December was a whirlwind of a month.  It started off with Reed being sick (from previous post).  It was his first time to be sick, and it was scary for this new mom.  I have said it before, but it bears repeating…my mom is a God-send!  Not only is she a mom of 4 kids (and she was a great one!) but she works for Call A Nurse and knows how to triage anything that comes along.  I am so thankful that I don’t have to rush him to the doctor every time I have a question.

Randy and I were both incredibly busy at work the first 3 weeks of December.  Randy was putting together the new website for his company (www.globalscape.com) and for the first time he was essentially in charge of ensuring the launch was successful with no errors.  I was in the middle of analyzing November actuals and preparing the December – QI 2010 forecast.  My job gets better and better everyday, but as I have only been doing this since October each month is a new challenge and I’m constantly learning the ropes.

With Randy and I so busy at work, it left little time to enjoy the holiday season and not feel overwhelmed by the significance of Reed’s first Christmas!!

On a good note, we have so many of Reed’s friends that were born in December that we were able to spend lots of time at birthday parties celebrating all of these beautiful children!

To top off the month, I got the stomach flu.  Friday the 18th we had our White Elephant gift exchange and party at the Brown’s house.  So many of our friends were there and it was a packed house.  Best white elephant exchange ever and we all had a wonderful time.

The next morning I made the executive decision we were not going to the Tesoro Christmas party and instead going to McKaylee’s first birthday party. (Praise the Lord for that decision!!)  As we were leaving the Nichols house around 6pm I told Randy that I didn’t feel so good.  We picked up the cake for Reed’s baptism (the next day!) from Megan and by the time we got home I couldn’t stand up.  I laid on the couch for the next 2 hours and couldn’t open my eyes or move.  By 8 pm it really hit.  I have to tell you that I have never in my life (yes, never) thrown up from being sick.  A very few times from drinking too much, but never from being sick.  I threw up 12 times in 3 hours and truly thought I was going to die.  Poor Randy was running around the house emptying the trash can and rinsing it out and then running to replace it next to me in the bathroom.  I will spare you the rest of the gory details, but you can imagine all that accompanies the stomach flu.

Finally I could tell the throwing up was over and I laid in bed.  I wasn’t able to settle down enough to sleep so I just tossed an turned all night and eventually ended up on the couch.  The next morning I HAD to pull it together and make it to church.  As we were packing up to head out we started getting messages that everyone from the party on Friday night was sick.  Someone in almost every family at the party was sick.  I’m pretty sure I was the carrier because I had it the worst and because the Davis’ had it too…I’m the only one that had contact with the Davis’.  Plus Diana got it, and I’m the only one that was around her too!

I made it to church and stood through his baptism, but that was it.  Mom took Diana and me to my house where we literally slept the entire day.  My sweet husband was wonderful about taking care of us and also entertaining Reed.

It took me a solid week to get back on my feet.  I was pretty worthless the entire week leading up to Christmas.  Truly, that is the single sickest I have ever been in my life and I am so thankful that 1. it is over and 2. I didn’t pass it to Randy or Reed.

So that’s it.  All the stressful parts of December.  I will save the good parts for a separate post 🙂

J