What, tomorrow is December??

I hope that everyone had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!! I know that we were very busy, Son was working a lot, but we had a great time and ate lots of good food! And I cannot believe that tomorrow is December...seriously, where did 2009 go??

Here is a one of the highlights of our holiday last week – the Greenburg Turkey!!! (http://www.gobblegobble.com/) These are the best turkeys around & my parents were nice enough to ship one to us just in time for Thanksgiving! We had to get a picture of Collin with the bag because he was about the same size as the turkey – seriously it was huge! It was so yummy!!
After we ate on Thursday, we got out all the Christmas decorations & put up the tree. I think this is our new family tradition!! Growing up we always went to Austin for our family Thanksgiving and put the tree up when we got back to Tyler, but with Son working in retail he is soooo busy the day after Thanksgiving, so we put out tree up that day. We had fun getting everything out & Collin was content watching us put all of the ornaments on the tree. Here is Collin playing with some of the decorations & what the tree looked like when we were finished.


Of course that wore us all out and Collin crashed out on the floor with a belly full of “turkey milk”.

Friday Son had to be at work at 5am - I seriously don’t know how he does it!! He wanted a set of surround sound speakers that were on special for part of his Christmas present, so Collin & I got up and were there right after they opened at 6am to buy the speakers for Son. (**Note: Son told me not to worry about getting up early since he thought they would have plenty, but I was so worried about them selling out that we were there right at 6 – later that day when Son came home he told me that there were still 6 sets left! Oh well…if we hadn’t gotten up early they would have all been sold out!) After that we came home for a while until after Collin’s morning nap, and then we headed out again for more shopping. Collin is my little partner in crime! He loves shopping as long as he is in the stroller being pushed around. This probably won’t last much longer, so I am going to take advantage as long as I can before he realizes that shopping is for girls J

Saturday Collin & I stayed home most of the morning playing while Son went to work (of course, Beau had a great time playing too).

Saturday when Son got home we all headed down to St. Augustine for some outlet shopping! And then we went to the Night of Lights in downtown St. Augustine – it was a little chilly, but we had a great time. It was so pretty & we got some good pictures…



For some reason Collin decided to wake up at 4:30am on Saturday & Sunday morning! But thankfully Son was nice & got up with him on Sunday so I could sleep in a little. Son also made us pancakes for breakfast – yummy!! Collin looked like such a bog boy when we got him ready for church that we took a few more pictures.


Next up is our trip to TEXAS on Friday!!! I CANNOT WAIT!!

We're going to need some more tissues before the Holidays are over!

So last night I had just put Collin to bed and Son & I were watching House. This commercial comes on with a mom holding/rocking her baby next to the Christmas Tree in the middle of the night, the dad comes in and the mom says something like, “what are you doing up, it’s 2am”? The dad then plugs in the Christmas Tree and says something like “I know, but it’s baby’s first Christmas”.

Well, that’s all it took – I totally lost it…

I started thinking about how this will be Collin’s first Christmas, how blessed we are this year, and all of the things that I want to do with him this holiday season, and the tears were streaming down my face.

I think Son was totally confused, but he did his best to be understanding (without laughing too much)! I was actually laughing a little at myself too that a commercial could make me so emotional. Truth be told, I think that we are both really excited about Collin’s first Christmas.

I really tried to find the commercial online because I wanted to add a link here, but I couldn’t find it. I think it was like a Hallmark commercial or something, but by the time they actually advertised the company/product I was crying too hard! Unfortunately I really don’t watch much TV these days (except for House) so the chances of me seeing it again are pretty slim – if you happen to see it PLEASE let me know what company it is so that I can try to find it.

Have a great day!

Julie

Julie-ology

My friend Angela tagged me to do this as a note on Facebook, but I thought that I would add it to my blog also...so here's a bunch of random things about Mrs. Vuong :)

***********FOODOLOGY***************

What is your salad dressing of choice?
Tie between Buttermilk Ranch (my mom makes the best) & the Ginger dressing that you get a Japanese Steakhouses (which we happened to go to for lunch today (yummy!!)

What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
This is a really hard one! I think if I had to pick one it would be Marker 32, a really nice local place here on the water - perfect for date night!

What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of?
Spinach Dip (A weird thing about me is that I absolutely HATE mayonnaise, but there are a few things with mayo in them that I just can't get enough of - spinach dip, my mom's spaghetti pasta salad & ranch dressing) Seriously, I have to like hold my nose when I make these recipes but after it's all mixed together I pretend that I forgot to add the mayo & eat it like there's no tomorrow!

What are your pizza toppings of choice? mushrooms & black olives (thin crust please)

What do you like to put on your toast? Cinnamon Sugar - I actually had this for breakfast today :)

***********TECHNOLOGY***************

How many televisions are in your house?
4 -- one in the living room, one in our bedroom, one in the guest bedroom, and one in the garage (above the treadmill that I haven't used in like 7 months - I need to get back on that thing!!)

What color cell phone do you have?
silver Q Phone - not the coolest thing around, but it's a work phone & I refuse to carry 2 cell phones around

***************BIOLOGY******************

Are you right-handed or left-handed? Right

Have you ever had anything removed from your body? Appendix...

What is the last heavy item you lifted? Collin - all 17lbs of him!

Have you ever been knocked unconscious? Nope

If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
I don't think so

If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
I like my name now, but when I was young I went through a phase where I practically begged my mom to change my name to "Crystal". Not sure where that came from, but I am glad she put her foot down on that one! So therefore everything I owned was named Crystal (guenia pig, imaginary unicorn friend, etc.)

Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000?
For $1000 Absolutely!

************DUMBOLOGY******************

How many pairs of flip flops do you own? probably at least 5

Last time you had a run-in with the cops?
Haha...no comments from college friends please! Lately I think the only thing that happened was I got pulled over a few years ago for driving without my headlights on...crazy, I know! Although I don't think this qualifies as a run-in with the police, today I was backing out of the garage & broke my side view mirror on the side of the garage - ouch!

Last person you talked to? Son

Last person you hugged? Collin

**************FAVORITOLOGY****************

Season?
Summer!!

Holiday?
Any holiday I get to spend with family, but if I had to pick I would probably say Christmas.

Day of the week? Saturday, or any other day that I get to be home with Collin :)

Month?
April - Collin's BDay & our 4-Year Wedding Anniversary!

***********CURRENTOLOGY*****************

Missing someone? Family in Texas!!!!!

Mood? Happy & Content!

What are you listening to? Quiet (Collin & Son are both in bed asleep)

Watching? Nothing right now, but we just finished watching the replay of yesterday's FSU game.

Worry? Nope, we are in good hands!

***************RANDOMOLOGY*****************

First place you went this morning? church

What's the last movie you saw? Transformers 2 (I love blockbuster xpress from Publix)

Do you smile often? Yep, it's hard not to - God is so good!!

Sleeping Alone Tonight? No, thank goodness we are all home together!

***************OTHER-OLOGY*****************

Do you always answer your phone?
Usually - the only exception is 1 person from work who shall remain nameless but I seriously roll my eyes when their # pops up...and if you call and I don't answer don't call right back 5 minutes later, then 5 minutes after that...I check my voicemail & if it is an emergency I will call you back, otherwise I'll send you an email. (Okay, that sounded kind of mean but if you knew what it was like to talk to this person on the phone you would understand...)

If you could change your eye color what would it be?
I love my eyes (blue) and wouldn't ever want to change them!

What flavor do you add to your sonic drink?
Cherry

Do you own a digital camera?
Yes

Have you ever had a pet fish?
Yes, I loved having a fish tank in my room growing up!

Favorite Christmas song(s)?
Not sure...ask me again in a few weeks and maybe I can think of it

Can you do push ups?
I think a couple

Can you do a chin up?
There's no way!!

Does the future make you more nervous or excited?
Definitely excited!


Ever been in a car wreck?
I totalled my first car at 16, and had a terrible record for the next several years...I think I straightened my act out when I started having to pay for my own car insurance bill!

Do you have an accent?
Depends on who you ask...people here would say no, but I bet up north it would be a different story :)

What is the last song to make you cry?
Really anything about having a baby gets the tears going these days - probably most recently was "Letters From Home" - I think it's Stephen Curtis Chapman??

Plans tonight?
Shower & bed, as soon as I finish all of these questions!!.

Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom?
No, I've never felt like things were totally hopeless. There's always someone out there with bigger problems than your own & I like to keep things in perspective.

Name 3 things you bought yesterday.
Oh dear, Collin & I went on a marathon shopping spree yesterday, but most of it was Christmas presents so I can't list those. I did buy Collin some new clothes & I bought myself 1 shirt at Old Navy, and some new underwear for Son.

Have you ever been given roses?
I love roses & have received them several times from Son - he knows that I like the multi-color ones with pink, yellow...all red is so boring!

Current hate right now?
When Collin has a huge diaper explosion & ruins one of my favorite outfits of his...why can't he ever ruin something I don't absolutely love??

Met someone who changed your life?
Jesus Christ!

How will you bring in the New Year?
Not sure...hopefully we will be able to go back to Pensacola (we will be there the previous weekend for Christmas) & see Tram & Jaeden again before they have to go back to Hawaii, but it depends on Son's work schedule.

Do you have any tattoos/piercings?
Just my ears pierced - no tattoos

Okay...that's it for now. I think there were about 20 more questions but mommy is tired & needs to go to bed.

Hope everyone has a wonderful (SHORT) work week this week!! Woo hoo!!

Big Boy!

Here are a few of the pictures that we got last night for Collin's 7-Month birthday - looking at these makes me realize how big he is getting.

I think that he actually enjoyed his photo session this month & had a great time waving his arms around and "talking" to us while we took his picture & tried to get him to smile.

Such a sweetie!

Update & Happy 7-Months Collin

This morning finally came (it seemed like forever waiting to hear what the doctor would say) and then the answer was a very anti climactic “wait and see”. Basically I still have the infections, I need to continue the antibiotics & he will see me back in 2 weeks…2 WEEKS??? Seriously, I don’t know if I can make it!

I was relieved that he didn’t see overly concerned that I would be deaf the rest of my life, but I think that I will have to start carrying around a notepad for people to write me messages on.

I have already been stopped twice today in the hallway at work by someone asking me to please stop yelling…how embarrassing!! I guess that when I can’t hear what the other person is saying I raise my own voice too!!

In happier news...Collin is 7-Months old today!!!!! I can not believe it! Lately here is what he has been up to:

• He now says "da da" regularly - he also growls it & shrieks it at the top of his lungs!
• Yesterday he absolutely broke my heart when twice he started crying when I was holding him & Son left the room - isn't it supposed to be mommy that he cries for??
• Loves all toys that make noise / move / light up. His favorite is a Fisher Price zoo toy that I bought from a garage sale across the street for $1! It has little animals with wheels that move around the zoo & it sings silly songs abotu the animals - what a bargain!
• Eats cereal with fruit for breakfast & a veggie for dinner - I should probably let him start on the meats but I just can't bring myself to face the smell :)
• Was 16 lbs 5 ounces at doctor's appointment last week
• Goes to bed around 8pm (he tries to go to bed earlier but mommy tries to keep him up so he won't wake up at 4am)
• Refuses any formula when they try to give it to him at school (he would rather only drink 2 bottles of breastmilk during the day & wait for me to get home to nurse)
• Got the swine flu & regular flu shot - I know this is controversial, but with him being in school we prayed about it & felt that the benefits outweighed the risks

Now all I have to do is decide what he should wear for his 7-month pictures that I am going to take tonight...Collin's biggest problem is that he has so many cute outfits it takes forever for me to decide what he should wear each day :)

Happy Monday!!

Worst week ever!

I have just been sick...I mean the kind of sick where you would be REALLY HAPPY if the rapture happened like that exact second, sick! I never had ear infections growing up...but that really came back to bite me BIG TIME this week.

I had been sick with a cold last week, but had started to feel better. On Monday around lunch time I started to feel like my ears were full of water or needed to pop - it quickly got more & more painful until I was bawling my eyes out driving the after hours clinic that night after I put Collin to bed. Well, I finally got to the clinic and after enduring the terrible swine flu test that they said they give everyone they finally told me that I had a double ear infection, gave me a Z-Pack and sent em on my way.

I started the antibiotic that night and was maxing out on Tyleonl for the pain. It was so painful that I don't think I slept more than 30 minutes at a time. I thought that I just needed to give the medicine more time...but by Tuesday afternoon when it was actually getting worse, and not better I decided to call my regular doctor & they got me in Wednesday morning. Tuesday I couldn't eat much of anything and was having a really tough time keeping the medicine down as well. By this time my hearing was really affected also & I couldn't hear anythign unless it was right up next to my ear (like a cell phone). I was in so much pain that I couldn't even drive myself to the doctor Wednesday morning, so I called my BFF Annie & she took me - THANK YOU ANNIE!!!!

My doctor looked in my ears and said that the Z-PAck was not strong enough, so they gave me a different antibiotic, a med for the nausea, and a shot for the pain. Let me just say that I DO NOT LIKE NEEDLES - like I have a fear of them - but that was the best shot I ever got in my life. Annie took me to get the new prescriptions (and a Sprite) and then I went home and was finally able to sleep for like 4 hours - it was AWESOME!

Unfortunately that wore off, but I have been able to keep the pain under control with Ibuprofen better, but I still couldn't hear hardly anything - majorly not okay!! And I also started having to sleep with a towel over my pillow because of all the nasty draining that was going on...So I called the doctor again and they brought me back in this morning. Basically they said that it was beyond what they could handle, gave me a 3rd antibiotic to try & referred me to see an ENT (but they only gave me 5 days of the antibiotic because they wanted to make sure that I saw someone - that seems a little cruel, right?).

There were 2 ENT's in the same building so I just stopped by each office and found one that will see me Monday morning...I am sure everything will be fine but the thought of losing part of my hearing is very scary!!

Collin's First Group Play Date & The Reason We Ate Chinese Take-Out Last Night!

This past weekend Collin had one of his first official "play dates" with 3 of his best friends! We had a great time getting all the babies together while all the daddies were at the FSU or UF football games!

Our friends John & Jenn Walker came into town for the UF game with Ellie, and the rest of the guys went to Tallahassee for the FSU game.

Best Friends - unfortunately they don't have a choice in the matter :)

Okay mommies, this is getting old - I think 100 pictures is plenty!




The mommies :)

Hanging out at Target!


Saturday morning Collin & I had met Annie & her sisters for brunch @ Panera. Jenn, Ellie & Emily all met us afterwards & we did a little shopping at Jo Ann's, Target, Banana, and baby Gap!

Collin the superhero & daddy @ Mojo's Friday night - yummy!

And here's a little something that happened at the Vuong house last night...Collin had another ear infection so I had a late doctor's appointment with him & by the time we got to the pharmacy to get his prescription it was late. Son offered to make dinner since we would be home after him (such a great hubby!!)

Anyways, we were having Paula Dean's Shrimp Gumbo Casserole (I highly recommend this - it is awesome!) and I had the recipe laying out on the cabinet. If you have ever made one of Paula's recipes, she usually calls for some of her "house seasoning" to be added. The recipe for shrimp gumbo said (among other ingredients):

1 1/4 teaspoon house seasoning, recipe follows

Then, at the bottom of the page it had the recipe for the house seasoning:

1 cup salt

1/4 cup garlic powder

1/4 cup black pepper

When I got home the first thing Son said was that the gumbo sure had a lot of salt in it and that he didn't think that a cup of salt sounded right, but that is what the recipe called for so he put it in...haha!! I about died laughing!! If you look at the picture below you can see all of the pepper flakes (since he also added 1/4 cup pepper) so just think that there is 4x that much salt in there. Needless to say the gumbo was ruined, but we sure had a good time laughing about it!

So we ended up having Chinese last night...Happy Friday!