It really started Friday morning when I woke up to the symptoms of hydronephrosis.  This is (basically) a backup of urine in the kidney.  It is painful and can be dangerous if untreated.  This is not the first time I’ve had it, and probably won’t be the last…so I got up determined to tough it out and see how things went during the day.  I wasn’t thinking about the fact that it was Friday and if it didn’t resolve by the next morning I’d have no option other than the ER!

By lunchtime I was in significant pain both from the hydronephrosis and what seemed to be a large kidney stone that was moving, so I took some pain meds.  (Yes, they’re safe during pregnancy!)  They made me sleepy so I laid down in the bed with a moist heating pad for the back/side pain (also safe for pregnancy) but couldn’t sleep because I was just hurting too badly.  I was able to relax a bit more with the edge taken off, though!  After a while, I started feeling a pain that was unmistakably the kidney stone dropping quickly.  I cannot explain how I knew this…but if you’ve ever felt it you know what I mean!  In between “slides” I actually felt quite a bit better so I decided to get up and move into my office and spend some time on the computer.  I felt it drop some more and then felt a “ping” in my bladder followed by the *very* urgent need to empty it.  Sure enough, the blockage was relieved and I had a nice, perfectly round 5.5 mm kidney stone to show for it.  The hydronephrosis was resolved by the evening and despite some more mild kidney stone type pain I was feeling pretty good.

Then Saturday morning I passed some more.  And have continued to pass bits and pieces (though none of them anywhere near as large!) every day since.  Maybe my kidneys are flushing themselves out really well?  I don’t know, but it’s nice to be passing them without needing a cystoscopy, a stent, or lithotripsy!

Then Saturday we went to ARTober Fest downtown and enjoyed lunch at La Dolce Vita which has the BEST pizza in town!  I spent some time talking to Amy and we also bought some chocolate treats from her.  (Those chocograhams are the BOMB!)  It was very chilly out though and I was completely unprepared.  Must remember that the weather now requires socks…

Then yesterday I overslept so we planned on going to the 2nd service at church.  Until I found out about the Barack Obama rally in Fayetteville!  We debated on it for a little while and decided to go to church anyway then head straight down there.  I doubted that there would be a lot of supporters and figured we could get there right at the time the rally was supposed to start and we’d still be OK.  Well, we made it to church and the service was a little long.  (But good!)  So we grabbed the kids from their respective rooms and hopped in the old minivan and headed down to the Crown Coliseum.  We had to drive through McD’s on the way so nobody would starve (um, namely the pregnant woman) and made it to the Coliseum area right at 1:30.  And saw cars parked EVERYWHERE and people *leaving* already.  What the heck?  So we pulled over and asked someone…it turned out he was already speaking and they’d started turning people away an HOUR before.  There were over 10k people inside and several thousand more outside we heard later.  We used to live in F’ville not far from the Crown Coliseum and I had never seen it packed like that.  Truly, truly amazing!

My 6 year old’s heart was broken.  He cried like he lost his best friend and I felt SO bad for getting him excited.  We don’t speak much about our political leanings in front of him and he actually told me he was going to vote for McCain a week or two ago (some of my conservative family members must have been talking to him or something!) so I’m honestly not sure why he was so upset.  I promised him that if Barack came back to North Carolina between now and November 4 we’d make every effort to see him, even if it was a school day.  He was somewhat calmed by that until he remembered the pizza party he’d miss out on at school if he missed a day.  *sigh*  I can’t win for losing.

I needed to get out and walk around, so we headed to Cross Creek Mall to walk a bit before heading back to good old Sanford.  I hadn’t been there since we moved away from the area way back in 2004 and it hasn’t gotten any better.  YUCK.  I am *so* glad we got out!

Needless to say, it was a looooooooooong and exhausting weekend.  And tomorrow is a big day for me, so I should get some rest tonight!  It doesn’t look promising as both kids are still very much awake and I still need to sort through the clothes I’m taking to the consignment shop tomorrow.  A mother’s work is never done.  (And yet, you see what I’m doing…am I putting kids to bed or resting or sorting clothes?  Um, no.)

First of all, yes I’m alive!  Thanks for the emails checking on me.  It’s just been a very busy/hectic week.  Plus I have so little to say.  I’m about to enter the 3rd trimester and feel mostly OK.  I have some minor complaints but right now I’m just glad to be where I am…I have learned not to take healthy pregnancies for granted!  My husband and I are finding ways to provide some income and though it’s nothing like our previous income, we’re hopeful that things will turn around soon.  The kids are doing well and we’re enjoying these last few months as a family of 4.

Today we’re hoping to make it over to Depot Park for ARTober Fest.  The weather looks a little icky but I’m told the clouds should blow over soon.  That’s OK…less sun = less heat, right?  I just need to remember my water.  If anyone wants to check it out, it is being held from 9:00 - 6:00 today at Depot Park.  Lots of entertainment on the stage as well as local artists displaying their creativity.  Worth a look!

And now, I must wake up my smallest child (who is asleep in my bed by himself) and take a shower so I don’t scare anyone.  There’s still a couple of weeks before Halloween…

I have finally gotten my hands on a laptop (thanks to my brother…it’s really for the business, but I had to get it connected and set up!) and I’m laying in my bed, watching the DVRed episode of Pushing Daisies that I taped while I was visiting my mom last week.  (What is up with Chuck’s “silky intimates?”  Who wears stuff like that on a normal basis?)

This is not quite as comfy as I expected it to be…the computer is sitting on my belly, resting on my knees and Violet apparently doesn’t like it.  Laptop users, if you use it in bed, how do you get comfortable???  I can’t lay on my belly right now, though I think that must be the key.  Maybe I need a little folding lap desk or something?  I was so excited about this and it’s just not what I expected it to be.  I hope it’s just due to my belly making positioning difficult!

I spent several days at my mom’s and missed a lot of stuff in Sanford, including the logo unveiling.  I’m sad about that, but have peeked at it online and think it looks great!  I can’t wait to catch up on the newspapers tomorrow.  While there, my mom had my husband do some work for her which she paid him for, as well as giving us money & some other things we needed (like shoes for me!) for our birthdays.  It was a great visit…we had a small family party for my oldest son’s birthday and she bought some clothes for Violet.  We had a lot of fun shopping for baby girl clothes together!  My brother also loaned us this laptop until we’re on our feet enough to buy our own.  It’s not the newest or fanciest thing out there but it should do what we need it to do.  I feel so blessed to have family who are willing and able to help us in these small but important ways right now!

I want Mexican food.  Badly.  And a margarita.  Alas, the margarita will have to wait for a few more months.  I may need to hit San Felipe for lunch, though.

We’ve decided to join Brickcity Community Church.  This church is awesome in a way that I never expected to find in a small town like Sanford.  Seriously.  Even my husband (who has *never* been a regular churchgoer, though he is a believer) is excited.

I talked my mom into buying me a new Bible.  Actually, there was very little talking involved…I emailed her and said that I wanted a new one but it wasn’t in the budget and she was thrilled to do it.  I am torn between the pink camo and this one.  I guess we’ll have to see what I find in the store.

My 2 year old has started throwing some absolutely amazing tantrums.  I wish it would stop.  NOW.  I know it’s the age, but it is not at all fun.  We’re getting about one a day where he gets so upset that he can’t calm down and tell us what’s wrong.  Very frustrating!

My brother is giving us a laptop!  It is supposed to be for the business, but I plan to get my grubby little hands on it when I can.  Blogging from bed?  Sounds like bliss.

I am planning to go back to school starting this summer.  I’m going to do as much as possible online, but my eventual goal is to get an associate’s degree in nursing and work as an RN.  I’m going to take it at a pretty slow pace so I won’t be away from the kids too much.  I’ll graduate around the time baby V is close to starting school.  Then I plan to go back to work full time!

I finally cancelled our hotel reservation for our trip to Washington.  I cried about it.  I’m very sad about not getting to take this mini vacation.

I may need to go get some more chocolate.  My chocograham was fabulous, but I need more.  And more.

I am a proud chocoholic.  I love chocolate in pretty much any form.  (Except perhaps chocolate liqueur, and we can chalk that one up to a very bad night in college where I thought it would be a good idea to drink nothing but Godiva liqueur.  Um, it’s not!)  So when I started feeling grossed out by chocolate early in my pregnancy, I knew something was not quite right.  Since then, it’s been off and on.  Some days I am all about some chocolate, some days I’d rather not smell it or even think about it.  It’s all very strange!

But now that my nausea is mostly gone and I once again can eat  (Boy can I eat…I have 4-5 small meals a day because I fill up fast but get hungry again soon after.) the chocolate desires have returned.  So this morning I’m off to Shops of Steele Street to see what Amy has.  It’s a splurge, but compared to other things I have a tendency to splurge on, a very small one.  I can taste it now…