Monday, December 29, 2014

2014 Year in Review

This time of year is turning into a hard one for me. Reflecting on the past year and planning for a new year both feel burdensome and hard. It is in my nature to keep track of things though, most of you know this about me by now. So it is a yearly tradition to go through my past year's planner where I have most everything written down and then I jot into my journal a list of most of the bigger events of the past year. We've done our share in the past of end of year newsletters and I've done my photo collages for each month of the year here on my blog. I'm not going to do that now. But since I've hardly blogged at all this year, I thought I might share with you the list of eventful happenings. Good, bad, and everything in between. No censoring. No judgment. No trying to glean meaning or lessons, or anything BIG from it. Just here it is. This is all the stuff from the year. 

(just a reminder for new or old readers: I don't use the kids' real names on the blog. Abigail is the 15 year old, Isaac is the 13 yr old, Samuel is the 10 yr old, and Elisabeth is the 8 yr old). :)

January -
- funeral for a good friend of ours from college
- I was continuing to eat gluten free, dairy free, and low tyramine food restrictions
- Had an overnight sleep study
- Had a continuing problem of breast pain and abnormal discharge. Had a couple mammograms and a ductogram (ouch) which didn't show anything to explain my symptoms. It's a continuing issue that apparently has no cause and no treatment. Ugh.
- Saw a Neurotologist (ENT nerve Dr) who diagnosed me with probable Menieres disease
- Did a round of Botox for chronic migraine. Awful awful experience that exacerbated all my existing pain and added even more areas of pain to it.
- Abigail got to work in a recording studio and recorded one of her songs, much to her delight!!
- I had strange throat pain that didn't seem to fit anything. ENT thought it might be nerve related.
- Samuel had some testing done that showed that he might be sensitive to gluten and dairy so he went off of it too. We also had him tested for Celiac's disease, just to be sure, but that was negative, thankfully. 
- Abigail performed one of her original songs for the first time in her school talent show. 

February -
- I started receiving care packages from a group of friends from high school. Random, thoughtful, caring, completely surprise packages that continued to arrive for months and were probably the highlight of my year.
- Zac took Isaac on a winter campout
- Samuel had surgery for his 4th (or 5th?) time getting ear tubes put in and his adenoids taken out
- Elisabeth had her routine cardiology appt for her heart defect. Everything was looking about the same, just continuing on but not causing concern. She'll go back in another 5 years, if I'm remembering correctly. Such a blur.
- She also earned Student of the Month award for her class.
- And she continued taking gymnastics Level 2.

March
- Elisabeth fell off the fence onto a garden  stake and tore her upper inner leg, needing a bunch of internal and external stitches. Worst child injury yet to our little clan, I think. It's left a nasty scar, for sure.
- Abigail performed in her school performance of High School Musical Jr. She was one of the nerds.
- and Elisabeth sang a solo in her school talent show
- Zac ran the 50 mile Antelope Island race
- Samuel turned 10
- We started eating all foods again, so gratefully.

April -
- my neurologist gave up on me, basically telling me to come back when I decided to do the CPAP machine for sleep apnea (which my sleep study actually confirmed that I DON'T HAVE) or do more Botox, which I just can't bring myself to do. Bye Bye Neuro.
- I ended up in the ER for an allergic reaction to an anticonvulsant that the psychiatrist had prescribed to me.
- Elisabeth turned 8 and Isaac turned 13.
- We had a roller skating birthday party for Elisabeth and I skated hard and crashed and got banged up pretty good, but it was pretty funny.
- Isaac ran spring track
- I read and edited a manuscript for a book a fellow migraine sufferer was writing about his experiences
- Abigail had her last violin recital before her teacher moved. And continued playing viola in middle school advanced orchestra. Isaac continued playing bass in intermediate orchestra.

May -
- Elisabeth was baptized a member of our church
- Samuel was awarded Student of the Month for his class
- I ended up in the ER again for unbearable eye pain. They gave me an IV pain cocktail that knocked me out pretty good for about 12 hrs. 
- Abigail turned 15.

June -
- Abigail started voice lessons from one of our neighbors for the summer, which she dearly loved.
- We had a great visit from our friends the Yoders from Michigan. (They were our neighbors at BYU when I was pregnant with Abigail.)
- Samuel and Elisabeth both played spring soccer
- Abigail went on her Pioneer Trek experience
- Zac took Samuel and Elisabeth camping up on a nearby mountain
- I had increased one of my meds and it started increasing my blood pressure in a worrying way. So I had to start coming off the medication (for that and other reasons).

July -
- Zac ran up and down Mt Timpanogos. Yes. He ran up and down the entire mountain.
- Abigail ran in the Freedom Festival 5K
- Weaning down off of all my medications started causing me terrible terrible insomnia where some nights I didn't sleep at all. (At least I think it was from the meds. It did improve after a month or two.)
- we used our summer pool pass
- Abigail went to cross country camp
- Isaac went to scout camp
- Zac took Isaac and Abigail hiking and camping up Mt Timpanogos
- Abigail got to perform her songs in a backyard outdoor concert
- We got our little dog, Harley, a 7 month old chihuahua schnauzer mix.
- and we saw a house we really liked in a neighborhood 2 miles from us and we sort of spontaneously decided, hey what the heck, let's try selling our house and move!
- we took a little daytrip to Ofir, UT out in the Oquirrh Mountains on one of the days when we had to be out of the house for showings.

August
- Abigail went to church girls camp
- We listed and sold and bought our new home in a week's time!!
- our good friends the Hoffman's came out for a visit. (We became friends during the year we lived in Leesburg VA when I was pregnant with Isaac, then we both moved.) So happy to still be friends!
- Took the family to Lagoon amusement park for a day.
- Abigail got to perform the song she wrote on Pioneer trek for 100's of people at our Stake Trek fireside.
- I went to see Wicked, the broadway musical, with my mom and Abigail
- I got my first ever speeding ticket.

September -
- I was officially weaned off of all of my daily meds and I have been ever since. All I have to take right now is Imitrix (a migraine abortive that only works for me sometimes), 2 different anxiety medications, a muscle relaxer, and prescription strength Naproxen. Oh and an anti nausea med. These don't really do anything for the pain very much usually, but I can knock myself out for a few hours when I get desperate for relief.
- Issac ran cross country for middle school
- Abigail ran high school cross country and made the varsity team
- Samuel and Elisabeth played fall soccer
- found out my niece-ster Chelsea is having a baby girl in February!
- we had a family outing to Bridal Veil Falls
- we moved into our new home on Sept 11!!
- I was able to exercise every day for a week. It was short lasting, oh so frustratingly and disappointingly short lasting, but it was a good week.

October -
- Abigail got to perform in another backyard outdoor concert.
- Zac and Abigail volunteered as crew for a couple runners in the Pony Express 100 race.
- had a physical check up. Blood pressure was back down to normal, thankfully. Other things were just depressing.
- Samuel had skin prick allergy testing and has started allergy immunotherapy drops (rather than shots). 

November -
- Free tickets to Utah Symphony
- Abigail got to go on a trip with her cross country trip to AZ, where she got a personal record.
- IEP meetings for Samuel and Elisabeth. We are now 4 for 4 with kids in speech therapy. 
- Abigail started getting weekly performing coaching sessions from a local musician who mentors bands at BYU.
- We got Harley spayed, poor pup.
- and my mom came for a visit. Oh this past year she also sold her house that was only an hour from us (where she and her husband would spend part of their time) and now lives full time 4 hrs away.

December -
- Elisabeth played a baby spider in her school class production of  the play Charlotte's Web
- Samuel and Elisabeth had school choir concerts.
- Isaac and Abigail had school orchestra performances (middle school advanced and high school chamber orchestra)
- we went to a beautiful Live Nativity display/performance
- Zac's grandpa passed away and Zac and I flew to IN for a whirlwind 2 day trip to attend the funeral.
- Harley turned a year old.
- Abigail made it up on the record board for her high school cross country times: 3rd fastest Sophomore Girl on record, and 5th fastest for all Girls!
- Abigail got her wisdom teeth out.
- and we all got sick for Christmas

And as of today, with 3 more days left of this year, I have had a total of 224 migraine days this year, up from 195 in 2013. 
And I've read 37 books, down from 73 the previous year. 
(Those 2 stats just might be related.)

And that was 2014. 
Here we are! Standing at the brink of another new year. 

Thanks for reading, friends. Wishing you all a happy 2015! 


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