Christmas

I had a fantastic Christmas! I love spending time with my family. My sister decided to have all if the festivities at her house. Lets just say I did A LOT of driving to and from McKinney. We did Christmas Eve with our Dad and Christmas day with our Mom. Watching Brody celebrate his 1st Christmas was something I will never forget. I love how he had no idea what was going on and that it was just another day. It will be nice when he kind of has a clue next year. :) He did really well with opening prestents, although he was more excited with the paper than the gifts. He really impressed me because I gave him a rocking horse that was really close to the ground, so he didn't hurt himself getting off, and when his dad put him on it for the first time, he knew exactly what to do. I couldn't believe it because I don't think he has ever been on one before. It was too cute! My Grandad has been out of town for about a month and a half and I can't wait for him to come home. He will be home in about 10 days. I really miss him. Once he gets back we will do Christmas all over again with him.

What's been going on....

Well, Thanksgiving was a blast. I enjoyed having a couple of days off of work and of course I LOVED the turkey. I spent Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family because my mom was in San Antonio with her mom. As much as I missed my mom, it was easier just being with only one side of the family. We went over to my Aunt and Uncle's house and had a wonderful feast. My sister's family was a little late because even though my mom was gone, she still had the in laws to see. Everyone of course enjoyed the baby. I fed him some mashed potatoes and he sure did want more and more. It was too cute. Of course the night of Thanksgiving is the best sleep ever because you are nice and tired from the turkey and your belly is full. It was delightful. Well four days after that I was able to celebrate my 29th birthday. It was wonderful. Probably one of the best birthdays I have had in awhile. Of course I had to work that day....blah, however, my coworkers treated me like a queen. I have a good group of girlfriends there and when I walked in the door they had a Starbucks drink waiting for me along with a present. They got me a basket full of goodies from Bath & Body Works and a $20 gift card to Starbucks. They sure know me well. We all went to Razoos for lunch and it was fabulous. I am pretty sure I haven't eaten there since I was 14. I didn't like spicy food then but I sure do now. It was great. Both of my parents were out of town so my sister asked me on Thanksgiving if she could take me to dinner on my birthday. It was really sweet. Since she lives in McKinney we had to meet in the middle so we went to the Texas Roadhouse in Bedford. I got me a nice juicy steak. It was awesome. I am very thankful for my family and friends who made me feel so special that day.

I'm a dummy.

Well, I have been gone for quite awhile, but now I'm back. It wasn't because I was just so busy that I didn't have time to sit and write a blog, it was because I am a dummy and when I changed my email address, I forgot to change it on here. I couldn't log in for the longest time. I FINALLY figured it out yesterday. Sometimes my head can be in the clouds. If you asked my sister, she would probably say I lived in a cloud. :) Anyway, a lot has gone with me, some good, some bad. Lets start with the good. My precious baby nephew Brody is already 7 months old. Time sure does pass you by. He is crawling all over the place and has 2 bottom teeth. He is just the cutest little bundle of joy. I enjoy every minute I get to spend with him. I try to go to McKinney on my Friday's off to spend the afternoon with Lindsay and Brody. My sister is working part time so it leaves me the mornings to sleep in and the afternoons for fun. I bet Brody will be walking within a month. He crawls with one knee on the ground and then he will use his foot for the other leg. My friend said that her baby did that and it was right before he started walking. Once that little boy starts to use his feet, there's no stopping him. Also on a good note, my mom and her husband sold their house. They will be moving to Frisco, which is closer to McKinney. One guess on why they picked Frisco. Pretty sure you guessed it. :) All of their Grand babies are in that area. I am the only one that doesn't live around there. I guess when grandchildren come into the picture, it kind of pushes the children to the back burner. I am just kidding. I am glad that they will be there to help Lindsay. I got my Papa near me. I'll be fine. Okay time for the bad stuff. So, I think it was about a month ago when I took my Grandad over to my mom's house to watch a football game and I noticed that my top left lip was a little big. I know what you're thinking, but I didn't get into a fight. It did kind of look that way though. I had no idea what it was. I was just going to let it heal on its own because that is usually the game I play. Well, I was really tired that day because I wasn't feeling that great and I had done a 5K the day before, so I went upstairs and laid down. Well, when I woke up a couple of hours later, the swelling had gotten worse. I went back to sleep and when the game was over, my mom came to check on me and the swelling had moved up to my eye. It wasn't so bad that I couldn't see but it was worse. By that time I think it was 11:00 PM or so. She said that we needed to go to the ER because you can't wait things out when it comes to swelling on your head because it could effect your brain. I have already had enough brain issues to last me a lifetime. :) Well the Dr. at the hospital said it was facialselulitis (sp.) and wrote me 2 prescriptions and told me to see my regular doctor when I could. When I woke up the next morning, I am not kidding you, if I were green, I would have looked like Shrek. Well, half my face would at least. It had gotten way worse. We took pictures but I am not going to post them because it looked horrible. I don't really panic anymore about big stuff like this but after the 2nd day and it hadn't gone down, I started to get a little nervous. I ended up seeing my regular doctor 2 days in a row and he gave me 2 shots in my booty. Let me just say when they tell you before they give you the shot that it is going to hurt, you know it is going to hurt. Usually they just say that it is going to be a little stick. No, this nurse said, "just so you know, this is going to hurt." What I said, in my head was, "well shit." Yes, it hurt, but nothing I couldn't handle. After I got my second shot the swelling came down and I was able to go back to work. Since I took 3 days off work to play Shrek, ha ha, I now can't go to my cousin's wedding in November. I had 3 days saved up to use to do that. Oh well, she will understand. Well, my face is back to normal now but it was not a fun experience. Oddly enough, it really didn't hurt that much, however it was pretty uncomfortable. Oh well, its all good. Sorry for the long story, but you have to admit, that was a little amusing. I went and saw Brody while I was "Shrek" and I told Lindsay that I was nervous that he would be scared of me. She said, "he'll play with anything." Awesome. :) Okay, so now that I know how to blog again I will stay up to date, and I won't post long blogs like this anymore. This may have actually been a 2 day read. Ha, ha, just kidding. Peace and love!

Bye, bye Brody...

My little nephew is 3 months old as of yesterday. He really lights up my life. I keep his picture on the desktop of my computer at work and whenever I look at him I smile. I mean how can you not. He is such a happy little guy, well, most of the time. He does get angry every now and then. I am sad becaues my sister and her husband will be moving back to McKinney in the next couple of weeks and I won't be able to see Brody as much as I have been. Every time he does something for the first time I get to see it pretty closely to when it happens. Since he will be farther away I will miss his new milestones and that makes me sad. I am going to try and be around as much as possible so he knows that I am his Aunt who loves him more then he knows.

Well it has been a rough month. We lost my precious Grandfather on May 9. As hard as it was to say goodbye, it was time for him to go. His quality of life had dwindled to the point that I think he was ready to let go. My Grandmother, in all her grief, took a deep breath and began planning the funeral. He was to be buried in Seward, Nebraska so that is where the funeral was held. Most of my mom's family lives up there. I have already lost one Grandparent but I didn't realize the hurt I would feel at the service. He was in the Navy and was a POW in the Vietnam War. During the end of the service a Navy song was played and my Grandmother lost it. It pained my heart to see my Grandmother hurting so much. At the cemetery they did a 21 gun solute and a fly over. He deserved all of that and more because just look at what he did for our country. As they folded the flag that was draped over his casket and handed it to my Grandma she clinched onto it like she was giving my Grandfather a great big hug. I know she misses him every day. He will definitely never be forgotten.

Prayers please.

So I have been so overwhelmed lately that I haven't had time to post anything. My grandfather has been diagnosed with brain tumors and only has about another month to live. I went to see him last weekend and couldn't believe what I saw. He has always been a big tough guy, but he looked weaker than I have ever seen him. He was literally skin and bones. The tumor is in a place in his brain that isn't allowing him to talk or swallow. We brought a white board with magnetic letters so he could spell stuff out to us. He is so weak that it is hard for him to point to multiple letters at a time. I know that he is frustrated with his quality of life right now. What is so hard is that he is not ready to die but he has no choice. The doctor said that with some radiation it would prolong his life about a month. Well, he is not taking well to the radiation so they are having to hold off on that until he gets a little stronger. Every time a plan has been made to help him get a little more life it quickly ends up in shambles. I know that he is not ready to go yet and it hurts that there isn't any way for us to give him a Little more time. What is so great about his is that he is so concerned with everyone else while he is going through this. If my grandmother is at the hospital all day, he will tell her to go home so she can rest. He knows that everyone he loves more than anything is about to be in a lot of pain after his passing and it hurts him so much. We know that we cannot save him so I just pray that God will wrap his arms around everyone close to him and comfort them as much as possible. This is going to be a hard next month. I am going to see him one final time in a couple of weeks. I really don't know how to say goodbye to man I love so much. All I can do is tell him how much he means to me and that I will always keep him in my heart. Okay I have to stop typing before I really start crying. All my love!

Couldn't you just eat him up??? Cutest nephew in the world! This was his St. Patrick's Day outfit. You can tell he is loving the pictures. :)

Lets talk about my new friend :)

Okay so I have this new friend and she is quite the weird one. Totally kidding. She mentioned today that I hadn't ever mentioned her in any of my blogs. I wanted to reply with the fact that I have only known her for a month and wasn't exactly sure if I liked her. Yeah whatever, I love her! She is sometimes a breath of fresh air. I was a little nervous coming into the new work environment wondering if I would make friends with anyone. She was actually the first hand I ever shook. She was the one who trained me so I thought she would hate me by the end of the first week. Not the case at all. She has turned out to be fabulous. It seems that we have a lot in common. I love that we have the same sense of humor because some people frown on mine every so often. She can walk into a room and I will just start laughing. She is that funny looking. Kidding. Usually when I am on the phone I make her leave the room because I know I will bust out laughing in the middle of the conversation. Oddly enough, some people don't like that. I have really enjoyed getting to know her and I think that we will grow to be great friends. Love ya Shelley! :) By the way, she is the one on the right. (she is going to kill me for this one)

Brody Journey Lewis

I'M AN AUNT!!!!! I can't belive he is finally here. He is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. He was born on Monday at 11:09 am. My poor sister was in labor for 16 hours. I could tell she was uncomfortable every bit of that time. I am so proud of her for doing this. She is such a trooper. I have been able to handle some tough physical situations, but nothing like this. Way to go Lindsay!

He's comin'....

Oh my goodness, I am going to have a nephew in about a week. I can't believe it is finally here. My sister's tummy has about had it! It is so big. I know she is ready. If you have a spare minute, please pray for Lindsay and the delivery. Bless her heart she has no idea what to expect and it taking everything as it comes along. She isn't really saying much but I know she is scared. Heck I would be. I just hope that she knows that she can do it and not to worry. I know that when I get that phone call that she has gone into labor I am just going to fall apart. God is about to give us a precious baby boy here very shortly. I CAN'T WAIT!!! I will post pictures when he gets here.

Well lets just say I couldn't be happier with my job. The people there are so great. Even though I have to work 10 hours a day it goes by so fast because I am so busy. Last week was my first full week working there and it all caught up with me on Saturday. I finally got up and about an hour after I did that I wanted to crawl back into bed. I am happy I had plans for lunch or I am sure I would have stayed in bed all day. After I got back around 2:00 I definitely took a 2 hour nap. Basically Saturday was the day for me to catch up on my sleep. After a couple of weeks I am sure I will get used to the schedule. I am happy to have a 4 day week this week. This whole having every other Friday off is going to work out just fine. :) So my nephew will be here in less then 3 weeks. I teared up a little bit when my mom was telling me how Lindsay and Gabe were going to have to schedule their induction if Brody didn't come the week he was due. With all the talk about having to induce and then deliver made me a little sappy. I really can't believe that my little sister is about to be a mother. Her and Gabe are going to be great parents. Their bags are packed and they are ready to have this little boy. Well, thats all the news I have for now!

I'M EMPLOYED!!!

I GOT A JOB!!!! I am so excited! I was trying so hard and getting no where and my doubts were beginning to show. I just kept praying that the right job would come my way. Oh it sure did. Right when my hopes were beginning to go down and angel stepped in. I received a call a couple of weeks from one of my best friends who is going to Harvard. First of all I was so happy she called because with all of her studying for her PHD we don't get a lot of time to chat. Well anyway, the first thing she asked me was if I had a job yet. I replied to her in a very somber tone, "No." She then proceeded to tell me that her dad called her that day and was telling her that they were needing a receptionist at his company ASAP. It is basically a company that runs and facilitates nursing homes and assisted livings. Anyway, she said that her mom remembered her talking about how I had been laid off and wondered if I still needed a job. I of course jumped at the chance to get this job. My friend gave me the number of who to call and told me to remember to say that Mr. Harrington referred me to the position. I then asked her what her dad did at the company because in my mind I was wondering how much pull he had. Well apparently he has a lot of pull because he is definitely the C.E.O. Heck Yeah! I went in for my 1st interview last week with a couple of ladies. It went well. I then met with Mr. Harrington just to finally meet him. I have been friends with his daughter for like 7 years and have only met her mother. We got to talking and he said that he told Meredith that he could get me the interview but I would have to do the rest on my own. Sounded fair. I had my 2nd interview with the immediate supervisor on Tuesday. That seemed to go well too. She mentioned that 4 other people had applied for that position and she still had one more interview that afternoon. Even though I knew the C.E.O. I still knew there was competition out there. I figured that I wouldn't know anything until the end of the week. Yup, I was wrong. I got a call later that afternoon from someone offering me the job. I took it of course. I started today and absolutely love it. The people there are fantastic and I get every other Friday off, which is great seeing as I have a newphew coming in 4 weeks. I couldn't be any happier or blessed. When all is seeming to fail, God still has your back. Lesson learned.....AGAIN. :)

Nothin' new...

Well, I really don't have anything new to post other than I am still job searching. I have had a couple of leads but they didn't seem to work out so I am just going to keep looking. My friend Lindsey hopefully will be having her little boy this week. I know she is ready for him to be here. I can't wait to meet little Brady. My sister is having her first baby shower in a couple of weeks and I am so excited. I feel bad for her sometimes because she is so uncomfortable. I really hope she will enjoy her next pregnancy. Oddly enough I am enjoying every minute of her being pregnant. I guess I don't really matter in this situation though. Fine with me. She is just so stinking cute with her little belly. I got to feel the baby kick over the weekend. I have been wanting to feel him move for quite awhile now and he finally cooperated. It was so special. Only 8 more weeks until we get to meet that little man. I am glad I have all of this other activity going on around me so I don't get discouraged about being unemployed. Well, back to the job search. Hopefully I will get to tell about my new job on my next post. Wish me luck!