Really, I Have An Excuse

I have been a bad blogger, a bad friend, a bad everything you can name in the last 11 days. But, I really had a reason.

Sorry everyone, you're right, I didn't send out Christmas cards or you would have gotten one. Thanks to the friends (Cele), family (Cousin D - those girls are so stinking cute - and Aunt A, and Aunt N for the pretty centerpiece) and others who sent cards to us. I may do a "Happy New Year" card mailing, or it may just wait until next year.

I almost always send my cards last minute - the only exception being the year I was pregnant with Little Bit, and since he was due Christmas Day I had them done and out at Thanksgiving - that nesting thing was kicking in so I got a lot done early.

A series of things conspired this year to make me later than usual - and then real life stepped in with a bang.

First, a co-worker of mine lost her daughter four days shy of her fifth birthday - the week before Christmas. A freak thing, that no one could have predicted or expected.

While I don't know her extremely well, she is a lovely person and because of that, and because I can't imagine the pain of losing a child, it kind of threw me for a loop. It threw all of us at work for a loop, to be honest. They buried Audrey on her birthday. It just makes me sick thinking about it.

A couple of days before that, a girl I went to high school with, Kristin, died in a horrific car accident, and with her, her older sister. Again, I didn't know Kristin well, she was a year ahead of me in school and very quiet, but she was nice and we rode the bus together for years, so you kind of have a bond because riding around with Mrs. Fleenor was enough to bond anyone - it was kind of a like a POW camp. I'm sort of kidding. My Mom and Dad knew Kristen's parents and I knew her Mom - she was a lovely lady.

The reason they were driving to Twin Falls from Boise was to be with their Mom, because their Dad had just died. That day. In one swoop, this woman lost her entire family. She buried them the same day my co-worker buried her daughter.

So, I was a little distracted by all of this, more so than I probably should have been, but on Little Bit's birthday, December 21st (also known as Kristi's wedding anniversary), I was going to do the cards and get them out.

First, though, we were going to meet up with my friend Dana and her children, one of whom is just seven months older than LB, at Boondocks, or Wahooz or whatever they're calling it now, for video games, laser tag, mini golf and all that jazz. Big Bit was up for the first days of his Christmas break, so he was along for the ride.

The Husband had been complaining that his eye was watering the night before, and he kept complaining about it during the morning. He also made the comment to Big Bit (who had just gotten home from the dentist) that he felt like he'd had a shot of Novocain in his mouth. That was a little weird, so I suggested he get in to see his doctor. However, said doctor was fully booked and we were a little rudely told to go to an Urgent Care. TH wasn't in any pain or anything and felt fine, so we went to lunch first, then I was going to drop him at the Urgent Care close to where we were meeting Dana and go back to get him.

While we were driving after lunch, however, he suddenly said that we should drop the boys off and then go to the Urgent Care. He was a little snippy about it and frankly, I was a little annoyed. We got there, I paid for the boys' activities, said hi to Dana and that we'd be right back.

When I got back in the car, and asked him why I needed to go in with him, he said, "I think this is serious and I need you there." He hadn't said that before, so now I got scared. We went the three minutes to the Urgent Care, who got him right in - then took his blood pressure, looked at his face, which suddenly was kind of still on one side, and told me to get him to the Emergency Room, another five minutes away.

We got him out to the car, I made him lie down in the seat, and then I drove like a bat out of hell to the ER, while calling Dana to give her an update and to my Mom that I needed her to pick the boys up. Luckily, the hospital is a brand new one and not a lot of people realize it's there, so we got right in. All I could keep thinking were two things - a) I'm really not ready to be in the middle of a tragedy at the holidays(who is?) and b) It was Little Bit's 11th birthday and nothing could happen to TH on his birthday. It just couldn't.

As it turned out, we had a great ER doctor, who looked at TH right away and proclaimed he had Bell's Palsy. It's a condition that affects one side of your face, making you not able to move your muscles from your forhead to your chin, it's usually caused by a virus, similar to shingles and chicken pox, and it USUALLY goes away within a few weeks. No stroke, no heart attack (though I damned near had one during all this as you might imagine). Just a virus, and an inability to blink his left eye or smile on both sides of his mouth. Which is a bigger pain in the butt than you might think, but obviously better than the alternatives. He got some steroids and antivirals and an eyepatch. Arrr!

So, the rest of that day was a blur, then it was getting Big Bit on a plane back to Reno, back to work for me for a couple of days and then it was Christmas! At our house! With the stepmonster in law! Yay (/sarcasm)! (Actually, she was fairly low key, the gifts were only semi last minute, with no forethought whatsoever, and we had a good visit with TH's sister, brother in law and nephew). We got to see Cousin Steve before he jetted back to Seattle, too, so all in all it turned out well. And when I went to church Christmas Eve, you can bet I said "Thank You" to the guy(s) upstairs.

But I've had a lot to think about, and it wasn't Christmas cards. I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and that your New Year's is great too. I'm hoping mine is drama free. It's my fifteenth wedding anniversary and I would like to enjoy it.

Cheers!

Frazzled

I'm feeling frazzled. Vacation was wonderful, enjoyed the beach, the Hydes and meeting Cele - but haven't had time to post any pics. Got back Friday night (really early Saturday morning), had to get ready for a bbq at our house Saturday night thanks to our friends who had so much fun at the housewarming they decided it would be a great place to see fireworks! (And, it is, it's a walk across the street to the Depot where you have a clear view of the whole show.) We really had fun with everyone (again, so busy no pictures - I have to have a more low-key party) but that meant Sunday we were FRIED and since then it's been work, work and my stressed out stomach keeping me awake nights.

I promise to write more soon and post photos, but in the meantime I appropriated this one - I'm glad I didn't try to take any of the fireworks because mine never turn out and (credit Idaho Statesman) others are much more talented. This literally was the view steps from our house. Boise is AWESOME.

More soon!

What a Week!

Here's a smattering of what we experienced. It was a great trip, though one I personally probably didn't appreciate as much as I should. It's a genetic habit. I often find it hard to live in the moment, mostly because I'm so worried about what the men in my life are experiencing. I need to let it go. I know (insert Craig Ferguson's Scottish accent here). Keep telling me that, okay? P.S. The formatting on this stinks, but I'm getting tired, so it's going out there and I'll mess with it later.

First, we stumbled off the plane at 7:30 a.m. London time. We managed to make it to the hotel around 10 a.m. after stumbling our way through immigration (the line that went on forever) and onto the tube.

Thankfully, the hotel had our room ready, which was a surprise, so we went up, showered and generally tried to get ourselves oriented with it being daylight and all. Then, we went and found the first cool thing - the BEST CHINESE FOOD EVER. It's in London. All over the place, but particularly in Chinatown. Big Bit and I can vouch for the fact it's better than Chinatown in San Francisco. It's better than the Chinese food in Chinatown in Singapore, for heaven's sake. This was the first time we ate Chinese, but it wouldn't be the last. This was a pleasant surprise to me - I'd not made it to this end of London in my brief weekends there.




Then, it was on to see "Spamalot". TH and I saw this in Salt Lake City over a year ago. We could get cheap (read, seats that were in a scary steep balcony) for their Boxing Day show in London and we figured the boys would enjoy it - they love The Holy Grail and the Killer Rabbit. We all tried to nod off a bit, but we enjoyed the show and the theatre it was in was truly killer.

Oh, what else? We went to the British Museum (lots of pictures of mummies and so on, that I won't post here at this time), more Chinese Food. Oh and the Tower of London. Here's Big Bit taking a picture of more of the Tower. It was pretty cool.









Here's where the Crown Jewels are. We couldn't fit it all in the first day as the line was too long, so we went back another morning to see the jewels - got in right away. My father in law is right, they're cool but not worth standing in line for. We had bought an annual pass that got us into several palaces, going one time to the Tower all but paid for it, going twice more than paid for it, and we weren't done yet!







Next, Harrod's and Kensington Palace. Harrod's was AWFUL - I'd never seen it so crowded. All of London was crowded, actually. We left there fairly quickly and went to Kensington. Like many American females of my age group, I got up in the middle of the night to see Princess Diana get married and also to see her funeral. I felt very close to her, sometimes you marry a prince and he turns out to be a big fat frog and he has a mean mother who tries to help him take your kids away from you. Sorry, I digress.


The Palace itself is impressive, but the amount they really have for display is fairly small - the highlight, for me, being several of Diana's dresses on display, including the one she wore when she danced with John Travolta. She was very, very tall and very very thin.

The bits wore themselves out. More than once.


















We went on the Eye on New Year's Eve - our wedding anniversary. I don't like heights so I wasn't impressed but we all agreed it was something you should do at least once. It was kind of foggy that day, so most of the pictures weren't that great. (the one at the beginning of the post did, however).


Then - fireworks. We were still trying to figure out the camera, but TH got a couple of good ones, at least. They were magnificent, AND we didn't have to be in the crowd of drunks for four hours with no food, bathrooms or drinks! Yes!


























The last day we went out to Hampton Court Palace, which Cardinal Wolsey built and King Henry VIII stole. And it is very cool indeed.


Last, but not least for now, I leave you with a picture of the ice rink at Somerset House. In the movie Love Actually (my favorite ever!), this is a prominent shot at the beginning of the movie. And it was very cool when we walked in the courtyard and it looked like a scene from the movie. Just perfect.

Preview

Much more to come (once I find the memory chip TH apparently took out of the camera) but here's a preview kids - those of you who get Christmas cards from us or will this year will see this shot again - it's too good not to distribute.

Aren't they just cute?

Survived

Well, we survived the trip - more to come later, I wasn't able to post while there because my stupid work laptop has an issue with Google...it wouldn't let me sign in. We flew back into Salt Lake Friday night, and of course, what else was going on but a SNOWSTORM. (Have I ever mentioned I hate snow in Utah? I think so.) We stayed the night there rather than trying to get our jet lagged bodies home, which had the nice side result of getting to eat at Acme Burger, which is one of my favorite places in Salt Lake to eat.

Some random thoughts about the trip -

First, London is really beautiful and I think everyone enjoyed the trip. I have to say I've had enough testosterone surrounding me for a week that I need some serious time to myself. Which is why my plan for tonight is to send TH gaming with his friends, Big Bit to his room and Little Bit to the XBox so I can be ALONE.

Sixteen year old males take longer to get ready than sixteen year old females. I'm not kidding.

Europeans who travel to London on holiday are rude and pushy. Not Britons, mind you, Europeans. Americans, at least ones traveling to London, are polite, try to maintain personal space and say "excuse me" frequently. And I'm not just talking about us, mind you, I saw this repeatedly as there were a lot of marching bands from the U.S. in London for the New Year's Day parade. TH and Big Bit both commented we heard more "foreign" and U.S. accents all week than we did British accents.

The BBC has a lot of useless programming. Although I did see Judi Dench more than once, and that's always cool.

I love the magazines there. They are more vapid and superficial than People Magazine if you can believe it, thus they are my guilty pleasure while there.

The fireworks were AMAZING and thanks to a columnist in the U.K. Guardian who I read a few hours before we headed out, I found the best way to get to see the fireworks without having to wait four hours in the "viewing area" - go on the tube to the Vauxhall Bridge, watch them from a short distance, then go back to the tube and ride quietly to your destination while the crowds all fight each other by the Eye. Bless you, good man, bless you.

I highly recommend The Mitre pub on Craven Terrace. It's got nice staff, it's kid friendly and the food is very good and affordable.

Happy New Year everyone, hopefully pictures tomorrow!

Merry Christmas

and Happy Holidays from us to you. Everyone be safe and happy, and we'll be back soon!

News from foundinidaho

We've got some news to share, we do!

First - Homeboy made the Pro Bowl! Way to go Jordan!

http://www.idahostatesman.com/104/story/606361.html

Second - Little Bit turned in his last assignment before Christmas Break - a diorama for Idaho History about Native Americans. There were of course several tribes to pick from but he picked my favorite (without me saying a word) the Nez Perce. Yes, he actually did a lot of work on this including mapping out the locations, helping glue and build as well as placing the horses and people. Granted, the people were from the dollar store so they were pretty stereotypical of the old Wild West movies, but hey, they said to only spend $5 on the supplies (Yeah, Right). Tomorrow night we go back to Winter Garden Aglow for his Pack meeting, although I am suffering from an ear and sinus infection (boo!) and it's supposed to snow tomorrow night, if we don't go we'll never hear the end of it. Hopefully my face won't be swollen up tomorrow night like I've been sucker punched.

Big Bit arrives Saturday and we will make a day trip to see my Dad, Pattie and my Grandmother. Little Bit turns 10 Sunday (OMG) so Grandma will be around for a small party. Next year - big party in the New House, which we signed papers on today. Back in debt we go! I promise a big housewarming party in the spring when we can enjoy the back yard.

Hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season, particularly Mr. Thomas Wayne (newborn baby of Cousin N - now I'm down to TWO pregnant cousins) - I hear it snowed up your way dude, glad you got a first white Christmas as your cousin Rory did. Not that you care any more than he did but at least your Mom and Dad can get some cool pictures for the baby book.

We'll try and post some photos from London, we're taking the laptop but I'm not sure how that will all pan out. We bought tickets to Spamalot on Boxing Day yesterday. Can't wait to see the Killer Rabbit yet again.

Happy Holidays!

I Hate Crowds

Okay, so I'm from Idaho. I'm my father's daughter. I hate crowds. I don't mind being in a big city, I can handle being in line at Disneyland, but I hate the crush of people, not being able to walk freely.

Keep in mind those facts as you view the video below. It's a long video, but if you get through about 3 minutes you will see the hideous crush of people on the Thames on New Year's Eve as the fireworks happen. I love fireworks, this will be my 14th wedding anniversary and we'll be in London, the Husband, the Bits and I, so I'm not complaining, per se. I'm not. But I may need to ward off a panic attack.

Thanksgiving Roundup

We're getting ready to go to Winter Garden Aglow - the Idaho Botanical Gardens puts all kinds of beautiful lights up on their trees and shrubs and charges boatloads of money for the privilege of freezing your butt off and paying extra for mulled wine and hot chocolate.

I'm only kidding. Well, I wish they would drop the price a bit, but the Garden is beautiful and I am going to TRY and take some pics that turn out and post them. Little Bit is very excited and since we've been going to go since...oh...last WEDNESDAY, it's about time we got it done.

It was prevented by a variety of things.

• The house FINALLY closed on Wednesday (yeah!) - we only lost, oh, more money than I care to even think about. But we're out of it and that's what matters - we really didn't even have to make a house payment for a month where none of us lived in it, at least briefly. But, that meant TH had to have everything out of the house Wednesday. Which he did but you can imagine what a pain it was. Thanks to our realtor, Don, that day and friends Ben & Yvette, neighbors Pam and Kenny before that, we got it out. I mean, TH got it out. I'm a sloth and I am ashamed at how little I really did. TH got home to Idaho about 10 p.m.
• Thursday - Had to unload UHaul trailer and back of my Dad's truck - and be to Buhl, ID (very small town by Twin Falls for those of you not familiar with Idaho geography) by 1 p.m. Ha. I finally called Mom and Dad and said I wouldn't see either one of them. I didn't have my aunt's phone number, so she didn't realize I hadn't been hit by a truck until later - I sent her an e-mail after I got home because I was so disgusted that all we did was unload a truck and a trailer all day and had no turkey, mashed potatoes, etc. I did have some deviled eggs because I'd made them first thing that morning. But really. I did get to see part of the Lions game. Holy Cow.
• Friday - Had a glass of wine after work with friend Dana - my bestest friend in Boise - which we haven't gotten to do in like, forever. By the time I realized how late it was getting we were really too late to go see the lights. By now, Little Bit is getting pretty mad, as you can imagine.
• Saturday - Met with realtor regarding possible new houses, ran to Twin Falls to exchange rigs with Dad (who has radiation for another week or so then hopefully is done) and see my Grandma (she's looking good!) and make it home by 6 to see the lights. Again, got here late enough that even Little Bit said - "Let's go tomorrow, Mom."

Now...we are GOING. Additional rants about the stupid Packers, stupid Jets coaching decisions etc. as well as some pictures to come. Hope you had a good Turkey Day. At least the weather here has been beautiful - we walked the doggie on the Greenbelt today and that was very nice indeed.

Thanks

Okay, so probably it's a typical blog topic either the day before or day of Thanksgiving, but I have much to be thankful for (thanks to a fellow blogger for reminding me of that) - the week has been super-stressful with trying to close on the house sale, waiting to see if TH gets his job, realizing how much money it cost us to move back (OUCH!!) and so on.

Yet, as I drove to work today I just had to smile. There's so many reasons why:

• I don't live in Utah anymore. Thank you, Dear Jesus (I am not being sarcasting there, please note).
• I live in Boise, with everything to offer only minutes away.
• TH, I and the Bits are healthy. The rest of the family's either healthy or taking steps to be so.
• We have our Margarita back (dog, not drink, though we like both).
• We're going to London in December.
• We get to see a vast majority of our family tomorrow.
• The Jets beat the Titans and lead their division.
• The Packers suck and Ted Thompson will be fired.
• Basketball season is coming and I can open a can of whoop ass on the BSU fans all over town (and in Washington).
• A whole lot of political stuff that just makes people crazy, so 'nuff said.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, and please remember what you are thankful for.