Saturday, February 16, 2019

Jan/Feb updates.

Hello friends well as usual things are always crazy busy around The Marrero household.

 Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great one.
 Our New Years Eve started with taking Ariel to get casted from her injury on Dec 11th she had a seizure in the bathroom causing her to bang her arm on the toilet and tub.My kids bathroom is pretty small.After several trips to urgent care where they pretty much said oh it's just a sprain and blew it off it kept getting worse more painful and swollen.Finally after many phone calls and fighting with our HMO I finally was able to take her to The Sports Medicine specialist.

 He did an ultrasound and discovered she had something called post traumatic fat necrosis.He said it's an injury that takes like 3 months to heal from.So he wanted her casted to prevent further injury from seizures.He was so nice and kind and understood our frustration.
 
When I took her to get the cast unfortunately it turned out the P.A Ortho seemed to think we were there for a second opinion and once again blew everything off like her injury was no biggie.Due to Ariel's seizures she gets injured a lot.Over the years she has had many,many breaks and sprains none have behaved like this one getting worse and more painful over time instead of better.He was not going to cast her until he made a phone call to The Sports Medicine doctor who told him he better.
 It was all very frustrating and Ariel was just very upset after that appointment,so I got her this stuffed elephant to compensate.After that we ordered Chinese food and got our usual items for root beer floats and cupcakes and came home.We pretty much just watched movies and did a few confetti cannons at midnight.

Other happenings this month Daniel joined a new hockey team,we had our annual bowling party with The Seattle Thunderbirds,which is always a blast and celebrated Gilbert's birthday.
                                Happy Birthday to you!
Ariel had so many doctors appointments .because her injury just was not looking better.The only good thing was my dad had given me gift cards for IHOP so Ariel and I were able to take advantage of those before appointments and our daughter had given us movie gift cards,so we went and saw Mary Poppins and Into The Spiderverse.
We also went to several hockey games one where our good friends The Andrusiak's were there.Their son Zack used to play for The Seattle Thunderbirds.
                             Teddy's for the teddy bear toss.
Other happenings were Ariel getting a bone scan,because the doctor was concerned she had something called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.It's where your injury gets discolored,it actually becomes a different color and just deep burning pain.So she got an injection and then they took some pictures and you had to wait 3 hours and take more pictures.So we went to lunch at The Old Spaghetti Factory one of our personal favorites and then used our gift cards to The Cheesecake Factory.
                                    Getting scanned.
Unfortunately her arm lit up like a Christmas tree and with all of her other symptoms the doctor diagnosed her with CRPS.That a whole other ballgame that she has to get nerve blocks and go to physical therapy for.

Other happenings were going to our annual zoo banquet that was held in the new aquarium and having a Tiki party there.It was so much fun there were even live dancers and Daniel was called up to dance with them.
Nick's birthday was on February 3rd he is at Fort Sil,so we weren't able to celebrate with him,but did call him and gave him some money to buy himself something nice.
              Then our biggest event hit Snowmageddon!
 Here in Western Washington we don't get a lot of snow.It's a rare event if we get more than a couple days.When we do get snow it's usually not much and it usually melts quickly.The news kept saying it was coming,but we've learned not to trust them because they often over hype everything and it turns out to be nothing.Check out Youtube and search for the news caster in a canoe where she's talking about flood waters in her canoe as two guys stroll casually behind her and the water is only a bit over their ankles.It's pretty funny.

Oh and this is on the heels of a very rare never heard of tornado that hit in December in  the town we live in and did quite a bit of damage.Anyway we were pretty stocked up had plenty of food, gas for the cars, firewood and such well it did happen and we ended up with two and a half feet of snow.It was totally crazy.Our power went out twice 6 and 17 hours no fun at all,but at least we had heat as several people didn't and I felt so bad for them.We also had to unfortunately cancel several of Ariel's appointments.Oh and hubby is still recovering from foot surgery he had in December.
We did manage to have some fun sledding and making snowmen.Daisy absolutely loves the snow.Unfortunately she's so tiny and because she has wavy hair it just makes snowballs on her and she gets buried.We also kept throwing out peanuts for the squirrels and bread for the birds.
                                                    Some snow fun.
 
Michael's snow penguin
Hopefully it just keeps melting there is still a lot on the ground.It all started a week ago Friday and we were finally able to get out on Wednesday.Thursday was Valentine's Day,so I had to get out to get our traditional heart shaped pizza.We also had cookies,chocolate and opened gifts.Ariel has a lot of upcoming doctors appointments.So hopefully the snow is done for the year.It is pretty to look at though.           
 So that's the news for the last couple of months.I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day!
God bless,Linn



Thursday, January 31, 2019

Christmas

Hello friends,I know we are already almost into February,but I like to do a recap of the holidays even if I'm the only one who reads it,because in time it's nice to look back through the years at the memories.
Christmas Eve we always start by having a ham dinner.We use the ham the next morning for our traditional eggs Benedict.We also always have strawberry Belgian waffles and candy cane cocoa.Not sure how many years ago this tradition started I'm thinking like 10yrs ago and we've had the same breakfast every Christmas morning since.
We also either go to candlelight service or if we can't make that we watch a church service on T.V. and listen to Christmas concerts and watch some Christmas movies.Although I'm going to have to start doing those earlier in the month.We always put them off and then Christmas Eve and day are so busy we end up hardly watching any of them and after Christmas we just don't get around to it.Some of our favorites are:
A Christmas Story, ELF,The Santa Clause,Christmas in Connecticut old and newer version, Jingle All The Way, A Charlie Brown Christmas,Christmas Vacation (clean made for t.v. version) The Muppet Christmas Carol, Frosty The Snowman, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
How The Grinch Stole Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, Meet Me In St.Louis, Holiday Inn, Home Alone, White Christmas and some Hallmark gems Trading Christmas (One of Ariel's and my favorite Christmas movies) and Pete's Christmas.

On Christmas Eve we open stockings and usually one gift that is usually new pajamas.
Christmas morning after having our traditional breakfast we open gifts with Christmas music playing in the background.We all watch each other open the first gift and after that then we go to town unwrapping like crazy.
Ariel got a lot of Winnie The Pooh stuff, My Little Pony and Lego sets that her brothers put together for her.
 
Daniel it's usually hockey gear and maybe some movies he likes.
Michael it's artsy things like sketch books, colored pencils, paints, gift cards, movies
Nick mainly gets clothes and gift cards since he's on base and can't take a lot with him.I did find him this awesome blanket that I bought from The Key Peninsula Veterans.
                    Daniel's favorite NHL team.
  My guys got me some great Bruins jerseys and Ariel got me a beautiful red faux fur lined coat.
 Daisy was all prettied up ready for the festivities.
Gilbert it's Cabela's cards,Bass Pro cards and baseball hats,oh and an Army sweatshirt.
After watching movies and looking at the gifts we received we called all the relatives to wish them Merry Christmas and started on dinner.We do the traditional Turkey dinner with all the sides.Instead of making tons of pies like we do on Thanksgiving we eat all the Christmas goodies like all the cookies we made the day before,fudge things like that.We might have a cream pie or lemon meringue.
It was a lovely holiday and I am so thankful that I have such a wonderful family to share it with.