Kristin Williams Balla

By now, most of you have received your Balla Family Annual War and Peace novel, which takes stock of 2007 by using a staggering array of words and writing styles, while providing just way too many visualizations which you now wish you could purge from your mind. If you have not received this letter it does not mean that I don’t like you. It can only mean that you are the homeless man down at the park, or I am not in possession of your email address. Or your physical address for that matter. Or perhaps I have never met you at all. In which case, why are you reading my blog?

There are several frequently asked questions that have popped up as a result of this aforementioned verbose communique to the masses. I will attempt to answer them now. If more questions arise as you ponder the Balla Family Chronicles (Sometimes thoughts come, unbidden, into our minds; for me, those thoughts usually involve chocolate.) please contact me and I will quench your curiosity as best I can. Or maybe you aren’t curious at all and you would rather NOT know the answer to any possible query that may arise, which begs the question, “Why are you reading my blog?”

(#1) Did Attila really walk all the way from Thorndale to Paoli Hospital in eight hours?

I am surprised that you feel the need to ask this question at all. It is common knowledge that if something is written in the Balla Family Annual Christmas Letter then it is, by default, absolute truth. I speak only truth. Verdad! I feel guilty even when I embellish a story to get a laugh. I don’t write fiction. I write non-fiction. I make my family write non-fiction. When it comes to the truth, I am bordering on the psychotic. Attila really did walk eight hours to get from Thorndale to Paoli. Yes, he is a little unusual – which is one of the reasons I find him so interesting. The day after his unplanned marathon I typed up an ”emergency phone numbers” list for him to carry in his wallet. Believe me, I couldn’t make this stuff up. I am not that creative!

 (#2) Has poor Brent found storage space for his construction supplies? (Okay, no one has actually asked this question, but I love to report on answers to prayer)

He has! Brent was offered an ideal space in a perfect location at an affordable price. It even has a forklift that he can use and double doors leading to his section of the warehouse. He is allowed to customize the area he is renting, so he will be able to make it exactly the way it will be most functional for his business. God is awesome! And no, the space did not come about as  a result of Brent’s embarrassing plea in the Balla Family Letter. God provided another person for that purpose. And no, Brent does not plan to move a cot into the warehouse and live there. He is content for the moment in my mom’s guestroom in the basement of her new house. But thanks for asking! (Oh yeah, you didn’t ask.)

(#3) Is Attila the Hon he appears to be? (Okay, no one actually asked me this question either, but I want to tell you the answer anyway. I am just in that kind of mood!)

 Yes, Attila is a saint. First of all, he has been married to me for twenty-seven years, so that makes the question a no-brainer. I am a roller-coaster, a song with no end, and sometimes just totally annoying. So yes, Attila is a saint. I think an actual life example can nail this down pretty quickly for you.

Last Monday (February 18) Attila came to my work and picked up my car to take it to get an oil change. He then returned my car to the parking lot for me. I did some errands after work and managed to blow out a tire while driving on the Route 30 bypass. Like an idiot, I continued driving until the smell wafting on the breeze began to remind me of my own cooking (Okay, that is not the truth. I can cook. I simply choose not to.)

Anyway, I got myself to the parking lot of the Brandywine Hospital and called my Genghis (Someone once called him that by mistake and we told them that any conqueror will do). Attila arrived bearing a custom omelet on a plate with a little bowl covering it up to keep it warm. He was worried that I had not had dinner. Silly, silly man. He knows me better than that! But I digress. This lovely knight in not-very-shiny armor gave me his pre-warmed car to drive to Praise Team practice. I left him to change my tire in a whipping wind with rapidly dropping temperatures. As he was driving my car home on the spare tire, he discovered that I was nearly out of gas and filled the tank for me. The man is a saint - a bald, three-kidneyed, Energizer Bunny saint. I’ve decided to keep him.

Like the title of this post says, apparently a Balla can’t allow too much time to pass between writing the annual Christmas letter and getting it mailed! If we do, lots of stuff will happen. Just to annoy us. Just to keep us on our toes. Just so life won’t get dull. Just because we are the Balla family and that is what we do – dodge bullets, tap dance through pesky ordeals and get refined in the fire of relational, medical, emotional, physical and financial chaos.  The prize? – A finely polished, golden crown of faith. I’ll take it. Thank you Lord!

I was blessed with an incredible 50th birthday party thrown for me on January 19th - one day before the actual national holiday. :-} My daughter Lyryn was the main facilitator. Using her God-given organizational skills, she got Attila to copy my address book, created original invitations, called people who had not RSVP’d as of the day before the party, planned food for the masses and enlisted my other daughters (Katie, Susie and Tara - okay, they aren’t all exactly related) to help decorate, cook and hostess this magnificent event. Attila made potato salad for about 300 (he used to own a restaurant so he has a tendency to think big). My sister Kathi got me to the church on time.  I was very, very honored and blessed. I have decided that everyone should have their Memorial Service while they are still alive so they can enjoy it!

The week before the party I had been very sick with that nasty virus that has been plaguing everyone this winter. I was experiencing increasing bouts of atrial fibrillation. A-fib is the most common heart arrhythmia. It occurs when rapid, disorganized electrical signals in the heart’s two upper chambers (the atria) cause them to contract very fast and irregularly. As a result, blood pools in the atria and isn’t pumped completely into the heart’s two lower chambers. When this happens, the heart’s upper and lower chambers don’t work together as they should. Which begs the question; can’t we all just get along?

Now if you know me at all, you know that there is one thing I am not - I am not disorganized! But apparently my heart was, and it became increasingly difficult to ignore. I started to feel like I would faint when climbing a single flight of stairs. Before I got sick I had worked out at Curves for three nights in a row and could sprint up two flights of stairs without hyper-ventilating. While in a-fib my heart was going about 150 beats per minute. I can only manage 120 when I am working out!

Attila took me to the Paoli Hospital Emergency room on January 25th (dejavu). I was admitted and spent the next eleven days getting a stress test, an echo-cardiogram, and trying two different medicines to get my a-fib under control. I went through four roomates. Even the 87-year-old stroke victim went home in three days! I was not in any pain but my heart would not stay in sinus rythmn for any length of time -even when I slept. The people who watch the heart monitors told me that I was the most unusual case they had ever seen (why are we not surprised?). The highlight of my incarceration was the two showers I was allowed to take in the bathroom down the hall. We really do take the little things in life for granted. Those showers rocked my world!

While I was lounging in my hospital bed, my Mom went to the ER with extremely elevated blood pressure. She was tested thoroughly and her heart is fine. They adjusted her blood pressure meds and sent her home after one day.

While still in the hospital, Lyryn brought Attila, Ashley and Jayden to the ER. Attila had been throwing up all day while trying to babysit Jayden. Lyryn came home from work to find Jayden surrounded by pillows and blankets on the dining room floor, and Attila laying on the powder room floor hugging the toilet. She wasn’t taking any chances so she calmly brought everyone to the hospital.

Attila had a cat-scan which revealed kidney stones and a slight blockage in Susie (his transplanted kidney). Lyryn was a champ. She took Jayden home to his daddy and came back to get Ashley and Attila and take them home once Attila was discharged. He had been given an anti-nauseau medicine and felt fine. When he had a renal ultrasound the following week there was no longer any sign of kidney stones or blockage in Susie. God is good!

My medicine has totally kicked in now and I have not had one episode of a-fib in about five days. I plan to return to Curves this week, but also plan to be cautious and sensitive to what my body is telling me. It usually tells me it wants chocolate but I am trying to focus on the more serious matter at hand.

I am currently working on Fridays in order to get caught up at my job. My Christmas decorations are still up and I think that makes a new record for our family. I might just wait and put up the spring decorations for Easter in about a month. Good thing Easter comes early this year!