Good Buy

Matt has to go to a conference for work next weekend and he was JUST informed that he has to wear a suit or a sports coat. The only suit he has is from the wedding which would probably make him look VERY overdressed! He went shopping today to try to find a coat and couldn't find a thing that was nice, cheap and (the big one) his size! We found ONE at the mall that was nice but it was going to cost about $130! We had checked at a Goodwill in the area but they didn't have much. We were about to head over to the Round Rock Outlets to look there but decided to check out one more Goodwill on our way. I'm glad we did! They had a whole wall of coats and Matt found several that fit. He ended up getting two coats and a tie for $24! We were pretty excited about our purchases! :) So, for your viewing pleasure, here is Matt in his two new coats... :)

This one is kind of fuzzy... sorry! I took it with my phone. This is the brown twill jacket....


This is the dark grey one, and the new red tie...

Before Matt came out to show me he yelled from the other room, "I look too much like a preacher!" :)

The Isaacs

I'm not sure if any of you have heard of a group called The Isaacs, but they are good! It is obvious from these videos that they did a lot in the 80's or 90's. I'm not sure if they still put out recordings or not, but I want to share these videos. They are actually a bluegrass group, but I absolutely LOVE their acappella spirituals! Check them out:







Gives me goosebumps! :)

Jonathan Laughing at Uncle Matt

Matt and I went to Waco this weekend to see Josh, Carly and Jonathan. Mainly Jonathan, of course. :) He is almost three months old now! Matt got down on the floor and was laughing and making faces at him and he was cracking up! Here are a few pictures and a video:

Jonathan laughing at his uncle Matt

Jonathan hanging out with his dad

The video is dark, but this is Jonathan laughing at Matt

Later we went to the Dublin Dr. Pepper Museum to get some drinks. Here is me with Jonathan sitting outside of the museum

Behind the Music

At church we are doing a series called Behind the Music. Matt and I were both skeptical when we first heard the title, but so far we have both really enjoyed it. Members have been sending in what their favorite songs are and why. Then, each week the preacher talks about a different song and the meanings behind it and what it means to specific members of the congregation. That briefly summarizes the series. We have really been blessed by it so far.

This morning the song was "It Is Well With My Soul". To hear that song sung by a large group of people is just chilling. It was absolutely beautiful and brought tears to my eyes. We watched a video that tells about the origins of the song and I wanted to share it here. I had never heard this story before. As soon as we walked out of the building I told Matt that I wanted to find that video so I could share it on my blog. So here it is.

"Orthopedic Shoe"

Here is my cool orthopedic shoe....

Matt's Graduation

Matt's graduation ceremony was last weekend. He graduated in December, but he was the only one graduating at that time, so his ceremony wasn't until now. Even if there HAD been more people, I'm pretty sure they only have one ceremony. He was a little upset because his tassle says "2010" and he graduated in 2009. :) He got a diploma frame that has a section for the tassle, so I'm going to have to find him a 2009 tassle somewhere! Here are a few pictures from his graduation!

And of course a silly one! There were a couple of me with a funny face, but I thought Matt's was funny :)

Jon McLaughlin - Industry

This is an artist that we like named Jon McLaughlin. I knew he could play the piano, but yikes! This video blew me away! He goes nuts on that piano! Check it out.... this song is called Industry.

Foot Update #2

New update on my foot. I went back to the podiatrist today. The only LOGICAL explanation he can come up with is that they didn't take out the ENTIRE bone during my first surgery. If that were the case, it is possible that the remaining bone could "grow" and then I fractured it again during the accident. Regardless, he put me in an orthopedic shoe for 2-3 weeks. He mentioned putting me in a boot, but I informed him of my back problems (which many think is directly related to me wearing a boot for 3-4 months the FIRST time I had this problem) so he said we couldn't do that. So, I'll wear the shoe for a few weeks and see if that helps. If not, he will give me a cortisone shot. I also had one of those the first time around and it was NOT FUN AT ALL. It hurt really bad... so I'm hoping to avoid that one. THEN, if THAT doesn't work either, then I'll have to have surgery to have it removed. Fun.

Foot Update

Are you ready for a really weird story? Honestly, this could only happen to ME. Let's rewind. In 2004, I had surgery on my right foot to have a sesmoid bone removed. It is a small, round bone right below your big toe. There are TWO of those bones, and it isn't all that uncommon that they have to remove one. Mine was shattered and they had to pick out the pieces of the bone to remove it all.

Fast forward to now. Since the accident, my foot has been hurting me quite a bit. It is kind of off and on pain, but when it is ON, I can barely walk. I went to a podiatrist to have it checked out. I told them about my previous surgery and the pain that I am having now. They did x-rays then I sat down to visit with the doctor. He felt around on the bottom of my foot and we determined the exact place that was causing me pain. He had a confused look on his face then stood up and said, "Let me go take a look at those x-rays." In a minute he comes back and feels of my foot again. He then proceeds to tell me that I still have BOTH of my sesmoid bones. Hmm. He told me he can feel them in my foot and that he could see them clearly in the x-rays. I was just completely baffled and didn't know WHAT to think! He invited me to look at the x-rays myself, and sure enough, both sesmoids are there.... and one of them is fractured!

We called the doctor's office who did the surgery and requested the records from the surgery. They kindly faxed us the information and the documentation clearly states that the bone was REMOVED. So what in the world is going on here?! I have no idea. We are going to try to get in with the podiatrist here again and just see what might be going on. The bad thing is, the doctor thinks that, ultimately, I will have to have the bone removed.... for the second time.

This has been a crazy week and this just tops it off! I'm interested to find out what all comes of this situation. I'll be sure to keep yall updated!

Our New Car

Oh wow. Dealing with insurance companies after a wreck is NOT fun!! We have been so frustrated and so stressed out trying to sort everything out. Mainly Matt, because he is dealing with almost every bit of it. We are pretty frustrated because they are shorting us quite a bit of money on the deal, so therefore it is just money that we've lost. They are only paying for a rental car through Monday, so we went today to look into getting another car.

We first went to the same Honda dealership where we got our first Civic. They were so nice and helpful the first time, so we were hoping for the same, but we were disappointed! The payments were going to be way too high and they made no effort to work with us on it. From there we went to a strip of car dealerships in Round Rock that had Hyundai, Toyota and Honda. We had an excellent salesman who was very helpful. We could tell that he was really trying to help us out. We looked a a Toyota Corrola and another Honda Civic but the monthly payments were still too much. We both really liked the Toyota Camry, but it was DEFINITELY too much. As they started to bargain with us on the others we brought up the Camry. It took a LOT of bargaining and a little bit of my firm side, but we ended up getting a FANTASTIC deal on a brand new Camry! Low monthly payments, 0% interest and we also got a free lunch out of them (probably what sealed the deal, haha ;-)) We ended up getting it for cheaper than we would've gotten the little Civic!

So here is our 2011 Toyota Camry! It is WAY bigger than the Civic, but it rides so smoothly and really seems like a great car!


My silly husband.... so happy about his new car!

Checking it out at the dealership before we drove it off the lot.

It was a long day, but I think we got a really great deal and I think we're going to really enjoy this car! Now.... we just need it to last us longer than 2 months! More like 20 years, please! :)

Idol Crush

I have to admit that I have a crush on one of the American Idol contestants.... Casey James! I don't think he will win, but he sure is dreamy! (don't worry, Matt has already heard this a hundred times) :) He is in the final three, but I have a feeling he will be the next to go home, but who knows! The other two left are really great too! This is his studio recording of the song he did a few weeks ago during "Beatles week".



Here is one of him singing "Hold On" - this one is rockin! By the way, he is from Fort Worth!!

Work Stories

I cleaned out my car this weekend and found a little notebook where I had written down some stories from work. So although these are old, they're still funny!

One day I asked one of the residents, "What would you do if you won a million dollars?" Without any hesitation she replied, "Faint."

It was a rainy, stormy day and I was sitting with a resident at the table. It thundered loudly and I looked right at her and said, "I heard a loud rumble!" She, being hard of hearing, probably didn't hear the thunder and looked at me with a somewhat upset face and said, "Well it wasn't me..."

I was sitting outside in the courtyard with a resident and I saw a rolly polly on the ground. I picked it up and showed it to her thinking she would be interested. Instead she got a little aggrivated and said to me, "That thing would be a lot happier if you would just put it back on the ground."

All of those stories are from the same resident. :) She always keeps me entertained! I need to get back into the habit of writing down stories! This was a great reminder of how many fun moments I have at work... so I will try to do better!

Car Wreck

Yesterday, on our way home from Athens, Matt and I got into a wreck. We were in Corsicana traveling west, and a woman traveling east tried to turn into a parking lot and crossed over right in front of us. There were no serious injuries, but we are awfully sore today. Matt talked to the other woman this morning and she said she was pretty sore too. We're quickly finding out what a pain it is to get all of this stuff situated!! They think the car is totalled (everyone we've talked to thinks so, but we haven't gotten the official word). There were several things going through my head, but one of the first things was, "our brand new car!!" ;-) Matt bit his tongue really hard on both sides and his knees, shoulders and neck are real sore. Then there's me (Mrs. Pathetic) and when my mom asked me where I was sore this morning I responded, "my right foot, my left knee, my back and hips, my abdomen, chest, shoulders and neck." :) Anyway, we are headed to the doctor's office right now to get checked out, so I'll give more info later. Here is a picture of our poor car :(