BlogaBunch

PEDI PULSES

2011-03-02T10:02:00.000-05:00

Little things I discuss every day and which seem to be quite helpful.

For a painful, red, broken-down-skin diaper rash, it is helpful to mix some antacid like Mylanta with a regular diaper cream to help calm down the rash.

Newborns all grunt, turn red, and strain while pooping. They have a hard time learning to push it out while relaxing the rectum, so often push against a tightly closed rectum. Every now and then, they really are constipated, but the best way to tell this is when they finally DO push out small, hard pellets instead of mushy poo. Also, of course there can be problems if a newborn rarely or never produces any poo poo. This can signal a major GI or other system problem.

When you can hear your child breathing through partially obstructed nostrils, like in a cold, or can feel rattling in the chest, this doesn’t necessarily mean they are wheezing. It is difficult to tell if a child is wheezing without a stethoscope. Wheezing is a high pitched whistling sound often produced on expiration and coming from the smaller airways deep in the lungs. Often, what parents call wheezing is really mucus in the large bronchi, which is in general, ok.

Often, when kids pull at their ears or even complain of ear pain, it may signal a throat infection. The pain is transmitted near the inner ear.

Strep throat very often shows up with headache and stomach ache. The primary reason we treat strep is to prevent secondary infection of the heart and / or kidneys. The bacteria can occasionally travel and infect these areas.

Fever, in itself, is rarely dangerous unless your child has a major metabolic or neurologic disease. It is still desirable to treat it with anti-fever medicines but mainly because it makes the child feel much better. For a temp below 101, most kids feel ok and it isn’t necessary to treat it. In fact, the fever helps “burn up” the viruses or bacteria causing infection. Keep in mind, however, that fever can signal a major underlying infection / illness of course. ESPECIALLY if the fever is in a baby. This should always be checked out.

Gatlinburg and the Park

2011-02-28T22:59:00.001-05:00

We had the wonderful privilege of spending this past weekend with the Taylor's in a cabin in Gatlinburg. It was a few days of food food and watching Ella and Marley play. Then we came home and took a walk to the park, where we took some pictures. Here are some highlights, in no particular order.

I fell down the stairs of the cabin at 5 am, while holding Marley. Thank you GOD she fell in my arms and did not get hurt at all. I, on the other hand, broke my toe. Small injury from big fall = good news. ps ignore my ugly toe nails

Ella does not enjoy merry-go-rounds.

the train was better. - that is her new cinderella dress, which she wore the ENTIRE time...with glass slippers of course.

thats how she rides and loves it

the sweetest thing I've ever known...and I'm sure in the world

my husband has a mullet right now. he grew his hair out just to cut one. he is weird and lives on doing things like this. So of course I had to do my part and take his sunset mullet picture.

flying

Keeping Up and Falling Back

2011-02-12T22:24:00.000-05:00

I am constantly amazed at how other mothers get so much done.
I have a few blogs written by people I do not personally know that I always read because I always get great ideas from them. But...I am in shock at the amount of things these people do...
One of them has 4 children all under 8 and is constantly personally customizing and crafting away every little thing in the house. PLUS, the house is always neat and clean in all the pictures! WHAT?
I cannot finish the one little tiny chalkboard picture I started 2 weeks ago to put on my mantel. Everything is 1/4...or 1/16th done around here. Kevin and I have started a wonderful routine of putting both girls to bed at 8:00 every night (it used to be like 1030...how on earth did we survive? I'll never know.)...you would think since this change I would get more done. But no! I am always way too tired to get anything huge done. Sometimes I'll finish some laundry or dishes but between locking up, turning everything off, making bottles, placing monitors in their night-time places, getting on jammies, brushing teeth/bedtime routine, etc....I am ready for bed before I can get out a paint brush.

And need I even get to the task of keeping the house clean? When I wake up, Marley is already awake...who am I kidding..Ella AND Marley wake ME up every morning. So the routine starts...change them both...remind Ella 8,000 times that I don't understand the whining language, try to get Marley to lay and play with her floor toy (insert mommy guilt here for putting her right back down on her back to interact with a toy and not me in the morning), make Ella's breakfast, turn on Ella's movie, get Ella something else random she has decided she wants this morning, figure out why Marley is crying / screaming at me....wait, I need to eat something and would really like to make coffee........
2 hours later....oh crap my coffee is cold in the pot....what's for lunch? I'm starving and....I haven't cleaned anything yet. In fact, the pile of junk is now a bit higher and there is another pile's worth of cheese and crumbs on the kitchen floor and.....

So back to my frustration at other moms. WHEN do they sit and make those crafts with their kids? WHEN do they polish their floors with some kind of magic floor wax? and WHEN do they make all those wonderful custom unique things for their houses?

I feel like I'm just barely keeping up most days...and when I get even a little behind...like missing house chores last wed because I was sick...things seem to just spiral out of control until it seems impossible to regain order.
Why does any of this matter in the scheme of things?
All I can say is, it is how we feel in all those little moments of our lives that make up our happiness or discontent and living in a cluttered, non-orderly environment makes me perpetually irritated.
What is a girl to do about this? I have yet to figure that one out.

My space before kids was always neat, clean, organized, and perfectly styled to my liking.

I think I'll trade spic-and-span for this, though.

Bring some order to this chaos...or my 2011 Goals

2011-01-17T23:53:00.000-05:00

I told you I don't like "resolutions." I also hate the word "diet." To the point I'm ashamed to even mention it here...I am in shock that people still use the word "diet" to mean anything about weight loss...surely we have learned our lessons by now? Eat for heatlth, exercise for health, strive for health...NOT mere weight loss...anyways I digress...

So I have inadvertently began working toward several goals, I guess being inspired by all the "R" words flying around...or whatever. I thought I would share with everyone some of the ways I am trying to bring order into our mostly chaotic lives.

First things First, let me mention none of these goals concern money. You know why?? Last summer I read a book called "All Your Worth." That single book organized our money and revolutionized our long term money plan...do I sound like an infomerical yet? Good. That's because it truly is THAT good...this book (to us) has worked a miracle...organized our spending and made managing our money SO EASY...ok. there. I will add: things have taken awhile to fall exactly into place due to the birth of buggie BUT we are really very pleased with where we are since finding this method.

SO. My goals are-
Organize this house.
What is helping me?
Honestly?
1. My innate tendency to be OCD.
2. My ability to enjoy cleaning.
3. My remarkable ability to throw things out.
4. Repeating in my head over and over "A place for everything and everything in it's place." No joke. When I get stuck and can't seem to completely clear a space, I say this and it reminds me I either need to MAKE a place for this junk to live, PUT this junk where it's supposed to live or TOSS it. It is totally working.

Example:
Rain gutter book shelves...genius.

These are rain gutters hung with brackets to hold the girls' books forward facing - something I've been wanting to do forever but haven't because I didn't want to take the money to buy enough shelves or the time to build them. In comes the blogging world to give me this idea. I am so thrilled with it - I found the idea the other afternoon and a few hours later Kevin had bought the stuff and hung these things up...awesome when that happens isn't it?

These little "bins" all came from the dollar section at Target! (who doesn't LOVE the dollar section??)...and who doesn't HATE that everything is not a dollar! These were actually 2.50...still great but they don't call it "Dollar section with some things for $2.50"...but I digress again. My plan with these is to add little pictures to the fronts to symbolize what goes in each. Right now we have categories..."Cars/trains/vehicles" "Doctor stuff" "Dolls" "Balls" and YES she IS putting them back in the right containers every night before bed time...this is a new routine we are adopting.
I actually bought several more of these containers and they reside in booger's closet holding tights, hats, purses and headbands...who can't use another plastic bin right? Oh and I got one of those over the door organizers that hangs inside our coat closet for all those little extras like gloves, hats, toys, cameras etc. that we end up throwing in the bottom of that closet.

I keep their socks in jewelry organizers, which is one my faves...no more forgetting we had the PERFECT pair of socks for that outfit! ;)

And FINALLY bought booger something to hang her necklaces on...that is out of reach, of course...

I organized kitchen cabinets / pantry when i got pregnant so that is D O N E.

Using doors really helped me out:

As well as simple wire cabinet thingies:

I sewed pockets onto booger's old crib bumper and hung a section on Marley's wall to hold diapering tools...didn't want to just throw them out so I tried and tried to think of something to do with the bumper...this was the best idea I got...it's ok.

Bow holder:

My amazing husband has completely organized and cleaned our garage...to the point where we can now fit his jeep AND my awesome van in without a hitch. On that note, one thing we do to try and keep our floors clean is keep all our shoes in shoe hanging bag thingies in the garage right outside the door.

So we are not doing too bad so far...but there's a lot more to go!

clean this house...and do it regularly.

What's helping me here?

Well, a new resource: I found this site (Clean Mama) from this friend (The Life of Jennifer Dawn) and I'm using her "weekly docket" method of cleaning...eventually I hope to undertake her cleaning month and implement a seasonal cleaning schedule. All that is what this calendar helps organize: (as well as other things we need to do...calendar also from dollar section at Target!) Might I also add that this little nook in our kitchen recently held a pile of junk a mile high...guess who cleaned that up??? YAY!

be more intentional about making my marriage even better.

I am doing something toward this end...but if I told you about it it might spoil it so lets just say - I'm giving myself daily reminders of how I can let my husband know I care and am trying to make things as good as they can be.

plan meals, go grocery shopping regularly

Nope. We don't do this. We eat out A LOT...which takes up SO MUCH TIME.

No more.

I am looking into once a month cooking / freezer cooking...we'll see if we like it.

eat and buy local & natural.

I've done nothing towards this goal....YET.

play with the girls (really play) every day.

No. I don't always do this....Hey, I'm honest. I'm usually trying to clean instead...well, I am going to put some of that aside for this:

HAHAHA! Please laugh...if you aren't, you are missing the best part of this picture..Hey, I just wanted to stay warm people.

It's a MarshMellow World

2011-01-15T16:59:00.000-05:00

BACK

2011-01-12T23:45:00.000-05:00

I felt like coming back. See...I feel pulled in many directions.
I have 2 little girls to take up a lot of my time. Most days, I feel I'm not crossing much off my "to-do" lists, but I'm trying to learn to let them be and get in the floor with my girls.
I am a very OCD person, but you wouldn't know it if you came to my house. I see every speck of dirt and I am bothered by everything that doesn't have a place. When I got pregnant with buggy, I started on a journey attempting to majorly organize every inch of the house. I did well until I got so big I couldn't walk well...then I did great to make it through work 3 half days per week.
I find that writing really helps me purge and organize my thoughts and I've been wanting to get back to it.

To get back into it all and make this post easier, I'm going to also copy my cousin and my friend and make a list of what I like about myself and what I do not like about myself. I think it will be a unique way to think about some goals for the year. (I do not believe in resolutions...I think they are actually curses, so we will call them "goals").

LIKE:

1. I love learning. I read for work constantly...I have several medical apps on my iphone which makes it easy to pull up journals and the latest news.
2. I have made it several months now without wearing any make-up...as I write this, I have a lot of mixed feelings. I question whether this falls into the category of being careless about my looks. I have concluded it shouldn't be that way at all - boys do not wear make-up. They don't spend the time in the morning putting it on or taking it off in the evening. They don't spend the money and they don't have to worry about rubbing their eyes and smearing it - why should I have to bother with something that makes me feel dirtier...ok there.
3. I'm extremely considerate of other people's feelings.
4. I am honest and open. I hate situations where I cannot be so and try to avoid them.
5. If I am unhappy, I work to reverse the circumstances making me that way...I'm always striving to make life enjoyable.
6. I'm learning not to hold grudges...I like to just tell someone if I have an issue and talk it out.
7. I'm easy going and learning to let go even more of the little things. "Choose your battles" is my motto.
8. I thoroughly enjoy reading fiction.
9. I enjoy cleaning and love to organize.
10. I am very accepting. I have no idea what it's like in your shoes.

DISLIKE:

1. I don't have enough confidence in myself.
2. I don't have enough confidence in myself.

3. I am (though I hate to admit it) introverted and feel more comfortable with less people around.

4. I can't shut off my brain and I lean towards being a worrier.
5. I don't want to take the time or energy to exercise again and my health suffers for it.
6. I get restless easily.
7. I feel scatterbrained lately.
8. I can't order water in restaurants...I would rather not eat if it means choosing between that and drinking a diet coke.
9. I can't seem to find enough time to create things...I do eventually get my "arts and crafts" time, but it doesn't happen nearly enough.
10. I can be indecisive.

This turned out to be a bit difficult - the most annoying part of it is...I know I will go lay down in a minute and think of 100 things that should be on these lists....

I will get back to talking about boogie and buggy soon. Don't worry grandparents, aunties, uncles, and others who I'm sure could care less about my personal rovings... ;)

POOL DAYS!

2010-06-17T17:28:00.000-04:00

We really do exist!

Chattanooga Zoo

2010-06-08T10:39:00.000-04:00

Riding the "round and round." Not so happy. Yet she talks about it all the time.

"Look mommy. I'm a monkey!"

She did notice some things after all! Even though all the animals were asleep because we went after lunch.

Pregnancy colds and boogers

2010-05-24T07:09:00.000-04:00

I'm off work today, so this is too early to be up for me. Ella will usually sleep until about 8:30-9:30 so usually I'm pretty lucky. However, I have once again been struck by the pregnancy cold from Hades. When I was pregnant with Ella, I got two of the worst sinus infections known to man. I became delirious, walking around all night long crying because I couldn't breathe. So far I'm dealing with this one a bit better, although I am still quite miserable. Enough complaining though.

The up side is I am enjoying a nesting instinct that never came last pregnancy. I've finished organizing the closet and almost done with the nursery. Next on my list is....the whole rest of the house. I am so frustrated that my house NEVER stays remotely clean even though I feel it is all I do. So I figure organizing may help the situation out some.

Blogging has not gone by the way side because life has gotten less interesting. It's the opposite! Ella is hilarious and grows smarter and smarter by the minute! I am constantly blown away by her. She currently really loves the Wee Sing movies (just like I did) and, as planned, she is walking around singing allll the songs on the videos. My favorite is "turn around and put your finger on your nose," at which point she always takes ample time to search for a booger. I know I need to take more pictures (that aren't with my iphone) and I am working on it! We have just been having too much fun entertaining Ella Rose to worry with the documentation! I need a personal photographer please.

In New York

2010-04-26T22:29:00.000-04:00

We went to NYC this past week to visit my sister and brother in law and had a BLAST! They were the greatest tour guides / hosts in the world. My sister even wrote a blog about our trip, with an amazing list of what we did - I will copy some of it here since it's so good.

Day 1:

Times Square

---

Toys R Us (in Times Square)

Hershey's store - 5 lbs of chocolate!

M&M store
Eating at an Irish Pub
Trying the WICKED Lottery (matinee)
Ground Zero (Financial Building, and many many 9-11 memorials)

Walking down by the Hudson to see the Statue of Liberty from a far

Riding the Staten Island Ferry, to get a closer look of the Statue

Century 21 Department Store
Eating at Juniors (cheesecake is the best there)
THE LION KING

DAY 2:

The Bodies Museum

Eating by the Hudson at a wonderful restaurant called UNO

FDNY Museum / Fire fighter's 9/11 Memorial

Seeing the statues of men on top of buildings that they call 'art' (down in Chelsea)

Playing in giant "Sephora"!

Eating at CHEVY's in Times Square
Going to see 'Alice in Wonderland' in 3D in Times Square!

Day 3:

The Apple Store - checking out the iPad

FAO Schwarz on 5th Ave., where Whitney works

Central Park

Eating at 'The Boardwalk" on the water in Central Park

watching some street performers

Walking down 5th Avenue

Tiffany & Co.

Showing Kevin and Marissa, "H&M" for the first time!

Rockefeller Center

Trying the "American Idiot" lottery and WINNING! Front row seats at Green Day's new Broadway!

Neil Patrick Harris sat behind us!

DAY 4:

Empire State Building

NY Public Library

Chrysler Building & Grand Central Station

Eating at a place across from Carnegie Deli, thus going against all tour book advice, but still eating a great deli sandwich without the wait!

Thank you so much Whitney and Nathan! We can't wait to see you again - break a few legs!

The "BIG playground"

2010-04-19T20:13:00.000-04:00

We took Ella to the children's museum on Saturday. We told her it was a "big playground" and she kept talking about it all the way there. She had a great time running around and especially loved he "little yellow house" and the water sections. She is talking sooo much lately and cracking us up. What amazes me is how she is catching onto little phrase like "that one" "over there" and "hold you / me." She's singing her ABCs and counting to 10! She is fascinated by letters and thanks partly to the show "Super Why" (which she loves and watches before bed), she recognizes some letters now. I was shocked to be in line at Subway the other day when she pointed to the sign and said "W!!!" And sure enough, there was one! I could NOT believe it! Oh and how can I leave out that she now will say "I love you too!!"

We also found out last week that we are having another little girl! Marley Ann will be here this September and we are so excited to have two little boogers running around in tutus.

Some More Egg Stuff

2010-04-04T21:39:00.000-04:00

How do you get hollow Easter eggs. Well, here's the idea in pictures, even though I am far too impatient to do it perfectly.

Pysanky Hanky Panky

2010-03-31T20:46:00.001-04:00

I got my pysanky kit in the mail today and didn't plan on making any tonight, but decided to at the last minute. Thank goodness Jaime was up for it this afternoon too - I'm not sure if I would've made it without company. It was a lot of fun though! The dyes are beautiful and it is so fun to melt all your wax off at the end and see all the colors emerge. Here are some pictures from the afternoon / night.

Bunnies and Eggs

2010-03-27T11:35:00.000-04:00

Pysanky eggs are Ukrainian Easter eggs, decorated intricately - the inside is blown out so they don't spoil. We made these in one of my art classes in high school and I wanted to make some this Easter, so I ordered a pysanky egg making kit. It should be here in time for Easter. If anyone wants to make one with me, please let me know. Anyway, they are beautiful and fun to make and the best part is you can keep them forever -

Other cool easter egg ideas - I think I'm going to blow out all of the eggs this year because I don't like the idea of creating something that goes bad....who knows what I'll do with them...that's the next thing I need to figure out.

crayons on warm egg

silk scarf egg

faberge eggs - the most expensive eggs in the world (as in millions)

oh my goodness...the largest bunny in the world...WHAT?!

Over the hill and through the woods to KENTUCKY

2010-03-20T20:35:00.001-04:00

the "Me" out of me

2010-03-08T15:46:00.000-05:00

If anyone still knows where this blog is, it will be a miracle. I know I tend to disappear from the scene for long periods of time, but that will probably just be part of my blogging life cycle. We've covered this before: I haven't found my "thing," anything to stick with. I enjoy picking things up, then letting them go. So it is with blogging.

Part of my problem has been pregnancy. Something about growing a human sucks some of the "me" out of me. If you've ever been sick enough to put you out of commission for awhile, you might know what I mean. There have been a few times in my life where I have been so sick that I just don't have the energy to leave the house...and definitely don't have the drive to do anything. Even in those moments, you can start to feel stir crazy - wanting to do something, but not able to muster up the drive to do anything. I have felt that way for the past few weeks. For awhile there, I did well to lie in bed and read...at least I was doing something. But I haven't even been doing that lately.

Today I didn't go to work because I woke up feeling pretty awful. In order to sleep last night, I took a full dose of phenergan, which I should never do. I might as well have a hangover the next day. Unfortunately, that meant more lying around. I never got up the gumption to do anything but watch 3 episodes of Mad Men before I fell asleep.

This is not meant to be a "Look at how lazy and sorry I am as a pregnant person" post, but to express my own wonder at the changes pregnancy can have on a person! Before, I really never sat down while I was home. In fact, I contemplated cancelling our DVR because we hardly ever even enter the TV room. Today, I found myself wanting to pick up the phone and order another one for the bedroom (what shame!).
I never did anything that ground breaking. I did drool over other clever blogger's creative use of their free time (who knew how crafty American moms were before they busted out into the blogosphere!), but I mostly just cleaned...and I enjoyed it. Not that you could really tell if you stopped by unannounced, but it took my full time away from work just to keep up. You can only imagine what our world looks like now.

Anyway, on the up side, the nausea IS fading. I have celebrated with a few meals (Hello Lobsterfest), but mostly I can't eat normally yet. I will eat two bites of a glorious steak and feel completely stuffed...I think it's just part of the haywire digestion of pregnancy. But I can feel it fading and I will be celebrating. I'm keeping fingers crossed that this blah and fatigue really does fade in the next few weeks as well. Maybe I can hang out with "me" for a little while longer before the real challenge sets in as D day comes closer. Until then, you probably won't see any new knitted baby sweaters or hand-carved baby furniture gracing my blog screen, but you just might see a few book reviews...or something.

And now...for some grammar. While I was writing this, I decided to settle my problem with "lay, lie, lain, lying" once and for all...only to re-visit why I have such problems. It is the most confusing of all of the grammar rules to me. Unfortunately, I can't just let it go - I notice when you use "there, their, they're" wrong and I notice when you don't use "me and I" correctly. After looking it up, I decided there is no choice but to look it up every time I want to use it right...At least I can remind you of the present tense use of the word:

Use "Lay" when you are speaking of an OBJECT that someone is going to DO something with
Lay the book down.
You need to lay the pencil on your paper.
Lay the baby down so you can eat.

Use "Lie" when you are speaking of a person putting themself in that position.
Mary is going to lie down.
You need to lie down.
The baby needs to lie down.

...generally speaking.

If you need to use it in another tense, look it up...ha!

About Ella, at 19 months

2010-02-20T11:34:00.000-05:00

*LOVES to draw...on her doodle boards, with crayons on paper, and now with her new "water pens"

*Counts to 7 (so cute!)

*Can tell you her name when asked (so cute!)

*LOVES her babies more than anything in the world

*Loves to sing the barney song and puckers up for "kiss from me to you" and gives big hugs for "with a great big hug"

*perfectly sings "e i e i o" at the right spots in "Old MacDonald"

*Obsessed with farms, farm animals, and Old MacDonald

*Learns tons of new words every day

*Loves green beans and noodles ("noonies")

*Still loves Baby Einstein movies

-There's tons more but those are the highlights for now!

Randomness

2010-02-17T09:51:00.001-05:00

Kevin and I were watching "Yo Gabba Gabba" with Ella the other day...a super weird, awesome kid's show on nick jr. If you have never watched it, please do. It is so weird...and really funny. Anyway, we're sitting there trying to guess which drug the writer was on when he wrote this music video where the world is smiling and floating all through the clouds...It's a song called "Love every living thing." It has random videos of people doing things and ferrets playing with cartoon hearts drawn all over the people, petting them. Suddenly, the video shows a clip of a firefighter washing a truck. On the front, the truck says "ORFD" and I say "What other department would that be?" At the same time, Kevin says, "That looks just like ---- from work!" Sure enough, it was a clip from Kevin's own workplace, of the truck he drives. He called the guy and confirmed it all. haha. We are so proud.

In other news, I am pregnant and reminded every minute of every day! With my expanding waistline (already!) despite a 12 pound weight loss this month, there is no doubting it. I often take two baths a day and I promise I never eat dinner in the bath...and dinner is never Wendys. Water makes me very sick, which is a problem really. I wake up at night with cotton mouth, forcing me to run to the water, which then has me running to the toilet. Other than the nausea and vomiting, I just have waves of overwhelming fatigue, where I can do nothing but sleep. Thank goodness I have a wonderful family that loves Ella Rose, because I would be an interesting mother right now if I didn't! They help make up for my current laziness. I don't have particular cravings right now...I just eat literally anything that sounds decent...even drive through trash...it is calories at least! I will get back to healthy when I can keep it in, I promise. Yes, I am happy to be pregnant. Never do I ever come close to thinking it isn't worth it, but it doesn't change the frustrations of trying to go on with normal life and responsibilities with the never-ending stomach flu! Here's to babies!!

Wordle

2010-02-13T11:46:00.001-05:00

My friend Jennifer never disappoints. She has led me to another fun website. Go to Wordle and you can create your own word clouds...or just type in your blog's web address and it willl come up with a cloud for you! Fun...here's mine!

Zofran ODT i tab by mouth q8-12h prn n/v

2010-02-07T18:56:00.000-05:00

My script for Zofran. That doesn't work. Neither does Phenergan unless passing out counts.
Worst thing yet = unisom sleep tabs. I've been out of commission all day since taking that thing.
We've reached the level of can't stand to watch people eat. Now after taking that unisom tab, I'm convinced it's used as a date rape drug. I really feel like I might fall over any second while writing this. Except my stomach being in my throat wakes me up in time to catch me.

I promise I'm not complaining...I'm glowing with joy...It's just a green glow.

Unfinished Business

2010-02-03T19:35:00.001-05:00

Here are the pictures Whitney suggested I post. I finally got around to it - I am working on my unfinished projects slowly! I forgot to mention my quilt is all hand sewn, which is why it takes a bit longer! (although I haven't worked on it in forever)

In case anyone feels inclined to help me, we are redecorating our room. We just changed our bedroom suite to a king set, got a new mattress and down comforter with white duvet cover. It's all very plain right now, which was the plan. I am going to make curtains and a throw plus some pillows that all match. Problem is, we really don't know what pattern we want. If you have any color/pattern or just ANY suggestions, let me know! I will show the finished result. We are keeping it traditional / classic, of course, as you can see by the furniture. I'd like the rest to flow with that.

Here's Ella in the snow...well kind of. She wouldn't step in it at all and this is the only smiling picture I caught of her!

Bun-ch #2 in the Oven

2010-02-02T17:22:00.000-05:00

Yes, we are 8 weeks pregnant, as confirmed by my midwife yesterday.

I wouldn't believe it until I saw that little flutter on the blurry screen...right through my belly! How is that in there?? I have felt quite nauseous and extremely tired lately, leaving not many doubts, however, it is difficult to match those feelings with the fact that a baby is growing right in your belly. We are fairly early still, but I see no reason to keep it a secret. Plus it feels like I've been pregnant for a year and I couldn't wait any longer.

Ella is 18 months old and will be 25 months when baby 2 is born. The due date is September 12, very close to many people's birthdays, including my dad and Kevin. I never dreamed I would be brave enough to have another baby this soon, but turns out time does erase many of the bad memories, replacing them with very happy memories with sweet babies (Ella). As soon as I got to the point where I felt the courage and small desire, even, to be pregnant again, I started getting myself ready to have another one. This all started in September, when I gave myself some booster vaccines and started prenatal vitamins. We didn't officially start trying to get pregnant until December, though. As you can see, first time was a charm! We feel very blessed for that. Yes, I did have my kidney stone blasted and took many pain meds at the VERY beginning of this pregnancy, but we have all figured that it was more than likely much too early to be worried at all.

I am totally aware that it is a blessing to be able to carry a child and go through pregnancy.
However, I do not particularly find joy in every moment. I have been very sick and very tired and can't really sleep. Not that I would exchange any of that! But just to vent.

Ella has her own potty and has pee peed in it twice now, so that's a great start to making things smoother in a few months =)

Hope to keep giving good news throughout the next

For the love of.....none of the above?

2010-01-25T20:02:00.000-05:00

I have been trying to find out what my "thing" is. I know my "thing" will PROBABLY have to do with creating / arts / crafts, but I keep trying all these things and I don't seem to ever fully finish any project. This leads me to believe I am not truly in love with anything yet. I have a 1/4 knitted scarf in a bag, an unfinished quilt in a bag (started when I was 8), a new dress I made for Ella hanging in the closet that she hasn't worn because I think it doesn't look right, and a few half-read books on my night stand. Seriously? BUT I actually DO love to read...I've just not been good at taking the time to sit long enough to read...working on that and I will follow up soon with a post about the book club last year and all the books we read...I DID finish all of them except WICKED, which I will finish soon and catch up.

Back to my main point: I keep thinking I "like" to make things. I really always have. BUT I don't seem to have one certain thing I can stick with in order to get better. I really hope I start to enjoy making clothes / sewing because I think it's just unlimited what you can do. I did buy 3 new patterns the other day and I'm not giving up on it!! I'll be making Ella some more clothes soon.

Here's to finding something I can come back to over and over again and LOVE! Any suggestions?

P.S. All those unfinished things will be finished this year!

New years eve 2010

2010-01-22T20:42:00.000-05:00

I know, a little late, but not tooo late to talk about (or...just show pictures of) our little new years eve party!

Jen's Blog

2010-01-16T23:23:00.002-05:00

A friend of mine has a super-cute crafty blog and she is currently doing a book give-a-way. You only have 40 minutes to enter, but hey....maybe someone will catch this in time!
Jen's Give-a-way

Bunch Fam Christmas

2010-01-13T17:07:00.000-05:00

On Dec. 27, we had Bunch Christmas at Kevin's aunt and uncles. It was a ton of fun with yummy warm food - Ella got a basketball goal, new baby doll with lots of buckles, buttons, and zippers, a baby doll bathtub and her first pocket knife! =) In fact, we all got really nice pocket knives. Thanks guys!

YEAR IN REVIEW - whew, 2009

2010-01-04T20:02:00.001-05:00

New Year's Eve at station house with grandparents, cousins, and aunts * My mom's birthday *Ella's first snow * My sister's senior recital in Nashville

Ella's first Valentine's Day * First trip to McKays *Swimming Lessons * Hanging out with Whitney and Nathan

Visit to see Whtiney perform again * First trip through car wash * First trip to downtown Chattanooga * Ella starts to pull up and cruise * Ella starts to wave * swimming in the big bathtub with her car float * Ella starts making scrunchy face

*First trip to the acquarium *First trip to granny and papa's in KY * Ella's garden is being formed * Mommy gets her first digital SLR camera * swimming at Teddie's pool begins * First time picking up and eating her own finger foods (Cheerios) *Jaime's baby shower

*Ella starts to show her love for ice and Mexican *starts sleeping well in her own crib *more playing at Teddie's *starts getting more daring *gets her first car track *swims in her little girl pool for first time at our house *starts to love the iphone *Ella's garden coming together more *Mommy has flowers for one week * Playing at first birthday party for granny and papa jones *Little sweet baby Jones is born! (somehow I missed that picture =( )

First 4th! with cousins at Teddies * shows her love for corn * loves to swing and play in the pool at naynays * trip to Delano community farm market * continues swimming in Teddie's pool * starts to love her babies

FIRST BIRTHDAY! *First tutu *Pond in Ella's garden finished * playhouse goes up in Ella's garden *we have students from Germany stay with us for one month/spend a weekend in Gatlinburg where Ella learns about football *Whitney visits again *Daddy finds Ella reading books *Bunch family continues to visit, but we finally get some pictures * Samantha's birthday * Whitney visits and gets wisdom teeth out; Ella copies her *Sarah's baby shower *Abby's housewarming

*We visit family in Atlanta and get beautiful pictures at a garden!

Kevin and I leave Ella for first time to go to Cancun * My sister gets married! *Ella starts to wink ;)

Cleveland apple festival * first BIG sucker * Finding Nemo on Ice *sitting in her chair at naynay and poppys * Ella finally gets dedicated *making friends with Isabella *paints her first pumpkin *I make my first baby Halloween costume (we are earth, wind, and fire) *Kevin & I go to the mountains

*Poppy dedicates the playground from PCL to Cleveland and Ella meets the chik-fil-a cow *First time putting the star on the tree / helping decorate * First mittens * First bath with a friend * Cousin Gabriel is born * First bath with a friend (cousin) *Ella gets her John Deer car / or is that Kevin gets a John Deer car?? * Granny and Papa pose with all the greats *First Thanksgiving at the Bunch house * First (and last) Thanksgiving at Holiday Inn (sorry people, I'm not for it!)

Where's December? Well, I'm still posting about all those events, of course. This has been the greatest full year of my life!!!

For kicks: here is how I ended 2009. Yes, that's me December 31 before my lithotripsy. It was all great fun, don't let the wires, hair net, and stylish robe throw you off a bit. I laid around, slept, took pills to make me feel good, and had people bring me sprites and crackers:

and the pictures of me from before in the ER are the morning right after my anniversary! (which I spend lying on a heating pad in bed complaining) woo hoo! But I must mention, I have the greatest husband I could ask for and we have a wonderful marriage. I can't be more thankful for my family and our anniversary was amazing - just watching movies in bed...at least I waited a few hours for our first trip as a couple to the ER.

2009-12-30T20:19:00.001-05:00

Well dr. Urologist & I decided today to blast this stone away tomorrow. He says I have a 50-50 chance of passing it on my own & can certainly wait & see if that happens. However, that means continuing percocet every 4 hours until that day comes... I am not in "able to be productive" mode whatsoever on these meds so that seemed impossible. So tomorrow I will be spending most of my last day of 2009 in ambulatory holding/OR/waiting rooms.

Here's the coolest part. Remember when I wrote "double the pleasure, double the fun?" I was referring to my two trips to the er. Little did I know I have two kidney stones. Yes folks, stone has a twin in my other kidney, who has not begun the move yet. Fun for me yet. I'll be sure to let you know what it's like to have a stone blasted apart in your kidney.

double the pleasure, double the fun

2009-12-30T11:43:00.001-05:00

Dear Stone,

I get it. You are big and strong. The big pain meds I gave you the past few days were NOT ENOUGH. You are invincible. You are incredible.

You need IVs and visits to the ER. There's no stoppin you, stone! Will you leave me alone? NO. You've not done your damage yet.

You were determined to make me post an ugly picture of myself at the ER. Because one visit was not enough to make me get a picture of myself. So there. You won.

Love,

Just a stone's throw away...

2009-12-28T16:56:00.000-05:00

from feeling ok.

This is the size of the stone in my kidney

A little tiny stone, getting really really busy

throwing parties in my ureters and scraping up my tissues

oh stone, you've caused much pain & I will not miss you

little tiny stone, you led to this

and this

but thank goodness for strong meds

and a soon to come, relieving piss bliss

Harper's Birthday / the Closing Ceremonies

2009-12-27T00:06:00.002-05:00

We decided today that Harper's birthday will probably be the "closing ceremonies" of the Christmas holidays from now on. Sooo since I got some adorable pictures of the adorable princess today, I thought I might as well give ya a post on the event.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-26T00:11:00.001-05:00

I'm done waiting for all these pictures to upload. We have been having quite a time keeping my grandma's internet "up to speed" here on the hill....where we all are for Christmas! But I just had to get in a Christmas post.

On Monday, Ella woke up with a snotty nose and a little cough. Throughout the day, my dad (who had her as his little sidekick all day) mentioned she might feel a little warm. Not much more happened that day, but Tuesday morning, my hsuband called me at work to say Ella was pitifully sick, felt hot, and was continuously crying for me. I was the only person at the office that day and there were lots of other sick kids to see, but I told him to bring her by right away. Blood work looked reassuring, for what its worth, but she was positive for the flu and both ears were blazing red once again. (every time I've looked in her ears the past few months, they've been infected. now...I have only looked in there when she's showing signs and I'm praying she doesn't have to get tubes like her daddy) That's when we had to start the round the clock Motrin to keep her temp under control and therefore her overall ability to function somewhat normally. That night, I got no sleep until about 5am, when for some reason, she decides to finally give in and rest. We rocked and walked...anything to keep her upright and ease the coughing fits somewhat. We breathed in our fair share of warm mists, but nothing seemed to quite help that cough except sitting up on my chest...FYI....there are no cough meds for young kids...theres not much in the way of easing cold/cough/flu symptoms save Motrin and Tylenol for pain and fever... This has continued until tonight. In fact last night (Christmas Eve) was the worst of all. As I said, we are in KY at my grandmas (a long, long tradition) with 18 people staying in the same house...no, not as crowded as you'd think believe it or not! Granny has one big house on the hill!

Ella became inconsolable around 3am this morning. I couldn't take the poor miserable moaning and crying anymore, so recruited my parents (husband already up helping!) to help. We all roamed the bottom floor debating on taking sweet pea to the ER. I just knew they wouldn't do much there, but questioned myself as I dreaded being the mom who thought she knew all that was going on only to miss something important. We did not go, thank goodness, because I do think (looking back) she was showing definite signs of the flu and didn't need any strong antibiotics or even breathing treatments, which probably would have been given at the ER...Fortunately, boogie woke up feeling much better, took a great nap and has been sleeping well so far tonight....and no fever today either!

It can be incredibly hard being a parent...stressful, time-consuming, definitely down-time-consuming, and all encompassing....but wonderful! I've never had a KY Christmas like this one. I'm not sure what I've done since I've been here. It seems like a blur. One thing is for sure....I haven't read any books, played any games, or completed any sort of craft...I am blogging now though! Thats something! I feel like we all need a BIG vacation now that Christmas is over.

Ella opening her kitchen on Christmas Eve morning. She is a natural cooker, cleaner, and mama. She loves her kitchen and her babies.

Ella waiting on her bath on Christmas Eve and our new cousin Gabriel in red velvet vest!

Joey the Elf has done his job and won't re-appear until next Christmas!

I have a more pictures to come!

Merry Christmas!

What's in my drawer?

2009-12-11T21:45:00.000-05:00

I was going to name this post, "What's in my drawers?" but I didn't want everyone deleting me off their radars in fear.
Haven't you ALWAYS wondered what's in my night stand? I know! That's why I'm ever so generously giving you a tour.

Baby saline nose drops (the best item to have for little noses during big colds)

Lavender scented baby lotion. I love lavender. One "natural" remedy I totally believe in (relaxes).

Aveeno baby diaper cream. On Ella's booty every night...and usually during the day. Very thick and creamy, doesn't budge, and super moisturizing.

My book light. Like the one Oprah had on her favorite things that shoots light across the page. (It lies (lays?) over the page)

What to Expect: the Toddler Years. The best comprehensive, general info book on babies and toddlers. Answers every question every month...and yes, I'm up to date and am still reading it monthly. And no, I don't know all the answers since I'm a PNP. We didn't learn MUCH parenting.

"Hearos." Ear plugs with the highest decibel rating I could find. Just in case. (These are always with me when I travel...and I almost always use them when I travel.)

My super cute rainbow pill bottle. I take (currently) 2400 IUs of Vit D / day (yes, higher than what they tell you...but not too high, trust me), Omega 3-6-9s, and a multivitamin every day.

I get my prescriptions at Target. Because they have these awesome color bands that go around your prescriptions and you get to pick out your color when you sign up. But really. I just think the bottles are cute. No. Really. I go there because I'm always at Target, so why not get my medicine there too? Plus, they have lots of flavors for the kiddos' meds and a neat, easy method of helping you give the kids' meds...where the syringe sticks in the top, you turn over the bottle and simply pull out your desired amount....anyway, I go to Target a lot.

My favorite brush for fluffing up the princess' hair...can you tell the bath is right next to my night stand?

A perfect little pouch for my rings.

Pens. Plus a pen light. For bedtime "my throat hurts" and what's that in my tooth? and "whats that in Ella's mouth" issues.

These thing a ma doodles are for wedging onto your door so little fingers don't get smashed. They are kept in my night stand, which makes them useless thing a ma doddles.

Head phones. Because sometimes Kevin doesn't care to hear my podcast about the differential diagnosis of respiratory distress in the newborn.

bulb suction. for boogies. to prevent respiratory distress in the...toddler.

A ton of rainbow colored hair elastics. The most delightful little bands that hold silky princess hair in place, but somehow do not pull that hair when removed. How satisfying.

Because ever since I got pregnant I'm scared to part with them....

iPhone dock. Because it won't fit on it with my cover on...disappointment..I love this little dock. Turns my iPhone into a super device when its sitting upright on my night stand.

DVD remote. Because we watch baby Einstein every night. (one in each of our 6 disc changers). and at times, I don't want to walk over to the tv to navigate the movie.

BONUS: But what's on TOP of my night stand you ask?

Thread, the book Wicked. Yes, book club. I'm just now finishing October's book. Baby monitor (green light ON! Woo Hoo. That means no crying currently.) AND a bunch of papers instructing me on several different craft projects in my near future.

Didn't think ya cared, did ya?

But look who's here at the end of the journey into my drawer!

Red & Green Handed + Crafty Christmas

2009-12-10T00:05:00.001-05:00

I've been crafty lately...and no I don't mean mischieviously clever. Just crafty.

In case you need some inspiration to get crafty, here are my recent projects...and some links to some much more amazingly crafty sites. You're welcome!

Ella's new little Boogie puppy made from two gloves without matches.

An idea to use those cards you have stashed away in a drawer or closet: Cut out initials of the person the present is to and stick on the gift instead of a gift tag.. (I did these in 5 seconds...they could be gorgeous though!....Ella ripped off the prettiest ones that actually matched the presents...how did she know?)

These are my spin on snow globes...without snow or globes...but still, you're putting things inside glass just for looks...you get the idea!

And you must have some red and green abstract-y toes in the mix.

My new favorite site: ashleyann under the sycamore

and another, with some cute crafts! calico.

Enjoy!

Bauqujouce

2009-12-05T08:53:00.000-05:00

The title of this post is the way I spell the way Ella says "apples," which also currently means "oranges."

She is obsessed with them.

Obsessed.

with

apples.

Problem is, we are currently out of them. She has eaten two bags of "cuties," those little tangerine, orange, whatever they are thingies.

Other problem is, she doesn't exactly eat them. She sucks the juice out and then spits it out.

So, she is grabbing my Christmas pajama pants, tugging, and asking "Bauqujouce. Bauqujouce. Bauqujouce." While looking out the window at this:

Thanksgiving Part II

2009-12-02T00:11:00.003-05:00

Go to my cousin's post for more on Thanksgiving Part II.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T23:01:00.000-05:00

This year, Kevin and I hosted a full fledged Thanksgiving dinner at our house on Thanksgiving Eve. It was my parents and grandparents and Kevin's family (plus Basti!).
We woke up early and started the preparation: Kevin's AMAZING fried Cajun turkey, deviled eggs, sweet potato casserole, green beans, home made bread, creamed corn, stuffing, sweet tea, and desserts made by Kevin's grandmother. It was delicious!! I'm amazed I have no pictures of the food! Oh well. We have our memories, right? Of course, the Jones gang continued to hang out past our Thanksgiving day festivities and the other pictures are of our other dessert "party" at our house. It has been wonderful having everyone over.
Oh and Harper and Ella have become good friends / accomplices. I will often stumble upon one of their "conversations." Although I like to pretend they are being mischievous, I think deep down they are both as sweet as can be. Unfortunately, due to memory card swapping, I don't have the majority of the pictures with me right now...those are sure to come soon!

This picture absolutely cracks me up. Its an "out take" from our great grandchildren photo shoot.

Christmas Time is Here...ready or not!

2009-11-22T11:34:00.000-05:00

We have officially decorated for Christmas. Ella was pretty into it, carrying the bells that go on the tree all around the house and being "gentle" with the ornaments. She gently taps them all to see what they will do. She has also already ripped down all the little stuffed snowmen I had tacked onto our front table. Oh well. They were pretty cute. Here she is (above) putting the famous final touch on the tree. I cannot believe this is already the second Christmas with her! She is going to LOVE it!!

Ella just had to get on the shelf with all the decorations at Wal-Mart. Thats her looking at the fish too...one of her favorite words right now.

Time for another...UPDATE

2009-11-15T22:38:00.001-05:00

This picture, in honor of my egotistical idea that you CARE about my measly life UPDATES!

* The idea to return to med school is looking bleak...I think I have decided to go another route, which may include one of the following: getting a masters and phd in public health; getting a phd in microbiology/immunology; OR phd in nursing...we shall see. So you know, my interest is in infectious disease...thus my possible future education and work.

*We have effectively CLEARED out / organized our closet, bathroom, GARAGE, TV room closets, AND JUNK DRAWER!! Woo Hoo...I will admit cleaning / organizing is my drug and therapy right now. I can't get enough. I "nest" anytime I am NOT pregnant apparently.

*I have been reading some more interesting articles about h1n1 flu. Including that many of the deaths have NOT been related to bacterial infections coming on after the flu infection, but from the enormous damage the flu virus is doing all by itself...scary stuff.

*Ella has a cough and I HATE coughs. Besides the fact that there isn't much you can do to help a coughing baby, they just freak me out when it's my little booger coughing...yes, I already took her in to the office and everything looks just great, but still...I HATE COUGHS!

*I have noticed that the sandwich maker people at Subway a lot of times get attitudes with you when you pause between the ingredients you want on your sandwich. I think they want to impress us with their ability to remember them all. It is an art to space your list of words correctly there, isn't it?

*Kevin and I went jogging tonight in part because I have toyed around with the idea of running the Nashville 1/2 marathon. This is despite the fact that I hate running, don't know if I agree with the idea of banging my joints around that much, and despite the fact that I have no idea when I will train for this...oh AND that my hips have been "popping" in and out of socket (or...something like that) since I was a cheerleader in 6th grade and have been getting worse...I will be walking and then...bang...I can't walk for a minute or two...anybody know a good orthopedist? Anyway, working out again felt good.

*There are so many thoughts that go through my head every day and I think "I should write a post on this." Of Course, I never do. That has caused me to think about Twitter...but I don't know if all those thoughts were meant to go public. That has caused me to not think of Twitter. We shall see.

Anyway, that's the end of my random update.

And, as my friend Jaime said in one of her post's (which I believe she was quoting from another post...), no blog is complete without a picture!

Sugar, Spice, and everything...sticky

2009-11-14T23:23:00.013-05:00

Playgrounds

2009-11-12T01:09:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday, Ella and I went to the ribbon cutting for the new playground, built in part by People for Care and Learning, down on the green way. The Chik-fil-A cow was there and Ella was not thrilled at first, but soon warmed up to him, mooing at him and even petting his head. The following pictures were taken before she was friends with him.

Fletcher helping Ella up the stairs

Uncy Justin decided to take Ella down the slide....What he did not know was the slide is super fast and slippery, shooting him and Ella out on their bums.

Then, to celebrate the beautiful day, we continued to play on nana and papi's playground. She bravely learned to go down the slide all by herself. I showed her how to climb up the little ladder, and she did very well, with only a very little help from mama.

Then, she got brave and decided to go down the bigger slide all by herself. I decided to let her experiment and she did, with a little added flip at the bottom...nothing a lot of cheering didn't help.

She had to sit in the wagon like this:

The table is better known as the jungle gym.

Whew...I'm tired after all that playin!

I'm Back

2009-11-08T00:42:00.003-05:00

Yes, people. After trying for long enough to use iWeb, which came with my new Mac, I am oh so happily back with blogger. iWeb is super frustrating, very limiting, and most importantly difficult to keep up with - I have heard from many of you that it is hard to remember to read it if you use your dashboard to keep up with people. PLUS, most of my posts were not showing up correctly. BOO on you apple! You did NOT get this one right.

Ella Boo and the Swine Flu

2009-10-12T12:00:00.000-04:00

Ella is starting to really talk. It seems like I just noticed it today when she said “A doo doo dah juice.” Meaning, “I would like to hold the juice, please.” She was really trying to make a sentence, though. And as we drove off, she was saying “Hiiiii. Byyyye.” sooo clearly, in a different, bigger-girl voice. Something was just more grown up about her today...and yes, it happened that quick. Overnight. She has been having a difficult time sleeping the last few weeks. I’ve been attributing that to her new walking skills, as I’ve been told several times to expect sleep problems around this time. Apparently, as they are on the brink of independence, they want to practice every minute of the day and night. Hence, why she woke me up at 5 am grabbing my finger with all her strength (which means, “Let’s walk...NOW.” This morning, we woke up at 6 am, not too bad, except I woke up sick. Anyway, as I laid her in the bed next to me due to my extreme fatigue, I couldn’t quit coughing. Every time I would cough, her little hand would reach over and rub my arm. It was truly the sweetest thing ever. That should just be the theme for the last few weeks...sweetness. Even in the midst of the dawning “terrible twos,” which actually truly begins when they start to walk. She can be a drama queen, flailing herself on the ground with a scream when you take your finger away from her, encouraging her to walk on her own. She also likes to smirk at you when you tell her “no” in your most serious tone you can build up. Oh well, one day hopefully she will catch on.

She is a very verbal little girl. She can say several words and understands just about everything you say. She’s definitely following simple commands and is soooo much fun. Of course, it helps that she will now give kisses and hugs too.

Back to me being sick. It reminds of the ubiquitous H1N1 flu going around right now. We have seen a ton of cases in the office this month, so I decided to write a little something about it. I think there is a lot of misinformation and a lot of confusing things about this flu pandemic issue. So here’s my two cents. Maybe it will give you some new info, too.

So, influenza is a virus. Humans have DNA in all of our cells to tell them what to do. The flu virus has RNA which tells it what to do. This RNA code more or less tells the flu virus what “keys” to display in order to unlock doors into our body’s cells. If one of the individual units in the RNA code changes, the key on the flu virus changes a little. This is why we need a new vaccine every year. Scientists project into the future, guessing which flu virus will be predominant in the next season and they put these strains into the vaccine for that year. Sometimes they get the right ones, sometimes they miss them, which is why the vaccine works sometimes or doesn’t work. Even though it changes every year, it is still usually close enough to previous strains that our bodies are a little prepared for them and can fight it off fairly successfully. Every now and then the “keys” change so much that our bodies are caught “off guard” and this can lead to more deaths and more serious illness than normal.

So what’s with “avian” and “swine”? Well, the flu infects these animals also. In other words, the keys on the flu viruses fit the locks on their respiratory cells also. In fact, many more flu viruses enter their bodies than ours. However, you can’t always see signs of illness in these animals. Every now and then, a flu virus gets into a bird or pig body with another flu virus and they exchange information, creating a new baby virus. If it happens to be a virus that can enter the human body, we get a new flu strain.

Thus, the recent Avian Flu (H5N1) was a strain created from birds, eventually obtaining properties that allowed it to enter into humans. Fortunately, it never obtained properties to allow easy transfer between humans, although when it did infect, it was deadly.

So what about H1N1, swine flu? The scary thing about swine is they have the SAME type of airway receptors as us. Birds do not, which is why it is a little harder for birds to “incubate” a new virus that will be transferable among humans. However, when a new virus from a bird enters a pig and other viruses in the pig combine with those, a brand new flu virus with keys that can fit HUMAN locks is created. IF this virus were to have the properties like the avian flu (deadly) combined with properties from swine flu (very contagious to humans), then THAT could be BAD. Has anyone seen the movie Outbreak? The Spanish Flu of 1918 - 1919 was like this. It killed 50 million people around the world...500,000 in the U.S. The “regular” seasonal flu (with only minor “key” changes) kills approximately 36,000 / year in the U.S., for a comparison.

Although the swine flu has proven to be very contagious (thus, 15-20+ positive flu A’s in our office every day for the past month), it has so far not proven to be VERY deadly. Although, 18 children have died already in the U.S...which is plenty. We are NOT out of danger, though. At any time, a new Spanish flu pandemic could emerge OR the swine flu could undergo minor changes to make it more deadly. In fact, the Spanish flu began much like the swine flu. Contagious, but not too deadly. However, a few months later, it re-emerged deadly.

But it’s not ALL depressing. Although this is likely to happen again, we can learn from the past. Certain U.S. cities decreased deaths to less than half the rate of other cities due only to quarantines...Banned church meetings, school, any meetings at all, and blocked roads into town. The cities that did not do this at all had the highest death rates. Also, they did not have a vaccine...we are LUCKY.

Anyway, hopefully this can help you see why it is important to get your vaccine while it’s readily available...just in case. You are not getting the shot primarily to protect you from enduring the discomforts of the flu, but to prevent the more serious problems that may occur and lead to hospitalization and death. Perhaps most importantly, you are getting the shot to prevent yourself from spreading the virus to those at highest risk: elderly and the very young / sick. Their immune systems may not be strong enough to respond to the vaccine adequately or they may be too sick or too young to get the vaccine in the first place. (You have to be over 6 months old). AND new strains of the flu, like swine and avian flu, tend to target the young and strong (those in their 20s-50s included) rather than older people. It’s speculated that this is because older people have had a longer time to come in contact with several different types of flu viruses, giving them more varied protection.

Ok, I hope you are not too bored or freaked out now. I just thought it would be helpful to know a little more about this since it is a “hot topic” right now. Forgive me if you already know all this, but I have noticed that people are not terribly informed as I have been in conversations lately.

After all, who sits around reading about this stuff anyway? Not me!

Independent can be Messy

2009-10-06T12:00:00.000-04:00

Ella won’t eat unless she feeds herself. That leads to quite a large clean up job after every meal, but it’s worth it.

Ella’s words: thank you, love you, walk, spider, turtle, puppy, papa, nana, papawwww, granny, whitney, justin, poo poo, bath, water, flower, bite bite....of course I’m sure I’m missing some, but theres are just the newest and some of the old I can think of right now

She has begun mocking us. She will wag her little finger and say “No No No.” Then laugh.

We’re getting tastes of the terrible almost twos. Ella will come up to you and sneakily grab your finger in her little tight grip, meaning she needs you to walk around with her...now. If you don’t go, she will fall flat on her butt and scream and shake her head, a temper tantrum, in fact.

I have been running my butt off at work because the flu is everywhere. No, we are not testing for swine flu, but the type that most people have right now COULD be the swine flu. In fact, we are assuming that is all we are seeing right now. It is very contagious and shows up in very different ways. We have seen people without fever, people with lots of GI symptoms (vomiting / diarrhea), people who look sick, people who look well, infants, teenagers, school agers. So far, no one has been hospitalized from our practice, but all of this really just started last month. I am hoping we don’t start seeing kids returning due to secondary complications. I am not expecting that though! I do recommend the regular seasonal flu vaccine in addition to the pandemic flu vaccine. I think it’s worth noting, although we are not seeing serious cases here now, it IS always possible for this different strain of flu to change a little more or become “stronger” and cause some more serious effects. I say this not to be negative or speak doomsday, but to explain the continuing worries. Only time will tell. There’s a lot no one understands.

My dad and my husband finished our back yard. We have a beautiful stone patio / stone steps, grass, and planters with roses...It’s beautiful! They basically did it all in 2 days! I don’t have a picture right now, but it will have to be posted soon!

* I also cleaned up the sun room and put Ella’s new little table (donated from Rachel) by the window.

Where have I been?

2009-09-21T12:00:00.000-04:00

Swingin'

Playin'

Winkin'Eatin'

Drinkin'

And takin’ a break from bloggin’. Ella is walking!! She started taking true steps at the beginning of this month while we were in Cancun. She is now walking from room to room, with encouragement. She still prefers to crawl, but gets excited when we’re excited about her amazing walking abilities! She continues to be the sweetest ever. She says “thank you” to everyone...waiters, salespeople...It sounds more like “tank tyou” and it’s adorable. So, with that, tank tyou everybody!!

Ella is one, continued

2009-08-28T12:00:00.000-04:00

So, click here for the rest of Ella's beautiful first birthday pictures. She has been changing so much and becoming SUCH a big girl! She is also quite the comedian. Yesterday when my parents brought her home after playing in her back yard, she smiled and shook her head "no" at me when I reached for her (never before done!)...only to laugh at me hysterically when I frowned! Oh boy, do we have our hands full!

Sarah's Baby Shower

2009-08-22T12:00:00.000-04:00

Today, we got to celebrate the soon-coming of my cousin Sarah’s baby boy. I don’t know how they are going to spell his name and if they want it published to the world, so he will remain nameless in blog world today. Anyway, I took some pictures and thought I would share them. An Ella update is in order as well, but that will be a separate post! So....stay posted!

Click here to see the pictures!

Remembering Bill Elliot

2009-08-10T12:00:00.000-04:00

My husband lost a close friend and mentor this past week. He spent the most time with Bill than anyone else at work and aspired to learn to do his job the way Bill did his. Bill drove Kevin’s engine and Kevin had just told him last week that if he could teach him to be as good a driver and pump operator as he was, he would be happy. He also just shared a video of Bill playing with his fancy remote control car with me last week. Kevin had been talking to me on the phone as they were all outside watching Bill and his car. In his first months on the job, Kevin would tell me there was only one person he liked at work: Bill, the only guy he thought was being nice to him. Little did he know, Bill just couldn’t stop smiling.

The first and only time I met him, he was washing the engine with a toothbrush. I’m serious. I never forgot him. He had a beautiful smile and blue eyes. He was 41 with 3 children and they will be well looked after by station 3 and all the other OR firefighters. Please pray for their family. No one ever expected to lose such an amazing person so early and so tragically. Thankfully, the funeral was beautiful and honorable, just as it should be. Kevin had the honor to stand guard by Bill’s body at the start of the service. He was very grateful to do so. Bill, we are happy you are home and we hope you are flying much bigger helicopters and driving much faster remote control cars.

2009-08-03T12:00:00.000-04:00

My sweet pea is a whole year old. It’s hard to believe. It’s wonderful, but bittersweet. I almost cry when I think about weaning her from her bottle. Her birthday was wonderful in every way, mostly because it involved her. Everything in our lives has changed this past year and I can’t think of anything better to celebrate than our blessings over this year. How lucky we are to have such a healthy, happy, perfect baby girl...becoming a big girl. I just wanted to make mention of the day. I am going to post many more pictures when I get all of them together. Thanks to everyone for helping make it such a special day.

2009-07-28T12:00:00.000-04:00

A couple of weekends ago, we headed to the Delano Community farm market in Polk County, TN with Jason, Jaime, Henry, Ben & Cassie. It was a charming Mennonite community with a simple building housing colorful fruits and veges for sale at awesome prices. We loaded up on veges + some canned salsa and banana bread. It was a wonderful trip - we hope to go back soon. Read an article about the market here.

The Curious Case of the Missing Alphabet

2009-07-27T12:00:00.001-04:00

Ella has an adorable way of analyzing and learning about new objects, whether it be clothes hangers, sample packs of butt paste, or one of her bows. She takes the new, unfamiliar object to her pre-determined places to see how it behaves in different situations. She will take the objects to the floor vents to see if they fit in them, she’ll see if the object will stick to the wall, and she will put them in the magazine rack. Recently, she has done some exploring with the alphabet magnets on the refrigerator. This is what we found: (Picture 2 is of Kevin’s bag when he opened it at work)

The Entertainer - July 24, 2009

2009-07-24T22:30:00.010-04:00

I have really been anxious to update everyone. After I got my new computer and a new iPhone, I have been busy organizing, learning, loading videos, working on other projects, and backing everything up properly (finally). So, now I feel sufficiently organized and able to clearly write an update.

Ella is moving from helpless baby to exceedingly independent friend / entertainer. Some of her new words include: papa, mimi, uh-oh, flower, bath, baba, water, yay!, and "more". These are added to her already-learned words: mama, dada, nana, duck. She is rambunctious and brave. Her favorite thing to do in her nana and papi's awesome back yard is to climb in and out of things: table, wagon, pool....in...out...in....out. She is also regularly waving wildly and saying a perfectly pronounced "Bye Bye!!!" any time you leave the room, babbling and talking with her hands, and blowing many sweet kisses. She will also make the kissy noise when you ask for a kiss, but no way will she willingly pucker up for you. We have been having loads of fun, to say the least. My pregnancy was very difficult at the end, but this makes it all worth it. She is the most precious, funny, adorable thing in our lives and we cannot wait to celebrate this blessed, healthy first year.

Ella's Colors

Ella's Corn

Ella's Curls

Macbook Pro MADNESS

2009-07-13T21:56:00.004-04:00

My brand spankin new macbook pro is here, ladies and gentlemen.

July 13, 2009

6:00 pm

12.78"

4.5 lbs.

It's Independence Day!

2009-07-09T15:05:00.010-04:00

Whew...I am sorry to leave you with the blahs for so long! I decided to try and wait for my NEW COMPUTER (yay!) to edit / post the 4th pictures, but I can't wait anymore...I LOVE the fourth of July. Fireworks, family, pool, sun, good food, thankfulness and cheerfulness, the Usa, good ole country songs to celebrate...I just love it. So here is my tribute to it:

The Blahs

2009-07-02T14:54:00.002-04:00

Today is a

Blah

day

Full of sluggishness and sloppiness...

and everything stinks

my eyes want to shut

my mouth wants to sigh

my legs want to say goodbye

and head to the sheets

my head wants to stay

under the pillows

some days are just sorry...blah...days

Savannah, Part 2: The Historic District

2009-06-24T22:11:00.008-04:00

General James Oglethorpe arrived on the banks of the Savannah River in 1733, with 120 other colonists, to found America's 13th colony and first planned city. He quickly made peace with the Native Americans in the area, avoiding the conflict so many other colonies faced. This new land, inhabited by debtors brought over to begin a new life in America, also did not tolerate slavery...until it became clear that cotton plantations meant lots of money and the legalization of slavery might be convenient. In 1864, General Sherman marched through Savannah at the end of his "march to the sea." Instead of burning it to the ground , he decided it was much too beautiful and instead "gave" it as a Christmas present to Abraham Lincoln.

Savannah is known as the most haunted city in the United States. To celebrate this, we went on a late night ghost tour in the back of a hearse. It was very interesting and entertaining, to say the least. Unfortunately, I don't have that picture available...Just trust me, it 's funny.
The show "Ghost Hunters" has a famous episode inside one of the houses here in Savannah and I have personally seen one episode detailing the haunted hotel that sits on the river there...they have many guests leave in the middle of the night.

Furthermore...Savannah has been a site in over 70 movies, including Forrest Gump and Midnite in the Garden of Good and Evil. These few facts are just a taste of the interesting, beautiful city of Savannah because that is all we got last weekend! I look forward to re-visiting and exploring the history in more detail.
Where the Forrest Gump bench was - the actual bench is in a museum there.

The house on Ghost Hunters

The Savannah trees
The steeple where the feather started on Forrest Gump

Eating at Paula Deene's
Eating at Uncle Bubba's

Ella and her Pops

Sam and Ella

Savannah, Part 1: Tybee Island

2009-06-22T22:42:00.002-04:00

We got extremely lucky this past weekend and were able to join Kevin's dad, stepmom and family on vacation to Savannah, Georgia. It was a last minute decision, and involved more than a little courage from me, considering I was on call the entire time and could have been called back to see a newborn or hospital patient at any time. I didn't even want to go because of that possibility, but Kevin made the decision that we were taking the chance...Am I glad he did! I did not get a single unexpected call and from Thursday until Sunday night, we spent time with family in beautiful Savannah. After taking a quick drive around Thursday night, we crashed and woke up Friday to head to the beach! Ella's very first trip!! Interestingly, we were stopped in traffic for about an hour...at the same red light...moving inches. There was a wreck on a narrow bridge on the main road to the beach, with no detours. We waited it out, and finally re-started on our final destination. Savannah looks like this:

We stayed in the Midtown area, near the historic / downtown district and drove to the beach (Tybee Island). So you drive about 30-45 minutes to the beach and hang out all day. We settled in at the very end of the beach as you see it below, past the pier : The beach was wonderful. It is a strip with charming bright porch-wrapped cottages with hammocks overlooking the ocean. There is only one resort on the beach and I honestly don't remember seeing it - this keeps the feel more laid-back and open. There were sections that were quite crowded, especially in an area where a Miley Cyrus movie was being filmed while we were there, but it was easy to find pretty secluded spots. The water was bath-water perfect and I did not see any ocean animals, save a few fish, one starfish, and some crabs, thanks to Carla (The adventurous 10 year old cousin to Darlene, Kevin's step mom).

Ella, of course, LOVED the ocean and the sand. She crawled as fast as she could everywhere, including all through the shallow water near our "camp." Unfortunately, the sun was brutal. It stayed around 100-110 both days we visited the beach, making it necessary for Ella to stay in her pack n play, under umbrella, where she could feel the breeze but not the sun...at least not the DIRECT sun.
She was actually a very good sport, wielding her shovels and buckets sand-less.
Yes, she had a cute bikini, but if you were there, you would understand why fashion was no longer priority.

I, also, stayed mostly under cover and STILL got some pink on my shoulders. All in all, it was a great first trip to the beach.
The second day we got organized and made a pit stop at Wal-Mart to buy a big tent and some chairs. The tent was worth every penny, as the next day turned out to be even hotter. Ella and I ditched everyone else a little early to cool off in the car, only to find they all decided to follow us soon after.
Justin, sister Samantha, and Kevin - excited to be there =)

This is definitely a beach I will visit again soon. It is only a 6 hour drive (more than tolerable) and is laid-back, charming, peaceful and most importantly, has the backdrop of a historic city steeped in legend, mystery, beauty and even more charm. But that's the stuff of Part 2.

Summer is Fun

2009-06-15T15:27:00.003-04:00

Sleeping in my crib. See - told you! See this Post !

Lightning

2009-06-14T22:08:00.005-04:00

Tonight reminds me
of a hill
blue grass
bugs that fly
lights on their tail, leaving a trail
like the musk of children
wrapped around summer

and a girl who learned
even back-lighted bugs
need holes in the jar
...to breathe

My Flowers

Sleepin and Swimmin

2009-06-11T23:15:00.002-04:00

Since Ella was about 4 months old, I gave in to the guilt induced by her cries and Dr. Sears' baby book and brought her into bed with me...also partly to get some rest as I had returned to work, but was still nursing throughout the night. Fast forward to 2 days ago, and I am still sleeping with Ella...however, it has moved from me and Ella in the guest bed to me and Ella on an extra queen-sized mattress in the floor of the master bedroom next to my real bed with my husband in it - He has never been in favor of the co-sleeping option because he is a deep sleeper and feels uncomfortable with baby Ella so close. I have been getting very restless sleep for 10 months now...well, we'll go ahead and say 1 1/2 years, if you count pregnancy. Gone are the days of waking up after what seems like 1 min. of sleep - I have several wakenings to remind me how long the night can be - and yet, in the morning, how short...

Last night, I hit my breaking point. I know many of you thought it would never happen. I had heard from more than one parent how to solve my problem. I had even heard the remedy from more than one book, but I couldn't shake the advice of Dr Sears...he says your baby only knows how to communicate with you through crying, and when they cry, they need you, and you should never deny that need. To do so is cruel. Well, cruel can also mean an overly tired mama who is so sick of screaming and crying and flailing that her nurturing instinct is going extinct. I blame Dr. Sears for reinforcing my fears of neglecting my poor scared, hurting, wanting-for-love baby. Not that I particularly look up to him...I just happened to buy his book and read the small section on co-sleeping...and it just happened to reinforce my own fears.

Ella is now 10 months old. She understands cause and effect well. She knows the power of her actions. Thus, she plays peek-a-boo over and over, not knowing exactly why it is funny. She thinks we think when a person puts their hands in the area of the forehead it is absolutely incredible...so she repeats. Same with her pitiful crying at night. With several moments of wakefulness throughout the night, she doesn't know what else to do but cry out. And until now, I have responded with picking her up and bringing her to my bed.

Last night, I let her cry. WE let her cry. We brought her to her crib, said good night, and shut the door. For 1 hour, she screamed. Hard enough to prompt my husband to ask if it was medically dangerous to let her scream so loud. Finally, silence. After much debating over whether I should, after all, go in and get her...whether I'm scarring her for life...silence. I creeped in her room and there she was, slumped between the crib bumper and rails, asleep sitting up. A sad, sad sight. I moved her comfortably to the middle of her crib, and there she slept the rest of the night, with a few scattered (some longer) crying sessions. This morning, I had to wake her by actually picking her up.

Today for her nap, I placed her in the crib at 1 and left. Less than 5 minutes later, silence. Tonight I read her a story, sang her a song, kissed her, gave her her dolly, and said I love you. I shut the door and 20 seconds later...silence. I tip toed in to see a baby lying in bed playing with her doll, eyes heavy and ready for sleep. She has been in bed since then and cried out once or twice.

Am I happy? Extremely. Is this less stressful? Oh yes. Do I feel like a bad mom? No. I feel good because she is getting rest. Do I miss her? absolutely.

Is this what it feels like when you send your kids to college?

Earlier today she swam in her very own pool for the first time:

Get ready for some pictures...

2009-06-07T19:45:00.010-04:00

I got a new camera for my birthday. I've been a little excited. I haven't taken pictures (except the quick point and shoot kind) in a few years. Sooo...here are some pictures of our already very fun summer...some at Granny Taylor's birthday cookout - of course, many at Teddie's pool, especially since we all just celebrated my grandparents' birthdays there!! I opted for pictures of the kiddos and edited out all the group shots / corn hole action / pool action , in case you're wondering. But yes, there were a lot more people there that I did not find quite as cute as these guys:

A new corner to be explored and destroyed.

Wheres Ella?
What's peek-a-boo if you don't peek?
Playing "I'm gonna get you"
Mama's little dinosaur stops for a snack
Elvis makes an appearance at granny Taylor's birthday party:Teddie's pool:

Ella's bright booty and leg warmers

Ella taking a nap:

\

My handsome husband:
My favorite picture of all:

Whitney's Graduation and other catch-ups

2009-05-30T11:01:00.006-04:00

A few weeks ago we traveled to Nashville for Whitney and Nathan's graduation from Belmont. Here are some pictures from that day!

Ella dreaming on the way to Nashville
Walking around before graduation

Waiting on Whitney and Nathan to walk across the stage

Ella playing with the pots and pans
Hanging out with Nana in the tv room.
Ella's first cheerios
She can get mad!!
Favorite time

Over the hill and through the woods...

2009-05-26T22:09:00.005-04:00

to papa and granny's house we go for memorial day weekend!

First, we got acquainted with the beautiful garden. Ella looooved playing in the grass.

See the grass I'm about to put in my mouth?

One of the very best parts of the Corbin hill is seeing papa Jones.

Ella looooved playing with granny Jones

and of course Ella and Papi had a lot of fun....this might have been during my four hour nap at lunch time...to dinner time...

Granny Jones gave me some pots to play with in the floor

I definitely needed a nap after that long day playing...my papi knows how to nap anywhere!

and night time is so much fun when you're hangin out with the fam...

Asking Ella house decor advice

And right down the road, we visited Uncle Mike and Aunt Kim's pool...Ella was sooo excited to swim!!

...and very excited to bundle up with Papi!

Nana and Ella enjoyed eating granny's biscuits. One of the worst things about granny visits for me is always missing the home-cooked sausage biscuits. See...I've always had a problem waking up in the morning. When I was little at my grannys, I wouldn't wake up for anything except Christmas morning. Even now, when I get up at a normal hour regularly, I STILL missed fresh breakfast due to the fact that Papi and Nana took Ella in the morning so I could sleep in!! I'll never make it for hot biscuits!!

VROOOOM VROOOM - her favorite noise right now.

Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to granny and papa and go back to our regular lives. Boo.

To the Aquarium!!

2009-05-20T19:16:00.007-04:00

On Tuesday, I had a doctor's appointment in Chattanooga and since Kevin was off, he and Ella came along. While there, we made a quick decision to go to the aquarium downtown. First of all, we found a perfect spot on a patio down at the brewery right in front of our parking space...sooo we got to leave Ella in the car asleep with all the windows down RIGHT next to us...and had a peaceful lunch while she got to have her nap. It was one of those moments that does not often happen. After feeding the meter a few more times, changing a diaper (yes in the back of the explorer, in front of the other lunchers...I tried to be discreet), loading my purse/diaper bag from the bigger diaper bag, loading the stroller, and ensuring the camera was readily accessible, we finally made our way to see the fish. I had to suppress my great anxiety and nausea at entering a building full of my arch enemies: underwater creatures. I am incredibly freaked out by them. Number 1 is the whale, however, I have recently learned to hate the more dangerous shark as well. Most anything under water gives me a chill. I grit my teeth and made it though for the sake of all...and I'll admit, I had a lot of fun (there are no whales there).

Just looking at the stingrays!
Looking up at the fishies above!

OOOOO AHHHH
Yikes! Sharks so close! Mommy had to look away!

Look at the penguins!

Penguins were def. our favorite part.

Butterfly garden is second favorite.

We had to get a souvenir - she just loves this baby penguin puppet!
Finally kicking back on a walk by the river.

Mother's Day

2009-05-13T15:01:00.002-04:00

My second mother's day was wonderful. We invited the Taylors and Garmons to the Bunch's (our house) and Kevin made wonderful rib-eyes, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans and salad. Then we had a glorious mother's day cake from the village.
Ella and Kevin got me some great smelling lavender stuff for the bath and some other goodies.

There are so many things to write that could pertain to mother's day, but I will just sum it up by trying to make a list of things that are different/ I didn't know prior to being a mother - not things i never heard, but things I never REALLY knew until now:

-You can feel like you have more energy by being incredibly busy than when you had nothing to do but lay around and watch tv on the weekends

-It is not necessary to get an entire night's sleep to function during the day...even if it lasts for a year nonstop

-Some babies will not be able to sleep in their cribs alone. Cry-it-out does not apply to everyone.

-Some days the only thing you will get done is feeding / bathing / changing / chasing your baby. Yet you will not sit down once.

-Over all, having a baby can make you extremely happier than you were pre-baby. Even though I once heard a stat that people actually are less happy after having children...not me.

-Babies do not come pre-wired to understand the word "no."

-Sleep is overrated.

-It is possible to have a clean house and a baby. Just not every day.

-Babies do not magically make a marriage better or increase the romance. You have to consciously work to maintain your relationship.

-Things can happen to your body during pregnancy and childbirth that can completely transform your life and your ability to deal with it, but you will make it anyway.

-You will believe your baby has pertussis even if it is her 4th cold and she only has a runny nose....ok, maybe that's just me. ?

-For every bit of child-rearing advice, there is an equal and opposite bit of child-rearing advice

-You WILL have at least one room of your house that constantly looks like toys-r-us / a landfill.

-You will find a renewed joy in shopping when you can now buy everything you wish you could get away with wearing and (even better) in miniature sizes!

I could go on and on and on...

While I'm rounding out my mother's day post, I will thank my own mother for everything she has done in our lives. Most of all, I guess I would say my mom taught me and Whitney how to cherish our womanhood and stand up for ourselves. My mom never gave us speeches about woman power or "you can do anything you want to" necessarily because it was so obvious in her everyday life that she believed those things. She loves us passionately and without fail or even flinch, will be there to hear whatever we have to tell her, good or bad. Ultimately, she supports us and bails us out whenever needed. My mom kept a calendar of my entire first year of life, with notes on what I did EVERY DAY. I just saw this thing the other day and it was amazing. Not to mention, the loads of video and picture she diligently took to remember my growing up. She is the most efficient, dependable task-doer I have ever met. If I can't seem to get something done I think, "now how would mom do this and would she have procrastined this long??" and a lot of times it gets me off my seat. Next to my husband and my father, when I am scared or upset, I can't think of where else I would rather be except with my mom. I know she will be all these things and more to Ella as she grows up, too. Ella already calls out for her Nana regularly.

SO SORRY PAPI AND NANA

2009-05-06T23:44:00.003-04:00

I am so ashamed for not posting while Papi and Nana are in Asia. I tried a few times, but the pictures would not transfer and what is the point of an Ella update if you can't see that face??

I decided it is time for a post dedicated to mischief...because that is Ella's current middle name. By the way, she is so hyper. I don't know if it is a normal level of hype or not as this is the only baby in my possession, but it is a lot. Some days she does not nap at all and she doesn't even like to eat because she doesn't stop moving, grabbing, mouthing. She moves through several sounds that she decides to repeat over and over as well. One day, happily for someone, it was "Nana...nananananana...nana" in the sweetest voice and the loudest yells. For a few months of her early life, it remained "mamamamamamama....MA - MA!!" For a long time she has made this noise over and over: "Mmm Bah" Now, she is vibrating her lips all the time (I don't know what you call this, although my baby book calls it "razzing"). She does this A LOT..and she can do it LOUDLY. Oh, how on earth could I forget the huffing, puffing, scrunchy nose frustrated face / noise.

So we are officially in the full-fledged personality-appearing, discipline-invoking, mischievous-searching phase.

Last night during our nightly bath ritual, she banged her cheekbone on the bathtub and got what I consider her first "official" play wound. It was sad, but she quickly forgot when I handed her a toy. A few days before that, she had a major tumble in her play room when she fell flat backwards onto the bottom rung of a wooden bookshelf. Mommy freaked out, Ella's head was fine, Mommy calmed down. Ella screamed. Mommy squeezed her...she was fine.
Her obsession with cords continues. We now have a baby gate for each major electrical device in the ever-evolving "baby-safe" tv room. We look like a mini-zoo for small brightly colored toys and electric outlets. Another favorite game is where she will crawl to the door of the tv room and crawl out just out of our site. As we both yell "Elllllla...where are you? Come back baby..." she crawls back, peeks around the edge and laughs just before doing it again. It is adorable.

Be sure and check out her stellar teeth in these pictures. She has had them for about a month or two now, but you can really see them now.

Climbing to get to the "suitcases." I like suitcases, do you like suitcases? If you just read this with a strong southern accent and pictured yourself as a small brown curly headed girl with chicken pox, you are probably part of the Jones clan in some way.
and.....I'm caught.

But getting caught can be so funny!!

Helping mommy make something...I might have gotten some ink on my face! ...and glitter all over the place!

Saturday night we went to the Barks Baby-Que. It was a lot of fun and we are so excited for Jason and Jaime. Ella met a little friend there and within about 2.5 seconds, she had his shirt in her fist, trying to pull him back from the cardboard box she wanted to play with - maneater! From the looks of this next picture, it seems we might have our hands full...what do you think daddy?

Hangin out on this beautiful day

2009-04-24T15:28:00.004-04:00

Snapshots

2009-04-23T13:14:00.005-04:00

Here's a much anticipated photo update:

We had a picnic today at lunch! Ella's first experience with sunscreen!! Yay!

This is just for Justin. We spent a day in downtown Chattanooga and found this at one of the children's shops.

Ella's new Easter present from Mimi. She pushes her dolly in it all the time and she's great at walking behind it!

Eating at Good Dog in downtown Chattanooga. We sat at the window as you can see - startin her people watching early!

Pool time or bath time? That's the beauty of my new tub!! (See picture below)

New faces...they are great.

Told you she loves the big mouth face!!

Sweet pea.

My FAVORITE all new scrunchy face....you know it if you've been around her lately.

Coming Soon: Whitney Meyer!!!!!!!

2009-04-13T09:25:00.008-04:00

It is rumored that in the age of the caveman, when a man wanted to "marry" a woman, the man would tie her arms and legs so she could not run away. Eventually, however, he would untie her and if she stayed, they willingly "tied the knot." If she ran, then he'd have to find another unfortunate woman to ensnare. I don't know if this is true, but it seems like a somewhat good idea on the man's part. We all know that unless you happen to be quite handsome and charming, you have to win a gal over through personality, thus unmasking your good looks. What man wants to mess with the chase and the number of days it takes to bring a woman close to his heart merely through clever conversation or a good time? Why not tie her up and force her to become near to his heart by sheer force? By the time he unties her, I guess the prayer is she will be so used to his company, she won't be able to imagine life without her brute of a man, regardless of his interspersed bad habits. Not such a terrible idea. I know several girls who might possibly resort to this type of thing to snatch a husband were it socially acceptable.

When Nathan first appeared at Belmont a few years ago, I doubt any sane girl would have cared if he forced her to hang out with him for awhile. This guy would never need rope to snag a wife. My first thoughts about him were "He is good looking." And the thoughts that followed were all positive...What a sweet guy, what a talented guy, what a GREAT match for Whitney.

If you have read my blog in the past, you know what I think of my sister. So...if I approve of her betrothed, you must know he is the creme de la creme. To top it all off, he pulled off one impressive engagement...no ropes involved as far as I know.

The MOST impressive part was that he did not tell a soul how he was going to do it - well, he did have to ask one of Whitney's friends mothers directions to the beach house where Whitney was vacationing with her girlfriends. But NONE of the girls knew! This guy just showed up while they were lounging in their beach clothes eating cheetos in their condo. Great job.

We are all so excited to have Nathan join the family...and we're crossing our fingers for free tickets to Broadway.

Speaking of exciting family announcements, my cousin and long time best friend...after many years dedicated to becoming an amazing physician....is PREGNANT! We are oh so excited and I am positive she and her husband will be amazing parents. We cannot wait to add another little munchkin to the mix.

Easter

2009-04-12T19:58:00.006-04:00

Today, Ella and I went to the early service at Westmore, then went to the service at North Cleveland. We were able to be with all of the family and it was great. Then, we went to eat with the Jones fam at the Holiday Inn...then off to the Garmon house for an Easter egg hunt and desserts. The day was absolutely beautiful and it was heaven on the porch cuddling with Ella. I don't know where the day went.

Did I say Ella was so cuddly and sweet in her Easter dress?
Fletcher and Winston were gorgeous, as always. And Harper was precious toddling around in her adorable flowery outfit and flower headband.

I am SICK of`

2009-04-09T11:56:00.002-04:00

being stared at like I am an idiot who is about to be slapped when I say the words "...no antibiotics...virus..."

people shooting other people

laws forbidding the GOOD people from carrying guns legally so all the people who could care less about the laws can be the only ones with weapons

republicans vs. democrats vs. God vs. McCain vs. Obama vs. Tina Fey vs. Sarah Palin vs. Piper vs. her baby daddy vs. abortion vs. Iraqi babies vs. terrorists vs. elitists vs. "My pastor says GOD BLESS AMERICA" vs. CHANGE and HOPE and peace talks vs. everyone thinking they know-it-alllllllll

I gotta go, but I"m sure I have more haha

At the Car Wash...and other places in Nashville

2009-04-08T19:46:00.006-04:00

Last Saturday morning, Ella had her last swim lesson at the Y! She got a certificate for being such a big fish!!

We went to see Whitney in her senior show this last weekend. Saturday morning we went through a car wash and I decided to get Ella out of her car seat and let her enjoy the excitement.W
About to go in!

Something exciting is sooo about to happen!

Whoa - wait a minute - that is loud!
...Scrub a dub...

Drying is the best part!!

Can we do it again?

Hangin out with Whitney and Nathan...

Just hangin out in the rehearsal room at Belmont.

We love overnight road trips!!!

A Plethora of Pretty Pictures of my Petite Princess

2009-04-03T19:28:00.006-04:00

I previously prepared you people that I am partial to alliteration.

Anyone who ever saw my granny's wall at the KY house of all the pictures of Marissa with "wide open mouth face" will recognize these expressions:

(That top picture is her with her favorite box -- the one she was spinning around blowing spit bubbles)

I am planning a post about our new-found love of yard sale-ing. We have gone 2 weekends now. This toy in the picture above cost $1.00! Yard sales rock.

More standing!

Caught her red-handed. She will find a cord wherever it hides.

I love this face. Mommy's shoes - just another toy.

Walking again!

I have to share my SHEER JOY right now. I am on a Mac thanks to Westmore's lodge...I have done this whole blog in minutes...I love fast, easy, wonderful computers!!!

New Video!!!