Friday, December 12, 2008

Oh Christmas Tree (Sang with a growl for Nikos)





The other night we attempted to make Christmas cookies with our friends and housemates the Boyles. Really, we needed to do something to make up for the all the slacking we have done this year Christmas related. There is some guilt for Skylar's sake. 

Here is Zack and the gorgeous Ella, just hangin' around. 

Skylar and Ella are in jail.

Sorry, these pics are out of order... 
Sky putting on the icing
Look at how wonderfully Christmas this looks! With our pink, blue and yellow icing and pink and hot orange sprinkles...
Sky is tasting out the dough
Pushing on the cookie cutter :)

Sky-baby wanted to help out too, you can tell just how helpful she is. :)
p.s. before you send us anonymous checks in the mail, our cupboards are not generally that bear, we are in the process of packing and movin. 
My little hoppy toad :)
Ken and I really love each other. You can really see it on Ken's face...
Oh, those Boyles. They think they're so much bettier than us crumpier peeps. (I just had to get that in there somewhere!)
Such beatimus decorations! Just so you know, the tree has snow on it. And no, Carey has never seen snow before; she is from Texas. 
Eggnog! We went all out this time!
Sky-baby had a few too many cookies... Look at that belly!


Saturday, December 6, 2008

A new kind of Christmas Carol... :)

Jason the Red-Nosed Baby (from Babytalk magazine)
This one is for you Lianna :)

Jason the red-nosed baby
Had a wet and hacking cough,
Yet his obnoxious mommy
Didn't call his playdates off.

All of the other mommies
Panicked later in their vans,
Squirting Purell like crazy,
Fearing for vacation plans.
Then, before her own vacay,
Jason's mother groaned,
"I've got such a temperature,
I'll be stuck in bed for sure."

Then how the mommies gloated
As they whispered out of spite,
"Sorry she can't go skiing,
But it kind of serves her right!"

Monday, December 1, 2008

Everything always happens when I'm by myself!

This is going to be a random post. Be warned. 

Ok, so not only did I see bits and pieces of the movie, "Home Alone", a Christmas classic this past weekend (lets face it, with a toddler, I don't see too many movies nowadays, much less the entire thing), but I am as suggested, home alone. (Unless you count the Boyles who live here too). (Oh yea, and the lady who lives upstairs). (If you want details b/c you are confused, don't worry I am too... just try renting out the place!)

Just so you know, it always seems to work out that when Ken is gone, all of the bad stuff happens. Skylar gets sick, I get sick, I have to be hospitalized, all of my school work is due, the car breaks down, etc. etc. It always happens when Ken is away and I am here by myself. Always!

For example, last time Ken was gone for a two-week stretch right before T-giving; my thesis was due and then I had to prepare for and defend it orally (on top of my other school work); the car broke down, and Skylar got sick. Each of these has its own interesting story. Lets start with the car.

I let Zack (Boyle) drive my car since his broke down (bad omen?) since he works at night and it didn't mess me up at all. Well, the first night, the car wouldn't start for him and he had to get it jumped and the passenger side window got stuck all the way down. Just a note: it was raining all night and day.  

So, the nice guys at my work cut up a box and duck taped it to my window so the rain couldn't get in. 

I couldn't even shut my door all the way.

And they were nice enough to decorate the box for me... I should have taken a pic.  Anywhoo, had to get that fixed. 

Next up: Skylar gets sick. 
Ken leaves Friday morn and Friday afternoon I get home from teaching and Skylar has a low-grade fever. I assume it is teething as there are no other indicators. Around 8pm, she is going to sleep and I take her temp again and it is 104. I'm a little worried, but give her a second bath (cool bath) and start rotating the Tylenol and Motrin to see if it would go down. Long story short, her fever went up to 105, but finally went back down to 101 by 8am. Spend the whole day with a crankster whose fever stays around 100-101 until around 10pm when she wakes up crying and I check on her and realize she is burning up. Fever: 105. Again. Repeat of previous night. Wakes up and fever is down again. Another day with the crankster.

At this point, I am exhausted as I have been up all night giving meds, and Skylar was miserable during the day and of course refused to take a nap. And I haven't gotten any schoolwork completed (like preparing for my oral defense on Tuesday.)  However, the good news is that her fever is down to 99, so she's fine now. 

Get Skylar up before I leave Monday morn and go to change her dipe. There's a large rash all over her torso. Oh yea, and she hasn't peed since yesterday morning. Call the doc and set up an appt to come in. I leave student teaching at 8:30 and take Sky to the peds office where they tell me I have an outstanding balance. What? I shouldn't. They go to check on it. 

The nurse checks her weight and stick some sort of pee-trap device on her to measure her pee amount. Meanwhile, the doc comes in to check Sky out and tells me she has so and so virus, its common, harmless and non-contagious. Great! While we are here why don't we go ahead and check her iron levels and save me that trip in on Friday? Sounds like a plan. 

Then the billing lady comes in the room while we are waiting for the results. No, its not a mistake. Skylar is not listed on our insurance. Since August. About 4 visists ago. I call the insurance company and they do not have any dependents listed for me and cannot add any after the beginning of the semester. Student insurance. This is the second time they have goofed like this. Only this time, there is nothing they will do about it. Our outstanding balance when all is said and done will be in the thousands of dollars. Great. I'm ready to cry now. 

Nurse comes back in: Did they tell you we are going to re-check her blood b/c her levels seem off? No? Sorry, but can you hold her again while she screams. Actually, she didn't even make a peep the second time! She just looked at her band-aids on her toes and wiggled her toes/tried to take the band-aids off. 

Doctor comes in: Well, there are some concerns. Heart plummets. With her iron? Well, her iron is still low, but that is expected, just keep up the vitamins. However, her white blood cell count is really low, lower than is should be even considering the virus and this can be really bad. Perhaps she is just dehydrated. We will need you to come back in tomorrow to check her count again. And whatever you do, don't go home and google "white blood cells" or else you will frighten yourself to death. ?!? Ok, doc, thanks for the advice. (Also adding up the charges for the visit today and tomorrow to our ever-increasing balance in my head). 

In the meantime, go off milk for the day and just do clear liquids. Even though it is already two hours past her naptime, keep her up for the next four hours and every five minutes give her two-three tspns of water to see if she will pee then. ... Carey- you are my hero! (I dropped Skylar back off at the house and went back to student teaching).  Four hours later, Skylar is asleep and still has not peed. Two hours later she wakes up and still no pee, so I call the doctor again. Repeat the four-hour deal again. Call me at home if nothing after that. Three hours later, she finally pees a little. And then again on the bathroom rug when I go to give her a tubby. Way to go babe!

The next day, Carey must take Skylar in for her check-up as I will be defending my thesis. See her blog about her wonderful experience...  And Skylar's levels were much better; on the road to normal. Can we see her back in here in two weeks to check her levels again? Sure doc, we've got an extra five hundred dollars to come see you right before Christmas and when we are going to move. 

Kudos if you read all of this. 




Sunday, November 30, 2008

Thanksgiving 2008

Wagon time! I love the built-in babysitters.
What? A picture of me?  Oh right, I took it myself!
Boys and their guns. They ran out and got 
them asap before the bans...
Everyone wanted to ride in the wagon with Skylar! I love Austin's face!
Bella telling the pup-pup to come here. 
The girls had to play too. 
Running for base!
The porch was safe. Skylar wanted to play too.
Love this face!
Football princess.

Thanksgiving part 1 with my family. 

All the grandkids, except for Chad. 
Skylar made herself at home by putting her 
feet on Bella's lap. You can see how excited Bella was. :)
All the great grandkids. 


Fall days

Cute baby with a leaf.
We've only worn this hat and gloves set once. 
We've already lost a glove...
Trying to find Cheyanne's bebo. 
No, Cheyanne, you cannot put your shirt
 back down. So bossy Skylar, gosh.
Aww! 

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Tea Party with friends... :)

Feeding the dog with the fork... She does much 
better with the dog that with herself. :)
p.s. I love how she is opening her mouth too...
Making sure doggy doesn't have too much 
food in his mouth. Silly doggy. 
Doggy must be sooo thirsty- you better 
drink your milk doggy!

Having fun at granny's!





We arrived at granny's house late Saturday night and have been playing all day ever since; in between seeing family and friends and going shopping, (see previous post...) Granny has a really nice doll house that Skylar loves and her new play kitchen just arrived today (her Christmas present though I'm sure she will forget in the three weeks she will be gone). Skylar also LOVES my mom's dog Lucy and spends most of her time chasing her around the house and yard. 

R.I.P Froggy #3



R.I.P. Froggy # 3. You will be missed. You had a short life, but it was a well served. You did your duty well. I'm terribly sorry that you had to end your life in a tragic meeting with Mr. Hoover. After multiple surgeries and two day of recovery you just were not able to make it. Luckily, you bore a child to replace you before you passed. You were always thinking of others before yourself. Mr. Hoover will too meet his end one day. 

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The passing of the defense!

Yay for me! After months of preparation, weeks of constant writing, and days of agony, I have finally passed the oral defense of my master's thesis. I actually wrote a thesis, defended it and it passed. I can't believe it! 

Imagine giving a 20-minute presentation on a thesis that was an archival analysis of your advisor's pet project, a subject in which he is a leading researcher. Then having to field questions related to your thesis and accompanying research for the next forty-five minutes. I'm sure I would have sounded brilliant to someone who was minimally versed in the subject of person-centered planning in functional behavioral assessments; or the difference between a multi-element and reversal design with a partial interval system recording. However, I'm sure I was a blubbering idiot in front of my advisor and second reader. Two people who have each published more research than I am old. 

Imagine me throwing up a little bit in my mouth shortly before speaking. Especially when I realized that, true to myself, I saved the unedited version of my powerpoint to my flashdrive. Oh yeah, that was a great move, B. 

However, it is all over. I now have to do some last edits and figure out how to get it bonded for the college. And of course, catch up on the weeks worth of schoolwork that I have neglected. 

-B

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Conflicted about abortion. Pro-life or Pro-choice?

Lately, the cause of abortion has come up several times in several ways in my life. With the election, learning about failed abortions and providing life-saving treatments, to the substitute in my school's class, to my housemate posting a note about the website www.abort73.com. So, I decided to take a look at this website and have rarely been so conflicted with anger and sadness for these little babies. I have always heard many things about abortion, but never knew what exactly takes place through my own ignorance as there have been available answers for many years now if I cared to look online.

 The bottom line is, I needed to make a choice. Either I was pro-life or pro-choice as there is no in between. I thought I could secretly be pro-choice and just not force my opinion on other people- especially those that were forced into having to make a choice themselves by someone else's act of violence (i.e., rape victims). I always said things like, "oh, I could never do it myself, but who am I to tell other people what to do. I can't be their moral judge." Basically I was just coping out from making a truly informed decision about how I felt on abortion because I did not want to put myself in the same group as a radical christian or republican. As if the two are the same. This is not a religious decision for me. 

Now, I realize how wrong I was. By not being pro-life, I was pro-choice. And although the term "pro-choice" sounds great, it is actually just a way to disguise what abortion really is. The murder of defenseless baby. Please see the website www.abort73.com and look at the philosophical section as it lists out all of the reasons why abortion is wrong- even for those babies of unwanted pregnancies, rape, poverty, drug addiction, etc. It is not about choice or circumstance- it is about humanity. The bottom line if whether or not you believe a baby become a human after it is born or while still in the womb. For me, it was the video of the baby being aborted at 12 weeks of gestation that finally convinced me to be "pro-choice" by choosing to be pro-life. When I saw the video of the baby innocently sucking his thumb in the womb seconds before trying desperately to get away from the suctioning instrument (vacuum) that would tear his limbs from his body, there was no doubt left for me that the baby sensed danger and tried to save his own life- however defenseless he was. And this baby was only at 12 weeks gestation. Imagine what it is like for the babies who are aborted at 21 weeks of gestation- when they are viable. 

And what angers me even more is to think that even after being aborted, some babies are still born alive. They are failed abortions that are born and are still alive. Please tell me that you don't think that innocent baby is not in pain, not aware of being in danger. The only difference between an aborted baby and an infant is where they live. One lives in a house (hopefully) while the other lives in the womb. In fact, some aborted babies are bigger and more developed that premature infants who live. This is wrong. 

My favorite quote from the website was from a well-known feminist Naomi Wolf who said, "How can we charge that it is vile and repulsive for pro-lifers to brandish vile and repulsive images if the images are real? To insist that the truth is in poor taste is the very height of hypocrisy. Besides, if these images are often the facts of the matter, and if we then claim that it is offensive for pro-choice women to be confronted by them, then we are making the judgment that women are too inherently weak to face a truth about which they have to make a grave decision. This view of women is unworthy of feminism." 

All I wanted to do here is state how I feel, and what brought me to that conclusion. Now I know what I will saw when the  next person asks me how I feel about abortion, because lately it seems to happen frequently. And I will be proud to say it. I am pro-life. 

p.s. I found it interested what the site said about Planned Parenthood and how it began; something I never would have known before.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Its a poopy of a day...





Today, Skylar had a record number of poops (past the age of 2 months). One this morning when she woke up, two more before 10am, then two more this afternoon.  Yes that is right. A total of five poopy diapers today.  We were just a butt-changing machine.