The sunrise was absolutely gorgeous this morning so I snapped a few pictures. Since I try to avoid being up before the sun (or if I am, I'm confined to my bathroom getting ready), it was fun to see...although that red sky doesn't bode well for the rest of the day...
I guess it's true. Since Lillian entered this world, people have told me she looks like Erik. And this confirms it...
I've debated whether or not to post anything about our past week, especially since I'd rather forget the whole thing myself, but I've had a couple hints that the update would be appreciated. And I know there are some people out there who will get a good chuckle at my expense. But I warn you: those with weak stomachs or vivid imaginations should probably stop reading here. I'm serious. It wasn't pleasant. In fact, those of you who have yet to procreate, feel free to use this post as proof of your sanity when dealing with nosy in-laws or ward members. Plus, it's a long one. Ok...here goes:
Thursday night, Lillian kept waking up, which is pretty unusual for her. On the third time, I sent Erik in...for some reason, pulling the Daddy card will usually end the cycle when it does occasionally happen. He'd been out of bed a couple minutes when I hear, "Leonora, come help me. She threw up!" With Erik's weak stomach, I hurried out of bedding hoping to avoid cleaning up two messes. But when I got there and actually turned on the light in her room, nothing. I went to the bathroom, where they were sitting in the dark for some reason, and turned on the light. Nothing on her. It turned out her shirt was a little wet, but there was no smell and no sight of anything that might be something other than excessive drool. So I searched her bed a little more and found...one green bean. One. Uno. All alone. So we changed her shirt and put her back to bed.
She woke up again about half an hour later so I curled up with her on the Siesta Sak hoping it would help her sleep since she obviously wasn't feeling well. Nothing much happened after that. She acted like she was trying to throw up a couple times, but nothing came up, and she finally fell deep asleep and actually slept later than normal, even after I got up.
Once she woke up, she didn't really want anything to eat but was perfectly normal other than that. Except for the the horrendous diaper I had to change. She told me she was poopy and headed to her bedroom to get changed. Not thinking it was a critical thing, I decided to wrap up what I was doing before heading after her. Before I could finish, she came to tell me again and then ran back to her room. Once she turned around, I realized her legs were soaking. The best description I can give is this: Toast up a piece of bread. As soon as it comes out of the toaster, smear a fair amount of peanut butter on it and let it sit a little. That melted pool of peanut butter that normally looks so appetizing isn't so much when it's in a diaper. But we got it cleaned up and headed on with our day.
That night, we ordered pizza. Lillian still wasn't too interested in eating, but she wanted some milk. So while we watched a little tv and ate some delicious Pizza Hut, she sat on my lap and drank milk. (Can you see where this is going? I wish I had.) Then she burped. Then it ALL came out. All over her. All over the futon. All over me. Not so much all over Erik since I've never seen him move that fast, but I guess I can't blame him. I actually had to ask him to get me a towel so I didn't track it all over the house. I'll admit. I'm a pretty prissy girl (if you haven't noticed that, you're not very observant). I don't really care for getting messy. Just ask my mom. She thinks it's hilarious how I carry a dirty wash cloth. And here I was, covered in curdled milk. After Lillian was clean enough that Erik would actually touch her, he gave her a bath while I stripped (the futon and myself) and started some wash. Then she went to bed. Luckily, she completely missed the pizza.
I ended up spending another night sleeping with her next to a puke bucket she had to use twice, but about 2 am, she finally went to sleep and I went back to bed.
Don't you wish that was the end of the story? Me, too.
On Saturday, Erik and I headed down to the snowmobile show in Salt Lake. We left Lillian with Erik's parents in case she decided to be sick again, but even before we left, I could tell my stomach wasn't feeling all that great. Lillian was just fine all day, but I ended up throwing up on the way back from Salt Lake, in the car, on the freeway, into a Wal-mart bag...with a hole. Yep...a hole. We had to stop in Layton to get me a new pair of pants since I didn't think I needed a change of clothes for myself. When we left Roy, Trent sent us off with some gallon Ziploc bags, which I ended up using just before we started up Sardine. They work much better... Luckily, that was the end of my sickness. I felt achy for a couple more days, but that I can deal with.
On Sunday, we stayed home from church since no one was feeling great. Lillian went through every pair of pajamas she owned, and we did a ton of wash. We tried giving her pedialyte and pediasure since she wasn't eating anything, but she chugged them and they'd just come right back up.
She slept all day Monday, but there were no stomach pyrotechnics and we thought we were through the ordeal. She even ate a little and kept down the pedialyte. I decided to work from home on Tuesday just to give her one more day to recover. But 10 minutes after she woke up, she threw up again. This time, she was sitting in my bed. On my white comforter. There are several things in that scenario that make me ask myself what I was thinking.
But since that last episode, she's been fine. The rest of Tuesday, she ran around like her normal self. She still wasn't interested in eating, but otherwise seemed fine. We took shifts with her on Wednesday since I had some stuff for work I needed to be in the office to do. Erik took the morning and I had the rest of the day. She scarfed some spaghetti-o's and crackers and chips and was just fine.
After these last few days, I think I'm fully initiated as a mother. I've had more puke on me than anyone should ever have. But I should be able to handle anything now...right?
I love dessert. Pretty much any kind will do. Unfortunately, I also love food, so I'm usually too stuffed by the end of a meal to get dessert (unless it's something I can't resist like creme brulee). So when Erik came home last night and announced we were heading to the Sweet Traditions event at the court house, I was thrilled. Erik's not a big dessert person (except for that creme brulee, again), so it was so sweet of him to decide to go. (Yes...pun definitely intended. :-D)
And it was fabulous! For a dollar each, we were able to try 5 desserts (in real-sized portions - not those puny taste-test portions) from some restaurants around town. It was a little disappointing that 3 of them were a variation on cheesecake, but I'm a fan of cheesecake and didn't complain too loudly. And Hamilton's pumpkin cheesecake was AMAZING! Not to mention their Key Lime Tart, which was by far my favorite. There was also some African banana cake thing that was interesting, different, and yummy.
So even though this wasn't really Erik's thing, it's nice to have a husband who induges my vices periodically and let me bask in the glory that is too much sugar. Plus, Lillian had a great time smearing blueberry topping all over her face and then giving kisses while she danced to the music. They really should do events like this more often. And hopefully next year, more restaurants will get involved...and they'll come up with more options than cheesecake.
Update: Apparently the cheesecake from the Bluebird won the competition. The funny thing is, that was the last stop we made and after a couple bites, I decided it was just ordinary cheesecake and didn't bother to finish it. I guess the judges were purists...definitely not the way my vote would have gone.
Friday night we attended a dance concert called Thriller. While some of it tended to drag on longer than was really necessary, most of it was pretty good. There were tap-dancing skeletons, teddy-bear-loving Jasons, River (of Blood) Dance with Jason Flatley (everyone ended up dead by a machine gun-toting clown), and the Sugarplum's finale, and I do mean finale. (Which would be a great short skit, Len, for your next Nutcracker spoof.)
But I think my favorite was the Frankenstein ballet to Romeo and Juliet. I don't know how she stayed that limp with him dragging and manhandling her around like that. There was also Lorena Bobbit and her "Cuts Like a Knife" medley, which was pretty entertaining. Although, I wonder how most parents explained why it was so funny to their children who've probably never heard of her. I know the little girl in front of us was constantly asking what was so funny. Afterward, we headed out with the girls from work for some ice cream, which was delicious, and some great conversation. We'll have to do it again, ladies.
Nancy stayed with Lillian while we were out, so we had a sleepover with her, Uncle Lars, and cousin Addison so we could head to Boo at the Zoo this morning at Willow Park Zoo. I'd never been there, but it's a cute little zoo. They even have monkeys and a wallabee. They had some game stations set up for the kids, and Addison seemed to really have a great time. Lillian was kind of cranky since she got up at the butt crack of dawn, but once she had her stuffed bear prize, she had a pretty good time, too.
The best part at the zoo, really, was hearing Erik scream like a girl as an anaconda (read: little garter snake) slithered across our path. I'm surprised he stayed in the zoo at all after that...
All in all, a pretty fun weekend.
For those who may not know: when we sold our trailer, we ended up playing "bank" for the people who bought it. For the last two years, they have been making monthly payments to us. Once we realized they were no longer living in Logan, we decided we didn't want the liability anymore and offered them a bit of a discount if they paid if off two years early. And today, they brought us a check! Yea!
While I'll miss the additional monthly income their payments were bringing in, it will all even out since we can now pay off the snowmobile, which means we also won't have to pay snowmobile insurance this year.
And here's the other fun part: There will be enough left over to pay off Lillian's ICU bill. It would have been paid off by the end of the year anyway since I've upped our payment in hopes of getting it gone as soon as possible, but paying off something earlier than expected is always nice - especially when you've been paying for you're kid who's almost two. I guess they can't repossess her now. :)
The frustrating part in all this good news, however, is IHC's crappy accounting department. Ok...so they probably aren't that crappy, and I know several wonderful people who work or have worked for them. (After Tina's experience with offending people, I don't want anyone to think I don't like IHC or its employees.) But here's the deal (it's kind of a long, boring story to anyone other than us, so feel free to skim):
I guess they changed how they're handling bills that are set up on a long-term payment plan like ours was. Unfortunately, they didn't bother to tell anyone (or at least I never heard anything) that this change would be taking place. Using my wonderful online bill pay, I set up the payment to go automatically on the first of every month. About that time this month, I realized I hadn't received the statement yet but didn't think too much about it since it sometimes comes a little later. When the statement finally made it to our house, I noticed the payment was no longer going to the same department and my account number had changed.
I checked our bill-pay information and saw that the check had cleared our bank the day before I got the statement and two days after they printed it, so I figured they would get everything transferred over soon. Since I could check the balance online now (that wasn't an option before), I decided to keep an eye on it for the next week or two and call if the payment never appeared. I hate when people call in a panic without giving it some time to resolve itself like the lady who called work all freaked out because she got an invoice for a conference in the mail and she'd faxed a PO the day before she received the invoice. How were we supposed to recall a letter sent in the mail just because we received your fax? But I digress...
Anyway, a week later, the payment still hasn't shown up. Now that we have this check in hand to pay the balance off, Erik called to get the payoff amount and get it taken care of. They didn't show a payment was made and transferred him to the people who used to handle our account. They told him they didn't know where the payment was and were surprised to hear that the check cleared our bank last week. "But the person transferring payments is really behind..." Surely they knew this issue would come up when they changed who was handling the payments. Maybe they should have put something in place so payments weren't "lost" in a pile on someone's desk. And how far behind is behind? How long until the payment actually shows up on my account?
Long story short: we have to get a copy of the check from our bank and fax it to them to prove we made the payment; then we can get the payoff amount. But I'm still thrilled to get rid of two bills for good and wash our hands of the trailer that was our home for four years. I almost shed a tear...almost.
A few years ago, Erik and I had a membership to the local gym. I went faithfully everyday during my lunch hour for probably a year or more; it might have been two - I can't really remember. Then, for some reason that completely escapes me now, my attendance dwindled. Erik's did, too, so we finally decided - after about six months of paying for something we weren't using - to cancel the membership.
After a year of trying to loose "that last 10 pounds" from having a baby (If you're still trying to loose it 2 years after the fact, can you still call it baby weight? Yes? Ok...thanks. That makes me feel better about it.) and not having much success with motivating myself to work out at home, we reinstated our membership last night. To my fellow gym-goers: anyone interested in doing Boot Camp?
What gets me about any sort of "membership" is the initial fees they hit you with. Luckily, working for the University has its perks since we don't have to pay the annual membership fee; we only have to pay a discounted version of the monthly dues. But even with the prorated membership for the rest of October, we ended up paying a full month's membership anyway just from the fees they tacked on.
Sign up fee? Are you serious? They should be paying me for signing up. After all, thanks to my signing up, they will be getting a monthly payment.
Card fee? Can you honestly tell me those cheap plastic cards with a bar code cost $10?
And even though we don't pay it, what's the deal with a separate annual fee and monthly dues? Why not just be blunt and tell me what it's actually costing me a month. I wonder if they think it's easier to swallow if you see it as two separate numbers: Look, your monthly dues is only... and you only have a small annual membership fee of...
But I fully intend to get the most for my money. At least until my attendance, once again, starts to dwindle...
On Monday, Lillian was being very clingy. If I left her alone for even a second, she came running, wanting to be held or pushing my keyboard tray in and out (an ongoing battle since she realized it moves). As long as I was sitting in the room with her, whether actually interacting or not, she was fine. Since I had some things that needed to be done, I had to find some solution that didn't involve me sitting on the floor watching her move crayons from an empty wipe container to a hollow block and back again or diapering a stuffed frog over and over and over...
She's never been into TV. Some kids her age and even younger will sit and watch TV for hours, but until recently, she hasn't even noticed it's there. And I've been fine with that. I figure it means she can entertain herself fairly well, and people (myself included, I'm sure) watch way too much TV anyway. But in an act of desperation for 20 uninterrupted minutes to get some work done, I grabbed Lady and the Tramp, hoping that the puppies would occupy her for a little while.
Now, I've never been an advocate for having a TV babysit your kid, but I think there are times when it may be called for. And it worked better than I ever expected! She didn't watch the entire 1 hour and 16 minutes or anything, but it did entertain her for about 15 minutes. All I had to endure was 15 minutes of her screaming "Puppies!!!" at least once a minute, but that was tolerable. (The funniest part was really when they're trying to get Lady to sleep in the basket and she keeps getting out. When Lady started to whine, Lillian said, "Puppy sad." I had no idea she even knew what sad was...)
What was a lifesaver on Monday is now driving me crazy. As soon as we walk into the room with the TV, even if it's not on, she says, "Puppies" and points to the DVD player, and I can't distract her...she's a very determined young lady. She still only watches about 10-15 minutes at a time, but over the last week, I've probably seen or listened to parts of Lady and the Tramp about 4 full movies' worth. And I don't know if I can take anymore. I guess I created a puppy-loving monster.
After Tina's very convincing post about registering to vote (not to mention the GINORMOUS bus Erik threw me under this morning), I figured I better come clean. I, Leonora Schaelling, am not currently registered to vote. GASP!
In all fairness, I did request to be registered when I had my license updated, but apparently, it didn't happen. And I've filled out the form...but don't ask me what I did with it. It certainly wasn't put in the mail. So as you can see, my road to hell is very well paved. I'll leave the handbasket for Erik.
Now, Erik is following things very closely and has been since this marathon election season began. He even voted in the Primaries. I, on the other hand, feel that - as most moderates/independents in Utah must - my vote isn't worth all that much. We all know where Utah's vote will go. I know, I know...if everyone who felt that way voted, maybe the outcome would be different...then again, maybe not. (As a side note, while we both voted in the last election, I would like to point out that I voted in the 2000 election and Erik didn't - so at least I have that to throw in his face.)
I hereby pledge that I will register to vote. I will start paying closer attention to the issues and listen to debaters who always seem to side-step the actual question in order to push part of their platform. I will cling to the promises I like best and hope against hope that some of them come to fruition. I will ignore the fact that I have very little faith in politicians in general and put my faith in the system as a whole (because it really is better than some alternatives out there). But most importantly, I will proudly wear my "I Voted" sticker on November 4. Now please stop nagging!
No, the frogs aren't dead. And shame on any of you who assumed that's what my update would be. ;-) No...this post is about Erik.
For someone so reluctant to get two tiny little frogs, Erik is suddenly very gung ho on the whole fish ownership thing. We've had fish before - in fact, we had quite a large tank with some beautiful cichlids - but we always end up forgetting to change the filter cartridge, deciding we don't have the time or the desire to clean the tank as often as needed, etc. and choose to go back to being fishless. But after seeing how much Lillian loves to watch these silly frogs, he went out last night and bought a 5-gallon tank for them and will be adding some low-maintenance gold fish in the next couple days.
Now, I was perfectly happy with my little frogs that require a water change every two weeks, no filter/thermometer/light needed...basically, think about them once in a while and they're fine. But now we have a cute little tank with rocks that will need to be "vacuumed," filters that will need to be changed, and water that is quite a bit harder to replace (think 5 gallons vs. the maybe 1/2 gallon the frogs are in now). And who do you suppose will be doing all this work? Ummm, yeah...not Erik.
I guess I can't complain too much, though, since I entered into this willingly and even picked out the rock/plant combination to put in the tank so the poor things have somewhere to play if they get a hankering. But we're definitely going with the cheap gold fish so I don't feel as bad when my $15 fish has to be flushed.
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