One trip to the Dr. and three trips to Walgreens

We had to take the boys into the Pediatrician today. Cort just needed two shots. We don't follow the typical immunization chart where kids get 6-7 at a time. I studied the link between vaccinations and other diseases at length in undergrad and grad school and I would rather spread them out. I know some Dr.'s say that the risk associated with a vaccine is much less than the risk associated with one of the diseases the vaccine is for. However, the PROBABILITY of my child getting autism (especially since my nephew has autism) or some other side effect from a vaccine is much, much higher than my child getting polio. So, we do 2 shots at well baby checks and then do the rest in between that visit and the next. Cort cried so hard when he got his shots. Usually I leave the room for shots and Chad stays. This time we had both boys, so we both needed to be there. Creighton was supposed to get 2 shots also, but he has a pretty bad cough. He has a lot of constriction in his bronchi that could mean asthma or a virus that has caused them to constrict and fill with mucus. He had to do a breathing treatment in the office, which he sat so good for. He held the mask to his nose and was still for about 4 of the 5 min. required for the treatment. Then, he wanted it off and we had to hold it on him for the remaining minute. He did great for a child who is not even 2 yet. The treatment immediately opened up his lungs and he was breathing so much better. We had to go get an inhaler and some meds for him and he has to do both for a week and then go back. They also tested him for Pertussis (whooping cough) because he was exposed to it. They don't think he has it, but wanted to certain with a 3 month old in the same house. I did step out for that test. They stuck a suction tube up into his sinuses and sucked out some mucus. He cried pretty hard for it and it took longer than I expected. I walked back into the room with tears in my eyes. I just can't stand to hear him cry. He is so sweet and cuddly. He has those huge blue eyes and when they fill with tears, I break down. The Dr. called in his prescription to the Walgreen's across the street from our house. Walgreen's had the medication and the inhaler, but since Creighton is so young, we have to use an air chamber and a mask and that Walgreen's did not have it. We went once and they had the medication ready, but not the inhaler. We went back and got the inhaler and they didn't have the mask and air chamber. We had to drive to another Walgreen's to get that. Of course, our insurance didn't cover the inhaler or air chamber and mask and those were $89.00 together. What was supposed to be a routine office visit and check up on Creighton's cough turned into a 2 hour long apt. costing us a total of $120.00 today. I am glad that we are on the road to recovery now. He is quarantined for 4 days though, so that means he can't go to church for the third week in a row. Our church is going up the mountain to go tubing on Sunday too. It would have been so much fun to go. However, with Cort being so young, Creighton being sick, and Chad studying for his tests, we won't be able to go this time.

Creighton loves his baths. We have to spell it out in our house because if we say "bath" he goes running up the stairs to his bathroom. He takes long baths too. He sits under the faucet until ALL the hot water is gone. I have to drain the water at the same time so it doesn't get too full. If you try to turn it off, he says "hey" and goes and turns it on. Then, he won't get out. I have to drain the water and when there is nothing left in the bathtub, he will finally get out. All of our bathrooms upstairs have heaters in them. It's so nice to get out of the bath/shower and not freeze. I turn on my heater while I am in the shower and the bathroom gets very, very warm. It's a feature I really appreciate.

Pictures of the boys

Cort can roll over back to front and front to back now and he is filling out. I think he is about 10lbs now. It looks like he has reddish hair in some photos, but he doesn't. what litle hair he does have is very blonde. It's probaby just his scalp that makes it appear reddish in photos.

Creighton was digging all the marshmellows out of the bag. He opened it to look inside and sneezed. That is his bag of cereal now. :)

Creighton coloring on daddy's blue prints. Often, crayon ends up on my tile, but it's ceramic and just wipes clean.

This note was in the "Family Thoughts" section of our newsletter and I found it to be so relevant to the way I live my life and it's such a beautiful message. I hope you all can put this to use in your own lives.

"A professor stood before his Philosophy 101 class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty jar and proceeded to fill it up with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly and the pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unamimuos 'yes'.

The professor then produced two Pepsi's from under hte table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed. 'Now', said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.'

The golf balls are the important things-your family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passion-and if everything else was lost and only those things remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car. The sand is everything else-the small stuff. If you put the sand or pebbles into the jar first, there is no room for the golf balls-no room for the really important things.

The same goes for life. If you spend all of your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with God. Spend time with your children and spouse. Spend time with your parents. Visit grandparents. Take your spouse out to dinner. There will always be time to clean the house or fix the disposal. Take care of the things that really matter and could be gone tomorrow. The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Pepsi's represented. The professor smiled adn said, 'I am glad you asked.' The Pepsi just shows you no matter how full your life may seem, there is always room for a couple of Pepsi's with a friend.

*As always, the newsletter is something I look forward to and I usually read it right away. This comes at a very relevant time in our life. We, like a lot of people, want a bigger house, nicer cars, and to be able to vacation more. With Chad's work being so slow right now, we have discussed the issue of me going back to teaching. There are three things that have made that decision easy for us-1) Schools are not hiring right now, especially teachers with Masters degrees. 2) My starting salary is only 40K a year and daycare in Denver is $1000.00 per child. We would have two in full time care and one in p/t care, for a total daycare bill of around $2500.00 per month. Whatever would be left, if any, is not enough to put my babies in the care of someone who is not as educated as me, not as loving as me, and who doesn't have a vested interest in the moral development of my children. And finally, my children mean the world to me and I take my role as their parent very seriously. My goal is to educate them and instill in them self worth, morals, faith, a love of serving, knowledge, and acceptance. There simply is no one better to care for them than myself. I often think this slightly morbid though 'If I died tomorrow, I would be so happy with what I have accomplished'. Of course those accomplishments are my children, my marriage, and my relationship with others. I am proud to have earned a Masters degree and to be an educator, but that is second to my family. I look forward to the days when we can take our children on mission trips, possibly adopt a child from an impoverished country, or volunteer our skills as a teacher and an architect to help others. This message in the newsletter had a profound effect on me and I hope it makes all the read it think about the truly important things in life. If you could lose all but one thing would you keep the sand, pebbles, or golf balls?

Lots to say about nothing

Well, it's only Tuesday and I feel like so much has been accomplished this week. Yesterday was a busy day for us. I started my preschool program and yesterday was the first day. That kept me quite busy for several hours, but was fun. I am very excited to begin teaching the kids sign language. I am going to start with finger-spelling, colors, animals, actions, and relationships. Poor Creighton choked on some food yesterday and I had to give him the Heimlich. I have never had to use the actual Heimlich maneuver on anyone, especially a child. I have had to do it to an infant (not mine or one that was in my care, I was just a by-stander that knew the Heimlich and an infant choked on a piece of plastic) so I just used the back thrusts and it came up. I tried that with Creighton, but it didn't work and so I had to do it the same as I would for an adult. I was surprised at how hard I had to do it. He was very scared and shaking. Poor baby. One Easter, Chad had to do the Heimlich maneuver on his 75 year old grandma. I was very impressed by how fast and easily he reacted. As if that wasn't enough, Cort has been dealing with a stomach virus for a couple days and in the middle of the night, I heard him vomiting in his bed. Chad and I both ran in there and he was literally vomiting straight up in the air and it came back down on him. I flipped him to his side quickly until he was done. Then, we had to change his clothes and bedding. After that, we were both pretty much awake (it happened at 3:30am). Chad has a few more tests to take for his architecture license, so he just studied and I watched The Bachelor. As most of our family and friends know, Chads job is very slow. He does health care architecture and his job is to design private offices for Dr's. They do a lot of outpatient surgical centers. Well, with the proposed health care reform bill in limbo, Dr's have not wanted to sign any contracts to build. The reason, from what I understand, is that the reform bill will no longer allow these centers to be licensed as hospitals and perform surgeries. Of course, this bill is a big mess and will most likely be abandoned and re-drafted. We were all so excited to see Mass. elect a republican senator and let's not deny that fact that he is very, very attractive. Anyways, we may end up moving back to Omaha as a result of the decline in business. We are crossing our fingers that business picks up within 6 months at the firm, but if not, we may have to sell our house here and look in the big O. We would be very disappointed to leave such an amazing city with the best weather ever! However, Omaha has some perks too. For the price we pay to live in Denver, we could build a gorgeous house in Omaha or buy a newer build on a lake or golf course. The cost of living in Denver is more than twice that of Omaha. Still, if we could choose, we would stay in Colorado. We may also end up putting off baby #4. We were planning to start trying in May, but if business is still this slow, we will probably wait until Feb. of next year. I am really hoping to be able to start trying in May. I can't wait until I don't have to be pregnant anymore and can get back into shape and into my old clothes. Speaking of that, we just bought the P90X system. Chad's cousin had amazing results with it and we thought that was something we would like to try out. I am very excited to see Chad get back into shape. He is such a handsome guy and so muscular from playing hockey, but he has a bit of a tummy on him now :) We are also looking to buy a treadmill. We don't want to spend too much, so we are seeing what is available on craigslist first. We have a home gym system, but our basement is pretty big (a little over 1000 sq. ft) and we would like to eventually add a workout room in the basement. Of course there is also a living room, bathroom, and bedroom, but there should be plenty of space for a nice workout area. I really can't wait for the summer to be here. I am looking foward to grilling out, bike rides (if I am not pregnant) and all the fun the great Colorado summers bring. I can't complain about the weather though. It has been in the high 40's, 50's, and even the 60's for nearly the entire winter. I don't think we have worn our coats more than twice and that was back in November. I love it here!

Creighton was sick for about a week with a cold. This was one of his better days. He spent much of the week napping and resting on the couch. This chair is a Dora chair from when Kiley was a toddler. The kids all have bean bags and usually they will bring in their bags and throw them down and lounge together.

Sweet Baby Cort

My little baby is already 3 months old. He seems older. He is about 10lbs now and wearing 3-6 month clothes. He is rolling over and I can not keep him on his tummy for more than a few seconds before he flips himself to his back. He is also eating baby food and rice cereal. He started so, so early. According to the "readiness chart", he had met his developmental milestones, so we gave it a try. I was anticipating him to have difficulty swallowing it, be turned off by the texture, anything. He just ate it, like he had been doing it for years. I was shocked. Since then, he has been eating stage 1 baby food with rice cereal and couldn't be happier.

Creighton

Creighton is hilarious. He is so cute and I can't help but give in to him. Two days ago, he found a package of Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mix in my pantry. There is a picture of a cookie on the package, but it's just the powder mix inside. Of course, he has no idea. He has been following me around for 2 days, carrying the package and saying "cookie...please...you you (I love you). I have been feeling awful with this cold and have been pretty busy, so I have ignored his requests. This morning, he found the cookie mix again and followed me to the basement saying "cookie, cookie, please". He was getting frustrated and clearly didn't understand why I wouldn't just open this bag and give him a cookie. When he laid down for his nap, I made the cookies for him. He slept for about 4 hours. When he woke up and came downstairs, he saw the cookies and said "COOKIE..YAY". I took off his sweatshirt and gave him a cookie. He licked the frosting off first, but did eventually eat the cookie. He hates getting his hands messy, but I think he made an exception this time.

Kiley

I love to take pics of Kiley; she is so photogenic. I guess she hasn't been in the mood lately for it though. Maybe I can talk her into it this weekend. I had this moment with her today where I sat back and thought "I can't believe how old she is getting".....really, she is only 8, but she seems older because she is so mature. She cares for, feeds, changes, and cuddles with baby Cort and is so good with Creighton. She is also reading chapter books. She has always been one of the smartest in her class and does exceptionally well with reading and spelling. The books she has been reading are around 150 pages and usually 7 or 8 chapters. She is also reading this book of devotions with me. Each night, we read a few pages of it and then discuss the message behind the story. I am not nervous for her to be a teenager at all. I think she will be kind, respectful, and responsible. My concern is that she will be so beautiful and boys will be calling our house non-stop.

From High School teacher to Preschool teacher

I love to stay at home with the kids. I am so blessed to have a husband who has a good job and works so hard to make it so that I can stay home and raise our kids. While I can't wait to get back into teaching HS, I really cherish my days at home. Since I am not planning to go back to work for 5-6 more years or until our youngest is in kindergarten, I have decided it's time to use this very expensive Masters degree of mine. I am licensed in K-12 education, but I have to get a separate license to teach preschool. I am going to get it and teach a little program in our basement. I also want to teach sign language to the kids. We will start off with learning the ABC's, colors, shapes, and relationships in sign language and then move onto the more conversational signs. I am pretty excited about teaching them. I am hoping that this program will be beneficial to both Creighton and the other kids attending. I have a lot of patience and love for kids and a lot of knowledge to put to use. I also hope that this will give me some professional experience, aside from my job at church, that I can reference when I do get back into the working world. Our next chore is getting our basement ready. It's pretty big, 1000 sq. ft and pretty open. Currently we have a bed, couch, tv, home gym, and tons and tons of toys. We are going to paint and rearrange so that the bed and living room area are completely separate from the pre-school/toy area and so that the home gym is separated by a wall. I have two families interested and have met one of them and am meeting the other family tomorrow. The little girl I did meet is the most adorable little girl I have ever seen. I am pretty excited to get it all started and dust off some of my teaching supplies.

The best laundry room EVER!

My favorite part of our house is the laundry room. It's huge. We have tons and tons of storage and a huge pantry. The shelf pictured is on the other side of the dryer, by the pantry. Chad could fill the entire thing with wine, but I only let him bring 20 bottles up at once. We don't drink, so I am not sure why we have 100 bottles of wine. He says that when we design and build a house, it will have a wine cellar and he is slowly building up his wine collection. So far, we have just ended up giving away or selling wine to friends and family. The laundry room is right off our kitchen (separated by a door). There is a second door to the backyard, which is nice when it's muddy. The kids and dog can enter through here and not get my dining area messy. There is also a door to the garage. I have learned that laundry is not such a chore when you don't feel so disconnected from the rest of the house. I can go fold laundry in here and still see everyone and talk to everyone. I think when we do design and build, I would like to have a main floor laundry just like this. I love it.

Christmas time

Christmas came and went pretty quickly. I spent a lot of time decorating the house, buying gifts, wrapping, and arranging them under the tree in just the perfect way. We were able to get some hilarious video of the kids on Christmas morning. Kiley's favorite gift from us was an Ipod and and and Ipod docking station. Creighton's favorite gift from us (well, Santa) was a remote control cat, and Cort really has no idea that he even received gifts. We drove the long drive back to Omaha-coming across some pretty harsh weather conditions, but we made it safely. We had 4 other Christmas celebrations there. Kiley's favorite gift from Omaha was a DS player. Creighton's favorite was a Black and Decker tool set that works, and again, Cort has no idea of the gifts he was given. It was a good holiday season and we were able to spend a lot of quality time with family-especially since Omaha received about 20 inches of snow and we couldn't go anywhere :)

Hmmmm....

Well, I viewed the post after I published it and realized that the text did not show up. So, here is what I was writing:
Sunny and Sixty in Denver all week!



Denver is the greatest city to live in, I am convinced. Summers are mild here, with no humidity. Spring is in the 70's, sunny, and beautiful. Fall is in the 70's and is my absolute favorite season here. About October, trees start to change to beautiful shades of yellow, red, and oranges. It's really breathtaking. Winter is so great. Snow comes and melts the next day, temperatures are mild. This week it's been in the high 50's and even low 60's. In an hour drive we can go skiing, white water rafting, or hike to a waterfall. We get to golf in the foothills and see elk on the golf course. The mountains are so beautiful in every season and make for a truly spectacular sunset. I am so, so, so blessed to live here. Here are some pics, unrelated to this post, but some new ones of the kids.

Sunny and Sixty in Denver all week!



Denver is the greatest city to live in, I am convinced. Summers are mild here, with no humidity. Spring is in the 70's, sunny, and beautiful. Fall is in the 70's and is my absolute favorite season here. About October, trees start to change to beautiful shades of yellow, red, and oranges. It's really breathtaking. Winter is so great. Snow comes and melts the next day, temperatures are mild. This week it's been in the high 50's and even low 60's. In an hour drive we can go skiing, white water rafting, or hike to a waterfall. We get to golf in the foothills and see elk on the golf course. The mountains are so beautiful in every season and make for a truly spectacular sunset. I am so, so, so blessed to live here. Here are some pics, unrelated to this post, but some new ones of the kids.

Wedding photos

I know it's several years late, but I am finally going to order some of my wedding pics. Here are a few of my favorites. And, I uploaded photos before typing this and realized they are in backwards order from the reception to the ceremony...oops.