THE HOLIDAY SEASON IS OFF TO A GREAT START!

Halloween has come and gone. I did get the costumes done and everybody was happy.

Ressa, of course, destroyed her costume during trick or treating. All the beads popped off as people stepped on the skirt, the gathers became flat, and the dirt was everywhere. Of course her only memory is of being a beautiful bride for one day. She has, however, decided that she will never again be anything beautiful on Halloween. She is used to getting compliments on her "spook" factor, and that just didn't happen this year. New on the adgenda for next year: The Fairy of Death! We will see if this holds steady or not.

Foster held true to his skeleton costume. I found one that looked like an x-ray had been taken. He was extremely happy with his choice. I had joked with him that we should just buy him a speedo and outline his real bones with glow in the dark paint, but he didn't appreciate that so much.

Cyanne LOVED being Alice, and was even more excited when people knew who she was without telling them. We went to our friend's house, and Gharrett knew right away who she was. She had a gret time posing for pictures with all her guns drawn and her sword on her back.

Ammon was undecided on what to be until we went to Target to look for a costume. "Bumblebee" from Transformers popped out at him. He was posessed to be him for the night. He loved his costume so much he wore it, day and night, for 4 days. I finally wrangled it off him to wash. He really got into the Halloween spirit this year. He spent the week before and after dressing up in all the old costumes. He likes the "Storm Trooper" and "Peter Pan" ones a lot. He is a funny little man!








Thanksgiving was fun as well. The Holstes were unable to make it over this year. Instead they stayed home to pack for their upcoming move to Logan, Ut. We are so very sad to see them move so far away! It was a semi-sad holiday without them here.

The great part of the holiday was that another family we are great friends with didn't have plans. Heather mentioned to me at the gym that they weren't going to have family around either this year so we started planning on getting our families together. It was SO much fun! We split up the dinner-- both making our favorite parts, and we hosted at our house. It was fantastic! Her 4 kids are right inbetween our kids in age, and everybody gets along SO well. We had dinner, played games, rocked out on RockBand, stuffed ourselves with Heather's fantastic desserts, and laughed all night. It was really a perfect Thanksgiving!




I have news for a change. No... I'm not pregnant-- hee hee. I decided it was time for a bit of a change and started looking for a job a little over a month ago. I was getting shot down everywhere- even WalMart and Target. Really it was probably for the best. On a whim I decided to try calling all the local health clubs to see what I had to do to be an aqua aerobics instructor... afterall my background is in the water industry. Turns out it wasn't that hard.

As soon as the LA Fitness regional manager contacted me I had an interview and audition set up. I took 3 days to prep by going to a couple diffrent instructor's classes and came across an amazing instructor, Carol. She was a HUGE help and looked over my routine and told me what she would tweak. Then on the day of my audition she and a friend of hers played the part of my students. They made it so much easier! I was envisioning having to pretend to teach to a bunch of gohsts. I was hired the same day, despite nearly falling in the pool while demonstrating, and have been working for 3 weeks now. I get some heckling from some of the older people, but for the most part all my feedback has been positive. I finally me my regional manager face-to-face, and she said she had been hearing good things about my class. That was very welcome news. The best part is that I get free day care for Ammon through the gym day care! He loves to go there, and the girls that work in there are fantastic with him. It is just the distraction I've been looking for!

Nate is happy to be working closer to home. He seems to be enjoying Temecula Valley Toyota. The family that owns the store is amazing! The daughter works with Cyanne on her soccer and is a truly special person. She is all about sharing her wealth of knowledge and experience to help kids. She was a starter for San Diego State, so she has lots of experience. Cyanne just adores her too.

On the soccer front our recreation season is over. FINALLY! It was a long and tedious season due to some team issues, but in the end we finally won one game. I think that the parents were more excited than the girls. Right when I got excited about the season ending Cyanne was invited to practice with the younger club team. She knows most of the girls from school and just couldn't pass up the opportunity to keep her skills up. Coach Victor says there should be a club team for her to play on in the next 6 months. I'm hoping he is right as Cyanne is so addicted to it.

Well, other than that nothing huge has happened. I'm hoping that the year finishes off well, and that the start to the new year is good.

Happy Holidays to you all... incase I forget later!

WHAT ARE YOUR BLOG ADDRESSES?

I'm disappointed to tell all my friends:

I have lost all your blog addresses. First our laptop crashed-- we have yet to fix it. Then my dumb phone crashed with all my contacts being wiped clean. Therefore, I have lost track of all my friends I like to peek in on. I remembered Kristin's just because the name is so her, but if any of you would leave your addresses either under the comment section or email it to me I would be grateful. We really miss everybody!

Tara

TARA vs. POLE

Today I decided to run to Ralphs really quick to get bread. Normal enough, right?

Anyway, we went in, talked to a fireman (Walter), picked up two loaves of bread, picked up a dressing for tonight, paid, got in the car and hit a light pole. Normal day.

I was driving and talking to the kids at the same time. Apparently I am incapable of doing two things at once today. I started to turn left and hit a bump followed by the lightpole.



The tire popped and we had to call Nate whom was at home waiting for lunch. He was so happy... He came and took pictures (no doubt to tease me since up until now he has been the only one to wreck cars in a stupid way); we called insurance, the tow company and body company that the dealership uses. The tow company used the wrench to pull the bumper out of the tire and wheel well and put the spare tire on. We then drove it to the body shop and am currently awaiting the insurance company to look at it.


What a great day!! Everybody do me a HUGE favor and stay away from all those rouge lightpoles... especially at the grocery store!!

APPLES AND APRONS

As some of you may know I make baby items and aprons on a custom order basis. Thank you to everybody that has placed orders with me!

About a year ago I thought about setting up my own website. This site would be devoted to fun and showing off some of my projects. Due to all the drama in the last year that has been put on hold. I decided a couple weeks ago to start a blog instead. Kind of a trial run to see if people are interested. So far there seems to be some interest.

As you all know I have LOTS of random information and off the wall ways to do things. I mean, lets face it: I don't tend to do anything the easy/normal way. In the end I thought it would be fun to have a site as a form of distraction for all of us that are "just moms" (not to exclude the stay at home dads we know).

Feel free to stop by and see what I have going on. Please keep in mind it is meant to be a fun site, and I hope you all will enjoy it! And remember I am on a learning curve. Technology is not my friend!

www.applesandaprons.blogspot.com

GOAL: pain free...

I went into the hospital Thursday the 17th to have my stones dealt with. Dr. Brusky removed and/or blasted 7 stones! More than we had thought. That night I was in a lot of pain so stayed at the hospital over night. I managed to go home feeling fine that Friday.

Saturday came along and I had to start taking my pain pills in the morning. By the time Nate came home I was taking my maximum dose every 4 hours and was still curled up on the couch. Crying! You all know that never happens. Nate brought me right back up to the hospital... am still in a room with today's goal: pain free!




It turns out that my kidney as well as the ureter tube are so swollen that there is a blockage occurring. Very painful. Today we have stayed on top of IV medications and am doing better, but am also very loopy! Tonight I am having a stint placed on that side to relieve the pressure and the pain. Then in a few days can have that removed as well.

Will keep updating on my medical circus!

UPDATE

Hey all! I am feeling perfectly normal now. Just in time to have my kidney stones operated on! I go in on Thursday to have them blown up. Should be a quick recovery... they said the weekend. We will see though. Hopefully no more complications will happen!

recovery

My recovery is going well. The doctor removed my catheter last wednesday... couldn't be happier about that. I have been cleared to be up for roughly 5 minutes every hour. Basically long enough to use the bathroom and get some snack or drink, but then the rest of my time is spent on the couch. A reality I am not particularly fond of. I am getting bored, but am determined to follow doctor's directions so I heal properly this time around. I know, not exactly normal for me!

We couldn't be happier about the lack of pain. Afterall I can finally sleep through the night, and am not so cranky in the morning anymore. Still not a morning glory, but better.

Nate has been great about everything! He has been chasing after the kids and doing some of my chores. The kids have picked up some of the slack too so at least I don't feel like my house may burn to the ground if one more piece of paper falls near an outlet.

School is out next Thursday so we will see how things go with all the kids home and wanting to be entertained. Luckily we have fantastic neighbors who don't mind us crashing their pools. Will be a great alternative while I heal in the next couple weeks.

Thanks for all the thoughts and checking in on us!

on the couch now...

On Thursday the 22nd I finally had my hysterectomy done. I ran around crazy the week before trying to get things set up for my recovery. The day of surgery I woke up cramping a always and made my way to the hospital. Stella was brave enough to babysit the two little ones for us and our great neighbor's helped get the older ones to school. We sat in pre-op forever, but finally the anesthesiologist gave me the rlaxing drugs and they started wheeling me to theoperating room. Last ting I remember was seeing multiple exit signs where there was only one. Next thing I knew I was in post op. I had no idea I had been in surgery for nearly 5 hours!

During my surgery Dr.Lim discovered my uterus had fused with my bladder. Result of 2 c-sections. As he was trying to separte them he pierced my bladder leaving 1/2 inch inscision. He called in Dr. Brusky, a bladder specialist, to fix the damage. While there he noticed I have a 12 mm kidney stone on my left side. He thinks there are more smaller stones that he couldn't see as well. He placed a stint in that area, sewed shut my bladder and says I have to keep my catheter until June 4th. On the 4th we will deal with all my stone issues.

I came home on the 23rd. Nate has been great about having to do everything. Ammon caught a cold so he has been high maitenance. Such is life though. There have been a few visitors, church people have been bringing great food, and I feel better already than I have in roughly a year! I have to stay on the couch for another week, but after that can start being semi-helpful. Won't be back to normal for another 6-8 weeks after that though.

Howdy Ya'll

Last weekend I was lucky enough to go to Houston to see Kristin and her family. Seems like forever since I have seen her, and has been well over a year since seeing her kids!

Ammon and I boarded our plane just before 6am our time. Ammon had a great flight there... sleeping until the last 20 minutes. We packed light and met up with Kristin and Jr. at the baggage claim and then we were off to start our adventure!

We went to Old Town Spring first thing. It is a quaint little part of town with boutiques everywhere. Fantastic shops with a very "down home" quality. While there I realized they fry everything! Even candy is not safe! We had a nice lunch with plenty of entertainment supplied by the boys. Then it was off to pick up Derek and Shayla and time to set up sleeping arrangements.

Kristin's kids are a kick! They are full of energy, and so good with the babies. Great little swimmers too!

Derek is quite the baseball player! I was lucky enough to sit in on one of his play off games. He was a great 3rd baseman, but when the end of the game came he was the close out pitcher. I hope I got that right. His team did win though! He has skills with the light saber too! The babies followed his lead and played star wars with him.

Shayla was kind enough to let Ammon and I sleep in her princess domain! She and Ressa would be two peas in a pod. The both love baby dolls and pink! Mondays she has gymnastics. I was happy to go to her practice. She is a natural!

Jr. and Ammon spent the vacation squawking at each other. They enjoyed throwing balls up and down the stairs, chasing each other, and invading all the kitchen cabinets. Quick friends!

We enjoyed the swimming and relaxing! Also enjoyed the fantastic food! We paid a visit to my favorite ever mexican food LUPE'S (too bad it is only in Texas), had great Texas BBQ at the Rib Tickler, and of course Kristin is a great cook. Nothing like her homemade jam and bread... YUMMY! It was a fantastic vacation, and although we just left, we miss them all!

When I am old I will drive a sports car...

At least we always joke that when we are old we will drive sports cars. Well, the night before my birthday Nate came in with a key and threw it at me. I looked outside and saw he had rented me a red mustang convertible... his way of hinting that I am old now. Of course I want a lime green one, but red will due for now!






We spent my birthday driving up and down the coast. We went out to the apple store in Costa Mesa via PCH.


On the way back we stopped at Huntington Beach to have lunch out at Ruby's diner (on the pier). Lucky for us there were 20-30 dolphins jumping around playing tag in the water. They were about 40 yards out. Ammon and Ressa enjoyed them so much they almost didn't want to go in and eat. Another plus was the large surf we have been getting. We always have fun watching the surfers.







Then it was back to Long Beach and off to the spa. After my hour at the spa we had a few friends over for dinner, cheesecake, and a quick round of "Scene It". It was a fantastic way to end an incredibly fun day! Really it was the best birthday!