a few more festivities, a few more friends and a new favorite hobbie

what else happened during this holiday season?!

well, i failed to mention that when i returned from viewing the lights at the motor speedway with the gals, i came home to find a marker in the middle of the living room, without the top. i know that i didn't leave it that way-my markers are treasure to me! so that left bruno or chaco-i looked everywhere to try to locate the cap, and didn't see it anywhere. but there was a tiny shred of green plastic in chaco's facial hair...grr...could he have really?? i mean he did do some damage to the red papermate not too long ago... although i wasn't too worried, i went to bed, and then at about 3am, i couldn't sleep, and i ended up looking on animal web md...found something to make chaco throw up, in case he had eaten the thing. so i actually got up, got dressed and went in search of canned pumpkin to make this concoction...i finally ended up at walmart, where i should've just gone in the first place (although, in my defense the 7-11 has had it in the past..about 5 years ago, but still)...got home, made this stuff, fed him (so i had to give bruno some pumpkin, because if chaco eats, bruno has to). and then in about half hour, i was up cleaning after chaco-looking for green bits of marker cap. this happened about 7-9 times, no marker. i'm an idiot. we went all day with no problems, then he was doing it again the following evening, so we went in to the vet-xrays for both of the boys-nothing, (bruno's was just to check his leg for lameness) but they did discover that although there was no marker top, chaco did have a slight case of pancreatitis, and we got some prescription food for him. they love the canned stuff, and it seemed to help calm his tummy (he's had issues with the vomiting before-but i never really thought anything of it, because it would pass...don't want everyone thinking it's bc i gave him some pumpkin crap!). 

i hated going out to get this!!!

and so he rested with me the following day, while i was doing work-ish stuffs!

well, then, my friend bmayes came down to do some Christmas-y-dallas-y stuff one weekend. she was going to an early dinner with one of her small-group gals, and she actually ended up going to walk another girl's dog-which, all said and done, i think she was back around 10:30-11-ish, and we still drove around to look at lights near park and midway. they were beautiful, and the estates are enormous!

this HUGE lit tree was so beautiful!

and of course, chaco, waiting to see if there was going to be any more fun that evening!

the following day, we ended up getting in one event-the george w bush presidential library at smu, as they had a Christmas display. we almost didn't find parking because our outing just so happened to coincide with the smu graduation. oops. it was pretty cool, and i've been meaning to get over there for quite some time now! anyhoo, b had to get out of town shortly after that (wanted in several states, trying to keep in front of the law..oh, wait not her, that's someone else i know)...she had to get home before the weather in norman got bad! this was the day that it was 70 at about 11am, and by 7pm it was down in the 30s. half-day of spring to winter...it was great.

because it's all business in the oval office!

and the following evening after the cowboys played a stellar game, kristi, an old friend from HONDURAS happened to be passing through, and got to stay with me and we stayed up late catching up, and the following morning got to do more catching up before she took off around noon. truly i do love catching up with old friends! not much has changed apart from new experiences! seems like just yesterday that we were playing water-war games in the empty lots around the neighborhood, climbing up the water-tower and playing beach volleyball! #timestandsstill....

good times with this kid!! (i must have been about to say something, i look silly)

i got a text from nicolette asking what was going on tuesday p.m. and she text back that we were going to medieval times! she was the lucky winner of 4 tickets on instagram! so tickets had to be used! we met up and got the greatest paper crowns in the kingdom- red and gold! the food-always phenomenal, and while i didn't get much of a chance to catch up with olivia-all the way on the other end, it was fun just to be there! our knight was handsome in his own way, until i began imagining him with a man-bun.. he did not win the princess' hand though. he did throw a flower my way, but it was just a little short, and i didn't jump for it...the little girl in front of me picked it up to give it to me, but i told her to give it to her sister, the birthday girl. and afterward, nicolette and i ran some errands because she had some gifts that needed to be rounded up. unfortunately we weren't able to find all the necessities, so i was able to find some gift boxes from lush that made the cut..crisis averted, the team was getting more than last-minute gas-station sunglasses and a diet coke! we met later that evening, as i was leaving the next day.

yum! eating with no utensils always makes the food more delicious!

fun times! which one of these girls has no toilet paper at their place? hint: i do!

our handsome knight! quite adept with his tools of the trade!

throughout the week, i received fun stuff from our boss-team and hr! it was like Christmas all week long!! very fun, very unexpected and very appreciated!

so very thoughtful!

thursday i was taking off for missouri, so after packing everything, i made a stop at the vet on the way out, to pick up pain meds for bruno's leg, and they seem to be working great...and she called to tell me that his blood tests were normal, so we have the green light to schedule his surgery!

love going to mom and dad's! while i was there, i got to make a detour down to branson to see trish (so often, she's not there), so it was great to sit with her and enjoy conversation! one of my mentors, and a dear friend-only wish she didn't live so far away..it only means that the occasional random times that we do get the opportunity to hang out is that much more precious!

fortunately the weather was nice enough to do some target practice that afternoon! i haven't gotten much of a chance to go target shooting around here, so i love it that dad has set up a great spot.

we did Christmas, gift exchange and such, then we had a shortened morning service at church. after that we picked up a young man who used to go to our church up in iowa, and is now living near mom and dad. he did lunch with us, and then dad dropped him back off at his place, and mom and i continued picking up pecans! yes, they have a pecan tree, and there were so many pecans on the ground-it was like looking for easter eggs!! then we watched some football! go chiefs!!

and we will most likely be using one of these photos for next year's Christmas card!

and my new favorite pass-time over the break became 'pecan-shelling'! i've become quite good at extracting full halves. it's like a game now...so soothing, so calming, such a great meditation-al device! apart from the blister-inducing devices. so now i have a great little nut-cracking-callous on my pinky finger. nice.

i didn't mention it, but as i stopped at the tx rest area on the way home, i was stretching the boys' legs, and we saw some people gathering something from under the tree, so i went to ask if them was pecans they were gathering, and i think the man was very hesitant, as he thought i might be encroaching on his territory and a perceived threat (we encounter that when searching for shark teeth quite often)...no worries, mr! i got two bagfuls in my cah--get over it!

and that takes us to the uneventful drive home, the day after Christmas. uneventful.
finishing out EOY vacations next,

julie