The Ussery Update

We returned home (from Odessa) yesterday afternoon about 4pm. Once the car was unloaded, we laid down for a quick nap and ended up sleeping for an hour and a half...man it felt nice. We spent the evening starting laundry and doing some unpacking as we watched the last Monday Night Football game of the season - sniff sniff. We had a wonderful Christmas and a great time spent in Odessa with the family. It was very relaxing and enjoyable from start to finish. We also got all sorts of great stuff!! We are looking forward to having our Christmas together over the New Year's holiday and also getting the house back in order...lots of cleaning to do, items to put up and decorations to take down. We will share a few pictures once we have them all uploaded and many more to come with the exchanging our gifts from each other and still John's family to visit in Arkansas. We hope your Christmas was a very merry one - here's to 2010! Until we meet again... Riley

The bags are packed, the presents are gathered and the loading will begin very soon. This is our year to go to Odessa for Christmas. We alternate spending Christmas with John's family in Arkansas and my family in Odessa from year to year. Last year we were in Arkansas, so to Odessa we go. We will be leaving here this morning and will get into Odessa later this afternoon. Hooray!!! We will be coming back home on Monday morning. I'm not sure how much blogging I will do while we are away, but I will be back with updates and pictures galore, I'm sure! John and I wish you and your loved ones a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! Enjoy celebrating the birth of our Lord - God Bless! Until we meet again... Riley

Before I start, I would just like to thank you for your prayers - they are MUCH appreciated! Today, Noah had and MRI and an EEG as well as more blood work at the hospital in Lubbock. Thankfully, all the tests were able to be done today. There are lots of details, but the short of it is they diagnosed Noah with a seizure disorder. The name of the disorder is one that I could not pronounce or spell (my apologies) - it's not epilepsy. The solution is for him to take an anti-seizure medication at this time. So, not great news, but it could have been so MUCH worse so we thank God for all blessings. It could be that he takes the medication and never has a seizure again...only time will tell. Hopefully this will help though! This is the first one he's had in 15 months so it hasn't been a problem until now. Once they figure out what dosage he should take, they will prescribe some to him and they can be on their way back home. He just needs to be monitored closely as he gets used to...

This sweet, precious little boy needs our prayers! This is our 15 month old nephew, Noah... Isn't he just the cutest? While at home yesterday afternoon, Noah had a seizure! He was taken to the hosptial in Odessa by ambulance. In the Emergency Room, they did a CT scan as well as a blood and urine test. After those tests and a couple of things they saw, they decided he needed an MRI and some other tests run. They decided to send him to Lubbock for further testing and evaluation. They took him to Lubbock by ambulance last night and he's now in the Pedatric ICU at University Medical Center. The doctor will come in sometime today to see Noah and then they will run various tests. Luckily, Noah is stable and doing well. He's alert and seems like his normal self, so that is a huge blessing. Hopefully, the tests will go smoothly, they will get results quickly and he can be released to go home in time for Christmas (and anything that might need to be taken care of can be done...

Last night, after dinner and I wrapped a few more gifts, we watched a true classic..."A Charlie Brown Christmas" on DVD. We've been trying to watch some of our favorite Christmas shows and movies as we have had time this season. If you know us well, you know that John loves the PEANUTS gang (I of course love them too!). We even have a little set of Peanuts characters out with our Christmas decorations... The best part of the entire show is when Linus tells Charlie Brown the true meaning of Christmas as Charlie Brown is struggling with all of the commercialism of Christmas. Each and every time it warms our heart as we hear Linus' sweet voice... We hope you are not loosing sight of the TRUE meaning of Christmas - the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Until we meet again... Riley

I am participating in the "Christmas Card Carousel" hosted by Faith . How fun! This is our Christmas Card... We tried to choose pictures that were highlights from our year. On the strip on the left, the top picture was taken in May at Andrew's (my brother) wedding. It was a beautiful outdoor ceremony and we are so happy to have Heidi in our family. The middle picture is of our precious beagle, Calvin. You can read more about him on the right side bar. He'll be turning 7 next month and we just adore him! The bottom picture is of us heading out to a Texas Rangers baseball game. We love the Rangers and really enjoyed following them this season. Living in the Dallas area, it's nice to go to a few games throughout the year. All of the other games we watched on TV and enjoyed a pretty good season. The large picture on the right was taken in Fredericksburg, Texas. It's such a fun little town and special to us. John and I spent part of our honeymoon there and try to ...

GUESS WHERE MY SWEET, HANDSOME HUSBAND IS TAKING ME SATURDAY NIGHT?? The Radio City Rockettes Christmas Spectacular - hip hip hooray! He bought us tickets a couple of months ago. Since he surprised me with the tickets, I've had it written on the calendar in red and green pen and have been anticipating this night for a while. I am super duper excited!! My Mom and I went to this show 3 years ago and it was FANTASTIC. I completely enjoyed it and could not to wait to go back when they came again. I have always loved the Rockettes! They are my favorite part of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Hence this picture on Thanksgiving this year... It will be lots of fun to get all dressed up tomorrow night. We are going out for a nice seafood dinner at Pappadeux (John's favorite restaurant) before and then to the big show. I don't know how many pictures (if any) I'll be able to take, but I am hoping to at least get a good one of John and I in front of our Christmas tree. Th...

Below is a slide show, with about 40 pictures, of us decorating the inside of our house for Christmas. For just two people, we sure have A LOT of Christmas decorations. We didn't even put everything out OR take pictures of everything - these are just a few glimpses. We said goodbye to all of our fall decorations and brought out the red and green Christmas tubs to "Deck the Halls". We have two Christmas trees - one in the dining room and one in the living room. The one in the dining room is decorated to match the dining room with burgundy, olive green, cream and gold colors. This tree is more for show and it's in the front window of the house, so when people drive by, they can see a tree in our window to go along with the outside lights. The tree in our living room is much bigger and taller and every ornament on it has a special meaning....seriously! There are ornaments we had separately or that we've gotten together. We also have several we've received as gift...

Below is a little slide show of our Thanksgiving weekend. We had such a great time. You can read about it all HERE . I think over the course of five days, we took about 200 pictures! No worries, there's only about 40-50 in this slide show - just the highlights. We took lots of pictures of our Chrismas decorating last Saturday, but I'll put those pictures in a separate post in a few days. Hope you enjoyed a look at our Thanksgiving. Have a great weekend! Until we meet again... Riley

Eight years ago today, December 3, 2001, John and I met each other. Well, electronically anyway! Here's the story... For Thanksgiving in 2001 I went with my Mom, Armando and Andrew to spend it with Armando's family in Pearsall, Texas and also celebrate Grandma's (Armando's Mom) 70th Birthday over the weekend. During the evening of Thanksgiving, a few of us were sitting around visiting and John's sister-in-law, Angela (who is also Armando's niece), asked me if I was dating anyone. At that time, I was a few weeks away from my college graduation. I was not dating anyone at the time, but was focused on finishing school and looking for a post-college job. So I proceeded to tell Angela that I was currently single. Well, she got all excited and said that I should meet Jason's brother (Jason is her husband - John's brother). Are you confused? Hee Hee! Anwho, Angela went on to tell me a little bit about John and what I heard sounded really good. I obviou...