Spring time Fun and Surgery

Spring is just around the corner! I know it is. It has to be. I know that if we get our garden’s started, and try really hard that spring will be here before we know it! This is Portland Oregon, and I adore it here! Spring is normally a rainy time for us, but we get those beautiful days that make up for it. There is still a chill in the air, but few things are as beautiful as a sunny spring morning in Portland.
I am still recovering from surgery, but I cannot just lay around a house for days on end sleeping precious time away! Lucky for me, we have a well stocked art supply cart and an imagination!





We made stained glass eggs, our annual egg garland, egg basket cookies, a sunflower peeps cake, and even spring time Macaroni and Cheese!
I have been making these egg garlands since I was a child with my mother and sister, it is always so nice to craft things like this with my own children. Full circle moment for sure! I have planned spring cleaning for next weekend, but I did want to get a start on the art supply cart since I can do that while I am temporarily disabled. I found that we had a lot of well used crayons that could use some repurposing. So I came up with these! Both of these tutorials can be found on the Creat page. My girlfriend was grateful enough to share the adorable peeps sunflower cake that she makes every year, it came out so adorable! We also baked egg basket cookies, which are really just a variation of our egg basket cupcakes from last year. We even had homemade spring time macaroni and cheese, I just died the noodles different colors. I used the neon dye for these, just added to the water that is boiling the noodles, the kids LOVED it! I did add a couple hints for the peeps sunflower cake and the egg basket cookies on the Yumm! page

Paradise is Always Where Love Dwells

Every once in a while, in a great while, the perfect person will come into your life. I don’t believe in love at first sight, for myself. However, the romantic in me hopes to no end, that there is such a thing, I believe that would be a magical moment. But, Soul mates. I believe in soul mates. It is very easy to fall in lust, and sometimes you are lucky enough to fall in true love. And Sometimes, ah sometimes you find your soul mate and when you realize that connection, it will change your life. 9 years ago I found my soul mate, although I didn’t realize it right away, it wasn’t long before we were both profoundly aware of what we had.

we were at the children’s museum and he did his face with the kids <3

It’s no secret that we have had a difficult time over the past few months. We have spent time, money, blood, sweat, and tears, and I am extremely proud to say that we have overcome this mountain. With the help that we have gotten over these few months, I am so proud of where we are. We know there will be problems, but it’s not about that. We have to keep what we have, because it is so special and beautiful. We are back to the touchy feely, lovey dovey, mushy stuff that we spent 8 years enthralled in! It’s so nice feel that connection again, I have missed him more than anything.



Over the past couple weeks I have been disabled due to this horrible surgery, and I know that I could not have done this without him. I knew I wasn’t going to be alone, but it was more than that. I didn’t have to ask for a thing, he was always there. Christopher hardly sat down for the first few days at all. I was laying on the couch in the front room ,the chaise lounge was the only way I could get comfortable. Chris would come in and wake me up, to see if I needed to use the restroom, or would like something to drink, even if I needed to switch my position. He was carrying me around the house doing everything for me, playing mom and dad, and still taking care of his own responsibilities. I admit I slept through the first few days, but I know that I was able to do that because he allowed me to.



Everything that I am able to do, is because he allows me to, and to be myself, and who I need to be. I am weird, I throw fits when things don’t go as I planned them, I am obsessive, and a control freak, and he loves all that and everything else about me. He loves me when I am gross and yucky just out of surgery, he loves me when I am all dolled up and dressed to the hilt, he loves me in my PJ’s with messy hair, and he loves me at 130lbs, 200lbs and everything in between. I never have to be anything that I’m not, without excuses, without explanation, or question even! We have serious conversations about the Kardashians as if they are friends of ours, we geek out over Glee, he even took me to Wicked and to every showing of the Twilight series (which he was less than enthusiastic about).



“In 9 years, there has never been a moment, not even on, where I did not want to be your wife.” Is what I said to him, the moment we both realized how much we loved each other. It was that one split second where…..time stopped. I never want to be anything that his wife.
<3

NEWS FLASH! THIS JUST IN!! SUPERMOM HAS BEEN TAKEN DOWN!
Yes, ladies I am here to confirm, Tuesday I was defeated. What was my kryptonite, you ask? My faulty gall bladder! Sunday night I started feeling really sick, my stomach was super-duper upset and I couldn’t really sleep. I really felt good enough to go to work, but Alex had come down with something as well, and Chris had a meeting so decided to stay home with him for the day. I took it easy for the day, and didn’t do anything fancy for dinner for the kids, then Chris and I got cozy on the couch. I realized that I hadn’t eaten anything that day, so I popped some popcorn, munching that while watching Bad Teacher (with Cameron Diaz). Suddenly and quickly I was having HORRIBLE sharp pains in my upper stomach on the right side, like under my boob. It was strong and kept getting stronger, I could push the spot with my finger, I wasn’t vomiting but I was super nauseous. I tried everything to get comfortable, but I knew that I would have to wait to get into the Urgent Care. I hate hospitals more than I can even put into words.
Finally by 4am, I googled the nearest urgent care’s hours, and that was not until 8am. Another 4 hours? I didn’t think I could take another 40 minuets, so I woke up Chris and we were off to the hospital. Of course, I was kicking myself for not going when this all first started! Secretly, I was so afraid some 12-year-old doctor was going to look at me and say “You have gas Ma’am, I think you just need to fart.” That was my biggest fear! However, I got there and was taken straight to the ultrasound, where it was confirmed that I had “A very angry gall bladder” according to the surgeon. It’s a very quick surgery, in and out, but the recovery……..is hell.

Alex was very worried about me, staying home from school with Grandma. The girls didn’t think much about it, because really I should have been at work, so there wasn’t much out of the ordinary as far as they were concerned. When I was finally able to go home, I was waddling up the entryway stairs when I hear the herd from down the hall. “MOM’S HOME!” “ALRIGHT MOM’S HERE!” “LET’S CHECK OUT HER SCARS!” My twins were shocked at my appearance, and I’ll be the first to admit it, I looked like an extra from “The Walking Dead.” They kept saying over and over again, “Mommy, I’ve never seen you like this” “You look so sad mommy.” They were really scared. They followed me to my bed and laid down with me while Chris did everything I would have asked, but because he is so amazing, I didn’t have to ask.
Apparently I’m looking at a recovery time of 1 to 2 weeks, then I can go back to work. Full recovery will take about 4-6 weeks after the surgery. Normally these things are done with 3 small incisions, and it’s very routine, yadda yadda. However, NOTHING is ever routine in my life, so of course this is no exception. This is a condition that I have had for a while, but have been too stubborn to go to the hospital or talk to the doctor about it, my gallbladder was FULL of stones, and there was a very large one that was stuck, blocking the “exit”. As if that was not bad enough, there was also another one that had gotten through somewhere else also, so another incision had to be made to get it out.
This has really been hell let me tell you! Standing……or hunching over in the bathroom hollering for your husband to come help you pull up your pants is NOT a pretty picture! My 3 boys have been the little helpers that I knew they would be, the girls are taking great care of me as well. I am lucky enough to have such amazing family surrounding me all the time, and making me feel as good as I can, as quickly as possible. I guess when it comes down to it, I should not have needed this to tell me to slow down. I really do need to not push myself so hard, and listen to my body when it’s tired, or hurting. Sometimes us mommy’s need a bit of a reminder that we are human too, we do need to listen to what our bodies are telling us.
The potential health obsession…..TBA {To Be Announced}
Pennie B.
March 15 2012

Transition Mix Up?

Hi Hello How are you! Well if you are seeing this then you must have bookmarked the page in between the time when “A Pennie For Your Thoughts” was taken down, and replaced with “Pennie’s Thoughts”. In doing that, I apparently violated some Terms of Service with the original blog hosting page. My work, projects that I have been working on for over a year now were all lost. All my articles, everyone’s beautiful comments, all my graphics, banners, and web rings are all gone. Gone as if I had taken the blog down myself, and retired! To make matters worse, my computer had crashed a couple of months prior to this, and so almost ALL of my pictures are lost too.
After dealing with this for a month I am ready to Launch again. However, because of everything I have lost, the pages are scarce, and the postings are few. I am still working on a couple of the articles that I had saved on my computer, but most of everything that was able to be salvaged has been. You may see random posts come back, because they are hidden while I am working on them.

This will almost be like a re-launch because all my followers were lost. I have reached out to a few of the blog rings, however cannot remember most of them. I will be trying to get back in the swing of things as best I can, as soon as I can. You may not see much foot traffic through the site for another couple of weeks, I won’t really start promoting it until next week.
Thank you so much, for hanging in there with me while I iron out these few wrinkles. When it comes down to it, I like WordPress more than Blogger so I don’t plan on making any other switches anytime soon. If I make any changes, those will be well thought out and planned from beginning to finish. Thank you again for you patience, and I really do look forward to being back on track soon!
Pennie B.
March 7th 2012