Vomit, Santa, Moles & Christmas

So the headline got you huh? Just a few highlights of the week.

I keep thinking I should blog what is going on (for my mom who cares)....but I keep forgetting...so I will take this moment to summarize what's been going on this week.

Monday

Nothing too exciting during the day...Staff party at night. It was lovely. White Elephant DVD exchange. Even though we bought horrible movies from the 99cent store - A knock-off Pinocchio spanish film and A knock-off Aladin (yes, spelled with 1 d) spanish film...we actually left with Season 1 of Grey's Anatomy and one of Curtis' fave - Uncle Buck. That was cool.

Tuesday
I went and hung out with my new friend Jennifer. We invited a bunch of women from our Mops group. I was the only one who came. We had a LOT of food. We had a great time together, til I lost my keys. It took us 1 HOUR to find them. GREEEEEEEATTTTT first impression. I took the kids shopping after that. They had a nervous breakdown at COSTCO. Oh wait, that was me dealing with my kids. Sometimes, I get confused. :) But it was bad. The best was standing in the 20 person deep line and Haley deciding she "HAD TO PEE". I figured she was serious when she started turning blue. So we went. Only to get home and have Lexi pee on me. Oh well...win some, you lose some.

Wednesday

Went to work. Had a gyno appointment in the afternoon. That's always fun. Small talk while some stranger is messing around with your areas? Ah... Lovely. Sorry if that was too much information. I feel bad for Rick Falk. I know he is reading this and is grossed out. My apologies.

STORM WATCH 2008. Yeah, when it rains here, people FREAK out. It was pretty rainy. The worst part was when we got back, I had to somehow get the kids back into the house with all of our stuff by myself. SIDENOTE: Curtis has been working like 16 hour days...getting our stage ready for Christmas. He has been gone EVERY night this week for hours at a time to paint. So, in an effort to show him my love, I parked the kids in a spot significantly far away from the house so that he could have our one parking spot. We were quite wet by the time we got home. Which then I had to take my dog out in 2 inch water (apparently our greenbelt/sidewalks have no drainage), and then come back in and dry everyone off and get them in bed. That was awesome. What made it better? When Curtis came home and said, "oh man...there were like 5 empty spots right by the house." OF COURSE there were....that never happens. Oh well. I still like the rain.

Oh - that night Haley was up from 2am on (in about 20 minute spurts). Food poisoning. Vomit. No sleep.

Thursday
After crawling through the morning after a horrible night's "sleep"....I got to help out at church for a bit with some women to prepare for our Christmas dinner for the local women's shelter. I really want to help out more in ways like this...getting deeper into the community. Our town is so wealthy...but there are so many hurting people. I want to help them.
That night, we went to my friend Gina's annual Boat Party. It's at a beautiful beach home with wonderful friends and a bunch of wonderful people I don't know. We gather, stuff ourselves with cookies. Santa drops in and passes out gifts and then we go and watch the boat parade (AKA - rich people who decorate their boats with shiny lights and you go and applaud their wealth.) It's the OC way of celebrating Christmas! :o) Sadly, we did not get to participate in that part since Haley was still dragging from the night before. But it was a fun night anyway. Lexi was so cute with Santa. As soon as she saw him, she said "Will you bring my Little Einstein's toy?" And then she stared him down in awe the whole night.


Friday
Went shopping this morning as I had 2 family members to buy for and Christmas to celebrate tonight. YIKES! But I had to be at the doctors office by 11:15, which left me with very little time. I don't know how this happened??!! I started gathering stuff so early this year, but alas, here I am still shopping at the last minute.

MOLEY MOLEY MOLEY
I had to return to the dermatologist today to dig deeper into my atypical mole that was found a few weeks ago. Good news- no cancer. Bad news- more shots, digging, stitches. Now I have a nasty gash in my upper thigh that is somewhat uncomfortable. But I will take that ANY DAY over possibly having cancer down the road. I hate these appointments, but I think they are so important. I have had pre-melanoma moles before. It's not something to mess around with people. Get checked out. It could save your life. My mom's boss just lost her husband to skin cancer that spread into his brain. This is serious stuff. I always walk out of that office feeling like I took a swing at cancer before it had a chance to do me any damage.

After my procedure, I met the family at Fashion Island and we had lunch and hung out. Curtis went to see Christie Walker and get his hair done. He looks hot. The kids and I went home. I collapsed for 30 minutes with a massive headache, and a upper-thigh ache (the local wore off)....then I frantically wrapped gifts and we headed over to my parents house for an early Christmas celebration. We had a lovely dinner (THANKS MOM!) and a wonderful time exchanging gifts. My mom got choked up when I gave her socks. Who knew? rEally, she was emotional over having her family together. I get that. I don't need presents (although they were so nice.) But I was really blessed to be with family, and know we have our health and happiness. I looked at the kids toys and thought how privileged they were. I hope they always know that. My goal in this next year is to give as much as possible to the people around me in need. I have been giving so much. I am forever grateful.

I am now going to shut my eyes. Take a rest. Try to get rid of this nasty cold that has a hold on me. If you read this all the way through, I admire your dedication. My life is really not all that exciting. But it's got some good people in it (like you) that bring me great joy. Love to you all.