Hamburger or Hot Dog???

A few weeks ago when Rusty and I heard that we might find out boy or girl at our 12 week screening, I got some good advice from a dear friend... He said, "Remember, if you see a hamburger on the screen, you know it's a girl." Thanks Jeremy. You're a STAR.

This morning when we went to the appointment, I had this overwhelming feeling that we were NOT going to find out. I was sad, but, I could deal with it. There are worse things in the world. After the nurse called us back, and I got weighed (yay.), she walked us to our room. Unfortunately, she kept walking right past the big room that has the ultrasound machine thingy it it. This was clue #2. (Clue #1 was my gut feeling.)

Rusty and I sat in there and waited for the doctor to come in. She came in and we chatted about all the fun stuff... she finally asked us, "Well would you like me to take a peek to maybe tell boy or girl?" I don't think I could have said yes any faster than I did. I might have even scared her a little. Oh well... so we got the ultrasound machine rolled in to our room and she got us all taken care of. The first 5 minutes were spent by her telling us what a little stinker we're going to have because the baby would not be still for ANYTHING. (Refer back to previous postings about why we couldn't tell boy or girl at our 12 week appointment...)

I started laughing because I thought about what Jeremy had told us, and I told the doc. I said, "I had a friend tell us - you want to look for the hamburger or the hot dog... that will tell you all you need to know." She laughed, and quickly agreed how TRUE that is.

After some prodding, a little shaking and head twisting, we finally got a glimpse of it... we're having a hot dog... I mean a boy!!! We got some great "proof" and have a little picture of what is either a little weenie or a 3rd foot. Once we saw it, I heard this little "Yes!" come from the corner of the room where Rusty sat. I turned to see him pumping his fist in the air. Awww, he's so cute...

As we were leaving, our quote of the day rolled off the lips of my sweet husband. He said, "I never thought I'd be so excited to see a weenie!"

Anyway, we are so thrilled to be having a boy! I guess we'll be closing the polls early, for all you cheaters out there. Haha, just kidding.

TTFN!

What's Your Opinion??

I added a poll for all of you that might be interested in contributing... Do you think Baby Covey will be a boy or a girl??

My gut instinct all along is that we're having a boy, but I've been dreaming that we will have a girl, so who knows. I guess one of them has to be right!!! :)

We'd love to know what you all think!

TTFN!

The First 16 Weeks

I'll apologize now for the length of this entry... I have 16 weeks worth of information to catch up on. :)

Before we jump right in to Week 16, let's back up a little bit. I've been SOOO LUCKY in that I've had such an easy pregnancy so far. I had no nausea or sickness what so ever. WHEW! The worst part has been the exhaustion. There are some days that I get home from work, or after a long day of chores on the weekend, that I can barely function. To make the exhaustion worse, I have to get up and pee like a million times a night. (I guess this actually lends to me being tired in the mornings...)

After the infamous "pee on a stick" (like 3 times... I won't lie), we had to decide who to tell, and how to tell them. We decided to only tell the immediate family until we got the results of the first sonogram at 8 weeks. Our way wasn't overly creative, but it worked out for us. With each of our parents and Rusty's sister, we had them pose for a picture, and as we were preparing to snap away, we told them, so we could capture their first reaction on camera. It worked out, kind of. I think everyone was so shocked, and because of it, their reactions were extremely delayed in coming out. No doubt what we captured was great, though.

Our first sonogram was at 8 weeks. It was really neat to see, but weird at the same time. At this appointment we got to see our little bean for the first time, complete with heart beat. We were given a due date of May 30th based on the measurement of the little bean. Our doctor told us a few things to expect and so on.

At 12 weeks we went in for a genetic screening appointment. We got another sonogram. Going in to it, we were told the doctor would likely be able to make an accurate prediction of boy or girl. (This excited us, obviously.) The sonogram was so neat because we could actually see a baby... a head, a body, 2 arms and 2 legs. While we were in there, the baby was moving so much - it was so cool to see! One of the sonogram pictures actually captured the baby kicking it's legs up and it's arms extended. Because the baby was moving so much, the doctor couldn't get an accurate "read" of anything in the private regions... BOOO!

Immediately following the genetic screening, I had an appointment with my regular OB/GYN. (She's the best by the way... her name is Leslie...) She asked if the doctor was able to see anything, and we told her no. She told us we weren't scheduled for another sonogram until 20 weeks, but that if she wasn't busy when we came in at 16 weeks, she'd do a quick sonogram to see if we could tell anything. We're trying not to get our hopes up, but we really want to sneak a peek this week. :)

This brings us to current day. I've (approximately) entered my 16th week... that's 40% of my pregnancy. It's crazy to think I'm nearly half way through, but anyway... I get an email every week letting me know what's new, what's going on, what to expect, etc. This week, the email informed us that our little baby is about the size of an avocado. I was also informed that over the next few weeks the baby should nearly double in size, and that I could possibly start feeling the baby move...

We go to the doctor this coming Wednesday. As previously mentioned, if our doctor isn't busy, she might do a quick sonogram to find the sex of the baby. I don't want to wait 4 more weeks, but I guess we may have no choice. We're mostly ready to start doing some planning, finally. We are ready to start working on the nursery, but obviously need to know boy or girl...

We do have names picked out, for all those that are curious. If it's a girl, she'll be Caylee Marie. If it's a boy, he'll be Rylan Ray. As far as the first names, we've had them for longer than we've thought about having a baby.

When the time comes, hopefully naturally at the end of May :), we'll be delivering at Frisco Baylor. (Assuming everything goes according to plan, that is.) I've heard nothing but wonderful things about this hospital, and am so excited that we'll be delivering there.

We'll be sure to keep the updates coming, as we get new information. Also, below are a few pictures of my "progress" through these first 16 weeks. (One of the other OK things is I'm not gaining too much weight too quickly. I've only gained about 5 pounds, thus far. I'm pretty sure most of that is in my chest, but based on the pics, you can see some other growth, too.)

Here I am at 4 weeks:


Here I am at 8 weeks:


Here I am at 16 weeks:

The Holiday Season

I don't know what it is about the Holiday season, but I sometimes feel like a completely different person - almost like a child again, but with more compassion. :)

As we sit watching "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" I just think about why we're doing it. Because we want to? Maybe partly. Because we just have to? Absolutely. I can't imagine going a single Christmas season without seeing those staple shows/movies...

1. A Charlie Brown Christmas
2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
3. Frosty the Snowman
4. A Garfield Christmas
5. Home Alone 1
6. Home Alone 2
7. Elf
8. Christmas Vacation
9. White Christmas

I'm sure I left one or two off the list, but you get the idea. I will state, for the record, that I do NOT enjoy any of the old clay-mation shows like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. It creeps me out. It's not natural.

Happy Holidays to all, and enjoy your holiday favorites!

TTFN

2 out of 4...

Roxie has successfully managed to injure herself. Not once, but twice. A leg each time, and a different leg at that.

For anyone that really knows me, you know that I'll laugh at most things before stopping to realize the severity of a situation. Not all of the time, but most of the time. I've been fortunate enough to never see truly terrible things, and have grown up with a goofy set of friends and family that allow laughter to come so easily. Not that any of this is an excuse, but still...

Last Sunday night, Rusty and I were on the way home from the grocery store and saw some storms to our east, so we hurried to get home and let Roxie out before they moved in. The lightening and thunder were pretty bad, but it never really rained here. Well, as Roxie and I were outside, and before she went potty, a bolt of lightening struck near by (I swear it was at the park/field area right behind our house). It scared me half to death, so you can only imagine how terrified poor little Roxie was. She took off running for the back door, only to run right smack into.

Of course my heart was sad for her being so scared, but I managed to get out a good chuckle before finally reaching her to calm her down. I picked her up to let her know it would be ok, as Rusty was coming outside to look for the cause of the commotion. I set her back down, and we noticed she was limping pretty badly and wouldn't put any weight on her back leg. Fortunately, it was nothing more than maybe a little puppy bruise (or maybe just a good jarring of her leg as she hit the door) but thankfully within 24 hours she started to use her leg fully again.

Four days later, Roxie was chasing after Satie (this is quite normal for them now, in case you are wondering) around the kitchen and entry hallway. (Our house is set up nicely for the animals/Rusty to chase each other in circles up the entry hallway, to the kitchen, back to the entry hallway, etc.) I was only halfway paying attention when I heard something strange, and then saw only Satie come trotting around the corner into the kitchen with Roxie nowhere in sight. I went around to find Roxie and sure enough she was just sitting there. Immediately I knew something wasn't right, because this is not in her nature. This time, I don't know what she did, but she did something to her front left leg. She didn't recover from this one quite as quickly, but she's working it out quite nicely and is resuming her normal regimen of Rusty/Satie chasing.

Hopefully we won't make it to 3 or 4 out of 4... I'd be happy with just the 2. Only time will tell.

The pup is doing wonderfully, though, other than that. She is in full puppy mode, which gets tiresome, but its also fun. We've learned the secret to really wearing her out is to take her over to my parents and let her and Belle play together for the day. She slept for almost a day and a half afterwards!!! It was great! :)

TTFN!

Roxie's Tail

Things I've learned from owning a dog:
1. Everything is edible
2. Sleep is a luxury
3. I'm not ready for children.

Roxie is the first puppy (or dog for that matter) that Rusty or I have ever owned. (Rusty claims his mom's old dog, Sugar, doesn't count because he said that dog hated everyone except his mom...) Needless to say, the last two weeks have definitely been an adventure for us.

We got her the Thursday before July 4th, so we had all day Friday through Sunday with her. She got to make her first visit to One Oak on that Saturday, as that is where we spent our 4th of July with a few friends. Our first weekend was surreal, in that we were both just having so much fun. The middle of the night poo breaks weren't that bad (we got to take naps during the day) and the daytime was fun because we got to play all of the time.

Then came Monday... that was when I realized (although deep down I always knew) that I require 8-9 hours of sleep a night. It's not an option. Period. As Rusty and I were trying to adjust to owning one dog, my dad calls and arranges picking up another pup from the same litter so he can surprise my mom with a puppy for their anniversary. Rusty and I picked her up and kept her for the longest 3 days of my life. The breeder we got them from said, "Having 2 puppies is no different than having 1." He seems like a nice guy. I trusted him, until we got home that is.

Everything that we worked with Roxie on for the 4 days prior to "the other one" joining us was undone by the unexpected arrival. (Not to mention, the cats were TICKED.) They were both always in a "pedal to the metal" mode when they were awake, which was very exhausting. The first night of having Belle I only got 3 hours of sleep. Please refer to the prior paragraph to understand why this was a problem. All in all, having both pups was an adventure, although I was happy when my parents came to pick her up. My mom was super surprised and loves her little Belle.

The afternoon after Belle left, Rusty, Roxie and I slept and laid around all afternoon. Of the three of us, I'm not sure who was the most tired. The next morning we started working with Roxie again to rid her of the bad habits her sister made her pick up. She does really good about not pooping in her kennel, which is a huge plus to me. I can deal with the pee. The poop, not so much. I've actually thrown up a little bit in my mouth from having to pick some up once. Not a fan... So not ready for kids.

Roxie is growing alarmingly fast, but she's so adorable. She's pretty good with the cats, although they aren't fond of her. She likes to chase them, but won't actually bug them. She knows where "home" is. On her walks, once around the block is enough for her. As soon as we get to the corner across the street, she plants her little bottom down and pulls her leash the direction of home. I try everytime but there is no fighting this. It's really annoying, but actually really cute.

The good news is that nothing valuable has been destroyed yet. She's found some "weak corners" of the carpet and has managed to pull those up. Everything else is going really well with her though. She knows how to sit, and she knows her name (when she wants to that is). Rusty and I adore her, and can't wait for you all to meet her and to share more "tails" with you.

Here are some pictures of her...

TTFN!

Ever herd of spel chek?

I will be the first to tell you I'm not the world's best when it comes to spelling, punctuation and even grammar. I do use my resources when it matters, though. That's more than I can say for some...

There is a CVS near our house (I know, it's a shocker...) and it has one of those LED advertisement signs where they promote their current specials. It has turned into a ritual that whenever I'm sitting at the light at that intersection, I always watch the ads as they come and go. (I sit at that light at least 5 times a week, so I have a fairly large sample...)

I can count at least 3 times from memory over the past 6-8 weeks that a word has been misspelled on the board. Seriously? We have several options to choose from here, so let's start using our resources. First, there is always spell check. I would find it hard to believe that there isn't a computer with some sort of word processing program that could run a spell check for you. Second, there are more than just two people that work there. Have a co-worker run through it. Third, find a dictionary. Yes, it seems old fashion, but hey - I bet you sell them...

The most recent word I found incorrectly spelled was "gratuation." I would think this one would be a no brainer because I can only imagine how many promotion and special items are all throughout the store, considering it's June and everyone is "gratuating" right now... **Sigh**

Oh well. I guess it takes all kinds to make the world go round. I'll keep you posted as I find more. :) It's like a scavenger hunt now for me.

TTFN!

Date Night Catch Up

Something new that Rusty and I are doing is going on a date night every week. We've gone twice, thus far. Both times we made the short drive down 121 to Lewisville for some good ol' Raising Cane's chicken and a not-so-new movie at the dollar theater. Cane's is right by our old apartment, and we've missed not being able to go there whenever we want. We also miss the dollar theater... (ok, $1.50 theater) but still! We went to AMC by our house now and a movie cost us almost $30 after tickets and a drink!!!!! Ridiculous!

Anyway, going during the week is nice, because there are not a ton of people out everywhere. It also breaks us of our boring nightly routines of house work, dinner and bed.

For our first date night, we saw Taken. We both really enjoyed this movie - and I recommend it. Both Rusty agreed while it was definitely worth our $3, we probably wouldn't buy it to add to our collection. I do, however, think it would be worth any rental fee from say Pay-Per-View, the video store or Netflix. It's a pretty violent movie - definitely not for the kiddos. It's not bloody or gory, but there is a lot of violence, and the subject matter is definitely mature.

This week, we saw Knowing with Nicolas Cage. It was alright. We both enjoy Nicolas Cage, as he usually does a brilliant job in whatever he is in. He again did a good job in this movie, but the movie itself was kind of out there. I don't like what the story line developed into. I think they could've gone a different route and had a more suspenseful, thrilling movie. Again, not a bad movie, but not the best. I don't think I'd care to ever see it again.

Not sure what's on tap for next week yet... we'll just have to wait and see!! :)

I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day Weekend!

TTFN!

Where Does Time Go?

I know, I know... It's been over a month since I last posted. I guess since Rusty and I got back from vacation (umm, three weeks ago...) I still just haven't gotten back into a normal routine.

I blame it on the weather. No, I really do! While we were away, we had the MOST awesome weather... 80-85 and perfectly sunny everyday. When we got back in the big D, until this week, we have seriously had no sunshine. Even this week, the sun barely makes an appearance before ducking away behind the clouds again or setting for the evening. All the gloomy greyness has just put me in a rut.

I'm trying hard to get back into a normal routine... I should be considering 3 weeks have come and nearly gone. Oh well... maybe this weekend. :)

TTFN!

Happy Easter!

Good morning, all! I want to start by wishing everyone a Happy Easter! Yes, of course we could have more beautiful weather, but I really think God gave us what we needed with this rain... hopefully it will help to contain the near by wildfires.

This week has been an interesting week in the Covey family for some of the "firsts" that we've encountered.

Earlier this week, on Monday, my cousin Melinda delivered baby Abigail Patsy into the world. Both are healthy and doing well. This is the first great grandchild on my mom's side of the family, so everyone has been very excited about it. If you could, please keep Melinda and Abby in your thoughts and prayers over the next few weeks. Congrats Melinda and Aaron!!

Rusty and I tried a new church last night. It is the second church we've tried since moving to Frisco. I don't think we have specific expectations for a church, outside of making sure we are at a church that follows our beliefs. That being said, the first church we tried was lovely, but just didn't do it for us.

Last night's church is very different from any we've been to in the past, but Rusty and I left intrigued, wondering more about it. The first song of worship for the night featured two artists that shocked me... a rapper and a guy on two turntables (I don't know what they are called, but they wear the headphones and like scratch the records around??).

I don't remember much about the first song, for just kind of staring at these two the whole time. After the first song, the church's worship leader came forward with more traditional worship - he did really well. He had one of those voices that makes you wish you could sing, ya know??

Next came the sermon. The Senior Pastor who delivered it did a good job. Rusty and I both really liked the message. I most enjoy listening to Pastors who can make me laugh, but also draw me into their sermon. I also enjoy those messages where I can specifically take something out of it, and think about it/use it in my life.

Last night I heard a Bible verse that I want to share with all of you, as it stood out to me during his sermon more than anything else I heard.

"Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" Matthew 6:27

It reminds me of a movie quote from Van Wilder (yes, very different from a Pastor's Easter Sermon...) where Van Wilder says, "Worrying is like a rocking chair - it gives you something to do, but doesn't get you anywhere."

The service ended with the rapper singing an entire song, featuring the record scratcher guy again... The whole time I'm sitting there wondering all sorts of things like if this is an every week occurrence and how the members of the congregation react to his performances. I will say that when he finished, the roof was nearly blown off of the church by all of the applause he received. I guess I was so shocked by never having seen a rapper in a church, that I was so surprised at this. I won't lie - he did a really good job and deserved the praise - I was just so shocked!!!

I think Rusty and I are going to give more of our time to this church to see if it is somewhere that we could attend long term. Hopefully so!

Anyway, as we begin this Easter Sunday, I look forward to the family fun later this afternoon! I hope everyone has a great Easter, and even better week!!! :)

TTFN!

Setting Boundaries

One of the most rewarding aspects of owning a home is to be able to take on the miniature projects that come up without calling the local handyman. Rusty and I have been very open minded and tried a lot of things on our own. Luckily, we've had a lot of success thus far (knock on wood)!!

Our biggest adventure yet has been tearing down the old fence and building a new one in it's place. I will not lie - it has not been easy, but we are so pleased with the final result! We knew when we bought the house that we needed a new fence. Prior to us, it just wasn't taken care of like it should have been, unfortunately. Oh well though - right???

Anyway, thank goodness my parents have built a few fences in their day. They were able to help get us started and more than half way through with the project over the course of 2 weekends. Rusty and I were on our own for the third weekend. We did have his dad come over and help us with some stuff the third weekend, just because we needed an extra pair of hands. Chuck was a great help to us also!!!

Anyway, here are some before and after pictures of the new fence. Enjoy!! And no, we will not build a fence for any of you now. :) We are all fenced out.

TTFN!

Free Time?

I know many people, especially married couples, and those with children, typically have their weekends planned weeks, if not months in advance. Rusty and I are no exception to this rule.

Four of our last five weekends were cram packed with just stuff. The first three of the five were time that Rusty and I spent building our new fence. We didn't expect for it to take quite as long as it did, and I will admit we have a few little things still to finish, but we are more or less done. The fourth weekend was designated my birthday weekend, as that is when we had a little get together. Of course our entire Saturday was consumed with getting ready for the party, and then Sunday was spent cleaning up after the party. (It's amazing how much we worry about cleaning for something to get dirty.)

This past weekend, though, was our "exception." We did not have a single thing planned for the entire weekend - it was the strangest thing!!! Rusty ended up having to work Saturday morning for a few hours, so I ran some errands and cleaned up while he was gone. Once he was home, we got outside for a little while and did some yard work. At about 3p, we found ourselves just kind of looking around for something to do - we had no idea what to do with the free time!!! Rusty ended up playing his new Wii Baseball game, while I watched (aka napped) on the couch.

Because we could, we went to an early dinner at On The Border Saturday evening and sat out on the patio for about 2 hours while we had a couple of drinks and just enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was only about 7:30 when we left, and we weren't ready to head home yet, so we decided to go walk around the Shops at Legacy, just for something different. We ended up stopping in Fox Sports Grill, just to grab a quick beverage and to check the place out - it was a really neat bar with about a gillion TVs. They seriously had probably 30 TVs, most of which were showing the Duke - Texas basketball game. (insert gagging noise here.) After that we decided we to head home, as it was cooling off, and most places that weren't restaurants/bars were closing.

Rusty and I have been committed to getting a little healthier lately, so on Sunday morning, we bit the bullet and got up kind of early to head to the gym. High five team Ruslie! After that, we did a little more yard work, and then decided to clean up and head out to the Allen Outlets. We ended our day trying to get a little bit of sun in the back yard so we aren't so pastely white on our cruise in a few weeks.

I have to say, it was so relaxing with no where to be. We just went and did as we pleased (or in some cases didn't go and didn't do!!). Please understand I'm not complaining in the slightest - it was just so strange to not have plans. I'll have to remember how great this weekend was, as we do have plans the next six weekends in a row... so much for Saturday afternoon naps, and Sunday shopping strolls...

TTFN!

Busy, Busy, BUSY

Rusty and I have been SOOO incredibly busy lately!!! There are so many fun (and not so fun) things I've wanted to post about, but just haven't had the time. :( Things are finally starting to slow down though, so hopefully I'll be able to catch back up again soon!!

Hope all is well with you!

TTFN!

Rusty: The Handyman

With each new project Rusty and I take on throughout the house, I have to say I'm so pleasantly surprised with how handy Rusty has been, and that he's done a really good job on everything!

Let me first preface this by saying it's not that I didn't think he could do it, it's just I didn't expect him to be so open to trying things himself. I know most of it isn't Rocket Science, but it darn sure does take some willingness and effort to give it a go.

Since our house was built in 1996, there are a lot of "originals" left in the house that are just a touch antiquated (in our opinion.) Not to offend anyone out there, but I'm not a fan at all of two-toned metals. I like silvers and bronzes (no gold, no brass, yuck!). In our bathroom, almost all of the metals (faucets, hardware, etc.) is either two-toned or gold. About this time last year, we bought new towel holders, toilet paper holder, and sink faucets. With the exception of the sink faucets, all of it was installed soon after buying.

Rusty finally bit the bullet and installed the sink faucets last night! He did a really good job, and they look SOOO much better!! It's amazing how small cosmetic "face lifts" really can make a difference in a room.

An Unexpected Ending

So we have a turtle... his name is TO (Turtle Owens...). He's a Stink Pot turtle. And he stinks. All. The. Time.

Rusty and I bought him a new tank recently so we could get him out of the kitchen. We also decided to get him a tank mate - one of those apocalypse fish that eat the algae. We purposely picked out the biggest one we could find, because we knew there was a chance it would be eaten. Well, everything went well at first. TO saw Spike and started snapping his mouth bigger than we've ever seen him do.

We sat around and watched for a while to make sure everything was A-OK before heading out for dinner. We didn't really know what to expect when we got home. We were really thinking everything would be alright. Well, when we walked in the door, there sat TO, next to a half of the apocalypse fish. The other half was NO WHERE to be found. :( TO ate him. :(

Sad. So sad. Anyone want a turtle???

TTFN

Has Anyone Seen My Big-Girl Panties?

Everyone has fears, and everyone comes to a point in their life where they must face their fears. My moment of glory is upon me, well, at least one of them anyway...

I'm scheduled to get my wisdom teeth out tomorrow - in 22 hours to be exact - and I'm slightly freaking out... Last night I actually "dreamt" about it all night long. (I don't know if you call that a dream??) The good news is I won't be going to a chop shop south of the border to get this done, as my dream portrayed...

I've always been such a healthy person - I've never broken anything, I've never had major surgery, etc. so I don't know what it's like to go through something like this. Of course, something of this magnitude starts with a needle.

I despise needles for a few reasons, but mostly due to bad experiences I've had at the doctor. It's no fun being a pin cushion while the doctors are looking for a vein actually strong enough to accept an IV. 7 pokes later, they finally found one, in case any of you are curious. I'm also the type whose blood pressure rises at the thought of the tiny little finger prick thing they do at the special girl doctor. I have to fan myself while taking very deep breaths, and it never fails that I break out into a sweat.

Rusty's done such a good job of trying to comfort me (key word there is trying). He's tried talking me through my fears, and he's probably told me at least 50 times that everything is going to be ok. My comeback? How does HE know? And then we start all over...

Deep down, I know everything will probably be ok. I mean, the chances of me being allergic to the anesthetic, or waking up as they yank a tooth, are both slim to none, but it's still possible!!! As the great Lloyd Christmas once said, "So you're telling me there's a chance?"

10:30 tomorrow morning will come and go before I know it, regardless of if I want it to or not. I guess I may as well embrace it, so it's time to put on my big girl panties, and just deal with it. :(

TTFN

What's worse?

OK, so I'm sure there are those of you out there like me - it NEVER fails that the millisecond you're in bed and your head hits the pillow, you instantly remember something you didn't do that you meant to, or that needs to be done. This seems like a nightly occurrence for me.

Sometimes I'm lucky enough that Rusty won't be in bed yet, so he can take care of whatever it is, or vice versa. The other night, though, we were both in bed when I suddenly remembered something (of course...). I laid there for a good 5 minutes talking about how terrible it was that I had to get up and walk not even 10 feet across the room. (I know - it's just awful, isn't it?) After sulking, I finally gave in. Rusty was even sweet enough to get up and walk with me so I didn't have to be miserable alone. :)

Then we started our discussion - what is the MOST annoying thing like this that can happen? I think that remembering something the instant you've laid down is the clear winner. I usually wake up in the mornings looking forward for night time so I can go back to sleep (am I alone in this, or are there others like me?), so you can only imagine how excited I am about finally getting back in bed to sleep some more!! Talk about rain on your parade... Neither Rusty or I could think of anything more annoying... anything valid that is.

Rusty did make the suggestion that forgetting to pull down your pants before going to the bathroom would be pretty annoying, but I instantly vetoed this with the "Are you serious?" look before having a good laugh about it. I don't think it qualifies, as I've never met anyone who actually forgot to pull down their pants before using the restroom. At least I don't think I have... I mean I know sometimes we all REALLY have to go, but really??

Thoughts??

TTFN

2009 - The Year of ???

I'd like to start out by saying that I CANNOT believe 2008 has already come and gone! It seems like only yesterday we were tearing down inappropriate wall paper after the 2007/2008 New Year's Eve party, and now we are left alone in the wake of the 2008/2009 party. So sad...

Every year, be it big or small, is filed in our brains' files according to those events that most influenced our lives. For instance, 2000 will always be the beginning of the end for Rusty and I, as that is when our Senior year began. 2001 is earmarked by finally graduating from high school, and heading off to college (after 4 years of planning throughout high school). Now I know these specific years will change as the people do, but everyone can recognize their significance in a teenager's life.

For me, one of the most significant years in my life was 2003. 2003 was a sad culmination of many things, but was also the bright beginning of many others - I turned over many leaves in my life that year, some of which were great, some not so great, some fun, some sad. I graduated from Tyler JC, and spent what I know as the best summer ever at home in Rowlett before moving off to Denton to start North Texas that fall.

Going into it all, I knew this would be the last time that I could call Rowlett "home." In its place, I got Houston. My mom would argue that Houston was never considered "home" for our little family, but I have to disagree. I learned that year that "home" really is where the heart is. I never knew I would miss my parents so much when I realized they were more than 45 minutes away.

2003 was also the summer I found myself in my friends. Its amazing the people you thought would never change and would always be there. They were the ones that changed so much I hardly knew them anymore. Those friends that I expected less from, turned out to be the ones who helped define my life and make me the person I am today. As summer faded, Lindsay, Jennifer and I got to carry our friendships and time shared forward, as we were all at North Texas. The 3 of us, though, had to say goodbye to Chrissy as she left once again for Aggie Land.

My new journey in Denton, though, was the most life-changing of all. Rusty and I met that fall, as we shared several classes together. As we got to know each other through classes, we found out so many fun things about each other, like where each of us grew up (10 minutes apart, might I add!!) and all of the mutual friends we shared. Times like these - when proof of fate exists - are always the most fun. It always leaves me in awe of how truly spectacular God's plan for each of us is.

As 2009 is upon us all, I just can't help but wonder what miraculous journeys are ahead! I wish everyone a safe, prosperous and blessed 2009!! :) Happy New Year to you all!

TTFN