Normal Life

I guess that is what you could qualify us as living right now. We are back into the flow of life after/not including holidays. Brad is back to the school routine. The holidays are over and we are starting to finally get settled in at Mom and Dad's. I love the holidays while they are here, but I love it when they are gone too.

Over the weekend I got another couple of boxes unpacked. We need to make a trip to drop stuff off at Kidney Foundation or someplace. After that, our room will be manageable. The study is another situation. I want to get in there, but at the same time, Brad is in there studying. I know which is more important but I'm itching.

The snow and cold is back. I had to scrape my car this morning. Actually, Erin scraped my car. Thanks Schmoop. I love sweaters, but after Christmas, I'm OK without the snow. Awful, I know. Anyhow, not much of an update, but better then nothing, I guess.

Thankful Thursdays!

• I'm thankful for the knowledge that no matter how bad my life looks from the inside, it is not nearly as bad as some people's lives look just from the outside.
• Warmer weather - The snow is mostly melted around here.
• New neighbors - Well technically they are across the street and down two houses, but who really needs those details. They seem nice and about our age.
• Birthday Dinners - It's so nice to have everyone together, even for just an hour or two.

Sounds good to me. What are you thankful for?

Birthday for a Brother!

Yesterday was my baby brothers birthday. Due to his schedule and mine, we didn't have the ability to connect until about 10pm last night. I gave him a call and he was still in class, so I left him a long rambling message. I told him how it was his birthday and I hoped it was going really great and that 26 years ago Mom was in labor with him. I talked about how old he was now that he was 26 and that he was officially more then a quarter of a century, then said love you and hung up.

About 20 minutes later he comes strolling through the door and promptly yells up the stairs to me, "Crystal, how old am I?" To which I answer, "26!....... Oh, Shit! 27!" "Your twenty seven this year. That means that I am going to be 29." Devin laughed. I told him that I was in denial and that he was still 26 and I didn't want to hear him tell anyone differently...........

So, here's to Devin's 26th birthday!!!!

Thankful Thursdays!

• My sanity - some days I think I may lose it at work.
• My patients - without patients I may very well lose my sanity
• Space heaters - the one I have under my desk has been my savior this last week and a half
• Evenings with Friends - I have one planned tonight and one tomorrow night. I love being able to just get together and not have to worry about getting a sitter or anything yet.

This is my list for today. What are you thankful for?

Birthday Dinner

Yesterday was Erin's , over at Dishes and Wishes, birthday. To celebrate our family and her new family headed over to Rusty Bucket. It was strange because the last time we all got together at Rusty Bucket, Erin and Jake had just gotten engaged. The weather was also very similar to that night. The night of the engagement Jake ran his mom's car into the back of his sisters car after dinner. Last night he did not. It's funny how a gathering can make you remember things from past gatherings. Anyhow, we had a wonderful dinner to celebrate Erin's birthday.

I switched purses this week. I had been carrying one that I got from Target about a year ago. I have never gotten so many compliments on a purse as I did on that one. Anyhow it was starting to get worn out and sad, so I switched over to one that Erin and Jake gave me for Christmas. So cute!

Is this a hint?

While we were opening stockings Christmas morning in Missouri I pulled out this cute little treat.
And there are directions, of course, for how to use them. :)

You don't think the hubs family is trying to tell me something, do you? I laughed again when Brad pulled these out of his stocking.

Thankful Thursdays!

That's right it's time. It's been a few weeks since my last Thankful session.

• Headache medicine!
• Snow boots.
• Mittens
• Family
• Kitties - even when they are being shy. Neala is just sooo cute.
• Vacations
• and Vacations after vacations.

I think that is a pretty good list for now. What are you thankful for?

Christmas in Missouri

So, I'm sure you remember that this year I spent my first Christmas away from my family. It was an experience!



Our flight out of Columbus left at 9:50am. Being prepared for lines at security and lots of people flying out, we left the house early and got to the airport around 7:45am. The lines were almost non-existent. We were checked in and through security by 8:10am. The time hanging out at the airport and the flight to Chicago went swimmingly. Knowing our layover in Chicago was 3 hours, we head off to find some lunch. We're sitting and eating some very bland, gross airport food and Brad gets a text message alert from American Airlines saying that our flight to Kansas City has been cancelled. Not delayed, but cancelled! We did not want to be sleeping in the Chicago airport on Christmas Eve, so there was some craziness that ensued. After paying our bill and making about 8 trips back and forth between two terminals to get us both new tickets, we finally got our tickets transferred to a new airline (Delta) on a flight going from Chicago to Detroit and then Detroit to KC. So to say the least we were going to be a bit later arriving in KC then expected. On the flight to Detroit we got first class seats which equalled free alcohol and extra leg room for my 6'4" hubs, Beautiful! Detroit to KC, lucky again with the emergency exit rows.



We arrived in KC to a full blown blizzard. Sweet, now for a 45min drive to Brad's older sisters house. Brad's mom was there to pick us up and fully ready to drive us 45 mins. The roads were awful, awful. But we made it, without our luggage, of course, due to the airline change. All church services were cancelled and the roads only looked like they were going to get worse so we headed to bed.



Christmas morning we woke up to more snow and an excited 3 year old, ready to see what Santa had brought while she was sleeping. Cora (3 yrs) and Mira (7 months) were so wide awake and pumped. Santa did not disappoint! To see Cora, so excited and overwhelmed, was such a treat. Brad's younger sister (my BFF from 5th to 10th grade) came over and got her car stuck at the end of the street. But Christmas morning was very nice. I missed my family a lot, a LOT, but felt pretty good for being with Brad's family and letting him enjoy Christmas with them.



After presents, we relaxed and watched a movie. About halfway through the movie the airport delivered our luggage! Delivered? I didn't know they did that. It was nice to not have to drive back to the airport to pick it up. So all in all the first day of the trip was eventful and crazy, sad and happy, and very different for me. But good, nice and enjoyable.

New Layout!

So while I was gone for Christmas, little miss over at Dishes & Wishes, hacked into my blog and changed my layout. She also added a counter for me. Now I can see how many visits my blog has gotten. Thanks E! So cute. I love how it turned out. What do you think?