Long Time....No Blog.....

Well hello everyone!

I know it's been forever since I've found some time to write a post. And no, I don't have the time right now either, but I'm doing it anyway because I'm rebellious and stuff.

So, let's do a quick update shall we?

1) February 2nd was my one year blogoversary! Yep, I completely missed it...'cause I was busy. So, happy late blogoversary to me I guess! I know you're supposed to do some sort of special post on your first blogoversary, and tell all kinds of stuff about yourself, but seriously, I can't think of anything that I haven't already told you all...so, I'm going to join the masses who have been participating in the "Ask me anything" extravaganza. So, you all can ask me anything you like, and I'll answer...I promise...unless you ask me something I don't want you to know, LOL!

2) You may recall that last year for Valentine's Day, I got a dishwasher. This year, you'll never guess what I got...

That's right, David finally pooped in the potty! (Yes, it was actually a picture of him with his poopies, but I "PhotoShopped" it to make it bloggable) The last frontier of potty training has been conquered, and we are now officially a BIG BOY!!! We even go out of the house in our big boy pants! Yippee!! Yahoo!! And Hallelujah!!!

3) I had my 6 month checkup with my kidney specialist last month, and I finally got a decent report back. For those of you who are new, I have this kidney disease which requires that I take medication 5 times a day, and get regular kidney function and bone density tests done. I have the Type I--Distal RTA version. Anyway, I've been having to go up to Dallas every 6 months for testing and adjusting of my medication. We have been working for over a year, trying to get the levels just right. While they are not yet quite what we were at first shooting for, my doctor has decided that we're good enough, and we're going to stick with 5 pills a day, and I can wait a whole year before I have to go back and be re-tested! Here's what I didn't know...the medicine can cause me to get a different kind of kidney stone than I normally get because of the disease, so they don't want to give me too much of it. And that leads me to...

4) I currently have a kidney stone...sigh. I've been having pain off and on for about a month, but in the past two weeks, it's pretty consistent which just leads me to conclude that I do have another stone...ugh! If you wouldn't mind praying that it would pass on it's own, I'd appreciate it. I'm not in the mood for another surgery right now, and besides, I'm too busy, and I can't afford it. Which leads me to....

5) My husband is wearing a specialized brace on his left hand because he apparently had an old injury to that hand that had built up calcium deposits, and then he somehow knocked said deposits off leaving the area inflamed and causing him so much pain that he couldn't even turn a doorknob. I took him to the Urgent Care Center over the weekend, and they thought it might be broken, but referred him to an Orthopedic Specialist. The Specialist is the one who came up with the above diagnosis and gave him the special brace and prescribed a week of steroid treatments. If the steroids work and the pain goes away, he doesn't have to go back, but if it doesn't, he goes back to the orthopedist next week to try something else. So, while you're praying, if you could just pray that the steroids work, that would be just great! You see, I'm normally the one who racks up the medical bills around here, and he's using up all my medical fund money for himself!

6) Let's move on to happier things shall we? Let's update on the kids! The oldest three are all taking gymnastics, which by the way is my favorite of all their activities. At gymnastics, there are no parents allowed. So, I sit in my van, put a movie on for the little boy, and I READ A BOOK for 45 uninterrupted minutes! It's heaven I tell you, heaven.

And baseball season officially starts this weekend. We've been having practice all month, but the first tournament in this weekend. I only have Benji playing this year, so I'll get to attend every game and not have to feel bad about missing someone else's!

7) Finally, the annual cake show was this weekend, and I know I told you all that I was going to enter the diaper bag cake this year, but I didn't enter anything because it's just been so busy around here trying to keep up with school, and me being in pain and all with this kidney stone. However, I did get to meet Tracye in real life! She and I met here on the blog, and since she lives only a couple of hours from here, I invited her to the cake show, and not only did she come, she entered the competition! She entered this cake...(and yes, she checked first to make sure I wasn't entering mine)

Isn't that amazing? Can you believe she didn't win anything with that cake? I'm telling you, the competition is fierce at those shows! In the next few days, I'll post some pictures of some of my favorites and what prizes, if any, they won.

8) Finally, I've been reading some really good books lately that I thought I'd recommend to you all. I absolutely LOVED "The Christmas Blessing" by Donna VanLiere. It is the sequel to "The Christmas Shoes" and it's filled with the miracles of God, and running...two of my favorite things! I've also just finished another Angela Hunt book titled "The Note". It was very different from "Doesn't She Look Natural", but it was really, really, good. I've been told it's a movie too, so I'll have to check that out. Next on my list is "The Friday Night Knitting Club" by Kate Jacobs. It comes recommended by Barb so I'm really looking forward to reading it. I've also been invited to join in a blog book tour, so I'm going to jump at the chance, and I'm sure I'll have lots of book reviews and giveaways to go along with that coming soon!

So, that's it for now. I've been sitting here on my behind for way too long. I have not yet mastered the 10 minute post a'la Barb. I really need to learn how to write one of those, LOL!