Thanksgiving 2010

Wow! I am just a little behind! I should be planning Valentine's Day posts, and I'm stuck in November! Ack! Be patient with me!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, even though Megan was sick. My sister and her family came from San Antonio and some good friends from our church came over for dinner. There is NOTHING better at Thanksgiving than to be surrounded by family and friends (although good food ranks pretty high as well!).

Travis brined the turkey, and stuffed it with fruit and herbs. Everyone said it was fabulous. It looked really pretty. We had mashed potatoes (made with way too much butter and cream....so, so, so yummy!), stuffing, salad, jello, rolls, sweet potato casserole (so yummy, Amy!) and green bean casserole, cranberries....followed by pies and cookies and cranberry-vanilla sorbet. I'm amazed I can still walk after eating all of that!

What a wonderful day, to remember just how very blessed we are.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Better late than never, right? December passed me by in a flash and I never got this posted.


We really want to wish all of our wonderful family and friends a very, very merry Christmas. We love you all and are so blessed to have you in our lives!



(My favorite part of this is when Jared sings, "Good tithings we bring to you and your kids" :D)

New Year, New Resolutions

I struggle with making resolutions. It seems that I always end up with a long list of things I know I should be doing, things I want to be doing. I start out strong in January, but by February, it's become a list of things I feel guilty about not doing, and by May, it's just another piece of clutter on my desk/pin board that I don't even notice any more.

Last year, I decided to set goals I would actually keep - to eat more chocolate and to gain 5 pounds. I did great and I am tempted to take that route again, but I know that that's a cope-out. I am better than that. So, this year I am going to try a few new things. First, no long list. I'm keeping it short. Second, I'm not going to try for a whole year. I'll take it one month at a time. Or maybe one week at a time. We'll see. Third, when life gets crazy (and you KNOW it will), I'm not going to give up. I'm just going to start where I'm at and take it from there.

This month, starting now, my January goal is to keep my kitchen sink shiny, just like Fly Lady teaches. I was doing sooooo good with this in the summer and fall, right up until I started having morning sickness and then Megan got sick. It all fell apart after that. So, from now until the end of January, I resolve to keep my sink shiny. That's it. That's all I plan to do. Wish me luck!

10 Things I Learned From Vacation

1. There is nothing better than family.
2. 8 degrees is too cold. 10 degrees is too cold. So is 20 degrees. When you start thinking 30 degrees feels nice, you know something is wrong. Some important part of your brain has frozen solid.
3. Laundry never stops, even on vacation.
4. Flying First Class, while eating a hot breakfast and reading a book, all without kids, is worth getting flocked by a snow blower.
5. Five Guys is better than In and Out.
6. I like to sleep on rock hard, flat pillows not soft, fluffy, squishy pillows. 
7. Even though it's made for 7 year-olds, Blink is just as much fun for grownups to play as it is for kids. Maybe more so.
8. Christmas decorations wait until you put them away. They never magically disappear. The Christmas Clean-Up fairy is a myth.
9. The kids actually will sleep in...if you let them stay up late enough, for enough nights in a row.
10. There's no place like home.

There and Back Again

Here are some pictures of Megan so that you can see how she is doing.  With the exception of the sore lips, she is doing very well.  She still gets mad at Travis when he makes her laugh, because it still hurts her lips.

White Christmas in Houston

I heard this song on the radio the other day and I had to laugh.



Not to brag or anything, but it's currently 76 degrees outside. I'm so excited to see everyone in UT in a few weeks, but I'm not really looking forward to a white Christmas. I'll miss my flipflops!

Update on Megan - 3

We met with a pediatric dermatologist and a pediatric ophthalmologist at Texas Children's Hospital yesterday and they were both so impressed with how Megan is recovering. With Stevens Johnson Syndrome, any part of the body that produces mucus (eyes, nose, mouth, lips, skin) is affected. That's what causes the rash and the mouth sores. That's why her eyes were so red and swollen and miserable. That's why her lips have been so painful.

Anyways, sometimes people get scaring under the eyelids and under the skin that covers the lower part of the eye. The scars can damage your eye. But Megan doesn't have any of that. The ophthalmologist said that apart from some broken blood vessels (which are basically like bruises in her eyes and will clear up on their own in a week or so), her eyes look perfect. No worries there.

The dermatologist said that her skin is healing remarkably well. They don't expect her to have any scaring at all. She has a lot of brown splotches all over, especially on her legs, but those will fade over time. Her lips and mouth are still really sore, but they are improving every day. Big chunks of dead skin and scabs keep falling off her lips with every sip she takes and every bite she eats (which is really disgusting, ugh!) but underneath is pale pink, healthy lips.

As soon as her mouth and lips heal, and she gets a little energy back, she can return to school. We are really hopeful that she will start again early next week.

I'll get pictures tomorrow.