My ear...Part II

I mentioned several weeks ago that I've had an ear infection since April 20th. Yes, it took me a couple of weeks before I finally went in to see a doctor but since then I haven't made too much progress with getting over this ear infection. At the time of my original appointment my hearing was very muffled in my left ear and there was a loud constant ringing in my left ear. The doctor put me on Augmentin twice a day for 10 days at my first appiontment. On day 10 of the medication I was sitting at home and suddenly gasped loudly. Ryan asked what happened and I told him my ear popped but it was so loud that it literally scared me. After the pop I could finally hear out of my left ear again!!! But, I still had the ringing. :-( I went back to the doctor after a few days and he put me on another 10 days of Augmentin (in addition to antibiotic ear drops and Claritin). The second round of medication didn't work because I still had the ringing. When I finished my 2nd round of medicine the ringing was faint for a couple of days but within a few days it was back - and with a vengeance. Finally on Monday afternoon I called the doctor again and made an appointment to go in on Tuesday. He put me on three new medications. One of those medications is ciprofloxacin - which apparently is a drug that is used to prevent and treat things such as the plague and anthrax. Dang! If it can treat the plague and anthrax my fingers are crossed that it will finally get rid of this ear infection that I've had for two months. Can you imagine what it's like to have constant loud ringing in your ears for more than two months?? I'm on the verge of literally going crazy! Keep your fingers crossed that this finally goes away!

My anniversary gift to Ryan...

The traditional first anniversary gift is paper and some suggestions were things like writing your husband poetry or a nice letter. HA!! Not for my husband! That wouldn’t be appreciated at all so I started thinking of what I could do with paper. Then it donned on me…tickets are paper…I could get him a ticket to something!! I first checked David Copperfield’s website. Ryan LOVES David Copperfield and has loved him since Ryan was a boy. He has gone to see him MANY times…we even went a few days after my birthday a few years ago in Jacksonville to see him. Well, Cooperfield is only doing shows in Vegas right now so that was out. I looked up Ryan’s favorite band and they aren’t touring (which I knew but I just wanted to check again and make sure). Then it hit me…baseball!! Ryan is from Indiana so his favorite team has always been the Cubs since that was the closest team to him growing up but since he has lived in Florida for nearly 20 years and since Tampa has had the Rays for 12 years he really likes the Rays now, too. They are playing a home series this weekend so I thought that was perfect. I got us tickets to today's game at 4:05pm. Debs said that she didn’t have anything going on today so she could come to our house and hang out with Libby (and take care of the dogs) for the day while we are in St. Pete so it all worked out perfectly. I was going to have it be a total surprise for him as to what we were doing. I just told him a few weeks ago to keep June 26th open. My plan was to have Debs show up at our house and Ryan and I to get in the car and just start driving and he’d try and figure it out as we drove. Well, when Debs got to my house last weekend for the ladies lunch Ryan came out and she said, “You get to cook me breakfast next weekend!” I screamed, “Deborah Lyn!!!!!” She so spilled my beans a little. But from that I didn't think he'd figure out what we were doing. Then on Sunday Ryan asked me what time we were leaving for wherever we were going and I said around noon. FROM THAT LITTLE TIDBIT OF INFO he figured out were going!!! Can you believe that??? I was sad that it wouldn’t be a surprise but he was VERY excited when he figured it out.


Before the game started many people were gathered around some of the tvs out in the concourse watching the USA soccer match. The baseball game started and no one moved...everyone was glued to the tv out in the concourse! Unfortunately, USA couldn't pull this one out. :-( So, we all finally disbursed and went to our seats. Ryan isn't one for staying in his seat so we moved all around the stadium. Our seats were right on the 3rd base line which was a wonderful view but we also ventured over to left field and to the outfield and everywhere in between. The Rays won 5-3. We had fun and it was a nice little get away for the day for our anniversary celebration.

Happy Anniversary...

...to us! Today is our anniversary!!! Yay! Tonight I got home and was greeted by a cute display on the dining room table


a yummy dinner of baked brie and roasted red peppers


and a yummy selection of desserts!

Ladies lunch

Today I had another ladies lunch at my house. I invited a few ladies over, cooked a little food, bought everything pink and green that I could find :-) and enjoyed the afternoon. I've been a little sleep deprived this week but my ladies lunch is what has been getting me through to today.

This was Libby's first week out of school and she went to work with me and spent the day in the childcare in the back of my firm. At 5:00 on the dot we'd leave and get something quick to eat and then head out to Vacation Bible School which started at 6:00pm. Two of my coworkers go to the same church and they invited Libby to attend this week with the 8 year old daughter of one of my coworkers. Libby and Nicole get to see each other when they come to work with us anytime school is out and they spent all day together this week and then they went together to VBS until almost 9:00pm each night! Libby had a WONDERFUL time at VBS. She absolutely loved it. The only bad part for me was that it didn't get over until almost 9:00pm and so we weren't getting home this week until almost 9:30pm. We'd get home and Libby would take a shower and be in bed around 10:00 and by that point in the night I'd be exhausted. Ryan was great about helping me get ready for my lunch this week which was very necessary because I certainly didn't have much time on my hands this week.

My friends came over and we ate and chatted (and watched the dogs wrestle around) and had a great time enjoying each other's company. Like I say every month - I so enjoy our monthly get togethers!!!

We had fruit kebobs...

chicken salad sandwiches and cucumber sandwiches...

Here is the candy buffet for the day...

one of the closeups of the candy buffet...

another closeup of the candy buffet...

some more of the candy buffet...

I made some pinwheels for the day simply because I think they are adorable!

Here are the little bags I made for the candy buffet...

Here are the favors for the day...cute little flip flops wrapped in pink and green ribbon :-)

Me and the ladies!

Isn't it sad...

Isn't it sad when I'm sitting here looking at the 10-day forecast and I see that it's only going to be 91 degrees on Saturday and I literally say outloud (to myself), "It's cooling down this weekend!" It's 97 right now with a heat index of 105 so yes, even six degrees cooler will be nice!
By the way, let me remind you that it's only mid-June...we still have to look forward to August!!

Awards ceremony

Tuesday morning was the awards ceremony for Libby at school. As soon as I dropped off Libby in her class I got a quick picture of her with her 2nd grade teacher, Ms. Parker. I couldn't believe that it is the last week of school and I still hadn't taken a picture of Libby with her teacher all year long!

After taking the picture I went home for about an hour because the 3rd grade awards ceremony didn't start until 9:00am. Libby is a 2nd grader but she is in a 3rd grade class so I had to wait until 9:00 to see her rack up some awards. :-)

The music teacher was the first up to pass out awards for music and art (the art teacher had to go home unexpectedly to care for her sick daughter). The children all sat up front near the stage grouped by the six different 3rd grade classes and the parents sat behind the children. The teacher started handing out the awards and called out a few names from Libby's class of those who were getting art awards and Libby's name wasn't called! (I know I should stop here but I have to be honest and tell you the whole story - even if it makes me look bad!) :-) When the teacher finished calling the names for Libby's class and Libby's name wasn't called I was shocked. I think my jaw hit the floor. I couldn't believe that Libby didn't get an art award. I mean, come on! Art is Libby passion! I sat there bubbling with anger and little flames shooting out of my ears. I just couldn't believe it. I looked in front of me where Libby was sitting and I saw her friend sitting next to her start to rub Libby's back so I knew that she was upset, too. I asked her later what she was thinking when her name wasn't called and she said that she thought, "Why didn't I get an award? I did my best!" Well, the teacher finished handing out the awards for the rest of the 6 classes of 3rd graders and then she turned around. When she turned back around I saw that she was holding four trophies. Uh oh. Then she announced that she had trophies for the four children who excelled at art and surpassed all expectations out of all of the 120 3rd graders. The first name called? Libby!!! I frantically started pushing the power button on my camera and the look on little Libby's face when she got up on stage was priceless. :-) I didn't get my camera turned on in time to get the look on Libby's face but this is the first picture I could get after she got up on stage and got her Awesome Artist award and her Star Artist trophy.

Then the coach went up to the podium and he gave out the Presidential Fitness Awards and Libby was included as one of those award winners, as well (the picture is listed a little further below).

Here is Libby's class...they went up as a whole class while their teacher passed out some of her individual awards for some of the students in her class. (I know the picture is sort of far away but Libby is just about in the middle).

This is just a cute pic of a moment I captured of Libby and one of her friends, Emma, giggling over an award.

Here is Libby with her Awesome Artist award and Star Artist trophy later that afternoon when we were at home.

Here she is with her Presidential Fitness Award (it had a copy of Barack Obama's signature on it and that just blew her mind). It made her day to have the President's signature on her award!

Here she is with her Certificate of Scholarship for being on the Honor Roll the entire school year:
Here she is with her certificate of Good Attendance (less than three absences all year).
And here she is with her Citizenship Award for being a good student/friend to everyone all year long.

Here she is with all of her awards. She was very proud of herself and so were we! :-)