New year's eve celestial show at sunset...

So...for those of us in the Central Time Zone...that means here pretty quick...go take a look outside.

Venus, brighter than all the other planets and stars will be just below the cresent moon in the southwestern sky. Should be imposible to miss just after the sun goes down.

Soon after, Mercury and Jupiter will show up on the south-southwestern horizon (just above where the sun went down) and will be really close together. Jupiter is very bright and easy to spot. Mercury is fainter but you will know it because of the location just left of Jupiter.

Jupiter and Mercury will set less than an hour after the sun, so get out and look quick. To see them, you will need a clear view of the horizon, no obstruction by buildings, mountains, or clouds. Good luck!!

Right now, Venus is so bright, you can actually see it during the day, since it is so close to the moon right now and few people can say they've seen two planets during the day. So go out and have some fun. Good luck.

We're back from all our Christmas fun and I promise to post updates soon. Just wanted to get this post in real quick first.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! Hope we all have a healthy, happy, and remarkable 2009!

Happy Christmas everyone...

Fender, Drew and I wish each of you the very best Christmas ever. May you be filled with the peace, love, hope, and happiness that the season brings.

Oh...and since no one answered my Christmas tree poll last time around, I've given you all more time in case you missed it or haven't had a chance to check this site with all the busy holiday bustle going on. :) I love that there is so much fun to be had at the holidays. Also...I've added another poll just for kicks. If you participate in the capitalistic side of the Christmas season, when does your family open presents?

Traditionally, I grew up going to midnight mass and then we'd open our presents when we got home. So Christmas Eve for us, but as midnight mass actually ended at midnight back then, technically it was Christmas day already. And we open our stockings Christmas morning. Nowadays, if we go to midnight mass, it starts around 6:30PM...so not the same...but either way...in my opinion the ONLY way to do it...is share presents on Christmas Eve and wake up to open your stocking and any presents Santa may have left on Christmas morning.

Catch all post...

Drew and I attended the annual office holiday party. The food was lacking compared to some office parties we've attended, but the atmosphere was great and it turned out to be one of the best office parties we've attended.
Us at the party:
 

This picture is just to show a little more of my dress which I think is so awesome. It is vintage 1940 and was actually my Aunt's dress and we've had it for a very long time.
 

A quick pic to say our resident vultures are back. Pic shows only two, but all three are here again. Welcome back: Vinny, Velma, and Vorla.
 

We went for a quick birthday luncheon with Aunt Lala, Memaw and Papa.
 

This past Saturday was the annual Gingerbread House party at our neighbor's and I was so excited for Fender to be a part of it this year, but as luck would have it, he wanted a nap just as it began so I went to the party by myself and with the help of a my 7 year old Creative Director named Sydney, I made our 2nd Gingerbread house. Fender came over to play when he woke up and Daddy got roped in as an impartial judge. Everyone gets a prize. Here are the houses and one train. No spaceship this year. :) One little girl did the Miser brother theme (one side red hot and the other side snow cold). I thought that was too cool!! There was incredible use of pink this year, especially in the winner, which was a pink church. It was awesome but we think the judges were guilted into giving it best overall. ;)






Fender and neighbor's daughter, Lily.


And a last note with an eye update:
Where I stand with my eye right now is the initial uvietis problem seems to have gone into remission. No more steroids for now. And I am truly thankful for that! However, the second eye surgery, while it appears to have repaired the detached retina...further worsened the cataracts caused by the first surgery. The cataract is so bad that I can't see anything with that eye at all. The plan is to have cataract surgery after the new year once the gas bubble from the surgery is finally gone...this is a REALLY SLOW acting gas bubble...it has been over a month since surgery and it is still there. But my hope and with continued prayers and by the Grace of God, after cataract surgery I may be able to see with it again.

Christmas Parade

First and foremost... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY, Aunt LaLa!!

Fender was in his first Christmas Parade today. He and I rode on the Environmental Co-op's float. The theme of the parade this year was Children's Nursery Rhymes so our float was "Hickory Dickory Dock, Recycle Around the Clock." Pretty cute. We all dressed up as mice on the float and kind of crazy, but our float won 1st Place in Traditional Christmas floats. We were excited. It was windy and cold, but we had a great time. Fender hollered "Merry Christmas" and "Recycle" to everyone all through town. We don't have pictures of us in the parade, but we rode up front and got to see everyone on both sides of the road. Daddy tried to take a picture of us with his cell phone camera, but he said they didn't turn out well. We've come to expect a lot from our little phones, ya think? :)
 

 
 
 

Stockings, christmas trees, and more...

Uh, well, haven't had a lot of time to update lately which makes for longer posts when I do. Sorry about that. Here's what we've been up to and more than enough pics to prove it. Hope you are all enjoying this holiday season...we are!

Fender has THE BEST MEMAW in all the land. I started this Christmas stocking for Fender the year he was born and made very little progress the past two years. And this year, with my eye acting up I knew I had little chance of getting anything done on it again so I called on Memaw who whipped this beautiful stocking together in a jif...which was no easy task!! So super thanks to Memaw for getting the job done. The stocking looks pefect!
 

Coloring with feet on the wall.
 

Last Saturday we had a FULL day of Christmas fun. First up was "Breakfast with Santa" hosted by the local Methodist Church. We did this last year and Fender did not care to have his picture taken with Santa. This year you can see how his enthusiasm changed...
 

He did enjoy the pancakes and sausage for breakfast that morning and he loved playing with all the kids. It was really the first time I've taken him anywhere and just let him play with all the kids and stepped back and watched. He played well whether he was alone or in a crowd of kids. He colored at the table and he played cars on the floor with all the boys. Later he tossed bean bags through the big Christmas tree cut out and had a really great time. Being a small town, we saw plenty of "folks" we knew from church, daycare, and relatives too.

We left from the breakfast to go directly to the DOK (Daughters of the King...a group of women from the Episcopal Church) Cookie Swap which my cousin was hosting. Earlier in the week, Aunt Pauline (my 85 year old Greek Aunt) and I made rum balls just for the occasion. Fender enjoyed the party, especially the part where he got to pick what cookie he wanted to eat and he went for a big one.
 

Fender had a quick nap after the busy morning then we loaded up the truck, this time with Daddy and Sebastian too, and headed out to Walls Family Tree Farm to pick out our Christmas Tree.

Along the way, Fender found a fun hole to play in.


Daddy and Fender thought this tree might work, but I thought it needed to be just a wee bit larger.



So Fender started measuring them and thought..."how about this one?"


...or this one?


...Ah...Daddy and I can fit underneath the branches...now we're talking...let's start cutting.


Momma helped out when Daddy needed a brief break.


On Sunday, I spent 6 hours getting the lights on and ornaments all up and then it was "The Fall of 2008." The tree fell over...apparently too big for the stand...which was a huge heavy duty stand to begin with. Bulbs shattered, two strands of lights were lost. It wasn't until Monday that I was able to go out and buy a new stand (this one holds up to 10 ft tall trees and ours is 9) and it held fine overnight. Tuesday I got nerve enough to put lights back on and it kept standing overnight again. Wednesday I put all the ornaments back on but most of our prettier, breakable bulbs and all our heavier bulbs are now on the back side of the tree because I don't trust it that much. So far so good, but I still think we should tie something around it and nail it to the wall or the base of the windows for extra support. Anyway...here's Fender helping decorate the first time around...and then the final product.





Coloring by the fire.

Thanksgiving...

For thanksgiving, Drew, Fender, Sebastian (our dog) and I drove to Amarillo to spend the holiday with my mom and sister. Fender traveled very well. We even had the laptop set up to play Fender's new favorite movie "Wall-E" on the way back if we needed since we were driving all day instead of at night, but we never had to bring it out. And other than a couple of extra stops to "please potty in the toilet" when Fender refused to potty in his pull-up. The trip went off without a hitch.

Thanksgiving meals with my family in Amarillo are a bit different than most everyone's "traditional" holiday gatherings. Used to be we could pick up a fantastic turkey dinner for the family from Black-Eye-Pea but they closed years ago. And since most restaurants are closed for the holiday, Gran had to get creative in recent years which led to the following...

Drew, Fen, Gran and I drove an hour south of Amarillo to Clarendon to pick up our Thanksgiving feast. We boxed up 5 buffets to go, which included turkey; ham; stuffing; corn; sweet potatoes; gravy; and all the fixings with rolls and dessert too. The few people who were dining in the restaurant seemed to enjoy seeing Fender's lively presence running about the place. We had a lot of fun. And finished up just in time to drive the hour back to Amarillo and get to the airport to pickup my sister (Aunt LaLa).

I am not one to go shopping EVER so the "Black Friday" shopping experience doesn't appeal to me in the least. However, Drew and Loren both wanted to check out BestBuy and Barnes and Noble so after some breakfast and hot-chocolates at IHOP that morning, the two of them took Fender for some look-see while mom and I took the much more relaxing route and had pedicures right next door. :)

It was a fun, relaxing, and refreshing Thanksgiving. The drive back was not, but it wasn't bad either. Just exhausting sitting in a car for 6 1/2 hours.

Enjoying catfish and fries in Decatur on our way to Amarillo...
 

...working in a little Wall-E in the hotel room.
 

...picture in front of the old movie theater and a decent tumbleweed in Clarendon on Thanksgiving day.
 

...checking out the view from our room.
 

...Fen and LaLa giving us "the glare", which Fen can do on cue. It is really funny in person.


...Amarillo's painted horses are all over town. Fender liked to visit this one outside the Drury hotel where we stayed.


...windy and cold as always in Amarillo. Gotta keep the hood on.


...having some fun after dinner at Kabuki Japanese Steak house. Fen loved the smoking onion volcano that spurted fire. He liked the soup and all the food too.


...bedtime after a long, cold day.


...me with Lily Jun (her mother and I were friends even before elementary.)


...a brief nap on the drive back home. Banana in one hand and book in the other.

Happy turkey day...

Well I am THANKFUL that I don't have to be face-down for Thanksgiving and am infinitely thankful for Drewry and Fender. We are also incredibly thankful for MEMAW for, well, everything. She does everything and we need her practically everyday and I don't know what we'd do without her. And I am so thankful that Fender knows the way to Memaw and Papa's house so well that he can say "we're almost there" when we turn off the highway toward their home.

We're thankful for all our family and friends, of course. Which sounds cheesy and generic but we truly are. I can't think of any frivolous family or friends we have. Each of you fills a special role in our lives and place in our hearts! So with that said,

WE WISH YOU ALL A WONDERFUL, STRESS FREE THANKSGIVING DAY. AND SAFE JOURNEYS FOR THE TRAVELERS.

May each of you find time to reflect on the many blessings you've been given and may you take a moment to be truly THANKFUL for all you have. (Here's a gimme...if you can see with both your eyes, hug with both arms, walk with your own legs, you have plenty to be thankful for.)

An eye update...surgery numero dos

The reason for the recent lapse in posts is due to further eye trouble. The appointment after my previous post showed that my retina was suddenly detaching, which is an emergency situation as it can lead pretty quickly to loss of sight. Not particularly thrilled about jumping into a second surgery so soon, I told the doc to take pictures and show me what was going on before I agreed. He gave a mild chuckle at my assertive request but took no time at all to comply. (At least my biology degree is occasionally useful in situations like this where photos and big medical terms might be gibberish to others. Now if I could just find a way to make some money with it.) Within minutes I was getting the photographs done and thanks to the digital world I saw what he was talking about just as soon as the last pic was taken.

Long story short, had the surgery (basically repeat of first surgery), got a second gas bubble...this one is slow acting as opposed to the fast acting last time, and spent the past 10 days in face-down recovery. Way worse than the "head straight up for a week" last time. Thankfully we rented crazy chair and bed contraptions with a double mirror that let me watch TV.

During my recovery Nana and Pop came for a visit. Nana kept us fed with fresh meals every night and having them here really helped keep Fender's attention diverted from my being temporarily out of commission. They were a huge help and sadly there's not a single photograph from the 6 days they were here.

And that brings us to today where doc said I can sit upright again, can drive, and even lift things again, but he said I have to take it easy for at least another week while my eye continues to heal. He doesn't want to take any chance that the fluid will seep back in someplace and cause further retinal detachment. I also get to stop my steroids for now and see how it goes. Yea!

As for my vision, this surgery apparently made the cataracts (which were caused by the first surgery) worse. So I'll definitely be needing that surgery later. And the gas bubble is still at 70% after 11 days so it will take a couple more weeks before it is gone. Currently it blocks my vision anyway so I'm not really bothered by the cataracts yet.

Here is Fender demonstrating the bed contraption I used most of every day.
 
 

New presidents, beds, and haircuts...

Since my last post, election day has come and gone and Barack Obama has been elected as our 44th president. This election marks the second president of Fender's life and Fender can now say it was in his lifetime that our nation elected its first African American President as well.
 

Also since my last post, Fender has moved out of his crib and into his cool new race car bed. Friday was his first night in the new bed and it was kind of funny. He got up out of bed about 2:30AM...walked out his door, which comes into our room, and straight out our door to the front of the house where I followed and found him starting to play with toys. I told him it was still nighttime and he needed to go back to bed...which he did without fuss and with a little milk. He woke back up about 3:30AM and did the same thing...but this time I stayed in bed and waited to see if he would go back to bed on his own. About 2 minutes later, he came walking back through our room and into his room and back to his bed carrying his little Diego Dune Buggy and Diego driver (two pieces). He seemed to go back to sleep on his own, but woke up at 4AM crying. I rocked him until he fell back to sleep about 4:30AM and he slept until 7:00AM. I seriously contemplated going back to the crib...but figured we had to be strong enough to try it more than just one night. :) Last night all was fine. Slept from 9:30PM to 8:00AM without fuss. Guess it was just first night jitters. Pretty funny though...walking by himself through a big old house at night with no lights on didn't seem to bother him in the least. Here's his new bed. Easy to put together...the four sides fit together like big puzzle pieces and then there were about four screws just for safe measure. There are tons more stickers left to put on which will likely be part of his playtime when he wakes up from his nap. Right now we have his crib mattress in it, but it converts to twin size whenever we get the mattress.
 

We've had lots of fun with his birthday sidewalk chalk lately. Anytime he goes outside now he usually brings it with him. Here he is with the chalk on Friday...before his haircut.
 

Here he is watching Nemo on the computer...after his haircut on Saturday.
 

Also want to add a special note to say, "Welcome to the world, Miss Lily Jun." She is the daughter of one of my oldest friends and was born this morning at 12:14AM, 5 weeks early weighing 5 lbs 2 oz. Lily and Mom are doing very very well. Lily will be staying in the NICU for a few days, but at the moment only needs a little supplemental oxygen.

And WAY TO GO TEXAS TECH! They beat Oklahoma State 56-20 last night. Now they get to enjoy the victory and gear up an extra week before traveling to take on a formidable Oklahoma.

For those of you wondering about my eye...things haven't gotten worse for about a week now, so I call that GREAT!! And when I look straight ahead I can see a lot with the bad eye. I've recovered from the surgery and the gas bubble is gone now. There were problems after the surgery, like the fact that it apparently caused me to get cataracts which blurs my vision mostly on the perimeter and the biopsy was negative for Toxoplasmosis, which he was confident I had.

Ugh...I return to my doctor on Wednesday for follow up. I have been on a new medication for our newest diagnosis of Toxocara and am praying this will work because two doctors have now said nothing else is even close to my symptoms. I remain on steroids for now, but hope we can try to decrease those after my appointment and wait and pray the pain doesn't come back when I get off of them.

Go guns...

Just enjoying this rare moment. Mommy's a really happy camper after staying up late to watch her Texas Tech Red Raiders beat #1 Texas last night and then was rewarded with an extra hour of sleep thanks to Daylight Savings ending. Fender pulled for the Red and Black as long as he could before bed. Next up...Oklahoma State and then Oklahoma. Yikes. Go Guns!

Unfortunately the Cowboys aren't looking so great. Yea for by-weeks. They need to regroup and Romo needs to heal muy rapido.

Trick-or-treating...

 
(Friends: Bradley with daughter Corley the duck; Fender and me; and Jayme the Bumblebee.)

Festivities began with the Halloween party at daycare. Our first trick-or-treating was at Memaw and Papa's where we scored big time with several Reese's Peanut Butter cups. Yummy! Fender ran off lots of energy, apparently the result of lots of sugar from the party earlier. He ate some of Memaw's meatloaf and black eye peas then we met up with Daddy for some more trick-or-treating. When we got back home, we turned on the porch light and lit the pumpkins and handed out candy to about 30 trick-or-treaters before we turned the light out a little past 9:00PM when we had given out all our good chocolate bars and Momma was ready to get out of her scarecrow costume and have some dinner.
 

This costume really made it look like Elmo was eating the party snack and not the kid.
 

Corley as a duck was one of the cutest costumes I have ever seen on a kid. The feet really made the whole thing work too because when she walked, it looked like she was waddling. It was too much!
 

These two pics were at Memaw and Papa's where Fender first negotiated his way out of his Yoda ears and ultimately out of his Jedi robe when it was time to eat. Fender loves playing outside at their house. Who can blame him...they have a big yard with no stickers, a small green house with sand to stick your toes in, and lots of love and cookies too...who could want anything more?