Chick Chatter...

Conversation between Chandler and Riley on the way to school this morning:

C: "Hey Riley! Guess what!"
R: "Wha Channer?"
C: "I'm going to the zoo today."
R: "Oooo. Cool."
C: "Yeah. It will be so much fun."
R: "Ok Channer."
C: "A LOT of fun."
R: "Ok Channer."

Obviously Riley was either
A) unimpressed with Chandler's field trip to the zoo.
B) didn't understand that Chandler was going to the zoo.
C) Wanted to see if she could irritate "Channer".

:) I'm kinda putting my money on a combo of B and C!

Oh for crying out loud....

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Seriously, these two girls... they. make. me. laugh!

What else makes me laugh? The fact that our server at Chili's took this picture and actually thought it was good.
I mean, hello?? Did you notice that 50% of the picture is comprised of glasses, a go to box, and a to go cup?

The picture tells a story... you wouldn't understand it even if I tried to tell you... one of those, "you had to be there" moments.

So, Trish. Tara. Thanks girls. I needed a good laugh. The kind of laugh that made me cry. Hard. Several times.

This dinner came at the perfect time for me.

Must be love...

I know Trish loves me because we had dinner tonight after church and she gave me this:

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My collection is now complete!

Well, until EW come out with a "New Moon" cover! :)

THANKS TRISH!!! YOU'RE THE BEST!

Lazy Friday Night

This is us girls taking it easy on a Friday night...

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*Everyone got baths before dinner.
*We got into out pajamas (or in Riley's case, just a diaper!)
*No makeup and hardly any effort put into my hair... don't look too closely!
*"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" on the Disney Channel.
*Tons of pillows and blankets!!

I felt exhausted and just worn out all day so aside from a few loads of laundry, nothing else got done...
Well, I took care of Riley, took Chandler to and from school, and put a pizza in the oven for dinner.

While I was sitting in the car waiting for Chandler to get out of school, I finished the last chapter of "Playing for Pizza".
Not my favorite of John Grisham's novels, but in the end I did decide that I enjoyed the story... It is just a departure from his intense stories of crooked lawyers and corrupt legal systems.

If you want an easy read with a little football thrown in (American football played in Italy) and some Italian history and culture, then I recommend it. :)

The next book I'll be reading is "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer. It's our 1st Book Club book. :)

Where you can find me...

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I was inspired by Jaime's picture on January 2nd.

So, there's a lot to learn from this picture... you ready?

Let's start with my phone... laying in front of the keyboard.
*I LOVE MY NEW PHONE! It's red... that alone makes me love it, but it's cool too! :)

My hands...
*I always type with my fingers on the correct keys... Thank you ole' what's-her-name that taught my 6th grade keyboard class. :)

My arm...
*I LOVE MY NEW PJS!!! I got them this week at Target. They are bright pink with white piping and have little gingerbread men on them. I saw them back before Christmas and REALLY wanted them, but I resisted... until this past Wednesday. :) Got them for 50% off!! YAY ME!

To the left of my arm...
*Scrapbook resources and supplies. The books, binders and magazines are all ideas for fantastic pages that are just WAITING for me! The white plastic organizer holds all sorts of fun scrapbook supplies... stickers, embellishments, notecards with more ideas on them, etc...

In the middle of the picture, behind the keyboard...
*My miniature Eiffel Tower bought all the way from Paris by non other than... Cousin Brett. :) Brett's brother, Bobby, is in the AirForce and is currently stationed at a base in Ramstein, Germany. Brett and his parents (Aunt Karen and Uncle Mike) went to visit Bobby this past year and I requested this little Eiffel Tower...
One day, I'll see the real thing... up close and personal. :)

On my computer monitor...
*Simplify. One of my many goals for myself. In so many different areas of life. This little rub on serves as a daily reminder.



Tonight, Melanie sent me a text message with an offer to meet her at the theatre for a girl's night out... Brandon gave me the "go ahead" and I was off!
We saw, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"... I really enjoyed it, but I cried... a lot. :)
*It has renewed my love for Brad Pitt (who honestly, was becoming less and less attractive me as of late). His New Orleans accent (in my opinion) was spot on and VERY charming!
*Cate Blanchett was STUNNING! Her skin is gorgeous!
*It made me want to take ballet lessons!


On a much more serious note...
Please pray for my high school friend, Kim.
Kim and her husband, Neill, are expecting twins. They had a bit of a scare today... I'm not 100% sure how far along she is, but she's far enough for the girls (identical twin girls) to be born next week... They are measuring about 5 lbs each... I've heard that's a good weight for twins.
There is some concern about gallstones in Baby A and Baby B has some calcification on her chest and in the placenta.
Kim was sent for tests this evening. Once the results are back, they will make a decision about delivery.
Kim is worried (what mom wouldn't be?!?!), but she has faith in her doctor and has been encouraged by how pro-active the doctor has been. NICU has already been briefed on Kim's pregnancy and they are ready for the girls when the time comes.

I have faith in God and He knows exactly what He's doing.

So please say a prayer for Kim, Neill and their families. They need peace, wisdom and comfort right now.

So far so good!

Yep, it's only day 2 of my Project 365, but I'm proud of myself for just remembering to carry my camera in the diaper bag today! :)

Brandon had to go back to work this morning... boo!

The girls and I took it easy.
We slept in a bit... the girls slept in a bit more than I did... that may be a first in our family!!
We were just lazy.
I did some laundry.
The girls watched cartoons.
Riley played with the Hotwheels racetrack we bought them for Christmas.

About noon we started getting ready for the day because...

We had a DATE!

Melanie met us at the movie theatre with Daphne, Micah, Gabe and Myles!
If Riley had been sitting in her own seat (instead of crawling all over my lap) we would have taken up an entire row of seats!

We saw Bolt. I know it has been out for a while, but we had not gotten around to seeing it yet.
It was HYSTERICAL!

If you haven't seen it, you should. Rhino, the hamster made me laugh over and over again! Although, I think Melanie laughed harder and louder than anyone else in the theatre!

I wanted to get a picture of all of us in the lobby after the movie, but it just didn't happen.

However, on the way to the theatre, I passed my camera to Chandler and asked her to take a picture of me...

So begins, PROJECT CHANDLER

I've realized that there are SO many things to learn from seeing life from a child's perspective.

Such as:
I need to pay more attention to what my hair looks like from the BACK!
and
I look incredibly tense when I drive... I don't feel tense, but I look it!

There will be more installments in this project... be on the lookout! :)

And picture #2 in my Project 365:

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This picture says SO much about Riley and who she is right now.

1. She is FOCUSED!
2. She is determined!
3. She is a connoisseur of movies.
4. She loves CARS! Not just the movie, but actual cars... hence the Hotwheel racetrack.

WOW... welcome October!

So, how did you spend your Friday night?

Oh me? Thanks for asking...
Well, Brandon is camping with his Royal Ranger boys from church so I took the girls to McDonald's for dinner (I bet you can guess who chose the dining location!) and then over to a local kid's resale shop and to Target. Riley needed shoes and both girls needed some warmer clothing since it's beginning to cool off here... FINALLY!

So, all night Riley's cough (that she's had for 2 weeks) is getting progressively worse. Yes, I was the mom at McDonald's with the kid who is coughing all over everything! Send me hate mail... I'm braced for it!

As we are leaving Target (around 8:00) I look up to see our Pediatrician headed straight over to us... NOTE: sometimes it's nice to live in a small town.

Here's our our conversation went:
Dr.: "Ummm, how long has she been coughing like that?"
Me: "Ummm, 2 weeks, but I swear it's only gotten this bad today... it really has been nothing!"
Dr.: "Does she have a cool mist humidifier?"
Me: "Ummm, no." (DOH! She tells me to get one EVERY YEAR!)
Dr.: "I'm the doctor on duty tomorrow at the office. Come see me."
Me: "Should I call first?"
Dr.: "No. We open at 8:30. Tell them I saw you and told you to meet me there at 8:30."
Me: "Ok. I'll see you at 8:30."

She starts walking away and CHANDLER STARTS COUGHING!!!

Dr.: "When did she start that?"
Me: *sigh* "About 2 days ago."
Dr.: "8:30."
Me: "Ok."

She start waking away...

Dr.: "Oh! If it gets any worse tonight go STRAIGHT to the ER."
Me: "Really?"
Dr.: "Yes. See you tomorrow at 8:30."

I'm imagining dragging both of my kids to the ER while Brandon is off camping... did I mention the area that he's in has very little cell phone service... and by very little I mean none... unless you stand on your head and hold your tongue just right.

Before the girls went to bed we prayed for good rest for both of them... God? Were you listening? I'm thinking you might have been on a coffee break about that time of the evening. :)

Fast forward to 11:30pm...
I'm sitting at my computer and I hear my little Riley hacking up a lung... I go to check on her. Chandler is sitting up in the bed coughing a little, but Riley is in her crib red in the face from coughing.
I tell Chandler to go back to sleep.
I pick up Riley. She leans into my chest and PUKES! Yes. Yes. Yes... Puked all over me. Not once. Not twice, but THREE times. All I can do is hold her close to me as I RUN to the bathroom.

I sit her in the bathtub and start stripping her clothes off. She pukes again! Now she's freaking out because it's in the bathtub with her...
Hello? Little precious angel... IT'S ALL OVER YOUR MOMMY!

This is the point where I say to myself, "This is probably what the doctor meant by 'worse'."

I get myself and both of my kids dressed. Grab and bag and head out the door. As I'm passing my neighbor's house I notice that her bedroom light is still on... her husband and 2 boys are camping with Brandon this weekend.

I called and asked if I could drop Chandler off at her house. She said yes and now I owe her a "middle of the night emergency call"... THANK YOU BECKY!!!

Riley and I arrive at the ER just after midnight. I have no idea how long we were in the waiting room... I just couldn't think straight enough to even care about the wait.

Riley was a trooper. All of the nurses loved her. They coddled her and treated her like the most precious baby in the world (which we all know she is!). In fact over the course of 4 hours she got 3 popsicles and a tour of the ER. :)

After 2 xrays, a breathing treatment, having blood drawn, a suppository of Tylenol, and a general external exam it was decided that she has a bi-lateral ear infection... that's infections in both ears... BAD infections in both ears.

She got numbing drops to help with the ear pain and a prescription for amoxicillin.

We were home just before 4 am.

We slept together on Chandler's bed (since Chandler was at Becky's and Riley has a hard time falling asleep in my room)... Chandler had a twin sized bed. :)

I slept through a text message from Brandon and my alarm.

I woke at 8:30. I called the doctor's office to tell them that we had been in the ER all night. The receptionist said the doctor had told them to expect me.
I made an appointment for 9:30 and ran around like a crazy person to get ready, pick up Chandler and make it there on time... we arrived at 9:36... not too bad considering all we had been through.

They didn't check Riley since it had only been a few hours since the ER doctor saw her.

The doctor checked Chandler over... the results? An ear infection. GOOD GRIEF!
We battled ear infections with Chandler for the first 14 months of her life... she had tubes put in her ear and we were infection free for 4 years... one of the tubes came out about a year ago (they are supposed to come out after a few years) and now she has an infection. UGH!

Chandler is allergic to penicillin so she has to take antibiotics that are penicillin free... which means it takes longer for them to work.

I picked up Chandler's and Riley's prescriptions along with a cool mist humidifier after the appointment.

It's only 1:00 and I feel like it should be time to crawl into bed for the night!!!

Forgive the poor picture quality... all I had was my cell phone!
In the waiting room

After a little TLC from the ER staff... mainly popsicles!

On a side note: Oddly enough in October 2004, Brandon was in Kentucky visiting one of our friends from college and I had to take CHANDLER to the ER for breathing treatments!
That was pre-cellphone days for Brandon and me... I know it's a few years later (I know I thanked them at the time), but since I'm mentioning it... many thanks to Melanie, Joel, Susie, Denise and Jaclyn for being my support system for that incredibly stressful night...

Denise, Chandler and me

The ER doctor giving Chandler her breathing treatment... well TRYING to give it to her!

Chandler FINALLY passed out after a few hours!

Girl's Day Out!

Today started out with a trip to the doctor for Riley's 12 month well baby check up.

She was 19 lbs 2 oz and 29" long. That puts her in the 25th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height.

She had to have 3 vaccines today: Hepatitis A, Chickenpox, and MMR.

When the doctor named the vaccines, Chandler said, "NOT CHICKENPOX! We don't want her to get the chickenpox!" The doctor laughed and explained that she wasn't giving Riley chickenpox just the vaccine. :)

After the doctor's appointment we met up with Ms. Amy for a little shopping and some lunch.

Cleveland FINALLY has a Target and it opened last week so that's where we were headed.
After Target we hit good ole' Chick-fil-A for a little lunch.

Here are a few photos of Riley waiting for Chandler to come down the slide:



After lunch we headed back over to the new shopping center to browse Kohl's. Yes, Cleveland is finally moving up in the world! Wal-mart isn't the only place to shop anymore!

In Kohl's, Chandler had a great time playing, "You can't see me." You know the game... you can see her, but you have to act like you don't and whatever you do, DON'T talk to her or call her by name!!!
At one point Amy, Riley and I were walking out of the girl's department only to notice an AMAZING mannequin display in the boy's department...

She even put on a pair of glasses that she found in the girl's department... complete with tag hanging on her nose!
My favorite part... she's even standing like the mannequins... feet, arms the whole thing.
Next time I'm sure she'll try to figure out a way to "lose her head". :)

Striking a pose!

These weren't the only displays that she violated! Sometimes she appeared with a big red floppy hat, sometimes it was a scarf. Sometimes it was the hat, scarf AND glasses!