Back from Our Trip!

We got back this evening. We had a great time!!! This is going to be a long entry with an overload of pictures....... so get ready!

We left Saturday. H was whiney the whole way and didn't take a nap. He was content some of the time looking at his sticker book.


Around 6 we arrived in Ft. Worth (actually it's a suburb called Euless). H loved getting into things.. what's new.:-) He really took to my cousin Keith. Here he is playing with Keith's drum set.


Sunday morning we ate breakfast.


We still had time before church.. so we went outside to look at the horses. They are right behind my Aunt's house. H was afraid of them.


Later that afternoon we took H to a park, down the road from my Aunt's.




Bright and early Monday morning we headed to Louisiana. This was H most of the morning..


This is my sorry attempt at getting a picture of the Welcome to Louisiana sign. It's not easy taking a picture of a sign while going 70 mph!


This was my first time to be in Louisiana (Matt and H's first time too.) My impression of Louisiana is there are TONS of trees and it's humid (oh my gosh sweltering hot, humid).

I went to my appointment at 1:30 that day. I talked about it more on my other blog.

Afterwards we headed to the beach. They have a man made beach in Cypremort Point State Park. It's not the greatest... but it was fun. Plus I had never seen the ocean so that was pretty amazing.

My first picture of the ocean:


H playing in the sand with Daddy. At first he wasn't too sure of the beach and ocean.. but the sand started to look enticing.


H wanted in on the action too..


Eventually H decided to try out his sea, er, ocean legs.






Here is H mesmerized by the sand:


Watching the tide hit his legs. The sound of the tide was so peaceful. The gulf is such a gentle ocean. Or at least from what I saw it was..


I thought this was a pretty picture. I saw a crane sitting my some rocks and it started to fly off as I snapped this picture.


A picture of the ocean.. I love how it looks endless. I find that fascinating.


This is a house that was near the ocean. All of the houses over there were on stilts. I don't blame them! I thought this house was gorgeous.


After leaving the ocean we wanted to find a good, Cajun restaurant. I mean you can't go to Louisiana without eating some Cajun food, now can you? We went to a restaurant called Mulate's "The original Cajun Restaurant". (We saw it advertised on a billboard.) The atmosphere was great.. they even had a zydeco band playing. The ceiling was filled with business cards.


We added to the collection and put one of Matt's cards up there. Can you find it?


There have been a lot of celebrities who have eaten at Mulate's.


We arrived at our hotel very late Monday night. After everyone took a quick shower (bath for H)..we went straight to bed. I woke up to this:


In the morning we swam:






We checked out and headed back on the road.. to Ft. Worth.

On the way we stopped at the Bayou Pierre Alligator Park. We couldn't go to Louisiana and not see alligators..




The first exhibit we came to were the baby alligators. At first I thought they weren't real because they were sitting on the platform so eerily still. But soon they started getting in the water. H was freaked out by them.. I can't say I blame him.


Besides alligators we saw snakes, turtles, raccoons, emus, and goats. I took a picture of one of the goats sitting in the bed of a pick-up truck. Isn't that funny?


H loved feeding the pygmy goats. Doesn't he look so serious?


After the gator park we continued driving. There was a lot of road work going into dallas so the drive draaaaged on. We finally got to my Aunt's house.

We had a family dinner. My other cousin Adam was there along with his wife, Meri, and baby, Jackson.

Here I am with Jackson. He is such a big boy! And a slobber box just like H was.. He is so cute!!


Here is a picture of me and my cousins. (Notice H in the picture, lol)


And our families. (H was throwing a fit..)


Well that concludes my super long blog entry. Congrats if you made it this far!:-)

Today we're leaving for our trip!

I'm very excited! In just a few hours we'll be on our way to Ft. Worth. We're going to spend time with my Aunt, uncle, and cousins. Then on Monday we're going to Louisiana for my doctor's appointment.

Get ready for lots of pictures when I return!!

Taking back my life!

This weekend I have been feeling GREAT. I feel like my old life is slowly coming back. First of all, I went to the mall on Saturday. It's been so long since I've been able to walk around for that long without stopping to rest. Or stopping because I feel like I may faint. We were at the mall for a while and I did not have to stop once. Not ONCE!

Saturday night we went to Joyland. Me, Holden, Matt, and my sister. It was so much fun. And once again I felt pretty normal. I didn't feel that lightheaded or tired! It felt great being able to have a good time without my health getting in the way.

Holden had such a great time. He was so brave, wanting to ride EVERYTHING! He went on over a dozen rides. A lot of which he rode alone. AWWWW, my baby is growing up.

Here are some pictures I took of him:









I still have a long way to go, but I feel like this weekend has given me more hope. I CAN feel normal again. I WILL be completely like I was before all of this happened.

P.S. I posted this same entry on my Lyme Disease blog. I felt like it belonged on both.

What a Wonderful Day!

This has been a truly awesome day. I have felt so much encouragement, kindness, and love- from so many people. I really feel in awe about how truly blessed I am. I talked about this to an extent on My Fight with Lyme Disease blog. I would like to talk about some other areas of my life.

First of all, my son was in such a happy, go-lucky moody today. I love when he is like. It just makes life so enjoyable. We went to Target this morning and had a fabulous time. We didn't buy much, but enjoyed browsing as we munched on a hot dog. It was a wonderful little outing.

Afterwards we went to the park, down the street from our house. We met some really nice people there, a woman and her daughter. Holden loved playing with the little girl and me and her Mom got to talking. We have a lot in common. We both have kids. check. We are both 21. check. We both are sahm's. check. We both are worry warts. check. Well you get the point. We really clicked. I don't have many friends that I hang out with on a regular basis so it was nice. We exchanged numbers and plan to have some playdates. Fun!

I had a doctor's appointment today which provided me with a lot of hope. My doctor switched my meds. I really feel like this will be a turning point. It was a great appointment and made me feel a lot better. The icing on the cake was when I went to fill my prescription. All THREE of my meds only cost me $24.67. I was estatic about that.

When I got home from the appointment Holden was still taking his nap. My brother had watched him, well really just listened for him, while I went to my appt. So since he was still napping I had a chance to have some me time. Which usually includes checking out my Mommy board..looking at friends' blogs.. you know, fun stuff! I was so touched by my friend Corey. I talked about her kindness more on my Lyme Disease blog. (It's hard to decided what to put where when you have 2 blogs!) She has been so supportive, kind, just all around a great friend. I love you, Cor! Look what she made me:


Lastly, as I mentioned below, today is my anniversary. Me and Matt have been married for 3 years. My husband isn't the most romantic man, I must admit. I totally didn't expect to get anything for our anniversary. We had kind of mutually decided to not get any gifts. When he came home from work, he handed me a card. I was totally taken aback because I really didn't expect ANYTHING. In the card he wrote the sweetest note, it actually brought a tear to my eye. I'm not the most emotional person so that says a lot. I asked him if I could share his words on my blog and he said it was fine so here is what the card read:

Hello Sweetheart,
This truly has been the happiest
three years of my life. I am
so happy we found each other,
I do not know what I would
do without you. I appreciate
everything you do for our
family, and how you are such
a great mother to Holden.
We may be going through some
rough times right now (especially
you) but thing are going to
get better. Together there isn't
anything we can't get through.
I Love You,
Matt

Isn't that the sweetest thing EVER? It really made my day that much sweeter. We went out to eat and had a wonderful time together (along with Holden, who acted like a saint and ate EXTREMELY well). Who could ask for more? It was a wonderful day.

3 years ago today...

I married the love of my life.



I can't believe how fast time goes by. So much has happened (both good and bad) in these last 3 years. From welcoming our son into the world to experiencing a loss. From buying our first home together to finding out I have Lyme Disease. So much has happened. But through it all we are each other's support. We are as much in love today as we were on our Wedding day.



I love you, Matt!!



Here's to many more happy years ahead!!!!!

Diaper Rash+Guilty Mama=Fun Times at Chuck E. Cheese

This morning around 2 Holden started crying. I let him cry it out since he wasn't crying very hard. He settled back down after just a few minutes.

This morning when I went to check on him a horrible smell hit my nose. I'm pretty sure he had gone to the bathroom at 2 when he was crying. Lately he's been "pooping acid"...it eats through his skin so bad.

I had to send Daddy to the store because I was out of wipes. I knew it was going to be hard to change him because when I mentioned that Daddy had gone to get wipes so we could change his diaper, he went ballistic.

I hate when my baby is in pain. We had to hold him down. He was crying his eyes out. It broke my heart.

I lathered his little butt with lots and lots of diaper rash cream.

I felt horrible because I should of tended to him this morning at 2 when he woke up. He never poops in the middle of the night.. I thought he had just woken up for some other reason.

So to make him happy (and me) we went to Chuck E. Cheese. He has only been there one other time (for his 2nd birthday).

We had a lot of fun. We found out Holden is terrified of Chuck E. Cheese. He was cautiously weary of him at his 2nd birthday party. However today he screamed bloody murder when Chuck E. Cheese came near him.

His little butt is doing better. It's still somewhat chaffed, but I've been putting lots of ointment and baby powder on it. Poor Baby.:-(

Look at this Giveaway!

I saw from my friend, Keara, that 5 Minutes for Mom is giving away a t.v. It is a 37 inch flat panel LCD HDTV! It is valued at $799 from Best Buy.

How awesome is that?!

Random Ramblings

I'm bored.

I shouldn't be. I have about a million things I should be doing, most of which includes cleaning... blah!

So instead I'm blogging. Seems like a good use of my time, lol!

My foot really hurts. I went to get some sunscreen out of the cabinet in Holden's bathroom. Right when I opened it, I could tell it was going to fall. I couldn't move fast enough. BAM. It fell right on my right foot. OUCH!! It hurt badly. Holden was so cute though. He came running in there and when he saw I was in pain, he kissed my foot. AWWWWW! I don't know why just opening it caused it to fall. About a week ago I caught Holden hanging from it.. so maybe that caused it to be less sturdy and me just opening it was the final straw?? I don't know, but it hurt!

(Ignore my ugly toes.. I'm in need of a pedicure.)


The cabinet that fell on my foot:



I'm very angry at my insurance. They are refusing to pay for my lab work I had done. They said it's experimental. I called and explained to them that I had a highly positive Lyme test so it is NOT experimental. My doctor ran the additional tests to see check my Natural Killer cells. It's called a CD57 test. When you have Lyme the bacteria kills your natural killer cells. By seeing how many nk cells you have, you can tell how badly you have Lyme disease.. like how long you've had it. So it's a VERY necessary test. I told the insurance all of this, but they just told me.. sorry it's not covered. Aghhh!! I don't know what to do. I'm not very good at arguing with people.. but if they are not going to pay for bloodwork related to my Lyme disease then I am in trouble. I don't see why it matters what disease it's for... I'm sick people!!!!

OH my gosh, thanks for letting me get that out!! I'm just so frustrated and overwhelmed.. I could burst.

That probably should of gone in my Lyme blog, but oh well.

Busy last few days..

Thursday my inlaws arrived. My mil's grandfather passed away and they came to attend the services.

Friday we went to Pampa, Texas to pay our respects. It was our first trip since buying Holden's Britax carseat. He seemed comfortable the whole way and even fell asleep!


Saturday we went to Rosa's Cafe. Good restaurants are in short supply in Colorado (where my inlaws live) so they wanted to take advantage of the delicious tex-mex we have. Rosa's is one of our favorite places. Afterwards we took the boys to the Legacy Play Village. They had a blast.. but once again it sure was hot.


Sunday we headed to the mall. I felt very lightheaded that day so the walking around was hard, but I managed. That night we hung around the house. We spent a lot of time in the backyard playing basketball. We made a little tournament out of it. It was fun! We also played Scene-It.. which was a blast.

Monday everyone headed back to Colorado. I'm always sad when family leaves.. but not long after they left Holden and I (well actually just I) decided to go tag along with Matt. He had to go to Odessa for his job. In all the time I've lived here (pretty much my whole life) I had never been to Odessa.. or Midland. (The hometown of George Bush).

We had a good time. We stopped in Midland and ate at JumBurrito. It was DELICIOUS!! Seriously one of the best burritos I've ever had. Then we went to Odessa. Me and Holden waited at McDonalds while Matt went to do his work. After that we went to the Music City Mall. It's a pretty neat place. Much cooler than our mall.

So, anyway, that's what we've all been up to. In less than 3 weeks we will be leaving to go to Louisiana. I'm pretty excited about that!!

I'll end this entry with a picture of Holden and his cousins.:-) They were laying on the bed watching Bambi.


Oh and Angie cut Holden's hair while they were here. It was much needed!! It was a struggle getting it cut.. I don't know why, but the boy HATES having his hair cut. We had to stick him right in front of the t.v. and give him a bag of grapes. He still wiggled a lot.

(Ignore the messy face...this was taken after eating a happy meal on the way to Odessa)

An apple a day...doesn't keep Mama away!

Yes it's true, I love to take pictures of my boy. A little too much. I won't even let him eat an apple in peace!! Holden adores apples. He's even been calling them by a name, though it doesn't quite sound like apple, but he's trying!

Pretty much anything Holden does is picture worthy in my book. So it wouldn't come as a surprise that I had to take 324554 pictures while he enjoyed his tasty, granny smith apple. Lucky for you I narrowed it down to five.;)