WE'RE DEBT FREE!

Now you should be hearing Mel Gibson saying "Freedom" and the theme music from Braveheart.

Yes, it has been 22 months of sacrificing, giving up our favorite things (including air condition for a summer), and not going on a single family vacation to get rid of Sallie Mae. It hasn't been easy, the kids (including Kris and myself) have cried and begged for it to stop but we kept pushing. The day has finally arrived where Sallie Mae actually owes us .17 cents.

Original principal balance: $37,980.14
Capitalized interest: $0.00

Outstanding principal balance: $-0.17
Accrued interest: $0.00

Total amount outstanding: $-0.17

I have been dreaming of this day for 2 years. I have a whole list of plans for the house. There a lot of places that I want to go see. Let's get started....oh wait, now I have to save all that money first.

And the sex is.......

I finally made it back to the urologist yesterday. I have been waiting for 6 weeks for this appointment with great anticipation. What kind is it? What foods do I need to start eliminating? What do I need to do to prevent another one? The first question he asked me was if I took a multivitamin. "No. Well you need to start taking one. There is calcium in those but that should be OK." So I started thinking Calcium Oxalate. Oh well, that is the most common type which kind of sucks because I need to take extra calcium for my porous bones which have a tendency to break easily. Then he gave me the news......

"Well, we lost your stone in transit so I don't know what type it was." WHAT! You mean I went through all that pain and straining of my urine for nothing. I just sat there, dumbfounded, mumbling something about it being OK.

How do people lose a good size kidney stone? Don't they know the pain and expense I went through? They obviously had never had one before because if they had they would have been extra careful with mine. All these arguments and complaints were going through my head as I sat there listening to all the other advice. I am not sure but I think that I heard most of it.

What a complete disappointment. I really feel like something that belonged to me has been stolen. AUGHHH! Guess I will have to have another one.

We are pleased to welcome the newest addition to our family; a 5 mm stone.

It all started around 11 am on Wednesday while I was running errands. At first I just thought it was cramps. I rushed home cursing every red light that I encountered. I am not sure if just getting out of the car and walking around helped or if the pain had just subsided a little but I was able to eat some lunch and take some Ibuprofen. I then called Kris and told him that I loved him and I thought I was going to die. He laughed at me.

At that point I was feeling OK; I did a little sewing and got Lexi ready and off to school. The pain was increasing and I knew that I wasn't going to make it to work so I called and told them that I couldn't come in because I was having the worst cramps in my life. Fortunately my co-worker understood, she laughed at me too.

The pain was getting worse, I needed some pain pills designed specifically for cramps so I headed off to Harmons to buy some Pamprin or Midol. This time I didn't have to worry about too many red lights but I didn't think that I was going to make it home. The pain was doubling. When I got home I called my dad and asked him if it was OK if I took Pamprin along with the Ibuprofen. He immediately started to ask me if I thought I was pregnant and if it was a tubal or molar pregnancy. At that point the pain was so bad that I was crying to my dad on the phone and I remember thinking "Just take the whole uterus out, I don't want it anymore." He told me to take some more Ibuprofen, get a heating pad and lay down. Well, I couldn't find the heating pad so I had this brilliant idea of getting into the bath tub. Unfortunately, it is very hard to lie flat in a bath tub and I couldn't get comfortable so after 5 minutes in the bath tub I got out and threw up my lunch (there goes all my pain pills.)

After several unsuccessful attempts to reach Kris, he finally called me and I told him that I needed him to come home. I also called my dad back and told him that I needed something more than just Ibuprofen (it is great having a Dr. in the family). My dad said that he would come and check me out.

Kris came home. I am writhing with pain in the bed, sobbing to him and he is sitting on the floor holding my hand. He is such a great husband, I am truly blessed to be married to such a man. He just sat there with me, asking me if there was anything he could do. He finally said that I had to go to the ER. THE ER, you don't go the the ER for CRAMPS! The ER is for life and death emergencies ie, heart attacks, stabbings through the heart, accidents involving brain matter. I think that I actually said to Kris that we should go to an insta-care instead. My dad finally got there and came into the room, asked me where it hurt and said that he thinks that I have a kidney stone. OK, I can go to the ER; a kidney stone is ER worthy.

That was the longest drive to Alta View Hospital I have ever had in my life. I was really cursing at all the lights now and was cursing IHC for not having their new Riverton Hospital (5 minutes away) open yet. I swear it took 2 hours to get there. As soon as I got there I walked straight into the triage nursing station, I wasn't going to wait for anybody to call me in. I needed treatment NOW! The nurse was asking me a whole bunch of questions, I was dieing and I felt like crying again. Finally they got me back into a room, got an IV started, saw the Dr. and waited for the pain meds. I did start crying at that point. Kris and my dad gave me a blessing, it didn't take away the pain but it did make me feel emotionally better. I feel so fortunate to have a husband who is worthy and can use the power of our Heavenly Father to help me. That was truly a tender moment for me, 2 men that I love working together to heal me. Thank you.

After what seemed like hours the pain meds finally arrived. AHHHHHHHHHHHH. I am alive! I have never loved morphine so much in my life.

The CT confirmed my dad's suspicion that it was a kidney stone. The Dr. said it was a good size; 5 mm. Now was the hard part, getting it out. The Dr. gave me some more drugs, said good luck and sent me on my way. I was worried that the pain would start to come back so I made Kris and my Dad fill the prescription on the way home from the hospital. I immediately took one but it was too late, a few hours later I was in pain, throwing up and wondering if I should go back to the ER. I started to take more pain pills than the prescription suggested and got the pain under control. I pretty much stayed awake all night taking pain pills every 2 hours to make sure that the pain didn't return. That continued all day on Thursday until about 4:30 p.m. when the big moment arrived. There it was, in the strainer. Big and Ugly.

I went to the urologist on Friday and gave him our new addition. He was impressed (or so he said). It was sent somewhere for testing. I have to do some additional testing myself to see if I can prevent another one from happening. We will find out the gender and hair color in a month.

I guess this runs in my moms family (thanks MOM). My grandma said that my grandpa had lots of them and kept them in a jar (totally disgusting). Kris and I think that 3 kids are enough, we aren't going to try for anymore. 2 keep us on our toes all the time and the 3rd, well, it kept me in bed unable to do anything for the other 2. Needless to say, Nicholas and Lexi are not being very accepting of it.

My First (Half) Marathon Expierence.

This is a momentous occasion for me. I am not a natural born runner. I am short, with short legs. My strides are very short, my heart races, and I usually last only 10 minutes before I want to pass-out. I have never enjoyed running. Through-out the years I have tried to run. I usually start off strong but after the first day, my lungs are burning and that is a strong signal to me that it is completely unhealthy. Last year, I broke my leg by doing nothing but running. No, I didn't fall, I didn't trip, and I was wearing good running shoes. I was just running and my leg started to hurt. Who would have thought.

So since I had paid for the half marathon last year before breaking my leg I begged and pleaded to the marathon people to transfer the entry fee to this year. Never in a million years did I think that they would do it (I had to do something to make me feel better about wasting $60 not to mention the Dr. bills and MRI bill that came along with the broken leg). Well, someone wants me to run because they sent me a certificate for a free entry to the half marathon for this year. I had to get my money's worth so I started to train AGAIN. As the weeks went by, I got more nervous for my leg and more confident that maybe I could do this. I didn't train as hard as I did last year but I enjoyed it much more. I was so proud of myself the day that I ran 11 miles. I couldn't believe it. 11 MILES. Do you know how far that is??????

The morning came. I was extremely nervous. I asked Kris to say a prayer for us (well, me mostly) and off we went. The race started and Kris was off. We were both tackling our own demons alone. At first I was being passed by everyone which was a bit frustrating but I stuck to my game plan. As the miles ticked away I found my little group of people who were running the same race as myself. I would pass them then they would pass me. On and on that went until the finish. I felt a sort of connection with them, too bad I didn't know any of their names.

On my mile 8 (full marathon mile 22) I was passed by the pace car and the leader of the marathon. Now that was totally crazy. He had run 22 miles in 1:55. I couldn't believe it. I knew that I would be passed by marathoners but to actually have it happen was weird. I can say that I ran with the winner for all of 1/15th of a second. He passed me in just one of his long strides. A few minutes later I was passed by another one. Those natural marathoners are amazing.

As the finish got closer I got more excited and more nervous because the tendons around my knees were starting to hurt. I slowed down a bit and kept going. Then I saw that I was on mile 12 and the time was 2:35. I was so excited. My whole goal was to finish ( and hopefully before Kris who was running the full marathon) around 3 hours. I knew that I could do it. Soon I was running down the last stretch and the clock was reading 2:53. I had started about 2 minutes after the official start so my official chip time was 2:51:51. What a feeling to finish. I was so proud of myself. For someone who never in a million years thought they could run a 10K let alone a half marathon I felt that was the best time ever.

Would I do it again? YES. Do I want to run a full marathon? NO. I recognize my limits. I honestly have no desire to run a full marathon. That would be torturous. But I am currently looking for another half.

I have always wanted my fortune in my fortune cookie to come true...

The other week the family went out to dinner at a new Chinese restaurant. Of course we got fortune cookies after our meal and mine said something about connecting with old friends. Earlier that week and also that day I had multiple family and friends ask me to join facebook. I told them, flat out, NO! I didn't have enough time. A few days later, Kris joined. I have been looking at his facebook accounts, seeing all the messages being posted, all the old friends he hasn't talked with since his high school days (including, I might add, old girlfriends) and I felt like I was missing out on something. But, I held firm. I didn't have enough time for all of this. As the days went by I was getting a bit jealous. He kept telling me to join. Well, today I broke down and joined. So far the only friends that I have are family members. I am still waiting to find those old friends of mine.

Twilight Movie comes out tonight at midnight!

The other day my sister-in-law asked me if I was going to buy the Twilight movie. She said that she was boycotting it because she was so disappointed in the movie and the last book. I have been thinking about it. I too was disappointed in the movie (see previous post) and although I did like the last book I do have to admit that I was a bit disappointed in it also. I wanted more action, I wanted some blood shed, I wanted some tearing off of heads and war. It all ended a bit too peaceful for me. Come on people, these are vampires that we are talking about. They definitely don't have peace in mind, they lure people into their dungeons for mid-day snacks. The author lead us up to this great big war and then it ended peacefully! Oh, give me a break.

So, after giving it some consideration.....yes I am. Why? Honestly, I don't know. I keep hoping that the move will be different. (Isn't that the definition of insanity?)

UPDATE: Not only did I buy the movie but for some odd reason Salt Lake was chosen to be 1 of 3 U.S. cities to hold a surprise appearance for one of the Twilight actors. At first when I heard this, I was thinking, "Oh, it will be downtown at some store and I don't love the movie THAT much." So a friend looked it up for me and....can you believe it? They picked Riverton's Walmart as the lucky spot. Riverton's Walmart??? That is what I said. Well, I had to go. I just had to go. I didn't know who it was going to be and I had to find out. It could be James, or Laurent or one of the cute brothers. I had to find out. So I went to Walmart to find out. The parking lot was packed, I walked in the front door and it was full of screaming people. I looked around, jumped up and down, (I am short you know) and couldn't see anybody. Finally I had to ask who it was. The answer.......

My psychotic eposides have returned and I have to gloat

Writers note: Although all the following events did happen, I did use a bit of creativity in tying them in all together. In other words, I didn't purposefully try to sabotage my husband, maybe just subconsciously.

Kris and I are competitive with each other. We each get mad when the other wins a game. There are some games that we just don't play anymore because one person kept losing and has sworn to never play again until a lot of time has passed and she has convinced herself that she can win. That is how it goes in our house, one person gloats while the other is suffering inside and is planning their ultimate revenge. Well, I got mine!

When we first bought this house a year and half ago Kris' credit score was higher than mine. Not by a lot but by a few points. Needless to say, Kris was gloating. I was not happy about this. How could he have a higher credit score than me? He has a student loan on his name. I have no outstanding loans, I take care of all the bills. The reason why his credit score is better than mine is because I PAY ALL THE BILLS ON TIME. Life is so unfair. This is not like we can just play another game and I will try a new strategy, this was a home purchase. You can't just do this again and again until you win. I was really pissed and he knew it. That was then.

We just refinanced our house. When we got our good faith estimate from our mortgage consultant we both looked at our credit score. I WAS IN THE LEAD!!!! however, it was not by much. Just a few points. Things could change and I knew it. I needed to make sure that things didn't. I started to think.......what can I do to set this in stone without damaging our chances of getting this refinance done and ruining my own credit score? Think, Think, Think.

We get the newspaper and the payment was due. I pay all of the bills through our bank on the computer BUT the newspaper. You have to pay that courier tip and I am not sure how to do that on the bank so I write a check. I DIDN'T PAY IT. The newspaper is in Kris's name. HA HA HA. We keep getting newspaper bills. NOT PAID. Kris keeps asking me if I have paid for the newspaper..."Oh, no. Not yet, I will." ha ha ha. Finally, we get a collection agency calling us looking for our payment. I decide that it is finally time to pay.

Closing time comes, Kris's credit score dropped 20 points. YES!!!!!!!! Kris is pissed. I am gloating. Revenge is sweet!


p.s. For those of you who are worried about Kris's credit score, don't be. It will jump right back to where it was as I continue to pay off his student loan early.