That's one expensive Teddy Bear

Last week and weekend was supposed to be nothing but fun. Erin and Ambrose from Chicago were here visiting. The kids really like them and there were all kinds of touristy plans for the 3 days they were here. But the kids had been sick all week, and were waking up multiple times at night. That meant staying home from some of the activities with the kids and NO SLEEP for Stephen and I and our poor guests. Even though Odessa was too contagious to leave with a sitter and we had to take her with us, we did eat at a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant on Friday night, the Tamarind Tree.
Then Saturday morning Odessa had some stomach pains that made her writhe with pain and totally freak out. I have never seen her so serious about a pain (I can usually tell when she is over dramatizing). I figured I would have to scratch plans to go with our company on a Ferry ride to stay home with her. Then all of sudden, she was fine. So we all went. The sun came out and the ride was gorgeous. We took the ferry to Bainbridge and then drove over the bridge to Pulsbo on the peninsula. Pulsbo is such a cute little town, I really enjoyed our walk along the water and looking at the quaint old store fronts. I stole these photos from Erin.

On the ferry ride back home, Odessa suddenly had another "attack". She got through it though and then at home, she had another. We had all decided maybe she was having some cramps and gas because she hadn't gone #2 for at least 2 days, which is unusual for her. But her fever all of a sudden was back up to about 102 degrees, so I decided to call ask-a-nurse before giving her any medicine. Any of you not familiar with ask-a-nurse services? They can be very useful, especially nights and weekends. After asking me a lot of questions that I felt pertained to much more serious conditions (like if Odessa was limp and unresponsive) I figured she would say push the liquids and give her the Ibuprofen. No, here is what our conversation sounded like: nurse- "Ok, the recommendation is that you take her into the ER immediately". me- "um, what?" nurse- "will you take her in to the hospital within one hour?" me- "uhhhh, yes, we can do that". nurse- "which hospital will you be taking her to so I can send the chart?" me- "ummmmm, Swedish in Ballard I guess" nurse- "what would you have done if you hadn't called our services tonight?" me- "given her a stool softener and monitored her for more pains I guess".
So Odessa and I trucked off to the ER, a first for this mom. Sure, I have been in one once to check in as a laboring prego, but taking your child is a whole other ball of wax. They worked really quickly on her at first, taking her vitals and getting her in a little pediatric gown. She looked so tiny on that big bed in that little gown. The first thing she would say to anyone was "I'm ok, Dr. I'm not sick". Great, I thought, this is a huge joke. They decided to rule out a UTI, appendicitis and bowel issues such as her guts twisting on themselves. The nurses came to tell me that they were going to put in an IV and a catheter (for a clean catch) and that Odessa was going to HATE them and to be prepared. Well, she flinched when they put in the IV put didn't say a word otherwise, she was interested in watching them take her blood. They told her she was so brave and she said very politely "yes, I am". I couldn't keep from laughing.
The catheter was another story and for a brief moment I felt that horrible mother pain for your child that makes you squirm and your eyes well up and you feel like you are causing the pain yourself, you feel so horrible. She was a champ for her x-rays. To get her through all this, they had given her a teddy bear. She loved it and hasn't let it go for more than a minute since coming home. Yes, we came home that night. Turns out she had a bad case of . . . . constipation. The recommendations? Fluids and a stool softener. Grrrrrrrr. Wasn't that what I was going to do in the first place??? So, 3 hours later and who knows how much money, we are one teddy bear richer and one ask-a-nurse wiser. Sure, I am glad we made sure there was nothing else more seriously wrong with her. But now that Ada is fiercely jealous of Odessa's bear, I think we will try and find an easier way to get her one.
As for our week and weekend, we still had a great time with Erin and Ambrose and I swear our kids never get up much at night! . . . except when they are sick. We have ear plugs for future visitors. One fun memento of this weekend is the fact that when something good happens I say "hullah!" in my head, like Erin is always saying aloud. I am a big one for picking up sayings and little idiosyncrasies. Just ask my roommate for 10 weeks almost NINE years ago, Paula from Saskatchewan. I still say "eh?" at the end of important sentences. Some sayings are so useful, they should never be dropped, eh?

Am I stupid?

This weekend was fun, but also significant. I just realized the real meaning of the saying "you can't have your cake and eat it too". Can you believe that? There are only so many years I can blame blondness and pregnant brain for not figuring this out. We came home from the grocery store late and the girls wanted a banana- we had just bought them. They each ate a whole one! I complained to Stephen that I had just bought them and they depleted our stores by half (thank goodness I bought some green ones too). He says to me "you can't have your bananas and eat them too". And it finally clicked with me- what a geek.
Halloween, Halloween, my second favorite holiday, Halloween. The girls "got" trick or treating- this is actually the first year we have taken them. Odessa would say "can we go to another house please?" after each door. Ada cut with the chatter and just bolted for the next lawn. At the door, Odessa would always blurt "Happy Halloween!" instead of "trick or treat". It was so funny.
We also went to a fun party hosted by our friends the Andersons. I finally got my box of Halloween costumes from my parent's garage this year, and by putting together some other old costumes, I came up with Elphaba from Wicked- aka the Wicked Witch of the West.
The girls were Clifford the big red dog and Emily Elizabeth. Once Odessa saw me in green, she just wanted to be a witch too. I think I will need to be really flexible next year! We have to come up with something else for poor Stephen. He has been Thomas for like 4 years.
I decided that just like seeing snow covering everything makes the cold weather worth it, seeing golden and red leaves makes the rainy cool weather worth it too. Something about those 2 natural beauties that makes me happy all over- like my soul is smiling. Here is the view from our windows.

Back to Chi-town

Some of you knew I had a trip back to Chicago this past week. It was 5 days and 5 nights away from my family! That was really weird. Thank goodness for my in-laws who came and stayed with the girls the days Stephen had to go to work. You think you are indispensable as a mom, and of course you are in a lot of ways. But when I called that first night and no one burst into tears at the sound of my voice and Odessa only talked to me in "dog-speak" and Ada was interested in grandma and grandpa, I knew they would be fine and focused on my conference. I went for a Dietetics Association Conference and squeezed as many continuing education credits out of it as possible. Getting on the airplane and hanging out at the airports was so strange. No one needed me, I had nothing to do. I felt really hollow inside- kind of emotionless because usually with the kids I am in a constant state of change and this was just . . . nothingness. Of course it was also really nice flying without kids- I could just read and do whatever I wanted instead of trying to run a 3 ring circus keeping them busy.
I got to stay with my friend Nicole and her family while I was there. They were so nice to put up with me invading their space for so many days! Nicole kind of hosted a get together at her house Sunday night so I could see some old friends from the ward. Yes, some of my friends are taller than others although this photo exagerates it : ) Danica, you would have been the middle somewhere, right?

I had planned on, but missed seeing the Dubiels, who are in D.C. with an emergent medical condition- here are prayers going out to you, Leslie and Morgan.
It was nice to get to play with Nicole's son, Josh while I was there. He and Odessa were best buds and I was sad I couldn't bring her and watching him made me miss her. Here is an old picture of them at Navy Pier, the night before we left. Since Josh hasn't seen her since that night, he assumes she lives there now- how cute is that? They were so great together- I can only think of one time they ever fought over toys or anything else, mostly they giggled and could play for hours jumping on beds and laughing at each others antics. We miss the Kestens!
Other fun tidbits: I got a killer work out in with Hillary at Bally's on Saturday morning and then we went to Walker Brothers for breakfast- my favorite and the most sinfully delicious breakfast place I have ever eaten at. Saturday night after enduring a non-inspirational conference opening session with Chris Gardner (The Pursuit of Happyness) I got to go see our friend Erin's new place and eat at a Mediterranean restaurant in Hyde Park. I miss that about Chicago- the meats. The deep dish pizza, the gyros and Italian beef sandwiches at every mom and pop place, the Mediterranean restaurants. We are excited to have Erin and Ambrose come stay with us next week! We will have to take them to what Seattle does best- Asian and Seafood.

The really important thing about this conference was that I got so much new inspiration to start practicing some nutrition counseling on my own. I have been toying with a lot of ideas for awhile now about how to use my training and still stay at home. I am going to try just offering some of my services for weekly meal planning, basic cooking classes and some nutrition counseling sessions. A lot of it will be via the Internet. I got an awesome tool at this conference- a personality test I can give clients that takes their results and helps pinpoint their personality obstacles to healthier lifestyle choices. It graphs their weakest areas and then helps me know how to counsel them according to what eating, exercising and emotional challenges they are facing. I was thrilled with this session and tool. I have always felt I need more psychology training to help patients make changes. This tool will help me with that side of counseling.

At a conference with almost 10,000 dietitians in attendance, you can imagine what the food expo might be a little bit like. Here is an opportunity for every new health food product to push their stuff and hope that all these RDs will recommend it to their patients and clients. Of course, they know giving us all free stuff is the way to draw us in, and women cannot pass by a free offer or a good deal. Reusable grocery bags was "the thing" this year, I came home with 12 of them. Every day I just ate lunch on the Expo floor. By day 3, my stomach had had enough of the protein bars, the organic crackers, the fortified juice, the probiotic yogurt, the sugar free sugar, the Acai berry stuff and on and on. All the nut and bean and dairy and meat associations were there- thank goodness for pork kabobs and lamb stew to even out all the snacky foods. But I was still a gurgling, urbling mess- they fortify everything with fiber! It felt good to have a hot meal in the evenings! And waking up at 2:30 am Central time to return my rental car and make sure I was to the airport well before my flight just about did me in, but I am recovering. By the way, here is a plug for Alamo. My "Economy" car rental (that I pricelined for a steal) turned out to be a Toyota Prius hybrid! What a strange and nice car to drive. Hardly used any gas, doesn't have a real key- just a power and park button and a touch screen for audio, climate control, you name it. It was a fun experience.
After 3 days of conference, I got to end my time in Chicago with some shopping downtown and an evening with the Kestens (whom I actually saw very little of some days!). We ate at the Tavern on the Park, right on Michigan Ave and off Millennium Park. Then we went to a members only viewing of the new Aztec exhibit at the Field Museum. It was really fascinating. I love the Field because it reminds me of Night at the Museum and it is what Odessa remembers most about Josh- going there with him was one of their last outings together. Here he is waving a hello message to her.Thanks Kestens for a great time. I can't wait to come back as a whole family someday!

Pumpkin Patch Trespassing!

Friday we went with Kate and Inge up to Kate's hometown, Snohomish to go to a pumpkin patch. The only one we could find had an entrance off a main road. When we pulled in, there were some farm workers leaving through the gate that had a closed sign. We asked one about the pumpkin patch, but apparently he didn't speak much English. He pointed and let us through the gate. We were puzzled by the closed sign, maybe this was just a farm entrance or something. How could a big pumpkin patch not be open at 11am on a Friday? We pulled up and it was obvious that they really were closed- no other cars, no workers. Hmmmm. What would you do? We had been in the car for about an hour with 3 little girls who were really ready to be OUT of the car. So we thought "what's the harm in getting them out and taking a few pictures?". So we did and we had a really fun time. There were wagons and lots of pumpkins and some good mud. The girls loved it and we snapped away taking pictures. We were there probably 20-30 minutes when a tractor pulled in through the gate. A farmer got out and started marching towards us. He was pretty upset, it turned out. Apparently he didn't like people just letting themselves into his patch! Once we explained (a couple of times) that someone had let us in and we had just meant to get some photos and didn't mean to create a liability for him, he finally calmed down a little and realized he'd sounded a bit foolish over-reacting. He even snapped at us in Spanish when he was pointing out his Spanish speaking workers wouldn't have understood anything we asked them! So we left under truce-type conditions, both parties a bit contrite (I am sure us more than he). I was surprised that him being mad at us didn't phase me more. That sort of thing usually gets my adrenaline up and shaking and gives me a sour stomach. It must be all that public tension I am witnessing with the political debates. Desensitized me.
It was a very fun excursion despite our mishap and my grouchy kids. Snohomish Valley is very pretty and it's always so refreshing to get out into some open country. I think that's why we were always going up to Wisconsin when we lived in the Chicago area! I told Stephen he has to go back with me to Snohomish (don't you just love saying that word?). But this time we will avoid the off-limits pumpkin patches.
We turned around and they were all spontaneously holding hands. So cute.

Tagged- again

Who started this tagging thing anyway? Some evil girl in Utah, no doubt, long ago. Is Bill Gates going to send me $100,000 if I do this? Alright, I will stop complaining and do it. This is for you, Candice because of all our fond BSU memories- sitting around at lunch trying to figure out why our boyfriends did the things they did!!

10 years ago . . .
1. I watched my big crush (Stephen) leave for 2 years in Italy.
2. I immediately started dating someone else (ha! um, I was not dating Stephen, it was just a crush)
3. I began arguably my most fun year of college
4. I think I got a C in Human Physiology
5. Married my third sister off so I could have the whole house to myself (along with my watchful parents)

5 things on my to-do list today
1. Take Odessa to the dentist
2. Weights
3. Put away all the laundry
4. Get the girls to somehow nap together
5. Make Coconut rice and "peas" for dinner (beans)

5 Favorite snacks
1. Cookies
2. Fruit- any
3. Cheese and crackers (same as you C)
4. Homemade bread (preferably toasted with honey or cinnamon sugar)
5. Cinnamon bears (currently cinnamon devils as that is what's in bulk at WinCo- Easter they will have cinnamon bunnies, etc.)

5 jobs that I have had
1. Wendys! love it
2. WinCo bakery- croissants and cakes
3. Movie theater- lasted 5 weeks?
4. Distance learning camera operator
5. Hospital Dietitian and Contract Dietitian for psychiatric hospital (yes, I have good stories)

5 things I would do with a million dollars (um, can I have a million dollars to do each of these things?)
1. Pay off student loan
2. Buy a house
3. Retirement!!
4. Tour of Europe
5. Help out my grandma

5 things that made me laugh this week
1. making jokes about Facebook with Hillary (do they send people you don't know a note that you "ignored" them??!!)
2. Watching Odessa dance around in her new Curious George underwear- and only her underwear.
3. Ada picking up her bowl to show me her food "seeeeeee?" over and over
4. When I ask Ada to do something with a little exasperation, she huffs back at me "allwright!"
5. Stephen's morning antics as he gets ready for the day

If you would like to do this, you are TAGGED.

the beginnings of Halloween

This week marked some activities that are getting us in the mood for Halloween. First of all, I was in charge of a Halloween activity for the ladies at church. The purpose was to swap old Halloween costumes with each other and brainstorm ideas for homemade costumes so we could all save money. I used it as an excuse to make all the fun Halloween treats and some decorations that get me so excited about this holiday. We had wormy apple punch, mini caramel apples, dirt cups with worms, eye ball deviled eggs, bone breadsticks, ect. Our family got to carve a pumpkin too as a centerpiece that had dry ice induced fog rolling out it's face. Ada really got into pulling the seeds out, Odessa would only touch it with a spoon. It's so funny to see the differences in one child and the next.

We also looked into moving this week. Crazy, I know! But we got curious about some cheaper apartments in the area. We are paying a little more in rent than we would like (we didn't realize when we moved here that groceries were going to put us through the roof!!) Plus we really would love to have a place with a yard or a couple other amenities. I am including this picture of our duplex in Chicago (Park Ridge) last year when we had it decorated for Halloween. I didn't realize how nice it was to have a front of a house to decorate for holidays or an alley to try and garden or a little fenced yard for the girls to play in. I don't really have a place for our yard decorations here, so we had to get creative and just play with them. Here Odessa is saving me from an attack of a giant spider. So we did go and look at an apartment yesterday that is quite a bit cheaper than ours and came away realizing why we pay more! Once you feel you are not really getting ripped off, it's a little easier to handle. Stephen really wants to stay close to work for now and so we will stay here at least a year. It may mean a few more really budget savvy meals, but ok.

Probably the most life changing thing that happened this week was that Odessa finally turned that corner in potty training. She went more than 5 days without any accidents and got to take 3 straight rides on the Seattle Center carousel as reward. Whew! We finally found something that motivated her enough to keep her excited about getting up on that throne. Now I have entered that realm of mothers of children who are wearing underwear and just maybe, they shouldn't be. That realm where you find yourself asking your child all the time if they have to go, where you worry about accidents at the store and bringing extra clothes and an emergency pull-up (I have to carry a larger diaper bag!) where you DO NOT HAVE TO BUY DIAPERS EVERY WEEK (ok, at least for one kid). It's amazing, it's liberating, it's very time consuming. Now I understand why those moms do the things they do, because I am doing them now. Big step, we hope mom can handle it.

Ready for rain