a sleepover?

So Brecken LOVES his new babysitter. In fact, this afternoon, I had to chase him down to get him to put his coat on! He didn't want to come home. His friend Chandler, Deb's 2 1/2 year old son, told me, "Brecken can stay." I said, "Oh? Are you going to have a sleepover?" Chandler said, "Yeah!" and I look over and Brecken was nodding his head with a big smile on his face. :) I told him we probably needed to sleep at our own house but that he could come back tomorrow and play. Boy, was he mad at me for making him come home! I guess that's a good sign, that the new place is working out! I know he's getting a lot of attention there- Deb asked me to put new books in his diaper bag because she read each one (there were three in there) four times today. :)

Here's another one of B's new things: He now sits on the dogs like he's riding a horse while they are laying down. He thinks it's fun to bounce up and down on them like he's on his Bounce and Spin Zebra that Santa brought him. Birdie isn't so hot on it- she gets up and bucks him off. Good ol' Hogan though, just lays there and tolerates it. I swear, if dogs can roll their eyes, Hogan certainly is!!

playing

Brecken and I spent the day playing hard and reading lots of books. He's such a goof lately- laughing and flirting and trying to trick me- it's pretty funny. He has two new things that he does a lot- he will now say, "uh-oh!!" when something drops (whether on accident or on purpose!) and his really funny one- he turns his hands over and almost shrugs his shoulders in an "I don't know, Mom!" pose when you ask him a question he doesn't know the answer to. It's quite funny.

lonely

Well, Josh isn't coming home tonight. His teams were in Yoder playing ball this afternoon. The two buses decided to wait in Cheyenne for the Speech bus who was also in Cheyenne and then all decide what to do. Josh's principal was on his way home from Cheyenne and called and said the summit between Laramie and Cheyenne was pretty nasty, and then some parents of one of the boys called and said they slid off the road on the summit. I've been checking Road and Travel and after Laramie, highway 230 (through Wood's Landing and up through Encampment) is no unnecessary travel, but highway 30 through Rock River, Medicine Bow, and Hanna is normal- slick in spots and windy. One of the bus drivers freaked out and won't drive tonight, so they all have to stay. Josh is ticked- they keep getting calls from parents saying once you get to Laramie, the roads are OK if you pick the right road. Josh said they could've been home by now if they would've just kept going and not waited for the speech team. And his poor head coach really wants to be home- she's VERY pregnant (being induced on the 14th unless she goes sooner) and was barely even allowed to go on this trip, and now she's stuck overnight with kids, making her more tired. Josh said everyone is blaming me for being stuck in Cheyenne because I made Josh bring an overnight bag. I jinxed them. :)

So, I'm on my own tonight. :(

Don't know how the boys' games went but both girl teams lost. By a lot, from what I could gather. Josh didn't tell me the scores, but he was kind of laughing when he told me they lost, so I'm gathering they lost by a ton. I'll have to go look on the web.

new daycare

Brecken is starting with a new babysitter tomorrow. He'll now be full time at Dr. Jake and Deb's house. If you want to know the story, email me and I'll let you know. I don't want to post it on here because it's a public blog and I don't want say anything negative. But Josh and I are excited about the new plan!

15 months old

Brecken had his 15 month appointment before we left for Christmas. He's a growing boy! He's now 19 pounds even and getting closer to that percentile chart. His head grew as well and is in the 75th percentile and he is now 31 inches tall, in the 50th percentile!

We got some stuff taken out of his room and rearranged his room so that he can now have his bigger toys in it. He sure likes playing back there. And it's nice to not have everything he owns in the living room. :)

quick catch up

It's been a while since I've been around a computer to update everyone! We had a great Christmas. We went to Worland after Josh's game on Saturday and stayed for a few days. My grandma's friend down the street was gone out of town, so my family got full use of her house. It was WONDERFUL. We could let the boys leave their toys out and not worry about being in the way. :) Brecken did a great job on the trip and loved his presents.

Then we went to Lingle for Christmas with Josh's family for a few days. We had a great time there, too. We came hme with a TON of presents that almost wouldn't fit in the pick-up. I was holding some things in my lap. :) We came through Cheyenne with Beth and Jeff following us yesterday, all on our way home, but ended up getting stuck there because all roads in and out were closed due to weather. So we hung out at the mall and did some shopping, and then all stayed the night with Brady and Stacey. Sure glad they lived there so we had somewhere to stay! Josh's aunt and uncle live there too but not sure we'd make it out to their house in the country.

We finally made it home around lunchtime today. It's nice to be home finally!!!!

counting down

I'm counting down the minutes until school's out for Christmas break. And the minutes are going by VERY SLOWLY. The kids are horrible this week. Coal-worthy horrible. In fact, my jr. high choir was SO NAUGHTY on Tuesday that today during class, they will be reading their silent reading books. And that's it. I even bribed them at the beginning of choir on Tuesday, that if they worked well that day, I'd let them bring in Guitar Hero, which they've been BEGGING to play. Not even that bribe worked. They'll be very, very angry today. That's OK- they can think I'm the wicked witch of the west all they want- some day, they might realize that it's THEIR attitude that hurts them, not my "mood", as they put it.

Josh's school goes through today and they're out on break. We go until 1:30 tomorrow. :( It won't be too bad- I'll have my kindergarten class, then all the elementary kids break into groups to do centers, and the Spanish teacher and myself are in charge of teaching them a Christmas song in Spanish. Ought to be interesting since I don't know a lick of Spanish past "margarita, rapido!" :) Then during silent reading time and 5th hour, the whole school will be watching a movie in the gym. Then finally, we get to go home. I can't wait- it took a lot for me to get up and come to school this morning, so I'm definitely in need of a break.

Our babysitter's son was sick on Monday and Tuesday, so on Monday B went to Deb's house and Tuesday Josh had to stay home with him. Yesterday B was back at Loree's house and he even got a Christmas present from her! We opened it last night so that we didn't have to haul it to Worland with us. B is way into bows this year, so he got real excited when he started opening the present, but after he got the bow off, he walked off with it very happily and didn't care about the rest of the present. :) Inside was a Leapfrog letter school bus. He LOVES it. We vroom-vroomed it and danced to the songs all night last night. That's two things my boy loves- cars (he even makes the "vroom vroom" sound while driving them!) and dancing to music!!

Tomorrow while I'm at work, Josh will bring B in for his 15-month well baby check. I was thinking the other night about the fact we were supposed to have him in for shots at 15 months and then all of a sudden it dawned on me that we HAD an appointment scheduled, for last week! I totally spaced it. So he goes in tomorrow instead. Then we'll pack up and Saturday morning after dropping the dogs off at the kennel, we'll head up to Ethete for Josh's game, then head to Worland for a few days of snowmobiling, family, and CHRISTMAS! Then down to Lingle for a couple days and then finally home for a couple days of resting. If I don't get back here to blog before we leave, I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas!

ho, ho, ho!

Brecken was in the bathtub this afternoon, when I heard sirens coming up the street. We live on the edge of a very quiet town, so sirens coming up the street are unusual. I got B out of the bathtub and wrapped him in a towel so we could run to the door and see what was going on. Lo and behold, there was Santa getting off the fire truck and coming up to our door! He had a sack of candy for B and tried talking to him and saying "Ho, ho, ho!" My suspicions were then confirmed: Brecken hates Santa. Oh, he cried and tried to get away from this Santa who was giving him candy. Santa was a good sport and laughed, then drove away out of sight, on the big red sleigh also known as a fire truck.

lion hunting

My friend at work said today that her husband was coming to my house today to hunt for lions. I guess the game warden called a group to come to town and try to find the mountain lion. I haven't seen tracks in our yard since last week but with the sightings around town, he's still here somewhere. No word on if they found it today though- I'm going to assume they didn't because I think the game warden would've called Josh to tell him.

It was 17 below zero when I left for work today. I knew it was terribly cold when I drove down the street and could see steam from the river above the trees all the way across town. What a beautiful sight that was!! Too bad I didn't have my camera with me.

scare of the night!!

So last Thursday night, the game warden was over at our house until 10:30, tracking the mountain lion tracks that went across our front porch and in our yard. Talk about freaky- a mountain lion walking around your porch!! I guess there were a couple sightings around this past weekend. We've been told to be very careful walking outside since it seems to be hanging around this neighborhood. So tonight I hear a big noise on our porch so I tiptoed to the door to look out the window and this HUGE dog was looking right back at me. I just about had a heart attack. My heart is still recovering and the incident happened 30 minutes ago!

Please excuse the poor look to my post below, I really do put spaces in between my paragraphs but Blogger is not putting them in when I post, no matter how many times I edit it.

grandma's party

Well, Brecken and I made it to Chicago and back. We left about 9:00 on Friday morning and made it to Denver in plenty of time. The roads from here to Cheyenne weren't very good at all, but Cheyenne south to Denver was great! I'm glad we were early though, the interstate from Cheyenne to Ft. Collins closed that afternoon due to the weather that came in.

Getting through security was horrible. I got Brecken out of his stroller to get everything ready to get folded up and he took off into security and I had to run and get him. Folding things up and getting things into the bins with a toddler in your arms is horrible. THANK GOODNESS the next time I had to go through security, my mom and dad were there to help me! Brecken did great on the plane rides.

Saturday morning we drove downtown and went to Marshall Fields (now it's Macy's though) and looked at the windows that they do for Christmastime, then went inside to see the huge Christmas tree. We tried to see Santa but the line was absolutely ridiculous. Then we went to a few other stores, then back to the hotel for a rest before we needed to get to the party.

The party was fun- I got to see cousins and aunts and uncles that I haven't seen in 10 years. I also got to meet my cousin Beth's fiance, and my cousin Christine's pretty serious boyfriend. There were balloons for decorations so Brecken had a great time as long as he had those balloons.

Yesterday was a long day- we got to Laramie OK but then two out of the three routes home to Saratoga were closed. We didn't get home until 8:00 last night. I was exhausted.

Super quick weekend but it was a good one and I'm sure glad we had the opportunity to go.

busy, busy, busy

This week has been super busy for us already and it's only going to get worse! Tonight, I have my jr. high/high school Christmas concert. I also have to pack suitcases and get everything together for Brecken and myself to fly to Chicago tomorrow afternoon. I'm still not sure how I'm going to get from the car to the check-in counter and then through security with the suitcase, stroller, car seat, diaper bag, winter coats, and my camera, and then add Brecken along with that! Thank goodness after I get security, my mom and dad will be there to help me out. Then I'll have to figure out how to get all of it back to the car by myself after we fly back on Sunday afternoon!

Then Monday night I have my elementary school Christmas program. I can't wait until these concerts are over- a big load of stress will be lifted!!!

candy canes

I was thinking yesterday, "I need some candy canes so I can see if Brecken likes them as much as I do." Besides, I thought that would make a really cute picture. :) And voila! there were candy canes in my mailbox this afternoon in a birthday card from Barb! Thanks, Barb! You must have read my mind. She also asked about what I did for my birthday: Not much. Josh had practice until 8:00 so it wasn't much of a celebration. We were able to go out to the Hotel Wolf the night before though, for a fantastic steak dinner. So at least we were able to do that. The night of my birthday though, was just me and my best boy, Brecken, hanging out together!

I've been trying and trying to figure out the settings on my camera so I can take better inside pictures without using my flash. Today I found some of my settings were locked, and as soon as I unlocked them, things were much easier and lots less frustrating for me! Here's one I got tonight. Hopefully soon he'll be in a good mood so I can get some smiles, and in the daylight so I have some lighting help!!:

ear infection

I picked up B at lunch today because I had the afternoon off, and Loree said he'd been poking his fingers in his ears all morning. So I called the clinic to get him checked out before the weekend came. They managed to squeeze him in this afternoon. Sure enough, B has an ear infection. He did NOT like Jake putting the light in his ears, especially his left one, which is the one with the infection. Jake said it was medium-bad but was going to get worse and not better so B is now on antibiotics for 10 days. After the appointment, Brecken got to pick out one of the Ty beanie bears that was in the lobby to take home with us, but B wanted nothing to do with them- he only wanted to play with the bead rollercoaster thing!! Oh, he threw a fit when I made him put his coat onto leave!! He cried and cried and I had to pick out his bear for him. While we were waiting to get in to be seen, B had loved those bears and picked them all up, but hugged one of them, so that's the one I picked for him. :)

We didn't take his clothes off to get weighed today, but he weighed 19 pounds, 7 ounces! He only weighed 18 pounds 3 ounces 2 weeks ago. I don't know how much a onesie, jeans, slippers and a diaper weigh (and I changed his diaper before we went to the doctor) but he seems to have gained some good weight for 2 weeks! WAY more than the 3 ounces in a month that he gained last!

this is why i love my commute!

Driving home, I saw TWO huge bald eagles right next to the road sitting on a fence. I was 5 miles out of Saratoga and didn't have my camera. So I drove home, got B so Josh could go to basketball, grabbed my camera and headed out to see if they were still there. They WERE! Only, I got out of my car and they flew away. I could only find one and he was a long way away, so I zoomed as close as I could and had to crop the pic when I got home.

Josh had to go get Brecken at lunch today, Loree called him at work and said B wasn't feeling good and needed to go home. He slept from 1:00-3:00, which is crazy long for B! He's been pretty normal since then though. I'm not seeing much sickness, other than a few coughs.

home sick.

Not me, but Brecken. He woke up crying hysterically last night and it took forever for him to calm down. Then this morning, his nose wouldn't quit running and he couldn't quit coughing. He also woudn't quit crying and wouldn't let me put him down. He can't go to daycare like that, so I stayed home with him today. Josh has already stayed home once AND brought him to school with him, so it was my turn. So, I changed back into my sweats (I was already dressed for work) and got comfy with Brecken. He's feeling a bit better after a nap and some juice, and we managed to get my Christmas Village put up. It was quite comical- at one point, Ditka had shoved himself into one of the styrofoam boxes and Brecken was wearing another one of them on his head like a hat. Silly boys.

too funny.

My dad apparently has a lot of time on his hands, because he made this really funny video starring Brecken, Ryan, himself, and my grandma. It's hilarious to watch, check it out: http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9559253829

Brecken is now walking. Saturday, he was only walking a few steps at a time and on Sunday he was walking a lot of steps at a time! He's getting really good at it!!!

I've been gone for a few days, I went to Wheatland with a couple of my students for an honor choir. We left Sunday and got home last night. This morning, B and I are finishing up packing and when Josh gets home from basketball practice we're headed up to Lingle. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

babysitting, sharing, and mountain lions

We have the babysitting thing all figured out. Whew! Josh talked to Jake at 5 am this morning (they go lift weights at the school together) and Jake said they could probably do Mondays and Tuesdays for us, even though Tuesdays are his days off. I felt really bad thinking he'd be babysitting on his day off!! He babysat for us today because Loree's husband had his surgery to repair his back, but Deb was home when I got there and she said she'd rather have Wednesdays and Thursdays so that Jake wouldn't have to use his day off. But then she said that if things get too crazy at Loree's, just bring Brecken to their house for the whole week. Hopefully it won't come to that, but it's nice to know we won't be scrambling if Loree changes her mind again!!!

Brecken has been very into sharing lately. He likes to force feed you. Yesterday he grabbed a handful of Cheerios and tried to shove them all in my mouth. He cried when I wouldn't eat them. Silly. He tried to force his sippy cup into Birdie's mouth the other day. Birdie was too startled to actually take it- otherwise she would've jumped at the chance to have B's milk!! :)

I guess our next door neighbor had a mountain lion on his front step theother morning. He went outside to leave for work and scared it and it went running. THAT'S a little scary! I worried about the dogs being outside while we're at work but Josh said the mountain lion wouldn't come
in the daytime- I don't know how he would know that... We now make sure both cats are in at night now though!!

fired

I was messing around at school the other day and created this photo. I thought it was kind of neat.

Well, we got "half-fired" from daycare today. Loree is pregnant, due in June, and is very afraid of having a miscarriage, since she had one earlier this spring. She's cutting down her daycare kids. She's keeping the 3-year old full time, but we only get to go half time, and poor baby Sophie doesn't get to go at all. What a frustrating feeling. Brecken is already going to Deb's house tomorrow, so we're going to ask her if she'd be a regular babyistter again and do two days a week, plus Fridays when Josh has away games. If she doesn't want to be that permanent, I don't know WHAT we'll do. And poor Sophie's mom- she doesn't know anybody to ask! I feel bad for Loree, I really do- I wouldn't wish a miscarriage on ANYONE, especially with our troubles to get pregnant, so I know how precious a new life is. But at the same time, I wish, for once, we could have a "normal" daycare situation!!! :) Annie, wanna move here and open one? You'd be rich!!!

sick boy

We found out why Brecken wouldn't eat and was whiny yesterday.... Josh finally got home at 1:11 this morning and just as he got into bed Brecken started crying. Josh went in there, thinking his coming home woke Brecken up, but instead discovered that Brecken had thrown up. :( Brecken cried and cried and cried. We had to change his jammies and pull the blanket from his pack and play mattress. No fever according to our ear thermometer but I think he had a bit of the stomach bug. So Josh took him out to the couch and he watched the end of the movie he missed, and a while later Brecken came crawling into my bedroom so he laid with me and fell asleep again. He wasn't interested in breakfast this morning, or lunch today, but is finally now snacking on cheerios and some milk. No more puking, luckily!

teeth, whining, blood, and an accident

Brecken sure has been whiny today and won't eat anything. I think his 6th tooth is about to come through and it's bugging him. Hopefully he sleeps well tonight.

I let the dogs inside right before dinner, they had been out most of the afternoon. Then I noticed blood all over the floor. Hogan has several puncture wounds on his head and one ear- I wonder if the dogs were wrestling and Birdie got a bit rough. We had to wash the whole kitchen floor. I let them back outside so we could finish eating, and after Brecken went to bed I let them back in and he still had blood droplets. So I held gauze over all of them until they stopped and he's laying on a towel now so I can make sure if he does bleed a little again, it's not on the carpet. Poor dog- wonder what happened?!

Josh and I were watching a movie and his pager went off, for an accident on some road I haven't heard of before. There were 4 patients though, and Rawlins had been called first so I think it's out that direction. Rawlins needed help because they cannot transfer 4 patients. The dispatcher said after Saratoga got to this road, call somewhere (she said some initials that I don't know what they stand for) for more directions. Sounds bad!! He might be gone a long time.

first steps!

Brecken has on quite the outfit right now: A white onesie and his black tennis shoes. He got into his diaper bag and pulled out the shoes and tried to put them on himself, so Josh put them on. We had been working on walking this afternoon, but after he put his shoes on, Brecken walked his first steps! They must be magic shoes!! He walked four very slow and deliberate steps from Josh to me! Yay! He had no idea why we were so excited, but he got excited with us after I said that deserved some Smarties. :)

YAY, Brecken!!!

moving on

We'll be moving on to a new sport in this house. Basketball season starts next week for Josh and football practice ended last week, though none of us knew it at the time. Josh's team had the semi-final game in Big Horn yesterday and it didn't end in our favor. :( It was a heartbreaking loss. The final score was 13-8, and if we had been able to do anything with our last position it might have ended with us on top, but it didn't work out that way. LOTS of tears after the game, I'm not sure I saw a dry eye anywhere on our side! Or on our side of the field- the boys were pretty teary, too. But WOW, the crowd we had! We had just as many on our side cheering for our boys as Big Horn did, I bet! And the field was really neat- you could pull your car up and around the field and that was so handy because my van was right next to the bleachers we were sitting in, so B could take a nap inside the car and out of the wind! It was a really cool field.

So, Josh now gets a week "off" after school before basketball starts. I bet he won't come home too early though- he won't know what to do with all that time, so I bet he stays at school and finds something football-related to do for a while each day. :)

We had a fun weekend though. I went up with Peggy Hayes and their two girls, and stopped in Casper for a couple hours at the mall, then we stayed in Buffalo at the same hotel as the team. Tons of our fans did too- it was neat to see the breakfast room full of purple clothes yesterday morning!!

"first" halloween

I say "first" because Brecken slept through the whole thing last year!

Brecken had a really fun Halloween yesterday. I picked him up from daycare (where he had a great day- he even ate all his lunch for the first time ever! Pizza and peas.) and took him home to get his costume on. Then I took him downtown to the Trick-or-Treat down there. He wouldn't say anything to anyone but gave good smiles and waves. And he loved it when they let him pick out his own candy!! He got REALLY excited at the art gallery because they were giving out helium balloons! He chattered and chattered about that with the biggest grin. He loves balloons. He got his picture taken at the newspaper office, so we'll see if it makes it in to the paper next week. When we got home he got into his candy bucket and held up a package of m&ms, way up high so I could see them and said, "Mom? Mom? Mom? Mom?" He's never had candy before. He LOVED the m&ms! He had a blue nose to prove it.

Then we went to Encampment's Halloween carnival that happens every year. I bought him some tickets so he could play some games. We did the fishing pond a couple times and the first time got a treat bag with a small notepad in it, a bat tattoo, a little monster that when you squeeze it his eyes bulge (B thinks its funny!) and a couple other silly things. Then the next time he fished, he got a blow up black kitty! His eyes got real big and he grabbed that kitty and KISSED it! It was so funny. He also threw the football and did the beanbag toss too. :) He got to pick out his own candy for playing the games, and he would pick through the selection until he found something he thought he liked and then would put it in his bucket. Smart boy. :)Josh met us at the carnival after football practice was over, and took B home early so I could stay and make sure everything was cleaned up. The Senior class that I sponsor did easy booths this year because they didn't want to stay and clean. :) They did a basketball throw, a football throw, a booth where the kids guessed how many Tootsie Rolls were in the jar (397) and the closest one won the candy, and a bowling lane. Each booth took one or two tickets and tickets were 25 cents each. I have to count my class' tickets today and see how much money we made.

Brecken sure likes candy, for never having it before! Josh said he knew Brecken would, because that's what Brecken inherited from his mother. :) B was WIRED last night, and he didn't even have that much candy! He wouldn't go to bed. After Josh brought him home he gave B some dinner and gave him a bath and he said he was all over the bathtub being crazy. Crazy after I got home, too! We had one trick-or-treater all night while we were home (one of Josh's students) and a high school kid selling Christmas wreaths. On my way into our neighborhood, there is a house with lots of Halloween lights and decorations, and the main door was open so you could see into the house, and there was a HUGE buck deer standing right at the steps, staring into the house like he was asking for candy too. It was funny.

I'll post pictures when I get around to loading them on the computer.

lil' pumpkin

We had to take a roadtrip to Laramie today; Brecken outgrew his shoes and it's way too cold to be just hanging out in socks when he goes outside. We couldn't even shove his shoes on. So we needed to go to Laramie to buy some more for him today. While there, we stopped to see my sister and Ryan and take a few pictures of him in his halloween costume.

I of course had to take a few of Brecken, too!

semi-finals, baby!

Oh my gosh, what an exciting game we just witnessed! Saratoga WON, 26-20, against Tongue River! Tongue River was "picked" to win by the Casper Star-Tribune. Josh loves when they pick against Saratoga because Saratoga usually wins that week. It was a heart stopper, that's for sure- the last 2 minutes were especially intense. And the last 8 seconds- oh my gosh! Tongue River had the ball and threw a long pass and ALMOST got a touchdown to tie it up, then who knows what would've happened with the point after. What a heartbreaker it would've been to lose 27-26. LUCKILY, that didn't happen and we won!!! WAHOO!

The next game is in Big Horn. It will be Saturday, Nov. 3, at 1:00 p.m.

a world away from the world series

Josh and I, along with a gazillion other people, tried really hard to get World Series tickets. We were both online yesterday morning trying our darndest before we found out the whole server crashed! We tried again today with no avail. My dad was also trying- we figured if we all ended up getting lucky somehow, it would be OK to have 12 tickets because we surely would know people that would want to buy our extras! However, we don't have to worry about it, because like the other gazillion people, we couldn't get through the countdown page.

So sorry, we won't be asking any of you to join us at a World Series game. :) But how cool that our team made it- who knows how many more times in our lifetime the World Series will be just hours from us! GO ROCKIES!

home field advantage

Well the past 24 hours have been full of anticipation. We've been awaiting scores from around the state from football games last night and then the brackets to come out this morning. Saratoga tied for the conference championship, but it was a 3-way tie. We won against Pine Bluffs on Thursday so we were hoping for a Sundance loss to guarantee a home game in the first round of playoffs next week. Didn't happen that way- despite the 50 mph winds in Burns Friday afternoon, Sundance won. Hence the 3-way tie. We were all thinking we'd have to go to Riverside (Basin) next week, but then this morning we learned that we might be wrong about how the tie-breaker works. We thought the criteria might apply to all three teams, but then heard that they might just use the tie-breaker to figure out who would be seeded #1 in the conference, and then the tie-breaker would start over for the other two teams: Sundance and Saratoga. That would give us a home game. This is what we read on Sports Goulash:

Lusk, Sundance and Saratoga are all tied for first, and we know that Lusk wins that tiebreaker on the third criteria — strength of schedule. From there, we’re not exactly sure if the criteria starts over between Sundance and Saratoga or not. If so, Saratoga wins the tie with Sundance because of the head-to-head win. If not, Sundance wins the tie by having a higher strength of schedule than Saratoga.Our first projection had Sundance as the (3) and Saratoga as the (5). We’ve since changed that to reflect Saratoga as (3) and Sundance as (5). Sorry about the confusion.

So we waited all day for the news, and finally the brackets were posted. We get a home game! WHOO-HOO!!!!!!!! Josh spent the next hour on the phone. :) We are hosting Tongue River Friday afternoon. Wear your purple that day!!

Here are the 2A brackets for anyone interested... http://www.whsaa.org/stateevents/football/2a/bracket.asp

tired

Man, am I tired this morning. I drove to Pine Bluffs last night to watch Josh's football game with Peggy, the head coach's wife, and her 8 year old daughter and the 8 year old son of another coach. Brecken got pretty bored on the way over but slept the whole way home. I sure am glad Peggy was with me- she kept me awake on the way home! We didn't get back until 1:15 this morning. Yuck! 4 1/2 hours of sleep before coming to work isn't doing much for me today. Lucky Josh, with his 4-day schedule, got to sleep in with Brecken this morning. I had to wake them up to say goodbye when I left for work- I sure was jealous!

Josh's team won, 21-8! It was FREEZING cold though. The wind was howling hard. Luckily, there is a street that passed the football field that people can park on and watch from their cars. So that's what we did!

Now we need Sundance to lose to Burns this afternoon and we'll have a home play-off game next week.

adventures in babysitting

Brecken got to spend the day with his Aunt Annie and cousins Trevor and Karlee today. Loree's son was still sick so she wasn't taking kids today. Luckily Annie was here and she wanted to have Brecken over to her cousin Maria's house, where they are staying, for a play date. So today was the day. He had a great day playing with Karlee and Trevor and Maria's daughter Madison who is 2 months older than Brecken, and also Maria's preschool aged son, Geoffrey. Annie said he only cried when she turned on the vacuum cleaner. :)

Brecken gets to hang out with Aunt Annie tomorrow, too. Loree called Josh this evening and said Carter is still sick. I'm not excited about that- it's looking like we paid Loree $100 to watch Brecken for one whole day this week. A lady Josh works with sends her son to Loree also, and she told Josh today that she had a chat with Loree and said she's not paying her for any more days off. Loree's contract says she gets 4 paid days off, and she used her 4th one today, just since we've started there! So next week I think our check will be lower- docking tomorrow's pay and Friday's pay if she can't babysit on Friday too. Thank the Lord that Annie is here and is saving us!! The poor other teachers- they are paying double this week because they have to pay someone else to watch their kids! The science teacher Josh works with is new to town and today she didn't even know the lady that watched her baby- it's one of Loree's friends. How nerve wracking to have someone you don't even know, watch your baby!!

Anyway, when you read this, Annie, we REALLY appreciate you keeping Brecken for us!! How lucky we are that you are here in our week of need!

Brecken got his first haircut last night. Josh made me do it. Annie trimmed the back of his hair so he looks like a little boy now! I scooped up all that pretty curls and put it in a baggie so I can save it in his baby book. I was putting off getting it cut because once I did, he wouldn't be my baby anymore! He sure hated the clippers. Cried like they were slicing his head open the whole time. I think the vibrations on his head freaked him out. Poor kid. Afterwards, I was holding him and Annie picked up the clippers to put them away and he started crying again at the sight of them!

yay!

I took B to get weighed today after I got him this afternoon. I was hoping really hard that he gained more than 2 oz... and he did! He kept trying to wiggle off the scale and laughing really hard about it, but it finally centered on 18 pounds. Yay! A 14 ounce increase in a month. I was really happy. So was the nurse.

Josh got to stay home with Brecken today. Our babysitter called late last night and said that her son had a fever, but she'd call us in the morning. We didn't have a backup babysitter today- Deb works in Rawlins on Tuesdays and Jake had to go in to the Clinic today too. Loree never called, so I finally called her at 6:50 this morning. She said she was OK to take kids. Then she called 5 minutes later and said that Carter still felt warm so she was going to see what he felt like when he woke up. We didn't have that long to wait- Josh needed to get a sub ASAP. So he told Loree to forget about us today and he called in to work. I'll have to ask him when he gets home from football what the other two teachers that take their kids to Loree did today.

walk to d'feet

We participated in the Walk to D'Feet ALS walk in Fort Collins yesterday. My great-aunt Dorothy has ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and her granddaughter puts together a team last year and this year to raise money and walk for this great cause. It was POURING rain yesterday, so it wasn't as much fun as it could've been. My sister went last year and it was perfect weather. Brecken didn't seem to mind the weather yesterday, he had on his winter coat and hat and mittens and was nice and cozy.

This picture is my uncle Earl, my aunt Dorothy in the middle, and her daughter Becky. It was on the CSU campus. I don't normally like CSU, but it was really pretty yesterday. Their leaves are just beginning to change colors. The loop we were walking in had green leaves, red leaves, yellow leaves, and peachy-pink leaves. How pretty!

another win!

Saratoga knocked off Burns this afternoon! Hip, hip, hooray!! We were the underdogs but we didn't even struggle, led the whole game. The score was 27-6. What a great homecoming for the kids, and an even better for those Seniors since it was their last regular-season home game. I think the win today made it official that we'll go to the play-offs. If it will be at home or away will depend on next week's score against Pine Bluffs.

men.

I think the most hilarious thing that has ever happened in one of my classes happened today. I was doing an activity with my 4th graders and our principal's son goes, "Mrs. Sandlian. You aren't supposed to make us guys' armpits wet!" Somehow, the discussion between the boys then turned to how boys don't sweat, men do. And at that moment, a normally very quiet, serious boy goes, "You guys, she's making men out of us."

I almost died from having to keep the laughter in!!

what a boy.

I picked B up from daycare today and Loree had quite the story to tell me! Apparently during his nap, Brecken managed to squirm out of his pants (not surprising since his pants are too big) AND his diaper! That has never happened before. She thinks she didn't put it on tight enough. Anyway, instead of waking up and leaving the diaper in the crib, he tossed it over the edge. That sounds like him- he tosses things he doesn't want anymore. I laughed though- what a boy thing to do! I told her I hoped it was an accident that he got out of his diaper instead of him figuring out how to do it on his own- that's a can of worms I'm not ready to open yet! :) He didn't mess with it at all tonight though, so I think it was an accident.

Josh wasn't on call tonight and Brecken was in a good mood so we tried to go out to dinner after Josh got home from practice. We tried our Mexican place and it was closed! So we went to the Saratoga Inn, and THAT was closed too! Wonder what the deal was. We ended up having to come back home and cooking a late dinner.

Josh has had a lot of heart calls lately. He had 3 on Saturday alone. The first one, the guy didn't want to go to the hospital, so they had him sign the forms to refuse transfer. As they were finishing, they got another call for a heart attack in Encampment. The people met the ambulance on the highway and the family was doing CPR in the car on the guy. They got him into the ambulance and continued CPR. The doctor in charge of emergency medicine was in Saratoga giving a class, so they called him to meet them in Saratoga. Josh pushed heart drugs for the first time ever, but it didn't matter. They lost the patient. :( I personally think the guy was gone long before the ambulance got there, but Josh sure feels bad about it. That was the first patient that he has lost. I felt bad that he was so sad. :( Then, late that evening, they had ANOTHER heart attack call. Good grief. This guy didn't want to go to the hospital either- they talked to his heart doctor in Casper and made a plan and didn't take him to Rawlins. Josh came home saying, "If that pager goes off again, PLEASE make it be for a broken arm!" :)

Busy week this week- it's Homecoming for Josh's team. Lots of practices and film watching and so on and so forth. This is the last home game of the regular season- here's hoping for a play-off game!

itsy bitsy spider

So here he is, the goofy itsy bitsy spider. I sure wish he would leave hats on, it completes the costume! (Not that you can see much of it as he is falling down the slide!)

win!

Josh called a little after 4:00- they won BIG against Pinedale! 39-0!! I knew they were going to because a guy at the game called the school this afternoon and that's what the score was when he called in the 4th quarter. :) Their quarterback had a record game for him with 6 touchdown passes. Now if Burns will beat Lusk and we beat Burns, we can be #1 in our conference!

So yesterday was so nice outside that I got home and put B in his Halloween costume to see if I could get pictures of him out in the leaves. He was not interested. He only wanted to play on his slide. It was HYSTERICAL. He'd crawl up, quite the feat in his fat round spider costume! Then he'd stand up and either go down the slide on his belly head first or belly feet first, and he'd go zooming down the slide. He was laughing so hard at times that he would fall down the slide. But in his rolly poly costume, it didn't matter because he'd be padded and he'd bounce a little bit, which would make him laugh even harder! I was out of breath from laughing so hard at him. What a goof.

a sleeping partner

Brecken has been an awesome sleeper for the past week or so. Hasn't woken up in the night. I put him to bed about 8:30 last night and shut his door all the way so the cats couldn't get in there. Josh and I went to bed about 10:00 and had just fallen asleep and Brecken cried. He fell back asleep but then about 5 minutes later cried again, harder. I went into the hallway and noticed his door had opened somehow- I must not have latched it all the way. Charlie was in his room on the glider, and I looked in the pack and play (where he sleeps now- he hates his crib for some reason) and curled up right next to Brecken was Ditka! It was so cute. Brecken didn't think so though- he wasn't awake, but he was crying and holding his arm up like he was saying, "HEY! There's something here that's not supposed to be and it's yucky!!" So I got Ditka out of there, put both cats in the hallway, and Brecken fell right back asleep (even though he really wasn't awake to begin with.) Poor Ditka- he loves Brecken and Brecken usually loves Ditka right back, but I guess he doesn't love his kitty when he's trying to sleep!!!

new picture spot

I was driving home from picking Brecken up yesterday after school, and as I drove down the hill, I noticed this beautiful old barn/garage that looks like it's about to fall down. The colors are really pretty though- the front is really weathered, more brown, but has a bit of green in it. The sides are more green. It was behind the house of a teacher I work with, so I asked her today if I could use it for pictures. It was probably the strangest question she's ever been asked at school, but she was really excited about it. I had to take Brecken down there this afternoon and take some pictures. When I picked him up from Loree's, he was in the greatest mood, laughing and playing peek-a-boo, but by the time we got down the hill, he didn't want much to do with the camera. I only got one semi-good one.

The sun was a little bright, causing bad shadows, and the other side of the garage was ALL shadow, so I'll have to find another time of day to use this garage. I'd love to get the green side of it!

aspen alley

This morning we got up and drove to Aspen Alley, on the highway past Encampment. We were a weekend too late, I think. There was several inches of snow up there and the aspen trees in Aspen Alley were dead and didn't have any leaves left. :( It was pretty with the snow and fog, but would've been breathtaking with the yellow leaves! Next year we will have to go a weekend or two earlier.

Some more pictures from our drive:

Here is the fog moving in. I'm glad I got pictures of this when I did, because on our way back you couldn't even see the lakes anymore!

football weekend

This weekend was busy with football. Friday afternoon Brecken and I packed up and went to Lingle, where Josh's team was playing. Saratoga won, 34-22. I really enjoyed sitting in their visitor stands- it was right there on the grass, in front of the track, so Brecken could get down and crawl and I didn't have to watch him like a hawk to make sure he didn't eat rocks! After the game Lennie served the boys dinner in the school gym. We didn't get back to Lennie's house until late- Brecken was soooo tired. It was 11:00 before we got there. Then we got up early on Saturday morning so we could go to Laramie for Josh's JV game there. It was cold and windy so I didn't stay for the whole game. My sister and Ryan were there too, so we left early and took the boys to lunch. We got home yesterday afternoon, and despite sleeping the whole trip yesterday, Brecken was TIRED. He fought hard to stay awake but finally gave in at 6:45 last night. He has never gone to bed that early! And he slept straight until 5:45 this morning. 11 hours is unheard of for him. He came to cuddle with Josh and I after he woke up this morning and then slept some more, until 8:30. He was one tired boy!

going home

So at this time on Sept. 26, 2006, I was at Kristen's apartment waiting for Josh to come get Brecken and I. I got to the hospital that morning, bright and early, just in case I happened to miss the pediatrician when he came for rounds before he went to his clinic. I didn't even bother to bring Brecken to his hospital room, I just hung out in the nursery with him, waiting, waiting, waiting. FINALLY Dr. Klep came and checked B out, and gave us the go-ahead to get out of there! I thought my face was going to burst with the big smile that was on there. I got Brecken dressed in his going-home outfit and took his "First Photo" picture that all newborn babies get when they go home. He was 2 weeks old by then, but we didn't get to get it taken when we were in Laramie originally because he was flown out of there.



Then the nurse got all our papers for me and helped me to David's car- he was on a business trip that week so I was lucky enough to have use of his car. (Even though technically I wasn't supposed to be driving for 4 more weeks due to my c-section- but what's a lady to do when she's by herself?!) It felt weird to be leaving the hospital with B in his car seat and me WALKING him out- most new mothers get to ride in the wheelchair. :)



It was cold that day, I remember that. We had to go to Wal-mart to get some things I needed for Brecken at home that we didn't have time to get before he was born, and then he and I hung out at Kristen's for the rest of the day. Josh had to work AND go to practice, because his boss wasn't being very understanding about the whole thing, so he didn't get to Laramie until late that evening. I was never so glad to see him though- I was beyond excited to be going home with our little guy! We stopped a couple times on the trip to make sure B was OK- he was, just sleeping and at one point was holding on to the blanket on his lap- we thought that was the cutest thing. :) The house was pretty quiet when we got home because the dogs were still at Craig and Lennie's house. I remember putting Brecken in his crib when we got home and he was SO TINY in that big huge crib.

Boy, how things have changed.

one year ago

One year ago, I was getting ready to feed Brecken my last feeding of the night before I gave him back to the nurses to keep in the nursery in Laramie for the night. I would head back to Kristen's apartment for the night, but I don't remember sleeping that much, because I knew the next morning we would be released from the hospital FINALLY! What an exciting night that was- knowing it was time to pack up our hospital room for the final time, get his going home clothes ready, and get ready for Josh to come get us and TAKE US HOME!!

drive

Josh went out on two ambulance calls today and had a coach's meeting this evening to watch film. I got bored at home so I loaded Brecken up and we went for a drive up the mountain a little way while the sun set. The colors are getting beautiful up there!

rainy day

Cold and raining today. I wanted to drive up to Aspen Alley and have a picnic and see all the pretty trees, but that will have to wait until next Sunday I guess.

Brecken stood all on his own last night! Actually, he did it on Friday night too, but only for 3 seconds so I didn't count it. :) Last night, he was standing at his ball popper with a ball in one hand and batting at the one coming out of the tube with the other hand and he probably did that for a minute! He wasn't supported on anything- just his own two feet!!

Josh's team lost to Lusk on Friday. 24-6 or something like that. Haven't heard how the JV did yesterday, Josh called Heath but didn't hear back.

Liliana Michelle

My friends Greg and Michelle welcomed their first baby into the world on Wednesday! Welcome to the world, Liliana Michelle! She was 7 lbs, 13 oz, and 20 inches long. And she's absolutely gorgeous!

a laugh

I always have to laugh when people use the following excuse for being late: I was in the library today and a lady walked in looking for the teacher she was meeting with. She said, "I'm sorry I'm late, I wanted to be here an hour ago but I got stuck in traffic."

Now, WHERE IN THE WORLD would she get stuck in traffic around here?! Encampment is all of 300 people and none of the streets even have stop signs. Saratoga has no stop lights in the whole town. You have to travel an hour and a half to find a town with more than 5000 people in it. Where is the traffic these people talk about?!

They must not realize that we're not dumb and we know that ridiculous story is a complete lie.

We have to go to Heath and Peggy's house at 7:30 tonight. We better leave now in case the traffic is heavy.


\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

(excuse all the lines. Brecken likes touching the buttons on the computer.)

skinny minny

Brecken had his one year check-up today. I'm a bit sad to report that he only gained 2 oz. in a month. That's right, TWO ounces. I thought the scale was lying to me. He's "up" to 17 pounds, 2 oz. That's still way below the charts. Dr. Jake said if we're comfortable with waiting for blood tests, he'd like to give Brecken until 15 months to see some good improvement. I'll keep monitoring him every month to see where his weight is, and I think if we don't see any improvement at all again next month, I'll ask for the blood tests. My thinking is it's better to get him tested and nothing be wrong than to wait and maybe miss a problem that needs attention. I'm not exactly sure what they would test for, but Diabetes is one of them. I'm sure he's just a skinny minny like I was, but I'd rather know for sure. I looked in my baby book tonight and at one year, I was 16 lbs, 12 oz. and 28.5 inches long.

Anyway, he is still 29.5 inches, like last month. As far as we know, anyway- I don't think length measurements are very accurate on babies since they move and squiggle- they draw a line on the paper where the head is and then strech out his legs and draw another line, then measure between those two lines. So we think he is 29.5 inches. :) Still has a big noggin, same as always. :)

He had to get four shots. It was horrible. Actually, I think it was more horrible for me than it was for Brecken. Josh has always held him for the shots, but he had football practice tonight so I had to do it. I was told that the Chicken Pox and the MMR shots were going to be pretty bad. Brecken cried, but only for a minute and then he was fine. The nurse said he was one of the toughest kids she's ever had to give shots too, since he didn't really cry! I got him out to the car and he was smiling already. I buckled him in and he immediately tore off all four band-aids like he thoguht they were for sissys and he's been playing and smiling ever since we got home. What a trooper. Much better than his mommy. :)

pictures

The picture above is one of the many beautiful ones Stacey captured this past weekend. We got to see them all last night and I am in love with them! You can see the rest at: http://www.flickr.com/gp/8125773@N08/790C8n

I'm so excited about them- they are absolutely GORGEOUS, Stacey! You captured my little boy perfectly!!

flying

I booked tickets for Brecken and I to fly to Chicago in December. My grandma is turning 90 and we're throwing a big party for her since she's not in the best of health anymore. I wish Josh could go, but that's his 2nd week of basketball and has a game the day of the party, so it will just be myself and Brecken. My mom and dad are flying out too, so I got tickets on their same flights. My mom and dad are flying from Gillette though, so I'll meet them in Denver. I now have to figure out how to get Brecken, the stroller, our suitcase, and the car seat from the car to the airport, and then how to get Brecken, the stroller, and the car seat through the airport all by myself!

...and your world comes to a screeching halt.

Phone calls at 6:30 in the morning are usually never good news. Josh's phone rang at that time this morning and it was our babysitter, calling in sick. Those are the worst calls. Your world just about comes to a screeching halt- now what are you going to do? We feel really bad today, because good ol' Dr. Jake, who has today off and was planning on working on his new fence, is now babysitting Brecken instead. His wife Deb usually does it for us but she works at the hospital in Rawlins on Tuesdays and Jake stays home. I hate when the babysitter is sick!! Not only do we have to scramble to find someone to take over for the day, but then Brecken has a really bad day because he's not used to going to a different house. Oy.

We had a fun weekend. We got up and went to Cheyenne on Saturday morning so Stacey could do B's one year shots. I think we got some great ones- we went to Frontier Park and found a little path that goes through a tree area, and there was a little stone shack down there too. So we took lots of pictures there, and then in a different outfit took a bunch in her pretty backyard. Brecken liked smiling for the camera. :) She now has 3 of them up on her blog, so make sure you check it out! http://staceyjphotog.blogspot.com

Then Sunday morning we got up early and went back to Laramie to drop B off with Kris and David. We met Heath and Peggy there and we went to the Bronco game in Denver. What a crazy time that was!! We had stopped at the store on our way into Denver and got sandwiches and chips to eat in the little park across from where we parked so we didn't have to spend a fortune on food at the stadium. Our seats were up in the upper level but only 6 rows up. Pretty good seats. There was a Raider fan right in front of me that wouldn't shut up and I thought a couple times there was going to be a fight. Yikes. But there wasn't. There was a lightning delay though. It happened right as Peggy and I went down to get something to drink and then everyone else came down beneath the stands too- I thought we were never going to find Josh and Heath. But we did. And then there was overtime, so we got home pretty late. After the game it took forever to get out of the stadium, then forever to get out of Denver. After picking up B, we got home at about 11:30. We were both pretty tired last night.

hooray!

Josh's football team won last night against the #2 team in the state, Sundance! YAY! Sundance is who we lost to two years ago in the State Semi-finals. So it was a good win last night. We won 28-7. Saratoga had a couple really good interceptions, including one that was run back for a touchdown. Our guy was wide open and the ball was thrown right to him. He could've walked back to the endzone and still scored. :)

Here's a funny story: The other night we were at Heath and Peggy's house for the traditional coach's get together before the game- and Brecken crawled into their kitchen, found the dog's water bowl, and leaned his head down to drink it like a dog. What a silly boy.

We're off to Cheyenne here in a little bit, and we'll be gone all weekend. Go Broncos!

airplane ride

Exactly one year ago at this time, Josh and Brecken were getting ready to go in the Flight for Life jet! I asked Josh after they landed and he called, if they had in-flight snacks for him. He said they had a cooler and the nurse said to help himself. :) They send a pediatric nurse and a respiratory therapist as the flight crew- I thought that was pretty neat that they sent specialists for specific problems to be the flight crew.

Then: all ready to get into the airplane

Now:

i'm so jealous.

I thought the Children's Hospital was amazing while we were in it last year. Amazing. The only complaint I had was that the little cubicles we were in were tiny, and you could barely fit the bed, two chairs, and the nurse in there. You had to do a lot of stepping over cords. Here is an article about the new Children's Hospital, with a slideshow of pictures. NOT THAT I WANT ANOTHER CHILD IN THERE, but I'm so jealous- what a beautiful place! And the NICU looks incredible- couches for the parents (much needed!), TONS of room in there, and lots of windows. I wanted windows so bad- I had no idea what it looked like outside because we had no windows!

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/health_care/article/0,2808,DRMN_25396_5692042,00.html

happy birthday!

Brecken turned one today! This morning before we went to work, he got to "open" his present from his Gram and Gramps. I say "open" because it was too big to wrap, so we just put it together last night so he could see it this morning. They got him a Mickey Mouse fire engine that plays music and makes lots of sounds. It's like his tractor from his Grandma and Grandpa, you can ride on it and push it too. He likes to get up behind it and walk with it. He also loves pushing all the buttons and dancing along with the music.

Tonight we had dinner at the park with all the coaches and their families. He got a big board book from the preschool teacher in our group. And the gift that probably had the most thought put into it was from Deb's daughter Morgan. She's 3. She picked out a toy from her own toy box to bring to Brecken- a car that plays noisy sounds. Brecken loves it. She also had her dad write on a piece of paper, "Happy Birthday Brecken, Love" and then she signed her own name and drew him a picture. What a sweet present!

Then we came home and opened the rest of his presents. From Josh and I he got an Elmo laptop to play on. It has 10 or so keys on it and Elmo talks. It's pretty cute. We had him another present but somone else gave it to him so we have to exchange ours for something else. Loree, his babysitter, also gave him 2 presents. A book, and a Little People brand toy carwash. How fun. That was really nice of her.

Let's see- one year ago at this exact moment, 9:00, I had been moved to my own room at the other end of the maternity ward. It was a small room, because they knew my baby wouldn't be staying in the room with me like all the other moms. I told Josh that next time we have a baby, I don't want to be moved down the hall because that doesn't mean anything good! Brecken was under the oxygen hood, and I was begging a nurse to help me down to the nursery so I could see him. We had had a couple visitors, and Josh had to take them to the nursery to look through the window at him since he couldn't come to our room. That's another thing I want differently next time- I want a big room, with my baby with me in it, and the visitors can come IN my room and hold him and not have to look through the window at him!

Well, both cats are outside and it's supposed to get below freezing tonight, so I better go find them and go to bed. Both of my boys are already.

one year ago

One year ago today, I was sitting in a hospital bed, in labor, worried about what was about to happen. I hadn't eaten since about 11:00 that morning, and they wouldn't let me eat, in case I was to go in for a c-section soon. (turns out, I was.) They had tried to stop my contractions with a pill, and it didn't work. They tried to stop my contractions with a shot that HURT LIKE THE DICKENS- it stung so bad. The nurse said it would, but I never expected that much pain. And it was all for nothing because I kept contracting. The doctor on call (who I didn't like, by the way) did some ultrasounds and pushed on my belly to get Brecken to swim head down, and he did, for the first time ever, but then later that night I felt him swim back to head-up position. The nurses kept having to come in and reposition my monitor, because Brecken was moving around so much he kept knocking it off. I KNEW he swam back to the head-up position, but the dumb doc-on-call wouldn't believe me. I counted down the hours until he went off-call and my wonderful doctor, Dr. Keeler, came on shift. Nobody would let me eat, and it is VERY mean to make a pregnant woman with hypoglycemia not eat, especially when everyone else in the room was eating in front of me!

I know I keep saying this, but I really can't believe that was a year ago. I still get super emotional thinking about that rollercoaster ride we went on starting a year ago today, and I don't suppose that will ever go away. I woulnd't change anything that happened, I would keep it exactly the same, because I feel like Josh and I both are better people for going through what we did. You can never understand what it's like to be the parent of a preemie until you've been there. Sitting in the NICU day in and day out is a very draining thing but it brought Josh and I closer together, and I feel like we have a bond with Brecken that nobody else can experience unless they've had to do it too. And I still wonder, to this day, what has happened to little Joseph, who was in the Infant Care Center (ICC) next to us- he had a cleft palate and a short lower jaw, and his dad was terrified to do anything about it because he didn't want that poor baby to have scars. He did have surgery, and I hope he can breathe better because of it. He couldn't breathe and he would panic. And little Sam, who was also a 36-weeker but born with Down Syndrome- he sure was a cutie. And Karson, across the hall from us in the ICC, who was a 28-weeker that had been there a month already when we got there. And Gia, who's cubicle exploded with pink stuff. And that poor mommy and daddy next to us in the NICU who had to take that sweet baby off life support after being alive on it for 3 days. What a horrible decision to have to make.

See, now I'm all in tears. Denver Children's has a new hospital opening up- I'd love to see inside it some day (but on my own, of course- not because I have a child in there!). They are also opening up their own Ronald McDonald house so the other one can be used by the other 2 hospitals surrounding it. Both places hold special places in my heart!

Brecken's crying- I better go put him to bed.
Love,
Kara

"but little boys' knees are SUPPOSED to be black!"

That's what Josh told me yesterday when I said B needed a bath because he had black knees. B has been on a bath strike in the past couple weeks- screams and screams when we put him in, like it's burning him! It isn't- the water is the same temp as always, but he hates it anyway. Last night he wasn't sure about going in again, and started to cry, but then Ditka got in the bathtub too and B decided he'd be OK taking a bath.

What a strange cat we have! I've never seen a cat that likes the bathtub.

birthday party

We went to a birthday party this morning for Loree's son Carter. He turned 2 today. Brecken got a favor bag, even, with some crayons, a popper toy, and some sunglasses. He likes his sunglasses, because he always wants ours. :)


We had hot dogs for lunch and then a Mickey Mouse cake. B has decided he hates hot dogs, so he didn't eat too much. He thought it was pretty fun that Mom and Dad stayed at Loree's with him today, though. :) He showed us all the toys.

As we were leaving, Josh's pager went off. So we hurried and got B in the truck and we dropped Josh off at the ambulance barn and B and I took the truck home. As soon as we got home, B took a nap. I took one with him. :)

Then, we've just been playing this afternoon. I've dug dog food out of his mouth twice, so I put the food up on the table. We played outside, and we played with Ditka. Brecken was giggling up a storm, and Josh and I looked over, and Ditka and B were playing with the balloon that we got at the party. B would throw it and Ditka would bat it back. It was pretty cute. Ditka is a good playmate for B.

much better

Josh team played much better yesterday and beat Soroco, CO 39-8. They put their young guys in during the last part of the game and that's when Soroco scored. They held them to 0 points until right there at the end!

We went up to Heath and Peggy's house after the game with pizza. We didn't get home until 11:00. Brecken was asleep on their beanbag in the living room, with Macy (the 2nd grader) sleeping right next to him. It was his first sleep-over. :)

Craig and Lennie were here for the game but then went on to Lyman for the weekend. They'll be back tomorrow night, I think.

Right now, Brecken is sitting on the floor laughing hysterically at Ditka, who is playing with anything he can find. Brecken thinks it's hilarious. We are going to a birthday party later this morning- his daycare lady's son Carter turns 2 today.

a broncos game

Yesterday was school picture day. The Senior class always helps out with that, in order to make a little extra money. I'm Senior class sponsor, so not only was I here helping, but it was in my room. The guy from the photography place got talking with me and it came up that he has season tickets to the Broncos games, and he needed to sell the tickets for the first four games because he isn't able to go. He had four tickets for each game, so I went and asked Heath if he and Peggy wanted to go with Josh and I to the Raiders/Bronco game. So, that's what we'll be doing on Sept. 16th! We're going to Cheyenne on the 15th to have Stacey take Brecken's one-year pictures, then we'll stay the night in Cheyenne and on the 16th we'll bring B to my sister's house so he can play with Ryan for the day while we go to Denver with Heath and Peggy.

It's Friday! Hooray! Josh's team plays Soroco, CO here in Saratoga this afternoon. Go Panthers!

a new kitten

B and I had to go to school tonight. It was open house night from5:30-6:30. Yuck. I don't like those nights. Josh had practice and thena fire meeting, so I had to bring B with me.

Brecken got a new kitty for his birthday. One of my 2nd graders had them at the football game last week and was "selling them for free". They sure are cute little things- there were two of them, both solidorange just like Nugget. Brecken LOVED them. They sat on a little boy'slap and SLEPT during the football game!! A teacher Josh works with took one home. I told Josh that I almost brought one home because B loved it so much, and HE actually said, "Well, why didn't you?" Micaiah's mom subs at our school so the next day I told her I'd take the other one home. She brought it to me after school yesterday. That kitten came right in the house, jumped on the couch, and took a nap! Then he followed Brecken around all night. He went right next to him while B crawled, and rubbed his head on B's, and it even got to the point where B had to push him away!! The dogs are pretty excited, and we have to keep the kitty in the cat cage while the dogs are in, until they get used to him. Right now, the kitty is in the cage in the living room and Hogan is laying down staring at him. Charlie doesn't think too much of him, but hopefully she'll learn to like him so she's not lonely when we have to go out of town!

I think we'll name him Ditka. I wanted Satchmo, but Josh hated that, andI can live with Ditka.

I took some engagement pictures for Beth and Jeff this past weekend. You can see them on the internet at http://www.jeffreyandbeth.shutterfly.com/ It was fun- they're so easy to photograph!

a hard loss

The Panther football team opened their season yesterday in a game against Hanna-Elk Mountain. Luck wasn't with them though, they lost the game 20-13. First time in 20 years that we've lost to Hanna, someone said. That made Josh feel even worse. :( The head coach asked the boys if they wanted to practice tonight or if they wanted the long weekend to think about it, and the boys all wanted to practice. So we won't be getting out of town very quick tonight. Josh's school doesn't have school today, but we do, so they have to wait for the Encampment kids to get out of school and get to Saratoga.

Hopefully this will wake the boys up a little and they get their heads more in the game and we can win from now on!

tooth #4

I keep forgetting to mention that tooth #4 finally popped through on Saturday. Hooray! It was a rough one.

the sandlian snore

So B is laying in bed right now with Josh while I got up to take a shower. I came out of the shower and heard not one Sandlian, but TWO Sandlians snoring in the bed. B has inherited that "wonderful" Sandlian Snore!! All we needed was Hogan and Charlie, who both snore also, and we could've had a snoring symphony!

too funny

You have to read this, especially if you are a mom. It's an auction on Ebay that already ended, but the description of the item is totally hilarious. Perhaps the fact that I'm exhausted made it more funny, but I was laughing so hard I had tears while reading it. Enjoy!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130144061675#description

casper

Brecken and I were out of the house by 6:45 yesterday morning so we could go to Casper to watch Josh's team scrimmage. Lennie and Pee-Wee came up, as well as David and Beverly, and some of Lennie's cousins, because their son plays for Wright, who Saratoga scrimmaged. My mom and dad came up also, and we had a nice day together. Brecken had fun flirting with everyone.

Lunch was a disaster, my mom and dad and B and I went to Old Chicago, which we all love. We waited 15 minutes for a waitress to come take our drink orders, and one never came. Finally the host had to do it. Finally a waitress came, we ordered, and we WAITED and WAITED. It's never been so slow when we've been there! I had asked her to bring B's food out as soon as it was ready, but it didn't come until my mom and dad's food was brought out. B was STARVING. So was I but my calzone didn't come with the rest of the order. The waitress said it was still cooking. She came back later and said they had to start over because they made it wrong. My mom and dad were done eating and I still didn't have anything to eat! I finally ate a piece of my dad's pizza and we told the waitress to box mine up because we were leaving. It was a disaster. The only good thing was that they took my lunch off the ticket.

Then we did some quick shopping and B and I headed home. He slept all the way to Casper, but not the way back! He slept for about an hour but then cried the rest of the way because he wanted out of his car seat. It's so hard to travel by yourself because you can't have one person in the back entertaining the kid if need be!

When we got home we got ready to go out to dinner with Heath and his wife and some friends of theirs from Worland. B was so tired but he did a great job- we didn't get home until 9:15 and he never once had a fit. What a great kid I have!

first cold of the school year

Well, we found out why Brecken was so hard to deal with on Tuesdsay and Wednesday. Wednesday night at home his face about exploded with liquids. I kept sucking out his nose and I was still wiping it every two minutes. Josh came home and asked why Brecken was crying. He wasn't, it was just his really watery eyes! And he about lost his voice. The little cough was so sad. He didn't have a fever, so he was still OK to go to Loree's house yesterday. I guess he had a pretty good day, too! The best of the week. What a relief. Hopefully it will stay this way. By Wednesday night I was sick to my stomach with worry that we were going to lose our babysitter. Hopefully he'll have a good day today, too, and then get over his cold this weekend so he's back to his normal self on Monday. Our backup babysitter always tells us that she wishes Brecken could come live with her because he is so much better acting than her own kids, so I KNOW he does a good job at daycare! Loree just hasn't seen it all yet.

B is on a milk strike at Loree's though. He will not take a bottle at all. Won't even let her put it in his mouth. He does fine at home though, so I'm not sure what the deal is. She finally gave him Pedialyte yesterday to keep him hydrated, and he drank that. Strange.

B had to go to Loree's house today even though Josh doesn't have school. There is an EMT conference somewhere and Josh is the only EMT left in the town that didn't have to work today. So he's on call, and when he's on call he can't be alone with B. So he's up at Loree's.

Tomorrow we are going to Casper to watch Josh's team scrimmage. My mom and dad are coming down so that will be fun. Lennie an Pee-Wee are coming to, because Josh's team is scrimmaging Wright, and some of that side of the family has kids playing for Wright, so they'll be in Casper watching too.

miserable day

Brecken had a miserable day. I don't know what the deal was. Loree even had to call me at work for suggestions. I called Josh and he went over to her house to help calm him down because he wouldn't quit crying. He can't do that tomorrow, since we have kids tomorrow! B had a slightly better afternoon, but I still feel really bad for Loree. I don't want her to change her mind about babysitting!! We all thought maybe he was just upset with the change in routine, but he was miserable tonight at home too. Crying lots and very clingy. He had medicine for his teeth, and Orajel, and food, but he was still miserable. Maybe he'll have a better day tomorrow. (LET'S HOPE!!!)

first day back

Today was Josh's and my first day back at school- we had meetings today. Our new babysitter called at 6:15 am saying she had a bladder infection and had to go to the clinic, and asked if we could find someone else to take B for the morning. Good thing we have a good backup babysitter! He loves it at Deb's. So we took him there in the morning and went over lunch to take him to Loree's. He had a pretty good afternoon at the new house. His teeth were bugging him though so he got a little grumpy toward the end. And man, you should have seen him love me when I picked him up- he was kissing me all over. And even a half hour after we got home, he'd crawl up me and wrap his arms around my neck and pat my back and go "mmmmm", then pull away and kiss my face. Then he'd play, but then come back for more hugs and kisses on his own every few minutes. :) I love that.

teeth

Brecken got tooth #3 on Friday- and tooth #4 should be here any day. They are his top middle teeth and boy, are they making the poor kid miserable! He won't sleep, won't eat, is whiny, and just wants to cuddle. I wish that 4th tooth would just hurry up and pop through!!!

bbq

The football team had a BBQ up at the school tonight to celebrate the end of 2-a-days. Then they had a "Madden Football" tournament on x-boxes. They set up about 6 x-box systems in Josh's room and they had big brackets and everything. I stayed long enough to see Josh beat Heath and then B and I came home. He needed a bath, because he found the one puddle in the whole county and laid down in it. He even put his hair in there. Silly boy. Luckily it was right before we came home, so I was able to stip his shirt off and he was OK. (He already had his pants off because he was hot.)

B sure had fun tonight, he's doing so much better with the separation anxiety thing. He let Macy, Heath's 4th grader, tote him around and all the coaches kids were playing with him and he took them walking around the hallways and showed off his crawling. He really had no interest in me, which is a big change from a couple months ago!!

brecken's birthday

Brecken's birthday is coming soon!! I can't believe how fast the year went. For those of you that are able, we are having a birthday party on Sept. 2 at 6:00 in Lingle. I've had a couple people ask what to get him, so here are some ideas:

Clothes: He is wearing 12 month sized shirts and 9 month sized pants right now. For the most part. Sometimes I buy him a pair of pants that doesn't fit so I have to exchange them for another size- baby pants are weird like that. He is wearing size 3.5 shoes too.

Toys: Toys are always good! We are getting him an Elmo laptop so maybe our laptop won't be so appealing to him, and a Leapfrog Fridge DJ. It's a little boom box that goes on your fridge and plays songs. Anything that goes on the fridge would be great- he loves being in the kitchen with his walker and playing with things on the fridge. I keep some pictures of my cousins up there and he likes to take them down and look at them, and then carry those pictures around with him. He also LOVES anything musical, so that is an idea too.

Other ideas: Bath toys, something to keep all the bath toys in, outside toys (he only has one- a slide.). He LOVES "The Wonder Pets" on Noggin- everytime it comes on he gets a big grin on his face and he dances and watches it- so anything Wonder Pets would be great too.

Some people give diapers- he wears Pampers Cruisers size 3.

Please don't feel you have to get him anything though. I just posted this because a few people have asked what he would like for his birthday!

sharing

Brecken is very into sharing today. He shared his lunch with Josh this afternoon, and a few minutes ago was sharing bites of his graham cracker with Birdie. And just now, I saw him take his bottle, pick it up, and try to put it in Birdie's mouth. I caught him before he could talk Birdie into it.

He's also now walking around the furniture. The cat isn't sure she likes that. Brecken just scoots right on over, stands up, and is right in Charlie's face. He made it almost all the way around the couch "walking" today. Now he needs to figure out how to sit back down!

We're about ready to get some long pants and sweatshirts on and go watch Josh's football practice. It rained this afternoon so it's kind of chilly out now. The thermometer on my computer says 69 degrees.

visitors

We had lots of visitors this weekend. Craig and Lennie came late on Thursday night and then Jeff decided to come over too. Beth was going home to Alliance this weekend to work a golf tournament, so on Friday Jeff rode to Rawlins with her and we all met him and took him home with us. Craig and Josh had been golfing in Rawlins and Lennie, Brecken and I went over to meet them for lunch, so it worked out perfect to get Jeff while we were there. While we were gone, I'm pretty sure we had a mini-tornado of sorts. When we got back to Saratoga we discovered a mess at our house. Brecken's slide was blown over, and the back yard was a disaster. Two of our heavy steel patio chairs were blown completely into the lawn, the sun sail was ripped off the house, and one of the big fat wooden posts that holds one of the ends of the sail in the yard was snapped off! Not taken out of the ground, it completely snapped the wood in half. And the grill was blown over into the yard on the back, too. And the dogs' swimming pool that we keep out there for them to drink out of and stay cool in was gone as well. Nowhere to be found. The strange thing is, the other two patio chairs were still where they were, as was the citronella candle, still sitting on the table where it was. It's the strangest thing. I'm super glad the metal ring attached to the sail that was ripped out of our house didn't go flying into the glass patio table. It would have shattered the glass and we would've been out a table!!

Saturday morning the boys went golfing and B, Lennie and I went downtown to Crazy Days. Not much out this year, so I didn't buy anything but a new swimming pool for the dogs.

Today we just took it easy and our company all left around 1:30, I think it was. Now we are trying to get B to go to bed. He's fighting it hard tonight. We're having to take turns getting him to sleep- while I was in there I laid him down from standing up 10 times. He's figured out this standing up thing and thinks he's pretty hot stuff. Now Josh is in there trying the same thing. I needed a break.

Josh starts football two-a-days tomorrow. The morning practices are in Encampment and the bus leaves at 5:30. Yikes.

lightweight

Josh took Brecken to get weighed today since he'll be 11 months in 2 days. We both thought for sure he had gained good weight because he really does feel heavier to us. However, he only gained 6 ounces in the month! :( He's 17 pounds even. I'll have to measure how long he is tonight when he's sleepy, so he'll stay still long enough for me to do it.