Lordy Lordy...That Whole 40 Thing

We are gathered here today...to celebrate...another birthday.  Seems that birthdays and holidays are all we get now on this here blog.  Boo.  Life sucks when you have to work and take care of kids all day and cook, do laundry and clean, then more work and don't have time to blog...(kidding...ish)

We had the pleasure of ringing in a new decade for my wonderful husband this past week! 

The BIG 4.0. !!

He picked one of his favorite things...hanging out in Hocking Hills.  And it was a perfectly wonderful weekend.  A HUGE thanks for mom, dad and Margie for taking care of my kids, especially since Silas had the flu and was sick.  Probably made him easier to handle though.

And a HUGE thanks to a few friends that made time in their crazy schedules, got sitters for their own kids and battled their own sicknesses to make it for the weekend!

 This cabin was a first for us and we were greeted by a lovely, long driveway that would be hell to get up an ice/snow storm.

And a gorgeous front porch with all these rocking chairs on it.  It was WAY too cold to sit  in them but they looked lovely!

 Had I been sitting in the rocking chairs, I would have enjoyed all of this very nice sunset.  Since it was 20 degrees, I took a step out the front door, snapped this picture and ran back inside.

A hike on Saturday for some (I may have been napping)...Rock Stull, our favorite hiking spot, with some frozen falls.

Followed by a healthy fire, with snow falling all around.  Cold but fun! (and Lee learning to whistle with an acorn :)

and some hot tubbing with Bloody Mary's.

And then MORE fun when we decorated the cabin while Justin was out by the fire after dinner.

And sang the Happy Birthday song...and ate some DELISH carrot cake (thanks to Beth!!)

 Carrot cake is Justin's absolute favorite cake on the planet.  He was a very happy camper!

 

And then, suddenly, it was Sunday and time to pack up and come  home.

The time with friends and celebrating goes WAY too fast. 

So happy that we had the time to share it with my husband and our friends.

(And thanks again to YOU who watched the kids and held down the forts while we were gone!)

Who Needs Weight Watchers??

I've decided to create my own Infomercial on how to lose 9 pounds in 9 days!  Results guaranteed!  Just lick some raw chicken and the rest will take care of itself...

The Sunday evening before Halloween, I started to feel icky.  My stomach was unsettled and I felt blah. By Monday morning, I was in bed and miserable. Fever, chills, stomach pain, diarrhea, vomiting...it was bad.  I figured I had a nasty GI bug and I'd be better in (hopefully) 24 hours.  And then I was hoping I'd be better in 48 hours.  And then by Wednesday, I was so bad that Justin took  me to the ER for IV fluids and medicine.  I could not keep anything at all in my body.  Water and Gatorade went right through me and any form of food at all got thrown up.  It was all I could do to lay in bed and make it to the bathroom when I needed to (which was about every 15 minutes). On Friday night (day 5 of being sick), the ER called me at 9:30pm to tell me the labs had come back and it was salmonella.  I was shocked but that REALLY explained why I felt so terribly horrible for so long.  I went in the next morning and they gave me antibiotics.  The entire next week I was still having symptoms and pain so I got to go in for a CT scan to make sure my appendix and other innards weren't infected.  Luckily, all looked good.  After 2 full weeks and 9 or 10 days with no solid food...I was beginning to feel better.
When I was really sick the first week, Ella made this sign to go on the bedroom door:

One of the best decisions made was to go ahead and go on my Hocking Hills trip with book group towards the end of week 2.  Donna offered to drive me there and back, and I could lay around there just as easily as at home.  It was GREAT to get out of the house and away from the sick bed.  The change of scenery did me good, as did all the food that everyone brought.  It really jump started my appetite again and I was able to eat again and get some calories in me.
I sat on the wonderful porch at our cabin/house and soaked in the sun and read magazines.  I took a couple small walks and dozed off when I felt nappy. I got to stare off at the cows...

and watch the pretty grasses blow in the wind....

and breath a little deeper on my walks around the property...

 

It was exactly what I needed for a healing weekend.

and I'm sure that Justin was ready to get me out of the house too...

While I was sick, Justin took total care of the house and kids, while trying to work too.  It really kicked his ass.  Together, we really do a great job of dividing and conquering.  That one of us was totally down for the count made both of us realize how lucky we are to work so well together.  It really made to think about my health and being more proactive in keeping BOTH of us healthy.  

Unfortunately, while I was sick, Ella was also not feeling so hot.  She must have had some kind of stomach bug (she did not have salmonella symptoms).  She got sick an hour before Trick or Treat and did not get to go :(

Silas was sad that we didn't go with our neighbor friends like we usually do.  Mason took him around the neighborhood but it was a bummer of a Halloween for all.

Silas did look good in his costume though - which luckily Aunt Amanda was able to help him figure out how to get it on!

Ella's very cute costume will have to wait until next year now...

In the week leading up to my Salmonellaism (which I still have no idea where I got it), we finished up soccer for both Ella and Silas.

We have a couple months off before they both start indoor soccer in January.

I ran my 3rd Half Marathon the Sunday before the sick Sunday.  It was not my best time of the 3 (2nd best time) but it was mentally the easiest of the 3 and the most fun.  I ran with a few friends and it really seemed to make the miles fly by. 

   

Heather and I crossed the finish together.  So fun 

running with her!

We also managed to squeeze in our annual pumpkin patching - and Mason's girlfriend, Yamine, came with us.  

 And for Halloween, Justin and I dressed up as Flo and Mayhem (the insurance commercial characters).

(sorry about the blurry pics)

So that is the last month...I hope to never repeat that salmonella (or anything resembling it) ever again!!

Camping (Part 2)

Back to our camping trip...we continue to talk about how much fun we had 2 weeks later.  We'd love to get another camping trip in this fall but with the soccer schedules, it will be hard to make happen!

We hiked on Saturday - went to Old Man's Cave.  It was beautiful but crowded.

I love this picture of Silas - big blue eyes and his toothless grin :)  And of course, another bug bite on his forehead!

 Managed to get a few pictures of the 3 together...that is very hard to do these days!

 

Silas was trapped between 2 rocks :)

 Ella and Silas in one of the caves

I love this picture of Silas but he looks like such a little man.  I asked him to smile and he gave me a pose too.

This was a strange little creature that buzzes around Tara and Steve's farm down in Logan.  We looked them up after getting home.  They are Hummingbird Bees which are actually a type of moth. Very neat to watch them fly around - their wings really make them look like little hummingbirds.

Mason needed a challenge while we were hanging at the campsite.  He climbed the big tree and then started trying to get one of the dead limbs down (the one jutting out on the right side of the tree he's in).

He ended up spending about 45 minutes with a rope (with a scrub brush tied to the end for weight) trying to lasso the branch and then pulling on it.  He did finally get it!

We took a little walk down by the river that ran beside the campgrounds.

The inside of the condo tent - Silas is burrowed down in the black sleeping bag.  Our 2nd night of sleeping was much more comfortable than the first night.  The air mattress lasted longer and it didn't get as chilly that night. 

After another yummy JP prepared breakfast, we started tearing down camp and packing up.  Amazing  how much stuff we had for just 2 nights! Seemed a lot harder to get it all back into the van!

Though we were all looking forward to getting home to a nice hot shower, we wanted to take the kids on another hike to Rockstall - the spot where we hike when we go on our couples' weekend.  It's beautiful and MUCH less crowded than Old Man's Cave.  In fact, we only saw one other person on this hike.  

Ella took this picture of me and Justin.  Yay!  I'm finally in a picture!  :)

 And a rare picture of me with all 3 kids!

Miss Boo taking a breather at we finish up the hike.

Here is a video of the kids swinging on the vine.

We had so much fun on this little camping adventure. It was great to get time with the kids, unplugged from the TV and Wii games. Can't wait to do it again!

Hell Has Frozen Over - Camping! (part 1)

We've been saying for the last 3+ years (since Si was potty trained) that NOW we can go camping...and each summer, we let the time slip away and didn't get around to it.  Well, NOT this year!  We finally made it happen!  And we had a fantastic time!!

I was a little worried at first - we left Friday afternoon and headed down to Hocking Hills.  Justin had put Mason in charge of researching and finding a place to reserve.  Mason found it, Justin booked it and I was not home so there was no verifying our purchase.

We pulled up to the Hocking Hills Livery and when Justin went in to check-in, he was told that "no, we don't book online"...so we traveled to the Hocking Valley Livery and yes - "you have a reservation but not here...it's at the Family FUN Center!".
Just the mention of the Family FUN Center made me immediately think of some National Lampoon's Family Vacation.  Long story short, we did finally make it to our camping spot, but like most of our vacations - it was off to a rocky start.

The campgrounds were a little rough.  We went in and made pulled around to the right without really driving around the site.  There was a spot that looked decent and we pulled in and started to unpack.  Luckily, Ella had to go to the bathroom so I walked her over to the porta johns.  We explored a little further up the road and discovered that the other side of the grounds were more "campy" - better canopy of trees, bigger sites - definitely cozier feeling.
I texted Justin and Mason and told them to come take a look.  Luckily they hadn't gotten the tent set up yet, and after some debating, we made the move to the new site.

Justin and Mason managed to set up the (borrowed) tent pretty quickly and WOW!
It was like a condo - we had a ton of space and could have added another 4 or 5 people pretty easily!

We spent Friday evening unpacking, hitting the grocery store and settling in. We made hot dogs, baked beans and of course: s'mores!  The kids were pretty wired and we spent the evening around the fire.

Silas lost his tooth that night too - of course!  He was concerned that the Tooth Fairy wouldn't be able to find us at the camp grounds but she managed to do just fine!

It was perfect camping weather - it got down to 52 that night and the fire felt great.  What didn't feel so great was the air mattress that deflated in the middle of the night so that Justin and I were totally on the hard ground - that was sucky.  Silas and Ella got pretty cold too and were curled like little potato bugs when I woke up at 5:30am.  I decided to go ahead and just get up and shortly after, Ella got up too.

Justin, always the Master breakfast maker, soon followed and whipped up a very yummy camp breakfast of eggs, sausage and potatoes. Only the mimosas were missing!

While breakfast was cooking, Ella and I walked the path to the river - it was chilly and quite sandy/muddy - they seem to be doing a lot of construction on the property - but the view was very pretty. The fog looked cool coming up off of the river.

to be continued...

A Week of Downs and Ups

Last week felt like a roller coaster ride. Monday started off with the horrible news that a longtime friend had suddenly passed away.  I had know Tim for almost 30 years, and practically everyone around Hilliard knew and adored him as well - all of us "old Hilliard" people certainly did.  Sadly, he leaves behind a wife and 10 year old son.

Kym, Tim and Cameron

One of the sweetest things was during the funeral procession - some of the homes on his mail route had signs on their mailboxes and there were a few little old ladies standing out to say a last farewell.  He was buried on their 16th wedding anniversary.

Another emotional ride was seeing my friend Jenny.  She has cancer and our Senior Choir classmates from school arranged for the current Sr. Choir members to come over and sing The Lord Bless You and Keep You to Jenny.  This was the song we sang anytime a member or alum needed prayer and support.  It was wonderful to see all the choir members and Mr. Brenneman and Mrs. Bundy came also.   The news came too and took some footage!  Please keep Jenny in your prayers!



This, coupled with other things that have made my last couple weeks very emotional, created a lot of stress.
Luckily, we had our annual couples' Hocking Hills trip planned and it was the perfect get away - lots of good food, great drinks and being able to hang and talk with the best of the best of friends.  And we actually had a beautiful, sunny weekend!

My husband picked some flowers for me, we got to go on a (kinda muddy) hike to the waterfalls - it was lovely and very theraputic.
We came home on Sunday to more great weather, a soccer game for Ella and some outside playtime.

Ella plays in the All Star soccer game this week and Friday is Si's last day of preschool!  He's on to Kindergarten next year (sniff, sniff!).