Book Club Update

OK!
I think that we should meet Friday, January 30, for some yummy treats.
Bring a list of great books, and we'll pick some to read. Maybe we could meet every other month or once a month, so think about that!!! My friend, Rebecca, an avid reader and experienced book club member, is going to help me get January's meeting up and going. Even if you can't make it, please feel included, after all, one of my goals for 2009 is building friendships. I can't wait to get started.

Sick, Tired and a few Hopes!

I am sick!!!!
I am usually a pretty healthy girl, but last Thursday I started feeling kind of puny. My throat was kind of achy, my nose was kind of snotty, and my head needed to be removed. It has gradually gotten worse. Yesterday we went on a field trip to hear the Midland & Odessa symphony. It was great, but standing outside in the cold for thirty minutes waiting for our bus in a sea of bus chaos was not. I had zero voice by my second class and felt horrible. I came home as soon as school was out and tried to rest. This is not easy for me. I am not a good napper. I always feel like I need to maintain my supervisory role in the household. I did not sleep well. About four this morning I decided that I was not going to school. That in and of itself is painful. Preparing for a substitute when you feel well is a chore, imagine when you feel badly. I got it done, and John got up and helped me. He took my stuff to school for me, and my teacher team helped with the rest. As usual, I do not have a substitute, a tradition in Midland. So I am sure that is going great, but I will try not to worry about it. Am I going to go to the doctor? NO!! Because if I do then I will sit in the waiting room for three hours, wait for medicines at the pharmacy for a couple more, and by then it will be time to go back to school to infect all the others. My day of rest that I prepared so long for at four this morning will have been a total waste. I choose to rest in my home. Hopefully, it will work. I do have to say that as the supervisor of my household, the other members of my home are required to go to the doctor. This rule does not apply to me.

On another note, the week after Thanksgiving John spent some time in his doctor's office, the emergency room, and an overnight stay in the hospital. That Tuesday night he started vomiting violently, if I do say so myself. Just some background info. John has juvenile diabetes, Addison's disease, low thyroid, anemia, and a few other items. So if he gets sick at all, we need to be concerned. I called in to his doctor and got him in as soon as they opened Wednesday morning. They know to make room for him. I went on to school because remember preparing and getting a sub is torture. The doctor's office called the school and needed me immediately. So I left my kiddos in the hands of about five helpful adults. John's blood pressure was 58/40. The nurses thought that the blood pressure monitor was broken b/c they had never seen one so low. John was very dehydrated. When you get dehydrated your blood pressure drops. When you have Addison's disease your blood pressure is low anyway, so together this equals "not good." They kept him several hours on iv fluids until his blood pressure returned to normal. They checked for several other things while we were there, I'll spare you the details, but decided it was probably the infamous stomach bug that had been going around. Then they sent us home, and we were to check his blood pressure every 15 minutes. John rested at home, while I checked his blood pressure every 15 minutes. There is not alot of time between to get much done, by the way. Anyway, about the time some nice people brought Noble home from school, John's pressure was dropping fast. I called the doctor's office, and they said that if it dropped below 90 to take him immediately to the emergency room. It did, so all three of us went to the ER. Our home teachers came and gave John a blessing (thank you), and I began preparing for a substitute, Ugh!

He is doing much better, but it did take eight iv bags to allow his body to maintain its blood pressure. It also took several steroids to make up for what the adrenal glands don't produce (Addison's disease) and a couple of days of rest. I have also been given direct instructions as the supervisor of my home that John is to be taken immediately to the ER if he is vomiting. His body is just not able to maintain itself in an adrenal crisis. We are once again lucky to still have him. His patriarchal blessing does promise that "he has been blessed with a strong physical body, one capable of carrying the burdens that are placed thereon." Which continues to be a faith builder for me because there are many burdens for him to endure. I often marvel at him because I do not think that I would be able to bear them. Apparently, even though Addison's disease is rare, it is as equal in importance in receiving medical care as walking into the ER with chest pains. I have been instructed to demand that he be seen immediately, even becoming a nuisance. After all "the squeaky well gets the grease," and I am not this type of personality, but I will do it for "Juan in a million."

So Christmas - - - - - - it's almost here, and I need to have some Christmas spirit. This has become a hard time of year for me, and I really want to overcome that. We have been struggling through three years of John working two jobs, and I think that is part of it. I have experienced the loss of three pregnancies at this time of year, and I know that that is part of it. I have spent alot of time feeling sorry for myself because I have to work, that I don't have the number of children that I have hoped for, and that I don't get to spend several days a week with friends or family. So as I reflect on years gone by, I really want 2009 to be a great year. I know that there will be struggles because there always are!! I hope to take Noble on some sort of real family vacation. I hope to be able to appreciate more that I have Noble and to give him the attention that he deserves. I hope that John can quit working his second job. I hope that I will like to go to the grocery store and cook for my family. We'll see about that one! I hope to continue my excitement about our new home. I hope to build better friendships because I know that they are vital to the enjoyment that I seek out of life. I hope to make some time for myself. I hope to go on regular dates with my husband for the first time in a lot of years. I hope to do a better job in my church callings, visiting teaching, testimony sharing, and temple attendance. I especially hope for good fortune and health for my family and friends. I hope that this is the year that all of us have dreams come true.

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a fun family Thanksgiving this year at our new home in Midland. Noble wanted us to make friendship bracelets, so we did. Noble and Jake had a blast riding bikes, shooting each other with Nerf guns, tickling and wrestling, and eatting cookies. Jake tried out Guitar Hero. He also sported his Spiderman costume with his new friend, "Scarecrow." We played cards. We went to see Twilight. We ate lots of yummy food, and everybody prepared their own specialties. The guys helped work on my studio. We took our traditional family Thanksgiving pictures. We even did a little shopping. My mom and sisters helped me get a little more home decorating done. It was a lot of fun, and I hope to host again next year.

1st Annual Christmas Village Lighting Ceremony

I have been waiting a long time for a house!! Not just a home for my family, but also a home for my collection of "little homes." Since we bought our home in February, we have been hoping for shelves to be able to display the Christmas village. Thanks to an early Christmas present, I invite you all to the first annual Christmas village lighting ceremony. I have been collecting Department 56 Snow Village pieces since 1995. My first piece was the Mt. Olivet Church. I really like them, and it has been fun to receive pieces in honor of special memories. Each one has been labeled on the bottom, so that I can remember when and why I received that piece. Over the last several years it has become a chore for me to put up each year. I have become sort of a scrooge, but this year was different. John and Noble helped me, and we had a lot of fun this afternoon assembling the "village." We drank hot chocolate and listened to Christmas carols. I shared with Noble the stories behind each piece, and he had fun accessorizing each home. John wired the backs of the shelves, and it made it super easy to get everything plugged in and lit up. For the first time in alot of Christmases, I felt my old Christmas spirit begin to return. Here's hoping I can drive the Christmas scrooge out of my life forever.

Selfish Plea for Friends!

I would like to propose starting a book club or joining one. I know that some of you have been doing this, so I am either inviting myself to join yours, or I am willing to host the first one in my home. So let's see?!? How do these things work?? Do we read a book a month?? Any suggestions for the first one?? I would be willing to host the first "book club party," if that is what they are called on Friday, January 30.

This is really a selfish plea to help create better friendships for myself, so who wants to be my friend!!!

Update on "Alex"

Noble continued to have a rough day. He even refused to be part of our upcoming 6th grade PTA program. The program is about WWII, the Holocaust, and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, something that Noble is consumed with learning about. His bedroom decor is WWII. I must say I was a little taken aback and beginning to become concerned.

When we got home after scouts this evening, Noble checked the mail. He had a letter from the White House. Yes, the White House, how is that for timing!!

Several weeks ago, our current president, President George Bush, a republican, you may have heard of him, planned to visit Midland. Noble saw this as an opportunity to schedule an interview with him for his political tv show. Needless to say, Noble experienced another republican disappointment when the president did not return his emails and letters to appear on his segment of the show. You see, his political rival on the show has met President Clinton. So Noble felt like an interview with President Bush would one-up his democratic friend. Yes, "Alex" is capable of having democrats for friends. He tries at times to be non-partisan.

The envelope contained a letter from President Bush thanking Noble for inviting him to be on his school's tv show. It also contained a few photographs. I was really hoping that it would invite Noble out to Crawford sometime late January, but no such luck. It did though renew Noble's love of government, and I believe that perhaps his political depression has begun to heal.

I for one recognize the fact that this election was incredibly historic, and it speaks volumes for the progress that has been made in our country. I will allow our president-elect his opportunity to be a leader, and will reserve judgment until he has had some time to settle into the office he rightfully earned, after all, this is the United States of America - anything is possible. I hope and pray that Mr. Obama is man enough to fight for the things that he has promised. I hope that he is honest and has integrity. But I do live in America, and I have the right to expect my dreams and wishes to be possible as well. So I'll be watching and paying close attention, after all "Alex P. Keaton" lives at my house. This is in the Lord's hands, and He sees the big picture, and I really wish that I could see it because I'm a wee bit nervous. God bless you all and most especially God bless the United States of America!!!

Alex P. Keaton

I don't know if you remember the show "Family Ties" or not, and I know for a fact that Noble has never seen it. We often refer to Noble as "Alex P. Keaton." Our child is a red-blooded Republican through and through. John and I pride ourselves on being open-minded, but Noble will bleed and die Republican. He came to the Earth this way! We have not brain-washed him in any way. He educates himself, and truly believes that Republicans are simply what is best. He even spear-headed a political talk show on our school tv station, the Tiger Morning News. It airs on Thursdays and is called Daybreak Debate. You can find it at http://www.midlandisd.net/pease/site/default.asp.

Tonight has been an interesting night at our house. Tears have been shed, and answers to questions are only coming as some kind of caveman grunting sound. Our child has spent more time in the bathroom than anytime on record. He is moping around.

It was his turn to offer family prayer tonight. It was a doosy of a prayer if I may say so myself. Our country was extremely blessed tonight, from the economy to the war in Iraq. Our new president was not mentioned. I am afraid that Noble has slipped into a political depression. He thinks that there must have been some mistake, and that the electoral college should be investigated.

Now being the goodly parents that we are, we explained to "Alex" that we would support the office of President. We made him repeat President Obama a couple of times, and I thought that he might just vomit. Again we explained that the President of the United States deserves our respect, and that we would allow Mr. Obama that opportunity. We told him that if people gave him a hard time about it, to simply say that he supports the President of the United States of America.

Noble is not buying it. I believe he is in the denial stage of this depression. The most we could get out of him was a quiet, "We'll just see," as he walked slowly down the hall to his bedroom.

So whatever your political views, just know that there is at least one 11-year-old that hopes very much to restore the presidency to the Republicans. He'll be eligible to run in the year 2032, so let the campaigning begin. Vote Noble for President!!