Interesting Week Rewind

On Monday evening after returning from Michelle's house, I picked up some super cute 40th birthday balloons to take to my friend Cathy. I texted her to make sure she was at home (and not out on the town) only to find out that she was deathly ill at home with a 103 fever and her husband had to work late! 

After some texting we established that she needed some Powerade for herself, and cheeseburgers for her kids. I got to her house to deliver the balloons, a gift, the Powerade, the cheeseburgers and the cutest mini cake you ever did see and found her in a state of great woe. I tried to help with her two kids (ages 4 and 6) until her husband got home at 9:00. He then took over and I ended up taking her to the ER to rule out Meningitis! 

Two rather hilarious (she's a character) hours later we found out she has a new strain of the flu brought in from California and that it lasts for 7-10 days! It was a super memorable 40th birthday for sure!

I ended up getting to bed about 3 hours past my desired bedtime and woke up with a migraine! I have never called-in sick to work before, so I texted my boss and went back to bed. I slept until 10:45 and woke up feeling much, much better. When I woke up the second time, the house was empty and it was actually snowing outside!

We were having our Scout Court of Honor that night and I needed to organize and label all the awards for it (which I would have done the previous night if I'd been home), so it worked out nicely that I was able to stay home and get all of that stuff ready. It was my first time and I was clueless about what I was doing, but felt pretty good about things by the end.

The Court of Honor went really well and now I think I'm starting to understand Scout stuff (I never really paid attention before) and am feeling more motivated and less daunted than I had been feeling just days before. (Landon took this picture of me, I have no idea what I was saying.)

They had a slide show with photos from last summer's 50-miler, this is a shot of Landon.

They had some of the boys and leaders share some details from the week-long adventure (which are quite incredible to hear) and Landon was one of the participants. I'm so glad he got to go on that amazing adventure, and feel so grateful that they all made it home safely (the stories they tell are clear evidence of the Divine intervention involved to keep them safe!). He's one merit badge away from being ready to work on his Eagle project!!! I need to put his badges on his sash (we just bought it this week) so he can be outfitted like Nick!

After the Court of Honor I dashed over to Amy's house (I got there at 9:00!) for book club. They had started at 7:30, but were kind enough to move it to Amy's house so it would be closer for me to get there late. We discussed the book for a bit (I gave it 3.5 stars on Goodreads) but as always, the personal conversations are the best part of the night.

It snowed again for real (not just a skiff) on Friday and it was the first time of the entire winter there was enough snow to play in! Whitney invited her friend Sally over for snow fun and hot chocolate.

**How was your week?

Did you get any snow?

Ever had an ER adventure with a friend?**

Comment Window Tidbit: This has been a good Saturday so far.

Why Do I Bother??

I haven't officially made a list of New Year's Resolutions yet, but one of the things I've been thinking about is pushing myself to get out of the house and do more. Whenever I read Kristi's blog and see all the fun things they do in D.C. I find myself wondering how she does it and why. I am such a homebody that I have no problem staying home reading in the cozy, doing laundry, blogging, and so on...those things make up good days for me. It's not the stuff of great life experiences though, so I want to push myself to get out there more.

So last Saturday when Lori and Robyn were making plans to go see the Body World Exhibit I decided to go too. I had only heard great things about it and knew I'd be sad if I missed the chance to go.

Today was the day. I woke up early enough to shower and get ready, check my email, eat breakfast and basically be in good spirits for the day.


As we were driving to Salt Lake it was obnoxiously bright outside (freakish winter sunshine) but I was thinking happy thoughts, had my sunglasses on and was willing myself NOT to get a headache.


It was exciting to get there and see the huge sign on the building. I was feeling so proud of myself and thought "I'm doing it!" We got there right on time (we had tickets for 10:00) and got in the line for 10:00 ticket-holders. The employee said it takes about 35 minutes to make it through the line, and that seemed doable.

Robyn, Lori and I chatted as we moved through the Disneyland-like line so it wasn't too bad. It seemed like it was moving along well enough, but just when we thought we'd finally made it through to the exhibit we had to go up two flights of stairs and then stand in another line! ($%#!) Our total line time was just over an hour and I was already starting to feel DONE.

We were holding our coats and purses (I wish I hadn't even brought them inside) and standing for so long that even though I was wearing comfortable shoes (I'm no fool) my feet still hurt. I was totally psyching myself up though and recalling the Hellish waiting involved when the book club girls went to Giverny on France's Labor Day. That ended up being totally worth it, so I didn't want to give up before we'd even begun.

{Sort of fake crying after making it into Giverny}

We FINALLY got into the exhibit (hallelujah) but found it to be super crowded. Adam and Amy had warned us that when they went on New Year's Eve (and only had to wait 10 minutes to get in by the way) it was crowded when they first got in the door, but that they just moved on it was fine. Um...that was NOT the case for us.

We spent 2 hours shuffling around in the dark (except for the very bright spotlights on the exhibits) with hordes of people (who we were stuck with for the duration). It was overly hot in there (as museum exhibits always are, they're my curse) so carrying my coat and purse didn't help matters at all.


The items in the exhibit were amazing to see. As I looked at all the intricate details that make-up the human body I found myself wondering how anyone could look at this and not believe in God. The human body is no accident, everything was designed so perfectly.


I would have enjoyed the experience more if it hadn't been so crowded, but I'm still glad I saw it. This is embarrassing, but one of the highlights for me was the free notebook we got at the end.


We were so dead and so starving after 3 hours of that and were so happy to be sitting down to eat at Buca di Beppo.


It was like Christmas morning when the food arrived, and we began to perk up and talk more as we ate. We had seriously been running on empty at before that and had just been sitting there like defeated lumps.

{Photo from Lori's camera}

We felt so much better after we ate that we decided to go to a movie as well. I took a migraine pill after we ate because I feared my headache would escalate into something ugly, but was optimistic.

It was nice to walk outside in the cold (I love the cold after I've been too hot for a long time) and to be going to a movie. We went to see "Bride Wars" at The Gateway (I didn't even take pictures of us there, not even a self-portrait of the 3 of us). Towards the end of the movie I started to feel light-headed, flushed and panicky when I thought about how far away from home we were.

Poor Lori, the drive home was a silent one since I was trying not to lose it completely and since Robyn had a sinus headache too. I felt like I needed to apologize to her, but there is just no reasoning with a migraine.

I came home to an empty house (praise heaven) and went to bed for an hour then woke up recovered (4.5 hours after taking the pill). Sweet Fancy Moses, what a day! It was brutal in such a wussy way. Seriously, why do I bother to try to do fun things?

P.S. Congratulations and apologies if you made it through this post.

**Have you seen this exhibit?
Does standing in lines suck the life out of you?
Do crowds make you grumpy?
Should I bother?**

Highway Robbery

I went to pick up my Relpax refill the other day at the pharmacy drive thru (oh how I love it that they have a drive thru!) and the pharmacy employee said, "Are you aware that this is 137 dollars?" After I regained my composure I told I was NOT aware that it would be that much, and asked her if that was for 6 pills or 12? She said it was for 6!! That makes it $22.83 per pill! Of course, when I am plagued with a migraine I would gladly pay $22.83 to get rid of it, but they don't sell these pills one at a time. I ended up telling her I'd have to come back because I wasn't sure about paying that much.

I'm not really sure now what the debate was because I have to have the Relpax, it just seemed outrageous at the time and I wasn't sure how that was going to fit into our pre-payday finances. Aargh! It's delightful being uninsured...

**Would you have paid it?
What's the most expensive prescription
you've ever had to buy?
Are you insured?**

Miscellaneous Monday

1. Thanks for all the topic ideas and questions, they're all good ones and will be answered at some point though right now they seeming a bit daunting. I'm going to need to dig out and scan some old photos to answer some of them and I'm going to need to take some new photos to answer others, it's like a project but different.


2. Yesterday's peaceful Sabbath ended up giving me a killer migraine (oh the humanity!). It was brutal and involved me lying in my dark bedroom willing it to end while the Relpax tried to work its magic, then eating dinner with the family while wearing sunglasses (the kids found this highly amusing), then back to the bedroom for another hour. I finally surfaced migraine free at 8:45 and joined the family to watch the end of "Elf". I'm so grateful that Relpax works on my migraines, but am now totally bummed out because I used my last one and they are quite pricey to refill, especially now that we don't have insurance.


3. Last Thursday, I picked Eva up from preschool and took care of her for a few hours while Michelle was on a field trip with Lucas. Eva and I played for over an hour. I thought it was funny that while we were playing with her Little People house I wanted the baby to take a long nap. I found myself discoursing on the importance of the baby taking a long nap and how it will make her feel better and not be grumpy later and how the mom and dad need a break. Sheesh, you'd think I had to deal with a baby daily and yet my baby just turned 8!


4. I've been taking some pictures of babies lately and have had fun with that. It's nice to be able to earn some money while providing families with pictures of their sweet kids. Every time I do this I find myself thinking how crazy it is that my untrained hobby has turned into something more.


5. I really need to have a meeting with myself about Christmas. I'm not feeling very Christmasy yet, but must get over that so that I'm not scrambling at the last minute. It just seems like I always get my best ideas when I'm just about out of time, it's cruel.

**Do you get migraines?
Do you always want babies to sleep?
Have any of your hobbies turned into something more?
Have you had a meeting with yourself about Christmas?**