Finally, Something to Blog about!

Not in a "Oooh I got a new car" way or a "oh my, my kids are so funny" way but definitely in a "I almost ruined my cat's ears" way.

Oh yes, I'm known to play vet and take my pet to the low cost vaccination clinics because I am always amazed at how EXPENSIVE it is to take your pet to the vet. Pumpkin Batman (who will be referred to as PB in the rest of the story) was exhibiting the textbook signs of ear mites. Black crusty stuff in his ears, scratching etc...so I cleaned them regularly hoping it would just go away. It got worse so, being the money saving girl that I am I just went to Tractor Supply and got some ear mite drops. I began treating him with the drops according to the instructions. I treated and they weren't getting better, in fact I saw MORE crap than there was before. I thought "oh it's just the medicine flushing out the gross stuff" treat, treat, treat. Until after school today when I looked in one of his ears and it was totally sealed up with pussy yellow stuff. Aaack, I thought (still in vet mode) it's an infection from him scratching his ears. So I called the vet suggested on is adoption papers. They got me in immediately and were so nice when I got to the office with two small children and a cat in a pillowcase in tow. (In case you ever need to transport your cat to the vet and you don't have your carrier because you loaned it to your sister a pillowcase is a great way to do it). Then explain to all the staff why the cat's name is PB. Everyone looks at your daughter and smiles and then wonders to themselves why a person would let a child name a cat. So the vet comes in a looks in PB's ears with this cool camera thing and all the gross stuff is projected on a 12 inch TV that makes it look 1 million times grosser. Vet is very nice when he explains to me that earmites aren't treated by liquid drops anymore, he hasn't seen this problem in a while because of the NEW way to treat. Uhhhh...

Everyone in the entire office assumes I am a first-time cat owner and I don't tell them I'm not. Yikes so PB's ears are my fault, and the fact that I paid $113 for said ear treatment which includes ANESTHESIA and PACKING OF STUFF IN THE EARS and MEDICINE. Not to mention that the vet's staff got the humane society to pay for part of the bill because they said he had to have had earmites when we got him. So really it should have been WAY more than it was, plus they gave me a free office visit and didn't make me buy the Revolution from them (grudgingly of course) and order it off the Internet instead. And he had to have two vaccinations to be able to stay overnight at the clinic.

Why aren't Vet's millionaires?

While I was waiting two people paid vet bill in the $300 dollar range, I had to pick my jaw up off the floor twice when I heard the bill amount. The office and vet were very nice it seems their policy is to give an estimate of the cost before you leave so you can go sell your soul to pay when you pick up your pet.

I did feel very blessed to only have ear issues when I heard some of the staff whispering that a man had decided to have his pet put to sleep. After that I mentally shut my trap about my vet bill. That is one decision that I hope I don't have to make, or at least if I do it's a clear cut answer.

I am so proud!

Laine is just becoming so big! After Christmas we bought her some BOB books, they are for new readers and have really easy, short words. Well she is totally reading the easy ones! Jonathan and I are just basking in the glow of her smartness. Good thing she took after her mother! There was a time I was sad to see her growing up, now I'm so excited to see what's to come from this beautiful, smart, funny little girl!

I am unyielding origin

OK so Mere and Ryan came over today since the world came to a stand still because of an inch of snow. We were bored and Ryan decided he would put on a pair of my shorts (and that's all) and go jump on the trampoline for two minutes. Then Jonathan did it and then they looked at Meredith and Me and said "now it's your turn". So I totally stepped up. I did get to wear a sports bra and I tried to cheat and wear crocs too. I did it ,I jumped on the trampoline in only shorts and a sports bra in less than freezing temperatures, I rock. Meredith wimped out, she was the only one, even Laine went out in her panties and jumped a few times.

We didn't take pictures, just a video and we left the cord to download it at my parents' house. Hopefeully we'll get it soon and you can see me in action!

Lola was once lost but now is found!

Since my sister never updates her blog, they were putting up lost signs and someone called and said a teacher from the school by thier house took her home. So they picked her up that same night! Yay!

Random Thoughts

Why do cats breath always smell fishy even if the cat food they cat is chicken flavor?

I've been sore all week from trying a new workout on one of those big exercise balls.

I hope Mere and Ryan find Lola soon!

My son has been SO whiney the past few days, I hope he's teething.

My new jeans will be ready tomorrow, yipee!

I got a new washer and dryer, they are beautiful and cost way too much money but won't my clothes look nice and clean! I'll post pictures when they are delivered.

I had the WORST long run last Saturday, (please God let the next one be great, Amen).

When Jonathan dressed Bowen this morning he tucked his shirt in and it made him look like a beautiful big boy, I hope he doesn't do that again!

Hair Envy

I just saw Shauna's new hairdo and I'm so jealous! It's so cute and usually I'm one to see a new haircut and off to the salon I go to copy it. I'm just in a hair rut right now. Since the "Great Hair Fallout of '06" my poor locks just haven't been cute or healthy no matter what I do to them. So I just maintain, and I'll admit it's just not really cute! I feel like I need to give it a little more time to recover before I bleach it or hack it all off. It's just SO thin and fuzzy. If I cut it short I'm afraid it would look even more thin, and if I highlight it it will totally break off more, I already have a patch at my normal part that looks horrible from breakage. So I'll just continue to have hair envy for a few more months and then bust out with the cutest hair ever!

Christmas cuties

We had a great Christmas, lots of travel and lots of presents and now some rest at home. I'm feeling a little boring so here are some pictures to enjoy.

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.