my grandaddy.

i just called my grandaddy to tell him how thankful and grateful i am to him for all of the wonderful memories and summers in maine as well as all of the financial gifts he and my nana gave to me. my grandad has been very sick for awhile now, but now he's making peace and getting ready to move on from this life. he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a month or two ago (it had spread there from somewhere else) and is now in the hospital with pneumonia and sepsis (which is a blood infection). he's apparently unresponsive, but linda (his wife) put the phone up to his ear so i could talk to him. he's the last of my grandparents...


my grandaddy and me in florida.

the lake house.

as promised, here are pictures of my parent's lakehouse. it's in a place called artesian lakes and it is north of houston by about an hour and 15 minutes. the house has been a really fun project as my family decided we didn't want an ordinary log cabin picked from one of the books. we decided to draw our own version of what we wanted. so my dad drew the skeleton of the house and my mom and i worked on the floorplan. my parents' love the location b/c it is a bunch of little lakes and finger lakes and motor boats are not allowed. you can do electric boats and canoes and so they bought a little red canoe for the house. on the friday after thanksgiving, we all went up to the lake to check on the progress. it's moving right along, but apparently the outside is the quickest to go up and then the rest of it takes a lot longer. we are hoping to have the house finished by may. below are some pictures taken at various stages!

thanksgiving

well, as you all have noticed, i haven't exactly been the best at posting lately. it's been hard, but i promise to give more updates and better ones at that!

right now i am sitting here in tons of pain... but let me back up and fill you all in on my thanksgiving adventures...

on wed, i flew home to houston. via an unplanned stop in austin. i got to the airport rather early b/c my mom warned me that it would be a mad house. luckily, it was a breeze, but that left me there quite early. so i put myself on standby for the flight leaving at 2. they must have called about 12 names on that list, and not one of them was mine! bummer. but that was ok, my flight was only an hour later. we got on board and the pilot told us to hurry and store our bags b/c the snow was coming and he wanted to avoid delays. we managed to leave chicago on time. however, we got down to houston and had to circle. turns out a large thunder and lightening storm decided to pass right on over houston as we wanted to land. and houston declared at least an hour long ground stop. since we were running low on fuel and didnt have enough to keep circling, we had to make a pit stop in austin. and refuel. we sat on the ground in austin for over 2 hours. we finally made it to houston around 930pm - i think - and i was supposed to be there around 6ish - just in time for dinner. yeah, not quite. oh well...

then back at the house, i enjoyed tons of yummy food (as was the theme for the entire trip home). and then the allergies kicked in. oh yes, terribly this time too. i could not breathe for anything and it brought about wheezing and a tight chest and it made it impossible to sleep. so not fun. i have no idea other than my parent's cats what could have done it, but my allergies have never been that bad at home!

thanksgiving was nice, but small. usually my aunt, uncle, and cousins come down from dallas. but, not this year. it's a long story and i think a few of you are aware of the situation... anyways, it was just the immediate family and that was nice. again, ate way too much, but it is my favorite holiday and so i allow myself to stuff my face. and boy did i ever! YUM!

on friday, we went to the lake to check on the status of my parent's lake house. it's being built in a very small lake community and they've made a lot of progress. it was nice, but i was feeling horribly sick and tired (didn't sleep at all the night before) and it was freezing! my mom put a very tacky green and red wreath on the outhouse door. those of you who know my mom and her sense of humor will know that this is a normal thing and that the red and green one replaced a rather tacky thanksgiving wreath.

finally, i discovered claritin D as opposed to regular claritin. so i upped my dosages and finally got some relief. some. but any relief was a good thing!

and then the flight home. i thought i'd be ok. boy i was wrong! everything was great until landing. and then i really really wanted a drill so i could perform a lobotomy to make the pressure in my head go away. i still have a massive headache from the pain. it shot through my head and down in to my shoulder. i swear it felt like all my teeth were going to fall out. it was so bad. and my ear is killing me. that said, i get to go to my first doctor appt in chicago in a couple of hours. can't wait. give me some good drugs please!!!

it sounds like i didnt have much fun, but i really did. it was good to see the family and so good to eat such wonderful food.

more updates to come! and pictures too! i'll show you pictures of the lake house and my chicago condo once i can... still need to find that pesky cord!

crazy busy around this new town!

more to come, but for those of you begging for an update... here is the quickest of quick!

*LOVE the new job (keeps me incredibly busy)
*LOVE the new house

i have tons of boxes (movers came last tuesday), but i've made excellent progress.

bought a new car. her name is delilah and she is a 2007 volvo s40 in metallic silver and black interior. i got her officially on saturday, but she was delivered to my house last night.

bought 2 new tvs: a 42" for above the fireplace (got installed on Monday) and a 32" for my bedroom. sure do wish the cable guy would come...

cable/internet/phone: that's a way bigger post timewise than i have time for right now... i'll fill ya'll in on that later...

let's see... nothing else to report right now i don't think... well i'm sure there is, but i've got to get back to work!!