Birthday, Tom and Jerry Style

For the past two years, the kids have picked the theme for Roy's birthday. This year there was no question....it would be TOM AND JERRY! Roy and the kids love this show and watch it together daily. My big problem was coming up with a Tom and Jerry cake. Surprisingly, when I googled it, tons of cake ideas popped up, but they were elaborate cakes with fondant, something I haven't mastered. So, I took some ideas from one cake and ordered a cake topper from another place and came up with what is probably the cheesiest cake I've ever made (pun intended):

Do you get it? It's supposed to be a piece of cheese with Tom and Jerry on top. Tom's tail is stuck in a mouse trap. Get it? Like I said....cheesy. It was very tasty, though:)

So today I made a huge mistake that caused me to stand in my kitchen and give myself a good tongue lashing. I had planned Roy's birthday dinner for a few weeks. I was going to try a new recipe that I knew he'd like: The Pioneer Woman's Beef Brisket. I read up on how to prepare it, marinaded it for 48 hours and this morning I just knew that I would have a hit on my hands tonight. So I calculated the poundage of the beef and the time it would take to slow cook it to tender goodness. Let's just say I calculated wrong. At 5:15, I peeked under the foil and realized that it was nowhere done. What I thought was going to take 2.5 hours ended up taking 5....WHAT WAS I THINKING?!!! I have been beating myself up all night.....I'm basically a loser. BUT It was extremely good brisket when we sat down for Roy's birthday dinner around 8:00! Here is my patient family waiting for their dinner.


Yes, the kids are already in their pajamas and poor Charlotte was in bed. She missed out on the birthday festivities.

So we sang the song and blew out the candles....ate the cake....

...and opened presents...

...and then sat to watch, what else---Tom and Jerry:)

Birthday Wrap Up

We had a nice little family party for Roy tonight. We ate one of his favorite meals and then started the celebration. Caroline, especially, was so excited about our "party":

I made one of his favorite cakes--his mom's chocolate cake. It is very yummy!

Caroline and I were serenading Roy with "Happy Birthday to You"....

....and I couldn't figure out why RoyBoy was so quiet:

BUSTED! I guess playing with matches is more fun than singing "Happy Birthday".

We are carrying on the tradition of telling the birthday person why he/she is loved. Caroline told Roy that she loved him because he tickles her at night and plays with her. Then she said he could hold her blankie for the night because it was his birthday.

Caroline was in charge of passing out the gifts and she and RoyBoy then decided they should help open them.

Check out Maui Jim in his new shades:


It was a relaxing and sweet night. Family birthdays are the best!

January 27th

Happy Birthday to my favorite man in the world!

RoyBoy--the original--is 33 today! These past two months have definitely been action packed for our little family and it has only made me love him more and appreciate all he does for us. Caroline, RoyBoy and I are so thankful for him. The best part of our day is when we hear his truck pull up in the driveway, which brings on the sounding and cheering of "Daddy's home! Daddy's home!!". Roy, thank you for being the husband and daddy you are to us. We love you dearly and we are going to have fun celebrating you today!

How Many Pollocks Does it Take.....

Okay, maybe that was a bad title to this post, but I couldn't resist! Here are the pictures from our Poland Adventure 2009. It's a LONG post, so take a deep breath and get ready....because here----we-----go! (Said like the little boy in Polar Express):

Here's where it all went down....the hospital in Gorlice, Poland. Roy was very fortunate that there was a hospital in this town because it was in the middle of nowhere!!

The view from Roy's hospital window. This is basically what we saw each and every day we were there.

This is the room he was in. He was very blessed to have his own room. All the other rooms had at least 3-6 patients in them. Here's a funny story about this picture...I took it when Roy was getting his first shower. I was aiming my camera to take the picture when a nurse walked in (who didn't speak any English). I pointed to Roy in the bathroom and she smiled and left. She probably thought we were some kinky couple with him in the shower and me with my camera out. Why else would I be taking a picture????
Bless Roy's heart, he was SO bored in that place. There was NOTHING to do. He said he looked at this corner in his room just about all day long and studied the different angles of the sheet rock. The yellow walls drove him crazy, too, and he now hates the color yellow. The yellow on those walls was a mixture between a scrambled egg color and a mint green. It was interesting.

I brought plenty of entertainment for him, though.

I even snuck him some Gatorade. We had to hide this from our translator because he was extremely strict on us giving Roy food. He thought we were going to kill him!

Here is Roy with the translator, Aleksander. He let Deanna and I know everything that Poland was famous for, including breads, soups, and cheesecake (inside joke).

Each and every time we went to see Roy, we had to wear these blue shoe guards on our feet. Here is Deanna, modeling them. By the way, I will travel any where at any time with Deanna. This girl knew where she was going and was about 10 steps ahead of everything the entire time! She was a godsend and I am so glad that we got to bond in Poland. Who would've thought?! I can't say enough good things about her....she is a saint and is so down to earth and real.

This nurse was one of Roy's favorites. She is obviously a nun, and she removed Roy's catheter. We were wondering if that was even legal?

These are some of Roy's other favorites. The girl on the left was the nurse who changed all of Roy's bandages and gauze strips. She was so sweet and timid and when I asked to get her picture with Roy, she got so nervous! The girl on the right was Roy's physical therapist and she was also very kind to Roy. She spoke enough English to be dangerous. The morning that Roy was released, she brought him this little ornament from her own personal Christmas tree:




This is the head nurse of the surgical unit. She, too, was SO sweet and she said it was a privilege to take care of Roy! She was always smiling. She kind of reminded me of a Polish version of my Aunt Sharon (anyone agree?).

Here is an example of Polish hospital food. Rice, some type of carrot mush and a ball of some mystery mush. Roy ate a few bites of rice. Yummy looking, huh?

The man of the hour---Let's hear if for Dr. Kapinski! This is the doctor who performed Roy's surgery and he did a great job checking up on him daily.

Deanna's and my Home Sweet Home for the week...the Hotel Margot. We were so happy when we first drove up and saw that they had decorated for Christmas!

Each day we ate at this little table because it was near a Christmas tree. We ate many pieces of grilled cheese and chicken broth here and listened to classic American pop songs:)

"See ya!" Is it just me or does someone look a little happy to be getting released?! Here he is waving goodbye to all of his new friends.

Here we are in the Krakow airport waiting for our long plane ride to begin. I think Roy was a little nervous to get on a plane for 10 hours. No turning back:)

Cue "In My Mind I'm Going to Carolina". The next day we boarded the plane for NC and needless to say, Roy was happy. I looked like I had been to Poland and back, but doesn't Roy look handsome? I think gall bladder surgery agrees with him:)

This whole ordeal will be something we will never forget. It was not the way we would have wanted it--especially the timing of it all, but we are so thankful that Roy has recovered and we are all home as a family again! Thank you, again, for praying for Roy and our family during this time. We could definitely feel the peace and the prayers and we will never forget that!

Please Pray!!!

This week has been a strange week for us. Roy called me late on Monday night from Poland. I knew something was up because it was around 4 o'clock his time. He had been having stomach pains for a week or two, but we both thought it was just bad indigestion or stress or something. Anyway, when I answered the phone, he was in terrible, excruciating pain. After talking to a family doctor, he went to the hospital. They found that his gall bladder was extremely inflamed and irritated. He has been in the hospital over there ever since and nothing has improved so as of right now (4:30 Thursday morning) he is beginning surgery to remove it. As you can imagine, he is a little apprehensive. He is all alone except for a man he is traveling with (that he just met on Sunday!!) and he told me yesterday his worst fear is being really sick overseas and having to have surgery! I feel SO badly for him having to go through this with no family by his side.

Long story short, if my passport goes through this morning, I will be leaving late this afternoon to be with him. My passport had expired this year, so hopefully my new one will be issued to me this morning!! Yesterday was a crazy day with many different emotions. I hate leaving the children but I hate Roy being alone. It's Christmas time and I don't know if we'll be home for Christmas. As I type this, I'm sitting in front of a beautiful tree all lit up in the dark and I just want more than anything for Roy to be home sleeping upstairs in our bed!

I don't know why this all happened when it did, but it did for a reason and I trust God to know that it's for the best reason. Please just pray for Roy, for a fast recovery, that my passport will go through (if it does not, my mother-in-law Jane, will be going over this afternoon), and for the children.

It's Our Day!

Happy 8th Year Anniversary, to my sweet Roy Boy!

To My Dear and Loving Husband

If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee;

If ever wife was happy in a man,

Compare with me ye women if you can.

I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,

Or all the riches that the East doth hold.

My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,

Nor ought but love from thee, give recompence.

Thy love is such I can no way repay,

The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.

Then while we live, in love let's so persevere,

That when we live no more, we may live ever.

-Anne Bradstreet

Father's Day and Francine

We--or I guess I should say Roy--had a nice Father's Day! Caroline and I made him the above sign to hang up for our special dinner. I worked hard making his favorite meal only to have the whole thing over in 20 minutes! He loved it, though, so that made me happy:) After dinner, we opened his presents and then went to some friends' pool to cool off. They are out of town and let us use it when ever we like, so it was a nice treat! So, we had a wonderful day spent with our #1 guy! The kids are now in bed, so we are going to enjoy a piece of Roy's Father's Day Blackberry Pie and watch some TV. Here are some pictures of our evening:

Roy's getting better about posing and smiling for my pictures lately. He recently saw a blog book I made for my sister and he loved it. He wants me to make my blog into a book for us, so he is all into my blog now!

My three. They make me smile!

And let me say a big thank you to my blog friend, Rose! She sent me a book a few weeks ago. It was one I had heard of before, but not read because the story takes place in the Roman/Gladiator times and I thought it sounded boring. I love the author, Francine Rivers, and I've never read anything boring by her, but I'm just not a Roman times kind of girl. I've had about 5 people in the past few years tell me how good this book was though, so I gave it a try and let me say that I LOVED it! I literally was almost in tears at the end.

It is such a good story and the best part of it is that it's a trilogy. When I finished it on Saturday I couldn't wait to begin book two, so Jessica let me borrow it this morning!! Read this book. Trust me, once you get past the first 4 chapters or so, it becomes a page turner. The names of the characters are hard to read at first but by the end of the book, they will be rolling off your tongue. I can't wait to start book two in a few minutes (while I eat my pie and watch TV with Roy!). Hang on, Haddesah...I'm coming (that's for all of you readers who have read the above book!!).

WWU

Our holiday weekend consisted of eating, shopping, crying, cranky kids (ahem, Roy Austin) and more shopping...but not too good of sales.

Dolly and Leland rolled into town just in time for a cook-out on Friday night. Saturday morning, we sat around, caught up and we made plans for the day. Uncle Roy--aka the UPS man--was able to bond with sweet Michael:

Seriously, this baby is SO good and sweet! He just sits back and observes all the action and noise! Roy, Leland and Roy Austin went out to lunch at the Blue Penguin (a local dive) and then to a few gun stores while Dolly, Caroline, Michael and I went to a nice consignment shop down the street and then on to South Park Mall. It's funny when you become a mom how your shopping priorities change from buying clothes for yourself to buying clothes for your children! Michael and Roy Austin racked up. Check out this cute beach hat I got for RoyBoy for $5. He looks thrilled:

Sunday, the boys went on to the Coca-Cola 600 (see post below) while Dolly and I taught Sunday School. Afterwards we headed on down to Gaffney, SC to the outlets. For those who aren't local, there is an outlet mall about 45 minutes south of Charlotte, where the best attraction there is the Pottery Barn Outlet. But it's hit or miss and let's just say it was miss on Sunday.

I thought I'd be smart and bring my double stroller so I could keep tabs on both kids and have a big basket below for all of my purchases. Not a good idea. People were so rude about the size of it and how much room I was taking up in the aisles. It was a nightmare. The kids in it were a nightmare, too....especially the sweet looking little boy on the right:

They were so good that I thought I'd reward them by taking a break and buying them some ice cream. Actually, Mommy and Auntie Dolly were the ones who needed a reward and a break:

This boy had his M&M bar all over the place. Dolly and I were at our wits end and all we could do was laugh when he touched it to his forehead and this happened:

Caroline thought it was funny, so she gave it a try. Like I said, Mommy was at her wits end and out of baby wipes:So, we left the outlets with hardly any purchases, 3 kids who had missed their naps 2 days in a row and a rain storm outside.

This morning, Leland and Caroline played some CandyLand together. Caroline used to be afraid of Uncle Lele but now she loves him so much. Plus he calls her "Care Bear" so that's cool:

And look at these two handsome fellas in their $6 Polo shirts. Roy Austin calls this kid "Guh-quol":

LeRoy: The Second Generation....

Tonight the kids are going to bed extra early, because Caroline has missed her nap for the 4th day in a row and tomorrow is the last day of school:( I am going to sit myself down on the couch and see if Jon and Kate can salvage their marriage. Fingers crossed.