Jolly Old Saint Nicholas....THIS YEAR!

A turning point has been reached in the Edwards household. Landry is no longer afraid of Santa Claus. Yep, for the first time in her nearly four years of life we had a successful visit with Santa.

Below is this year's picture plus the first two years. The 2004 picture is not missing......it doesn't exist. Santa maybe able to fly all over the world in one night delivering packages to the children of the earth without growing weary, but I didn't want to torture him with a kicking, screaming, arm-flailing two-year-old!

First try......with Santa 2002

Second try......with Santa 2003

Third time's a charm!! Santa 2005

I don't have the gall........

gall bladder, that is. After having those "awful pains" again last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I decided I had had enough and made another trip to the ER on Saturday afternoon. I half expected that I would be sent home that afternoon and that again the doctors would be "stumped" by why I was having these pains. The first time I went to the ER they treated me like it was all in my head; like maybe I was having anxiety attacks. But, no, not this time. I was admitted to the hospital. It's funny. Before they knew what it was, they acted as if I was the only person ever who had had these kinds of symptoms. Then, when they did an ultrasound and realized I had gall stones, I was told how common this was in pregnant women. However, I don't know if they ever would have done an ultrasound if my dad hadn't of already diagnosed it and insisted on a ultrasound. So, yes, my gall bladder was full of stones. Some had even "escaped" the gall bladder and were blocking my pancreas. I was never really sure what the pancreas did, but let me just say that if it's not working properly it hurts like the dickens!! Gall bladder surgery was on Monday afternoon and I was released from the hospital Tuesday evening. Feeling much better now!

I'm thankful to be out of the hospital and getting to enjoy my family today (and turkey)! Special thanks to my dad who took me to the hospital and stayed for my surgery and was pretty much there as much as he could be. My mom who rearranged her whole schedule to have Landry stay with her while I was in the hospital. Huge help!! And, especially to Jeff who was by my side the whole time (after he returned Saturday night from Lubbock). Jeff had to endure the uncomfortableness of the hospital chair-bed, the constant middle of the night nurse checks, and my constant complaining when I was on the ice chip diet!! Thanks to you all!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas........

in my house!! We did not put up so much as a stocking last year for Christmas since we were living in the apartment. Even the Grinch's house would have looked more festive than our apartment did last year. So, needless to say, I have been anxious to get out my Christmas decorations! Yep, I skipped right over Thanksgiving and am going straight to Christmas.

I went to Costco yesterday and bought their 9' pre-lit tree. It's so full and pretty. I love it! So far, all we've done is set up and fluff the tree and put our garland on the mantle. But, in a few days we will be living in Winter Wonderland!

One of my favorite days of the year as a kid was the day my mom decorated the house for Christmas. No, we didn't trim the tree as a family, or sing Jingle Bells as we unpacked the stockings from a box. It was better!! My mom always decorated while we were at school and when we got home the house had been transformed! The tree with it's big red bows and colored lights was up; adorned with every school-made ornament we had made. Not to mention the countless number of colored "treble clef" ornaments my piano teacher gave us EVERY year. (Brady + Lindsay + me X 6 or so years of piano lessons= plethera of treble clefs.) Anyway, the bookshelves were covered in "snow" and decorated with all sorts of Christmas figurines. The ballisters were swagged with garland (and again, big red bows) all the way down the stairs. The table was set with the Christmas sequined table cloth my grandmother and great aunt hand made. My Raggedy Ann stocking was hung from the mantle from the Christmas mouse with the curly tail stocking hook.

Christmas decorating day was alway so neat to me as a kid......still is, I guess. I hope Landry will have the same sort of memories when she grows older!
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MY MOM WAS RIGHT!!

She told me when we were building our house to have them put an electrical outlet on the wall right above the mantle. We didn't do it. Now, our pretty lighted garland has a cord stretched four feet from the mantle to the bottom of the wall to be plugged in. Wish we had listened, mom!

I need a weekend to recover from my weekend.

We had a great weekend, but this Monday I am dragging! Friday afternoon, Jeff, Landry, and I went to Oklahoma with my family. The only hitch in the road trip was when Landry awoke from her nap and announced she needed to potty NOW! So, she got to experience her first side-of-the-road-tinkle. She actually thought it was fun and talked about it all weekend. I'm sure her teachers have heard all about it today at school! ;) And, wouldn't you know that after we got back in the car not half a mile down the interstate was a convenient store! Timing!

Friday evening my whole family went to eat at Red Robin. I had never been there before, but it was good food. My sister and I shared a heart attack on a platter (onion rings and nachos). Yum!

Saturday, Jeff, my dad, my brother, and sister went to the OU/A&M game. They had fun and enjoyed the outcome! Landry, my mom and I on the other hand did our cheering from Sooner Mall. We got a little bit of Christmas shopping knocked out which was good. We came back from OK on Saturday night and Landry went to spend the night with my mom and dad (WOOHOO!!).

Sunday morning I went to brunch with some of my Pi Phi friends that were in town. It was fun to visit and catch up. So many babies! Five out of the seven of us are pregnant right now. And four of us are pregnant with our second babies. Insane! After brunch, it was off to my folks house to retrieve Landry and see my sister some more before she had to go back to San Antonio.

For the most part it was a good weekend.........the only damper was Tech's extremely disappointing loss to OSU. Uh huh, OSU! The worst (I guess not anymore) team in the Big 12. On that note, I'm going to hang my head down and cry.

GIRL!!!!!!

Long time, no blog! The past few days have been really busy, and I just haven't had time to sit down and blog!!

I had a great weekend last weekend. Saturday I went to the Chi Omega Christmas Market in Dallas. Sunday, I went shopping with Landry and my mom and we went to see all of the Christmas decorations at Decorator's Warehouse. Needless to say, I am READY for Christmas (despite the 85 degree heat!). I love this time of the year!! Christmas decorations always put me in a good mood!

Last night I had a Pi Phi Alumnae Club meeting. Our guest speaker was the author of the fun book "Sweet Potato Queens". She was really funny, and it was a good time! The lady who hosted this at her house is married to a man who is the president of a big homebuilder company in Dallas and Houston. Their house was the most unbelievable house I have ever seen!! It was big and beautiful, but also looked "lived in" and comfortable. It was worth going to the meeting just to see the house!

I have a 11:00 appt today to find out the sex of the baby! Can't wait! Will update later on the news!

Halloween Candy

Every year I end up digging through the plastic pumpkin looking for the last piece of "xxxx" candy. This year, my candy of choice is the miniature Hershey's dark chocolate bar. There is a lot of candy that will eventually get eaten, and there is some candy that I would never touch. Here is my list of the good and bad.

Good

Heath bar (miniature)- I don't think I have ever had a full, regular sized Heath bar and I don't think I would like that much at one time, but the miniature Heath bars are the best! I also like crumbled Heath on frozen yogurt!

Reese's peanut butter cup (full size cup)- Almost perfection! The only thing that doesn't make it absolutely perfect are the fact that the ridges on top break off when you open the package and peel off the paper. Plus, sometimes some peanut butter gets stuck to the paper backing.

Fruit-flavored Tootsie Roll-I've started to become a fan of these just this past Halloween. Good break from the chocolate.

Starburst- Again, nice break from the chocolate.

Jaw breakers-These little gems are not for the kids, but I love them! It's a good candy to eat when you want something to last a while.

Bad

chocolate eyeballs- Normally I wouldn't put anything chocolate in the bad category, but these are ridiculous. First of all, they are too small. Secondly, they are wrapped up like a piece of delicate china. By the time you get ALL of the wrapper off, your fingernails have chipped through most of the "eyeball".

peppermints- People!! If all you have to give out is peppermints, please just turn off your porch light and don't particpate in handing out "treats".

Pixie Sticks- Too flimsy. Most of the time these end up breaking in your Halloween bucket and then you have powder everywhere. If you want something that tastes like pixie sticks, just eat a spoonfull of unmade Kool-Aid.

Crabby Patties- These SpongeBob Squarepants sugary treats are just plain gross.

Smarties- This is the worst of the worst! Anything that tastes like baby aspirin should be banned forever!

Trick-or-Treating Trick on Landry

Fortunately, we dodged the expected rainstorm last night. Although a little cold, it was a nice evening for trick-or-treating. Since it was cold, we decided to go with the horse costume (pictures to come later). She had worn her ballerina costume three times, so we felt that it got adequate use!

Trick-or-treating didn't go off without a hitch, though. Our next door neighbors have four boys and their house was the second one we visited. Landry rang the doorbell and anxiously awaited an answer. Moments later, their seven-year-old opened the door wearing his "Scream" mask with "blood" running down it. Landry said nothing, she just turned and ran, FAST! Fast and far. Even Seabiscuit wouldn't have been able to keep up with this little horse. After we caught up with her she announced "I'm ready to go back to Landry's house." Well, we weren't going to let that happen.......we hadn't even gotten good candy yet. Fortunately, she settled down once we met up with her friend, Maggie, and they trick-or-treated together.

After Landry got through trick-or-treating, she wanted to sit on the front porch with Daddy and hand out candy. She enjoyed this more than going door-to-door. We would have trick-or-treaters at the very end of our sidewalk and Landry would shout, "What do you want?" She meant, "what kind of candy do you want?", but it sounded more like, "what are you doing on my property you pesky kids?!?!" Too funny!