Yep, that was the last good birthday

Well, that was it. Number 29. It's all downhill from here.

Steve hasn't played with fire for a while, so when the opportunity came up to be a part of a controlled burn of a nearby house, he was very excited to get to participate. It was just down the street, so Morgan and I came to watch. It took almost 3 rolls of film, and hope some of them turn out. Redmond Fire is starting a website and they need some pictures for it. Maybe they'll use some of mine!

Steve and Morgan got me a locket for my birthday. It is a white gold heart with a little diamond in the middle, and opens up for two itty bitty pictures. It's perfect. I don't normally wear a lot of jewelry, so I wouldn't want anything bigger. I was pleasantly surprised. I'll wear it all of the time. I have always wanted one, but don't remember ever saying anything to Steve, so it was great to see the thoughtful gift.

Morgan went to Grandma and Grandpa's house and Steve took me out to eat at the Pine Tavern in Bend. Dinner was fabulous. We really need to do that more often. Then we went to the movies. We saw Hitch, because everything I wanted to see is at the wrong time, or it was out of the theater, and this was the only movie that played at a good time, and wasn't scary. Why are there so many scary movies out right now? Anyway, it was okay. I expected it to be funnier, and knowing in advance that critics didn't like Eva Mendes' performance made me sit there and critique her the whole time. But Kevin James is adorable, and we had a great time. Morgan did great at G&G's, playing peekaboo with Grandpa, climbing the stairs, and checking out their cuckoo clocks. Grandpa chased her around the island in their kitchen for a good ten minutes, he said. He said it worked out perfectly, because Morgan was having a wild hair day, so when she walked it fluffed up on top like a wild peacock, so he was able to see where she was at all times while he chased her around. It sounds like they had fun. It would have been neat to have been a fly on the wall and watched. She's been so much fun lately.

We spent a good hour playing in the dirt the other day. It was neat to actually see her brain ticking away as she picked up handfuls of dirt and watched it slowly sift through her little fingers. Then she'd pick up an interesting rock and closely examine it before piling it up on the driveway. She only tried to eat rocks a couple of times. Most of the time she was busy piling dirt on her leg or sorting the various pebbles. I didn't mind her getting dirty, even though she was wearing Grammabon's homemade jumper and a white shirt. Babies know nothing. Everything they do is a learning experience. I had no problem letting her explore, and we had fun!

Steve lit me a candle for my birthday, a controlled burn of a nearby house where a future doctor's office will be. Happy birthday to me!

Grammabon brought Morgan a happy face balloon, as balloon's are Morgan's favorite toy. She says "bah".

Sittin' like Aunt Alyca

Morgan and Grammabon

Exploring

Playing in the dirt while waiting for a visit from Grammabon

Jax' daddy

Remember the puppy I used to babysit every three days, Jax? Jax is this sweet little black lab who used to come over and stay at our house whenever her daddy went to work at the fire station so that she wouldn't have to be home alone for 24 hours. She came to visit every shift day for almost 9 months, and would start wagging and whining the minute she got in our neighborhood. If I happened to look out the window, she'd be standing on her daddy's lap, or standing on the passenger seat, whichever was the closest to our front door, just a'waggin'. Then she'd leap out, even out the window a couple of times, and would race to our front door, because she thought Cooper was quite the neighborhood stud, and couldn't wait to spend time with him, and Steve and I too, of course. then her daddy eventually got a roommate, and later a live-in love, and didn't need us anymore. I miss Jax. She was a sweet pup, even though I did have her during the puppy stage, so have a few pairs of shoes missing their better half, and a few stains by the back slider.
Garrick is this sweet former city slicker, who stepped away from his fire department life in Washington DC and settled for the country life in Central Oregon. His supervisors like to mention that he was on the rooftops of the Pentagon on 9/11. He was. He has this great drawl, and I admit to having a small crush. Don't worry, Steve knows. When Garrick calls, he always starts out this this long "Haaaaaa". A Hi with a twang. He draws it out just for me, because he knows I love the accent.
He's been having knee problems forever, but couldn't link it to any specific injury. He's been on light duty, trying to stay off of it, while doctor's tried to figure out what's the matter. He recently had exploratory arthroscopic surgery to try and determine the source, but that came up unsuccessful. Doctor's don't know. They ran some further tests, and fear the worst. His numbers are wrong, and today Garrick is going to find out if he has leukemia. The doctor's think he has some sort of cancer. Deep down he isn't surprised, however. His mom is currently fighting breast cancer in Virginia. Whatever Garrick might have is somewhat hereditary, and hasn't shown it's face in this area yet, which is why the doctor's are a little stumped.
Garrick is in his early 30's, and such a vivacious man. Steve called me yesterday with the news, and we were both a little shook up. But if Garrick is anything like his mama, I feel confident that everything will be okay. She is one tough cookie. And Garrick's dad? Well, he isn't in the picture anymore, but was a secret service agent, and was actually on duty the day Reagan was shot. You can see him in the video footage, according to G. Tough.
If Garrick finds out he has cancer today, he is going straight forward and starting chemotherapy right away. Be aggressive and get 'er done.
To everyone in blogger land, send positive vibes for our friend G. I am sure he will be fine, but the extra prayer won't hurt.

My most recent scrapbook page. It has taken me forever to come up with something for these photos!

In.... the bedroom

We are renovating the bedroom! Time to make it more becoming. The frame we got when we purchased our California King is low enough that only the box containing my wedding dress will fit underneath it. With our Queen, Cooper was able to sleep underneath the bed, which he prefers. Now he wedges as much of his tired body as he can along the edges, depositing strips of hair along the bottom of our tired dust ruffle.

We went to Lowe's and purchased complementary shades of green paint. Last night Steve painted below where a high chair rail will be affixed around the room. Our ceilings are so high I didn't want to pattern a design that forced us to extract the tall ladders from the bowel's of his parent's shop, so came up with an alternative that would flatter the room design. Anyway, he painted the green last night, is going to paint the 4" chair rail white to match the existing baseboards, and is going to leave the upper portions of the wall the off-white color they are now.

Then he is going to take the closet doors we purchased, do a faux antique rub of a different shade of green, attach crown moulding around the top, and call it a head board. Somehow, he will then fashion something to lift our bed up, so that it will all be proportional and I will have back my needed storage space underneath the bed.

Currently we have a TV in our room on Steve's dresser. He is going to attach an L bracket in the corner of the wall behind it, so the TV is up and tucked out of the way. He is also going to make a little box in the corner of the wall, so that we can hide the cords. It won't look like a motel in there, and we will be able to decorate the top of his dresser. I am going to paint my dresser in the same green as the headboard, and we might change the end tables too. I don't want too much green however.

In the parking lot of Lowe's, after the paint was purchased, I changed my mind and wished I had purchased a taupe color, as the rest of my house is already green, but all of the shades are different, and they all match each other, so it is okay. In my next house I will mix up the colors better.

Anyway, that's what's happening now. I am currently working on a scrapbo0k project, and my stained glass project, as class is almost done, but that's about it for the crafts. My birthday is on Saturday, so Morgan is going to Grandma and Grandpa's house, because I want to go to dinner and a movie. It's been more than a year since we've done that. The problem is that there are actually several movies out that I would be interested in seeing. Now I need to decide which blockbuster to visit..... Hitch, The Wedding Date, The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Hotel Rwanda, Meet the Fockers, Ray..... all of them interest me. We'll see what movie wins! Steve will sit next to me in the theater I choose, so I don't have to eliminate the "chick flicks". That almost makes the choice more difficult!

Pukey poo

Note to self. 13 months is too young for any carbonated drinks.

Morgan and I were running errands on Saturday, so I stopped at McDonalds for some chicken nuggets, fries and a hi-c drink so that I could stop and get the car serviced and she wouldn't fuss. She didn't. She enjoyed her lunch.

Then, that evening, we went over to Ryan and Nicole's, the Karjala's for a barbecue with some friends. I was standing there, had barely finished telling stories about the flu earlier in the week, and Morgan was drinking from her sippy cup. Suddenly she started coughing like water had gone down the wrong pipe, so I patted her back and mentioned that theory outloud. Then she did a little sound, and I suddenly feared the worst. Yep, it happened. She projectile vomited all over the place. I heard the SPLAT as it hit the dining room chair and hit the floor. Of course, I tried to deflect it, so most of it landed on me. Unfortunately, it scared her a little, and combined with the fact that some of it had come out of her nose, which can't feel good, she started crying. I was horrified, mortified, and felt so bad for her. I took her jacket and shirt off, and then passed her on to her daddy so I could change my own shirt (I had to borrow one of Nicole's). When I came downstairs, Steve had taken her outside, because he felt like she was going to do it again.

Morgan wanted her mama, so I held her and patted her back, hoping to help dislodge anything else she had. She started gagging again, puked a little, and did one of those deep 3 second belches, which echoed throughout the Karjala's neighborhood. My poor little lambchop!

We would have felt really whisky tango if we'd just cleaned her off and stayed to drink beer and have some dinner, so we left. It wasn't until we were halfway home that I surmised what may have caused her tummy to be upset. I don't think it was the flu, because she hadn't puked in 3 days and her fever had broken and she'd started eating again. That's why I think it was the Mc.

We ended up stopping at Jody's for a hamburger and rented a movie. Little Black Book. Wasn't very good. Morgan vomited in her sleep once, we washed everything, including her, again, and she was fine the rest of the night. She was fine Sunday and today as well, so I think the worst is behind us.

I think the embarrassing part for me was that we were with two couples who didn't have any kids. They don't know where we are coming from. If we'd been at the Hagan's, Eric and Marci and sweet little Krysta's house, it would have been fine. But if you don't have any children, you don't know ANYTHING about being a parent, so you wouldn't understand. It makes a difference.

Anyway, that was our fun on Saturday.

On Sunday was the Daytona 500. I like watching Nascar because you don't have to pay attention at all. I can do housework, read a book, play with Morgan, eat some lunch, and I can come back and see where we are. If any exciting had happened, they will replay the wreck, pass, etc. Steve is on some fantasy betting circuit, but he and I did one of our own, and I beat him. He he he. That's always nice. :) Other than that, it was a nice and peaceful day at home with my family.

Morgan recently got a replacement Learning Home. The other one she had stopped working, and of course I had previously thrown out the box, so we had no way of returning it. But we just phoned Fisher-Price, they sent a prepaid call tag, we took it apart and boxed it up as well as we could, and less than 3 weeks later, another house arrived at our door. Perfect! Steve set it up yesterday, and Morgan hasn't stopped playing with it. What a difference 2 months make! She is so much more aware of what to do with it now! Especially now that it makes noise. That was a good buy!

My Morgie Pie

Morgan and her fabulous bracelet mama got her. It has her name on it, as well as a crown and a carriage. My little princess. This photo is exactly like the one I had pictured in my mind. She looks so sweet

Morgan and her mama at her Sears birthday photo sitting

After the poo

Well, it turns out that the poopydoo was just the beginning of the flu. My poor little lamb! Nothing worse than when there is nothing you can do to make them feel better. Poor thing hasn't eaten in 3 days! She's had nothing but the trots, and saved the projectile vomiting for the evenings when she was cuddled up to mom and dad. What an experience that was! One good thing that came from it was the fact that she'd cuddle with us when we were sitting down. She normally wants us to stand there. She even watched a little boob tube with us, and she doesn't normally do that either. Just Sesame Street, sometimes. Or a Baby Einstein video. But today, my girlfriend's back, and she ate some breakfast, doesn't have a fever, and has been on the roam in the house. I am so glad!

I did go to my stained glass class last night. I am so glad my coworkers harassed me into signing up. It's good for me to get out of the house, and I think Steve enjoys his alone time with Morgan, doing dinner, bath time and putting her to bed. She normally does bath time with mama, and I think she too likes the change.

We are on the verge of a change for my little one as well. In the middle of the night the other day, when she woke up, I went in and she was standing there, doing her drink sign, saying "dee, DEE!" Drink! She's on the verge of words. This morning when I went in, she said "hi", all chipper, as if she's always done that. It's so cute! So far, she does mama, daddy, Bah (balloon), Pah (Cooper?) - don't think it's Papa yet ( :) ) - and dee (drink). She says them in a high pitched voice, so sometimes I am not sure if she's actually speaking, or just singing. But she's doing better with communication. She keeps using her drink sign for everything, but we are working on making her do the eat, more, drink, banana, please, thank you, and bath signs. I think that's it for now. Oh, and the other day, I was trying, "what does a snake say?", "ssssss". "What does a puppy say? Ruff ruff!" I like the snake one, becuase it's the one she's most interested in. She's played along a couple of times. So we are working on it. I am thinking it will help with her speech. Anyway, a lot of fun, that.

We are still on the hunt for property, but it's such a hard decision. Do we go with something reasonably priced for Matt and Sabrina to live in, or do we go with the property and build? Will purchasing another home for them hamper our ability to get into something for ourselves? Do we try and find another deal with a home on acreage, and build at a later date? The problem with that one being a down payment. For a construction loan, you can almost get away with nothing down. And what about Steve's dad? We want to use his contractor's license, but he's in his late 60's. He won't be around forever! We don't know what to do. And then, a very helpful lender called today and wants Steve to call her the first part of next week. She said having the structure on the Frank Way property was a negative, and that she thinks we can get into more than what we think. But if I build my dream house right away, that could be a big cost. Do we go for a bigger house, and then do the dream house later? We just don't know what the right decision is. Do we have Sabrina and Matt wait until we get our next house, and then move them in the Nickernut house? We really want to help them get on their feet. I just don't know......

Sabrina must have taken this picture of my Morgie Pie. I love it! I might enter it in a photo contest. She looks so sweet in this picture, and has contained her wild chins! Love it.

Valentines

Poopydoo

My eyes! MY EYES! I don't think I'll ever recover! I will never see my child the same way again! We were winding down towards the second nap of the day, whatching the Westminster Dog Show on USA. There I was minding my own business, when I look over and see Morgan standing behind one of the bar stools in the living room. She often goes back there to "hide" from me. By the way she was looking, however, I had a feeling she was up to something "down below". I looked away for a minute, and while I did so, she stepped away from the stool, and proceeded around the room. It was when I saw her backside that I noticed the trouble I was going to be in. She was wearing pants, a t-shirt, and a zipped sweathirt. On the back of the sweatshirt, however, was a wet, chunky, brown strip of ick that was certain to spell trouble. I immediately jumped up, grabbed her, and raced her into her room.
I didn't know where to begin. She didn't understand what was going on and wanted to sit down, but I didn't want her to get anything on the carpet. As I began undressing her, I became covered. Covered in caca. Pants, socks, sweatshirt, shirt, and then it came to the diaper. I picked her up, layed her down on her changing table, and started to clean. Then she stuck her left hand down. Then her right. I was battling for my life.
I'm a mom. I can handle poop. I can do poop. Do it every day. But this has occurred on the backside of the Today show this morning, where Matt Lauer just finished a story about fecal germs in taxi cabs, and vaginal germs on the railing of the escalators at your local mall, so, as I was trying to scrub my child, I was counting the germs. They were everywhere.
After I got her wiped off, we went straight to the tub. I filled it up as I proceeded to dump her outfit, changing table cover, and a random sweater that I used to deflect some of the gunk, into the washer. I poured in some OxyClean, and turned it on Hot. Rinse. Repeat.
While the water was filling I went on a quick tour of the house with a Clorox bathroom wipe. And then I saw it. Ick. On the wall. On the floor. I thought I was going to be sick.
Now my house smells like bleach. I am glad it's a nice day so that I can open the window and not worry about giving Morgan pneumonia as I attempt to air out the house.
I was completely grossed out. This was a blowout of massive proportions. She hasn't done one of these in 6 months.
My only saving grace was the fact that we were at the office picking up a few things not an hour before this happened. What would I have done if this had happened there? I hadn't even brought her diaper bag with us. This was a lesson learned. Always be prepared. Isn't that the boyscout motto? Where was Steve when I needed him?

I sent this photo to a photo contest. Again, nothing done to the photo.

Happy Valentines Day!

I think this picture is sweet. Jon and Kathy say she looks like Papa when she purses her lips. I see it! I didn't edit this photo at all. I think you should do it right the first time.

Post VD

I previously started a blog, deleted it, and have now decided to give it another try. As this is my online journal, I am being gracious in allowing you to read it. However, I am speaking my mind, and not to you directly, so if you have anything negative to say, and have to spend a lot of time trying to come up with something non-confrontational, stuff it up your pipe, because it probably isn't something that should be said in the first place. Alrighty?

Steve got up early yesterday and set out my Valentine's surprise, a dozen red roses and a bag full of goodies. I love Arnold Palmer's (1/2 lemonade, 1/2 ice tea) and he happened to find them in 24 ounce cans, so he got me a few. I thought that was sweet. It shows he's paying attention to my likes! Morgan got me those heart candies with the sayings. I let her carry it around all day, because she likes to shake the box.

I got Steve a love token good for a roll in the hay. I thought it was funny and sweet, and he can carry it in his pocket and think of me. Kinda like Alyca and Papa and the special rock. I also made him a nice dinner, and we opened a bottle of wine after Morgan went to bed at 7. It was nice to have a peaceful dinner alone.

I had Steve stop at the grocery store earlier and pick up Morgan a balloon for her Valentine's gift. I guess, besides "baby", her first words are "mama", "dadda", and "buh" for balloon. She's loved them since her birthday, and will run around with it all day. She notices them when we are out in public or at the grocery store. I went to Winterfest with Nicole on Saturday, and she noticed one tied to a sign while we were walking around, and mentioned them when we were stopped at a red light next to a car lot. It's pretty cool to see that she's paying attention. No popping so far, thank goodness. Unfortunately, today her VD balloon is looking a little limp, snaking around on the floor with no more oomph, but it served it's purpose.

Today is Sabrina's 25th birthday. Hard to believe she's actually a quarter of a century. Steve and I were talking about how long we've been together. Did you know he's been around since Sabrina was a sophomore in high school? 9+ years. And this year we will have been married 5. It's so nice that the year helps us to remember our anniversary number. 2005. 5. We can never mess up on that!

Steve's parent's came over for brunch on Sunday, and we took them on a tour of our "property." Kathy said I didn't have to go if it was going to make me sad. She's silly. I am okay, I was just in quite the shock on Thursday and Friday. Who knows, though. Maybe "the one" is still out there. Maybe this deal will fall through. It happened to this couple last year. I guess we'll see.

We found another 5 acre parcel with spectacular views, but the price is a little bit high, and it has nothing on it, which defeats the purpose of helping the Merritts. But the price is worth it when you see the view. We'd perch the house on the edge of this canyon, and have the Cascades on one side and a great unobstructive view of Smith Rock on the other. But we're just looking. I just think I'd really like to live in Tetherow Crossing. I like it out there. The lots are big, and it's not that far out of town.

Papa wrote me a nice email about my "little house on the prairie". He was so supportive. That's nice. When it's right, it'll be right. Plus, we really learned a lot these last two weeks, so the next time we'll be faster and know what to do right away.

Well, I had better get back to work. Morgan and I cuddled on the couch for Sesame Street, and now she's down for her first nap. She was being a little clingy this morning, and while that means I don't get a lot of work done, it sure feels nice sometimes. After all, she's the reason I'm here.