Monday, November 26, 2007

HE'S BACK!!

Darren is back & I love it. Some friends of ours picked him up for us when they were going through the dfw area coming back from the thanksgiving holidays. They got here around 6:30ish or so... when they drove up, I didn't really care what time it was, I was just so happy to have my boy back in my sight safely.

Once he got out of the car, he hesitated at first and then trotted to Zak & I up the curvy walk. It was so cute...Darren gave both of us kisses and hugs. It was so nice to have him close again!! I couldn't help not to cry...I was emotional, what can I say, I LOVE my BOY.

He looks so different...what is it with us mothers when we are away from our children for a period of time, we think our kids change a lot??? Darren looks more mature, cuter than ever, & seems to be more lovable. I'm thinking not only did we miss him, he missed us too.

He is now off to pre-school. I got his breakfast ready, Zak bathed him & dressed him, I gave him his meds & got his school stuff together...He is excited to see his teachers MiMi & Ms. Alecia. Cassandra will pick Darren up from school around 3:00 and help me out until Zak gets home from work.

Grandparents, Renee', Montana, Justin, & Cassandra, thank all of you for all of your help!!! I'm sure it was great to visit with D.& have some one on one time with him.

I'm recuperating okay. I didn't really think I would still be in this much discomfort after a week, but Zak reminded me that they took a lot out of me this time & there was more tuggin' & pullin'. My husband has been great during this entire procedure...He's a great care taker. Thank You Honey...I love You.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

California Family

This is my California family (they adopted me)...oh how I miss them so.

Kim, the mother of this group and I have known each other for 10 years now. She is the one that helped California be a happy place for me.

Those of you that hear me talk about Kim & Rob and their sprouts, this is who I am talking about. Auntie Jeri & Grandma Oma are missing in this picture.

Thank all of you for being so special to me.

Love you all!!!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Out of Commission

Well, the day is coming closer...

Last night Zak and I went out on a date, Yes a date without our monkey boy. Cassandra aka Cassie kept him for us...We talked the entire time and got caught up on STUFF...it was nice to actually have a conversation with my husband and not saying...hands off, off limits, darren, please don't, darren no, sit down please, etc...Thank You Ms. Cassie for taking care of Darren for us. For a moment at the table I got a little emotional because I had my husband to myself. I felt and still feel guilty for that, but parents need their own time. I enjoyed last night a lot. Thank You Zak for taking off early and taking me on a date! :O)

Friday is the surgery day and Na-Na will be picking Darren up tomorrow night. My Mommie will be coming tomorrow night too. I'm so thankful for having the mothers that I have...I only have 4! I have my "Mommie, mamma, mom, & mamacita" those are the names I call my biological mother. Then I have a step mom, whom I call "MOTHER", I have a mother-in-law that I have know all of my life except for 6 months, and I have a step mother-in-law. I feel very fortunate to have the mothers that I have in my life...I know that others are not so fortunate...Thank You God again for another great Gift. I got off the topic, so, what's new? NOTHING.

I go in on Friday and the doc says I will be able to go home on Sunday or Monday. I'll be keeping it on the down low for a good 2 weeks. Due to the doctor doing a full blown hysterectomy, taking care of a hernia, and taking more scare tissue out, the recovery time MIGHT be a little longer. Who knows. I'm hoping with me working out, my body will heal just fine and maybe a little faster!!??!!

The Grandparents will have Darren til' November 25th...that's a long time! As I am recuperating, I have projects here to do and am hoping to get them done!! You see, if I share my projects with you, the chances of me getting them done will be greater. So let me share:
Pics in photo albums, bills filed~I have gotten so bad on letting them pile up and NOT filing them. I have about 6 months of bills to file!!! See, I'm a bad girl. Receipts put in order, filed and tallied. If I get the receipts in order by months and put in envelopes I will be very happy with that!!! Not sure if I'm going to be able to tally them up before recovery time is up. Those are my goals...doesn't seem like a lot, but if you saw my piles, you would understand! Those are projects that i can do laying/sitting down and that won't take too much effort/energy. Wish me luck! :O)

This will be the last update on our blog for a while. I'm hoping that the grandparents will take pics while they are having a fun time with our monkey boy. If they do take pics, I will share some with y'all as well.

Love to all! Thank You for your thoughts and prayers!!!

Gobble, Gobble,

stacie j.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Great Picture/Camera Info

I wake up this morning with so many things to do before getting ready to go to the zoo...one of those things is to check out what kind of background scenes Moto Photo has so we can get our Christmas pictures taken' this year. (This is where we got the Easter Pics taken last year, that turned out great. The gal was great with Darren.) I'm checking out their website and my eyes see BLOG...due to being part of the blog now, I naturally wanted to see what they had...not anything what I expected!!! I learned so much...I had to stop reading b/c I have so much to do this morning and 7:00 is coming quick. It's coming quicker since I'm adding to my blog now, but I'm so excited what I have learned and I wanted to share with you. You may already know this info or not...it's great info and I see myself checking it out often. I have put in down on the right side of the column if you should want to visit the website. There is lots of great information on picture taking. What grabbed my attention the most is if you deleted pics on your memory card and didn't mean to, there's a great chance that you can retrieve those pics back. You will need to read the info yourself...hope you find it informative. :O) http://www.blog.motophototyler.com/

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Jamie & Tye Are Joined As One

One of Zak's 2nd cousins got married this past Saturday, Nov. 3, 2007

This was a beautiful wedding at a Ranch...it was gorgeous and you wouldn't think that it was in a barn/ranch surrounding. The weather was absolutely PERFECT. God definitely gifted them with the weather...the wedding was outside with a background of a large pool of water(reservoir). This was a fairytale wedding...it seemed to have gone very smooth. I wish and hope lots of love for the couple. I too hope they are as happy as Zak and I are...I love being married to Zak!!

It was great seeing the Durbin family again. I am so glad that have this family in my life!!!

Check out my Slide Show!

Cuzn' Daniel's Game

Nov. 2, 2007

We left around 4:00 to see Cousin Daniel whoop the pants off of Tom Beam...and that is what they did. The score ended up being 41 to ZIP. Gunter is 9 and 0, lets hope they continue the hard work!!

As we are in the stand watching the game, Ms. Donna gives Darren a sucker that he thoroughly enjoyed...I don't know how many wipes we went through until he finished the tootsie pop, but it was a lot. Darren had it all over his body and I had it all over my white long sleeve shirt...not sure if brown tootsie roll pop stains or not. It was pretty comical to watch him eat this sucker...He really did like it!!! Darren liked it so much, he was occupied for the 1st half of the game.



Way to go Daniel, keep up the awesome work. We love you!!




Chop on it Kid...Lick it up dude.

Cowboy Star

Happy Belated Halloween...

Oct. 30, 2007

This year Darren was a cowboy...it was a little special and a little sentimental for Darren's Na-Na & Papa Mike. You see the fringe leather vest Darren is wearing was one of the vests Darren (Uncle Darren) & Zak (Daddy) wore when they were youngsters. Mary Sue brought two leather vests & a cowboy coat to us when we were living in Tyler. I thought it would be nice for Darren to dress up in his daddy's & uncle's dress up clothes.

When we first put the clothes on Darren, he was very forceful on NOT wearing the clothing...finally he warmed up and actually wore the hat. It only took him about 3 hours to get comfortable in his costume. He'll do just about anything for his teacher MiMi & Ms. Alicia.

The school had a little parade walking across the parking lot to the bank to trick or treat...sounded like the tellers enjoyed seeing the little tykes dressed up.

Oct. 31,02007

Darren, Ms. Cassie, & I went to a retirement center with the Mom's Group of Tyler. Darren wasn't to keen on walking around unfamiliar grounds and seeing others dressed up. However, he didn't have a problem ask/getting candy from the residence. At the end D. finally warmed up.

Cowboy D...he was a good looking boy!!

Darren did not go door to door and trick or treat this year...he helped Ms. Cassie and I pass out candy. Next year when he has a better understanding we'll either go to a little carnival or actually do the door to door trick or treating.

Check out my Slide Show!

Meeting Choo Choo Made The Times

Oct. 27, 2007

Na-Na, Aunt Dianne (Darren's great aunt), and myself had a wonderful adventure meeting Choo Choo AKA Thomas. When we first got to the train station in Rusk, Texas and saw Thomas coming, Darren wasn't sure what to think. He was excited and wanted to check out what was going on...at the same time, he was hiding behind my leg.

It took Darren about 20 minutes to warm up~~~most of the train ride. There were times that he wasn't clinched onto one of our necks. Over all you could tell he enjoyed the ride.

After riding Thomas, we ate lunch and explored the fun activities they had for the little ones. It was so much fun...there was a bouncy house, tattoo tent, pony's to pet, an imagination tent where Darren spent most of his time! He was mesmerized with the choo choo's on the track going around and around. He liked coloring and playing with the stamps in this tent. We took so many pics...just sharing a few of them with you.

Darren did not like Sir TopHat...that's what we call him...He never warmed up to him, therefor we didn't get a nice picture of Darren and Sir TopHat. The picture we did get however is Darren holding his arms out for Na-Na to come and get him as he is screaming his head off. Maybe next time he will feel comfortable...?

After riding Thomas the Train on a gorgeous day, eating yummie nachos, a hot dog winnie (Darren ate), cookies, fighting bees, waiting in lines for face tatoos(Na-Na got), purchasing pictures with Thomas, we had to go to the Thomas Shopping Tent. Wow, talk about a variety of fun stuff. After shopping we were ready to go...we stayed at this fun event for about 5 hours. We couldn't have asked for better weather and a better time.

Thank You Na-Na & Aunt D. for accompanying us to see Thomas and his adventures.

We love you,

Darren D. & Stacie

Check out my Slide Show!