Blueberries

Book worm

Today I finally got a library card. We were not supposed to be in our current location this long so when I was childless so I just didn't bother. After Evan was born I kind of just let it slide and went to used book stores to get my reading fix. I figured since I had so little time I would end up paying a fortune in late fees any way. Don't ask me why I suddenly decided to get one but I did. Here is a list of what I got at the library because I know you all are dying to know.

• Magic Street by Orsen Scott Card. He is a writer that I very much admire. I have gotten to know him better through several websites that he runs. This book is one of his newer offerings and I am excited to finally get a chance to read it.
• Cell by Steven King. I have been a fan of Steven King since I was a teenager. When my grandmother died she had several Steven King books in her collection and my father decided to keep them. I really enjoy his stories and the creepy elements they have in them. I used to get books on tape and listen to them at night when I was supposed to be sleeping. I only checked out a Steven King book on tape once because after listening to Misery in the middle of the night in the dark I got too scared to continue listening.
• Einstein by Michael White and John Gribbin. I figure that since my son loves Baby Einstein so much I may as well learn more about the man. I am a huge science nut any way and the face of physics was changed by his theories.
• Parenting by Proxy by Dr Laura Schlessinger. I want to see what the fuss is about with Dr Laura. I have heard interesting things about her so I had to go and see for my self what all the hype was about.

As you can see I will be busy for a bit making my way through my reading pile. Back when I was a teenager this time of year I would be spending the bulk of my time reading. That list of books would have lasted a mere week at the most. I devoured words with gusto. I really miss those lazy days some times.

It is finished

Today we had a short but good visit with the GI doctor today. After talking over the issues with her we decided to stop all tube feeds. If he looses weight it will be obvious proof that he still needs the extra nutrition so the insurance company will not be able to say boo to us. Neither of us think that he will loose weight though. Evan has transitioned nicely from tube feeding to oral eating.

It is going to be so strange not hooking him up to the feeding pump tomorrow morning. He will miss his daily dose of Baby Einstein. I will now have to figure out what to fix him for breakfast every morning. My morning blog time will be cut short because he will not be stuck at the table for an hour every morning.

The best feeding transition was when we stopped night feeds. No more having to wake up in the middle of the night to shut off the incessant beeping of the pump. No more hearing beeping on a medical show and running upstairs thinking that the feeding pump was going off. You would be amazed at how often you hear beeping when there is none. We also said good by to 20 pound diapers in the morning with that transition.

All in all it is going to be nice to be free from the feeding pump. It has been our companion for two and a half years but it is time for it to go.

The heat is on

Well I am starting to feel more human now that the worst of the heat is over. The high on Saturday was 105 and the high on Sunday was 104! I do not deal with heat well at all, there is a reason that I do not want to ever live in an area where it is that hot on a regular basis during the summer. When I was a kid and we lived in Oklahoma the heat would cause my nose to bleed. I am so glad that we only lived there for a short time and then moved to wonderful Washington land of incessant rain.

I think that Sunday was the worst. Because it was the Sabbath, normal heat beating things like eating out and going to malls was out. You would think that three hours in church would help since the building has air conditioning. Sadly the air conditioning seems to only work in one room which is where Sunday School was held. I had just enough time to cool down and feel human when we had to move on to the chapel for Sacrament meeting. Harry had been acting up during Sunday School but I was not leaving that room with it's glorious coolness for anything short of a full on scream fest.

We ended up leaving shortly after the Sacrament because I just could not endure the cranky kids in the heat. It was just too much. Instead I spent the time partially submerged in icy cold hose water with Evan in the wading pool. My husband could not fit in the pool with us and Harry was in dream land. It was heaven.

I am melting

It is still freaking hot. That is all I have the brain power to write. Here are some cute Harry pictures to take your mind off the heat.

Noooo!

Harry is not listening to me! I have told him that he is not allowed to walk until he is at least one year old and look at what he does.

Oy!

It is fricking hot! My brain is melting and the kids are not napping so I am wiped out today. All I have to keep cool are some lame fans and a kiddy pool. I am praying that this horrible heat wave will end sometime soon. My husband does not see why I want to spend time at the beach where it is much cooler and the water is nice. I am going to ditch him and have fun with one of my mommy friends while he is wearing his hot uniform at work. Haha sucker! That is one of the few perks of being a stay at home mother.


These are pictures of Evan at the beach last year. They were taken days apart. Isn't it amazing how fast the weather can change? I don't have any beach pictures from this year because we haven't gone!!!! Grrr!

Wow!

At my husband's suggestion I am recording this for posterity. My husband actually mopped the kitchen floor. He forgot to put the chairs back, but I will take what I can get.

Some fun

Your Hair Should Be White

Classy, stylish, and eloquent. You've got a way about you that floors everyone you meet.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

You Are 30% Weird

Not enough to scare other people... But sometimes you scare yourself.

How Weird Are You?

My facade

I am the strong one. I don't get upset or worried about things. I take life as it happened, never letting things throw me. I am generally a pretty mellow person. I don't really let too many people get a peek into the real me, preferring to keep people at a distance.

It truly shocked me when I actually got queasy when I tried to call Evan's surgeon to talk about a date for his surgery. Thank goodness the surgeon's assistant was not there because I don't know if I could have talked to her.

I had thought I was prepared for this surgery. I knew it was coming long ago. It has been an unwelcome presence always hovering in my mind when I made plans for anything. I should be glad that it is happening soon because that means it will be over that much sooner and then we can all get on with life.

I am not happy that the surgery is looming in the near future. I am scared that something could happen to my wonderful son. When he had his first surgery we were still in shock at finding out that our first born was not the perfect little baby that we had imagined. We really had not been given a chance to bond so my feelings pre surgery were not nearly as strong.

The second time around he was still a little baby but his personality had started to emerge. I had also joins a few online support groups for parents like me. I had heard about all the scary things that could happen. Several children were lost in the month that preceded Evan's second surgery so I was very much on edge. He made it through the surgery but then a week after he was out of the hospital he had his stroke.

Now Evan is a toddler. He is no longer a baby. He has wants and needs that he can make known. He loves playing with his cars and being outside. His favorite food is fish. He loves being on the go and playing outside. He is a very real person that I have gotten to know so well in his two short years on this earth. It is going to be the hardest thing I have ever done to leave that operating room with out him in my arms and trust that everything will end up fine.

The squiggler

This is Harry's unusual crawling method. He never puts that knee on the floor he just has it sticking out like that. I suppose that is better than what Evan did which was a butt scoot that made him look a bit like a monkey.

Harry practicing his yoga positions.

He is already getting into things. I now have the lower row of the toy bins devoted to him.

Evan is actually pretty patient with Harry's toy stealing ways.

I see it, it is mine!

Almost there.

Sucess!

Don't push the button!

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Who died and made you king?

I have been feeling very grumpy of late and I am finally ready to get it out of my system. Friday I found out that my insurance company has decided to no longer pay for any of Evan's feeding supplies. They think that due to the fact that he is only on one can a day of Pedisure that they should not have to pay for any of it now because it is obviously a supplement and not a major source of nutrition. Grrr!

Why is it that they get to decide when my son has been on the feeding tube long enough? The reality is that it should be his GI doctor and me that make the final decision, not some pencil pusher in an office that has never even met Evan. If they had met him they would be so charmed by his cuteness that they would give him anything that he wanted.

Luckily we already have an appointment with his GI doctor scheduled in a little over a week. I had anticipated that we would be stopping all tube feedings at that time so I am not fighting the insurance company right now. We have enough extra supplies to eek our way through the week. If the decision is to not stop the feeds then all hell will break loose.

I have to say in the insurance company's defense they are generally pretty good about paying for things. Many of the people that I know that have kids with feeding issues can't get any type of formula for their kids covered because it is considered food. I am rolling my eyes right now. I do take issue with the fact that my insurance company will not cover the cost of us seeing a nutritionist. You would think that they would cover that kind of thing for a kid with a tube but they don't. They don't cover the cost of any one seeing a nutritionist.

Follow up

I am in trouble

Harry has figured out how to get from a laying down position into a sitting up position. That means he can squiggle and squirm his way into things now. He is also getting up on all fours and doing the rocking thing that comes before crawling. I also noticed him trying to pull up on the side table. I am so screwed!

Change of Shift

My post made it into Change of Shift which the nurse version of Pediactric Grand Rounds. Check out all the great submissions.

A mommy brag

I dread the thought that putting this out there for everyone to read will ruin things but I just have to brag. I have the best toddler ever. Evan is so great, he actually listens to me (for the most part) when I tell him to do things. He can sit, lay down, throw things away, put his clothing in the dirty clothing hamper, and put his toys away. He had a wonderful personality. Temper tantrums are rare and generally only happen when he is tired or needs to eat. In short he is a joy to be around.

I think that this is to make up for how rough his infantcy was. He was and always has been a good kid but everything else was hard. I was a new parent with an infant that needed special care. It was not easy but little by little things got easier and now they are amazing. Everyone that interacts with him agrees with me.

What brought this brag on was that I have been letting him out of the shopping cart to roam around stores during some of our many shopping trips. Harry has gotten so good with his sitting and is so heavy that I like to let him sit in the cart now. That leaves poor Evan to either sit in the basket or walk. Hearing the horror stories of kids running around the stores and breaking things made me hesitate before I let him loose. I was also hesitant because I was not sure that he would have the stamina to make it through an entire trip.

Evan as usual surprised me. He likes to look and tries to tough some of the items but will listen to me when I tell him to stop. He does not stray too far from me. If things get too out of hand with the touching I just hold his good hand and he can't touch anything else. I just hope that this good behavior keeps happening and does not disappear by the time he becomes a teenager.

Secrets

I went to the grocery store today to pick up a few extra things. I went to one that I don't normally go to because this one is the closest to us that carries the kind of yoghurt that I give to Evan. While there I decided to do a bit of an impulse purchase and pick up some popsicles. While wandering down the aisles I happened to see some Haagen-Dazs bars (dark chocolate with mint ice cream). I just had to get them too.

I get home and put things away. Our freezer is packed full of stuff so the ice cream bars had to come out of the box to fit in the freezer. Some how they ended up behind a bunch of things so that they were not readily seen. I was not trying to hide them honest! Sadly my husband that rarely digs through the freezer had a craving for the vanilla ice cream that had been in the freezer for weeks but was recently consumed by Evan and I. He then proceeds to just browse the contents of the freezer and find the ice cream bars.

Is it bad that I was secretly disappointed that he found them?

I am not a nurse, but I play one on TV

I had an interesting experience last Friday. We had a big group of my husband's family over and as we were headed in to the restaurant for dinner I noticed my sister-in-law rubbing something on to her son's hand. She was putting some antibiotic ointment on a cat bite that he had received a day or so earlier. His hand was swelling and looking pretty red so she was getting worried that it could be infected. I told her that we had some things at my place that she could use to try and head that off. Neither of us wanted him to need a trip to the doctor.

Back at home my brother-in-law was eager for me to look at and treat his son. His reasoning was that since my mother was a nurse some how that magical nursey knowledge had rubbed off on me. Sadly his logic was seriously flawed in that my mother is not actually a nurse. My sister is a nurse but she became one after I had moved out of the house so none of her knowledge transferred to me by osmosis.

What I had going for me in this situation was years of first aide training, a love of biology and the fact that my son had his heart defect. I used a sterile needle to lance the area that I had left over from Evan's last round of Lovenox injections, which is something that most people do not have just laying around. I knew that puncture wounds were nasty because the bacteria gets pushed into the bottom of the wound and then the skin will often close up over the wound causing boils and other icky things. I had learned all about the fun things that bacteria does in my college biology classes. That is what led me to decide that lancing it would be a good thing. I then doused it with some betadine that I had saved after my rabbit had needed for an open wound that she had developed. My training in first aid is what led me to want to keep it through several moves so that it would be handy for this kind of use.

I have been pondering what I want to do when I grow up. My experiences with Evan and now this have really firmed up my belief that maybe nursing is the way to go for me. All signs have been pointing to Yes lately. I guess now all I have to do is figure out when I will be able to get back to school.

My nephew did fine with the lancing. His hand looked better the next morning and by the time they left late in the afternoon all the redness was gone.

Some fun photos

We have had a pretty busy weekend. Saturday was the temple, which took all day. Evan ended up tripping while we were gone and getting a nice shiner. I told people at church that asked about it today that he got into a fight.

Speaking of church, we actually managed to make it through all three hours today. This has been a hard thing to do this year because our time changed from going at 9am to 12:30 in the afternoon. This happens to be right at Evan's nap time. He is pretty good for the first two hours which he is in nursery for. There he gets to run around and play with toys. During Sacrament meeting he is confined to a single pew and he is excessively tired from all the running around. Usually a melt down ensues shortly into the meeting. Today we managed to jolly him along with fruit snacks and dried cherries.

After we got home we had a little fun in our kiddy pool. Well we had fun in it until I discovered some mosquito larva in the pool. I hastily drained it and will have to come up with a way to cover it. I do not wish to have my back yard turn into a breeding ground for blood sucking pests. Pool time turned into marker time. I think that Evan wants to become a tattoo artist when he gets older. He even decorated Mommy's legs. Luckily Mommy is smart and has the new washable Crayola markers so the decorations washed off in the tub.

Typical

We just got a phone call from my mother in law to finalize the details for a family event that is happening this weekend. My husband's grandmother will be going through the temple for the first time on Saturday. This is a very exciting event for the family.

The frustrating part with this is my husband's eldest brother. He was coming and then he wasn't and now he is. He is flying into Big City on Friday morning and taking the airport shuttle to our town. Does he call us and see if we (meaning me) will be available to pick him up and take him to our house? Nope! How do we even find out about this plan? My mother in law. Is he lucky that I don't have anything planned for the morning and can pick his ass up? Yep!!! I have toyed with the idea of telling him that he is going to have to walk the few miles to our house but that would be mean. I may change my mind however.

As I was venting about this with my husband a new wrinkle came into my annoyance. He is staying with us! Did he ask us personally if he could stay with us? Nope!!! I had been planning on everyone getting hotel rooms so now I have to go and fold all my laundry so that the spare room is clean enough to sleep in. I guess I know what I will be doing tomorrow while the kids are napping.

Happy Fourth of July!!!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday. I know that we had a ton of fun today. We started the day off at a Boy Scout pancake breakfast. It was a camp fundraiser. I must say that they put a heck of a lot less effort in to it than the girls did for their fundraiser. The pancakes were not even cooked fully so they were not very good. We went to the grocery store and got doughnuts after we left because we were still hungry. We saw a few people that were at the pancake breakfast doing the same thing.

The rest of the morning and afternoon was spent at home. We grilled some steaks and had a nice dinner. Later in the evening we went to the house of some people that we know from church. They invited a ton of people to come and watch the fireworks from their house because they have front row seats from their lawn. To see them otherwise would have cost a lot of $$.

Both of the kids were entranced by the display. Evan's favorite word is wow, so he already had the vocabulary to express his delight. Harry got a bit scared at the end when there was a lot of loud bangs. Both boys were extremely tired when we got home and went right to bed. Tomorrow is back to the grind stone.

It is nice to have a chance to reflect on how lucky we are to live in this country. We have a lot of freedoms that many people can only dream of. We also have a very good standard of living in this country. I am glad that I was born here and get to enjoy the great things that this country has to offer.

Fun Links

I have wandered across some interesting places online and I thought I would share some of them with you once a week.

1. Here is a website with fun paper toys.
2. This is a fun yet challenging archery game with blood to spice it up. My husband and I had a blast playing against each other, it is a great way to get out secret aggressions.
3. I have finally learned how to fold a fitted sheet. Now that I know how, I wonder why it took me so long to figure it out in the first place. I don't feel too bad though because my husband still has not gotten it. He just wads them up and stuffs them somewhere.

I hope you have enjoyed my first edition of Fun Links. In case you were wondering I found all these links thanks to StumbleUpon.

Pediatric Grand Rounds

Pediactric Grand Rounds is up. My favorite submission is this little gem.

Time travel

In this post we are taking a trip down memory lane.

I was pregnant with Harry so I was a hormonal mess. The first anniversary of Evan's stroke was fast approaching and I was very worried about his continued lack of progress with his left hand. I was feeling worried about Evan's delay in talking as well. Needless to say I was a wreck and questioning every little thing I was doing, worried that I was some how ruining Evan's chances at a "normal" life.

The big reason that I was so obsessed with Evan's lack of progress with his hand and the approach of the first anniversary of his stroke was that I felt that time was running out. When Evan was in the hospital for the stroke the Neurologist had assured me that it would only take a year for all the effects of the stroke to be invisible. All it would take was physical therapy. The silly thing was that I actually believed him, so when things were not progressing I blamed myself for not pushing Evan harder.

To add to this stress I had visited a friend a few days earlier. Her son is also in physical therapy and the appointment started while we were there. I saw the therapist eying Evan and told her about his stroke. She then did an impromptu evaluation and started telling me about electrical stimulation therapy. She told me all the wonders it did for children like Evan and how I could be selling his future short by not trying it. I was not sure that I wanted to try something like that with Evan but her tone was such that I would be a bad mother if I didn't try it.

In the midst of this turmoil Evan had an appointment with his pediatrician for a well child check up. I ended up pouring my guts out to the pediatrician, expressing all my worries. My fear that some how I would ruin Evan. My feeling of being overwhelmed with the new baby and my having a lot on my plate with Evan. Dr. D was amazing. He managed to calm me down and ease my fears. He helped me feel like I was a competent caregiver again.

I have to say that I have been very lucky in my choice of pediatrician. I picked him out from a list that my OB gave me. I didn't interview him or anything but I sure managed to pick a winner.

It is paranoia if there are really people out to get you?

My husband is a complete and utter wierdo sometimes, well actually a lot of the time. He is totally convinced that some how I have done something to one of our computer games so that it favors me over him. Chuzzle is a fun but simple puzzle game. It is best played when tired because if you over think moves you don't do as well. I of course am frequently tired so I tend to do well.

We have the full version on our computer which means that our high scores are recorded for all to see. I bet you can guess who owns the high score board. My husband can briefly get on it now and then but I am able to quickly stomp that score down. I think the competition makes me a better and more motivated player.

We brought the game with us when we were on vacation and my husband swears that he beat my high score on my parent's computer. That is the basis of his claim that I have tampered with the program. As if! First off I am in no way a computer programmer. I would not know my way around the code. It has tempted me to look online to see if there are cheat codes for this game. I would love to really mess with his paranoid mind.

More Pictures

Harry with all his aunties.

Harry checking out the goats at the petting zoo we visited

Evan feeding the goats. He thought it was super funny when they ate out of his hand.

Evan in jail with his Auntie. I am not sure what they did but I am not bailing them out!

Evan's shiner. I had a hard time getting a good picture of it because he wanted to play with the camera.

Evan's first pony ride. He was annoyed that I was holding his hand until the ponies started moving. He did get pretty tired of it after awhile and it took a bit of persuasion to keep him on for the entire ride.

Pictures from our trip

Hanging out on the hotel bed after a long day of travel.



The make shift IV stand that we had to make do with in the morning so that Evan could have his tube feed.



Checking out my parent's living room. Evan tried to roll the cannon replica but it was way to heavy for him to move. He had to try though.



Harry enjoying the Jumperoo that Evan was playing in last time we visited Grandma and Grandpa.



Evan trying to chase the geese at a local park. He even had fun throwing the bread that we used to feed the geese. Some were cheeky enough to get very close to us.



Honk! honk!



Evan getting ready for the Scottish festival.



Evan playing with the beads that were passed out to festival attendees. He didn't even have to lift his shirt to get them! What you can't tell from this picture is that it is pouring rain outside and Evan is actually walking on a table top. We had a wild time.



Harry trying to eat his Auntie.



The knee was too big of a bite so he went for the nose.



"Hmmm, maybe instead of being eaten I should turn the tables and eat him!"



One of the ratlings. Evan adored them but they were not too sure about Evan.



There are more pictures but the kids are awake from naps so I will post more later.

Blah

I have been feeling out of sorts lately. I have been wanting to write an entertaining post but when I started one last night I got interrupted by my husband. He just had to have the computer (it was an hour before he normally goes to bed) to get some studying done for an advancement test that he was taking today. What totally floored me was his rude way of demanding the computer and his lack of preparation in general. We had just gotten back from a nice long vacation and he had not studied a bit while we were gone despite the fact that he had emailed himself the address of the test preparation link before we left. He had to wait until just before bed time to cram for the test.

Needless to say I am grumpy this morning and doubtful that he will pass the test due to his lack of preparation. This is not the first time he has done something like this and I find it very irritating that he makes his lack of preparation my fault. He will even try and blame his lack of study time on the kids, claiming that he HAS to take care of them. Oddly enough when I was getting dinner ready he was playing a computer game instead of watching the kids or studying. It kind makes you go hmmmm.

Vacation is over

My husband, being the macho man that he is decided that we would try and do the drive home in one day. We managed to do it suprisingly. Even with all of our stops we made super good time and the kiddos were pretty good.

I has been very weird coming home. This is the longest that I have ever been away from home in a really long time. I am glad that we took the time to clean before leaving so that we came home to a spic and span ant free home. I am already missing all the free babysitting that I got. This was a true vacation because I actually got a nice break from caring for the children for 24 hour every single day.

Utah was starting to grow on me again. It really is not such a bad place. Sure it is a bit behind the times but there are a lot of friendly people there and the shopping was excellent. It was also fun visiting some of the places that my husband and I used to go to when we were dating. I know that Evan will miss my parent's backyard and his Auntie's rats.

Tomorrow we will be back in our old groove. The one thing that I am super glad to have back is our DSL and our computer.

What a day

I have a head ache. Today we did a two hour drive to spend two hours with my husband's grandmother and stepgrandfather. We had the same conversation over and over with his grandmother (she is getting senile) and I had to stop Evan from dragging around the 102 year old grandfather. Evan has developed a very annoying habit of taking the hand of any handy adult and leading them to places, generally places that he should not be going. Harry in the mean time was spitting up on me and refusing to nap.

Once we finally got home I had a horrible headache that was later cured by advil. Sadly that cue did not last because Evan puked on me in The Olive Garden. My mom had decided that she did not want to cook so we went out to eat. I was giving Evan sips of my frozen lemonade. He coughed a lot after one drink so I stopped giving him sips for awhile. Sadly I had a horrible lapse in judgment and at the end of dinner gave him one last sip. He coughed so hard that he ended up puking on me. That is when the headache returned.

I didn't do a Father's Day post on purpose. My husband has done his typical thing of ruining a nice time. We had a wonderful anniversary which included a stay at a bed and breakfast. It was heaven not being awoken by a crying child. Later that day at his niece's birthday party he acted like his two year old son and is now in the dog house. But hey I will always treasure that morning of sleeping in.

Five Years

Today is my fifth anniversary of my marriage to my husband. Time sure flies fast. It seems like yesterday that we were nervously waiting for the ceremony to begin.

It was a crazy day that started early. I was super excited and scared so I did not sleep well that night. The morning was quickly filled with a flurry of last minute things that needed to get done. The flowers needed to be picked up, my hair needed to be one, the tent for our reception needed to be set up in my parent's back yard. Before I knew it was time to leave for the ceremony.

I rode with my husband to be because he had the room in his car to carry my dress. We followed my parents in their van. On the freeway when we were almost there we saw them swerve around something. We did not have enough time to do the same and ended up hitting a metal object. Running over this object caused a flat tire. My husband, in his suit, had to change his tire on the side of the highway.

We were late getting to the Salt Lake Temple but they built in a lot of leeway time. My husband to be had gotten his shirt very filthy so he ended up having to borrow one. Once we got all dressed and ready we were ushered into a very beautiful waiting area while our family was settled in the sealing room. It was amazing looking around and realizing that everything had been done by hand.

Soon it was time for the ceremony. After the words were said that bound our lives together for eternity my mother started crying with joy. I started crying a bit too. It was kind of strange knowing that now I was not just me any more but I was now a wife.

We had a ton of pictures taken, our photographer was great. We sent the rest of the family on ahead to our wedding dinner because we wanted some extra shots of just us. That turned out to not have been the best decision because once we got into the car and on our way to the dinner we got caught in a horrible traffic jam. The freeway was backed up for miles. We tried getting off and taking the back roads but by the time we got out of it so much time had passed and it was no time for our reception.

I had decided to go cheap so our reception was in my parent's back yard. I had not actually even wanted one since neither of us had grown up in Utah but my husband's grandma had decided to schedule the family reunion on the same weekend as our wedding so that more family could come to it. He had a very odd assortment of relatives let me tell you but it was pretty fun. My husband's stepgrandfather who is now over 100 was there cracking everyone up.

It has been a frustrating, wonderful, frightening insane and loving five years. I am glad that I picked my husband as my partner. He is a very good and kind man and I am lucky to have him.

Randomness

That accident that stopped traffic on our way over had three fatalities including a pregnant teenager. I am feeling sad about the fact that I was so annoyed with the whole incident. People died and I was merely inconvenienced. It really makes you think. If we had left any earlier it could have been us in that accident.

Evan now has a shiner thanks to his cousin. We went to my husband's brother's house to spend a bit of time with them. We are not too fond of them and the life choices they make but we are cordial. Evan was playing with his cousin when the cousin took Evan's arm and pushed him into a rocking chair. He apologized after but I was still a little gumpy about the whole incident even though I know that when you get two toddlers together things like this happen. It also looks so bad only because of Evan being on blood thinners.

My sister-in-law makes me feel like an over protective parent. I was getting very antsy when Evan wandered off with his cousins in the yard. I try not to obsess but I just feel so much better when I can see him. I did give Harry a toy that had fallen on the ground much to my SIL's chagrin so I guess I am not too obsessive.

Tomorrow I go to get my hair chopped off. I am very tired of having Harry grabbing my hair and it is so hot during the summer that I like to have a shorter cut.

But it is a dry heat

I am dying here. I have never enjoyed warm climates so one would think that I would be wise enough to avoid the heat of summer in Utah. My dislike of heat started when I was young. We lived a few years in Oklahoma and I would get horrible nose bleeds in the summer if I was out in the heat of the day.

My parents have air conditioning but because they want to have the smallest possible energy bill they keep it set at 80 degrees. I sympathize because our first married apartment had central air and we had some huge bills just cooling a two bedroom apartment but I am also secretly wishing that they would crank that sucker to 60 degrees. What really kills me is that my sisters are wearing sweat shirts and huddling under blankets because the house is so "cold". Maybe I am just wired or something but there is no way that I am feeling the least bit cold right now.

To make things worse, normally bone dry Utah is being very humid because of the thunder storms that have been happening on and off all day. The humidity only adds to my misery. I think that if we ever moved to the south I would be in big trouble. I have decided that I am probably only going to be perfectly comfortable in Alaska. Nice cold winters followed by reasonable and short Summers. The next best thing to that is the wonderful Northern California weather.

On Vacation

Isn't the internet wonderful? We are in Utah on an extended vacation yet I am still in the same place online. I won't be able to blog too much or read my favorite blogs because my parents have sucky dial-up internet. Plus they have an awful computer that has a horrible monitor. All the websites I go to are wonky, all the colors are different. The pictures that are on the computer look pixelized. The keyboard needs to have the keys hit harder than I am used to so I keep messing up with spelling.

The drive over here was quite an adventure. We took it in two days because I wanted to take it easy on Harry since it was his first long trip. In Reno we go behind a guy that had a pick up truck filled with household items that were improperly restrained. One rug that came flying down the road almost took out the car in front of us. The next one hit us, luckily it hit low so instead of blocking our windshield it went under the car. I was annoyed when we finally managed to pass the idiot because I saw him busily chatting with his passenger and not even paying attention to the accidents he almost caused.

We stayed the night in Battle Mountain Nevada which is known as the arm pit of America. I can't say I disagree with that assessment. There wasn't much there. The mattress in the motel was rock hard and we ended up with a room that had two double beds so sleeping arrangements were a bit tricky. Evan slept in the bed with me and Harry ended up with my husband. I think my husband got the better end of the deal because I woke up several times with my bottom hanging out of bed because Evan had pushed me over.

We thought we would get an early jump on the day. Sadly only a few miles out we ended up being stopped in traffic because a semi took out two cars and it blocked both lanes going east. We were at a stand still for a good hour before the highway patrol moved us off the road and on to the frontage road to bypass the accident. Shortly after we were stopped I heard Harry grunting. Then the smell of the diaper hit me. I didn't want to chance changing it in case traffic suddenly started moving again. The smell got too bad so I finally ended up doing a super quick change in the middle of stopped traffic. We put the diaper in the trunk so it could get nice and ripe when we later took out our luggage at our destination.

The kids did pretty well on the trip. Evan did much better than Harry. Harry would not sleep for anything but was obviously tired. I ended up having to give him some Benedryl to help him sleep. Evan was happy as long as he had his Baby Einstein videos playing when he started to get cranky. Most of the time he was happy just watching the cars out of the window.

I am tired but very glad that we will be sleeping on a nice pillow top mattress. Tomorrow we go to see a park with ducks in it, Evan is going to be thrilled.

But will it bloom?

My husband got some orchids about a year ago. A coworker was giving away part of his collection and my husband got two plants, kind of on a whim. My husband is a huge plant lover so we have an odd collection of greenery. He just can't seem to pass up a new or different plant. I was doubtful about the orchids since I was not sure we had room for them or even a place with half way decent lighting.

My husband finally convinced me that we should put them in our room with an old fish tank acting as a bit of a terrium (fish tanks are another of our hobbies) to help keep the humidity up. I was very hesitant since I was not sure that there would be enough light and I just was not sure that he had the finesse that it took to even grow orchids in the first place. I had witnessed my mother kill many orchids before she found her groove with them so I was pretty sure that these would bite the dust.

I was looking at them today as I was packing up for my vacation and I noticed that they were putting up flower spikes. That showed me that my husband, despite my doubts, had the orchid touch. It is not difficult to just keep a plant alive, if they have the bare minimums they will cling on to life. The true test is if you can get the plant to bloom. That shows that the plant has the right amount of every thing and has the energy to reproduce. I am excited to see the blooms and I am happy that I was wrong about my husband's endeavor.

Evan's heart FAQ

I have had a number of people ask me questions about Evan's heart defect so I thought I would do a FAQ so everyone could get to know his heart better.

Q: What defect does Evan have?

A: There is no real name for his defect because he has several different ones. As you can see Evan has a number of different things going on with his heart. His main defect is his single ventricle so that is what he is usually classified as but his is a little more complicated than most single ventricles.

Q: Will he be having any more surgeries?

A: Yes, he will be. In mid August or early September Evan will be having the completion of his fontan (this is discussed in the link about single ventricles), that of course is if his remainder of his ventricle wall is not causing issues. If that is the case then he will be having another surgery at a yet to be determined time. Evan will also have to have surgeries to replace his pacemaker. Right now because he is so young and his heart rate needs to be higher than an adults the pacemaker battery will not last as long as it will when he gets older. At the rate he is being paced currently the pacemaker will last roughly three to four years. Of course the surgery for that is very minor compared to open heart surgery so it will not be as huge of an ordeal. There is also the possibility that he may have things pop up unexpectedly and then all bets are off. Update 1-23-07 Evan sailed through his surgery and had only minimal complications. His pacemaker had to be replaced sooner than anticipated because the surgery caused swelling which made the pacer wires have to use more electricity to work which drained the battery. Now we are concentrating on file with out surgery hanging over us.

These are the main questions that I have been asked. If you have one let me know in comments and I will add it to this post.

A game

This is an artist's (Evan's surgeon) rendition of Evan's heart at birth.

This is an artist's (me) rendition of a heart.

How many differences can you find? I will post the answer later and discuss how unique my son really is. The Answer