Friday, December 19, 2008

Perfact

I know everyone has had these moments. Ill just share the one I had tonight in hopes to bring you back to those moments you have had.

Bedtime for adults: Craig is down stairs on the computer, my eyes were closing watching the end of a movie so I come upstairs....ALONE...thats ok b/c ill probably be asleep after this, it was a long day at work. I just have to check on my little boy, and tonight, I took extra time with it. I crept into Jacks room without him taking any notice, leaned over his crib and saw the most perfact thing I could ever dream. My boy sleeping soundly. A lock of hair is in his brow, his eyes closed so peacefully, his little lips are the best thing staring up at me, Im glad he got his dads nice plump lips. He has his arms curled to his chest and his legs outstreatched in a frog-like position. He is just sleeping. Not a care b/c all the cares are gone.

I had to rest my head on the crib and just wactch him as he slumbered. What a great bedtime image to be left with.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

The new girl...already developing a personality

As it turns out, we have a stubborn baby #2 on the way. "The new girl" has decided that she will only jump around when daddy is not home. Ive been able to feel her for a while, but not Craig. Today, I was sitting on the couch surfing the net, holding a cup of coffee (low caff) on my bump and the whole cup moved. I mean it was like a Tsunami in my coffee cup! Splash! Craig was on his way home, so I called him, "QUICK, youve got to get home NOW. The new girl is moving and I KNOW you could feel her." Minutes later hes here. He plops down beside me and puts his hands on the bump. Nothing. We wait. Nothing. I think 10 minutes must have passed and still nothing. We start talking to her and pushing around on her trying to get her to move. Arrg. We finally give up; Craig moves to a chair. Then wouldnt you know it, all of the sudden theres a HUGE movement. Me, "Did you see that?" Him, "No." Then it happens agian, he saw the evidence of the alien movement from my tummy bouncing the coffee cup again. QUICK, FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET hes back at my side.....and we wait again. Nothing. The new girl is already a little stinker!!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

911 - Seriously??

I swear, our world is turning into a permanent community who cried wolf. Im in bed lying with my hubby and were watching the news (how romantic). They just showed a few examples of what people called 911 for today. Keep in mind we are in the midst of an "Artic Blast" which is turning out to be a bit milder than predicted. OK, back to some of the 911 calls: *Um, Im just heading out to go grocery shopping and wondering if there are any areas that I need to avoid... *Im calling b/c I have a lot of staff coming from this area and wondering what the road conditions are like, Im wondering if people are going to be late... *This is not an emergency, thanks for grabbing it, I want to know how the roads are, if there are any areas that I should avoid.

OMG!! PEOPLE!! WTF?? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? If your grandma, mom, husband or kid was severly injured, say from a sledding injury, or a fall on the ice and now they are unconscious, you idiots have the 911 line occupied with stupid questions about the roads. Seriously?? Wow.

I always have a little trouble with what I can/cant comment on since Im a nurse and see some of these people...but this is fair game. It was on the news. I just cant believe people in our community thinks this is ok. I did laugh, I mean how could you not laugh at this? Its commical that people KNOW they do not have an emergency, yet call the emergency line...Ill just sigh, roll my eyes and go back to completing a module for work. And maybe Ill turn off the news.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Heat as a requirement

Certain things should just come standard when buying a house. You know, like working doors, windows that open and close, and oh, of course a house that contains heat?? We have one door we just dont use. The door knob on the outside fell off when we were trying to fix it this past summer...and I guess we are just too lazy to actually figure out how to fix it (its an older house and home depot knobs are not compatible with the door...the door I say), or we just figure we can use one of the other doors. We have a few windows that are painted shut (not by us), one window that is stuck open, and one window that we broke over the summer as we were trying to open it....the heat caused too much swelling, but damn it! we were going to get that window open for air flow and instead shattered the window. We still havent fixed that either. Now to the heat. Ok, so our heater DOES kick on, however, I swear only the main level stays warm!! Our main TV area is in the basement and its FREEZING down there...I think I could see my breath this afternoon when I went to change a load of laundry. Whatever, we can watch TV on the main level. And I thought in basic science they taught us all that heat rises...is this still the case?? Or have the laws of science changed with global warming?? B/c heat in our house does NOT make it upstairs where our bedrooms are!! (Maybe its b/c at the top of the stairs the windows let in so much friggin cold air). As Craig said, "Hey babe, I think we ought to make a requirement be heat in our next house."

Oh, and let me share this one with you!! Im at work this past weekend and when I talked to Craig he informed me that our back door is a total bust. He tells me that we had snow about two feet into our house!! What?? Im thinking....s**t...did I forget to shut the door when I left for work?? Nope. Apparently the "weather strip/seal" at our glass french doors out to our patio (which is also our main entrance/exit) is not working. Wind and snow seeps under the door, and apparently accumulates! Now, your probably wondering why we are just now discovering this....well, we are having some unseasonably cold, windy, and snowy days. Our solution?? As you can see how handy we are, we just quarantined that room off. We stuffed towels along the edge of the door, closed the heater vent in that room and shut the door. We have now vowed not to enter unless emergencies....the computer is in there. Luckly we have a laptop! Wouldnt it just be easier to go to Home Depot and get something to fix this?? Well, yes, but you see, that would take too much effort. We will just crank up the heat....and have an extra large heating bill. Are we green or what?

Oh goodness. I see we have more home improvements to add to our list for this spring!
Hope everyone is staying warm!!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Crying moms are for wimps!!



What happens to grown women when their babies are injured and start that silent cry we all know?? Well, the silent cry, Ive seen many a time, I will pick him up, cradle him in my arms, kiss him on the head and things get better. The tears dry up and hes content with being in my arms until he sees the dog, or decides he wants to color. Today I faced a new blow as a mama. I know, I know, you guys are probably wondering what could be wrong now. I now know the sympathy and pain a mama feels when her kiddo is hurt; what happened 2 weeks ago was something entirely different. I think all moms would feel the way I felt. (GET TO THE POINT JESS). Ok, ok, so today, we were going Christmas shopping for daddy. Jack and I put up Christmas lights last night while Craig had an open house at school, so before we were leaving, I remembered that the lights stretched across the walk way just in front of the stairs. Being a proactive citizen (or wanting to avoid a lawsuit), I didnt want the mailman to trip and fall over my lights so I was starting to tape them down. I heard the screen door open, and out comes Jack....but face first. He must have forgotten since last night about the elevation change due to the first step out. Before anyone thinks I was wrong to leave the door open, let me say that last night Jack went in and out just fine. I look up and thought maybe he was just startled b/c he wasnt saying anything. He hadnt hit his head, at least it didnt look like it. He just looked stunned. And then it started....the moment when his eyes grow larger, sheer terror washes over his face, his mouth opens wide but nothing coming out, not even air. So I go up the stairs and then I see it. His face. His face is one big abrasion with blood coming down, and at this moment I cant tell if its from his cheek, his nose or his mouth. Now Im worried about a tooth-everythings intact (YES). But my poor baby, I rush inside, cradling him in my arms kissing him, and I start to cry. Now parents out there, Im sure this will get easier with time, but keep in mind, Jack has been able to keep major boo-boo free for 21 months. I just felt awful! He probably would not have had quite the scrapes if it wasnt for the sandpaper weather strip on the top step to prevent falls when its rainy (which is all "winter" in Portland), but that is what his face made contact with.

Now the other part of this.....we were going in for pictures tonight. Weve never had any photos taken of Jack (other than the ones weve taken ourselves), and tonight was the night. So initially, Im looking at him and trying to clean up his face and PLOP, a few blood droplets spatter on his sweater. QUICK, I think...Ive got to get that off!! At the time, I was still thinking we were going for pics. Well, we are not. I canceled them. We did not go Christmas shopping. Instead, we cuddled on the glider under a blanket and watched toons for 1/2 hour. Then he wanted to color. My goodness how kids make us feel. Im sure next time I wont have quite the reaction. I was even surprised by it, come on, Im tougher than that....so I thought. What next??

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Life Lesson # 48

Never, I repeat, NEVER volunteer for additional work for yourself when youve already been at a place for a year. The mistake I made was 7 months ago. During my evaluation at work, I just happened to comment on the fact I thought the new program for the new hires was wonderful. They were all in a class, learning tons of things pertinent to our field before they were on their own. Now, keep in mind, I was saying I thought it was great. I may have even said something to the effect 'it was a bummer they didnt do this when I was hired.' Can we rewind?? Oh, wait...not yet. Its getting better: I was informed I could have access to the "modules" they (the newbies) had when they first started if I thought it would be helpful. I made some kind of comment saying, maybe some of the stuff would be good, if there was any new information it might be helpful to have access to. WHAT WAS I THINKING?? Now we can rewind!! It still gets better. So I am "assigned" these 98 modules (ok, so its more like 45), and I didnt realize that I HAD to do them....so Ive just been sitting on them for like, the past 6 months. Not too long ago, I was informed this was "ASSIGNED" to me, not just for my leisure, and they were due by Dec 20th, oh, and by the way, they had to PAY in order for me to have access to these. So now, here I am with 15 days until the deadline and I still have 21 modules left to do. Ive been doing around 2 a day...occasionally 4 a day. IM SICK OF THEM!! I would safely say that more than 1/2 of the information I already knew, but it doesnt matter....I have to complete the course in order to take the test!!! So who ever is reading.....DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT casually volunteer for more work when you dont even need it now. DONT DO IT. ok...well, I need to do another module before bed. Yuck.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Pink


Ok, so I used to NEVER be a pink person. I would get anything that was the most opposite of pink. My room as a kid was painted blue. I hated the fact that pink was associated with girly stuff. Pink was just the definition of girly steriotypical crap. Well, a few years ago, one of my friends Jamie got me a pink Nalgene for my birthday (everyone in Oregon has at least one, I already had one in green and the standard grey). I swear, she must have put some girly juju in that Nalgene b/c since then, I LOVE pink. I buy pink clothing, I have a dark pink wallett. And today, I bought a pink case for my iphone. I love it. I realized tonight while Im looking at my phone with its new pink silicone case that I owe it all to Jamie for turning me onto pink. I wouldnt go as far to say that its my favorite color, but man, I sure dig it.

Apple ROCKS

Ok, so today I had a HORRIBLE thing happen. What, might you be wondering, is more horrible than the news we recieved last week. Well, here it is: the screen on my iphone went completely blank. I couldnt get it to do anything. I tried turning it off....nothing, I tried plugging it in....nothing. So Im freaking out. I mean Ive only had the thing for a couple months, could one small bump on the ground cause this?? Did I mention that I dropped it?? It wasnt a far fall, out of my hands from about knee level. So, since this is my only phone (no land lines in our house), I loaded Jack into the car and off we went....well after I came back and grabbed some juice and the glucometer, and the insulin just in case he was low/high...a whole new way to pack a diaper bag!! We went to the Apple store and they were awsome. I was so worried I was going to have to get a new one...or a different phone, not sure I could jessify spending that much on a phone AGAIN. They tried to fix it and after no luck....they sent me away with a new one. We have the iphones, a mac and a mac book....weve had few issues, but when ever we have had any, they are awsome at fixing what is wrong or replacing it free of charge. I love Apple and will never go back to a regular PC. And its nice to know that they actually take care of you and your not trying to trouble shoot with someone on the other end of a phone...they actually see you, in person, and fix what ever is wrong.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Update

Ok, so now its officially been a week since our lives were thrown in the air and we were left standing to see where the pieces landed to try to put them back together. Our first real day home was Friday, so it doesn't even seen like its been that long since weve been on our own. We are slowly adjusting to our new lifestyle of poking our lil guy close to 8 times a day to check his sugar (he unfortunately is having lows after his naps), injecting insulin in him 4 times a day, and counting his carbs. I think he is doing awesome. He went from seeing the "poker" (what we call it) and balling his hands up to his chest saying "no, no, no, no...all done, all done" before we even poked him, to now reluctantly giving us a finger to poke. HUGE improvement. He still HATES the shots, but who wouldn't. Im waiting for him to stop fighting so much with that. I know it will get there. We are letting him play with the equipment when its out, and its pretty cute. He pretends to poke our finger and then holds the tester up to where he poked and says, "Zupe," which is the noise we make when the blood goes into the tester. He gets it in a way, and I can see the complete fear of it diminishing.

I worked all weekend so it was just Craig and Jack at home all day both days. Craig was a rock star, but I wouldn't expect anything less from him. Its weird too b/c yesterday was my first day alone with the kiddo. It sure is easier to give shots with two adults!! But we are managing, Jack and I. I still hate the idea of it, but what can you do....life goes on and you better figure out how to work with it.

Thanks to everyone who has had words of comfort. It was pretty emotional initially (and numbing), but its getting better. And thanks to everyone for being supportive and letting us know that we don't have to completely change our lives, that Jack still can eat normal kid foods. We are still learning all this, but a HUGE THANKS to everyone. We are also learning there are a ton of kids out there with Type I, and learning that its VERY different from Type II and that Jack will likely not run into the many of the complications that Type II diabetics face. We are also hopeful that maybe in 10 yrs, something else amazing with diabetes research will have surfaced.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Pissed, Scared, but mostly SO SO SAD. Why Jack?? On a serious note...

So, our world was just thrown upside down....in one day which seems like minutes. Jack had been drinking TONS of fluids lately, and this worried me a little with my medical background. I joked with Criag about him having diabetes. He kept drinking and just begging for anything to drink, he was even caught drinking out of the dog bowl on two occasions. This worried me more. Why is this kid so obsessed with drinking?? I really didnt want to know, but hoping my fears would be put to rest, I asked around at work, "Did your kids ever go through a phase where they were totally consumed with getting something to drink??" No one had had this happen to them. So I took home a urine stick to check Jack's urine for glucose (which is NOT suppose to be in the urine). It was positive. Now I was scared, but hoping it could be something else. Of course we called the peditrician and they were closed; there was no physician on call, only a nurse. Now as you know, I am a nurse, and at this point, I did not want to talk to a nurse. Nothing was told to me that I didnt already know. So Today, which seems like an eternity ago, we just showed up at the peditricians office without an appointment saying, "We need to be seen." After hearing our concern, we were seen, Jack went to the lab, had blood drawn, we waited for the results and YES...it was a borderline fasting blood sugar. There is hope! However, since it was borderline, we were sent over to a specialists office, an endocrinologist, immediatly. We arrived there after stopping and grabbing a banana for us all since we still hadnt eaten. Jack had MORE blood tests done and since eating a small banana and a baby apple, Jacks suger level was WAY TOO HIGH. The new doctor, who I barley remember what he looked like physically walked us over to the hospital where we will be slumbering for the next 3 days. Our fears were confirmed; Jack officially has diabeties. Jack will officially for the REST OF HIS LIFE have diabetes. People have come in all throughout the day, more blood tests, an IV put in my poor baby's arm and now hes hooked up to IV fluids and getting poked 5 times a day, not including shots of insulin which he will be getting 4 times a day.

It was a beautiful sunny crisp fall day and we spent all day in doctors offices and now we are stuck in the hospital. Im pissed. Im scared for him, but most of all, Im just so so incredibly sad that this has happened. Why?? How?? Neither Craig or myself have diabetes in our families. My entire pregnancy with him I was so strick on diet, caffiene, artificial sweetners. His entire life Ive been a food natzi, stating he will have the rest of his life to eat cookies, candy, ice cream, cake and fried food. As Craig said, we should have fed him all the ice cream and cake in the world because it never mattered. Our baby boy is such a cute, innocent, happy boy. WHY THIS!!

Our day has wizzed by in a complete blur. We stared our day at 7:30 with the alarm and have not had a break until 10pm tonight. Poor Jack didnt have a nap today because of everyone needing to do tests, put in an IV, or come talk/educate us. He was also up 2.5 hrs past his bedtime b/c we were waiting for insulin to come up from the pharmacy.

I realize this is a very long winded blog. Our biggest fear is that he will be "labled" as a diabetic and that this will disrupt a "normal" childhood/adolecent-hood/college life style. Maybe not, but at this point, that is what we fear.

I even told Criag that I wish it was cancer of some kind because at least a lot of times that is curable with chemo/radiation. No I dont want that, but I also dont want this. Those mothers of children who have or have had cancer would probabally disagree with me about that statement, but as a mother who has not had that experience, I can say that out of naieveness (is that a word?)

So now we have to learn how to live life in a different light, and right now, Im just pissed about it. I dont want to do it, and I sure as hell dont want Jack to have to do it.

I could go on, but I think it would be the same thoughts just repeated in different words. Perhaps it already is.

Monday, November 17, 2008

When will I have my chocolate??

I swear. I dont remember having heart burn this early with Jack. I swear it was only in the last couple months. Its every night! I had a plan in place for tonight. My plan was to eat my last remaining piece of moist German Chocolate Cake with either a tall glass of milk or a glass of eggnog. But now, the thought of food makes me cringe. I so desperately want that mosit chocolate on my palate...but if I do, the burning will become worse. No matter how many Tums I eat, it dosent help. ARRG! Only 20 more weeks....when will I have my chocolate?

Thursday, November 13, 2008

NO POOP IN MY DIAPER

So I just learned today that Jack does NOT like having a poopy diaper. As of recently, hes started saying, "poop. poop," and pointing at his britches, then he'll add, "diaper." Well, I love it that the kid is getting the understanding of pooping his pampers....but today, Im sitting at the computer and its Jacks nap time...actually well past his nap time...he had been up there for 1.5 hours chatting, but for the last 30 minutes just crying and screaming. I was doing what I thought would get him back to sleep...ignoring him...not really ignoring him, I had the monitor right next to me, just watching the clock going, Jack, youve GOT to get to sleep! Well, I finally gave in and went up there. The poor kid was standing in his crib, face sopping wet, snot hanging from his nose, and before I noticed all that, I was greeted with the ever so fragrent scent of a poopy diaper. YUCK, his room stunk!! So I quickly changed his diaper, held him, sprayed Lysol, cuddled him, we sang, read a book and then I told him he needed to go nigh-nigh again, put him back in the crib, stroked his cute lil forehead and left. Wow. I came down stairs, and I think I heard all of 2 or 3 peeps from him, and now hes OUT. Next time I guess Ill respond a little quicker, especially if he hasnt pooped yet in the day!! So according to Jack, there will be NO POOP IN MY DIAPER!

Its a ....

Well, the suspense is finally over. We've waited and waited and as we say, "We can either be surprised now, or later; either way its a surprise!" And now...drum roll...we will be adding a little baby girl to our family! Jack is going to have a lil sister!! I know he will be a great big bro...at least I hope so. It was so cute, after the ultrasound we were waiting for the doctor and Jack was on the exam table on my lap. He was playing with the blood pressure cuff and I laid down. Jack lifted up my shirt and put the bulb of the cuff on my belly and was moving it around like he was doing the ultrasound. It was too cute. Wish we got a pic of it.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Election Day

So did everyone go out there and VOTE today and then get your free drip coffee from Starbucks?

I have to say, what a crazy time this is right now. Our economy is shot, but there is still a line at starbucks! That could only be because of the free coffe they were serving today. So on to the election. I must say I am so relieved that McCain and Palin did not make it. But I also have to say in my defense, what was McCain thinking by choosing this pagent girl?? Seriously, Craig and I laughed at every SNL skit about Palin. But in McCane's defense, I thought his concession speech was the best speech he has given during this whole campaigning thing. I actually felt sorry for him, and sad for him. Oh John, what were you thinking? On note of his speech, I hope we do all as AMERICANS (like a team, not individuals) come together and support the new president.

"I urge all Americans....I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited. Whatever our differneces, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that. It is natural. It's natural tonight to feel some disappointmaent. But tomorrow we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again."

Lets go America!! TEAM.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Halloween Costume Drama

So I worked on Halloween...but was home in time to see some of the trick-o-treaters!! But, to my surprise when I got home, Jack was in a "different" costume than what we had planned on him wearing. He was going to be this cute frog....I walk in the door and hear "Thumbs up?? Thumbs up Jack" and both of my guys are sitting on a chair with their thumbs up smiling...but they are both wearing their Urlacher jerseys and have moms mascara under their eyes....I have two football players! I couldnt resist they were too cute...but where was Jacks costume?? "Somewhere on Alberta between 35th and 37th??" Turns out the grandparents had fun with the costume on Halloween day and when Craig was coming home, he was rounding a corner and saw in the rearview mirror that the diaper bag was on the trunk! Stopping to put it in the car, that was all he noticed. Then, per Craig, a few hours later he was getting Jack ready and could NOT find his frog costume ANYWHERE. He didnt have his phone, and by now it was too late to go looking for it...so he improvised...with football players. It was still cute, just a big oops. Our first of may to be of Halloween costume drama.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Aspartame

HELP! My child to be will surely incur birth defects or brain malfunction! I couldnt stand it any longer. Ive been pretty good with this pregnancy, (not as strict as I was with Jack). I stay away from caffeine and aspartame, but today I did it. I drank an ENTIRE Coca-Cola Cherry Zero. Jack is napping so, Im stuck at the house. Craig has his stupid "Zero" drinks around and all I have is Sierra Mist Cran. That is NOT what I wanted at the moment. So I drank a Coca-Cola Cherry Zero and it tasted great. I just told myself prior that people drank this sort of stuff all the time, do drink this stuff all the time. Hell, people even do crack and have babies. Whats a little aspartame and caffiene going to do?? Give my fetus ADHD?? Well, we will just have to wait and see.

Bath time pee

So, normally Jack is SO excited to get into the bath. He usually yells "BAAATH" and aids in the stripping down to his bare bum, then tries to hoist himself over (his leg can only reach the top of the tub, but you get the idea) Well, today after breakfast, I had his bath ready, bubbles and all. He sees the bath, helps with the unclothing and I take off his diaper. This is where he USUALLY attempts to throw himself into the tub. But what is he doing? Hes just standing there. So I reach down and put my chin on his shoulder and say, "Jack, do you want to get in?" Hes peeing! Standing there pissing all over the floor! Now, the kid is not potty trained...we did just support 'The First Years' by purchasing a kid toilet, but he hasnt even sat on it. Oh well, it was a small puddle. Ive got to give him credit, you dont want to get IN the tub and pee....what a smart boy I have!!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Fall Time


I absolutely love this time of year. The skies are blue, the air is crisp, the leaves are falling. And hey, its SO fun to see the magic in the eyes of your lil ones as you show them how to stomp on the leaves and make the "crunch, crunch" sound under your feet. How we can run around in this crisp air without a jacket because we are doing just that, running around outside, enjoying the daylight. How Jack looks at all the pumpkins at the pumpkin patch and WOW, there are a lot. Im having the most magical time with my family right now. Fall is AWSOME!!

Friday, October 17, 2008

Traveling in Packs

We were recently in Southern Illinois for a wedding but flew in/out of Chicago.
Ok. so our flight back to Portland from Chicago was something else!

Checking in.
First of all, we were dropped off at US Airways (the flight, US Airways as operated by United). So we had to walk to a different terminal to check in. We get there and the line is just LONG. Oh well, we cant change that. We get up to the counter and its a computer check in so there is 2 people behind the counter for 12 check in computers - basically their job is to pull the baggage check tags and place them on the luggage. The "itinary number" from expedia is not registering as a confirmation number on the kiask, so on the screen it says, if you need help, pick up the phone next to you. Craig picks up the phone, and we are both thinking that it will alert one of the two people that we need more help than a computer can provide. NO. It rings some man that is probabally in India to help check us in. This person finally gets Craig checked in, and he says, well, my wife and son are here too. Do I need to call back to get them boarding passes?? And, why does it say Im only going to Las Vegas? (You see, Vegas was just suppose to be a layover where we switched planes.) The person on the other line tells Craig that the ticket was booked as a flight to Vegas and they could not help us with the rest of our flight, oh, and by the way, we would have to go get our baggage and go back and check it once we were in Vegas. I was like...NO, we CANT do that, we dont have time to do that (we had an hour layover). The person was not helpful. I was immediatly tryinig to simultaneously call US Airways and flag down one of the two people behind the United Kiasks. A woman finally came over and, WHEW. She said she thinks that she made it so our bags were checked all the way through to Portland (well, I wasnt taking any chances with the car seat and since we have this carrier that has wheels on the bottom for pulling, OR you can wear it like a backpack, I opted to gate check the car seat....JUST IN CASE our luggage didnt make it to Portland). "And how would you like to pay for the checked luggage?," she asked. We had just paid in the computerized Kiask - those things are suppose to be time efficient?? We didnt have to pay again, thank goodness. So now we had our boarding passes and were off to security with 45 minutes now before our plane was to depart.

Security, another issue.
I happened to have a jar of peanut butter that we were using for Jack when he would eat nothing else, or we didnt have time to feed him and the rest of the adults could easily skip a meal. That set off a very small (in the scheme of things) delay. "Whos bag is this?? We need to go through it" Ok, I thought, and remembered the peanutbutter. They of course pull out the jar and the woman begins consulting with another TWA official. I see her pointing at Jack and saying to him, well, she has a child. The man is adamant...NO. He says to me, "Do you need this?" So I said, well, yes. "Why?" Well, for him (Jack). "Does he NEED it?" Well, yes, to have something to eat (b/c I am NOT paying $5 for a snack box of a few ritz crackers). So Im like, whatever, its fine, Ill just spread some on a piece of bread for him. "We will have to escort you out and you will have to check back in through security." I then remember that I have some small jelly packets in my backpack and say, its fine, toss it. Then they start saying "Well, is it medically necessary?" No, I say, its fine, just toss it. They two TWA's look at each other, the woman with a sympathetic look in her eye at her male partner, and then he says, "Ma'am, next time you CANNOT bring this on board." I was just like, ok....all that. And thank you.

Whew. the plane ride.
We have NEVER been "those people" on a plane where you cannot control your child. Well, guess what, we were. We were seated in a window & middle seat. Were lucky b/c Jack is still a lap child, so there was one poor soul on the isle next to Craig. Jack screamed, cried, hollared, arched his back, kicked, jumped, hit, slapped, hollared, etc. for an hour and a half. This leg of our plane ride was 3 hours. He was SO tired, and man, apparently we have this kid on a schedule. He will not fall asleep in your arms. He needs to be alone, spread out, in his own bed. I felt so bad for him. He was MISERABLE!! And so was everyone around us!! There was a guy in front of us who just kept glaring back. And Im thinking, I cant do anything about this. Believe me, I would if I could. Jack ended up catching a second wind and was then just slap happy and a completely different kid, playing peek a boo, laughing, sitting still. Whew.

The layover.
Our plane was late getting into Vegas, and I knew we had to change planes so I immediatly ask the guy when you get off the plane what gate we need to go to. Remember, we were on a United flight - even though it was booked through US Airways. This guy has NO CLUE. We wander a little bit, and I see the time. THIRTY MINUTES UNTIL OUR PLANE LEAVES....this means boarding is NOW. We ask a person at a different gate. She tells us that US Airways is in a different terminal. She directs us down and around to catch the shuttle train, to get off at one location and we will have to exit security and re-enter. Did I say our flight was to depart in 30 minutes?? Trying to beat the clock, we find the train, luckily, it was just arriving. We hop on, whew, we are going to make our flight...AND, that lady didnt know WHAT she was talking about! We never left security!! Woo-hoo!! We get off the train and we are still "IN" the airport, in terminal C. YES!! wait....what are all those signs that say terminal A/B is through the exit?? No, could it truly be? We now have 15 minutes before our flight is to depart. We are standing at an exit while TWA is trying to usher us through. Craig says, "Is there ANY POSSIBLE way to get to A/B without exiting security??" And of course, (b/c it will help), I chime in "our flight was late getting in and our connection leaves in less than 20 minutes." Ahhhh....the gods are looking upon us. We are told about a (we called it secrete) way. It was "through C21 gate." The other TWA guys said, "Your going to have them go to C21??" "Yes I am," the other, understanding guy waves us over, swipes his card to let us through this door, points us down a hall, says on the left youll take an elevator, when you get out, turn left, youll be at gate C21, go through the door on the left of it, down an elevator and through a hall and you will catch a shuttle to take you to A/B terminal. I dont know how we found it, but we were able to follow these directions. At the end of a hall, we see another person and a woman waving in the doorway yelling to the shuttle - "theres one more coming!" And then, could it be?? Is the shuttle right there?? And was this person the last one or is there room for us too?? I say to her "Room for 3 more??" She waves us on. YES! However, we are driving and we now have 5 minutes until our plane was to depart. Dont they close the doors when there is 10 minutes to depart?? What ever, we were this close. I call US Airways on my phone - Can you tell me what gate our flight is leaving from? (since we still dont even know a gate...what if that original woman was wrong and we were to be in C? too late now). Of course, the phone is all breaking up and I can barley understand the person on the other end. I thought she said B2. so I repeat back, did you say b as in boy 2?? she just says, your breaking up. well, if you can hear me, its A-apple-2. ok...so we hop off the shuttle, Jack never left his stroller, we just picked the whole thing up going in and out of the shuttle bus. i was really hoping he wasnt going to use the lift b/c we did NOT have any time for a lift other than us. We go up another elevator and find gate B2, run up there and there is NO ONE left to board, the attendant is counting the boarding passes. We go to the counter, they tell us to go to the area to get on the plane. We go there, we dont have any boarding passes b/c.....remember the original ordeal??? Even though she fixed it so that our luggage would be checked through to Portland, she didnt check US through to Portland!! We are sent back to the in-flight ticket counter. They tell us that since we never checked in they gave our seats away! We are stuck in Vegas we feel, with no luggage. BUT, one guys tells us that there were standby people on the flight and we would get our seats. Its quite horrible to have someone "kicked off a plane," but we did it. And, it happened to be two people flying together so we had seats together. And after all that chaos, Jack was an absolute angle on this 2.5 hour flight.

The end.
Oh, and our luggage was in Portland.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Brief history of our growing family

Well, the first plural of our name began nearly after a year that Craig and I were married....for a while, we were called 'The Newmeyers', especially by Craigs family. Then it was really plural when we added Jack (Oh, wait...I guess first when we added Roscoe!! Poor dog...hes really getting neglected!). And now weve done it again, weve added 'Ze'!! Our date is April 4, 2009 for this next one. Only about 8 weeks along so no, we dont know if its a boy or a girl...hence the pronoun ze. We were waiting to share the news....but then, we figured, why wait, everyone can either be happy with us, or mourn with us. Just so everyone knows how to feel, we are happy!!