Ciao, Noni!

We had a busy but wonderful weekend. We got to see a lot of friends that we don't see often enough, many of them at one time. We had lots of baby friends to visit with as well.

We did say "Ciao" this weekend as well. Saturday morning, Noni headed home for a few weeks. It was touch and go for a while there. Her dizzy spells increased in frequency over the last week and it prompted her oncologist to order a CT of her head. Luckily, all they found was some fluid in her sinuses. This is part and parcel with the allergy season in Houston. If you've never lived through one before, it can do a real number on you. Of course, Noni being Noni, she reported to me that the Dr told her she had fluid on her brain. I was perplexed at how she was so calm and that the Dr cleared her to fly. I called Alice, Dr Green's nurse, to inquire and was given the true scoop. We got a good chuckle out of it once the potentially life-threatening condition was found to be untrue.

She has only been home for 3 days but is already showing marked improvement according to my mom. They will both be in Houston in 2 weeks to stay with Turtle while Dadoo and I head to PEBBLE BEACH! I can't wait. I know it's sorta work related, but it's still as close to a vacation as we've had in a while. We're really looking forward to it! Anyway, here is a photo of Noni all ready to leave Houston on Saturday morning:

After Noni left, our weekend kicked in to pretty high gear. On Saturday Alan, Amy and Katherine hosted their 3rd Annual Crawfish Boil. We missed last year (and didn't know them well the year before) so were happy to be able to attend. Alan's mom was here from the Dallas area. She was having a lot of fun with 8 mos old Katherine and was all smiles. However, she had never been to a crawfish boil before and was a little saddened by the boiling to death of dozens of mudbugs. Funny thing- she decided to "save" a couple for release later, but she kept them in a bowl of water, not realizing that they do not live in water (they live in mud). Therefore, she slowly but surely drowned them which was probably much worse then the quick death by spicy, boiling water.

Katherine; Hoyt and Teresa with Ray; Truitt wonders why his keg cup is empty

Alan, our cook; the pot of crawfish w/ taters and corn; Truitt is still waiting for his beer

After a couple beers at Alan and Amy's, we headed to the 'burbs for a double birthday party. My wonderful friend Jessica and her adorable son Joey share a birthday. It makes for an extra wonderful excuse to party! He turned one this year and she turned... thirtyish. Ha! The party had a BBQ theme and you have to check out pics of the cake. It was so realistic I expected it to taste like BEEF! Lots of friends and husbands and babies that we don't see often were there. In fact, some of the husbands I've never met before, so that was an added treat. I can't get over how much 99% of babies look like the father. Wow!

Truitt tries to escape the corral; Jess and Crissy watch the kiddos; Reagan thinks I'm a punk

Gabby offers Kendall a chip; Kate and Jakob; Truitt on the trike

Kendall pulls the older kid card; Gabby; Delia, Shannon and Amber


Joey, the birthday boy; Jessica, the birthday girl and her babe; Joey gets his piece of cake

The awesome hamburger cake. The best part was the lettuce. It looked soooo real. Deep down, though, it was a yummy Italian Cream Cake!

Sunday, our friend Teresa Garcia-Reyes (TGR for short) had a housewarming at her adorable bungalow right down the street from us. Again, lots of fun friends, including Landon and Sydney Belle. Miles was also there and he performed some pretty awesome raps for us. He is quite the MC for a 3 year old!! Unfortch, I didn't bring the camera so no pics of the party BUT I do have a delightful pic of what happened to Truitt at the party. Another face plant... off TGR's back steps and on to the concrete. Nice raspberry right in the middle of his forehead. The worst part is he has just really learned how to come down the stairs the right way, but he lost his footing (damn crocs are probably to blame) and took a spill. There were gasps by other party goers. Nice.