Yep, once again, it has been quite some time since my last entry. Let me get you all up to speed.

Monday night around 9ish I started having some weird vision problems, as if someone flashed a camera at me too many times. Nothing I could do made it any better, so I decided to go to bed. It is my habit to read myself to sleep so I picked up my book and surprisingly (maybe because it was a dark room?) I was able to see my book just fine and feel asleep in due time. I awoke around 10:30 or 11. The left half of my upper lip (yeah, weird, I know) was numb and tingly. And my head was killing me. I woke Aaron up because that feeling (the numbness) is very scary. Then my left hand started tingling and numbing and it creeped up my arm. I have had this symptom once before in my life--and we rushed to the Emergency Room thinking I was having a stroke or something. That time was particularly scary because in triage they asked for my address and I started to recite my phone number. I said, "Wait, that's not it...It's 208-381...No, wait, that's not my address. Hang on. It's 208-..." It was so frustrating. I knew I was giving the wrong answer, but I could NOT come up with the correct data. I was so scared that something was terribly wrong with my brain. Anyway, that was 2 1/2 years ago. And they diagnosed me with a migraine after doing a CT scan.

So, Monday night when I was experiencing the same numbness, it was scary, but not as bad as the first time. Aaron prayed over me and it went away and I fell back to sleep. I woke up Tuesday morning and took a shower (my coffee). Immediately upon getting out of the shower I threw up. Between 8 AM and 1 PM that day, I threw up 7-8 times. I couldn't even sip on water without it coming back up. I had planned on working a heavy day because of the office closure for Thanksgiving, but that obviously wasn't happening. My head didn't really hurt all that badly, but it seemed I was heaving over the toilet every 30-45 minutes. After episode 6 or so, Aaron decided that this was ridiculous and bundled us all up to go to the doctor's office. I took a pitcher for a puke bucket. Good thing. I threw up again in the car.

The doctor was happy to hear I'd been through this before and we didn't have to order another CT scan (ordinarily, of course, she would have). She gave me some sample medication right there in the office (and ordered me to take a 10 minute rest in the dark there on the exam table). Then she wrote up the prescriptions (for nausea and for migraines). And off we went to wait an hour for them to be filled. Small town life is killing me.

Needless to say, we left a lot of work undone, and the house a mess, when we took off for my folks house 8 hours away. We drove halfway that night and stayed in a hotel. The kids did pretty well in the car.

Wednesday morning we drove to the mall and REI in Madison. We bought down-filled coats. It's cold here. Really, really cold. Too cold. And it's still only November. We also went to the mall and bought Aaron a red shirt to coordinate with the rest of us for the family (just the 4 of us) pictures we had scheduled for Saturday. Whooo hoo. We ate lunch and were off again.

Pea slept almost the whole way to my parent's house, but Punk always takes terrible naps in the car. He was whining and complaining for about the last hour of the drive. But, everyone was thrilled to finally make it to "Grandma and Grandpa's house." We promptly took off to get dinner at Outback, which is right across the street from Chuck E. Cheese. I don't think Punk even knew what it was, but he said, "I want to go THERE!" My mom sorta flippantly said she'd like to take him there sometime. And, we went into Outback.

After we put the kids to bed, we began the preparations for Thanksgiving dinner--Dad made rolls, Matt (my bro, 23) and Mom and I made stuffing, Mom made the cranberry sauce and I made a pecan pie for the first time in my life. It was so easy! I can't wait to make another one--and I can't believe I put it off for so long! Where did I get the idea that they are hard to make?! Sheesh. And, between all that, Aaron and I each talked to Patty for an hour (yes, that's 2 hours total) about a crisis and a "situation" at work. Uuugh.

Thursday was nice. We spent much of the morning in the kitchen, of course. Mom baked a turkey (mostly for the stuffing) and Dad deep-fried one on the patio. It was our first deep-fried one and it didn't seem much different to me--except that it didn't take any time at all to cook it! Sarah (my sis, twin) came over in the morning and helped with the preparations too. Her boyfriend is vegan, so I made an acorn squash dish for him while Sarah was making the sweet potato casserole. Dad was basting the baking turkey and had set the roasting pan lid over my squash dish. When he was done basting, he grabbed the lid, forgetting the squash and it tumbled to the floor. We scraped it up and served it anyway. That's the kind of family we are.

Of course, everyone was thrilled with Pea, who didn't retreat into her shell as I thought she might. My dad said to me, with the hugest grin lighting his face, "You done well, Daughter. She's GREAT!" My dad's pride in me is one of my life's chief delights and his glowing praise meant a lot to me.

Pea loves meat. And carbs. But mostly meat. She loved the turkey and hardly ate anything else. Later, Joe (Sarah's boyfriend) remarked, "Most kids have a sweet-tooth. Pea has a meat-tooth!" Hee hee! Very clever Joe!

After the feast, we put the kids to bed for their naps and we adults did what the Liles family ALWAYS does on holidays--we played games. Aah. I love me some boxed games. I never get to play them enough. It was good times.

Ordinarily, folks, I hate shopping, especially in crowds like those induced by crazed Black Friday lovers. And, ordinarily, I would avoid Black Friday shopping like the Black Plague. BUT, you see, I now live in the middle of Nowhere, Wisconsin and there is no shopping here. And, I needed a few things. Like cords and sweaters. Because it's cold up here. Really, really cold. Too cold. And, besides the dismal shopping here (we DO have a SuperWal*Mart, after all), I have a funky-to-fit body and need to actually try things on, rather than order from catalogs or online. So, I had to do it. I had to brave the Black Friday madness. And, it wasn't too bad. I didn't really get any "steals" but I got what I needed and paid reasonable prices at least.

Saturday morning Sarah, Mom, Pea and I ran some errands. I got some funny looks from some black ladies in one store. But no one said anything. It was my first experience of that sort and it wasn't bad at all. Then we met the men (Dad, Matt, Aaron, and Punk) at a restaurant for my parent's anniversary lunch. So that was nice. And, again, while the kids were napping, we played games. Yay! After naps, we 4 dressed up for the pictures. I'll try to post them for you but I left the paperwork with my mom so she could pick them up for us. Pictures went surprisingly well and both kids did great. Punk used his cheesy-picture-smile the whole time, but what can you do.

After pictures, Mom and Dad and Matt brought play-clothes for the kids and we all spent the evening at Chuck E. Cheese--which was a HUGE hit. Punk kept trying to do things that were for older kids, but he had fun. It was a nice way to end our time together.

We drove all the way home on Sunday, and again, the kids did surprisingly well. I'm starting to sound like a pessimist here with everything surprising me by its goodness and ease. Oh well. They really are great kids and they did wonderfully well all things considered. It was a really nice get-away, and nice to be with my side of the family for the first Thanksgiving since we've been married.

Now we're back to work and there's lots of catching up to do. I suppose I should get at it, huh? :)