So Yesterday I *FINALLY* Had My Tummy Tuck!

Wow! I didn't realize it has been *FOREVER* since I posted something!! So Paul graduated from school as the Distinguished Honor Grad (meaning he was #1 in class). He came home for about a month before deploying. I am doing well holding down the fort! I spent Thanksgiving here and celebrated it with Jill, Lori and Melissa and the kids. We had a great day. It took *FOREVER* for the 20 lb turkey to get done! Why have that big of a turkey for such a small crowd?! Well we had more who said they were coming but things happened and some had to cancel and some didn't show up! Oh well! But for the future, a 20 lb turkey roasting at 325 doesn't get done in 4-5 hours like the directions said! It was more like 7 hours and that was upping the temp!! It was all good and we had plenty of leftovers!!


So like I said, Paul is deployed. If you would like to send him words of encouragement or packages, let me know. I do not want to post his email or address on here. But if I know who you are, I can send it to you!! Most of my readers are on my Facebook (I think anyway) so you can always message me there!! He is doing well! And I have some exciting news. He made the E8 list, which means promotion soon! He is number 11 on the list so he should be promoted toward the beginning of 2012! Yay for a raise for me! haha! He will be staying in the Army a bit longer now because of it. Not much longer. He wanted to retire at 20 years (2013) but he has to have so much time in the Army after a promotion. I think he will only have to extend a year, but I may be wrong. He decided to stay in because he is so close to the top of the promotion list. He could turn it down, but why?! I could use a raise! hehe!! I am proud of him! And with a new promotion means new responsibilities at work. He has done all he can do as an E7 so he has been sorta "stuck" with what he can do as a job. So he is looking forward to bigger and better things!! Congrats, Paul!!

So yesterday I *FINALLY* had my tummy tuck! I will post some before pictures when I have some after pictures to go with it. Before anyone says I didn't need one, wait until you see the before pictures. I have lost a lot of weight on my own but I also had a lot of excess skin that would never go away on its own. I have talked to surgeons and they said the only way was to cut it off. So I did. I haven't seen anything with it yet seeing how I am still all wrapped up. I see the doctor tomorrow for a follow up. I think he will unwrap me to see how things look and such. I hope to see it and maybe snap some in between pictures too! I am afraid I may get all light headed! I have a "cup" thing that drains fluid and blood. It has to be dumped twice a day, and thankfully Jill is here to help me. Every time she empties it, I get all flushed and sick feeling. And I am not even watching! But I have the images in my mind and that's all! I am such a wuss!! haha! When she poured it out this morning, I sat down on the toilet lid this time. It seemed to help versus standing up! Just writing about it right now is making my stomach all queasy! I am grateful that Jill is able to stay with me and help me. Her girls and my girls are loving the sleep overs! Let me try and get some pictures posted.

Of course I have the weird allergy of being allergic to Neosporin/Triple Antibiotic ointment!

My get well sign my girls and Jill's girls made for me!

From Jill

From Meghan

From Jannie (yes it's sideways on the sign too)

The girls put it upside down on the sign. They texted Nathan to see what he wanted to say but he never answered so they put something. Nathan is enjoying some time at Disneyland with some friends (more on that later)

From Cheyenne (Jill's older daughter)

From Lakota (yes upside down on the sign - and Jill's youngest)

From Mac, one of two dogs we are dog sitting!

From Pearl - the other dog we are dog sitting

From our new cat, Diabla. Jannie called her Shadow for a while. We didn't have a name for her for about 2 weeks. Diabla seems to fit better than Shadow. But Jannie didn't know how to spell Diabla so she wrote Shadow instead! haha

Pain medicine pump! I wonder how long medicine will be in here?!

The "cup" that collects blood and fluids. It makes me sick to my stomach to see this!!

So Nathan was invited to go to Disneyland with some friends. But I had to pay for it and I didn't have the money to pay for that *AND* get him Christmas gifts. So Disneyland is his Christmas gift. Of course, he will have a few under the tree from family and some from Santa. He texts me daily and lets me know how he is doing. He is having a great time and will be home Christmas Eve sometime. He said since there will be 6 women here, after Christmas he is going to stay with Sage (his buddy he is at Disneyland with) so he can get some dude time with him and Mark (Sage's dad). Haha! I don't blame him! 6 women can be skerry to a 15 year old boy! haha!! The people he went with have two dogs. She had someone set up to dog sit but it fell through so she asked me to do it. She said she felt bad because she knew I was fixing to have surgery and didn't want to burden me with it. But it is all good since the girls are off from school and can help me out. They are good dogs and are very calm and quiet! haha

At Disneyland

The "kids" who all went to Disneyland. Don't worry, there are parents with them!!

I'm thinking of printing this picture out, framing it, wrapping it and let him open it up at Christmas to remind him that he went to Disneyland for Christmas! haha

Or maybe I will do up this picture instead?! His facial expression cracked me up!!!!

So he is having a great time there. He left on the 17th and spent 3 days at Disneyland. He heads back soon and will be home by Christmas Eve! I do miss him and am glad he hasn't forgotten his mama and texts me every night!!

So like I said, I got a cat. I think I am more of a cat person than I thought. I *LOVE* my cat. She hides during the day from the kids. She comes out when it is quiet and that means the girls are to be in bed! haha! I decided to call her Diabla because I ran out of cat food (didn't realize we had run out) and she sat and stared at me for 10 minutes without breaking her gaze. Then she went and peed in my sink, looking at me the whole time. I figured that Diabla was suitable! I opened a can of tuna fish and fed her that and she loved it. Got food later that day and made sure I haven't ran out of food since! haha! I got her because a family abandoned her and my friend was their neighbor. Diabla sorta adopted them but her own cat wasn't going to allow it. I had thought about getting the girls a cat for Christmas but didn't want to have to pay for one. And I hoped it would be litterbox trained and such. Anyway, my friend posted it on Facebook and I picked up Diabla that night. Since then, she has adopted me and I love her to death!! She is a black cat. She is small too. She has been cuddling with me on the bed while I rest up. I absolutely adore her!! Who'd have thunk it?! I have never really been fond of cats, but she stole my heart!!

Diabla

Diabla cuddling with me after I had surgery!

So what else have I been up to?! We had a White Elephant/Gift Exchange a couple of weeks ago. We had a great time! It was also an ugly sweater contest but not everyone participated. I bought my cat sweater vest at Savers and "tackied" it up! And then I wrote MEOWY CHRISTMAS on it! haha!!

MEOWY CHRISTMAS

My white elephant gift: A cheeseburger bank and straw glasses!

Jill and me...we wore our ugly sweaters again for the squadron Christmas party! haha

One night I participated in a flash mob! It was awesome! If you don't know what one is, YouTube flash mobs! We did it at Freedom Crossing (the PX) on base. We had a great time! I want to do a frozen flash mob next! YouTube Frozen Flash Mob Central Station or something like that. Classic! I wanna do that one because there are no dance steps involved!!

Some of the peeps in the flash mob!

Julie, Jill, me and Lisa

Of course on the 17th we all celebrated Jill's birthday by going to play BINGO. She has never played it and I figgered we were going to go play. It took us all of 15 games to finally get it right. All the games are color coded and then there were pull tabs and fast calling numbers. It was stressful to keep up with the fast called numbers only to find out that they were pull tabs, not BINGO. So then we had to use other colors to mark our cards again! And it was so confusing! haha! By the last game we finally had a non stressful game! Jill was one number away from winning the $700 jackpot!!

Still waiting for Jayme to put up the Bingo group picture!!

Jill's almost winning card!

Birthday cuppy cakes!

Hmm...I am looking through my pictures on Facebook to see what all I missed!! So one night, we were at dinner at Jasmine's house. She just got a new trampoline for her son's birthday. We had a fire going and the adults were sitting around it chatting. Jannie came up to me and told me she slipped and hit her face on her knee. She wasn't crying and her hair covered her face. I told her to be careful when getting off the trampoline. She then said, "But look at my face!" And she pulled her hair back. And OMG! The adults freaked, which made Jannie freak out and she started crying. The LUMP on her face stuck out a good inch! The pictures didn't really do it justice! It was one of those you had to be there to believe it moments!! She still has a bit of a shiner although almost gone. This all happened on 3 December!!

The next day - 4 December

6 December

On 6 December, we got some snow. Schools were delayed by 2 hours. I told Nathan I made it happen just for his birthday! haha! He told me if I really loved him I would have made it snow enough to have the schools cancel classes!! I told him I didn't want other moms mad at me! haha!!

Ah! My car really does like me to give me a message like this!!

My windshield!

So both Nathan and Meghan have had birthdays since the last time I blogged! Boy this is a long blog just to catch up! haha!! Here are pictures from both the kids' party. Meghan wanted a "tea party" but I made homemade hot chocolate instead! They all had a great time. Nathan wanted to play pool for his birthday. He had a good time at that too! I dropped the ball on getting pictures for Meghan's birthday with her friends. My phone was almost dead and wouldn't take pictures. So I got her with opening gifts after her friends left. She had quite a bit of girls here and they made and decorated cup cakes and had homemade hot chocolate. The girls all had fun!!

Nathan:

Nathan's homemade speakers. He learned to make them off YouTube.

Girls made him this to remind him that he got his birthday gift from us back in November. He couldn't wait for the newest Modern Warfare for his birthday and begged me everyday to get him an early birthday gift!!

So I got the Christmas tree up. And by *I* got it up, I mean Nathan set it up and then the girls and Jill's girls decorated it. Since Jill is staying here while I recover from surgery, we figgered we would combine our Christmases together. I still need to wrap the gifts. I am so thinking of just putting them in WalMart bags and tying them closed! haha! I totally should have wrapped them before yesterday!!!! So I think I caught up on the major things that happened since the last time I blogged! I am going to close it up now and leave ya with some pictures I found funny. I hope all y'all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

Oh my! This made me look twice because I really thought she was naked!! haha

From my XM radio...I love how they label songs and artists sometimes:

So *THAT'S* what really happened to Ella!!

You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout I'm telling you why, Santa really *IS* dead!!

What if I don't want a Lennon Sister!!

Mommy likes 'em young!!

Is Michael available to have?! If so, I'll take him and an Ebay account, please!!

I walked into what was marked WOMENS (yes it said 'WOMENS') and saw this. I walked back out to double check what was on the wall. This is in a military facility. Is this now part of the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy?!

Got a pedi the other day! I love my snowflake!

BS seasoning?! To make your BS more appealing, maybe?!

Wow! My microwave looks brand new! It isn't though...I just cleaned it! Phew! What a chore! I should have taken a before picture! It was *NASTY*!

But what if my ice cream cone is misbehaving?!

Paul at the range

Paul sporting a 'stache! I told him he could keep it but he had to shave it off before coming home! haha