Vacation Is Wonderful!!

This last week, I had off! And it was just wonderful!

My best friend, Jennifer, came down to visit and meet Baby Claire. After a week of screaming children, temper tantrums, diaper changes, and night terrors, I think she has already scheduled her hysterectomy. She did great though handling all the chaos that is my family!

We started out the week in St. Augustine. Joe started his PT (physical therapy) program there. To save on hotels, I found a hostel called Casa Yallaha, and we all stayed there. I thought it was okay, but Joe nicknamed it Casa No-way-in-hella. It was very clean, but the people there looked like homeless people and kind of reminded him of a house for people just getting out of prison. Everyone was nice enough, and I really enjoyed the experience. It was fun talking with the other guests and hearing about their travels. One guy was riding his bike with a friend from Key West to California!

While Joe was at school, Jenn and I took the kids on the dreaded Red Train. The Red Train is a tour tram that goes through 22 stops through St. Augustine. Jordan loves it and pitches the hugest fit everytime we got off. Jennifer was good sport and tolerated the damn train. We stopped for lunch, and Jennifer drank her weight in beer. After we were juiced up we resumed the train riding. After damn near six hours riding the train, Jordan still wanted more. I could take no more, and Jennifer threatened to jump out of the moving train. We returned to the hostel and then met up with Joe for dinner.

The next day, Jenn and I packed up screaming children and headed for home. I thought that Jordan would drive us all insane asking for the Red Train!

During the week we went on an air boat ride, which was really fun. Jordan saw lots of alligators!

We rounded out the week of fun by all getting sick. Jordan keeps telling us that
his nose is "raining".

I was sad to see Jenn go back home. Hopefully she won't swear off having children due to my temper tantrum terror named Jordan!

Christmas Dinner Cooking Fiasco!

This year for Christmas, I planned on cooking a ham. My mom makes great sauerkraut (not sure if I spelled that right?) so I wanted a delicious ham to go along with it. I also wanted to make yams and apples, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, crescent rolls, and gravy. The day of cooking started off well with all kinds of peeling of potatoes.

While that was going on, I already had the ham in the oven. I used my old friend LaLa's recipe, which calls for a lot of liquid (not allowed to share what kind as I am sworn to secrecy).

The ham was smelling great, the potatoes were almost all the way peeled....things were running smoothly until I needed to run the garbage disposal to flush all those peelings down the drain. They just wouldn't go! I kept shoving and the water kept coming back up....confused I kept switching off and on the disposal when I felt something cold on my foot.

Much to my dismay, water was running out from under the sink. I opened the cabinet to reveal the holy hell of potato peeling explosion under the sink!

Just then Joe was coming around the corner, I popped my head up to stop him before he saw the horrible mess I made. To those that don't know, just one year ago I convinced Joe that based on a video I saw on youtube, we could replace our kitchen sink ourselves. Three horrific days later, hundreds of gallons of water on our floor later, and at least a million swears, Joe completed the project and vowed to kill me if I ever suggested something like that again. So you can imagine me not being thrilled at just messing up the plumbing with potato peeling explosion.

"Joe, before you see what I just did, I want you to remember that I love you!" I shouted.

He looked down, and asked, "Did you throw-up in there?"

I just started laughing because, really, it did look like vomit!

I explained what had happened, we laughed, and started to clean it up...that is when I smelt something burning. I looked in the oven, and the ham was bubbling over and smoke was pouring out of the oven.

Oh crap! I got some oven mitts and started to move the ham to the stove top- spilling boiling ham juice everywhere.

Just then the baby started screaming because Jordan hit her with his new helicopter that Santa brought (not on purpose, he's just a terrible flier).

So there we were, potato peelings up to our ankles, ham juice spilling everywhere, Jordan screaming fix it, baby screaming...

The phone rang and it was my mom. Joe answered and told her "Get over here now, it's bad over here!"

I just started laughing, he sounded so dramatic, " It's bad over here!"

My mom showed up in ten minutes all in a panic. By then we had things mostly under control!
She took a picture of the carnage and left laughing so hard! Fortunately we didn't ruin the ham, Joe fixed the sink, baby sister recovered from the helicopter to the head, and the helicopter still flies, so Jordan is thrilled.

Merry Christmas

Playing Catch up

Life with two kids has been chaotic, but wonderful. I am so busy all the time, and hardly get a moment. Now I finally understand why there are always tons of pictures of the first child, and barely any of the second- we are just too busy!

Claire is already four months, weights 14 pounds, and rolls over. She is starting to giggle as well!

Jordan loves jets and planes. We took him to the air show, and he had a great time until they got really loud. Then he cried and insisted on going to "Jordy's House".

Great Weekend!

After a really rough week of Jordan's tantrums, we needed a break. Thankfully I had decided earlier to take Thursday and Friday off, and we went to Sea World on Friday.

The weather was just perfect, Jordan behaved like an angel, the park wasn't too crowded, everything was just perfect....except I forgot the camera!

Jordan loved the kiddy roller coaster, the Shamu Express. I thought it would be a mild ride, but was wrong. Immediately after a slow climb to the top, the ride suddenly banked left, my glasses fell off my head (thankfully I caught them), and from my blurred vision it looked like Jordan was going to fall out of the ride! I grabbed him and he laughed and screamed so hard! As soon as the ride was over he screamed, "More Again, More AGAIN!!!"

So Joe took him at least ten times on that roller coaster, mommy recovered in the shade from the scare of watching her baby fall out of the ride!

We had so much fun, and it was wonderful to just enjoy my little boy again.

Saturday we had a party for my mom's birthday, which was a successful surprise!

Sunday we went to the Air Show. Jordan loved the beginning of it, but was scared to death of the really loud jets. I just felt awful for him as I was holding the baby, who was also shrieking from the loud noise, and saw Jordan drop to the ground into a little ball! I grabbed him and held them both, while they both cried! We left immediately!

But after nap, Jordan seemed to have recovered. He asked again about the big jets...tough kid!

Evening rolled around and Jordan didn't want to wear his costume. I thought he could pass out candy, but when kids started arriving he grabbed his pumpkin bucket and wanted to go. Joe was jumping up and down to go to (he is really just a huge child!). So they both went, in regular clothes, and had a blast! I stayed home with Claire and passed out candy.

Jordan came so proud of his candy bucket! What a cutie!

Post-Partum Depression is Finally Working For me!!

I have a long history of depression and have been pretty open about it to most people. Being in Health Care I feel kind of an obligation to be open about it to possibly be a model for someone else. That way if they were struggling they might come forward because I talk to openly about my struggles.

All through High School, College, Med School and now...that damned depression has followed. Finally though it is paying me back in a big way....after taking so many days of my life, it will give me 180 back.

After having Jordan I got pretty depressed. Of course it didn't help that I was fat as a pig after having him, then turned 30 on top of it! It took a while to recover and return to my baseline. So after having Claire I kind of expected it. Certain family issues compounded the issue, plus going back to work to find my responsibilities ever increasing did not help my mood any. Also Jordan has hit the Tyranical Threes.

I was feeling overwhelmed, completely miserable from one day to the next, and buying wine like crazy. I just wanted to sleep all the time, which is usually my M.O. when I am depressed.

After realizing I was falling into my old habits, I called my doctor (a P.A. who works on the other side of my clinic) to up the dose of my antidepressant (Zoloft). He wasn't available so I spoke to his nurse, who put in the Rx.

Three days later, my boss called me into his office. I thought I was in trouble b/c I had left a bit early the day before, but instead he told me I was getting DEPLOYED!

Six months. Of. My. Life. Gone.

I broke down and started crying on the spot. I asked how they could do this, I just had a baby! I am still breast feeding! I can't go, I wailed!

My boss asked about my health status and if there was any medical reason I couldn't deploy. I told him about my depression and post-partum depression and medical changes....then a miracle happened.

The military has a rule that if you adjust any anti-depressant, you are not deployable for six months! Hooray!

This doesn't mean I will never deploy, but at least it will buy me some more time with my little girl. I can't bear to leave her now. I can't imagine what deploying would do to me, to her, to Joe, to Jordan.

So thank you Depression, finally you are giving something back!

Hooray for Potty Training!

After months and months of waiting for Jordan to take some interest in the potty himself, I gave up.

I decided that I couldn't afford two kids in diapers, and changing two kids all day was exhausting. So we decided to do Potty Training Boot Camp! This method was given to us by our friend Angela.

Basically we picked a long weekend and went to work. I had a four day weekend over labor day, so we chose that one.

We started bright and early Friday morning! We got the big boy underwear on Jordan, and every twenty minutes we fought him to sit on the potty. It was horrible, to say the least. The kid is incredibly determined and strong willed. By noon I had enough, and told Joe I was gonna go to work! But we stuck it out and kept going. Finally by the end of the day he did pee on the potty!

By Saturday afternoon he got the idea. By Monday he was a pro. It has been now three weeks, and he is doing pretty well. He does have the occasional accident, and we are using Pull-ups at night (mostly b/c I get so little sleep with Claire, I didn't want to add bet wetting issues into the mix).

Hooray for Jordan!

Claire @ 2.5 months

My little girl has grown so much already. At her 2 month appt she already weights 11.6lbs! She's a chubby little thing!

She already is quite the little diva! She loves bubble baths. Sometimes the only way I can get her to stop fussing is to put her in a bubble bath! She kicks her feet around and smiles and laughs so cute!

Claire also loves to lay in her crib and watch the mobile go round. She laughs so hard at Tigger, Pooh, Piglet, and Eeyore go around and around. I wish that I could be so entertained by those guys swirling around above my bed.

Although she can't sit up on her own yet, she certainly tries. If she is laid down on the floor she looks like she is doing crunches trying to sit up!

She already tries to talk, making all kinds of cute little noises and coos. She is a perfect little angel!

Jordan Turns 3

This past weekend my little boy turned 3.

I can't believe how much he has changed, how fast the time has gone by, and most of all how much I love that little boy.

My whole world revolves around my kids! Jordan is an amazing little guy. He has changed so much in the past year.
- He started out at age 2 barely speaking, to being a chatterbox now.

-He loves dinosaurs, trains, anything with wheels, and baby sister!

-He is very sensitive and oohhhhsss and ahhhsss over tender moments on tv.

-He loves ice cream and keeps getting it out of the freezer and bringing it to us to get him some.

- He just moved up to the preschool class and loves it!

-He still doesn't sleep through the night, in fact baby sister sleeps much better than he does!

-He is very strong willed! He likes to do things his way.

-He can count to 12 and knows most of the abc's. Pretty amazing for a kid that hardly spoke 5 words six months ago!

-He has me wrapped around his little finger!


His birthday party was fun. Jordan didn't understand why all kinds of people were in our house and screamed bloody murder when we sang to him! It was cute and thankfully I got it all on video!

Looking Backwards...

Whenever my dad is dreading something he says he is "looking backward to it" rather than looking forward to it.

Now it is my turn....I am definitely looking backward to going back to work.

I have been home since mid-June and going back to work is definitely going to be hard. It has been wonderful to be home with the beautiful baby Claire. She is such a good baby, and already sleeps better than Jordan!

It has been nice to spend a lot of time with Jordan as well. He has been wonderful with the baby! This weekend Jordan turns 3! I am excited to see how he likes his party.

Not that leaving my kiddos for 8+ hours a day is bad enough, I also am having to deal with all kinds of headaches at that job of mine. My poor team has been dealing with all kinds of crap at work in my absence and are anxious to get me back. My first three days are filled up with the most annoying patients! Somehow I will get through this week...it is gonna be rough though!

Name Change

Well, I didn't plan ahead....

When I started this blog, I didn't plan for future children. And let's face it, calling the blog Jordy's Mommy isn't fair to Claire or any future offspring.

I am very sensitive to the second child syndrome. You know what I mean all you second and third children out there. The first kid has thousands of pictures, second has a few, and third is lucky to have any at all.

So that is why I have changed the name of my blog, and am promising to have just as many pictures of Claire as I do of Jordan!

Claire Olivia

Sorry for the long delay....but finally here are pictures of our new bundle.

Quickly a recap of how she arrived:
Just when I could take being pregnant no longer I spent the day crying and whining to Joe. It was a Sunday night and Joe suggested that I call my OB first thing Monday and asked to be induced. I said I would think about it. I went to go lay down, but couldn't get comfortable from throbbing back pain.

After an hour of shifting around uncomfortably, I got the heating pad with no help. Then I finally realized that the throbbing pain seemed to be coming in a pattern....yes I know I am a doctor, but sometimes we are pretty dense!

I told Joe about the contractions, and the fact that I started spotting, and off to the hospital we went. I didn't think they would keep me, and was sure that I would be back home in no time. We got to the hospital at 1030 pm, and by 9AM we had a baby girl!

She was 7lbs 13oz, 20.5 inches long, and cute as a button! She looked just like Jordan when he was born, and like her older brother she didn't cry either!

Misery

I am now at 38 weeks and 3 days....and every second is misery.

My feet and hands are swollen, my back is killing me, I am exhausted and not sleeping well.

When will this hell end?

Atlantis Shuttle Launch

On Friday was the Atlantis Shuttle's last launch. Since I had the afternoon off, Joe and I decided to head up to Cape Canaveral (about 30 minutes away) and watch it.

We went to my work team's monthly lunch first. It was at a Japanese resteraunt. So after loading up on soy sauce and plenty of salt, we headed up there. We made it just in time to see the shuttle launch.

It was an amazing thing to see! So much smoke, noise, power!

All that amazement lasted about 15 minutes...then it took us 2 hours to drive back to the base to pick up Jordan from day care.

Unfortunately it was in bumper to bumper traffic. There were people everywhere! Just when we were in the middle of wall to wall traffic, the soy sauce hit us. We were so thirsty! There was no where to stop...it was miserable. Finally we did find a McDonalds, thank God for McDonalds!

Overall, it was amazing to see the shuttle launch, but it was miserable getting back. I would recommend watching on TV!

Success!!!

I finally got Joe to quit the gym! It is not that I am against the gym, it is just spending money every month when Joe NEVER goes to the gym!

So finally after a solid two months of gentle reminding and urging (nagging), tonight he did it!!

Hooray! I feel richer already!

Hooray for Half Days!

I talked to my OB and got on half days! It couldn't have come at a better time. By noon daily I am wiped out! I could tell that I was getting more frustrated with my patients and really just wanted to scream, "Get the hell out!!" Not a good thing for a doctor to do!

So this week I have been able to see patients until noon, then come home! I took a long nap today thanks to Charis being here to wrangle the Jordykins!

Only 9 more weeks to go....it really feels like time is at a stand still!

Busy Day

Today was Sunday, usually a kind of lazy day....but not today. Jordan was up at 6:30, and I was up with him. We went downstairs and had breakfast, then right outside to weed the garden. I also harvested some compost from my worm farm!

Then we headed back inside to start cooking. I made some pizza pockets, which I leave uncooked and Joe cooks for lunches through the week. I also made about 40 waffles for the freezer as well. I got this idea a few years ago from my friend Jennifer (thanks Jenn). These are great for the morning, just pop them in the toaster like Eggos! Much cheaper, and less calories and no preservatives! I also made some refried beans, and another batch of yogurt.

Meanwhile I also had several loads of laundry going.

Eventually Joe got up (he likes to sleep in!) and we mowed the lawn. I did most of the backyard, he did the front yard.

After roasting outside in the yard, Jordan and I took a nap. After nap I ran to the store to get some more diapers (Jordan will never be potty trained!) and some milk. Then I picked up Pez from the groomers, and finally headed home.

I am beat!

The Worm Farm

One of my goals has been to start composting. I finally did it!

Not only did I make a rubbish pile in the back yard for yard waste, but I also got the stuff for a worm farm.

Originally I saw the "Can of Worms" on the Oprah show when Julia Roberts was on there talking about her worms. Initially I was interested, but that was several years ago while we were living in, well actually I don't remember where the hell we were.... we have moved too many times! Joe wasn't thrilled about the idea of a worm bin in the house.

So I put the idea aside, but kept wanting one. They seemed to be so helpful, and if Julia and Oprah endorsed it, how could I go wrong!!

Well I finally I saw the Can of Worms at a garden show that I went to. I was so impressed by the entire worm composting that I needed to get one. The lady at the show was charging almost double the cost of what I had seen on amazon, plus she wanted over 45 dollars for a pound of worms! So I waited and ordered online.

I found the Worm Factory for much cheaper than the "Can of Worms", and it is the same thing, with a square design.

Joe was sweet enough to find me a lady in our area who sells worms. We got a pound of the red wigglers for 20 dollars. With the Factory and the worms, I was ready to start composting.

I set the entire thing up in our laundry room. Joe was really concerned about it smelling, but there really isn't any! The worms are busy eating all of our household food scraps, so I don't feel as bad throwing food away- it is making compost! It is neat (and a bit gross) to open the layers and see them squirming all over the place!

From the BAD to the GOOD!!

So, I took the longer gluocse tolerance test, and all the results were NORMAL!!!

Hooray, I am not gestational diabetic.

Plus, I am taking the iron twice a day and feeling much better. I don't know if it is actually long enough for it to be working, but I will take the placebo effect!

Today I had a great day of scrapbooking with some other ladies. I got (almost) caught up on scrapbooking! Plus Charis and I vowed to spend every "Cobbler Night" scrapbooking. It will be good to get things done! I know that if I don't finish Jordan's baby pictures done before this little girl arrives, I will be screwed!!

All kinds of badness

I haven't written anything in a bit...things have been rough.

I have been just so exhausted lately, and sometimes literally will come home from work and go straight to bed! Being pregnant, working full time, and having a 2 year old were to blame... or so I thought. Turns out I am really anemic, with my hemoglobin (RBC count) below 9! Normal should be up around 12.

So yesterday I started taking iron. Hopefully it won't take long till I start to feel better. But unfortunately that wasn't the only bad news the OB had to tell me. She also said that I failed my glucose tolerance test. I have to go back next week to do the 3 hour one. I am freaking out that I am gonna be diabetic, not only for this pregnancy but later in life too. The risk of diabetes goes way up in women who are gestational diabetic...bad news :(

At work I refer tons of people to a certain Imaging Center to get mammograms and bone density screenings done. When the rep came by and saw that I was pregnant she offered to set me up with a free 3D ultrasound! Joe and I went and got to see amazing pictures of our little girl! (yes they once again confirmed it was a girl, I was really worried it had grown a penis!) We got to get some pictures too (which are too technically difficult for me to post here....sorry!)

I was really excited about the entire thing, until I told my OB doctor about it. She was pretty mad about the whole thing! She said there is some study out that prolonged 3D imaging can be harmful to the baby! I feel just terrible now, and stupid that I didn't know about the study and possibly put the baby at risk.

The other really crappy thing that happened involves our rental property. We currently have great renters in there. They have been there for two years and always pay rent on time, no problems what so ever. We found someone who was interested in buying the place, so I got all excited that we may be able to sell. Then the lady changed her mind. Well at least we still had our renters...nope! They will be moving in August! So now we have no buyers, no renters, nada!
Oh the stress. Our property manager is working on finding some new renters....

So that was my week...all kinds of badness...

Outcome of Fight Back Challenge

Well, sadly I lost my battle of the Nebraska taxes. I went to the on base tax center and they took a look at what happened. Somehow Turbo Tax calculated my taxes for Nebraska as if I was not a resident of Nebraska at all. So much to my dismay, I won't be due another 2,000 dollars like I wanted!

But I did not take this loss in stride....I vowed to figure out a way to fight someone! Instead of the Nebraska taxes, we are taking on our home phone. We hardly use the darned thing, but I really insist upon having one since I don't always keep my cell phone on me. Plus for emergency purposes I like to know where I can get to a phone that will get me to someone immediately. With a cell phone I never know where it is.

Right now we have Vonage, which I am very happy with. But my mom has something called a Magic Jack, that is 40 dollars for two years! We almost pay that much for one month of Vonage! I am sending Joe tomorrow to get the Magic Jack.

In addition we are considering switching from our local cable company, to satellite. I think it will be cheaper, I am just concerned about installation fees and such. We need to sit down and figure all that out and if it would indeed be cheaper.

One money saving thing I did this week was make Homeade Yogurt. It turned out okay, just a little runnier than I had hoped. I will experiment and get it just right! There are several reasons I wanted to make my own yogurt. First my version will have much less sugar in it than the store bought. Plus it is much much cheaper! And there are no plastic cups to end up in the landfills since I put them in reusable containers.

I will keep you all updated on my Fight Back!