How I Spent My Spring Break (and the Week After)

On Friday, March 26th, everything was pretty much okay in my little world. I was going home for a full week of break, I had cleared everything off my work to-do list so that I could focus on finishing on-line courses and cleaning out the backyard, and every last one of my students was set to pass the year, based on their grades through the third marking period. It was sunny and warm, and I was really happy. Best of all, it seemed like Scott was on the mend after a trip to the ER that took up all night from March 21 to the 22nd.

I spent the evening delivering Kai to another jazz band competition and then running around doing some shopping for Easter. I had just gotten home from her jazz festival when Scott took a turn for the worse. He was again in horrible pain. So we headed back over the the ER. After another 10 hour stay, Scott was admitted with the diagnosis of a bile leak. The next three days were pretty miserable. He had to have a drain inserted to remove the bile. He had to have a stent inserted with an ERCP (his most hated procedure) to stop the leak. I won't go into all of the details, but we were very relieved to be leaving the hospital for good when we headed home on the 29th of March.

Meanwhile, Grandma had come down from New York to take care of the kids, which was amazing and wonderful of her. So on the 30th and the 1st, she and I sewed a quilt for my drama club to raffle. We shopped for Nicky's birthday. Scott rested. Kairi and Grandma worked on a special gift for her band teacher. Grandma decided to stay until Nicky's birthday party on Saturday to give me an extra hand, since Scott was still pretty weak.

Also, since we weren't having quite enough medical fun, on the night of the 30th, I ended up in urgent care with the worst case of poison ivy ever. The doctor put my on a steroid taper to clear up the problem, but MAN did I itch!!

But then, on the night of the 1st, all heck broke loose again. Scott was rehospitalized - this time with a 103.5 fever. The diagnosis this time? The stent they had placed had slipped. So they pumped him up with antibiotics, yanked the stent back in place through endoscopy, and sent him home again just hours before Nick's birthday party on April 3rd. Unfortunately, during the stay they didn't follow their own directions to take care of the drain that was still in his side to remove bile. This becomes important later.

Getting back to my spring break (of which I've now spent 6 days sitting next to Scott's bed in the hospital), I now had mere moments before Nicky's birthday party. Fortunately, Scott had said it was okay for me to leave the hospital early the night before so I had run home and made all the favors and cupcake toppers. Nick's party was at the Rave. He had about 10 friends with him to see the movie "Diary of a Wimpy Kid". The party room at the Rave is really cool, but we added some balloons and a movie poster for fun. We added pizzas for $3 a kid, and when one guest saw that everyone was getting an individual pizza, he said "This is like paradise!" which I thought was funny.

His cupcakes were red velvet cupcakes from Fresh Market and they were HUGE. They put them in boxes at first, but when I called in a panic because they were supposed to be on a tray and the ones in the boxes had fallen and gotten smooshed they replaced them quickly and gave Nick balloons to boot. Their customer service rocks, and the cupcakes were tasty, too!



The Rave scheduled the movie really poorly after telling me the party would start at 12:00 and I had almost two hours to fill before the movie started. We ended up spending a LOT on tokens for the arcade. Finally, I got them to play an air hockey tournament which made the tokens last much longer. Nick won his first game, but got beaten in the semi-finals.



The movie itself was okay. I didn't really like the main character - he was actually kind of a jerk. And most of the funny bits were in the trailer. Still, the guys enjoyed it, and Nicky thought his party was a success. Scott wasn't there for most of the party, but he came over to sit through the movie with us, and that made Nick happy, too. Not to mention the presents and the $$ he got in gift cards and cash!



My spring break was fast disappearing at this point. I had to go home and get ready for Easter and Nick's real birthday. He wanted a butterscotch pumpkin cake, so that had to be baked the night before. Plus, we still had to clean, color eggs, and get groceries.



It was pretty late by the time we finished getting ready, but Scott still put in an appearance for a few minutes of egg coloring. I think my kids are lucky to have a dad that makes sure he participates in traditions, even when he's really ill.



The eggs duly colored, we sent everyone off to bed by 11PM. Not too bad.



Easter and Nick's birthday dawned bright and sunny. We started with the birthday presents...





And then moved on to Easter baskets.



Then Nick put it together for a little Easter shooting gallery of chicks and bunnies with his new birthday Nerf bow. Eh. Whatever works!



Next it was time for Grandma to head home (with many thanks for all her help all week) and for us to head to church and meet up with the cousins. Hannah had arrived in time for Nick's birthday party the day before, but we were glad to see her again. The kids looked beautiful, as always!







We also hadn't seen Juli since HER birthday with all the hustle and bustle, so we she got birthday presents on Easter, too.



Finally, it was time to head home. Scott was looking pretty wiped out by this point, and we all needed a quiet afternoon, followed by a tasty birthday dinner.

And yes, PUMPKIN cake on Easter. Whatcha gonna do?



That night, I took Nick out to learn to ride his bike. He had never managed to take the training wheels off his old one. I will say it took some tears and frustration, but he powered through and managed to ride the length of the Dimmick park parking lot without putting his feet down once. Go Nick! (And yes, I felt like a JERK making him cry on his birthday, but I couldn't let him give up on himself, either.)

Easter Monday was another gorgeous spring day. Scott tried to go back to work, but his boss wouldn't let him without clearance from the doctor. Since he couldn't get a follow up appointment until Tuesday, he got to sit in the sun and watch Nick ride his bike.
Then, moments after I took this picture, Nick wiped out big time. Scraped up everything, gravel in his hands. Looked like he was going to need a few days off from bike riding.So we met the cousins at the playground. It was definitely the perfect spring day for the park.And Hannah and Nick had fun with Nick's new pitching machine.Scott was limited to slow walking and tossing the occasional pink kickball, but it was nice to see him looking so happy.That night, my medication completely kept me from sleeping, which turned out to be a problem on Tuesday night. Cause no sooner did Scott's doctor clear him for work on Tuesday morning than he spiked another fever on Tuesday night. Another overnight in the ER. Another admission to the hospital. Five long days this time. We ended up having multiple issues with doctors who didn't seem to know the score. I may have made a few scenes. (Look, my perfectly healthy 33 year old husband went for a routine procedure and then spent 12 additional days in the hospital. Wouldn't you have made a few scenes???) I missed all manner of work. Grandma had to come all the way back down and save our butts again. The kids went pretty much all week without seeing mom and dad. Many tears were shed. End result? He's still leaking bile. The stent won't fix it, because the bile he is leaking is from an extra duct most people don't have. They KNEW he had it, but still managed to leave it leaking bile after the surgery. The doctors insist this is all a terrible series of coincidences and no fault of theirs. Scott, my honorable, forgiving husband is willing to let them get away with that. So whatever. But they sent him home NOT FIXED. They KNOW he's not fixed. And they are merely hoping that it will heal itself over the next three weeks. But if not, he may be in for more procedures, more tests, and even more surgery. So we are praying. Cause that's all we can do.

When Scott came home on Saturday, we made blankets for pediatric patients through Project Linus. It felt like a positive thing to do for a couple of reasons. One, it was something we could do to help others going through tough times. Two, since we signed up for the project through Disney, we'll get fastpasses for rides on our upcoming vacation by sending the blankets in. And planning that vacation, even in the face of all that's still going on, feels hopeful.

The blankets came out really cute, and we had fun making them. Plus, having Grandma there meant we got them right, which is always a bonus.Today was an ordinary day. We went to church. The kids played on the playground. We took a Sunday nap. We went grocery shopping. I'm praying that we can keep having ordinary days from now on.

District Band, Again

Kai was sent to the district band for the third year running. Was first horn, too. As usual, the band (comprised of the best of the best in the Lehigh Valley area) did a fabulous job. They get together for one Friday, practice from 9AM to 5PM and then put on a very professional concert. Pretty amazing stuff. Kai still had time to make friends with one of the horns from another school, but once the concert started, it was all business. A few days ago, our school had a benefit concert on St. Patrick's Day featuring our high school and middle school bands. The high school band had played "Raider's March" by John Williams. The middle school district band played the same song - and completely blew the other performance out of the water. That's the caliber of these kids. Go Kairi!

Can't Tell Scott He's Got A Lot of Gall Anymore

Cause his gall bladder is gone.

His surgery went well, thank God, and he was out by just after noon.

Now he's just relaxing and taking it easy.

Phew.

Four and a half hours of middle school jazz? Really?

Kairi's first Jazz Band competition was at Northeast Middle School in Bethlehem.

In short, we like marching band competitions better. Especially since they didn't even rank the schools that competed, making the whole festival, in Kai's words, "pointless".

Night Out, Nerd Style

We officially have cabin fever. The whole family is sick of being cooped up at the house. Unfortunately, the weather is still not nice enough for many outdoor activities, so we headed to a movie instead. After seeing The Lightning Thief, we all wanted to read the book, so we headed over to Barnes and Noble and were soon snuggled in chairs with novels and tasty beverages.

As you can see from the kids' expressions, the novel was VERY different from the book, as we had been told. But having seen the movie first, we were less offended. In the end, we all decided we liked the book better, but we liked the movie too. As long as you don't expect them to actually tell the same story, no reason not to enjoy both!

Of course, some of us are bigger nerds than others. Apparently, Kairi can't go anywhere without running into friends, so she was accosted several times for hugs and squeals. She's just too popular for our family!

Enough Already

It's been snowing since Wednesday night. It keeps melting as it snows, so the Morning Call is having a field day yelling at area districts for closing yesterday and today. But lets be honest - would you want to drive on the road in the picture? Plus, the wind is killer, and is whipping the snow around to whiteout conditions. So while the totals aren't as impressive as our last storm, the constant snow and wind is pretty daunting. And pretty depressing. I am missing ANOTHER drama rehearsal with the play a week away. Kai is missing a jazz band fest rescheduled for tomorrow - but her horn is at school because she didn't know she'd be out two days in a row. So how is she going to be in Saturday's performance? Scott stayed home from work yesterday and the roads never got covered with all the melting-as-it-falls that was going on. Today, he HAS to go (more or less) and the snow and wind and roads are nasty.

One of the songs on the Relient K album says "It's always nice to look out the window, and see those very first few flakes of snow... when February rolls around I'll close my eyes, turn a cold shoulder to these even colder skies, by the fire, my heart it heaves a sigh for the green grass waiting on the other side." I am definitely rolling my eyes today. Isn't it spring yet???

Busy, Busy, Busy

The last few weeks before a production are always brutal, but it seems especially bad this time around. Not only am I trying to get ready for "Taming the Wild, Wild, West... In A Dress", I am also up to my neck with regular school work. The kind of constant, brutal work that has me coming home completely wiped out every night. But my to-do list is slowly getting "to-done" and I can see the end in sight. Now if I could just sell some tickets! I have to blur the faces of my cast for privacy reasons, but here's some of our really great promotional posters:

We've got the costumes. We've got the props. We've got the scenery. They've got the talent. Now all we need is the audience. And for them to finish memorizing their lines. *sigh* And for this stupid winter weather to stop cancelling rehearsals. What do you MEAN the next storm for Thursday into Friday has the potential to be "memorable"???!?!?!

Why Lincoln?

Nicky's always been just a little bit obsessed with Abraham Lincoln. Don't ask me why. He came home last weekend with two new library books about Abe, and challenged us to come up with any facts about Lincoln he didn't already know. We lost.

He's even writing an extra credit report about Lincoln for no particular reason. He insisted we buy a special binder and put a picture in the front cover. He's up to about 6 typed pages. So when I saw that the Lehigh Valley Historical Society had an exhibit on Nicky's favorite president, we had to make the time to stop by.

The museum isn't particularly impressive. Three small exhibits showing Civil War memorabilia, the history of Lehigh County, and a tiny energy display make up the whole collection. But the Lincoln display entranced Nick, as did the dedicated guide who showed us around. He showed us each picture and artifact. Nick was enraptured, and took pictures (or had me take pictures) of everything from the clock that was in Ford's Theater on the night of the assassination to the signature on a Congressional memo. I don't really know why Nick reveres Abraham Lincoln so much, but how can I object to such an educational interest?

Sweet Celebrations

A Valentine's Day that falls on the Sunday of a long weekend is a pretty sweet deal. True, we spent most of Saturday running around getting things ready for my upcoming drama production. But Sunday was a great day all around. We got the usual gifts of sugary goodness for our own kids and the boos. Since we had Junior Church, we got to make crafts with the kids for their parents. And our kids gave us the Valentine of the night out.

We checked out the River Grille in Easton. We got a great table in view of the open kitchen and had a delicious and decadent dinner. Scott gave me some beautiful jewelry, and I had a fun bouquet of fruit delivered to his office on Friday. All in all, it was one of our better Valentine's Days.

Snowmageddon 2: Return of the Plow

Okay. Got the big snow this time. Ended up being about 18", and smack in the middle of the school week. We were out all day Wednesday (they called off the night before) and by halfway through Wednesday they were already calling out for Thursday, too. Then I got a 2 hour delay on Friday to boot.

Be careful what you wish for. Now my lesson plans are all messed up and show no signs of being corrected as more and more storms keep causing delays and cancellations. Add in a few team days and a few scheduled holidays and we'll be stuck on the same units forever.

Who asked for this snow stuff??

Snowed In

Well, we didn't get the 18" that Philly picked up, but we woke up this morning to a decent snowfall. Our schools had been closed early on Friday due to the impending storm, but by the time we went to bed, not a single flake had fallen. Ah, well. We still haven't had any snow days this year, so it's no big deal that we lost that hour or two. Although now my one reading class is ahead of the other and yet another drama practice was cancelled, so that's a bummer.

Nick went out to play in the snow, which I think is kid code for get as soaking wet as humanly possible and then track mud all over the house. But he had fun tossing and catching his football, which would disappear completely into the snow every time he missed - it's a very light, powdery snow.

Still, the cold air put roses in his cheeks, and it's not a bad thing at all for him to get some fresh air in February. Kai is at a sleepover, so at least the snowball fighting was kept to a minimum!

It All Started With Some Chinese Food...

At least, that was the running gag for the five days we just spent in the hospital. Here's the long story:

On Saturday, Scott was ill. He had severe stomach pain and indigestion. Eventually, he threw up, so we assumed stomach virus, or maybe something he ate. (Apparently, he thinks eating expired yogurt is a good idea.) By Tuesday, rumors of a stomach bug were in evidence at both of our workplaces, and I had an upset stomach, too, so we figured Scott had just had a bad case of it. His abs were still feeling sore, which we attributed to having thrown up so much.

He was feeling generally better by Wednesday night, so after Nicky's TKD, we opted for take-out Chinese as a treat. The General Tso's pictured above was actually Nick's - we had chicken with broccoli and tried a little Hot and Spicy Shredded Beef, which we agreed was neither hot nor spicy.

Around ten o'clock, Scott tried to lie down on his right side to go to sleep. He was overtaken instantly by viscious pain in his chest and upper abdomen. Long story somewhat shorter, I took him to the ER. Apparently, the magic words in the ER are "chest pains" because they hauled him back to a room and had about 6 techs hooking him up to all manner of equipment fast enough to scare the heck out of both of us. He was still in really bad pain, but as the night went on, it started to ease back a bit. Once they had ruled out heart attack, the pace slowed down. Morphine and what they called a "GI cocktail" of Maalox and Lidocaine ditched the rest of his symptoms. Through blood tests and ultrasounds and various poking and prodding, they determined that Scott had gallstones. So our question was, okay, how do we fix that? Turns out you remove the gall bladder. Now, it's been a LOOOOONG time since life science, and I was a bit shaky on the purpose of the gall bladder. Turns out, it's useful, but fairly optional. Okay.

Then things got weird. Plan A was to figure out exactly how long Scott had been sick. Do they count from Saturday? If so, he has to leave and come back to get the surgery later, cause the gall bladder is probably too inflamed to remove. Do they count from Wednesday? If so, time to have surgery, RIGHT NOW. They needed blood tests to figure it out.

Problem was, the blood tests came back showing elevated liver numbers. This meant a shift to Plan B. If Scott's liver numbers were high, that meant he might have a gall stone in his bile duct. So, before they could decide when and how to operate, they needed to do a procedure called an "ERCP" or something like that. In plain English, they needed to stick a camera down his throat and poke around in his bile duct to get rid of any stones. Cause if the stones went into his pancreas, that was BAD.

So they admit him. I call Cyndy, who rushes to watch the kids, who had been sleeping alone at home. We get half an hour of sleep or so, and spend the day waiting for his procedure. Finally, they say that it will be on Friday at 2:30. At this point, Scott is actually feeling fine, although there are nurses and visitors in every half-hour or so, which precludes any actual rest. (I had used Facebook to send out an SOS and our family and friends were in the know. The visitors and cards were nice, because Scott couldn't sleep anyway.) So most of Thursday passes uneventfully. At least we know WHEN they plan to do the next test. I ran home to shower and came back with everything Scott needed to be as comfy as possible. The kids wound up spending the night at Barry's. We owe Cyndy and Barry big time.

Friday, they take him down for the procedure. They assure me I can just wait outside the door. Scott is a bit nervous, cause, hey, camera down throat. But everyone is acting like it is very simple. An hour passes. Then another. Finally, they wheel him out and he is vomiting all over himself and looks frankly horrible. I try to follow but get stopped by a nurse who wants me to talk to the doctor and not go near the recovery room, but go back upstairs and wait. That's completely not going to happen. I am clear as crystal that I can't go in the recovery room. But I can sure as heck stand in the hallway outside so I can walk him up. Turns out later, he was asking for me from the second he woke up, which I could have told them. Anyway, I talk to the doctor, and he's basically, "I'm sorry, the procedure failed, we couldn't get into his bile duct. Now we have to do an MRI." I was thinking, okay, so if an MRI works, why not do that FIRST? Cause it's a whole lot less invasive. But he insisted that for most people, this works better cause they can get the stones out at the same time this way. Whatever. Didn't work for Scott. So Plan C was do the MRI. If there was a stone in the bile duct, immediate open-abdomen surgery. If not, leave, and come back for a laparoscopic surgery in two weeks.

The day before and Friday morning, Scott had been feeling pretty silly to be in a hospital bed. Frankly, he felt fine, and it was weird to be hospitalized with no symptoms. Not so after the ERCP. All of his old symptoms came back, plus additional post-anesthesia garbage. He was sick and miserable Friday night and Saturday. During this time, he got no word whatsoever about when the MRI might take place. Meanwhile, the kids stayed with Barry again and then with Jon and Laurie. Poor things - bounced all over the place.

Sunday morning, still nothing. So we took to being annoying. Everyone who came in, we asked when Scott's MRI was going to happen. I had left for an hour or two each day to take care of various aspects of our life, and on Sunday, I had to run our car (which thought now was a GREAT TIME to break down) to the mechanic. The brakes had started making dangerous sounds when I delivered the kids to Jon and Laurie's for overnight babysitting on Saturday. When I got back, they were finally wheeling Scott downstairs.

The MRI went smoothly, but we were again back to waiting, with no information being given. We knew that either Scott would get surgery right away, or he would be sent home. Either way, all that needed to happen was for a doctor to look at the MRI. So we waited impatiently until after 5. Finally, I decided I needed to go home and get the kids something to eat.

Trust me. The words "We just won the lottery!" or "We're going to Disney World" have nothing on a phone call saying "Come get me! I can go home!"

The doctors didn't find a stone in the bile duct. So we got to take Scott home late Sunday night. I had to practically lock him in the house to keep him from going to work Monday morning, but I'm glad he didn't because he's been sleeping or staring around exhausted all day.

He has to go back for a follow-up, where they will determine if the multiple antibiotics he is taking have fixed the inflammation. Then, he will need to schedule surgery, and he will probably miss some work after that as well. But at least he's home for now!

Here's the kicker to all of this. Most of you know Scott has lost 96 lbs. Turns out, weight loss can cause gall stones. How much does that suck? He worked so hard to get healthy, and it made him sick!

Thanks all, for your prayers and well-wishes! Please keep Scott in your prayers as he finishes this process out with surgery later in the month.

Me Too, Iguana

Nicky doesn't want to get left out of the project praise this weekend. He also had a project to complete - a poster of Venus. He did a really nice job on it.

Why is he working on it on an unmade bed with unfolded laundry behind him? Well, to tell it like it is, Scott and I are sick. I've had congestion and coughing and sneezing and headaches and stuffed up ears and body aches since Friday. Scott's worse off, though. He ate some expired yogurt and ended up throwing up all night so now he's exhausted and his abdomen muscles are in pain. Considering all of that, it's pretty good that the laundry at least got cleaned, the house is clean except for our unmade bed, the kids' projects are done, groceries were bought, Sunday School was taught, nieces were watched overnight, and the kitty box for our caged cat was replaced. Along with runs to the store for Gatorade, saltines, new printer ink, and various other needful things.

Tomorrow I will probably go to work. Probably. Cause I think I might get more rest there.

Kairi's Rocking Animation Skills

Kairi created this stop-motion animation film using Powerpoint slides and Windows Movie Maker. She changed each slide a little tiny bit, and then saved all 200 slides as .jpeg images. She then used the images to create her movie. It was pretty irritating to her that over 200 slides only made a movie about 2 minutes long (and that was with some of the slides repeating 20 or 30 times so that the characters would dance, talk and sing). Still, not too bad for a thirteen year old screenwriter/animator/director!

It was a project for her science class about the rock cycle, but I'm sure you'll figure that out when you watch. (The video seems to be only sporadically working. If you're dying to see her project, let me know and I'll send you a DVD.)

Not Even Possible

It's not even possible that I just went to a meeting about choosing my daughter's high school classes.

Not even remotely possible.

This course catalog?

Optical illusion.

The whole "this-is-what-she-needs-to-take-to-get-into-college" business? Inconcievable.

'Cause there's just no earthly way Kairi is going to high school next year. I haven't even gotten used to her being a teenager yet.

In fact, didn't I take this picture of her yesterday?

Playoffs? Playoffs?

Who needs the NFL playoffs? (Granted, we might have a slightly different take on that if either of our teams had made it past the first round.) But thanks to the thawing temperatures Scott and Nick had their own playoff round in the backyard.

Granted, football is a bit odd when you have no defense. Or maybe it was no offence. Hard to tell at times.

Basically, it involved a lot of running, catching, and tackling - so that's close enough, isn't it? And I did mention it thawed, right? So it also involved a lot of mud.

While victory celebrations broke out often...

I think the final score may have been "who knows" to "who cares".

P.S. Yes, I know I still haven't figured out how to work my new camera. It was nearly dark, and I was taking pictures out of the second story window. I'll get there!

One Resolution Down

One of my New Year's resolutions was to finally finish my Disney trip report. I didn't include our Disney vacation on this blog since I didn't want to duplicate it in two places.

Our summer vacation story can be found here:

A MouseEars View of Grand Gatherings

Whew! Now all I have to do is read the Bible, catch up on my scrapping, and keep this blog up to date. (Cause there's just no way I'm going back to over 200 lbs, so that resolution is in the bag.)

By the way...

Like my new camera? From Christmas morning on, all the photos on the blog were taken with my new Kodak Z915. It's not exactly the camera I wanted, but it's a million times better than the cheapo replacement for my last camera, and at least several thousand times better than my last good camera. It has a 10x optical zoom, too.

I'm still figuring it out, so my pictures aren't great yet, but I've taken a few that were pretty much beyond the range of my previous cameras. Like a shot of Kai that's reasonably sharp in very low light:

And our Christmas tree without a weird orange glow:

And an extreme close-up of some Hershey kisses:

Maybe someday I'll get an even better camera, but for now I'm lucky enough to have a husband who knows that I can't go without a decent camera for very long! And this one is more than decent. Lucky me!

And My Resolutions, too

The new year is a time for reflection and to find a guidepost for future goals. But for some reason, I'm just not feeling any of that this year. I do know there are things that need to get done, and some places where I can improve myself, so I'll go with this:

1. Keep my weight down. Both Jenn and I lost a lot of weight this year, but we still have some left to go. I want to be able to step on the scale come January 1, 2011, and see a number that indicates a healthy weight.

2. Be more patient. With the children, Jenn, work, traffic, myself...

3. Fix up the house. Finish painting the halls and bathrooms and garage door. Clean up the yard. Tedious work, but I'd be happy when it was done.

4. Read the Bible and pray more. This is always on my list, but never seems to happen. This time, for sure!

Happy New Year!

We had a very low-key New Year's Eve. I've been feeling a bit under the weather this week, and I took a long afternoon nap after sleeping late. When I finally surfaced, we headed out to dinner (Lone Star) and a movie (The Princess and the Frog). I liked the movie better than dinner and I liked dinner quite a lot.

When we left the movie, it was sleety and nasty, so we drove home carefully and spent the next two hours putting away all the Christmas decorations and doing a quick housecleaning. That left us with about half an hour to watch Dick Clark (who just makes me vaguely sad since his stroke) and wait for the ball drop.

My new year's resolutions for this year are:

1) Never. Ever. See a three-digit number starting with 2 on my scale. Ever again.
2) Keep up with this blog.
3) Read the Bible more.
4) Catch up my scrapbooks so that I'm less than 2 years behind.
5) Finish my Disney trip report.

My chances of acheiving those goals? Hmm....

1) I BETTER freakin' acheive that one. I'm so not going back there.
2) Ha! Ha ha ha ha ha.... (Okay, so I'm not starting out with the right attitude there...)
3) I'm going to try - and not just when I'm waiting for church to start.
4) Hm. We shall see. The problem is, I take too darn many pictures.
5) Question is, do I even remember the trip at this point??!!

Ah, well, here goes nothing! Welcome 2010!