Well, the past week or so has flown by, and we've been like a thousand different places. Last weekend we had Robert cat-sit for us and we drove down to Springfield and spent sometime with Dad and Chris. Our first night there we spent several hours at Incredible Pizza and we accumulated enough tickets for Ell and I to get our own sweatshirt and get a few toys to take back for Robert. Elliott ate at Lambert's Cafe (The home of the throwed rolls) for the first time and he loved every minute. We also checked out the local Toys R Us/Babies R Us while we were down there and we were surprised by all of the the cute little outfits and things for a baby girl that weren't pink (hallelujah!). We also set up and played Dad and Chris' new Wii and helped them get familiarized with it. We came back on Monday after a trip to Bass Pro Shop and recieving our Christmas gifts.
Tuesday I did some laundry, but we had another Doctor appointment that afternoon. We keep being told that everything is great and that the kid's heartbeat is around 150 bpm which is perfect. After making a trip to Wal-Mat we gave Tiger his Christmas Gifts, 12 neon colored mice and a ball with a motorizedfeatherthingy on it.
Wednesday I finished up our laundry and did some house work before we headed to Sterling to stay at Mom and Frank's so we'd be closer to all of the get together's that would take place over the next few days, and we were also expecting a horrible winter storm.
Thursday (Christmas Eve) there was no horrible storm in our area or around Hutch where we went that evening to do Christmas with the Swain's. Dinner was at 5pm at the Airport Steakhouse and then we atttened Ell's Grandparent's church before heading back to open gifts and chit-chat.
Friday (Christmas Day) we slept in till around 10am before going down stairs and opening gifts with Mom, Frank, Robert and all 3 cats and the 2 dogs. Elliott had fun programing his new LED name tag. After getting around we headed over to Grandma and Papa Klein's and had lunch and opened gifts with a few of my cousins and aunts. Grandma was being a pain in the butt and had a major problem of kissing up to Elliott. We tried to get out of there as soon as we could just so we could put all of the dysfunction behind us. We went back to mom's and watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and packed up and loaded up the car. Then we headed over to Nanny and Papa Ricker's house. I helped mom and Aunt Charlotte cook and Elliott and I set the table and poured the water glasses. After dinner and dessert we sat around in the siting room and exchanged gifts (this year we all drew names). Elliott got the hilarious, but informational, Baby Instruction Manual. We then came home and relaxed with Tiger before heading to bed.
Saturday we slept in and lounged around and watched the NFC Championship game from 1982 on the NFL Network before heading over to Tom and Nancy's for dinner. After dinner and dessert we opened gifts and played Taboo and Trivial pursuit.
Sunday (Yesterday) we woke up around 10 am to several text messages on my phone from dad asking if we'd meet him with Robert. I alerted Bob to get ready and after picking up some snacks at the grocery store in town we drove down and picked Rob-Bob up and headed to Parsons to meet dad. We meet at Sirloin Stockade and dad treated us to an early supper around 4:30pm. After making the switch and getting gas at the north edge of town we headed back home. We arrived home around 10pm and after lounging in front of the TV for a few we went to bed.
There isn't much on our agenda today except Laundry today and tonight we're going on a dinner and movie "Date night," which will probably be the last one we'll get in a long time (props to mom for thinking of the gift cards for this).
Monday, December 28, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Time flew by
I know it's been a few days since I've written in here and if you're a dedicated follower I apologize, we're not dead I've just been a little lazy or preoccupied. In the past few days we've had snow, a Dr appointment, the first of several Christmas get togethers, and a wedding.
Last Wednesday we drove down to Hutch for a Dr apt and after more lab junk, we got a thumbs up. I'm still healthy and the kiddo still has a strong normal heartbeat. After the appointment we stopped by Ell's grandparents' house and with the help of his grandfather Ell put a new battery in his car so we wouldn't have a repeat of Wednesday morning (see previous post). After leaving we headed home. Keeping an ear to Ell's scanner we heard of a horrible accident on K-96 just outside of Nickerson. When we got towards it, we discovered that the highway was closed and that there were 3 people trapped inside the vehicles and that they needed more manpower and that 2 helicopters were on the way. We decided to stick around and watch Lifeteam land, pick-up and take off. Little did we know, but Elliott knew the girl in the car and I knew the older couple in the truck (the woman in the truck passed away later that evening at the Hospital). We drove back to Hutch and ate dinner and did a little bit of shopping at Wal-Mart, before finally heading home.
Thursday and Friday were both very uneventful, Ell went to work and I stayed at home with the cat. He came home around 5, we ate supper, watched TV, we went to bed, yadda, yadda, yadda, married life is really boring.
Saturday we slept in before getting up and getting ready to head out for a busy evening. We drove down to Hutch for a Christmas get together with Nancy's side of the family (Ell's mom). We were only able to hang around for about and hour. Long enough to say "hellos," eat and say goodbye. Then we rushed to Sterling for one of my good friend's wedding (she was one of my bridesmaids at our wedding). We saw Ashy get married off, and enjoyed and caught up with friends at the reception before trekking home. We stopped at Wal-Mart and Elliott bought and put new headlights on his car.
Sunday was pretty boring we watched football all day and went to bed watching White Christmas on AMC. Today was just like every other day. Except this evening while watching football Elliot worked on dusting off and cleaning up some of his Lego collection that he picked up after work. now it's getting late and I'm actually typing this in bed on the laptop and I think it's safe to say Ell and I will be going to bed very soon.
Last Wednesday we drove down to Hutch for a Dr apt and after more lab junk, we got a thumbs up. I'm still healthy and the kiddo still has a strong normal heartbeat. After the appointment we stopped by Ell's grandparents' house and with the help of his grandfather Ell put a new battery in his car so we wouldn't have a repeat of Wednesday morning (see previous post). After leaving we headed home. Keeping an ear to Ell's scanner we heard of a horrible accident on K-96 just outside of Nickerson. When we got towards it, we discovered that the highway was closed and that there were 3 people trapped inside the vehicles and that they needed more manpower and that 2 helicopters were on the way. We decided to stick around and watch Lifeteam land, pick-up and take off. Little did we know, but Elliott knew the girl in the car and I knew the older couple in the truck (the woman in the truck passed away later that evening at the Hospital). We drove back to Hutch and ate dinner and did a little bit of shopping at Wal-Mart, before finally heading home.
Thursday and Friday were both very uneventful, Ell went to work and I stayed at home with the cat. He came home around 5, we ate supper, watched TV, we went to bed, yadda, yadda, yadda, married life is really boring.
Saturday we slept in before getting up and getting ready to head out for a busy evening. We drove down to Hutch for a Christmas get together with Nancy's side of the family (Ell's mom). We were only able to hang around for about and hour. Long enough to say "hellos," eat and say goodbye. Then we rushed to Sterling for one of my good friend's wedding (she was one of my bridesmaids at our wedding). We saw Ashy get married off, and enjoyed and caught up with friends at the reception before trekking home. We stopped at Wal-Mart and Elliott bought and put new headlights on his car.
Sunday was pretty boring we watched football all day and went to bed watching White Christmas on AMC. Today was just like every other day. Except this evening while watching football Elliot worked on dusting off and cleaning up some of his Lego collection that he picked up after work. now it's getting late and I'm actually typing this in bed on the laptop and I think it's safe to say Ell and I will be going to bed very soon.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Snow is pretty, but a pain in the butt
Where should I begin, yesterday we received the first real snow of the season. Well it actually started Monday night, but whatever. Ell and I got up and around at 6-ish thanks to the kitty alarm (Tiger was whining). Elliott checked his messages and discovered that Barton Community College, the Great Bend campus, was closed for the day. We spent sometime giving tiger some attention and Ell kept a close eye on school closings on ksn.com. A high majority of the schools in the area were closing, however I noticed 2 were missing, Sterling and Ellinwood. My mom is a teacher at Ellinwood Grade School, and lives in Sterling. There's a running joke that it takes a biblical type flood or hell to freeze over for Ellinwood to close school and Sterling isn't far from that. I gave mom a call about the time Elliott informed me Ellinwood was closing for the day and she gave me the 411 (information) on the weather in Sterling. At this point we had about 4 inches outside the 4 front door and Sterling had maybe 2 inches like Hutch.
Elliott and I then took to napping, we were still a little tired and since Ell had a off day he settled into "His" recliner and I got back in bed for a few hours. The snow continued to fall outside all day. Around noon we lazily got up and made Tacos for lunch, YUM! the rest of the day was spent between periodically checking the snow outside, relaxing, and surfing the Internet (Elliott kept a sharp eye on weather stuff and road situations). I got bored around 3 and took a hot shower.
At 3:30 we lost our Internet connection and Elliott called Embarq and they let him know there were outages all over the state and that at the very latest they'd have our connection up by 11pm. We moved the little TV that was in the corner on the Kitchen counter around and out so Elliott could see it perfectly from his chair in the living room. We then watched Up and Alvin & the Chipmunks before dinner. I'd put stuff for chicken & dumplings in the crock pot at is was finally ready around 7-ish. I put in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation to watch while we ate and called mom to see how things were in Sterling and what they'd done during the day. she let me know that Sterling had right around 4 inches and that they'd gone to Chase and cleaned off the side walks and driveway for my grandparents. After eating I ventured outside and checked our snow level at is was around 7 inches. At this point the snow had stopped falling, but we had a nasty North, Northwest wind that was blowing the snow and making some deep drifts.
I came inside and Elliott let me know that the Internet was back up and after checking e-mail and Facebook we watched a few of the Rankin & Bass Christmas shows. I fell asleep for part of Rudolph's Shiny New Year and after it was over I made the call to go to bed, but not long after taking the DVD out and putting it away, the power went out.
I then went around the house lighting a few candles and Elliott turned his ear to his radio to see if the city guys were solving the problem. Luckily after about 20 minutes the power was back on and Ell was hearing reports of troopers stuck in snowdrifts on K-4. At this point both of us were awake and alert and getting to sleep was still a few hours away. After watching the weather channel and Family Guy I went to bed and talked Elliott out of his recliner and to come to bed with me. We both fell asleep not long after laying down and woke up around 6:30. I went back to sleep while Ell got around for work. At around 8 I got up and found Elliott to still be home. His car wouldn't start and there was a ton of snow in the driveway to boot. I got around and bundled up and helped Ell get his car out into the street so we could dig Rhonda (my car) out of a few feet of snow and get her turned in way to jump start Ell's car. After about 30 minutes of shoveling and pushing we were able to get Ell's car down the driveway and sort of in the street. then we dug Rhonda out and she started right up and I backed her up into the yard near Ell's car and we got Ell's car jump started. I put Rhonda back in the driveway and came inside. Ell put his car back in the driveway and let it warm up/run to charge the battery for few before finally heading of to work a little bit ago.
Ell's getting off at 11:30 and going to go to Wal-Mart and get a new battery and then coming home, eat lunch with me and then we've got to be in Hutch for a Dr's apt at 3. Fingers crossed that his car will start again and that I won't have to come bail him out and that we get to Hutch and back okay this afternoon.
Elliott and I then took to napping, we were still a little tired and since Ell had a off day he settled into "His" recliner and I got back in bed for a few hours. The snow continued to fall outside all day. Around noon we lazily got up and made Tacos for lunch, YUM! the rest of the day was spent between periodically checking the snow outside, relaxing, and surfing the Internet (Elliott kept a sharp eye on weather stuff and road situations). I got bored around 3 and took a hot shower.
At 3:30 we lost our Internet connection and Elliott called Embarq and they let him know there were outages all over the state and that at the very latest they'd have our connection up by 11pm. We moved the little TV that was in the corner on the Kitchen counter around and out so Elliott could see it perfectly from his chair in the living room. We then watched Up and Alvin & the Chipmunks before dinner. I'd put stuff for chicken & dumplings in the crock pot at is was finally ready around 7-ish. I put in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation to watch while we ate and called mom to see how things were in Sterling and what they'd done during the day. she let me know that Sterling had right around 4 inches and that they'd gone to Chase and cleaned off the side walks and driveway for my grandparents. After eating I ventured outside and checked our snow level at is was around 7 inches. At this point the snow had stopped falling, but we had a nasty North, Northwest wind that was blowing the snow and making some deep drifts.
I came inside and Elliott let me know that the Internet was back up and after checking e-mail and Facebook we watched a few of the Rankin & Bass Christmas shows. I fell asleep for part of Rudolph's Shiny New Year and after it was over I made the call to go to bed, but not long after taking the DVD out and putting it away, the power went out.
I then went around the house lighting a few candles and Elliott turned his ear to his radio to see if the city guys were solving the problem. Luckily after about 20 minutes the power was back on and Ell was hearing reports of troopers stuck in snowdrifts on K-4. At this point both of us were awake and alert and getting to sleep was still a few hours away. After watching the weather channel and Family Guy I went to bed and talked Elliott out of his recliner and to come to bed with me. We both fell asleep not long after laying down and woke up around 6:30. I went back to sleep while Ell got around for work. At around 8 I got up and found Elliott to still be home. His car wouldn't start and there was a ton of snow in the driveway to boot. I got around and bundled up and helped Ell get his car out into the street so we could dig Rhonda (my car) out of a few feet of snow and get her turned in way to jump start Ell's car. After about 30 minutes of shoveling and pushing we were able to get Ell's car down the driveway and sort of in the street. then we dug Rhonda out and she started right up and I backed her up into the yard near Ell's car and we got Ell's car jump started. I put Rhonda back in the driveway and came inside. Ell put his car back in the driveway and let it warm up/run to charge the battery for few before finally heading of to work a little bit ago.
Ell's getting off at 11:30 and going to go to Wal-Mart and get a new battery and then coming home, eat lunch with me and then we've got to be in Hutch for a Dr's apt at 3. Fingers crossed that his car will start again and that I won't have to come bail him out and that we get to Hutch and back okay this afternoon.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Living room has a new look
Well, things are finally changing in our house to welcome our little dude. We've got a crib now thanks to the use of "Uncle Bobby's" truck. Ell and I've been scoping them out and we found one of those really cool convertible ones (that you can turn into a toddler bed) for a very reasonable price and I checked and double checked the customer reviews and manufacturer whatnot to make sure we were getting something safe and worth keeping. We already have one of those portable playpens/bassinets thanks to Pastor Tom and Nancy and a crib bedding set thanks to Dad and Chris; so logically next thing to get was a crib.
Robert came up today and we went to Taco Ball, Walmart and the Walnut bowl. Just so you know Wii bowling is way easier than actual bowling. Normally Ell, Bob and I can get around 200, like we did playing after we got back to the house. However at the bowling alley Elliott was the only one to break 100, and it wasn't by much. After coming home we began the total redoing of the living room. Thanks to bob being here the boys moved the love seat in the living room and the 2 bookshelves to the garage and moved the blue Lazy-boy into the living room. After the big change-up the 3 of us put together the crib in around 20 minutes. The "Destructions" (directions) were a little vague, but we figured it out.
After putting the mattress and crib bedding in it, we took Robert down to The Rack on the south end of Great Bend. Afterwards we drove through the Zoo and saw all of the really cool Christmas lights they have up. They added dinosaurs and volcano this year! Then we came back to the house and played on the Wii. And a little while ago Robert decided it was getting late and he's going to spend the night and head home in the morning, if the roads aren't bad (there's a good chance for freezing drizzle and ice in the morning). We hope that anyone who drives around tomorrow is careful.
*Note: In the picture you can see the top of Elliott's head as he was lounging on the floor when I took it.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
The 3 "S's" Springfield, Shopping and Shatterproof Ornaments
This past weekend Elliott and I took a road trip to Springfield, MO to visit my Dad and Step-mom. We got a late start headed down and we dropped Ell's car off at Tom and Nancy's because Pastor Tom was nice enough to put new brake pads on Ell's car, because the ones he had on were worn down to the rotors. We gased up Rhonda and grabbed a quick lunch in South Hutch before heading down. We drove down to Wichita and took Highway 400 all the way down to I-44 that lead us straight to Springfield, it's really the quickest way there.
We got to dad's a little after 6pm and we went to Incredible Pizza, which is like Dave and Busters, only with a pizza buffet. After eating we played around in the game room and won several prizes, I think we end up with around 900 tickets. Then Ell and dad raced around in the go carts. I won't say who won, but Elliot got a ribbon, he he he (Ell almost lapped dad after only 10 laps). We went back to dad's and stayed up for a few before heading to bed.
In the morning we got around slowly before going to a store called Baby News. It's a baby specialty store and some of the stuff they had in there was just awesome. After looking around and falling in love with a recliner/rocker. I literally found the perfect nursery set, and Dad and Chris were nice enough to get it for us. Then we went to Bass Pro Shop and after checking out all of the new scenery we had lunch at Hemingways (awesome lunch buffet). After lunch we headed back towards Dad's and stopped at Petland, this pet store puts the Petco in Hutch to shame. It was huge and we saw lots of toys that Tiger would probably enjoy tearing to shreds. Next we stopped by a store called Basket Case and then headed back to the house (which was only 4 blocks away).
After relaxing for a while we met Chris' daughter Diana and her boyfriend TJ at the Battlefield Mall. We walked all around the mall and Elliott was pleased to find a candy store and bought around $20 worth of candy. Then we went to the Great Wall Buffet for dinner and they had the best Teriyaki Chicken I've ever had. After watching The Incredibles and chatting for a while we all headed to bed.
We got up Sunday morning and got the car loaded up and then we drove over to Fuddruckers for lunch. then dad drove us around town and showed us a few things before we headed home. We got gas a Rapid Roberts and then began our journey home. We came back the same way, except for one small shortcut. We took highway 77 just west of Augusta north to El Dorado and took K-254 through El Dorado all the way to K-96 on the north end of Wichita and then we came back through Hutch and Stopped in Sterling and saw Mom and Frank. Then we drove up to Bushton and I dropped Elliott off to pick up his car and I hurried home to Tiger. We left Tiger home alone the whole weekend and when I arrived home I could hear him crying inside after I got out of the car. I unlocked the door and came in and gave him some much needed attention and he didn't leave my side for around 40 minutes. after bringing in most of the stuff from the car, the rest I left for Elliott to bring in. I got a few of the Christmas decorations and tree from the garage and waited for Elliott to come home so we could put it up.
Ell came home about an hour after I'd gotten home and he finished bringing stuff in and we put up the tree and decorated it. Tiger became increasing interested in the tree and the ornaments that we were putting on it. thankfully all of the ornaments that are on the tree are plastic shatterproof ornaments and even if he gets them down he can't break them. We went to bed and got back into our normal routine yesterday morning and everything is back to normal, except for the fact that the cat is a major attention hog and he cries if he can't find us or if I lay back down and take a nap in morning after Elliott heads to work. So if we venture down to Springfield again we'll have to find a "cat sitter" or take him with us because I'm pretty sure leaving him alone for 3 days again would seriously traumatize the little guy.
We got to dad's a little after 6pm and we went to Incredible Pizza, which is like Dave and Busters, only with a pizza buffet. After eating we played around in the game room and won several prizes, I think we end up with around 900 tickets. Then Ell and dad raced around in the go carts. I won't say who won, but Elliot got a ribbon, he he he (Ell almost lapped dad after only 10 laps). We went back to dad's and stayed up for a few before heading to bed.
In the morning we got around slowly before going to a store called Baby News. It's a baby specialty store and some of the stuff they had in there was just awesome. After looking around and falling in love with a recliner/rocker. I literally found the perfect nursery set, and Dad and Chris were nice enough to get it for us. Then we went to Bass Pro Shop and after checking out all of the new scenery we had lunch at Hemingways (awesome lunch buffet). After lunch we headed back towards Dad's and stopped at Petland, this pet store puts the Petco in Hutch to shame. It was huge and we saw lots of toys that Tiger would probably enjoy tearing to shreds. Next we stopped by a store called Basket Case and then headed back to the house (which was only 4 blocks away).
After relaxing for a while we met Chris' daughter Diana and her boyfriend TJ at the Battlefield Mall. We walked all around the mall and Elliott was pleased to find a candy store and bought around $20 worth of candy. Then we went to the Great Wall Buffet for dinner and they had the best Teriyaki Chicken I've ever had. After watching The Incredibles and chatting for a while we all headed to bed.
We got up Sunday morning and got the car loaded up and then we drove over to Fuddruckers for lunch. then dad drove us around town and showed us a few things before we headed home. We got gas a Rapid Roberts and then began our journey home. We came back the same way, except for one small shortcut. We took highway 77 just west of Augusta north to El Dorado and took K-254 through El Dorado all the way to K-96 on the north end of Wichita and then we came back through Hutch and Stopped in Sterling and saw Mom and Frank. Then we drove up to Bushton and I dropped Elliott off to pick up his car and I hurried home to Tiger. We left Tiger home alone the whole weekend and when I arrived home I could hear him crying inside after I got out of the car. I unlocked the door and came in and gave him some much needed attention and he didn't leave my side for around 40 minutes. after bringing in most of the stuff from the car, the rest I left for Elliott to bring in. I got a few of the Christmas decorations and tree from the garage and waited for Elliott to come home so we could put it up.
Ell came home about an hour after I'd gotten home and he finished bringing stuff in and we put up the tree and decorated it. Tiger became increasing interested in the tree and the ornaments that we were putting on it. thankfully all of the ornaments that are on the tree are plastic shatterproof ornaments and even if he gets them down he can't break them. We went to bed and got back into our normal routine yesterday morning and everything is back to normal, except for the fact that the cat is a major attention hog and he cries if he can't find us or if I lay back down and take a nap in morning after Elliott heads to work. So if we venture down to Springfield again we'll have to find a "cat sitter" or take him with us because I'm pretty sure leaving him alone for 3 days again would seriously traumatize the little guy.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Thanksgiving on the run
This year thanksgiving went by really fast. It could've been because we had to rush from place to place or that we've just lost the concept of a minute; whatever the case maybe I've got to make this short because Elliott and I need to leave for Springfield, MO soon.
The day started off a little sluggish and I got up and took a shower and let Elliott rest a little more, because I knew once we got going there wouldn't be much rest for him. He's doing much, much better from the last time I wrote in here. He still has the occasional coughing fit, but they aren't as bad or a frequent as they have been. He stopped running a fever on Wednesday, and the wheezing isn't really there anymore, only during a really bad coughing fit. After Ell got around, we headed down to Hutch to have lunch at the Swain's (Grandma and Grandpa Swain's), and Ell's parent's, Ell's aunt, uncle, cousin, youngest brother, and Kansas (he's a foster brother) were all there. We arrived a little later than planned because we had to drop a few things off at my mom's and when we stopped at mom and Frank's Ell noticed that one of our tires was really, really low, so we went to Corwin's Corner in Sterling and aired it back up.
Before and after lunch I caught what I could of the Packers vs Lions game; before realizing we were late for heading to my mom's to help her out.
Around 3:45 we got to mom's and mom was freaking a little, but my Aunt Charlotte was a god send, she'd arrived a little before us and was in the kitchen making the stuffing. Jim, Charlotte's husband was in the living room talking with Frank and Frank's daughter Kathy, her husband; their 2 boys were upstairs with Bob. Ell and I got the folding table and chairs out of the trunk and helped set the table, cook, and all sorts of stuff so everything would be ready for dinner around 5ish. A little before dinner everyone else showed up, my Grandparents, Charlotte's 2 boys, Frank's other daughter Kelly and her family, and I'm not sure who all else was there, but it was packed.
We ate and celebrated my cousin Spencer's 18th birthday that was yesterday as well. A couple of after dinner after helping aunt Charlotte and Jim clean up (mom was fried) I recruited Rob-Bob and Spence to take the folding table and chairs to the car and after saying goodbyes Ell and I headed home.
We stopped in Great Bend to pick up a few things at Wal-Mart and it was clean! There was nothing in the aisles and everything was neat on the shelves and in it's place, we know it's all for Black Friday stuff, but it's a modern miracle if you've ever been to the Great Bend Wal-Mart. We came back checked over Rhonda (My car) to make sure she'd be ready to go today, we're taking her to MO because the brake pads on Ell's car are completely worn down and desperately needs an oil change. So we topped off a few of her fluids and I'm pretty confident she's ready to go (the other good thing about my car was the last time we went to see my dad we took her and she got 38mpg). We came inside packed up a few things and I ran a load of laundry. then we played with the cat and watched Mythbusters for a bit before heading to bed.
The day started off a little sluggish and I got up and took a shower and let Elliott rest a little more, because I knew once we got going there wouldn't be much rest for him. He's doing much, much better from the last time I wrote in here. He still has the occasional coughing fit, but they aren't as bad or a frequent as they have been. He stopped running a fever on Wednesday, and the wheezing isn't really there anymore, only during a really bad coughing fit. After Ell got around, we headed down to Hutch to have lunch at the Swain's (Grandma and Grandpa Swain's), and Ell's parent's, Ell's aunt, uncle, cousin, youngest brother, and Kansas (he's a foster brother) were all there. We arrived a little later than planned because we had to drop a few things off at my mom's and when we stopped at mom and Frank's Ell noticed that one of our tires was really, really low, so we went to Corwin's Corner in Sterling and aired it back up.
Before and after lunch I caught what I could of the Packers vs Lions game; before realizing we were late for heading to my mom's to help her out.
Around 3:45 we got to mom's and mom was freaking a little, but my Aunt Charlotte was a god send, she'd arrived a little before us and was in the kitchen making the stuffing. Jim, Charlotte's husband was in the living room talking with Frank and Frank's daughter Kathy, her husband; their 2 boys were upstairs with Bob. Ell and I got the folding table and chairs out of the trunk and helped set the table, cook, and all sorts of stuff so everything would be ready for dinner around 5ish. A little before dinner everyone else showed up, my Grandparents, Charlotte's 2 boys, Frank's other daughter Kelly and her family, and I'm not sure who all else was there, but it was packed.
We ate and celebrated my cousin Spencer's 18th birthday that was yesterday as well. A couple of after dinner after helping aunt Charlotte and Jim clean up (mom was fried) I recruited Rob-Bob and Spence to take the folding table and chairs to the car and after saying goodbyes Ell and I headed home.
We stopped in Great Bend to pick up a few things at Wal-Mart and it was clean! There was nothing in the aisles and everything was neat on the shelves and in it's place, we know it's all for Black Friday stuff, but it's a modern miracle if you've ever been to the Great Bend Wal-Mart. We came back checked over Rhonda (My car) to make sure she'd be ready to go today, we're taking her to MO because the brake pads on Ell's car are completely worn down and desperately needs an oil change. So we topped off a few of her fluids and I'm pretty confident she's ready to go (the other good thing about my car was the last time we went to see my dad we took her and she got 38mpg). We came inside packed up a few things and I ran a load of laundry. then we played with the cat and watched Mythbusters for a bit before heading to bed.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Bad news, Bronchitis
Well, Elliott fought a fever all yesterday and a horrible cough. I made sure he was taking Tylenol and DayQuil and he was still running a 100 some fever. Last night was a long night, neither of us could get to sleep even though we both headed to bed around 11. Around 1:30am Ell let me know he was having chills out on the air mattress, so I said screw it to being contagious and I had him get in the bed with me and bundle up again. I turned on the heater in the house for a while to warm up the bedroom and the bathroom. We finally settled into sleep a little after 2am; it didn't last long though.
At 5:15am Elliott woke up coughing, woke me up too, and couldn't catch his breath for awhile and was wheezing terribly, I knew at this point we weren't dealing with just a random cold. Elliott had several other coughing fits to the point where he became very dizzy and he said a few times like he'd blacked out. We tried resting some more, because we both knew it wasn't bad enough for a trip to the ER, but that no Doctor's office would be open for a few hours. I thumbed through my medical books and made the amature diagnosis of Bronchitis, little did I know I was right.
Elliott hadn't had any medicine since a little after 11 last night, and the fever was still there at a little over 100. I grew really hungry and at 6:25 I got up and made myself a bowl of cereal and called mom to get her opinion, since she'd recently had Bronchitis. She agreed with the fact that I needed to get Ell to the Dr, but she figured Ell had the Flu because he had a fever. I laid back down after finishing my breakfast and giving the leftover milk to Tiger, he absolutely loves this.
Elliott knew he wasn't going to get much more sleep, if any, so he decided to take a hot shower to relax and possibly break his fever. I tried to get back to sleep, because I was exhausted. Around 20 minutes later I hear, "I need help!" from the bathroom and Tiger and I rushed to see what was the matter. I found Elliott on the floor of the bathroom bent over the toilet telling me he needed water because he was dry heaving. He'd started coughing violently and it made him start heaving up what slight mucus was in his stomach in the shower, so he shut the water off and went to the toilet. It was a little after 7:30 when I decided it was time to see if anyone was at the clinic that's attached to the hospital in town. Luckily one of the receptionists had just gotten there and I got Elliott in at 11, but since he was a new patient we needed to come in a half hour early to do paperwork.
I got Elliott dressed and wrapped up in his fleece blanket and he got cozy on the couch watching backed up episodes of House on the DVR. He was nice enough to let me go back to bed and try to get a little more sleep. I've discovered in the past 2 or 3 months that I need more sleep than I used to. I had him checking his temperature every 30 minutes and keeping me updated. He had 2 readings that were slightly over 101. I got maybe 45 minutes of sleep, and at 10 I got up, dressed and ready to go.
We headed over to the clinic, checked in, did the paperwork, made copies of the insurance card and waited. A little before 11 Ell was called back and the nurse took his, temp, blood pressure, sample history, and weighed him. Then the Dr came in and did a detailed work-up on Ell, getting a detailed history, and tested all of his reflexes and listened to his chest really well. The Dr said that he heard a squeaking/wheezing sound in Ell's lung around the area where he was trying to listen to Ell's heart. So after going through a few more things, and after finding out that the Dr used teach Paramedic/EMT classes at HCC a few years ago, he came to the diagnosis of Bronchitis. He wrote Ell a prescription for a Zpac of Zithromax and told him to take the maximum dosage of Mucinex for the next few days, but that his ailment was probably viral, so he could treat the symptoms, but that he'd most likely have to wait 5 to 7 days for the virus to run it's course.
After that we headed to Wal-Mart in Great Bend to get the Prescription. After waiting around in Subway in Wal-Mart, and getting lunch for me, cause I was super hungry Ell got his medicine and we came home. Elliott is currently in bed watching backed up Storm Chaser stuff on the DVR and I'm doing laundry and taking care of him the best I can.
We're waiting until tomorrow to pass judgement on whether or not to travel all around on Thursday for Thanksgiving. and wether or not we'll be going down to Springfield, MO this weekend to see my dad, like we'd been planning for several weeks. It's not that we don't want to see and spend the holiday with family it's we don't want to get anyone else sick, or make Ell worse.
At 5:15am Elliott woke up coughing, woke me up too, and couldn't catch his breath for awhile and was wheezing terribly, I knew at this point we weren't dealing with just a random cold. Elliott had several other coughing fits to the point where he became very dizzy and he said a few times like he'd blacked out. We tried resting some more, because we both knew it wasn't bad enough for a trip to the ER, but that no Doctor's office would be open for a few hours. I thumbed through my medical books and made the amature diagnosis of Bronchitis, little did I know I was right.
Elliott hadn't had any medicine since a little after 11 last night, and the fever was still there at a little over 100. I grew really hungry and at 6:25 I got up and made myself a bowl of cereal and called mom to get her opinion, since she'd recently had Bronchitis. She agreed with the fact that I needed to get Ell to the Dr, but she figured Ell had the Flu because he had a fever. I laid back down after finishing my breakfast and giving the leftover milk to Tiger, he absolutely loves this.
Elliott knew he wasn't going to get much more sleep, if any, so he decided to take a hot shower to relax and possibly break his fever. I tried to get back to sleep, because I was exhausted. Around 20 minutes later I hear, "I need help!" from the bathroom and Tiger and I rushed to see what was the matter. I found Elliott on the floor of the bathroom bent over the toilet telling me he needed water because he was dry heaving. He'd started coughing violently and it made him start heaving up what slight mucus was in his stomach in the shower, so he shut the water off and went to the toilet. It was a little after 7:30 when I decided it was time to see if anyone was at the clinic that's attached to the hospital in town. Luckily one of the receptionists had just gotten there and I got Elliott in at 11, but since he was a new patient we needed to come in a half hour early to do paperwork.
I got Elliott dressed and wrapped up in his fleece blanket and he got cozy on the couch watching backed up episodes of House on the DVR. He was nice enough to let me go back to bed and try to get a little more sleep. I've discovered in the past 2 or 3 months that I need more sleep than I used to. I had him checking his temperature every 30 minutes and keeping me updated. He had 2 readings that were slightly over 101. I got maybe 45 minutes of sleep, and at 10 I got up, dressed and ready to go.
We headed over to the clinic, checked in, did the paperwork, made copies of the insurance card and waited. A little before 11 Ell was called back and the nurse took his, temp, blood pressure, sample history, and weighed him. Then the Dr came in and did a detailed work-up on Ell, getting a detailed history, and tested all of his reflexes and listened to his chest really well. The Dr said that he heard a squeaking/wheezing sound in Ell's lung around the area where he was trying to listen to Ell's heart. So after going through a few more things, and after finding out that the Dr used teach Paramedic/EMT classes at HCC a few years ago, he came to the diagnosis of Bronchitis. He wrote Ell a prescription for a Zpac of Zithromax and told him to take the maximum dosage of Mucinex for the next few days, but that his ailment was probably viral, so he could treat the symptoms, but that he'd most likely have to wait 5 to 7 days for the virus to run it's course.
After that we headed to Wal-Mart in Great Bend to get the Prescription. After waiting around in Subway in Wal-Mart, and getting lunch for me, cause I was super hungry Ell got his medicine and we came home. Elliott is currently in bed watching backed up Storm Chaser stuff on the DVR and I'm doing laundry and taking care of him the best I can.
We're waiting until tomorrow to pass judgement on whether or not to travel all around on Thursday for Thanksgiving. and wether or not we'll be going down to Springfield, MO this weekend to see my dad, like we'd been planning for several weeks. It's not that we don't want to see and spend the holiday with family it's we don't want to get anyone else sick, or make Ell worse.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Not much excitement
You know when you're married, because you do the same thing every week. You go to the same places, you watch the same shows on TV, and you have the same routine for different things at the house and it just gets super boring. That's all that's happened these past few days; with the exception of Sunday really.
Friday, I did busy work around the house and played with Tiger. Ell came home, we watched TV for a few before going to get our biweekly groceries at Wal-Mart and Dillons, and we ate at Subway, just like always. We came home, and put the groceries away while the cat plyed with the plastic bags, this is quite humorous. then we sat around watched TV, mostly stuff backed up on the DVR and went to bed around midnight.
Saturday we slept in till 11-ish, and did pretty much nothing for a few hours, like always. Then I made and baked Oatmeal Raisin cookies to take to mom's on Sunday and Elliott went through stuff in the garage and drug out the christmas lights. He put the lights on the house while I put the clips on the strands to speed up the process. After an hour or so our job was complete and I came inside and made Spagetti. After supper we watched TV, played the Wii and played with the kitty, until a little after midnight and then we headed to bed. Ell slept on the air mattress in the living room, because he feared he was getting sick again and didn't want to get me sick again.
Sunday I got up around 10:30 took a shower played with Tiger and I let Elliott sleep until a quarter after Noon. Then I woke him up and had him shower before we ate and watched part of the Chiefs vs Steelers game. We left the house a little before 3pm right after the Chiefs tied the game up at 24 all. We went down to Sterling to spend the day with my mom, she turned 45 yesterday. Apperantly I'm the good one because other than Frank, I was the only one to remember it was mom's birthday, Robert blew it off and Nanny (my mom's mom) completely forgot about it. But seeing as she's in her 80's and has pnemonia we let her off the hook. Soon after we showed up, Rob-Bob (my brother) went to work at Dillons and mom, Frank, Ell and I watched UP. Then I helped mom make Chili for supper and we watched Wall-E. Not long after dinner, and after Bob came home from work, Ell and I headed home. The trip home lasted about 20 minutes longer because there was incredibly dense fog from Lyons through Ellinwood and Great Bend. Hoisington wasn't any better. We turned off Highway 281 onto our street, by the high school (which is 3 blocks from our house), and we couldn't even see a half a block in front of us. After coming home we watch a little more TV before going to bed. Elliott was still not feeling well and I'd developed, through the course of the day, some major back pain. Elliott was nice enough to give me a back rub before going to sleep on the air mattress again.
This morning we both got up an around at the usual 7am to discover Elliott's cough had gotten worse and he was running a fever, and my back pain was back with a headache. So we both went back to bed for a while and now I'm in the TV room on the computer typing this and Elliott is all wrapped up in the living room resting and watching South Park on the laptop, using Netflix instant or whatever. His fever came down a little while ago, but we're both gonna take it easy for today, and hope tomorrow is better.
Oh also, my brother Robert did not have the Swine Flu, he just had the seasonal flu and he's better, hence the fact that he want to work yesterday.
Friday, I did busy work around the house and played with Tiger. Ell came home, we watched TV for a few before going to get our biweekly groceries at Wal-Mart and Dillons, and we ate at Subway, just like always. We came home, and put the groceries away while the cat plyed with the plastic bags, this is quite humorous. then we sat around watched TV, mostly stuff backed up on the DVR and went to bed around midnight.
Saturday we slept in till 11-ish, and did pretty much nothing for a few hours, like always. Then I made and baked Oatmeal Raisin cookies to take to mom's on Sunday and Elliott went through stuff in the garage and drug out the christmas lights. He put the lights on the house while I put the clips on the strands to speed up the process. After an hour or so our job was complete and I came inside and made Spagetti. After supper we watched TV, played the Wii and played with the kitty, until a little after midnight and then we headed to bed. Ell slept on the air mattress in the living room, because he feared he was getting sick again and didn't want to get me sick again.
Sunday I got up around 10:30 took a shower played with Tiger and I let Elliott sleep until a quarter after Noon. Then I woke him up and had him shower before we ate and watched part of the Chiefs vs Steelers game. We left the house a little before 3pm right after the Chiefs tied the game up at 24 all. We went down to Sterling to spend the day with my mom, she turned 45 yesterday. Apperantly I'm the good one because other than Frank, I was the only one to remember it was mom's birthday, Robert blew it off and Nanny (my mom's mom) completely forgot about it. But seeing as she's in her 80's and has pnemonia we let her off the hook. Soon after we showed up, Rob-Bob (my brother) went to work at Dillons and mom, Frank, Ell and I watched UP. Then I helped mom make Chili for supper and we watched Wall-E. Not long after dinner, and after Bob came home from work, Ell and I headed home. The trip home lasted about 20 minutes longer because there was incredibly dense fog from Lyons through Ellinwood and Great Bend. Hoisington wasn't any better. We turned off Highway 281 onto our street, by the high school (which is 3 blocks from our house), and we couldn't even see a half a block in front of us. After coming home we watch a little more TV before going to bed. Elliott was still not feeling well and I'd developed, through the course of the day, some major back pain. Elliott was nice enough to give me a back rub before going to sleep on the air mattress again.
This morning we both got up an around at the usual 7am to discover Elliott's cough had gotten worse and he was running a fever, and my back pain was back with a headache. So we both went back to bed for a while and now I'm in the TV room on the computer typing this and Elliott is all wrapped up in the living room resting and watching South Park on the laptop, using Netflix instant or whatever. His fever came down a little while ago, but we're both gonna take it easy for today, and hope tomorrow is better.
Oh also, my brother Robert did not have the Swine Flu, he just had the seasonal flu and he's better, hence the fact that he want to work yesterday.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Thursday update
Not much has happened since Monday. Ell's been to the chiropractor to get his back worked on, he's got a twisted disc, and I've recovered from the cold of death. The only constant this week is the fact that the cat is really trying our patience. Last night around 1am he decided he was going to get up onto the Kitchen counter/bar and play up there, and he tipped over and broke on of our Dave and Busters pint glasses. Yes, these are easily replaceable (because Ell and I have no problem winning tickets there), but it's the fact that we were awaken to the sound of breaking glass that really sucked. I also found the little pain in the butt opening and playing the kitchen cabinets this morning, so I let Elliott know that we'll have to "Baby proof" the cabinets before the kid playing in them is an issue, because of the cat
So far this week we've linked our Wii with Kevin and Shelly's (my aunt and uncle/godparents) and Greg and Kristi's (another aunt and uncle of mine) and we've been Mario Kart racing with my cousin Diana (nicknamed "Nay-Nay"). This has been fun, but we're trying to get more people involved, so if you read this and you actually know Elliott or I we'd love to race you as well. :)
Monday and Tuesday were extremely uneventful, the only things that went down were Kart racing with Nay-Nay and house work, okay I did housework and I reminded Elliott of his chores, which I believe he only did 2. Wednesday I went down to Sterling to hang and talk with mom who is recovering from bronchitis. Mom let me know that Rob-Bob was sick, but after checking on him before dinner, we discovered he had an extremely high fever, respiratory problems and symptoms way worse than the cold of death. So, I put 2 and 2 together and asked Robert if he'd had classes with kids that've had "Swine Flu" H1N1, and he said yes, several classes with kids that have it or had it. So, I let mom know that bob should probably get to the doctor as soon as it opens in the morning.
Really our week so far has pretty uneventful; as far as Doctor appts go, I don't have another one till Dec 9th. I checked the results of all of my lab tests online and I am in great health, my glucose levels are normal, my CBC or blood screen is fine I have the normal amounts of red blood cells, white blood cells, hemoglobin, platelets, and Hematocrit. I don't have any of the following diseases: Rubella, Gonorrhea, HIV/ADIS, Chlamydia, Hepatitis B, Diabetes, Mumps, Measles, or HPV. I don't have pre-eclamsia or any of the other pregnancy disorders or diseases, so it looks like smooth sailing till January.
So far this week we've linked our Wii with Kevin and Shelly's (my aunt and uncle/godparents) and Greg and Kristi's (another aunt and uncle of mine) and we've been Mario Kart racing with my cousin Diana (nicknamed "Nay-Nay"). This has been fun, but we're trying to get more people involved, so if you read this and you actually know Elliott or I we'd love to race you as well. :)
Monday and Tuesday were extremely uneventful, the only things that went down were Kart racing with Nay-Nay and house work, okay I did housework and I reminded Elliott of his chores, which I believe he only did 2. Wednesday I went down to Sterling to hang and talk with mom who is recovering from bronchitis. Mom let me know that Rob-Bob was sick, but after checking on him before dinner, we discovered he had an extremely high fever, respiratory problems and symptoms way worse than the cold of death. So, I put 2 and 2 together and asked Robert if he'd had classes with kids that've had "Swine Flu" H1N1, and he said yes, several classes with kids that have it or had it. So, I let mom know that bob should probably get to the doctor as soon as it opens in the morning.
Really our week so far has pretty uneventful; as far as Doctor appts go, I don't have another one till Dec 9th. I checked the results of all of my lab tests online and I am in great health, my glucose levels are normal, my CBC or blood screen is fine I have the normal amounts of red blood cells, white blood cells, hemoglobin, platelets, and Hematocrit. I don't have any of the following diseases: Rubella, Gonorrhea, HIV/ADIS, Chlamydia, Hepatitis B, Diabetes, Mumps, Measles, or HPV. I don't have pre-eclamsia or any of the other pregnancy disorders or diseases, so it looks like smooth sailing till January.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Not our day
This weekend was relatively uneventful, however Sunday was semi-interesting. I should warn you this might be a little weird, because I'm attempting to type on the laptop and Tiger is being a cuddle hog and is laying on my chest/stomach.
Saturday was a really lazy day we didn't do much of anything except play with Tiger, watch TV and relax. in the later half of Saturday night I knew I was getting increasingly congested and I had increasing pressure in my head/sinuses. We went to bed around midnight after I took Sutafed and DayQuil (I'm not allowed to take NyQuil because it has alcohol in it).
Sunday I awoke with the cold of death and a slightly elevated temp, which was quickly brought back to normal with Tylenol. Elliott in his running around the house getting me medicine to take and orange juice; he spun around too quickly in the bedroom doorway became dizzy and fell over, whacking his knee on the way down. After both of us rested our aching bodies watching football for several hours, Ell kept tabs on the approaching winter storm and remembered that the snow shovel was broken. We bundled up and headed to Wal-Mart. Ell's knee had regained it's ability to support his weight and I felt immensely better. We picked up a 20" shovel and approx 50lb bag of ice melt, because I checked in the garage and we had less than a pound left.
After leaving Wal-Mart, we went to KFC, Elliott has been craving fried chicken and biscuits for sometime now. We ate and people watched for around 45 minutes. After eating we walked outside to find sleet falling from the sky, but it was light enough and not cold enough that it melted on the ground. We got in the car and Elliott hacked up some mucus and kept the door oppen to spit it out into the parking lot. He then shut the door put his keys in hte ignition, and then opened the door to do it again, or so I thought. He shut the door and informed me he threw up a little. After being slightly grossed out and worried about him doing it again, he assured me that he was fine and that it was just super weird. We then carefully drove home and I immediately checked the score of the Cowboys vs Green Bay game that was on earlier. Elliott said he would put the shovel away and put out a little bit of rock salt to ensure that he wouldn't have any problems getting to his car in the morning for work. After a few he came in complaining of severe back pain and informed me that he'd messed up his lower back cause he lifted the 50lb bag of salt incorrectly and that he was now paying the price.
We got the heating pad set on his lower back and I called my mom to give her crap about her precious Cowboys losing (Evil chuckle). After Ell and I watched the Patriots lose to the Colts (Evil chuckle) we watched a few shows on TV before heading to bed around midnight. Sleep was still a few hours away for both of us. My runny nose kicked into high gear and Elliott was extremely uncomfortable so we ended up watching Cheaper by the Dozen on TBS in the bedroom. Around 2 something in the morning I blew my nose only to pull the Kleenex away stained blood red and my nose was still dripping blood. After 10 more tissues and 2 different ways of holding my head/nose I got it under control/stopped. I'm not sure how long it was after that, when Elliott and I finally fell asleep but I woke up at around 6 am to Saved by the Bell on the TV, Tiger whining at the door and my nose running. Ell's alarms went off 30 minutes later and I helped him get up and round for work before taking more medicine because once again I felt like crap. Elliott left for work and I went back to bed.
I got up after sleeping for a few hours and Elliott informed me he took off from work for a little while to go to the Chiropractor, to get his back taken care of. Sunday was not our day; and I've got a chapped nose and Elliott has a bad back to prove it.
Saturday was a really lazy day we didn't do much of anything except play with Tiger, watch TV and relax. in the later half of Saturday night I knew I was getting increasingly congested and I had increasing pressure in my head/sinuses. We went to bed around midnight after I took Sutafed and DayQuil (I'm not allowed to take NyQuil because it has alcohol in it).
Sunday I awoke with the cold of death and a slightly elevated temp, which was quickly brought back to normal with Tylenol. Elliott in his running around the house getting me medicine to take and orange juice; he spun around too quickly in the bedroom doorway became dizzy and fell over, whacking his knee on the way down. After both of us rested our aching bodies watching football for several hours, Ell kept tabs on the approaching winter storm and remembered that the snow shovel was broken. We bundled up and headed to Wal-Mart. Ell's knee had regained it's ability to support his weight and I felt immensely better. We picked up a 20" shovel and approx 50lb bag of ice melt, because I checked in the garage and we had less than a pound left.
After leaving Wal-Mart, we went to KFC, Elliott has been craving fried chicken and biscuits for sometime now. We ate and people watched for around 45 minutes. After eating we walked outside to find sleet falling from the sky, but it was light enough and not cold enough that it melted on the ground. We got in the car and Elliott hacked up some mucus and kept the door oppen to spit it out into the parking lot. He then shut the door put his keys in hte ignition, and then opened the door to do it again, or so I thought. He shut the door and informed me he threw up a little. After being slightly grossed out and worried about him doing it again, he assured me that he was fine and that it was just super weird. We then carefully drove home and I immediately checked the score of the Cowboys vs Green Bay game that was on earlier. Elliott said he would put the shovel away and put out a little bit of rock salt to ensure that he wouldn't have any problems getting to his car in the morning for work. After a few he came in complaining of severe back pain and informed me that he'd messed up his lower back cause he lifted the 50lb bag of salt incorrectly and that he was now paying the price.
We got the heating pad set on his lower back and I called my mom to give her crap about her precious Cowboys losing (Evil chuckle). After Ell and I watched the Patriots lose to the Colts (Evil chuckle) we watched a few shows on TV before heading to bed around midnight. Sleep was still a few hours away for both of us. My runny nose kicked into high gear and Elliott was extremely uncomfortable so we ended up watching Cheaper by the Dozen on TBS in the bedroom. Around 2 something in the morning I blew my nose only to pull the Kleenex away stained blood red and my nose was still dripping blood. After 10 more tissues and 2 different ways of holding my head/nose I got it under control/stopped. I'm not sure how long it was after that, when Elliott and I finally fell asleep but I woke up at around 6 am to Saved by the Bell on the TV, Tiger whining at the door and my nose running. Ell's alarms went off 30 minutes later and I helped him get up and round for work before taking more medicine because once again I felt like crap. Elliott left for work and I went back to bed.
I got up after sleeping for a few hours and Elliott informed me he took off from work for a little while to go to the Chiropractor, to get his back taken care of. Sunday was not our day; and I've got a chapped nose and Elliott has a bad back to prove it.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Veterans day.
I've always experienced Veterans Day with a sense of pride. At Sterling they usually had a Veterans day assembly and the band would play the different songs of the branches of the Military, I later joined them, and the choir would sing Battle hymn of the Republic. Papa Klein was always there dressed in his dress whites and I always felt lucky that I could thank my own grandfather for being able to live in this great nation we do today.
This year was different, I didn't get to thank him this year. I didn't play Anchors Aweigh on my sax. I didn't outwardly celebrate the men and women that put their lives on the line for our safety. A thank you to Sam and Kim (Elliott's younger brother and his wife) for their dedication to our country; they were in Iraq last year and they are currently in Egypt making frequent trips to Israel.
This year I got up got around for the day. I played with Tiger for a while before Elliott came home around lunch. We ate and watched Jeopardy on the game show network, before leaving for Hutch. We drove down to the Hutchinson Clinic, encountering almost every slow driver on the planet.
We had to report to the lab first so I could get a "sugar drink" so in an hour the vampires could take my blood and measure my glucose levels. (I drink Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew I know that they've got to be high) I choked down the sugar drink and we hustled up to OB/GYN. After waiting a few minutes and playing around with the timer the gal in Lab gave me. The ultrasound tech called us back. We walked all the way to the back of the department into a dimly lit room. At first when I walked in I noticed the monitor on the ultrasound thingy was only a 17" or maybe 19" and I was kinda bummed cause it'd look really small, then the gal told me to hop up onto this reclined table and not 8' in front of me hanging on the wall was a 48" flat screen that was hooked into the system...this was gonna be cool.
Elliott tossed my bag onto one of the chairs and stood beside me at the gal started looking around for the baby. She found it and determined that the head was down and the kid had it's butt up by my rib cage, leave it to my kid to be a goofball. The tech then went through and identified the different parts of the brain, how big around the head was, the heart, the stomach, the kidneys, hands, feet and the pelvis. She then asked if we wanted to know the sex and Ell and I both answered "yes." She looked around the front side of the pelvis and was able to clearly identify it was a girl. Well, I didn't get my linebacker, but I know that we currently have a very healthy and well developed little girl.
*Note to all friends, Family, or random people who want to give us stuff. NO PINK STUFF! Even though we'll be having a girl she's gonna watch football, play sports and hardly ever wear dresses. I know that it's somewhat challenging to find stuff for girls that isn't pink, but other stuff is out there. If in the future she decides she likes pink you can go hog wild with the pink, but until she decides the no pink rule stands.
Okay, back to ultrasound story. After learning it was a girl we then went back to the heart and other organs and it's the coolest thing ever to see a tiny heart beating seeing all 4 chambers doing their job in unison beating at 148 beats per minute is just awesome! We listen to the heart beat for just a few seconds; and then we looked at the blood flow from the umbilical cord in a different view that lit up the blood like neon and that was just as cool. The tech then tried to get different shapshots so we could have something to take with us and show everyone. Trying to get a profile shot in the 4D view showed the kid's stubborn side she didn't really want us to have a good profile shot, but we got on that does show the cheek, nose, left eye, and lips pretty well. After we were through the tech started printing out a few pictures and put several others on a CD for us and we discovered that she was a Cowboys fan. While the CD was being burnt Ell and went down to the little waiting room in the OB/GYN dept and waited on the CD and to see the Doctor.
After a few minutes the ultrasound tech brought us the pictures and the CD, and an other minute later we were called back into a room. The nurse took my blood pressure and asked a few questions before leaving to go pass the information onto the Dr. Elliott and amused ourselves by measuring our height and playing with the slide thingy that predicts your due date. The Dr came in and we had a short chat about my health overall, he was impressed that everything was where it should be and that the ultrasound showed a healthy 2lb 2oz little girl. He asked us if we'd thought about a birthing class and said that one of his nurses, Jan, does a great one. It's only 3 hours, but it's very informative and to the point. He said that he attended it 3 times with his wife, that even though he was a board certified OB his wife made him go to it. he said we didn't need to come in for a month because things were excellent, but to give the office a call if any problems did arise.
We then went down the hall and got the information for the birthing class, and went to the front desk to schedule our next appt which will be on Dec 9th and we also got signed up for the January 5th birthing class. Then we had to hustle down to the lab cause the hour was up. the gal taking my blood finally hit my vein after wiggling the needle around for 30 seconds in my arm, not fun.
Elliott and I left and we visited Nancy at work for a few and showed her the ultrasound shots; and then we left for Sterling and on the way down I called Dad and Shelly to let them know what was going down. then we went to mom's and played with Jackson and Sambo before mom got home from school. then after making a trip to Dillon's in town to get Mountain Dew and see Rob-Bob at work mom had homemade chicken and noodles for supper, I did help de-bone the chicken. A little after dinner Ell and I headed home and Tiger was anxious to see us and he decided that our attention needed to be all on him. We watched TV for a while before heading to bed around 11:30ish.
This year was different, I didn't get to thank him this year. I didn't play Anchors Aweigh on my sax. I didn't outwardly celebrate the men and women that put their lives on the line for our safety. A thank you to Sam and Kim (Elliott's younger brother and his wife) for their dedication to our country; they were in Iraq last year and they are currently in Egypt making frequent trips to Israel.
This year I got up got around for the day. I played with Tiger for a while before Elliott came home around lunch. We ate and watched Jeopardy on the game show network, before leaving for Hutch. We drove down to the Hutchinson Clinic, encountering almost every slow driver on the planet.
We had to report to the lab first so I could get a "sugar drink" so in an hour the vampires could take my blood and measure my glucose levels. (I drink Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew I know that they've got to be high) I choked down the sugar drink and we hustled up to OB/GYN. After waiting a few minutes and playing around with the timer the gal in Lab gave me. The ultrasound tech called us back. We walked all the way to the back of the department into a dimly lit room. At first when I walked in I noticed the monitor on the ultrasound thingy was only a 17" or maybe 19" and I was kinda bummed cause it'd look really small, then the gal told me to hop up onto this reclined table and not 8' in front of me hanging on the wall was a 48" flat screen that was hooked into the system...this was gonna be cool.
Elliott tossed my bag onto one of the chairs and stood beside me at the gal started looking around for the baby. She found it and determined that the head was down and the kid had it's butt up by my rib cage, leave it to my kid to be a goofball. The tech then went through and identified the different parts of the brain, how big around the head was, the heart, the stomach, the kidneys, hands, feet and the pelvis. She then asked if we wanted to know the sex and Ell and I both answered "yes." She looked around the front side of the pelvis and was able to clearly identify it was a girl. Well, I didn't get my linebacker, but I know that we currently have a very healthy and well developed little girl.
*Note to all friends, Family, or random people who want to give us stuff. NO PINK STUFF! Even though we'll be having a girl she's gonna watch football, play sports and hardly ever wear dresses. I know that it's somewhat challenging to find stuff for girls that isn't pink, but other stuff is out there. If in the future she decides she likes pink you can go hog wild with the pink, but until she decides the no pink rule stands.
Okay, back to ultrasound story. After learning it was a girl we then went back to the heart and other organs and it's the coolest thing ever to see a tiny heart beating seeing all 4 chambers doing their job in unison beating at 148 beats per minute is just awesome! We listen to the heart beat for just a few seconds; and then we looked at the blood flow from the umbilical cord in a different view that lit up the blood like neon and that was just as cool. The tech then tried to get different shapshots so we could have something to take with us and show everyone. Trying to get a profile shot in the 4D view showed the kid's stubborn side she didn't really want us to have a good profile shot, but we got on that does show the cheek, nose, left eye, and lips pretty well. After we were through the tech started printing out a few pictures and put several others on a CD for us and we discovered that she was a Cowboys fan. While the CD was being burnt Ell and went down to the little waiting room in the OB/GYN dept and waited on the CD and to see the Doctor.
After a few minutes the ultrasound tech brought us the pictures and the CD, and an other minute later we were called back into a room. The nurse took my blood pressure and asked a few questions before leaving to go pass the information onto the Dr. Elliott and amused ourselves by measuring our height and playing with the slide thingy that predicts your due date. The Dr came in and we had a short chat about my health overall, he was impressed that everything was where it should be and that the ultrasound showed a healthy 2lb 2oz little girl. He asked us if we'd thought about a birthing class and said that one of his nurses, Jan, does a great one. It's only 3 hours, but it's very informative and to the point. He said that he attended it 3 times with his wife, that even though he was a board certified OB his wife made him go to it. he said we didn't need to come in for a month because things were excellent, but to give the office a call if any problems did arise.
We then went down the hall and got the information for the birthing class, and went to the front desk to schedule our next appt which will be on Dec 9th and we also got signed up for the January 5th birthing class. Then we had to hustle down to the lab cause the hour was up. the gal taking my blood finally hit my vein after wiggling the needle around for 30 seconds in my arm, not fun.
Elliott and I left and we visited Nancy at work for a few and showed her the ultrasound shots; and then we left for Sterling and on the way down I called Dad and Shelly to let them know what was going down. then we went to mom's and played with Jackson and Sambo before mom got home from school. then after making a trip to Dillon's in town to get Mountain Dew and see Rob-Bob at work mom had homemade chicken and noodles for supper, I did help de-bone the chicken. A little after dinner Ell and I headed home and Tiger was anxious to see us and he decided that our attention needed to be all on him. We watched TV for a while before heading to bed around 11:30ish.
Monday, November 9, 2009
The Weekend
This weekend was moderately busy for us. We did our grocery shopping for 2 weeks at Wal-Mart and Dillons Friday night. While we were in Wal-Mart Elliott picked out a pair of newborn shoes that says "Dad's team" on the side, he wanted to get them to hang on his rear view mirror and then be first shoes on our son or daughter. After spending over $150 and 2 hours later we came home put all the food away and picked-up the living room. Tiger was glued to the front door meowing at the neighbor's cat that frequently comes over and sits on our front step and talks with Tiger.
Saturday we got up and we had several things to take to the garage that I'd gone through on Friday. Elliott also wanted to work on our Kelliott website and I vacuumed out our cars. Who knew we'd have perfect weather in November?!? Anywho, after I was finished I put the shop vac away and played Guitar Hero in our garage/Elliott's man cave. My Dad and Chris came over at around 5pm and they'd gotten us our very first installment of baby items. They'd found some really awesome Kansas City Chiefs items: A Chiefs onesie with a bib and sweatpants, 6-pack of red washcloths with the KC arrowhead logo on them and they also found a really soft teddy bear in a chiefs jersey that came with a fleece blanket. Dad and Chris also got the kiddo it's first bib overalls, it's a redneck/Ozark hillbilly thing, and a red onesie that says I heart my mommy. Dad and Christ treated us to dinner at The Rack in Great Bend and before they left to head back to Lindsborg, to pick-up Chris' grandson Scott. We showed them the "Man Cave." Ell and I relaxed in front of the TV for a while, watching stuff on our DVR from earlier this week, before heading to bed.
Sunday morning we awoke to the sound of Tiger scratching and meowing quite loudly at our bedroom door at 6:30! After an hour of laziness and smacking the snooze alarm every 9 minutes we got around and took showers and prepared to go meet the family at the Cafe in Sterling. Elliott and I arrived at the cafe around 9:30 and everyone was already there: Papa Klein, Grandma (Granny Goose), Dad, Chris, Greg (Uncle Bubba), Aunt Kristi, Rob-bob (my brother Robert), Lindsey (my cousin), Tuffy (My cousin Christopher), and Scott. Elliott, myself and our soon addition were the subject of several conversations over breakfast. Greg and Kristi had saved my cousin's crib and offered it to us to have, which I greatly appreciated, that's one less thing to buy. Chris and Kristi also decided to throw Elliott and I a baby shower, so that we won't have to buy everything.
After breakfast we met Dad and Chris down at the lake where they had stayed the night before in their camper. They took off after packing up and letting their 2 dogs, Jack and Scruffy, get some exercise. So around 1:30 we stopped by Mom and Frank's to find mom on a crusade to redo the main bathroom and Frank watching the Chiefs game. "Action" Jackson and Sambo "Rambo", mom and Frank's dogs, were delighted as always that we'd come over. We accompanied my mom to Hutch on her quest for new towels, flowers and a shower curtain. She found towels at Wal-Mart, called my Aunt Charlotte to put together a floral arrangement, and gave up on finding the right shower curtain after going through most of the stores in the mall. Elliott and I ate a late lunch in the mall and went shoe shopping for Elliott. After trying on a few pairs in Famous Footwear Ell found a pair he liked that was marked down $20 (Bonus!).
After coming back to Sterling and chatting for a few Elliott and I decided to journey home before it got too late and the dear were out running amuck. Sunday night football was on and we made dinner and watched the football game. Through out the evening Elliott kept making comments on how his head kept feeling worse and worse and how his stomach might have turned on him, but he took some NyQuil and we went to bed around 11:30. This morning when I got up I was surprised to find Elliott laying on the couch in TV room. He's got a head cold and his sense of balance is gone, so he's home resting today. I'm going to go warm him up some Chicken and Noodle soup and continue on the laundry I started before I sat down to write this. I'm also going to put Tiger in timeout, because he keeps tearing around the house destroying stuff.
Elliott and I loosely made up a registy on Wal-Mart.com. 99% of the items we like are avalible to be sent to the store of your choice with FREE shipping through "Site to Store" (it's in the back of the store, what used to be layaway) he's our link: https://www.walmart.com/giftregistry/gr_detail.do?registry_id=80513069098
Saturday we got up and we had several things to take to the garage that I'd gone through on Friday. Elliott also wanted to work on our Kelliott website and I vacuumed out our cars. Who knew we'd have perfect weather in November?!? Anywho, after I was finished I put the shop vac away and played Guitar Hero in our garage/Elliott's man cave. My Dad and Chris came over at around 5pm and they'd gotten us our very first installment of baby items. They'd found some really awesome Kansas City Chiefs items: A Chiefs onesie with a bib and sweatpants, 6-pack of red washcloths with the KC arrowhead logo on them and they also found a really soft teddy bear in a chiefs jersey that came with a fleece blanket. Dad and Chris also got the kiddo it's first bib overalls, it's a redneck/Ozark hillbilly thing, and a red onesie that says I heart my mommy. Dad and Christ treated us to dinner at The Rack in Great Bend and before they left to head back to Lindsborg, to pick-up Chris' grandson Scott. We showed them the "Man Cave." Ell and I relaxed in front of the TV for a while, watching stuff on our DVR from earlier this week, before heading to bed.
Sunday morning we awoke to the sound of Tiger scratching and meowing quite loudly at our bedroom door at 6:30! After an hour of laziness and smacking the snooze alarm every 9 minutes we got around and took showers and prepared to go meet the family at the Cafe in Sterling. Elliott and I arrived at the cafe around 9:30 and everyone was already there: Papa Klein, Grandma (Granny Goose), Dad, Chris, Greg (Uncle Bubba), Aunt Kristi, Rob-bob (my brother Robert), Lindsey (my cousin), Tuffy (My cousin Christopher), and Scott. Elliott, myself and our soon addition were the subject of several conversations over breakfast. Greg and Kristi had saved my cousin's crib and offered it to us to have, which I greatly appreciated, that's one less thing to buy. Chris and Kristi also decided to throw Elliott and I a baby shower, so that we won't have to buy everything.
After breakfast we met Dad and Chris down at the lake where they had stayed the night before in their camper. They took off after packing up and letting their 2 dogs, Jack and Scruffy, get some exercise. So around 1:30 we stopped by Mom and Frank's to find mom on a crusade to redo the main bathroom and Frank watching the Chiefs game. "Action" Jackson and Sambo "Rambo", mom and Frank's dogs, were delighted as always that we'd come over. We accompanied my mom to Hutch on her quest for new towels, flowers and a shower curtain. She found towels at Wal-Mart, called my Aunt Charlotte to put together a floral arrangement, and gave up on finding the right shower curtain after going through most of the stores in the mall. Elliott and I ate a late lunch in the mall and went shoe shopping for Elliott. After trying on a few pairs in Famous Footwear Ell found a pair he liked that was marked down $20 (Bonus!).
After coming back to Sterling and chatting for a few Elliott and I decided to journey home before it got too late and the dear were out running amuck. Sunday night football was on and we made dinner and watched the football game. Through out the evening Elliott kept making comments on how his head kept feeling worse and worse and how his stomach might have turned on him, but he took some NyQuil and we went to bed around 11:30. This morning when I got up I was surprised to find Elliott laying on the couch in TV room. He's got a head cold and his sense of balance is gone, so he's home resting today. I'm going to go warm him up some Chicken and Noodle soup and continue on the laundry I started before I sat down to write this. I'm also going to put Tiger in timeout, because he keeps tearing around the house destroying stuff.
Elliott and I loosely made up a registy on Wal-Mart.com. 99% of the items we like are avalible to be sent to the store of your choice with FREE shipping through "Site to Store" (it's in the back of the store, what used to be layaway) he's our link: https://www.walmart.com/giftregistry/gr_detail.do?registry_id=80513069098
Friday, November 6, 2009
A quick summary
I figured I'd start a blog so that everyone could know what was going on to some detail. Yes, Elliott and I both use Twitter, but 140 characters doesn't always give everyone the details they want.
So far this year, Elliott I got married on January 24Th. Took an amazing cruise to the Bahamas. I've been job hunting for months and we adopted a kitty (Tiger) in early August. Since then our lives have pretty much revolved around Tiger, playing with him several hours a day, laughing at his comical sleeping positions and getting him a Halloween costume.
I took on a project a week ago to carve a really cool pumpkin for Halloween and I almost bit off more than what I could handle (I didn't get an "A" in art in high school). However, after some work I created a really cool Puss 'n Boots Jack o' Lantern as my pumpkin and I created a design and cut out Toad (it's a Nintendo character) for Elliott's pumpkin.
Last week Elliott and I also made a trip to Hutch to run some errands and go to the doctor. We received the news that we were going to be parents, which was shocking to us because there really hadn't been any red flags that indicated I was, except that I no longer have a 27 inch waist and I've gained almost 20 pounds since March. At this juncture we're assuming I'm 27 weeks along, but we'll know exactly how far, what gender the baby is, and a semi-solid due date after our sonogram next Wednesday (November 11Th, Veterans Day).
You can feel free to follow Elliott and I on Twitter, Facebook or wait for post on here (they won't be everyday).
So far this year, Elliott I got married on January 24Th. Took an amazing cruise to the Bahamas. I've been job hunting for months and we adopted a kitty (Tiger) in early August. Since then our lives have pretty much revolved around Tiger, playing with him several hours a day, laughing at his comical sleeping positions and getting him a Halloween costume.
I took on a project a week ago to carve a really cool pumpkin for Halloween and I almost bit off more than what I could handle (I didn't get an "A" in art in high school). However, after some work I created a really cool Puss 'n Boots Jack o' Lantern as my pumpkin and I created a design and cut out Toad (it's a Nintendo character) for Elliott's pumpkin.
Last week Elliott and I also made a trip to Hutch to run some errands and go to the doctor. We received the news that we were going to be parents, which was shocking to us because there really hadn't been any red flags that indicated I was, except that I no longer have a 27 inch waist and I've gained almost 20 pounds since March. At this juncture we're assuming I'm 27 weeks along, but we'll know exactly how far, what gender the baby is, and a semi-solid due date after our sonogram next Wednesday (November 11Th, Veterans Day).
You can feel free to follow Elliott and I on Twitter, Facebook or wait for post on here (they won't be everyday).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
