I'm still alive :)

With surgery and the holidays, I haven't had any time to post. I can't wait to post about our Thanksgiving/Christmas celebration with my side of the family and our Christmas Eve/Christmas Day celebration with Jarrad's family. I am downloading pictures and getting organized, and will post all about it soon.

Recovery from my surgery is going well. I have had good days and bad days (more good than bad). I did have a set back because I was over doing it. The doctor chuckled when I told him I was walking a mile a day only 2.5 weeks after my surgery - apparently that was too much too soon. Live and learn :) I'm definitely looking forward to the day I'm completely recovered...Jarrad just wasn't made to be a wife. Although, I love that he's getting a dose of my life. The saying "A women's work is never done" has new meaning to Jarrad. I think I'll milk this for all it's worth :)

Until next time....hope everyone has a very safe and happy new year.

Surgery details...

Well, my surgery went very well. The doctor said my back was a lot more unstable than he originally thought. The pain that I had in my legs is gone, now I just have pain from recovering from surgery. I had a four level lumbar spinal fusion.

The first few days at the hospital were pretty rough. I'm pretty sure that the nurses were waking me up every five minutes to take my vitals and give me pills. I was released on Thursday and came home to my parents house for the first few weeks of my recovery. Mom is planning on taking Meg and I back to Mansfield at the end of next week. Mom has been an angel while I'm recovering. She's making sure I take my meds and am comfortable.


I have a follow up appt tomorrow, so should know more about my recovery and how long it will take after that. I should be able to go back to work on Monday and I'm excited about that :) It will help the days go by. There is only so much sitting around I can do.

Tomorrow is the day...

Tomorrow, I have back surgery (four-level spinal fusion). I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I will try to post after my surgery (probably later in the week).

In keeping with the Christmas theme...

You Are a Traditional Christmas Tree

For a good Christmas, you don't have to re-invent the wheel. You already have traditions, foods, and special things you bring out every year.

what Christmas tree are you?

Did I miss something...

When did you go from this... to this...

UGH!

I'm not ready for you to grow up.

I'm not ready for you not to want to spend every waking moment with me.

I'm not ready for you to spend the night away with your friend...

but, I guess it doesn't really matter that I'm. not. ready.

The fact is that YOU'RE ready. You're ready to grow up, you're ready to play with your friends (without me watching you're every move), you're ready to spend the night away...which is what you did on Friday night.

I couldn't believe my ears when you came barrelling thru the door with Kinzie asking me if you could spend the night over at her house. I was actually shocked because when I heard the door open, my heart fluttered because I knew that you were home for the night. Oh how wrong I was...you were only here because you wanted to ask permission to spend the night away. When the words came out of your mouth, my heart skipped a beat - probably a few beats. My gut reaction was NO, you're only FOUR...but the excitement in your voice and the sparkle in your eyes told me that you were more than excited about the opportunity to spend the night with Kinzie. So, I paused before answering. During that pause, you looked up at me with those beautiful brown eyes, a smile still plastered on your face, and I couldn't say no. So, I said yes (and silent tears began to fall).

Your first sleep over - I can't believe it. These past four years have gone by so quickly that I don't want to miss a thing.

Meg, please don't get mad at me because I'm constantly taking pictures and hugging you and picking you up for no reason. I know that sooner or later, you will no longer welcome these things...I'm just trying to steal as many precious moments from you now...while I still can!

I know it's only November...

Meg and I have been setting up for Christmas since Sunday. I know, I know - it's early...but, we'll be gone for a three weeks (possibly four) between now and Christmas. So, I put it up early this year so I could enjoy it. Of course, it's not too early for me, I usually set it up two weekends before Thanksgiving anyway. This year I just got a jump start on it. Maybe I was excited about putting it up because I got a new tree this year - it's so beautiful!!! And, yes, I've already wrapped up a few gifts and put them under the tree. I'm really on top of my game this season.

In keeping with the Christmas spirit, I gave myself a bloggy make over. What do you think?

Trick or Treat...

trick or treat

smell my feet

give me something good to eat

if you don't, i don't care

i'll pull down your underwear

(thanks to the older kids in the neighborhood, we sang this song all weekend)

Meg was having one of her "moments" before trick or treating time. Earlier in the evening, she was playing with her friends and took her shoes off. On her way back to the house, she stepped on a rock and it bruised her foot. Since she hadn't had a nap, she was a complete brat about it. I gave her an ice pack and she laid on the couch for a little while.

We were so happy that Meme and Poppy were in town. Boompaw and Nawnaw also joined us for the evening. We ordered in pizza, threw together a salad, and cracked open a bottle of wine :)

***my sweet Dorothy***

We left to go trick or treating around 7:00. Up until the point that we walked out the door and joined her friends, she was complaining, complaining, complaining about her foot hurting. Of course, once she saw her friends her foot was completely forgotten about - it's a miracle I know! So, we left the house for good ol' trick or treating. Meg had a blast. We walked thru the entire neighborhood (about 5 miles) and hit every house that had a light on. I was shocked that Meg lasted as long as she did. She finally gave in around 9 and we headed back to the house. We only missed about 5 houses.

***Meg's first house (our house)***

***walking with her friends***

***BOO***

Carving Pumpkins...

Meg and I decided to wait until Meme & Poppy got into town before we carved pumpkins this year. So, on Thursday we bought our pumpkins from Walmart. I am really sad that we weren't able to make it to a pumpkin patch this year, but the month got away from us!!!

After dinner out, we got home and started carving away. Before we made any carves into the pumpkin, I forced Megan to stand next to the pumpkins and pose for my make shift pumpkin patch pictures.

Once we got started, all was quiet because everyone was focused on the task at hand. I was telling Meme that I didn't remember carving pumpkins growing up...good reason to, turns out that Meme used to carve the pumpkins while me and my brothers were in school. After carving pumpkins for the first time (yes, it was my first time doing everything from start to finish) I can totally understand why Meme did this while her children weren't home.

Don't let this picture fool you, Jarrad only helped Meg trace her stencil that we got for "easy" pumpkin carving. The other two hours that we were doing this, Jarrad and Poppy were out on the back porch, having a scotch and cigar.


Here are all the girls that worked for 2 hours with their pumpkins. Didn't they turn out awesome? We were so proud.

Meme carves an awesome pumpkin. From left to right, pumpkins by:

***Meme, Meg, Mommy***

***My precious pumpkin***

I will post about trick or treating tomorrow :) We had a great time.

We love Meme & Poppy

Meme & Poppy came in for a long weekend last weekend. Meg always loves their visits. They arrived on Wednesday afternoon and stayed thru Sunday.

Every time meme and poppy come to visit, Poppy has a list of places we "must" eat at. Our meal schedule looked something like this...
Wednesday dinner - Mexican Inn (on the list)
Thursday lunch - Chicken Express (on the list)
Thursday dinner - Outback Steak House (on the list)
Friday lunch - left over Chicken Express
Friday dinner - we picked up Mama's Pizza (on the list)
Saturday breakfast - Braums (on the list)
Saturday lunch - we skipped (anyone who knows Poppy is probably calling me a liar, but seriously - the man did NOT eat anything for lunch)
Saturday dinner - Buffalo Wild Wings (not on the list, but could possibly become a new favorite)

We had so much fun with them and hated to see them go on Sunday. Below are a few pictures from Thursday night at Outback.

***Poppy, Meg, Meme***

They are making fun of Poppy - any time you say "smile" to poppy while holding a camera, he automatically raises his eye brows. I noticed Meg did it a few times at dinner, so I asked them all to do the "Poppy Face"

***aaaawwwww, so sweet***

***smile for the camera***

Spread the wealth

click to enlarge

Boo at the Zoo

On Saturday night, Megan and I met some friends at the Ft. Worth Zoo for...

The girls had a great time. The zoo was so crowded, but it was fun to see all the kids dressed up in their costumes. Meg is going to be Dorothy this year. I know I'm a little biased, but she looked so adorable! I will have to try to get a video of her on Friday saying "There's no place like home, there's no place like home".

I have to complain a little tho...

FIRST - The price! 12 bucks each, just to get in. yes, 12 bucks even for Meg. Toddlers are considered 2 and under and they are 4 bucks. So, if you brought your newborn and were expecting him to get in for free, you would have been very upset. Makes me real mad because regular admission is only 10.50 for adults

SECOND - No animals...the animals were put "up" at 6:30pm. The event was from 5:30 - 8pm.

THIRD - the cost of food at the zoo. Not only did it cost me 24 bucks to get in, but I spent 16 bucks on dinner (which consisted of nachos, mini corn dogs, a bag of chips and two drinks).

FOURTH - Parking! Five bucks for parking. Seriously, they can't just throw in parking?!?

But, with all the above complaints, seeing my daughter's face light up around every corner at the zoo all night - PRICELESS!!!

***My sweet little Dorothy***

***Meg & Haylie***

***the girls were all giggles***

***There's no place like home***

NKOTB Rocks!

The Block is Back!!!

Me and a girlfriend, Kerry, went to NKOTB last Sunday night in Dallas. It was an awesome concert. One of the best I've been too. We had so much fun.

As you can imagine, the concert was full of 30-something women screaming at the top of their lungs. There were so many women there that the AA center had the men's restroom designated as a women's restroom and the men that were there had to use the family restroom.

NKOTB played for over two hours. They mixed their old stuff with the new stuff. I swear the choreography for the old faves (Hangin Tough, Step by Step, You Got It, etc) was the same as it was in the 90s.

I'm definitely glad we went. I will remember the concert for years to come.

***Kerry & Allison******NKOTB on a side stage***

***Introduction on the big screen***

I'm still a groupie after all the years :)

Weekend Update

Meg and I had an unexpected trip to San Antonio last week. I have been going to the Texas Back Institute for my back pain in the past few weeks. I've always had back pain, but have started having leg pain as well. So, I decided it was time to do something. After my appointments with the Texas Back Institute, they recommended Facet Joint Injections. Seeing as the doctor had told me that my problems were in my discs, I couldn't understand why she would want me to have joint injections...so, I make an appt with my dad's back doctor in SA for a second opinion. Basically, he told me that he wanted me to say yes or no to surgery. He said I needed to tell him what I wanted to do. I decided to have an injection - it was worth a try. Especially since I'll have to have a four level spinal fusion. I had an Epidural Steroid Injection (ESI) on Thursday afternoon. It didn't help like I had hoped it would have, but it was worth a try. Jarrad and I are going to sit down when he gets back from hunting to discuss our next steps.

Meg and I had so much fun in SA. We got into town on Wednesday night and were able to meet mom and dad for dinner to surprise mom. She didn't know that Meg and I were going to get into town early enough for dinner. Meme was so excited. Taylor & Ruth were even able to meet us for dinner. It was a great night.
Thursday, I had my dr appt with Dr. Meadows and had the injection that afternoon. It worked out perfect that the pain mgmt doc was able to squeeze me into his schedule. That night, Taylor & Ruth came over for dinner and to visit. We had so much fun.

Friday, I worked a little. We had planned on going to Longhorn cafe for lunch, but didn't make it :( Next time I'm in SA, Longhorn is on top of my list! Megan thought she wanted to take a dip in the pool, but quickly realized that it was too cold.

We left for dinner on Friday night around 3:30 so we could run a few errands. I just had to go to Linens-N-Things for their going out of business sale. I found a great bed-in-a-bag set for the bedroom. During the winter, the coverlet I have on just doesn't cut it for keeping me warm. I can't wait for Jarrad to see my new purchase.

Friday night, Jamie & Lath met us at El Jarro (where else would we go) for dinner. I had a great time visiting with them. I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful Best Friend. After 30 years, we're still like two peas in a pod.

Saturday morning, Meg and I met the Middletons at the soccer fields in Boerne so we could watch Maddie & Layton play soccer. We also went to Maddie's Fall Carnival at her school. Saturday night, Jamie, Lath & the kids came over to my parents house for a dip in the hot tub and to play. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.

Sunday, Meg and I got up, got packed and left to come home to Mansfield. We were sad to go, we always are, but we'll be back for Thanksgiving.

Sunday night I dropped Meg off at Nawnaw's because I had a special event - stay tuned for more details...

It's nice.....but

Meg had spent a few nights with Boompaw and Nawnaw, so yesterday I met Nawnaw to get Megan. We ended up meeting in a McDonald's parking lot. As you can imagine, my sweet little angel wanted to go in and eat. Well, I wasn't exactly dressed for eating in public (I had my house shoes on). So, I had to pick her up kicking and screaming, put her in her car seat and strap her in. She cried and cried and cried. She's usually pretty tired after spending time with Boompaw and Nawnaw, so I was just going to let her cry it out.

When I couldn't stand it any more, I mentioned to Meg that I had a surprise for her at home...

...fast forward to the minute we arrive home.

Meg: Can I have my surprise?
Mommy: As soon as I get you unstrapped and we get inside.
Meg: Go faster.
Mommy: I'm trying
(enter house)
Meg: Where is my surprise?
Mommy: Here it is...
Meg has this look of total disappointment on her face...
Mommy: What's wrong? Do you not like it?
Meg gives me a blank stare
Mommy: Honey? Do you like it?
Meg: It's fine.
Mommy: I can return it if you don't like it.
Meg: It's fine...I just thought you were going to give me a puppy.

I can understand her disappointment - if I thought I was getting a puppy and my mom gave me a stupid hello kitty Halloween basket, I would have been crushed! The basket is cute though :)

But, seriously - A PUPPY???? Why would she think she was getting a puppy? She's out of her mind.

p.s. to the grandparents reading this - this is not code for "buy Meg a puppy for Christmas (or any other holiday...or, for that matter a puppy at all)"

Say Cheese!

Two weekends ago, we were in Austin for my sister-in-law's wedding. Meg was so beautiful. Believe it or not, I don't have a picture of her standing pretty for the camera - I can't believe it. I don't have one from Rehearsal Dinner or the Wedding night :(

The wedding was beautiful (and, the shortest ceremony I've ever been to I might add). Stacy and Bryan looked so happy (and, I have no pictures of the couple either). The reception was a blast. Meg danced the night away with anyone and everyone who would dance with her.

***Meg dancing in the street at rehearsal dinner***

***Meg & Daddy***

Stacy & Bryan rented a photo booth for some entertainment for the wedding. We all had an absolute blast taking goofy pictures. I think Megan took pictures with almost all of the guests.

What we've been up to!

Sorry for the hiatus in blogging. We've been out living, with no time for blog updates. However, I have started another blog. check it out. I post there almost daily, because all I have to come up with is a title :) no words needed.

So, what have we been up to? We've been busy busy busy.

A few weekends ago, Meg was invited to her friend, Brylie's 5th birthday party. It was a "Fancy Nancy" party. Darla rented "fancy" party dressed and shoes and jewelry for the party. It was a very fun party. Meg wasn't in a great mood that morning, so only dressed up for a short period of time, but still had a great time at the party.

***Brylie opening presents***

***Meg's Fancy Nancy Feet***

The day after Brylie's party, we hung out all day with daddy. When Jarrad is home, Meg loves to hang out with him. Doesn't matter what he's doing, she just wants to be with him. So, we headed to the gun range with him on Sunday morning. We met Unc and Boompaw there so they could shoot their guns. Meg and I stayed in the car, but still had fun. Meg decided to take some pictures to make the time pass. She needs to work a little on framing her subject, but got better as the day went on.

***top of mommy's head***

***The gun range***

***Boompaw***

***Daddy***

Meg was so sweet that day. here is a picture of her when I was finally able to get the camera out of her hands. I love this girl!

So, you know after a perfect day, how children just love to keep you on your toes. Well, that's exactly what Meg did. Meg and I had to go to the mall to pick up a few dresses for her for Stacy & Bryan's wedding (more on that in another post). So, off to the mall. She was being an absolute angel. Holding my hand in the parking lot (without being asked), walking beside me in the mall, not running 40 yards in front of me, using her inside voice, etc. The perfect child...until it all came tumbling down. It was horrible. After we picked out the dresses and tried them on, she saw a cheap plastic sack (shaped like a guitar) with crap make up in it. You can guess where there melt down came...I wasn't about to pay 15 bucks for that "stuff", so I firmly told her no. And then told her again and again and again (you get the picture).

To make the situation worse, on top of the crying, she started throwing a fit (right in the store). Of course, I had to pull out my camera and snap a picture. After I paid for our merchandise, she started running from me - darting in and out of the clothes racks. I finally caught her and held her wrist for the rest of our trip to the mall. I even grounded her for the night. She wasn't allowed to go out to play with her friends or watch any TV. It worked out great because when we pulled in our driveway they were all out playing...talk about adding salt to the wound. I stood my ground and Meg had to come inside and sit in her room. All she could do was read books or play with her toys. I feel like I definitely won the battle.

Meg now has a new saying "Don't throw a fit, get whatcha want."

***Meg throwing a fit at the mall***

***She cried for over 1.5 hours***

The rest of our week was plenty uneventful. Last weekend, Stacy & Bryan were married, I will post more about that tomorrow.