Enough Lemons Already

You know the saying. 

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. 

Well. Sometimes life just gives you lemons. And before you can make said lemonade, there's a knock at your door. Surprise. More lemons. Suddenly you're waist-deep in lemons and it seems impossible to find the juicer, much less the sugar. 

Have I stretched that metaphor thing enough. Catch my drift?

Well, I'll back track a bit for you dear readers.  See, about 2 weeks ago I was planning on posting. What?  I can't remember, but I obviously never got around to it as you can clearly tell from the silence on this blog over the past two weeks.  Things here hit the fan, and the fan was turned up full speed. But there I go again with another metaphor. 

Long story short our house was burglarized. Yep. Luckily it was while we were all at work. I beat Amy home that day and found out when I arrived. Needless to say, life has been pretty chaotic here in Drosche Land since.

There was the immediate drama you'd expect: shock, fear, the need to clean a totally trashed house. Then things sank in a bit more: the losses, trying to regain a sense of safety in your own house, the police and insurance reports, getting an alarm system installed, changing the locks. Now we are dealing with the long term: insurance, replacement of valuables, mourning the sentimental things that are irreplaceable.  Suddenly, a bushel of lemons right in front of us. 

But it didn't stop there. Nope. More lemons were delivered. Bank issues related to a charging error when the locks were changed.  Daily phone calls to the bank and locksmith. And the lemons kept rolling in. I was in an accident on the way home. Minor damage to our car and everyone is ok, but more lemons to deal with in the form of a second insurance claim opened. 

So that's where I've been. Obviously I haven't had a device to blog from due to the burglary  I love my iPhone, but it's just not feasible. Plus by the time I would even have time, I'm mentally and physically exhausted from sorting through the lemons.  I'm here tonight because my dear wife surprised me on Valentine's Day with a new iPad Air to replace my stolen iPad.

Before I get too deep into woe here I will stop to say that we have been thoroughly blessed these past 2 weeks. Yes. It's true. Sure, there were tons of lemons, but maybe the other saying is true. Maybe He doesn't give you more than you can bear.  Even though it may seem like it, truth be told we're ok. We have been blessed with amazing family and friends who have helped to clear out some of the lemons. I have an incredible wife who is an expert lemon juggler. Oh, and there's those 3 little blessings that I get to kiss good morning and good night each and every day. They make things better too. 

So, has it been hard?  OMG, yes!  Has it seemed insurmountable?  Um, yep!  But I think we are, slowly, making sense out of everything and coming through it. Sure, we still have a good sized lemon collection to deal with, but it is getting more manageable everyday. Soon, the pile will be gone and we can look back and be relieved that we made it through.  Our faith will be stronger and we will be wiser. Oh, and there will still be a refreshing lemony scent hanging in the air.

All is well, lemons included, in Drosche Land. 

1

Well, it came.  

Stella's 1st birthday.

I'm sure you had it marked on your calendar, right?  :)

I can't believe it, but on Monday we celebrated one year with our little girl.  Wow, has time flown.  Saturday we had family and friends over to celebrate with us and a great time was had by all.  The birthday girl looked adorable, as always, and had a great time.  It was so special to be able to spend time with everyone to honor Stella.  As Amy put it, this was our victory lap.  We were able to commemorate the first birthday of our last baby.

Baby.  can we even call her that anymore?  She's walking now.  Talking/babbling.  Signing what she wants. She wears 2T/24 month clothes, our little chunky monkey.  So I guess in many ways she is no longer a baby.

As I have mentioned numerous times before, as you well know, the road to get Stella was paved with hardships and stress.  This past year was great, but had it's share of stresses as well.  With so much exciting change pending here in Drosche Land, Stella's birthday was just the beginning of celebrations and fun times.  

Yesterday I took her 1 year photos.  I know I have slacked off a bit lately, missing 10 and 11 months.  Life just got in the way, as did her health related drama.  But I promise, her 1 year pictures more than make up for the lack of the last few photoshoots.  I'll save the pictures for this Sunday as I have missed my weekly Sunday Snapshot posts.  What a great way to begin them again.  However, I will include many pictures below of her birthday party.  

So, I hope you enjoy them and join in celebrating her 1st birthday with us.  It means a lot and she has been such a blessing to our family.  Tomorrow is her endoscopy/colonoscopy that will help determine, once and for all (hopefully), what is going on.  I'll keep you posted of course, but thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers on the matter.  They are greatly appreciated and still needed, so keep them coming.  But for now, it's still Happy Birthday Stella!

All is well, one year later, in Drosche Land.

Opening gifts with Mommy!

Cheese!

More presents!

A baby!

Family & friends! 

Family & friends!

Jewelry!

Lighting the candle on my little girl's cake!

Happy Birthday Stella!

Not a fan of the angel food cake, but she made some hilarious faces!

But she tore up the strawberries!

1 year old!

Super

So, this past Sunday was Superbowl Sunday.  It should have also been a Sunday Snapshot. An easy one in fact since Stella turned 8 months old on that day.  However, obviously, a photo shoot did not happen.  Why you ask?  Good question dear readers.

See, Sunday was our very first Superbowl Party.  You might remember that when Amy was the Director we hosted the yearly Christmas party for her staff?  Well, with the job change we knew that would not be happening.  We were looking for something else to host.  Now, we don't want to host everything.  Just something every now and then.  It's fun.  Plus it gives you a reason to clean your house.  Win-win right?  Right.

So we decided to host a Superbowl Party for Amy's faculty.  Woo hoo!  Only we'd never hosted a Superbowl Party before.  Nor had we ever attended one.  Usually we just hang out at home and Amy and the boys watch the game while I do something, anything, else. Well, this year we were breaking out of our comfort zone.  Time to have some people over.  It had been too long.  So we planned.  And we cleaned.  And we shopped. And we cleaned some more.  We didn't go all out, kept it simple.  Just hamburgers and hot dogs.  Chips and dips.  BYO snack/drink/whatever.  You know the drill.

Well, the day came and we were ready.  Cleaned house?  Check!  Food?  Check?  Tidied backyard with raised beds (yes, that's plural but it's also a post for another time)?  Check.  Adult beverages?  Check (Abita in honor of the host city and our time spent there).  People arrived.  They brought yummies.  Things were going well.  I headed out to start the grill.  I prepped the burgers and the hot dogs.  I headed back out to start the food.  No flames.  What?!  Yep, you guessed it.  One of those things that apparently happens to everyone at some point in their life.  We were out of Propane.  Crap!  So, rather than head out to the store at the last minute with everyone else trying in vain to quickly scrape together a Superbowl shindig, we opted to cook them inside.  Thank goodness for an electric skillet!  Funny.  We laughed.  What more can you do?  

So I fired up the skillet and began to cook.  Then the house got a bit smoky.  You know how it does when you're cooking hamburgers inside (or maybe you don't, trust me on this one though).  Well, multiply that times 20 (the number of hamburgers we were cooking) and you get what looks like a hazy nightclub and smells like a (delicious) diner.  Nice.  So, the windows and doors were opened to get a cross-breeze going and air out the house.  Luckily the weather wasn't too chilly as we are having unseasonably warm weather for this time of year.  Again, we laughed and moved on.  

Long post short, the hamburgers were great, the company was fun, and all of the other food was delicious.  The game?  Well, you know me.  It had entertaining parts (judging by the guests' reactions).  The commercials and halftime show were good, that I can vouch for!  :)  Stella charmed everyone and the boys enjoyed themselves with some other kids who came over.  Our guests left and cleanup was quick (as in we rinsed and stacked everything in/near the sink to deal with later).  Then the fun really started.  Braeden complained that his "brain was hurting".  Crap!  So we looked deep into his glassy eyes and took his temperature.  Crap!  Fever.  Oh well.  

So Amy stayed home with him yesterday and her Mommy instinct proved correct as she took him to the doctor to find out that he had the flu.  Yep dear readers, we've been infected here in Drosche Land.  Luckily the doctor thinks we caught it early and the Tamiflu is hard at work with his friends Gatorade and Ibuprofen.  I stayed home with Patient Zero today and will be home again tomorrow as the fever doesn't seem to want to leave any time soon.  So, win-win, you'll probably hear from me again tomorrow since I've washed every dish we own and laundered every stitch of clothing that's dirty.  

We can't complain though since it has been quite a while since any of us have been this sick and he only seems to be experiencing a fever and fatigue from this flu, nothing messy if you catch my drift.  We're hoping that Jackson and Stella remain healthy so this doesn't run rampant through the family for the next week or so.  As a precaution I took them into school this morning to limit their exposure to Patient Zero.  Sorry, I've been watching a lot of The Walking Dead (addictive!).  Tomorrow we will probably do the same.  Luckily Amy and I seem to have avoided it as well.  Prayers continue for such a case as we lovingly keep our distance from the infected!

So, to recap.  A great party.  Check your propane before hosting a party.  Open your windows if cooking inside.  The Ravens won (you thought I didn't know!).  And the flu has reached us!  That about catches us up for now!  See you tomorrow!

All is well, super in fact, in Drosche Land.  

Lost

So yesterday I learned several very valuable lessons. 1 - back up all of your pictures, frequently. 2- don't keep personal pictures on your work computer. 3 - if you don't follow #2, at least back them up on something personal like an extranal hard drive, the Internet, or DVDs. 4 - if for some reason you don't follow the first 3 rules, have an awesome IT guy who will do everything he possibly can to help, even if none of it works.

Yep, your deductive reasoning skills are sharp and by now I'm sure you've guessed what this is about. Yesterday my computer crashed and I lost a lot. First off though I'll preface this by saying everything could have been avoided if I'd followed the aforementioned steps from above!

See I'd been meaning to back up all of my 4,600ish pictures from my work computer and clean them off of there. At the insistence and advice of my lovely wife. At the insistence and advice of my awesome IT Guru. But laziness proved to be my Achilles heel! See Amy and I don't have a home computer anymore, we have our iPad and her Nook. We have our work computers from Trinity that began our love affair with everything Apple. Since we didn't have personal computers I've always uploaded our pictures to mine and then backed them up on an external hard drive. But I'd gotten lazy with that. I'd been meaning to do so again since it's been a long time since I last did so, and was actually going to do it over Spring Break. Once that was done I was going to take them off the computer altogether. Obviously this did not happen.

Wich brings us to yesterday's tragedy. My computer suddenly said it was running low on space. I have no clue why, it was fine just the other day. It kept going down and down and I panicked! I shut it down thinking that would help but then it wouldn't turn back on. More panicking ensued, along with frantic texts to said IT Guru. Turns out, try as he might, he couldn't get into it and had to wipe it clean. Panic overload. All of my documents were on the school's server so they were safe. I have all of my music on my iPhone and iPad so (hopefully) they'll synch back when I reconnect, at least the purchased music will, I may have to import others from CDs. But the pictures were the greatest loss. Over 4,600. Gone. Well, maybe not exactly that much, I'm not sure when I last backed it all up. Suffice it to say, though, that a lot are gone. I was flabbergasted (isn't that a fun word?). I was depressed and mad but had no one to blame but myself so I couldn't be too depressed and mad. The more I thought of it though, I found a silver lining to the dark cloud, albeit a thin one. Thanks to social media I have a lot of the pictures unintentionally backed up via Facebook and this blog, then there's ones I've uploaded to Snapfish to print (have you tried Snapfish? It's pretty awesome!), I also havetype of my camera's cards full, and Amanda texted me about the DVDs I burned for her so there's a ton there. So, not all is lost, but a good chunk of the last 3 years are.

I know what you're thinking. How can a techno-savvy genius like me NOT back things up? I'll shamefully admit again that it comes down to laziness! Yikes, that's a tough pill to swallow. I just never made the time to get around to doing it. Trust me though when I say that I'll never make that mistake again. Ever.

I'm truly grateful to the two people who could have given me a load of "told you so", Amy and my IT Guru. But they didn't, at least not too much! :) Amy just reminded me of our backup plan, which I hadn't followed, and let it go. My IT Guru busted it to get my computer up and running again in less than a day and I owe him big (if you're reading this, trust me, I'll pay up!)!

So, in conclusion dear readers, learn from my mistake and back up your stuff! Do it now! Hopefully though, you already do and are shaking your head at me in disbelief! I know I am. This weekend I undergo the task of finding, organizing, and backing up everything we do have and getting a system in place so this never happens again! Hopefully it'll be done in time for the Sunday Snapshot. That or I'll just have to use my iPhone and Dropbox to upload via the iPad. Wish me luck!

All is well, lesson learned (the hard way), in Drosche Land.

Sunday Snapshot - The Shower - Part 2

Ok, as promised here are some more shots from our shower last weekend.  I finally made it through the 200+ pictures and there are so many good ones.  Someone, I'm don't remember exactly who, I think it was Kimberly our friend & photographer suggested that we take pictures with each person and their gift after we opened it.  This takes the place of writing down who gave us what.  Plus we can include those pictures in the Thank You notes!  Love the idea and I am currently uploading pictures to Snapfish to order for the notes!  A fun and different way to keep track of all of the gifts!


So, on with some more shower pictures.  It is still fun to look back and remember.  It gets me all excited about writing Thank You notes and starting to work on Stella's baby book!  Fun!  Enjoy!

So many cute monogrammed things like this adorable pair of bloomers!

Love these centerpieces!

Jack's face cracks me up!

All the kids released balloons, cute and fun!

How gorgeous is my wife?!

Ok, so I know I included this one last week but here it is edited a bit and I LOVE this picture, it is definitely one of my new favorites of Amy and I!

Leap

Happy Leap Day!

Leap Day. It comes around only once every 4 years. This year it gave me the opportunity to fit one more post into the month of February. Thanks Leap Day! We celebrated this special day in my classroom, every fun day is a cause to celebrate in 1st Grade, there are no such things as small holidays. We made awesome frog hats (Get it? Leap!), dressed in all green clothes, had a fun Math lesson measuring and graphing how far we could frog hop (Trivia: I can frog hop a distance of 80 inches!), and we wrote about what we thought we would be doing in 4 years, the time the next Leap Day rolls around in 2016. How did you spend your extra day? Was it memorable? Was it ordinary? All of the planning for the day's activities got me thinking, how far have we come since the last Leap Day and what might the next 4 years hold for us?

Flash back to February 29, 2008. We had only been living in the house for about 3 months so everything was still fresh and new, and of course there were boxes everywhere as we were still getting settled in. Jackson was only 5 months old! Braeden was only a year and a half old! That means Amy and I were getting very little sleep! Needless to say with two small boys in diapers we were tired and busy most of the time. I was still working at Memorial and the opportunity to move to Trinity wouldn't come for another year. Amy wasn't the Director yet and wouldn't begin the process for about another month. We were only a one-dog family with Lucy and no Rex. Adoption wasn't even something that was remotely on our radar. There was no blog to document the goings-on in Drosche Land. These are just a handful of the things that were happening the last time we all leaped through a February 29th.

My how far we've come! Looking back I cannot believe how much has happened in just 4 short years. The boys growing up. Job changes. A new dog. The adoption process. The loss of family members, Granny. The gaining of new friends. It really makes you stop and think about how much goes on every day in our lives. Maybe we relish each and every moment, maybe we take them for granted. Think of all of the things that have happened that we've forgotten. The things that once seemed so important, but now are nonexistent.

Of course you can't look back without looking ahead. 4 years. It's such a short time when looking back, but when planning for the future the years stretch out in front of you and you can scarcely see the end. I guess it's good that way though. What does God have in store for the Drosches over the next 4 years? 2016. Braeden will be in 4th Grade, Jackson in 2nd! Stella, not having even graced us with her presence, will be 3 1/2! I've barely gotten used to being in my 30's, but in 4 years the decade will be half over! Will we still be in this house? Will we still drive the same cars? Hopefully we will have made great strides in knocking out our debt snowball, getting closer to financial freedom. By then, Amy and I will have long since celebrated our 10-year anniversary! How will we celebrate? We've always wanted to go back to Las Vegas. Maybe? What role will adoption play in our lives? My list of questions and musings is endless as I'm sure yours, dear readers, are as well. It's fun to think about honestly because the next 4 years is a blank canvas. True, the unknown can be daunting and scary, but it's also exciting and mysterious. My prayers for these upcoming years are simple: happiness, good health, family, friends, strengthened faith, enjoying life. Maybe it's because I'm getting older (gasp!),maybe it's having kids and seeing the world through their eyes, maybe it's my loving wife who keeps me grounded and sane. Whatever the reason, I'm choosing to approach the next 4 years with peace of mind and an open heart. HE has a plan for us and HE knows best. I'm sure I'll fall short of this lofty goal many times in the coming years, but my hope is to remain open and willing to HIS plans and will rather than mine. It's going to be a great 4 years! Can't wait to share it here! I hope you've enjoyed your Leap Day, I can't believe March begins tomorrow!

All is well, leaping about, in Drosche Land.

Sunday Snapshot - The Shower

Ok, so our the family friend of ours who took pictures during our shower yesterday posted some of them to Facebook this evening! I selected a few to include here for this week's Sunday Snapshot. There are many more and she is compiling them all for us. So, I may have more shower pictures to post at a later date, we'll see. But here are just a few. It's only been a day but these pictures bring back the fun memories of the shower and give us the first pictures to include in Stella's baby book/scrapbook/memory box! We are doubly lucky because not only did she capture moments from the shower, but she also followed the kids around outside as they played. She was able to get some great shots of the boys and their cousins that I am in love with. So, it's Sunday but they're not my snapshots. But they are my memories. On with the pictures! Enjoy!

 My beautiful wife with the sweet treats!

 I love this one of Amy and I laughing!

 This is an awesome shot of the cousins!

 Amy and I cutting the cake!

 Love this one of my boys!

 Amy and I with one of our gifts!

 Another great shot of the cousins!

LOVE these shirts for the boys and Stella!  I cannot wait to get them all in them and take some pictures!

Quelle Surprise!

That's French for "surprise baby shower on the premise of taking maternity photos". Or sort of, you know how things get lost in translation. Regardless though, that's exactly the adventure we had today! Our family and friends planned a surprise shower for Amy and I to celebrate Stella. Before I go further, let me first say that we are tremendously blessed and HE once again made that very apparent today.

Amy's sister Amanda organized a photo-shoot for us with a family friend. She's taken family pictures of us all before and we always love how they turn out. Today was supposedly going to include pictures of the boys, the 4 of us, and some maternity shots of us all. We drove to school to take said photos and lo and behold it was a shower! Pink was everywhere! Our family and friends turned out and we had a great time visiting, eating, and excitedly celebrating Stella! Being pregnant with a girl is definitely different than expecting a boy! Our wonderful gifts were, of course, pink, purple, shiny, spangled, ruffled, and bowed. We received some fabulous things and are even more excited and prepared for Stella than before! It was an awesome time, our family truly went to a lot of work to plan this surprise event and they made it so special!

Having said that, Amy and I knew about the party prior to today! Funnily enough, we both accidentally found out about 2 weeks ago, each of us hearing about it from someone. Then we realized that each of us knew but we kept it to ourselves. I wasn't surprised though that we found out, it is impossible to surprise Amy with anything. I mean impossible! I have tried, and failed, many times to do so. In fact, I don't think that I have every known any surprise to work on Amy. She always ends up finding out somehow! I do have to admit though that it makes me want to get her good at least once in life! We shall see if I am every able to successfully surprise her. As she's reading this I know she's thinking, "No, I hate surprises!". Aren't you Amy? :)

But, surprise or no surprise it was still a wonderful day! I can't wait to see all of the pictures from the event. We've already been through everything and have begun doing the laundry. Get as much done early as we can, be as prepared for Little Miss as we can. Again, I have to mention just how grateful Amy and I are for everything done for us today. It is a humbling and amazing experience to have our family and friends express their love and support for us. Stella is already so well loved by so many, as we all are. HE truly has blessed us beyond belief and that is end thing we will be sure Stella knows! Thanks so much to everyone! We love you!

All is well, freshly showered, in Drosche Land.

Let Me Entertain You

So, it is FINALLY Christmas break!  Well, actually yesterday was the first official day of break, but let's not split reindeer hairs.  I'm back!  I haven't forgotten my slightly neglected but much-loved blog.  The week before Christmas and the week before the end of the school year are always crazy busy so blogging (sadly) fell to the rock-bottom of my list.  But anywho, I'm back!

Christmas Break, well at least the beginning of it anyway, means it's time for the annual Christmas Party for Amy's Center!  And we host it!  I love this and live for it all year long, well at least from November until December.  It's not a ton of work, mainly just massive house cleaning due in part to the previous, and aforementioned, crazy week which leaves our house disheveled and in need of tidying.  This year though I get to bust out our brand-new Dyson for the event!  Christmas cleaning, is there anything better?

Yesterday I mowed and cleaned up the front and back yards in preparation for the kids coming so they could play outside and run around.  Then last night and this morning it poured.  But hey, that's what a loft is for right?  The perfect place to banish entertain the kids!  I have also been plowing my way through copious loads of laundry and am oddly only about halfway done!  Today on the agenda is vacuuming (Dyson-filled fun) and lots of it.  I also have to clean the bathrooms and the kitchen.  Oh and making a batch of Chex Mix!  I think that's it although I am sure something will be added to the list throughout the day.  

Tomorrow is sure to be fun as it always is.  I do enjoy hosting the party and having everyone over.  I am always trying to think of another occasion when we can host something, but living so far out makes it somewhat difficult.  Oh well, it just makes this even all the more special.  An added bonus is that we cater the food from La Finca our favorite place just across the street!  Yum!

Well, I had better start some of the tasks on today's list so I can begin checking them off!  Dyson, Tide, and cleaning supplies are calling my name!

All is well, the host with the most, in Drosche Land.

Recovery

So, it's been a few days since I last posted but we've been busy here in Drosche Land.  As the title suggests, Amy has been recovering from her shoulder surgery and I have been nursing her back to health.  Ok, so that sounds a bit dramatic, but I have been working hard to try and help as much as I can.  

Her surgery was Wednesday morning and I took the day off obviously, to go with her.  It went well and was an easy, routine shoulder surgery.  The ligaments were torn pretty badly, but (according to the doctor) the tissue was healthy and in good shape, making the repair easy.  I brought her back home and watched over her and helped while she spent the remainder of the day in a haze from the pain medicine.  I then decided to stay home with her again on Thursday because her mobility was, and still is somewhat, extremely limited.  Adam came to spend the night that night and stayed with Amy on Friday while the boys and I returned to school.  This weekend we stayed home with the exception of Braeden's T-Ball practice and a trip to Walgreens to get the Sunday paper.  

Her recovery was slow at first, mainly because Amy does not do well with pain medication.  She was lethargic and sick to her stomach for the first couple of days.  But of course the catch-22 is that the pain is worse so she must take the medicine.  Today was the first day that she has been able to go for long periods of time without the medicine, managing the pain on her own with rest and ice.  Tomorrow she will be home by herself and I think she's ready.  There are enough leftovers for her to eat and she can relax on the couch so she doesn't have to worry about the stairs.  Tuesday she has her follow-up appointment with her doctor and her Mom is going to go with her to that.  We are hoping that the bandages get removed and she gets permission to take the sling off at least a little each day.  We also expect to hear something about plans for her physical therapy.  So, while we may not have been busy with stuff, we have been busy.  Today has been the best day by far so hopefully that is a sign that she is officially on the road to a good recovery.

Possibly the best thing that has come from this has been the outpouring of thoughts,prayers, and actions from our family, friends, and coworkers.  We have had constant emails, Facebook messages, and calls to check on Amy as well as several meals given to us so we wouldn't have to worry about that.  It's common knowledge that Amy is the culinary-gifted member of the family.  I prefer to keep my kitchen talents focused on the boxed and frozen varieties of meals!  This all shouldn't have been a surprise to us because we experience similar actions several times over the past year as Amy underwent her gastric-bypass surgery, broken tailbone, and then the adhesions surgery.  Our family is great, always there.  Our family at Trinity is the same way.  We are truly blessed and are humbled by and grateful for everything.  It just goes to show that good can come from anywhere or anyone at anytime, no matter how bad the situation may be.  

All is well, blessed and healing, in Drosche Land.

The Patient & The Graduate

So, clearly this post has 2 parts. Yesterday was a busy and eventful day here in Drosche Land, especially for Amy and Braeden. I'll try and cover it all here with a minimum of rambling and tangent-taking! Sit back, relax, and enjoy!

Part 1 - You may remember from the last post that Amy was awaiting exploratory laparoscopic surgery. Well, the surgery occurred Thursday morning, earlier than we thought. As it turns out her doctor did in fact find an adhesion just as he thought he would. It was a simple and routine repair that took only around 30 minutes. After coming out of recovery and meeting their post-surgery requirements she was able to go home yesterday! She is currently pretty tired and sore, but doing very well. I am doing my best to be a helpful nurse so she can get as much rest as possible. Probably one of the coolest parts of the surgery is that the doctor gave us some wicked awesome pictures of the adhesion! Like from actually INSIDE her body! It is amazing what modern medicine and doctors can do, totally amazing. I'm thinking of framing the pictures or posting them to Facebook, I am totally in awe of them! On a side note (not technically a tangent since it has to do with Part 1) the staff at the hospital, Memorial Hermann Memorial City, are awesome! Last year we were totally blessed to have some great nurses and staff taking care of her and this year was exactly the same! You may also remember me frequently blogging about the hospital food last year. Well I did once again partake in it, although I did not have any of the hummus this time. Instead i had a great Greek salad for dinner the first night and a tuna salad sandwich for lunch the next day. Yum! As nice as the staff and food were though, it is of course great to be back home. I stayed home with her again today since it was her first day after surgery and she still cannot do a lot. We stayed downstairs to avoid her having to go up and down but tonight she was able to make it up and in her own bed. I can't blame her for missing it. It'll be nice for things to begin to get back to normal again. This is the end of Part 1.

Now would be a good time to take a break, use the restroom, or get a snack. I'll wait. Ok, ready?

Part 2 - Yesterday was also a momentous occasion for Braeden! It was his Pre-Kindergarten graduation! Amy was pretty upset to miss it and insisted i go and videotape it, which of course I did. I'd like to say that everything went off without a hitch, but I'd be lying. His stage-fright once again got the better of him. He walked in with his friends just fine, but once he got to the front of the church and had to walk up onto the stage area, he lost it. I have to give it to his teachers, they tried their damnedest to get him to participate, but to no avail. I taped the whole thing though because it was a big day for him regardless. He got 2nd place for running the most laps in PE! An award he sort of accepted as he was carried by his teacher to receive it. He also went up to get his "diploma", again with the help of his teacher. But when all was said and done it was a great little program and they kids were of course adorable. By the time I packed up my things and made it to the little reception he was fine and back to himself. This was great because it allowed me to get some great pictures (Sunday Snapshot!)! All in all I am still proud of him and truth be told we sort of expected it to go this way. But, what are you going to do? You just have to make the recording into a super cute movie in iMovie (which I totally love now), laugh, and move on!

So, I think that covered everything from yesterday. A super busy day and we are all still a little exhausted from the events of the past few days. However we are all together again and will settle back into normalcy as much as possible. Amy is recovering, Braeden is growing up, we are all back together in our house, and Rex is taking Immodium (he is once again undergoing a bout of intestinal distress). I do have to thank all of our family, friends, and coworkers though for their thoughts, prayers, and help over these past few days. It has been amazing to receive it all and we a very grateful, thankful, and blessed. It took a lot of people to make these past few days bearable despite the craziness and we thankful for each one.

Oh, one last thing. The night I stayed in the hospital with Amy I smashed my finger super bad in the fold-out chair/bed thing. It blackened up immediately and I almost passed out. It's all good now though, just nasty looking and swollen. I've never done that before and I am hesitantly waiting to see if everyone who says I will lose it is right?!?! Aaahhh! We will see.

All is well, I think the rain is stopping, in Drosche Land.

Bittersweet

Well, today was a special day for Margaux.  I'm not going to go into too many details since we are not at the point where we can freely share information, but I am sure you can guess what today was.  Which leads me to the title of this post.  Happy?  Yes we were.  But also sad.  It was another reminder that we are missing parts of her life and that she is not here with us.  I'm not going to say it was easy because it wasn't, it is somewhat rough.  However, there is not much we can do but continue to work on paperwork and get it all ready and organized.  And pray of course, lots of that as well.  Adding to the stress level is the crazy week we have been having.  Last night was another late night and we ended up eating out yet again, despite having sworn it off as I mentioned earlier.  We've been staying late as all the schedules and whatnot of the new building are worked out.  So, due to several late nights in a row, fatigue has set in here in Drosche Land and that doesn't do much to help the feelings brought about by today.

In other adoption news, Amy had the great idea to contact our agency and see if we could get an update on Margaux.  Technically we are really only supposed to get one in the process, but we figured that given our circumstances it wouldn't hurt to ask.  Turns out we were told we could request one and it would be submitted.  We thought up some questions to ask the caregivers at the orphanage and emailed them off.  How long it will take is unknown.  It could be a few days, weeks, or longer.  So once again we wait.  We were assured though by Cori, our super helpful and awesome contact at the agency, that they would stay on top of it if it seems to be taking a long time.  So we are hopeful and prayerful that we will get an update on Margaux and how she is doing.  Maybe this will help ease our emotions.  We will see.  Speaking of waiting there is a song that fits our (and I'm sure many other people's) situation perfectly.  While I'm Waiting by John Waller.  Awesome song.  So true for us right now and I try to remember it and use it as guidance for our endless waiting.  Check it out if you are not familiar with it!

On the bright side though, today we were reminded of how blessed we are and how He is looking out for us always.  Remember we haven't been home a lot lately which means eating out which means frustrating.  Well, today a friend/coworker made and brought us some meals so we would have food ready and prepared, regardless of when we got home.  Amazing huh?  Thanks so much Sean & Carol!  Y'all are awesome!  Also it was the first day this week we were able to leave early.  So, we got home, enjoyed some delicious food, and were able to have some fun time together as a family.  This served as a bit of medicine for the bittersweet day we'd had.  Amy and the boys began a rousing game of soccer in the back yard after dinner and I was quick to stop doing the dishes and grab my camera.  It was fun.  After a while I joined in and Amy was kind enough to take some pictures of me with the boys!  I smell a Sunday Snapshot!  :)  

So, it's been a long week but we push forward.  It's not always easy but in the end everything seems to have a way of working out, or should I say He has a way of working things out!  We just need to keep remembering that, while we're waiting.

All is well, bittersweet but blessed, in Drosche Land. 

A FLAT-Out Good Time

Well we are home from Fort Worth, we returned last night.  Our last day there turned out to be the most adventuresome one yet!  As usual we all met in the hotel lobby to head to Starbucks for coffee before heading to our sectionals.  We talked, laughed, enjoyed coffee and then it was time to head off.  But I soon realized we were going nowhere fast because the van had a flat tire (hence the post title!)!  Just our luck right?!  Well, we actually handled it very well, what else could we do but laugh.  Plus we weren't in any hurry to get to the conference (more on that later) so this little diversion was somewhat welcomed!  Sean and Julie headed back into Starbucks to make use of the free WiFi (gotta love technology) to find the nearest Discount Tire and Amy kept me company while I changed (or attempted to) the tire.  So, off came the wheel cover and out came the tools.  However, try as I might, I could not loosen the lug nuts.  I stood on the wrench, pushed, and pulled but to no avail.  So, now the situation is seeming less comical and we are wondering what we are going to do.  I don't want to pay to have someone come and do it, I just needed those stupid lug nuts loosened!  Long story short (too late!) I was able to borrow compressed air from a shop across the street to fill the tire up.  We then drove to a Discount Tire very nearby (thanks Starbucks, Sean, & Julie!) and they took great care of us.  We ended up getting a new tire all for only $46.88!  Seriously!  Plus they put the spare we had taken out but not used back up under the car and put away our tools!  They were super nice and I highly recommend them, if you ever find yourself in Fort Worth needing a tire!

By the time the tire was fixed there was not point in trying to make it to the conference (oh well (sarcastic)). Not that the conference was bad, it was good.  It was just totally not what we thought it would be.  More of an intro into RenWeb when we needed further questions/answers and immersion.  We did learn a thing or two (literally one or two things among us all!) so it wasn't a total loss.  Oh well, you live, learn, and hopefully get to fill out a survey about the conference.  But, despite the lackluster conference we had an AWESOME time together!  We laughed, talked, ate some great food, and just hung out.  Another upside to the flat tire was we found an incredible Mexican restaurant after the tire adventure and before leaving.  Mmmmmm, I'm hungry just remembering it!  Amy was able to enjoy our food excursions since she is in the pureed/soft foods phase so that was great too, since she was able to enjoy a little normal food.  So, all in all it was a great trip.  For those of you wanting some good eats in Forth Worth we highly recommend - Cooper's Old Time Pit BBQ and La Playa Maya!

Lodging at the Radisson: Forth Worth South - $79/night
Mediocre RenWeb Conference - Too much
Great food - $60 food allowance/per person
Awesome road trip with friends - priceless!


All is well, back home, in Drosche Land.

Back to Reality

Well, our kid-free weekend was great!  Amy and I kicked it off enjoying some great Mexican food and margaritas on Friday night.  It was great to enjoy a meal by ourselves without helping one of the boys eat a taco or blow on a chicken strip to cool it off.  Oh, and did I mention we got margaritas?  Yum!  Saturday morning we, as predicted in the previous post, woke up at our usual early time.  However, also as predicted, we were able to lounge around and enjoy a quiet morning together.  After a fun lunch with Amy's family we dropped the boys off with my parents and went out again for kid-free night 2.  This time we got to spend some time with some old friends from high school!  We once again enjoyed Mexican food and margaritas!  Noticing our favorites?  We ate, talked, laughed, and enjoyed some awesome company for 6 hours.  It was a great time!  I found it amazing that we could all just pick up with each other and it was like it had only been 10 days since we last were all together not 10 years.  Despite being in different places in life, we found we have quite a bit in common.  It was like a great new step in friendship.  We are definitely looking forward to doing it again and often.  Taryn, Dedrick, Cassie, and James - great friends!  Thanks!

However fun it was to be just the two of us again, there was no better sound than those two sets of feet running up to us before church this morning.  Nothing better that the hugs and smiles we instantly received.  Ahhhh, it was comfortably refreshing to have everything back to normal and as it should be.  This afternoon the house was filled with noise, toys, and the sounds of Alvin & the Chipmunks again.  It was great!  So, time together alone - awesome.  Time with friends - wonderful.  Getting back to Drosche, party of four - perfect.  This weekend we got to experience the best of both worlds and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it!
 
All is well, and back to normal, in Drosche Land.

Try Again - No Gaga for Us

Well, today was the day that tickets to the Lady Gaga concert at the Toyota Center on July 25 went on sale.  My wonderful wife took the time out of her day to try and score us some tickets (they went on sale at 10 a.m. so I was in class).  However, it was not meant to be.  They seemed to be sold out before they even went on sale.  Oh well.  Amy was so upset, bless her.  But it is what it is.  Would have been AWESOME, but I'm not going to pay like 5 times the ticket prices via other options.  Good news though, as I figured, they added a 2nd show on Monday, July 26!  These tickets go on sale next Friday.  So, we'll see if we were meant to go to this show.  If not, total bummer but I can handle it.  I think this whole Dave Ramsey viewpoint accompanied with the adoption have helped me to realize what is truly important.  Now, don't get me wrong, I still have my moments when things get skewed, but I'm slowly coming around.  So, the new countdown to the next sale date begins!  T-minus 6 1/2 days and counting.  Stay tuned.

Tonight though should be fun.  We are going to a party at a church/school friend's house that should be pretty cool.  It's a crawfish boil and I love some crawfish - but not in the whole peel and suck the head sort of way.  But there's gumbo which I also love!  So, that accompanied by the fact that our 931 band Antidote 7 will be playing (yes they do mainstream too) make it a shoe-in for an AWESOME time!  Mom is watching the boys overnight, which they both are excited about.  So, party, good food, good drinks, friends, and a kid-less night!  That's a way to start the weekend after a crazy busy week!  Hence the reason I'm posting now - later will not be an option and remember the post-a-day goal!  Friday, April 9 - check!
 
All is well, with fingers crossed for concert tickets, in Drosche Land.

Right Now?

Well, today marked another busy day of our Easter vacation.  We began by waking up and having a quick morning getting everything ready to head to Amy's Mom's house for egg dyeing with the cousins.  That was a lot of fun as usual.  5 kids, 4-dozen eggs, and 9 colors.  Good messy fun!  The kids had a blast as usual as all of the adults hovered over frantically keeping everyone's eggs from breaking and colors from spilling!  I have to say though, the eggs turned out great - see the pic below.

After we finished dyeing the eggs, hanging out, and having lunch it was time to head home to relax a bit before heading out again to visit with Sarah, Nathan, Niki, and David.  That was fun.  It was good to see them, especially since we have not all been together in about 5 years!  The boys were themselves - cute, charming, silly, and crazy!  Niki and David brought them Woody and Buzz Lightyear toys and Sarah and Nathan got them sidewalk chalk and bubbles!  Needless to say, they were instantly won over!  It was nice to sit back and reminisce and catch up.  Plus, Sarah grilled some great brats for dinner.  It was also great to discuss the adoption with them and get their thoughts and support about it.
 
Onto the title of this post.  This morning before we headed out Amy was reading through our monthly Costco magazine and there was an article about their auto program.  Well, you know we are in the market to replace our ginormous van for something a bit smaller and a lot more reliable.  What could it hurt to try?  So, we got online and entered in the information for the Nissan Rogue we have been looking into and the nearest Nissan dealership that participates in this program is in College Station, not actually all that far at about an hour and a half.  So we gave them all the information and waited for them to call us back.  Flash forward to Amy's Mom's house.  The guy from the dealership calls and basically the deal they give for the Costco membership is $100 off the invoice price plus whatever incentives are being offered at that time.  Plus, it seems as though the car will be delivered to us and we can do everything via phone and email!  We were definitely intrigued by this point.  Once we got home we looked into what we wanted and I called our contact and then emailed him all the information.  On the way home from Sarah & Nathan's I had time to check my email and we are being offered a great deal.  The Costco membership will basically save us about $3,000 off the MSRP!  So, I emailed him back and asked what we do next.  We are excited, things are looking up.  It seems as though we are very close to closing the deal!  We are still keeping in mind that we do have the walk-away power Dave Ramsey taught us, but we are still optimistic.  If it all works out, we will be getting a brand new car for about the price of a used one from CarMax, minus the mileage and plus the full dealer warranty!  So, maybe this time the answer is "Yes Right Now"?  We'll see.  Until then we continue to research and read up about the Rogue.  All good things.  Overall a great day with family and friends and some potential good news!  I think I will go to sleep a happy man!
 
All is well, and maybe going Rogue, in Drosche Land.

Our Easter eggs - I love this picture, they're beautiful!

All Good Things Must Come To An End

Well, today marks the end of Spring Break 2010.  Sad, this was a great one.  It began with that wonderful Backyard Campout!  Man, that was a great time!  I added a link to the right column directly from Snapfish because I wasn't sure the link in the post was working and I wanted to share the many great pictures.  Just a quick side note.

The next fun we had was our annual trip to the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo!  Woo hoo!  Every year Amy's Uncle John comes down during Spring Break and we ALL go to the carnival and Rodeo.  The kids had a blast at the carnival.  Amy and I took the boys on our usual trip on the ferris wheel.  It was terrifyingly fun!  I don't mind the height as long as I'm looking out, but once I look down things get a bit more tense!  Luckily the boys adore it and we always get a great couple of pictures.  Another thing the boys loved was their visit to the petting zoo!  Jack actually walked, fed, and petted the animals this year.  Jack's favorite part by far though was the chickens!  That boy loves him some chickens, I'm not entirely sure why.  We ended up spending about 20 minutes watching the various types of chickens.  Braeden's favorite part was when he rode the pony all by himself!  We were so proud of him!  I can't believe he is so old!  The concert we went to see this year was Keith Urban and he put on one hell of a show!  It lasted over an hour and he walked around in the stands singing and high-fiving the fans.  It was fun!

The next great thing was my tip to New Orleans!  Some friends from work invited me to go and Amy couldn't.  But my wife is so fantastic that she insisted I go ahead and have fun.  I left at midnight on Tuesday; Amy dropped me off on the way home from the Rodeo.  I had an awesome time!  Man, I have some great friends.  We ate some fantastic food, heard some great music, drank some great drinks, and just had fun.  I did make it back to Pat O'Brien's and we ordered this monster hurricane.  We finished nearly all of it though, whoa!  It was just so much fun and really made me see what great friends my co-workers are!  I was definitely meant to be at Trinity with these fantastic people, working and having fun!  The thing is though; I had to break my Lent give-up items of eating out and sweets though.  But, Amy did as well at home with the boys since she was so busy and on her own.  So, starting tomorrow it is back on, no more eating out or sweets until Easter.  Oh, and yes, the first food I ate while on the trip was Jack Tacos!

As much fun as I had, it was great to come home and see Amy and the boys.  I missed them a lot.  Yesterday we moved Amanda, boy that was rough.  It definitely cemented the fact for Amy and I that we are only hiring movers from here on out!  But other than that we are ending Spring Break quietly and calmly.  As I blog this, the boys are sound asleep and Amy and I are putting off a bit of homework.  Ugh, guess I'd better sign off and get some done for tonight.  But all in all it was a fantastic break.  I have an incredible wife, awesome sons, and wonderful friends!  Great times, great memories, a great Spring Break!
 
All is well, and returning to routine, in Drosche Land. 

Braeden on the ferris wheel

 

 Jack on the ferris wheel

 

 Amy & I on the ferris wheel

 

 The boys at the petting zoo

 

 Jack Tacos on the way to NOLA!

 

 Waiting for the St. Patrick's Day parade in NOLA

 

 Out & about in NOLA

 

 Our giant hurricane at Pat O'Brien's