It's not a magic eight ball so don't touch!

I am behind on blogging again, but whatever.

So last weekend I was in a department store looking at sunglasses when the elder sales associate came over and said, "Can I help you" I came back with my usual sassy remark "Nope we are beyond help" (and patted my stomach, which of course I should have even done). Her eyes lit up like a little kid at Christmas and she pulled out her paper thin scary hands and grabbed my belly. "Oh, now when are you due?" "September" *sigh*. Then I got the usual response. Her eyes got big and a look of complete sympathy came across her face. "Oh, well, uh, um, it IS almost June, so you really don't have That far to go."

Yeah, nice cover Granny, I am huge, I waddle, and now you made me feel like my stomach is a magic eight ball. Have a nice day.

Memorial Day Weekend

Goober loving his Auntie Kelly

Both of them putting on their Cheese Faces!

Auntie Kelly came for a long weekend to help me get my house in order for the summer and more importantly to spend some quality time with Goober. We had a wonderful time. Kelly was our first guest here in Whitehall, so I got to show her all the important sights. The gas station, KFC and the coffee shop.

Of course any visit with Kelly includes some major shopping time. Which I found I had missed shopping with someone else so much. Of course Montana shopping can't even compare to Minnesota shopping, luckily I will get to do that soon.

We worked endlessly on my basement and Olivia's room. It was a marathon, but it was worth it.

Today Auntie Kelly left to drive back to Minnesota with Goober with her. She is a brave soul driving across country with a 2 year old. Goober is staying with Grandma and Grandpa and Kelly for a week and a half until I come to Minnesota to do appointments for Adam and to pick up the Iz for the summer. I already miss him, but he will get to spend some time with Jeremy's family and I know he is in for some adventures.

Finding a church

Jeremy and I were both blessed to grow up in Parishes that were exactly what we needed. I grew up ELCA that was traditional, we had Psalms sung and a beautiful organ that echoed throughout the church.

Since leaving Minnesota over a year ago I have really struggled to find a new church. Either it is too liberal or too conservative. Not enough kids or no kids programing. At first I was adamant to stay with in the Lutheran or Methodist ideologies, but I am now venturing out and exploring other options. I am finding that my belief system doesn't fit into what each church stands for. How much does a person bend? What beliefs are able to be altered? Do I attend a church just because it has a great kids program or do I attend a dying congregation because it better matches my beliefs.

"Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching." - Hebrews 10: 24-25

First Real Day of Summer

Yesterday was the first extremely warm day of the year. We hit 91 degrees with no wind. It was gorgeous. Goober and I spent most of the day playing outside. By the time it was bedtime Goober didn't even make a peep when I put him down.

We started our lunch out sitting at the picnic table.

That quickly led to having lunch ON the picnic table!

The Almost Perfect Day....

I have been reflecting upon today, and decided that it is one of those days that I will remember forever and how I wish that my little 2 year old would be able to.

We planted flowers, and looked at bugs, horses, butterflies. We traveled to a greenhouse and saw so many flowers we didn't know what to do. Adam helped me plant flowers, of course that meant I gave him broken flowers and he would dig a hole and shove it into it. I taught him how to wave to people and say Hi.

We managed to have a water fight as I was watering the flowers. Then I got to spray water as Adam would climb under the water and laugh. We ended our day with KFC for a treat, and a ride around town listen to classic country as I told Adam about Ommi and spending my summers at the lake swimming and listening to this kind of music. Now it is time for a bath and then off to snuggle.

You ask why isn't today perfect. First DH left for New Mexico today and Adam won't see him for a month. Second, I forgot to take a single picture during all of our adventures!

Oh well, I guess I will have another almost perfect day and maybe I'll remember to take a picture or two!

It is days like this that make you smile.

Olivia's room...the beginning

I was determined not to show any pictures of O's room until it was done, but I just finished putting her new crib together and thought people might appreciate how cute it is.


I should interject that the highly intellectual individuals Jeremy and I are, we managed to loose some critical parts to our old crib. I went crib part shopping today and didn't find a replacement piece that would do, so shucks I just had to go shopping! Of course this beautiful crib and dresser (which I pick up tomorrow) wouldn't be possible with out the nice early Christmas present from Grandma Diane. Thanks Grandma!

For the love of Oswald

My son never stops. He is either playing talking or running. Except for one hour a day when Oswald comes on Noggin. He actually reminds me to turn the station if we don't have it on!

This my typical 9 am hour...which equal peace and quiet for mommie

The verge of potty training...you think!

Last night Goober took it upon himself to call me into his room at 3 am. The conversation went as such:

Me: Goober are you ok

Goober: Stinky, Icky, Potty, Off! (now repeat this is very aggravated manner)

Me: Your diaper is just find (I do the usual squeeze test)

Goober: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Me: Ok I'll change you (I do so)

Goober: Otay

Then he is asleep before I get out of his door...I guess it is time to try again. =)

It's a Girl! And the day that followed.

She actually split her legs so we had a clean view of what was in between. It made me hope that this was not a sign of what was to come!
The ultrasound tech liked us so much she gave us 3D shots for free!

The ultrasound was actually the low point of Friday.

After my ultrasound appointment I went in for my monthly check to find out that my ultrasound showed Olivia to be at about 22 weeks and my stomach is measuring at about 24 weeks! Mind you I am only 21 weeks along, so all signs are pointing to me having another BIG BABY!

After my appointment I was forced to go to Wal-mart, which its self usually sucks, but on a Friday afternoon, it is beyond sucking. I picked out my paint samples and Frank The Felon, who I believe was getting high on the fumes, managed to break the printer and then tell I would have to wait for the order to be filled.

So I went to do some other shopping. Unannounced to me it was officially "Wheel Chair Day" at Wal-mart. Of course these people had not passed wheelchair safety and probably were too old to be licenced as real drivers. As I was trying to dodge head and rear end collisions, it occurred to me that you can't say "excuse me" to someone in a wheelchair, it just seems rude. Why is it that way. I mean it someone is hogging a walk way I should be able to ask them to move and not feel like I am the most insensitive dork on earth.

Anyway, I made it back to Frank and he still hadn't filled my order, so I bucked up and asked for him to please just write my order because I was in a hurry. I truly believed at that point that he was either going to shot or stab me. At last my order was complete. I managed to dodge 15 more wheelchairs and check out. By now I was about 2o minutes behind schedule.

I decided to take the back way home thinking I would be able to speed and make up some time. Oh, no, not me. Apparently the geriatric convention at Wal-mart thought it would be wise to take a Friday drive. So here I am late, going 30 in a 70 behind Geriatric Jill and Jerry. Of course Jerry managed to about kill Jill when he decided to turn suddenly while going 30. All I saw was Jill grabbing the Oh Shit handle. I did chuckle at that.

I finally made it to daycare to pick up Goober. Where I managed to date the check July and sign my name as Lena Nelson. Finally to add insult to injury, I asked for Matte Paint and I got Semi-gloss. Which meant I had to travel to Butte again today......but that is another story.

Jeremy at work

Jeremy has been working a lot of overtime this week. They have had perfect weather for prescribed burning and they are taking advantage of it! Jeremy came home last night with a newspaper and this was featured on the front page. So I GUESS all those comments I make about how him and his coworkers do nothing all day long can be argued now that there is visual proof of him actually doing something productive.

The Terrible Twos

I do believe I am now experiencing the TERRIBLE TWOS, only it is in a way that only Goober could decide to do it. As you all know what had the backpack incident last week. Well this time it was the hat/sunglasses issue. It all started yesterday. It was 78 degrees out and sunny. So we put our sunglasses on and a hat to play outside. When it was finally time to go to bed. I got Goober into his PJ's and said for him to take his hat off. NO! This in sued for about 10 minutes until I gave up. He fell asleep instantly.

An our later I tiptoed into his room to remove the glasses and hat. As soon as I touched them he woke up screaming. Not a polite cry, no the type that makes the neighbors call the police because yo are beating your child cry. Back his hat and glasses went on. He woke up 3 times during the night and wanted me to come in and fix his glasses or hat.

At breakfast, well let me just say the hat came off, but the glasses stayed.

Man he is stubborn. I sure don't know where he gets that from? =)

Spring Fever....Goober Style

Adam has spring fever, like the rest of us. He wants to go outside and run and play, unfortunately the weather has not been too cooperative. Today we managed to walk back from dropping the car off to get repairs. That is a 4 block stroll, that took about 45 minutes to accomplish. We then walked to the post office. Apparently this wasn't enough for him! He insisted that I put his backpack on...then a fit ensued at the door until I mentioned nap time. Then he told me, "NO NAP!" I told him yes. "ELMO! ELMO!" I put 2 and 2 together. So down he went with the back pack. The kid never stops amazing me with his stubbornness!

Here he is trying to escape out the door...

Here he is being tucked in, notice the cheese grin. Gotta love that stage!

Here is the final result.....

After the nap what else was there to do, but eat a snack, with the backpack on. DUH!

Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome

I often forget the people aren't aware of the exact condition that Adam has, so as part of this blog I am going to give a synopsis of what Adam has. If you have any questions about KT syndrome don't be afraid to ask. I am always willing to help educate people on my little boy.

In general KT is best defined as the following:

The K-T syndrome is a rare congenital malformation that may include the following:
Port-wine stain or "birthmark" (cutaneous capillary malformations)
Soft tissue and bony hypertrophy (excessive growth of the soft tissue and /or bones)
Venous malformations & lymphatic abnormalities Complications may include bleeding, cellulitis, venous thrombosis, or pulmonary embolism. Associated abnormalities in other systems, such as gigantism of toes, hand and feet anomalies, lymphedema, or involvement of the abdominal and pelvic organs may also occur.
K-T usually is limited to one limb, but may occur in multiple limbs and/or head or trunk area. Internal organs may be involved. Each case of K-T is unique and may exhibit the above characteristics to differing degrees.

Now within the world of KT Adam is slightly different. He is affected in all of his limbs except for his left arm. His port wine stain is over 3/4 of his torso and apparently the syndrome has affected the development of his teeth. We are not sure of his internal organs, we like to believe they are fine, but we won't know until he is about age 4 when he can have an MRI performed. We go to the University of MN twice a year to meet with specialists. He has to wear special orthopedic shoes, and sock are a challenge to find. We are blessed that The Syndrome has not seemed to affect him cognitively. The severity of his case is classified as about average, with the potential to worsen if not managed.

So, this has been my full time job over the last 2 years of my life. How do I manage? A strong faith, a good family, and an the advice of Aunt Karla who told me, "You are his only advocate"

Teeth

We went to the dentist last week to have our biannual visit. Everyone was fine, but it was noted that Goober was missing a set of molars. The dentist thought nothing of it, but it got me thinking. So I called Adam's grandparents to find out if it ran in the family and no one recalled it existing.

I went to one of the KT boards that I am part of due to Adam's condition and posed a question about teeth, asking if anyone else is missing teeth or has problems. Amazingly I got posts from numerous people telling stories of thier children having abnormal teeth issues.

How can a condition that is classified as being vascular, lymphnatic, and bone enlargement affect teeth? It is a mystery to me. I am just glad to know that I will need to watch Adam's teeth closely as he is growing up.

Lunch with Goober

Today Adam and I were eating lunch and chatting away the best that a 31 year old and a 2 year old can, when this dialogue came up. Now mind you Adam for some reason has started calling his daddy Jeremy...

Adam: Where's Jeremy?

Me: He's at work.

Adam: Oh really!

Just to add to this every word was completely formed. I felt like I was talking to an adult...This kids vocabulary never stops amazing me.

Our House....the kitchen

As most of you know Jeremy and I purchased a house in Whitehall about 2 months ago. I have been slooooooooowly putting the house together. yesterday, in a brief moment of time, my kitchen was clean enough to take some pics. This one of our "projects" for the future, but for now it will do.

Welcome....

After a few years of requests and a few threats I have finally decided to start blogging about the adventures of myself and family as we move and grow. I hope you will enjoy the stories and lessons. I look forward to letting everyone into our little life in Montana.