Why We Had to PW

I edited this - no more password.

Family was having too much trouble viewing it!

      Life got chaotic, sugar high, and plain crazy on the days leading up to Christmas break! The kids were through the roof excited to be driving to IN to get their grandpa (Kristina's dad) and then to AR to spend the rest of the break. It was 3 weeks of non-stop GO! GO! GO! Somewhere in the midst of that we had our roof replaced, a plugged drain fixed, another minor work done on the roof, and now our refrigerator is also out. We had to pack the kids, make Christmas cookies, get homework done, study for midterms, and I was recuperating from getting my kidney repaired. NUTS!!!!! That's the best excuse I have for no Christmas cards! Well, that and I have yet to ask for many of your addresses. Please feel free to leave those in a comment below or email them to me.

     This CG post for Stephen has been what we would call a growing experience, a chance to build character is what my parents might have referred to it as. Character building as a child was usually hours of raking leaves, scrubbing toilets, picking up dog poop, picking up sticks - are we getting the picture? Jobs we would never have really volunteered for. Well, except raking leaves. As long as the parents were inside and we were doing it just us kids it was a blast! wE would rake up GINORMOUS piles of leaves, run, and jump! SO MUCH FUN! You think I kid about the leaves? We on average put out over 200 bags of MULCHED leaves each year. Yeah, that's a lot! So, scratch that off of the character building list...unless the parents were out with us. Then we had to rake, mulch, bag, rake, mulch, bag....BOOOOORING! Back to Stephen! Yes, character builiding and a growing experience. We all know that when our husbands are in lots of said situations, they slowly but surely begin to stop playing with the kids as much, stop teasing, and tend to just veg out. Can we blame them? With all of the chaos going on with the children, I was blaming him on the inside. I'd have to go off by myself, pray God would fix my heart, cry a bit, and move on. My parents were WONDERFUL because they usually would call to be all cheerful and "Hi! How are you? We love you! We are so happy for you all!" and I would be all like "Waaaaaahhh!!! (follow with tears) I'm fine! (tears) No really! (tears)" The kids were waking up in the middle of the night due to dreams (why? I don't know) staying up late because of SO much sugar at school (thank you teachers!) and waking on average 30 minutes earlier because they were excited. Add all of that up and you have exhausted volatile children!  I cried when my babies left for Arkansas. I hadn't spent even a full two hours with my Kyle and my Abby that day. It was just that fast! My fabulous husband the Magnificent (are you gagging? It's true - he really is amazing) came home the very next day! We went out for dinner, a first in the last 5 months outside of Thanksgiving break. It was wonderful! We spent the next few days just relaxing and enjoying the quiet. Christmas morning I woke up and snuggled with my puppies. Around 8am I went to wake up Stephen, he stirred, assured me he was awake, and I left to start breakfast! 8:15am - no Stephen. I went to wake him up again. More stirring and assurances he was awake. 8:30am - no Stephen. A third time I went back - grumpy! So I snatched up Frankie and let him do the honors! Voila! Stephen woke up smiling! Go figure a puppy can wake him up! Oh well, we spent the day eating too much food, wrapping presents for the kids, and had a WONDERFUL dinner! Smoked ham, mashed sweet potatoes, rolls, cranberry sauce, and broccoli.. Definitely made up for the breakfast...which ended up being stale tasting cinnamon rolls, cold bacon, hot coffee, and eggs. Yeah - poor guy!

    Much of Stephen's spare time was spent out in the woods during the day. He saw a beautiful doe 20 - 30yards out from him...the day after doe season ended. ; ) Later in the week he got a new hunting rifle (new to him) and went to sight it in. After firing several rounds, he and his buddy went to go check the target. First he laid his gun down, climbed down the 35ft deep ravine, up the other side and to the target. But wait! Deer tracks! *GASP!* Big ole buck picked his head up, saw the guys and took off like a shot! Remember his new hunting gun? The one with the scope that is in great condition? Yep, it was back by the truck!

     Friday was my favorite. Friday Stephen promised to take me to Jackson! You might think that is no big deal. Dear friends, let me assure you, it is. FL friends, imagine living in a town smaller than Homosassa with no Brooksville, Inverness, Ocala, or Crystal River for 2 hours in any direction. Indiana friends, well, it's smaller than Marion, IN with half the shopping of Marion.Yeah, YIKES is right! So he took me to finish Christmas shopping, get a few necessities, and spend time in a book store. A REAL bookstore! A Barnes & Noble! YES! He spent over 2 hrs in there with me! I did my thing...he patiently waited for me. We followed that with a run to Bass Pro Shop. He got a few things and we went home. We didn't have to worry about rushing or making it back by bedtiem. He & I haven't had time for just us without worries from work since July 2011. It was much needed! That was the day MY Stephen came back. Now we're back to reality, but we both needed that time. I am so thankful for it. God knew we needed some rejuvinating. We are both very extremely ready to have our Kyle and Abby home again! Yes I know, we will fall into the rhythm of school, work, homework, housework, etc. But it's all of those little moments of snuggles and giggles that we miss!

     Kyle is having his 2nd procedure done. There is a tiny slit like hole in the right and left ear drum. Thursday, January 10, our wonderful ear specialist will take a small graft of cartilage from the back of Kyle's ear and repair his eardrum. If it's in God's Will, this will allow Kyle to no longer have to use ear plugs when he plays in or near water. He will not have to worry as much about ear infections. This poor boy is literally petrified at the thought of water getting in his ears because of how bad his infections have been in the past.  Abby's tummy is doing well! She is finally starting to eat like normal again - which means she out eats me on average. (That's saying something since I can out eat Stephen!) My stent comes out on February 5th. I went for a follow up last week and the K.Dr. said everything seemed to be going fine based upon my lack of symptoms and my swelling decreasing. BY THE WAY!!!! My swelling is going down enough I can now buckle my belt where I did BEFORE my March procedure! Those of you who have never experienced kidney surgery, let me explain. You go in wearing normal clothes, in fact, all of your clothes are very loose because you've worked hard to lose weight. You wake up, go home 3 days later, and nothing fits. NOTHING! Your husband's sweatpants, but that is it. Even those are not comfy on your waist. That lasts until June. June you start wearing your normal clothes but do little tricks to keep them from being uncomfortable. Your belt? You wear that on your loosest hole possible and change into said sweatpants as soon as normal. NO I don't want sympathy - I'm laughing at this as I write it. You should be too! So yes! Swelling is going down! YYAAAYYY!!!

     Dogs? Well, the dogs, they are crazy! They went from being walked 3 miles a day from July through October, to nothing. My lab is being stubborn. My boston is - holy moly! Hyper! Antagonistic! And frankly (haha! his name is Frank) is hilarious to watch! Poor Kaden is content to eat and sleep. Frank is content to nip and bark and steal toys/bones from Kaden all the live long day!

See? Nothing has changed! My posts are just as ridiculous and random as ever!

Pray for our country! A new congress member is being sworn in on the Hindu scriptures and at the opening address the Bible's New Testament and Old Testament will be read IN ADDITION TO THE KORAN!

We are all praying for you! Praying you had a wonderful Christmas & New Year! (If you say "Happy Holidays" odds are we are going to have a "fun" conversation. Just which holidays would you be referring to? There are many!) Oh, by the way, also very important! We love you!