Day 61 - One more piece of crystal (Give) and an Unusual 24 Hours

Keeping it short tonight because I'm already a day or two behind and I don't want to get any further behind but I am exhausted and ready for bed. 

The last 24 hours have been out of the ordinary.  After school yesterday, Melissa and I farmed out the kids to the two Grandmas in order to get some work done around the house.  Storly, Karen and Keri then came over to help get some doors and trim painted. 

In the five years we have lived in this house, we have painted every wall and, in the process, have replaced nearly all of the existing trim.  I seriously dislike painting in general and painting trim is the worst of all, so that's my only excuse for never getting around to finishing the trim ... ALL OVER THE HOUSE.  Last night, with the help of these friends from church, we pretty much got all of the upstairs finished up and it looks so much better. 

I even got some primer on the downstairs banister that I installed roughly two years ago!  It's really weird to finish up these projects, because on the one hand, of course, it feels great to see it done.  But on the other hand it's just a bit ... I don't know ... depressing in some way - I guess because any of of these little jobs could have been done A LONG TIME AGO.  If I didn't have the habit of leaving projects Almost Finished, we wouldn't have had to live with the ugliness for so long and we wouldn't be in this crunch right now.  (Our realtor friend says we want to get the house on the market as by mid-January because several local companies are hiring a combined four or five hundred more employees by mid-March.) 

Anyway, we all worked hard all evening.  I think it was after 10:00 PM before Keri left for home!  Then Melissa and I stayed up a bit longer finishing up odds and ends and headed to bed by midnight.

Three hours later I was awakened with an odd sensation in my lower guts - that's all the more graphic I need to get here!  There was no way to go back to sleep so I showered and even headed to the local 24 hour grocery to get some cranberry juice (I thought I might have a urinary tract infection).  By 7:00 AM I was in line at our doctor's office and by 7:30 she was ruling out UTI and suggesting the possibility of a kidney stone.  I headed to school to make plans for a sub - with only three hours of sleep and feeling the need to be close to a restroom, there was no way I was going to be able to spend the day in the classroom. 

I slept a bit off and on through the day and just minutes before Melissa got home, it hit me hard.  She found me literally curled on the bathroom floor around 4 PM.  Within the half hour, we were sitting in the emergency room.  A CT scan soon confirmed the kidney stone - according to the doctor it measured 3 mm, so not a record-breaker by any means.  They sent me home with a prescription for pain killers and wished me luck.  As I write it is 10:00 PM and I am actually feeling rather ... normal.  Praise God.  I really think it's over.  I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Well, so much for keeping it short.  I am hoping for a normal night of sleep, so I will wrap this up and post a few pictures of our progress around the house.

By the way, the other day Melissa found another piece of crystal which matched the two she gave to (Steve and) Keri, so she sent it home with Steve tonight when he dropped off our kids (even in the midst of leading the small group meeting tonight, Steve and Keri had come to our aid in taking care of our four little ones while Melissa and I were at the hospital. 

Tonight I am thankful for good friends and good health!



The Drama Queen's room before ...







... and after finishing the floor.



Karen and Keri hard at work.