my new favorite thing.

This has been a busy week for us already. We've celebrated 2 Christmas' so far. We kicked off the Christmas festivities with the Rismiller Family Christmas. It was so much fun to play with everyone, and opening presents is always fabulous. I believe my favorite present that I opened was from my sister-in-law, Tammy. It was a decorative plate that is pictured above. It's not often that opening a present moves me to tears, but this one did. I LOVE this plate, and I believe it captures my life's sentiments perfectly. I hope to be dancing in the rain as long as is necessary. :)

The following day, we had the Johnson Family Christmas. We have new additions to the family, mainly Dave's fiance, Amy, and their adorable daughters, Piper and Scarlett. Above is Piper and me. The next one is Piper's sweet new kicks with her beautiful (and very fancy polkadot dress.) We had a terrific time together: laughing, telling stories, making and eating chicken enchiladas. Below is Aunt Judy & I assembling the enchiladas. And the last one is Scarlett and I together. Sorry you can't see her face, it's cute. :)

We'll be heading to the Tri-Cities in 2 days to celebrate Christmas with the Weakley family. It should be another fun adventure. Merry Christmas to all!

snow?

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas. I blame my mother for my love of this Bing Crosby movie, and actually made Marcus attempt to dance with me in the comfort of our living room to my favorite song, "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing." I mean, if Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen can do it, I'm sure we can too! Our dancing certainly left a little something to be desired and was less than elegant. However, it was really fun.

I digress. The point of this entry is about WHITE Christmas. It has been miserably cold here lately and it seems to be all for nothing. I love snow. I want snow. Why is this too much to ask for? I realize that I live in Western WA now, but it seems reasonable to ask for snow. Just last night, it was snowing in Puyallup, but by the time we made it home--there was nothing but rain. Lame. :(

I had a follow-up appointment with my GI doctor, and he has yet another new thing to try. I'm beginning to take a regimen of Cayenne supplements. It has something called capsacin in it, which is made from the hot part of the pepper. The idea is that the supplements will burn away the nerves that carry pain. So, I'm buring my stomach nerves with Cayenne, and then easing their woes with Aloe Vera juice. If nothing else, I am probably confusing my stomach/intestines enough that I'm shocking them into submission. I like the idea anyway. :)

Hugs and Christmas love to all.
brelin

botox shmotox and patience.

You may know already what I'm going to say about my recent botox injection, given the title of my entry today. :) Let's just say that I'm not horribly impressed with my recent botox procedure. I think that my pain is less overall, but I'm still managing to vomit like nobody's business. They injected the botox into several different sites in my stomach and small intestine, but it doesn't seem to have done much. Shoot. One piece of good news in my life is that I successfully made a pumpkin roll for Thanksgiving. This is a phenomenally delicious dessert that my grandma, Sarah, made each year for the holidays. However, she has recently become too tired to attempt this, so I'm doing my best to carry the torch--since my mom is too chicken to try. :) Above is a picture of my pumpkin roll. It was delicious, and the picture doesn't fully do it justice.

Also, we recently got our Christmas tree, and since it's arrival at our house it looks like Christmas exploded. We literally hiked for like 3 miles, stomping around the tree farm to make sure that we got the perfect tree. I think we managed to get it this year....it looks great in our house. Below is Marcus doing the heavy lifting. He's so funny!

And a ridiculous story from my life today to show how amazing God is.

This morning at church, we discussed "signs from God"--and what we can do about them. Ironically, I was not feeling good--tired, in pain, nauseated, and really wishing that I was at home, still in bed. However, I had gone to church anyway, thinking that it might be the right thing to do. I half-heartedly listened to the sermon on Luke, spending most of my time passing notes with Marcus about how I'm sick of being patient. I quote from my note at church this morning: "I hate being patient. I have to be patient about my health--and how I puke every freaking day. I have to be patient while I wait for healing. I have to be patient about our housing situation, and now I have to be patient about waiting to have kids. Hmph."

Fast forward to after church....where Marcus and I are waiting in line at Starbucks to order our drink, discussing our drink orders with one another. An adorable old lady (she was wearing a teal coat, walking with a cane, and had to have been at least 85) turned around and looked me square in the face. She said boldly, "You have to be patient today." I looked back at her, and I'm sure that my mouth dropped wide open. There was an awkward silence while she collected the rest of her thought, and she said, "You have to be patient waiting in line today."

Internally, my mind was racing 100 miles an hour. How did she know I needed to be patient?! We weren't talking about patience, or health, or anything...we were talking about the merits of peppermint hot chocolate... Once she turned back around to order her drink from the barista, I laughed out loud in amazement at God's sense of humor. Clearly, it was a sign about my need for patience, and I'm certain that this little old woman was a messenger from God to remind me.

Dear God,

I get it. Thanks for the sign; I'm not sure you could've spelled it out more clearly for me today. And I'll try harder to be patient even though I don't want to. :)

Love, Brelin