Finally, the end of 2011 - My reflections

Hi guys,

Well here it is, the last Friday of 2011.  Where did the time go?  For some reason, this year went by really fast and not that I'm complaining or anything, it just went by fast.   The other night, when I couldn't sleep again, I was thinking about what went on during 2011 and I'm amazed at how much stuff went on.  For example:


January - We got a crap load of snow.  Not weird by Wisconsin standards, but none the less, we got snow.


Feb - I had to enroll Nichole ONE LAST TIME FOR HER SENIOR YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL. sigh..where did that time go??


March - Nathan turned 14 and Sam turned 11.  Again, where did those cute babies I brought home from the hospital go??  They are growing up so damn fast.  And yes Nathan towers over me now and Sam is not that far behind him... 


April, May and June - Can't remember much of those months.  I"m almost certain that things happened, but cannot remember for the life of me..


July - Renewed Nichole's temporary driving permit ONE LAST TIME!!   Found an old friend and became friends again after about 20 years of not seeing each other.  Best part of the year in my book!!! 


August - Paid for those High School fees for Nichole one last time and had her Senior Pictures taken. 


September - coming to grips and the reality that my marriage is over and starting the paperwork process to officially end it.   Nichole gets her driver's license on the first try (barely..haa haa)


October - Nichole turns 18!!!  I filed paperwork with the court system to end my marriage. 


November - Not much happening here.. 


December - No one in the house wants to celebrate Christmas due to all the personal issues going on. So we don't. No biggie in my book.  There will always be next year.


I do hope that 2012 brings better news for me and my kids.  I'll let you guys in on the journey as we take it. For those of you who still read this blog, I thank you so much.  It means a lot to me. 


Wishing you all a great start to the New Year.
Kelly

Things that I'm grateful for..

Sunday (June 12, 2011) was an interesting day.  It started out like any other Sunday, for instance:
 I wake up before everyone else.
 Have a cup of coffee
 The boys roll out of bed, looking for food/drink
 The daughter finally rolls out of bed around 10 a.m.(texting her friends until god knows when)
 Finally the hubs gets out of bed and gets ready to go to work.  He had to "catch up"  on work.
 Hubs reminds me that the front yard needs mowing and to remind middle kid to mow it.

Seems simple enough, right??

Well......Nathan (said middle kid) mows the front yard and puts the lawn mower away. No biggie.
Comes in the house and he looks pale, breathing incredibly hard and almost passes out. He also asked me to take him to Urgent Care.  Well, I thought differently. There was NO way I was going to get him to Urgent Care before he passes out, SO I call 911 (have you ever done that?? I never did.  It's scary to say the least.) and tell them that Nathan is in the middle of an asthma attack. Then, off in the distance, I hear sirens.  

The fire truck, police car and an ambulance came to the house.  Neighbors I haven't seen ALL winter long come out of the woodwork.  They start to treat Nathan, give him a breathing treatment, load him on the ambulance and off he went to the hospital.  I had Nichole call the hubs at work to get him home, get dressed in record time and zoom to the hospital.  

I check in with the Emergency Room receptionist and get Nathan all set up in their computers (because you know this isn't going to be cheap by any means) and FINALLY go back and see my kid.  He looked much better, he was breathing better but he had the jitters from the medication given during the breathing treatment in the ambulance. After about 4 hours in the ER, we were finally given the OK to go home.  He's doing fine now, he needs to been by our family doctor this week and we realize how grateful we are for the help of the North Shore EMT's, St. Mary's Hospital in Mequon. This whole experience could have been SO much worse and I'm grateful it's not.

Kelly

Weird turn of events..

So, a lot has been happening with me lately.  For instance:

- I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Had an allergic reaction to the RA medication first Rheumy doc put me on
- Did the huge "big peel" AGAIN
- Decided that I needed a 2nd opinion regarding the RA diagnosis
- Had oral thrush 4 times
- countless steroid shots and pills
- A bunch of labs and X-rays
- Gained a BUNCH of weight - that needs to come off  NOW!
- My hair started to fall out

So, with that being said.  I made the appointment for the 2nd opinion with a new Rheumy doctor at Froedert Hospital.  I'm so glad I did.  She said that I didn't have RA but I was hyper-sensitive because of what my skin was doing. Recommended seeing the "super-duper" Dermatologist there and once I'm off the steroids, if I have swelling, pain in the joints, etc. I'm to make an appointment with the new Rheumy and she will re-examine me at that time.  But she truly thinks that all the swelling and pain I've been in is due to my skin. Lovely....

Did I mention that Prednisone is a EVIL drug? While it's a good drug, it's EVIL!!  I totally gained a ton of weight with this stupid drug and now I have to get the weight off.  I feel out of sorts with my weight the way it is.  Now that I'm totally off the steroids, I feel better, I'm not eating every 2-3 hours, and not waking up every 2 hours all night long.  What a relief!!  I was getting so frickin' sick of this.  

We ( my family) have been through way too much since November 2010 and I'm so glad to see it slowly come to an end.  Things are starting to get back to normal (whatever that is) and I'm able to function again like a REAL human being.  What a concept!!

I've also noticed that while I'm getting better, Spring has sprung. My tulips are coming up and blooming, the grass is getting green, kids are playing outside, and the sun is out longer at night.  

See there is a bright side to things.  I wouldn't have believed you several months ago, but I do now!

Hugs
Kelly

I am...

I've been doing a lot of self-reflecting lately (I think it's good to do that from time to time.) and I've come to the conclusion that I am a lot of things to a lot of different people. So with that being said, here is my list:

I am:

- a daughter

- a best friend

- a sister

- a wife

- a mom (which I thought I would never be)

- an aunt

- an advid reader (thanks to my husband)

- a lover of photography

- a blogger

- a mom to a chronically ill child

- an internet-crazy person (lol)

- chronically ill myself

- an obessessed fan of crime and mysteries on TV

- a coffee person (love it love it love it)

- a cat person ( not a crazy cat lady as my husband would call me ;) )

I'm sure there is more, but I cannot remember the entire list as I was drifting off to sleep when I came up with the list.