a great day

I am blogging from my brand new adorable TINY laptop that I got today! It's so small, it's really hard to type on. I have to type slower than usual, but I think I'll eventually get used to it. It's the size of a portable DVD player! Insane. Here's a link: Eee PC

Brian also got a new 22" HD flatscreen monitor today - he's been wanting one forever and now that he's making games for the iPhone, he needs something bigger than his laptop to program on. He set up a temporary workspace in the kitchen tonight - we will be re-vamping the piano room after Christmas so he can have a workspace in there. When I came in to see what he was doing, here's what I found: How cute is that?! It was nice to put the dining room back together...he's had his workspace in there for awhile and it has gotten messy!

So we had a great day today. It's been awhile since we had a whole day with nothing on the agenda. I can't even remember when the last one was. Anyway, we stayed up late last night playing cards with Tim and Christi (girls won both rounds, yeah!) and after they left, we stayed up even longer, just getting things cleaned up and lounging around. We turned off the phones last night and slept VERY late this morning - it felt great! It has been nice just to be together.

Tomorrow we're going to Disney after church. We want to ride Everest - every time we go, the line is too long. But tomorrow we're just going to tough it out! Our anniversary is Tuesday, so it's perfect timing to have a non-stressful weekend together. :)

For our anniversary, we bought a new kitchen sink and faucet today. I cannot WAIT to have it installed - the plumber is coming on Wednesday to do it. Our sink now leaks - it's the faucet, it leaks all over behind the sink and we constantly have a puddle of water there. It drives me nuts. So I am really excited about my new sink!

Well, I want to get a little more work done before bed. Kindermusik is awesome and I will give an update on that soon. Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

2500 miles

We're back from vacation. We're tired and overwhelmed with real life, trying to get back into the swing of things. We got home Thursday night and spent part of yesterday recuperating and the other part cleaning my new temporary Kindermusik classroom. We cleaned more today and moved things in, and we'll clean more tomorrow - we have to shampoo the carpet.

All in all, we drove right around 2500 miles on our vacation. We left here and drove straight through to St. Louis, where we met up with my friend Mandi and her family and spent a day at the zoo - in the rain, no less. Then Brad & Kari came and we all ate at the Spaghetti Factory (yum!) and then Brad, Kari, Brian, and I went to a Cardinals game. It was Brian's first MLB game, and sadly, the Cards got stomped by the Phillies. The score was 20-2, pretty ridiculous. The next day we all went to the arch together, including Mandi and her husband Brad. Yes, we had Mandi and Brad, Kari and Brad, and Kerri and Brian. :) After the arch we went shopping, and then Brad and Kari went home and we went to church with Brad & Mandi the next day, Mandi & I played a piano duet (fun!), and we went out to eat. Then we took off to see my grandmother in Tennessee and finished our trip in Atlanta. Whew. It was a whirlwind.

Did I mention that Mandi and I met on Lifetime Moments? :) I will write more about vacation later and share pictures.

Tonight we're going to see Jesus Christ, Superstar. Brian is taking me for an early birthday present. Life is busy and wonderful.

i saw one of the dinosaurs spitting

OK. We went to Disney Quest last Friday for Brian's birthday. It was a great time! We got to do some really fun Virtual Reality stuff. We were just about to get on the Jungle River ride when i saw that the rafts were actually a little wet - I said to Brian, "There's water. We might get wet on this one." Brian's reply was, "I saw one of the dinosaurs spitting." ROFL!!!! This struck me as so funny! He was right - one of the dinosaurs spit right on me. It was hilarious.

All in all, I'm glad we did Disney Quest, but I don't feel like I need to go back anytime soon! It was REALLY loud in there. Luckily, it was at Downtown Disney, so we took a break in the middle and went and saw a movie - "21." It was REALLY good!

Saturday morning we got up at the break of dawn to get to our Segway tour at Epcot. I wasn't feeling the best, but I was still really excited to go. We had an ABSOLUTE BLAST on the Segways!! I would recommend the tour to anyone - it was fabulous! We learned how to ride them at Innoventions and went through some obstacle courses, and then we went off into the countries. It was amazing!! We didn't want to get off the Segways when the tour was over. We LOVED it.

After we finished the tour, we rode Soarin' and then left. By that time, I felt REALLY bad. We went to the walk-in clinic at Walgreens. I had a FEVER!! And I had a lot of pressure on my ears and a really irritated throat. To make a long story short, I spent my whole spring break sick in bed. :( Here it is Friday, the last day of spring break, and I'm JUST now feeling better.

Anyway, hope this finds you all well. Enjoy these pictures of us on our Segways! I'll write more soon!

happy birthday, brian!

Today my sweet husband turned 34. He had a great day at work, went out to lunch and had Mexican, and tonight I made lasagna in the crockpot (lowfat, of course) and we had strawberry cheesecake parfaits for dessert (fat free, sugar free). Yum! He's taking the day off from work tomorrow and we're going to Disney Quest. Games all day - fun for B! And then on Saturday comes my gift to him - we're going to learn how to ride Segways and then we're taking a tour all around Epcot - the Around the World Segway tour. It's going to be SO much fun! We are SUPER excited!

In other news, we FINALLY moved back into our bedroom. It is SO NICE to sleep in there again! The bathroom is done, all except the glass shower enclosure. I don't know when we'll get that done - at this point, I'm SO OVER having workers in and out of our house, we may NEVER get the glass done. So, we have new tile in the shower and around the tub, new tile on the floor, 2 new sinks, a new toilet, and new fixtures in the shower, on the tub, and on both sinks. I know I keep saying that I will post pictures, and I promise I will. Whenever I have time.

Kindermusik is going great - next week is Spring Break and I will be happy for the break. Although, I will be visiting a Mommy and Me group to talk about Kindermusik and do a demo class. I also hope to help my friend Christi get unpacked in their new house, I'm having lunch with a friend on Thursday, and I need to go to the dentist and probably some other doctors too - dermatologist, etc. So, part of my week is planned, and I also hope to organize and clean out a little in the piano room and maybe the guest room - I'd love to get some things listed on eBay! We have so many things to sell. Oh, and we're having date night with another friend and her husband, which will be fun! Plus, I want to wash the windows and do some other spring cleaning. It will be a busy week!

Anyway, pics coming soon of the bathroom and also of Brian's crazy fun birthday weekend! Cheers!

murphy lives here

Well, the bathroom STILL isn't done. *sigh* It's been over 2 months and we are sick and tired of sleeping in the dining room! Our clothes are hanging on all the doorknobs, the laundry, furniture, our shoes, etc. are in the guest room (along with the litter box, yuck). My makeup mirror is in the office, our dresser is in the piano room, and on and on. We just need our bedroom/bathroom back!!

What has happened is that we've had a 4-day job that has turned into a 2.5 month job. It's because our tile guy doesn't bother to show up when he says he's going to. And when he DOES show up, he wants to talk to us or talk on his cell phone instead of working. However, the tile is FINALLY done and he's coming tomorrow (I'll believe it when I see it) to do the final details - touch ups on the grout, etc. The plumber is coming on Saturday to finish putting the shower fixtures on - that has turned into a big mess with things fitting, etc. I won't even go into all the things that haven't fit, worked, etc. It has been a nightmare! And tomorrow morning a guy is coming to fix our tub where the tile guy dropped tiles or something and made FIVE nicks in the tub. Our nice, beautiful Roman tub!! >:(

I'm REALLY hoping to move our bed back in this weekend, but the plumber is going to have to cut into the drywall to install the shower fixtures. Which means then we're going to have to patch the drywall. Ugh! So I don't want to move the bed and furniture back in until that's fixed, because I hate drywall dust and I don't want to have to clean it off of all the furniture! Y'all pray for us that we can get our bedroom back soon. Of course the mold problem has turned into a nearly complete bathroom remodel with all new tile, a new floor, a new toilet, new sinks, and new fixtures on the shower, tub, and sinks. Whew!

That's just about all that going on with us right now! This project is taking over our lives! However, Brian's birthday is next week and I have something VERY FUN planned for him!! He's taking Friday off and we're going to Disney Quest for the day. Then on Saturday morning, I have something REALLY exciting planned but it's a surprise so I can't blog about it yet. But I will share pictures afterward!

I will also post pictures of our bathroom very soon!

12 of 12, mpm, and other stuff

I did it! I did 12 of 12 yesterday! 12 of 12 is this cool thing my friend Susan does on her blog, and I've decided to try it. The idea belongs to Chad, who is someone Susan knows. Anyway, you take 12 pictures on the 12th of the month and it just documents your day. So - this is my first ever 12 of 12! Here goes:

So yesterday, my wonderful friend John, who used to play in our band at church, got married! B and I headed to Lakeland for the wedding. Here I am driving. Notice my sleeveless dress - it was in the 80s yesterday!

Um, yeah - I totally left my camera in the car, so I don't have any pictures of the wedding. Well, John and Joy might not want their picture all over my blog anyway! But I did want to get a picture of me in my new dress, but by the time we got home I forgot about the picture - I just wanted to get out of my dressy clothes!

Anyway, after the wedding, we headed over to Violette's, my not-so-local scrapbook store. I had gotten the Classic Metro QK alphabet for Christmas (thanks, Mom & Dad!) but when I opened it up, the wrong alpha was in there! So I had to go exchange it.

Brian drove home and I studied for my upcoming Kindermusik classes. Mainly I was learning some new songs. Brian had the pleasure of me singing many kids songs a cappella in the car! :-) So goes the life of a KM teacher. We're always singing!

When we got home, I had to cut out my laminating - I had laminated all the lyric sheets for this semester and I felt like I had to get SOME work done yesterday. As you can see, I had a little "help" from the cats...they LOVE the laminated posters! They're slick, so the cats run and jump on them and slide across the family room!


I'm embarrassed to show you this next picture, because our Christmas tree is still up. *sigh* I swear we're taking it down tomorrow night! I was sick all last week and running around like crazy this past week trying to make up for it. Thus, all the decorations are down, but we still hafta take down the trees. Anyway, this gives you a good view of our family room with all the boxes - my Kindermusik materials came in this week and I got them all separated on Friday night. (We took them to my classroom today, so the family room is clean-ish now.)

We were home for about 45 minutes and then we left to go to Tim & Christy's house to play cards. On the way we stopped and picked up dinner at Urban Flats.

Here are the flatbreads we had for dinner - yummy!

And the card playing commenced...

When we got home, I had to take a picture of B because he was wearing his sexy jeans. Doesn't he look hot??!!

Before bed I had to do a "killer" Sudoku (also called "sum" Sudoku) - these are my favorite!

As soon as we start un-making the bed, Sam runs and gets up there - he CAN'T WAIT for us to get in bed with him!

So, that's a Saturday-in-the-life-of-us. Pretty exciting, huh? LOL!


In other news, let's talk about MPM (Menu Plan Monday). I have to admit, today when I was preparing for this coming week, it was nice to plan out my meals and know what we're having for dinner. Then, my wonderful husband went to the store while I did even more Kindermusik preparation, and he bought what we needed for our menu and for snacks, etc. So without further ado, here's our oh-so-exciting menu for this week:

Monday - veggie soup (leftover)
Tuesday - peanut crusted fish
Wednesday - B's game night, so I won't be cooking. I'll probably have PB&J.
Thursday - B's night to cook (I teach evening classes) - pasta with grape tomatoes, basil, and parmesan
Friday - minestrone (here is my recipe, it's YUMMY!)

That's it for now, except........I worked all afternoon today after church, got a TON of stuff done, but tonight I actually carved out the time to scrap a page. Here ya go. Good night!

so much to say

I keep meaning to blog, but there just isn't time. And when there is time, I can't stay awake to do it!

Sunday, October 28, was our 7th anniversary. We celebrated by going to the beach for part of the weekend. We stayed at a beautiful beach house and just lazed around and ate pastries - it was divine and just what we needed! I have a picture of us on the beach but my camera is at my KM classroom right now. :-P I'll upload it later.

Life just seems to keep getting busier. I really need to lighten my load. Some changes are in the works, but I will post about those later after proper notifications have been made and decisions have been finalized. I could use a few prayers, too!

Here's some really big, important, exciting news: We are going to have yet ANOTHER niece or nephew! Yep, folks, my brother's wife is pregnant. Braden is going to be a big brother! I am just ecstatic! This will make #5 for us! We have Emma, Braden, Will, Angela is pregnant with #4, and Kari is pregnant with #5! Yay for Uncle Brian and Aunt Sis!

Kindermusik keeps getting better. The kids are really opening up and getting used to me, and to each other, and to class. At one point yesterday I had like 3 or 4 kids on my lap at the same time. I LOVED it! Lately, I hate for class to end! :-) I am so fortunate to be able to do this. I love it so much!

The coolest thing happened yesterday. Last week, I had been complaining and joking with one of my piano students' moms about how Florida is made of mildew and mold. She was saying they had just pressure washed their house, and I was saying how bad my sidewalk was looking again. (In case you don't know how crazy the mold and mildew can get, check out this post from last year when we pressure washed our porch and sidewalk for the first time!) Anyway, she said that they had a pressure washer and we could borrow it and she would bring it next week.

So yesterday, this student shows up and her dad and grandpa were with her and they brought TWO pressure washers with them and they pressure washed my porch, sidewalk, and driveway while I taught the lesson!!!! I mean seriously...people just don't do that kind of thing anymore! We're all too busy for random acts of kindness! I was just so thrilled, and so grateful, and so shocked, and so amazed! They are the nicest people ever! (Of course, I gave them several free lessons!) LOL Anyway, my faith in humanity was restored yesterday.

(And it was lost again today because I had to go to Walmart and you know how I feel about the way people act in Walmart!) Ugh!

All right. I have to go and do something useful. Hope everyone had a great Halloween! I promise to post pictures soon. :-)

vote for brian!

Brian and his friends got together and made a horror movie. It's about 6 minutes long and it's for a contest. You can go here to vote.

Just know that there is a bit of blood and gore, so don't watch it if you can't handle that kind of stuff. You can vote without watching it, just go down below the video and click on 5 skulls for the 3 categories.

Today is the last day to vote! Thanks, everyone!

catching up

Well. I've got a few spare minutes to blog while Brian takes a shower and before we watch our nightly episode of King of Queens. So I'll try to quickly catch up!

The rest of the week at my parents' was wonderful and fun. We ate at favorite restaurants, I visited Dad's voice lessons, Mom and I cleaned out closets and dressers and stuff till our little hearts were content. We even got Dad to go through some old stuff and throw things away! AND we found a bunch of slides and had some GREAT laughs - and then we shared them with Nan and Pops in the car on the way to the airport. In Columbus I even got the chance to stop by Archivers, a fabulous scrapbook store. And I only spent $13 in there! Amazing. All in all, it was a great week with Mom and Dad!

I came back home to find that my Kindermusik postcard was in my mailbox! (I mailed out 2500 of them to people in my area, and of course I mailed one to myself.) I literally walked in the door to a ringing phone - everyone else had gotten their postcards that day, too. The phone calls and emails haven't stopped coming since then! Which is great - but boy, am I busy! I've got 8 demo classes set up; my first one is Tuesday. I'm so nervous and excited! I'm going to spend most of the day tomorrow preparing. I'm even going to run through the whole thing with Brian (little does he know that I'm going to give him one of my old Cabbage Patch dolls and say, "Here, this is your kid.") LOL

So, this past Thursday we took off for the condo in Ft. Myers with Tim and Christi in tow. We spent all day Friday there and most of Saturday - we lounged by the pool, went to see "The Bourne Ultimatum," (GREAT movie), ordered pizza, played lots and lots of cards, sat around and talked, ate at the Shrimp Shack, and just relaxed. It was great fun, even if lots of things were not quite right! (I'll save that story for another post - there's just not time!) But, suffice it to say that the "Spider Van" (sung to the tune of the "Spider Man" theme song) is now parked in our driveway! More later. ;-)

Last night we had a long rehearsal at church (we learned some new songs) and then I had to practice quite a bit when I got home. (And then I STILL messed up some this morning during the service, ugh!) So we went to bed really late, got up early, did the church thing, then went to the Sprint store - I needed a new phone and a new phone number. (I had never gotten a local Florida number and hey - I just realized that it was 2 years ago today that we closed on our house in NY!) Anyway, I got the coolest phone, it's RED, (love it), it's called the Upstage. Flip phones and I don't get along, so this phone is perfect for me. :-)

We got home around 3:00 (after fooling around at the Sprint store forever and then going to eat) - and we relaxed for about an hour and then we headed over to the Presbyterian Church to work on my Kindermusik room. We worked there till 8:00, cleaning out things, cleaning up things, vacuuming several times, scrubbing, taking down the bulletin board stuff, covering the bulletin board, and etc. and etc. My wonderful husband vacuumed up all the scary bugs, and then we moved a big shelf and there were some dead lizards under there, and he got rid of those too, while I ran away! LOL They were weird, too - they were like little skeletons. Gross! Then he went all the way around the room and scrubbed the baseboards! We washed windows and I scrubbed the countertop within an inch of its life. When in doubt, use the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. This church is like 100 years old and the room I'm using hasn't really been used for years, and there were all kinds of stains and paint and stuff on it - and I got it completely clean and shining! Brian even washed the mini blinds. That room looks and smells as great as a 100 year old room can.

Have I mentioned that I love my husband? He's fab. He helps me so much and supports me in my new little business. He's the best. :-D

So then we went and ate dinner and then went to the dreaded Walmart. I DESPISE Walmart and this trip did NOTHING to change my opinion. We were there for over an hour and I just needed help with one thing (I needed 6 storage bins and they only had 2, and both of those were broken.) Well, in the course of those 60+ minutes, I asked no less than 4 people to help me, and they all gave me some kind of big sob story about why they couldn't help me. Add this to all the random screaming kids, and parents screaming back at their kids, people dropping store merchandise at least 3 times and making large noises, crazy rednecks pushing their 2-year-olds around while cursing up a blue streak (the rednecks, not the kids, although it won't be long for the kids, I'm sure), the filthy store, the unorganized aisles, the mobs and mobs of people, most of them with B.O., the apathetic employees, and I'm sure more stuff I can't think of right now...........and ugh, you'll easily understand why I DESPISE Walmart. >:-( But, Brian got a Rubik's cube and that made it all better.

So now we're headed to bed. We're exhausted, but we've had a successful day! Tomorrow I'll take my instruments over and get the borders up on my bulletin boards, go to NY&Company and buy some shorts to teach in (they're on sale and they're comfy and long, so they're perfect), and study for the demo class. After Tuesday's class I can release this stress, since I'll be doing the same class 7 more times. Whew. OK, good night!

happy birthday, brian!

Today is the 33rd birthday of my sweet love, the light of my life - Brian. I went out this morning and got donuts for him to bring in to work (and I had one, of course. First donut I've had in over a year!) B, I hope you have an awesome day!

It's also my wonderful friend Sera's birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SERA! I hope you have a fabulous day, too!

I have lots of fun news to report! First of all, it was a year ago today that I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. I never imagined this was where I'd be a year from then, and I'm so thankful I'm much healthier and happier. And I feel a TON better! :-D

A couple of weekends ago, we went to Ft. Myers and spent some time with Nan and Pops. Their birthdays are a week apart, so we celebrated them while we were there:



They were both 83 this month! Don't they look great?!

And my most favorite news of all: WE BOOKED A CRUISE YESTERDAY!!!! Wooooooo! We're going on a Caribbean cruise at the end of April. We've been planning this cruise for awhile, and we were gonna go for our anniversary in October. But then our wonderful friends, Jason and Alicia, called and said they were going to be in our part of the country (they live in California), and so we decided that we should ALL go on the cruise together! We are so BEYOND excited. Jason and Alicia lived near us in New York, and Jason and Brian worked together. We hung out with them quite a bit - we share a love of cats and cards, among other things! They moved to California about the same time we moved to Florida, so we haven't seen them since the summer of 2005. So we are VERY excited about this vacation!

We're going to St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and Nassau. Brian and I are trying to decide what fun things we want to do at each stop. So if any of you readers (as if there ARE very many readers of this blog!) have been to any of these places and have recommendations, email me! We'd love some input. We are so so so excited!

OK, well I'm going to have to go walk off that donut. Plus we're having company for dinner tomorrow night, so I need to clean up a little bit. And Sam is BEGGING for attention. Everyone have a wonderful day, and I'll try not to wait so long in between posts! See ya!

playing catch-up

Well, has this blog been boring or what??!! It seems like 40 years since I blogged! Christmas and New Year's came and went with barely a post from me, let alone a picture! So I thought I'd take a little bit of time and try to catch up a little.

Let's see. A few weeks ago, my friends Julie and Rob came to Orlando for Children's Pastors Conference. I used to work with them at Brentwood-Benson (Provident) Music and it was so great to see them! They came last January too. No, they're not a couple. They are just the ones from work who come and man the BB booth at the conference. The week they came was extremely busy, but we met them for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe (Downtown Disney) late on Saturday night. Here is a pic of us:



And for fun, let's compare it to a pic of us from January 2006:



Um, yeah. Check out my 5 chins in that second pic. Are you tired of me talking about my weight loss? Do you want another update? hahahaha! I actually haven't officially weighed myself since October. My home scale says I haven't lost or gained, so that's good, but more importantly, my clothes tell me that I haven't gained. I'm back into the exercise and healthy eating full-force now. I'm easing myself into some Yoga - it's kicking my butt so far! But I can see that I'm going to really enjoy it, if I can ever endure it for more than 10 minutes!!

Ah, Idol is back on. I don't enjoy the preliminary auditions as much now as I used to. We've seen it all before. People who live in their own little world come out of the woodwork and make fools of themselves, blah blah. I'm ready for Hollywood week and the top however many they're going to pick this year. More Idol chat to come, for sure.

Brian and I have been busy little bees every weekend in January and so far in February, and it looks like it's not going to let up until March. Whew! But at least we've been having fun! Last Saturday we went to Tampa for a matinee showing of the Broadway show "Monty Python's Spamalot." Let me just say, it was hilarious. This was Brian's birthday present, even though his birthday isn't till the end of March. But I saw last fall that Spamalot was coming to Tampa, and we bought tickets the day they went on sale in October - and we got orchestra seats! It was a great time and we laughed our heads off!

As we were walking from our car to the Performing Arts Center, we saw this:



As we came around the truck, we saw that they were giving out free samples of Spam! Of course, Brian couldn't pass up the chance to try some Spam:



That Spam was gross, it smelled VERY bad! Brian ate a few bites, but he couldn't stomach too much of it. Yuck! At any rate, the show was excellent and hilarious, and we would highly recommend it.

I've been busy with the band at church, too - we've been doing gigs other than church and it's been a lot of fun! Someday I'll figure out how to put some music on here.

I've been scrapping a ton! Scrapfest is still going on at Lifetime Moments, and we all know how much I love that! Here are some of my favorites I've done during Scrapfest:






I think that's about all I have to tell you about right now. Oh, except for that my best-friend-since-we-were-born, Jenni, finally got to meet Joey McIntyre, with whom she has been obsessed since she was like 12, when he was in New Kids on the Block. Here's the proof of their meeting:



Heehee. Hope everyone is having a great year so far. We're busy tomorrow, but at least Brian and I get to spend some time together! Yay! So I'm off to bed. Good night!

wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Brian got his Nintendo Wii today. He's as excited as a kid on Christmas. Well, this pretty much IS his Christmas! :-) The Wii is not available to the public yet, but these are the perks of working in the game industry. (It'll be available in like 2 days, though, so it's not like he got it THAT much earlier!)

Tonight I'm going to a scrapbook thing and Brian is going to stay home and play with his Wii. Sounds a bit vulgar, doesn't it? LOL! Even funnier - next week our friends Tim and Christi are coming over and while Christi and I make Christmas cards, Brian and Tim are going to play with their Wiis together! HAHAHAHA! Seriously though, what was Nintendo thinking calling it the Wii? It was originally supposed to be the Nintendo Revolution or something like that!

Check this out: How adorable is that?? That's my Maxie. I just took this a few minutes ago. And that's the blind on the sliding glass door that looks like it's cutting him in half! He gets in the blinds and gets all comfy and rolls over, and he takes the blinds with him! I feel bad that I post more pics of Max than of Sam, but when Sam gets in cute poses and I take his picture, he's so black you can't tell which end is up! He's on the couch in my scraproom now, lemme see if I can get a good shot. There we go. There's my Sammy. Of course, as soon as I sat back down in my chair to upload the pic, he got up from his perch on the couch and got in my lap. He's such a lap cat! (Both pictures are clickable.)

Anyway, that's all I have to say today! Except I'm tired! Wonder why?!

happy birthday, meg!

Happy birthday to my spectacular friend Meg!! (It was Sunday, but everyone knows I'm never on time...) Anyway, Meg, hope you had a wonderful day.

OK, Brian went back to work yesterday and he's feeling great. He called me today and was so energetic sounding - he's SO happy to be feeling normal and virtually pain-free! He's now off all meds. He's an amazing man.

Thursday night was not an easy night. Brian was in a LOT of pain from the incision, and he was VERY sick from the anesthesia. At the hospital, every time he got up, he became nauseous and then had dry heaves (he hadn't eaten in over 24 hours at that point). It was awful - every time he heaved, it would hurt his back. The nurse and I were trying to hold him up, but he's so tall - we were afraid he was going to fall down. It was quite an ordeal, but we got through it! Oh, and of course he was walking around mooning everyone since you know how those hospital gowns are! I was trying to told him up and hold his gown closed in the back! Now that I think back about it, it was hilarious!

Once we got him in the car, he seemed okay. He had to hold this vomit bin on his lap the whole way home - about a 40 min. drive - just in case he needed it. But he was fine; he slept most of the way home. Of course, I had to stop at Walgreen's and get the drugs, and 400 people buying toilet paper and such were in line in front of me. Ugh!

So while we were waiting for the Rx to be filled, I drove through Wendy's and got B a Sprite, which he said tasted like heaven! LOL When we finally got home, I got him in bed, then I proceeded to stay up for most of the night cause I was just worried about him. Every time he woke up I would make him get up and walk around to prevent blood clots! I was worried most about blood clots!

Can I just say that the worst part of the surgery for me was seeing Brian hurt. It didn't help when the nurse went to put in his IV - he hadn't thought about that, so he was unprepared. I knew he was getting one, but I didn't want him to freak - he's not so thrilled about needles - so I didn't remind him that he was getting one. Anyway, I told him to look at me, and when she finally got it in and all taped to his arm, I looked. Big mistake. There was a PUDDLE of blood on his blanket. Not just a few drops - a puddle! Oh, it nearly killed me. Brian said he had heard her say, "Oops!" But I didn't hear that, so I was pretty shocked when I saw the puddle! I had to sit down and put my head between my knees - and then the nurse says to the other nurse, "Uh-oh...the wife's going down!" LOL! I was okay, just not prepared to see my husband losing what looked like gallons of blood! So they brought me some apple juice and that helped. Sometime during the time I was dizzy and literally seeing stars, they cleaned up his hand and whisked away the blanket, so after the apple juice, everything was all clean. Man, I'm such a wimp! I just can't stand to see my sweetster in pain, that's all!!

Anyway, now the drama is over and life goes on! A pain-free life for B! Yay! Tonight we're going to our friend Justin's house to watch a movie with our friends from n-Space. We try to see a movie about once a week with this group. It's a really fun group!

Here's my latest scrapbook page of the adorable Baby B. I cannot WAIT to see him at Christmas! He's talking up a storm now! Mom and Dad kept him for part of the week last week, and Mom said when he did something he wasn't supposed to do, he waved at her and said, "Hi." Cracks me up! Anyway, enjoy.

a long, hard day

Well, the surgery is over and it went very well. We are so thankful! Brian is asleep on the couch - he's been in quite a bit of pain from the incision, but he's pretty well drugged up now. His back/leg feels great! I'm exhausted, so I'll post all of the gruesome details tomorrow. There are definitely some stories to tell!

Thanks to everyone who prayed and thought good thoughts for us today. We really appreciate it! And special thanks to my cousin Chris who came and sat with me during the surgery. We love you guys! :-D

"i'm a mutant!"

Today has not been the best day for me. It started out with me making a delicious smoothie and then, in an effort to clean the blender, knocking over the cup full of smoothie so that it dripped down the stove and cabinet into a huge purple puddle on the kitchen floor. :-( It was all underneath the stove and in every little teeny groove. Ugh. And of course, today I used blueberries, so my stove is now stained purple in spots. I'll have to take my Mr. Clean magic eraser to it.

I grouchily went about my day after cleaning up the mess, and then I left to go with Brian to see the surgeon. The surgeon told us that Brian has an extra vertebra in the lumbar section of his spine!! He showed it to us on the X-Ray and MRI. It was so weird and crazy! And that vertebra doesn't have a disc between it and the first sacral vertebra. In other words, the vertebrae in the lower back section of the spine go like this: L1-L5 (that's lumbar), then S1-S5 (that's sacral). Brian has an L6!! And no disc to cushion it, so that's what has caused his prolonged back pain for the last 15+ years.

But he also has a herniated disc between L4 and L5, and that disc is bulging onto the sciatic nerve, so that's what the doctor is going to operate on. Brian will have a microdiscectomy THIS THURSDAY at 3:30, so remember him (and me!) in your prayers! This is a minimally invasive outpatient surgery, but still - they're operating on the spine, and to me, that's a big deal. I'm a bit nervous, but trusting God. What else can we do?

Anyway, after the doctor left the room, Brian goes, "Did you hear that?? I'm a MUTANT!!!" HAHAHAHA!

On the way home from the doctor, I decided to stop at the store and stock up for the weekend - I wanted to get a few special treats for B, rent some movies, and get a vegetable to go with the pork chops we're having tonight. Of course, it started POURING rain on my way into Blockbuster. Luckily, Blockbuster is located in the same shopping plaza as Publix, so I didn't have to get wet when I went between them. BUT - folks were voting at Publix, and the entrance was extremely crowded, especially since people were standing around with their groceries waiting for the rain to let up. I finally got inside, but there were no carts. Back out into the crowd I went.

It had let up some by the time I finished my shopping, but it was still totally pouring. And now the parking lot was flooded. As I made my way through the parking lot, I was actually walking in standing water. The normally 5 min. drive home took about 15 or 20, because the roads were totally flooded. I hope Brian gets home okay!

Well, I'd better get the pork chops started. I just want to get on the couch with my sweet husband and relax after this crazy and emotionally trying day. Of course, I have paperwork to go through and file, and I have to see about moving my piano students since I'll be at the hospital at their lesson times on Thursday.

I'll leave you with this little cutie: last night I was once again going through my closet, getting out clothes that don't fit anymore. (This, after running around Saturday night in a black skirt I found hanging in there with the TAGS still on it - I never wore it cause it never fit! It fits now, but every top I put on looked like I was wearing a tent! Time to go shopping again!) I had made a huge stack of tops (mostly sweaters and sweatshirts) on the bed, and I was doing some organizing in the closet. When I finished, I noticed that someone had made himself comfortable on the stack of shirts!

happy anniversary to us!

Well, it was on Saturday, but we celebrated on Sunday, and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it!! SIX happy years for us!!

At any rate, we headed to the Disney parks after church on Sunday to celebrate our anniversary. Brian's back has been out for 2 weeks, so we didn't get to ride anything, but that was okay. We went to Animal Kingdom first - we had never been there. It was cool! We got to see lots of animals! We saw a hippo - it swam right up to the window where we were standing! I couldn't BELIEVE how huge it was!!

Of course, my favorite animals of the day were these beauties on the left. It was so fun watching them walk around - one of them was sniffing all around with its mouth open! So cute! And then she showed off for us by jumping back and forth across a fountain.



After we exhausted the Animal Kingdom, we headed to MGM and had dinner at the Sci-Fi Cafe. It was the coolest place - all the tables were inside these old fashioned cars and the whole place was set up like a drive in theater, complete with huge movie screen playing snippets of movies and cartoons. It was VERY cool.

Thanks, Jenni and Eric, for the recommendation! We will SO be going back to the Sci-Fi Cafe!

In other news, it looks like Brian might have to have back surgery. He has had back problems for years and years, and last week's MRI showed that he has a herniated disc that is bulging onto his sciatic nerve. He's in quite a lot of pain, so we pray that it can be alleviated ASAP. We're going to see the surgeon next week - y'all keep us in your prayers!

AND it looks like I have an ear infection. Sigh. My throat is killing me! The dr. called in a prescription for me. I have a fabulous doctor. The trick-or-treaters have been ringing the doorbell the whole time I've been typing this, and now it's time for me to fix dinner - herb-crusted flank steak, brown rice, and green beans! Yum! Brian is on his way home. Tonight we'll watch Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin! Happy Halloween, everyone!

pillow talk

Night before last, Brian and I were laying in bed watching TV. When I was ready to go to sleep, I kissed him and said, "Good night." Then I turned over to go to sleep. He said, "Love you," and I said, "Love you too."

Then I heard him say, "OK, talk to you later!"

As if we were on the phone! HA! I guess he's just used to saying that on the phone! So I started giggling, and we laughed and laughed until we cried! It's good to laugh, and that was extra hilarious!

Since I'm finally back in the scrapping mood, I thought I'd post my latest page. (click on it for a larger view) These pictures were taken over the last several months, so they're not at all the latest pictures of Baby B. But they sure are cute ones, aren't they?


We FINALLY got some rain! It rained all day yesterday due to Hurricane Alberto! And we sure needed it! My flowers look a little brighter today. But don't worry about us - we're supposed to get a little wind and rain today, but it's not gonna hit here. Some famous meteorologist said on the news that even though this season is supposed to be bad, there's only an 8% chance of us (Central Florida) getting hit.

Go figure - right now the sun is shining!

happy birthday, brian!

Today was Brian's 32nd birthday. Yes, folks, for 3 months we'll be the same age - and then I'll turn into the older woman again.

The day went on as usual, with Brian working and me doing whatever it is I do. But tonight we went to a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater! We were served dinner while some people acted out a little play - and then we all had to try to solve the mystery. It was fun! Two of the actors were especially hilarious, so I really enjoyed them. But overall, the show was very cheesy - right up Brian's alley! ha! There were NINE people at our table, and I suspect these tables are supposed to seat SIX people, so we were squished in there pretty tight. All of the other people at our table were on vacation. Go figure!

Not much else is going on. My parents are coming to visit next week and I'm SO excited. Tomorrow night, after work, Brian's company is having a little "welcome back" party for a guy who has been battling cancer and is returning to work. I'll go to that with B, and then we'll go to Barnes and Noble, our favorite date place. We were supposed to go tonight, but the dinner theater didn't let out until after 10, so there just wasn't enough time.

Idol tomorrow! Yay! I'm still APPALLED that Kevin went home instead of Bucky. Well, we know who's going home this week! BUCKY!!!! If not him, I may lose my faith in all humanity.

a new job for brian

Well, folks, the search is over. Brian has accepted a job with n-Space, a game company here in Orlando. Praise the Lord we don't have to move! n-Space has been very good to B during the whole interview process. (For instance, he got lost TWICE going to interview - two days in a row - and they didn't hold it against him! LOL) They are currently making games for the newest Nintendo system, Nintendo Revolution, which is not yet on the market. Here's an article that was in the Orlando Sentinel recently. Brian really likes it there - it's a smaller yet growing company that has a family-like atmosphere among its employees. More like VV, nothing like EA. :-)

And now I will reveal where he has interviewed over the past month! (Like it's some big exciting news!) He's travelled to Champaign, IL, Albany, NY, and Emeryville (Oakland area), CA. He's also had phone interviews with numerous companies, including companies in Raleigh, NC, Phoenix, AZ, TONS of places in CA, Seattle,WA, and Austin, TX to name a few! You can imagine how relieved I am to not be packing up and moving across the country yet AGAIN! Some of these places gave him offers and some offered to fly him out for an interview and he declined. All in all, he had a big choice to make, and many places to choose from. We're thankful that he was in such a great position. And we feel really confident and happy with n-Space.

Brian made me a delicious dinner last night - pasta with a sauce of sauteed garlic, grape tomatoes, and fresh basil - yum! I've been trying to get the house back in order after last week's craziness! On Saturday, B and I headed down to Winter Haven where my cousin Chris is the minister of music at Winter Haven First Church of the Nazarene. He needed someone to play piano for the contemporary service, so he asked me. We rehearsed on Saturday night and that band is AWESOME! I've barely touched a piano since last May (!) so it was really nice to get back into it. Plus, Chris' sister Kay and her husband Fred came to visit, too. They live in south GA and it was great to see them again!

Sunday morning's service went really well - I enjoyed myself immensely. The music was rockin'! And the speaker was Larry Dennis, the DS for the Central Florida district. He was great, too. I'd really missed being on the platform! Chris needs me for the whole month of March, so we'll be heading to Winter Haven every Saturday night/Sunday morning in March. Oh, and we stayed at the Pastor's house and they had the cutest little dog in the world! I LOVED that doggie!

So B only has this week before he starts work and we're going to try and make the most of it! We're planning to spend 2 days at Universal - I think we're going Wednesday and Thursday. I hope we can squeeze in a romantic dinner too - maybe Friday night.

MUCH less stress now that B is going back to work. Maybe I'll actually start working now, too!

Jenn - we're obviously going to be here, so you and Pat head on down!!!!
Jenni - we'll definitely join you at Disney for a day or two!!!! Can't wait!!!!

It's in the 80's all week this week - anyone else wanna come for a visit? ;-)

enormous airheads

This is just one of the many acronyms that I have come up with for EA.

In the last 24 hours, Brian has received THREE calls from three different recruiters, all looking to hire him for EA. WHAT THE HECK!!!! All the jobs are in California, but still - what are they doing over there? They just laid off 5% of their work force. The layoffs took place mostly in CA, but included FL and Vancouver, Canada. (I know that around 38 people were laid off from B's office.) So they lay off a bunch of people in CA, and in a few weeks, give the recruiters the go-ahead to actively pursue hiring for jobs in CA??!!

How about Expertise Absent....? Or - Executives Arrested!