Yemma Update

I realized it's been quite awhile since I've updated about Yemma!

We've had some ups and downs, but "sometimes ups outnumber the downs," and that's our case. Good thing we're not in Nottingham.

Anyway.

Over this past weekend, Yemma had an unscheduled hospital admission. She'd been feeling extremely weak and sick to her stomach, so they admitted her and ran tests. Her blood counts were low again, so they transfused her. She has had a lot of transfusions over the course of her treatment, but they help a lot. The minor bump in the road is that because of this incident, her doctor has pushed back her next round of chemo to next week.

However, the good news is....it will be her LAST CHEMO! I can't believe how far we've come, and it seems like the time has flown by. Only one more round of chemo for Yemma, and then she will undergo some tests in the weeks following to make sure that the cancer has gotten outta town for good. I really hope and pray that we can just put this all behind us and that Yemma won't have to deal with it anymore. Her tumor marker is all the way down to 31, which is an extra helping of good news.

Thanks so much, as always, for your thoughts and prayers.

Sick.

It is no fun being sick. As kids, so many of us thought, "Wouldn't it be awesome if I got sick?! Then I wouldn't have to go to school!" (I say "many of us" instead of "all of us" because my best friend since seventh grade actually HATED missing school. What a weirdo.) However, once we actually caught whatever illness was going around, we realized that it wasn't all fun and games. I really think we take our bodies for granted until they're on the fritz.

I've had a raging sinus infection since last Thursday. I went to work because I thought it was just a really bad allergy day, but my temp started to rise so I went home in the afternoon. I only got worse from there, so I stayed home the next day, too, and went to the doctor. Being the slight hypochondriac that I am, I mentioned that there have been multiple cases of swine flu at all of my elementary schools. However, my doctor pointed out correctly that she could cut off my head and I'd feel better. None of my symptoms were below my neck.

So I've been on antibiotics and sinus washes since Friday morning. She told me I'd be feeling better by day three of the antibiotics. Well, it's day five and I feel the same as I did last Thursday afternoon when I went home from work. Fevers, sore throat, stuffy nose (that has now been "rinsed out" a total of NINE TIMES...HOW MUCH could be in there?! Sorry; that was gross), and sneezes that register on the Richter Scale plague my day-to-day activities.

I went to work yesterday to help out my boss, who was out of state, but I was surprised to find out that I had a 100-degree temperature sitting at that desk. I toughed it out the rest of the day, but I'm home again today. Hopefully some more R&R will get me back into work tomorrow. I hate the thought of letting my co-workers down, and one of them has flu in her family right now, too. When it rains, it pours!

Hopefully this will shape up to be just an EARLY sick season instead of a ridiculously long one.

Boring to Botanical: The Transformation of a Desk

Some time ago, I inherited a desk from Ryan's grandmother. When our office got way too crowded for it, we moved it out into the living room. However, I rarely used it since I had a laptop - I admit it; I would just veg on the cough with my laptop...well, on my lap.

Getting my iMac, and therefore needing to use the desk again, inspired me to give it a makeover. So I did! I got the idea from Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts - a book that I still do not own but through which I frequently browse in Barnes & Noble. (Was it stealing to see this idea in the book and benefit from it? I hope not.)

I might have mentioned before that I'm slowly incorporating a fresh yellow, white and green look to my living room. I transformed my desk with this new theme in mind.

Before:

This is the book that I bought and...gulp....cut pictures out of for decoupaging. It caused me physical pain to cut up a book, but it helped a little bit that I knew its purpose when I bought it. Kind of like my friend who bought two lambs knowing she and her family were going to slaughter and gobble them.

(Sorry for the price tag - I tried to peel it off but it wanted to take the cover with it, and I couldn't degrade my poor book any more than necessary. Besides, now you can see that it was on sale!)

I painted my desk - FOUR coats - and coated it with some polyacrylicdoodlealltheday that the dudes at Lowe's told me would work (it did).

I chose pictures that matched my color scheme, painted them with Mod Podge, let it dry, and cut them out.

Then I Mod Podged them to the desk and voila!

My desk is now fun, girly, and matchy-matchy with the living room! (At least, how the living room WILL look when we paint it.)

I'm quite happy with it :)

Kelly's Family Photoshoot!

Kelly from Teach and Tickle asked me to take some pictures of her family. I was honored, thrilled, humbled, and....reeeeally nervous! For one thing, I'd never been commissioned to do a photo shoot before. They've always just kind of involved me with my camera and friends or family around. For another thing, the forecast called for nothing but storms, storms, storms all throughout the week.

However, when Ryan and I met up with the family of four on Friday evening, everything went....great. Thank you, God. The weather was mild, the sun was...if not shining, at least glowing...and we happened upon tons of great places to shoot in downtown Tulsa!

I have literally over one hundred awesome pics of this family - and that's not me tooting my own horn; that's me telling you how fun and photogenic they all are - so it is incredibly difficult for me to choose which ones to share with you. I haven't even done it yet. I'm stalling even as I type.

But without further ado...

Kelly, thank you SO MUCH for probably the hundredth time for thinking of ME to do your photos! I am beyond thrilled that it was such a success.

iMactually speechless.

Yesterday, while I was at work, Ryan texted me that he was going to be going down to Mexico for a few days in a couple of weeks (his dad's company has a branch down there so it wasn't COMPLETELY outrageous, but it still left me confused). I texted back for details and he didn't respond, so I did the typical, lovely "Hello?!" thing. His response: "Something very cool happening. Will call soon."

The possibilities flew wildly through my mind. Ryan got laid off with some others a few weeks ago...had he just landed a new job? Had Caspian learned Fantasie Impromptu on the piano? Was a Hanson TOTALLY in front of Ryan in the check-out at Wal-Mart?! Who knew?

I don't remember how I passed the time while waiting for him to call, but he did. And he told me.

His dad had bought us both Macs.

I was FLOORED! I didn't even know what to say. I think I just kept quietly saying things like, "What? Whyyyyy? How? Oh my gosh....are you serious? Tell him...'thank you'..." (I felt rather lame with that last one. How can "thank you" ever be enough for what he did? I got to say it to him myself, too, of course, but still...)

Ryan and I have a company. It's for his films and other prod

uction stuff. Someday I might shoot photography under it. Who knows. But basically, this was his dad's way of investing in our company. He wanted us to have better machines on which to edit, run the business, etc. Our PCs just weren't cutting it anymore. I can't tell you how many times I have made a "going to choke someone/pull my own hair out" motion with my hands while I waited for a program to start after clicking four times (with about two minutes of wait time between each click). Or how many times Ryan would text me, "Please pray. (The editing program) crashed again."

Suffice it to say, we've wanted Macs for a rather long time. Plus, we have countless creative friends who do similar things to what we do - all of them BEGGING us to get Macs. To be frank, the idea got rather laughable after I took a large pay cut and Ryan lost his job. This generous gift has meant a TON to us.

A few pics from my phone follow.

My new computer! I can't believe I actually have one!

Seriously. I've waited a LONG time.

See how much denial I was in with my laptop?

In its lovely place. (My desk is in need of a makeover, which I hope to get to soon....)

My in-laws even took us out to a FABULOUS dinner at Copeland's. Can I give them a quick shout-out? They seriously have the BEST food. The BEST. Anyway, overall it was the best evening ever.

No, iMac. Thank you.

Yemma's 50th!

As I mentioned in my last post, my mom turned fifty last Sunday! Her friends from her small group threw her a great party and Ryan and I were blessed to be able to be there.We had yummy picnic food!


Two of my favorite people :)



Pi is such a celeb.

Yemma's friends chipped in for the bookshelves she's been wanting. She was floored!

My grandparents, my Aunt Lisa, my cousin Jordan, Ryan, and I had so much fun celebrating Yemma's birthday with her. Happy birthday, Yemma!

Ryan at the Museum of Transportation

Sorry sorry sorry! It's been FOREVER since I've posted. (I actually hope that I still have followers to whom to apologize...helloooo?)

Last weekend, Ryan and I went up to St. Louis to be with my family. My mom turned the big 5-0 on August 30th - more on that later!

I took Ryan to the Museum of Transportation. I hadn't been there since I was a kid, and he WAS like a kid around all of the trains - it was cute. :) Our time there somehow turned into a photoshoot, which was a blast for us both!

Here are some of my favorites of my rockin' hot husband.
I hope this has been a worthy comeback! Leave me some love!