Easter 2012

For Easter this year, we headed up to Taos to spend it with my parents, Grandma and Grandpa Cookie. Henry and his brothers had planned a trip to Dallas for the same weekend with none of us realizing that it would be Easter weekend. I guess that is what happens when Easter comes the first week of April.

I took the pop-up and set it up in my parents yard. My niece Cathy went up with me and the kids on Friday. My sisters and their families followed that evening and the next day.

We celebrated Easter on Saturday at my Grandma Elsie's. We barbecued, hunted eggs and just sat around enjoying each others company. It was a nice day with family.

Everyone got into the action of coloring eggs (my sisters were not in Taos yet).

Coloring eggs with Cathy.

Me and my babies.

Ally and Ryan hunting for eggs.

Baby Daniel getting some help from Cathy.

Ally found an egg!

Ryan also found one, but can't quite reach it.

Enjoying family time.

Happy Easter!

Finances - Julie Style

So if you know me you know that I love:

Yard Sales

The Auction

and Clearance

I have convinced myself that anything I buy on clearance is like making us money.

With that said, I have been trying for years to convince Henry to buy us dune buggies/go carts to go cruising on the mesa. I'm still working on it.

Now, I have looked at these Razor Go-Karts for a couple years, for the kids. But, I could not bring myself to spend $300 on each one. So one random day during spring break I went to Wal-Mart (I never go to Wal-Mart - I detest Wal-Mart). Lo and behold, at the entrance they had a bunch of clearance items. There were a lot of electric scooters and such. And at the bottom of the pile, there were 2 Razor Go-Karts on clearance for $100!

How can I not buy them? I told the kids happy early birthday and bought them the Go-Karts.

I swear, I'm making us money.

Spring Break 2012

A couple weeks ago my kiddos and I had our spring break. This year was pretty low key when compared to previous years. Last year we cruised southern California for spring break. Other years the kiddos and I have cruised southern NM and El Paso. This year we hung around Albuquerque for the majority of the break.

We did spend one day of spring break at Explora Museum, which we love (after all, we are members). Both my sisters, my niece Cathy and my nephew, Baby Daniel, also went with us. We first had a picnic at the park, where the kids rode their scooters around the park. From there we went to Explora and spent the day just playing around.

Here is a picture of me and Baby Daniel as he is amazed by the exhibit. I give his mom a hard time that she does not take him out to places like this and that he is visibly in such awe looking at the exhibit.

The last weekend of spring break we headed to Jal for my father-in-laws 60th birthday (see next post). On the way down to Jal (a 6 hour drive), we stopped in Roswell and went to the UFO Museum. As many times as we have driven through Roswell (over 13 years now), we have never visited the UFO Museum. You know, I don't believe in UFO's where as Henry does. He also has our kiddos believing in UFO's. Well, after visiting the museum, and seeing (or shall I say reading) all the "evidence", it sure puts some doubts/questions in your mind.

Wow, an aerial view of the crash site.

Oh wait, it's just a model.

In Jal we spent time with Henry's parents, his brothers, Travis (and his family) and Sam, Grandmama, Aunt Irene, and Aunt Carol. I love going to Jal because it is so tiny and their is nothing to do there that you are forced to slow down. A few of us walked (or scootered) to Jal Lake and fed the ducks. We walked to the Allsups a couple times for treats. We barbecued and roasted marshmallows. It was a nice, slow time with family.

Follow up to "What is Going On"

So here is an update on how Henry and I are doing health wise (in case the posts "What the heck is going on I and II" scared the heck out of you).

Henry has not been in pain, nor needed painkillers in over a week. His doctor and him have figured out that within 3 days of getting off an antibiotic, Henry would develop more lesions and infection. This would force him to be popping hyrdrocodone's throughout the day. Now, he is on an antibiotic indefinitely and is feeling back to normal. He has one more procedure coming up and then we should definitely have a diagnosis (most likely Crohn's Disease).

I am not feeling as bad as I had been feeling. My face in no longer going numb every now and then (a symptom I forgot to mention in an earlier post). However, I am feeling exhausted like never before. I do not like to take naps, but have found that I almost need one everyday. I am working part-time which really helps. However, a couple weeks ago I worked all day for couple days and I sure paid for it during the weekend. On that Saturday I took Ally to her volleyball game then took Ryan to his basketball game. I was feeling so weak and empty. When one of the kids would lean on me, pain would radiate where they were touching me, and the little energy I did have would disapear. The kids have learned to ask me "can I lean on you or are you hurting?" :( Like I stated earlier, I need to take time to nap or at the least, relax for a least an hour everyday. I will soon be making a doctors appointment to see if there are different avenues I could pursue to help with the exhaustion.

On that note . . . WOW, the doctor bills are flying in. In the last week I have paid over $500 in doctor bills. And I'm sure more are on the way. But you know what? We are blessed. We have health insurance (which many people don't) and we are blessed to be able to pay the bills. God will provide.

I only put this picture in because Charlene said she doesn't like posts that don't have pictures. Enjoy ;)

Ryan Plays Basketball

Ryan really enjoyed playing basketball. We signed him up in January and he played 7 games. His team was the Wolf Pack. His coaches were great. They made sure every player played an equal time and that each player actually got to get the ball a few times. This was a really good thing because there were 3 or 4 kids on his team that wanted to be the hero. They would not pass the ball and they would tell the more passive kids to pass them the ball.

Ryan struggled with offensive. Like I stated in the previous post, my kids are very passive. Turns out that basketball is a very aggressive sport. Ryan would not be one to get in the mix of players and fight for the ball. Add this to the fact that some of his teammates were not great at passing (sharing) the ball. However, during one game, one of Ryan's teammates passed him the ball and he made a basket! It was awesome.

Now Ryan loved basketball because he was awesome at defense. You should have seen the hustle on that boy was he was told to guard a player. It was awesome to see him play play with such determination.

He was not going to let anyone get around him.

Here he is fighting for the basketball.

Here he is ready to guard.

I love this picture. Look at everyone's face. It is like this is the shot that determines the national championship. Even the coaches are leaning over trying to see if the ball is going to go in the basket. Look at Ryan jumping in the air.

I am glad he had a chance to experience playing basketball. We did not sign him up for the next session. Instead, he is moving on to baseball. Stay posted for those pictures.

Ally is in Volleyball

Well Henry's dream has finally come true. Ally has joined volleyball. I don't know why this was Henry's dream. But has always said that he wanted his daughter to play volleyball. Go figure. She began volleyball in January and has played in 7 games. Her team is called the Angels. Ally enjoyed it so much that we have signed her up with the same team for another session.

Here she is waiting for the serve.

As a team, the girls are working on returning serves. It is difficult for them to judge where that ball is going to land. So, they will often set-up to return a serve just to miss it because they were to far back or the ball went behind them. However, in our last game, they returned the ball at least 5 times, which was huge.

Ally quickly learned how to serve. When she was in soccer everyone said she had a power kick like no other. Well, it seems that she also has a power arm. She is really good at serving. In one game she scored 6 points on serves alone.

Ally really enjoys volleyball, as you can see in this picture.

You know my kids are a lot like me and Henry. They are very passive. Which is a great trait. However, when it comes to many sports, you must play aggressively. When Ryan and Ally were both in soccer, we would see their passiveness on the field. They would not "fight" for the ball. They would kick the ball if it came to them. However, they would not get into the mix of kids and try to get the ball. Volleyball is not an aggressive sport. Everyone has their position on the court and everyone has a turn to serve. I think this is why Ally enjoys volleyball. Everyone gets a turn and you don't have to "fight" for it.

What is Going On? (Part II)

So Henry has not been the only one to be dealing with the stresses of health. If you read the previous post, you see that Henry (and our family) were dealing with more than his fair share of health issues.

Well not to be out done, my health decided it wanted it's fair share of attention. Now I don't tell everyone (especially my mom, because she often starts crying due to my health), but I have felt like crud (a family friendly word) for the past 3 to 4 months. I mean I have felt bad. Constantly tired. Constantly achy. No energy for anything. You know, just feeling all around MS'y. I saw my neurologist in the beginning of December and he was concerned that I am seeing an increase in multiple sclerosis symptoms. He increased my medication for fatigue and ordered an MRI to see if there are any new lesions on my brain which would indicate that my MS is progressing.

At the same time that this is going on (don't forget Henry's stuff) I had to have 2 follow ups with my primary care doctor because blood work from my physical, in June, shows a steady decline of my platelets. So, I was finally referred to a hematologist to see if he could figure out what was going on. I didn't think anything of it until I had to make the appointment and discovered that the doctor is a hematologist/oncologist. Heck, they just call him oncologist. Damn. Really? This is where we are now? So I go to that appointment and he orders a plethora of blood work and an ultrasound of my liver, kidneys, spleen and anything else in there. He explained that a drop of platelets can indicate a cancer and he wanted to make sure everything looked okay. Here we go.

A lot of praying was going on in our immediate and extended family. Like I said in the previous post, it was a rough holiday season for us. You can not help but fall into a depression. I started thinking what if this is our story? What if my kids lose both their parents at a young age? I have a friend whose mother died when she was 19 (from Lupus) and then her dad (from a heart attack) when she was 20. They never met their grand kids. Was this what my kids would be facing? So Henry is in constant pain with no answers and I have doctor appointment after doctor appointment with a bunch of blood work in between.

My mom kept telling us that we were handling everything so well. I think we did. Because, we just have to believe God has a plan. Everything we go through is for a reason and God is in control of all of it. We still were in a depression (I sometime think I still am), but I know God has a plan.

So for the good news. MRI came back showing no new lesions. Ultrasound came back with my spleen slightly enlarged, but not to a point of worry. I will see my hematologist (let's not call him oncologist) in 6 months. I don't have to see my neurologist for a year. And my last blood work showed my platelets went up a little bit (yay).

I decided to become proactive about my MS and did some internet research. Found that milk may increase exacerbation's in people with MS. So I cut out my morning Greek Yogurt (not easy to do), my cheese sticks, and my cups of chocolate milk. I am still working on not eating ice cream. But, the first day without milk products I felt so much better. I have also stopped sleeping with an electric blanket and taking hot baths/showers (even though I love them so much) because they also increase exacerbation's. I am still low in energy, but not feeling terrible.

I have gone to working part-time since I was feeling so bad. I am enjoying having some extra time with the kids and being able to do a few errands/chores before they get home from school. I don't know if I will work next year. I don't know what is the best for me and my family. I will definitely be praying for guidance.

Hope I didn't bring you down. Things are definitely on an up swing for me and Henry.