Thanksgiving and Shopping

Thanksgiving was, of course, perfect. We went up to Logan to visit a brother and his family on Wednesday night because the kids (the pic is of Zeke) invited us to sleep over. We needed a place to stay anyway because on Thursday morning we had breakfast with Brent's family in Brigham City and we didn't want to drive up there that morning. It was pleasant (the sleep-over and the breakfast).

After the breakfast we drove back down south and stopped for a little bit to see my cousin in the hospital. Last Saturday, as she was traveling back from Italy with her husband, her stomach started hurting. Soon after that, her appendix burst but seeing as how urgent care didn't see her appendix on the ultrasound, they sent her home. She finally went to the ER on Tuesday night and had surgery on Wednesday. She's doing much better now, but she didn't get much of a Thanksgiving.

After visiting her for a bit, we came the rest of the way home for our dinner, and as we exited the freeway we heard a honk. Turning aorund, I saw another cousin and his family right behind us. We were all late, but it turned out fine. And yummy.

That night we had Pie Fest at my brother's house. We invited some friends to tag along and their kids had fun playing with bunches of kids. We all played Rummikub (one of my new favorite games) for a long time and generally enjoyed ourselves. After the pie fest, our friends followed us back to our house. See, we had decided we were going to go to Old Navy in the middle of the night because they were giving out mp3 players to the first 50 people in the store the next morning. We (me, Jason, and Char) got there at 4. They handed out wrist bands to the first 50 people at 4:45 (maybe 3 people after us in line got them) and opened the doors at 5. I had counted earlier to make sure we would make it, but in my counting I had failed to recognize our friend Erin near the beginning of the line. I saw her later in the store.

We all spent lots of money, saved lots of money, and generally had fun. After Old Navy, we headed to Shopko because we heard they had games for $1.99. We got there before 6, but the cheap games were already gone and the lines were insane, so we left. We headed just down the street to Target, but the parking lot was full. And I'm talking FULL! I've never seen a parking lot so packed. So we decided to go to Wal-Mart instead. We wandered around there for a while and found some great deals. I even found a sewing machine for $54 that I decided to grab for my sister (she's always borrowing either mine or my mom's).

By the time we left Wal-Mart it was about 7:45 and we were exhausted. We stopped at Macey's and I couldn't even go in for fear I wouldn't be able to walk. I got to sleep about 8:30 or so and slept until around noon. I wasn't very productive for the rest of the day because I was so tired, but we had friends over last night to watch The Wizard of Oz. Jason and Char's kids hadn't ever seen it, but they did like it.

Brent was falling asleep and Felix was fussy about 3/4 through the movie, so I sent them to bed. hehe I think everyone left about 10:30. I cleaned up a bit and fell into bed about midnight. To say I fell into bed is a little bit misleading though. I thought a lot about how I needed good sleep, and looking at Brent and Felix asleep in our bed, I was hesitant to let Felix interrupt my sleep. I was sooooooo tired, I couldn't stand the thought of waking up all night and getting inefficient sleep again. So I slept on the spare bed in Felix's room. It was blissful. I finally woke up about an hour ago because my nephew (the one who had invited me over) called to tell me it was his birthday. He's 8 today. Cute little kid. I really do adore my nieces and nephews.

Two things (of many) to be thankful for...

My baby, who loves everything I feed him. Does this remind you at all of Winnie the Pooh and the honey pot?


And other people who are creative enough to make me giggle:


Happy day everyone!

My other favorite Christopher Walken

I have no idea why, but I love this video. It's Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim. The song isn't that well-known, except for Christopher Walken. There are weird references to Dune in it (Brent had to point them out). The video still makes me laugh though.

Christopher Walken

I used to think he was uber creepy, but now he just cracks me up. I think the change came when he stopped taking himself seriously. So now you all can enjoy him too.

Christmas songs

I'm caving in. I actually really dislike Christmas music because it proves how commercialized our society has become. Makes me mad.

Anyway, my friend Erin linked to this song that I heard last Christmas. I laughed so hard I almost wet my pants. Seriously. You have to enjoy this link:

http://media.zug.com/OhHolyNight.mp3

My all-time favorite Christmas song is Got Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by Barenaked Ladies. Makes me want to dance. I tried to find a video on YouTube of it, but the two I found were both horrible copies. You'll just have to take my word for it. Well. you can listen to it if you want (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZL4Ic8VcSM) but it's not a great copy. And don't watch it because I think the video was taken on someone's phone and it doesn't match the sound. But you get the idea of the song and its wonderful beat.

So, I'm going to avoid the radio for the next couple of weeks. I'm usually willing to listen to Christmas music for a week or two before Christmas. But these two songs are good any time of year.

Enjoy!

Oh yeah, and happy Thanksgiving!

Now the week is over...

This is Felix, learning the ins and outs of Mario Brothers.

I ended up taking Felix in to the doctor again. His regular pediatrician was out so he saw the next available doc. This doc is a little guy but very attentive. He recommended a steroid shot to ease the swelling of his airways, and he even called a few hours later to follow up. I was so impressed. Felix only has a regular cold now - no more wheezing.

I have figured out in the past couple of weeks that when Felix is really tired he wants his dad (yes, he really did fall asleep like that, right after he had slobbered biter biscuit goo all over Brent's shoulder). He gets frustrated with me but will snuggle into Brent's shoulder. But when Felix is awake and wants to play, he looks for me. Most of the time this is because Brent puts him down to play by himself on the floor, but I pick him up and play with him. Of course Brent plays with him sometimes, but when he has work to do, well, he just has to put him down.

This morning Felix got us up and I tried getting a little bit more sleep. In my haze of sleep, I could hear the crying getting slowly louder. I finally lifted my head to see Felix slowly crawling down the hall (with Brent supervising) to come find me. I told Brent I wanted to get a little more sleep so he took Felix back into the office. But not too long after that, Felix crawled out the door and back down the hallway to come find me. Really, how cute is that?!

Felix asleep, swaddled in his swing with a biter biscuit in his mouth.

Rainy days and Tuesdays...

Actually, I'm pretty sure it's been nice weather out lately. I just have barely left the house in a while.

Felix continues to struggle with croup but at least he's finally showing signs of getting better. We decided to let him take a nap at 9 tonight and he slept for an hour. That means he'll probably be up till 2, but he was so miserable we couldn't help it.

I'm feeling much less sore in the belly and I am feeling like I can eat mostly normally. Smaller portions, but that's not a bad thing at all. I caught a few minutes of Biggest Loser tonight and I thought again that I could totally win that under the right circumstances.

This morning I woke up and started sneezing. That's a really bad sign for me because it always heralds a bad cold. I sneezed for about 20 minutes straight and have been coughing ever since. My throat is all sorts of scratchy. :( I guess it's at least a really good thing this didn't come last week, because coughing this hard with holes in my belly would be absolute torture.

Felix, while recovering, is still coughing quite a bit. I think we're going to try to take him in to the doc tomorrow. He's been coughing so hard that he throws up everything in his stomach and there doesn't seem to be anything we can do to alleviate that. It's really hard watching an infant suffer, especially when he's normally so dang cheerful! He still smiles a lot and plays, but now he struggles for every breath. Or at least it sounds that way. And when he eats, well, he sucks it down desperately and then ends up choking on it.

I have a couple of fun things coming up, and if I have to, I'll get a mask to wear. I'm sick of being stuck in the house. I need social interraction! That's really how I make it through the winter. That and my favorite TV shows. heh

Brent and I seem to get hooked on a new show about once a year. When we first got together it was Lost. Last year it was Heroes. This year it's Chuck. We're still obsessed with all three. I can't wait till Lost comes back on in January. I think it's because I like zoning out on other people's drama. Not too much drama. Not contrived. I can't stand things like Desperate Housewives or daytime soaps. They bore the snot out of me. Maybe it's the fantasy, I don't know. In fact, it probably is that.

Tonight I watched Bones (predictable but fun), House (also predictable but fun), and SVU (way too predictable and depressing). I think I prefer TV that I couldn't write and that take me to an alternate reality. I watch TV because I don't want the real world. Don't give me any of that news crap. Or the hardened cop dramas. Or the lawyer shows (although Boston Legal can be very funny at times). I'd rather escape into something totally unbelievable. Like flying. Or a nerd actually being a secret spy (I have to say, however, that Chuck as a nerd is kind of a stretch). Or a mysterious island that won't let go of its inhabitants.

Call it a weekly vacation. That reminds me of Fantasy Island. Anybody out there remember that show? I don't think I was in love with Mr. Rourke, but I was in love with the concept of going to a place and living out an experience that you couldn't have in any kind of reality. Maybe I'll just stick with the fantasies. It's a lot less expensive than traveling and easier to discuss. Oh yeah, tomorrow is another new show that we're in love with - Pushing Daisies. Another fantasy.

If you haven't watched any of them, I'll put in a plug. Lost is going to start season 4 in January so if you haven't watched it before you may want to just borrow the DVDs. It can get addicting. I believe you can still watch last season at abc.com.

Heroes is in season 2 right now. I think you can watch all episodes at nbc.com, but if you need access to season 1, we've got them.




Chuck is season 1 and way fun. nbc.com for all episodes.



Pushing Daisies is also season 1 and way fun. Totally surreal, very entertaining. abc.com for all episodes.

In summary, sickness is bad, but TV that can take your mind off it is good.

Outside help

Everything is back to normal, right? Well, not quite. Felix is still struggling with croup (big bad nasty wheezy cough), and my belly still feels like I got trampled. Since Brent took most of the week off to deal with me and Felix, he has lots and lots of work to do, and it's due early Monday morning.

Problem is that I still can't take Felix for a lot because the poor kid tries to crawl all over my belly. I can't pick him up or put him down, but I can hold him (as long as he's not trying to get on my belly). So we asked some nieces to help us out this weekend. Lauren is brilliant with him. She loves holding him and playing with him and I actually trust her, so even though she's only 10, I feel comfortable leaving him with her. Becca is coming a little bit later today to help out and if Lauren is still here we'll have Becca help us clean up. Brent has been a working machine - trying to catch up for the essentially 4 days that he missed. My parents were kind enough to take Felix last night so we could get some uninterrupted sleep, so I actually woke up at a normal time today.

Often I would be just waking up about now.

I still haven't really eaten since Tuesday, but it's for two reasons. First, I get horrible heartburn if I eat anything that has serious flavor. Second, everything else sounds completely unappetizing. I am getting lots of liquids at least and little tiny portions of food (before my body says "enough!"). Heck, maybe this is the impetus I've needed for a long time to change my eating habits and actually lose some weight...

The moral of the story is, family rocks. Thank goodness for all the physical support they've been able to give us during this difficult process. It's been so necessary and appreciated!

Sicko, part 47

I went in to the hospital with Brent on Tuesday evening thinking they would poke around a little more, tell me it was just infection and send me home with more antibiotics, but somewhere around 2 in the morning the doc decided my appendix was even more suspicious and it should probably come out. I had had 3 CT scans by now and they still couldn't find my appendix, but the general area where my appendix should have been was inflamed and kind of bad looking.

So I got transferred to UVRMC down in Provo. Brent took me (they offered an ambulance, but since this non-insurance bill is already going to kill us we opted out), got me settled and went home to sleep since he was exhausted. I sort of slept in a haze of pain and morphine, but the morphine wasn't making it much better. The nurses kept promising the doctor was on his way to come and see me, but by 4:45 I was in serious pain again. 5:30 am and I was writhing and on more morphine.

I zoned out (if I concentrate really hard and don't move I can ignore most pain for a short period of time or at least tolerate it) till 6 when they started taking me down to the OR. The doc finally came and talked to me for about a minute there before I went under.

I felt fine when I came out of anesthesia (that anesthesiologist was awesome!) and didn't even feel the effects of the breathing tube they'd had down my throat (I get claustrophobic even thinking about it).

The doc came and saw me again for about a minute. Apparently my appendix was healthy, but I had 2 ovarian cysts. The one on the right had ruptured (reminds me of that Simpson's episode where the appendix is taken out and thrown away where it explodes just out of reach and everyone cheers), which was probably the cause of most of my pain. The doc cleaned it up and removed the one on the other side too. They don't usually operate for cysts since they don't cause any harm besides pain, but since he was there...

He did mention that it's rare for a CT scan to miss ovarian cysts. My innards must be really confusing if they missed my ovaries and my appendix with three separate CT scans - two with contrast (those are painful, by the way).

I was back in my room by 8 am and feeling so much better I was amazed. The doc stopped by about 2:30 and said I could go home when I felt ready (I left about 5:45). He gave me a prescription for 4 days of antibiotics and some more percacet. Anybody need drugs? I feel like a freakin' pharmacy!

My belly is sore but in a totally acceptable way. It's amazing how much we use those muscles to move around. Felix woke me up about an hour ago (I went to bed at 9) - I have no idea when Brent brought him in to our room. He has croup and is miserably congested and wheezy. He climbed on my face and fell back asleep. Cute for him but not so fun for me.

In summary, it's been a sucky fall. It's going to be expensive but I finally see the light (I just hope it's not another train!).

No, I'm the sicko!

So after spending 5+ hours in the ER last night, the doctors decided to treat me as if I have a kidney infection. They couldn't rule out appendicitis because they couldn't find it on the CT scans. I'm going back today to get checked again and get more antibiotics (the IV is still in my hand). Sigh. Being sick sucks.

This round of colds

I think this is Felix's first official cold. He woke up at 5 this morning so congested he couldn't breathe through his nose. And since that's how he sleeps, well, he didn't go back to sleep till just a few minutes ago. Thankfully, there are such things as all-night pharmacies.

Last night when we went to my sister's house for FHE my youngest nephew was all snotty. It surprises me that Felix would get it so quickly after being there, but I just hope it doesn't get more serious than some congestion. Apparently you can still get children's cough syrup stuff but now you have to sign for it.

I'm not used to be conscious this early in the morning. As we drove back from the pharmacy (Felix and I), I actually saw the sunrise. Well, since it's behind the mountains, I didn't see the sun, but in the 20 minutes of our trip, it went from mostly dark to mostly light, and the clouds were all pinkish at the bottoms. It was really pretty.

Before we went to my sister's house my stomach was hurting pretty badly but I figured it was probably stress (yesterday was a beast for work) and that I hadn't eaten anything for a while. But after eating it was just getting worse. By the time we got home and I had about an hour left of work, I was in serious pain and I was freezing, so I asked Brent to cuddle with me to warm me up. I think that's what husbands are really for... to loan their cold wives their knee pits and heat them up. I was shivering and really hurting so Brent got me a bunch of pain killers and a rice warmer. He got that thing really hot and I put it under my back at the side, right where I hurt the most. I'm pretty sure the uber heat disguised my pain inside so I was able to get to sleep.

I'm not in severe pain this morning but my stomach still isn't really happy. I both feel sorry for Brent and envy him. I envy him his health, but I feel sorry for him that he has to deal with two sickos all the time. It doesn't seem to let up!

Halloween, part 3?

I finally sent my pic of Felix from my phone to my computer, so here he is with his cousin Genivieve. They make two cute tigers, eh?

I want my camera fixed, dang it. Nothing comes out clear on my phone camera. :(

one more thing

When you've been an IBM-type computer user for the past 12+ years, it's a ginormous pain in the butt to get used to a Mac. I really do like having an essentially-new computer at my disposal (it's been, well, forever, since my personal computer was anything other than a piece of junk), but the learning curve on this thing isn't fun. I feel dumb and I hate that feeling. :(

Other than that, it's awesome! hehe

Feeling sorry for myself

For the last couple of days I haven't had access to the general internet and I've felt cut off from the world. As if it shouldn't be going on with me not there.

Today I'm back. I initially felt a little sorry for myself because it seemed that nobody cared or even noticed that I was gone. I hate feeling invisible.

Then I went to church, talked to some people, thought a lot, and came to some conclusions.

* It's self-destructive to feel sorry for myself. I just end up wallowing and not being good company.
* My friends really do like me. But everyone has their own life to deal with.
* People don't miss me because I'm not around all that much anyway so how would they notice an absence of like 3 days?
* It was kinda nice to take a break.

Today I talked to a lady at church. She's one of those seeming super women who has 6 very young kids who always look perfectly put together at church (the mom and the kids). She's married to one of the best-looking men I've seen in a long time. She is way nicer than she would seem (she's preppy and preppy never seems nice at first glance, does it?). She was wearing a knee-length skirt and some really cute shoes (red pumps with a chunky heal). What I noticed most of all is that she has the best calves I have ever seen on a woman. Hands-down winner. Seriously. I was doing some coveting at church today so I decided I should at least compliment her. So I told her she had beautiful legs. Amazingly, she struggles with her legs most as far as self-esteem goes. I was flabbergasted. If I had those calves I would never wear flat shoes and I would never wear anything past my knees. I'm not even joking.

This week I got together with some old friends of mine. We hadn't all been together in at least 8 years and it was awesome to sit and talk for a while. One of the girls said she loved my family because one night when she called at like 2 in the morning my mom was cheerful and so was I. I don't have any memory of that incident.

Anyway, it all comes down to this. I'm sick of complaining all the time. I'm tired of finding fault with everything because it just makes me feel bad. I love the little tiny kindnesses that we are able to share when we're in just a normal good mood (not that we would ever remember them - we shouldn't even, just that it makes me feel better that I am generically good when I don't think about it too hard), and I appreciate the millions of tiny kindnesses that come my way every single day.

Yeah, people are nice to me all the time. And I remember it. I don't think any of the people would really think they were big things, but they all meant something to me. I'm done. I'm done being a downer. I'm ready to just start being me.

Oh yeah, this last week Felix started to crawl. Our friend Kaydee almost accurately predicted he would do it this week, but she picked Tuesday. It was more like Thursday. But he is doing it. Awkwardly, but there's starting to be a purpose to his swagger. The bath in the picture was my niece Rachel's idea. We got the tub at Ikea for a few bucks because Felix really likes to splash around but we don't have a bathtub in our apartment. He got everything wet and thoroughly enjoyed himself.

The end.