The House of Flu

So, Nathan has been sick all week. When I talked to the pharmacist this morning at Walgreens and described his symptoms, he told me there is a stomach flu (vomitting and nausea) and an upper respiratory flu (congestion, head pressure, etc.). Poor Nathan has moved from the stomach flu to the upper respiratory flu. I've never seen him this sick. I feel so bad for him and wish there was more I could do to help him feel better. He is a little better today and is able to sit up for a while but I don't think we will be celebrating New Year's Eve. He told me I could go out without him but I don't want to leave him alone all night - especially since I've been at work everyday while he is home sick. Plus, I think our first NYE as a married couple should be together - even if it consist of coughing, Kleenex and Mucinex D.

I'm just hoping the flu shot I got in Oct. will prevent me from cathing this from him because it does NOT look fun. Wish me luck!

We hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year!

Dawn

A Home Depot and Slippers Christmas!

It's been a hectic but fun week with the Christmas holiday. Nathan and I were both off of work on Christmas Eve and we had Graham until 5 pm so we decided to go shopping. Nathan and I set a $30 limit on Christmas gifts to each other so we kind of made up for that by purchasing some last minute gifts for ourselves. We bought some new clothes. Poor Graham did not want to be at the mall but he made it through like a trooper and was rewarded with a pre-Christmas gift - a toy airplane. He got picked up at 5 that night to go celebrate with his mom and her family. While he was there, Nathan, my mom and I headed over to my brother's mother-in-law's house. We drank, ate pizza and opened presents. Mental note to self: Next year, do not drink egg nog after drinking a Bacardi Mojito. The two do not mix well and a tummy ache will ensue therefore rendering you unable to eat as much dessert as you planned!

Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve at Joy's house:

Nathan after opening some gifts

Sophie - Josh's niece (Kelly's brother's daughter)

My mom holding Argyle and Josh

me and Nathan

Argyle after a hard night of partying with Josh

As I'm posting these pictures, I realized I should have asked for a new digital camera for Christmas. All of my pictures are coming out dark lately. What I did get on Christmas Eve was Home Depot gift cards. Nathan and I asked for that from my mom and from my brother and sister-in-law. My mom wrote on hers: "I never thought I'd see the day" meaning that I would ask for Home Depot gift cards for Christmas. But we needed a new ceiling fan/light in the living room and I'm happy to report it's bright once again in the Meyer household. We also got a new ceiling fan/light for the kitchen so it will soon be even brighter and cooler when cooking.

We picked up Graham on our way home and it was very cool to experience Christmas Eve night and Christmas morning with him for the first time. He put out milk and cookies for Santa and some crackers for the Reindeer (we didn't have any carrots) and wrote notes to make sure Santa knew which food was for whom. We tracked Santa online before tucking Graham in. He woke us up at 7 am on Christmas morning and was excited to see his gifts and read the note that Santa wrote back to him. My mom came over to watch Graham open his gifts, give him her gifts and to give all of us our stockings. We gave her her stocking as well. Here are some pictures of Graham on Christmas morning:







So, back to that $30 limit. I got Nathan a Iron Man pull up bar that fits in a door way. He loves it and has been doing pull ups and flips on it non-stop. I got some pink Nautica slippers. I recently got tan slippers from his parents as one of my Christmas presents from them. And I already own leopard print slippers. So this is the Christmas of slippers & Home Depot for me I guess. I got some other nice things from everyone this Christmas also. We are very blessed! I kept thinking about that on Christmas when Graham had all of his loot on the floor. I couldn't help but think of those less fortunate that don't get any presents or don't have family or friends to celebrate with on Christmas. I couldn't shake those thoughts all day.

After we opened presents, we swung by Nathan's parents' house and went through out stockings over there. Then, after Graham was picked up, me and Nathan went to my grandparents house as I have done my whole life. Here are some pictures of that:

Nicole, Mia and Macy (all of my cousins kids)

My cousin, Angela and her fiance, Tom

My Aunt Sue and my dad

My Grandpa and Josh

Josh, Kelly and my mom

Nathan (I don't think he moved from this chair the whole time)

Me and Rainbow Bright. This was my doll when I was little and at some point, my mom was going to sell it in a garage sale. My grandma saved her by buying her from my mom for $2. She's held on to her all these years and wrapped her up and gave her to me this Christmas. It was good to see the ole' gal again!

Noah (my cousin's son)

That night, our friends, Mike and Erica, came over to hang out. On Friday, Nathan and I met up with Mike for lunch at The Boathouse in Forest Park. Then the 3 of us met Nathan's sister, Bethany, at Steinberg for some ice skating. Nathan has those pictures on his camera so I may post them later. Then we went to The Tap Room for happy hour.

Saturday, I had lunch with some of my high school friends. I always have such a good time catching up with them. I took a picture but will have to post it later because it was with Nathan's camera. Then Nathan and I went to his dad's side of the family Christmas party in High Ridge at his Uncle Dale and Aunt Alice's house. From there, we went to the hockey game with Michael.

Sunday, we cashed in those Home Depot gift cards on the ceiling fans/lights and then we went to the Galleria Mall with my mom and met up with Mike and Erica again. Michael needed some new clothes and I had some Christmas money to burn.

We literally went from one thing to the next but we had a lot of fun. Today was back to the grind at work. Poor Nathan came home sick at about 10 am. I think he has the flu because I've never seen him this sick. I hope it's just a 24 hour bug or something though and he's better soon. And I hope I don't catch it. But as I'm writing this, my stomach feels a little iffy. . .

Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. And please have a safe, fun and Happy New Year. I'm sure I'll have pictures to post from the New Years Eve party at the Clausers' house.

Dawn

Busy, Busy Bees

This was a very busy weekend for the Meyers. Well, we didn't do too much on Friday except drop Nathan's truck off for some brake work, go to Steak n' Shake and then play SpongeBob Life (it's the game of Life but the SpongeBob version - don't be jealous of our exciting life!)

Sat. after running some errands, Nathan, Graham and I headed down to Main St. in St. Charles to walk around in the cold to see the decorations and the people dressed up and to eat lunch. Here are some pictures from that.

Sat. night we met up with Nathan's sister, Rachel, her husband, Eric and their two kids, Clayton and Elaina, at Monkey Joes. I seriously think it was the most exercise that they have all had is a long time. There were beat red faces and hearts that were beating super fast but they had a blast. Poor Graham even had a headache and stomach ache when we got home. I think he just wore himself out. Here are some pics from Monkey Joes:







I really didn't get any good pictures of Clayton because he was running from one thing to the next! Sorry, Clay!

Sunday we had Christmas with Nathan's family. We always have it the Sunday before Christmas so everyone can make it and still get to where they need to go on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. It was a lot of fun as usual and we got some nice presents. Here are a few pictures from that:






One last thing: Kelly has been on me to join Facebook so I finally did it. Look me up and ask me to be your friend!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Love,
Dawn

Pictures from Marino Xmas Party

As promised in the last post, here are some pictures from the Marino Xmas party this past Sunday! Sorry they are small for some reason.

Uncle Tony, Aunt Carol, TJ and Crystal

Kelly and Josh

Kaitlyn (I hope this is spelled right) - the newest addition!

Nathan and Dawn

Nicholas and Christa

Nicholas and Graham with their Grillz!

Lauren, Nicholas and Graham (too cute!)

Merry Christmas,

Dawn

Wedding Album

We got the link to our wedding album last night. Nathan still has to look at it but I think it looks pretty good and I don't forsee too many, if any, changes. I'm not sure how long it takes to come in once it's ordered but I can't wait to see the real deal. If youwant to check out the layout and which pictures we chose, you can go to:

http://lightsource.smugmug.com/gallery/6849669_Jiqay#438000516_iNx3q

password: Meyer

I've been really pleased with our photographers, Lightsource Photography, and I'd recommend them to anyone for any kind of pictures needed.

Let's see. . . what's new? I've been fighting a cold since last week. It gets a little better each day and I hope to be free of it by next week. I stayed home from work one day last week to rest and I think that helped because almost everyone else I know has had to get antibiotics or their cold is lingering and not getting better.

Saturaday, Nathan and I met up with Michael and Erica and saw Four Christmases at the Chase Park Plaza Cinema. That was the first time I've seen a movie there. Afterwards, we stopped in The Cupcakery for a cupcake (Nathan and I split a yummy Peanut Butter Cup one) and then we went to Bar Louie. There was a group that came in that must have been doing a Christmas pub crawl because all of a sudden there were tons of Santa Clauses, reindeers, Mrs. Clauses, elves, a christmas tree and even a girl dressed as a present. They hung out for about an hour and then they were all gone. I tried to take pictures on my cell phone but they didn't turn out too good. But I did get the cute picture of my hubby above (for some reason it won't let me move it to this spot instead of at the top of the post).

Sunday we had the Marino Christmas party that consists of my mom and her siblings' families. It was a fun time. I always wish we could get together more often. We sort of had to rush out of there to be home by six so Graham could get picked up but I really enjoyed myself. My cousin, Christa, took some pictures that she is supposed to email me. If and when she does, I will post those.

Hopefully everyone is suriving the weather this week and being safe. Talk at you soon!

Dawn

Hi!

Sorry I didn't post at all last week. There was really nothing new to report. Well, actually I only had 1 picture so I didn't post. Thanksgiving went well. Nathan, aka Martha Stewart, didn't make his pie after all due to lack of time to buy the ingredients but his turkey turned out nice. We had my mom, brother, sister-in-law and my brother's mother-in-law over to our house. It was a nice time but I think poor Graham was bored without any other kids to play with. Then we headed over to Nathan's parents' house. That was fun too. We always pick names for Christmas when we are there on Thanksgiving. Graham had his cousins to play with over there so we barely saw him! :)

I went shopping with my mom and Graham for the first time ever on Black Friday. We didn't go super early though. We went about 9 am. That night, Nathan, Graham, Miles and me went bowling.

Sunday we did a little more Christmas shopping and decorated the tree (hence my one picture - see below).



Not much went on this past weekend. On Friday, Nathan and I went to the Blues game and they lost in overtime. Boo! Saturday we went to a bday party for the Clauser triplets and today we did some more Christmas shopping (mostly for Graham).

I guess I will post some more wedding pics since I haven't been taking any pictures lately. These are by our professional photographers. I can't wait to get our book. We are still waiting to see the layout though so it will be awhile.










Happy Holidays,
Dawn