Weekend in Ohio

We went and spent this past weekend with Jared's sister who lives in Ohio. We had such a great time! We left Thursday afternoon and stopped in Knoxville for dinner and to stay at our hotel, then we woke up very early on Friday to hit the road and made it to the house by noon. The girls did a great job riding in the car, and were really excited to spend time with their cousins.

Friday afternoon the kids played and then we went to eat at a place called the Pizza Cottage for dinner, we had an awesome BLT pizza!

Saturday we woke up to go to Brady's soccer game, went to a cool general store called Anderson's to shop, went and ate lunch at Culver's (best burgers ever), then Brady had another soccer game, and then we made our way to the Apple Farm to pick us some apples. Had a spectacular and busy day! We made our way home on Sunday. The girls are already missing their cousins.

Just to give you a heads up, you will see a bear in almost every picture and that's because in Sittre Paige's 4K class they have a class bear who is called "Button Bear". Each week a different child gets to bring button bear home for the weekend to take care off and then we record in a notebook what we did with button bear. We just so happened to get the bear this busy weekend, so we took button bear everywhere and he even had to have his own highchair at every restuarant we went too!! It was fun to keep up with my children AND the bear.

When we got there Friday, Abby came home from school and the girls were wearing the exact same outfit! Sittre Paige adores Abby so much, they are 2 years apart and play so good together!

Stella playing peek a boo at Pizza Cottage


The kids at Pizza Cottage

Stella and Button Bear riding in the cart at Anderson's

Eating lunch on Saturday

The girls at Brady's soccer game

Stella eating an apple at the Apple Farm. It was so cool, you just pick your apples off the trees and taste test them!!

The whole gang at the apple farm

Our family picture. I am so glad the girls decided to be cooperative. Don't you just love their big smiles??? (sarcasm)

The cousins minus Stella

He's not finished with me yet

yay!!! I'm alive!! this is my post-surgery blog by the way. Just a recap, I had my large intestine (colon) removed on August 18th due to Crohns/ Colitis. Doctors still haven't been able to pin-point exactly which one I had. But I am feeling great! I can't believe the life I am living now compared to the one I have been living this past year. I regret I didn't do it sooner.

The surgery was a success and I only had to stay in the hospital for 6 days. The pain however, was a different story. I was extremely sore to say the least. Apparently when you remove something as large as the colon from your body, your other organs have to shift and find a new place to settle, which was weird feeling that. I couldn't stand up straight for about 2 solid weeks. I was really scared that I would never stand up straight again. But I am, thank you Jesus. I was seriously eye-level with my 4 year old. For the first couple of weeks, I couldn't really stand up for longer than 20 minutes without starting to hurt. Therefore, I sat....alot. My actual first trip to Target post-surgery I had to use the motorized cart thing. I almost killed about 3 people, so I am pretty thankful for the gift of walking.

I am so appreciative of the prayers and support. I seriously would have never made it without my family and friends. I am enjoying my life so much now. I still get tired about the middle of the day, but I get to nap with my girls (advantage of a stay-at-home mom). I am gaining weight because food is all of a sudden really good!!! I feel like I missed out on so much this past year and am really ready to enjoy the holidays!!! Fall is such a busy time for us and I am excited to have the energy to do things! Sittre Paige turns 5 in November and my baby Stella turns 2 in January! Then we have a Disneyworld trip planned for February. So we should have some fun the next few months! yay!

Health is so precious. I feel I know what it is like to have it taken away. I have had the opportunity to realize the important moments that truly matter in life. I have never loved my husband more than I do right now because he has shown me how to truly love. I have never wanted to squeeze my kids more than I do right now because I didn't have the energy to a year ago. I am so thankful that God chose to heal me through surgery. He's not finished with me yet.

Here are some picture of things we have been doing since I feel good.

This was our family trip to Homestead Hollow. And this is how my children take pictures now. Look how sweet and loving they are being to each other (kidding)

Sittre Paige's 1st spend the night company. They had such a great time, started the night of at Pump It Up for a birthday party, shopped at Publix for some cereal and then ended the night with a movie.

We took a short beach trip for our 6 year anniversary with the girls. This is our seashell sandcastle.

Stella and Jared. The water was beautiful, probably the most clear I have ever seen it. And look at my stinkin' cute baby!

Daddy and girls.

My first lunch out about 4 weeks after surgery at Jim N Nicks. Yum. My oldest took this picture.

This is what happens when your camera-obsessed child asks you to take a picture of her.

Sittre Paige's 1st day of 4K.

Stella giving my brother Jacob some love.

On our way to "Meet the Teacher" Day. Obviously from this silly pose we started the day off with a cereal full of sugar :)

Sittre Paige's 4K teacher, Mrs. Newberry. Love, love her.

Had to do some posing.

What a man, what a man, what a mighty good man.

Okay, seriously, I had to sneak this blog. Jared begged me not to do it, but I had to. Its my blog. Not to mention, I am one proud wife! My husband won the 2010 Leadership Award for U.S. Pipe. He is so amazing and derserving of this prestigious award! He works so hard for our family and for his job. He has been with this company for almost 11 years now, and has worked so hard to get where he is at!
This is what the award says in case you care:

Customer Service

Employee of the Year

Leadership Award

Jared Jones

For the Customer Service Team Member that demonstrates the Greatest level of Continuous Commitment to the Mission and Vision of U.S. Pipe Customer Service.

2010

Wow. So proud, so very very proud.