Little Break

From all I have to get done. Turns out we ARE going to have everyone here for Thanksgiving. So this weekend, all three of us got to work getting the house ready. And thanks to everything Larry and Holly did, I only have some last minute stuff to do such as the mopping and vacuming, and going over the bathroom one more time, and a few other odds and ends.



Right now I'm taking a little break while I wait for mom to get here. She is going to help me figure out all the food I need to get. I know most everyone did there shopping this weekend, so that may leave me hunting for everything I need, but there was no way I could handle that crowd. I love to be around people, but not ones who are shoving past you with grocery carts that often end up in your side or rolling over your toes.



The end of last week I did my observing at the different grade levels of schools at a school district over here, so I can start subtituting the beginning of December. I won't get a pay check to after the holidays, so it won't be money for Christmas. But it will be nice to get a little extra to help build the savings back up after the year we have had, and to have a little extra spending money for various wants and vacations.



On Friday evening, we went to downtown Dallas for the Neiman Marcus tree lighting, and revealing for their Holiday windows. It is only about a block from Larry's new building, and they had set up a both to advertise. So if anyone is looking to move to the Dallas area and is wanting to live in an A class apartment. Look up the Mercantile Building owned by Forest City. We had never gone before. They had all kinds of boths with advertisers passing out hot cocoa, popcorn balls, apple cider, ballons, glowing wands for sale, face painting, and pictures with Santa. Along with various people walking around entertaining. It was a long evening since Larry had to be there early, but it was fun.



ok was going to post pics, but it won't let me. I'll do it later.

Uck

Yesterday I just felt really bad. It was one of those things where your stomach feels a little ick, your head is in a little pain, and your body is a little achey. Had I had just one I probably could have gotten through the day fairly normally. But with all three I just felt aweful!!! So I spent the day just resting. Which now leaves me a huge pile to do today. I'm not 100%, but I will deal with it today. One day sick for a mom is more than a mom normal can squeeze. And since Larry was feeling uck by after lunch himself, I didn't get the whole day. The worst part of it was Larry had won free concert tickets for last night almost 2 months ago, and neither one of us was up for going. We ended up finally finding someone to give them to at about 7pm last night (concert started at 7:30). So I know they missed the opening band, but we hated having them wasted even if they were free.
Now I am stressing about Thanksgiving. It's next week and I don't know what's happening. We wanted to have it at our house this year, but it doesn't look like most of our family can make it, so we need to quickly decide if we are going to go to family's for the holiday or have a small one with just the 4 of us here. And I need to know like yesterday so I can know if I need to shop or not. aaahhhh!!!

Prayers

Please pray for my friend Kristi. She is going in today to try to find out some answers for some health issues. She could use all the support she can get right now.

In the Mood

Especially with the weather going back to warm so much right now, it's hard for me to grasp that it's almost Thanksgiving and Christmas.
For the past couple years Larry has been on call for Thanksgiving, so the girls have spent the holiday with their mom so they could be with more family. This actually let Larry and I have a holiday where we felt a little like newly weds without children. We enjoyed fixing a meal for two that could actually feed 12. We'd cook a fairly small turkey, a ham, and all the sides. This year he will not be on call since his new job is with a high rise aparment that is being built from one of the older business buildings in downtown Dallas, and no one will be living there until next March or May. And with now finally having a house, we are inviting his family over for Thanksgiving here. So I am looking forward to that.
The thing is I'm just not really getting anywhere near a Christmas mood. I'm looking forward to the music and cold weather and pretty lights, but that's it. With the new house I was hoping to get excited. But like it has the past few years, something has happened so close to Christmas time to really dampen the good, and uplifting mood. Christmas is usually a time I really enjoy, but not lately. And that's something that upsets me more. With the girls going to be at their mom's for Christmas this year, I don't have the excitement of watching them Christmas morning. (I had my very first Christmas morning with them 3 years ago. Larry and I were so excited we woke up before them and started throwing things towards their door to try and wake them up. :) )
So if anyone has some inexpensive and/or free ideas of things I could do to get in the mood, you'd really be helping me loose that "bah humbug mood"!

I was spoiled!!

With everything happening, I never got to post about my afternoon with my friend on Oct. 30 that I mentioned.
Being the wonderful, best friend that she is, she turned it into a surprise birthday lunch.
She called me on my way there to let me know she got to the resturant early and was going to run a couple errands close by so she might be a couple minutes late. I did get there before her, but since it was so early there was no need for me to go in and get us a table where I would have to worry about missing her come in. So I just sat in my car and read my magazine.
She surprised me at my door shortly with presents! I was only expecting to hang out for lunch. Her "errands" had been stopping at one of the stores we shop at frequently to get me a shirt I really wanted. I had seen it on a maniquine, but could never find it anywhere in my size to purchase. She also gave me this adorable, unquie charm necklace with my first charm a friendship charm.
We then went in and enjoyed a fabulous lunch topped off with her treating us to their new peanut butter fudge deserts that came in these adorable mini peanut buckets. They were like cold reeses peanut butter cups (one of my favorite treats) in a bucket. I'll definately be returning soon for another one of those!!
We finished with a great deal of time left before either of us had to get back to our kids, and since we were close to the mall we decided to go look around for a bit.
We were walking through Dillard's near the makeup counters when she commented she'd never gone to one of the sales clerks and let them do a make over on her. She thought it would be nice to let someone else pamper her. So we stopped and let her get a little pampering while they did their best to sell her a fortune in products.
I don't think the sales clerks liked having me there though. They kept putting various colors on her that just didn't look good. Looking at how they wore their makeup and how they put it on her, I think these woman were ones use to working with younger girls who think more is better. There was no way I was going to let them put anything on my friend that took away from her natural beauty or that would have her uncomfortable, so I spoke up quite often. Kristi agreed with me, but being the one they were holding the brushes up to her face, she wasn't saying much. In the past, I was always a person who just stood back quietly and agreed with everyone else. But my husband has taught me to stand up for myself, so I am now able to do this and I do it for those I care for too. There is no walking over me anymore!!! So I voiced my opinion no matter if I thought the sales clerk liked what I said or not. It's my friend's face!!!
I was also having a problem with the other sales clerks. It was during a time of day where they only had a couple of customers, so the clerks were bored. One girl kept coming over to the one helping us and would just start talking to her about what was on her mind, not allowing our sales clerk to help us.
When my husband got home that evening, I kept telling him over and over how much fun we had and what all we did and happened. I told him how nice it was and how good it was to have someone other than him treat me so kindly and really spoil me. He said he was pleased too that I had such a great friend who treated me so great.
So thank you Kristi for your kindness and for your wonderful friendship!!! You mean worlds to me!!!

Airing out the House

I am so thankful today is a cool, yet not too cool day. I can finally get the house opened up and aired out. There have been other days good for this, but I could never remember it. Today it was a must. Our dog, Ruby, had a stomach bug or had gotten into something. So yesterday I spent the whole day crawling on my hands and knees cleaning the carpet and washing her bedding and my daughter's comforter. Poor thing couldn't get to me fast enough sometimes to let me know she had to get outside NOW!! She's old so I couldn't just put her outside to fight it, and I couldn't find the gate to put up to block the hall way to the carpeted area of the house. The carpet is good and clean thanks to A LOT of elbow work, but now I need to get the house aired out do to all the cleaner smells and sick smells that seem to linget in the air. (no one else smells anything but cleaners, so it may just be me, but openning the house should do the trick at least for my mind)


And except for one more follow up on me due to my most recent perscription change (due to the removal), the last of the family went for their eye exam. My husband had fabulous insurance benifits at the company he just left, so I schedualed check ups for everyone so we could take advantage of all of it before we lost it and are without for the 2 months. I took them all to the doctor I've been seeing 'cause he's done fabulous things for me, and my husband really liked him when he met him last Feb at my first appointment with him ( and it's really hard to find any kind of doctor he likes).


Once again, he proved why I like him so much. Haylee was first. She has glasses, but we found out not the kind she needs. Dr. Kurtin suprised me when he asked if she struggled reading. I told him yes. Not enough that she fails, but enough to keep her frustrated. And the teachers have always been at a loss. Turns out she has slow focus (where it's hard for her to go from reading to looking far away if she glances up and then to go back to reading). So he put her in progressive lenses and said to see if that helps her. If not he has a specialist he will refer her too. So I am very excited for her. She just got them this weekend, so I am looking forward to calling her tonight to see how the last two days of school have gone.


Larry was next. He can see better than 20/20, but turns out he has an astigmatism no one has caught before. So he got glasses to help him to not have to work so hard on focusing on things like the computer.


And Holly was today. Lucky for her and my bank account, she has good eyesight and doesn't need any glasses.

Well that's all for today off to freshen a few more things up. To all those stopping in to read...God Bless!!

Just over this mountain...

is one more mountain. At least that's what it feels like for us. Larry and I were greatly looking forward to this weekend. Holly went to her mom's for the weekend, making this the first one we could enjoy alone since June, before I got the news of my tumor. Holly's mom lives in Austin, so we meet half way in Waco. I had just gotten her dropped off and was on my way back. I stopped in Hillsboro about 30 miles north of Waco to get gas. I was just getting back in from paying when my phone started ringing. It was Larry. I figured it was him calling to see if it all went ok with the girls' mom. Shockingly it wasn't. He called to tell me he just got rear-ended. It hit hard enough to make him hit the car in front of him (which he had left a car link in between the two of them), and hard enough to knock him out. He told me he wasn't able to see. He was speaking calmly, but I could hear the panic behind it. And since my husband is the much, much calmer one of the two of us, I went into panic and took off to get back to him in Dallas.


The hospital they took him to was far, far less than any proper standards. I got to the hospital an hour after they brought him in. I went to the ER reception to request where to go for him. THEY DIDN'T KNOW WHERE HE WAS!!! THEY TRIED TO TELL ME HE WASN'T THERE. I called his cell phone to double check the hospital, he put a nurse on the phone to try and tell me where to go. Finally got to him and asked what they had done. NOTHING!!! HE WAS IN A BED IN THE HALL!! He told them he needed to use the restroom, so they gave him a urinal and told him to use it in the hallway!!! I went to the nurses station to ask when a doctor would see him, and they tried to tell me that he had only been there for 6 minutes!!! Now I'm usually a very calm person especially with doctors, but this time I was full on Mama Bear at her fiercest!!! I won't get into everything, but after waiting over another hour to have a doctor see him and listening to nurses talk about bra sizes instead of taking care of patients and after he told me that before I got there nurses were standing by his bed asking who was suppose to look after him, not knowing and each one saying they wouldn't take him, I requested the paper work to have him sign to be released so I could take him to another hospital. After almost another hour of waiting, we walked out. Or I should say I walked out almost having to carry him. We went to another hospital, who took him straight back and took great care of him. Thankfully all is fine. Nothing broken, and the CT scan came back good. They aren't sure what made him have numbness and blindness. Larry thinks maybe it just gave him and instant migraine. All I know is I'm glad he is ok. And I will be dealing with the director of the first hospital, 'cause so much of how he was treated was unacceptable. I would totally understand the wait if they were taking care of people more hurt than him, but I consider (along with most other doctors and hospitals from past experiences) being knocked unconscious something serious...at least a lot more serious than bra sizes.

To top that mountain off, the guy who hit him had no car insurance. Thankfully we have full coverage on both of our cars, so our insurance will cover it. But we have to wait for the police report, up to 7 business days, to prove he had no insurance before they will start the work and paying for his time missed from work and all medical bills.

After sitting in the house sore all day Saturday, Larry had to get out and do something. So on Sunday after we got back from picking up Holly Larry worked on Holly's go-cart and got it working safely. It still needs some adjustments, but she can finally ride it. We took it across the street to the High School Parking lot and let her tear it up! he he Here are a couple pictures from that.





Well I guess that's all for now, have a great day!! I'm going to try and get a little done. It's a lot harder to get things done when he's here wanting me to keep him company. :)

Halloween

So this year Holly decided to go scary for the first time and was a vampiress. The cape turned out not too bad for just cutting it and adding some iron adhesive to keep it from riping. It needed to be a little shorter so she didn't step on it, but she wouldn't let me cut it anymore.

I have to claim some bragging rights on her makeup, but I'll get into that later.

Larry unfortunately is having some rough days with work, trying to get things perfected before he leaves (today is his last day with the company). And his tooth was cause him pain again, so he ended up staying home. This was even more sad since it was such great weather for Halloween. The best we've had in a few years. But I wasn't about to take her door to door on my own. So we ended up meeting my parents, brother, brother's girlfriend, and her little girl at the mall to take them trick-or-treating there. This was disappointing due to so many people and so much of having to watch out on not stepping on other kids. There also was very little candy. The girls mostly received sweet tart, a couple pieces of bubble gum and some tootsie rolls. And by the time we all made it, it was almost time for them to put away. So we hurried back to my parents' neighborhood (the one I grew up trick-or-treating in), and were able to go down the block and let the girls fill their bags with some chocolate for the moms. ;) And of corse my parents had stashed away bags of the "good" candy so they could give them a bunch.

So it was a fairly mild Halloween, which turned out to be fairly good. Holly was just starting to get a cold. And the start is always the worst. So she was dragging pretty good fairly early. She also had had a costume parade that morning at school that I had to miss. (When I scheduled Larry's eye appointment with my eye doctor that day we originally thought he would be off from work, and I didn't know then that there would be a parade. And with the job move there was no way I could reschedule it for before we lost our current health insurance. ) So Holly was being extra clingy and ready to finish before she got much candy. And with the blacked out eyes I did, she looked like she felt really, really awful. I kept asking her if she was ready to go long before she was. I had to wash the makeup off at my parents house before we went home, so I could really see how she felt.

So I brought my camera with me, but I got so busy watching out for the girls, that I forgot to take any pics of them together or while trick-or-treating this year. My brother did get some of them together, so as soon as he sends me those I'll post them. Olivia (his girlfriend's daughter) was Jasmine. I think that is so cool 'cause she is in 1st grade, and when Holly was in first that's what she was for Halloween. I'll have to post some comparison pics too.

Off to see if the grass is finally dry enough to mow. Have a fab Friday!!