Our weekend

This weekend was Edward Jones' Summer Regional Meeting and spouses are able to go on the trip along with the kids. It was a nice and relaxing weekend. The resort that we stayed at was somewhere between Bastrop and Austin. It was called the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort. Very upscale place. Edward Jones paid for everything. Our meals were taken care of, our room was on them, even mileage is on them!!!! That's a big thing these days. :-) It wasn't all fun and games for the guys but they were out of meetings by noon, just in time for us to have an incredible lunch and then out to the pool to spend the rest of the day. Oh and get this..... They even paid to have professional babysitters on site!!!! It was amazing. We had a formal dinner night which was a lot of fun. I got to play dress up and get out of my normal jeans and shirt routine for work and scrubs for school.

So pretty much, the whole weekend we spent out at the pool floating the lazy river that wrapped around the resort. It was such an exclusive, tucked away place. On the second day there, Brian surprised me and had an hour massage set up for me. I was pampered and spoiled the whole weekend and it was great!!!!

While we were there too, the 12th Man Foundation was there. So we were walking around with a bunch of Aggies...couldn't have been better :-)

This is how we found Brooklyn the first day we dropped her off at the babysitters....it was so cute. She even still had her balloon tied to her wrist.

The first night at dinner they did kid introductions and Brooklyn was not going to be left out

The first night we took a walk around the pool and was not expecting Brooklyn to want to get in. She was in a dress and had her hair done and of course, stupid mom, she wants to get in. So I take her dress off and just let her have fun. We were on vacation!!!!!

Every night they had s'mores set up around the resort for families to come out and enjoy them, man did we enjoy them. I don't think Brooklyn liked them at all........

It was an amazing weekend. I was able to meet a lot of wives and hear their stories of how they struggled and got through the first couple of years when their husband's were starting out in Edward Jones. It is a true family though. Everyone knows everyone and they do such a good job of wrapping their arms around the new families and making them feel welcomed. I don't know of a place that takes the entire family and puts them up in a 5 star resort and pays for everything and encourages them to bring their kids. I am really looking forward in watching Brian and I grow in this company.

This is to Gdad, Bapu, Molz, Katie and Corey.....(pause the music that I have on this site)

Pondering....

I am feeling a little lonely right now so I thought I would sit and type. My baby girl has been gone since Tuesday night and this has been the longest time she has ever spent away from us. I honestly thought it wouldn't be too big of a deal because people send their kids to their grandparents for a week at a time and I have always wondered what it felt like to be able to get rid of your kid for that long. Well, let me tell you, it is not easy or for me it isn't. I have been so used to having her with me all day everyday and then to go from not even getting to see her for a week has been traumatic for me.

Isn't amazing what entertainment your kids can bring you. You think when they are around and in their terrible two's how irritated and stressed out you can get. It seems like they are either bugging you to get them something, whining, climbing on your leg when you are cooking, crying for no apparent reason, etc. and you just want to hand them off to the first stranger that comes along. I have been without my little neusence (spelling ?) since Tuesday night and I don't get to see her till later on tonight!!!!

Why you might ask??? We have gone through some major changes in the Ruff Family. I decided that I was finally going to take charge in my life and do something for myself and try to pursue my dream of being a nurse (if I could do it all over again I would have been a plastic surgeon but seeing that isn't going to happen with a kid at home, I will settle for being a nurse in the plastic surgeon field). I enrolled myself into a Medical Assistant program. I am hoping this will put me one step closer to getting my RN. It is a 10 month program and I am taking the night classes from 6-10pm. When I did it and all the excitement went away, reality sank in and all the concerns came.... how are Brian and Brooklyn going to handle me not being there at night cooking dinner, how is Brian going to do with giving Brooklyn a bath, dinner, and getting her down at night, why am I putting us into more debt, can I really do this, is this what I want to do, all these things.....then I stopped and told myself, "You CAN do this, you NEED to do this, and I have taken care of Brooklyn at night for a long time, Brian can do the same thing, it is just dinner, bath and bedtime." So I have been doing it for about 3 weeks now and I can tell you, I ABSOLUTELY love it!!!!!!! Hands down, love it!!!!!

On top of putting myself in this program, I started a new job!!! It is a stress free job at an oil and gas company and the most laid back atomosphere. Something I need right now since I am putting all my energy into school.

SSOOOOO..............

I start school, I get a job, my parents are in the middle of settling into their new house, Brian's mom is in the middle of training for a new job, Brooklyn can't start school till Monday.....kind of in a bind. Only option we have is to send her to College Station with Aunt Katie for the week. That is why Brooklyn has been gone.

Don't get me wrong, she is having the time of her life down there right now. Of course, I have called at least 30 times a day to check on her but my sister has also done a very good job of taking pictures and sending them to me. I am sure Brooklyn's feet haven't touched the ground since she got there, she has been spoiled to the max and I am going to have to undo everything Katie has done. I know they have taken her to get pizza, ice cream, movies, to the park, shopping, sleeping in the bed with her at night (BIG THING I AM GOING TO HAVE TO UNDO). So I know she is having the time of her life while I am sitting at home just longing for a hug from my little baby girl. :-(

But she is coming home tonight and I am counting down the hours!!!!!!!!!!!! I miss my sweet angel. Now ask me in about 2 weeks and I might be ready to get rid of her again...hahahahahaha.

Sex and the City girl's night out

The movie was even better than what I expected of it!!!! Even though it was almost a 3 hour movie, it was hilarious!! I have never laughed so much in a movie. It was a fun filled night and was more than I had hoped for.

The girl on your left (in the pink) is a long time friend of mine. We grew up together in Bristol. Then the girl on the right is my sister, Katie.Us sitting in the theatre anxiously waiting on the movie to start.This was just part of the line waiting to get into the movie. It was incredible the amount of women at the movies. We got there an hour and a half early and it wasn't even early enough!!!! The funniest part was, I overheard a man's conversation he was having on his cellphone with a friend of his and he said, "MAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!! You should be at the movie theatre toooonight!!!!!" It was hilarious. It was defintely a meat market at the movies that night.

On another note, Brooklyn got her cast off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally, we can swim, take baths, eat like a regualr toddler, walk down the stairs using either side of her body to help her, etc. It was a glorious day to have the cast off. Enjoy the pics.

One last picture of her with her cast.And it was off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She didn't even cry or get scared when he started the saw up. She was such a big girl about it.

Some of her enjoying herself (naked) in Bapu and Gdad's pool for the last time!!!! Some of you may know, my parents are moving to North Dallas. Actually, we helped them move yesterday. It is fun and exciting for them but a little sad. My little sister is going to be going back to school where she started sooo many years ago and it is also where me and my other sister graduated from. There are a lot of changes going on with them and they felt this was the right thing to do for them as a family. We will miss them living in Midlothian but we will enjoy that when Brooklyn goes to see her Bapu and Gdad, it will have to be for a whole weekend and not just over night!!!! :-)

Sex and the City tonight!!!!!!!

Is it bad that I am acting like a 5 year old on Christmas morning when it comes to seeing Sex and the City tonight?????? I can not tell you how stoked I am to go see it. I feel like I have not had a girls night out in a very long time and this is the perfect movie to get out with your girlfriends and have some high school fun. I know that is what I am going to be doing.

I went to the movie theatres about noon today to go buy our tickets and the earliest showing that was not sold out was 9:55!!!!!! It is going to be so packed and girls going crazy!!!! I am so giddy over this dumb movie. I have watched from season one and have fallen in love with Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte & Maranda!!!!!

It is going to be great!!!! There will be lots of pictures

Happy Birthday AGAIN!!!

We were thinking about post poning Brooklyn's big birthday party for a later date but the more we started talking to people, the more we realized just how much we have going on in the next several weeks. SOOOOOO............we decided that we would just have family over to my mom and dad's pool and have a little cake and ice cream and call that her birthday party for the year. We will have another big party next year.

I am still in awe everyday of how much she has really grown in the last year. Time has flown by so fast and I wonder if there is anything that I have messed of her growing up. I do know that the terrible 2's are here and I hope they are gone soon but somehow I doubt they are.

It was a tedious task but we had to figure some way of getting her cast wrapped up good so she wouldn't get water in it and we found the key........press and seal!!!!!!! Not a drop of water got in her cast!!!!

Finally we got her in the pool and she turned into a fish!!!!! She absolutely loves being in the water and with her arm floaties she thought she could swim as good as the rest of us.

Her with her cousin, Austin.

This was only a third of my family that was there!!!!!

Her birthday cupcake cake???? It was cute and very good when you have a bunch of kids, you don't have to cut pieces, you just hand them each their own cupcake.

The product of red icing!!!!!

Some of the other family that was there

First year for the pinata and she loved it. We were thinking about getting her one that was shaped like Elmo but we started thinking about it, she may not like the kids hitting Elmo and we didn't want her to be scarred for life so we opted for the round seaseme street one.

When we got all the toys in the house at 10 pm!!!!! she felt like it was Christmas and we had to play with every toy last night.

She had a very good birthday and enjoyed having her family around her. As I sat and watched our 2 year old play around in the pool along with all of her second cousins, it gave me such a sense of happiness. I was raised with all of my cousins around me and we were a very tight knit family and we had always talked about keeping our family close and it has finally come the day where our family has expanded and grown outside the means of a house but yet we still all come together in the littlest spaces just so we can keep the family together. I know one day Brooklyn is going to be telling her friends at school about her cousins and she will actually be talking about her 2nd cousins. There aren't many people out there who know their 2nd cousins or even most of their 1st cousins, to me, that is something special.

Thanks to my family for sharing in this special day with Brooklyn and making memories with her!!!! We love you so much!!!!!

Happy Birthday to Brooklyn!!!!

Well, my baby girl turned 2 years old today!!!! I can not believe it, they grow up way too fast!!!

Because of some unfortunate events, we had to post pone Brooklyn's birthday party that was supposed to be tomorrow until further notice. Being that she can't have her birthday party tomorrow, I decided she did need something special today. Sooooo.......I called all my non working mothers (which was only 2 of them) and we made a day out of today. We headed to Bapu and Gdad's house to go swimming. It was the perfect day to get out in the pool and enjoy some sun and play with the kids. We had a blast playing in the pool, eating pizza, eating "happy" cake and of course, opening presents.

I don't feel like writting anymore, as you all know, a day in the pool leaves you feeling exhausted and worn smooth out!!!!! The pictures will do the rest of the talking

The 3 Amigos

Mommy, Brooklyn, Aunt D & Kyler

Brooklyn and her "happy" cake

It's mmm mmmm good!!!!

Kyler enjoying some "happy" cake

Instead of a cake, we had Dora and Diego cupcakes & Brooklyn had to have a Dora and Diego

Opening presents

Fun in the sun with Aunt Molz!!

I Broke It, Katie

Cooorey and Katie,

Yook, I broke it!!!!! It doesn't hurt much, I got some really good pain medicine. Mom says codiene is really good but everytime I take it I go to sleep so I don't know how she knows that it is really good. You should see the attention I got from Bapu and Gdad!!! I think I may have to milk this awhile. Mommy has to do EVERYTHING for me. She even has to feed me right now....hahahaha. I kicked dad out of the bed last night and I got to sleep in the big bed..hehehehehe. I wish you could see me but mom says this is the best way for you to see what I look like and how I can turn on the charm with this sling thing on. I will call you on Monday and let you know what the doctor says. I love you! Tell Coooorey hi.

And one last one, me on pain medicine!!!!!!!