DC

So when we realized Stacy lived just 3 hours south of DC, we thought it would be cool to visit her and visit our capital.  Especially since I’ve never been there.  This summer is a little crazy for both Zach and I.  We scheduled this triip back in May…with Zach’s co-director pregnant and due at the end of July, we knew any trips needed to be June or early July.  And then we thought, WOW, we could spend the 4th of July in Washington, DC!  How cool would that be? So that’s what we scheduled, tenatively the DC part, but definitely the VA part.

As always I panicked and stressed myself out about driving up there.  What if we couldn’t find parking?  What if we got up there and it was too crowded and we didn’t even get to enjoy ourselves?  What if…What if…  I really need to stop playing that game.

Well…we left early on the 4th to head to DC.  We arrived around noonish (I think) and found parking right way.  Made our way to the Metro to find that we didn’t need to take it, but the Station Manager allowed us to walk through it to get to the other side.  It was pretty neat down there (Okay, yes, your right, I’ve never ridden a subway) and Zach kept going on about his game “Fallout 3″ that he plays.

When we got out of the Station, we followed the ice cream carts to the mall.  We on the end near the capital and ran right into the end of the 4th of July parade.  We decided to by-pass watching the parade and head towards the castle, which I never knew was even in DC.  Turns out it’s the hub of the Smithsonian.  We got a map so we wouldn’t be lost and wandered around the castle and then the mall which had some really neat festival going on.  The tent we liked the most was the Welsh dancing.  Had we been there sooner Stacy and I would have joined in.

We eventually made it to the security check point to get into the Washington Monument and WWII Memorial, we had to unpack our bags and all that fun stuff.  Isaac really enjoyed the WWII Memorial, so we sat there a bit and by the time we got to the reflecting pool, they’d closed off the area to get ready for fireworks, so we decided to head back up the the Washington Monument, where there was a stage and music and hang out for a few hours.  Stacy wish she’d brought her book, but Isaac and I took a bit of a nap.  Stacy eventually went and bought some cards and we played rummy.  We had a slight mishab with dinner (too long of a bad story to share), but we did get free glow sticks.

Isaac had been sleeping for a good while when the bands stopped playing and it was time for fireworks.  He woke up just in time for me to change his diaper before the show started.  The fireworks started and we had to get some people in front of us to sit down because it was too hard to stand with Isaac.  He loved the fireworks…..and then he got hungry.  So he ate and finished up just in time to see the finale.  And what a finale it was!  By far the best fireworks I’ve seen and very cool to be in the center of our nation’s capital for it.  I now think that everyone should try to visit DC once during the 4th of July.  So much fun.

Now, getting back to our car was another story.  We were at the far end of town and there were THOUSANDS of people – most of whom decided to ride the Metro, which caused the sideway to be completely inpassable for a half a block down four different streets.  It was pretty crazy.  I pushed right through and Zach and Stacy held on.  Zach said that a few times people gave me weird looks like they were going to punch me and then they saw the baby and let it go.  Stacy and I needed to pee, so we went up into the building to use the restrooms while Zach put Isaac in the seat and got out of the parking garage.  We got back to the parking garage when Zach was just two cars away from paying – talk about good timing.

We found a hotel and crashed for the night, just to wake up and explore a bit more the next day.  We did a lot of walking and just moseyed around.  We wanted to was Night at the Museum at the Smithsonian, but we by the time we got there tickets were sold out for the day.  We had a great time and all want to go back.  Stacy is lucky that she can pull the weekend trip anytime she wants.

I’ll leave you with some photos:

Isaac and Daddy @ the Washington Monument – this was “our spot” for fireworks.

Isaac and Stacy:

My patriotic baby waving his flag:

Yes, I nursed Isaac all over DC.

Zach ended up wearing Isaac the second day for two reasons: 1. He wanted too, said he missed the little guy. 2. From my surgery and carrying him so much I was in a lot of pain, so needed some help.

Family Photo outside The White House:

Tunnels

Before I start this post I have to preface it with a few things:

• This is mainly for me, to remember, my sister will probably be pissed if she ever finds I wrote about this in my blog, as it quickly became and event we don’t talk about.
• I  love my sister!

A few other story related items:

• Stacy is extremely hard to deal with and grouchy if she hasn’t eaten in a while. This runs in the family, because my dad and I are the same way.
• Stacy drives what we affectionately call a “pop can on wheels.”

Last Thursday we arrived in Norfolk to visit my sister and her husband at their new house in VA. We flew into Norfolk instead of Newport News because it was considerably cheaper, but it turns out, in order to get back to their house, we needed to go through a tunnel (according to my sister, the only way to get to her house…we have since learned that there are a few other ways…one other tunnel, which happened to be flooded this night, so was not accessible to anyone).

As it was rush hour, dinner time and Stacy hadn’t eaten all day, and Joe wouldn’t be home until the next morning, we decided we’d try to find some food before heading across the tunnel. We used Stacy’s GPS to find a spot. I have to mention quickly that this GPS is a brand I’ve never heard of and after using it, Garmin and TomTom, I can safely say it isn’t quite as quick as, or as easy to use as the two I’d previously used, which caused us some problems down the road. We found a spot Stacy and Zach wanted to go and headed for it and a few minutes later Joe called to say that he was off work, but that he had to work on the 4th. Stacy wanted him to come meet us for dinner, because it is faster to go through the tunnel towards us than away. Long story, but we get to the place and it is only open for breakfast and Joe calls and tries to give us direction back to the house without going on the tunnel. Stacy is starting to get a little upset at this point and is starting to freak out. We head out, following Joe’s directions, but after several miles, we still haven’t found the street we were suppose to turn on, so we think we might have gone in the wrong direction. We decide to use “Ginger” to get back to the highway and just take the tunnel. Stacy is yelling by this point and when Ginger tells her to go around the block instead of making a U-turn she gets even more frustrated. She is driving fast and screaming and slamming the breaks. I’m truly scared for the safety of my son. I ask her to pull over, get some food at a gas station, fast food, anything. She won’t listen.

We see the highway and Stacy gets on, but going the wrong direction. Again, more freak out….she gets off the highway. I ask her to stop, to calm down. She turns on to a street and practically pulls into someones front yard, her butt hanging in the street. I don’t know how I thought quickly enough, but quickly turned off the car, grabbed the keys and got out. I took off down the street and Stacy had a bit of a screaming fit in the car. A truck headed down the street and looked quite puzzled by the car that was stopped in such an awkward way on the road. I didn’t know what to do. I had my phone and I contemplated calling 911. My sister was far beyond reasoning and I couldn’t allow any of us to go anywhere with her.

Thankfully, it didn’t take her long before she got out of the car, yelling, “Fine! There! Are you happy now? You get your way! You always get your way!” And she got in the passengers seat. I returned to the car and got in the drivers seat. I calmly turned on the car and turned around to get back on the highway. Stacy meanwhile tried to get Ginger to tell us where to go and turned the volume up. Earlier we’d played with the voice setting and she was now speaking Spanish, which caused even more problems.

We got to the highway and I spent an hour in bumper to bumper traffic driving a stick (NOT FUN!). Stacy calmed a little and we were able to have nice conversations in the car and we were on the bridge over water before the tunnel as we watched the sun set. It was beautiful.

The trip to Stacy’s house took us 3 hours….it took her 20 minutes to get to the airport to pick us up. In the end we ended up at IHOP, eating breakfast at 9PM.

Transformers

The new Transformers came out yesterday.  Zach REALLY wanted to see it in the theater and I just wanted to see it with him, but as our dependable, no worries babysitter just moved to Virginia, we didn’t know how we were going to pull it off.  I considered taking Isaac with us to a late night move in hopes that he’d just sleep….then I casually asked my mom if she’d be willing to come watch tv or a movie at our house so we could see a 10PM show.  The thinking is that Isaac would sleep the whole time and she wouldn’t have to really carry him around.  To my surprise she said sure….and even more surprised when she said she’d do it that night (last night).  Since we made this plan at 7:30, we had to get in gear.

8:00 – We went to get tickets.

8:10 – We ate dinner at Noodles.

8:35 – Zach got in line at the theater and Mom, Isaac and I drove home.

8:50 – Nursed Isaac.

9:10 – Put Isaac in bed.

9:11 – Fed dogs.

9:15 – Turned a screaming Isaac back to his back.

9:16 – Started first Transformers movie for Mom.

9:20 – Turned a screaming Isaac back to his back.

9:22 – Picked a screaming Isaac up from his belly and nursed him some more.

9:40 – Leave the house, Isaac has already turned to his belly, but isn’t screaming.

10:00 – Movie starts and I worry the whole time if Isaac ever went to sleep.

12:40am – All is quiet at home, but Mom informs us that the turning/screaming happened about five or six more times before he finally went to sleep.

6:00am – Isaac wakes up…Zach gives him a pacifier and he goes back to sleep.

7:30am – Isaac wakes up for food…..late nights are so hard.

I don’t know if I’m going to like this turning and moving all around the bed that Isaac started this week. It’s a bit scary and frustrating.

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On another note….I’m sad I haven’t been blogging as much. I’m sad that I haven’t updated my pages in sooooo long. I’m going to work on that. It might not be fast, but by the end of the summer, things should be updated and I should be blogging more. For now, I’ve got to get my portfolio done, get a project done, get packed for Virginia, figure out Zach’s birthday, stress about photographing a wedding and by mid-July I should be feeling pretty bored with nothing to stress about any more.

Straws

I have an amazing baby.  I know all mom’s think that, but really I do.  I get so many compliments on how good he is.

Isaac managed to go on a five day, four night, two airplane rides, LOTS of time in a car trip and only had one melt down for five minutes in a restaurant as we were leaving….he was tired and hungry, can you blame him?  Other than that, he was great.  The people on the airplane behind us didn’t even know I had a baby with me, and he only slept for maybe 1 hour of the 3.5 hour trip.

But really I don’t want to talk about how good he is.  Just the things he is doing and how cute he is.

Isaac has rolled over several times, but it always seems to scare him.  He also moves around like crazy.  It’s not unusual for me to find him turned around in his bed and at the opposite side than he started on.

He love to reach for things and try to figure them out.  It’s so much fun to watch his expressions and determination.

One thing he likes is to chew on my straws (especially red ones).  So I generally, will bend it so it isn’t poking his roof and let him gum about a half inch of it.  I didn’t expect him to learn to suck through a straw at 5 months, but sure enough.  Last Thursday he was “chewing” on the straw, when I felt the cold rush through my fingers and he suddenly let go and looked all shocked.  It was raspberry lemonade, so I’m sure it was quite a surprise! About 30 seconds pasted and he wanted the straw again.  It took him a minute, but he got some more lemonade and wasn’t quite as surprised that time.

Gallbladder

So last Sunday I had severe pain in my upper back that moved into my front right abdomian.  If you know anything about gallbladders, that is just about the most perfect symptom you can have.  It went away and since I was going to the doctor today, I figured I’d just add this to the list.  It happened again on Thursday, just not as severe.  Then last night happened….

At 9, I started to feel slight pains, but by 9:20, they were so bad all I could do was scream “Oh My…” as loud as possible.  It was bed time for Isaac and I was freaking him out…I tried to feed him a bit, but that was next to impossible.  We finally decide to go to the ER.  By the time we arrive, I feel almost normal.   I feed Isaac in case it comes back and we sit in the car.  After about an hour, I decided I’d rather go back home.

I was fine for two hours and decided to go to bed.  I slept only for one hour and then I was up….I decided to talk a shower around 3 and by 3:30 had thrown up.  I decided again, that it was time to go to the ER.  So we went and I was breathing so fast I was dizzy when we got there and they had to wheel me in.

After two hours, my blood test had come back showing some concerning things, and the quick ultrasound the doc could do showed petly of gall stones, but he needed one from a tech and they wouldn’t be there for three more hourse.  We decided to try to get some sleep.  It didn’t work to well for s, but it did for Isaac.  Grandma Cher came over and watched him (it was her first day with no job), while he slept and when Aunt Stacy woke up, she joined them.

I had an ultra sound down and sure enough lots of stones.  In an ultrasound your gallbladder should be black, mine was greyish white.  Two doctors determined it needed to come out, so I didn’t have much of a choice (I guess I did, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized these were not my first gallstone attacks).

Mom and Stacy dropped Isaac off, and managed to get back right when they were taking me into Surgery.  So they decided to take him to run their errands.  I mean, we are planning a wedding!

Zach came with me and I got all ready….they took me to the OR and next thing I know they are waking me up and I’m complaining my neck hurts.  It took about an hour for me to fully wake up.  Then they took me back to my room where sleepy Zach was waiting to show me my cup of gallstones!

Everyone says I look great (considering the circumstances) and I am in good spirits.  One stone managed to escape and get in the main line from the liver to the intestine, so tomorrow, they are going to wipe me out and put a scope down my throat to go get it out.  Yippee!

I have four small incisions along my rib cage and they pulled the gallbladder out through my belly button.  I really only feel pain there.  Mom and I walked around for a bit and I was able to brush my teeth.  It been over 24 hours since I’ve eaten…so I’m looking forward to being down with the scope tomorrow.  The doc came in at 9:30 and said I could have liquid, so that was my first liquid since 3am…..nice apple juice, but after midnight I get nothing.

Isaac has been doing okay.  He hates bottles, so we’ve been trying to feed him when we can and give him his sippy with milk…he did okay, until tonight, luckily they said I could feed him after I pumped and dump….so we did that.  He is sleeping.  I’m going to bed….as soon as I go pee.

Thanks for all the well wishes and concerns.  I’m already feeling better with this darn thing out.

Graduation

My Kid graduated this last weekend.  I’m so proud of her.  I got a peak at her grades the other day when I was helping her with her resume, and man, they looked good.

After graduation we had a party at Mom and Dad’s house.  It was small, but good and tiring.

Growing

I haven’t posted in forever….people said that would happen when I had a kid, but it’s not really the kid that is keeping me from posting.  It’s the school work….this semester has been rough, but it’s almost over and then just one more semester with one class and I’m graduated! YAY!

Isaac is growing.  And it only seems fitting that I merge the story of his life (and before life) into this blog, so watch for that to be happening.  He is four months old and quite an Irish cutie.  He loves Mommy, Daddy and Aunt Stacy…others get smiles from time to time, but they aren’t generally allowed to hold him or he’ll fuss.

Our family grew with Isaac and it’s about to grow again when Stacy has her wedding in June.  What a crazy life!

Spiders

I don’t generally drink out of open containers. I like lids and most of the time straws. I don’t know where I picked this up, but I continue because I don’t like dust in my water!

Since i’ve been breastfeeding I keep a BIG plastic cup with a handle near me to drink when he is nursing. It doesn’t have a lid because it needs to be more convenient than the lidded cups I have.

Well, now I will be looking for a big lidded, handled cup because I found a spider in my water! Gross!

Eight

Today marks the eight year anniversary of Zach and my first date.  The entire story can be found in My Love Story.

Eight years is a long time.  We’ve grown up and changed so much.

Eight years ago…

• I was 20, he was 23.
• I was a Christian, he was not.
• I was working on my undergrad, Zach was living life.
• I knew nothing of the real world, Zach seemed to know everything.
• Zach was living with his dad paycheck to paycheck, I was living with my parents and had money to spare.
• Zach went our to the bars every weekend, I’d never had a sip of alcohol.

We were looking for changes in our lives.

Our lifestyles mixed into one.  I’d finally found someone who I could be honest with and not be afraid of being laughed at.  I trusted him to respect me-and he did.  Somehow he brought back the carefree little girl I’d once been.  Others had tried to change me….but the only one who did was the one who accepted me as I was-no contingencies, no rules.

Eight years.  It seems like forever ago and just yesterday all at once.

Zach -

Now, more than ever, I value everything you are and who you allow me to be.  You are the best husband a girl could ever wish for and you are going to make an amazing father in a few weeks.  I’m miserable at expressing my feelings, but know that no words can describe my feeling for you and the security you give me.  Everyday I’m more amazed and can’t imagine my life without you.  Thank you for being you and loving me.

I LOVE YOU!

Snowflake Kisses

Last night we finally had our first snow.  For us Coloradian, it’s been a long wait.

Last night I slept with a smile on my face.  Why?  Because I sleep with the window open and the snowflakes kept landing on my face.  They weren’t cold.  They weren’t wet.  Just a bit of mositure on my face, like little kisses.  Godly kisses.  It made me peaceful and happy.