Happy 2014!!

I should have dropped by the ol’ blog yesterday to wish everyone a happy new year and to fill you all in on the latest from the Ingram homestead.

December ended up being a lot more –fill in the blank- than I bargained for!

Early in the month, I went to my doctor because I had some pain in the left side of my neck and it looked swollen. He ordered an ultrasound. A couple of days later he calls me to make an appointment to come see him, but he needs me to get a lot of blood work done before the appointment. Fast forward a couple of days to completed blood work and my appointment. He is referring me to an endocrinologist to have a biopsy done on my thyroid. Wait! What?!? Yes, I heard him right, we were on a path to rule out cancer. YIKES! I got a letter from the endocrinologist on New Year’s Eve – “The results of your recent biopsy were negative.” Good news. I could have wished for more personal delivery of such delicate and important news.

Now, let’s back up again to December 19th. My kids are pumped about how close Christmas is getting. Our Advent Chain saved me from an endless stream of curious children wanting to know how many more days until Christmas. SCORE! Problem, we were awakened at 5:30am by the telephone ringing – School “will be closed on Friday, December 20th, 2013 due to inclement weather.”

WHAT?? Since when is an inch of snow “inclement weather”? Oh – right. When it has ice underneath of it.

One severely disappointed almost 6 year old… all vacation long asked when is my Christmas party?

Saturday, December 21 – My beautiful daughter turned 11 years old. I’ll spare you the gushing. Later that evening, hubby and I went to our Eagles’ Club for a caroling party. We were pumped. Couldn’t wait to share all that Christmas cheer with the residents of the assisted living facility and the nursing home. I think we were even going to visit some of the home-bound elderly Eagles Members. We’re at the club… Caroling is CANCELLED. WHAAAA!!

Sunday, December 22 – huge ice storm hits. Trees down everywhere. Power goes out for a lot of people including my in-laws – thankfully we kept ours. So, my in-laws move in with us until their power can be restored. The energy company was estimating 12/28. My home – 9 people + 3 dogs (one of the people doesn’t like my dogs). It made for a very long 5 days – in-laws’ power was restored on the 26th. They were able to go home on the 27th, we wanted them to wait until the furnace could warm the place up a bit. We had our generator at their place running their sump pump, refrigerator, freezer, and a space heater to prevent the pipes from freezing.

Christmas Eve was spent with my parents at their home. Wonderful as always. I’ll probably make some scrapbook pages and share them eventually.

Christmas Day was spent here at home for a change. We usually go to my in-laws’ home. They were already here. So we just kept the meal plans in tact and changed the venue. They had fun being here to watch our children open their Christmas gifts.

New Year’s Eve we went to the Eagles’ Club. We had a great time. The band was amazing. Potlucks always have the best food!

Today – I just want school to open back up, my husband to go back to work, and to have some time and space to myself, by myself. *sigh*

In other news – TLP (The-lilypad.com) is having their 2nd annual Month of Challenges. One scrapbook challenge per day for the entire month of January.

Day 1.

Day 2.

Pages are linked to the gallery where proper credits are displayed. When in doubt, assume Michelle Godin at TLP.