2010 through the rear view mirror

When I first started thinking about 2010 all I could think about was how crappy it was. Upon further review, it was pretty crappy, but there were also a few awesome things that happened too.

Here is a month by month list of things that immediately affected me and/or my family. (That I can remember!)

January- In January we had two great things happen in our family.
My niece Addison Marie Haston was born! She was born on January 15, 2010. She was perfect in every way. She weighed in at 7lbs 7ozs. Here is a recent picture of Addison. Also in January, Brett got a new job!!! Brett got hired by a company called Homeland Security Solutions Inc and works on the 29 Palms MCAGCC. This was a HUGE blessing because it meant we wouldn't have to pay $1000/month in medical insurance premiums anymore. Yay!

February- February was a pretty crappy month.
On February 14 Maryam got really sick. She ended up in the hospital for 3 days with pneumonia and the flu B virus. She was sent via ambulance to the Riverside Medical Center where she was admitted. It was horrible. That first night I honestly thought I was going to lose my daughter. I cannot remember ever being that scared in my entire life. Here is a picture of my poor baby.

February also sucked because it was the last time I got to see my Grams "healthy". Some of you may know that my Grams and I were super tight. I loved her SO much. I knew in the back of my mind when we went to see her at the beginning of February that it would be the last time I'd ever see her. I'm glad she was able to meet all of her Great Grandchildren (so far...) and while we were there we took tons of pictures.March- Another crappy month.
On March 25, 2010 my Grams died. Mary Andonian was a wonderful woman. She was a wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, sister and friend. Everyone who knew her loved her. She was the best person I've ever known. She is the person I named my daughter after. Of all the people in the world, I chose her. I chose her because she was the best person in the world. It made sense.
Grams was the type of person that you called "just because". Even if I had absolutely nothing going on, somehow I always found something to talk about with her. I called her at least once a week. It was easy. She always had something nice to say to me, she made me feel good. On my worst days she made me feel like everything I did had a purpose. She thought the world of me, or at least made me feel like she did. She always thought I was brilliant, hilarious and a great wife and mother. If I'm half the woman she was, I'll be doing OK.

April- I can't think of anything that happened in April. I guess it was the universe's way of giving our family a break after losing Grams.

May-
May was another crappy month. My Great Auntie Mary died. Another Mary Andonian gone from the world. She made it to 92 years old. She was my grandfather's sister. I never met him. He died before I was born. Auntie Mary was Grams' sister-in-law. She was a funny lady. She could make anyone laugh!
Also in May, Brett's cousins Sam and Marcy lost their father. I only met John a few times, but he seemed like a nice guy. I cannot imagine losing my father while I was in my 20's. I'm genuinely sorry for their loss.
Also in May was the great Mother's Day Disaster of 2010. Maryam took a header at Disneyland and ended up in the CHOC ER with stitches. Yay! You can read about that fiasco here.

June-
In June Brett's sister's family moved to Alabama. Maryam was finally healthy enough to play with the boys and the boys moved away! SUCKAGE. Here is a recent photo of the boys. JJ is in a Master's program at an Air Force base in Montgomery. They seem to like Southern living!

June 2nd Jax had his first of two kidney surgeries. The surgeon had to go in and and remove an UPJ obstruction. I won't go into all the details because I already have, in this post. But here is a picture from after the surgery.

July-
In July my sister's family moved to Tennessee. Yikes. I knew it would happen eventually. Scott is from there and wanted to go back home. Lame. California is WAY better than Tennessee, but whatever. Ha! Anyway, Sarah got a job in advertising at the Tennessean newspaper. They're doing well. You can read about them on Sarah's blog.
Also in July Jax had the second part of his surgery. The part where they took out the stint that the surgeon placed in his first surgery. You can read about it here.
July is also the month that mama went back to work. YIKES. I LOVED being a stay at home mom! BUT, unfortunately the medical bills were backing up and we had to start taking care of it. The medical bills is the real down side to having medically challenged kids. They don't ever stop coming! We pay out roughly $500-$700/month in medical bills with no end in sight. Fortunately I only have to work part time, but even that seems too much. I'd much rather be home with my littles, but hey, that's life.

August-
2010 was the year for moving! I June Brande moved, in July moved and in August Justin and Lynn moved! Justin and Lynn moved to the Pacific North West. They moved to a little city outside of Seattle called Redmond. We miss them! Lynn has a job at Amazon.com. They seem to like living there!

September-
September was pretty great! Jax turned 1 on September 11! He's AMAZING. He does everything perfect. He started walking the day after his first birthday! Here is a picture of Jax walking around the sprinkler park. My cutie baby walking.

September was SUPER great for Maryam! On September 20 after 3 years, 2 months and 3 days Maryam had her G-tube (feeding tube) removed!!!! That day is my favorite day of all of 2010! I cannot express the feelings I have for when that happened. We worked incredibly hard towards that day. Some days it felt like it would never come! Now she barely has any memory of it ever being there! Its pretty darn great. You can read about her G-tube removal here. You can read about her G-tube placement here.

October-
In October Brett's Grandpa was put in the hospital. He's had a rough go over the past few months. He's been in and out of the hospital and in and out of a rehab center. Brett's Dad has been living in Orange County so he can be by his father's side. Some good news on Grandpa is that all of his cancer is gone! Now we're just waiting to see if he can regain his strength so he can go home. (He really wants to go home.)

November-
In November Brett and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary. Its kind of crazy to think of what we've been through together in the past 7 years. Hopefully the next 7 years will be equally eventful, but unequally stressful! In the past 7 years we've had 2 preemies. Preemie 1 had 3 surgeries, 3 hospital stays (the first one lasted for 5 months), 5 trips to ER and 1 ambulance ride. Preemie 2 had 2 surgeries and 2 hospital stays. (He looks SO easy in writing!)
I'm planning a trip to somewhere GREAT for our 10 year anniversary. No kids, just sun and the beach.

December-
My little miracle baby turned 4 on December 9th. It was the first time she was healthy enough on her birthday to have a real birthday party! With kids and a bounce house and games! Its incredible to be able to say that Maryam is a healthy normal 4 year old kid. Here are some photos from here birthday celebration.
Also in December, on Maryam's birthday, Jax's surgery was called a success!! No more kidney surgeries for Jax!!!! Yay!!!

So, as you can see, 2010 had its ups and downs. I'm sure most years are like that. Its just taking the time to actually review the year that makes you really see it. There were other great things that happened in our lives and there were also some more struggles. I decided to keep my post about my immediately family.
I hope you all had a great 2010 and that 2011 is awesome!!!!!