I am joining Jennifer once again for 7 Quick Takes.

1.

2. It has been a very long time since I have posted, same exact story but a different day, the arthritis is kicking my behind. A change of medication was suppose to make things better, but instead it has done the opposite and made things a lot worst. You never realize in life how important elbows are until you have to do without, makes typing more then a tad hard.

3. I have done a lot of grinding and gnashing of thy teeth of a late which actually does goes against my character on so many levels. I especially do not want to ever minimize anyone's pain, but and that is a big BUT! (Don't you just love the power of but...just wipe out everything I said before the but and I will tell you what I really mean).  Our family has autoimmune arthritis, specifically psoriatic arthritis. It is not your grandmother's arthritis with a few aches and pains. Our joints are not wearing out. OUR BODY IS LITERALLY ATTACKING ITSELF, making it impossible some days to even walk or in my case something more sinister  unable to cruise the internet and send sassy text to love ones. When you compare what is going on in your 93 year old grandma with what is happening to my family, you have really stepped out of bounds. Your are comparing apples to oranges, paper cuts to amputation. Your grandmother is 93, I am 43. She has 50 years on me before things turned downhill. Not only that but my daughter is 6 and my youngest son is 14. They have both had this rotten disease since they were infants.I imagine, your 93 year old grandmother was not limping and unable to walk as a 1 year old due to arthritis. My 21 year old son and 15 year old son also suffer from this horrid disease and yes it has put limitations on their life as well. Most days we stay positive and are ever so thankful for modern medication that we have access too. We live in one of the best places in the world to have this stupid horrible disease. But then there days, weeks or months where we try not ride the pity train but sometimes it just happens. There are so many spoon to go around and trying to decide between brushing my teeth or typing and email to the kids doctor which one will I be able to do today kind of sucks on many levels. (You say your not familiar with the spoon theory, check it out. Please for GODSAKE do not  compare your elderly members of your family to my family especially my children, who have yet to live there life. I am just warning you, I am not the nicest of people after I have received high doses of steroids via IV and been on pills for the last 10 days....really it is like lighting a powder keg of explosives. I can show you the huge indentation on my tongue where I have bitten it several times over the last week(s). 

4. 6-8 weeks, that is the official news from the doctor as of today before the kids will be over their arthritic flare brought on by the after Christmas bug they had. Ho Ho Ho. The kids are much more stronger then I am and handled the news a lot better then me. I have a lot to learn from these amazing beings. 

4. (A) because it is my 7 Quick Takes and I can. Before I get tons of hate mail about awful horrible attitude let me tell you a thing or two (didn't I warn you about messing with a woman on steroids? I am sure I did. My family and I live a totally blessed life. 99.9 % of the time we are happy even when we are stuck on the couch laughing about my old lady cane or I am telling my 15 year old not to crack his knuckles or he will get arthritis. Come on that was just funny. I am so grateful for the life I have been given even with the arthritis. There is so much joy in this world and yes the kids have to go to the hospital every 28 days for hours at a time to get an IV infusion and there are countless blood draws and hospitalizations. We have meant some wonderful people, some who have become our life time friends. So let me leave you with this and then I will get off my soap box despite what is spewing out of my mouth sometimes, life is good because God is good. I am not sure where this journey will take us, what we have learn from it but I bet it will be some place amazing. 

5. I decided that I need to escape from all the sickies in my house and went to see the Hobbit (my Hobbit movie partners aka Levi and Liam had gone with friends, so it was just me, myself and I). What I was not counting on was the tumble I took in the streets of Edmonds right next to a Pub. I am sure, I put on quite a show before hand as I was doing a bit of swaying before I actually went down. The only thing busted was my pride. Pride is a funny thing especially with me refusing to ask for help. I realize, I am not out alone a lot at all. Normally, I have a stroller, a grocery cart or TFOLT to hold onto. I can fake this disease pretty well, you know the drill, but you do not look sick. I use a walking stick on long walks or hikes but I just blend in with the crowd. Well, I do not want to be mistaken for a drunk again unless I have rightly earned the honors, so I broke down and purchased this:

I hope it is sending the message that I am young and hip like Fred Astaire:

6. Now that I am done whining, I decided to make one New Year Resolution. I love to read, but I have been going about it half hazardly and truly when I am flaring not making much of an effort. So I made a list of books that I want to read in 2014 from all over the genre. Books that I keep on saying that I am going to get too and then I never make time for. I have 58 books on my list, a very doable list. I think, I will be able to knock off the first 20 in the next 4-5 weeks or so. Santa was brilliant and got M&M an annual pass to the local Children's museum, so I will be able to digest a bunch of books there. 

7. I am very excited about my list of books. Do not worry, I have approximately 300-400 more books that I would like to get too in my the next decade (or less). I am really excited to read, Something Other than God, How I Passionately Sought Happiness and Accidentally Found It, Jennifer Fulwiler. Just in case Jennifer, you are reading this tiny blog, and find yourself in the need for a no name blogger to review said book, I volunteer ( I volunteer was totally laced with my hand widly flashing through the air with chose me chose me, please!). I know, I cannot match wit and humor of Simcha Fisher or the brains of Cardinal Dolan. But I hope you do realize that Cardinal Dolan is going to loan his copy to Stephen Colbert. Are you sure your ready for that rapid rocket launch of a guest spot on the Colbert Report? Ya, I can see you quaking in your boots. I quaking in my boots just thinking about you quaking in your boots.  See, how much better I am looking to review the book. No pressure and I can guarantee that I will not be launching you into any National Spot Light. Oh but, I have this little tid bit to offer you, the golden carrot so to speak. I am in this rocking Rosary Group made up of about 30 families or so (we have approximately a 100 kids for every 4 families or it feels like it sometimes when we gather in small spaces with large families). We get together every Wed. evening rotating 3-4 families per house. We pray the Rosary and have snacks and gossip. (Gossip used in the lightest sense of the word). Sometimes we even do dinner. We get together quite a bit for other fun things like camping (specifically Redneck Camping), Dancing, Adoration and random dinners, potlucks, Baptisms, Confirmation and End of the World Parties (which turned out to be a huge bust last year as the world did not end but hey why not make it an annual event). I often joke my family belongs to the cult of Saint Dominic and that we always have to travel in pairs as we are often seen at non Catholic public events with two or more Rosary families showing up non planned. I can almost guarantee that I can rocket you into the spot light of this said Rosary Family. I imagine your book sales will hit an almost all time high of at least 5. Our Rosary Families are large and frugal and we tend to share resources. I can see the Amazon list lighting up as I type. As of today, I have not heard Stephen Colbert make a single promise as I have towards your book sales.