6.13.12 Grandma's Surgery a Success, Crazy Day, and Eleanor infoDay 10 - 70 DOS

What a day.  I was ready for bed at 6pm and unfortunately, that was not in the cards.  Today felt like a country song though I do have one PRAISE GOD thing to be thankful for - Grandma's surgery went well and she is on the road to recovery.  She should be home from the hospital tomorrow.

Let's see...Eleanor woke up at 7 and I thought the morning might go well.  We got a little bit of packing done but when 10am rolled around (the deadline for when I should have heard that our paperwork was perfect and we were good to go to close on our house on Friday) and I never heard from our mortgage broker, I developed a knot in my stomach.  It grew to my throat when he wasn't answering my phone calls.  What could be up!?

Katie, Eleanor, and I went to Corner Bakery to pick up lunch for mom, Mary, and Grandpa as we all waited in the waiting room at Baylor for Grandma's surgery to finish.  We called the order into Preston Center instead of Preston/Forest and when I arrived wondering where our order was, there was a mile long line because yes, I arrived right at noon.  The cashier took forever to take the order and then they gave me pasta with marinara against my request of plain pasta for E - THEN they put butter on it even though I told them not to.   Oh and as I was going through all this, my mortgage guy called and let me know that the zip code had been incorrectly written on the contract and so now we had yet another day that our file would sit in underwriting and that oh, I would need to meet him to re-sign the docs.  Perfect.

Then, we get to the hospital and waited.  I felt like I was on a medical show (Grey's is the first to come to mind) and did not like the knotted rope in the back of my throat that was present until the wonderful and seemingly normal (not McDreamy or McSteamy-like at all) surgeon came out with a good report.  Thank you everyone for the prayers, Grandma made it through and is on her way to a speedy recovery!  The best news of the day and all we needed to make everything else in this day not matter.  Again I echo, Praise God!

Since I don't really have pictures for today - I wanted to share an update on E!  She made it to 2 years old but has finally been introduced (against her mother's wishes) to Ketchup.  She of course LOVES it and calls it "Ketchut".  The unusual thing is that my sweet child has followed in her father's footsteps and loves to mix ketchup and mustard and REQUESTS them both to dip in.  Here is Eleanor eating lunch with ketchup and mustard AND dipping all things on her plate (including the apples) in it.  HA!

6.10.12 Happy Birthday Marmi! Day 7 - 70 DOS

We had such a fun time in CS - probably the best bonding experience Eleanor has ever had with her grandparents as she got to spend so much time with them without us.  Grammie did a great job feeding E her favorites for dinner (pasta, avocado, and fruit) both nights and bathed and put her to bed without a fight!  THEN the biggest gift was definitely that Andy and I got to sleep until 10 both days!  Thank you Grammie and Grandpa!

We went to mass at St. Mary's at noon on Sunday and then headed to Dallas to celebrate Marmi's AND Grandpa's bdays!  Grandma is in town for a Dr. appt. so we had so much fun spending time with them this evening.  The girls and Pop Pop collaborated to put together a feast complete with bruschetta, Hot Spinach Dip, and mom's favorite "Boursin" cheese and crackers to start.  We then had a salad, grilled asapragus, baked potatoes, and STEAK cooked a perfect medium rare!  Good job Pop Pop!  This was also Eleanor's time to try and DEVOUR her steak!  It must have been because Grandma cut it for her!  She also enjoyed feeding it to "Baby Tina."

Eleanor helped Grandpa and Marmi open their presents and even helped sing Happy Birthday and blow out the candles.  Katie made Grandpa's favorite - yellow cake with chocolate frosting and pecans on top along with strawberry jello and bananas and she did an amazing job at it!  The icing on the cake was Eleanor and her grandmother and great grandfather all sticking to the Thomason/Aldon tradition and sticking their fingers in the cake.  What a fun night with family, we are so blessed!  Happy Birthday Marmi (June 10th) and Grandpa (June 4th)!

6.9.12 Sweet Home College Station (to Andy) Day 6 - 70 DOS

We met up with the sweet Place family and Eleanor had a blast with the boys!

The Witte's sweet little girl, Kailyn.  Love her!

The style of the new MSC

They have their own Apple store!  CS is really moving up in the world...now to get a Central Market and a Nordstrom and maybe I would think about living there...still wouldn't but at least I would think about it??

How cool is this - so you can completely fill your water bottle because you don't have to tilt it.  Promotes the recycling of water bottles but my germ-o-phobe self wants to know if it keeps germs from spreading...

Today was so nice - Andy and I got to sleep our hangovers/not going to bed until almost 4am off while Grammie and Grandpa woke up with Eleanor around 6 and played with her all morning.  We then took probably 3 hours (I kid you not) for everyone to get ready and out the door to take some Aggie pics and check out the MSC.  We got to meet up with the Witties and the Place's and E had a blast running around with her friends! It was also so fun showing Eleanor Aggieland.  Hopefully she will one day call it home for 4 years just as we did.

Just before we left E with Grammie and Grandpa again, Fr. Will came by to say hello.  What a trat it as to see him again!  We then headed to the "Brauhaus", a German restaurant that Brian and Erin chose for use to share their 5th Wedding Anniversary dinner with them.  Andy and I then split off and had such a fun time at the Corner Bar catching up with all his old HS friends.

We topped off the night sharing a piece of pesto chicken pizza and a piece of spinach, tomato, and feta pizza at our favorite late night Northgate pizza hangout - Antonio's!  We stopped by to hang out at Greg and Michaela's again and I of course fell asleep waiting on the guys to be ready to leave.  I am not cut out for this late night college biz anymore!

6.8.12 Aggieland Bound Day 5 - 70 DOS

Andy's golf tournament yesterday lasted until about 6pm so we decided to wait and come to CS today.  We woke up, packed and headed out getting in town just in time for Andy to enjoy his favorite fried chicken - Layne's, and for me to get a salad at good ol' Blue Baker.  Eleanor was so excited to go to "Grammie's House" and to see "Aggieland" and she told us quite  few times on the way down.  She was also wonderful in the car - slept and then was content coloring us pictures and reading herself books.  What a gem she is!  We then went over to Andy's HS friend, Brian's new house and headed to Northgate for the first round of reunion festivities.

We left Eleanor with Grammie and Grandpa and they took her to daily mass while we enjoyed HH at the Corner Bar.  Erin (Brian's wife) and I decided our diets would not allow for the delectable but high in calorie famous Reinberg Tostadas that were being made at Andy's parents' house and seeing as our husbands weren't the best at introducing us to all their friends, we peaced out and got dinner at Cafe Eccel - one of my favorites and must eats when in CS.  We decided Brian could have my share of tostadas and we enjoyed a couple cosmos, their amazing Napa plate to start and split a ceasar and their Chilean Sea Bass - MMMMMM!  To top it off, a strawberry tart to go which we enjoyed with our wine back at the Reinbergs - I am SURE it was nowhere near the calories we would have encountered if we ate tostadas right? 

 

As you can see...we were a little excited about the strawberry tart!

Cute HS friends - Andy and Brian

Afterwards, we headed to Greg and Michaela's house while the girls fought to hold our eyes open and the boys reverted back to their college days and played "waterfalls."   Oh how I don't miss that part of college...3:30am was when we arrived back at the Reinbergs complete with Gumby's pizza rolls in hand which is why I did not get to write this post yesterday...

6.7.12 Fabric Hunting Day 4 - 70 DOS

SO I am a little behind...I also just learned that this thing doesn't post as the date when you started the draft of the post, it posts on the date you finally publish it.  It didn't used to do that which is frustrating bc I liked to have the time stamp on the post and be able to work on it for a couple of days.  Anyway, today (Thursday the 7th) was fun - Marmi, Eleanor, and I hopped in the car and braved the rain to look at fabric swatches.  We basically spent all day looking for ideas for Eleanor's big girl room and for living room and kitchen curtains.  Marmi and E stopped for a nap at our apt. while I met the painter at the house to go over colors.  I am excited about getting the nasty ceilings and splotchy walls fixed though I am learning this is going to be a room by room process.  As much as I want to - we can't do it all at once!

I learned after talking to our sweet decorator friend, Trish R. that white ceilings are not in and trim should be 50% of the color of your walls...who knew?  So much to learn!

I will post pics of fabric swatches and paint colors later once we have a more definitive.  We are getting excited about our new home!

6.6.12 The Angels Are Bowling - Day 3: 70 DOS

 A pretty crazy thunderstorm came through this evening and the thunder actually brought Eleanor to tears.  She even told me, "That scares me mommy."  So, I scooped her up and pointed to the picture in her room of her guardian angel and said this angel is just bowling up in heaven.  We then got out her pink bowling set and bowled together just like the angels and made thunder.  Let's see if she remembers that little story next time she hears thunder.

In other news, the packing has begun - 3 boxes down in E's room and one shelf emptied, a whole rest of the apt. to go!  I can't believe the time has already come!

I attended an AMAZING workshop today.  Marcia Tate is a charismatic and super knowledgeable speaker who has been teaching for 30+ years and shared her 20 Strategies that engage the brain when learning.  Now that this is my 2nd year in Coppell ISD, I will say that I have yet to attend a training that did not get me excited about teaching/teach me something so this was nothing new but she was over the top amazing!  I almost wish school was starting in a week (JK) so I could go practice these things in my class!  Sure, I do a lot of them already but this only encouraged me to be more cognizant of the necessity of each of these things being included in my lessons.  I am super pumped!

I also had a major "ah ha" today as she talked to so much about stress and its negative effects on the body.  I have been sick for 3 weeks and it is no doubt heightened/not getting better because of the stress that was going on the last few weeks of school.  I am residing myself to be a more prayerful (offering things up) and joyful person from here on out.  It is amazing how quickly I have become more negative and pessimistic and how I am robbing myself of better health and of a much more fun way of living.  Whether you are a teacher or not, I encourage you to read Marcia Tate's "Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites" as it has some amazing scientific research and proof that would help any profession - we are all either teaching or trying to learn something in our lines of work are we not?   Also, if you are a parent, join me in purchasing her book for parents titled, Preparing Children for Success in School and Life.  I am so greatful to have been able to attend this workshop and see it as completely providential - I needed to hear all that she said - it was a complete attitude changer!

As if this weren't enough to ice my cake today, Andy let me go to the gym and put E to bed.  I came home to dinner on the table complete with candles lit and a glass of red wine!  He made a salad, grilled asparagus, and probably the most perfectly grilled ribeye I have ever tasted - and it is hard to impress me on steak as I like it basically imprinted on the grill and taken off (I am vampire-like when it comes to steak).  He even cut it up for me and only gave me pieces with no fat (I am a filet kinda girl so ribeyes aren't my fave).  What a wonderful husband I have!   Tomorrow we are headed to CS for Andy's 10 year HS reunion!  We haven't been to Aggieland in a year - crazy!

6.4.12 Day 1 - 70 DOS

Today was such a great FIRST day of summer!  We had a restful last weekend ever at the lake (post to come) this past weekend and returned to a semi-clean house and a long to do list but I decided to just get done what we could today and really give this morning to Eleanor.  To my surprise, we were able to have fun together AND I was able to multi-task and go down the to do list of phone calls!

Eleanor woke up at 7 (instead of her usual 5:30) PRAISE the LORD!  And we decided to go on a run to the park and to feed the ducks.  I have been sick so we kind of took it slow - run/walk and going down my phone calls list when walking.  E was ready to go with Bun Bun, Lion, and Baby Madeline

After about a 2.5 mile run to get there, we went first to Kid Country to play.  Eleanor didn't feel like swinging but loved the slides!

 

She also got super excited about the tire swing

 

We finally decided (after many failed attempts at a picture with smiles) to head to the ducks to feed them.  Eleanor insisted that Bun Bun wanted to swing though before going.  It was so precious to see her push her Bun Bun!  She totally "mommies" her.  That reminds me to document - at Edwin's ordination on Sunday, E was doing her best to be patient through a 2+ hour mass which was awesome...at one point, she was talking to bun bun and said, "Look Bun Bun, Where's Jesus?" which we so often ask her - it was precious!

 

The hour and a half of fun complete with a 1000 calorie burn for mom between the running, walking, and playing was too much for E and she got a mid - morning nap.  This allowed momma to go into the clubhouse and get some abs in!  What a fun morning!

 

We headed home and had lunch and then Dada got home from work - just in time to put E down for her nap.  I got to head to Envy Nail to meet "Marmi" for a pedi - what a treat!  I also fit in PT while Andy and Eleanor met the painter at the house for an estimate.  E and I then got some grocery shopping done and the night was complete with teryaki chicken and fried rice bowls, wine, and yummy Alden's Organic Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Ice Cream - a new favorite in our house!  I will say I picked it initially because it ALMOST is the same as my maiden name, Aldon, and because I love pb ice cream.

 

This chick finished the entire bowl.  My child who things freeze dried green beans are chips and fruit is dessert has crossed over to the dark side and now asks for ice cream for every meal!  YIKES!

Last thing I want to mention for today that melted my heart.  Eleanor has not stopped talking about how she "watched momma ski" this past weekend at the lake.  I knew it was going to be one of the last (now I know it is the last) times we would get to be on the lake since my parents sold it so I decided to try and ski.  I hadn't gotten up since before my wedding because as the wedding approached I was too afraid I was going to hurt myself and be a dismembered bride and then soon enough after the wedding, was pregnant so could do it and then after that was too afraid to leave E alone on the boat much less water ski behind it so I decided to take the plunge.  I got right up and it was so fun but I guess all the talk about that moved Eleanor to understand that it was a big deal (I mean it really wasn't but to her it was I guess) and this was how our convo went today:

Eleanor (at a most random moment): "Momma I watch you ski"

Me: Yes you did watch momma ski

Eleanor: "I am so proud of you momma"

Me - almost about to cry