What Little Girls Are Made Of

I could take pictures of little girls all day long. 

They cheese it up for the camera and just have the sweetest smiles! 

Agh, they're so cute.

And then there are these guys.  

They go hunting in the flower bed

And give you the most ridiculous looks when you try to take pictures of them. 

And they never, ever, beyond a shadow of a doubt, 

even if you dance a jig, 

or tell a funny joke, smile for the camera. EVER. 

Anyway. That's all I'm going to post of the birthday party pictures. We are heading to Tulsa tomorrow and it's going to be a slow day because of the snow and ice heading through the area tonight and tomorrow morning. Warner is having Lasik on Thursday and I'm redecorating the study. Other than that, not much is going on. I had a doctor's appointment today and it was fine, nothing new to report. I saw a lot of my techs and nurses while I was there so that was fun because I haven't seen some of them since treatment ended. But anyway, enjoy the pictures. I'm going to get back to packing and getting ready for tomorrow. 

Just Add Sugar

Just a quick post of some pictures from my Saturday! Two of my friends had a joint birthday party for their sons today and I was there taking pictures of all the chaos! It was a lot of fun, and I'm going to sleep really well tonight. I have many many more pictures from the day, but these are a couple of my favorites. I'll post a real update sometime soon.

When Boredom And Satire Collide

"Changing The Meaning Of Hope - 2020"

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Yes, that is my brother, and yes, he got very bored the other day.

And yes, this picture made me laugh so hard I almost wet my pants.

Not Playing Fair

Apparently I have a knack for posting horrifying pictures of myself on this blog. This picture was taken Monday night and as you can see, my rash on my face turned into hives on my cheekbone up to my eye. Swollen.Itchy.Aweful.Hives. So, up until this point the rash was playing fair. It was staying within the radiation boundaries and for the most part was following a set pattern - after UV sun exposure of some sort (I'm not sure if this is the culprit - the only other commonality between the last two outbreaks is that I went to Walmart before. So it could totally be a Walmart allergy!) my face would start to get splotchy and then swell a little and get all red and itchy and about two days later it would peel. You guys know the routine. WELL. This time, my face did the usual, for a day. THEN. It spread up my face! But it wasn't the solid red rash, it was little swollen hives. The rash started Saturday night, was full blown on Sunday and started spreading up my face Sunday evening. On Tuesday it was starting to fade some, and today it is peeling (although it is still itchy sometimes). So, the rash isn't playing fair anymore so the gloves are coming off! Although I don't really know what to do...they don't make anything higher than SPF 70 that I know of. 

Okay, so what's going on around here, you ask? Not a whole lot. Warner is working nights for the shut down, so he gets home as I am leaving for work and he leaves as I'm getting home, so we see each other for about an hour a day. I'm not sure how long the night shift is going to last, it depends on how fast they finish the shut down. Edgar has really missed spending time with Warner. When Warner gets home he goes nuts for about 30 minutes. When I get home, he gets excited, but it lasts, oh, about 2 seconds. The boys are also loving having Warner home during the day (even though he is sleeping the whole time - but that means they get to cuddle in bed with him). 

Speaking of Edgar. The poor guy has horrible ear infections, so Warner took him in today and got some medication for him and apparently he has a slight heart murmur - but it's nothing to worry about right now because it may end up going away on its own. He also had a callus on the top of his head that we had checked out. Warner and I had been joking that it was probably because he runs into the wall so much, and guess what! The vet took samples of it, and it's a BRUISE! Haha, so we were right! The vet said he is obviously in his awkward 10 month old puppy stage (he was falling all over himself while getting examined) and he will start filling out in his hips and chest around 16 months - so the shetland pony may make it to full quarter horse size by the time he's done growing! Okay, well, it's bed time!

The Coolest Kid On The Block

Molly, AKA the coolest kid on the block, had her first gymnastics in house practice competition tonight and I wasn't going to miss it for the world! 

They performed their routines for floor, beam, vault, and bars and all the kiddos did great! It definitely made me miss my tumbling days. Yeah, contrary to popular belief, I used to be flexible and I used to love to send my body flying into the air, and falling....falling is always fun! You've gotta like falling if you're going to tumble - otherwise, you have picked the wrong hobby!

But anyway, back to Molly! Molly was born my senior year of high school and I used to babysit her quite often until I left for college. I think her mom was the first person I was close to that got pregnant - so it was very exciting when Molly arrived.  She was supposed to be the flower girl in my wedding until her momma got pregnant and was due right around the time of my wedding (and awesome Mary became my flower girl!). Molly is also the expert on all things shark cartilage and she knows everything about my surgery - right down to my feeding tube. So, that definitely makes her awesome. So, here are a few pictures from her meet. 

Waiting patiently to do her bar routine

They all were so excited to get surprise medals at the end of the night!

Do They Make Yoga For Quadriplegics?

I really haven't had much to write about lately. I'm back at work, Warner starts a shut down tomorrow, and the boys are being completely obnoxious and feel they are the most deprived puppies on the planet (which I assure you, they are not). 

I have been desperately searching for a new hobby, but I haven't had much luck. I've thought about taking a community class but they are all out in Baton Rouge, and with work and having to battle the evening rush hour to get out there, I really don't want to put myself through that! So, I've been keeping myself busy with coming up with ideas for how to decorate the study in the Tulsa house. We are taking a trip up there at the end of this month and I'm planning on diving in head first and getting the study up and running - or at least sending the "white" couch to Goodwill - unless there are too many tears involved and then it might sit in our garage for a little while - which in that case, I'll be praying for lots of rain. So, I've got a plan for two bookcases, a secretary / desk, a chair, and a table. I'm not sure how all that is going to fit into the study because it's a very small room, but I'm going to make it work. 

So, my New Years resolution was to keep the house cleaner and to eat more vegetables. Well, the apartment isn't so clean, but it's not bad. We've kept the carpet vacuumed which is quite a feat because Edgar sheds enough hair each week to clothe all the kids in Africa. And I've been eating my vegetables, which is not that big of a surprise because, well, I love vegetables, so that was kind of a freebie resolution, but it totally counts.

But for real, I want to get back in shape. I figure, cancer is over so I need to be in better shape. This is proving to be a hard mission. I have to watch what I do because I am still losing weight at the drop of a hat, and honestly, I'm tired of getting in trouble for it. Plus, I can't afford any more new clothes, well, I guess I could, but I'd rather spend the money on getting the study fixed up. So, in my mission to become "ripped" I have attempted Yoga For Beginners. You know, the one where they take more time explaining the pose than they actually spend doing the pose, and where they take like five minute breaks in between each pose, and the hardest thing they ask you to do is touch your toes (to which I replied, "You want me to do what?!?!"). Yeah, I failed. MISERABLY. To the point where I was yelling at Patricia Walden who was calmly talking the whole time while she was gracefully exercising on my television screen with her chiseled abs and flexible hamstrings. After, I asked Warner if they make yoga for quadriplegics, then I realized that would be impossible, so I decided to settle on yoga for paraplegics - because yeah, that's where I am. 

Jackson Square on New Years Eve

The party goers

The rest of the crew

The Fleur De Lis drop on top of JAX brewery

Here We Go

Well it's been a while since I've made a post so I thought I would before things get crazy at work next week. We have a pretty large amount of work to complete in a short amount of time, and things have to go just right to stay on schedule. Working on this particular portion of work has been my personal little project over he past 6 weeks or so, and I'm really hoping everything comes off smoothly. Enough about that though. How bout we do a fancy year in review type of thing. In many ways it's good to see 2008 go... ok really in one BIG way its good to see 2008 go. At the same time though I know that this trial was not only good for Stephanie and I, but the best thing for us. I find this an undeniable truth. We were truly blessed throughout the year, but this was especially evident between April and August. Finanicially we were in a perfect position to be able to deal with cancer, mainly due to early plans for me to have LASIK and thus having a whole lot of money in our flexible spending account. I've also been getting quite a bit of overtime down here in Louisiana, and we were certainly provided for. The guys I work with are also incredibly generous, from the project manager and superintendents all the way down to the laborers. We were also blessed geographically, not only were we in the only place to get this particular team of doctors, but we were also close to Stephanie's family. This allowed Stephanie's mom to stay with us and help out a whole lot around the apartment. I'm curious to see what is in store for us in 2009, knowing we will again be blessed, and hoping we will be blessed in a much diffrerent way. I've also scheduled LASIK for much earlier in the year, this way Stephanie can't steal all the flex money out from under me.