December Recap

Whew! December has FLOWN by and I just did not get a chance to sit down and blog. Okay, that's not totally true. I started a blog post 3 different times but never finished it. Oh well. Better late than never. Here is a recap of our December.

Surprisingly, December felt NOTHING like December in DC. We had weather in the 60s most days and the son was nice and shiny. One of the things I was looking forward to when we moved up north was the white Christmas I've been dreaming about my entire life. 2010 and 2011 did not fulfill that dream, so here's hoping for 2012!!!

With the less than wintery weather and how tired I was after losing my appendix, I did not end up putting out our Christmas tree this year. In fact, I didn't put up a single Christmas at all. Not one. That's sad... I know. Probably not as sad as the fact that I still had a pumpkin out on my porch as a decoration until December 17th. Oh well. We were pretty focused on our finals and then left town, so it wasn't really worth putting them out for only 2 weeks.

I DID however, do lots of Christmas baking! From salted caramel candies to divinity to truffles to cookies, I made all sorts of good stuff.

I sent in a tray of assorted goodies to both Caleb and my offices that became known as the Osborne Sampler (which I think is hilarious!).

I also made everyone in both of our offices Christmas goodies in small mason jars as their Christmas presents. There were individual apple pies and chocolate peppermint fudge cupcakes. How cute are these? They took me longer than I wanted so I didn't get to make cute tags to go on the top.... but there's always next year!

I also discovered, sadly, that Caleb and I only took 4 pictures together in the entire year of 2011. I decided to send out a Christmas card for the first time and thought it would be a fabulous idea until I discovered our lack of pictures. Here were my choices:

So, as you can imagine, I chose this one. I believe one of my New Years Resolutions will be for us to take more pictures together.

I also had a garden miracle! I posted a few months ago about planting a garden on my patio. My herbs and flowers generally did fantastic in the early fall. While my veggie plants shot up really quickly, they never actually produced vegetables. I grew lettuce, cabbages, cauliflower and broccoli. I was so mad at them that about November 1st I gave up and refused to water them anymore. If they weren't going to make me vegetables than they could just die. However, my plants are more hard-headed than me and refused to die! I went out on the balcony the day before we were going to head home for the holidays to yank them up and kill them myself once and for all and what did I find.....

I was so mad! Here I am leaving town for 3 weeks and I now have vegetables. Probably because December decided to have October-like weather. Hopefully they survived while I've been gone. We'll see here in a few days...

Caleb and I both successfully completed our final exams. I am now 3/4 of the way to my Masters and Caleb is 1/2 of a lawyer. So far I found out that I made all A's (yay!) and we are still waiting to hear back on Caleb's grades. Apparently it takes FOREVER for law school teachers to grade exams. Oh well. We are not worrying about those for now.

We celebrated Caleb's 27th birthday before we left DC! And he has officially gone Apple. I got him an Iphone for his birthday present and he is fully enjoying Siri and the ability to check your facebook no matter where you are. We went to a nice dinner on his birthday and then headed home early to pack our bags for home! When we packed up that morning, Scarlett was so afraid that we were going to leave her that she snuck in the garage, jumped in the car and burrowed between the bags. Essentially, she tried to stow herself away. It was hilarious. Too bad she didn't blend in as well as she thought....

We left DC at 5am and made it to Little Rock by 930 that night, including many stops for gas/food and an extended stop in Memphis to visit with our friends the Thompsons and their BEAUTIFUL baby girl. I can't believe how much kids grow while we are away. This was Rhett Butler's first long road trip home and she did okay... for the most part. She really hates the car and has been especially grumpy the last two weeks before we came home because she got spayed. I thought I was smart and gave her a dose (perhaps a double dose) of benadryl. It worked on Scarlett- she was out like a light. Rhett, however, felt like screaming in the back of the car for the first hour that we drove, which was awesome. She settled down eventually and only threw a few small tantrums.

We spent the night in Little Rock and then surprised our niece Ellie with donuts on her birthday the next morning. Then we loaded up and headed on to Dallas where we spent a week baking, shopping, going to stars games and eating meal after meal of Mexican food. I think my family was glad when our week there was up so they could eat something other than Mexican food.

This was our year to spend Christmas with my family, so we did our traditional Christmas Eve with my grandparents and aunt, Christmas morning with just my family, and then extended family lunch. It was so nice to be home. We got some really amazing presents this year: Caleb furthered his Apple collection and got an ipad, I got a bluray player and a new phone, and the dogs got lots of treats and bones.

After a week in Dallas, we headed up to Little Rock to spend a week with Caleb's family. We have played and played and played with the kids (my poor dogs are going to sleep for a month when they get home), we baked some more, celebrated a few birthdays and spent a lot of time laughing. Caleb and I joke that when we are in Dallas, I visit and he relaxes and when we are in Little Rock he visits and I relax. This year has been different for some reason. We have been going NON-STOP at both of our homes to see and do as much as we can do. We realize that we don't get to come home very much and once we are out of school we won't get to spend entire weeks at home, so we want to enjoy every moment that we can! Sorry for the lack of Little Rock pics... I lost my camera in one of our bags for a few days....

For New Years Eve we spent time with our friends the Harris' and FINALLY got to meet their first little boy AND their precious newborn baby boy. We have really missed them and loved getting to spend New Years Eve laughing with friends.

Now we only have 1 more day in the true South before we head north to the land of no mexican food, really cold and dark winters, and more school..... Oh well. We have really enjoyed being home. OH! I almost forgot. Caleb got me an AMAZING new camera for Christmas, so hopefully I will be able to post blogs with more/better pictures. Or... I will as soon as I figure out how to use it. It's so nice! And confusing!!!

Check back soon for my reflections on 2011 and new years resolutions!

An Appendix to Remember

Well.... this month went nothing like planned. I was supposed to work 3 days a week each week, go to school including giving a presentation on South Sudan and turning in 2 papers, bake lots of goodies for work and school parties and enjoy a Thanksgiving feast with multiple sets of friends. Oh ya, and do lots of Christmas shopping and genuinely enjoy the start of the holiday season.

In reality... the Wednesday morning  the week before Thanksgiving I woke up not feeling real great and considered calling in to work , but I had a pretty big project due, so I took some tylenol and drug myself into work. After lunch, I started to really not feel good and was pretty sick to my stomach. By the time I got to school for my big Sudan presentation that evening, I was feel so bad that I had Caleb come pick me up and started calling after hours urgent care centers. We were trying to avoid ERs since I really thought it was a stomach bug or food poisoning and didn't want to pay ER fees.

We drove around for more than an hour in the pouring rain trying to find an open urgent care center. Apparently having posted hours means nothing to businesses up here. At one office that was supposed to be open until 7:30, at 7:18 there was a sign on the door that said "we reserve the right to close early if we have reached capacity." Really? What is the point of being an AFTER HOUR, URGENT EMERGENCY care office if you close early? I don't get it.... But that is not the point.

Eventually we found a place in Arlington. After filling out some paperwork and watching about 45 minutes of Tora, Tora, Tora they took me to the back. Unfortunately, in the time we had been waiting, the pain had shifted from my whole stomach, to my lower right abdomen.... and we all knew what that meant. The doctor didn't have to look at me long before she told us to get to the nearest ER, and quickly. We were pretty surprised and flustered. It was already 9pm and neither Caleb nor I had been home since 730 in the morning, we were in our business clothes, the dogs were still locked up and we hadn't eaten dinner. Caleb took me to the ER to get me checked in and left to go get us clothes, get him food, and let my poor dogs out.

By the time he got back at 10, I had a full work up in the ER and had chugged my 2 glasses of contrast for a catscan. Which was then proceeded by an ultrasound and yet another cat scan, and blood work. All of this took place while I was drugged with the ER's strongest narcotic. By 4am we did not have good news. My tests were inconclusive. It did not look like appendicitis, ovarian cyst, bowel obstruction, or anything else they could think of. All we knew was that I was in agonizing pain so the ER admitted me to the hospital up to the 5th floor surgery wing.

The 5th floor was not the kindest to me. They continued to prod around on my increasingly painful stomach, draw more blood, pump me full of painkillers and tell me they had no answers. Okay, no answers is not exactly true. For 24 hours I listened to the doctor tell me that there was no way I had appendicitis and that I was overexaggerating the pain. That just made me mad. At one point the pain in my stomach was so bad I could barely get back into my bed. Embarrassing to admit, but I was sobbing and the doctor looked at me and goes "what do you want me to do about it?" I wanted to say a whole lot of things that were not nice or worth typing up on the blog, but my response was "I want you to do your job and make it stop!" After complaining to the nursing staff and management about my oh so rude doctor, we got several more opinions from different hospital departments. From about 2pm until 8pm, a parade of doctors and specialists came through my room and each one told me that I had appendicitis. BUT, the jerk surgeon maintained that my cat scan from the ER 24 hours ago proved I didn't. In the meantime, the pain continued to increase. Finally we were able to convince my doctor's boss (the actual attending) to consider surgery. I basically told him that it had to be worth at least taking a look? So began my late night surgery.

I went into surgery at 10 and was back in my room by 1am without my appendix : ) I don't like to gloat, but I WAS RIGHT! When they got in there, my appendix looked terrible so they took it out. Of course, I learned this from the nurse the next morning because the doctors were too chicken to come admit they had been wrong and let me suffer for so long! By 930 the next morning, the hospital was already talking about discharging me. Caleb had to go to work for a few hours, so two sweet girls from church came and kept me company for a few hours. We packed up, were discharged, and I was home by 230. And so my 72 hours in the hospital came to an end.

Caleb and I have been joking that it felt like we were there alot longer than 72 hours. Probably the all-nighter in the ER and the late-night surgery threw off our sense of time. I'm not sure who is happier that I'm home, me or my dogs. They are both  curled up together next to me and wouldn't leave my side. I think they were better medicine than the painkillers the hospital gave me.

Our church was so nice to us - they came to visit us and brought us dinner for almost a week. I was pretty worried at first about what we were going to do having a crisis with our families so far away. Our church has really stepped in to fill that gap. They prayed for us, brought us food, checked up on us. I'm not sure what we would have done without them.

The recovery has been WAY tougher than I would have thought. For a week I could barely get myself off of the couch - which gave me a great opportunity to catch up on movies and read Stieg Larrson's Millenium trilogy - fantastic books by the way. I went back to the doctor last week and he gave me the all clear - except that I can't exercise (bummer) and can't pick up heavy things.

I am starting to feel better and went back to work and class last week - although it almost killed me. I am starting to feel better and the pain has almost gone but my energy just isn't back yet. I spent last Thursday running a few errands and Christmas shopping and I spent all day Friday sleeping it off.

So, needless to say, this has been a November to forget. I've done nothing that I wanted to get accomplished and definitely did not enjoy my Thanksgiving. Oh well. You can only lose your appendix once :) That being said, I am now looking forward to truly enjoy my December. So far. So good.

I have one more week of school and I am done for the semester! I have 2 more papers to write, but I think I've got them both under control. Thanks to Amazon.com I have just about finished my Christmas shopping. Let's not talk about wrapping.... ask me in a few weeks. The best part is that we GET TO COME HOME IN 2 WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are both really looking forward to getting away for a few weeks. Plus, this will be Rhett Butler's first trip to Arkansas and Texas!

In the Garden: Ladies Tea

Last weekend was our church's annual Ladies Tea. They advertised it for month, but I didn't sign up. It was the middle of a Saturday afternoon and I didn't really know anybody going, and it cost money, so I avoided the sign-up ladies. Wellllll that all caught up to me at my Bible study 2 weeks ago. Each week we have one "lesson" on how to be a nice hostess, and that week's lesson was on etiquette. During our presentation, it came out that I had my own china AND that the tea was short on hostesses. They assured me that it would be easy, all I needed to do was have a centerpiece and show up with my china. A combination of encouragement from the pastor's wife and the fact that I can't say no to anyone and suddenly not only was I attending the tea, but I was hosting a table.

Two days after I signed up for my minimal participation, I received the 3 page hostess handbook via email. Turns out I was supposed to have china, silver, crystal, and a whole bunch of other nice things AND my table should have a decorative theme. STRESS! I was stressed, first, because I'm probably the least creative person in the universe. Seriously, it's true. Second, I don't have silver or crystal. Third, we don't exactly have alot of spare money sitting around for me to spend on decorating a table.

So I immediately did what any girl would do.... I made two S.O.S phone calls - one to my mom and one to my mother in law. They were both FANTASTIC! I'm not sure what I would have done without them. My mom sent me a box full of cute fall decorations for me to borrow, and my mother in law sent me ideas and pictures of cute things to do. In the end I didn't use any of either of their ideas.... (sorry guys!)... but they definitely helped set me on the right track.

My first important decision was deciding whether to use my own china or my great grandma Thelma's. Mine is nice, white with a platinum edge, and it has never been used. My great grandma's china is white with a gold rim and it has green and yellow flowers. It is used, but I love it for the sentimental value. So I had to decide which would be more meaningful to use at the tea. The theme of the tea was, "In the Garden: Spiritual Lessons from the Garden." In my mind, china with flowers on it sounded perfect. And thus, my spring garden themed table emerged.

Instead of having a beautiful serving bowl for my teas, I used a birds nest. Instead of serving platters, I used wicker baskets covered in napkins. Instead of buying a vase, I used my watering can and instead of a real bouquet, I used all of the fake flowers I had around the apartment (and added a few from the sale rack at Michaels).

I've also discovered lately that I have a true love for baking. I LOVE baking and Caleb jokes that I am the happiest when I'm in the kitchen. People at work (who blame me for gaining weight because of all the goodies I feed them) ask me whether I've chosen the write career path in international affairs instead of cooking. Ha! Anyways, I decided that instead of spending alot of money on stuff for my table that I will probably never use again, I decided to bake my decorations! I took small flowering pots and baked brownies in them to look like dirt, then I used pretzel rods and different colors of melting chocolate to mold into flowers to look like flowers in my brownie pots.

I also made apple cupcakes with a caramel filling decorated to actually look like apples in a basket for my ladies to take home as souvenirs.

I also made root beer cupcakes with toasted coconut on top then nested a marshmellow peep on top with a few speckled jelly beans to look like bird eggs and then set the cupcake on the top of a mason jar so it looked like a real birds nest up in my flower arrangement. It turned out awesome!

Okay, well I can't really take credit for everything. As I panicked about 11pm the night before the tea, the best husband in the entire world came to the rescue. Not only was he willing to taste all of my baked decorations, he also made every single one of my homemade napkin rings and all of my place setting cards AND he painted my awesome birdhouses.

The day of the tea was wonderful. I got to the church about 10 am and spent the next 3 hours frantically setting up. At first when people looked at my piece of fabric from walmart used as my table cloth and my watering can with fake flowers, they gave me that pity "oh how nice" and "the color blue is beautiful." But as I started pulling it all together, my table really looked awesome and people started to change their tune. I definitely had the best table and people were shocked that it was my first time ever decorating a table.

The ladies at my tea were so nice. The pastor's wife sat at my table (talk about pressure!), her son's girlfriend who is here temporarily from Colombia, the girl in charge of youth girls (a friend from Bible study), three sweet old ladies, and a Russian woman who didn't speak English. She introduced herself and said she was sorry she could not speak English. I introduced myself back in Russian and started a conversation to find out more about her. The lady who brought her got choked up and told me how happy she was. She told me that Svetlana was very nervous about coming because she would not be able to communicate. What were the chances that she would be at MY table? She really was the sweetest babooshka and when she left she gave me a big hug, two kisses on the cheeks and told me (in Russian) that she was SO glad to have met such a kind, creative, generous and intelligent young Christian woman who spoke Russian. What a blessing! There was clearly a reason that I got roped into hosting that table - and I honestly believe it was to spend those 2 hours with Svetlana.

The ladies were all nice, my table received rave reviews, the speaker was absolutely amazing, but I will always remember my first tea because of Svetlana. As a grandmother herself, she LOVED that I had used my own grandmother's china. It all came full circle!

Luckily cleanup was easy since I could pawn my baked decorations off on everyone else. I told Caleb that it was a great experience and I would probably do it again, but I was so glad it was over. Next year someone remind me to plan ahead and not sign up with only a week to pull it all together!

Wanted: Dead or Alive

We've never really been big halloween celebrators. This year our friends Brooke and Karlo from Sunday School invited us to a murder mystery dinner party. We've never done one before but it sounded like fun, so I signed us up... without telling/asking Caleb. Okay, that's not totally true. I told him a month ago when I committed us, but we both pretty much forgot until the week of when it came time to create our costumes.
For anyone who hasn't played in a murder mystery party before, basically there is a scene and everyone is given a character to play. You eat and play your role and at some point a murder takes place, then the survivors have to figure out who did it. It was a little complicated, but still pretty fun!

Our murder mystery took place in Gravestone, Arizona. It was made up of all sorts of crazy Western characters, including Wavy Willy Bronchus, Abby Oakley, Suzanne B. Anthony, Doc Galaday, James Jessie, Calamity Janie, and Hutch Cassaday, and over course, the Pinkertons.

I should back up and say that last Saturday was the first REALLY cold day we've had up here. In fact.... it snowed!! If you look carefully in the pics you can see how big the flakes are.

Usually, I would have been excited. But, my role for the party was Katie Fishman, a lasso-roping saloon waitress who is a good girl having trouble staying on the right side of the law.

The outfit was awesome, until I had to walk half a mile through the snow in this outfit. I'm afraid some of Brooke and Karlo's neighbors thought I was a not so classy person...

However, as much as I loved my costume, Caleb's was AWESOME! I'm still not sure he's forgiven me for making him where his outfit. Meet Virgo Arp, a former Union soldier who is now a U.S. Marshall out in Arizona. Unfortunately, he was shot in the arm yesterday...

While we were enjoying our dinner and chatting it up with the other characters, unfortunately Wavy Willy was found dead, which was pretty unfortunate for me since we were childhood sweethearts AND he was the one who shot Virgo. So.... we were both suspects

 Luckily, in the end, it wasn't us... it was that wylie Abby Oakley who didn't appreciate Wavy Willy insulting her gun skills and killed him for it! Overall, we had a FANTASTIC time:

 The Pinkertons... I thought they were the murderers and were in it for the gold!

 Virgo and Katie!

 All of the Arp family

 Katie and her boyfriend Doc Galaday (in reality, this is my friend Karlo. He's from El Salvador and when we were talking about that I was from Texas, he asked me if I ate armadillos... I was like, um, no, they are nasty creatures usually found dead and run over on the side of the road. Well... except for the one my dad has stuffed on his shelf... but turns out that in El Salvador armadillo is eaten and he loves it. Ew! So, mom and dad, if you happen to see armadillo anywhere, feel free to send me one. Karlo will cook it for me!)

 The wild west show gang

The whole group!

And that was how we celebrated Halloween this year! Of course, I can't post without giving you a pic of these precious faces

Scarlett is teaching Rhett to lay on the clean laundry. She has also taught her some bad habits, which is why both the dogs start obedience school this week! We are hoping that Scarlett makes it all the way through without getting kicked out for being a disruption this time. We are just hoping Rhett learns something, we'll see. Check back soon to see the table I decorated for our church's ladies tea!