T minus 42 hours

That's how long until Anthony and I will be encountering take-off on one of Boeing's fine 767 Jets! :o) After about a 6 hours flight we will begin our wonderful vacation in paradise! :o) I'm so stinkin excited I can't hardly take it!!! And this may sound dumb but I'm actually a little nervous. I mean, it's not very often that I actually go somewhere where I don't know where a single thing is...it's a little out of my comfort zone I guess but I'm willing to endure it. :o) I'm also still a little worried about leaving my beautiful little angels for so long but I make sure to not tell them that because then that worry would transfer onto them and that's just not necessary!

I can't believe how beautiful it is outside today!! I went out and actually did some weeding in the back yard! My back is telling me now that it wasn't my best idea I've ever had but my flower beds sure look nice! :o)

I forgot to mention that Alena's little program at school earlier this week went really well. She was so stinkin cute! She wore her flower girl dress from when she was in our friends (Max and Tina's) wedding this last summer. I'm surprised it still fits her! She sure looked beautiful! If anyone is interested in seeing just how adorable she was, we video taped it! :o) We already had one set of grandparents come over and watch it. It was kind of nice because 2 of Alena's best buddies from school were standing right next to and behind her so they're right in the video too! :o) And I swear all the little girls in the 3 preschool classes that were on stage had the same exact hair cut! That was pretty cute to see...at least I know Alena's haircut is in style! :o)

Well, my recovery is still going well. I'm able to do more and more every day still and I can tell that my body is healing up quite nicely. I think most of my problem at times is the fact that I haven't gone to the chiropractor in a month and half! And my body is used to going every 3 weeks so it's beginning it's revolt. :o( Oh well, I'm surviving and God has been so good to me...healing me and giving me the energy I need to do my daily tasks. Plus He's given me an unusually long fuse when dealing with my kids lately too which is very abnormal for me when I'm in pain and have things I HAVE to get done like packing for vacation and the like...Praise God and His Son, Jesus Christ! If you don't know Them on an intimate level, I highly recommend getting to know Them. You'll never regret it! :o)

And the countdown continues...

I can't believe Anthony and I will be in Maui in 3 days!!!! I'm so incredibly excited! It's hard to believe that it's finally time for us to go! When we first found out about the trip it seemed like it would never actually happen...it was too far down the road to seem like a reality. But here we are, packing our suitcases and finalizing plans!!

I've spent most of the day today cleaning the house so when we get back I can enjoy spending time with my kids and the vacation doesn't have to end immediately after arriving home. I can play with my kids after not seeing them for a week instead of feeling like I should be doing my normal cleaning stuff. Alena and Ty actually helped me with a lot of the cleaning this morning. It's cute how much they enjoy helping! Give them a disinfectant wipe and watch out! They love running around the house and seeing how much they can clean before the other one beats them to it! One of the few times I enjoy them competing against each other! :o) The other chore they love helping with is washing windows. I spray the windows with Windex and arm them with paper towels and they go to town. I'm impressed how little I actually have to go back and re-do. I thought for sure I'd have to re-do everything they did once they were down for their naps but I didn't have to at all! They are such good kids...and good helpers! :o)

Well, I'd better get working on laundry and clean some more. I really don't want to leave much of anything for Sunday. So, as Dora would say, Adios Amigos!!!

4 Days and Counting

Just in case you were wondering, in 4 days I will be basking in the sun on the beautiful beaches of Maui and I won't even be suffering the lasting effects of airsickness - hopefully. Today I went to Bartell's and bought some stuff to try to ward off my horrible case of motion sickness I always battle with when I fly. I figured when I was all growed up I wouldn't have to deal with motion sickness anymore...I thought it was something that only kids suffered from. No, no, that's definitely NOT the case. So, I'll be sure to let you know which brands and methods of coping work and which don't.

My recovery is going fairly well. I've had to remind myself lately that "this too shall pass" with regards to the pain. It's beginning to seem like it'll never go away. However, I know that God will continue to be as gracious as always by continuing to heal my body. God is good! :o)

I've just been busy today, getting everything ready for vacation. I've realized that even though the kids aren't coming with us I still have just as much prep to do for them as I would if they were coming with us! Weird how that works. I'm still kind of anxious about leaving them for so long but we've been talking about it a lot and they're pretty excited. Alena's only said once or twice that she's going to miss us and to that I respond "I'm going to miss you too sweetheart but we're all going to be having so much fun that we'll be just fine!"

Yesterday, Anthony had the day off so we went shopping at a couple thrift stores to find him some swim shorts. He ended up also buying a baseball tee for the kids and Tirus absolutely LOVES it! :o) It's cute to see how proud Anthony is watching his little boy lug his little wiffle ball bat around with him everywhere he goes. :o) He even sleeps with it at naptime and nighttime. :o) Ty's getting pretty good at hitting the ball too! When Daddy was pitching to Ty earlier this week, Ty hit a line drive and nailed Daddy right in the leg. Boy was Ty proud of himself! :o) I can't help but get teary-eyed with pride, watching those two play baseball together in the backyard. Don't get me wrong though, Alena's out there too, making her Daddy just as proud. She's just not as obsessed with it as Tirus is. He was out there last night until after it started getting dark, just wailing on those wiffle balls. :o) So cute! :o)

No better place to recoup!!!

In exactly 6 days and 7 minutes :o) I'll be landing in Maui!!! I'll probably be airsick but there's no place in the world I'd rather feel airsick. I'm hoping to find some meds that can take care of that problem without knocking me out completely. I'd hate to be all groggy on my first day in paradise. I've been working all morning on reconfirming our reservations with the car rental place and our travel agent regarding our flight info and I gotta say...I'm SO incredibly excited!! I've had a hard time believing we were really going but everything I've worked on this morning has kind of cemented it in my mind...we're really going and we're going really stinkin soon! :o) I'm a little nervous about leaving my kids for that long especially since only a couple of weeks ago I was away from them for 5 days while I was in the hospital. I just really hope that they enjoy themselves enough that they don't get too sad and homesick. However, I know they will be spending time at all their favorite places so I won't have anything to worry about. But as a mom...it's my job to worry...it's what I get paid the bucks for...hey, wait a minute!

Okay, enough about that...Alena has her Spring sing at school tonight and I'm pretty excited to go to that. It's so cute to see all the kids on stage...I hope Alena doesn't get stage fright like she sometimes does. I can't believe that she's almost done with preschool! She's actually sitting up at the table right now writing letters to her friends and it's amazing to see her actually spelling some of the words right! I can't believe how quick she's growing up...it's so sad and exciting all at the same time.

Well, I'd better wrap this up so I can go get Alena and Ty down for their naps and quiet time. I'm hoping to write on here a little more often than I have been. We'll see...

Peace out,
Laura

PS Hi Deef!!

Crossing to the Dark Side...

Okay, so I've finally given in and crossed to the dark side....I've become a blogger. *sigh* I'm thinking this will be a therapeutic way to get through life. My latest drama is, of course, my amazing collapsible lung. Gotta make it sound like something fun. :o) I just had a doctor appointment today and it was a pretty important one. Fortunately it turned out to be a positive one too. My doctor, Dr. Costas, told me that my x-ray they did this morning showed that my lung is back to 100% inflated and, sadly, in my world, that's a pretty stinkin exciting thing! :o) She also told me that I no longer have any lifting restrictions (besides the ones that my body is naturally imposing on my while I'm recovering from surgery). The other really exciting news I found out is that my handsome hubby, Anthony, and I still get to go on our dream vacation to Maui in a week and a half!!!! We thought that my health problems were going to make it so we couldn't go...at least not until June or July. Precor is sending us to stay at the Grand Wailea (the nicest resort in all the Hawaiian Islands - Oprah even rented out a wing of it!) for 5 nights!!! You gotta check out their website! You'll be droolin in no time!! :o)

I'm so glad that all my health stuff is finally under control and I'm finally on the mend. It's been such a long month. Tomorrow will be one month since my right lung originally punctured and was 40% collapsed. It's amazing to know that if I had lived even just 100 years ago I probably wouldn't have survived from this. However, because I'm so blessed to live when I do and where I do, I'm able to get help from the finest doctors and now I will be able to go on to live a completely healthy life. It's also amazing to look back and see God's hand in all this. I'm not saying that I think He caused me to get a spontaneously punctured lung...I know I live in a fallen world where our bodies just don't always work the way God designed them to...but I did feel His presence in every doctors office and hospital room I was in this past month. Even when I was just at home going through my every day routine, I'd feel His calming presence. I didn't have any anxiety about the surgery I had last week and that right there is a HUGE testimony because I'm just a worrier by nature!

Well, I'm gonna go play with my handsome little son. Ooh, plus dinner is almost ready. Mmmm... :o) Lasagna stinkin rocks! :o) I'm sure I'll write again soon because I can easily see this blogging thing quickly becoming a new obsession of mine. :o) Peace out!