This Week Was Great Because It Didn't Suck

It's funny how the human brain works.  I am often surprised at how many of my opinions are based completely on comparison.

Eating, for example.  I'm typically not super grateful for the fact that I get hungry before meals.  In fact, it's usually pretty annoying.  But the day after I get over the stomach flu?!  Man, that hunger is the best feeling in the world!  I feel like I'd never appreciate it if it weren't for those nasty days I'd spent nursing my stomach.

It makes me wonder if maybe the horrible days come so we can love the ordinary ones.

The day after we got home from Washington I was suddenly so much pain we rushed to the ER.  I'm talking curl-up-in-a-ball-vomit-from-pain-honestly-wish-I'd-just-die-already-so-it-would-stop kind of hurting.  And if you think they fixed me up right then and there, you're wrong.  Because it lasted almost 2 entire weeks. I used to hear about stuff like this happening and in the back of my mind I figured there had to be something that made it bearable   That the human body would adapt or something so that the person could deal with the pain.  Nope.  It was just horrible.  Every single second of those two weeks was completely horrible.

After lots of Doc appointments, thousands of dollars worth of tests (hooray for good medical insurance!) and even a surgery appointment (that we luckily got to cancel) it ended up being cured by a couple good rounds of antibiotics.

And now all I can think is,  I LOVE ANTIBIOTICS!!!! In fact, I've spent the last few days loving everything about my life.  I can do the dishes?!  GREAT!!  Homework?  Fantastic! Remember that chronic illness I have that keeps me in bed 70% of the day?  NO PROBLEM!  

The fact is, life is pretty incredible simply because it's not horrible!

I guess, in the end, I'm kind of glad for those two weeks.  They helped me remember that Ordinary Life is a pretty good place to be.

Christmas

Well, it's official.  I've finally had a Christmas Morning around kids!  (took me long enough!)  Doug and I were able to go up to my sister's house in Washington for Christmas and it was so fun!  We played tourist and found a park the best view of Seattle, right next to what was seriously the best ice cream shop I've ever been to (Molly Moon's).  We got to get all excited with the kiddos waiting for Christmas morning and even got a white Christmas in a state where we were promised nothing but gray skies and rain.  It was perfect.  I'm afraid next year's Christmas will have a lot to live up to!  

Thanksgiving (just a few months late...)

Remember how in college finals come right during the holidays?  In art classes, we almost always begin our last, big project right when we come back from Thanksgiving break and have to work like crazy to get it finished by Christmas time.  I knew that, of course, from my last round with college art classes... but it's amazing what time does when it comes to smooth over the rough edges of our memories :).  With all the holiday craziness I am only now thinking about posting about our Thanksgiving fun!  

Our Thanksgiving was full of deep fried turkey (you know it has to be delicious if the recipe required various jugs of fat!), an evening of games played squished in a small bedroom (Doug's parents are redoing their living area so their temporary living room is a bedroom in the back of the house- I think we measured it at about 11'x13'... but it's been too long for me to remember.  Whatever the case, it was a funny squeeze to get 5 adults in there!) and even a short trip up to Idaho for the Willis family Christmas party.  The perfect way to kick off the holiday season if you ask me!