Short and sweet!!

We made it down to Columbia to visit with Sarah, Dan, and Laura earlier this week!! I slept for a bit on Monday morning and then we headed down. Their house looks great!! Pat and I had both never made it down. It was fun to see all the remodeling and updates!! Dinner that night was fabulous!! (I find myself craving home cooked meals lately!!)
Sarah has grown so much!! She is so cute!! We all got the chance to catch up and drink some margaritas ;)!! The next day we went to get Shakespeares pizza (love it) and stopped by the bookstore on campus for a few things. We left Tuesday late afternoon. It was a short trip but thats all the free time we have had lately!! We have been dying to get down there while Laura has been on maternity leave. She goes back on Weds next week!! Time sure does fly by!! It will be hard but I'm sure her and the baby will adjust nicely to their new schedule!!
Congrats to them for selling Laura's home!! When I find out more details about the closing date I'll post details!!!
Later this weekend I'm hoping to get the chance to post some photos!!!

YAY!!!!

Pat can drive again!!!!
He went to his eye appointment today and everything looks great!! He won't be able to see perfectly until he gets a contact lens but they said that if he feels comfortable he can now ease into driving!!
I'm so excited!!! He got to take me to dinner tonight before I came to work!!! I wanted to take a picture!! :)
Our rule is he is not to drive at night until his window tint is removed!! Other than that if he feels comfortable he can go for it!!! Congratulations to Patrick, he's been dying to get his car out!!! Mwah!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Since it is rare that Pat and I are ever off on a holiday together, we decided to go to the St Patty's Day parade!! Everyone threw on their green and we headed downtown!!It was fun, the parade wasn't much to brag about!! Hardly any floats!!! The best one was the women with the rascal made into a potato!!! Anyway, ran into some friends and had a good time!!!!

Heading out!!

Puppy in his green!!
Met up with Michelle and Ashleigh at the parade!!

Met up with Erica and drank some green beer!!!


Pat and I in westport!!


The chick in the potato!!

7 weeks out on Wednesday!!

Pat is really doing awesome. Wednesday is the 7 week marker of recovery from his second surgery!! It's amazing that it has been that long already!! Next step is getting a contact so he can see out of it!!! Hopefully, then he'll be driving!!

The basement looks great with the new paint job!! I only helped with taping, Pat did all the rest!! The gray will really compliment all of his sports decor!! It really makes the windows and the trim work pop too!! We love it!!







While painting, Pat had the window cracked and at night all the critters got cold and huddled up together on the heated blanket!! I love this photo!!









Dex is sure enjoying the warmer weather!! He loves to lay in the sunlight!!!
Puppy got a new little ducky this week, he destroyed the last one!! Hope everyone has a good week!!

Adding a little color!!

We finally came to a compromise and decided to paint the basement!! After helping Erica and Nick do some painting in their new home the other night, we got the itch to make our home feel a bit more personalized!!!A quick Happy Birthday to Nick!!! Once we get it up on the wall, I'll post some pics!! We have so much trim in that house, taping is a chore!!! It will probably be a slow progress!!! I am working nights this weekend and Pat is currently pretty preoccupied with the Big 12 tournament!! (Tough life for him right now!!)
His eye is healing well, the pressure is still up but until he is off of his steroids it will probably remain there. At least, he is staying comfortable on his eye drops. Hopefully he can get a contact for that eye soon and will be able to see properly!!!
My mom is doing awesome post surgery!! She is now back to driving!! We couldn't be more happy for her!!
I am just counting down the days to summer!!! Dexter and I can't wait for some warm weather!!! We love to get outside and go for long walks!! I really want to get some fresh air!! I find myself just rolling down the window occasionally!! The weather has been such a tease lately, I loved all of the rain~ good sleep and just the smell after rain is so refreshing!!
I'm ready for springtime!!!

At a steady pace...

Pat's appointment went really well yesterday!!! I'm so glad b/c I don't think we can handle any more bad news!!! He has lost a lot of periphery at the top from the laser that they did, it builds up a lot of scar tissue. He was actually able to see the big E, though it was fuzzy!!! Really exciting!! We haven't made it this far with the gas slowly going away!! I find myself holding my breath when the doctor starts to look in his eye until he says everything looks good!!! I think he noticed yesterday :). I can't wait for Pat to be able to drive again!! I feel terrible that he just mopes around the house all day when I am sleeping. I have been working as much overtime as possible lately!! 60hours every other week! and 48 in between! Basically they have talked about going to working 36 and getting paid for 40, I would lose a ton of overtime opportunities with that because weekdays get pretty full!! No matter what...May 28th, when that pool opens I am done with the overtime!!! :)

Many have asked lately about Pat and his career search now that he's feeling better. Not much out there is all that I can say. I email jobs I find to apply for and he has done searching on his own. Basically you apply for everything that you can find and wait for the phone to ring!! Not a whole lot of ringing going on!!

Really its not even discouraging right now!! I am so much more concerned with his health than his career!! The money that he makes from unemployment goes straight to his cobra and I have been paying the rest. Really I have to count my blessings everyday that I work in the field that I do and that we haven't been strapped for cash at all through this ordeal!! We haven't even touched the emergency fund!!

So for all of those worriers out there, we are doing great!! I love getting to see him everyday!! This schedule has really brought us so much more closer together!! We can't wait to get married!! :)

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!
My sister Erica and her fiance Nick are now homeowners!!! They closed on their 1st home on Thursday!!! Everyone is very excited for them!! They are closer to me now, just off of Barry Rd and I-29!!! :) Now we get to fix it up just the way they want it!!!

I picked up Erica's dress on Wednesday!!! It's so pretty!! The wedding plans are coming together!! Too exciting!!!

Everyone in the family is good and doing well!!! Stay safe in all this snow!!