Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!

I hope that everyone had a great Holiday season and a great Christmas.  I have to be the first one to say that our family was extreme blessed this holiday season.  The main reason for that is being able to be together with each other.  To me this is the best gift that I could ever receive.

I am a sucker when it comes to traditions, and it has been interesting developing new traditions with my own family.  I will admit though I miss having my parents here to celebrate those traditions but thanks to technology we get to have time with them.  Our family is very lucky though that we do have my wife's parents just down the street from us and they have been a huge part of our lives and the kids lives.  

We started this Christmas off by going to church with our family.  The kids got all dressed up and were good kids during the service.  I am a sucker for Silent Night by candlelight in the church.  There is something special about this son and singing it on Christmas Eve. We sadly had to break away from our normal tradition of going to Texas Roadhouse for dinner, it was a two hour wait, but we went to dinner and had some good conversation.  We also had a great time tracking Santa, thank you NORAD, and finding where he was going next.  

After a great evening with family the kiddos left out cookies, carrots, and milk out for Santa.  They put on their Christmas Eve pajamas that the elves brought and headed to bed.  After a little while the little elves got around to helping Santa.  I spent three nights earlier in the week building all the gifts so that I didn't have to do it on Christmas Eve, thank goodness I had the time to do that otherwise I am pretty sure I wouldn't have slept, as it happens I got very little sleep as it is.  Jude was so excited he woke up almost ever two hours to ask if we could open presents.  The kids were very excited to see the gifts that were out for them. 

The kids made quick work of all their presents, they are expert unwrappers.  I don't know where they get this talent but they have perfected it.  We opened presents at home then went to grandma and grandpa's opened more presents then had Christmas lunch.  The kiddos did well despite being completely exhausted and over stimulated.  I was a proud dad!  We were able to talk to our family in Amsterdam and Grandma, Grandpa, and Great Grandma in Arizona.  Again thank goodness for technology and Skype!!

Jude challenged me to his Rock em' Sock em' Robots, and I have a ringer in the family.  He was an expert but we had a great time and have played a couple more times since last night already.  We even had a white Christmas!  People think that this happens every Christmas in Colorado but is is not!  

I hope that you had a great Christmas and got everything that you wanted and needed.  I look forward to sharing more and more with everyone in the upcoming year.  Here is to a happy and healthy 2016!!!

Houston We Have a Problem!

AHHHHHH!!!!  We Have a Problem!

 

So many of you may find this to be an odd post but Houston We have a Problem.  JUDE LIKES TO EAT MUSTARD!

 

I'm talking about the kind of mustard that looks like a yellow crayon vomited on his hot dog!

 

 

You know you do everything you can to try and teach your child well and then they go and do something like this.  At least on his hot dog he also enjoyed it with Ketchup and Sweet Relish but I need advice! 

 

How do I handle a mustard lover?  My father was so proud but I am struggling with how do we connect.  I am anti-mustard will this have an impact on our future food bonding?  I mean what is next putting it on hamburgers or sandwich's?  What does a first mustard experience lead to?  There are so many questions I have about what to expect with a child who uses mustard?

 

If you can please send me any experience I would appreciate it! 

 

Ketchup lovers of the world unite!  

Let the Journey Begin!

So I know that I have been MIA for the last couple of weeks.  As many of you know my family and I have engaged in a huge journey.  I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis in 2009 and it has come to an end here in 2013.

 

I am going to be doing a series of blogs about the proctocolectemy surgery that I had on 1/9/2013, the day I was cured of ulcerative colitis.  This is how I am viewing it, as you will hear throughout the next couple of weeks, as I am at home recovering from surgery and processing what has changed.  I AM going to remain optimistic about this process and will view it as I am CURED of this illness and I get my life back.  Now I know that this is going to come with many lumps and bumps, lucky you guys are the ones that get to hear about them, but I know that we made the right choice.

 

So this journey began on the weekend on January 5th.  This was my last weekend of solid food before I had to do the prep for the surgery.  Censie was great we went out to dinner a couple of times and spent some time with the kiddos.  It was a great "last" weekend, I cannot thank her enough for this because as you will hear the next couple of weeks were not the easiest.  I then went on clear liquids on Monday.  This is something that I have done many times due to having colonoscopies.  I have had 12 colonoscopies in three years, however I am done with those now.

 

I began eating jello and drinking Gatorade.  I am a huge food guy so this is hard for me but I knew that it was something that had to be done.  I was also able to clean my house and get everything ready that I could because my parents were coming out to help with the family after the surgery and to be here with me.  I felt that this was the least that I could do because I knew that Censie was going to have her hands full after the surgery.  I then had to begin the cleansing drinks on Tuesday. 

 

I like to call it the liquid flu because as soon as you start drinking it you get so sick to your stomach that you do have to stand there by the bathroom.  My parents came later that night and I was able to spend some time with them.  These are all going to be times that I am going to and have looked back on with happiness because of being able to laugh and have joy with them.  The next day we had to get up super early to be at the hospital so that I could have surgery.  I will be working on that post soon, it is going to be a lot of medical jargon stuff since I don't remember much, thank goodness!  Thank you for following this journey and like I said I have a lot to put down on paper.  Thank you all for following me on this journey and please if you have any questions please leave a comment or email me!  

I Can't Stop!

 

Damn you PREDNISONE!

 

If you have ever had the pleasure of being on prednisone you may understand this but I cannot stop eating!  I will eat and never be full despite how much I eat.  I have been on Prednisone for almost three years and it is the one side effect I am guaranteed to have!  Its a vicious cycle for me I eat because of the medicine but then I need the medicine because when I eat my body hates me!  So if you see me grazing and eating just remember its the steroids not just my amazing appetite!  Its going to be a fun Holiday Season for me with all the sweets!

Waiting Sucks!

I Hate Waiting!

 

As I am writing this I am sitting here in my hospital bed waiting to be taken down for a Wonderful event.  They are doing another colonoscopy this morning.  This will make number 11 for me in three years.  They say that you do not have to do these until your 50 but I guess I should just consider myself lucky that I get to so many.

 

I am hoping that after doing this colonoscopy we will have some answers.  They are hoping to get in and see if my Ulcerative Colitis has become severely inflamed again.  If you have never had the pleasure of doing a Colonoscopy let me break it down for you! 

 

 

IT SUCKS!!!!!

 

Starting at 4pm yesterday I had to take two laxative pills, now this normally would be difficult for anyone but prior coming to the hospital I was in the bathroom 18 times a day so this just escalates everything so it is a joyous time.  Then you get to drink this wonderful  GoLYTELY and it is a salty solution that you have to drink 8 ounces every ten minutes.  I like to describe it as drinking the stomach flu because once it hits you are in trouble.  It is funny talking to people who have never had one done before and explaining it to them and then hearing their reactions afterwards.  I know that this is a necessary evil when dealing with IBD but I never imagined that at 31 this is where I would be.

Censie and I are going to have some serious decisions to make after this colonoscopy on if we should proceed with me having surgery or try a new medication that sounds pretty scary to me.  I was really hoping to get in and get this done with today early but I still have another two hours till I go down.  I have only had broth, lemon ice, and jello since yesterday at 10:30. So in about three hours if you are out there and want to sneak me in some good food I will be waiting! :)