contest

Please Please vote for #11 lol, is an opportunity to get a picture put to painting for free.

http://x.jimanddoni.com/?p=903#comment-38843

Contest is open until Sunday March 8th 8pm mst

Arrow of Light ceremony

Oldest one officially went from Cub Scout to Boy Scout yesterday in the Aroow of Light ceremony held at the annual Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet. We wavered between happy and sad moments...the happy moments are obvious but the sad moments are because my FiL was not able to be there to watch Oldest walk across the bridge. He passed away two and a half years ago suddenly and there has been a hole in our hearts since. He was the one to help Oldest build his first pinewood derby car since dad was in Afghanistan that year. He had gone to every scouting event Oldest had from banquets to pinewood derbies even down to the Flag Ceremonies on Memorial Day, Labor Day and Veterans Day. Anything that Oldest was in he was there. He was such an awesome man that he is still missed to this day from all who knew him. Next month is the last Pinewood Derby for the oldest since this year the Cub Scouts are letting the ones who crossed over come back 1 last time and Oldest said he wants to do another memory car for Grandpa. Every year the car has something of grandpa on it, usually his family racing numbers and his name. This year we are going to put grandpa's patch from when he was a scout on the car. This is the time of year that we miss Grandpa the most, when all the scout things are happening. I know he is up there watching Oldest take this next step in his life, and rooting him on...I just wish he was still here to see it from this angle in life.
On a happier note...Oldest made Great-Grandma's day/week/month. He asked us to bring him to her house last weekend and when we got there he formally invited her to attend his Blue and Gold banquet/Arrow of Light ceremony. He told her that he wanted her to be there as he shaed the blue uniform for the tan one. She was so excited that she told any and everyone who would listen that he made sure to ask her himself in person. Nothing was gonna stop her from going. Hubby went to pick her up and he said the whole way to our place to get the rest of us she would not stop talking about it and then the whole way home she kept telling him how proud she was of Oldest and that he (hubby) better make sure and tell oldest how proud he was also. She is a true spitfire my Great-Grandmother-in-law.

Black History Month Writers Contest

Please click the link below if you are interested in the details of this contest.

http://coloronline.blogspot.com/2009/01/black-history-month-writers-contest.html

Endoscopy is over and now on to others

The endoscopy went well other than a bit of a reaction(seizures) to one of the meds I was given. They donot know which med of the three I was given caused the seizures since they were all given simultaneously via IV. I am just hoping my next procedure that I am having this wednesday does not go the same way. I did talk to the Dr and he said he would use the old method of sedation instead of the way used last wednesday. I have had the upcoming procedure many times before using the old way and have had no problems at all. I will be allowed to take my meds this week though as one of them prevents my migraines and after the seizures I was gifted with one of the worst migraines I have had in years. I so do not want that to happen again. Will update as I can on Blogger, Twitter will of course be updated more often...

Road to pain free

For a few months now I have been having some severe abdominal pain. I had gone into the ER where a CT scan showed 5 spots, 2 in intestines, 1 in right kidney, 1 in liver and 1 on left ovary. The Ovary is a normal so I was not worried and now we know kidney is cysts which will be taken care of at a later date and liver is due to the kidney. I finally got into the GI last week and he is telling me the worry spot is the one past the stomach, he needs to go in and assess the damage so an endosopy will be done on the 21st of this month or wednesday this week. It is a simple 5 minute procdure with an hour recovery. Their only worries is my asthma which has a tendency to cause me to stop breathing during any thing that I have to be put under for and the endoscopy is one of those things. I am used to it by now but I don't think nurses ever get comfortable with it. I of course always have a few worries but know that all will be well and I will have my Best Friend with me holding my hand until I go back. She has always been and will always be my biggest supporter as I am with her.

New Year's

This year is the first year we let Older one stay up to ring in the new year. I had talked to him about to see if he thought he was up for it and he jumped at the chance to stay up so late. (go figure) We had planned to junk out on snacks and play chess/checkers all night but dad had bought a new Wii game that just had to be played so we did one game of chess and I snacked while they tried to beat each other at Wii football. I did share with them when they looked away from the TV. At about 11:30 we turned on Dick Clark's rocking new years eve, lemme tell you it was very sad for me to see how much the great man had aged in just a few years. He used to be ageless then happened his stroke and the aging process began. I was happy to see that Dick was able to participate and thought he looked amazing considering, but in my mind I will always think of him as the ageless Dick Clark. Below is the only video I could find of it that wasn't too blurry/shaky.



As soon as the ball dropped we sent Oldest to bed and I sent myself to bed since I worked the next night. I woke up when the Littlest came into my room about 8am, oldest was in bed until 11am and hubby woke at about 12pm then napped when I did. All in all I think new years went well and the 1st was a great resting day.

Christmas

I am a very big fan of all Holidays but I think Christmas is one of my favorites. Even though we live within 40 minutes of everyone we usually only see them at the holidays. Sad, I know but we all have kids who have different activities to be driven too and usually all in the oppposite direction. This year we went to Janets house for Christmas eve and I think this was the first year all my hubby's Cousins were together, there are usually 2-3 missing. After that the boys and I went to my dad's house to exchange gifts and back to our house to open the family gifts, then youngest went to bed to wait for Santa to come and Oldest and I went to the candle light service at church. It was a beautiful service but ran long this year, we did not get home until midnight, needless to say the kids slept in Christmas morning. I did not get pictures of the boys with their gifts (guitar hero for oldest and a Diego Wii game for youngest, Hubby got a sweat shirt that said Dad on it) but when I opened my box I found 2 cans of green beans and a coloring book (used) I knew that was not the gift lol but had to figure out where to find it, as I rifled through the coloring book I found a picture of the boys behind a lighthouse portrtait. I am very into lighthouses and have been for years but I am very picky about it, I want tasteful not cartoony as some of the pictures/figurines can get. I have been to many houses where people have rooms devoted to lighthouses..any and all lighthouses and some make it work but others are not to my taste..ok enough of the 'criticism' now.
Christmas morning I was up at 5:30 to get the cooking/baking done for my contribution to the meal at my MiL's house. Oldest woke up at 8 and youngest finally got up at 8:30 (with a little help from brother of course) Both boys were happy with their gifts..Santa brought Oldest a glass Chess/Checkers set and a remote control escalade as well as some Modeling clay, Youngest got a Disney 10 pack games set, Color Wonder book with paintbrush/markers and a plastic tool set. After a very non-nutritious breakfast we played with the games/toys until it was time to go to Grandma's. I think this was the best year at my MiL's, in years past all have concentrated on the gift part and this year with everyone being a bit hit by the economy very little was purchased in the form of gifts. The boys got clothes and 1 toy from everyone...both hubby and I are happy with the 1 toy they got as were the boys since they had to choose a toy to donate to the homeless shelter for every new toy received. The biggest gift was spending time with the grandparents and great Aunt and Uncle with no interruptions of football games or any other sport. Unfortunately we did have to watch alot of the Christmas Story.
After my MiL's Hubby, Boys and I went out to see FiL. We try to get out for all Holidays and Birthday as well as the Anniversary of the day we said Goodbye. It was -15 degrees so we had the boys stay in the car and we were out for a bout 5 minutes..long enough to clean off the snow say a prayer and do a bit of reflecting. It has been a little over two years since he went home to Our Father but it has not gotten any easier yet. We really feel the loss at Christmas, no matter how many Christmases we had in a year, we made sure to see him or have him over so the boys could listen to his stories and Corny jokes. Oldest knew him longer than all the other grandkids and remembers many of the stories and such, so he likes to sit down with youngest and tell him some of Grandpa's 'exploits' as a kid. Youngest was not yet 2 when he passed although he does know which one is Grandpa when he sees a picture of all the 'kids'. I still remember the first Christmas without him the boys and I were at Wal*Mart in the Christmas section and youngest found a Santa in a biker jacket with a bike in his hand (grandpa had a beard and mustache and rode a harley Softtail) and said, grandpa..buy him, buy him..daddy like (remember he was 2..not much articulation) so that was daddy's first gift that year. Youngest walked up to him with the gift and said, Daddy..Grandpa..for you..always here, it now sits on top of Computer Armoire year round. Still brings tears to my eyes when I think of it. Hubby thought I put him up to it, but my kid is amazing on his own.