2009 Recap

With less than 5 hours to go until 2010 starts, I've been thinking about the past year and boy has it been a roller coaster!

January: We watched our 2 best friends Ronnie and Aimee tie the knot the very first day of the year. It was a beautiful wedding!



February: We had a couples shower at the Austin Dance Institute and had dance lessons for the first time ever. It was a BLAST!



March: A very bittersweet month. On the 17th I lost my grandpa and it was the worst pain I have ever felt. However, we ended the month on a much happier note, on the 28th when hubby and I said "I do"!



April: We spent the first week on our honeymoon Royal Carribbean cruise to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica. As soon as we came back, I was offered a new job which was a true blessing. Also, hubby and I bought our first car all by ourselves!



May: Suffered another loss and lost my dear friend, Ashleigh, from high school.



June: We celebrated our other best friends, Kyle and Stacy's wedding.


July-
August: Nothing exciting...except a Longhorn game or 2

September: Suffered through 2 more losses in my family this year, Grandma's brother, and Paw Paw Sr.'s brother. That makes 4 losses this year including Paw Paw Art and Ashleigh



October: Hubby turned 24 and we celebrated in Dallas by staying at the Gaylord Texan Resort


November: My Longhorns barely beat the aggies to earn them a spot to play for the Big XII Championship game.

December: I turned 24 and celebrated by going to dinner at Flemings and Christmas light watching. The Longhorns beat Nebraska to win the Big XII Championship and are now playing for the National Championship on January 7, 2010. My baby cousin was born on the same day as my late grandma's birthday. And lastly found out that we will be starting 2010 by hubby having to go through heart surgery to repair his mitral valve of his heart.


As bittersweet as 2009 was, 2010 is already proving to be a bittersweet year as well. We have a trip planned to Europe at the end of January! Then in February, hubby will have his heart surgery. Then in March we celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary. Here's to 2010!!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and Santa was good to everyone! I know hubby and I had an awesome holiday! Now only 4 more days til 2009 is over...WOW!

Surgery Time

I imagine my blog is about to turn into an "all of out of town family/friends read to keep up blog". Which, I don't mind, because then I will have more readers. :-) Anyways..

Background info:
Hubby was born with something called Marfan's Syndrome, a genetic disorder. With that comes symptoms/complications such as Mitral Valve Prolapse, Scoliosis, and Pectus Excavatum. When he was in the 3rd grade he had surgery for the pectus excavatum and in 9th grade he had back surgery for the scoliosis. The mitral valve prolapse, however, doctors have been monitoring since he was little.

Fast forward:
Hubby goes to the doctor every 6 months for all of the above and at the beginning of this month his heart did not look like it was supposed to, 20% larger as a matter of fact. So, last Thursday he had a Trans Esophageal Echo (basically a camera down his throat. That confirmed that his mitral valve of his heart is not functioning as it is supposed to be. With that comes three options:
1. Repair the mitral valve with the possibility that Hubby never has to have surgery on it again.
2. Replace the mitral valve with a mechanical valve and never have to have surgery on it again, however, it places hubby on blood thinners for the rest of his life.
3. Replace the mitral valve with a pigs valve and have surgery in another 10-15 years.

Ideally, repairing the valve is the best option and we are at a point that the Doctor thinks he can repair it. Also, the doctor has been monitoring some other things with Hubby's heart so if all is going well with the mitral valve repair then he will also have his Asending Aorta replaced and a pulmonary vein isolation. All of which will help make his heart stronger and function more effectively. So surgery, here we come. An exact date hasn't been made but it is looking like it will be the end of February.

As you can imagine, the idea of my husband having open heart surgery at 24 years old, a year into our marriage, is not the most appealing thing in the world. This is going to be a very trying and stressful time in our lives.

But to end on a positive note, while we are stressed about the surgery, our 2 best friends are moving to Europe for 9 weeks for training for friend's engineering firm. What makes that so awesome is my in laws had unused flier miles, so, they just bought our plane tickets to Europe!!! So January 27th through February 5th we will be in Europe with 2 of our best friends, courtesy of the best in laws!! YAY!!

Birthday.

Today is my birthday. 24 years old. Still under 25, so I think I'm ok. :-) Annnnd 4 years ago today, I met the man I was too marry. Boy do I love him.

Happy Birthday to Meeee!!

Since...

The last time I posted...
1. We had a nice relaxing, awesome Thanksgiving. I was so glad to have my grandma come in and spend it with us, even when we went over to my in laws house. I'm glad she didn't have to spend it alone, it being the first Thanksgiving since Paw Paw Art died.

2. Black Friday, my grandma and I did some INTENSE Christmas Shopping. I got about 80% of my shopping done and she did too, all in one day. Also, she bought the Coolest. Christmas present. Ever! Background: my Paw Paw Art was a retired Chief of Police officer and did police work for like 30 plus years. Fast Forward and there is my 4 year old cousin who ADORED our Paw Paw. As he has gotten older, my cousin has determined that he is going to be a "copper" just like Paw Paw. At my wedding he went around writing people "tickets." He loves anything that has to do with cops and will stop a cop from a mile away just to talk to him. Now, enter awesome Christmas present.

{photo from walmart.com}


Yes, people. That is a Dodge Charger, battery charged, RIDE IN, toy police car. My cousin is going to LOOOVE it! I can't wait for him to get it!

3. Speaking of Christmas shopping. I have very few gifts to buy for Christmas and I am so excited. Normally, come Christmas Eve I am scrambling to buy last minute gifts.

4. For the month of December, my rent was free, FREE! When we renewed our lease, one of the incentives was that we got one of our birthday months free, so we picked mine. So that means, we really aren't out any money for Christmas since we didn't have to pay rent this month. SWEET!

5. It's my Birthday month. Birthday is in exactly one week from today. Going out to celebrate this Saturday with hubby!

6. Hubby's Christmas party is Saturday. Despite not having a dress yet (dress shopping stresses me out) I am really excited that I have a "grown up" reason to get dressed up for Hubby's work Christmas party.

7. Christmas tree is up and we are ready for the holiday!

8. And last, but certainly not least, after a VERY stressful game, my horns are going to the National Championship!! HOOK 'EM HORNS! \m/