11 Year Anniversary

Today Mike and I celebrate 11 years of marriage!  Its crazy!  I love him so much I feel like I could burst sometimes. There is no one else Id rather be doing any of this crazy life with than him. He's the sweetest husband around. He seriously spoils me!  We just got back from Moab and as you read he bought be a Powertank for my jeep. Its really expensive so that was suppose to be an Anniversary gift. Well then today he comes home with a new Ham radio for my jeep...again very pricy. So then he takes me out to dinner. Were sitting there and he hands me a blue box...a Tiffany blue box. He bought me "infinity" earnings because our love will go on and on for Eternity. I mean how sweet. So he bought me 4...count them 4 very nice, thoughtful, expensive gifts and what did I get him you ask...a snickers bar and a card. I feel like the worst wife ever! He has all the money and he bought everything he wanted in Moab so I feel like what could I possibly get him. My love I guess. I am so truly thankful and grateful for that sweet man. He's the best dad and husband I could have ever asked for!!  I love you so much honey!

Bad News

Well today hasn't been that great at all. I got some bad news that I have Rheumatoid Arthritis. This one is the worst one to get and only 1% usually get it. Its when the tissue around your joints gets attacked by your immune system. The cartilage, bones and ligaments begin to deteriorate. NOT what I wanted to hear. With RA what happens is your joints start to curl up and stay that way forever. Then you have no use for them at all. If I don't figure this our soon this could happen to me. Its already been happening a little.  Ive been having a ton of issues the last few months with my arms. My right arm started hurting so bad then it would freeze up and I couldn't even move it. The pain was excruciating. Then it went away for a few days. Then it happened again to the left arm for about a week. I could start to move it after that but the pain was still there. Then it went to my right arm, all the same crap happened with that for 2 weeks. Then it went to my right hand, I couldn't movie it. My fingers curled up on me. It was so painful. THEN it went to my left hand, that one was much worse! My fingers were paralyzed. If I moved any part of my hand it would send a pain down my hand and arm that I couldn't even imagine... all the while I started doing all kinds of tests, MRI, Xray, physical therapy and  blood test. Everything came back just fine except my blood test did come back positive for lupus so I had to go see a Rheumatologist for more tests. He did a bunch of blood work and it came back positive for RA and Sjogrens. Both autoimmune diseases.  The RA is a pretty serious thing and its a hard battle. Its not going to be easy, especially me being only 36, I feel like by the time I get into my 50s Im really going to have a hard time but for now Ive got to do what I can. Im going to start eating really really clean and juicing and continuing all my green smoothie girl stuff and just exercise a lot. Ive got to work really hard now. It all sounds exhausting. But I can do it and I will...if I want to have any quality of life when Im in my 40s Ive got to. So here I go. No more yummy food.

Jeep Trail to Bitter Springs

We had such a wonderful day yesterday!  We went on a family jeep trail and it was awesome!  We went to Bitter Springs. I had never been there before and it was a good one!  Kristin came with us and she loved it!  It was cold for a bit but then it was gorgeous. We made hot chocolate and sandwiches and climbed rocks and the whole bit. It really was such a nice, wonderful relaxing day! Thanks honey for taking us.

First Real Christmas Tree

Last night we went and bought a real Christmas Tree!!  We have always had a fake one so this was a big deal. It was so awesome to look around and pick out a tree that fit our family and home. She's Perfect, Kristin and I named her Gertrude. :)
It was one of the greatest times we've ever had as a family. It was awesome. So we have this tradition that was started about 4 years ago. First we go out to dinner at Mimi's Cafe and Mike pays for someones dinner there anonymously. Its always so fun to hear what the waiters have to say about the families reactions. Jeremy loves to do this. After were done eating we go to Target and shop for a needy family. We always get a family from the Johnson's and spoil them. So we were at Target and were shopping away and Mike was talking to this kid who worked there as what to buy for one of the boys on our list. This worker boy was telling us about these cars and that they were so cool and any kid would love to have one. The boy said he really wanted the red one and he was 19 so a 13 year old would love it. Well Mike decided to buy the car for the worker boy!  You should have seen how excited he was. It was awesome. The kid even hugged Mike and Jeremy. After that we went to buy our first real Christmas Tree! It was so fun to pick it out. It so cute and pretty, I love it!  Then we came home, put on Christmas movies, made hot chocolate, decorated the tree and wrapped all the gifts we bought. It took all night long but it was so worth it. It was such  wonderful fun night Ill never forget!  It was so wonderful to have Kristin with us! She is the sweetest girl and we just love her.