What a week! We went to Toronto for Christmas with Diane, Katy, and Quintin on Christmas Eve and stayed until the next morning. Betsi and Liam got to go and the kids had a great time unwrapping presents and loved their gifts.

I got some really nice Pampered Chef things and a shirt that is perfect for layering, wonderful! :) Supper was great and Ezzie came by, making Davis really happy he "lubs" her.

We got back to Topeka and dropped Betsi and Liam off at Sarah's and went home for a day of relaxing and straightening up. Billy had to work until noon on Friday so Davis and I packed for a weekend in Larned and as soon as he got home we were off!

Friday night we arrived in Lewis at my Aunt and Uncle's house for the best Christmas dinner ever! Everything was delicious and all of us were there. I was certainly missing my Grandma and Grandpa but in more of a bittersweet way than a sad one.

My cousin Scott's little girl, Addison looked beautiful, she's almost two and such a doll. Of course, Amber's three girls were there and I couldn't beleive how much they had all grown! We spent the night at Amber and CJ's house in Larned where the kiddos played and we stayed up late watching movies and talking, I have missed my sister so freaking much! The next day Daddy and Joyce came over and brought presents for the kiddos. Davis got a cute car track that he adores and he shared very nicely with the girls. We then met Rebecca, Aunt Linda, and Pam for lunch at Pizza Hut. Davis spent the whole time playing with Daddy who was sitting across the table from him and making the funniest faces. He sure loves Grandpa!

That afternoon Billy, Davis, and I went to Mom and Dad's house to open gifts. Davis got a ride on Diego Rescue Plane and was completely enchanted by it. What a perfect gift! Billy and I got a super great new digital camera so we can finally share pictures of our family! Thanks for the great gifts! We brought Betsi and Liam's gifts home for them to open when they come back on Tuesday.

Saturday night I made spaghetti for Amber's family and us and Daddy came over too. Once he went home Rebecca and a couple that are friends with Amber and CJ came over for some drinks and playing pool in the basement. It was a really fun night. My lovely sister drank waaaaayyy too much and it was hilarious watching her. Once everyone left we watched a movie and went to sleep much later than we had planned on.

This morning we got up and drove back to Topeka. For the first time in over 6 years I counted more hawks along the road than Billy. Ok, technically we tied on hawks, each counting 60, but I won the tiebreaker of identifying the artist and song title of the first song we heard on the radio.

The most difficult part of this last week was having Christmas without Bill there. I haven't written on this blog since he died in November, mainly because I didn't have the words to express what was going on and how his death affected our family, and Billy and I. I have read Dusti's blog faithfully and thought that her words were amazing and a wonderful tribute to her father and her family and knew that mine would fall very short. So, I will just say that Christmas was hard and that I am so lucky to be a part of this family and to have had Bill in my life these last several years.

Ok, that's a quick wrap up of our Christmas week. We both go back to work tomorrow and I am exhausted! Here are a couple of pics I took with our new camera. I had to charge the battery though so I didn't get many.
~Summer

I can't stress enough how important this election is and even though I am a liberal Democrat living in a very red state, my vote does count. In fact, Barack Obama raised more money in Kansas than did McCain and while this year our electoral votes will most certainly be going to the Republican ticket, I feel we are moving in the right direction.

I have to admit that I am baffled by the everyday, working class families who are supporting McCain/Palin. I understand that a great many people, especially on the Republican side, are one issue votes around things like abortion, denying equal rights to the LGBT population, and other moral dictates. This infuriates me although I try to remain calm. :)

I know why I voted the way that I did and I understand the issues, after much research and time spent analyzing both candidates offered plans for the nation. I have looked over voting records and the personal lives of each and I have come to the conclusion that not only is Obama an amazing politician but he is a good decent man with a strong connection to family, faith, and community.

Now, I am an atheist so the candidate's religious beliefs interest me only in the area of whether or not they will attempt to inflict their beliefs on this nation. Certainly John McCain/Sarah Palin will strive to do so, and Obama while he is devoutly religious, understands that there is a separation of church and state for a reason.

McCain's plan to give tax cuts to the wealthy and large corporation in the hopes that this wealth will then "trickle down" to the rest of us is a simple repeat of the last 8 years, which we know doesn't work.

He will implement a spending freeze across the board which will impact the services that we need to exist. Not only is this crazy but it's dangerous and shows even more his lack of real knowledge about economics, budgeting, and investing in our nation. We need a president who will look at the big picture and who understands that getting ourselves out of the Bush mess will take more than one term and probably several difficult years.

I don't have time to go more in depth on every policy but if you wanna debate I'm up for it. :)

~Summer

This morning I woke up and the first thing I read was a blog written by someone I love detailing horrible things that are happening to her and her family and it could have been written by me about a year ago. Not only did I feel awful for her but it also brought up all the emotions I have been trying to keep away for the last year. While some of the details were obviously different the scenario was the same down to the way her significant other was acting and she was feeling.

I talked to Billy about it because I have found that if I don't I end up seething and taking things out on him later on. He shared more with me about what happened with us than he had before which didn't make me feel better but I was grateful for. I know that we are ok now and my heart hurts for this other couple. I care about both of them and I try and stay neutral but I've been in her position and it's hard to identify with his.

Anyway today will be busy for us we have Betsy and Liam and Billy has to work so we are all going to trek up to the library and hang out for awhile, Alan loves it there and there are lots of things for the kiddos to do. Then the kids and I will probably hit the zoo if it's not too cold later on. Then home for some deep house cleaning, fun fun fun.

I have a pretty nasty infection in my incisions for which I am taking strong antibiotics for which have their own awful side effects. I can't wait for the day when I just feel healthy! I missed work last week except for Thursday due to the infection and running a fever and generally feeling yucky.

I couldn't miss Thursday because that was our staffing day in Osage City where all of the employees from all 11 offices across KS come together. This Thursday was also our big Weigh In. Our company is going to weigh us every 6 months and pay us for losing weight or falling within our target weight range. So, I have to get to work. Over the last year I have gained weight which is obviously not what I wanted to do. Billy tries to make me feel better or tell me it's because of stress and maybe it is but I need to kick it in gear and lose some weight.

So I set a goal for myself of 35 pounds. I have 6 months to do it if I want an awesome pay out of $12 a pound lol. The only problem is that I still have a month before I can exercise except for walking. :P

I guess that's about all, it's fairly boring, stressful at times, but nothing much changes here.

~Summer

Today is Wednesday and it marks the middle of the longest week ever! Every day has seemed to drag on until I was ready to scream. I officially returned to work Monday, a week after I had originally planned which will definitely hurt the pocketbook. :(

Being up and around all day every day has really been good but has also really made my incisions hurt worse and I'm afraid that they are at least really irritated but probably infected. I see the Dr. in the morning to have the steri strips taken off of the incisions so we will let him decide. I am not looking forward to that as I am fairly certain he will hurt me.

I am still really swollen on the sides of my breasts and ribcage, probably because that's where I had lipo done and on my left side they did quite a bit of work as that breast was so much larger than the other. lol I guess that's a good thing, I am certainly more proportional between the two now.

This weekend promises to be super fun, we have been having to put off going to Haysville and hanging out with Brandon and Ashley for months but now we are going! Friday as soon as Billy's off work we head out for the weekend. We don't have Betsy and Liam which is kind of sad but it will still be fun. I cannot wait to get away. I am a little worried about how much a long car ride will hurt, and I still can't drive so I'm sure motion sickness will rear its ugly head as well. My thoughts are on pleasant things though and I'm so excited to spend the weekend with our best friends!

In other news, Alan is still a monster. Adorable, smart, amazing, talented; but still a monster. I can't believe how fast he is growing and learning. I know that I am completely biased but he talks so well I think and he is the cutest boy ever, his dimples and giant brown eyes melt my heart every time he smiles at me.

He is now enthralled with dinosaurs and will chase us with his little dino claw hands while roaring. He's still completely a Daddy's boy so sometimes they are both chasing me. I'm so lucky!

My work is going well, I have a lot to catch up on and I have tons of paperwork to get in order asap.

Billy's new job is great. In fact, they were so impressed with his web design skills and command of coding languages that they let him have free reign (pretty much) to redesign the entire site! I am so proud of him.

I guess that's about all with us, everything is pretty much the same day to day nothing super exciting. I hope this week starts going by quicker I can't wait for the weekend.

~Summer

Tomorrow I have my one week check up and I return to work. I was hoping to return on Monday but apparently I woefully underestimated the recovery time. I am really nervous about going back to work because I still took 2 naps today after the pain medication. Of course, tomorrow is my last day of the good meds unless the Dr. writes me another prescription. Honestly I could use them probably for at least another week. I am still in lots of pain.

My big struggle at work will be to get things done without using my upper body too much and without hurting myself enough that I need medication. It's amazing how many times a day I do something and then regret it seconds later, especially when Alan is around. I am not allowed to pick him up for 6-8 weeks and he just started sitting on my lap a couple of days ago. I've really missed that closeness with him.

I should get to bed, my thoughts are a bit hazy and I'm tired. I'll let you all know how tomorrow goes.

~Summer