Clarification: Not hot like sexy. Hot like 100 degrees. I sweat sitting still; I'm pretty sure that's the anti-sexy.
Updates!
The biggest update is in regards to our house - it's getting improved! Ken, who redid our kitchen last summer, has been back fixing up our bathroom and finishing the remodeling of the kitchen since clearly we were never going to get around to finishing it on our own. The tiles and the old yucky crumbling drywall in the bathroom around the shower has been removed and replaced by new drywall and a tall, fancy tub surround. As God as my witness, I will never scrub grout with a toothbrush and Lime Away again! (In this house.)
Honestly, that could be a deterrent for future home purchases, too. The house might be perfect, but if there are a hundred tiles in the bathroom...that could be a deal breaker.
Anyway...
The kitchen has baseboards and a transition piece on the floor from the kitchen to the hallway/living room. We also have holes and weird gaps all nicely patched up and brand new paint in both the kitchen and bathroom as of yesterday. I will take pictures as soon as I get a new memory card for my camera; my old one is dead, which means I can store all of 7 pictures on my camera at a time. Hence the very few pictures here...
Meanwhile, I've been cleaning and organizing like a crazy lady. The biggest accomplishment was that I took our downstairs bedroom which we have used essentially as a storage space since we moved in and turned it into an office space/spare bedroom. I'm happy to say that the room is not only inhabitable, but actually quite awesome now. And it only took 5-1/2 years.
More cleaning is in my future, but for now, I'm feeling accomplished. Pat on the back, me.
Other updates...we've been on quite a few weekend getaways this summer! Three weekends in a row, actually. First to my dad's cabin with the whole family and Uncle Paul, and then up again for 4th of July weekend. Having just been up the previous weekend, Romelie was excited to go back to swim and hike and look for bugs, and Cori was just happy to sit outside and get attention from Grandpa. Then the following weekend Chason went out of town with some buddies, so we headed up to my mom's for a couple nights. We went and picked strawberries (freezer jam!) and then headed to a county fair. Romelie was all about the rides, and I was all about taking a nap afterwards. Hello, too much sun!
On to kiddo updates...Cori now sits up AND pulls herself up to standing. This is both useful (yay sitting up by herself!) and a bit dangerous (she is completely unsturdy on her feet but determined to stand up as often as possible). And she's added "mama" to her vocabulary, but only when she cries, so I'm not sure how I feel about that. Dada when she's happy, mama when she's upset...and really, neither of these are really words, she's just babbling, but it makes me smile.
We are only 2 days away from her big appointment with the pulmonary specialist. I got a description of what to expect in the appointment, and I'm more than a little nervous. Not only does she have to get another x-ray, but she has to have an upper GI test which involves feeding her barium and then pushing it through her body to check her digestive tract. The entire appointment is up to 3 hours long. I don't think anything is going to be painful, but I think everything is going to be uncomfortable and, because she won't know what's happening and why, I'm sure it's going to upset her. Prayers that all this leads to an actual diagnosis and/or treatment would be much appreciated.
I wish I had tons to say about Romelie, but the changes in a 3 year old are more subtle than they are for an 8 month old, I guess. We have our good days (yesterday she cleaned up toys and put them away without being asked) and our bad days (3 time outs on Sunday afternoon and she screamed and cried and banged her head on the wall through all of them). We're still working on listening, using manners, doing what you're asked/told the first time, using nice words, sharing...all the stuff you have to do with pre-schoolers, I guess. And she has good days and bad days.
I have good days and bad days too. Sometimes I can sit and calmly try to help her to make good choices or calmly explain why it's not okay to blankety-blank, and sometimes I lose my temper quickly and yell and swear and storm out of the room. I'm not proud of this, but if I can point out all of Romelie's flaws on this blog, I should acknowledge mine, too. I'm working on the not-swearing thing, and I'm trying to figure out how to better keep my cool when Rom tests my patience. It's pretty ridiculous when you find yourself screaming at at pre-schooler to be quiet.
That reminds me...if you haven't heard of this book yet you should definitely check it out. Even better is the audio book, read by Samuel L Jackson. It's pretty fantastic.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
28 days later
Raise your hand if you saw that movie. Raise your hand if it scared the crap out of you. I know, right? Fast zombies are way scarier than slow zombies.
Also, if you actually raised your hand, give yourself a little pat on the back with it. You're awesome.
Technically it's been more than 28 days since I wrote in this thing, but my creativity is a bit off today, and I didn't want to start of this long overdue update getting hung up on a title. Shall we update chronologically? Let's!
On May 28, Chason and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. Congratulations, us!
For our crazy night on the town, we went to dinner at the Mall of America and then headed across the parking lot to see Cirque du Soleil's Ovo. First time seeing them live, which was awesome...however, one of these days I should learn that I do not do well at events where there is the chance of someone getting seriously hurt. Remind me to avoid all circuses, sporting events, and playgrounds in the future.
June arrived, and with June comes grad parties! Henna and fortune telling for five nights, yay! Other than the hours, which are rough anyway let alone when you combine them with an infant and a full time day job, I always look forward to these events. This is in part because the kids are usually pretty awesome, but also because it means Crystal comes into town! 
Yes, folks, I got Crystal twice in a month. This time she was accompanied by her boyfriend David, and they were both here for about a week and a half, though they took a few days to explore greater MN. 
While they were here, we did a couple of backyard barbeques, went to Como Zoo, went out for some delicious meals, and generally relaxed and socialized. Come back anytime, Texans!
We also had a chance to celebrate Father's Day with Chason and with my dad. Saturday was Chason's day (which kind of felt like Romelie day, but what are you going to do?). We went to the park, played in a community center rec room, had ice cream, went to a book store, a toy store, and then out to luch, all within walking distance.
It was a nice family day...and then I took the girls to church Sunday morning so Chason could have a few hours to himself before we all headed to my dad's house to have lunch with him and some of my extended family. Happy dad's day Chason, Dan, Steve, and all the other awesome dads we know and love!
After dad's day came...summer camp! Last week was a crazy busy week at work because it was the first week of summer camp (2nd and 3rd graders around power tools...gotta love it!), plus there was a teacher workshop, tours, meetings, and other prep work I was trying to help with or participate in. This week is much more relaxed. Yay.
Also last week...Uncle Paul's in town! He came to boot camp with me to my delight and his chagrin, and I spent Thursday with him, my mom and my grandma. This weekend Chason and the girls and I joined Paul and my dad up at his cabin, which was pretty awesome. It was nice to get to spend a lot of time with my family, Romelie had a great time splashing in the lake and hiking around outside, and Cori spent lots of time trying to crawl and discovering the sound "da," which then led to her saying "dada" a lot, but since Romelie's first word was dada, I'm holding out for something new with Cori.
That seems to be the chronological update; on to general news and developments.
Cori's cough is still persisting, so folks have stopped writing it off as "just a cold" and are actually trying to get to the bottom of this thing.
It's good because it means we're trying to fix the problem. It sucks because I feel like I'm torturing the poor baby, so far to no avail. She's had an x-ray (nothing unusual), tried Zantec for acid reflux (no change) and albuterol in a nebulizer for asthma (may have reduced the frequency of the coughing, but it's tough to tell, and the sound of the cough itself hasn't changed). Now we have an appointment to see a specialist...on July 22. At which point she will have had a cough for 5 months. Patience is starting to wear a bit thin on this one... (By the way, this is a picture of her at 6 months with Dr. McEvoy, the doctor who birthed her. We love her.).
Romelie is becoming more dramatic, and not in a cute way.
For those who know how drama-prone she already is, this may sound hard to believe, but it's true. Her new thing is pouting when she doesn't get what she wants in an end-of-the-world sort of way. Example: Can I have more crackers? No, you're done with crackers for now. I'm still hungry. We're about to eat dinner, so we're done with snacks. (Crosses arms, puts mad look on her face, says in the most angry upset voice she can) Fine! I'm NEVER eating again! "Oh good Lord" is a phrase that comes out of my mouth a lot more these days.
On a positive note, Romelie has been making some very good choices lately.
The nebulizer thing required Cori to sit still for about 15 minutes, 3 times a day, while I turned on a loud machine and clamped a mask onto her face which blew chemicals up her nose. Remember how she's less than 8 months old? So that wasn't a lot of fun. But Romelie would (usually) help by sitting in the room with me and making Cori laugh or singing her songs or telling her "It's okay, Cori," which is pretty sweet. She's doing better with self-reliance, and she's even managed to stop herself from going into a tantrum a couple of times. You can see she's about to whine or cry, and then she'll stop and you can actually see her make the effort to rephrase or to add the word please or to use a calmer, nicer voice. Granted, she still throws a tantrum 9 times out of 10, but I really love that 1 time when she "uses her words," as we remind her 50 times a day.
Oh, I know I could add more, but I'm running out of steam. We're going up to the cabin again for the 4th, so I'll update more sometime after that.
Also, if you actually raised your hand, give yourself a little pat on the back with it. You're awesome.Technically it's been more than 28 days since I wrote in this thing, but my creativity is a bit off today, and I didn't want to start of this long overdue update getting hung up on a title. Shall we update chronologically? Let's!
On May 28, Chason and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. Congratulations, us!
For our crazy night on the town, we went to dinner at the Mall of America and then headed across the parking lot to see Cirque du Soleil's Ovo. First time seeing them live, which was awesome...however, one of these days I should learn that I do not do well at events where there is the chance of someone getting seriously hurt. Remind me to avoid all circuses, sporting events, and playgrounds in the future.
June arrived, and with June comes grad parties! Henna and fortune telling for five nights, yay! Other than the hours, which are rough anyway let alone when you combine them with an infant and a full time day job, I always look forward to these events. This is in part because the kids are usually pretty awesome, but also because it means Crystal comes into town! 
Yes, folks, I got Crystal twice in a month. This time she was accompanied by her boyfriend David, and they were both here for about a week and a half, though they took a few days to explore greater MN. 
While they were here, we did a couple of backyard barbeques, went to Como Zoo, went out for some delicious meals, and generally relaxed and socialized. Come back anytime, Texans!We also had a chance to celebrate Father's Day with Chason and with my dad. Saturday was Chason's day (which kind of felt like Romelie day, but what are you going to do?). We went to the park, played in a community center rec room, had ice cream, went to a book store, a toy store, and then out to luch, all within walking distance.
It was a nice family day...and then I took the girls to church Sunday morning so Chason could have a few hours to himself before we all headed to my dad's house to have lunch with him and some of my extended family. Happy dad's day Chason, Dan, Steve, and all the other awesome dads we know and love!After dad's day came...summer camp! Last week was a crazy busy week at work because it was the first week of summer camp (2nd and 3rd graders around power tools...gotta love it!), plus there was a teacher workshop, tours, meetings, and other prep work I was trying to help with or participate in. This week is much more relaxed. Yay.
Also last week...Uncle Paul's in town! He came to boot camp with me to my delight and his chagrin, and I spent Thursday with him, my mom and my grandma. This weekend Chason and the girls and I joined Paul and my dad up at his cabin, which was pretty awesome. It was nice to get to spend a lot of time with my family, Romelie had a great time splashing in the lake and hiking around outside, and Cori spent lots of time trying to crawl and discovering the sound "da," which then led to her saying "dada" a lot, but since Romelie's first word was dada, I'm holding out for something new with Cori.
That seems to be the chronological update; on to general news and developments.
Cori's cough is still persisting, so folks have stopped writing it off as "just a cold" and are actually trying to get to the bottom of this thing.
It's good because it means we're trying to fix the problem. It sucks because I feel like I'm torturing the poor baby, so far to no avail. She's had an x-ray (nothing unusual), tried Zantec for acid reflux (no change) and albuterol in a nebulizer for asthma (may have reduced the frequency of the coughing, but it's tough to tell, and the sound of the cough itself hasn't changed). Now we have an appointment to see a specialist...on July 22. At which point she will have had a cough for 5 months. Patience is starting to wear a bit thin on this one... (By the way, this is a picture of her at 6 months with Dr. McEvoy, the doctor who birthed her. We love her.).Romelie is becoming more dramatic, and not in a cute way.
For those who know how drama-prone she already is, this may sound hard to believe, but it's true. Her new thing is pouting when she doesn't get what she wants in an end-of-the-world sort of way. Example: Can I have more crackers? No, you're done with crackers for now. I'm still hungry. We're about to eat dinner, so we're done with snacks. (Crosses arms, puts mad look on her face, says in the most angry upset voice she can) Fine! I'm NEVER eating again! "Oh good Lord" is a phrase that comes out of my mouth a lot more these days.On a positive note, Romelie has been making some very good choices lately.
The nebulizer thing required Cori to sit still for about 15 minutes, 3 times a day, while I turned on a loud machine and clamped a mask onto her face which blew chemicals up her nose. Remember how she's less than 8 months old? So that wasn't a lot of fun. But Romelie would (usually) help by sitting in the room with me and making Cori laugh or singing her songs or telling her "It's okay, Cori," which is pretty sweet. She's doing better with self-reliance, and she's even managed to stop herself from going into a tantrum a couple of times. You can see she's about to whine or cry, and then she'll stop and you can actually see her make the effort to rephrase or to add the word please or to use a calmer, nicer voice. Granted, she still throws a tantrum 9 times out of 10, but I really love that 1 time when she "uses her words," as we remind her 50 times a day.Oh, I know I could add more, but I'm running out of steam. We're going up to the cabin again for the 4th, so I'll update more sometime after that.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Haven't done a "top ten" style blog in a while...
So here goes.
Top Ten Reasons Why I Haven't Updated This Blog in a Month:
10. I kept trying to write that last "Happy Easter" blog and then losing everything I had written. I couldn't write the next entry until I finished and published the last entry, and I just finished the last entry officially today. Poop on technology. (And I wonder why Romelie thinks the word "poop" is so darned funny...)
9. Illness. I got a case of the barfs the Friday before my birthday and have had a cold and sinus issues since then, and now Chason's got it, too. Romelie got sick this time last week with what seemed like a cold until she spiked a 104 degree fever last Tuesday and complained that her tummy hurt. Chason took her into the doctor and the poor kid has a UTI. What 3 year old gets a UTI? They figured it was a wiping issue (Romelie has tried a few times to wipe herself after pooing and it's not a pretty picture). So now she's on medicine for that. Then Thursday we made a trip to the emergency room because she had a couple of blood spots on her face and neck and the doc I spoke with on the phone thought all her weird symptoms combined might mean something more serious was going on. Turns out...nope. At least not according to the emergency room doctor. Darned expensive diagnosis, if you ask me.
8. My birthday! After recovering from my barfiness, I got a wonderful birthday present in the form of my BFF Crystal! She and Chason conspired to get her to MN for a couple of days to coincide with my birthday. Pretty amazing present. I got to spend time with her and Lauren, which was great. Yay for friends and sweet husbands!
7. Events 'n' stuff. We've been keeping busy. We went to baby storytime at the library. We went to a preschool class at the zoo all about baby animals and their moms for Mother's Day. Chason and I went to the Vikings draft party. We took the girls to see some friends, Ellen and Scott, and their new baby Margo who is only a month or so younger than Cori. We still go to music class every Tuesday evening (last class tomorrow night!). I have boot camp at the gym on Mondays and Wednesdays and church choir on Wednesday nights. I've also had to work a couple of evenings. Who knew free time could fill up so quickly?
6. Home maintainence and improvement. Chason has been planting and caring for an herb and veggie garden and fixing up our landscaping. I have been trying desperately not to fall behind on keeping our house clean (I'm afraid I'm losing that battle). Romelie's toys are newly organized as of Saturday (a place for everything and everything in its place, as they say!), and we're hoping to encourage her to work on picking up after herself a little better. And then we have little home fix up projects here and there that we get to when we have the time and feel the motivation. Next up...finishing the kitchen! (Yes, it's been almost a year and our kitchen is not done yet. Shut up.)
5. Cori's sleep schedule...or lack thereof. The funny thing is, she does have a sleep schedule. She just changes it every week or so. For one week, she'll sleep through the night consistently. The next week, she wakes up twice - once around 1:00 am and once around 4:30 am. The next week, she wakes up consistently every 2 hours starting around 11:30 pm. Sleep deprived momma's don't spend lots of time writing blogs.
4. Lack of photos. I know I can post a blog entry without photos, but photos make everything more fun, and I've been doing a lousy job of taking them. As always...I'll work on it.
3. Lack of functioning brain cells. Something hilarious or adorable or important happens, and I think, wow, I need to write that in my blog so everyone knows that Romelie said such-and-such or Cori learn how to blankety-blank. And then I sit down at the computer...and I can't think of a single thing to write. I blame this problem on reason #5 above, but it's still not the best excuse. So while I'm thinking about it, I should tell you that Cori started eating solids about a month ago. So far she's had homemade baby food made from acorn squash, apples, banana, avocado, sweet potato, pear, and baby rice cereal. Saturday she had plum for the first time and wasn't a fan. Next up - peas and tofu. Mmmmm! She doesn't sit up by herself yet, but I think she'll be crawling in the next few weeks. She already army crawls like a champion, and she can push up with her hands and get up on her knees, but not simultaenously. And she does a side plank. For those who haven't been taking a boot camp at Bally's since January, it looks like this: http://www.womanshealthmag.com/fitness/basic-workout-side-plank. As for Romelie, she has favorite songs that are not off of her Toddler Tunes or Yo Gabba Gabba CDs. Thanks to her dad, Romelie's favorite songs include Shakira's "She Wolf," Waylon Jennings's "Big Mamou," and "Sundown" by Gordon Lightfoot. She even knows the words to this one.
2. Better weather. Who wants to sit at a computer when the sun is shining? Romelie has new outdoor toys as well, including a wiffle bat and balls and a big-girl bike with training wheels. She has a tough time on it because without enough momentum, she ends up pedaling backwards, which is the brake on kid bikes, and then gets frustrated. She'll learn.
1. My grandpa. My mom's dad, Gene Schwantz, has been sick for a number of years now and had gotten especially bad in the last 6 months or so. Two weeks ago he was moved into hospice care, and on Friday morning, he passed away. His family was able to see and spend time with him before Friday, including my brother Paul and my cousin Josh who flew out from St. Louis and North Carolina, respectively, to see him. We love and miss you, Grandpa.
Top Ten Reasons Why I Haven't Updated This Blog in a Month:
10. I kept trying to write that last "Happy Easter" blog and then losing everything I had written. I couldn't write the next entry until I finished and published the last entry, and I just finished the last entry officially today. Poop on technology. (And I wonder why Romelie thinks the word "poop" is so darned funny...)
9. Illness. I got a case of the barfs the Friday before my birthday and have had a cold and sinus issues since then, and now Chason's got it, too. Romelie got sick this time last week with what seemed like a cold until she spiked a 104 degree fever last Tuesday and complained that her tummy hurt. Chason took her into the doctor and the poor kid has a UTI. What 3 year old gets a UTI? They figured it was a wiping issue (Romelie has tried a few times to wipe herself after pooing and it's not a pretty picture). So now she's on medicine for that. Then Thursday we made a trip to the emergency room because she had a couple of blood spots on her face and neck and the doc I spoke with on the phone thought all her weird symptoms combined might mean something more serious was going on. Turns out...nope. At least not according to the emergency room doctor. Darned expensive diagnosis, if you ask me.
8. My birthday! After recovering from my barfiness, I got a wonderful birthday present in the form of my BFF Crystal! She and Chason conspired to get her to MN for a couple of days to coincide with my birthday. Pretty amazing present. I got to spend time with her and Lauren, which was great. Yay for friends and sweet husbands!
7. Events 'n' stuff. We've been keeping busy. We went to baby storytime at the library. We went to a preschool class at the zoo all about baby animals and their moms for Mother's Day. Chason and I went to the Vikings draft party. We took the girls to see some friends, Ellen and Scott, and their new baby Margo who is only a month or so younger than Cori. We still go to music class every Tuesday evening (last class tomorrow night!). I have boot camp at the gym on Mondays and Wednesdays and church choir on Wednesday nights. I've also had to work a couple of evenings. Who knew free time could fill up so quickly?
6. Home maintainence and improvement. Chason has been planting and caring for an herb and veggie garden and fixing up our landscaping. I have been trying desperately not to fall behind on keeping our house clean (I'm afraid I'm losing that battle). Romelie's toys are newly organized as of Saturday (a place for everything and everything in its place, as they say!), and we're hoping to encourage her to work on picking up after herself a little better. And then we have little home fix up projects here and there that we get to when we have the time and feel the motivation. Next up...finishing the kitchen! (Yes, it's been almost a year and our kitchen is not done yet. Shut up.)
5. Cori's sleep schedule...or lack thereof. The funny thing is, she does have a sleep schedule. She just changes it every week or so. For one week, she'll sleep through the night consistently. The next week, she wakes up twice - once around 1:00 am and once around 4:30 am. The next week, she wakes up consistently every 2 hours starting around 11:30 pm. Sleep deprived momma's don't spend lots of time writing blogs.
4. Lack of photos. I know I can post a blog entry without photos, but photos make everything more fun, and I've been doing a lousy job of taking them. As always...I'll work on it.
3. Lack of functioning brain cells. Something hilarious or adorable or important happens, and I think, wow, I need to write that in my blog so everyone knows that Romelie said such-and-such or Cori learn how to blankety-blank. And then I sit down at the computer...and I can't think of a single thing to write. I blame this problem on reason #5 above, but it's still not the best excuse. So while I'm thinking about it, I should tell you that Cori started eating solids about a month ago. So far she's had homemade baby food made from acorn squash, apples, banana, avocado, sweet potato, pear, and baby rice cereal. Saturday she had plum for the first time and wasn't a fan. Next up - peas and tofu. Mmmmm! She doesn't sit up by herself yet, but I think she'll be crawling in the next few weeks. She already army crawls like a champion, and she can push up with her hands and get up on her knees, but not simultaenously. And she does a side plank. For those who haven't been taking a boot camp at Bally's since January, it looks like this: http://www.womanshealthmag.com/fitness/basic-workout-side-plank. As for Romelie, she has favorite songs that are not off of her Toddler Tunes or Yo Gabba Gabba CDs. Thanks to her dad, Romelie's favorite songs include Shakira's "She Wolf," Waylon Jennings's "Big Mamou," and "Sundown" by Gordon Lightfoot. She even knows the words to this one.
2. Better weather. Who wants to sit at a computer when the sun is shining? Romelie has new outdoor toys as well, including a wiffle bat and balls and a big-girl bike with training wheels. She has a tough time on it because without enough momentum, she ends up pedaling backwards, which is the brake on kid bikes, and then gets frustrated. She'll learn.
1. My grandpa. My mom's dad, Gene Schwantz, has been sick for a number of years now and had gotten especially bad in the last 6 months or so. Two weeks ago he was moved into hospice care, and on Friday morning, he passed away. His family was able to see and spend time with him before Friday, including my brother Paul and my cousin Josh who flew out from St. Louis and North Carolina, respectively, to see him. We love and miss you, Grandpa.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Happy Easter!
You know, I have written this post twice now. I don't have time to finish it, so I save a draft for later. I come back later to finish and publish and the draft has disappeared. I'm now writing my Happy Easter blog entry in late May.
Argh. Technology. You have bested me yet again.
At any rate...Happy Easter! (Pretend it's still April.) We did, in fact, have a delightful Easter. We were actually able to spread it out over a week when you include all of the pre-Easter activities we participated in.
The weekend before Easter, we went to an egg hunt at Musikgarten where we take music classes with Miss Emily. They did a group sing-a-long and then sent the kids out to look for eggs. 
Romelie was very respectful of the smaller kids (we've been to this egg hunt since it started two years ago when she was one of the smaller kids!) and managed to get a picture of the girls together without anyone getting injured.
The day before Easter, we dyed easter eggs in the backyard. It was a bit chilly, but way too messy for inside, so we braved the cold
for the sake of art and tradition. Totally worth it. Romelie dyed 19 eggs - would have been a few more, but for some reason I have a really hard time boiling eggs without breaking them no matter what method of cooking them I try - and Cori watched calmly since messy dye and fragile eggs seemed like a disaster waiting to happen.
And Easter Sunday was spent at church, followed by a delicious lunch at my dad's house. Rather than trying to rush through an egg hunt at home before church, we just brought everything along to my dad's and did it outside in the backyard (it was much nicer out than the previous day). Both Romelie and Cori were wearing 
Easter dresses, which I've never bothered with before, but Cori's was a hand-me-down from Crystal's niece so I thought Romelie deserved a cute dress, too. Overall, it was a delightful holiday.
Other things that happened in April...Chason had a birthday! Happy birthday, husband. For his gift, I got tickets to a Twins game for April 12.
Now for those who don't know, the Twins moved from the Metrodome into a brand new outdoor stadium last season, Target Field, and neither Chason nor I had been to a game yet. Unfortunately, we've had some bad luck recently with buying tickets to events. Last year for my birthday, Chason bought us tickets to see Simon and Garfunkel; that concert was postponed and later cancelled due to Art Garfunkel's illness. Then I bought tickets for us to see the MN Vikings play in December. That game was postponed and later relocated due to snow which ultimately collapsed the Metrodome. Fail.
Anyway, I figured I was taking a big chance on an outdoor game in April. Anything could happen (case in point - this picture of Romelie is from April 20th...sad). But man, we couldn't have had a better night. My dad babysat the girls and we got primo parking on the street for free. Pretty nice. The stadium is amazing, we had awesome seats (cheap seats, but front row third base line cheap seats), the weather was perfect, and the Twins actually won! And I got a free Pepsi Max on my way out the door. Bonus awesomeness.
Other April news...Cori is still coughing and raspy. I actually brought her in to see the doctor in early April when her cough had been going on for more than a month. The doc wasn't too concerned, though, and said to just keep an eye on it. Will do. Also keeping an eye on big angry red eczema patch on her face. Poor baby.
Romelie is becoming a pretty awesome big sister. She's really good at keeping Cori entertained by tickling her or making her laugh without being aggressive with her, which I appreciate more than I can describe because I know we're lucky in this regard. She's a pretty funny kid, that Romelie. She's especially into telling original Knock Knock jokes. They tend to follow this formula:
Knock Knock.
Who's there?
[Something that I can see]
[Something you can see] who?
[Something that I can see] that you eat with a [something else I can see].
For example, if I were to tell a Knock Knock joke at this moment using Romelie's Knock Knock joke formula, it might go something like this:
Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Computer.
Computer who?
Computer that you eat with a water bottle.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Until the next update, I invite you to go forth and impress your friends with your hilarity.
Argh. Technology. You have bested me yet again.At any rate...Happy Easter! (Pretend it's still April.) We did, in fact, have a delightful Easter. We were actually able to spread it out over a week when you include all of the pre-Easter activities we participated in.
The weekend before Easter, we went to an egg hunt at Musikgarten where we take music classes with Miss Emily. They did a group sing-a-long and then sent the kids out to look for eggs. 
Romelie was very respectful of the smaller kids (we've been to this egg hunt since it started two years ago when she was one of the smaller kids!) and managed to get a picture of the girls together without anyone getting injured.The day before Easter, we dyed easter eggs in the backyard. It was a bit chilly, but way too messy for inside, so we braved the cold
for the sake of art and tradition. Totally worth it. Romelie dyed 19 eggs - would have been a few more, but for some reason I have a really hard time boiling eggs without breaking them no matter what method of cooking them I try - and Cori watched calmly since messy dye and fragile eggs seemed like a disaster waiting to happen.
And Easter Sunday was spent at church, followed by a delicious lunch at my dad's house. Rather than trying to rush through an egg hunt at home before church, we just brought everything along to my dad's and did it outside in the backyard (it was much nicer out than the previous day). Both Romelie and Cori were wearing 
Easter dresses, which I've never bothered with before, but Cori's was a hand-me-down from Crystal's niece so I thought Romelie deserved a cute dress, too. Overall, it was a delightful holiday.Other things that happened in April...Chason had a birthday! Happy birthday, husband. For his gift, I got tickets to a Twins game for April 12.
Now for those who don't know, the Twins moved from the Metrodome into a brand new outdoor stadium last season, Target Field, and neither Chason nor I had been to a game yet. Unfortunately, we've had some bad luck recently with buying tickets to events. Last year for my birthday, Chason bought us tickets to see Simon and Garfunkel; that concert was postponed and later cancelled due to Art Garfunkel's illness. Then I bought tickets for us to see the MN Vikings play in December. That game was postponed and later relocated due to snow which ultimately collapsed the Metrodome. Fail.
Anyway, I figured I was taking a big chance on an outdoor game in April. Anything could happen (case in point - this picture of Romelie is from April 20th...sad). But man, we couldn't have had a better night. My dad babysat the girls and we got primo parking on the street for free. Pretty nice. The stadium is amazing, we had awesome seats (cheap seats, but front row third base line cheap seats), the weather was perfect, and the Twins actually won! And I got a free Pepsi Max on my way out the door. Bonus awesomeness.
Other April news...Cori is still coughing and raspy. I actually brought her in to see the doctor in early April when her cough had been going on for more than a month. The doc wasn't too concerned, though, and said to just keep an eye on it. Will do. Also keeping an eye on big angry red eczema patch on her face. Poor baby.
Romelie is becoming a pretty awesome big sister. She's really good at keeping Cori entertained by tickling her or making her laugh without being aggressive with her, which I appreciate more than I can describe because I know we're lucky in this regard. She's a pretty funny kid, that Romelie. She's especially into telling original Knock Knock jokes. They tend to follow this formula:Knock Knock.
Who's there?
[Something that I can see]
[Something you can see] who?
[Something that I can see] that you eat with a [something else I can see].
For example, if I were to tell a Knock Knock joke at this moment using Romelie's Knock Knock joke formula, it might go something like this:
Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Computer.
Computer who?
Computer that you eat with a water bottle.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Until the next update, I invite you to go forth and impress your friends with your hilarity.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Spring Break!
Hello Spring! How I've missed you! Granted, in Minnesota you are here in name only as there is a fresh 6 inches of snow on the ground, but in Texas, you were glorious! 
I'm kind of failing on my "3 blog entries a month" resolution. As long as I get 36 over the course of the year...be prepared for lots of December entries.
So updates! First, my eye is good to go. In case anyone was worried. I'm still not wearing contacts, but at my last appointment on March 10, my doc said everything was 100% healed over, which is not the same as 100% healed, 
but it means all of the wounds, if you will, were no longer at risk for any kind of infection, and then it would just take another week or two for them to finish healing completely. So, good news. Yay.
One thing I don't blog about very often is work. The reason, as you might assume, is that it seems to be a bad idea to talk about my job in a forum that anyone interested could have access to. But every now and then, there is something about my job that is just too awesome not to share. 
So this is a picture of Anika, my awesome co-worker who I teach and perform with on a regular basis. She sits about a foot away from me in our office space, and also knitted the adorable blue sweater that Cori is modeling in the photo above. While waiting for a performance of our play "Shocking News About Your Heart" to begin, Anika had the brilliant idea to dress up these two puppets in the costumes we wear to portray various scientists. The scientist on the left is a combination of Charles Kite (the wig) and 
Claude Beck (the mustache), and the scientist on the right is none other than Earl Bakken.
Science!
(Sometimes my job is just so cool.)
But as cool as my job can be, everyone loves a vacation, 
and we were lucky enough to head to Houston for a cool 9 days! Longest vacation I've taken since I used to have summer break. Unless you count maternity leave, but if you think maternity leave is a vacation, 
you are wrong, my friend. We spent our first few days relaxing and Nanny and Papa's house (I know that as a grown-up, I should refer to them as Steve and Angel, but Nanny and Papa is 
so much fun to say!).
On Saturday, friends and family came to Richmond to say hello, eat some delicious fajitas, and meet baby Cori. Romelie had a great time playing with all of the kids, and I managed to get a couple of awesome pictures of the cousins that I feel like I should submit to one of those "weird family photos" websites.
Oh, I should mention that I have a new "ap" obsession: Words With Friends. It's basically Scrabble. I had been playing it on my ipod against random opponents, but now I play regularly against Martha, her husband Steve, Crystal, folks from work...so if you have Words With Friends and would like to challenge me, my username is dannidancer. I should warn you, though...I'm awesome.
Anyway, back to Texas.
On Monday, 
Steve and Angel took the four of us camping along with James, Bronwyn, Shane, Torin, Greta, and Crystal. It was AWESOME. I've only ever camped in a camper one other time, and it was really small and awkward (camping with a friend's family in middle school), and I couldn't figure out why you wouldn't just sleep in a tent. 
Now I know...campers are SWEET! Seriously, this thing was huge and comfortable and awesome and comfortably slept 7 people. I highly recommend.
We spent two nights at a place called Jellystone, a Yogi Bear-themed campsite with a water park, mini golf course, activities for kids, and other fun stuff to do. 
It was Romelie's first camping experience, and overall she did pretty well and seemed to have fun, though she's regressed a little on her willingness to swim. To be fair, the water was freezing...
Cori wasn't having any of it, either.
In the evenings, we hung out at Bronwyn and co.'s campsite and sat around the campfire with s'mores. 
Everyone has their own techniques for roasting marshmallows, but I think Greta's style - burn, blow out the fire, burn some more - was by far the most entertaining.
Wednesday we spent the evening with Trisha, her boyfriend, and her daughter. Thursday was spent at Bronwyn's home with her family as well as Grandmommy Diane who was in town for a few days. 
I hung out with Crystal and her boyfriend that evening, and then Friday we headed back to Richmond once again for one last night with Nanny and Papa before heading back to Minnesota on one of the most turbulent flights I've been on. Like, moments of anti-gravity turbulent. Ah, well, we arrived safe and sound.
Did I mention how much I love vacations? 
I felt very relaxed on our return to Minnesota. Thanks, Steve and Angel for hosting us, and thank you to our family and friends for visiting with us. We miss you already and can't wait to see you again as soon as possible!
Friday, March 4, 2011
Would you rather...?
Did you every play this game? I had a book and used to play it in high school and college. It offers choices such as...
Would you rather wake up to discover your neck had grown five inches longer or that your butt had doubled in size?
Would you rather wake up to discover your neck had grown five inches longer or that your butt had doubled in size?
Would you rather be stranded on an island alone or with someone you hate?
Would you rather always have to say everything on your mind or never speak again?
Stuff like that. Here's my recent real life (overly dramatic) dilemna: Would you rather take care of yourself or take care of your baby? More specifically, would you rather take a medicine that will fix a major health problem but not be able to breastfeed for up to a week, or continue to breastfeed and hope that the problem clears up on its own?
So last weekend, I started to have some pain in my left eye. At first I thought it was just my contact lens bothering me, but by Sunday night, it was clear that something was wrong. My eye hurt pretty badly, there was some weird pressure from the top and back, and I could hardly open my eye because it was so light-senstive. Chason ended up driving my to the doctor on Monday morning where I learned I have a couple of eye ulcers and iritis. Basically, open sores and an infection. My doctor labeled this an emergency medical situation (for my eye) and put me on aggressive medical treatment for 24 hours - basically, three different drops/ointments going into my eye every hour. The big problem is, these are all medicines that we don't know anything about when it comes to pregnancy/breastfeeding safety, so breastfeeding is out.
Luckily, I had quite a bit of milk stored in the freezer, so I have been able to use/ration that rather than go exclusively to formula. And I continued to pump so my supply stayed up, but I had to dump it. After my supply issues with Romelie, pumping and dumping is very hard for me to do. But, I didn't have much choice.
The good news is, I went back to the doctor on Tuesday (and Wednesday, and today...) and my eye is on the road to recovery. Not 100% yet, but getting better and not worse is the most important thing. And as of today, I am down to one eye drop 4 times/day, so my doctor approved me to breastfeed again.
And the moral of the story is, don't sleep with your contacts in. Ever.
In other news...Cori had her 4-month well baby check up yesterday. She is 14 pounds and 26" long. As we're not planning to have another baby, each milestone she reaches or pound she gains or inch she grows gives me a tiny feeling of sadness - aww, my baby's getting bigger, someday soon she'll be sitting up, eating solids, talking, walking, she'll stop breastfeeding, she'll tell me no...and I have to remind myself to slow down and just enjoy this time. Which is a cliche, but a good self-reminder.
Have I mentioned yet that we're going to Texas next week? March 10. The weather here is back to sucky, and I can't wait to see our family, our friends, and green grass. Here we come!
I'd love to share more, but I'll have to save it for the next post. I'll be sure to add pictures next time, too.
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