I have never been so ready for that ball to drop in Times Square to start a new year as I was this year at 12 a.m. eastern time (we celebrate an hour early so we can go to bed). Seriously. I chopped off all of my hair on December 29th just to give me a running start. And p.s., it's really cute.
Designing Christmas cards was not my favorite holiday activity this year. Every day, I would check the mailbox and we would get the MOST PRECIOUS cards from friends and family. Like, picture-perfect, printed-professionally, even-the-three-month-old-kid-is-smiling cards. Our card consisted of three pictures - one of the three of us smiling, one of Grant holding a football and looking away from the camera, and one of Grant throwing a fit, sliding off of the chair he was supposed to sit on with the "Merry Christmas" sign he was supposed to hold laying on the ground below him. That's real life around here. I kept telling Ben I really felt like we needed to have a Bible verse on our card since we ARE celebrating Jesus' birth. He asked me which one I wanted to add to the card. We couldn't help but crack up when all I could come up with were verses from the Psalms like "Oh Lord, why have you turned your back on me? I cry out in desolation..." What I wouldn't give to see peoples faces when they opened our Christmas card to see that.
I'm halfway joking. But seriously, this year...not my favorite. Let me give you a quick synopsis of the last two months of 2011.
The first burr under my saddle is our stupid wireless internet connection. In the grand scheme of things, it's NOT a big deal. But it's the little stuff that drives you crazy the quickest. I have spent at least 12 hours on the phone with AT&T the last two months because our wireless internet will drop signals for no reason. Twenty-five phone calls, 14,000 line checks, one new modem, 16 foreigner call center technicians, four local technicians, and a $260 Web Fire bill later, we STILL have a jacked-up internet signal.
I started a new job December 13th in Labor and Delivery. Love it. I think it's right up my alley. But the stress of a new job can be tiring.
I've been nauseous for about 6 months...plus have had some weird dizziness, fatigue, and (yay) weight loss. We have a pretty lengthy family history of something called Crohn's disease so one of my other docs wanted me to get checked out. I went to a GI specialist here in Wichita Falls who wanted me to have a colonoscopy, gastric emptying study, and upper GI scope. All done during my first week at my new job. I love having to eat radioactive oatmeal on my days off...don't you?! Sparing you of the details (in this post...;) my stomach empties a tad slow and which could make me nauseous. And I had yeast growing in my esophagus. Not contagious...but has to be treated. I'm good with the diagnosis. At first they thought my diabetes could be the culprit to my stomach issues but they're pretty certain that it's not. That's good news. But I had a lot to wrestle with emotionally, particularly about my diabetes, while waiting for the results.
Oh, and the day I had my colonoscopy and upper scope done, Ben had to take Grant to the doc because he had strep. And I failed to mention that I had to miss a Christmas party with all of our best friends because I was at home "cleansing" for my colonoscopy.
And talking about emotions...have had lots of difficult events...both past and present that have reared their ugly heads this year. Necessary to address, just not very fun.
And I got the flu two days before Christmas. While we were out of town. I felt like death with a 104 degree fever. I got better by Christmas...just in time to visit both families and make it back into town to work for a couple of days.
The day after Christmas, Grant projectile-vomitted on Ben in the middle of Market Street while we were grocery shopping. Then he did it again the second I laid him down in his nice, clean bed.
Two days later, I noticed that Scout (the dog) had tapeworms. So we got her de-worming medicine and refilled her Heart Guard prescription. It was $110. Gave her the medicine when we got home at 5:30 p.m. Four hours later, she puked on our living room rug. I haven't had the heart to check and see if her tapeworms are gone. I doubt it, since she didn't even have time to digest the medicine.
And the next day, you ask? Well...our water heater started spewing hot water out of the top. The plumber pronounced it dead-on-arrival and we spent $800 for a new lunk of metal in the closet that I so desperately wanted to install a tankless water heater in. Except I found out it was going to cost about $3200. So the same day our water heater died, so did my dream of getting a new closet to store linens in.
Am I complaining? Yes. Am I okay with that? Yes. The last two months are a nice little snapshot of how I feel like the year has been. Full of trouble-shooting. Full of perseverance. Full of sickness. Yes, there have been little morsels of goodness along the way. I think God has given me those nudges through the year to help me make it through to 2012.
So, to 2011...I'm sure you're going to be a year I look back on with a love/hate relationship. Love because you made me grow. Hate because you really kind of sucked.
Here's to a new year. Thank God for new beginnings.
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