked like a bb or a fishing weight. Kinda crazy.

Unfortunately the passing of my little friend did not give me a get out of jail free card. NOPE! Dang infection meant another 24 hours of BOREDOM! Sitting in a hospital bed getting pumped with fluids and antibiotics.

(Hospital beds are a unique form of torture. NO way to get comfy unless all drugged up. )

So I just chilled out being weaned off of the pain meds and getting poked and prodded for 24 more hours. Until finally at 11am on Tuesday (July 20th) I was FREE. I nearly skipped to the car.

So I'm on the mend. Sore kidney, frustrated that the mail will soon contain a FANTASTIC medical bill(s) but overall I'm alive. And thankfully Ryan was in town while this was all going down and I escaped without surgery! So here is to the silver lining in this cloud.

Imagine 100 years ago or even 60 years ago I would be dead and that costs more that a hospital bill- I hope?

If it's not one thing

So I got a kidney stone....I wanted to die...And I probably would have if I wouldn't have gone to the ER twice........Passed stone....alive...sorta....hospitals are like voluntary prisons. Hopefully I can get out of the hospital and the house before July is over.....Thanks for the prayers

SEE June 15th post

To see a full post on our Hawaii trip see the June 15th post.

This week I PROMISE

OK ...I know I need to get Hawaii up SOON! Well after a week of vomiting and being so sick that I had to pull the "Fly Home NOW" card for the first time ever I think that I can get this done....I hope.