Me Again!

I know, I know, worst blogger in the world award goes to me! I would promise to be better with fall coming, but I can't..we can only hope ;) I guess I should start with a few updates from my last post..

*My aunt passed away from pancreatic cancer shortly after my post. She was an absolute angel and waited for all of us to see her before she went. We had family traveling from literally all over the world and she waited for the last person to get there, give them and hug and all her love, and then peacefully passed during the night. I was not prepared for her condition, I don't think anyone was, considering it had only been a few months since I had seen her in great health. But I know it took everything she had to smile at me, sit up in bed and hug me. She was still worried about all of us even though she was the one suffering. It was a true blessing to be with her during her last hours. I wait anxiously to see her and my uncle again in heaven with our amazing Lord.*

*On to the less important parts of life..my intestines. I do not have celiac disease! Praise the Lord. However, I am sensitive to gluten and lactose. Therefore I must monitor my intake of these products. I think it would have been easier to be completely allergic because I would have no choice but to eliminate it.. instead I have a fight with myself on if I need a little more gluten for the day because it looks soo good, or should I play it safe and call it a day on my little gluten enemy? (lactose has been easy for me to stay away from) Can you imagine my frustration? Anyway, like I said, small issues!*

*Landscaping..well..scrap it! I will hopefully have some good news soon on why we have held off on this large project. And NO, I'm not pregnant! ;)*

So, what else has been going on in our lives?! Our good friends Chase and Haylee Wheaton had a precious little angel baby named Tatum Ryann on August 17th. She was a whopping 9 pounds 3 ounces and 22 inches. My best friend Morgan is starting grad school at the University of Houston.. Way to go my little Cougar! A few other things are in the making and God is absolutely blessing us in every way. We are so grateful and thankful for every opportunity He has presented us with and the resources He is making available to us.

Until we meet again! We love you all!

(hopefully that's not several months from now)

Updates!

Well, it's been a while.. sorry friends. I had planned on posting a lot about our landscaping, but I didn't know it was going to be moving SO incredibly slowly! That's okay though, we really enjoy working outside together when we can. (I know, you are thinking that I'm not really an outside girl..you are right!) I'll give ya a few updates on what's been going on lately.

**First and foremost, I need my awesome prayer warriors to give my aunt JJ a shout out.. She is diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and the doctors didn't give us much to be excited about. You can read about her journey here http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jjanzaldua and if you find it in your hearts, please pray for healing, strength, and guidance for her and her family. They have very strong faith so I know God is hearing us and probably saying "Okay guys, I can hear you..give me some time here, I will reveal my plan to you, I promise!"**

*Today I went for my 6 week checkup at the tummy doc. Things have been pretty good. The meds help with most things. I have continued to have some symptoms and the biopsy they took of my stomach showed inflammation, so they sent me to the lab again this morning for another blood test. This time we are testing for Celiac Disease. If you are unfamiliar, here is a link about it http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001280/. Basically, if I have this..I may as well stop eating in general. I love everything on the do not eat list!! Anyway, keep my gluten in your prayers.

*As I said, landscaping is slow, but sure. We have lots of dirt (thanks Glasco and Co!) and we have the outline rockin. We still have lots of smoothing to do and a little more demo on this lovely rock wall we have before we can plant. Then it's on to the entrance and the back yard. (my husband is not excited about all of this work to be done outside..however, he refused to hire anyone bc "he can do it himself" hehe!)

*Can I just throw in that I absolutely have the most adorable nephew in the entire world!!*

*Keep my dad in your thoughts as he will be traveling home the first we of June for a while and then heading back. We are excited to see him!

*I think that's it really.. Love you all!

"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! :)

Too Much Fun!

We have just had so much fun lately I have forgotten to write!!

We had a blast at Hotel ZaZa with our good friends The McKennon's! It was beautiful and we had the most amazing view from our room! We ate at Flemings Steakhouse.. best steak I have ever had! And we went out on the town for a while.

The next weekend we made a trip to San Antonio to see my precious nephew and Blake got to see his UTSA team play on Sunday.

And this past weekend was Blake's birthday!! He really tried to let it slip by, but I LOVE celebrating birthdays so I took care of it for him ;) Friday night we had dinner with our favorite friends, Saturday (the day he was born) he started off the day with a 90 min massage at Thyme Day Spa and Salon by Ms. Sheila, he went to work for a couple of hours while I did my sister's hair, we did cake and presents with all the family and then went to dinner at Royers..amazing!! It is so fun, and loud, to have all of our family around one table! We missed you though Dad, we will be seeing you in a couple of weeks!! After that, we went with Kaylee and Brandon to a 30th birthday bash and had a blast!

Current happenings: I am reading a new book called "All I Need is Jesus & A Good Pair of Jeans" suggested by my sweet friend Haylee Wheaton. I absolutely love it and suggest it to my married friends or mothers! Coming up: Lady A at the Houston Rodeo Friday.. and then.. VEGAS on the 17th!!!

It Never Fails...

It never fails... to amaze me around here.
Those of you who don't know, there are 4 adults and 3 dogs living in our home. I know, we are crazy..but whatever! Blake's friend Mike, who he hired to be his right hand man, has been living here with us for quite some time. About the time he was going to find his own place Morgan called, my best friend, and was placed here for student teaching and needed to live here for 4 months. Long story short they are both here and Morgan's dog Lexi has made herself quite at home as well! Last week when this freeze hit, there were 4 of us without water completely, then with only cold water, then finally with all water but without being able to drain water. It was an absolute nightmare. 4 people's dishes, 4 people's towels and laundry, 4 people's (cough/barf) bathroom habits...this was a huge issue. Needless to say, I knew what had to be done. If any of you are married, then you know there is a fine line between telling your husband what needs to be done and suggesting options, then letting him come up with the idea you had two hours ago. I think I am pretty good at this. Considering my husband generally feels like he has two wives (with Morgan in the house), I have been careful with my words and actions to protect some sort of man hood or man code or whatever it is. Anyway, he saved the day and I remembered how thankful I am for him and how truly amazing he is! I could not imagine a day around here without him! For this, I am glad Valentine's Day is coming up, what a perfect time to remind him how much I love and adore his hard work and dedication!

Care For Your Hair!

My J.O.B is part of who I am. I absolutely love the satisfaction of making someone feel wonderful, it's an addiction. So, since it is such a huge part of my life, why not blog about it right?! I'll start by saying that I work at Thyme Day Spa and Salon. We are an Aveda salon (the only one in town) and we LOVE our products. I have a serious problem with sending you home with something I don't love and use myself. Needless to say, my drawers and cabinets in my bathroom at home are completely full of our products! Personally, I love to switch up my daily routine all the time. This way my hair doesn't get used to one product. Kinda like they say to switch between Tylenol and Advil ;) Today I want you to know why we love our products. If you like the post let me know and I'll send more hair tips and advice your way!

5 Reasons We LOVE Aveda:
1. Hair color and products are 93-99% natural
2. We have a "GREEN policy"
3. We do not test on animals
4. We have a styling line for every type of hair
5. We package our items eco friendly

5 Reasons We LOVE Alterna Caviar:
1. Our anti-aging line!
2. Infused with Caviar extracts, Omega 3s, Vitamin C, and Cytokines
3. All products are color safe
4. Free of parabens, gluten, phthlates, mineral oil, paraffin, DEA, TEA, petroleum & PABA, and sodium chloride
5. We have a blonde, brunette, and red line to help our color beat this Brenham water in our color fading battle!