TEXAS

I did most of this post about a month ago.  I had great intentions to do the blog the nights Karl has call.  Well, I don't know what happened to that idea, but I did it twice and then stopped.  I was going to delete some of these pictures, but my computer is being funny, so there are a lot of pictures on here.  Some are not the best, but too much is better than nothing, right -- maybe.  There are some other fun things that we have found we really like about the area, but hopefully I'll blog about them later.

Moving in waiting and waiting for them to deliver our stuff.  I had it all nicely arranged to get our stuff the day we closed, but it got pushed back 3 days.  What a pain, but thankfully we had contacts from home school and church that took good care of us.  Lending us air matresses and bringing dinner over.

A couple randome picture of the new house I took one night.  We are warming up t it now.  It still isn't decorated at all, but doesnt feel quite so much like a hotel.  That's what Karl used to say it feels like.

We  Enjoy the kitchen a little too much.  I really don't think it is helping me much with keeping my weight gain down with this pregnancy.  

Karl brought this balloon home with him the day we found out what we were having to tell the kids.  It was a un way to announce it to them,

The new bar stools.  I love that we can all fit around the bar.

They have  really nice dinner on the 45th floor of a building in dowtown Houston for the graduates every year.  All the other oral surergy students are invited it was a fun night.  Hollie wanted pictures of my hair and we had the kids take some pictures of Karl and me together just beore.  He looks sharp in his dress whites.  I like them a lot better then his Air Firce blues.

20 weeks pregnant.  Not too bad.  I've grown quite a bit since then.

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Our house was one of the first to be done in the neighborhood so there is still a lot of construction going on around us.  Which is a big painin a way and kind of fun in a way.  The kids love to watch the big tractors.  Thier favorite is when the put in a new foundation.  They bring in a big pumper truck that hooks to the cement truck and it is pretty fun to sit and watch.  The noise isn't usually too bad, but can get annoying in the mornings sometimes.  All in all it's not too bad.  Except the nail I got in my tire this Sunday.  I was really glad that Karl was t church with me to switch out the tire.  It was really flat. I have a feeling that it is not the last nail I will find in my tire.

And the frogs.  They all come out in the evenings and my kids have a great time with them. This one they found in the driveway on the Forth of July. 

Our community pool that we LOVE.  It nice to have a pool in walking distance and not have to maintain it.  We have a couple friends that we meet there too.

Leaving Lexington and our dear friends there

Thought I would post some pictures of Lexington friends just before we moved.

Zac, Jerry, and Hailey at the zoo.  We tried to hit the zoo up a couple times this spring to use our pass that I bought in the fall.  We always had great company at the zoo!

Ah, the lunch date!  We started getting together for lunch date quite often this last year.  So fun to sit and chat with the girls while my kids take care of all the little ones.

We have been doing science with the Coolbears for a couple years.  The kids wanted to do some funky pictures together on our last day of science.

All our neighborhood friends.

The grown-ups in the neighborhood.  They put together a wonderful BBQ to send us off. 

The Mendez family.  Such good times with dinners and home school fun!

Miss Laura.  Oh the good times we had.  She had to go tear her ACL and MCL the week before I left which put her down.   But that didn't stop us from talking. 

Anika with my kids.  Not the best picture but for some reason it's all I have of any of Cullen's kids.

 

Granmda and Grandpa Brown.  I'm not sure we would have survived KY without their love, support, and help in so many ways.  A great love grew for them.  They will always be our grandparents in KY. 

Lydea and Lila

Haylee with "baby" Hailey

The last Sunday we were there in KY we met Whitney at one of our beloved places...the arboretum!  Whitney was kind enough to come to our house and do ballet with Haylee so that she didn't fall behind since we weren't sure when we were moving.  It was great for all of us!  She became a wonderful friend.  We also really enjoy her husband Matthew who went to dental school with Karl.  Funny picture to paint in your head -- Karl and Matthew used to workout at lunch or early in the morn.  Sometimes they would play a little basketball.  The part that is funny is Karl is 5'6" and Matthew is a good 6'7" (I think).  Karl said it was pretty humorous., but he really enjoyed Matthew's company.


We made some fantastic friends some of which I didn't manage to get picture with.  We miss our dear friends in KY.  They will not be forgotten!  Everyone was so good to us.  Thank you all for your continued love and support to our family!

update

So it has been a long time since I have posted on here.  An update...I was going to say quick, but probably won't be. 

I has been one busy year.  I thought that the 4th year of dental school would be mellow. Boy was I wrong.  We all got through though.  Karl graduated May 6th.  He's an official DMD or DDS (I'm not sure what he is - how bad is that).  He is now at officer training in Rhode Island for the Navy which he left for on May 12th.

This last year he applied to Oral Surgery and got into the program at UT Houston.  So since he has been gone the kids and I packed the house (OK really the moving co. packed the house), cleaned the house up.  With a lot of help from dear friends.  Listed the house.  It still hasn't sold.  We stayed the last week with our KY grandparents Sam and Ruth Brown.  Who we are ever indebted to and love so very much.  My mom, whom I am ever so grateful for, flew in to KY May 27th.  We started the drive May 28th.  Stopped near Baton Rouge, LA to enjoy our friends the Pomeroys.  We had a great time.  Then on to TX.  Got here May 30th. We closed on a new house just south of Houston on the 31st.  I did it with a power of attorney for Karl. I will NEVER do that again if I don't have to.  TONS more signing and lots of stress.  It is so nice to move into something new after remodeling houses for the last 7 years!   And to have a lot more space than we had in KY.

I put the first couple holes in my walls of my new house today.  I had to hang my calendar up and once that was done I figured I could hang a couple more things.  I have had a couple people ask me about the house.  How we are liking it and things.  So here's a little bit.  I love the kitchen.  Except I could do without granite counters.   They are too hard and too temper mental.  But the bar fits 8-9 bar stools.  The island is fantastic!  I have a pantry and more cabinets than I have stuff to fill them with.  I'm sure that will only take time.  The house has tall ceilings which is nice, but a bit echoey.  I have a lot of tile which I don't mind, but I need to buy something that cleans them effectively and easily.  Any ideas???  The space is nice!  I have a lot of closet space, but they aren't organized well (most of them just have a bar with a shelf across the top.  I need more shelves.  I feel like I really don't have room for all our junk.  I might just have to get my tools out.

One thing about having a new house - it makes you (or maybe it's just me) want new furniture!  I feel like I need someone to come decorate for me.  Hollie why do you have to be so far away???  I have plans for new stuff in a lot of the rooms, but it's going to have to come a little at a time.  Right now I don't dare spend any money cuz everything is so different I need to let everything settle first and then I can go shopping. In the mean time I just plan.  We love having the pool lass than a half mile away.  I make the kids walk there.  That way it is good exercise for me and then I don't have to pack wet kids up in the car.  Our house was one of the first to be finished on the street so we have a lot of construction going on around us.  I thought that it would bother me more that it has though.  The kids, especially Zac, love to sit a watch them.

It is hot down here, but I actually like it most of the time.   As long as I have a pool or some place to escape with AC.  Then I'm all good with it.

Karl gets home Friday.  I can't wait!  I feel a little bad because we have already "broke the house in" so he never got to see it super clean and smelling new.  Oh well, life goes on. 

His OMS program starts July 1st, but he has a bunch to do before he starts, so he's not going to get much of a break.  Good thing he likes to work hard!  I sure do love him.  Anyway, that is life for the Chandlers right now.  We miss friends ALOT!  But we are making new ones slowly. We'll get there.

Details on Zac's week

This is a bit long, but here are all the details for anyone interested.

Tues Zac missed his nap and he was acting a little funny which at first I figured was just because he hadn't had a nap, but as I watched him I thought that maybe he was coming down with something. On Wed afternoon he was still really sensitive, so I took his temperature and he had a low grade temp. Not much to worry about. I gave him some motrin and put him down for a nap. By the evening it was getting worse. His temp was now 102 degrees, but still not too much to worry about. I'd just watch him closely. Thursday morn I figured I'd call the doctor and get him in. His temp was the same, but his energy level and color were not good at all. Just as I thought that I noticed that the whole right side of his neck was quite swollen. I got him in that morning. He wanted me to hold him, but whenever I did it was too uncomfortable and he'd just lay down on the floor where ever he could.

When Dr. Boarman came in he checked his ears, which looked fine. He did a strep test and a flu test and sent us down to get some blood work done. After the bloodwork we came back up to talk to the Dr. again. He said that the strep turned possitive as soon as he put it in the test cup, but the flu was still neggative. He thought tht maybe he had both because he looked so bad. In that case he gave Zac a penicillin shot and sceduled a follow-up for Friday morn.

All day Thursday Zac just laid around moving every so often to a different spot. Asking for food and drink and then looking at it and going to lay down again. Every now and again he would take a sip or two. I just let him sleep where ever and tried to get him to atleast drink something.

Friday morn we went back to the Dr. I was glad that I already had an appointment, because he wasn't looking any better. Dr. Boarman saw him and said I want you to go to the hospital pediatrics. He thought that maybe there was an absess that the antibiotics couldn't get to. He then called over to the hospital, but they said that they wouldn't be able to get him into see an ENT and do all the tests. They said we should go to the ER. So Dr. Boarman called the ER and had things all set up for us to go there. What fun. In the mean time I had Carson at home with the kids not thinking I would be very long and Karl was at school. So I called my neighbor Barb and had her check in on the kids. Did my best to get a hold of Karl with no success. Just ofter I sent him a text message my phone battery died! I was helpless. So I just sat in the ER with Zac and hoped that everything would be OK.

To my happy surprise Karl came walking in just after the Dr. had come in to look at him. They were about to take him for x-rays, but then descided that they wanted to do a CAT scan on him. So waited on the x-rays and then descided to wait on the CAT scan as well until the ENT could come down to look at him.

That's when Karl left to take care of the kids and hopefully find someone to watch them so he could be at with me in case we needed to make any desicions. He left his computer with me so that enabled me to atleast let people know we were in need of some help. Which worked out nicely for me. We had some GREAT friends call and offer to watch the kids. And more freinds call to watch the kids and more people call to see if they could help and we were very taken care of! THANK YOU, you wonderful people! Karl called our family and they all started to pray for our little Zac.

While Karl was gone the ENT came down and descided that we should try and just take care of it with a bunch of meds before we expose him to any radiation or surgery. They put a IV in his little hand. Before they put anything in him he started to perk up a little bit. Thanks to the prayer from our loved ones! They pumped him full of some fluid, another antibiotic and a steroid. By the time they discharged us it was about 3:30 pm. He was talking a bit and quite responsive, but still swollen and tired.

We went to pick the kids up from the Cullins and Laura made us dinner! He had a good time playing a little bit. It was funny to watch him walk his neck was still so swollen that he'd walk with his head tilted to the left and his right shoulder dropped. I should have gotted a picture of it.

Saturday his swelling started to go down a bit and he ate a little. Still not much. He still slept quite a bit, and he was momma's cuddle boy all day. Joy was so nice to bring dinner over to us. I'm sure we could have made it, but it was nice to be able to just take care of my little Zac and not have to worry about it.

Sunday (today) he is doing pretty good. He wanted to go to church, but I wanted him to stay home so he could get the rest he needs. He jumped onto the bean bag for the first time this afternoon, so hopefully this is going to completely go away! He is still swollen a little and he went to sleep with out ANY fight, but he's doing great. He has a follow-up appointment with the ENT next week.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all our friends and falmily. We are so appriciative of your help, your love, and your prayers. We love you all.