Oh Christmas Tree

Our Christmas tree is now up! My parents always had a tradition of waiting until after December 12th (my birthday) to put up our Christmas tree. They wanted to make sure that Christmas didn't overshadow my birthday. My sweet husband has carried on this tradition. Thanks mom, dad, & Andrew!





The ornaments on our tree are very sentimental to me. I thought I'd share a few of them.

I made this bell in 1983 when I was in Speech Therapy at Baylor. Who would have known that I would end up becoming a Speech Pathologist! The graduate student who was my Speech Therapist is now my boss. Small world!




My parents bought this ornament for me this year I got my first dog (1993). She was a miniature dachshund named Lady. Lady was the most loving dog. Sure do miss her!




My great grandmother (Muh) gave me this ornament her last Christmas with us (1999). She was the most caring woman. Miss you Muh!



My parents gave Andrew & I this ornament for our first "Married Christmas" (2001). What a special year for us!



This ornament was given to us by my parents. They gave it to us for the first Christmas in our new home (2004).



Kaiser's grandparents gave him this ornament for his first birthday back in August. They bought it for him on our cruise to Alaska this past summer.




We have a couple new additions to our tree this year.

Did anyone notice our tree topper? Yes, it's an airplane. My husband (the avid airplane collector/builder) decided that this would be the absolute perfect tree topper.




We have a new tree skirt! Andrew's mom made this beautiful tree skirt for us. It has moose walking through the forest. Most of you know, but my husband is the "Great Moose", so moose is a big deal to us.





That's just a few of the special touches on our Christmas tree. Would love to hear about each of yours!

Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving! May you enjoy a day of great food, relaxation, family, and friends.

Shoeboxes

It's that time of year again. Ah yes, the time of year when my dining room is filled with shoeboxes. No, I'm not building my shoe collection. I'm packing shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. This is something I look forward to all year long. I start buying fun stuff to fill the shoeboxes with right after Christmas and then throughout the year when I find great deals. The pictures that are sent back showing the faces of children when they receive their shoeboxes are absolutely priceless. It really makes me grateful for all that the Lord has blessed me with!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!!!

Love you honey!!!

I have a 1 year old!

Happy Birthday To You

Happy Birthday To You

Happy Birthday Dear Kaiser

Happy Birthday To You!!

Not again!!!

Yesterday I was on my way home from work for a quick lunch break when my car starting making a horrible sound. Low and behold I had another flat tire!!!! This is my4th (or is it 5th?) within the past 10 months and my 2nd within a week and a half. I pulled over into the Genie and got out to inspect the tire. It had a hole in it and the air was coming out really fast. The tire was almost completely flat. I called Andrew to try and figure out what to do. He told me he'd come put on my spare, but I really hated for him to have to leave work and come help me out (especially when I was only 5 minutes away from home.) So I'm sitting in my car asking God for help (I was nowhere near a gas station). I look over to the left and see that Genie had a FREE air machine! So I aired up my tire (which immediately begin losing air) and drove home. I pulled into my driveway and the tire was once again almost completely flat. I called the tire company I had ordered my new tires from last week and they told me they had just come in! I told them what had happened, so they sent one of their service trucks out and they fixed my tire so I could make it downtown to their shop. They were so great to me. They immediately began working on my car when I got there and had it finished within an hour. When I went to pay they wouldn't charge me for the service truck coming to my house. Thank you God for protecting me today and for blessing me with the help of such wonderful people!

The Joys of owning a home!

Things have been busy around here lately. I've been doing contract work with a therapy company, Andrew's been working hard at Baylor, and we've been doing some home projects.
One of the home projects we've been working on is redoing the walls in our master bathroom. While taking the lovely floral wallpaper off the walls (I hate taking wallpaper off walls!), we found water damage on our wall from our shower. We knew that our shower had leaked and caused damage to the floor in the master bathroom and living room, but we had no idea it had caused damage to the wall. So, we have to put our project on hold until someone from the insurance company comes out. I'm so glad we have another bathroom! (ours is SO ugly right now!)

Pictures

The pictures from our Alaskan cruise are ready!

Let me know what you think:)

Alaskan cruise pictures

We're Home!

Our great Alaskan adventure has come to an end. We had a GREAT time and the weather was absolutely perfect!! We got home this afternoon around 3:30, dropped off our bags and went to pick up Kaiser at his grandparents house. We were so excited to see him!

Today has been a really long day. We left our hotel at 5:00 a.m. to head to the airport. Needless to say, we're pretty darn tired.

We have no food, our grass is really tall and we have two suitcases full of dirty clothes. So, I guess I better go start working. I'll post details about the trip and pictures soon!

Hello from Seattle!

Well, we made it safely to Seattle. We've had a great day here seeing lots of sights. We went to the Pike Fish Market, the Boardwalk, original Starbucks, and the Space Needle. The weather up here is absolutely beautiful! It's about 9:00 p.m., but the sun is still up (and has been since 5:00 a.m.)! We board our ship tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. and then set sail at 4:00 p.m. Will try to write again if I can get onto a computer whose fee won't break the bank!

Vacation Time!

Tomorrow is the day! We leave for our cruise to Alaska tomorrow afternoon. Our suitcases are all packed and ready to go. We just need to mow the lawn tomorrow so it's not eight feet tall when we get back and take Kaiser to his grandparents house. Nice cool weather, here we come!!

Fun Weekend

This was a fun and busy weekend. My sister Jodie flew into Waco from Nashville, TN Friday night. So we met up with her and my parents for a late dinner. Saturday we went to a friend's wedding and reception. Jodie sang at the reception. (She sang At Last). She has a beautiful voice! Sunday we went to church then we had all of my family over for lunch to celebrate Father's Day (since Jodie will be back in Nashville and we'll be in Alaska on the actual Father's Day). After lunch we had a good visit with my family (parents, sister, and grandparents). Before we knew it, it was time to take Jodie back to the airport and say goodbye. It was a quick trip for her. It's always sad to tell her goodbye!

Five Years!!

Yesterday Andrew & I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary! We were married on Saturday, June 2, 2001 at 4:00 in the afternoon. It seems like just yesterday I was walking down the aisle...

For our anniversary, Andrew surprised me with a beautiful blue topaz ring with diamonds.

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband:) Love you babes!

Tubes!

Because of the allergies I have suffered from the last several months, I now have the privilege of having surgery tomorrow. I have to have tubes put in my ears! This is the first time in my life I have ever needed tubes. I never imagined I would be going through this in my late 20s! My ENT (ear, nose, and throat doctor) said I should feel instant relief. I hope that instant relief is what I feel and not the poking of a hole through my eardrum!

My surgery is scheduled for 10 a.m. tomorrow. I appreciate your prayers:)

Happy Mothers Day!

To my mom...
who almost died just to have me
who gave up her career to stay at home with me
who stayed up countless nights helping me with schoolwork
who came to every one of my basketball games
who came to every one of my band shows
who came to every one of my piano recitals
who came to every one of my softball games
who prayed over me every night as she tucked me into bed
who was always there for me when I needed her

Thank You for being the best mother a girl could ever have. I LOVE YOU!!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to our sweet friends Adam & Sarah Guess on the birth of their baby boy, Thomas Andrew Guess
Born May 4, 2006


He's precious!!

Stuff

No, you're not looking at an explosion. This is just some of the stuff that we (and a few others) will be trying to sell tomorrow and Saturday at our annual garage sale. Last year it was a great success. We are hoping it will be this year too. Now, if the rain will just hold off during the day we'll have it made.

Come by and see us. We'll be starting at 7 a.m. Friday and Saturday!!

Flat Tire!!

Yesterday evening we got a phone call from our neighbor. He called to inform me that I had a flat tire. Oh boy, just what I needed! So last night when we got home Andrew & I went out to "inspect" the tire. Sure enough, it was flat as a pancake because of a huge nail in it. So my sweet husband aired the tire up for me and I went to get it fixed on the way to work this morning. I sure do hope that my week improves!

First Words

I'm sitting here watching my sweet husband play with our cutie dog Kaiser. Andrew's trying to get Kaiser to "speak" (bark). When Kaiser does speak we clap, cheer, and tell him "good boy". Kaiser has always been a very quiet dog, so we get a thrill any time that he barks. Andrew & I often ask each other if we are crazy because we want our dog to bark. We may be, but a big smile always comes across our faces each time that he speaks.

Kaiser

Just wanted to introduce my precious boy. This is Kaiser. The first picture is the day we brought him home in October. He was only 2 pounds!!!!

This picture is a "current" one of Kaiser. He is now a little over 7 months, weighs 11 pounds and has more energy than any creature I have ever seen!

Welcome!

Well, I'm finally giving in to the blogging world (thanks to my husband's encouragement). Do I really have important things to share? I'm not sure, but I will try my best to come up with something interesting. So, welcome to Tales from Miss Speech. Hope you enjoy!