Save Some Christmas Cheer

"These precious moments--hold them very dear.

And keep Christmas with you all through the year."

Christmas was quite nice, and I enjoyed spending time with family.  Allen is going through a rough time right now, especially dealing with post-op pain (i.e., he's not dealing with it very well).  Things went fairly smoothly otherwise.  I guess our package for Allen's mom didn't arrive before Christmas.  Grrr.  I hope they got it yesterday.

Here's Lily (with her bite from Princess the Dog on her nose!).

The Sortor family, with the role of Mia being played by Mach.

There were a few more pictures with various people sticking their heads into other pictures, but most of them are pretty unflattering.  You're welcome for not posting them.

Here's a really good one of Beck & Lance.

And here's a cute one of Beck & Sabrina.  So cute!!

My Benji has started climbing.  Everywhere.  On everything.  He managed to get himself into this high chair about 50 times . . . though he never was able to get himself out.  And tonight, we found him IN HIS CRIB.  We did not put him there.  I'm thinking we'll be converting the crib to the toddler bed in the near future.



More to come later.  I hope yours was very merry!

Falling in the Ocean

I'm at work tonight. It's Christmas Eve. And here's a fair warning--when I'm really tired, I mix up French and English. And I write really randomly. "Technically it is Christmas morning, you know." --Doc Boy "You know that, and I know that." --Jon Actually, it's 2:39 a.m. on the 24th, so it's Christmas Eve. Most of my family is in Logan already, but I'm at work (quelle surprise). I'm also on call tomorrow morning, and the add-on list is pretty long already. Kim is in OR 1 doing a dead bowel case with Dr. Price, and I'm at the desk with Lori. At least the night is halfway over already, and I'm getting paid time-and-a-half. I enjoy my job. I really do. But I am burned out. I'm so ready to go part-time. Unfortunately, I have the insurance, and to get insurance when you only work part-time is more than twice as much. So you earn less money and pay more for insurance. Not fun. I think Allen is getting to the point where he's ready for a change too. He has been pretty out-of-it with his surgery and stuff. The surgery went well, and he is healing up nicely, but being off work and home-bound for basically the past two weeks . . . I think he had a small break-down yesterday. He went to an InstaCare and spoke to a doctor about it, and he said he thought Allen was having panic attacks due to stress. They prescribed him some Clonazepam (an anti-anxiety muscle relaxant), but he didn't really like what it was doing to him. I was at work, so he had to deal with Benji and with the snow and feeling crappy. I wish I could have done something for him, but luckily Lexy was home. Allen took Benji up to Layton and I guess Lex helped him sort out all of the things in his brain. Thank you, Lex. I think you may have been the only person to speak to him like that. I'm not sure exactly what you said, but whatever it was, it made something click. We have been in 'survival mode' for so long that we were both pretty checked out of our relationship; we were just trying to get through each day. Anyway, he wrote me a sweet letter telling me how much he loved me and how much he wanted to get our family back on track. I have been waiting for him to step up to the plate for quite a while; I feel like I have been carrying so much of the spiritual load, and I just got tired--so tired that I just let it go and tried to stay afloat. Drifting. Sorry I'm mixing metaphors (it's 3:19 a.m. now). Anyway, I'm really hoping Allen gets the job in Logan. I'm ready to retire, although being a stay-at-home mother isn't exactly la retraite. If I could get a PRN or part-time scrub position at Logan Regional, I'd totally do that. But I'd really like to be more involved with Benjamin and take better care of my family. I'd like to do more than just keep my head above water until my next shift. I keep bugging him about it, because I really think this would be the best thing that could happen for our family right now. I'm praying for it. I'm almost ready for Christmas, but I still have some wrapping to do and other gifts and sundry things to put together. I'd really like to sleep when I get home, especially since I have to drive to Logan. I think I'll try to take a nap now, and scrub out Kim at 4:30 a.m. Here's hoping she's done by then. On verra.

Joyeux Noël, mes amis ! Je vous aime tous !

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

We had our family Christmas party last weekend. The weather was terrible to drive in, but it made for some delightful pictures. This is me with sweet baby Sabrina. Benji had a good time in the snow! Blogger is not letting me add more pictures, so please feel free to peruse my December Picasa album. :o)

May Your Days Be Merry And Bright

I have been working on cards tonight, and I'm getting in the mood for Christmas. I haven't done much, mostly because of work, but I'm hoping to make this a little more memorable for my family, and I'd like to have our traditions centered on our Savior Jesus Christ. A friend's blog led me here, which I really like. Any other suggestions? Much love.

Just Breathe

I am feeling better, thank you. Even a friend at work commented to me that I seem better. And I do--my cough is basically gone and I have more energy. Ever since the splints came out of my nose, *shudder* I have been able to breathe much better. It's a good thing. Saturday was okay; I didn't feel great in the morning, but I was fairly productive in the afternoon. I even went to Eyeglass World to get some new specs (I think you'll approve, Sar--super cute!). I was going to go to a work Christmas party, but I realized that I had a ton of stuff to do for Primary. So I didn't. Allen cleaned out the laser printer while I worked on the laptop, and we watched "Get Smart" (SOOO funny!!!). Pretty romantic, eh? Anyway, Sunday morning I kept working on my stuff, and I has hanging out with the Benji-meister, when the phone rang. I was called in to work. LAME. I totally forgot I was on-call. So I had to hurry up and finish what I was working on, find someone to substitute for me, talk to my Primary president, take a shower, and get to work within a half-hour. Okay, it was more like 45 minutes and I went totally sans makeup. I ended up staying for 11 hours, but hey--at least it was all at time-and-a-half, and I'll probably hit overtime by the end of the week. Not fun, but it makes for a nice paycheck. Allen wasn't very happy about my having to go to work on Sunday. Neither was I, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. I think that may have been a little shove in the direction of job hunting in order for me to be able to stay home. I have been looking on the Intermountain website occasionally for IT jobs, and I found one that might work for Allen. In Logan. Much better paying than his current position. Hmmmmm. We'll see what happens. And now, my apartment building is being evacuated for an underground gas leak. Fan-freakin'-tastic. "Homeless, homeless . . . " Why does this remind me of the flood debacle last year? Grrr.