The New Year's Eve Saga- This is Very Long and Not at All Cute

Our New Year's was a little strange this year. I think the exitement started on the 30th when I went down to Orem in the morning to attend the temple with my mother. I left earlier than I normally do because my dad wanted to see the kids for a bit before he headed off to work. After my dad left for work, and Jack had a nice big breakfast, my mom and I headed to the temple while Heather and Dana watched my kids. It was very nice, and a rather full session. I love that! The temple is one of the few places where I don't mind being a tad bit crowded.

When we came back, the girls had just started watching a movie so I helped my mom shovel out her driveway and sidewalk, and decided it would be OK to skip my regular workout for the day as that snow was so very heavy! My mom and I were both soaked to the bone when we got inside, and she was nice enough to let me take a warm shower to thaw out.

Ross called about this time to say he had gotten off work a bit early. I told him where I was, and he joined me in Orem instead of heading home.

Ross got to my mom's house just about the same time the real storm hit. Convenient, no? It had been snowing all day, but it was heavy and wet, not icy. The wind and ice waited until just as Ross pulled into my parents' driveway. We decided to wait until the snow wasn't coming down so hard to try and head home. We waited too long. . . When we tried to leave, the roads were so icy, and the freeway was so backed up that we knew it would have been dangerous and tedious to try and make the trek out to Eagle Mountain. In the 10 minutes from their house to the freeway, we saw 7 accidents on the side of the road. The radio was saying that the drive from Orem to Lehi (our half-way point home) was taking more than an hour.

We pulled off the main road just before the free-way entrance, and went back to my mom's house where we were snowed in for the night. The girls loved it. Ross and I tolerated it. Not that my parents weren't accomadating, because they really were! We had dinner, and dessert, and entertainment, and our choice of bedding down options. It was just frustrating to not be able to get home.

The next morning we took our chances with the still icy roads and headed home. It was a bit slow going, but not nearly as bad as the night before.

That evening, we had made arrangements for Dana to have a sleep over with the girls so that Ross and I could have an evening home almost alone (Jack isn't quite old enough for overnighters away from me). We had a quiet and enjoyable evening. Thanks, Dana! We had planned that the next afternoon, my parents would bring the girls back to our house, and we would treat them with a turkey dinner with all the fixin's. That was our big plan for New Year's Eve as I am not a huge midnight party fan.

The next morning- the morning of the big lunch- I wasn't feeling so hot. I had been feeling some strange pains the day before, and that morning they were even worse. On top of that, this is what I found when I got up early to get the turkey in the oven. Yeah. So gross. I might have cried a bit.

Ross, in all his wisdom, decided to send me back to bed for an hour until the Urgent Care would be open. A quick visit there told me that my silly pains and fever were from a wicked case of Mastitus and an ovarian cyst.

From there, we headed over to Smith's where we got my antibiotic prescription filled, and got some rotisserie chickens to serve in place of the turkey that was now sitting in our garbage can along with its deceased little buddy. When we got home from those errands, we got all the fixings together, and served up the chicken to my family, who didn't even notice that it was not turkey. Heather took these shots of my parents reading to the girls. Well, actually, Grandma was reading, and Grandpa was interjecting in an effort to get them riled up.

After story time, we watched a slideshow of the highlights of 2010, and then said goodbye to Heather and my parents until the next year.

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And then I crashed.

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Ross is amazing, and filled in while I took myself out of the game for a bit. I was starting to feel better by the evening, and attributed that to the antibiotics.

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That was until I woke up around 2:00 in severe pain and a rediculous fever. I could hardly breathe, it hurt so bad, and I was certain I had a blood clot because I had all the symptoms. When Ross woke up and saw me trying to google what on Earth could be so painful in that spot, he made the decision to take a trip to the ER. My favorite. :(

Fortunately, my kids are awesome, and they were so good and patient while we dragged them out of bed and made them sit around a small patient room in the ER. They really were so good. I am blessed.

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The diagnosis was that my antibiotics had done nothing, and the Mastitus had spread. This was so surprising to me. I had Mastitus with both Sara and Emma shortly after they were born. I knew what it was supposed to feel like, and this was so different, and much more intense. Plus- it came so long after Jack was born. It was very weird.

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The doctor said the difference was that this time the bacterial strain was a full on Staph infection. I got a high power antibiotic that I had to drink with at least 20 oz of water, and was not allowed to lie down 10 minutes after taking. It worked though, and within a couple of days I felt back to normal.

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Ross was so good to me through all of this. He was patient and loving, and took over all the duties that should have been mine. Laundry, cooking, cleaning, entertaining the kidlets, all of it. I am so blessed to have him!

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I know that was long and arduous, and fairly boring, but I wanted to get it all down, and all the other cute posts I have waiting in the wings have been held back until this was out and recorded.

*Big sigh of relief*

I promise the next post will be much cuter and shorter and lighter.