A Much Needed Vacation

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth...but I have been to Wyoming and back! I have been looking forward to this vacation since before Ryan and I got married, and we finally went a couple of weeks ago. My mom grew up vacationing at the Grand Tetons near Jackson Hole, WY when she was young, and then she introduced my dad to her favorite place when they got married. Of course, she couldn't wait to take her own kids there, so Brad and I spent a lot of time there growing up. Our family has fallen in love with this place because it is SO relaxing and beautiful. I can't think of a more gorgeous place in the USA...and I really have seen a lot of places! Anyway, my parents, Brad & Kendall, and Ryan & I all packed up and drove, yes drove, 20 hours (over 2 days) to our favorite place in America in hopes of making believers out of Ryan and Kendall. And I think we did. We hiked, climbed (some of us more than others...ahem...Ryan), fly fished, shopped, went whitewater rafting in 40 degree water (little bit chilly), picnicked, went to a chuckwagon dinner & show, played games, went on a breakfast cruise to an island in Jackson Lake, saw lots of wildlife (several moose, elk, 2 bears, and other critters), and altogether had a fabulous trip together. I think I can even say that we all still get along and weren't ready to kill each other by the end of it. I'd call that a success. Here are some of my favorite pictures of the 500 (not kidding) that I took. I got a new camera for an early birthday present before the trip, so get ready...there's lots!

I have to brag on Ryan...this picture was taken at the top of Rendezvous Mountain. He climbed all the way to the top (notice the sheer cliffs in the background). At one point he had to ski on his tennis shoes because there was so much snow! The rest of us rode the ski gondola up, and he climbed "down" to the lodge to meet us for a drink once he had reached the top. Let me just say that Ryan brought a new dimension to our family vacation.

How cute is this moose?!?

My mom caught these prairie dogs in the midst of an all out brawl for a chip from my Dad. These aren't your typical Abilene Prairie Dogs!

This is the picture I'm most proud of. I caught this family of ravens teaching their young how to fly. All the babies wanted to do was eat. This nest was in the tip top of a dead tree REALLY far away, so I was thrilled that the picture turned out so well. National Geographic anyone?!?

The Chapel of the Transfiguration...I think I'd have a hard time paying attention to the sermon with a view like that!

Fly fishing on the Snake River.

USOs..."Unidentified Swallowed Objects"

My weekend was spent at the ER...the Animal ER, that is. Caution: The following blog post may contain graphic references not recommended for the faint of heart...or stomach. On Friday evening, I got home and found (to put it mildly) about 10 places where one of the dogs had thrown up. At the time I didn't know which dog it was, but I soon learned that it was Jack, my 11 year old Jack Russell. He continued throwing up about once every 3 minutes, in between me calling vets (none of which were open) and cleaning up the previous mess. It was horrible. The weird thing was that it was all water...nothing solid. Then I found it...in the far corner of the guest room, he had evidently gotten rid of whatever it was he swallowed. It looked like a big pink eraser, but I couldn't imagine what he had gotten into. Well, I put it in a Ziploc bag as evidence, and whisked Jack and the Ziploc bag to the Animal ER. It was a LOVELY 15 minute car ride in which Jack managed to go through 6 towels. Could Ryan have possibly been in town for such an exciting event? Of course not. BUT, he did call at a really appropriate time..right when I got the estimate for the $3000 surgery Jack needed. I was a basketcase, which I know sounds silly, but Jack is like my kid. I know he has 4 legs, sheds a lot, and doesn't speak "human", but he is definitely my companion! Anyway, I signed the papers, and left Jack at the ER at about 1:30am. At 5:00, the vet called me to say that the surgery went fine. They found another piece of the same thing I had found, and called it the "Unidentified Swallowed Object", or "USO". They also found that his small intestine had severe scar tissue. Because of that, they couldn't just remove the USO. They had to remove almost 3 inches of his small intestine. There is a really high risk of infection when they have to do that, and they have to be extra careful that there's no chance of the small intestine leaking or rupturing later on. How scary is that?!! He has 2 layers of stitches and 14 staples in his little tummy. Poor baby!!! So, Jack spent the next 2 full days in the ER hooked up to IVs because he wouldn't eat or drink. I had to visit him in the emergency room the first 2 times, but after that they would bring him out to me in his own room. He would just lay there like in this picture. It was SO pitiful.



They wouldn't release him until he ate and drank, so finally on Sunday night, I was able to get him to take 3 bites! WOO HOO!! Luckily that was enough to get the vet to release him. Unfortunately, we got home and he refused to take his medicine by mouth. I literally tried everything for an hour to get one pill down him, but he wouldn't have it. So, it was back to the ER at 12:30am for him to get 4 shots. They threatened to keep him again, but I begged for them to let me take him home. I couldn't stand seeing him in that place! At 7:30 the next morning, I took him into our regular vet (since it finally wasn't emergency hours) and they gave him his medicine, took out his catheter and gave me the best animal product I have ever purchased. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present:



They are the only way Jack would take his medicine, which is saving me a TON of money. His shots were $30 each, and he was getting 4 of them three times a day. You do the math. Anyway, he has been on the up and up ever since. So much that he managed to pull out 3 of his staples today while I went to work for 2 hours. We just returned from vet appointment #4 because of it, so I'm praying that this is all until he gets his staples out next week. What a weekend!

The Letter Between "U" and "W"

My keyboard has suddenly decided it will stop typing the letter between "U" and "W". It just quit right in the middle of a sentence. Isn't that weird?! So, I thought it would be fun to do a post without that letter just to see if I could. I am going to need to use my imagination to come up with words that don't use that letter. And then after this post, I'll probably go to Office Depot and buy myself a new keyboard because this is really annoying.

Anyway, Ryan has been out of town for the past 2 weeks, and he called last night to tell me that he's finally coming home tomorrow! I'm really excited for him to get here becase I spent a TON of time working in the yard this weekend, and I want to show him all the new stuff. My sweet mother-in-law hooked me up with a Jeep-full of plants from her yard. That was nice and all, but it meant I had to come home and spend 6 hours Sunday afternoon planting all my new FREE plants...that I'm praying I don't kill! I don't exactly possess a green thumb. (By the way, I just had to use the word "possess" because I can't type the word H-A-(letter between U & W)-E... soooo frustrating!!!)

OK, I'm tired of this. I think I'll finish by listing some of the best things that use the letter between "U" and "W". I will use a * anytime the letter between "U" and "W" is to be used because it's getting annoying...

1. Cherry fla*ored *aseline (I MUST use it each and e*ery night before bed, or I can't sleep)
2. *alentine's Day (I know it's a cheesy holiday, but I lo*e ha*ing an excuse to be extra romantic!)
3. *odka with Cranberry Juice (my "signature drink" if I were to ha*e one!)

OK, it's harder than I thought to come up with GOOD words that use that particular letter. I can think of far more gross words than good ones, so here are a few off the top of my head:

*omit
*agina
*enereal disease
*enom
*ienna sausages (YUCK!)
*ulture

Geez...who needs the letter between "U" and "W" anyway?!?

New Babies...Old Friends

This weekend I got to welcome my lifelong friend Thompson's baby boy, Caden Thomas, into the world. He arrived on Friday afternoon and is just the sweetest, most precious little guy! I was at the hospital on Friday but didn't get to hold him but for just a minute, so on Saturday my mom and I went back and spent a little more time "ooh-ing and aah-ing" over him. Thompson looks AMAZING and Brent is one proud papa. I was so happy to be able to share such a special time in the life of their family. Congratulations Camp Family of 3!

Precious boy!

On Saturday night, I got to go to my friend Kristin's wedding shower. Kristin and I were BFF in the truest sense of the word when we were little. She and I wore each others first "Best Friends" necklace, went on family vacations together, and spent a lot of time just being silly. I cherish the memories we made so much, and I am so thrilled that we've recently reconnected and caught back up with each other's lives. And I'm even more excited that she found the love of her life, Clay, and that they are getting married in a few weeks! Here are some embarassing pictures of the 2 of us back in our prime:

Are we cute or what?! My family was planning a trip to Disneyland with another family that had a son my brother's age, but NO girls. I didn't think it was very fair for my brother to get to have a friend and me not to...especially since my 8th birthday was going to be during the trip, so I got to bring Kristin along. We had matching outfits for just about every day of the week...including these lovely Minnie Mouse shirts and some tie-dyed outfits that we made ourselves. Those same tie-dyed outfits got wet on the water rides and dripped red and purple dye down our legs. I can remember my mom drying them out for us under the hand dryers in the bathrooms while we waited in the stall to get our clothes back.

I truly think that we missed our calling in life to be fashion designers...I think we were pretty inventive to create those outfits out of bandanas! There are some more "questionable" wardrobe choices that we have pictures of, but I won't go there.

We've changed a little, huh?

Fellow bloggers...Sarah Beth, Kristin, Me, and Annalee

Mother-Daughter Picture

My Birthday Boy

Ryan was gone to Amarillo for work on his birthday...can you think of a more beautiful place to spend it?! You think he could've at least been out in the Gulf on the water or something, but no...Amarillo it was. So, we celebrated his birthday this past weekend. He keeps telling everyone that this was his "first" 29th birthday, because I guess he doesn't want to think about the big 3-0 creeping up next year. I think he's more afraid of it than I am! Anyway, to keep him feeling young, I surprised him with a "big boy toy"...a Play Station 3. And what good is a PS3 without a nice game of Guitar Hero to go with it? We had some people over on Friday night to cook out, eat birthday cake, and play endless hours of Guitar Hero. We are all totally addicted, but at least our house is the "cool" house now. Woo Hoo!! So, here's to Ryan and his perpetual 29th birthday...there's no doubt he will ALWAYS be young at heart.

And here is our one and only Easter picture that even remotely turned out...the wind was CRAZY! We were very "matchy-matchy" in our yellow and brown. Probably too much for Ryan's taste, but oh well!

Wedding Bells

The Three Musketeers--Brad, Clayton, & Chad

This weekend, I got to witness the last of the "Three Musketeers" getting married. Brad got married in 2006, Clayton in 2007, and Chad in 2008. Clayton & Chad have always been like my own little brothers, so it was kindof surreal to see these 3 best friends all officially grown up now. I was so honored that I got to play for Luke (Chad's oldest brother who is MY life-long friend) to sing in the ceremony. Chad played baseball at DBU, so the favors were personalized baseballs...too cute! Unfortunately, Ryan was out of town for the wedding, which also happened to be his 29th birthday, so we'll have to wait to celebrate. Anyway, since Ryan was out of town, I played 5th wheel to my parents and Brad & Kendall, but oh well...they're pretty fun to hang out with.

Mr. & Mrs. Longacre

Brad says that Kendall and I look like we could be related in this picture??

Luke & Me

Mom & Dad with their Groupies

"Sugar and spice and everything nice, that's what little girls are made of."

This weekend, I got to meet my life-long friend Holly's little girl, London Jane. Oh my goodness...she is the sweetest, most petite, baby girl I've ever seen! She just slept in my arms for about half an hour and made the cutest little baby noises. Adorable. I also got to meet London's cousin (Holly's sister Emily's little boy) Jared Patrick. He is the happiest baby ever, but unfortunately he likes my Mom better than me...most babies do. He would just laugh and laugh at her, and then when he came to see me, he spit up all over me, and then kept laughing at my Mom. I guess she is pretty funny. I wish I had a picture of Big Brother Davis too because he is all grown up now that he's got a little sister to take care of. He was proud to show off his big boy room since London took over the nursery. What a precious family they are to me! Here are a few pictures from the weekend. I'll be posting more from the rest of my weekend and Thompson & Caden's shower as soon as my mom sends them to me. I was hurrying to get out of town to beat the snow storm on Thursday and left the house without my camera!

Tag, I'm It!

I forgot I was tagged by Molly last week, so here goes:

10 years ago: March 1998 was my senior year of high school. I don't remember what month Senior Musical was, but it was around this time...we did "Annie Get Your Gun" and it was SO much fun! If Molly says that the Football Banquet was that month, then I guess she'd remember better than me. I went with Zack Wristen, just as "friends". I think I was actually dating a different Zack at the time, but that's neither here nor there. OH! We went to London during Spring Break on choir tour, and that was an amazing trip. I remember bawling my eyes out through "Les Mis"...it was my first time to see it, and after the show, we were crazy fans and went to the back stage door to meet the cast. The girl playing the role of Fantine said that she remembered me crying on the 3rd row. How embarassing! Was I that loud and obvious?!

Things on my to-do list today: be productive at work, eat my leftover P.F. Chang's for lunch (YUM!), go to the bank, go to the grocery store because my husband is actually in town this week, so I'm cooking tonight! (He won't know what to do with himself!!), get started on our taxes, practice music for a rehearsal I have tomorrow.

What would I do if I suddenly became a Billionaire? Build our cabin on our lake property in Athens, buy each of my parents a new car, take Ryan to Europe, give lots to charities that I wish I could support more now...especially to the Wounded Warrior Project, host lots of fun parties, probably keep working because I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I didn't.

Three of my bad habits:
1.Re-setting my alarm at least 3 times each morning
2. Saying "YES" too often, when I really want to say "NO" (I'm learning, but I'm still not very good at it)
3. Leaving half empty water bottles all over my house and car. Drives Ryan nuts!!!

Five jobs I have had:
1. Church Music Adminsitrative Asst.
2. Accompanist/piano teacher
3. Retail merchandising at Magpies Gifts in Houston
4. Property management for an apartment complex (worst job I've ever had in my entire life),
5. Accounting assistant at HSU.

Five things people don't know about me:
1. I LOVE watching gymnastics...I DVR meets all the time and watch them over and over.
2. I'm actually a pretty good cook when I try.
3. My closet is organized in rainbow order...and I keep it that way ALL the time.
4. When I was little, I wanted to be a pathologist when I grew up, but considering I pass out everytime I go to the Dr., I don't know what I was thinking!
5. I've never seen the movie Ghostbusters...don't judge me.

I tag...Robin, Tiffani, Natalie, Kelby, and Brittney

An Explosive Day

I have no will power. None. I was in line at Target and couldn't resist picking up a bag of Easter peanut M&Ms. I usually don't allow myself to buy holiday candy so far in advance of the holiday because I know myself TOO well. Oh well, I caved. Anyway, I got back in my car to drive the whole 2 minutes home, but could I wait to open the bag until I got home?! Of course not. So while negotiating turning left in stupid traffic, I'm digging to the very bottom of my bag to find my M&Ms. Then comes the task of opening the bag. Of course it was one of those bags that just wouldn't open no matter how hard I tugged or tried to rip it with my teeth. Keep in mind, I'm almost home by this point, so the scissors in my kitchen (the "quick fix") are only moments away. I proceed to jerk on the bag, pulling as hard as I can until POW! The bag explodes M&Ms all over my car. So, for the past few days, I've been eating M&Ms out of my cup holders, off the passenger seat, and off my car floor (just kidding on that one). I managed to salvage these and put them in my pretty little bowl. OK, not really these...these are from my 2nd bag that I bought yesterday. Like I said, NO will power.

Last night brought explosions of a different kind. I went to bed at about 12:30, and took the dogs out right before. My little Harley woke me up at 1:00 begging to go out. She "lies" a lot and tells me that she needs to go out when really she just wants to go play. So, I ignored her for a few minutes. Her cry got pretty desperate though, so I took her out. An hour later, the same thing happened, but this time she didn't quite make it outside! I'll spare you the details. Evidently, my little puppy got a stomach bug of some sort. YUCK!! So, like any good mom would, I spent the night on the couch close to the back door letting Harley out every hour and fifteen minutes on the dot. There was NO way she was sleeping in my bed! I wouldn't let her get on the furniture, but when I wasn't looking, she found a comfy spot on the couch and I just couldn't make her get down. She kept falling asleep standing up. Bless her little heart, she was so pitiful. I wonder how long she'll milk this. Is that not the poutiest dog face ever?

My Funny Valentine

Pretty flowers

+
New picture for the bedroom

+
setting the camera timer on the dash while driving on 35...might not have been the smartest idea ever

+

CANTINA LAREDO

+

really cute movie!

=

A Very Sweet Valentine's Day

On Friday night, our Sunday school class had a Valentine's party, and the entertainment was "The Newlywed Game"...complete with our very own Wink Martindale "wanna-be" host. Here's the sad part. There were so many of us at the party that we couldn't all be on the panel. So they gave us a qualifying test to start with. The couples with the most matches got to participate in the game. OK, so the average number of matches was around 5 or 6, but some couples were getting 8 or 9 out of 10 right! Of course they were the ones who got to play in the first round. Then for the second round, they decided to let the couples with the least matches play, and just guess who was in that bracket?!? YEP--Ryan and I matched exactly TWO questions (one of which, we had to BEG for them to count right), so we got to play in the losers panel. We'll blame it on not living together half the time. It was hilarious though! We actually wound up matching 4 out of 5 once we were on the panel, so I guess we redeemed ourselves.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

You are ALL my Valentines!

XOXO

Something to Talk About...

The other night, our house alarm started going off in the middle of the night. Weird thing is, we don't have our alarm set up. I made the decision to not set it up here after paying $30 a month for the 3 years we lived in NC and literally NEVER setting the alarm other than on the day I got it. I'd rather buy a new pair of shoes or 2 each month. Speaking of shoes...I went to the DSW 30% off Clearance sale yesterday during my 30 minute dinner break, and wound up getting a pair of Merrells for 80% off. Amazing. Anyway, so we don't even have the alarm monitored and it started going off. It sounded like someone was trying to talk to us through the speaker, which made me start thinking about the UFOs that were reportedly seen in Stephenville. Were aliens trying to contact us during the night?? Creepy. Ryan started ripping cords and things out of the ceiling while I decided to just go unplug the whole thing, which turned out to be much less destructive than Ryan's method.

The next morning we woke up and the temperature in our house was 56 degrees. Now, I like to sleep with it cold in the house so that I can pile on lots of covers (can I get an Amen?) but 56 was a LITTLE bit chilly. Obviously the heater had gone out, so Ryan went into the attic to try and fix it himself. After trying and trying and trying to get the heat to kick on we finally had to "call the man" as my Dad always says in his most defeated voice. Why do guys hate asking for help? The guy came out and charged us $60 to show Ryan where the switch is that turns the heat back on. Hmmm...how can I become a heating technician? I'd be happy to go flip people's switches all day for 60 bucks a pop. Now I'm sitting in our nice and toasty house with a working heater and no alarm going off.

The next morning, my brother called me right as I was re-setting my alarm for at least the 4th time and said that he had been in a wreck and needed a ride. Now THAT'S what I love about living close to family. So I went and picked him up at the collision place and drove him to work in Weatherford (who works in Weatherford?!?) I was only 2 hours late to work after all that. Now that I think about it, I should have milked that wreck for at least a 1/2 day off. What was I thinking?

Don't bad things happen in 3's?? If so, then I'm going to have a great weekend!

I've Got the New Year's Blues...

I think the first week of the year has to be one of my least favorite. I should be excited and refreshed as I've made my list of New Year's resolutions (or not...) and have a blank canvas on which to paint my life for the next year. Somehow, it doesn't work that way with me. Instead, I'm bummed that my Christmas decorations are all put away for another 1o months & 28 days (but who's counting), I can no longer justify eating WAY too much because "it's the holidays", I have to be a responsible adult and go back to work, and even worse--Ryan has to go back to work, which means lots of time away from home.

I'll quit complaining though. We had a really great holiday, and unfortunately, I have NO pictures to show for it. I'm now regretting not asking for a new camera for Christmas because mine is a piece of...well, you know. Brad, Kendall, the 2 dogs, Ryan & I packed ourselves and all of our presents in the Jeep and went to Abilene the weekend before Christmas to celebrate with my family. There is nothing like being at my parents' on Christmas...it smells the same every year, I love our matching plaid stockings, playing Christmas music on their piano sounds better than any other, and breakfast on Christmas morning (or whatever morning we're celebrating Christmas on) is the best of the year. We played games, ate, watched Christmas Vacation (of course!), ate some more, and just relaxed. Then, we drove back to FW on Christmas Eve in time for our Christmas Eve service. When I started my job in October, I had no idea that part of my job was to put the little no-drip sleeves on all 550 Christmas Eve candles, so there was no way I was gonna miss the candlelight service after all of my hard work!

On Christmas Day, Ryan, Jack, Harley, and I woke up at our own house, in our own bed, with our own presents, under our own Christmas tree, and had our very own Christmas just the 4 of us before heading to Flower Mound to spend the day with Ryan's family. We thoroughly enjoyed getting to be HOME for Christmas and not traveling from the East Coast. That may have been my favorite part of the holidays. Ryan's family came in full force, and we spent the day opening Round 1 of presents, then eating lunch, then opening Round 2 of presents. It was a busy day, but lots of fun. We were definitely spoiled!

On the 26th, our friends Jeff & Kristy Skains and their new baby girl Aubrey Claire came to visit from California. Because Ryan and I did our fair share of traveling over previous holidays, we know how hard it can be to see everyone you want to see. So...we had about 30 of our college friends over for a party that night. It was a BLAST to catch up with people that I haven't seen for the past 5 years. And to think, we all live so close together! My house may never recover, but the party was well worth it.

Luckily, this week will be over soon enough, and 2008 will be well underway. I hope you all have a VERY Happy New Year!