I started typing this in November and never posted it...oops!

It's been a good month and a half since I typed anything up, though not a whole lot has been going on, I figured I would still update some. Let's go by person today:

Youngest to oldest perhaps?

Elijah: Eli will be 3 in about 3 weeks. I can't believe it! I went on a Thomas themed party adventure at the beginning of the week, only for it to end as an epic FAIL. Apparently Thomas the train is no longer the "thing" enough to keep anything but a cake in a store. I went to 3 places, including a party supply store looking for Thomas decor, only to find none. :( So, I came home and went online. I googled "Thomas the Tank party supplies" and came up with tons of hits. So, I cruised through about 4 or 5 of them, 2-3 of them didn't have invites (which is what I was looking for first) and then the 2 of them that did, it was about $4.00/pack of 8 invitations. Not bad. Put them in my cart and find out it's $8-10 for shipping?!?! Not so much! So, I went on ebay and found a mom who makes them in her spare time and ordered 8 at $1.00 each and free shipping. I win! So, he will be having a Thomas birthday, as planned...I will just be ordering supplies online. :) Elijah dressed up as Thomas for Halloween, by the way.

Allison: Oh, dear Allison. She is something else. Her and her sister are only here in our care every other weekend, Friday-Sunday, then here in "Nana's Care" every other weekend on Saturday night, normally. It's amazing to me how different she can be while under the same roof, but under different parental units. She finished her 4 Saturdays of soccer. I miss all but 1 of them due to work or other issues. I heard she did pretty good. Allison was a poodle skirt girl for Halloween.

Emma: Emma was also involved in the 4 Saturdays of soccer, she also did pretty well for her and Nick hopes to have her in normal soccer come Spring. We'll see. From what I have been told by her mother, she is doing awesome in 1st grade. She's a good student, just wish she wasn't so shy. Emma was a "trendy witch" for Halloween.

Brandon: Brandon is getting huge. He's taller than Devin by about 1/2 and inch and wears the same size clothes and pretty close to the same size shoes. I think they are maybe 1/2 size different. He's doing great in school academically, he still struggles with the rest of life while in school. I believe his teacher is giving up on him (this seems to be the trend all 3 years) and I'm going to have a nice talk with her come conference time. He's reading at 4th grade level, doing 4th grade math and I think his spelling is 3rd grade. Not bad for being a 2nd grader. Brandon finished out soccer outstandingly. He loved it...he had a few of his normal breakdowns, but most of the time his head really was trying to get in the game. He has decided he wants to be in basketball for the winter. We'll see how that goes. Brandon did not get to participate in Halloween for yet another year. His father and step-monster don't believe in it any longer, so the children go without for 4 years...any time Halloween falls on Thurs, Fri, Sat or Sunday. *sigh*

Devin: Devin really is amazing in so many ways. Not that all my kids aren't, some way or another, just sayin... Devin is doing awesome in school, he's got all A's and B's and if my memory serves me correct, the progress report he just brought home said all A's and 1 B!! So, yeah, I have a lot to be thankful for with him. He did very well in football this year. This is the last year he can play flag football thought :( If he wants to play football again, it will have to be tackle in Pop Warner. He has decided he wants to do basketball this winter, also and has decided to do soccer next, and take a break from football. *Phew* I'm gonna have my plate full, again.

Me: Well, I have had a crappy last 3 days. I woke up Tuesday with some neck and shoulder pain, just felt like I had slept on it wrong, like it normally does when I do. I couldn't get it all rubbed out by myself, so I took some ibuprofen and hoped for the best. I went to work and realized a couple hours later that the neck and shoulder issues were resolved but I still had a pounding headache (which I had assumed was from the sleeping hard, like they usually are). I noticed every time I went to the front of the store, I would wince in pain because the sun just happened to peek out that morning and it comes right in our store windows. Then I felt the nausea set in. By 11:00 I was in tears, trying to stay out of the bathroom and calling my boss. I was the only one there and she was already on her way in, 45 minutes early, so she sent me home as soon as she got there. I called the sitter and arranged for Eli to stay until Nick got off so that I could go home, take some vicodin and get some more sleep, in the hopes that I would feel better, like I normally would, after a migraine. I slept for 4 hours when Nick finally woke me up and I didn't feel the slight better.

I don't remember where I was going at this point, it's where I stopped typing about 6 weeks ago. LOL So, in any case, I remember going to my family doctor who chalked my headache up to be a migraine, gave me a shot of something (he didn't tell me what, I had to find out from the nurse that it was a steroid, pain killer and anti-nausea med) and sent me home with a script. Said I should feel better shortly. I came home and believe I slept longer. After 2? 3? more days? I went to Urgent Care because I was NOT feeling better and I was mad at my doctor for sending me home with blood pressure meds with only the explanation of "your blood pressure is way too high". So, I venture to Urgent Care with Nick by my side. I got in and saw a doctor who told me that I was having, not a migraine, but a muscle spasm headache. I left out the word migraine when I explained my story to her and I never mentioned the head and neck pain I woke up with 5 days earlier. She asked me if I had any neck or shoulder issues and when I told her yes, I felt so much more relieved knowing my diagnosis was more accurate than from my family doctor.

She gave me some more pain meds, on top of muscle relaxers. And I went home. A day or 2 later, I was back at work.

I'm still on the blood pressure meds, though I don't know how they are working because the doctor hasn't had me come back in to check. Nice of him, huh?

I'm in the process of changing doctors.

Nick: Ahh, the man of my dreams. :) I'm so excited to be with him. He really is the only reason I am still around. He makes me melt, makes my heart skip a beat and makes me march to the beat of his drum.

He still works his butt off, every day at the same job. He just had his 3? year anniversary in September.

He still keeps his spirits up even though I know, in the position we are in, it can make the toughest person crumble at one time or another. He's promised to get me out of here as soon as possible and I can't wait.

I love this man so much.

So, that's it for now...guess I will post it, 6 weeks late! Better late than never, huh?!