My husband, the “clean air breather”

Well it is official.  My husband is a “clean air breather”.  So what does that mean?  It’s the new way to say “non smoker”.   About two weeks ago he went to a hypnotist to help in his mission to quit, and he has been smoke free ever since.  He has been irritable, but I have yet to go buy him a pack so he hasn’t been that bad!  Although I believe a few of his employees may have tried to get away from his “rath” by offering him a cigarette.  Thankfully he has managed to stick to his committment to quit and continue to take it out on them rather than me.  HA!  I am very proud of him.  He has smoked for many many years so this is a huge accomplishment for him.

A poll

Now I don’t really have time to try to figure out the whole voting button thing, etc. I just want to ask your opinion. Chris and I have been working on the candle website – www.candlesofomaha.com and we have been mulling over the name of the company. One of us has an idea of using the initials of the company name and advertising them as “Coo” Candles. The idea is if we ever moved out of Omaha we wouldn’t really have to change the name. So let me know what you think of it! What are you mostly likely to remember, what will intrigue you the most, etc. Be HONEST! And while you’re thinking of that – go take a look at the website and let me know what you think of that too! We are still adding products but you’ll get the idea.

We survived the holidays!

Well the holidays have now officially come and gone, having had the Pater side just this past weekend.  

This last year was a difficult one -  Chris’s health problems came up at the end of the year as you can read about in previous post.  Car sales have been down due to the economic struggles as of late so our income has dropped and has Chris worried about his employees and his future.  Extra stress from work on both of our parts added to the fun.  We lost our renters at my old house and to thank us for the use of it they pretty much trashed it.  Keep in mind this is only Chris and I’s first year of marriage and we have already experienced all too often how the other handles stress!  I guess we can get through pretty much anything now! 

But then comes Christmas – when you get to spend time with family and friends, get fun cards and Christmas letters from friends and family that you may or may not have seen in a while, spend time reminding your kids the reason for the season.   It makes you realize that no matter what happens during the year, you are still very blessed and should be thankful for everything you have, as you can be assured looking around the world, it is more than most.   Love, family, freedom, food on the table and a house over our heads just to name a few. 

It can be difficult for families to get together due to distance.  Chris and I have been together for 3 1/2 years and I have yet to meet his sister and her family due to distance, but we always have them in our thoughts and I assume that works both ways.  Hopefully next summer we can make that trip.  We were not able to see Chris’s mom and her husband his year, but as usual she spoiled us with gifts that she sent early enough (in November) so we had to stare at the box wondering what all was inside until Christmas Eve.   

Matt and Karen are nearby with their family so we are able to spend every holiday with them.  Their two boys are the same ages as my kids, and Eliza is quite the little princess so it’s a lot of fun to have them around.  We had a great Christmas Eve with them at our house.

My family Christmas was supposed to be in December but due to illnes and weather we rescheduled to this past weekend.  Although we are all spread out, thankfully not so far that we are unable to come together every year.  It was a great time.  Great Grandma was picked up from the nursing home and seemed to truly enjoy the visit – and we enjoyed seeing her.  Mom and Dad made a wonderful meal and everyone had fun playing Catch Phrase and catching up.  My neices and nephews are getting so big it’s hard to believe sometimes. 

So after returning home on Sunday the only holiday task left was to take town the Christmas tree and all the holiday decorations!   It was a little sad to see them all go into the garage – but as always, the next Christmas will be here before we know it!

We have a verdict

Well we finally got some results from the many tests that Chris had done.  On Christmas Eve he was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, which is an inflammatory disease of the digestive system.   The inflammation can cause blockages in the intestines, leading to the severe pain that Chris had been having and the inability of food to pass through the digestive system. 

So he has been a couple of different medications to take daily, and he will be having more tests to see how the medicine is working.  We’re still a little overwhelmed about the diagnosis and what that will mean for his future health, but we are very optomistic and happy that we at least have a name for what he’s been going through.   It could have been much worse. 

So keep him in your thoughts and we will keep you posted!

Update

Okay so since it’s been a while since I blogged let me give you an update.  Things are a little crazy around here.  Chris just got out of the  hospital for intestinal problems again.  Same thing as he had last year.  The doctors can not tell us much, they are trying to figure out root cause and he will have to go back in for tests next week.  He was supposed to stay until Monday but he’s a good negotiator and he was able to convince the docs to release him to a reponsible adult.  (yep – they think I am one!)  So we missed going to Minnesota this weekend but will be going in January instead.  Chris is resting fairly comfortably in “Man Town” and we are hoping he feels better soon and they can figure out how we can prevent it from happening again.

We had a lovely experience with our rental property – my old house.  Our renters did not pay the rent for December and when they were served with an eviction notice they just up and left.  And left half their stuff.  Including the backseats of their van.  Who does that?  They have damaged the place to the tune of probably $2000 between repainting and spackling every room, fixing two doors, and some areas of the carpet.  I guess it could have been worse.  But we have a lot of work ahead of us.  They left so much stuff it made me wonder how people can just up and leave like that.  How do people think that it’s okay to leave other people to clean up the mess they leave behind?  They left clothes in the dryer and dog dishes full of food in the kitchen.  Dishes in the dishwasher, food in the cupboard, furniture, junk drawers full of paperwork, etc.  Basically it looks like they fit what they could quickly put in their van (after taking out the backseat) and ran.  It’s kind of sad to think that people have to live like that. 

But on a good note – it was nice to see the place again and know that it’s not completely destroyed – which is what I feared.  We’ll have it back in shape by the end of the month and hopefully get it rented again by February.  I have a contractor at work who is interested in the place, so we’ll see if that pans out. 

The kids are now on winter break and they will spend next week home with us as Chris and I both took the week off.  We are going to be working on the house and then of course, celebrating Christmas.  We are very excited to have Matt and Karen and their kids over and to have the traditional Christmas Crab Legs!!!  Yummm!!!

Chris and I are having fun with our first Christmas as a married couple.  We have started a couple traditions, all four of us will each get a special ornament for the tree as a gift, and we are also buying one of those animated, light up ceramic Christmas scenes each year before Christmas.  This year we bought a pretty simple one, just a little village scene with some towns people walking through the store fronts, but they get pretty elaborate so it will be fun to pick one out every year.   For the presents for the kids, we put Brendan’s name on Brooklyn’s presents and vice versa.  Then we sit back and laugh as they try to figure out the gifts.  Next year I think we’ll do different wrapping paper for each kid or reindeer names or something, since the name swapping thing really only works one year!

Well that’s about it for now!  We’ll blog again after Christmas and put up some new photos!

Quite the change

So when I first started this blog I told you about my job.  I mentioned that most of my days ended with a headache.  This was not a joke, it was reality, and the long days and even longer evenings working on my laptop from home started to get to me.  So – I started looking at the internal job openings at my work to see what else was out there.  I didn’t want to leave the company, they have been very generous to me and have even fully funded four years of college.  I wanted to find another position wihtin the company.  I have been wanting to get away from being on the business side – running projects, etc. and get back into the creative side of things – application development.  So one Tuesday night I saw it - the perfect job for me – that would allow me to get back to application development and work for a great team at the same time.  So I applied, along with 3 others, and by the next Tuesday I was offered the job. 

And I started today.  And it was the first day that I didn’t come home and feel stressed out about my day.  Now granted, it is the first day and they were easy on me, and most of the month of December will be spent in training so it’ll be a while before I’m thrown to the wolves.  But I will be doing what I love, back to doing what I do best.  I haven’t been able to leave my old job completely, unfortunately I still have to give a little time each week to “ease the transition” but the stress seems to be gone with the knowledge that it’s limited time and I can say “no”.  It really has lifted an extreme amount of weight off of my shoulders. 

As Thanksgiving came and went I found myself feeling very thankful, not only for my wonderful family and friends, but also for employment.  Even if I hadn’t gotten a different position I would still be thankful.   These days it’s something we shouldn’t take for granted.  The years I was a single mom made me feel even more fortunate that I had a good job that compensated me well enough to be able to support myself and my children, and have a nice house in a nice neighborhood.   Not everyone can be so lucky, and while I may hate having to get up in the morning to get there – I’m thankful to have a place to go every day.

We like Halloween

Halloween is an interesting time at our house.  Chris and I both love Halloween.  It’s a great holiday where people get to be something other than themselves.  The kids get to run around the neighborhood showing off their costumes and begging for candy, and the adults get to enjoy the annual costume party.  And of course, we get to decorate our house to scare our guests. 

 

 

 

With strobe lighting, mist machines and black lights our house is transformed and ready for the annual Halloween party.

 

 

 

 For a small $5 fee, you can enter the costume contest and the one with the most votes takes all the cash.  Our friends Lindsay and Jeremy won, as her very pregnant belly made a great basketball.

But as you can see, there was no shortage of interesting costumes!

 

 

Oh yeah, we did let the kids have a little bit of fun too!!!  This is the building that I work in.  At least, the building I work in until I start my new job at the downtown campus on December 1st.  My work allows kids to come in and Trick or Treat, so Brooklyn, Brendan, and Brooklyn’s friend Ivy had a blast going from cubicle to cubicle!  Then once it got dark they took over the neighborhood!

When it rains, it pours!

So there I was, getting ready for workand going in to get the kids up to get ready for school.  Brendan seemed a little unhappy and looked a little “odd”.  See picture.  Can you spot what’s wrong?

 

If you can’t tell, look at his right cheek compared to his left.  It was all swollen and he couldn’t open his mouth very far at all.  Poor guy!  I took him in to the doctor to find that he has an infection in his lymph nodes.  Who knew there were lymph nodes near your jaw???  

Anyway, he is now on antibiotics and I thought the excitement was over. 

Nope.  The school called.  Brooklyn was in the office complaining of difficulty breathing and that “her lungs hurt”.  So I had to pick her up and give her a nebulizer treatment and monitor her for a while. 

So now we’re just hanging out at home and since my dad continues to wonder when I am going to blog again, I figured I would take the opportunity to update you all on the events of our lives, and a “not so funny” funny picture.  Brooklyn thought he had a jumbo jawbreaker in his cheek.  Poor guy!!

Fear Factor Birthday Party

We survived Brendan’s birthday party.  18 screaming kids at our house for 2 1/2 hours. The party was a “fear factor” theme, where the kids were split into two teams and they all had to go through three physical/mental challanges. 

The first challange was the dog bone race.  Two by two the kids raced back and forth, taking dog bones from one bowl and putting them in another.  Should be easy right?  See how they had to pick up the dog bones…  This is Davan – one of Brendan’s good friends.

The second challenge was interesting.  Each kid had to reach into a vase of slimy “worms” and select three poker chips which indicated which of the six foods they would need to eat.  The foods consisted of chocolate covered flies, fish guts, pig brains, cow blood, dog turds, and jelly bellys in some disgusting flavors (like vomit and ear wax).  Some of the food is pictured below.

 

The look on the faces of the kids (and the adults) as the food was being explained was priceless. 

 

And the look on their faces as they completed the challenge was even better.  Brooklyn and Brendan did not look like they enjoyed the taste of the food – but Brendan got 2nd place in this challenge!!

Aside from a few gaggers and a couple criers, they all did pretty well.

We ran out of time for the last challenge, so we just had all the kids do it at once.  The object was to place their hands behind their back, and find the bubblegum from a plate of whipped cream without using their hands – then chew the bubble gum. 

There were a few who weren’t fans of whipped cream – so Sawyer decided to clean it off before chewing the gum.

Prizes were awarded, and the team that scored the highest each got a gold medal.  This is Ian getting his award.

Finally, the kids dug into something they actually wanted to eat – the cake.  Brooklyn, Brendan and I made it ourselves!

All in all it was a great birthday party for Brendan!  As for Chris and I – we’re just thankful that birthdays only come once a year.

Update

Okay so I’ve been getting harassed by my father about how often (or not so often) I blog – so I figured I’d give an update of the happenings of the Belair household.  It’s been nice to not have homework lately, and I’ve been kept busy with Brooklyn’s soccer and Brendan’s flag football and all the other events going on in our lives.  In addition to her regular soccer team, Brooklyn is also in a soccer academy to further improve her skills so that fills up another night every week.  She has really improved this last year and it is a lot of fun to go to her games.  Brendan enjoys flag football so much more this year than he did last year and he is doing really well.  Chris can’t wait until next year when he’s in tackle – but to be honest I’m not all that excited about that idea!! 

Both kids started school a couple of weeks ago – a new school for them.  We are sending them to the school that is just about 10 blocks up the road which is nice.  They were a little scared, but have seemed to adjust very well.  Brooklyn has met a lot of new friends and Brendan has as well.  Brooklyn is a lot more outgoing than Brendan, so it was a little easier for her, but they both seem pretty happy.  They miss their old school and their old friends still, but they are keeping in touch with them. 

It’s amazing how well kids can adapt to change.  I sometimes wish it was that easy for us adults!

Well that’s about everything that’s been going on lately – I’ll post some pictures soon!