Where do I start???

Because I don't have anything else to do at work - we've been banned from Facebook and anything else interesting to do while waiting for patients to show up and I'm in the pediatric pod tonight, thought I would check out my blog. It's been just a "little" bit since I've posted. So, do I post backwards or do I try to catch up here. Always a conundrum for an occasional blogger. I think I may "catch up" and then if anything more is necessary to talk about each item, I will back blog. Is there a "real" term for back blogging? Is is "allowed" per se? So, since December 12, 2008, many many things have happened. I'm getting older, so let me pause and grab my brain - the little generic monthly calendar that sort of keeps me sane. At least I know what I've done recently, sort of.
Christmas 2008 - Christmas at my parents. Sort of bittersweet. We are still grieving and my parents were fantastic. They let us lay around the house for a few days and we did very little. We had already bought the family a present and so we just did the stocking thing and that was about it.
January 9, 2009. There is no heartbeat for our baby. I was completely shocked since I'd had no symptoms whatsover. I saw what they saw, but I'm still hoping that they are wrong. I go home to wait.
January 22, 2009. After almost 2 weeks of waiting and nothing much happening, I am almost psychotic. Nathan and I went to the hospital for a D/C. It wasn't the most horrible thing that has ever happened, but I sobbed afterwards for probably about 10 minutes. Hysterically. Nathan and I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some yarn for a blanket for a memory.
January 23, 2009 Woke up this morning, gave the situation to the Lord and felt tremendously better. Decided to put the yarn away.
January 29, 2009 Pathology came back on the baby. A Partial Molar pregnancy. Essentially, a pregnancy gone wild. I will need blood work done every week x 8 weeks and then every month x 6 months. Joy. If they didn't get everything, the cells could continue to proliferate and would be treated like cancer. I started my blanket today. It's a good dark color for the fantastic dark mood I have suddenly found myself in now.
February 9, 2009. My first lab level is very encouraging. I went from 503 - 99. Wow, this might not take as long as they anticipated! :)
February 16, 2009. Prayed for a zero today. Got a 34. Better, but still have to go back next week.
February 23, 2009. Maybe a zero today? Got a 12. Again, at least it's going down.
March 7, 2009 Mom and Dad celebrated 50th anniversary today. We surprised them with a small party after church on Sunday night. We were doing very well until a old friend stopped by the house and accidently spilled the beans. When we showed up in church, they definitely knew something was up! It was very sweet.
March 23, 2009 I am still getting lab levels of 2. Finally, Dr. Skopec says no more. Today I started my new job in the ER. I am freaked out, but getting home at a normal time and seeing my kids is definitely a plus!!!
April 26, 2009 I got to play in a recital today. I was pretty nervous, but other than the piano kept moving on me - Mozart's Ronda Alla Turca is a difficult piece - it went well. I got an immediate ovation which impressed my husband!!
May, 2009 We went to Minnesota to Andrew and Sarah's home for Mother's Day. It's the first mother's day without Charlotte and no one really wanted to be alone for the day.
May 28, 2009 - Nathan and I went to a State Farm class to learn what it would take to start down that road. He was approached by our SF agent and thought it might be a good opportunity. It's going to be a lot of work if we actually decide to do this.
June 13, 2009 Had my first garage sale of my adult life. What a lot of work for so little money. Probably won't do that again.
June 22, 2009 - Playing the piano again for VBS this year. Amazingly enough, it went much better than last year and still the kids really don't care if I don't hit every note quite correctly! LOVE IT!
June 24, 2009 Got to teach med school vampires today. What a lot of fun. Really enjoyed the opportunity. Makes me wonder if I should continue on the MSN road. Hmmm....
July 10, 2009 Shakespeare Festival. No kids for two days!! We really enjoyed the experience again this year. May have to make it a yearly thing
July 12, 2009 Mom/Dad/Grandma Belding came for a visit. Always enjoy the time spent with family.
July 13, 2009 Artica left for a week of camp today. Wonder who will have a hard time, her or Mom? I had to work today and so Jon and Kerri took her and their kids to camp. I was devastated not to be able to go and settle her in. Annika and I wrote her notes to open right when she got to camp. Hope it helps!
July 19, 2009 - Annika got some pink eye sometime over the weekend. I need to work tomorrow and so I took her to the ER for drops. I get home and find Nathan super dizzy and wanting to go to the ER. We were there until about 1am with nothing found. He saw a neurologist on Tuesday and had an MRI on Friday. Thank God everything is normal, but why is he having these dizzy spells?
August 13, 2009. After a super fun day (in which I got burned really good) at Lake Macbride, I decided to try and cut my own hair. This is not a new thing for me, but I really botched it up. Thankfully, my hair stylist was available on short notice to fix the problem. Nathan came home and although I think he liked it, he thought it was very short.
August 25, 2009 - Helen Smith came over today and helped me can some tomatoes with my own things. I had canned some last year with Amy, but it was all with her things. I was thrilled to get tomatoes done with my own toys. Maybe now I'll be able to get more done because I can repeat what we've done today.
September 2009 We had special meetings today with Kevin Brownfield. What an amazing speaker. Nathan and I were both very blessed by this speaker and have made multiple efforts to improve our spiritual lives.
Found out that I'd been taking the wrong BCP for this whole year. Pharmacy made a mistake and gave me the wrong thing to take. Since I've never taken anything else, I didn't know the difference. Fortunately got on the right stuff and should be okay from now on!
Jim and Micah came to visit for a couple of weeks. It was really nice. Nathan loved the time with his dad. They got so much done around the house. We enjoyed getting to know Micah a little better too.
I made grape juice and jelly from our grapes. That was a very cool feeling. Well, except for the small dot that bounced out of the pot onto my wrist - OUCH!
Annika began preschool this month. We're hoping this was a good decision. We didn't do official Preschool for Artica due to inconvenience, but this is a block away and so we've decided to go for it. She was thrilled and so far has really enjoyed the experience.
October 2009 I was supposed to host a Ladies Soup Supper at the house, but since the girls both had the flu and so did Kerri's kids, no one wanted to come. I just can't imagine why!!
November 8, 2009 - I had another hemiplegic migraine today. I was at work and they thought it was a stroke and of course freaked everyone out in the ER. I ended up going back to the ER by ambulance due to such pain in my head! Poor Nathan - he's been quite through the ringer this year.
November 13, 2009 We had the ladies soup supper finally tonight. It went very well. We're going to start studying the Proverbs 31 woman. The impetus for this series was Charlotte and how EVERYONE considered her as such. It was mentioned so many times during the time in the hospital and funeral.
November 21, 2009 - Nathan and I got to go to a Hawkeye football game. Because of my work in the ER, I got to be the oncall RN in the stands. We had an absolute blast and it was free!!!
November 25, 2009 - We went to MN for Thanskgiving. I thought it might have been a big sad fest, but we did have a few fun moments, although there was a lot of sadness. We got to play with a 10 day old baby. That was a lot of fun.
December 19, 2009 - Had an interesting experience today. I was asked to be a reader in a Catholic wedding. I read several things and a prayer. I just hope that it was what my friend wanted for her wedding. The girls thought the wedding was fun. Nathan wanted to do something nice for his crew and my mom and friend Denise came over and helped me make a LOT of cookies! We put them into some nice tins and everyone enjoyed them.

Doctors appointments

So, because of the big migraine in November, I have a follow up appointment in Neurology. She was not particularly impressed with the situation and told us that I would just have to "grow out of" migraines. That would be when I hit menopause which according to my mother will be in approximately 15 years. That would be nice. However, I did noticed that the date was the exact same date from 5 years ago. So, that would mean on November 8, 2014, 2019 and possibly in 2024, I'd better just stay in bed for the day. She wants me to continue on the Verapamil at half dose to prevent any other fainting episodes. She also said I need to stop taking Ibuprofen if I have a whiff of headache pain. That will be a new practice for me. I'm so afraid of going into full blown headache/migraine that if I have even the smallest pain, I dose myself. Several times a week. You never think it's bad for you to do it. Other people, yes, not for me. Apparently, I was getting the rebound effect and not really realizing it. Okay, we'll see how this goes, but I'm not promising anything. The other thing she mentioned that there was no reason from her perspective that pregnancy should be avoided. Not that we're planning on anything, but you just never know. Maybe later this year??? I also got to have an MRI right after the MD appointment. Apparently, I have a brain that is normal, again. Which is good. Off to the next appointment with my OB/GYN. He doesn't have anything to add, necessarily. Will see him again next year. He just laughed when I told him we had decided to stop the BCP all together due to Dr. Carroll telling us about the massive weight gain he has seen in the past and assured me that he's not seen it that much but it's up to us. He does caution that the family planning method fails most of the time. Hopefully, it doesn't for us.

Baby Shower

Hahaha...thankfully NOT mine. I got to go to a baby shower for a friend at work today. One of our social workers in the ER is expecting but doesn't know what she's having. That makes buying so hard!! I also got to ride with another coworker who also lives in Tipton. We had a great time. I was very happy that this was not for me and have finally decided that I am really okay with just the 2 girls and one angel. She did get quite a few cute things though! It does kind of stir up a few emotions, but overall, it's just thrilled for her!