Nani & Poppy visit Part 1

Sean & Char came for a visit the week after Easter, and it was so nice to have company and to be able to show them all the things we love about Houston. (My mom came to visit quick in December but it was only for one overnight stay before we took our Disney Christmas Cruise out of Galveston, so we didn't get to do any fun/touristy things with her.) 

We started by surprising them with a visit to the new house when they got off the plane. Ryan and Aidan went to pick them up at the airport and I went over to the house with Mason to meet them and surprise them. (It's a model home so it's empty, I just had to get the sales guy to unlock it for us). The new house is 45 minutes north of us and since Ryan was already going to be up in North Houston at the airport we figured it was the perfect time to pull this little trick on them.

Ryan told them he had to stop at one of his attending's houses to pick something up for his Grand Rounds the next morning... hehe.

It was fun to be able to share in our excitement!

We didn't intend on actually buying a house so soon, but once we laid eyes on this baby we knew we had to have it. I describe the neighborhoods around a big city like this as being "crammed like sardines" or "you can reach out your window and touch your neighbor's house".

Not this one.

We have 3/4 an acre, fabulous front and back yards, and enough room for the boys to run around and play ball, it's a corner lot on a cul-de sac, so there won't be any "through" traffic, and all without being in our neighbor's personal space!! We are totally in love with this house!

 Large kitchen...I'm in love...and they're repainting that ugly mustard color white for me.

Looking into the living room from the kitchen

the living room

The next morning Nani & Poppy hung out with A & M so I could go watch Ryan give his grand rounds presentation, then later that night we took them to an Astros game. Ryan and I love baseball, and being 15 minutes away from an MLB park has been glorious. (We only made it to one Phillies game when we lived in Allentown, because the boys were too little and required a sitter, and it was over an hour away). We now root for the home team the Astros, and we have tickets bought for one game each month of the season so far.

We had mexican beer, $1 hot dogs, and everyone had a blast! 

Friday was spent just hanging out and spending most of our afternoon at the Pool in our apartment complex. We even used the "community" grill over at the pool to make some BBQ for dinner, which we ate poolside! Aaaahhhh....vacation. 

Mason even overcame his fear of the water and now not only will go fully into the water, but was jumping in!!!

Ry and I ran back to the apartment to get all the food to cook for dinner and when we came back this was what we found....Char said he was so tired he passed right out on Sean shortly after we left.

Saturday after we all went to Aidan's soccer game, we got the chance to take Nani & Poppy to a real Crawfish Boil that was being put on by all the neighbors along one street in a fancy shmancy neighborhood in Houston called Bellaire. Yup, Bellaire.  I believe it is Ryan's program director, Dr. Holcomb that was the main house the boil was set up at. They blocked off the street so you couldn't drive, and the kids played ball and rode their bikes while the adults drank Shiner Bock and ate crawfish.

These tables are constructed specifically for crawfish boils. Once the food is done being boiled it gets dumped on these tables and you dig in...the large open cutout in the center has a trash can underneath it. 

The aftermath. eeeew.

I am not a fan of crawfish, and didn't even try them (but I did try the boiled garlic with some crusty french bread, and a cauliflower head that was so spicy I almost died), but it was really interesting to watch how they do the whole thing. They had live crawfish shipped in from Louisiana that morning (don't be impressed, we're only 1.5 hrs from the state border), and they toss them in a cooler and give them a good rinsing for quite some time to get all the mud off the MudBugs. Mason was fascinated with this process, and quickly made friends with the man washing the "bugs", who was very nice and let him help.

He wasn't afraid. At all. In fact, none of the kids were. They were walking around with solo cups filled with water and crawfish in them!

Mom, look! Can we take him home???

Uh, no.

Aidan got a chance to help wash a batch of bugs too!

Louisiana themed goodies for everyone to enjoy. The boys grabbed some beads and were completely tattooed with crawfish and alligators before we left. I scored a cool crawfish boil necklace that has a crawfish, corn, potato and garlic on it...the typical things that are thrown in a boil, although this boil also had cauliflower, artichokes and mushrooms in there. All of it was way too spicy for this chica to even enjoy. I spent my time munching on other appetizers and food that guests brought....and we brought Texas shaped cookies, decorated with Nani's suggestion and bearing a flower sprinkle where Houston is!

Stay tuned for Part 2!!

Ryan's Grand Rounds

It happened to work out perfectly that Ryan had to present for Grand Rounds while his parents were visiting. Perfect that is, because that meant that I was able to attend and watch him "in action", as Ryan puts it.

Ryan also presented during Grand Rounds his chief year of residency in Allentown too, but I wasn't able to make it, because I either worked or had no sitter for the monsters boys.

Grand Rounds start promptly at 7 am, which meant that in order to beat the insane rush hour into the city we had to be out the door by 5:45. Yes, that's AM. I used to be out the door earlier than that when I still worked in the lab in PA, but man, I haven't really had to do that in a while, lol.

It was actually a nice little morning for the two of us, knowing the kids were in good hands with Nani and Poppy, and we could be out doing this and I was actually physically there to support Ry.

We got there early enough to stop at the Starbucks in the hospital and for Ryan to get into the auditorium and get himself prepared to talk.

I chuckled a little when I saw this diagram of the Coagulation Cascade on one of Ry's slides, because we had to learn the whole damn thing in Med Tech School and I remember hating it!!!

Believe it or not, I was able to understand quite a bit of what he was discussing. I made it about 45 minutes before I had to pee from all that coffee and then lost my concentration, lol.

I also got to meet the other Attending Surgeons Ryan works with/will be "partners" with in July. It was really nice to finally be able to put faces to the names he always mentions!

After the lecture was over we headed over to sign Ryan's contract...... It was a pretty exciting moment, and glad we got it on camera, even if it is only an iPhone shot :)

Signing his life over to Memorial Hermann in Houston ;)

I'm so glad I was able to be a part of this big day in Ryan's year of Fellowship. Grand Rounds is an hour long presentation on a topic of their own choosing that they usually spend weeks working on. I'm so proud of Ry! We did have a moment of panic the night before when all the pictures had disappeared from his Powerpoint file, but he managed to get it all back in order in time for his presentation. PHEW!

Zoey Lauren!!!

I had the absolute pleasure of being able to do my Niece's newborn photos. I have never been so excited for a newborn session ever.

The boys and I loaded up all my gear for the session and hit the road for a road trip to MD. I wish I could have stayed longer but it took us 2 days of driving to get there (20 hours), then we got to stay and visit for 2 days, then we started the 2 day drive back. If I didn't have to coach soccer practice I would have made it a longer visit. I was lucky enough however to have Ryan coach our soccer game for me while I was gone, since nobody else was around...not even my assistant coach!

Ry was a trooper...he worked night shift on call, and then at 830 am was coaching Aidan's soccer team, and Aidan wasn't even there! Thanks Ry!!

While we were in MD Larry took me and the boys down to DC for the Cherry Blossom Festival.

It was crowded, so amazingly crowded. It was barely enjoyable. The monuments I wanted to visit and see had so many people crowded around them that you could barely see them. I guess it just means we need to take another visit to see them NOT during the cherry blossom festival!

Even if it was really crowded and crazy in DC that day it was really nice to spend some time with my brother. 

The previous day I had done Zoey's newborn photos and she was a dream. She slept almost the entire time with one break for feeding, which is pretty rare for newborn sessions! I loved every chance I got to snuggle her and had a blast creating photo art with her sweet little face. I just love her so much and can't wait until I get to see her again!

Mason absolutely adores her and couldn't leave her alone while we were there. A lot of "Mason don't lean in the bassinet, or Mason don't touch her"'s were being said lol.

Aidan couldn't have cared less, he was content to sit and play on Uncle Larry's iPad while we all ooh'd and aah'd over Zoey.

I am so thankful that I was able to get to MD to see Larry, Sandra and Zoey, and also to meet Debi. Congrats again on your new addition guys, love you all!

Always

So here's the story of my tattoo. It was not my immediate intention that the tattoo be related to my Dad's passing.

In fact, I had started planning my geeky Harry Potter tattoo before Dad even got sick.

However, once we knew it was really bad for Dad, I knew that my idea had gained double meaning and that I had to get it done ASAP.

The initial idea for my tattoo being a key word from the last book of the HP series: "always". In fact I had initially planned on throwing a Deathly Hallows sign in there with it when I designed it in photoshop.

I ended up deciding to streamline it and simply make it say "always", figuring I could always add the hallows sign later. By then I knew it had gained double meaning and now meant that I would always be thinking of my Dad. 

The nerd-dom in full circle with the passage from the book

Ryan happened to have last wednesday off so he suggested I call and get an appointment to get it done that day. Sadly he forgot that kids aren't allowed in tattoo shops so I asked Britt if they could stay with her while Ryan went with me to get it done, and she is the best and agreed; and all it cost me were some marshmallow cookie bars ;)

The fresh product

After getting the tattoo done we grabbed the boys from Britt's and decided to head out for dinner since it was getting late and we had nothing ready at home yet.

We decided we wanted seafood and ended up at a small local place near our house that happened to be serving crawfish since they're in season now.

Ryan decided to give them a whirl.

I, on the other hand, will never try them. They have eyes. They look at you. How can you get past that?!?!

One pound of crawfish, for Ryan's eating pleasure. Ick.

Ryan placed the crawfish carcasses facing me as he ate them because he thought it was funny because I was so creeped out by them. Aidan thought it was pretty funny too, the little shit.

 My cousin recently sent me an new Alex and Ani bracelet with my Dad's birthstone on it as a remembrance, and Dad's friend Dawn sent me the one with the heart as well. I have had a very "Dad"-filled week and had many moments of sadness, but am still trying to deal with it day by day. Some days I'm ok because life is so hectic and crazy with 2 little boys and I don't have time to pee alone, let alone think....... then some days I can't stop thinking about him.

Now I have many sweet things to remember him by.