Today: Temple Trip and All Hallows Eve

Today has been such a long day! Myself, Toni and Matt, and their kids left early this morning (about 7:20 am) to go to the Winter Quarters Temple near Omaha, Nebraska, which is about 3 to 3 1/2 hours away. It's a long trip but always worth the drive. Shane did baptisms (proxy baptisms for the dead) and I helped with the youth by handing out towels. Our youth group is such a great group of strong spirits and I love to see them doing this work for others. This is such a selfless act and requires the sacrifice of a day that could have been spent numerous other ways.

It strengthens my own testimony of what I believe is true each time I experience this. Everytime I go to the temple I feel so incredibly sprititually fulfilled and uplifted. I love it! If it didn't take such planning and a full day I'd try to be there much more often. There is a temple planned for the Kansas City area sometime in the near future. I'm looking forward to that one as it will only be about 2 1/2 hours away and in an area I'm more familiar with. Both Omaha and Kansas City offer a lot of options for shopping and family fun so either one is great for a fast family vacation as well.

I just realized a couple days ago that our 3-day family trip to Omaha was over three years ago! That was the first "family vacation" we took that was just the four of us (without going to visit other family for family events such as graduations and weddings). It's past time for us to do it again! I'm hoping that this winter, as long as the baby and I are doing well, we will get to go to Colorado again. We were able to go last year for a week and a half and it was perfect. I'm crossing my fingers! At this point our house has not been rented for the dates we could possibly go (anytime while I'm on maternity leave and Shaun is slow at work).

Tonight, Halloween, Shane has met up with a couple friends to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood while Shaun and Logan headed the opposite direction in our neighborhood. Logan is REALLY wishing that he had a friend his age to trick-or-treat with but with as busy as we've been we didn't plan for him to do so. Shaun is having fun watching Logan bounce house to house (and bring in a treasure chest of candy). Our neighborhood has a large majority of elderly couples so I made sure the boys all started in our neighborhood first. Next they plan to hit one of Shane's friend's neighborhoods were the houses are closer together and that neighborhood is also known for good candy. It was fun to let Shane go with this friends this year rather than sticking with Shaun and Logan. Since he's 12 (13 in 6 days!!!) this is his last year of trick-or-treating. He's known this is our rule but I can tell he's going to miss it. I told him earlier this evening that he's welcome to bring Logan around next year and that if he does so I'm sure Logan will share the candy. They really don't eat much of it anyway and it seems to last all year so it's more about the fun than the sweets. Maybe next year Shane and I can visit a few haunted houses!

Costumes:

Logan- Thursday night (church party and "trunk or treat") Logan was a sith (from Star Wars). Tonight Logan is a cowboy wearing a denim shirt, jeans, his cowboy boots, a bandana on his head, and one of Shaun's old hats.

Shane- Both nights he's been a Jedi (also Star Wars, as if you didn't know!).

Me- Thursday night and all day yesterday I wore jeans and a VERY cute pregnant skeleton shirt which a friend at work recently bought for me at a local craft fair. I think I should get in contact with the lady who made them and see if she wants to start a business. EVERYWHERE we went yesterday people were loving the shirt and commenting on it. It's a black shirt with the skeleton (including baby skeleton) bleached onto it. The bones are a brown color. It's perfect for someone as far along as I am! It could also be a great way to surprise friends if you are pregnant or a great way to freak people out to let them think you are even if you aren't. :) I even had a couple people ask me if I'm pregnant. Hmmm, you think? One of them said that if I wasn't I had the perfect sized and shaped belly for it! Yep! I'm not wearing the shirt right now. I'm still in my dress clothes from the temple trip. I'm too exhausted to change into another outfit which wouldn't be seen by anyone other than the very few kids knocking on doors in our neighborhood.

Shaun- No costume, just being himself, which can be scary enough! Hehe.

I'll try to post pictures of the kids in their costumes and me in my shirt within the next couple days. We still need to take the pictures before the boys head off to their next destination.

I forgot to mention- I'm at home passing out the candy! The perfect job to end the day. I get to sit here playing on my computer and answering the rare knocking/doorbell ringing. As I think I said above, we do not get many visitors!

Food Storage

Shaun, Logan, and I visited Sam's while in Topeka today. We were able to stock up on water, juices, LOTS of canned fruit, new pillows, and many other items. Once home we had to find a place to store all of our new stuff. Luckily we have two pantries, one upstairs near the kitchen and one in the basement storage room. We've needed to organize these again for a while now. Shaun asked me to go downstairs with him as he brought down our newest purchases. I started moving and organizing our large, mobile shelving. After bringing everything downstairs he worked on organizing the built-in shelving. By the time we were done, approximately an hour after returning home, we had shelves that resembled a grocery store's. We also had a large bag full of boxes and trash. I LOVE to be organized. I was seriously tempted to start right in on the kitchen pantry but had to pass on it due to the time and needing to do a few other things before heading to bed. We hope to do it next week during a free evening, or next weekend.

I just have to say--- ANYONE would be happy to have the food storage we have. I'm proud of us. We've come a LONG way with our food storage and have managed to store at least three or four months worth of food, minus water. We talked about the need for adding both drinking water and water for other uses. That might be our next step.

The best thing about our current food storage is that it's all food that we'll eat (that IS the point) and it's all easy to make foods. We could probably use more of some basic ingredients such as flour (maybe) but we have tons of sugar!

Logan's update- The doctor appointment went as expected. After a week on the oral steriod and Advair inhaler, nothing has changed. His lung function is still unchanged and lower than it should be. The doctor decided to check his sinuses so he ordered a CT scan which was immediately scheduled at the hospital across the street. Logan enjoyed the CT scan and can't wait to tell all his friends about it! Later we received a call from the doctor's office. Everything was normal with the CT. Nothing wrong, yet again. So, now they want to try a different medication. We worry about his taking meds for a condition without an explanation of what is wrong but we also want to figure it out. On Monday he'll start the new med, whatever that may be. We need to call the doctor's office back to find out and have it called in locally.




I took these pictures of Logan a couple weeks ago while working on a photo assignment.

Due December 17th, Now 33 Weeks

I'm almost there! People seem to think I'm ready to have this baby. I'm not! I have way too much to do between now and then. I have four classes to complete which includes several projects and a couple papers (one being 40ish pages). We also have not done anything else in the baby's room. I'm hoping Shaun gets the paint at least ready this weekend in not the room painted. Logan is "working" with him today and tomorrow so I hinted to him that maybe he and dad could come up with the blue color together. He loved that idea! He's obsessed with anything baby right now and often talks to the baby and rubs my tummy when he gives me hugs.

Signs that I'm getting further along:

Emails from Baby Center describing exactly how I feel each week and reminding me of how many weeks I have left (eek!).

Stretch marks that are slowly stretching further. This causes itchy skin at times!

Worsening heart burn when I forget to take my Prilosec- which I now take twice daily.

The inability to sleep for more than perhaps 30 minutes at a time.

The "need" to now visit both my chiropractor and massage therapist every other week. This seriously helps!

Very near constant lower abdominal pressure (not to worry I've talked to my doctor and this is very common, especially after a couple previous pregnancies). I'm carrying a bit low and GET TO wear a support belt which sometimes helps.

My feet are normally swollen by the end of the work day (nothing new though).

I'm constantly tired now and have caught myself dozing off at odd times. It's sooo hard not to!

I have a baby shower coming up in about two weeks! Wahoo! (Let me know if you want to be invited.)

Oh, and I have no memory of anything whatsoever...

I'm sure I'll think of other signs but these are probably the most prominent.

Upsetting Information Due to the Flu

Ok, I get it. I fully understand. But I don't like it!

The local hospital has a new policy in effect due to the local flu outbreak. When a woman goes to deliver her baby only one support person is allowed to be in the birthing center. Only one person may be there at any time. I'm not sure if you're allowed to switch people. Most importantly, to me, is that NO CHILDREN are allowed in the birthing center at all. That means that even during labor and after delivery my sons will not be able to be there, to be part of our special day. In fact, they will not be able to meet their baby brother until we go home. So, if I still plan to stay two nights, as I'd originally wanted, Logan wouldn't get to meet AJ (or whatever we name him) until he's two or three days old. I'm not sure, but since Shane will be 13 (over 12) he may be able to come in at some point. I'll have to check. But of course that means only I will be there when he meets his brother and his dad won't be allowed since only one person can be there.

ARGH!!!!! This is extremely frustrating to me. I do get it. I really do. BUT this was not what I had planned. Why can't they just get the flu shot and be allowed in? Logan had the shot but since he's under 12 there is no hope of his being allowed in unless the policy changes by then, which may or may not happen, depending on the flu season and the local epidemic. I'm also going to check on the video recording policy. If they won't allow my sons to be there then I'd hope at least we can record it to show to them later.

My plan had been for the boys to be there once I was in active labor (not taking them out of school until we were ready to do so if needed). I wanted them, at least Shane, to be there for as much of the labor as they felt comfortable with. If Shane wanted to stay in the room, but be in a place where he couldn't see quite everything, I would have been fine with that. Logan probably would have been outside of the room for the actual delivery even though I'm sure he'd rather be there for the actual delivery. Sometimes he's too open and curious for his age. :) I don't want to traumatize my kids! I wanted the boys to be there once their brother was born as soon as possible so that this was a family experience. They are even more excited about all this than I am. Now I don't get this choice.

Seriously! I'm very bummed out about this. I'd say I'm pretty much in mourning. What I was planning and hoping for will not happen. This was a BIG part of my labor, delivery, and postpartum plans. And now, it's gone. Just like that. No longer will I be able to have my children attend the birth (or at least pre and post delivery). No longer will this be a family experience. I'm quite sad.

Of course not everything can be planned. I did not plan to have my baby during flu season, and definately not during a flu pandemic. I am trying to plan what I do have control over and this part slipped through the cracks. I know no matter how well you plan something like this it won't happen exactly as planned. But still. All I can do now is to pray that we all stay healthy and safe and that this flu pandemic is over by then and that the hospital relaxes or eliminates this policy by the time our baby is born. I can hope and pray. It's all I have.

If the policy doesn't change...I'm considering driving to Topeka (if they don't change their policy on visitors) to deliver in either the hospital or birthing center there. I might also consider a home birth which until now has worried me too much because of possible complications. Maybe I'll labor as long as possible at home and then go to the hospital (five minutes away from home) at the last possible minute and then check myself and the baby out as soon as we are allowed to do so. That seems most likely unless something changes.

You may comment on this as long as you comment on my side of things...I do fully understand the other side and do not want a lecture! Thank you.

One last thought. What happens if a pregnant woman with the flu goes into labor? Hmmm. Bet she'd be allowed in! They've already not allowed at least one support person in (the baby's father due to a fever) since this policy was implemented.

Weekly Catch Up

Since my last post...

Monday- Work and Classes. Nothing exciting to report. Whew! Oh, and I got my H1N1 vaccination between work and the evening class, which of course meant waiting for more than an hour in line at the health department and arriving late to class (I'd called the instructor while waiting in the long line).

Tuesday- Work, massage (ahhhhh), and Logan's doctor appointment, then probably fell asleep working on that yucky midterm. Logan's appointment was a follow up on two previous appointments. He has had a cough for some time now that won't go away. It's a very small, non-producing, possibly habit cough. We've found out that his lung function isn't quite where it should be. It's a bit low for his age. We've tried a couple things that haven't worked so this time the pediatrician referred us to an allergy/asthma specialist from Topeka.

Wednesday- Work. Nothing much happened Wednesday except that the doctor's office called with the that they had scheduled for us to meet with the specialist. That day and time did not work for me so I called the specialist's office and rescheduled the appointment for two weeks later. About ten minutes later they called me back and had an opening for the next morning, on a day the doctor would be seeing patients in Manhattan (wahoo!). Fell asleep working on the midterm...

Thursday- ALL MORNING spent at the doctor's office (in Manhattan) with Logan. We met the specialist, Dr. Kassoy, from the Cotton-O'Neil clinic in Topeka. Logan did multiple breathing tests because the one he had done first, before meeting with the doctor, didn't come out well. The next test was better and then he did a breathing treatment which made the last of the breathing tests come out best of all of them, but still showing low lung function. The doctor also ordered some basic allergy testing to be done the same morning and those showed nothing big. Logan is allergic to only cockroaches. :) The nurse said that even if there are none in our home we'd be surprised at how much there is in the air. This of course didn't solve his coughing issue though. So now he is on a week of oral steriods, to hopefully improve lung function, and has a different type of inhaler. We meet again with the specialist, this time in Topeka, this Friday afternoon.

I worked some on the midterm but not as much as I needed to.

Friday- Midterm due at 5 pm. Leaving town at 2 pm. Ok, finally needed to get down to business and get this puppy finished! I work best under pressure anyway and only had two pages (one essay question) left to complete plus ALL of the diagrams.

BUT FIRST, I brought Logan to the health department at 7:30 for his H1N1 shot. He and I are the only ones vacinated. Shaun and Shane have to wait until the baby is born to qualify. We'll see if they have vaccinations at that point! I think they may be out of them now.

I decided I needed an incentive to finish my midterm paper early so at around 9 am I called Salon Essentials and made myself a pedicure apppointment for 11:45. It worked! I worked my butt off from 9-11:30 just barely finishing the last diagram before leaving my house. Had my relaxing pedicure. Ran the paper to campus and delivered it to my instructor's mail box. Got home with just enough time to pack everything I needed for a night away. Went to pick up friends. Left Manhattan to go to KC for a Time Out for Women conference! WAHOOOOOOO! That was very much needed.

Friday's part of the conference was 6:30 to 9:30 so we had time for a quick sandwich and dropped off our bags at the hotel before going to the KC convention center. LOVED the music preformances and the talks given that evening. Afterward we went to the Cheesecake Factory which of course was very yummy! I halfed two cheesecakes with a friend- lemon raspberry and pumpkin peacan. Finally got back to the hotel and in bed about 1:15 am.

Saturday- Spent most of the day at the TOFW conference. WONDERFUL talks and music. Lots of fun with friends. Lots of spiritual boost. On the way home we stopped in Topeka for dinner at Red Lobster. Can you believe one of my friends had never been to a Red Lobster??? Ok, she might be reading this so I can't give her a hard time. The food was great but the conversation and time with these few friends was even better. My friend Lisa moved this past Monday but was able to join us for the weekend. It was very bitter sweet and we were all happy she was able to be there.

Sunday- RELAXED!!! Besides taking some pictures late afternoon and early evening, I didn't do anything besides go to church and then sleep. It was great! I might post a few of the pictures later.

Monday- Work and class. I had not studied for a test on Monday for my lunch-time class so I skipped the test and will take the true/false test on Friday instead. That just means finding time to study this week! Turned in photo assignments.

Tuesday- Work and doctor's appointment. Enrolled in Spring courses. Baby is doing great! More to come...

Mid-term and Beautiful Sunset

After church today I came home, made lunch, then settled in for some writing. After about three hours of that I was done and probably a bit brain dead to prove it. I think I might have to spend a couple hours each evening this week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) to work on and complete my mid-term. Ugh! It's such a pain. Other than the papers I like this course. Unfortunately the papers are 3/4 of the grade. Oh well, less than two months of it and I'll be done, until the Spring semester. Hmmm. Can't wait till May!

After at early dinner we headed out for our new Sunday evening family time ritual. We drive to places around the area and take pictures of whatever seems good. I'm working on a lighting assignment so I really needed the evening lighing and sunsets tonight. Below are a few shots I got. I have a full week before the assignment is due but of course with the mid-term due Friday I will have very little time for my photography. Tonight was a good start. We also got two leasurely walks in, one on part of linear trail near Seth Child Blvd and another in Marlatt Park. We discussed the fact that when this class is done we might still need to do something like this on our Sunday evenings because it is the most relaxed family time we have. :)

Beautiful Day!

It is sooooo pretty outside right now! I would much rather be outside having fun than inside doing homework. But, alas, I have to work on my 20 page essay mid-term for one of my online courses. So, instead I'm inside blogging and avoiding the mid-term. I'm just not in the mood! However it is due in one week so I don't really have a choice but to get an essay question or two completed each evening. I'll even do more if I have the time, just to get this thing done.

Since I'm procrastinating well so far.... Here are a few of the recent photos I've taken for the other online course I'm taking- Digital Photography. I'm sooo lucky to have found this for my last elective. I'm loving my photography even more and loving that it counts for a course. The best part is that I am strengthening my editing skills with a new adobe program (CS4). It's similar to what I've used in the past but has some great features I have not used in my other programs. Here ya go, just for enjoyment... (Click these for larger views of the pictures if you want. The panorama looks much better larger but I've only uploaded it as a smaller picture. Clicking it doesn't make it much larger.)

Closeups:




Frame:

Yes, I love flowers! The local rose gardens are currently in full bloom which is great timing for photos for this class.

Lines:

A different area of the K-State gardens, one of my favorite photog spots in the community.

Point of View:

Taken at the lake, on the dam.

Cute Kid... I mean- Simple Background:

Gotta capture the kiddos once in a while! We usually venture out as a family for my weekly photo shoots. Good quality time driving around and talking.

Rule of Thirds:

Again at the K-State Gardens

Merger:
This particular merger be the fact that there is a rose bush growing from Shaun's head. Haha! I wasn't very creative. It was getting late.

Landscapes:




These were Rocky Ford Dam (about a block from my home), Konza Prairie just south of Manhattan, and side road that winds beside the river near the bridge leading into town from the south.

Panorama:
This was a merge of four different pictures to make the one larger picture. It was fun and easy to do. I framed it just for kicks. This was our most recent assignment.

Raw:

Before

After

When we learned about the camera raw feature of the software we had to do a before and after editing pictures. I did a lot of editing of the photo for the assignment but I prefer a less saturated look normally.

That's it for now. If I remember, and have time, I will post a couple shots each week for the next several weeks as the class continues. I'm loving it!

I'm a complainer!

I had lunch with a very nice lady today-- Dr. Noel Schulz, Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and K-State's First Lady. Yes, that means her husband is our new president. It was fun to get to know her and discuss our families and K-State. She is soooo laid back and easy to talk to. Her husband seems the same way from meetings I've attended in which he has been present.

This lunch was a follow up to a previous conversation Noel and I had regarding a presentation she'd given to a class I'm taking and a question I had asked after her presentation. I'm hoping she does a lot for the women of K-State and it is obvious that she's going to! The lunch meeting was just me and her. It was great!

Right away she asked a question about my sons and it was obvious to me that she'd done some research. When I asked she admitted that she'd read my blog! HI NOEL! It's fun to know that people read this. I like writing it. You can probably tell that by my long ramblings. I'm not sure if she found this blog through my Facebook page (yep, we're 'friends,' just like the rest of the people on campus) or by looking me up on the online K-State directory. I'm easy to find. :)

I just looked at my previous several entries to see what I've posted about recently and man, I'm a complainer! At least some of the time. So this afternoon when my student assistant gave me a Dove chocolate I read the message inside and this is what I got: "Think lovingly, speak lovingly, act lovingly." Ok, I get the hint. You never know who is going to read your blog. You never know how they will perceive the posts or you as a person. I am now going to be less negative. I thought I was doing that but it looks like I could be doing better. Good, better, best, right? I'm glad I didn't vent my frustrations yesterday on here!

Thanks for the wonderful lunch conversation, Noel! I really enjoyed meeting with you.

Neighborhood Pranksters

We had a bit of excitement today. When arriving home this morning from cleaning at church I noticed something shiny a little further down the street. At first glance I couldn't figure out exactly what it was or even where exactly it was. Shane suggested that maybe it was a silver streamer. To me it looked like either it was along a neighbor's yard or something across the road itself. Since there was no one around I was surprised that it looked like something may actually be strung across the street. I decided to look into it so we drove down the road a bit further until we got to the shiny object, a long strip of packing tape which was wrapped around a no parking sign on one side of the road and then strung to the other side and wrapped around a matching sign. After a quick moment of surprise and confusion the boys took down the tape. They ran home and I went to talk to my father in law whose driveway was within a few feet of the signs. When asked if he'd seen anything he said that yes, his dog had alerted him that there was someone outside. When he looked out the window he saw three teen-aged boys just leaving the area, running south on the street. I had come along a short time later.

After leaving my in-law's house I drove north on the street to see if there were other taped areas. Not finding any I headed south. Near the house south of ours, where the roads intersect, there was another line of tape across the road. At this point I realized this was more disturbing than my initial confusion. There is an elderly couple living in the next house down and if the elderly woman had been walking her dog and had not seen the tape she may have ran into it and possibly injured herself. Also, a car hitting the tape, with it wrapped tightly around the signs may have damaged the car, the signs, or both.

The driver of another car had seen me standing in the middle of the road and stopped to see if I needed assistance. When I asked if they could see the tape they said no that until I pointed it out they didn't see anything there. The light wasn't hitting it right from the angle he was at. They too were surprised and upset by this prank. Shane and Logan took down the tape and then we drove through the neighborhood looking for more. But not after I called the police. I decided that while this was probably meant to be a harmless prank it was possible for someone or someone's property to be injured or damaged.

No other tape was found, however, we did see the pranksters running between houses just a couple south of ours. A short time later a police officer stopped by and took down a short incident report to keep on file in case something more happens. He agreed that this could have caused injury or damage and thanked me for removing the tape and reporting this.

This wasn't the first time I'd seen teen boys running around the neighborhood but as far as we know there are no teen boys living in the neighborhood. We think they may have come from one of the areas to the south. Last time I had seen one of them running around was after dark and he was hiding behind trees in the same area that I'd seen them today. That time I'd just alerted a neighbor who was walking his dog because the teen was last seen across from his home running up a driveway and hiding behind thin trees (he wasn't able to hide very well behind skinny trees!).

If nothing else comes of this my two boys and one of Shane's friends know that this is wrong and that they will not get away with such behavior. They all agreed that it needed to be reported. Personally, if I'd known the teens I would have been happy just letting their parents know what had happened. Hopefully this would be all that was needed.