Bane Family Outing

I Miss Her

2011-03-26T22:23:00.001-05:00

I always slept with my phone beside my bed, in case mom called and needed me. There are mornings I wake up, still half asleep and see my phone, and think “I should call Mom”. And then I remember she’s gone. It’s been three weeks, and not a day goes by that I don’t think of her, or miss her. There’re days where I’m driving and have to pull the car over because I’m crying so hard I can’t see.

People say she’s in a better place. She’s not hurting anymore. And I say it’s bull shit. She’s not in a better place, because her place is here with me. She may not be hurting anymore, but I am. Grief, pain, and loss do not get better. Life doesn’t get better. It just gets…different.

Blue Eyed Boy

2010-08-28T22:27:00.001-05:00

I’m just sayin’…doesn’t he have the most beautiful blue eyes??

Sweet & Sour Meatballs

2010-08-26T06:26:00.001-05:00

I’m not really sure that these are actually sweet/sour meatballs, but that is what I’ve always called them!!

These are so good, and pretty quick and easy!

Ingredients:

1 lb hamburger
1/2 c. bread crumbs
1/4 c. milk
2 TB onion
1 t. salt
1 egg
(These are for the meatballs)

1/2 c. brown sugar
1 TB cornstarch
1 can 13 1/2 oz pineapple chunks, in syrup
1/2 c. white vinegar
1 TB soy sauce
(For sauce)

White Rice
Chopped Green Peppers

Mix the first set of ingredients and form into 1 1/2 inch meatballs. Cook over med-high heat until done, drain fat.

Add 2nd set of ingredients to meatballs, cover, and simmer 10 minutes. Add Green Peppers and cook another 5 minutes. Serve over white rice.

Enjoy!!

This Is What Our Animals Do All Day

2010-08-18T20:59:00.004-05:00

Pretty much, they just sleep all day, unless they are swallowing bouncy balls that need surgery to be removed, or playing too rough and ripping large holes in their shoulders, like Toby does...STUPID DOG!

I wash the basket cover, and then the cats take it over and get it all hairy again...

Or maybe they hop up on top of the mattresses for a nap...

Yes, WAAAAAAAYYYYY up there. I don't even know how he got up there.

And when Toby isn't otherwise occupied eating stuff and getting it lodged in his stomach, he is busy being Dalton's best buddy.

And for those of you that have been over here, and have met Toby (aka: Stupid Dog, aka: Spastic Dog, aka: The Dog That Never Stops Moving)...well, here is proof that he DOES sit still at times. As long as Dalton is loving on him! I am so glad that Dalton has found a new K9 buddy!!

Trouble Keeping Up

2010-08-18T20:57:00.001-05:00

Man, I am seriously having trouble keeping up with everything! Between working full time again, the boys and Chris, the house, the pets, and Save Our Strays…seriously, I am pooped!!

Just some cute pics for you. I thought I’d better get some out here so that the grandparents will get off my back (*cough* Dennis/Jil *cough*). Some of these pictures are king of grainy and washed out…a setting got changed on our camera and I can’t figure out how to fix out (I bet it was Jackson…)

Chris let the boys get in some coloring one night…

And now Jackson has tattoos!!

The boys helping me make banana bread…

I thought it was pretty funny that Jackson will run around in my shoes…

…until I figured out that he uses them to make himself just thismuchtaller to reach stuff!!

And I’m diggin’ our new king size bed, because when Dalton sleeps in it, he looks like my tiny little boy again. :)

Everyone Has A Shadow

2010-08-18T20:49:00.001-05:00

Well, at least Daddy does!!

More!!

2010-08-18T20:38:00.003-05:00

Jackson showing off his super awesome sign language skills...and just because his laugh is so stinkin' cute!!

When Did I Become the Mother of a Kindergartner?

2010-08-12T21:33:00.001-05:00

Holy Cow! Where does the time go? What the heck happened to my “baby”? Dalton started kindergarten last week!! He is going to year round school so he started a little earlier than most.

The first day of school. I have dreaded that day for months. Well, I’ve dreaded it for the entire last year, to be honest!

We got up early and I made Dalton’s favorite breakfast…eggs and bacon! That’s what he had picked out the night before. We ate, we got ready, and we left. Jackson was also starting daycare that same day. We went first to the daycare to drop off J (because it is very close to the house). Jackson, as I expected, cried when we left. As we were walking away down the hall, and I can still hear him crying, it took everything I had to not cry, too!

Then we went to Dalton’s school. Being the first day, EVERYONE was dropping their kids off, and the school really doesn’t have any parking, so we had to park about four blocks away!!

Dalton was so excited to go! He had absolutely no reservations about going, about us leaving him, anything! He’s such a social butterfly!

He put his backpack and lunch box in his cubby, took some pictures, and he promptly asked when we were going to leave!!

We found his name tag, and he went about his coloring! Again, I had to work very hard not to cry.

I just can’t believe how well he did, there really was no adjustment period. So then we walk out to the car, and I’m driving back to the house so that Chris can get his car and go to work…and I’m silently crying the whole way home. (I did NOT let Dalton see me cry!). When we walked through the door, I went to the bedroom and just sobbed! I know, I’m such a pansy! When did I become such a softie??

Last week they reviewed colors and shapes, and this week they’ve been going over colors/words of colors, etc. On Tuesday he came home with just a little homework…very small stuff. Practice writing his name, and then color in a page that had the names of the colors written out, and he was to color it the correct color. So I sit down with him and I’m about to make him say the letters out loud and sound them out to me when he says “Mom. R-E-D. That spells ‘red’.” WHAT?!? I was probably way more proud than I should have been, but what?!? Well, okay then, smarty-pants, you just go right ahead with what you’re doing!

I am so proud of him.

Jackson has adjusted pretty well to daycare, although he’s already sick! By the end of the first week, he had an ear infection and sinus infection. And by Tuesday of this week, he had a fungal infection! Ok, it’s ringworm. But “fungal infection” sounds so much better than “ringworm”. When I took him to the doctor, the doctor said that they have seen numerous cases of ringworm from kids (all boys for some reason) from several different daycares, and it’s going around. Even the doctor’s nurse’s son got it from his daycare!

Jackson stayed home yesterday and today until his anti-fungal meds kick in…he will take them for SIX WEEKS, and every two weeks we have to take him in to have his liver and kidneys checked. Bleh.

But all in all, it’s gone really well. Jackson now copies everything Dalton does…and he will carry Dalton’s lunch box out to the car in the mornings (oh, how he LOVES to carry the lunchbox!). Tonight he started wearing Dalton’s backpack around the house, which totally cracked us up, because it’s about as big as he is!!

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I mean, how cute is he?!?

Hello? Is This Thing On?

2010-07-30T23:44:00.001-05:00

Wow. It’s been, what, two months since I’ve blogged? We have been SO busy around here.

Jackson started speech therapy a while back. He’s doing pretty well! He uses some sign language now. He can sign for “eat”, “drink”, “more”, “help”, and “play”. He’s SO cute when he does it too, because he’ll sign, and then he gets this giant grin on his face, like he’s so proud that we know what he wants! He has started waving and pointing, too! He still only says “doggie” and “da-da”. But we are pointing and signing, and he is now following short directions. “Go throw this away, put this in the sink” etc etc.

Save Our Strays had our big annual vendor sale in June! We did pretty well this year and raised about $5,000!! It didn’t last very long, though! We have more fosters now than ever, and our vet bills have been horrendous! We’re planning another large scale fundraiser, something that we’ve never attempted to do before. We’re going to try to hold a Charity “Fur”Ball! How cute is that?!? With food, drinks, a live band, and dancing. I hope we can pull it off!

A week after that, Grandma and Grandpa Bane and Uncle Dan and Aunt Rebekah came to visit for ten days! We did so much…went to Silver Dollar City, the Gentry Safari, swimming at the condo, it never ended!! (I am posting from the laptop because I’m too lazy to boot up the desktop, so I will have to post those pics later-)

A lot of changes are coming up…Dalton starts kindergarten on Monday! Oh my!! We had our open house yesterday and he got to meet his teacher, and we dropped off all his school supplies. It didn’t start until 9:00. At 6:50, I was getting in the shower, and he was already dressed, with shoes on and tied in knots (obviously our shoe-tying lesson the night before hasn’t stuck yet!!), and he wanted to leave. I told him we had to wait for Daddy to come get Jackson and take him to therapy before we could go. His response was “Just leave him sleeping in his cage!” (Which is his crib, we don’t REALLY make Jackson sleep in a cage!)

When we went to his classroom, the kids were to stay there, and the parents were to go to the cafeteria for our little orientation and information session. Of course I cried. I am the biggest baby!! The whole hour we were in there, I didn’t catch much of what they told us because it took all the energy I had not to bawl my eyes out! This is going to be SO much harder on me than it is on him. So then I went back to get him, and he had colored a picture and it was already hanging on the wall outside of his classroom!!

I don’t think his smile could get any bigger!!

So Dalton starts school on Monday (if you’re wondering why he starts so early, it is because he is going to year round school). He will be attending an after school program at a church close to us. The church van will come and pick him up after school, and you can bet for the first week, I will be stalking the school parking lot to make sure all goes well!!

Also on Monday, Jackson will start daycare! (Don’t cry, don’t cry, you can handle this, Mom!!) He will be attending the same church that Dalton will be at after school. So pick up will be easy with them in the same place.

And then <insert scary music here>, the week after…I will be returning to work. <Dramatic crescendo and cymbal crash.> We never really intended for me to stay home, and especially not for two years. We can’t pay for the therapy that Jackson needs unless we have a big increase in income, so there you have it. I will be going to back to the same job I left two years ago. The nice thing is that my boss has a son with special needs, and he understands and is going to be flexible with my need to take time off to take Jackson to and from therapy. Plus, Dalton’s school is just two blocks from my office, so I’ll be able to run over and eat lunch with him, attend his school programs during the day, etc.

Whew. I’m getting nervous just thinking about all the changes coming! I’m pretty sure I’m going to need a sedative the first day of school. I’ll probably need IV fluids from dehydration due to all the crying. I’m ridiculous, I know!

And now, the pictures that I know the grandparents have been dying for…

Dalton excitedly showing off his new unders for school!!

Jackson riding Dalton’s scooter, and oh so proud of himself!!

And of course, it wouldn’t be complete without Dalton showing off, too!

Dalton showing off our zucchini from our garden. Oh, that’s right, I grew this with my own hands!! Most of our plants died (we think it was a combination of things…we used super cheap potting soil, we didn’t till it before planting, we started too late and started from seed, and of course, I always forget about having to water the pesky stuff!!). However, we have awesome zucchini, several big green bean plants, a few carrots, and some lettuce. I’d say it’s a success for our very first garden. Also, either this zucchini just got missed, or our garden has a very severe steroid problem!!

And then…Dalton and I showing off our matching wounds. Dalton had to have his glucose checked at the doctor’s office recently. He asked if it would hurt, and I didn’t want to lie to him, so I said it would hurt a little. He started freaking out about it, so I asked him if it would help if I did it first. (Well, duh, of course it WOULDN’T!) What a horrible idea that was. They pricked that teeny tiny needle in my finger, and it bled. And it bled…and it bled some more. I got blood all over Dalton’s shirt, my pants, my shoes, the floor. That tiny little hole in my finger would. not. stop. bleeding! So of course that freaked Dalton out more!! But he finally did it, it wasn’t so bad, and we got matching Band-Aids!!

So there you have it! The last couple months in a very small, compact nut-shell!!

And The Winner Is…

2010-05-22T18:11:00.001-05:00

The winner of the $40 certificate for CSN Stores is:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2010-05-22 23:05:59 UTC

Congratulations to Marcie of The Miller Family!! I will email you with further information.

It’s Giveaway Time!!

2010-05-16T21:24:00.001-05:00

It’s that time again folks! GIVEAWAY TIME! One of my favorite times. :) CSN has been gracious enough to offer this opportunity to me and my readers, and it's awesome! Just leave me a comment (make sure it’s not anonymous so that I can contact you if you win) and the winner will receive a $40 credit to spend at any of the 200+ CSN stores!! You can chose from baby toys/gear, furniture, bathroom vanities, health/fitness gear, home decor, housewares, luggage, and even clothes! It’s your choice!

CSN has over 200 stores, and your $40 can be spent at any one of them. You can see a list of shopping choices here. I mean, who doesn’t like shopping with free money?!?

So make sure you leave me a comment! I’ll randomly draw a winner on Friday, May 21st, so you have until Thursday night to get your comments in. AND I’ll even give you a second chance to win. How cool is that?!? To receive an additional entry, blog about this giveaway and link back to my post, then leave a link in my comments.

It’s My Turn Again!

2010-05-12T21:47:00.001-05:00

Hey there, folks! It’s me, again, Jackson. I’ve hijacked the blog again. Man, that last time I took over Mommy was kind of irritated. She says I shouldn’t be playing with “electronics” because I could “electrocute” myself. I don’t know what that means, really, so I’m just gonna’ pretend that I didn’t hear her say it.

Mommy says that, yet again, she can’t even go out to the get the mail. Because stuff like this happens. Crackers. All over the couch. It was SO MUCH fun to just crumble them up in my super strong fists. It’s like I was Superman or someone.

And then, when she went to the bathroom, I got into all Dalton’s puzzles and dumped them on the floor! That was pretty cool, too, because they make this AWESOME noise when all the pieces hit the floor. Mom said she could hear it in the bathroom! I think that means she’s proud of me, but I’m not sure.

I’m really diggin’ hanging out front now, too. I mean, there’s no fences to hold me back, and who wouldn’t love that? I like to go through the railing slats. Mommy says she doesn’t understand why I can’t just go AROUND them, because sometimes, if I don’t turn my head right, my helmet gets stuck, and then I cry and get frustrated.

And sometimes I help Mommy prune the bushes.

And then I also like to help ~~dump water all over~~ water the flowers and veggies.

Mom says I need to cool it with the climbing. But it’s just so much fun! I love to climb on the couch, the chairs, the table, the fireplace bricks. Maybe someday I’ll climb Mount Everest.

I also like to try to eat candy…when the wrapper is still on it. Mommy says that I stole this out of Dalton’s Easter candy and that I wasn’t supposed to have it, but whatever. I mean, if Dalton left it where I could get it, then he obviously wanted me to have it.

I’m super stoked about cars and airplanes now. I can sit for ages on the floor or crawl around zooming them all over. Mommy says I should add some car noises to go with them, but I like to just sit all quiet and silently drive them all over the place. It’s also cool when Mommy trips over them, and says that I left them there on purpose just to trip her up. Hey, whatever makes you pay every bit of attention to me, Mommy!!

OH!! And ice cream cones. I freakin’ LOVE ice cream cones. I don’t know why, but Mommy makes us eat them on the front porch.

They are so good, though!

Mommy says it’s the biggest she’s ever seen me open my mouth is when I’m eating an ice cream cone.

Mommy says this is my “evil laugh” face. I don’t know what she’s talking about.

See what I mean about climbing on the table? I like to get up there ONLY because Dalton usually has a super yummy juice drink of some kind and I like to finish it off.

This was from last week when I had those blisters all over my face. Mommy said this was a good sympathy picture.

Can you guess what I’m doing here?

Oh, that’s right! I’m playing in the dog water! It’s a lot of fun.

I like the way it splashes on the porch.

And cups. I like cups, too. I can play with an empty cup for, like, minutes!

I like to run around in my bare feet in the grass.

And I like our neighbor’s big flower holder thingy. Isn’t is cool?

Dalton’s been trying to teach me how to ride his scooter, but I just like to sit on it.

I like to watch TV with Daddy, too. And I MUST have control of the remote. It’s just a man thing.

Aren’t we Bane men just da’ bomb?

A Day at the Farm

2010-05-12T20:50:00.001-05:00

Last week, Chris’s cousin Danica and her husband Scott stayed with us for a few days. They were moving from California to Virginia and our house was just about the half way mark, so Danica, Scott, their Doberman Silvy, the cat, AND the horse stayed for three days!! We set the horse up with some friends of ours that have a farm, and Dalton L-O-V-E-D going out to the farm and seeing all the animals!!

Right now they have an orphaned calf they are bottle feeding.

They also have an orphaned foal. He’s about a month old at this point and just cute as he can be!!

Dalton also liked the Donkey…he had never heard a donkey brey in real life before, and he just laughed!!

One of the barn cats. :) For barn cats, theirs sure were friendly. There was only one that wouldn’t let us pet it, but all the rest just followed Dalton around like he was the best thing ever.

They have a couple goats, too, Bonnie and Clyde. Our friends were trying to get them used to kids, so they had Dalton chase them around quite a bit. Oh, poor Bonnie and Clyde, you guys better run!!

Here is Scott giving the horse a little exercise.

And Dalton getting in some love…

Dalton found the horseshoe pit, too.

I just love this picture. I really wish that we had some land and could have a little farm…I’ve always loved horses. Maybe some day!!

Just Some Fun Stuff

2010-04-29T00:06:00.001-05:00

We were hanging out at our friends house, Amy and Randy, a couple days while the floors were being installed. Their daughter, Madeleine, has this baby doll that cries. And for whatever reason, Dalton thought he needed to plug some headphones into the baby’s mouth!!

Why have just one binky, when you could have two?!?! Why didn’t I think of this before?!?!?

Chris took Dalton to Razorfest last weekend. Basically a scrimmage game, with fun stuff for the kids to do, and giveaways.

Dalton “met” Woody.

And Buzz Lightyear…

The other day I asked Dalton to go get dressed. I told him to get pants because it was chilly and rainy. I was looking for a certain pair of pants for Jackson, but couldn’t find them and figured they were in the laundry. But then here comes Dalton…

Wearing Jackson’s pants! I guess they got put in D’s dresser by mistake, and he thought they were Capri's?

It does crack me up, though, that Dalton still “fits” into 12-18 month clothes!!

Touch A Truck

2010-04-28T23:54:00.001-05:00

Chris took Dalton to the Touch A Truck event a few weekends ago. It’s basically a bunch of giant trucks and whatnot, and the kids get to climb up in them, honk the horns, and play around. There was other stuff to do, too, and fun giveaway items.

AND, he got to shoot a BB Gun!! He even hit the target…twice!!!

A Little Surprise for Dalton

2010-04-28T23:48:00.001-05:00

Last week we got a visit from Grammy and Grandpa Wilhelm. (Chris’s mom and step-dad.) Grammy hadn’t seen Jackson since he was only a couple months old, and Grandpa had never seen him. Big surprise for Dalton though was on the horizon…

We did go to a Natural’s game, where Dalton got to hang out with Strike, aka Sasquatch.

And of course we had to get peanuts!!

And later he was down by the batting/pitching/warm up cage, and one of the players threw him a ball!!

And of course Jackson had fun, too! (please excuse the red eye, I’m working from my laptop, and don’t think I have photo editing software on here!!)

We also went to the Walton 5 & Dime, the Wal-Mart museum and original Wal-Mart store. And had a picnic at the park. And Dalton got to go swimming at Grammy and Grandpa’s hotel. And the big surprise?

Grammy and Grandpa flew their plane down here! Chris has been, well, BEGGING me basically, for years, to let Dalton go up in the plane, and I never would let him. But this year, against my better judgment, I said yes. Obviously everyone survived, and Dalton loved it!

Dalton got to wear his very own headset!!

Of course Chris had to take a picture of Razorback Stadium.

And I think for my benefit, he also took a picture of Tiger Stadium. :)

Grammy and Grandpa at the controls! LOOK OUT!

I’m glad now that I let Dalton go up, but I don’t know that I’ll do it again. Jackson and I waited at home, and honestly, I worried the whole time they were gone!

“Remodel”

2010-04-28T23:24:00.001-05:00

Alright, well, technically we didn’t really “remodel”. Just got some projects done that have been on our to-do list for several years. I have had multiple emails AND phone calls asking for pictures, so here they are! Shut up already!

Our interior doors before:

And the doors after:

My sister Julie did all the doors. She also painted all the trim, and did a couple accent walls in the house. In our bedroom, we went from dark blue to dark red. I don’t have a final picture of this one, as I don’t have the curtains back up yet.

Dalton asked her to put paint under her eyes, so she did! She’s a sucker for my kid’s requests!

In the dining room, we stuck with the same color, but went from flat paint to satin paint. We painted that wall before we had kids, and now we realize that it sucks trying to clean food off a flat paint wall!!

We also got new windows. Which I love!! They are double hung, so we can open then from top AND bottom, and they tilt in for easy cleaning. I love being able to open then from the top. Now the cats can’t push the screens out and escape!!

The old windows:

The destruction:

And the new windows:

And we got new floors! We’ve been talking about putting in wood floors for YEARS. We never had the money. And then we wanted to wait until Dalton was older. And then we didn’t have the money. And then we wanted to wait until Jackson was older. And so on and so forth. We finally just did it!!

Here’s the old carpet. You can’t tell really in the pics, but there were big dark stains EVERYWHERE and it smelled. And when your carpet looks like crap, the rest of the house can be great, but the whole house will look like crap just because of the carpet.

The wood was stacked in our dining room for three days before installation!

The destruction!!

Installation took five days! The dogs and cats were kenneled in our garage, the boys and I hung out with different friends through the process, and in the evenings, we ate dinner in our bedroom! HA! Because the living room and dining room furniture was all stack up in one room.

When we started moving stuff back in, Jackson was overjoyed to have his toys back! He had to dump them ALL out and play with all of them at the same time. :)

The finished product:

Overall, we’re happy with it. It creaks a lot when you walk on it. We purposely got the floating installation, because supposedly it will be easier to make repairs later on down the road.

Between the kids and dogs and the cats, it gets dirty FAST. And since it is so dark, everything shows up. I sweep three times a day! Still getting used to that. Chris said one morning “You know what sucks? Stepping on cat litter bits bare foot on a wood floor.” and then later I responded with “You know what sucks? Stepping on cat litter bits bare foot on a wood floor after you get out of the shower and your feet are wet. It clumps on your foot!”

And it scratches REALLY easily. Even with plastic toys. But we just take a Crayola brown marker (no body likes brown anyway!) and color them in, and you really can’t see them anymore. :)

Overall, we’ve done a lot! We also added more insulation to the attic (we’ll get a tax credit for the insulation and the windows). (Julie helped with the insulation, too). We replaced all the door bottoms/sweeps on the exterior doors (Julie, again), we replaced the kitchen faucet, we put in a vegetable garden. We’ve been SO busy!!

Jackson’s Assessment

2010-04-28T22:43:00.001-05:00

Alrighty then. I’m going to do several posts to get caught up, but didn’t want the post to be super long with a thousand pictures, so there you go! First things first…Jackson.

He was scheduled to go in for his 18 month check up yesterday. On Sunday, he started running a fever. It was 104 when he got up from his nap, and he was super cuddly. That child will not sit in your lap for more than two minutes, so I must say, I took advantage! We sat on the couch and just cuddled for HOURS.

On Monday, he still had his fever. It ranged from 101 (when I treated with acetaminophen and ibuprofen) up to 104. He was no longer cuddly like before (dang it!) but he quit eating. Other than that, no symptoms. Then Monday night, I noticed what I thought was a cut on his gums, in between and above his front two teeth. It looked to be infected, so I figured that was what was causing his fever, and he was already scheduled to go the doctor so I wasn’t too terribly worried.

Then Tuesday we get up, we got to the doctor as planned. I went to our regular clinic, but saw a different doctor than we normally do (our two regular doctors were booked for two months solid, so I took what I could get!!)

The doctor said that she also thought it was a cut, but that it wasn’t infected. She did see that he had ulcers in his throat and said that was what was causing the fever and the no eating. She said it was a viral infection that couldn’t be treated (but didn’t tell me the name of it), and to just treat the fever as I already was and to make sure that Jackson stayed hydrated. We also went through his development stuff and it was recommended that we start speech therapy and possibly occupational therapy (more on that later).

So we came home. This morning Jackson got up with no fever, but he did have four blisters on his face. Three around his mouth and one on his neck. They looked to me like chicken pox!! I called the pediatrician and spoke with the nurse. She said to watch for fever, and watch the spots for 24 hours, and see if any more appear. Okay.

At this point, Jackson has only eaten yogurt for 48 hours. He’s still in a fairly good mood, laughing and playing, drinking well, but still not eating. (Remember: ulcers in throat). He goes down for a nap. When he got up, he had another fever, this time 105. And his poor mouth! There’s blood on the sheets and his shirt, so I check his mouth, and the poor kid has ulcers ALL through his mouth. EVERYWHERE. His gums are inflamed, with ulcers, and are bleeding. So we eat a snack (more yogurt!), and off we go to the doctor. It was 4:00 in the afternoon, and the pediatrician had no appointments, regular or at the after hours clinic, so I took him to Wellquest, a local walk-in clinic here in Btown.

We were there for three hours! Daddy came and picked up Dalton when he got off of work, because he was driving everyone crazy running around the waiting room. :)

I LOVE Dr. Fox at Wellquest. He’s so patient and completely explains everything to you, in layman’s terms. What the pediatrician said was true, it’s a viral infection. What she didn’t tell me was the name or that it would get MUCH worse before it gets better.

He has Stomatitus. Basically, kids between ages 1 and 2 get it, and it’s just their first exposure to herpes simplex. Like fever blisters and whatnot. Only some kids have a much worse reaction than others.

This site:
http://www.myoptumhealth.com/portal/ADAM/item/Herpetic+stomatitis
has an excellent description of it.

So this is what’s causing the blisters on the face, the high fever, the bleeding ulcers in the mouth, the swollen bleeding gums, the diarrhea (yes, that too!), the horrible sick smelling breath. Basically the only thing we can do is NOT brush his teeth (I tried last night and he just screamed, his mouth bled, and then I quit), make sure he gets lots of fluids, give iburprofen for fever and pain, and give benadryl before bed to help with swelling and to help him sleep.

Poor little Jackson! He’s actually doing quite well, for the fever and pain. He’s still playing and laughing. He’s in so much pain though, that he won’t even take his pacifier!! We’re going to use this opportunity, as much as it sucks, to break the binky habit!! He went to bed tonight without it with no problems, which may be because he knows it hurts anyway, but hopefully once he recovers, he won’t even remember the binky. (He should be fine in 5-10 days.)

Now, the speech and occupational therapy recommendation. I was a little concerned because at almost 19 months, Jackson only says “doggie” (and doesn’t know what it means, I don’t think), and he’s only said “mama” and “dada” a couple times. I KNOW that all kids learn at their own rate. And I know he was a preemie. And I also know that a lot of his “refusal” to talk stems from the fact that he is just so damn stubborn. (Sorry, but it’s true.) He mostly just grunts and points. He doesn’t really babble at all.

So we went through this big checklist, and he is behind on EVERYTHING. She asked if he babbles, like HE knows what he’s saying. No. Does he pretend play? Like pretend to talk on the phone, or pretend to feed a baby, or make truck sounds with trucks? No. Does he understand us if we ask him to do something, like go throw this in the trash, or take this to Daddy? No. Does he wave? No. Every single thing she asked, the answer was no. And it was disappointing to say the least. In my head, I know kids will talk when they want to. I KNOW that. I know that a big part of Jackson is that he is just stubborn as hell. I KNOW that. I also know several people whose non-preemie kids didn’t talk til they were 2 or even 3 years old, and one day, they just did it, and they are fine.

I know all these things. However…I want to be proactive, and not reactive. Part of me wants to wait it out and see if he catches up. But the other part of me doesn’t want to wait because I don’t want to get to a point where we’re SO far behind that we just end up screwing him over! Like with his helmet. Technically that wasn’t really our fault. It was never recommended to us to start treating his head until he was almost a year old. Most treatments start at four months old, but waiting so long became an issue. Yes, his head looks MUCH better than it did, but we won’t be able to round it out 100% because at this age the cranial growth slows and the sutures fuse. We’ve been very lucky that they haven’t fused yet.

And this also brings up how I feel about all this, I mean, how I TRULY feel about this. Have I failed as a mother? Don’t get me wrong. I know, truly know in my head, that I am a good parent. My kids are basically healthy (let’s just exclude Jackson’s bleeding gaping mouth holes right now), happy, social, and outgoing. They are well fed, well dressed, and clean. We do fun things like go to the park, and go to swim classes. (Well, Dalton does. I signed up Jackson and me for a Mommy and Me swim class this session, and so far we SHOULD have gone to five classes, and have only gone to one! A couple weeks he was sick, one I was sick, and another he was all snotty, which I think was due to just teething, but nobody wants a baby snotting all over the pool! But I digress…) But is there something that I could have done better? Something that would have helped Jackson talk by now, or “pretend play”, or make car noises? Have I failed him somehow? I get emotional thinking about it, and I know in my head that I have done everything I can, but my heart feels differently. My heart feels heavy. Heavy with dread about everything that he has already gone through. Two weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit. Influenza and pneumonia last fall. The helmet to change his head shape. Now speech therapy and possibly occupational therapy. Will he be doomed in that everything in life will always be more difficult for him than it will be for Dalton? Will he have to work harder, and faster, and smarter than everyone else to succeed? I am thankful that he lived, and that things aren’t worse than they are, because they certainly could be worse… But when do we catch a break? When does God say, “Okay, enough torture for the Bane’s.”

I Love My Hair This Way!!

2010-04-06T22:20:00.002-05:00

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Bane, for bringing me this super cool red hair coloring when you visited!! Mommy cut my hair earlier tonight, and I convinced her to make me into a rock star. It's way better than the green hair stuff you brought me last year.

At Least It's Funny

2010-04-06T13:02:00.002-05:00

Oh, yes, this kind of craziness is a daily ritual at our house. It is always loud and out of control unless it is 3:00 am. At least Jackson thinks that Dalton is funny, however I see a lot of trouble in our future with two wild boys that feed off of each other!

Some Recent Pictures

2010-03-29T20:50:00.001-05:00

Just some recent photos that I thought were either funny or cute.

Jackson just REALLY likes to ~~torture~~ sit on Dalton!

And he likes to do pretty much anything that Dalton does…brush his teeth, play on the Smart Cycle (even though he’s not tall enough to actually get on the seat OR pedal…)

And just a good family photo of the Bane side of the family…

It’s Never Ending

2010-03-27T23:06:00.001-05:00

Being busy. It never ends! We’ve been working on so many home projects, and had family here, and had Dalton’s birthday…whew!

Chris’s dad and step-mom were here last weekend for Dalton’s 5th birthday…well, technically, they were here for his party. His actual birthday was Thursday.

We had his party at Jump Zone this year, and it was a blast! Here are the majority of kids that came, minus the babies…

Jackson enjoying himself! He had a blast!

Dalton and Davis.

This is, perhaps, my favorite picture. There’s this HUGE ship with an octopus on it, and it’s a big giant slide. It goes almost all the way to the ceiling. So Grandpa and Dalton come down…Dalton’s face says “Cool, let’s do it again!” and I think Grandpa’s face says something to the effect of, “Oh, crap!”

Big D’s cake.

Dalton and Taya.

Opening his presents in his King’s chair. :)

Playing with a new toy with Grandpa. He’s so much fun!

Playing Wii with Grandpa!

AND he got a scooter from Grandpa and Grandma Bane! Super cool!

It snowed a foot the weekend they were here…no, I’m not kidding. First day of spring and it snows a foot! But it was mostly all gone within 24 hours.

We’ve been working on a lot of home projects, too. We’ve replaced all the interior doors in the house, and with that goes new hardware…doorknobs and hinges. We added insulation to the attic. We replaced all the door bottoms on exterior doors, and replaced the weather stripping. We replaced the kitchen faucet, put in our vegetable garden (although haven’t planted our seeds yet), painted the accent walls in the dining room and our bedroom, and painted all the trim in the house. (My sister Julie has done most of this stuff!!) A week from Monday, we’re getting the carpet torn out and wood floors installed! YAY! So this weekend, I’ve been packing. The floor company will move all the furniture, but we have to move all the stuff off the bookshelves, off the computer desk, the TV equipment, the toys, anything on the floor, etc, so I packed up about 6 or 7 boxes today. And in one month, we’ll be getting our new windows installed! It’s sure been busy!

To top it off, Jackson has a nasty cold, and now I’ve got it too, plus a ripe sinus infection. Bleh. But we’re slowly getting things done around here, and I must say, it feels great!!

SO Busy

2010-03-05T22:20:00.006-06:00

We got our camera back. Can you tell?

It's been SO busy the last couple of weeks. Dalton has been to two birthday parties...one swimming party at the Jone's Center for Families for Madeleine's birthday.

And a bowling party for Taya's birthday.

Jackson, meanwhile, is getting onto (and into) everything. He's on the couch, he's up on chairs, he's up on the dining room table (yes, you heard correctly, HE'S ON THE TABLE!). There's no stopping him.

And when the boys get up in the morning and at nap time, if Dalton hears ONE LITTLE PEEP out of Jackson, he runs into his room for play time! This is what I found the other day after nap time...

And no, J does NOT sleep with all that stuff in his crib! It took Dalton all of two seconds to throw all that in there. We've had several play dates recently. And Aunt Julie has been here all week long working on home projects for us. She started with helping Chris add insulation to the attic. Then she moved on to repainting the accent walls in our bedroom and dining room. She has replaced all the weather stripping and door bottoms on all the exterior doors. We have purchased all new doors for the interior, including closet doors, so Julie has been working on cutting knob holes, adding hinges, painting, etc. I'll post pictures of all the updates when complete.

I think the best news this week, though, is that the judge has finally signed off on our settlement! So we'll be able to move forward with all the bigger house projects on our plate...new windows, fireplace insert, etc. We've got our work cut out for us!

I'm Going To Be Rich Someday

2010-02-21T23:24:00.002-06:00

Why will you be rich...I bet that's what you're asking.

Well, a while back I was on 7 or 8 different prescriptions for different ailments, and since I was on so many rx's at once, I got really paranoid about reading the patient information leaflets that came with the drugs. They're those printouts you get with your meds that list the drug name, the ailments that are treated, the side effects, etc. I'm not on all those meds anymore, but I am still a big stickler about reading those leaflets when I get them because I'm just crazy like that.

So tonight I went to the pharmacy to get my migraine meds and an anti-inflammatory for my foot problem, and I was reading both of the leaflets when I noticed (and I've noticed it before) that they always say a side effect could be caused, and that's exactly what you're treating for. Does that make sense? I'll explain in a minute if you don't get what I'm saying.

So I'm going to write my own patient education leaflet, and I'm going to copyright it, and it will be ONE leaflet good for any/all medications prescribed. And every time a pharmacy gives it out, they can pay me a penny each time. Even at only a penny, I'll be super rich, because it'll be one penny for every single rx for every person that gets one, at any pharmacy.

So, here's my patient ed sheet, and mind you, I have ALL rights to this, and if someone steals it, I'll sue you.

DRUG NAME: whatever
TREATMENT FOR: whatever
SIDE EFFECTS: If you are taking this medication for nausea/vomiting, this medication will make you nauseous/vomit. If you are taking this medication for diarrhea, it will cause diarrhea. If you are taking it for headaches, it will cause headaches. If you taking it for pain, it will cause pain. If you are taking it for inflammation, it will cause inflammation. If you are taking it for depression, it will cause more depression and you may have suicidal thoughts. If you are taking it for a cold, it will cause shortness of breath. If you are taking it for allergies, you will have additional and more severe allergic symptoms. If you are taking it for vision problems, it will cause you to go blind. If you are taking it for gastrointestinal problems, it will cause your bowel to fall out. If you are taking it to thin your blood, it will cause your blood to seep from every orifice in your body. If you are taking it for urinary infections, it will cause your penis to fall off, or your vagina to fall out, or your kidneys to evaporate. If you are taking it for mood swings, it will cause you to get the crazies. If you are taking it to prevent pregnancies, you will become pregnant with octuplets. If you are taking it to increase your sex drive, it will cause you to be attracted to members of the same sex. If you are taking it for a fungal infection, it will cause mold to replace your skin. If you are taking it for swelling, you will soon be the size of a house. If you are taking it for acne, soon your face will just be one giant zit. If you are taking it for any reason not listed above, it will cause the exact opposite effect on you.

I think that just about covers it.

Infinite Words of Wisdom

2010-02-19T20:48:00.003-06:00

Well, frankly, I haven't posted for a while because I didn't want to be charged with murder after boring everyone to death. We just haven't had much going on here lately. Nada. Zilch. I also loaned our camera out to a friend, and so I haven't taken any new pictures for almost two weeks (YIKES!), and it really bugs me to post with no pictures.

So today you get Dalton's Infinite Words of Wisdom.

Driving in the car:
D: "Are we going in circles? We're in the middle of nowhere..." (In fact, we were right off the town square.)

Dalton asked if he could climb into the cabinet of Jackson's changing table, because "I just want to be in there for science".

I had asked D to clean his room, and he says, "But remember? You love me!"

I asked him not to take one of J's books into his own room, and he says "But I like it in my room for imagination." Um, what?

"I don't feel right. I think a cookie would make it feel better."

Dalton wanted to go out with me to get the mail. I said "But you don't have shoes on." and then HE says "No, but I do have a hole in my sock!"

Talking about our foster dogs finding a forever home, D says "The dogs have a home... OUR home."

"My tummy is starving for food." (I don't know why I thought that one was so cute, but I did.)

And I've saved the best for last...we were at good old Wal-Mart (is there really any other place to be?) and I was on the ice cream/breakfast aisle to get waffles. Dalton sees the ice cream and asked if we could get some, so I said yes. So we're standing in front of the cheapie stuff, and I said "Do you want vanilla? Chocolate? Strawberry? One with all three?" And his eyes get all big and he says "Is that ice cream...with cookies in it?" And I tell him yes. And he says "SHUT....UP. Ice cream? With cookies in it?!?" HA HA HA! I really wanted to get on to him for telling me to shut up but I was too busy laughing/choking. :)

Debbie Downer

2010-02-09T15:05:00.002-06:00

Well, folks, I hate to be Debbie Downer, but I really just feel the need to vent.

We've been dealing with the auto insurance company regarding my wreck back in October 2008 (the reason Jackson was born prematurely) for sixteen months. SIXTEEN MONTHS. We finally got a settlement offer a month or so ago, which I turned down, because over half of it was going to be paid back to the health insurance company. I'm not going to talk about specific numbers, but I wasn't asking for pain and suffering. I wasn't asking for money to get rich on. I only wanted enough money to cover the additional expenses that were a result of Jackson being premature. I didn't want the entire birth covered. I wanted the money that we had to pay for 2 weeks in the NICU. The money needed to pay the neonatologist. The six months of RSV shots. Six months of lost income because Jackson couldn't go to daycare so I had to quit my job.

So we were offered a settlement. And the auto insurance claims rep said that he was going to contact our health insurance company to see if they would lower the amount of money they would take. Which supposedly he did in January. But then I called our benefits team (health insurance) to get an update on where we were at, and they told me (and sent me an email so that I had it in writing) that the auto insurance company paid our health insurance back, six months ago!

So I call the auto insurance company back (very irritated) and the guy handling the settlement tells me that it was OUR OWN policy that paid the health insurance back, so any settlement we get would possibly then need to pay back OUR policy for paying the medical.

Then he tells me that if we do accept the settlement, since it involved a minor, it would have to be approved through the court system before they could actually pay us. So what do I do? (I mean, what do I do, besides having a mental breakdown and crying for an hour, which I've already done, because I'm SO ready to be done with all of this!). We can't afford to get an attorney.

How is it that supposedly they can't give us a settlement because they are working on settlement issues with health insurance, yet health insurance says they got paid six months ago and the claim is closed? Are they (auto) just trying to draw this out so that we hit the statute of limitations and can't sue them? Not that we can do that anyway, because we can't afford an attorney. Do they (auto) not realize that we had to drop to one income because Jackson couldn't go to daycare and I had to quit my job? Do they not realize that we had to pay all Jackson's medical and my medical out of pocket up front? Do they not realize that there are weeks when Chris gets paid, we pay our bills, and we then only have $4.00 left to last us another two weeks until he gets paid again? Do they not realize that I've had medical problems, too, and to pay for them we put it on a credit card and then get hit with 200% interest? Do they not realize this, or do they not care? My guess is that they don't care.

I am so ready to be done with all of this. I am so tired of the phone calls, and faxing junk to ten thousand offices, and worrying about money. I'm just so tired. Period.

Hello From the J-Man!

2010-01-31T23:13:00.004-06:00

Eh-low, guvnuh! Jackson here!! I've hijacked mommy's blog for the night to let you know just what I've been up to. Mom says I'm into everything. She says I'm getting too tall because I reach things if they are hanging over the edge of the counter. She also says that she hates it when she tells me no, because my face crumples up and I start to scream. But, seriously, wouldn't you hate it if that's all anyone ever seems to say to you? She's all "No, you can't play with scissors. No, you can't throw the remote in the cat litter box. No, you can't put a plastic bag over your head." I mean, really, what does a kid need to do to have a little fun?!?

I just love to be ON my toys. Standing on them, sitting on them, whatever! And mom said that I might have fallen over after this picture, and might have smacked my head, but she can't rightly say.
I do like to sit on Dalton's Little People Zoo. It's so pesky to have to put the animals directly on the corresponding letters. If I sit on it, then my booty makes the animals all make their sounds at once, and that's pretty cool!

I also like to sit on Dalton. Man, most of the time, he's just the best big brother ever!! Sometimes he yells at me, mostly when he's trying to play and has set up his whole train set, or some other toy that took hours (whatever that means) to set up, and then I come along and just trash it. And mom hears Dalton yell "Jackson!! Get away from me and out of my room!" And mom says that it's only gonna' get worse from here on out. I don't really know what she means by that.

I really like to tickle Dalton's feet, too. He starts to laugh, and then that makes me laugh, and it's just so much fun. I love Dalton!!

Pretty much, I'll do anything with Dalton. I mean, hey, mom got out the "big boy car seat" (again, whatever...) and washed them and all, so that I don't have to scrunch up my legs to sit in the infant carrier anymore (and let's face it, I'm not a baby! I'm a big boy! I need a big boy seat!) and Dalton and I had a blast with them in the living room. And yes, below I am carrying around a tube of diaper rash cream. Mom was pretty mad at that one too, because I get into my changing table storage area, and drag out all the diaper gear, and trail it all over the house.

And then one day, mom had just fed us lunch, and of course I was carrying on, because if I'm in my high chair and I'm done, dang it, I AM DONE! So she put me down and went to go potty. She says she can't even go to the bathroom anymore, because something like this happens.

Dalton said he was done with his bar-b-que sauce, so doesn't that mean that I can have it? I don't know why mom was so bent out of shape about it, because Dalton was sharing with me. And I was nice and let Dalton finish before I took it. It's sharing, mom, you should try it!!

Well, it sure was fun taking over for mom for the night. I'll try to check in more often with you, but Mom says that maybe Dalton should get a turn next time. Whatever. We shared the bbq sauce, do we really need to share this, too?

Snow Fun!!

2010-01-30T20:49:00.004-06:00

Oh, boy did we have fun in the snow today!! The weatherman's forecast all week was up to an inch of ice, and up to 8 inches of snow. We were geared up for a repeat of last January's big ice storm, but luckily we missed out on most of the ice. We only got about 1/4 inch of ice, with 6 inches of snow on top!!

"Man, I wish we could go play in that..."

So today, Lance and Lisa invited us over to play in it! I think Lance was more excited about this than Dalton was...Lance kept saying he had been wanting a snow day on the weekend for the last two years, so that he could pull Dalton on the four-wheeler. :)

Jackson was ready to go!! Notice he's wearing those great fuax suede boots!!

Lance, Dalton, and Chris off for adventures...

Lance is driving, with Chris and Dalton on the sled...

Look at that happy face!!

And of course Jackson and I had to have a turn...don't worry, Lance went really slow....

Have I mentioned I mostly love our camera? Even though I don't fully know how to use it, it's fast and I can get great action shots...such as this one, with Jackson going down!

Uh oh, face plant!

And the best is last...how disgruntled does he look here?!? "Seriously, mom, I don't think I care for this white stuff!"

On the ten minute drive home at 7pm, Dalton was passed out in minutes!! I guess it's really hard to be a kid and get to play in the snow all day!

Quiet Time

2010-01-24T13:16:00.004-06:00

Chris is quarantined to the bedroom with a cold, Dalton is cleaning his room, and Jackson is napping, so thought I would take this opportunity to just post some pictures I just got. We went to Lance and Lisa's for dinner and games last night, and I finally remembered to take my thumb drive with me to get a copy of some pictures from when we went camping back in early October.

When I say camping, I mean real camping...just us, tents, and the wilderness. No bathrooms, no showers, no electricity. That's the only way to camp, if you ask me!

We went to White Rock a few hours south of us, which has TONS of trails for four wheeling. We borrowed four wheelers from Heather's parents and took Lance and Lisa's too, and had a lot of fun!

Later that month, Lance and Lisa had an anniversary dinner at Basin Park Hotel in Eureka Springs and that's where this picture was taken of me and Chris.

Aren't we cute?

A Little Break

2010-01-20T22:44:00.002-06:00

Well, I took a little break from blogging for a while, well, because I'm just boring. I mean, seriously, no one is more boring than us lately. We sleep. Eat. Feed the animals. Get groceries. Started preparing tax stuff. Starting preparing tax stuff for my rescue. Change diapers. Run a few errands here and there. Wah wah wah wah, wah wah wah. (In case you don't get it, that's my impression of Charlie Brown's teacher.) It's just so boring. I mean, if I am so bored writing it, who wants to read about it? Seriously. I bet you've already fallen asleep. WAKE UP!!!

Dalton did start back with swim classes last week, which is nice, because he's been so bored. Bored to point of acting up and getting into trouble ALL the time, for things that he knows better than doing.

The weather has at least improved. It's been near 60 the last few days, and we've gone on quite a few walks. Monday, we went around the block three times. The first time Dalton rode his bike, and Jackson rode in the stroller. Then again with J in the stroller and D riding his motorcycle. Then the third time both boys rode in the wagon. We repeated that cycle again yesterday. Today we had errands to run, and tonight it started raining and is supposed to rain tomorrow too, so I'm sure we'll be stuck inside for a while. With all the snow gone now, the yard is just a giant muddy pit, so we haven't played out there for a while.

Plus I've been so tired lately, still having trouble sleeping. And I haven't been feeling well the last few weeks, between headaches and stomach pains. And when I get in a funk, the kids get in a funk, and we don't even take any fun pictures! I'll try to be in a better mood tomorrow and get some pictures to post.

We are considering having the windows replaced...they are old. As old as the house, so almost 30 years? They get condensation on the inside, which either freezes (yes, ice on the INSIDE) or just runs down onto the sill, and some of the window sills have started to buckle. And you can stand two feet away from the window and still feel the cold. So I had a guy come give us a quote...told him I wanted double pane vinyl windows...he measured. Turns out that ALL the windows in our house are custom, not a single one is standard size. And it's going to cost us $3,500 to replace them. So we are getting a couple more quotes next week. New windows has been on our list for several years now, and hopefully, in the long run it will save us money on the electric bill, plus we'll get a tax credit next year for doing it.

Anyway, that's all the boring stuff we've been doing lately!! I hope you're reading this post at night so that you are nice and sleepy and can go right to bed!

Ice...and Taxes.

2010-01-08T00:00:00.002-06:00

So weather.com says it's 7 degrees but it feels like -11. Huh.

This morning when I took water out for the dogs (I take out warm water in the hopes it won't freeze as fast, but it doesn't work...) Toby jumped on me and it spilled a little water on the patio. It bounced on the concrete, came up, and by the time it hit the concrete again, it was ice pellets! Now THAT'S cold. I've been trying to only let the dogs out for about five-ten minutes at a time.

On another note, we're already working on taxes. Chris informed me that it will be my responsibility to get it done this year, because I wanted to add mileage for the trips to the doctors. All the best doctors are in Fayetteville, and we have a lot of doctors. So last night, I went through the appt calendar and tallied up all our mileage for doctor appointments. And the result? 1,200 miles driven to and from doctor appointments. 1,200. No joke. And I probably didn't even get them all accounted for, and I didn't do mileage for pharmacy visits, either. That's a lot of gasoline.

Enough Already

2010-01-06T16:57:00.002-06:00

If you were to go to weather.com and type in our zip code, and then click on "Winter Weather Advisory", this is what you would see (I have edited out a bit of info):

Issued by The National Weather Service Tulsa, OK 3:17 pm CST, Wed., Jan. 6, 2010
... WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM THIS EVENING TO 10 AM CST THURSDAY... ... WIND CHILL ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 6 PM CST FRIDAY...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TULSA HAS ADJUSTED THE TIMING OF THE WIND CHILL ADVISORY AND IT IS NOW IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 6 PM CST FRIDAY AND A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IS ALSO IN EFFECT...
FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES... * IN ARKANSAS... WASHINGTON... MADISON... CRAWFORD... BENTON (this is us)... CARROLL AND FRANKLIN.
HAZARDOUS WEATHER... * AN ARCTIC COLD FRONT WILL MOVE INTO NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA BY MID EVENING... AND PUSH THROUGH THE REST OF EASTERN OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS TONIGHT. TEMPERATURES WILL DROP RAPIDLY... AND NORTH TO NORTHWEST WINDS WILL INCREASE TO SPEEDS OF 20 TO 25 MPH WITH GUSTS ABOVE 30 MPH... FOLLOWING THE FRONTAL PASSAGE. THIS WILL PRODUCE DANGEROUS WIND CHILLS. IN ADDITION... LIGHT PRECIPITATION WILL DEVELOP AND SPREAD INTO THE AREA BOTH AHEAD AND BEHIND THE FRONT. SNOW IS EXPECTED ACROSS MOST OF NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS... WITH RAIN OR DRIZZLE TRANSITIONING TO SNOW OR FREEZING DRIZZLE OVER SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND WEST CENTRAL ARKANSAS AFTER MIDNIGHT. THE PRECIPITATION WILL END BY THURSDAY MORNING... ALTHOUGH BLOWING SNOW POTENTIAL WILL EXTEND INTO THURSDAY AFTERNOON IN NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS.
* DANGEROUS WIND CHILLS AS LOW AS 20 DEGREES BELOW ZERO WILL BE POSSIBLE.
* FROM 1 TO 3 INCHES OF SNOW ACCUMULATION WILL BE POSSIBLE ACROSS NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS... WITH LESSER AMOUNTS FURTHER SOUTH. A LIGHT GLAZE OF ICE FROM FREEZING DRIZZLE... LESS THAN A TENTH OF AN INCH... IS EXPECTED ACROSS MAINLY SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND WEST CENTRAL ARKANSAS. ALTHOUGH PRECIPITATION WILL END BY THURSDAY MORNING... BLOWING SNOW WILL CONTINUE INTO THURSDAY OVER FAR NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS... DUE TO NORTHERLY WINDS GUSTING ABOVE 30 MPH.
IMPACTS... * FROST BITE AND HYPOTHERMIA ARE POSSIBLE IF PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN.
* ROADS IN THE ADVISORY AREA MAY BECOME SLICK AND HAZARDOUS... ESPECIALLY ON BRIDGES AND OVERPASSES AND NON-TREATED SURFACES.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... * PREPARE FOR THE COLD BY WEARING MULTIPLE LAYERS OF WARM CLOTHES AND LIMIT OUTDOOR ACTIVITY.

Now I know that 3 inches of snow doesn't seem like a lot (especially if you are my brother- and sister-in-law that live in Wyoming), but that's enough to cripple this area. We never get snow. Usually we get ice. And this will be the 5th time, I think, that it has snowed in the last two weeks. The last time it snowed was Saturday, and it's still here. The road is still a solid sheet of ice. I was supposed to take my foster kitten this morning to be neutered, but I about gave myself an anxiety attack thinking about having to drive on this crap with the kids in the car. (I'm sure part of the anxiety is left from my wreck a year ago). I am a good driver on ice/snow, my momma taught me well. I've never gone in the ditch or slid or anything, but it's the other yahoo's out there that you can't trust.

So we've been house bound for going on two weeks now. The kids are going stir crazy, Dalton is starting to act up (BADLY, I won't go into the details though...), and I am going to lose my mind! Now we're in for another round of snow tonight. *Sigh*. It's gonna' be a loooooong winter.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T23:46:00.008-06:00

(First off, any previous post which said it had the most pictures ever? Well, forget that...I'm pretty sure this one will beat them all, hands down.)

On Christmas Eve, Chris got off work a bit early and we went on a hunt for snow boots. We were supposed to be getting a white Christmas, and both boys were getting snow suits, but we had no boots!! I had called Wal-Mart in Bentonville, and they had Dalton's size, and called Target in Rogers, and they had Jackson's size, but no one had both sizes we needed. Plus, both boys are hard to fit for any shoes, because they have wide feet, and typically we can't find anything to fit them. So we carted both boys out in the cold rain to find some boots.

At the Pleasant Grove Rd Wal-Mart in Rogers, we could not find boots for either boy, but we did find some Croc's style rain boots for Dalton. He wore these, I'm not kidding, for three days straight, even to bed. He loves them!

For Jackson, we ended up buying him some faux suede cowboy boots because it was the only ones we could find to fit his fat little foot. :)

On Christmas Eve, we started a new tradition this year...we let the boys open one gift (one that we picked)...it was a new Christmas movie. So we ate dinner early, bathed early, put on PJ's, and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas, which used to be one of my favorites. Dalton loved it.

Then Dalton put out cookies and milk for Santa, and carrots for the reindeer. Notice the milk is in a sippy cup (so that the cats wouldn't drink it before Santa got there!).

And boy howdy, did Santa reward the boys for that!!

He even left a note for the boys.

Notice behind the tree, through the window? We got our white Christmas!!

Jackson was the first one up. We ended up waking Dalton up at 9:00, and he was pretty bleary eyed for a while!!

But got into the swing of things pretty fast. He took at least twenty minutes going through all the stuff in his stocking. He has AMAZING patience for a four year old.

He loved this little reindeer that "pooped" candy. What can I say? He IS a boy!

Before the ripping of presents... The boys must have been good this year. And of course, Grandma and Grandpa Bane and Grammy and Grandpa Wilhelm spoiled the snot out of them.

The pile on the left by the train table are Dalton's, and the pile on the right are Jackson's.

Jackson LOVES this xylophone that our friends Jill and Ron got for him!

And he equally loved the Goldfish from Santa and the Sock Monkey from Grandpa and Grandma Bane.

Of course, I think the present I was most excited about was both Volume 1 & 2 from "Glee"!!!! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Bane!! (Glee is on Wednesday nights on Fox, and if you don't watch it, you totally should. It's so funny!)

I think Chris's favorite was his present from Jackson and Dalton. They got on-line and uploaded tons of photos of themselves and ordered a special travel mug for Daddy. He takes his coffee to work every morning, and he loves it. (I know what you're thinking...that Jackson and Dalton uploaded photos? I know, right? They are SO good with technology...)

Jackson of course had to find out what the xylophone tasted like...

And then Dalton went out to play in the snow while Jackson napped! We decided it was too cold for J to go out...it was about ten degrees, and the wind was gusting up to 30mph. Dalton only got to stay out about ten minutes before his hands were frozen, but he made the most of his time!!

Chris was trying to lob snow balls at me, but he'd throw it and it would disintegrate in the wind...too dry!

And when we came in and laid everything out to dry, the cats had to get in the middle of it.

We were supposed to have Christmas dinner with my family at our house Christmas Day (night) but my sister Julie lives in West Fork and had close to 8 inches of snow, so we postponed to Sunday. Even then she wasn't able to get out still, so she missed it, but I did save her some food and froze it. Chris fried a turkey this year for the first time, and it was pretty good, but he says he'll never again do it when it's that cold outside!!

Here we are after dinner...from left is my sister Catherine, my sister Ann hiding behind her, my nephew Vann, nephew Fletcher, BIL Gene, me, and my mom.

When Dalton saw that train table on Christmas morning, he liked it, but immediately said "But I don't have the train for the table!!" Well, Aunt Annie and Grandma Pat fixed that!!

Dalton, blowing out the candles on Jesus's birthday cake...

Chris licking his plate clean...must have been good food!

My sister Ann...

And then this is days later, but I just had to post it because he is so stinkin' cute!!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and loved ones, and Happy New Year!!

Daltonisms

2009-12-24T12:45:00.002-06:00

Yesterday... "Mom, where does Grandma live?"
"Which one?"
"Um, mine?"

Today, first thing this morning...
"Mom, guess what time it is!"
I assumed he would say time to open presents..."What time?"
"It's Christmas Eve!"
then, just a minute later...
"Did the Easter Bunny come?"

Silver Dollar City

2009-12-22T22:59:00.004-06:00

The weekend before last we went to Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO. It was going to be the last opportunity for us of the season to use our season tickets, and also the last decent day (weather wise) to spend the day there. It wasn't quite as warm as they had predicted, but it wasn't too terribly bad.

Here we are in front of the BIG Christmas tree! Dalton was just so awed by this tree!!

If you know Dalton, you know that he LOVES snowmen! They had them all over the park and of course we had to pose with just about every one of them!

Dalton went on his very first BIG BOY ride this time! Here's Dalton and Daddy, going into Fire in the Hole.

Went Dalton came out, he said that it was "so NOT cool" because it was so dark!

Then they rode on this thing...I think it was called High and Low? Basically you pull yourselves up to the top, then do a slow free fall back down.

And while Daddy and Dalton rode around (Dalton ALWAYS chooses Chris to ride with him...such favoritism!) Jackson and I just hung out and people watched!!

Here we were getting ready to go on the train. We always ride the train when we go, Dalton loves it.

Waiting in the train depot...

About half way through the train ride, they usually stop and do this little "hold up" skit, but for Christmas, they were telling the story of Jesus' birth. Dalton was enthralled.

A nice lady in front of us took this picture. It kind of cracks me up. Dalton looks all dopey, and Jackson is looking to the side like he doesn't like what's about to go down. HA!

It sure was beautiful! They had hundreds of thousands of lights strung, it was just gorgeous. I've never been to SDC around holiday time, and I highly recommend that you go! You will not be disappointed!!

Beautiful Day!

2009-12-21T23:15:00.004-06:00

The weather was great today...it almost hit 60 degrees!! Dalton and I spent a lot of time playing in the yard... Jackson didn't get to go out, he was napping!!

A few fun pics... Jackson had the best time getting into this little box. It was so funny though because he'd step into it, and then he couldn't quite lift his feet high enough to step out and just stood there FOREVER!

Jackson admiring all the presents...

And here, he was determined to beat the snot out of this semi truck with a spatula!

"Here, Mom, you do it! It's fun!"

So while Jackson napped today, Dalton and I went out to play (well, Dalton played. I, unfortunately, spent most of my time scooping poop!). These are our newest foster dogs, Joe and Cooper. We've had them almost two months already, but most of that time they were being treated for a ton of different intestinal parasites, ear mites, etc, so today was the first day that Dalton really got to spend any real time with them.

Aren't they adorable?!? They are brothers, about a year old. They do almost everything together, and groom each other and sleep together. It's funny because sometimes they are like synchronized dogs...they wag their tails at the same time, the same direction, stretch at the same time, so on and so forth. This is Cooper below... (Cooper is a little lighter colored than Joe).

They followed Dalton ALL OVER the yard. They did so well with him, and I was kind of surprised really. Joe has a bad habit of jumping up on me (Cooper does so much better, he will sit down when gets in front of you), but neither one ever tried to jump on Dalton or knock him down. They just followed him around wanting to be petted and give kisses.

See what I mean about synchronized dogs? Their tails are wagging in the same direction, same time! They really are SO cute...you know, when they aren't chewing on something they shouldn't be!

So really just a great day... they are saying that we might get some snow on Christmas Eve (just a dusting, but hey, it's still a white Christmas, right?!?). Christmas dinner is at our house this year, although not all of my local family will be here.

Dalton has this giant Santa head with a long 4 ft beard that counts down the days til Christmas. He moves the candy cane each day, and each morning the first words out of his mouth are "Six days to Christmas!" "Five days to Christmas!" and today it was "Four days to Christmas, just like me, I'm four, only FOUR DAYS!" He's just beside himself with excitement!

Dear Santa...

2009-12-20T22:05:00.003-06:00

All of our Christmas cards should have reached their intended recipients by now, so now I can post this cutesie-tootsie picture!!

It was much harder than I thought it would be for the lady to get a good picture of both boys smiling, and with Santa NOT looking goofy. :)

Fun Times!

2009-12-20T21:57:00.002-06:00

Just wanted to post some recent cute pictures!!

It's My Favorite Time of Year

2009-12-17T23:09:00.006-06:00

Oh, how I love Christmas! It's always been my most favorite time of year. Even though it is usually crazy hectic (hence the lack of posting on my part lately!!), I just LOVE it. And it seems to be even better now that I have kids. It seems that you get to see everything again from a childs perspective. Dalton just loves to see all the lights, and talks about Santa all the time. And it just brings the excitement up a notch when you can see it all through your kids' eyes.

I love to decorate the tree every year. Surprisingly, we didn't have too much of an issue with the tree and Jackson this year. I thought he would try to pull it over, but for the most part he leaves it alone. We didn't get to put all the ornaments on this year. Anything breakable or anything with a hook had to be out of J's reach, so we left a good portion off. You'd also think that with all the dogs and cats running through our house, we'd have issues with them, but we don't. The only one that bothers the tree is our cat, Peanut, who occasionally tries to eat the branches. We usually find pieces hacked up on the carpet later on!

Now, I love the trees that have a theme. You have people that do a "black and white" tree, or "pink" tree, or a "ribbon" tree, or whatever, and the tree is all done up in the same color or whatnot. And I think that's really pretty and all...but, me? I love to have all different decorations.

Because when we pull those ornaments out of the attic and start decorating the tree, each one has its own story. Each one, I can tell you where it came from or who gave it to us, and when. Here are some of my favorites on our tree...

This was for Jackson's first Christmas.

And this is one that I bought for us in 2007. I also got one for each of the grandparents that year.

This was Dalton's first Christmas in 2005, which was a gift from Chris's dad and step-mom, Dennis and Jil.

I got this one for Chris one of the first years we were married.

And of course, you can't have a tree without Sally from Cars! A gift for Dalton from Dennis and Jil. We also have Lightning on the other side of the tree.

This one was a gift from my old boss at Wal-Mart, Paul.

This was also a gift from Dennis and Jil. Dalton when he was two.

And these were for Jackson.

These two little ice skaters were made by Chris's grandmother.

We bought this one a couple summers ago when we went to Colorado for Chris's brother's wedding.

This one was a gift two years ago from a woman in my rescue group, Leann.

And we bought this one when we went to Lake Tahoe for vacation in 2004.

Every year, Chris's mom, Patty, gets us an ornament from Pier One. They are glass, and painted on the INSIDE of the ornament. These have always been my favorites, because they are so pretty. I broke one this year on accident (well, of COURSE I didn't do it on purpose, people!) and I was SO disappointed. It was from 2007 and you can't replace it. I love the boxes they come in, too, each one comes in its own little padded box, covered in beautiful fabric.

But I think that THIS ONE is my most favorite. It's not really super special, I mean, it isn't made of gold, it wasn't given to me by a king or anything. And it's not like it's the most ridiculously expensive or even the prettiest one on the tree...

Last year my vet called me and told me that they had a man who was going into a nursing home. He was only 45, but had terminal cancer, and he had three dogs that were his entire life, and asked if we could help him. I called him and talked to him numerous times. His name was John. He was SUCH a nice man. He had a pug, a little mixed mutt, and a large lab/great pyrenees mix. Another rescue took the pug. And we found a foster home for his little mix mutt, and they ended up falling in love with her and adopting her. His large dog found a home in Mountain Home, AR (about three hours away), and I drove the dog over there. John cried when I came to pick up the dogs. He loved them so much, they were always his best friends. When I took them with me, he gave me a package with this ornament in it. He told me it was nothing special, that he had picked it up in Canada when he was on vacation once. Said that he couldn't offer me anything, but so appreciated me helping him find loving homes for his dogs, that he wanted me to have it. I was told later by the people that adopted the large dog that for three weeks the dog laid on the floor in the kitchen and hardly ever did anything. He ate and went out and then came in and laid on the floor and never did anything. Then one day the dog got up, and played with the other dogs, and loved all over the owners. That same day, I got a call from John's sister, and she said that she was so glad that John knew we found all the dogs homes, and that he had just passed away that morning.

It's a sad story, but it's the story that belongs to that ornament, and I will NEVER forget it. Every time I take that ornament out and put it on the tree, I will think of that young, 45 year old man, who was faced with knowing he was dying, and cried when he parted with his best friends, but did what was best for them. It's my favorite ornament on the tree, bar none.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2009-11-27T21:38:00.006-06:00

Well, this post is just going to be picture overload! Yesterday was Thanksgiving, which was at my sister's house. I just took so many nice pictures (and a few funny ones) and there's so many that I couldn't narrow it down.

I am the baby of eight kids in my family...five of us were at Thanksgiving. Linda lives in California, Dianna in New Mexico, and Mark in Nebraska, so they weren't with us. But the rest of us are local.

Here is my brother-in-law Gene (Catherine's husband) carving the turkey. He is seriously a gourmet chef. He's so good, I bet he could be the next Iron Chef. He even makes everything all pretty and visually pleasing when he plates it!!

My nephew Joe (brother Mike's son) in the foreground here, but my nephew Vann (Catherine's oldest) is in the back with my sister Ann and her husband Mike just coming in the door. Unfortunately, this is the best picture I got of her.

Every time I tried to get her picture, she would literally turn and show me her bum!

This is Ann's husband, Mike. And yes, he is wearing spandex. :) Usually when we get together for holidays, Mike rides his bicycle to wherever we are. And this time, he rode from their house in Fayetteville to Catherine's house...33 miles. Yes, he is crazy. It's funny because when Chris and I were on our way, there was this cyclist up ahead, and I jokingly said "That better not be Mike Sorenson!" And we got up next to him and it was him!!

Here's Chris, nicely stuffed after dinner.

My brother Mike and his oldest, Joe.

Joe with the farm wagon. For a while he was pulling Dalton around in it, but I missed the photo op on that one.

My mom, enjoying the fruits of her labor...sugar free pumpkin pie.

My sister Julie with Jackson. This was after Jackson threw an hour long screaming fit. Dinner was served at around 12, so that my mom could eat quickly, then leave for an hour of adoration at church from 1-2, then she came back and we all had desert. So Jackson slept for 20 minutes in the car on the way to Catherine's, then I tried to put him down for a nap while my mom was gone. But the room he was in was too bright, and Gene went in there to get his laptop and woke him up, then Dalton walked in there thinking it was the bathroom...so the poor kid was just overly tired. He got up after crying forever, had some milk, was happy for a while, slept on the way home, and then he was just a big grumpy Mr. Cranky Pants for the entire rest of the night!!

My niece, Lauren (my brother Mike's youngest), with Miss Kitty.

Lauren with some of the horses. Lauren love, love, LOVES any and all animals, but especially horses. Sometimes I think she was supposed to be my daughter. :)

Dalton chilling on the steps to the barn loft.

Even the dogs and one of the cats got to partake in the feast. Miss Kitty with Max. Look at them, putting aside their differences and sharing food to join in the Thanksgiving holiday!!

Josie with her haul.

Jackson seemed to enjoy the horses, too. He was a bit confused, wondering why the dogs grew so big out here. Ha!

But he petted Dobber and managed to keep all his fingers. That's a pretty good accomplishment.

Dobber had just finished licking Jackson's helmet.

Dalton always gets a kick out of them, too. Here he is with Vann and Dobber.

Vann just loves kids. He's seventeen years old, and has always been great with the little ones. It's nice to see a teenage boy like that!

And I'll even post a few pictures of me with the horses. There's hardly ever any pics of me because I'm always the one taking the pictures. Dobber, here, was constantly licking my coat, my hands, my pockets, my face. I don't know what he thought I had hidden away!!

He was trying to lick my face. But I do really like this picture. I just look so happy. Which, of course, I love animals of all kinds, but I especially love horses, so I guess that explains it.

And then after we got home, we watched Elf (first Christmas movie of the season, yay!) and Dalton snuggled into a snoozing Chris to do this.

And of course, I love the movie Elf. I still believe in Santa myself, and with it being the first Christmas movie viewing, and the movie itself, I was practically sobbing by the end. :)

So all in all, it was a great Thanksgiving. I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday, too, and found lots to be thankful for!!

Fairly Lazy Weekend

2009-11-23T22:59:00.004-06:00

We had a fairly lazy, lovely weekend! Friday night I made Curry Chicken and Pasta, and Jackson had his first taste of it. I would label it a success, although he ended up with more in his lap than in his stomach.

This little boy is now a walking machine. For the most part, he walks all the time. He only crawls if he's trying to get somewhere fast. Like if the fridge door is open, or the bathroom door, he'll crawl super fast to try to get there before you close it up, but otherwise, he's walking every where.

Saturday I went with a friend to see New Moon. We did not face the crowds and stay up like a bunch of crazies to go to the midnight showing the first night; we're way too old to stay up that late. But I did order our tickets online about a week before. It has to be a movie I've been looking forward to seeing for a long time to make me pay movie theater prices. In my defense, we did go to a matinee, so it was a little cheaper. We got there an hour early and still had to wait in a line a mile long to get into the theater. I was amazed! I knew it was a popular movie, but sheesh! It was worth it though.

And for those of you that think it's childish for a thirty year old woman to want to see this movie, I have a few things to point out... First, this is not just a movie about vampires and werewolves. It's a love story about two people that shouldn't be together, and about their fight to do so. Second, how is this any different from all the people that love Harry Potter? Both series are aimed at a younger crowd. I'll stop there.

After the movie, Chris and the boys and I went to the square. They had the lighting ceremony, which we missed, among other activities. I had already bought my movie tickets when I found out it was the same time as the lighting. But we still got to hear some great kids singing, and the lights.

We ran into several people we knew, including Betsy and Alex and their kids. Here's Dalton with Taya and Gwyneth. I love how Taya has her arm around D and Gwyn. So motherly!!

They also had miniature horses (with reindeer antlers on!) giving rides to the kids.

Also had camel rides, which I failed to get a picture of. But here's a decent shot of the square (with food vendor booths in front...I should have taken a picture from the opposite side of the square, but we were leaving at this point and I didn't want to walk around again because we were already close to the car.)

Then Sunday, Chris took advantage of the nice weather and put up the lights outside. An added bonus is that he was dreading going through the strings, trying to figure out which lights were causing an outage on half the strand. But when he went up in the attic to get them, he found six new boxes of lights! I bought them last year after Christmas on clearance (technically I bought them for the tree inside) and forgot about it. So we just trashed the old lights and used the new ones. Big time saver!! And of course, Dalton helped.

No, he did not actually get on the roof. He's not coordinated enough for that (he is, after all, MY son!).

And Jackson supervised from the front porch. :)

Today I started making pie (chocolate cream) for Chris's Thanksgiving dinner at work tomorrow, and in the morning, I'll get up early and make a banana cream pie before the party (I didn't want to make it tonight because the bananas would turn brown).

All in all, it was a great weekend. I'll try to remember to take pictures through my pie making tomorrow morning to post the recipe on here. It's SO easy, and yummy to boot!! I hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving!!

And The Winner Is...

2009-11-14T13:49:00.003-06:00

And the winner of the Beginner Block Set is:

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:6
Timestamp: 2009-11-14 19:49:25 UTC

6-The Harris Family

Congratulations!! Heidi, please email me at woofitup1@cox.net with your address so that the block set can be shipped out.

Thanks to all who entered the contest, and keep reading; I'm sure there will be more giveaways in the future!!

Block Set Giveaway!!

2009-11-10T23:17:00.003-06:00

Okay, so here's the scoop...I am lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to give away a great item from CSN Baby. They have really great toys, baby/kid goodies, bedding, and nursery furniture, so check them out!

Click here to check out all the info on the beginner pattern blocks!

If you want to get in on a chance to win this great item, please leave a comment to this post. I will leave the comments open through Friday, and I will pick a winner on Saturday, November 14th. If you win, the blocks will be shipped directly to you, so make sure there is a way I can contact you about shipping info (either comment using your blogger, gmail, or google account or leave your email address in the comment). Good luck to all!!!

Trick or Treat!!

2009-11-08T22:29:00.003-06:00

The boys finally got to go Trick or Treating...well, kind of. We went to Lance and Lisa's house last night for a small get together, and so the boys got their costumes on for the big occasion!!

Who is this fearsome (okay, no so much) skeleton?

Oh, wait, it's just Dalton!

And isn't this just the cutest spider you've ever seen??

Here they are, walking to their first (and only) house!!

And the waiting is just soooo long...

But who should open the door but Chewbaca!!

Dalton didn't quite know what to think of that as he was expecting Lance or Lisa. :) He completely got thrown off and forgot to say "Trick or Treat!" so we had to prompt him...

But they had fun and that's all that counts! I failed to get a good picture of the boys together, and wanted to dress them up again today to do it, but Dalton declined. Oh, well. Thursday we'll be going to Betsy's for a play date, and they get to dress up again. Her kids were also sick and didn't get to go anywhere, so all the kids will get to wear their costumes!

Tomorrow I'm doing a fun giveaway kid's toy, so check back in tomorrow for a chance to win!

Oh, The Ecstasy

2009-11-04T23:00:00.005-06:00

As the boys are feeling better, my body has given in to exhaustion. And for two days, I have pretty much sat on my hiney, just watching the boys get better, and enjoying their laughs and the way they play together. As a result, my house has become a national disaster. I keep waiting for the National Guard or Red Cross to make an appearance and declare it...

So I sat today, thinking about how much I didn't want to start cleaning, and wondered... Is there something around here that needs to be done, but in doing it would also be fun for the kids? And then I had my answer. Jackson was taking his afternoon nap, and Dalton was vegging in front of cartoons.

When you take this...

And do this...

What do you get? I mean, what do you get other than three huge blisters on your hands, and a questionable lump on your head from smacking yourself with a rake?

Well, you take a certain four year old, and lead him out of the house, with his eyes closed. He's already excited because he's been told to keep his eyes shut, and that means there is a surprise.

And then you say... "Okay, Dalton, open your eyes." And you get one supremely, ecstatic four year old!

Who then proceeds to do this...

And this...

And this!

And he's basking in the sunlight because he's been stuck in the house sick for ten days.

What must it be like to be four years old, and so happy to just have leaves to jump in. Is it heavenly?

Is it just the most wonderful thing in the world, like Christmas and your birthday and getting a new brother all wrapped into one?

So I told him that if he threw all the leaves around, he'd have to help rake them up. So he did...and if you notice the progression of the next three photos, and the position of the rake, apparently you rake leaves by swinging it like an ax.

So then we went in, and Dalton informs me that he doesn't need a nap, but he proceeds to fall asleep on the couch anyway. So I take advantage of that time to do a little cleaning before Daddy comes home. And when he does? Well, we wake Jackson up, and go outside to enjoy the leaves some more!!

And it just wouldn't be a fulfilling first-time-in-leaves experience for Jackson if he didn't get buried.

And of course I had to join in the leaf jumping. The landing wasn't quite as soft as I remembered it.

But the love was better!!

And Dalton thought so, too.

Who's Walking?

2009-11-03T23:36:00.003-06:00

Alright, first things first! Jackson is feeling so much better today. The antibiotics are working well. He did sleep a bit more than usual today, but he had more energy than he's had for a week, and we had lots of smiles, and even a few giggles tonight. :) I am SO glad that he's feeling better.

CONGRATULATIONS to my friends Angie and Brent! Baby girl Ellie Rose was born this morning at 7:42am and was 7 lbs 10 oz and 21.5 inches. I am so happy for you both, and happy that Michael gets to be the best big brother that I know he will be!!

And in closing, enjoy these videos of Jackson's first unassisted steps! Again, the quality of the video and the sound both suck...we used our old small digital camera. But you get the idea!!

More Sickness and Houston

2009-11-02T23:15:00.004-06:00

I feel that all of my recent posts have been negative, what with the boys and Chris being sick, so I'm just going to quickly update you all on them, and then move on...

Chris is doing better and went back to work today. He is exhausted from doing nothing for five days and then working a full day, but for the most part, he is better.

Dalton's other ear is now infected, but he still has plenty of antibiotics, so he should be fine. On a slightly gross note (hey, you gotta' celebrate the small stuff!), Dalton spit his first hocker today! HA! We were at the pediatrician (yes, again) and he coughed and coughed, then suddenly got this horrible look on his face and was holding his mouth open trying to talk to me. So I held out a Kleenex and he spit... Yeah, it's gross, but I don't have much to celebrate lately, so this will have to do! Besides, I am constantly grossed out by the fact that he doesn't blow his nose well, and then sniffs and sniffs and then swallows whatever, and it's so nasty. And you wonder when he'll learn to either blow his nose with the force needed, or, well, hock it up and spit it out. Which is what he did! Small victory for us.

We went back to the pediatrician because today was day eight of fever for Jackson. He is no better, he is actually a little worse and just miserable. The poor kid is either sleeping, or sitting on my lap just listless and whiny. In fact, this morning, he slept til 9, got up with a 103.5 fever, and by 10, he had fallen asleep on the living room floor. Only up for an hour, and already asleep again. So we went to the doctor again, and now on top of suspected influenza (I say it's suspected because he tested negative for it, but he has all the symptoms and the test is only 50% accurate), he now has pneumonia. Poor kid! So he got some sort of drug cocktail shot at the office, and we start a super dose of antibiotics tomorrow and for the next ten days. His doc said he should hopefully have a low grade fever tomorrow, but that it should be gone the next day. I sure hope so. The kid has been a trooper, but you can only take so much.

I'm still hanging in there...I have what I suspect to be a sinus infection, and today picked up a bit of a cough. But no fever, no aches or pains, and I'm sticking it out and not going to the doctor. Frankly, we can't afford another doctor visit right now so I'm self medicating with lots of fluids and vitamins.

Okay, on to better things! I just realized that I never posted pictures of my trip to Houston. Here is my beautiful friend Marcie, beautiful inside and out...I suspect we may have been sisters in a previous life. :) We did NOTHING the whole time I was there. It was hot and sticky and just gross every day except my last day there, which is when we went to the zoo. But honestly? It was fantastic. We did nothing but sit around and drink coffee and watch the kids play, and I cleaned for her, and cooked, and gave her a break (she is expecting her third child). Also her son Ryan, who is 4, and daughter Gracie, who is 20 months. We were at the Houston Zoo when we took these.

And of course, here's me and the boys, at the Zoo.

The kids being goofy. :)

And Dalton being goofy. :) I can't remember where we were, other than that we were at the zoo.

When Marcie's husband Bill got home in the evenings, he'd usually be assaulted by all four of the kids. He was a pretty good sport about it!

Jackson loved their coffee table...he could do laps around it, walking while holding on to it. We don't have a coffee table at home, so he thought this was pretty cool.

Gracie did her own hair bow. Isn't she beautiful?!?

Here is Dalton as the Hulk and Ryan as Spider Man. We played dress up just about every day we were there.

Dalton as the Naked Hulk. What, you've never seen the Naked Hulk movies? You should, they're great.

Ryan is Spider Man on the left, and Dalton is Spider Man on the right.

My long lost sister Marcie. :)

The drive was really hard, but the boys did great, way better than I thought they would. But I'm gonna' have to say that I will only visit during "winter" months...when the temp is below 95 would be great. :)

Well, both boys are blessedly sleeping right now, so I'd better get there myself. Hopefully I'll have more fun and upbeat posts in the next few days as Jackson will (I pray) be feeling better!

2009-10-31T23:52:00.002-05:00

Well, it's been a long week!! On Thursday the boys still were running fevers. But Thursday during the night, Jackson just wasn't sleeping well. He was doing this little whiny cry thing all night (not really crying, but more than just whining). I finally went in to check on him about 1:00 am or so (I was trying to get caught up on dishes and laundry and such)...he was SO hot. His breathing was fast and shallow. So I brought him out to the kitchen and just went ahead and gave him Tylenol. Then I took his temp...

When we went to the pediatrician on Wednesday, I was complaining because I have a temporal thermometer, and I told the nurse that it irritated me that every time I took his temp, I had to take his helmet off. She told me that I can get an accurate reading if I just put it just below and behind his ear. The thermometer has been very accurate all week. So when I took his temp that night, I put it behind his ear, and it read 106.6. I thought surely that couldn't be right. So I took off his helmet, and ran it across his forehead. 106.5. So I did it again...107. Then again and again. The last two times I did it, it just said "HI" like his temp was so hot that the thermometer wouldn't even register. I knew then that regardless of what it was, it was too hot, and we were headed to the ER.

So we went...I bypassed the Bentonville hospital (because it sucks!) and went straight to Rogers. When we got there, we were the only people in the waiting area. The lady took my info and told us to have a seat. Then two sets of people came in and checked in...and BOTH OF THEM were called back before we were. I was so irritated, b/c the one girl I get it...she was already diagnosed with pneumonia, and she was having trouble breathing. But the other guy, he'd already been in that night and had a torn rotator cuff, and he was in pain. I would think that an infant with a temp of possibly 106 would be more urgent than his pain, but what do I know? I mean, when you get those high temps, you risk seizures and brain damage!

Anyway, by the time they called Jackson back, he'd had the Tylenol in his system for over two hours, and I had left his helmet off too, to try to bring his temp down some. So when she first took his temp (with a temporal one) it was 100. I told her that was obviously wrong...all you have to do is touch his face to know that his temp is much higher. So she took his temp rectally, and it was over 104.

So we went back to a room, where a nurse gave him Motrin. And then we watched a couple scary movies on TNT while we waited. The doctor said that Jackson probably has Influenza, even though he tested negative, b/c the test is only 50% accurate. He also said that he "doubted his temp was that high, because if it was, then he shouldn't be functioning." But they couldn't really treat him with the Tamiflu b/c it has to be given within the first 48 hours of being sick. So he said for the next 24 hours, to rotate giving Tylenol and Motrin every four hours, regardless if he had a fever. And if he still had a fever today (Saturday) to bring him back for blood tests.

Well...glad I'm going to be charged over $1,000 for a confirmation of what I'm already doing! So home we went... Friday of course, he still had his 103.5 fever. Dalton ran a low grade fever off and on through the day. I got up Friday morning with a border line migraine...not bad enough to be called a migraine, really, but a VERY BAD headache. I took a double dose of Excedrin, which I'm not supposed to do b/c of my stomach...it took care of it for the most part. I'm sure this was just because I'm not getting any sleep.

A friend of ours, Lindsey (who is a saint!) emailed me Friday morning and said that she and her husband Robert wanted to help by bringing us dinner. I told her no...I said don't even think about it. If she showed up ringing the bell, that I wouldn't even open the door to her. She has a new baby at home and I just couldn't deal with possibly making them sick. So a little later, she emails again, and says that her husband "vetoed my rejection" of dinner, and that he would be here after work with food, and that he could "doorbell ditch" with the best of them!

And that he did! He showed up around 5:30 with food from Sam's. Fresh chicken enchiladas that all I had to do was pop in the oven. And tomato soup and french bread for lunch the next day. It was yummy!! (I can't get the below picture to load correctly so you'll just have to look at it sideways!)

He also dropped off a pumpkin treat basket that glows in the dark, for Dalton. And it had candy, too!! Dalton loved that! He's actually mad at me because I still haven't let him have any. Dalton did not eat dinner last night, breakfast, lunch, or dinner today. He just doesn't feel well. And while he needs SOMETHING, it sure isn't going to be candy!! He's getting lots of fluid, though, so that's good.

I did go out for a bit yesterday while the kids were napping to get more liquid reinforcements. The kids aren't vomiting or anything, but still need to stay hydrated, and Jackson is eating solids, but won't take liquids. I had tried milk, water, apple juice, even chocolate milk. I broke down and tried formula. Nothing. So I went to the store and got pedialyte and Popsicles. FINALLY at 8 or so last night, he took 6 oz of formula. I was worrying that we'd have to go back to the ER for dehydration...his diapers were so dry that I ended up having to stick my thumb in it and squeeze it to see if any pee was in there. It was very close for a while. And after the formula, I gave him two Popsicles for good measure. :) He finally had a good wet diaper this morning.

The boys slept mostly through the night last night, and WOW! I got 5 whole hours of sleep! Which brings my total for the week to 10 whole hours! I was feeling excited because the boys went most of the day with no fevers...but it didn't last. Around 5:30 or so, they both had fevers again. And Dalton is now complaining that his OTHER ear hurts. He's been up several times already tonight, crying and in pain.

But right at 5 again tonight...guess who's at the door!! Patron saints...Lindsey and Robert! Lindsey made a homemade chicken pot pie for us. And it was soooooo good! Thank you guys!!

So that's the excitement of the last few days...so far, I'm not showing any signs of getting the flu. I have been drinking about a gallon of Gatorade a day (I just can't drink that much water), and also 5-6 cups of hot tea each day. The ER doc said that hot drinks are good, because it washes all the germs out that you've inhaled and washes them into your stomach, where the acids kill them off. He also told me to take 10,000mg of Vitamin C each day, and 8,000mg of Vitamin E each day, until I am in the clear. So that's what I'm taking!! Along with a multi vitamin, 8 Ecinachea pills a day, and all my regular meds, too. I feel like a drug addict. :) But so far it's working....I have a sinus infection that I've had all week, and my throat hurts from all the drainage, but here's hoping that's all it is!!

Chris's last day in isolation was today, so I am looking forward to a little assistance with diapers and holding and rocking sick kids. :) It will be nice to have him back. Now whether he actually FEELS like helping will be another story, because he's still pretty miserable!

And Your Fortune Is...

2009-10-29T21:33:00.004-05:00

I will be short and sweet tonight. On top of the boys being sick, Chris now has influenza, so our house is just a barrel of fun right now.

I was so tired of soup, and just too darn tired to cook tonight, so we ordered in Chinese food. Jackson had his first taste of fried rice, and in TRUE Bane form, he LOVED it. :)

Dalton ate, and then went to open his fortune cookie. I tried to get it from him to read it, but he says, "No, I'm going to read it myself."
Okay.
So he opens it and and then looks at the paper and mumbles a bunch of stuff. I ask him what it says and he responds "It says that it's going to be Christmas tomorrow!!"

Hmmm, that's a new one for me. So I ask him to read the other side... "It says that it's going to be my birthday, too!!"

Wow, Christmas and his birthday both tomorrow, months early!! That IS a fantastic fortune!!

You Know Who You Are

2009-10-28T23:15:00.002-05:00

This post is for someone who I will have the decency not to mention by name. I know that it would be devastating for you for the thousands of people that read my blog to know who you are...okay, maybe I'm overestimating the number of people that read this, but I can dream, right?

You know who you are. You called and asked me yesterday if I wanted to go out to a movie. I declined, because 1) I don't have the money. By the time you get your ticket, popcorn, and coke, you might as well take a second mortgage out on your house. 2) I have too much to do. And 3) Frankly, I'm exhausted.

Your response? "How can you be exhausted? You're a stay at home home, it's not like you do anything." For the last time, I do not sit on my ass all day watching soap operas and eating bon bon's while the maid cleans and the nanny takes care of my kids. Sometimes, I wish I did. But that's not what goes on in this house. I just want to give you a run down of what the last three days have been like for me...

Monday...
Get up. Feed the boys. Feed all the animals, medicate them, and start the dog rotations in the yard. Friday we added a couple dogs to the mix, and although this was not my intention, we now have five dogs and six cats in this house. But that's another story for another day. Leave by 9:45 to get Dalton to his swim lessons at 10:00. Then go to Wal-Mart to get everything I need to make personalized cookies for Chris's office food day tomorrow. Home. Lunch. Put the boys down for naps. While the boys are napping, I do two loads of laundry and a load of dishes. I start making the gravestone cookies for Chris and promptly burn the first three batches to a crisp. I figure out on the fourth batch that I need to cut the baking time in half and drop the oven temperature by 25 degrees. Nothing like trial and error. Jackson gets up. Feed him. He feels warm, so take his temperature and he's running a fever and very cranky. Supposed to be making homemade potato soup for dinner but it now needs to wait because Jackson doesn't scream only while attached to my hip. Rotate the dogs again. The Other Nancy stops by with educational stuff she picked up for Dalton and visits for 30 minutes or so. Then sit on the couch with Jackson for 15 minutes until Chris gets home at 5:15. Trade Jackson over to Chris. Start making potato soup. Burn more cookies. Eat dinner. Bathe the boys. Feed Jackson. Clean and disinfect Jackson's helmet. Read to Dalton. Both boys in bed. Make another trip to Wal-Mart for more butter, so that I can make a second batch of cookies to burn in the morning. Feed and medicate all the animals, and rotate the dogs yet again. Then Jackson is up every 45 minutes to an hour through the night, crying, and with a fever.

Tuesday...
Get up. Is this even necessary? Did I ever even go to sleep? Feed the boys. Feed and medicate animals and start the dog rotations in the yard. Go over the US map with Dalton and teach him about Arkansas (where we live), California (where G&G Bane live), Oregon (where G&G Wilhelm live), and Texas (where we went two weeks ago). Two loads of laundry. Lunch, feed both boys. Jackson down for nap. Rotate the dogs again. Dalton "helps" me burn more cookies. At this point we've made over 140 cookies to get 90 decent ones needed for Chris's office. Dalton and I both lay down for a nap, and manage to get about an hour of sleep. Jackson up. Feed him. Medicate both him and Dalton as both have high fevers now...103.5 for J and 102 for D. Clean the cat boxes. Empty trash and diaper pail. Dishes. Dinner, feed Jackson. Make frosting (from scratch, which I surprisingly did not screw up the first time around) and start frosting cookies. Make second batch of frosting and finish cookies. Attempt to make edible spiders from leftover frosting. Throw spiders and rest of frosting away. Wash Jackson's hair and disinfect helmet. Carve three pumpkins with Dalton. Dalton to bed, feed Jackson, Jackson to bed. Medicate and feed animals, and rotate again in the yard. Phone call at 11:50pm from a friend who is struggling with the imminent death of her grandfather. Jackson is sleeping well, but Dalton is up every 30 minutes or so, crying and complaining of severe earache. End up sleeping in Dalton's room, on the bottom bunk with him, as it's easier than hauling myself into his room every 30 minutes.

Wednesday...
How long can a person go without sleep before they are locked up in a padded room? Up, feed the boys. Feed, medicate, and rotate dogs. Call the pediatrician for appointment. Punch out a 5'5" scarecrow for Dalton to decorate the front door with, as well as a large pumpkin, 8 crows, and 34 leaves. Hand write, with a food coloring pen, the name of every person in Chris's department, on the gravestone cookies. Yes, 90 cookies with full names. Lunch. Shower (anyone notice that I didn't get to shower the last few days??). Lunch, feed boys. Rotate dogs. Jackson down for short nap. Drive to Bella Vista to pick up a few items, stop by vet to pick up meds for the new dogs, drive to Fayetteville for pediatrician appt. Get Rx for Dalton's ear infection, test both boys for flu (negative, thankfully). Home around 4:30. Feed Jackson. Rock him for what seems like a year because he is still cranky with a temperature of 103. Chris home. Dalton plays a little in the yard while I sweep out the garage. Chris makes dinner (YAY!!). Carve the fourth and final pumpkin with Dalton. Decorate the front door and front windows with Dalton. Wash Jackson's hair and disinfect helmet. Attempt to feed Jackson but he refuses to eat anything, so put him to bed with nothing (I'll regret that later, I'm sure). Boys went to bed at 8:30 (Dalton) and 9:00 (Jackson). I started this post at 10:52 and we had been in Dalton's room four times, and Jackson's twice. Neither are sleeping tonight. Had to break twice from typing this to attend to a screaming Dalton (stupid ear infections).

There's nothing planned for Thursday, but Friday we have an appointment with the helmet doctor in Fayetteville, and we're supposed to trick or treat at Chris's office in the afternoon (not sure if we'll make that).

Now, in between all of this mundane ridiculously tedious--**COUGH**. Scratch that. In between all of this wonderful mom stuff that I do, I also fart around on Facebook, check emails for myself and the rescue, and check messages and return phone calls for the rescue, and sometimes spend HOURS on the phone with the auto insurance company trying to reach a settlement for the wreck.

Gosh, now that I put it all in writing, I guess I can see where you're coming from. I don't do anything! I get so much sleep, that I'm exhausted from all the sleep I get! Seriously, why can't I find the time and money and energy to go see a STUPID movie for one night? Why haven't I been jogging since before I went to Houston? What the hell do I do with my days? I'm so glad that you've opened my eyes to see how selfish and ridiculous I am. I just don't know what I would do without you.

Dalton's "Kidnapping" and Jackson's First Birthday

2009-10-22T00:30:00.004-05:00

Oh, yeah, they are definitely in cahoots together!Look at these two trouble makers!!

Okay, I said I would explain Dalton's "kidnapping", so here it is!! Yesterday morning, Chris got up at his usual time to get ready for work and it woke me up. When he turned the shower on, of course I had to pee, so I went to the hall bathroom to do my business. When I came out, I noticed that Dalton's bedroom door was open. So I went to close the door and poked my head in to check on him at the same time. Only he wasn't in his bed. I didn't remember him being in our bed (which he is, half the time), so I went back in our room to check. Nope, not in there.

So I went back to his room and checked both the bottom and top bunks. Not there. So I went to the living room and checked the couch. Nope, not there. So I went back to his room, checked his beds again, and checked under the bed. Nope. So I went back to our room and tore the blankets off the bed. Nope. Then I went back to the living room and checked both couches. Nope. This is when I start to panic.

So I check between the coffee table and TV (we blocked the TV with the coffee table to keep Jackson from pounding on the TV). Not there. I check the garage. I check under the dining room table. I go back to Dalton's room, tear all the blankets from the bed, check under the bed again, check the closet again. Nope. I then checked Jackson's room to see if he might be in there (he wasn't, and I woke Jackson up in the process). I check our bed again. Nope.

Dalton has recently started sleep walking, so I go back and check all the exterior doors, which all the dead bolts are engaged. There's no way he could have gone outside and locked the door after him. Now I'm really panicked. I'm thinking... This is just like the Amy Smart thing...someone snuck in his window and kidnapped him! So I rush back to our room, go in the bathroom, and rip the shower door open. Chris looks at me like I'm a loon, and I yell at him "Dalton is missing!!" He very calmly (with shampoo in his hair sliding down his face) says "No, he's not, he's on the floor next to our bed."

Oh.

Well, in my defense, he was on the far side of the bed in between the bed and closets, completely hidden under a sheet from his bed.

So then of course I couldn't get back to sleep, but you can bet your booty that I hauled Dalton into bed with me and just about smothered him, I was holding him so tight. Whew!

On to better stories! Jackson's birthday was on October 10th, and we had his party on Sunday the 11th. Lots of people came to celebrate with us...Grandma Pat, Aunt Trish, J's cousins Lauren and Joe, Lance and Lisa, Heather, Jeramy, and Sofia, Betsy, Taya, Gweneth, and Henry, and Meredith, Brice, Davis, and Kate. Oh what a blast we had!!

Dalton got to open a lot of presents! And some of the other kids helped, too. :) Taya is to the right of me in the picture below. She is Dalton's friend, and this is who Dalton stayed with when I was at the hospital giving birth to Jackson. She is also the one who potty trained Dalton in a matter of minutes!!

Jackson's cake...It was a bunch of cupcakes.

Dalton helped with blowing out the candle. I love how Jackson looks here...like "What the heck is going on, here?"

Oh, good, we're about to have our first taste of massive loads of sugar. GOODY!!

I guess he liked it. I think it was "finger licking good".

Oh, yeah, definitely liked it!!

I love this picture. It's almost like he's got a cake/frosting/sugar hangover. Just look at that face!

And Dalton, of course, showing us that he can, indeed, fit roughly one entire cupcake in his mouth!

This is Dalton's buddy Davis. He's three weeks older than Dalton.

I'm thinking that the cupcakes were a hit. It was nice, actually, not having to cut and serve cake. Just grab a cupcake and go!!

Immediately after the party ended, we cleaned up, and then started packing for me and the boys to drive to Houston early the next morning... Tomorrow I'll post lots of cute pics from our trip!!

So. Stinkin'. Cute.

2009-10-20T22:57:00.003-05:00

So I just wanted to take a VERY quick minute to say that I know I'm behind again. I owe you pictures from Jackson's birthday, and my trip to Houston, and other stuff, but I am just so exhausted right now. I am getting over a nasty cold, and Jackson still has one (after two weeks!!). He's not sleeping well or napping well, which means I don't sleep well, and this morning I thought Dalton was kidnapped (I'll explain this tomorrow, for sure...but no worries, he was here the whole time).

But very quickly, I want to say...Lindsey came by today with a birthday present for Jackson and a present for Dalton (D is so lucky!!) as she missed the party. And how stinkin' cute are my boys in their matching pajamas? Their matching big boy pajamas with button up shirts?!?

Behind Again

2009-10-10T15:03:00.004-05:00

So, yet again, I am behind on my blogging! It's just been SO busy lately. Last week, Jackson had some trouble with his helmet adjustment...the doctor had added some padding to it to keep it from shifting, and it was too much. His little face was rubbed RAW. So until I could get back to the Dr the next day, we were told to take it off and leave it off. Well, he just thinks he's invincible...so six hours without the helmet, and he managed to get two goose eggs and a black eye. :) When the helmet finally does come off for good, we're gonna' be in a world of hurt!

Dalton started swim lessons at the fitness center. We missed the first class (because I'm a dunce and just forgot about it). So we hit the second class...I was worried because the other kids are SO good at swimming. They are all 3 and 4 years old, but they can swim under water and swim for about 6 or 7 feet without help. But I was talking to one of the mom's at the last class, and she said that her two boys, this was their 4th time in a swim class, so now I feel better.

The pictures I took are actually from one story up. Parents are not allowed in the pool area while the lesson is going on. The observation area is one story up, and I took the pictures through the glass, so they aren't great. But here he is! He's having a ton of fun...

I went to a focus group last week, too...it was with Infantino, they make baby products. Basically we sat around and told them why we bought certain toys, what drew us to them, where did we shop, etc. So that they could get ideas of where they needed to improve, and marketing and all that. They had people there to watch the kids (this was J's first time to be in a daycare like environment, and as a result, this week he has a cold and an ear infection.) But in return for giving them my thoughts, I got all sorts of cool baby gear for free!

Some of it I wrapped up to give to J for his birthday. And the best thing I brought home?

A $50 Wal-Mart gift card! Can definitely use that! (Already have, actually!)

Here's a cute pic of Dalton and Grandma Pat...the day I took J back to the Dr to have his helmet adjusted, Grandma stayed with Dalton. When I came home I found them playing Whack-a-mole.

Later that night, I went to check on Dalton, and this is what I found...apparently, he had to line up all his stuffed animals and give them each a pillow. How cute is he?

And finally....everyone knows how I love to compare pictures of the boys... Here's Jackson.

And here's Dalton. :)

I just think it's so cute to have pictures of them both in the same place at around the same age!! We're gearing up for Jackson's birthday party tomorrow...today, he's one! Happy Birthday little one!!

Apologies, Revelations, and Lots of Pictures

2009-09-26T21:57:00.003-05:00

First of all, I want to apologize to the Grandparents. National Pet Memorial Day was on Sep. 13, and my rescue had a big event with lots of vendors and we were threatened by a monsoon and almost had to cancel...and with all the energy I put into this, I forgot that it was also GRANDPARENT'S DAY!!! Bad, Mommy, bad! So...Grandma and Grandpa Bane, Grammy and Grandpa Wilhelm, and Grandma Pat- Happy Grandparent's Day!! Dalton and Jackson love you (and so do Daddy and me...Daddy and I...whatever) and I'm sorry that we forgot this important day.

A lot of people have told me that with each child you have, the first kid gets TONS of pictures taken of them. Tons of pictures and tons of video. And then you have #2, and you take less pictures, record in their baby book less, and so on and so forth with each child you have. I find that I have actually taken MORE pictures of Jackson than I did with Dalton. Maybe part of it is that Dalton and Jackson are being cute as brothers...maybe part of it was the drama with Jackson's arrival, and I am amazed at how well he's doing. I don't know. But we take more. Now, we do take less video than we did with Dalton, but hey, I never said I was perfect!!

Do you notice anything about this picture below? Maybe that the blanket that Jackson is pouncing on is kind of lumpy??

Well, that would be because Dalton is under that blanket. :) That's a new favorite game of theirs. They are constantly wrestling on the floor. And if Dalton is under a blanket then Jackson is, of course, pretty much jumping on top of him.

Jackson is pretty much into everything now. EVERYTHING. He is pulling up to standing all the time, and can walk if he is hanging on to something. He's learning slowly....he's learning that he can stand on his tip toes to reach things on the dining room table. He's learning that he can grab all sorts of stuff that he shouldn't, and quickly shove it in his mouth to "hide" the evidence of his thievery (is that even a word??).

Dalton is none too happy with this...more and more I hear Dalton complaining that "Jackson has this, Jackson has that" or "Ew, gross, now it's covered in baby slobber!" That's a real big one. Everything has slobber on it and Dalton is kind of grossed out by that!

Jackson is also quite the climber. He's on top of everything. "Hey, Mom, look at me! I'm on the table!"

"Hey, Mom, look at me! I'm on the dish washer door, and I'm going to poke my eye out with a steak knife...Cool!"

Now, with his favorite place being on TOP of something, his second favorite place is in our bedroom. The windows go almost to the floor, so they are low enough that he can stand at the window and be face to face with the dogs...he also likes to bang on the window, I think he likes the noise it makes.

"Let me out of here! They have me confined! I'm being held against my will!!"

And for the final fantastic picture of this post, Jackson is now wanting to do everything that Dalton does. And who doesn't want to stand naked in front of the bath tub?!?

Doctors, Doctors, Doctors

2009-09-16T23:24:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was a very tiring day. We started the day by going to Jackson's orthodics doctor in Fayetteville to have his new helmet (cranial band) fitted. For those of you that have asked, the actual condition is called deformational plagiocephaly. Dalton, Jackson and I went (Daddy had to work)...I actually took the camera with me with the intention of getting a few shots of the actual fitting being done, but it just didn't work out. Of course Dalton had questions about everything in the place. When we went in last time, they had "scanned" J's head...basically he sat in my lap, with this sock looking thing over his head (to keep his hair from interfering) and with a sensor that ran up through the back of the sock and stuck out the top of it. (He reminded me of a tella-tubby). So they scan him to get a 3D image which they made a mold from, then made the helmet from that.

The helmet is big to start out with. It shifts over his head and we're constantly readjusting it. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

So they made the helmet, and we went to have it fitted. Twice they had to take it off and trim areas of the helmet around the ears. We were in the office for about two hours. Jackson actually did pretty well, although he was tired by the time we got done. Funny story...the doctor asked me if I wanted to keep the model they made of Jackson's head, and I said, sure, why not? So it was sitting on the counter. When we were almost done I told Dalton to grab the model of Jackson's head and put it in the diaper bag, and Dalton says "How about we put his body in there, too?" I guess he thought I was talking about Jackson's actual head. :)

The doctor also does prosthetics for missing limbs and such. When we went back to the front, I sent Dalton to play in the lobby while I took care of the bill. (Which is another story for another day...the insurance company has denied the claim, and the office is sending in an appeal, so I only paid a portion of the bill). While Dalton was playing, I heard another person in the lobby with him, but they were behind the door and I did not see her. This is important for another story later!

Then we left and came home. We were home only long enough for both boys to eat and for me to grab a quick something, and then we headed back to Fayetteville for an appt for me. I had tried to find a sitter for the afternoon and couldn't. I also tried to find someone in Fayetteville that would have been home so that we could hang at their house in between appts, but that didn't work out either, so we ended up spending 2 hours driving total.

Anyway, the boys are tired, and here we are sitting the waiting area for my doctor...there's one other lady in the room. And Dalton says, "Hey, there was this lady at Jackson's doctor..." (I think he was referring to the woman in the lobby with him that I didn't see while I was paying...) "...and she was missing a leg and there was a man pushing her in a wheel barrow." Of course I laughed, and the lady in the room with us died laughing too! So I had to explain to him the difference between a wheel chair and a wheel barrow.

They did pretty good during my appt, but they were both tired and a little cranky. And to top it off, I have to go back to Fayetteville before Saturday to have an EKG! Don't worry, all is fine, it's just that my doctor wants to double the dosage of a medication I am taking for my stomach. If you have a heart arrhythmia, and you get on the higher dosage of the meds, it can kill you. But if you don't have a heart arrhythmia, then you're fine. So they are just wanting to make sure my heart is okay before they increase my dosage.

So needless to say, I will not be taking the kids with me! It was actually kind of funny b/c we were standing at the desk checking out, and Dalton is whining, and Jackson has been in his stroller for two hours, and he's starting to melt down, and the nurse calls in the order for the EKG and then looks at me and says "Could you go get the EKG right now?" Hmmm...well, sure, if you're going to keep my cranky kids! What a dumb question!

Anyway, Jackson's helmet is big to begin with. Basically as he grows into it, it will slowly reshape his skull. Since it's big right now, we're constantly shifting it to keep it from rubbing his ear or falling over his eyes. He actually doesn't even care that it's on. I've only caught him a couple times trying to take it off. Yesterday he wore it for three hours (split up over the day) and today he wore it for six hours. Tomorrow we're supposed to do eight hours (and this will be the first day he'll wear it through his nap). The next day will be 12 hours, then 16 hours, then 18 hours, and then on day seven, he should be at 23 hours a day from here on out. It's made our bedtime routine stink...because we must wash his hair every day now, and he can only have the helmet off for one hour a day after the first week, and during that hour we'll have to get him cleaned up and also clean and disinfect the helmet and dry it.

And the best part is that the helmet makes him so sweaty! He just stinks all the time like sweat now (which they said the excessive sweating should taper off by week 3, but we'll see). Here's a couple pics of him right after we took the helmet off tonight...

And I know you're all just dying to see what he looks like in it, so here it is!! In this one, he was bound and determined to get Peanut's tail!!

"I'm not so sure about this, Mom. Can we take it off?"

From the back...of course Chris made them put a stupid Razorback on it!! I asked if they could upload my rescue's logo, but they couldn't do it. :)

All in all, it was a long day. But I'm pleasantly surprised at how well Jackson is adjusting to it. On average, treatment is about four months. Ours may be shorter since we started so late and his skull may fuse before then, so we'll see!!

I've also occasionally caught Dalton hitting him on the head (with helmet on), and I tell him to stop and he tells me that "it's okay for me to smack him, he has a helmet, he won't get hurt". And Jackson, the goober...if we're in the bathroom or in Dalton's room, and it will only take a minute, I shut the door to keep Jackson out. And Jackson sits outside the door and rams him head into the door over and over!! Now, the few times he's fallen and bonked his head, it's been nice b/c he doesn't cry as he is protected with the helmet. But I'm thinking that after treatment is done, he's going to get a rude awakening when he slams his head into the door and it suddenly hurts!!

Well, Well, Well... (Drum Roll Please)

2009-09-15T00:17:00.002-05:00

...Look who decided to join us in the land of the upright!!

A week or two ago, he finally pulled up to standing, three times in a row! And then nothing until two nights ago.

Now? It's all he does!! If you try to place him on the floor after holding him or carrying him, he straight legs it and refuses to be on his bottom.

He also needs work on his landing. If he's standing, and wants to get down to crawl, then he just plain falls down. And when he's up...well, he just doesn't understand that he can move those little chubby feet in a different direction and actually move! He stands up, and maybe his toy rolls away, or Dalton moves away, or whatever, and then he looks at you like "What the heck do I do now?"

It bothers me that he mostly uses the bricks to stand up. And it also bothers me that last night we found him standing on the table! Dalton has a Little Tykes plastic picnic table in the living room, and somehow Jackson managed to hoist himself up on the bench, then onto the table! And Jackson just LOVES that he can reach all kinds of stuff that he wasn't able to get to before! Like magnets! It's SO MUCH FUN to put magnets in your mouth, and choke on them, and make Mommy come running and have her dig her finger through your mouth and then bite her with all your tiny sharp little shark teeth! That's so much fun! Believe me, Mommy isn't crying from pain, she's crying from joy, I promise.

Oh, well. Get a good look at his hair and his cute little lopsided head! Jackson goes in tomorrow morning to get his helmet! So it's pretty much going to be helmet head 24/7 from here on out...well, for about four months or so anyway...J's orthodics doctor told us that is the average length of treatment, so we'll see.

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Mom!!

2009-09-11T00:36:00.002-05:00

Also forgot to give a shout out to my mommy....she celebrated her 75th birthday on the 8th. Happy Birthday, Mom!

Thanks for giving life to the most awesome person in the world (me!)... :) I love you!!!

Oh, Mother Nature!!

2009-09-11T00:16:00.002-05:00

Yup, it's been a while since I've posted. Sorry about that! I've been keeping up with jogging every other day or so, and last week even jogged three days in a row. I haven't been since Monday because the others girls have been sick and I just can't find the motivation to do it by myself yet! I started jogging almost 4 weeks ago, and to the best of my calculations, we've logged a little over 40 miles! I still don't have a distance measuring pedometer, and one of the trails that we run, I have a feeling that the distance is NOT what is marked. Hard to explain. But I'm very proud of us for having gone that distance to date!!

I've also been super busy preparing for an event this weekend put on by my rescue...it's for National Pet Memorial Day, celebrated on the 2nd Sunday of September each year. I've done SO MUCH to get ready for this event....we have a lot of local businesses participating. Big Wag Dog Bakery is giving out samples, Dog Watch is promoting their boarding facility and also giving an agility demonstration, Camp Bow Wow is promoting their boarding facility, the dog trainer for the City of Bentonville K9 unit is giving a demo...my group is microchipping (for only $15.00!!), we're selling tshirts, and low cost collars/leashes/toys. We are doing a candle lighting and moment of silence, and will have a local pastor there to give a blessing. And I spent a good hour writing up what I'm going to say to everyone and how I will introduce everyone. We'll have our foster dogs there, too, up for adoption. I've put a ton of effort into getting this organized...we're also decorating the graves at the local pet cemetery...Chris helped me make 400 flags to mark the graves.

At first, there was a 40% chance of rain because of a front coming in from California/Oregon area...but that's not an issue any more. But now there's a tropical storm moving up from Texas, and they are calling for an 80% chance of rain on Sunday!!! I am so mad that this may get rained out. We have a rain date set for a week later...but I have all this stuff sitting in my garage and sitting on the dining room table to take to the event, and I put so much effort into getting it all organized and arranged, and now we may have to postpone?!? I am so ready to just be done with it!! And on top of that, CNN was supposed to be there on Sunday to do a video feed of the event, which would give us much needed exposure, but if it gets postponed, I can't guarantee that they will be there for the rain date. Plus, the pastor doing the blessing can't do the rain date, either, so if we do post pone, it will be a mad scramble to find another pastor to do it and to redistribute all the ads to notify of the new date.... Ugh. Freaking mother nature! I'm very irritated with her right now!!

On a different note, I got some much needed shopping for the boys done last week. The big consignment sale was in town and I got Jackson some pants! The child had one pair of pants for this winter, and money is so tight right now that I couldn't see spending $12.00 a pair at the store. I also got a jogging stroller...for $35.00. It retails new for almost $500, so great buy, right? I took Jackson one night last week...and running with that stroller just kills my back!! So I guess I'll be selling it. If I can't use it, there's no sense in it sitting taking up space. I also went back to the sale a couple days later to get stuff for my friend Marcie in Houston...it was fun shopping for her b/c she has a daughter...I never get to shop for girl stuff! And I never get to shop for stuff with someone else's money, either! All around great time. :)

Of course, right after I spent all that money, several things broke at our house...the hedge trimmers. Which our bushes are out of control HUGE right now and really need to be trimmed. And the TV in our bedroom broke. But we can live without that. Best of all, our lawn mower broke too!! Chris was mowing when a chunk of metal flew off the mower and oil and gas spewed all over the place. You can now see all the gears and inner workings of the mower...and the metal piece that flew off? It broke right out of the middle of this big piece of metal, and it was a couple inches long...and a half inch thick. I can't imagine if one of us had been standing in it's path when it happened.

Time for bed for me now, so off I go to stare at the ceiling for several hours. I will try to get some new pictures posted tomorrow...the boys have been very cute lately!!

No Girls (Or Babies) Allowed

2009-09-01T00:01:00.002-05:00

Last Saturday, Chris and Dalton went on a "big boys only" fishing trip to Roaring River. Chris got up pretty early (5:30 on a Saturday...egads!!) and Dalton got up soon after. Chris said he did pretty good...he said "Dalton, it's time to get up to go fishing." and Dalton said "Okay" and just got up! Which means he was pretty excited!!

They started out by getting their fishing licenses for the day.

They also got to feed the fish, too. Roaring River is really cool because they breed the fish and then release them every morning at 7:00 am. So if you go at that time, you're pretty much guaranteed to catch a fish. It was funny when Chris asked Dalton a few days earlier if he wanted to go fishing, and Dalton said, "I already went fishing and I didn't catch anything." But, see, you've never been to Roaring River!! Here's Dalton feeding the fish...

And then they just kind of chilled out!

I was pretty glad that I wasn't there for this trip. Dalton standing on the edge of this concrete thing would have really freaked me out!!!

They only fished for about an hour, and Dalton caught THREE fish all on his own!! Daddy caught four. Chris said that Dalton got so excited, yelling "I got one!" and that other people around them were giving them dirty looks (I guess because he was scaring the fish??) Party poopers. Here's Dalton with his Trout...

There's this big cave with a pond in front, and Dalton thought that was pretty cool.

Chris said that the batteries went dead after only taking a few pictures. He took our old small camera so as not to risk dropping the big fancy one in the water. :) But I am SO proud of him for taking the camera and getting some good pictures!! Usually I'm the one that wants to take the camera everywhere. I took this picture of the boys when they returned home.

Neither of us really eat fish, and Chris doesn't know how to clean them, so I called my sister Julie and she came and relieved us of our fish problem. All in all, a great trip for the "big boys"!!

Dalton-isms

2009-08-24T23:48:00.002-05:00

D-"Mommy, can I take a shower with you?"
Me-"No, you're too old for that."
D-"Daddy, can I take a shower with you?"
Daddy-"Nope. But you can take one by yourself."
D-"But I just want someone to get naked with me..."

D-"Are Robert and Lindsey going to have a baby?"
Me-"Yes."
D-"Is Lindsey going to have a baby?"
Me-"Um...yes."
D-"Are they gonna get a crate?"
I don't know why he thinks people keep babies in a crate. I swear to God that we do NOT put our kids in the dog crates!

"Mean people hunt. And when they're nice, they cook."

You know when you're at the grocery store and you're going through the list, you might read off the departments you need to go to? Well, that's what I was doing. So I said, "Automotive, paper goods, baby..."
And D says, "Mommy, we already have a baby, remember?"

"Look! My head is hard like a rock!"

"I'm mad like a Razorback."

Me to Chris-"Do you think all kids this age are funny, or is it just Dalton?"
D-"It's just me."

Comes out of his room with a polo shirt on, the collar turned up and his fingers on the edge of the collar-"This shirt makes me look cool..."

"I have to go poop and pee...I'm full of food and cake and water and milk and tea and tomato juice."

In the grocery store...D-"Wait, go back, I saw something back there!"
Me-"Nope, I don't have time to go back, just tell me what you saw."
D-"Applejacks!"
Me-"How do you know what Applejacks are when you've never had them?"
D-"I saw them on a commercial."

UPS drops a package at the door.
D-"Is that for me?"
Me-"Nope, I think it's for me."
D-"What is it?"
Me-"I think it's new dishes from Gma and Gpa Bane."
I open it and he sees all the bubble wrap and says- "See!! I told you it was for me!"

He was asking for Michael to come over and I told him that Michael went back to school and wouldn't come over as much anymore, but that I might watch a baby for someone else a few days a week. "We're not going to keep it, are we?"

What A Fun Weekend!!

2009-08-23T23:27:00.004-05:00

We had a great lazy, fun weekend! Lots of new pictures to post...we had so much fun just hanging around the house that I took over a hundred pictures this weekend!!

I don't remember what we did Friday night, so it must not have been too great, but I was making dinner and turned around to find this...

Dalton just decided to color, hanging out with Jackson! They're so cute!!

We did dig out a bunch of Dalton's old toys from the attic. Slowly but surely I've been bringing them in, a few at a time, from the garage to clean them up. Of course Dalton says "Hey, my *insert toy name here*!! I've been looking for that forever, it's my favorite!" Dalton used to love this little scooter car, and Jackson loves it too.

Saturday, while I worked adoptions from 10-2, Chris took the boys for walks/rides. They went up and down the road tons of times. Sometimes with Dalton riding his bike and Jackson in the stroller, and sometimes with Dalton riding his motorcycle (which just came down from the attic...I was actually going to sell it b/c I hate it!!), and sometimes with the boys in the wagon. It was Jackson's first ride in the wagon (I'm sorry I missed it), and Chris failed to take any pictures!

After I got home, Chris and Dalton washed the cars, and then Dalton and I had a fantastic water balloon fight!!

You cannot run from me child!!

Look at his face...he's having such a blast!

Here, he's double fisting it and gonna' hit me with two at once.

Jackson sat on the front porch in his stroller and just watched us and laughed. After our balloon fight, Dalton decided to push Jackson around the driveway. :)

What a bunch of hams I've raised! But seriously, how freakin' cute are they?!? Surely these are not my children, they are way too cute.

And I got some great pics of Jackson just being Jackson! He's still pretty well in love with his feet.

And look at all these teeth! He has four that have broken through now. I think it's funny that his side teeth on the top are coming in before his front middle teeth. The one in the same spot on the left side is just about to pop through, too. My little snaggle-tooth!!

He's got a big mouth, just like me. :) And always loving everything in life!

I hope this week is as much fun as this weekend was. Not too much on the calendar...no doctor appts planned (although if we hear back from health insurance on Jackson's helmet, we'll be going in asap to have his head scanned so they can begin making his helmet)...will probably have a play date or two...

I had another good run tonight with Cheri, and we're planning on going again on Tuesday. Other than these couple things, that's the only stuff we've committed to, so it should be a good, laid back week!!

Nothing Better Than A Baby's Laugh

2009-08-23T22:38:00.003-05:00

I just love the sound of a baby laughing!! Got these short videos earlier tonight...When I watched them on the computer, there was a lot of crackling noise each time Chris was spinning the toy. I hope it's just our speakers going bad on the computer, and not the camera's mic!! You'll have to let me know...

I Survived...Kind Of...Sort Of...Almost.

2009-08-21T23:04:00.002-05:00

Myself and one of my running buddies, Amy, went for a jog last night. We decided to run the Bville Dog Park Trail...which isn't what it's really called. Just minutes ago, I inadvertently found a map of the trail (which would have been soooo nice to have had before we ran) and it's real name is Slaughter Pen Hollow Multi-Use Trail System. Hmmm... Something about "Slaughter" in the title is getting to me.

So we met at 7:00, and walked the first 1/2 mile. We were under the impression that this trail makes a full loop back to the parking lot. Each 1/4 mile is marked on the trail. So then we jogged for a bit, then walked, then jogged, then walked. At one point we realized we were right behind the waste water treatment plant (yummy), but we were walking and didn't think much of it. But then the trail just kind of ended. We had come to a road, but at first couldn't figure out where we were. We were debating on whether to turn around when we saw other runners and bikers on the actual road, so we thought that the trail must pick back up just ahead of where we were, so we continued on.

We went under Tiger Blvd and figured out where we were, and a trail picked up, but by the way the trail jogged to the east, which was opposite the direction of where we wanted to go, we decided to turn around. It was somewhere around 8:00 (although we didn't have watches or phones, we knew b/c the sun was setting). So we went back the way we came. We realized that it was going to be dark soon...very few people were still on the trail. And three times in the last year there's been sightings of a black bear on this trail. So we figure, you know what? We need to get trucking if we want to make it back to the cars before dark!!

So we're jogging again...and more and more and more! At this point, we're hurting and we're out of breath, and then we're passing the sewer plant again, and we're huffing and puffing and breathing through our mouths and you can taste the waste! (Taste the waste...kind of Dr. Seuss like!!)

So it's getting darker and darker, and we realize that we're still at least a mile and a half from the cars. So we run a little faster. We're dying. We also realize that the people still on the trail are a bit "questionable", if you will, and guess what? Fear of being eaten by a bear, and/or bludgeoned to death by an escaped convict is a great motivator!!

We finally made it back...I had several missed calls from Chris, who I immediately called. He was pretty ticked off and said that he was about to call the police. I'm going to have to figure out a way to start taking my cell phone with me...guess I'll have to buy one of these pouch things that you Velcro around your arm (or something similar) to keep your phone and key. (We've been taking our car key off the ring and lacing it through our shoe lace to hang on to it!)

After all was said and done (and after we checked the trail map at the beginning of the trail that we completely missed when we started out) we ended up doing over six miles... Remember I mentioned that it seemed the trail came to an end when we hit a road? Apparently, that's where the trail ends! They just don't have it marked at all. And it was three miles to that point, and we went way past that three mile mark. In all, I think we jogged over two miles, and walked maybe another five? It's hard to know. I wish I had the little electronic pedometer, but we're too poor to buy one right now.

And to top it off...I officially have my first runner's blister! Wait...it gets better... Not one, not two, not three, but four blisters...And they've already broken and sloughed off, so I actually have three holes on the bottom of my feet (two on the right, one of the left) and a big blister on one of my toes. (Gross, I know, but I want you to know and feel the pain I am in...) Surprisingly, I'm not as sore as I was on Wednesday after our first run Tuesday night. I'm not that sore at all, which shocks me.

I had also laughed because before we started all this, Amy said "Hey, we'll be running 5K's before we know it..." and I told her not to get ahead of ourselves, that was a long way off! And then last night, we basically went the distance of TWO 5K's, in 90 minutes time! I guess her comment wasn't too far off.

I've made plans to go running again on Sunday night with one of the other girls, Cheri (Amy is in Dallas this weekend). Just for fun, I'm going to go by Rush Running in Bville tomorrow, where they will (for free) measure my stride and how I run, and tell me which shoe would be best for me (not that I can buy it...)

Maybe once I figure out how to take my cell with me, I can get a few mobile pics of our runs and post them. Until then, you'll just have to make your own image in your head...just imagine me collapsing at the finish line, and you'll be spot on!

I'm Still Alive

2009-08-19T23:08:00.002-05:00

So, lots of stuff to update on! I got my jogging group together!! Myself and three other girls (I went to high school with them). Three of us went jogging last night, and I survived to tell about it!! I'm kind of disappointed that we weren't able to jog further, but for beginning, I guess it was okay. We went to the Bella Vista trail around Lake Bella Vista. And while we did the entire trail (1.8 miles), we only jogged maybe 4/10 a mile? We started out walking to warm up and stretch, then jogged for a bit. Then walked for a bit, then jogged, and then finished walking.

And you know what? I'm sore! But not the muscles I thought...I am sore mostly where my legs meet my pelvis. Weird. We're going again tomorrow night, but we're doing the Dog Park trail...

Who are these cutie-pa-tooties?

And...look who's finally crawling like a "real" boy!! Up on his knees...which also helps, because from there he can get himself into a sitting position!! It's super cute, b/c when he does this, I clap and go "YAY!" and then HE claps (which he also just learned to do) and laughs, and it's so fun! I'm still trying to catch this on video. He'll do it ten times in a row, and then I get the camera, and then he just looks at me like I've lost my mind. :) And now that he's crawling for real, he has LOTS of carpet burn on his poor knees!

Lindsey, a very dear friend of mine (she was there with me all day when I went into labor with Jackson when Chris was out of town), had her baby on Monday. Benjamin Robert is so cute! We went over there tonight...somehow we managed to only get pics of the baby, and the baby with us, none of Robert and Lindsey...not sure how that happened. But I cooked from 3:00 until 6:00 today...we took them dinner...chicken enchildas, mexican rice, and brownies. Nothing really healthy about that meal...

Who doesn't love to hold a two day old baby?!? I mean, how sweet is he?

I really think Chris is worried that this is going to make me start with baby fever really bad (and let's face it, it probably will!)

Well, Chris is all ready for Razorback football to begin, he just got his season tickets. But we say....Razorbacks?? Phooey!! We're ready for Husker football to begin!!

The other day Chris crawled up in the attic to get down all of Dalton's old toys for Jackson. J just loves them, and Dalton is excited too. He keeps saying "I remember this...I've been looking all over for it!!" Whatever!

It's Time For A Change

2009-08-08T03:13:00.002-05:00

It's 3:17am...and I can't sleep. I am an insomniac in the very worst way. I've tried sleep aids...both natural and prescription. I've tried cutting out caffeine. I've tried everything, but I still can't sleep. I don't think I've gotten to sleep before 2 am in at LEAST 6 months. But still up early with the boys!! So I think it's time for a change.

I've been up thinking for hours. I'm thirty years old. Yes, that's right, folks, the big 3-0. I can remember back in my early teens when thirty seemed SO old. :) And here I am.

I have two kids, two dogs, four cats, and two fosters. I have my husband. I have a house (aka mortgage/money pit), two cars...I have insurance and escrow and health/life insurance. I have all these things that I used to think only OLD people had. But I don't really feel old. Inside, I still feel like a kid. I consult my mom for everything...when the kids are sick, I call my mom. When I'm sick, I call my mom. When I am making a recipe, I call my mom. When I need any kind of info, I call my mom. I am, at heart, a child. I enjoy coloring with Dalton. I like having cuddle fests, tickle fest, movie/popcorn fests.

My body says otherwise. I have lost all my pregnancy weight...if you go by weight, I am down to my pre-pregnancy weight. But my body is so different. My belly is big and flabby (I still look pregnant), my thighs are HUGE, my hips are in another stratosphere. Guess that's what happens when you have kids. I am so out of shape.

And let's not forget that I have been smoking for twelve years. TWELVE!! What in the world made me start this nasty, smelly, expensive habit, I'll never know. Oh, wait...I think it was peer pressure. But I digress.

It's time to start a new routine. I hope that my new routine will help me not only become healthier, but save money, and help me sleep! I've been "working out" regularly on Wii Fit. And it really is good...by the end, I am sweating buckets and tired and out of breath. But I need something more.

I'm going to start jogging again. I jogged years ago..and the furthest I ever got was jogging two miles I think. And it was all in air conditioning on a treadmill or at the indoor track at the Wal-Mart Fitness Center. I'm going to start jogging again, only outside, on pavement. (I am so clutzy though that I worry I will have a lot of scraped knees in my future). I think I'll jog in the late evening, not only because it's cooler, but because Chris will be home to keep the boys. Unless I want to spend a fortune on a double jogging stroller, that's my only option. That, or getting up at 5:00 to do it before Chris goes to work, and since now it is 3:26 am and I'm still wide awake, I don't think that's going to work so well.

I need a jogging partner. Someone to keep me motivated, and keep me company, and to hold me accountable for what I'm doing. Someone that will also depend on me to keep them going. Preferably someone who is also just starting to jog, so that I don't slow them down, when on the first jog I have to stop after 20 feet to catch my breath. :)

I'm also going to quit smoking. I have a quit date set (which I am not telling anyone, because it's seems when I blurt it out, I fail...).

Now that I'm THIRTY and SO SO SO OLD (ha!) it's time for a change, time for a healthier lifestyle, time to start doing what I should have been doing all along. And hopefully, I will be so tired after running that I'll be able to sleep (man, I really hope so).

So if you live in my neck of the woods and want to jog with me, let me know!! We can do it together!

Baby Food and Stuff

2009-08-05T00:04:00.002-05:00

This past week was a big marathon baby food making week! I had purchased strawberries, apricots, and bananas from the store, and a friend of ours with a garden gave us zucchini and squash, and someone that Chris works with gave us home grown eggplant! Had to get it all made up before it went bad.

So I cleaned it all, peeled it, and cut it up. The strawberries and bananas and apricots could just be blended up without cooking. Jackson had never had strawberries or apricots, and he loves them both!!

I used my handy dandy immersion blender (that we got at Wal-Mart for under $20.00) to blend it all up. Then put it all in my Baby Cubes, which are FANTASTIC! They are these little cubes that hold 2 oz each (perfect size). They have tethered lids, so you don't have to search for them, or worry about them getting lost. They can go in freezer, straight into the microwave, and straight into the dishwasher. I love them!!

Then I used my handy dandy label maker to label each food, which was also purchased from Wal-Mart for about $20.00. I wish that Wal-Mart would pay me to be their spokes person!!

So, all in all, not a bad haul for only purchasing three fruits. With the 32 cubes of food I got out of it, it will last Jackson about 11 days. And it only took me about an hour and a half from start to finish. And man, what a savings from buying processed baby food!

And, just because they're cute, I can't NOT post pics of the boys. Here we are, just hanging out.

AND...check out who's finally sitting up on his own!!! All that physical therapy is finally helping...I guess it didn't really take that long. He still can't get up to sitting on his own, yet, but if you help him get there, he'll sit for a long time. He's sat for at least 2 minutes on his own without falling over. :) It's about time!! He's already 10 months old, which just blows my mind.

Party Like a Rock Star

2009-08-03T15:51:00.003-05:00

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Bane, for this super cool green, glittery, hair gel!!

Mom says that I am the coolest thing ever, and I gotta' say, I agree!!

But the best part is: Now I can party like a rock star!! ROCK ON!!

Jackson's Story

2009-07-28T23:45:00.003-05:00

While this blog was started for family and friends to be able to keep up with what was going on with the kids, it's also a journal of sorts for the boys. My dad died when I was seven, and I don't remember a lot about him. I want my kids to know who I am. I want them to know that I was funny, and weird, loving, hateful (!), compassionate, crafty...well, I want them to know everything about me...in case something happens to me, they'll know who I am. So I wanted to take a bit (okay, I'm going to need more than "a bit") to tell about Jackson's entry into this world.

Chris went to Colorado to (are you ready?) Great American Beer Fest, a last hurrah, if you will, before Jackson was born. It's a big transition going from one child to two (or more!). So off he went. He'd planned this trip a long time before. I was 33 1/2 weeks pregnant. I had just been to the doctor and we had scheduled my c-section for November 10 (my due date was November 18??). He and three friends drove our car.

Thursday night (October 9, 2008), my mom came to babysit Dalton so that I could go to get my hair cut. It was a last minute plan...I had just measured my hair and had the ten inches I needed to cut and donate to Locks of Love, something I do every two years. So Mom arrives, and I leave for the salon. I only got about 1/2 mile from the house. I was on a road that has no turning lane, and the guy in front of me was stopped to make a left hand turn, waiting on traffic. I stopped behind him, and then, WHAM! I got rear ended. The kid (yes, he was a 16 year old kid) hit me hard enough that I then slammed into the guy in front of me.

I had left my cell phone at home, in case Mom needed to make a call for some reason (we don't have a home phone). I tried using the phone of the guy in front of me to call her, but I didn't realize that he had a different area code, so each time I tried to call I got some weird lady's voice mail. :) The paramedics came and asked me "How you feeling?" and at the time I felt fine, so they left (so very thorough, they were!).

We got the cars moved to the side, the cops came and took statements, and about an hour and a half later, I got to leave. I went home, where Mom's first words were "I thought you were getting a hair cut?" with a kind of disgusted look on her face. So I explained what happened, and she suggested over and over that I go to the hospital to get checked out, which I promptly shot down. I sure didn't want to sit for five or six hours in the ER waiting room when I felt fine!! I called Chris and left him a voice mail that went something like "Hey, got in a car wreck, but I'm okay, the Blazer is pretty messed up, though, call me when you can..."

A few hours later I started having contractions, although they weren't regular. By this time, it's pushing 9:00pm. I called my friend Marcie, who is an OB nurse in Houston, and asked her if I should go to the hospital (let's face it, it's night, our local hospital SUCKS, and I had a three year old already in bed asleep...). We talked at length, and it finally boiled down to her telling me to call my doctor in the morning to get checked out, but if I started to bleed, go the hospital immediately.

Chris finally called me back late and, speech slurred, asked if he should come home. I told him again and again to stay there, no worries, I'd be fine. I'd call him tomorrow after I saw the doctor. I went to bed, and continued to have irregular contractions through the night, but that was it. They weren't even big contractions, just minor stuff, nothing I couldn't handle!!

In the morning, I called in to work (I didn't have a car to get there, after all!). I called our insurance company. I called a tow truck to take the truck to a dealership to begin repairs. I called my doctor and made an appointment for 11:00. I called my babysitter who so graciously came to our house to pick up Dalton (thank you Betsy!!). I called a rental car company to arrange for another car. My sister showed up to continue to paint the outside of our house. So mind you, I'm still having minor, irregular contractions FOR HOURS before I can get to the doctor. I talk to Chris again, and reassure him that he does not need to come home (I am such an idiot!!).

Then I realize I have no way to get to the rental car place, so I call a girl that I work with and she comes and gets me and takes me to the rental place (thanks, Lindsey!!). And finally make my way to Fayetteville to the doctor.

I was texting my boss through all of this, apologizing for not getting to work on time. I was told later by another girl that my boss, at the time, said it was fine as long as I didn't have the baby, yet, because I hadn't yet trained the people that were going to cover my job while on maternity leave (why, yes, he is a jerk, thanks for noticing!)

So I get to the doctor and they hook me up to a monitor, and they confirm that I am having contractions. What I didn't know, though, is that they were regularly spaced contractions, I just didn't feel them all. So they tell me that I have to stay for 30 minutes on the monitor. So I sit and wait. Thirty minutes roll by, and they come in and tell me that I am still having very regular contractions every two minutes or so, and that want me to check into triage, where they will start an IV and give me some meds to try to stop the contractions.

So up to triage I go!! I call Chris, and again we argue on whether he should come home, and (again) I tell him, stay there! It's your last trip, you're having fun, I'm fine...

HA!

So I get my IV and my meds started...Lindsey calls me from work, and I tell her what's going on. Bless her heart, she decides that I shouldn't have to sit there at the hospital by myself, so she arranges to get off work to come up there. She also goes by my house to get my phone charger (as it's slowly dying!) and tell my sister what is going on. Finally, my first (girl) knight in shining armour arrives!

So we've been sitting in this hospital triage room for three hours or so, IV slowly dripping, when the nurse comes in and tells me that they are speeding up the IV drip and I should get to leave in 45 minutes or so. YAY! Not five minutes later, the doctor comes in (not my doctor, the on call doctor), and decides to do an exam real quick before they discharge me (a great plan, right?). Now, let's recap...ten minutes ago I was told that I can leave in 45 minutes...). She says: "Well, you're dilated to four, and 80% effaced. You can't go home, we're checking you in to labor and delivery." I'm sorry, can someone please pick my jaw up from the floor? WHAT?!?!?!?

And that's when I lost it. :) I start crying. Because all this time Chris could have been on his way home....and Dalton is at the sitter, who's going to pick him up?....and my dogs and cats need to be fed, and medicated, and who's going to do that? I have no clothes, I have nothing with me but a cell phone, charger (thanks to Lindsey!) and my purse. At that, Lindsey starts making phone calls for me...she calls my best friend Heather (whose husband is with Chris in Colorado). And then I'm moved upstairs....to Labor and Delivery. CRAP!

We get all checked in up there. It's now approximately 5:00ish (I honestly don't remember the exact time). I call Chris to update him. It is now officially decided that he will get on the next flight home, and the guys with him can just drive our car home. The first flight out doesn't arrive in NW Arkansas until almost midnight. But you know what? It doesn't matter, because I'm still in denial. I'm NOT having a baby. It doesn't matter what time his flight comes in, because I'm NOT in labor.

A nurse comes in and gives me a steroid shot to try to speed up Jackson's lung development. The plan is to increase the meds they are giving me to try to stop labor, so that they can make it to 24 hours from now, so they can give a 2nd steroid shot. Meanwhile, the monitor showing my contractions is going crazy... What's that you say? I'm having BIG HUGE contractions every minute or so? Phooey. I can't feel them, so it must not be happening. I am NOT having this baby.

Heather arrives at the hospital. Now, the next little bit is very blurry to me, it all happened so fast. Heather and Lindsey decided to possibly go get something to eat...or maybe Heather left to get something for both of them, and Lindsey stepped to the hall to call her husband to see if he could pick Chris up at the airport and bring him here. I can't remember. But I remember that both of them are out of the room, and a nurse and the doctor come in for another exam. And the conversation went a little something like this:
Doctor: "I see you're having big, regular contractions..."
Me: "Am I?"
I think I may have just heard her snort a laugh...
Doctor: "Well, you're dilated to 8 and 100% effaced."
Me: "So, I guess I'm not going home tonight, am I?" At this point, I'm still in denial, even after hearing that last part....I really thought it could still be stopped!!
Definite laugh out loud from the doctor...
Doctor: "Um...no. We'll begin prepping you for surgery right now...the anesthesiologist will be in shortly with paperwork for you to sign."
Me: "What? But my husband's plane doesn't land for another five hours. Can't this wait?"
Doctor: "No, this can't wait. This baby is coming now, and we need to do the surgery."
Now I'm outright sobbing. I'm terrified. What?!? How the hell am I going to surgery without Chris? Are they saying now, as in right now?? Who's going to keep Dalton? Who's going to let my dogs out? Who's going to feed the cats? I had told my sister when she was done painting to just leave...
They leave, and Heather and Lindsey walk in, and find me scrambling for my phone to make calls while sobbing and hiccuping with snot running all over my face. Those poor girls... Lindsey calls Chris to update him while Heather calls my mom, I think... I call a friend, Ruth, and ask her to go to my house to take care of the dogs and cats.

Funny insertion here...all my dogs and cats eat different food (yes, seven different kinds) and all three dogs take meds for different ailments. I told Ruth to go there NOW and call me back and I would walk her through everything. When she calls, she says, "What's with all the extra cats in your garage?" Um, what?

CRAP! I completely forgot that another friend, Jill, was getting married the next day and that I had arranged for her to drop off her five or six foster kittens for me to care for while she was on her honeymoon!! She had a key to the house (for emergencies) and when I wasn't home when she came, she just dropped them off according to "the plan". OOPS!

So I tell Ruth there are separate instructions for all of them that Jill left, and then walk her through what she needs to feed and medicate with all of mine. Meanwhile, the nurse has come back in and is checking IV lines and giving me meds, while I'm on the phone, Lindsey's on the phone, and Heather's on the phone. What a sorry bunch we are!! I also call the sitter, and (*sob, sob, hiccup*) ask her if Dalton can stay overnight, which of course he can (Betsy--you are a lifesaver, and I hope to one day get to repay you for all you did for us during this time!!).

Then I get my anesthetic, and off we go! It was decided that Heather would be in the operating room with me, and Lindsey would remain behind to make additional calls.

(HA! I just remembered another funny tidbit....we had planned to have a girl's game night that night (at Heather's house) since our husbands were all out of town drinking it up at the stupid beer fest...when Heather said she was coming to the hospital I said "But what about game night?" I am so retarded!)

I am so proud of Heather for sitting there with me, holding my hand, as the sight of blood isn't too high on her list. And when Jackson made his grand entrance? I remember looking at him, and closing my eyes, and I heard Heather say "He's beautiful" and she cried!! Heather cries at NOTHING. I've known her for over 15 years, and I've never seen her cry.

Jackson Christopher Bane was born on Friday, October 10, 2008, at 8:44pm. He was 5lb, 9oz, and 18 inches long. His lungs were not fully developed. He could breathe, but not well. He didn't know how to suckle or swallow. He was taken to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Luckily, the girls were able to get ahold of Chris just before he got on his plane to tell him all the details, and that we were both doing pretty well. I can barely remember what he looked like when I saw him in the operating room. I was in recovery for a while, and then taken back to my (new) room. Calls were made left and right. And for some odd reason, I was wired. I wish that I had slept, but I couldn't.

Chris finally arrived, and Lindsey's husband brought him to the hospital. Robert also had the good sense to bring a camera for us (you guys are great!!). Chris, Robert, Lindsey, and Heather all got to go see Jackson through the window. I did not. Robert also had gone to the store to get clothes for the baby (which was so thoughtful!!)...Chris didn't get there until either just before or after midnight. The first decent look I got at the baby was on the camera that Robert brought.

Jackson, meanwhile, was in the NICU. He was on oxygen. They put in a feeding tube. All that jazz. :) On Saturday, I finally got to see him, after he was 24 hours old. Dalton did NOT get to come to the hospital because he had gotten a little cold. With Jackson's lungs being under developed, we were taking no chances. Also on Saturday, I got to pumping to that they would have something to put down that feeding tube. We did not get to hold him until Sunday I think? I do remember going in to the NICU for the first time to see him in person...I remember thinking he was so tiny...they had the feeding tube through his nose (because he kept pulling it out when it went through his mouth), he had his oxygen. He had all these lines and leads and just everything attached to him. But he was perfect.

I was kept at the hospital until the following Tuesday, then I was discharged. Without my baby. By this point, Jackson had learned to suckle using a pacifier, and I was breast feeding one feeding a day, and using the feeding tube for the other feedings. But I had pumped enough milk that they had a TON of it stored in the freezer already. So we left on Tuesday. And it was horrible. When we went home that night (which was a horrible ride, by the way...my incision was hurting something very very bad!!)...we went to Betsy's to pick up Dalton, then home. Betsy had been a doll and made us homemade chicken and dumplings to take home for dinner. We got home, Chris set me up with dinner in the recliner (Dalton had already eaten), set Dalton up with cartoons, and then he went to the pharmacy right down the road to fill my pain meds. By this point, it's about 7:30 pm. As soon as Chris walked out that door, I broke down. It was so horrible to come home without Jackson. By the time he got back, I was a big blubbering mess. He asked what was wrong, and of course I told him nothing. He asks if my incision hurt, and I said no (which it was on freaking fire, but whatever...)

I couldn't eat. So I decided to go in and pump. When we were in the hospital, we got to use one of those nice hospital grade Medela pumps, and I was pumping 6-8 ounces of milk every four hours. We had discussed renting one because who knew how long it would be before he got to come home. But we decided that I could use my First Years brand one, that it would be fine. WRONG. What a giant piece of crap! I went to the bedroom, and pumped, and got less than 1/2 a stupid ounce of milk. So of course that set me off again, and I was sobbing and blubbering, and saying "How the hell can I feed him if this pump doesn't work!!" Basically, it boiled down to Chris doping me up with pain meds until I cried my self to sleep. Pathetic, right?

Now don't get me wrong...I know a lot of people don't ever get to bring their babies home. And there isn't anything that I can imagine that would be harder than losing a child. Whether it be in utero, during birth, or at any age, I cannot even fathom what it would be like to lose a child. Ever. And I hope to never have to know what it feels like. But at this point in my life, leaving Jackson behind in that hospital is the hardest thing I've ever had to do.

For the next seven days, we went to the hospital during the day. Dalton went to Betsy's, and we went to the hospital for the feedings. We were able to be there for the 10am, 1pm, and 4pm feedings. All other feedings were done with my stored breast milk. The reason we chose those feeding times is that we wanted to still keep Dalton's schedule as close to normal as we could. So he still went to the sitter in the morning, and we picked him up around 5:30 as we usually did.

The hospital was at least a 1/2 hour drive for us (3/4 to 1 hour during rush hour). So on the first couple of days, my sister Ann let us use her house between feedings so that I could rest. (Her house is only 5 minutes from the hospital). One day, we found other stuff to do...went and got new phones, then went to the mall and actually got my hair cut like I intended! On Saturday and Sunday, we had no where to go, and Dalton was home with Chris, and I wasn't allowed to drive yet (which at that point I could barely even walk), so we arranged for multiple people to drive me up there for the feedings. Then we would drive back, and I'd have about one hour before needing to leave for the next feeding. I was so exhausted, and at one point, the nurses even told me to skip a feeding so that I could get some rest. But I just couldn't help thinking...even though Jackson was eating and mostly breathing okay, what if I skipped that one feeding, and something happened?? And I wasn't there for him? What if, what if, what if...

It was so hard to go in there and see him, but not get to really snuggle him because he had all these wires still attached. Jackson stayed in the NICU for a solid twelve days before he got to come home. Seven days after I had come home. But he passed his car seat test, we took a mandatory CPR class, and he came home. And it was wonderful!

Jackson--I love you more than you will ever know. Your Daddy loves you, and big brother Dalton loves you, and you're just the best thing ever. Everything that we went through just makes you that much more special. Even though you're stubborn as all get out, we love you so much!! It amazes me how far you've come, and how far you'll go in the future.
Love-
Mommy

How Easy Is That?

2009-07-17T22:22:00.002-05:00

Well, now that I know how easy it is to post these videos, I'm sure I'll be doing it all the time!! Jackson now goes nuts in the Jumperoo, and I'm sure one day I'll find him lodged in the ceiling, his little legs just dangling and kicking. My favorite part, I think, is that in order to stop himself, he just straight legs it, and POOF, he's done. :) Very cute, that kid of ours.

We're In The Army Now

2009-07-17T18:41:00.003-05:00

For all of you that have been asking, here's the video on Jackson crawling!! (I'm talking to you, Jil!!) It took me a while because I don't yet know how to download and edit the video from the camcorder (that's Chris's area of expertise) so I finally just broke out our old digital camera which has a video feature on it.

Jackson won't crawl unless he has motivation. So for these videos, I teased him with Dalton's Elmo bouncy ball. :) Enjoy!!

Just a Few Days Late

2009-07-13T23:25:00.003-05:00

Dear Jackson,

On Friday, July 10th, you turned 9 months old!! I cannot believe how time is flying by. It seems like yesterday that you were in the NICU, and we were worrying that you would never learn how to eat or get bigger, that you'd be on a feeding tube forever. :) And look at those thunder thighs now!! You already have two teeth, with more coming in.

You've been sleeping through the night, twelve hour stretches, since you were eight weeks old. And I guess since you were six weeks early, that means you would have been sleeping through the night at two weeks old, right??

You eat anything that I put in front of your face. Broccoli, carrots, green beans, eggplant, butternut squash, zucchini, mango's, avocados, bananas, pears...those are only SOME of what you've had so far. You will eat anything. The first bite of food you take, every time, you make this horrible face like we're torturing you. Then you smile and open your mouth wide after deciding that, hey, you like it!!

You think your brother is the funniest thing ever. He can always make you laugh. Even if you're in the middle of a big giant screaming fit (which is rare), he can make you laugh. I'm afraid that you boys will be in all kinds of trouble in the future.

You still can't sit up on your own yet, but you're crawling!! Not in a traditional sense; you do the army crawl where you pull yourself along with your arms. You can get up on all fours like you JUST MIGHT crawl, but then crash down. You're not very motivated to get going, unless you see a shoe in front of you, then you haul butt! And high heels? For some reason, those motivate you the most.

Dalton adores you. He always wants to help with you, he wants to help change diapers, and feed you, and most always takes a bath with you. He brings you binkies and toys and blankets, and has asked several times if I will let you sleep with him. Someday, baby, someday!

I love you more every day, more than you'll ever know. Happy 9 months, little monkey!!

Love,
Mommy

Independence Day

2009-07-04T00:43:00.002-05:00

Happy 4th of July, everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, and please be safe!!