little brother graduates from high school. it's a really big deal.

this weekend was a whirlwind of graduation activities for my little brother.  i seriously can't believe in less than two months he will be moving away from home and off to college.  he may be bigger than me and playing college football next year, but he'll always be my little brother.

dinner celebration the evening before graduation.

my entire family.

congrats, little bro!!  i'm so proud of you!!

and you thought your family photos were bad...

TGIF, for reals, yo.  i swear this past week has felt like i worked for a month straight.  and to make matters worse, i burnt off part of my eyelashes (which are already growing back nicely, thank you very much) and was bitten by what has to be a monstrously huge spider because my whole left hand is swollen and red and hurts.

in honor of the weekend, we all need a good laugh.  these somewhat unorthodox family portraits were too funny not to share.  i wish i had time to dig around at my parents' house, because i'm pretty sure we have a ridiculous christmas photo somewhere.   if you have an insane family photo, send it to me and i'll post it here.

unless otherwise noted, all photos were found here.

my (fur) daughter has anger management issues. she may or may not get them from her mother.

with all the focus being on my mom, poor bailey's been neglected.  last night, quasi and i took her out to dinner with us on the patio of a restaurant.  because she was (surprisingly) so well-behaved, we decided to take her shopping to one of her favorite stores in the world - petsmart.  we let her peruse the stuffed animal and chew toy aisle, and she sank her little sharp teeth into her new favorite toy... meet mr. monkey:

 

please excuse her leash.  she has this thing with keeping it on.  i guess she likes to be prepared to leave at a moments notice.  anyways, here she is being all (unsuspectingly) sweet and nice with her new mr. monkey.  she was loving on him, cuddling with him, licking him, and even giving him sweet little kisses.  please notice her paw on mr. monkey's chest.  he is her man, and she doesn't like to share.

fast forward to 10 minutes later.  mr. monkey is now missing his nose.  bailey has apparently determined that  mr. monkey no longer has a need to use his olfactory senses.  i think she thinks she was doing him a favor.  plus, i'm sure she smells good enough for the two of them.

uh, oh.  not only does mr. monkey not need to smell, he apparently doesn't need his left arm either.  many of you may remember me discussing bailey's issues with men here - poor mr. mouse met such an early demise. seems like it was only fair for mr. monkey to follow suit.  i'm beginning to think that bailey is part black widow spider - female black widows kill their males after mating with them.  or maybe my baby girl just has an affinity for men full of stuffing.

update on my mom: thank you so very much for all of your words of comfort, thoughts, and prayers.  you all have been such a comfort to me.  my mom is doing slightly better than she was yesterday, which is a huge plus in my book.  her asthma and allergist doctors *think* she was reacting to the steroid treatments they had her on, so she's switching.  she's at home, but must be taken to see her asthma and allergist once a day and call in every couple of hours.  they also gave her two new medications: one for the angioedema (swelling) in her tongue and throat and one for her constant itching and hives.  i think she's taking 12 different meds at this point - all with the primary function to keep her breathing and keep her airways open!  they've got to constantly monitor her to make sure she doesn't have any further adverse reactions to all the medications.  we're taking things day by day right now, so please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

i hope to be back later with a new edition of take me back tuesday (TMBT)!!

my momma

 my momma and me a few years ago after my last collegiate soccer game

i hope everyone had a great weekend.  my mom is still felling really, really awful and she is having allergic reactions to the oral steroids the doctors have her on so her body is covered in hives and her throat and tongue are still swollen.  she's having trouble eating because her body is so out of whack, she's even reacting to her "safe" foods.  asthma and allergies go hand in hand, so now her asthma is giving her a lot of problems.  houston's air quality doesn't exactly help, so she has been looking to move either near national jewish hospital in denver or johns hopkins.  she is a patient at both hospitals which are stellar in the fields of asthma and allergies.  she's feeling really down and frustrated.

 it's killing me to see her go through this, and i feel completely and utterly helpless.  please, please continue to pray for her.  

while i have pretty severe food allergies, mine are nothing compared to my mom's.  she is essentially allergic to everything she eats, so she eats very small amounts throughout the day and is on a strict regiment of strong antihistamine medications.  living with severe food allergies and having had multiple anaphylactic reactions is terrifying to say the least, yet my mother is still the strongest, most positive, upbeat person i know. 

some people have asked me what exactly she is allergic to, and simply put: everything.  i know it doesn't make sense, but essentially we monitor her diet with the "parts per million" ppm.  as she's gotten older, we've had to decrease her threshold to "parts per trillion" or ppt.  she's primarily allergic to sulfites, which are preservatives found in everything and can also be naturally occurring. she obviously has to eat in order to sustain life, but she has to do so in small amounts, so as not to trigger a reaction - it depends on the quantity of ppms or ppts in the food she's eating.  it's all complicated and i won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say, it's trial and error sometimes, unfortunately.

i'm kind of frazzled right now, so the old woman kicking ass story with her cane will have to wait.  thanks for sticking around even while i have nothing to entertain you with.  i'll try to be back later today.

oh, and while we were in the hospital she made me promise to tell my blog bfffffs two things.  she was a liiiiittle out of it on all the drugs and oxygen she was receiving and made me promise: 

(1) i would post a pic of her looking all ET-like:

(2) she is convinced that hospital bed sheets smell like poop and she does NOT appreciate poopie sheets.  she just wanted you all to know.

thank you, i love you all, and i will beat you with my cane

i cannot thank you all enough for your prayers, thoughts, love, and support.  anaphylactic reactions and severe asthma are unfortunately a daily reality for my family.  it's beyond terrifying, so your prayers and words of comfort mean so much to me.  the one good thing that can come out of my mom's health situation are medical journal articles and studies bringing about awareness.  her case is such a rarity (only one other person in the u.s. has food allergies as severe as hers), making sure it is documented and studied is important.  my mom and i were released from the hospital late last night with lots of breathing machines and steroids, and now she's home and doing well.  my dad also came home from europe last night, so he was able to stay home from work today and be with her.  that means i'm back in the office.  ugh.

i seriously have so much blogging material from our hospital slumber party that i'll have to share with you later.  (i've got a crapton of work to catch up on.  i was working from the hospital on my phone and laptop as much as i could.)  just to give you a little preview of stories to come: 85 year old woman with a walker begins wielding it as a weapon on the male nurses.  i promise you, it's funny stuff.

and just to share a little family tidbit with you all: as of this past sunday, my little brother is officially legal and he's all grown up! it's still so weird to me that in a few short months he'll be leaving for college. my family and i live in the same city and are extremely close; his leaving will especially affect our 11 year old sister who calls her big brother her "best friend." here's one of the pics (we are doing some serious squinting in the sun) we took at the sunday lunch celebration after church (sans pops who was still in europe thanks to the volcano spewing ash all over the place):

my momma with her three babies

take me back tuesday: the denim and bunny dress makes its second appearance. this time it's with a cool old man and a little pumpkin.

remember the denim and bunny dress??  well, it's made it's comeback here at my grandparents' house while carving pumpkins.  and remember how one of my nicknames is "moody padoody"?  well, you can thank the gramps for that one.  he still calls me that to this day.

now, grandpa, you have to be very careful and precise.  i'm less concerned about you cutting yourself and more concerned with the perfection of my pumpkin.  i don't want you messing up my masterpiece, ya hear?

THIS right here in my grubby little hands is why i don't carve pumpkins.  pumpkin guts.

oh, and i really love your wallpaper, grandma.  tres chic.

looks pretty damn good, if i do say so myself!

take me back tuesday: sibling school days

ohhh the joys of "chapel" days where we had to wear our ties, blazers, and "nice" shoes.  my "nice" shoes were dr. martens.  and let me tell you, you were not suuuuuper cool unless you wore dr. martens.  why?  i don't know.  the shoes were an ugly, hot mess and seriously weighed about 3.4 pounds a piece.  no joke.  i was in 8th grade here (age 14), little brother was 7, and little sister was probably 6 months or so.  i had braces, a slicked back bun, a pleated khaki skirt, an oxford blue shirt, tube socks, a cool tribal-looking necklace, and a bow tie which was clearly not tied into a bow.  i was the essence of fashionable.  if only i were still so cool.

this photo was taken my senior year of high school.  my little brother was 10 here, and the little blondie in the front was 3.  you can clearly pick out who's italian in this family and who's swiss.  we're so multi-cultural.  because i went to an all-girls school, i cheered for one of our brother all-boys schools, and my family reluctantly faithfully came to nearly all of the sporting events at which i cheered.  a group of my guy friends always painted there bare-chested bodies; they did this even in 30 degree weather.  they got my poor, unsuspecting little brother on the let's-paint-ourselves-with-old-paint-that-won't-come-off-with-anything-but-a-brillo-pad bandwagon.

p.s. it's supposed to SNOW today.  SNOW.  in HOUSTON.  snow.  cuh-razy.

basketball, cockroaches, and a six month old meatloaf = my weekend

every friday night i go to my little brother's basketball game because i'm a good big sister.  this past friday, his teams lost by one single point, so it was a hard loss, but we all got over it in about 5 minutes.  partially because i was exhausted after his game and needed to respond to some work emails and partially because i'm just a lame ass, i headed home after his game.  i walked in my house to find this 3 inch long SATAN DEMON HELPER:

{after using half a can of scrubbing bubbles shower cleaner, i think i killed it.}

saturday night, my little brother and i went to the houston rockets basketball game with quasi-bf.  the rockets played the bulls and they lost and i cried but we still had a really good time and i think i got over that loss in 5 minutes, too.  i mainly had a really good time staring at other people.  i don't even try to hide the fact that i'm staring either.  seriously, large sporting events and gatherings are the best place to people watch.  it's kind of like airports, but even better because everyone's drinking so their true colors shine through.  drinking really brings out the stupid in people.  what i realized through my hours of people watching is that there are some REALLY weird people in my city.  like really weird.  i mean, i guess i'm weird to some extent, but i think i at least "look" normal and try to hide it sometimes.  these people didn't even try to hide their weirdness; they just let it all hang out.

the night consisted of the fifty year old drunk guy behind us telling my little brother at least twice a quarter how much he looked like "the werewolf dog kid from twilight."  to which i'd respond, "you watch twilight??  cool...?  me too."  he was obvi really cool in my book.  since i know y'all all like pictures, i'll show you one.

{little brother LOVED those noise maker things you'd bang together to distract the other team from making their free throws.  he loved them so much, he asked me if we could "sneak them out."  and i was all like "ummm, yeah, dude.  they're FREE."  and he said "no way!  that's awesome!!"  he's very easily entertained; i guess it's the little things in life...}

so after "sneaking out" the noice maker things, it was time to make our way home back through downtown.  this conversation took place on the way home, which happen to take three times the time it should have because quasi-bf insisted that "jazzy" - his bitch on his GPS - would get us around traffic and we'd get home faster... needless to say, she took us all over the effing city.  he says she senses when i'm in his car and does it just to piss me off.  anyways, we're all arguing over stats on one of the players, and i'm trying to tell them I'M right (because i am 98.9% of the time)...

quasi-bf: what's it like being perfect?

me: {smirking because he finally gets it} it feels good.  how does it feel to be a douchebag?

quasi-bf: stinky!  very very stinky!

little brother: y'all are seriously messed up...

we finally make it home, and i walk in and see THIS.  AGAIN!  SPAWN OF SATAN DEVIL HELPER BACK FROM THE DEAD!!

{it might have been a different one from friday night, but i swear they looked exactly the same.}

sunday was an absolutely gorgeous day.  finally.  we've needed something other than damp, cold rain.  my little bro stayed the night with me after the rockets game, so i had to drag him off my couch early sunday morning to meet my family at church.  after church i knew i had to take advantage of the nice weather.  i hadn't gone for a good run in forever because the weather's been so crappy and my asthma's worse in cold weather, so i decided today would be a good day to ease back into it a do a 6 mile.  i just got a new running belt to hold all of my shit in case of emergency, running shoes, and some cute running clothes, so i was ready to use them.  cute clothes and new shoes are the point of running, right?  exactly.  anyways, i decided i would warm-up for a mile with a walk/jog and take my little meatloaf.  she was so stoked and actually did pretty well on the leash.  minus the whole sniffing another dog's butthole.  this is my little meatloaf after our short mile warm-up.  she couldn't hack it with me, and i'm pretty sure i'm not going to make a running partner out of her.

* sidenote about the satanic cockroaches: i was so freaked out about seeing two devil helpers two nights in a row, i did some research to figure out what was making them come in my home.  i discovered that temperature and climate changes often make them (them = satan helpers) enter homes.  you can guaran-damn-tee i will be duct taping any crevices that they would be able to get in to and calling someone to spray using green chemicals, if they make such a thing.

back to reality (kind of)

christmas came and went like one night stand, and now it's back to reality for most of us.  i'm not quite back in reality yet, though because I.HAVE.THIS.WHOLE.WEEK.OFF!! :) i know, it's okay to be a little jealous.  but don't worry, next monday morning's going to be a rude awakening for me and i'm already dreading it... anyways, enough of that.  i hope everyone had the merriest of christmases and enjoyed their time with friends and family.  i definitely did, and i'm extending my little vacay through this week and getting stuff done that i never have time to do while i'm working and taking care of my fur baby - i.e. lots of kickass classes at the gym with some of houston's hottest housewives (i keep thinking, if i could just be a housewife for the rest of my life, i would have the best damn body!), shopping and errands (even though my bank account hates me right now), meeting up with old friends, lots of walks and play time with bailey boo, laying around watching terrible tv, reading some new books i got for christmas, getting my nails and hair did, etc.  you get the idea.  it's going to be a great week, i can tell.

my little gremlin, bailey, on the other hand, isn't so stoked about this week.  she thinks it's so great that her mommy's home and playing with her all day, but little does she know, she's having surgery tomorrow morning.  you know "down there" kind of surgery - the kind of surgery that will prevent her from having other little gremlin babies.  i have to be honest with you guys, i know dogs are neutered/spayed everyday and vets know what they're doing, but i am kind of freaking out.  not only are they cutting her open and she's going to get stitches on her cute little tummy, but she has to stay over night all alone in a strange place!!!  :(  i'm really having anxiety about the whole thing and kind of nervous and worried.  i know she's going to be fine, but it still worries me.  i'm going to have to be a brave mommy tomorrow.  i can't imgaine what a wreck i'll be when i have kids!! 

i'll let you know how it goes tomorrow, and in the meantime i'll leave you with this little photo of my little brother, my little gremlin, and me with a cute boston terrier ornament from christmas morning:

{we're still working on how to take pictures with her.  she doesn't quite get it yet.}

"he is obviously doing drugs!!"

{text from my mom: your brother just bought this for himself.  he is obviously doing drugs!!}

the 411 on my christmas style

i saw this fun little christmas survey over at cee's blog, curiousity. (thanks, cee!)  you should do it, too - just copy and paste it into your blog!

wrapping paper or gift bags?

wrapping paper for sure (unless it's not able to be easily wrapped with paper, then i use a gift bag).  i actually like wrapping presents; i think it's because i love putting on the bows.  this year, however, wrapping has been a little more difficult as my little meatloaf, bailey, likes to "help."

real tree or artificial?

REAL, fo sho.  i'm not against fake trees, though.  my parents have a gorgeous big, blue spruce with pine cones on it, and it's fake and i love it.  you just can't beat to smell of a fresh cut christmas tree.

when do you put up the tree?

whenever i have time to go and buy it, honestly.  but it's NEVER before thanksgiving, though.  you all know how i feel about christmas decorations before thanksgiving.  no one wants a premature baby, do they??  the correct answer is "no."  the same should be true about premature christmas decorations.  i wish people would stop making thanksgiving the red-headed step child.

when do you take the tree down?

my grandma tells me christmas decorations should be taken down on the epiphany, which is january 6th.  (funny story sidenote: my little sister's birthday is on january 7th.  my grandmother was secretly hoping she'd be born on the 6th so we could call her tiffany of the epiphany.  my little sister was not born on the 6th and her name is not tiffany.  it's always a catholic thing with my grandma.)

do you like eggnog?

love it, but i'm allergic to milk so i can't drink it :(  i know they have soy milk eggnog, but i'm also allergic to soy, though less so than i am to milk.  so unless it comes in goat's milk or something else, eggnog is a no for me.

favorite gift received as a child?

hmmm, well one year i got a ton of trolls.  i think i was maybe 7 years old, though my memory is questionable.  do y'all remember those??  i seriously had a troll-themed christmas and got anything and everything troll.  i was so stoked.  looking back, those troll dolls really creep me out.  i don't know what i was thinking.  another year (my freshman year of high school) i got a king-sized bed and new bedding.  it was an awesome surprise because i had been begging my mom for a bigger bed and new bedding.

hardest person to buy for?

quasi-bf hands down.  it's difficult to shop for a guy who literally has everything, and he's ridiculously picky which doesn't help.  plus, i can never outdo or upstage the gifts he gets me.

easiest person to buy for?

probably my mom.  she pretty much makes a list of things she wants/likes.

do you have a nativity scene?

not my own, but i realllllly want a willow tree nativity set.

mail or email christmas cards?

mail, duh.

worst christmas gift you ever received?

omg.  okay, i will never forget this WORST gift as long as i live.  this little treasure was from a guy i dated freshman year of college.  he was from new mexico.  i tried to act as excited as i possibly could.  thing was, he didn't even make it.  he bought it from some thrift store back home.  i even had to hang it up on my wall in my dorm.  i gave it back to him after we broke up. 

favorite christmas movie?

elf.  obsessed.  i watch it with my little brother and little sister every year.  i also really like the old school christmas story with the kid in the pink, fuzzy bunny pajama suit.  i recently saw the movie four christmases and i didn't really expect much out of it, but i loved it and thought it was hysterical.

when do you start shopping for christmas?

typically on black friday.  it's tradition for my mom, little brother, and i to go out every year.  my brother's really just there to stand in line; he's always halfway asleep anyways.  we have a system.  i'm usually all done with my shopping by mid-december.  i did a lot online this year, which was nice.

have you ever recycled a christmas present?

not until this year actually and it was kind of accidental.  here's the story... my admin assistant owns four cats.  she's obsessed with cats.  anyways, she submitted a photo to some calendar company about two years ago.  a couple of months ago she received ten cat calendars and a letter telling her that her cats were featured on one day in the "365 days of cats!" calendar.  she was so freakin' stoked, you have no idea.  just in case you see the calendar at a kiosk in your mall, her cats are on july 23.  i know this because she says it ALL.THE.TIME.  i shouldn't judge, i'd probably be the same way if my little nugget made it in a calendar.  anyways, as you may have guessed by now, she gave me a "365 days of cats!" calendar for christmas.  she knows how much i hate cats.  i thanked her of course and told her how much i needed a new calendar at home (which is true, i do need a calendar at home, just want one with 365 days of rob pattinson, though).  i ended up giving the calendar to this little old lady at my church who loves cats.  she cried.  that's how much she loved the calendar.  i felt like i had done a good deed, so in this case it's okay.

favorite thing to eat at christmas?

sugar cookies.  mmmmmm. 

lights on the tree?

no, i leave it naked and bare. then i stick it in the corner and cover it with a sheet. (...) duh, of course i put lights on the tree. white lights.  what the hell kind of question is this?? 

favorite christmas song?

oooh, this is one of my favorite parts about christmas.  i have tons of favorites.  i love anything by frank sinatra or any other members of the rat pack crew.  i really that song "mary did you know?"  kind of reminds you of the whole point of christmas.  i absolutely love church during the christmas and advent season.  our church has gorgeous decorations and we start singing christmas hymns the sunday after thanksgiving.  i pretty much love love love all of the traditional christmas hymns.

travel at christmas or stay home?

my family usually travels - either colorado to go snow boarding or austin or dallas to be with family.  this year we're having christmas at my parents which is soooo nice and stress-free.

can you name all of santa's reindeer?

yes.  if this is a contest, i'll win.  i love winning.

angel on the tree top or a star?

i have neither on my tree.  i have these sparkly flower things.  i couldn't get the huge ribbon/bow to stay on!  boo!

open the presents christmas eve or morning?

we open one present on christmas eve and the rest on christmas morning.  oh, and SANTA COMES CHRISTMAS MORNING!  his presents aren't wrapped and he has really bad handwriting like he writes with his left hand when he's really right-handed.  hmmm... so tricky, that santa.

most annoying thing about this time of the year?

TRAFFIC and crowded malls.

favorite ornament, theme, or color?

red and gold.

favorite for christmas dinner?

dinner?  how about dessert?  my grandma makes this special cinnamon sugar pinwheel things that i can eat for days, seriously.  i can't really explain them, but for someone who can't eat most of the desserts (damn allergies), these are my one piece of sweetness!

what do you want to do for christmas this year?
this.

favorite christmas tradition growing up?

eating cookies and reading the christmas story from the bible before bed on christmas eve night and then waiting for santa to come!

and here are some pics of my christmas decorations!!