Brandon's Birthday!

So Saturday was my husband's birthday. The big 3-4!!! Geez, and to think I've been with him since he was 28! Normally I go all out for his birthday with presents and celebrations. Partially because Brandon isn't big on celebrating holidays and special occasions because of his less than happy childhood. So I try to make up for it and let him know that his day is special.
This year I opted not to buy him any gifts since money is tight. Plus, I'm going all out for our anniversary in a couple months so I figured I could make up for it. Instead, I decided to give him a "food" birthday. The night before, I prepped a french toast casserole and refrigerated it over night.

Saturday, I woke up at the crack of dawn. Ok it was 7am, but since it was my day off, it might as well have been the crack of dawn. I popped the casserole in the oven and started to make the rest of the food. It was my first time making the casserole and it turned out awesome. It was super easy too.
Next I made some sausage links. Since Brandon can't eat pork, I opted for turkey links instead. You can't tell the difference whatsoever. Super yummy. While that was cooking, I started cutting up fresh strawberries for the cake I was going to make him later that night. Since I had some left over, I used them for a side with breakfast. Here was the end result:

Then I went garage saling for a little bit while Brandon went across the street to the basketball court and played basketball with Donovan. The rest of the afternoon we just hung out and watched tv. Then around 5 we got dressed up and headed out to dinner for his bday:

We ended up at Texas Roadhouse in Huber Heights. The food was AMAZING! We shared an onion blossom (one of my FAV'S), and each got a salad. Brandon ordered his usual, a 3 piece catfish meal with a baked potato. I decided to try something different and ordered the country fried sirloin with gravy and a side of cheese fries. Man oh man, it was DELICIOUS! Probably one of my new favorite dinners. Then the fun came! Our server was Sarah, who is Brandon's friends girlfriend (hence why we drove out to Huber Heights). I told her it was Brandon's birthday and she brought out the whole roadhouse team and the saddle! She made Brandon sit on it in front of the whole restaurant while she yelled out that it was his birthday and everybody gave him a "YEE HAW!"

Then we headed home and I started on his bday cake. I decided to make a strawberry cool whip cake. I've never made it before but it sounded easy enough. I used white cake mix and split it into 2 9" cake pans. Once it cooled, I stacked them on top of each other and frosted it with cool whip. Then I topped it with the cut strawberries that I had soaking in sugar all day. Here's the end result:

Looks like he liked it! What do you think??

All in all, I think he had a great day. Just wait until he sees what I have planned for our anniversary!!!

The Redneck and the Super Glue

Ok, so it's no surprise that my family is comprised of rednecks. Well, my dad's side anyway. They are your typical truck driving, camo wearing, deer hunting, tobacco spitting, outdoor working, beer drinking, country music listening, rednecks. And I love them. In fact, I'm more like them than I sometimes realize. Daily, I get called out on my "country accent", as my husband refers to it. Apparently my most common phrase is "Do What??" which I say when I didn't hear what the person just said. To which my husband says "I didn't tell you to DO anything!" My boss and coworkers mock me and say "doooo whuuuuuut????" Others include "I reckon", "I reckon I oughta", "y'all", "all y'all", "alrighty", and "shore" (sure). Also, apparently I like to drop the "G" off of my words. Whatever, I'm my father's daughter and proud of it.
Here is just a sample of some of the redneck men in my family:

Now back to the point of the story. Although my dad is a redneck, he is one of the smartest people I know. That is no exaggeration. There is nothing this man can't fix or put together. And don't get me started on math. He makes me look like a kindergartner trying to do calculus. He can calculate anything and he can measure stuff with his eyes closed. He can use his hands to measure something and you go behind him with a tape measure and it is exactly the measurements that he said it was. It's unbelievable. Here's a picture of my awesome dad:

Now with that being said, sometimes he does some stubborn stupid things. I don't know if it's because he's a guy, or a redneck, but some of the stuff he does makes you scratch your head and go "did you SERIOUSLY just do that??" Case in point.....
My sister calls me last night and says that dad is in the ER because he cut his arm. Apparently he was at work hanging some blinds and they fell and cut his arm. Being the stubborn redneck that he is, instead of going to the hospital, he waits until he gets home that night and tries to SUPER GLUE IT!!!!! You heard me right, SUPER. GLUE. Super Glue. Oh did I mention that not only did he cut his arm, but he actually split open an artery?? What person do you know cuts open an artery and goes "ehh....I'll just use some super glue...it'll be alright" That's right...a redneck.
So apparently the super glue didn't work and mom makes him go to the ER. Well since he waited 12+ hours to get help, the nurse said it was too late for stitches so they put some gauze on it to wait for the doctor. Well my sister said that when the doctor came in and lifted the gauze, blood actually squirted out everywhere from him arm. She said it was like something out of a horror movie. YUCK. I guess in the end they ended up putting in a few stitches just to hold it together, but not enough that it could get infected. And afterwards, he removed his own stitches!!! YUCK!
Moral of the story....when you're hurt, go to the doctor. But if you feel that you MUST do it yourself, I guess super glue makes for the best story for your daughter's blog. =)

Movie Weekend Review

So Friday night we decided to rent some movies. We had a half off deal at Family Video, so we figured it'd be a cheap way to spend some family time. After deliberating for a while, we settled on Snitch, and 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded. Then the next day, we went back and rented Alex Cross, and Sinister. Here's what I thought about each of them

SNITCH:

This one had Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in it which is partially why I think it attracted Brandon's eye. The movie is based on true events. It starts out with a teenage boy on Skype with his friend discussing a future party and how the friend is planning on bringing in some drugs to make money off of the other teenagers. The friend wants him to let the drugs get shipped to his house so he can bring them to the party. The teenager doesn't flat out say no, but you can tell he doesn't want to do it. Without waiting for an answer, the other boy ships the drugs anyway, and immediately the cops swarm around the house because the box had a tracker in it. The teenage boy gets arrested and upon refusal to set up other kids, he is facing a mandatory sentence of 10-30 years. One of the reasons he won't set up anyone, is because he doesn't know anyone. Just the friend that initally set him up in return for a lighter sentence. Fast forward a little ways, and you find out the teenager is being beaten up pretty bad in jail. He even ends up in the hospital for a while.
So taking it upon himself, the Rock (dad) decides he will snitch on people in place of his son. Hence the title Snitch. The Rock owns a construction company who just bought 2 new semi trucks. He finds one of his new employees that has already been arrested twice for selling drugs and convinces him to give him an introduction to some drug dealers. The meeting goes well and they agree that the semi trucks will be used to transport the drugs about 1,000 miles to another location. That's when you find out that the drug dealer that the rock is working for, actually works for someone else who is the head of the drug world. He is played by Benjamin Bratt.
Long story short, the rock, the DA and some local cops work together and bring the whole drug cartel down. At the very end of the movie, you see the son being released from jail. The employee that had been helping the rock the entire time is handed $100,000 from the cops as part of the reward money. When he asks why they're giving him some of the rock's reward money, the cop says that the rock mentioned something about having to lay him off of work. Afterwards you find out it's because the entire family will now have to go into witness protection for the rest of their lives due to the severity of the situation.
MY THOUGHTS: Overall, it was a really good movie. Not a ton of language, not a lot of drug viewing all things considering. I found it ok for my 12 year old to watch. Not that I enjoy him watching drug movies, but it was also a good opportunity to have the "see...this is what happens when you don't choose your friends wisely" talk. We all enjoyed the film.

12 ROUNDS 2: RELOADED

I immediately wanted to see this movie for two reasons. 1st, because I LOVE the first 12 Rounds movie. 2nd, because this movie stars Randy Orton. For anyone that knows me, knows I LOVE LOVE LOVE Randy Orton. So I was super excited to rent this movie.
This movie was similar to the original in the whole "12 rounds" theme. This movie opens up with Orton and his wife heading home from the movies. In front of them occurs a horrible car accident to which Orton who is a paramedic, rushes to help. He saves 2 out of 3 people, and the 3rd one dies. One year later, the game begins. There is a guy who contacts Orton and tells them that if he doesn't complete 12 rounds of a game he's created, his wife will be killed. Orton has no clue who this guy is or why he's contacted him but he's forced to play along. The rounds include finding locations within a set amount of time, finding certain people, putting together clues, etc.
Orton ends up finding a young man who is supposed to play along with him but neither of them know why. Eventually you find out the person behind this game is the husband of the lady who dies in the previous car crash. The young man that is accompanying Orton is the drunk driver that crashed into their car and killed her. Orton is being punished for saving his life, while the other man's wife died. The villain has killed every single person involved in that accident. The young man's father who was the mayor (who got him out of jail time), the man's lawyer, the judge that agreed to not send him to jail, everybody. He even killed the valet that was working at the club that gave him his car after he was drinking.
Of course the villain dies in the end and all is well for Orton and his wife.
MY THOUGHTS:  This movie is NOT suitable for children. We figured since the 1st one wasn't bad, our 12 year old could watch this. WRONG. It has language, sex, and nudity. Not suitable for kids unless you're "that" type of parent. While I don't think Randy Orton will ever have a calling for being an actor, I think he did a relatively great job. The muscles didn't hurt either. He had one scene in particular that I would definitely say was his "break out" moment. It was a great scene. Overall, my husband and I enjoyed the film, but will not be letting our 12 year old watch it again.

ALEX CROSS:

Not my favorite movie. As a matter of fact, I didn't even watch the whole movie. Halfway through, Brandon fell asleep and I turned the computer on while our 12 year old finished watching it.
From what I remember of it, the movie is about Alex Cross (Tyler Perry) who is a detective who is trying to solve a serial killer murder. At one scene in the film, the serial killer is on the phone with Cross, and while they are talking, he shoots Cross' pregnant wife while she's sitting outside a restaurant waiting for Cross to finish his phone call. After that, the movie lost me and I quit watching it. I can't even tell you how they found the killer, or what the motives were.
MY THOUGHTS: I did not like this movie at all, and I can't give any details on it because I stopped paying attention. Had the wife not have been killed, I probably would have continued watching it. Although I am a big fan of Tyler Perry, I will not watch this movie again. I will definitely be sticking to Madea movies from now on.

SINISTER:


Against my better judgement, I agreed to watch this. The lady at the video store told Brandon that this was a good scary movie. Personally, I hate scary movies. I think that's why he's always trying to get me to watch them. This movie has not changed my opinion on scary movies.
This movie is about a guy who is a crime novelist. He writes books based on true crimes and tries to give the reader a perspective other than what the news and cops say. He always moves his family to whatever city the crime happened in so that he can get a better feel for the victims. This crime in particular involves a family that were hung in their own backyard. All except for the little daughter who is still missing. The main character actually moves his family into that same house, unbeknownst to his wife and kids. One day he's moving things into the attic and sees a box of home movies. Of course he plays them, and they end up being live footage of the family being hung. Then we see other footage of different crimes, all similar in the sense that all family members die except for one small child. The murders include drowning, throat slitting, getting ran over with lawnmowers, etc.
Being the crime writer that he is, he makes it his mission to solve these crimes. While this is going on, his son starts having night terrors and they find him asleep in moving boxes and in the bushes outside. Now I should mention that throughout the movie, you constantly see the ghosts of the little children that are "missing" from the murders. They follow him around the house all the time but he doesn't see them obviously.
In one scene, you find out that the ghost of the little girl who's missing, has made contact with the man's little girl. But they don't make it a huge part of the story, so you don't think much of it.
The man finally realizes that there is a problem when every night he locks up the home movies in his office, yet in the middle of the night he wakes up to find it set up and playing. He decides enough is enough and he moves his family back to their old house. When he gets home, he gets a call from the deputy in the old town that was helping him on the case. The deputy says he's figured out how the murders are related. It started when the first family was murdered. After they died, the next family that moved in, set the events in motion. After they moved out and into another house, they were the next to be murdered. Then when another family moved in and back out, that family was murdered and so on and so on. So the guy now realizes that because  he was just living in the latest deceased family's house and just moved back out, his family will be next.
Then he goes into the attic to put more boxes back and he sees the box of home movies sitting in the middle of the room. Now there is an extra movie called "extended endings". It's the same movies but they last a little longer and show that each family was murdered by the little child that was "missing". I'm assuming it's because they were possessed by the devil.
The last scene of the movie shows the little girl murdering the man and the rest of the family, before joining the rest of the ghost children.
MY THOUGHTS: I hated this movie. Not because it was bad or poorly put together. All in all, it was a pretty genius film. I just hate scary movies. I might watch it again since I'll know whats going to happen, but I don't like the whole devil reference. All in all, it wasn't bad, mainly because it didn't give me nightmares afterwards. Except now my husband keeps messing with me about it.

Cystoscopy with hydrodistention

Had another surgery! Thankfully it wasn't another ectopic pregnancy. This surgery was planned this time. I had procedure called Cystoscopy with Hydrodistention. For the last 6 years, I've had this problem where it burns REALLY REALLY bad after I use the bathroom. The only way to get it to go away is to drink tons and tons of water so that I have to pee again. Once I pee again, I'm fine. After I pee, I have to lean all the way over, and more trickles out. It's horrible. It's not uncommon for me to spend 30 minutes at a time just to pee. Worst thing ever. I've had all types of tests done over the years, and none of the Dr's could figure out what it was. This year I went to my gynecologist and tried to explain it again, and she referred me to a pelvic control specialist. I was super nervous about having to go see a male doctor. I've always had females. There's just something about having a guy other than your husband all in your "business" lol. Yuck. Regardless of how I felt, I sucked it up and made an appt. I made Brandon go with me even during my exam. Dr. Ashby was really friendly. He made me feel comfortable and didn't make me feel stupid when I was trying to explain my crazy side effects. Long story short, he suggested that I should have a procedure called cystoscopy with hydrodistention. Willing to do whatever to get rid of the pain, I immediately agreed. My original surgery date was set for March 8th but of course I had my unexpected ectopic surgery the week before so I had to cancel due to recovering. I ended up having it on May 10th instead.
When the day of my surgery rolled around, I had some prep work to do. I was instructed to NOT drink anything after midnight the night before. The nurse said to make sure I didn't even swallow water while brushing my teeth. The morning of the surgery, I was instructed to take a shower, and to remove any and all nail polish, earrings, and other jewelry. I even had to take off my wedding ring which I was NOT happy about. That ring hasn't ever left my finger except when it's being cleaned.
After we got to the hospital, we had to check in at the welcome desk. Then we were sent to the little payment area where they scan in your insurance card and license, and then put your wrist band on you. Then I had to go down the hall and take a pregnancy test. Then I had to go BACK to the welcome area, and wait to be called back up. When I got called up, this little old foreign lady had to find my name on the list while another lady explained to us what would be happening next. She handed Brandon a beeper like you get at restaurants while you're waiting on your table. She said that I would have to go back by myself and then when I was settled in, they would page Brandon, and he'd be able to come back with me.
So they take me back to my "room" which was basically like a cubicle with a curtain. We went over paperwork and then I had to get undressed and put on my gown.

 Then the nurse ATTEMPTED to put in my IV. I say attempted because it didn't go so smoothly. Let me start by saying that the veins in my arms are very visible. Like bright blue, can't miss em. Does the nurse want any of those veins?? NOOOOOOOO......she wants to get one on my forearm down by my elbow. One of the WORST. PAINS. EVER. Hands down. Not to mention that as soon as she stuck the IV in, the needle jumped back out. Blood literally started gushing out. Now I don't mean it was pouring out all over the floor, let's not be dramatic. But it was enough that it took a handful of cotton balls to sop it all up. So then she can't find another location to put the IV in. So she decides to put it in on the side of my hand right where my thumb meets my wrist. If I thought the last IV hurt, it was NOTHING compared to this. I had to keep my wrist tucked in at all times, otherwise you could see the needle right under the surface of my skin. I seriously thought it was going to pop out of my skin. It was miserable. Then she started my fluids. Talk about a weird feeling. Nothing feels weirder than super cold liquid flowing right below the surface of your skin.

Then the Dr. came in and explained what he'd be doing. Then the anesthesiologist came in and went over his role, and asked me question about my health and allergies, etc. Then a lady and a guy came in separately to tell me that they'd be observing my procedure since it was a "learning hospital". Then they said it was time, I kissed Brandon goodbye, and they wheeled me out.
They wheeled me in to the OR and had me switch over to a different table. Then I laid down, they covered me in warm blankets (amazing) and then I was out. My last surgery they at least gave me a warning, but not this time!
Next thing I remember is waking up in recovery and my anesthesiologist is sitting next to me on the computer. We chatted for a while and then I said I was ready to go and they took me to a recovery area. The recovery area is half the size of the cubicle. Enough to fit a chair, end table, and computer. They sat me in the chair and gave me graham crackers and water. I ate those while they brought Brandon back in. He helped me change clothes, we got my discharge papers, and then we went home.
They told me ahead of time that it would hurt for a while when I used the bathroom. Holy cow, I was NOT prepared for what came next. I tend to think I don't need medication. I can't stand people that "pop pills" so my biggest fear is becoming addicted to something so I usually refuse to take medicine unless it's like an ibuprofen. That being said, I didn't take my medicine right away. WHOOPS! I sat down to use the bathroom, and I literally jumped off the toilet and screamed at the same time. Imagine having to pee while there are needles poking out of every side. The pain was so sharp it literally took my breath away. Plus there was blood which is never pleasant. I immediately took my medicine, and it subsided within the day. Imagine that!
Fast forward two weeks, I went to have my follow up appt. They said I have 4 treatment options. One, I can go on a strict diet which eliminates all sorts of foods and drinks and see if that will maintain the pain. Two, I can take antidepressant meds. Apparently, they calm the body which will calm the bladder. She said they would hope to give me a low enough dose so that I wouldn't have the weight gain and loopiness. Three, I can take narcotic nerve pain which will numb my body, hopefully numbing my bladder as well. Fourth, I can come in 6 weeks in a row and have a catheter inserted to have medicine placed directly into my bladder. UHHHHMMM.....I'll take option one please and thanks.
Needless to say, my problem is still somewhat occurring. I give up lol