Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! This year was obviously different with the pandemic. We stayed home Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas Eve we dropped off gifts for family and then came home and watched my all time favorite movie - It's a Wonderful Life. We also opened presents which was fun. We got Emma an Animal Crossing Nintendo Switch and Caitlin a set of AirPods. They both seemed very happy with their gifts. 

This week was busy. I had to work most of it and we also had our dentist appointments. The appointments went well and everyone checked out fine. Emma also went in for a checkup with the Doctor and ended up needing bloodwork! Apparently checking 10 year olds cholesterol levels is now a thing.... Anyway, she did amazing!! She didn't get nervous and even watched them do it! She said there was some bleeding afterward and that she felt a little dizzy when she saw the blood but I'm so proud of her! I told her that I need her bravery!

In other news, I think Caitlin has passed Toni in height! It's close but I think she's taller that Toni now by a hair. I can't believe how much both kids have grown!

Christmas Day we started out at 5:00AM.. Caitlin got up early to check to see what Santa had brought and then decided to let the dogs out. Unfortunately the alarm was on so we were all woken up extremely early. We had a good time opening presents and then me and Toni took a nap for a couple hours before starting the Christmas lunch. Grampa Joe stopped by and then I dropped off some Christmas dinner at Nana's house. Overall, it was a nice holiday. The only downside is that due to stuff at work, I'm not really going to get much of a break. I've already put in over 20 hours this week and next week I'll be on call and working to deal with the issues we're having now. So basically my Christmas vacation will equate to about 3 days off.. I'm really getting tired and need a break from work. A day here and a day there just aren't cutting it. We've been going full speed since March and I'm starting to burn out. I hope to be able to take a few weeks off next year. 

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Tis the Season

 This week was quiet for a change. Toni was off on Monday recovering and then Tuesday and Wednesday I drove her to work and she got a ride home from one of her employees. She seems to be recovering nicely but is still pretty tired. This week we also spent several nights watching Christmas TV shows and movies. So far we've watched Miracle on 34th Street, Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Carol, Home Alone, Mickey's Christmas Carol, and Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas. We've still got several more on our list. 

This week Toni also had an office lunch party with her new crew at Remax. She's going to start selling in the new year and I think she's going to do really well. We're both excited about what the future holds. In other news, we both received our license to carry a concealed handgun. Not sure how often I'll carry but it's nice to have. This week should be busy with Christmas. We need to go drop off presents for family this week. Toni and I both work tomorrow and then we're off for the rest of the week. Tuesday we have our dentist appointments but other than that it should be a relaxing week. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Happy 10th Birthday Emma!!

This week was BUSY. There's no other word that better describes it. It was just busy. To start, we celebrated Emma's 10th birthday!! We had an online party for her and hooked the laptop up to the TV and used a webcam which worked out nicely. Sometimes it felt like we were watching the Brady Bunch but it was cool to see all of Emma's friends and family. Cousin Star gave an art class during the party which was cool. Emmas picture is shown above. We also had my friend Jose's wife Vicky make a cake for Emma which came out incredible! It was several layers and weighed over 10 pounds. Toni had seen it in a picture and Vicky did an amazing job recreating it. I can't believe that Emma is 10 already. Both girls are growing so fast!

Also this week, Caitlin got her braces put on her bottom teeth. She looks so pretty with them and I swear she looks so grown up now. I don't know what happened to my little girl!

The last big thing of the week was Friday Toni went in for a heart procedure. They tried to go in through the arteries in her legs but that didn't work so they ended up going through her wrist. She's recovering nicely but still has quite a bit of pain. She's not able to to do much with her hands so we're trying to help out as much as we can. The procedure was only about 45 minutes but after all was said and done she was at the hospital for about 12 hours. They didn't find any blockage so a stent wasn't needed. They said her heart is strong so we're not sure why she's been having chest pains. They said it could be anything from anxiety to indigestion. Next week or the week after she's going to have to go back for a sonogram of her legs. They said her pulse in her legs was weak so they're going to check it out.

This week Toni will be off work on Monday recovering and then it will be back to work as usual. We need to get Christmas shopping knocked out too. We'll probably do everything online this year. Covid has just exploded around the country. Days of over 200k cases a day are now normal and on Thursday we hit over 280k cases in one day. The number of deaths has also continued to climb and his now around 3000 every day. Meanwhile our "leader" is busy trying to claim election fraud and is completely ignoring the problems. I will be so glad when that idiot is gone. I don't think things will turn around quickly but I think things will definitely get better. I hope everyone has a great week and continues to stay safe.

Need to buy or sell a house?

 

This week was filled with enough highs and lows for an entire year! First up, Toni PASSED her real estate exam and is now a licensed realtor!! I am so proud of her and I think she's going to do great at it. She's already talking to companies about going part time so initially I think she's going to be very busy but once she gets things rolling, she'll be able to switch over to it full time. I'm hopeful that this will be a lot less stress and give her a lot more free time. Hopefully this is a good sign that 2021 is going to shape up to be better than 2020!

Now for the lows.. First, a friend of mine lost her sister and brother and law to covid this week. My heart goes out to her and her family.. This pandemic is still raging out of control and I don't see it improving quickly. All hopes seem to be pinned on the vaccine that I'm honestly not sure enough people will take to make much of a difference. 

Next up, I had my followup with the Doctor and they identified my stone as a Calcium Oxalate stone which is the most common type. I now have a long list of foods I need to avoid.. The other news is that I still have an "extremely small" stone still in my left kidney. The doctor gave me Flowmax and said that I probably won't even feel it when it passed. I'd kind of like to at least feel a little something so that I know it's actually passed. I don't want to feel like a ticking time bomb not knowing if or when it's going to show up. We'll see what happens.

Toni had her follow up with the heart Doctor and it wasn't the news we were hoping for. They found a constriction and they want to go in with a camera and take a look around. If necessary, they are going to put in a stent. She's going in next Friday morning. If she doesn't need a stent, she'll be home by lunch. If she does, they'll need to keep her in the hospital overnight. We're both very anxious about this but I'm sure everything will be alright. 

This Thursday will be Emma's 10th birthday! We're going to have a Zoom meeting party for all of her friends. It should be nice. I'll keep everyone posted on Toni's health and I hope everyone stays safe.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This Thanksgiving was quite a bit different than most years. Rather than going to Brownsville, we stayed home to be safe. Cases of Covid passed 200k this week and I think it's going to get a lot worse in the next few weeks. We had a nice dinner at the house which came out amazing. Yesterday Toni went to take her real estate license test. There are 2 portions to it. She passed one and missed the 2nd by only 2 points. She's scheduled a retake for this week and will get that knocked out. Today we spent some time putting up a tree upstairs in the theater room which really makes the room feel festive and cozy. In other news, Toni colored Caitlin's hair for her. She did what's called an "ombre". Her hair has some lighter sections but she told me that she wants to go full blonde in those sections. I think she looks very pretty. :)

This week is going to be extremely busy. Toni has a Doctor appointment tomorrow and I have a follow up for my kidney stone on Thursday. This year has been very strange but I can't believe sometimes how fast it's gone. 

What A Week..

 

This week was a weird one... Sunday night started out good. We went to take our shooting test for our concealed handgun license. I shot a perfect score of 250. Toni shot a 242. I was really proud of her especially considering that it was only her second time shooting! During the week I wasn't feeling too good. My back was hurting and and on Tuesday night it really started hurting for a couple hours but then cleared up. I had called an online doctor and they decided that I had pulled a muscle and gave me a prescription for some pain killers. The next day I had no pain and then on Wednesday night I passed a kidney stone.. I was able to retrieve it and on Friday I went to the Doctor. They are sending the stone to the lab to analyze it to see what it's made of. Once they know that, I'll have a better idea of what food I can't eat. In the meantime, I'm drinking as much water as I can. 

This weekend Emma and I decided to sit down and cleanup an old computer I had picked up at a yard sale. It was nice spending time together cleaning it up. As you can see, the computer came out really nice. Since we have no way to test it, I'll probably list it on eBay but it was cool to spend time with her. We also started decorating the house and it's looking really nice. I love decorating for Christmas. It always makes everything seem so much happier. Other than that, Toni is taking her last class before next weekend when she'll be taking her Real Estate exam. I think she's going to do really well. 

Next week is Thanksgiving which doesn't seem possible. Unfortunately with the pandemic, we'll be staying home. We need to go get some stuff to make Thanksgiving dinner. We'll probably have some Zoom calls with family which will be nice. I hope everyone is staying safe and has a great Thanksgiving!

Midland Vacation

This week Toni and the girls went to Midland so Toni could help out with another apartment complex. They were able to stay in one of the townhomes and do their schooling remotely which was nice. They weren't around other people so they we safe from Covid which was definitely a good thing. They had a nice mini-vacation. I stayed home with Elsa and was on call this week. Thankfully there wasn't a lot of issues with on call until this weekend. Elsa did fine and has made Caitlin's room her room to sleep in. Every morning when my alarm would go off, she would come running into my room but never stayed in my room any of the nights. It's good to have the girls back from their vacation as the house was too quiet without them. 

This weekend on call has been annoying and I'll be glad when the next person takes over tomorrow. Today we might put up the Christmas tree and will be going this evening to take the shooting part of our Concealed Handgun License test. After this, it'll all be done and we'll just have to wait 6-8 weeks to get our licenses. Not sure how often I'll actually carry a weapon but it'll be nice to have the license. In other news, covid is officially out of control. We've hit over 160k cases and the number just keeps climbing. While there is a promising vaccine on the horizon, that won't be available to the general public until probably April. So until January, the current plan of just ignoring the virus and acting like it's not real will continue. I hope everyone is staying safe.

20 Years!!

Tuesday night marked a special day for me and Toni. It marked 20 years since we met! Looking back, it's crazy to think how much time has gone by! I'm so glad that things happened how they did 20 years ago and am so happy with the life we've built. I wouldn't change anything about the last 20 years and I hope the next 20 and beyond are just as good. 

This week was insanely busy. Toni had quite a few problems at work and ended up working late several nights. Toni and the girls are going to be going to Midland this week while I stay home and am on call for work. They're going to be staying in one of the townhomes at the apartment complex and the girls will be doing their school in the business office where Toni will be working. They won't really be around anyone so they'll be safe from covid. I think it'll be a nice getaway for them. As for covid, the country has now passed 100,000 cases for 4 days this week. Needless to say, it's pretty much out of control and even the scientists are saying that we could see 250k cases a day over the winter. Hopefully now that the election is over, the country will actually come up with a plan to deal with this. Biden has already started putting together a task force which should be good. Hopefully after he takes over in January the country will actually have a plan moving forward rather than denying both the situation and the science. The election took a few days to complete and I'm glad it's finally over. 

Yesterday Toni also dropped Max off with one of co-workers and if things work out, we'll probably let her keep him. It's been years of trying to work with him but he's still peeing in the house nearly every time we let him roam around in the kitchen which meant that we had to keep in in a kennel. Every time we would put him back in his kennel, he'd growl and snarl at us which was getting old. He also barked and whined all of the time which was getting really old with us being home all the time. The girls will still see him from time to time but for now, he's going to stay with Toni's co-worker. Elsa seems a little confused about why she doesn't have to stay in the kitchen anymore and seems to enjoy walking around the house. Last night she even slept in Caitlin's room. It was nice not to be woken up at 6:00 to a barking dog this morning.

This week should be busy. I'll be on call and Toni and the girls will be in Midland for 3 days. Toni has also scheduled her real estate test for 11/28 which is exciting. Next Sunday Toni and I are going to the shooting range to take the shooting portion of our concealed carry handgun licenses. We've done everything else for the license so once we finish this, we just need to submit the documents to the state and wait to get our licenses. This is something we've been talking about doing for at least 3 years and I'm glad we're finally going to be done. I hope everyone has a great week and stays safe. 

Happy Birthday Toni! 49!!

 

This week we celebrated a major milestone for Toni. We celebrated her 49th birthday! We stayed home but we got her a necklace that the girls picked out for her and a Scentsy warmer. I also had my friend's wife make Toni a cake which came out awesome! We also had a dinner delivered for Toni which she also enjoyed. On Wednesday we got our new fireplace component shelf delivered which looks nice in the theater room. On Thursday Toni had an appointment and went and voted. Other than that we just stayed home. 

Yesterday was Halloween but we didn't do anything for it. Most of the street was pitch black and not a lot of people seemed to be giving out candy. With the coronavirus continuing to get worse, I think a lot of people are opting to stay safe. Cases have hit nearly 100k and there's no end in sight. Hopefully that will change with the election next week. I don't think things could get much worse at this point. I'm going to keep things short this week but I hope everyone is staying safe. 

It's A Major Award!

 

This week Toni won 3 awards at her job for her property including 1 for Community Manager of the Year for 2019! We're very proud of her! Unfortunately due to Covid, she wasn't presented the award as she normally would have been. These were just given to her at the office but I still think receiving them is still nice. At least she's being recognized for all of her hard work. This weekend is her last weekend of classes for her real estate exam. I think November is going to be busy for us. We're going to go test for our Concealed Handgun License and Toni is going to test for her real estate license. Should be a busy month.

Yesterday the weather got a little colder which was nice. It actually felt a little bit like October. Things with the virus unfortunately are getting worse. On Friday the country passed 80k cases for the first time ever. Yesterday was lower but still was the 2nd highest day ever. Things definitely aren't going in the right direction. I have a really bad feeling about winter this year and I think we're going to be staying home for the holidays and having FaceTime calls with family. I hope everyone is staying safe!