Ugly Sweaters and Christmas time

It is almost Christmas!!!! I am so excited. I love Christmas time, it is my favorite (smiling is my favorite). This year has been a little hard with Dave being gone but it has been a learning experience also (just like the last 5 months). We are approaching the end of Dave's deployment!!!!!!!!! He will be home before I know it and I can not wait. I don't even know how I am going to sleep the last couple weeks before he gets home. He is doing really well, just got a new roommate that snores so he hasn't been getting a lot of good sleep lately.
I have been busy as ever the past few weeks. I am almost done Christmas shopping but I have not wrapped anything yet. I guess I will be doing that this week. I have also finished the sunroom. I am very happy with how it turned out. Now when Dave gets home we just have to finish the office and the downstairs is done! Here are some pictures:

This weekend my sister and Zane had an ugly sweater party. It was really fun and we played Michael Jackson's Wii game. I must say that I am actually pretty good at it. Here are some photos of the family, I think this might have to be the family Christmas card next year. 

The reception is sneaking up on me. I still don't have a cake, have not sent out invitations and don't have what I need for centerpieces. I also don't know how we are going to run the whole thing.... I need to get on this! I did buy some stuff I need this weekend and my goal is to mail some of the invitations this week. Any help/advice for the reception would be greatly appreciated! 

I already gave (mailed) Dave his Christmas present. He opened it before he was supposed to! We are going on a day trip to Lanai when we are in Hawaii for a snorkeling trip, catamaran sail, trip around the island and a barbecue on the beach followed by a sunset sail back to Maui. I can NOT wait for our 2 weeks in Maui, it is going to be amazing. Here are some pictures I put in his Christmas card from the dogs: 

Hope you have a very Merry Christmas! 

Christmas time is good, Life is GOOD!!! : ) 

Fun winter weekend

This weekend I spent a lot of time with my wonderful family. Last night I watched Gage and Teagan and we went over to my sister's house to spend the evening with her nieces for our "annual" Christmas get together with the kids.
 It snowed yesterday and my sister lives on a big hill so we decided to let the kids sled. That was entertaining to say the least. The hill is huge and my mom tested it out first, she ended up in the street! It seemed a little unsafe so we let the kids slide down the side into the driveway then the adults stopped them from going 60 MPH into the street. They had a blast and it was really funny.

After we went sledding Teagan and I went inside to stay warm. She helped me mix the gingerbread cookie mix while the big kids played outside some more. Teagan told on my dad for eating some of the cookies my mom made to mail to Dave while her and I mixed the dough together, she is too funny. My mom helped the kids cut out ginger bread cookies. Then we ate pizza, made gingerbread houses and watched the Grinch and Charlie Brown's Christmas special. The kids ran around like crazy and stayed up late. Gage cried the next morning because he didn't want to leave-I think it was a successful evening. 

Not happy my dad took some of her icing. 

Now she is happy because she has sprinkles. 

Today I spent the day with my siblings. We went out to eat then went Christmas shopping. It was great spending the day with them. I got some presents bought and some stuff done for the reception. I found this craft at Michael's when we were shopping and had to buy it. I think it is cute.

It was a GREAT weekend and it really reminded me how AMAZING my family is and how much I am truly blessed. Tomorrow is my favorite because Dave calls and wakes me up! Plus this week I only have a 3 day work week because I have staff meetings/holiday luncheon on Wednesday. 

Winter is good, Life is SO good!!! : ) 

Time is flying!

I can't believe it has been almost a month since my last post! I don't know where time is going????? (but I don't really care). We have approximately 41 days left until Dave comes home (YAY!). I have done a lot of things since my last post. I think the most exciting thing is that Dave and I booked our vacation to Maui for after the reception. We are staying in a brand new resort for 10 nights!!!!!!! I can NOT wait.
Dave is good, ready to come home. I just mailed him a package full of Christmas decorations and he decorated the pharmacy. I wanted to make sure he still felt like it was Christmastime even far away. He STILL has not sent me pictures to post on here. I will get on him again about that.
A reception update: I have booked a photographer and got a really great deal. I need to get shoes this week because I get my dressed altered in 2 weeks!
A couple of weekends ago I went to Denver to visit with my sisters-in-law, brother-in-law and nieces. It was a really great weekend and I am very glad I was able to go out and visit while Dave was gone. I was able to see Boulder and Denver, it is very pretty. Dave surprised me with a massage the day I got there at this really nice spa. He is so thoughtful, the best ever! I am looking forward to them coming in for the reception in February. I got to see one of my friends from Grad school while I was there and it was great to catch up. Here are some pictures of the trip:

Thanksgiving was really great. It was low key but nice to spend time with family and relax. We ate really good food then watched the Bengals lose. All in all it was a great day. The day after Thanksgiving my family went on a train ride to Metamora for their Christmas walk. It was cold but fun. 

My parents have helped me do some things around the house. My mom redid the downstairs bathroom for us one day when I was at work (she is the best ever!). Then today they hung a mirror in the sunroom. I am waiting for the chairs I ordered to come in next week and the sunroom will be complete. 

I have been busy putting up the Christmas decorations. I have some of them up but still need to put up the tree in the dinning room and decorate the tree in our bedroom. I put our downstairs tree up all by myself and was pretty happy with how it turned out. I got a new ornament for the tree when we went to Metemora. 

Tonight my sister and my friend Tabitha came over and we baked cookies to send to Dave. We tried to make 3 different kinds of cookies and only one of them tasted good.  I am going to make some more tomorrow to put in his box so he will have a variety of cookies to eat. 

I will end with a Charlie update. He hasn't done anything too terrible lately. He has only broken one ornament at my parent's house, chewed some more bags on the pool cover and destroyed a piece of my parent's outdoor furniture. We dropped out of doggy school, I didn't feel like going anymore and they were not teaching us anything new in the second class that we had not already learned in the first one. He goes to doggy day care during the week and that really helps me out in the evenings.

Well that was a really long post. Hope you enjoyed the quick update on our lives. I will try and not wait so long in between posts again. Have a great weekend! 

Life is just plain good!!! : ) 

Sammy's near death experience

So not much is new here. Everything is the same-that is why I haven't blogged lately. Just working and hoping the days pass very quickly! Dave is the same (I know I say that in every post but it is true, nothing has changed!). He is the world's biggest slacker and is yet to send me any pictures or information about his recent helicopter trip or "cultural experience". Maybe after he reads this he will get on it and send them to me. (hint hint David!)
So of course I have a story about the dogs (it wouldn't be a complete post on my blog without one!). Last Monday was the worst Monday EVER. My mom called me at work and told me Sammy had to be rushed to the vet and she didn't know if he was going to live or not. OMG- I was a hot mess. He is my baby!!!! (and the cutest dog in the entire world).
My boss is the greatest boss in the entire world. I went into her office crying (very professional but I couldn't keep it together) and told her about my phone call. She told me to go and she would take care of canceling one of my kiddos so I could tend to my dog. Nobody would have wanted any speech therapy from me after that phone call.
So I rushed to the vet (at a snail like pace of 95 miles an hour) and they wouldn't even let me see him. They said he was doing better and they didn't want to get him upset. All of that nascar for nothing!
To make a really long story a bit shorter here is what happened: my parents thought he was dead-maybe he had a stroke, he wasn't moving and his tongue was hanging out of his mouth. The vet thought he was a goner too. After a shot of pain medicine and some time he was doing much better. The conclusion from the vet based on what had happened and how quickly he recovered is that he had "head trauma" from jumping off the couch. A little comical now. When I was at the vet, (crying like a 5 year old. Okay actually worse, I was sobbing hysterically) I told my mom even if needed thickened liquids I was not putting him to sleep. I would help him learn to swallow again. LOL
I will dedicate all the pictures on this blog to my beloved Sammy (Sambo, Sammy Sosa, Sosa, Sosabear,  Sambarino):

I am feeling much better now that it has been a week since this horrible experience and he appears to be doing much better (knock on wood). 

I have been doing a lot of new things to the house and have bought all the furniture for the sunroom. Once all of that is complete I will post pictures of the house. This weekend I am going to Denver to spend the weekend with my sisters-in-law and my nieces. I am very excited! I will have updates from that trip too. 

Now going to watch some MNF with my dad.  Have a great Monday everybody. 

66 days until Dave is home-life is good!!! 

From scratch pumpkin pie!

Today at work was a bit crazy. We had a tornado warning, "Code Gray" for those of you working at Children's (better get ready for Joint Commission!). We had to stay in our offices (because we have no windows and are in the middle of the building) with our patients. I got to hang out with my 11 o'clock and her mom from 12-12:45. It made the rest of my day feel rushed. Luckily nothing happened and I have power.

When I got off work I had to go get Charlie from doggy day care. They said he was scared during the storm and he is afraid of the agility tunnel, such a big baby. He is going back again tomorrow.
I was feeling a bit of sadness coming on during my drive home (we have 79 days left!) so I decided instead of sitting on the couch and getting sad I would make a pumpkin pie! Not from a can but from a real pumpkin. There is a cute little pumpkin patch by our house that I went to and got my sugar pumpkin. They don't take credit at the pumpkin patch (crazy!) so I had to write a check for $1.99. Making this pie was not as easy as I thought it would be.

First I had to cut the pumpkin in half. We have this huge Pampered Chef knife that I am scared of so I ended up sawing the pumpkin into pieces with a steak knife. In order to get into the Halloween spirit I thought Sammy should wear his pumpkin shirt. 

He was not happy! But as you can see, he loves Dave's Air Force snuggie. The entire time I was trying to make this pie (which took over 3 hours by time I went to the pumpkin patch and got it in the oven) Charlie wanted to play. I thought doggy day care was supposed to make him tired! 

I realized after trying to make this pie that our blender (the one Dave bought at Dave and Busters with his points) is a piece of garbage! Shocker, I know. I am going to have to go buy one this weekend. I might go buy a Kitchen Aid mixer because I have started cooking and baking since Dave left and I think it will get used more than I originally thought. I have no idea what a pumpkin pie is supposed to look like before you put it in the oven (there were chunks of pumpkin in it) so I don't know what it is going to taste like. I am taking them into work tomorrow (the recipe ended up making two pies) so my co-workers get the joy of being my taste testers. Here is the aftermath: 

So now the pumpkin pies are almost done and I am exhausted! The plan to keep myself busy worked because now I have to clean up the mess, take the dogs out and then Dave will call!!!! 

New adventures are good. Life is good. 

Great Fall weekend with my amazing family

This weekend was really great. I got to see my brother and father-in-law on Friday and the rest of my family Saturday and Sunday.
First let's talk about Dave. He is doing good-really everything is the same. He is still slacking and has not sent me pictures to add to the blog. I will get on him about that. With his new work schedule we are actually getting to talk more than I thought we would. Mondays are my favorite because he is off and he calls and wakes me up-it makes my day! I need to send him his OSU jersey in his next package because they are having a moral dinner and he is allowed to wear it.

Wedding reception update-invitations are ordered!!!! I LOVE THEM, they are so cute. I can't wait until they get here, I hope they are as cute as they look online. My mom and I are planning to do reception stuff all day Friday (that has been the plan for like the past 3 Fridays and we haven't done anything, we always end up shopping so we will see what happens). February is going to be here before I know it. The more we get accomplished, the more I can not wait to celebrate with everybody.

Charlie is doing okay. He scared me last week and I ended up driving to my parent's house at midnight crying my eyes out because I thought he was going to have to get put to sleep (I don't exaggerate anything...). Turns out he just pulled a muscle and the vet gave him a shot and he is doing much better. If he ends up limping again we are going to have to get an x-ray and see if he may have hip dysplasia.

So onto this weekend-Friday I went with my brother and we both picked out glasses and got to catch up with what is going on in his life. He is getting so big (I know he is 20 but still he is my little brother!). I love him so much, the cutest thing ever he is. Gage spent the night with me Friday night and we had a nice little morning of making chocolate chip pancakes. I swear 4-year olds are my favorite. The stuff he says is just too funny. Here are some photos of our time together.

My amazing parents helped me do some things around the house Saturday. They have been so great with Dave gone (they are always great but I would not have made it the last 3 months without them). Then we went to my aunt's house for a cookout, bonfire, trick or treat with the little ones and vegas night. It was such a good time, we are going to do it again next year! My aunt counted today and we had 42 people and 10 kids, I love my big family! Here are some pictures: 

And I will end the post with pictures of the dogs in their Halloween costumes. Clearly, they love them! 

Thanks for checking out our blog. Have a great week. 

Big families are good-Life is good!!!