I've been MIA

Ok Ok I know I have done a terrible job at keeping this blog up and running but with a new baby on the way I decided to try and do my best to chronicle our family memories. Alot has happened in our life since my last post and I will try to sum it up as best I can.
Tyler is in 10th grade this year and making all A's and Bryce is in second grade and making all A's as well. Eric and I are so proud of their efforts and accomplishments. We added a four legged member to our family last Christmas. His name is Ziggy. He is a yorkie-russell and has every bad trait of each breed! But as bad as he can be he is also a sweet kind addition to our family. This past summer we found out that Bryce has developed several more food allergies so in total there are 32 foods he is allergic to. This has made life a little more difficult especially when trying to make sure he gets the right mix of carbs, fats, protiens, etc. He has done very well on his elimination diet and has not had any anaphylaxis episodes in several months. He is continuously having different tests run on him due to his illness but no one would ever know he's sick by looking at him...he looks the picture of health! We also found out in August that God had a different route for our family to take as we had decided not to have anymore children. We will be expecting another sweet little boy in April.
Our family has experienced many heart aches grief and pain this past year but the good things God has given us has outweighed all of the bad that he has allowed to happen in our lives. We are so blessed to have each other and I look forward to sharing our lives with you...again.

Beach

Wow it has been soooo long since I updated. Tons of things have been going on here lately but the most important thing was our vacation! We took a little vacation to Destin this past week. We weren't able to stay long this time because Eric had to take off work to go, but it was still a wonderful trip. We left Tupelo early Thursday morning with another family and my mom and aunt hoping to only be on the road about 7-8 hours. Well apparently no one in our caravan knew how to read road signs and we missed two turns before breakfast. Then Eric decided he would lead the pack and got in front and ended up getting a ticket! What a way to start the trip. We stopped in Meridian about 8 to eat breakfast and it took so long for them to fix it that we were there for 2 hours. Back on the road at 10 and next thing we knew Bryce was car sick. We pulled over for him to puke and my mom and I decided we would go potty in the woods. As we walked up the hill the ground cover got thicker and I noticed something moving. Next thing I know a snake slithered by my feet. Well I wasn't gonna tinkle in the wood with that snake! It's a wonder I didn't tinkle from the fright. Any way back on the road and we made it to Destin about 3:30. We checked into our house and unloaded our bags. We decided to go ahead and have supper before the rush so we headed back toward the harbor to eat at AJ's. The food was really good. The restaraunt is right on the harbor so you could watch the boats coming in and out and watch the fishermen cleaning their catch. After dinner we put our swimming duds on and headed to the beach. This was Eric and Bryce's first time to the beach so I wasn't sure if they would like it but the LOVED it. It was such a perfect time of night to go. The sun was setting and the waves were more bountiful. We played for hours then headed back to the house. The next day we got up early and headed to the beach with all our tents and chairs and umbrellas. We got ready to start setting up on the beach that belonged to our resort and some guy came and told us we couldn't set up the tent!!!! I was a little ticked and he could tell so he told us that we could go a few feet further down and set up there so we did. We stayed on the beach all day and had picnic lunch. Then we headed to go parasailing. I wanted to do it just once in my life but it's too expensive for my whole family to ever do again! It was beautiful. Me and Bryce went up together and you could see schools of huge fish and we even saw a sting ray. It was so relaxing and you could really see alot. After that we headed back for showers. Mom and Donna kept the kids and the adults had date night. Eric and I ended up at TGIFridays. We didn't want seafood again and we kinda wanted to keep the bill small. We enjoyed our dinner and headed down to the beach. We sat on the beach for about 2 hours just talking and watching the people. While there we saw people crabbing, and hunting with metal detectors, we watched fire works shows and were able to see the lunar eclipse. It was so peaceful and we really enjoyed our time together. The next morning we got up and headed down to the harbor to catch a boat for snorkling. They took us out to the jettys and we were able to see tons of fish and jellyfish. Our snorkling guide caught a jellyfish to keep it from stinging someone and I ended up getting stung by a stray tentacle but it didn't hurt. We then headed back to shower and do some shopping. We did what little damage we could on our pocketbooks and headed back to the house to grill out and play a game of phase 10. On our way home yesterday we stopped at Mobile and toured the USS Alabama and the USS Dunn. We definitely crammed alot in in 3 days. Eric liked it so much that he said we would definitely come back next year and probably stay a whole week. I got a few pics that I hope you enjoy.
The long ride

The Randolph's

Playing on the beach at sunset

Bryce and Aleigha

Tyler and his sand boobs

Bryce loved the clear waters

Eric and Tyler parasailing

You can't tell because Eric isn't the best photographer, but that's me and Bryce

Date night

Sunset photo shoot









USS Alabama

Battleship Park Mobile Alabama

View of the Gulf from the ship

View of the planes from the ship

It's My Birthday!!!!

Well today I am officially still not 30!!!!(but I will be next year) I have to say that when I look back on my life, nothing is what I thought it would be but I wouldn't have it any other way. When you are a kid and you dream about your future spouse or kids or house or job, you always think it's gonna be that way. So anyway, I have to say that for my birthday I got the best husband and kid in the world. Yesterday (my birthday eve) Eric and I spent alot of the day in the yard. I trimmed some shrubs and mulched one of my flower beds and Eric mowed and weedeated...and killed a snake! Bryce was an angel he did almost everything I asked him to do and he even made his bed! That's a huge thing for him cuz he always wants help. Eric had been invited to a poker game and he really really wanted to go. But here's the thing, he played poker on my birthday last year! I couldn't let him do it again. I told him I wanted to go out and that I got a babysitter. He was so sweet and took me to Olive Garden. We both had chicken rollatini and we ordered a bottle or Reunite Lambrusco. It was a delicious meal. He took me to Best Buy ( not at all my favorite store) and bought me a movie that I picked out. It was a 2 for deal with Serendipity and Kate and Leopold. I haven't ever seen either one of them so I am looking forward to watching them. I am on vacation this week! I'm so glad to have a few days to rest and relax and catch up on things. My only plans are today we are eating at my parents after church for my birthday, I'm eating lunch w/ Stefanie tomorrow, going to Muscle Shoals Wednesday, Bryce's kindergarten graduation is Thursday. Well looks like my week isn't going to be as restful as I had hoped, but I'm sure gonna enjoy it!

Me and Eric before my B'day dinner

Bryce's fish hanging in the GumTree Museum of Art (its the green and blue one)

Me Eric Joe and Marcia. Joe left for Afghanistan this week. We had a going away outing for him a few weeks ago.

Stitches and everything else

Bryce had to get stitches today! I was on my way back to work from lunch and my phone rang...it was his teacher telling me that Bryce fell. She said it wasn't just a scratch and she thought I might want to look at it. I thought it might just be a scrape but nope it was a gash. I decided to take the afternoon off and take him to the doctor. Sure enough she had to numb him up, clean it up and give him a stitch. We had discussed how it might look like he might have a catterpillar on his leg but he only needed one so it looks like a cross. I thought it fitting that his stich looked like a cross because the doctor's in the office we go to are very religious and have crosses and bible verses everywhere. In the room that we were in a crosstiched bookmark was framed and on the bookmark it read "Be still and know that I am God." Wow what a verse to see when you are a scared 6 year old fixin to get stitches for the first time. We talked about the verse and how it might hurt to get the shots but God is right there with us and that his arms would be wrapped around Bryce. Now for the everything else. Alot has been going on and I don't really know where to start. Bryce has been able to add soy and corn back into his diet but we are still really slow about it. We don't want him to get in the shape he was a few months ago. We visited the farm last week for a field trip. I took off work to go and we had a good fun day. I had to get onto Bryce a few time cuz he's a bit of a ladies man. I kept turning around a seeing him with his arm around a girl or vice versa. Mom told me he gets that from me but I didn't start until I was at least 12. Tyler is still doing good in school...his last report card was like all 96 and above grades. I told him he needed to apply his self more and bring home a better report card next time. Of course I was joking. Eric finished his College Algebra course. He ended up with a B! I'm so proud of him for being able to work as hard as he does and to do so well in school. He is enrolling in A&P I in the fall. I hope he can ace that one too. My friend Stefanie was telling us that being his age and that he is not on scholarships he will probably be more likely to get into any program even though he might not have straight A's. I have been working pretty hard. I normally work 4 days a week, but this one and next will be 5 day weeks. We are getting as many patients in as we can cuz we will be on vacation May 16-25. I can't wait to have some me time. My mother in law gave me a facial for my birthday so I will have that done that week and I plan to finally finish my yellow hall I started in March. Other than that, not much else has happened. Enjoy the pics of the farm that I posted.

Riding the trailer pulled by a tractor.

feeding the catfish

Bryce and his buds on the train ride

feeding the goats

visiting the greenhouse. (he's asking if we can get out of there)

Easter Bunnies, Spring Time and...Is That Alan Jackson?

As I'm typing right now my dear sweet Bryce is having a total meltdown. One of the things I had planned to type about is his health. He is feeling much better!!! Thank goodness. We visited the allergist last Friday and he gave us the go ahead to start incorporating soy. Since then it has been much easier to find products for him to eat. He can also have some things from fast food restaurants. The meltdown is about french fries from Burger King. I said no... Eric said yes, and Bryce squalled! This has been the hardest thing our family has dealt with so far and I know this is just a notch in our family's belt and more hard times will come and go. Bryce deals with everything pretty good until there is an unexpected event at school that I wasn't notified about. A few weeks ago the PTO had an honor's breakfast and didn't inform the parents. Bryce was invited and couldn't eat a thing. Luckily mom had some snacks in her classroom that he could eat instead. It really broke my heart when I found out that afternoon about it. People don't think about things like food allergies unless they have them. This morning mom called me before I left the house and informed me they were having a Japanese party and she needed to know where she could get some sushi for him to eat. I am so greatful that she is at the school with him to read labels and make sure he doesn't feel left out of party's and things. We had a really quiet Easter. Bryce didn't want to go to the church egg hunt, so we colored what was in the fridge (4 eggs) and hid them in our back yard. He invited his buddies Eddie and Erin over to hunt them with him. They had a really good time. I have started trying to run at least 3 days a week. I'm hoping that I will be able to eventually run 5k. (and look hot!) Eric and Tyler went to see Alan Jackson last night. They took my camera but I wouldn't have known it was Alan Jackson if he hadn't had the hat on...they were a little blurry! I will post later when I get more time with some other things we've been doing.

Seminar in D.C.

Last week I was on vacation which was totally nice! It was cut short due to a seminar for a new bracket system that we are using in the office. We left Thursday morning for the airport. We landed in Washington that afternoon and took a cab to the hotel. After settling in we went to Union Station and had dinner. It's HUGE!!! It has a mall and great food court in it. After we shopped and ate we took a night tour of the city and monuments. It was really georgeous to see all of the monuments lit up but I didn't get as good pictures as I would have liked. The next day we had seminar and then went out to dinner at West End Bistro. It is owned by renowned chef Eric Ripert. It was really good. The atmosphere wasn't too stuffy and the food was excellent. I wasn't feeling well afterwards so I walked back to the hotel and spent the rest of the night watching TLC. Of course the next day we had seminar again but it ended early and we ate lunch at Bread and Chocolate. It was good too. Afterwards we headed for a short walk into Georgetown. Oh my goodness that place was packed. There are tons of shops such as Kate Spade, Steve Madden, etc. We chose to go to Ben and Jerry's (ice cream) since we felt it was more in our price range. I found a cute little souvenier shop on one of the side streets and was able to find us all a T shirt. We headed back to catch a cab to the airport and were home a few hours later. I wish I'd had more time to sight see but I'm not complaining since the boss took care of all expenses. Here are some pics of my trip. Hope you enjoy.

We stayed at the Westin Grand
The view of 24th st from my room

The view of M st from my room

Union Station

Washington Monument

Does anyone know what this building is? I recognized it from high school history but can't remember what it is.

White house

back of Jefferson Memorial

front of Jefferson Memorial

Thomas Jefferson



These next few pics were taken at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. It had many statues and lots of verses engraved on the walls from FDR's speeches. Some of them really hit home to what our country is dealing with at the present time. Hope Obama takes a tour of this one soon and uses FDR's wisdom for leading our country.


The next two photos are from the Korean War Memorial. The feeling of seeing all the statues as if they were in combat was chilling. My pictures didn't turn out as well as I would have hoped but it was absolutely beautiful.


I made sure that I took plenty of pictures at the Lincoln Memorial. Bryce really has learned alot about the presidents and Lincoln is one of his favorites. Can you see the snow still on the ground... it was beautiful.


The last thing we saw was the WWII Marines Monument. It is outside Arlington National Cemetary which we didn't get to see :( but everything was just so breathtaking and humbling to see where our country has come and where it's headed.


Here is the Old Stone House in Georgetown. It was built in 1776 or so. It's the oldest building left standing in Georgetown. The last picture is of Gtown row houses. These houses cost upwards of 2-3 million to purchase. How rediculous is that. And I thought it was crazy to spend much more than 200k on one!

It's not as yellow as I thought

Ok so I got a little too anxious over the mustard walls. After finishing it and hanging my paintings and frame it looks great! I still need to get a hall table and lamp to go under the art, but it's really not as bright as I thought it would be. It's warming up on me. Heres a pic of the almost final project.