Bumpin' Up and Down in my Little Red Wagon...

That song has been stuck in my head since Saturday!  Ugh!!  But the dance that Stella does to it is way cute!!

Stella is the smartest thing ever!!  She knows her birthday is September 1, however she thinks that everyday is September 1, hence everyday is her birthday.  I got a phone call last night from Stella wanting me to sing her happy birthday since she got a cupcake at the store to "practice" for her birthday! 

She was also lucky enough to spend Friday night & Saturday morning with me.  We went to Moo Moo's "church", dinner & then I took her shopping.  She now has new Dora cups and cash register for her to play "store" with at the house.  It almost brought me to tears as she was sitting in the floor and was counting her money and she knew the difference between the $1 and $5 bills :(  She is growing way too fast sometimes!

Saturday, we all drove down and met Paw Paw and Uncle Adam at El Fenix for lunch!  Yummo!  Another big thing of hers is to roar like a tiger.  So you can imagine the people looking at her when they walked by and she was roaring at them!  Ha!!  Scares me!!

We took her to do her annual blue bonnet pictures one day.  She of course conned us into letting her put on lipstick.  Her reasoning was that it would help her smile better.  Ummm, not sure that really worked.

Last weekend we went to Mee Maw's and made the annual Easter Bunny cake & Resurection Rolls.  I will post pictures from that later they are at home! Until then here are a few other pics!

Go Pick Your Switch....

Pappy is ninety-six
Makes me a little sappy.

A man of many life lessons.  He spoiled me like no other and whipped me like no other too. 

I thought for the longest time that the little skinny branches would be the best switches.  Wrong.  If you ever have to get whipped with a switch get the big fat ones.  A big fat tree branch that you can hardly carry would probably be best.  I still have no clue of why I ever got switched.  Only thing I can think of is maybe I rode my bike onto Cherry st.  I was only allowed to go down to the Eggleston's and a little past J.T. & Mary Dean's.  I guess the switches didn't burn into my conscience that I should not go places where I was told not too, for I have been guilty of that far too many times.

He also taught me my fine driving skills in the best car EVER.  It was a white Plymouth Duster.  Like this one. 

I felt like I was on the race track in that thing cruising the back roads of Forreston. 

One time we were cruising along out towards Bethel, windows down the wind blowing in our my hair, and he specifically told me to watch out for the cucarachas.  I had no idea what a cucaracha was, but I watched out anyways.  I think in my mind it was something like this:

Mind you it was hard for me to see things in the road, for I could barely see over the wheel.  And as we are b-boppin along, I hit something in the road.  He screamed out something, I screamed out something and so scared I had hit a cucaracha I almost ran off the road.  Pappy drove us back home.  :(  Turns out, it wasn't a cucaracha.  It was a tree branch.

I loved that he didn't make me do my school lessons before I played.  I loved that he would pay for my lunch when we went to town.  I loved all the roses he planted along the drive way.  When I would spend the night in the spring or summer, I would wake up, go outside to the wonderful aroma of the roses.  Heaven.  Or close I would assume.  To this day, I haven't seen any roses like Pappy's roses.  Some are very close though. 

I still miss him like crazy, and wonder what would have been if....the circumstances would have been different. So today, I will force myself to stop and smell the roses in his honor.  Too bad I can't have a Humbert's bar b q sandwich or go to a Catfish King.  So I will force myself to eat some chocolate or something sweet.  And then I will focus on my school lessons :)

Random A-Z

I was in the mood for a random fun post. I saw this the other day and liked it.

A. Age: 29

B. Bed size: King!

C. Chore you dislike: Laundry!

D. Dogs: Moses & Lucky

E. Essential start to your day: Coffee!! Prayer & Meditation

F. Favorite color: Right now, blues, greens & yellows

G. Gold or silver: Silver

H. Height: Taller than my mother & sister at 5'2"

I. Instruments you play(ed): Ha, none

J. Job title: Busy Bee

K. Kids: Yes, both have four legs

L. Live: Texas!  Yee-Haw

M. Mom’s name: Cinday

N. Nicknames: Swizzlebritches

O. Overnight hospital stays: Yep

P. Pet peeves: People getting in my "space"

Q. Quote from a movie: "If you ain't first, you're last"

R. Righty or lefty: Righty Tight Tight

S. Siblings: Blessed with a sister & brother

T. Time you wake up: 6am

U. Underwear: Geez, that's personal

V. Vegetables you don’t like: Cabbage

W.What makes you run late: My boyfriend

X. X-rays you’ve had: Lost count a long time ago......

Y. Yummy food you make: Fried chops

Z. Zoo animal favorites: Monkey

Winning!

I totally just got to use a Charlie Sheen smooth talk.....WINNING!  Why yes I am! 

Since undergoing a splenectomy in 2004, there have only been a few instances where my platelets have dropped below normal!  Those instances were nothing that meds or even just watchful waiting couldn't bring back up.  In Dr. Chatterbox Wyszynski's world he does not consider those as a relaspe.  Hey I'm game for his thinking!  It doesn't mean that I'm cured, just means I'm not in the category of statistics of splenectomy failures.  Haha!  I am well on my way past the five year mark...whooo hoooo!

The pooled long-term relapse rate across all 23 studies was 43.6 per 1,000 patient years (95% CI 28.2-67.2). This translates to an approximate failure rate of 28% at 5 years for all patients undergoing splenectomy. Studies with shorter durations of follow-up had significantly higher pooled relapse rates than studies with longer follow-up (P = 0.04). (pubmed.gov)

Lord and you know that I'm not normal so please do not let the following happen.  I am not too fond of the idea of extra organs growing in my body.

A small percent of the splenectomized ITP population develops an accessory (extra) spleen. Occasionally a second surgery is required to remove the accessory spleen if the patient has relapsed following a successful first surgery.3 (pdsa.org)

For those that do not know, let me educate you for a second ITP (ideopathic thrombocytopenia purpura) stands for no one knows why my platelets get low.  But I also found this piece of heaven.  I think I no longer have the ideopathic part....my momma might have known what she was talking about when she frantically asked  the doctors, "Could her drinking have caused this, she's been sober for about a year now."  The doctor's answer was "Um probably not lady"  Momma's are almost always right:

And someday I will understand what all of these different things are but for right now we are thrilled at the circled numbers!  And I'm also thrilled to see how my blood splatters on paper, I don't want to find out how it splatters any other way.

And on a more serious note, looks like Wes needs to be joining me in my English classes:

It's In My Genes, Funnish Facts, News

I am so relieved y'all.  I have forever wondered where I get some of my traits from.  Turns out I get them from a princess, a princess named Granny.  My Granny.  They may be annoying traits to some and I know y'all probably laugh at me for doing them behind my back, and that's ok.  I'm just glad I got those traits after Granny, she is one heckofa woman!  I am a-ok with taking after her.

So Granny called me yesterday morning.  She called to tell me about my cousin Neil.  She always calls when she gets some kind of news that is worth passing a long.  Check.  I do the same. 

We are both worry warts.  We like to know you made it through the bad weather, that you made it to your destination safely, if you are in some type of crisis, we like to take care of you.

One of the things Wes gets so annoyed by is my news watching.  I love to watch the news & then if you are lucky, there might be something stupid, sweet, or interesting to share with you.  I start watching the news at 9 almost everynight.  Go to bed, watch the 10 o'clock news too.  Come to find out, I get that from Granny too.  Except she is lucky enough that she gets to start watching the news at 4 in the afternoon! 

Does the above picture look familar?  Reminds me of when we ordered Babes right before Stella was born.  This was last night.  Granny & Dad made a surprise visit to Frisco to visit, after visiting Neil at Parkland.



Okay, back to the news part,

I was trying to hold out until after May to release the following news press that some of you already know.  You can softly whisper to yourself, OMG what in the world is she thinking.

I am back in school.  Like real school, studying real stuff, not learning how to comb people's hair.

It has always been a dream of mine to be a nurse, which many people know already.  I attempted this and embarrasingly tried other careers too.  First attempt, out of high school, nope my drinking was more important.  Second attempt, (aviation), nope my drinking was more important.  Third attempt, nope, newly sober, newly diagnosed with what-u-ma-call-it.  Finally I cop out and go to cosmetology school because that career looked easier.  Not.  Through all of that I depended on others to support me and to believe in me.  Yeah that's nice and all, but what about believing and supporting myself.  I for some reason have always thought that I was dumb in the schooling area.  Hence, the whole reason I was going to wait until May to let it out of the bag. Don't know where I got this idea, because Nanny always said I was the smartest apple of the bunch.    However, God is tricky.  He knew I would need support, accountability, & encouragement from others.  Turns out one of Stella's teachers is in one of my classes and had snitched on me to Sara.  Ha!  Nice!

So some things happened last summer/fall.  The feelings of wanting to be a nurse came back up again.  I talked it over with several people, did my little pros and cons list, and I prayed and waited....prayed and listened....prayed and jumped in.  I am happy, kicking and screaming happy, that I did this.  I am a A+ student!  Lawd have mercy I have high A's in both classes right now & it's spring break!!  I am not dumb y'all.  It is amazing what happens when you turn things over to God and start believing in yourself!

Maybe Oretha was right afterall!

I don't know where this road of schooling will go.  Sometimes I get wrapped up in fear still.  I didn't want to say anything to anyone in case I dropped out again & dissapoint others or what have you.  I do know that if this isn't the path I am to be on God will provide the biggest STOP sign ever.  And I believe today that I can do this and believe in myself until I finish or get the stop sign.

So here's to being the smartest apple in the bunch....

Love you all......

Weekend Happenings

I guess I will keep this blog & rattle on about life.  It gets pretty interesting at times :)

Friday~
I didn't want to drive down to Deep Ellum by myself for Family Dinner Night, so Sara and I took Stella to McDonald's.  We made it a girls night!  Wes had to go to a visitation in Sherman, his friend Andy's dad had passed away.  Praises to Andy & his dad, they were the main people who taught Wes all his skills in woodworking. Anywho, Stella LOVES McDonald's play area!  And as it goes with probably every toddler, you have to come up something better that is waiting on them at home to get them to leave :)

Saturday~

Wes & I joined the Murray's and Ernie & Patty (Granny Ruth's two nieces) at Borchardt Elementary.  Every year for Granny's birthday they have a little celebration.  This year was a lot bigger.  They were also celebrating the school's 10th anniversary.  Granny passed away when she was 102!!  This year she would have been 105 & that was her goal to live to, only because her mother lived to be 104!  Ha!  The event was outside this year, as they had a carnival type event.  It was cold out there y'all!  We didn't stay too long.

The faculty & staff doing the cha-cha :)

Saturday afternoon, Wes had to finish building some cabinet for his chief.  So I invited Jenny over and proceded to destroy & remake my hallway & some walls in our living room.  I added a family wall with nearly everyone's picture.  (of immediate family, don't get your panties wadded if your picture is not up there)  We did have some good laughs at all the old pictures we went through.  There were some doozies!!  When we were done, Darrin brought the kids over for pizza!

Wes using his skills......

Family Wall

Hallway

 

We redecorated other things too, that turned out fabulous as well!  I am so happy with all the results.  I also had the wild hair & got new decor for our bathroom & kitchen!

 

Most of you all know that Joel's mom Leddy had a stroke.  As of today she is still in the hospital & when she gets released (or walks out hehe) she is suppose to go to an inpatient rehab facility.  As of yesterday she had lost pretty much all function of her left arm & her left leg was getting weak as well.  As soon as she can start rehab the better chances of her regaining any mobility will be.  So please keep them all in your prayers.

Peace out y'all........



Love In Numbers

March 2, 1836

Texas Independence Day

1836

Our Street Number

March 2, 2007

Wes and I went on our first date!

(and we went out to celebrate T.I.D.)

Something fishy magical is going on there I tell ya!

So I've always thought that the people who say "I love you more today than yesterday" or "I love you more now than I did then",

well, I've always thought they were full of bull.

There is no way that could ever be true.

However, through the last four years, I admit it's a true statement for me.  It's a true feeling today.

It's just so true.

Sure, there have been plenty of ups and downs and probably more to come if I do a reality check, but I am so totally madly obsessed in love with that man than I ever thought could be possible.  I am in awe.

I am so grateful for many things that brought us together.  I am so grateful that he knows the best pick up lines ever.  I am so grateful that he loves to do laundry and bleach the countertops.  I am so grateful I have a good looking yard man now.  I am so grateful he puts up with my whining and all my other crap.  I am so grateful that I got to adopt Moses and he got to adopt Lucky.  I am so grateful be both have a common problem.
(consider this my gratitude list for the day, ha!)

I am SO grateful that I was chosen to receive him as a gift from God to love.