Christmas 2012

It was our first Christmas in our new house and also the first time we had ever hosted Christmas dinner. In my 29 years of existence I have never had the opportunity to stay home on Christmas morning. So it was a nice change even though a bit stressful planning and cooking for 14 adults and then our two boys.

Round One of Christmas when the boys woke up to see what Santa had brought them and what mommy and daddy had got them.

They were almost to excited for me to get a picture before tearing in to the gifts.

 

Blake got another new BB Gun with a scope so he could practice shooting it before deer season next fall.

Nathan was excited about everything and anything that was opened. In their stocking they each got a new monster truck toy and stuck to it was a ticket to go to Monster Jam. We used to go yearly until we had Blake then have taken him once. This year we decided to take both of them. Both boys were super excited about that gift.

Both boys got quite a bit of goodies from us and from Santa, we have never made a big deal out of Santa and don't plan to.

Round two! I went and brought my grandparents presents over from their house and then my Uncle and Paul came and we placed their gifts under the tree and once again the tree was over flowing.

My family arrived around 11 and we weren't eating until 1 so we opened up gifts not long after this picture. We let the boys open theirs first so we could all see what they got and they had fun showing off their goods. Then the rest of us tore in and opened our gifts. I got several nice things and my Uncle got me a pink apron!

Blake was busy watching tv sitting in Nathan's new carseat..

My Grandparents really enjoyed watching their great grand kids opening presents.

So thankful that my Grandpa was feeling back to normal and able to enjoy the holiday.

Food food and more food! We had turkey and ham. It was my first time actually getting to carve the ham Kenny was busy carving the turkey. I need to get a ladder to get a picture of the whole counter of food instead of separate pictures. I made corn casserole, glazed carrots, corn, stuffed mushrooms, mac n cheese, mashed potato's, stuffing, ham, Kenny cooked the turkey, I made tons of cookies. My Uncle brought baked beans and sweet potato casserole and an amazing chocolate covered cherry cake. Kenny's mom brought green bean casserole and deviled eggs and my mom brought an appetizer and salad. We had tons of fun and when we were all done and family had made to go plates for later we didn't have near as much left as I figured we would.

It was a great day with family even though I was stressed to the max I kept it well hid and was glad I was able to pull off such a feat!

 

Christmas Sock Swap

A blog that I follow http://3xacharmrunner.blogspot.com/ hosted a Sock Swap and I decided it would be a fun thing to do. So I submitted my information and a week later got an email to who's name I had drawn. It was fun reading her blog and trying to figure out what she liked and didn't like then searched online for some neat gift ideas for her. A link to her blog post about what she received is here: http://runningwhit.blogspot.com/2012/12/merry-blog-mas-and-happy-christmas-too.html.

I received my present middle of the week and loved what I got as well here's a picture of what it was.

Some sweet and salty m&m snacks love m&m's and love that they were dark chocolate. Two packets of hot cocoa which I can't wait to try. Some chapstick in apple cider flavor (never heard of it but its awesome) small thing of hand cream and three pairs of Christmas socks. One reason I decided to do the sock swap is I have fond memories with my Great Grandma and Christmas socks. For as many years as I could remember we would get each other Christmas socks for Christmas. She loved the silly ones so it was fun  to find some for her that were off the wall crazy. I miss getting to do that yearly and this filled the void somewhat. My secret sock giver was http://sherunseverywhere.blogspot.com. I wore the red and white snowflake ones yesterday. I for see myself wearing these off and on all winter as they are wintry :)

A wonderful surprise!

Have so much to  post about the weekend and Christmas that I will have to do a few posts to get it all covered.

But couldn't wait to post about the most amazing awesome surprise we got on Monday afternoon!

The kids stayed with my inlaws on Sunday night and I was taking full advantage of not having them there so I could clean and prep everything for Christmas Day. Kenny didn't go out hunting that morning which drove me nuts I wanted the house to myself to get everything done but he wanted to stay and "help". He did get a few things done that I had been bugging him about for months.

I got a text from April that afternoon asking if I was home that her parents were out driving around... I said that we were but the kids weren't. And I can tell you if the kids knew their Nonna and Dwayne stopped by and they missed them they would have never let me hear the end of it. Anyway I never heard anymore from her. So Kenny left to head to do a few things and I left for about 30 minutes to go pick up my dessert tower that a friend had borrowed. I pulled in my drive way and as I was off in la la land something caught my eye.....

This beautiful sign was displayed at the edge of our driveway (I need to get a better picture of it when the sun is out). I was shocked surprised and well almost cried. I knew right away who had left it there as we had admired the one at Dwayne and Connie's and the one April and Mike got as a wedding gift. But never ever in a million years would I have thought one would end up at our house! To say I love it is a huge understatement. I called Connie and thanked her and sent April a text thanking her it was a house warming gift from Dwayne, Connie, Mike and April. I didn't tell Kenny just let it be a surprise when he got home. I was across the road at my grandparents when he pulled in so I stood there watching to see his reaction. He was just as surprised and shocked as I was.

Having this in our driveway makes our house seem more like home and more like ours. Each time someone showed up yesterday they commented on how neat the sign was and where it came from.

Sno-Glo 5k

Friday night after work I changed in to my race gear and headed to meet my friend at the bank she works at. We decided to park there and walk up to the start it was probably a good quarter mile give but a nice warm up. I had found some glo at walmart that morning and got myself pink and her some purple.

We arrived and it was a small race they were still setting up when we got there so we put on our glow. They gave us some more while we were there however no cool colors like pink and purple. We had several comments on our colors. I was nervous as I had never ran or walked much in the dark. We drove the race course prior to walking up to the start and knew it wasn't a real safe course. I knew that they weren't planning on shutting the two streets we would be on down.

This is pre race

I really need some tips on taking a picture of myself.....

And I got this one from the Chamber of Commerce facebook page after I was tagged in it. This was probably 5 minutes before we started. And yes I am on my phone....

We started pretty close to on time and the beginning of the race we ran down a sidewalk along a busy street. I think there were around 300 participants and well it was a bit crowded. I ran until the first glo stop and then I walked some. I wasn't expecting the huge hills that were in the course and honestly I hadn't done any training for this. My only goal was to not be last and not get run over!

I walked and chatted with others along the course and always tried to stay with at least one or two people the whole time. I could have pushed myself a lot harder however then I would have been pretty alone out there and well I just didn't feel comfortable with that.

We were coming up the last hill and I knew the 3 mile mark was close when my friend came running down to meet me. She was miss speedy and finished in 33 minutes and took 2nd in her age group 50+. So we left the group I was with and proceeded to the finish once I came up in to their parking lot I sprinted across the finish line and then couldn't wait to see my time. I had purposely not looked at my phone when I started and didn't look at the time during the 3 miles. No I wasn't happy with my time but for dark no training and huge hills I was ok. I got in at 58 minutes and when I compared it to my splits from the half I was faster than my first 3 miles of the half!!!!

And this was right after crossing the finish line I was tired and ready to head home! But I was happy I wasn't last in my age group which they had from 19-30 I need to look and see how I placed with people close to my age.

The race was fun the sno part was nothing to be thrilled with was just pillow stuffing looking fluff....For the first race that they have had like this they did ok lots could be changed such as streets closed more glo along the way and would be nice to have a route where there were spectators. We were along businesses that were closed and a dark road along a rail road track.

Ahh its Friday!!!

It's Friday and even though its cloudy out and I got little to no sleep I am finally in somewhat of a better mood.

Nathan was sick yesterday and last night so he didn't sleep much and even when he was sleeping. Was to worried if his fever was back and every time he coughed I went in to make sure he wasn't throwing up. But he woke up happy and back to normal well other than the sinus drainage which is what made him cough run a fever and throw up yesterday.

I ran to walmart before work and was able to find some pink and purple glow bracelets and necklaces for tonight's race. I also found a fluorescent pink tshirt and a white long sleeve to go under it for tonight. We aren't sure if they are going to have the streets shut down or police escorts so I want to make sure I am seen!

The course for the race looks a bit boring and a bit confusing but its streets and roads I have never been on so it will be a new experience. Its also the first annual sno glo race here in town so I am sure there will be lots of bugs that need worked out. I will do my best to get a picture of me dressed up and post it Monday. At noon I went to my friend to have my hair trimmed and she pulled back my hair so its out of my face and not in the typical ponytail we debated on pink highlights that would wash out. I decided that the next daytime race I do we will go with the pink :)

This weekend I HAVE to get the tree in the living room finished and get my tree done. Also hope to make some cut out sugar cookies like Grandma and I used to make.

And the best news of the whole week my Grandpa came home yesterday. My Grandma is happy and so is my Grandpa. I had to help her figure out all of his medicine that he has to take and hopfully it will become less and less as he gets better and stronger.

Almost Sno-Glo Time.........

It's Thursday which is usually a great day of the week. Its technically Friday Eve and its also payday :) But today I am filled with nerves of excitment and well fear. Tomorrow right after work I am meeting up with a girl I know to do the local Sno-Glo 5k. Now I haven't really trained for this and I am pretty darn sure I won't be able to run the full 3.1 miles. I also have never ran with this girl before and lets just say she is super skinny and a bit taller than me which I know will make it twice as hard to keep up. I don't want to hold her back but I sure hope I can keep up or at least keep her in my sights.

We are running at night any one who really knows me knows I am NOT a fan of the dark. I never have been I don't like walking and not seeing where I am. Now I will be running on a road I have never been down and in the dark.

Several people at work know I am doing the race with this girl and everyone knows her as she comes to our office frequently. Anyway I am nervous they are all saying oh that sounds fun how long do you think it will take you etc.... I guess when I did my half marathon I never really mentioned to anyone at work or anyone I work with outside of work of my race until the days leading up to it. I didn't want all the questions on what I thought my time would be. My goal then was to finish  not die and get that darn medal.

My goal for tomorrow night not freak out finish not be last and have fun. Its supposed to be a fun race but its also in the town where I work so the fear of others seeing me and worrying about what they think will be running thru my head.

I am excited to get my race packet today and see what kind of cool glo sticks we have and starting to think I need to find a flash light or something to carry with us so we can see as I am not sure the roads have street lights.

I actually won something!!!

I always enter tons of drawings on blogs for giveaways and well of course never win. Can't tell you how many times I have entered to win something on the Pioneer Woman site and well never win. So earlier this week I entered a drawing on http://sweetsnsweat.com/2012/12/11/dust-off-the-cookies-and-win-some-gu/ and pretty much figured another drawing no win. To my wonderful surprise I got an email from the blog writer this morning stating I had won!!!!! I am so excited to be getting to try GU seen it read about it never tried it.

Today I woke up in a funk and lets just say that email was a help to brighten my day a bit. I went for a workout at noon got a mere mile in but was better than nothing. Still doing the squat a thon for December and had my 70 done at work before 10 am! I have even started adding in wall push ups each trip to the restroom. Not sure that they will do much but figure its better than doing nothing.

Not sure why my mood is so yuck but its really starting to drive me crazy. I am excited that Friday I get to do the sno glo run just not real excited about doing a race in the dark... I really hope they close the roads down. Its on a road I have never even drove down. Yes sounds silly running a race in a town that I have been in my whole life and there are still roads I know nothing about.

Today is 12-12-12 and I decided to start my noon walk at 12:12pm and I walked more than 12 minutes. Going to try and have 12 sets of 20 wall push ups done before I get off work at 5. I am over halfway there now and its 3pm. May have to finish them at home.

Misc Tuesday

The weather here is cold cold cold looks pretty and sunny out but was 14 when I left for work today! However it says its 32 now and will be 38 at noon and I do believe I am going to change and go get at least a mile in at noon.

I went ahead and bought three pictures from the half in October they had a special where you could download the three pictures of your choice and then print as many as you want and what ever sizes I have NOT printed any and really didn't like any of them. But it was my first half and possibly the only race I would be able to do with my best friend so I got three.

This was pre race apparently our skirts drew attention we were stopped several times that morning!

And this was as soon as we crossed the finish line and got our medals. I hate that I look all sweaty but its a decent picture of me and my friend. Pretty sure I will print one of these out for her and frame it for her as a gift before she leaves next month.

I still need to make the time to see her before she goes not sure I am ready to say bye knowing she will be across an ocean from me but theres text, calls and facebook....

We did family pictures a couple weeks ago and while I wanted to do a professional photographer time wasn't on my side. So we asked Kenny's brother to take some with my camera. I decided I wanted some in front of our new house as well as some back behind my grandparents house. The picture above is a gate I used to climb over as a child to go up to fish in the pond up the hill. Blake requested a picture like this.

Blake begged and begged to climb on this so once we were done with the pictures I needed I told him they could climb on it and I snapped this picture. You can't see Blake's feet but they are both hanging not touching the ground. I used to climb on this when I was young however back then it wasn't as rusty and yucky.

Figured out it was near impossible to get both kids smiling looking the same direction for a picture. This is just one of several tries!

In theory this would have been a really neat picture however the sun wasn't on our side and was in our eyes. I do plan to get a picture with this tractor next time just have to be at a different time in the day!

I was happy to have been able to go back behind my grandparents house to do some pictures this year. I have many many memories of the property and its neat to watch my kids make their own there as well.

Weekends are never long enough

Why does it seem that two days during the work week take way longer than the two days during the weekend????? Was nice to sleep in or at least not be woke up by an alarm.

Friday night Blake had his first ever sleep over with a friend from school. I was a bit nervous but he was excited. I dropped him off and Nathan was mad he couldn't stay so he and I went grocery shopping and he was a sort of happy camper by the time we got home. Blake had a lot of fun and his friends mom said he was a great kid...  I wanted to say you sure your talking about my son the one who tested my patience every night that week..

Saturday morning Nathan got to go with Daddy to return some stuff to a lumber yard and I went to go pick up Blake and get the walmart part of my grocery shopping done. Blake was so excited about his over night stay and I could tell he was super tired and wore out. In fact that afternoon everyone took a nap well other than me. Nathan fell asleep on my lap which is a very very rare thing but he crawled up there with me and two seconds later he was sound asleep. Kenny and Blake both took naps to I enjoyed the quiet just didn't enjoy being stuck in an ackward position for over an hour.

We went to the Fire Dept Christmas party Saturday night it was a fun time there were 3 other kids there which was nice and they all seemed to play well together. Of course Santa brought each of the kids a gift which was a big hit. Then the adults had a gift swap you picked a gift and it could be stole 4 times and at the end we opened them.

Yesterday Kenny and I took the day to finalize our Christmas shopping we went to Columbia and Jeff City and had a really good day. Was the first time in ages that we had a day to ourselves to go shop. I still have a couple photo gifts to order and then wrap it all but shopping is 99% done which feels great! 

Our tree needs decorations put on it tonight which the kids are wanting to do for me. I guess I will let them have reign of it and see how it looks. My dad gave me his antique aluminum tree he had from his dad that is over 50 years old. I bought some decorations for it and of course its my tree so it will have lots of pink on it! Kenny said I could put it up just not in the living room or dining room so it will go in our bedroom.

Winter hit today and it was still only 24 when I went out at noon. I looked at the forecast and it will be in the mid 50's for the sno glo run Friday night which isn't to bad. I need to finalize what I will wear when it gets close enough to know the weather.

Friday!

Parts of this week seem to have flown by and other times it seems like it was never ending..

Tonight Blake gets to go to his first ever sleepover at a friend from schools house. Yes I am slightly nervous about it I have only met the mom once or twice. Both Blake and her son stay after on Tuesdays and Thursdays with the teacher for tutoring. Blake seems to like him and they get along really well. So after I get Blake from the sitter Nathan and I will take Blake to his friends house.

My tree still has no decorations on it. I took the kids to pick out new garland and a tree topper last night but tired cranky hungry kids and decorating didn't mesh well. So tree is still sitting there naked.

I have been thinking about goals for next year. I have decided to enter two challenges first is 13 races in 2013. You can do all variety of distance, 5k, 10k, half marathon, full marathon and trail races.

The other one is where you run a 5 k or 5 miles in the first 5 days of each month January to June.

Figure if I have goals like this I will stay on track better with my workouts. Because since my half in October well workouts have been almost non existent. And its noticeable in my clothing and making me crazy.

Thursday Randomness

Today is Thursday which I didn't fully realize until my boss handed me my paycheck... This week has flown by!

- Last night after the boys were asleep I got the tree out and put it up so tonight they can help decorate it. I am debating on taking them to town to pick out some new garland and a new tree topper to help make their experience special.

- Really need to sort and start wrapping Christmas gifts maybe I can get to that this weekend sometime.

-We have a Christmas party at the Fire House Saturday night that all 4 of us are going to. They have a silly gift swap. I am still undecided as to what do for the gift and what to take for a side dish. They provide drinks and prime rib yummy!

-Been thinking about my blog a lot and wanting a new name for it something other than just my name but keep drawing blanks. Any suggestions would be welcome!

-Finally starting to figure out this instagram thing I have found how to follow people and managed to get two pictures uploaded.

-Oh and I just signed up for a 5k that is next Friday night. Called Sno-Glo Run and said 100 percent chance of snow! I looked at the weather forecast and it will be chilly but not super cold. A girl I know said she is going to do it with me. Its in Rolla and starts right after work so Kenny can get the kids I will do my race and then come home. I think we get lots of glo bracelets and necklaces which my kids love so I will have something to take home to them.

-The same girl who is wanting to do the 5k asked if I would want to do the Rock N Roll Half in St. Louis again next October with her. I am pretty sure I will go for it sounds crazy but I want to properly train for it and be able to run it.

-Far as I know my Grandpa is getting released from the hospital today which is great and I am sure he is more than ready to leave that place.

More Thanksgiving pictures

I remembered to bring my camera SD card with me today so I could upload and order our Christmas cards. We had my brother in law take some quick pictures of us on Sunday morning before I left to take Grandma to St. Louis. Goal for the spring is to have professional pictures done although my brother in law did a good job and the kids liked him but they were tired and not in to taking pictures.

I haven't printed pictures in so long and honestly hadn't even look at the pictures that were taken at Nathan and Lizzie's Birthday party back in September! I felt horrible that I hadn't seen them or posted them. Yes sounds weird me not seeing any of them but I let someone use my camera since I was running around crazy so I could actually have some pictures of their party.

This is on of my built in cabinets I need to finish getting my carnival glass and other antiques from my Grandma to put where the pictures are.

Here is the other one its full of all my carnival glass I have found at auctions the last two years.

Our dining room which is in much need of a bigger table don't mind the boxes under the counter I forgot they were there when I took the picture.

The turkey before it was carved

Kenny's Grandma and my Grandpa visiting while waiting for dinner to be done. She kept telling Kenny not to get rid of the skin on the turkey she wanted to eat it.

The boys had their own little table

The best I could do at getting the counter full of food should have had someone taller than me take the picture.

Our kitchen seems huge until you get several people in there trying to fill their plates but it still worked out nicely.

Everyone sitting to eat well other than Kenny and I. Nathan was happy he got to sit next to his uncle Mark. My Grandpa decided not to sit next to my Grandma which I thought was funny until I realized I was between them and Kenny ended up between his mom and Grandma.

I made sure I took a few pictures and wanted my Grandparents and Kenny's Grandma in them you never know when a holiday may be the last you have with loved ones. And little did I know that this picture was almost the last one I would have of my Grandpa.

A very long 9 days.....

It's been a very long stressful exhausting last 9 days and still not an end in sight. The day after Thanksgiving my grandma walked over that after noon and said that my grandpa had been having chest pains since leaving our house the day before. (and later found out that it started Wednesday afternoon) I went over there and took his blood pressure and talked to him to find out what his symptoms were. In my 29 years of life never once have I see him in his bed during the day ever! So I talked to him and told him that it was serious that all the symptoms was leading to something wrong with his heart. He kept saying oh we won't go to ER they will just tell me its indigestion and send me home. I argued a bit told him how serious this could be and would be better to find out it was nothing versus waiting and getting worse. I went back home and Kenny and the boys started watching a movie and I went in to the bedroom to read a book. About 2 hours later my grandma came back over and said he was having hot flashes and getting sick to his stomach and thought about what I had said and needed to go.

We arrived to the Rolla ER around 9pm Friday night I knew as soon as they hooked up the EKG and watched the rhythms that something wasn't right. They started giving him drugs they give when you are having a heart attack. At that time they hadn't said anything about a heart attack so I kept that info to myself. Finally around 2 am they came and said they wanted to transfer him to a hospital in St. Louis and asked us which one. Of course neither of them knew anything about any of the hospitals up there so I chose Barnes. I knew it was easy to get to off the interstate and that it was an excellent hospital for heart attacks. After waiting two more hours the ambulance came to take him I was glad to see it was from St. James and I had worked with the crew before. The EMT is a friend of mine and he told me he would text me when they arrived and tell me what room they were putting him in. Which was a relief to know who was taking him and to know that I would be told when they got there and how he was doing on the ride down.

I took grandma home to let the dog out I went to my house to change shirts and to grab a few things and tell Kenny where we were headed. I had been up since 6 am and it was now 4am and I was tired however I knew I needed to get grandma down there so we could talk to the doctors. I had never drove on the interstate at that hour it was creepy no cars on either side and well being that tired made it worse. I was so darn happy to see the sun coming up by the time we reached the city. The ER there was nice the doctors and nurses kept coming in and out and talking with us by 9 am they had a room ready and we went up with him. The Cardiologist even walked with us to the room and talked with us the whole way. They knew he had a heart attack and the doctor asked who talked him in to going and they told him I did. Well he came up to me and said if you wouldn't have talked to him and told him the importance of coming in he would have died in his sleep. Not a thing you want to hear!!!

On top of the heart attack he had been having blood in his urine and had a biopsy done on a spot in his kidney earlier in the week which then was told the kidney needed to come out. I knew going in that the meds he needed to stay alive and keep his heart going was going to affect the bleeding from the kidney. And the whole time the doctors had a delicate balance of giving enough meds but not so much as to lose a lot of blood out of kidney.

We stayed up there all day Saturday and finally came home around 5pm still hadn't slept any. Once I got home I had to go in to mommy mode with the kids then I did our grocery shopping. Grandma wanted to leave by 9 the next morning so I managed about 2 hours of sleep that night. Went up on Sunday found they moved him to another floor due to having more chest pains. It was decided that a heart cath would be done Monday morning at 7am and if stints would fix it they would do it while in the procedure room. Grandma and I stayed up there all day again and got home around dark. My mom and my uncle didn't think we needed to be up there before the procedure. I knew how risky it was and knew Grandma needed to see him prior and knew he would like to see her. So against their thoughts we arrived at the hospital at 6:30 and got to see him for over an hour and walk down to the procedure room with him. He was glad to see us to take his mind off the events. He has never been in the hospital and didn't really understand what all was going on. Heck he never even had high cholesterol!

They started the procedure and finally my mom, stepdad, uncle and his friend arrived an hour or so after he went back. We waited and waited and finally the dr came out and said two arteries had over 90 percent blockage and he needed open heart surgery and it would either happen today or first thing Tuesday. So we waited and waited some more and about 5 pm they said he was stable enough to have surgery tomorrow (Tuesday) but that if we wanted to see him prior we needed to be there at 5:30 or before. Of course no one thought there was a need to be there other than Grandma and I. I told her I didn't care how tired I was if she wanted to be with him before we would get there in time. Left home at 3:30 and arrived around 5 after a caffeine stop to keep me awake. He was super glad to see us and told us he loved us both and to tell the boys he loved them if he didn't make it... It was the first time ever ever ever I had ever heard him say that to me or to grandma. He was taken down for surgery around 7 and they took us to the waiting room about 3 hours later my mom and uncle showed up. They gave us updates every hour from the OR and after 6 hours of surgery he was done and it was a success. Grandma and I waited around to see the doctor and to go in and see Grandpa he was out of it and didn't know we were there but it was nice to get to see him and know he was ok.

So every evening after that I have taken Grandma up there after work to see him and then this past weekend I took her all day on Saturday and Sunday. My house is piling up with stuff and laundry and I miss my kids. But I have to keep going no matter how tired I am living off soda and a few hours of sleep. My mom didn't think grandma needed to go daily but I wasn't going to tell Grandma what she could and couldn't do if she wanted to see him I was going to make it happen. I had to continue to be strong not show how upset or tired I was. I understood how dangerous and and how close to dying he was had several other doctors thank me for telling him he needed to go. Had texts from friends saying my EMT class and license just paid for its self.

Hopefully he will come home in a few days he is getting stronger. Once he is healed from this he goes back to have the kidney removed they told us it was a slow growing cancer so they felt safe with waiting a couple months.