poison ivy!!

when i was a kid i would get poison ivy a couple times a year! not like..oh i have a rash on my arms and legs. noo...it was more like..

poison ivy is in my ears, mouth, and all over my scalp.
my eyes swell shut.
and i miss a week of school.

one time i had it we went to the doctor because it was just gettting worse and worse. it was all in my mouth and i was swollen up like a beach ball. the doctor said "now if it spreads down your throat and you are unable to breathe, go to the emergency room."

thanks for the advice, doc.

well..i haven't had it in forever! probably since before junior high. the doctor said you can outgrow allergies, so i just figured that's what happened.

not hardly.

kyle, lola, and i went on a walk the other day. there's a field behind our house so we were just walking around and to see what was out there.

everything was dead. nothing green at all.

well, apparently there was some green poison ivy out there hiding from me.

and i usually look for it because i know the great harm it causes my body.

i had on capri sweat pants and a hoodie. so every inch of my skin that was not covered by clothing is now covered by poison ivy. its kinda funny, there are 2 strips of poison ivy around my ankles right where my pants stopped. on my hands. and ALL OVER MY FACE!

i am now on around the clock prednisone (steroid) and benadryl. so its getting a lot better.

yesterday i slept till 1 pm, got up, watched tv, went back to sleep at 2:30 and didn't wake up till kyle got home from work at 6!

some people may think that i am exaggerating about the extent of my swollen face. so i am going to humble myself and show you a picture. i can't really believe i'm actually letting people see me like this.

here's what i looked like when i woke up yesterday morning:

haha. you kinda just have to laugh. or cry! oh and side note. my lips are swollen so huge from the poison ivy. (i'm sure ashleigh will insert some joke about the jones girls' huge lips). i look like i got the crap beat out of me in a fight!!

so there you go. that picture will be your encouragment to stay away from poison ivy.

i will now leave you with a less disturbing picture:
me today. still quite puffy. buy my eyes can open. and i look like a human.

we're making progress.

heidi

keep heidi and brent and the kids in your prayers.

they lost their baby last night, so her and brent spent most of the night and day in the hospital.

she's at home resting now.

sad day.

lola lola lola

doesn't this look like the sweetest most innocent dog in the world?well, it's not.

our dear dog.
excuse me..kyle's dear dog.
she has been soo good since we moved into the new house!
she has had only one accident (one wheetle in boshart terms) in the house since we've been here!

since she has been doing so well, we've been letting her stay out in the laundry room just w a blanket and some toys. and she has not had one accident or chewed anything up or anything!!

well today was my first day at work, and kyle's second day. but we weren't even gone that long. we both had to be at work at 8, kyle came home on his lunch break, and i was home at 4. so she was only in there for four hours at a time! she's been in there waaay longer than that!

this is what i came home to...
that is a hole. in the wall. and a pile of powdered sheetrock on the floor.

how does one chew a hole in a wall!? i don't know. at least its in the laundry room and not in the middle of our living room or something more trafficky!

she's back in the kennel for awhile. but when she gets her laundry room privileges back, we will be setting up a video camera to see what she really does in there!

happy new year!!!

i cannot believe it's already 2009!

actually, i can, because for some odd reason i have thought it was 2009 all year. not completely, but i've caught myself several times thinking it was already '09!

we rang in the new year in dallas at victory park (right outside american airlines center). it was soo fun! everyone should go next year. it is definitely the closest thing texas will ever have to times square.

we started the night off with several friends eating at jonny carinos in rockwall..it took 3 1/2 hours to eat there! it wasn't the greatest situation, but we didn't let it ruin our night.

then we got on the dart train in garland and rode to west end. that was definitely a good idea. because traffic was a nightmare!! we had friends that tried to drive to victory park and didn't make it till after midnight because traffic was soo bad!

this is on the dart, on the way there


part of our group. we were squished together so tight!

lots of people!
happy new year!

our house!

here is the much belated post about our new house.
i wanted to wait till everything was done (well, almost everything) before posting a bunch of pictures.

the move from college station was not too bad, although we had many more possessions than we realized. it took my car, kyle's durango, and my mom's car completely packed out. the nelsons brought a trailer that was completely loaded down with our furniture. and we even had a couple pieces of furniture in the back of the shavers truck. fun times.

here are pictures of mine and kyle's cars on the way home..

now for the house...
sorry there are a million pictures, people have been asking to see them!

the living room:


the kitchen:



our bedroom:
this dresser we got off the side of the road and completely re-did. well on the way from college station, it lost a top drawer, so we improvised. it now has baskets instead of drawers!

our bathroom:

the extra bedroom. (andrew and adelle have claimed this one)

this is the office/kyle's stuff room:

well there it is! we definitely still have work to do, but we're loving it how it is!
so if you're ever in town, stop by!

happy graduation kyle!

as most of you know kyle graduated from a&m a couple weeks ago. and as usual, i am a little late in posting these. i have a good reason, i was waiting to get the pictures from kyle's parents, because his dad has a camera with a lens longer than my arm, so his pictures are way better than mine. when i get those pictures i will randomly post them. but for now, my pictures will suffice.

this was the morning of his graduation. there was one commencement speech made for all the grads in the morning. then all the graduations followed throughout the day. the speech was made by george w. bush!! it was so great to hear him speak, and was his last commencement speech he will make as president. it was quite an honor.

bush sr. and barbara were there also and made very short speeches.

actually george bush sr. got up before w. and said, "well, the president said to keep it short, so with no further adieu, the president of the united states of america."

we set the timer, which of course usually takes several pictures to get right. so the whole time we were doing this lola just stood right next to us and stared at us.
on a side note, she loves cameras. if you get the camera out she'll come up and sit right in front of you till you take a picture, then just walk away.

on our way to see the president!

this was right before we left for graduation!

that's kyle going across stage. can't you tell?

making sure its the real deal! kyle graduated cum laude. he figured out he was .01 points from magna cum laude! still quite well!

congratulations jeffrey!

just fyi, now kyle is employed as a rural lender by heritage land bank in greenville. he will loan to farmers for land, livestock, farm equipment and all that good stuff.

i'm pretty sure a cowboy hat is required in the job attire.

i'm so proud of dear. i'm so lucky =)

holiday cheer!

i have so much blogging to catch up on. so i've decided to do it one step at a time, and just blog about whatever i feel like it that day. so these won't be in the right order..


today will be on all the Christmas festivities!
this year was our first Christmas together as a married couple and it was so great! it was so exciting to wake up together in our own house and celebrate christmas with just the two of us. (we've already been married over 6 months! time flies)

on christmas morning! (please don't mind the just rolled out of bed look).

kyle opening his treasures!

kyle got me diamond earrings to match my wedding ring! i was so excited!! (although he did slightly break the spending limit. i don't know why we even set those anyways)

lola the reindeer!

on the 23rd all the jones kids, spouses, and grandkids spent the night at our parents. it was so much fun! we had sleeping bags and air mattresses everywhere. the kids thought this was amazing.
we woke up on the morning of the 24th and had christmas morning (my dad had to work the 25th). it was so much fun ..still exactly like it was when we were kids. we woke up and opened our stockings. then of course had monkey bread! mom made 8 bisquit cans of monkey bread! then we opened presents!
it was so great to be with all the family!

us in our matching pjs. every christmas my parents give all the boys and all the girls matching pjs. except its a surprise every year! =)

adelle got some make up for christmas and went into the bathroom to try it out herself!

andrew with his new suitcase to go visit the grandparents. (adelle got a pink one, of course)

mom was loading the dishwasher and turned around and lola had gotten in it.

lola sat like this on the top of ashleigh's chair looking out the window the whole time we were opening presents!



andrew and danny laying in all the wrapping paper

the traditional kids in the paper picture after all the festivities

we spent christmas day at the nelsons and shavers, but i don't have any pictures on my camera from the events. i'll have to wait and get some from the fam.

i hope all of your holidays were bright and merry!!