Big Foot, Bugs, & Bilbo

This weekend was nice. I got to go on a nice day out with my mom. Two months after dad passed, we went to go see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in the theater to kind of honor him. He loved the Lord of the Rings. And I do mean love. It was his all time favorite movie. He gave my own fandom of Star Wars new heights to reach. We even played the soundtrack at his funeral. So when the last installment of the trilogy came out this past December, mom was set on taking me for my birthday to keep in our new tradition of watching movies that we know dad would love. It's little and may sound crazy, but sometimes it's all we have. Due to several weekends of crazy, we didn't get to go for my birthday and just got our first shot to see it today. It was wonderful. I really love spending these days with mom. And I think it helps her too. So we got to watch Bilbo Baggins finish is trek to The Lonely Mountain. It was really well done!

Saturday was a nice day. Other than the wind, we enjoyed the 60 degree weather and the kids got to play outside a lot. That is rare during the winter so we take it when we can. A tiny two bedroom house can get a little cramped with three crazy kids tearing through it. Later that evening we all were being silly and I noticed how big Alex's feet were getting. So when we put them up against each other I was shocked to see that he's about to match my own feet. How did my first born almost catch up to me by 8 years of age?? Crazy! He's just one foot shy of being the same height as his short mama. Of course, he is in size 4 shoes and I'm a size 5 in boys/men shoes. So just one more year and we should be able to share shoes. Never thought I'd say that. I lined us all up (without Josh regrettably - could have been a fun family photo) and snapped a shot of our feet.

Alex's giant foot.

Every winter we have uninvited house guests. Each year they grow in numbers. I think they are getting the word out that a house of really nice and understanding people are willing to accept them as part of our family. We have a ton of boxelder bugs that enjoy the warmth of our house all winter. If you don't know anything about these bugs, then you should know they are about as sweet and harmless as lady bugs. They don't bite and don't make messes or anything, so we let them stay. A few years back, we started referring to them as Fred. Each one is named the same. You know...purely for convenience. They regularly fly into our hair and crawl on us. Whenever we see one caught in the shower or fly into the trash, I go in for the great rescue. What can I say? I have a strange soft spot in my heart for the little beasties. I hope they aren't reason we can't sell our house. You know, I stopped spraying for spiders because the bug-dude told me it would "also get rid of my little boxelder bug problem." If we do move eventually, I'm totally packing a few boxes of Freds for good measure. I'd sure miss them.

Fred #275

Praising God

About six or so years ago, I was rubbing my neck and jaw area (I get stressed a lot) and found this random lump. Naturally, being the anxious paranoid type, my heart did a loop or two around my stomach and I freaked out. I went to the doctor and he said, "Meh. It's probably just a lymph node that needs a round of antibiotics." One round of meds later and it was still there and unchanged. A few years later, I had my chiropractor brother-in-law check it when he gave me a physical and he said it was a lipoma (which is medical jargon for benign fatty tumor). I laid the whole lump thing to rest and tried to pay it no mind. Occasionally I would feel it and wonder if I should have it rechecked.

Fast-forward up to last November. Evie, being the psychotic monkey she is, decided to leap off of the arm of the couch onto my head. She landed directly on that pesky lump and I swore I felt something tear. It hurt pretty bad, to say the least. It kept hurting and after two weeks of said pain, I decided to go get it checked in case something tore loose. The doc said, "Meh. Probably just a lymph node that got injured. Let's get you to an ENT (ear, nose, throat doc) and get it taken out if need be." They did blood tests which all came back fine and then ordered a CT scan of my neck so the ENT would have some info to go on. This is where things went from pesky lump to AHHHHHH!!! The nurse called and told me it was a growth off of my parotid gland (salivary gland). My brain went from worried to crazy in zero to sixty seconds. Yeah. I was certain it was cancer. That's how my brain functions. (I blame my dad. He was the same way.)

This all started escalating during the Christmas break. Naturally, this made my break very scattered and full of emotion. I ended up getting a biopsy from my ENT. For those who have never had a biopsy done, it was basically being punched in the face with a needle. Twice. It hurt - very bad. The biopsy came back inconclusive and I had to wait and get another one that was ultrasound guided. That was last week. Now, between all this, the amazing ENT that I went to basically told me that I was crazy to think this could be anything dangerous - especially because I'd had it for so long and it was so small. He said he'd take every penny he'd earned and would earn in the future to Vegas and bet that I was 100% fine and not be worried at all that he'd lose the money. Amazing doc, by the way. Turns out that Josh installed a water heater for him. Small world! Well, I went back to him and he really convinced me that the biopsy was for a final diagnosis and that he didn't think I needed it but we should do it for peace of mind anyways. I had the second biopsy done last week and it was...well...horrible. Never want to do that again. Ever.

So today I got the call from the nurse and she told me the best words I've heard in a very long time. The biopsy came back and it was "100% benign"! A crushing weight was suddenly lifted off of my chest...and neck...and mind...and I took a very deep breath. They got great samples and all of them came back great. I got off the phone and started praising God immediately. He sent me to the right doctor and I feel very blessed today. I'm trying very hard to get myself up and running again and this is the beginning. This week I'm scheduling an MRI for my knee (long story - but it's a torn meniscus) and plan on hitting the speed-walking hard by spring. Glory be to God because it's been a really great day!

Mustaches, Allergies, and A Blast from the Past

The year has started off rather crazy. A lot of doctor appointments and a lot of kid antics have swamped our days. Most of the doctor appointments have involved me, but that's some fun for another day. (And by fun, I mean the opposite.) It's been several years since Alex was tested for his allergies. To be exact, he hasn't been tested since right before preschool. After testing positive to all of his normal allergies, the doc told us it would be best to wait until he's around eight years old. So that's where we are now. There was a rather good chance he'd finally outgrow that pesky milk allergy but almost no chance for the peanut or tree nut one. After a two hour fiasco, we got our answer. He's still allergic to milk and peanuts. Now, the tree nuts weren't reactive, but they don't want us to consider him nonallergic just yet. She said he has to test negative for a lot longer than just this time before we can jump into any food trials. So we'll be going back in about a year and see where it is. The cross-contamination for peanuts and tree nuts is severely high, so we'd probably be avoiding them anyways. Plus, he's never been exposed so it's dangerous to try it without a doctor standing by.

Alex is fine with all of this. And unlike the years past, so am I. We do awesome on our allergy living and I don't have any complaints. To be honest, even if he tested negative on something, we'd probably not change much. Eight years with this lifestyle is a long time and I'm not itching to change anything. Oh sure. I'd be happy if he outgrew something. It'd be one less thing to worry about. But otherwise, he's happy, I'm happy, we're all happy. So why complain? I'd love to show a picture of his back that I took with my phone, but I can't get the pictures off of my phone.

It's been kind of funny lately with the kids. Our house is small and therefore, we sometimes need to improvise on how to keep entertained. I happened upon a sheet of fake mustaches in my kitchen drawer. Naturally, we had to have some fun with them. Oddly enough, the one that enjoyed them most was Evie. She kept wearing hers around the house. The other thing we have fun with (in some strange way) is static electricity. I taught the kids how to shock each other. Sometimes that doesn't end so well, but it's funny. They also learned how to make their hair stand on end. It works best with Abby.

Mom's been going through the house and trying to get things stored and cleaned up. She gets bored and sometimes tries to get things put away so as to keep the constant reminders of Dad more subtle. She is always coming across some pretty big blasts from the past. She found some roller coaster snap shots from our trip to Six Flags over Texas back when I was in middle school. It was such a wonderful find and I laughed when I saw them. Those memories come flooding back so easily. I know that we didn't have everything growing up, but I'd go back and start over, not changing a thing, if I could. What fun we had!

A New Year

It's a new year and I'm ready to take it all in. I'd really like to manage making writing a bigger part of it than last year. I have a lot of things to write and a lot of things on my "need to accomplish" list. Along with those accomplishments, I'm hoping for a mental overhaul as well. I'd love to say that I'm making my list of New Year's resolutions, but that's just not so. I'd like to think of it as more of a new life's resolution. A bit much? Probably. But I'd love to hit the New Year ground running with a fun sense of optimism. "Who is this strange lady and what have you done with Jessica?" you ask? Rightly so. I have been told I'm a glass is half empty kind of gal. When someone says that to me, I say, "Well, no. I'm more of glass is half full of shards of other glasses kind of gal." I'm not saying that I'm going for a total life overhaul, but I'm definitely going to give it a go. Tell me if you see it working. I'd love to know.

So to start off, I'm going to accept something that is hard for my slightly OCD brain to accept. I can't play blog catch up. My biggest problem with blogging is that I have a clogged brain. So many things have happened that my brain tells me I need to catch up on the blog with everything. I can't, no matter how hard I try, manage to get it all typed up and saved. It was a crazy year. And with that craziness, lots of things got back-burnered. Part of the reason I can't manage to blog is because I sit down and open up the page and try to figure out where to start. Before I can type a paragraph, I get overwhelmed and discouraged and ultimately close it. So I'm wiping it clean. No. I'm not deleting the blog. I'm just pretending like the last year is skipped. I got a few key moments up (e.g. birthdays and holidays) But, I didn't catch up. Now I need to tell myself it's ok and move on. You have no idea how difficult that is. It's like writing a giant "to-do list" and then tearing it up after only crossing off two things. Ugh.

Click, click. Skip.

Done.

Here's to a new year and a shot at happy. Happy New Year everyone!

Blogging Void

Well...blogging isn't happening like I'd hoped. I think about this blog a lot. I think, "I really should blog. If I lost all of my digital pictures in some freak accident, I'd have the blog pictures at least." But life, as usual, doesn't really want me to sit idly on the couch and do anything involving personal time. Honestly, if I could take a picture from where I'm sitting, you'd see miss Evie sleeping beside me on the couch. That girl hates sleeping alone. Yay for me.

Ahh...truth be told, I'm used to it. Honestly, I'm so accustomed to having a tiny kid sleeping next to me that when I wake up alone (not including Josh), I kind of worry about why no one is there. Don't get me wrong. I'm quite sure I'd adjust without complaint to the return of my personal space. I am so good at sleeping on the very edge of my bed, that you could stick me on a six inch wide cliff, 20,000 feet up a mountain, and I could guarantee you, without batting an eye, that I could sleep on it without falling off. Yeah. I'm that good.

I remember sitting at the computer and tinkering with the blog for a couple of hours. I'd put a new background up, play with the title bar, and make all sorts of fun new changes. I enjoyed that. Now, I see my way too old background (missing my third child) and ask myself how I got so busy. I'm usually too busy to answer my own question. For example, I spent well over 10 hours cleaning my entire house up to repair all the damage done after the Christmas morning present explosion. There were entire areas of the house so littered with junk, that I couldn't see the floor. 1000 sq feet + 3 kids + Christmas vacation = gigantic mess.

So that leads me to my yearly goals. New Year's Eve is quickly approaching. And with that, I am hoping to accomplish many things. I have very low expectations regarding the success of said accomplishments. That way, when I fail to achieve them, I will not be sorely disappointed.  Nevertheless, one of those goals is to blog about our life more often. One day I want to read it all for the sake of nostalgia. I also want to finish the sequel to my current book, make a quilt for Evie (like I did for Alex and Abby), and expand my Literary program for schools. I also hope to potty train my youngest and eat chocolate daily without gaining weight. One of those is less likely to occur than the other, I'm afraid.

Go, me! (Now where's my chocolate?)

Evie's 2nd Birthday

Yep. You read that right. This post is dated one month ago on Evie's actual birthday. Ah, the glory of post/pre-dating blogs. Evie turned two years old! That little spit-fire is two going on ten. She is a great big handful. She hits the ground running in the morning and her birthday was no exception to this. She had a great birthday this year. We basically kept it low-key. I honestly haven't really done a birthday that was basically just us. With Alex having a birthday just a month before, it was tough to ask people to come to the house again for another party. Also, I didn't feel like I wanted to host anything major.

We had cupcakes for her official birthday in the middle of the week. But Josh wasn't around and I really wanted to make a special cake for her. I enjoy making fun cakes for the kids. Evie is really into the movie "Frozen" and she loves Olaf. If you don't know who that is, you've been living under a rock. It was probably one of the easier cakes that I've made, but it still turned out cute.

We celebrated her birthday on Sunday. I got a few balloons and some "Frozen" plates and napkins and invited my mom and my friend, Mandy (a.k.a. Aunt Mandy). It was so relaxed and simple that I am seriously considering going this way every year. If the kids didn't love playing with their cousins so much, I'd totally go for it. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy seeing the family. I just get really stressed having to "entertain". That being said, we had a great time and miss Evie was super pumped about all of her presents. It turns out that she is at that phase of toddler-dom that involves loving opening presents. Christmas this year will be fun.

She got a few fun new toys and some new bed sheets with Anna and Elsa on them and her favorite, an Anna doll that she can sleep with and carry around. Thanks Grandma! The past two years have been crazy and fun and I can't wait to see what she's going to do and accomplish next. She's a smart little thing and can already sing 90% of her ABC's and count to five. I can understand most of everything she says and she knows all of her colors and most of her shapes. She doesn't sleep well still, waking several times a night, and sleeps in our bed after I go to sleep. *sigh* Oh the joys of an accidental co-sleeper. I'm so blessed to have such a sweet, fun and spirited little girl. Happy Birthday Evie!

Mixing her own cupcake batter. She then proceeded to spill all over her shirt.

Birthday cupcake time!

Thank you, Nana! (Evie calls my mom Nana instead of Grandma for some reason.)

Anna!

Evie's Olaf cake.

Halloween 2014

 

I love Halloween. I'm sure I write that every single year. One of my favorite parts is getting to dress up in something fun. I tend to really get into the character of my costumes and enjoy it very much. I've wanted to go as Super Mario for some years now, but have yet to have time to find the things needed to make a good costume. This year, I stumbled upon a large fake mustache and instantly knew that I could pull it together this year. My mom had a pair of my dad's old overalls and that made it a guarantee. The funny part is that the overalls fit me perfectly. Like, the kind of perfect that made me feel so comfy that I'd be willing to wear them on a non-Halloween daily basis. But I won't. The kids at school all loved my costume and I got a lot of high-fives and "Hey! It's Mario!" yells.

Alex and Abby were set on their costumes from the moment we saw Guardians of the Galaxy in the theater...twice. Alex wanted to be Star Lord and Abby wanted to be Gamora. Just google it if you need to know who they are. Star Lord? Not a problem. We managed that fairly well because my brother Aaron gave Alex a mask for his birthday. Gamora? Well...that was slightly more problematic. She's green. Like...all green. She dresses in tight, black clothes with...well...slightly more skin showing than I wanted Abby showing. Luckily, I found a way around it. Abby was ready to paint her face green until the time came to actually do it. The best I could convince her of was painting her hair ends pink and doing eye makeup. She looked really good! Evie was a ladybug. She didn't care, as she's only almost two. So I found a $3.00 costume at Goodwill and that's what she got to be.

Halloween was a blast! The kids got to design and carve their own pumpkins this year and we had homemade pizza (milk-free). They both told me that it was the best Halloween ever. We really get into the holiday spirit around our house. We went trick-or-treating in a new neighborhood this year and the kids were so excited to see all the cool decor and fun things. We even got to meet Alex's favorite monster - Frankenstein's monster. I have no idea who the super-tall dude was, but he was into character and, in true dork fashion, I talked to him as if he was actually Frankenstein and we all got a picture with him. Franky even put his arm around me. *blush* Aw, shucks! The kids are at an age where they just run up to the houses without me and do their thing. They even use great manners. As for Evie? She was in her element. She spent the whole night carrying her candy as if it were a prize. She then got home and dumped her bucket several times so she could smell each piece of candy and sneak several packets of smarties. It was so fun. I'm glad that we're a crazy Halloween loving family. It's always been one of my favorite times of the year. Now...what shall I be next year? Hmm...

Alex's was Frankenstein on the left and Abby's was a fellow student named Jordan on the right. Not bad for their first real try.

I did Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy.

Here we are with Frankenstein. :-)