Tuesday, November 22, 2022

A Day Off + Weekend Highlight

This is an extra short week for me. I ended up taking yesterday off because I had 2 doctor appointments - a mammogram in the morning and a pre-op physical in the afternoon as it turns out I have some uterine polyps that need to be removed so I am having that procedure on December 20th! Merry Christmas to me! I met my out of pocket maximum earlier this year - not to be confused with a deductible! I meet my deductible in Jan or Feb every year because of my crazy expensive RA meds. So I wanted to get the procedure done now so I wouldn't have to pay anything out of pocket. I had planned to bring lunch to a friend who had a baby, but they are fighting a virus so I stayed away as we have enough stuff going around our house! 

It was nice to have a day off, though. After I dropped the kids at daycare, I headed out for a 4 mile run which was my first run in about a week. I ended up getting some sort of stomach virus on Thursday that left me feeling not-so-great and not well enough to run over the weekend. I never threw up but was really nauseated Thursday/Friday and had no appetite for much of the weekend. I am still not quite back to my normal appetite! But I was glad I felt well enough to run on Monday as I have a 10k on Thanksgiving!

There were hundreds of ducks on the water! This is just one small section of ducks.

After my first appointment of the day, I worked on my puzzle in front of the tree with the fire place on. It was so cozy and delightful! A keen observer might notice that we have 2 P stockings (for Paul and Phil), 1 L (for me), and 1 T. Why the T? Well, William actually primarily goes by "Taco." That's what Paul named him when I was pregnant and the nickname stuck. I sometimes call him Will or William, but everyone else calls him Taco except a few people at daycare and he calls himself Taco. That said, I've been trying, unsuccessfully, to find a matching W stocking for the last 2 years. I thought surely at the start of this Christmas season I'd find one. But nope! They are nowhere to be found - not online, not in any local stores. So I decided to just get the T stocking. It's hard to imagine him going by something other than Taco at this point and if we do shift to calling him Will someday, the stocking will mark the time of our life when we called him Taco and can be an inside family joke. 


I finished the puzzle around lunchtime. And oddly - instead of having a missing piece, there was an extra piece! Isn't that weird? 


I spent the afternoon reading, took a nap, went to my pre-op physical, started dinner (white chicken chili) and picked the boys up from daycare. I need to take more random days off! 

Now, flashing back to the weekend. There were some highlights but overall it was a little bit meh? I had no appetite/felt off and it was so so so cold. Like feels like temps of 1F which is very cold for November. We were cooped up inside a lot. We really need to figure out a plan for what to do with our kids on cold winter weekends. Being inside as much as we were this past weekend is NOT good! 

But the highlights! Friday night, Paul and I decorated the tree after Will went to bed. He handled all the kid-friendly ornaments and then put hooks on the ornaments I hung. He is at such a wonderful age for things like this! Admittedly the toddler stage is NOT my favorite, but I LOVE age 4!


We also hung their little felt Christmas tree up. Paul had fun showing Will how to take the ornaments off and put them back on. 


The other highlight was seeing The Grinch at the Children's Theater on Sunday afternoon. It was amazing and exceeded my expectations. I would go again in a heart beat. It was the perfect length - 2 hours including the intermission. Paul thought it was wonderful! 


And now Thanksgiving week is upon us. The kids' school is closed Wed-Fri. Phil and I both work tomorrow, so we'll tag team to take care of the kids. I expect the day will be very quiet. Then Thanksgiving is at my brother's, we host my niece and nephew on Friday afternoon, we go to my MIL's on Saturday since we won't see her on Thanksgiving, and then I host cookie decorating on Sunday. It's kind of a lot, but it's fun stuff so I am focusing on that to keep any potential stress at bay!

11 comments:

NGS said...

My husband and I don't put up stockings because we don't have anywhere to hang them, but my mom sent me my stockings from when I was a child and they all have my childhood nickname (Nicky) on them. It's a name I don't use anymore, but it's still a cherished bit of my childhood! Even if he doesn't go by Taco, he'll love the association, I'm sure!

Elisabeth said...

I love the "T" stocking and you're right - down the line, regardless of what he goes by, it will be a great family story.
I LOVE the felt tree; what a great interactive decoration.
The puzzle looks lovely; I don't think I've ever had an extra piece? They do this with LEGO sets and I'm always confused; like my son got one for his birthday last weekend and there are extras of some very specific (both not broadly useful) parts.
Hope no more bugs come your way before Christmas and how lovely you were able to fit in that run and bask in the glory of Christmas decor...without little kiddos underfoot.
Long, cold winter days are hard to fill. I still feel this way and my kids are quite a bit older than your two. I wish I had great ideas for you, but I struggle myself!
That Grinch production sounds amazing. We love the Grinch so much and I would attend something like this in a heartbeat.
Hope you have a fabulous Thanksgiving, Lisa <3

Nicole said...

Taco! That's delightful. My in utero names for my kids were Appleseed and Beansprout.
I'm so sorry about your stomach virus and your uterine polyps. Right before Christmas too! I hope that you can really take some time to rest and recover.
The Grinch! How fun. Hope the weather starts to get closer to normal for you.

Jenny said...

This sounds like a great day off- except for the appointments. I don't know much about uterine polyps, but I'm hoping that's an easy procedure.
How fun that you have your Christmas tree up!!! I had a flashback to when my son was around that age- I told him he could decorate the Christmas tree. I was there with him but doing something else- can't remember what- and when I looked over I found that he had put the ornaments clustered together on about 1/4 of the tree. Er... I had to sneakily rearrange things. It's funny the things you assume- to me it's obvious that you put the ornaments ALL OVER the tree, but I didn't actually say that, and it wasn't obvious to him.
We're having unusually HOT temperatures, arg! We'll be wearing tank tops and sweating tomorrow while we get our Christmas tree. No one is happy about this.
I hope you enjoy your week!

The Gilmore Guide to Books said...

You've been so busy! I hope the medical procedure goes without a hitch. I'm the same way with out-of-pocket! I tried to schedule so many things for Nov-Dec, but because we just got back to Seattle no one had appts available. Grrrr.

You're vacation sounds wonderful. I'm ready for somewhere warm and beachy. Enjoy!

coco said...

sorry to hear about your virus. I'm not sure I'm done with mine yet as my energy level is still not back to normal. I'm pissed that it's taking so much time to feel better. patience is what I lack.

you still seem chill about your polyps procedure, I'm super nervous/anxious when it comes to medical procedure, including my eye surgery. it freaks me out and feel I need anxiety meds to calm myself.

the tree looks so nice, instantly lifting up the spirit to the holidays! Happy thanksgiving!

Kyria @ Travel Spot said...

I love your decorations! I have kind of stopped putting stuff up just to take it down (bah humbug!) but I think if I had kids it would be different...I would be a decorating machine. My Mom still puts up the felt tree advent calendar every year and we look forward to going home to put up the last couple of days. Those traditions are priceless. .

I hope that all of your appointments went well; I am doing the same thing, going to all of the end of year appointments, although for me the only ones that I really need to spend by the end of the year are eyes and teeth! But I may as well get all my fillings filled and my contacts ordered. I also went and did all of the lady appointments which I put off until the end of the year every year!

Sarah said...

That felt Christmas Tree is adorable!!

San said...

I love that you got a little bit of time to yourself and that you had such fun putting up the tree(s) and ornaments. You gotta cherish those times... and I really like the story behind the "T" stocking. I agree that Will will love this story even if at some point he won't be "Taco" anymore.

Hope you had a great Turkey Trot and Thanksgiving with your fam!

Anonymous said...

Ugh! A virus and polyps - I hope the procedure is smooth and reassuring. I love the story of Taco, and commemorating the nickname via stocking is adorable. I love your felt tree too! So cute! What a fun way for the kids to get involved in “decorating” for Christmas! Hope your turkey run went well. (This is Suzanne - I can’t get the form fo accept my blog url.)

Stephany said...

Oh man, uterine polyps?! At least you're able to get it taken care of this month, but wah, right before Christmas!? Hopefully the recovery isn't too rough!

You're going to have such a fun holiday season with Paul this year! He's at that perfect age. :)