Finally, Pioneer Woman

Sorry for the delay.  I have been going non-stop for the past 48 hours.  Yesterday I was so busy that I sent Nicole a text at 3 saying, “Does it mean you’re having a busy day if it’s 3pm & have you haven’t had time for breakfast or lunch?”  We have a huge Christmas event at church this week & I’ve been super busy helping get ready for that.  Anyway…

The book signing for The Pioneer Woman was a ton of fun.  This was the only book signing that I have ever been to so there isn’t much for me to compare it to, but when you’re a fan of the author it’s fun.  Nicole & I arrived at Christ Church Cathedral around 5:30 (I think) where we purchased our books & snagged the closest 3 seats possible.   Bethany arrived a tad behind & and we just chatted up a storm.

As we were talking about my girls, the lovely lady sitting of front of us turned around and said, “Are you talking about Elle McGill!?  Are you Kelli from Kellogues!?”  HA!!  She has been reading my blog for quite some time.  How fun is that!?  Anyway, Julie, it was so nice to meet you.  Here is a pic of me & Julie. (Please ignore how awkward I look in the picture.  I was holding Paisley (who I cropped out of the pic because I was cradling her & it looked like I was nursing her…which I WASN’T (I can’t do that in public)) & there was a row of chairs in between the 2 of us.  So let’s blame my double in this pic on those factors & pretend it isn’t always there, ok?)

Around 7:00 Ree made her grand entrance & answered questions for about 45 minutes.  She was a lot like I expected her to be, except maybe a little shyer (is that a word?).  But she was very normal, sweet, down to earth.  Oh & super skinny, how she manages that with those recipes I don’t know.

After that we sat…and sat…and sat patiently waiting for our turn to get our cookbooks signed.  When finally got our turns it was fun because Nicole & I were spotted by another blog reader.  Hi, Hannah!!  Hannah was assisting Ree by prepping books & taking pictures.  Fun job, right!

As we approached her table, PW asked us to give her one second to re-apply her lipstick.  Her lips were dry & she apologized multiple times for primping in front of us.  So funny.  Anyway, we got our picture taken with her & she commented that Paisley’s foot rubbed against her.  She’s got a thing for babies so it was fun to have Paisley there.  And can you just note how close my face is to hers in this picture?  What in the world was I thinking.  Hey Kel, give the girl some space!  You may feel like you know her, but she doesn’t feel the same way about you!  Sheesh!  Sorry, PW!

Teaser

MUCH more to come in a bit…but I have to run to a meeting.

Hello Pioneer Woman!

Bethany, Paisley, Me, Ree & Nicole

Attitude Adjustment

Tonight was one of those evenings when Elle drove me nuts.  So in order to change my attitude toward her, I decided to post about how awesome she is.  Sure she’s 3 so she can be a bear at times, but for the most part she’s a really amazing (& hilarious) kid.  Plus, I am really proud of her, at Paisley’s baby dedication yesterday she didn’t stick her finger up her nose once!  I was 90% sure she would take that opportunity to go digging.

Just over a week ago, as we were all in the car heading towards our house, Elle requested to play Cash Cab.  Joe & I both immediately started laughing.  This was a new request & I’m not sure that any other 3 year old on earth knows about Cash Cab.  As we started playing, we were shocked how much that kid knows about that show!  At one point she said, “Ok, this is a 4 dollar question & a little bit harder.”  Once I got a question wrong (because she started making up ridiculous imaginary questions) & she said “Oh, sorry!  That’s strike 3.”  Plus, she BEGS Joe to flash the dome lights so it’s similar to the cab.  It’s gotten to the point that every time we’re in the car she wants to play.  If we agree to play she has lines scripted out that you have to say if you’re Ben Bailey (the host and yeah, she knows his name).

And then there was a couple weeks ago when the girls & I were at my parents.  Somehow we started talking about Thanksgiving.  My Dad told Elle that Chris (my youngest brother) wouldn’t be at Thanksgiving this year.  Elle was shocked & immediately said, “Well, will Chris be here for Arbor day!?!?!?”  Classic.

Alright, I’m feeling a bit better.

Swing by tomorrow, some friends & I are going to a book signing for The Pioneer Woman.  I’m SO excited.  We’ll take lots of pictures.

Reasons That I Need You

I am happy to report that I survived Joe being on the road with FE for 11 days. Yep, you read that right…ELEVEN! On the first night that Joe was gone I was telling him over the phone that he has to either be done traveling by the time I’m 40 or he has to be making enough money to hire me a driver because I HATE driving at night. Hate it. It kills my eyes. We laugh about this quite a bit…even though it kinda freaks me out. Anyway, this gave me the idea to text message him any time when I think of a reason that I need him in my life. It ended up being really entertaining. (Anything in parentheses & italics is just info I added for your benefit, it wasn’t included in the text.)

Reason #2 that I need you…I’m not strong enough to carry the large bags of dog food (it was 48lbs and I nearly died)

Reason #3 that I need you…your eldest daughter & I have too similar personalities

Reason #4 that I need you…it’s a heck of a lot easier to get out the door in the mornings with your help

Reason #5 that I need you…”output” (Remember, I handle input with the baby & he’s in charge of output.) Reason #6 that I need you…blowout followed closely by reason #7…another blowout! Seriously.

Reason #8 that I need you…you would handle our daughter playing with a rubber ducky in the toilet better than I did

Reason #9 that I need you…you keep me from listening to Christmas music year round

Reason #10 that I need you…hot pocket lunches are a lot more enjoyable when you’re here (Pretty much the only perk of us both working at the same place is that we get to eat “nutritious” lunches together on a regular basis.)

Reason #10 that I need you…you make me to go to bed at a reasonable time (I ALWAYS stay up way too late when he’s gone) Joe responded with, “that’s 11″…and I said, “oh”

Reason #12 that I need you…2 brief conversations with you a day is not nearly enough to get me through the day

Reason #13 that I need you…you force me to squeeze the toothpaste from the end of the tube (Don’t judge me, people. I squeeze the tube from the middle.)

Reason #14 that I need you…our oldest child is trying to send me to the nut house!

Reason #15 that I need you…I’m craving a cheeseburger right now (it was 11:04pm so obviously I couldn’t leave the house due to sleeping kids)

ERs, CTs & EEGs Oh My!

Yesterday was one of those days that went a completely different direction than expected.  At 6:30 last night I wearing a super heavy smock & holding Elle’s hand while she was getting a CT scan thinking to myself, “Hmm, I didn’t think I’d be doing this today.  Hmm, I should be more freaked out right now.”

Yesterday Elle fell off the swing at Ms Laurie’s house.  She ended up blacking out for a few seconds, had some tremors in her arms & legs & wet her pants.  By the time I got to Laurie’s, Elle was acting completely fine but when she wanted to sleep in the car as we were leaving I thought that I should at least call her doctor.  (Btw, I LOVE our pediatrician.  If you ever need a good one, shoot me a message.)  The doctor wanted us to keep her awake & take her to the ER just to be safe.

We got in pretty quickly!  I was prepared for swine flu central, but it wasn’t too bad.  Anyway long story short, she had a CT scan just to be safe.  She was such a trooper with the scan.  She acted a bit nervous but not a tear or panic moment.  Plus I was SHOCKED at how still she held her little head.  It was wonderful that I got to hold her hand throught the whole thing.  It may  have been a different story if I handn’t.

Everything on the scan came back normal.  The think that she had a “breath holding spell”.  Basically young kids get so scared or cry so hard that they black out momentarily.  Many times they will have some shaking while they are out.  The one thing that threw the doc for a loop was that she had wet her pants (which is a very seizure like thing).

After talking to the pediatrician today, we have scheduled an appointment with a neurologist for next week.  She’s concerned with it really being a breath holding spell because she has never done anything like this before.  Typically a child has a history of doing this & Elle hasn’t ever.  They’ll do an EEG.  I’m sure that will be interesting.  They want to do an awake EEG & an asleep EEG.  The night before I have to put her to bed 2 hours after normal bedtime & then wake her up 2 hours earlier than normal.  Great, nothing like a 4:30 wake up call!  She’ll be tired alright, she’ll also be in a lovely mood.

So we thought we had answers, but we are still playing a bit of a waiting game.  Thankfully Elle is acting completely normal so that really puts my mind at ease.  I’ll keep you all updated, but say a pray for her (& her mom).

This is a completely unrelated pic, but I thought the pitiful face was fitting!