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.