Great news!

I'm so excited for Chipper and Abby. As we've talked about here, during the fall, they were involved with a local theatre company. The two of them and Mitchell took a workshop for a musical theatre and all got good parts in those plays. Abby's play was 2 weeks ago, and the two boys perform "Alice in Wonderland" in two weeks from now. They love it and I have seen Chipper happier than I have seen him in a few years.

This past week, all three of the older kids went to audition for their Christmas play "The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever". This was different than their fall workshop, in that they weren't guaranteed a part. In fact, there were almost 100 who auditioned and only 20 parts to be filled. We found out yesterday that Chipper got the part of Ralph Herdman, who is the oldest boy and plays the part of Joseph in the nativity. Abby got the part of one of the baby angels, which she wanted so badly! Unfortunately, Mitchell did not get cast. That was such a difficult parenting moment! But, he is hoping to help out with back stage stuff and props, so that made him happy! They start auditions next week, 4 days a week, on top of the 2 days a week they are currently doing, so it will be a bit crazy.

I'm just so pleased that we are here and that they have these opportunities. It was tough living in Alamo where sports were such a central part of life. That's great for kids who enjoy sports, but my kids have never really been into that. It's wonderful that they can find their niche here. They are loving it! And Abby is asking for a violin for Christmas so she can start lessons. I have always wanted a child to have an interest in the violin because it is one of my favorite instruments.

As for challenges going on with us, I have been struggling a bit with my health. I'm on the mend now, but the past week and a half was tough. I started in with chest pain that radiated into my shoulder and left arm just before we left for Disneyland. I tried to ignore it, thinking it was a pulled muscle or pinched nerve. It got worse and was part of the reason we cut our trip short and came home on Saturday. I didn't say much to John, but it definately wore me out more than normal. By Monday, it got worse and my exhaustion also became worse. I found myself having a tough time catching my breath and I would get intense dizzy spells. I also started having a difficult time speaking and felt like I was so tired that I couldn't make my mouth work like my brain wanted to. Tough to explain, but it was miserable. Finally on Wednesday, some of my online friends who I told how I was feeling, convinced me to go to the doctor. I went to a quick care down the street, expecting it to be nothing. He sent me to the ER for tests. I really felt that it was nothing, but wanted to be on the safe side. They ran a ton of blood tests and an EKG. The nice thing was that all the scary stuff came back fine. They worried I might have a blood clot that was bringing on a stroke, but it wasn't any of that! And my EKG came back great, so my heart is working just fine! LOL! Apparently I had some inflammation around my heart and lungs which was making it hard for me to breathe normally. There wasn't much they could do but give me pain meds and have me wait it out. The pain is now gone, but after dealing with it for 9 days straight, most of it while in denial, I am still pretty worn out. I've been resting a lot the past two days and each day I feel a bit better.

So, that's the latest with us! I'm impressed if anyone actually read to the end of this! I still have pics to post, both of Abby's play and our trip.