Ehhhh, Sic 'Em Bears!!!!

Snoozeville

Welcome to my blog, Forever Young, which by the looks of things recently may be more aptly named...Snoozeville - Population 1.

I suppose one might consider it a blessing not to have anything crazy, scary, sad, etc...to blog about on a regular basis. And with no munchkins in munchkin land as of yet, that is another area lacking much to report on, post funny pics from, and request advice for.

So---here I find myself with writer's block..errr...blogger's block???

Sure, we've been up to stuff. Sophie had surgery, and is making a speedy recovery. We've had family members fall ill, some getting better faster than others. We've been out and about with friends for dinner and such. I have met some gal pals and long,long time friends for fun dinners.

But, as for comedic, photo-worthy, prayer-needing or just plain popped-into-my-head-think-i'll post-about-it encounters...fraid not.

Perhaps this weekend will hold more than meets the eye and I'll have some post-worthy material. But, 'til creativity comes a knockin' on my door, I shall continue to live vicariously through my fun blogging buddies' posts.

Hope everyone is well and enjoys their weekends.

Peace =)

Post Op Care = Closet Cleanout

POST DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT HAVE CHILDREN YET, SO I TREAT MY DOG (YES, I KNOW, SHE IS A DOG) AS MY LITTLE ONE; THEREFORE, ALL BLOG POSTS AND TENDER LOVING CARE BESTOWED UPON MY FOUR LEGGED FRIEND IS ABSOLUTELY VALIDATED AND JUSTIFIABLE.

My little lady, Sophie had knee surgery on Wednesday. I will spare you all of the queasy details of what was done and sum it up with basically they re-made her right knee so that it would no longer be permanently dislocated/popped out. Yikes!

Below are some pics of my little patient. I took the pics this morning, which is Saturday. She's actually looking much, much improved from Thursday. Hoping the trend continues with each passing day ;).

Cozy next to me as I worked on my laptop

Her pain patch on her back that they stapled on. Also the round shaved area above her tail is where the epidural went in.

Pink bandage covering where the IV was. And then, of course, the stitches on her back, right leg.

So we got to bring her home 24 hours after her surgery, and were advised to stick around the house for the first 24 hours to observe her and make sure she was 'OK'. Ummm, clearly, she is not OK, but I know what the vet meant, I suppose (wink, wink).

Anyhow...with a very sad and immobile dog and a cold, wet, rainy outside...it forced me to..dun dun dunnn (cue the horror music)...clean out some closets.

Yes, all of that stuff was crammed into two closets. Now it is all nicely organized by holiday/use in each bin and will promptly head up to the attic to join the rest of its buddies, which are already nicely organized in bins, just waiting to be brought down for their respective holiday/time of the year/use.

And below is all of the trash that came from the clean out. Holy moly!

I guess a sad, post operative puppy can be a bitter sweet thing, if you're looking to get organized.

Sorry for the somewhat graphic pics and unarguably boring post topics - dog surgery and cleaning out closets. But hey, that's what we've been up to lately. Yes, these are exciting times ;).

"They say it's your birthday, nnnn, nah, nah nah nah NAH!

So this past month has been full of birthdays.

My soon-to-be sis-in-law, Brooke's was February 11th, existing sis-in-law Mel's was February 14th, my sister Ashley's on February 17th, brother-in-law Cash's February 24th, brother Reggie's on March 2nd, mine on March 4th and my nephew Gray's on March 8th....whew...that's a lot of birthdays!

This past Saturday was Gray, my nephew's, 3rd birthday party. It was Spider Man-themed. He was adorable and hilarious, as usual. He's really such a ham these days and 110% boy, 110% of the time!

Laurel posing next to Gray's cute cake. Check out the spider web!

Gray, in his new chair, getting ready to check out the goods

Funny pop-up Monkey from his Mimi aka Cheri.

Gray getting ready to blow out his candles.

After lots of presents and yummy cake, Mel had kites for all of the kiddos to fly, as party favors, which was PERFECT since it's been so dern windy the past few days weeks.

After the party that afternoon Reg and Brooke met us at our house and we all drove down to Waco for a joint belated birthday celebration for all four of us. My crafty mom coined it the BARK Birthday Bonanza...B-brooke, A-ashley, R-reggie, K-kimberly...in date order, too. So crafty that mom of ours is!

Mabry checking out the cake from an aerial view on Poppa

German chocolate. Mmmm...Deelish.

You know you've have a good day when you get to enjoy 2 rounds of cake, both of which had stellar icing :) :) !!!

That night all of the grown ups headed to Diamond Backs for a scrumptious birthday dinner celebration. We had the best time and enjoyed many, many laughs, many of which surrounded debates over hidden-addictions to reality tv. My, my, what has our world come to?!!?

The whole gang, from left to right: Scott, Ash, Brooke, Reg, Jordan, Kimberly, Mom, Dad

What a great few weeks it has been celebrating one birthday after another!!! I tell you what, there must be something about May and June that makes babies magically appear 9 months later.

London was Lovely.. .and Paris - Qui! Qui!

Have you ever needed to blog about something that you know is going to be long, detailed, involve lots of pics, etc...and find yourself putting it off, for oh..hmmm....a week?!?! Enough is enough! I am just going to give you the Reader's Digest version (okay, my best attempt at a short version, at least) of our London and Paris Trip recap.

"Are you traveling for business or pleasure?" customs man asks. "Well, both actually."

Truth be told, the reason for the vaca - business, but it came with a heaping side dish of pleasure ;). Jordan and his family had two half-days of meetings, covering the business part of our travels, but other than that...we were all about the pleasure.

Sidenote: Jordan and I had both been to London before, for 6 weeks actually, while studying abroad with Baylor. But, we went during separate summers, so this time it was especially fun to experience London all over again, together!

We flew out on Friday for London. We arrived in London at 7a.m. Saturday, London time, which was midnight Friday, Texas time. But, no rest for the weary...we were off and running. That day we were up for 36+ hours due to the time change...it was lovely.

While in London we...

Visited the Cabinet War Room (where Winston Churchill ran and called the shots during WW2)

...ate at the oldest known Fish n Chips place -Rock and Sole

...shopped in Covent Garden (the young, trendy area), toured Kensington Palace (Princess Diana's former residence), walked through Hyde Park and saw the nutjobs/crazies vant and rave at Speaker's Corner

...went for a ride on The London Eye

...made an unplanned visit to the South Kensington Police Station (long story)

...ate at Wagamama, which was still just as deelish as J-man and I remembered it 8 years ago
...drank a pint at the famous and nostalgic Waxy O'Conner's, ate pizza late night from a street vendor (a must-do)...


...walked The Tower Bridge

...toured The Tower of London, saw the Crown Jewels...

...toured Westminster Abbey Windy, ehh?
...went to see Wicked. It.Was.Fabulous.

...shopped 'til we dropped at Harrods

... had 'high tea' at Fortnum and Mason

...and did some more great shopping at Fortnum and Mason, too.

Whew...are you tired yet?

Next, we headed to the train station to catch the Eurostar/Chunnel to Paris!

We arrived in Paris late, late Wendesday night and crashed. Thursday morning we were up early and off running again.

During our short stint in Paris we...

Toured and hiked 200+ steps to the top of the Arc de Triomphe

...then headed to Notre Dame

...where we toured the Cathedral

...and Bell Tower (ya know, Quasimoto) where we hiked 600+ more steps

After some hardcore touring in the a.m., we headed to The Eiffel Tower for some relaxation at an amazing lunch midway up the actual Tower at the restuarant Jules Verne. The food, service, and views were all abolutely phenomenal. Nothing better than sipping champagne mid-day atop the Eiffel Tower...ahhh....can we go back yet?!?



Okay, back on track...after the Eiffel Tower we headed back towards our hotel which was just off the Champs de Elysees. On the way back as we strolled down the Champs de Elysees we did some window shopping...some of those stores were a tad too rich for my blood :). That night Jordan and I went out just the 2 of us, and it was SUCH a treat. We walked the streets and stumbled upon this adorable little Italian restaurant( I know, we were in France, but hey, who's counting). We chatted, chomped on tasty pizza and sipped on red wine, all the while soaking in the charm of it all :). Pardon the overly-cheesy-tone...but it was really such a nice, simple, quaint night for us.

Friday morning we were up early again and out the door to the Louvre. We toured for 6 hours (yes, you read that right, 6 hours)...and just about collapsed from exhaustion that afternoon.

Jordan making me laugh. Clearly I must have been delirious ;)

But there was no time to rest...we hopped on the Metro back to hotel and loaded into a cab back to the train station to catch our train back to London. Once back in London it was straight to the hotel and straight to bed, as our flight was awaiting us the next morning for our return home.

The trip was wonderful - the sights, the food, the company, the accomodations, the weather...all of it...wonderful. It was, however, great to be home in the end. I do love traveling, but nothing beats a much needed good night's sleep back in your own bed. And for your information, I was in bed by 7:30pm the night we got home...but give me a break, to my body clock, which was still on Paris time, it was 2:30a.m.

Okay, I have no crafty way to wrap this post up - so- The End.