Birthday Weekend

Friday night, Jill, Jackie and I went to the "PRE-SALE" for the Rhea Lana's consignment sale
of children's clothing, toys and other child accessories.
We all signed up for the door prizes and my name was called right before the sale started. 

I ACTUALLY WON!  The prize was a gift basket of lavender essential oils/sprays/lotions.

 We found some great designer clothing and toys for CHEAP!

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After the sale we went to Dairy Queen for a snack.
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Saturday morning, Doug made me a wonderful breakfast and cappuchino.

Karl called to wish me a happy birthday.
I received birthday cards from Mom K. and my friend Linda, in the mail.

Doug & I did a few errands in the afternoon
and got home in time to clean up for our dinner reservations
at Truluck's Steak/Crab House - Southlake, TX.
http://trulucks.com/pages/southlake-texas
(For those of you at Karl & Audrey's rehearsal dinner
- this is the same chain of restaurant we went to in Houston)

We started off by sharing a jumbo crab cake.

 For dinner, I had the house special - red snapper.
Doug had the sesame seared tuna

We also enjoyed our complimentary dessert.
Molten chocolate lava bread pudding with homemade vanilla bean ice cream.

Finished off dinner with some wine.

Saturday night, I received phone calls from the Swansons and my mom/dad.
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Sunday, the Elliott family would come over for the afternoon to swim.
We enjoyed fajitas for dinner
Jill made an angel food cake (my favorite) with strawberries.
They also brought me a bottle of wine J. Lohr (Paso Robles vineyard) to enjoy later.

It was an action packed weekend, full of fun and family!

Rangers vs. Blue Jays

Jackie had 4 tickets to the baseball game for Wednesday night: Texas Rangers vs. Toronto BlueJays.
A little early birthday present for me!

The game was a lot of fun, despite the fact our team lost 12-4

 It was a special bonus night as  it was $1.00 hot dog night at the park.
There were plenty of hot dogs enjoyed by all!

Sisters Weekend

Jenny and Makayla came for a few days to stay with the Elliott's and meet Mr. Caleb.
Their visit was cut short due to Josh's grandpa funeral in Houston, so they got to come and stay with me for a few days.

I took the day off from work on Friday, August 21st.
I drove up to Little Elm and picked them up from the Elliotts. We drove back through The Colony and stopped by a LARGE garage sale at the medical building. All proceeds doing to The American Cancer Society. I purchased an item for $1.00. We drove home and made a plan for the rest of the day.
Lunch at Cheddars. http://www.cheddars.com/  A new restaurant opened in The Colony with Scratch Kitchen - Hand Made Food - Exceptional Value. It is located right next to the Nebraska Furniture Mart.

After lunch we shopped briefly at Sam Moon http://sammoon.com/index.php  Sam Moon specializes in purses, jewelyry, luggage and accessory items. After shopping we went to Stonebriar Mall to see the movie "Inside Out". This is a PIXAR movie where five personified emotions—Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling)—try to lead her through life as she moves with her parents (Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan) to a new city. It got great reviews from all three of us.  Now I know why certain songs keep getting stuck in my head!

After the movie we went back to the house for a little swimming before dinner.

Jackie & Jonathan came over for dinner and we enjoyed some enchiladas

The rest of the evening was spent taste-testing.
We purchased the new Lays potato chips 

and the new Oreo flavors (Peanut Butter/Brownie Batter / Smores)
I couldn't find the Cotton Candy or the Rootbeer cookies.
Reviews were mixed.

Saturday morning, Jackie came over and picked up Jen and MK to take them to the Nebraska Furniture Mart. We had lunch and a little more time in the pool before I took them to the airport for their flight back home to Minnesota.

It was a fun filled weekend!

Custom table/chairs

I've been looking for a square table that seats 8 people FOREVER!
Everyone makes it in counter-height, but I wanted it in "normal" table height.

So when the Nebraska Furniture Mart opened in The Colony this spring, we went to look there. 
This location is the largest to date at 1.28 million square feet (or 22 football fields)
They have 546,000 sq feet retail, the rest is the distribution center/warehouse.
For more info on this company which is also located in Omaha, NE; Kansas City, MO and Des Moines, IA
Their prices cannot be beat...check them out at www.nfm.com 

We did not have any luck finding a pre-made table to our specifications, but we did find a manufacturer that would make a custom table. Figures!  So we are the proud owners of a custom table 54" x 54" and 8 tulip chairs, created by Daniel's Amish. The table and chairs are solid red oak with a New World Cherry stain.
The process included picking out the table size, table top shape, table top edge, table leg style, wood and stain.

We will use our table with 6 chairs everyday, but will have a place for 8 chairs when all the kids/spouses are home.  Now where should we put all those grand-kids??

What do you think?

Family Weekend

Friday night, Karl, Audrey and Aurora arrived from Houston to spend the weekend with us.
Aurora is getting very close to being 6 months old. She will have her 6th month check up on 08/24/15.

Saturday, the Elliott and Kiefer families came over for the day.

Audrey and Jackie went clearance shopping at Dillards/Macy's in the morning.
The boys went to visit the Rabbit Hole Brewery in Justin,TX
There was swimming and plenty of baby love to go around for everyone. 

**You can double click the photos to make them larger**

 

 

 Jackie brought Andrew over some costumes (lion, police officer, fireman, and baker)

 He couldn't wait to wear the lion costume and show us his lion tricks he learned at the circus.

 Aurora enjoyed going cruising in her automobile/walker.

  With a little help from cousin, Andrew.

 Mimi got to love on all her babies!!

 Andrew the baker is showing me how to whip up some pancakes.

 Andrew the baker is showing Poppa the correct way to flip the pancakes.

There were lots and lots of memories made this weekend!

Dad at V.A. Hospital in Des Moines

Tuesday afternoon, I received a call from my mom that Dad has been sick. He had just been to the VA hospital in DesMoines three days prior for severe neck pain. They gave him a numbing shot and then a muscle relaxant injection. It did help slightly but then got worse again. 

But on Tuesday (8/4/15) when she called, he now had fever and chills during the night and was still complaining of neck pain. I was worried he might have meningitis. I told her I would feel better if they went to VA before he got worse again. I called back around 9pm and asked how he was and again reiterated I thought they should go to the hospital, especially with recent MRI findings that he has had a few mini strokes in the past.  So they called back around 10pm and said they were on the way to the VA in DesMoines.  They arrived at the VA around midnight. He was in the ER until about 7am Wednesday morning (8/5/15) . He had blood work, blood culture, MRIs and a spinal tap. He was admitted to the ICU with a high CRP and a high WBC (white blood cell) count of 18.8. NORMAL RANGE: 4.3-10.0

Later in the day on Wednesday, he was put on isolation precautions (everyone wears a mask when they enter the room) and they were closely monitoring his kidney function.

This morning, Thursday, August 6th, I called and talked to the ICU nurse. His spinal tap was negative. Thank God! His WBC is now 14.0, still not normal..but improving. YAY! More good news!
They have not been able to identify the area of infection yet. He is on a broad spectrum antibiotic for the time being. Results of the blood culture should be known in the next 24 hours. Drs are expected to round between 8am-9am and I will get an update later in the morning to see what the plan of the day will be.

Prayers for continued healing.

The Circus came to town

 We kept Andrew a few days while his mom and dad were in the hospital with baby Caleb.
We had already had plans to take Andrew to the circus on Friday, July 31st and it worked out that he was staying with us then. Andrew LOVED the circus!

 

We had front row, center ring, aisle seats.
He enjoyed a snow cone with Mimi and nachos with Poppa.

 He got a clown nose from one of the event staff.

 We attended the pre-show where you could meet the performers up close.

He plugged his ears during the motorcyles performing in the sphere.
They performed in front of us and THEY WERE LOUD!!!

 Andrew loved the lions, as he has "ROARED" since he was a baby.
He was doing lion/tiger tricks all weekend.

He also liked the tigers and elephants.

 We stopped for lunch at Wendy's and then headed for home.
I think we wore him out!!