Catch Up

Just a few highlights of the last few weeks. . . before I post about yesterday (ooo. . . suspense)
Post Thanksgiving sickness
The stomach bug that hit our family Thanksgiving night continued well into the next week. None of the kids were spared this fun little bug. . . some were just sick longer or worse. I felt sick for much longer than I would have liked to, but just kept going (like the Energizer Bunny). I had grand intentions to get so much done that week, but really didn't get anything done except take care of sick kids.

Too Many Visits to the Doctors
After Kambrie had been sick for more than a week, I took her to the Dr. The bug just seemed to affect her differently and she was just having a hard time shaking it. Thankfully nothing more was wrong and she was able to attend the last two days of school that week.
After receiving some snow that week and the kids being cooped up, they were more than excited to go play in the snow Friday night. However. . . . Kaden being the oldest and more skilled snowboarders thinks that his siblings can keep up with him. He made a fairly good size jump and convinced Kambrie to go over it. She really hasn't been snowboarding that much, but wanted to please her brother and flew over the jump and landed on her knee. She wouldn't walk on it all weekend. And being the good mom I am . . . I didn't rush her to the ER to spend countless hours there on a weekend. Instead I called our lovely friends who are Doctors to get their opinion. They supported my decision to wait out the weekend. On Sunday our family Dr. who goes to our church looked at it and said "wow, she really did a number on it." There was fluid in there from whacking it so hard on the ground. He told us to wrap it and continue to keep her off it. Monday morning didn't show much improvement so we finally took her in for an x-ray. Thankfully again there wasn't anything on the x-ray. So she left with a set of crutches her size with instructions to take it easy for the week. She healed up nicely and is back to normal.
Kaden continued to snowboard through the weekend. . . pushing his skills to the limit and trying new tricks. I really didn't pay much attention to what he was doing or how often he was crashing. Yes, I'm such a good mom. So on Tues. he was complaining about his left arm hurting and it was showing the typical signs of a fracture (scary that I know this). So we took him in on Wed. and the Dr. was sure that it was a buckle fracture. . . but the x-ray was negative. YEA! So he came home with a splint and instructions to take it easy. Between the two visits I probably spent about 5 hours at the Dr. office. Not really what I wanted to be doing since I was already SO far behind! Reason #2 for being WAY behind.

Birthday celebration(s)
Amidst all the craziness I turned 40! How many times can you celebrate this fun event. Well, four times to be exact. I went out with 2 dear friends the Tues. before my b-day. Phil and I went to our favorite local restaurant the Sat. before my b-day and another friend took me out for dinner the day after. (I'll post the fourth one soon). I received lots of well wishes and fun presents. Jewelry, books and yummy dinners out. The kids were cute and made me this fun little cake on Sunday morning, the day of my birthday. They are always so excited to celebrate birthdays.

This is the cake the kids made. Gum, starbursts and chocolate, topped with a candle. So cute.

Heidi and I on our way out for celebration #3. She is the master-mind behind our house remodeling projects and a great friend.
Cut your losses and move on
After being about two weeks behind where I wanted to be with getting Christmas ready. . . I had to make some decisions about what was important to get done before Christmas. Our tree didn't go up until after my b-day (Dec. 8th to be exact) and that was pretty much the only Christmas decor for a while. I usually love to decorate both living areas and both fireplaces and put up two trees. After feeling drained from the stress of it all I decided that having one tree up and the stocking hung and presents for the kids was the most important things to have done. I've also had to decide NOT to make hand-dipped chocolates and stick with easier, less time consuming treats for friends and neighbors. I just didn't want to be so stressed and crazy that I ruined the entire Christmas spirit at our house. And it's o.k. that all of the things I wanted to get done aren't. Everyone is happy. . . especially when I'm not cranky.