dad update.

As I stated in my last blog entry, my dad had heart bipass surgery this week. He went into surgery yesterday morning. So far everything has been fine. He got out of surgery around 1 p.m. and they were able to bipass all the arteries they wanted. Later in the afternoon they decided that the fluid draining from the surgery was too bloody so they had to go back in to clean up the surgery site a bit more. Since then the bleeding has cut down substantially. 

He was on a respirator yesterday,  but they've taken him off now and he's breathing on his own & able to take healthy, deep breaths. The next steps for today are to hopefully get him moving around some more and eating real food. Also, his pain has gone down substantially from yesterday, but he's still not very talkative. He's responsive to the doctor's questions and my mom, but just not talking much himself. 

Now comes the healing stages. He'll have to take 3 months off of work to work on healing, making sure his heart doesn't atrophy (aka doing lots of cardio), and healing the bones that had to be broken. 

Looks like it's going to be a hectic summer for all of my family. I'm moving to North Carolina at the end of July, but before that my sister is graduating from high school in May, we have to go apartment hunting, and my dad will be recooperating from this whole ordeal. 

I have to thank everyone who has really stood by and given their thoughts and prayers to my family. I love you all. 

san diego.

I'm currently in San Diego with Andy and my family right now. It's a vacation/scoping out possible grad schools trip that has mostly been vacation. Been here for a couple days now - been to the beach, the zoo, the aquarium, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and the Gaslamp district downtown which means there are lots more pictures to come. I return home next Tuesday, so for the rest of my time here there will be a whale watching trip, visiting family, and maybe a bit of geo-caching with a family friend.

Although being here reminds me a bit of my graduate school state of limbo currently (haven't heard from any of my schools, yes or no, yet), I still think I needed a little bit of vacation so I wasn't just in front of my computer waiting, waiting.

Eve of the New Year

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with family and friends. I spent mine home with my family and luckily Andy was able to fly up for a few days to spend Christmas with me. Christmas is always one of my favorite times of year and getting to spend it with Andy for the first time since we've begun dating was a Christmas wish come true.

On Christmas Eve we ended up taking a carriage ride and spent the afternoon playing with horses and dogs on the farm. It was a great time and the weather was so nice - warm and clear. It was a perfect way to spend the afternoon. After an always satisfying home-cooked meal, we headed out to see the lights around the neighborhood. Viewing lights on Christmas Eve is a Christmas tradition we've celebrated since I can remember, and is also one of my favorites. Then of course, it's time to wait for Santa and head to bed! I had a great Christmas and got some great stuff including a TomTom GPS for when I (hopefully) head off to California for school. 

Andy has since gone home this his family for the New Year. Tonight my parents are having some friends over for food, fun, and games. I don't have much plans myself. I may just hang around here for the night like I did last year. I'm not much for staying up for the New Year - I get far to sleepy now that I've programmed myself into a sleep schedule for work and school. I'm sure it'll be a good night no matter what I do.

I hope everyone has a great New Year with good fortune, health, and wellness. Happy New Year~

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve from west Texas! 

I'm back "home" for the holidays here in west Texas with my family. My grandma, aunt & uncle are also visiting us along with Andy for super full and fun Christmas. I think every sofa, bed, and air mattress are full of bodies this year.

For me Christmas Eve is even better than Christmas itself! It's the closest you get to Christmas every year so you still have all the festivity and excitement left ahead of you plus every year we have great traditions for preparing for Christmas. So far today as been a fun, festive day. The morning started out with everyone pitching in to get some of the dishes for tomorrow prepared to be popped in the oven for a quick fix for dinner. 

The weather has been very nice the past couple of days so we all headed out in the afternoon for a horse-drawn carriage ride which was a total blast. I haven't downloaded the pictures from the trip yet, but I hope to have them soon to introduce all my new furry friends. 

For now we're all back home waiting for dinner and then once it begins to get dark we'll load up our caravan of people and hit the town to take in all the wonderful Christmas lights - which is one of my favorite traditions! Once we get home it's time to hang up the stockings and wait for Santa to come visit. Christmas is almost here!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday with family and friends and the ones they love. Merry Christmas!!

weekend getaway.

This weekend, Andy and I took Friday off and headed down to Austin to meet my parents for a weekend of fun in the sun. We spent Friday at Schlitterbahn which is a waterpark just outside of Austin and is tons of fun. 

This picture pretty much sums the day up. Lots of floating around lazily to avoid the extreme Texas heat. Schlitterbahn is actually made up of three different parks. The water of one, the original park, is supplied completely by the river that runs through the small town. There's even a intertube ride that takes you out onto the river for a short float. It's kind of chilly, but it's so much fun. The other two parks are more new and full of more thrilling rides like water slides. Anyway, we had a great time. At the end of the day we were all pretty tired. But not too tired to head back to Austin and check out the famous bat fly out from the South Congress St. Bridge. These bats live under the bridge all summer long and make up the largest urban bat colony in the world. It's really quite exciting to see them all fly off down the river at dusk. We were below the bridge, but here you can see all the people standing on the bridge as the bats take off.  A quick shot of underneath the bridge where you can see some of the bats flying around underneath the bridge before they take off down the river on their nightly hunt.

The weekend was a blast. It went by way too fast and I can't believe my parents have already headed home. This week is already bound to be busy. My new roommate is moving in this weekend and then on Monday I have my GRE exam. I'm just trying to get all last minute cleaning and studying in. Wish me luck.

deep violet.

I had to share these slippers because they are just the most gorgeous shade of purple. This brand of yarn comes in the most wonderful shades of colors and I can't wait to get a chance to buy a few more to make slippers from. These, which I named Deep Violet, are from the same brand and in the same style as my Charcoal mary janes that I made I few weeks back. The classic style of these mary janes is definitely growing on me. 

Of course these mary's and many more can be found in my etsy store along with lots of other crochet goodies for you and your home.

In more personal news, my parents are coming down this weekend. Andy and I are planning on meeting them in Austin for a weekend of shopping and watery fun. The plan is to spend a day at Schlitterbahn which is one of the most fun filled theme parks I've been too. The rest of the time will be spent enjoying the unique shopping and eating that Austin has to offer. I can only hope the weather  behaves itself. The past couple of days have been rain filled because of tropical storm Edouard.  I'd just rather be wet because of the water rides and not water falling from the sky. Anyway, I'm just excited about seeing my parents because I haven't seen them since March when they came to visit last. I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures and fun stories to tell afterwards.