Long awaited post

[Happy Birthday, son-son]
Friday was the big day, it was a rite of passage for the little guy. We got to turn his car seat to be forward facing. To celebrate small fry’s first birthday, Grandpa & Grandma B, along with Great Grandma, Grammy and Papa joined us for supper in town.
Only it wasn’t so simple. I was getting a massage in hopes of relieving some of the pressure in my neck and back from whatever is going on there. Hubby was on an emergency vet call at the time when we were supposed to meet for the meal. Thanks to my in-laws who met us in town with the little guy. Eventually Ryan got there too and we had a meal together. The place was hot and loud and it was hard to hear, I was rushed to get to a celebration for a friend by a certain time and the birthday boy was getting grumpy and tired. So, we had our meal and headed different directions. I’m thankful that those who joined in on the celebration were able to make it.

[Pre-Birthday Party]
I woke early Saturday morning to get started on my list of things to do:
1. Finish a few more scrap book pages and get them all in the book
2. Clean up the super messy scrapbook room, I mean, dining room
3. Make the 3-D duck cake that I was too tired and forgot to do the night before
4. Frost sheet cake that Amy made for the party
5. Make the punch
6. Quick clean all the rooms downstairs.
7. Try to keep the house cool.
8. Bathe the birthday boy
9. Shower and get ready
10. Wrap gifts
11. Breathe

Here’s how things went that morning:
530am – awake and scrapbooking downstairs while it was quiet
730am – starting on the cake. We used butter to grease the cake when the directions said “NEVER” to do so. Eunice, my MIL cleaned that out while I ran to town to get some Crisco. She dealt with the cake while I scrap booked.
730am – Mark, my FIL went to town to get rock salt that I couldn’t find on my last shopping trip and forgot to tell hubby about.
Who knows what time – finish what I can with the scrap book. Clean the room. Meanwhile MIL makes the punch and FIL piddles with the ice cream maker. My mom brings out more punch since we didn’t think we’d have enough. Ice cream maker doesn’t work, FIL is upset and HOT. I call hubby at work to see if we can just buy ice cream like I wanted to in the first place. He wants to have home made. FIL goes and buys a new ice cream maker. Get rooms clean and cake frosted
Noon - Shower. Feed Scott, bathe him and put him down for a nap. MIL runs out of vanilla for the last batch of ice cream. Mom brings some out when she comes. Her sheet cake frosting stuck to the tin foil. We tried to fix it with no luck. Throw the gifts in a gift bag and decorate a tiny bit.
1pm - Wake kiddo up for the start of the party. And the fun begins…

[Birthday Party]
It was a hit, things went great. My in-laws finished up the ice cream and made their way upstairs. People mingled and had wonderful cake (thanks to Eunice, mom and Amy), drank blue punch and at home made ice cream. Small fry was the center of attention, literally. He sat in the middle of the room and was quite the ham for everyone. People came and went during the open house party. Finally towards the end, we opened Scott’s cards and gifts. That was hilarious! He loved the cards and would “read” them if I’d hand them over. I read each card aloud to include everyone. If it was a book or a card, he loved it. Otherwise, he didn’t care too much. When his Grandma B read her card aloud, he grabbed it out of her hand and threw it as if to say “that’s enough reading”. Later we sat him in front of his cake and he wiped a little frosting off. I had to help him figure out that he could eat it (thankfully my child doesn’t put everything in his mouth). We had a great time with family and friends. By time the guests were all gone except the ones that stayed overnight, I was TIRED.

[Am I crazy?]
Last weekend was a very full and busy weekend with a birthday party and company in our home for the weekend. Hubby’s folks have been here since last Wednesday. And hubby’s grandparents came up and stayed the weekend for the birthday party. My work week is full and will be insanely busy. Here’s a look at my week:
Daily activities Monday through Friday: 8-5 work (which has been insane since I’m in charge while the boss is gone and lots of BIG news has come in which has kept me crazy), drive 30 minutes for a quick supper at 5:30. Teach vacation bible school from 6-830. Stop by mom’s and water all her outside plants which takes at least 30 minutes. Drive home, feed the dog and go inside to spend time with those who live in my home (hubby and son) and those who are visiting in my home (in-laws).
Exceptions: Thursday will be a half day at work. At 2pm, we have family photos being taken for the first time since small fry was born. I’ll try to water plants at mom’s before VBS so that when I get done at 830, I can rush home to my bible study group that is meeting in my home. Friday is another half day at the office. We leave right after I get home to start our weekend.
Weekend: We’re meeting up with hubby’s brother (who’s driving 8 hours) and MIL/FIL (leaving our house that morning) at their grandparents home in PC (3.5 hour drive from here) for supper. Will stay there for the weekend and see friends and try to let small fry see as much of his uncle as possible. Sunday on the way back home, I’ll drive to the airport instead and catch a flight to Florida.
I’ll arrive in FL Sunday night ready to start a week of training. I’ll work and hang out with friends all week till I fly home on Friday. Land, grab my luggage (hopefully) and rush home to see my family.

So, I’ll go from having 2 weeks of company, teaching VBS, watering mom’s plants, a quick trip to see hubby’s side of the family, fly to FL for training and fly back home all without hardly taking a breath. I will be so glad to get back and have some quiet time with just my hubby and son!!!!!!!

Birthday pictures

Here's a few pictures Miss Lauren sent from small fry's birthday party:

L: A Hooter's shirt from Lauren that I promised I'd let him wear. R: small fry reading one of his cards.

L: small fry eating frosting from his birthday cake. R: Small fry's new dump truck toy from the J's.

(as always, click on the picture for a larger image. more to come when I get my camera downloaded, which will probably be in two weeks after I get back from Orlando)

Quick Update

[emergency room visit]
hubby was working in the shop and got something in his eye. While driving, the piece shifted and he couldn't see to drive. With his approval/request, I continued on to the baptism (I was 10 minutes farther down the road). After the baptism, I left and headed up the hill where I could get signal and call him. Mom answered his cell phone and they were just finishing up in the emergency room! The doctor had removed sawdust from his eye and sent him home. Since he's on call for 2 weeks straight, I headed to the clinic and transferred my kid to the vet truck and headed home to meet Ryan and my folks.

[emergency room visit #2]
hubby was in MAJOR pain. Doc said it might feel like something was in there because of the swelling. I finally called the doc to see what we could do since I'd never had to deal with a guy in so much pain. He suggested we see an opthamologist who could get a more detailed look at the eye in case something else was still in there. Because it was Saturday night at 830, the doc had to call around to find someone available. He called back with 3 options: W town (80 miles) and where we go for big city shopping, R town (80ish miles and not familiar at all and in another state) or LC town (same as R town). After a few questions, we dropped small fry off at his grammy's and headed to W town. (now let me just make the point that there is much more drama and details and funny moments to share but I'm pressed for time, grr). Leave at 9pm, sit in ER for 90 minutes and get home at 2am. And had a sheriff's car follow me several miles as I desperately tried to be WIDE awake.

[added drama]
- hubby (aka Dr veterinarian) was on call and the other guy is out of state. He should not leave the practice radius. But he couldn't see anyway and therefore couldn't help animals if he did get a call!
- super tired and trying hard to stay awake on the way down, let alone the whole way home while hubby tried to lay down and relax
- I had to drive the vet truck to town to get my car with small fry in the passenger seat and big burly hubby in the middle. The seat was all the way back and so hubby was squished and I wasn't even sitting back all the way so that I could still reach the pedals!
- hubby hates to have his eyes touched
- we missed awesome fireworks out at the camp where the baptism happened.

[next few days]
hubby's folks are coming tomorrow. we're excited to see them. small fry turns one on friday. we're having a small party on saturday. next few weeks will be company, me travelling to do family things in two weeks and leaving from there for a week of work in Florida. Yikes, when will I have time with hubby?

Okay, gotta run, we rescheduled our small group to tonight...

[Friday excitement]
L has become our pseudo little sister at home. She works with my husband at the vet clinic and I work with her mom. So hubby sees her during the week and when she’s not at work she comes to my office to have lunch. Plus, she’s part of our small group.

L has been working at our vet clinic for almost a year. She does quite a bit with hubby on farm calls and in the clinic. Wanting additional experience, we hooked her up with our vet buddy in the neighboring town so she could shadow him and run calls. That was scheduled for Friday.
Friday at noon at get a call from Dr. R and he has zero interest in talking to me. He stated that it was an emergency and wanted to speak with L’s mom. I’m not sure who was more shook up: Dr. R, L’s mom or me. L had been out on a farm call and was at the back of the truck when the farmer saw her pass out and fall to the ground. Pretty scary for everyone, especially Dr. R who debated on having someone ride around because of liability.

Meanwhile, L’s mom is diabetic and since this happened at lunch, L’s mom skipped lunch and rushed off to the hospital. On my way out the door for an early afternoon off, I stopped and got D some food and dropped it off at the hospital.

Thankfully all turned out fine. Dr. R kept the tired L awake by making her do her ABC’s and other easy things. The emergency room visit found nothing wrong and sent her home to rest up.

[spoil the spouses]
Preface – When you are employed by the government there are no Christmas bonuses, gifts from clients, etc. The government doesn’t give Christmas bonuses and gifts would be considered bribery. With that said, let me share about my weekend of getting spoiled
One of the drug companies held a meeting for a handful of the veterinarians to do business as usual. Only the salesman responsible made it very clear that the purpose was the spoil the spouses. And we sure did get spoiled.

We made it a family weekend. That in itself was a debate – do I have a nice weekend alone with the hubby or do I take the kiddo and have him around for entertainment in case I don’t like the “wives club”? We all went. We arrived at our rural destination a bit early so that we could clean up before supper.

Friday night we had hors d’oeuvres, supper and dessert at an old Feed Mill that has been restored and remodeled. The food was fantabulous! It was a bit awkward at first not knowing any of the couples. We sat alone at a table before one of the wives sat with us. We ate and had nice conversations before heading back to the hotel after a long day.

Saturday, while the guys had their meeting, us women headed down to the local bakery for quiche and baked goods over breakfast. We then headed down to the local boutique (which utilizes the upstairs portion of the feed mill and still has working machinery in it) for some shopping. The drug company had presented each woman with a $50 gift certificate to the boutique. For those who know me, a boutique is a place that I find cute, but not a place that I’d spend money. I have enough crap in my house and the style of clothes aren’t my style. So, I spent MY money on a barn book and several children’s books for Scott. As I pulled my gift certificate out of the envelope, I noticed a second certificate. I was sure it was there by accident and waited to inform the salesmen that there were accidentally two certificates in my envelope. As I wondered around the store though, I could hear other women announcing how close they were to their totals; all of them near $100. Not much later we joined back up with the men to head to lunch when I asked about the certificates. It was not a mistake. The original plan was for $50, but they decided to add another $50 to it. THANK YOU! I had $100 to spend. Only problem was that I didn’t know what to spend it on so I purchased another $50 in children’s book for Scott (now we have his birthday gift taken care of).

Lunch was at a nearby restaurant that was originally and old barn. Although I appreciated the food, it was no comparison to Friday night’s meal. Following lunch, the group went on a tour of the Amish. At this point, I was a bit disappointed. Because I live and work near Amish, this was nothing new to me. So, a “tour” which was really stopping at several Amish farms and going into their little stores where their goods are sold wasn’t impressive to me. I had no plans to purchase anything and didn’t get to visit the people so for me it was just a bunch of getting in and out of a van. I do appreciate BI’s generosity in paying for the tour but it was like home to me and so I didn’t find it as interesting as other’s.

Supper was at a local place. It was good food and we gathered outside for our meal. Of course, we were spoiled with whatever we wanted off the menu – appetizers, drinks, meals, desserts. A light rainstorm made it’s way through while we were eating but the umbrellas were enough protection. Following supper, BI treated us to a play at a local venue. By now, my child desperately needs a nap, its hot and sticky out and we go for a walk before the play. As we get into the hall for the performance, I realize I forgot small-fry’s bottle. This meant getting a nap in would be near impossible with a tired and hungry child. Needless to say we didn’t last long at the play before we left. The kiddo was behaving wonderfully (as he did all weekend in public) but he was being a chatter box and we didn’t want to be a distraction so we left.

Another night’s stay in a cute little motel provided by BI before hurrying home for Sunday church activities. Thanks to BI for spoiling this spouse. I mentioned to them that I wasn’t this spoiled on my honeymoon! They hadn’t been either so I’m sure it was enjoyed by all.

[joined the church]
We officially joined the church on Sunday. Fortunately the members graciously accepted us. After the quarterly meeting, we met out at a local picnic shelter for church potluck. Next thing on the church list is VBS and I’m teaching the pre-school kids. That will be interesting!