Time Marches On

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!

Both Girls Are Asleep!

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.

Happy Birthday, Ben!

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.

Natalie's First October

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.

Training, Biopark, Ben in Bama

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

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.

Recessed Lighting

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

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

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).

Back and Forth and Back and Forth

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...

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

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

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving!

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.

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.

San Antonio and Austin

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.

Skipper and the lawn, naturally.

Lauren and I drove to Austin on Sunday and met up with Charity. We picked up Skipper at his hotel and then went to dinner at Papasito's. It was delicious. After dinner we said good-bye to Charity and then headed back to the house. Skipper spent two days working on things in the yard. He rebuilt our fence on the side of the house.

It had been so tilted that I couldn't open it because the bottom corner would just dig into the ground. He also mowed and edged the yard and put down weed n feed with ant killer. Yay! Thank you so much, Skipper! He also fixed my car since my check engine light came on the day before he got here. There was a hose that had split and he replaced it. My car was getting only about 14 miles to the gallon with that broken hose, I'm so glad I barely drove it and had Ben's car to drive instead. Now I'm back up to my nearly 30 mpg.

Yesterday the weather here was bad, rainy and really really cold. One of the branches on a dead tree on the side of our house broke off and hit the roof. Only one shingle was damaged, but it still is not fun to deal with. I'm trying to get recommendations from our realtor and friends and neighbors of someone to come remove the trees. Last time we got an estimate it was somwhere around $1000 per tree. Ouch. That's pretty expensive, but replacing the roof would be expensive too. Thank goodness no one was parked in my driveway when the branch fell.

This morning Lauren and I got up and found snow on the ground. It's melted already, but it was neat to see. I'm ready for warmer weather, though.

And a picture of Lauren just because I want to post it:

1 AM and I can't sleep

This week Lauren and I both finally felt better from our colds. Tuesday we went to lunch with Megan and then hit up a good scrapbooking sale at Hobby Lobby. Wednesday I went back to the dentist to have him file down a filling that was messing with my bite. It was an easy appointment. I was in and out in about fifteen minutes. I never expected that one of the best visits to the dentist would involve a drill and not being numb. But it was great, my bite is back like it should be and I haven't woken up with a sore jaw since. We went to lunch again on Wednesday, this time with Megan, Katrina, Katherine and her son Ethan who is 9 months old. I don't know why I don't go to Bennigan's more often, I love their potato soup.

Tonight we had Mark and Megan over to join us for dinner and to watch "Lost". I made my shredded beef enchiladas and Mark brought over his new camera so I could show him some photography stuff on it.

Tomorrow our only plan is to go to the mall in the morning with Katherine and Ethan. I also need to put up a new toilet paper holder that I bought for the hall bathroom. I got the new towel rack up today before Mark and Megan got here. I think the bathroom is going to look really nice when it's done.

I upgraded my cell phone to the RAZR. I even got it in pink. So far I really like this phone, it's pretty easy to use, and I haven't had a fun phone in a while. The best part is that it was free since it was time to renew our contract anyway.

Ben is doing well, he's on a night schedule now. We're waiting to hear the days for his R&R. We should find them out about 30 days before he comes home, so we should know by the first week of March. I'm very excited that it's only about 6 weeks away! Which also means Lauren will be 2 in 6 weeks!!! I can't believe it. She counts to about 14 now, and she's always singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".... sometimes with the real words, and sometimes with completely made up lyrics that include 'Dora', 'Mommy', 'Water', 'Bear' or 'Kitty'. Hahahaha. She is a lot of fun.

Christmas Ideas for Lauren

It's been hard for me to come up with a list for Lauren for Christmas. I looked around online and came up with a few things:

Dora the Explorer Build N Play
Little People Busy Day Home
Fisher Price Noah's Ark
The Backyardigans Pirate Uniqua
These Embossed Wood Alphabet blocks


She wears size 4 shoes and she's mostly into 18-24 month size clothes now. Her favorites are Dora the Explorer, Go Diego Go, The Backyardigans and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She loves music and dancing. She likes purses and shoes and clip on earrings and hats. She likes Care Bears and she has a favorite American Girl baby doll.