2 Years Old!

*I wrote this back on Lilian's birthday (11.05) but due to computer malfunctions over the years I had to go get some pictures off of my myspace. I just didn't have the time that night and got busy with work and holiday season....so here it is, a month and five days later haha.*

Can you believe my sweet little Lilibug is 2?? It just seems like yesterday I gave birth to a perfectly healthy 7lb 2 oz, 20 1/4 inch long beautiful baby girl. That baby girl is now 25lbs (skinny minnie!) and around 33inches tall. Her 2 year well-baby check up is the 9th so we'll get exact measurements then (*edit: they didn't write them down for me....jerks). She's an amazing little thing. She has a boot fetish. My cousin got her these cute little rain boots and she hates having to take them off. So for her birthday, I got her a pair and Adam's mom got her a pair from this really cute shoe store in the mall here. She loves them. She loves movies. I hate to have the TV constantly on for her, but you know what? She isn't watching it all day. She'll get up, go play, come back and watch a little, go do something else then come back again. She loves Caillou, Finding Nemo, Cars and Beauty and the Beast. She still loves her baths, she's finally learned to roll onto her tummy and "swim" or blow bubbles. We are still working on potty training. There are less and less accidents and soon I think we can brave public with no diaper. It's a scary thought really, but it has to be done. I'm not afraid of having an accident while out and about, but more of how many? I wonder if I can fit her dresser in my trunk? Hopefully she'll do better than I'm anticipating. Her vocab is finally starting to expand. She was stuck on just a few words for a while there. She calls herself "baby" lol. "Baby joo" to let us know she wants her juice..."Baby boo" for wanting her boots haha. She doesn't say the last syllable for most words yet so it's still a guessing game to figure out what some of the stuff she is saying really means. She's also starting to figure out different names for family members, and knowing who is who. My mom likes to be called Meme (French for grandma) so when Adam's mom was visiting she though that was Meme too, but we were trying to call her grandma, or something else. She does know that my dad is Papa and my step-mom is Gigi though. All our friends are "E.E." (auntie) or "O.O." (uncle)...actually, its not just our friends. Its anyone really. I've had a few ladies at the PX or wherever we are say "hi" to her and she responds with "hi E.E." lol. She can tell you what a dog, cat, cow, monkey, monster, car, and bee says. She can do goat/sheep and duck with some help.As I'm sure you know by now, Adam is home. He made it home a week ago and I'm so thankful that so far, he has been home for her birth and both birthdays! It was the cutest thing when he got home too. It was about 4 in the morning so I woke her up. Adam came in through the kitchen door and she came into the kitchen, looked at him and said "hi Dada" like he hadn't been gone. Then she started to turn and walk back to the living room, realized she hadn't seen him in 2 months and turned back around, yelled "Hi Dada!" and ran to him. And he thought she wouldn't remember him! She loves her Dada though. And her Meme. Its pretty much "screw you mom" already haha. Oh well, my mom can enjoy it while she can, she leaves to live with her sister in Arizona on Monday.

Happy Birthday Lilian RaeMarie Sugg. Momma and Daddy love you so much!11.05.2008-0643-7lbs 2.3ozs-20.25 inches


11.05.09-Happy 1st Birthday!!11.o5.09-Happy 2nd Birthday!
Idk this one uploaded so much smaller, but try clicking to make it bigger.

Reader beware, angry writer ahead.

The one thing I canNOT stand about Texas are all the damn Mexicans. I am not racist whatsoever but the ones here are turning me into the most prejudiced person against Mexican people. But not all of them, just the ones who come to live and work here without learning our damn language. Yesterday my landlord had a bunch of contractors come to the house to do some estimates on things. The windows contractor was Mexican. Who hardly spoke word of English. Who skimmed over his job and even forgot a few windows. I had to ask him "what?" several times. I just wanted to yell at him "LEARN MY FUCKING LANGUAGE IFYOU"RE GOING TO WORK HERE!" I took 3 years of Spanish in high school, but you know what, that's like learning only the ABC's in the English language. It's not enough and I feel like I'm in another country here.

Today has just really pissed me off though. I went to a Kirby store to buy some vacuum bags so I can actually get a good vacuum done on my floor. I walked into the store and just groaned, a Mexican was working the counter. And of course this isn't a store store, its a little shop and EVERYTHING to buy was behind that damn counter. I asked the guy for some bags for the Sentria...he mumbled something in Spanish that I didn't understand. I said "what?" and he said something and all I understood was "2 or 6". I figured he was talking about a 2-bag pack or a 6-bag pack so I asked what the price difference was. Again a mumble and I caught "9.50" and a 20-something. After being cut off with a really close call by a speeding Mexican on the freeway, I was already pissed off and not wanting to be there longer than I already needed to be so instead of him hurting himself trying to speak the language of the damn country he lives in, I said I'd take the 2-pack. THEN he went off about something in Spanish and all I understood was "años" (years) and I was like "How old am I?" and pointed to myself. He nodded and I was thinking "what the hell does this dude want to know my age for?" then I figured maybe here I had to be 18 to buy and I definitely don't look 18 so I told him my age. Then he went back and got the pack and I ASKED the guy "And these are for the Sentria right?" "Yes yes".Ok cool, got my bags lets go finish errands.

I just went to change my bags and guess what? THE FUCKING BAGS HE SOLD ME ARE NOT THE RIGHT ONES! Omg! Seriously?!? I am so mad. Maybe there are two different bag types for my vacuum, but you know what? If the fucker had spoken English then he could have gotten me the right bags! I'm sick of this place already. Take away all the Mexicans that can't speak a lick of English and it'd be a decent place. I mean seriously, I'm a little white girl. Nothing about me looks like I speak Spanish. You wanted to leave Mexico? LEAVE IT AT THE DAMN BORDER THEN. Don't bring it in here and try to run a business. I shouldn't have to listen to the same announcement in Macy's--one in English, one in Spanish-to accommodate you and your laziness when it comes to being a proper United States citizen.

Now I know how the Native Americans felt. White people coming in and taking over their land. I feel bad about it now. I always felt bad, just because it was mean and cruel. Now I have a little taste as to what they went through. But this is MY land now, get the fuck off of it or learn MY language.

That shop better be open tomorrow. I'm going back and demanding they give me the 6-pack bag for the price of what I paid for the 2-pack....because this is a HUGE inconvenience and a hazard to my life with the way people drive here.

El Paso

So we made it to El Paso, TX around 4:30 in the morning on September 1st. On the 31st the military had the packers come and spend 5 hours packing our apartment and storage unit then load it into the truck. After they were finished I had to turn in apartment keys, drop cable gear off at Comcast and donate the food we couldn't pack into the car to Courtney. We didn't get on the road until about 6:30 that night, trunk full and Lili and dogs in the back seat. I drove about half way and my mom drove the rest. We were tired and so happy to finally get into our hotel beds, but of course that only lasted about 4 hours thanks to Lili the early bird. We met with the landlord that morning and got the keys to our house. It's definitely not as nice as I thought it would be. It's an old house with a lot of the original build. Tiles in the kitchen are cracked, falling apart and lifting off the floor. We have tiles in all 3 bedrooms, those aren't too bad minus the paint since someone apparently doesn't know how to cover the floor when painting. The carpet in the living room, hall and dining room is old and hideous. All the windows have cranks and open like a door, almost all don't even open. We also have bars on all the windows, except the big living room one (its huge and divided into smaller sections by wood...if that makes sense). We have 4 doors to the outside world...3 of which have barred security screen doors....which I actually like since they lock and I can leave the door open. One door leads to our screened in back porch, which has an uneven brick floor. The yard is full of weeds and sticker bushes which sucks because they get dragged in by the dogs and embedded into the carpet for us to step on. It has a swamp cooler that I absolutely hate. I can live with it, but never again will I rent (or buy) a home with one. We had to wait over a week for my stuff to arrive, so sleeping on the floor at night (we actually bought $1 pool floaties to use as mattresses....not that they worked well since they deflated so we caved and bought mattress pads, which didn't help much either) and sitting on the floor all day didn't help enjoy anything either.

It needs a lot of work. But you know what? I don't care. I've seen worse houses before, but I've seen much better. The fact that I have a yard for the dogs to run around in (which is completely fenced in so they can run in the front and back. Minus the sticker bush pricklies being dragged in, it's the best thing ever. They don't whine and when they start rough housing in the house I kick them outside so they don't trample us anymore. Honestly it'd be a fun project house. If we like the area enough, I'd love to buy it and fix it up.

El Paso so far isn't so bad. The drivers are HORRIBLE though. It's actually really scary. We are in a decent neighborhood though. Quiet, older neighbors. I had to translate Spanish in a Chinese restaurant. I feel like I'm in another country when out and about, they even do two announcements in Macy's....first in English, second in Spanish. Which is just irritating. We are in the United States, learn the damn language. I don't care if we are right on the border of Mexico (so close I've seen several Mexican license plated vehicles).

Lili and I fly a week from tomorrow to my dad's. I'm excited to go visit, see family and friends I haven't seen in about 18 months now. Adam gets done with AIT at the end of October, just in time for Lili's 2nd birthday. Holy cow.

Bye bye Hubby...

Until the end of October! Ugh 2 1/2 months....the longest we've gone is about 3-4 weeks since he's been home from Iraq. He's in training for a new job within the Army. Hopefully this new MOS and change of duty station will make his life in the military better. We'll see though. We are in the process of filling out applications for a house to rent in El Paso. I move there at the end of this month. My mom is flying to CO on the 19th to help me with Lili and so we aren't all alone in Texas....and to watch the dogs while I go to my dad's for a few weeks at the end of September. The military is moving out stuff, even packing it so this move is going to be nearly stress free!

My thumb is doing much better. I go back again on the 20th to the Orthopedic doctors. I went on the 3rd and they told me I didn't really need to wear the splint anymore, but they gave me a smaller one (it's the size of my thumb instead of my whole hand!) that I wear when I'm doing something and don't want to bump it...which let me tells you, hurts like there's no tomorrow. I'm done with the antibiotics but I still take a percocet at night. I don't NEED the pain meds, but sometimes it does hurt and it helps me sleep better. I'm hoping my nail grows back soon....it's very awkward to paint only 9 nails lol. I did finally dig out a piece of nail that was embedded into my skin yesterday. I was worried it wouldn't move if/when my nail does grow back. But after my shower yesterday, my skin was soft (it got wet....woops, I think I'm supposed to keep it dry still) so I just pulled it off. All the wounds are closed now, but the fracture I'm sure is still there. It was almost a complete break (from what I saw on the x-ray at my last appt) so that part is gonna take some time.

That's about it for now. It's gonna be a lonely few months, but we'll manage.

Good-bye thumb nail, hello fractured bone...

Ok so as you probably know, last night my dog got a hold of my thumb, ripped the thumbnail off and fractured one of the bones in the same thumb. This going to take a long time to write since my hand is splinted and I'm now having to learn to be ambidextrous sine of course my dominant hand is the one damaged. This might be a long one too since I'm telling you what happened and why we might still keep our dog.

So here goes the story...
Last night we were taking Cairo and Apollo outside to the dog run for them to go potty and run around for a bit. There is this family in our building that own the cutest, most wanna-be bad-ass chihuahua. Lately they have been outside more often and our two dogs have noticed her. Well last night they were sitting in the grass next to the run with the dog so we decided to introduce all the dogs. Our 2 are very playful, hyper pups. They sniffed Chica (the chihuahua) but wanted to play with her, and lets face it, thats just not a good combo just based on their sizes so we took ours into the dog run and took their leashes off. Well Chica kept barking and wanting to join our dogs so the owner's niece took the leash off and let Chica come over (she slipped right between the bars lol). Right away, Cairo and Apollo ran to play. She was cornered instantly so Adam and I got up to stop them. Apollo was biting her (which is how our dogs play) so I grabbed Chica. When I did, Apollo bit down again, but this time my thumb was in the way. If I had any idea how strong his bite was, of course I wouldn't have stuck my hand down there. But he had a good grip and I started screaming. Adam tried prying his jaw open but clearly he is a strong little shit. We think Apollo realized I was screaming and let go...he knew he did something wrong because he ran. I grabbed my thumb and started putting pressure on it, then looked at it. It wasn't bleeding too bad yet, but my nail was hanging off. And it hurt...bad. The girl who let Chica off her leash was coming in the gate to get her and Apollo ran out. In the time of shock, anger and pain we didn't care. We grabbed Cairo and went inside to get our things and head to the ER. I was fine at that point, yelling and screaming in pain, but once I sat in the car, I started hyperventilating. At the same time I was also trying to put my EMS class training to use but it was hard to think. I grabbed one of Adam's shirts in his car, wrapped my thumb in it, put the pressure back on and elevated it. I was freaking out and kept forgetting to hold it up so I finally laid it on my head to keep it there lol. Then the hyperventilation really kicked in and my face and arms were tingling and I thought I was going to pass out. The pain was getting worse so it was hard to steady my breathing, especially when I was getting road rage about people going the speed limit on post. We get to the Army hospital and greeted rudely but thats only to be expected by military hospital staff. When I finally get back to the actual ER, it was hours later and it still hurt like hell. I begged my nurse to get me meds, knock me out...anything! The Dr. actually gave me a nerve block (shots around my thumb to numb the nerves so I couldn't feel the pain. He sent me to x-ray to make sure he didn't get the bone and Adam came back (my phone died and he went to get his in case the person watching Lili needed us). By the time I got back from x-ray I needed another nerve block...which was only about 40 minutes after the first one, give or take a few minutes. One of the bones in my thumb is fractured, but not displaced so they decided to not suture me up...just in case of an infection, they want it to drain out instead of into the fracture and my bones which would give me even more issues. They irrigated the crap out of it, bandage then splinted it. They sent me home with dressings, Percocet and antibiotics to help prevent infection. I was fine with Percocet, it worked fabulously after my c-section and even then I just took one. We got home around one in the morning so I took the antibiotic and one Percocet. It hadn't kicked in 30 min later so I took another (1-2 tablets every 4-6 hours). It dulled the pain but not enough to let me sleep. I had to go back this morning to get more meds. I took two again and still an hour later I was still in a lot of pain and the antibiotics made me puke while they were taking my vitals. The Dr. wanted to check my thumb but the gauze that isn't supposed to stick, was sticking to where my nail used to be (it fell off completely last night). So I started freaking and crying since it just added to my pain. At first he said he couldn't numb it for a dressing change but when he realized it was sticking, he stopped, ordered me a valium to calm me, a shot of something to numb me (not a nerve block, and its just now starting to wear off...some 9 hours later), then soaked my thumb for a while. It came off easily but still hurt a tad. Everything looked good so he re-bandaged and sent me home with valium to take before I change my dressings and some prescription strength Alieve to take with my Percocet. So we'll see if that helps...
That's the bandaging/splint. Fun isn't it?


Now, about Apollo. Adam found him back in the dog run when he went home to get his phone. We were both mad and wanted him gone, but not dead. We had a friend call the pound to have him picked up but by the time we got to the ER, regretted that. So Adam took back home and put him in his kennel and we would decide later what to do with him. I didn't even look at him until about an hour ago. He knows he hurt me, he isn't being his normal self. When Adam took him out of his kennel, he ran to me, but didn't jump like he always does. Then he started kissing my bandage. He isn't a mean dogs, but he lives and plays with a wolf. Cairo's playing shows a lot of wolf instincts, including biting the neck and not letting go. We think Apollo was playing with Chica, but not realizing how fragile a 5lb chihuahua is. Biting hard enough to fracture a bone isn't acceptable with any dog he's playing, but we don't think he really wanted to hurt her and he didn't. We think he tasted my blood and heard my screams, realized he did something wrong and let go. He had me for a few seconds, but he didn't try attacking again. Adam just took the dogs out and Chica was out there, and Apollo didn't try going for her. He got excited and wanted to play but didn't pull like he always does. Chica's owner isn't mad, he even knows its his fault for his dog not being on a leash. Everyone out there thought they were all playing, but Apollo was just too rough. He stopped by to see if I was okay and come to find out, he was the one who found Apollo and put him back in the dog run. So we don't think Apollo is mean, he just didn't think about size and strength when playing. He's never been around a dog so much smaller than him. We might still keep him and get him fixed to help calm him down. He knows he did wrong, even without us punishing me, we didn't have time for that. Cairo keeps trying to play with him but he wont play for long and not as rough. He even stopped playing with Cairo when Lili walked by, then started again when she was far enough away. So no worries there.

So there you have it. You can all stop worrying about him "attacking" again. I know I didn't really clarify it in my status last night but Facebook only allows so much for a status lol. Biting that hard was not necessary, but he's never been aggressive so we think he just didn't understand.

I've always been told she should be a Gerber baby...

...so I finally entered her into a Gerber Generation Photo Search contest. They were supposed to send me an email to let me know when voting started, but they never did. So please vote! And ask your friends and family to vote! You can vote once per day per email. So if you have multiple emails, please use them! Thanks

http://www.gerber.com/photo/?entryid=5604&%2F#/detail/

You have to copy past the above link!

It's Been a While...

So it's been over a month since my last post...I guess there's just nothing worth blogging about really. We went on leave to VA...we started our drive on Friday June 25th. We got a bit of a late start and didn't really get on the road until about 7 that night. We made it to Adam's parents around 7 Sunday morning. We only stopped once really to sleep, for like 3 hours...other than that we took turns driving/sleeping in the passenger seat. Lilian did extremely well! I was impressed. Last time she screamed and cried a lot. Not a peep in that area this time. Although you could tell when she was bored and tired of being in the car...
It was amazing to finally get there! Although that first day Adam and I did sleep away while Lili played with his parents. It went to quick though. As much as I don't like Virginia, I really did not want to get back in the car yet. I also finally went to Virginia Beach a few times. It was as close to being in Hawaii as I could get (decent beach, warm water) so I really didn't want to leave that either. I told Adam if he wants to move back to VA when he's done in the military, my condition is living on the beach. His step-sister (who I also FINALLY got to meet!) has a condo that's a 5 minute walk from the ocean that runs $1000....which is really cheap for the beach! So it is a possibility someday. We also did Busch Gardens of course. Adam finally grew a pair and went on the Griffon with me....he doesn't really do coasters with loops, but he did this time! The picture his funny, but my scanner wont let me scan right now. Lili also got to ride some rides this time. She hasn't been on anything but carousels since we went to Walt Disney World in 2009. The first one was this flying dragon thing that I took her on. She liked it. Adam was going to take her on the second one, which was a lady bug car that just went in a circle, but when he tried to climb in, the lady told him it was for kids only. So we braved letting her ride alone. I thought it would scare her, and it did, for about 2 seconds. She wasn't expecting it to move so when that shock got over, she laughed and squealed the whole time and definitely did not want to get out when it was over haha.

That was pretty much the highlight of the trip. Oh I did get to see Eclipse, twice! Adam took me to the midnight release--amazing right? He despises Twilight haha.

We left on July 6th, I was completely dreading the drive. I was so exhausted still from the first drive there so I didn't do a lot of driving and we did end up getting a hotel for two nights. Adam's mom bought us portable dvd players that strap to the back of the seats, Lili LOVED that. And of course so did the passenger in the front seat....when the sun wasn't making it hard to see the screen.

So we are home, getting back into a routine. Adam's mom bought Lili some big girl panties so we are starting to work with those. We bought pull-ups but those are too much like diapers. I'm thinking I'll try one more pack after these, but the cool-alert ones instead.

We are also starting to get ready to PCS. Adam leaves for AIT in about 3 weeks and during the 3ish months he'll be gone, I'll probably end up moving to Texas. As I'm typing this, he is working on setting up for the military to move us so we'll see if/when they do that. I could very well be moving right after Adam leaves. Which will be a complete pain but whatever. I'm starting to get excited to start fresh somewhere. Adam and I really need it. I'm going to miss Courtney, my only friend here....but it's a 9 hour drive so it's not too bad. We've been looking into renting a house so the dogs have a yard, but our BAH is $140 less in TX than here so that makes it hard. At this point, I'm thinking we'll end up in an apartment and get put on the Base House waiting list--which last time I checked was 12-18 moths. Hopefully that goes quick.

Potty Training

It has begun! I always told myself I wanted my children potty trained by age 2. And I read about the 3-day method and thought that would probably be the easiest way. If you don't know, the 3-day method is basically letting your child run around naked and correct them to go potty in the appropriate places (potty chair or toilet, whichever you want to use i guess...we are using a 3 step potty chair). But then we learned we are going on leave at the end of June and then again at the end of September. So I figured we'd do it a little here and there and after we get back in October, really kick some butt on it. BUT it's been so hot here and we have no A.C. so I was letting her run around in her diaper....then I brought her potty chair to the living room and took her diaper off and she knew what to do from having done it a few times before. But then she kept doing it. And she I guess she thinks it's fun, because she does it every few minutes....I have no idea if that's normal or not, I need to do some research and ask her pediatrician, but she gets it and I'm so proud! We don't even reward her yet, just a "good job" and "what a big girl!" and she's completely content with that...hopefully that doesn't change but if it does, we'll get some starbursts or something (a few kids I babysat years ago loved that reward for their potty training...one piece for peeing in the toilet, and two for pooping). Anyway she didn't poop at all yesterday so today I figured it would come. And sure enough, standing right next to her potty chair, she goes on the floor lol. Well she hadn't done that on her chair yet so she didn't know what to do with that. When I saw what she was doing I was like "nononononononon Lili! You do that on your potty chair!" So she went and sat on her potty chair. As I was cleaning up I feared she was already done and wouldn't have anything to go in the chair with so I couldn't get excited for her and she'll realize that's where she poops too. But I was wrong, she stood up and there was a little left in there for me haha. So hopefully she'll remember to do all her duties in there too after I got excited. Now the next step is to buy some pull-ups and hopefully that will help her learn when she's dressed to let us know since that's my biggest concern right now. Seeing has how she doesn't even put two words together yet to ask for something or anything like that, I have no idea how she's going to let us know....but we'll figure something out.

So I totally wouldn't be so detailed about pooping haha but, all of you who read this (that I know of anyway) are mothers who are going to be going through this before you know it, or have done it already. :) Don't worry though, I don't have pictures to share...too weird haha.

19 months

Lili is 19 months old as of today. I think all of us mothers ask ourselves on the month mark our child ages up, "where did the time go?" But really, WHERE does it go? It's like you pop out a kid and all of a sudden, time multiplies it's speed by like 980971403740198374091730471. Where did my baby girl go?? It's so fun and exciting to watch them grow and learn new things like walking and talking, but the days of being completely depended on was my favorite. Lilian is VERY independent. She already puts her shoes on and brushes her teeth...by herself! Granted she isn't a very good teeth brusher yet, but she refuses to let me do it. The day she learned to stand up in the middle of the floor without any help from anything or anyone (she did this after she started walking...if she fell she would crawl to grab something and pull herself up) was the last day she crawled. When she does crawl, it's actually weird to see....She gets in and out of bed by herself, climbs up on the couch by herself and LOVES to walk up the stairs. We are slowly working on potty training...she pees in her potty chair already, good pees now. I'm probably going to try the 3-day method at some point, but I just don't know when yet. I need to wait for a time we are less on the go...baby sitting and going on leave in 2 weeks just wont help. Plus I need to wait for some extra money to buy her some big girl panties. My goal is to have her potty trained by 2...maybe not fully, but preferably no accidents during the day and pull-ups at night.

Anywho, I don't think I've met such a fearless, independent 19 month old little girl. In the pool this summer, she tries to get away from me! A few times I've let her try a little, just so she would see she can't swim yet...nope, she just keeps trying. I see all the other toddlers in the pool (we haven't seen a younger toddler than her at the pool yet) they all cling to their parent or are the screamers who wont even step on a step. Lilian already likes to "jump" into the pool...we did that today. She saw some kid run and jump, she laughed so I set her on the ledge and held onto her hands while she "jumped" (she still does the little hop but doesn't really leave the ground lol so I kind of pick her up/pull her into the water). I'm glad she's not afraid of the water, but it was so much easier to enjoy pool time last summer when she was perfectly content in her floaty.

I'm excited for her to keep growing and learning. I can't wait for no more diapers (until baby #2 in a few years) and her to start forming sentences and can actually communicate with me...the only thing she communicates is when she wants something to drink...she'll either hand me her empty sippy cup and say juice, or run to the kitchen, saying juice and tries to open the fridge. But at the same time, I want this back:
<--click to make it bigger.

Alice

So I downloaded Alice In Wonderland the other day (it's not out on DVD until tomorrow, June 1st so I was sneaky ;D) I just finally watched all of it last night, LOVE that movie. Johnny Depp+Tim Burton...need I say more? I'm really sad that I never got to see it in theaters in 3D...I really hope they bring the 3D on dvd soon! Anywho, either Avril asked or Tim asked her to write a song for the movie's theme. It's not played until the credits of course, and it was released before the movie even went into theaters, but hearing it again last night made it kinda stick. Mostly I just realized how much it can relate to real life. Everyone has those moments when they feel like nothing is going right and the weight of the world is just crushing them. Most get through it and come out stronger. The last few weeks that's how I've felt. So the song really had some meaning for me.




Trippin out
Spinning around
I'm underground
I fell down
Yeah I fell down

I'm freaking out, where am I now?
Upside down and I can't stop it now
Can't stop me now, oh oh

I,I, I'll get by
I,I, I'll survive
When the world's crashing down
When I fall and hit the ground
I will turn myself around
Don't you try to stop me
I,I, I won't cry

I found myself in Wonderland
Got back on my feet, again
Is this real?
Is this pretend?
I'll take a stand until the end

I,I, I'll get by
I,I, I'll survive
When the world's crashing down
When I fall and hit the ground
I will turn myself around
Don't you try to stop me
I,I, I won't cry

I,I, I'll survive
When the world's crashing down
When I fall and hit the ground
I will turn myself around
Don't you try to stop me
I,I, and I won't cry

Changes

Changes are happening, and soon. I usually love changes, but this time it could go either way....good or bad. I can't tell yet which it's going to be, and sadly I can see both. My gut feeling is mixed and it's driving me insane. I can't even begin to start my own personal changes to ensure that the big changes are for the good. Adam is gone for another week or so and I need his help.

18 month check-up.

So apparently I confused my WIC appointment with Lili's check up...well mostly I thought the date of my WIC appointment was Lili's check up and totally forgot I go back to WIC this month. Anywho, she was such a big girl! She got one shot, which she whimpered for a second when she was first pricked, then she just stared at the nurse. When the doctor was in there, she had set her oto/ophthalmoscope next to her and Lili on the cot and was using her stethoscope to listen to Lili's heart and lungs. Well she had the ear piece on it, ready to look in Lilian's ears when Lili picked it up and put it to her ears herself! She started alternating between her ears while Dr. Bagnall was still listening with her stethoscope. It was too funny that she actually remembered where that goes, AND Dr. said that's advanced for her age by about 6 months. I also mentioned how she likes to help me put away dishes and actually knows what goes where and she said that's advanced too. Normally kids don't do that until about 2-2 1/2 years old! I was one proud Momma walking out of that office today. Now here's her measurements. I have a blog on my myspace that I updated every appointment, but haven't done it since her 12 month check up so I'll kinda just copy/paste it here for whoever wants to see how she's growing (probably mostly family):

May 6th, 2010 [18 months, 1 day]
Weight: 22lbs 1.5ozs (10th-25th percentile)
Length: 31.75 inches (50th percentile)
Head: 47.75cm (75th-90th percentile)

February 8th, 2010 [15 months, 3 days] (apparently blogger doesn't have underline?)
Weight: 21lbs 3ozs (25th percentile)
Length: 30.5 inches (50th percentile)
Head: 47 cm (75th-90th percentile....I'm not even going to bother doing the conversion to inches)

November 10th, 2009 [12 months, 5 days]
Weight: 20lbs 5ozs (25th-50th percentile)
Length: 30 inches (75th-90th percentile)
Head: 18.31 inches (they gave me inches this time!!! lol 75th-90th percentile)

August 10th, 2009 [9 months, 5 days]
Weight: 18lbs 10ozs (50th percentile)
Length: 28 3/4 inches (80th percentile...she's gonna be a tall one!)
Head: 46 cm=which is just a tad over 18 inches (95th percentile...back to a bobble head lol)

June 8th, 2009 [7 months, 3 days]
Weight: 17lbs 10ozs (50th percentile)
Length: 27inches (75th percentile)
Head: 17 1/2inches (75th percentile)

April 24th, 2009 [5 months, 2 weeks, 5 days]
Weight: 16lbs 2ozs (50th percentile)
Length: 26 inches (75th percentile)
Head: 17 inches (75th percentile)

March 10th, 2009 [4 months, 5 days]we missed her 2 month due to out of town & didn't get caught up again until 9mo
Weight: 14lbs 6ozs (75th percentile)
Length: 24 3/4 inches (75th percentile)
Head: 16 3/4 inches (90th percentile)


November 5th, 2008 [birth]
Weight: 7lbs 2.3 ozs
Length: 20 1/4 inches
Head: Not sure, no one ever told me/wrote down that one


She clearly isn't gaining weight very fast anymore, but they don't seem concerned about it. "Tall and skinny" is usually what she says about that so until they worry, I won't worry.

So just a funny little note about today...Lili is wearing this cute little sundress and had her flip flops on. She was following the nurse back to the room and as we rounded the last corner to the hall our room was down, she trips...twice. I was holding her hand so I just pulled a little to help her up each time since she usually gets distracted and takes forever. WELL she kinda stumbled a bit and I bent down to pick her up...to find her diaper around her ankles...I wish I had my camera out and on at that moment. It was too funny....until during the time we waited for the Doctor to come in after the nurse got her vitals she decided to explode in her fresh clean diaper.

Her cute little dress. It's a halter! :)





















And her crazy woman hair. Half straight, half curly haha.

18 months!

I cannot believe baby girl is 18 months old today! Where has the time gone??? All I know is it has been a fun, amazing, happy 18 months. It's so fun to watch your babies develop personalities and independence. And let me tell you, Lili has a lot of both. My child is crazy, she does the weirdest things and we are always laughing at her because of it. But all too soon, she has a lot of the independence thing. She's in the climbing phase, trying to climb on the couch all by herself. Sometimes she gets frustrated and accepts help, other times if you help her she'll jump back down and try again. She also refuses to let me brush her teeth, she wants to do it. Which is cute and perfectly fine, as long as I get in there at one point to make sure each tooth is pearly white since she doesn't do it properly yet.
She also likes to throw things away now. I didn't even know she knew what to do with her wrapper one day until I saw her walking to the kitchen with it and then heard a cupboard slam shut. I went to go see what she was getting into, saw she didn't have the wrapper anymore, then started checking her favorite cupboards. It wasn't anywhere! So I checked the cupboard with the trash can and sure enough, her wrapper was in the trash! So now, I can tell her to throw something away and she does it! Very helpful with her own dirty diapers too haha.

She also will voluntarily lay down for me to change her--sometimes. A couple of days ago she did it every time I asked for a few days, but not at all yesterday. Still, it's better than her running away lol. She even holds her feet up for me now.

She also LOVES to help me put away the dishes from the dishwasher. She hears me open it and comes running. Of course I quickly get the silverware and any knives out of there first, but then she puts away everything in the lower cupboards, the drawers if I open them for her and she hands me the things that go up high. And she knows which ones those are, she's never tried putting the plates/bowls/etc away, just handed them to me. She knows when we say to put something away/back, that she puts it where she got it from...or at least tries to lol.


Lilian even likes to help me put clothes in the washer....now if only I could get her to FOLD them instead of destroying them....

She loves to dance, she'll start busting a move to just about any song haha. Her vocabulary consists of "juice", "Georgia", "Shoe", "Dada", "Bye", "Ow", "Kiki" for cat, "Cracker" and "cheese" while she's giving a cheesey smile...she tried "coat" the other day and we are working on thank you--which sometimes we get something that sounds similar, or similar to "thanks" lol. We get close to saying "dinner" too. She knows what everything is to, they aren't just words she says. I ask her where her juice is, she gets her sippy cup. If I ask "do you want to go bye-bye?" she goes and gets her shoes. The only one she relates something to that she shouldn't is Georgia. Not only is Georgia Auntie Courtney's dog, but it's Auntie Courtney herself lol.

["Cheese"...she even does it when brushing her teeth lol]

So that's my little monster for now. Her check up isn't until the 13th, so I'll post her measurements then. :)

Bored.

So I thought I'd update again...instead of a month from now haha. Adam should be home from JRTC sometime next week. I finally dropped off the application and deposit fees at the new apartment today. Not really looking forward to this at all but whatever. We gotta do what we gotta do. The guys are gonna hate me though (Adam and whoever we scrounge up to help move big stuff). The apartment is on the third floor. Hehehe. Oh well, I need a damn balcony. I can't stand feeling so trapped in my own home. Especially since our apartment is one of those INSIDE the building. I need to have the option to step out side for a quick second and none of the other apartments they had open had a balcony. So that's that. I should hear back in a few days about the application approval. Then we Adam gets home we can send in his app and be done with it until moving day. I hate that we are downsizing...it's a good thing there is a storage unit literally across the street that offers a military discount AND a discount for leasing with these apartments (well the lady in the leasing off said we get the double, I need to call and find out for sure). We'll put our bed frame/head board/foot board in there, possibly Lilian's changing table that I now use as a storage shelf for her extra blankets and towels, the microwave since the apartment has one built in over the stove...one of the bathroom sets, the tons of extra blankets we have since it'll be Summer soon, and since it's across the street I'm hoping to convince Adam to store his gear in there and he can go there to get things out if he needs to. We'll see how that goes. So that's the moving stuff.

Lilian has another ear infection. This time just the left ear and not as bad. Again, she didn't tug on her ear, it was the loss of appetite that clued me in. The after hours doctor told me that it probably wasn't an ear infection since not eating isn't one of the signs (coughBULLSHITcough). She also decided to lecture me on how ear infections really aren't that bad, and when she was a kid (she's the oldest pediatrician in Colorado Springs, so she says) they didn't even treat ear infections unless they started heading towards the brain. Lovely right? I called first thing Monday morning (I had called on Saturday thinking it was Friday still) and got her in. And I was right. I hate how doctors think they know everything. Even after I tell them that the last time she had a loss of appetite she ended up having a double ear infection. So now we are taking the yummy pink Amoxicilian twice a day, but I spilled some this morning (apparently I don't know how to close lids all the way) so on Monday I'll call again and see what they say about that since I know I spilled enough to not last the full 10 days she's supposed to be taking it.

So not only am I super excited about Adam coming home next week (hopefully) but Hanson is supposed to be announcing their tour dates too. I'm hoping they come to Denver again. The Denver crowd isn't as good as every other show I've been to so I wouldn't blame them. And hopefully I have the money to go...I might have to go by myself to, but I don't care. I can always make friends, the fan club members are always so sweet and will make plans to meet up with other members. :)

Ugh

Hubby is gone til the end of April...not even for his own benefit either. His brigade is helping their sister brigade train for their Afghanistan deployment at Fort Polk in Louisiana...the other guys (who are idiots btw...they fall asleep on guard duty. Nice to know that's what's protecting bases overseas right?) didn't want to use the guys who train every other brigade from Fort Polk. So that leaves us home alone for about 3 weeks, he left the day after Easter.

On top of that, we are moving. Now. Just to turn around and move again in December. We got in trouble for having dogs (I told them I was dog sitting for friends who are out of town....but since they are puppies I technically can't even do that. And people have apparently been complaining because Cairo is a whine baby.) But also the crime rate just keeps getting worse. Our lease is up anyway and we were debating on moving, but the dog situation and the crime going on, we are just going to move somewhere super cheap and deal with that until December. The downfall to this going on right now is that because Adam was only going to be gone for 3ish weeks, and I'm on all of our accounts so I can take care of things, we didn't get power of attorney. So that's an issue as far as putting in HIS applications and what not for apartments. But this one we are looking at basically said "I don't want to know" if I take it home and have "Adam" sign it. So we'll see what I do with that. I could wait, but do I want to? Idk yet. AND they don't have a breed OR age restriction for the dogs! Just a weight limit which Cairo will surpass in no time, but she said since we wont be there that long and as long as he isn't a turd, there shouldn't be a problem with it. So yay! We've looked into this place before, but for the 1 bedrooms. I'm gonna try tomorrow to look at a 2 bed...these apartments are inside a locked building and have AC which my apartment now doesn't have. AND it's super cheap. $499 a month before pet rents and utilities we pay to them. Our apartment now is $735 before all of that.

So kinda excited, but I HATE moving....and just the thought of moving next month, then again in December is making me stressed already.

Fail!

Ok well maybe not fail as in a F but yea...in my EMS class you have to get an overall of 80% in the class to take your ride-along and hospital clinical rotation. My teacher averaged it out to not missing more than 10 on 3 tests. Well guess what, I've miss more than 10 on my first 3 tests...my lowest score was a 72% and my highest 78%. Still a C...but not what I need to "pass". My teacher said he will work with the 78% one since I do well with the hands-on labs, but I had to pass the next test (which is tomorrow). Normally I'm not a bad test taker (unless it was math class). But you know how normal, multiple-choice tests are...you look at your answer options and if you know it, you know it right away and if you have to think about it, usually you don't know it. Now with these tests, there are so many "trick" questions. Ugh I guess trick questions really aren't the right thing to call them...there are so many steps in EMS and they vary depending on the patient and the nature of the call. So for these tests you do have to think about the answers. But if you think too much, you'll most likely get it wrong. So where do you draw the line?

It also doesn't help that I go once a week. Sundays from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. It's a long class, it doesn't feel that long and it was a good deal with the assumption I would have a job by now...buuuuuuut my teacher teaches the chapters on power point...and doesn't do a lot of class interaction. Most teachers will do things like "why do you think this...?" before elaborating. He doesn't. He'll answer our questions and he's really cool and really nice, I just don't think he's a good teacher. This isn't just me, a few of his classes have only had like 10 students out of 30 pass....

So here is what my plan is. I hate saying it,but for this term I give up. I'm going to keep going of course (the class is already paid for!), keep attempting to learn, but I'm not going to fret over the tests. I am going to take the class next term, more days a week with a different instructor. I don't learn by reading a text book, and I don't learn by the teacher zooming through a power point. Seriously, we do like 5 chapters a day and then test on it the following Sunday. I'm just going to look at it as extra practice. It's not that I can't do these things, this guy's tests aren't easy. PLUS I have to switch from the nursing side of health care to the EMS side, and trust me, they are so different! And I'm trying to not get too discouraged. It's hard though when financially I need to be working (which I kinda sorta am. I have agreed to babysit a friend's 5 year old son, but his mom works odd hours so it's not every day...they agreed to pay me $100 a week and they bring him here and bring some food with him...so I'm not wasting gas and food. I've only done it one day so far so we'll see how it goes.)

EMS is something I really want to do! I already love this career and I haven't even gone out there and done it yet. I can already see the rewards and I enjoy the chaos in my work day that I will be. Just pretending with manikins is a slight rush. I just can't retain the information for tests when a ton is being crammed into my head one day a week. AND I've always been horrible at studying. :(

Upcoming months...Wow I write too much haha.

As I said in the last post, Adam reclassed. He discovered his orders already posted on his AKO account and here is the verdict on the new duty station (as of now...and if you haven't been keeping up on my FB lol): Fort Bliss, Texas with a reporting date of December 20th 2010. Of course it isn't one of the four on his wish list but whatever. We didn't get our hopes up about any of those for this reason. So where in Texas is Fort Bliss? El Paso....Where is El Paso? The corner of Texas. Which corner? Where New Mexico AND Mexico meet. At first we thought "ok cool, we can venture into Mexico now"...well my mother decided to tell me she just so happens to be in El Paso right now and that it is not a good place. From what I've been told, Juarez, Mexico (the biggest city closest to the American border where we will be) is a horrible city. Which then reminded me that lots of illegal Mexicans like to smuggle drugs and their kids in their rectum (ok well maybe not their kids in their rectum...but I hear they get pretty creative when smuggling these days lol) into our country. Now I'm not against Mexicans in anyway shape or form...unless you are here illegally. Anyway, so I can only assume the crime rate is probably somewhat high and I'm probably going to have to brush up on my Spanish just to live in my own country. Before we heard all that (in the hype of our excitement to finally know where we are going--or might be, you never know with the military) we looked up the BAH rates and apartments. WTF? Our BAH is almost $100 less AND all the apartments within the BAH range are either ghetto as all ghetto can be OR it will take the entire BAH (maybe even more) just for RENT. Not including electric and what not. And I don't do good with a lot of humidity so my AC will be running constantly. So we decided to go for base housing. We looked at the Fort Bliss website. From the pictures, that base is 10837401374019374 times better than Fort Carson. All but two of their "neighborhoods" are nicer than what we have here. Their "icky" ones are just the same as the normal ones here, which really aren't THAT. So we were happy about that. Plus they are opening a REAL shopping mall on post in the fall. No mini-mall for me!! So we got really excited. Then we started hearing all the bad things about El Paso and Juarez and were anxious to get on the waiting list for military housing. So today I called to see how to do that. Apparently not only do you need the duty orders stating you are going to be stationed at Fort Bliss, you have to have some leave form too. I'm assuming this is the leave Adam gets between the time he leaves Fort Carson and his reporting date at Fort Bliss he gets to move. So now we can't even get on the waiting list until it's practically moving time. BUT THEN they decide to tell me that the waiting list is 12-18 MONTHS! Freakin fantastic right? We get to take our daughter and live in the Bronx of Texas until they decide to give us a place to live in military housing.

But before we get to move, Adam gets to go to AIT for 2 months starting August 13th. The dumbass in retention told him 2 weeks, we found that hard to believe anyway, but it was a nice thought. I'm thinking of going home for a week or two the beginning of October to visit and go to a Twilight convention with a friend. I should be able to squeeze that in financially with Adam being gone. But we'll see. I need to look into how this whole PCSing thing works. Do we pay then get reimbursed? Or do they pay off the bat? So many things to figure out. First is first though, Adam leaves for JRTC in April for 3 weeks. I think he leaves the day after Easter? Ugh too much time apart already.

On a good note though, Lili's face is already healed. Actually it only took about a week to be almost gone! It's just a little red on her cheek area still but no more scabs. I don't think she'll have scars, but maybe I should get some Mederma anyway?

Lili's firt BIG boo-boo and some other updates...

So it's been a while since I wrote on here. I'll start with the most recent and big thing that happened. Lili's first ER trip for a boo-boo. Most of you have seen the pictures on Facebook. It was horrible. It still makes my stomach queasy remembering it. She and I had been driving around in the Focus all day (yes, I've been driving it by myself. I'm much better at it without Adam lol, but we'll get to that later). We were getting ready to go grocery shopping. We had just gotten home from getting the Expedition fixed so all of us were outside. Adam wanted to take the Expedition to make sure it was running good again but he needed to clear out his gear and some trash. Since we weren't leaving right away I put Lilian on the back seat of the Expedition to let her play around instead of making her sit strapped in her carseat. I do that all the time. I shut the door and turned back to the focus to get her diaper bag. Then I turned again to the Expedition and opened the door. I have no idea where my head was. I always check to make sure she isn't near the door. Always. But this one time, I didn't. And she was leaning against it. I think I had been talking to Adam so I wasn't looking at the door when I opened it, and by the time I turned to put the bag in there, Lilian was already halfway to the ground. I screamed before she even hit the pavement and had her flipped over checking her out before she could even start crying. I was expecting at least one laceration that would need stitches. Thankfully I could just tell it was a little bit of road rash, but I told Adam we needed to go to the ER to make sure she didn't have a concussion. I jumped in the back seat while he moved everything lying on the ground to the Focus and we left. I didn't even grab my purse and we were heading to the military hospital. I knew they would let me on post though, once they saw Lilian. And I was right. Lili had been crying the whole time, it wasn't a bloody murder scream either, which also surprised me. But then she tried falling asleep and that's finally when the little EMS training kicked in and I knew I needed to keep her awake. She tried so hard to sleep but we managed to stay awake. We got to the ER, got her admitted, they cleaned the dirt and bits of pavement off her face and got her triaged. When she finally got looked at, it was literally only long enough for the doctor to look at her eyes, ears and nose and ask the questions about lose of consciousness and vomiting. That's the only part of the look-over that comforted me. If I had stayed calm when it first happened, I would have realized she probably didn't have a concussion. But better safe than sorry and I would have taken her anyway. She's much better now. This happened on March 1st, she's still got road rash on her face, and a black eye that showed up later on. But she's normal and active and happy. :)

So that was that. Her first ER trip for an injury. Not fun. But on other good news, I've been driving the Focus by myself! :) As I said before, I've been doing a bit better without Adam in the car but I still have my moments. Monday I stalled a bunch, but only in like parking lots and twice going on post. Tuesday I didn't stall at all but was having a rough day shifting. No idea what was going on but I kept putting it in the wrong gear!

Still working on finding a job. Helzberg hasn't called me back, but I am still working on a YMCA interview I did and I had another one on Tuesday at a different YMCA location. I have a good feeling about that one, though I'd rather work at the first one. It's closer and a much nicer facility. But I will take what I can get for now!

For those of you who don't know, Adam has re-enlisted. But he chose to re-class (change his MOS/job) so we don't get much of a say in PCSing (moving...sorry Military is all code talk lol). We were surprised to find out he got a wishlist so hopefully they'll take that into some consideration. He got to choose four locations and he chose Fort Lewis, WA to be close to my family; Fort Bragg, NC which is close to his parents; Fort Sill, OK which is where his AIT (job training/school) is; and of course Fort Shafter, HI....of course I'm rooting for Hawaii but financially we'd benefit more from Fort Bragg. We plan on at least renting a house when we move next and I started looking at housing in those 4 areas, assuming we'd get one of them. Fort Bragg's BAH is $1065 a month and their housing is like $800-900 for decent houses. So we'll see, he goes to AIT for two weeks starting August 13th then after that we move. His re-enlistment ceremony is next week and we are hoping they'll give him his new duty orders soon so we can start planning this move. I'm excited to get out of Colorado. Not happy about leaving the like 2 friends we have here, but we can always visit each other. :)

Been a while...

Things are starting to get better around here...financially! Thank God for tax refunds! We got enough to pay off our dog so that bill is gone forever, the rest of our car insurance premium so we don't have to pay that until June, $500 credit towards our cell phone bill which will average about 3 months of not having to pay that, we put a $1500 down payment on a brand new 2010 Ford Focus. We have two more credit cards to pay off in the next few paydays and then our military starcard will be the only one left. We have to look into that one though. We hear that you have to pay it off before getting out (which Adam is most likely re-enlisting for that reason AND the economy still isn't good enough to make us confident in his employment status come August when he would be a civilian again...but we are still looking at our options)...but we also hear there are loop holes in that so we'll see. I have a job interview tomorrow at Finishline and I got a phone call today from Helzberg Diamonds that could lead to another interview. So hopefully I will be getting a job in the next few days...and a job that makes enough money to cover daycare costs and still be making profit. What's the point in working if I only make enough money to cover daycare and nothing else? POINTLESS! Anyway, so we'll see where that goes. I finally got the paperwork taken cared of to get my CNA boards moving again, just waiting on a letter from them with my testing date now. I started EMT class and so far I'm loving it. I think that will be my calling so I may be going to school to be a paramedic in the future. Lilian just got over a double ear infection, that was fun. She didn't give me the universal sign of ear tugging either, I took her in because she had a loss of appetite, was extremely grumpy, had a cough and runny nose AND low grade temperatures off and on. So I was a bit surprised to go find out it was because of an ear infection and possible upper respiratory viral infection (I think that was just medical code for a cold though). Anyway, she finished her last dose of Amoxocillin this morning and we had her check up this afternoon. Ears are still a little red but no pus. Dr said once the antibiotic finishes running its course and leaves her body it should be cleared up 100%. Her 15 month well-baby check is on the 8th so I will have them double check again to make sure it is indeed gone. Today is our 3 year anniversary (dating...married isn't until August 3rd). And guess what? Adam is in the field for the night. Laaaaaaaame. That makes 3 anniversaries he's missed thanks to the army. One dating and one wedding while he was in Iraq and now this one. Idk how you and Blake did it Roxanne, so much time away from each other while he was in Japan, and his deployment to Iraq/Afghanistan...where ever it was lol. I give you guys mad props for that.

So anyway, that's just a little update for now. :)

The Full Story

So for those of you who are my friend on facebook, you should have seen this picture I uploaded the other day. It was taken from my phone and my phone wouldn't let me put the full caption I wanted, so here it goes:

I was changing Lili's diaper. And boy let me tell you, it was a messy one. Not only was it loaded with urine (it was the first diaper change of the day, and she sleeps for about 12 hours) but she had just done her duty. I was happy about that because lately she's taken to doing it about 5 minutes after I change her. Anyway, it was messssy and since she's in the phase of "I don't like my diaper being change" I decided to get up and throw it away before she tries to escape and get into it. I'm not even to the trash yet (which we were changing her diaper just outside the kitchen) when I heard it. It was one of those moments that you just knew exactly what was happening without even having to look. But you just have to double check so I did. I turned around, setting the diaper on the counter saying "really Lilian?" as I did, expecting to see Lili around the area I left her. Nope, I walk out the kitchen and see the above picture, except she was still peeing. I just started laughing. The closest camera to me was my phone so I grabbed it real quick and snapped that shot.

Anyway, I just felt that picture deserves the full story. :D Its one that will go in her scrapbook...someday when I get around to working on it again.

Happy Birthday to me...I guess.

23...idk why, but 23 just sounds so much older than 22. I know it's not, but really, it just sounds like it is. Anyway, so I'm now 23. Nothing special. Didn't do anything, mostly because we have no moneys right now, buuuut I also could possibly have tonsillitis. Happy Birthday to me right? It's fantastic. No fever yet, and it doesn't hurt to swallow yet either, but I can feel my tonsils are a tiny swollen and they are covered in white spots. Lovely, I know. I tried calling to set up a doctor's appointment, but good ol' TriCare was a let down once again. Well it wasn't so much TriCare and their dumb policies but the appointment hotline was down, due to technical difficulties. They were having computer issues yesterday at the hospital when I went to get rechecked for my heart and thyroid. But because my phone was still broken I couldn't "push 1 to speak with Fort Carson medical facilities" or whatever it says. And it doesn't have the option to hold for an operator. At that point it just repeats the menu options. It also told me to try online. So I did. But my account has been locked because I haven't accessed it in the last 365 days and the stupid link to the helpdesk it told me to contact for further assistance wasn't working. So I will try tomorrow. I'm just hoping the pain and more swelling wont be there when I wake up. We shall see I suppose. I did finally get my replacement phone tonight though. Just about a month and a half after I broke my original. It's amazing to actually be able to use the phone without fighting it to do what I want/need it to do!

So I'm watching The Soloist right now. Interesting movie, kinda strange. Not the best Jamie Foxx movie there is, but it's ok. Makes me miss being a band geek though. I wish I still had my clarinet. I think my mom and ex-step-dad sold it while I was in Hawaii though, but no one has admitted to it. Kinda messed up, pisses me off, but whatever. Someday I will own another.

Anyway, off that random tangent. Gotta get to bed I guess. Sleep would be good for my ill, old body.

Happy New Year

Hope you all had a better one than us. First off, I had to work NYE, but whatever, I got off around 415ish. BUT on my way home, I started feeling nauseous. I was thinking it was from this turkey sandwich I had for lunch. The turkey had been open for about a week and a half, but it smelled fine and tasted normal. So I get home and about 20 minutes later I'm praying to the porcelain God. I felt fine aside from my stomach so I knew it had to be food poisoning. Then it (sorry for the nasty details) starts coming out both ends, at the same time. Thankfully, my tub and toilet are neighbors. Anyway, then Adam gets it...but hold on, he didn't have a turkey sandwich today. Again, thankfully we have two full bathrooms. I can't imagine that night in our old apartment with just one. Anywho, in between rushing to the bathroom, I'm trying to figure out what we had that would make us sick and not Lilian. All 3 of us had bananas that day, but again, Lilian was perfectly fine. Then I remembered I had a glass of chocolate milk that I shared with Adam before leaving for work. The milk had to be it (the chocolate milk was made with nesquik powder that we've used several times before so it's not the chocolate and the milk used was a brand spanking new gallon I literally just opened). We started getting so dehydrated, but neither one of us could keep down anything, not even water. Adam was worse than me, he could barely get himself to the bathroom. I was feeling okay enough to drive to 7-11 and get us some 7-Up to calm our tummies and some Powerade to give us some electrolytes. Adam kept chugging his and I told him to calm down or he'd be seeing it again. And I was right. Finally he listens to me and we both stop the puking portion. Well almost. He falls asleep and I don't. I was too uncomfortable, too thirsty. So my dumb self chugs a glass of my Powerade. I knew I was going to regret it, but it felt so great to get something in me. Sure enough, a few minutes later I was back in the bathroom. So I went back to taking very small sips, but it wasn't enough. I got no sleep what so ever. I was either going to the bathroom or taking sips of fluids every few minutes..too often to get any sleep. Then around 6 or 7 a.m. I started having lower back pains. I get Adam up and he draws me a bubble bath (awwwwe :)...he had gotten a lot more sleep than me, though not very much. But he was feeling much better than I was). That didn't help, so I had him dig out my heating pad, and that didn't help either. The dog also had diarrhea that night so we started wondering if it was a bug or just coincidence. We decided to go to the ER, at least to get re-hydrated.

We couldn't get ahold of Courtney and Justin to watch Lili for us so we finally packed her up and took her with us. We both checked in to the ER at about 10 after 10. I got my vitals done, and my heart rate was at 125...they figured it was just because I was so dehydrated. I hate the way this army hospital works. They call you up for vitals, make you sit down, call you up to get your medical history portion, make you sit down, then finally call you up to get you to a room. It's a pain, anyway, I finally get in the back and hooked up to my first 2 bags of fluid at 11. That was quick. Those bags finish, my heart rate was still high so they gave me a 3rd. About an hour and a half after I was called back, Adam got to his room and he got 3 bags too. Around the time my 4th bag gets hooked up, he was discharged and came to my room with Lili. When they came in with that 4th bag, it was a smaller one than the others, I think it was a different type of fluid, but they told Adam it would be a while and since he had Lili he should probably get her out of there. So he left. And I was sad, mostly because my call light didn't work and it took forever for my nurses to come check on me. So there I was, all alone, hooked up to a 4th IV bag, the BP cuff and the pulse ox. They hooked a 5th bag up and decided to do some blood work to check my thyroid since there was no reason to have that many bags of fluid and my heart rate still be high. Hyperthyroidism runs in my family so I thought that was going to come back positive. But nope, all my blood work came back fine except for my potassium levels. So they hook a 6th bag up and gave me some potassium pills. About halfway through that 6th bag, the doc comes in and gives me the option of being admitted, and kept over night hooked to more fluids and being observed. Or going home. I was cold from the IVs and still hadn't gotten any sleep so I said I wanted to go home. My heart rate and dropped down at one point to about 98 but was back up to 113 when being discharged.

So I came home. I went to bed at about 830 last night, slept til about 8 this morning and I'm still laying in bed. I'm going to set up an appointment this week to get my heart checked out and make sure it's normal again, and if it's not, find out what the heck is wrong. Just for those who don't know, for a person over the age of 10 (who isn't an athlete) the normal, healthy, beats per minute is between 60-100. Hopefully it just has something to do with how sick I was getting and it'll be better, but for now, I'm resting in bed.