Goodbye and Good Riddance!

I am so excited for February to be over!  We're already counting down the days until 2014 over here. 

February was hard.  My lovely kidney stone infection experience triggered a POTS flair at the beginning of the month. (my heart always has a hard time keeping up with me, but when I have a big flair my resting heart rate goes to about 165 and even with that my blood pressure is so low I can't stand up without blacking out...so I have to spend the entire flaring time horizontal. This time it lasted almost 3 days. )  In the 7 years I've been sick I've only had 2 other flairs that have been close to this bad; and they only lasted a matter of hours rather than days.  Both times the stress from the flair left my body at an extremely lower energy level that took about 8 months and hundreds of hours of disciplined physical therapy to get over.  And even then I just get back to my normal sick level.  

So basically, I know what I'll be doing for the rest of 2013.  

It's just annoying. Sometimes I feel like I'm playing a game against the universe, all the time knowing that the universe will get the trump card every time.  Plus this time it happened a week after the 'you can drop your classes and get a refund' date at school.  So I'm double annoyed.  

So that's our life right now. I've been scraping by trying to accomplish something at school... or at least get to class.  We bought a freezer and filled it with easy meals.  There were still Christmas decorations out until yesterday when Doug took an afternoon off to clean the house. 

But now February is over and checking off a big chunk of time makes me feel positive   Every time I get really sick, there are always great tender mercies.  This time between my infection and my flair we had a couple of normal days when we were able to get all dressed up and celebrate my birthday. (my favorite outing every year!)  Another night when I was especially sick we cooked up our Destination Dinner and had a fun Korean evening without having to leave our CFS friendly home.  Someone in our neighborhood has been secretly shoveling our driveway all winter long.  About a week ago I saw that they made a movie out of a talk I love so much I practically have it memorized.  (the movie is at the top of this post, the text can be found here-Mountains to Climb by Henry B Eyring) 

I feel like I am constantly amazed at what the human body is capable of.  This month I am so grateful that it is complex enough to be completely frustrated and extremely satisfied all at the same time.  What would we do without a bit of joy during our sorrows!?

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!

Merry Christmas!

One day we're going to actually finish our kitchen and I'll get to post real pictures of it.  Unfortunately we're in that stage where it's livable enough that we can take a break (we spent every spare moment of October and November working on it and I am SICK of it!).  Until then, I suppose I'll have to settle for posting pictures taken in the kitchen.  It's kind of like showing off all the work we put in, right?!

So here is our update- I finally got to make some good quality Croquembouche (a cream puff tower- it's been on my 'I really want to try making this' list for years now, but there are only so many places you can bring a 2' high tower of cream puffs encrusted with spun sugar...)  AND, you might just notice that the croquembouche is NOT sitting on a pink counter top.  

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas over here :)

Christmas Update

It's Christmas card time again-  If you don't think we have your current address- let me know! Thanks!

Trivia Question:

Q: What color are our kitchen counter tops?

A: NOT PINK!!!

(We've been waiting a long time to be able to give that answer!)