Where are you Christmas?

Hey everyone! It's finally that time of year! Christmas is here. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at home although I didn't feel very good most of the time we were there. On Wednesday night we headed home to stay with my grandparents so that I could help them on Thanksgiving day get ready for everyone's arrival. I woke up early and made a pumpkin cheesecake..which I was told was very good (I don't care for cheesecake!)and I made the stuffing this year. My mom hasn't been feeling so well for the last year or so and usually she makes the stuffing..she was going to use the boxed stuff this year and I said "NO WAY!" not for Thanksgiving! So, I took it upon myself to make it and it turned out really good! Yay! I didn't have much of an appetite this year because I've been feeling so poorly. We still don't know what's wrong! I had blood work on Monday after Thanksgiving and that came back normal so it's really just a guessing game now. The Doctor seems to think that it's stress and that my pain is coming from inflammation but I've been taking strong anti-inflammatories and the pain isn't really going away. we've ruled out...pinched nerves, stroke, heart attack, carpal tunnel, MS or any other anti-immune diseases, blood clots.. etc. It's starting to really affect my day to day because I'm in a constant state of worry that something is really wrong. Some days I feel really good and others I feel like crap. The only day that I felt good over Thanksgiving was Friday. THANK GOD, because Friday is when I had so much to do. My dad and step-mom and Lee's mom and Lee and myself went to the Kyle House to meet with Schaal's catering and see the venue! Everyone loved it! I'm so glad..I think they were all pleasantly suprised..my dad was especially happy about the prices and everything that is included. We have saved so much money! I'll blog more about that later on my wedding blog. Afterwards, we had lunch at the Cracker Barrel and then headed over to Carlos restaurant to meet with the lady about the rehearsal dinner...another long story in itself. UGH! We also had to get a new battery for Lee's mom's car because it was dead. Then we went to the coffee shop for a few. By the time we left there i was exhausted. I was supposed to meet up with friends that night and it just wasn't possible. The next day I woke up feeling horrible..not to mention the fact that I had an incredible stomach ache (which lasted for three days!) I spent most of the day on my dad's couch. I was supposed to go to a dinner party (MY IDEA!!) at Jenny's house and I didn't make it to that either. That caused a crazy amount of unexpected drama. I feel like with this illness or whatever is going on with me that a lot of people don't understand how it affects me. When the pain hits me it makes my whole being uncomfortable and I can't describe it..I feel like I've pushed people away lately because I haven't really been good at making plans and keeping them. To those people I apologize because I would be there if I could. Thank god I had enough energy on Saturday night to play a few board games with dad and Tina. We played cranium (we bought this for them last christmas) and they had still never played it! So we broke that out and played apples to apples as well. The next day sadly we had to head home. I was in tears to leave my family when I felt that bad. We drove home and Monday i woke up. It was a good day. Tuesday and Wednesday..good days. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and today..not good days. I have another Doctor's appointment Thursday. I'll keep everyone updated on what's going on. Oh, I almost forgot! I got my Christmas present early this year! Lee got me an AWESOME camera! He gave it to me last night..I guess he knows how bad I've been feeling and he wanted me to be able to use the camera for Christmas. We still have to take our Christmas card picture and hopefully I can get up enough energy today to clean the rest of the house and decorate! I wish I would've had it Friday night. We drove down to the boardwalk and drove through the 32 blocks of Christmas lights. They give you a CD and you pop it in and it plays as you drive. It was fun...we also got a combination ticket to go see the lights at the Norfolk botanical gardens. YES, you had to pay to go to the Christmas lights. I was really bummed because I'm so used to my sweet little FREE Elk's home! But the money does go to the Ronald Mcdonald House and I get patients coming over from there EVERYDAY at my job so I'm glad I could support such a wonderful cause. I really want to get some other volunteer work in this christmas but I haven't been feeling well. That will be a new year's resolution. TO give back. I really feel God pulling me in that direction. He's really testing me this year.
On a lighter note...I have been promoted! Well, transferred sorta. I've been offered another position. It's in Pediatric Surgery which is still in my department but I am being promoted to scheduling coordinator. Honestly I don't know what that means because I haven't been scheduling surgeries. I met with the manager, Stacy and I guess basically my manager, Tina and Stacy and our BIG manager John all wanted me for this job. I guess I'm doing a good job. It's a huge pay increase which I am beyond thrilled for because Lee and I really need it! I haven't told anyone this yet but Lee and I are moving. I'm ok with giving out these numbers because I don't feel its that personal. WE LOVE where we live. We live in Maple Bay Townhomes off of Laskin Road in Virginia Beach. Less than 3 miles from the oceanfront. The community is very quiet (which is strange because nowhere around here is quiet) and when I say quiet I'm excluding the jets..those are loud. BUT, we hardly notice them anymore. We have a pretty large townhome..I think its between 1200-1300 feet..I don't know the exact number. Two Bedrooms, 1.5 baths, a huge kitchen (eat-in) and a nice size living room, not to mention our Master is huge and our guest bedroom is decent as well. We have plenty of storage and a great fenced in back deck. We love it but when we moved down here we had one day to find a place to live. We didn't really know our way around that well and we settled on this place. We are pretty much getting ripped off. We pay over 1100 in rent. We pay another 100 for our cats to live with us. YES 50 dollars per pet PER MONTH! That was after a 350 dollar pet deposit! CRAZY! We shouldn't have to pay 100 dollars for our sweet babies to live with us! We live on the end so we were given one free parking space..which would've been 100 dollars but we lucked out in that..and we got a discount on the rent..so really we would be paying a LOT more. Total right now, we pay over 1380 to live here every month. In some places that would be acceptable but that's even expensive for around here! We are getting ripped off. Lee really wants to pay off his student loans so we can buy a house here in the next couple of years. So, we wanted to move someplace that is cheaper. I was worried because I wanted to stay in the same area. We love being so close to the beach and all the nice stores and restaurants and homes in our area. It feels really safe here. We ended up finding an apartment in another similar neighborhood literally on the other side of Laskin Road (across the street from us and a couple of streets back) It's a smaller apartment..the kitchen is incredibly tiny (hard for me to get used to because I've been lucky and always had a big kitchen in every apt I've had) the appliances are more outdated ( i could care less) and there's not quite as much storage...(our biggest problem) but we can make it work. There's only one bath which is ok because it's all on one level. I'm very pleased with it other than the fact it's a tad smaller. Get ready. With pets, rent, and parking (which is free btw..ugh) 884 a month! We are literally saving like 500 dollars a month and living in the same area that we wanted to live in! We are thrilled. We will be moving in March but we've already paid our deposit and reserved our special till then! I hate moving but I know it will be worth it to save so much money and have that much extra! I still haven't even posted pictures of this place for everyone to see but I will as soon as I decorate for Christmas. Wow...I think I blogged so much that my arm is asleep. Anyway..that's all I can think of for now. Hope everyone gets out there and enjoys their Christmas traditions this year!

Megan~