Aruba, Jamaica, Ooo I wanna take you to...

Yes, the title is taken from the Beach Boys song Kokomo. I picked this title because this silly song was in my head all the way to Jamaica. We had a wonderful weekend getaway with perfect timing in regards to Hurricane Ike. In the Mynhier household we take evacuating seriously. We won the trip through work and had the opportunity to spend time with the other top producers in our Region. There was a golf tournament on Friday, which Matt's team won, so we got some good prizes. The spa was spectacular and the lazy river at the resort was even better. I've had this saved as a draft for so long that I don't even remember what else I was going to say. Anyway...enjoy the slideshow!

Another chapter, another blog

I have started a new blog dedicated to my practice of Bikram Yoga. Here is the link:

http://loveyourcamel.blogspot.com/

I will still be posting all my personal stuff on this blog, so that means you'll have double the Terra to read about it.

Have a great weekend!

Volume Problem

Sorry about the song so you can't hear the video. I can't figure out how to edit the slide show, so here's what you have to do...

The music is coming from the bentwater idol blog. There is a mute button on the bottom left hand corner so just push it then you can watch the video.

I'm really sorry for the trouble!!!

I love my family!!!

Hello wonderful family!!!

First of all, thanks to all of you for your prayers and support and visits (those of you in Texas ;) and help that you've given me. There is no way that Matt and I could've have managed this without you.

Peeks... I haven't talked to any of you but I have heard your voice several times in my hospital room calling to check in on me and I appreciate it.

Sharps... I hope you had a wonderful vacation and that your birdhouse got you your hotel stay.Shan...I know you were at the hospital a whole lot more than I saw you so thanks again for taking time out of your life to be there.

Youngest Youngs....(Robyn's clan) Thanks for coming to visit with Landry, I know it was rough on you. Thanks too for the flowers and keeping up with the Morgans for me through this.

Eldest Youngs... I know that you have done even more than I know about (which is tons) through all of this so thank you again. I know it is difficult for the two of you to be apart and that you both gave up a whole lot for me through this so thank you from the bottom of my heart. You both know exactly what to do when someone's sick...when to help, when to back away, when I need privacy, when I don't...an Ipod to drown out all those sick people in surgical ICU...the list goes on and on and on.

To all the siblings... I know as a family that we all feel blessed with the closeness between us and blessed by having wonderful parents. I'd like to take this time because I think that it is not often enough we acknowledge that and realize how fortunate and blessed the five of us actually are to have such loving, caring, selfless people that put their children ahead of themselves, so I think we should all take time out of our day more often to say thanks. You don't realize how good you have it until its almost all taken away.

To lighten things up I'd also recommend for anyone not on a group health plan to get health insurance immediately because being uninsurable is a doctors visit away!!! That brings me to the other subeject of this which is Hope from our company to help my medical bills. Some of you have heard this but others not. The mission statement of our company is hope, or helping other people everyday. As my last statement prefaced...your dear sis is uninsurable..who would've guessed :) Which means the medical bills will be a strain to say the least. Please take time to watch this video clip to see how our company is stepping up to help us. It is amazing to say the least.

I love everyone and Happy Mothers Day to the mommies of all kinds ours, Robyn, Shan to woogs and the rag doll, and Sara and Becky to be pseudomommies for our favorite boys.

Bentwater Idol

As many of you know, I have been rehearsing non-stop for our neighborhood American Cancer Society fundraiser, "Bentwater Idol...Is that my Neighbor?". I was very happy that the parents came for the show and to meet Laika on Friday. The show went well with only minor difficulties and got better every night. I did three numbers: Perhaps, Chicago (I was Roxie Hart), and Feeling Good. I had the opportunity to meet some wonderful people and build new friendships. I will let you know once we have the tally on how much money we raised. I hope you enjoy the slideshow with pictures of the cast and me in my costumes. If I can figure out how to do some video editing on my camcorder I'll try to put a clip of my performances.

I can cook a mean steak!

This picture is actually from a couple of weeks ago, but I was so proud of the meal I prepared I had to document it. Just call me Martha Stewart (ha, ha, yeah right!).

Name that Bug!!!

This bug was hanging out on our patio all day long until Matt got home to make it go on its way. It just sat there, never moved, but wasn't dead. We have no idea what it is but I was curious if any of you do.

Alamobowl

We may not have won the game but we had a great time. It was also exciting to officially end the era of Coach Fran. Kevin and Lucy treated us with tickets and accomodations for Christmas. They got the game Rock Star Band for Christmas which is like guitar hero but with a singer, bass guitar, and drums. When we got back to the RV we played the game until we could no longer stay awake. We had a great time!

Hair Cut

Okay, here is my new hair:




My photographer was not very good...I should've checked the picture before we left the house. You can get the point though :)

Laika

In case any of you are wondering what Laika means...

I'm not so sure, but Laika was the first dog to go in to space. Our puppy is quite the space cadet. If you have not heard of Laika the Russian cosmonaut dog, she is quite popular. There was a stamp, comic book, and memorial made for her.

Happy New Year!

For New Year's Eve we went to a black tie event at the yacht club here. We normally don't do the whole dress up thing, but it was a lot of fun. Matt looked really snazzy in his three piece suit. The theme was "A View to Kill" from James Bond. They had different food stations set up that went along with different Bond flicks. I'm not real familiar with Bond, but I did enjoy the different types of food. After dinner, we moved into the lounge and danced the night away to a band called "The Fantastics". I'd never heard of them but they pretty fantastic. We went with our friends The Simpsons who most of you have met. Shane actually danced all night long which was quite unusual. We met our friends from the neighborhood, Rueben and Jennifer, and they are great fun. Lots of these are very blurry as a result from a wrong setting on the camera, but you can get the idea. By the way, I've got the setting figured out so in the future we should not have this problem. I hope everyone else had as much fun as we did!

The New Baby!

So, I haven't been through anything like my dear sister Robyn, but man has this puppy given us a run for our money! She keeps me busy 24/7. At first meeting, Pip definitely did not have her party hat on.



The second and third day weren't much better...



In the meantime, Laika has learned to play independently for brief moments...



And now after two weeks they are finally beginning to play!



Here are the still pics...

Reunion

So, with our company rather than doing a "Holiday" Party, they throw a huge awards shindig at the end of the year. They rent out the Anatole Hotel in Dallas (yes, all of the buildings) and make you feel like a VIP. The day we got there we were directed to a tradeshow with lots of our vendors. There were also people there likt Don Schula and the Mavericks Dancers and mascot. There was also some guy who starred in Little House on the Prarie, but I didn't really recognize him. There are different workshops during the day and I won an Ipod Nano at the spouse's one. Comedian Wayne Brady was the entertainment one night, doing improv comedy like on "Who's line is it anyway?" with Derw Carey. The next night they had the band Big and Rich and we stood about two feet away from them. I wasn't really familiar with any of the songs, but the company had a copy of their brand new unreleased CD in our rooms waiting we got back. We listened to it on the way home and I would highly recommend them.

As far as the awards, Matt won his Quickstart class out of the entire company and was Rookie of the Year in our Division. We hope to "walk the stage" several times next year and qualify for some of the awesome bonuses and prizes. For the next few blogs you will see some fuzzy pictures. We have pushed some button on the camera and now everything is blurry, but enjoy...

Oh Christmas Tree/Bye Christmas Tree!

Okay, so...

Matt got the lights taken down outside before I managed to take a pic. But, I didn't manage to get a picture of our gigantor Christmas tree, so I thought I could at least post that. I also threw in the stockings and the disaster of taking everything down. Last year the tree was in three sections. This year when I was holding the stand for Matt to grab the bottom section, it decided to be two. This resulted in the stake at the bottom pinning my hand to the stand. If it would've dorpped from a little higher, I'm pretty sure my hand would be broken. Thankfully I got a way with just a bit of bloodshed, swelling and a sweet bruise. So...here it is: