Jimmy helping Grandpa!!

I have owed everyone some new pictures so here they are!!!
Eating dinner with my new haircut.

Camping this past weekend. We visited a KOA ear Buckeye Lake this weekend for our last big camping weekend of the year (and our last big weekend before Egypt!). At the KOA they had what they called a jumping pillow... which was awesome. Literally a huge inflated pillow that you could jump on. I felt a lot safer on it than I have on a trampoline. Jimmy wasn't feeling super hot and soon he wanted Mommy to jump holding him. I was all too happy to oblige. Big fun!

Adam and Julian jumping!



Tonight I started the big list of all the things we have to do before we leave... It's pretty big, and no, updating the blog wasn't on the list, but its a nice break. Brian is relaxing. Yes, all those who know him who are gasping for air, he is relaxing. Why? Oh yeah... He has strep throat! Leave it to my husband to get strep right before we go on a huge trip. Luckily, he finally got to feeling so bad he looked down his throat and it was pretty obvious he was sick. He has had long enough that it did get in his mouth. He went to the doctor today who prescribed us both antibotics and they are strong enough that we take them through Friday morning and are done so we don't even have to take the medication overseas with us. We are of course concerned that Jimmy will get it, but since he has has an ear infection he has been on antibiotics for a little over a week. I am hoping that is going to keep him healthy. Mom's been warned and that is all we can really do. We'll just have to keep our fingers crossed.

Getting ready!

Things are going well. We got power back late Wednesday night. I had a trip planned with the girls... first all me and friends get away since... forever. We went to a little cabin at Mt. Gilead State Park and it was great. Very relaxing, but with everything going on to get ready I didn't get to really go to the store until last night. So I would say today we finally got everything back to normal! Or as normal as we get anyway!

Jimmy is doing really well. We had a word explosion over the past couple of weeks. He is now saying, "hot dog," "Oatmeal," "Emma (One of the dogs names)," "blue," and is trying really hard to say, "Banana," and "red." Its really funny when things just start to pop out of his mouth! He started saying, "Cheese" whenever I go anywhere near the camera an I realized he hasn't quite connected that to the food yet. He was point to some cheese that I had and signalling that he wanted some. I told him to say, "Cheese" and he clearly did it, but in the silly take-my-picture-now way. When I handed him the cheese he started playing with it like it was a camera. Cracked me up.

We are making it through books now before bed and I started reading 5 Little Monkeys. He knew the story and started doing all these funny hand gestures. I hadn't seen any of that before and it took me a minute to get it. He must do this at school! Aha! Its kind of weird to think your 18 month old already has this life that is separate from you and includes things you don't know about, but I guess it happens!

The biting is pretty much under control. He did bite a kid today, but they were fighting so at least it didn't come from out of no where like it had in the past. And that is the only time in several days that he has bite (of course, he did miss most of last week because of the virus, but we won't talk about that).

He had his ped. appt. on Monday and he looked good. He is now in the 20 percentile instead of the 5 he had been at! So definitely growing. The surprise was he has an ear infection. I had heard horror stories about ear infections and we never would have known he had one if he hadn't the appt. He is on meds and should be fine in a couple of days. We have around 3 new teeth and two to three more very close behind. These ones haven't been bothering him as much as some of the other ones... thank goodness.

Now it is just time to prepare for the big trip! Brian and I leave for Egypt on the 3rd and I am starting to freak out. I keep second questioning myself... Do I have everything? Did we get all the right vaccinations? I cannot wait to just be there and done with this part! Mom comes down Thursday night. I have to talk with her because I messed up our time back home and I think she is going to have to leave to go back to Boardman before we get back. Luckily Traci has offered to stay the couple of hours with Jimmy. Bummer is she is staying her with him for a bizzilion days and we probably won't even get to see her before she goes back... and we definitely won't get to see Jimmy before he goes to bed. I am a little concerned about that. Since we are supposed to be back to work the next day. I have enough time that I might go ahead and take the day. We'll see. I am also afraid that if I keep him out of day care I will regret it. I have a feeling we are going to be jet lagged. What are you going to do? Trip of a lifetime... no sense worrying about all that. We'll get back on schedule sooner or later.

Write more soon!

No Power for Us!

This is day 2.5 without power. We think we are going to be turned back on on Friday, though the map they printed in the paper with the schedule is really hard to read. It has been okay... Could be worse. Jimmy had a moment on Monday morning where he was really confused why he couldn't watch Blue's Clues with his breakfast... Yes, we let him watch Blue's Clues with his breakfast.

He was sent home from day care on Friday with the poops and one bout of vomiting. Surprisingly, he seemed fine. Saturday morning we had a sort of bad diaper but no big deal... Well, Sunday was definitely worse. Armpits to ankles. We chanced it and took him to day care on Monday (they had power) but he didn't make it through the day and I had to pick him up again around 3. Since then he has been home. I think it must be the dreaded rhotavirus again. Yucky.

Since then Brian and I have been splitting days. He had a lot of clean up at our rental property (we lost three trees, one of which took out part of the fence and the power line). COSI has had power so I have been trying to plan my partial day around meetings and moving my desk. Luckily I have been able to charge our cell phones here. I forgot Brian's today and I know he is trying to conserve so if you call him leave a message and he will try to call you back.

We are going to lose everything in the fridge and freezer since there is no ice to be found in this city! I went to the store last night and tried to buy some things for dinners that don't require milk or butter. We'll get through!As annoying as this is starting to get I keep talking with people who have it worse! Missy's son Julian got sick all through the night and she had to go and buy new sheets since she cannot do laundry... We are thinking of having a laundrymat date tonight. A woman at the dentist office has a well and without electricity they cannot power the well so they don't have water!

Long and short - if you are trying to get ahold of us, leave messages on the cell phone and we will get back in touch with you as soon as we can. I will be in work this morning and then again probably tomorrow afternoon (unless Jimmy has a miraculous recovery).

Cheers!

Happy Labor Day!

This is the fist Labor Day that I haven't been at work in quite awhile. Now with Jimmy here, the holidays mean no day care so I have to adjust accordingly.

Thngs have been crazy the last several weeks. I have a new job. I will be working more on the design side of exhibits than on the education side. I don't have a title yet... I will keep you posted on that front. I will meet with my boss tomorrow and figure out exactly what the heck I will be doing.

This was the hardest professional decision I have had to make... Well, I say hardest but in reality I made the decision rather quickly. I hate walking away from the floor - - and my team!!! But I love my boss and I really based the decision on him. I don't want to have to navigate another relationship. I love the people that I will be working with... I hope I love the work!

On a Jimmy note, Jimmy bit one time on Wednesday. It was in the morning about 15 minutes after I left. The teacher told me she got in his face a little and was really stern. Well, I think it worked. He didn't bite the rest of the day and didn't even try on Thursday! Thank the Lord!!! I don't know what would have happened if he had continued to bite. Brian and I have literally been losing sleep over it. He was really hurting kids. We would ask him questions like are you allowed to bite and he would say no... but then he would turn around and bite not once or twice but up to six times. And I mean bite. Close to breaking the skin, bruising and the whole nine yards... I was sure we were going to get kicked out of day care and that would have been terrible for everyone.

Here's to hoping we don't backslide too much tomorrow after the extended weekend!

Brandy is flying in on Friday. Super excited. We will head back to our home town for our class reunion. Should be fun!

I am typing on my laptop again and I will get on the other computer soon to post some pictures.

Miss you all!