It’s been a long time, but de-cluttering my life has taken all of my energy.

I’m in the home stretch of the transformation and by 2010, you will describe me as this girl you know who used to be a packrat. I plan on writing a lot more about it in the future. It’s amazing how creative I feel and how much I want to write now that I am clearing the decks. It’s like this energy around me can circulate better.

But today is a very important day in Kristen history. It was just one year ago today that I woke up from having what I thought had been the worst.gas.ever with what felt like a knot in my lower right abdomen. A little Wikipedia and a call to a friend, and I had figured out I had appendicitis before I even went to the hospital. At least I knew I would be checking in so I took a shower at home and packed a bag to put in the trunk and it was off to the ER we went.

About 9 hours after getting there, I was waking up in recovery, and Rob was in the waiting room with Janie, Don, and Samantha who were in Indianapolis for Sam’s gymnastics meet. Then they took me to my room and I sent Rob home to get some sleep.

It seemed like I would never recover from my abdominal laparoscopic surgery and like I would never be able to lift more than 8 pounds again. I was disappointed that my packrat title-shedding goal wouldn’t be met for 2009, but looking back I don’t know how I ever thought I would make it there in ~3 weeks.

It was 3 years ago on this day that was also one of the most monumental days of Rob’s and my life together. In the morning we had to put Bud down. He had an intestinal blockage and he had been sick for weeks. It was so sad. I remember it was such a beautiful day. We cleaned Rob’s apartment and had the windows open since it was like 55º. Then later we went and adopted Beans and Nico from Petsmart and the vet’s office respectively. Just as we were getting home with our new kitties, Rob got a phone call that his Grandpa Bill had an aneurysm.

So, a lot of things have happened in our life together on December 6. I feel like we have experienced every emotion possible on this day in the past few years. This year, it was pretty uneventful. And for that I am thankful.