Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours was spectacular! I made a huge turkey and all the fixin's, homemade noodles, all that jazz, and it was scrumptious if I do say so myself. And of course, all the kiddies were here which I was very, very thankful for, and we had a beautiful day.

Today, former toddler had to go under general anesthesia for dental work. He has a disorder which makes him unable to make enamel like normal folks, and as a result 17 out of his 20 teeth were full of cavities. Thankfully we caught it in time and he only lost one tooth as a result. The rest are all capped now and will hopefully hold him until his permanent ones come in. We don't know if his permanent teeth will be affected or not, the dr. said sometimes they are and sometimes not. We won't know until we see them.

At any rate, he had to be at the hospital 45 minutes away from here at 6:30 a.m. We decided to take the opportunity to enjoy a little Black Friday madness at ToysRUs. What insanity! The doors opened at 5:00, and we got through the door about 5:10... half the doorbusters were already gone. We didn't really need anything in particular and were just there for the entertainment, but we did wind up with a few power rangers (buy one get one free!) and a Spiderman Sorry (regular $30 on sale for $15). That's about it. And a good laugh at the expense of the stupidity that consumerism brings out in so many. It was snowing, which helped put us in the holiday spirit.

Tomorrow we (we being me and the five children) *may* go to the tree farm for a Christmas tree! I never have a live tree, but I just may this year. And my parents are going tomorrow, so my dad offered to haul ours back in his pickemup truck if we wanted. So I might take him up on it! Or maybe not! Hubby has to work, so he'd have to take the crappy car (which he is not excited about), and it also depends on how my little guy is doing with his teeth. He seems much better now, eating yogurt and playing with his brothers. He had some pain when he first woke up, and then he slept most of the day away, but he seems more like his normal self this evening. I think all the time I spent in the hospital helped a lot actually, as he wasn't afraid of the blood pressure cuff or getting an IV or any of that stuff since he's seen it so much on me! I guess that's one good thing.

The brood is calling, better run. It's been a good holiday.

Well, it had to happen sometime, didn't it? I mean, a perfect season is too much to ask I'm sure. But really, Illinois guys? Poor, poor Buckeyes.

I'm doing quite well, even if my Buckeyes suck. I did some Christmas shopping this past weekend, and actually got a good chunk of it done. I don't like waiting until the last minute and fighting all the crowds. It saps the holiday spirit right out of me.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving next week. I have so very much to be thankful for! I will have all of my kidlets for the holiday, for the first time in a looooooong time. Actually, it will be the first time with all five, as the baby wasn't around - this is his first Thanksgiving (having been born right after the holiday last year).

It's also my birthday later this week. I'm going to be 25 of course. Again. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Never mind the almost 16 year old son... Maybe I need to start claiming him as a brother? Then Thanksgiving, and then the baby's first birthday! He walks around all over the place now, it's amazing how quickly he's growing. Time flies sometimes.

Someone has a full diaper for me, I guess that's my signal that i'm done blogging for today.

I am in such a ridiculously good mood. I woke up yesterday morning, for the first time in... oh, I don't know... forever, and I felt NORMAL! No, seriously! Nothing hurt, nothing at all, and I could breathe! No wheezing, no coughing, no needing a breathing treatment and some prednisone to make it out of bed, nosiree! I skipped around all day, did a bunch of work, kept waiting to get wheezy, short of breath, something. But nope, it never hit me.

This morning, I woke up a little wheezy and a little owee, but nothing major and maybe *almost* normal. I'll take it anyway. The beauty is that I've been fighting a cold all weekend too, coughing and yucky, and it looks like (knock on wood here) I'm going to fight it off by myself. I go see my allergist tomorrow for that testing, and I'm hoping for an answer or two there. I also have to stop by my ortho for a new boot, got my old one all wet and it's quite yucky. I'm mostly just wearing the boot at home because I still don't really believe the ortho guy but figure it can't hurt. The baby likes to play with the velcro straps .

I seriously can't explain what a marvelous feeling it was to wake up feeling nothing yesterday morning. We also went for a hike, and I made it all the way up the hill with the baby in his carrier on my chest! Okay, I had to stop for breath a time or two, but I made it! I know there's no way I could have done that a month or two ago. So, maybe I'm finally starting to feel like I can really see some improvements for the long term. My "good" times are better, and the "bad" spells seem to be fewer and far between, not to mention they are milder in their intensity. I didn't have to go in the hospital this last time I felt bad. I managed at home, and was fine within a couple of days. I can live with that. maybe that's what I need to remind me to rest and take some time for myself; sometimes I forget!

At any rate, I'm feeling pretty good tonight and the boys are off at karate so thought I'd post my happy update. Everyone loves a happy update!

The allergist called on Thursday and rescheduled my allergy testing, so I have to wait a little longer. My new appt. is Wed. afternoon. I hate it when they do that! I made my appt. on Friday because hubby is off on Fridays, so I don't to worry about how long it takes me. My new appt. is Wed. at 2:30, which was the only time they had available next week, which is right about the time hubby leaves and also about the time the kids start coming home. It's a crazy time of day. I'm so not happy about that, but all I can really do is perform a little rain dance Wed. morning and hope hubby will cancel his practices. He thinks the world is ending if they miss one practice, and I don't know how he has any business because I wouldn't let my kids play for him. But other parents seem to love him, so go figure.

I went to my ortho guy on Friday for some foot pain I've been having, and he said I have a stress fracture on my foot!

I think he has flipped his lid too. I can't see a thing on the x-ray, and he's circling it with a pen going, "Yup, right here! I see it!" He told me to put my big cast/boot back on and come see him in 2 weeks. Sure.

Today is hubby's birthday, so we'll probably be going out later to celebrate. And thank goodness I'm feeling okay this morning, so he can at least sleep in as long as he wants to. I didn't buy him anything but I'm not going to feel too badly about it considering I haven't ever received a birthday gift from him. I just didn't have time/energy/whatever to shop for him, not that I didn't want to get him anything. I should have just ordered something online (and almost did!) but oh well. Remind me of this in a couple of weeks when I'm crying because I didn't get any birthday present...

I know I haven't mentioned it lately, but jeez, GO BUCKS! I know you all were sad that you hadn't heard that from me lately, so thought I'd jump right in there with it. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

I'm having a much, much better week this week and for a little while can actually believe that I'm getting better! And then I have to run upstairs for something and reality smacks me, but I am improving. I'm down to only one breathing treatment per day, sometimes none at all, and I'm only on 5 mg of that poison prednisone crap. I mentioned to my pulmonologist how this seems to cycle... I'll feel better for a week or two or three, and then WHAM! I can't walk up the stairs again. He thought that was significant and sent me for some other tests, and his new theory is that there is something that is in my environment every so often that is acting as an allergen and causing a flare up of these asthma-like symptoms. So, Friday this week I will go for allergy testing to see if I react to anything and at least get a family of stuff that might irritate me. In the meantime, I'm supposed to keep a diary of daily events and as soon as I start getting worse again I have to write down every single thing that I can think of. He said it could be as simple as the sheets that I sleep on, or an unknown allergy to peanut butter. Anything.

It's a little difficult to keep such a diary because really, who wants to write down every mundane detail of their daily life? Ugh. It's just not that exciting folks! But I'd be willing to do quite a few mundane things at the moment if it helps get to the bottom of why I can't breathe! I'll spare you all the details though, and do it on paper. You're welcome.

I managed to find good homes for both puppies, and I am very thankful and happy about that. They were such cute little guys, but really I didn't have the patience or the time for them right now and they deserved so much better. I gave one to a friend who had another dog as a playmate (he'd gotten one for his older son and now the younger son was jealous), and hubby managed to pawn the other one off on one of the parents at soccer practice. The baby was scared to death of them and screamed any time one came near him, and the puppies themselves were full of energy and loved jumping up all over the kids which included nipping them and such... Well, I guess I probably don't need to explain myself here and that's part of the beauty of the stream. But they do have good homes now, and my house is much calmer and peaceful again. Ah.

I'll keep y'all posted on the allergy testing, I'm looking forward to it. Anything that might provide a clue! My family dr. has been saying he wanted allergy testing for months, so I'm glad someone else finally agreed. Until then, let's just hope I keep improving!