There's no way I'm going to make 10 posts this month. That would require one post every three days, which obviously hasn't happened. It also would require me not cutting three days from May by going on vacation, which is definitely going to happen. Maybe June will be my blogging month...
So we're finally taking a vacation. Yes, we go to Lake Powell every summer, but this is a real vacation complete with airplane, rental car, and baby gear up the wazoo. I took summer classes in 2006, 2007, and 2008, and when I realized I didn't have to take a class this summer, I determined we would go somewhere before I start the dental hygiene program.
This was no easy feat. I had to work around IHC's upgrade schedule, Josh's on-call schedule, his coworkers' training schedules, the Lake Powell trips, church obligations, the Wasatch Roller Derby bouts, and finally the schedules of the people we're going to visit (thank goodness they keep themselves more available than Josh does!). As it is, we'll be missing my niece's baptism and one friend's wife flies out the day after we arrive, but all in all the timing worked out splendidly.
Where are we going? To Washington, D.C.! We're going to visit Jake and Lori, Katie and Todd, and Josh's uncle's family. I seriously couldn't be more excited. Jake and I went to high school together and have always stayed good friends. I technically met Katie online, but really became friends with her when we both lived in Vegas. Josh's aunt and uncle are so super nice and very successful - good people to get life lessons from. It's going to be a great trip.
So Grayson is 15 months old now and this is my first flight ever with a baby/toddler/child. Any tips or suggestions to make it as painless and easy as possible? We got nonstop flights both ways, 4.5 hours long. Our flight leaves Thursday, May 28, so please share your wisdom asap. There are some suggestions I found on Vanessa's blog that sound good, but if you have something more to add, please do so! {This means you Jenise, if you can stop staring at Dax long enough to read this post. ;-) }
Friday, May 22, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Sunshine, you work wonders
Grayson had a slight fever Sunday morning which escalated to 102.8 by early evening. So when he was struggling to breathe when he woke Monday morning and then kept panting and wheezing throughout the day, I took him in to the pediatrician that afternoon. Turns out he has croup. His doctor said the parainfluenza virus has been going around lately and he's not the first croup case she's treated recently. They gave him vaporized epinephrine and an oral steroid and he sounded much better that night before bedtime.
He wasn't very wheezy Tuesday and he broke his fever Monday night, but he was very clingy and whiny and sounded raspy when he would cry. The doc gave me a one-time prescription for the steroid 'just in case' so we filled it Tuesday and he seemed to breathe well through the night (although he wasn't sleeping through the night. Mommy=walking zombie since Saturday).
Wednesday he coughed a lot more and sounded a little congested but mostly he just cried and seemed even more clingy than he was Tuesday. When I say 'clingy' I mean he grips me tightly enough that it semi-chokes me. He's like a little monkey that climbs all over me and freaks out whenever I try to put him down. Even when he takes a break from full-on crying there's a constant whimper that permeates my brain and makes my head hurt. Poor guy. I feel so bad when he's sick. And then I feel guilty for turning on the vacuum to drown him out for a few minutes because I don't know what to do and his incessant noise is driving me bonkers.
Fast forward to today, Friday. Grayson slept through the night last night and hasn't been coughing yet today (although he did sneeze twice). He's playing by himself and isn't insisting I hold him all the time. Why the change? I gave up isolating ourselves yesterday and took him outside to work in the yard for a couple of hours. He loved it. He followed me all around the yard as I sprayed weeds growing in the grass. He tried to put on my gloves and danced while I sang to him. He studied me pulling the crabgrass out of the flower bed and proceeded to help me - grunting as he pulled and all. He even threw his weed (small stem of grass) into my weed pile. It was quite adorable to see my little gardener in action.
Maybe his spirits lifted to know that the weed problem is mine and he'll be too young to have to help for a few more years. Maybe the slight breeze cleared all of that infection out of him. It's more probable that enough time has passed that his body is finally kicking some viral butt, but when I see the slightly pinked hue of sun-kissed skin running over his nose and onto his cheeks, I know it's simply because life is more enjoyable when the sun shines.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
The Biggest Loser
I don't get to watch a lot of television, but I do enjoy catching The Biggest Loser when I can. We have a RS activity almost every Tuesday night so if I get around to it, I'll watch the episodes online later in the week. But occasionally Josh doesn't get home on time for me to attend the activities and Grayson and I sit in front of the boob tube for two hours and witness the amazing journey of these overweight contestants.
I've been pretty diligent at watching this season since the players were split into blue and black teams and let me just say, I really dislike Ron. I hate that the other people felt obligated to keep him on the ranch so much so that they were willing to vote stronger teammates off early on (even though it meant keeping Ron, a weak player, around) and their entire team more likely to continue losing challenges, thereby forcing the elimination of more strong players. A vicious cycle and they fell right into it.
Anyway, for anyone that watches it and is reading this post right now, how are you voting between Ron and Mike? I'm enough of a grudge-holder that I don't want Mike to win ANYTHING because of the way his father has behaved. So...do I send Mike to the final four and hope that Tara beats him and he walks away empty handed, or do I send Ron to the final four to ensure Mike doesn't have a chance at the $250k even though it means risking him getting the $100k consolation prize?
I've been pretty diligent at watching this season since the players were split into blue and black teams and let me just say, I really dislike Ron. I hate that the other people felt obligated to keep him on the ranch so much so that they were willing to vote stronger teammates off early on (even though it meant keeping Ron, a weak player, around) and their entire team more likely to continue losing challenges, thereby forcing the elimination of more strong players. A vicious cycle and they fell right into it.
Anyway, for anyone that watches it and is reading this post right now, how are you voting between Ron and Mike? I'm enough of a grudge-holder that I don't want Mike to win ANYTHING because of the way his father has behaved. So...do I send Mike to the final four and hope that Tara beats him and he walks away empty handed, or do I send Ron to the final four to ensure Mike doesn't have a chance at the $250k even though it means risking him getting the $100k consolation prize?
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Reaching goals
I was going to set the goal of blogging every day in May but then I realized May had already begun and I would undoubtedly fail. Instead, my goal is to post 10 times this month. I think I can handle blogging every third day.
Last week I achieved a goal that I set a while back - I baked bread from wheat that I ground myself!
First you grind it up
into whole-wheat flour
Then mix it into your other ingredients
Roll into loaves, rise, and bake in the oven
Finally, slice and serve
I forgot to take a pic of the bread pans before baking so you'll just have to trust me that those loaves came from my dough. And yes, it tasted simply divine.
Finally baking my own bread is part of a larger goal Josh and I set at the beginning of this year; the goal to "Get prepared." What a blanket, difficult-to-measure, trite little goal. We were pretty gung ho about it back in January, but our passion died down a bit when my class and Josh's job both became more time-consuming. I waxed some cheese in February for our long-term food storage, but all of my videos and pics from that afternoon are forever locked away on a damaged memory card that will only give me error messages when I try to retrieve them. I waxed a couple of blocks again in March but didn't have Josh available to videotape it, so I only have a few pictures to show you.
These cheese blocks...
...plus these melted wax blocks...
...equal these wax-covered cheese blocks!
Completely cover with 2-3 layers and you get cheese with an indefinite shelf life. Yay!
Now that I'm out of school for the summer, I've started cracking down on what still needs to be done to 'Be prepared'. We have a long way to go, but thankfully we have a pretty good start.
Finally, there's another, more exciting goal that's been in the works since Josh and I married three years ago: Save enough money to put 20% down on a home. We have finally reached the point in our finances that we are comfortable doing just that and still have a bit in savings for my dental hygiene program and any hiccups life throws our way. It's very exciting to be 'in the market' right now when interest rates are good and the federal government will give us $8k for taking someone else's house off their hands for them.
The sad news about the house situation is that we aren't planting our garden this year because we don't want to leave our boxes and decorative rock behind when we move. Especially disappointing is that a fellow ward member promised to help me can my own salsa this summer using vegetables I grow myself. Bummer. That's a goal I'll have to reach in 2010 instead.
Last week I achieved a goal that I set a while back - I baked bread from wheat that I ground myself!
Ta-da! Stockpiling wheat, January 17, 2009
First you grind it up
into whole-wheat flour
Then mix it into your other ingredients
Roll into loaves, rise, and bake in the oven
Finally, slice and serve
I forgot to take a pic of the bread pans before baking so you'll just have to trust me that those loaves came from my dough. And yes, it tasted simply divine.Finally baking my own bread is part of a larger goal Josh and I set at the beginning of this year; the goal to "Get prepared." What a blanket, difficult-to-measure, trite little goal. We were pretty gung ho about it back in January, but our passion died down a bit when my class and Josh's job both became more time-consuming. I waxed some cheese in February for our long-term food storage, but all of my videos and pics from that afternoon are forever locked away on a damaged memory card that will only give me error messages when I try to retrieve them. I waxed a couple of blocks again in March but didn't have Josh available to videotape it, so I only have a few pictures to show you.
Ingredients:
These cheese blocks...
...plus these melted wax blocks...
...equal these wax-covered cheese blocks!
Completely cover with 2-3 layers and you get cheese with an indefinite shelf life. Yay!
Now that I'm out of school for the summer, I've started cracking down on what still needs to be done to 'Be prepared'. We have a long way to go, but thankfully we have a pretty good start.Finally, there's another, more exciting goal that's been in the works since Josh and I married three years ago: Save enough money to put 20% down on a home. We have finally reached the point in our finances that we are comfortable doing just that and still have a bit in savings for my dental hygiene program and any hiccups life throws our way. It's very exciting to be 'in the market' right now when interest rates are good and the federal government will give us $8k for taking someone else's house off their hands for them.
The sad news about the house situation is that we aren't planting our garden this year because we don't want to leave our boxes and decorative rock behind when we move. Especially disappointing is that a fellow ward member promised to help me can my own salsa this summer using vegetables I grow myself. Bummer. That's a goal I'll have to reach in 2010 instead.
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