My New Favorite Ring

The Ring of Choice

Autumn Sky

Why I Don't Like the Sun (and love Oregon)

1. It gives me headaches

2. I can see dust - I really could care less about germs and such; however, if I can see it, touch it or smell it, it must go.

Well, that's about it :)

On another note, poor Loofa has the flu now. It's terrible, but I'm kind of grateful for the decrease in energy it has caused. The sad part is that Loofa will miss out on the Thanksgiving festivities at preschool. They always have such a cute program for that.

Last night I had to change Fefe's jammers after she had gone to bed because Ephant had put her to bed in summer pajamas. When I went in to get her in the morning, she was wearing only her diaper (thank goodness she still had that on). I guess she didn't like the change.

I also saw New Moon last night. It was much better than Twilight. The actor they've chosen for Edward is really really terrible. I've grown used to Bella and can mostly accept her now, but I'm starting to cringe at any scenes with Robert Pattison. It's really sad. Why can't casting directors recognize the fact that movies like this are mostly driven by who they choose?

Brother B wanted to see New Moon too. I tried to tell him it was just a romance. We'll see what he thinks when it comes out on DVD. I have a feeling he'll be very bored.

Tomorrow we get to go in and take Fefe's stitches out. I'll have to get a picture of them before then.

The saddest thing ever happened yesterday. I noticed some railroad workers in the back earlier, but didn't think much of it. In the afternoon I opened the gate to blow some leaves back and couldn't believe my eyes. THEY RIPPED OUT ALL THE BLACKBERRY VINES! Wahhhh!!! Next years harvest will be non-existent. I'm sure they'll come back and they really did need some pruning, but still. I haven't told Ephant yet, she'll probably cry.

I sent my power supply in yesterday so I won't have access to my desktop till the new one gets here. That means I don't have access to files, photography stuff, word processing and many more things. Hopefully it won't take long. This does mean that my picture a day will have to take a temporary hiatus.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

The Aftermath

http://www.katu.com/news/local/70709327.html

The Boundary

Yet Another Hospital Trip

Just when we were about to put Fefe to bed tonight, she decided it would fun to slam her forehead into the edge of a wall and split it open. It reminded me of my brother's forehead after his friend threw a rock at him. She was pretty upset at first, but once we got a band-aid on her and gave her her blankie, she cheered up. J was certain from the beginning that she would need stitches, but I wanted to get confirmation on it so I called my friends hubby that is a PA for advice. I really hate going to the ER and finding out it was a waste of my time and money. He said that it would heal on its own, but if we didn't want her to have a scar it was better to get it stitched. So off we went to the ER while J and the other kids finished watching Star Trek.

On the order of things, it was a fast trip. We got taken back quickly and sat there for about an hour waiting for them to get it all ready. I played Fefe some videos on my iphone to entertain her. While she was watching a Diego video, she started singing along loudly. Everyone thought it was cute. She was happy right up until the actual procedure. They gave her a cute little beanie baby penguin, which she definitely appreciated.

To do the procedure they strapped her whole body onto this board and the nurse held her head still. First the doctor had to numb her wound. That was the most painful part because it required multiple injections. She was pretty dang upset. The numbing was in effect within a few seconds and then the doc put in 3 stitches. It was actually pretty cool how well it pulled the skin together. Once I unstrapped Fefe, she perked up fast. She's upstairs singing to herself right now even though it is 3 hours past her bedtime. She must have had some heavy duty adrenaline going through her system.

A History of Pain

Last spring when I was training for the 10k, my knees started hurting pretty badly. I finally started wearing my orthotics regularly in hopes that would help. They didn't. I pushed through it though because I really wanted to run the race. I took about a week off afterwards hoping that would help. Over the course of the summer my left knee stopped hurting, but my right knee became progressively worse. It got to the point I finally contemplated taking a big break. At that point I went down for my brother's wedding so I had a two week break. I visited the internet doctor and figured out that my problem stemmed from my IT band. When I got back I bought a Patt Strap and foam roller. Combined with some ibuprofen I made it through the Run for Sight with minimal pain. After that though my knee continued to worsen so I decided it was time for the big break. A couple weeks into that, my hip started hurting. At that point I made an appt with the chiropractor. I've been seeing him for a few weeks now. I get some e-stim therapy and myofascial release combined with (of course) some adjustments. All of this most likely stemmed from the hip problems I had when pregnant with Fefe. He told me at the first that I could still run, but I needed to keep my mileage low. I finally ran for the first time yesterday and it HURT. So, when I went in today he told me that along with hip tendinitis, I also have knee tendinitis. Because of that, I'm not allowed to run until all the pain is gone. I'm very frustrated because running is by far my favorite way to exercise. I'm going to start swimming again until I can run. It'll probably be a few months till it is healed. He also said that my tendons are permanently weakened because of this so I'll have to wear the strap every time I run for the rest of my life. Arrghh. The lesson we should all take from this is to not ignore pain.

A Touch of Color

Yes, this is one of Loofa's favorite shirts.

Breakdown

Why is everything breaking down at my house? Now the power supply on my computer has died. It still works somewhat, but it keeps shutting down on me so I decided I better just keep it off. Thankfully it is still under warranty.

Bad Baby

What Might Have Been

Tired

A Picture a Day

My sister inspired me to get cracking on my photography again. It's been very inspiring to see her picture-a-day so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon. This is just for me, so don't feel like you need to comment, just enjoy.

Superwoman

Yep, that's me. Wednesday night, my Kenmore Calypso broke down on the first load of many loads needing to be done. My parents were coming in the next evening and I wanted that wash done! So I proceeded to pull out the washer and try and fix the problem. I was up till 3:30am, but I figured out the problem and took out the offending part. I ended up moving the washer out to the deck because every time it was tipped over massive amounts of water came out (the water pump was clogged). I couldn't have moved it out there without my lovely furniture sliders (thanks Marv!).

Thursday morning I ran into Portland to pick up the new part, a water pump and motor (stupid whirlpool won't let you buy the pump separate anymore). Once I got the part in, I hooked up the washer to the outdoor hose and gave it a test whirl. I was so happy when it worked I did a little victory dance on my deck.

I still have a small leak to fix, but that has been there forever as far as I can tell so it is not urgent.

I want to thank the following:

1. My hubby for having patience with my obssessiveness

2. The internet

3. Whirlpool - for making a washer I still love even after having to go through this

4. Heavenly Father - for blessing me with a brain and endurance

All Brother B wants for Christmas

I wouldn't ordinarily post about lost teeth, but Brother B sounds so dang cute with his lisp right now. His other top front is about to come out too. Once that does, he's going to get the labial frenulum snipped by the dentist. That is the muscle between the top lip and gum. His is too tight and has the potential to make his teeth really crooked. The dentist wants to do it when both the top front teeth are out, I guess that makes it easier somehow.

The Baptism

After a hectic previous day (Fabulous Friday aka Super Saturday), the day of Brother B's baptism was actually fairly peaceful. I picked up his suit pants from the dry cleaners after letting them alter the pants (I tried, I really did). He looked so handsome wearing his new suit. I'm so proud of him for making this choice. It went surprisingly smooth with how many other kids that were baptized (6 in total).

We were worried there wouldn't be enough suits, but there were. J was going to wear his temple clothes to baptize Brother B, but Brother B wanted him to match. So here they are in their matching jumpsuits :)

It was great to have my parents there! After the baptism we all went over to Aunt J's for another great dinner. It is so nice of her to always provide this service for us. It certainly made it easier on me with everything else going on.

I sure love my Brother B!

Calling All Honda Odyssey Owners

Just for those with 05-07's. I have had a perpetual window rattle coming from the driver's side window for 3 years now. It drives me crazy! Every 3-6 months I've had the dealership "fix" it only to have it come back a few days to months later. I finally looked it up and found out they were just cleaning the seals and applying a special grease called Shin-Etsu. So, I went and bought my own grease, figuring I could do the fix on my own at home. Wrong! I had limited success, sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. Recently the rattle has gotten so bad again I decided to check out the handy dandy internet again.

I found this: http://www.in.honda.com/Rjanisis/pubs/SN/a080200.PDF

Finally a permanent fix to my problem! (I hope) I'm going to take it in and have this done. I'll let you know if it lasts :) Anyway, I thought I'd share in case any of you have the same problem and are tired of it too.

Eight is Great

Brother B had a pretty packed day for his birthday. We started out with his soccer awards banquet right before their last game of the season.

His awesome coach gave them a nice spin.

Pretty cool trophy.

During the awards it started pouring so we were a little nervous they would cancel the last game. It stopped just in time for the game to start, but it was muddy! I found the driest place on the field to park myself, but it was pretty sad watching the kids try to play so carefully they wouldn't fall. The team they played against was pretty dang good. The last half, there was one kid in particular that rocked the field. Brother B scored his only goal when that kid was out.

In our continuing non-cake tradition, Brother B requested monkey bread.

Brother B's baptism will be this Saturday and we are excited to have Grandma and Grandpa C come visit.

Happy Halloween

I was a little nervous how well Halloween would go with how sick I was most of the month. Luckily I pulled out of it in time to enjoy my second favorite Holiday.

The Candy Corn Witch

Snake Eyes (from GI Joe)

Brother B had no idea what that was, he just knew it looked like a cool Ninja costume. His cool mom got him an awesome sword for his birthday to go with his suit.

Ben 10

(Don't worry, I still don't fully know what this is)

The little kitty cat that refused to smile at the camera.

Fefe really enjoyed her first "aware" Halloween. She even started saying thank you while holding out her basket after awhile. Loofa wins the award for eating the most candy that night. We had a great time going to our ward trunk or treat first and then a couple token neighborhood streets. I wore my Dharma costume and a couple people even recognized it for what it was. My original dream was to have us all wearing Dharma suits, but I couldn't find any child coveralls and I am not dedicated enough to sew my own.