Why hello blog world!

Oh, where to begin? So much has happened since I last blogged. Let's start with the July 4th holiday, shall we?

July 4th happens to be my cousin's birthday. When her sisters were in elementary, she convinced them that the entire nation celebrated her birthday, therefore making her the most special girl in the United States. She denies it to this day, but her sisters uphold the story! Here is my cousin, Tiffany, with her birthday apple pie:

Seated next to Tiffany, to her right, is her son Zachary. His birthday is July 7th, so he got to blow out candles on homemade peach ice cream!

A family friend showed up unexpectedly and his birthday happened to also fall on July 4th. My family wasn't going to let him hang out without singing happy birthday, so he got the most ingenious "cake" ever! I can't remember his name (what? It was like 21 days ago!), but here he is blowing out the candles:

Isn't that the coolest summer birthday "cake" ever? It was perfect! We ended the night on top of the roof watching fireworks from all around the city. I forgot to take the camera up there.....oops!

Read more...

It's Friday.....

And I don't have a solution for "The Situation" yet. (Not to be confused with Jersey Shore. Ugh.) There are a couple things in the pipeline, but no official word yet. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. :)

Read more...

Reality just b*tch-slapped me in the face

On Saturday, my sister and her friend Sarah were in town. We visited my cousin and then spent the afternoon at my grandma's house. I hadn't seen her in quite a while and neither had my sister. After I dropped my sister off, I came home to an empty house and decided to take it easy and watch some shows on the DVR. It had been a pretty good day.

Until Jason came home.

Remember when I said that we had roughly 8 or 9 months left of savings to live off of? Well, reality suddenly hit Jason. He has a company that wants to hire him, but is trying to find an open position. He should hear something about that this week. He has also applied to a few other places which we should also know about shortly. So J told me that if nothing pans out in the next two weeks, then we had some really important decisions to make. Here's what he told me:

1. Find some type of job that would pay enough to keep us afloat. (Easier said than done, obviously)
2. Find a renter so we can rent the house out and live with his parents in town.
3. Sell the house so we don't ruin our credit in case we lose the house in 9 months.
4. Turn off everything, move in with Jason's parents and hold onto the house for a little longer provided we both find minimum wage jobs.

Now you may thing that the last thre choices are drastic. So did I. Believe me, I didn't want to think that this could possibly happen to us. But Jason's right. In this economy, it would take us nearly 9 months to sell our home and hope that we got what we paid for it. Renting would be hard because of the price we would have to charge in order to make the mortgage payment, taxes and insurance and not lose money. Finding a minimum wage job would help us hold onto the house longer as long as we could get our absolute minimum bills paid (mortgage, student loans, insurance, etc.) but it would still mean moving. This is such a harsh reality that has hit me in the face full-force.

How could this happen to us? We don't have any debt but our mortgage and student loans. We've always paid off our credit cards. We're both educated with degrees. The sad reality is that our economy stinks. And it's something that we can't change no matter how hard we wish it to be different. I know that many other families have been in our situation, but I don't know any personally. That part makes it hard because we feel very alone.

My plan is to call up some friends and see if they can get me hired at least as part-time help.  I don't want option 1 or 2 to happen. I've waited to do this because I keep hoping that I will get hired somewhere. It's hard for me to do this because I worked so hard to finish my Master's degree. I thought I would be doing something more. But things are what they are and only Jason and I can change. I am hoping that by the time this post is up that I will have something to report. Please keep Jason and I in your prayers. We are going to need them.

P.S. For those of you who just started reading this blog, the bathroom renovations had been completed for quite a while. The materials had been bought way in advance with money we had put aside for that project.

Read more...

Thanksgiving

We had a great second Thanksgiving held at our house. You may remember the first one mentioned here. Jason & I had each of our parents over for dinner. It started out kind of funny. My mom brought over some red wine because all I had was white. We read somewhere that white wine goes with turkey the best, so we decided to pop open a bottle. All three bottles that I have were given to me. I found a bottle in the fridge that had been left at my house from a previous get-together. Jason tried to open it with our bottle-opener-from-hell. And when I say it's from hell, I mean it's the worst bottle opener I've ever seen. I need to go to the grocery store and buy a $2 one...it would probably make things much smoother. Anyway, as Jason tries to pull the cork out, it it breaks. The top half of the cork just decided to crumble. He tries to get the other half out, but no luck. So, being the redneck family that we are sometimes, he pushed the cork INTO the bottle using a sharpie. Both the cork and the sharpie lid fell in the bottle. My dad then gets the great idea to decant the bottle into another container and to use a coffee filter to catch the leftover cork crumbles. The plan worked pretty well and a couple of us braved the tainted wine and poured ourselves a glass.

That wine was so good! I really don't care for Chardonnays, but this one was wonderful! It was a little oakey, ever so slightly sweet and had almost a brandyish taste to it. It was worth the trouble! Ha ha!

Dinner consisted of turkey, cornbread stuffing, sweet potatoes, salad, and cranberry sauce. My father-in-law made the stuffing which was so, so good! There was hardly anything left over. My friend Shana surprised me by coming over and bringing a carrot cake. Add that to the pumpkin pie that I made, the trifle and the lemon meringue pie that my mother-in-law brought and we have ourselves 4 desserts between 6 people! I will be the first to admit that I had a piece of each that day.

After Jason's parents left, I helped my mom shop the Black Friday ads. There were some things she wanted to order online so we had to wait until midnight. I lasted until about 1 o'clock before I hit the hay. Mom was the last one to bed because she caught a second wind and couldn't get tired.

I was the first one up the next morning. By 8:30, no one was still up, so I decided to get dressed and go to the gym. I figured everyone would be up by the time I got back. I showed up at 10:30 and my parents were barely up and Jason was still in bed. I celebrated Black Friday with a piece of carrot cake and took it easy the rest of the day.

My parents left that afternoon, leaving behind the turkey carcass they were going to give to their dogs and their reusable grocery bags. Thanks! That night, Jason & I met up with his parents, brother and his brother's new girlfriend at Outback. I think most of the Black Friday crowd had long gone to bed by 7:30 because the restaurant was a ghost town by then. Jason & I were able to convince everyone to come back to our house. (We had already concocted our evil plan beforehand to shove all the leftover desserts their way.) Our victims, I mean guests, didn't succumb to our sweets....they passed them up! So now we're left with 4 desserts in our fridge and we still have a THIRD Thanksgiving to go to today.

Bring on the bulge!

Read more...

Becca & TJ's wedding

Last Saturday, my cousin, Becca, and her fiance, TJ, finally got married. (You may remember me announcing their engagement here) I say finally because they have a long history together. They dated in high school and then broke things off..........several times. Each dated other people over the next few years until they decided to try things one more time. They had both grown up a lot and they finally realized that the other was "The One!"

The wedding was held at a relatively new venue called La Fontana Springs on FM 3009. It's pretty far from most of the city, so a bus was hired to drive people from a hotel to the site. It was a beautiful venue and everything seemed to be run on schedule.

The bridal procession was like a family reunion! I'll show the ones that I'm related to here. Here's my Uncle Ben & Aunt Patty (Becca's parents):

Here's my cousin Eric and Crystal (Becca's older brother and niece):

Here's my cousin Kathy (my mother's namesake and Becca's younger sister):

Here's my cousin Tiffany (Becca's older sister, mom to Crystal):

Here's my cousin Zach (Becca's nephew, Crystal's brother, Tiffany's son...get all that?). Zach was one of the ring bearers and had a scowl on his face because he had to walk with a slower littler boy. I loudly whispered "Smile!" to get this picture:

Finally, Becca emerged with her Daddy:

Did I mention that my sister did the flowers by herself? Okay, not by herself. I wired a few roses for the corsages. But I think my sis did a great job! She hasn't done a wedding in a long time, so she was a little out of practice, but I think everything turned out beautifully!

Here are the newlyweds coming down the aisle!

After the ceremony, we headed indoors for the reception. Appetizers were served and the alcohol was served while the bridal party took pictures. My dad was intent on fitting his cup into the favor koozies despite all of us telling him it wouldn't fit. Here's the proof that you CAN fit one of those plastic cups in a koozie!

Here's an adorable picture of my parents!

And the obligatory Steph and Jason pic:

Salad was served and then the main coarse, steak, shrimp, garlic mashed potatoes, green beans and dinner rolls. It was so good! So good in fact, that I didn't bother to take a picture....AGAIN! Ha! After the dinner, the bride and groom had their first dance. I can't remember what song it was. The best part was a lifelong joke/promise that Becca's mom would wear a red dress to the wedding and then she and Becca would dance to "Lady in Red." That promise was fulfilled!


Afterward, Becca danced with her mom. Then, toasts were made and the cake was cut. My cousin doesn't really like cake, so she did a cheesecake for the wedding cake:

Finally, the dancing commenced for everyone!

My parents danced:

My nieces danced (I love this picture!):

And my sister & I cutting a rug:

The bouquet was tossed and guess who caught it? My older niece, Hailey! At first she was embarrassed that everyone was looking at her, then she told us all that she was going to get married next.

All good things must come to an end, so the party finally ended and Becca & TJ exited into a cloud of bubbles. Sorry for posting this pic Becca, but it's the only one I have of the exit!

And they left in a decorated truck

Congrats to you both!

Whew, that was long! But y'all still love me, right?

:::crickets:::

Riiiiiight?!?!?

:::crickets:::

That's okay. I LOVE me! :)

Read more...

Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde

My nieces definitely have two sides......

The sweet, innocent side:


And the crazy, naughty, I-don't-care-what-you-think side:


It's exhausting!

Read more...

Catching up, part 4

Jason & I finally made it to the hometown and we spent the evening doing what else?

Eating and drinking.

What can I say? We're a little predictable at times. :)

Anyway, the next morning was my friend Katlyn's baby shower. It was held just one town over from me......I had to trek all of 10 miles from my parent's house. Here's Katlyn with her mum that I helped Stacy put together. I had never heard of making mums for baby showers, but I think it turned out cute.


Her cake was made by Lucy's in San Antonio.


Stacy, myself and our friend Misty got together to make a diaper cake. None of us had made one before and I think it turned out cute as well.


While Kat opened her presents,


This little cutie, Cymber, stole the show:


Cymber decided that she needed to help unwrap gifts. She was so cute walking around with leftover tissue paper and bows!

After the shower, I headed home to celebrate Thanksgiving early with my brother. I forgot to get the camera out for it, but we had turkey, cranberry sauce (my fave!), yummy stuffing, veggies, pecan pie and pumpkin pie. Let's put it this way........we were stuffed!

Later that night, my brother started a fire and we all brought out lawn chairs.


Jason decided he needed to add his special touch to the fire as well. Notice the beer in hand? Anyone catching a theme here?


We sat out for a long time talking, petting the family dogs and just watching the flames.


It was a perfect end to a great night.

Read more...

Catching up, part 3

On Friday the 6th, Jason & I left to go to Woodsboro to spend the weekend with my family and brother. We went to get diesel for Jason's truck, but the line was soooo long! We put some air in the tires and decided to forfeit the diesel and get some farther down the road. We headed down 1604 (the long way) and as we approached Randolph Air Force Base, we started seeing cars parked on the side of the road. We stopped at a Valero and as Jason turned off the truck, I looked across the highway and saw a huge cloud of dust. As I followed the cloud, I looked up to see 4 old-style planes in the air and they were doing acrobatics! We stopped in time to see several planes practice for an air show on Sunday.

This was the view I saw from just outside the truck as the planes circled back in front of us. If you look at the picture, you'll see dust in front of those buildings. That's the runway right across from us!


I got a lot of the telephone poles in the pictures. I couldn't really get them out of my way and I'm not good having to take pictures quickly under pressure!

See how close they flew to each other?

Scatter!


A great singlet shot!


Here's my first attempt at posting a video here. You can hear how loud the planes were...it was so cool!




This was such an awesome thing to stumble across. My entire family kept asking us where we were and I had to explain that we spent half an hour outside a Valero watching an air show!

Read more...

Catching up, part 2

After my family left, Jason & I cleaned up around the house and prepared for the next weekend. I met with my friend Stacy on Thursday to help her complete some details for her sister's baby shower on Saturday, the 7th. We were making her sister a mum for her to wear when Stacy's husband Javi text messaged her. He is active National Guard right now (after serving many years in the army) and was at training. He told us about the Fort Hood shooting...this was probably just 20 minutes after it happened.

After hearing about this, my heart sank. Not only did I feel horrible for the people who might have been injured, but I also knew that my brother had gone to Fort Hood a few days prior to visit some injured soldiers in his unit. He's stationed out of Fort Hood. I immediately called my dad and asked him if Houston had come home yet.

He didn't know. I told him to turn on the news and he said to call my mom's cell phone (my brother had it) but not to call mom until we knew something. I called the phone and he had been home for just a few hours. He had left Fort Hood just before 7am that morning and hadn't heard the news yet. After calling Dad back to tell him Houston was okay, I finished up with Stacy and then went home.

I came home, read the news more in-depth, and cried. This one was just too close to home for me. Soldiers aren't supposed to die in their own house where they should be safe. They never even see it as a possibility. Knowing that that could have been Houston in their place scared the hell out of me. I'm so grateful for the blessings in my life. I have prayed so much for those families that have lost their loved ones. I truly hope that they will get the justice they deserve.

Read more...

Catching up, part 1

So.........it's been a while since my last blog post. Raise your hand if anyone is surprised.

Anyone? Anyone?

I'll admit it; my hand was down, too. Here's what's been going on. My brother came home for a two week leave from Afghanistan two weeks ago. He had been overseas for 6 months and will return afterward for at least another 6 months. He flew in the day before Halloween into San Antonio. It had been a several day wait for him because no one knew when he was in the air. He called to let us know he would be flying to Kuwait first and would give us a call to give us more details. Unfortunately, his cell phone that he bought overseas doesn't work anywhere except Afghanistan. So, when I got a phone call at 2 am from an unknown number, I didn't answer, I went back to sleep. I felt horrible! He had called to say he was in Kuwait and that he would be leaving soon. Long story short, he called me again from Ireland to let me know he would be arriving in Dallas the next day and from there, he hoped to catch an earlier flight into San Antonio.

Because he was able to catch a last-minute standby flight to San Antonio (rather than have his original 7 hour layover), my parents weren't able to get here fast enough to meet him at the airport. My aunt, Grandma and I decided to meet him instead. My cousin had made him a welcome home sign even though she couldn't come! Poor Houston....he was so embarrassed when he saw us waiting there with a sign! He hates flying in his military gear because of the attention it attracts and we made it worse by singling him out! He was happy to see us and ready to get out of airports. There are pictures, but they're on my aunt's camera. I'll post them if I get a copy.

I took him back to my house, let him change and then we went to eat at Chuy's. I know he was deprived of Mexican food and beer, so I made it my mission to alleviate that! He had his first Shiner Bock and just stared at it for a while and then took about a 5 second chug. We probably should've ordered two to start.

We got our food and he chowed down. He couldn't remember when he had eaten last because he'd been in an airplane so long. Afterward, we headed to Sam's so that I could stock up on some essentials in our house.....namely toilet paper. As I headed towards the bread, I felt the basket take a sharp right. My brother left me in the dust quickly as he discovered we were passing the beer section! Ha ha! He picked up a case of the Shiner Family Reunion before we could move on.

Later that afternoon and a few beers later, my parents arrived and another hugfest commenced. We made dinner, talked and drank more beer. By Halloween morning, we were in dire need of more beer. I didn't want to disappoint my beer-starved brother, so we headed to the grocery store to get some food supplies for dinner and beer.

We spent Halloween night cooking shrimp on the grill and also made some type of shrimp diablo indoors. Too bad I didn't bother to take pictures. Blame it on the Kosmos! I handed out candy to a ton of trick-or-treaters and tried to keep Cassius from escaping outside. I was not successful at least two of the times.

We had an excellent weekend spent catching up. My parents and brother left that Sunday to go back to the hometown and Jason & I planned to catch up with everyone again the following weekend.

Read more...

News from the Brother

My brother called me a couple days ago. For those who don't know, he is currently serving in the army in Afghanistan. He had called me a week ago, but the phone cut off mid-sentence. I figured he ran out of minutes. When he called me back, he said he was sorry that he ran out of minutes but something kind of funny happened after that. As his phone call ended unexpectedly, his buddy was in the process of making a phone call. They are standing outside, looking at a large hill when an explosion goes off! Then, they see something rolling down the hill. It's the cell phone tower! He looks at his friend and says, "I guess you're not making that call." It was pretty funny when he talked about it.

The Taliban had bombed it, but the army had it back up and running the next day. My brother said they do things like that all the time. He said things are rough out there right now, but hopefully as the weather gets worse (think snow), some of the fighting will decrease. He is supposed to come home for two weeks at the end of October or early November. I can hardly wait!!! Please keep him and the rest of our military in your prayers. :)

Read more...

Dad is finally coming home!

After over a week in the hospital, Dad is finally coming home today. His blood oxygen level is back to normal and his lungs sound much better. His blood sugar is still a little elevated from the steroids, but it should still continue its downward trend as weans off of them. Dad still has quite a cough, but it's 500% better than when he came into the hospital. I think he will be home for at least the rest of this week before he attempts to go back to work. Luckily, his boss had some major lung issues many years ago and understands how hard recovery can be. When Dad does come back to work, he'll be taking it slow.

I can't tell you how happy Dad is right now. We thought he was going to come home yesterday and let's just say that Dad was less than happy when he found out he had to stay another night. Right now, he just wants some more peace and quiet. Thank you all for your fervent thoughts and prayers. They are much appreciated!

Read more...

More Dad

Yesterday Dad was looking much better after his bronchoscopy the day before. He was a little more lively and he was able to get out of bed and take a shower. His blood sugar was running high because of the steroids, so he was given insulin to bring it down. His blood pressure has also run high since he's been in, so he was given extra medication to bring it down. Other than that, things went pretty well all day until dinner. For some reason, he didn't get his. By the time we realized that dinner probably wasn't coming, I went into the hall to find a nurse. I spoke with our nurse and she said there wasn't a tray for him and after making sure that he wasn't having any procedures done that would require him to have an empty stomach, raced to the downstairs cafeteria. The kitchen was closed, so he couldn't get his regular hospital dinner. But the nurse was nice enough to find him a sandwich, chips and iced tea.

Today, Dad was able to get out of the bed and sit in a chair! The blood sugar was still elevated, so he is still on some insulin. His blood pressure is slowly getting back to normal. His blood oxygen level is still lower than normal, so he's still on the oxygen to supplement it. He got a little bit of a yeast infection in his lungs from all the antibiotics, but he was given medication to get that under control. I had no idea you could even get a yeast infection in your lungs.

We got some really good news tonight......Dad doesn't have the swine flu! The results finally came back from the state and he was negative. This means that he will be taken out of isolation by sometime tomorrow. No more masks and gowns!!! The sample that was taken from his lungs isn't growing anything so far which is also good news. That means that the antibiotics that he is on are working. The doctor won't give final results on that for another day or two. It's going to be a long road to full recovery, but Dad seems to be on the right track. I'm staying here in Woodsboro until he comes back home. Thank you all again for your thoughts and prayers!

Read more...

Dad

Yesterday I arrived in Corpus to visit Dad in the hospital. My mom wasn't sure if I would be allowed in, but they let me in because I was immediate family. They won't even allow flowers to be delivered to his room! He's currently in isolation because he has flu-like symptoms. They had a woman die of pneumonia a couple days ago (a complication from swine flu) so they are taking extra precautions. I had to gown up and wear a mask the entire time I was in the room and they told me that if I wanted to touch Dad, then I had to wear gloves. How scary is that? Dad looked extremely tired and was coughing horribly. He's on oxygen full-time because his lungs are too full of gunk for him to breathe fully. For whatever reason, he's on a liquid diet. The pulmonologist said that he could go back to regular food, but the orders didn't go through in time so poor Dad got liquids for dinner again. He was so tired of eating it, that he only ate half of a popsicle before we left. He wasn't allowed to eat anything after midnight because he was getting a bronchoscopy in the morning. Mom and I stayed until about 7 o'clock. He got all his meds and then rested. We went to go eat at Chili's before making the hour drive home.

This morning, we headed back to the hospital. Dad was supposed to get a bronchoscopy so that they could look into his lungs and get a sample of the infection. That way, they can culture the sample and figure out what's causing the pneumonia. The pulmonologist told us that is was very unusual for someone Dad's age to get double pneumonia. It will be 2 to 4 days before they will get results from it, so it will be a hard wait. If nothing grows, then that means the treatment he's on (heavy antibiotics) are working. If something grows, then they will know the cause and an adjust treatment accordingly. While he was getting scoped, they also flushed out his bronchi with fluid. Dad said he was awake the entire time and it was weird, but not too freaky. When he got back in the room, the coughing had subsided tremendously (because of the flushing) and he looked okay. He seems to be feeling better today and he looked more alert. His flu test came out negative, which was no surprise. He had already been swabbed last Friday and that had been negative, too. He was tested for swine flu but that has to be sent somewhere else in the state and it takes several days to get the results. Even if it came out positive, I'm sure he's past the contagious stage anyway. His blood pressure was elevated, so he was given some medicine in addition to his regular blood pressure medicine. The best part of today was seeing Dad's face when they finally brought him some "real" food at 7pm. He was so excited to eat something other than soup or popsicles! Mom and I stayed with him until about 7:30 and then we headed out to get some food. We had only eaten breakfast this morning so we were starving.

We went to Olive Garden because that sounded good for some reason. Today is my Mom's birthday so I bought her dinner and then I got each of us a pint of ice cream to eat at home. We finished the night eating Rocky Road out of the container while watching the news.

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers. I really appreciate it! I'll update again when I can.

Read more...

More virus

Dad is being transferred to a hospital in Corpus today so that he can be near a pulmonologist. Yesterday he had pneumonia in one lung, but today it has developed in the other lung. He is still on full-time oxygen until he can breathe a little better. Please say a little prayer for him for a speedy recovery. Thanks.

Read more...

The virus that just won't end

Remember that my sister and Mom both had some weird virus that put my mom in the hospital for 8 hours because of dehydration? Well, yesterday my mom called to say that she took Dad to the hospital because he was still running fever after 7 days. They found that he had developed pneumonia and was also dehydrated so he was started on antibiotics and an IV drip. If all goes well, he should be home sometime this morning. Can you believe this virus?

I'm so thankful that neither myself, Jason or the girls caught it.

Read more...

Week with the munchkins Days 4 - 6

Friday started out slow. Hailey was still coughing so we decided to stay indoors. I forgot all about a bunch of art supplies that I had in a closet and when they were discovered, boredom was soon cured! The girls spent hours in the loft coloring, pasting stickers and cutting. Later that afternoon, we headed out to Becca & TJ's place for dinner. TJ bar-b-qued chicken and sausage and the rest of us brought the sides. We were supposed to take the girls swimming, but since Hailey was still a little sick, I conveniently didn't remind them about it. The girls played surprisingly well with the other little boy at the party, taking turns on the computer games and playing outside. We left pretty late and got them to bed late.

Luckily for me, they slept in late, too. Jason went to Pick and Pull on Saturday to find some parts for his project truck while us girls stayed home. I thought it might be a good idea to get out of the house, so I decided to take them shopping. We first went to Pier 1 since I still have a gift card that I keep forgetting I own. They did okay in there, but Target was a different story. Target started out well, but went downhill quickly. There was the poking, making faces and general sisterly fighting that ensued. They promised me they would behave, so we pressed on through more of the store. I think we went about 10 feet before one of them started pressing themselves in-between the clothes. It was so bad for a while there that I told them that they were going to make Aunt Stephanie cry if they didn't stop fighting. That seemed to work. They followed me silently throughout the rest of the store in fear that my second head would make it's appearance. We agreed that we would make chocolate chip cookies when we got home if they could behave.

They did. We came home and made our cookies with each girl taking turns measuring and stirring. They each got a beater to lick while I put the cookies in the oven waiting to bake. Not long after they had gotten a fresh cookie to try, Hannah gets in a foul mood and takes it out on me. I tried to talk to her, but she wasn't having any of it. She went to her room to go hide under her bed and pout. I then called mom telling her that I now realize why children don't come out of the womb as 7-year-olds and while I was talking to her, a note floats down to me from the second story.

My sweet little 7-year-old Hannah wrote me an apology note and this is what it said:

Sorry I mad at you. I won't do it a gen.
P.S. Hannah

Isn't that cute? Even though my nieces can be real turkeys, they can be equally as sweet. We finished up the night with tacos, a few more cookies and watched "Happily N'Ever After 2."

Sunday was a lazy day. We went to Jason's parents house with the girls since we couldn't meet my sister until around dinnertime. I thought the girls would get bored at their house since there are no toys, but I think they were really tired from fighting sleep the night before. Hannah spent most of the afternoon on the floor watching tv making me believe that she would take a nap. She didn't. Hailey spent the afternoon between the couch and the floor playing quietly with her toys.

Huh? Are these the same children I took to my home a week ago? They were pretty good all afternoon and the hour car ride we had to meet my sis was also pretty quiet. I was sad to see them go, but glad to have a quiet house back.

Read more...

Week with the munchkins, Day 3

Poor Hailey woke up coughing terribly Thursday morning. She had been on prescription cough medicine, but it stopped working for her. She was having trouble breathing. She got out of bed at 9, but I had heard her coughing since 8. By 9:15, I had called my sister and planned to take her in to the doctor. I got her in and they prescribed an inhaler and a liquid steroid. Her coughing was starting to get scary because it was constant and she was gasping for air. She wasn't coughing as much at night because we put her to sleep with a vaporizer in her room.

I gave her the inhaler and hoped it would work. She had already told her mommy that she was going to take a nap when she got home from the doctor's office. She was so worn out from coughing. The first round didn't help very much, but when she got the second round 4 hours later, she took a nap and woke up sounding much better.

I made dinner and told both girls that I had a special surprise dessert for them if they were good. Bribery always works and I'm not above it. This is what we had:

Banana "Ice Cream"

First, you freeze several bananas. Always peel them before freezing and it helps to cut them beforehand as well. Put them in a food chopper and add a little milk:

If you're lactose intolerant, just use water or Almond Milk or whatever's appropriate for you. By the way, I got this idea from LovIN My Tummy who pulled it from some raw foodie's blog. I'm by no means a raw foodie, but this sounded so yummy. Anyhoo, blend those bananas and milk until you get this consistency. It may take a few minutes.

Doesn't that look yummy? Just like ice cream, but healthier. Now don't get me wrong, I can EAT some ice cream when the time calls. And none of that fat free/sugar free crap. I eat the real stuff.

We spooned the ice cream into bowls and added some fresh strawberries for more flavor.

And then we added dark chocolate syrup. Yup, I went there. Healthy went out the window.

And it was good. Just see these faces for proof:


And that was the end of a nice day. Hailey's cough was a little better by the time she went to bed. I'm sure the chocolate had something to do with it.

I mean, chocolate cures everything doesn't it?

Read more...

Week with the munchkins, Day 2

On Wednesday, Hannah woke us up at 7:30am. It was so nice to sleep in on Tuesday and we were hoping to follow that trend, but.......

Hannah's an early riser. Jason couldn't believe that she would actually come wake us up, but I had to remind him that that is what all children do. She was up and ready for breakfast and someone needed to make it! We got the girls dressed and headed out to Natural Bridge Caverns. I went here when I was a kid and thought the girls might enjoy it since they are a little older. We went on the original Discover tour which runs about 70 minutes and is 3/4 of a mile long. Here's the girls waiting to start the tour:


This is the natural bridge for which the caverns are named:


The tour started just past that point. We started the tour and we tried to keep the girls in line and walking slow since they were in flip flops and the cave can be slippery. One of the first things we saw was this wall:

It's called St. Mary's Hall and was named after the school that the original explorers attended. A short walk later, we saw this cool formation that I thought looked like a skull:

The first room we stopped in was the first point that both girls got bored. According to Hannah, the tour guide talked way too much. I did get their picture with their Uncle Jason. Hailey wasn't looking, but to give her credit, she couldn't see me very well anyway.

After the first room, I heard a lot of whining and complaining about how long it was and "I'm hungry" and "I'm tired" and "When is it over?" Hailey started to really enjoy it when we got to the second room. My camera battery said it was getting low, so I turned it off. Both girls remember the bacon formation, the chandelier and the King's Throne. Hannah even thought she saw Santa Claus. And of course, they remember seeing bat poop. What kid doesn't remember some type of poop story?

We exited the cave with more whining from the little one and then my brother called. I had terrible service in that area so I ran outside to catch the call. My phone dropped it and luckily he called back. (Remember he's in Afghanistan) I got to talk to him for a little bit before his phone dropped the call. He said he was doing well and things were okay. By this time, the girls and Jason had headed toward the car, so I got their picture with "Grendel" the dinosaur.

We left to have a late lunch and let the girls play and take a short nap. Hannah still says she didn't have a good time. Hailey liked it. Oh well, you can't win them all.

That night, we took the girls to Godai for sushi, or as Hailey says, shushi. We ordered them some edamame to snack on and they loved them! My mom said they don't like soy beans, but I told her it's all how they're packaged. They ate their fill on sushi. Hailey started sneezing, coughing and having a horrible runny nose. It was so bad that Jason retrieved the Puffs from the car and we asked for a trash sack to dedicate to her nasty tissues. Regardless of all this, she ate a ton and had fun. Each girl was given child's chopsticks so they were able to pick up their sushi like adults. We came home and got them bathed and let them watch a little TV. Hailey then went to bed without a fight meaning she felt horrible. They went to sleep within minutes!

Read more...