Keepin Cool in Da Hood

one day this pool will be a beautiful underground version with palm trees all around. until then (which we've promised nick will be when he's 8), this cheapo blow-up version will have to do! i think we might have to test out running thru the sprinklers next, cuz the water in this puppy gets hot...fast!

happy 4th weekend!

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Liesey...You've Got Some Splaining to Do!

ok...here's the situation...my parent's went away for a week's vacation...


wait...i think i got off on a song lyric tangent there for a sec!  sigh...that brings back a lot of 80's memories!  gotta love old school rap.


anyhoo...i've taken quite the break from this here blog.  as in, it's july & i just posted about last halloween.  i had actually written that post a while back, but, darn blogspot was giving me grief with the uploading of photos and i just gave up. not to mention, i was getting frustrated with the look of the blog and the formatting, all while learning to use my new macbook pro.  i could complain all day...really it just boils down to plain ol' laziness for the most part, but you get the point.


oh yeah...speaking of that halloween post...that crazy back injury of which i spoke...yeah, well, it flared up again in november and just kept giving me grief, so i finally went to my pain management doctor and he ordered an mri to see what was going on.  to make a long story short - i do have a lower back degenerative disk issue, however, what they found, which was even more annoying, was the fact that i had several complex (i.e. nasty, not so friendly fellas) in my ovaries and a pesky splotchy thingy (technical term) on my uterus.  oh yeah - throw in some awesome endometriosis, like all over the entire girly-part region, and seems like poor kris wasn't the only culprit in our not being able to get pregnant scenario.  so...i went to a specialist and the situation came to a head with my scheduling a total hysterectomy with a bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy.  huh?  basically, all my girly innards were removed.  so - at the age of 37 i am officially in surgical induced menopause.  awesome.


the good news is: my migraines appear to be a bit better, because my hormone levels are somewhat evened out.  the bad news is:  my hormone levels are only somewhat evened out and i have obnoxious side-effects which are just way too personal to discuss with the world wide web.  ladies - if you're ever bored, and sorta curious as to what you can expect when it comes to menopause...check out the website: www.hystersisters.com.  it's pretty fabulous and has been my best friend thru this process, especially in dealing with the random "WTF is going on?!" types of questions.


in summation...the end of last year, and the beginning of this year was a big blur.  there were many bouts of crying/freaking out/wondering when i would return to "normal".  i think i'm finally on the mend, but when the doctor's told me that it could take up to a year for my body to finally heal, well, they weren't joking!


and that, my friends, is yet another excuse as to why i haven't been feeling up to blogging much lately!

Happy Halloween!

da dum.  da dum.  da dum.

...ok...ok...i know this is a little late...but...here it is anyway!


This year we decided to ditch the Dallas Arboretum (which last year we vowed to make our "annual Halloween trick-or-treat adventure since it was so beautiful).  After working in the yard all day, and me re-injuring my poor aching back, I just couldn't deal with all the crowds.  So instead, we joined our friends the Dutton's and their extended family.  Nicky was super-excited to get to see his friend Trevor, as it had been about two weeks-ish since they last ran around like crazy fools spent time together.


We arrived at their house around 6pm, snacked on some yummy chips and queso, then rounded everyone up for a quick photo...

...then around their neighborhood we trekked...in search of all things sugar!


I was surprised to see a few things:

1. Most people trick-or-treating in the Dutton's neighborhood, did not in fact live in their neighborhood.
2. There were really no two costumes alike - yes, there were several witches, etc, however, they were all decorated differently, so I thought that was kinda nice.
3. The age of which most trick-or-treaters has definitely increased since the last time I went house-to-house begging for candy.  And I don't mean there were 17 year olds instead of 14, although there were those as well.  I mean there were grown ADULTS, toting Wal-Mart bags with which to carry their free loot.  Really?  Ya can't just hop on down to the local gas station and buy yourself a Kit-Kat?!

Anywho...we had fun nonetheless, and it looks like our new tradition will be spent with good friends engaging in good ol' fashioned house-to-house hunting candy family fun!

The Deep Fried Texas State Fair

5 months ago we took Nick to the Texas State Fair with Nana and Pop, and since I'm such a slacker, it's taken me this long to finally get this post published.  I (sorta) have a good reason.  We took him to the fair just after we returned from Russia with his Granny and Poppa and like the rookie parents we were then, we forgot our camera and had to stop to purchase a disposable one on our way there.  I mean, who gets film developed anymore?!  I know they could put it on a disk for me, but that means I a) have to remember to take the camera with me to the store; and b) have to take the time to go and pick it up.  I actually carried the thing around with me for a while, and always forgot to drop it off.  Then I came across it just before we went to the fair this year (2010 that is) and had big plans of posting both the pictures of his first year at the fair and his second excursion in a before and after kind of post.  Yeah - that didn't happen.  I have absolutely no idea where I've put the camera again after carrying it around in my purse for a few months!  


So...this post will just be some pictures of his second trip to the fair and once I find the camera I promise to have it developed, wait at the store to pick it up, drop whatever I happen to be doing at the time, and get the darn pictures posted!  Now that I write about it - I'm pretty anxious to see how cute and stocky he used to look!


Anyhoo...we went to the fair!  Nicky was thrilled to climb on some "diggers"...he woulda driven one right out the gate if we let him!

We spent some time in the kids' section where Nicky got to pretend to work on a farm...he LOVED it!  I think we're going to have to make sure he goes to a school with an Ag program.

We ate a bunch of deep fried yumminess...fried margaritas anyone? (sorry...no picture of that, but I assure you it was good!)  We watched a dog show which made me want a border collie even more than ever).  Pop, Daddy and Nicky visited the Tom Landry collection - Pop was in heaven.  Then Nicky played some games and rode some rides.  

Nicky thoroughly enjoyed the day and didn't want it to end.  He chatterboxed the whole way home about everything we did and although the fair was super-crowded and we didn't get to tick off everything on our list of to-do's/see, we can't wait to take him back next (this 2011) year for some more craziness!

Nicky's First Sleepover

Nicky and his friend Trevor are complete opposites, yet they make the best little buddies ever.  They get along really well and seem to balance each other out perfectly.  They can play alongside each other or together and rarely have they had a disagreement.  One beautiful sunny afternoon we decided to take Trevor and Nicky for a round of putt-putt.  From there we played soccer, played on the playground, a round of baseball in the front yard, took a bath, ate pizza, played in Nicky's playroom before finally succumbing to the tiredness around 9pm.  Since this first sleepover, they've had two more...all containing the same crazy fun and excitement.  It's the next best thing to having two kids full-time!


Here are a few pictures from all the fun...