A good night's sleep and plastic bling!

Yes ladies and gentlemen, I am posting this blog entry at 6:30am versus the usual 1am or later time frame! Why, you might ask??? Because I ACTUALLY SLEPT last night!!!! Now most of you probably take for granted that when you lay down to sleep at night, you do exactly that----sleep! Well, for the past three months or so, I have STRUGGLED to sleep at all... usually crashing in bed exhausted at 3am, hoping my body will give in and rest. Needless to say, this isn't a very healthy or very happy habit. I have tried everything, thinking I am just anxious or something... reading, not reading, counting dollars as they float away, you name it. I just figured I wasn't doing something right... until I read an article in the CURE magazine (Cancer information magazine, not the band). There was an article that caught Morgan's eye and he brought it to me. It talked about how chemotherapy in breast cancer patients (and probably all other cancer patients as well), ruins their sleep patterns for months and even years to come. It is a mixture of physical disruption from the actual chemo to psycological disruptions, from the diagnosis (will I wake up in the morning?, etc). I shouted for joy knowing that I was not the only weirdo out there!! I had tried Tylenol PM various times with no results whatsoever, so I called my oncologist and he called in a prescription for Ambien.

And miracles never cease!!! I told the kids at 9pm last night that Mom was taking a medicine that would help her sleep and that they needed to all go to sleep without a hitch since Morgan is in New Mexico for business. They then moaned to me that they all have such horrible sleep problems too and that they needed "sleep medicine" as well. I replied that they all slept nicely every night, because I have been watching them for the past couple of months and I could tell them each that I know EXACTLY how fast each of them fall asleep.

By 9:30pm, I was OUT like a light.... I even started getting drowsy while brushing teeth and getting ready for bed. Sarah came in to tell me something and said, "wow, you look weird mom, I think you are sleeping and standing." so true! Will was sleeping with me since Dad was gone and he was being crazy, but after a few minutes of Will squawking and playing in bed, Cassidy came in and said, "Mom, I will take him out here and read to him and get him to bed." Oh, I love you Cassidy, even if you just wanted to stay up later than usual!

I slept all night and woke up when Morgan's alarm went off at 6am. I rolled over and noticed that Will and Lund were in my bed too---who would have known? Not me!

Needless to say, I feel like a million bucks!!! I am already worrying that I might need help that doesn't come in pill form, but for now, I am well rested!

I also wanted to prove that I wore the diamond necklace yesterday that Cassidy made for me. the kids were in charge of taking the pictures, they did just fine!

Here is me with my girls. I can't figure out why half of my face was broken...
And here is Lund and I... I have turned the picture the right why five times and it INSISTS on being sideways!! Arrggggg. I am again, mid-explanation to the kids, so I have another wonderful "broken face" smile!

And this is Will, who was very mad because he didn't get to be in the first picture, the "girl" picture. He said he didn't want to be with the boys, he wanted to be with the girls and he hid under the coffee table crying and yelling.

In the end, I told him that this was a "girl picture". He wasn't very happy about it, but he didn't want to miss out on the photo op.