Busy!! But who isn't these days?!?

The weekend before Halloween NaNa (aka my mom) came up to visit since Daddy (aka Michael) went hunting with Pap Paw (aka my grand father!) for his 21st birthday's second birthday! ;-P

Like always we were in for some wild times and it all started out with Emma's first parent teacher conference. I know she is 20 months old what all could we talk about in a 20 minute conversation with her teacher...the answer was A LOT! I am so pleased that even at this age the teachers at Montessori take the time to go over every "little" thing that our children are learning and going through developmentally. It really warms my heart for sure!

We spent that day doing a little shopping and playing close to home. I ran by Rhea Lana for the 1/2 price sale in Springdale and Emma and Mom hit up Fun City. It was at this point that we knew Chuck E. Cheese would be in our future for Saturday.

Saturday morning after some tea time with Broby

We got all dolled up and hit the town to look at some Christmas shopping on things we knew people wouldn't return, but wouldn't you know we found more stuff for us than anyone else.

We did learn that Emma loves dog toys often times more than real ones while shopping at TJ Maxx.

After what must have seemed like forever for Emma we made it to Chuck E. Cheese. To say it was a hit with her might be an understatement!! 

She loved the rides, slides and the big mouse didn't even scare her. I was glad that she had fun but I would be lying if I didn't still hold a grudge against ol' Chuck for ousting Showbiz and the gang!

After some TCBY and a nap we made our way out to campus to see if we could snap some photos of me, Emma, NaNa and the dogs. This is ALWAYS harder than one would think it should be and we did end up getting one of Mom. 

On Sunday NaNa left for home and Emma helped me clean and played in her toy box. :-)

The following week brought us Halloween. She got to wear some bones PJ's to school and that was awesome because she had been studying bones all month!!

She even found a Mr. Bones on the playground!

I was Little Red Riding Hood at work and I saw a big bad wolf too!!

And then that night we took Emma to the assisted living place right down the road from our house. The residents were so sweet and Emma gave out hugs and kisses to all who asked. It took her about .5 seconds to figure out what it takes to get goodies in her basket.

Work was crazy for me that week with all my honors students being able to register but on Friday I packed my bags, my dogs and my little girl up and headed to Brinkley for a weekend of family and fun. Little did I know Emma had no desire to sleep on the drive home and poor Brinkley and Gabby had to hear her screaming to get out for a least an hour of our 4 hour drive home. :-(

We did get to see family so the weekend wasn't a bust...but it was anything BUT smooth!!

We saw Nannie

And ate lunch with MeMe and PapPaw then went for a ride around their yard on the golf cart.

Shared Cheetos with Scout and made a friend for life!

Went to cousin Megan's wedding and danced with Uncle Mac, cousin Dena, Aunt Linda and many more!!

What's that...you noticed Emma's scar and puffy eye?? Let me back up...
 

Emma woke on Saturday with this

Which by Sunday had turned into this

And I don't think any of it was helped by a five step roll/fall down Mom and Dad's un-carpeted stairs. This coupled with teething and not wanting to sleep in the pack and play left me sleepy and whining to my husband that I will never take everyone to Brinkley when he is at Drill again! Oh and Brinkley couldn't run or jump (his two favorite things in the world to do when he is back home) because he still had stitches in his biopsy sites that he had done the Tuesday before. Which I found out at 9 o'clock PM on Friday night were in fact lymphoma as we had feared. I know all of this would have been easier to handle with Michael with me but he has commitments too.

The fall scared the poop right out of me and it was like I was in slow motion and there was nothing I could do. The good thing is that she didn't go too far up so she didn't fall too far down. And before you scold me for not being right there beside her, she had been going up and down right beside Mom or I all day and this was at 4:30 as we were about to get ready for Megan's wedding. Needlesss to say we did not make the ceremony but we did catch the reception where I warned EVERYONE that I thought Emma had pink eye. (which she did) but when she loosened up people wanted to dance and hold her so I just let them.

The second night she slept much better and so did I! We gained an hour so that meant we were up at 6 sharp! ;-P  We at breakfast and that was when we decided it was best to get on the road to make it back to NWA for a doctor visit to get some drops.  We stopped by Uncle H's to get my puppies and look out the window for a bit.

Unlike on our journey there Emma did sleep from Biscoe to Conway

And that was the perfect time for us to stop and have a little lunch and stretch our legs. We did make it to see a doctor and they confirmed the pink eye so we got drops and knew that Daddy would stay home on Monday and Mommy would stay home on Tuesday with her.

By Monday she was already looking 100% better 

But while at work I realized I now had conjunctivitis for the first time myself. :-( I got in to see the doctor and got myself some drops and that just meant that I would wear my glasses for the rest of the week.

On Thursday night my mom made it up to us around 9 so she could go with me to Stillwater OK to take Brinkley to OSU for staging of his lymphoma. He was a trooper and we couldn't have had a better visit. While they did all their testing Mom and I drove around Stillwater (and around and around) because that crazy city was laid out in triangles rather than on a grid!! ;-) and ALL their building on campus look alike. When I drove in I thought  "how beautiful, everything matches" but after an hour of trying to find our way to Theta pond I was more like "why don't any of these buildings have different color bricks at least?!?". We never found the pond while we were looking (but we did while we were lost trying to get back to the small animal hospital) but we did find Oklahoma Wondertorium  and that gave us a lot of smiles and giggles!!

  

 

 

 by the end she was soooo sleepy!

So off to Eskimo Joe's for some milkshake!!

We were sooo happy to get back home and we had another fun day with NaNa but we didn't do much of anything and that was a nice break!!

This week has been fairly slow, but that is a welcomed thing around our house. Brinkley has been doing well on his medicine and yesterday we went back to Dr. Lyon for a CBC (complete blood count) and upon pulling up to the building I hear Emma say "Brinkley's doctor" from the back! Really, she now recognizes the vet's office!?! :-) She proceeded to say that like 20 more times but I was so impressed I didn't even mind the repetition. ;-P  This morning we started the second chemotherapy drugs and hopefully that will go well too!

This weekend will be a busy one, or at least a busy Saturday!! I have the first NWA St. Jude Give thanks. Walk I am soooo happy to have met my goal but if any of you reading would still like to donate I would be honored to walk for you!!! Afterwards a few friends are going to try to get together to get some toe love in celebration of Bethany's birthday and then the Lights of The Ozarks will start at 6:00 pm on the Fayetteville square and after that...TWILIGHT with the same 3 friends/coworkers that I have seen the other 4 movies with EVEN with one of these ladies moving to Nashville and then Chicago!!!  And at some point we will need to pack for Alabama!!

Sunday we leave for a week long extravaganza with family and I can't wait!!!! That is all for now but be BLESSED and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Jill