Weekend at Granna's

The weekend started for my mother Thursday morning. Bryan and Renee' dropped Connor and Dawna off Thursday morning on their way to Longview, TX. The kids had fun playing in paper and in a box that some of mom's Longaberger baskets came in. The kids also played in the backyard on their outside toys and drew on the patio with sidewalk chalk.

Friday when I got to Midland, I had to go back to Odessa to get a few things I forgot so the kids and I loaded up, in mom's tahoe, and then headed back to Odessa. They enjoyed the ride and then we went to Wal-Mart and they both got a treat for being so good!!!

Friday night we went to play Putt Putt and we all had blast. The bad thing was I forgot my camera, so we don't have pics of them hitting the ball around. Ruddee, mom and I played and of course Ruddee won and I came in 3rd. I have never claimed to be the best at Putt Putt!!!!

Saturday I took the kids to the park that is down the street from my parents house. The playground equipment is so much nicer than what was there when I was a kid. The kids had a blast sliding down the slide, swinging and climing the rock wall. Connor climbed all the way to the top and Dawna tried really hard, but she is still too little!!!

Connor rode his scooter to the park and I pulled Dawna on the wagon, but on the way back Connor said he was too tired to ride his scooter, so I loaded Connor, Dawna and the scooter in the wagon and pulled them back to the house. It sure did add some weight and I got a pretty good workout. At least we all got some good exercise. After lunch we all pretty much took a nap except for Connor. That boy has more energy than he can handle.

After supper we went to Baskin Robbins for ice cream and the kiddos got to set at thier own table. I had forgotten that Baskin Robbins here in Midland had two kid tables that are pink and grey. They are so cute and the kids looked really cute sitting at them and eating their ice cream.

We are just hanging out today relaxing, watching cartoons.....getting a little tired of the cartoons....and enjoying each others company.

Hope everyone has had a great month, can't believe Sept is almost over.

Its Been A While......

Well alot has happened in the past 20 days. I have had 2 garage sales, which overall had great results, I have been to the Lonestar concert, have had a blast hanging out with my big brother the is weekend I have been at my parents. We have Connor and Dawna while my sister and Bryan went out of town. The weeekend has been so much fun, but so tiring......

A lady from my mothers stitching guild, cross-stitching group, had 2 extra tickets, so my brother and I got to go and enjoy an evening of great music. The opening band was CPR....they are a local band and pretty good. I had my good camera with my 300mm lens and was all set to get some great pics, when to my surprise I discovered that my lens is broken. It would take pics at the 70mm spot, but will not zoom out past that. Needless to say I was not too thrilled about the whole situation. I was bummed because I didn't think I would get as good of pics and the lens was like $300 and I have been told it cannot be fixed. I will of course get a second opinion, but it looks like I will be saving up for a new lens. On a good note I was still able to get some good pics of the band and the evening was nice and relaxing, but a little chilly.

I didn't get any pics of the garage sales, but they were crazy. On Sept 13 my sister and I had one at my moms and started the sale at 7 am. When I opened the garage door just before seven I could see all the feet standing at the door. I couldn't even get things pulled out of the garage so people could move around because there were so many people. My dad and brother and I were all bug eyed at the sight of all these people. They started coming in before the garage door was completely opened. It was crazy, but my sister and I both made some good money. I was impressed with what I made because it was all mainly little stuff. The next garage sale was the following Saturday 9/20 at Leah's house, she is the woman that does amazing things with my hair!!!!! She doesn't have a garage, so it was more of a yard/driveway sale. It was pretty good as well, not the crowd I had the week before, but I still made some more money and then took the rest to goodwill.

I have filled up 5 45 gallon trash bags of junk that was trashed and sold over $400 worth of junk. I didn't realize how many tote bags and purses I had until I started pulling them out of my closet. I was also able to get rid of my storage, which is going to save me $52 a month!!!!!! YAY!!!! I still have ALOT of cleaning out to do, but my apt doesn't feel so suffocating any more, but still have too much crap!!!!

I will also be adding to my patio before 9/30. The apartments of course put in new patio fences and now as an incentive they are doing a contest on the cutest/neatest patios and the winner gets a $100. Be praying that I win because I could use the money. If I win I will have to decide whether to use it towards the stanton crop or getting a new lens for my camera. I may be working a second job by the end of Oct, so I wouldn't be able to go to the stanton crop and if that is the case, it will go towards getting a new lens for my camera!!!!

Labor Day Weekend.....

So, I spend Labor Day Weekend cleaning out my storage building and my apt. You wouldn't believe the amount of crap I threw away and the amount of stuff I had to give away. I decided to have a garage sale instead, which I am doing this Saturday at my mothers.

I guess helping my mother clean out her house inspired me. Anyways before all the clean out the apt management had new fencens put on our patios, so I decided to spruce up my patio. I am so proud of it that I have to show it off. I did this during the clean-out. I sprayed down the walls and patio with a water hose as well as the chairs because months of dirt had made a home on the chairs. Here are some pics of my new and improved patio.....I LOVE it now!!!!

Abuelo's

My brother was craving Mexican food so several of us went to Abuelos for supper (didn't get any pics of that dang it)!!!! Before leaving for supper Connor and Dawna were watching a movie in my moms room and I had to get a couple pics of how cute they were!!! Dawna is learning to "pose" for the camera, so she kept looking at me and saying cheese....I had to tell her to not look at the camera, just look at the tv. Right after I took the picture, she looked over at me and said cheese. It was too precious!!!!

Road Trip

My eldest brother, Ruddee, has been living in Austrailia for 12 years and is finally back in Texas. He arrived in Dallas Saturday morning around 8:30. He spent the day with our other brother, Rickee, catching up running around the Dallas area. Brandon, my oldest nephew, got to hang out with them some as well. They went to eat at Texas Roadhouse in Sherman, where my niece Kari works. Ruddee ordered the chicken fried steak and he said it was enough to feed 3 people. He is not use to the American portion sizes. In Austrailia you get a 1/3 of the fook we get here for 3 times the price.....crazy huh!!!! Needless to say he has been stuffing himself silly with food because it tastes soooo good.

My sister, Renee', and I drove to Abilene after church yesterday to meet Ruddee and Rickee.

We met at Cracker Barrell, where Ruddee again ate "too much"! We laughed so hard and so much. It was great to see my brothers back to being my brothers and acting silly. I haven't laughed that hard, for that long while trying to eat in over 13 years and it was great!!!!

Of course my sister and I made them suffer through some picture taking. We couldn't pass up this moment cause you never know when the four of us will be together like this again. Hopefully there will be many more opportunities for pictures like these, but I have learned to never take a precious moment for granted. You just never know!!!! We are praying that Ruddee finds a job, so that he can be here at Thanksgiving. Then we can get Rickee here and prayerfully our sister Kari that lives in Vegas here! That would make a complete picture and one that would be cherished for the rest of our lives.

I feel truly blessed to have Ruddee home with us and he says it feels good to be back in Texas. I talked to my mother this morning and she said that Ruddee is craving Weinersneitel (spelling?), so she is bringing him to the church on her way to the fair, so when I get off work we can get that for supper and then hang out at my apt till mom gets done at the fair!!!! I am looking forward to spending some time with him and possibly getting him to work on my laptop!!!!

My 30th Birthday Weekend

Well, it was a huge success with many blessings. I started getting myspace birthday comments on Friday and continued through today!!!! Saturday I went to a crop, scrapbooking fun, and my sister was acutally able to be there! She hasn't made many crops this summer, so to have her at the one on my birthday was awesome and it helped make that day even more special. Jimmie, the CM consultant that was hosting the crop got me a birthday cake and put 30 candles on it plus to candlels "30" so that totaled 32 candles!!!!!

Blowing out the candles was a challenge. I hate to admit this, but it took 3 times to get them all blown out!!!!

I had a great day scrapbooking and great fellowship with my sister, a dear friend and some new friends I have gained along the way.

At the crop, Jimmie started a 3 month long contest. You basically earned points for doing or using certain things and each month you were able to earn more and more points. My sister only came to the last month of the contest and the little stinker most likely won first place. She is a scrapping machine!!!! I had a blast and next weekend we are having a family birthday celebration with the family favorite meal and another yummy cake!!!!

Follow-up......

Went to my follow up appointment this morning and of course I left there feeling like I know less than I did before. The good news is I don't have Sprue disease so my diet doesn't have to change in that respect. I do have IBS, but they said I don't have to change my diet.....sounds a little strange to me.

This appointment wasn't any different than the initial appointment. Different people asked the same questions and I had to tell the reason why I was there all over again. What are charts for if they don't write these things down and look at them. I was even asked for my phone number.....Are you kidding me. I know its in my chart, they call me to remind me of my appt.

Basically that was the most frustrating Dr. appt ever and the only thing I was told to do differently was take a fiber supplement.....well duh I already knew that!!!!

Hope everyone has a great day!!!!

My mind is spinning

I just got off the phone from a 2 hour conversation with one of my oldest friends. We haven't talked, I mean really talked, in years and had so much to say. Now I am wide awake and have a million things on my mind.

The biggest thing is my follow up appointment in the morning. I guess I should start with the discovery I made in Aug. When I was 15 I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease and was given chemo for 6 months and then a month of radiation to the chest area, the tumor was behind my sternum. This August I learned that one of the main chemo drugs, adryomicyn, can cause weakening of the left heart muscle causing cardiomyopothy. I then learned that radiation to the chest area can increase that risk. This apparently is only common in childhood cancer survivors and doesn't show up untill 10 to 15 years later. I am going on 14 years in remission, so if you know me you know my mind started thinking too much and I started worrying....yes I know worrying is a sin, but still I did!!! I made an appt with Dr. Gadasalli and after an EKG, Echocardiogram and bloodwork I was given a clean bill of health. Dr. Gadasalli said he liked the way my heart looked and the bloodwork determined that there is no fluid around my heart...YAY!!!!!!!

While talking to Dr. Gadasalli he asked why I was taking prilosec and for how long. I told him it was because of the acid reflux and for about 3 1/2 years. He didn't look so pleased and then he informed me that the radiation could have caused damage to my esophagus. My thoughts were "CRAP" one more thing. He made me an appt with Dr. Vemuru, a GI Dr., that following Tuesday. Dr. Vemuru sent me for bloodwork to test for GERD and Sprue disease and then I had an Endoscopy 2 weeks ago.

So the big thing on my mind is my follow up appt in the morning. Dr. Vemuru did a biopsy of my intestine to further test for Sprue, but also put me on meds for IBS, Irritable Bowl Syndrome. Basically I find out tomorrow exactly what is wrong with me. Oh yeah, I have a hiatal hernia which is the main cause of the acid reflux. Apparently when you gain weight your stomach pushes on the hernia causing acid reflux. So the main treatment is to loose weight.....just great, now I will have a Dr. drilling me about loosing weight. Guess I need it though.

Guess I should try and get some sleep. Night