Thursday, December 30, 2010

Merry Christmas 2010

I am very happy to write this letter and get 2010 out of here! This last year was a bit of a challenge and wasn't really all to exciting. I guess I am just happy to get a fresh start in 2011 and make it the best year yet! So sit back and enjoy the ride as you read about the challenging year that we have had, I promise I will try to remain positive in light of all of the negative. I was able to get a way for a girls weekend in Galena Illinois in January. I had a wonderful time with my girlfriends shopping, getting pedis and having late night talks. The end of my trip however led to 5 months of pneumonia that 5 different meds couldn't seem to kick. I felt like I was sick for an eternity!

In April, I was informed that my position as Intervention Specialist was to be eliminated due to extreme budget cuts in our district. I had the opportunity to have various interviews but the Lord had better plans and brought me back to a thought I had had in the back of my mind for almost a year. The job market for teachers didn't look very promising so I decided to start my own business and open Little Orckids Preschool. Within a few weeks of this decision, I had a number of families signed up to start in the fall and I knew this was the path I was to take. I was excited to work from home and I must say I am still happy with this decision. In May, Dennis and I had the chance to go to our first ever Cubs game. Sad I know, we have lived in Chicago all our lives and we just now got around to seeing the Cubs play.

June brought much excitement and hopes that 2010 was going to become a better year. We started fertility treatments after 5 years of trying to start our family, Dennis was offered a job doing commercial pest control with Orkin and I started a summer job as a nanny. One of my all time favorite jobs for summertime. I had fun going to Chicago, getting into an accident in a cab, hanging out at the water park with friends, visiting Legoland, bowling, playing mini golf and relaxing. In July, I attended Girls Camp in Indiana for my third year. Our Stake picked a new camp site this year and it was great. I volunteered to take our Pathfinder and haul the trailer, a first experience of trailer driving for me.....it was a little scary at first but we made it there and home safely. My sister, her fiancée & my nephew moved in with us during this time. They relocated to Northern Illinois in hopes of finding a better life up here. It has been nice watching my nephew grow and sharing his firsts, like walking this past week!

August was a busy blur. The day after I returned from camp, Dennis & I went to a Bon Jovi concert at Solider Field This was the first time in our married life we have gone to a concert together and it was our first & only date night since June as Dennis has been extremely busy with work. Our seats were so high up, we had a great few of Navy Pier. Fast forward 2 days later to Sunday.....we attended the wedding of my cousin Anthony and his gorgeous bride, Elise. The ceremony was very nice and the reception was alot of fun.
The next morning I left to go spend a week with my cousins at my grandparents house. It was nice to just lay around and visit but I was happy to come home and sleep in my own bed, plus two weeks away from the hubby was starting to make me miss him. That next week, Little Orkids Preschool opened its doors to 7 anxious children. In barbeque business news, That's Barbeque was introduced to a slew of restaurants this summer and picked up by a few stores. Dennis has taken a lot of time to get the business to a great point this year an we look forward to its growth in 2011.

We celebrated 5 years together in September with sushi and a stroll around downtown Wheaton, started our first round on IVF in November that led to a miscarriage. We have plans in January to jump back on the IVF bandwagon and try again. We stayed local and spent Thanksgiving & Christmas with family. Although this year has brought many challenges to our family we have keep our faith in the Lord that he has a plan for us. It has been hard to come to the realization that its all in the His time. He has done a wonderful job in tuning my patience this year and I know even Miracles take a little time.

We look forward to a better & brighter 2011 and hope that is the year that our dreams come true.
Wishing you & yours a Merry Christmas & a Happy healthy New Year!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Happy Birthday Dennis


Last Tuesday we celebrated Dens birthday. We went to Maggianos for dinner with the family for dinner that night. Dennis wanted to make sure this years birthday wasn't forgotten as I had to call 911 the day before his birthday to have him rushed to the ER. He was woken up early in the morning to a noise. I went out to check on him because I heard a groan. I found him hunched over the kitchen sink. He was breathing but not responding to me. I laid him on the floor and tried to get his attention. His eyes were bulging and he was staring off into space. I kept saying Dennis are you ok? Finally I got a "I can't hear you" from him. I ran to grab my sister to help me. This was the scariest point in my life thus far and I don't want another one.....as I called 911 I was holding back to tears but my adrenaline was going so fast I found it hard to dial the numbers and even find the words to answer the dispatchers questions. The paramedics arrived within seconds of the call and we rode off to the hospital in the ambulance. Before I had gotten in the ambulance I called Dennis' mom to meet me at the hospital because I didn't want to face this alone.

It is about 4:45 am and we are getting settled in the room and in walks Dens entire family all worried about him. Needless to say the Dr said he just had a fainting spell also know as Syncope. They did an EKG & ran some blood work just to make sure all was well.
We walked out to the hospital at 6:15 with that diagnosis not a clue to why he passed out in the first place. Of course this left me freaking out for the next couple of days following this incident that something was wrong with him and this was going to happen again.
So for his birthday, I was just thankful that he is here with us still and it was nothing major.

Gingerbread Houses



Tonight we built gingerbread houses with Tonya & Gary. This was a first ever for me, I have never made a gingerbread house before and now I know why......the icing is horrible to maneuver. The nice little white blob in the front on the house would be from my bag of icing exploding so I decided to add candy and call it a patio.....over all it was a fun activity.