I'm Baaacckk!!

Well hi there! (waving) How are you doing? You remember me right? RIGHT?! (Sigh) Oh good.. I have officially returned my friends! This month has been a roller coaster of events that have literally kept me busy ALL THE TIME! But school is over and we got through my brother's wedding and now I am FREE! I have the whole summer to relax and enjoy my precious little girl and family! That is a great feeling! Since I know you inquiring minds want to know just what kept me from you this last month, here goes:

My brother and his now wife (Hi Chris and Jen!!) got married on May 2 down in Galveston! It was a beautiful wedding and lots of fun too! We spent the whole weekend down there and a good time was had by all! We got to take Makayla to the Aquarium for the first time and I swear, I thought she would have a heart attack. Did I mention that she is REALLY into sea animals right now?? She got to see sharks (her favorite thing of the moment) and sting rays and just lots of other sea life.

Mother's Day was also this month so there was lots of spending time with Moms and Memaws.

2 weeks before school ended, my computer decided to rebel against me. Let me explain...every year my end of the year gift is to make every parent a DVD of all the pictures I have taken throughout the year and I set it to cute music. This year however, the program I use decided to not cooperate which caused the following:
- Went out and bought a new external DVD/CD burning device
- Had to install a new movie making software on my computer
- Successfully burned a CD, but computer refused to burn it on a DVD
- Had to go out and buy a new DVD player for the house because I broke ours in frustration
- Tried to play the successfully burned CD on new DVD player only to have it say
"Disc Error"
- Had a meltdown due to the stress
- Went to neighbor's house and the CD did play on her DVD player! REJOICE!
- Finally burned the rest of the CD's and gave them to the parents! Whohoo!!

Went to a wedding the weekend after my brother's for a coworker of mine. It was beautiful and again, a good time was had by all!

1 week before my brother got married, we had a really nasty torrential rainstorm here in Houston and lots of homes got flooded. Ours did not, but my parents whole first floor was under water. It was a mess. After we got through the wedding and they had someone come out and take a look, they decided to basically gut the house and renovate it! It is going to look completely different! So for the last week, we have been helping them move everything out into a rent house. (Which has a pool! YES!!) Yesterday they started demolition... crazy.

School ended and it was an emotional event. We had a really great group of kiddos this year and some will not be returning to the school next year, so it was very hard to say goodbye.

So that has pretty much been my month! I have missed you all dear readers! Now I want to know what your summer plans are this year!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day everyone! Especially to my momma, who has always been my friend, disciplinarian, chef, driver, my biggest fan and supporter. I love you Mom!

Give a little.. take a lot

Ok, I am about to scream. I went to my Dr. this morning and I am just SO frustrated. Basically what has happened is that since he takes blood EVERY month to check my thyroid levels, my insurance only pays a small part of the blood work bill and I have to pay the rest. Well in Jan. I went to my Dr. and they informed me that I had some HUGE balance due. Yeah, $1100 worth! It was from all the blood work from Aug. 08 to Dec. 08 and they just decided to tell me about it! UGH! So I have been on a payment plan with them paying off a little each month. Well, I go in this morning because of course, my Dr. wanted me to fast last night and he was going to be doing some blood work this morning. I get in there and the receptionist is like, oh, you know you have a big balance right? I was like, yeah, I am paying that off each month. She says, No, something else just came through and it's like $900!!! I was like, what?!?! She says the billing lady wants to talk to you. Double UGH. So I go talk to Sandy (billing lady) and she is like- well because you are already on a payment plan for the other balance, I can't add this new amount to that. So I asked what my options are and she says, well I can't allow you to see the Dr. again until this $900 is paid off!!!! I was about to explode right there. So basically I told her that I taught summer school and it pays pretty well and that I could pay it off in June, but not before then. So she says, well, I will let you see the Dr. today, but then you can't come back until you pay that off. UUUGGGHHHHH. So I paid a little on the balance today and then I told the Dr. everything that was going on. I told him exactly what Sandy had told me and he was like, "But if your levels still aren't straight, you really need to come back and see me." And I was like, well Sandy won't allow me to. And the Dr. responds with, Well, I would hate if you had to start seeing another Dr. WHAT? So now they are just gonna drop me after all this??? I am so MAD!! Basically we left it that he will let me know what all my blood work reveals next week and we will go from there. If the levels seem ok, then he will just wait until June to see me again. Can I just tell you how much I hate all this insurance CRAP?!?!?!?! So freaking ridiculous!!

All I am trying to do is get myself healthy, but of course the politics of it all gets in the way. What in the world is the point of health insurance if when you use it, they make it so expensive that people can't even go to the Dr. to fix themselves?! Ok, I will stop now. If you need me, I'll be drowning my sorrows....

I dub thee... "Baby Week!"

So I mentioned that 2 of my best friends are pregnant, well I should say, were pregnant! On Wednesday, my friend Kelly and her husband Adam welcomed their son Drew into the world! It was a fairly easy delivery and they got to take home their sweet baby today! Well, then yesterday, my friend Sara checked into the hospital to be induced as well!! They were the couple who chose not the know the sex of the baby. Well we get a text message from Ron (the daddy) telling us the baby was born and he would be out shortly to make the announcement...well 30 min. later he FINALLY came out! It's a GIRL!!! We were all so excited! They named her Leslie! She is a doll!
I am just so happy and excited for both my friends and their wonderful new additions to their families! Babies are just such a blessing and I am so happy to share this wonderful experience of parenthood with friends that I pretty much grew up with!

Congrats again to Kelly, Adam and Baby Drew and to Sara, Ron and Baby Leslie! You guys are going to be great parents and I can't wait to start sharing "stories" with you all! Love you guys!!

Putting it all out there...

Hi again friends!
I am happy to report that I am pretty much 95% better! Whohoo! I still have the tiniest bit of congestion, but other than that I am great! I am still in awe that an antibiotic can take you from feeling like you're on your death bed to feeling re-born in just a mere 48 hours!

But enough about that, I am on to a more serious topic. I probably should be waiting to write this, but because it is so fresh on my mind, it is hard to resist. Some things happened this weekend that have me questioning my friendability. Yeah, that's right, I just made up my own word. If you know anything about me, you know that I love my friends dearly. I would do anything for them and they know that. I found out a couple of things this weekend from some friends that made me realize our relationship might not be as close as I thought. Now I realize that when you have a blog, people probably tend to think you will just write about any and everything. Not true, in fact. I tend to share more about myself than anything else and if I do happen to mention a friend, I make sure they are absolutely ok with it first, or I just use fake names to protect the innocent, etc. And I would never share a secret that someone didn't want told. Apparently though, I was not to be trusted this time, and it hurt. Especially when I found out, I was the last to know by several months. Yeah, that knife just dug a little deeper in there. I am certainly not trying to make anyone feel guilty or upset by writing this, I just needed to vent. And though this seems as if I might be sharing something, you in fact, really have no idea what I am talking about. Which proves the point that I don't share secrets. I am also not looking for a pity party, this is just life and I needed to get that off my chest.

I hope you all have a great week.

Mama G

Not the brightest crayon in the box....

What?! 2 posts in one day?! That's right folks! This is what illness will do to you. You sit at home resting and after you realize how boring day-time tv is and the fact that I still can't breath all that well so napping is out... I thought, hey, I will entice my readers to another post! I just love you all that much!

Let me preface this by saying, I was never the brightest crayon in the box. Seriously. I liked school, but only for the fact that I got to go see my friends everyday and socialize! Although I was not blessed with "book" smarts, I do have common sense. Going against the latter here, I am putting myself out there and humoring you, my dear readers with some moments that were not my best.

-One time my mom, Phil and I were walking by a pond and this duck was just going berserk on another duck! I thought he was attacking the poor thing! I drew attention to this by saying, "Look at that duck attacking the other one! That is so mean!" All of a sudden I hear my mom and Phil busting out laughing. I asked what was so funny about that... that's when they had to give me the "birds and bees" talk about the ducks.

-Since Phil is such a history buff, he took me to go see "The Patriot". Again.. since I have never been one for a good memory or interest in history, during the middle of the movie, I leaned over and asked Phil, "Which war is this?" After he told me the American Revolution, I thought for a minute then asked, "So did we win?" I just wanted to make sure.

-After seeing many of those Payless commercials for their infamous BOGO sales, I could never figure out what they were talking about. Phil finally explained it was "Buy One Get One". To my credit, Phil never knew what it was either until he googled it, THEN told me about it. So yeah.

-One time my girlfriends and I went on a trip. When we got into the room we figured we needed to ask the Concierge about something. I went over, picked up the phone and pressed O. Nothing. I hung up, then picked it back up again and listened.. nothing! I started getting a little testy and I was like, "What in the world is wrong with this phone?!?!" My friend then realized it was not plugged in. Oops. My friends didn't stop laughing for a good 10 minutes.

-I honestly used to think those "Oh Sh*t" handles in the car were called "Ocean" handles. Come on... that's an honest mistake right?!

-After a trip to one of those Paint Your Own Pottery places, I went back to pick up my piece. I didn't want to have a lot of things in my hands, so I left my purse in the car and just had my keys and my cell. As I was walking into the place, I called my friend to see if she wanted me to pick her piece up as well. She said no and we just started chatting. Well I grab my pottery and my keys and had this feeling I was forgetting something since I walked in already carrying 2 things. Then as I am still talking with my friend, the conversation went something like this: "Oh man, hold on a sec. I put my phone down somewhere and now I can't find it." I literally starting looking for it and then my friend just starts laughing. I am like, what? She says, "Honey, what are you talking to me on??" I felt like an idiot and several people in the pottery place gave me that, Oh bless your little heart look. I haven't returned since.

-And most recently, I went to a party where I was the official photographer of sorts. My brother handed me his camera as well so I was juggling mine and his at the same time. During a group shot, I was struggling with both the cameras when all of a sudden my camera screen went black. I couldn't figure what had happened! The camera still worked just fine and even took pictures! I could still preview them, but when I went to "Camera" mode, nothing. Even in my Video mode, the screen would come back! I was so upset!! I had pretty much resigned to the fact that I would need a new camera when several days later I took it out and was inspecting it again and pressed the Display button. Guess what? The screen came back on. No camera malfunction, just a user one.

I think I'll stop now to save myself from anymore further embarrassment. But hey, we are all human and all have our moments, I just seem to have a few more than others....

Infection Update-Day 5

Well friends, I am still sick. 3 days after going to my local MinuteClinic at CVS and having a male nurse practioner tell me it was nothing more than a "little sinus infection", I still felt horrible. I could not keep my fever under control, (think 101-103) and that was WITH Tylenol and Motrin!! I followed this guy's exact orders of, "take Zyrtex-D, Mucinex, use nasal spray and sleep under a humidifier" and still nothing! I knew the fever was indicating a more serious problem so Thurs. morning I hauled myself out of bed and went to my ENT.
He was shocked by what this other guy had told me and couldn't believe he didn't prescribe anything to me. He said I had a MAJOR infection and that he was going to immediately give me a steroid shot, (in my patootie-OUCH) and clear out my sinuses and get me on a high dose on antibiotics. He seemed very concerned. So I asked him what antibiotic and he said Augmentin, and I replied that I had been on that before many years ago. He then said, "probably not like this. I am giving you 1000mg pills. You are to take 2 pills every 12 hours. And you are to eat a piece of chocolate before you take the pills. Every time." Ok, so let me get this straight, I am gonna be on 4000mg of meds, but I get to eat chocolate everyday?? Ok, I am now officially IN LOVE with my ENT! Haha! (Sorry Phil!) He said the chocolate was to prevent upset tummy issues, which let me tell you, he is brilliant! I was really nervous about taking such a high dose, but sure enough, no tummy problems! I am slowly on my way to recovery. I still have a little bit of fever, but I can now blow my nose for the first time in 5 days! Whohoo! My jaw is no longer my worst enemy. It hurt so bad that I literally wanted to tear off my lower jaw from the pain. My throat is still raw, but I have learned of the wonders of Chloraseptic spray! I usually never get that sick, so never had the need to buy this stuff, but oh. my. goodness! It actually numbs your throat so you don't feel a thing! MIRACLE! I still have a little trouble sleeping at night because when I lay down, my nose tends to close up again making it harder to breathe. When I sit up, my nose usually starts running, so I have had to try and angle myself or go camp out in our recliner.
My poor mother is still berating me for 1.)going to the MinuteClinic in the first place and 2.) not going to the ENT immediately after the other guy didn't give me a prescription. I have to explain myself here though. Ever since I was little, I never got sick. Hardly ever. I had chicken pox when I was five and that was ONLY because my brother got them and my mom didn't want me to get them later on, so she made my brother and I rub our arms together so I could go ahead and get them and be done with it. Nice huh. So even that wasn't my fault. Other than that, I would be a very occasional infection, think once every couple of years! I just never got sick. Even well into my adulthood, I never got sick. I would get a little sniffle now and then and the occasional mild cold but that was it. Back in 2000 I did get the flu from some idiot on a plane and came back home and was basically in a coma for a week. Seriously, I don't even remember what happened all that week. But that's been about it.
Now for some reason, since Sept. 2008 when Hurricane Ike reared its ugly head, I have been sick constantly. Every month, my nose would be congested, but I would not run fever. So I just figured it was allergies that the hurricane had kicked up. I am not used to being sick here people. It is a strange and annoying little occurrence that I would much rather do without. So because of this, I am not one to run to the Dr. the minute I get a little runny nose. I do not like to look like a baby, like I can't handle it. It's not in my nature. Yes, I am stubborn or couldn't you tell. I just figure I can tough my way through it with my nice OTC drugs and see what happens. I'll give you another for instance:

When I was 7 1/2 months pregnant, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like an elephant was sitting on my chest. Because I am a "full figured" gal, I immediately thought I was having a heart attack. I tried walking around my house for a few min. but knew this was serious. I woke up my husband and told him we needed to go the ER. I was terrified for my unborn daughter. As it turned out, the ER docs said it had nothing to do with my heart. Because our daughter was sitting so high up, (like right under my chest) it was causing severe acid reflux. They gave me some muscle relaxer to relax my esophagus and I immediately felt better. So after that, I never thought another thing about it. Well, exactly one week after having my emergency C-section, this pain returned, but it was different this time. I was standing in my kitchen feeling perfectly normal when all of a sudden I started to feel a little dizzy. Then I broke out in a cold sweat. Then I started to feel nauseous and then the pain came. Oh the pain. I knew this was NOT acid reflux. Then I would start to throw up. After several hours of this, it would just go away and that would be it. I was dumbfounded. What in the world was happening to me? This proceeded to happen 3 more times on a weekely basis. I finally went to my trusty internet and typed in all my symptoms and couldn't believe what I found. It was gall stones! A classic case! It said that this was very typical especially after child birth because a woman who is producing hormomes for 2 is now left with all that in their body after the baby is born. Sometimes your body doesn't know what to do with all of it and your gall bladder calcifies it. Lovely, I know. One Friday night, I started having the attack and by Saturday night, it had not gone away. I read about some home remedies and decided to do this. (I told you I was stubborn.) I tried everything it said, even resorting to eating bread with olive oil straight. By Monday afternoon, I was in so much pain, I couldn't even hold my baby. I finally gave up. My friend was over visiting and helping me out and I told her I needed to go to the ER. We went by my parents, dropped off my daughter and my husband met us at the hospital. After several hours of VERY uncomfortable waiting, they finally took me back, did an ultrasound of my gall bladder and even the technician was astounded. She said I had so many gall stones she couldn't believe I had waited this long to come in. I was immediately scheduled for surgery first thing the next morning. So almost 4 weeks to the day I had an emergency C-section, I had emergency surgery to get my gall bladder out. That is the most time I have ever spent in a hospital in my life! And trust me, that was enough for me! After that surgery, I have never felt better! Who knew a little 'ol gall bladder could cause so much pain and suffering??

So as you can see, I am not one that goes to the Dr. very often if I can avoid it. It's not that I don't like them, I do! I just want to make sure it is something that doesn't require some simple solution first. Take for example this infection. Now I know there was absolutely nothing I could do but take antibiotics to get rid of this stuff. I am fine with that, antibiotics work wonders. But when my husband went to go pick up my astounding, fabulous, wonder drug, he almost had a heart attack himself when they told him just how much it was gonna cost. Come on, take a guess I DARE YOU. I figured anywhere between $30-50 bucks right. Nope. $75? Nope. $100?? Not even close. $140 people! Yes, you read that right, $140 bucks for 10 days worth of 1 medication. Maybe this is why I don't go to the Dr. more often.. they just want to prescribe you meds that end up costing you an arm and a leg. I told Phil he should offer the pharmacist my kidney in exchange for the meds...neither of them were amused.

Mama G isn't here right now...please leave a message!

Hi..I'm sure you were expecting Mama G, well I hate to tell you but her head has been taken over by me, Mr. Sinus Infection. Oh, you know me, I have been buddies with Mama G for quite some time now! We usually get together several times a month! I was quietly observing her over Spring Break last week and decided that her first day back to school would be a great time to visit! I didn't want to ruin her good time last week! I will be staying for a few days and she should return later this week. So for now, you can just leave a message and I will try to get it to her. Thanks for stopping by!

Sincerely,
Mr. Sinus Infection
(Aka- a big pain in the patootie for Mama G)

Over the hump..

Wow, that sounded a little dirty! I am really talking about the battle of the big girl bed! But I am happy to report, it is a battle no more! Whohoo! Pretty much since Tuesday night, we have had no problems! Of course, several of those days were no nap days.. so we did cheat a little... but hey, what ever works right?! She has been so great about this, I am just so excited! We certainly got off to a rocky start, but we're finally on solid ground! Now if we can get this potty thing under control, we'd be all set! She has been doing great on that aspect as well though.

**FYI- POTTY TALK TO FOLLOW**
She pees in the potty just fine... we just can't seem to get the #2 to cooperate. This has been frustrating for me because she used to go like clockwork. So for most of the week, I have had her completely pant less and she just goes when she needs to. I kept thinking, the minute she feels the poop, she would run and sit down. But her schedule has gotten messed up and now she poops at completely random times. Twice this week, she didn't go at all! I just thought without the pants, it would be easier, and it certainly has been with the pee part. Oh well, we will just keep trying! I just can't put her in her big girl underwear yet, because it would be an absolute mess. Oh well.. practice makes perfect right?

Well, on to a more fun topic! (I can hear a big collective sigh of relief...!)
So on Wednesday, I decided to take Makayla to the Rodeo! Tickets were cheap and it was a gorgeous day, and poor Makayla was getting cabin fever from staying in for several days trying to potty train. We had a blast! Makayla LOVED seeing all the animals! I will include some pictures for your visual enjoyment!

At the petting zoo! She was talking to the goat!

At the petting zoo! She finally got up the nerve to pet him!

She loved watching those piglets with their momma!

She thought the deer was "so beautiful"!

She was very intrigued by the hogs too!

Her FIRST Pony Ride!! Yeah! She was waving at Mommy!

She just loved seeing everything!

And this was the end result! Makayla passed out about 5 min. into the car ride home!

Let the fun times roll!

So last night we set up Makayla's big girl bed and got her some Princess sheets and made it so irresistible, that I even wanted to sleep there! Apparently to Makayla, it was the bed of Satan. We put her down and for 2 hours it was non-stop getting up to put her back into bed or telling her to stop playing, etc. She did eventually go to sleep, but it was WAY past her bedtime. Then this morning, I wake up to her standing next to my bed, which was cute and she climbed up and we had some cuddle time. She then informed me that she had pooped, so we went to her room to get her changed. I noticed that one of her bears was in the bathroom and when I walked in there, she had apparently gotten into some of my eye cream and squirted it all over the place. (Big sigh) I asked her why she did that and got the typical, "I don't know."
Well, after playing around the house and eating lunch, it was time for a nap. I was really looking forward to this! (Did you catch my sarcasm, cuz I was laying it on pretty thick...) For yet another 2 hours, it was a battle of getting her back in bed, stop playing with everything in her room, etc. I'm not gonna lie, there were some spankings involved. Finally she went to sleep. Seriously?! Does this happen with all kids? This is so frustrating! I thought she would be excited about getting into a big girl bed! Is it the freedom that is so tempting? The ability to get up and actually be able to get out of bed?? I need some suggestions friends! Please send over some of your best tips on how to get a toddler to stay in their bed! And don't worry, I have already put one of those door cover things on the door so she can't get out! And we also don't have any toys in there, just some books. I need some advice before I lose my mind! Thank goodness it's Spring Break!

Mama said there'd be days like this...

So yesterday was interesting. Have you ever had one of those days where you just wanna cry for no reason? I am pretty much asking the ladies here, because according to my husband, they don't have those kind of days. Anyway, I was having one of those days and it really annoyed me because I am typically not a crier, never have been. Now don't get me wrong, I am not devoid of feeling... a good romantic can get me going, or something sad, etc. But other than that, I don't usually just cry at the drop of a hat. Now when I got pregnant, all those hormones kicked in and my poor husband had to deal with a crying, blubbery mess for 9 months. I would cry at ANYTHING! I once saw one of those Johnson and Johnson commercials with a cute little baby taking a bath in the sink and on the bottom of the screen they put the words, "A baby changes everything." That was it, I was crying and boohooing for the next 30 min. And for the first 2 years of Makayla's life, I would cry a little more often, but this last year I finally feel like I was going back to my "old" self. But yesterday was just weird, I was teary all day and finally had a breakdown after school in my car and just cried the whole way home! I called Phil and he was like, what in the world is wrong with you?? (And just for the record, no I am not pregnant... so that wasn't it.) But you know, after that good cry, I was better. It felt good to just cry and get it all out. *Wait! I just had an epiphany! Maybe because I don't cry all the time, my body built up all these tears and decided it was time for a release! Ha! Who knows, but alas, I am fine now!

Some more Top 10 Fun!

Makayla has done some pretty cute things lately that I thought deserved another Top 10 List! Enjoy!

1. It could be a horrible day where she acts crazy and runs around and never listens, but after bath time when it's time to settle down for bed, she will get all quiet and snuggle right up to me and we cuddle together. This is absolutely the BEST feeling ever.

2. The way she just makes up random phrases. This week it has been, "Mommy, are you ready to rock?!" Ha! Love it!

3. When she gets excited about dressing up in a pretty outfit.

4. The way she dances..it's awesome.

5. When she sees that I have a "boo-boo", she loves to kiss it and try and make it all better.

6. The fact that she loves to be in the kitchen and helps me cook.

7. She is an outdoor girl. She loves to be outside, playing with sticks. I did too as a child.

8. Our youngest cat has finally warmed up to her, and she loves this! They now cuddle together and he sometimes seeks her out for a nice rub down the back!

9. When I come home the days she is not at school, she usually runs to me and gives me the biggest hug!

10. When she gets excited over the least little thing, like bubbles. It's adorable.

Happy 3rd Birthday Makayla!

On this day 3 years ago, my OB was telling me at this exact moment that my blood pressure was too high, but the baby was doing ok. She felt though, it was time to get the baby out before my bp went up anymore and put the baby in stress. I was totally floored. My due date was still more than 2 weeks away, I had left everything at home. This was supposed to be just a routine Dr.'s visit and it turned into my baby's birthday. They asked me to go straight to Labor and Delivery and check in. I immediately called Phil and told him to go straight home, get the bags, the car seat, all the cameras and rush to the hospital. Luckily my mom was with me on the particular visit, so she kept me calm. Otherwise, I would have totally lost it. As soon as Phil got to the hospital, we started calling everyone on our phone tree list! They still had a lot of things to do to get me prepped for the emergency C-section, and most of my friends were able to make it to the hospital before Makayla was born. At around 5:15, they wheeled me into the delivery room and gave me my epidural. They got everything ready and at 5:52 pm, our beautiful, precious angel came into this world. She was 8 lbs. 4 oz. and 20.25 inches long. She had jet black hair and was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

One day old..

She was 7 months old here, we are visiting the Pumpkin Patch 2006

I love this picture, she was not quite 2 yet

Christmas 2007 She was 1 here.

At 6 weeks old, Makayla started sleeping through the night, and started getting some teeth at 6 months. 2 weeks before her 1st birthday, she started to walk! After that, there was no stopping this girl! She is fearless! At 2, the stubborn streak kicked in. (BTW, I have NO idea where she gets that from..) She is a perfect mix of all-girl and tomboy rolled into one! One day, she is all about the Princesses and the next, it is all about cars and trucks and climbing everywhere like a monkey! She loves forts, animals, dressing up and eating at Chick-fil-a! We have loved every single second we've had with her and look forward to enjoying many many more birthdays and precious moments together.

Makayla's 2nd birthday! She got a trike!

Feb. 8th, 2009 Her 3rd Birthday!

We love you Makayla and thank God every single day for giving you to us and letting us be your parents.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Birthday Parties and Toddlers...

So today is the day. The day I decided to invite 13 toddlers to run around a gym and act like crazy people... all for my daughter's expense! I hope she knows how much I love her...

Yep, although today is not technically her birthday, we are having the big party today! Whohoo! (The big day is actually tomorrow.) So in just a couple of hours, I will be surrounded by 2 and 3 yr. olds and people dressed like clowns! (We voted for circus themed party, minus the clown make-up.)

Wish me luck that we all survive today! I will post pictures later after we've recovered!

Memories...

**WARNING**

This post is gonna be a little sappy on my part. When you read why, you'll understand. Just deal with it.

My baby, no, my toddler is getting ready to turn 3! THREE people. I am freaking out. My child is growing up way too fast!! Here is why I am so frazzled by this:

-When my husband and I moved into this house, Makayla was 4 months old!!!
-Makayla started walking, talking, going to school while in this house.
-It's only been three years! Where did the time go?
-Makayla will be in the grade level I teach this next school year! Ahhh!

Now let me give you some visual perspective....

Makayla only 1 day old!! She was already smiling!!

She was one cool cat....

And happy, did I mention that??

4 Generations at Makayla's 1st Birthday Party

This was at her 2 yr. Birthday party!! She finally got some hair!!!

Fall 2008, she is 2 in this pic!

Makayla over Christmas 2008! What a cutie pie!

So this is the year of me losing my mind! Makayla turning 3, and I am turning the big 3-0 as well!! 2009 is shaping up to be one heck of a year!!

Mama G

Rest in Peace Sweet Angel

I am not sure if I ever mentioned them in this blog, but we have some good friends named the Olsen's. They are the sweetest family with 2 adorable girls. Mark and Tammy (parents) are probably about 10-15 years older than Phil and I, and Phil and Mark used to work together at Phil's current job. Mark took a better job out in Phoenix back in 2005. During that time also, Tammy was pregnant with their 3rd child, a girl they named Briannah. Well, Tammy's due date was right around the time Hurricane Rita came blowing through, so while they were evacuating, Tammy went into labor. Briannah was a beautiful little baby. Tammy and the girls finally made their way to Phoenix and they were all doing great. But several months later, in December, Tammy noticed Briannah was not hitting the typical baby milestones and was not gaining much weight. They took her in for some tests and found that she had an inoperable brain tumor that wrapped itself around her optic nerve. The news was devastating, but they vowed to help her any way they could. They heard about the controversial Burzynski clinic here in Houston and made an appointment. (This was after several other failed attempts of treatment.) The clinic offered some hope, but not a cure and started her on some powerful medications and treatment. For the next year and a half, Briannah made huge progress! The tumor started shrinking, she was gaining weight, she was starting to talk, she could finally sit up by herself, and lots of other things! We were all so hopeful that she would have some wonderful quality of life and be able to live with this tumor. One of the side effects though, was the medicine affected the sodium levels in her body and she didn't retain enough, but they were fixing that through medication. She was also having seizures, but was not having as many since being on the new medicines.
However, 3-4 nights ago, Tammy noticed Briannah was very lethargic and not her typical self. She immediately called 911 and an ambulance came to take her to the hospital. She died twice in the ambulance, but they resuscitated her back both times. When they go to the hospital though, she was not breathing on her own, so they immediately put her on life support. They found that now her body had way too much sodium and apparently that is much much worse than not having enough. Her kidneys started to fail and the situation was not looking good. However, on Friday Briannah started to breath on her own and she seemed to start improving just a little, but by Saturday morning, she got worse again. They tried to put her on dialysis, but couldn't get the tubes into her little body. Mark and Tammy made a gut-retching decision. They took her off life support. They didn't want her to suffer anymore. Our precious little Briannah went to be with the Lord at 6:30 pm, January 24th. Our thoughts and prayers are with our dear friends as they go through this terrible time.

If you would like to read their journey or send condolences, you can visit their website here:
http://www.easysite.com/babybriannah

Please pray for our sweet friends as they deal with this tragedy.
Mama G

Things I have learned being a home owner....

So June will mark our 3 yr. anniversary of living in our first home! Our house was built in '69, so we knew there would be some maintenance issues we would have to deal with, but there were some other things that really surprised us! Here are just a few:

• Older homes probably need new paint jobs every 3 years. When we first moved in, there was not one crack...now there is at least 1 or more in the majority of the rooms!
  
• Just because you replace your AC doesn't guarantee a lower electric bill! The house itself is not energy efficient, so that definitely hurts the wallet! Ouch!
• Some Homeowners Associations just suck.... end of story.
• Having to deal with wild animals...we have seen possums, rats, armadillos and raccoons all in our yard/garage.
  
• Having some good friends move away :-(
• Making some new friends! :-)

So all in all it has been a pretty good experience! It will be nice when we eventually move into a bigger house though! When we get pregnant again, we really feel like we will need a lot more space, so we will definitely get a 2 story house! I'm sure that will bring on a whole new set of surprises!

Here's my question to you all: What things did you encounter as a new home owner?

Don't forget to follow!

Hey friends,
Just wanted to send out a quick reminder that I have put up a place here to the right where you can follow this blog! Just click it and it will put you up on my board. This will also help generate some advertising for your own blog! When someone clicks your picture, it will show them what blogs you have!! Hey, you can't beat free advertising right?! Ok, so I hope you all will help me with this! Thanks!!


Mama G

Toothpaste...really?

So, some interesting things have been happening around here. We've made some New Year's Resolutions and I am happy to report that we have made good on at least one of them! One of Phil and I's big resolutions was to clean up our house and garage, and I don't mean just a regular ol' cleaning job. I am talking about a complete overhaul of the house. I think I have mentioned before that we do not have a functioning attic for storage. There is no room since all the ac insulation takes up all the space up there, so we have no place to put our boxes except our closets. This is a MAJOR problem. This is compounded by the fact that since we do have our own home, both of our parents decided to give us all our childhood stuff to keep. Ugh.

Well, we rearranged our guest room and den and completely clean out our garage! Whohoo!! We are not done with all the rooms, but we have made a really good start! I am really proud of the work we've done so far!

Makayla had some resolutions too and apparently one of them was to eat more toothpaste in the year 2009. You heard me, eat toothpaste. We have caught her several times in the bathroom squeezing the life out of her Little Bear toothpaste and just going to town. Last night when we dropped her off at my in-laws she promptly went into their bedroom while we were talking with them. After a minute, I asked where she was. We went looking and found her hiding in their closet behind their mini trampoline with my MIL's toothpaste in her mouth eating it. It was all over her face too! What is this about?! What in the world possesses her to eat this stuff?? I mean, I guess I can't complain too much.. at least it is keeping her breath fresh! I have a friend who's sister used to eat dirt!! Seriously!! She would just take a handful and just shove it in her mouth!! At least Makayla doesn't do that!!

So that's the lastest at our house! Fun times! So tell me kind readers, what were some of your resolutions for the New Year??

Merry Christmas To All!

Merry Christmas Family and Friends!
We have had a wonderful Christmas so far! Last night we went to my parents and opened most of our gifts there! That is also where we got our Wii!!!! WHOHOOO!!! So excited!! Seriously, BEST. PRESENT. EVER!!!!! I know I am a little behind on the times in getting this toy, but hey, better late than never right?! Makayla has definitely picked her favorite gift so far as well...she got a really awesome tent from my parents, which she loves! But, she also got a Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) costume from my brother and his fiancee and she has LIVED in this dress for the past 18 hours!
Anyway, just wanted to send out a little update before we head out for more Christmas celebrations! We are going over to my parents for lunch, then out to the in-laws to open our gifts with them! So, it will be a very busy day!

Have a wonderful Christmas!
Mama G

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Hello all! Well, it's officially Christmas Time here at the Graf's! We have put up the lights, the tree and some decorations. We also decided it was Christmas card time as well. This always entails a lot of fussing, tantrums, forced smiling, yelling and threatening. Doesn't that just reek of Christmas spirit?! Well, it started off ok.... a few pics turned out very well as you can see below. Another exciting event this past week was that it snowed in Houston! Yeah, I know.. I almost thought it was the end of the world! We have been experiencing this lovely pattern of hot one day/freezing cold the next! It's been great... my head really appreciated it when it decided to get a massive sinus infection that kept me out of school one day. It has unfortunately affected my class as well. At least 2-3 kids have been out sick, so I have been constantly surrounded by all these lovely germs.
Anyway, back to the snow....so it snowed for a day and this caused mass hysteria in Houston. Seriously, if any of you knew anyone in Houston and they had a Facebook account, I can almost guarantee that every single one of their updates on that day mentioned the snow. This also caused Makayla to run around our yard like a crazy person saying, "I'm dancing in the snow!" I included a video below for your amusement! And of course, I couldn't resist putting the snow pics on here! Enjoy!
**UPDATE**- The video of Makayla running around wouldn't upload for some reason, so I'll try again later, sorry!!

This is the official pic....! We got a winner!

Second runner up...looked too generic....

It's snowing! Can you see that one teenie tiny little flake to the right of her??

Here it is at night with our beautiful lit up house!

It accumulated a little on Phil's truck....

More snow!!!

Daddy and Makayla out in the snow!

Why I hate health insurance companies....

Well, for the last 2 days I have been feeling pretty gross. Yesterday I lost my voice so that made dealing with the kiddos lots of fun! Last night though, I just couldn't sleep and when I woke up this morning, I felt really awful. I called into work and decided to try and find a Dr. to go see. I had not yet picked out a Primary care Dr. so I went to Unicare's website and started researching. They gave me a list and I started calling all the doctors closest to me. Well, the first 3 I called were either completely booked or were leaving early, but I got lucky on the 4th one. They said they could work me in, so I was elated! I went and of course the Dr. told me I had a really bad sinus infection. He wrote me out a Rx for a Z pack and some Singulair. So I went to my local Kroger's at 4:30 (right after my appt.) and tried to fill my Rx. The pharmacist said they were kinda backed up and said it would take about 2 hours. I really didn't have the energy to argue or protest, so I said fine and went home to rest. After 2 hours, Phil went up there to get something else from the store and after waiting another 15 min. they told him it still wasn't ready. Seriously? They said it would be another 30 min. So we did our normal bedtime ritual with Makayla and put her down and by that time it was 8:30, so 4 hours from when I originally dropped off the Rx. I go up there and they said... you guessed it... IT STILL WASN'T READY!! I was like, um.. excuse me.. what seems to be the problem.. these are 2 well known drugs, not something weird.. this shouldn't be a problem. Well of course one of the ladies wasn't working the computer right.. so they had to call their Asst. Manager in to come help them. The Asst. Manager started yelling at the ladies who was screwing up on the computer... but hey... they should know what they are doing so I kinda didn't feel bad for her! Well, they come over to me and say they have filled the Z pack, but my insurance company has rejected the Singulair. I am telling you, I almost lost it. I asked them why and if they had called them, they said that this was normal that there is a list of meds that Unicare wouldn't fill. UGH! I asked them what I was supposed to do and they said that I would need to call my Dr. and ask him to write another Rx for something comparable to the Singulair. I then told them that this would have been nice to know earlier in the day since now I would have to wait until tomorrow to even call my Dr.!! What the hell?! Man I was so mad! But isn't this just typical...
I started my Z pack and will hopefully sleep better tonight, and will pray my Dr. will write another Rx tomorrow. I think I will then take the Rx to CVS and hope for better service...

A Season of Change...

So there has been a lot going on and with all this change I feel I need to get some things off my chest. The first and foremost important change is that the principal of our school has decided not to come back for the next school year. This is not unusual in the fact that teachers/staff/directors/principals come and go, but this particular change is going to bring about some things to be concerned about. When I started working at my school 3 years ago, Makayla was not going to school yet, since she was just 6 months old. By my second year, Phil and I felt that it was time for her to start going. I had heard rumors that teachers would get a discount on their child's tuition so I went to the principal to talk to her about it. Sure enough, I was right, but at that particular time, (since I am an aide) I was only eligible for a mere 20% discount. Well since Makayla wasn't going that much, that was ok. But this year, Makayla was in a different class and so I felt that the 20% was cutting it. (Lead teachers got a 50% discount.) So I again went to the principal and she really worked with me on getting me a 40% discount! That was huge! That really helped us out! Well, with her leaving, I am just worried about the next principal, will they keep that policy? We have heard that they can't just take it away, but as each year passes, the discount might be less and less. Well, as Makayla gets older, the tuition increases. We have also been informed that tuition will be going up a LOT next year. This is also a concern. Since I am an aide, I don't make that much, but enough to cover about half her tuition that we pay now...what if the tuition goes up to where my whole paycheck has to go for her tuition? Will it be worth it for me to keep working? Should we try and find a public school? These are all very real possibilities. I am really trying to just put this in God's hands and I will follow what I think he wants us to do.

The other thing that is scaring me is that I have been bitten. Bitten hard. Bitten by what you ask? Well, I will tell you.... the baby bug. Yep, that's right. Ever since Makayla was born I could not even fathom the idea of having another child. We knew we wanted more than one, but really couldn't imagine what that would be like. She has just been so wonderful and we have been perfectly content with her, but for some reason lately I have been having all these emotions and feelings about babies. Every time I see or hold a baby or even see a pregnant woman, I just feel this twinge in the pit of my stomach. I miss the feeling of being pregnant. I miss seeing the first smile, hearing the first laugh, getting that first hug etc. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE MAKAYLA with all my heart, but she too is feeling these effects. She has been asking Phil and I for a "baby sister" for many months now. I think she just wants someone to play with.. ha! Which I totally don't blame her for.. I mean how much fun can playing with your parents all the time really be? But is she really ready for this life altering change? Are we? I have been told a million times that even though you feel like you couldn't possibly love another child, you can. I really can't imagine loving another child as much as I love Makayla, but I guess I will just have to wait and see. We have talked about trying for next summer to get pregnant.. so that leaves us with only 7 months to cherish our time alone with our precious little girl. I really don't want this to come out wrong, because we really do want to have another baby, but for some reason I almost feel like this 7 month time frame is a death sentence in a way. Just for the fact that Makayla's whole way of life will be different. We will have to divide our attention as she won't be the center of ours anymore. She will have to share her toys and wait on Mommy when I have to take care of the baby. Will she still feel loved by us when things like this occur? I guess the only thing I can do is just pray and spend as much time with her as I can. Just to make me feel better, I need all you mommas with more than 1 child to give me some good advice and stories. Let me know how you got through it and I will be eternally grateful!

With a heavy heart,
Mama G

Another first for The Princess!

So a couple of weeks ago, I decided that it was time for Makayla to experience her first movie in a theater. Madagascar was opening that weekend, so we set out to go on that Saturday afternoon. We went to eat some lunch first and then headed to the theater! She was in awe! It was so cute to see her big ol' eyes just taking everything in. She called the screen, "A really big tv!" Haha!! Well, as a result, all she talks about is the animals that "went to Africa" and she also walk around singing, "I like to move it, move it!!" So stinkin adorable!! So here are some pictures from our movie experience! Enjoy!!

In front of the theater!

She was checking out the poster for another movie!

Movie is about to start!!

Afterward she got to ride on a helicopter in the mall!

Something other than poop

Ok, I realize that my last post probably didn't appeal to many people... sorry about that. I just really had to get that out there because keeping that all bottled inside was driving me nuts! So, on to better things here folks!
I am happy to report that as of last week we have had poop free incidents! Yeah! Last weekend, Phil went out of town leaving Makayla and I to have a Mommy & Makayla Weekend of Fun!! I decided that since she is almost 3 (sniff, sniff) that it was time to introduce her to the world of film. And no, not the dirty kind you sickos. I knew that Madagascar was opening so we went and saw it on Saturday. It was so cute to see her experience that! She was just so amazed at the "really big tv" as we called it! Ha! She did so great too! She sat there the whole time and never got up! I was very proud of her!
This past Monday we decided to go get her annual Christmas portraits done at the Picture People in the mall. We did this last year and were VERY happy with the results. (Just come take a look at our house.... tons of the framed pics line almost every wall in our den!) Well, not too surprising, these lastest pictures turned out GREAT!!! They are so beautiful! I will post some up soon...

Well, I am gonna wrap this up, but will leave you with an entertaining story from school today:
We were taking our class to P.E. and I usually stand at the back of the line to make sure the kiddos aren't trying to escape! Ha! I kid, I kid! Anyway, one little girl says, "Mrs. Graf you know what?" I ask her what and she says, "Um.. my mom died last night, but then came back to life. (Slight pause) Soooo, she's all better now."