Thursday, October 11, 2012
New Things
So I've always thought it was important to have beautiful, living plants in my house. Unfortunately, I'm not very knowledgable when it comes to plants. But I thought it was finally time to try my hands at it. The other day Derek and I went to Ikea in Baltimore and I picked up 3 little tin planters for 80 cents a piece. I still wasn't sure what I wanted to put in them and then we went to Roots Market yesterday and I found these little herb plants. One is Rosemary and the other is Lemon Thyme. They both smell amazing! The flowers are from a plant that I've had outside all summer and ironically spilled all over my carpet while carrying it in. I'll go to Hostetters sometime this week and pick out a flower plant. So wish me luck in my new adventure!
Monday, July 16, 2012
Monday, July 9, 2012
HLSR
If you asked me what my favorite time of the year was I would say without hesitation, "Rodeo Time." That last week in February and the first 2 in March are pretty much the reason I live. Not really, but you can see how much I love the Rodeo. And by rodeo I mean the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. This is the rodeo and livestock show I grew up going to and it's HUGE! So when I visited Utah and other "fairs" I was a little taken aback. Not necessarily disappointed just a little perplexed. I have to admit that there is something neat about the small town rodeos and how the whole town shows up at the local fairgrounds.
But nothing will ever come closer to my heart than the good ole HLSR! This is from the website. "For 80 years, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo™ has been the heartbeat of the Southwest, beating powerfully with more than 27,000 volunteers who annually contribute their time, resources, and talent as part of the world's largest livestock exhibition, world's richest regular-season rodeo, and the Southwest's premier entertainment event." Boy ain't that the truth!
There is a humongous carnival, pig races, truck show, the greasiest, friediest food ever, star entertainment every night, birthing center for farm animals, rodeo event every night, and cowboys, cowboys, cowboys! My favorite events are the steer wrestling and team roping. After the rodeo there is always a big name entertainer that's not always country. I've seen Rascal Flatts, Taylor Swift, Boys II Men, John Michael Montgomery, George Strait, Martina McBride, 98 degrees, Brian McKnight, JoDee Messina, Brad Paisley, Alabama, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw and so many more. The very first performer I remember seeing was Crystal Gale with her signature floor length hair.
I try to make it down to Houston every year for the Rodeo. This year I went with my parents, Amy and Brett, and Emily to see Zac Brown Band. They were awesome!!!
Sorry for all the blurry pictures that were taken from my lovely phone.
THE ZAC BROWN BAND
The food is undeniably the best in the world! Every year I have to get a sausage on a stick and the most amazing cinnamon roll.
The chili cheese fries are incredible. Yes, there are french fries under there somewhere.
The Calf Scramble. 20 calves are released and about 30 kids compete to catch them. They get to keep the calf and raise it for a year and then bring it back the next year for show.
That's the Reliant Arena where they have the livestock show and other cool stuff.
That's the Astrodome on the left where we grew up going to the Rodeo before we got the Texans and the Reliant Center was built. You can see a snippet of the magnitude of the Rodeo grounds and carnival.
More food that is a must every year! Corn on the cob and anything fried!
If you want to take a trip to Texas I strongly recommend you go during Rodeo Season! Yee-haw Y'all!
But nothing will ever come closer to my heart than the good ole HLSR! This is from the website. "For 80 years, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo™ has been the heartbeat of the Southwest, beating powerfully with more than 27,000 volunteers who annually contribute their time, resources, and talent as part of the world's largest livestock exhibition, world's richest regular-season rodeo, and the Southwest's premier entertainment event." Boy ain't that the truth!
There is a humongous carnival, pig races, truck show, the greasiest, friediest food ever, star entertainment every night, birthing center for farm animals, rodeo event every night, and cowboys, cowboys, cowboys! My favorite events are the steer wrestling and team roping. After the rodeo there is always a big name entertainer that's not always country. I've seen Rascal Flatts, Taylor Swift, Boys II Men, John Michael Montgomery, George Strait, Martina McBride, 98 degrees, Brian McKnight, JoDee Messina, Brad Paisley, Alabama, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw and so many more. The very first performer I remember seeing was Crystal Gale with her signature floor length hair.
I try to make it down to Houston every year for the Rodeo. This year I went with my parents, Amy and Brett, and Emily to see Zac Brown Band. They were awesome!!!
Sorry for all the blurry pictures that were taken from my lovely phone.
THE ZAC BROWN BAND
The food is undeniably the best in the world! Every year I have to get a sausage on a stick and the most amazing cinnamon roll.
The chili cheese fries are incredible. Yes, there are french fries under there somewhere.
The Calf Scramble. 20 calves are released and about 30 kids compete to catch them. They get to keep the calf and raise it for a year and then bring it back the next year for show.
That's the Reliant Arena where they have the livestock show and other cool stuff.
That's the Astrodome on the left where we grew up going to the Rodeo before we got the Texans and the Reliant Center was built. You can see a snippet of the magnitude of the Rodeo grounds and carnival.
More food that is a must every year! Corn on the cob and anything fried!
If you want to take a trip to Texas I strongly recommend you go during Rodeo Season! Yee-haw Y'all!
Thursday, June 21, 2012
My Pops is the Greatest!
My dad is the best father in all the world! I got a package from him on Mother's Day with these adorable cookies and this sweet note. He has a website called gorilla office products where his company sells their supplies. Since he's the boss he jokingly refers to himself as the gorilla. He's a clever, funny man.
I just thought the card was so cute and thoughtful and the cookies were delicious. I ate one before I took the pictures because I couldn't wait.
Thank you, Dad, for teaching me the power of kindness and generosity. I love you so much!
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Christmas Decorations
I LOVE Christmas! And I LOVE getting in the spirit of Christmas by decorating, but I don't have very much stuff. So I took a trip down to our local thrift shop where I scored pretty big. Our friends, the Whitlocks, let us borrow their tree so it feels more official. Last year we didn't have a tree or hardly any decorations up. I am not a crafty person at all but I saw some things in Better Homes and Gardens magazine that looked pretty simple to make so I thought I'd enlist my super talented friend, Emilie, to help. She took me shopping to JoAnn's in Harrisburg and I am officially in love with that store. They have everything! We made the super cute little trees out of scrapbook paper, the pine cones hanging from the cupboards, the candy cane wreath, and the felt leaf wreath. I got the angel tree topper, sled, floral arrangement from our local thrift shop for super cheap! And I decorated the garland with accessories bought at the dollar store. I was very happy with how all of our decorations turned out this year!
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Good Finds
Last week I finally watched Inception and I LOVED it! I can probably count on one hand how many times I've stayed awake for a movie. Well folks, another one just got added to the list. I was enthralled and wide-eyed the entire 148 minutes. The story line was intriguing, the music intense, the acting phenomenal...just a great movie!
If you haven't seen it yet...go watch it!
Also this week I was walking around the library and randomly picked up this book from the young adult fiction section. What a unique, exciting story. I love easy, innocent stories.
If you haven't seen it yet...go watch it!
Also this week I was walking around the library and randomly picked up this book from the young adult fiction section. What a unique, exciting story. I love easy, innocent stories.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
THE INCIDENT
Derek's family vacations in Laguna Beach every summer and this year we got to go! Wahoo! Everything was great...the weather, the games, the pool, the beach, good family company, etc. On Saturday, the day before we left to come back home, Derek decided to do something that forever changed our lives. I know dramatic, right? But it was serious business.
So this is how it went down. Derek is out in the water by himself while everyone else is lounging on the beach. Derek comes limping in and says, "Christie can you get some water, I got bit by a crab." He lays down on his surfboard and I poured some water over his bleeding foot. The blood is just gushing out but I got a look at a pretty deep cut after rinsing the wound. We applied pressure to try and stop the bleeding and Derek just has this awful look of pain on his face. "My foot really hurts." That's all he kept saying. The lifeguard came down and bandaged it up. He called his superiors who suspected it was a stingray attack.
Right when the lifeguards arrived, they had a look at Derek's foot and decided the puncture was too deep to be from a stingray. They bandaged the wound back up and then started asking Derek medical questions. This is when everything started to go wrong.
Derek's hands looked really weird, like this:
He started complaining that his abdomen was tightening up.
Then he said he couldn't breathe so we started taking off his wetsuit, but it was getting worse so we ended up cutting off his wetsuit.
I noticed that Derek's lips were really tight and his whole mouth looked contracted. He was starting to talk funny and said that his tongue was swelling up.
Time Out: I freaked out as soon as I saw his hands looking all funky. Derek's Dad and brother came over and gave him a blessing. His cousin, who is an RN, was holding Derek's hand the whole time encouraging him to take deep breaths. Derek's brother was holding his foot up and keeping pressure on the laceration. I started bawling and thinking that this was it, especially when Derek looked up at me and said, "I wub you Kwistay." It really seemed like we were saying our goodbyes. All of this happened in about 10 minutes, so it was pretty sudden and terrifying.
Back to the action. The lifeguards are beginning to get frantic because of how quickly Derek is deteriorating. They try taking his vitals but can't because of his arm and hand spasms. Finally, we decide to call the ambulance and a fire truck arrives pretty quickly. It was quite the scene with a fire truck and life guard truck on the beach surrounded by about 10 family members and lots of on-lookers.
I am trying to hold myself together on the outside, but inside I was a little hysterical because nothing was being done. Derek is all seized up and looking at me with a face of desperation and concern. All I did was pray my guts out!
The lifeguards finally decide to put an oxygen mask on Derek and this seems to calm him down. Slowly his symptoms start to reverse. His lips relax and he can talk more normally now. He says that his abdomen isn't as tight. His fingers and hands straighten out and relax. Now the only problem is still the wrenching pain in his foot.
Of course, the medics arrive just as Derek has recovered. They knew instantly that Derek has just come out of carpopedal spasm which is caused by hyperventilation. When the blood is being over-saturated with oxygen then the pH changes and causes your system to go whack, basically.
We declined the ambulance ride over to the ER, but gladly accepted a ride from the lifeguards to the top of the hill.
Derek, the stud he is, put on a smile for the camera despite the stingray wound killing his foot.
The ER took us back very quickly and put Derek's foot in a tub of hot water. This is apparently the diagnosis and cure for a stingray sting. If the pain subsides with the hot water then they know it was a stingray attack because the hot water neutralizes the venom from the stinger.
Derek kept his foot in the water for about an hour and finally felt some relief. They wheeled him away for an x-ray to make sure that the stinger didn't break off in his foot, which it didn't thank goodness. The nurse did not stitch him up because she told us that would only trap in bacteria and cause an infection. I was so happy that Derek was feeling better.
Derek was prescribed a pain killer and antibiotics. Surprisingly, he only took a couple of pain pills during his entire recovery.
It's hard to believe that such a little thing could cause such a big deal. In our case, life threatening.
When the stinger goes in it releases venom that stays locally and has an anti-coagulant factor in it. (Hence all the bleeding) The major damage occurs as the barb is pulled back out and the serrated edges tear up tissue. Most people get a nick on the ankle or foot because of the stingray's automatic reflexes from being stepped on. A stingray doesn't usually penetrate that far in to a person. The only thing we can figure is that Derek must have stepped right on the stinger!
I can't believe that this tiny little cut caused so much pain for my tough husband. Poor thing handled things like a champ! The laceration is all healed now but there is quite a bit of hard, scar tissue under the cut.
We talked about "The Incident" everyday for a couple of months after it happened and recounted how we thought we were going to lose each other. We learned a lot and created a new bond from this crazy experience! I'm so grateful that my Derek is ok and that Heavenly Father answered everyone's prayers.
So this is how it went down. Derek is out in the water by himself while everyone else is lounging on the beach. Derek comes limping in and says, "Christie can you get some water, I got bit by a crab." He lays down on his surfboard and I poured some water over his bleeding foot. The blood is just gushing out but I got a look at a pretty deep cut after rinsing the wound. We applied pressure to try and stop the bleeding and Derek just has this awful look of pain on his face. "My foot really hurts." That's all he kept saying. The lifeguard came down and bandaged it up. He called his superiors who suspected it was a stingray attack.
Right when the lifeguards arrived, they had a look at Derek's foot and decided the puncture was too deep to be from a stingray. They bandaged the wound back up and then started asking Derek medical questions. This is when everything started to go wrong.
Derek's hands looked really weird, like this:
He started complaining that his abdomen was tightening up.
Then he said he couldn't breathe so we started taking off his wetsuit, but it was getting worse so we ended up cutting off his wetsuit.
I noticed that Derek's lips were really tight and his whole mouth looked contracted. He was starting to talk funny and said that his tongue was swelling up.
Time Out: I freaked out as soon as I saw his hands looking all funky. Derek's Dad and brother came over and gave him a blessing. His cousin, who is an RN, was holding Derek's hand the whole time encouraging him to take deep breaths. Derek's brother was holding his foot up and keeping pressure on the laceration. I started bawling and thinking that this was it, especially when Derek looked up at me and said, "I wub you Kwistay." It really seemed like we were saying our goodbyes. All of this happened in about 10 minutes, so it was pretty sudden and terrifying.
Back to the action. The lifeguards are beginning to get frantic because of how quickly Derek is deteriorating. They try taking his vitals but can't because of his arm and hand spasms. Finally, we decide to call the ambulance and a fire truck arrives pretty quickly. It was quite the scene with a fire truck and life guard truck on the beach surrounded by about 10 family members and lots of on-lookers.
I am trying to hold myself together on the outside, but inside I was a little hysterical because nothing was being done. Derek is all seized up and looking at me with a face of desperation and concern. All I did was pray my guts out!
The lifeguards finally decide to put an oxygen mask on Derek and this seems to calm him down. Slowly his symptoms start to reverse. His lips relax and he can talk more normally now. He says that his abdomen isn't as tight. His fingers and hands straighten out and relax. Now the only problem is still the wrenching pain in his foot.
Of course, the medics arrive just as Derek has recovered. They knew instantly that Derek has just come out of carpopedal spasm which is caused by hyperventilation. When the blood is being over-saturated with oxygen then the pH changes and causes your system to go whack, basically.
We declined the ambulance ride over to the ER, but gladly accepted a ride from the lifeguards to the top of the hill.
Derek, the stud he is, put on a smile for the camera despite the stingray wound killing his foot.The ER took us back very quickly and put Derek's foot in a tub of hot water. This is apparently the diagnosis and cure for a stingray sting. If the pain subsides with the hot water then they know it was a stingray attack because the hot water neutralizes the venom from the stinger.
Derek kept his foot in the water for about an hour and finally felt some relief. They wheeled him away for an x-ray to make sure that the stinger didn't break off in his foot, which it didn't thank goodness. The nurse did not stitch him up because she told us that would only trap in bacteria and cause an infection. I was so happy that Derek was feeling better.
Derek was prescribed a pain killer and antibiotics. Surprisingly, he only took a couple of pain pills during his entire recovery.
It's hard to believe that such a little thing could cause such a big deal. In our case, life threatening.
When the stinger goes in it releases venom that stays locally and has an anti-coagulant factor in it. (Hence all the bleeding) The major damage occurs as the barb is pulled back out and the serrated edges tear up tissue. Most people get a nick on the ankle or foot because of the stingray's automatic reflexes from being stepped on. A stingray doesn't usually penetrate that far in to a person. The only thing we can figure is that Derek must have stepped right on the stinger!
I can't believe that this tiny little cut caused so much pain for my tough husband. Poor thing handled things like a champ! The laceration is all healed now but there is quite a bit of hard, scar tissue under the cut.
We talked about "The Incident" everyday for a couple of months after it happened and recounted how we thought we were going to lose each other. We learned a lot and created a new bond from this crazy experience! I'm so grateful that my Derek is ok and that Heavenly Father answered everyone's prayers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)