pictures

Here are the pictures that I couldn't add the other day. He did wear his little outfit to the game last night, what a stud! I joked with Holly that if she would kiss him he would turn into her prince. [Holly is one of the post-college kids and we joke that Scott will take her to prom in HS - she'll be 40 then. Holly is Scott's adult girlfriend.]

Make sure to check out the photos below

Weekend
what a nice weekend we had. mom kept scott friday night and saturday. of course i had to stop and see my kid after work. he has a cold and sounds like a goose. poor thing. he literally slept all day except when he was being fed. mom would wake him up to change his diaper. i was there and he slept through his feeding and i changed his diaper quick before i left. of course he woke up then and was so playful so i had to stay longer. Was there for about 90 minutes – so much for Friday night with my honey! saturday i made my honey breakfast in bed after i pumped. then we headed to waterloo for some shopping. hello transfer from the savings account! it was a fun day though, nice to just hang out with ryan and not worry about caring for our little guy. i love playing with and watching scott so it was nice to give ryan my full attention for a while. mom needed some rest so i took my kid home saturday night. he sounded pretty good but we kept him home Sunday from church. ryan went to church while i stayed home and then he came home and i went to the church to help some friends with their 25th anniv party. it was nice to have a slow non-rushed weekend.

Monday
It went well to begin with. Now that I’m feeding scott every morning at 530, the follow-up pumping doesn’t go so well. I think my boobs are confused about making milk vs. letting it down. Later that morning at work while pumping, I wasn’t giving my full attention. And to spare all of you the details (especially Cori), I’ll just say that I overflowed the bottle. I’m so an 18 lb. cow with awesome milk supply. Anyway, it ran down my right thigh. Fortunately scott’s diaper bag got left in my car so I got a baby wipe and tried to clean it up. It was a bigger mess at first but by time it dried, you could hardly tell what had spilled. Baby wipes are awesome!

Beggar’s Night
The phrase takes on more and more meaning every year. I’m not into Halloween and could care less about it. BUT, I fell into the temptation and bought Scott the cutest outfit from Old Navy. It’s all about the photo op and showing off my kid. So, we went to mom’s and had a massive bowl of candy. Not many visitors but the majority of kids that came SUCKED! They didn’t even say “trick-or-treat”. What the heck! And there were kids that weren’t dressed up at all! Last year since we were at a friend’s house, I told a few big kids they needed to get a costume before I would give them candy. This year we had the same thing (different town). One time it was 4 HS kids, 3 of them had dressed up. So I gave them crappy suckers. I figured they were too old and could buy their own candy. There were even little kids that were dressed in their regular clothes. One kid had a mask that didn’t even stay on his face. He’s from our church so I made sure to ask him (and loud enough for his mom to hear) where his costume was. One kid had some “swords” through his belt loop with normal clothes and said he was a knight. Come on parents, lets get a little more creative. I would be embarrassed to take me kid out begging for candy if he wasn’t in a costume. AND, I had Scott in his cute little costume and only got two compliments on it. One was a little guy dressed as a lion. He was a bit young to say “t-or-t” but he clearly said “baby”. My favorite was a family of 3 kids: one was darth vador, one was r2-d2 and the baby in the stroller was yoda. They were awesome! Before heading home I had to stop at Shane & Michelle’s (a couple from my bible study) and show them Scott. Here’s what they got to see: If you want to see him in person, come to the Valley play off game on Wednesday night. I’m dressing him up again for everyone to see :) Okay, off to a few meetings and an overnight trip to Des Moines.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

. . . This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ. That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; 'tis only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.
You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of hell, but don't see the hand of God in it, but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life, and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it.
Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and, if God should let you go, you would immediately sink, and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf; and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock. . . .
The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked. His wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire. He is of purer eyes than to bear you in his sight; you are ten thousand times as abominable in his eyes as the most hateful, venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince, and yet 'tis nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. . . .
O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in! 'Tis a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of fire and of wrath that you are held over in the hand of that God whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as against many of the damned in hell. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of Divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it and burn it asunder. . . .
It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite, horrible, misery. . . .
How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in danger of this great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation that has not been born again, however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh! that you would consider it, whether you be young or old!

From Johnathan Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (1741)," in The Great Awakening, eds. Alan Heimert and Perry Miller (Indianpolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1969).

puke & colds

yeah, that's always a fun topic. Wednesday night I picked Scott up at mom's, ate some wonderful smoked pork chops, green beans and some funky squash (it had lots of butter and brown sugar so it was good) with the folks before going home. By time I pulled in the driveway, Scott was letting me know he was hungry. Got in the house and after a quick trip to bano, I fed my son. Twice, he spit up on me while he was eating - once on each side. That irritates me but what can you do? About 15 minutes later, the kid just let loose. And let me remind everyone that he doesn't spit up a little, its usually 1-2 ounces with each spit up. He eats approximately 45 ounces a day (a lot for his age) but he spits up about half of that usually. Anyway, so he spit up and it went down the bottom of my shirt, hit my jeans, ran down the crotch of my jeans, hit the leather chair and kept moving until it puddled underneath me. Of course I reacted and wanted to toss my kid down so I could clean up the mess before it soaked into the soft leather. I gently laid my kid on a blanket and started to soak up what milk my jeans didn't absorb. It was nasty, my jeans were soaked in the crotch, it was such a yucky feeling.
Every night is a puke story of course. Last night we were at teh UNI Dome watching our high school play their last football game. At 9pm, I fed Scott and tried to burp him (he doesn't always burp). We got a few burps out and then I took him over to his dad. Ryan wasn't holding him too long when Scott spit up and it went all the way down Ryan's shirt, splattered on his boot and then puddled on the floor. The kid is a spitter! Poor Ryan had to sit the rest of the game, plus the drive home with lovely breast milk down his shirt. I'm sure it dried before we got home.

TGIF
we all have colds around our house. It's so sad to hear my little Scott-R coughing and sneezing. He's in good hands with his grammy today. She was planning on keeping him tonight and tomorrow night so Ryan and I could do some Christmas shopping. We'll see how that goes with the cold issues.

The Holy Land & Yesterday's Drama and Today

Dad sent me the story below in an email and I thought it was too cute:

Holy Land
In the Holy Land A man, his wife, and his mother-in-law went on vacation to the Holy Land. While they were there, the mother-in-law passed away. The undertaker told them, "You can have her shipped home for $5,000, or you can bury her here in the Holy Land for $150.00." The man thought about it and told him he would just have her shipped home. The undertaker asked, "Why would you spend $5,000 to ship your mother-in-law home, when it would be wonderful to be buried here and spend only $150.00?"The man replied, "A man died here 2000 years ago, was buried here, and three days later he rose from the dead. I just can't take that chance."


Yesterday’s Drama
It started out so good – I took a shower and had some time to myself. On my way to work, I realized I forgot to send milk for Scott. Even though I was over my minutes and it was costing me 40 cents a minute to talk, I decided to give mom a quick call. She of course said not to worry that she had to run some errands so she would just stop at our house and pick some up. I was mortified! My house was a pig sty. I’m serious. I had carried in all my outside plants and they were all over the place – living room floor, staircase, dinning table, counters. The lovely asian beetles that snuck in on the plants were now laying dead on the ground surrounding all the plants. Scott’s dirty, spit-up on clothes and bibs were still in the floor along with Ryan’s chocolate mug, my water bottle and other crap. I had done the dishes but not ALL of them b/c my strainer got full and I was too lazy to dry them (no auto dishwasher at my house). Needless to say I didn’t want mom in my house so I warned her to close her eyes when she went in so she didn’t see the mess. She started in about it like any mother would, and I interrupted with “I’m over on my minutes, I gotta go!” She continued so I said it again, said bye and hung up. Ouch! I don’t talk to my mom like that, nor does she deserve that. Several hours later, I called her to apologize and asked her to come down for lunch. So I skipped my morning pumping and waited till noon and nursed Scott during lunch. Then when I went for my 2pm pumping, I realized I didn’t have the pump portion that I so desperately needed. As I got the stuff out to pump, I was so frustrated, my eyes were about to water and I thought to myself “I could go downstairs and cry the whole time I pump, it would be good to just get it out”. Then I didn’t have my pump = added frustration. A quick call to my buddy Jen, who also has a medela pump, to ask if I could borrow the pump portion. Drove to her house which took twice as long because of road construction (more frustration) and then her pump was a different model and wouldn’t work. I shared some of my frustrations with her and headed back to the office. By now, I have almost 6 hours worth of milk in my nini’s (since I didn’t do my morning pump) and needed to pump. I walked in the office, finished up something and left at 3:30.
I got home yesterday without crying. Ryan came home and I had laundry going, a fire started and dinner on the stove. He of course was shocked. I warned him up front that I was frustrated with just about everybody and everything. He asked what he did wrong and I said you're not on my list at the moment. I got supper cooked, the kitchen cleaned, my kid was taking a nap and things were going well. I told ryan that we needed to work on our communication and he thought that was going great. Ha! We aren’t and so we discussed that briefly. Then I was cleaning living room #2 and picked up a gallon jug of insecticide off mom & ralph's italian leather couches that are at our house. I assumed the bottle was empty since it was so carelessly lying on the couch. It wasn’t and it had leaked all over the one cushion and down the side. I was so ticked and immediately started in on Ryan for being so careless. I started cleaning up the mess while he said he'd do it. But ryan is never in a hurry and I wanted it taken care of right then. I was scared that it wouldn't come out and my parents would have ruined couches. He wasn't concerned because the stuff is water soluble. I scrubbed and scrubbed, took the cushions out and scrubbed some more. I hope the leather is okay. Grr, I was so ticked. But the rest of the evening went okay. Scott was fussy which makes ryan fussy. He does fine when scott is happy but he can't calm scott down quite like me and gets irritated with the crying. Things went a little better last night, I got a good night of sleep and my throat isn't bothering me as bad this morning. I could so use a vacation – at least 10 hours a week :)

This morning, already
It started out great. I fed scott in bed and then got to snuggle with my honey for a while. scott pee'd through his diaper and ryan was bathing him so I decided to make breakfast (usually ryan makes me breakfast every morning). We didn't have milk to make the eggs fluffy but I managed. Served my honey breakfast, fixed his hot chocolate, did the dishes from supper last night and breakfast, stuffed my face, grabbed my wedding band, fed the dogs and jumped in the car. It was going great, I didn't have anything on my face but I was on time. Yipee!
Then I get to work and I'm not there more than an hour when things get irritating again. Why is it that a person thinks she needs to share all the details of local gossip with me. Let me just preface all this by saying that the 5 minute talk I hear every morning is talking about gossip this week. As soon as it was over, the dj started talking about an accident and the road conditions. someone called in and she asked if anyone was hurt, like she wanted the dirt. I was so tempted to call her (and I would have if I weren't over on my minutes) to ask if she listened to the talk on gossip. So, anyway, this person proceeds to tell me the local gossip and each time I stop her and say I don't want to hear it. I'm not kidding you, she keeps on and tells me 3 different stories. One of which was totally the wrong info that she was sharing with people. So, I even confronted her about it and said "that's why we shouldn't gossip". She continued. Holy cow, did she not get the hints? I don't want to hear it! I shared with her about the gossip talk I've heard this week and how I don't want to hear those things about people. It just ticks me off, she's so sneaky and quiet about it, duh, because she shouldn't be opening her mouth! Ah, gotta love everyone though, Jesus said to do so.

One more random thought:
Ryan and I watched napolean dynamite on Sunday. it was the biggest waste of my time ever. it was a stupid-and-not-even-that-funny movie. i should have listened to michelle, i do want my two hours back! But today I'm wearing my shirt that says "vote for pedro" only the pedro is crossed off and it says "Jesus" instead. If anyone questions it today, I'm gonna entertain myself and say "are you racist against mexicans, it's jesus" as in "hey-suess" the mexican name. Okay, gotta get to working, its almost 8 am

More pictures of my Scott-R bug

My poor little guy... but he looks cute. I love being outdoors and thought this was a great view. Of course my kid had to be in red and blue (go Bulldogs, go ADX and go Valley Tigers). I also have to point out that he's wearing his Bulldogs hat that Kristine and Andy bought him. Ryan propped some rocks up around him so that he could sit there. I was a bit nervous at first but the kid loved looking around at the water and trees. We had a hard time getting him to look at us.


I love this next picture too. A few things I like about it is that it's such a perfect view of Scott. Hands are always moving. He's always staring at something and loves the outdoors. The blanket he's laying on was Ryan's when Ryan was a kid. And the wagon in the background was also Ryan's when he was a kid.


This was the whole reason behind the picture taking adventure. I wanted to take pictures of Scott in a pumpkin. My idea was a little different but this is how it turned out. The opposite side of the pumpkin was carved - supposed to be a vet symbol that didn't work out. So, the pumpkin was already cleaned out. Ryan cut the hole at the top bigger and then cut out part of the back side to get him in. I had to use another pumpkin to prop him up. I have some cute pictures of him when he fell in the leaves before we got pumpkin #2 to help. I felt like we were squishing him.

That's it for pictures. I can't load any more pictures again :) Mom told me yesterday that Scott laughed out loud when she was tickling him. Another milestone for my small fry. Ryan and I are having fun with him, and needing a little time to ourselves. Someday :)

My Scott-R bug

Oh how I love being a mom. Being Ryan's wife is wonderful but being Scott's mom is such an added bonus. He's becomming so much more lively lately. He smiles ALL the time and makes lots of noise. Trying to talk and already able to say "mom-mom". Okay, maybe its not quite mom but he does make sounds and if I jiggle his pacifier just right, it sounds like "mom-mom". Scott jabbers and drools all the time now. He's so much fun! He's doing well at keeping himself entertained for short periods of time. For the most part he's entertained by checking things out that have color in them. This morning he stared at Mt. Dew box while I ate breakfast. My little guy really likes TV and will zoom right in on that when we're in the living room. The last few days he's really worked on his hand-eye coordination and last night he reached out and grabbed my finger for the first time. Of course everything that he does get hold of gets pulled directly towards his mouth :) He's also doing fantastic at sleeping well. We put him down at 10ish and he slept till 7 during the weekend. The last 3 days, Ryan has gone in Scott's room to wake him up so we can feed him quick and take him to his grammy's. I'm so thankful for more sleep.

Since Scott turned 3 months on Friday. I thought this would be a perfect time to take some fall pictures. I really wanted to put him inside a pumpkin and take a few pics so we did just that. We went down to Dutton's Cave (a county park) just a few miles from our house and had fun with the cameras. Ryan had the digital and I had the regular one. Used up 3 rolls of film while we were there. The following are a few of the digital shots Ryan captured:


Scott holding on for dear life before we get in the van to leave. He's always gripping something. (as I was loading the next picture, I noticed Scott's middle finger showing off once again)

The first pictures we took were of Scott in the creek. It was a gorgeous view both up and downstream. This isn't the picture with the great views but if you click on it for a bigger image, you'll see that Scott has just spit up. It went all down his shirt, sleeve and finally puddled on the rock. I ended up having to change his outfit.

Okay, there's more pictures but my stupid computer won't let me add them for some reason. I tried and tried! Maybe I'll try again in a little bit. I have some real cute ones.

Pictures of my small-fry-little-guy

My kid turned 3 months old today. Happy 3 month birthday son! Scott's grammy is great at taking pictures and sharing them. These were all taken within the last week or so.











This second picture is the famous "Martinez lip". Everyone in the family has this massive bottom lip when they pout. Scott's is absolutely adorable.




My little Scott-R loves playing with his Grammy and Papa.

Make sure your sound is on. I added a music video to my blog. it's not the best picture and its way down on the bottom right but it's a fun song. So, turn it up and listen to "Pray for the Fish" by Randy Travis.

I wanted to introduce everyone to Tebbe's little girl Drew.

Sorry this is a small picture but it will have to work. Here's drew and her proud daddy, Andy.








I had another cute one of Kristine, Andy and Drew but it's too small.
[tebbe, i need better pitures to share with everyone!]

Crappy Mom
Continuing the crappy kid story...
It was after church on Sunday and our buddy Richie was holding Scott:

Richie: Tammy, Scott just let loose, he needs his diaper changed.
me: you can take care of it Uncle Richie
(All too often our little tooter makes people think he has a dirty diaper when he's only been passing gas. I no longer take serious when someone suggests he's dirty. And his toots stink so they really get confused)
several minutes later, R: scott's diaper is leaking through
me: are you serious, he really crapped his diaper?
R: yeah, that's why I wrapped his blanket around him. it leaked out his diaper, through his clothes.
(by now Ryan is standing there chatting with Richie)
me: Ryan, will you change your kid's diaper (with complete attitude)

My kid had done it again. It has become a normal experience in our house. before i always tried to make sure we had an extra onesie, just in case. now, we take an extra set of clothes b/c we're almost guaranteed to need them.

In other news:
i'm glad its not monday! a nice long weekend thanks to good 'ol Columbus. had a nice weekend even though my honey was gone. went to mom's from work to chow some shrimp alredo pasta before heading to the game. i put scott in his little snugli so we could keep each other warm. he wasn't even interested in eating, just wanted to snooze against his mommy. the game lasted forever (they took away the 50 point rule which meant we got to go home early alot b/c it would be 50-0 and the game would be over). We won 63-o, poor other school. it was homecoming night and the poor girls were freezing. dumb girls, wouldn't wear a coat. that's okay, vanity is an issue of mine too :)

piddled around saturday. made the trip to wally world and spent too much money as usual. bought ryan a christmas present though so that was good. it really got me thinking about our christmas this year. we love to buy gifts for family. but with all our other financial commitments at the moment (sewer, vet practice purchase), i'm not sure if that would be a wise decision. i'm tempted to chat with ryan about it and setting a budget that would be a fraction of what we usually spend. who knows. anyway, went to Gunder for supper with the folks. on the 8 mile drive home, we saw at least 40 deer. its harvest time here so the deer are just thick and it will only get worse and harvest progresses and there are less corn fields for deer to bed down in. ryan came home at 215 am and we chatted for an hour before he conked out. it was so good to hear the excitement in his voice about his weekend trip with our JV kids.

church was awesome on sunday. shane (one of our buddies) gave the message. it was on prayer and our lack of prayer. so kicked my butt. i just don't spend enough time in that area of my life. excuses are like... nevermind that comment; i need to spend more time in prayer because i love seeing how God answers those prayers. went to lunch afterwards with the Ellis', Shane & Michelle and Kelly. I love chinese food! came home and ryan crashed for a few hours. taylor came home with me and watched scott while i cleaned the kitchen. she's so awesome to volunteer like that. went to small group later and taylor kept scott the whole time so I could focus on the study we did. it was so nice to not be distracted.

monday was awesome. just quiet, got a few things accomplished and wasn't rushed. that was the nice part, not feeling rushed or bogged down. had the county sanitarian out as well as the contractor. got some ideas on the septic system we will be replacing next spring. we're looking at $4k or something along those lines. ryan was able to come home for that which was helpful. while talking to those folks, the culligan guy (dean) came. he's a great guy and i love when i'm home to greet him. just adds to my day because he always has a smile on his face and a positive attitude. he had to check out scott and came back out to tell me scott was inside crying. i felt like such a bad mom again but then dean said he was just kidding, scott was still asleep. went to the vet clinic to have lunch with my honey. hot dogs. i hate hot dogs but these things were actually good, i even ate two of them. went from there to stop by mom&papa's. she goes through withdrawls when she doesn't get to see scott. left scott there to play and went home to start supper. made this awesome wild rice soup with chicken. and only had one minor drama - went outside to pick my bell peppers and all four of them had been eaten on. made me so mad that I saw that huge tomato horn worm the day before on the gord plant and left him there. grr. started dessert, i had made my graham cracker crust before we ate. went to finish the dessert and my fresh raspberries were no longer fresh enough. so irritating. i try so hard in the kitchen sometimes and it just doesn't come naturally or work out.

its now tuesday and i'm glad to be back at work, where i'm comfortable, and taking my lunch. better get back to work. it won't be long and i'll need to pump again - woo hoo!

p.s. watched the angels game last night. it was a sweet victory. but i'm bummed that my buddy jake wasn't on the roster. last night would have been a perfect night for him to pitch, they needed a lefty.

Crappy Kid
I have the crappiest kid, not in a bad way either. Just lately we have quite the drama with his bowel movements. Let me start from the beginning. He was regular, a poopy diaper almost every time you changed him. Then all of a sudden it had been several days. I got worried when 3 days had past and then expressed my concern at 4 days. Finally on day 5, my little Scott-r let loose. Then for a few weeks he only pooped every 5 days. It was actually quite nice to not change poopy diapers but he had the most atrocious smelling gas. I'm serious, it was as loud and as stinky as an adult's! Then while we were in CA, his bowel schedule changed again and for a month now has gone at least once a day. And that's been great because he's been at his grammy's house for those experiences. But the last 5 days we've changed again. He's gone at home and they've been major. I mean like shooting out the sides - major. Not to share too many details but the diaper was filled up to the top of the ridges that come up against their thighs and had it coated on his bottom. This was a major event. Well, then Tuesday night he was just letting them rip. I was sitting under the window air conditioner (its a loud old sucker) and we had the tv sound blasting so I could hear it over the AC when Scott was letting loose. I could hear some of it over the other background noise! I'm serious. Ryan was holding him and just sat in amazement. I think he tooted for 30 seconds straight. So Ryan picks him up to make sure it wasn't coming out the side. It appeared safe and he sat him back on his lap. Within seconds it was down Ryan's pants, dripped in about 5 spots on the hassick and had little puddles on the wood floor. A little runny to say the least. We couldn't lay him on anything since it seemed to be gushing out so Ryan laid him on the floor of the shower. I cleaned the majority of it off Scott while Ryan cleaned the dishes out of the sink. We then held him over the sink and rinsed him off since there was so much poop. And it didn't end there. We had the same thing again Wednesday night and last night too. Last night mom had him dressed in this cute little outfit for bible study. He was in his bouncy chair while I did dishes. And over the noise of the running water, I heard him. Curious if it was just gas (since he's a pro as farting), I went to check just in case. Yup, another runny blow out. I yelled at Ryan who was just getting in the shower. He hurried down stairs to hold while I rinsed once again.

Ah, the joys of parenting. I wish I had gotten pictures!

Cori's Shoes
I could so put myself in Cori's shoes today. Just wanting to eat healthy, exercise and be intimate with my husband. But I have all kinds of excuses for not getting those things accomplished. I try to eat healthy but its hard to do when you don't have the best food supply without driving 45 minutes. I want to get out and run or walk again but I'm not motivated enough to do that on my own and my walking buddy has been busy. And the whole initmacy thing is a totally different ball game with a 12 week old and a busy schedule. Now its Friday and Ryan is gone up to Minneapolis for the weekend so I won't get to see him again until Sunday sometime.

pet pictures...




My most recent pet, Keller. Ryan saved him from euthinization at the vet clinic. He's a mini Australian Shepherd and the biggest genetic jack-up. He was mostly blind and completely deaf when we got him. Now, almost 4 months later, he sees too well (he waits at the front door to come in) and is still 100% deaf. Gotta love him though, he's so cute. I need a current picture since he's grown a bit.





L to R: William Edward Goat, Promise, Kaleb (my nephew) and me. William was one of our first ventures as a married couple. He chews the hotwire fence in the pasture and the tulips and every other plant when he gets out so he stays tied up. Promise came shortly after we were married too. Ryan hates horses but knows I love them so he bought her for me. After being bucked off several times and an overnight stay in the hospital (thanks to Sandy and Jesse for saving my life), Promise found a new home.



I'm sure this dog would be a lap dog if you let him. This is DJ, Ryan's dalmation. He's been around for 7 or 8 years and is the best behaved dog and is gorgeous. He hasn't adjusted the best to Scott but he's still an awesome dog.

* I have (actually they're Ryan's) two cats also. Rum Tum Tugger is the boy and he's a tabby. His sister is Wicket and she's a calico. They were farm cats that Ryan brought home shortly after moving up here when he graduated vet school.

Time Flies

Wow, its monday already. seems like it was yesterday that we took scott to get his shots. thursday was scott's big day, the day he might decide to no longer like nurse Sue. our appointment was at 6pm, we got there a little early. it was hell night for them. dr. lederman (the on-call doc) got called to the nearby clinic because Whooping Cough was identified there (3rd school in the area within 2 weeks). so, dr. miller (my doc) got called to deliver a baby in lederman's place. that left dr. tinker (my neighbor down the road) all by himself. scott got his shots from the nurses but not his well-baby check. tinker had blood taken to check my cough issue and took a quick look at me. he said my allergies were causing my sinuses to drain which was causing my throat to be irritated causing the cough. no cold. i knew the allergies and sinus part and was glad that i didn't have a cold, bronchitis or anything else. he gave me zyrtec and sent us home. two hours after we got there, we left. two stinkin' hours - that's too long.

thursday night i got to experience the side affects of the zyrtec, or was it that my tummy didn't like all the sinus yuck that had drained in there. anyway, my TMI (not as exciting as Cori's) was that i was up for a few hours with an upset tummy, the nastiest diarrhea i've ever had and lots of coughing. i tried to sleep in the spare bedroom but the coughing kept me awake for too long. friday i stayed home to get some rest. that morning mom and ralph came out to hang out with scott so i could sleep. i got a two hour nap in - it was glorious. friday afternoon i made a quick run to decorah for walmart and jc penny's. scott needed some cool weather clothes in his current size and i needed a few items from wally world. was supposed to be at jen and ryan's at 630 with my ryan. got home at 630 and still had to feed scott. just as i was walking out the door, ryan walked in. i thought he'd already gone to j&r's but he was still running vet calls. he left his truck running and jumped in the shower. we got to j&r's at 715. the boys were headed to the game for a 715 kick-off and ryan still had to eat. it didn't go quite as planned. but the boys eventually headed off to the game and us girls sat on the couch, fed our babies, chatted and watched 3 wishes. it was a breastfeeding and crying group night :)

saturday was another slow day. i scrap booked, killed a few pesky flies and did laundry - no cleaning this weekend. sunday was church, potluck and a true day of rest. i scrap booked a little more while ryan and ben played x-box. then took my kid upstairs, fed him and played on the bed a while before taking a kinda-sorta nap. it was a nice relaxing weekend. i have lots of cleaning to do and still haven't gotten anywhere on my septic tank drama.

oh yeah, and i hit a skunk on the driveway thursday night. killed one of our pets. my car smelled but by the next day a vulture had carried off the dead skunk from the driveway. AND, friday coming home from decorah, mom saw my cat half way down the driveway again. i thought it was a skunk, she thought it was the cat (similar colors). i slowed down and opened my door to call wicket when i got a wiff of skunk smell. it was so the skunk and not my cat!

So here’s the dirt about my neighbor who mailed me a letter. It came Saturday which was drama enough but anyway. It starts out nicely: “hope you’re enjoying Scott…” and stuff like that. The next paragraph is when the stuff hits the fan. He basically tells us that our septic system is on his property and he would like it moved. That it has come to the surface and splashes on him when he mows the lawn. Let’s just pause there… [if human yuckies are splashing on you, QUIT MOWING!] He also claimed that it was contaminating the stream down below, pause again… [you jack@ss, try to give me a guilt trip since I work for conservation of our natural resources. IF it is occurring as he stated, there’s 600’ feet of lawn and pasture before it heats the stream which would treat the concern by both state and federal standards.] It also tells us that Jan 1st gives us 3.5 months to get something done. Pause again… [who died and made him God. AND, the ground freezes well before Jan 1st which then doesn’t give that amount of time]. He didn’t know it was on his property, pause again… [neither did we, umm, its buried underground]. And it was cc’d to some female name at the bottom.

Here’s my thoughts (in addition to the ones above). Since he lives farther down the driveway and passes our house multiples times a day, why not stop and say “hey ryan, something is wrong with your septic tank, explain the details and ask us to fix it. Duh, we’ve always gotten along well with them. We both help each other out with different things. What did he do, cc it to his lawyer? I had so many other negative and mean thoughts that I won’t put on paper since they weren’t appropriate, just hateful.

After some further investigation. The letter was sent to the county sanitarian who I called but didn’t get a hold of. Received a letter from her last night though basically saying that we do have to replace our whole system, a minimum of $3k. And if we hit bedrock or clay like I’m assuming will happen, its an easy $7k. Also found out that the outlet pipe to the stream (what I thought might be his complaint for polluting the stream) doesn’t outlet to the stream. It’s about 120’ up in the fenceline along the pasture. Again, plenty of room to be “cleaned up” before it hits the stream.

Ryan and I doing some searching to get things in order to replace the system. It’s a state law that they have to be up to code when the property is sold. Unfortunately in the county I live in, there’s no one who checks and makes sure of that. And a first time home buyer doesn’t know to ask either. Stupid county! Because my previous landowner was not fully truthful, we’ll be paying the price, literally. That guy is a whole separate post though!

Thoughts for this morning:
~ It was just above freezing this morning when I left for work and its still September. I bet people at home in the ghetto-Fresno area are still hot. I wore a jacket the last two mornings to work!
~ Are my friends "black" or "African-American"? My buddy Shelly in college said that she was black. She's not African-American because he wasn't born in Africa. But Nebyou argued that his skin isn't "black" therefore he's African-American. Interesting thought. It came to mind as I was reading some stuff on diversity.
~ Why are people so stupid? My neighbor mailed me a letter. He's my neighbor, he could have stopped and chatted with me about his concern or even dropped off a note at my house. Mailing a letter to your neighbor... another interesting thought. More on that later!

i'm loving these "way back wednesdays" only i'm always a little behind. last week was something about sororities and frats. To take a picture drinking something fun. yes, i was part of a sorority, Alpha Delta Chi, but most of us didn't drink alcohol. so, none of those pictures. and i couldn't find a picture of me drinking anything else with that group so i have two pictures to share: one of me drinking and one of me with my sorority girls.

The first is of Nicole and me at Brooke and Ryan Phelan's wedding reception. I think it was just sparkling cider or something but i don't like it anyway. i doubt that i even had any to drink out of the glass.


The second picture is of Alisha and me at our national convention in LA one year. I couldn't find a picture of me and the girls either. So, i picked one with alisha since she just got married.

Pot Calling the Kettle Black
Each day I look forward to an update from my buddy, Cori. And yesterday I checked several times without ever seeing an update. So, finally I emailed her harassing about posting and she reminded me that I hadn’t posted either. Her comment was “people in glasses houses…” I so felt like the pot calling the kettle black so here’s my update – more than a few pictures.

As you know, Scott is now the focus of our lives. It’s a lot of fun. For a week, my nanny and Ugly (aka Aunt Janie) were out visiting. Now that I’m back to work, I didn’t get to spend the time I wanted to spend with them. But, I did have fun in the evenings and they had a great time with Scott and the folks during the day. Every night last week except one, I hung out with them. Tuesday we made supper at our house. Wednesday I hung out at mom’s with the old ladies and Scott while Ryan did AWANA JV. Thursday as soon as bible study ended, I headed to mom’s house. They’ve been sewing, sewing and sewing. Friday night we skipped the football game, ordered some pizza and went to mom’s right after work. I visited with the girls and the guys watched the ISU game. Saturday morning I went to mom’s where Nanny made my chocolate gravy and toast. Stayed for a few hours and then went home to clean. Good times.

Saturday night my friend, Laura, who works in our state office came up with her 3 kids and stayed the night. It was fun to sit and visit with her, eat some good grub and play with the kids. Sunday morning they joined us for church and then played with William the goat for a few minutes before they headed back home.

I was excited for an afternoon home with my honey and putting Scott down for a nap J He was eager to watch the Cardinals game on TV (the first game he’s seen for quite a while). So, instead of Scott taking a nap while I played with Ryan, I took a nap while Scott hung out with his dad. That night we had care&share group which is a small group from church who gets together.

Story of the week: while at our group, I decided to breastfeed Scott. I usually am prepared with a bottle for such outings. Scott, as usual, was making his sucking nose while he ate. As if that isn’t distracting enough, in between sucking noises, he was making a spitting noise too. I was super full and Scott was getting too much milk so he was spitting it out the side of his mouth. It was too funny (and kind of embarrassing). The kicker of the story is that all this was happening during prayer requests and prayer. So, here’s these people pouring their hearts out about cancer, etc and I’m sitting in the corner TRYING so hard not to laugh but not succeeding. Then Tracy, sitting right next to me, was also giggling and neither of us could stop. In the middle of prayer – I felt like such a heathen! It was too funny though and another new experience for us and our little guy.