IBM Christmas Party

 So that IBM Christmas party that I was soo looking forward to ended up being a total bust!  Not because of the party, venue, or food... all that was great...but because we took a very sick Embry along with us.  I thought she was on the upswing from an ear infection, but apparently going to Golf N Stuff was a little too much for her to handle.  We got there at 8, had some yummy bbq breakfast burritos (of which Embry ate nothing), then played some arcade games, and went outside to do some mini-golf because Embry was very excited about her first min-golf experience.  After about 3 holes she started coughing something awful so we headed back inside for more games, but as it turned out, she proceeded to cough, gag, and puke on the floor and then down the back of Tony's shirt as we rushed out the door to the car.  That was fun let me tell ya!  I felt so incredibly bad for Embry, she was so excited about going to the place with castle (what she calls it because there is a mini castle on the golf course that you can see from the road).  Good news though, I won a birthday party for 10 at Golf N Stuff from MOPS!  Guess where we're having the girl's party next year?!

Christmas Eve

Let me just say that I HATE being sick! Hate that I can catch anything and everything with just the snap of a finger. It really sucks. So it's Christmas Eve and I caught the stomach bug that embry had 2 days ago and now I'm laying in bed while everyone gets ready for the Christmas eve service at church. I've been looking forward to that fora long time and even got adorable dresses for the girls to wear. We already had to cancel our trip up mt lemmon this morning to go sledding and now no church either. 😥 Lupus, you can suck it!

Birthday at the Ranch

I thought I had posted about the girl's bday party, but it looks like I never got around to it.  It was a ton of fun!  Nola hated the pony rides, which is weird because we went there last Christmas and she loved them.  I hope she's not getting more timid as she gets older.  However she rode the mini horse cart and went into the petting zoo so not all was lost!  Embry loved all of it, of course.  She was a cowgirl for a day and had a blast.  It cost a lot more than I had planned (although I guess looking back I probably shouldn't have been surprised).  The cost was based on 15 kids and I knew I was inviting a lot more than 15, but what can I say, we're social people!  The food was delicious and we had LOTS of arby's roast beef left over so I had scrumptious sandwiches for days afterward.  Yum!  All in all we had a blast and I'd love to do it again, but it's a bit cost prohibitive. :( 

Next up on the 'FUN' agenda:  IBM Christmas 'party' at Golf n Stuff on Dec 15.  We're taking Embry along (Nola is too small) and I'm soooo looking forward to it! 

Thoughts for the night

1) When you bend over, watch where you're going because it really hurts when you slam your head into the countertop at a high speed.  Ouch.

2) Put your keys away before you try to put your purse on your lap, otherwise you might almost gouge your only working eye out.  Seriously, be careful.

and

3) Embry turns 4 tomorrow! 

Halloween

I took all 4 kiddos to the Trunk or Treat that MOPS hosted in the church parking lot.  It was a lot of fun, although, hard to keep track or 4 little ones while trying to take pictures too.  However they really seemed to enjoy themselves, so it's all worth it. 

 My friend Diana who is another discussion group leader at MOPS hosted a playdate with me for both of our groups to hang out.  We did a Halloween candy hunt, then decorated some magnetic foam halloween picture frames, then ate some yummy food.  It was a really good time and I'm looking forward to our Thanksgiving playdate later this month. 

 We had a lovely Halloween this year.  My friends Anna and Kim came over with their kids and we all went out trick-or-treating around my neighborhood together. The kids got a ton of candy, but Nola decided she was scared of EVERYTHING around house #10 so she stayed in the wagon after that point.  Tony was at our house handing out candy and we had a total of 212 trick-or-treaters stop by. 

 We carved pumpkins a few days before halloween.  I didn't have one since the grocery stores had already sold out, but Embry needed help carving hers for the first time instead of painting it.  Nola was hesitant to smear the pain on her pumpkin at first but then dove right in and ended up painting herself too.  She got a bath.  After Halloween, we noticed that half of Embry's pumpkin was missing and it had been moved down our walkway.  We found the culprit this Friday night as there was a plump javelina hanging out in our front yard.  

Nola is 2!

Nola turned 2 on Oct 26!  She's such a big girl now!  She's saying so many new things and doing some new things too, like jumping.  It's her favorite thing to do and she says, 'I jumpining!' while she does it.  She's a little stingy with her kisses, but if you act like your feelings are very hurt by her turning you down, then she'll pucker up and not leave you alone until you kiss her on the lips.  Also, she thinks that a hug is a kiss as well, so when you want a hug, you need to ask for a 'cuddle' and she'll rest her head on your shoulder.  She's oh so sweet and her new favorite thing to say is 'OKAY!'  It has become very helpful for me when she's whining and I want her to understand something like having to wait until Mama is done with x,y,z before we can do whatever Nola wants and she'll just go, 'OKAY!' and the drama will be over.  Of course it doesn't work all the time, but if it even works 1 time out of 100, I'm OKAY with that! 

On Nola's birthday, Tony got the day off work and we decided to go to the zoo!  We haven't been for a really long time (and I don't think Tony's ever come with us) and since we'd visited they opened a new, large elephant exhibit called 'Expedition Tanzania'.  It was pretty cool and had a lot of interactive things for the girl's to play with which kept them interested in everything.  The monkeys were going NUTS that morning and it was pretty fun to watch them swing around and hoot and holler for a while.  We got a video which I'll have to try to upload later.  It's really something!  Then we took the girls to Chick-fil-A where we had lunch and they played in the toddler play area.  The whole day was a lot of fun and both girls had a really wonderful time. 

I'm a dumb dumb, she's a dumb dumb, yady yady yady yady ya!

Let's start at the very beginning:  About 3 weeks ago I started to have a pain near my left shoulder blade. Naturally this is concerning because it felt similar to the pulmonary embolism pain, just on the other side.  It eventually moved from next to my shoulder blade to below it.  Then I got sick with a cold type thing and thought maybe it was fluid in/on my lung, so last Saturday (Oct 20) I couldn't sleep and decided to go into the ER.  They did blood work, all was well and then they did a dye CT scan to check for PEs and that was clear too (yay).  The dr said that there was no evidence of pneumonia, so they just sent me home saying it was a cold/virus.  Then throughout the week the cold continued to stay about the same/get worse.  I'd think it was getting better, then it'd get worse again, etc.  The pain in my back however, got much worse. 

Fast Forward to today:  I made an appointment over the phone this morning to see my PCP since I still have this cold thing and the pain in  my back...so thought it might be a sinus infection and a bruised rib?  Anyhow, got an appointment at 2:30, great, my mom came in to watch the kids.  So the first issue is that the person on the phone scheduled me for tomorrow, not today.  I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me and it's getting a little old!  Anyhow, they took me anyway.  Then the dr comes in the room and I said something like, 'geez, you're quick!'  because she flung open the door without knocking or anything and she responds, 'well you're early!' as in, a day early.  I brushed it off with some mumbling about well, the appointment was today, that wasn't my fault.  Moving along, I go to the exam table and she asks what's going on.  I start out with 'well, I have been having this pain in my back for about 3 weeks...'  She immediately stops me and says, 'we can't do this today.  You need to pick ONE thing you want to talk about.  I am fitting you in, so I don't have time to do more than 1 issue, what would you like to talk about?  Your sinuses or something else?'  I'm sure I was making some disgusted face at her by this point, probably rolling my eyes, you know me, I'm not very tactful!  I said, 'well I guess we'll go with the sinuses then.  Sure the sinuses.'  Argh, I was sooo mad!  So she checked things out, said she didn't want to give me anything because my lungs were clear, I didn't have a fever, and it should just pass on its own.  Then when she's typing this all into her laptop she says, 'well now you have me really curious what you were going to start out with.  I can't give it any attention, but what were you going to tell me?'  Now this set me off into that whole gray area where you are trying to keep everything together, but you know you're on the verge of breaking into a crying fit.  I start out saying 'well I went into the ER over a week ago with this pain in my back that felt like my PE pain.  They did a dye CT and everything was clear so they sent me home.'  She goes, 'they couldn't find anything so they just sent you home and said "good luck"?'  I said, 'Yep pretty much.  Said it was a virus and no signs of pneumonia so they couldn't do anything.'  She says, 'Well you were right to go into the ER.  When did your back pain go away?'  Now I lost it.  I was trying to talk while trying to pretend that I wasn't crying when it was so ridiculously obvious that I was...lame.  Anyway, I go, 'it didn't go away, it's gotten worse!'  Now here's the kicker, she says, 'Oh.  Well that combined with the cough etc...that could be something serious.  I'm going to write you a prescription for a Z-pac. (pause, thinking)  You know, maybe we should send you in for a chest x-ray.  A lot could have changed in the last 8 days.'  OH MY GOSH, I sooo wanted to yell at her but I was completely crying by then and just trying not to snot all over myself. 

Cried in the car in the parking lot for a while, composed myself, and went to get the x-ray done since my mom was already here watching the kids.  Ugh, I hate that, it's just so humiliating for me.  I'm sure it won't show anything, but seriously, shouldn't doctors be a little more concerned about their patient's health than with getting to the next appointment on time!? 

29 Years

Nola is talking a LOT more!  In full sentences, like a real person!  She's said things like, 'Embry take that!' or 'Embry threw my ball!'  As you can see, we have a lot of sibling conflict in our house.  Embry's new (or rather worsening) habit is to run up to Nola and just rip whatever she had out of her hands/mouth/arms.  Usually yelling something like, 'THAT'S MINE!'  If you can't tell, I kind of hate this.  I particularly get upset when someone hurts my little Nola, even if it's Embry, I can get livid.  I think we need a love and logic refresher because I'm not sure what to do about this. Although Embry can also be very sweet, like tonight on the way home, Nola dropped her ball and we couldn't get it for her, so Embry handed her ball to Nola.  Of course Nola dropped that one too, but that's beside the point.

Today is my 29th birthday!  I'm exhausted, big surprise!  My mom came over with a cake and some cards (one from her, one from the girls) and she watched the kids while I went to the Dr.  Then I met up with Anna and Aleena to have lunch at Pei Wei...lots of fun.  Then I went up to the Tucson Mall.  I LOVE that mall, but geez it's huge.  I never used to tire of shopping, but it's really not much fun when a) you have no money, b) your everything hurts, and c) you're fat.  I'd like to not make this into a 'downer' post, but I saw pics from over at my parent's house 3 days ago for my mom's bday and holy cow, I'm huge.  Seriously, like a whale.  Furthermore, the last 2 times I was at the gym I biked over 11 miles each time and ran for about 9-10 minutes...I'm starting to wonder if maybe I need more than 2 hours a day at the gym to make a dent because even high-impact stuff (running...which I'm not exactly supposed to do) isn't doing a darn thing.  Ok, back to my birthday:  Then I came home and Tony took the family out to dinner at Culvers.  I had a wonderful day and there will be more celebrating this weekend!

I'll Admit It, I Was Wrong

Nola is not my easy child.  At least not right now.  She has recently become, how shall I say it?  Difficult. Whiny.  Easily angered.  Stubborn.  Clingy.  She's pretty much at least 1 of those about 90% of her waking hours.  I have no idea what happened to my sweet little cuddle bug! 

At first I thought, well maybe she's getting a tooth, or maybe she doesn't feel well because this is not how she normally acts.  Now, months later, it has become the norm.  She's crying at LEAST 1/2 the day and I have no clue how to fix it or what she wants.  At some points, I can give her anything...water, milk, food, cookies, cuddles, hugs, hold her, swing her, take her swimming...and absolutely NOTHING will make her happy. 

Maybe it's the terrible twos starting early?  Maybe it's just a phase (Oh God, please let it just be a phase!).  You know that saying, 'this too shall pass' well what if it never passes?  What if she's like this the rest of her life?  Just a disagreeable person who is unhappy and doesn't know what she wants?  Ugh, that would so suck! 

For now I'm just going to hold onto the hope that sometime, someday, she'll be over it.  Whatever this is that she's going through, I'm going to believe that she'll come through it.  Hopefully once it's all over I'll still be sane and able to tell the tale of the happy girl who turned into a crankster only to once again turn into a happy girl.  Maybe we'll even laugh about it.  Not today though, cuz it's not funny.  Not at all.

It's been a while

  We went to Wisconsin:

At my Aunt Linda and Uncle Terry's farm

At the Wisconsin State Fair

Embry's first roller coaster

a family party

Milwaukee County Zoo

at the Betty Brinn Museum

After dinner near the river in Milwaukee

10 Year High School Reunion

At the Mall of America in Minnesota

Visiting Tony's Great Aunt Longine

Brewer Game

At a Lake in Minnesota

Then a few days later I went to the MOPS convention in Dallas: