Swine Flu Go Away

It's not that Howie's not coming to the Gala or that I still need 400 people to buy tickets three weeks before the big day but the Swine Flu that is keeping me up at night and giving me nightmares. With all the news coverage and chatter I'm having nightmares that Conner, Aaron or me or the entire ballroom will be empty becuase they've come down with the Swine Flu - I've also run the scenario that we don't have enough workers. One of my co-workers told me that the store was out of antibacterial! AHHH! Swine Flu please go away!

This Gala season has been one challenge after another. A couple of weeks ago we found out that Howie was unable to attend. We've managed to secure Frank Calliendo last minute, thank goodness. Now we have to print postcards, notify guests and on, on. Two weeks and two days and we still have a number of seats to fill to meet our goal. I knew this year would be a challenge but sometimes I think it's just cursed.

On a more positive note, I found an awesome Gala dress and expect it to be here in a couple weeks!

Easter

We've had a really busy past couple of weeks. Grandma and Grandpa Wilson came to Denton for Easter. They were able to attend the annual Wilson Easter Egg Hunt this year. We had a couple of practice runs for Easter Egg hunting before going to the park. Conner had a blast picking up the eggs and REALLY enjoyed eating the candy. On Sunday we spent the day at the Bacons and had another Easter Egg hunt. Grandma and Grandpa Wilson offered to take Conner to Corpus for the week so with our busy schedules decided to take them up on their offer. The Center had an event at the Dr. Pepper Ballpark yesterday in honor of National Child Abuse Awareness month. We were a little worried about the rain but it ended up being perfect baseball weather by the time we arrived. Aaron and I drove to Austin today to meet my parents and pick up Conner. I have to give big props to the grandparents as Conner is now using the potty! Way to go Conner and way to go grandparents! I never thought I'd see the day. Here are a few pictures to catch you up with the last couple of weeks.
Wilson Easter Egg Hunt

Conner Dancing

Bluebonnets on the way home from the Bacons

Easter at the Bacons (Bri, Noah and Conner)

The Terrible Two's

We have officially hit the terrible two's. Conner has been introduced to time out in the last couple of weeks since it seems to be our best tool at curbing the terrible two behavior. He gets really frustrated and demands our attention immediately, and if he doesn't get it, well let's just say he goes from sweet to terrible in a blink of an eye. This morning I was getting breakfast ready to start and he wanted to sit on the stool and help me make pancakes. I guess I wasn't moving fast enough for him because you would have thought the world was coming to end with the crying and screaming. We are still working on potty training and resorted to bribery today. I love chocolate!

I'm officially in Gala panic mode - six weeks and counting. When we get this close to the event there is never enough hours in the day. Invitations were to be mailed two weeks ago. Our graphic designer created a 7 x 7 invitation and picked out paper that was out of stock and we could not find an envelope to accommodate. After several emails, phone calls and compromise with our printer we've managed to track down some paper and envelopes and made some adjustments to get them printed. The invitations should be printed and mailed this week. We had to find a new graphic designer unexpectedly as well but looks like we've found some one to create our final piece, the auction program. We are trying to wrap up the details of our twelve live auction items. Aaron and I picked up one last week, a "Legends Guitar" valued at $33,000. It is autographed by 24 musicians including people like B.B. King, Sting, Steve Vai, Keith Richards, Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix and so on I can't remember all of them. We are working to get a confirmation on value and hopefully raise a lot of money for it at the event. In addition we will be hand delivering the VIP sponsor invitations this week. I've managed to keep some what sane with working from home after Conner goes to bed, there is just not enough hours in the day. I still need to find a dress and have looked around some but still not sure what I will wear. I'm ready for Gala to come and go yet I'm wondering how in the heck I'm going to get everything done in the short amount of time we have left.

I attended the baby shower of Chelsie today, Aaron's cousin is due in May and having a little girl. Other than that we didn't do much today. I'm hoping Aaron can teach me how to play basketball tomorrow. We are having a team building day at work on Thursday, my team the "Underdogs" has a limited number of people who can compete in the activities and I understand this will be one of our competitions. I'd like to avoid making a complete fool out of myself so I've recruited a training coach. Wish me luck!

Longest Day Ever

Friday I was off so I could head to Houston to visit and meet Ms. Emily. I arrived in Houston mid-afternoon and as Erin promised she took me to my favorite restaurant there, Nit Noy - it was so yummy. Grandma and Grandpa watched Emily while we ate and went to the bar to have a couple of drinks. I went to sleep around midnight because I wanted to give Erin and Adrian some help while I was there and had agreed to take the morning shift with Ms. Emily. Erin woke me up around 6:30 am and I fed Emily and hung out with her. We decide to venture out to do some shopping on Saturday afternoon. Erin's Mom, Erin, Emily and I had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen and walked the mall. Emily slept most of the time but we took a later afternoon coffee break to feed Emily and have some coffee. We were all pretty tired after a couple of hours and headed back to Erin's folks. They were kind enough to make dinner for us and Erin took a short nap. Erin and I made it back to her place around 9 pm and that's when things started to go down hill.

Ms. Emily had been vomiting some over the weekend and after her last bottle Erin put her down and ought oh - she got sick. About the same time, Aaron called to tell me his Dad was on his way over to take him to the emergency room as he thought his kidney stone was back and was in severe pain. With Emily sick and running a slight temperature I couldn't decide if I should head home or stay. Erin's Dad headed over to her house to help out and I packed more less threw my stuff in my bag, made a cup of coffee and gave myself a mental pep talk that I could do this trip! I said my goodbyes, put my stuff in the car and made a quick departure.

I was waiting to hear from Aaron's Dad, Roy about what was going on with Aaron. A little after midnight he called and told me he had gall stones and they were going to get rid of them tonight. I called Granny B to let her know what was going on. Luckily for us, Conner had a weekend stay with Granny B and Papa John. Aaron called a little while later and told me it was a kidney stone not gall stones, oops - miscommunication. At that hour it's understandable. I made a couple of pit stops on the way home and arrived at the house around 4 am (22 hours and counting). I called Aaron and he was still waiting to hear something at the emergency room so I decided to head to the hospital to get Roy and bring him back to the house so he could get on home. About the same time I arrived they decided to send Aaron home with some prescriptions and he was about to start the paper work to be released.

I was so happy that sleep was right around the corner, I was just about to get ready for bed when Roy knocked at the door. His truck was dead! When it rains, it pours. We tried to jump his truck with no success so I told him to just take my car home and we'd work on it tomorrow or should I say later in the day. Aaron finally made it home around 5 am. We got some shut eye until about noon. Roy came by the house and Aaron and him worked on changing out his car battery. Moncia and Papa John brought Conner back home around 2 pm. He has another ear infection and has been on antibiotics since last week and for some reason had been running a fever all weekend.

We all took a late afternoon nap, had some dinner and decided we better call in a sick day tomorrow and work on getting everyone rested and healthy. I'm going to take Conner back to the doctor tomorrow and hopefully Aaron will get some much needed relief from his kidney stone.

I'm also happy to report that Ms. Emily is doing much better and think she may have some acid reflux. Thanks to everyone for the well wishes and being there to help. We are so blessed to have friends and family that are ready and willing to help out and be there when we need them.

Did I mention this was the longest day ever . . . .

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Aaron celebrated his 39th birthday this week. We waited until this weekend to celebrate. Friday night we met up with some friends at Matt's restaurant and then went to Lakewood Bar and Grill to listen to a Bon Jovi and Journey tribute band. It was a ton of fun and nice to get out. It took us the rest of the weekend to recover from the night out.

Aaron is on Spring Break this week and he's decided he is taking Conner to CiCi's one day this week. Other than that I'm not sure that they have any firm plans other than taking it easy and relaxing. You know we should all get a spring break!

Weekend Update

It was a beautiful weekend, the weather was perfect. Friday I got off a little early from work so I picked up Conner from day care. Aaron takes Conner to day care and picks up since it's on his way to work. Since the weateher was so nice we went to the park for a little while. On another note - have you ever seen the SNL "Mom's Jeans" commercial? At the park I actually saw a lady with 100% "mom jeans". She had pleated khaki pants pulled above her naval - I couldn't believe she was dressed that way - I'll chuck it up to her not owning a TV.

Saturday, my friend Stacy and I had lunch and went shopping. Sunday was Conner's birthday party. We put Conner in the bounce house and all he did was sit there emotionless. He didn't want to stand, crawl or anything. He didn't seem to be unhappy or scared but more trying to figure out what to do. Maybe next time he'll get to bounce. We had a few struggles with sharing with some of the other kids and the cars but that's to be expected at this age. All in all he seemed to have a fun time!

Busy Times

We've been busy the last couple of weeks. Weekend before last we went to the Stars game, I worked selling car raffle tickets and the Stars Foundation presented the Center with a check. Aaron was able to enjoy the game, unfortunately the Stars did not win. Noah celebrated his birthday the same day so Conner stayed over at the Cowley's for the birthday festivities. On Sunday we enjoyed the annual Chili cook off with the Boatwright's.

This past Saturday we did some organizing around the house and Sunday we went to the Arlington Home and Garden Show. Aaron and I have been talking about changing up some of the landscaping in the front of the house so we wanted to look at some of the different plants native to Texas. We came home with a rasberry and blueberry bush. We planted them Sunday afternoon and hopefully we will have some yummy berries this summer. Conner loves pancakes and we almost always have them on the weekends with some type of fruit in them - I can't wait to use our homegrown berries.

Work is keeping me extemely busy since Gala is just a couple of months away. Next week Neiman Marcus is hosting a Gala Dress Fashion Show for us so of course I need a great outfit to wear. I've recruited my good friend Stacy, also my trusted sytle guru to help me find something to wear this weekend. Last week I started a boot camp. We have a Boot Camp instructor coming to the office every Tuesday and Thursday at 4. The workout fits perfectly in my schedule, I just work through lunch and still get home in time to feed the family and hang out with the boys. I've been really, really sore but it is a good a sore since I know it's helping me lose weight and firm up. He doesn't yell at us like I had expected but he does push us to our limits and keeps us moving, running and working those muscles I didn't even know I had.

This Sunday we are taking Conner to a birthday party of a little boy who will be turning two. Aaron has connected with some old school friends through Facebook and turns out a couple of them have some kids the same age as Conner. I understand there will be some kids his own age and a bounce house. Should be a fun party! We haven't taken any pictures of Conner recently so I'll be sure to capture a few and post soon.