She's Home

Good news today. Sarah was given clearance to come home. I picked her up today around 4. I'll let her write a little more on her experience tomorrow. She has slept a fair amount and went to bed early.
She still has quite a bit of pain, but they seem to have the nausea taken care of.
Thank you for all of your prayers. Hopefully she heals quickly and is able to play with the kids soon.

Another Tough Day

She still isn't home. The good news is that the pain has lessened over last night. It has turned into more of the ache you would expect to have a day after surgery. However, she still is constantly nauseous and can't seem to keep anything down. She has been able to walk a few times around the hallways.
I was able to spend the day with her because my wonderful mother was able to take the day off of work to watch the kids (don't feel to bad for her, I think she enjoyed it).
The nurses think there are a few possibilities for the cause of the nausea. First of all, it could still be the anesthetic from the surgery. Some people do not react well to it and it can cause nausea. The other possibility is that there is a section of her intestines that haven't woken up since the surgery. Apparently the surgery on the abdomen causes your digestive system to shut down. It takes some people's bodies longer to wake up than others. She can help to wake it up by walking as much as possible. This will help to get the digestive juices flowing.
Whatever it is, hopefully it works soon because she has just been miserable for the last day and a half.
I am staying home with the kids tomorrow. I was fortunate to have a holiday vacation both Thursday and Friday so I'll be home to take care of things here while she is recovering.
Keep up those prayers.

Tough Day

It's been a tough day for Sarah. As she wrote yesterday, after her visit with the surgeon she was scheduled to have her gallbladder removed today. Sarah's mother Dorothy was kind enough to come and watch the boys while we were gone. We were told by the surgeon that normally the surgery takes about 35 or 45 minutes and the patient sticks around the hospital for another 3 or 4 hours and they are free to go home.
I was able to take off of work today and took Sarah in to the hospital. She was in really good spirits this morning (you are optimistic when you think you will actually be able to eat a meal after 5 days of eating nothing). The surgeon came back after the surgery and let me know that it went well, but her gallbladder was even bigger than they thought. Apparently it was 3 times the size it should have been and was really inflamed. He also brought in the gallstones that were plugging the tube that leads to her stomach. There were 11 stones (that's a lot).
However, when she came out from under the anesthesia she was in a lot of pain immediately. Pain is to be expected. Even though they were able to perform a laparoscopic surgery and there were only 4 small incisions, it is still major surgery. Her pain, however, didn't lessen over the next few hours. She remained at about a pain level of 6 (she rated the pain of childbirth at a 10). Also she had a lot of nausea. This level of pain persisted despite the IV pain medication and oral pain meds. Nothing was taking it away.
At around 4 the nurses started talking about keeping her at the hospital for the night. They thought that they could monitor her pain and medications better there. Sarah and I agreed. She is there tonight. I had to come home to take over with the kids so that Dorothy could go home for the night. When I left, Sarah still rated the pain at a 5 or 6 when I left and she was still nauseous. Because of the pain she hasn't been able to sleep at all today. She really needs the rest after the surgery. I am hoping the pain subsides over night and she is able to come home in the morning.
Overall, not a great day. I can tell you that we were both hoping for a much easier day. Please pray for her. My mom was nice enough to take the day off tomorrow and she will watch the kids while I go and get Sarah (assuming she is released from the hospital).

Change of Plans!

Evan is such a great husband. I am one of those people who doesn't like to make a fuss and will basically just roll with whatever punches are dolled out to me. Evan is not one of those people and when I told him that I couldn't get in to see a surgeon until January 6th, I heard him get more riled than I've heard him in a while. Evan got on the phone and went to bat for his wife. He raised some hell and clarified a few points with the surgeon's office and the next thing I knew, I had an appointment for 2:30 this afternoon. My consult with the surgeon resulted in us scheduling the surgery to have my gallbladder removed tomorrow!

Thank you for fighting for me, Evan! I am so happy I won't have to wait any longer to feel a whole lot better.

I'll try to touch base tomorrow when I get home from the hospital. Wish me luck!

And now we wait.

The good news? I did go to the clinic this morning and was put in touch with a surgeon.

The bad news? I can't get an appointment to see a surgeon until January 6th. So it looks like I'm just going to have to tough it out for a while. I did get some more pain medication so I am ready if I experience more attacks (which I am sure I will). In the meantime, I will be living off of applesauce.

The silver lining? Maybe I'll lose some weight! :)

Heading to the Clinic

I managed to get an appointment at our clinic for this morning at 7:20. Evan is bringing Isaiah to his babysitter so I will only have Micah to manage during my appointment. I'm not really sure what to expect as far as this visit goes, especially since my regular doc is on vacation so they got me an appointment with the on-call doc. All I know is that I hope we are able to get the surgery scheduled sooner rather than later because I have already used up all the Vicodin I was given in the ER over the weekend to manage the several attacks I experienced. I hate going through my days being too afraid to eat, but the fear of another attack is strong enough to deter me from eating anything even remotely questionable.

I look forward to sharing some good news after I return!

A Holiday in the Hospital

When the clock struck midnight on Christmas Eve, I was in a triage room of the emergency room at Waupun Memorial Hospital. I'll spare you all the gory details, but I basically had another attack/episode similar to the ones I wrote about in my previous post. This time, it was the worst one yet and I found myself violently vomiting. So, my in-laws brought me in the the E.R. and I got some morphine for the pain and a CT scan to try to figure out what the problem was. Sure enough, I have gallstones. Long story short, I was able to come back home after a very painful and tiring evening and get some sleep. Even though I only had a half of a dry english muffin for breakfast this morning, I still had another attack that led to more vomiting. So, while my family got to attend the Christmas feast at my husband's aunt's house, I was laying on a couch trying to sleep through the pain.

We are now safe and sound back in our own home and I've eaten next to nothing all day. I plan on calling our clinic right away tomorrow to see when I can get in to see my regular doctor, but based on the increasing frequency and intensity of these attacks, it would appear that surgery is going to be needed. Thankfully, gallbladder removal surgeries are some of the most common procedures done all the time, so I am just looking forward to feeling better soon.

In the meantime, I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas that was free of emergency room visits and vomiting. :)

Safe, Sound and Tired

We made it back home safe and sound and the roads were actually perfect for our drive. However, we did have a somewhat difficult first night here at Grandpa & Grandma's house. Evan was up with Micah until 1:30 in the morning!!! Typically he will eat around 10:30 or 11:00 and then go to sleep until morning, but this particular evening he decided to stay wide awake until the wee hours. Evan was not impressed. Meanwhile, I was laying in bed downstairs in quite a bit of pain, feeling similar stomach pains to what I've been hit with over the past week and a half. No fun. Evan got to sleep around 1:45 am, but I was awake until after 3:00 am. Micah woke up to eat at 6:15.

I am tired.

Sleepiness aside, Merry Christmas!! We've had a great day so far and I'm really looking forward to the next day and a half of festivities. I'm a little anxious about the condition of the roads for when we're supposed to drive back home Friday night, but I guess we will cross that bridge when it comes. Say a short prayer for our safe travels!

Wordless Wednesday - Wisconsin Christmas Edition

Merry Christmas!

We are leaving tomorrow to head back to the hometown for our three day Christmas extravaganza, so I'm not sure if I will be posting much over the next couple of days. It's looking like our area is going to be hit with a decent amount of snow, so hopefully travel won't be too disgusting. I am really super excited for this Christmas since Isaiah is another year older and actually "gets" the concept of opening gifts now and he absolutely LOVES hanging out with family. It will be such a treat to see him really enjoy this Christmas!

Travel safe if you're hitting the roads and from our family to yours, have a very Merry Christmas!

P.S. Isn't that Little People nativity set just the cutest??

Now I'm starting to Wonder......

For the second Sunday evening in a row, I found myself doubled over with extreme abdominal pain, nausea, and back pain. It starts as just kind of a ball of pain in my gut, akin to what you might expect if you had a nasty gas bubble, but it quickly escalates until it feels like someone has tied my insides into a knot and continues to twist/pull on them. Combine this with the horrible back pain and feeling like I'm about to go throw up and it makes for a rather unpleasant experience. This was the second time in as many weeks that this has hit me. Eventually, after writhing in pain for a while and spending some time on the bathroom floor, I was able to fall asleep and basically "sleep it off." I woke up this morning (and last Monday morning) with just a lingering feeling like someone had kicked me in the stomach.

If something like this were to just happen the one time, I would consider it a fluke. Something I ate, perhaps. However, with it coming on again a second time, I can't help but start to wonder if something more serious is going on here.

Go Diego Go!

One of Isaiah's favorite TV shows is "Go Diego Go!" on Nickelodeon. He dances & sings along with the theme song and will actually go point at the TV when it is off and ask for "Deego?" I love this show too and I actually enjoy watching Isaiah watching it because he has been learning a ton of new words from it. Here's just a few of the things I heard come out of his mouth during a Diego viewing the other morning:

"Go Deego Go!"

"Hola!"

"All better."

"Hola Alicia!" (Diego's sister)

"Clap clap clap!"

"Help!"

"Jump!"

"Balloon!"

That's all I can remember right now, but I know there were more. And I forgot to mention that he is also copying the animal sounds he hears on Diego too: jaguar, whale, monkey, birds, all kinds of stuff! I tried to take a video of him, but he got wise and tried to steal the camera. I'll keep trying though!

Inside the Male Mind

I know they always say that if women don't understand men, then they're just thinking too hard. I agree with this, but I can't help but wonder about some of the things men do. Now, this is not meant to be a post full of complaints (Evan, pay attention to that distinction). I've just noticed some things over the past few years of married life that, as a woman, I don't understand. Through conversations with other women, I have found that the men in their life tend to do these things too and their wives/girlfriends are equally confused. Help us out, guys!

• If a man empties a toilet paper roll, he will ususally do one of two things: 1. Leave the empty roll for the next poor sucker who uses the toilet. 2. Grab a new roll and set it on top of the empty roll. Seriously!!??



• The process of "rinse and stack" seems to be too involved for most men. They prefer the "eat and leave wherever I want" method, which inevitably leads to dried on food and a more difficult dishwashing experience later. However, since it is assumed that the woman will be doing the dishes anyway, this is not a factor in the decision.



• They prefer throwing things in the toilet than in the garbage. Q-tips are a favorite here. Even though the garbage can is directly adjacent to the toilet, it remains the preferred receptacle. This one boggles me.



• Men hate pillows. I even heard my favorite radio morning show talking about this one. Men get genuinely annoyed when there are "too many" pillows on the bed or on the couch. What's not to like about pillows? They're fluffly, comfy, and make the object they're on look nice!



• It doesn't matter how many hampers are strategically placed throughout your home; dirty laundry goes on the floor. Bedroom floor, bathroom floor, laundry room floor - all favorite drop zones. Why is this so much more appealing than the hampers?

There are my observations! Ladies, anything to add? Men, care to help decode any of these mysteries? Oh wait...my husband is the only dude that reads this blog so not much chance of that one!! Love you, honey!

The Walmart Effect - Part 2

A while back, I wrote a post about what I called "The Walmart Effect." I think I may have to turn this into a series or something because it seems like every time I go to Walmart, I have more to add. The latest addition comes from a trip to Walmart on Wednesday. I was waiting in line at the customer service desk to return some T-shirts I had bought for Evan. As I was in the process of my return, the associate's walkie-talkie came on and the following exchange took place:

Male voice: Hey Abby, do we carry (pause) pork chitterlings? (He pronounced it chit-lins)

Female associate: Say that again?

Male voice: Um, I've got a lady here who wants to know if we have pork chitterlings. I don't even know what those are.

Me: Tell him he doesn't want to know.

Female associate: I'll check with Mark. To Mark: Do you know what he's talking about?

Mark (guy who is doing my return): (Said with a sideways grin on his face) I think so and I agree with her (pointing to me). Tell him no, we don't carry them and he really doesn't want to know what they are.

Funny stuff! I had a bunch of images running through my head of this poor guy trying to deal with the woman asking him if Walmart carries pig intestines. As it turns out, Walmart does not carry everything.

Parenting is Hard

I'm having a not so great parenting moment. There are so many times that my kids make my heart nearly burst from love overdose and they both provided me with several tonight: Isaiah's impromptu dancing in the kitchen, Micah giggling while I tickled his belly, Isaiah leaning his head into my shoulder and suddenly deciding he wants a kiss. I live for those moments.

However, there were several moments from tonight that have left me feeling frustrated rather than fulfilled. We're still struggling with bedtime issues and it is seriously stressing me out. The nightmares are happening a little less often now, but the actual going to bed part is getting more problematic. I will lay Isaiah down and he won't fly off the handle, but will point to the chair next to his bed and say "Sit." He wants us to sit next to his bed for a few minutes until he falls asleep. I did this last night and he was asleep within 5 minutes. Tonight I figured I would try to be a little more strict and told Isaiah he could go to sleep on his own. I left the room and he proceeded to scream his head off. I paced the living room and asked Evan what he thought I should do. His response of, "Whatever you think is best" was less than helpful. When I finally got his opinion out of his mouth, he figured I should just go sit in the chair. What harm is it? So, I gave in and went in to calm Isaiah down. After a couple quick hugs, I sat in the chair and listened to him scream at me for another 4-5 minutes before he calmed down enough to go to sleep.

The whole time I was in the chair, I was trying to recall episodes of Supernanny I've watched to try to get a clue of what to do about this bedtime thing. Is it a terrible, horrible idea to kee up with this whole "sit in the chair" routine or do I quit it cold turkey and deal with the screaming, sleep-deprived kid (and parents!) in the process?

Wordless Wednesday

Merry Christmas!

The Men in my Life

My mother in law sent me this email earlier today and I thought it was really pretty awesome so I stole it to share here. As it turns out, the men in my life are named after some pretty cool guys. (P.S. Evan's middle name is Malachi)

Did you know that Isaiah and Micah and Malachi were the primary prophets that foretold of Jesus coming in the OT? Your boys have quite the legacy of names! Who can dispute the reality of Jesus when the following is true??

4000 BC: Adam and Eve receive the prophecy that the Messiah (Jesus) would be born of a woman.
Promise: Genesis 3:15 – “’I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.’”
Fulfillment: Galatians 4:4 – “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law . . .”

700 BC: Isaiah prophesies that Jesus’ mother would be a virgin who conceived by a miracle and that Jesus would be God who became a man.
Promise: Isaiah 7:14 – “’Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.’”
Fulfillment: Matthew 1:18–23 – “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).”

700 BC: Micah prophesies that Jesus would be born in the town of Bethlehem.
Promise: Micah 5:2 – “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days [eternity].”
Fulfillment: Luke 2:1–7 – “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. . . . And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”

400 BC: Malachi prophesies that Jesus would enter the temple, which was destroyed in 70 AD, meaning the Messiah had to come before then.
Promise: Malachi 3:1 – “’Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.’”
Fulfillment: Luke 2:25–27 – “Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law . .

I did make the joke then that I already feel bad for our third son, Phil. Poor kid is going to feel so left out! (Just joking....no, we are not pregnant. No, we do not intend on naming any future child Phil)

An Official Addiction

My scrapbooking hobby has officially crossed the line from "hobby" to "addiction." How do I know this? Last night I willingly chose to stay up until midnight to scrap. This afternoon I am choosing to postpone my long awaited shower while both boys are napping, to come down to my scraproom.I am absolutely, positively, hopelessly addicted.

Hey, it's cheaper than therapy.

Just another Manic Monday

Ah, the life of a stay-at-home Mommy. Check out how my morning went today:

5:00 am - Micah wakes up for a feeding and I can smell him the second I walk in the room. Awesome. After getting a clean diaper on, he eats and goes back to sleep.

6:40 am - Isaiah wakes up unhappily. He's in his room moaning, "No!! No!! Momma!!!" This typically means that he had a nightmare during the night. I go in and bring him to bed with me to snuggle for a while.

7:00 am - Isaiah decides it is time to get up. We venture out into the living room and I step directly in dog puke. I hobble to the bathroom to wipe off my foot all the while yelling, "Isaiah!! Come with Mommy please!! Don't touch that! Icky! Icky!!!" Grab a rag and the carpet spray. Scrub, scrub, scrub. We are seriously going to need to replace this carpet if we ever intend on selling this house.

7:30 am - Time for breakfast. While Isaiah is eating, I am collecting all the pieces of a chewed up pacifier (also courtesy of the dog) that I have discovered strewn about the house like a scavenger hunt. One more nuk bites the dust.

8:00 am - Micah wakes up and takes a sippy cup to the face. Isaiah had followed me into the bedroom to go get him and he accidentally chucked his sippy cup into the crib. Bullseye!!! Hysterics ensue from both children.

8:30 am - We've all calmed down enough to settle in the living room for Micah to eat his bottle. He wants nothing to do with it, but Isaiah is still feeling bad about having beaned his brother in the melon so he is begging to hold him. I set him up in the corner of the couch and give him Micah. Diego is guest starring on Dora the Explorer today so we might have a shot at a decent morning after all.

9:00 am - Diego sets out to save some baby polar bears and Micah finally eats his bottle. I put him in his swing and he passes out almost right away. Time to get Isaiah bundled up to go outside!

9:15 am - Micah is alseep and Isaiah looks like that kid from "A Christmas Story." We go outside and shovel the snow away from the mailbox so the postman can actually deliver our mail. Isaiah is not a big fan of playing in the snow, but he digs it when you make a snowball and let him throw it. I periodically peek in the house to check on Micah. Brian (the dog) is out on a leash with us.

10:00 am - Time to go inside! I take Brian off the leash and turn toward Isaiah for a second. This is the perfect opportunity and Brian takes off running. I try to call him back, but he's gone. I grab Isaiah and we go treking through the snow to try to find him. Brian is discovered behind a neighbor's house and I pick up him. My toddler quickly also loses interest in walking and so I am now stomping through the snow carrying a dog in my left arm and a kid in my right. When Isaiah realizes I intend on bringing him into the house, he starts to kick me and scream at the top of his lungs. We successfully reach the garage and I close the door.

10:30 am - My phone rings while attempting to strip the snow gear off Isaiah while he continues to throw a tantrum. Since I am distracted by talking to my mother on the phone, Brian runs by me and tracks dirt and snow all over the kitchen floor. I grab him and drag him back into the garage. "Mom...I gotta call you back!" Isaiah and I go attach the dog sprayer to the shower head and get out the dog shampoo and towels. We go and retreive Brian and he gets a bath.

10:45 am - Isaiah "helps" me give Brian a bath. I notice that I really need to clean my shower. I call my mother back while I am quickly mopping the floor to cover Brian's tracks. I have to make her wait a second again while I put a towel under where Brian has decided to sprawl on the couch. Isaiah "helps" me mop the floor by pushing an extra dry mop around. Mom stays on the phone with me while I make the bed, load the washing machine, preheat the oven, and start a pot of coffee.

11:15 am - While Isaiah's fish sticks are cooking in the oven, I am unloading the dishwasher, hand washing Micah's bottles, and cutting up cheese for lunch. Oh yeah....I made coffee!! Pour myself a cup of coffee and realize that I haven't seen Isaiah for five minutes and it's quiet. Uh oh. He is in the bathroom, sitting on his potty and looking at a "Parents" magazine.

11:20 am - Isaiah sits down to eat his lunch and I open the laptop to find 32 unread emails. I decide they can wait and I start to blog about my crazy morning. Wow...Micah is still asleep!

"Isaiah!!! Cheese goes in your mouth, not your nose!!!"

Gotta go.

Veggie Tales Dance

What can I say? The kid likes to dance!

Micah - 3 Months

What a difference a month makes! Micah has developed such a distinct personality in the last month and it's so cool to watch him making new discoveries and learn to use his voice. He's still such a happy baby! Micah - 3 months:

• You are ticklish!! If we tickle your sides or just under your chin, we can actually get you to giggle and wiggle. It's super-cute.



• You love to smile and laugh and you think your brother is hilarious.



• You respond to our voices and to your name.



• If all else fails, we lay you down on your back on the floor and you almost always calm down pretty quickly. You just love to watch us go about our day and to listen to the sounds of our family.



• When you wake up in the morning, you don't want to eat right away. You are much more content to hang out in the Pack n Play and observe while we have breakfast and go about our day. Sometimes it is close to an hour or two before you're ready for your bottle!



• Most nights, you are waking up around 4:30 am to eat, but you've been starting to make it to 5:00 or 5:30 more consistently. Mommy is loving this.



• You are now a formula baby. Up to this point you have been a combo kid, but the stock of boob juice in the freezer has been used up. So far, you seem to be taking to it just fine.



• You rarely have massive screaming fits or fussiness. Like any baby, you have your fussy times, but overall you are so mellow and easy going. Sustained periods of crying are few and far between.



• You've discovered your hands! Lately you just love to put your fists in your mouth and chew on your hands. You even prefer your fist to your nuk!



• I imagine you will roll over any day now. You kick your legs, wave your arms, and wiggle around like crazy while you're on your back. It's so cool to see you learning new things.

Love you little buddy!

Get this garbage off my TV!

It's no secret that more and more risque and adult things are being shown on TV in the modern era, but it's amazing how you see it in such a different light when you're a mom. I first saw this commercial when I was home with the boys in the middle of the afternoon. Yup...at about 2:30 pm. I can't remember what channel I was watching. I was immediately frozen with horror. Why on earth is this garbage showing up on my TV screen in the middle of the day when my toddler is wide awake? I got angry right away and told Evan about it and then he got to see it firsthand when we were watching TV together at about 12:30 in the afternoon last Saturday. No, we were not watching HBO (can't afford it), FX, or any of the "other" channels one might expect to see such things. Even my husband was pretty shocked that this commercial would air in the middle of the day on a Saturday like that. Now today it came on again while I was watching Supernanny!!! Yup, you heard me right. Supernanny. I had to change the channel for a few minutes so Isaiah didn't see it. I just had to come on here and vent. Here's the commercial I am all fluffed about:



Really? Is this what we have come to in an effort to sell stuff? What even is the product? Watches. Did you notice that when you watched it? I didn't think so.

The point is that this is showing up on my 42 inch screen while my two year old son is directly in front of it. I'm going to struggle enough with teaching my sons about sexuality, morality, modesty, and a plethora of other things regarding the subject. I hardly need D&G to be implanting these kind of images in his head so early on.

I'm anxious to hear what other have to say about this, especially my fellow parents of young children. Can anything be done or should we just brace ourselves for the day when we'll be seeing three-somes in between Dora the Explorer?

Snow Day!

Keep in mind, folks....this is only the second snow of the winter. The first one was little more than a dusting and then we wake up to this! It's supposed to continue snowing all day for totals of up to more than 12 inches plus 35 mph winds! Gotta love winter in Wisconsin.



Hope you have good weather in California, Evan! Isaiah seemed to enjoy it though. I really need to get him his own little guy snow shovel!

Wordless Wednesday

One of my favorite blogs that I follow on a regular basis, The Mom Creative, does a little something she calls Wordless Wednesday. Every Wednesday, Jessica (the author of the blog) just posts a single photo and lets the image speak for itself. Sometimes her heading becomes "Less Words Wednesday" because she just can't resist writing a little something, but I can certainly appreciate that!

I'm going to give this a shot! This is the first Wordless Wednesday post....only since I have already written so much I guess it is technically a Less Words Wednesday. Work with me people.

Isaiah's Anatomy Lesson

Isaiah wanted to hold Micah while he sat in his toy basket this morning so I took the opportunity to give him another shot at naming Micah's body parts. He has improved, don't you think??



We're all about using the correct terms in this house. :)

Those Darn Michigan Kooimans!

Looks like the Michigan branch of our family is hogging the spotlight! I hope they don't end up being hounded too badly by the paparazzi.

It's all in the family for four GVSU students - GVNow - - Grand Valley State University

Seriously though - Love all you guys!! And a big congrats to the "original" Sarah Kooiman on graduating this weekend!

Isaiah's Nightmares

Isaiah has really been having problems with nightmares lately and I'm running out of ideas of how to handle it. Previously a great sleeper, Isaiah used to be able to just go to sleep on his own with no problem. Now he will scream and scream when we lay him down to bed unless one of us sits in the rocking chair next to the bed until he passes out. Even after he finally goes to sleep, he is waking up at least once during the night from what I can only guess to be a nightmare. I've left him to try to self soothe himself back to sleep, but he won't. He actually screamed and called for us for more than 30 minutes one night before I came to the conclusion that it wasn't going to happen. The same technique usually works to get him to fall back asleep - rocking in the chair for a few minutes and then I put him to bed while I sit in the chair until he falls asleep. We have a bedtime routine that has been working well for months now, but all of a sudden this is becoming a nightly problem. Any ideas?

P.S. There is a new format for commenting on this blog now that hopefully can foster better discussion of topics and posts with a bit more ease. Check it out below and be sure to leave a comment, even if it is just to say hi!

California Dreamin'

I'm a business trip widow again for most of this week. Evan left this afternoon to fly out to California for yet another business trip for his company. I continue to be grateful that not only is he employed, but has reached a level in his career where they want to send him on trips to ensure their company's success. However, I do miss him very much when he is gone and I think this week it is going to be especially hard to swallow that I'm left alone in Wisconsin with a winter storm on the way while he gets to soak up the sun in California. Not fair! Anyway, the boys and I will just be bumming around until Daddy gets home Thursday night, so let me know if you're up for a visit!

What's wrong with my joints?

I'm just going to put this out there in the hopes that somebody who has somewhat of a medical background might read it and offer me some insight. Yes, I do plan on talking to my doctor about this problem, but I'm going to wait until I'm already in the office for Micah's well child visit than to fork out a copay for a specific visit for me. That being said, here's my issue.

I've got weird joint pain that is only getting worse. It started when I was about 6 months pregnant with Micah. I would suddenly experience pain like I had twisted my ankle, only I hadn't done anything to make the ankle hurt. I would limp around on it for a couple days and then it would go back to feeling normal. This happened with both ankles and then to one of my wrists while I was pregnant. I just attributed it to pregnancy and my doctor said that the hormones released during pregnancy do cause the ligaments to loosen, so that was a good possibility. The only problem with this theory is that my pain has continued now well beyond my pregnancy.

So, in the past six months I have experience this kind of joint pain in both ankles, both wrists, my left shoulder, my left hip, and my right knee. The ankles and wrists have occured more than once and I end up having to wear a brace or an ace bandage. It pops up out of nowhere. For example, I woke up in the middle of the night last night with excruciating pain in my knee and was unable to bend it with full range of motion. It was only with a dose of Aleve that I was able to go back to sleep.

Any ideas?

Good Morning Mama!!

Isaiah can open the doors in our house now, including the one in his bedroom. This discovery has opened up a hole new world of possibilities for him and he is taking full advantage. No longer does he holler for Mom or Dad after he wakes up in the morning or from a nap. Instead, he just gets up, puts his nuk in the drawer, and comes out to find you! This morning was particularly cute because Evan and I were still in bed when all of a sudden I felt like someone was watching me. I rolled over to see a cute little face right at the level of the bed. Isaiah smiled and said, "Hi Mama."

About 30 minutes later, after we were done playing and tickling him, we finally got out of bed. It was a good morning.

Date Night Beefcake

Evan and I had our first date night since August last night and Ashley was kind enough to watch the boys for us. We grabbed a quick bite at Quizno's and I can't help but think that place is overpriced. Anyway, we went to the Walgreens next door to Quizno's so we could buy our movie candy for cheap and smuggled our contraband into the theater to see "New Moon." (And no, I don't feel bad about taking in the snacks. The prices they charge for that stuff there is nothing short of armed robbery and we still bought popcorn.) Having read the Twilight series (see this post), I was looking forward to seeing this movie because I was really hoping they would do a better job with it than the first one and I wasn't disappointed. I'm going to come right out and say that part of the reason I really liked it was the pretty constant serving of beefcake via the pack of werewolves! I mean, seriously. Wow. I felt kind of guilty for digging the shirtless smorgasbord so much on my date night, but I was quickly distracted by Taylor Lautner standing in the rain and I forgot my own name. Is it creepy that he's only 17? I'm going to pretend that he's 20. Yeah....that's better.

A Bad Haircut

I have a bad haircut. Usually I love Sadie, my stylist, because she always make my hair look great when I have no clue what to do with it. This time....not so much. I admit that my instructions were hardly specific: I said, "Let's go back short again." I just assumed she would give me the same cut I had last time, which I loved. She did not. So, now I have hair that is MUCH shorter than I had anticipated and I have no clue how to actually style it. The worst part? Evan hates it.

Let's look at the positives here:
1. It's just hair. It grows back and mine always grows back fast. It won't be long before I can get a better cut.
2. I don't really leave the house all the much anyway and I don't go back to teaching until January. Plenty of time for it to grow in a bit.
3. My kids are so cute that I don't really have to worry about people wanting to take photos of me.
4. I'll use less shampoo, conditioner, and hair products. It's all about saving money in this economy, right?
5. If a bad haircut is the worst thing that happens to me this month, I will have many blessing to thank the Lord for.