The life of a gypsy

So we're here in Houston. For now. We got here yesterday and I'm leaving tomorrow to go to Corpus Christi, then back to Houston, then Corpus for Easter, the Austin for a wedding, then back to Corpus then kaboom!!!! My head just blew up.

We did get to look at about 12 or so houses today. I dont know if we found THE one, but we found some maybes and narrowed down the neighborhoods we are interested in. Now we just keep looking and find the perfect one! Lincoln has been feeling better and is loving his new big boy carseat. Oh, and we love our realtor, she is awesome which is such a relief!

Uncle mike babysat today and his head almost blew up too. 4 + hours for your first time to babysit a still sickly baby is a little much but he did awesome. Lots to do in the coming weeks, but I'll keep everyone posted and I have a post coming about being a sahmife soon.

Croup

At 5:30am Lincoln woke up. He was crying and I went to go get him. My first thought was, "Wow! He slept all night for the first time since forever ago!!" Then as I went into his room I could hear him gasping for breath in between cries. It sounded terrible! It was like a gasp crossed with the honk of a goose and a cough. Not a good sound at 5:30 am when you are a first time mom and just lived through RSV.

We called his doc, which reminds me to mention that I can't stress enough how awesome it is to have a doc who takes her own call all the time! Its amazeballs. She called right back and said to go ahead and take him in since she hasn't seen him lately and you never know with breathing problems.

So we got dressed and jumped in the car and raced off to Cooks. We went there because last time we got sent there because regular hospitals are very very scared of babies. Like how 5 year olds are scared of the boogieman. I think they are afraid of the deadly baby venom that most babies carry. We got to Cooks, and again, they were super nice, and immediately diagnosed it as Croup.

Duh, Croup! I should have known, I saw that on Terms of Endearment! Apparently its not that big of a deal and just sounds way worse than it is. They gave him a breathing treatment and some steroids because they were worried that he was so skinny and wanted him to bulk up a bit. Hah, that was a joke, have you seen the size of my child!?! Then we just had to hang around to make sure he was ok, then they released us.

He was happy most of the time and trying diligently to remove the little leg bands they put on him and was successful. Jay snoozed a little then held Linc for a while. Linc had a little pulse thingy on his toe and it fell off and so to help, Jay put it back on his toe. Then it fell off again. Then Jay thought to keep it from beeping and just for fun, he would put it on his own finger. The thing went crazy beeping and screaming. I told him to please knock it off. Then about 10 minutes later, just for fun AGAIN Jay stuck his finger in it again! Sometimes its so fun raising two boys!

Now we're home and Lincoln is napping lots and doing just fine. Days like this are when I am extra thankful that I don't have to go into work anymore!

Houston

As you may have heard we are moving to Houston. Houston is a sweaty steamy place not that unlike Corpus Christi, the home of my childhood. Jay got a new job, still with his current company Fidelity, in Sugar Land. We have been praying about moving closer to Nani and Baba for a while, and many of you know have been looking for jobs in Austin, Houston, even Corpus off and on over the past few years. Well everything certainly came together at once. It makes me truly realize that God's timing is so much better than mine and that I need to trust it.



Our house sold, we learned of Baba's cancer, and moved all in a couple of weeks. I was able to quit my job to take care of Lincoln and be free to go to Corpus when I needed to help Nani and Baba. I came back and unpacked all day only to have Jay come home on that same day and tell me that he was about 95% sure he was getting a job in Sugar Land. I was shocked! He has interviewed for many positions over the years, but no doors ever opened. Now more than ever, we wanted to be closer to Corpus and here it was... opportunity delivered to us just in time.



So now I'm packing and we're going to Houston next weekend to stay with brother Sansabutt (aka Mike) while we look for a house and I go check on Nani and Baba. Jay's going to stay with brother while I go back and forth between Corpus to help the grandparents, Houston to see him, and up here in NRH to finish packing and get ready to move. I should get frequent flier miles for driving. It will be hectic but I know it is worth it.



The sad part is starting to hit me now. We just had home team tonight and I realize now that we're going to be leaving so many great friends. I am so excited about what our future has in store for us in Sugar Land, and very excited to be close to Mike, Misti & Blake, and Carl & Amber, all friends in Houston, but I am going to dearly dearly miss our friends here and I cant even think about saying goodbye without tearing up. Stupid Friends. I know, everyone move to Houston with me and Jay! We can start a big commune!



While you all pray about the possibility of moving with us, I welcome help during the day so I can pack and watch Lincoln (and spend time with friends...) So holla if you wanna play.

Here is a video from February of Lincoln rolling over. I wanted to to share this so that everyone could see 1. Lincoln can actually finally roll over, both ways. and 2. Everyone needs to his glorious round smushy rolls. I love a nice chunky baby. (I also didn't know that I sounded so ridiculous in real life, so sorry for that.)

More Soon

Christmas, the final chapter

I just realized that I never got around to finishing my Christmas posts. After having a great time with the Foys, we went over to spend the night with Mom and Pop. They had gotten some tickets for the amazing winter show at Schlitterbaun. It was so cool! There were carolers and an ice skating rink and lights everywhere.

First we went to dinner at Johnny Carinos, that is actually the restaurant where Jay and I had our first date, but the on in College Station. It was a nice and fancy dinner... I love me some steak and that is what I had. Lincoln loves his Mimi and Poppa and we found out that Bobby is the baby whisperer... Its amazing, Lincoln fusses, and Bobby picks him up and all is well.

We got to the water park and cruised around enjoying the sights. Mom kept threatening to ice skate and we all tried to talk her out of it considering all the times she has visited the emergency room in the past. Luckily, she changed her own mind about it so we had some hot chocolate instead.



Mom had this great idea. "There is a carousel! Lets go take Lincoln on a ride!" Great! I agreed completely and we cruised on over to the carousel area and got in line. We had Linc wrapped up in about 10 blankets to keep him insulated from the cold. But that made him a bit hard to hold on to.

You will notice the laughter - its nervous laughter. We had at that point realized that we were off our rockers. Taking a 6 month old baby on a carousel? Who does that? Well, we do!

Its ok... it all turned out fine and I chalk it up to a lesson learned. And it was still really fun even if it was dangerous. Afterwards we met the local reindeer and then went on home. We were cold and it was getting late.

We didn't exchange gifts this year. We got them some stuff from Lincoln and they got us stuff for Lincoln. That is how it works once you have kids! It was a short visit but fun and nice to have time to see the whole family over Christmas. The pic above is from November, because I forgot to take pictures because I had just gotten the flip video and was enamoured of it.

oops

Here is the video of Linc that I referred to before at Nani's. I guess I cant put more than one video per post?

Down in Corpus Christi

So I headed down to Corpus to help Nani and Baba while he went through his first round of Chemotherapy. If you didn't know, Baba was diagnosed with Lung cancer so that is why he's doing chemo. Duh, like someone would do it for fun.

Linc and I drove down in 2 days. The first day was during a snow storm in Central Texas. That's right, I said snow storm in Central Texas. You weren't hallucinating. It was crazy. Snow flakes the size of golf balls were falling out of the sky while I drove down 35 going 25-25 miles per hour. We got as far as Georgetown and decided to stay the night.

The next morning we finished the drive. Baba was doing really well until the weekend when his feet started hurting. After many consults with many doctors and a trip to the hospital, we just now found out that in fact the pain was not from gout, vasculitis, chemo, or tiny trolls living in his blood... its an infection. That took 2 1/2 weeks in real time, but I just summed it up for you. Trust me, you don't want to know the gory details.

The foot pain is why we stayed for 2 weeks. Baba was having trouble getting up on his own so Linc and I stayed to help. It was tough, for everyone, and it wont be the last time we have complications I'm sure. But it was nice for Linc to see Nani and Baba and spend time with them. However, there wasn't a ton for linc to play with so as you see below, we improvised by turning a bassinet into an (unsafe) swing.

I did get out from time to time to the grocery store and to visit Ashley and her family. We even sneaked (snuck?) off one day to the Texas State Aquarium. It was neat and this was the first time I saw the dolphin exhibit. The babies were more interested in looking at each other and chewing on their stroller straps than the huge friendly dolphins, but Ash and I enjoyed it.

The video is a little long, but very cool. I think the little boy thought I was stalking him...

Baba got better enough to where he could get up on his own so I finally came home... Stopping at my mom's to stay the night on the way back. When I got home I got busy unpacking, only to get the good news the next day that it looks like we're moving to Houston! More soon....

PS I'm posting the video of Linc in his Bassinet in the next post, it wouldnt let me do two...

I didnt disappear

I'm back. A ton has been going on so I'll explain. No, there is no time. Let me sum up. (Did anyone get that movie reference??) We sold our house. (Yeah) We moved into a rent house. I quit my job. (Yeah) Baba got diagnosed with cancer. (Boo) I went to Corpus for 5 days and stayed 2 weeks. (Boo) Jay got a job offer in Sugar Land. (Yeah) Now I'm packing again to move. (Boo)

God has been very very busy in the Foy household. We feel very blessed and excited about being closer to the rest of the family but I'm so sad about leaving our friends here.

I am now a stay at home mom/wife. I'll refer to myself as a sahmife from now on. Its a bit wierd. After working out of the home for so long, I am so grateful for the opportunity to stay home, and the supportive wusband (that is working husband) that makes that possible but it is a bit of an adjustment. The awesome thing is that I got to take Lincoln to the park, get some exercise, and give Linc his first ride in a swing. Lots more to come soon...

By the way - thanks to uncle sansabutt for my flip video. I use it all the time as you will see in the coming days.