how to eat a birthday cake

Oh, and this is how Abby eats Carter's Birthday cake.

Happy Birthday Carter!

all or nuthin'

A few months ago I decided that I would try to give up sugar. The first few days were really hard, but after 10 days with not a single drop of sugar, I found it to be really easy, and I felt healthier than I had been in a long time. But then I started to think, well if this is easy, then maybe I'm really not that dependent on sugar and I can start having it once a week. Surely I have enough self control to just have sugar one day a week. So on day 11 I had some Nilla Wafers. But on day 12 I justified that Nillas really didn't count and I deserved something bigger. So I made cookies... and well you can probably guess that was the end of my no sugar streak.

Now I'm back to filling my days with sugar and wasted calories and I'm sick of it. So I am openly admitting that I am seriously addicted to sugar, and I am going to do something about it. I don't believe that I'm the type of person that is good with "moderation in all things". I'm an all or nuthin' type of girl, and so I've decided to give it up completely, starting now. Wish me luck!

go girl

America's Next Top Model is a size 10!

I honestly didn't think she was going to win, because Anya, the girl she was up against in the finale, seemed to be the judges favorite throughout the competition. But at the runway competition, Whitney rocked it, and blew Anya out of the water. She was amazing!


I mean, we all know that beauty comes in all sizes, but its just nice to see a "plus size model" (although its hard to believe that size 10 is plus size) make a break through like this one.

And it gives all of us that aren't a size 2 some encouragement as well.

what is and what could have been

Today Brian was supposed to leave for Dubai.

I've thought about this for weeks now, and stewed over the fact that we weren't going; still feeling jipped out of an opportunity of a lifetime. I even had in my head a blog post where I would list all the things we were going to miss out on because we couldn't go to Dubai. Like the rich culture, and living by the ocean, and meeting new people from amazing places...

But today I have an entirely different perspective on life. We got Carter's most recent hearing test results yesterday, and his hearing has gotten worse. So much so that we need to get hearing aids for him. We're also questioning how much Abby can hear, so she will get an ABR in a few weeks. Suddenly everything has changed. Having a hearing impared child isn't the end of the world, but it is the end of life as we once knew. It will be different, and it may be scary. We don't know if Carters hearing will stay this way, or get worse. And I feel so sad for Carter. I feel sad that he will have this disability for the rest of his life. But I have to get over it. As my sister Ginny says, its not a disability, its a different ability. Carter will be different, but I will never treat him differently, and I hope the world will do the same.

I've always known that Carter was going to be okay, but today on the way home from the ENT, I cried I think for the first time about his hearing. It's real now. I have a hearing impared child.

I am relieved to tears that we aren't going to Dubai. Considering these new discoveries with their health, we never would have gotten the care and services that Carter and Abby need there. Here, we have an instant network of doctors, therapists and services at our fingertips that will help our children get the care that they need. Not to mention our family and friends to support us. I am grateful that things have worked out the way they have, and feel that the Lord is guiding us through this challenge

the bestest mom

My mom is the queen of junking. She finds the greatest things in the craziest places. This time, she found a little slide next to a dumpster. Knowing that I was desperate for something my kids can play on in the backyard, she eyed it for a couple of days and then asked the owners if she could have it. They happily loaded it into her car, and she power washed it and then drove 50 miles to bring it to us. She even attached a Dora balloon.

My mom is the most thoughtful person I know; always going out of her way and sacrificing her time and energy for her family. I am so grateful for my Mom. For her strength, her character, her friendship, and her devotion to her family. Oh, and for her great junking skills too.

goop, a wallet, and a mirror.

So this morning Carter woke up with goopy eyes and nose again. I have a bad feeling it's pink eye and a cold. And then I went to get my wallet and realized that its in Brian's car... which is at the airport cause he is out of town this week. Then Abby threw a small hand mirror across the room and broke it.

So we're off to a good start here.

okay. no more.

At first it was cute. Gross, but cute. But now that she's introduced Carter to the fine art of mud eating, it has to stop. What's worse is I think Carter finds dirt tastier than Abby did. There isn't much to do in our backyard, and stupid me gave them a sand box tool set to play with, which to them was an open invitation to literally "dig in."

We've got to get a swingset!

better

We've all been sick around here for over a week now. Abby had pink eye last Sunday, and then we all developed colds (except Brian) during the week, and then Carter came down with dreadful pink eye. But he's better and our colds are pretty much over, so things are lookin' up and hopefully getting back to normal. Whatever that is.


One of Abby's favorite things to do is climb into the front seat when I'm getting Carter out of the car. She plays with the buttons, opens all the compartments, makes big messes, and puts the keys in the ignition and pretends to drive. Fun for her, not for me.

Carter is climbing up and over anything and everything. The kid can't walk yet, but he can crawl up the slide part of a slide. He's like spider man. Must be those sticky, pudgy feet of his. Its fun to watch him expand his boundaries, but when he falls, he takes it hard. He's not a suck it up and get over it kind of kid. He likes to let you know he's hurt.

I'll try to get a picture of that. The climbing part, I mean. Not the crying part. Cause that would be awful of me. But you know I'm the kind of mom that will take a picture first and then go console him....

Man, I really am terrible.

WARNING

Do not view the picture below if...

a. You get squeamish at anything physically abnormal.
b. You are a mother whose heart breaks for any baby in pain.
c. You've had pink eye and don't want to re-live the memories.

a list about me

Maybe I should practice the piano more.
I love bubble baths.
People would say that I’m maybe a little quirky.
I don’t understand why I get headaches so much.
When I wake up in the morning I put in my contacts so my little sunshines don't grab my glasses.
I lost two shirts a few months ago and I have no idea where they went!
My life is full of fun times, sad times, unpredictable times, but all good times.
My past is a pretty wild story!
I get annoyed when people clap along to music. (I know. It's stupid)
Parties are not often enough.
I wish we could move to Dubai.
Dogs are great for other people. Not me.
Cats are avoidable. They make me itchy and sneezy.
Tomorrow I'm probably going to work out again.
I have low tolerance for traffic.
I’m totally terrified of wasps.
I wonder why I can't keep the kitchen floor clean!
Never in my life have I broken a bone.
High school was something I would never want to do over again, but I wish I had done everything differently.
When I’m nervous I really sound like an idiot.
One time at a family gathering (reunion) about 10 family members got the stomach virus, including Brian and Abby.
Take my advice: Compliment your husband every day.
Making my bed happens almost every day, even if its five minutes before bed.
I'm almost always singing a song in my head. Sometimes it gets annoying.
I’m addicted to sugar. grr.
I want someone to babysit my kids for free whenever I want, oh and clean my kitchen floor!

at the park

Matthew, Tyler and Mikayla joined us at the park today and the kids had a great time. I haven't taken pictures in a while so it was fun to capture them having fun.

Matthew on the SUPER steep slide.

Abby is so sweet sometimes. She leans back in the swing and basks in the sun with not a care in the world. I should remember these times of solace when she is acting rotten.

The forested areas next to the playground are covered in honeysuckle. It smells SO fabulous and the yellow and white blooms are beautiful.

Abby gave a enthusiastic farewell when the other kids left.

can you see where Abby gets her looks?

Mandie, age 3

And her personality???

My mom

So, what does Brian do?

I'm sure some of our blog readers are really confused about what I do that would have our family prepare for moving to Atlanta, then not, then prepare for moving to Dubai, then not; all within a 6 month time frame. Well, it's hard to explain why those projects didn't come through, but we are learning to be more thick skinned about the lack of predictability in my type of work. Mandie's already suggested that we won't tell anyone about potential moves until they have happened. In fact, I wonder if I'll even tell Mandie about a project like this might come up until it's time to move. Fortunately, that's not my nature. I've always tried to be forthright about the potential future with Mandie, because of how much she doesn't like surprises.

Anyways, this is the nature of consulting. We are the consummate job hoppers. While I've been happily employed with Protiviti for the last 4 years (this week!) I've actually been on dozens of different projects with almost as many different companies. It's very much like changing jobs with each new project. New people to meet, new challenges, and sometimes a new place to live (temporarily). I've enjoyed it immensely because of the depth and breadth of experience I can get in a short amount of time. It's a roller-coaster of excitement and disappointment, which translates into a wholesome experience for me and my career. Otherwise, how would we know the sweet if we didn't know bitter.

While we are very disappointed, we know a new challenge is right around the corner and we believe we will be better for enduring through it all. I'm extremely grateful to Mandie for being so patient and long-suffering through it all.

too good to be true

The Dubai project is off. Deep inside I knew this was going to happen! The company they were working with was doing a lot of internal restructuring and therefore decided to cancel the project indefinitely. Those that were already on the project are being sent home, and we may never get to go. :(

You see, many of the clients Brian's company works with are huge complex corporations, and our services to them sometimes are the least of their worries. So to us, cancelling the Dubai project was a big thing, but to them it's nothing. It's just the nature of the business. However, it does seem that Brian has been unlucky when it comes to projects that don't come through.

So anyway, we had the kids passports, we were in the process of selling some of our furniture, and we were about to sell one of our cars. Luckily we didn't do anything that is irreversible. But still, we've spent the last three weeks getting the house ready, making last minute dr. appointments and surgerys, making all these plans for Dubai, all for nothing. Not to mention the emotional rollercoaster all this brought on. I had accepted the fact that I would be leaving my family, my house, and my LIFE for a year to live in the middle east, and I was SO excited for the adventure, and now its all gone. I'm also sad because Brian's brother and his little family were going to stay in our house while we were gone, and it was going to help them out so much. It really sucks that it didn't work out and I feel terrible about it.

Don't get me wrong, I am glad that we will be home, and there are lots of reasons why it would be better if were here anyway. Its just the disappointment of knowing what could have been.

Oh, and if we ever get to go anywhere again, we're going to keep it to ourselves until we are there. So don't be suprised if one day I announce that we're living in a different place!

mr. frog

Brian discovered a starving frog stuck in the enclosure to the water main by our house. He took it out and showed Abby who would have nothing to do with it. It was so cute to see her freak out, and I really wish I had my camera at the time. I did get a few shots after she felt more comfortable around it.


She'll touch bugs, but it might be a while before she has the guts to touch a frog.



Brian gave the poor thing some water and then set him down in our flower bed.



Abby then decided it was safe to check it out.

.

all ears

Friday morning we woke up at 4:30am to take Carter to the Plano Pediatric Surgery Center to get tubes put in his ears. We got there at 5:45 and waited in this huge modern room while Carter went off and explored. Oh. He sees some ladies to flirt with.

Off to make his move.

This place is a well-oiled machine. Within 10 minutes we were put in to a pre-op room for about 45 minutes. Then they took him to surgery and said it wouldn't be long. They put us in a consultation room and literally like 10 minutes later Dr. Bauer comes in and tells us that he was done. Wow! That was fast. He said there was LOTS of sticky, thick fluid in his ears that had been there for a long time, and so there was a pretty good chance that that fluid is what was causing the additional hearing loss we think he had. So next week we'll get an ABR done and hope that his hearing is back to the way it was.

This was before surgery. We didn't take any afterwards, understandibly.

Carter did NOT handle the surgery very well though. When he woke up he cried and cried for quite a while. The nurses say that the anesthesia causes stomach bubbles and its pretty painful for the kids. Every kid in the recovery room was crying too. Poor nurses. Anyway, he calmed down enough for us to take him home and so we left. On the way home we stupidly decided to stop at the store real fast and pick up something we needed. Brian was carrying Carter and Carter just started throwing up all over him and dry heaved until he got him to the car. Poor kid. He was clingy and grouchy for most of the day but by bedtime he was doing good.

We haven't noticed much difference in his hearing but sometimes it takes kids a while to adjust to all the new sounds they can hear, so time will tell.

Then on Saturday morning I woke up at 4:30 AGAIN to set up for the Muddy Creek Run. I think it went really well! So many people volunteered that we actually didn't have enough for people to do! The Wylie FD, Wylie PD, National Guard, Corvette club, and others were there so there was a lot of fun things for people to do. We had over 150 participants, which is more than double what we had last year, so we count it as a success. I'm just sad that I won't be here next year for number 3.

I'm a believer

I've heard a lot of hype about Sprinkles Cupcakes, but I thought, come on. How good can a cupcake really be? Well Brian and I happened to be near the Sprinkles in Preston Center (one of four stores in existence) and so we stopped to give one a try, and oh my gosh, it was the most amazing thing I've ever tasted! I had the vanilla milk chocolate cupcake and it was heaven. It was like... the best wedding cake I'd ever had, but denser, chewier, moister and tastier.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm... I think I'm going to go lick the sprinkles and crumbs out of the bottom of the box.

just when you think it can't get any crazier

We finally got an appointment with Carters ENT to discuss his MRI results. It's been a month since his MRI. Why it took so long is another frustrating story for another day. Anyway, Dr. Bauer says his MRI scans look normal, meaning there are no abnormalities in his brain that would cause degenerative hearing loss.

We told him that we were concerned that maybe he isn't hearing as well as he used to and so he said that it could possibly be because of all the ear infections he's had. When a child with slight hearing loss keeps getting fluid in his ears due to ear infections, he says the child basically has no hearing at all. He took a look at his ears and said, "He even has a double ear infection right now, and I guarantee, by the look of the MRI, that his ears were infected then too." We were like, what? We can never tell with Carter cause he never gets a fever. Amazing. So he told us that Carter needs tubes put in his ears, and so we should prepare to get that done in a few weeks. We told him that wouldn't work cause we were moving to Dubai in a month and he said, alright, then lets to it Friday. This Friday. Ugh. Could it get any crazier? Well, yeah.

He said we need to get it done quickly, so that we can do another ABR after he gets tubes in and determine if his hearing has stayed the same. But if his hearing has gotten any worse, then we will need to get hearing aids. He said we would have a very difficult time getting hearing aids in Dubai so we need to do it here, and that is kind of a long process. So we've got a lot to do before we leave.

We love Dr. Bauer and really feel like he has worked extra hard to accomodate us and help Carter and we are extreemly grateful for that. I know Carter is a special little boy, and for some reason I've always been okay with the fact that he has hearing loss. I also know that wherever we go, the Lord will open doors and allow for him to get the care that he needs. It might be a little stressful, but he's going to be okay, and we're going to be okay.

shame on me

Abby asked for chocolate milk while I was making lunch. She's been totally off of milk for half a year now, so any time she asks, I give it to her. So I went about making lunch and she stood by the windows and chatted with herself. Then I heard squealing, but didn't think much about it until a few minutes later when I took a look at her. And the window sills. And the floors and walls. Milk was everywhere. Obviously she thought it was more fun to leak chocloate milk out of her mouth and make fun puddles all over her pretty white shirt and everything else in her path than it was to actually drink it.

I think I'll think twice next time she asks for chocolate milk.





*Update*
I got Abby's shirt completely clean, thanks to Shout!, and now she's wearing it again and off making more trouble.

Look what she can do now.

sigh.....

muddy creek run

I'm the social committe chairman for our homeowners association, and last year I got the crazy idea to organize a fun run. It was a TON of work, especially since my co-chair bailed on me (still mad about that one) and we really didn't have a committee at that point. But it was successful, considering it was our first run, and I was excited for the next year when we could make it bigger and better.

Fast forward a year, and here we are; six days until the big event and I am SO ready for it to come. Being a race coordinator is hard work! It's like another full-time job. I have an amazing committee and very supportive board members that have done a great portion of the work, but still it seems that the run has consumed my life for the past three months. I'm ready for a break!

Anyway, I usually really love being social chair. I love the people I work with, and I love being able to serve my community, but in times like these when I'm in the thick of it, I think I must have been insane for taking on such a job.

Anyway, Missy did this awesome logo design for the run. Cool, huh?

So...

In October Brian's company told everyone of a big project they were starting in Dubai and asked if anyone was interested. Each consultant that goes over would stay for about a year and would still be considered a Dallas area employee. So we would keep our house, and they would basically pay for us to live over there; house, car, per diem included. We thought and prayed about it a lot and decided to submit our name. We both have an adventurous streak, our kids aren't in school, we would pay off all of our student loans much faster, and best of all, this would be an incredible career booster for Brian.

We never heard anything for months so we went on with life and kinda forgot about it. Then out of the blue last Tuesday, they sent Brian an email saying he was chosen for the Dubai team and wanted to know if we were still interested. I was gobsmacked. I mean, I wanted to go, but I really don't think I ever thought it would happen, especially after all the drama with Atlanta. And to make it worse, they wanted an answer that night. So we thought about it some more and said yes. This may be a once in a lifetime opportunity and I would regret it for the rest of my life if we said no.

So Brian is scheduled to go out in the middle of May, and the rest of us will come out a couple of weeks later to give him time to find a place to live and get things together.

I am still in disbelief and somewhat overwhelmed by all that needs to be done before we leave, but I am SO excited and can't wait for this new adventure to start!

Lots more details to share. Stay posted.

Expat \ˈeks-ˌpat\ n: somebody who has moved abroad: a citizen who has left his or her own country to live in another, usually for a prolonged period. See also: expatriate. "Brian, Mandie and their children will soon be joining the ranks of American expats in Dubai."

Dubai \do̵̅o̅ bī′\ n: port city in the United Arab Emirates on the Persian Gulf. Home to this:

and this:

and this:

and this:

and soon....US!

More details to come!

sprinklers

We have sprinklers in our back yard, but only around the perimeter of the house. So last weekend Brian, his dad and brothers rented a ditch witch and installed two more rows of sprinkers. It was hard work, but I think the guys really enjoy spending time together.

Here's Abby "supervising" and Brian "working." Just kidding, Brian. :)

Abby spent the whole morning out there with the guys. She was talking and joking with them (in her own little language of course) and decided to be in charge of the tool box. It was so cute! Obviously, because it seems like I didn't take pictures of anything else... I think its the hair. I love it!

Oh, and here's a picture of the damage.