So many new things going on...

Well, for those of you that haven't heard, I got into the doctorate program that I applied for. I'm not sure what in the world I'm thinking. Since I have not been working, I just keep finding more and more things to do with myself. I'm excited about it though. I am signing up for classes tomorrow. We'll see...
As for other goings ons...I am getting into some other things that I'm not quite ready to blog about. Silly, I know, but I'm super excited about all of it. I am planning a Walk for the Fall of 2011 for the Hydrocephalus Association. I'm REALLY excited about that. So, for any of you out there that are reading this and have been involved with planning any kind of event like this...PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE let me know and talk to me soon. I have an awesome girlfriend from church that is helping out, but we are doing this from scratch.
Anyways, I will let you all know about the other stuff when I figure them all out myself.
Just a quick update, Ema has gotten sick three times since Wednesday. Hunter and I are really nervous about it. She has a cold, so we are praying that it is from the drainage. I hope that is what is causing her to get sick. Please keep our little angel in your prayers.
Hunter and my Bible study is going great. I can't wait to talk more about it. David Platt is unbelievable to read. He really lets you have it. Everything he says is harsh truth, but all Christians need to hear it. OK, I keep saying I'll tell you later and keep rambling.
More to come.

Just catching up

I have had a fun-filled couple of weeks. The kids and I have been on the go every day. We've been to Pump It Up, Chick-Fil-A playground, My mom's work to visit Granny like 3 times. We fed the ducks at Island Cove (aka LoretMarina), the Warner Park Zoo and on and on...

Hunter and I have switched Sunday School classes at church. I had to give up my sweet angels and am teaching the senior girls this year. Hunter is teaching the Junior and Senior boys. He's so excited. This is the class he had our first year in the youth group and loved them. I, on the other hand, have a challenge before me.

I'm not real sure what to say. There are some really good girls in this class. They are eager to learn and are eager to go to college and be witnesses for the Lord. Then there are the girls who do nothing but stir up trouble. These are the girls who are mad at me because I told them on the first day that "I don't expect much from them. I'm very laid back. I do, however, expect at least 15-20 minutes of their time for the lesson." Apparently, these girls feel that I am just there to babysit while they socialize. I have to say that this year is going to be a challenge.

Now, when I say challenge, I don't neccessarily think that it's going to be a bad one. I'm just not sure where it's going to go. A few of the girls have made it clear they are going to be disrespectful, and I have made it clear that I'm still the adult. This is where being a Christian comes in...I stayed up for two nights unable to sleep over this. Then I realized what I was doing all over again.

Just because I gave my job situation to the Lord, doesn't give me the right to sit around and stress about all of the other stressful situations in my life. So, here and now, it is in His hands. Sunday morning is going to be interesting. I am praying for guidance as to where to take my lesson and what to do with the lecture that will follow the lesson. I haven't fully decided whether or not I'm going to say anything. At the same time, I was talking to Hunter last night about the whole thing. What he said makes complete since...It's just like with our children, if we let a behavior go on that we don't agree with and try to punish them for it 6 months after they've been doing it for, well, 6 months, it's a whole lot harder to make them understand why we are correcting them at that point as opposed to correcting them from the beginning.

So, just keep me in your prayers on Sunday. It's going to be interesting.

Until then, we are heading to a family reunion tomorrow then out with some friends tomorrow night.

PA-CERTIFIED!!!!

So, this started as a short blurb and apparently became a fill-in the blog where I left off for 6 months. I know I explained in my quick 6 month re-cap that I had to retake my boards. Let me just tell you how it went down...

I went to grad school for 2 1/2 years and scheduled my boards which are required to practice as a "board-certified PA" (go figure). Marie, my closest and dearest friend from PA school, and I took a certification/recertification review class about one month after graduation that was a 5 day, all day class. I then got home and banned my husband from our basement for another 10 days and studied my brains off. I took the test as scheduled and waited impatiently for 8 days to see my score. Marie did the same. We took the test a few days apart. Finally, after checking the NCCPA's (I guess you would call them the official board of the above mentioned "Boards" Tehehe) website approximately 30 times daily, I logged on one day and instead of there being no information about me, meaning I was nothing more than a student, there was an official number. I had an NCCPA number. What did that mean? I was board certified for 6 years as long as I kept up the appropriate requirements...CME, payments etc.

Sooooo, along came 2009. I am actually allowed to start retaking the test in my 5th year which would have given me 8 chances to take the test, if necessary. I am allowed to take it once every 90 days. I was a little busy having an Emalinn in 2009, so I kinda didn't even begin to think about taking it last year. Sometime in December 2008 I started getting things together to study. Note I said, "getting things together to study." I then forgot about it until the beginning of this year.

Next step, I talked with my boss and set up my CME for the year. Exciting trip to Chicago. IF you have not heard about it. It goes like this. It was originally supposed to be earlier in the year and in Dallas. I was still nursing Ema when that trip was scheduled. So, my mom offered to go and help with her while I was in class. We decided to invite my aunt, her sister, so that she could have company as well. Unfortunately, it fell at the same time that Ema was at Vanderbilt the first time this year. Through many phone calls, letters from doctors and other favors, we managed to get our trip changed to June to Chicago. We left out on a Sunday afternoon. My classes started on Monday at 7 am and went until 6pm. This went on for 4 days!!! They were nice enough on Friday to make it only be from 7 am to 2pm so that people could get out of that joint! Every night consisted of a 2 - 3 hour take-home test as well. FUN IT WAS NOT!!! To top it all off. On day three, I convinced Mom and Judy to go to a Sushi/Japanese restaurant...not a good idea. Approximately two or three hours after we got back, I woke up and proceeded to start barfing and then the diarrhea started. It lasted for over 12 hours. I had FOOD POISONING. If you have never had it, there is no way to describe it. I won't just because it was disgusting. I could not hold my head up the next day. I missed the entire day of classes. I was barely able to get up on Friday to go to class PLUS we had to pack up and fly home. All of this with a 13-month-old. It was brutal to say the least.

Even though the food poisoning happened, I still managed to get a really good review. I mean, I haven't studied about Cardiology and Nephrology and blah, blah, blah-ologies in forever. I had planned to come home and work for a couple of days, take off two days to review, then take my test. Unfortunately, my boss did not have a concept of what this test entailed; therefore, I believe her official quote was "we can't shut the office down for you to take some test." (Don't get me wrong, she has always been extremely giving and generous. I just don't think she understood.) So, I kept putting it off and putting it off because I couldn't get a few days off in a row to study.

THEN came the lay off. I was laid off on July 1st and given a month to "find a job." I decided to take it in the beginning of August since I was getting on into July and didn't have a job. I scheduled it for August 11. I started studying every day as many hours as I could. On days that I had babysitters, I left the house and studied all day. I even went to UTC and studied in an empty office down there. (I have an awesome cousin that works down there and is always helping me out, so she let me use one of the empty offices their department). Marie took the test about two weeks before I did. She was so depressed after taking it that she couldn't hold back from telling me that it was unbelievably hard. She was certain there was no way she passed. She then got her email three days later that told her to go to the NCCPA website to see if she passed or failed. SHE PASSED!!! She didn't take a review class but studied a review classes' live CD, so she was for sure I would pass.

AUGUST 11...I felt good about it. After practicing for 6 years, the review class seemed to make so much more sense. I knew that I didn't know everything that I need to know about medicine, but I felt confident that I could pass the test...until I actually took it. I sat in this testing center for 5 sections that were each an hour long and consisted of 60 questions. There was also a 45 minute break that I could use however I wanted throughout the sessions. It was insane. There were questions on the test about stuff I've never heard of in my life. I walked out of there exhausted and extremely depressed about it. I, of course, called and vented to Marie. I then went home to wait the "up to 2 - 3 weeks" to receive my scores.

Yesterday, I happened to get online on the actual computer and not my cell phone...never happens these days. There it was. An email from the NCCPA. Dear Ms. McLaughen, Your exam scores are available for review. My favorite part was the two seperate paragraphs. One with instructions that started "If you have passed" and the "If you have not passed." I was in tears before I could open the, oh by the way already extremely slow website!!!!! My hands could literally barely type in that NCCPA board certification number that I memorized 6 years ago. There it was in black and white...PASSED.

THANK YOU LORD FOR ALL OF YOUR BLESSINGS!

P.S. SIDE NOTE for those who have not had food poisoning. I have eaten sushi for over 10 years. My most favoritist food is sushi. My most favoritist sushi is Tuna. I got sick on sushi. I got sick on Tuna! As tradition for our anniversary, Hunter and I go to Hiroshi's and splurge on a fabulous sushi dinner. This was the first time I had it since the episode. I couldn't do it. I wasn't able to eat it. It literally was like stuck in my throat. It's going to take some time. I don't even know if I'll ever be able to do it. It really is no fun!!!

It's Been a While

Well, a million and one things have happened in our lives since the last time I blogged. I had started some posts about Ema and our hospital experiences. Those never got finished and were left in the saved part of my blog. Everyone knows what happened with her so, I guess it's fair to say I'll leave those where they are.
Unfortunately, 2010 has continued to be a whale of a year for us! I was laid off from my job in July. My boss had to file bankruptcy and was unable to keep me on. I'm kind floundering right now. I've had a couple of interviews which have just been, eh! I haven't heard back from either one of them, so I don't guess it matters...
SOOOOO, I've decided that all I can do is turn EVERYTHING over to God. I can worry and stress and everything else all I want, but it will not do me any good and it won't change a thing. God has a plan for our family, and I'm going to be patient and wait for him to show me that plan. Hunter has gone back to work and is actually enjoying it! That's a good thing. I have gotten to spend a lot of time with the kiddos lately and that has been wonderful.
As for Ema, she has started walking. Cannot believe it! Her neurosurgeon had kinda tried to prepare us that she may not walk well, blah, blah, blah and that it may not be for a while, blah, blah, blah. Hunter says he was just trying to keep us from getting our hopes up. Whatever he was doing it doesn't matter. She's fattened up and is walking like she owns the world these days. To us, these things are not little victories. They are huge, and she is doing it because she is God's special little girl! We are so excited to see her doing so well.
On another note...I had to take my boards again this past week. As a PA, I have to do this every six years. I studied and studied and am not real certain I passed, but I can at least say I tried. I have another chance to take it in November if I didn't pass it.
Also, Hunter's grandmother is in the hospital after having had hip surgery. She is doing well, but it will be a long road to recovery. I just ask that everyone keep her in your prayers. She's an amazing woman and has the strength of ten women and an amazing faith in God. I know she will do well.
Well, that's all I can think of for now. I'm going to have to do better about keeping everyone updated. It seems I may have some time on my hands...........................

Not the Boudreaux's Again!!

Well, not too long ago (during the summer, I think) the boys were supposed to be napping while I was gone to get my hair done and Hunter was downstairs napping. Unfortunately, that's not what they were doing. See above pictures!

They had gotten a hold of the "Vat" of Buttpaste that we keep in their room for diaper changes and managed to put it on every inch of each other's bodies. This mishap ultimately resulted in their first haircut!

Well, today was a new day. Hunter called me late in the day when I had to stay late at work to let me know that I was going to have a little work to do when I got home. He had to referee his first soccer game of the Spring season tonight, and the boys had a second mishap with the diaper rash medicine (we had Desitin this time instead of Boudreaux's because, according to Hunter, it was way cheaper). It was much more of a disaster this time.

There was Desitin in the carpet, on their beds on every piece of stuffed animal, blanket, sheet, etc in their beds. It was great! Lesson learned for the second time...Put the Boudreaux's out of reach!

EMA IS DOING GREAT!!!!!!!!!

OK, so we went to Vanderbilt on Monday, February 22. It was her first 3 month follow up appointment since her surgery in October.

Just to update those of you who didn't know...Ema started crawling at 6 months old. Yes, for those of you who don't have kids, that's early! She started pulling up at 7 months old and cruising shortly thereafter. Again, for those of you who don't know, that's early! She isn't walking yet, but that's next. She has started letting go and holding onto things with one hand. She is daredevil Ema!

So, back to all of her doctor's appointments. She went to see Dr. Tulipan, the neurosurgeon at Vanderbilt. It's hard to describe how nervous you get going to one of these appointments. I was "acting out" prior to her appointment (yes, that is my term, b/c I think it describes things quite well). In other words, I was just in a bad mood. It was because I was stressed out. I don't mean to get that way, but I did. It's so hard not to get nervous about going. No matter how well we think she's doing, there is always the possibility that there is something going on that we don't realize. So, anyways, Dr. Tulipan initially asked what she was doing, what milestones she had reached, etc. One of his questions was, well, I guess she's too young to be doing... Our answer was of course, well maybe she's too young but she's doing...It felt very good to say all of these things. I can't tell you how proud it made us and how relieved it made us. He seemed quite impressed with all of the things she is doing. That being said, there is still always the possibiity of the shunt malfunctioning, so we have to continue to see him. He wants to see us back in three months when she is a year old (THAT is a whole other blog...how can my little baby girl be turning 1!!!!). After her 1 year appointment, he will see her once a year. That is such a relief to us. We are totally out of the woods with infection of her shunt. Now we just watch for malfunctioning or for her to outgrow it. I can't help but to continue to worry, but Hunter and I did get some relief out of her good visit. While we were in the car in Nashville longer than we were in his office, it was nice to get good news.

Next stop...Ema's 9 month check-up with Dr. Stephanie...the regular pediatrician. A mere 4 days later.

OOPS...I meant to blog about this past weekend.

Well, this past weekend we had a good weekend. We had a Friday night with my parents which was fun.

So....get this...Hunter went with my dad and his friend Justin to do some "fun, manual labor," and my mom and I decided to take the kiddos with us all day. We went to McKay's and dug through the children's DVDs for whatever it was that the boys wanted us to get for them. We then decided it would be a good idea to take them to the mall to finish running our errands...that was fun. (With that period at the end of that the sentence I need you all to read some sarcasm). We finally drug them out of The Children's Place and my mom proceeded to sit in the car with them and watch a DVD (that we just bought) while I finished running my errands.

Sunday, after we had an awesomely disasterous lunch with the kiddos at P.F. Changs...no, chopsticks are not the same as drumsticks....we headed to a birthday party at The Little Gym. It was a blast. The kids had a ball and we all had fun. Coming soon..update on Ema and her doctor's appointment at Vanderbilt.

Shut-up...Oh, and Happy Valentine's Weekend

We have had a good weekend this weekend. Even though I was on call, the hospital was pretty quiet. Unfortunately, Hunter usually gets a break from the kids on the weekends when I'm home, but my call weekends he doesn't get a break unless we get a babysitter. On top of that, it was a long weekend. So....I had to take call Friday through Tuesday. He REALLY didn't get a break.
Anyways, we went to dinner with my parents on Friday which was fun as normal. Saturday was pretty busy. We had a babysitter and my sweet hubby had Valentine's plans for us. Even though it was a day early, Sundays are super hectic at our house, so we took the day we were able to get a sitter...Saturday it was!! Right before the in-laws came over to baby-sit...The boys insisted on dressing up like "Woody.

The rest of our fun Weekend!!

Anyways, we went to dinner with my parents on Friday which was fun as normal. Saturday was pretty busy. We had a babysitter and my sweet hubby had Valentine's plans for us. Even though it was a day early, Sundays are super hectic at our house, so we took the day we were able to get a sitter...Saturday it was!! Right before the in-laws came over to baby-sit...The boys insisted on dressing up like "Woody.Since Valentine's day is one of our little first date anniversaries, we make it pretty special each year. We alternate the responsibility of plans every other year. This year was Hunter's year to plan. He ordered tickets online for the movie Valentine's day and we went to dinner at Big River before. The new theater downtown is so nice!!! The movie was great and we had a nice date!
Sunday was typical craziness! We went to church and I went to the hospital afterwards. I actually had plans with a girlfriend for her birthday on Sunday night. It was nice to get together with friends. I don't do it much, but I really had a good time.
Monday I did rounds and hung out at the house for the rest of the day. For those of you that are keeping track...My mom came over and babysat like normal and I did let Hunter go run errands, go to the gym, etc! He got a little break. I cooked dinner and we had a nice quiet evening at home.
I love my little family!! By the way....The title might be a little confusing. When I started blogging, our darling little angel Cooper was in the middle of getting in trouble with his Nana for telling her to shut-up! AWESOME!! What's great is, when I got home and told him we needed to talk about the bad word that he said to Nana. He proceeded to tell me when asked, Did you say a bad word to Nana, and I quote..."But Mommy, I didn't say a bad word. I didn't tell Nana to Shut-up!" Oh, little ones. It's great!
Just to let you know, Emalinn will be going to Vanderbilt on Monday! More updates to come! Another birthday party this weekend, too. We went to Pump It Up two weekends ago, and the boys had a blast. This weekend it's The Little Gym!! I can't wait to take them b/c they have so much fun.

How long HAS it been??

Well, I feel terrible that I haven't blogged in so long! I had a few saved blogs about the holidays, etc, but it kinda feels unimportant to post them at this point.
I think I'm going to catch you all up by saying we had an absolutely amazingly blessed Christmas. The kiddos made it the most fun Christmas I have ever had! We got to see ALL of the family and it was great.
We're back to the grindstone like everyone else is at this point.
I started thinking about how I wanted to use the blog to help everyone keep up with Ema's goings ons...soooooo, we are going back to Vanderbilt on the 22nd of this month. She has her NINE MONTH check up the following Friday. I cannot believe she is going to be a year old in just 3 months!
For those of you that don't know already, she started crawling in November!! For those of you that don't realize the importance of that...SHE WAS ONLY 6 MONTHS OLD! We cannot believe how advanced she seems to be with all of her motor skills. Ironic? I do believe so! She plays in the corral that we were given for the boys when they started becoming mobile (P.S. They didn't crawl until almost 8 months!). She has now decided that she cannot possibly keep up with the boys by merely crawling. She walks the entire length of the corral holding on. We are in for it! We're going to have a 9 month old starting to walk!! Now if we could just get our almost 3 year olds to use the potty! Score 1 for Ema in the advanced department. Score -1000 for the boys in the potty department.
Any suggestions to make them WANT to go in the potty??? I'm in desperation here! The boys cannot go back to school at Silverdale if they don't use the potty! No diapers in the 3 year old class!!

Sick Week!

Well, it's been tons of fun at my house this past weekend and week.
Ema had to go for her 6 month check-up where she was found to be almost 16 pounds. That's right! My 6 month old daughter weighs more than half of what my two year old sons weigh! FATTY!!! Anyways, she had diarrhea when we went to the doctor that day, but she seemed to think that Ema was looking ok, so she just told me to keep fluids in her and make sure that she was essentially getting the BRAT diet. Ema got 5 (that's right FIVE) shots that day. So, when I woke up the next morning and found her to have a fever with beet red legs, it was not great. We had a time of it over the next day or so. I had to give her Tylenol every four hours for a couple of days. She DID manage to continue to have the diarrhea for days! Actually, she still has it as I am writing this!
Unfortunately, she gave me the diarrhea. Cooper had a little bit of it, too. Good side of this, again, as I am writing this blog, Ethan and Hunter feel fine! I worry about Ema getting sick more than anything. I'm not sure what I can do, but I hate to think that it could be anything that could affect her shunt. I know that sounds crazy, and rationally, I know it won't worsen things. I just worry! I had to miss two days of work which stinks, but sometimes, there's absolutely nothing you can do about missing work or things that you really need to do.
Well, I'm going to go hang out with my hubby for the few minutes we get at night!

Thanksgiving was so crazy, I'm just getting to blog about it...

Well, my first annual Thanksgiving dinner was a success! We spent all day the day before getting the house cleaned for the 19th time. Then we managed to entertain two house guests (AKA - My niece and her boyfriend who were a HUGE help). Then we had dinner guest on Wednesday night b/c Hunter's brother and our sister-in-law came over to visit with us and see the kiddos! It was hectic, but I still managed to get my 23 (that's right I said TWENTY-THREE) pound turkey ready and in the fridge to be cooked Thursday am!

I got up at 6:30 to feed Ema and put the Turkey in the oven. It cooked for 6 hours! When we went to move it from the roasting pan to the platter, it fell apart. It was so moist and juicy!! YUMMY! Everyone started arriving around 3 or later. We ate at 5 and it was a wonderful dinner. I've never seen so much food in my life!!! It was crazy. We had to clear off a counter in the kitchen just for the desserts there were so many. Maybe I over-planned...oh well, it was great!
I spent all day Black Friday at the mall. It was crazy. I managed to shop for 13 hours. I got a lot of Christmas shopping done.
We took the kids to my in-laws on Saturday and spent the whole day decorating the house for Christmas.
All and all it was a great holiday! We managed to have a successful Turkey day with 25 people in our house and spend good quality family time together!
I love our family and we are so blessed with how much love and caring we have in our lives. I'm not sure what we'd do without them sometimes!

What a Call Weekend

Well, I guess I've come to the point where I don't have time to stop and blog until the weekend is over.
I was on call this weekend and since I was off to take Ema to the Doctor on Monday, so I worked Friday (BLAH!!). Over the course of the three day call weekend, I had 18 patients in the hospital. Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness! (A little Annie reference for ya!) I had a Silpada jewelry party in the middle of rounding, so I ended up going to the hospital twice on Saturday and worked 7 1/2 hours!! ARGH!!! Anyways, I've never been so excited to see a Monday in my entire life! I miss my kids so much more when I don't get to spend the weekend with them!!
I'm soooooo excited about Thanksgiving! Only a few short days and way too much to do! Then there's BLACK FRIDAY!!!
There will be tons to blog about this week...

Ema's Dr. Appt

Well, we went to Nashville yesterday. This time it was only Hunter, Ema and me. (Me IS grammatically correct here!!! - Inside joke!) After waiting a little over an hour, we saw Dr. Tulipan. He felt like Ema looked good and that she was doing well. He gave us some examples of things to look for to know if the shunt is malfunctioning and is planning to see us in three months. We only have to see him two more times until she turns 1, then we go to seeing him once a year unless something happens to the shunt.
What amazing news!!! It was a long trip to get the news, but it was worth it.
Hunter and I came home and went to his Referee banquet last night. I've actually got an entire Thanksgiving Menu prepared (ahead of time!!!). I'm so excited about it this year. It collectively will be organized chaos...What fun!

More Weekend

Well, I got to spend the day with the fam on Saturday. Hunter went to watch the horrible UT/Ole Miss disaster with some friends and I hung out with the kiddos. 2 1/2 year olds...that's all I know to say. They are a handful!!! We have so much fun, though. I got to spend a lot of quality time with Ema, too. It seems like all I get to do with her is feed her and put her to bed, so getting to put her in the floor and play with her was awesome.
My family is so blessed! Hunter and I talked about what this time in Ethan and Cooper's lives means. It's crazy for me to understand that it's all about shaping them into the people that they will be. Even at 2 1/2. It's so hard for me to discipline them sometimes. I told Hunter that I feel like I am constantly punishing them when I only see them for a couple of hours a day. He's right though...this is when they learn manners and appropriate behavior. It's just really hard to discipline and have them get upset with me when I don't see them much.
So, anyways, we got to go out with one of my really good friends and her boyfriend on Saturday night without the kids. That seems like I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth, but if you have kids, you totally understand. While I do enjoy spending my free time with them, it is also important that Hunter and I have some no kid time with adult contact. We had a ball, and who knows, Hunter may have a job lead.......
Sunday was busy, busy as usual. After Sunday School, we met with all of the youth leaders. It's a really amazing group of adults that work with our youth at church, and I am so proud to go to church there and be a part of this awesome youth group.

Early Black Friday

So, Friday, we had an absolutely amazing time. My boss takes the entire office on a shopping trip to the outlet mall in Pigeon Forge. Ron and I (if you don't know who he is...Nurse Practitioner that is my counterpart at work), left Ooltewah super early and headed up to the hospital to get the piddly work stuff taken care of and then met everyone at the office. We loaded everyone up in a rental van, a huge Yukon XL and a Honda. The van included my boss, Ron, me and 3 others. We had a great time, just on the ride up. We ate lunch at the Apple Barn....YUMMY veggies! Then we headed to the shops. I, of course, shopped til I dropped. I had an absolute ball. I found this great place on line for coupons. I googled "Retail Coupons" and found printable-coupons.blogspot.com. It was great!! (20% off at Coach, 30% off at BR, Gap, Old Navy). Needless to say the website was great. I saved over $100 at Gap. I got tons of deals. I actually didn't buy anything for myself and got lots of Christmas shopping done. (If you know me, you know that I am huge into Black Friday and getting everything I can for Christmas done on that day; therefore, getting stuff done before then is AWESOME!)
We ended up shopping from 12 - 6 at the outlets and I didn't even get to some of the places I wanted to go. I shopped with two of the girls from work who now think I am a mad woman!! AKA: Shopaholic/Saleaholic!!! We also did a Scavenger Hunt during our shopping. TOO FUN!!
We left Pigeon Forge and headed to Knoxville where we had a super nice sit-down Steak dinner at Ye Ole' Steak House. It was great.
We ended up hopping in the car on the way home with "Christmas" on our minds after the long day of Christmas shopping. We ended up singing Christmas Carols all the way from Knoxville to Cleveland.
What a great day! My boss is a great, compassionate, giving person that ANYONE could take lessons from!!!

Another Great Weekend with the Family

I had a really busy week at work this week, so our plans for the weekend were not really etched in stone. It seems like they just kinda fell into our laps. We ended up having great family time!

We decided to take the kids to see their great-grandmothers this weekend and next. This Friday we went to see my granny. She lives in the retirement center where my mom works, so me and the kids (Hunter was reffing) surprised my mom and my granny. Granny was really excited to see the kids. The family jokes b/c she is always asking me, "What do you do with three of em?" My answer of course is always, "Um, Granny, the same thing you did!!" (My mom has a brother and a sister and they are all within three years of age!) We ate lunch with my mom afterwards, and I just can't describe how good the kids were at lunch. They have been acting so good lately when we've gone out to eat. {SIDE BAR: My mom took the boys by herself on Wednesday to pick out some shoes at Stride Rite at the mall. They were perfect little gentlemen. They tried on shoes. Rode the train. Played on the playground (Ugh, gross!) Ate lunch and even got a cookie b/c they were so good.} I got my hair done, then we ended our Friday with dinner at home.

OF NOTE...we tried the new Gigi's cupcakes for dessert. Well, just so everyone knows, when I was pregnant with the boys, I dreamed of cupcakes. All I wanted was there to be a specialty cupcake store in Chattanooga, but of course, we didn't have one. Well, NOW we do and it is amazing!!!!!!!! TRY IT AS SOON AS YOU CAN!

Saturday, we got up early and took the kids to the RiverPark. We played, ate lunch, played some more and headed home. We took the boys down on one of the piers and watched the water. It's so cool to watch little kids be so amazed with things that we take for granted. The water and the boats were the coolest thing to them. Wouldn't you just love to be sweet and innocent like that!
They have had colds for about two weeks and haven't quite been able to shake them. I guess taking them out to play near the water where the air was cooler kinda sparked the cold, again. It's really probably just allergies. We all have snotty noses these days. (HUNTER COOKED DINNER!!! It was really good, yay Hunter! The gumbo was great!)
So, Ema woke up Sunday morning with a pretty yucky cold. It's the first time she's had any type of sickness since her surgery. It's a little nerve-racking to watch over her and make sure that it doesn't turn into something worse. Just pray for her! Needless to say, I didn't take the three sick children to church yesterday. We went to Sunday School and had to miss out on church so that we could stay home with the kids.
Hunter has been asked to go to Brazil on a mission trip, so he went to a meeting about that after church and me and the kids hung out again. Hunter and all of his old fart friends are playing soccer, again! So, he got home for dinner and we just hung out. We've got so much planning to do with the holidays coming up. I'm going to be way stressed. Oh well, it's a good stressed...

Hunter's Day in the Media

n the midst of making plans for the weekend, my awesome husband was blessed with being picked to referee the girls' state soccer tournament. It's a huge honor to be asked to referee the state tourneys! Refs from all over the state of Tennessee come to referee the tournament, and you have to be asked to do it! Hot stuff, that Hunter is!! I'm so proud of him.
Soooooooo, he was written about in the newspaper. Unfortunately, it wasn't what you would call a good article. There wasn't actual mention of his name, but we knew who it was about, so that's all that mattered. It boiled down to the fact that a coach was actually bad-mouthing the refs (which means Hunter and his refs b/c he was the center ref in the game). Who does that at the high school level? It's inappropriate at any level, but high school??? Coach needs to grow up. It was quite disrespectful, but of course, my humble husband just blows it off and says that there's nothing he can do about it. What a man!!! I love him, but boy did it make his immature wife mad!!! We joked that Lane Kiffen was recently fined for the same thing. Even better than that...Urban Meyer was fined $30,000 for the same thing! Tehehe! The inventor of football himself got in trouble for it. Still waiting for that apology to come to my sweet husband.

Upcoming holidays

Wow, I cannot believe that the holidays are here. Thanksgiving is in three weeks. It's going to be, for a lack of any better term, a doozy this year.
We are having both mine and Hunter's family at our house this year. That's right, just go ahead and pray for us now. So far I have counted 23 people!!!!!
I don't think I'm totally ready to deal with that, so I'm going to change subjects.
Things are going well in our house. Ema is doing great. She goes back to Vanderbilt on the 16th. Keep her in your prayers.
There will be more to come with planning the holidays...

Fun-Filled (Read: Busy) Halloween Weekend

Our Halloween started earlier in the week. My mom and I took the kids to a Mother of Multiples Club event at a Retirement Center. We dressed the boys up in their costumes...Ethan = Cookie Monster; Cooper = Elmo; Ema = Pumpkin. They absolutely hated getting their costumes on. It was all a fabulous idea until it came to actually putting them on. My mom and I had to basically drag them in kicking and screaming until they saw all of the other kids dressed up and realized they weren't the only ones and were ok. Thursday, we dressed up at my office. It's a big deal at our office b/c my boss loves Halloween. I was Marilyn Monroe. What's funny is the winner of the costume contest was someone who dressed as....ME! It was freaky! Two of the nurses dressed as me and my friend Ron who is our Nurse Practitioner at work. It was great, but it was really weird to look at her!

Hunter and I took the kiddos up to the Mayfield Dairy Farm in Athens on Friday. We were gone all day, and it was a lot of fun. The boys got to play in the "Corn Box" (aka Sand Box replaced with corn). They jumped on Hay Bales. They got to take their first Hay Ride. I was amazed at how well they did. They weren't scared at all. The tractor pulled the wagon full of hay to the Pumpkin Patch where they got to pick out their own pumpkin out of the real patch. Ethan managed to pick out what we thought was the largest pumpkin there. It's huge!

We came home and headed out to meet our niece Lindsey and her boyfriend, Joey for dinner. They came in town for the weekend to go to the UT/South Carolina game. She recently graduated from South Carolina. He plays Pro-Baseball for one of the teams in the Kansas City Royals system. They spent the night with us through the weekend.

On Halloween, I wasn't able to take the kids out b/c I was by myself (Hunter reffed), so we just handed out candy. Let me tell you how that went...JUST WONDERFUL! Cooper insisted on screaming at everyone who rang our doorbell, "No, go home, this is my trick-or-treat!" We had forgotten to get candy, so I had to give theirs away until Hunter got home with candy. That went over like a ton of lead balloons!

The boys had started to get sick on Friday and Saturday. Their coughs were terrible, so on Sunday, we didn't actually get to take the kids to the church Pumpkin Patch. Probably a good thing seeing as how busy we had been over the weekend.

I swear I'm going to get back to blogging more regularly so everyone doesn't have to read a book. More to come...