A Teenager in the House!!!

It's official. We now have a teenager in the house. I do not know where the time has flown, I just know life has been busy. Very busy... it's been over a year since I've updated my blog. For somebody who once blogged almost daily that is so very sad!

Kylie is officially 13, Kacie will be turning nine in June and that also means Kyle and I are a year older as well. It's all a state of mind. I'm thankful for so much these days. Thankful that I have two beautiful daughters that love the Lord and are learning what it is to have a real relationship with him. Thankful I have a husband who is a hard worker and is committed to providing for his family. Thankful we are blessed with a nice home to share with others. Thankful for beautiful sunrises over our back yard and beautiful sunsets in the front. Thankful for a wonderful church home filled with great people. Thankful for old friends and new friends. Thankful for the food in my refrigeration and the gasoline in my tank. I'm thankful for the miracle he gave me in Kylie Jo. You are my sunshine...

The Facts of Life

Being a child of the 80s I loved the television show "The Facts of Life". Being a bit of a tomboy myself, my favorite character was Jo and probably least favorite, although most entertaining was Blair. I had the neat opportunity Tuesday evening to hear Blair or Lisa Whelchel speak at a Ladies Night Out event at the Riverbend Retreat Center. Lisa shared a bit of her testimony about how she became a Christian at 10 years old and how she believes that kept her from falling to the perils of doom that so many child actors fall to. She said we are all made with a a hole inside us and it can only be filled by God. Those who don't find him, or accept him often spend a lifetime trying to fill that hole with a multitude of other things. Her style of speaking was very informal and it almost felt like we were just a big group of women having coffee together. I really enjoyed it.

We've had some very cold weather in our part of the world this week, and for the record I'm not much for cold weather. Bring on Spring.... I'm getting a little bit of cabin fever. I'm ready to be out in my flower beds and garden. I don't think I'd ever do well in places that truly have a winter!

So, as for now, I think I'll go clean out a closet or something so that when spring is finally here, my spring cleaning will be complete and I can play outside!

Until next time...

Beautiful Morning

Kyle and I got up early this morning and after some coffee from the Keurig (I love my Christmas present) we headed to the church to pick up trash along the section of highway our church adopted years ago. We had a pretty good turn out, so it only took about an hour to clean up our section. If you've ever picked up trash along the highway, it sure makes you despise people who litter. We finished off our morning with breakfast burritos from Lupe's and then came home to find the girls up and watching television.

I'm getting the Jones to start running again. Last spring I injured my foot and things just having been right with it since. Every time I'd think it was healed and I would run the top would just ache. I know I should have gone to the Dr., and Kyle thinks I probably broke one or more of the tiny bones in the top of my foot, but I didn't. I guess Mom's are just stubborn that way... but, since boxing up my Christmas decorations and hauling them up to the attic made me so winded, I realize I'm not in the shape I used to be and I need to get back to running. Plus, since that big #40 birthday almost two years ago, things just aren't the same! I guess it's the metabolic slow down of middle age. I know my birthdate says I'm middle aged, but in my mind I'm still about 20.

We're expecting some really cold weather this weekend. I would love one snow this year, then I'm ready for spring. Green grass, suntans, swimming... that's how I love it. We're starting to plan our summer vacation. For years we've vacationed in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, but with all the drug cartel garbage going on, we haven't gone there the last two summers an instead spent on in South Padre Island and last summer skipped the vacation because of Kyle's knee surgery and us building a new office. I need sand and sun this summer. We've been looking at package deals from Grand Caymen and St. Kitts. Both places look beautiful, and as long as there is a beach, the kids will love it. Kacie loves lobster and one of her favorite things was the seafood night at the resort we always stayed in. She and I did our best to completely founder on lobster and shrimp. Glad my kids will try almost anything.

I'm reading a great book on my Kindle by Kay Arthur. She is an incredibly gifted Bible teacher and I've done a few of her Bible studies, but this is the first book I've ready by her. It's called When Hurt Runs Deep and it's very good. I'm not far into it, but it's basically saying that God is Awesome. We don't know what he's doing. He has a plan. We have to trust it. I know through my trials it has always proven to be true. No matter how awful various situations seemed at the time, once I got to the other side of them, God was glorified and it made a little more sense. We have to reap the blessings channeled through adversity.

Hope you all have a blessed weekend! It's a three day weekend for our kids!

Been gone too long...

Kacie & Mrs Nix - 2010

Kylie & Mrs. Nix in 2006

Kacie & Raider

Kacie & Kenzie riding horses

First day of school

Blogger.... I've been gone too long.... There's no way I can catch things completely since it's been almost a year, but I'll try to hit the hightlights.

Total Knee Replacement

In February, Kyle had total knee replacement surgery. Kyle had a pretty bad knee injury his senior year in high school and had surgery the following spring. That was way before the did the laparoscopic knee surgeries, so they cut his knee open and removed the damaged parts. Now, almost 30 years later, he is bone on bone. After years of injections that now no longer work, a TKR was the only option. He was tired of the pain and tired of not being to keep up with his little girls as he wanted to.

TKR is a rough surgery. Very rough. Also, we found out post-op that he is allergic to morphine. Not a good thing when you're hooked to morphine pump, you are hurting and pushing the button every nine minutes. It took the nurses a bit to figure out what was going on. He first felt like he had fire ants crawling on him an biting him all over and his back was itching like crazy... then he started getting sick. I felt so helpless! They had to wait a period of time for the drug to get out of his body before they could try something else so he was in a lot of pain. After four days, he was finally released from the hospital and we got to come home! The next six weeks were tough - home health and a physical therapist came out every day for a couple of weeks, then he moved to outpatient rehab.

Kyle had convinced himself that because of his young age, he'd recover faster. He learned that actually health and age work against you in some areas with TKR. First, he has very muscular legs and since they cut your quad, he had more to heal. Secondly, when you are young, more of your nerves still function properly, so you feel more. And that makes hurt more.

I'm thankful to God for all he provides... I'm thankful that is behind us. I'm thankful he feels better. I'm thankful our business survived the financial losses of him being off work so long. I'm thankful for Megan (our awesome employee) who held down the fort during his absence.

New Office Building

Just as Kyle is getting his step back we began building a new office building for our business. After years of leasing, it was finally time to build our own place. Construction got underway in May and was complete in August... the only problem with that was that our lease was up at the end of June, so we had to move our office home... it was insane! The garage became our supply room, copy room, file room - my home office became Kyle's office - our dining room became Megan's office, and I moved to the room off our living room. It was stressful at times, but the blessing was that it was summer time and the girls could pop in and out of Daddy's office anytime they wanted. We are now settled into the new space and love it.

School Starts

Kylie began her sixth grade year and Kacie started her second grade year. We were so pleased that Kylie got the same second grade teacher Kylie had. This year has had it's challenges without doubt. We've dealt with more girl drama this year than I care to blog about, but I'm proud of how my girls have handled themselves. There was one situation where I wanted to march up to the school and have Kylie's classes changed, but after prayer and an almost all night discussion with my husband, we decided it wasn't in her best interest. She wasn't in physical danger, and God had allowed the situation to happen. It was our job to help her navigate her way through it, make good decisions, and figure out a few things about life along the way. If He allows it, then there is purpose in it... I have to hold on to that through these child rearing days!!! After Kylie's accident I reminded myself daily that God did not spare her life for me to rob her of a childhood. I am not in control. I have responsibilities as a parent, but I am not in control. Now, a few months on the "other side" of the situation, I've seen Kylie grow in maturity and wisdom. God is awesome and we may not understand what he's doing, but he is working it all out. We just have to trust him.

ACL Fest

Kyle and I went to Austin for the fourth (or is it fifth?) year in a row to the Austin City Limits Music festival. Kylie is a lover of music, and being a musician, he loves to see new and upcoming groups. ACL is an awesome venue to catch major named headliners as well as the new acts. It's three days of music across Zilker Park. This year, in a single day, I got to see Nora Jones, Switchfoot, Robert Earl Keene, AND.... THE EAGLES. We had a great time with our friends the Gilley's, the Frasers, the Smith's, and the Cooper's. Can't wait until next year!

As we move into this new year, I hope to blog more! Maybe my writers block has vanished... I feel inspired again....

Dogs, Goats, Coyotes, Skunks & Hospitals

Coyotes Attack

Kylie and Kacie showed goats last year - well, actually Kylie is the only one old enough to show, but Kacie had a goat to keep Kylie's show goat company and she actually got to show it at the Huckabay International Jack Pot last year. Well, Kylie's goat didn't make the cut at Houston and went on to goat heaven while Kacie's goat, Buddy stayed in Stephenville deciding he'd rather be a dog than a goat. Buddy lived in our yard last summer until he ate my hibiscus plants to the nub, pooped all over the back patio and carport, and then began to feast on my garden. Kyle was in favor of sending the girls to my parents for the weekend while we had a big feast of cabrito, but I didn't think that was such a good plan, so Buddy went to live at Pop's house with some goats of my brother's. Buddy had been accustomed to $15 per bag show goat food, so getting adjusted to the rough life of pasture grazing with an occasional bucket of oats insulted his being. But he adjusted and if he only realized his other option at the time would have put him rolled up in a tortilla, I think his attitude would have been much better.

Three nights ago, coyotes attached the goat herd at Pop's house - by herd I mean a total of six goats (two being babies) that hang out with a couple of llamas. They killed a momma goat and one baby, but Buddy escaped unscathed. My brother has decided to cut his losses and is going to sell his goats, so Buddy is headed to the sale barn with them. He can't live here because I've spent too much on landscaping over the years, and I'll be planting my garden in a few months. The coyotes are thick as thieves here as well... just two nights ago Kyle had to fire a shotgun just to shut them up long enough for the kids to go to sleep. It's crazy. Anyway, Kacie is quite upset about Buddy the goat being sold, but it's part of being a country girl, and she'll eventually work through it.

Skunks & Dogs

Our Jack Russell Tuffy has all the character that is synonymous with being a Jack Russell. He's 12 pounds of pure cockiness and has an acute obsession for his ball. His ball is his heroine. If he can't find it, he goes a little crazy. Yesterday evening when I got home from church he didn't meet me in the driveway as he usually does. It was a cold, wet dreary day, so that was especially unusual. Normally he greets me with disgust for leaving him out all day. He much prefers to stay in when the weather is bad.

I immediately went around the house with a flashlight looking for him and calling his name. Nothing. I got in my vehicle and drove down our road to the neighbor (over a mile away) scanning the bar ditch with a spotlight thinking maybe he'd gone up to the road and had been run over. Nothing. I drove back home and pulled in the driveway to see a skunk scuttle out across our carport. I ran inside to get my rifle so I could blast him away, but when I came back outside, he'd run in the pasture and was between our house and another neighbor's work shop so I couldn't shoot him, but I sure wanted to. I'll get him eventually.... Anyway, it's raining, it's cold and I'm worried sick about Tuffy. The girls and Kyle hadn't made it home from church yet and I was dreading telling them the news. The goat issues had been enough animal drama for one week. I know this is small stuff, but it's big stuff to them. OK I admit it. It's big stuff to me as well. As I'm pouring all this out to God, walking through the pasture in the rain sporting my mud boots, rifle and spotlight, I hear a very faint bark that sounds like my Tuffy Dog... I yell louder and his bark gets louder... and here he comes running full blast. Soaking wet, shivering, covered in mud and very, very stinky. I wanted to beat him and never let him down all at the same time. He got a bath and a scolding and all is well today. He's in the house. Maybe he ran away from home because he was mad that we put him out yesterday... who knows.

Hospitals

My mom is in the hospital (that was included in the pouring it out to God moment in the pasture) with some low blood pressure issues that the Drs. haven't quite figured out. I'm concerned and frustrated all at the same time. More to come on that. They are waiting on some tests and should know more in the days coming.

Keep the faith..... Romans 8:28

Christmas Break & Ruidoso

Wow... two posts in two days. Maybe I'll keep the momentum. Allergies have the Everett girls at home this morning, so I guess I can have a little computer time to recap a few things from last year.

We had a great Christmas break complete with a white Christmas followed by a quick trip to Ruidoso, NM for some rest and relaxation with Kyle's cousin Brady and his wife Windy. Kylie and I skied and we enjoyed just hanging out at the house. Kyle's grandfather owned this house and every year of our early married life we spent the week between Christmas and New Years there. After Kyle's grandfather's death, Brady and Windy bought the house and Brady lives there part of the year because of his job. It had been about six years since we'd been out there. It was so great spending the time with Brady and Windy and reminiscing about past years we'd spent with them there. Sure made us miss Dodaddy (their grandfather) and Grandmother. Ruidoso is Dodaddy. Just makes me feel close to him to be there.

I took Kylie skiing for the first time while there. She caught on very quickly and did great. We both can't wait to go again next year.

Me & Kylie at Ski Apache

Dad pulling the girls on Christmas Eve

Feeding the Deer in Ruidoso

Kylie skiing for the first time

Kacie has the camera...

Kacie & Raider

I've been terrible about posting here, but I have to get this one down so I don't ever forget it... Last week we took Raider, our Boxer puppy to be neutered. As we're driving to town that morning, Kacie was very concerned about her precious puppy and was wanting to know exactly why we were having him "fixed." I explained things as best I could. About 45 minutes after drop off I get this email from Kacie's 1st grade teacher.....

You know------I live on the edge when Kacie wants to make public class announcements………. But I felt brave this a.m……..

She stands up and announces this a.m.--------

Well, Mrs. Priddy, today my dog is having his hoo-haws (is that how you spell that?) taken off so that he won’t get married and have puppies. Cuz it sure would be a pain if he decided to get married and have puppies and then we would have THAT to deal with………..

Thank you, Kacie, for that public announcement……….

I knew you needed a giggle today…..

TGIF-------

Laura Ann

And, no, Raider sporting a tu tu had nothing to do with getting neutered... he's just willing to go along with whatever Cinderella wants to do.