Good News

Well, it looks like its true ....

WE ARE MOVING TO


Samuel had his interview on Tuesday morning (amidst all our hospital stress) and found out yesterday that he has been accepted! Yay! We will actually not live in Baltimore itself because the city is supposed to be pretty seedy. We're looking around Elkridge and Ellicott City. There is actually a city called Severn too, which is tempting just because my bro-in-law is named Severin and I think it would be funny. Anyway, since we'll be students there is no way we can get a mortgage, so it looks like we'll be renting. It will be so bizarre to go from having a 2400 sq ft home with a huge yard to a 1200 sq ft apartment with no yard at all. I'm not exactly looking forward to that part! Any advice on how to handle the change? I guess this means we'll be putting our house on the market pretty soon, too. Bad timing in the economy, but what choice do I have? I'll just add selling the house to my list of things to stress about. :)

ps. God loves me. I was so upset about my flowers being frozen in the snow all Sunday and Monday, but when I got home from the hospital on Thursday all the snow was melted, the flowers were still alive, and a bunch of new ones bloomed. See? He sent me flowers. Isn't He the best?!

Home at Last

Well, after spending from Monday to Thursday at the hospital, we were finally discharged this morning near noon. Seara still has a low fever, won't hardly eat, and spends a good deal of time moaning, but she is feeling a ton better than she was on Sunday and Monday! Her kidneys were cleared - they were inflamed from the UTI, but not infected themselves, so there is no kidney damage. Phew! We got home from the hospital and she went straight to sleep for about three hours. She is exhausted!! Hopefully we're on an uphill slope!

Seara Update

The good news is that Seara is feeling much better today (so much so that now being in the hospital is mildly irritating because she is bored and wants to take the IV out!) The bad news is that her fever was still going strong late last night and she's being pretty drugged up. We took another blood draw this morning and her CRP levels (the ones that are supposed to be under 3) dropped from the 30s down to 19. So she is still having a lot of inflammation, but luckily she is improving. She is eating a bit better - today she ate 3/4 of a banana, a cup of fruitloops, and a couple animal crackers. That's it for the day, but better than nothing at all. Her urine culture so far looks like a pretty standard UTI (urinary tract infection), and tomorrow we'll know what meds to give her. The doctors won't discharge us until her fever is down for 24 hours, so we'll be here another night. I'm crossing my fingers that we'll be discharged tomorrow morning!

ps. Seara hates everyone in the whole world now. Just an FYI in case you see her. I mean, she was already pretty introverted, but now she goes ballistic any time anyone gets within 7 feet of her. I mean really ballistic. The nurses and doctors actually warn each other at each shift change. That's how bad it is!

pps. You'll notice her IV is set at 20mL/hr. If you know anything about IVs, that is really low. She was at 120mL/hr when we checked in, 65 mL/hr until a little while ago. Now we're monitoring how she does without the IV liquids. Cross your fingers!

Our needs ...

Thanks Denise - I'm sitting here in the hospital, feeling both bored and stressed, and this provided some much needed relief!! So just do a google search with "[your name] needs" ...

Janae needs someone to talk to (um, true)
Janae needs to go and do something (okay, also true)
Janae needs constant interaction (I'm starting to get scared now!)
Janae needs a sister (look out mom, you may just have a surprise on the way!)
Janae needs an outlet for her failed marriage anger (Google tells the future too!)

Samuel needs to be watched at all times while you are home (mischievous guy)
Samuel needs to be watched carefully every minute of the day (he keeps getting worse!)
Samuel just needs a little getting used to (but no worries, you'll get used to him)
Samuel needs YOU to play polka (well, go ahead ...)
Samuel needs fifteen women in stilettos to complete construction. If you can't get dancing girls, mushrooms will do. (huh? I was worried until the mushroom part.)

Life just got a bit more stressful ...

Last Thursday Seara had a fever. Not too high, maybe 100*, but no more. Well, it lasted on until Friday and then Saturday. Saturday around lunch time she decided that she was done eating and soon after that her fever started getting worse. Sunday she refused to eat at all (although she did drink some juice) and she spent the whole day completely lethargic on the couch. That afternoon her fever went over 103* and she started screaming, going completely stiff, and shaking every time she urinated. I gave her Tylenol, which put her to sleep and an hour later she woke us in a complete sweat, but the fever was broken. When she refused to eat on Monday morning I decided enough was enough and I took her to the doctor. My suspicions turned out to be correct - she has a urinary tract infection. The doctor took a urine sample to send to the lab and gave her an initial shot until we find out exactly what is going on. Then he sent us home with some warning signs to watch out for to see if it spreads to her kidneys. I guess any kidney infection is really bad, but in children they can cause irreparable damage at best and death at worst. Well, by 5pm that night we were checking into the hospital. They took a blood sample, put in an IV because she was starting to get dehydrated, and did an ultrasound of her kidneys. I spent the night with Sease while Samuel took Elijah home. Well, this morning the doctor came back with the ultrasound results and blood sample results (we get the urinalysis tomorrow). The infection has spread to her kidneys, but so far they are only inflamed. There is no urinary reflux, so thus far they are working correctly. The inflammation is pretty bad though - I guess normal levels are under 3 and hers are over 30. And, unfortunately her fever is still between 102* and 103*, so we'll be here until at least tomorrow. Hopefully by then her fever will break, the inflammation will go down, her kidneys will be cleared, and we'll be discharged! I'll keep my fingers crossed!!

March 08 Movie

I want to CRY!!

Maybe its the farmer gene showing through, but I love plants, trees, flowers, anything that grows. So, when I planted my bulbs last spring I couldn't wait for them to come up. I waited all winter, and as soon as February arrived, checked nearly every day for a sign of them popping through the soil. When they did finally show face, I took pictures and blogged about it. Last week my sweet little flowers began to bloom. I took pictures of that too.



Each day more and more flowers blossomed and I was thrilled! In fact, yesterday Samuel and I spent from 9am to 7pm weeding, tilling, mulching, planting, weedwacking, edging, sweeping, and getting our yard in pristine shape. It looked amazing, especially with all my colorful little flowers.

And then I woke up this morning. This is what I saw ...


By the time the snow stopped, my flowers looked like this ...


DEAD. They are all going to be DEAD. I'm trying really hard not to cry. I am so upset!!

BYU Baseball

Since I have pictures of us attending football and basketball games, I figured we'd keep the trend and add a picture of us at a baseball game too! We went last Saturday, March 22nd. The weather was beautiful and our seats were awesome. This was by far the best type of game to take the kids to, as well. We had such a great time!

ps. wow, my hair looks short. I still don't recognize myself. I want to say that it looks lopsided because the wind was blowing, but I don't know if that's true. I may just have a lopsided head!

oh, YEAH!!

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. I really couldn't. If you were around me during my getting pregnant, giving up my Master's, post-graduation stress, you'll understand.

See, during my last semester of college, my Children's Development professor shared a study put out by _________ (fill in big school name here ... Harvard, Stanford, I don't remember) that showed that stay-at-home moms actually decreased in intelligence during the time they stayed home. Now, you'd think that since we're at BYU she'd be sharing that to refute its claims. No. She said it was true - and then pulled out one of those IQ studies that show that while your IQ is stable over your life time, it actually fluctuates depending on the life circumstances, and that the lowest point for mothers is during the time that they are staying at home with their children. (Her point was that while motherhood is wonderful and divine, we need to continue to develop our minds while we are at home. But I think I missed the point at that time.)

Okay, so I was already worried about becoming stupid, but this just made it worse. Now I was petrified. So there I am, a university graduate, nursing my little two week old, and reading Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, and every news outlet I could possibly access (this is when my love of the news began). All in an attempt to stay somewhat intelligent. But, I kept getting pregnant (heck, come July I will have a 2 year-old, 1 year-old, and a newborn!) and we all know how forgetful and dopey pregnant women are. So, now I've pretty much reached the point where I try not to think about this stuff.

But then I saw this on someone's blog ... and I couldn't resist. Its supposed to tell you 'what level of education is required to understand your blog'. I kept telling myself, "If you're at a middle school level, you're okay. If you're at a high school level, you are smart. You're fine, Janae. You're fine." So I did it and up pop the results:

YES!!! I am a freaking GENIUS!! I mean, post-graduate?! Dang. You guys are becoming more intelligent just by reading this thing! :)


--------------------


Well, if you're worried about me being proud, worry no more. I was just deflated a bit. Demoted to Cloud 7. I don't know why, but I decided randomly to check my older sister's blog to see what level she is at. I guess I'm not a genius. I didn't realize there was a genius level, but now I know there is. Maybe I should put bigger words in my post. How about this one: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. It's a lung disease that you get from inhaling the small particles of dust found in volcanoes. I knew that off the top of my head (and I can pronounce it too, thanks to hours of practice as a 14 year-old). Take that, Cara! :)

ps. Adding the word didn't work. Blast!

And you thought my hair was a doozy ...

This just might be our new home:


Two Thursdays ago Samuel read about this innovative Master's program that combines a degree in English & Communications with a degree in Design. The next day (Friday) we researched a ton into the program. On Saturday we filled out and sent his application on line. On Sunday we got an email from the program director requesting an interview (luckily he can do it over the phone). On Monday we got his transcripts send from BYU. And last Tuesday we sent the rest of the application materials (resume, letter of intent, etc.) Now we're just waiting for his interview - it is in one week. If we don't get it, no big deal, but if we do, it looks like we're moving to Baltimore this fall!!

Prepare to be SHOCKED ...

I can't help but just stare at myself. For hours. I really can't help it. And I feel like my head is floating off my body, it is so light. Because guess what I did for St. Patrick's Day ...


Yup, I chopped it. All of it. Okay, not really ALL. Just most. Like nearly two feet. I actually sold it. For $1075. Here is one of my ad pictures:



And here I am now ...


See! Can you blame me for staring?! I think I am still in denial. This is NUTS!

Teenagers are Weird

This is my friend Krishele and I (and our girls):

We look pretty normal, right? I have been friends with her probably longer than anyone else in the world except my family. We met when I was about 10 -- when my family finally settled in Sandy after years of living internationally. We were pretty much on and off best friends (best friends in 5th, 7th, and 11th grades; friends in 9th, 10th, and 12th; hardly talking in 6th and 8th). We went our separate ways for college, but when Samuel and I got married we happened to move in to the same complex that Krishele lived with her husband Jason. We've been dear friends ever since (no more off times now that we are past puberty! :)

The reason I am posting all this is because I recently ran across two pictures of us. The first one is in 7th grade. We are in the hallway of our middle school. Yes, we went to school all day looking like that. No, I do not know why. Maybe she does. (BTW, let me interject that she looks a lot dumber than you realize.)



Unfortunately, we didn't change too much. This picture is of us during our Senior year. We are at the Smith's grocery store. With the boys we were dating at the time. (I don't know where the pictures of them are, but they look dumb too. Although I think they only looked dumb because the girls they liked told them to.)



Can I just say that I am relieved that there are no current pictures to follow suit?! Okay, so the question is, what dumb things did you do as a teenager?

I know, I know, but I LOVE Austen!!

"You are Emma Woodhouse of Emma! You like being the queen of your social circle (small and provincial as it may be), and feel it's your duty to help those less influential than you. You often meddle in the affairs of others, though you do it with a pure heart. You are often deluded in your flights of fancy, but your good intentions and creative spirit make you someone anyone could like."

Well, I could have told them that! A handsome, down to earth suitor; in love with relationships; nosey but well-meaning; a busy body who loves people and parties. Yup, that's me.

Samuel is SOOO pleased

The last two and a half years have been frustrating for Samuel. He tried again and again to get Seara to take up drawing, but Seara was always more interested in lining up and organizing the crayons than she was in actually coloring anything. Well, in the last month Seara has finally discovered a fascination with drawing. And Samuel is elated. Hopefully at least one of his kids will inherit his artistic talent! (And hopefully they don't get my artistic dopiness. I once drew a picture for Samuel to prove I can't draw. I tried really, really hard to make it look good, only to have Samuel comment, "You drew it badly on purpose." Sadly, I did not. That's how bad really I am.)


Anyway, until now Seara has just scribbled. But today we had a break through! She drew the above picture and then told me, "Snowman!" Can you see it?

Its nearly Spring ...

See? Those are my tulips (or maybe they are daffodils. I don't remember which I planted where.) Yay, yay, yay!! From now until Tuesday the daily high in my area of Spanish Fork is right around 50* - some days up to 55*. Hallelujah!!

Return & Report: Part 2

1) Run six races - I have run one time - and I only went one mile. Bad news since I am running the 5K at the Rex Lee Run on March 15th. Ooops. I really need to stop procrastinating!

2) Stretch six minutes before bed - Still doing it every night - although a did miss a few times when I had the flu. Folding my stomach in half just didn't seem like a great idea at the time.

3) Read the BOM six times - Oooh, now THIS one I am proud of! Not only did I finish in time (see my first Return & Report), but I actually finished my first read a day early. Now I'm in to the Portuguese BOM. Its really messing with my Spanish!

4) Read six church books - I finally started ... I'm just a couple chapters in, but at least I started!

5) Go to the temple each month - Check!

6) Read a book each month - Another check. I read The Five Love Languages and I'm on to The Screwtape Letters.

February 08 Movie

See - I KNEW God loved me!

RIP
My Pink RAZR
September 14, 2006 - February 14, 2008

I guess a lot of you know this by now, but my dear old pink razr has gone the way of all the earth. About two weeks ago I woke up one morning and my phone was off. Bizarre. I never turn my phone off. So I turned it on. A few hours later it was off again. And for a couple days it would just randomly turn off every couple hours. But never during a phone call, so I was safe. After a few days it wouldn't stay on for more than a couple minutes, but I could still turn it on, and it would never lose calls. Then suddenly it wouldn't turn on unless I plugged it in to charge, waited for the 'charging' thing to come up, and then turned it on (even if the battery was fully charged). Soon it would just randomly drop calls. And, as of a few days ago, it won't turn on at all. Blast. But, never fear, God will interfere!



Two days ago Samuel's brother Paul came over and asked why I never answer my phone. I told him, and he proceeded to tell me that a while back a friend of his gave Paul the friend's phone. It was practically new and in fabulous condition, they just didn't like the phone. So, Paul offered it to me. He didn't get a charger, but I could have the phone. Miracle of miracles - it was not only a Verizon phone, but it uses the same charger as my pink razr. So today I changed it over to my phone and my number. YAY!!!

ps. Obviously I have to start my phone book from scratch because for some odd reason, Samuel doesn't have any of my important numbers in his phone. Go figure. So, to all my dear friends, call me so I can get your phone number again!!

So I'm Weird. Don't take it personally.

Maybe I ought to check everyone's blogs to make sure none of you made these mistakes recently. If you did, I don't know it. Don't take it personally. I may think you're stupid, but I don't hate you. :)

Okay, so does it bother anyone else when people spell or say things incorrectly? Honestly, does it? Here are some of my pet-peeves. What are yours?

Grammar
LOSE/LOOSE - You don't LOOSE weight, but if you do LOSE it your clothes will be LOOSE.
OOPS - You do not spell it OPPS. That would be 'AH-ps' not 'OO-ps'.
IT'S/ITS - IT'S means 'it is'. When something belongs to it, then you say ITS.
CHILI/CHILE - You eat CHILI, you visit CHILE.

Speaking
NUCLEAR - George, the word is not Nu-CU-LAR. It makes me nervous that the leader of the free world who actually has Nu-CLE-AR capabilities cannot even say the word correctly!
SHERBET - Bert is a character in Sesame Street, not a part of the ice cream-like dessert. You pronounce it Sher-BET.
OFTEN - Okay, okay, I do this one. But those of us who pronounce it 'of-ten' are actually wrong. The 't' is silent, you should say 'OF-EN'. Unfortunate, but true.
TIJUANA - You pronounce it TI-juana. They aren't talking about Aunt Juana. (For those of you who do not speak Spanish, 'tia' means aunt.)

ps. Lissa, I know you'll notice if I have typos ... please tell me if I do! How embarrassing to post about being irritated with misspelled and said words, only to do it myself! :)

It's a ...

Ha!! Did you really think I was going to tell you the gender?! :) We did have our 20 week ultrasound, but we told the ultrasonagrapher at the hospital that we didn't want to know the gender. We asked him to take a picture of it and then we'd seal it up in an envelope just in case. But, after he was done doing all the standard measurements, he spent five minutes just trying to get a gender angle. Finally he told us that he wasn't having much luck getting a good shot - and that he didn't even know the gender of the baby. He said we could try for another few minutes and see what happens, but I told him not to worry about it. We wanted the baby to be a surprise anyway.

Truthfully, neither of us are all that anxious to know the gender, anyway. We have one of each, and both my kids are still so small. We have all the stuff we need, so why not? I couldn't have ever done this before, and I don't know if I could ever do it again, but this time everything fell in place. So, if you want to know the gender of the baby, wait until the 4th of July!

Things I Never Say

Why is it that we choose to talk about some things, and others we simply never mention? For example, why is it that most of my family doesn't know that I have some friends living at my house ... like my little sister Lissa, who found out when she came over and there were strangers just hanging out here. Isn't it funny how we all are??

Well, I'm not sure why I haven't mentioned it before, but here you go. I have friends living in my house. They've been here over a week, and will be here at least another month or so. We met Cavin and Angie Vach when we lived in Wyview (an apartment complex at BYU). We parted ways soon after we met (they went to Seattle, then Mesa; we went to West Valley, Provo, then here in Spanish Fork). Angie and I have emailed and called back and forth periodically for the last two years, so we've kept contact.


About three weeks ago Angie called me in a panic. Cavin had applied for a job here in Utah and gotten it (yay!) but the company wanted him up here by February 11th (two weeks from then). See, they problem was that they not only have a 17 month old son, Braden, but Angie was pregnant with a girl, due on February 14th. She talked to her doctor and convinced her to take the baby early - on January 31st - but she was going to have to pack up their entire house with a very active toddler and a brand new baby, all while recovering from a c-section. Then they would have to face a 13 hour drive from Mesa, Arizona up here to Utah. And they would have no where to live. Well, duh. Of course she would live here until they found a place!! So they arrived here last Saturday, February 9th. They've been trying to house hunt, but life hasn't been so kind. You think this last paragraph sounds bad. It gets worse.


Well after just a couple days here, Braden got a terrible flu. He vomited and vomited, and what he did get down came out as diarrhea. Then, on Thursday (Valentine's day), Cavin and Angie got the same bug and spent the entire day sick in bed. On Friday they felt a bit better, just well enough to rush their newborn to the hospital when she turned blue. She had her lungs pumped and various tests run - thank heavens it wasn't RSV - and she was discharged a few hours later. By Saturday Braden still wasn't keeping anything down and that afternoon he was admitted to the hospital because he was so dehydrated. He was there most of the day and only got discharged late that night. So now its Monday, and Braden is still having diarrhea, and Angie and Braden have terrible head colds.

All this time Samuel, Seara, Elijah, and I have come through relatively unscathed. Samuel feels a bit flu-ish, and Seara and I have colds, but what we have is mild compared to them. I feel so bad for Cavin and Angie, though. I sure hope life doesn't keep heading downhill for the two of them!

Shhhhhhh!

Just a quick - and silly - note. You know how in a post a few days ago I talked about Seara going around the house singing letters and their sounds? Well, she just improved that song by personalizing it. Now she goes around singing, "the mommy says shhhhh, the mommy says shhhhh, every letter blah blah blah, the mommy says shhhh!" The question is, do I really?? Because at home I pretty much let my kids be as loud as they want. Maybe it comes from church on Sunday? I bet I 'shhhh' them a lot there!

And I just have to throw this in. Think Mom=Janae, and Calvin=Samuel. :)

February 29th

Does any one else feel like February 29th should be a holiday of some sort? I just feel like we should have a party every February 29th, especially since it only comes every four years. That makes it special, right? But what kind of party should it be? It kinda feels like a Friday the 13th - so kinda bad luck/spooky? But then it is also so close to Valentines and Spring, so maybe something more happy and fluffy? I need ideas. Suggestions. Comments. Anyone?

Talking Personalities

For my book club this month we are reading The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. I had left the book out on my desk, and this morning as I was cooking breakfast Samuel picked it up, opened, and began reading in the middle of the book. He chuckled at the part he happened to open to, and then read it aloud to me:

"When it comes to talking ... I have observed two basic personality types. The first I call the "Dead Sea." In the little nation of Israel, the Sea of Galilee flows south by way of the Jordan River into the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea goes nowhere. It receives but it does not give. This personality type receives many experiences, emotions, and thoughts throughout the day. They have a large reservoir where they store that information and they are perfectly happy not to talk. If you say to a Dead Sea personality, "What's wrong? Why aren't you talking tonight?" he will probably answer, "Nothing's wrong. What makes you think something is wrong?" And that response is perfectly honest. He is content not to talk. He could drive from Chicago to Detroit and never say a word and be perfectly happy.

"On the other extreme is the "Babbling Brook." For this personality, whatever enters into the eye gate or the ear gate comes out the mouth gate and there are seldom sixty seconds between the two. Whatever they see, whatever they hear, they tell. In fact, if no one is at home to talk to, they will call someone else. "Do you know what I saw? Do you know what I heard?" If they can't get someone on the telephone, they may talk to themselves because they have no reservoir. Many times a Dead Sea marries a Babbling Brook. That happens because when they are dating, it is a very attractive match."

Does anyone else think that is as funny as we do? Recognize those two talking personality types? :)

Super Tuesday

Tomorrow is D-day!! I have been anxiously awaiting this day for nearly a year now. Yes, I am obsessed with the Presidential Primaries. To a degree that is nearly unheard of. If you only knew!! For those of you who are unaware, Super Tuesday is dubbed that because 24 states are holding their primaries. It is likely that all of you will also be voting tomorrow (or you darn well better be!) So, for those of you who are curious about who Samuel and I are voting for, read the following (laugh out loud hilarious) article:

The Elephant in the Room by Ann Coulter

ps. In case you care, my second choice is Hillary, Sam's second is Obama. Bring on the hate mail! :)