OMG! OMG! OMG! IT'S HERE!!!!

Well, this weekend has been hard and busy but today made up for it all... well almost! On Thanksgiving my uncle had a heart attack and lost 4 pints of blood. He had to be air-lifed to Austin because the little town he lives in (Yoakum) does not have the necessary equipment to handle his type of cases. Yesterday Mom and I drove up to Austin to see him. We stopped by Ryan's and had lunch together. We visited him for about an hour. It turns out that they also found he has colon cancer but they can't operate until his heart strengthens. I am soooo sad and worried for him. I can't wait to go back and see him. I just keep praying he will get strong enough to have his surgery and that he will get better soon. Driving home Mom and I stopped at the Outlet mall. Too many people and it was raining. We decided to go back on the way to Dallas. So, with moms bad news and now my uncles I had been quite sad.

I hadn't received the pillow from my Eddie Ross give-away so everyday I ran to the mailbox and nothing. I checked my email to ensure I gave him the correct address. I feared it was left on my steps and my neighbor helped himself to it.

So I came home from everything today (work, Lena's dental appt, girls to my mom, finding the right ink cartridge) and...there...was...a...box... on... my... porch!!!YAY!!!! I looked at the return address... EDDIE ROSS!!!! OMG!OMG!OMG! Yes, I was screaming and dancing on the porch! It is sooooo worth it!

But first...you have to look at a couple of pics of my beautiful, perfect, handsome son.... um, cat.

The box.....

Oh..he's teasing me!

OMG! OMG! OMG! It is so beautiful!

Look at that detail. Each diamond has a larger rhinestone in it. It is absolutely the MOST beautiful thing I have ever seen. It is such a soft lavender color and the beading is outstanding! It is so heavy and ornate! It's just lovely!

I need to find the perfect place to put this beautiful pillow!

Thanksgiving in Yoakum

We went to Yoakum for Thanksgiving this year. We do most every year. I had to be back to work Friday morning at 6AM, so we left Wednesday and came back Thursday night. It was a nice drive, not too much traffic coming home. We had a good time.

I left a message on my Facebook that I was heading down to Yoakum for a few days. One of my good school friends from there left a comment that we should get together. She and I were really good friends and when I moved from Yoakum she was the only one that continued to write letters to me. You remember things like that. So we swapped numbers and I called her once I was t my sisters house. She asked me if I remembered Joe Koenig from school. I told her "yes." And she said, "You know he's famous now, right?" I thought I heard that, saw him on the internet and radio. I was pretty sure it was him and what made it stand out was his last name. Not real common, unless you're from Yoakum. She said he was performing as a Hometown Hero at a little Mexican restaurant there and we should meet up to see him.

Here is some shots of the people there.....

I actually went to school with the boy in the striped shirt there and the boy in the white cap. It was so nice to see old friends!

Joe himself. You should hear his song "Colors." It is beautiful. If you haven't heard it, click here!

Mandi and me.. she hasn't changed! Still beautiful and sweet and I am so thankful that we reconnected and I hope that we stay in touch!

Afterwards we headed to my other sisters house. The Shiner brewery is just beautiful lit up at night. I HAD to stop by and take photos.

Getting everyone ready for bed. It was late, we were tired and had just come in from quite a drive. I love, love, love going to my sisters house. It always feels like home, so comfortable. I wish more than anything I could go much, much more often.

CC hiding. You know the crazy thing...if I want to take a picture of her, this is what I get. BUT she can take a million and one pictures of her with all kind of crazy hair and make up and weird faces and that's ok.. I want one decent one.. forget about it!

My Lena-pooh!

Next day, other sisters house. The refrigerator is stocked and ready to go!

The younger kids playing in the tree. I swear, this was the first time Lena was EVER in a tree. Growing up in the city offers kids such a different life. Yes, there are so many more things they can do... stores, museums, cafes, movies.... but, things like this...basic joys of childhood.. they miss out on. And they miss out on growing up with their cousins. Lena always has a blast when she is with them.

I had all the kids roasting marshmellows..... on a fork and with a cigarette lighter. I guess I brought some of the city there with me.

CC and Ariana. Ari loved roasting marshmellows!

Preparing the green beans... this is probably my favorite side dish!

Or maybe these are... stuffing and my sisters wonderful sweet potatoes!

My mom with her grandson Quin and her great-grand-daughter Camile.

CC and Camila....

My brother Tony with CC..
Me and my nephew Quin. He's 16 and 6ft4! Imagine that.. I wish he could give me those 4 inches!

We had a wonderful time. I was seriously contemplating callin in Friday because I wanted to stay there with my family and just enjoy being with them. I feel like we are always so rushed when we go down there and we don't go nearly enough...at all. I would love to go once a month...at least.

When we got home I checked my mail and found the large package key. I was super excited because I knew it was either my Eddie Ross pillow (still haven't gotten it) or my ornament from Erica.

It was my ornament from the ornament exchange!

She had it presented so beautifully! I have to be honest... I didn't present mine that well.

It was perfect! It matches our tree colors perfectly!

See?

Thank you Erica... you did a beautiful job! I love it! I hope you like yours too!

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Sunday we spent the latter part of the day looking at model homes. We found one we really like. It's smaller than I ever thought I would want but the layout made it feel very spacious! There are a couple of changes I would make but nothing major... total price probably under $1000!

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How was your weekend? I hope everyone had a wonderful time!

Stone Oak Park

Saturday Lisa and I went to Houlihans for the Russian Meet Up. It was nice. Mostly older Russian women though. I had more photos on my camera but of course, this is the only one that downloaded. My Gosh! I can't wait to have my lapband!
Sunday I took the girls to Stone Oak Park to walk and just get some fresh air. We took Luigi along. I went to the side near the school because the last time we took Luigi to the opposite side where the cave is and he picked up a scent. He almost dragged CC into the woods going after it... we got him back on the trail and then the thing he smelled took off after us.... a bobcat! We ran like you wouldn't believe. My big fat body was running like it never ran before. Poor Lena was running... I NEVER saw her little legs move that fast. I had this sickening feeling in my stomach like I was gonna vomit and my legs were on fire but they wouldn't stop.... they just kept going and going... and all you could hear behind us was the cats growl.... like a motor running! Too scary! So this time we went to the other side.. it wasn't without incident though!

I just loved the way the sun was peeking behind the trees.

My girlies walking ahead of me.

Lena-Pooh posing. This was before she was whining that her legs hurt and her feet hurt and telling me that SOMEONE was going to rub lotion on her feet when we get home.

This cactus is all over the park. I think it's pretty.

And I LOVE this one!

The tunnels.... See the man in green? He had three dogs. We had to wait for him to pass through before we went through with Luigi. HA! Luigi is so big he could have had all three of those dogs as a snack!

My beautiful CC with Luigi!

My two princesses with Luigi

Sweet Lena running. The flash makes it look lighted in there....but it's not! It's completely dark and all the sounds echo. It's pretty spooky!

Lena almost reached the end. I took this picture because it was so neat...the tunnel was black and then there was a little sunlight coming in and Lenas shadow in the middle... but again the flash made it all lit up...

CC and La-ligi (as Lena used to call him when she was a baby)

My beautiful Lena. She was so scared to take this pic. She wanted to lean against the wall but couldn't get good leverage and she thought she was going to slide down. So she opted to lean...

Me and Lena...hot and sweaty!

I'm not sure what these flowers (or weeds) are but they were the softest prettiest shade of lavender. At first we thought they were bluebonnets... but no.

I just couldn't get the true color to come through, which sucks because it's so pretty!

I absolutely LOVED this shot. The leaves were falling on the pathway and I thought to myself..."This looks like fall!"

And this my friends is what Luigi did 98% of the walk! Then he picked up another scent and took off...dragging CC behind him with her hands in her jacket sleeves tied up in the leash behind her back! It was NOT nice and took quite a while to free her! Seriously!

All in all.... we can't wait to go back. Maybe this time without Luigi!

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I just wanted to clear something up about this post... I am truly not a grouchy person or negative person. I usually LOVE this time of the year.... however, last Wednesday after my wonderful lunch with Lisa, Mom called me. She was in the hospital a few weeks ago with pancreatitis. The doctors wanted a more in-depth look at her pancreas so they scheduled a dye-contrast test to look at it. Thank goodness her pancreas is fine. However, there is a very suspicious mass on her kidney. It's about the size of a grape. Her gastroenterologist wants it out immediately. He said it doesn't look like anything good. She had to get a referral from her primary to an Urology Oncologist before she could see the specialist. Her doctor is just not very attentive and I was soooo concerned that it would be weeks before he got around to it and the first doctor said we don't have alot of time to waste. I have been praying non-stop that her primary would take this into real consideration and be a real doctor for once. He did. She has an appointment in two weeks with the Urology Oncologist specialist. I have just been so nervous and it's been like a rollercoaster. I know that she is definately going to have surgery and that scares me. We are pretty sure we know what is in there and that really scares me. But... I know that she will be fine once it's out. It's just the not knowing how long this is going to take and it's my mommy! Of course I am scared. So this is why I have been down lately. I am really not a negative person....just worried right now. But it's going to be ok.. I know it will.