"Ain't for Sissies!"

*Content may be graphic for children or a weak stomach*

My grandmother always said "old age ain't for sissies" and this made me feel a little old ;)

Many of you know I have a pretty nice track record with a problematic stomach. To me this was normal, however when Blake and I got married and we spent more and more time together he decided this was not so normal and wanted me to get checked out. I fought with him on it of course and if I had a good day I would say "see, it's gone". Then I would have a bad day and "see Syd, it's not gone". So our good friend and nurse Genna Lechler referred me to a tummy specialist, Dr. Chang, in College Station. After explaining to her in detail all of my strange symptoms, she suggested doing a colonoscopy and an endoscopy (exploratory cameras) to see just what is going on in there. Ahh! This is so what I was afraid of! These cameras go in places they just shouldn't. But of course, my loving husband is making me do this. So a couple of weeks after my appointment I am preparing for these procedures. Now at this point I have heard from several people that the preparation is so much worse than the actual procedure so I'm feeling okay about it. Well, let's just say that the juice I had to choke down was similar to paint thinner and salt water. 2 LITERS of it! Oh man, this was seriously testing me.

I'll skip the details to that evening :)

The next morning I'm ready to get this over with. Blake had stayed home from work (anyone that knows that man knows that this means a lot!) and was determined to get me in a good mood. He was so hyper..I think he gets that way when he is nervous. We finally get in the car with my sweet mother-in-law and drive over, first stopping at academy for new golf shoes, then to my doctor's office. They asked several questions once I finally got back there and gave me an IV. Then...I wait. I swear I was waiting back there, awake and alone, for an hour. I was freezing and nervously anticipating what was coming. FINALLY, a cute little pregnant nurse comes to get me. Very friendly, explaining everything, and then I see my doc. She is cute as bug by the way. She walks and talks with me and tells me it's nice to see me. (I wonder if she thinks that when they roll me over :/) So they hook me up to some machines, lots of things to look at in there, and spray the back of my throat to numb it and then she says "okay here come the good drugs, you shouldn't care or remember anything that's going on", I sure hope so lady...

And that was it. I woke up feeling sleepy but just great. Everything was done, and I didn't know anything had happened. They found a few small things: Gastroesophegial Reflux (basically my esophegus is raw bc I didn't know I had acid reflux), a hital hernia (it's small and not a threat right now), and IBS (we all knew I've had this for a while). They say all of these things could get worse when I get pregnant..yikes! But I will begin some meds to hopefully get all of this under control before we have to worry about that. Nothing too big and nothing too serious. Praise God! Now at this point I was almost at 48 hours of no food I was ready to eat (with my new diet restrictions in mind of course :/). We go to Cheddars (I think, I don't remember much of the early afternoon) and I order chicken I think and have 2 bites, oh I was sooo full of hot air. Literally this time ;)

Then we decided that we would go look at a couple of cars while we were over there since we have been looking at SUV's lately and were ready for a more "Sydni sized" vehicle. While we are looking we see this precious little convertible and thought, gosh that would be so fun. Of course we test drive it (Blake drives while I'm falling in and out of sleep) and in the back of my mind I'm thinking..this is my kind of car. Well I guess it was. Since we aren't quite ready for kids (I know, shocker to some of you) we decided to have one last go at a super fun, cool car! So for the next couple of years I'll be in a convertible having fun instead of hanging out in a mom car.

(yes everyone, all I want out of life is a mom car with a sweet, precious baby or two in the back. this has not changed friends. but there will be a time for that!)

Thank you Lord, for giving the doctor a steady hand and the knowledge to figure out what is wrong with me. And Lord, thank you for giving me such an amazing prayer team to help me through! Please be with every one of them, for I know we all have struggles. Amen

Hair News!

Okay, let me start by giving you a few definitions.

BEAUTY the quality of a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses

(this does not mean you have to have great hair to be beautiful)

however

MULLET a hairstyle that is short at the front and sides and long in the back, often ridiculed as a lowbrow and an unappealing hairstyle.

.....need an example? Anyone familiar with ol' Billy Ray? Appealing or unappealing hairstyle?

Enough said, now let's talk briefly about consultations with your stylist.

PICTURES do you look anything like the person in the pic? Face shape, eyebrows, nose? if not, I suggest finding a superstar that you favor (everyone knows that my personal fave is Reese!) and seeing the different looks they have been able to pull off. I promise, try it.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? if this is your first time meeting a new stylist and you sit down and say "I don't know what I want, what do you think?", you are starting on the wrong foot. Your stylist doesn't know anything about you, tell them your occupation, kids or no kids, how long you intend to spend fixing it, how often you want to see them for maintenance, cost, and tell them some things you like and don't like about your current hair. You don't go to the doc and say I don't know what's wrong but fix me.. You tell them symptoms and then let them do all the work!

Enough about that part of my life, outside of hair we have been doing a few things around the house. Our plumbing was finally completely redone! Whew! I am hoping to have my third and final flooring in my closet soon. We finally put plants in our planter and made some precious flowerbeds for our entrance. Round Top was good to me, I found a few things for the "blue room" and got Mom some awesome new kitchen chairs for Mother's Day. (yes, I already gave them to her) Last weekend family was in for my little bro's graduation from UTI and this weekend we had a blast with The Mckennon's! What else.. who knows, that's it for now!

OH YEAH, we had an absolute blast in Vegas! :)