Celebration Dinner

We had pretty much one of the best meals ever after my graduation. Dad was so generous to take us to Mabry House for dinner. I booked it over a month ago to make sure we could get the chef's table in the kitchen. It was pretty much amazing.

One great part about the meal was that my brother came in to surprise me for my graduation dinner! I was in shock that he drove in from New Orleans just for dinner.

I was a little bit of a weird-o and took a picture of each course. Everyone had a different favorite.

#1-Scallop with olive tapanade...yum city!

#2-Baked Oysters (I didn't eat these to stay on the safe side so they gave me soft-shell crab)

#3-Tempura Duck with pomegranate glaze (surprisingly, this was one of my favorites)

#4- Smoked gouda and roasted tomato soup (Fantastic!)

#5-Salad (no picture)

Mom and FMJ

Neil and me

#6-Butter poached salmon with pea puree

#7: Chile rubbed Lamb (not my favorite)

#8-My favorite dessert at Mabry House...homemade blueberry ice cream stuffed beignets!

Group shot: Dad, Carolyn, me, Neil, Michael, Mom, Janine, and Richard

Me, Mom, and Michael with the chef.

us with our dad

It was a wonderful evening of fun and food. I hope I can go again one day. Maybe for my doctorate? Not a chance...I would not do that to myself!

Graduation

Today was so totally awesome. I was thrilled to graduate with my Masters degree. It seems like it has taken forever. I started in the summer of 2009 and I have taken at least one class while teaching full time and having a toddler. It has not been an easy road, I have shed many tears to get to this point, and spent too much money...but I am FINISHED! I am not trying to sound like I am bragging, but I am just so glad.

We headed to Ruston on Friday night to spend the night with Neil's parents. Of course, they wanted to see Bennett. He had their house in a disaster in about 5 seconds. We happened to forget his pack-n-play in Shreveport so we had a not so wonderful night sleep. We gave Bennett his milk and walked him upstairs to Rebecca's room (where he usually sleeps) and he said "where my bed!?" We tried to get him to sleep on his nap mat, but that was a no go. He was in bed with us. A full size bed is not meant for 3.

On to GRADUATION DAY!:

We all got up and had Richard's fabulous blueberry pancakes. After getting ready, I headed to the nail place to get a pedicure. My feet were not ready for open toe shoes! We went to 102 a Bistro for lunch with Richard, Janine, Mom, and Bennett. I was supposed to be at the graduation at 12:45 and we didn't even get to the restaurant until 12! Oh well, all we did was stand around for 45 minutes in line.

Neil and me at the bistro

Neil ran me to the store to get my cap and gown. Janine was so nice to take it up there and steam it for me. This is me in the back room putting it on.

Here are the grandmas with their boy walking in to the graduation.

Here I am walking across the stage.

And here I am with my diploma.

Neil took some good pictures of the place.

Nana and a restless Bennett during the graduation.

They let Bennett take a few pictures...

Me and Dad after graduation. Yippee!

Bennett said "Mommy wear hat, Mommy wear hat!"

We had a little photo session when we got home so that I would remember the hood I got to wear.

I debated for a while on whether or not I would actually go through with the whole "walking" at graduation. I am so glad I did. I thought I might feel dumb being 29 in a graduation gown walking across the stage...nope! I just felt very proud. I am so glad that my family was there to celebrate with me. A BIG thanks to Neil for putting up with all of my crying and complaining about school!

Tiger Bites

We found a new, fun eatery out by our house a couple weeks ago. It is a family owned and operated business that is clean and has good food. We enjoyed Tiger Bites so much the night we went...we decided to start going for breakfast on Friday mornings before school/work. I hope we continue this because I so enjoy being my family for breakfast before school!

15 weeks!

(Weird angle...I know.) Neil wasn't home to take the picture and I wanted to put on pjs...I rigged a "self-timer" station using a bowl and a TV tray!

Pregnancy Highlights:
How Far Along: 15 Weeks
Size of baby: 4 inches (I am going off the i-pregnancy app for this info)
Total Weight Gain/Loss: Lost 1 pound (I am sure I have gained TONS by now)
Maternity Clothes: All regular clothes
Gender: Can't wait to find out at our gender reveal party. I have an appointment on 2/28/11 and I hope we can find out then! By 16 weeks, hopefully we will know!
Movement: I swear I felt little flutters last Friday. I haven't felt them again, so it might not have been the baby. :)
Sleep: I am up a lot at night for bathroom breaks!
What I miss: nothing
Cravings: I have my appetite back and it is nice. I am trying not to let myself eat everything in sight, though.

Symptoms: Horrible tail bone pain. I don't remember it starting this soon with Bennett. After all day at work, it hurts to walk.
Best Moment this week: Maybe feeling flutters??? :)

Cornice

We have finally started getting some things done around our new house. I just forgot how long it really takes to get things how you want them at a new place. We ordered furniture for our living room and our kitchen and can't wait to get it! Too bad all of it is on back order. Until then, we will just sit on the floor. But, I did get my laundry room cornice board made! I am so excited about it because I chose a funky fabric. I decided that since I am the only one in there and I am in there A LOT...I wanted it to be fun. After all, no one sees it but me. :)

So, here is a little no sew tutorial of my laundry room cornice.

First, you want to get a cute handy guy to measure and build the actual cornice. I chose him:

Basically, he just nailed to pieces of ply wood to the ends of another piece of wood to give the cornice a way to stick on the wall? This is very technical, people.

I used about 3 layers of batting. I bought a bag of batting from Michael's for about $12. The staple gun works great for this.

I used a lot of staples to go around the entire thing. You want to make sure you pull it really tight so there are no wrinkles.

The best part...adding the fabric on top of the batting! I chose this fun, pink, cheetah print fabric. I almost didn't buy enough to cover the thing.

And....ta da! It's complete. It probably would have taken be about an hour to complete if I would have had my handy glue gun. But they are all at school, so I had to buy another one.

I used the glue gun to add the trim. I love how fun it turned out!

And here it is...in place in the laundry room...my favorite room of the house. Neil and Richard hung it for me.

We plan to get a big bulletin board to go above the sink to keep everything organized. I will get to that after I finally get to wall art!

Carousel

Bennett was going to stay with my mom on Friday night so I went and got him from day care after work to see him. I ended up meeting Mom at the boardwalk. We took Bennett on the carousel. He loved it! Me, on the other hand? I was nauseated going around in a circle in 75 degree weather.

Mom took Bennett to see his first movie. Neil and I thought that might not be a good idea, because 2 year olds don't really sit for linger than about 5 minutes. Especially my 2 year old. She said he did great. They saw Gnomeo and Juliet in 3-D. She said he sat in her lap and kept the glasses on the whole time. I would have loved to see him at the movie.

Chemo Day #2

(He looks good, doesn't he?)

We had another fun-filled day at SCTC on Wednesday. I took off work to go with Dad. I love Schumpert. The people are so nice and the atmosphere is really calming. This is probably not the place you would choose to be, but if you have to...it's a good one! Wednesday just so happens to be flower day. A local wholesale flower company donates all of their day old flowers each week and the volunteers make bouquets for the patients. Dad didn't want his so he gave them to me. They are still sitting next to my kitchen sink.

We heard some great news on Wednesday. Dr. Chan looked at my dad's throat and the tumor is totally shrinking. We know the prayers are working. The tumor was growing to his tonsils and soft palette and now it is not on either of those. Yippee! We are so excited! Please keep praying that they totally get rid of this horrible disease!

Thanks so much for the prayers. Only 1 more chemo treatment to go.

14 weeks!!!!!

(Excuse the no-make-up photo!)

Pregnancy Highlights:
How Far Along: 14 Weeks
Size of baby: 3.5 inches (I am going off the i-pregnancy app for this info)
Total Weight Gain/Loss: Lost 1 pound (I am sure I have gained by now)
Maternity Clothes: All regular clothes
Gender: Can't wait to find out at our gender reveal party. I have an appointment on 2/28/11 and I hope we can find out then!
Movement: none yet
Sleep: I'm not as tired lately. I am up a lot at night for bathroom breaks! :)
What I miss: nothing really
Cravings: food is now starting to sound good again..sweets always!

Symptoms: Feeling tired, but starting to feel more like myself. I have some pain in my tail bone that will not go away.
Best Moment this week: Making it to 3 1/2 months pregnant! Hallelujah!

Welcome to the World, Caroline Brooke!

Tonight, Amy and I took some Monjuni's to our friends, Emily and Jared. They just welcomed their baby girl, Caroline Brooke into the world on Thursday. She is the cutest thing ever! She is so cute and tiny. We can't wait for a play date!

So sweet!

Valentine's Party

Lynsie and I were so glad that our planning period lined up with Bennett and John's Valentine's party at school. I was so glad to see my boy. It is very important to me to be able to be there for all of his activities. I can't make it to all of them, but I will try!

They had a wonderful meal of chicken, broccoli with cheese sauce, and pears. We brought the fruit!

Bennett was glad that Pops stopped by the party to see him.

Bennett showed us how he can jump.

The cupcake was the best part!

Bennett gave cute little goodie bags for the favor. I am a huge fan of buying gifts for people that can actually be used. so, thanks to Target $ bin...they all got silverware and a plate. I also made the heart-shaped chocolate covered Oreos for them. It was a lot of fun!