New Year

Well, 2011 is here and it's been a VERY long time since I wrote in my blog. It's not like anyone even reads this, but I thought "Why not?"

When I reflect on the years past I wish I had written in my blog so I could remember some of the things that have happened. Let's face it, I'm not getting any younger and my memory isn't as good as it used to be.

Michael is back at Permian Power Tong. He went back in February last year after working for Halliburton for about a year and a half. The work had gotten so slow that they were wanting to transfer him to Gillette, WY for a year without me and the kids. I really didn't know how I was going to handle that, but I knew that whatever he had to do for us was best. That very day we got the best call we could have ever wanted. His boss at Permian wanted him back, so he quit his job at Halliburton and went back to Permian. I didn't realize just how unhappy he was for that year and a half he was at Halliburton until he quit that job. The old Michael started to come back, and boy was it nice to have him back!

Sean is now in the 5th grade and struggling with math. I don't know what is going on with him this year whether it be too many distractions with friends or just not paying attention. I know he is very capable of doing the work and doing it well, he's just not putting forth the effort. We have promised him that if he gets straight A's by the end of the year he will get his very own XBox to put in his room. We shall see if he reaches that goal.

Lauren is now in Kindergarten and loving it. I tried to get her to go to the same school as Sean, but all of the schools had high numbers of students enrolled so I was not able to get her on at Ladera. But she goes to a great school and I totally love her teacher. She's already learning how to read and we are very proud of her. Her medical issues are getting better. We saw the specialist in November and her reflux is almost completely gone, however she still has issues with the bladder. She continues the nightly medication and only time will tell if she will completely outgrow the problem.

I have started taking a medical transcription course online. At first I loved it! I couldn't wait to sit down at the computer and learn all the medical terminology and learn about the body. Now that I'm into the actual transcription part I'm not liking it so much. I think it's because they throw so much at you at once and it is very hard to understand what the doctors are saying. Some doctors just talk so fast that I have to keep backing up and slowing it down. Others do not speak English very well and it's so hard to understand what they are saying. I think once I finally finish this course and get hired somewhere it will be much easier because I will get used to the way my clients dictate. For now, I just have to push through it and get it done.

That's about it for now. I sure hope I can keep up with my blog. I may not get any readers, but at least I will have this and I can look back on everything.

Updates

I thought I would drop in and update my blog as to what has been going on in my life.

As I was cooking dinner the other night, Lauren came running into the house screaming her head off. I could tell that she was hurt by the way she was acting. She had been jumping on the trampoline and got stung 2 times on her foot by a wasp/hornet. I didn't see any stingers so I just put some ice on it and gave her some benadryl. 3 days later we were at the doctors office with a very swollen, hot foot. Doc said there was nothing they could do and just to continue with the benadryl, ice and other treatments I had been trying.

My mom called me last Monday and asked what we were doing this week and when I told her that I had no plans except for a doctor's appointment on Thursday she told me that she and my grandma were going to be here that night. I immediately went into a cleaning frenzy and got my house spotless! We had a good time playing Joker, doing puzzles and visiting.

Lauren had an appointment with the kidney specialist on Thursday. We didn't see our regular doctor as she was on vacation, but the doctor we did see gave us some more information and told us what we should be doing to correct her reflux problem. She's still on the daily medication and she will have another VCUG in a couple of months. Just waiting on her pediatrician to call us with a scheduled time.

Sean is constantly busy playing video games, riding his bike and playing with neighborhood friends. There are some kids that come visit Grandma and Grandpa every summer and Sean made friends with them last summer. They were here for 2 weeks and Sean loved every minute of it. Unfortunately, they have gone back to Denver and won't be back until next summer. Vacation bible school is starting this week and hopefully he will want to attend.

Michael is busy at work....thank goodness. They have finally lifted the ban on overtime and now the good money can start rolling in again. It stinks that he has to be gone so much, but it's the best for our family. At least he gets paid to sleep! :o)

In the meantime, I'm here holding down the fort. Keeping up with laundry, cooking, cleaning, bath time, medicine schedules and bedtime. I've taken a break from my Mary Kay business. I just can't do what needs to be done with the kids at home. I can't take them with me to facials or skin care classes and I know that's what is holding me back on being a successful consultant. I am still taking orders and keeping my customers happy and stocked with product, but I'm not attending weekly meetings or doing any classes. I think this makes my husband happy, as he's not a big supporter. When Lauren starts preschool this year, I will have more time to do what needs to be done and I will be able to show Michael that this can be a successful business when it's worked the right way.

So, that's about it for my updates. Off to do more laundry and cook dinner......

Vacation

Okay, so I know I suck at blogging but wanted to stop in and write about my summer so far.

Vacation was AWESOME! And when I say awesome, that's an understatement. I haven't had that much fun in a really long time.

We started out by taking the kids to mom's house, which is a 400 mile trip in itself. The kids were very well behaved in the truck and even got to ride on Daddy's motorcycle going down the highway. I have to admit, that was a little scary for Mommy, but they had a blast.


The next morning, we all piled into my brother in law's vehicle and hit the road for Arlington. The first part of the trip was semi-boring....driving through southeast New Mexico and west Texas...not a whole lot to look at or talk about. We stopped in Big Spring to eat at Whataburger (one of our favorite fast food joints) and then we were back on the road. Michael, my sister in law and I decided that we needed to liven up the drive. We broke out the booze I had stashed in my suitcase! By the time we got to the hotel in Arlington (4 hours later), we were pretty much hammered. LOL I know, not something to be real proud of. But how often do I get to get out without the kids and have absolutely no responsibility? Not very often!

The concert the next night was AMAZING! The new Dallas Cowboy stadium is REALLY amazing. I couldn't believe how big it was inside. Jullian Hough was suppose to perform first, but she was sick so they called in Lee Ann Womack! We missed the first two songs of her set because we were having a hard time finding our seats. Blake Shelton was next. He came out with a beer in his hand and was having a good time! He even sang "Free Credit Report dot Com" It was pretty funny. Reba came out next and sang for about an hour. She's an amazing singer and I was in awe that I was in the same room as her. For her encore she came out in a red dress and sang "Fancy". Then the King of Country Music came out.....George Strait! OMG! There are no words to describe how excited I was to see him in person. We left after what we thought was his final song, but soon realized that he had come out for his encore. We were outside the stadium and could see the lights and hear the roar of the crowd coming out of the roof. So cool!

Sunday, we drove back to Artesia and were greeted with big hugs and smiles from the kids. They had a good time with Gramma and Papa. We celebrated my grandma's 90th birthday party on Tuesday. That woman absolutely amazes me. She still drives herself everywhere, does her own grocery shopping and even drives out of town once a week to play cards with her friends. I hope that when I'm 90 I can do the same things she does.

Wednesday we took the kids to Carlsbad Caverns. I hadn't been there in several years, but was still impressed with the sheer size of the cave. It was a mile walk down into the cavern and then another mile walk around the Big Room. By the time we were done, the kids were exhausted and Lauren was asleep before we even left the parking lot.

Thursday was another travel day. Again, the kids got to ride on the back of the motorcycle and were well behaved in the truck with me.

Friday and Saturday we spend the majority of our time at the Harley Davidson shop. They were having a "Support the Troops" rally. It was a lot of fun and I even got to go for a ride to Durango and back on the motorcycle. Michael's ticket was drawn and he won a huge painting! He's won something everytime we've done a rally. Lucky Dog!

Now that vacation is over I've been spending my time getting caught up on laundry, cleaning and cooking. It's hard to get back into a routine even after just a week of relaxation.

So there's my summer vacation.....and it was the BEST!

First Comes Love

I haven't been to church in a while because of travel and illness, but I was excited to go tonight because our pastor has been teaching on a very important subject: The Blessed Family.

Tonight's sermon was about Divine Sex For Him. I know, strange subject for church, but it really was good!

You know how your mother always said, "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach". She was exactly right. The way to a man's heart is through his body, which is exaclty opposite of women. The way to a woman's body is through her heart. (He taught on that last week, but I missed it).

He gave us the "10 Commandments" of this subject and I thought I would post them. I found them pretty interesting.

1. Be a lady; get your hair styled, wear make-up, wear stylish clothes, exercise and eat healthy.

2. When you are in the mood, tell him. (Guys don't get subtle hints...they need to be told in plain english LOL)

3. When you could get in the mood, accept.

4. Tell him what you like. (He's not a mind reader).

5. Tell him what kind of game you are hoping for this time (he used basketball terms for this one)

"First basket wins" - quickie
"One on one to 20" - quickier
"A regular game" - normal night
"A tournament" - kids gone to Grandmas for the weekend, hotel in Vegas, etc.

6. Gift wrap yourself. (It's like Christmas or a birthday for him).

7. Actively participate.

8. Give directions.

9. Learn to master the skill of sexual love.

10. Don't blackmail your husband sexually.

I thought these were all very good. I thought it would be very embarassing to listen to a pastor speak about sex, but after hearing him, it wasn't embarassing at all. He made some very good points and made me understand my husband just a little bit better. I now know why it's hard for him to tell me I look pretty or that I'm doing a good job with the house, kids, etc. He said that it makes him wonder if she will reject him, love him less or not care about the things he says to her. He knows that she needs to hear these things, but it makes him feel emotionally "naked". It's hard to put his words down and make it easy to understand.

Michael has a hard time saying those things to me, but deep down I know how he feels about me. When we are apart for a long time, he will tell me how much he loves me or how pretty I am to him and it makes me feel so good. I wish he would tell me that stuff more often, but now I understand how it makes a man feel to do that.

Happy Birthday, Michael

I thought this image was fitting for Michael being he is so addicted to Guitar Hero. Last night we got him Guitar Hero Metallica for his birthday. It's a pretty good game, but they could have picked better music for the other artists that are on there. And some of those Metallica songs are pretty hard to play....even on medium.

He stayed up all night playing. I have no idea what time he even came to bed. When I went to bed at 11, he was still going strong trying to conquer the game. LOL

We don't have any plans for today, but since he is off I'm sure it will be another full day of Guitar Hero.

ROCK ON!

Nothing I Can Do

What a stressful week it's been, and it's only Wednesday.

Friday, my mom went in to have her drain tube removed from her mastectomy. She was so relived to have it out, only to develop a fever on Saturday and the breast started swelling.

Monday, my dad went into the hospital to have a "procedure" to remove a gallstone that had escaped during his surgery back in July. After he got out of surgery, my sister drove my mom over to the ER to have her breast checked because it was still swollen and she was still running a fever. The doctors wanted to admit her, but there were no beds and she was told to come back in the morning.

Tuesday, my sister drove my mom back to the hospital and they made her sit in an exam room for over 2 hours! I think she finally said "To hell with this" and left. She had an appointment with her plastic surgeon that afternoon. She was finally admitted into the hospital last night and put on IV antibiotics.

This morning, my dad was taken back into surgery to have a pollyp removed from his stomach. I got word this afternoon that he was out of surgery, but they were not able to remove the entire lesion and may have to do more surgery, depending on the pathology reports. Then I get word about an hour later that he's in a lot of pain and was being taken to X-Ray to see if he was bleeding somewhere. Apparently, the X-Ray didn't show anything so they wanted to do a MRI.

This whole time, my poor sister (bless her heart) is running between floors of the hospital to check on both of my parents.

I tried to call my mom several times today with no answer. I finally caught her online and asked why she wasn't answering her phone and she told me that it's not a good time and tempers were flaring.

She finally called me to tell me what was going on. She and my sister are so upset with the hospital staff. The nurse was too busy to come check on my mom when her IV was burning her arm, and they messed up by turning her IV off when she's suppose to be getting antibiotics all the time. They left my dad laying there in pain waiting to take him in for the MRI.

All this time, I was so relieved that they were at this hospital because I've heard my parents rave about the doctors. Little did I know, it was the clinic doctors and not the hospital nurses that they liked so much.

So, here I sit....1000 miles away and can't do a thing to help my sister or my parents. I cannot drive that far by myself, I cannot leave the kids with my husband because of his work schedule, and I cannot afford a plane ticket to fly there. Besides, my sister would have to drive an hour away to pick me up from the airport. She's got too much on her plate right now anyway.

I'm ready for all this to be over and for my parents to pack up their motorhome and head back home. Who knows how long that's going to take!!!

My Mom

In 2005, my mom found a lump in one of her breasts. I remember the day she got the biopsy results as if it were yesterday.

It was December 28, 2005 (incidently, the same day I burned my hand in 2002) and my parents had just arrived at my house to spend a late Christmas with us. The kids were so excited to see Gramma and Papa pull up in front of our house knowing that they brought presents with them.

We had just sat down and the kids were ripping open presents when Mom's phone rang. We all knew the phone call was coming, but we weren't really prepared for the news that the lump was malignant. My mom, being the rock that she is, handled the news very well. I, on the other hand, did not handle it well at all. It all hit me that night as I was laying in my bed trying to fall asleep. I kept thinking about going to visit my dad and my mom wouldn't be there. Of course, I was thinking the worst. About that time, Lauren woke up and needed to be rocked back to sleep. As I was standing at her crib laying her back down, I looked down at my mom and started crying again. She asked me what was wrong and I completely broke down. I got on the bed with my mom as she laid there and comforted me and told me everything was going to be okay.

Of course, she was right. Everything turned out to be okay. She had the lump removed and went through several weeks of chemo and radiation. She finished her last round of radiation during the week of Thanksgiving 2006.

In 2008, she went back to her doctor for a routine check up. They found another lump in the same breast. This time, the biopsy came back benign, but since she had already had cancer in that breast she was considered high risk and the lump needed to come out. My mom and her team of doctors decided it would be in her best interest to have the entire breast removed.

Yesterday, my mom was checked into Scott & White Medical center and had a mastectomy. The surgery went fine and she is back in her motorhome recovering. She will be there for at least 2 weeks until the drain tube is removed.

I tell you, that woman is a rock! Everyone around her is so worried and concerned and all she can say is "It's just a boob". LOL

I love my mom!