Fall Is Here!!

… and let me just tell you, when I say sometimes I’m a bit overboard, especially when it comes to holidays, birthdays and traditions, I mean it!!

Mom and I even got our toes done today and I had to research  “Halloween toenail ideas” before going in! I finally found black, orange and gold swirls that were super “spooky” looking so I brought in a picture and told them I wanted mine to look just like that!     They passed it around, said a lot of things i couldn;t understand and then finally told me “no, you pick a color”…

So black it was…. but I have been showing my Fall spirit in other ways regardless!!

Does Milly make the cutest scarecrow or what?!?!?

Until she see’s, hears, smells something and then it’s all over!    Tucker has still not quite grasped being outside off of his leash so his picture “opportunity” was taken inside :)

Our back porch is flooded with beautiful acorns daily and recently I started collecting them before Tucker and Milly got to them, yes, they eat them!  I wasn’t sure at the time what I would do with them but it turns out the collecting of acorns came in handy, they make the best fillers!!

I just have to constantly watch the dogs to keep their little faces out of them!

It’s worth it though, I’m all about free decorations!!

(Notice Lou’s decorative security camera lol)

In case you can’t tell I have had the most fun decorating with mom and dad these past 2 days!! They stopped at our house on the way home from Mississippi visiting grams from her birthday (Happy Birthday Grams!!) and the decorating began!!

Daddy loves the Atlanta Farmers Market and once i heard they were ocming I knew I would have to get him to take me there for pumpkins and guards!!!

Oh yes and picture taking opportunity and ingredients for a new white wine sangria I will be trying out this weekend!

This guy, Pedro, was so excited to have his picture taken! 

…and I was so excited to find pumpkins and Muscatine grapes that I always tried to force my self to love at Jenna’s house back in the day (because everything we ever did we had to be twins about it)! They brought back memories :)

They always had a huge supply of them and the more you eat them the more you like them!

This picture does not do this pumpkin justice, it was huge and way over 300 pounds!!   SO many to choose from and I would so go back every weekend if it weren’t south of the airport…. so maybe every other weekend ;)

I love that place and they have flowers too!! I officially have over 30 pumpkins and gourds in our house now and the list of what else I need for Fall keeps growing!

Let me just say, it’s not my fault…. all of our fall and Halloween decorations are home at mom and dads (since last year we didn’t have “sufficient” storage) so i feel like I’m starting from scratch!!

Obviously i could just wait and get them next time i go home but as most of you know when it comes to moving or decorating i have the patience of a 4 year old!

Speaking of 4 year olds…..

  

We spent Friday and Saturday with my most favorite 4 year old of all.. Jules!

We spent Saturday at the aquarium for Julian, Amber and Mrs. Karens first visit there, they loved it!    She wanted to sit at the big viewing area of the aquarium “ for forever!”

Julian and Uncle Andy!

I love this picture, the boys and their mama!    I loved the albino alligator, it looked like ceramic pottery before it gets painted! Do these really live in the wild safely? Seems like it would be so hard to be camouflaged and not get attacked?

Maybe that’s why its in an aquarium?

Julian and NEMO!!!!

She was such a big girl at the aquarium and loved all the animals!!

This was our view from the aquarium parking garage, we have had some of the most beautiful weather lately, clear skies, cool breezes and sunshine everyday and although I hate getting pasty pale, I love FALL weather and cookouts!!

So after the aquarium we had a cookout back at our house…. it was so nice spending time with them and Julian literally danced the night away to Fleetwood Mac while eating away chocolate nuggets!

That reminds me, Mrs. Karen took a video of Julian and I dancing and I should so get it from her to post!

Oh yes and let’s not forget our celebratory breakfast Sunday morning for Clemson winning!!! ….Since we missed half of the game due to the aquarium, I decided I had to take Lou “out on the town” Sunday for breakfast at The Cheesecake Factory to show off his Clemson attire….

Let me tell you he got so many compliments for that shirt it was so funny! (Sorry Ney)!

Ok so maybe I just wanted this for breakfast but it was a good excuse as to why i needed to go right!?!

That’s all for now, hope I got everyone back up to speed with us! Mom and dad left after dinner tonight and just text me to say they made it home safely and right at about the same time Tucker and Milly’s depression set in!

Happy Fall!

We Promise To Never Have A Dull Moment Here… Unfortunately!

Hopefully this little looming cloud over us recently is moving on now…. I swear lately I have felt like the man on the moon is just throwing things at us and watching how we will respond….

While he devilishly laughs away…

Sorry to vent but yes, the past month has been a bit, rough.

Actually the past 2 months have been, just bad!

I think it shows in the month of August and September probably being the least amount of blogs in the last 2 years I have done this!

I absolutely hate complaining because I not only know of a million others out there who have terrible things going on in their lives, but I work with a large majority of them!

Never the less, the past 2 months have been pretty tough; having Lou gone for so long and him working miserable hours, coming home to his brother in hospice and eventually Adams funeral, and then me being in the hospital which wasn’t too bad itself it was seeing him worry half to death that kills me!

On with my dramatic weekend right!?!?

So yes, I had a BIG FAT DIVE into the pavement, not a fall, trip or thump but a dive at piedmont park  while roller blading last Sunday!

And we looked so optimistic right?

Kayla and I were holding hands and as you know if one person starts to fall while holding hands you both go down, so I went down RIBS first and head second! No worries though, all unimportant limbs gracefully hit the pavement last and then Kayla on top of me!

I remember my ear hitting the pavement and it being the loudest noise in the world, it instantly knocked the wind out of me and I was scared to death at that exact moment knowing how hard I hit the ground…

Alex was right behind us and as soon as i heard him yelling my name i knew he was scared out of his mind, he is the worry wart out of us, especially when it comes to health!

I wanted to answer him that I was ok so badly but I couldn’t breathe and as soon as I could get my first breath all that i could get out was screaming crying… poor Lou, someone who saw it called 911 and by the time the ambulance arrived I thought I would be okay, just sore….. but that night before going to bed was another story.

   I took some children’s Motrin (the liquid, duh) when we got home and then fell asleep on the couch. Around midnight Lou woke me up and took me to the bathroom before bed, and without being too graphic… RED blood filled up the toilet!!!

We rushed to the ER and that’s when the most excruciating pain of my life set in…

They were able to control my pain after getting there and cutting in line in front of everyone else in the COMPLETELY FULL ER that night. I was so relieved when the pain eased up but once that morphine wore off it was all hell breaking loose again in about 0-5 seconds… As soon as I would start to feel uncomfortable I learned GRAB THE NURSE because within 30 seconds it became unbearable again and I would start to feel myself passing out from the pain with in minutes, it was like nothing i had ever had before!

I hate that Lou had to see that, I remember wanting to lie to the nurse about my pain levels because i didn’t want alex to hear me say “A FUCKING TEN!”

They ran lots of tests,xrays and scans and kept us overnight to eventually determine I had a bruised kidney (causing the blood) and bruised ribs as well as a sprained wrist.

I was discharged Monday night and on the couch doped up until Friday!

This was the end result…. thank you mom for patience in combing through my dread locks!!

I am the most fortunate little girl in the world though let me tell ya, mom and dad running to my rescue, everyone calling and texting me to check on me, “get well cards” from my work and Billy and Angela, Alex waking up around the clock to get me my meds and mom taking care of me and the dogs all day every day…..

The list goes on and on!

The look on Alexs face alone makes me never want to get the slightest scrape on my knee ever again, that and the fact that although he tries, he is horrible at making my pony tails!!

So fortunately I am back to making my own pony tails and happy to report that I am healthy and healed!!

My last CT scan was today and I predict everything will come up fine on it when i get the results in a few days because i feel much better!

Lou even got out of going back to work after my scan and we got to spend the afternoon together!!!

HUGE TREAT for me, I never get to see lou before 7pm these days so I’m always plotting how to steal him from his work!

Other than that life has officially been back to normal:

I text this to Alex when I arrived to my first day back at work Monday, he leaves way before me in the morning and was worried about me getting myself ready alone and driving for the first time, “I did it!”…. The girls were SOOO sweet to me, they carried my bags, made me a card (yes i cried reading it) and were asking all about me, they were so happy to see me when i walked in!!

Spending the week on the couch made me want to redecorate our den so Saturday before mom and dad left I got new furniture!!

We put everything on the porch while we re-arranged and mom was in charge of keeping the dogs out of the way- pistachios did the trick pretty well!!

They love them- especially my sweet Tuck!

Wala!

Note to self: Never expect daddy and Alex to move my furniture for me during the last ten minutes of a football game!!

That night daddy treated us to dinner at Nino’s to celebrate me getting out the house  :) We went to a little authentic Italian place down the street from our house; Ninos!

Alex and I’s picture turned out the worst….

Sunday morning mom and dad left and left us with sausage potato casserole for breakfast!!!! She is too good to us, I know!!

     Milly was so depressed when her grama and grampa left, she would not get out of their bed and starred out the window the whole time as if they were coming back for her!!! So I brought her “lunch in bed” and told her she was stuck with me, Im her mama and after eating she quickly came out to see if there was more of where that came from, do I know my girl or what!! ;)

That night we had our own little celebration and had a toast to celebrate the anniversary of my accident with a cheers my recovered health!!!!

   These were on my other camera from before the incident but seeing as this is my first not loopy blog (for the most part) I just now found them so thought i would share them with ya!

My little girl has such a serious face when she is starring down food!

Or ya know, whatever?

Also on the bigger an brighter side of news: Nic and Lia got a puppy!!!!

  “We” named him Franky!!

He is part Chihuahua and part Dachshund, how much cuter does it get!!! They brought him over straight from the humane society and it only took him a few minutes to break out of his shell!!

Obviously we all fell in love with the little Franky man himself!!

All minus Tucker and Milly who weren’t exactly allowed to meet him…. one day Tuck and Mill one day because mommy knows your tolerance level will grow for puppys one day!

  I almost forgot, my favorite quote of the week! Mom nervously spent all week in the kitchen cooking from when she got up until when she went to bed, inclusive of packing Alex’s breakfast and lunch everyday and having dinner ready when he got home! Yes she showed me up! Ha So anyway Dad and I were home all day while Alex was at work and she took care of “us” like it was her job, and fed dad some of her best eats all week!

None the less mom walks in to the den after serving dad dessert with his lunch and says:

“Weren’t you starting a diet this week?”

Dad replies: “Yup, boy it’s a good thing you got sick Jen!”