What a month . . .

January has turned out to be quite eventful for us. It started out slow and mundane. Work was super slow because all of the college kids were home for the break. Now they are back and it's back to business as usual.


We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary by going out to eat and exploring the Snake River. I'll have to post those pictures later because I forgot to download them. It was very pretty and we're excited visit during the summer.


We ended up having to put the truck in the shop to get the ball joints fixed on both sides. That was a pretty penny and always a damper.


Then I had my doctors appointment for my throat. I've been having trouble for the last couple of years swallowing my food. I usually just force it down with water. I couldn't stand it any longer and went and saw my Gastroenterologist. The results could have been one of four.

1. Cancer
2. A narrowed esophagus
3. Scar tissue from my multiple anaphylactic shock moments
4. Or an inflamed esophagus that creates rings in your throat

The visit was quick and painless. More painless for me then for Jake. I was sedated. Jake had the fun job of repeating himself a million times. A good time had by all I guess! The results were immediate. I have Eosinophilic Esophagitis (or #4). The doctor also said that I was allergic to more then just nuts and shellfish and the biopsy would give us the answer to that. So here are the pictures of my esophagus.

Top Left: Your esophagus should not have rings in it.

Top Right: Your esophagus should not have stretch marks or blood vessels showing. This is a result from my many times of eating nuts.

Bottom Left: a closer picture of my esophagus while swallowing and the stretch marks/blood vessels.

Bottom Right: A look from my stomach up my throat. The black tube thing is the camera.

My esophagus was so narrow that they had to give me a steroid shot to open it to get the camera in.

The good news is this can all be fixed. I will be taking a drug that will be opening my airway. It is called Fluticasone Propionate it is the same steroid like drug used for those with asthma. I will drink it instead of inhale it.

So there you have it. I'll take it over cancer any day.

And last but not least. You may all be jealous for this reason and this reason alone.

What else is there to do in a small town!

Goodbye 2009

Fairwell 2009!

You were loved.

I always love the beginning of a new year. I love the fresh start, new adventures, and "resolutions".

I was reading a newsletter from our health insurance the other day and it stated "having resolutions can be stressful"! I thought that was pretty funny because sometimes it's true! They suggested that instead of having a resolution and cutting your bad habbit cold turkey, only to relaps a week later, you should have "switcheroos". This means change bad habbits slowly. For example, if someone cuts you off while driving you would traditionally give them the old finger (or fist). Instead, grit your teeth together and smile at them! Slowly but surely your jaw will losen and your future responses will be a friendly smile. That is what the experts say.

I will have to think of some reasonable "switcheroos".

I always start the traditional New Year's Resolution list:
Work out more
Eat healthier
Save more
Spend less

But those get boring. So I'm going to try and spice things up! Here we go:

I'm going to take adavantage of my cook books. I would like to try a new recipe weekly but realisticly I'll aim for monthly.

I would love to finish this blanket I'm making and start a new one.

I plan to print all of my pictures and put them at least in a photo album ~ just in case my computer crashes. I would also love to update my scrapbook.

Travel more for less money. High end trips are nice but camp outs are a blast! We are in a prime location for so many places to adventure to.

Read more often. I'm just catching on the the reading craze ~ slowly.

Journal more then twice a month. I've had the same journal now for two years and an empty one on the shelf waiting.

So . . . that's my start. Who knows how far I'll get.

Gladly welcoming 2010!

Chilly Willy

It's cold.

It's 11 degrees outside right now but they say it feels like -4.

I'm not complaining but snow would make it feel a little more wonderful.

Thankful

We're Thankful For . . . (in no particular order)

Working vehicles

Adoption

Winco's cheap good food

Wheat Warmers

Sleep

Pumpkin pie

Family games (especially when I beat Jake!)

Visiting Teaching

Families can be together forever

The dog park

Morning scripture studies

Uncle Bob

Coupons (now we just need to learn to use them!)

Modern technology (internet, cell phones, digital cameras)

Winter clothes

Buster, Belle, and Sage

My professors

Road trips

Fun

My mom teaching me how to crochet

All my birthday wishes and gifts

Modern medicine

Monopoly

Snow

Family and Friends

Being alive

Good books

Education (spiritual and temporal)

Indoor plumbing (especially on cold windy days)

Prayer

Dyson vacuums

A clean house

Heavenly Father

Wholesome family movies by Pixar and Disney

The restoration of the gospel

The Holy Ghost

Family Home Evenings

Weather

Being PHAT

Jacob and his willingness to do the Thankful Tree

Living prophets and apostles and their counsel

A well paying job in Pullman, Washington

Emily

and

The Gospel

SNOW!

We love snow. It's just a white blanket of goodness! We've been blessed with it twice this year and we can't wait until it stays for the season. The last time I measured 5.5 inches in our yard. Yipee!

On a side note: Remember when Sage thought she was a cat? We thought that passed.

Until we found her on the window sill.

Birthday #28

My birthday was pretty low key this year but it didn't get unnoticed. I can't believe I'm 28! That seems so old! I've been asked if I felt 28. The truth is I don't. I've worked or have been surrounded by youth since High School. I feel like I'm still part of the young crowd. Hopefully I feel that way when I'm in my 30's!

So here goes the pictures. Here I am with my cake:

Jake and I have this thing with giving gifts. Maybe I explained it before. We'll get a gift for each other that is from the dogs. The catch is it's really something the other person wanted. Buster was watching me open my gift (from him).

It was WSU pajamas. Jake has been trying to get me to get a WSU shirt since we got here. I keep refusing, I'm a Rebel not a Cougar. Thanks Buster.

Lately on Sunday we play board games. Okay we only play Monopoly. My sister had bought us an American Edition one year. This year it was the Monopoly Champion Edition. It came with a trophy. We're so competitive we needed a trophy! We got a good laugh. This was from the dogs too! Haha we're lame.

I'm very grateful for all my gifts. I received some pretty neat stuff like books (real books and sewing books), my dad's journals, an awesome tea cup, money, candy, crafty stuff, and movies. I received a ton of birthday wishes and appreciated them all. Here's to another year!

A Month in Review . .

Let's see . . . what have we been doing? Hmm not much of anything of importance or fun.

Except . . .

This was before work. Jake snapped my picture. Really close!

and then far away. one extreme or the other, I guess.

When Sage sleeps her tongue hangs out. On this day it was really far!

In the early mornings we think it's funny to mess with the dogs. On this particular day we stuffed Sage in the WinCo bag. She didn't move or anything. It was like she really wanted to go with us shopping. Move over Paris Hilton's rat dog.

We have this amazing Pizza book and just so happened to have the ingredients for a true Chicago Deep Dish Pizza.

And here I am in action! I wish I could say I learned my skills from my days at Pizza Hut but they use frozen pre-sized crust.

So everyone thought his picture was pretty sad . . .

it only gets worse.

We save our weekends for Scrabble and Whitetailopoly.

And we are in a PRIME location for checking out the stars, moon, and planets. This is totally nerdy but we loved tracking Jupiter and it's moons. It was super cool. One night we saw 3 of Jupiter's moons. Jake thinks 4 but 3 for sure.