Special visitor to the office

Today I had a special visitor in the office. Megan wasn't feeling well enough to go to school so, she came in with me. I enjoyed the visit but, it was too short and I have to get some work done at some point. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

Thank you all!!!

Despite all that has gone on the past couple of days, we had a lovely Christmas. While it is too impersonal to thank you all here on the blog, I do wish to post a quick "Thank You" now so that you know how much your thoughts meant to us. We love everything we received.

Christmas at the Clinic

Well it is now officially the holidays. Going back several years our holidays have been marked by illness in this family. Apparently, this year is no different. If memory serves, it was Christmas '05 (maybe not) that we were at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Abigail, became ill out of the blue. We ended up having to find a doctor there in Milpitas who could see us.

Then, for Thanksgiving '06, Abigail (and then later James and Michael) became ill in Maryland. While that did not result in a trip to any doctor or clinic, I can assure you, we were blowing up the 24-hour nurse line back home in Texas.

This year, Abigail has passed the holiday illness torch on to her sister. Sunday night, Megan vomitted. She had eaten a couple of new foods so we didn't think much about it. Monday, Megan was rather lethargic and in the afternoon started getting a fever. It started out as a real low grade fever but in the evening, it climbed up as high as 100.4. That's the magic number where the doctor wants us to bring her in. We hoped it would go down from there but, last night, it spiked up to 103.4. Now there was no getting around it. Megan was officially sick and we needed to get her to a clinic.

Fortunately, our afterhours clinic was open and had appointments available. Apparently, 6:30 AM Christmas morning is not a very busy time for making appointments. Abby was allowed to open presents up this morning and selected her Pinky Dinky Doo books and doll to go with us to the clinic. Megan was diagnosed with an unknown virus and an ear infection in the right ear and a left ear that is poised for one as well. The doctor mentioned that it appears that Megan is really prone to ear infections. At any rate, she prescribed some antibiotic medicine and sent us on our way.

Have any of you tried to get a prescription filled on Christmas Day? Let me tell you, it isn't the easiest thing to do. After calling around to 5 different pharmacies to find one that was open, we took the short car ride over only to find out that it is the only pharmacy open in what seems like the whole state of Texas. They were really short staffed, which is understandable considering the holiday, and very busy. Of course, the two people in front of me in line each had complicated insurance issues that needed to be sorted out. But, when all was said and done, we got our medicine and were on our way.

Now it was 2:00 in the afternoon and none of us had really eaten anything. A quick vote was cast and we decided on a lovely holiday meal of pancakes at our local IHOP. After we ate our fill, we finally got home to try and relax and enjoy what was left of our day. All in all, while the circumstances weren't the best, the company surely was. Danielle would like me to point out that it doesn't matter what we do, as long as we do it as a family.

P.S. I am starting to feel bad myself so, it appears as though Megan snuck in an extra gift for me. Truely, a loving daughter.

Merry Christmas!!!

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Football? Who's winning?

As you may have noticed from the timestamp of this post, we are in the middle of the NFL football game times. My fantasy football team is playing for the title of league champion. Why am I posting to the blog rather than watching football? Well my lovely daughter has decided that she would like to dance her ballet to the Disney Princess DVD and has taken over the TV. This is yet another sacrifice that parents have to make that was not made very clear to me before I became a parent. I never thought I would be watching the Disney Princesses rather than football but, it is a small price to pay to see the smile that it puts on Abby's face.

Trip to a new park

We are visiting our friends Donna and John. I got to play Halo 3 on John's x-box. Totally awesome. John likes my tv so we need to get the two together someday. Danielle and Donna got to do some catching up with each other. It has been way too long. Donna baked up some peppermint brownies that were delicious. Maybe too delicious. Now Abby is suffering from a major sugar rush so, we decided to take a walk. John has taken us over to the local elementary school. Hopefully, we can get some of the sugar out of Abby's system.

Our kids have very different ideas of fun!!

Here the two girls are. The youngest one crawled into Abby's closet and found the car. Here she is looking at us as if to say, "what's the problem? I found a cool toy and I'm playing with it. I don't care if I am trapped in the closet." The oldest one has somehow gotten the idea that she is only pretty if she has on pretty clothes. As much as I tried to talk her out of putting the dress on, and I really couldn't come up with a good excuse as to why she couldn't wear the clothes that she wanted to, she finally won. She did this all by herself. Tights, dress, shoes, and she even changed her panties. As all you women out there would surely testify to, you can't have a pretty dress on if you don't have clean panites (lets keep this G rated, please). I guess they both found something that has made them happy so that is all that matters.

Comments are now easier. I have received enough complaints from people who were not able to leave a comment that I have changed the settings.

Danielle Meets Celebrities

As promised, here are the pictures of Danielle hanging out with our local celebrities. The first picture is of Danielle with Bobby Bones (host of The Bobby Bones Show), co-host Lunchbox, and the producer Carlos. The next two pictures are Danielle with Brad from the TV show The Bachelor. In the final picture, we have included Brad's brother Chad. Chad also was on the show as they tried to trick some of the bachelorettes. Some fell for it and some didn't. Seeing them up close for just the couple of minutes that we had met them, I don't see how they could have fallen for it. Of course, we had the benefit of seeing them both at the same time. At any rate, it was a lot of fun meeting everybody.

Christmas Shopping

Well I have to apologize for not posting some of our latest photos last night like I had said I would. Thursday was the Thomas Properties Christmas (holiday) Party. It was a nice affair with good food, friends, and fun. After the party, Danielle and I stopped in to one of the bars that Brad (the bachelor from the ABC television show) owns. As luck would have it, he and his brother, Chad were there. Also in the bar was a majority of The Bobby Bones radio morning show that we listen to. So in classic fashion, we broke out the camera and Danielle got her picture taken with some local (maybe even national) celebrities. I hope to get those pictures up soon.

Today, we are out doing battle with the other crazy Christmas shoppers. I don't think there is anything more scarry than a tired soccer mom in a minivan making a play for one of the few parking spots. Truely a horrifing sight. Currently we have knocked out a lot and we have a plan in place that should get us done this weekend. Hopefully, we will get it all in the mail on Monday. The two young women shopping with us are waking up from their naps now so it is on to round 2. I will be posting again soon.

Danielle's friend Vicki wants an update. Here it is: we will post something later tonight.

Weather Roller Coaster

We have been on quite the ride here lately. Saturday we saw temps in the 80's. Sunday the warm weather stayed and we saw 85 degree highs and set records for the day. That all ended around 6 or 7 that evening as a cold front came in. Monday's high was the overnight low from Sunday. Our afternoon temperature didn't get out of the 40's. Monday night brought the South winds back and Tuesday was back up to 75 and humid. Last night the winds shifted yet again and we are looking for a high around 50 with a 50% chance of rain. I guess it's true that if you don't like the weather in Texas, wait an hour or so.

Tree Hunting (The Whole Story)

Well, as promised, here are some more pictures and story of our afternoon looking for our Christmas Tree. We went to a tree farm called Evergreen Farms near Elgin, TX. It is a little less than an hour Northeast from our house. We hopped onto the back of a trailer for a short hayride to the trees. We walked around looking for just the perfect tree. Megan seemed to have the best seat in the house but, it was Abigail who found the tree we thought would work best. I cut it down and we had it hauled back to the truck. Once we were back at the parking lot, the rest of the fun began....

The Story Continues...

It didn't take Abby long to figure out that there was a campfire (because we needed the warmth that it provided) and marshmallows. Once she saw it she quickly claimed that she wanted a Marshmallow Sandwich so, we had S'Mores. Since Megan did not get to stretch her legs out much as we looked for our tree, I took her over to a nice little grassy area so that she could crawl around a bit. She tried to eat all of the grass and leaves that were around so if I wasn't taking a picture, I was taking things out of her hands or mouth. Over all, we all had a really enjoyable day.

Year Round Shorts!?!

Notice the shorts. I will admit, even for Texas this is unusual. Today, the weather is supppsed to be sunny and 85.

Christmas Tree Hunting

We off looking for our Christmas Tree. Abby is most excited about the hay ride. More pictures and story later.

Last Minute Posting

Abigail has decided that she wants to take her stuffed horse to school for show and tell. I remembered that we had a picture of her riding the horse and asked her if she wanted to take that as well. She said yes, so in addition to printing one out for her, I thought I would post one up here as well. This was from the neighborhood "Front Porch Days". The developer/HOA invites the neighborhood out to a party that spans the whole community. It has always been lots of fun. This past time, I even participated in a golf tournament and I got a visit to the podium. It was a lot of fun. Anyway, I am late for work so I will get going. More later.

Danielle's rediscovered hobby

Danielle loves to craft. These crafts include stamping, cross stitch & crocheting. With 2 kids you can imagine there is not much time for these hobbies. However, recently she has rediscovered crocheting. Her & her boss have even gone as far as starting a lunch group. Also known as The Finer Things Club. The project you see here was a special request by Abigail. She asked for a blanket for her nap time at school. They went to the craft store & Abigail picked the yarn. As soon as they got home, Danielle got right to work. As of today, the banket is about 1/4 done.

Nice day

I wish I had the good camera with me. Today is a beautiful clear day. Definately a day where I could get awesome pictures of downtown. For now however, this will have to do.

The testing is going/has gone well. We will soon be able to post to the blog via our phones. Danielle will really like this capability.

Test with photo

Testing

Princess Day

Back on the 17th, our local grocery store hosted a Disney Princess party (conveniently done in conjunction with the unveiling of the Enchanted party supply release). Of course our little princess wanted to go. I have to give them credit, they put on a fun party. Painting fingernails, making bracelets or necklaces, cake, and story time. Anyway, I thought I would share some of the pictures. Enjoy.