Year End Top 10

Nearly everyone that keeps a blog is doing a year in review post. I will make two, but they'll be a little different than most.

I've always said that I think there's a circus tent over our house. Weird things just seem to happen to us. I mean seriously, we ended up driving a dead cat's head 20 miles. Ok, fine, I might have a little bit to do with some of this......

Top 10 Stupid Things I've done in 2009

10. This is more something that's happened to me instead of something I've done, but still pretty bizarre. In September as I was on my way to the car when all of a sudden I feel something hit me between my eyes and hurt so badly that it knocked me to my knees and left me feeling dizzy and faint for several minutes. I still don't know if it was a branch, stick, rock or maybe one of the two forks that we haven't been able to find for a year. Whatever it was it left a black mark on the bridge of my nose.

9. Thinking that having wrist surgery would be a walk in the park. I was wrong, it has turned out to be more painful than the last one I had.

8. Insisting on going running outside in 2o degree weather after a couple days of thawing. This one should probably be further up on the list. Not only did I do all those things above, but I did it at 4:30a with no one around. I had just started my run when I slid on the ice, I saved myself and felt pretty cocky about it so I continued to run. I slid again, only I couldn't save myself this time. I fell directly on my butt, bracing myself with my left hand. Once I finally came to a stop, I laid there for a minute or so, then realized that I was in the middle of the road and better get up. On the up side, I realized how well my under armour tights worked. They kept me warm and dry! I was so sore, it hurt to put my shoes on for a week.

7. A few days into Wayne's hospital stay, I decided(like an idiot) that I needed to shave my legs. So I went down to one of the visitor shower areas and shaved with a disposable razor about as sharp as a plastic butter knife. That doesn't sound too bad right. Well, I forgot to mention that the Dr. was due in about 30 minutes and it takes me at least 45 minutes to transform from Creature from the Black Lagoon to sleep deprived, worried, frightened, loving wife that's been living in a hospital for a week. During my hurried shower I cut my upper thigh. Of course I didn't have a band-aid so I finished getting ready, tried to stop the bleeding with a paper towel and went downstairs to his room thinking I could steal some gauze and tape. As I got off the elevator I saw Dr. Joudi rounding the corner to the room so I ran in there not thinking about it. He checked Wayne's incision and all the tubes and hoses and as he was leaving he looked up at me and said "are you okay?" I told him that I was tired but doing alright, he nodded politely and pointed at my leg. I looked down and there was a blood spot the size of a quarter on my leg. Needless to say I waited until we got home to shave my legs again.

6. Shoveling snow less than a month after wrist surgery, then telling my Mom that I did it.

5. Wearing flip-flops and blue jeans rolled up to my knees while repairing fencing in the back yard after 2 straight days of rain. It turns out rubber boots would have been a better option, I left mud prints everywhere I walked for a week.

4. This is another one that happened to me, but it was pretty funny. I got a couple dark blue streaks in my hair. Anyone that's ever dyed their hair red knows that it "bleeds" a bit the first few times you wash your hair. The first time I washed my hair after getting my hair done, I had shampoo on my head when the phone rang. I happened to look in the mirror and saw that there were blue suds all over my head. Then I turned around and it looked like I murdered a smurf in my shower. There was blue hair dye everywhere, looking exactly like smurfy blood splatter.

3. Forgetting the ham on Thanksgiving. Anna came over the day before Thanksgiving to prepare food for the boys' birthday party on Friday. We put it in a large roaster pan in the basement refrigerator. I then prepared the ham for Thanksgiving, placed it in another roaster pan in the same refrigerator. You can see where this is going, can't you? I wish I had. On Thursday we loaded the car, drove an hour to my parent's house and upon unloading everything I noticed that the roaster pan we brought was the BBQ meat and not the ham. A few minor breakdowns, 2 boxes of tissues and 4 tantrums later we decided to just go to the local grocery store and buy another ham. I was so upset and emotional about it that this is the first time that some of my family are hearing about this little faux-pas.

2.When we lived in the other house, I would wake up at about 7am, put the dogs out and start my car while getting ready to go to the gym. On one particular February morning I did just that only I decided not to go to the gym that day. As I was putting my makeup on at 2pm I realized that the car was still running. That's right, I had left my car running for 7 hours.....I wish I could say that was the first time I've ever done that.....I wish I could say that was the longest amount of time I've ever done that........

and the number 1 dumbest thing I've done in 2009 (insert drum roll here please).........

1.Re-hashing all these things with you. You (and everyone else I've told) would probably have forgotten all about these momentary lapses of sanity. Why start exercising restraint now, right?!

A Belated Christmas Wish

I don't usually copy and paste massages or posts from other blogs but this one hit home for two reasons. As most of you know, Wayne was diagnosed with Kidney Cancer in March (he's fine) so I know what she means when she speaks of uncertainty for the future. The other reason is Wayne's Mother, Charlotte, passed away from Multiple Myeloma almost 13 years ago. I don't know Brandy and had never read her blog until I read this post on someone else's blog but had to pass this along to you.



My name is brandy. And I have a blog.

And a plea.

I use my blog to showcase the crazy I meet everyday, share the stories of the kids I teach and document my love for tequila, dairy products and the abdominal muscles of Ryan Reynolds. Rarely do I talk about personal issues on my blog- as personal as the dude that I adore (who I actually met through my blog- single ladies, let that be a very good reason to blog, the possibility of meeting someone as wonderful as my man), but I need your help. And it involves my dude.

He's a guy who made math comics for my class, so they would love learning about addition. He's the kinda guy who sends my friends gift cards when they are having hard times, who remembers every story I ever told him, who was the first person I celebrated with when I got a teaching job. He's the guy who sent flowers to me at school- dozens of my favourite pink roses just because he loves me. He's a guy who has spent a year patiently explaining (and re-explaining) everything there is to know about football during the important games when silence is preferred. He's made me word puzzles and comics and stayed up late playing Scrabble with me (even though I beat him almost every time). He's listened to me cry about school and family and jobs. He is everything I never knew I needed and everything I always knew I wanted.

The holidays have hit us hard. He's recently been told he may have something called multiple myeloma- an incurable cancer, that gives a person an average of five years of continued life. Though this news has came as a shock, he continues to be exactly who has always been- spending his time worrying about me, rather than worrying about himself. He's the most selfless individual I know- (he stayed late on Christmas Eve to work, so his co-workers could leave early) and a post like this would never be something that he would promote or encourage but when I'm overwhelmed and feeling helpless, the blogging community has always given me tremendous support and comfort, two things I desperately need at this time.

As I write this, the future is uncertain and we aren't sure what's happening. He'll need to see an oncologist soon, to verify what's going on in his body. My hope is that everyone who reads this think positive thoughts and if you are a person who prays, could you add him to your list? (You can refer to him as 'brandy's hot awesome dude'). If you don't pray, please keep him in your heart.This cancer is only a possibility and I believe that the prayers and positive thoughts of people can make sure it never becomes a reality.I want to give a big thank you to the blog owner who scraped their original blog plans and graciously put this up. My goal is to get as many people as possible to see and read this post. If you are reading this and want to help, copy and paste my plea into your blog or send a link through twitter, so more people can keep him in their thoughts. I would be so very grateful (even more grateful than I am to my friend who first showed me the picture of Ryan Reynolds on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. If you haven't seen it, google it. You. Are. Welcome).

I realize this all sounds dramatic, a Lifetime movie in the making- but this is life. Right now. And I'm throwing away any hint of ego and am humbly asking for you to pray or think kind thoughts. If you are able to pass this on, thank you and if you know anything regarding MM- please email me (my email is on my blog). This isn't a call for sympathy or a plea for pity. It's just one girl hoping you can think positive thoughts for the person she adores. If my current heartache provides you with anything, let it be with the reminder that life is short, love is unbending and no one knows what could happen next. Maybe it is silly, but I really do believe that positive thoughts can make a huge difference. Thank you for reading this and if you haven't already? Please tell someone you love them today.

I did.

So This is Christmas

Wayne had to work today so I stayed home, made dinner, watched Christmas movies and drank enough wine to make an elephant tipsy. I'm not going to lie, it sucks that Wayne has to work on holidays, but I'm very thankful he has a job at all.

When Wayne got home we ate dinner and opened the few gifts we hadn't opened yet. I had one gift for Wayne that was about 5 ft long and difficult to wrap. So I googled scavenger hunts and distributed the clues about the house along with a Longhorns ornament with each clue. I thought he might be a little irritated after working 12 hours, but he was a good sport and it was fun! That might actually become a Lowrey Christmas tradition.

I hope you all had a fun Christmas as well!!

Over the River and Through the Woods

We did indeed go over the river and through the woods to Grama's last night. Dad wore shorts, the kids were stripped down to their diapers, we spent extended periods of time on the unheated porch and at least two of us almost passed out. Seriously I thought I was going to fall to the floor, waking up with a mouth full of 30 year old green shag carpet.

But even with all the sweating, it was a great Christmas Eve. Everybody that lives in town (my brother, sister-in-law and 2 nephews live in WI and couldn't make it :( ) showed up. And there were no fights, that in itself is a Christmas miracle.

Christmas really is more fun with kids around. There were 9 kids ranging in age from 7 months to 16years. As I stood around sweating and snapping enough photos to fill 200 albums, I came to the conclusion that Christmas is most fun through a 3 year old child's eyes.

Ashley,16, acknowledged each gift and thanked everyone immediately. You could tell she liked the gifts but didn't get too excited about anything. Hailey, 8, got visibly excited when she opened her gifts and hugged the ones she really liked. But my cousin's 3 year old daughter, Mahlaya, was so excited with everything she opened that she just couldn't contain herself. She had to show her Mom and Dad what she got and if they were busy with one of their other 4 girls, she stood up (wearing only her tights at this point) and jumped up and down holding her newly acquired treasure until one of them acknowledged her. Then, and only then, did she move on to her next gift....starting the cycle all over again.

When you're 3 you don't ever think the wonder and excitement will fade. When you're a teenager it doesn't seem the same, but you can't quite put your finger on it and don't want to complain. When you're my age (which shall remain unmentioned) you're just as happy watching other people open their gifts than you are your own.

Merry Christmas!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I know it's been a long time.......more on that later.

But now, It's CHRISTMAS!!! I've mentioned it before, but I LOVE Christmas...........everything Christmas.

The halls are decked. The trees are trimmed. The gifts are wrapped and the stockings are stuffed. We are ready for Christmas.....finally.

Today we will relax until late afternoon then go to my Grama's to open gifts, eat, talk, laugh and roast. I'm not talking about roasting food. My Grama turns the thermostat down to 75 degrees before 20 people invade her home. It's sooooo hot in there. It's usually very cold here this time of year. But there have been several times that my Dad and my cousin wear shorts on Christmas Eve.......and still aren't comfortable.

I wish you the merriest, happiest whatever it is you celebrate.