Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Jesse’s run a mystery fever off an on for the past 3 weeks. When it returned on Sunday we decided it was time mto head to the doctor’s office to get some testing done. My internet searches yielded a lot of links and references to mono. He didn’t seem to have any other symptoms, so it really was a mystery for us.

Turns out he has coxsackie - most likely herpangina, which is hand, foot, and mouth disease without the hand and foot part. He has a nasty rash inside his mouth and in the back of his throat.

The doc tested him for strep just to be sure and that did come back negative, so that’s good. But it’s bad, because with strep he could get antibiotics and be feeling better today. With this virus he needs to just ride it out. Poor little dude.

And it’s highly contagious, so we’re wondering if/when the rash will develop in Molly’s mouth since she had her fever a week ago. Poor wee lass.

It’s a total bummer now that the pool is open, too. We’ve been waiting for 3 weeks for the pool to be open on weeknights and now Jesse can’t go because of his virus.

Friday, June 18, 2010

I know what movie we’ll be going to see for our anniversary.

Monday, June 14, 2010

To recap from Friday’s post:

1. MIL is firmly ensconced at the casa. The kids are overjoyed to have Grandma in the house, especially Jesse, who pesters with the best of them. I loved listening to her read Peter Rabbit to him yesterday - she took the time to explain the definition of certain words to him, which I never think to do. His new favorite word is “thief,” which he hollers at Molly constantly now.

2. My hair cut was wonderful. The stylist understood what I was trying to tell her about what I wanted. She even made a great suggestion for a tweak while she was working. I went home very happy and plan to go back in 8 weeks.

In new news, Beau’s Mom is going to babysit tonight so that Beau and I can have a date. We are going to see Iron Man 2 and I am very excited - not just to see the movie but to get a couple of hours alone with Beau.

On Friday we’re taking my Dad (and Mom) out for dinner for Father’s Day. We’re headed to Columbus Grill, which they have been to before and say is really good. I’m looking forward to it.

Long range plans:

July 4th weekend - we plan to hang at The New Homestead for a couple of days to enjoy grilled meats and fireworks with Marmie and Pop (and hopefully Uncle Bill, too).

Late July-Early August - I have a work conference in Denver. No firm date yet, but it should be fun. It’ll be nice to meet the folks from around the country in our group.

Late September - I get to travel to lovely Glynco, GA, for a week of training. We were planning to visit the Cooties in September for a weekend, so we may try to coordinate that for after my training.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Not much to say lately. I’m thinking that I won’t have much to say now, but I know that my fingers will find words as I type and we’ll end up with some kind of random post here. So let’s start listing, hmmm?

1. My friend’s memorial service was quite lovely. She was a remarkable woman and beloved by all who knew her. It was testament to her faith and Christ-centeredness that the folks who eulogized her all mentioned her deep love of Jesus. She is missed.

2. Jesse spiked a random fever Saturday night that was gone by morning when he woke up. His sleep has been weird ever since. He took a 4 hour nap the other day, but he’s been waking up at 0330 the past couple of nights.

3. In other Jesse news, he’s pretty much potty trained during the waking hours. He still sleeps with a diaper/pull-up, but I think he’s close to done with that for naps so it’ll be overnight we work on next.  We’re thinking of potty training Molly now to see if we can get her done early. Not paying for diapers will free up a large chunk of change each month. I’m leaving that decision up to Beau since he’s the one who’ll be doing it.

4. See? I knew that I’d find things to say once I started typing.

5. Beau’s Mom is out visiting the other grandkids and great-grandkids. She’s going to come spend a couple of days with us on Sunday - Beau will take her to the airport on Tuesday. It’ll be fun to have her with us - I know Jesse and Molly will love having Grandma to play with.

6. Our AC leaked in our basement last weekend. So where we were looking into spending some money on a TV-computer monitor we’re now looking to spend that money on a dehumidifier for the basement. It needs to be done, but is so not the fun spending of the money to which I was looking forward.

7. We’re planning to go to the Restoring Honor Rally in August. I think we’re nuts - it’s going to be HOT and crowded. But Beau’s Bro is coming down for it, so we decided to do that rally instead of the 9/12 March again. I’m not sure we’re up to doing both with the kids.

8. I’m getting my hair cut tomorrow. This is mentionable only because I haven’t had my hair cut since March and I’ve had a hard time finding any salon that doesn’t charge more that $40-50 for a simple hair cut. Alas, my Facebook comment about it garnered several responses, one of which was the recommendation of Ulta. They charge $35 for a simple hair cut so that’s where I’m going.

And that’s about it from my fingers for today.

Friday, June 04, 2010

I inadvertently offended a friend with a comment I made on Facebook yesterday. I am sorry that the person was offended and I have apologized to her directly (well, via email). I knew as I typed it that someone probably would not like what I had to say on this particular issue, despite the fact that I said I sympathize and have no judgments about it. I merely shared that I have a question about an aspect of the issue. I almost didn’t post it.

The thing is that there is nothing anyone can say on this particular topic (that shall remain nameless) that won’t ever offend someone on some level. I have read enough blog posts from people who deal with this issue to know that anyone who doesn’t deal with the issue treads pretty heavily if they say anything about anything on the topic. I know that this particular issue is a deeply emotional one and I also know that because I don’t deal with this particular issue that I cannot fully understand the person who does.

Anyway, without opening the can of worms into something that might irreparably harm my friendship with the individual, I’ll stop here. And I will not speak of said issue again, in any venue, because there is clearly nothing I can say, in any way, that won’t offend. I am deeply sorry for the hurt my comment caused.

Thursday, June 03, 2010

We came into a hand-me-down PC recently, which means we now have 3 PCs for 2 adults. I plan to use the new PC, but that leaves my current PC still useable and available. And it has a TV tuner card installed. The new PC came without a monitor, so we’re discussing putting my old PC on the main floor (in the living room) and possibly getting an HDTV that also functions as a computer monitor. We can move the small TV out of the kitchen and use the cable box/DVR and also hook up an old VCR to this TV/monitor (no need for the DVD since the computer will run DVDs and CDs).

I’ve done a bit of research and I think we can do it. Has anyone done this?

One concern I’ve read is that you can’t run the TV function and use the computer at the same time, but I’m wondering if that’s for all models or just for the particular model I was looking at. I’m wondering if the PiP feature would make it possible otherwise?

Any other pitfalls I’m not seeing? Am I crazy to think this would work?

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

I can’t talk much about my new job because it’s more secret squirrel-y, which I like. The day-to-day of what I do isn’t so secret - I support a program that helps to protect all of the federal courthouses in the country. I have a Chief (my direct boss, who is yet to be named - the previous boss was promoted shortly after I came over here in March. How’s that for timing?) and 2 contractors (who are the techie gurus who handle the day-to-day dealings of the project). I do the procurement stuff for the project, which is a fancy way of saying that I buy stuff. And I manage the budget, which is rather large. It’s all kind of cool.

I felt like the red-headed stepchild for the first couple of months: my operational boss was promoted out from under me and I have an acting operational boss (who is fantastic and fun) and there will be a new permanent operational boss named sometime this month; I also had/have an administrative boss, but this is confusing because she is at HQ and I have little contact with her; I was told constantly that I was not part of this sub-group within our division, but I was loosely tied to this sub-group and being trained by a guy in this sub-group; I had no clue about the personalities/politics within the office and sub-group; and other stuff, too.

And then a couple of days before my vacation we were unofficially told that our sub-group was being transferred to a completely different division within the agency. OK, I’ll just go with the flow. Except that my administrative boss was here one day and asked me to see her and I went in and shortly after my previous ops boss walked in and they asked me to not move to the new division, but to work for my previous ops boss instead. It was flattering and disconcerting and slightly weird. I told them I would consider it and then promptly forgot about it because I went on vacation.

And then halfway through my vacation I got the official emails about the sub-group transfer and then I got an email from LW (who works for the sub-group, too, but I’ve known her since the beginning of my time with the agency) asking me to call her. So I called her and was told that the new Chief of the transferred sub-group was told that I was considering not transferring and would I reconsider and stay with the sub-group.

Are you still with me?

She helped me to see why it would be more beneficial for me to stay with the transferred sub-group (reminding me of issues I had already learned in my short tenure here). And so I emailed my previous administrative and ops bosses and told them I planned to stay with my current program since that was what I was brought over to do, I felt responsible for it already, and I was finally starting to understand it.

I had a nice conversation with the new Chief of the sub-group yesterday and today I no longer feel like the red-headed stepchild of the sub-group (it all goes back to the politics of the promoted ops boss within the office and the segregation of my program from the rest of the sub-group). I’ve been brought back to the fold, so to speak, and it feels so nice. And there were some hilarious emails going around last week over the transfer and subsequent renaming of the sub-group - so it’s a fun group.

Anyway, this isn’t what I intended to post about. In the time I was in limbo, I was being trained to be the back-up for another project, whose person is going to be on maternity leave later this summer. And what I have enjoyed most about it (it’s rote data entry for the most part and pretty tedious most of the time) is being in one of our systems that keeps track of fugitive investigations and seeing where many of them have been resolved with arrests. And for me, this is why my new job is a little bit like The Fugitive™.

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

A friend of ours from church (she and her husband were in our first small group there) was diagnosed with lymphoma in January. It was a fast, aggressive cancer and she never really responded well to treatment. A few weeks ago we got word that she was battling a pretty serious infection as well - one that is resistant to antibiotics.

Our friend died yesterday.

She was one who lived her grace-filled life so abundantly. She lived Jesus’ promise each day.

She is survived by her soul-mate husband, a daughter, and a son and daughter-in-law. Their grief is great, but I know also that they rejoice that she is with the Lord in heaven and no longer in pain.

Psalm 30:5 says, “... weeping may remain for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” This is my prayer for all of us who will grieve for and miss our dear, sweet friend.

Monday, May 31, 2010

We’re no where near ready to spend the dough yet, but I’m starting the market research for minivans.

We debated going the SUV route, but decided the minivan is more practical for our family, especially since we’ll be schlepping to my parents’ new home that’s an hour away for the holidays. We need the extra seating and the cargo area.

We had planned to rent an SUV for our vacation, but when we did the online check-in the day before we flew out, we were offered an upgrade to a minivan at no extra charge. Since we thought that there might be a time or two when we wanted Beau’s folks along with all of us for some outing, the van made more sense for avoiding having to take 2 cars anywhere.

When we picked up our car at the airport, we were given a new Dodge Grand Caravan. I have to say that I was impressed with it. It seemed to drive well, the dash was easy to figure out and manipulate. We did have a slight problem figuring out the key, which is the lock fob, but once we figured that out we were golden. And the manipulation of the seats in the back was super easy, too. With the bench in the back-back folded into the floor there was quite a bit of room for hauling stuff. When the bench seat up and in use, there was still a good sized, recessed into the floor cargo space that worked well. I liked it a lot.

I had been leaning toward getting a Toyota Sienna because I’m a Toyota person, but we may have to do a tight comparison before we just head to the Toyota dealer when the time comes.

Please allow me to bore you with the rest of the slide show of our California travels.

Day Four - Sunday - we have no pictures. This was a quiet day. We went to church with Beau’s parents in the morning. And then we spent the afternoon at their house. And then because I’m selfish, we headed home after dinner so that I could do laundry (not the selfish part) and also watch the LOST finale (this is the selfish part). I think I cried through half a box of Kleenex in that 2.5 hours.

Day Five - Monday - Beau wanted us to attempt a hike to/thru Hazard Canyon, but this didn’t work well with an 81 year old grandmother, a 43 year old mother wearing a 14 month old, and a 3 year old who likes to touch everything, including the poison oak that was growing abundantly. However, in the 20 minutes we trekked I managed to get a few pretty shots of the woods with my Blackberry.

We decided to head straight to Montana de Oro beach instead, where Grandma and Jesse poured through the seaweed strewn sand for seashells.

After naps, we headed to meet up with Beau’s cousin, Karen, and her family for dinner. She’s cousin Linda’s sister. We had a great time catching up with them, although Molly had a mini-meltdown in the restaurant. We spent most of our catch up time in the parking lot after eating.

Day Six - Tuesday - We headed back to LA for our afternoon at Knott’s Berry Farm. This was Jesse’s second favorite day of the trip.

For the record, Molly was there, too.

This ride is called Huff ‘n Puff. Jesse was very excited to ride it by himself. However, he had to power the car under his own steam - by pushing/pulling on that handle. He was less enthused about it by the end. Heh.

Molly was getting bored. Her favorite thing right now is peas. So she got a pea break, so to speak.

Days One and Seven were our travel days so no fun pictures. Mom and Dad were stressed out trying to get 2 adults, 2 kids, 2 car seats, and 4 carry-on bags through the airport without worrying about chronicling it all with the camera.

I will say this though - Dulles is much easier security-wise than LAX. It is much better organized, much more spacious, more polite staff. LAX is a nightmare from start to finish. That said, baggage claim at Dulles needs help and while the train system from the gates to the terminal seems nicer, it’s a lot more walking, especially if you have to use the elevators.

All-in-all it was a good trip. Too short, though.

Please allow me to bore you with the slide show of our California travels.

Day One - Thursday - we went to San Luis Obispo for the weekly Farmer’s Market. This is the Mission at SLO. The tiny people are Beau and the kids.

Jesse loved this fountain at the Mission.

Earlier that day, Jesse played Little Einsteins bingo with Grandma.

Molly was her cute self. And then tried to eat the TV.

Day Two - Friday - this was a quiet day around home (both at our rental house and at Beau’s parent’s house).

Resting…that’s Molly in the tent.

Day Three - Saturday - to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We met up with Beau’s cousin, Linda, on that day. Jesse loves Linda. This was probably Jesse’s favorite thing of the whole trip.

The sites driving north on CA-1, which is lovely and horrifying for those with heights issues. We did not drive that way back south because I call that side Death Highway. It’s sheer cliff off of the road. My peace of mind couldn’t take it.

In this shot you can see Morro Rock in the bay.

We stopped at Elephant Seal Beach. It was chilly and windy so we didn’t stay out there long.

At the Aquarium…with Linda.

This is not a plant. It is a freaky little sea horse that looks like a plant until you get up close and can see it’s face. Freaky. Cool.

I love this picture. Beau told Jesse to go hug the sea horse without realizing that it is a model of a gestating sea horse getting ready to give birth.

Molly was sleepy and bored for most of this day. I wore her a lot. This is one of her happier moments. And then into retreat mode.

We got Jesse a monocular in the gift shop. Behind the monocular his eye is closed.

Heading back south by the inland route - through the Salinas Valley first. I forget that the rest of the country isn’t all red clay. I was constantly surprised by the dark soil.

I love the hills in California. They’re still green, but in a few weeks they’ll be brown and dry. Even then I think they’re beautiful.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Spoilers Therein.

[via]

There isn’t much I can say about the LOST finale that hasn’t been said already this week. It was both disappointing and amazing. A full week after seeing it, I still have a mostly positive opinion of it and think that it was a good ending.

For more insights, The Thinklings have a long discussion thread going, but be aware that it is highly spoilerish, of course.

I’ve started to re-watch from the beginning. What’s interesting is how much I have forgotten that happened back then and also to see those early events through the lens of knowing how it all ends and what some of the mysteries really are (like the Smoke Monster). The first 5 minutes were intense and awesome and reminded me of how great a show this was from the very start.

I am sad that the ride is over.

I won’t bore you with the nitty gritty details of our vacation this past week. What I will say is:

1. Our children are champion travelers. Both did very well on the plane rides. Very well. I’m so grateful.

2. Molly did well sleeping in the tent all week. By the end of the trip she was climbing in and out of it by herself at times. And they did pretty well sharing a room. There was one night that we took Molly and the tent into our room, but the rest of the time they did great.

3. Jesse loves anything to do with any kind of animal. He absolutely loved the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We plan to make a trip to the one in Baltimore, which I’ve heard great things about - seems silly not to go since it’s so close.

4. Both kids loved being with their grandparents and vice versa. Jesse enjoyed feeding peanuts to the California blue jay that would swoop into the back yard for them. Molly loved exploring and being cuddled.

5. The house we rented was perfect. It was in Morro Bay and had a view of Morro Rock, which was cool. It was convenient and spacious enough for our needs. And the price was right at only about $100/day. We plan to rent that house again the next time we go out to visit Beau’s parents.

6. I did indeed watch the LOST series/season finale live while out west. I had to wait to see the whole pre-finale clip show until we got home, but by 9pm I was parked in a chair with a box of Kleenex, ready to go. I’ll post about that later.

7. Our afternoon at Knott’s Berry Farm was fun. Jesse loved all of the rides and we stayed until they closed. Then we attempted dinner at the restaurant there, but Molly melted down right before our food arrived. So I got it boxed up and we took it back to the hotel room to eat. That was a challenge and also sleeping in one room with the kids was harrowing. Beau ended up in one bed with Jesse. Molly started in the tent, but ended up with me in the other bed. I think the adults only got about 3 hours of sleep each. That made our travel day home an adventure in tempers.

8. We had a grand time, but it was too short. We were able to see two of Beau’s cousins and family as well while we were out there. Next time we hope to see more and/or others in the family that live out there.