Chloe's Friend Birthday Party

Monster High themed cake. Surprise! Surprise!

 

 



 Chloe decided to have a slumber party to celebrate her birthday with her friends. I like the idea because it is cheap, but about 3-4 hours into the night, invariably, I always wish we had just had a few hour afternoon party somwhere and sent everyone home. Sigh! It is exciting for them to have their friends sleep over, so I try to take a deep breath and remember that when the kids are running around and screaming all afternoon and evening. Wow! I don't know how people do it with 4, 5, 6 young kids. I'd loose my marbles! But, Chloe had a fun night, and that's all that matters!

Make a wish...

The Tree

 

 

 

This is the waiting room at the transplant clinic at HCMC. It is a place that Corey and I spent a lot of time at following his tranplant. We had to go to the clinic three times a week for NINE weeks as part of his follow-up. Sometimes we looked forward to it because it was our only chance to get out, but most of the time it was just tiresome to have to drive all the way down to Minneapolis three times a week. But, if the drive was the only issue we had to deal with who were we to complain. The more we talked to people we would meet in the waiting room, the more we realized how lucky Corey was. It is almost unheard of to get a transplant without ever having to start dialysis. "How long were you on dialysis?" was a question Corey was asked frequently by the other patients who had received a transplant. Most of them were incredulous when he told them he had never been on dialysis. Lucky doesn't seem to be a big enough word to describe what had happened to us.

So, what's with the tree? This was just one wall of the waiting room. The tree and it's branches and leaves extended and grew over two other walls in the waiting room as well. Every single leaf represented someone who had received a kidney transplant and every acorn represented an individual who had donated a kidney. They used different colors for each month of the year. I would sit and stare at this thing and almost become overwhelmed with what it represented. Every week I would ask when we would get our leaf and acorn and then, one day, there we were.......

Don't Know Much Biology!!

Love these ladies!!

There is this scene from the movie Witness that I absolutely love! Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis dancing in the barn to the song I mentioned in the title of this post. "Don't know much about History, don't know much Biology, don't know much about the French I took, but I do know that I love you, and I know that if you love me too, what a wonderful world this would be!" Love it! So freaking sexy & romantic! And Biology just so happened to be the place we started at for our girls' night! Woot! Woot!

Every once in a while, you just need some girl time! It is really difficult to get all of our schedules to work. Most of us work every 3rd weekend, but not the same 3rd weekend. Then you throw in kids & family & other commitments and it's a wonder we are ever able to get a group of us together. And even when we are able to schedule something, it usually isn't "all of us" that are able to go out. Oh well! Take what you can get. I love these ladies! They make me laugh so hard that I cry! They make work fun & are always supportive! We had a great night out! Thanks for the memories ladies!!! I will not divulge any details of the night....you had to be there!

Chloe's 9th birthday

My sassy birthday girl!!

The girls getting drenched! They love it for some reason.

 

Enjoying the hot tub with my ladies!

 

Chloe posing for the camera. What a ham!!

Chloe is in love with Monster High dolls right now.

Make a wish sweetheart!

 

Don't even remember what present she was opening up here, but she sure seems excited!

Dinner at Space Aliens with Grandpa & Karin!!

And right after Christmas, (BAM) Chloe's birthday. It sneaks up on us. Every. Year. I had worked New Year's Day and toward the end of my shift was feeling so sick that I was barely able to finish out the day. I spent the next 2 1/2 days feeling like complete crap and sleeping. Great! The flu! I never get sick! And it knocked me on my a%#! Poor Chloe, I know she cared about how I felt, but she was so worried we were going to miss her birthday festivities because I was sick. She was constantly asking me if I was feeling any better. Luckily, by Friday I did feel about 75% myself and no one else had succumbed to the flu, so we were able to head out of town for Chloe's much-anticipated birthday celebration at Three Bears Water park. We had been there several years ago with Mike & Tracy and the girls loved it, so when we suggested it for Chloe's birthday, she was so excited! The girls had a blast riding the lazy river in their inner tubes, going down the water slides & getting drenched with the huge bucket of water that tipped over every 20-30 minutes or so. We spent the night and the girls had hours of fun both Friday & Saturday at the water park. When we got back into town, we went to eat at Space Aliens (birthday girl's choice) with Grandpa & Karin and went back to our house to have cake and open presents. It turned out to be a great weekend. I can't believe that my little baby isn't so little any more. She is a very sassy 9 and almost in double digits. We love you Chloe, sass and all!!

 

New Year's Eve 2012

DeNae, Troy, Heidi, Kibi, Heidi's sister Tracy & her husband

I worked New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. New Year's isn't my favorite holiday and I don't really feel too bad when I have to work them, but it was nice to sneak out after my shift on New Year's and enjoy an elegant meal at Nick's in downtown St. Cloud with some of my favorite people. What a nice night!!

Transiberian Orchestra--December 2012

We're excited for the show to start!

 

 

Corey and I have seen the Trans-Siberian Orchestra several times, but the girls have never gone. They tour every year and always have a date in the Cities. It had been several years since we had seen them, so we were excited that we were able to score awesome seats to their concert on December 29th at Xcel Energy Center.  We had 13th row floor seats! The girls loved it! It was an awesome show, probably the best show they've done. Rocking out to Christmas music and enjoying beautiful, powerful singers. The narrator that tells the story is fantastic! Can't wait to go again next year!!

Christmas 2012

The girls were just a little bit excited when they opened their iPads!! Their faces are priceless!

 

Chloe is in love with Monster High dolls right now!

My dad and Corey taking their turn

Is that a smile dear?

My sissy

Maggie and Corey watching the girls open their Santa gifts

This ham was out of this world good!!!!!

Baking cookies for Santa

Homemade rolls

A beautiful Christmas island

Chloe playing games with Grandpa

I love Christmas!! It is a hard time of year for me. The last time I saw my mom was on Christmas Day eight years ago. Those are my last memories of her. But this time of year is still beautiful to me even though it will always be touched with a bit of sadness. I love making the holidays magical for the girls. I was lucky this year and had over a whole week of vacation around Christmas. We had my dad and sister over on Christmas Eve for a delicious meal and to open presents and they both came over on Christmas Day for more food and games. I spoil the kids, but I can't help myself. They loved their gifts. I love spending the holidays with my family and friends! Merry Christmas!