Wonderful trip to Connecticut

Our trips to Connecticut are always so much fun and filled with so much laughter and it makes it hard to leave my family
I could write pages and pages on all the things we packed in to our time there but here are the highlights.
I took Doug to the Connecticut shoreline -

his first time there and we took a few "self-shots"-

swapping glasses:

Goofballs...
We ate LOTS of Italian food - YUM! One night we went to Pepe's for pizza and one afternoon we went to Modern Pizza. Pepe's is usually my all time favorite but I have to say that this time Modern was my favorite. And of course, we went to Libby's Italian pastries and got about a dozen cannolis - the best you will EVER eat. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of the cannoli's because we ate them so fast there was no evidence they were even around...
We went out to dinner at a Japanese Hibachi restaurant one night. There were 15 of us and I didn't even take any pictures - I'll have to see if I can get my sister to send me a few. We took up two whole hibachi tables but thankfully we were all facing each other with the two chefs in the middle cooking. We had fun watching each other trying to catch flying food with our mouths and a few of us (not me!) were even brave enough to have Saki squirted into our mouths from the hibachi chefs. It was amazing to see who could hold the most saki in their mouths. It was a lot of fun and the food was really good too.
Look at the pictures below and you will have to agree that I have two of the most beautiful nephews on the planet. My sister Amanda's baby Joao has the most amazing eyes and such a charismatic little personality. Amanda calls him "Bug" and he is one of the cutest little bugs I've seen in a long time.

Here is a cute picture of Joao getting a bath - he loves the water and was kicking and splashing and having such a fun time.

My sister January's baby Garrett is so calm and so sweet. He's two months younger than Joao and not quite as "busy" as Joao but just give him a little time...


I got to see my friend Wendy. She came to Garrett's blessing and then she wanted to visit my Mom's grave since she hadn't been there since we had the headstone installed. Wendy and I have been friends for twenty-something years. We've seen lots of ups and downs together and I'm so happy we could catch up with each other this weekend.

Doug and I met my Gram for breakfast one morning and went to see her cute little "old-lady" condo. She must have had her hearing aids turned way up because she didn't have any trouble hearing me this time. :) My voice is kind of high and so many times she just can't seem to hear me - when I call her on the phone I always have to yell and even then she doesn't hear me - but she did really well this time.
I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff but I got home really late last night and didn't sleep well so as I remember stuff I'll post it.
I've got so much to blog about this week so stay tuned for some fun stuff like the Easter Tag swap I participated in, pictures of our finished patio, and a few other exciting things. :)

2010 in Review

(Warning: LONG POST!)
What a year this has been! I knew it had been busy and crazy at times, but when I actually sat down and took an inventory of what happened this year even I'm surprised! Of course, I can't include everything but here is some of what went on in our world this year:
(Remember, you can click on the highlighted links to take you to the posts I've previously done or click on the pictures to make them larger)
Brave Girls:

What an experience this was. Something my soul so desperately needed - time to be still, time to think, and time to meet a group of amazing, like-minded women. I came back from Idaho with a new perspective and new friends.
At Brave Girls I met Rachel - and what a great year we've had! We signed up and traveled to multiple crafty venues this year. Looking forward to more in 2011!

Mary Englebreit Conference:

I traveled to St. Louis where I met up with Rachel and met her sweet friend Kara. We had such a fun time together on this trip! Creating, eating, sharing stories. It was great!

Craft Room Organization (Almost):

In 2010 I wanted to get my craft room in shape. At one point early in the year I literally couldn't walk around in there. I hired a personal organizer to come help me because yes, I was *that* overwhelmed with what I was facing. The organizer came and we worked for several days sorting, purging, planning - and things were coming along pretty well. However, I think I totally overwhelmed her because she had a minor accident on her bike and needed to take a break until she healed. I've tried to contact her and haven't heard another word. Guess I'm on my own to finish. I'm GOING TO COMPLETE this project in 2011. When I do, I will post before pictures (they will remind you of Hoarders) and afters. It's going to be good!
I left my consulting gig. Yep ~ unemployed. I had been feeling that it was time to move on but that is always a scary proposition especially when you don't know what is next. I took a leap of faith and decided I would take a month off and figure out what I would do after our trip. Well - a month has now turned into 7 months and I'm praying for work in the new year. No regrets though as to leaving - it was definitely time.

Our trip of a lifetime to Rome:

What a time we had!

I loved that Doug enjoyed himself so much on that trip. I did too but it made it even better for me that he loved Rome!

We ate and drank and totally absorbed the Italian culture. The food ruined us for food back home. Everything in Rome is so fresh and so flavorful and simple! We got home to tasteless garbage. What a bummer!
We took a trip back East that got cut short. While in NYC, before we could see my family in Connecticut, we got word that Doug's mom was very sick and we needed to get home right away. It wasn't good.
In September, we lost Doug's Mom. We miss you Carol...

Creative Connection:
Another *amazing* event! Rachel and I signed up for this one and could barely wait to attend! We can't wait for the announcement of the dates for 2011 because we are all over it!

What a surprise for us when we ran into our fellow Brave Girls Melody and Margie.

I went to Las Vegas for Inspiration Unlimited. It was my first trip ever to Vegas and I didn't really even get to see anything! I went straight to the hotel and attended the scrappy conference. I met some really nice ladies there and clicked with Collette (not pictured). I enjoyed the projects although, like usual I didn't get to finish them. Overall though, honestly, I didn't enjoy the event itself. The people were "different" - no where near as friendly as the women I've met at Mary Englebreit, Creative Connection and Silver Bella.

Silver Bella - This was my first year to attend and definitely NOT my last. I drove to Omaha and roomed with Rachel. Met some new friends, saw some "old" friends and took a handful of fun classes. Again - didn't get much completed but had such fun. That is what matters, right?

Just back from Omaha, Doug and I made the trip to Connecticut to meet my sweet new nephew Joao (pictured below). During our whirlwind trip we took a day trip to New York with Bobby & Jess.

We also had a baby shower for my sister January during that visit. It was a quick trip but so great to finally see my family - especially since the trip in August didn't quite work out.
We got to meet Baby Joao. I love my sweet nephew!

The day after Christmas Baby Garrett was born to my sister January. Can't wait to get to meet him!

Looking forward to a great 2011 - Happy New Year Everyone!

Home from Connecticut, New York and Poor Niles!

We ventured up to Connecticut last week. I couldn't wait to meet my new nephew Joao (John) and see my family as it has been way too long! We squeezed so much stuff into our few days there - a trip to New York City - where we saw Jennifer Aniston shooting a film near Bryant Part, Pizza at Pepes, Baby Shower for my sister Jan, breakfast with my Gram and just lots of laughs and good times.
On Friday we took the train from Milford to New York. It's a quick and easy train ride and fun to people watch. Left to right is my brother Bob, his girlfriend Jess, Me & Doug. Can you tell how excited we are? It was actually a pretty nice day - just slightly cold but not too bad - and plenty of sun. We were so lucky!

We had lunch at Simply Pasta, took the subway to Soho, shopped around China Town, went to Supreme - a skateboard shop and after much walking and a little shopping we took the train back to have pizza in New Haven at Pepes.
One of the main reasons for our trip was to meet our sweet nephew! Isn't he just a precious little baby? He belongs to my sister Amanda and if I thought I could get away with it, I would have brought him back to Oklahoma with me!

Another big reason for our trip was a baby shower for my sister January. Her due date is the beginning of January and with the holiday activities we decided to have the shower now. Left to right is January, Me & nephew, Amanda and Jess.

I just can't get enough of this little man! He really liked his auntie too! ;)

Unfortunately, on Saturday while Doug and I were out shopping we got a phone call that nobody wants to get. One of our little Yorkies - Niles - got attacked while away at Doggie Camp. He was mauled by a Jack Russell Terrier and suffered multiple puncture wounds, bruises and at least four broken ribs. Niles is 10 years old and only four pounds and is missing several of his teeth so he really can't defend himself. We were absolutely devastated by the news and of course, it put a damper on our trip. He was rushed to the Emergency Veterinary Clinic here in Tulsa and they did a great job patching him up and taking care of him until we arrived home late last night. We stopped by to see him and *maybe* take him home but he was in such fragile condition that I started feeling weak and almost passed out from seeing him in that condition. We decided to let him stay the rest of the night at the Critical Care Clinic.

This morning we took him from the ER clinic to our vet and he stayed there most of the day today. We have him home tonight and put him in his own little "playpen" where he can move around a little bit but is safe from being bothered from our other dogs. We've got him doped up on a Fentanyl patch to keep his pain controlled but the problem now is that he is not eating. I'm hoping he will regain his appetite soon - he is just too little and can't afford to lose any weight. Plus we have to get his antibiotics into him. If you pray, please pray for Niles to have a quick and uneventful recovery.
I hope to work on some of my Silver Bella projects this weekend and post more pictures.

The vacation that wasn't...

We have been planning a vacation "home" to see my family (in Connecticut) for about six months now. My cousin Christopher was getting married, my sisters are both having babies, and we thought it would be a great time to spend a couple days in NYC then head on up to Connecticut to visit my family. I haven't seen my family in over a year and Doug and I were both looking forward to our trip. Well, to say things didn't go exactly as planned is an understatement.

We were all excited to stay a couple of days in NYC at the beginning of our trip. We had it all booked when Doug got a call from his employer and got the news that a meeting was scheduled for him to be in New Jersey on our planned days in NYC. Bummer that some of our time was going to be infringed upon by work commitments but hey, you do what you gotta do. We would have some other time to enjoy NYC prior to setting out for Connecticut.

We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and we walked from Times Square all the way to Soho. I wanted to visit Kate's Paperie and Doug wanted to visit Supreme - a skateboard shop (which ended up not being open). We ate at Simply Pasta and it was wonderful!

Tuesday night we saw "Rock Of Ages".

On Wednesday morning Doug went off to his meeting and we got the news his mom was back in the hospital with pneumonia. It has been a rough go since she fell back in July and from what we were hearing we realized we really needed to get to Texas right away to see her. We changed our flight to fly out as soon as we could and spent the remainder of the week in Texas.

Over the past couple of days she has "clinically improved" but she is still very, very sick. Any prayers for her and for Doug's family would be much appreciated.

We didn't make it to Connecticut to see my family and we missed my cousin's wedding but it was more important for us to be with Doug's mom. Right now we are back in Oklahoma and not exactly sure what the next few days are going to bring.

Snow.. Ugh!

Woke up to a freezing cold day today with big, fat snowflakes. I am so ready to be done with winter. I need sunshine and warm days. The good news is that it looks like by the middle of next week we will be headed into warmer weather. Can't wait!

Last night we went to a dinner presentation at Flemings Steakhouse in Utica Square. The presentation was about continuous epidural infusion rather than a single epidural steroid injection for back pain. Exciting, huh? Actually, it was kind of interesting and definitely made sense for some of our patients. Look forward to see if it works better than the ordinary injection. The dinner part wasn't the greatest however. I was really looking forward to eating at Fleming's because I had never been. It was mediocre at best and it definitely wouldn't be my choice if I had to pay the bill.

Missed out on a dinner tonight because of exhaustion and a terrible headache. I was supposed to attend a meeting at Dave and Buster's but didn't make it. Been going like crazy and need a break. So, I'm just taking the evening a little easy, straightening up my office which has gotten totally out of control the last week. Also listening to my iTunes and to Doug hollering in the other room over the Sooners and the basketball game. Sorry Douglas. :( Seems as though the Sooners have let him down tonight.

Okay, enough doom and gloom. On a more positive note, here I am tonight with Teddy:

I know I look tired, but isn't he just too cute?!?

On other positive news, I booked our flight for our trip home to Connecticut this summer. Can't wait! We are going to stay with Bobby and Jess and I'm sure have a great time. Yay! We haven't been to Connecticut since September of 2007 and I sure miss my family. And I can't fail to mention my favorite pizza in the whole entire world: Pepe's Pizza on Wooster Street in New Haven. It's world famous. I tell my family everytime I go home that I'm going for Pepe's. They can join me or not but I'm not going to miss it - yes - it IS that good!