It's been a while

I can't believe it's been over a week since my last post! My, oh, my how time flies.......when you're having fun and working! Sorry for the super long post!!

This past weekend I went to the lake for the big July birthday celebration. It was a great time!! We had a great crowd and some grilled burgers and lots of other yummy, yummy stuff. Plus, my birthday was in the celebration, too. I got some awesome gifts! In fact, I got a big gift from my mom, nana, The Clarks & The Masseys that was beyond awesome. It's something I've been wanting but wouldn't buy for myself. Crazy, I know! I love, love, love it!! It's the Cricut cutter. I can't believe they did it either. But I do love it and will use it. I've already played with it. The picture at the top, I cut out Thanks and the flowers with it. So cooooool!!! And as luck would have it Michael's is having a huge sale on the cartridges that go in it this week. Let's just say I've already been and I'm not admitting at this time how many (if any) I bought. shhhhh......

Also, I got (finally!) one of those oil lamp burners. I don't know what the correct name is for them, but everybody else has one in the fam and I've been strongly hinting (lol) for a while how I'd like one. Well, my mom (and nana and brad) got me one with two scents. My house now has the lovely Mediterranean Fig aroma. It really covers the whole house rather nicely.

I also got a gift card to Pottery Barn from the Dietz family. Oh, the time I'm going to have trying to figure out what to get! Oh, the choices I will have. I'll have to start perusing their website and store. Speaking of the Dietz family, I just have to say they all looked awesome!! Ashley looked great and I absolutely LOVED her hair!! I wish I had nice, thick hair like that! And Baylee! What's to say?? She's a beauty, just like always, but now is towering over us all. I can't believe she's only 12! Nathan (and Dylan) are gonna have to watch out for those boys. And then before too long they're going to have to keep those boys away from Karlee! And I can't believe Dylan is going to be a freshman. A freshman! In high school!! It was great seeing them all. And I want to kick myself because I didn't get any pictures!! Looking through I have one of Ashley. One!! Then we all got to talking and visiting and I totally didn't pick my camera back up. Shame on me!! I'm going to see how my schedule works out on Friday and Saturday and see if I can't get up to Courtney's and see Baylee when she's over there. If it works out, I'll definitely get some pictures of her then.

I've uploaded what pictures I do have from the weekend. Again, mostly Hana. What's new! LOL And there's some of the flowers and stuff around the house. I was just messing around while Brad was grilling the burgers and Brandon and Joe were messing with the slingshot that Joe (and Court) got Brad for his birthday.

I got to stay over at the lake on Sunday because I had a deposition in Athens on Monday. It was nice. My depo wasn't very long, just a couple of hours. Afterwards, I went and had lunch with Sissi (she treated ~ thanks!!) and we got to chat. Then I headed back to mom's and picked up Rowdy and beat the traffic home. Wahoo! And no accidents from Rowdy on the trip home. The trip down was another story, for another day. All I can say is my mom is the greatest!! There's not enough thanks for what she did for me when I arrived a the lake!!

Then yesterday I'm listening to The Ticket and they're in Oxnard for the Cowboys camp. Anyway, they're talking and all of a sudden mention there's an earthquake going. Just a small one (5.4) near LA. Of course, I was concerned about Josh & Angela. Talked with Courtney, figuring she'd be the point person to go to, and she said she'd already spoken to Josh and he was good. Then got an email from Josh today saying all was well with them out in LA. So glad to hear that. Now he's got another story!

As far as for this week, so far I've just been working during the day and working on finishing up the baby shower invitations I'm making. I'm nearing completion on them. Yeah!! I work on them in the evening while I'm watching TV. So the picture to the right is my "craft table" right now. What a mess! LOL I've got to get my craft room situated!

Finally, here are the pictures from the July Birthday Celebration.

The Dark Knight (Batman)

So I went and saw The Dark Knight Sunday. I really enjoyed Batman Begins and I wanted to see if this one would live up to all the hype. IMO, it does and it doesn't. This incarnation of Batman is much darker than the series ever was or even the Batman movies of the '90s. I like Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Gary Oldham as Detective Gordan. Of course, in The Dark Knight Heath Ledger plays the Joker. It's not Jack Nicholson's Joker from the '90s. He's good and he portrays the Joke as a sociopath. Is it an Oscar worthy performance? Not so sure. There was something about the Joker that was tugging at me and I realized about halfway through it's that he's like a demented Stuart Smalley, which was a character Al Franken played on Saturday Night Live. The Joker's voice, face, etc., was like an evil Stuart Smalley. Plus, this time around Rachel Dawes (Bruce Wayne's ex-girlfriend) is played by Maggie Galleynhal instead of Katie Holmes. While I like Maggie G quite a bit as an actress and she was good as always here, I actually think Katie may have been better. I thought Katie was good in the first movie and would have liked to have seen her again in this one. Maggie G always comes off as more cynical, sarcastic, which works for most roles that she plays. Not sure about here, though.

Anyway, The Dark Knight was good, but probably 30 minutes too long, imo. It is 2:30 hours long (with previews 2:45). It kind of drag in places and there's not a huge story really going on. I'm sure there will ultimately be another installment and this will be the middle movie in a triology. So if you're a real fan of the comic books, I'd say go see it. Otherwise, it could be a rental.

Weekend Fun

So last night I got to babysit Hana while her parents had an evening out. As always, she was a perfect little angel. She stuck to her schedule that Courtney had laid out like clockwork. It was a nice evening. She does love to stand up! And she's really mastered her rolling walker. She was enjoying moving all around, until she'd get hung on a rug. Then I'd hear some frustration! LOL

But of course I took some photos. Not too many, though! We had things to do: play, change diapers, eat, play, change diapers, sleep. LOL

But here are the latest: Hana Grace She's such a cutie!

So this weekend I've got a bit of work to do. Plus, I'm making some invitations for a baby shower and I need to figure out what I'm going to do. Also, I may go to the movies. Not sure on the last one. Will have to see. Also, I'm just planning to stay nice and cool this weekend!

Have a great day!

Something new

So early last evening I went to Sam's Club with Julie and the kids. We were walking around and came across some kids' clothes. Well, of course I had to see what they had. I got this adorable (at least I think so) outfit for Hana. It's 12 months. So she should get to wear it this winter.

I can just picture Hana walking around in it! Can't wait until that happens.

WARNING: This next picture is weird, strange, gross looking. This is the end portion of Rowdy's tail. That's about the only portion he is still messing with. He continues to just pull the hair out. Not so much while I'm here, but when I come back from somewhere there will be clumps of hair strewn about. It's like a little rat's tail! Yuck!! Then the only picture is one of his eye the day after he had scratched it so badly it bled. Still don't know what that was about.

So that's it for me for now. TTYL,

Teeth, teeth, I see teeth!

Check our Hana's two front teeth! This is from one of the pictures I took. I just cropped it to showcase those two bottom teeth coming through! And it even looks like the two on each side may be making an appearance before too much longer!

Here are the rest of the pictures I took of Hana on 7-11-08. There's one that just smacks of her Mom, Grandma, Nana, Aunt Dian, etc. Which one do you think it is??

This is my pick!

Everyone have a great night!

High School Musical

So just got home from High School Musical. It was as I expected. Not great, but not the worst I've seen. Would I see it again? No. Would I recommend it to y'all? Only if you're a 10-13 year old girl. There were lots and lots of kids at the show, even many that were just 4 and 5 years old. Saw lots of cute girls and boys, but just couldn't imagine bringing kids that age to this. The movie would be good enough to watch. And this was one of the MOST expensive shows of the season. There were probably 25-30 members of the cast and they had lots of energy and all, but it just was okay. I enjoyed yesterday's play, Avenue Q, much, much more.

Tonight I'm watching my shows, Next Design Star, and Next Food Network Star. Although, I'm losing interest in both. Neither really has any contestants that I'd watch a show by. And I watch plenty of HGTV and Food Network.

Here's one of the opening numbers for Avenue Q. This is the performance when it was nominated for the Tonys.


Have a great night!

Theater Weekend

This is/was a busy theater weekend. Saturday I went and saw Avenue Q at the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth. OMG, was it funny!! It was really, really good. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who isn't easily offended. Just really enjoyable. I'd see again in a heartbeat.
Today (Sunday) we have our season tickets to High School Musical. Not sure about this one. I saw the movie version on Disney and wasn't that impressed with it. Everyone says how it's "like" Grease, but it's not to me. I mean Grease! Come on, don't mess with that greatness! LOL I'm hoping the live production will be better/different than the movie version. After this one, our next show is in August (Jersey Boys) and then the final show is in October (The Color Purple).

Otherwise, it's been a pretty uneventful weekend. I've done a bit of work and then got sucked into Project Runway on Bravo. Bravo just knows how to make a reality show work, at least for me. I don't really have any interest in design or high fashion other than to think a lot of it is a bunch of nothing, but I'm into Project Runway now! LOL

Rowdy seems to be doing better. The cone has come off for now. He's still licking a bit, but not near as much as he was. He doesn't seem as miserable anymore either.

Friday I went up to Frisco and went shopping with Courtney & Hana. As usual, Hana was great while we were out and about. We went to Ikea, Michael's, Ulta and Hobby Lobby. Although, we hit the last three stores in about half the time we spent in Ikea! They just herd you into Ikea and then you have to weave your way around to the end. By the time we got to the area of stuff we were actually interesting in, we were both ready to just get out of there! LOL And it was soooo busy! We saw lots of college-bound kids with their parents getting stuff. I did pick up some stuff for my craft room, that is slowly coming together. And I think I found the desk/countertop at Ikea. I've got to double-check the length. When we got back to Courtney's house, after she fed Hana, I snapped some pictures, of course! LOL I'm on my laptop right now, so I'll get them uploaded at some point today.

Let's see. Also, last night I started watching two different movies and stopped both of them. The first was Shoot 'Em Up. I was interested in this because it's got Clive Owens & Paul Giamantti. The opening sequence showed Clive Owens' character delivering a baby in the middle of a gun fight. Insane! Then it's just more gun fights and more and more. There wasn't really a story as far as I could tell. So off it went. Then I started an independent film Numb with Mathew Perry in it. Just wasn't working for me. Plus I feel asleep. Enough said!

Off to get ready for the theater.....lol

What to do?

So this is what Rowdy did to himself before he went to the vet. I don't know if you can tell, but his skin has a day-glow pink going. I could just look at him and tell he was miserable. Plus, he was licking, licking, and licking, biting himself and pulling out hair. I'd find clumps around the house. Wednesday the vet gave him a steroid shot for "allergies" and his skin has lost the day-glow pink look. Wednesday night things seemed to be much better. He wasn't licking so much and he wasn't glowing anymore. Then around 4:00 AM Thursday morning he wakes me up digging on the bathroom floor. At first I couldn't figure out what the noise was. He had gotten off the bed, which I can't believe since he will NOT normally jump down at all being he's not seeing as well anymore. So I hear this scraping noise and try to figure out what it is. Can tell it's coming from the bathroom. I get up and he's in the corner by the closet doors "digging" into the pergo floor. I call to him, which does no good. I go up to him and nudge him and he jumps and looks back at me. He's got a bit of blood around his right eye. Then I see some blood on the rug in the bathroom. He'd rubbed, scratched, something his face enough to tear the skin around his eye. (Didn't get a picture. Sorry!) And he's still licking.

So this is now what he looks like:

I got the cone out and he's been wearing it. He's not happy with me at all. But he's not licking, scratching, pulling himself anymore. I've taken it off of him for periods of time and he goes right back to licking. Although, not near as bad as before the steroid shot. Plus, the hair on his ears has static and is sticking to the cone. So he's been going around running into everything with the cone on.

On another front, I got rid of my headache! Wednesday after the vet visit and getting Rowdy home, I went up to the store and got some Excederin Migraine and took it. The headache is gone and hasn't come back. Yeah!

So I'll talk to y'all later. I just spoke to Courtney a bit ago and we planned out our shopping trip. We've got lots we want to do. Hopefully we'll get it all done.

Something in the Air

Since I got home from the Lake I've had a headache off and on. I just can't seem to get it to go away completely. It goes away for a while but not all the way. I don't know if there's something in the air or what. It just may be allergies, but I just want it to go away! On top of that, poor Rowdy has been licking nonstop!! As soon as we got home, he got a bath. He smells great, but he's been licking and licking and licking. Of course, yelling at him does no good. So tomorrow I'm going to try to take him to the vet and see about getting him a steroid shot to calm him down some. He's got red spots where he's licked himself raw in a couple of places. Poor baby!

Also, we got some rain this evening! Rowdy wanted out and when I opened the door, it was raining. Nice surprise. It had cooled off just a bit, too. Just a bit, though.

So is anybody else watching Wipeout on ABC? I have to say it is pretty funny. There's not a chance I could compete and do the obstacle courses, but I get a hoot out of watching other people try it! LOL

The 4th

DSC_8518
Originally uploaded by JennEllenTx

I got all the pictures uploaded from the 4th. Yet again it looks like Hana was the only one there! LOL And I did get some pics of Brad and Joe's fireworks. I really wish I would have had my camera when Mark & Glenda took us out on the lake. We saw some great fireworks and to get some pics of the fish Brad and Mark caught, especially the last one! It was really big and ugly! LOL

Here are the rest of the pictures: July 4, 2008