Our dog.

It has been a while so I thought I would post some pictures of our cute Diesel. He is getting big. He is about 4 1/2 months old and a little over 40 pounds. Crazy!

We are taking him to the Farmer's market today. We will see how he does. Yesterday we bought a pinch collar. They look horrible and mean, but they do not hurt, they just "remind" the dog to not pull on the leash. IT took 15 seconds and Diesel was walking right by our side. AMAZING!

We have been training him, but we are still thinking of doing some official obedience training. He is very smart and I think that is the problem. He is stubborn and comes when he wants to and sits when it works for him. We have been training him to "heel" for quite a while and already it is hard for me hang on to the leash- so it was either this or the SHOCK COLLAR... we can not bring ourselves to do that. :-(

Happy Anniversary Part 2

I have been dreaming of how to make our first anniversary memorable and sweet. I want to have a story to tell the kids you know?

For our lovely sunburned Anniversary dinner, we decided to go to the Melting Pot.

What an adventure. We knew that the hotel offered a tram service to and from this huge outlet mall near the Melting Pot. "Near" you say? Well, about 1/2 a mile. This is not a far walk, but when in my head I am thinking of wearing a new dress with nice shoes- I did not want to walk 1/2 a mile on a major road, AT NIGHT, for a nice romantic dinner.

After pouting and changing into FLIP FLOPS, we caught the the tram headed for the outlet mall. The driver was nice enough to take us to the restaurant but informed us that we would have to walk back to the mall to be picked up. Everything was looking good.

The dinner was great, the dessert was better... the best. It was very $$$ and I know that it was more for the ambiance than anything else- but My husband was sweet enough to take me and we enjoyed it.

WARNING! If you easily turn your nose up to bathroom humor, please read no further.

Like I said earlier, our driver told us that we needed to walk 1/2 a mile down the scary, marshy, unpaved unless you walk on the highway "path," to be picked up. So with our extremely full bellies, we headed off into the alligator infested swamps of beach town Florida.

OBSTACLES:

1. Slowly walk across grassy area and sink into marsh.

2. See that your only option is to walk through more scary uncharted territory or choose oncoming traffic.
3. Begin to panic and go for slight jog.

4. Digestion begins

5. Begin to panic... again.

6. Begin rocking chair dance (lean forward from thoughts of throwing up, lean back from thoughts of squeezing your EVERYTHING!)

Now, everyone has had those times in life that they have had to use the restroom quickly. However, I have never had a time in my life where I thought I was going to have to use the highway as the restroom. OH MY GOODNESS. One should never jog after a very $$$ meal- what a waste.

I seriously believe that I could sell the next exercise BUTT routine. I would call it, "The Squeez-inator."

As we were approaching the Heavenly lights of bathroom salvation, I seriously thought I was not going to make it. "How romantic," I thought. Nothing says "Happy Anniversary" like hot and steamy, um, poop in your pants. Luckily, we made it to a restroom with ZERO time to spare. I mean, zero, zilch, barley time to lift your skirt and be proper in an unfamiliar place kind of time.

Ahh! I feel better just thinking about. I quickly washed my hands and tried to not be seen as the "one who just left the stink." We headed back home with thoughts of having a nice glass of wine and walking on the beach at night....Romantic.

The real story- we were so burnt and tired, we fell asleep. Ahh... it's official, I am married.

So there you have it. We have a story.

Happy Anniversary Part 1

YEA!

We got back from our very first anniversary celebration. John and I were married on May 12, last year. I can not believe how fast a year goes by.

We decided to go to Destin, Fl. I have been craving the beach and John's best man lives there with his wife and two precious children. They are moving overseas in a few months so it worked out great to get away and see some good friends.

We left Friday afternoon and had to fly via Houston with a 4 hour lay over. Being from Houston, my excellent mother picked us up and we headed to some delicious Mexican food. AND my best good friend Lindsey met us there with her charming little boy. YEA!!! Too cute and the biggest eyes... wow!

The first two days in Florida we hung out with our friends, ate good food, celebrated mother's day and had a great dinner on a deserted, little cove at NIGHT! Crazy. The last two days we stayed at the Hilton with a room overlooking the beach. It was awesome. We slept with the doors wide open and even had a few bird friends come and visit us IN the room.

After a quick trip to the beach the first night, we headed to a eating/shopping area and I swallowed down my first RAW oyster! SLIMY!!! I really can not tell you how they tasted, they straight back to my throat and down. BUT I DID IT!

The next day, I was determined to get the tan of the century... in one day... so we were out at 8 am walking the beach. After a quick trip to the grocery for some snacks, we were sprawled out and soaking up the rays... the HIGH POWERED, UV, white skin should never be allowed out in, sunshine, happy rays. 40 min, ocean break, turn. 40 min, ocean break, turn. We headed to the pool and once again, 1 hour, pool break, turn, 1 hour, GO INSIDE OUCH IT IS ALREADY HURTING! I was so thorough about the sun block. We put it on 15 min before heading outside. After that, I put it on my face and arms about every 15 min. That' s right, face and arms. I guess I would be missing over half of the body. The tan of the century is pleasantly on my face and arms. The medical burn of the day is on the back of our legs. OH what a wonderful flight back we had. :-)

Oh, I can't forget that lovely rash that I picked up from somewhere. YIKES

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL FOLKS!

Long overdue

WARNING- Random pictures and videos of Diesel that have nothing to do with BLOG.

I was just getting the hang of the BLOG thing. I have been having a rough couple of weeks with work and getting used to a dog and not letting him rule the day. But- after a refreshing week of SPRING BREAK- things are so much better.

For the last two months, two big things (one bigger than the other) have been missing!

I have not been MAKING time to read the WORD and I have been so lazy. I have done ZERO exercise.

So while I was depressed and making life miserable for myself and my sweet John, I did not want to blog. All of my free time was spent sleeping and eating and wasting time.

However- now I have a different routine and things are getting back to normal.

Did I mention that is is finally sunny outside? A cloudy day for 3 months can do something to a girl who is used to 300 days of Caribbean sunshine a year!

My schedule used to be:

3:30a- let Diesel out
5:15- wake up with John (quick breakfast for him, let the dog out, say goodbye)

6:00- put Diesel on the couch and fall asleep (kind of)
7:00- wake up and let him out
7:15- feed him
7:30- sleep again with Diesel and wake up at 10:00 - 11:30
11:30- feed Diesel

12:00- Take Diesel for a walk

12:45- Diesel sleep.... so must I. I guess?

1:30- play with Diesel.

2:00- get ready for work, while watching Diesel

2:30- try to figure out what to cook only to realize everything is still frozen.
3:00- sit around and wait for work

4-8:30p - WORK

9:00p- come home say hi to john, take Diesel out, go to bed.

HOW DEPRESSING! (he was just told NO for chewing on John's Flip Flop)

NEW IMPROVED SCHEDULE

5:15a- wake up and fix John breakfast

6:00- out of house- go to gym
7:30- to Starbucks to read and pray

9- go home to dog- let him out , feed him and let him play- by himself
11:00 Walk Diesel

12:00 feed him and HE sleeps

(Isn't this picture funny? Scary?)

Basically- NOW I am free to do whatever. It is great that he sleeps through the night now..8 hours the other night!

The point being, that by 9am, I have already accomplished more that I had in any given day. Now I don't feel run down or Guilty to do other things because my main two things that are good for me have been accomplished.

So nothing real exciting to say in this blog except- YEA!!!!!

This Diesel and our friends 1 year old pug. That was about 3 weeks ago- Diesel now towers over him. :-)

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN.....get to Milwaukee?

Well- that WAS the plan.

After getting only two hours of sleep on Wednesday, John and I got up at 3:30 and headed to the airport at 4 am. When we checked in they said the flight might be cancelled due to Maintenance. So my friend Hannah and I waited at the gate. About twenty min later, we were told it was cancelled. I called John, who had just turned into our neighborhood, and told him to come get me.

While we were waiting for our bags back downstairs we overheard a crew member say something like, "Okay, Cleavland is a go, have a nice flight!"

ME: "Excuse me. Did you say that the Cleavland flight is going?"

CREW: "Yep, getting ready to pull away for the gate."

I called John letting him know the "great" news.

CREW: "Oh, but you can't make it, it is already leaving and they took you off the flight because you said you weren't going."

WHAT!!!!!

The Lexington Airport is small. The same people that check you in also let you on the plane at the gate so you would think they would know what is going on and be able to communicate with.... well, themselves!

Anyway, we tried to reschedule flights, but by the time we would have arrived at SYTYCD, we were not sure if they would have still let us into the audition.

Luckily, we lost no money on the flight or the hotel. We did loose $50 in snack foods but I gladly ate them anyway.

THE good news was that I got to spend the rest of my week with John who had the week off. I was worried that I would not get back in time for Easter and that in itself would have been disappointing.

I was not THAT upset about the whole thing. I basically decided on MONDAY that I would give it a shot. I was not prepared and was planning on making up the dance as I went.

Maybe next year.... if I can still move I guess.

So You Thing You Can STILL Dance.. Dance.. Dance.. Dance..

Cross centered songs

John and I have been asked to help out with the Youth service on Friday for worship. We have been asked to have some "cross-centered" music for the Youth to sing.

Any suggestions?

I have some news....

And no, I am not pregnant. But I am going out of town (Milwaukee) so you will have to wait until Sunday for me to tell you. MMM what could it be?

You will just have to wait and see. :-)

clue: I will have to wait all day long and then only a few minutes.

What do you think it is?

Music Monday:Debbie Gibson vs Paula Abdul

So it's Music Monday over at TSLOK and the topic is, What is your Musical Genealogy?


I could not decide between Paula Abdul or Debbie Gibson because I have fond memories of both. So here you go...

Debbie Gibson- Electric Youth




I loved this album. I memorized every song. I remember making up so many dances in my living room with my friend Sara from across the street. We even broke my moms coffee table. (I don't think she knew that?) IT was just crack..... sorry mommy. There were three of us in the area that would perform dances for the neighbors. We were so cool.

I also remember every time I flew across country to see my dad, I would take my WALKMAN and play "Lost in your eyes" over and over again thinking about some boy in Elementary school.

I even had the perfume called Electric Youth.
It was treasured!







Paula Abdul- Forever Your Girl

That's right America! Not just your sweet judge on Idol...but a true inpiration to an 8 year old girl leaning that "Opposites Attract", and he was "Cold Hearted" to begin with...that's right.... a SNAKE!

I asked some of the girls from the dance studio if they knew any of her songs and they just looked at me like I was crazy!





So many dances to this Albulm! I think I even did one of them at a school talent show....or, err, Church CHOIR CAMP talent show. Unfourtunatley, Opposites Attract did not suit the theme.

Emergency Surgery

I thought this was blog worthy. I was on the phone with a friend of mine and turned to see my husband doing this...

But who wouldn't for such a cute little Diesel.

You wouldn't think that he actually plays enough with "Dougie" the duck to rip a whole in his neck, but he does.












Diesel doing what his mommy does best!

Snowman Saga pt 2

Happy Snowman!

Going......

Going....

Gone!

The Snowman Saga

My husband and I are both from Texas. That being said, we get a little giddy when it snows. This past January we had a little snow fall and decided to make a little snowman for our neighbors.

I had the scarf and hat from a jar of cookie mix that was made to look like a snowman. It worked out perfectly.

Little did we know that we would be getting "The WINTER STORM OF THE YEAR" two months later.

For all of you out there saying, "Oh, that's nothing! I lived in some place with lots of snow and we had 40,000 inches of snowfall....."- Stop reading and go shovel your snow. This is my winter wonderland.

It was so much fun. We spent our entire Saturday inside nice and warm.



On Sunday however.....


John decided to go outside and make snowballs...BIG snow balls....So big that we spent and hour and a half making this.





Aren't we so cute! Our little family with an 8 foot snowman!

Here is an entertaining video of us working hard for no reason. It is just A part of the process. We made the middle part so big, we cut it in half (with a knife) and had to lift it in sections. It was so heavy! It is a long video but the best part is the beginning so I won't feel bad if you stop it. IF you look closely to the left of the snowman, you will see the knife block John made for our kitchen knife that we used to cut the snowball in half. ENJOY!

He is already melting and falling over.

And of course....a picture of our sweet Diesel. He LOVED playing in the snow. We had to keep changing our snow location due to his artistic abilities with YELLOW coloring.

He said, She said

I think it was this past Wednesday night that John and I were complaining chatting about the rest of our week. He did not want to go to his work and I clearly did not want to go to mine. I asked him if he would be willing to switch with me for the day.


JOHN: Sure. Go early and set up your room.
Make sure you have Norepinephrine, Epinephrine, Nitroglycerin, and Insulin drips setup and pumps primed. Reassure the patient that you know what you're doing...they'll probably be anxious; give them midazolam if you need to. Place their arterial line awake, and then induce them with thiopental, or if their EF is too low, use etomidate and fentanyl. Put the endotracheal tube in the top hole, and then place the MAC introducer and PAC in their Right IJ. Give them some heparin before going on CPB, some protamine/CaCl2 after coming off. Optimize your drips while coming off CPB, and drop the patient off in the CTICU. Voila! You're golden...

ME: Okay, first you're going to make your cookie. Roll out your dough. This is while sitting in your straddle.Ask each girl what they want on their cookie. Put in the oven, make sure you blow on it.. EAT IT! Ask them what color butterfly they are today and where they would like to fly. They love the butterfly catcher! Let them each do this once- that would be 13 times.
Make a table, one broken leg, another broken leg, One broken arm, oops, fall down!
Now say "hello" to your knees. "Hello" ceiling! Now Make an "X" and snore. WAKE UP!
Clap your hands and Hug each other....all 13 of them. Now line them all up in a straight line. They don't know what this is.

Now kiss you feet in first position and....





Needless to say, we were thankful for our jobs at the end of the conversation.

BAD mommy!

Oops! I was just trying to "throw" some fun into the rough housing!


I love Diesel's reaction. I guess I put an end to that play time.

*NO animals were harmed in the making of this film.

OPMYTFFF

FAST FOOD.
I love food. I love food that is fast. So why can there not be a place that only sells food that is fast and HEALTHY!! It should no longer be called fast food, but OPMYTFFF- Over Priced Make You Tired Fast Fat Food.

Anyway, after two burgers from two different places today for lunch and dinner, I know that things need to change. Over on Secret Life of Kat, Healthy Eating makes the topic for "Parent University."

I thought I would try and put my favorite recipe in. It is very quick and SOOOO good. Here you go, please enjoy.





Chicken Ole Foil Supper

4 skinned and boned chicken breasts
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3/4 cup salsa
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (11-ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained (optional)
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Mexican cheese blend,
Cheddar, or Monterey Jack cheese
*Toppings: chopped fresh cilantro, sliced black olives,
sour cream, guacamole

-Tear off 4 (18- x 12-inch) sheets of aluminum foil; lightly grease 1
side of each sheet.
-Place 1 chicken breast in center on lightly greased side of each
foil sheet.
-Brush both sides of chicken evenly with oil; sprinkle evenly with
salt and pepper.
-Spoon salsa evenly over chicken. Top evenly with black beans and,
if desired, corn.
-Bring together 2 sides of each foil sheet over ingredients, and
double fold with about 1-inch-wide folds.
-Double fold each end to form a packet, leaving room for heat
circulation inside packet. Place packets on a baking sheet.
-Bake at 450 f for 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Carefully open foil packets to
prevent burns from hot steam.
-Sprinkle evenly with cheese before serving. Serve chicken with
desired toppings.
* Severs well with Lipton Spanish Rice

Check out Natural mommy's recipe swap for heathly recipes.
Check out Erin's Blog on her health adverntures too!

L...A...Z...Y Weekend

I can not believe this weekend is over! On Staurday we slept. Really. We slept ALL day. We woke up around 8, fed Diesel, took him out to potty, played for about 15 min and laid down next to him in his bed and slept again.....for 2 hours. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Around 5pm we decided it was time to wake up and do something. Crazy. I had so much planned for the entire weekend. I wanted to catch up on laundry, cleaning, reading, RUNNING, weekend cooking, clip coupons from TWO Sunday papers, and finally- enjoy the sun shine and 60 degree weather that decided to show face after months of cold and gray skies. But what did we do? We slept!


John has a had an extremely hard month at work so he basically caught up on ALL of his sleep for the month. ME? Well, I wanted to do what every one else was doing. Peer pressure.


We did give our sweet Diesel his first bath. He was great until the water turned cold. Poor baby. He was shivering and everything. But no worries. His traumatic experience was followed up by a two hour nap in Johns arms under a blanket.

We did have an exciting Saturday night though. We were supposed to go over to our friends', Blake and Brianna, house later that night. However, while we were on the phone making plans, Blake decided to pour boiling water into a cold glass pitcher. OUCH! The water went all over his legs. After a quick trip to the local clinic, he soon found out that he needed to go to the UK hospital. The clinic was not familiar with the severity of his burns so they freaked out and told him he had 3rd degree burns.
Brianna called us to let us know that he was going to DRIVE HIMSELF to clinic and that we would have to cancel our date tonight. ABSOLUTELY NOT!
We decided to take him because John knows people (he is so cool). Blake was in and out of the ER in 1 hour! 1 HOUR! Thankfully, Blake only experienced 2nd degree burns but still suffers with a ton of blisters.

Anyway- That was our Saturday. I have never been to the ER so it was a fun experience...for me.

Today was awesome at church. Great lessons in both Sunday school and "big" church. I will blog about those HOPEFULLY tomorrow.

Sunday afternoon we player putside with our precious puppy. He played with his new ball and yes, CONCRETE. Here is our super smart dog playing with concrete.

How was your weekend?