No Work Today

Work is cancelled today!  Chris, however, is a brave employee and went in.  We didn't get the weather like some other places have seen, but ice is bad news no matter the amount of accumulation. 

I didn't go to work yesterday.  I had a head cold from you know where and sinus pressure that made me want to take Chris' drill and relieve it.  I did have an eye appointment yesterday morning that I had to go to.  I've had a blurry dot in my left eye's field of vision the past several weeks, and yesterday was a follow up appointment where more tests were performed.  I've not seen the blurry dot in about a week, so I thought that was a great sign.  Apparently I was wrong.  I did a test that looks at your peripheral vision.  I did the right eye and the technician said I was within normal limits, did the left eye and she didn't say anything.  I should've known then something wasn't right.  She dilates my eyes and tells me the doctor will be in shortly.  He comes in and checks my eyes, asks if I've seen the dot.  I tell him that, no, I have not.  Woo Hoo for me!  And then he speaks.  

He sees my dot.

And I'm missing the majority of my vision field in the lower left hemisphere of my left eye.  Not good.  That's what that peripheral vision test told him.  In my defense, however, I have this twitch (been there since I was kid) that was super noticeable during the test, so I think it interfered.  

But on the bright side, my optic nerve looks great and my eye looks like it's getting great blood supply.

So now I have to go see a neuro-opthamologist to rule out anything horrible (like cancer, tumor, or MS).  That appointment is scheduled for next week and by the time it gets here, I'll be a nervous wreck.  

So any little prayer you could throw my way would be appreciated.  I'm sure it's nothing, but it has to be checked nonetheless.  

The Weekend Is Over :(

The weekend is over, and we're preparing ourselves for work tomorrow.  Yesterday we went to Fort Smith to stay with Chris' brother, Jon, and our sister in law, Emily.  They are the ones who run Beaty Photography, and they did an anniversary shoot with us.  They are so amazing and fun, not just as family, but as friends and incredible photographers!

We went to a baseball field to let the dogs run and to take a group photo before we headed back home.  I stole the picture from their 365 blog (which will be done in a couple days!), so I hope they don't mind :)  

Can't wait to find out what the next project is y'all!  Well, I can't wait for the rest of the world to find out, since we already know :)  But to those who don't, it's so fun and I can't wait to see what all they do with it!

Baxter, me, Chris, Jon, Emily, and Rylie

Let's play a game.

What's better than making people dizzy and cleaning ears??  Watching people's vocal cords.  And how do I know?  I had it done on me today.  

Our clinic was looking at a new scope machine (I really don't know what else to call it), and needed a guinea pig to try it out on.  So, like the awesome student I am, I volunteered.  But before I volunteered, I had to make sure it didn't hurt, and they assured me it most definitely would NOT hurt.  

I hopped in the chair, numbed my nose, and waited.  The woman from the company with the new machine was guiding our SLP on how this new scope works.  Our SLP started sliding the scope up my nose (this is how you get to the VC), but it wasn't working.  She guided it back out and they fiddled with it, numbed my nose again, and up the scope went.  She got halfway to my VCs and she noticed again that it just wasn't feeling right (my gagging was probably a signal), so she guided it out again.

I had to leave and go do my job (I'm such a good worker), so they had to wait for the doctor to come in and be the guinea pig.  I'm not sure when, but at some point during the doctor gagging, the woman from the scope company realized why the scope was sticking.  They forgot the lube.  

Yep, I was scoped with no lube!  It didn't hurt (thank goodness, because that would have made liars out of them), but it was funny feeling.  So note to all you sellers out there...don't forget all the steps to make your equipment work well and comfortably!  Especially the lube.

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our anniversary!  Here's our life in a nutshell thus far:

                                                      1 dog

                                               2 states

                                              3 moves

                                               4 cities

                                               5 year anniversary!

We have lived in AR and TX, moved 3 times (I think we're experts now), and lived in 4 cities (3 in AR and 1 in TX).  I can't believe it's been 5 years!  Happy Anniversary to us!

We went out to dinner last night with our friends to a Japanese Steakhouse/Hibachi grill and it was so fun.  After dinner, we were invited by our friends daughter, Maddy, to come over for dessert.  She had a birthday last week, so we thought we'd have some birthday cake.  We were warned before hand that Maddy only wanted to eat the middle of the cake, but we just thought there would be a little hole.  We were sadly mistaken, because almost ALL the middle of the cake was gone!  Crazy girl :)  We played Ticket to Ride (U.S. Version...thanks Jon and Emily) and had a great time!  Thanks y'all for letting us come over!  Had a blast!

A Day in the Life...of Baxter

Yes, this all about the dog.  But he deserves it, he's a good pup dog.

After Baxter got a billion toys at Christmas, his toy basket is at it's max.  It may explode at any moment.  He's very particular about having all his toys OUT of the basket, so this is a rare photo.  He pulls each toy out until he gets to the bottom, and then Chris and I spend time putting them all back!

This is his all time favorite toy.  He's gone through several of these, but he loves them!  This is Baxter at play time.

After he's done playing, it's time to watch Chris cook.  This provides the perfect opportunity to beg.

And Chris, like always, gives in.  Pepperoni = happy Baxter

After 'dinner', it's time to wind down.  

He gets his pajamas on, curls up on the end of the bed, and passes out.  Okay, these are new pajamas, and he hates them.  He pouted at the foot of the bed until we took them off.  Snot dog.
Now you know how spoiled rotten our dog is.  And we're okay with it :)

The Good Thing...

...about having a doctor(s) in the family, is that when he feels someone in the family isn't getting the proper care they need, they have the power to move him.  And that's what happened yesterday.

My Peepaw (my step grandpa, my grandpa past away in 1997) had spent 3 weeks in the hospital.  For what, I'm not exactly sure, but I do know that he had a stint put in and had to have staples in his head because the nurse forgot to put up the bed guards.  He had a nightmare and threw himself out of bed.  The bed guards, had they been up, would have stopped him and kept him in bed, but because they were left down, he got a pretty bad cut on his head that required several staples to close.

He was released from that hospital last week, but has since stopped eating, no appetite.  (Do we see a trend here?  That's exactly what my Grandma did after her double knee replacement two months ago).  He had a doctor's appointment yesterday to follow up, and I don't know what happened there, but I called my  brother (one of the docs in the fam) to ask a favor, only to find out that he moved my Peepaw from his hospital to the one here where my brother works.  He, my Peepaw, my Grandma, and my Mom were all at the ER waiting for him to be admitted.  I don't know what room he's in yet, but I'll be spending some time up there when I find out.

So hopefully he'll get what he needs now that he's at my brother's hospital.  So, if you could, send a little prayer his way.  And my Grandma's way.  

Thanks.

Done and Done

Today has been the laziest day I've had in a long while, and it's been great!  Aside from the bug torching this morning, it's also been fairly uneventful.  We did accomplish a few things, though.  

For instance, Baxter got a bath and his flea and tick medication.  He also dug through his amazingly full toy basket (seriously, it's going to explode at any moment) and dug out one of his new toys from Grammy and Grumpy (Chris' parents).  He decided to test out the squeaker for about 30 minutes straight before retiring to the couch for a 3 hour nap.   

I finished reading 'The Mysterious Benedict Society' (which is a wonderful book if you liked the Harry Potter series or the Lemony Snicket books) and then I read 'Marley and Me' (which reminded me a lot of Jon and Emily's dog, Rylie).  I even got all of my clothes ironed for the week and all the laundry done!  

Chris helped my brother rearrange some furniture, picked up lunch for us, played video games, started a fire and took down the majority of the Christmas decorations that were left.  He made breakfast for us this morning and took good care of me last night when I was running fever and not feeling great.

I think we're ready to tackle the week now!

Success!

Chris successfully used a spatula, lysol, and a lighter to get a ginormous bug off our screen to the patio.  

It's always fun to play with fire at 7:30 in the morning.

Oh Crap, it's 2009

And that means I graduate in FIVE months!  And THAT means I'll be in the real world making grown up professional decisions...eeeeekkkkk!!!

Okay, not that that's out of the way, Happy New Year!

Chris, Baxter, and I went to our friends Pam and Micha's home for New Years Eve.  Jennifer and Joe and Pam's sister Jennifer and her husband David were there also.  We played games, had too much food, gossiped and had a great time.  I was barely awake by the time the ball dropped, but I made it!  We kissed (awwww), grabbed our stuff and came home.  We had a wonderful New Years Eve and we are looking forward to what 2009 brings and where it takes us!

Oh, and again, I didn't take a single picture, so Pam, I'm going to need some copies of those wonderful pics.  Thanks in advance :)