My Why

Since October my hearing has been much worse than usual.  So I went in for an audiometry evaluation and my left ear is bad enough that I need a hearing aid.  

When I originally got diagnosed with Meniere's disease 10 years ago (symptoms started 14 years ago), I was told I would probably lose the hearing in my left ear eventually.  But the chance of my other ear losing hearing was only 20%.  But now my right ear is also showing further hearing loss which increases the odds that the right ear will also go bad.  Which makes me sad.

I thought it wouldn't really matter much to be deaf in one ear.  And there are much worse things.  But it does bother me not to hear from my left ear.  It's mostly just really annoying to say "what?" all day and not to be able to focus very well in a noisy place.  I feel a little tired from straining my ears. And I constantly have to turn my head to hear with my other ear when someone on the left of me is speaking to me.  The Dr said people describe the ringing and hearing like mine as a "blown speaker" and that is exactly it.  I feel irritable when I am in a place where there are loud background noises.  

Anyway, I'm mostly sad that my right ear is also getting worse.  But I'm going to do whatever I can to try to retain what I have in that ear.  I do not want to be deaf.  Jared was trying to cheer me up and said "at least it's just your hearing, losing your vision would be so much worse."  Okay sure that is true.  But still, not being able to participate normally in conversations would be hard.  

One thing I've noticed is when I got injured and stopped exercising, maybe that had something to do with the tinnitus coming back.  Stress and fluid retention is part of Meniere's so I feel like I need to do whatever I can to get back on track.  So improving my diet, drinking a ton of water, cutting out caffeine completely, and exercising daily.  Jared got me this cool red light machine that is good for a lot of different things and I'm excited to just focus on my health and to hope that the tinnitus will go away and my hearing will come back.  Often times it does return when the ringing goes away.  The dr. did not sound very hopeful about that happening.  But they really don't have that many answers for this issue and every person is different.  Maybe I'm just in denial but I'm going with it because that will be better for all aspects of my health anyway.

The good news is that as Meniere's Disease progresses, the vertigo gets better.  Which it has if you average out the past couple years.  So I am glad for that.  

And I'm looking at this as one more big reason to focus on my health: My "why."  I went to Orange Theory the other day for the first time in a long while.  It made me so happy to be there!  I had to walk on the treadmill because of my hip, but still got a good workout.  And I remembered why I loved it so much.

Coming Clean

On Saturday, Jared and Simone spent a lot of time really cleaning the chicken coops.  They put the lights up so the chickens will start laying regularly again.  They naturally stop producing eggs in the winter with the shorter days.  So adding a light to the coop is a way to hack biology so we can still get eggs.  It feels so good to get it all nice and clean and everything ready for winter.

I had a couple friends ask me about chickens recently.  They asked me "how often do you have to clean the coop?"

Hmm.. I had to laugh and asked Jared how to respond to that.  The truth is like once every 6 months.  Lol.  But that is kinda embarrassing to admit so I think I made something up about every other month, because that is probably what we should do.  haha.   I actually don't clean the coops. The chickens (and all the animals for that matter) are his thing.  And we have a large run so they don't stay in their coop all day and that helps it stay clean since they just sleep in it.

Once Elise had to clean the coop.  And these little red bugs started crawling all over her and traumatized her for life.  There were thousands and they got in her clothes.  

Also, I should mention that if you get goats or chickens, you will probably want some dogs and goats so the raccoons don't murder your chickens and leave the dead carcass in your neighbors yard.  

And if you get goats, you will need a cat.  Because the rodents really like the goat and chicken feed.

So basically don't get chickens unless you want goats (or a llama or alpaca would work too), Dogs, cat, etc.

Or you can just get an enclosed coop and not let the chickens out of it and in that case, you can prevent murderous animals from eating your chickens, don't need goats or dogs, and can prevent the rodents from accessing the feed.

Anyway, did I talk anyone into getting chickens?  haha. 

Thanksgiving in Oregon

Thanksgiving in Oregon this year!  Bekah and Matt did a big remodel on their house and were ready to host!  Its been since Soren was just one or two that we were there last.

We weren't sure which day we could leave because of the uncertainties with basketball tryouts.  So we made the 12 hour drive instead of flying.  

The last few hours we drove from Reno to Grants Pass through Lake Shasta and we really enjoyed seeing a new stretch of scenic highway in California.  I've never been up that way before.

It was a huge crew!  I think Bekah said there were 35 of us?  It was chaos and fun!  Soren had so many littles to play with and it was really fun for him! Matt and Bekah had Matt's two brothers and kids, and his parents, plus my mom and Dimitrios and three of us sisters and kids.  Soren has a ton of cousins and sometimes he doesn't see his cousins from far away places too often so I wondered after a day or two if he could remember which ones actually were his cousins.  He didn't care anyway just lots of kids to have fun with!  They played tag and board games and had a blast.

I had to snap a photo of the dads stretching after their workout with the box of barbies and toys scattered all around.  

Soren with cute Nixon

Bekah has the cutest Bernadoodle Zuri and she's attached to Bekah but it was fun to try to win her over.  I don't feel like we were very successful.  Which is funny because all my kids were trying to feed Zuri to get her to like them but she was still a little suspicious.

It was so fun to see the house and all of the details.  What a project it has been for Bekah and it turned out really so perfect!  We got the full tour on the day we arrived and my girls loved seeing Bekahs closet.  They laughed because everything in it looked just like what I like to wear.  Not surprised at all.  I love Bekahs clothes.  Also way fun to see her office in the little downtown Grants Pass!  In addition to being a realtor, she does home staging.  Which grew into makers markets and fun classes, gift baskets, etc.  She had a Bed and Breakfast listed last year and organized the makers market during the open house and basically created this fun event for supporting the community and marketed this listing at the same time.  She has a group of women business owners that all support each other and its a cool niche.  They most recently did the CUTEST wreath making class in someones gorgeous rustic barn and I only wish I'd been there for that.

Elise and Ethan came along and it was so fun to have them! They played some basketball with Cooper and Lucy.  They said those two cousins are very competitive!  Monet was really popular with all the little girls who loved playing with her hair and looking at their faces through the filters on her phone.  

Soren packed his backpack full of toys he thought his younger cousins would like to play with.  He was so excited to see Reese, Dylan, Livvy, Cooper, and Jane.  The littles all wanted to sleep in Bekahs playroom loft, but I think one of the kids puked at some point and they had to change their plans.  Haha so typical.

Miles, Ethan, Simone, Jaxon and all slept in the big basement family room and played a lot of video games.  I heard my girls talking about "What time are you going to wake up" one night.  I just laughed and reminded them with all the little kids in the house, there isn't going to be any sleeping in on this trip.  I did bring a pack of earplugs though.  A tip I remembered from my younger days.

Matt's brother has a little baby and that just was so fun.  There aren't many babies in our families anymore!  Maverick is the most adorable little guy.  We all just loved holding him.  

There was a family Turkey Bowl football game on Thanksgiving.  I loved seeing the video of Bekah trash talking Jared.  The food was delicious. We played games that night.  Like codenames and Beat the Parents.  The kids were really into the games!  Especially Soren, Livvy, Cooper and Lucy.

One of my favorite things was tucking in Soren and Livvy and hearing their conversations about the day.  They sounded like a couple of parents talking about all the littles.  Soren really likes that role of being the big cousin.  Being the youngest he hardly gets that experience at home.  It was fun for him to "take care of" and at the same time play with the youngers.

Its always so fun to be with our sisters!  We missed Angela but her trip to NYC looked amazing!  We did a morning hike, talked about our favorite things.  I always love hearing the things my sisters like because we have such similar tastes.  I often like all the same things.  And it helps me to hear what they love.

We went out to gelato a couple times at a new cute place in Grants Pass.  Got some Dutch Bros hot chocolate.  I really appreciate Dutch Bros now after meeting the super nice owners that are friends with Bekah.  They invited us on their Whale Watching boat in February in Hawaii.  So nice.

Black Friday thrifting was so much fun!  There are lots of cool thrift stores there.  And my older kids were really looking forward to it!  All the Dads took the younger kids to see Encanto.  Later Bekah and Matt rented out the indoor soccer place and it was a blast to watch everyone play.  I snuggled Maverick and mostly watched.  Soren was hesitant at first but really got into it.  We all loved watching Lucy dominate out there!  She's so aggressive!  Which of course we think is very cool.  

Saturday most of Matts family left.  And we headed out to the redwoods and the beach!  We could have timed it a little better, we didn't have a lot of time at either.  But it was so beautiful to see again!  Jedediah Smith Redwoods Park and also Brookings, Oregon is where we went.  Both so beautiful!

Matt and Bekah were amazing hosts.  It was so fun to be there with Matt's family too.  After nearly 20 years together, we've spent lots of time with Al and Karen and it was so fun to see the brothers again and their cute families.  

Jared loved watching football and spending time with all the brother-in-laws.  Its fun that they all get along so well.

I think everyone that was there probably came home and had to have a recovery day (or week) but it was honestly such a memorable and fun Thanksgiving!