Movember is done!!

Well it was a LONG Movember, but we are done with this great month. My husband grows quite a stache in a month, so here it is!!

This picture makes me laugh uncontrollably for some reason. I love this guy. Unfortunately we are not off to the smooth face just yet, he is growing out the beard again for a movie that he and his friends are making. We have an annual party every year called Monkey Christmas, which always includes an AWESOME comedy video. Our very talented friends Andy, Tim, and Don, write and shoot these shorts, and this is the first year that my hubby will be in one! I can't wait to see it, and I will be posting a link to the video when it's available. In the mean time check out some of the past years at Monkeyxmas.com.

Any hoot, it's time to take the little man outside. We are going to run off some of this energy in hopes that he will crash out early tonight!! 

XoXo

-Courtney

Thanksgiving 2011 is in the books!

What an awesome Thanksgiving we had! My mom drove in from San Antonio to eat with us, and we had a TON of food!

I'm still stuffed!! The $0.28 Ham was a hit, and it turned out fantastic. I added some brown sugar, cracked pepper, and salt to it. Yum! Saturday night we also had our annual "Friends Thanksgiving", at our pals Kyle and Ashley's. I actually bought a second ham the day I found ours, so we took it on over. We also made an amazing creation. Candied yams with the traditional marshmallow topping, but we added a little something extra. BACON!! Yes! It was a total success, and John and Kyle were scraping the mallows and bacon off of the top and just eating that!! We have decided that in the near future we will be doing a iron chef style potluck, secret ingredient.....bacon!!

I have to admit, I put my balcony Christmas lights up a tad early this year. Like as soon as it got dark on Thanksgiving night. I'm totally ready for Christmas. I am scared that Jp will attack the tree though. In fact I KNOW he will! He is a tiny mad man at times, and I know the ornaments will insight some sort of rage in him. He has my strong sense of determination, and when he sees something he wants, he goes for it with reckless abandon. It will be a miracle if we make it through the season without our tree crashing to the ground. But I guess that's all in the fun of being a parent, and it will definitely make for a great photo op! We are going to tackle putting up the tree today, but I will be gradually decorating it, in hopes that I can keep a few ornaments out of little mans hands!

I LOVE Christmas, and I can't wait to get the house all decorated and smelling like pine trees!

XoXo
-Courtney

It's a Thanksgiving Miracle!

Last night I decided it was finally time to bite the bullet, and head to HEB for some last minute Thanksgiving items. Our main course (ham) being one of them. Of course they were out of the ones I wanted, so I started to browse. Holy cow, Hams are expensive! After finding a brand that seemed good, I started looking further back on the shelf. We don't need a huge one since it's just the 3 of us this year. Then I found it! The rare, mislabeled hunk of ham. 

$0.28. Yep. I am stoked. That means that I was able to do Thanksgiving for under $20.00 this year. To me that's amazing. We are having Ham, rolls, green bean casserole, macaroni and cheese, and a pumpkin roll for desert! Yay for Thanksgiving, and yay for saving some money!!


I hope everyone has a safe and fun filled Thanksgiving!!


XoXo
-Courtney

Dr.'s Appointments for All!!

What a fun filled day we had!!


Today was little mans checkup for his hernia surgery. His super sticky waterproof band aid finally came off in the bath this morning. Yay! When we went in, he was in his super play mode that he usually goes into right before nap time. Our appointment wasn't until 1:20, and that's usually when he is getting ready to go down. Being out during this time is particularly difficult, because he just wants to get into everything, and tends to "rage" as the hubbs and I call it.  Thankfully John used some vacation time today, and was able to go with us. Without his help, I would have been one tired momma!! 


When we got back to the exam room, he tried to push every chair, stool, and even the exam table at one point. He wanted to get to the faucet so bad to play in the water. The boy loves him some water! The physicians assistant, and nurse finally came in to check him over, took one look at the incision, and told us he was A-OK!! John even asked her if they put something in him to make him more hyper!! Seriously, since 6:30pm the day of his surgery, he has been go go go non stop. The boy hardly rests. He has bounced back quicker and stronger than I ever would have thought. I am so relieved that everything went fantastically.


Now on to my trip. I have had a swollen lymph node behind my right ear for about 3 or 4 weeks now. I went to the urgent care clinic on November 4th. After checking me over, and taking some blood, they started me on some antibiotics, gave me something for the pain, and sent me on my way. They even called a couple of days later to tell me that my blood tests had come back normal, so the antibiotics should cure what ever local infection, somewhere inside me that is causing the lymph node to swell. 


I took all 21 of the pills, regularly and on schedule. John even set the 3:45am alarm on his phone, to wake me so I could keep with the cycle. Well, I never saw a change in the size or tenderness of the lump. Nothing. If anything, it's a bit bigger and it hurts worse. The only way I can describe it is, it feels like someone kicked me in the back of my head. It just freaking hurts. I decided after waiting it out for a couple of days, to finally call the clinic where I had been seen. After talking to the doctor again, he refereed me to an E.N.T. specialist. He was concerned that the swelling didn't go down with the medicine, which means whatever is causing it to swell didn't go away. I called and was quickly told to "come in as soon as possible, so we can see if a biopsy needs to be done."  Biopsy. One word I defiantly didn't want to hear. My grandma (Fathers Mother) passed away because of Lymphoma. So when they said biopsy, her situation came to mind. 


I headed in at 4pm, and was quickly registered, and taken back to an exam room. I have to give the Doctors office credit, they were super efficient, and really nice. That's always comforting. After waiting a few minutes in the exam room, Dr. Tamez  came in. He checked my ears, nose and throat, and didn't find any problems. Nothing wrong with my tonsils, or sinuses. No scalp abrasions(commonly found with swollen lymph nodes), or rashes. Nothing. So what's causing the swelling? He doesn't know just yet, but after a thorough examination he is confident that a round of super strong antibiotics, a steroid called prednisone, and Loritab for the pain, will get results. I sure hope so. This is just not the time for me to be sick. With the up coming holidays, and the travel plans we have, I don't want to feel like poo for all of it!! 


So I am going to give it a shot. Hopefully this will work, and I can get back to normal, and plan an awesome Thanksgiving and Christmas for my family!!