colby's surgery

monday, december 28, colby had surger to repair a hole in his eardrum. he was not thrilled about this at all. i couldn't blame the little guy.

the nurse wrote 'no' on his left ear so the doctor wouldn't operate on the wrong one!

colby just kept mumbling, "i don't want to do this."

colby wasn't thrilled about having to wear this hat, either!

we didn't have to be at the surgery center that early, but for some reason we were both tired! so while colby was out, so were we!

it only took about an hour before they called us back to sit with him. when we first walked into the recovery room, a doctor or nurse {i couldn't tell.} was holding colby and he was squirming and crying. he didn't have any tears, but he was making this horrible sound. the man holding him said he was just confused and not to worry. the recovery area had recliners instead of beds, so i held colby until he was alert enough to drink some juice.

photo of the day

december 28, 2009

after we got some juice in him and put his clothes back on him we got to leave. he was still to disoriented to walk, so daryl carried him to the car. he slept the whole way back to grandma's. then he slept for a few more hours at her house.

when he finally woke up he was convinced it was no longer monday! it took about 30 minutes to make him understand it wasn't a new day. once that was settled, he was ready to play some band hero!

new year's eve

what better way to end the year than removing "head-wound harry's" bandage?

today was the day colby finally got to take that wrap off of his head and take a bath! the boy was getting pretty stale!

since we were staying in broken arrow for the week, daryl bought an antennae for our living room tv. i knew he couldn't make it a whole week with no tv! the main reason he got it, though, was he HAD to see the OU game today! he got it all hooked up, got the channels finally entered, and the sound wouldn't work on 2 of the stations. and guess what one of the channels was.......the one showing the OU game! LOL!!!!

thank goodness for the heinen family. they let daryl and spencer come over and watch the game with them. while they were doing that, colby and i had lunch with lisa at q'doba. {yum.} after that we had just enough time to go to an antique store and look around.

awesome clocks!

i just liked the arrangement of these old jewelry boxes.

after a delicious home-cooked meal prepared by wonderful me, our family bonded for many hours in front of the wii. there were some jam sessions by the rock monkeys, but mostly we played super mario for wii. that is the extremely fun, extremely frustrating latest version of mario brothers specifically for the wii. all 4 players are playing at the same time.

it took a while for us to get it together. we had a little trouble cooperating. some were too slow for others, some kept eating the other players, and some were pushing their teammates into boiling lakes of lava or off the edge of a cliff!

we finally retired the wii when it was getting close to midnight because i wanted to see the ball drop in times square. to me it's not officially the new year until i see the ball drop on tv!

i even managed to get some new year's smooches from the boys!

daryl smooch

this-is-as-close-as-you-get-smooch from spencer

photo of the day 12.31.09

poochie smoochie from rocky

another poochie smoochie

colby smooch

mom smooch

and yet another rocky smooch!

Blessing of the day: smooches from my all my boys :)

today, january 1

bunco!

tonight i played bunco for the first time! {i mean for cash!} lisa invited me to play with her bunco group. i didn't have any idea money was involved until i got there.

i had a great time. that group of women who play together is a hoot! some of them are as different as night and day, but they still get together once a month to play. the oldest member of the group is in her 80s, and she's a serious bunco player!

lisa told me that the new person usually wins a bunco prize, but i didn't believe her. at the end of the 4 games, they started shouting things out like,

"who had the last bunco?" ~not me

"who had the most buncos?" ~not me

"who had the most wins?" ~guess what! not me, either.

"who had the most losses?" ~that would be me....15 losses and 9 wins. and who knew there would be a prize for the biggest loser??? i won 10 bucks for playing such a lousy game! how awesome is that?

photo of the day: january 1, 2010

bunco buddies

Blessing of the day: Lisa Howe....i love you! you're an amazing lady and friend.

today, january 2

today i slept late. ahh......

then i spent the day knitting, playing Wii and doing laundry. i was supposed to meet nellie for antiquing and ice cream, but that didn't work out. {sigh.} in a way that was a good thing because i didn't have her christmas present. hers was the first one i finished, but i messed it up too much to give to her. so now i have time to redo it!

we had one last meal together at our BA house...chicken tacos. yum!

the boys and i watched many, many episodes of the hit 80's show, Alf!

he's hysterical! it's too bad the rest of the actors on the show were so terrible!

photo of the day, 1.2.10

happy yarn

Blessing of the day: heated mattress pad!

today, january 3

so this morning we woke up bright and early, 6:00 a.m., to be in bartlesville for church. we had to leave no later than 7:15 so we'd have time to travel through the snow and so daryl could load his power point presentation for his sermon.

getting up that early was horrible for all of us because we were in the habit of staying up until midnight or later, and then getting up at 10 a.m. or so. needless to say there was much grumbling and complaining in the hayes' house this morning.

broken arrow got a light dusting of snow last night, but the further north we drove we noticed there was more snow. we arrived in the snow-covered church parking lot just in time to discover that services had been cancelled! daryl got the phone call as we were standing in the foyer!

church mailbox

we stayed at the church with a few of the elders to tell any others who hadn't gotten the message in time about the cancelled services. one of the elders invited us to his house for lunch. he said his wife had a roast in the oven, and there would be plenty! who are we to say no to roast, potatoes, and carrots????

it was a beautiful drive to his house. they live somewhere out in the country, and i just stared out the window at the scenery. the pure white snow against the dark brown of the trees is just gorgeous to me. i tried to capture a few pictures along the way.

i know it's hard to see, but the snow-topped hay bales looked like giant frosted mini-wheats to me!

photo of the day

january 3, 2010

blessing of the day: Today I was blessed with safe travel.

gingerbread houses

tonight we made gingerbread houses {out of graham crackers and canned frosting!}!

it was totally messy and absolutely fun!

daryl was the architect for the boys' houses.

the backside of spencer's house

spencer's house

my house

colby's house

the attic in colby's house

happy anniversary!

today i've been married 14 years. it doesn't seem like it's been that long. it's been a fun adventure, and i can't wait to see what the next 14 years hold for us!

i {heart} this man!

i saw mommy kissing santa claus......

you better watch out....

santa claus came to town tonight!!!!

we had our annual family christmas party at church tonight, and it was so cute! first the kids from sonshine school performed, and i think there may be a future american idol in that group! one little girl kept grabbing the microphone and saying hello....too cute!

then our wednesday night singing class sang a few songs. it was weird "being on stage" again. it's been many years since i sang with a group in front of a lot of people. it was like being in jr. high and high school choir all over again.

the best part of the night {besides the awesome chocolate peppermint cake} was when santa arrived. you just can't help but smile when you see santa. he's just so.......magical and jolly, you know? i got to help with the kids who were visiting with santa. i introduced them one by one to santa claus. what a fun job that was!

you're never too old to talk to santa, are you spencer?

most of the kids were totally enchanted by him, but there were a few little ones who wanted nothing to do with him! one little girl said she would go talk to santa if i would go with her and let her sit on MY lap! so unfortunately for the parents, i'm in their daughter's picture with santa.

this adorable little guy was fascinated with santa.

these next two little ones weren't quite as enamored with santa.

after all of the kids had talked to santa, i got my turn! since i'd already told him last saturday that i wanted a buyer for my house for christmas, i figured he didn't need me to tell him again. i just asked him if i could take a picture with him. he said, "of course!" we took our picture, and then he said, "now you have to do something for me. don't run away." i gave him the weirdest look because i had no idea what would happen next. "she's gonna take a picture, and you're gonna plant one right here," he said pointing to his cheek! i couldn't let santa down, so i gave him a smooch on the cheek!

quote of the day: "I better not pull this Santa's beard. It looks real, and he'll put coal in my stocking if I do that!" ~an adorable little boy in line tonight {and no, it wasn't colby!}

great weekend

i had a fun-filled weekend, but unfortunately i have few pictures to prove it!!!

friday night daryl and i went to the voice of the martyrs christmas dinner. they are a christian organization that send care packages to christians all over the world. the boys stayed with e.d. and susan and helped them decorate for christmas. they had quite an operation going....e.d. put the hooks on while the boys hung the ornaments on the tree!

saturday we went to best buy to replace our camera that went for a dunk in daryl's sweet tea a couple of weeks ago. my new camera (and yes, it's all mine. i was told it was my birthday present!) is almost identical to the other camera. i tested it out at lunch on colby's pizza sculpture, but you can't see the picture.

that night our church participated in the bartlesville christmas parade. this was a first for adams blvd. church of christ. as we were walking to the parking lot where our float was waiting, santa claus was standing by the gate welcoming all the participants! i stopped and asked him if i could take my picture with him, and he said,"of course!" i got an adorable one-armed photo of the two of us, but you can't see that one either. {i also told him that i wanted a buyer for my house in broken arrow for christmas.}

i also took a lot of cute pictures of all of us on the float, especially of the varmints and me. there was also a "little person" dressed as an elf on the float next to ours. he was awesome!!! he was dancing and doing flips and singing! colby kept pointing and saying, "mom!!! look at the elf!" i took his picture as well, but you're not going to see that one either.

right as the parade was about to pull out, i took the camera from my coat pocket and turned it on to take some more pictures. but when i looked at the screen, it was all messed up! i turned it on and off thinking it was just cold or something, but nothing changed!

i was bummed, but at least i had a few pictures already saved on the card.........wrong! i put in the card reader, and nothing would load! my other sd cards worked just fine, but not the new one!

daryl took the camera back to best buy today {thank goodness we bought the extended warranty!} and they said it had taken a blow of some sort! what??? the guy said those cameras are extremely fragile, and the slightest bump can totally screw it up! he also said that when it got hit, that it shorted out and fried the sd card. that's why i have no pictures to show you.

except.........i have a few pictures of today's adventure with spencer. {i took them with our old, old camera.} someone gave us two tickets to Handel's Messiah, so spencer and i went to that performance at 2:00 this afternoon. this was a first for both of us, so we didn't know what to expect. the orchestra music was amazing.....i could have listened to that music all day, but i didn't care much for the chorus. i found that strange because i was a choir nerd in jr. high and high school. i could tell that spencer was bored, so we left at half-time {aka intermission} and went christmas shopping! the best part of the day was when spencer told me he had fun with me today! priceless...

quote of the day: "i had fun today." ~spencer