10 Years, 8 Sweet Friends & A Fun Trip

This is where Rod and I have been since last Wednesday............................... The Mayan Riviera, Mexico and what a wonderful time we had!

Us along with 3 other sweet couples from Auburn are celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversaries this summer. So we thought it would be fun to all travel together somewhere and make some special memories. We had a BLAST!!!!!! The boys played golf a couple days and the girls lived it up in the spa EVERYDAY-----coming back to the "real world" has definitely been interesting. We spent our days talking, laughing, relaxing, drinking, eating....and pretty much that cycle continued on for the 4 1/2 days we were there.

The Wilsons (June 24th), The Cleggs (Aug 12), The Cabbages (July 29) and The Fosters (Aug 12)

Happy Anniversary Friends!!!!!!

I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked to but here are a few shots from the week.

Happy Anniversary Baby!

Relaxing at the pool ---notice the drink in Rod's hand. It's called a Banana Monkey---Rod is probably having withdrawals by now since he consumed too many to count.

Rod and Ryan thought it would be fun to participate in a ping-pong tournament. They didn't win but they made it to the semi-finals.....when you see them ask them how many people they were competing against ;) If my memory serves me correctly one of them lost to a guy named Sally....I mean Sam...hee-hee!

The ladies before dinner one night.

And then there was our friend Tropical Storm Alex that made his/her debut on Saturday. It ruined our sun bathing but definitely didn't ruin our fun. This first pic is of the storm just as it was coming ashore.

Jennifer and I aren't scared of a little tropical storm -- give us a mudslide and we are all smiles.

We were definitely sad to leave our little tropical paradise and are missing the constant pampering we received all week but coming home to these 2 little amigos made it all worth while.

Daddy's Day

Happy Father's Day to two of the best daddy's I know! We love you so much!

(hate that my big brother, Brad, wasn't in town for this picture with his girls -- he's a pretty awesome daddy too.)

Almost There!!!!!

We are ALMOST THERE!!!!! Meaning we are almost to the finish line my friends. My mom (aka Nina), Nathan and I headed up to Atlanta this morning for his post-op visit. This visit always entails stitches removal -- not a favorite of Nate's BUT he did so great today. Maybe it was knowing that this is the last time we will go for this type of appointment or maybe it was just the fact he has now done this 4 times, either way minimal tears were shed.Quick picture before the bandage comes off.
This is Bella, she is Dr. Jones's nurse. She does all of his stitches removal after surgeries, Nathan usually likes her a lot EXCEPT on days like today ;). But he always warms back up to her minutes after its over.

As you can see the swelling of the whole ear is back -- but obviously that is supposed to happen, he just had major surgery. The tragus is VERY swollen and over the next couple of weeks will start to lay down as the swelling subsides. Again, Dr. Jones assured me that we will be surprised at how much the ear changes over the next 2 years.

Last but not least --- rewrapping of the new ear. We are now home with only our right ear covered, which means I can finally turn the volume down on the T.V. -- this bandage will come off on Thursday of this week (I will take it off here at home) and that my friends will be one of the happiest days of our lives. NO MORE SURGERY, NO MORE BANDAGES!!!! But he will have..........TWO BEAUTIFUL EARS!!!!

We will go back in September (after our trip to Disney --whoo-hoo!) for a re-check and after that Dr. Jones will follow us over the next 2 years and then will send us on our merry way. Can you believe it-----Chapter Closed!

How are we and what have we been up to?

We are surviving!!!!!! The hard part is trying to keep Wilson off of Nathan and keep him entertained. Nathan is content watching movies or playing the Wii but Wilson is about to drive us ALL CRAZY!!! Love this little guy but I guess he is just going stir crazy like the rest of us.Now what have we been up to???? Lots of love and kisses for the little patient of the house.

Impromptu visits from some sweet cousins (thanks Megan and Sara for the visit)

The one request Nathan had when we got home was to make homemade orange sherbet. So of course I obliged him. He did all the "work"......I opened the cans and he dumped ;) and stirred.

An hour later....the finished product.

Another morning, the "girlfriend" came to visit for donuts and a movie. Thanks Isabel for spending the morning with Nate ---look at those smiles!
Last night, we headed to Ali & Brad's for an impromptu cookout. It was great getting out of the house! Thanks guys we (I) needed that!

And this morning we FINALLY lost this stubborn tooth. It has been loose since our previous surgery in December. Guess the tooth fairy will need to get to work tonight!
Post-op appointment is Monday morning in Atlanta. My mom and I will head up there with Nathan bright and early. The bandages will come off for a short period for stitches removal and then they will re-bandage his "new" ear for a few more days. Be back blogging after the appt. Have a great weekend!

Which one do you like better?

So, which of these pics do you like better????????

I think they are both pretty sweet if you ask me................BUT I will definitely take the at home, eyes open, half way smiling version ANY DAY!!!! Thanks again for all the prayers today. We are glad to be home! Let the healing commence :)

What Have We Been Up To Today???????

Well we can answer that question with the following pictures:Lots of Nintendo DS playing.....it's a very good distraction for whats to come.

Lots of vitals.....blood pressure, temp, heart rate, etc......

"Lets listen to that ticker!" Can you tell Nathan has had about enough of people in his personal space. LOL!

Lots of cuddling, kisses and prayers!

Lots of laughing at mommy all dressed up to go to the OR with him.

These last two pics are of him on the table in the OR. We had moved on from the DS and were watching a movie on daddy's iTouch. Let me tell you, Scooby Doo was a GREAT distraction from all of the hustle and bustle that was going on in the OR.

This surgery we opted to not take the "yucky" medicine that Nathan despises....it is usually the hardest part of this whole process. It is usually used as an amnesia type drug and it does help relax him but since this is hopefully his last trip to surgery we decided to try it this way.

Let me just tell you....HE DID GREAT!!!! Not one tear, no fighting or fussing about ANYTHING!! Praise God! He shimmied over onto the OR table without blinking an eye and when they put the mask on him to start the "sleeping" process he had no arguments. Once again, I watched my baby boy drift off to sleep, I kissed him night night and walked out of the OR with some tears in my eyes. We can't wait for the next 3 1/2-4 hrs to pass so we can be with him and hopefully heading back to Auburn. Thank you for all of your prayers, calls and text messages....you don't know how much they mean to us.