a casserole.

before you read this one, be sure to click back a post and read about the stylish blogger award my sweet friend ashley sent my way. xoxo!
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so i hope nobody got their hopes up and thought this was a cooking post or anything wild and crazy like that.

i think we all know i ain't one to be doin' no cookin'.

unless it's tacos. or chili. or takeout from lee's china. (i put it on my real dishes and call it cooking. no judging.)

anyhow.

i figure this post is a lot like a casserole. you take a whole bunch of different stuff, mix it all up, pour gobs of cheese on top and hope it tastes good.

there's quite a variety of things i need to cover this morning, and i hope y'all are up for it.

my absence this week wasn't intentional - there wasn't a whole lot of blogging fodder to go around, and for whatever reason i had trouble keeping my eyes open past 9:30 each night.

it most likely had something to do with working my first full week since thanksgiving.

endurance is clearly not one of my gifts. i tend to file that one in the same category as cooking.

but back to the agenda ... let's get started, shall we?

the first part of the week rocked along fairly calmly. until wednesday. a precious friend got some devastating news, and it absolutely crushed me. the story isn't really mine to share (i may at some point depending on how she feels about it ... but it wasn't the appropriate time to approach the subject.), but PLEASE PLEASE pray for H. i promise He will know who you're talking about.

sophie originally had her 3-year check-up scheduled that afternoon (yes. a month late. i'm sure you're shocked right out of your socks.), but i cancelled it when i saw a staff meeting was going to make us almost half an hour late.

the cancellation wasn't a big deal in and of itself, but no appointment meant no celebratory visit to chick-fil-a as a reward for being a big girl and not biting sweet dr. green. (hey ashley - i totally poached your idea. hope you don't mind! they say imitation is the best form of flattery. xoxo pretty girl!)

i'm sure you can imagine how pleasant it was to break the news to the wild woman that she'd be eating pb&j at home instead of waffle fries and ranch at chick-fil-a. but after hearing the news that we heard that day, i just wasn't up for it. i wanted to take her home, snuggle her in my bed and not leave for, well, ever.

so we got home only to find that my main man tom tom was acting even more weird than normal. there had been a few little things this week that weren't quite right, and it all kind of clicked together that night. being that he is prone to life-threatening illness and other serious health problems, i'm pretty hyper-sensitive when it comes to even the slightest oddity in his case.

he'd had some suspicious tummy troubles, a handful of accidents in the house and a few dry heaving spells over the span of a few days, and it hit me all of a sudden when he didn't want anything to eat that night.

i called the emergency vet number and was relieved when a sweet doctor (who i just happen to be in junior league with - so i totally didn't feel bad about bothering her at home ... i know her well enough to apologize for wasting her time.) called me back a few minutes later.

i explained my concerns to her and she told me it could either be nothing - or it could be something.

ummm, yah. so i kind of figured that much.

we left it at me calling my vet the next morning and getting him checked out. which i did. duh. i didn't even have to say my name. the exchange pretty much went like this ...

receptionist: dr. oubre's office. this is ------. can i help you?

me: hi ------, this is -

receptionist: hi mrs. douglas. i know who it is. would you like to speak to a doctor or are you already on your way?

me: oh. hi! sorry. i'm already on my way.

receptionist: ok. we'll see you and tom in just a minute. and mrs. douglas?

me: yes?

receptionist: calm down.

me: oh, i'm okay. i'm not freaking out.

receptionist: yes ma'am. but i'm sure you will be by the time you get here. i promise we're going to take good care of your baby. we always do.

me: nervous laughter and hangs up. starts brainstorming what kind of sweet treat i can deliver this afternoon. (i've already done cookie cakes and boxes of fresh doughnuts.)

of course the sweet girl was right. i was completely freaking out by the time i got there. i walked in, she pushed the consent form in front of me to sign, grabbed tom out of my arms and basically pushed me out the door with promises to call me as soon as they knew anything.

i'd been back at school less than an hour when i got a call from the doctor. he said he was worried about the welfare of the children in my room while i was so worried about my baby. sad, but true. ha!

anyway - two hundred and seventy seven!!!!! dollars later, we knew tom wasn't diabetic or in liver/kidney failure, didn't have cancer or heartworms and most likely had a urinary tract infection (and all the painful junk that comes along with it - ouch!!!).

i headed to pick up the wild woman before we went to get her brother from the vet and tried to hurry her out the door at rita's by explaining where we had to go. as soon as she figured out that tom was at the doctor and that he was sick, she fell out in the floor crying. huge tears. wailing. beyond upset that something was wrong with one of her boys.

try as i might, i couldn't convince her that tom was just fine and that he was coming home with us. she cried the entire drive to the vet that my boy is LOST! my tom is sick and he's LOST at the vet and we CAN'T FIND him because he's LOST!

we pulled up and i was going to let her sit in the car while i ran in to get the pup dog, but she informed me quite emphatically that the exchange was most definitely not going down like that.

so.

in we went. with her still crying and fussing about her boy being lost. (and a little side note: you know you're in the vet's office too much when the girls at the front desk call your kid by name and comment on how much she's grown and how much more she's talking.) while they were getting our meds ready to go i told the girls i must be raising a kiddo who's even worse than her mama and then went on to tell them the story of her monster meltdown upon hearing about her brother being sick.

y'all.

i thought they were going to flip OUT. not only did they laugh, but they both started hollering for everyone from the back to come up and hear the story. naturally, they prefaced it with y'all get in here! there's NO WAY you're gonna believe this! O.M.G!!!

i used to think they probably kept my picture posted somewhere in the back with some kind of warning label or some kind of notation on my file written in a secret code that everyone there would see and know how NUTS i am. now i'm certain.

it took less than five minutes of us being home and my boy cleaning out the food bowl, going out for a tinkle and then curling up in my lap to convince me he was back to his old self. i've decided mother's intuition applies to four-legged children just the same as it does to the two-legged kind.

after i woke up yesterday morning to the somewhat surprise snowfall (we were only supposed to get less than an inch or so and it wasn't supposed to stick but then we ended up with anywhere from 4-6 inches over here) i was so glad i took my man to the doc the day before. can y'all imagine how miserable he would've been being snowed in with something so icky going on?! poor sweet pea!

he may or may not have snacked his way through an entire package of turkey pepperoni today. everybody needs a little comfort food now and then, right??

and speaking of the snow ... blech.

i was for real shocked to wake up to a blanket of the white junk friday morning. i went to bed the night before listening to the news talking about closures in shreveport for friday and was SO thankful we weren't getting more.

(we've already used both snow days, remember? mama don't wanna be going to school 'til july, kids. not cool!)

i woke up about 5 to let the pups out to tinkle and was rolling back over to savor my last half hour of sleep when i heard my favorite morning news guy (ed from channel 3, anyone?!) say something about my school district.

NO. you'vegottabekiddingme. say it ain't so, ed!

sure enough, i checked the district website and found it to be true. no school. more snow. dang dang dang!!!

i was way too hacked off about losing a day of our already too-short summer break to go to sleep. so i did the only thing that made sense. i woke hubby up and drug him to the window to look at the snow while i stomped around in a bad mood. and then i called my mama.

i finally yanked myself out of bed about 9:45 and made it all the way to the couch before i fell out again. i had zero productive accomplishments yesterday. unless you count how much i ate. and then i was most definitely an overachiever. frick.

if you recall, the wild woman didn't get to go out and play in the last round of snow because she was just getting rid of the flu.

so we bundled up (two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, two shirts, two jackets and one very thick pair of mittens) and headed out to the backyard with a ridiculously excited little munchkin.

more than anything i was super pumped to put my girl's super cute hat to good use!

i asked for a happy face and got these. who knows what this goofball was thinking about?!

if you haven't been to see kristy and her precious hats, you're definitely missing out. go see her! now!

y'all don't get me wrong - we had tons o' fun playing in the fluffy stuff, but there was just something totally depressing about my favorite lawn chairs being covered in loads of snow. kind of makes it seem like spring is NEVER going to get here.

mama, it's COLD!

re-thinking her decision. not quite so sure this was a great idea!

swinging was definitely more fun with snow on the ground.

after a turn on the swings the wild woman got brave and wanted to attempt her slide. this next series is definitely my favorite from the day!

snow booty!

looks like some of the cold stuff started to soak through those fleece pants. poor girl!

the frozen booty was pretty much the last straw for my girl - she decided pretty quick after that that our snow day was d-o-n-e.

fine by me, baby!

we sloshed inside to warm up, and as usual, my little fashionista insisted on choosing her own duds. i assisted only with clipping in the bow. she picked out each piece carefully and then got herself dressed with pretty much no help.

love the color coordination. i've always thought monochromatic ensembles were super classy, and it makes this mama happy that my girl and i share such good taste.

at this particular moment she was making herself some caw-fee and frying up some barbie shoes for a tasty appetizer.

the culinary commotion in the play room got eerily quiet a few minutes later (anybody with little people in the house knows silence is a bad bad baaaaad thing.) and i walked in to find this.

my two babies all curled up in their respective snuggle spots (the big chair is being reupholstered - as much as i loved the mint green minky dot, it could only survive so many sippy cups, dora snacks, and bags of cheetohs.) taking a nap.

tom discovered that barbie chair a year or so ago and staked his claim to it on the spot. it's the perfect size for him to curl up into a ball and snooze to his little heart's content.

i'm sure you couldn't help but notice the sad state of the playroom in that last photo. it's rough, y'all. i'm still trying to gather the emotional strength i'll need to clean it up.

but rather than do something productive like putting clean sheets on the bed or rescuing the playroom from its state of emergency or folding the 6 loads of clothes i washed yesterday, i made these.

and by made, of course i mean that i broke them apart and set them on the cookie sheets and then put them in the oven.

(a minor programming note: the number of warm cookies i ate mere seconds after this photo was snapped isn't important to the outcome of this post, so that information has not been included here.)

the last photo i have for you is probably the one that puts the biggest smile on my face. check it, y'all.

that's my laundry basket.

and it's empty.

word.

(forget that it only stayed that way for approximately 7 minutes. the point is that it was empty. and i have proof.)

love & a snapped marathon,