Pictures

A while ago, I promised you pictures of the girls room once it was all finished. I specifically changed the sheets and made the beds to take these pictures.


Of course, I couldn't be bothered to straighten the books on the bookshelf. I wouldn't want to overdo it. This was the best shot I could get of both beds, to try to give some perspective of the layout of the room. The door is behind me (I'm actually wedged in the closet to get this picture), the girls' dressers are to the left and the changing table is on the same wall as Lucy's bed.

Lucy and Janna hanging out in the living room. Courtney took this picture and said moments before she discovered the girls kissing. They are best buds. Except when they aren't.

A sweet profile picture of Lucy from the zoo. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and warm.

The zoo had several peacocks and peahens that are allowed to wander freely. This handsome devil was showing off. I got a bunch of pictures like this, but this was the best one for seeing the gorgeous colors of his tail.

We caught up with him later (or another of his friends) and Emily wandered with him for a few steps. I love how Emily's hands seem to mirror the peacock's tail. Or maybe that's just me.

Lucy playing on the bronze giraffe statues they have at the entrance to the zoo. I love that happy smile. You can see a bit of the bandage I put on her hand after her traumatic fall in front of the llamas. She continues to point out her boo-boo to anyone who might be inclined to kiss it.

Emily sitting on the larger of the two giraffe statues.

The two sisters together. I can't believe how big they are getting.

Snuggling close on a bench by the bathrooms.

After the zoo we went to the playground next to the zoo.

Much fun was had.

The girls were understandably tired. I love that they were able to sleep together in the same bed. And not just because that meant Mike and I had the other bedroom (this is in my parent's room) all to ourselves. I have many memories of sharing a bed with my sister when we traveled and it's very handy to have the girls be able to do the same thing.

Things

Things I LOVE:

- Naps. Both those that are taken by my girls and those that are taken by me. The house is so quiet and peaceful during nap time. And there is nothing better than a snooze on the couch in the afternoon. I have the best pillow and blanket for naps. I love naps.

- Going out with friends. Especially without children.

- Going away for a weekend. Without children.

- The fact that I only have to cook one more dinner this week (2 down, 1 to go!) and then I am off duty until Monday.

- Rice. It's what's for dinner. Again. It's also what is for breakfast.

- How excited Lucy gets when I bring out my bowl of rice with milk and brown sugar every morning. She loves to mooch bites.

- Listening to Emily talking with a seriously stuffy nose. She was calling me a goon last night and it was coming out "GooD." Cracked me up.

- The new season of Deadliest Catch.

- All of the awesome kiddie CDs we have floating around here. Our current favorite is They Might Be Giants Here Come the 123s. Awesome. And the kids especially love that the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse themes are on there.

- Singing W-H-O-R-E H-O-U-S-E instead of M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E during the aforementioned Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme. It makes the line "Come inside, it's fun inside" so much more interesting.

- Catching up with all kinds of long-lost friends on Facebook. I am lucky to count 2 former managers among my friends. They knew Mike and I when we were first dating. One was the manager for whom we both worked.

Things I DON'T love:

- This cold damn weather. It is the end of April (and seriously - how did THAT happen?!) and it's freezing here. I am wearing a sweatshirt. BRING THE WARM WEATHER BACK!

- Coming home from a night out with friends to see a certain redhead is STILL awake. At 9:30. Two nights in a row.

- And then dealing with the I-was-up-too-late-and-am-overtired meltdown that ensues the following day.

- Catching up on laundry and housework after going away for the weekend. In 3 days because I am going away again this weekend. (The fact that the trip this weekend is sans children is the only balm that is getting me through this long trek up Mt. Washmore.)(I am going to a Regional Luncheon for MOMS Club. I'm going with Courtney and another lady from our chapter. It is going to be AWESOME. We're hoping to sneak in some NYC sight-seeing while we're in White Plains. Anyone have any suggestions?? Are we nuts to think we can do both the World Trade Center site and the Statue of Liberty?)

- Someone calling me on the phone during nap time. Friends and family are usually quickly forgiven if you call and wake me up. Anyone else? Is on my list.

- RUDE telemarketers who get all pissy with you when they call you during naptime and you somewhat exasperatedly tell them that you didn't in fact, submit a request to be contacted about a work-at-home business and you aren't in fact interested and you don't really care company they are with, you would like THEM to take you off their list and go AWAY. The snippy lady I had the pleasure of speaking with yesterday started arguing with me about how I was being rude and that's when I had the distinct pleasure of hanging up on her. Of course, then I stewed about her and her snippiness the rest of the afternoon.

- The continued issues I am having digestively. I eat a gluten-free meal and have "issues". I eat a naughty treat and am A-OK. WTF?

- The fact that the GI doctor I went to no longer takes my insurance.

- The fact that the doctor who was recommended to me won't even schedule an appointment with me until he has reviewed all of my records and decided if he is the right doctor for me.

- Allergies.

- The fact that Emily is getting whalloped with a stuffy nose and sneezing and more than likely will get an ear infection any minute now. Probably while I'm in NYC.

- That the new bedtime resulted in me missing Big Bang Theory on Monday night because Mike didn't think it was 3.5 year old appropriate. I agree, but I was really looking forward to watching it.

- We don't have a DVR to record episodes of shows like BBT for me to watch at a more appropriate time. Like naptime.

Unplugged

We went to Michigan this weekend and I didn't bring my computer (which is why I was spending so much time in the bathroom, Katie's Uncle Rick).

I very deliberately unplugged myself from Facebook and blogging and email and all of the other time wasting stuff I do on the computer for a weekend.

It was AWESOME. I cross-stitched like a crazy lady and came out of the weekend with one bib completed and one nearly complete. I have to do a little bit more stitching and then all the backstitching on the second one.

It was great to just sit around and talk with my family and laugh at the kid's craziness. We did a whole lot of nothing all weekend. My mom and I took the girls to the zoo in Lansing on Saturday and had a wonderful day for it. I took over 90 pictures and the girls had a blast. Lucy fell at one point and scraped her palm and then spent the rest of the weekend holding out her hand and saying "Boo Boo". That was our cue to kiss her boo boo. Or, if you're Mike, tell Lucy to kiss it herself.

The girls were incredibly good during both rides to and from Michigan, and we made incredible time. We got out to MI in just under 8 hours and then got home in 7 hours. The girls were so good they got me thinking about going to see my cousin in Virginia by myself. Which is saying quite a bit. We'll see if that actually happens.

Hopefully I'll get around to posting some of the pictures I took at the zoo. Right now my book is calling my name.

FINISHED!

The bathroom, it is done. We've been using it for about a week and it is awesome. It is also everything I hoped it would be.

This is the toilet and part of the shower (bottom left corner of the picture is the edge of the shower). I couldn't get a decent picture of the shower because of the layout of the bathroom. You'll have to use your imagination - it's a shower.

The vanity and medicine cabinet. The toilet is directly to the left of the vanity. You can see part of the towels on the left side of this picture in the right side of the toilet picture. The shower is back and to the left of the vanity or directly to the left of the toilet. I am continually amazed at how much dog hair collects on the vanity top.

And now that the master bathroom is finished, talk has moved to the next big project. It's a toss-up; either the garage door will make itself be the next project by breaking to such an extent that we have to replace it or replacing the tub, toilet and flooring in the main bathroom. Either way, it's not going to be cheap. Ugh.

I know that this is how it goes with owning a house, but wow - this STINKS. I'm hoping that the garage door will limp along for a while instead of forcing us to replace it when we don't have the money to do so in cash.

Church

When I finished last night's post, I knew that there was another thing I wanted to talk about, but couldn't remember what it was.

I remembered a few hours later.

Church. And now that I think about it, this is WAY more than a bit or a piece. It deserves it's whole own post.

I don't think I've discussed much about our church situation since I decided on March 1 that I wasn't going to go to our old church any more. (And, having just spent a fair amount of time reading through my archives, I haven't actually updated at all since then.) About mid-way through February, I mentioned to Mike that the March 1 deadline was approaching and he indicated that he felt that the church had made the necessary strides forward in terms of providing a Sunday School for the kids. The provision was basically that Mike's sister was allowed to use the nursery to read a story to the kids and then let them play until service was over. Now, I totally understand that is essentially what any church is going to do for kids who don't yet read, but I was still frustrated by the seeming lack of action by the leadership of the church.

Anyhoo, I thought about it and thought about it and continually kept coming back to the fact that I really didn't like that church. I didn't feel comfortable there, I didn't enjoy the worship (we would sing along to CDs) and I wasn't getting out of church what I felt I should be getting. So I told Mike that I would not be going to that church once February was over. I told him that he was welcome to take the girls with him to the old church, let's call it WS, and I would find some churches that looked appealing to me and try them out.

My plan was to go to one church for 4 weeks and then go to another church for 4 weeks and so on.

The first Sunday of March rolled around, and with great trepidation, I took myself off to the first choice on my new church list. We'll call it CW, to make it easy on, well, me.

I walked in and someone was there to greet me. Now, this church is HUGE. Gigantic. I was blown away by the enormity of it all, especially coming from WS, where we were in a 30x30 or so room. I went in to the sanctuary, sat down and waited for the service to begin. Worship started out with a crash of drums and guitars and singing and I ... LOST it. I started sobbing and I just couldn't stop. All of my frustrations about WS and the pain of not having Mike and the girls with me at church just came pouring out. When I figured out that I wasn't going to be able to pull it together and started to feel that I was making a scene, I left the sanctuary and ran into the lady who had welcomed me not 5 minutes earlier. She was a complete sweetheart. She gave me a hug and helped me calm down and then she gave me a tour of the church.

When Mike got home from church, we talked about how both of us were unhappy not being together at church. The next night, he came home from work and told me he would be going to the trustees meeing at WS that night and submitting his resignation. He felt that our worshipping together as a family was more important than the church we attended.

We continued to go to CW for another 3 weeks and our experiences were ... mixed. There were 2 good weekends and one less-than-good weekend.

After that, we went to another local church that we'll call NH. NH is ... interesting to say the very least. The first weekend, the pastor was away, and it was very disorganized. We sang several songs and then a girl got up and did an interpretive dance. We weren't quite sure what to make of that. At the end of worship, there was a prayer and suddenly this guy started shouting about the rocks crying out and all kinds of other stuff. It was ... interesting.

This past Sunday was our second weekend at NH and it was pretty much exactly the same as the first weekend. There was an actual conga line. Now, I am all for worshipping the Lord in whatever way moves you, but DUDE - I do NOT think a CONGA LINE is appropriate in CHURCH. And then there was another interpretive dance. And some flag waving. And, being that it was Palm Sunday, there was palm waving.

In the car after the service, Mike looked at me and said "We can be all done going there now."

And I was perfectly ok with that. The current plan is to go back to CW for Easter Sunday. The following weekend we will be in Michigan and the weekend after that I am going to New York City for a MOMS Club thing, so we'll resume the church search in May.

After that third church, I am not sure what we will do. There aren't many churches in the area that match our criteria and these three are pretty much it. Maybe Church #3 will be The One (though I doubt it, because it's the church that Mike's parent's went to and they LEFT because it wasn't giving them what they needed. They started going to WS instead.) Maybe we will have to search farther afield. I don't know. But we're searching as a family and that's all that matters.

Bits N' Pieces

The bathroom is done. We moved back into it Saturday night and took the first showers in the new shower Sunday morning. It was heavenly. I am so incredibly happy with the way it turned out. I will take and post pictures soon. I don't want to heave my buns off the couch to go do it now, but I will do so soon.

****

The final score in the Sleeping Plan of World Domination was Parents 11, Kids 3. That's when I called the game. It seems unfair to keep score when we're winning so significantly. The plan? It is working. The girls are going to sleep when they should and are waking up between 7 and 8 am. That is a big ole SCORE in my book. Add to that the fact that we were able to wean the girls off their nightlight and WOO! Life is pretty good 'round these parts.

The only bummer about the no-nightlight situation is the girls bedroom? IS DARK at night. That's fine and dandy most of the time, but some times a certain 3.5 year old feels the need to relieve her bladder at 3 in the morning and she gets herself LOST in her bedroom and ends up at the foot of her sister's bed, which is on the opposite side of the room from the door, crying because she has to go potty. Mommy then has to come in and rescue her, all the while muttering dire threats about what will happen to said certain 3.5 year old, should she wake her sister, who is conveniently sleeping at the foot of that very same bed. That was not so awesome.

I'm not quite sure what to do about that situation other than teach Emily to get out of bed and walk straight until she hits the wall. I remember getting very disoriented in the dark when I was a kid, so I'm sure it's just a thing she has to work out.

We took the nightlight out because we (Mike) discovered (forgot to turn it on) Lucy will go right to sleep when you put her down with out the nightlight. Add to that the fact that Emily was entirely to hung up on having a nightlight, even when napping in the middle of the day, and you have a fabulous new reason to tell her they're broken.

****

I called the ENT that Dr Sara recommended and the first available appointment was for May 1. I spoke with Dr Sara's office and got some assistance remembering the name of the doctor we saw previously, which was not in that same office. I called them and the nice (male - which kind of wierded me out, but shouldn't have) said the first available appointment was on the 13th. I clarified that he was talking about April and he said no, May. That's when I decided to go with a doctor in a closer, smaller hospital. I called his office and our appointment is tomorrow. Perfect. When I called the other offices back to cancel the appointments, the first ENT's receptionist said "If it's a matter of getting her in earlier, I have an appointment for next Thursday." That would have been great if you had told me that 3 hours ago when I called the first time. Now, it's a little late. The doctor we will be seeing is the one that did Janna's ears and Sam's ears. Courtney recommended this doctor very highly and I'm thrilled that we'll be able to go there as well. And, as an added bonus, it is VERY close to our house, so we don't have 30-45 minute drives to and from the hospital on surgery and appointment days. Perfection.

Winter Wrap Up

I went to the pediatrician's office today without my children.

Today was my meeting to discuss the past winter. I wanted to come out of there with a list of the number of times the girls had ear infections, pneumonia and antibiotic prescriptions as well as a game plan for next winter.

Emily has had 5 ear infections and 1 bout of pneumonia. She had antibiotics 6 times since last January. The biggest decision we made for Em today was to get her to an ENT (again) for tubes. If we were to remove the ear infection component of Emily's past winter, we would have only had ONE major, antibiotic-requiring illness and that's something I can totally get behind. We also revamped her medicines and went over a she's-coughing-and-it's-late-at-night game plan.

Lucy had 3 ear infections and 3 bouts of pneumonia. She was on antibiotics 9 times since last January. We are going to hold off on tubes for Lucy at this point. Dr Sara's threshold is 5 infections in a year. However, if Lucy comes down with another case of pneumonia before the end of the year, we will run some blood work to investigate the function of her immune system. 3 times in a year is a lot for pneumonia. We also reviewed Lucy's medicines and made some changes there, too.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to sit down with Dr Sara and go over this data. I wrote down every single visit the girls had between January of last year and today and it was illuminating. I wasn't imagining it; they really were there ALL THE TIME. There were so many cases of April 2, April 6, April 9 visit series it was crazy. Dr Sara also said that the meeting was helpful for her. She was able to analyze the data and look for patterns to the girls' illnesses, which was helpful. We discovered that Emily tends to get sick A LOT during the summer (of all stinkin' times), while Lucy has been more sick in the winter.

I am sstill working to come to terms with the fact that Emily needs to have tubes. I know that it is a beneficial thing for her and GOD, do I ever want her to stop being sick all the time, but it's still surgery on my baaay-beee and it freaks me out. I've been semi sick to my stomach ever since Dr Sara said she wanted her to get tubes. Logically I understand all of the reasons, but emotionally, I'm trying not to freak out. I'm hoping that talking with the ENT tomorrow will help settle me down somewhat. Of course, I wanted to call today, but my appointment with Dr Sara wasn't until 4:30. I didn't leave the office until 5:45! Amazing. We talked about the kids for OVER an hour.

We also decided that I wouldn't take the girls back to the allergist for a while. I don't think that the allergist, Dr K, has been adding much of anything to the conversation about the girls. Add to that the $30 copays, and her tendency to perpetually add medicines (including one that I discovered today isn't actually approved for children. Emily has been on it since she was 18 months old. AWESOME) without any end dates or discussion of the medicine's effectiveness. We'll go back to the allergist if Dr Sara and I think that the girls need or will benefit from allergy shots, but that's going to be a while. Emily is only just old enough for allergy shots now and I do not want to go there with her for that right now. I don't think that her problems are stemming from allergies. We'll see how we do after the tubes go in.

I have no logical plan for how to wrap up this post. I guess I'll just stop writing like I always do.