A ton of updates.

Lots and lots to update!! I totally forgot to tell the story about my former patient that I took care of a year or so ago. I had taken care of a patient in the ICU some time ago who was only 17 and had drowned in a bathtub from a seizure disorder. It was so sad and while we were able to bring her back to life by the aid of machines and medications and ventilators, she never regained consciousness and was brain dead. Her brave mother and sister made the decision to donate her organs so I contacted the transplant organization. They were able to harvest her lungs, kidneys, liver, heart, pancreas and corneas. She was honored thisJanuary in the Rose bowl parade and prior to the parade I was asked to come speak at an assembly at her former highschool where she would have graduated as a senior this May. It was such a humbling experience and I fumbled through most of it and it was extremely emotional but such an honor. While there Lexie's mom, grandmother and other friends and famalies were in attendance and helped complete a floragram which is a likeness of the person made entirely of flowers, seeds, grains and other  organic materials. Lexie's floralgram along with several others of organ donors from all over the nation were featured on a large float for donation for life. It was such a neat experience mom and Trey came with me for support. (disclaimer: the patient's family signed a release form so nothing about this is against HIPPA:)

The finshed floragraph of Lexie

Lexie's grandmother and Mother

All these young people were inspired to sign up to become organ donors after hearing Lexie's story!!

 

My humble attempts to explain Lexie's legacy through a caregivers eyes.

 

To become an organ donor simply sign up when you get your driver's license or go to

http://organdonor.gov/becomingdonor/index.html 

 

 

In January, we traveled to Birmingham to visit my dad's side of the family, most of the crew went to the Ole Miss bowl game that Saturday while the ladies (and children) went to shop around b'ham and then we all converged and went to dinner. It was a blast getting together and we always are guaranteed many many laughs and alot of eating with this group!

My brother (Jimmy), Tracy's boyfriend (Kyle), Trey and my cousin Melissa's husband (Robert)

Dad, his two brothers Ricky and Eddy in the back, Tracy and Kyle, Miriam (cousin), and Jimmy down front

The whole gang converged on a Mexican restaurant in Pelham, AL

My uncle Ricky had a white beard and resembled Santa so the boys kept asking if he was the real Santa! HAHA!

My beautiful sister mom and cousin and I out to eat with the family in Pelham, AL.

 

 

In February, we traveled to Fort Worth, TX with Trey's work for a business meeting he needed to attend. The boys and I tagged along and stayed in the nice hotel downtown, made forts, rented movies, ordered room service and had the shuttle take us down to the zoo (ranked in the top 5 in the nation!) while Daddy was in his meetings. The boys and I had a ball and I was blessed enough to have flexible jobs where I could rearrange my work schedule so that I could go! We had a ball. It was Brooks' first zoo trip so that was neat and he was pretty entralled with the lions and fish especially. We made a special trip through Rose's tortilla cafe drive through which is amazing! If you ever get a chance and are in TX make sure to stop! The tortillas are out of this world and worth the carbo load! We took 2 dozen home with us :)

On the (LONG) drive to Fort Worth, Cam was laughing hysterically at some movie they were watching!

What a view!! I love this sweet picture...

 

riding the train, checking out the aquarium at the Ft. Worth zoo

Lions, tigers and birds, Oh My!

 

 

The hotel fort

This was a cool take on a pot pie at a restaurant in our hotel in Ft. Worth, it had brisket, potatoes, BBQ sauce, cheese it was excellent!!

Brooksie mommy love

In March, we celebrated a big milestone birthday for my lovely mother Cindy. Since December, I had been combing through mom's phone and ipad contacts as well as email and facebook friends asking for all those who loved, knew worked with or went to church with mom to write her a letter for her bday! I had wanted her to have 60 letters to open on her birthday, but I think I actually got around 65!.

We also booked a surprise party for her at the new orleans themed restaurant in MEmphis, Owen Brennan's. Along with friends, and family, coworkers and her kids we totally surprised mom!! She thought she was going to dinner with some of her girl friends aka the "Grannies gone Wild" crew!

When she arrived she had no idea that 35 or so of her extended family and friends were huddled in a room waiting to yell "Surprise!" we had family from Birmingham, Grenada, Nashville, Florence and Tuscaloosa! Alot of her coworkers were there as well. It was such a blast and we had a slideshow of photos from childhood to present of mom, a lovely three tiered green ombre cake, and of course the letters for mom! We also had some kitchen towels made from scanned images of my grandmother's handwritten recipes printed on fabric! It was worth every bit of work and money we spent to see mom's expression, she was utterly shocked and very emotional which I didnt expect! We then went to Hickory Flat and stayed with my whole immediate family together at my grandad's old house and then we all went to mom and dad's church with them that Sunday which mom said was her best gift of all!

Mom's highschool portrait and her lovely cake by Delights 4 U

As you can see, she was shocked and emotional! Success!!

My great Uncle "Unk" (88) joined in the fun and was the life of the party!!

 

Brooks finally had his very first haircut! He hasn't needed one until now because he was so bald for so long, but right after his 2nd bday we went to the best place for little boy haircuts, Sport Clips! My sheryl who cuts Cam's hair did a great job, and he was a perfect subject until the hair dryer came out at the end of the cut to blow the cut pieces off his neck. His lower lip puckered out and I knew the tears were about to flow:( He was great though and after the scary hairdryer went away, he was fine and he loved the balloon and sucker treat at the end :)

 

I went to visit with some of my girlfriends from college a few weeks ago and it was a wonderful time. My friend Courtney (who we went to her wedding in Puerto Rico 2 years ago and I hadn't seen since!) was coming to New Orleans from her home in LA with her 4 month old the lovely Maxine and we have a friend Whitney who was also a Tri Delta with us who lives in Jackson and our other great friend Kelley all met up at Whitney's home near Jackson, MS. Whitney, even though she was very pregnant with twins (34 weeks exactly) offered her home and we all grabbed dinner with a few other girls who lived in the area which was great since I hadn't seen several of them since college! We had a ball and stayed up talking until 2:00 in the morning!

My Beautiful friend Kelley and the lovely Maxine!

All the girls at dinner

Courtney makes a gorgeous mommy!

Whitney a few days before having twins! looks great, Right?!

Whitney's little 22 month old made sure we were entertained and not going to sleep in too late :) It was so so fun and we're already trying to plan something else where we can all get together! It must have been a little too exciting for our pregnant friend Whitney because we left on Sunday and she had the twins that Tuesday!

Everything went perfectly and two healthy baby boys (Eli & Davis) were born to her and her husband John and big brother Porter. So excited for them!!

 

 

Christmas pics part 2- Brownwood Christmas, NYE, and other January happenings

We then made our way over to Brownwood to see the Hilbuns and the Schulle clan.
First was Maylene's Christmas where we had our annual enchiladas that never disappoint! And gifts to open.

checking out what big brother got...

 

We usually have some sort of milestone birthday to celebrate and this year was no exception, we celebrated Pam's 60th birthday by wearing tacky Christmas sweaters and playing some games. It was so fun. The weather was nice so we celebrated outside and Joan had placed some sweaters hanging around the porch as directions. Well, halfway through the party a Hispanic family pulled up because they saw the clothes and all the carsand thought we were having a yard sale. Haha! We laughed and laughed it was true Schulle style. I said "you might be a redneck, if your birthday party gets mistaken for a yard sale!" We did have our dirty santa gift exchange which was always fun.

The "yard sale" party! haha!

 It was great to spend time with 2 of Trey's grandparents and his aunts, uncles and cousins and new baby cousin Gracie (Blair's baby).

JoJo and Brooks in their ugly Christmas sweaters

 Cousin Blair checking out Brooks new cars

Charlene (Trey's grandmother) and her sister Aunt Pam (birthday girl) wiggin' out!

Pam and all her gifts!

 

We played several games that we had found on Pinterest that were hilarious. One of them you had to put a christmas cookie on your head and try to get it to your mouth without using your hands. These pics are hysterical!!

Uncle Craige's was one of my favorites!

I think Rene was the only one who was actually successful!

 Uncle, Uncle Gene with Brooks and Kobe (Trey's cousins wife's grandson)

Leigh Anne and Uncle Gene with baby Gracie

Pam talking to her oldest son, I just love her expression!

Gene and Blair opening gifts

 

Trey taking the boys around the property

Our ugly Christmas attire:)

Sweet baby Gracie:)

Brooks loved having someone his own size to play with!

All the guys at pam's 60th bday party

Trey with his grandmother and lovely aunts

Everyone dressed up including Trey's grandad!

Grandad Schulle watching the boys open gifts

inseperable!

 

We then celebrated Christmas with my side of the family at my house and it was a great time as well. My mom and I went overboard on everything as usual and the boys were spoiled rotten. Mom stayed with us Christmas eve and got to be there Christmas morning to see the boys reaction to their gifts. This year was a struggle for Camden who really was more worried about how many gifts he received instead of what he got. He would have been happy just opening a million small packages than playing with his big toys. We are going to have to work on this.

My attempt at cool photography, I had to refer to an online tutorial to get this to work and it still didn't turn out like the pic online...

 

The boys Christmas morning checking out the Santa "loot"

Brooks loved his Ernie doll:)

some of the gifts I ordered alot of stuff from etsy this year to make everything a little more fancy :)

our tree and the massive amount of gifts the kids (and we) had to open...

Walker and Camden showing off their cameras they got from CeCe

 Also, Camden  thinks Santa is the end all be all and does not revere Jesus in the same light. Another thing Trey and I will have to work on with both boys and show them Jesus is the reason for the season and to garner the same amount of respect and love for Him that they have for the elusive Mr. Claus :) We then went over to James & Joans for their christmas celebration.

 We always have tamales and chili that is their tradition and again all of us were spoiled. We have a $10 gift limit for the adults, but of course most of us don't abide by that so it still gets out of hand! The boys got entirely too much and we were in a gift coma that evening when we left. This was the first year that I have been in the medical field that I did not have to work any holidays! My chiro job is closed on major holidays and the hospital jobs I got to pick and choose my orientation dates, so I dont expect to not work any in the future, but for this year works for me!

Mom and Dad kept the boys for us New Years and we went out to eat with some good friends at Mesquite Chophouse which was really fun! We had a great time and then went to his bosses party where they shot fireworks and celebrated the countdown.

My good friend Abby and our delicious dessert for New Years

Trey and I on our 12th New Years together:)

Other minor things in December, Trey, Tracy & her boyfriend Kyle and I got some tickets to the Grizzlies vs Mavericks game & even got to sit in a box! It was really fun. Before the game, Trey and I enjoyed a dinner given to us by my ER boss at Folk's Folly, we ordered the "tomahawk" steak that was a bone in ribeye out of this world!! It looked like something off the flintstones!!

Thank you Dr. Carr!

Tracy (my sister) and I at the Grizzlies suite

The other main events of the month have been the FLU.

A collage of our flu fighting efforts and Brooks "sick"

Thats right even though all but one of us (ahem Trey) got the vaccine Brooks came down with it first. He was sick for a litle bit, but I didn't think he had the flu I thought it was more about his ears again. But the school called me and he had a fever of 103 so I ran him to our pediatricians office where by that time the motrin had kicked in and he was cutting up as usual. The Dr. said well, lets test him for flu bc alot of kids have looked like this and have tested positive. I thought it was a longshot, but to my surprise he was positive for flu! So we started using precautions like lysoling everything, alcohol sanitizing like mad people, kept camden secluded to his room and washed every linen in the house as well as wore our homemade masks made from bandanas :) But 2 days later, trey got it. Chest congestion, fevers up to 104.8, fatigue, chills the whole nine. Brooks was bouncing around like normal the next day but Trey's been sick for over a week. I am theorizing that since he had the shot, maybe his immune system was better prepared where as Trey's was not. I think it has convinced him to get the shot from here on out! Other than that, we have been helping with Leigh Anne's wedding plans, I'm planning a shower for her in June and Brooks' birthday party in a few weeks. I'm very excited for all of it and have been working out quite a bit as well. Trey and I have been doing the Insanity workouts several times a week and I have been doing couch to 5k 3 times a week. Im not seeing any crazy results yet, but I have lost several pounds and my clothes are definitely looser. Trey of course looks awesome, more muscle definition and smaller clothes size. Work is going well for him. His team won the excellence sales cup 5 times in arow and his salesman Terry won Salesman of the Year and Trey won Manager of the Year at their last meeting. He was actually more excited about Terry than his own award. He talked about it for several weeks leading up and would have been really upset if he didn't win bc Terry specifically told Trey he wanted to win and Trey had been grooming and helping him to the victory. I'm so proud of Trey, he deserves it. He is truly the hardest working man I've ever seen. Love you!!