Day 204--Thanksgiving Blowout, and finally a diagnosis!

What a week this has been! First and foremost, we finally know what is wrong with my daughter. Her doctor called and said blood work results was trickling in (had to throw that pun in there it was too good to not!). Scary version? She has tested positive for the Epstein Barr virus. Nonscary version? She has mono! I guess the doctors just looove freaking people out with their huge scary words. Basically the cure for this is rest. And more rest. She determines the speed with which she returns to real life. The school said we can do the homebound stuff, or she could go halfdays. I love small towns! Yeah they better be nice to me I have 5 kids in that school! So yay for my Bekah! I'm so glad she's not dying of some horrible disease.
So pretty much this whole week has been taken up with:

• cleaning
• cleaning
• cleaning
• cooking
• and more cleaning

But it's always worth it. Something was different this year. Know what it was?

I have energy.
To do anything I want around the house.
To cook as many dishes as I can.
To clean and clean and clean.
I have not had energy for oh lets say YEARS.

Normally, when I have a huge family thing at my house, I'm so TIRED. My feet hurt, my back hurts, heck everything hurts! I can never enjoy the family time because I'm so worn out but this year? Nuh uh, I had a blast! I was tired last night and when I turned off my light I was out and slept hard. Dang it's just so great to be normal! And of course it was wonderful to have people exclaim at how different I look. Just wait folks. I still have 132 pounds to lose!
My menu this year:

• turkey
• stuffing
• mashed potatoes and gravy
• cheesy corn bake
• green beans
• oriental salad
• deviled eggs
• pretzel salad (we actually call it prentzal salad)
• pickles, olives, and sharp and moz cheese chunks
• rolls with honey butter

Desserts were:

• pumpkin pie
• pecan pie (my husband actually made this! Can you believe it!)
• birthday cake
• ice cream
• pumpkin roll
• turtle pumpkin pie (my sister brought the last 2 things)

Talk about pumpkin with a vengeance I swear I am pumpkined out!!!
So I mentioned birthday cake because my little Mary Moo turned 10 yesterday. I got her some clothes, some blow pens which are so difficult to use I swear I am going to pass out when I'm coloring with her, some kind of dome thing you draw on and turn the lights out and it glows on the ceiling or something the kids just love it. Oh, and littlest pet shop. Which she adores. So all in all it was a nice day.
The bad?

• My husband has no work
• Bekah is still sick
• The back of the driver's seat in my car broke a bolt and doesn't stay up. Does anyone ever think about that happening I mean come on. What a weirdo thing.
• my oldest daughter is still living with us and there is a lot of personality conflicts between her and the younger kids
• my cat Ninja Cobra got in a fight last week and got bit by his eye and I thought he was better but oh no he has to develop this huge abcess over his eye! I mean we are talking hideous. It must have burst and then formed a scab because it looked like this humongous goose egg with a huge black scab on it. And of course the vet couldn't see him on Tuesday, oh no, I had to wait until WEDNESDAY at 11:15. Dang I was scared. And of course she had to lance it, flush the wound (we talked about that didn't we? If I am ever in an emergency room and hear a doctor say 'Nurse, we are going to have to flush her wound' I swear I will freak out because it's horrible), and moosh the gunk out, and she even tried to SCRUB THE SCAB OFF. Did I mention he was not sedated for this? Oh, and he is oozing. From the lanced cut. On his forehead. And it's not just pus it's blood too which I did not expect in the slightest. I hope I am not grossing you out. Right now it looks like a volcano with this huge black depression in the middle. OH and he licks his paw then rubs it ON THE WOUND ITSELF to clean it so his right paw has this faint red tinge to it. But I love my baby!!!!!
• We are on food stamps. Yes it pains me to admit this. I'm thankful we at least qualify. But I only got a prorated amount for this month and my next allotment is DECEMBER 19TH. Why I don't know. We are probably going to be eating a lot of pancakes. But it's better than nothing.
• One of my sons has 3 F's, the other one has 2. And they seriously do not care. What is with these boys!!! It's not like they are stupid idiots. Wait, maybe they are. No I'm kidding.
• The dogs stink! You might say how does that qualify for this list but if you have never had stinky dogs then I can't explain it. It has to be lived.

I weigh tomorrow. Updates on that later.
If you want to pray for me you can. Just pray for the OPPOSITE of what you have been praying for me because for some reason God thinks I can handle a whole heck of a lot of bad things at one time.
Oh I forgot. I gave myself 1000 extra calories like my friend Sean did last year. It was so wonderful to eat the food I prepared. To have ONE serving of everything. And it was enough! That's the best part, I ate exactly what everyone else ate just smaller portions. Why why why did I live my whole life thinking it was agony and torture to lose weight, to say no to food, to portion it! I love having control over what I put in my mouth. If you happen to be reading this and are trapped in a 'diet' with strict and ridiculous rules then I suggest you come away from the dark side. I am proof positive that you can live a wonderful life while losing weight.
And the most wonderful thing happened! My brother in law got an ipod touch for his birthday so he gave me his old ipod!! I downloaded the podcast for the first week of C25K and I am so excited! And also freaked because I normally jog where no houses are so noone can see me. I have to jog in front of people driving by probably! Eeep!
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!