steph's stuff

Life happens

Life happens. And change happens.

• Christmas Eve and Christmas were just wonderful! Great, great visits with family, no drama, and some great quality time spent with everyone.
• My mother was here visiting from Maine and she was a godsend! I ended up sick on Christmas morning and am just now recovering from a sinus infection and ear infection. My kids, though, barely noticed because they were having so much fun with my mom. And Elizabeth learned to knit. She's awesome at it, too!

• We took down the tree and all of our decorations earlier than ever this year. The whole house was done and back to its normal state by the 28th.
• We've had a ton of snow!!! We have over 14 inches on the ground right now and it's just gorgeous outside! The kids are having a great time with the new sled we bought them for Christmas.
• And we've been cleaning. Deep cleaning and simplifying. All to get ready for a new start. And a new routine.
• On January 8, I start a new job. I've spent the last few months just dreading every legal assignment I've gotten. It just wasn't working. I've changed too much and spent too many years away from the legal world. So, this will be a total career change for me. I will be working as a magazine and website editor for our local paper. It's a totally new venture for them, as it is for me, and I'm very excited about it! But, for the first time in 6 years, I'll be working full-time outside of the house. It's going to be an enormous adjustment for all of us. But, I think it will be worth it.
• And then we've been preparing for this - yep, we leave tomorrow. We fly home on my birthday on Monday and then I start work the next day. It's all a little overwhelming. The weather is supposed to be chilly and rainy. Like I said, life happens. All you can do is go with it.
• And then yesterday, we lost Tom's grandfather. We adored him. But, we also know that he's now in a much better place and probably so happy to be with Grandma. I can only imagine their joy now. And that helps. Tom will fly straight down to Texas as soon as we get back from the Bahamas on Tuesday morning for the funeral.

 

and the years go by

perspective is really everything, isn't it?

i remember when Tom and i were in law school and we had no money. and i mean noooo money. we were both full-time law students and not allowed to work during the first year of law school. we lived on money saved from summer jobs and that was it. so, if we had to go anywhere to visit our family (we were in indiana and our parents were in michigan, maine, texas, and massachusetts), we obviously didn't have any choice but to drive. so, we did. our first year of law school, we drove to michigan many, many weekends. and we drove to maine at thanksgiving and at christmas. at the end of the school year, our wedding was only 3 months away and would be in maine at the end of the summer. but, our summer jobs were in texas. so, we drove to maine for wedding preparations, drove back to indiana to pack up our apartment and put our stuff in storage, drove to texas for our summer jobs and then, 7 weeks later, drove from texas to maine for our wedding. (that drive was a doozy - 4 12-hour days) and, then after our wedding, we had to drive back to indiana to start our second year of law school. and i don't think that we've ever had more fun than that year during all of those roadtrips.

our recent trip to texas reminded me of those days. we had to drive to chicago to the airport, fly to dallas, drive to austin for the 1st night. the next morning, we drove to san antonio and then back that night. the next night, we had to leave austin at midnight to catch a 6 am flight out of dallas, fly to chicago and then drive home. and it about killed us.

it's all about perspective.

quick layout done for the saturday scraplift on the designer digitals blog - every saturday, a layout is picked from the designer digitals gallery and we all try to scraplift it. this layout is based on Hillary's awesome layout.

Generations

Just taking a second to post this picture for Tom. A picture of his grandfather and his son. This was what this trip was all about - having pictures and memories like this of family.

And I think the Texas side of the family was completely right when they said that Andrew looks exactly like his great-grandfather. :)

Back later. Still going through 600 Texas pictures, burning some layouts to disc to send out to some editors (it's been a very good week on the scrappy front), having fun visiting wendy and her girls a couple of days ago, and now visiting with my sister-in-law while we get ready to go to Maine this weekend.

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*eta: and now a picture for me. my youngest brother flew down to texas for the weekend to visit - as a total surprise to us! my girls love their uncle chris and so do i. :)

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**eta again: okay, and one last one - isn't this grape arbor at the family ranch stunning???

Not so chatty Cathy

So, the Texas trip. I can't seem to find enough time to blog about it because I've been too busy scrapping about it. :)

 

Please forgive my lack of chattiness - just way too busy this past week. Gearing up for Maine and having a ball scrapping and anticipating lots of fun with friends and family this week!

Father's Day

We're back and it was about as good a trip as it could possibly be. Minus all of the driving. We left Austin at midnight last night, got to DFW airport around 4 am and got a 6 am flight to Chicago. By the time we got our luggage and then drove home, it was after noon, so all five of us basically pulled an all-nighter. Let me just say that it is a mild understatement to say that I am too old for that. Ugh. But, the kids did a fantastic job and actually stayed awake for the vast majority of the night. Best little travelers in the world!!!

Back tomorrow with some pictures and a recap of the trip, but now the focus is on Libby's MRA tomorrow morning. She and I leave for the hospital around 6:30 am and, if all goes well, should be home after lunch.

A quick layout for Tom and Father's Day. I think this was about the best trip to Texas he's ever had. Love you, honey!

Okay.

Okay. I'm catching my breath a bit.

I have to say that I'm feeling a million times better after playing with some paper and glue. Scrapping is such therapy for me. :)

Update on Libby: She's walking around totally fine. We found out that she was even more underdosed than we had suspected. I pushed the neurologist strongly on this one and had her look up some extra stuff after she said Libby only needed to add 1/2 dose to her daily meds. That just didn't seem right and sure enough, I was right. :) So, Libby is now up 1 whole dose on her anti-seizure meds and should be at appropriate levels in 7 - 10 days. It takes a while for the meds to build up in her system, so we'll have to keep a close watch on her until then, but she should be fine after that. I still need to buy a good scale so we can keep track of her weight weekly. I'm learning so much more about seizures and migraines than I ever thought I would and there's still so much left to learn, but I'm doing the best I can. As far as further tests go - she is scheduled for the MRA on Tuesday morning. She will have to be have general anesthesia and be in the hospital for about 5 hours. Keeping her calm and allowing them to put the IV in is going to be my greatest challenge. I'm trying very hard not to worry about what the doctor might be looking for with this test. And, believe me, googling this issue does NOT help. Ugh. But, I have to be thankful that the doctor is being thorough because if there's something wrong with the blood vessels in her brain, we have to know about it. We just have to.

And we leave for Texas tomorrow around 5 am. I think we're ready. I've washed and folded 10 loads of laundry with the last 2 going right now. I've got the camera batteries charged, an adapter for the laptop, the boarding passes already printed out, and the kids have small backpacks packed with stuff to do on the plane and in the car. We'll be in Dallas at 10 am tomorrow, followed by a long drive to Austin and will spend the afternoon with my dad and step-mother at The University of Texas at Austin to give Andrew his first tour. Last time we were there, I was pregnant with him. He adores UT football (Tom's alma mater), so it should be fun to show him around campus. Saturday is the drive to Hondo, Texas for the family reunion. Sunday will be spent at my Dad's house (oh crap! Sunday is Father's Day, isn't it???? Oops!) and Monday will be spent coming home. Should be very, very busy and keeping my mind (and Libby's) off of Libby's test on Tuesday morning.

Have a great weekend! The parakeets, the cat, and the neighbors will be holding down the fort here while we're gone. :) 

Well, that was a surprise!

Dh is a trial attorney. Which means that at certain times, he works around the clock for days on end and I'm a single parent. He doesn't go to trial as much as you'd think a trial attorney would, but when he does, it's a big deal for him. Obviously. Anyway, he had 2 trials scheduled for this month. One to start today and one to start on the 18th. Stressful schedule for him and the kids and I had planned not to see him much until the end of the month when we all leave for Maine. (Have I mentioned how giddy I am about going to Maine?!!!!!!!) Well, as will happen, both trials got continued. One only until the 25th of this month, so not by much, but the other one got continued until October.

Where am I going with this? Remember the dilemma about whether to go to Texas or Maine this year? (And if you remember this post, we had the reunion dates off by a week, so it's not the same weekend we leave for Maine.) Maine is home to me - where my mother and brothers and their families always gather in July and hang out on the beach. Absolute heaven. Well, Texas is home to Tom's family. And his grandfather is turning 93 and the family is having a huge family reunion on his birthday weekend (70+ people) at his ranch. Tom was in agony over making this decision. At 93, how many more birthdays are there going to be, ya know? And his grandfather is one of our favorite people on this earth! We lost Tom's grandmother 9 years ago and I know how difficult that was for him and he cherishes his grandfather even more now. But, then a trial popped up on Tom's schedule and that was the end of the discussion. There's not much you can do about a trial without causing a whole lot of problems for a whole lot of people and Tom just won't do that. So, no reunion in Texas and he was learning to live with it.

Until yesterday when the continuance came through. Did I mention that the reunion was NEXT weekend?! Well, in a flurry of phone calls back and forth to Tom, to my dad in Texas (yep - total fluke that my Dad lives there, too), emails to Tom's family in Texas, frantic checking of airline discount prices, car rental discount places, more calls to my Dad in Texas and the 5 of us are going to Texas next weekend. The kids and Tom are through the roof thrilled!!! My dad is over the moon and I'm sure Tom's grandfather is gonna be thrilled when Tom talks to him!

Me? Well, I'm in shock. Those of you who know me will know that the words "Steph" and "spontaneous" aren't usually used in the same sentence. :p  I think the credit card and I need a day or two to adjust.

Maine or Texas

We're contemplating not going to Maine this summer. Sigh. I don't know if I can do that. But, Tom's Texas side of the family is having a huge family reunion this summer and wouldn't ya just know it - it conflicts with our usual Maine vacation. The same week that my brothers and their families always go to Maine and the only chance I get to see them each year. But, really, we haven't been to Texas since I was pregnant with Andrew. And Tom's grandfather is 93 years old. There aren't many chances left, ya know? So, we have a decision to make. Either way, we'll have a great time and the kids will love both trips. But, going to Maine isn't really vacation for me. It's going home. And it's going to be very difficult to give up that chance this year. My gut tells me that the decision is already made, but until I see it on paper, it's not, ya know?

And, in other news, I had a great conversation with Stef yesterday. Well, actually, she was feeling pretty darn crappy, but it was still good to hear her voice and laugh with her. And apparently pizza can cure a few ills, so she's feeling a bit better. :)

Looks like my house is getting the plague again. Elizabeth has a fever which lowers her seizure threshhold, so I've given her strict orders not to get off the couch without telling me. And Andrew seems to have a horrible cold. I guess it's the season.

Hope all is well with all of my faithful readers. I haven't been great with updating my blog lately. I'll blame it on the digi scrapping addiction that I've acquired. ;)