Grandma

This Grandma's Good For

Belgian waffles and smoothies
Best backyard/playground
Coolest toys
Biggest hugs
Longest Stories
Most books read
Silly Made Up Songs
Spoiled Grandkids
Drop by Visits with Great Surprises
Thanks for the stroller, she loves it!

Unsupervised Jason + Washable Paints + Twisted Sense of Humor =

30

Happy Birthday, Whore. Your Rockstar qualities make me laugh. Thanks for all the butt-slappin' good times.
Love You Mucho,
The Warden

Finer Qualities

Amy and I were just discussing some of her finer qualities. Ok, actually she was telling me what her finer qualities are. Don't tell her, but I already know about most of them. But here's the thing, everything in this world must have an equal opposite. If it were not so the world would be thrown into total chaos. Because I am privy to this higher knowledge I feel that whenever Amy attempts to inflate her own ego that I have the job--scratch that--responsibility to debase her and bring her back down to my level. You know, to keep a balance. This may sound a bit harsh, but make no mistake, I would never intend to put her down, only to keep her steady. With that said it would be important to note that I don't want to insult her without a compliment to even things out. So here are a few of my favorite backhanded compliments about Amy.

1. Amy is one of the most vicariously hard workers that I know. She is one of those people who is constantly on the go, getting things done...and doing it by telling others what to do. She can accomplish as much in a day as I can in a week, seriously. It has always been said that the key to good management is delegation. Good job Amy.

2. One thing that I have always admired about Amy is her cleanliness. She always likes to keep the house clean and the dishes washed. She works very had to make sure that the house stays this way. Just because the kids have managed to thrash the entire house and use every dish we own by the time I get home doesn't mean that she hasn't been keeping up with the house work. I'm sure that the house looks great while I'm gone.

3. Amy has always been great with kids. She knows exactly how to handle any situation with the kids. Anytime they want a book read to them and she doesn't have a lot of time to spare she just says, "Go ask your dad to read it to you." Or when they start getting a bit rambunctious or defiant she just tells them, "Why don't you go across the driveway and see grandma." She must get it from all those years of teaching daycare.

In all seriousness, though, Amy is a great person. She is a fantastic wife, and a wonderful mother. My life would be bleak without her...and I would have a lot more free time to think about how bleak it is.

The Downside of Digital

A few of you know that awhile back I became addicted to digital scrapbooking. I didn't think I would ever convert but the first time I tried it, I loved it! It was so much cleaner, faster, and cheaper. You never found yourself needing one more chipboard letter or having your adhesive not really adhere or having to decide to which papers to cut and then regretting it later. The only part I had to get use to was the lack of dimension and I was even tackling that a bit. Right before we left for vacation in June, I had learned how to add dropshadows and other dimensional tricks. I was even more hooked. After returning home from vacation, I stopped having the time to scrapbook since I started entering inventory info for the halloween store I work for. Two nights ago I went looking for my digital scrapbook folder that use to be on my desktop. I hadn't noticed before, but it was gone. I started poking around and realized that all my papers, elements, and alphabets were missing. Gone. I panicked. Called Jason at work and hoped there was some explaination. Nope, none. He didn't know where they were either. I checked the trash...Nothing there either. Then it hit me. A month or so ago, after Spencer had been playing pbskids.org I noticed the desktop seemed different. But thats all I could figure out. Didn't realize at the time what was missing. The only thing I can figure out is that he somehow had to have moved my folder into the trash. And apparently, my husband doesn't check the trash bin on the computer before he empties it. And thus I believe was the awful fate of all my dig. materials. Thrown out in the trash. The biggest downside to digital scrapbooking for someone stupid enough to not make backup disks. I look at these and can almost cry...

The Color White

With the resulting 6.6 we got from our bili test, our worries have subsided, and all of Carson's coloring went with it. I feel a little dumb as I look at him thinking, "Oh, now I see what she meant by yellow!" It was hard for me to really see his coloring for what it was since I'm with him all the time but now I can really tell a difference. We're so very, very grateful that our little boy is healthy. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who are struggling with various medical difficulties. Even the little stuff is tiring and worrisome and I can't imagine how huge the big stuff must seem.


In one of my rare 'good mom' moments, I made the kids some playdough. To occupy Sophie I gave her a couple bowls of flour to play in. It was well worth the mess. Only problem is now whenever she see's anything resembling flour, like the pancake batter I used this morning, she screams at me and starts getting out bowls and spoons!

My baby's not sick, he's just yellow?

That would be the question we are still trying to answer. After one week and 5 bilirubin checks, we still aren't sure whether Carson's jaundice is due to breastmilk or something else (there really is a type of harmless jaundice caused by breastmilk). We have another blood test Monday and if his level goes down (we've been at 11, 12, then 13, back to 12 and last was an 11), then we're all good. We can chalk all this up to breastmilk jaundice. If the levels haven't dropped then it will be 3 more days of formula feedings, another bili check and once again: low levels- done, same or higher, off to Spokane. It's been worrisome and tiring and I'm ready to have a for-sure answer. We thought 24 hours of formula feeding would give us answers, then we uped it to 48 hours. The drop from 12.8 to 11.5 wasn't significant enough to diagnois the cause so now we're trying 4 days of formula (Seattle Dr.'s recommendation) and then maybe the 7 days the Spokane Dr. recommended. The blood work we had done at the hospital last week ruled out most major/common causes of jaundice/high bilirubin which caused Dr. Andert to start consulting with a few specialists to know what to look for next. The next cause on the list is a potential enzyme problem that would be treatable but leaves people looking yellow for the rest of their lives. Maybe he would end up looking something like this...

Let's just hope for a less than 11 today!

What Goes Around, Came Around

When Jason came home Friday night and told me he didn't feel well I didn't think much of it. And when he woke up early Saturday with a fever I was concerned, took his temp, gave him medicine, and was glad it wasn't me. And when his symptoms continued to get worse, headache, achy, sore throat, etc. I didn't think that my sore throat and his had much to do with one another. He continued to feel worse all weekend while my throat just hurt. After watching him grimace as he ate a yogurt this morning I figured it was time to head to the doctor and have her look at both of us. Now we have matching bottles of amoxicillin to go with our matching cases of strep throat.

I am an old pro at strep while Jason is getting it for the first time. It was nice to have someone to share this with since only one of us had to have our throat swabbed. I volunteered him. It hardly phased him at all. Not to say that he enjoyed it but the guy didn't even flinch/gag. How unfair is that? He also was complaining tonight that the Dr. gave us the generic amoxicillin. Apparently he prefers what he called 'Spencer's kind', meaning the nasty flavored pink liquid. Really? Who prefers that over a tasteless pill?

Now we sit back and wait to see who in our household gets it next...

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Yesterday this little guy turned one month old.
Today we found out that he weighs 8 lbs 1 oz., with his clothes on.
Tomorrow we find out the result of his bilirubin test for jaundice, the doctor thinks he still looks a little yellow.

Carson has been a wonderful baby. Much different than my first two! It's been a true blessing since our lives have been so crazy for the last few weeks. My favorite moment though happened one evening as my dad stood in my kitchen looking at the baby as he slept in his bouncer seat (he was about 2 weeks old). My dad turned to me and said, "You know, unless I see you holding Connor, I don't remember you had Connor." I laughed and said, "Well, that's good since his name is Carson."

Mean, Mean Wife

So this guy is sick. I get that. I'm trying to be all kind and compassionate and understanding, I don't like being sick either. In fact, I'm a pretty big baby when I'm sick. But I also understand that your surroundings can make you feel better, or worse, depending on their condition. So when I left this poor sick guy at home with the 2 older kids today, all's I said was, "I don't expect miracles, but I don't expect the house to be grotty when I come home either." This is just a small, small portion of what I found 6 hours later.

Now, I feel bad for the guy. He's achy, tired, horrible headache, etc. but SERIOUSLY? Do you think anyone could feel good with a mess like this? And this, this is just a corner, a corner I say, of the dining room. I wish I would have had the good sense to take a picture of the kitchen floor, though I am not sure I could have really posted it. Somethings are just better not shared. Then again, it could have been great blackmail material in the future. The funny thing is, I could tell he had been on the computer at some point looking for a new mouse for the computer. And there was obvious evidence that he had been able to stand long enough to open the can of soup, pour it in a bowl, and heat it in the microwave so why is it that he couldn't grab the broom to sweep up the chocolate muffin from costco (think of how big those suckers are and then imagine what kind of damage a 16 month old can do when she'd rather crumble it then eat it.) So when he managed to open his eyes and mumble, "Sorry, I tried. Don't be mad at me," I stood there, trying my HARDEST not to rip his stuffy, achy, post-fever head off and mumbled, "I just don't understand the kitchen/dining room floor." How horrible is that? Not a sweet "that's okay honey, I know how miserable a cold can be," or a "thanks for watching the kids, is there any thing I can get you?" just a cold, controlled statement of udder amazement that a grown adult, albeit a little sick, could seriously overlook a mess like this all day. The best part is, and I can't believe I'm willing to admit this, is that I told him the last time he regained consciousness, that I really hope he feels better tomorrow. He said he hoped to too and then smartly thought for a moment and called me out on my kind wishing for a speedy recovery and simply asked "Why?" I smiled and said, "You really don't want to know." Followed by, "Because that lovely mess you made in the dining room will be smiling brightly at you in the morning."

Today

We will laugh and cry as we honor this man.
We will remember the examples he set and the lessons he taught us.
We will be thankful for the mercy that was shown us.
We will share with others our love for him.
We will be grateful for our families and for our knowledge of the Gospel.
Today we will be blessed.

This Brave Lil' Boy

wore his Batman jammies to his surgery today. He had to have ear tubes put back in and his adenoids taken out. His attitude and demeanor were priceless. We was so calm and relaxed as we changed him into his gown and he crawled up into the bed. He decorated his hat (as seen above) and wanted to know why his bed only had rails on one side. His Grandma and Grandpa Lo (nickname for my parents) came to see him and got a kick out of his laidbackness. We walked with him as they wheeled him to the O.R. then kissed him goodbye, he was too busy getting to hit the button to make the doors open to even worry about leaving us behind. The surgery went well, we were informed that he has 'weakened eardrums' and will have to have his hearing tested again before kindergarten just to see if there's any hearing impairment.

At his last appointment we had to watch some videos on the procedures and it was funny realizing how much he had absorbed. One night at my parents house he put a small round, white lid on his forehead and found a headband to hold it in place. He went around telling us he was Dr. Schwartz and after checking my ears informed me that I had to have tubes, that I couldn't eat or drink after midnight and that I couldn't leave the hospital for 4 or 5 days. This morning in the waiting room he asked for a drink and when I reminded him that he couldn't have anything before his surgery he simply replied, "I know, I just really hate that part!"

He was anxious to leave the surgery center since Jason had told him he could get a 'kid' video game for the XBox. He was so tired when we got home that he fell asleep with them tucked under his arm. After a good nap, him and I figured out how to hook the XBox up and I played my first video game, he thought it was pretty cool having me play with him! He took another long nap and then had a blast playing with the new toys his Grandma's bought him.

He also constantly asks me if his voice sounds different now that his ear tubes are in...Another little mixed-up piece he picked up from the videos!