Friday = Snow + Allergic Reaction

Can you believe it snowed in South Texas???? And not only did it snow we had some stick and it snowed for about 6 hours! Crazy just plain crazy!

The girls didn't think it was as fun as mommy and daddy....their little feet were freezing!

After playing in the snow we came in and snuggled with a fire in the fireplace and a cup of hot cocoa! Yum!

So you can see from the pictures that we had snow in South Texas which was crazy enough but on top of that and in the snow we had to get me to the Dr Fri morning because I was having a crazy allergic reaction that after 24 hours of Benadryl was continuing to spread and I was about to scratch my skin off of my body. I had these tiny bumps that started on the right shoulder on Wed, then on Thurs while at work I started itching like crazy so I put some Benadryl cream on my shoulder while at work. When I got home on Thurs evening and changed I noticed the same thing on my left shoulder. So I put on more Benadryl. Then about 8pm Thurs night my back and was starting to itch. Chris looked at my back and it had spread. So I took Benadryl by mouth after calling my mom and took an oatmeal bath however the oatmeal bath was a mistake. I got out and itched worse than before and really thought I would scratch my skin completely off. At this point I hoped that by Friday morning all would be good. That was not the case. On Fri morning it had all over my back, my legs and my chest. I told Chris, I know you don't want to get out in this weather (I worked from home because our office closed due to weather) but I have to go to the Dr. So we were there when he opened. Turns out I had an allergic reaction to the dye in a new shirt. So I looked at the Dr and said you are telling me I am allergic to my clothes! We all laughed. You see I always wash new clothes before wearing because I am so sensitive to dyes, perfumes, and everything else. Well apparently, I never washed one of the new shirts I had bought a few weeks ago and I wore it to work on Wed not even realizing I hadn't washed it. Well turns out there is something in the dye that I am very allergic to. So the Dr gave me some medicine and sent me home and said be glad it is so cold because if it was hot you would itch twice as bad. With that I told him about the oatmeal bath and he said that was the worst thing I could do. The type of rash I had spreads and gets worse when exposed to heat and especially hot water. So he told me no hot showers or baths until Monday morning! So here I am wishing like crazy I could take a hot bath but not wanting too at he same time because my itching is diminishing.

So seriously snow and an allergic reaction to you clothes all in one day in South Texas. Doesn't get much crazier than that, but I will say the snow was great while it lasted. Let me rephrase it was great for one day while I was snuggled up in the house. I live in South Texas for a reason......I hate the cold!

Until next time when I promise to post the pics from the photographer from a week ago, blessings to all! For a quick sneak peek, I have updated our profile pic on here to one of our new pics. Take a look!

God Bless you all!

Can you believe its been 6 months????

So today was our 6 month appointments and we got the best reactions ever. First let me cover the details then I will explain the reactions. Both of us checked out great and he said we were progressing perfectly. Then we went for our lab work. Surprisingly enough they got me on the first stick and then they proceeded to drain half my blood out of my body.....12 vials to be exact. My arm is killing me as I type but that always happens when I have blood drawn. Chris on the other hand got stuck 3 times before they got his 12 vials of blood drawn. Poor thing he wasn't very happy but to be honest I think the first person that tried and stuck him twice was the person that prepares the labs not usually draws the blood. After she stuck him once in each arm and got nothing she called someone else in and this lady was great and got him one two three. Now lets back up real quick to our reactions at the Dr. When our nurse called us back we had our backs to the door and when we got up she said oh my I didn't even recognize you. As we walked down the hall to the weigh in area she was calling out to everyone in the office and everyone was floored and so excited for us. We got so many compliments I think when it was time to leave we sorta floated out of the office. Then we got to the weigh in area and around the corner came Tameka. (You might remember she is the one who worked with us for almost 6 months to get our insurance approval.) Well she came around the corner and her mouth dropped and she gave both of us big hugs and had tears running down her face. She then grabbed both of our hands and said, "I always thought you were a good looking couple, but now you both are absolutely gorgeous!" We were blown away by her reaction and she sat and talked with us for a while and we got a chance to catch up. Then we proceeded to the exam room. By now we were causing quite a disturbance in the halls and Dr. Davis on his way to another exam room said I can't wait I have to stop and see what all the commotion with the Nord's is about and with that he threw the door open and literally stopped right in his tracks with the biggest smile on his face I have ever seen. He then went and said Garth Garth you have to come here and see the Nords. (Garth Davis is his son and partner during surgery.....they are known to us and all their patients as big D and little D or the Doctors' Davis.) Dr Garth was equally impressed and smiled from ear to ear. We had our exams and he kept looking at the picture in our files of our very first visit with him prior to the 6 month diet and the surgery and he kept shaking his head and saying you look like completely different people. Dr Davis then said wait don't move and with that he went to his office and got his camera and took pics of the both of us. He gave us our lab orders and we were off to the lab. As our nurse escorted us to the lab area she said I just want you to know that very few people get that reaction from Big D and he rarely takes pics of patients until 1 year after surgery so you should feel special. Before we left we also told Dr Davis about our picture session over the weekend and he said "I better be getting a picture because I need to put you in the hall of fame!" As you can imagine we are on cloud nine today and feeling very confident in ourselves. And aside from that we feel better than we have felt in years. Oops I almost forgot our weigh in statistics......Chris is down to 282 lbs which is 97 lbs lost and I am down to 196 lbs which is 107 lbs lost. How insane is that!

So that's the latest on our quests to be thin! I promise over the weekend to post some of the pics we had done over the weekend. One quick request.....please say a prayer for our friends A & B. They have had some complications like those they had when they were pregnant with the twins but so far everything is going OK. She is on bed rest and will be having a small surgery in the next few weeks to try to keep this baby in place as long as possible. Please pray for a pregnancy that goes to full term and a healthy little one at the end. Also say a quick prayer for our friends M & J who just gave birth yesterday to a beautiful little girl Paige. Until next time, God Bless each and everyone of you.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The stockings are hung waiting for Santa to fill!

The below pictures are of my Coca Cola Christmas Village. This year the Village has grown so much we had to break it up into 3 separate towns.
The town of Santa Claus from a distance...

The town of Santa Claus closer up...

The town of Frolicking Frosty...

The town of Red Rudolph...

Our beautiful tree with the lights on...

Our beautiful tree with lots of lights in the dark. I so enjoyed another year of unwrapping each ornament and remembering who gave them to me. I just love this time of year. Of course as always we had a mishap with the tree. Luckily for the first time in 5 years I didn't run out of lights...(it makes now sense because we have had the same tree for 5 years) but this year over half way thruputting on all the ornaments, 1/2 the tree went dark. After the mishap last year, I put two cords up the middle of the tree and thought I had split the lights evenly between the cords, but apparently not. I had blown the fuse on one cord so I carefully moved a few strands of lights to the other cord and Chris changed the fuse out and we were in business.

We got up early Friday morning to get the outside decorated.

Not a whole lot to report on our weight loss except we are still losing and moving along great. We are both feeling better than we have felt in years. On Thursday we go back to Dr. Davis for our 6 month checkup and this is the appt that they will draw the 12 vials of blood and check to make sure all is good. I am not looking forward to this at all and I hope they don't torture us too badly. I promise to update after the Dr. Also on Sat we had some wonderful pictures taken at Herman Park by a friend of mine and very soon I will be posting some of these pics.

Until then, may God Bless each and every one of you during this most beautifully joyous season!

Hope you had a Happy Halloween

Peanut was a spider "Little Miss Scary"

Blondie was a "Little Monster" and oh how fitting that was for her

Helping Daddy hand out candy....we were so surprised how good she was and she loved all the attention from the little kids!

Helping Mommy hand out candy and giving love to anyone who gave her love especially her neighbor friends Ellie & Addison!

We had a fun Halloween as always. Lots and lots of kids in the neighborhood and absolutely no candy left! And just in case you are wondering, no neither of us ate a single piece of candy. Funny how knowing that it will make you sick makes you not care about eating it at all. The girls had a blast outside with all the kids and they were exhausted and slept good last night. This was Blondie's first time out with everyone and considering how hyper she is we were concerned but she was a very good girl....what a pleasant surprise.

As for our weight loss things are still going great. We are both feeling great and not having any problems. I met my first goal this week which means I have now lost over 100 lbs and in 3 more lbs I will meet my next goal of being under 200 lbs. I can't believe this has happened in less than 6 months. We had to go shopping for some fall/Texas winter clothes for me because with these cool mornings and evenings I have been freezing. I am officially out of the "Plus Size" dept and I am completely in the "Regular Size" dept, another huge goal for me. Chris is doing well, he hit a small plateau for about 2-3 weeks but is back to losing again. I did the same thing at about 4 1/2 months. He too is feeling great.

A quick update on our dear friends A&B....they are pregnant! On Friday they confirmed its one baby and she got to hear the heart beat. Needless to say they are on cloud nine. Now the hope is to carry this little one full term and not have any complications like they did with the twins. Thanks so much for your prayers for their family and thanks for the prayers for us too. Until next time, blessings to you all!

Lookin' Good before the fall on Friday!

Hockey game, ER visit.....just a Friday night at our house!

So on Friday night we were going to the Aeros hockey game with some great friends and well I had a little accident before we ever got to the game. We were meeting our friends at my husbands office and I fell or maybe its was more like went flying. I tripped when the tip of my shoe got caught on the sidewalk and I completely wiped out! I got up and my knees were very sore and so was my left wrist. Chris thought I had hit my head on the plate glass window but I didn't, instead I tried to catch myself with my left hand. So our friends got there we all laughed and headed to the hockey game. Once we got there, we were standing in line to get some snacks and I said to Chris, I think maybe I really screwed up my wrist! So we went and sat down and when I went to the bathroom between periods, I knew it was not good. I couldn't even pull up my pants. So when I got back to the seats I realized that my fingers were really swollen and discolored along with my wrist. I tried taking of my wedding ring and after lots of tugging got it off and put it on my right hand. After we left the game, the pain and swelling was really starting to set in so at midnight we made our way to the ER just to make sure it was ok. By now my knees were swollen and turning colors too. At the ER, they said there weren't any major breaks in the wrist but that I should wear a brace and sling that they gave me along with pain meds and keep it iced until I can get to an Orthopedic Dr. So I have an appt on Thursday morning. I am feeling much better, but still sore and still swelling and taking pain meds at night. All in a Friday night at our house. I am now known as the one armed bandit and since I am pecking with one hand right now, I am going to wrap this up. But before I do, please say a prayer that they don't find anything wrong on Thurs and please pray again for our friends A & B....they had 2 embryos implanted on Sat and she will have the blood test in 10 days to determine if the IVF worked and she is pregnant! Blessings to each and everyone of you!

Knowing is better than not knowing!

I got the official word today at work. My last day of work will be on Feb 26th! That was the best news possible. Since as of 2/26 the office will be completely closed down. This means I was asked to stay and shut the whole thing down. The good news about this is I have a regular paycheck until then and then my severance will kick in. So now I can really start looking for a job since I now know when I will be able to start. So that is the final news and honestly I was so relieved at first and now reality is really starting to set in. Please continue to pray for me to find a job. Also a quick update on our friends A & B, after harvesting follicles and fertilizing they have 13 embryos that are on their way to the genetics lab for testing. They will know on Thursday how many continue to grow and are CF free and Saturday will be implantation day. Please keep them in your prayers! Thanks to everyone for their prayers for us and our dear friends. May God bless each and everyone of you!