Boring? Okay, Maybe not so Boring!

I've had several people ask me why I haven't blogged about anything in a while. I just told them that my life has been boring and not much to talk about. But as I was pulling pictures for this particular blog post, I realized that I have had things filling my life. I guess I just don't take pictures like I used to since I have gained weight and so that leads me to not blog. I like pics to help describe what's happened and so since the pics aren't happening, neither are the blog posts.

Anyway, for our 2 year Anniversary Morgan and I decided on San Antonio. My parents used to take us there every year as we were growing up and it had been many years since I have been back. We stayed on the Riverwalk at the Drury Plaza. We highly recommend it!! Full blown hot fresh breakfast-buffet style every morning. Then from 5:30-7pm they have what's called a "kick back" where you get appetizers and 3 free alcoholic drinks. They always have fountain drinks and pop corn for free 24/7 so that was also nice. We went to Sea World, walked the Riverwalk, and stumbled upon the Alamo. I say, "Stumbled" because we had no intentions visiting it. I realize that might sound awful, it's just that I had been there a million times and so I didn't see the need to visit it again. Well we "stumbled" upon it and wow, it's so much smaller than I remember as a child!!! We also went to the mall and watched a 3D movie about the Ocean. It was really cool. I surprisingly forgot my camera...remember, the weight issue...and so sadly this is our only picture from our trip...
We've also recently had the chance to go to a Ranger's Game...for FREE!! :) Plus, it was $1 Hot Dog Night. :) My cousin's husband called me one afternoon and asked me if we wanted to go to the Ranger's Game that evening. Sure! Haven't been in a loooong time. Used to go a lot when Pudge was our catcher. Anyway, he wanted to surprise my cousin with us-he had told her some men from his work were going instead of us-since we hadn't seen her in a while. So that was fun! We had GREAT seats. Along the 3rd baseline about 20 rows up! The type of seats where you have to pay attention to the game or you might get smacked in the head by a foul ball. Thankfully Morgan took his role seriously when my cousin told the boys, "Y'all better pay attention and not let us get hit by a ball!!" Every time a ball came our way my sweet husband was instantly up out of his seat with his baseball hat flipped off his head trying to catch a ball. He's so cute!! By the way, we ran into my cousin on the Riverwalk while we were in San Antonio. How crazy is that?!? We can't even purposefully run into each other in the Metroplex, but go to another city and be there for about 30 minutes and BAM...there she is. Anyway, the pic below is from the Ranger's Game...which is why I look a sweaty Hot Mess!!

When I married Morgan, I gained an amazing family!!! I love everyone from his parents to his distant family. Brooke is one of Morgan's cousins. I feel like she's almost a little sister to me. Brooke has 3 brothers and is yet still very girly. But don't let her fool you, she drives a truck. ;) Well Brooke turned 21 recently so we went out to dinner and boot scootin' to celebrate. It was lots of fun!! This is Brooke...HOW CUTE IS SHE?!? LOVE HER!!!

One day I came home and we had 2 horses in our yard that had been moved from the barn. Then Morgan tells me one of them is pregnant. UGH!!! Really?!? I'm just going to be blunt-I was terrified to walk outside or look outside when I was home alone for fear of seeing a baby horse hanging out of its mother!!! I'm sure there was a better way/more polite way I could have said that, but those were my exact thoughts!! Yes, I realize I take care of mom's after they have babies...key word is AFTER!!!! Anyway, we don't have a name yet for the little guy. Actually, I heard that Davin wanted to name him Diego and Matt wanted to name him Burt...so when she has another one he can name that one Ernie. Who knows! So here is our new addition to our world...

This past Sunday we went over to Matt and Melissa's to cook out and swim. M&M some how got a new dog...the one on the right...

Well this little guy is like the energizer bunny when it comes to barking...just keeps going and going and going...every time someone jumped in the pool he would stand on the side of the pool and BARRRRRRRRKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!! He targeted Morgan the most. I guess he thought Morgan couldn't swim or was going to drown, or maybe he just liked his blue swim shorts, but he would jump in after Morgan and try and rescue him. This usually ended with him biting Morgan in the head. Thankfully, Morgan had not listened to me the numerous times that week when I told him he needed a haircut because he had plenty of "fluff" between his scalp and the dogs teeth!! The dog looked like Jaws coming after him. It was actually quite funny! Morgan also enjoyed the slide. Apparently no one informed him of the correct way to go down a slide. ;-)

Notice Davin having to hold the dog back from biting Morgan in this picture??? That dog is crazy. My mother in law said that Morgan must have looked like a Hot Dog coming down that slide. That's one pasty white Hot Dog, lol!! The only thing tan on that boy are his arms, neck, and face...typical farmer's tan. There's actually a third picture that goes with these but it involves a MOON...if you know what I mean. ;) So that's it for now! Hopefully you'll see me back here sooner than later. :)

Chicken Pepper Cannon Ball

Recipe time!! Okay, so I don't really know the real name of this, but my dad said I should call it Pepper Cannon Ball (or something) and it has chicken in it...so there ya go! Now when I tell you what it is, you're going to turn your nose up and refuse to try it. BUT DON'T!! My friend at work, Janine, had the recipe and then Joanna had a good idea to add chicken to it. Well Lydia made it and I'll be honest, at first I refused to try it but Lydia made me try ONE BITE and that ONE BITE turned into MANY of bites!!!! Here it is...

2 Boxes of Cream Cheese (normal size boxes)
1 Package of Ranch Dressing Mix (for salad dressing, not dip)
1 small can or package of Tyson's chicken
Pepper

Pour chicken into a bowl and shred into fine pieces.
Add Cream Cheese and Dressing Mix.
Mix all the ingredients together.
Then make two separate balls (you could make 1 big ball but it would be HUGE).
Poor pepper onto a plate, preferably a plate that has a "lip" to help contain the pepper.
Roll balls in pepper until completely covered.
Let them chill in refrigerator, although you can eat them as soon as they are made.
BEST with Wheat Thins-Garden Valley Veggie. They come in a bag and not a box.

ENJOY!!!! I now make this for myself. Who needs a party to make this? I have a party for 1 and enjoy it!!!

Determined!!

After feeling like Morgan has been my "roommate" more than my husband these past couple of weeks due to his work schedule, I was determined to have a fun filled weekend with him. I was tired of us not really doing anything together besides going out to dinner. We do that enough, I wanted to do something else together. I've been wanting to go the Bodies Exhibition down at the West End for a long time and I decided last night was the night. We drove down there late afternoon, walked around, and then went to eat dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was fun walking around downtown Dallas and I was thankful that I had driven down there numerous times to see my friend Stacey to know my way around. After dinner we walked back over to the West End area. There were tons of carriage rides every where. On our way to dinner one of the drivers had asked us if we wanted to ride and we politely declined his offer. He then told us, "Go get a few drinks in you and come back and see me." We laughed....and then did just that. Well Morgan did, I did not. So we made our way back over to the carriage ride area and Morgan offered me the opportunity to ride and I took him up on it. This is the picture of us on the carriage ride, taken by yours truly. ;)

I must say, if you ever get the opportunity to do this, DO IT!!! It was so nice to see the calmer side of Dallas. It didn't hurt that the weather was absolutely perfect last night for a carriage ride.

Today we went to Fort Worth to the Main Street Festivities. I used to go every year and haven't been since before meeting Morgan. Not sure why I love it so much considering I am not really an "Art-sy" type of person, but I love going. So we got up early and headed to Fort Worth with the Lillie Bear. We dropped her off at her "little slice of heaven on earth" and headed downtown. We got there around eleven. We decided to have lunch at Risky's out on the patio because let's face it, they double, if not triple, the prices on food at these kinds of events. I had my favorite...fried corn & some yummy brisket tacos!!! YUM!!!! We walked around and had fun people watching and dog watching because it seemed like everyone had their dogs down there. After that we headed to the Botanical Gardens because we had some time to kill before we went over to Brian & Christy's (my brother and sister in law's) house for dinner. The roses were so pretty and it wasn't too crowded.

After the gardens we went to have dinner with my parents, brother, and sister in law. I'd say my nephew too but he was in the other room playing video games so not sure that he really counts. :) My brother got all of the cooking gene!!!! Brian and Christy cook soooooo good!! Everything they make is delicious!! Let me back up, I CAN cook...I just don't LIKE to cook. It was nice to hang out with my parents, Brian and Christy!! The best part about the night was that I found out that my brother is going to do our kitchen counter tops...woohooo! So that's all for now! I have to go choose a counter top from the hundreds of samples Brian gave me. :)

So Sweet!

Today I was in Fort Worth, for a few reasons, but one of them was to pick up Lillie Bear. She spent a couple of nights at her favorite place in the world...aka...grandmom's and grandad's house! My Dad took Lillie outside before we were going to leave to let her do her business since it's a semi-long drive home, especially in 5 o'clock traffic. My mom and I stayed in the kitchen and worked on destroying a pepper ball thingy with delicious crackers. When my Dad got home from work he said his head was hurting and that he just didn't feel well. THIS IS A MAN YOU WILL HARDLY EVER HEAR COMPLAIN!!! I realized it had been quite some time that they had been outside and it kind of worried me. Thought maybe something had happened to my Dad so I went to look outside and this is what I saw on the front step...

My Dad and Lillie sitting there together, she is in his lap. Oh my Gosh, cutest thing I have seen in a long time. I had to run to get my cell phone to take a picture. I didn't tell my Dad I took this picture. I changed his computer background so when he got on the computer tonight he would see it. It's such a sweet picture.

Disclaimer

This is a little disclaimer concerning my blog. Plllllease people, do NOT over anaylze this or read to deep into anything I write on here. I want this to be a fun blog for everyone to read. The blog about Morgan and his "hearing" was in good humor, not anger. I know EVERY couple had "dirty laundry" and NO WAY would I ever "air" ours on a public blog. Not mad at anyone, just don't want it to get where every time I write something that's not all "happy happy joy joy" that I get emails about it. Just saying...

Deaf? Hard of Hearing? or Selective Hearing?

At the risk of Morgan getting upset at me, I am going to blog about this. It amazes me how his hearing works, or doesn't work, sometimes. I will admit, our conversations involve him saying, "Huh?" and "What?" a lot. So much so that sometimes I just say, "Forget it!" I know it's not me because I can talk to my girl friends a million miles a minute and our conversations never involve HUH and WHAT unless the other person is amazed at what the person just said or wondering if what the person just said could really be true. Those two words are never used because we couldn't hear or understand each other.

EVERY morning when Morgan's alarm goes off I have to wake him up to turn it off. If I didn't do this the alarm would go off forever and he still wouldn't hear it. Then the other night at 3:50 am...so I guess that would be early morning...he wakes me up and tells me my phone has rung twice. So let me get this straight, Morgan can't hear his alarm on his phone going off in the SAME ROOM as us, but he can hear my cell phone ringing that's in the kitchen and our bedroom door is shut to the kitchen?!? Now it's my turn to say, "HUH? WHAT?!?" Crazy I say!! Crazy!!! So I drag myself out of bed to check my cell phone to only see an empty screen that says nothing about missed calls. So I check his work phone and he has two missed calls. (He keeps his work phone in the kitchen at nights.) Why Morgan thought it was MY phone and not HIS phone is beyond my comprehension. How does he not know the ring of his own cell phone?!? Needless to say, I was HIGHLY annoyed at 3:50 am!!!

So my question to Morgan is...are you deaf or do you have selective hearing when it comes to YOUR phone's alarm going off? And are you hard of hearing when it comes to having a conversation with me? All of this really does make me laugh!! He says it's because he's been around farm equipment all of his life so his hearing has gone down the drain. Try having a conversation with his dad...oh my goodness is all I am going to say about that!!! ;)

Blind Date, Oysters, and Such...

I'm just in the mood to blog about something tonight and nothings really happened so you get this to read for you entertainment. I also realize as I type this that I don't want my friends to think that anytime they do something with me, they end up on my blog page, haha! I do PLENTY of stuff that doesn't end up here so no worries friends.

On to my story, I've come to realize that I really suck at setting people up on blind dates. Like MAJORLY suck at hooking people up. I'll just say this is only my second time and it failed just as miserably as my first attempt. Actually, I realize this was more of Morgan's doing and even though I was anti it, I went along anyway. One of my closest friends, Lydia, and her husband, Rob, have a really good friend that I have met on a couple of occasions named Henry (changing names to protect identity, lol). This friend of theirs was at their Super Bowl Party so Morgan got to meet him. Morgan had the idea of setting up a girl he works with named Leslie (changing names to protect identity, lol). Actually, she reminded me soooooo much of my REAL friend named Leslie it was like they were twins separated at birth. So this "Leslie" agreed to the blind date. "Henry" agreed to the blind date, too. Originally we were going to go eat at Pappadeux's and then go dancing. We were down off the Tollway earlier that week looking for another restaurant when we passed Pappadeux's and I thought Morgan was going to have a wreck he was so excited to see it. Never knew he liked Pappadeux's that much. Well Lydia and I were talking and I found out that she LOVES Pappadeux's too. ( I must say, Lydia and Morgan are so much a like it's crazy!! Maybe that's why they are two of my favorite people!!) Anyway, so the plan was set that we were going to Pappadeux's and then dancing. Well thank goodness Rob was equally as tired as I was and so we decided that we'd all just go eat and then come back to Rob and Lydia's house to play games. We played MadGab...which I must brag on myself and say I am AWESOME at!! Not sure that's a good thing and that my brain functions that fast in that way. We then switched to CatchPhrase which was tons of fun!! Are you still wondering how the date went? Disastrous!! Okay, maybe that's a little too strong of a word, but the second they met I knew it was a BUST!!!! We all still managed to have fun, mainly because you can't help but have fun when you're with Rob and Lydia. Anyway, so after that night, I REFUSE to set up anymore blind dates. Even though Morgan and I were the product of a little blind date-match making, I just can't be responsible for this anymore!! So here's a few pictures of the night. I realize that most who read my blog don't have a facebook...where I post most of my pics...so here they are for the rest of the world...

Morgan and I before we hit the town!! :)

Disgusting Oysters!!! Morgan ate a dozen of these all on his own. A few of us at the table had never had them. Well I was sitting next to Lydia so I was the first casualty to these AWFUL things. She fixed me one up, in the mouth it went, and then it almost met my napkin after that. I managed to get it down but I seriously thought I was going to vomit. I don't do textures well. After the others watched my reaction to this oyster, they all refused to try one...oops!! There were 8 of us that went and only 3 people ate 24 oysters...the thought of this makes me want to hurl right now.

My sweet friend Lydia!!! She's such a huge support to me!!

Sweet Rob and Lydia...now this is how you take a cute picture.

This is how NOT to take a cute picture, haha! Gotta Love that cowboy!!! He just doesn't know how to act when I get him out of the country and into the city. :) Totally kidding Morgan!! Glad to know you have a fun personality.

"Snow Day" through the Eyes of a Nurse

So I am a little delayed in posting this. I've worked the last 5 out of 7 days so this is the first time I have had the time to sit down and blog about my lovely experience. It probably won't be as uplifting and happy as most, but I will try. Being a nurse really screws these days up for me sometimes. Seems like I get stuck having to work these days frequently. As I was eating lunch Thursday in the break room and watching the scroll on the bottom of the TV that was listing school/work closings, I said to one of my friends, "Wouldn't it be great to see our hospital's name on that list?!?" We had a good laugh about it knowing it will NEVER happen!! The week before this week of snow I was off for 7 days. Could it snow then? No!! Then I am off this Thursday and Friday, the week after the snow. Could it snow then? No!! It had to snow crazy on the two days I had to work. :( This bums me out for several reasons. During the time I just thought it was one reason, that being that I had to spend the night at the hospital. Seriously have no clue how these ladies can sleep on these beds for 4 nights. That's how long our c/s patients can stay and most do. There were about 18 of us that spent the night at work on Thursday so we wouldn't have to drive in on Friday. Those on my floor decided that it must be easy for our patients to tolerate those beds when you're receiving Percocet & Percodan every 3 hours. We decided if we were going to have to stay on those beds, we should get access to those lovely meds too. HaHa! NO, WE DIDN'T for anyone thinking we did!!! I had several people offer me a place to stay Thursday night that live close to work. I didn't take any of them up on it because they kept saying "ice" in the morning. I told Lydia next time I am spending the night with her and that better always be an open invitation!!! :) With that said, I am thankful to work where there is an option to spend the night and not risk the treacherous drive in. While I was bummed that I was missing all of the snow back at home, that next morning was absolutely beautiful. I was able to get a "bird's eye view" of the surrounding area around the hospital. I work on the 4th floor. If you know or have seen where I work, you know it's in a rich city and surrounded by beautiful homes. I think I looked out the window around 0730 that Friday morning. It felt like Christmas morning to me as a kid. It was absolutely breath taking to look down on all of the trees and beautiful homes and see all of that snow blanketing everything. It was so peaceful because there was not a car in sight since it was so early in the morning. It was like I was getting a sneak peek at everything before the rest of the city woke up. As far as you could see it was white. I also worked Thursday and seeing all of the snow falling down and beginning to coat everything was also pretty. The drive into work Thursday morning was "fun." I had never seen that much snow fall at one time!!! It was so heavy it was hard to see where I was going. I can't even describe it. If you were driving to work around 0600 then you know what I am talking about. So Beautiful!!!

Friday was a long day for us nurses. We were a little sleep deprived. It's hard sleeping on the floor your work on and then getting up, walking out of your room, and back to work you go. Our hospital was kind enough to give us a meal voucher for spending the night. I went down to the cafeteria to get breakfast. The grill guy (I should really learn his name because he always says, 'Hi, Laura' and is so nice!!) asked me how my drive to work was. I told him I spent the night so I didn't have to experience any driving. Well I had ordered pancakes and he was sweet enough to turn them into Mickey Mouse pancakes to make me smile. I really do work with some fantabulous people from the kitchen, to house keeping, to nurses, to our boss, etc. Anyway, by the time 1900 rolled around I was beyond ready to go home. I slept like a baby that night! Had never been so happy to see our king size bed and body pillows.

So I was praying that there would still be snow Saturday morning at home so I could get a glimpse of what it looked like at home. Morgan took some pictures on Thursday afternoon and Friday but they are on his iPhone so I don't know how to upload them. Everything had snow...trees, driveway, his truck, etc. It was so pretty. I must say, I was pretty bummed after looking at every one's pics on Facebook of them and their families in the snow. Would have loved to have had the opportunity to build a snowman with Morgan and even engage in a snowball fight...I am sure I would've won!! Oh well!! These pics are taken on Saturday, two days after the snow had fallen.


This is my artistic work, lol!! For some reason I thought it would be a grand idea to walk out there in cotton shorts, t-shirt, and a robe to take pics. Guess I was still tired from working and the lack of sleep I had which lead me to make such a poor decision. Otherwise, I would've put more energy into making this look a little nicer. ;)

This picture was taken off of our back porch.

So pretty! You can see Charlie, our horse, and our neighbor's pond in the background.

Our driveway...I know y'all were just dying to see what it looked like. HAHA!!

Morgan and Me in the snow. We really need to teach Lillie to be our photographer so we can get a decent picture of the two of us in cases like this. ;)

I was a little cold!!

He was really thrilled I was making him stand out there for this picture!!

Benefits of living in the country...tons of farm land covered in beautiful snow.

You also see this a lot...hay bails being driven down the road.

So that was my lovely experience. What a gift from God that snow was!!! Maybe we won't have to wait another 30 years to see that beautiful snow again!! And HOPEFULLY I won't have to work those days next time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dog & Cat Diaries

This makes me laugh!! I've seen it so many times and it still makes me laugh out loud so I decided to put it on here. It reminds me so much of Lillie and my cat Bianca that lives with my parents. Bianca is a Siamese cat. She's not full blooded so she's still sweet...most of the time. Lillie and Bianca are really cute together because they have the same markings.

EXCERPTS FROM A DOG'S DAILY DIARY...

8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 pm - Lunch! My favorite thing!
1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
5:00 pm - Milk Bones! My favorite thing!
7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!

EXCERPTS FROM A CAT'S DAILY DIARY...

Day 983 of my captivity...

My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets.

Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.

The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a 'good little hunter' I am. Bastards.

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of 'allergies.' I must learn what this means and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow -- but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released - and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded.

The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now ....

Meet Maks...

Last night Morgan and I went over to the in laws. I thought we were just running over there real quick to drop off some jeans for Matt and some pictures I had printed for Melissa. We walk in and Melissa is like, "Come see what's in here." She opens the door to her room (M&M are living with the in laws since they just bought a new house and are remodeling some of it) and what do I see?!? A little baby goat laying on a blanket. NEVER was expecting to see that!! He was the cutest little thing but could hardly raise his head because he was so weak. M&M have goats and recently the goats had 8 babies, Maks was born yesterday. Three had already died and Matt found Maks stiff. (That's what I have named him after Maksim from Dancing with the Stars. Even though Matt said I shouldn't name him until we know he makes it. But I say give him a name so he WILL make it!!) Maks was probably "seeing the light" until Melissa came and got him and took him home. They wanted me to try and put a tube down his throat to his stomach since I used to have to do this to the NICU babies, but the tube they had was HUGE and I refused!! So Matt and I fed little Maks together. Matt held his mouth open and helped him suck while I tried to hold the bottle in his little bitty mouth. Maks is supposed to eat like a baby, every 2-3 hours.

So today after I got done with my workout with Lydia, I had a message from my father in law asking if I could go feed Maks. Maks wouldn't eat for my mother in law prior to her leaving for work so he was wondering if I could get him to eat. I was hesitant, but went over there to see what I could do. After all, I am a city girl now living in the country!!! But I guess after working with babies for almost 10 years, I could try. As I was walking in I was praying he wouldn't be dead. This is what I saw...

Maks all curled up sleeping. So sweet. So I picked him up and felt his little heart beating, thank goodness!!

I then took this picture to send to Lydia because she wanted to see how cute he was. Take notice of how much milk is in the bottle sitting on the table. This is before Maks ate. I'm pretty sure he's giving me the same look that Morgan gives me when I want to take pictures of him.

At first Maks didn't really want anything to do with the bottle. I was thinking, oh great, I'm going to have to do what Matt and I had to do last night BY MYSELF!! Once I opened his mouth and stuck the bottle in, he went to town. He sucked so good and was so eager to eat!! He ate an 1 1/2 ounces. :) :) :)

Now notice the bottle on the table, he drank a lot for his little bitty self.

After I held Maks for a little bit and petted him & talked to him...like he's a puppy or something...I put him back in his bed. He was standing and even moving around a little. WAY more than he was doing last night.

So I hope little Maks makes it!!! If not, I will be one sad little lady. :( I just got home from feeding him again. I fed him at 3pm another 1 1/2 ounces. Then we snuggled in the chair. Matt started laughing when he walked in and saw me. I couldn't help it. Having his little head on my chest all snuggled up to me was irresistible. Although, it kind of makes me worried about how I will be as a mother. I went over at noon, didn't let GiGi out. GiGi is M&M's dog. I was too focused on making sure I was doing everything right for Maks. Then I went over there at 3pm and it took me a while to finally remember that GiGi probably has needs too and to let her out. So I snuggled Maks up with me and we took GiGi outside. Poor GiGi peed FOREVER!!! But hey, at least I EVENTUALLY remembered, right?!? HAHA!

Haiti

I've been wanting to write something since this happened but never knew what to say until today. I've been wanting to encourage all of you to donate money to Haiti. I have always felt like we are so blessed to live in this country to be born under the "red white & blue" and when something like this happens, it just emphasizes that even more for me. We are so blessed to be in this country, so much so that I think we don't even have a smidgen of a clue how really blessed we are...which is a whole other topic. The picture above is one of my best friend's, Holli. She went on a mission trip with our church to Haiti. (It's been quite sometime.) I remember we were all worried about her going because of her blond hair and blue eyes. Thankfully, under the protective wings of Angels, she made it back safely. This was a picture taken while she was there with one of the orphanage kids.

I heard a story today that really touched me and finally pushed me to write something about Haiti and the importance of all of us donating. As I was on my way to work out I heard a story on 102.9, I believe. Now typically I ONLY listen to music but something made me stop and listen to this story. Some of you may have heard it. It's a story about a news crew that is in Haiti covering this disaster. They were outside of a bank. The bank used to be five stories high and was reduced to maybe 3 feet off the ground. Just a mound of rubble. While everyone was digging through the rubble, most likely looking for money, there was a man standing off to the side just watching. The news crew asked the man why he was just standing there, not saying a word or doing anything. He had been standing in that spot for FIVE DAYS. He said that his wife worked in that bank and he knew she was in there when the earthquake happened. He said he was going to stand there until she was either pulled out alive, or dead. (Talk about love and devotion!!!) Well they didn't have the man crew to do any kind of serious digging. Then a group of fire fighters from Los Angeles came walking down the street who had adequate equipment to assist. They told the fire fighters the situation and they started digging. After digging for a little bit they heard a female voice. The man who had been standing on the side for five days went running over to where they were. It was his wife!!! She was alive!!!! They pulled her out and the only thing was wrong was her hand. It had gotten smashed in the collapse of the building. After five days of no food or water, she was alive and nothing serious was wrong. Praise God!!! The man got his wife and they drove off together.

I just think that's a miraculous story. We need to donate to not only support the people in Haiti, but the volunteers that are taking the time, being away from their own family, to go aid the Haiti people. You can donate by texting "Haiti" to 90999. This will donate $10. You can also go to www.redcross.org and donate. I also believe this Friday there will be a telethon by celebrities that will be taking donations. I know some might say, "I just don't have the money." But these people really have NOTHING!! They really didn't even have much before this and what they did have is now destroyed. God has richly blessed us in so many ways! I think we need to give to the Haiti people, regardless of how small the amount. I wish I could just get on a plane and fly over there and help them, but I can't . So this is the least I could do.

Redeeming Love

I have another book for everyone to read. This book above is so good!!! Several girls at work were reading it, going on about how good it was and how they couldn't put it down. It's written by a christian author so I thought I would give it a try. I'll be honest, it's not the type of book I would typically read so at first it took a while for me to get into it and the amount of pages overwhelmed me. I had to FORCE myself to read this book. But then a few chapters into it I couldn't put it down. I flew through this book. I read it faster than most 200 page books. Every free waking moment I had, I spent soaking in this book. I couldn't get enough of it!! Now that I am done reading it, I have tried going back to the type of books I used to read...and i am so bored with them. Francine Rivers has other books out that I will have to read soon. So if you know me and would like to borrow this book, just let me know. One of my friends currently has it so when she's done, anyone can read it. I also bought this book for my mom for Christmas and can't wait to hear what she thinks of it.

Birthday!

Morgan turned 32. Surprisingly, he did not rub it in my face how I am 6 months and 6 days older than him. :) We had a good day, kept it low key. We went to lunch with the family. My parents came up so I was really happy for that. I made his lovely cake...that he never ate. The boy and sweets are not friends. So after listing every kind of cake I could come up with and him saying he wouldn't eat it, I decided to make my favorite kind. Yellow with chocolate icing, yum! I made it from scratch, took me hours and hours...okay, so maybe I had a little help from a gal we'll call "Betty." haha! Happy Birthday, Morgan! Love You Bunches!!!!

Surprises!!

If you tell me a secret, I will keep it. If I have a surprise for you, you can bet I won't tell you...if it's truly a surprise. But PLEASE don't tell me you have a "surprise" for me and then make me wait for it. Don't get me wrong, I love surprises, but only when it's actually happening and I am truly surprised. Also, when it comes to gifts I am HORRIBLE!! I was, am, and will always be a "snooper!!" I'm not ashamed of it and my family knows this. Once I snooped through my parents closet, since that's where I knew they stored our Christmas gifts, found a sweater that I loved. Well I was going to a Nursing/End of Semester party and wanted to wear it. Christmas was only a few days away so it wasn't really THAT big of a deal. HeHe!! Well I wore it to the party. I don't even drink beer, but one of my friends accidentally spilt beer on it. OOPS!! So I came home that night, tried to clean it, and the next morning snuck it back in my parents closet without them ever knowing. That is, until my big mouth ex-fiance started cracking up when I opened it at Christmas and he spilled the beans. Thankfully, my parents have a good sense of humor and didn't get mad at me.

Then this year Morgan told me he was going Christmas shopping for me, but that he was taking my gifts over to his parents to wrap them. So in my mind, they aren't in our house. Out of sight, out of mind. So I am ironing some scrubs for the next day at work in our middle bedroom. Well this is also the same room that we were keeping our Christmas gifts since we didn't have a tree up this year and our living room looks like a storage space. Morgan walks in and says to me, "Don't look in those bags. Your Christmas gifts are in there!!" What?!? Really? Why on EARTH would he tell me this!! I was thinking they were at the in laws but nope, they are 2 feet away from me...in a bag...where I can EASILY snoop!! If he would've never mentioned anything, I would have never noticed them. His last words to me before walking out of the house were, "Now don't go snooping!!!!!" Ummm, have you met your wife? Do you know her at all? Apparently he doesn't!! As soon as I heard his truck pull away, I immediately went to snooping and found out what 90% of my gifts were right away. I know! I know!!! This is HORRIBLE!!!! But I have never unwrapped a gift and re wrapped it like my husband has done. Yeah, totally just threw him under the bus!! So Christmas Eve we open gifts and I knew all of them, so I thought. He had actually hid my perfume where I couldn't find it. :) Should I be admitting to all of this? Probably not. So if you ever have a surprise or gift for me, please don't tell me unless you are giving it to me RIGHT THEN!!! Otherwise, I just might drive you crazy trying to figure it out. I am known to do this by asking a million questions, shaking the gifts, and you better bet if it's in a bag...I will be SNOOPING!!!!

Super Cute Chicks...Now Super Big Chicks!!

Side Note: If you want to see what these chickens looked like at a couple of days old, scroll on down a little further.

Tonight after dinner I said to Morgan, "Let's go look at those chickens. I haven't seen them in a while and would like to see how big they are." So we drove over to the in laws clueless to what we were walking into. Davin, our nephew, is showing these chickens this coming Friday so my brother in law, Matt, and sister in law, Melissa, were washing these big 'ole chickens!! Good grief they got big FAST!! Take a look...

Davin and Melissa both did some washing. These poor chickens did not enjoy it one bit, but then again I wouldn't either if I was them.

This picture cracks me up. Nothing like a wet chicken. This is kind of the "behind the scenes" of raising chickens. Absolutely NO CLUE this much effort went into raising them and getting them ready to show. Poor thang!! He's looking at me like, "Really? This is my life?!? Sitting on a dryer while some woman is holding me down while another is blowing me with a hair dryer? This so CAN'T be normal!!"

Are you wondering how many Airhart men it takes to weigh a chicken? Apparently three, haha! This isn't the most accurate way to do it, but their scale froze up so they used mine. Love how Matt is holding this chicken directly over my father in law so if it pooped, it was going right on him! Should've seen the little evil grin Matt was giving me. ;) And why is the man who can't hardly see reading the scale?!?

Even GiGi loves the chickens. Almost too much I do believe because I did see her licking her lips quite often.

So that was our night. Always something new to learn out here and NEVER, and I mean NEVER, a dull moment at this house!! I can't help but wonder if that's going to be Morgan and me in 13 years when our child is old enough to raise chickens. If so, I will just have to recruit Matt and Melissa to help me out in this area of raising our child because I am on the clueless side when it comes to farm animals.

The Embarrassing Truth!!!

Once upon a time there was a girl who lived by herself, lived 5 minutes from the gym and worked out at least 3-4 times a week, came home from work and ate either cereal or a sandwich. This girl RARELY had any alcohol and really didn't eat out very much. Meet this girl...

Then this girl above fell madly in love with a Cowboy, moved to the country where the gym was a 20 minute drive one way, started eating fast food and going out to dinner where an occasional alcoholic beverage was involved, and apparently lost her tan and became pasty white which makes her look WAY worse!! Meet this girl...

SIGH!!! Yes, this is completely embarrassing and I am humiliating myself, but this is what I need to do. I need all of y'all to hold me accountable and to help me stay on track. The picture above was taken just the other night. This is the heaviest I have EVER weighed!!! BLAH!!! So we will consider this the "before" picture. My friend, Lydia, who is in this picture with me is getting back in shape with me. The other day we came up with a reward system for when we lose weight at 5 pound increments. I am so excited!!! I also talked her into signing back up for our gym we used to go to. We are going to do some classes together because I think that's where we can really lose some weight because the classes kind of work all areas of the body. We are starting tomorrow at 0830. Now all that know me know that I typically don't get up until 0900 on my day off, but I am desperate to lose weight so we are meeting for a class. I am excited and scared!! I'm praying I don't pass out since it has been awhile since I have exercised. I hope some day soon we will have a great "after" picture of our slimmer selves!!

December!!

I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAACKKKKK!!! HaHa! Haven't posted in a while. Our computer bit the dust...I procrastinated on taking it to Best Buy because I HATE doing things like that...then he tells me it's going to cost a minimum of $200 to "maybe" fix it...so then we FINALLY bought us a new computer that I love!!! So this will be one "lump" of activities blog.

So Christmas just past. I like Christmas but this year it kind of annoyed me. I think the idea of everyone running around frantically to buy gifts is quite ridiculous and ANNOYING!!! I feel like the actual meaning of CHRISTmas gets looked over more and more each year. Don't get me wrong, I feel like children should receive gifts, but the way some people act is down right obnoxious!!! No, my family is NOT like this!! I think I start getting annoyed before Thanksgiving when it seems like everyone is just ready to "get through" Thanksgiving so we can rush right into Black Friday and Christmas. Can we please give Thanks FIRST because after all, we do have so much to be thankful for!!!

Morgan and I didn't decorate this year. Morgan has been working on one of our other bedrooms so all of that furniture is out in the living room. I was kind of bummed at first at the thought of not putting a Christmas Tree up, but then I quickly got over it. I love the idea of a Christmas Tree, but HATE the idea of putting it up...opening all those limbs is a whippin'!! Plus, we had nothing to take down either now that it's all over. YAY! But, I am sure we will decorate next year. I wasn't ever really in the "Christmas Spirit" this year and I am pretty sure that had to do with the absence of our tree. :(

This pic below explains pretty much how I have felt this whole year...apparently the year of 2009...calories didn't count. HAHA! BUT, I renewed my gym membership and will be "up in the gym just workin' on my fitness," to quote Fergie (she's a singer to all those who don't know.)

I got to see my sweet cousin, Theresa, and her husband! I loooooove her so much. Pop, I put this pic in for you!! :) LOVE you POP!!

We went dancing this month with two of my friends. We had so much fun!! Here's Morgan and I before we went. This was actually the picture we used on our Christmas Card since this was the only decent picture I could come up with on such short notice. No, Morgan's not winking at the camera. No, he's NOT drunk!! These were people's responses (mainly family) when they saw this pic. My camera has a double flash and that first flash gets his eyes practically every time. sigh!!

This picture cracks me up! This was the first of the night so the answer would be NO, we were not drunk...just goofy!!

Morgan did awesome at riding the bull...as well as Lydia.

I, on the other hand, look a little terrified!! I wasn't, but this pic is funny to me. And why am I not holding on with my LEFT hand? I'm left handed!! That just goes to show that when I watch Bull Riding with Morgan they all have their left hands in the air, so that's what I did naturally. Oh, the life of a left handed girl. I probably would've lasted a little longer if I was holding on with my stronger hand.

Leigh Taylor (LT) and Me! No clue what we are laughing at!

Lydia and I ALWAYS have fun together!!

Then we had a WHITE CHRISTMAS!! This pic isn't very good but it's the only one I have on my computer. His aunt got a really cute one of us in the snow. I was thankful Christmas Eve that my in laws only live 2 minutes down the road since country roads always seem to be worse than city roads.

Yesterday Lydia and I went to see IT'S COMPLICATED! Let me back up....can I just say that yesterday was one of the most perfect days in my life!! It was so simple, yet so perfect!!! I went to Fort Worth to get my hair done...trimmed and colored. Nothing spectacular. But those hair days I love because you feel so refreshed. Then I met Lydia at 4pm to see IT'S COMPLICATED. When we got there it was snowing sooooooo much!! I can't remember seeing that much snow fall at one time in my life!! It was BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!! Then we met up with some of our other friends for dinner. The roads weren't bad at all and it was white EVERY WHERE!! Then I came home to my sweet husband. It was just one of those days I wish I could do again and again and again!! Anyway....here's a picture of Lydia and Me...

In this picture below I am sandwiched between two of my favorite people in this whole wide world!!! LOVE these girls whole hearted!! Lydia, Me, & Jill

It's weird for me to think back about how 2 years ago I didn't even know these girls existed. Now they are some of my favorite people! It's amazing how God works. It's amazing to look back on that day when we (pedi nurses in Arlington) got the news that our unit was closing. I was so upset!! But now I work at this fantastic hospital with these girls and I couldn't be happier. Thank you God for taking such great care of me and placing me right where I am!!!

I stole Courtney's cute hat for the picture below. It looked super cute on her, a little "gangsterish" on me!! HAHA!!

Well that's it folks! I'm sure a lot more happened, but can't remember right this second. Hopefully the next time I post pics I will not look quite so "healthy!!" hehe!! All in all, I am so thankful for so much in my life!! 2009 was a GREAT year and I can't wait to see what 2010 brings for us!!! Hope you all have a safe New Year's Eve!!!