Well, my dentist appointment went well until I looked up and saw my doctor:

Ha! My brother Caleb works at the office as a dental assistant. Apparently, he and Nathan had quite a fantastic time while I was under the metal pick. 😉

We had a fun weekend, all in all! Saturday, we woke Nathan up two hours earlier than he usually wakes up so we could put him down for a nap two hours earlier. And it worked! We went with our dear friends to the opening game of the University of New Mexico Lobos.

I love that it’s football season! We had the best time. That stadium has so many fun memories for me and Jon – we met while he was playing on the team. I used to show up HOURS early to the games just so I could say a quick 30-second “Hi!” to Jon while he was out on the field warming up.

Such fun memories!

After the game we went back to Thomas and Eryn’s house to watch more football. The kids and Eryn and I left about halftime – and it really worked out great! Nathan and Evie had the best time playing together afterward. Once the guys got there, we all ate dinner and the kids played a little while longer before we packed our exhausted boy up and took him home. 🙂

 Sunday was my dad’s birthday. I’m so blessed to have such an amazing father! I don’t even know where to start when it comes to how much I love my dad. I love what a good dad he still is to me and what an amazing Pops he is to my son. The day started really well – we played and swam and then right about dinner time, Nathan started just not feeling well, poor baby.

I think we all have the same thoughts about a sick Nathan – it’s awful, but we aren’t going to pass up the cuddliness that comes with it. 😉 Love this picture! We ended up leaving earlier than we thought last night and our Labor Day is now looking a little different as well. Bless his heart.

I am SO ready for fall – bring on the pumpkin spice lattes, the sweaters and boots!!

Jon had class tonight, so Nathan and I entertained ourselves while waiting for Daddy to get home after bath time by playing around with the camera on my phone.

Bless his heart. We just have no fun together.

I also got this video of him and had to share it. His little voice just cracks me up! Ha! 🙂

 Then Daddy came home and joined in the fun.

I absolutely, positively, cannot express in words how much I love my boys.

Y’all.

I might die from an overdose of these things. Not only can they be made gluten and dairy free, but they are DELICIOUS and I have eaten more than I should have eaten in a two week period in the last 16 hours.

So sorry for the blog absence this week. I love busy weeks but at the same time, I feel like they fly by so fast and I don’t get to enjoy any part of them.

On Wednesday, Jon came home, rang the doorbell and when Nathan opened the door, we found these two guys sitting there:

Nathan was SO EXCITED. He is going through a major dinosaur crush right now along with the cars. I won’t see him for 30 minutes and he’ll be sitting in the playroom, playing with his cars, totally and completely happy.

It is so cute.

We also have been saving up for a few months because my boy is quickly outgrowing his car seat and I feel like that’s just one of those things that we can’t not purchase. So, he got a new car seat this week that will hopefully be the last one we ever buy him because it turns into a booster seat. We had to try it out in the living room first, of course. 😉

Seriously? It was just last week that we were putting him in his “new car seat” and taking a few pictures to show what a big boy he was:

We spent Saturday playing around the house and we had a little picnic in the yard for lunch. Nathan could not get over that we were eating outside. He kept saying, “It’s a party! This is a great party! I like our party!”

When we came back inside for nap, I asked him if he had fun on the picnic and he said, “Well, I call it a party.” Ha! 😉

Mom and Dad graciously watched him for us on Saturday night and Jon and I had a little date night. It was so nice. We were needing some time to talk over some of the stuff going on right now without Nathan interrupting every few seconds. 😉

I’d say we have a fun week to look forward to again, but our week includes a dentist appointment for me which automatically negates any fun the rest of the week could hold. Hope you all have a good week though!

I’m still working on this blog (I am so absolutely illiterate when it comes to HTML stuff), but we’re getting there! I was needing a new look. Especially considering the last header had a picture almost a year old. 😉 And my favorite, favorite, favoritest feature is I can now reply to your comments!! Yay!!

I had my post-op appointment yesterday and we got the all clear to move forward. My doctor did mention that my left tube was very scarred and may not be working properly, so we’re praying for no complications in future pregnancies, God willing.

Yesterday we took Nathan to his first baseball game where we sat in the stands and he LOVED it. Our dear friends Clint and Leigh Ann gave us the tickets and we are so thankful!! We had a great time!

We were definitely the obnoxious fans in Section 120. 😉 He paused like that for about 30 seconds going, “Ahhhhhh” before finally putting his cup in his mouth. Weirdo. 😉 He hit a point about 7:45 where he just lost all measure of normalcy and became completely hysterical. I’ve never seen a kid who cracks himself up so much. Everything I said, Jon said or he said made him dissolve into giggles. Ha!

The Isotope’s mascot is Orbit, who looks like this:

 I’m honestly not sure what he is. A dog maybe? Anyway, he’s a fun mascot. Nathan spotted him from across the field when we got to our seats and yelled, “THERE’S POOH!!” We finally convinced him his name was Orbit, so he started yelling, “Come on, Ohbit! Hit the beeball, Ohbit! WHOA, HOME RUN, OHBIT!!”

He even got to give “Ohbit” a high five. 😉

We let him take his baseball glove to the game and at one point he looked at me and said, “Oh, it Nennon’s turn to play beeball now.” Can you tell he’d gone off the deep end by the time I took the above picture? 😉

He had a complete blast. We had a fantastic time too.

Jon starts his Masters degree program tonight. I’m so proud of him but I think we are both dreading the next two years. He’s planning on doing as much of his homework as he can after Nathan is in bed, so I’ll have LOTS of writing time over the next many months!! I’m going to miss our nightly routine of snuggling on the couch, eating chocolate and watching Netflix, though. 🙁

We had such a crazy weekend. (Yes, I feel like I write this sentence every Monday.) Jon and I decided that next weekend, we are going to just stay home and do nothing because we have a very busy week lined up this week as well.

My brother Bryant’s birthday was on Saturday, so Jon went to go play football with him and a bunch of other guys, including Clint. Leigh Ann decided to go for a walk since the guys were gone all morning.

Nathan just can’t stand Hayley Grace. 😉

Afterward, we went over to Gammy and Pops’ house and Nathan spent his entire nap time throwing everything out of his bed and talking to himself. We finally just gave up on him going to sleep and I resigned myself to a child who had stopped napping, but he’s napped fine yesterday and today. Thank you Lord!

Me and the birthday boy. I looked at this picture later and realized I need wrinkle cream and acne solution. Ah the joys of the late twenties and the result of a lifetime without sunglasses. I started wearing them the day I turned 25 when I noticed crows feet already sunk in my head.

“Nennon” and “Bynie”. Nathan adores his uncle. 🙂 With good reason – Bryant spends the majority of his weekend doing everything and anything Nathan wants to do.

The glow from the cake – there’s comfort for me in knowing that I’m not the only sibling officially in my late twenties now. 😉

There was some confusion that only the birthday boy was going to be able to eat cake. Nathan MELTED DOWN. He kept saying, “No, it Nennon’s birday!” and we said, “No, it’s Bryant’s birthday.”

My distraught boy. He must get the emotional stuff from his daddy.

So sad. Again, the drama definitely comes from his daddy. 😉

(Anyone who knows me and Jon personally knows that one of my biggest complaints about my husband is that he is almost TOO level-headed. Sometimes, there is a DISASTER at the house and I want/need him to react with the emotions that I am experiencing as well.)

(On second thought, that might not be a good thing.)

We finally figured out that Nathan thought he wasn’t getting cake, told him that it was Bryant’s birthday, but he could still have cake and all was much happier. Goose. All of this was proof that the baby still needs a nap, I think. 🙂

 He conked out on the way home. He was so tired. He stayed asleep the whole time transferring from the car to the bed and when he laid him down, we needed him to sit up to adjust his pillow and he flopped forward, still dead asleep. Ha!

Sunday, Nathan got to swim with his good friend Evie. And they got to eat popscicles in the pool.

It was a good weekend. 🙂

None of my thoughts are currently cohesive enough for an actual, flowing post, so I’m going to just write a random list instead. It’s August. It’s still hot out. My brain is already in cold weather mode, so I’m a little thrown off.

1. Yesterday I was attempting to do a small workout after Nathan woke up since I’ve been feeling pretty much back to normal. I was laying on the floor doing crunches and Nathan said, “Oh! Oh, here, Mommy!”, dragged a pillow off the couch and shoved it under my head when I was crunching up.

He’s got the right idea. It is much nicer to come back to down to a soft pillow rather than the floor. Not sure it worked my abs as well though.

He’s very into “bewuds” (beards) lately in the bathtub. I think he looks like a lumberjack. 😉

2. I am so ready for fall it isn’t even funny anymore. I cannot, cannot, cannot wait for the weather to get cold so I can finally drink my hot coffee in the mornings without feeling like I’m about to melt into a little puddle. And pumpkin. I am very ready for pumpkin desserts. And scarves. And boots.

3. Speaking of desserts, I’m actually doing pretty good on sticking with my new thing of no wheat, dairy (wrote “diary” here first. I’ve been good about staying away from my diary too), or red meat in an attempt to keep the endometriosis under control. I still have my half and half in my coffee every morning. It was starting to affect my relationship with the Lord to sit there and drink coconut creamer while I was trying to read my Bible.

I figure a little bit of REAL creamer can’t hurt that much.

4. I have decided that we need to have company over a few times every week. I have a to more motivation to dust when I know someone is coming into my house. I’m usually pretty good with vacuuming just because we have a husky who loses his entire coat every day, but I just hate to dust. Nathan loves it thanks to a few times where I’ve been like, “Come child, help Mommy do this AMAZINGLY AWESOME THING.”

I am grooming him for chores someday very soon.

5. I’m approximately 1/4 of the way through Book 2 in my new series releasing soon. Can’t wait for y’all to meet Paige. 🙂

6. God has been bringing this verse to my head and heart often over the last few days: When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.” (Psalm 27:8) When we first learned we were pregnant, August was the month I was really looking forward to because we were supposed to be far enough along to find out what we were having. It’s hard to not become angry or bitter or full of complaints that we are instead back to trying to conceive.

7. Jon is going back to school to get his Masters degree. I’m so proud of him. However, neither of us are looking forward to evenings filled with the homework that has been threatened. I will likely finish a quilt that I’ve been trying to finish for the last six months though. 🙂

I think that’s all I’ve got! How about you? Random back-to-school thoughts on your end?

We have had one of those weeks where we were busy but I can’t for the life of me remember what all we did at the minute.

I miss caffeinated coffee.

On Wednesday morning, we met Eryn, Evie, Gracie, Clint, Leigh Ann and Hayley at our Chick Fil A for their free breakfast special. Nathan and Evie had a fabulous time feeding each other the chicken minis.

 I love those two.

I’ve been trying to be more proactive as far as having actual “learning time” with Nathan. He’s getting old enough to where he’s picking up so much so quickly and I feel like if I make the time to really teach him his ABCs and colors rather than just sing them in the car, he might enjoy learning them. 🙂 So, we picked up some flash cards on sale at Walmart and so far, he’s been enjoying them for .007 seconds before he wants to play with his cars or read books again. 😉

I have a deadline for the second novel in the new upcoming Paige series on December 1st, so that’s been taking up a lot of my free time lately since I got a little ways behind of where I wanted to be with everything that happened this summer.

Friday night we met Clint, Leigh Ann and Hayley for an impromptu dinner at Rudy’s. The kids were hilarious.

I really hope that Nathan someday comes up to me and thanks me for surrounding him with all of these beautiful girls. 😉

Then Saturday, we celebrated my parents’ 30th anniversary. We made them a fajita dinner and got them this wine barrel sign. I was so happy the sign turned out so well!

One of Nathan’s favorite parts of every weekend – eating popsicles in the pool with Pops. He was shocked when Caleb ate a popsicle inside the other day and kept saying, “Eating it out of the pool?” like “I did not know that was possible!” Ha!

My baby boy. I do not think I could love him any more. He’s the sweetest, funniest, goofiest, most aggravating child I know. 😉 Two is going to be a very interesting year!!

We’ve been doing a lot of this lately:

Nathan is SO into cars right now! He’ll play with them for the entire morning, driving them around, lining them all up in a row, making sure they all get gas. 😉

It’s been very nice right now. It’s a good activity since I don’t have to really be up and hefting him around while he’s driving mini cars, giving me lots of down time. I’m pretty much feeling back to normal, save for a few times of soreness here and there. Thank you for praying!!

Love this kid. I love that he’s already got such a great imagination. 🙂

Yesterday was my parents’ 30th anniversary! I am so honored and blessed to have a mom and dad who love Jesus and love each other. I love them so much – I can’t imagine going through these last few months especially without them here. They are such examples to me and Jon. I’m so thankful for them. Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Thank you so much for the prayers! It sounds like the surgery went exactly like we were hoping and praying for. My doctor was able to get both of the cysts out without damaging my ovaries and she also found a lot more endometriosis that she cleaned out as well. I look like I got in a fight with a pocket knife though. 😉

I’ve been feeling okay. Very sore and moving pretty slow, but all in all, I’ve been doing well. Today has definitely been the best as far as how I feel! I’ve spent a lot of the last few days just watching the Olympics and taking it easy. The weirdest part of the recovery was the carbon dioxide pain in my neck, shoulders and ribcage – thankfully, that seems to have all dissipated today.

I’m so blessed to have family who takes such good care of me. 🙂

And I have to show you what Nathan was up to during the surgery:

Loves to work on things with Pops. 🙂

Thank you again for praying! We are blessed.

The surgery went well!  Her doctor was able to get the entire cyst out of the left ovary.  She said the ovary looks really good now.  The cyst on the right ovary had ruptured, but her doctor cleaned it up, as well as cleaning out the rest of the endometriosis.  There was a lot more endometriosis than her doctor had expected there would be, so the surgery was longer than anticipated. Her doctor was amazed that Erynn wasn’t in a lot of pain after seeing her insides.  Apparently, Erynn has a much higher pain tolerance than we had originally thought! 🙂

Erynn is home now and resting comfortably.  Thank you so much for all of your prayers.  Continue to pray for Erynn as she heals and focuses on the future.

God is good.

Susan – aka –  Erynn’s mom, Nathan’s Bimi or Mimi or Gammy  🙂