Well, we're finally home from our Christmas vacation. It feels like we were away for an eternity. It was a very long time to be away from our home. We were very grateful for my in-laws hospitality. But it is very unlikely for us to be making another one of those trips for a very, very long time. It was a good christmas. The kids had a lot of fun spending time with their Grandparents, Aunt and Uncles. We ended up having 4 christmases, and it was just Bill's family. All at his parents house, We had Christmas eve dinner celebration, Christmas morning present opening, Christmas evening opening presants and dinner, and then Day-after christmas opening presants again. sheesh... was it enough? I'm ready for more arn't you... Actually, I was done after christmas morning. We spent several days making food, TONS of cookies. I'm still eating Christmas cookies... do they freeze well enough so I don't need to make any for next christmas? yes we had that many cookies. I was able to take the boys down to Washington DC to some of the smithsonians. We went to the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum. The kids loved it. They got to sit in an airplane, and a space shuttle.. check out cool dinosaur fossels and bones. It was a good day in DC. By the time we went to the American history museum they were closed :( I wanted to see that one first, but with a group of boys... the other stuff won over. Santa was good to the kids this year. They got some books from mom and dad and some ear muffs, Santa brought them one HUGE gift... Bryen got the newest Lego Mindstorm (He has been asking for that for at least 3 years) and Braeden and Mikey got the best most economical gaming system out there... (the iPod Touch) with a $10 iTunes gift card. Let's just say they were exstatic and we even got tons of peace and quiet after that. They have so many games they play together or alone. I know, I know. pretty extravagent you might say. But we looked into all of the hand held gaming systems the psp, the DSi and the iPod Touch. The touch is by far the best most economical device. They share all of their games they have.. They cost anywhere from FREE to 9.99 a game. But divide that game price by 4 because Bill and I can also put those games on our phones. No cartridges to loose, scratch or destroy. Parental controls to keep them from surfing the web on sites that are inappropriate. and No UTube for little boys to get into trouble with. Yea, I know it's kindof pricey but the DSi and the PSP are around 300 a piece, especially if you buy one new game to go with it. We spent less than $250 for the iPod touch, $10 gift card and a case for each iPod. The joy on their faces was priceless. We saved them for the last of christmas morning. It was awesome. They didn't even care about the two other christmases. They were content. The food was amazing, as always. I got some good gifts too. I got a couple of smaller crockpots for my new obsession. as well as a couple cast iron skillets, and a cast iron enamel dutch oven baker. Along with the Julia Childs Cookbook. :)) Oh yea baby, just what I wanted. Billy spent way too much on me he got me a Coach purse. i love it! I also got a pink iPod shuffle (for my workouts). I had been complaining about how bulky my iPhone is when I work out. So he was thinking on this gift. I was touched. (A side note is that I've gone from 325 lbs. to 287 lbs.) That is a good think and I'm still working on loosing more. I'm down to a size 22. I know still too big, but a little at a time makes it life changing. Any who... i digress... okay. So back to christmas. We had gotten 20+ inches of snow the sunday before christmas, so no christmas programs at church before christmas.. actually no church period. So, We were able to go the last sunday we were in town and they had their christmas program, it was very nice. It was good to see a few people while we were in town. Not as many as we would have liked. I missed catching up with my friend Erin.. I was sad for that. :( Bill also had gotten pretty sick after christmas too. He ended up with a UTI (Urinary Tract Infection) yucky. So, he was out of commission for a little while. Then Braeden got a cold/chest infection on the day we left for home. So it post-poned us leaving out of town a few hours. with the Urgent care visit and picking up meds on the way out of town. I started getting a little cough too so I was seen at the same time as Braeden. They said it was just a cold. So I got a little cough med and one the way I went. We made it to Indianapolis right before New Years! well an hr to spare. We were able to ring in the new year with our dear friends the Velasquez family. I was feeling was miserable. But it was nice being there. We stayed there one more night to rest up a little. Then off we were to our next destination Lincoln, NE. Which by the time we got there I was a royal mess. I couldn't swallow with out wanting to die, it hurt to breathe. It didn't feel like any cold I had ever had before, it actually felt more like strep throat. But I had a cough that was awful too. Which usually doesn't happen with strep. I tried to be a trooper and be tough, but my senses were slowly diminishing. We all went to bed and were trying to make the best of the hotel. Billy had taken the boys to the pool to get out some energy. I tried to rest in bed. It didn't help. By 3am I hadn't slept at all... I'd kept Bill up all night from whining, tossing and turning, and hacking all the time. So, I told him I was going to the ER. I couldn't take it any more. I decided to drive myself. So he could try to rest for our trip that day. I just wanted to go home. But he was in no shape to drive, and I was in no shape to sit in the car for 13 hrs. Then Braeden got up and vomitted. He said his tummy hurt. OH BOY... does it get good. So, He goes back to bed. I head to the front desk to get directions to the hospital, Bill tries to go back to sleep. It doesn't happen. He calls me on my cell as I'm about to get in the car. and he tells me he's going to take me. The boys are all alseep in the hotel. Bryen is old enough to watch them. So, Bill drives me to the Hospital. While there, I get an X-Ray of my throat to make sure it's not swelling where they can't see. I'm in excruciating pain. Still having a hard time breathing and my throat is on fire. They give me morphine to help with pain management. (I'd never had morphine before) my arm started itching... and I starting scratching.. It felt like an allergic reaction... and it didn't even touch my pain. It felt useless. But what they hey, they said it should've worked. I had a strep test.. Negative. Still just a cold. ugh... So, off we are sent with more pain meds and a steroid to try to help with things. That was Sunday early morning. We stay in Lincoln one more day. To try to rest up. So, we left Lincoln on Monday. Bright and squirley early. We went home... Still miserable, but heading home. Mikey had gotten sick on Sunday with vommitting too. so we were a sight in our car... Sick as anything. We make it home on monday night to an angry cat. Who was not happy about us leaving him home alone for 3 weeks. Three weeks of garbage, and junk of a messy house awaiting us behind the front door. No food for the kids lunches the next day, not sure who would actually make it to school, with them all being sick, And Mikey ended up screaming and crying in the car on the way home with a sore throat. We got home in time for urgent care to still be open, so Bill rushes him to the urgent care to get him taken care of. Well, he tells the doctor he's fine. GRRRrrrr. ok. So he ends up with some cough syrup and off to school. so hundreds of dollars later. we're finally home and all supposed to be getting on the mend and back to life as we know it. Come tuesday morning. Getting the boys ready for school as best I can being horribly sick. Braeden decides he has a tummy ache and vommits. sigh... ok so, he's home... anyone else...? so, I get the other two ready for school. Rush to the store to get them something for their lunches. get them to school on time. run a few errands... like pay rent. and get Bill set for his interviews... Then home to try to rest. With a HUGE pile of mail Demanding to be addressed. So I sit in bed going through the mail. Making piles of bills, junk mail, christmas cards, misc... then Bill takes a nap as I'm going through the mail. I then start setting up the bills to be paid in my acct. He is still sleeping. I'm covered in paperwork. exhausted. As soon as i'm about done he wakes up and askes what all this crap is all over our bed. joy... so I explain what I was doing, through a very raspy, horse voice as best I could. Then he opens a few pieces of mail that were for him. Then gets angry cause the house is a mess, telling me how big of PIGs we are... and on and on... then does nothing....I can't even get him to make dinner... so we end up ordering out pizza... and leave the mess another day. Today, I was able to get the boys ready for school... all made it today.. YEAH! I'm a little better. YEAH! I did a workshop for school today, got the kitchen picked up a little. Got a grocery list together. Got the VW registered and tagged. But got a rejected inspection.. Need a new tire. Then went grocery shopping on a limited budget. Made up the kids portions for their lunches. Premade sandwiches, veggie baggies, snack baggies and such. Cleaned up that mess. Then put the groceries away. Kids came home and I got Braeden to unload the dishwasher. Bill to load the dishwasher. It has been productive. But still aways to go. Tons of homework for the boys to wade through. but we're slowly but surely getting back to normal. Me included. I hope you have had a wonderful christmas season with less adventure than mine. I hope all have been very well. I feel blessed to have made it through the tough times. I'm stronger for it. I am grateful for my husband and all that he does do. He was also hit this christmas with having to take a Voluntary Severance Package, as they were moving his job to India. He took it so he is no longer working for AOL. He is unemployed too. Sigh.. things get better and better don't they. He ended up with 3 months severance and his bonus. which will be helpful. He has a job interview with Overstock.com tomorrow. I pray he gets the job and it's what he wants to do. We are blessed through these trials and I know that the Lord is mindful of us. We will have all that we need to sustain us, I have faith. We have been blessed and guided to move here to Utah. And we are still following his lead through prayer, fasting and faith. School for me starts monday, but working on workshops for school this week. Excited as anything. :) see blessings :) there is always a silver lining and sparkles as it rains :) Be blessed and see the blessings!
