Golden Girls, doc and football

Since Labor Day I've been rather obsessed with watching Golden Girls. Well, I don't know if obsessed is the right word, but basically it is all I watch.

My DVR currently has 43 episodes recorded, and I have watched 37 of those. Eek.

I really enjoy wholesome shows. Yet another reason I'm 26 going on 86.

Both Richie & I had a great week this week. I had an appointment with the urologist that was long but went well. First, let me say that I loooove Dr. Renfroe. He is not only knowledgeable and compassionate in terms of providing medical care, but he recognizes my life as a normal person (and a teacher). Case in point: he kept his office open late so that I could get an IV and have a CT scan done. He said he knows how hard it is for me as a teacher to miss work, so he wanted to make sure I got all my meds and tests done that day, instead of having to come back in the morning. The nurse doing my IV seemed a bit put out, but other than that they were great! To top it off, he didn't charge me the several hundred dollars that I owe. What a kind man!

I ended up having to call dad because of the IV, etc., and he got to talk with Dr. Renfroe for a bit. I'm so glad he is my doctor and will be dad's doctor. Now if only I can get Richie to switch...

Richie was busy at work as usual, but he did get some good news. He won't have to work during the football games this year. He does have to do pre-game stretch and half-time stretch, but during the game he gets to stand on the side line and just watch. He isn't responsible for anything else like he has been in the past. He was very happy with this news.

And, last but not least, today is the first home game for Ole Miss. Go Rebs!

The Ring

Coach Bianco just finished designing the Ole Miss Baseball Championship Ring and it is awesome! I can't wait to see it! Richie is super excited and can't wait to wear it. I'm so proud of my husband!

The Camera

I spent several hours last night and a good deal of time this morning reading and learning my new camera.


It is complicated for sure. But I love it! I'm so glad I decided to get it.


Already, the picture quality is much superior to pictures taken with my Kodak point & shoot. Once I figure out how to use all of the features, I'm sure the pictures will be even better.


My first mission was to figure out how to do the blurred background. You know, where only the subject/thing you are shooting is in focus and everything else is out of focus. I read the manual and tried what it said. Didn't work. Went online and read at least fifteen different sites. All said the same thing. Still wasn't working.


Finally, I figured it out! Too bad it is rainy today so I can't go around taking pictures.


I'm so excited to learn how to use this camera! Next weekend: pictures of the Chunkling :-)

My tomatoes, of course.

My new camera! Not sure what's wrong with the color here.

Next up: perfecting editing pictures

Here's the shot where the bloom is in focus and

everything else is out of focus. I'll be working

to perfect this technique as well.

The Grill

As always, getting the grill yesterday was an experience. It's a good thing we have a good sense of humor!


So we went Saturday morning to pick up the grill. It wasn't assembled, but we had planned to ask Richie's cousin to put it together for us. Two boys at Sneed's offered to put it together for $20. We figured that was a steal, so we agreed and told them we'd be back at 4:00.


Later that afternoon, Dad & I left Richie & Uncle Mike at home watching football while we went to pick up the grill.


We got to Sneeds right at 4:00 and the poor guys were still working on it. I think they said they started at 1:00. Ouch.


When I bought the grill, I told the guy that we wanted to hook it up to the gas line we had put in when we built the house. That way, we wouldn't even have to worry about if we had a full tank or not. You just hook up to the gas line and grill to your heart's content.


The guy I had worked with the other day wasn't there, but a young guy was and he offered to make sure I had the right hose to hook up to our line. It took him 30 minutes, and he had to rig something together for us. But he got it!


Then he asked the dreaded question, "You do have propane gas, right?"


Um, no. We have natural gas. Ugh. The grill we bought is a propane grill, so it won't run on natural gas.


So I had to buy a propane tank, and the guy had to disassemble his hard work.


We finally get the grill home an hour later and go to light it up. It wasn't lighting. We could hear and smell gas, but nothing was catching.


Then we noticed something. They had hooked up the grill/gas line backwards. The gas was pouring out the back, not into the grill.


Dad knew he could fix it, all he needed was a Phillip's head screwdriver.


Could we find ours?


No!


Fast forward to today- Dad came over and fixed the grill (what in the world would we do without him!?). We also found out we can buy a conversion kit for the grill, which makes it able to run on natural gas.


Whew. Thankfully everything always seems to work out in the end.

This is the gas line where we wanted to hook up the grill.

And the propane tank we had to buy instead.

But it is one good looking grill, and I know we'll get lots of use

out of it. Happy Birthday, Lobby!

September 9th & Other Updates

09.09 is my most wonderful, amazing husband's birthday. A few posts ago, I put up a picture from the "surprise" birthday party I threw for him. I put surprise in quotes because, well, I told him about it two days before. Oh, well. It was still a blast!

This year's birthday was significantly less exciting.

My mom was in town visiting, so the day before his birthday she made Richie a special dinner. We had cake, and he opened some gifts. On his actual birthday, we had dinner at home, just the two of us. He requested tacos, one of our favorite meals. I made those and a birthday cake. It was a wonderful, quiet evening, if I do say so myself :-)

The birthday celebrations aren't over yet, though! For his birthday, I bought Richie a gas grill. We are super excited! I had to order it because our local hardware store didn't have it in stock (my dislike of Home Depot will have to wait for another post), and we'll pick it up tomorrow. So the celebration continues!

Happy birthday, Lobster!

In other news...

-I broke down and purchased the camera I've been eyeing. The Canon Rebel I've posted about only once or twice ;-) It was such a deal- $100 off for Labor Day. You can't beat that! It arrived yesterday, and I'm going to have my Dad help me set it up tomorrow.

-Speaking of my Dad, can I just say how incredibly fabulous it is to have him work at the same school with me!? Sure, we are in different buildings, but I still get to see him during the day. I am so happy! He is adjusting to Oxford, but once my Mom gets here it will be much better. I can't wait!!

-Of course, no post is complete without a landscaping update! I know, contain your excitement.
The tomatoes are growing at an accelerated rate, much faster than I imagined. But that's not the big update. We are going tomorrow to order our trees! Yay! Ok, I guess that isn't as exciting to you. We've been discussing what type of trees to get for a year now, and finally we have a decision! I'll take pictures (with my new camera!) as soon as they are planted.

Ding Dong

Sometimes I'm not the brightest.


We have a wreath on our front door, but I wanted a more fall-ish one. Richie & I argued about the size when I had found the perfect one at the garden center. He said we needed it much bigger, I disagreed.



I didn't get that wreath but came across another that I loved a few weeks later. I bought it, so excited, and brought it home.


I wanted to surprise Richie, so I got the step ladder and replaced the old one with my new find.


I stood back and...well...it looked microscopic! Who knew how big that stinkin' wreath had to be! (oh wait, my husband did)


It now resides on our back door, which is about half the size of our front door.

Happy 1st Birthday, Chunkling!

The Martin boys watching football.
The Chunkling got tired of football, so he went off to play.
I followed him. After playing in the kitchen, he decided to go back to the
family room. Hi Uncle Richie!

He walked straight through the family room to the laundry room.

The laundry room gave him an idea to play in the bathroom.

He tried to close the door on me, but I made it in.

The first game we played was throw the water bottle in the toilet.

That excitement lasted 2.5 seconds, but thankfully he found

the toilet paper to occupy his time.

He is such a kind boy and decided to share the toilet paper with me.

In tiny, small pieces. One at a time.

After exhausting the fun in the bathroom, we went to play in DeeDee's room.
And we rounded out the trip back in the family room to play with

birthday toys. Happy birthday Chunklin'!

Dreams

I have so many things on my mind lately. Sometimes life just weighs on you, and when that happens to me, sleep suffers. It isn't even that I can't sleep, it's that my stresses follow me into my dreams. Sheesh! You'd think I could at least escape in my sleep.

No such luck!

Tonight I'm enjoying a quiet night in bed. I've perused all my web sites, done some research on things, purchased a gift or two for Richie's birthday on Wednesday. Richie & Uncle Mike's conversation floats into our bedroom, and I can tell he is so happy. Football + good food + his uncle's company = one happy husband

Still, I wish we were back here. It was so nice to be away from real life, if only for a few days. No bills to pay, no house to clean. We enjoyed each other's company without any other life issues tugging us away. Our biggest decisions were casino or pool? Italian or Japanese for dinner?

Our decisions right now aren't nearly as fun. So it leaves me looking through pictures, wishing we were back in that wonderful hotel room, with the beautiful view of clear water, the sound of ocean waves filling our room. Just me & my husband.

A Big Fat Negative

On the root canal that is.

Took a whole day off of work for this. Richie went to the dentist with me. Sat and waited forever since they were "working us in."

Get back to the exam room, he looks at my mouth and says "Hmm...I don't know if what's causing this is going to be fixed with the root canal. I mean, you still need one but I can't do it today."

He took x-rays, and now I need root canals on TWO teeth.

But he didn't do them today because I have several sores and infections all.over.my.mouth. He didn't want to aggravate things even more.

Plus I have this lump on my jaw/neck, and that has grown in size in about a week and hurts. So I have to go to a neck surgeon on Thursday to get that checked out.

For real, it is never simple with me. Ever, ever.

Thankfully, I really like my dentist. He is super nice and takes good care of me. Part of that is probably because I taught his daughter last year. But, whatever the reason, he indulges my extreme anxiety about dental procedures.

Now I have time to ponder about the pain of a root canal since I won't have it until October 1st. They've given me Xanax (if that's how it spelled?) to take before so that I'm not as anxious. And they are going to give me an IV with other meds so I'm out for the procedure. That's probably best so I don't cry and embarrass myself too much.

I go to the doc about this growth/cyst on Thursday. I'm thinking it needs to be removed. At my last visit, he said if it grows or hurts, it will need to be either biopsied or removed. I'm leaning toward the removal so that if the biopsy comes back weird and I need it out, it's already done! Don't you like how I think ahead?

Oh, and I have the best husband ever. He takes such good care of me. I love him!