Time Flies

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted.  So much has happened and I haven't even written about any of it.  Here are some of the highlights since my last post.

• We had lots of trick-or-treaters come to our house on Halloween.  I love seeing all of the little kids.  This year the Transformer Bumblebee and Thor were the hot costumes.
• I had a deshed treatment done on my lab mix and the groomer brushed her so aggressively that her whole back and her legs raw and bleeding.  Thankfully no special vet treatment was needed and she is back to normal now.
• We came home one day to see a cute little hawk sitting in our flower bed.  As soon as we tried to pick up the phone to take a picture, he flew away.  He was so regal looking just hanging out in the  yard.
• Our garden has exploded with peppers (jalapeno and cayenne).  We picked so many that we gave the neighbors a bag weighing over 2 pounds.  There are still tons of baby peppers on the plants.  My cherry tomato plant is doing great too; it has about 50 little tomatoes that we are waiting to ripen.
• My nephew turned 3 and like a bad Aunt, I totally forgot to send him a card.
• Hubby and I have really gotten back in to Geocaching.  Our goal is to get 100 finds per month.  So far, we are right on track.

Those are the highlights, but mostly I have just been focused on work and completing the required report for my master's project before the semester ends on 11/30.

Busy Weekend

This was the weekend that my mother, brother, sister-in-law, and two nephews came to visit.  We have been planning this weekend for months (they are moving from California to North Carolina).  We had a great time visiting with the boys (2 1/2 years and 17 months).  My brother drove with their 2 dogs from California to Texas and my sister-in-law and kids flew.  After being on an airplane all day, the boys were a cranky bundle of energy.  They spent the weekend with us and then they will spend a couple of days with my parents before heading out to North Carolina.  They will all be driving from Texas to North Carolina.  It is about a 3 day trip, so I am afraid those days will really test my brother and sister-in-laws nerves and patience with 2 energetic boys and 2 restless dogs.  They were joking that they should have hubby come to North Carolina with them and be their live in Nanny for the boys.  Hubby is able to keep the boys calm when no one else can, so they are probably going to wish he really did make the trip with them.

I'm Back

I have been MIA for a few days.  Monday evening I had to take my neighbor to the ER because she broke her toe.  Then on Tuesday night I fell extremely ill, to the point where hubby found me passed out on the bathroom floor and had to take me to the ER.  The doctors don't know exactly what was wrong, but they are treating it like severe food poisoning.  It is possible that it was caused by our water, but we don't know.  There was a water line that broke Tuesday afternoon and the water was supposed to be boiled because it was not safe to drink.  I was not aware of this and drank lots of water Tuesday evening before getting sick.  We didn't hear about the boil notice until after I was already in the hospital.  The doctors took various cultures and should have the results in a couple of days.  Tonight is my last night in the hospital and then I can go back to my own bed.  Everyone has been extremely nice and helpful; my neighbor pitched in to help hubby with out dogs, which has been really great and everyone has been offering to come help him.

To help brighten my stay, hubby bought me a stuffed monkey named "Mailin" who sings.  He is so cute because he moved his mouth and feet when he sings.  Also my great-nephew brought me a get well card.

I am glad to be on the mend and hope all is healthy in each of your worlds.

Happy Birthday

Tomorrow is my Dad's birthday.  It is hard to imagine, but he will be 62.  I sent him a card and I have to remember to give him a call.  I was really bad and forgot to call him for Father's Day.  I never forgot to call and feel really bad that I forgot on Father's Day.

My Grandparents Would Be Proud

I grew up in the country and my grandparents would always have a garden that would help them with their grocery needs for the family.  In fact, in later years, my grandfather would take some of his fruits and vegetables and sell them on the roadside.  As a kid, I hated being in the garden.  I liked very little of the stuff that came out of the garden, so I didn't want to help - I still had to help, but I really didn't want to.  Now as an adult, I really like gardening and wish I had paid more attention to what my grandparents were trying to show me.  I still am not a fan of all of the items that come out of the garden, but I like seeing the things I planted grow.  Today I spent my morning volunteering at the farmer's market and spent the afternoon working in our garden picking spaghetti squash, onions, tomatoes, and jalapenos.  I think if my grandparents could see my garden, they would be very proud.

Working from Home

I have been working from home all week and I admit it has been nice to work in my pajamas.  I know for a fact though, that I see my family less when I work from home versus when I work in the office.  Working from home, the laptop is constantly going and my focus is drawn to it instead of my family.

Although working from home is nice from time to time, I don't think working from home on a permanent basis would be for me.  I am not sure how those folks who do work from home permanently manage to get a good balance between work and family.

Belated Christmas Gift

Today I received a belated Christmas gift from my brother.  It was a coffee mug, with 2 pictures of my nephews and 1 picture of my brother and sister-in-law.  When I opened the box, it brought tears to my eyes.  I absolutely love it.

Christmas Gift for My Nephew

Cost of Leapster Explorer: $75.76
Cost of the Power Transistor that went out on my car on the way home from buying the Leapster: $285.65
Shipping to get the Leapster to my nephew: ??
Getting the Christmas gift my nephew really wanted: Priceless

Leapster Explorer

I texted my brother and asked him to give me some ideas for Christmas gifts for the boys. I am tired of just buying them clothes, although as fast as they grow they can always use clothes. Since little Maddox is only 6 months old, it will be clothes and soft toys he can play with on the floor. For Seth, my brother suggested the Leapster Explorer or any kind of balls. I always send him balls, so a Leapster Explorer it is. One nephew done!

Happy Thanksgiving

Today is a day to reflect on all of the things that you are thankful for i your life. There are many things on my list, but the main one is having the love, support, and friendship of my hubby of 22 years and having made good friends all around the world. I hope all of you have a fun filled and safe Thanksgiving.

Photo Phriday

This is a picture of my nephew, Seth, playing with his Home Depot work bench he got for his 2nd birthday. I love this shot. This look definitely says....."Hey, I'm working here."

Thanksgiving

This year hubby and I are going to volunteer at the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning and then we will come home and prepare for dinner at our house. We were going to have a big event at our house with my brothers family, my parents, and hubby's sister, but the plans have changed. My brother and his family were not able to make it in this year, so it will just be the sister-in-law and her husband along with hubby and I. My parents may come down, but it is quite a drive for them so most likely they will stay and celebrate with their friends. The menu is not finalized yet, but will be soon.

What are your plans for Thanksgiving?

Scarecrow and Dracula

Here are my little nephews in their costumes. The top picture is 6 month old Maddox and the bottom picture is almost 2 year old Seth. If you look closely, you can see Dracula's mohawk and the scarecrows two bottom teeth.

Grandmother

Do you believe that your loved ones who have died still watch over you and visit you from time to time? I definitely do. Specifically my grandmother. There are times when I dream about my grandmother, but when I wake up it feels very real. Usually this happens when I am really stressed or need someone to smack me on the back of the head about something. My grandmother visited me last night and it felt so real, it was like we were truly sitting at her kitchen table talking. When that happens, I wake up feeling both happy and sad at the same time. Happy because I got to visit with her, but sad because it makes me miss her even more.

Do you have someone that watches over and visits you?

Time to Refocus

I have spent the past few years (since 2006) focusing primarily on my career and not so much on completing my master's degree. Well, it is time to refocus. I have a total of 10 classes left to complete my degree and I am enrolled in 1 of them now. If I really buckle down and take more than 1 class per semester (even if it means adjusting my degree plan), then I should be able to complete this in 1 to 1.5 years.

Time to refocus and put my education first. This will open up more opportunities for me and my family.

For the past few days I have been having a blast with my nephew, brother, and my Mom. They came down on Thursday and we have spent the past several days swimming in the neighborhood swimming pool, going to the Texas History Museum, going to the mall, and just hanging out. My nephew has settled in to being around almost everyone. He is still kind of shy around my Mom. My nephew is just learning to talk, so anyone who isn't Mommy or Daddy is called Nanny. All of the dogs are called pup pup and he loves crawling in the dog kennels - go figure.

Last night Mom and I went to HEB for a few groceries and took him with us. Seth wanted to ride in one of those carts that has to race car attached. I have learned that it takes a special skill to drive one of those things and I apparently still need to work on that skill.

They will be heading back to my Mom's house today and then my brother and nephew will meet me in Dallas tomorrow night. I have a business meeting in Coppell for a couple of days and they are going to come spend the night with me Monday night so they will be closer to the airport on Tuesday.

If all goes as planned, the whole family will be back in November for Thanksgiving. On that trip I will get to meet baby Maddox who is only 3 months old right now.

Locked Out and Bit by a Spider

Yesterday was a crazy day. My brother and nephew headed to my mothers house for the day, so hubby and I took advantage of that and decided to mow the lawn. I also had a conference call for work that I needed to participate in, so it worked out well. The conference call was at 1:30pm, so about 1pm I had gone in the house to check the time and refill our water bottle. I stepped outside to take hubby the water and tell him that I needed to go prep for the call. Just as I was headed back inside, I realized that I had locked the door behind me. I was now completely locked out of the house. I went next door to use the phone (of course my phone was locked in the house too) and call my sister-in-law who has a spare key. Thankfully my brother-in-law was home and was able to bring over the key quickly (they only live a couple of miles away). I was able to get in the house just in the nick of time for the conference call.

After the lawn was done, we went to the back to trim back a tomato plant that was totally out of control. At some point during this process, I got bit on the wrist by what we think may have been a spider. We are not sure what bit me, but it was all red and puffy and hurt like crazy. Our garden does have wolf spiders, so we think it may have been one of those. This morning, my wrist is just sore like I sprained it, but the majority of the redness is gone and you can see the spot where the bite was. Oddly, there is only one little hole and not two as I would have expected from a spider, so maybe it was something else that got me. I am allergic to most insect bites, so who knows what it may have been.

Today, my brother and nephew return and they are bringing my Mom with them to visit. They will all be here for a few days and then they will take her back home. We are going to take Mom to the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum while she is here. I think she and my brother will both enjoy the museum.

Early Arrival

My brother and nephew arrived 3 days earlier than expected. We weren't expecting them to come down until the 7th, but they showed up late on the 4th. Seth wasn't really settling in at my parents cabin (they go camping every 4th of July), so they came to my house early. It took my dogs to get him to settle in. My dogs have never been around children, but they have been fantastic around Seth. All three dogs really love him. In fact, I was playing with him and he squealed really loud. All of a sudden all three dogs were growling at me because they thought he was hurt. Yesterday we went to the pool and then went to have Tex Mex for lunch. We also stopped and bought some pool toys for Seth. The rest of the day we just hung out around the house. Today we will head back to the pool for a while and then we are going to head to Taylor for some barbecue.

Tomorrow, John and Seth are going to go pick up my Mom and bring her down for a visit. While they are away, I will go get some blood work done that is due this week - yuck. I also have to participate in a conference call for a project team that I am on at work. I could miss it, but it is the initial call and is a really important one.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July everyone.

I can't believe a whole week has flown by and I barely blogged. Our house is normally pretty quiet, but this week has been pretty busy. On Tuesday, we had the carpets cleaned, on Wednesday we had furniture delivered, Thursday the lawn company was supposed to mow the lawn, but it never stopped raining, and on Friday we had a mattress delivered and played taxi for a friend heading to the airport. Then on Saturday we replaced my printer that died and spent the majority of the afternoon getting it hooked up to all of the computers in the house.

Primarily we have been making sure we have everything in place for when my family visits this coming week. My brother and nephew landed in Texas yesterday and should be heading to our house with my mother on Tuesday or Wednesday. It is going to be a bit of a busy week, but I am looking forward to finally meeting my nephew in person.

Today, is going to be low key. We are having some family over later in the evening and we are going to cook out on the grill. Other than that, we are just going to enjoy a low key July 4th.

Vacation Countdown

My brother and nephew are coming next week and I have taken a few days off to visit with them. I am really excited to see them, but more importantly I am excited to just be away from work for a few days. This past month has been really busy and I am ready for a break.