Whirlwind April

(Although much delayed, I wanted to document this event in my blog because it happened to me directly and I also want a log of my husband's status updates from facebook.)

April started out innocently enough.  Just 15 days to go until Spring Break.  Report cards were done; packing started for trip to Florida; camping items bought.  Then..., on Wednesday, April 6th, I woke up with a stomach ache.  I was trying to shake it off to go to a meeting, but couldn't.  I had the chills and couldn't lay down.  Tums and Maalox did not help.  Chicken soup did not help.  The kids went to school, and Ron went to work.  I laid around dozing and in pain, still thinking it was a stomach virus.  About 11am Ron called to tell me what the symptoms of an appendicitis were; I asked him to check what the symptoms were for a gall bladder attack. (I really didn't think that I had either.)  He asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital again, and I finally agreed mostly to get him off my back.  I got dressed and sat down to wait for Ron to come home.  Off we went to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital, Ron dropped me off at the door, and I walked in by myself to stand in line behind two people who walked in right before me.  I was not able to stand up and when Ron came in, I made him stand in line for me, and I sat back down.  When the registration man called me, I was able to tell him my information, and we sat down and waited to be called back.  Once we were called back, I explained to the nurse what my pains were and how they were spreading and what started out as pain under my rib cage became pain down near my pelvis and down my sides and my back.  They took blood and put in an IV which I insisted the tech put in my left arm.  (I honestly hate IVs and have only had one a few times in my life, but with the birth of my first child learned that I am very right hand dominant and do not like them in my right arm.)  Then, they came back with some pain medication and when it did not work, came back with stronger stuff.  The doctor decided that they wanted to do a CT Scan with contrast and had me drink some liquid with raspberry Crystal Light.  They wheeled me to the CT Scan and they results came back: appendicitis.
At 3:30 as they were wheeling me to pre-op, I was calling my colleague to help me out with sub plans, and Ron was calling the principal to have a sub called for me for the next two days.  By 5pm I was in surgery.  These are Ron's status updates from this day.

My poor wife was in pain this morning. At first she thought she had the stomach flu.4 hours later we found ourselves at the hospital. She had a CT scan performed and it revealed that she has appendicitis. She will be going in for surgery soon. I'll follow up post surgery.

Penny is out of surgery and all went well. She is still snoring and should be in her room soon. She will have to stay overnite and hopefully released tomorrow AM. Thanks to everyone for all of your kind thoughts and prayers. Penny will be back on FB soon enough.

True enough I was released the next day!  Went back to work on Monday, took Tuesday and Wednesday off mainly to rest and for a post-op appointment, worked Thursday, and left Friday morning for our Disney camping trip.

NaBloPoMo

Last summer when my son was taking swimming lesson, I ended up talking to one of the mothers and she mentioned NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where people commit to writing a novel in a month.  It takes place in November and for some reason, I thought of this at the end of October.  I signed up for NaNoWriMo and then thought, "I don't have time to write a novel in November, and I don't even want to write a novel!"  What I really wanted to do was keep more current on my blogs.  So, I started researching if there was some type of program out there for blog posting and found NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month).  I decided that I wanted to participate because I like to write, but have absolutely no desire to write a novel!  The goal is to write a blog post everyday for 30 days including weekends.

In addition, I have been reading 52 Things Kids Need from a Mom by Angela Thomas.  The 24th thing is "To Keep a Family Blog".  Many years back I started individual blogs for each of my children.  I have not been able to keep up with either of them and have found that many of the things that I would put on one, I would put on the other also.  I have now decided to start a new blog for our family history and memories.  I can tailor individual posts to the development and memories of each of my children, but also write to both at the same time.  Through labeling my children can find the posts that are only about them if they would like or read the post chronologically.

Welcome to my first NaBloPoMo post!

Books Read in 2010

 I have to say that I am sad that I only got to 11 books this year.  These are the actual books that I completed.  There were many more that I started and did not finish for one reason or another.  At least I can say that the majority of the books that I read were really worth my time.  I also got an e-reader to use in 2010 and read 9 out of 11 books on it.  I don't mind the e-reader except that I wish I had a electric plug to charge it rather than having to use my computer all the time.  The books with the stars are my favorites and ones that I highly recommend.
 
In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving by Leigh Anne Tuohy & Sean Tuohy With Sally Jenkins
*The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Between the Sheets by Robin Wells
Food Rules: An Eater's Manual by Michael Pollan
Sweet Devotion by Felicia Mason
*The Help by Kathryn Stockett
*Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
The Bride's Baby by Liz Fielding
Knitting Under the Influence by Claire LaZebnik
The Blind Side by Michael Lewis
*Under the Cajun Moon by Mindy Starns Clark

Shutterfly is a Gift Giver's Best Friend

As I was contemplating what type of photo card I would like to do for Christmas this year, I got the Shutterfly 2010 Holiday Cards and Gifts catalog in the mail.  In the past I have done 4x8 photo cards and used 4x6 pictures in the cards where you can insert pictures.  This year the card that caught my eye was the Top Ten Moments Christmas card.  I liked this card because it was flat.  I also liked the newsletter format of the card where I could highlight certain aspects of our year.  What really caught my attention was, in the example, the #1 moment was celebrating our 10 year anniversary, and my husband and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary also this year.  I really like how my card turned out and enjoyed thinking about our year and trying to determine what events were the best ones to add to our card.

I have used many shutterfly products in the past, but this is the first Christmas card that I have done.  I make a yearly photo book for my children that is the same on the inside, but I am able to customize the covers to match their personalities and their favorite colors.  Recently, I tried another photo site because shutterfly did not have the size photo book I wanted for that particular project.  Never again will I stray from shutterfly!  The quality was not as good as I am use to with shutterfly, and my pictures that I thought were cropped correctly when I made the book were cut off when I received the book.

I started making a calendar for my father in law many years ago and it has now become a Christmas tradition.  Thankfully, all of the relatives help out and send me their pictures to be included in the calendar.


If you need photo gifts, shutterfly is the place to go!

Christmas Card 2010

Top Ten Moments Christmas Card

Shop Shutterfly for unique, personalized Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Becoming a Runner, NOT!

Last year, when Ron's annual office 5K came around in August, I decided that we were going to participate rather than just donate to the cause. Without any preparation we got up on Saturday morning, took our double stroller and our two kids and went downtown for the walk. It was only 3.1 miles, a breeze, I thought. Well, I was wrong! It was tough, and I was not even pushing the stroller! We finished close to last and were very tired!

This year, Ron is involved with Central Ohio Men Against Prostate Cancer and as their fund raising director decided to host an inaugural 5K to raise money. I decided to run in the event, but also decided to train this year. I started a couch to 5K type program and got to the point that I was running between 2-3 minutes and walking 7-8 minutes when I developed shin splints. I didn't know that they were shin splints, but they felt like my shin was cracked. I tried to run through them, but it did not work. I just decided to give up running and continued walking three times a week.

The most noticeable difference was that this year, the 5Ks were not as difficult. In the Bull Run I walked the whole race in about 50 minutes and did not feel like I needed to rest and could go on with my day. In the Race for a Pro-State of Mind, I finished in about an hour while pulling a wagon with my daughter in it and encouraging my son to finish walking. I felt good about finishing both races and was very proud of my son for walking a 5K at seven years of age and my husband, who ran a wonderful race and finished with a personal best time for this year.