My memorial day weekend started early….it was Thursday at about 2:00 when I went home sick from work. I was just work out and could feel a sinus infection brewing…I’ve done good, a whole 4 months without a sinus infection, Wahoo! I guess I broke my streak this week because on Sunday morning I woke up with full fledged sinusitis. Needles to say we didn’t do much of anything Sunday, I pretty much just layed on the couch all day. Despite feeling horrible Jonathan and I did manage to have a good weekend. Saturday we headed to Terrell for my nephew’s soccer tournament and then back home for small group at our house.
Our small group was just that, small. It was just me, Jonathan and Preslsey, so we headed to Home Depot to get some stuff to plant a small garden. Jonathan got some jalapenos, cucumbers and tomatoes and I got some potted flowers to put in the back yard.
Monday Jonathan and I went and had brunch at Ihop…I know, we go all out! Then headed to Ft. Worth to the botanical gardens for a while. We had a great time at the gardens and of course took some photos. It wouldn’t be a day in the life of laurie and jonathan if we didn’t take pictures.
And that was the extent of our weekend, not extravagant but it was perfect for us!
Yesterday Jonathan and I completed the 2009 20 mile Tour Dallas bike ride. Granted 20 miles isn’t a long distance for a cyclist, but for two people who have never done a bike race before, it’s a pretty good distance. I also think 20 miles was a good distance for someone who broke her back only 9 months ago…and 2 miles into the ride I was feeling it, my back and neck were tightening up and hurting but I pulled through it and finished all 20 miles. Today on the other hand, i am feeling it more…but nothing I can’t live with. Anyway, we had a fun time…one of our friends, Todd joined us and he actually did the 30 mile ride, he is an experienced rider and has done like 100 mile races before, so 30 was nothing for him. We started off at city hall in Downtown Dallas and rode across the trinity river and back, then through downtown, down swiss avenue, through Lakewood, to White rock lake and back to city hall. The whole time my gears kept shifting on their own, they wouldn’t stay locked in one gear and of course the one gear they stayed in was the hardest gear! It wasn’t too bad, just annoying and kind of hard going up hills – ha. After the ride we took my bike to the bike shop to get looked at and they said the gear shift was broken. They fixed it and viola, it shifts fine now. We are thinking of doing a 40 mile ride next weekend in Lancaster, but we’ll see 😉
My nephew, Jake, started playing soccer this year. He had his first game this past Tuesday, which was his dad’s (my brother) birthday. So we all went out to watch Jake play his first game and then went to dinner for Brad’s Birthday. Before the game the team did the whole, hands in and on 3 yell “Cobras”:
Jake did a great job of chasing the ball and even made a goal!!
He had a chance to play goalie as well and did a good job of keeping the ball out of their goal.
I can’t wait to go to another game!
Today we paid off our last credit card!!! We have been hitting the debt hard since last June/July. We have to thank Uncle Sam for holding our money for us over the last year and we decided to do the responsible thing and put our 2008 tax refund towards paying off our debt….Even though we both would soooo much rather go on a nice trip with that money, we would rather get out from under debt. So our credit card debt is ALL GONE!! Now all we have left are Medical bills and parental debt. But now that we don’t have to make a huge credit card payment, we can add that to what we were paying each month on my medical bills and knock them out soon. Other than our house and cars, we should be debt free in the next 10 months or so!
I have been at my new job for about 3 months and still absolutely LOVE it!! My co-workers are wonderful and the doctor I work for is amazing. It is completely different from what I have been doing and I have learned a tremendous amount since starting there. This was the best move for my career and there are possibilities that have opened up for me that I would have never had at Children’s. I’m writing a paper or abstract on a procedure we do in our office and I’m hoping to get it published. I just found out this week that I’m also going to be involved in two research studies in the next several months, for which I have to go to Atlanta and somewhere else (not sure of the location yet) for training in April.
I thought making the switch from pediatrics to adults would be hard for me, but it really hasn’t been that bad, I actually like working with the adults, and I’ve had a few kiddos come in to see me so I still get some pediatric patients.
I am so glad that I made the switch from Children’s to Baylor because it was just what I needed, I actually don’t dread getting up in the morning to go to work!
They even let me play with needles!! Well not really play with them, more like poke people with them-wuaaahahahah
Wow, it’s been a while since I posted anything on this here blog! We have been busy the last month or so and I realize I haven’t kept anyone updated on what all we have been up to. I’m not going to lie…when I do have a chance to sit down and update the blog, I just don’t want to! We went on our cruise the first week of February and had a great time!
Our first stop was in Progresso, Mexico and we enjoyed visiting the Mayan Ruins. Jonathan probably enjoyed it more than me, but it was neat to see.
The next day we went to Cozumel and had a chance to ride some segways along beach. we were supposed to go snorkeling but it was way too windy so we were unable to. We were pretty bummed but maybe some other time we will be able to go snorkeling.
After the segway tour we walked around the port a while and had lunch at Three Amigos in Cozumel.
Last weekend we celebrated Jonathan’s 30th birthday at Kobe Steaks, sorry I didn’t get many pics…
Then on Tuesday, which was Jonathan’s actual birthday we went to Red Robin for a delicious burger.
I started going to the Bible study at my old church in Dallas with Jen on Wednesday nights and love it. I have missed having an actual women’s Bible study and simply just needed it. So I called Jen up because I knew she was going to the one at Northwest Bible and luckily a new study was starting this month so I was able to start it. So every Wednesday after work I get to see Jen and then go to a Bible study–it’s great!! We catch up on what’s going on in our lives and helps me get through the week. I’ve missed getting to see her and spend time with her as often as we used to…I guess that’s what happens when you live that far apart and both have busy lives. But, I’m thankful for the times we do get to spend together.
We have started getting ready for spring around our house. Last week we pulled up some bushes and planted two rose bushes in the front and today we added more mulch to the flower beds and I put out the weed killer…and in a few weeks it’ll be time for the fertilizer.
Well, in Texas, it’s more of an ice day. Our office closed today so I get the whole day off, but Jonathan has to go in at 1200. I got out this morning and thought there was no way for me to get my car out of our garage without sliding off the driveway, it was nothing but ice. Luckily my boss called and said, stay home, have a fun snow day! None of our patients would show up anyway. I’ve been up for a while and have already taken a shower, got dressed, fixed my hair, make up and all that entails. I just looked down and it’s only 830!! I feel like it should be like 1200 or 100, I may have to take a nap. Of course, I couldn’t go without taking some pictures of our “snow day”, so here are some of the photos I took:
The hubs truck this morning..a little iced over!
Our flower bed which needs a face lift this spring.
Our backyard
Hopefully ya’ll didn’t have to get out this morning, so stay home, enjoy your “snow day” and stay warm!
The hubs and I joined the Landry Center at Baylor last week because we both want to get back into shape/lose weight. We get a killer discount to the because I’m an employee of Baylor so we took advantage of it. After not being able to do pretty much of anything for the last 8 months after breaking my back, I was ready to start working out again. Granted, I still can’t lift weights yet, I am able to do cardio and swim!. I have always wanted to do swimming as a means of exercise, just never had a pool to. We swam for the first time on Saturday and boy was I tired. It also showed me how out of shape I am!!! Geeze, one length of the pool (an olympic sized pool) and I was out of breath and my heart was about to pound out of my chest. I swam a total of 4 laps (8 lengths of the pool) which is about 200 meters. Today I swam 13 laps which is about 475 meters, then I soaked in the hot tub for about 3 minutes (it was too hot) and then sat in the sauna for a little while….again, too hot so I had to get out. I’m not relaxed and feel good about working out! We’ll see if we keep this up. It’s only about 2 blocks from my office so I can go workout in the mornings if I want before work, which I plan on doing on Fridays. I’ll let you know in a month if we’re still going!
I said it last year and I’ll say it again…I don’t like to make New Year’s resolutions because I never keep them. But I do like to make goals. To me, a resolution is something that you want to change about yourself or somthing like that, and a goal is something that you want to achieve. I’d rather set goals and strive to achieve something new in the new year. Maybe it’s just me and maybe there really isn’t a difference, either way, here are some of my 2009 goals.
here are my goals expanded on:
1. I want to complete a bike race (cycling…and assuming my heart will handle it)
2. maybe ride in the “hotter than hell” bike race in wichita falls, Tx (it’s 100 miles long so I’d better get working.)
3. I really want to get back in shape…not to lose weight just to get physically fit again, and so I can do #2. Breaking your back and not being able to do much of anything physically demanding for several months makes you kinda lazy, and squishy for that matter–ha!
4. I need to finish reading the books I have from last year that never I finished
5. I really want to finish paying off our consumer debt (we’ve paid half of it off in the last 6 months–wahoo!!)
6. Have good health this year and stay out of the hospital (not that I really have full control over it though)
7. Get back into the routine of doing devotionals
8. Actually finish my Project 365 this year…you can follow it on my flickr stream. It’s a project where you take a self portrait of some sort for 365 days..the goal is to improve your photography techniques and help you learn lighting.
And that’s all I have, I’m sure I’ll think of a few more but that’s it for now. What are some of your goals for the new year?
I can’t believe it’s already 2009 – It seams like 2008 just flew by! A lot happened this past year, some not so good and some really good. If you told me at the beginning of 2008 that I would go through 2 surgeries, have 5 CT scans, take a visit to the Baylor ER and change jobs, I would have laughed in your face. But a new year brings new challenges, whether you want them or not! So lets take a look at 2008 shall we!
The year started out great we had been in our new house for a few months and had fun as we started to paint and do landscaping around the yard. We pretty much finished doing things to the house (for now) but will eventually do more to the yard when spring rolls around. Here is just a little of what we have done so far…
In March Jonathan and I took a trip to Memphis, TN just for fun. We had a great time visiting Graceland, the Gibson factory, walking down Beale St. and eating some delicious Memphis BBQ. Here is a video of the highlights from our trip…
On April 28, Jonathan and I celebrated our one year anniversary! We stayed a night in downtown Dallas and then went to the arboretum for the day.
In May I graduated, again!
I finally finished my bachelor’s degree after finishing my associates degree in 2002. I took a couple of years off inbetween my associates and going back to finish my bachelor’s but with hard work and determination, I finished it and it won’t necessarily get me more money or anything, it will give me more opportunities in my career field and in a way get a better paying job! I will be able to teach if I choose to and also I can continue on to get a master’s degree if I want…which I may eventually. I would love to get a masters in exercise physiology but we’ll see where God takes me on that one!
The week after I graduated I had sinus surgery. I had a severe deviated septum that wouldn’t allow me to get rid of a sinus infection I had for almost 6 months. So the fixed it, I got a new nose…well not really, but I can breathe better…
that’s attractive huh?
The following month (June) my best friend, Jen, got married and I was a bridesmaid in her wedding. We had a lot of fun at the wedding and all the events leading up to it…
Two days after Jen and Jed got married I had a little accident…so we’ll call it. To make a long story short and one you can read here, I had a wonderful 14 hour stay in the Baylor ER and ended up with a sprained neck and 4 broken vertebrae in my back….
I have had a long road to recovery and had many visits to the neurosurgeon and a lot of CT’s. I had a final visit to the neurosurgeon last month and he said it was healing, not completely healed yet, but healing for sure. So yeah! I still have pain if I do certain things or move certain ways but for the most part I feel pretty good.
Then September rolled around and time for another surgery…bet you didn’t see that coming-HA. I have had two procedures on my heart in the last 5 years and I started having some problems again so my cardiologist thought it would be best to go back in and check everything, just to make sure everything was good to go. So I have another heart cath and everything checked out ok…we just adjusted my medication and we’re back in business.
In November I decided, for many reasons, it was time for a change so I resigned from my position at Children’s Medical Center and accepted one at Baylor Univ. Medical Center in Dallas. It was tough leaving some of my friends behind, but it was time to move on! For the most part, I liked the time I spent working at CMC and will cherish the friendships I made while I was there.
But since I have made the move to Baylor, I can honestly say it was the best decision I’ve made in a while and a good move for my career. I love the people I work with and love what I do at Baylor. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for me in the next year or so with my career.
In November, Jonathan and I also went to a marriage retreat at Sky Ranch with our church. We had a blast doing the ropes course, flying down the zip line and getting to know more couples at our church. Tim and Kara were able to go with us and we hope to do it again next year.
To finish off the year, we celebrated the holidays with family and friends and you can read all about that in another post! We have done so many fun things this year, it’s hard to sit down and write them all out, there were many things we did like go to the rangers game, state fair of Texas, Waxahachie’s hot air balloon festival, and I could go on forever, but I won’t…
…so here’s to a great 2009, filled with many more memories and new opportunities!
