Saturday, October 30, 2010

Halloween Fun 2010

Although Halloween is technically tomorrow, our county chose to do trick-or-treating on Saturday. I kind of like that it was tonight so that we were able to not be rushed. Ellie was a fairy thanks to cousin Gracie lending us the costume! Ian was a pilot thanks to Uncle Jon buying a flight suit for Josh a few years ago! So, I was able to get away without buying a costume this year. They both looked great and I made another scrapbook of todays festivities to share.

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I hope everyone else has a fun and safe holiday!

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Pumpkin Patch 2010

We made it out to a pumpkin patch today and although the "patch" itself wasn't what I was hoping for, it was good and we had fun. I made a Smilebox to share pictures from the time there. Ellie really enjoyed playing with all the playground stuff and although I know Ian is starting to get a little big for some of it, he's a good sport and had fun. Josh wasn't a fan of the heat and tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. There was a corn maze that looked like it would've been really good but they said that up until last week, they hadn't had any rain so the maze was pretty short. The boys did do it though (after convincing Josh that he should do it with his little brother!).

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Monday, October 4, 2010

My story of pain

Most of you may know by now but I decided perhaps I should blog about what's been going on with me the last few days. It has truly hit from out of know where. A week ago Thursday I went to my Zumba class like normal and during it my stomach started acting up. I made it through class and headed home. On the way home I began having some sharp shooting pains that almost made me want to pull over. I didn't, though, I stuck it out. The pains continued for most of the day but I made it through. Friday the pains let up a little but I didn't quite feel right and the same for Saturday. I had dinner with my friend, Michelle, on Saturday. She had her gall bladder removed last Christmas so I asked her what kind of pains she was having before that. She said, "Uh, oh. Tell me about your pain." We talked some about it and we kind of came to the conclusion that I should wait 7-10 days and see how I felt. Well, Sunday I was feeling better and by that evening felt fine. So, the week started and life was back to good (other than the fact that Ellie was sick and had strep). Wednesday I had a good day getting some work done in the house in prep for some friends coming to crash here that night. They didn't arrive until a little after 1am and I had to be up with Ian for school Thursday morning so I was a little low on sleep but feeling good. Thursday night I went to bed feeling fine. However, I woke up at 4am feeling uncomfortable. I tried to go back to sleep thinking, "If I can just get back to sleep, I'll feel better when I wake up." It's worked other times, why wouldn't it work this time? Well, try as I might, I could not get back to sleep. Ellie was in bed with me and I didn't want to wake her up so I finally got up. I came out to the couch and found that I felt best in child's pose (for those of you unfamiliar with that position it's a fetal position lying on your stomach, face down). After a while of doing that, though, my leg was going to sleep and it wasn't so comfortable anymore. I was hurting through my abdomen and around to my back (upper back). Ellie got up around 6:15am and came looking for me. She found me on the couch and lay on top of me. I was feeling a little better so I told her let's go back to bed because it's still early. So, we went back to bed. As soon as I lay down, though, the feeling was worse again. I tried to sleep but after about 20 minutes I got up and called my parents because I was just in pain. I talked to my dad and I finally made the decision to go to the ER. I don't like going to the doctor so for me to make that decision was a hard one! My parents came and my mom stayed with the kids while my dad took me to the er. Thankfully, I was seen right in and shown to a room. They ran blood tests, urine test and ordered a CT scan. All of my tests came back great - much to the doctor's amazement. He said everything looked so good he was almost hoping for something to not look so good so he could figure it out! The only test that showed anything was the CT scan and it showed early pancreatitis. What does that mean?! He finally decided to have an ultrasound done to see a little more detail. Guess what?! They came back clear! (Oh, and by the way, it's just not as fun to have an ultrasound looking for something to be wrong then it is when you're seeing your baby!) So, he released me but told me to follow up with my primary care manager on Monday or if my pain got worse or I had other symptoms (ie - fever, throwing up, etc) to return to the er. Never in my life have I wished for a fever just so I could figure out what's going on! He did give me a prescription for pain meds and nausea. So, I spent the rest of Friday on the couch. I ended up falling asleep on the couch around 7:45pm and woke up when Josh got home from work around 11:40pm. He asked me if I was going to stay on the couch or go to bed. I told him I'd go on to bed. I slept until about 7am. I got up, had breakfast and was feeling good. Ian and Ellie had spent the night with my parents and they were going to Ian's fall festival at his school. It was a beautiful day and I was feeling good so I decided to join them. Josh and I met up with them around 11am and we were there until about 12:30pm then we decided to go get some lunch. After lunch, we came back to the house and put Ellie down for a nap. I was still feeling good. Ian got invited to have a camp out in a neighbors back yard so he was busy and Ellie didn't get up from her nap until about 5pm. Then, we were trying to decide what to do. Originally (before all the not feeling good started) we were going to head into town for first Saturday activities but that didn't sound so good at this point. We finally decided to head to the mall (I had Gymboree bucks I wanted to spend). We got to the mall and Josh and Ellie were hungry. I was still feeling full from lunch so I didn't get anything. While they finished eating I went to do my shopping at Gymboree. That took longer than planned then we did a little more looking around. We ended up not leaving the mall until about 9:20pm. We were walking to the car and I started not feeling so good. It went down-hill from there. When we got home, Josh got Ellie ready for bed (with her crying almost the whole time) and I was trying to feel better. I went to hug Ellie and tell her I was going to bed, too, and that seemed to help her stop crying. I decided to take some of the pain meds and finally, while lying in child's pose again I went to sleep. When I woke up a little bit later, I was feeling okay and was able to change positions and slept the rest of the night. I got up Sunday morning thinking I would make it to church and I got Ellie ready but was running a little behind myself. My parents came to get the kids and take them to church. I did take a shower and was getting dressed but realized I really didn't feel that great and should probably just stay home. So, I did. I sat on the couch most of the day (did a couple loads of laundry) and was feeling okay. Not great but okay. Around 10:30pm I headed to bed. While I was laying there I started having pains through my chest and upper abdomen. Not fun. Couldn't sleep. I tried to wait it out (did I mention I don't like taking medication?) but finally around 2am I took the pain medicine again. I lay there trying to sleep and could feel the pain numbing but couldn't sleep! Last time I looked at the clock it was a little after 4am. I must have finally fallen asleep after that because the next thing I know I hear the front door open and Josh leaving for work. I got up at 7:11am (I thought the time was funny, don't ask me why) to see how Ian was going getting ready for school and have been sitting on the couch pretty much since then. I called my PCM and have an appointment for tomorrow morning. This just isn't fun. Other than the pains that creep up out of nowhere, I feel fine! I feel like I'm failing because I'm not taking care of my kids but I just don't feel good and there doesn't seem to be an explanation! Again, I'm almost wishing for a fever just so I could prove to the doctors that something isn't right. I've never experienced anything like this before and really hope it goes away soon. I'd like to get back to life as normal! Brian and I were talking about trying to see God's purpose in this. For me I think it's just a reminder that I am in His hands and life is precious! Plus, I'm really having to lean on Him during my times of pain because otherwise it's easy to feel very alone.
So, that was long and drawn out but now you know (probably more than you wanted to) what's going on with me!

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Decorating for Fall

To get ready for fall, I decided I wanted to do something different with my mantle. Here's the "before". I can't really explain why I love these stars, but I do. I got them when visiting my friend Amy in Texas. I originally got them for Ian's room but they've ended up in our living area in the last few houses. A lot of people who like "country" like the stars and although I don't consider my style "country" I do love the stars. Although the stars did look good over the mantle, I decided that there's a big empty space up over my back door/windows that the stars would look good in so I moved them there. I also had a gold mirror that I decided to paint black. (Imagine that!) After I got the mirror painted, here's what I put together on the mantle.

Josh helped me out with it and I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. It's muted with pops of orange. Just right!