Pain and Agony

It's been an interesting week here at our house. Monday, Orion went to the Vet to have a huge lump taken off his front leg. You should be glad I didnt' take any photos of it - it was pretty gross. He's been fighting us to lick his new stitches, which resulted in one falling out and him going in for staples today. This is his new look, which he loves. It's kinda funny to watch him come up stairs. He just doesn't get that he needs to lift his head a little for the cone not to hit the stairs.

The other fun thing is that my back went out on Wednesday. It had been hurting me for about a week, but I thought it was just normal back pain. Wednesday I got ready for work, and it really hurt. I wasn't even able to wash my feet in the shower! Just when I was going to leave, the pain got so bad, I yelled for Dh and called into work. A couple of hours later, I took a left over muscle relaxer that Dh had (I know it's not good for you, but I was desperate!), and tried to make it to the bathroom. That ended up with me in the middle of the living room floor screaming and moaning for a couple of hours. The dogs weren't too happy about that! After another muscle relaxer, I was able to get up, go to the bathroom, and go to bed. I finally went to the Dr on Thursday, got my own muscle relaxers, and some super Ibuprophen, so things are finally on the mend. I'm still in some pain and haven't been able to do too much, but it's slowly getting better. The worst of it all, after the pain, is that I wasted 3 days of vacation for this!! I only get 13 to begin with! (including sick time). I guess I'll be at work for all of 2009!

Scrapbook Hangover

It is impossible to have a bad weekend when things like this happen.I miss everyone already! Can't we just get together and scrap instead of working?

Wow! That's Cold!

This was the temperature at 7:30am today. The top temp is inside our house, the bottom one is outside. Notice there is no "." between the 2 and the 5.
Yes, that's -25. Good luck this weekend, Alli and Linda! Welcome home! :)


This past Sunday, we celebrated Dh's birthday with my family. After a little while, we showed our nephew the Wii. He LOVED it. Here he is bowling. He didn't want to stop for dinner and didn't want to leave. I guess I know what he's doing every time he comes over from now on!
The other part of this picture that I love is our niece with her backpack on. It's a Disney Princess backpack that has a handle so you can wheel it around, and straps so you can wear it on your back. She had that thing loaded with her "Odies" (that's the name of every baby doll she has) and everything else she brought. It's amazing that little body can hold all of that up.

While the nephew was playing the Wii, my brother and niece sat on the stairs for a little bit. I thought this was cute. This weekend is going to be great - it's the annual scrapbooking retreat! Last year, it was the coldest weekend, I think we might hit that again this year. I haven't scrapped in a long time, so I'm hoping to get a lot done. I'll post pics when I get back.

Peeps

Yes, these are Halloween Peeps. I purchased them this fall to use for s'mores (like a creme brulee s'more!) Since then, they have been sitting on top of my fridge waiting for the perfect time to eat them. The reason? I love dried out marshmellows, especially peeps! They get crunchy and oh so good! Anyone else love their peeps this way?

Christmas 2008

Christmas was strange this year. We got stuck in Ohio until Christmas Eve because of really bad weather. I've never missed Christmas in 31 years. It was a little hard, but I guess I'd rather miss it than be stuck somewhere in the snow. Christmas Day we went to my brother's house. It was nice to see everyone, and we did get to see the niece and nephew open a lot of their gifts.

My niece got a kitchen set from my parents. Needless to say, she was pretty excited. I couldn't catch her dance of joy with the camera! Here's the fuzzy version. The kitchen took about 2 hours, a couple of beers, and a lot of swearing to assemble. We are still cursing my Mom for getting that thing! Oh well, at least the niece was happy.

My nephew got a really cool Rambo type Nerf gun. He and Dh had a great time with it. They disappeared into the basement for hours playing with it. I'm surprised Dh hasn't asked for one for his birthday! Dh and my nephew then watched The Incredibles together. I love that they get along so well. Does that mean I'm married to a 5 year old? :) Oh well. I'd rather have someone who acted young than acted old.

Back to Blogging

Dh and I are back from Ohio now. We got back on Christmas Eve, which meant I missed Christmas with my extended family. It made me sad, but I was glad we didn't get caught in any bad weather. I'll post more about our time there later. Here's what I was going to post last week before we had to leave.

On December 13, my Mom, SIL and I went to my aunt's house again to make Norwegian goodies. (See what we did last year here) This year we made Fattigmand, Krum Kake, Rosettes, and Sandbakkels.

Here we are making the Krum Kake.
This is the lard (yes you read that correctly!) that we defried the fattigmand and rosettes in. I had actually found a set of rosette irons in my Grandma E's garage when we were cleaning out her house. It was fun to use them. Here my aunt is giving a lesson on how to roll out the fattigmand. The dough had to be tissue paper thin. Here we are taking the sandbakkels out of the mold after baking them. I'm so glad that I'm able to learn how to make something from my heritage. Plus, everything is SO yummy! :)

Sadness *Updated*

We got notice today that Dh's grandpa isn't doing good. We're expecting to leave for Ohio tomorrow. I'm hoping for the best, but knowing that the worst is soon to come. Both of my grandpa's have been gone for many years. He actually called me his granddaughter. I know this is cryptic, but that's sort of how I feel. I'd appreciate any prayers or good thoughts.

*Dh's grandpa passed away earlier this morning. We'll be leaving for Ohio after I get done with work. *

The Map is DONE!

It was an exciting day here at our house earlier this week. Dh's grandparents gave us a US quarter map back in 1999, and I have been diligently filling it up ever since. I've had a hard time finding Hawaii, but Dh came home with 4 of them in his change this week! Now, the collection is complete. Some of the coins are a little tarnished now, so I'll have to clean them up. Eventually, this will get framed and displayed, but for now it lives on the floor under a dresser in our guest bedroom. We certainly know how to treat our important stuff! :)

Our tree is up and all of the lights are on. I can't remember how many lights we have on there, but about 3/4 of the way done, Dh said there was 1800. It's 10.5 feet tall. Hopefully we'll get to actually putting ornaments on it tonight. This is the first time we've had this up in 2 or 3 years, so either way it's nice to look at.
It's been raining here for most of the morning and now the temperature has dropped to 14 degrees last I checked. That makes for some great times outside. I was going to watch my nephew's Christmas program at church and then go to brunch with some friends, but had to cancel because I didn't want to get stuck in this. Hopefully it will be better by tomorrow. I don't want to try to go to work on ice!

The Soup: Clip Of The Week 11/28/08

I LOVE this clip! Evil, genius weimaraners! If we left the dogs out all day, I'm sure this would happen at our house. The look the dog has when she's trying to take away the peanut butter is exactly how Orion looks when we try to take away something he shouldn't have. It's like "what? I don't have anything in my mouth!"

Ever wonder what special hell is waiting for you?

Just in case you weren't sure what level of hell I was going to be on, now you know. Let me know if you're going to join me! I'm shocked about the violent part...

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Third Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Moderate
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Moderate
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Moderate
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Very High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

Thanksgiving Wrap-up

We got back from Ohio on Sunday after a quick trip there for Thanksgiving. We spent a lot of time playing the Wii, which was a blast. I think just about everyone there tried playing something! Mario Kart was the big hit! Here I am giving Mario Kart lessons.
There was 18 of us for Thanksgiving. Everything was really good, but we still had too much food left over!
Friday night we all went out for Dh's grandparent's 40th wedding anniversary. It was really nice to be there to help them celebrate!
I wish we lived closer so we could see each other more often, but at least we had a great time while we were there!

Turkey Day - Here we come!

Dh, the dogs and I are leaving for the great state of Ohio early Wednesday morning. It's a 12 hour drive and we have to get through Chicago without going through rush hour, so we'll probably leave before 5am. Fun times! I'm a HORRIBLE car traveler. Or, maybe I should phrase that I'm horrible for the person driving. I get in a car and I'm asleep. I will probably sleep for a good 10 hours of the trip, which makes for good company. And then when we get there, I'm still tired. Go figure.

The reason we're going to Ohio is to celebrate Thanksgiving with the inlaws. Dh grew up there, and most of his extended family is there. It'll be nice to see everyone again. I'm excited to play everyone on the Wii - it should be funny!!

I hope everyone has a good turkey day!

Getting Better

Orion wanted to thank everyone for their concern over his tooth coming out. He's been resting (as you can see) and building his strength back. Monday he was acting a little weird, but starting Tuesday, he was pretty much better. He never stopped eating and has been sitting near where the bones are for me to get them out for him. Yeah, like I just spent all of that money for him to break a tooth again!! He'll be on antibiotics another week and one more day of pain pills. Now if he can stay away from chewing so much, I think he'll be good. Oh, and Baron is NOT happy about all of the attention Orion is getting. He would like to get back to being the dog that is babied as soon as possible!

Retote Offer

If you shop at Target as much as I do, check this out! You can send in 5 plastic Target bags and get a coupon for a Retote bag in January! Go here to get more details - but hurry, you have to get this in by November 30th to receive your free bag. I'd love one of these for those few times I don't have a huge amount of stuff that I've bought, then I wouldn't have to use a plastic bag!

Not Quite What I Was Expecting

So today we got up, expecting to go Christmas shopping. I was putting the dogs in their kennels, when I noticed that Orion's right side of his face was swollen. I called Dh to check it out, and the first thing he says is, I bet he's got a bad tooth. Great. I called the vet and got him in right away. Yep, he's got two cracked teeth. We got him some antibiotics and pain pills and he's scheduled for surgery Monday. So after $100 today and probably $500 on Monday, Christmas shopping was the last thing we wanted to do. We did get two presents, but the rest of it will have to wait. Oh well. How can you be mad at a face like this? That bump by his right ear is the swollen part. Of course he's eating fine (he would eat everything in the fridge if we let him!), but he does seem a little tired. At least it's only November and we have plenty of time to finish our Christmas shopping. So much for starting early!

Christmas in November

Guess what I'm doing tomorrow? Christmas shopping! Better to be early than late, right? It should be interesting, Dh doesn't like to shop unless it's at Cabela's or something similar, and I don't think everyone on our list will enjoy something from there. Hopefully things will go smoothly and we'll get a lot done. It would be nice to have a big chunk of my list crossed off already! Then I can just worry about Christmas cards, always a hard one for me.
Have you seen the new show on TLC called Real Simple, Real Life? It's by the magazine, Real Simple (my favorite), and they take someone who needs help in a couple areas of their life - organizing, decorating, fitness, food, wardrobe, etc - and then their experts come and help them out. I'm really loving it. Even if I don't have the same issues as the person on the show, I can usually take away something from it - AND it's entertaining. Gotta love that. So if you're not doing anything on a Friday night at 7pm CST, check it out! Plus, the host is Kit from the original Road Rules! I used to LOVE that show!

Yes, this is what I want my 300th post to be about

Is anyone else sick of this ad? This woman with her creepy eyes - enough already! At first I thought it was spam, but I have literally seen this ad on every type of website. I hope she got good money for this. I, for one, am SICK OF IT!!

The Last of the Fall Weekends

On Sunday, Dh and I went to my parent's house to celebrate my brother's birthday. The niece and nephew got bored, so they went out to play in the leaves. Of course I had to follow with the camera.

My nephew wanted to rake up the leaves to jump into, and got pissed whenever his sister tried to go into them. So my brother raked up some leaves for her. The the nephew had to run through those leaves as well, still not allowing his sister to go through his pile. Ah, the good ol' sibling logic!They both had a great time. I'm glad I was able to catch some of it before I froze! That's what I get for going outside without a coat!

Let It Snow?

Yes, this was my deck a few short hours ago. Luckily, most of it has melted. I'm sure Alli and Linda are both laughing right now. Oh yeah? Well, I still have Archivers, so you can take your warm weather and blow it out your nose! :)

Election

Election day - what a great thing that we are able to make our voices heard and elect people to represent us. I wish there would have been different choices in the Presidential election, but you gotta deal with what's there. This is the first time that I have voted for someone who has not won the election. Kinda strange, but what's done is done. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the next 4 years. Regardless, this is history making. Change is always scary, but usually ends up being good. I hope that the new administration is able to get the economy back on track. I would think that would be job one. And if you're curious, no, it's not easy to get Orion to pose with a "I voted" sticker on.