Weekly Blessing - Week 19

So I have the distinct pleasure of having the face of a 15 year old in my 30s, but not in the good "wow you look incredibly young" kind of way,  rather the "ummmm someone please pass the oxyclean kind of way". 


My face has many ups and downs of the zit / pimple / acneous variety. Sometimes it is manageable, sometimes it is not, always it is frustrating. Come on, HOW old am I now??? :-) 


My most recent battle is with this monsterous two-headed dragon on my forehead AND a yuck-o thing on my neck. The thing on my neck is what sparked yesterday's chain of events. I went to my aesthetician and while chatting about my face said, by the way can you look at that thing on my neck - is that a zit? or something else because I have never had one there. 


She looked and said, it could be but let me grab a nurse to come check it out (she is located within a dermatologists office).  Nurse enters, looks, says yeah that's a cyst, let's see if we can get you in with the doctor. Now, I try very hard not to be, but I do in fact have hypochondriac moments - I looked at Trish (my aesthetician) and said, ummm cyst?  She assured me it was fine - they'd check it out - then I would know it was okay and be on my way. 


In with the doctor I go - she checks out my face. It is agreed I have issues (of the face, we left my other issues off the table for now) ha ha. I also have a cyst - GROSS. She has some needles full of Kenalog steroid, which I am pretty sure is the same thing my old dog got for his allergies. Said dog allergy medicine goes in my cyst, and the two-headed monster on my forehead. It does not hurt terribly bad, I ask for a pain comparison, i.e. so, just wondering, is this what getting Botox feels like?? You know strictly for wonderment, not like I would ever inject my face in say like 10 years when it starts to sag on me. (dear face: please, oh please do not sag on me). 


Less than 24-hours later I have a new regimen of pills, and creams, and a whole lot of products I can no longer put on my face. BUT I also have a VERY reduced neck bump and my face seriously looks better - or maybe I just want it to so I think it does. Let's just say it does and call it good. :-) 


The blessing - well obviously it's not the yuck-o bump on my neck, or maybe it is because I would not have seen the doctor otherwise. For me, it was the whole chain of events though - a) they took my insurance, b) I saw a doctor in like 10 minutes with no scheduled appointment and I had never seen her before c) I got some face shots that seems to be working in an awesomely wonderful way and most importantly -  I have the MOST WONDERFUL aesthetician in the WORLD. Trish is seriously the nicest woman - I am SO SO SO grateful for her.  


So there you have it, a possible TMI post about my face. What can I say - blessings come about in not-pretty ways sometimes. :-) 

Xmess Weekend

The weather outside was frightful, but our this weekend delightful. This weekend we got our Christmas on, and in the process made a BIG "Xmess". But it was a fun mess :-)

Breakfast with Santa 

Went shopping for gifts

Stopped by the craft store to get some supplies

Got kitchy crafty with our cards*

Visited the Manger (and some donkeys and alpacas too) 

Baked and decorated some of our favorite Christmas cookies 

Tasted our creations 

Cleaned, and cleaned some more... AND then we rested!!

* Hopefully it is not so, but the postman at work thinks our cards might cost more than the one stamp of postage on put on them. Unfortunately, my cute little snowman may cause a thickness issue. Two things may happen, one I'll get the cards back and you will get them late. Or two, you'll get the card with a USPS note asking for .17 cents. OR the postal service will cut me some Christmas slack and just send them.  I hope it's the 3rd option. 

Morgan's Favorites

As promised - Morgan's favorites.

Song: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Tradition: Decorating the tree

Gift to Give: An art thing she makes

Gift to Receive: American Girl doll (this is what she asked Santa for this year)

Movie: A Christmas Carol

Cartoon: Rudolph

Book: Twas the Night Before Christmas

Dessert: Christmas cookies

Cookie: Sugar cookie with chocolate frosting and sprinkles

Ornament: Ballet slippers (our new ornament this year)
(she also had a 2nd - Rudolph / 3rd - White bear)

Christmas Favorites - The Mama

Another blog I follow posted a list of her Christmas favorites and I liked the idea of it.... I also plan to ask Morgan hers - answers to come. :-) 


Christmas Song: Carol of the Bells (click if you want to listen)... 


Tradition: I really love the whole Christmas Eve schedule of church, dinner, presents, preparing for Santa, etc... Although that tradition now fluctuates year to year so it's definitely one I miss the consistency of. 


Gift to give: The magic of Santa 


Gift to receive: Anything Morgan makes and yes, I cannot deny a lovely gift card now and again is always a wonderful thing. :-) 


Christmas movie: A Christmas Story  


Christmas Cartoon: Mickey's Christmas Carol (which is near impossible to find). 

Christmas Book for Children: The Sweet Smell of Christmas (it has scratch and sniff stickers on all the pages)


Christmas Dessert: Fudge


Christmas Cookie: Traditional decorated sugar cookie


Ornament: A glass ornament of two angels (it looks like a mom and daughter angel).  Morgan and I got it in Virginia City a couple of years ago. 

Scheels: A Review

Last night we went to Scheels - Morgan was quite impressed with the whole store; the fish tanks in particular. BUT she was equally impressed with their product offerings. As we drove away, she said "That place has excellent bubble gum" all while enjoying her new packet of Big League Chew. 


If you do not  remember Big League Chew or have never had any I encourage you to give it a go. It really is tasty and fun gum! 

Party Time

Yesterday was Morgan's class Christmas party.  I only had my iPhone camera and was also busy wrapping, wrapping, wrapping - but I did snag one photo. 

The kids had four stations - cookie decorating (pictured above), gift making, ornament making, and then a book exchange circle.  We also had a wrapping station - the original thought being that the kids could wrap their gifts and ornaments after they were finished, but in a class of 36+ kids with lots to be done, this just didn't happen. Insert parent helpers and the awesome fact that their desks were open for us to use as work stations and an hour (plus a tiny bit later) we had wrapped 80+ gifts and 40 or so ornaments (siblings joined in too).  So thankful for tiny gift bags and tissue paper!  


Morgan also wore her "fancy dress" to school. You can not see in this picture - but she also had her leopard tights and blinged out tennis shoes on. Finish her off with a stylish top knot and she was all kinds of fancy. :-) 

Weekly Blessing - Week 18

An actual working second bathroom (pretty much). Ok, so for those of you who know and those of you who don't - this whole after-house fire / water damage reconstruction has been a SLOW and I mean PAINFULLY SLOW process. But now thanks to a couple of phone calls from the padre, things are moving again.


It's hard to explain the process thus far, pre-phone calls. It was kind of just a hit and miss type plan. Some days they came in, some days they did not. Some days they painted a wall, and left. Some days they attached a piece of trim and left. Some days I can not tell you if they came in or not. I get it - they have much work to do, and walls to enclose before winter came.  But, I just really don't love the maybe / maybe not plan - more so because it's weird having strangers in your house all the time when you're not there and then there is also the transporting of mini-Kujo since she pretty much wants to lay in to all of them. She kind of despises the construction people (I mean the dog by the way, in case there is any confusion - ha ha).


Anyhow, this week progress was made. A new cabinet was installed. Which is good for two reasons, 1) we have an actual sink in the bathroom again, but 2) it is NEW. Brand new and SO much more attractive than the 1980's dark brown faux wood cabinet. 


She loves it and she loves her new purple!!!!  We originally had a mint green color but when visiting Atlanta Morgan saw a purple bathroom and fell in love. I told her if she wanted to change colors now was the time (because I would not have to actually paint it - heck yes!). Upon return I grabbed some paint swatches - she picked her purple (in like 20 seconds flat) - and now we have a purple bathroom. 


I have also decided I will consult with her over color choosing in future. She is so decisive. Sadly, I am not - but need to be. Perhaps she can show me the way. 

Going Polar!

Today is polar express day at school. They get to wear pajamas. Morgan took the polar concept to heart (she is a theme lover just like her mom!).  She has on polar bear pajamas, her white boots (because they look like polar bear feet) and her favorite polar bear animal - Snowball. 


She's all about putting the polar bear in polar express! 

House Beautiful

Currently we are in the midst of our 25 day advent calendar count down to Christmas. Yesterday' activity was:

Gingerbread House Day!!!

We went to a workshop at a local museum, we brought one bag of candy to share - they supplied the rest. It was quite fun and nice to have the "mess" at someone else's place. :-) Morgan's house is now stationed on a living room side table - it is a lovely addition!

Weekly Blessing - Week 17

Ms. Danielle.  Ms. Danielle is Morgan's swimming teacher. Ms. Danielle is an extremely patient teacher who really cares if Morgan does well and is comfortable. Ms. Danielle has had to employ many of her tricks and tools to help Morgan through a rough patch lately. Ms. Danielle definitely deserves a Christmas Gift (still trying to ponder what is ideal for a college-age person). 


Morgan as of a few weeks ago decided that she no longer enjoyed swimming lessons. The main reason being that they moved on to breathing. She has to put her head under, come up for a breath, and then re-submerge. This did not thrill her, in fact this made her extremely uncomfortable and turned on her stubborn switch - of, yeah thanks but no thanks people - this ain't happenin' anytime soon. It also turned on her sobbing switch. 


Over the last few weeks Ms. Danielle has gone back to the start with her. Helping her get comfortable again and to trust her as her teacher. It is working, Morgan no longer cries and she is starting to smile again and re-do everything she was doing before. 


The most amazingly wonderful part is this - after this week's lesson I talked to Ms. Danielle (they always have parents come out so the kids can show something they did that day).  I noticed Morgan was alone for class, but thought maybe the other little girl did not show up this week. Ms. Danielle told me that she had spoken with the deck manager and the owners and was given permission to do private lessons with Morgan for a few weeks. She noticed that when Morgan had to wait for her turn while she was working with other kids her anxiety built and then she had issues with returning to the water, however when they are one on one and can just go through class she does great. 


She also asked for any tips or tricks to help her ease her hesitation when it comes. She is trying SO hard, and I can not say how appreciative I am to her and the school for doing all of this to help one little girl.