Long Time No Blog

It has been a while since I updated this thing. I have tons of photos on my camera, but I will just upload the most recent event, which was our cruise with our good friends Alynn and Ryan.

We sailed out of Galveston to Progreso Mexico and Cozumel and back home again. If you haven't been to Progreso yet, DON'T. They pitch it as "untouched by tourism". That's about right if you read it correctly. It was a scary place. If you do go, pay for one of the expeditions and for goodness sake, stay with a group! That's all I'll say about Progreso. Cozumel was lovely and tons of fun!

Below are so photos of out trip. it seems I am getting worse about remember to actually use the camera I carry with me everywhere. I'm working on that.

We met a young man in Cozumel from our cruise name Wayne. We ended up calling him Lil' Wayne since he told us he was 22 but we had incredibly strong suspicions he wasn't more that 20. (These suspicions stemmed from all the cruise bartenders refusing to serve him. There's your sign........) Nevertheless, he was entertaining!

The Three Amigos

A prop bathtub. Don't know why they chose a bathtub but it sure is hard to resist taking photos when you see things like this. Alynn and I.

I voted this the best picture of the trip. Again, more props for the typical tourist like us. This is Ryan posing with Lil Wayne (who was posing as a Mayan. For some reason, most depictions of Mayans have them pointing just like that)


Ryan and Allen. On the VERY FIRST DAY out, Allen took sunburned to a whole new level. Silly rabbit.

Speaking of rabbits.... Just thought it was funny the way the staff had posed it. Sexy.

Our mighty vessel.....in lots of wind.

My beet red boy. Have you ever seen anyone that color? Seriously.

Ryan and Alynn !

We are headed into Halloween. Hopefully I will remember to take some photos of Alex. I don't have any recent ones. Te boy is growing like a weed. He tells me the funniest things sometimes.

Pops

Dad is currently in London doing a quick rugby reunion. In preparation for the trip, Dad got out all of his old pictures. In doing so, he pulled out one of the best photos I have found of him yet and I of course took it to Fox Photo and had some prints made, which I then sent a copy to my brother, who THEN scanned it into his computer, making it incredibly easy for me to post on my blog. Poor Pops.




I just love this photo. At some point he pulled over on the side of this gorgeous road with a lovely fall setting, positioned his car perfectly, popped his collar, wiped off his boots, and perched himself up on the hood to take a photo that even David Hasselhoff and KITT from Night Rider couldn't compete with.

Love it. Love you too Dad.

Amanda's Baby Shower

It is so hard to believe that baby Corben is almost here. Rachel, Kori and I threw Amanda a baby shower at my house. We did a Mad Hatter tea party theme. I, as usual, get a little too excited and have way too much fun doing this sort of thing. I honestly do get some sort of sick happiness from it. It was a couples shower and we had fun. (We made the boys chug beer from a baby bottle)
Below are some pictures of the big day. The even BIGGER day will be here soon and I cannot wait to meet my new pseudo nephew!

The gals: Kori, Amanda, Rach, and myself

Tea set

Pastries

Off with his head!

Mini sugar cookie dots

Jason and Amanda!!!

Yummies

Chopper making friends

The Mad Hatter himself

It's been a while!

A lot of things have happened since the last time I posted. I am just going to touch on a few of them.

We lost our Jack Boy rather suddenly on March 7th. It has been a while so it is easier for me to talk (ok, type) about it. It was very tough. He was having some major issues one day. Would not eat and could not keep water down. Of course, Jack starts this on a Friday night, so the only option is an emergency vet clinic. (Can you hear the cash registers clinging?) So we decided to watch him for a while. It did not get better and by Sat. night Allen and I knew he was in trouble. We took him to the emergency vet. They ran about $700 worth of tests and told us that he might have some sort of blockage and was dehydrated. Well Duh Jacka$$. Then they told Allen they wanted somewhere around $1,300 to keep him one night and give him some fluids, and THAT didn’t even start to solve the actual problem. For THAT, we needed a $3k surgery. Allen, after picking his jaw up off the floor, told the vet to make Jack comfortable enough to bring home, and we would figure out a place to take him the next day. A friends heard about it and recommended a vet in BFE Texas for us. We went all the way out there and met, as far as I am concerned, what must be God’s closest cousin. Now, in between the time we got him home from the evil vet and to the saintly vet, Jack had actually passed a pair of my underwear. Go ahead and chuckle. They were one of my favs. (Silly dog). While we knew this was progress, Jack was leaking stool and blood and still would not eat or drink. I have never in my life dealt with such messes. It was just awful and the entire time Jack was in pain. It was just a horrible time. So we take him to God’s cousin and this man operated on Jack for ( get this) $350. (His exact words were, “I’ll do it for $350. No worries. I drive a Chevy and it’s paid for. Let’s just make Jack better”) He opened Jack up and his stomach to make sure there was nothing else in there because Jack’s condition was not improving. He didn’t find anything in there but it seemed like from the second he stitched Jack up, Jack started getting better. So after monitoring him, we brought him home. The night we brought Jack home, I heard him roaming around the house at 5:00 AM. So I got up at six and walk out to the living room. I jumped back when I thought there was a snake on the floor. Alas, this was not a snake, but an entire pair of panty hose stretched out from limb to limb that Jack had passed………just like that……stretched out from limb to limb. Unbelievable. We called God’s cousin just to let him know and he could not believe it himself. When he operated the pantyhose must have already been in jack’s intestines, and unless he opened those up too, there would never be any way to detect it. (we even took Xrays and they didn’t show there) So after he passed those, Jack’s conditioned quickly improved to 100%.

We spent the next Saturday playing in the yard with Jack, Alex, and some neighbors from about 1:00 until sundown. Jack was his old self again. Playing with the ball and Chopper and Alex. He was looking very good! Just a few minutes after the last neighbor left, Jack was acting funny. He was dry heaving but nothing came up. Jacks’ problems had gone on well over a week and Jack had only been better for a day or so we naturally assumed that this was still related. Of course, it was a Sat. night again. We let him sleep outside that night since that is where he preferred to be. When I got up on Sunday to check him, he was not doing well. His tummy was bloated. He would not move unless we absolutely made him, and later in the day would not move at all. It was Sunday so God’s cousin wasn’t around but his answering service recommended an emergency vet in Burleson. We loaded Jack in the car and headed that way. I was crying before we even arrived because something was telling me that, whatever this was, we were probably not going to be able to fix it. The doc took one look at Jack and I knew right then we were not leaving with our boy. I was crying again before he even discussed it with us. In a coincidence completely unrelated to his previous complications, Jack stomach had flipped. (Don’t get me wrong, I am sure swallowing and digesting the entire bottom part of my outfit in one gulp severely damaged Jack’s digestive system, but he was fully recovered from this when his stomach flipped) The doc took some Xrays, and explained to us that he could operate, but due to the severe nature of Jack’s condition, it was not likely that Jack would even survive this operation. So after all that, Allen and I had to make the decision that night to put Jack to sleep. It was very tough, and my biggest regret is that Jack had to go through so much just to get to this.

Allen and I love big dogs. One of the risks you run with big dogs is big complications. We went through something very similar with our first Doberman, Buster. Jack was a fantastic dog and we miss him too much. Life around our house is much quieter. I would give up quiet and easy though to have Jack back. Maybe someday in the future we will get another big dog. But for now, we are doing well with just Chopper.

JACK BOY

lost March 7, 2010

Alex turned 2!!! I can't believe that two years ago was the best and most painful birthday I ever had, when Alex came into this world to share this birthday with me. He is so much fun and just makes me giggle every day. His big thing is Thomas the Train. Thomas is a celebrity around our house so naturally, we had to do a Thomas party. Alex did very well for himself! He got an actual Thomas the Train to ride, a full on backyard redwood swing set/playhouse, and a kiddie 4 wheeler to drive around the backyard and terrorize Chopper.

It was a good party. It was threatening to storm all day so it was nice and cool for the majority of the day. Later on in the evening, but that didn't slow things down! All of the adults hung out o the patio and the kids went out and played in the rain. it actually even got a bit chilly!

Below are just a few snapshots form the party. Hopefully Aunt Stacy took some better ones than me (not hard to accomplish) and will send them my way. I have been horrible about getting the camera out lately. I don't even have any pictures of Easter!

I made cupcakes

Alex on his train

The kids playing with the awesome bubble machine Joe and Teresa brought for Alex!

Chopper is really getting some distance on those long drives!

Thanks for checking in! Sorry I took so long!

A few overdue updates

So I did my usual and just stored massive amounts of photos on my camera instead of updating the blog SO! Here are a tons of a few random photos of various things.

First off is Rachel's slumber/pajama party. We didn't take too many photos, but when the cameras did come out, they managed to come out at just the right time. Hard to explain, but Rachel and I were both playing on opposite teams (we were playing Taboo), so she was supposed to be making sure I didn't cheat and I was doing the same for her. Somehow or another, we were playing and acting something out and Rachel and I accidentally kissed! We were both pretty surprised but we could not stop laughing. The photos below are from my camera. Stacy Moseley actually caught it on her Flip Video and posted to her Facebook. I was crying I was laughing so hard. Rach's party was a good time and just makes me look forward to my birthday. (Which is good because what is there to look forward to on your 30th birthday!?)

Woops.

Giggles

Love you Rach!

Bobbie usually watches Alex on Wednesdays, but she got sick, so I took the day off work and took Alex to the aquarium. It was great. It has always been one of my favorite places to go, but it was even better right at open on a Wednesday morning. There is no one there. You don't have to wait around just to stand behind a sea of people to see a lizard to bigger than your fist. We had practically free reign of the place. Wonderful. Just a few shots of the animals (Alex included).

Hard to tell in the photo but this stingray was a metallic gold with bright blue spots. So pretty.

This bird let me get super close to take a photo, and then tried to take my camera from me. Evil thing.

I call this bird Maverick because he too let me get super close and just when I turned to say something he buzzed by my ear so close, I swear I had to check and see if my ear was still there.

Thanks for checking in. Just wanted to unload my camera! Allen and I are almost done with a bathroom remodel that we are very excited (and exhausted) about. I'll have before and after photos when it is all said and done.

BYE!

SURPRISE! Allen's 30th

So I decided to attempt to throw Allen a surprise party for his 30th birthday. I cannot believe it, but I actually pulled it off. Over 40 people showed up, everone was on time, Allen didn't notice any of the cars he would know as we drove right by them, no one said anything to tip him off, and we didn't run into any one in the parking lot on the way in. SUCCESS! I could tell Allen truly didn't know as we left the house. He RARELY wears a hat anywhere and I kept saying "Babe, aren't you going to fix your hair?" NOPE. He thought we were just meeting Jason and Amanda for dinner. The place I chose is called Big Fish. It is on Main Street in Grapevine. Now I decided on the date for the party long before those damn Cowboys set their schedule, but our two schedules collided. Thank goodness there was a big screen tv in the room I reserved.

I had my good friend Leigha create a logo just for Allen's party (Above). I then had custom shirts made for everyone along with temporary tattoos and cookies with the logo printed on them. I went a little nuts. BUT! Everyone looked fantastico.

So it was a great surprise party/Cowboy watching party (except for when Alex kept unplugging the big screen tv!)

Thanks to all my friends who help me carry this out!

Surprise!

He was truly stunned for 30 seconds or so!

Nana and Alex

Allen's custom tattoo

Can't say I don't know where Alex gets his blue eyes!

Gaylord ICE!!

Allen, Alex, and I, my parents, my friend Sheila and her son Zachary, Amanda, Jason, and Tristen all went to ICE! at The Gaylord Texan this past Saturday night.

If we had gone on a mellow Tuesday night, probably totally worth it. The actual thing itself was very neat to see and cool but what we had to go through to get there....................no ma'am.

It was soooo crowded. So we get there and are welcomed by a line I swear was a football field long. It was only by chance that we heard someone in the line say "Can you believe this isn't the line for tickets?! This is the line to get in. The ticket line is over there!" Thank goodness she said that....

So we go to the ticket line. At this point is had to be 5:45 or so. While in the line, an announcer tells us that they are sold out until the 6:30 showing. When we finally get to buy our tickets, they are actually sold out 'til the 7:00 showing. So we buy our tickets and decide we will all go find something to munch on. I was already a little concerned about Alex. I knew putting him in a 9 degree room could go entirely wrong, but waiting around a boring crowded place for a couple of hours and THEN putting him in a 9 degree room could go really wrong. Especially since I didn't have a full diaper bag. I was only planning on being gone 2 hours max.

Shame on the Gaylord for the way they handled this. There was one regularly priced restaurant available. (The rest are their fancy schmancy steakhouse type places) The wait for this was an hour and ten. Then they had a coffee shop. No way we were all going to fit in there. Then they had a vendor type stand out. I don't even want to get started here but all I will say is the gal behind the counter was strug-uh-ling. We finally get our food and there is absolutely no place in this entire hotel to sit and eat it. I mean they are expecting hundreds upon hundreds of people to show up and there is the line a mile long with nothing but masses of empty floor space around it, and not one chair in site. I mean everywhere you look; empty floor space. So, we found a set of carpeted stairs leading up to a ballroom and sat on those with our makeshift dinner.

It is now almost time for the 7:00 showing so we get up and get in line. And we wait. And we wait. Finally we are allowed into a room. BUT! Then we get in line there. We wait in line to get out of this room only to turn the corner and wait in another line to get the jackets they issue before you go in that room. In the middle of this line is where I was told strollers are not allowed in. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRREAT! So all of things I had to keep Alex and myself warm, my purse, etc. had to be carried the entire time?

We finally get our coats, and poor Alex is winding down. Putting this thing on didn't help. He was already irritated and then putting a jacket on him that basically made him move like the kid in 'A Christmas Carol' except Alex had an even greater disadvantage of his hands not even coming out of the sleeves. Too add to that: put on a puffy nylon full body jacket. THEN , put your toddler in the same thing. THEN try to pick him up. Good luck. It really should be part of one of those crazy Japanese game show challenges.

We did finally get inside and it was pretty neat, but like I said, what it took to get there was not worth it on a Sat. night. If we had gone on say a Wednesday and waiting a half hours for this adventure, then maybe. PLUS, we were very lucky that Alex was having a very good night and exited the entire thing with at least a smile on his face once we got him out of that jacket.

SO! Don't go. I'll save you the trouble. See pictures below!

This was right near the end. I am fine. Alex, however, is doing the famuos toddler move called "arch you back to make things even more difficult"

Daddy and Alex


Zachary and the dog!

Amanda, Jason, and Tristen

A Who

The ice tunnell

Again, the dog.

You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch......

Whos at the train in Whoville

Dad and his twin brother, The Grinch

The Nativity