I'm it!

A - Available or single: I'm married
B - Best Friend: Jonathan
C - Cake or Pie: Cake, especially one of the Snow White variety, white cke with cream cheese icing to be exaxt.
D - Drink of choice: Diet Coke
E - Essential Item you use everyday: probably either bed head manipulator or my toothbrush.
F - Favorite color: Red
G - Gummy Bears or worms: Worms, but only if they are sour.
H - Hometown: Abilene, Tx
I - Indulgence: I have several, however most aren't a big deal because when you have kids it's the small things. Some of them are: two diet cokes instead of one, Starbucks, any purchase from Ulta that includes getting to go by myself, haircut and color, internet time at home.
J - January or February: February, it's short and the month we are going to Austin to run the half marathon.
K - Kids & Names: Laine Emory and Bowen Cole
L - Life is Incomplete Without? Family, and I couldn't ask for a better one.
M - Marriage Date: June 14, 1997
N - Number of Siblings: 1-Meredith
O - Oranges or Apples: Oranges for shizzle
P - Phobias or Fears: Spiders, someone attacking me while I'm washing my face at the sink because what can you do to save yourself with soap in your eyes?, dentist, I had another one but I forgot.
Q - Fave Quote: "Goodnight stars, goodnight air, goodnight Noises everywhere" Goodnight Moon, my kids fav book.
R - Reason to Smile: Santa Claus is coming to town, it's even better when you have kids!
S - Season: Spring, it goes from cold to warm. I hate cold and I love warm.
T - Tag 3 or 4 people: heather, Robin, and all of the rest of you that haven't done this.
U - Unknown Fact about Me: I'm a HUGE Harry Potter nerd. Really, I am, I've read the last book three times and I have it on my ipod and am listening to it while I'm reading it but not both at the same time.
V- Vegetable You Don't Like: Frozen green beans and sweet potatoes.
W - Worst Habit: picking my nose
X - Xrays: More than I can count on my back because of scoliosis, a kidney one where they had to inject dye because of lots of bladder infections, pelvic for hip pain.
Y - Your Fave Food:Mi Cocina, yum!
Z - Zodiac Sign: Aries

Three Stories

Story Number One:

On Monday afternoon I decided to take the kids to the museum. We have a membership(thanks, mom and dad) so it's no biggie to show up an hour before it closes. We go in and begin playing, I didn't bring anything in but my keys. Soon I snif the air and smell poop, since we're the only ones playing I knew it was Bowen. So I look in his pants and taa-daa, there's a nice solid turd in his diaper. So I do what any cool Mom would have done(?), I took him to the bathroom, shook the poop out of his diaper and put it back on. We went back out played some more and everyonce in a while I would catch a faint sniff of poop, I thought it was just dirty butt smell. So we left, went to Chick-fil-a came home, ate, went out and ran with the double stroller and then came back for a bath. I go to take Bowen's diaper off and yelp because it was FULL of poop. What the heck, I guess the antibiotics he's on make him extra poopy.


Story Number Two:

Last night I was making spaghetti and I heard Bowen cry a little, I sent Laine to investigate and she came back and reported that Bowen fell in the bathroom. I said OK and shortly after Bowen came out of the bathroom brandishing the toilet brush. And he was covered in water. And the bathroom floor was covered in water. And the toilet had less water in it than usual. Amen.


Story Number Three:

My tooth has been hurting and I just thought it was because I had a sinus infection. It kept on hurting, it was only on one side and it felt like only one tooth. I freaked out, I hate going to the dentist, it makes me so nervous. I scheduled an appointment and went today to have it checked out. I was afraid that I was going to have a root canal and crown. My dentist is really nice, he took x-rays, tapped on my fillings and finally told me it IS my sinus infection that is making my tooth hurt. He said if it still hurts in a week to come back. Oh and I have two other cavities to get filled. To show you how nervous I was today my blood pressure was 123/86 and my pulse rate was 97.

Off he goes into the wild, blue yonder...

This afternoon Jonathan was talking to his mother on the phone when he hung up he told me to find him a cheap airline ticket, he was flying to Beaumont tonight. So, I checked into some flights, called my mom to see if she could help us with the ticket, and yikes, the cheapest ticket was $300. A little expensive for Christmas time. So my little mind was turning and all of a sudden I thought of Jonathan's school. He had lots of parents who love him, and have lots of resources. So I asked him if any of his parents had a plane. Long story short, a parent of one of his 7th grade students has a jet. He couldn't fly Jonathan but one of his friends is flying Jonathan to Beaumont and will pick him up whenever he's ready to come home. Amazing. A blessing in a very stressfull situation. Hopefully, while Jonathan is there Ray can be trasferred to a hospital in Houston. Things are so slow happening in Beaumont and Ray is getting worse. It's time for a change.

Randon thoughts...

Why, oh why has my son cried ALL DAY LONG?

I love Hobby Lobby, I bought several Christmas presents there today!

Like Shauna, I tend to hate songs that Fergie sings, at first, then I find myself singing and dancing everytime they play. For example, My Humps and now Fergalicious.

I had the worst run ever today, I don't know what the problem was, but it was 5.3 miles of hell.

I'm ready for my kids to go to bed, right now.

Tonight, one of Jonathan's students is coming over at 8 and we're going to go shopping. Woohoo!

Bowen is trying to stick his finger in Sadie's nose.

The bottom of my tree no longer has any ornaments, Bowen has taken them somewhere.

I need a cut and a color.

I could not live in a place with a real winter, I hate being cold.

Update on Jonathan's Dad: He found out two days ago that he only has one kidney. The one kidney he has is partially dead. He had an echocardiogram today and the cardiologist will read it tomorrow. Then the nephrologist will decide what to do about his kidney. Please pray for him and Linda.

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree...

how lovely is your fakeness...

We totally purchased a artificial Christmas Tree on Sunday, I'm so excited. Because who wants to make you children's noses run MORE in the cold weather. When I was growing up if you asked me if I would ever have a fake tree in my home I would have looked at you like you asked me to put a tree made of turds in the corner of my living roon. Obviously, my views have changed. We grew weary of picking a tree, paying too much for it only to have the needles start falling off WAY too soon. I also got frustrated with using up a whole vaacum bag to suck up the 10 million needles that blasted off the tree as we shoved it out the door on January 1st, brown and crackly and could be. I do miss the smell and I'll probably miss the tree hunting tradition next year, but hopefully the pros will still outweight the cons.

So do you have a fakie or a realie?

Happy Birthday Mom, I Love you!

A time to be Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I hope your day is filled with family, fun, and food!

We're having a different Thanksgiving. Jonathan's dad, Ray is in the hospital. When we got to Jasper he was fine and the next day he came down with what we thought was a stomach bug. Well he didn't get better finally after his second trip to the hospital he was transferred to Beaumont and had exploritory surgery. His appendix was inflamed and it was removed. The doctors said that wasn't the reason he was so sick. So we still don't know why he is very ill. His intestines are really inflamed and his abdomen is distended. He is is a lot of pain and is still quite nauseous. The doctors that took care of him yesterday thought they would find cancer when they operated so we're thankful that wasn't the case, so now it's just a waiting game. Waiting to see if the surgery will make him better, waiting to see what is swelling from surgery and what is swelling from something else. Say a prayer for Ray today!

gnirob

We sometimes say this in my family...it's boring spelled backwards. Last night Jonathan cooked a chuckwagon supper for some of Ray and Linda's friends. The food was yummy and perfect for a chilly fall night. That's not the boring part though. There is a couple that Jonathan and I went to college with that recently moved back to Jasper. The girl was President of my club back in the day and I remembered her as a funny, smart girl that everyone liked. She is still someone that everyone would like, minus the funny. I found it very uncomfortable that I coulnd't find enough to talk to her about. Mainly, we talked about our kids, which is fine, but I like to engage in other topics besides that. Especially when we could have been dishing on people we knew from ACU. Her husband who wasn't mister personality to begin with has only gotten, shall we say, more gnirob.

Oh how I hope no one can say that about me and Jonathan. In fact I hope we're the opposite. I hope, as we mature, we become more interesting rather than more boring. I may not be the center of attention, but please let no one who walks away from a conversation with me ever think I'm dull.

I tried to upload a funny picture of Bowen but I'm working with dial-up here in the Piney Woods of East Taxas so it was going to take forever.

I ran by myself today!

I had to do a long run solo today. I was really worried about it. First I was worried I would get lost on the route I planned. Then I worried I would get hurt or something and be alone and stranded. So at 6:40 this morning I set off on my adventure. I had great songs on my ipod, I had my dorky water fanny pack, I was ready. I made one wrong turn and figurd it out after about 20 feet, found the right way and didn't have anymore problems. It was a great route because it went through Colonial and I was on part of a Luke's run. I had plenty of people and houses to look at. So I survived seven miles of running alone, that's a record for me... it was a fun adventure but I'll be ready to have Julie back and hopefully Mere and Ryan will join us soon.

Christmas Shopping

My whole life I've loved to shop for Christmas. And after Laine was born, I even liked it her first Christmas. Now, it's different. Not good or bad, just different.

For example:

When kids are little they don't understand Christmas and more importantly don't remember if they see a gift you snuck in the basket at Target. I remember the when the forgetting dream was shattered for me. Laine wanted an umbrella for Christmas, she was two and we picked out a cute one at Wal-Mart. She remembered we bought it, she asked about it EVERY DAY for two weeks. Finally we distracted her with some new thing I'm sure to get her mind off the umbrella.

Now we even have to hide Bowen's presents from her because if she saw presents for him (especially those from S.C.) she would totally know. You're probably saying, duh Heather. I just think I was back in the day of one kid, and that one kid wouldn't remember his presents, but his big sister would.

Saying all that, it is more fun now because we see the magic of Christmas through Laine. Her excitement is contagious. Tonight she saw a Hallmark Christmas window, she was mesmerized, it was a wonderful moment as a parent. It's a blessing to pass on the Christmas excitement my parents made for Me and Mere.

So this year shopping will have to be done in shifts. Bowen will make a totally cool shopping partner, he can't talk! Hopefully Jonathan and I can escape and shop together a little.

Here's a Christmas poll. My family is divided on how this should be done. What's your preference?

Do you like for family to give you a list of ideas or do you like to shop sans list?

I'm a total list girl!

I'm back to explain...

OK:

Hypothyroid.

Well my hair started falling out a couple of months ago, it freaked me out but I attributed to hormones etc. I went to the Doctor for my hip pain and told her about my hair, she agreed about the hormones but tested my thyroid levels just to be sure. Once I got my results back I researched hypothyroid and I had more symptoms than I thought. Fatigue, hair loss, weight gain, irritability. I just thought I was tired and irritated because I was a working mother of two. I couldn't explain the weight or hair. My body isn't producing enough thyroid hormone so my pituitary gland is producing too much hormone called TSH to tell my thyroid to get in gear. It basically causes your body to slow down. I'm taking medicine to level my thyroid hormone.

Camel:

His name is Larry and one of Jonathan's students owns him. His job is to trim the trees, just like a llama might except he's way cooler.


Here are some pictures of Halloween, Larry, and the new kitty Pumpkin Batman. Laine named him, we think it's the best kitty name ever.

Soy un perdedor

I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me.

I have been a total loser blogger the last month, I promise to do better.

Meanwhile here's some randomness:

I've been diagnosed with hypothroid.

I took both my kids to the doctor yesterday.

Today I went for a bike ride. If the safety strap hadn't been on the bike trailer, Bowen would have gone shooting across Granbury Road without me.

Jonathan brought a baby camel to Laine's school today.

Bowen has snot coming out his ear.


I'll be back with Halloween pictures later!

So I promise I had English in college...

Last night I reread my last blog and HELLO, what, did I use three different tenses in one sentence? That really was horrible, I apologize.

On to other news:

My mom broke her wrist. She was playing tennis and fell while going back to hit an overhead. She says she has a funny apparatus on it, I can't wait to see it.

Bowen did qualify for speech therapy. He is at an 18 month level for receptive speech but only a 12 month level for the talking part. He is 16 months and had to have a 4 month delay to qualify so he bearly made it.

My cute phone is still lodged deep in the recesses of my car. Oh how I miss my pink phone...

t-minus too many days and counting till we go see baby Reegan.

I'm nervous about starting the "real" 1/2 marathon training.

It's hard being a mom.

This sentence is some of the best advice I've ever received. A couple of months after Laine was born, I was having a bad day. I was missing Laine and wishing I could be at home with her. I told one of my teacher friends my feeling and the sentence above it what she told me. She gave some explanation next, she has 3 children and she said that no matter if you stay at home or work outside of the home being a mom is a hard job to have. Whenever I'm down in the dumps about working or frustrated because I've been tending to needs non-stop, the knowledge that I'm doing something "hard" make me feel tough.

Sometimes though, sometimes, I wish it was easy. I wish I felt full of energy at the end of the day so I could play with Laine the way she wants me to. I wish I hadn't had my patience tested all day so I had some stored up when both kids are crying at the same time. I wish could sit down and read books to Bowen without thinking that I needed to be cleaning the kitchen or folding laundry.


Is there a good answer to this, no, because being a mom is hard. The good thing I that it's worth it. All the hard times fade when I get to watch Bowen learn how to turn in circles and make himself dizzy enough to fall down and giggle. The frustration fizzles when I hear Laine say how excited she is that it's a school day. The "hard" disappears when she comes up to me with tears in her eyes and says " I want to go to college now, I want to go to college and be a cheerleader"
What an awesome blessing God has given to me. I have the priveledge of nurturing and guiding two extraordinary children and watch what God has in store for them. That makes being a mom not so hard.

I just cleaned up shit, oh I mean poop, off the floor...

Of my kitchen! Poor Bowen! I picked him up from eating supper and there was a brownish liquid on his seat. Hmmm... I looked at his shorts and saw the telltale signs of poop leakage, you know the two stripes that look like panty lines? Yes, those. So I strip him and hose him off in the bathtub. I go to put a diaper on him and he has this HORRIBLE diaper rash. He screamed when I tried to put his diaper on so I thought a little fresh air would do him good. So he was happily playing naked squatting down to play his ladybug xylophone. That's when I heard a tooting sound...Only it wasn't just tooting, it was a shart only it was more sh- than -art. So I pick Bowen up because he wanted to sit down and I didn't want the nice pile (oh did I mention that this poop wasn't turds it was amoxicillin induced, maybe not quite diarrhea?) to be smeared. I put a diaper on the screaming boy and put both kids in his bedroom and shut the door. Then the debating began, how should I go about cleaning this up? Finally I decided that scraping it up with firm cardboard would be best. It was a great decision the poop went right on the cardboard and then I disinfected with bleach. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday Dear Reegan, Happy Birthday to you!
Can't wait to meet you!

Love
Heather

Bruiser

About 5:30 last night I was changing Bowen's diaper so that we could speed off to church. I finished and turned around to deposit it in the trash and I heard him fall on the floor. This was not an unusual event in itself, he falls lots, he's a toddler right? The sound that emitted from his mouth told me that something bad had happened. In all the times he has cried in his life, I had never heard this cry. I checked him over looking for blood in all the obvious places, nose, mouth, nothing. I carried him into the living room, Jonathan and I gave each other the look that said "Wow there's something wrong". About then Jonathan saw his face, a grim look came over him and I turned him around to see a HUGE goose egg forming right between his eyes. You could see the blood pooling under his skin, in the mean time he's still hollering all out. We get frozen veggies, place them on his head and he cries louder. I place a call to his doctor and start waiting, then he stops crying and his eyes start closing and rolling back in his head, that was it for me, off we went to Cooks. I won't go into the details of Cooks on a Sunday night but picture lots of people with germy kids waiting and waiting and waiting. I felt dirty when we left about 9:00. In the end, Bowen is great, there was nothing wrong. Here's what he looked like about 10 last night:

Jonathan? Are?

For the longest time instead of saying Daddy where are you Laine would say Daddy? Are? in a singsongy voice.

Jonathan is on a school trip to Big Bend, I've been a single parent since Friday night. I'm bushed! How did I take care of both kids and him after he broke his leg? I guess necessity. I can't wait for him to get back, he really is a big help with the kids.
Today was a great day for Laine. It was Grandparents day at her school, since no grandparents were available I invited Ryan to come instead. It ended up that Mere got to come too! I wish I could have been a fly on the wall. I know all of them enjoyed it.

this one's for you Robin!

Reasons I'm glad I'm not Robin:

People saying "You're STILL pregnant?!"
Getting up 14 times to pee at night
Waiting, waiting, waiting

Reasons I wish I was Robin:
Anticipation (waiting, but the good side of waiting)
Meeting the person growing inside you for 40 weeks
That newborn timetable, the only time that matters is when she ate last
Maternity leave
Sweet baby girls

OK so my pros outweigh my cons: should I have another baby?

In theory I would, in practice I might die of exaustion if I had three children

Birds and Britches

Here is a picture of Diego, he's the bird Dad and I found Sunday morning during our run. He was just sitting in the grass, cold and scared. I walked over to him and he hopped right on my finger! It was too cool. After a stop at Petsmart which cost mom a trillion dollars,Diego now resides in her classroom. Go, Diego, GO!







Here is my ultra cool family sporting giant underpants. I guess a little background is needed: When Mere was little she LOVED PeeWee's playhouse. Mom and Dad bought her a set of shows so we drug them out for Laine to watch. In one episode PeeWee does various things with a pair of giants underpants like making a "suave vest" with them. Before we knew it Dad came back from wal-mart and the pictures show what happened next!

On a side note I took said underpants to school this week and had giant underpant relay races, they were a hit, mostly.

It's raining, it's pouring!

It's a miracle! It's been so long since we've had a day of steady rain. On to other news:

I had a great time seeing my old teammates at the AHS tennis team reunion this weekend. We looked at pictures and watched videos of our state championship. We even played a little tennis.

I found a cockatiel! Outside! In the grass! I'll post the whole story with pics later.

Steve Irwin died. He was stung in the heart by a stingray, wow.

Be back later...

My radical new 'do...

SO? What do you think?