Our Adventures together

Perk Night and Luke Days

2011-04-28T20:06:00.000-07:00

It was Mommy and Adelyn time, so I took her to school with me to listen to some poetry and music. She had a blast wowing all the people around her. She is such the ham.

Next came Luke Days. We were on Luke Airforce Base for some fly by time. Both kids loved all the activity.

The funny moment happened when the loud plane came by and Adelyn was at first frightened. Then she looked at me and I laughed at her. So then each time the planes flew by she would look at me and then we would laugh.

Glendale Glitter and Glow

2011-04-28T20:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a wide shot of Glendale's Glitter and Glow. IT's all the Christmas lights, with hot air balloons lit up in the streets. The kids are amazed at all the activity.

The kids had the confortable seats. :)

Christmas

2011-04-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

Here is a toy that they still constantly fight over. Cozy Coupe is a great invention.

This was my project that I refinished. Gunnar loves his train table. Loves all the pieces that he gets as well.

Gunnar is playing Santa, and he was good at delivering the presents to everyone.

Christmas Eve at Grandma's. Adelyn is pretty good at figuring out how to open everyone's present.. not just her own.

Playing Santa's Helper....

Dan's IMCORE Christmas party for the kids

2011-04-11T03:44:00.000-07:00

We are very fortunate that Dan's company still does the Christmas party for the kids. They get to have lunch, get a present from santa, and get to sit on his lap. What kid wouldn't like this? That would be our daughter. She was not at all thrilled to sit on his lap.

Gunnar has become quite the personable little guy. He makes friends with everyone.

Daddy and Gunnar taking the videos.

Adelyn trying to figure out how to get into the present.

Wild West Days

2011-04-11T03:34:00.000-07:00

Dan and I took the kids to Carefree's Wild West days. We watched a Parade, in which they LOVED the horses that they got to see (because that's all that was in the parade). Then we wandered around the town where there were crafts, boothes and activites to see. Of course the park at the local school seemed to be their favorite. .

Life just seems to get in the way

2011-04-11T03:16:00.001-07:00

I recently realized that I hadn't uploaded pictures in a while.. Shame on me, I know. I'm surprised no one called me on it. When I couldn't take anymore pictures in my camera due to the card being full, I had to do something about it. :) This is Halloween of 2010 - Gunnar was a fire fighter. On our trip to MI, Gunnar was enamored with Uncle Mike and riding the fire truck, so I thought hisoutfit was appropriate. Adelyn was a kitty, although she wouldn't leave the tail or the ears on. This year, we decided to attend one of our local churches "festival" instead of the normal Trick or Treating. Amazing. I think that this will become our new tradition. Daddy stayed home to hand out candy, and Grandma and I took the kids. They have officially decided that they LOVE bounce houses.

No, I really did not forget

2010-11-13T07:14:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to make sure she got her own post. Happy 1st Birthday Adelyn!! Here is Adelyn in her cute 1 Year Outfit. Thanks Michelle for making this for us. She looked adorable. We spent the time at the aquatics center since it just was so hot outside. It's a neat place. We will definatly be going back.

Here is her themed cake - Ladybugs. Sandra helped us out here, and it turned out perfect.

Adelyn is not so patient - hmm wonder where she gets that from? Here she is waiting for her cake...And then we thougth better of having her in her new outfit and the frosting being pink and purple. So she got stripped and ate her cake in her real "birth"day suit. She was fascinated by the candle...

Good thing we took off her clothes - otherwise she would have been a mess. :) We had enough trouble cleaning it out of the carpet when she started flinging it everywhere. When she is done, she is done. :)

Good thing we went to the aquatics pool afterwards. She got quite cleaned up. All had fun. It was a great day!

Has it really been that long?

2010-10-18T19:37:00.001-07:00

Our summer started out with a trip to California with friends. The kids LOVED the beach and I honestly didn't realize how many cracks and crevices there are on a tiny body. Later that summer Mom and I took the kids to CO for Annie's baby shower. Although it started out questionable if we should attempt the trip, we made it in one piece, and had a great time. Here is our 4 generational picture. Great Grandma D, Me, Adelyn, Grandma, and Gunnar.

Wow - yes, I have a few moments so I thought some new pictures would be in order. We went to Flagstaff when it was unusually hot in Phoenix. At this point, we were watching some belly dancers perform. It was at a little artsy craft fair. The next day we took a train that both Gunnar and Adelyn loved, especially when they tooted the horn

. Gunnar got to go meet some of the baseball plaers. Dan is lucky enough that he gets many tickets to sporting events, and Gunnar loves going to the games with him. Of course, he does LOVE the popcorn that daddy gets for him. We took a family vacation to Michigan just recently. The kids LOVED playing in the green grass. Thanks Tessie for letting us run around your yard. This is at Lake Michigan. I think that Adelyn saw the birds take flight. It was beautiful weather, alhtough warmer than I packed for.

We visited with Dan's side of the family from both his mom's and dad's side. Then after a morning drive (a LONG morning drive) we went to visit my stepsister - Marilyn and family. The kids all had a blast playing together. For more pictures of our adventures, check out Facebook.

Birthday #2

2010-03-07T18:49:00.000-08:00

Here is the Birthday cake - It was awesome - and the wonderful colors made the bathwater later that night get very interested.

Here is my (and Dan's) creativity. With some help from family to paint it, we all did a great job.

Gunnar staring at his candle lit. It was very windy, so we were trying to block the wind enough for him to blow it out. I'm not sure if it was Daddy, or Gunnar that finally succeeded.

Opening gifts. It was a lot of fun... he gets opening them - and finally he got handing me the pieces to throw away - however, he would pull off a piece of paper about an inch and then go at it again... Good thing we had lots of time.

Thanks to everyone for helping us celebrate!!

Schepp Farms

2010-02-07T18:48:00.000-08:00

Gunnar wanting a "nana'

Walking along the peach blossum fields.

As you can see, one of the rare moments we got Gunnar in the stroller, and he was not happy about it.

Relaxing on the rocking chair - and anyone who knows my son, knows he LOVES to rock.

Adelyn in her stroller, she was the most contents, and actually took a nap for a short time.

A close of up of the peach blossoms

We found a hay stack for him to climb and he wasn't scared at all of it - nor did he mind getting dirty at all.

This was how Gunnar walked around the entire park. I estimate that we probably walked about 2 miles, and he DID NOT want to sit in the stroller at all.

Gunnar being the engineer of the "train" that they had in the park

Adelyn holding out her hand to touch the horse at the petting zoo

Some together photos

2010-02-07T18:38:00.001-08:00

Breathing treatments, Doodles, kids and I - all ready to go "Night Night"

Our attempt with Santa... Both kids screaming, and poor Santa, just sat there.. lol

Christmas Morning - bright and early

Daddy and Gunnar opening gifts

Now it's Gunnar's Turn

2010-02-07T18:30:00.000-08:00

Trying to help daddy replace some speaker wire. He loves to help - can you tell?

Glendale Glitters... and his Cars cup

Not sure if the all the cookies made it to the oven. but as you can see, he had fun eating the sprinkles

Opening gifts at Daddy's Christmas party - by the end of Christmas, he "understood" what to do with the gifts, and decided that all the gifts - whether they were his or not - became his property

His first owie... decided to fight with the sidewalk - who do you think won?

His birthday is coming up... and we are starting to get ready for another day at the park. I'm kind of worried that it's going to rain with all the weird weather that we've had lately. Hope our day holds out....

wow - it's been a while...Here's Only Adelyn

2010-02-07T18:02:00.001-08:00

One of Adelyns favorite spots - she loves bouncing on this jumper - and the activities definatley keep her occupied for a while.

This was taken at Glendale Glitters - We really had her bundled up, but she loved looking at all the lights. She actually didn't sleep at all the entire time we were out.

Not very happy with mommy for leaving her on Santa's Lap - however, wait to see Gunnar's picture :)Look everyone, I'm getting big enough to start drinking on my very own...

This was how I found her one day coming back from the sitters. She had been playing so hard, she crashed.

As you can see, we have our hands full with her. At her last Dr. Appt, she was 27 inches long, and was almost 20lbs. She is starting to sit on her own, and as of this last week, she loves to take a bath with her big brother. She doesn't even mind his splashing.

Some new pics of Adelyn

2010-01-16T12:31:00.000-08:00

Go to Jennsim.com
click on clients
Find my name
put in your own email.
password is crackers (all lowercase)
Feel free to order some for yourself. :)

October Fun

2009-11-03T19:45:00.000-08:00

Gunnar as a puppy, although he woujldn't keep his ears on, and the tail seemed to scare him a bit - he tried running from it.

Dan thought I was crazy - but it was fun dressing the kids up - even if it basically was for only pictures. He did go to one of our neighbor's houses to get candy just so I could take more pictures...He loved the lollipop - although I didn't actually give it to him...

Adelyn as a lady bug

Not only does Gunnar want to be independant, like brushing his own teeth, but he's starting to read books. He sits in the the recliner, or his rocker and tries to read his books... so make sure that this is on his wish list for Christmas.

Some more pics

2009-10-25T20:41:00.001-07:00

Here is a complete picture of Adelyn for her Baptism.

The godmother fight. :)

Don't get me started on why it says Happy Baptism...

Adelyn's fav place

We carved Pumpkins as well. Here is Gunnar helping to gut out our pumpkin - and then the final results. Looks good. :)

Time to catch up.

2009-10-25T20:21:00.001-07:00

The last couple of weeks have been really busy. We have all gotten our flu shots, and I was the lucky one to get a Tetnus and Pneumonia as well. Couldn't move one of my arms for a couple of days.

Homelife is going really well, with Gunnar trying to help, almost to a fault. He wants to help clean, and vacuum, and sweep. Adelyn is becoming much more enjoyable with her staying awake now for a couple of hours at a time. Don't let her smile fool you - it took 93 pictures before we got one of what looks like a smile on her face. :)

Daddy time

This is mommy trying to juggle both kids on the chair a tthe same time. Gunnar wants to enjoy mommy's lap also.

Tal got to meet his new "God-sister". He definatly took a liking to her. He kept saying that he would love a little baby in the house, as long as they stayed little. It was great watching him with her, he kept her entertained.

Here is Adylyn for her Baptism. Her great God-mother (if that's what we call her.. lol) made her dress and her grandmother made her bonnet.

And she's a model!!

2009-10-14T05:41:00.000-07:00

www.tutumamas.etsy.com

Here is a website a couple of friends have, and if you look in the top right corner of this website, you can see my little angel wearing one of their tutu's. I love it, she looks so adorable in it. I can't wait until she's old enough to want to wear them hersself (that is before she becomes a TOTAL tomboy). :)

some more updates

2009-08-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

Well, time is passing. Too quickly sometimes, and sometimes not quickly enough. I have 2 more weeks left before I go back to work. Sometimes I look forward to it, and most of the time, I'm dreading it.

Gunnar is doing remarkedly well with Adelyn. He tries to hold her bottle when we are feeding and he sees us patting her bottom to burp her, so he tries that too. I've only seen one outlash at her, and he was extremely tired when that happened. Most of the time, he wants to kiss on her, and make her stop crying...

Adelyn is growing like a weed. That is for sure. She was already upt o 9lbs 4oz at her 2 week appt, and ew will have another appt in 3 more weeks. I'm sure she is at least 11 lbs by now :) Here she is taking a bath.

Adelyn's pics

2009-08-05T14:20:00.000-07:00

http://jennsim.com/index2.php

Go to Clients
Click on Adelyn's name
Password is tutu (lowercase)

my favorite is the b/w one of her smiling near the end - with the tutu on. :)

Update on Adelyn

2009-07-29T13:43:00.001-07:00

Well, as most of you know, Adelyn has been born and she is now a whopping 9 days old. She was born 8 lbs 1 Oz on July 19. Here are some pics for you to enjoy...

Can anyone see me????

2009-07-18T19:17:00.001-07:00

Testing... :)

Facebook | Toni Ridley

2009-07-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

Facebook Toni Ridley

Last post before Adelyn arrives

2009-07-16T20:36:00.000-07:00

Since the CSection is planned on Sunday, I figure I should post before I head off to the hospital. Those of you that have my Cell number, feel free to call and chat during the day from Sunday evening to Wednesday (The Dr. is expecting that I will be released on Wed).

Here are the details

I have to report to the hospital on Sunday at 10:00 am. I can't have anything to eat or drink - not even water. That part will be the hard part.
Surgery is scheduled for 12:30.
I kind of expect to not be able to really move due to the surgery for a couple hours, but I really don't know. I do remember once I was coherant last time, they wanted me up and walking so I would heal faster.

Grandma will be watching Gunnar for the week, but will bring him up daily to see me and his new little sister.

The transition to the big boy bed has been harder than anticipated. At first he didn't sleep at all on it. Then he's been at least taking his naps on it. However, if he's extremely tired, he doesn't want the bed at all and only wants the crib. So we still have some work to go on that part of the plan as well.

He must know that something is going to happen soon, as he's been EXTREMELY clingy to me. Wanting to lay on my shoulder all the time now. We were given a baby doll to "practice" with Adelyn and Gunnar. He loves the doll. He wants to sit in the rocker/recliner and rock the baby adelyn. It will be interesting when the real baby Adelyn comes home. He brings me the doll (although sometimes by the feet) to hold and rock with him. It's very adorable.

Gunnar has also been taking swim lessons this last month. He loves going in the water so much. He finally will relax on my shoulder laying on his back. We count to 5 and then "wake up" - and he definatly knows when to wake up because on 5 he opens his eyes so I can bring him out of the water. He also does really well "falling" into the water. Although sometimes he gets much more interested in watching the other kids jump/fall in that I have to divert his attention. The one thing that he excells at is monkeying on the wall. I can actually let him go and he will move around the pool by himself by holding onto the edge. He gets mad when I put him back to a spot, I think becuase he knows if he can get to the stairs of the big pool, he gets to go to the kiddie pool and play with the toys.

I honestly can't wait for him to start talking. I'm tired of the "uh" and pointing that he's doing. He throws fits if I can't figure out what he wants. I'm constantly trying to get him to say words, but the only words so far that I think I have figured out are: Mommy, Daddy, Cat, Dog, and maybe shoe. The rest of it is grunting lol.

All in all, things are going well. Plans for my sub during my absence has been taken care of, I've gone grocery shopping for Dan to be sufficient at home without me. And the house has been cleaned so all we need to do is wait for the baby now. Hope all is well with every one else. :)

OK, Time is quickly passing

2009-06-14T19:30:00.001-07:00

We have to have a pool for our water baby. He got much more enjoyment out of letting the water our of the pool the first time. Here is Daddy baby proofing our house. I had to take a picture of this, since it's the tupperware cubboard that he started with, and I didn't think there was much danger in that cubboard. :) But Gunnar wanted to help, so now there are locks on all the doors, which just causes Gunnar to open and close them really hard, since now he gets frustrated that he can't get in them.

Daddy loves his Otter Pops, and now Gunnar loves them too. Gunnar is getting his hair cut. The lady let him play a little with the clippers first, but he still wouldnt let her near his head with them. She managed to get the back shaved a little at the neckline, but his around his ears is still a little untamed.

Some friends of Amy's and I took her out on the town for some fun before her Wedding night. We ended up eating at this awesome Mexican Resterant called Frank and Lupes. Amy said she loved it because it reminded her of Honduras. Then we went to an improv comedy club, where they had us all in stiches. They grilled her for a few minutes and created a sketch just for her. It was a night I don't think that she will forget.

Here's the rehersal - Arizona style - almost everyone in shorts :)

Daddy is playing with Gunnar at the park during the rehersal dinner. Daddy was a great daddy that weekend and let me goand be a part of the wedding festivities.

Gunnar is now walking. Doesn't even want to crawl anymore. Even tries to run after Daddy when he plays hide and go seek around the corners of the house. It is so fun watching him develop. The Dr said that she can't even tell by his milestones that he is even a premie anymore. The temper tantrums have started as well, if he doesn't get his way when he wants it, but as long as we divert his attention a little, it usually curbs them.

As for me? I'm just plugging along. I have 5 more weeks to go. Dr. thinks that we are going to make it all the way this time. He is very pleased with my Blood Pressure - in fact this last visit, it was the best he's seen it. Guess being out of school is nice on the pressure also. Because of the history though we will be upping the visits to 2 times a week starting next week. I will be doing Non-Stress Tests. Basically I will sit in a chair and they will monitor Adelyn's movements for abuot 1/2 hour. As long as she's cooperating, that's it. We wait it out until July 19th. Dr. is expecting me to be home around the 22nd as long as all goes well.

Gunnar is 1, in reality and in pictures

2009-03-29T15:44:00.000-07:00

Check out Gunnar's 1st Year old Pics.. :)

http://jennsim.com/index2.php

Go to clients and find Gunnar's name

Password is frosting (all lowercase)

You can order online if you wish to have any of these poses. :)

wow - time flies

2009-03-17T20:24:00.001-07:00

Lefse Making. The hat is one that Amy made from her birthday kit. He loved standing and chewing on the lights.

Oops, I forgot to rotate this one.. Oh well.. this is Christmas Day

Our first attempt at eating by ourselves... can you say bathtime?

His favorite toy, his trike. He got this for Christmas, and it started out as a rocker. He loves riding around on it. This was his birthday party and that's all he wanted to do the entire time.This is the morning of his 1st birthday. Looks a little crazy to me, but he was happy!!1

It's been a while

2009-02-24T05:05:00.001-08:00

I know it's been a while since I've posted. But I've just been so dang tired. With Gunnar quickly approaching 1 year old, he is all boy, and all soon to be toddler. Those two facts alone will make anyone wore out. Top that with going to school 2 nights a week really wear me out. Good thing these classes are almost done - 1 of them is the MOST insane class, and I will never understand how this professor gets accolades for this. UGH.

Anyway, other than we are having trouble with our computer at the moment, so I can't upload new pics yet, I just thought I would give a shout out.....

It's a Girl!!

We had our ultrasound yesterday. She was being difficult to see as she was head down, but I think the only thing that she didn't get a clear pic of was of an open hand, but all looks well. Due to the last pregnancy, I've been told to expect at least another ultrasound to make sure everything is ok later on. Now we just need to agree on a name. :)

Family Photos

2008-12-09T05:09:00.000-08:00

The News is out

2008-12-06T18:31:00.000-08:00

OK, Time for everyone to know the news... :)

Gunnar will be getting a baby brother or sister. Now before you ask when it's due, don't bother. I won't know until after the new year. To make a long story short, I began suspecting about 2 weeks ago. Finally this last week, I took a home pg test. Looked kind of funny with the results, but it looked positive to me. So I called the Dr. Since I was hesitant to confirm the test, the nurse sent me to get a blood test. On Wednesday, she called to confirm that I was most definatly pregnant. My appt. with the Dr is not until Jan 6, so I won't know much else until then. This news was a blessing, but also told us a lot of what was going on with me lately. I have not been able to get rid of my own runny nose/congestion, I was extremely tired all the time, and dang it, I couldn't lose weight anymore - and a couple of those lbs I had successfully lost, krept right back on, and I couldn't seem to shake them. Now we also know why I was eating a TON of food lately.. lol.

Tonight at Dan's dinner celebration, we told my mom and sister - I told them that I had finally gotten to the Dr to find out about my nose, and I handed each a present. Amy guessed it before even opening the present of a pink/blue m &M filled bottle. Mom just watched Amy for a while, I think she was in shock.

Everyone just hope and pray that this time around, that I have an easy pregnancy, and I don't end up in the hospital for a couple months again. :)

Dan's Birthday is tomorrow, so he will get the whole day to himself.. :) Just like he wants. :)

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth

2008-11-26T20:13:00.001-08:00

And now he doesn't have to wait. Gunnar now has 2 teeth. They came is almost simultaniously. No wonder he was uncomfortable. He has also come down with his first cold. It's hard to hear him coughing at night. There has been a couple of nights where he's woken himself up from his coughing. Other than nose drops - there isn't much we can do but let it run it's course. Of course it doesn't help that the entire family came down with this cold as well.

His developmental nurse came by today as well. She is always just astounded at his developement. Some of the things that she's testing.. If he passes objects from one hand to another, if he reaches for objects, both in reach and out of reach. If he looks for an object once it's moved out of eye sight. If he is doing any babbling. How he's eating. How close he is to the next developemental level. She says that he is advanced for his corrected age. He is almost ready to crawl, in fact was guessing that prob. by late Dec. he would probably be crawling and pulling himself up on furniture.

He is now 17 lbs 6 oz. 27 inches long, and his head is 17 inches. This basically equates to his actual age, being only within 10-25%. As far as his corrected age, he is then in the 50-75%. Either way is good. He is firmly on the charts. :) He is eating baby food like you wouldn't believe. He loves food. Sometimes we can't feed him fast enough before he gets upset that his mouth is empty. He has also figured out splashing in water. Creates quite the mess in the kitchen when it's bath time. Looks like we need to start moving towards the tub for these times soon.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so I will probably have some good picutres of him. Happy thanksgiving to all of you!

so I copied this... :)

2008-11-17T18:50:00.000-08:00

from Gunnar's babysitter's website. Glad that I check it once every so often.. :) As you can tell, those are his hands that make up the feathers and I believe that the body of the turkey is his foot imprint. :) His first art project..

AND, see where the paper is?? Well, there is definately something under it now. It just has to break through those couple more layers of skin.

1st Halloween

2008-11-01T20:10:00.001-07:00

This is how we started the morning. His outfit just says Baby's 1st Halloween, however, it's supposed to glow in the dark. I never ended up testing to see if it did or not.. lol

The whold crazy gang (-1) from the babysitters club.. :)

Watch out... DINO on the loose!! He's hungry and has found the candy.

He ended the day with Amy feeding him, (you should have seen his face.. lol) and giving him his bath. I forgot to take a pic of the bath. Was amusing to say the least. :)

Time to add more information :)

2008-11-01T19:55:00.000-07:00

So the first day of the State Fair, Mom and Amy want to check out their entries. Mom won 1st place in her catagory of Crossstitch, and Amy I think was in her own catagory, who also won 1st place. While we were there, we decided to find the petting zoo. Although we didn't give the animals any food, some of them tried to find some from us. Here is a goat trying to see if Gunnar had any food. I don't think that this boy is afraid of anything> :)

Next we have our weekly baseball games. Gunnar willingly gets passed from my arms, to either Grandma's, Scott's, or Amy's arms while we watch his soon to be cousins make their plays. He's the hit of the crowd with his glasses on.

Now that he's found his toes, he frequently tries to eat them WHILE he's eating dinner. Makes for a very messy baby. Here is one of the faces he was making at dinner time one night. He's a ham when he wants to be.

And one night I was complaining that I was the one that always thought of using either the video camera, or the still cam. Now I have about 20 pictures of him and I together - however, they were all one night. lol. He is getting better about grabbing the video cam though.

Big Boy Growing Up

2008-10-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

OK, so we are feeding him cereal 2 times a day now, and just last night, I started feeding him baby food. Started with Squash - good thing he seemed to like it, cuz other than Thanksgiving, he prob. won't ever get it otherwise (and maybe not even thanksgiving.. lol) He's eating a ton now - loves to be put in his high chair, cuz then he knows what's coming next.

Right after his evening feeding, he gets his nightly back - which he is now sitting up for - although as Dan got it on tape - there have been some falls in the tub. I'm sure I will never hear the end of it from him on that one. I have a couple toys that we put in there with him - but he is MUCH happier trying to get the faucet into his mouth. He managed once before I realized what he was doing, and he got his first full mouthful of water. :)

He's getting SOOO big. He's at least 16 lbs now. It just amazes me that it's been almost 8 months now since he was born. We go for nightly walks, and most of the time, he loves them. I figure I'm trying to teach him that exercise is a good thing.

I will post some more pics in his halloween outfit.

Does the Video work?

2008-10-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry the video seems so dark - I promise it wasn't when we took it. Dan is tickling him with a blue bunny (Kate - it's the bunny that Tal picked out) He is laughing every time it touches him. :) Makes me smile every time. Now that I know I can get videos to work, I might try something that came from the actual video camera (this one came from my phone)

6 Month Check in

2008-09-17T17:57:00.000-07:00

Here are my men. I think that they were watching TV. Gunnar really likes siting with daddy this way. (Kate notice the outfit?) I really don't know why - but Daddy gave Gunnar his belt to play with. Everything goes in his mouth now, so that's where the leather went also.

Gunnar is going to be one cool kid. He has his shades ready to go the beach (notice the shirt - Millie, Jen and Katie?), and he loves his new toy - a leap frog educational toy that makes LOTS of noise... The microphone that he's playing with chimes "Singing Baby". He's quicking learning how to make everything make noise on it, so we hear lots of music now.

He also had his developemental nurse come and say that he is doing wonderful for his age - both corrected and actual. His Pediatrician is pleased with his progress as well. He ranks at the 67% with his height for his actual age, so that is AWESOME. He would rank in the 90's for his corrected age, so he is definatley going to be a tall one. :) He does only go to the 6% for his weight, but look at his father.. lol

Some of his new developements are... He is starting to roll now. He can roll from his belly to his back, and can ALMOST go the other way, but can't figureo out what to do with that arm that gets stuck. He is trying to stand, like he's doing in his toy. EVERYTHING goes in his mouth, and the DR confirmed that he is probably teething, since his gums look swollen. We are trying to feed him some cereal - and he loves to have the spoon put in his mouth, just he doesn't know what to do with thte food yet.

Hmm.. Think that is it for now.

Time gets away

2008-09-01T07:42:00.001-07:00

Some more updates on our family. :)

A week after the Baptism, Gunnar came down with Croup. That was not a fun night. I woke to hime coughing and having a hard time breathing. I held him for a while before I made the decision to take him to urgent care. There is an urgent care right down the street, however, as I found out that night, it doesn't mean that it's open all night. So instead of heading back home, I called mom (thinking that she might still be up) and a nurse friend to find out where the nearest pediatric urgent care was. Turns out it's right down the street from my school. We get there, and they take him in immediately. They give him some sort of shot, and decide that he needs to go to the hosp. (I think that was because the nurse put an oxymeter on him wrong so it looked like he wasn't getting enough O2 in his body.) Another nurse came in and adjusted it, but they still wanted him monitored. Needless to say, we got to go in an ambulance to Thunderbird Hosp and spend the next 5 hours waiting. UGH. We weren't even in a room with a TV. We finally got out of the ER around 9 in the morning. I had to figure out what to do now, as I had ridden in the Ambulance and my car was stuck at the urgent care. Do to some creative finaggling - I made it to work, Gunnar was being watched carefully, and all is well.

I've started school with the kids, and currently I have 24 students in my class. They range from monolingual (can't speak English) to almost proficient. It definatly changes how I teach things, that's for sure. We are moving at a much slower pace than my other sections of 5th grade. I really like my class though, they are for the most part, very quiet, and most of them are very hard workers.

Dan is liking his job - and they really seem to like him there as well. He's been bounced around a little, but is showing off his skills he's learned on the computer and making everyone take notice of him. He has also started school again. He's now busy Wed and Thurs night, so it makes for a long week for him.

For Labor day, we plan on just relaxing. Yesterday, we drove up to Prescott to enjoy the cooler weather, and walk around an art fair that was going on up there. We hit some rain while there, but as it was lunch time anyway, we found a resteraunt to have some lunch, and by the time we were done, so was the rain.

Time Flies

2008-08-05T20:55:00.000-07:00

When you are having fun.

Let's see. School has started for me. Teacher week was last week and I'm in the middle of the first week of students. I think I liked staying home a little too much, as it was VERY hard to go back. If there was any way that I could be a stay at home mother, I certainly would choose it.

But, Gunnar has been doing very well with the Babysitter. She is a very nice lady who lives right down the street from school. At least I know that I can pop in whenever I want or need to, to check on him.

My class is all Spanish speakers. It's called an SEI classroom. The goal is to get them proficient in English while still teaching them their core subjects. This is going to be a challenging year, as I have everything from non-English speakers, to almost proficient.

We also had Gunnar's Baptism this last weekend. His Grandma Bonnie came down to see him for this special weekend. She loved holding him and cuddling with him, and watching him smile back at her.

There were several people there to witness his Baptism. Wish now I had gotten a group shot.. lol..

Here he is in his outfit - isn't he cute?

Need to hook the camera up

2008-07-10T22:33:00.001-07:00

But I'm too lazy right now. All good news as far as updates. He is officially 4 months old. WOW. AND he made the charts.. lol. for being 4 months old, he is at the 5% on both his weight and height. However, if we look at his adjusted age - he ranks at the 75%. My growing boy.

The developemental nurse also said that physically he is doing everything his corrected age (2 months) should be doing - smiling, waving erratically with hands and feet, squeeling and cooing, and lifting his head and following an object. She did say that socially he is more advanced - he actually is interacting with the person that he's looking at, not just doing the erratic smiling. He does "talk" to the person a lot of the time as well. Wonder who in the world he gets this social interaction from > :)

He is 11 lb 6 oz. WOW. Big Boy. We have his 4 month shots tomorrow. That should be fun as well. Oh yeah, I guess I do have a couple of pics from our Target adventure that I could put on here...

No more tubes, wires, or probes

2008-07-02T23:23:00.000-07:00

Yeah!!. We got the official word yesterday that all the equiptment can be returned. It's very nice to see him without anything attached. :)

Next on the agenda - His Baptism. Have to find an outfit for him. It's scheduled for Aug. 3. Anyone want to join us? Feel free. Lunch afterwards will be at a buffet place if you want to join us there as well. Email me if you want directions to either.

More Updates

2008-06-17T21:49:00.000-07:00

Wow - it's been a while since I've written. I've been trying to catch up on sleeping, but not been really successful there - just feel that I have way too much to do.

Let's see what's been going on since the birthday party....

See anything missing???????

We did another sleep study to see if he could be off O2. I'm starting to see a trend. Remember when he pulled out his own feeding tube, and decided to take the bottle all of a sudden? Well, he seemed to do that the day after his sleep study. He ended up ripping the tubing off of his face, causing some serious welt looking marks on his face. I called the doctor to ask if we could rush the results to make sure he could be off the O2. We left him off of it that day and night, and got the official word the next morning, that he was free of the O2.

I had to do some trainings at school for this upcoming school year, so I had to leave him during the day. It was hard, but Mom (Grandma) and Penny made it soooo much easier.

I guess next would be father's day. Here is how Dan survived it...

The animals have done really well with Gunnar.

They are remarkably gentle around him, but they definatly keep their eyes on him if I am paying attention to Gunnar and not them.

Gunnar has met some more people lately... Here is Jenn and Kate with him. He's already starting the Harem I think... lol He definately has them wrapped around his finger..

Not much going on

2008-05-29T12:39:00.000-07:00

So Gunnar's future cousin was having a birthday party, so we had to go and check out the action. Can you tell how big he is getting?

Here is Auntie Amy proudly displaying her nephew. :)

And here is the birthday boy himself. :)

The Good, The Bad, and the Beautiful

2008-05-18T15:13:00.000-07:00

OK, well, I promised more pictures, and I have some more updates.
(THE BAD)
The Pulmonologists' office called. Seems that Gunnar did not pass the sleep study the night we did it. I had a feeling that he wasn't going to, but I was hoping. He was very restless that night, so his O2 levels kept dropping. If he had slept through the night, I think that he would have been ok. So we have another appointment on June 2, so we will decide on when another sleep study will be done then.
(THE GOOD)
We had another eye appointment with that Dr this week as well. Every thing is perfect in that regards and she doesn't need to see him back until after he turns 1. Wow, that's a long ways away to think of that right now. :)
(THE BEAUTIFUL)
Daddy watching the race with Gunnar.

Grandma Babysitting for the first time.
Daddy laying on the floor with Gunnar. Can you see the love?
The three "boys" of the house. :)
Meeting Claudia from Sylvan (I had to pry him away from her when I needed to leave)
Meeting Kristin and Heather from work.

Updates

2008-05-13T10:26:00.000-07:00

He is now 7lb 12 Oz. and is 20.5 inches long. Looking at the growth scales if we look at his chronological age - he is at 0.4% (really small and skinny.. lol) But if we take into consideration his corrected age (which would be - BORN TODAY!!! :) he is in the 80%. Doing great is what the Dr. said.

He is actually too long now for preemie clothes. However, the Newborn clothes are a little bit big on him.

Hopefully on Friday - we have our last Eye Dr. Exam for a while. It's very hard to watch them do the exam on him, because he screams because he is scared.

Sometime this week we will do a sleep study. Basically that means we will monitor his actual Oxygen levels for the night when he is the least stimulated. If he can hold them up to appropriate levels - which I believe is either 85% or 90%, then we get rid of the O2 bottles - we are keeping our fingers crossed for that one. If that is successful, we will be able to get rid of the monitor a couple weeks after that. They want to keep him on it for a couple of weeks, to make sure he doesn't have any problems without the O2. To tell you the truth, I've come to rely on that a little as a crutch - so I will need to ween myself from relying on it as well.

He has met a lot of new people... :) Here are a couple of his soon to be new cousins...

Dr. Appointments

2008-04-28T10:35:00.000-07:00

So last Wednesday, Gunnar had his first Pediatrician appointment. He was up to 6lb 1oz. Wow. He is just gaining fast now that he's figured out how to eat. Everything else looked good. She referred him to a pulmonologist to get him off the O2. She thinks that he might be off of it soon - and not as long as the neonatologist suggested - which was like 2 or 4 months.

We've survived a whole week having him home. It really is amazing how much your life DOES revolve around feeding, changing and trying to sleep. I was able to catch up a little with sleep this weekend with Dan home, so that was nice.

Today we had a second checkup. Now he's at 6lbs 7oz. The Dr. is VERY impressed with his weight gain - especially since usually when babies go home, they lose weight initially. We've already made our appointment for next week. Next week will be very busy, as we have a couple different dr. appointments, and the school shower to go to. Will be fun.

He's Home

2008-04-21T17:36:00.000-07:00

OK, I have to shout it out!! He's Home Now!!!!!

We had hoped that he would be home before this weekend, but the Dr. told us that it would be monday because they wanted to take him off 1 more medicine before they sent him home. So they took him off the medicine for the fluid in the lungs and watched him over the weekend. He gained weight and actually seemed to do a lot better sleeping with his respitory sensor.

I spent Friday up at the hospital "nesting". Most of the nurses didn't really understand why, when I have been up there most of the time anyway. It gave me something to do, and made me finish my "Thank You" cards. :)

This weekend we spent finding those last minute things that we didn't get in a shower that we felt we "HAD" to have to be ready for him.

Monday morning, I had a Dr. Appt myself. My Dr. still wants me on Blood pressure meds - as they were still a little high - but no where near what they had been. Then I went to the hospital to wait on the discharge papers for Gunnar.

Since the nurses all know me by now, when the Dr was making his rounds - she commented that I was just waiting for the OK for him to be released. They asked me a few more questions, like when I have my Ped. appointment and followup care that they want for his eyes, but then they started signing the papers.

Here he is in his new car seat. This is in the car.

And all that excitement had him worn out. He is snuggled into his bed and already asleep.

A Wonderful surprise

2008-04-15T18:44:00.000-07:00

Well, with today being my birthday, I really didn't expect too much. Our lives have obviously just been consumed with the process of getting Gunnar home. So I'm going to start with yesterday...

When I got the hospital at 11 yesterday, the nurse told me that Gunnar had taken the last 3 bottles all in a row. He's never even taken 2 in a row before so we were excited. Then for the next 3 bottles that I fed him he also took. He definately knows how to build excitement. On that 6th one, it was a different nurse, and as we got in to get him changed, we noticed that Gunnar had pulled out his feeding tube. I guess he was telling us he was ready to move out. So, since 2 am yesterday, Gunnar has been "nippling" the bottles.

Now today when I went in, the nurse is indicating all these different proceedures that need to be done before he's discharged. I have to attend a CPR class, the home monitor has to be ordered (he will come home on O2.), we have to have a car seat check, and if we want to try "nesting" there at the hospital - to make sure that everything will go smoothly, and we won't have questions trying to take care of him, as well as any of the equiptment. I couldn't believe my ears. As long as all goes according to plan, he should be coming home this weekend. WOW - it's amazing to think that we will actually get him home. And then for the scary part, lol, we have to be the parents now, and take wonderful care of him.

He will get home care, since he is coming home on the O2 monitor - as well as being followed by an AZ program to make sure there are not developmental delays due to being so early. We are just so excited about this now.

OK, so now for other news.

Dan got a new job. His title is Project Engineer. This is a step in the direction of why he has been attending school. He starts tomorrow. OK, now for those of you that know Dan - picture him in an office setting, wearing polo shirts and working the computers. :) About as opposite as you can get from what he has been doing. He's excited to start this new adventure. I'm excited for him. Not only is it a move up, it's a better company, but I don't have to worry about him cutting a finger off with his snips. :)

Nothing really new on my part. Here is the "Douty" chair that everyone helped get for us for the baby room. Thank you to all that helped with this - and I promise, one of my goals is to get out all the Thank You notes from the shower. I had quite the workout putting all the clothes in the dresser from the baby shower. It's been quite exciting getting ready for Gunnar, that's for sure.

Anyone recognize the outfit?

Here is Dan holding Gunnar right after his bath.

Another update

2008-04-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

So I'm officially able to now drive. Dan is very excited. Although he says he didn't mind taking me back and forth to the hospital, and having to go grocery shopping with me... I know it was wearing on his nerves. I no longer even have a bandage on my incision. The Home Care Nurses are surprised at how fast I have healed. I'm glad. I didn't want to carry anything around anymore, and it's not fun not being able to take a shower anytime I wanted.

I just got back from the hospital, and Gunnar was as of last night 5lb 1 oz. WOW a little porker. :) Although he does have some fluid in his lungs from being on O2 so long, so he's taking some medicine to get rid of that, the nurses indicated that they do want to see him lose a little of the weight so they know he's getting that fluid out. He is doing great otherwise. He knows WHAT to do when we try to breast feed, although doesn't suck long enough to get much. He is doing well on the bottle though. He finished a little over 1/2 of his meal this morning by bottle.

He loves to sleep on his tummy - which might be hard to break him of that habit once we get him home, as that's how I sleep.

A little closer to coming home

2008-04-06T23:04:00.000-07:00

So Gunnar's eye infection is cleared up. That is very good. Although because he tested positive for MSRA (the staph infection), he will be kept in the isolation room until he is discharged. He is probably happy about that, his own private room. The bad part about it, is that we will have to continue to glove/gown to visit him. The grey area in that is I can start to breast feed him. I was very apprehensive about the whole thing, but it seemed to go ok.

The nurse was there almost the whole time, and it's very weird having someone you really don't know watch you. AND when I wasn't holding him correctly, or "pushing" him onto my nipple, she showed me... (she did ask if she could touch me first... what am I going to say to that one????? )

I finally got him "latched" on, and she said not to expect much other than him just holding on and trying out the feeling. However, Gunnar went for it - and tried sucking almost immediately. I know at one point, he got a mouthful, and I was surprised, because I didn't think that he was sucking hard enough to get anything yet.

He did get very tired, so we finished the feeding through the gavage, and called it a night. it will be fun to try again.

Some new pictures

2008-04-05T02:45:00.001-07:00

So I thought I would post a couple new pics, as I havn't done it in a while. Here is a pic of me holding Gunnar.

I looked further down the blog, and now some of you can see at least in my face, how much weight I have lost. :)

And Here is Grandma changing Gunnar's clothes the other day after he decided to pee all over the place when I was changing his diaper.

And Finally, here is Amy, getting to see Gunnar in his open crib. I forgot to have the camera ready when she changed his diaper.

Growing up

2008-04-03T03:23:00.000-07:00

So he is now 4 lb 6.5 oz. Wow - he's gained a little over a pound. I can tell a difference. He is no longer JUST skin and bones. He is actually starting to get some meat on his bones.

Because he has been doing so well in the weight department, he now has his big boy bed. He is in an open crib. It's nice to be able to reach in and touch him - although because of the caution with his eye infection, we still have to glove/gown up.

They also started trying to feed him via bottle. He gets a couple of swallows in, then decides it's too much work. He is still a week ahead of really being able to do that. He is technically 34 weeks old (gestationally) and they say around 35 weeks is when they magically seem to get eating.

The nurse today started talking about discharge proceedures. It makes me hopeful that we might bring him home earlier than expected. That would certainly be nice.

Mom and I went up to the hospital for his 8 o'clock feeding, so I could try to feed him via bottle, so mom got a chance to change his clothes - since he conveniently peed before I got the diaper completely on him.. which left a mess. It's hard to be quick with all the leads and wires that go everywhere, and to do it with gloves on, is even more challenging. He was too tired to really try the bottle for a second time today, so I just held him while the machines pumped it into him. It's ok, there is an end in sight. :)

A small milestone

2008-03-28T22:30:00.000-07:00

He reached 4 lbs today. He will get a "big boy" bed, meaning in the next few days, as long as he doesn't lose any of that weight, he will get put into an open bed, instead of an isolette. It will be easier to view him and touch him, instead of him being encased in the glass.

Next week they should be introducing the bottle/letting me try breast feeding. They have been putting a pacifier in his mouth when the "gavage" feed him (through the feeding tube) to get him used to having something to suck on when he is eating. The last couple of days I've noticed that he actually has been sucking on the pacifier instead of just having it in his mouth. That's a good step in the right direction.

He still has the eye infections, however, it did not spread and is slowly clearing up - just weapy, instead of matted like it was. That's also another good sign.

Tomorrow is the friends and family baby shower. I'm really looking forward to it. It would have been nice to be able to have him with me to show off, but I know that I will get plenty of chances to do that.

As far as my developement - so far, so good. The nurse comes Mon, Wed, and Fri to change the wound vac. She said that I prob. would only have to have the wound vac for another week. That's good, cuz when they pull that tape off every time, man, does that HURT!!. And NEVER will I get a bikini wax - although I keep getting a mini one 3 times a week.. lol

Also, for those of you that actually saw me within a couple of weeks of Gunnar's birth know how much weight I actually gained. I saw the video of the first time I held him, and WOW - that was already losing weight, I can't imagine what I looked like before that. I'm already down 45 lbs - and know that I still have some more water weight to lose, since it's still some in my legs. It's coming off slowly. As soon as I get the OK, I hope to start walking around the block and such to help facilitate losing some more weight.

Minor Set back

2008-03-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

So today we were heading out to the hospital, and the phone rings. It's the nurse from the NICU. She starts out the conversation - I don't want you to be alarmed when you come in... well, that sets off the warning bells in the head.

He's had a minor set back. They needed to allow him to relax a little so they put the nasal CPap back on him. You can tell he doesn't like it because he took it out at least 2 times while I was holding him tonight.

She also indicated that he has a slight eye infection. So he's been put into an isolated room, as apparantly it's contagious. I held him for a few minutes - and he was wide awake and looking all around. His eye definatly looked better - not as matted. We put him back down when he got the hiccups as we've been told that is one indication of being stressed. His hiccups almost got worse when we put him back in his bed - so I stood over him, and gently talked to him and he finally fell back asleep. I wrapped his giraffe in his arms and took this picture.

Dan was right

2008-03-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

So I was able to write in here - Sat? Maybe it was Sunday. Well, put it this way - by Monday night, I was being readmitted to the hospital. Not realizing it, but I had managed to open up my incision to the point that fatty cells under the skin had started to pertrude outside my wound. Dan was really freaked out, and I will admit, that I didn't take it as seriously as I should have at first. After calling the oncall Doctor, and being told that yes, I should go the ER, I succummed and had Dan bring me to the Hospital again. I knew it was serious when they didn't even tell me to wait in the waiting room, they put me on a gurney in the hallway and put a screen around me with an attendant right away.

That was about 11 pm On Monday night. By 7:30 am, my Dr. was performing surgery on me to close it back up. Only good thing, he didn't put the fatty cells back.. Yeah - I got a mini tummy tuck. :) It really didn't hurt, and that's pretty much why I think I didn't think too much out of it. I couldn't see what Dan could see.

I had a really hard time coming out of the surgery. I remember them telling me to breath, and I couldn't. That was a mixture of asthma, pre-eclampsia, and being scared to death I think. I do know that I wouldn't want to drown, that's for sure, because I'm pretty sure that's what it would feel like coming out of the surgery. I couldn't breath.

So for the last week, I have been lounging in the hospital again. Although this time, I truly feel like I was knocked down a peg from God to say - HEY, wake up and take care of yourself. I have a "wound" Vac that I have to have a nurse come take care of for me at the house. I also have to ask for help as much as possible now.

So I apologize for not passing the word on my situation, but my phone was lucky to make it through the week as it was.

On an upscale - Gunnar is doing Wonderful. He no longer has a breathing tube, or a C-Pap. He only has the feeding tube to help him continue to take the breast milk that I was able to give him before I got put back in hospital. He's our little man. Just as tiny as he is, he is doing wonderful for his size. As of today 3 lbs. 10 OZ. We will find if he grew in length on Sundays so I will update that soon, but as of birth he was 17 in.

Got to hold him. :)

2008-03-17T08:10:00.000-07:00

Wow - it's been a while. :)

2008-03-15T23:50:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I will tell it how I remember it - and add in commentary on what others tell me what happened as well.

After my 3rd week on bedrest, I went in for my normal Dr. appt. I guess it wasn't just normal, as the good Dr. had added in NST's (Non Stress Tests) to the curriculum.. Gunnar didn't wantt o do anything to show them that he was ok. Plus my Blood Pressure was skyrocketing again. So they told me I had an hour to go get my stuff and get checked into the Hospital. Good thing that Dan had just come home, otherwise, I prob. would have been lost.

I was admitted into the antepartum tower, and basically told that I would need to make myself comfortable, as I would be here for the duration of my stay. Which at that point was 10 weeks. I saw it as an eternity, but I tried to make the best of it. I made friends with the nurses, and even got moved to the "suite" of the rooms. Too bad I didn't last long there.

On Sunday, March 9th, I just didn't feel well. I told the Nurses and the Dr's, but really couldn't pinpoint what was wrong. I had a mild headache, but seeing as the weather was changing again, I didn't think much about it. I took some Tylenol around noon, and then asked for more around 5:30. I hadn't slept well the night before, so I had also requested a sleeping pill, and called Dan and asked that he just come keep me company until I could fall asleep. He came up, and by this time, my headache had progressed pretty badly, and the Dr. had been recalled to reevaluate. They gave me some Tylenol III, but I couldn't relax to lay back down and let the medicine do it's work.

I believe at this point, Dan called Mom and Amy to let them know that something was wrong.

This is where things are really hazy for me.

Dan told me that they then tried to give me a shot of Demerol. When that did nothing, they tried another, and a shot of Torvil? (Tordid?) Something like that. Still nothing. I do remember them telling me that I was going to get put into labor and delivery, just in case.

I remember them asking me to sign papers, and take off my earrings. I couldn't read what I was signing, nor would my signature be legal at that point I'm sure. I remember someone asking me if I have ever had morphine. Dan took over the converstation at this point, although he did say that he was surprised, since my answers to questions were still coherent. I don't believe he let them give me morhpine, as I had already had all the other stuff.

They did an emergency C Cection. and I remember them holding Gunnar to my right side to show me that he was born. I could see the outline, and consciously recognized what they were showing me, but couldn't respond.

I woke up in the L and D room, and they finally wheeled me to the Postpartum Tower for recovery.

I spent Monday pretty much out of it, trying to work the drugs out of my system. And then spent the next 5 days trying to get my own body to regulate itself to the point where I could come home. My Blood Pressure still is not consistant. The Dr. is hoping that with some time, and "normalacy" it will start to regulate itself again.

So here I am. At home, pumping for my baby who is in NICU. For the next 9 weeks (ish) we will have to try to transition to this new way of life, before we can bring Gunnar home with us. He seems to be doing really well. Very stubborn in fact, and wants to do eveyrthing for himself. Hmmm. Wonder where he gets that trait from.

Keep him in your prayers. We dont' need anymore excitement. For those that are asking, seems the shower is still on. Just remember that he is very PREMIE now. :)

And More Testing....

2008-02-26T19:31:00.000-08:00

Another Dr. Appt. Blood pressure still up - and I gained 4 lbs. in 4 days... Nurse said most is water retention, especially after she saw my ankles - or lack there of. I now get to go to the dr. every week, instead of most people's every other week. UGH. He wants to continue watching the BP, and now he wants to start making sure that our little guy doesn't get himself too stressed out as well. So I will be doing a NST *Non Stress Test. They told me basically they hook me up, I get to sit in a chair and they monitor the baby. Sounds pretty simple.

I finally have a person in my classroom full time. I'm really excited about that. My students have been showing their most colorful selves, so it's been even harder knowing that and still sitting on the couch all day long.

Oh well, time will pass. :)

Fingers Crossed didn't work

2008-02-21T01:17:00.000-08:00

Well, my "incarceration" continues. The Dr. is worried about toxemia/preclampsia. I guess I'm showing some classic signs of it right now, and he is trying to slow it down. That's my best guess. I guess some of the symptoms are headaches (which I don't have), extreme swelling of the feet, hands and face, High Blood pressure, and fast weight gain. Yup - you guessed it, I have all but the headaches. So I'm out for the count until gunnar arrives. Dr. said he wants to make sure I make it another 7 weeks before he will not be so concerned. Lets hope that I can last that long.. UGH. OK, so I've had a lot of people ask what is this toxemia/preclampsi - well, basically the dr. said it's like my body is trying to reject the pregnancy - or a type of "allergy" to it. From what I've been reading, only a few people get it. UGH, and I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. Good thing - I'm not on strict "bedrest", but was told to become more of a couch potato. Guess Days of our Lives will have a faithful follower for the next few months. Only problem is... this messes with my whole plan on spending the time with Gunnar after he was born, now I will only have the summer time... unless he comes early.

Fingers Crossed

2008-02-20T10:21:00.000-08:00

OK, my fingers are definatly crossed - that this is the last day of my "incarceration".... as my sister so lovingly phrased it. I did get back my glucose testing results and those were all good - so that eased my mind a lot. Although I must admit - it's very nice not getting up to an alarm, or any specified time, and lounging around the house... lol.. although it's boring at the same time, because I'm not even supposed to be up doing ANYTHING... which my dearest friends, family and hubby are making sure. However, I must admit that my hubby sends me out on a couple errands once he gets home - I think so I don't "attack" him by needed adult stimulus when he comes home. Right now he begs me to go call someone just to leave him alone.. lol..
My Dr. appt. is at 4 today, so I will be beggin him to let me go back to work. It's hard when I know the kids are not acting correctly, and the subs are not following what is needed to be done. I hope that I can go back - just to get normalacy back in my classroom. This has def. been an eye opener, that I need to have things closer to being done for my maternaty leave... the whole time I'm thinking that I have 3 months and maybe I won't... maybe I will have to suffer on bedrest for 3 months.. UGH.. Lets all keep our fingers crossed. :)

The newest Development

2008-02-12T06:37:00.000-08:00

Well, here's the latest development.. :(

I have been put on bedrest for at least 1 week. I'm REALLY hopeing that I will be able to go back after that - cuz it's only day 1 and I'm already stir crazy. :)

Here's the background. Saturday and Sunday I noticed that my feet seem to be swollen way more than usual. Dan said he could even see it in my face. So most of the weekend, I tried to take it easy, and elevate the feet - and drink lots of water. That didn't seem to help. On Monday I showed my feet/ankles to the school nurse - and she made me have my blood pressure taken. It was quite elevated she said. She made me call the Dr and tell them about the ankles and the blood pressure, they said that they would fax over orders to Tbird Banner Obi-Triage Center, and that I should get someone to take me. UGH - you all know how much it bothers me to no do things myself sometimes, and they wouldn't even let me drive to the hospital even though I thought I felt fine.

I get there - they hook me up to all kinds of monitors. Gunnar was kicking away, which was funny to hear on the monitor. It was almost like he was saying - hey, I like all the attention....

They monitored my BP and yup - it was elevated. The Dr/Nurse said that according to my chart, I was elevated quite above my "norm". So I had to lay there while they did urine samples, and blood work. They were specifically looking for Preclampsia. Well, good thing - they didn't come across anything that was abnormal in that area. After consulting with my OBGyn, told me that I have a week of bedrest to see if it helps with the BP, and then I might be able to go back to work.. UGH. I sure hope it does, cuz I know I won't be able to sit around the house for 3 months until Gunnar makes his arrival. Anyway, that's the newest development. Feel free to email me, cuz I will be extra bored, and need something to do.

Some Really Good News

2008-02-03T12:38:00.001-08:00

OK, so those of you that know what happened with Dan and a Car accident the weekend of our wedding - will be VERY happy to hear, there is no longer any chance of a lawsuit. According to the Lawyer, the son who had started the lawsuit has passed on, and there are no heirs to carry on the lawsuit. This was great news, because we had just gotten a letter indicating that the trial was to start in July.

OK, now here's the other bit of news... since now my mom figured out the name of the baby, I thought we could officially let people know what his name is going to be......

Gunnar Howard Ridley

Baby Stuff

2008-01-12T15:59:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I am officially registered now at Babies R Us -and although there are about 5 things I want to research before I list things, I basically have my list done.

Here is the BabiesRUs.com registery number - 58010390. You can also look it up via mine and dan's name.

I've created a seperate registry for the bedding that I want, since it can not be found at Babies R us. You can locate My Registry HERE You can also look up "Critter Chatter by NoJo" online and find most of the products. I will try to keep it as updated as possible, as I'm not sure if you can indicate that it's been bought - or if I have to.

Painting Day

2007-12-29T05:41:00.000-08:00

Ok, so today we are going to start painting the walls for the nursery... if you would like to see the pattern, go to this website...
Critter Chatter

Christmas is over

2007-12-25T20:25:00.000-08:00

Nothing really exciting going on now. Grandma came for Christmas and will stay through the new year. It's nice to have her down here in this nice weather. Christmas Eve was the traditional meal of Lefsa and Lutefisk with some swedish meatballs thrown in for those who don't like our traditions.. :) Then we got to open gifts. Every one was excited about their gifts and we had to come home and put one together - our new TV stand for the flat screen. We look modern now. :)

Dan and I also talked about next year when we have a little one roaming around, and what we want to start doing for traditions. Weird to be talking about next year already, but I guess there is no time like the present. :)

It's the end of the day, and we are both headed off to bed. After 3 days of not working, Dan is stir crazy, and my goal is to get my bedding picked out for the baby, so I can buy paint and have a painting party. :) Keep your fingers crossed for me, cuz I'm going to try like crazy to do it. :)

Have a Great Week that ends this year, and works it's way into the next. God Bless.

Our Big Day

2007-12-17T14:53:00.000-08:00

Ok, It's official. We now can start referring to the baby with a gender. :) It's a boy!
It was fun to watch the Sonogram. She said that we have a healthy baby.

Practicing

2007-12-15T19:28:00.000-08:00

We are playing with the new video camera that we got - so now I have to try and put it on the blog... Sooo, here's Jack
Wow, I never thought it could be that difficult to learn something new... lets only hope that it works.. :)

Well, it didn't. guess I will try another night. :(

Dan's Birthday

2007-12-10T18:55:00.000-08:00

Pearl Harbor Day - the day all America remembers. And we have a special reason to remember it in our house - it's Dan's Birthday!!. We started out by going out to Fajittas for dinner - which ironically has become Dan's favorite resterant. On Saturday, we had my family over for some "Cake" - which he wanted a cookie - so I made sure I got one when I was out shopping for Xmas gifts.

Sunday left us by ourselves and we went out and bought a Christmas tree, and a Baby Dresser and Crib. That was fun trying to get them all in the house. The animals seem to love the tree. We just have to make sure the cats dont climb up it. I will make sure I get a good picture of it to post here - we might even get the video camera to work and be able to show the twinkling lights.

Nothing really new

2007-12-05T03:33:00.001-08:00

So we had another Dr. Appt. yesterday. Again he just listened to the heartbeat - which by the way is 158. Talked about drinking more water, and asked if I've chosen a pediatrician.

Heck, I hadn't put much thought into a pediatrician...so he gave me a couple of numbers to call and check them out. Am I suppsed to "interview" them???? What do I ask them? I figured I would just go to the nearest Dr - just like I do for me, and then if I didn't like them - that's whne I would make a change. But I guess I need to know so they come visit the baby in the hospital. :)

Everyone seems to have a guess on whether it's a boy or girl. Really, a girl, seems to be winning. Only 2 people have indicated that I will have a boy. I did some researching online last night into myths about predicting the sex of the baby. According to the Chinese Lunar calandar, I will be having a girl. According to heartbeat, I will be having a girl, and according to whether Dan gains weight during the pregnancy, I will be having a boy. Although it was fun to look at the different myths... I know that we have to wait until my ultrasound, and then it doesn't mean that it's absolute. So, take a guess if you want, but I'm not putting much stock into what everyone says. As long as he/she is healthy, I will be happy. :)

Thanksgiving weekend

2007-11-25T17:34:00.000-08:00

Happy Belated Thanksgiving. I've been meaning to write in here all weekend - however, just never got the energy to compose my thoughts. Now it's sunday, and I should at least make the effort.. :)

Thanksgiving was only Mom, Dan and I at our house. Everything tasted wonderful. Amy's dogs were over, along with Asha, so we had quite the animal house. Amy and Scott were in CA with his family. Pretty quiet Thanksgiving.

Then it was Black Friday - the most irratic shopping day ever. I tried it. Was generally surprised. I do remember going a few years back to Best Buy and waited like 2 hours in line, however, they seem to have figured things out - we were 3rd in line. That was cool. And Wallyworld was the same - lots of people inside the store, but got through the checkout lines in fast order.

Because it was so easy, I really do have most of my Xmas shopping done. That is WAY nice.

Saturday was Lefse making. We managed to finish up 2 complete batches before I called it done. :) I was tired. My back was killing me. Everyone had a good time. I think we finally finished about 4pm.

Sunday was clean up the house day. I worked on the office and Dan worked in the Garage. We are trying really hard to get things ready so I can go out and get some baby furniture - oh, and speaking of baby... watch for the announcement probably close to the end of the month. :)

Seems like forever

2007-11-06T16:06:00.000-08:00

Ok, so since last time I wrote - only a couple of things happened - Dan and I joined my family for my cousin's wedding in Omaha. Very Pretty. Kudos to my aunt for doing this all out of town. It was fun getting together with the whole family. Getting to see cousins that I haven't seen in years, since they weren't able to come to my wedding due to Iraq - it was great. My family sure knows how to welcome people into the family. :)

And today we had our second dr. appt. Got to hear the heart beat. I think I was expecting the thump thump that you hear through a stethescope... but it was a whooshing sound.. I listened to it and started to laugh - so the dr. was only able to listen for a little bit. 160 beats per minute. It's amazing. He said it's about 3 inches long. WOW - it's tripled in size. I keep reading my book to see what it's doing next, and it's just amazing what's going on - AND I didn't even gain any weight. I did break down and buy some maternity pants - cuz gosh those snaps/buttons sure do cut you in the stomach... All the styles of clothes out there are pretty much the same as Maternity, so I really don't have to worry too much about the tops.

We are both sick right now. As Dan is reading over my shoulder, he says hello to the world. Ok, those of you who really know him, know he's not saying hi, especially when he's sick. So I will just leave it at that.

Something new

2007-10-23T06:48:00.000-07:00

1st Ultrasound

2007-10-08T09:04:00.000-07:00

So I got the first Ultrasound - and was amazed at what you could already see. At first glance, it just looked like a bean, but then the DR. started pointing out things - and wow - I could even see the heart beating. He gave me a DVD of the whole thing, but I can not figure out how to get it onto here.. :( But here is one pic that he gave to me on paper that I scanned...

1st Official Appointment

2007-09-25T17:17:00.000-07:00

ok, so today was just not that exciting for a Dr. Appointment. I met with a nutritionist who basically just told me to eat healthy and not listen to all those wives tales. :) Then I had to do my 1st pee in a cup - which apparantly I get to do EVERY time I go.. ugh. Good thing by the end of talking to her, I actually did have to go.. lol
I also got to talk to the benefits person, and had to fork over some $$ but this is the one and ONLy time I have to.. Whoo hoo.
I read somewhere that I was supposed to be drinking 8-12 oz. glasses of water - so I tried it the next day.. Oh my, that was a horrible thing to have to pee that MANY times in one day. I'm pretty sure I used up a whole roll of TP.. lol. Good thing the nutritionist said only at least 64oz total... That MIGHT be manageable, but still will be hard to focus on doing. I forget during the day when I 'm teaching.. and then to top it off, there is no bathroom anywhere close, so that will be creative as it gets closer to the time..

Oh yeah, the official due date.... I was right...... May 12, 2008

Dan's Promotion

2007-09-07T18:24:00.000-07:00

OK, so Dan got a promotion. We are totally excited. It is bringing about changes in the house - now we will be able to buy different furniture for our spare bedroom - the one room that hasn't been totally put together yet. I think we might save for a couple of months before we go hog wild and buy everything we want. You know me and money - gots to make sure it will continue before I "bet" on it. Anyway...
Back to Dan's promotion *And these are his words....
I'm getting promoted from Husband to Daddy. :)
WOW - did I stun you? I know the news actually came as a shock to us as well. We've been hoping and praying for it - but for some reason I just figured it wasn't our time. So now I need some suggestions for the BABY room. :)
How we told our family... Well, Mom we took out to dinner on Thursday night and Dan told her the Promotion story... she almost fell out of her chair in excitement. We just got done telling Amy and Scott - I put a Boyd's Bear at her place setting that said - Bestest Aunt - She was all teary eyed. Dan's mom and dad we had to call and they were sreaming at the other end of the phone. It was all very exciting.. :)
I got a book that says what goes on every day, and today, the baby is the size of a ballpoint pen. By Sunday it will be about the size of a sesame seed. Wow - it's amazing - cuz this little thing already makes me go to the bathroom a WHOLE lot more.... :)
I'm about 5 weeks along. The Dr only did a blood test and so I have to go to an ObGyn to find out the official due date - however, Dan and I are guessing about Late April, or Early May. This will work out perfect for me, as I can take the end of the year off and then also have the summer to be with the baby and not worry about work.
I go on the 25 to talk to the nutritionist. I'm sure they will tell me to not drink cafeine - which I've already stopped - and to eat healthier - which I'm trying... only thing that I'm worried about - is if they don't let me take the drugs for allergies and asthma - the prevention stuff I take... that would be a huge bummer, cuz the spring is my horrible time for that....

So that's the story... and I'm sticking to it.. :)

OK, so this weekend we weren't together

2007-08-20T11:31:00.000-07:00

So my girlfriend from college got married. At first it was going to be Dan and I taking the trip. Although we never have traveled extremely well together, it was going to be fast and furious. When I was talking to another friend, wondering if she got an invite, we had the bright idea.... Let's leave Dan at home so she could go to the wedding with me. At least she would know some of the people and I would know more than the bride, her parents, the maitron of Honor and her parents. :)

So... we finally leave about 5 pm on Friday. We stop in Blythe for dinner and I finish my low flying lesson. :) We get into Whittier to stay at Millie's house around 11. Of course then we have to stay up until prob. 2 gossiping and chatting about all the stuff that was going on. I was beat.

Millie's son, Alejandro, woke us up by saying "Goodmorning" several times at 7 Am. That got our day rolling. Juan and Millie made Churizo's (sp?) for breakfast and then we were out the door to go visit Kristi, Mike and Abby. We had only seen pics of Abby, and Katie had not ever med Mike, so that was another catch up story. I didn't get a pic of Mike, but here is Kristi with Abby...

We went to lunch with them all, and then had to RUN back to Millie's house to get dressed for the wedding. No Joke - we got ready in 20 min - but were still 10 min late to the wedding since Katie wasn't being a good navigator.

Here is Susana and Manny inside the church...

So we sit through the wedding and look around and realize that we know very few people... lol

Then we head over to the reception. It was at the Sky Links golf course. Very pretty place. I'm sure that they got some awesome pics. Inside the reception room, I couldn't seem to get any decent shots, except one - of all the Palmers. :)

The next morning, we headed back home. Was a very fast trip, but fun seeing everyone.

Oh yeah, what did Dan do? watch racing, and went and had a couple of drinks with a friend... not my idea of exciting, but we both had a great weekend, and it's nice to sleep in my own bed again. :)

I've found my camera.. :)

2007-07-22T18:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, many people have asked for pictures of the new house. Now keep in mind that there is still some mess -but for the most part, we have unpacked a lot of boxes, and are just trying to figure out where to put everything.... Here is the tour.

These walls face each other ... We just got a huge TV so Dan can watch the cars go around, and around, and around....

(note the cage in the right - watch for the animal that goes in there.)

This picture shows how the living room leads into the kitchen...

and then the kitchen is nice and open - with the dining room by that window.

This is the master bath... If you can see the door in the mirror - we've already added that door for a linen closet in a better place.

Below you will find the master bedroom.... Not done decorating yet, but you get the idea.

This is one of the spare rooms * its the room that everything has been put in until we know what to do with it...

Below is the guest bath, (Sorry, couldn't figure out how to edit the picture, once I had imported it. ) and until today, it was the cat's bathroom. However, we built a cat run, so the cats can go outside, and their litter box can be outside as well.

This is the "office" If you notice in the window is the cat door that leads out to the cat run.

Our nice big backyard... Dan has a shed that he has already decided is in the wrong place and wants to move it to where I'm standing with the camera. The cat run is just off the patio to the right. We are currently romoving all those rocks and are hoping for grass to grow.

Our newest adoption - Jack. He's a Lab/Beagle mix. Looking at him now, we think he has a bit more lab than beagle.

And I had to add one of my baby for good measure. Just so she knows she is not left out.

Finally

2007-07-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

OK, so this is the first time I've sat down to Blog since we moved. It's been a whirlwind week. We moved a couple of loads in last Wednesday, and Dan called at 8 in the morn saying he wanted to move then instead of Thurs afternoon like we had planned. Well, we got lucky and Uhaul had our truck for us, so he went and picked it up and we started moving. Ever helped us a great deal. By about 1 Dan went back for a second load of odds and ends, and cleaned up a bit, and we were basically out. I went back over there Friday morning to just do a double check before leaving the keys on the counter. Looking around, it was weird to see it so empty and knowing how much work I put into upgrading it. I really hope the new girl loves it as much as I did.

So the animals are having a hard time adjusting. Sadie just looks pitiful whenever I leave, and she desperately wants to go in the car and go "home" to where she recognizes. Scraps hides all day and then when he does come out he cries all night.. UGH.. Smudge is the only one that really doesn't care.

As soon as I get a chance, I will take pictures... so you can see how we are setting things up. the living room and the kitchen are basically done. We have a few more things in the bedroom to tidy up and then that's done. The spare rooms are where we put anything we didn't want to deal with yet...

We also got our appliances. It's amazing what new appliances do for the look of the kitchen. We broke down and got stainless steel, and yes, it's hard to keep fingerprints off of it. But boy, does it look nice.

Dan has already been playing in the backyard... watering, mowing, etc. He knows that there is lots to do, but seems to be willing..

OK, tomorrow is the 4th and we still havn't even decided what we are doing for fireworks... Last year we watched them from our upstairs bathroom window - now we don't have the upstairs, I wonder where fireworks will be. Guess Google will help out. :)

Our keys

2007-06-26T21:05:00.000-07:00

OK, so tomorrow we should be getting our keys - yeah!. Don't know what time, but I will at least pack up my car and bring Sadie over to do some sniffing out of the backyard. Dan wants to torment her and ask her if she wants to go home... and then say - you are home... but first he was going to lead her to the garage, have her get in his truck - ride around the block and then come back.... a lot of work for some psychological torture I think.. .

The official move is Thursday. We will pack up all the stuff in the truck Thurs afternoon - and prob. unload on Friday morning. Since 1/2 of our stuff is over at mom's house - it should be like Christmas getting some of our stuff back.. :) a nd then mom can have her room back as well.

Our House

2007-06-22T19:29:00.001-07:00

Well, we have officially sold the townhouse - and we have officially signed our lives away and I think our first born for the new mortgage. Although we are very excited to be moving, the fact of moving all of our "#$%!" is not looking exciting.. :( It will be interesting to see how Sadie reacts. I know that the cats will take about 2 hours of the first day - and about 2 weeks to truly settle in. I think that they will be excited about the cat run that we have planned for them. I'm excited if nothing else. We are trying to figure out something for Sadie to still have a dog door so if there are any suggestions out there - - - please send them my way. :)

Countdown continues

2007-06-20T20:56:00.001-07:00

OK, we have 1 more week. I didn't know that moving/selling was SOOOOO stressful. We have almost everything already packed except neccessities. We are even eating on paper plates already. Can you tell we want out? I still don't have many people to help us out with moving.... Come on.... Friday - take the day off work? Plan on losing some pounds... put it all back on with some pizza and soda? lol Friday the 29th. Here we come.

Getting closer

2007-06-17T13:27:00.000-07:00

OK - 2 weeks - we are on the countdown. We move. We did just go looking at some new appliances. That was one of the first things that we wanted to update. There are several projects that we have in store, but for the time being, functionality was our prime concern. Dan is also very concerned about hitting his head on the sliding shower doors, so I'm sure that will be one of the first things once we move in as well. I have more cosmetic ideas in mind. Dan gets to focus on the backyard a bit where he will get to move a bunch of rocks - know any kids that want to earn a few bucks? :) Hopefully the old man will leave his wheel barrow in the shed - at least that is what I'm hoping so I dont' have to go buy one. Come help us move and unpack.. :)

Another update

2007-06-06T07:51:00.000-07:00

OK, we've gotten back the word that they accepted what we would fix in our house - and what we said no to. Sounds like a plan. Now we are waiting for the guy to say he will fix the one thing on our list - the roof tiles. Dan says that even if he won't do it - we are still buying the house. I know he is right, because Dan can fix the roof, we just figured it would be nicer if it's already done. Who wants to help move? I've not had any takers on that one yet....

ok - Trying another time. :)

2007-05-28T08:01:00.001-07:00

Here it is... We just got the word that our offer was accepted....

Isn't it cute? It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house in the Northwest valley. We are excited. We are despirately hoping that nothing goes wrong this time.

If you are interested in seeing some of the other pictures, click on this link - hopefully it works -

http://armlslistings.marketlinx.com/Search/Scripts/MediaDisplay.asp?MlsNum=2764907&UID=2919978&PropType=RES

It has some great fruit trees in the backyard, with a large lot that Dan has already started making plans for. It's kind of nice because we can do things to this house - and before the other house was already done. We will have to have a house warming party and have everyone over for a party when we get settled, which should hopefully be the end of June. Keep your fingers crossed for us. :)

She has accepted, now we wait

2007-05-23T06:26:00.000-07:00

OK, so she accepted our counter offer so it looks like we have a sale - again. Lets hope that she doesn't have 3 cats..... So we should be moving around the end of June.... Now we have to go look at houses all over again. Dan is anxious to do this - I'm not really. I feel like it will go sour again. Serious pessimism this time. :( But if it does work out - who wants to help us move. :)

Is it 3 times is the charm - or 3 strikes you are out?

2007-05-19T19:52:00.000-07:00

OK, we just received another offer - this one a little bit more believable. We countered - so now we have to wait to see if she accepts. Keep your fingers crossed for us please. :)

Another stupid one

2007-05-05T18:12:00.000-07:00

OK, so we just got another offer on the house - Susan (Realtor) came over with the offer - it was obnoxious. almost $15,000 under our listing price - and they wanted concessions on top of it. Said no way - sent them back an offer - and they raised their offer a mere $4,000. Just told Susan to scrap it. No way, not going to take less than what we wanted. So we wait for the next offer to come our way. I'm not in a hurry - now that our house that we wanted is gone (or rather our contract is void - we can only hope it is still there when we get a decent offer that goes through.

For those of you who know about my possible job offer - we are scrapping that idea as well. Plus it doesn't bode well with me that it took so long for him to even get back with me and make the offer (it has now been 2.5 weeks) So maybe I'm supposed to stay in this house - and stay in this job for now. :) We shall see what HE has planned I guess.

I hate stupid people

2007-04-26T06:30:00.000-07:00

ok - so we no longer have a sale on the condo and had to relist it. The lady was stupid. I won't even go into details about how stupid she is - however, it caused us to have to withdraw our contract on our beautiful house. Makes me sad. So now we are back to square one with waiting for someone to claim our house before we start the whole process over again..... UG I just really dispise the system that lets her do this to us.

Nope - no deal and now....

2007-04-11T06:31:00.000-07:00

OK, so he didn't think our deal was good enough AND he didn't want to wait until we had our house sold. But the jokes on him. We have already signed the paperwork for the house - only 2 days after it was on the market. Our agent is totally cool. 2 DAYS --that is unheard of. So now we have until May 31 to move out - but to my chagrin, I have no idea where we are moving to. We have a general area that we would like to be, but there are not many houses within our price range. So we keep looking, and I'm really tired of going through all the houses on the internet.. BHAH. it's so hard to see what they are trying to sell in some of the pictures. It is amazing that after our agent told us how the house needs to look and all the stuff we had to do to our house. We had to take down ALL pictures of us - all cluttered knick knacks, basically make our house look like those houses on trading spaces.. :) Well, we got it done, and it paid off. :)

And now...

We have a house.. :) we put an offer in on another house. And we just got notified that we got it. I'm totally excited, as is Dan - but Happy Birthday to me.. :)

First House?

2007-04-04T20:24:00.000-07:00

OK, seems like I manage to write here about once month.. OK, no laughing.

Here is our news. :) We just put an offer in on a new house. It's a little bit west and a little bit north of us now. But it is 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, with a backyard so Dan can get the dog that he wants. :) The kitchen is big enough so now I think that I probably will be hosting the lefse day - since I will hopefully have these long counters for everyone to stand around.

That's all the news we have. I will try to post as soon as I have news on if we get the house or not.

1st Anniversary

2007-03-05T05:51:00.000-08:00

Well, Today is the day, our Big 1st Anniversary. It's amazing how fast time has flown. Feels just like yesterday that we still were planning our big shindig - and now we have moved on.

Speaking of moving. Dan and I have decided to get a bigger place. I secretly think that he just wants a room to design.. lol. So we met with the realestate lady yesterday. We have some painting and some minor fixing to do, but other than that, it looks good that we can put the place on the market at the end of the month. Anyone want to help paint? pack? store our stuff? lol. She said we need to de-clutter. To Dan that meant throw away. I quickly corrected him. :)

So that's our only news. Hope all is well.

Following Orders

2007-01-19T17:56:00.000-08:00

OK, I was told that I needed to write more in here.. :) Thanks JS

OK, lets see what's happened since the last time I wrote...

Well, Dan got into a car accident.... with the new truck we just bought. He was on the freeway and it was bumper to bumper... and the lady behind him didn't pay attention to the stop and go that was going on. Hense the accident. OK, so they exchange information, and she leaves, and that's when I get the phone call that there's been an accident. I can insurance, because we don't really know the proceedure... and they tell us to call the cops to get a report. In writing the report, he calls her insurance *or her son's because that's whose car she was driving. Turns out - no such policy....

OK, so we start the proceedings with our insurance.. And low and behold, she calls a couple days later claiming to want to make good on the fact it was her fault. I become hopeful... Dan gets an estimate - and it comes in under our insurance deductable... and I'm thinking - wow this isn't too bad, at least it's not as bad as it could be. I fax her the estimate, and we set up a time to meet.

Here's the clincher. I recognize the address as being in the school's attendance area, so I know the area fairly well. We pull up to the house... and yup - you guessed it... her daughter is in the class next door.

So now everyone knows that her mom hit my hubby. I even had another parent come up to me and ask how DH was doing after the accident.. :) That's my story and I'm sticking to it.