Monday, December 31, 2007 & Last Day of the Year

This is probably going to be a long blog, so get ready!

We're not going to eat black eyed peas tomorrow. We sometimes do on Jan. 1, but usually we skip them. However, we had them last January 1. And then we had one of the worst years we've ever had! So we're thinking that maybe we should just not have them this time. Instead, being the Texans we are, we're having tamales. I bought them at the grocery store, but they were made in Texas. So we're hopeful, but not overly optimistic. But being typical Texans, we will be covering them with chili and picante sauce anyway!

Ok, here goes:

2007 (Good & Bad)

January: my cholesterol levels were a little higher than my doctor wanted, so I started watching the fat I consumed. I had lost about 10 pounds before I saw the doctor and I kept that up after the physical. So that is good, because high cholesterol with the family heart history is not a good thing and I'm glad that I know.

February: this is when things really started to go bad on us. I had my major nosebleed that wouldn't stop and ended with getting my nasal passages frozen. Even then, the emergency clinic doctor was very concerned that it would start again and he gave me strict instructions about going straight to the hospital ER and not to drive myself (like I did when I saw him). I did have a small one several days later, but it stopped pretty quickly so I didn't have to go to the ER. But it was dicey for a while.

March: Otter's turn for a nosebleed, no warning just a sudden gushing - like mine, only hers was from both sides of her nose. I tossed her in the car and we went straight to the ER. Her nasal passages were cauterized. Which I think was actually worse than the freezing process I had to deal with. That happened a couple of days before her annual physical, her doctor said that everything the ER doctor did is what she would have done and that going to the ER was the right decision. Which is good, nice that she agreed with me - she's one of the few doctor's we've ever used that doesn't think that she's God and can run our lives.

March continued, and this time it was my turn! Although I actually think it started in February, but I didn't know the pancreatitis symptoms. However, now I do and looking back I can say that I was sick for several weeks before the night of the 24th. I had actually had a couple of instances where I threw up in the couple of weeks leading up to the 24th and I'd been dealing with a sudden, severe pain - especially after I ate, in my upper right side of my abdomen, just underneath my rib cage and that was getting more frequent and worse each time. But none of my spells were nearly as bad as that night, which culminated in a trip to the ER early on the morning of the 25th and then a week in the hospital with gall bladder surgery. And then another week off, trying to recover. It took me a good 6 weeks to get back to normal after the surgery, which is mostly because of the massive (and honestly close to being fatal) case of pancreatitis I had.

April & May: Reasonably good, April was a very slow month for me with my recovery, and then we spent a lot of May with a tenant who was thinking of moving out. I think that May is also when it started raining, which continued pretty much non-stop for a couple of months! Otter had a 15th birthday party in April, at a skating rink and she had a great time. She has a bunch of really nice friends, and we're very happy with the school system.

June: June was a pretty good month, Otter went to camp for a week which she loved, she came back on a Saturday and then on the next Wednesday she flew to Texas to spend a week with Nana and she is still talking about how much fun she had. When she came back, she brought Froggy with her for a week - and I'm still talking about how much fun that was! (Froggy, you'd better plan on making it an annual thing where you come see me.) However, June also had a major ear infection for Bill which also necessitated a trip to the ER because he only gets sick in the middle of the night! That was his second round, but I think the first one was in 2006.

July: The rain finally quit for the most part. We had a very nice visit from Bill's brother & his wife, their kids, his sister, her kids. We had fireworks at our house on the 3rd, and the plan was to go to Don and Darlene's on the 4th. But then Bill woke up sick that day, I think he had a bladder infection but he also might have had a kidney stone. Also, July is when our tenant finally made up his mind between staying in the house, buying it from us or moving back to New York. He chose to move back, which we were hoping that if he did move it would be by the end of June since we had time off in July and would have been able to get the work done then.

August: the rent house took up a lot of our time, as it took us weeks longer than we anticipated to get it ready to rent out again. However, a lot of that delay was caused by Bill's Adventures! I think it was on Tuesday the 7th, but it might have been on Wednesday the 8th. The trailer hitch broke, causing the tongue of the trailer to swing and hit him in the back of his right ankle. I'm still not sure how he managed to keep from tearing the achilles tendon, the doctor showed it to me and all I can say is that he must have a pretty strong guardian angel! Well, of course he does - that angel gets regular workouts with Bill! He was unable to work for several days, then he was on light duty for most of the month and the rent house was done but it took us a long time. However, there is a silver lining to Bill being unable to do anything strenuous. We had a heat wave in August, it hit when Bill was planning on scraping down & repainting the garage at the rent house - and if he hadn't had his accident, I am firmly convinced that he would have had heat stroke. So while I would have preferred that he not get hurt at all, maybe there was a Reason?

We did quite a bit to the rent house. We had the hardwood floors repaired & refinished, they look fantastic. We replaced the sliding door in the master bedroom with french doors, we replaced the carpet in that same room. All three bedrooms and the bathroom were repainted. We replaced some of the mini-blinds, the front bay window has vertical blinds that were originally on the sliding door in the master bedroom. There were a lot of little things that had to be done, heater vent covers and stuff like that. It kept us very busy. Also some of the wood around the doors, etc., was replaced & repainted.

Otter also started high school in August. She's growing up on us and we don't like it! But I don't think that we can do anything about that.

September was pretty uneventual, which was a nice change. And the rent house was rented, the new tenants actually moved in at the last of the month but we were just glad that it was no longer vacant.

I think October and November were pretty quiet. Quiet months are nice!
Also in November, I stepped on a scale when we got our flu shots and I've lost just about 50 pounds! November was a good month, we had a great Thanksgiving. It was at our house this year. Bill and Don got to stand out on the back deck, on a slightly cold day, and deep-fry the turkey. The girls and the dogs were smart - we all stayed inside!

December. Well, it's been an interesting month! On Sunday the 9th, we were awakened at 3:00 a.m. by the sound of our power going out. Which was kind of expected, we knew we were in for an ice storm. But I don't think anyone expected that it would be as bad as it actually was. Some places in Tulsa did not get electricity back until right AFTER Christmas. Ours came back on Tuesday afternoon, we didn't lose anything out of the freezer although I think we are in the minority there. The entire area was crippled, although we personally did ok because we are always prepared. Comes from the first winter we were in Oklahoma and not being able to get out for groceries! So I always have a couple of days worth of canned food & water on hand, and we had enough firewood to last for a while. As well as a lot of blankets. And now we have even more firewood!

I've already posted the pictures of the immediate ice storm damage, although it got a lot worse. So I'm not going to put those back up here, you can look back several days if you want to see them again. It's going to really interesting in the spring, when the trees start to bud out again and it will be obvious just how badly damaged they are. Not just ours, but everywhere. We took down the two in the front yesterday that we knew had to come down. There are still two more out there, and the ones in the back that we are not sure about yet. One of the ones in the front, the one by the mailbox, turned out to have quite a few spots where it had wood ants in the middle of it and it might not have survived a good wind storm so I guess that the ice damage to it was a blessing in disguise. But the front yard looks very different this morning.

Also in December, after months of searching and prayer we finally found our church. We had actually joined a different church toward the end of last year, but it was never a good fit and we were never really satisifed with it. So we kept looking, and we finally found the right one for us. So we joined it in early December and we've been very happy with it.

We have spent a lot of money on medical bills this year, so we will at least get a little bit of a tax break on that. Also, there are the expenses connected with the rent house which will also help come tax time. We've pretty much ended the eBay stuff, we will still have overhead projectors for a while and the occasional other stuff but for all intents and purposes, I am done with eBay. Bill handles the overheads, so he'll still have some stuff to do with it. We might eventually start it back up again, but that's doubtful. It was fun, it was a lot of work and it did make us some money but eBay - like everything else - has changed and evolved and it's not like it used to be. It can still work, but it would have to be a full-time job and there are so many things that we would have to do differently now that we just don't really think it's worth it. However, I'm still going to shop there! We just won't sell much on it.

Frasier and Maggie have also kept us entertained. Maggie learned to dance, Frasier learned the joys of an electric fence. They are a lot of fun and we are glad we have them. Frasier came to us 2 years ago tomorrow. Maggie was the next March.

We're going to have a quiet New Year's Eve. Otter is going to her friends house for a party then spending the night there, I think that Bill and I are going to have nachos and a margarita or two, and probably a very early night. Fireworks are not too big up here this time of year, probably because it's too cold!

But since it is Dec. 31st, I've been thinking of 1999 and all the Y2K stuff. I remember going to the grocery store the afternoon of Dec. 31st, I think we had about 4 things on our list and they were stuff like coke & chips. And we had to stand in a very long line at the checkout because so many people were stocking up! The cashier told me that it had been like that all day, and that we were about the only people she'd had to check out that were not acting crazy. It was kind of fun, people watching that day!

We'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and here's hoping that 2008 will be a good year for everyone! Although it is an election year, so there will be a lot to watch! Silly season is about to start.

And 2008 is also the year that Otter should be earing her Black Belt! Yes, she's finally there. Or nearly there, and we are very proud of her.