Surgery

David and I went to the surgeon yesterday about my gall bladder. I have to have it removed (for some reason I was just thinking the stones would be removed but once you generate stones, you always will so it is being removed) next Tuesday, 12/30. Not good news for a New Year's celebration but great news for deductibles. I will be in the hospital for about 6 hours that day and the doctor said the third day into recovery is the worst (when I will hit bottom) and then things look up from there - something to look forward to?!?! I really liked Dr. Riviera but I don't like all of the scary scenarios he had to "inform" us of. We were planning on going to Houston today to spend Christmas with some of David's vast family but decided against it. If I have another gall bladder attack, (I had some pain last night) then I will end up in an emergency room in Houston and we decided that wouldn't be a good idea.

Our trip to Ruidoso was awesome. I posted a few pictures on my Facebook page but I will need to post some here also. I'm so drained from not sleeping much last night and still need to do some Christmas shopping that I need to get going with my day so I'll save those pictures for later.

Health Update

Well, I have gall stones. But, my gall bladder is not inflammed so I can go on our trip to Ruidoso and schedule surgery to remove them when we return. It should be a day surgery so that's good news. I'm just thankful it's something that can taken care of with relative ease and quickness. I've never had surgery before so it's a little unnerving but again I'm just glad it's something they can fix. We leave tomorrow morning for our trip so I'll update after we return.

Health Check and Thanksgiving Pics

It seems like once we get home from one activity/trip, the next one is upon us and I can't seem to catch up. This past Thursday I had an abdominal "attack" that was extremely painful and lasted for about 10 hours. I was able to get a doctor's appointment on Friday and got a prescription to help with the abdominal pain. He sent me to have an ultrasound this morning and should have the results tomorrow. He called this morning and said the ultrasound would confirm it but he thinks I have gall stones. Holy cow! Not good. We are leaving Wednesday for a trip to Ruidoso, NM with my family until next Monday. I'll find out tomorrow if I really have them and what we need to do next. I didn't have any pain this weekend and I've been a little uncomfortable this morning but no real pain.

Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving trip to Caprock Canyons State Park in Quitaque, TX. We went with our friends Mark and Brenda (Wyatt's godparents) and their kids Dalton, Bethany and Colleen. We had alot of fun, exploring, hiking, geocaching, visiting, celebrating Thanksgiving, etc.
Here is Dalton, Wyatt, Colleen and Bethany when we first arrived in front of the beautiful Caprock Canyons.

Daddy and Wyatt with the Caprock Canyons behind.

A picture from down in the canyons.

Thanksgiving dinner - turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, cranberry, green bean casserole, rolls. It was YUMMY!

Wyatt and Colleen "resting their bellies" and watching a movie after dinner.

Colleen, Bethany, Wyatt and Hollypeno playing.

Friday, we took a hike in the canyons. David, Wyatt, Colleen and I went about 3 miles and the others went longer. It was getting too close to Wyatt's naptime.



Me, Wyatt, David and Hollypeno up on a rock. What beautiful scenery it was!

Bethany, Colleen and Dalton

Newlyweds - Brenda and Mark Cabal

The RV campsite.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I still have some posting backlog with pictures and video. Hopefully, I can get to some of that next week. We are heading out this evening with our friends the Cabals to Caprock Canyon State Park. We each have an RV and this beautiful state park is very remote and very scenic. We are all so excited! We'll stop off in Wichita Falls for the night tonight and arrive in Caprock Canyon tomorrow where we will stay until Saturday. Saturday we will head back to civilization and stop off in Wichita Falls again. We've made this trip several times when it was just David and I so it will be fun to have a bigger group in addition to Wyatt. Saturday we'll probably go bowling and have dinner out before we head back home on Sunday. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

November Update

Ok, I started an entry back on October 30th and stopped so I just finished that one so scroll down past the Halloween update for the October update. :-) I didn't realize it would post down there.
Here's what I have for November so far...
Wyatt has a little red chair that Uncle Don Martine gave him back on Labor Day weekend. It was David's mom's chair when she was a little girl (Uncle Don is her twin brother). He recently had it repainted by his local Chevrolet dealer (Corvette red) and gave it to Wyatt. Here is Wyatt enjoying his chair.


Later that same day, Wyatt and Holly were playing and giving kisses.

Here is Wyatt's first experience with a doodle bug. He loved it and loved having it walk all over his arm. Then he put it on his little slide and watched it walk all the way down.

I'll be back later to post pictures from Wyatt's birthday party and our trip to Build A Bear on his actual birthday.

Wyatt's Birthday!

It's Wyatt's 2nd birthday today! We had his birthday party Saturday - pretty much all day. It was supposed to be from 4 - 6pm with a washer party for the adults afterward but it ended up being from 2 - 11pm with friends and family filtering in and out. But, it was nice to be able to visit with everyone! Wyatt got alot of fantastic toys, clothes, books and puzzles. We had alot of fun yesterday playing with everything. I'll post more later... HAPPY BIRTHDAY WYATT!

Wyatt Looks Like Mommy!

I would have never believed it as he looks so much like David, mostly in the eyes. I found this on a friend of a friend's blog. What fun!

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Geneology - Pedigree charts

Halloween

Ok, sorry about the delay but I've had some storage issues that I finally got figured out. I have alot of backlog to post but today I'll just worry about Halloween. Wyatt is into Mickey Mouse bigtime right now so that's what he was for Halloween. We also had an adorable monster costume but it was bigger and covered his head. I got him to try it on twice over the last month and finally he quit letting me put it on him. We had a fun time. Karrie and Lane came over from Flower Mound, Spencer dropped by for a little while, we went to about 5 houses trick or treating, Wyatt enjoyed handing out candy and the haunted house next door was awesome.
Here is a picture of the monster costume from early October.

Here we made the Pillsbury Ghost sugar cookies before the festivities started.

This was the best picture of the costume. He's getting to the point where when he sees the camera, he looks away or turns around.

As soon as we got back home, he stripped the costume and hung out in the sweatshirt that was under it. He would help give candy to the trick or treaters and then take some out of the bowl for his stash - too funny. He enjoyed the lollipops the best.

I'm So Behind...

For some reason, I can't seem to find time to blog lately plus I'm not really motivated. I'll start way back in October.

Back in mid-October, we went to Dad and Barbara's for the weekend and had a great time. We got to ride on the new pontoon boat and Barbara(Neenie), Maddie and Millie (Kari and Peyton's daughters) came on Saturday evening and we got to spend some fun time with them. Here are some pictures...




On Sunday, October 26th we went to our friends' churches Harvest Festival (Light of the World). It was so fun. Wyatt loved the bounce house, hay ride, puppet show, inflatable slide and the obstacle course. My camera ran out of battery power before we got to the inflatable obstacle course. Thank goodness Kelsey took him through all of that stuff.






Here is a picture of Daddy and Wyatt watching Monday Night Football. Wyatt is so in love with football. We watch college football and the Dallas Cowboys so it's constantly on the TV. He knows his Longhorn shirt and Dallas Cowboys shirt and gets excited when it's time to put them on. It cracks us up how excited he gets. Then he gets mad and thinks you've changed the channel on him when they go to a commercial.

Quick Update

First, ECI - They came last Wednesday and the visit went very well. David was in town so he came about 30 minutes into it. We just filled out a whole bunch of paperwork and answered a bunch of questions. Wyatt slept until it was time to get him involved. After the entire assessment, his motor skills are that of a 27 month old and his speech is at the 15 month level so that means we qualify for speech therapy. They will be back next Monday for the next visit. Woohoo! I have a feeling in a few months we'll be asking ourselves why we needed to do this when he talks our ears off. haha. Mark my words...
We had a fun weekend visiting Dad and Barbara. The pontoon boat is awesome and we spent a lot of time on boat rides this weekend. I'll post pictures later once I get them downloaded. It was great to see Maddie and Millie and we all had a great time.
The Cowboys were a huge disappointment but we were so busy yesterday, we didn't have too much time to dwell on the disaster of the game.
David is in California this week until Friday so it will be a long week without him.

Cutie Pie

Do you ever just look at your child(ren) and think, "Dang you are so freakin cute?!"? Well, I do that alot. Tuesday, I put Wyatt in some new jeans for school because it was cool that morning. I'm so used to seeing him in shorts, it was a whole new look. He was so dang cute, I had to take pictures:


I like the hand in the pocket.
We are headed out again today. This time we are going to Chandler, TX to visit Dad and Barbara. They got a pontoon boat this week so we are very excited to go for boat rides this weekend. Barbara is headed to her daughter's house today and will be bringing our nieces, Maddie and Millie, back tomorrow while Kari and Peyton go to a class reunion. It's been about a year since we've seen them so we are excited about that too! We'll head back Sunday and hope the Cowboys show up better this week.

Changed Plans

Instead of leaving on Thursday to camp, we ended up leaving Friday morning. David had so much work to do, he worked all day Thursday and got up Friday morning and worked from 6am until we left around 11am. So, Thursday afternoon Wyatt and I hung out with Linda and Kelsey (neighbors). We sat outside, played and relaxed. When David came home he sat outside and relaxed with us. Kelsey and I played with my camera and found some features I didn't know how to use. Here are some pics.

Here's Kelsey...


Wyatt and Daddy

Kelsey pushing Wyatt in that beloved car.

After the relaxing fun, Rob came home from work and we all loaded up and went to Brandon's Central High School Jr Varsity game. Wyatt loved the football players. He also enjoyed flirting with the little girl that sat next to us. The Chargers lost but we had fun nonetheless.

Friday morning we left to go pick up the RV and head to Lake Ray Roberts. Fortunately, we called ahead. Both parks were booked and we called a few others that were also booked. We didn't realize it was Columbus Day on Monday and the kids were out of school so there were lots of campers this weekend! We ended up going to Cedar Hill State Park (old faithful) and got the last 2 spots together. Mark, Brenda and the kids came out about 7pm that evening.
Saturday, we watched the Longhorns beat the Sooners - YIPPEE!- and hung out. Mark and Brenda took all of the kids and dogs to the beach/park while David and I got to watch the game uninterrupted. It was a great time. We cooked out, made smores, went for walks, etc. It was a fun weekend.
Sunday afternoon we came home to watch the Cowboy game. After a VERY disappointing effort by the Cowboys we visited with our friends and went to bed.
Today, we have our first visit from ECI (early childhood intervention). They should be here at 3pm for our assessment. Hopefully, Wyatt will qualify due to his delayed speech and they will come back out in 2 weeks.

Weekend Plans

First of all, I'm still trying to get a good picture of Wyatt in his Halloween costumes. We put both the green monster and Mickey Mouse costumes on last night but he won't stop and stand stil for me. He's not too fond of the monster even though it is so cute. He had it on and just screamed and chased Paco around. I guess he understands it's supposed to be a little scary. haha. He really likes the Mickey costume but for a limited time and without the hat/ears. Halloween should be fun! haha.
David came home last night and we were originally going to go to the State Fair today. But since we've had a sick week and David needed to go to the office, we decided to lay low this morning. I'm packing up for a weekend RV trip. We're going to pick up the RV from the shop (had a refrigerator recall due to fires - YIKES!) and we are headed to Lake Ray Roberts for some relaxation and fun. Our friends Mark and Brenda and their kids are meeting us up there tomorrow and we'll watch Texas beat OU on Saturday! Go Longhorns! Sunday, we'll return for our weekly Dallas Cowboys watching party. I'll have to take some pics and do a blog entry about that. We all love it! Go Cowboys!

Better Today!

Thank goodness Wyatt is better today. Yesterday I cleaned the house and today I've just finished washing EVERYTHING in the hopes that when David gets here this evening, the germs will be gone. Wyatt is eating and drinking like his old self and the bathroom issues have improved greatly. He's been less whiney which is a VERY welcomed change. I think our virus is gone!
Here are a couple of pictures of the playhouse. It's still in pieces and I obviously haven't had time to clean it but Wyatt did get to see it yesterday. He liked walking in and out of it and exploring it.

Icky Sicky

Poor baby is still sick. He woke up okay and ate some cheerios and milk for breakfast so I thought he was feeling better. It went downhill from there. I'm doing everything for him the nurse suggested last night and we are waiting for the virus to run it's course. Now, I've gotten a touch of it as well. In the meantime, EVERYTHING has been washed in this house and I'll wash all the bed linens tomorrow before David gets home. Now, I'm sweeping, mopping and vacuuming because we don't want Daddy to get sick after he returns from being out of town for a solid week!

Sick Baby

I'm so sad. Wyatt has a gastrointestinal virus. I talked to the doctor's office nurse a little while ago and told her his symptoms which are worse today. The weird thing is he has no fever and has been playing all day but he won't eat or drink much and he has the graphic symptoms I won't name here. The nurse said he is "highly contagious" so I had to cancel our first ECI (early childhood intervention) appointment that was scheduled for tomorrow and I'll keep him home from Mother's Day Out. He has delayed speech. We waited 2 months for a hearing test appointment that he passed and another 2 months for this first ECI appointment. I hope we don't have to wait 2 more months for the next opening! By then, he'll probably be talking like crazy!

It's Raining Today

Poor Wyatt. He is totally teased with all of the new treasures sitting in our backyard and it's a rainy day today so he can't go out there. It looks like the sun might come out and if it dries up somewhat we'll go out and at least get some pictures of the new toy house in pieces. Stay tuned...

Christmas in October!

Holy Cow! I am beside myself with excitement right now. Today started off rough with Wyatt waking up at 5am throwing up. He has never been sick like that (we've been so lucky) so I held, cleaned and comforted him as best as I could. Then we got a system and made it through until about 6:45am when his stomach seemed to be settled. Then we went back to sleep. I woke up at 9am (latest I've slept in a very long time!) and then I heard him in his room stirring.
We had a pretty good day after all of that. Wyatt was feeling much better so we went to visit Uncle Paul's mom in the nursing home and picked up her laundry. After that we came home and went next door for the Cowboy game after Wyatt woke up from his nap. Thank goodness the Cowboys won against Cincinnati and we all went outside for playing and visiting. We missed Daddy but all in all we had a good day. Then, about 8:20pm our friends John and Shelley who just left the Cowboy game and visiting time called. They found a Step 2 Playhouse that someone was setting out for bulk trash pickup. They were so sweet to think of us. They talked to the people who set it out (it had ants and a tiny roof leak but the people wanted to get rid of it) and then brought it over for Wyatt. This thing is so cute! We just finished unloading it into our backyard. It's sitting out there in pieces in the dark and I can still see that it is adorable. I can't wait until tomorrow when Wyatt and I can get out there, wash it down and put it together for a fun time. I'll take a picture once we get it all together and post it. I'm so excited!

Garage Sale Jackpot!

Two posts in two days - this is a record! :-)
Wyatt and I are so excited. We went out this morning for Garage Sale Day 2. Like I stated yesterday, I was mostly looking for outdoor toys so I can promote myself from playmate to supervisor outside. He can play on these toys without me needing to be right there playing with him. This is big! So, today we spent $10. We got a stickhorse that talks, a USA puzzle, 5 books, a real Fisher Price flashlight to take RVing, a basketball goal and a slide. We came home with our treasures and played for about 1.5 hours before lunch and Wyatt's nap. Here are some pictures of our garage sale jackpot!

Weekly Update

It's been so hard lately for me to stop and take the time to update. I'll try to do better.
No need to worry about pay, daycare, etc. Even though I thought the interview went very well, Keller ISD never called back. I hate that. I understand when you hear nothing after submitting a resume (pretty much all the time lately) but if you take the time to interview, I think you should get a rejection letter at the very least. Oh well. I'm relieved and my feelings are hurt at the same time. Crazy. I know things will work out they way they are supposed to.
David left to go out of town for work on Thursday and will return next Wednesday night. He only goes out of town on the weekend for work once a year but we both hate it nonetheless. So, I've been extra busy while he's been gone. It helps the time pass faster.
Park Glen (our development) has twice yearly garage sales, one in the spring and one in the fall. This weekend are the garage sales for the fall. We got a head start and went to a few this morning. There are only a few on Fridays but I like to get a first look and you don't have to get up at the crack of dawn and fight the crowds. It does get crowded! Anyway, I am so proud. For $12.50, I got an umbrella stroller, Seasame Street toy, baby gate (for my friend), a step 2 riding car (picture below) and a toddler domino game. JACKPOT! The car was my biggest score. It's older but still in good shape. I got it for $3! Wyatt absolutely loves it.


I was looking for some outdoor toys for him to play with especially with the weather starting to get cooler.
After the garage sales, we headed to Dallas to have lunch with my Grampa and his friend Dorris. We love them so much. I showed him Wyatt's car and we proceeded to wash it. It was so much fun. Grampa loves to be active and Wyatt loves to help so it was a win win for everyone.

Then, Grampa pushed Wyatt around in it.

After all the fun, we went over to Wendy's and enjoyed some lunch. Grampa has always liked Wendy's and the workers there love him. They were happy to meet Wyatt too. Then, we went back to Grampa's for more visiting and finally left around 3pm. Now, Wyatt is sleeping after his big visit.
Tomorrow, we are going out in the morning looking for more treasures then we'll head to Southlake after Wyatt's nap and meet up with Adam and Renee at the Southlake Oktoberfest. Sunday, Wyatt and I will head over next door for the weekly Cowboy Game party. GO COWBOYS!

Tuesday, Wednesday Update

Yesterday I had a job interview with Keller ISD. I have mixed feelings because the job itself, A/P Specialist, has wonderful hours (no summers off though) and is only 5 miles away. All of my previous jobs (except Staffing for Tomorrow) have been jobs in Corporate America with long commutes and long hours including those commutes. However, just as before, I am torn with putting Wyatt in daycare. It's questionable if this job I interviewed for pays enough considering daycare. I guess we'll see...

Today, Wyatt and I went on a "marathon" walk. Looking at the map it was only 2.3 miles but it took 1 1/2 hours because we walked to the park, played for 30 minutes and then walked all the way back home. It was good for both of us. Since I broke my ankle back in February, my ankle has been 'tempermental' at times. This is the strongest it's felt since before the break so it's been a good day.

Update from the Week

This was a fun week and I've been bad about updating. I have some pictures from last weekend to post as well but I'll have to do that later. Wednesday morning, we went over to Bear Creek Park in Keller to walk, play and feed the ducks/geese. We had a very fun time playing at the park but I forgot my camera. Then we walked around and ended up at the creek feeding the ducks. That was really fun too. I have fond childhood memories of feeding the ducks at the fishing barge in Lewisville with my mom. I also remember how agressive they could get. These ducks had good manners but the geese were scary. I was talking to a man that fishes there about 3 times a week to feed the resident herons and he said there is one goose that charges. He scared them away for us. Turns out this interesting man has released a few trucker comedy CD's and gave us one with his autograph. His name is Ernie Shill. I really liked this park. The people were very friendly and we had a great time.
Thursday night we went to Karrie's house (bff since 7th grade) to visit. Her daughter Lacie works at Once Upon a Child in Flower Mound and so very kindly got Wyatt two Halloween costumes. One is a green monster from Gymboree - what a steal - and the other is an adorable Mickey Mouse costume. I'll take pictures of both and set up a survey for you to vote on. He prefers the Mickey costume as of now. The monster is thicker and goes over his head. He's not too crazy about it being on his head. The Mickey costume is missing a glove so I'll go on a hunt next week for a pair of "cartoon gloves". FUN FUN! I'm thinking I might just put him in the Mickey costume from 6pm - 7pm and the Monster from 7pm - 8pm. haha.
David came home from California yesterday and we had a nice family afternoon/evening. Everyone was tired but we did manage to go to Fresco's for our favorite Mexican food. It was a quick dinner though.
Today, David is off to Giddings (see pics from Labor Day) to Uncle Daniel and Aunt Nancy's ranch. The Martine family guys get together once a year for fun and fellowship at Uncle Daniel's house. Then they get together again in late November/ early December for the annual hunt at Uncle Tom's ranch outside of Marble Falls. David will be home tomorrow late morning/early afternoon so we'll have plenty of time to prepare for the Cowboy game - GO COWBOYS!!!
Today, Wyatt and I are headed over to Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Paul's house for lunch and visiting. Grampa and Dorris will be there too.
Have a great weekend!

Birthday Weekend - David

What a weekend!
David flew in from Nashville on Friday and we went to dinner with Linda, Rob, Kelsey, John, Shelley and Tina at our favorite restaurant Fresco's. After that we all went back to Linda and Rob's (next door) and sat in their driveway visiting and watching the Hurricane Coverage. They had a TV in the garage and put it on the front porch for us to watch - how redneck is that?!?! haha. It was fun.
Saturday, we hung out a home waiting and watching for the rain. We ended up with some wind and 1/2 inch of rain. That night the same people from Friday and Ricky (2 doors down)came over for "Game Night". We had a blast playing Whoonu and Catchphrase.
Sunday was David's birthday. Scott, Sara and the twins, Benjamin and Madelynn came over along with Sara's brother Brian who was up from Houston. We had alot of fun playing darts, cooking out, playing with the kids and visiting. Rob, Linda, Brandon, Autumn and Kelsey came over later and we all had hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries and sopapilla cheesecake that Sara made. YUMMY! I also made a cheesecake (David's favorite) and we had that on Monday.

Hurricane Ike

Our thoughts and prayers are with our numerous family and friends in the Houston, Kemah, Galveston area. Hurricane Ike is predicted to be a "big one" and we are following it closely. I have prepared for the worst and as of today expecting not much here in Fort Worth. However, channel 8's Pete Delkus scared the cr@p out of me yesterday when the track was heading in our direction. We have lots of gas, water, milk and non-perishables in our house today but it looks like it will be just a rainstorm for us. Nonetheless, we have lots of family in Houston and my Dad and Barbara in Chandler (Lake Palestine) and we are praying for everyone's safety.

Little Character

This one cracked me up. Monday we decided to make a second noodle necklace so there is now one for me and one for Wyatt. He also found his St. Patrick's Day hat that Neenie gave him back in the spring. So, he was walking around the house with his noodle necklace and hat.
Here I had some popcorn chicken in the oven. I put the oven light on so he can see it.

This was our walk down to the mailbox to check the mail.

He LOVES checking the mail. He pulls out the mail once we get the box open.