Mourning a College Friend

It is truly a sad day for my Aggie girlfriends and I. We learned of the tragic passing of one of our dear college friends. He meant the world to us and was our Big Brother. Anytime we needed him, he was there. We were his "Aggie Girls." He was there when we bought our first drink at 21 and dunked our Aggie rings our senior year. Its fun to remember the great times we had and sad to think our reunion this year will be mourning the loss of our dear friend. He had a heart of gold and would do anything for any of us girls.

He and his brother were fishing on a lake in Galveston when winds picked up. A wave hit their boat from both sides and threw both of them out. His brother was able to swim to shore safely, with minor injuries. Our friend, however was not so lucky. Coast Guard and ER personnel assume he hit his head, was knocked unconcious and was not able to swim to safety. About an hour after his brother swam to shore, his body was found a few miles up the beach on the edge of the shore.

At first, we were in denial. He was just 31 years old. He would have been 32 in September. It is sad and we will truly miss him...but deep down we know he is looking down on us telling us that we should stop crying and be happy...because we have a guardian angel watching over us.

We love you R and we will miss you so much!!!

A Great Place to Shop

On Saturday I was invited by my friend Jennifer to visit a shop owned by one of her friends. It is called The 4 Queens and is located in Navasota. This store is awesome! It has a great mix of old and new and has a wonderful variety of items from candles and nick nacks to antiques and furniture. This is definitely a shop I will be visiting again. Jennifer's gal S came along with us and was an absolute angel. She is 2 years old and so adorable. I had a great time with the 2 of them and hope to spend some time with them again soon!

Pretty in Pink & Green

These are some fun cards I made using design paper bought at Michael's. I saw this paper and had to have it and then used it for my inspiration/color choices. Once you get started, the creative ideas just keep coming!

Ribbon Extravaganza

For those who don't believe me, this is the majority of my ribbon collection. I still have a rubbermaid container of ribbon that I did not put on this storage board, most of which is non-fabric ribbon used for bows on gifts. I borrowed the idea for this storage board from Jennifer. It took me about 2 hours to make and that included spray painting the dowel rods. It did not turn out as I hoped, partly because Wal-Mart did not sell me a 1/2 yard of fabric like I asked for and push pins would not hold the weight of the ribbon rods. For now, it works. I took my color inspiration from the flowers at the bottom of the board. Just in case you can't see the colors very well, the board is covered in yellow fabric, rods painted lavender and held on with green ribbon.

More Cards

This time in addition to using generic cardstock, I also used the Long Notes from Stampin' Up! I am beginning to get my inspiration from ribbons. I have to say, I am now a ribbon junkie. I bought 18 rolls at Michael's yesterday. I love their colors and pattern/style variations and it makes selecting cardstock easy. Thanks Jennifer! I am loving this new hobby and I find myself making cards every evening I get a chance. How Fun!!!

Sierra's helmet

This picture is kind of fuzzy...but gives you an idea. So far, she is doing well. She is very clingy and gets upset when neither Mom or Dad are present. The helmet doesn't bother her too much during the daytime while she is playing however, during bedtime she cries and cries. Mom and Dad are assuming it is just too uncomfortable to sleep in, at least until she gets used to it. Mom calls her a "diva" and says "don't let her smile fool you."

Relay for Life

Our Relay for Life Walk was the past weekend. We had a great time and I am proud to say we had at least one member of our team walking the entire night beginning at 8pm Fri and ending at 8am Sat. One lady, ~ 60 yrs old and a cancer survivor, set a goal for herself to walk 50 laps...and she did it! That's over 12 miles! I only walked 4 miles :). I was in charge of making this adorable "lap" jar you see in the picture. The theme was "Going for the Gold" indicated by the gold coins and our team colors were red and white. As each team member walked a lap, they were to drop money or change into the jar to raise additional $$. Our team held 5 fundraising events over the past 6 months including our booth at the Relay Walk. I am happy to announce our team alone raised over $7,000 donated to help find a cure for cancer. It was a long night, we had a great time and met alot of new people (who we hope to see again next year). Go "Red Rovers!!"

A Little Creativity

Checking Jennifer's blog everyday, I am inspired to start card making again creating some of my own ideas. I made 2 cards earlier this week, Best Fishes and Crib Notes. I made 4 more cards last night - 1 isn't quite finished. It still needs a sentiment, therefore its not pictured. I used ribbons from Wal-Mart and Michaels, cardstock packs from Wal-Mart and Stampin' Up stamp sets. It took me about 30 minutes to make all 4 cards.

Friend of family dies from Lap-Band Surgery

If you have ever thought of having the lap-band surgery to lose weight, you might want to reconsider or at least make sure you have all the facts before you do. My sister-in-law's best friend, 38 years old, died late last week from complications of the lap-band. This friend has always had medical problems stemming way back to high school. She's been on numerous medications, had frequent seizures and headaches and joint complications. Her most recent ceizure medication caused her to gain unimaginable weight. On the flip side it was working to control the seizures so they felt it best to keep her on this medication. She started seeing a weight specialist and was put on an extreme diet to control the weight the medication was causing her to gain. It was a yo-yo cycle...gaining and losing. She is a very tall woman but even for her height she was extremely overweight. They decided the lap-band might be for her and she started the pre surgery weight loss program and lost 50 pounds. They scheduled the surgery and everything went fine until about 8 days later. She was taken to the emergency room not feeling very well, was kept overnight and sent home. Less than a day later, she passed away. They live in the middle of nowhere in West Texas and her husband was rushing to meet EMS about halfway. By the time they met EMS, she was non-responsive and EMS could not re-vive her with CPR. This was 10 days after her surgery. Autopsy revealed her inside was one huge infection. It just goes to show that all surgeries have risks and doctors can't always diagnose what is wrong. She leaves behind a husband in the military and two children, somewhere between 9 and 12 years old.

Sierra's Surgery

Whew! It has been a whirlwind couple of days, but it is over. Her surgery was yesterday morning...supposed to be at 9:00am and didn't take place until 11:30 because the surgery just prior to her took longer than expected. She is doing very well, soared through with flying colors. She spent the night in Pediactric ICU under observation. She should get to go home later this afternoon. She has a small 1 inch incision about halfway in between her ear and top of her head. They removed the section of her skull and we could almost see immediate improvement. She, of course was very cranky when she awoke from the anesthesia so they were keeping her sedated. I got to spend some time with her yesterday before I left. She opened her eyes and just looked up at us...I'm sure thinking "What's going on here?" I thought that it was awesome that for the first time I noticed she has hazel eyes. To me, this means so much because not only does she have my middle name, she has my hazel eyes. My best friend was very thankful I drove 3 hours one way to be with her on this day. It was very emotional for all of us and of course hard for her 5 year old son because he didn't fully understand what was going on. He kept telling people in the waiting room, my sister is having her head cut open. We would cry and he would ask us what was wrong? Then of course telling us "Dont' cry, she will be just fine I know it." What a brave 5 year old! Sierra gets measured for her helmet on Monday and fitted into it on Wednesday. Doctor's expect her to wear it for about 1 year. Thanks to everyone for all the prayers. I know they worked!

Workin' Hard in the Heat

My husband and I always have these great ideas of making improvements to our home and property, however the ideas which seem so simple always turn into something more complex. We bought an 80's home the country a little over 3 years ago. Since then we have made upgrades including tile surround in our master bathroom tub/shower and a new master vanity and granite countertop. Those seem simple enough. Yeah Right! Not in our household. One problem turns into another. And our luck continues as we began installing a french drain and sidewalk on the exterior of the home this weekend. The drain is to help rainwater flow away from the house rather than pool up around it and the sidewalk will connect our carport to our back porch. Again, problems arise creating stumbling blocks. While digging the trench for the drain, we found a concrete retaining wall previously used for a flowerbed that was HUGE! And yes, I am using a shovel digging this concrete out of the ground. It didn't matter that it was there...it mattered that it was in the way, so it had to be removed. As the weekend progressed in the 90 degree temperature we ran into more stumblings blocks. Needless to say, in summary, what should have been a 2 day weekend project is only about halfway finished. YIKES!!! I keep telling my husband that maybe when we start thinking about more projects, we should remind ourselves how the previous ones turned out!