What is today again? Oh yes - Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  We've had quite a bit going on here that I kind of forgot today was supposed to be something special.  Actually, shouldn't every day be something special?  

For instance, yesterday was special because McGee and Miss Em built a "love train" in our dining room and we were all able to board as passengers while conductor McGee took us on a trip.  It was also special because we saw Grammy & Papa who we hadn't seen in a couple of weeks.

Sadly Thursday was special because it marked our first trip to the Emergency Room with Miss Em.  McGee was with Grandma & Grandpa, Daddy was at worship practice at church and Em and I were home alone.  I was making a Chicken Jambalaya dish and after adding the last of my ingredients, I heard Miss Em start to cry a bit and turned around from the stove to see she had taken the tomato can out of the garbage and gotten her finger stuck between the sharp lid and inside of the can.  I freed it fairly easily and went to rinse it off when I noticed her face was COVERED in blood!  Yikes!  

Seriously, fingers bleed...a lot.  She had sliced her right pointer finger from the tip down around to where the first joint is.  I tried to stop the bleeding, but our girl is STRONG and DETERMINED and she had determined she wanted me to have nothing to do with her finger.  Every bandage I put on she took right off.  I rushed around the kitchen and there was just blood everywhere.  I knew right away she would need stitches and assumed she would need a tetanus shot too so I knew we needed to head to the hospital.  I called Kyle and he came right home and I ran over to my brother and sister-in-laws so they could help me get some pressure on the wound and bandage it up before heading to the ER.  Daddy arrived and we enjoyed the rest of the evening WAITING in the ER.  Four hours later we were on our way home with no tetanus shot and 3 stitches.  The cut was pretty crude and the stitch job even more crude (in my opinion).  Miss Em?  She was the sunshine of the ER, wanting to get down and play and make friends with everyone (not that these germophobe parents let her).  Maybe God just knew the ER needed a little joy that night because I can think of about 6 people for sure that Miss Em brought smiles (and even laughs) to their faces in what was probably one of their worst possible nights.

Here's a very blurry picture from yesterday.  You can't really see the finger, but her agony over having us touch her finger is evident.

The sock we put on to try and keep her from taking the bandages off (this FAILED)

Our little trooper - did I mention we were at the doctor's on Tuesday for her with a UTI as well?

A shot of the tip of her finger and stitches you can see from the top opening of the bandaid

When we arrived home from the ER what did we find?  Grandma, Grandpa and McGee had come home and brought the dogs from Matt & Alanda's backyard (they had escaped from our house when I was putting Em in the car).  After coming inside they noticed blood tracking all over the house and realized Matt had already cleaned up our kitchen from Em's bloody mess - where could this blood be from?  Well from our knucklehead dog Ben, who somehow sliced his paw on the way back home.  Grandpa and McGee (I heard he was really quite a big help) got Ben all bandaged up and Friday morning my dad and I took Ben to the vet.

Two house and nearly $200 later we left with new bandages for Ben (we decided to forego the $550+ sutures), antibiotic for Ben, pain meds and ear rinse and medication for the ear infection we didn't know he had.  Fun times.

A sock for Ben too!

Now here we are on Sunday, Valentine's Day and Mr. McGee has a nasty, nasty cough - one that kept he and I up most of the night.  Em is showing she has a tiny cough too.  No church today.  We even broke our "no cartoons/tv on Sunday mornings" rule today and I let the kids watch recorded Mickey Mouse and Chuggington.  It seemed having McGee focused on the television gave him at least a few minutes respite in between each coughing fit.

Aw...Em came in for some Valentine's snuggles with her big brother

Friday night Grandma & Grandpa stayed with the kids so Daddy and I could have a rare night out.  We went out to celebrate our friend Becca's 30th birthday and had a very enjoyable night being with friends and having one-on-one conversation with each other.  A little pre-Valentine's date for us.

Happy Valentine's my love!  Wishing us a better week ahead. :)

Ladies Night...A True Delight

The first Wednesday of every month 11 friends and I get together for bunco. Now I will admit when I was first asked to join this group I thought, "Isn't bunco what old ladies play together?" I really didn't know anything about it and had to give serious consideration to giving up a night a month to play this "game", before finally deciding to give it a shot. Well now, almost 2 years later, I am SO very glad and proud to be part of my bunco group.

July marks the beginning of our bunco year and the twelve of us draw for which month we will be hosting. As host it is your responsibility to have 3 tables/chairs set up with the dice, bunco cards and a scorepad and also to provide munchies and refreshments for everyone. The host also has the joy/burden of selecting a theme (ex. Christmas, Halloween, favorite snack food, favorite drink, warm & cozy, pajama party, etc.) for the night, on which our $5 bunco gifts are based.

This year I grabbed January and was really excited to host, selecting "gift cards" as my theme. As those closest to us know, we had a hot water slab leak in our guest bathroom shortly after Christmas and the week before I was to host these lovely ladies, a restoration company was in our house tearing out most of the floors, baseboards and dismantling both our guest and master bathrooms. Concrete floors, fans running 24/7 and no bathroom were not exactly what I had in mind to create a warm and comfortable bunco night atmosphere. Fortunately my sister-in-law Alanda agreed to switch months at the last minute with me and host January, which worked even better since she only lives 3 doors down from us which meant the location really didn't change all that much. Oh and did I mention we were not even able to live at the house and were staying at my parent's house an hour away? Or the fact that I had to miss January bunco entirely thanks to a wonderful case of strep throat? I was very sad, but alas, the show must go on and Marvina enjoyed subbing for me and the ladies had a fabulous time at Alanda's.

After the floors were all replaced, the bathrooms put back together and a new coat of paint in the kitchen and dining, I was able to host in May which was when Alanda was originally supposed to host. Considering she was 9 months pregnant in May, it worked out much better for me to host then anyway. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

So this last month, June, was a bunco night to go down in history I think. When Alicia hosted last year it was a pajama party theme, which was the first time I think we "dressed up" (or down really) for the theme and came in our pajamas. It was very relaxing playing and chatting away in my comfy favorite fleece pjs. I even came away with some cute new toe nail polish and new People magazine (a guilty pleasure for me that I rarely ever indulge in) as my prize. Well this month it was a Bridesmaid theme. We were asked to dress in our favorite past bridesmaid dress or wedding dress and it made for quite a fun night!

Sadly, in the pregnancy induced have-to-clear-out-everything-and-make-room-for-baby stage before Miss Em was born, I donated all of my bridesmaid dresses from weddings I had been in. There was the champagne colored one from Jen's wedding, the periwinkle steal from Chadwick's from Kendra's wedding, the lavender one with roses on the collarbone from Alanda's wedding and possibly one other that is escaping my mind at the present time. Really, when was I going to wear these again? Of course, when I asked myself this question a year in a half ago the obvious answer should have been, "At bunco!" Fresh out of bridesmaid dresses and not willing to wear my wedding dress that is so carefully archived away in a box (and which I'm SURE I do not fit into anymore), I went to Alicia's to try on some of her dresses from years ago. Alicia is only a couple of inches taller than me so we have enjoyed sharing some clothing, especially maternity clothing. Unfortunately her true bridesmaid dresses were a tad too tight for my still-post-partum-and-nursing-chubbiness.

I came home hours before I was to go and tore apart my house trying to find that sequined junior prom dress that I also wore for the Miss Amador pageant. I was sure I hadn't gotten rid of that (although I'm not sure why I thought it would fit). I finally found it and put it on as Alicia arrived for us to carpool over together. I asked her to zip it up for me and uh, oh...oh...um...well we got it zipped! Hooray! That was until I looked in the mirror and saw my unsightly back cleavage. Uh, uh...that was NOT going to work. Glanced in my closet one more time and found a more forgiving black dress from Junior/Senior Banquet in college and out the door we went to Bridesmaid Bunco!

Here we are, with a few good-natured subs (Alanda just had baby Joshua last week ), all decked out in our bridesmaid dresses. Laura actually fit into her wedding dress, so she was our bride for the night, along with her months old son Levi. If only I still had my dress from Kendra's wedding, then I could have matched both Alicia and Jen, who were wearing their Chadwick's bridesmaid dresses from Kim's wedding. :)

Mary, Kim, Kristin, Marvina, Jen, Tracy, Laura & Levi

Tina, ME, Brandi, Jeni, Alicia

This monthly bunco has become such a fun, relaxing night out. Something I know each of us really looks forward to where we can (and do) talk about anything and everything, eat great food and enjoy some friendly (mostly friendly) competition. Oh did I mention that I was in the running for Most Buncos this month with 2 that night? Unfortunately Jen, Tina had 2 also and Tina beat us in the roll off for the title, but I guess since she was the hostess she deserved it.

I wonder what we'll have to look forward to next month...Jen mentioned having a bikini theme, but I think she may have trouble finding 11 subs since I don't think any of us are up for showing our post partum bodies quite that freely. :) I know she was joking, but still it's always fun to be thinking of the next theme...

A Night Out

Christmas 2008 my parents gave us a $100 gift certificate to Garbeau's Dinner Theater. Last night we finally used it.

Despite both still feeling pretty crummy from our flu, the reservations had already been made and my parents had put it on their calendar to come down and watch the kids so we decided to go. I must say it was exciting to have a night out and I was looking forward to the play since the online write-up described it as putting a "refreshing, smart, and thoroughly enjoyable 2006 spin on "Pride and Prejudice". I love Pride and Prejudice, the book and the A&E long version, not as in love with the newer Kiera Knightley movie version, but it'll do in a pinch. My love for Pride and Prejudice, along with the impending threat of Garbeau's going under in this poor economy, spurred us to finally make reservations and use our gift certificate.

The dinner was delicious - I enjoyed a perfectly braised lamb shank and Kyle had chicken alfredo. Dessert was heaven - a giant slice of Tuxedo Truffle Cake - melt in my mouth divine mousse and ganache layered cake! Kyle and I "shared" it, but you know who ate most of it. :) The couple of hours spent together over dinner was wonderful too. Uninterrupted conversation with your spouse can be rare when you have children, so we enjoyed the opportunity immensely.

Unfortunately the play did not come anywhere near my expectations. I suppose our first clue should have been when we were warned prior to the start of the play to "have an open mind" and enjoy the "adult humor". The second clue came when one of the main characters used "shit" 7 times within the first minute of the play. Now call me old-fashioned, call me conservative, I don't really care, but gratuitous foul language is a huge turnoff for me. Follow it up with crude and crass dialogue, innuendos and scenes and I am just not enjoying myself. The singing was okay, but it was the first time ever that I have wanted in the middle of something. The people pleaser in me would never do this for fear of hurting the actors' feelings, the waitresses feelings, the maitre 'de, etc, etc, but last night I just didn't care (oh let's just blame the flu).

As soon as intermission hit I asked Kyle if he wanted to go. He said he was fine staying since he figured I was enjoying it (he likened it to tv sitcoms such as "Friends", but I'm not a sitcom person, give me the crime dramas), but he didn't care if we left. We figured they would be settling all of the bills during intermission and asked for ours. We received the bill, put out our gift certificate and Kyle's credit card (it's surprising to me that $100 didn't cover it all) and planned to quietly leave as soon as she brought it back. Can you believe the play started up again all of a sudden and our waitress (and all wait staff) had completely disappeared! I sat there clutching my purse thinking, "I don't want to be trapped here having to watch the rest of this!" Kyle and I looked at each other and he walked back to where the waitress had gone and waited outside the service door expecting the waitress to reappear with his credit card at any minute. I sat at the table a few minutes watching and trying to decide what to do. I finally decided it would be less obvious if I just waited by the door than to have Kyle come back to the table and then both of us leave (oh did I say we were the 2nd table away from the stage up front?). We waited and waited until it became apparent the waitress wasn't coming back. I fiddled with my cell phone and tried to look worried so people around me would think maybe there was an emergency that was causing us to leave - I know it's crazy but hey, that's me. :( If I had more of a spine I would WANT them to know exactly WHY we were leaving and not to expect us back for any future plays, but let's admit it, I don't like confrontation. Finally I glance over and Kyle is going in the back through the service door. He tracked down our waitress, signed the bill, retrieved his credit card and happily relieved, we were off! Let me also say it bothers me if this is their typical protocol to take credit cards during intermission and then not give them back until the end of the show. That's at least an hour that strangers have complete access to your credit card! Just doesn't seem prudent to me in this day and age of so much identity theft and credit card fraud.

So that was our night out. We really enjoyed the food, our time together and the chance to reconnect as a couple, but my image of dinner theater being classy has been completely demolished. It seems to my dismay that dinner theater has become just as worldly as the rest of the entertainment industry. The ironic thing too is that we were the youngest couple there to watch the show, probably the demographic that they expected to love it so much, and yet it seemed we were the only ones bothered by it. Sigh. Well I'm signing off to go watch a good 'ole Hallmark movie where I'm sure this "old-fashioned gal" won't find any offensive "adult humor". ")