Day 176: Saturday

Yikes!  It's been awhile since I've written.  I didn't take my laptop to H-town, since we had so much crap it took two cars to get us there...

Let me recap the past week:

Monday - Still recovering from surgery.  Mom drove me to see Dr. P, where I got four injections in each trap and he ordered an MRI of my neck, since I've had tingling in my arms/hands.  Then I nursed the baby at home and was then driven and dropped off at the dentist for a cleaning.  I haven't had my teeth cleaned in 18 months, which is a long time for me.  My mom came and picked me up when I was done and we went somewhere... Oh yeah, we went to pick up the Honey Baked Ham.  The rest of the day was spent getting organised for the trip and such.

Tuesday - Packed and headed to H-town.  Dad drove the big Lexus, while Mom drove my car with me, Bub, and Eis.  The drive went pretty quick.  We passed through Basdrop and saw tons of fire damage.  It was sad -- it's going to take a long time for those pines to return.
Sharon and Max (Paul's sister and nephew) were still in town when we got there.  We ate pizza for dinner and everyone loved on Eis.  Sharon was great with her and picked her up/soothed her as often as she could.

Wednesday - Sharon and Max left. Ray arrived.  We cooked most of the food. I laid out all the collected items for Ty's soldiers' stockings and stuffed about five stockings before I realised it was just too difficult and cumbersome to pack stuffed stockings.  I un-stuffed them and then organised and counted all the goodies into boxes with notes about for whom the items are intended.  We had two people drop stuff off at the last minute as I was packing my car full of the boxes.  Martha and I drove to the post office and got there five minutes before they closed.  They let us in, despite having eight big boxes and helped us get it all shipped off to Afghanistan.  I filled out all the customs forms at lighting speed and it cost about $160 to mail it all.
There is one GIANT box that I didn't put a note in, but it's for the single soldiers.  Some probationary kids wrote letters and were given a soldier and $10 each to get something for their soldier for Christmas and those are all together in there.

Thursday -  Did some "cooking" of the items made yesterday.  Ben and Robin showed up at 1430 and we promptly ate "dinner."  Afterward, I passed off the baby and Ben and I went to explore the pond that is now Lake Conroe.  I had brought my wellies, so I put them on before we headed out.
As we got down the steps to the lake-bed, Puck ran down the yard and threatened to jump off/down (a five-foot jump).  Luckily, my mom helped corral him back into the house, so Ben and I could walk.  As much as I would have loved to take Puck, it was just too muddy and Martha and Paul are too weird when it comes to him in their house.
Ben and I noticed that a lot of people tied weights to their Christmas trees and just dumped them in the lake -- we found at least 10 trees from at least a five year span.  As we walked past Martha's dock, Ben saw a buoy, but was wearing sneakers, so I offered to go get it for him.  He started following me, but after a few steps, I suddenly got sucked down!  My left foot sunk up past my ankle and my right, did, too.  I was loosing my balance and trying to pick up my feet, but they kept coming out of the boots.  Somehow I turned around and Ben calmly had his hand out, which I grabbed onto before I fell into the mud.  We were cracking up because I was such a spaz (I wish someone had been recording us).
I tried to pull my legs up, but my boots were so stuck that I only succeeded in pulling my legs in and out of socket.  I got my balance and had Ben go get a plank of wood we'd seen.  When he got back, he placed it in front of me and stood on one end.  I grabbed his hand with my left hand and used my right to help my leg pull my boot out of the mud and onto the plank.  Then I switched and did the same with my left.  We cracked up more as we perused the lake-bed until Sue's family showed up and we headed back.
Sue, Buzz, Joby, Anne, Alec, and Aaron were all over for dessert and to see us/the baby.  Anne fawned over Eis and her leopard pants and fur vest that I showed her -- Anne would have done well with a girl!  Eventually they left and a few of us played some games while Dad and Paul took turns watching Eis while watching football.

Friday - We went to Montgomery, which is like a smaller, crapper version of Old Spring (Salado-esque).  We ate lunch and looked at a couple shops.  Robin and Ben left from Montgomery.  I picked up more baby wipes on the way back to the house and Ray got ready to head home, too.  That evening, I crocheted most of a hat and the parents and M&P went out to eat Mexican food.  I didn't want to go, so I stayed home with the baby.  They were gone about an hour, then came home and we watched Love Actually.

Saturday -- We packed, then drove home.  We got gas at an Exxon for $3.03/gallon, which was the cheapest I saw on the whole trip.  Once the car was unpacked, Eis napped for another hour or two.  Eventually, she woke up and I bathed her and put on her reindeer jammies and we left to go eat at Mimi's Cafe.  I drove home after, since Mom and Dad were going to see a movie, but they got home shortly after I did because their movie was sold out!
I fluffed the Christmas tree -- we're using our tree, since it's only been used once -- and bought a canvas print Groupon.  I am going to put the pic Bran made me/Ty/Eis on a canvas and my mom bought one for  a pic of Eisley.
Eis went down after some coercing and I'm hoping she'll sleep 6-7 hours like she had been before the trip.

Tomorrow I may go to the mall to see what my parents may get me for Christmas -- I saw a really cute INC sweater.