Sorry about the extended absence. My one and only reason is that I've been trying to get the house "visitor ready" with organizing and cleaning and all that. And it wouldn't be that big of a deal, except for the small issue of how darn easily distracted I really am. If I'm working in the kitchen and walk past the dining room then I start doing something there and then if I go to the bedroom I get started there and so forth. So basically as it stands right now every room in the house is pretty much half done, or something like it.
Anyhoo, I do have some updates and new developments I'd love to share with all of you, so here we go:
*** My parents arrived safely in Florida yesterday. His appointment at the Mayo clinic isn't until December 8
th, but they wanted to get there with enough time to complete the Medicaid application process and take care of some of the other logistical stuff. The good news is that his hemoglobin has remained at a constant number ever since he was released from the hospital, which means the internal bleeding coming from his liver has most likely stopped. Praise God for He is good! If this isn't a miracle my friends, then I'm not sure what is. December 8
th will be the day of my Dad's first consultation. Let's pray that after reviewing his files and everything else they consider him a candidate for the transplants. I will keep you all posted.
*** On the WW front, I had a night out with the girls on Friday and you know how I hate to weigh in after dinner out, so I went in on Friday at noon instead. Although I was so good throughout the week I was afraid that going in a day earlier would hurt my weigh-in. Luckily, that wasn't the case this week:
Pounds lost this week: 4.2 lbs
Total lost: 24.4 lbs
It was a REALLY good week and I am thrilled with the results. This week presents a whole different challenge: Thanksgiving! Yeah let me warn you, I might not be as peppy when I report back with my WW weigh-in results next Saturday.
*** Our sweet boy is fighting some kind of ear/sinus infection and is on his second round of antibiotics. The first around apparently didn't finish the job so he was prescribed a stronger antibiotic to take for a longer period of time. Unfortunately, after three and a half days of treatment on his new medicine, he developed an allergic reaction and now has a rash all over his face and scattered around his body. I think it's bothering me more than it does him, but since I took him off the medicine we're going to see the doctor again tomorrow to talk about an alternative.
*** Last Friday was this little
fella's 7
th year anniversary with us.
Copper came to live with us back in November of 2001 when he was only a year old. He made himself right at home in no time. And despite everything he's been through with us:
- a neutering (Yikes!),
- the unfortunate accident of my inadvertently kicking him where the neutering took place the day after such event (Double Yikes!),
- wearing antlers and a shirt that says "
Feliz Navidog" during Christmas for our entertainment, although he is absolutely mortified,
- two
relocations,
- the addition of Mick, another dog, a big dog, a dog who weighs three times as much as he does,
- the addition of a baby girl who has always been fascinated by him, and most recently
- the addition of a baby boy who has just recently started following him around and pulling on his ears
he loves us so very much and is as loyal of a pet as we've ever known. We love our stinky dog!
*** I am really into, no consumed, no obsessed with Stephanie Meyer's
Twilight series.
OMG!!! As if I have nothing else to do. All I want to do is have my face in these books all day every day. I'll be the first to say that I had no idea what the big deal was about these books, I mean, they are about vampires. A Vampire love saga. Seriously,... so not my cup of tea. But my friend Hannah got into them and told me I had to read them. To make matters worse the movie just came out last Friday and she planned a girls' night out with a group of girls from work and bought me a ticket to join them. So what was I to do? I got busy and started reading Twilight, the first book. I started it twice and could not get into it at all. Then the third time I decided to stick with it and made it through to the point where there was absolutely no turning back. Yeah, I read it in two days. I finished it about two hours before my girls' night out, and boy was I glad I did.
The movie is definitely not as good as the book. A bit corny at times, funny when I don't really think they intended for it to be, and somewhat juvenile. But who cares? It provided us with two more hours of Edward and the Cullen clan who I deeply love right now.
Needless to say I am currently devouring New Moon, which is the second book in the series, that I bought yesterday morning. But I am definitely trying to pace myself until tomorrow when Scott comes home with books three and four that I am borrowing from Hannah. We wouldn't want to finish New Moon without being able to pick up Eclipse right away.
After those two books are safely here, then watch out! This is CRACK!!! CRACK I tell ya!!!
*** My good friend
Celimar arrives from Arizona on Wednesday afternoon and I am DYING to see her. It has been years since we've spent any time together and this will be the first time she meets the kids. Oh, how exciting! I will post more about
Celimar and how I know her and love her so in the next couple of days.
Geez, sorry about the long post. See what happens when I don't blog for a while? OK, gotta go now. New Moon is waiting for me,...ha, ha, just kidding,... well,... maybe,... no, it really is!
We pretty much ran through the forest as fast as we could so that we could get out of there as quickly as possible. Not to mention that in the process of our "mini marathon" I was reprimanded for taking flash photography. Hmmm,... let's see: (A) I honestly cannot recall seeing any signs that prohibited photography of any kind along the way, (B) the forest is pretty dark so no flash pretty much guarantees no decent photos, and oh yeah (C) are you kidding me? Do you not see the light effects inside the forest from ALL the different flashes going off around you? I am seriously experiencing some déjà vu from my "no photography" experience at The Backyardigans Live show.
Yeah, this is pretty much how all four moms felt by the time we got out of there. I certainly wouldn't call this an enchanting experience by any means. Talk about sucking the joy right out of the season,...
Celimar came from AZ to visit us during Thanksgiving break. She is and has been a very good friend of mine for a very long time. She is like family. You see, I have known her for her entire 23 years of life. I met her as a beautiful tiny newborn the day she came home from the hospital. I was, gulp, 13 years old. I was her babysitter until the day I moved to Madison, WI in January of 1992 to continue my college endeavours. Whether close by or from far away, I have had the privilege of knowing this girl and seeing her develop into the amazing human being that she is today.
It was absolutely awesome having her visit. The last time we saw her was almost 7 years ago at our wedding. And her transformation from teen to woman has been amazing. But I must confess that initially I had this overwhelming need to protect her, as if she was still the little girl I was so frequently entrusted with way back when.
This was the first time that she met the kids and to say that they both adored her is a gross understatement. Every time Sam saw her he had this huge grin on his face, almost of a flirtatious nature. He's gonna be trouble, that little one. But then again, she is quite a stunning beauty. And Isabella? Oh, she was all over Celi the entire time she was here. They played and danced and colored and jumped until they could do no more. It was such an unbelievable blessing to see her with my children and to see them love her so much, so quickly.
Thank you for coming to visit us, Celi. We hope you had as much fun as we did and we can't wait to see you again. Hmmm, maybe a nice little trip to AZ next year?
After our family photo session with the very talented Marci Lambert last year (you can see some of those pictures here), we pretty much decided to make this an annual family tradition. I mean, what a great way of documenting our family's changes throughout the years, don't you think? And for those of you who have been to our home, well,... you know that pictures from our different sessions with Marci are displayed all over the place.
