Josh is in the States!

We are leaving to pick Josh up from the Killeen Airport in less than an hour! He called around 1 to let me know he was in Houston. He says he is tired and feels icky so I'm going to pick him up, grab some pizza and then we'll come home so he can take a shower. !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas is creepin...

"I would never do anything to hurt my sister!"
I've been working like crazy to get Christmas cards ready, mail packages and sew Chase and Cady's Christmas outfits. I've never gotten a Christmas dress done for Cady although every year I've wanted to. Well, it's finally done. I decided to buy Chase's suit but I made a neck tie out of the same fabric as Cady's dress. It turned out really , really well. I'm so glad it's done. So, my Christmas cards are finished but I want to send out a picture of the kids with them. I haven't even made an appointment yet. I thought about trying to take them myself but given the fact that Chase doesn't hold still, I don't have a nice place to take them and the kids can't be in the same room with each other without fighting, I think I'll have a professional do their job. Can I just drop them off? I won't even stay. Good luck! Let me know how they turn out! So, as soon as those are done, I'll send off the cards.
I guess I'm done fairly early considering my track record in previous years. I guess not having anything to do in the evenings helps! No hubby to cook and clean for or talk to for that matter. Leaves me with some time after the kids go to bed. Lately Cadence is making up all kinds of excuses for not sleeping. I know, I know it's a rite of passage but once I close that door on her room I am finished. They make me feel like that scene the Incredibles where Mr. Incredible gets caught in the secret computer lair and they start shooting sticky balls at him. Cady is constantly asking questions and Chase is always sticking to me! So by bedtime I am ready for some peace and quiet. Anyway, got lost on a tangent there!
Josh is coming home on the 18th!!! We are so excited! He'll be home for about 10 days and we'll get to have Christmas together and catch an office party and a Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert followed by a romantic night over in Austin. Of course the majority of his time will be spent vegging with the kids. He will be amazed at how much they've grown. Chase is 20 months instead of 11 months. Huge difference.
He'll be home for good in March. Well, the kids are fighting again. I have to intervene.

Thanksgiving in Corpus Christi

It was really warm on Wednesday so we drove immediately to the beach. That was the last day it was nice enough to play in the water. The kids loved it!

Chase playing on Thanksgiving Day

Various pix

Harvest Festival and TrickorTreating at Baylor

A few pix later...

I thought I'd put some pix up but blogger is not working. I've been trying to find time to put up pictures but.... It's been the week from poop hell. Chase and Cady both have just been pooping all over the place. I've washed Chase's sheets about 5 times in 2 days. Lets just say he pooped and figured out how to take his diaper off at the same time. Anyway, I am leaving Friday at noon for a Scrapbooking retreat on Lake Whitney. I am so needing a retreat.

Updates all around

It's been a long time but time has flown. Let's see. Foremost on my mind, my eyeball is acting up again. I had all the testing again today. I'll back up. I have been rediagnosed with having Punctate inner choroiditis which is more rare than histoplasmosis. "Punctate inner choroidopathy (PIC) was first described by Watzke in 1984.1 Classically, PIC presents in young myopic women who complain of metamorphopsia and decreased visual acuity. In the posterior pole, there are typical small creamy yellow lesions of the inner choroids and pigment epithelium,
without signs of intraocular inflammation."

Understandable right? My doctor said don't know what causes it. Usually happens in young, nearsighted women. So, the two scars I had were flat. Now, one is bulging with blood vessels. In Macular Degeneration (This is my own paraphrase so I may be wrong) the blood vessels that bulge leak blood and fluid because elderly tend to have unhealthy retinas. In someone my age who has healthy retinas, the vessels don't always leak. Therefore, my doctor wants to try to inject a steroid outside of my eye to strengthen the retina and perhaps avoid giving me another eye injection. So I'll have the steroid thing on Friday. the tech took pictures of the side of my eye and there were dozens of little spots but I can't see them because they're not in my center of vision. I remember telling an eye doctor who was testing my vision for contact lenses that one eye was darker than the other at night. He didn't think anything of it. that was three or four years ago. This also explains why I hate driving at night. Anyway, there's a doctor at John Hopkins who is studying it. I took a survey online to help him out. There's a small group online that I joined.
Ummm, Chase was sick over the weekend. High fever and such. His nose has been running like crazy. Cady's ok.
It looks like Josh won't be able to come home for Christmas after all. The contract changed and he'll have to stay until the end of January. But then he'll be home for good.
I'll include some pix of the kids. We';ve been to the zoo and Inflatable Funland and Bangs to hang out with Stephanie and Cady's birthday is sneaking up on me. I've got to figure out what to do for a party. It's unlike me to take the easy option but I need to. I've opted for easy a lot more since Josh is gone. Speaking of easy, the lady who cleans my house is coming tomorrow. I called her right after Chase dumped my new, just opened box of Gevalia French Roast on the floor and sat and played in it like it was a sand box. Then he tracked it on the carpet. I don't have any fight left in me. I took pictures and laughed when he hit me when I cleaned it up with the Dustbuster. Yay, I've lost my mind.
This is Chase and Cady at the Mayborn Children's Museum in Waco. We went with some friends a couple of weeks ago. Chase doesn't stay in one place for too long. They had a blast. There was a fun video of Chase running around the Museum but Blogger processed it for two days and then said it couldn't be uploaded.
Here's a picture of Chase after I let him feed himself applesauce. Yeah, super idea mom. I like it better in my hair than my mouth. Crazy noodlehead.
Here's Cady with a Galapagos turtle at Cameron Park Zoo last Friday. She's smiling like, "okay mom, I'm posing in front of a giant turtle. Can you take the picture already?" That zoo is awesome. It was $8 for all of us. There was hardly another person there. There is a really fun playscape with little water fountains that Chase loved and they have really great exhibits. Lots of reptiles and fish and stuff too. Chase thought being in the mouth of a giant snake was great fun.
Cady posing with the fish, sending daddy a big goofy smile.
I'm sure there's more but I'm exhausted so I am going to bed.

Chase and Lee have matching PJs

Me and Jody shop at the same stores...together.

Chase plays in the water dish

Chase helps water the pigs

Chase throws a cup at a pig:)

Massive Pug Recall-The Slideshow is hilarious!

Dog Breeders Issue Massive Recall Of '07 Pugs

Surgeries

Hi All- Just an update to let you know that the kids came through surgery just fine. Chase went in at about 7:30 am. I had to let the nurse take him into the OR and then wait in the room with Cadence. About 15 minutes later they came and took Cadence. The nurse gave her a piggy-back ride into the OR. That was really cute with her tie-in-the-back gown. A few minutes later I heard Chase crying and opened the door and there he was. The nurse gave him to me but he was still pretty inconsolable for a few minutes. My friend Jody drove all the way from Houston just to be there to help me at the hospital and then my other friend Stephanie took Jody's kids so that Jody could come to the hospital! I don't know what I would have done without her. I had to get the kids in the car at 5:45 am and to the hospital and if Jody wouldn't have been there the kids would have had a really hard time calming down. Chase had just barely stopped crying when Cadence was carried in crying. It was a God-send to be able to hand Chase over to Jody and take Cadence from the nurse. She was crying and wouldn't open her eyes. She calmed down almost right away but was pretty disoriented. We waited in recovery for a couple hours and then they released us. Cadence already seems to be hearing better. Chase went to sleep at around 11 am and slept until 2 pm. Cadence has been resting and watching Dora. As if it wasn't enough that Jody drove 4 hours from Houston with two kids and a dog she also paid for Stephanie to take 5 kids to Inflatable Funland, went out to get Cady Dora Chicken Noodle soup (her favoritist), bought Cadence a HUGE bouquet of pink and purple balloons with one flowery one that said "Get Well Soon", and bought Chase a GINORMOUS soft lion. She's better at spoiling my kids than I am! I am so thankful for Stephanie and Jody. I've nominated them for sainthood. They even cancelled their plans this week to help me. Stephanie was going to go to Houston for a few days of fun but they came and helped us out instead.
So, anyway, the kids are fine. They seem to be feeling much better and hopefully this will fix their ear problems. The doctor said after the surgery that this should be Chase's only set of tubes. He had a little fluid on one ear at the time of the surgery. Cadence however, had glue-like fluid in both ears so the surgery will make a really big difference for her. I'm so glad it's over!

Quick Update

This week has gone so fast but I thought I'd let everyone know that Cadence and Chase will both be getting surgery to put tubes in their ears Thursday morning. They had pre-op today. They have to be to the hospital at 6:15 am. They saw the ear,nose and throat doctor Monday and he set them up for surgery immediately. About a week after surgery, they will do a hearing test to find out if Cadence's hearing loss is permanent. The kids seem to have gotten sicker over the past week. They don't have fevers or anything but they're quiet and tired and have circles under their eyes. They had both been on antibiotics for 10 days and saw the doctor 2 days after they finished the meds yet they both still had ear infections. So, sorry I haven't talked to anyone this week. It's been crazy.

There Was Something In The Air That Night....

We are all DYING of allergies. First the dog, now I have bronchitis, the kids have the sniffles and even the cat has a runny nose!!! I'm moving!!!! Yeah right, maybe someday.

Vote Please!!!

This is a new picture I bought yesterday. Ignore the corner protectors and how crooked it is:)This is the one I've had up there.

JUST CRAZY 'BOUT

I am pretending that FarmgirlCyn tagged me. Maybe the short time I was blessed with being apart of her family influenced my taste but I share her love for French country living especially chickens. Here is a peek inside my kitchen at some of my roosters:)My favorite spot in the morning (another thing I have in common with Cyn). On the left, my Gevalia drip coffee pot, a tin with three compartments: coffee, tea, and sugar, a tin sign featuring a rooster painted on a French postcard purchased at a garage sale for .25 (original price tag still on it that said 9.99), candlestick, and my beloved Senseo!!!! The best Christmas present I ever got depending on your point of view. It gives me freshly brewed, hot, frothy coffee in less than 30 seconds. The bad part is how much coffee I drink.

This is the top of my kitchen cabinets.

These are two pictures that I found at a garage sale in Harrison, MI for .25 each. I should climb up and look at them because they have the scientific names for the type of roosters written on the bottom. I should, but I'm really comfortable. I'll do it later.

This is my very first rooster. I bought it for me and Josh's first home. I may have bought it in El Paso when I was stationed there in the Army. I'm not sure. Behind him is the coffee bean topiary that I constructed a couple of years ago. It's finally lost it's scent. I used to sniff it:)

This is over my stove. I couldn't resist the rooster salt and pepper shaker at Walmart for 2.88.
I bought some hand-painted ceramic burner covers at an arts and craft show several years ago but being blond and I guess a tad dyslexic, I inevitable turned on the wrong burner and they exploded. All four of them eventually:( I finally gave up gluing them back together and threw them out.

Muki 's got the sniffles...

Muki went to the vet because she was breathing funny. I know, she always breathes funny. It was worse than usual. The vet said he thought she might have an upper respiratory infection and her soft palette and something about her esophagus and so she was inverted sneezing. It was a strange thing to watch. Anyway, she's on horse pills for 14 days.

Chase is walking!!!

Saturday is the day Chase really started walking! He hasn't really taken to it so he is still crawling mainly but he is definitely walking. Well, he stops whenever I try to video tape it for his dad! He's so proud of himself! He can't wait to start making more messes!

The Summer of Goodbyes

Three of my favoritist friends are moving this summer. Jody moved to Houston on Saturday.

Sue is moving on Tuesday.

Stephanie (right) will probably be gone by the end of summer.
I don't have anything profound to say but... I'm sad.

Sir Chaser

Have a Nice Day!

Chase is big

Chase is almost 15 months and his record is 2 steps before face planting it into the carpet. Crawling is still the preferred mode of transportation.

Summer Dresses

I love sundresses and so does Cady. These are the deals I picked up this weekend! I got them in the Girl's section...not the toddler section:(

Cute picture of Chase

Chase hasn't been feeling well but I snapped this picture during one of his short-lived happy times this week.

Redneck Hibachi

Our friends Jody and Travis took me and Cadence out to a Japanese steakhouse on Saturday night. They have two boys, Reagan will be 5 and Wilson (Lee) is 8 months? Well, Cadence is very picky these days and everytime the waitress put a dish in front of her she barely glanced at it and immediately stated, "I don't like that." She did end up eating the rice... with her hands. I guess for a $10 children's meal you can eat it anyway you want. I LOVED it though. I had Filet Mignon and Scallops. The chef was entertaining but Cadence didn't like being picked on and she didn't think he should be throwing eggs and spatulas around and she certainly didn't like the time when he pretended to squirt oil on her. I think she's still checking her dress for oil. Anyway, the food was excellent and the company unparallelled but I think we need to work on our table manners;)
Is he supposed to be doing that?

This man is scary. I really don't think he should be doing that.

OK. I'm pretty sure he should NOT be doing that!

Mmmm... rice.