Happy Halloween from The Girls

Mommy has a Little Lamb!

Happy Halloween!

Stop the Whining!!!!

I'm trying to keep myself busy so that I can be awake when Jeramy comes home tonight from his week-long trip to Texas. I'm trying to be a good wife, but he better have eaten because he's not messing up my clean kitchen!

Thought I would share this beauty of a video. The whining with Ryleigh has gotten way crazy here lately. I really don't know what to do about it, but when she's really bad, I just put her in her room and let her sort through it all. Sometimes she just seriously gets herself worked up over the smallest thing. Drama Queen to the max!
And by the way, her shoes were in her closet!

Already?!

Is it...noooo, *gasp*, it is!



It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...except it's not even Halloween!

Busy Day

Today was a rough day for me. Any day that I have make-up on before 8am is destined to be icky. I got Ryleigh to school this morning a little early so I could have my car into the dealership by 9am. The front headlamp washer was broken and I'll be damn if I'm driving my car like that. Actually, it was like that when we picked it up and I don't want to be charged for it at the end of my lease. So, now my headlamp can be properly washed when needed...isn't that special.

After that wondrous adventure, I came home and met the furniture adjuster so that all my broken furniture could be examined. As expected, she feels that it can all be fixed and doesn't need to be replaced. We'll see about that, I'm pretty sure that I have some fight left in me yet. The thing that really ticks me off is that everything that is broken is just because of stupid carelessness.

Lesson learned: When having a bunch of chumps over to pack your stuff, watch very closely. Offer advice on how to turn a screwdriver when it is deemed as necessary. Resist the urge to offer tea and cookies thinking it will put them in a friendly packing mood and encourage compassion for your brand new, hard-earned furniture.

My goal was to make it to yoga by 11, but the adjuster didn't leave until 10 minutes until, so instead Avery and I curled up for our first nursing session of the day while I watched my recorded Desperate Housewives. After picking up Ryleigh and having some lunch we headed to the doctor so that I could get a new thyroid meds prescription. I also found out how to apply for free health care coverage and it's so totally awesomely simple. Getting right on that one.

Tonight Ryleigh was particularly whiny and grumpy, a trend here lately it seems. The whining just drives me batty, but I'm striving for patience. The girls were both in bed by 8, so that has left me lots of time to fool around on the web and post a few things that will make my mom's family pray extra hard for me tonight. It's okay, God loves democrats too.

Warning: The Following is Political in Nature

If you didn't see this on MTP, you really should watch it. 'Nuff said.



Here is the picture that he speaks of:

Our Home: The Backyard

I let the girls play around outside today and thought I would get some video of them and our beautiful backyard. Even when we can't go outside, it's so nice to kick back in side and just look outside at nature everywhere!

Getting Caught Up

This morning I've been uploading massive amounts of pictures onto the website. I can't believe how far behind I've gotten. It's as if I've had something taking up my time since May of this year. Anywho, if you scroll down and look to the right, you will see the links for pictures.

Jeramy left today for 5 days in Texas. He's flying into Houston and then riding to San Antonio tomorrow with a friend from work for a 5 day meeting. Poor him, there, on the Riverwalk, all alone, without his children and his wife. All those great restaurants and watering holes and nice weather. Poor him my ass.

It's getting colder here every day. It was 4 C this morning as I drove Jeramy to the airport. That's about 38 F. We are staying inside getting the house tidied up.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures that I posted today:

Greatest Halloween Pajamas Ever



Ryleigh's First Day of School

One Year Ago Today

Dear Avery,

Happy Birthday little girl! Every parent says this and it's such a cliche, but amazing, absolutely amazing that you are already a year old. Seriously, someone slap me already.

I remember the day that the stick turned blue, but let me back up a bit. In December 2006 your father was still rotating off-shore when we made the decision to go for number two. According to my calculations, he would not be home for one of my fertile days until March. Perfect, thinks I, I can quit taking the pill now and then we will start trying in March. When your father came home early from a hitch in January that plan went straight out the window. The stick turned blue on February 7, 2007. I remember that day because we had a charity event to go to and I wanted to know if I would be able to throw back some vino. Thank you for saving me from one more needless hangover. It was a strange night, we should have been enjoying the lights, the music and the food, but all we could think about was WHAT HAVE WE DONE!! Another baby, that's 21 months of bodily commitment; 9 months of pregnancy and 12 months of breastfeeding. I just can't believe that 21 months has come to an end.

Not the breastfeeding though, you are still going very strong. I've tried to tell you no, but when you look at me with those "Puss in Boots" type eyes my heart just melts and I might as well whip it out because I'm going to be having a let down anyways. Not to mention that fact that you only have two teeth that are barely starting to break through, so your food choices are still sort of limited.

I remember this day last year. It started out with us going in to be induced and getting parked in triage for the morning. When we moved into a room at noon I was dialted to a 5 so the doctor went ahead and broke my water. I had one crazy contraction right after that, then they backed off and slowly started building back up. Three hours later things weren't moving so fast so I got the epidural and they started pusing pitocin. At 5:29 you were here, all half blue and with the cord around your neck. I remember you coming out and I remember reaching out and taking the cord off your neck before the doctor could. They cleaned you up and gave you to me and before I could even let anyone else hold you, you wanted to nurse and nurse you did.

This morning I made a birthday breakfast and we all sang Happy Birthday to you. Your big party isn't for a couple more weeks when Grandma Terri and Papa Steve get here. After breakfast we went to an open play day at the local university and you got to walk and crawl all over the place. Now, you are napping away.



You are without a doubt the most pleasant child in the world. You rarely cry, you are always smiling, always happy, you have never showed any seperation anxiety and you love anyone that wants to hold you. I can count the number of nights I have struggled to get you to sleep on one hand. If you don't want to sleep at 8, we just sit up and play until you do. It's all good.

Thank you for coming into our lives and filling it with so much joy. Having you around makes your big sister so proud. She shows you off to everyone that will pay her any attention. After getting you to sleep last night I just held you so tight and had a good cry. I can't believe you are so big, I can't believe that you continue to grow so much bigger and I can't believe that you and I will ever be anything but the closest of pals and the best of friends. You are my little angel and I look forward to the many more years to come.

Love, Mama

Tragedy

Many of you know who Adam is, Ryleigh little best bud from Sugar Mill Montessori. She and Adam started school the same week when they were both just 20 months old. They were so inseparable that they were moved to the transition class together and then the primary class. They always had very much of a love/hate relationship which the school Director kindly called competitive. If one of them learned something, the other could not stand to be outdone and so they had to learn that thing and then a step more. The last year we were in Sugar Land Adam was not who Ryleigh seemed to play with the most either inside or outside of school, but she is who she always referred to as her best friend and it is Adam whom she mentions most often since being in Canada. Three days ago Adam's dad, Dave, was killed in a tragic helicopter accident.

I remember seeing Adam's dad bringing him to school when we all first started at SMMS. He was always in raggy shorts and a t-shirt. I always wondered who this dufuss was that dropped his kid off and then obviously went back home and sat around and played video games all day. It was a few weeks later that I learned that he was the helicopter camera man for a local television station; his attire now made sense. We met Adam and his parents at the park a few times and when Adam's parents split up, we would see Dave at our church where he told us he was seeking support on how to be the best dad and ex-husband he could be. The last time we saw Dave was the day of Ryleigh's 4th birthday party at the Museum of Natural Science. Dave showed up two hours late, just as the party was ending. He had called and RSVP'd to me and only heard the 2 part of the noon-2 time I told him. It was unfortunate that Adam missed the party, but he and Ryleigh got to spend about 30 minutes just the two of them, hand in hand, looking at the dinosaurs and chatting about fossils. Dave called a few weeks later to see if we could make it to Adam's birthday, but we were already out of town and on our way to Canada.

Dave was a good guy and good dad and the world needs more like him, not one less. My heart is aching for Adam. I hope that somehow, someday he knows just how much his dad loved him and wanted the best for him. I've been trying for the past two days to wrap my mind around this tragedy and there just isn't a way to make sense of it. All we can do is hold her kids a little tighter and show our spouses a little more kindness because we don't know the hour or the day, but we do know that time is fleeting and that today is what matters the very most.

American Mom vs. Socialized Healthcare

Our first brush with socialized medicine came after just being for a few weeks. I wrote in a previous post about a beautiful day at the beach gone awry by Ryleigh shoving rice sized pebbles down her ear canal. That sent us to the emergency room where we had to sit and wait for four hours before we could see a doctor that spent about 10 minutes fishing pebbles out of her ear. I've had some lengthy waits in emergency rooms in the states with a dislocated shoulder, a UTI and a throwing up infant, but seriously, never four hours. Once we were in a room I found it to appear dirtier and not as well stocked as you would typically find in an American emergency room/doctor's office. However, the doctors were nice and got the job done. We walked out without any hassle about payment, but since we do not have our medical cards yet, we knew a bill would be coming. And it did....$185 for the hospital...$38 for the doctor. What??? Seriously?? I would submit that to my insurance, but they would probably charge me more for the paperwork.

Last week I began to search for a pediatrician and a pediatric opthamologist for Ryleigh. Here is what I learned. Here, children do not go to a pediatrician for routine check-ups and common illnesses, they go to the family doctor. Women do not go to OB/GYNs for yearly check-ups and common issues, they go to the family doctor. And, if your family doctor delivers babies, then you still would not go to an OB/GYN. If you don't like that, too bad, because specialists (pediatricians and OB/GYN) do not take you without a written referral from your family doctor. Neither do pediatric opthamologists, so in order to get Ryleigh in for an eye check-up, I had to find us a family doctor.

I called about 10 different clinics last week, none of them were taking new patients. None in Torbay, none in St. John's, but I did finally find one in Mt. Pearl, about a 30 min. drive away. This is not Houston, if you are driving for 30 minutes, you are really making some ground. For those in West Texas, it would be the equivalent of not being able to find a family doctor in Monahans and being forced to drive to Odessa for all your family check-ups and illnesses. So, today we set out to see our new doctor. Our appointment time was 2:45 and we were seen pretty much on time. The doctor did not have a problem writing a referral for Ryleigh, however I didn't get a little slip of paper with a referral note. Instead, she sends a note to the specialist who in turn will contact me VIA MAIL to set up an appointment. I have heard that many specialists here are not taking new patients and those that are have very lengthy waits for an appointment. Pick me! Pick me! Please, pick me!! Cost of the visit today: $40.

There is a huge scandal going on right now in the province concerning cancer tests for women. Several years ago a whole batch of tests were incorrectly diagnosed. Many of the women from that batch have died or are still living with a cancer that should have been cured with treatment. The only two gynecological oncologists on the island (who are not taking new patients) claim that they have not been given the proper equipment and supplies to perform adequately. When the scandal broke, they both tried to quit, but the government begged them to stay.

I'm not taking sides, yet. I like to think that there is some solution to the health care crisis in the states. No child should have to go without the exact same health care that my husband's wonderful insurance provides for our children. I feel very passionately about that. That being said, if you want insurance in America, it's not that hard to get. You may not be able to drive that nicer car in order to afford it, but it is possible to put it into your budget at most any income level. I do like the family doctor that we found here, so that's a plus, but she is very young. After she saw Ryleigh, she went into a room where what appeared to be a 70 year old man waiting to be seen. It just doesn't set real well with me that the doctor that has been out of med school no more than 5 years is supposed to diagnose a problem in my 4 year old child and then turn around and diagnose an issue in a 70 year old man.

Stay tuned as the saga continues....

A Special Night

Last night Ryleigh and I went to a local theater for a production of Cinderella. I have been wanting to take her to a play for some time now. I was about her age when my Grandma Friend (Robinson) took me to my first play and forever changed my life. There is a small theater in Odessa called the Permian Playhouse. Every year they put on four children's plays and I went to every single one of them from when I was four until I was in about Junior High. At that time I switched to more adult productions and my Grandma and I continued to attend productions at both the Permian Playhouse and the Globe Theater also in Odessa. I still love a good stage show, though I don't get to attend near as often as I would like. I have always wanted to pass along this love of the theater to my children so last night was perhaps even more of a treat for myself than it was for Ryleigh.

One might wonder how well a four year old could hold their attention in an over two hour production, but Ryleigh hardly blinked an eyelash. Her eyes remained glued to the stage and she only spoke to ask a few questions about what was going on. During intermission we went down to the orchestra pit and I explained to her exactly how that worked. After the show we got to meet the cast down by the stage. She covered her mouth with her hands as she met the king and smiled from ear to ear as the prince took her hand and Cinderalla gave her a hug. Truly a magical night for both of us.