The Weekend Wrap-Up

According to a friend of mine....(ahem...You know who you are Raider fan!) I'm long overdue in taking down the picture of Colt McCoy. Yes, sadly it was not a good game and quite a different series of event and no, same-Raider fan, McCoy did not sprain his...well, we'll just leave it at that.

I have lots of pictures to upload. I realize I say that often. But, this time it's not due to 'lack of time' it's due to 'lack of access' to my personal computer. I'm having some technical issues with it that I tried to resolve under my own 'IT' knowledge and looks like I now have to call in the Geek Squad. More coming.

Needless to say, we're making sure we take the time to 'enjoy Florida'. There really is a lot of cool stuff to do here. A few weekends ago, we drove down the The Keys for the first time with Olivia. It's so close to where we live. There are 5 main Keys in all and the first one (and the least exciting) is only about 40 min away. So, we drive down past the 2nd one and had a great day. We found a really cool playground right on the beach. Did some touristy shopping, walked along a park on the beach and had dinner right on the beach at this really cool place with steel drums and a very tropical setting. Olivia keeps asking when we can go back to 'the Keys'. And, all in a day's drive.

This past weekend, I took Olivia to a place called The Monkey Jungle. We went with Sara when she came to visit and like ALL places in Miami, it costs a small fortune to go in, but only $10 more to get an annual pass. So, Olivia and I joined. My plan is to go a few times this year and then never again, as it's really not that exciting. It's cool for one thing. You get to feed the monkeys. The theme is 'Where the Humans are caged and the Monkey's run free'. You basically walk in these chicken wire tunnels with the monkeys swinging all around. They have little buckets on chains, you feed then, the monkeys shimmy the bucket up to get the food, and then they lower it back down for more. See here. Very entertaining for a 4yr old.

On the drive home we passed by this farm that had cars lines up. I thought it was a berry picking farm, but turns out they just sold jams, shakes, pies, etc from what they grew. They told me about a place down the road where you could pick your own stuff, so we quickly headed in that direction. We came to this huge farm with people literally lined up to the street from this small building. I asked what everyone was in line for and they all replies 'Cinnamon rolls'. I thought that seemed a bit overrated, so Olivia and I went and found where to pick berries. It was an Amish farm and Olivia and I each filled a basket with strawberries. You could pick tomatoes too, but we opted for berries this time. They were delicious! And, Olivia had a great time picking out 'the good ones'. Afterwards, we decided to see what the hype was about these Cinnamon rolls. While waiting in line, you could get a shake or homemade ice cream too, but we just snacked on strawberries. We waited for 45 min!! And, the line was twice as long by the time we left. We got 2 dozed rolls. I figured if we were going to wait this long, we should share the good fortune. So, our neighbors were quite happy to see us spreading the good around!! And, I have to admit, they are quite delicious! About on par with my mom's homemade Cinnamon rolls and if you've ever had hers, you know what I'm talking about. Pillsbury has nothing on my mom....nor the Knaus family farm now.

The line waiting for 'The Rolls'

Saturday night, we decided to take Olivia for a spin in the convertible for the first time!! She was so excited and I wish I would've captured it on video. She got to sit in the front seat with her car seat and it was a whole new world to her! She had SO many questions. We went for a drive on Old Cutler Road which is a very scenic and slow paced compared to others around and took her out to dinner. It was a lot of fun and we all wish 'Papa' could see Olivia in his car!!

Texas Fight, Texas Fight....

Big game tonight McCoy!!! Please tell me you have diligently spent the last 5 weeks working your tail off, perfecting your not-so-perfect season. We need you tonight. We need your 'A' game that you had in the 2008 season. You were great then. This year....thankfully we had a good offense to back you up and an amazing defense that only allowed 61yds avg (running). Yes, I know you were up for the Heisman. Two years in a row. I understood it last year. This year, you will be playing the Heisman winner in the biggest game of your career. So, your last two games of the season were 'ahem'.....not your best. Close calls with Texas A&M and Nebraska? We didn't need a heart attack over those not-even-in-the-rankings teams! But, the 'Horns pulled through. Here is a good article talking about the '10 Reasons Texas Will Win'.

The last time the Horns played in the National Championship, I had a newborn and much to my disappointment, fell asleep in the last 10 minutes of the game. I tried with ALL my might to watch the end. But, we were losing miserably and my thoughts quickly turned to a 2am feeding that was looming around the corner. I told Kyle to wake me up if anything BIG happened. Supposedly he tried to wake me when it looked like Vince Young was making a comeback and I said 'I'll read about it in the morning'!!?! WHAT? Who says that? I watched the re-runs about 20 times on ESPN the next day. Not quite as fun, but a great finish still.

So...tonight, I've hired a babysitter. For two reasons. First - the game starts on the east coast at 8pm. This also happens to be Olivia's bedtime. Selfishly, I would like to watch the pregame hype and everything leading up to the game this time. Not reading Olivia the Pig or If You Give a Pig a Pancake. Not tonight. Not when it's the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!! Second - my husband is not a Texas fan. For over 11 years, I have failed miserably with this attempt to transform him. He's an Aggie and usually a fan for anyone playing Texas. I'm not actually sure about tonight. But, it doesn't matter. I can't watch it with all my Longhorn, football-loving girlfriends, so I wanted to make sure that I surrounded myself with other Texas fans. We're going to a sports bar. And most people in Miami have a strong (putting it lightly) dislike for Nick Saben. So, my chances of being surrounded by TX fans are pretty good!

HOOK 'EM HORNS!!!

Sometimes Life Just Really Sucks.....

R.I.P....Sam Lane
Aug 2002 - Jan 4, 2010

One of the world's best dogs left the world a little too early today. We took him in for surgery this morning to have the tumor on his leg removed. He got really bad over the weekend and cried in pain a lot last night. Kyle knew this was the end, but I refused to give up on the little guy. I somehow was convinced that they could take it out and we would have a lot of time left with him. But, the vet called a little while ago and said it was really bad. The cancer spread into his nervous system, causing a lot of the pain. It was too big, too much and very little they could do at this point. So, he never made it out of surgery. We didn't even get to say good-bye. And now, we have to tell Olivia that her buddy is up in heaven with Jake and Jackie. This sucks. It just really sucks.

Happy 2010!!

I feel like that is a very generic heading....but as I'm writing on the 1st day of the New Year, it feels as much appropriate as generic!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year celebrating with friends and family. We had an absolutely fabulous time in TX. We got to see a few friends, lots of family, and S.N.O.W. On more than one occasion. The snow is also part of the reason we didn't get to see more friends, unfortunately. It was the first time Dallas received snow over Christmas in 70 years!! Unbelievable. It was beautiful. But, it also made it challenging to get around and to get people out. Olivia made snow angels, we had snowball fights and we loved every minute of it. I've got pics, just haven't uploaded them yet. Of course.

We are back in sunny Florida and I have to admit.....distance does make the heart grow fonder. As much as we really enjoyed being in the cold for Christmas and seeing snow.....we were a bit excited to see blue skies, sunshine and weather that made it possible to run at the park this morning. Don't get me wrong...I really have been going through a weather-lack-of-season-depression the past few months, but it really has been a bit invigorating to be back. Everything is green here. We have flowers blooming and leaves on the trees. Shh.....don't tell anyone. This week it's supposed to be in the 60s/40s. Not bad, I tell you.

To take advantage of this fine weather, we have decided to drive down to 'the Keys' tomorrow. I'm typically the planner in the group. But, I think tomorrow, we just might hold the spontaneity torch and see where we end up. We can't stay the night because of Sam (see below), but it's close enough that it should be a good day trip. I'll let you know where we end up.

We also got invited over to our friends, from Tallahassee, tonight. They are one of two families we hang out with the most and really have a lot in common. They were right up there in tradition with eating Black-eyed peas today, so we brought the peas and they made the rest. Amazing dinner. Barry is the Director of Food and Beverage at one of the big country clubs here and boy does he know how to cook!!! He made homemade fried chicken, collard greens (my first time eating them...apparently you eat them New Year's Day for wealth in the following year!), homemade cornbread, and real mac and cheese...not the kind from the box. Very glad I got a run in at the park this morning!! Barry and Dana also went to Florida State so we paid homage to Bowden's last game as a collegiate football coach. It was a great time.

On a completely different note.....our poor Sam is in bad shape. We got back from TX to find a fairly large tumor under his left front leg. We got a 2nd opinion on Friday and although we really like the new vet, the prognosis is a bit of the same. She wanted to refer us to an oncologist for dogs, but we kindly declined after learning that it would be thousands of $$ and only add 1-2 years to the little guy's life. We are torn up about this. Sam stayed with the vet for a few hours of tests on Friday and it was enough for her to fall in love with him. Kyle has now nicknamed Sam 'Tripod' as he can only walk on three legs. And, Olivia has lost her bed buddy as he's in too much pain to stay in her bed. We're taking him in for surgery on Monday. Although the surgery won't prolong anything, we're hoping that it at least gets rid of the tumor enough to make him comfortable and able to walk/run again. And now, much like with Jake, we just wait for signs that he's ready. This is killing me. He's too young and too good of a dog.