Christmas 2013

I'm too lazy to transfer pics from facebook to other albums, so view them there if you can.

We had a great holiday season. We had get togethers with My mom and step dad and family, Jay's parents, Jay's extended family, and my grandfather.



The girls all seemed to enjoy their christmas goodies. The big girls were total Monster High girls this year getting both dolls and books. Calleigh got lots of Ponies.

My Barn turned out awesome and then before I could take pics and set it out, the kitten caved in the roof, so Mommy is having to play fix up on that!

Thanks to everyone who sent cards and other goodies to us.

Now to get ready for New Year's.

And so begins...... The Christmas crafting.

Yep You read that right. In between all the other stuff I have going on, I've got a list out to there with craftiness to finish by Christmas. Will it be done? It better be!

First up -- I am crafting a Barn/Stables for Miss Calleigh and her "Ponies". This includes her horsies and her my little ponies.

I'm working the little details now as I'm waiting to acquire somethings I need for the stables/barn. So first up -- Buckets. Every barn/stable needs buckets to haul feed/water/etc.

These beauties are made out of paper clips and juice lids.

Then a few Feed bags.... These were just sewn out of burlap and stuffed with polyfill

And a few bales of Hay. (I need to glue the twine around them, but I have to find it first LOL) made out of foam and burlap.

Next on my list is a feeding trough. But I'm still working out the design for that in my head.

Little Miss CMS

Bella got to live a Dream last week. She was selected as Little Miss CMS and got to walk with the court for homecoming. She presented the Queen with her flowers. Of course, this was an experience for Bella, who has always loved getting girly. She got to have her hair down, a pretty dress, new shoes. And hang out with the "Big kids" on the court. I think they enjoyed watching her as much as she enjoyed watching them.

School is BACK in session!

August 19th, marked the first day of school. Caity started 4th grade and is part of the Wolf pack. Bella started 1st grade and her tradition of getting the NEW teacher happened again. This time, though, her Teacher may be new to the district but she's not a first time teacher!

Which means I'm packing lunches again too.

Whee! Both of the girls have decided they want to do Jr. Cheer this year, so we'll see how that goes.

Kidney Checkup 2013 - Boston

It's summer time again. What does that mean? Well for most it means HOT, WATER, TRIP, FUN, NO SCHOOL. Surf, Sand, Sun, etc. For us -- it means KIDNEYS! Caity and I made our journey to Boston alone this year. Well not totally alone as we hooked up with B (who flew in from NYC) when we arrived. Nothing better than visiting with one of your best friends while going for your daughters check up. Right?! We flew in on Wednesday June 26th. We left LR at 6 am and headed to Chicago where we had a layover and a slight delay. Caity didn't mind the delay at all because Hello Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for breakfast! (Okay, she had McDonalds too) From Chicago, we flew to Washington DC, where we had to leave our terminal and re go through security to enter our departing terminal. We made it as the plane started to board. Awesome! We arrived in Boston around 2:45 that afternoon and B met us at the subway stop at the airport terminal exit. Wednesday night, we walked to our abode (an apartment we rented for the trip) and then we went grocery shopping. Other than that, we stayed in and chatted and cooked. Listened to some music and enjoyed a movie together. Thursday morning was Caity's appointment. We had a renal u/s followed by her dr. appt. So early, we got up, fixed breakfast, and headed to the subway to get to the "hospital" side of town. A quick pit stop into starbucks (Hello Caffeine, we love you) and off to the waiting room. Fortunately we didn't have too long of a wait. The u/s went great, we had the same u/s tech as last year and she remembered Caity. She told us that her kidneys looked "Beautiful". This was awesome news. Off to the Dr. Another wait. paperwork of course. Lab work. And then Dr. Retik was there and he offered up the best news ever. All of her labs looked great. Her u/s was great. And we don't have to go back for 2 years! Also. He dropped her from 3 times a week to Once a month catheterization! We'll go from there to drop it out of her regimen totally! Our meds didn't change, but that's okay. I think after a year, we were good with the meds schedule! NO MORE CATHETERS is our new goal! This means we will not have another kidney followup until 2015. WOW! It seems so hard to imagine not having a yearly trip to Boston. But it means that our Renal future is bright! The rest of Thursday was spent all over Boston, being tourists, shopping. We dropped off some leftover groceries at the hospitals family house (where we usually stay). We had to buy Jay some shoes, so that was #1 on our list. Caity wanted to go back to the Lindt Chocolate store (and who were we to argue with her). We had lunch at Panera, ate outside and just enjoyed the city. Of course, we had to visit the bookstore. We went by the Mother Church (Christian science) again and this time we stopped in and visited the mapparium -- which was SO cool! We didn't run through the water this time as it was raining and we were far from the apartment. Our final stop was at Crumbs cupcakery for a celebratory cake pop for Caity. Back at the apartment, we fixed some baked goods and heated up dinner. Then watched another movie and talked and packed. Friday We headed to the aiport early for our midmorning flight. We left Boston on schedule and arrived at DC. Again with the re-pass through security. But Flight delayed. We finally board and....get stuck at take-off ground because of a storm in West Virginia. We stay on the tarmac for two hours before taxiing back to a gate. But they leave us on the plane because they are re-routing us and we should take off soon. 4.5 hours later, they cancel our flight and we finally deplane. Upon calling the airlines, the next available flight to LR isn't until Sunday morning. 40 hours later than it currently is. SO between Me, my mom, Jay and the help of an airline person, I finally grab a midnight flight to Memphis, where Jay drives to pick us up. Our flight was delayed and luckily because of the time zone difference, We arrive in Memphis shortly after Jay has. Then we stop off in a hotel for a few hours of sleep before finishing the drive home. Met up with Mom and Perry at Walmart to exchange children. I think Calleigh and Bella were happy to see us.