Lion and Lambs

Another year older, another year merrier! This is the first time in years that I spent Christmas away from my immediate familly. I can’t recall ever spending it without my boys. And it was still a good day, blessed by the Baby that came so that we would not have to suffer forever; the Baby that came so one day the lion will lay down with the lamb. Which reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. ~Charles Dickens

This year I spent Christmas with my SO and his family. So nothing unexpected and possibly ugly would happen, I drugged myself well. I am so thankful to the medical field, that that is available to me, and even more blessed that God allowed it to work.

My baby girl, Tootsie, was with me but one of the other family members has three dogs and one of them is an alpha female like Tootsie. Bran Dee absolutely was not happy about another dog invading her territory. When she growled at Tootsie, Tootsie thought she was playing so she would let out this cute little bark and jump at Bran Dee and Bran Dee, not intending to play would snap at her and the tussle would begin. Tootsie also kept climbing on my SO’s bad knee, so I decided Tootsie needed to go visit her sister and her other mother.

At the last minute this morning, one of the families canceled and they were responsible for the vegetable tray. The tray was all we had planned for vegetables with the meal. Since I was going out already, I got designated to find an open grocery store to get some kind of vegeys. Yay Safeway! Though far, they were opened, and packed full of people!! I got about six phone calls on the way with more things people wanted. I got the last vegetable tray, the second to the last bag of marshmallows for the sweet potatoes, forget tortilla chips, and no sugar free candy!! Thankfully they had what I needed because they got wiped out at the table.

Then it was time for presents, more food, and then the annual Christmas tradition, “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation!” Though I wish they would do a version without the vulgar language, the movie is hilarious, especially when the cat gets fried under the Christmas tree.

Everyone went home after the movie, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!! (oops, wrong movie, but the sentiment stands!)

I am home from Sedona and officially back to work (ish). Our time was mostly great. I was in pain infrequently due to the pain patch, my new best friend. I took jacuzzi baths every night and the new jacuzzi tubs have colored lights. What a luxury!! I mostly used soothing blue, though a couple of times I used lavendar. SO delightful! Did way more shopping than I wanted to, and everyone got excellent bargains on stuff we weren’t looking for….hee hee hee. One friend did almost all of her Christmas shopping. She was so excited. My crafty friend and I had a fabulous time almost finishing my Christmas ornaments. Did some reading and some napping and LOTS of eating!! It threatened to snow, and all that came down was cold rain, brrrr! It was very sad to leave, we would have loved to stay the rest of the week. Back to reality though….

This is too good to not be shared, even though it happened a couple of weeks ago. My friend and I like this scrapbook store that is up in Anthem, Scrapbooks to Remember. On Black Friday they put out an ad stating that they knew they couldn’t compete with the giant retailers for the sales of the day so they were closing for the day. They were also having a reverse Black Friday and having special sales throughout the evening. From 8 to 9p was 10% off; 9 to 10p 15% off; 10 to 11p 20% off; and 11 to 12p 30% off everything in the store.

We thought the would be fun though neither one of us is usually functioning well at that time, we were going to throw caution to the wind and go for it. Arriving at 10:30p so we could make our selections ahead of time, there were no lights on the outside of the building and only one car in the parking lot. We were afraid they were closed. I got out and checked a note on the door, they were in fact open. As we entered, a woman from the back came and greeted us. We told her without the lights on we thought she was closed. She said the sale didn’t turn out to be as good an idea as she had hoped. Mind you the two of us are the only customers in the store.

We grab a basket and start to fill it with our selections. About fifteen minutes later the owner comes back over to us and hands us a ticket that says 20% off. We tell her that we wanted to shop until it was 30% off. She said that it goes according to when yo enter the store, “other wise how would she keep track of everyone,” (remember my friend and I are the only ones in there) and how would she keep people from staying and shopping all night? (and that would be a problem??) So we ask her if we can leave and come back after 11. She shrugs her shoulders and says, “Sure.”

To kill time, we decide to go across the street to WalMart. We strolled through the craft section and I found everything I wanted and the price ended up being less overall than had we gone back to Scrapbooks to Remember. So the owner has two customers show up during the evening and she sends them away to avoid giving an extra 10% discount. I wonder if they will be going out of business in this crunch time??

Besides the demands of managing school, chronic illness, and some social life, this poor blog has been left behind again. Then on top of that I have this mental block against starting. Where? What? When? How? That keeps me from journaling also, and I love what happens when I journal, but how do you start??

With guilting prompting from my loving sister, I have finished school and now am returning. Did I mention I got 100% on my Algebra final?? So I decided I don’t need a special place to start, I just need to start, so here I am.

Today is my birthday and I am sitting in the hospital with my SO who is getting total knee replacement surgery. His blood preesure was 218 over 118 and they threatened to call off the surgery, but the anethesiologist was confident she could control it so in he went. Telling all the loved ones I needed to tell, I started get anxious so I took myself out for my birthday lunch.

One of my gifts was this fantastic little laptop that only weighs 2.3 lbs with the big battery! I love it! The reason I didn’t carry my other one around was because it was so big and heavy on my bad neck and shoulders. This is great, it is about the size of a Bible cover and goes everywhere now. It is an Acer Aspire One, and it’s PINK! My phone has WiFi so I am set to go almost wherever I want.

So I wait with all the other friends and loved ones of all the other patients, waiting for some news from a surgeon. It seems a sad time of year to be in the hospital, especially unplanned. Many galbladders coming out today. I am thankful that there are hospitals though to give us relief when we need it.

Tonight it is off to Sedona for my annual slumber party. Looks like there will be 7 women this year; and lots of relaxation in front of the fireplace!!! May have snow as well and that will be beautiful if we don’t have to go out in it. Hopefully I will be able to get phone reception so I can continue my blogging….or I will have to face my sister!!