Ladies and GentleBen

More about the 6Q26 and 6Q27 deletion...

2011-07-20T18:44:00.000-05:00

I noticed the other day that someone found this blog by searching for 6Q26 - in other words, Natalie's gene deletion. She is missing 6Q26 and 6Q27, but I wanted to touch back on this for just a minute because I remember googling for information about her deletion. I remember that the doctors couldn't tell us much about what to expect for Natalie. They couldn't tell us how she would develop, if she would ever walk or talk, be able to live normally- and it was a scary time for me as her mother.

I found out about Natalie's hydrocephalus near the 20 week mark of my pregnancy. The second half of my pregnancy was filled with lots of crying. There's the idea that you need time to mourn your "perfect" child, and I think I did do that. Natalie was born by c-section around week 36 of my pregnancy. She spent some time in the NICU and didn't have her shunt placed until she was more than a month old. When she was in the NICU, they found that she had a tethered spinal cord and a mass on the end of her coccyx. These three features together were enough for the geneticist to be curious, so she took a sample to do some testing. It came back that 6q26 and 6q27 were missing.

Natalie is two and a half years old now. She walks, she talks, she is absolutely amazing. She's affectionate and funny. She has had a shunt placement. She has had two shunt revisions. She has had a surgery to de-tether her spinal cord and remove the mass on her coccyx (which turned out to be a benign teratoma). She has had one surgery to straighten her eyes because she's farsighted and we didn't know it until her eyes crossed. She wears glasses. She goes to physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy.

She didn't sit up on her own until her first birthday (December 3), but she was walking on her own by the end of the next summer. As of her second birthday, she only said about a dozen words. (A few months of speech therapy later and she's well over a hundred.) She can feed herself with her fingers, but is still working on using a fork and spoon. She gets it to her mouth, but like most kids, a lot ends up in her lap or on the floor.

She has seen just about every specialist they can come up with. She has had studies done of her heart and her bladder. She has a developmentalist, a neurologist, a neurosurgeon, an ophthalmologist, a urologist- along with her pediatrician and dentist.

It's not the quietest life, we're busy with her therapy appointments, we have something three days a week. We were down to seeing her neurosurgeon once a year, but then she had a shunt failure and we're seeing him again this week for a follow up from seeing him in April. Most everyone else she only has to see once a year, though.

I really don't want this to sound like our life is depressing. It's a lot of stuff, but it is entirely manageable. Being at home with Natalie, I never think, "She's SO behind!" and when she reaches milestones, I don't think, "It's about time! She should have been doing this months ago!" She is doing things in a very normal way, but on her own timeline. She works hard, and is just as excited about new things as her sister was. Her hair grew in over her scar from her shunt replacement, and it's easy to not think about it. She's just a kid doing kid things.

I tend to be a worrier. I have memorized the possible signs of shunt failure, and I've seen which signs she exhibits when she has a shunt failure. I am always keeping an eye out for these things. I also know what I need to do in the event that she has her first seizure. I'm sure I'll be terrified, but I know what I need to do.

It's important to remember to keep small goals and steps. Really, take things one at a time. It can be overwhelming. Ask lots of questions when you are with the doctor. Find out what kind of shunt your child is getting and why the doctor is picking that type. Write things down, it's easy to forget when you are overwhelmed with the emotional aspect of things. Get your child enrolled in your state's Birth to Three program. There are different names in different places, but you should be able to find it with your pediatrician's help. And what helped me the most was talking to friends about what I was feeling and what I was going through. It was a really hard time because it was a giant upset to my life. I was never going to be the mom of a child with special needs. Stuff like that never happened to me. But then, it did happen. About three years after I found out about the hydrocephalus, we're fine. We're a happy family. She's healthy. She plays with her big sister and irritates her big sister in normal little sister ways.

I don't know that this will answer any questions of a new parent of a child with this deletion, but I realized I hadn't talked much about it since we were in the heaviness of it while it was happening. Please feel free to comment and ask questions or even let me know if you'd like to email privately about it.

Rainbow Hearts Hat

2011-06-26T19:51:00.001-05:00

This is the third knitting project I did. I made it up for Lauren, who picked out the rainbow yarn at the craft store. Here's the pattern as I wrote down in my notes:

size 3 16” circular needles
Caron Simply Soft worsted weight acrylic yarn in white
Bernat Baby stretch worsted weight “Skipping Rope” color
Cast on 100 sts with the rainbow yarn using long tail cast on
knit 2 rows of k2,p2 w/rainbow yarn
knit 15 rows of k2,p2 w/white yarn
knit 7 rows w/white yarn
knit 2 rows w/rainbow yarn
knit 2 rows w/white yarn
Next is the heart chart-I'll write it out and try to get a good image added later. It’s 9 rows, 10 sts repeated around, all knit sts.
Row 1: *1 Rainbow st (R), 3 White sts (W), 1R, 5W* repeat
Row 2: *2R, 1 W, 3R, 3W, 1R* repeat
Row 3: *6R, 3W, 1R* repeat
Row 4: *5R, 2W, 1R, 2W* repeat
Row 5: *1W, 3R, 2W, 3R, 1W* repeat
Row 6: *2W, 1R, 2W, 5R* repeat
Row 7: *1R, 3W, 6R* repeat
Row 8: *1R, 3W, 3R, 1W, 2R* repeat
Row 9: *5W, 1R, 3W, 1R* repeat
knit 2 rows white
knit 2 rows rainbow
knit 1 row white
*k1, k2tog* rep white
*k1 R, k1W* rep
knit 1 row rainbow
*k1 R, k1 W* rep
*k2, k2tog*rep white
*k1, k2tog* rep white
*k2tog* rep rainbow
my notes here aren’t clear on the number, but I think it’s rep until 8 (?)sts left, weave end through remaining loops, cinch closed, weave in all ends.

Knitting

2011-02-25T11:53:00.001-06:00

I've taken up knitting. On February 5, I picked up knitting supplies, taught myself to knit and purl, and started making the Setesdal Love Hat from the Knitscene Winter 2011 Issue.

(You can purchase it

through Amazon by clicking in the handy little box right on the left.)

There are a bunch of really adorable fair isle projects in there, and when I get confident enough to try sweaters or tops, I'm doing the two in there! Plus, I'll be making a few more of these hats to give away to friends and family. I've already bought the yarn and have been thinking about new color combinations since finishing the first one.

Here's how it came out:

There are lots of mistakes in there, but I did learn how to change colors, knit in the round and how to pull out mistakes. The gray yarn feels kind of yucky, but I bought it based on color and the fact that it had a shimmery thread running through it so the hat sparkles in light.

Knitting has gotten in the way of my reading a little bit. I'm trying to find a balance with both and everything else I have to do. Ben bought me a Kindle for Christmas and I L-O-V-E it! I'm on my third book for the year, which seems like a slow start compared to last year. Right now I'm reading The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon. The Outlander series has taken over my reading list. I already have the rest of the books purchased and waiting on the Kindle, so whenever I finish one the next one is right there, and I don't have to carry around multiple 700+ page books. Super super handy!

Natalie started speech therapy in January and it has been good for her, and useful for me, too. She's up to nearly 60 words now and didn't have quite 30 when we started. Physical therapy is still going well and next week she has another evaluation at occupational therapy.

Five Question Friday, Take Four

2010-07-30T00:42:00.000-05:00

1. Did you have a favorite blanket or toy as a kid? If so, do you still have it?

I remember having a large panda bear I called Poppy, the same thing I called my grandpa who bought it for me. It is in my dad's garage still. (I hope!)

2. Do you dream in color?

I don't know. I think so. I remember things being colors in my dreams afterwards.

3. How tall are you? Do you wish you were shorter or taller?

I am 5'2". And yes! I wish I were taller. Can I add four inches? All to my legs? Please? Pretty please?

4. If you could have anyone's (celeb or other) voice as the guide on your GPS, who would it be?

Ha, Sean Connery. I actually put mine on the British voice because she sounds less bitchy than the American voice. But Sean Connery would be super!

5. Do you return your shopping cart to the corral or leave it wherever in the parking lot?

I return it.

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So now I've finished reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and am waiting for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. After that will probably be The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. Woo-Hoo! I've been sewing like mad lately, too. I made two lunch bags, a dress for Lauren and now a shirt for myself. This has been my first experience with interfacing.

Jen and I have been putting a lot of effort into our joint blog lately. Check it out: Team Awesome. I know, best name ever! We have some good things lined up to be posted soon, so keep an eye on it.

Ben has been getting in lots of flight hours. He dropped the crab pots today and plans to pull them tomorrow. On Saturday we're going to drive up to Mount Vernon to go to a birthday party. My friend Andrea (from elementary school) is having a barbecue birthday party for her one year old daughter, Gwyn. I'm excited to go up. Last weekend I drove to Seattle to go to Andrea's birthday celebration. She booked a private ghost tour of Pike Place Market. First we met at the Abili Room in Pike Place where most people had drinks, but I had a fabulous apple, brie and focaccia bread appetizer plate. It was so yum. I wish I had brought my camera, but I didn't. Luckily, this person did, and they posted their picture on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/futileboy/3841385498/ Doesn't that look delicious? Then we did the ghost tour, which thankfully wasn't scary at all, but was a good history lesson. It was fun to see a group of girls I had been in Campfire Girls with but hadn't seen for 13 years.

Natalie is pointing to my eyes now. She thinks it is hilarious. I say "eye" every time, and occasionally when I ask her where my eye is, she points to it. She has been climbing onto the coffee table and the ottoman and just getting around everywhere. Lauren has been so amazing- believe it or not, she's been doing MATH! Like, real addition and subtraction. I can't get over what a genius she is! And she gets so excited about doing it. She just loves it. It's wonderful. I hope she can hold on to that.

The weather here has been perfect lately, between 75 and 85 degrees, cool in the morning and sunny all afternoon. I think July in Washington is one of my new favorite things.

Five Question Friday, take three

2010-07-22T21:24:00.000-05:00

What? Again? Something semi-regular posted on this site? Will the third time be the last? Stay tuned. This week's questions, answered below:

1. What were your school colors?

We were blue and silver. Interestingly enough, this week my sister texted me a picture of our high school, which was recently painted maroon. We can't figure out why. I'm guessing a prank by one of our rival schools? She said it looked professionally done and doubts it. I loved our colors. I've always been partial to blue and silver anyway. We also had a pretty bad-ass logo, where our initials were shaped to look like our mascot.

2. What's the best compliment you ever received?

Um, I don't know? Today I was told that I was intuitive by my friend Jen, and also that I had pretty teeth by my dentist. Those are two recent ones. Isn't it funny how it's harder to remember compliments than insults? I still remember a somewhat snobby girl telling me I had a booger in my nose in 4th grade.

3. Do you buy cheap or expensive toilet paper?

I prefer a more expensive toilet paper. Charmin Ultra Strong to be exact. If Ben goes shopping with me we come home with something cheaper.

4. Have you ever had a surprise party thrown for you? Or have you had one for someone else?

No on both counts.

5. What is one material possession that you "can't live without"?

Hmmm, my iPhone probably. I dropped it and shattered the screen and just about had a heart attack. Got a new one at the Apple store, thank goodness, and life is happy again. But, in pre-iPhone times, I would have said my computer and more specifically, my internet connection.

I know I could live without them, but I like life a lot more with them.

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Jen and I have been doing some more work on Team Awesome. We started two new features, TeamPhotos and TeamPrintables. We've been working on a new banner and a few other design changes that will be coming soon.

I've been sewing so much! This week I've been working on a cross stitch piece as a gift for someone. I have four new shirt patterns I need to get supplies for, plus the fabric for another shirt for me and two kids dresses.

I'm still reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which I'm really enjoying. It's over 700 pages long, though, so despite staying up way past my bedtime, I'm not half finished yet. Although, really, I haven't been devoting that much time to it since I've been working on this cross stitch. I feel like I need to make myself do one thing at a time, it's starting to catch up with me. I'm tired today! I'll be heading to bed shortly after the girls tonight.

Sewing

2010-07-16T00:07:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday the girls and I drove about an hour north east to Bremerton to meet my grandma, who I call Ema at Olive Garden for lunch. It's really nice that we can have a short visit more often when each of us only need to drive an hour each way. It's especially nice when we do it on Tuesdays after Natalie's physical therapy and we're already out that way and the drive drops to 45 minutes. I'd love to be able to do it every week or every other week. Knowing we'd want to do more than just lunch, Ema told me which stores she likes to shop at in the area around Olive Garden and she mentioned JoAnn Fabrics and Micheals and Ross. I pulled out a book I got myself with some gift cards I got called 101 One-Yard Wonders which is a book with plans for - wait for it - one hundred and ONE sewing projects that can be completed using one yard of fabric. Most of them have several other materials you need, like coordinating thread, bias tape, batting, fiber fill, buttons, velcro, etc., but most of them are also really easy to do. I flipped through and noted three different projects I wanted to try and made a list of the materials I'd need. After lunch, we went to JoAnn and I bought the fabric for all three projects and because I found another fabric I thought my friend Jen would like, I decided I'd do two of one of the projects. I can't say yet what it is because said project is in the mail, on its way to Germany as we speak. When I got home, I promptly sat down and dusted off my sewing machine and started on her project and had it all finished in about 3 hours. And that's with the distraction of two children. The directions in the book are pretty easy to follow and many of the projects don't have a paper pattern, they just give dimensions for various squares and rectangles for you to sketch out and cut. After finishing Jen's project, having dinner, and getting the girls to bed, I started another one yard wonder- a dress for Lauren. They described it as an "updated pillowcase dress" and call it a Ballet-neck Toddler Dress. It's SUPER cute! It has one tiny pattern piece to cut out and keep track of, and the rest is just a giant rectangle. (I bet if I make it a few times I'll be able to do future ones from memory!) I finished most of it before bed and waited until morning to have her try it on so I could get the elastic around the waist the right length and so I could hem it to the right length. She of course wanted it to be so long that she'd trip over it, but she told me that would be ok, because she'd just hold the front up with her hands when she walked. You know, like a princess. I hemmed it to just below the knee anyway. Probably ruining the entire dress. She wore it all day anyway.

I haven't started the third project yet, it's a changing pad and a little pocket to store 2 or 3 diapers and a small container of wipes in. Maybe I'll get to that one this weekend. Tonight I'm working on the second one of the unnamed project that I made for Jen but so far it's not coming along well and thus, I stopped to blog. Sewing does make me happy, though, and I'm glad I have been making time to do it this week. I stopped into Barnes & Noble this evening to flip through some sewing books and I found a couple that I liked. I'll order those with some gift cards and hopefully have them in another week.

On Monday and the Friday before we finally had a little bit of speech therapy for Natalie. It was actually parent education sessions that last about 30 minutes. Most of it was stuff I already was doing and know, but it's nice to have reassurance that I'm doing things I should be doing, and also nice to have someone tell me not to worry about some other things. Natalie has been babbling a lot more and has been overall more vocal. It was great to hear her laughing at her sister over and over tonight at the book store - so nice that I didn't care if she was bothering anyone else in there. Small victory for us and for her! Anyone who didn't like it could go to hell. (Not that we had any problems or looks.) And I'm pretty sure she'll be walking any day now, she just thinks she can't do it and stops herself and sits down. I've got to try to boost her confidence about it, she has it, it's right there, just about to happen...

I took the girls to the new splash park on base yesterday. It's really cute. Lauren had so much fun. Natalie? Not so much. She doesn't really enjoy getting sprayed with water. She and I sat on the sidelines and watched Lauren run around and play. I'm hoping we'll get a chance to go tomorrow, if not, we'll head over on Saturday.

I'm especially glad I've had time to sew since it's been too hot to cook. I miss baking cookies! I've been spending my spare time in the evenings reading (I'm catching up with the Harry Potter series. I've read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire should be waiting for me at the library tomorrow) and watching movies (the first two Harry Potter movies and 'An Education'). It's been nice. The girls have been doing pretty well about sticking to a bedtime schedule. Well, Natalie has been doing fabulously, she's ready to go down at 8 on the dot, starts rubbing her eyes about 10 minutes before and quiets right down and is asleep by 5 after. Lauren is a little more difficult, she didn't have a regular bedtime until this past May, so even when I can get her into bed at 8 she watches tv or movies until 9, and sometimes I go in after I've turned off her tv and lights and she's still up playing. I've been cutting down on tv during the rest of the day, though, and she acts better overall when it's off more. If the tv is on she's able to tune me out completely.

Anyway, I better get back to that sewing project, it looks so sad sitting there hanging out in the sewing machine.

blogs, books, birds, ballet, bikes (kinda)

2010-07-03T14:06:00.000-05:00

I've been such a bad blogger this year, I was looking back and except for January, I haven't blogged more than 3 times a month. I need to hop back on this train, I like doing it, I enjoy having a sort of family diary and I feel good when I have plenty of posts each month.

However, I have been a good reader this year, and I'm on book #17 of the year already.

Lauren painted a bird house last fall and we hung it in a small tree in our back yard. A few weeks ago we hung a bird feeder next to it and we have had some really pretty birds lately. I googled and found a good site that has helped me identify the two birds I was interested in and they are a Steller's Jay and an American Goldfinch. If you quickly google them you'll find some pretty pictures of each one.

The girls are doing well. I think Lauren is a little bored now that ballet is out, too. She has been having fun riding her two wheel bicycle with training wheels. We got a free hand me down Dora the Explorer bike and spray painted it pink and put new princess stickers and a white basket on it. She likes it better that way. Natalie is getting close to walking. She'll go between two things that require a reach and has, though not often, pivoted on one foot. I've been getting frustrated at her resistance to wear her glasses lately so I popped into a Claire's yesterday and found a pair of glasses with no correction to them. I've been wearing them since then hoping it will encourage her to keep hers on her face. It may take a while, I should get used to my new look.

Five Question Friday, take two

2010-06-17T22:38:00.001-05:00

So I actually happened to see the sneak preview of tomorrow's questions as I was browsing the internet tonight. Here we go:

1. What is your favorite thing about summertime?
The shoes. I love to wear flip flops and cute sandals. This year I picked up an adorable pair of espadrilles at Target and I want to wear them until they fall apart. I hate it when my feet and ankles are cold, so as soon as the temperature drops I'm in knee high socks and usually my Danskos, but once it's warm enough I can't wait to let my feet be free!

2. What is your ideal retirement location (if money didn't matter)?
I'd probably love to live by the beach. Part of me wants to say somewhere right in Malibu, but the ocean is a little cold for swimming in out there. So, maybe a home in Malibu with a pool? LOL. Still close enough to drive to see family and close enough to a real city. I think Ben would love to live near Chicago. We will see how that works out in another 8 years when he's done with the military and we have more freedom to pick where we live.

3. Do you live in the same town you grew up in?

Which one? Doesn't matter, the answer is no. Ha ha. I consider Cathedral City, CA to be my hometown even though I hardly lived there. Before that was Rancho Mirage, Mukilteo, Palm Springs, Escondido, Oceanside... a whole lot of places I don't remember. But I went to Cathedral City High School and it's where my dad lives now, so it's pretty much home. I moved away when I married Ben and now 10 years later I've lived 7 different places and each of them has been new to me.

4. What nervous habit did you have as a child that you kicked to the curb before becoming an adult?

I don't know? I never sucked my thumb or kept a blankie or any of that, so if I have a weird habit, I probably still do it.

5. What is the most embarrassing thing that happened to you while on the job?
This one is really embarrassing, actually. I was wearing a suit with a skirt and heels and standing talking to some co-workers. I was standing with my feet crossed at the ankles and kind of leaning against a counter. I went to turn and walk away, stepping to the right with my right foot (which had been crossed over my left foot), but as I turned, my heel got stuck and I totally fell to the ground, all the way onto my back with my legs up in the air. It was more embarrassing than I could explain, but all I could do at the time was laugh. Before that, I actually had been having a pretty bad day, but that kind of turned things around and got me out of my funk, and let's face it, my day could only go up from there.

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I finished reading Tori Spelling's Uncharted Territori yesterday in one sitting. I find her really funny and I enjoyed the book. Now I'm reading through Country Living's "Simple Country Wisdom: 501 old-fashioned ideas to simplify your life". I'm hoping the library books that I have requests out for will be ready soon. I've been devouring books lately which makes me happy.

Tomorrow morning Jon is headed into town so he and Ben can go crabbing. Ben's planning a big catch since it will be the first day of the season. I'm planning on ordering a pizza. LOL. That sounds like I don't have faith in him, but that's not it! I do, I just don't really enjoy crab.

I made an appointment for Lauren to visit the dentist next week. It will be her first time going. I think she will do fine, she brushes and even flosses every day. I finally scheduled my own teeth cleaning, too. Natalie's latest trip to the Neurosurgeon went well, he will see her again in a year. She had a thorough hearing test on Monday and that went well, also.

Gardening, Reading, Driving

2010-06-10T22:45:00.000-05:00

Our garden has been doing amazingly well. I went to Lowe's yesterday and bought some chicken wire and wooden stakes and set up a trellis for the peas. I also bought a cilantro plant and put it in since I hate buying a big bundle of it at the grocery store only to end up using a few tablespoons of chopped leaves at a time. This way I can use it as I need it and not waste quite so much. For our back yard, I bought a jasmine plant and put it in the ground by the patio. I'm hoping I'll be able to get it to climb up the column on the back porch. What a great scent to be greeted by every time I open the door!

I finished reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and now I'm on to Dead in the Family, the latest in the Sookie Stackhouse series. Harry Potter was better than I thought it would be, and I probably will read more in the series, but I'm not in any rush. If anything, it made me want to watch the movies. Happy to report, though, that Jen liked Twilight and has already finished New Moon and moved on to Eclipse, as well. Stephanie Meyer needs to add onto that series already.

This morning I got up before 6 and Natalie and I headed up to Seattle for her checkup with Neurosurgery. She had an MRI and her doctor said everything looked great and he'd see her again in a year. That's great news and we'll take it! It was awful traffic heading up there, but the drive back was easy enough and we were home by one. I'm feeling exhausted from the day though and I think I'm going to head up to bed and call it a night.

I need reminders!

2010-06-05T00:58:00.001-05:00

I've been looking for a perpetual calendar/birthday reminder book for a while now. I just couldn't find one that I wanted. I wanted something sturdy and classic looking with room to add plenty of new information as time went by, but that was also small enough to sit on a shelf by my desk and not be intrusive. Last summer there was a 365 page journal at Anthropologie that I now regret not buying. It had twelve sections, each in a different color, but the pages were all blank. That would have been perfect! Oh well. Today I went and bought a plain black hard bound journal, counted out the pages (224) and divided it into sections myself. I have some extra pages in there, but each month has a "cover page" and then each page in the month is for two dates. It ends up that every day of the year has at least 15 lines where I can keep birthdays and anniversaries and other important things to remember year after year. I did a quick fill in of the dates I know by heart and the ones I had written in the front of my address book, but now I need to send out emails and make pestering phone calls to the people I'm trying to remember.

I have had the idea for the perpetual calendar for a while. Actually, JCrew had one for sale a while back that I should have bought, but missed. This week I started reading The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin. One of the chapters highlights the importance of creating and fostering personal relationships, and one of the simplest ways of keeping in touch is with birthday cards. I decided I needed to put off finding the "perfect" birthday calendar and just make my own. It was pretty simple to do, and it didn't cost much, the journal I found was around $5. I'm thinking I may send a journal and a pack of colored pencils off to Jen for her next craft for Team Awesome.

The book has really made me think, and I'm flying through it at the same time. Which is good, because the first Harry Potter book is waiting for me at the library now and I need to get started on it. I wish I could say I was really looking forward to reading it, but I just am not. I'm more eager to finish it and move on to something else. I hope it can change my mind once I start reading it.

Tomorrow morning Ben is going to take Lauren fishing. He told her before he left for Louisiana that he would take her once he got back and today they bought her a Disney Princess fishing pole. I can't wait to hear what she thinks about it. She had a little bit of a fever yesterday and just laid on the couch watching tv and napping for most of the day. This morning started off a little rough, but by the afternoon she was feeling better. Natalie has been adjusting really well to an 8 pm bedtime and I have to say, I really love having a few hours to myself in the evening to read, watch tv or movies or play on the internet.

X

2010-05-29T20:11:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is our tenth anniversary. When I woke up ten years ago tomorrow, I didn't even know it was going to end up being my wedding day. The whole thing was so spontaneous, but I'm glad we did it. Two beautiful children and seven moves later, here we are about to celebrate a pretty big milestone. Well, maybe - we don't have any plans yet. We have a babysitter lined up, but don't know what we want to go do. Probably out to dinner? I don't know. We will see. Hawaii was my birthday celebration and our anniversary present to ourselves rolled into one trip. (image by Chris Craymer)

I finished reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo in two sittings. It was quite suspenseful and really grabbed a hold of me. I have the sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire and started reading it last night. The wait list at the library for this one was pretty short. I think there are 250 people ahead of me on the wait list for the third one. Hopefully that will go quickly so I can finish up the series. The librarian told me that the author, Stieg Larsson, had written the books about 10 years ago and died shortly after. If the second two books are as good as the first one, it's a shame that he didn't get to write more. I made a deal with Jen that she would read Twilight and I would read the first Harry Potter book. She's been resisting the Twilight series just as I've been resisting Harry Potter, but the theory is you can't have an accurate dissenting opinion unless you're fully informed, so here we go on our reading journey. Plus, I sent her Twilight before she left for Germany thinking she could read it on the plane, and she has conveniently misplaced it. LOL. Now she can find it and put it to use.

I got a really good deal today at Joann Fabrics, I got some fabric to recover the throw pillows on the couch for $3.50/yd thanks to a great find in the clearance section and an additional 50% off. I went in to get another fabric that would have been $14.99/yard, so this was quite a bit cheaper, even with extra yardage in case I am not as talented as sewing as I like to think I am.

We picked up Natalie's new glasses yesterday and it took less than 24 hours to break one of the pairs. I took them in today to get them fixed under warranty. I think I'm going to take her other flexible frames in to have new lenses put in because they lasted nearly a year, and we only ordered something new because the lenses were so scratched up. I think I'll go in to order those some time next week. Natalie has also started to become a thumb sucker lately. While I'm glad she has found a way to soothe herself, we still can't get Lauren to stop, and I just see visions of orthodontist bills dancing in my head.

We did separate the girls' rooms, so Lauren has her bed in the playroom and Natalie has her own room. The toys and clothes are in separate rooms, though, which will hopefully keep laundry and toy clean up simple. Ben's first night back, everyone slept in their own rooms and it was great. Very peaceful and I think I slept 8 hours straight through. Ahhhhh.

Crabbing season starts up again in just a few short weeks (less than 3 I think?) and Ben is getting excited for that. I'm still hoping that the weather here will improve and we'll have some days in the 70s with no rain so I can wear some cute espadrilles and maybe even a dress. I don't know if the PNW sees this in my future or not.

So far, my thirties have been good, I don't know why people freak out about them so much. I just generally feel more confident and happy with myself. I think that comes from having different priorities than I did at the start of my twenties, as well as caring less about what others think and caring more about what *I* think.

Busy with the Usual Stuff

2010-05-14T19:30:00.000-05:00

Well it seems to be the theme that I feel worn out and busy but don't really have anything to tell from it. I took Lauren to ballet this morning and then we took a quick trip to the PX and then watered the garden. We got home and straightened up a little bit and then Stephanie came for Natalie's home therapy appointment. Since it was sunny today and over 70 we sat outside for therapy. Since then I've done some laundry and made lunch and just have been kept busy with the girls. I'm very hungry but in the mood for Chipotle and just looked it up to find it will take at least 30 minutes to drive there. With evening traffic, over an hour? I don't want it that badly. Cooking for myself and the girls is tricky since Lauren doesn't eat that much and Natalie doesn't, either. Cooking even a small portion of a main dish and two sides would mean leftovers, and those usually just end up being thrown out. Anyway, we'll come up with something.

I'm about to start reading "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson because some friends on Facebook recommended it so highly. It's supposed to be really well written and very suspenseful and one friend said she was over 200 pages into it in the first sitting. Sounds good to me, so I checked the wait list at the library and it was about 70 people long - I just bought it instead. I'm being a bit impatient and really wanted to get a new book to read. I have not been keeping up with reading as much lately and need to get back on track with that. I also really want to get out and take more pictures with the girls now that it's sunnier and warmer. I miss taking pictures. I do take TONS on my iPhone, but they're only 2 MP and I can't control the focus, exposure, etc, and of course, they're just BETTER with the SLR.

I bought some cute office storage boxes at WalMart this week in green and yellow so that I could get my desk under control. First step was just getting everything out and throwing out the trash and next I'll organize what I decided to keep and pare down more. It'll take time, but eventually it'll get clean, right? I need to become a better tosser, I keep too much stuff and we just don't have the room. I need an attic like Candy Spelling has. Man, that would be awesome.

Anyway... back to real life for now. Tomorrow I'm getting up to make pigs in a blanket for our potluck dish for an FRG get together and next week I'm driving up to Everett to visit my friend Andrea from elementary school. I think it's been about 13 years since the last time I saw her. Natalie is also having a feeding evaluation this week and Lauren has her ballet recital. I need to dust off the video camera for that one, I'm really looking forward to it.

Five Question Friday, take one

2010-05-13T23:34:00.000-05:00

Blogghopping one day I came across Five Crooked Halos and started following her site. She's been participating in Five Question Fridays for as long as I've been reading her site, and I always intended to do this at some point, but never got around to it. Until tonight! So here I go:

1. Take your pick...date night, girls night out, or night out alone?

Probably a girls night out, but I haven't had one of those in a long time. I really enjoy getting out with friends.

2. Can you touch your nose with your tongue?

Only if I push the tip of my nose down with my finger. :)

3. What is your favorite flower and why?

Probably a Gerbera Daisy or a tulip, but I can't really say why. They just both seem so friendly and sunny to me.

4. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself?

If I could go back I'd tell myself to quit worrying so much about what other people thought about me and about trying to fit in, and to cultivate my own interests more.

5. If you won the lottery, what is the very first thing you would do?

I'd call my dad.

Today I took Natalie in for her last follow up from eye surgery. She'll go back in the fall for another of her annual eye exams. I ordered her new glasses today and we should get them in a week or two. Lauren got to go to daycare today and was just thrilled about it.

Our garden is growing beautifully, the peas are taking off the most so far, the corn and spinach look good and the peppers and broccoli are right behind. We've been busy with just the usual stuff around here - ballet and physical therapy and the usual stuff.

Just Eight More Days

2010-04-25T13:51:00.000-05:00

Eight days left until I'm 30. We already did my big birthday present, our trip to Hawaii. It was part birthday present to me, Anniversary present to ourselves, and just long overdue family vacation somewhere really fun. We had a blast!

We flew in on Thursday the 15th. We didn't get to our hotel until sometime after 10pm, Lauren fell asleep in the shuttle van on the way to the hotel. Friday was chilly and overcast, but we walked just under 2 miles each way to go pick up groceries at WalMart- peanut butter and jelly and bread and crackers- so that we'd have some good food in the room so we didn't have to go out to eat for every meal. We stayed at the Sheraton Waikiki and it was pretty awesome. We were able to walk right out from the elevators to get to the pool, down the stairs from the pool to get to the beach, or out the front of the hotel to the main streets for shopping. Lauren picked out this Keiki Friends Dress-Up Dolls from the ABC store to play with in the room. We found two more similar sets for the plane ride home, too. Saturday morning we met up with Ben's cousin (who he hadn't seen in 15 years or so) who happened to be in Hawaii also. He and his fiancee were leaving that day, but we had a good breakfast at Cheeseburger Waikiki and it was fun. On our way back to the hotel, the sun came out and it was good weather for the rest of the trip.

We spent lots of time at the pool, lots of time on the beach and in the water, and lots of time walking around. I can't believe we almost didn't bring the stroller! We used it every. single. day. The hotel had a koi pond and they let kids feed the fish twice a day. Lauren really liked that. We went to Margaritaville for dinner. They have a hula show that is pretty fun. Lauren got up on stage and did the hula during the show. Then after the show was over and while we were eating, Lauren decided she needed to dance again, so she went and got on stage and performed for everyone. It was great. Ben got a short video of it, and believe me, this isn't the highlight. There was so much more to it, and it was a lot of fun.

We shopped lots at the ABC stores, ate breakfast at Cheeseburger on the Beachwalk most days (they had great pancakes, and we were able to get a plate of fruit for the girls to share. Ben liked their omelets.) It was a great trip. On the last day, we checked out at 11 and had the hotel store our bags. We went for a loooooong lunch, laid by the pool, walked around and picked up souvenirs, and finally got picked up to head to the airport around 7:30. Our flight left at 10, and Lauren fell asleep at the gate and Natalie fell asleep while we were taxiing to the runway. They both slept the whole flight home. We got into SeaTac before 7, shuttled to our car, drove home and took a nap. It was a great trip!

Today we are going to go to a baseball game and then I'll have to start a new book. I finished reading The Devil in the Junior League and in the few days we've been home, I finished Chasing Harry Winston. Next up I have Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously unless the library emails that they have the latest of the True Blood series waiting for me.

Her Last Day Being Three

2010-04-04T23:22:00.000-05:00

Lauren turns four years old tomorrow. We're taking her to IHOP for breakfast since Ben has to work tomorrow night. I think I'm looking forward to that as much as she is, if not more. It's a pretty fun weekend for her with Easter today and her birthday tomorrow, lots of presents and treats and fun. We're going to have her birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese next weekend. Lauren is all done with soccer now, she did such a great job this year. She was by far the smallest kid on her team, but loved playing goalie. Somehow her team only ended up with five kids on it while the other teams in the league all had 10, and even with that huge disadvantage, they won a few of their games. She got a medal and a certificate at the end of the season and they had a pizza party at the bowling alley after their last game.

Natalie has an evaluation for Occupational Therapy tomorrow. We'll see if she starts doing regular work with them. That is for more fine motor skills than the Physical Therapy she does already. They changed the setting on her shunt when she visited her neurosurgeon a few weeks ago. They upped the setting to a slightly higher pressure. She's been doing pretty well with the change, which is good, and in June she'll go back and have another MRI to see how it's going in her head.

I have to get a crown put on my tooth in 10 days. The dentist thinks I cracked it. I was in such pain and thankfully they got me in the same day. I've been doing ok with tylenol and learning to avoid the tooth, I hope the crown does the trick and helps me out. I always get so nervous about the dentist and every time I go it's awful, then I avoid going and the next time it's bad again. It's an awful cycle. I do really need to get better about going regularly. I just hate it so much and avoiding it only makes it harder on me later.

Ben's been making some really great food lately. Tonight he made pulled pork and last night chicken caesar salad and bread. We had strawberry shortcake for dessert both nights. I made the Pioneer Woman's Hot Cross Buns on Friday and they were really good. They make a great breakfast. I didn't realize Hot Cross Buns were an Easter food, but now that I know, I think I'll have to make them every year.

Fifty Five Days Left

2010-03-10T17:05:00.000-06:00

I have 55 days left in my twenties. Nicole at Making It Lovely made a list of 30 things to do before she turns 30. She has a little bit longer to accomplish them than I do, but I don't think I'll use her list, anyway. I have started thinking a bit about my birthday though. I think my 30s are going to be awesome. I'm really looking forward to them. But I realized that once I'm there, I'll never be 20 again, so I should celebrate these last few weeks of my 20s before they're gone forever. I made an impulsive decision today and cut my hair again, this time a bit shorter all around than the last time. I still may go even shorter. Or, I'll let it grow a little bit and just do the back shorter and really embrace the inverted bob. I figure making crazy decisions about my hair is very 20s and I'm allowed. And I'd like to figure out what I really like with my hair so my 30s is a better hair decade. I didn't start my 20s off with great hair, so it should be easy to start off better this decade.

I've also been on the search for a lip color that I really love. I'm having to buy lots of new makeup since I dyed my hair and it has a bit more red in it. Changed all my colors on me. I feel like the lip color that I'm drawn to looks almost cartoonish with a bit brighter hair. But I need that color on my lips so I don't look washed out. I was pale living in the desert, I'm going to be translucent living up here in the PNW. I've embraced blush, but I'm not going to ignore my lips.

Thirtieth birthdays should be a big deal, right? I really would love to have a big party with my family and friends, but it looks like that isn't going to happen this year. I can't lie, I'm a bit disappointed about that. But I understand. And we're the ones who moved far away from everyone else. I'm not going to dwell on that, like I said, I'm only a little disappointed about it.

I have been making my birthday list for this year. I added a few photography books to my Amazon wishlist. I also want pretty OPI nail polishes. There are lots of pretty pinks and purples I've seen. I still have some thinking to do about this. Ben's going to upgrade the seats in my Jetta to leather seats this week, which I'm excited about. I thought about it for a long time and was hesitant at first but I think it will be great to have seats that wipe clean, especially living somewhere that gets wet and having an almost four year old who doesn't know how to keep her feet off the seats. Really, I think it's more likely that she'd stain cloth seats than puncture leather ones. Plus, they'll be heated, which will be really nice.

Any ideas on things to do before I turn 30?

Time Marches On

2010-03-01T18:57:00.000-06:00

Has it really been over 10 days since I posted something? Sheesh. Time has been flying by around here. Natalie had her feeding evaluation. I have to thicken everything she drinks for a while. I have lots of questions about this, and I'll ask them at her checkup on Wednesday. She's also been experiencing separation anxiety any time I walk away from her. She cries and gets really upset, even if I just walk to the trash can to throw a diaper away. Kind of frustrating, but age appropriate. She's also getting four more teeth, which will bring her up to twenty!

Lauren's been having lots of fun with soccer. She likes practice more than the games because they are shorter. She says her big games are too long, and she gets distracted once she starts getting tired. She does well playing goalie, though. She blocked two goals this Saturday. Her ballet seems to be getting better, too. I just went this morning and signed her up for her April class. She sometimes gets a little bit too chatty in class, but last Friday was observation day and it looked like she was paying attention and didn't get the giggles too much.

Ben's night schedule is finally done. It was more exhausting for me than I thought it would be. He's off today and has been working on my car, something about a steering column bearing, I think. I'm not trying to learn about it, I trust him to do it. Besides, I'm much too busy staying warm in the house to go hang out in the garage.

I'm thinking I'm going to host a brunch for some new friends. I'm not really sure what to make, though. I've been browsing through the Martha Stewart website and Tasty Kitchen for recipes. Any suggestions? Hopefully I'll get to host it as a kid-free event and get some mommy alone time.

The daffodils in the front yard have bloomed! I think spring is coming, and I'm very happy about it!

Soccer and New Foods and Springtime Gardening

2010-02-18T12:36:00.001-06:00

Lauren started soccer two weeks ago. It's so adorable. The kids are all so motivated and active and have no idea whatsoever about what they're supposed to be doing. I love it. It's fun to watch and she gets to run around like crazy and wear herself out, and that's the whole point of it really. She has two practices a week and her first game was last Saturday. Her team is the Hurricanes and they won!

Natalie is crawling around EVERYWHERE now, pulling herself up to stand, and is starting to cruise the furniture with a purpose. I asked her home therapist to start helping us work on baby sign language with her since she still only says "mama". Her eating is great, though, she's been eating pretty much everything I've given her. Bell peppers, beans, avocado, cantaloupe, even lasagna last night for dinner. By the time she has her feeding evaluation on the 24th, she won't need it anymore.

I planted strawberry seeds and some flower seeds in little pots and put them in the kitchen window. The strawberries sprouted, but now they aren't doing anything. I'm not sure what went wrong there. The flowers are doing well, though. I wish I could remember which kind I planted. Hahaha. It feels nice to have a seed I planted actually grow into something. My hydrangeas outside are starting to get new green life, and the daffodil and tulip bulbs I had Ben plant are all up and I think I see the start of a few blooms thinking about growing.

I haven't done much lately craft or sewing-wise, which is a shame. It feels like we've suddenly become very busy with soccer, story time, ballet, and physical therapy. Story time is taking a three week break, though so that's one more day a week we have off. We are also getting over having mild colds and Natalie had a bad diaper rash/yeast infection that's finally clearing up thanks to a trip to urgent care and a prescription for some cream. Ben's current schedule is throwing things off a bit, too, but we only have another ten days of that and then we can get back to normal. And last night I ordered myself Cath Kidston's "Make" (that I mentioned in my last post) so I'm excited to get that and get inspired again.

Things I Love -Jan 2010

2010-01-29T21:40:00.001-06:00

1. Cath Kidston
Cath Kidston is a British designer. The website sells homegoods (like umbrellas and gadget cases), clothes, fabric, kitchen stuff and more. And all of it is in very lovely prints that are just adorable. The fabrics are my favorite. I would love to have a giant sewing stash of her fabrics. Actually, I'd love to have at least one of every single thing on her site. She has two cute sewing books, too. I may have to go add them to my Amazon wishlist, like, right now.

2. Peanut M&Ms
There's not a whole lot to say about that, but I love them. Not a huge fan of plain M&Ms, but I do also like almond. Lauren also likes peanut M&Ms, so we get along just great when it comes to getting a snack in the checkout aisle.

3. Getting mail
Opening the mailbox and finding a letter just for me and not from a company or utility is such a little joy.

4. Bookstores
Specifically, getting to browse uninterrupted through a bookstore at my own leisure. Not that it happens much anymore. But when I get to, or when I used to get to, it made me happy.

Creative Inspirations

2010-01-27T18:41:00.002-06:00

Do you use Flickr? I ♥ Flickr! It's a giant collection of user photos. You can search based on user's name, groups the photos belong to, or key words (called tags) that the user has assigned to their photo. People from all over the world use Flickr and I can spend an afternoon browsing through people's pictures. I've searched the restaurant where the band my dad is in plays to see vacationers' pictures with him in the background. I've searched craft projects I'd like to do to see how others have done it. Often, I'll start on one search and end up finding a picture I like from one user, then looking through that user's photos, and then end up in another group with more pictures completely unrelated to the first topic. I suggest doing searches for "Bento" - I find that one really entertaining.

I love searching for Quilts on Flickr. It makes me want a sewing room of my own where I can have room to cut and piece and lay things out and store and organize more fabric than I can imagine. I find I'm drawn to scrap block quilts and appliqued quilts the most. And I love quilts with lots of white mixed with brights. There are quite a few I've found that are all done by a woman whose website is called Red Pepper Quilts. Look through those, they are amazing.

I really really want to get a quilting machine. I think I'd churn out a dozen quilts a year if I had one. It's the final step of quilting by hand which is so daunting, especially when I like to make quilts that actually work on a bed and not doll sized quilts. And I don't really need any more baby blankets. I could cut and piece all day long, but sewing by hand on something that large is intimidating and tiring. There are so many chances to mess up and I don't want to run out of steam before I finish. Buuuuuuuut.... a quilting machine costs money - lots of money- and so I don't think I'll be getting one any time soon.

For the time being, I'll plan quilts. And I may even piece them. I may even do some by hand. Learning to quilt with my regular sewing machine might be a good idea, but I'm worried about the quilt shifting under the foot and I'm worried about really screwing up something I've spent hours doing.

Lauren picked out a dress pattern and fabric at JoAnn's yesterday, so I'll have that to do. I'm also thinking about making another pillow for a friend of mine who just adopted a baby girl. If I use her nickname, I'll only have four letters to applique, so that won't take too long. My grandma also gave me two applique quilts that she started in the 80s and never finished. The pieces are cut, all I need to do is the sewing. They look like fun projects and not something I would normally choose to do, so I'll probably learn a thing or two doing them.

Sometimes I feel like there are so many projects I have set up for myself that I don't know where to start and so I end up doing nothing. Does that ever happen to you?

The Story About The Movies

2010-01-25T11:57:00.005-06:00

On Thursday, I got a call from Natalie's home therapist that she would have to cancel Friday's appointment. I thought this would be the perfect chance to head out to my grandma's house with the girls to spend the night. We hadn't gotten together since Thanksgiving because of weather and all of the appointments we keep every week. It seems like whenever we had two days off, it was storming and would make me nervous for the two hour drive. We left Friday morning right from Lauren's ballet class.

Packing is pretty easy, I packed one large duffel bag with all the clothes and toiletries and diapers for myself and the girls. I also take the playpen for Natalie and I let Lauren pack a small backpack of toys. Before ballet, we loaded everything up and Ben set Lauren up with the DVD player and her case of movies. It's one of those zippered books that holds around 100 DVDs and has a little handle. Lauren carries that case all over, from her bedroom where she watches a movie in bed, to her playroom or the living room where she'd like to watch something. All of her movies are in it... the Disney classics like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, the Nick Jr. compilations with Dora, Backyardigans, Kai-Lan, the Barbie movies, Strawberry Shortcake movies, Max & Ruby.... all of her favorites.

I drove straight to ballet, got Natalie and Lauren out, sat inside. After class, I loaded the girls back in the car. Over the sound and through the woods to grandmother's house we go. Or, went. We got to her house and when I was bringing the bags in, she stopped me. She had a family from church staying with her. They were getting ready to move to Ohio. Their house was being packed and cleaned for showings by the realtor and they had been staying in her spare room. They were leaving that afternoon, but their things were still in the bedroom that the girls and I would be in that night. She told me just to set my things down and we'd put them in there after the family left. They were out when I got there, but she expected them back around 4:00 to load up their stuff and head to the airport.

We let Lauren paint, and I painted with her, we played some hide and seek with Lauren, played Lauren's My Little Pony board game and then headed out to the store to pick up a few things so that I could cook dinner. We got home just before the family did and I was cooking up some chicken breast when they came in. The dad and daughter were running late, so they were rushing around to get all of their suitcases packed and loaded into the car. Another friend of theirs from church was going to be driving them to the airport, and he was helping to load their things, also. It was kind of a mad dash and I just did my best to stay out of their way.

After dinner, Lauren asked to watch a movie, and ... that's when we realized we couldn't find the movies. Right away, my grandma figured it must have been loaded with the stuff the family was taking to the airport. I called Ben to ask if he had loaded the movies, he said he was 99% sure they had been on the seat next to Lauren. He thought there was a small chance he had left them on the roof of my car, so he went and checked the alley off the garage, the street, and called the base police to inquire about the lost and found. My grandma called around until she got the family's cell phone number and she called to ask if they had it, but they were in the car and would have to wait to look until they got to the hotel by the airport.

The next day, we still hadn't heard back. I searched all over my grandma's house to see if they had been moved out of the way, but couldn't find them. I stopped at WalMart on our way home and picked out a few movies for Lauren from their $5 bin so she'd have something for the 2 hour drive home, and something for bedtime. Saturday came and went and we didn't hear anything back.

Sunday I started browsing eBay and Craigslist for secondhand kid movies because I figured our collection was long gone. I was getting really sad about the thought of replacing all those movies. Over a hundred movies at an average of $10 each (if not more) is a THOUSAND DOLLARS worth of movies. And they were just gone.

My grandma called me last night. The family had found our movies! They are putting them in the mail Monday morning. We're so relieved. Lauren did get about 10 new movies out of it, including Beauty and the Beast, which she didn't have and I won on eBay. I'm also fairly certain we'll be only taking a few movies when we travel from now on.

Sorry

2010-01-20T15:15:00.002-06:00

I just realized that those pictures of the pillows are super small and that clicking on them doesn't make them bigger! Whoops!

Here are the pillows:

Front

Back

Sunny Day! Sweepin' the Clouds A-Way!

2010-01-18T18:49:00.004-06:00

It did not rain today. Can I even explain just how excited I am about that? The only bummer is I did not realize just how nice it was outside today until sometime after 1:00 when we left for a lunch out at our favorite place. Ben took Lauren to the park this morning to run around and although he said it wasn't raining, he did not mention it actually felt kind of warm out there. We didn't even need coats today. Do you understand? Mid-fifties! Sheesh, I'm about ready to break out the tank tops and flip flops, y'all!

Well, maybe there's still too much California girl in me for that.

Not that all this time indoors has gone to waste. I have been getting good things done. Like these pillows I made for the girls. Hand appliqued letters and rose, and machine stitched the rest. The buttons keep the envelope closure closed.

And here's the dresser that I redid for Natalie:

This photo is from before I actually finished so there's still a little bit of the wood laminate showing in the bottom corner, but that's gone now. The dresser is in use in the girls' room now. It's so wonderfully bright and cheery and girly. Perfect thing to keep the clouds away! Which will be good, because this sunny weather is not supposed to stick around, we'll be back to rain over night and tomorrow.

Things I Love - etsy All-Stars

2010-01-16T02:00:00.001-06:00

Two things I love in one easy post, for your browsing pleasure:

1. Star Silver and Gold Ring by trudiedavies, $32.00

Cute, dainty, mixes metals and has a cute star. Love it!

2. Star Dust Necklace in Sterling Silver by Roundabout, $24.00

Tiny and adorable. I love how the chain goes through the star. Click on the link to see other images and how this necklace hangs right in the dip between the clavicles. My A&P terminology is failing me now, but you know, that spot. Just see the picture.

3. Japanese Star Moss 3/4 Sleeve Tee by Xenotees, $24.00

I just like it. The green, the cluster of stars. Really cute.

4. Star Drop Earrings Key Lime by cashmerebark, $36.00

I like these for a couple reasons- the little stones, the length of the earring, and the way the star is a little accent. I can totally see me wearing these with my purple scarf.

5. Multi Stars TriFold Coloring Wallet by GetSassed, $15.00

This looks like the perfect little activity book to take along to restaurants, waiting rooms, dressing rooms... anywhere the girls would need to sit and be good (and quiet!) for a short while. It has a spot in the middle for a pad of paper, and pockets on each side for a total of 12 crayons. Love this. Will probably buy soon!

6. Mega Batch of Star Wall Decals by graphicspaces, $40

Forget glow in the dark stars on the ceiling! You could make an amazing wall or room with these stars! They're available in metallic silver and stick right to the wall. I would LOVE to do the girls' room with these. Or my own.

The PNW is.... wet.

2010-01-15T13:03:00.004-06:00

I finished the dresser I was redoing for Natalie and it came out pretty cute. I'm really happy with it. Next project is the pillow for Lauren.

Natalie has home therapy today and Lauren had ballet this morning. She came home from that in a really really good mood. I've officially signed her up for soccer now. Bedtime has been going great, it's getting easier every night.

I know we've only been living here about 5 months, and it's probably way too early for this, but I'm getting really sick of the rain and dreary weather. Of course, partly I'm just over winter and cold. I think I wouldn't mind the rain quite so much if it was warmer. I want to be able to take the girls outside to play and not be drenched or in quite so many layers. Sigh. Spring will come. Soon enough. Or not soon enough.

Falling into a Routine

2010-01-10T14:22:00.002-06:00

Lauren is settling into a bedtime routine which has her in bed by 8:30 and hopefully asleep by 9:30. She's been doing great with it, falling asleep last night at least 10 minutes before I came in to turn off her movie. Now I'd just like Natalie to be able to fall asleep not laying right up against me and then we'd really be getting somewhere.

I did get a good start on Natalie's dresser. I have two sides and all the drawer fronts decoupaged and have put on new drawer pulls. I need to get the one low face on the front finished, and the top, and then add another coat over them and I'll be done. I'm really excited with how that's coming along. Natalie's pillow is finished, and I have finished the applique for Lauren's pillow. Now I just need to piece it all together, which, once I get the chance, should only take me an hour or so. I'm not planning on doing anything particularly complicated with it. Dragging everything out and setting it all up takes up a chunk of the free time that I get to work on it. Once that's done the actual sewing goes pretty quickly.

I've already finished my first book of the year. Now I'm just waiting for an Amazon order to get here so I can get going on book number two. Ben has been working on the cars a lot lately. He found someone who was selling off parts of a Jetta with a busted transmission that was otherwise in really good shape. Ben got me some window seals and got himself heated seats, and a back seat with a fold down arm rest. He's been keeping himself busy with his new goodies.

Lauren is going to have her first ballet recital in late May or early June. They are starting to work on the routine this month. On Monday I need to call and enroll her in soccer. She's very excited about that. I'm looking forward to her getting a chance to run around and wear herself out three times a week. We don't know her schedule yet, but there are supposed to be two practices each week and one game each Saturday. I think the whole season is just February and March, but we have a parents meeting to go to at the end of this month and we'll find out more then.

I'm getting anxious for spring to come to the PNW. I just want the weather to get a *little* bit warmer so we can head out without having to be all bundled up. Hopefully the girls will be over their runny noses soon. Warmer weather would probably help with that, too. I'm looking forward to spring and summer shoes most of all. I want to get back to flip flops and cute ballet flats and - dare I dream?!- skirts and dresses. Plus, I'd love to be able to head out for a run without being soaked, but up here, the chances of that are low. If I'm going to be soaked, I at least want it to be warm.

Things I Love - kid edition

2010-01-09T02:00:00.000-06:00

1. Plastic Plates, Bowls and Silverware from IKEA

These are SUPER cheap - $1.99 per six piece set of each at IKEA. We use them daily. Mostly Lauren uses them, but I use them, too. The plates are great for a quick snack and the bowls make great prep bowls for cooking.

2. Britax Car Seat

I didn't think I'd really have an opinion about car seats when we first bought one. But I've seen car seats used by friends and family, and had to borrow car seats when we travel, and I really do love the Britax seat. It feels sturdier and safer than others, and it has handy little features, like velcro to hold the straps to the side when taking Lauren in and out of the seat. We just bought a second one for Natalie to use as soon as she's ready to face forward.

3. Books by Sandra Boynton

I can recite "The Going To Bed Book" from memory. I used to read it to Lauren all the time. I whisper it to Natalie when I'm trying to calm her. The books have adorable illustrations and a great tempo. You can almost sing each one of them. I do sing a lot of them, actually. Lissa just brought us the Spanish version of "Moo, Baa, La La La" (which is translated as "Muu, Bee, Asi Fue!"). Here is Sandra Boynton's website, and her books are available all over the place.

4. "Snacktime" by the Barenaked Ladies

Abby recommended this album to me. Lauren loves and I love it. I listen to it even when she's not around. My favorite song is "The Ninjas" and Lauren likes "Popcorn". She sings a lot of the songs on her own, out of nowhere it seems. It doesn't grate on parents like all those Kids Bop cover albums or how many repeats of "Wheels on the Bus". These get stuck in your head in a good way. This band is clever and really shows an ability to produce diverse music. Amazon sells it for $11.99, and you can listen to samples of the songs using the same link.

Things I Love - Baby Edition

2010-01-02T04:00:00.001-06:00

1. Wee Gallery art cards

These are adorable. There are nine different sets including Garden (pictured above), Jungle, and Pets. Each set has 6 cards inside. Each card has a beautiful illustration of an animal in black on a white background on one side, and in white on a black background on the reverse side. They say babies see high contrast images best from birth. Natalie has three sets that she got after her eye surgery (Thank you Aunt Sarah and Aunt Abby). There's a mobile you can buy to clip the cards up over the crib, too. We just let Natalie play with the cards on their own. Each one is a pretty thick card, similar to the pages of a board book, but light and with rounded corners. On Amazon, they run about $13-15 depending on the style. And you can get cards, wall decals, canvases and more on the Wee Gallery website.

2. Trumpette socks

When I was pregnant with Natalie, my good friend Jen sent a box of these socks. I am in love with these! The Trumpette website has a bunch of different styles, including the Mary Jane socks for girls and Converse sneakers for boys. There are ballet shoes and new pixie shoes (which look like a ballet flat). So adorable! I may have to get every style. You can search Trumpette to find other sellers, or you can orders through the Trumpette website.

3. Burt's Bees Baby Wash

This stuff smells SO CLEAN. I bathe Natalie in this and wash Lauren's hair with it. So it kind of isn't just a "baby thing I love" but also a "kid thing I love", which I plan to do in another post. It is supposed to be "greener", too, without the chemicals in other brands. I pick it up at Target for something like $5 a bottle and it lasts a good long time. I keep one in my shower and one in the girls' tub.

4. Mustela Facial Cleansing Cloths

This is another one that Jen got me before Natalie came along. It was part of a whole gift pack, but this product is the stand-out from that set for me. Natalie used to get lots of eye goo when she woke up in the morning. I would use one wipe to clean off her face. It smells good, it's gentle, and it gets the job done. It works for after a biter biscuit or lunch out when the bath is just too far away. And it is safe to use around a baby's eyes, so I prefer using it to a baby wipe on her face. Did I mention how good it smells?

Welcome to the year 2010!

2010-01-01T14:48:00.004-06:00

Ben caught one crab yesterday and boiled it right up. His friend brought along his two kids to play with Lauren. The girl was five and the boy was 3. Lauren was worn out and fell asleep on the couch at 6. It worked out rather well, though, she was in a good mood and stayed up to count down to midnight like she had been wanting to do. We all went to sleep about thirty seconds later and are feeling pretty good today. Oh, except for Natalie. She threw up on me this morning at 8:30. But she's been doing fine since, so I don't know what that was about. I cleaned the downstairs bathroom, vacuumed upstairs and down and am working on my second load of laundry already, and it's not quite 1:00.

I spent a huge chunk of time yesterday (too much time, really) looking at the website Making It Lovely. Thank you Jen, for sending me a link to her site. My goodness! Such talent! Such a creative eye! She started right away at month one taking monthly pictures of her adorable daughter in the same spot. She's up to month 8 now, I think, and it's such a cute idea. I guess I could do it for Natalie's second year if I start on Sunday and do it every month on the third. There's still a lot of growing in the second year.

I joined two 365 groups on Flickr. The goal is to take a picture every day and post it. I've been a lot better with my camera lately, so I'm hoping I'll keep it up. Of course, the pressure of joining a group specifically for that purpose may hinder me from picking it up. Again, it's not quite 1:00 and I haven't picked up my camera yet today. OH MY GOSH! I haven't taken any pictures since LAST YEAR, Y'ALL! Hee hee hee. That will only be funny today. If I'm still saying that at the end of the month, I will really be panicking.

Did I mention that I finished the pillow I was making for Natalie? I did. And I got a good jump on appliqueing on the letters for Lauren's pillow yesterday. I mostly finished the L, A and U. Of course, once I pinned everything on, Lauren decided she did NOT want a butterfly like I had laid out, and that she wanted a rose like Natalie has. Hopefully I still have the template for it, it should be easy enough to do again. I'd like to get it finished soon, but it seems like every time I sit down and really am starting to make headway with stitching someone needs me urgently. Sigh. I guess that's motherhood.

Oh, and looking through Making It Lovely inspired me to get the girls' room more in order. Yesterday I went through Natalie's drawers again (didn't I just do that, like, hours before?) and cleaned out the stuff that's too small. I am saving very few items, I think I only set aside two things, and will be boxing up and sending out the other things to friends with baby girls. A few of them, though younger, are already getting close to Natalie in size. I just make small girls, I guess.

But back on track, I set the crib to the lower height yesterday since Natalie is sitting up on her own and starting to pull up on her knees. The goal for this spring is to have her sleeping in her own bed at night. When I lowered it, I had to take out the storage bins I had underneath since they no longer fit. More stuff to go through! Yipee! I also am so SICK of the crappy brown dressers in their room. Lauren's is in the closet, so it doesn't bother me as much, but Natalie's is the first thing when you walk in the door. I think I'm going to paint it a really really pale pink, add a new top, use some Modge Podge and a cute fabric across the top (which I am thinking might be neat to replicate in new curtains?) and then make a new bottom with feet so it doesn't sit directly on the carpet. I have the idea all in my head, but without sketching it out, scanning it in and posting it here, I don't know that I'll get the idea across. But I hope I do it, and I hope it turns out cute.

Blog-Hopping

2009-12-30T20:36:00.002-06:00

I've spent some time the last few days clicking links through a bunch of different crafting and sewing blogs. I get so inspired doing that. I have a couple of crafty things I've been working on here. First I'm painting a TV stand that Ben built for our bedroom. It's basically just a raised shelf with legs so the DirecTV receiver fits underneath and the TV fits on top. I painted it brown and am using blue paint and a brocade stencil on the top and sides. I know it won't show when the TV is on top, but a little of the design poking out is my goal. I don't want too much pattern in there, anyway.

The second thing I've been doing is making pillows for the girls. I just finished the one I'm making for Natalie and now I am going to start on Lauren's. I'm appliqueing their names and a design on them, a rose for Natalie and a butterfly for Lauren.

Ben dropped the crab pots again today, it will be the last drop of the season, which ends on Sunday. He goes back to work on Monday after having roughly two weeks off. Lauren will miss him, I'm sure when we get back to normal. Ben took her to see the second Alvin and the Chipmunks movie yesterday. She had a good time and thought it was funny. I took her to get her hair cut today at the cutest little hair salon. It's called Jack & Jill's salon and it is just for kids. Lauren sat in a Barbie Jeep to get her hair cut, and she was really well behaved the whole time.

Natalie is doing great, she is crawling a little bit and is holding herself up if I help get her standing. She also sits in the grocery cart now. Santa brought her a shopping cart cover to help keep her germ-free.

Christmas was great. It was just the four of us at home and it was so nice. We opened presents in the morning and had cinnamon rolls. I made posole and we had that and tamales for dinner. Ben spent most of the afternoon putting together the new dining room set he got for me and I unpackaged the girls' toys. Lauren made out like a bandit and has more toys than I know what to do with. It was a really nice holiday.

Things I Love

2009-12-26T21:57:00.007-06:00

Occasionally on Facebook I'll set my status to a list of things I love. I thought it would be so much better if I did it here with pictures and links. Some things, like the smell of cookies baking can't come across in a blog post, but there are many things that I'd love to add a visual to.

1. Shawl Collar Cable Knit Sweaters

I am a HUGE fan of cable knit stuff. Last year Ben got me a soft, brown, cable-knit scarf, which, regretably, I can not for the life of me find this year. (I blame it on the move.) I'm going to keep searching, but in the mean time, I'll buy more sweaters that are cable knit to hold me over. I bought this one from Kohl's a few weeks ago in red. I love it. Really, I could have divided number one into one and two and separated shawl collar sweaters as one and cable knit everything as two. But this sweater is the reason I kept them together. It's comfy and warm and I just love it. I think the shawl collar is such a cute little detail, and on this sweater, the little woven-look leather button is adorable. It's the details that make clothes special, and this sweater has the details I like.

2. Hot Chocolate

So far, I have resisted the ever-present PNW (Pacific Northwest) pressure to become a coffee drinker. Seriously, not just a coffee shop on every corner, but three on every block around here. I just can't handle caffeine. I'd be shaky and jittery all day long and unable to sleep at night and even more tired the following day. I see potential for a terrible, terrible, viscious cycle and I just don't even want to go there. But, if you didn't know, it's freaking COLD up here. Some mornings I just cannot warm up. So I drink hot chocolate. I got a sweet set from Santa like this one by Swiss Miss. The characters on the box are a little bit different on mine, but it's the same flavors: Mint Chocolate, French Vanilla, Caramel Cream, Milk Chocolate. The Caramel Cream version is so delicious.

3. Surprising Christmas Decor

I would not have the guts to do this to my tree, but when I came across the picture I was totally in love with it. It's so FUN and not traditional. Just gorgeous. I think Lauren would love something like this. Do they flock Christmas trees anymore? And what about tinsel? Did too many animals and children eat it and become sick or did everyone just finally realize what a big pain in the neck it was to put up... and then take down? Bad for tree-recycling? I don't know.

We did our tree in red and white ornaments this year, except for a few sentimental ornaments and some princess ornaments that Lauren got last year and this year. I think ours was beautiful, but this tree is really something to look at.

This photo is by OpenDoorStudio and from their Flickr page,

I originally saw it featured on etsy

4. My iPhone

Seriously, I love that thing. And I don't even really care if it has a phone on it. It's a texting machine, and I can get to my email, Facebook and Twitter on it. I love the Apps - there are so many. Some of my favorites are The Weather Channel app, ShopStyle, PopSugar Mobile, Time Mobile... I even downloaded a fun spelling game for Lauren. It comes in so handy in waiting rooms - like all the ones I sit in for Natalie's many appointments, and even in the grocery store when I need to look up an ingredient. Which reminds me of my number 5!

5. The Pioneer Woman

Man, this lady posts simple, delicious recipes with fantastic pictures. She has a cookbook, too! There are five sections on her website: Confessions, Cooks, Photography, Home and Garden, and Homeschooling. And this year she launched TastyKitchen.com, where users are submitting great recipes, too. I've found more than one recipe on her site and will cook many more, I'm sure.

I think that will be my whole list for tonight. I've got a bunch of stuff going on here tonight so this one will have to be only 5 things long.

Belated Pictures

2009-12-16T15:42:00.003-06:00

Lauren and Natalie visiting Santa Claus at the squadron Christmas party. They're in a blackhawk.

And here's our tree.

Here's the bread I posted about a couple days ago. It came out great! I've been eating it as much as Natalie has.

She likes it!

She really likes it!

Baking

2009-12-14T18:32:00.003-06:00

Natalie has been doing a lot better with eating solids lately. And I'm not referring to the Christmas tree needles I dug out of her mouth this afternoon. She loves little finger foods and things she can pick up and feed herself, but she's not really into things that she has to eat with a spoon. When Lissa was here she mentioned making vegetable breads and I've been looking around on the internet for a while about making breads using baby food since it's already pureed and I have it on hand. I have some rising right now and I hope it turns out. Here's the recipe that I used:

1 cup milk
1 pkgs fast-rising dry yeast
3 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 tablespoons shortening
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 tsp. sugar
approx. 5 cups flour
Preparation: Scald milk. Stir in salt, 3 tablespoons sugar, shortening, and 1/2 cup cold water. Cool to lukewarm Measure 1/2 cup lukewarm water into bowl, stir in the 1 tsp. sugar, sprinkle with yeast. Let stand 10 minutes, then stir until well blended. Stir in lukewarm milk mixture and 3 cups flour. Beat until smooth and elastic. (use electric mixture if you like) Work in sufficient additional flour to make a soft dough. (approx 2 cups more) turn out onto floured board and knead until smooth and elastic approx 5 minutes. Place in greased bowl. Cover bowl with greased waxed paper. Let rise in warm place until double in volume. Approx. 1 hour. Punch down batter. Cut into two equal pieces and form into 2 loaves and put into 2 (9" X 5" ) greased bread pans. Let rise again for approx. 45 minutes - 1 hour. or until dough fills pans and the centers are well above the tops of the pans. Bake 425 deg. oven for 15 minutes, reduce temperature to 375 deg. and bake until bread is done. about 25 - 35 minutes more. Remove loaves from pans and place on wire racks to cool. Brush with melted butter if soft crust is desired.
Source

But I made a couple of alterations. First, I used butter instead of shortening because it's what I had on hand. I replaced 1/4 cup of the flour with whole wheat flour. And I added two 2 oz containers of baby food, one squash and one mixed vegetables. It would be great if these work out and if she likes them. If it doesn't work out, though, I'm going to keep trying other recipes, maybe a quick bread recipe instead of a yeast bread.

We got our Christmas tree from the Christmas tree farm yesterday and it's up and decorated. Lauren just loves it. Natalie does, too. She keeps working her way over to and then under the tree so she can reach up for the branches. She's also been trying to untie ribbon from the presents. I am starting to think we'll need to put a fence around the tree.

If anyone out there is still looking for something to get for Natalie, she needs long sleeved tops in size 12 months and sweatpants/soft pants/fleece lined pants in size 12m also.

Last year I made the resolution to read at least 12 books and I finished 18. This year I've read 18 also. I'd like to try to get one more book in this year and shoot for 20 next year. Waiting rooms certainly helped the last two years, hopefully I won't be in as many of those in 2010, but I'd still like to get 20 books in.

First Half of December

2009-12-12T23:23:00.003-06:00

Things have been so crazy busy here!

Natalie's birthday was fun. Lissa flew in from Albuquerque on Thursday and Jon and Maya drove down on Saturday. We went down to Steilacoom and found a great little bar & bistro where we had lunch and then we took the ferry. It was a short trip, but perfect for Lauren's attention span. Then Jon, Ben and Maya went out to pull up the crab pots (they only got one keeper) and we all met back at the house. They made a crab stew and smoked salmon on the grill and I made the Pioneer Woman's Fettucini Alfredo. I made Natalie a small angel food cake with whipped strawberry frosting and a bit of whipped cream around it. The rest of us had german chocolate cake. Natalie wasn't really sure about her cake, she put her hands in it and then seemed a little grossed out by her sticky hands. She spent more time playing with her fork than trying to eat, but I got her to take a few bites. That's ok, though, she's one and doesn't really need all that sugar, anyway.

I wish Lissa could have stayed longer, I feel like we hardly got to show her anything around here. But, we'll get to do some more touristy things when my dad comes in a week.

Natalie finally got started with physical therapy at the pediatric physical therapist. I took her on Tuesday and it looks like we'll have a standing appointment on Tuesday mornings, except next week since we'll be taking her to Seattle for her MRI. She has been doing so great! She got herself up into a sitting position on her birthday two times in a row and has been doing it more and more the past few days. Ben babyproofed a couple corners (walls and coffee table) and we're going to have to start doing more soon, I'm sure.

Her eye surgery was successful. They look straight now and seem to be healing pretty quickly. The day of surgery she napped a lot, but I did pull her out of bed before 6 am, so I don't blame her. I wanted to nap the rest of the day, too. She is still wearing her glasses, we'll go back in February and they'll check her eyes again and see if she needs a new prescription. I think her depth perception is already better, she's grabbing things with the first reach now and hasn't been overshooting things like she used to. I can tell how much stronger she's gotten just in the past few weeks. We have a lot to do still, but she's such an amazing little girl.

Lauren is still doing ballet. She has been paying attention and is able to show me moves at home now. I got to go observe her class at the end of last month and she did great. She's going through some quite dramatic three-ness right now, which kind of sucks and makes me want to lock myself in my room sometimes, but then she can be very sweet and funny and I can forget about it for ... well, a few minutes. She comes up with the funniest things sometimes. The other day she told me she was full all the way to her neck. Last week she asked me how old I'd be when she was grown up, and when I answered 40, she said, "Then you won't fit in the car!"

My cookie exchange went really well. I had four ladies over, one brought her 12 year old daughter and one brought her 5 year old daughter. I made the melting moments I mentioned before, and the other ladies made sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, pecan blossoms and snickerdoodles. We have some great cookies tempting us here at the house now. We sat around and ate and played taboo and talked for a while. I really liked the girls who came over and I'm glad I did it. I get so nervous about meeting people, but it helped relax me a bit that it was at my house, I think. Today was the Christmas party for Ben's work and I saw two of the ladies there. The Christmas party was pretty low key. The girls got their picture taken with Santa in a Blackhawk and there was food and desserts and Lauren sat and colored for a while.

I think tomorrow we're going to head out and cut our own Christmas tree. I put red ribbons on the columns in front of our house today so they look like candy canes. I also put a strip of ribbon on the wall under the window in the living room so I can display Christmas cards on it.

Free Samples

2009-12-10T17:11:00.003-06:00

If you like beauty samples, go to Fashion Under $100 and enter to win by leaving a comment. FashionUnder100 always posts about great outfits which come to a total cost of under $100. Dana is the blogger behind the site who is a super cool chick that I got a chance to hang out with in November 2008, right before I had Natalie. She has an amazing sense of style herself as well as an amazing talent for finding bargains on clothing online. Check out her contest and her site.

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-11-29T16:54:00.002-06:00

Thanksgiving was perfect this year!

I've never completely hosted Thanksgiving before. I've always had it at someone else's house. Even if I helped to make most of the dishes, it's never been me as hostess. Some years I've gotten away with doing less than others. Some years one dish, or bring a pie, or even bring a drink. Some years, I've made half the dishes myself. This year, it was all me at my house, with my family. And it was great.

We did Thanksgiving dinner on Friday this year. Jon spent Thanksgiving day with his girlfriend at her brother's house, so we moved it back a day so he could come to our dinner also. The night before, I made the pumpkin pie and the dough for the rolls, and Ben prepped the turkey for frying.

On Thanksgiving morning, I got myself and the girls ready for the day and got in the kitchen to get started. I made a game plan the night before and wrote down what order I was going to cook everything, what time things had to get in the oven, what time they had to come out, and it made the day go very smoothly. Just as I was starting the rolls around 11, Ema called from Sequim and said she wanted to drive down and asked if that would be ok. I was so excited! One more for dinner, and it's one of my favorite people in the whole world. She hadn't driven down here by herself before (it takes about 2 hours, 3 highways, 2 bridges and a freeway) and was finally feeling brave enough to head down.

On my menu this year was: the turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, cranberries, green beans, rolls, pumpkin pie and apple pie. I did the pie crusts from scratch, the rolls from scratch, the mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes from scratch, and the apple pie filling from scratch, the cranberries from scratch. I did stuffing from a box since we fried the turkey, and used canned pumpkin for the pie filling. The green beans were just the steam in a bag kind, but they were good anyway. All of it was good, actually. Really really good. I wish I had had an extra stomach for that dinner.

Ema arrived as I was cooking, and kept me company in the kitchen. She helped a lot by holding Natalie. Lauren wanted to help cook, so she went and got all of her cooking stuff - the apron, chef's hat and pot holder - from the playroom.

She also made the fantastic centerpiece for our table:

She ended up sitting in the high chair since we needed all four chairs for adults, and there wasn't much room on the table. Small, but adequate. So we did the food buffet style in the kitchen:

(from left to right:) Mashed potatoes, cranberries, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, gravy, rolls... all in my very best, fanciest, matching serving ware. Ha ha ha.

This was the sweet potato casserole, which we almost didn't have. Ben suggested I not make it when we were shopping for stuff last weekend, but at the last minute, I had him stop by the store to get some sweet potatoes. I decided that even if I was the only one who ate it, I wanted it. And I'm glad. I found a recipe online and tweaked it a little by adjusting the amount of sugar, adding pecans to the mixture before it went in the dish, and adding marshmallows on top. Very yummy, and Ema said sweet potatoes were always one of her favorite holiday dishes.

And here's the turkey that Ben fried. Wow. Delicious. If you have never had a deep fried turkey before, you're missing out. We haven't baked a turkey again since the first time we fried one. So so so so so good, you guys!

It was a very successful Thanksgiving!

Ema and Jon both spent the night and I went out shopping with Ema on Friday. Ben and Jon have been working on Jon's car this weekend, as usual when Jon comes to visit. Jon actually ended up staying another night because they didn't get a part Jon needed until late last night. They had to drive out to Sumner to pick it up, which was I was happy about because they stopped at the Sonic in Puyallup to get dinner on the way home.

It feels like it's a short week this week, too, because Natalie's birthday is Thursday and Lissa will be getting here, and I am taking Natalie to her pre-op appointment with ophthalmology and pre-anesthesia on Thursday morning, and her well-baby visit Friday morning. Then we'll have her birthday party on Saturday with Jon and Maya coming down, too.

Getting Ready for Turkey Day!

2009-11-25T16:40:00.004-06:00

We're going to do Thanksgiving dinner on Friday. Ben's going to fry the turkey. Today I went ahead and made the crusts for the apple pie and the pumpkin pie. I used a really simple recipe and made it in the food processor, and I hope it works out ok. Everything else I'll be able to make on Friday.

I've started Christmas shopping already and that has been fun. I love the holidays and I'm looking forward to Christmas so much. Dad is coming up here from the 20-23 of December. The next month is going to be so busy, but I'm glad because it will make the good stuff come sooner. :)

Visiting the Cardiologist

2009-11-23T19:29:00.002-06:00

This morning I took Natalie in to see the pediatric cardiologist. He did a quick ultrasound of her heart and some other parts, (aortas and ventricles) and said everything looked great. We were out of the room 10 minutes after we walked in. One of the quickest visits we've had.

I bought some cute cookie boxes at JoAnn Fabrics last night for my cookie exchange party. I'm getting really excited for that. I'm making some cookies I made this summer that are so delicious. I think they're called chocolate chip filled melting moments. They're little sandwich cookies that are so light and buttery. They are a lot of work, but I think they will be worth it.

Ben is flying tonight and tomorrow night, but has a four day weekend for Thanksgiving. I hope this weekend we'll be able to go over to the Christmas tree farm and get a tree. I'm really feeling the holiday this year and I'm making myself wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate. My biggest debate is if I should wait until after Natalie's birthday, too. Maybe she deserves to have her birthday separate from Christmas. I don't know where we're going to put the tree, but we'll figure it out.

The girls and I went to Macy's today. I was on the hunt for a Martha Stewart pie plate I saw on their website, but they didn't have it in the store. We did walk through the holiday decoration department, though. Lauren loved it. She loves nutcrackers and will stop to look at and touch every one. She got her Barbie Nutcracker Ballet movie, and now just associates nutcrackers with beautiful dancing, I think. They had so many neat ornaments. Last year I decorated our tree in white, silver and red and I think it was really pretty. I don't know what I want to do this year with it.

I'm almost done with the sewing on the pillow or wall hanging I'm making for Natalie and then I can start on the one for Lauren. I think pillows would be nice, but I originally had planned on making a quilted wall hanging, and I just can't decide which one I want to do.

Both Girls Are Asleep!

2009-11-20T18:35:00.003-06:00

It's 4:30 in the afternoon (even though it feels like late evening because it's already getting dark, thankyouverymuch, northern hemisphere) and both girls area totally asleep.

Lauren has ballet on Friday mornings at 9 am, which means we have to leave here by 8:40 so we can get over there and get her out of her rain boots and coat and into ballet shoes, and to leave here by 8:40, I have to wake up at 7:30, get Lauren up, fed, and both of us showered.

I wish I had the who cares attitude to just throw my hair in a headband and wear a hoodie to go to ballet, with only a freshly scrubbed face, but I don't. I need to be showered and make-upped. And I don't think it's fair to not get Lauren ready because I'm feeling lazy. So we get up early.

Unfortunately, this kind of makes her a cranky beast for most of Friday. I had her in her bed watching a movie for a "rest" at 1:15, but at 1:30, Natalie's home therapist and services coordinator got here for an appointment, so she was up and downstairs to see what was going on. And to not leave me alone. And was really really making things difficult. But that's ok. She's in bed now. She just went upstairs and laid down and will be an angel child when she wakes up.

Natalie was playing on the ground and just rolled onto her belly, pulled her knees in and her butt up in the air and went to sleep. I remember sleeping like that. I wonder why that position is so comfortable only until about 5 years old?

We went to Michael's yesterday to get some stuff for Lauren so she could decorate her lego castle. I couldn't help but get stuff for myself, too. I love all that Martha Stewart craft stuff. I picked up a cute bird and owl stamp set and a glue stamp pad and silver glitter. And now I want to go back and get a bunch of colors of stamp pads and more glitter. And more stamps. Not that I have anything planned, I just want to be prepared, you know, for that day when I need to host a last minute stamping and crafting party. Or when someone comes to my door demanding to know where their birthday card is, and I just be like, oh, wait, hold on, and whip something together in a matter of minutes. (note: not likely to happen. Ever. But at least I'm prepared.)

I'm getting excited for my Cookie Exchange party. I think I decided I'm going to make Chocolate Chip Filled Melting Moments which is a recipe I've made before out of "The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook" that Jayna got me for my birthday. They are delicious. I know they will take some work, and I'll have to 4x the recipe, but that's ok, they are worth it, and I want something special for the exchange. Right now I have 4 people who have said they are going to come, but I'm hoping I can get a few more people, too. I'm really excited for the holidays this year. Especially since last year was so crazy. But first, I get to focus on Natalie's first birthday. Yay! We're going to have to get a good party together for the little girl. She's amazing and she deserves it.

Trucking Along

2009-11-14T16:23:00.003-06:00

The girls and I went to Sequim on Tuesday and spent the night at Ema's house. It was a good trip, I always enjoy going and spending time with Ema.

We had our first home visit for Natalie's therapy this week. I am happy that we are getting more things going for her. The home therapist is going to meet us at Natalie's physical therapy appointment next Wednesday. Then she will be able to help us translate what we're doing in the office to what we're doing at home. Natalie has been doing really well, though. So close to crawling. She really wants to move and is finding all sorts of ways to get around that don't involve crawling. She's working on more teeth now, too, numbers 8 & 9 are coming in. We have appointments for Cardiology and Urology coming up and we're trying to get something scheduled at Audiology. Hopefully we'll get through and see everyone and then be done with most of the specialties and the ones she needs to see regularly will only be once every 6 months or year.

Lauren did better at ballet this week, she got in line when she was supposed to. She really likes it and we went ahead and signed her up for next month, too.

I'm trying to organize a holiday cookie exchange. I emailed our FRG leader and asked her to send out a rough invitation to everyone in the troop. I hope I can find people who are interested so I can get one going. If I can't find enough people through the troop, I'll put up a flyer on our mailbox and invite people from my street, too.

I'm still working on the crafts I'm doing for the girls. I saw a cute craft in Parents magazine that I think I'm going to set up for Lauren to do. I can't find it online, but it was just cutting out Christmas trees from green felt and letting her decorate them with stick on gems, then using a hole punch at the top and hanging them with ribbon as a garland or as ornaments. I think she'd have fun with that, plus it would be pretty easy to do. And not too messy of a craft.

Ben is dropping the crab pots again today. He's really gotten into going and doing that. He needs to hurry up and get a second paddle for the canoe, though.

Brrr!

2009-11-07T16:55:00.004-06:00

Lauren had her first ballet class yesterday morning. She really liked it. Her class is for ages 3-6, but it's a Friday morning so it's mostly younger kids that aren't in school. She's still the smallest in her class. It's so cute. They're working on first and second position and a plie along with a couple other things. She seemed to like it. And this class is more structured than her creative movement dance class, which is good. She needs to learn how to follow directions and get in line and stuff like that.

Natalie went to her new eye doctor here. He is going to do surgery on her eyes to straighten them out. I'm waiting for them to call me with the date, but they said it'd be a Wednesday in December, most likely. She's also been referred to the new Physical Therapist where she'll also get speech therapy. I'm waiting for them to call me, too.

Ben has been flying and teaching at work. Last night he was on duty and worked from 7 pm until 9 this morning. They didn't tell him he'd be working overnight until 3 yesterday, though, so it was a long night for him. He's been asleep most of the day.

I've been working on a couple crafts for the girls. I also picked up a great cooking magazine and have been making recipes out of it. I really like a white bean and turkey chili that I've made twice. It has been cold and rainy and really PNW up here. We're counting down to Thanksgiving and Natalie's first birthday. And Lauren has already been working on an ever growing Christmas list.

Happy Birthday, Ben!

2009-10-26T16:39:00.003-05:00

Happy Birthday to Ben!

Ben and Jon caught nine crab this weekend and had quite a feast on Sunday. We all went to the pumpkin patch on Saturday and got three pumpkins to carve on Halloween. Jon brought a fresh salmon fillet to the house and cooked it on a cedar plank for Saturday's dinner. I did have a bite. Lauren tried it and liked it. She said it was yummy and ate quite a bit of it.

Natalie had her big developmental clinic on Friday and they didn't really say anything new. They're going to do some tests on her bladder and kidneys just because we haven't done studies on them before. Eventually they want to do a study (probably by ultrasound) of her heart, too. They just want to make sure they check everything so if she has any problems we catch them soon. We're getting a new referral for her physical therapy so she can go to a pediatric physical therapist where she'll get PT, OT and Speech Therapy. It should be more comprehensive, and she'll have therapists who deal with kids all the time. This Thursday I'm taking her up to Seattle Children's Hospital again so she can have some tests done with the hematologists to see if they have any input or if we can get a better idea about what is going on with the clot in her brain. Then next week she goes to see the ophthalmologist, which will be the first appointment she's had with them since we got here. I'm anticipating surgery on her eyes, and hope they can do it before Ben deploys in the spring.

Lauren is going to be a candy corn for Halloween. I picked up tiger ears and a tail for myself and Natalie is going to wear the chili pepper costume that Lauren wore for her first Halloween. I picked up a double jogging stroller on Craigslist for $40 last week and Jon did a quick fix up on the brakes for me. I can take the girls out more easily now. The weather finally turned and it's been colder and more overcast. We've had a few days in the 50s now.

Lauren starts ballet next Friday and I'm still considering putting her in part day preschool. She said she'd like to go, so I'm going to see what her options are.

Picures

2009-10-17T20:49:00.001-05:00

Natalie's First October

2009-10-05T22:40:00.003-05:00

Natalie is 10 months old. Lauren is 3 and a HALF! When did this happen?

Natalie is doing well. I took her to her first physical therapy appointment since we moved here today. We know she's behind, and that was nothing new to hear. The physical therapist did say she's doing well and is very strong. We're going to work on sitting. We also are going to get out the yoga ball and do some exercises on it and have her on her belly and reaching for things. He thinks she's close to crawling, it will just depend on how long it takes for her to make the connection about moving all the right things at the right time. He told us what to do at home and we go back on the 20th for another appointment.

While we were at PT, Lauren got to go to hourly daycare on base. They said she did really well. But she started crying when I got back and saying, "I don't want you to leave." Tonight at dinner, she picked a bell pepper out of her food and said, "Get out of here, pickle!" and I told her it was a bell pepper and she should try it. She said, "I don't like bell peppers. I'm just a kid!" She's so funny. I signed her up for ballet, she'll start going on Fridays in November, and I'll keep her in it as long as she likes it.

Ben has started a more regular work schedule now. The unit has come back from some training they were doing in California.

This weekend we went and checked out the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. It isn't that far of a drive from us. It was really beautiful and a nice little zoo. They had a great play area that Lauren had fun in, and it was a pretty nice day, even if it was a bit cold. Next time I'll bring a jacket. I still want to go check out the Seattle Center and the Aquarium up there. I'm also starting to keep my eyes out for a great pumpkin patch and maybe even an apple festival. I guess we missed one last weekend. Bummer.

Ben's thirtieth birthday is coming up soon. He wanted the Playstation 3, so he bought it already. Saves me some time. Hee hee. Going to see if he wants to do a party or go out to dinner or anything. It's hard since we just moved here. If we had all stayed in Texas I would have known exactly who to invite over for a party.

The Beautiful Pacific Northwest

2009-09-15T20:08:00.002-05:00

It's really, really beautiful here.

We've had two visits with Jon (or "Uncle Higgins" as Lauren will only call him) and three visits with Ema since we've been here. On our last trip to visit her in Sequim, we went to Railroad Bridge Park and I got the awesome photo of Lauren above. I'm going to do a bit of editing on it and then order it as an 8x10 print for the house. Which is just about done. As soon as it looks good and clean I'll take pictures to post. I'll do it. This week. Maybe.

This weekend was gorgeous, about 85 degrees. Jon and his girlfriend Maya came to visit. We walked down to the lake. It's a short walk from our house, less than half a mile. We found out there are beach areas and a playground and we can rent canoes. We rented one and took turns paddling around the lake. It was a gorgeous day. We came home hungry and tired and had a brisket Ben had started that morning with mashed potatoes and green beans and it was great.

Last night after dinner we took the girls on a walk around the neighborhood. It was a chilly night, but perfect sweater weather and clear.

Ben has started back at work, but the rest of the unit is off doing training, so his normal routine won't start for a few more weeks. I've been making appointments for Natalie and getting everything set up with referrals and different specialties. She has an MRI next week and her consultation with a physical therapist. The following week we go back to see what the neurosurgeon sees when he compares the new MRI with her previous one. She's set to see Opthamology in November. We're waiting for a call about her new multi-disciplinary clinic - whatever they call it here - and when it will be scheduled. All of her appointments are already keeping me busy. I want to get Lauren enrolled in the base daycare system so I can take advantage of having that so close pretty soon. She sees the kids and wants to go play, so it may be worth it for me to take her there once a week even when Natalie doesn't have other appointments.

There's not too much else that I'm up to around here. I am keeping busy with the day to day stuff and just enjoying being home with the girls and settling into the new house. We haven't done too much exploring, but I'm hoping we'll be able to take a little weekend vacation to Seattle and see the sights and maybe after we get our passports, take a weekend vacation to Victoria.

It doesn't sound like a lot, but we have been busy. Looking forward to having visitors soon whenever anyone wants to schedule a trip!

Home

2009-08-22T12:03:00.002-05:00

We are in our new place. The unpacking has been slow, we need to put a lot of things away still. The rooms are functional but not yet pretty or decorated. Our neighborhood is super cute and I have a nice loop for running that is just under 1 1/4 miles. We have a park just a short walk away. Ben ordered two computer armoires that we will hopefully get next week. That will help things feel finished.

Tomorrow we are driving to Ema's house to spend the night. My mom and Rachelle are flying in this evening and driving out there. I am very excited to see everyone and have them meet Natalie.

We're Here!

2009-08-13T16:44:00.003-05:00

Three days in the car and just shy of 1500 miles later, we are here. I'm sitting in a La Quinta Inn right now. We have the keys to our new house, but we'll be staying here tonight since our furniture isn't coming until tomorrow. Ben and I are eating lunch while Lauren is napping and we'll head to the house to unload most of the stuff from the cars before we hit up Target and a grocery store.

The drive was beautiful. I think Utah is gorgeous! I wish I had my camera out, but I wouldn't have been able to take pictures while I was driving anyway, I guess. The girls did really well on the drive. I drove with Natalie, who slept a lot, and Ben had Lauren, who watched movies and sang. Way too much fast food. I'm looking forward to some vegetables. LOL.

Jon is coming down tomorrow to spend the weekend. He needs Ben to do some work on his car. I think Jon is most excited about having us here just because Ben can work on his car. Lauren has been talking about Uncle Higgins a lot. I told her we could go pick apples when we got here, and she said she'd pick two, one for her, and one for him.

Hopefully we'll get internet at the house soon and I'll get pics up.

One Week (more or less)

2009-08-05T19:59:00.002-05:00

This morning we decided to take a house on base in Fort Lewis. We have one of the new construction homes, which will be really nice. It's two stories and has a detached garage. It's between 200 and 300 square feet less than what we had in Texas, but we will make do. We're moving closer to our end in Albuquerque. I feel like I should be packing already.

Tomorrow Abby and I have an appointment to get pedicures, and on Saturday morning Abby and Sarah are taking me out for my late birthday gift of a morning at the spa at the Sandia Resort and Casino. On Sunday, both girls are getting baptized. Monday morning, we're loading up in the cars and heading out on our drive to Washington. We hope to get there by Wednesday evening and we'll spend one night in a hotel before we get the keys to our house on Thursday and get our household goods delivered on Friday. (As long as everything goes as planned, which we all know is subject to a lot of things.) Jon is supposed to come down that weekend and hang out with us.

I have been trying to get out my camera more and take more pictures on manual settings. I've gotten some really cute photos of the kids.

And I love this one of Abby and Mia. The colors, the joy, it just makes me smile whenever I see it.

I think this one captures Luke. Lauren says he's "bad to the bone". :)

This last one is from Mia's early birthday party. The girls were sad that Lauren wouldn't be there to celebrate, so she got to have her birthday party about 3 weeks early. The kids had a little bounce house to jump in and then spent time running in the sprinkler before cake and ice cream. I think water has to be Lauren's favorite thing.

We have a packed schedule over the next few days, but it will be really exciting to get up to Washington and start getting settled in. Hopefully Jon won't help Ben throw out any of my things as we unpack.

(When Ben and I were moving out of our apartment in San Diego, headed for Great Lakes, Illinois, Jon came to help us pack and get our truck loaded. Jon gave our boogie boards and beach stuff to a girl in the apartment building who he was hitting on. And I've never gotten the straight story on who threw out my pink chair (which Ben still insists was purple). Ben says it was Jon, but Jon says it was Ben. All I know is that when we got to Great Lakes and were unloading our truck, I noticed it was gone immediately.)

He shouldn't have the opportunity this time since the movers will be delivering things and unloading the truck. :) But it will be good to see him, and have Lauren get to see Uncle Higgins again and Natalie meet him for the first time.

Chunky Monkey 5K & Kids K

2009-07-21T15:37:00.006-05:00

Sunday evening was my second 5K. I also signed Lauren up to do the kids' K, and she was so excited about it. I got her a running outfit and we pulled her hair back so it "looked fast" and she wanted to stretch and then practice running in the back yard. She did so many laps back there. I wouldn't have been able to race afterwards, but I guess I don't have the energy of a three year old.

Sarah and I left for the race first so we could go get the time keeping chips on our shoes and get lined up and ready before Lauren, Lissa, Skipper and Natalie got there. We didn't want them to have to wait around while we did the boring stuff. Like stretching. I always feel so stupid doing it, but it is important. My calves will ache so badly if I don't. Sarah and I are stretching it out and Skipper is taking our picture.

Then the race began. Last time, Sarah ran the whole thing with me to keep me motivated and on pace. This time she left me in her dust. Here's Sarah taking an early lead:

And here I am behind her, apparently breaking through a brown shirt gang. (The race t-shirts were nice enough, but I did not want to run in a cotton shirt since it was well over 90 degrees. Wicking tanks are awesome, thankyouverymuch.)

For the next half hour, Lauren had fun playing at the park. She was up and down this rock wall and looking forward to her race.

About 26 minutes after she started, Sarah crossed the finish line. The girl just in front of her was using a strange scissor hands run technique. I don't know what that was about. But there was a group of like 10-15 girls that were sprinting before the race doing that. Weird.

Another 12 minutes later, I crossed the finish line. My time was 38:40, a full 1 minute, 4 seconds faster than the last run. Not bad considering how much hotter it was this race.

As soon as I crossed the finish line, Lauren came up and asked if it was time for her race. She was ready to go, had Sarah pin her number on, and would talk about nothing else until start time. I asked if she wanted me to run with her, and she said, no, she was going to do it all herself. I told her just to follow the other runners, let me know if she wanted me to come run with her at any time, and if she fell, just to get up and keep running. Most importantly, she should just have fun. She lined up at the starting line with all the other kiddos. They had a bike that lead the way of the course. Skipper started off running behind her so that older, faster kids wouldn't trample her out of the gate.

As soon as the crowd cleared, she turned to him and said, "No grandpa, I am doing this myself!"

She did let Sarah run just inside the course with her. She did trip and fall at one point, but she got up and when a man asked her if she was ok, she said, "My mommy said to just get up and keep on running!" and that's what she did. She ran the whole kilometer and crossed the finish line.

She got her very own medal. This picture just makes me so proud!

Her race was not timed. She did great. There were older kids who were crying or being carried, but she not only finished, but ran the entire thing. As they were running, she kept telling Sarah that she was so fast and that everybody was clapping just for her.

After the race we got Ben & Jerry's ice cream (Chunky Monkey, of course) and pizza.

The next morning Lauren woke up and told me she wanted to go run another Kids' J. I guess she's working her way backwards through the alphabet to the A race or something.

Picture Perfect

2009-07-17T23:59:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago, Lissa bought a red, white and blue quilt for her new picnic blanket. She had mentioned that she didn't like that the back was white. I suggested tracing the kids on the back with fabric markers. She suggested that might look like a crime scene, so I said we could just trace their hands. This Sunday we had a BBQ and while everyone was there, that's what we did. We took one corner and traced everyone's right hand (Ben will add his when he gets back in a few weeks) and put the month and year. The plan is to retrace the kids every year when we're all together to make a cool keepsake.

When I bought the fabric markers, I also bought t-shirts for the girls to decorate for themselves. Mia drew pancakes on hers, and traced her own hand, as well as Sarah's. Lauren said she drew a parking lot. She also drew our cat, Bear, in the parking lot, Daddy's car, although she made it purple, and a train. They came out pretty cute.

Abby and I made Luke and Natalie's t-shirts. Although not as imaginative, I think they still came out pretty cute.

This week the new WalMart opened in Albuquerque. It's between Lissa and Abby's houses, so it's the perfect place to stop to pick something up on the way home. We went twice on opening day. They had a mariachi band playing in the produce section.

I also went to Aveda this week to get my hair cut. It's a pretty nice cut, I'm happy with it. While I was in the waiting area, I picked up a magazine and found an article about 'summer camps for adults'. There was one in Santa Fe that does photography workshops, from day classes to week-long workshops. The idea of going is just so exciting. Unfortunately, I can't afford any of the classes. But it does make me want to pull out my camera and take as many pictures as I can and try out new things. I figured out how to change the ISO setting on my camera to be able to use different aperture and shutter speed combinations. I turned on all the lights and lamps in my bedroom one evening and got some cute shots of the girls. I really like this one of Natalie because you can see her bottom teeth:

That one may end up being printed out and framed.

Today I made two little toys for Natalie from 6 different fabric fat quarters I picked up at JoAnn. I got different black and white prints and two with some red in them. I got batting and bells to stuff them with. They came out pretty cute. One is 5"x5"x5", and the other is 3"x3"x3". I have so much of the fabric left over I could make her a bunch more, so I'm going to see what else I can come up with to make for her.

Tomorrow is my last day to train for the next 5K. I can pick up my race packet tomorrow, and Lauren's stuff, too. She's going to be so cute! I can't wait for Sunday evening!

For Now

2009-07-11T17:07:00.002-05:00

Maybe I'm doing this the hard way and should just combine my two blogs, but I feel like they're separate things. Ladies and GentleBen is about the family and what we are doing and covers more stuff, while Quilt Sew Bake Craft is just about that. It's been sorely neglected for a good long while, but I have some posts coming to that site soon about the things I've been doing. I had a long stretch -with the pregnancy and Ben's deployment and having two kids and moving- where I wasn't really doing anything creative or crafty and so there wasn't much to post there. I've been doing a lot of sewing while I've been here in Albuquerque and I have more projects to do. Or that I'd like to at least attempt to do.

The internet has been spotty over the last two days here. Pretty annoying. But the good news is, Skipper has made the call to switch over to cable internet and they'll be here next week to get the house set up. Should be much faster and more reliable.

This morning Lauren was coloring and she said, "Mommy, look!" I said, "What is that?" and she said, "A picture." Like, duh. Reminds me of my friend Jen and her "This is not a pipe" shirt, and the meaning behind it, which I believe she explains in her post.

I've been regularly running 20 minutes on the treadmill at the pace of a 12 minute mile. This week I need to go running outside more so that I can get ready for the next 5K which is just a week from tomorrow! All I want to do is improve on my time and I'll be happy. I bought Lauren her own little running outfit for the kids' K and I think she's starting to get excited about going.

Keeping Busy

2009-07-08T16:16:00.002-05:00

I have six different sewing projects set up to keep myself busy over the next few weeks. I'm doing 2 shirts for myself, one for Sarah, a dress for Lauren and a new sling for Natalie. The dress for Lauren is an add on to my already long list because I went to check out Hip Stitch and Lauren picked out some fabric that she liked. While we were there I saw some patterns by Oliver+S that were so adorable! They have little paper dolls with the patterns with little cut out clothes that match the pattern. The old-timey art is just cute.

I also have about a week and a half until my next 5k. I'm going to make an effort to run outside as much as I can until then because the asphalt was really a shock to my feet. I need to get used to it a little bit more. I just want to improve my time a little bit.

Ben starts flying nights on Monday. That will last two weeks and then hopefully they'll finish up pretty quickly and he'll get back out here to Albuquerque. I would really love to get into our new place up in Washington soon. I just want my own house and my own space. Of course, when we get up there I'm going to really miss having family around and having people to hang out with and for Lauren to play with. I guess we'll make new friends up there soon enough, though.

About the most exciting thing lately is that I bought myself some new Merrell flip flops so that I can start being nicer to my feet since they've been put through some abuse lately. They're really cute and SUPER comfortable, so I am a happy girl. And my feet are happy feet.

Am I too old for this? Probably.

2009-07-05T19:24:00.004-05:00

Last fall my friends Katrina and Mandy convinced me to read Twilight a few days before the movie opened. I really did not think I'd be interested in the first book, and I certainly wasn't planning on reading the next three. I finished the book in less than three days, just in time to join them for the film. I really enjoyed the book, but I totally hated the movie. It was corny and cheesy with bad special effects and uninspiring music. The acting was not stellar and the direction was so b-movie melodramatic. We laughed our way through the whole movie like our own version of MST3K. And then I went on to read the next three books. And enjoy them.

Today I saw the trailer for "New Moon." Here it is:

I'm pretty excited to watch this one. And it'll probably disappoint

me, but that isn't enough to keep me away. I really hope that a

new director will be enough to make it better.

Guess What I Got Today?

2009-07-02T16:49:00.003-05:00

I got a text from Jayna today ordering me to update my blog. So here I am. Listening to my little sister. Sorry I haven't been updating it. I haven't felt like there's been a lot to say, but I guess there have been some cool things.

First off, Natalie got glasses! We took her to the pediatric opthamologist here in Albuquerque for a follow up for her eye patch therapy, and he said she didn't need eye patch therapy anymore, and he thought her eyes were crossing because she's extremely farsighted. His theory is that she was trying so hard to focus on things close up that she was crossing her eyes. Hopefully the glasses will let her eyes relax. I think the glasses are super cute and she looks just adorable:

I also did my 5K last Sunday. I finished in 39 minutes, 43 seconds. It was a better time than I thought I'd get. It was hard, but fun, and totally great. I'm signing up to do another one on July 19th. I also registered Lauren to do the Kids' K after my race.

I think she'll have a lot of fun with that. It'll be so cute to see her in her little number. Less than three weeks to prepare for that race. My only goal is to improve my time over the last one, which I think I can do. I go to the gym nearly every day. Right now I'm just working on endurance, and I'm up to running 20 minutes straight on the treadmill. I go really slow, about a 12 minute mile, but that's ok, the speed can come later.

Ben took his checkride this morning for the days portion of the IP Course. He passed, of course. In a few days they'll start on nights and hopefully they'll have good weather and will be able to finish up sooner. I'm really looking forward to getting into our new house and setting things up. As for our house in Texas, it's off the market and is being rented. It's not what we really wanted to do, but that's ok, we can try to sell it again later, and for the time being, someone else can pay our mortgage down.

Training, Biopark, Ben in Bama

2009-06-09T11:12:00.003-05:00

Natalie had her 6 month check up last week. She's 15 pounds, 10 ounces and 26 inches long. She took her shots ok, cried at first but settled down. She has an eye appointment next week for a follow up to see how her patch therapy is working. I really can't tell if it's working or not. Her right eye still seems to not point the same way as her left eye. But we're only a month or two into this therapy and I think it's supposed to go on for a year. I hope it does work, I'd rather she didn't have another surgery.

Lauren is doing great. She has been cracking me up every day. Last week we went to the concert at the botanical garden and she went with Grandskips to get a stuffed animal. She picked out a snake.

Definitely not my favorite toy, but she thinks it is great. The biopark concert was fun, we had a picnic dinner and let the kids run around and dance and be wild.

The girls and I all seem to be hit with some allergies this morning. I'm hoping to get over it soon. It's hard to keep running when you can't breathe. I started week 4 on the Couch to 5K plan last night. Five minute run intervals! Hopefully I'll do better with it today and tomorrow. Next week comes 8 minute run intervals. I can't believe I'm running! I'm really looking forward to the 5K, though. And a big 'WAY TO GO!' to Jayna for doing a 5K and a 10K! I'm impressed!

Ben called this morning. He had two tests. One was on aerodynamics and I forget what the other one was on. He had been stressing out studying for them both last night, but he passed them this morning. He has a 3 hour simulator period today and tomorrow morning his sim period is at 4:30 am. Sounds like he's going to have a lot of early mornings. They have flight line at 5:30 am through the IP Course. He said it's really hot and humid in Alabama and I am feeling pretty happy that I'm in Albuquerque instead right now.

The girls are both doing well besides the allergies. Lauren is having so much fun playing with Mia. I got all three girls matching tops the other day.

They were pretty cute wearing them and we got a few good shots of them. I should have gotten a few of just Lauren and Natalie, but I didn't think about it until later. I can always do more later, I guess.

I've Started Training

2009-06-02T16:19:00.002-05:00

The Cherry Garcia 5K is just 3 1/2 weeks away. I am in training mode. I'm doing the Couch to 5K program (which can be found on www.coolrunnings.com) and I'm starting on week 2. I have one more day tomorrow, then I'll start on week 3 on Friday. I'm really hoping that I'll start to get used to this altitude soon, but I'm also happy to see that I've already started improving.

Ben is already at Fort Rucker. Today he's doing in-processing and school starts tomorrow.

Natalie has her first tooth! I saw a bottom tooth all the way through this afternoon.

Lauren has been doing great. She's so busy all the time, and so funny.

I guess that's about all for right now.

In the 505

2009-05-23T17:11:00.004-05:00

Here we are in Albuquerque!

On Wednesday we woke up in Fort Stockton at our hotel and got on the road. We got a good early start and were set to get into Albuquerque around 4:30. Ten miles east of El Paso on I-10 (where the speed limit is 80 mph), my rear tire blew out. I managed to get us to the side of the road and stopped safely.

We had to unload the full trunk to get to the spare and started at it. I managed to loosen all but one nut on the tire and could not get the fourth one to budge. Lissa waved down a truck and a nice rancher lady from Arizona pulled over to help us out. We worked with my tire iron and then hers for 10 minutes and couldn't get it to move. Finally, we managed to get it loose right as a policeman pulled up to help. Rancher lady got back on her way and Texas Cop started helping us out. He didn't like the jack that comes in my trunk, so he called another officer for help. Before we knew it, there were three police cars and a Texas Department of Transportation truck parked behind us.

Lissa, the girls and I stayed out of their way and let them change the tire. Then we got all loaded up again and headed into El Paso to get a new tire at WalMart. Two hours later we were back on the road headed for Albuquerque. We got in at 9:30.

Lauren did ok on Thursday morning but woke up from her nap with a fever. She spent most of the rest of the day napping. Ben got in late Thursday night and she felt much better on Friday morning when she got to spend some time with Daddy.

Last night we went to dinner at Ortega's, which was great as usual. Today Ben has been working on my car trying to get a rattle fixed and figuring out what he's going to do about the dent the policemen put in my car when they were trying to jack it up to change the tire.

I am looking forward to the Bee on Monday!

On The Road

2009-05-20T09:02:00.002-05:00

Lissa, Lauren, Natalie and I stopped for the night in Fort Stockton, Texas. We got here last night at 9 and Lauren jumped on the beds for about an hour and a half before she would go to sleep. We have about 7 hours of driving today and we're about to get started.

Albuquerque, here we come!

Moving Day

2009-05-18T08:59:00.002-05:00

The movers are here packing up the house. Both girls are peacefully sleeping through it.

Ben is taking care of a few last things on base and once he gets back I'm going to take Lauren for one last trip to Tumblers (if he gets back by then) and then we'll hit the road for San Antonio. I pick Lissa up at the airport tonight at 8:30. Natalie has appointments tomorrow- the first one at 8:30 am and the last one at 2:30 pm. I'm hoping to be done with that early so we can be on the road by 3:30/4:00 and get out of San Antonio ahead of rush hour traffic. Then we start the 11 hour trek to Albuquerque!!

I am really sad to leave this house and I will miss it, but I am looking forward to spending the summer with family and then getting to Washington.

Splash!

2009-05-14T14:20:00.002-05:00

On Saturday we all got together for my friend's son's second birthday party. They rented a giant inflatable water slide and everyone got in on the action. I think the adults made just as many trips on it as the kids (if not more). We all had a blast.

Sunday was Mother's Day and it was pretty quiet here. Ben worked on my car for a little while during the day and we had a nice dinner. On Monday evening I drove back to San Antonio with Natalie. She had a CT scan Tuesday morning because I was concerned about a little fluid build up she had. Dr. M said everything looked great and that her CT scan showed "dramatic improvement" over the CT scan from last month. He showed me the two scans and I was able to see the difference, too.

Yesterday Natalie had her last PT session with her PT therapist and she was impressed with Natalie's progress. She said she thought that at the rate Natalie is improving, she won't need PT anymore by the end of the summer. That's great news, and we'll have to have her checked out once we get up to Washington.

This weekend Ben and I have to get our stuff together for the summer. On Monday I'm taking the girls down to San Antonio and picking up Lissa at the airport. Natalie has a few appointments on Tuesday again and hopefully we'll be able to get on the road Tuesday afternoon to head to Albuquerque. Ben will stay at the house to oversee the packing and loading of all of our stuff.

The lady who put an offer on our house officially rejected our counter offer/withdrew her offer. So the house is still on the market for now. We're hoping to sell it, but we're going to put it on the rental market as of June 15th. Maybe another year of paying the mortgage and waiting for the housing market to stabilize will work out for us.

I'm getting really excited to head to Albuquerque next week, it's going to be a fun summer!

This Week

2009-05-08T16:18:00.002-05:00

This week started out with my birthday on Sunday. Ben made breakfast and we spent most of the day playing in the front yard. Lauren got a t-ball set and has been learning how to use it. She can hit the ball, which is pretty amazing since she closes her eyes every time. :) She has fun chasing and throwing the ball as much as hitting it.

Natalie and I sat under the shade of the tree while Ben and Lauren played. Some neighbor kids from up the street came down and got in on the action, too. They all had popsicles before we called it an afternoon.

We did a quiet dinner at home on Sunday. On Monday night we went to my friend Mandy's house. Her birthday is May 5, so she invited our friends over for a joint birthday celebration. We had lots of good food and cupcakes for dessert. Here's a picture of me and Mandy.

On Tuesday we had Tumblers as usual, and then lunch as usual. On Wednesday, Natalie had PT and did really well. That night we drove down to Austin to visit Ben's cousin, Jason, who was in town from New York. They were thinking it had been about fifteen years since they had seen each other last. We went to dinner and then took Lauren swimming at his hotel and just hung out most of the night. We stayed up way too late.

We got an offer on the house last week. It was really low, so we countered it, and we're waiting to hear back. We had another showing yesterday that we haven't heard about. I hope things happen soon.

On Sunday night I emailed Natalie's Neurosurgeon about some fluid that I've been seeing build up under her scar again. He called me back that night and she's going to go in this Tuesday for another CT scan and a visit with him. If she needs another surgery, she'll probably have it on Thursday. I'm hoping she doesn't, but there is a chance. Monday night I'll drive down to San Antonio and if she doesn't need surgery I'll come back on Tuesday. If she does, I'll come back on Friday and pack Saturday and Sunday, and then we have to go back to San Antonio on Monday either way. Natalie has appointments all day long on Tuesday the 19th and once we're done, we drive straight to Albuquerque for the summer. I have just over a week left in this house. I'm really going to miss it.

But, I'm also looking forward to spending the summer in Albuquerque. Sarah and I are signing up to do 2 5Ks this summer. One is the Cherry Garcia 5K and the other is the Chunky Monkey 5K. I don't really know why I want to do it since I hate running so much, but I think it will be fun, and I'll feel like I really accomplished something. My goal for the first one is easy, I just want to finish, and for the second one, I just want to improve my time. I'm not going to knock myself out over it.

Natalie had a big accomplishment today. She rolled onto her stomach (which she's been doing for a while) and then lifted her head all the way up! That's such a milestone for her, and a great improvement and I'm so proud!

It's MAY!

2009-05-01T09:35:00.003-05:00

This month comes with a whole lot of stuff to do! On the fun side, I have my birthday, Mother's Day, and our 9th anniversary. We also have Natalie's last (and really long) appointment in San Antonio, a house to pack up, two cars to load, and moving out to do. That's on top of hoping the house sells.

We officially dropped the price of our house yesterday. It was a little painful to do it, but we need to bring in more showings if we want to get an offer. Please say a little prayer that the next owner makes an offer this week or next week.

Natalie's eye appointment went well. Dr. R thinks now that her vision is ok but that she's showing a preference for her left eye and that is why her right eye is weak. He started her on eye patch therapy. She has to wear an eye patch 2 hours a day, 5 days a week for probably the next year. She doesn't love it, but she does tolerate it ok, and two hours isn't that long. She has also shown some really good strides with her PT. Her head is stabilizing so much, and she even lifted it when she was on her belly on Wednesday! That was the first time and it was great to see! We have some homework for her PT and we see the PT Therapist next Wednesday.

And here is my favorite recent picture of Natalie because I actually caught her smiling!!

Isn't that a great grin?!

I've been working on Snapfish making photo books. First is "Freakin' Delicious" which is our family cookbook. As of right now, I'm just waiting on two recipes and then we'll be able to order them. It's become a hybrid cookbook/photo album, and that's really fun. It's going to be totally cute. The other one is a book full of the old pictures I scanned in last year at Mom's house. Lots of my baby pictures and pictures of my parents and a few of my sisters. That will be really nice to have in print.

Sunday is my birthday, and we don't have anything planned for that day. Monday we're going to go to Mandy's house and grill. Her birthday is Tuesday, so it's a joint birthday celebration. I think we're going to have cupcakes and just a really good time.

Next Wednesday or Thursday we might get to meet up with Ben's cousin, Jason. He's going to Austin and we're going to drive down to see him. I didn't get to meet him at the big family party in Albuquerque last fall.

Lots to keep us busy over the next three weeks! Looking forward to the bee on May 25th!

Easter and her Follow-Up

2009-04-19T18:55:00.003-05:00

Easter morning was a pretty good day. I woke up with my sinuses really congested from all the pollen in the air - I've never had allergies like this until we moved here. It took us a little while to get going that day because we were all feeling like our heads were foggy. Lauren dove right into her Easter basket and then waited not-so-patiently for Natalie to wake up so she could show her what the Easter bunny brought for her, too. Here's Natalie, still in bed, and Lauren showing her a wrist rattle and rattle socks set.

Once we all got up and going, we headed to Katherine's house for brunch and an egg hunt. Here's Natalie all dressed in pink with her new wrist rattle. She knows how to accessorize already, just like her big sister.

She was feeling pretty good. And here's Lauren in her dress. It had a castle drawn on it, something that looked like it was out of the French countryside. Lauren called it Cinderella's castle.

The kids had way too much fun with the hunt and were all really good. My job was to take pictures, but between someone else's memory card being full and then my batteries dying (hey, it was a long week for my camera in San Antonio) I didn't get a whole lot. Ben helped Lauren look for eggs. The day started out kind of chilly, but was in the mid to high 80s before too long.

Things wrapped up around 4 and we headed home.

On Monday, Natalie and I headed back to San Antonio. She had a CT scan Tuesday morning and then we met with her Neurosurgeon for her follow up. It was great news all around. Everything healed up much better this time. The CT scan looked great and he said he thinks he sees some Cortical Mantle forming! There aren't enough exclamation points to get across how happy I am about that, so I'll just use the one, but know that even now, retyping it, I'm jumping up and down inside. We've stayed really hopeful for her long term prognosis and to know that her brain is increasing in size is WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL news. The week after surgery she was already vocalizing more, and I think I've even noticed an improvement in her eyes - they don't seem to go lazy as often. I hope that now that the pressure has stabilized, it will relieve some pressure off her optic nerve and maybe her vision will improve and the muscles will follow.

She had another appointment with Early Childhood Intervention this week and has another this Tuesday. Her therapy is coming along. There's no magic to it, we're just doing lots of different positions to help encourage her to move and get her muscles going.

Our house had two showings this week. Ben restained the deck today and trimmed branches from the trees in the back. Hopefully that will help whenever the next showing is. I'm trying to remain positive about it all, we knew going into this it could be 3 or 4 months, but it's easy to get discouraged. The hardest part is that our realtor is telling us there isn't anything we need to do to improve the property... it's basically the best it can be, but that still isn't bringing in offers. Frustrating!

Lauren's Birthday Extravaganza Week

2009-04-14T21:52:00.007-05:00

Let me start where I left off. Natalie was released from the hospital the day after her surgery and we came home the next day (Saturday). Sunday was Lauren's birthday, but we didn't want to have a bunch of people come to the house in case there was a showing, and we couldn't have anything outside because there was really windy, bad weather. We decided just to do something small at home.

We woke up and had chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream and sprinkles.

(Which Lauren helped to prepare:)

Then she opened presents from Mommy and Daddy and from Natalie. Then it was time to shower and get dressed in her special birthday dress that Ema sent.

We were off for a birthday girl lunch at Chili's. She got 'snack n cheese' and chocolate milk and then a scoop of vanilla ice cream and the waiters sang a happy birthday song. We thought she'd love it, but she hid against Ben the whole time. After that, we went to the mall to walk around and came home. She was so worn out that she fell asleep on the couch a bit before 7. We hadn't even had dinner or cake yet!

The next day when Ben got home from work we did her birthday song and cake. She picked out a pink cake with white frosting and helped me make it. She even helped put the sprinkles on the sides of the cake. She's going to be quite a baker.

Tuesday we got the house ready to go and headed down to San Antonio. We had dinner and picked up Grandma Lissa at the airport. The next morning we got up and ready and went to the Rainforest Cafe on the Riverwalk for lunch. Lauren liked the butterflies, but did not like the snake when we walked in, or the monkey hanging over our table.

She had to jump in someone's lap when he started making noise, and when the lightning storm came through the rainforest.

After lunch we were off to the San Antonio Botanical Garden.

One of her recent favorite things to do is pick flowers, so we thought this would be a place she'd really enjoy. And she did. Natalie liked it, too. She got to be walked around and there were lots of things for her to look at.

Someday when she's bigger, maybe Daddy can do this with Natalie, too. Lauren sure enjoyed it!

We didn't spend too long at the Botanical Garden. Just long enough to walk through everything. The weather was perfect, not too hot and not cold.

She still couldn't leave without picking at least one flower, though. :)

We went back to the house and had cake and presents. This was the cake she picked out and it was hers to dig into.

The next day we were off to the San Antonio Zoo. .

Parents magazine just named it as one of the top 10 zoos in the country, and specifically good for kids under 5. I think Lauren agrees.

She got to feed and brush the goats at the petting zoo.

Then it was time for a hot dog before she hit the beach.

She loves that beach. She could spend all day there. Who cares that the water was icy cold? Not her.

The next day was Sea World. She got to watch the dolphins. She kept yelling, "Come here dolphin so I can pet you!"

But they weren't listening.

She rode her first water ride, the "Texas Splashdown" which has two good drops and lots of water. She loved it. She was good in the 45 minute line to get on the ride. She got to watch Shamu's show and the Sea Lion show, see penguins and the Clydesdale horses and see more flowers.

It was an exhausting week, but lots of fun. Lissa flew back on Saturday, and we drove home after dropping her off at the airport. On Sunday we went to a friend's house to do an Easter egg hunt and have brunch.

Looooooooooong Day

2009-04-02T18:10:00.002-05:00

I had Natalie at the hospital at 5:30 am and I am so exhausted already now a little after 6 pm. It was the same pre-op routine we've been through twice before- a set of vitals, a lot of paperwork in the first room, then to the pre-op waiting room, more paperwork, more verification of who (Natalie), what (shunt revision surgery), where (her head, duh), and why (previous shunt wasn't working correctly). At 7:30 they took her back to begin surgery. I took that opportunity to have some breakfast downstairs in the cafeteria and get some milk up to the PICU for her overnight stay. A little after 10:00 her neurosurgeon came in and got me. She did really well through the surgery and she was out. He replaced the shunt and the catheter going into her brain. The previous one had worn away the brain surrounding the catheter and she had a 5mm (or so) hole where fluid was just leaking out freely every time there was a pressure increase. He put something over that and sealed up the hole and created a new path for the new catheter and sealed it since not sealing it last time (which is normal) didn't work for her, obviously. He also tacked down her skin and tried to rough up the area so that it would need to scar down and will hopefully heal back the way it is supposed to be instead of the way it was.

She already had the tube out by the time I went over to the PICU. She ate a bit from a bottle and did well with that. We had to leave her flat on the bed for a while. The neurosurgeon came in and saw her this afternoon and gave his ok for me to pick her up. I held her and fed her just before I left, she threw up all over me, but I think she was in a bit of pain and the last of her pain medicine had worn off. The nurse gave her some tylenol and was going to let her calm down a bit before she tried to feed her again. I am going to have some dinner and then head back to the hospital tonight for a little while. I need to be home before it gets too late tonight, though, because I am just beat.

He ordered a CT scan on her, and she'll have that tomorrow morning. As long as everything looks ok with it, she'll be coming home tomorrow. We'll be back at our house before Lauren's birthday on Sunday! Yay!

Revision

2009-03-31T17:24:00.002-05:00

This morning Natalie had a CT scan on her head and then a follow-up appointment with the neurosurgeon. He said the tumor that he removed from her back was benign. He is concerned that her shunt isn't functioning as well as it should, though, so she is having surgery again on Thursday to replace it. It was kind of short notice, but we want to go ahead and get it over with. It should take about an hour or so and she'll be out on Friday as long as everything goes well.

Silence in the Afternoon

2009-03-29T17:20:00.001-05:00

The house is spotless because we always have to have it ready to show. Ben is out playing poker. Both girls are asleep on the couch. I hardly know what to do with myself!

Videos

2009-03-24T16:34:00.002-05:00

Here are a few videos of Lauren performing.

First, "I'm a Little Teapot":

Then, "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes":

And finally, telling me about her party and her hot iced coffee:

Not much has been happening here today. This morning I said to Lauren, "Here's the deal: you're going to finish lunch, then you can watch one Strawberry Shortcake video, then take a nap, then go to dance class" and she agreed to that deal.

She went in the playroom and was watching Strawberry Shortcake and Ben and I were in the living room playing a video game. She wandered into the living room and I asked her if her video was done. She said, "Yes" and I said, "It's time to take a nap then" and she said, "Here's the deal, I don't want to take a nap, and I don't want to go to dance class." Hahahaha! Ben and I laughed so hard. We did still make her take a nap, though.

Back at Home

2009-03-23T18:56:00.003-05:00

Saturday morning they told us that Natalie could come home or stay if we felt like it. We opted to have her stay one more night just to heal a little bit more before we took her home. She has been doing great. She gets a little bit of tylenol every 6 hours and is healing really well. I went to the hospital to pick her up bright and early and we came home Sunday afternoon.

Lauren had a pretty fun time while we were there. Ben bought a little inflatable pool to put up in Victor's back yard and he got her some bubbles. She had so much fun chasing them around the back yard. Here she is standing in her pool. I can only assume she's pretending to be a flamingo:

Ben and I enjoyed the nice weather and sat out and played cribbage. Lauren had to get in on the action and I think Ben is teaching her strategy already. (Move your piece when no one is looking.) Ha!

The house was shown a few times while we were gone. We still haven't heard an offer yet. It's hard living in the house knowing we need to have it ready to show at any time. I feel like I can't start any projects and I'm just waiting around in a house that has to stay clean. I guess I should get used to it, though. The house has only been on the market for a week and a half and it may take a while to sell. The feedback has been positive so far, but like I said, still no offers and that's the only thing that matters right now.

Lauren's birthday is coming up in less than two weeks. We're going to go down to San Antonio the week following her birthday and do Sea World and maybe the zoo. It will be nice to go down there and get to do something other than spend the day at the hospital.

Day After Surgery

2009-03-20T09:12:00.002-05:00

Natalie's surgery went great. She lost very little blood when they removed the teratoma and they were able to release her spinal cord and examine the cysts. He thinks the cysts are benign and the teratoma was sent off to pathology. While she was sedated he also tapped her shunt and confirmed that it is working and drained the area under her skin where some fluid was building up and wrapped her head in an effort to get the skin to heal back down.

I stayed at the hospital until 7:45 last night. They ran her blood after surgery and her hemoglobin levels were low, so they gave her some blood to raise those levels before they took her breathing tube out. She was stable last night when I called, but had thrown up after they tried feeding her. She is moving her legs and toes which confirms that they didn't damage any nerves during surgery.

They said she'd be out Saturday at the very earliest, but I'm still going to plan on Monday just so I'm not disappointed if it isn't earlier.

As for the house, the same couple who had a showing on Wednesday went back yesterday for another showing. Word is they LOVE the house, but they still haven't placed an offer yet, so we'll see.

Day Before Surgery

2009-03-18T19:36:00.002-05:00

Natalie's next surgery is tomorrow morning. I have to have her at the hospital at 5:30 am. I came down here Monday night with Natalie while Ben and Lauren stayed at the house to get it finished for showings. On Tuesday I met with the Neurosurgeon for our pre-op appointment, then I filled out the pre-admit paperwork and then went to pre-anesthesia to fill out more paperwork. Before I could see the anesthesiologist, it was time to go to Natalie's ophthalmology appointment. That took almost two hours, and by the time we finished, everything was closing for the day. We went back this morning to finish at pre-anesthesia and then have blood drawn at the lab. Or not. They stuck her three times at the lab and couldn't get a vein, so they sent us up to the PICU to see if they could get her. She was stuck a total of SIX times before they got the blood she needed. She was really not happy, and I felt quite sick by the time it was over. I did see the same nurse she had last time, and she was very excited to find out Natalie would be there with her this weekend.

The eye doctor thinks Natalie is far-sighted and has a stigmatism. She also has one eye that looks like it may be starting to be a lazy-eye. He wants to see her again in April after he has a chance to look at her MRIs and CT scans and he'll see if she has any changes from this visit. She may get glasses to see if seeing better will help strengthen her eye muscles.

Ben and Lauren are on their way down to San Antonio right now. Ben has been working his butt off to get the house ready for showings since we'll be gone all weekend. We had our first showing today at 4:30 and Ben said he used every last minute to finish up and get packed. I guess he was pulling away just as the realtor showed up to the house. I'm very much looking forward to any feedback we get. While we're gone, the realtor is going to go in and set up the 360 degree virtual tour of the house to post to her website.

For Sale

2009-03-14T12:45:00.002-05:00

We put the house on the market as of yesterday. We've been cleaning and packing like crazy over the past two days. Ben rented a storage unit and we have packed up a few car loads to put away until we get to Washington. We also went through and gave away a bunch of small kitchen electrics to Goodwill. The house looks SO EMPTY now! I got some good pictures of most of the rooms and sent them to our realtor to put up on our listing. It's pretty liberating to be rid of so much stuff. There is still a lot we have to get done, though. We need to get the play room under control, hopefully I can get a box or two of toys to the storage unit without Lauren noticing. We have to get everything done by Monday because we leave Monday night for San Antonio for Natalie's next surgery. Hopefully the house will be shown every day while we're gone.

Natalie's pre-op appointment is Tuesday morning and she also has her follow up with Opthamology that afternoon. We'll have nothing to do on Wednesday and then her surgery should be first thing Thursday morning. She's having the teratoma on the base of her spine removed and if she doesn't lose too much blood he is going to cut the fiber that is tethering her spinal cord and also remove some cysts at the base of her spinal cord. There's a chance he'll have to stop after removing the teratoma and we'll have to do the other surgery later.

The Pacific Northwest

2009-03-07T21:12:00.002-06:00

As you know, our orders to Germany were pulled this January. We had a few options about what we could do, like stay here or go to Virginia. Earlier this week we got a new offer for Fort Lewis, Washington. We debated it for a day or so, and then decided to take it. Fort Lewis is between Olympia and Tacoma and we thought we'd like to get out of Texas and try out Washington. We'll be about two and a half hours away from Jon and we'll be about the same distance from Ema. Ben is scheduled to go to the same Instructor Pilot course in Fort Rucker in June, so we should be in Washington in late July/early August. That's coming up pretty fast, so we called our realtor today to get the house on the market. We're starting to get things cleaned up around the house and are looking for boxes to start packing away some clutter and knick-knacks that we can do without until we get to our new place. Our plan is to clean out and give things away, too, so we don't end up moving stuff we don't want anymore.

I took Lauren to Hobby Lobby this week and let her pick out some fabric. I made three dresses for her so far. I took some pictures, but they didn't come out great, so I'll have to take new ones to post. She picked out a purple fabric with the Disney princesses and glitter all over it, and she picked out a green fabric with Strawberry Shortcake on it. Both dresses came out pretty cute. The Princess dress is a little too long, but she won't let me shorten it. She's been on quite a dress kick lately, it's all she wants to wear. Thankfully the weather has been getting nicer, so she's been able to. Last week she had to wear tights under and a jacket over her dresses if we went anywhere. I do have one good picture of a dress that I made, but it's going to someone else and I don't want to post the picture until I give it to her.

Natalie and I met with her Physical Therapist on Thursday. We're going to start meeting twice a month with her. She showed me some new ways to do tummy time with Natalie that she might tolerate better that will help with her muscle development. We called the Neurosurgeon's office and scheduled her surgery for March 19th. On the 17th she has her pre-op appointment as well as her opthamology appointment and then we plan on being there for about a week. Her surgery is Thursday morning and the doctor said she'll have a few days in the PICU afterwards. So I'm guessing she'll be out on Monday.

Cranberry Vanilla Chip Cookies

2009-03-01T11:11:00.005-06:00

Last fall I bought a jarred cookie mix from Harry and David that sat on my counter for months. I finally made them in January and they were so delicious. The jar didn't have the recipe included, so I've had to search recipes and adjust things here and there, and this is what I came up with:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats

1 1/2 cup vanilla chips

1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350° F.
In a mixing bowl combine butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add in eggs and vanilla. Add in salt, baking soda, cinnamon and flour. Finally, stir in oats, vanilla chips and cranberries.

I use a 1 Tablespoon ice cream scoop to drop on a cookie sheet lined with foil. Bake 14 minutes (I usually have to bake things for one or two minutes more in my oven, so check yours at 12 minutes.) Cool, then move to wire baking rack to continue cooling.

Here's a tip: put the mixer on low and add the flour in little batches, slowly, or else you could end up with flour everywhere, like this:

And here are the finished cookies:

They're chewy and hearty and delicious.

Ben made pulled pork sandwiches for dinner again yesterday and they were good just like last time. Lauren has a little bit of a cold happening. I don't know if it was because we had been slacking on giving her her Zyrtec or if she has an actual cold. Natalie is doing pretty well, though.

Yesterday Ben started another small project in the kitchen, he added an outlet to the end of our bar. I think that's going to be SO helpful. I'd love to be able to put the crock pot or KitchenAid on the end of the bar when I cook because there's just so much more room there than anywhere else in the kitchen. He had to go back to Home Depot today to get a plug with the right amps, so I haven't taken any pictures of the finished project.

Oh, and my desktop computer is dead. Well, not dead. Maybe just in a coma.

When I was little I used to think it was "acoma" because that's how I always heard it. You know, "Erica Kane is in acoma." It wasn't until I asked, "Is she out of her acoma?" that someone finally corrected me.

So, back to my computer in its coma. The power source just went out, so Ben had to order me a new one. It won't ship until tomorrow and it probably won't get here until Wednesday or Thursday, so I'm just on my laptop until then. Which is fine, but I can't edit photos like I would like to on the laptop.

Recessed Lighting

2009-02-25T22:15:00.004-06:00

Before our last trip to San Antonio, we decided to install recessed lighting in the kitchen to replace the old, large rectagular flourescent light. We had put in (and then taken out) recessed lighting in the office, so Ben had experience. We decided the lights should follow the counter, so we put two above the stove and three in an "L" shape along the other counter. It almost makes a perfect pentagon on the ceiling. Here's a before picture with the old fixture and our paper templates we used to decide where the new lights should go:

And here's the after picture:

We also took down the pendant fixture we had put up over the sink. I think it looks a lot nicer now. Ben did a really nice job.

_________

Lauren is doing fine, she didn't have an infection of any kind like I thought. They took an x-ray and didn't see anything wrong and nothing came up in her blood or urine samples. The doctors said she was probably a bit constipated. She was giving them a really hard time in the ER and acting like she was in a lot of pain, so they gave her an IV and a bit of morphine. I think that helped to relax her and Ben said she got really happy after that. The next morning she woke up and was totally fine and she hasn't had a problem since.

Natalie's follow up with the neurosurgeon went well. He was happy with her CT scans. The font part of her lateral ventricles have gone down in size, so the shunt has made a difference. He wants to plan the surgery on her spine for March 19th. I was a little hesitant to schedule it so soon, I wanted to have some time off from the hospital, but after Ben and I talked about it, we decided it would be better to get it over with. Once that surgery and follow up are done, we'll be done with the hospital for a while and we can get on with normal, plus, we think it's a good idea if she has this and has time to heal before she starts trying to crawl or walk. I'm going to call him tomorrow to let him know we're ready to schedule it. This surgery will have a longer hospital stay afterwards, which just seems crazy to me since this is her back and not her BRAIN like the last surgery.

The Road to San Anton

2009-02-23T16:19:00.002-06:00

It takes us about three hours to drive from our house to Victor's house. It's only about 170 miles, but we take a highway that goes through at least three towns with stop signs and lights, so it makes it take a while longer. Once we leave our house, it takes us about half an hour to get to the 281. Then we spend about two hours driving on a road that looks like this for most of the way:

Pretty boring, huh? Usually Ben drives, I look out the window, talk to him, cater to Lauren, and play DJ, Natalie sleeps, and Lauren rides like this:

She's got her headphones on (or "heliphones" as she likes to call them (don't know why)) and she's watching one of her movies. She's got a pretty good ride back there and does well. Being potty trained makes the car rides a bit trickier. She tells us when she needs to pee, but she doesn't always give us a whole lot of notice. Thankfully we've made it to a bathroom every time so far.

I don't know if it's from holding it in, or just not knowing how to clean herself up real well yet, but I'm pretty sure she has a UTI or bladder infection. We got down here Sunday night and she was fine. Last night she kept going to use the potty. She'd go every five minutes. I thought she was just being annoying and playing some sort of game. Then this morning she kept saying her skin hurt. We put lotion on her thinking maybe she was dry and itchy. Then she started acting like she didn't feel well and fell asleep on Ben's lap. Then this afternoon I took her to go pee and she started crying. I knew what it was then. We came back to Victor's house and decided Ben should take her to the ER. We're too far from home to get to her pediatrician's office and we don't want her to have to wait any longer. I just hope they don't have too long of a wait there and she can get started on some antibiotics and get feeling better.

I took Natalie in for her CT scan this morning. Once she got in there it took less than two minutes to do the scan. It was really easy. Tomorrow morning we go back so the neurosurgeon can go over the results of the scan and see how's she's doing since the surgery. I also went and got my massage today. I got a lavender aromatherapy bath and then an hour long massage. It was really really relaxing and just great.

Now I'm sitting here at Victor's house with Natalie waiting to hear from Ben. And trying not to turn into a big knotted stressed muscle again.

Ya-Yas

2009-02-19T17:28:00.004-06:00

This morning Ben and I went and got our taxes done. It feels good to have that out of the way already. It feels really good to be getting a refund.

We like the show "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" on Food Network. The other night there was some diner (or maybe a dive?) that had some delicious looking barbecue going on. Ben got the idea that we should try to make pulled pork sandwiches ourselves. They were so good! Ben did a great job and we liked them so much that we had the leftovers the next night for dinner.

Since all our back and forth to San Antonio has been hard on Lauren, we realized we needed to focus on her a bit more and do some fun things that she'd like to do. Today we picked up a popsicle freezing mold and she got to mix up some kool-aid and make her own popsicles. Yesterday and today she got to go to the park with Daddy. Natalie and I came along, too. Yesterday was beautiful and there were a bunch of kids at the park. Today was a bit windier, so there weren't as many people there. She has so much fun and gets to get rid of all of her energy and then comes home and takes good, long naps. It's great.

We have to be in San Antonio bright and early again on Monday morning for Natalie's CT scan and then on Tuesday is her follow up with the neurosurgeon. I think I am going to try to make an appointment to use a massage gift certificate I got at my baby shower while we're down there this time. (Finally).

The shortest month

2009-02-16T18:38:00.002-06:00

... and we have seven different appointments for Natalie. Four trips to San Antonio.

Natalie and I are in San Antonio tonight. She has an appointment tomorrow morning at 8:30. It's called a Multi-Disciplinary Clinic and we're meeting with a Physical Therapist and an Occupational Therapist and possibly a Speech Therapist. I'm not sure what we're going to be able to do for her since she's only 2 months old, but I guess I'll find out in the morning.

Ben and Lauren stayed at home since this is a short trip. She's going to go to work with him tomorrow which I think is pretty cute. She'll like that. And she has dance class tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be back way before then, but just in case, we wanted her to be able to go since she missed it already once this month and will probably miss it next week.

I spent a lot of time yesterday moving my music from my hard drive to our external drive. I went through about 8,000 songs and combined them with what Ben already had on it. It freed up about 7 GB of space on my hard drive, which is great because I have that much more room for pictures.

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T14:56:00.001-06:00

Back and Forth and Back and Forth

2009-02-12T19:16:00.002-06:00

I'm sitting at Victor's house in San Antonio. We drove down yesterday because Natalie had an appointment this morning. Ben wanted to help out around Victor's house to repay him for letting us stay here all the time, so last night he power washed the deck and today he stained it. It ended up taking longer than he expected, so we're going to stay the night again and go home in the morning. We'll be home Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and then next Monday we come back down here again. She has an appointment at 7:30 am on Tuesday. Then we go home again until the next week when we come back on Sunday and stay Monday and Tuesday. And then we have another appointment the second week of March.

Did I mention the back and forth is starting to wear on me? I think its getting to Lauren, too. She had a rough day today. She is out of her normal routine in a house not set up for kids, and since we were expecting a short trip, we didn't pack a lot of stuff for her to do. She has her videos but that's about it. Combine that with her resistance to a nap, and she was toast by 4 pm.

I think I need to start making a list of recipes I want to try. I see so many good ones, but then there are nights I can't think of anything to make. If I had a list, I bet I could make most of them before the year was over. I've been trying to take more pictures, too. I got a bunch of the girls yesterday and I think they're pretty good. I will have to upload them when we get home so I can see them bigger and then I'll post some and email some. I didn't bring my camera cord (again, I was expecting this to be a shorter trip).

Forgot to tell you sooner...

2009-02-10T12:18:00.003-06:00

Lauren is totally completely potty trained! She hasn't worn a diaper (even to bed) in about two and a half weeks. It's great. She's so awesome. The playroom turned out great for her, she loves it and spends a lot of time in there just playing by herself. I'll walk by and hear her playing- my goodness, she has such an imagination. I was watching a video the other day of her from last January and I can't believe how much she's changed. Her hair alone is a huge difference. She looks more like a kid now than a baby or a toddler. And she's not even 3!

Natalie has been doing pretty well. I can tell she's still a bit irritated by the shunt. I would imagine it takes some time to get used to that thing being under her skin on her head. She does pretty well just taking tylenol. She's having a horrible time with gas, though, and she gets so upset she'll puke from the crying. I'm trying to keep giving her mylicon because I can't figure out what I'm eating that's doing it. I thought maybe it was onions or chocolate, but I went without those and it didn't make a difference. So I just don't know.

I got Natalie's CT scan scheduled this morning. She's going to go in for her CT scan on the 23rd and then we meet with neurosurgery for her follow up on the 24th. So we'll head back down to San Antonio on Sunday and come home Tuesday afternoon. Driving back and forth is really starting to wear on me. All of this is starting to wear on me. I'm keeping my spirits up as much as I can, but yesterday I started to feel like I had a head cold, and somehow that just amplified every other down feeling I was having. I want to know we're done with this for at least a month so I can make plans for people to come out here, or so that we can go do something that isn't centered around medical care.

Lauren

2009-02-09T22:08:00.004-06:00

I just had to add this again because I love it so much.

6Q26

2009-02-06T18:22:00.003-06:00

Ben and I took Natalie home today. She's been doing great, still eating well and acting fine. She's not acting like she's too irritated and she's just taking tylenol.

The geneticist made time to meet with us today before Natalie was discharged. They found a deletion on one of her chromosomes. It's a deletion of the 6Q26 section. It doesn't change much of what we're going to do with her, but we will be watching her for an increased chance of cancer because there's a gene that restricts cell reproduction in there, and she doesn't have that. Or, I should say she does have that, but only on half of her DNA. Ben googled around today and found this brochure from England which describes some things associated with this deletion, and a lot of things match Natalie's symptoms. It touches on the enlarged ventricles, the underdeveloped corpus callosum and the tethered spinal cord and sacral dimple. And it sounds like usually there's a pretty fair prognosis with this that ranges pretty similarly with most kids. Some will walk early, some late, some will have difficulty learning, some won't. That sounds like most kids... some are ahead and some are behind.

Ben and I each submitted blood today so they can look at our #6 chromosomes and see if either of us have this deletion and it just didn't do anything or if this is unique to Natalie. Like I said, it doesn't really change our plan for her healthcare right now, it just gives us more information on other issues she may have and helps comfort us in knowing that there's nothing that Ben or I did to cause her issues.

Shunt Placement Surgery

2009-02-05T21:03:00.002-06:00

The surgery went great!

Ben and I had Natalie at the hospital at 5:30 this morning. We had a lot of waiting around to do while things got lined up, but they took her at 7:30 back to be sedated. Ben and I kept ourselves occupied in the waiting room and they came and got us right around 9 and said everything went smoothly. We got to go to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit right away to see her. She was still a little bit sedated, but seemed comfortable.

She has about an inch and a half long C shaped scar about 2 inches behind her ear, and a half inch or so little scar on her belly right below her rib cage. The shunt is so small, there's barely a bump on her head. She looks really great. They shaved almost the whole right side of her head. She still looks beautiful, though. The nurses all like to come coo over her.

The neurosurgeon came back this afternoon and looked over her, and he said everything looks great. I just talked to the nurse at the PICU and she said Natalie ate well tonight and is sleeping soundly.

Lauren got to come to the hospital to visit with Natalie and she was charming everyone. She had a long conversation with the doctor about dragon tales and dress up and her new shoes. Lissa crocheted an adorable pink hat for Natalie today. I think we may ask her to make a lot of little hats for Natalie until her hair grows in.

So.... she's supposed to be released tomorrow morning. She's scheduled to have a CT scan and an x-ray at 5 am tomorrow and then the neurosurgeon will have to sign off to release her.

I'm sitting here tonight feeling really relieved that this surgery is over. And I'm very happily surprised with how little her shunt stands out. This is one big step that is over and done with and in a few months we'll bring her back for the surgery on her tethered spinal cord and to remove the two tumors. But we'll handle that when we get to it. Right now I'm just looking forward to bringing her home and going about our day to day lives for a while.

The Big Day

2009-02-04T21:53:00.004-06:00

Tomorrow morning is Natalie's shunt placement surgery. Ben and I have to have her at the hospital at 5:30 am. She should be in surgery by 7 and the neurosurgeon said it should take about an hour. I expect everything should go pretty well, there will be three anesthesiologists in the room, and there's going to be a general pediatric surgeon assisting the neurosurgeon tomorrow.

Ben picked Lissa up from the airport today and she and Natalie and I went shopping at Kohl's while Ben and Lauren went to the park. We went to Red Robin for dinner tonight and now we're just spending some time relaxing before heading to bed.

Natalie will spend at least 24 hours in the PICU after her surgery, and as long as she does ok, she should be released on Friday. Lissa flies back to Albuquerque on Saturday. I'm hoping we'll be able to go back home on Saturday or Sunday. Natalie has an appointment for the special baby clinic next Thursday. They'll have all the different therapists meet with Natalie to do some assessment of her and help us make sure we're doing everything we can to keep her on track.

PICTURES!

2009-01-24T14:24:00.004-06:00

Lauren all dressed for dance class.

Natalie wearing the Ponte onesie that Jayna sent.

Lauren accessorizing with Bunny sunglasses and four purses.

But painting without pants...

And talking on the phone with Grandma Lissa. Doesn't she look relaxed?

Heading back to San Antonio

2009-01-20T17:48:00.003-06:00

We had a nice 4 day weekend. On Saturday we hosted a little BBQ at our house. Ben smoked a brisket and I made hashbrown casserole. We had our friends Mark and Megan, Katrina and her girls, Mandy and her son and Brandi over. Mandy brought a really delicious salad and Brandi brought sugar cookies. The brisket turned out great, Ben always does such a good job with that.

We've been using the Wii a lot lately. I get on and do Wii Fit every other day or so, and Ben and I have been having Dr. Mario battles most nights. He's been getting better, but I'm still the champ. Oh! And we upgraded to HD TV last week. DirecTV came and installed the new HD DVR receiver on Monday and we also wired up the playroom with satellite for Lauren.

Natalie's MRI is coming up on Thursday. We just got a call today that she has to go in on Wednesday at 1:30 so we can fill out some paperwork for the anesthesiologist. We were going to drive down tomorrow night, but I guess we'll drive down tomorrow morning instead. Friday morning we'll head back home unless she gets done early enough on Thursday.

I have some packing to do for San Antonio so I better get started.

Inspiration

2009-01-11T17:58:00.003-06:00

I have to tell you about The Pioneer Woman. I originally was pointed to her site for her recipes... specifically her Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies and her Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever. But recently I started browsing around her site more and she has an entire section about photography and photoshop.

I want to be The Pioneer Woman when I grow up.

She has free downloadable Photoshop Actions on her site, and I downloaded them and started playing around with some pictures. Wow. Seriously. I'm having so much fun.

Take this picture of me and Natalie:

Turning a color photograph to B&W is nothing new, of course, but aside from cropping it, I only had to click one button to end up with this. It adjusted levels, turned to B&W and softened things to make a lovely looking picture. I also did this picture of the girls:

Just to show you the difference:

I'm just having so much fun with it! Plus, I didn't even know Actions existed before this. (I know, I know, but you learn something new every day, right?) Now, I can make my own actions and that will be just awesome! I'm so excited.

But- even if you aren't into the photo stuff, there's a lot of good recipes on there, and a lot of other fun stuff to look around at.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T14:50:00.003-06:00

It is so quiet when both girls are napping. Quiet and rare. But they are right now. Yay!

We had an uneventful New Year's Eve. I think we were all in bed by 10. That's ok with me, though. I forgot how little sleep you get with a newborn in the house. Last night she did pretty well, she slept most of the night and woke up to eat every two hours or so. That's better than the two nights before when she woke up at three and just wanted to be awake.

Today I'm making Taco Soup from the crockpot365 website. And tomorrow I think I'm going to attempt tamales. I got all the stuff from it. I got two shortcut tips, though: 1. use parchment paper instead of corn husks. (Ben doesn't like this idea, though, so maybe I'll do half and half.) and 2. Use the crock pot. Again, this is from the crockpot365 website, but it just makes sense, and I don't have a pot and steamer that's large enough anyway to do it the other way.

Ben took this picture of me and the girls. Natalie's hat is falling off and looks kind of weird, but it's a picture of the three of us, anyway. I'm always surprised now when I pick up Lauren and she feels so heavy. There's a big difference between 6 and 25 pounds.

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-29T12:25:00.003-06:00

We are all doing great.

Our Christmas was nice. The four of us woke up and opened presents by the fire. Lauren had a great time. She passed out the presents and she said everything was from Natalie. We had Christmas dinner at Katrina's house.

We took a trip down to IKEA on Saturday and bought new furniture for the house. We got a bookcase for the office, some storage furniture for Lauren's new playroom, and a new big girl bed and mattress for Lauren. I bought her some really cute new bedding at Target and she is excited about her bed. The playroom turned out nice, too. She sure has a lot of toys! It's packed in there and everything is covered in toys still. Maybe we'll have to go through that room and get things together for Goodwill. Ben and I went through that room and the closet (and I went through some of my closet) and we got rid of quite a bit of stuff. And there's still more. But cleaning things out was good and we definitely have more space now. We lost a guest room, but having a play room was pretty necessary.

So much to tell!

2008-12-16T21:12:00.000-06:00

And I will do it soon!!

Baby Update

2008-12-02T18:45:00.002-06:00

We are here in San Antonio now. Tomorrow morning at 7 am I am going to the hospital to have an amniocentesis. If Natalie's lungs are developed enough, we're going to do a c-section tomorrow so we can start treating her.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T20:53:00.002-06:00

Lauren is feeling better. She still has a cough and it doesn't sound good, but she's back to her normal self otherwise. Today she did a lot of playing and running around.

I made an apple pie today in preparation for tomorrow. We're going to go over to Katrina's house. We're planning the big holiday meal for around 2. Katrina is making the turkey and stuffing, I'm making fresh cranberries, the green bean casserole and the pie. Another friend is bringing the yams and mashed potatoes. I'm really looking forward to all the good food tomorrow. And I'm happy that we're doing it all early so that we can keep nibbling into the evening.

Ben has been keeping himself busy with the cars. He had to go into work this morning and then he spent part of his day running errands. This evening he's been working on his brakes again. Lauren and I went over to Katrina's house for pizza tonight, but we came home early since Lauren was being a bit difficult. But she's eating now and watching cartoons so hopefully the rest of the night will be quiet. I'm just going to sit and read and try to get to bed before it gets too late.

I hope everyone has a yummy Thanksgiving tomorrow. I'll try to get lots of pictures so I have some new ones to post.

Lauren is sick.

2008-11-24T13:18:00.002-06:00

I noticed on Saturday that she didn't feel great, but after some tylenol and a good long nap, she seemed to be doing pretty well. Yesterday, though, she just looked like she felt miserable and she definitely had a fever. At one point it was 103.1, but we gave her some motrin and stripped her down to her diaper and within a little while it was down to 100.4. She's mostly been sleeping since yesterday afternoon. She's been drinking water, but she started throwing up last night and threw up her medicine this morning. She did eat a waffle a while ago and just asked for a sandwich. I'm hoping she'll hold it down for a while so I can give her some medicine later. She's got a sore throat and a cough to go along with the fever. For now I'm just keeping an eye on her and doing my best to keep her comfortable and I'm letting her sleep as much as I can. If she gets worse I'll call her doctor in the morning to get her in.

Baby Shower, San Antonio

2008-11-22T12:54:00.004-06:00

Things have been going well since Ben got home.

We all got our flu shots to prepare for visiting the NICU after Natalie's surgery. Saturday was my baby shower. My friends Katrina and Katherine hosted it for me. Katrina had the most delicious and cute cake made, and my friend Amy made a gorgeous diaper cake that everyone talked about.

Then on Sunday we loaded up our cars and headed down to San Antonio. The drive takes just less than three hours. We got there and had dinner then went to Victor's house where we were staying. Monday morning we went to the hospital for my 11 am appointment. Things haven't changed that dramatically, she's a little bit bigger, the swelling increased a little bit, but nothing is happening too fast and the doctor said I could come home for two more weeks and I didn't have to stay down in San Antonio until then.

My next appointment is on December 2nd, so we'll load up again and head back down on December 1st. Ben worked Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week and he'll have to work this coming week Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Thanksgiving we're going to my friend Katrina's house. We've done Thanksgiving with them the last two years and it's been a good day. The rest of next weekend will be spent getting things here at the house ready for Natalie's return and getting our things together for San Antonio again. We'll be down there for about a month depending on when she decides to make her debut and how long it takes her to recover from the surgery.

I am a little worried about Christmas this year, I feel like there's a good chance we'll kind of miss it all together. I want to keep things as normal as I can for Lauren, but we probably won't be home yet, and I guess anything other than home isn't really normal. She's been doing so great with Ben, though. She just adores him and she's really glad he's home.

Ben has been working on the cars a lot since he's been back, I think he missed the grease and frustration. He's out putting cruise control in his car right now. I read the book "Twilight" this week and today I'm going to go see the movie with my friends Katrina and Mandy. Then I'll have the next three books in the series to read. Hopefully I'll do it a bit slower, though, and that can help pass the time down in San Antonio.

He's Home!

2008-11-12T16:56:00.001-06:00

I picked up Ben today a little after 2 pm. We had to head straight over to the base for my OB appointment. Lauren really had a good chance to play with Daddy and we are back home now.

Quick Update

2008-11-07T17:34:00.001-06:00

Today's ultrasound went well. My amniotic fluid levels are back down to a normal number. Her ventricles are measuring about the same as they were last week and she's gained a little bit of weight. I go back next Wednesday for a regular checkup, then I'll get all my care down in San Antonio.

Ben's coming home!

2008-11-06T19:11:00.003-06:00

I got an email from Ben this afternoon. Looks like he will be home next week. His commander said he could expect to leave next Monday or Tuesday, so that should put him back here sometime Tuesday-Friday depending on the flights and stuff.

San Antonio and Austin

2008-11-05T16:39:00.002-06:00

Last Thursday I picked Lissa up in Austin and we drove to San Antonio. Ben went to high school with Victor, and Victor owns a house in San Antonio that we arranged to stay at. We spent the night on Thursday and bright and early Friday I went to the Air Force hospital down there. My appointment was at 9 am and it would have taken me about 3 hours to get there if I had to drive from my house, but it only takes 20 minutes from his place.

I got there at about 8:30 and found the OB clinic. I had an ultrasound at 9 am. Mostly this was just so they could get the latest pictures of the baby and to see if anything had changed since my last ultrasound. The ultrasound tech did the initial ultrasound, then the Maternal Fetal Physician came in and did the ultrasound, then he brought in the other two Maternal Fetal Physicians and they all went over the images. Then I went down to another building and had my fetal MRI. I've never had an MRI before. It was fine, but laying on my back for that long did make me a little bit woozy. I didn't realize it was going to be so loud, even with earplugs, it was loud. I can see how people could freak out in there. After the MRI, I went back upstairs to meet with the doctor from the OB clinic again and with a doctor from the NICU. But, I got up there right before 12, so everyone was going to lunch. I went ahead and grabbed lunch in the hospital cafeteria and headed back upstairs again. Once I got up there, I met with the doctor from the OB clinic and the NICU, and they let me have Ben call in. We put him on speaker phone and we all talked for about an hour and a half and had most of our questions answered. It was really good that they did that, so far everything that Ben had heard had been through me, and this time it was straight from the doctors. Once we finished there, I went to another floor to speak with the neurosurgeon. That was about half an hour or so. He went over the procedure with me and the risks and possible complications and answered all my questions. By the time I got out of there, it was almost 4. I had been planning on being done by 1 and heading up to Austin. Instead, I spent about 7 1/2 hours at the hospital. Oh well.

So the MRI didn't really tell us anything new. The swelling in her ventricles has increased. There's no genetic reason for it, and as far as they can tell she didn't have a stroke that caused it. It's just one of those random things. When they measured her ventricles, they measured really swollen. I guess anything up to 1.1 is considered mild, 1.1-1.5 is considered moderate, and anything over 1.5 is considered severe. We're measuring at 3.0. So that's really a lot of swelling, but they are able to see cerebral cortex tissue surrounding the ventricles, so that is really good news. That means the brain tissue is there, even if it's being a bit squished right now. The other thing that concerned them was that my amniotic fluid levels are measuring high. That means I'm at risk for preterm labor. I don't think I'm going to go into labor soon. They want me to go this Friday to get another ultrasound at the hospital here to check the fluid levels again, and then on the 17th go back down to San Antonio so they can check on me. Since I'll have the baby down there, they want me to stay in San Antonio as of November 17th until I have the baby. Thankfully our friend said we could live at his house during that time, he'll be in Iraq anyway and has no problem with us staying there. That's a huge load off. And Ben is being sent home sometime between November 10th and 20th. They are working out the details now. We're waiting anxiously for the exact date, but it is soon anyway.

We left San Antonio just in time for rush hour traffic and hit Austin just in time for crazy Halloween going out traffic. It took 2 hours to go 80 miles. We got home at 9:30 and missed trick or treating. Lauren is too young to really be upset about it, but I did feel bad anyway.

The next morning we got up early and dropped Lissa off at the airport in Austin. I had a fun weekend planned. I met up with 8 girls from around the country that I know from an online celebrity gossip site. Some of them I've been talking to for over 2 years, and 2 of them I have met before. We met for brunch on Saturday and went to a place called South Congress Cafe, then dinner that night at the Iron Cactus. Sunday morning we had brunch at Chez Zee. Most of our meeting was organized around eating, and all the food was really really good. Lauren was an angel and charmed everyone and I had a lot of fun. It was good to have something to distract me over the weekend and it really helped me to just go do something fun. We came back Sunday evening and have gotten back to our normal routine.

Last night we stayed up late to watch the election results and listen to the speeches. Actually, Lauren fell asleep right as CNN projected Obama's win. I heard of celebrations in the street in quite a few cities, but my neighborhood stayed pretty quiet. I guess Texas wasn't into celebrating an Obama victory.

Lauren has been doing really well with potty training lately. Today she made it through lunch out with a friend and then a shopping trip to WalMart without an accident. I think we'll keep her in diapers overnight for now, but I feel like she has the daytime figured out pretty well.

Feeding the Ducks

2008-10-27T10:11:00.002-05:00

This is Lauren totally excited and running to go feed the ducks.

Actually, she mostly just threw bread in the water. I think the ducks were overfed and not at all interested in the three bags of stale bread we brought.

But, she had fun anyway, and it was a good chance to get some pictures of her, and of Katrina and her girls.

We headed to the Central Texas College campus which has a nice pond with a fountain and a bridge, along with a big park area. There were birds and flowers and fish and turtles and the overfed ducks.

It was a good day, even as hot as it was, and we had fun.

Afterwards we headed to Katrina's house to eat dinner and carve pumpkins. I'll have to get the pictures from her. I carved a Cinderella pumpkin for Lauren and a cat pumpkin for mine. They're pretty cute. Hopefully they make it to Halloween.

I got a call this morning to confirm my appointments down in San Antonio. Along with the ultrasound and MRI, I'm meeting with a pediatric neurosurgeon and cardiologist. It will be a lot to do, but at least I'm doing it all in one morning.

Ben heads back to Baghdad on Tuesday to join the rest of his troop. The unit has less than 100 days left over there. We are still waiting to hear the date he'll be coming home. It will depend on what the doctors say this Friday when I meet with them.