Getting older...
It's official. We're old. It's not even midnight and we're headed home. I'm tired! Happy almost new year!
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Saturday, December 31, 2005
See you later!
"Ok Emma, it's time for nap. Give mommy a kiss."
Emma runs over and gives Casey a kiss, then comes over to the stairs to go up to her room.
As we're going up the stairs--
Emma to Mommy, waving: "Bye, see you later. I love you."
We have a couple of cute kids. They get it from their mommy.
Emma runs over and gives Casey a kiss, then comes over to the stairs to go up to her room.
As we're going up the stairs--
Emma to Mommy, waving: "Bye, see you later. I love you."
We have a couple of cute kids. They get it from their mommy.
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Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Unfinished Business
Everyone has little and big things that sit on their todo list for what seems like forever, right? Those things that just weigh on your mind... some of the things make you cringe when you think of them, with others you just shrug and say "I'll get to it someday". Here's some of the things on my list (actually, it's everything I can recall at the moment):
What's your todo list?
- Clean out the study. This is a biggie. Since we moved in, the study has basically just been a catchall room, housing whatever junk we don't have room or time to deal with elsewhere in the house. Periodically we clean it up so that it can be used for guests, and they stay in there on the pullout couch with the towers of boxes and stuff. The closet is in total disarray, a heap of junk that sometimes lets you open the door. One day we'll actually put up the blinds, and then things will start to take shape.
- Finish the attic stairs. A long, long time ago, when we first moved in, we simply had an attic. You could get to it through a little square hole, less than 3 feet on a side, and there were no stairs. My mom and Mark came up one weekend and we installed full blown attic stairs, you know, the kind that pull down when you put all your weight on a little rope? Now we have space to store stuff, and in fact, it's packed up there! All that's left of that project is to sand off the bumps from the spackle texturing that I did and then paint it... but it's not done. It's been more than 2 years, hasn't it?
- Get organized. In some ways I am very organized. In most ways, I'm not. I have a little filing system that I use for paid bills and bank statements and such, but instead of using it regularly things just pile up on my nightstand until the stack starts to tip over and only then does the filing commence. Fortunately it doesn't seem to drive Casey too crazy.
What's your todo list?
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Home
Well, I'm home again today. I still feel sick... I slept, but don't feel rested. Everyone around here is doing better -- Emma's fever is down to just over 100 now, and both Madison and Emma have kept everything down the last several hours. Casey isn't feeling well but hopefully she gets some rest. Maddy is happily blowing raspberries and talking away in her swing, Emma is watching "You've Got Mail" with me while Casey naps.
I think that by tomorrow everyone will be a lot better.
I think that by tomorrow everyone will be a lot better.
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Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Our Not So Happy Holidays...
Well, last Thursday Madison started to get a fever and some other flu like symptoms so Christmas was not a happy time for her :( All weekend I wasn't feeling well, I felt fluish but nothing major, then last night came. Last night poor Emma woke up in the middle of the night throwing up. She currently has a fever, can't keep anything down, and is just feeling yucky today. Chris also has a stomach bug of some sort, so this holiday week isn't such a happy one so far :( Hopefully we will all be better by New Year's Eve! I hope that everyone had a great Christmas! I will work on my Christmas pictures as soon as I start to feel better.
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Sorry to hear that you all are getting sick. I'm just getting over a pretty bad cold myself. Seems like we are all haivng some "Not so happy holidays!"
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Monday, December 26, 2005
Holy cow! New pictures?!
Check it out. Try not to go into shock. :-)
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I'm shocked. You beat me! I guess I have a couple of days to edit and post. It takes time to make it through the edit process over at mrwirednetman.com. :-P
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Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas everybody, and I don't mean "Happy Holidays"! (Ok, I'm a day late. Did you really expect me to be punctual?)
Saturday, December 17, 2005
An Attempt at Healthier Eating
I've never paid much attention to what I eat. I typically don't eat too much junk, but for some reason lately I've been on some kind of label-checking mission. We were at the grocery store early this week and I noticed how much sugar and how little protein is in even the "healthy" cereals. In trying to find something better, I wound up getting Grape Nuts, something I haven't eaten in quite a while. Soon we were in the diary section and I saw the yogurt and thought, "hey, that's interesting... yogurt with Grape Nuts mixed in... I'll try that". Trying to make the healthy choice, I chose the generic plain low-fat yogurt (yes, there's nonfat, but I'm not out to make my life totally bland). I noticed that it had 16g of sugar per cup and was kinda stunned. This is a food that is widely considered healthy (I thought) and it has this much sugar? It tastes so bitter! I suffered through 4 days of that. It wasn't too bad, and I noticed that it usually kept me feeling full until lunch time, which is something I struggle with at work. :-)
Yesterday we went to the store and I saw the Dannon "light 'n fit" nonfat fruit yogurt. I was sure I was going to be disappointed, but it actually has a lot less sugar than the plain yogurt. I did my usual mix this morning for breakfast, using the Dannon yogurt instead, and it was almost too sweet. I don't get it... it tastes so good, but according to the label it's better than the bland, bitter crud I ate all week? Sometimes food is a mystery to me.
Yesterday we went to the store and I saw the Dannon "light 'n fit" nonfat fruit yogurt. I was sure I was going to be disappointed, but it actually has a lot less sugar than the plain yogurt. I did my usual mix this morning for breakfast, using the Dannon yogurt instead, and it was almost too sweet. I don't get it... it tastes so good, but according to the label it's better than the bland, bitter crud I ate all week? Sometimes food is a mystery to me.
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That's where the "exception" clause comes in... during the weeks with national holidays (for all countries) I can eat anything I want. I figure that covers me for just about the whole year. That's my kind of exception clause.
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Thursday, December 15, 2005
Smoke Detector Drama, Part II
If you need a good, honest electrician don't ask me for a reference. I don't know of one.
They didn't come on Monday... or any day this week. They're not coming back at all. Who thinks that it's a good idea to replace all 7 smoke detectors when only one may be defective? A company that gets paid $99 per smoke detector, that's who! So, I told them to take a hike (in a nice way) and tracked down the customer service number for the manufacturer (BRK/First Alert). Not only do these $13 smoke detectors have a 10 year warranty with free replacement, but the customer service person patiently read off a detailed list of steps to take to clean them and determine which one is defective! The problem isn't fixed yet since we're still working through finding the defective one, but I'm a very satisfied smoke detector customer, even though I was separated from the buying process by a few degrees (they came with the house, ya know).
They didn't come on Monday... or any day this week. They're not coming back at all. Who thinks that it's a good idea to replace all 7 smoke detectors when only one may be defective? A company that gets paid $99 per smoke detector, that's who! So, I told them to take a hike (in a nice way) and tracked down the customer service number for the manufacturer (BRK/First Alert). Not only do these $13 smoke detectors have a 10 year warranty with free replacement, but the customer service person patiently read off a detailed list of steps to take to clean them and determine which one is defective! The problem isn't fixed yet since we're still working through finding the defective one, but I'm a very satisfied smoke detector customer, even though I was separated from the buying process by a few degrees (they came with the house, ya know).
Comments
Are you going to file a complaint with the BBB? I would...so if I ever live out there I'll know not to use them.
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Monday, December 12, 2005
Emma
Emma is acting more and more like a 2 year old. At least once a day I look at her and am just amazed, I can't believe how fast time has gone. She is such a polite little girl. When she needs help with something she says "help please" if she wants more food it is "more please" or she will just say "please" if she needs something or wants something. She will also say "sorry" when she does something wrong or when she thinks she has hurt you. We hardly even have to tell her to say sorry, she does it on her own. As a matter of fact, a lot of the time we have to tell her that she didn't do anything wrong and that a sorry isn't needed. We started giving her a chore, it is taking diapers to the trash. She loves to do it and gets so excited each and every time she puts a diaper in the trash.
Our little Princess is obsessed with Buzz Lightyear. Every morning she asks for "buzz". At bedtime she has to take a buzz sippy cup, buzz action figure, and a buzz bear, from Build a Bear, to be with her. If she doesn't have all of those she wont go to sleep.
She loves to carry a purse around and it has to have two phones, keys, and sunglasses in it. She will walk around the house with it on her arm and say over and over "bye bye" or "hi". Sometimes she even pushes the stroller and acts just like I do when we go out. She is starting to play pretend more and her imagination is growing with each minute.
She is healthy and happy and just a wonderful little girl. Where did the time go?
Our little Princess is obsessed with Buzz Lightyear. Every morning she asks for "buzz". At bedtime she has to take a buzz sippy cup, buzz action figure, and a buzz bear, from Build a Bear, to be with her. If she doesn't have all of those she wont go to sleep.
She loves to carry a purse around and it has to have two phones, keys, and sunglasses in it. She will walk around the house with it on her arm and say over and over "bye bye" or "hi". Sometimes she even pushes the stroller and acts just like I do when we go out. She is starting to play pretend more and her imagination is growing with each minute.
She is healthy and happy and just a wonderful little girl. Where did the time go?
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She is growing up fast! I can clearly remember holding her as a little baby. My how she has changed.
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My New Mission
I know many might think I am crazy but I have a mission. I don't know exactly what I am going to do yet but I know that I want and need to do something. So many people don't know much about albinism and I want to bring awareness to people.
When people make comments about Madison's eyes, hair, or skin I tell them she has albinism. I find it as an opportunity to spread information about albinism. So many people think that people with albinism have red eyes but that just isn't true, In movies they are always portrayed as evil beings or as trolls. People who have albinism are just like you and me, the only difference is they have little or no melanin and have vision problems.
I want Madison to grow up being proud of who she is and to know that she is a beautiful girl and is no different from anyone else. I want others to be more aware of albinism and if you can think of a way I can do this please share with me. I feel very strongly about this.
Also, I wanted to say this so everyone knows before more time goes by. Calling a person with albinism "albino" is a derogatory term and we would prefer Madison wasn't called this. She has albinism and is a person with albinism. Thank you for your understand
Come on and give me some ideas people!!!!!
When people make comments about Madison's eyes, hair, or skin I tell them she has albinism. I find it as an opportunity to spread information about albinism. So many people think that people with albinism have red eyes but that just isn't true, In movies they are always portrayed as evil beings or as trolls. People who have albinism are just like you and me, the only difference is they have little or no melanin and have vision problems.
I want Madison to grow up being proud of who she is and to know that she is a beautiful girl and is no different from anyone else. I want others to be more aware of albinism and if you can think of a way I can do this please share with me. I feel very strongly about this.
Also, I wanted to say this so everyone knows before more time goes by. Calling a person with albinism "albino" is a derogatory term and we would prefer Madison wasn't called this. She has albinism and is a person with albinism. Thank you for your understand
Come on and give me some ideas people!!!!!
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Friday, December 09, 2005
Swindled!
When you pay someone $255 to come out and fix something simple, it better darn well be fixed. Wrong. It's not fixed. Our smoke detectors are now completely turned off for the second time this week.
It all started three nights ago. I was staying the night at a hotel in Dallas because I had to be down there for our first annual user conference at work (which, by the way, was a big success). Right as I turned my phone on the next morning I got a call from Casey -- sounding very very tired. She had been up since 2:30 because one of the smoke detectors had been chirping... but the plot thickens, because they all started going off sporadically starting at about 5 am. I'd never heard of such a thing, so I called the fire department (non-emergency, of course). They reassured me that it was probably just a battery problem, and that if there wasn't a fire or smoke everything is ok. It was a long day, and after we got home safely via the ice-covered roads, we entered the garage to the noise of every smoke detector in the house going off. They had probably been going off all day, and they certainly didn't stop going off on their own. I checked every one of them... I couldn't figure out at all what was going on, so I finally had to flip the breaker and pull out all the batteries. I know, it sounds stupid... what if there had been a fire? But what choice did we have? Take the whole family and go stay in a hotel until someone can fix it? Probably safer but not very reasonable. Anyway... we finally got an electrician to come out today to fix it. $255 later he tells us that there was a loose connection to one of the smoke detectors upstairs and that he replaced a battery in one of the other smoke detectors. So, it's all fixed right? All of them are working, no more problems the rest of the afternoon. So, we all go out to dinner with Doug and Lisa, then over to their house for a while.
About 30 minutes ago I pulled into the garage just behind Casey to see her glaring at nothing in particular. I knew exactly what it was as soon as I saw her. The breaker's off again. The batteries are out. Someone is going to get an earful on Monday, they're gonna give us a refund, and we're gonna have someone else come out to actually fix it.
It all started three nights ago. I was staying the night at a hotel in Dallas because I had to be down there for our first annual user conference at work (which, by the way, was a big success). Right as I turned my phone on the next morning I got a call from Casey -- sounding very very tired. She had been up since 2:30 because one of the smoke detectors had been chirping... but the plot thickens, because they all started going off sporadically starting at about 5 am. I'd never heard of such a thing, so I called the fire department (non-emergency, of course). They reassured me that it was probably just a battery problem, and that if there wasn't a fire or smoke everything is ok. It was a long day, and after we got home safely via the ice-covered roads, we entered the garage to the noise of every smoke detector in the house going off. They had probably been going off all day, and they certainly didn't stop going off on their own. I checked every one of them... I couldn't figure out at all what was going on, so I finally had to flip the breaker and pull out all the batteries. I know, it sounds stupid... what if there had been a fire? But what choice did we have? Take the whole family and go stay in a hotel until someone can fix it? Probably safer but not very reasonable. Anyway... we finally got an electrician to come out today to fix it. $255 later he tells us that there was a loose connection to one of the smoke detectors upstairs and that he replaced a battery in one of the other smoke detectors. So, it's all fixed right? All of them are working, no more problems the rest of the afternoon. So, we all go out to dinner with Doug and Lisa, then over to their house for a while.
About 30 minutes ago I pulled into the garage just behind Casey to see her glaring at nothing in particular. I knew exactly what it was as soon as I saw her. The breaker's off again. The batteries are out. Someone is going to get an earful on Monday, they're gonna give us a refund, and we're gonna have someone else come out to actually fix it.
Comments
Now that's a long day! I had a problem with mine going off too. I just took that thing of the ceiling early one morning. (opps). I think you're solution is a safer one.
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Thursday, December 01, 2005
Madison's Appointment
I sent out this E-mail but thought I would post it here just for anyone who missed the e-mail.
Hello everyone! Well, Madison had her appointment for genetic testing today. It went a lot better than expected, she didn't even get tested! He examined her and felt she had no signs of having anything but albinism. Her muscle tone looked good to him and he felt all of her measurments went well together. He said we could still test if we want but he really didn't feel it was necessary, so we decided not to put her through it. He did say that she does have Oculocutaneous albinism, which means it affects her hair, eyes, and skin. It is also known as "complete" albinism. We thought all along that her problems were just due to the albinism and now we feel we know for sure. She will grow up to have a "normal" life and wont be developmentally behind because of the albinism. In the first year or so she will do things behind as she gets used to using her eyes and finding out which way to tilt her head so she can see the best. She will have vary fair skin and white hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows. She is beautiful and always will be!
In some other good news Maddy is working on sitting up!!!! This is one area where she is a little behind. She started doing it for a few seconds at a time last night and today she did even better. This afternoon she sat up for a good minute! We are still having problems getting her to eat solid food, she acts like she doesn't know what to do and by this age she should. When she goes for her barium swallow(now on the 14th) we will speak with a therapist about that. We are also trying to get in touch with Early Childhood Intervention so they can help her stay on track.
I haven't been feeling well the past couple of weeks so there aren't many November pictures of the girls on my site. Hopefully December will be better.
Anyways I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week! Take care everyone
Casey, Chris, Emma, and Madison
Hello everyone! Well, Madison had her appointment for genetic testing today. It went a lot better than expected, she didn't even get tested! He examined her and felt she had no signs of having anything but albinism. Her muscle tone looked good to him and he felt all of her measurments went well together. He said we could still test if we want but he really didn't feel it was necessary, so we decided not to put her through it. He did say that she does have Oculocutaneous albinism, which means it affects her hair, eyes, and skin. It is also known as "complete" albinism. We thought all along that her problems were just due to the albinism and now we feel we know for sure. She will grow up to have a "normal" life and wont be developmentally behind because of the albinism. In the first year or so she will do things behind as she gets used to using her eyes and finding out which way to tilt her head so she can see the best. She will have vary fair skin and white hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows. She is beautiful and always will be!
In some other good news Maddy is working on sitting up!!!! This is one area where she is a little behind. She started doing it for a few seconds at a time last night and today she did even better. This afternoon she sat up for a good minute! We are still having problems getting her to eat solid food, she acts like she doesn't know what to do and by this age she should. When she goes for her barium swallow(now on the 14th) we will speak with a therapist about that. We are also trying to get in touch with Early Childhood Intervention so they can help her stay on track.
I haven't been feeling well the past couple of weeks so there aren't many November pictures of the girls on my site. Hopefully December will be better.
Anyways I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week! Take care everyone
Casey, Chris, Emma, and Madison
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Glad to hear that all is well, and that Maddy can get the early help that she needs with her development.
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