Travis had a fairly quiet birthday this past weekend (at least compared to mine!). Friday night, we went to the Pasadena Rodeo BBQ cook-off to enjoy some delicious food prepared by my brother and his team. It is always a really good time out there! I am glad though that we bring Carissa, go early, and leave early – it ends up being a pretty raucous party! Jake came over to the house afterwards, and he and Travis attempted to beat Halo ODST. I don’t think they were successful.
Saturday, Carissa went to a charity walk for Juvenile Diabetes with her Aunt Valerie. She came home with flowers painted on her arm, a Scooby Doo stuffed dog that she is ‘borrowing’ from Dakota, and a Love-a-lot Care-bear so her Grumpy Care-bear will have someone to ‘talk’ to.
Later that afternoon, Grammy and Pawpaw were planning to come by the house on their way home from Illinois. They had already stopped once on the way home to pick up Hunter for a visit and wanted to snag Carissa for a sleepover. Carissa was so excited she was literally pacing back and forth from the front window to the living room asking ‘How much longer?”…. “Ohhhh, that will be too long!”….
Carissa safely on the way to Angleton, Travis and I went to Dee and Jake’s for burgers and games with them, Chris, and Margaret. The burgers and sausage were delicious along with the chips and dips. We played a new game called Luck of the Draw, a Game for the Artistically Challenged. I really liked because I finally could beat Travis at a drawing game. Although, when it has ‘Artistically Challenged’ in the title, I’m not sure if that is a good thing! We also played Loaded Questions, ate birthday cake, and then Dee fell asleep on the couch, so we all headed on home!
On Sunday, we watched the Texans lose a heartbreaker to the Jacksonville Jaguars, and then went to lunch at Pearland Town Center with Travis’s mom, Odie, Carissa, Hunter, Granny, and Pawpaw. We went to a new seafood place that I don’t need to go to again. I think Travis liked his dish ok, but mine was not so good. Even the rice had a weird flavor.
We then took the kids to Barnes and Noble to buy them each a book. Hunter really wanted to stop at the toy shop too, but we marched on to the bookstore. Hunter picked out a Transformers book while Carissa got a Scooby-Doo book. They also got a matching game with Halloween style pictures on the cards.
Travis and I then went shopping to complete his birthday present – new shoes and a belt. It stinks getting older, right? No more cool gifts! Practical ones from here on out!
On the way home, we stopped off at Starbucks for me and Kroger for him for tasty beverages. We got home and I gave Travis another one of his presents – the new Dan Brown book. He hasn’t put it down so it must be a good one!
All in all, I think he had a very Happy Birthday!
[ 1 comment ]
( 15 views )
I had the pleasure of dropping Carissa off at her preschool this morning – and I truly mean that without the hint of sarcasm. In the past, Carissa has always been very clingy with that cute bottom lip quivering, tears welling in her blue eyes, begging you not to leave. It was so bad, that at one time when she was at a little summer program, my dad brought her back to his house, called me at work, and said they weren’t going back. It was apparently just too hard on them both!
I don’t know if it is just the new class that she is enjoying so much that she is really starting to grow up…. Probably a combination of both…. But, this morning, we got dressed, packed up her lunch, and as we drove to the church, she pointed it right out, squealing “There it is Momma, behind that big tree, with the blue roof…. Pull in right there please, that is where Pa likes to park!”
We got out of the car, and she led me to the door, all the while talking in an authoritative voice about where to go, that Mrs. Kathy’s room was right next door to Mrs. Sandra’s, that we couldn’t talk loud in the hall because the babies might be sleeping, that she liked to stop and have a drink from the water fountain, etc.
We walked inside, and she instructed me to take a right, and we hurried along to Mrs. Kathy’s room at her insistence. We walked inside to find five or six other kids sitting around the table, gluing pinto beans to a piece of construction paper with a large “B” drawn on it in blue marker. Mrs. Kathy gave us both a big smile, complimented Carissa on her Brookfield Zoo shirt from Chicago, and invited her to the table and handed her a pile of beans and her own paper with the big blue “B”.
Mrs. Kathy commented to me about how nice it was to see me and how well Carissa is doing, how much she already knows, how she enjoys helping the others (but on her terms), what a sweet and smart girl she is, and just what a pleasure she is to have. She also had told me about how Carissa was the ‘leader’ of the class last Thursday and how much she really enjoyed that! I can only imagine how much my bossy little sweet-pea liked being the leader!
I gave my baby a kiss on the cheek, told her that Pa would pick her up after school, and I loved her. She turned up and smiled at me, saying, “Bye Mom! I love you too!”
I can’t even describe how my heart just swells when I hear those words. Swells with pride, delight, and love.
Mush-mush-mush, I know, but it is the honest truth!
[ 2 comments ]
( 21 views )
Carissa came running into the living room yesterday evening. She slid to a stop next to me, smiling, and says, “Momma, guess what? I love you!”, and then she grabs my hand and smacks a kiss on it.
I answer, “Carissa, guess what?.... I love you – MORE!”
With a roll of her blue eyes and a shake of her head, she responds without missing a beat, “No, Momma. My Granny-the-Great loves me more!” And, off she runs again.
(Speaking of rolling the eyes… Considering that my daughter has perfected it at three-and-a-half… I hate to see what the eye roll is going to look like at fourteen-and-a-half. *sigh*)
[ add comment ]
I’m out in California this week for work (yippee). On Monday when I left, Carissa was complaining of an upset tummy and was running a slight fever pretty much all day. We figured it was just a typical bug, and she would get over it in the next day or so.
My flight was late in the afternoon so I stayed home with Carissa that day, and Pa came over since Carissa really wasn’t up to a car ride over to his house. They enjoyed popsicles on the couch and multiple movies until Daddy got home.
Well, later that evening, Carissa’s fever spiked to over 103, and she was acting very lethargic – to the point of being close to unresponsive. Travis made the call to take her into the ER.
Remember that I am on a flight to California – this is all happening unbeknownst to me. Once my plane landed, I called Travis’s cell – no answer. Called the house – no answer. “No big deal”, I think to myself, “Travis is likely giving Carissa a bath or maybe she’s feeling better and they went out to dinner.”
I get my rental car and make a stop off at Target. (No, I’m not that obsessed with Target that I have to visit everywhere. I had forgotten my cell phone charger and was looking for a solution.) While there, I called my family again, and Travis finally answered his phone.
Trav: “Hello?”
Jonda: “How’s it going? How’s Carissa feeling?”
Trav: “Let me let you talk to her….”
Carissa: “Hey Momma!”
Jonda: “Hey sweet-pea, how are you feeling?”
Carissa: “I’m fine, I’m at the hospital!”
Jonda (sputtering and speechless): “WHAT?!” *attempting to get it together* You are? Um, ok, um, can I talk back to Daddy, please?”
Jonda to Travis: “SHE’S IN THE HOSPITAL?! WHY DIDN’T YOU CALL? WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY SOMETHING? IS SHE OK??? I’M ON MY WAY BACK TO THE AIRPORT TO FIND A WAY BACK HOME! WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY SOMETHING?”
Note to all you Daddies and future Daddies out there: When your baby is taken to the hospital, YOU tell Momma, NOT the baby!
My poor little girl had x-rays done, blood drawn, was pricked, poked, prodded, and was this close to have a catheter before it was all said and done. They got the fever under control, all the tests came back normal, and it was likely just a virus, and the fever was trying to fight it off. Praise God!
During all this though, I’m freaking out in my hotel room, calling every few minutes for an update when of course there isn’t one, looking online for the next flight that would get me in the vicinity of Houston…. In the end, it was likely better that I wasn’t there. My worry and concern would have filtered down to Carissa and just made her worry. She thought it was all a big game – her tummy had pictures taken, she got new bracelets, Pa played piggy over and over, she had juice, etc.
Now that it is over (she went swimming at Pa’s today and talked her Daddy into dinner at Incredible Pizza), I just can’t help but remember how so very fortunate we are. Some people’s babies spend much more time in hospital beds for much more serious issues then we went through this week.
We are so overwhelmingly blessed in our little girl. She is so smart, kind, beautiful, caring, inquisitive, loving, and most of all – she is healthy and strong.
[ add comment ]
Wow, did Travis ever go overboard on my birthday! What Travis didn’t say in his post, is that all of this was all a huge surprise for me! He only told me to pack for the weekend like I was going camping – not “tent-camping” he quickly clarified as my eyes narrowed, more like cabin-camping. I did have a pretty good idea that it was going to be a beach or a lake house because I knew he wouldn’t make me drive all that far by myself!
I was packed and ready to go when Travis called at about 4pm on Friday, hugely stressed and just plain PO’d. He explained that the rental people double-booked the house, and he and Veronica were seriously scrambling to find an alternate. I won’t go into details, but they were successful!
After meeting up in Angleton, Travis treated me to a delicious dinner at Red Snapper Inn in Surfside before having me follow him over to a huge yellow beach house. I think it might have been able to sleep up to 30 people! It was right down the street from the jetties so we decided to take a sunset stroll before unpacking all of our junk.
After our walk, we came back to the house and Travis asked me if I wanted to go ahead and open a few of my presents. Silly question! I opened up the awesome Margaritaville machine, and Travis quickly began experimenting. We enjoyed some frozen, fruity drinks complete with tiny umbrella on the back deck of house while looking out at the huge full moon.
Travis made me turn in early that night because we had to be ‘somewhere’ early the next morning. He woke me up at 6am (ug), and we loaded up into the car. We pulled into the Target parking lot at about 7:15ish when I told him “Um, I don’t think that Target opens until 8?” His quick grimace revealed that this was another small quirk in his master plan…
He parked the car, told me to wait right there, and the door opened a few seconds later and Pat jumped in. “What are you doing here?” I asked very confused. “Ask me no questions, and I’ll tell you no lies!” she answered with a sneaky grin. We drove off, and she stopped off at Starbucks for a coffee – whew, just what I needed!
After coffee, we got back into the car, and she drove across the street and parked at Massage Envy. Yup, the early morning wake-up call was starting to look a little better! She and Travis swapped cars again (he was giving out the instructions for the Amazing Race and snagged Carissa from my parents was the reason for the swap), but I got to sneak in a quick kissy from my daughter before Trav and I went into the massage place for a couples massage. And whoopee, was that a nice treat! I *heart* massages!
After the massage, we went over to a nail salon for a pedi/mani that I desperately needed along with an eyebrow wax! On our way out the door, guess who was walking in – my sweetie pie was walking in with Grammy. Apparently, Grammy had asked her what she wanted to do, and she answered “Well…. We could go get my toenails done too!”
Next on the list was a trip to my mecca (Target) to get the things that we didn’t think about for the beach house (um, toilet paper?). We then went over to Whataburger for a quick bite to eat before going to see Julie and Julia. The movie was really good – especially the “Julia” parts! Meryl Streep was amazing!
We then headed on back down to enjoy the beach house before my birthday party “officially” kicked off. I had planned to shower and get a little dressed up before people started arriving, but we had just barely pulled up when my mom and dad got there along with Uncle Ben and Mark. Shower was scrapped, the Margaritaville was put back into service, and we got the party started!
What a day! Thanks so much to the Amazing Race contestants – the cakes and appetizers were delicious and all the presents were perfect (even the lifesavers Mom!). Thanks also to all of our wonderful friends and family who made the drive out to Surfside to celebrate the fifth anniversary of my 25th birthday!
And some HUGE props to my wonderful husband for pulling all this together! I still can’t believe he did all this! Travis – You are my lobster and my deviled eggs! I love you the most!
[ add comment ]
Back Next
Calendar