A New Year and A Look Back At The Old One

What a year! Our baby boy turned one, I became pregnant and gave birth to our beautiful daughter, we started the year in a new ward that we love, Dave was called to be the Elder's Quorum secretary (are we really growing up?), I taught Valiant 11 (thanks Dave for all your help while I was pregnant), our niece Heidi was born, and after over a year of trying, Dave was finally able to start his pharmacy experience. Life has been good to us. A year ago we moved into our new apartment, which has been such a blessing. It's roomier and rent was considerably less than our old apartment (not to mention way nicer...love central heating and air conditioning). Heavenly Father has blessed us greatly. We could never be thankful enough for the blessings that have been poured upon us.

This next year is going to be exciting. We get to watch our little girl grow and develop. By the end of this next year I'm sure we'll be looking back and saying, "I can't believe how much she has grown." Our son will be growing as well, and we look forward to seeing what he does this next year. This next year we will have our first experience with the dreaded terrible two's. I hope it's no worse than the tantrums Jaron throws already =) Dave will be applying for pharmacy school this summer. We're getting closer to moving on to the next season in our life. Neither of us are transitioners...so it's really scary and exciting all at the same time. This next year we will be adding two new nieces to our family. Dave's brother Will and his wife Nancy are expecting their daughter Eva in March and my brother David is expecting his daughter in February. I can't wait to see what else the new year brings!

excerpts from "The Manual for Beginning Sith Apprentices"

Lesson 21: The Lightsaber

At this point in your training, you should already have received your new Sith lightsaber. "What is the difference between a Sith lightsaber and the Jedi version of the same?" you ask? Nothing really. They both work the same, just the blde is red instead of blue, green, white, etc. You will receive hands on training from your Sith Lord, but one word of caution must be given: Be careful where you swing that thing. You wouldn't want to lose an arm or an eye or anything. But you might protest that they can be replaced. Rightfully so; however, under strict decree of a synod of Sith Lords that took place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, any apprentice removing their own limb, accidentally or otherwise, will lose lightsaber privileges for 6 Coruscant months. One final note for those apprentices anxious for a promotion: just remember, the only way to be promoted is if your master gets killed (wink,wink)

Happy Birthday To Me!

Today is my birthday. Yeah! I'm a whopping 28, only 2 years away from 30. I guess that makes me a grown up, but I still feel like I'm about 20. I'm not doing anything special today. I'm getting sick, my husband is sick and comatose on the sofa, my son is getting over being sick and is currently wiping his runny nose in my hair, and I'm hoping my daughter's cough and stuffiness does not get worse. We were planning on going to Sacramento for Christmas, but if Dave does not get better or I get worse, we'll be staying home this year. I guess it's a tradition for me to be sick on my birthday, I can't really remember a time that I wasn't. So I'm going to do a little reminiscing and put down some other thoughts.

4 years ago I got married to my wonderful hubby, feels like I've always been married to him (in a good way) and like it has not been that long all at the same time.

10 years ago I was a senior in high school. Wow! I can't believe it's been that long.

I thought I would be done with school by now. I was 2 years away from getting my bachelor's degree when we found out I was expecting our son. I planned on still finishing on time, until I realized that math (my major) and pregnancy brain do not go well together. It will be a while before I will be able to return to school. Dave is 3 semester away from Pharmacy school, which he needs to be completely focused on once he gets there, so finishing will need to wait. I need retake my lower division math classes again to refresh my memory before I can continue on, and I can't do that and finish before he moves on to grad school. I don't mind waiting, I just worry that if something happens to Dave, I won't be prepared. I know what I'm doing now is what Heavenly Father wants me to do, I just need to have faith that everything will work out.

Jaron is 21 months today. I can't believe he is 3 months away from turning 2. I looked at some pictures of him from a year ago last night. I can't believe how much he has grown. Just a year ago he was not walking without holding on to objects and now he is running everywhere. His hair is longer and he looks so grown up. Where did my baby go?

Lara is 6 weeks old today. Wow, how time has flown by. She is growing so much and I just want to hold on to the memory of where she was just a few weeks ago. Where did my little (sort of) baby go?

Stressing Week, etc.

This week has been a little stressful, to say the least. It started out with it being finals week. All of last weekend I spent working on my take home final for Abnormal Psych. 4 case studies needing full reports of history, assessment, differential dignosis, multi-axial diagnosis using DSM-IV format, and discussion of theoretical perspectives. That ended up being over 12 pages and didn't get finished til Monday night. Fortunately it wasn't due til wednesday. Unfortunately I had a final on Tuesday that needed some serious study time with. Fortunatley I didn't have any finas on Monday. Unfortunately we wasted a lot of time at the Picture People getting Lara's 1month portraits done because the staff there was incompetent (explained more later). Tuesday was my Perception final, I felt comfortable with it, and got a decent grade. Tuesday night I needed to put some serious study time in for O Chem, the final was Wednesday. Fortunately, he provided a review session Monday evening that helped a lot. Also, the American Chemical Society makes a final exam available if teachers wish to use it that is entirey multiple choice but covers both semesters of O Chem, not just the second semester. My teacher gave us the test he wrote on wednesday and on thursday when he graded them, emailed us our scores so we could decide if we wanted to take the ACS final on Friday to try to improve our grade, no penalty if we do worse. Fortunately, I passed the class so I didn't need to retake it on Friday. Thursday I had a final for my Marriage and Family class that I wasn't too worried about, and someitme during this this I had to take a final for my online Econ class.
Monday was stressful because Corrina had a dr appt, then we went to the mall to have Lara's picture taken. It was gonna be a one hour wait so we went to the food court to get some lunch. They take the pictures and say its gonna be a haf hour wait to see the photos. It had been 45 minutes and no one had even acknowledged our existence. We needed to leave so I could go to the review session. Just as we were leaving, someone stopped us and asked if we had seen our photos yet. We said no but we have to go and they tried to tell us they could do it right now, ut we REALLY had to go. (we were so upset at them) While I'm at my review session, they post the photos online, but Corrina sees they only posted a couple poses and none of what we wanted so after I got home we rushed back to see if they had deleted the rest already. They had. It was ridiculous. They said they could snap some more for us right then, we told them exaclty what we wanted. (full body shots so we could see her whole blessing dress) As they were showing the new round, there was a shot where her face was really cute...but it was just a portrait no full body. We asked if they had cropped it from a full body (they do that sometimes, its digital). They said no, they took it like that. What the Freak?!?!?!?!?! we said full body only! The inefficiency and incompetence was overwhelming. So they took one more round, but by that time, Lara was tired of being molested, it was late.
Friday we took the 2 hour drive to Sacramento because Corrina was having a baby shower on Saturday. We were also dropping her mom off at her grandmas. So our car was packed to the brim. We had our air matress, Jaron's portacrib, her moms suitcases, our overnight bag, this that and the other, etc. If you remember my thanksgiving post, we had the same sleeping arrangements, the four of us sharing the small bedroom. But that wasn't the worst part. Jaron had his first trip to the ER.
Corrina's aunt had come over with her 2 kids, so there were 9 people in a small, three bed, 1 bath house. It was very crazy and very chaotic but Corrina's cousin was kind of playing with Jaron. As I was holding Lara, C's cousin says, "uh, I just found Jaron with this open bottle of medicine." I hand Lara to C and say "let me see that bottle right now." it was a half empty bottle of cherry flavor liquid adult benadryl and no one had any idea how full it was before J got it. I grab J and smell his breath, and sure enough it smells like cherry flavored medicine. I call poison control and tell them 4 oz are missing. Based on his weight and the concentration of the med, 1.5 oz would be toxic. They told us to take him to the ER immediately. While I'm trying to talk to poison control, C's mom says "I thought that closet had a lock on it" She siad the same thing earlier that afternoon when Jaron got into it and we already tod her it didn't (frustration) C's aunt was trying to tell me to taste the med b/c then I'd know if he drank it or not (if it tastes good, he drank it, if it doesn't, he would have spit it out - her logic) So I forcefuly tell her that its cherry flavor and I smell it on his breath I know he drank it. I so wanted to just yell at everyone to shut up. I also wanted to break something, that's how upset I was.
We take him to the ER, they tell us he will have to consume charcoal and be monitored there for 4-6 hours. I call my dad to ask if he would come and help give a blessing. I love my parents, they came right away and helped so much. Dad and I administered the blessing, then they went to get us some food because we hadn't had dinner. Then they went home to find clothes for Jaron to wear because on the way to the ER he leaked thru his diaper and his clothes were wet. My parents stayed with us the whole time, helping us keep Jaron entertained. C's and my nerves were fried, we got to the ER at about 7:30 and were gonna be there til midnight at the earliest. I'm so grateful for a father who is a worthy Melchizadek priesthood holder and who is willing to exercise his priesthood at a moments notice. I'm aso grateful that he carries a vial on his key chain. I've been needing to get new one and when I talked to him on the ohone, I forgot to mention we needed oil. Fortunately, everything turned out ok, but jaron's eyes were a little dilated when we left and we could feel tht he had a temperature, but the charcoal did its job. (getting it down him was an ordeal in itself, we wished we had the camera to take pictures of the mess). After the baby shower on Saturday, we were gonna drive back to Chico, but we didn't get on the road til it was already getting dark. Traffic getting out of Sacramento was horrendous and L was not a happy camper. J fell asleep quickly but woke up before we got home so most of the way we had 1 or 2 unhappy babies crying.
So that was our stressing week. On a plus note, my blog has gone international. If you've noticed the feddjit tracker, I have a reader in India (thanks, Shankar, you're the man). I knew Shankar when he was going to Texas A&M, Corpus Christi when I was on my mission and he cooked for us the best Indian food I had ever tasted. His conversion story was in the church news. I hope you don't mind, Shankar. I've always had the greatest respect for you.

excerpts from "The Manual for Beginning Sith Apprentices"

Introduction:

Welcome to the Dark Side and Congratulations on becoming an apprentice. This is your first step on a path that will lead to glory and Galactic Domination. This manual provides lessons that are essential in perfecting your skill as a Sith Apprentice. Let us begin:

Lesson 1, Using the Jedi Mind Trick for Purposes of Evil, not Good (level basic):

It is assumed that you have joined the Dark Side after already receiving some training in the ways of the Jedi. This lesson attempts to master a most basic skill in a manner more acceptable for a Sith. It is assumed that you already know how to use the Jedi Mind Trick, so this manual won't cover that portion. The setting for this lesson is the local Cantina. Enter and initiate a conversation with the bartender similar as follows:

"Give me a cold one."

"let me see some ID."

"You don't need to see my ID."

"I don't need to see your ID."

"It was rude to ask for my ID."

"It was rude of me to ask for your ID, you're clearly old enough."

"Apologize for your rudeness."

"You'll have to excuse me for my rudeness. It has been a long week and a lot of minors attempting to get drunk."

"This drink is on you."

"In fact, to make up for it, this drink's on me."

"A round for everyone."

Hey everyone, this round's on me."

You can probably get the picture and carry this whatever direction you choose. If you were successful in obtaining a free drink, Congratulations! You are progressing nicely down the path of the dark side. If you were not successful, are you sure you're cut out for the dark side? Better luck next time.

Code Blue, volume two

"Good evening and welcome to KRIS 6 news, Corpus Christi, I'm Maria Jimenez. Rick Gomez is unable to join us this evening, but a little later, we'll check on Ned Finlay in the field with an investigative piece on the cruel treatment of illegal aliens by the Border Patrol at the mid-valley checkpoints. But first, we're going to shoot it over to Eric Sanchez with the weather."

"Thank you Maria, and good evening Corpus. Today was another scorcher, with record breaking highs for the 15th day in a row. Today's high was a whopping 94. The highest record on value in the almanac is ten degrees less. And on another strange, record breaking note, at the same time of record breaking daily highs, we've been having record breaking nightly lows. This recent phenomenon has dumbfounded experts across the nation and it appears that its not just isolated to here in South Texas. Cities across the nation are reporting similar phenomenon. It appears it all started 15 days ago and meteorologists have no guess as to when the temperatures will stabilize. But if it doesn't happen soon, I doubt anyone will have a white Christmas this year. But for the immediate forecast, expect overnight lows across the valley to reach the upper twenties to low thirties, again, record breaking cold. However, the humidity level is unusually low as well, with a zero percent chance of rain. Tomorrow's high will be in the upper 90's and if things don't change, expect to hit the 100's by the end of the week. I wouldn't put away the summer clothes yet, folks. Maria, back to you."

"Thank you, Eric, now lets shoot it over to Ned in the field with a special report on the cruel treatment of aliens at checkpoints."

"Thank you Maria, but instead of that investigative piece, I have some breaking news that is happening as we speak. It appears that there has been some major seismic activity or other catastrophe in the area. But its been nearly impossible to discover the details due to conflicting eyewitness accounts and the unwillingness of anybody to go on camera. Some witnesses say that it was a major intensity earthquake while others claim to have seen something fall from the sky and that the impact is what caused the tremors. One witness, who refused to go on camera, appeared to be particularly traumatized by the event and could only repeat 'el diablo, el diablo'."

"Sorry to interrupt there Ned, but this is Eric in the weather center and the idea of an earthquake in the area struck me as odd. So I looked it up and I learned that in the entire history of seismic record-taking, there has only ever been 1 earthquake here in South Texas and that was back in 1997 in Alice, not to far from here. So this is a rare occurrence, whatever it is."

"Thank you Eric, I'm going to stay on location and bring you the latest developments in this matter. Hold on, something ... to happen. People ... starting to beco... frenzied..."

"Ned, it appears your audio feed is breaking up."

"...electromagnetic radiation...oh no!...never seen...what is...Run!..."

"Ned? Ned? Are with with us Ned? Ned, we've lost both audio and visual now. Is everything alright? Sorry folks, it appears we are experiencing some technical difficulties. As soon as we get this fixed we'll get back to Ned for an update. And now a word from our sponsor."

Jaron Hits Another Milestone

This morning we discovered Jaron knocking on his bedroom door. Sounds unimportant, right? The thing is he should have been in his crib. That's right, Jaron can climb out of his crib! Good thing we shut his door when he's asleep or I'm sure we would have had a lot more suprises. We thought maybe the pillow we put under his mattress may have given him enough extra height to make this possible, so at nap time I removed it. Sure enough, he escaped his crib as I was watching. Guess it's time for a big boy's bed. The great thing is we hoped he would be ready by the time we're ready to put Lara in the crib...yeah, we don't have to buy another crib. The not so great thing, he's fighting sleep again. When he finally fell asleep at nap time, it was on the floor in front of his door. It was so cute, I had to take a picture.

His foot was blocking the door and the room was dark, so this was the best picture I could get. We also have video footage of our little escape artist. I'm having issues uploading it, but once we work it out, I'll add it on.

Lara Is 3 Weeks Old and Jaron Has A Word

Today our Lara is 3 weeks old. It does not seem like it's been 3 weeks already. We weighed her today and she is now 12lbs 13oz. She'll probably be over 13lbs next week. We go to Mommy and Me classes every Tuesday and I see the other babies. They're older than her, but she is bigger (even bigger than the 2 and 3 month olds). I think to myself, "Oh, my babies will never be that small." Dave likes it that way because he does not feel like he's going to break our kids if he holds them.
Jaron finally has a word, kind of. We're excited. It was either Thanksgiving or the day after we got him to say, "Uh-oh." We're on our way to talking! It will probably still take a long time, but at least we have a start.

Thanksgiving

ah, the quintessential blog post about the most recent holiday event. thanksgiving is a time when families gather, share their gratitude one with another and feast til they're ready to pop. there is also the obligatory "turkey bowl" football game where family and friends (usually the guys whilst the women slave away at home preparing the feast) gather for some good natured competition, "rain or shine, preferably rain" as one person put it. for many, the day after thanksgiving is the most important shopping day of the year. so much so that it is called "black friday".


this thanksgiving, corrina, the kids, and i went down to sacramento to spend thanksgiving with corrina's family. her mom has been staying with us helping out so she also came with us. we were staying at corrina's grandma's house but one caveat was that her uncle was also staying there. this house has 3 bedrooms so corrina's mom and grandma shared a room, corrina's uncle got a room, and the four of us (corrina, jaron, lara, and i) got the third one. now i know how the illegal aliens in my mission that live in a one room shack feel.


on the way to sacramento, we dropped corrina's mom off at grandma's house and spent the afternoon with my bro wes and his family. jaron had a great time playing with his cousins. while there, wes invited me to his ward's turkey bowl the next morning. i was grateful for the invite but doubted i would be able to make it because of kids to watch. the next morning, at about the time it was supposed to start, i was going crazy because grandma's house is definitely NOT toddler proof and i was going crazy constantly telling jaron to stop and don't touch so i decided to take him over to the church so we could both get some outside time so we weren't cooped up in the house. i obviously wasn't planning on playing because of having to watch jaron, but it got us out. corrina asked if i could take lara, also because she needed to lay back down and mom and grandma were too busy preparing the food. boy was i surprised and grateful when i saw stephanie there with her kids, too. she TOLD me to give her the kids and go play, i didn't really have a choice :) wes' daughter was even saving a set of flags for me in case i did show up (at least, i think she was, they were for wes' team) i had a great time, jaron had a great time, and i will be forever grateful to my brother and his wife for making it happen.

thanksgiving dinner was good. the only thing missing was a fruit pie (we had pumpkin and sweet potato pie, and apple crisp, but not apple or cherry pie) there's not much else to say in the way of the food.
the day after thanksgiving, as previously stated, is called black friday because it is the day when many people do their holiday shopping with massive door buster sales, etc. this day is ridiculous. people camp out over night outside of major retail outlets to be the first ones in the stores when the door opens at 4am. these same people look at me funny when i say i go to work at 4 in the morning (go figure). the stores count on this huge crowds in order to get people to buy more than they normally would have. its kind of like the mob mentality, but slightly different. people are more apt to buy something because they think they better get it before someone else does. i thought the holiday season was supposed to be about good cheer and brotherly kindness, generosity and charity. i heard on the radio that a walmart employee in new york got trampled to death when the crowd forced the door open, BEFORE THE SCHEDULED TIME. then, the store tried to close down and tell everybody to leave so they could investigate and take care of it, BUT THE CUSTOMERS REFUSED. they wouldn't leave.i would have called in the swat team with full riot gear and tear gas grenades. that is ridiculous. how selfish were these people. they broke into the store before it opened, killed an employee in the process, and refused to listen to the manager (and maybe police) just to be the first in line to get a good deal on a tv?!
for many years i have said i would never step foot inside a major retail giant on black friday during their "door buster deals". leading up to it, corrina kept telling me about these deals at this store or that store, and my response was that no deal was worth stepping foot into a major store on black friday. corrina finally broke me and convinced me to go to toys r us to look for one single item shortly before the "door buster" time ran out (1pm) so i ventured, and as i figured, it was sold out, so i came home. i didn't fight the crowds, i didn't browse for other deals, i didn't even attempt to fight to find a parking spot. i immediately went to the back of the parking lot where i knew spots would be free. even at noon, the crowds trying for door buster savings was intense. i'm not sure i will ever do that again.

Lara's 2 Week Appointment

Lara had her 2 week appointment on the 25th. She weighed 12lbs 4oz and is 23 1/2 in long. I look at her and still can't believe how big she is. She looks like a 3 month old! The great thing about having a large baby, she sleeps between 4-6 hours at night already. Because she has already surpassed her birth weight and she is so big, her pediatrician said she's fine with Lara sleeping 8 hours at night. We looked at Lara and said, "Did you hear that Lara? Go right on ahead." She has not listened yet, but we are still grateful for the sleep we are getting. For those who are parents already...please don't hate me. The time will come that you will get that much sleep too. It's so crazy, at 2 weeks Lara is in size 3-6 month old clothes and size 2 diapers. We were barely able to finish using one package of size 1 diapers. The pediatrician thinks Lara will grow out of her infant car seat by 6 months. Jaron grew quickly too, but not this fast. We'll see if she slows down at six months like Jaron did. Looks like we better start setting aside money...we'll call it our Lara's growing to quickly fund =) I'll get a recent picture of her posted on here as soon as I can.

Anniversary

On the 20th, Dave and I celebrated our 4th anniversary. Because Dave was at school and had his internship at the pharmacy, and we have a new baby at home, we only went out to dinner. We normally go to a local restaurant called Red Tavern because it reminds us of a place we ate at on our honeymoon; but the last time we went there we had a not so good experience and we did not want to do that again. We thought about some other local places, looked at our budget and the time we had (nice restaurants to longer to eat at), and decided to go with the chain restaurant Outback instead. We both wanted steak...and it was surprisingly quiet. We had an enjoyable time and talked about how 4 years has gone by so quickly. So much has happened. We finished school at American River College and transferred to Chico State, I became pregnant with Jaron, we moved to Chico, put my education on hold after I had Jaron, we moved to a new apartment, became pregnant with Lara, had several different callings at church, and all sorts of crazy events in between. I could have never imagined being where we are at in our lives when we were first married. Have things gone exactly as when planned, nope. But I would not want it to be any different. We have learned and grown so much together. We try to remember that life is a journey, not a race. We'll make it to where we want to be when it's time, even though at times it seems like it's taking forever =)

So...just for kicks and giggles...here's my wish list for where I think we'll be in four years:

*Dave will be half way through pharmacy school
*Jaron will be in kindergarten
*Lara will be in preschool
*I'll be at my pre-pregnancy weight
*I'll be pregnant with baby #3...maybe
*We'll be past the 7 year itch...so married life will be a piece of cake (I can dream can't I) =)

response to video comments and code blue update

so i'm glad that people enjoyed the video i posted and i wish to take some time to respond to some of the comments left. the skunk seen in one of the first scenes was a logo on the tail fin of the plane because it was manufactured by the Lockheed Skunkworks, which, according to this article, is the official alias for lockheed's advanced development programs. the skunk works was responsible for such aircraft as the sr-71, u-2, f-117, and f-22. the sr-71, although not fully stealth, was designed in such a way to reduce its radar signature. the two most well known stealth planes are the stealth fighter (f-117) and the stealth bomber (b-2) both of these planes have full stealth capablities, as well as the recent f-22 raptor. the use of sharp angles and/or smooth curves was to refract the radar signal in direction other than the one it came so as to reduce the size it appears on radar. fully stealth aircraft also have special skin that absorbs the radar and at the same time reduces it's heat signature to make it almost invisible. you can follow the link to learn more and see a list of all the aircraft that have been made or are under development that have stealth characteristics. the song is "learning to fly" by pink floyd.

about code blue. when i first conceived the dialogue, i had no intention of going any further with it. but chris' critique was so positive, plus the fact he said he was excited for the next installment, made me think that maybe i could carry it forward. so the last couple mornings at work i had been ruminating about the story and where it could go from there and i have taken lots of notes on ideas and plot lines i could follow so be excited for the next installment of code blue.

Escape From Nursery

Dave dropped Jaron off at the beginning of nursery, and after Sunday School I felt I should go home to rest. We went to pick Jaron up from nursery to go home. Jaron was playing with some toys and had not noticed me enter the room. I was talking with one of the nursery workers when I looked over to the other door as Jaron was opening it and then took off (he's strong and fast...so it only took maybe 2 seconds for all this to happen). Dave saw him and grabbed him before he could go very far. Don't worry, one of the nursery workers saw Jaron and ran after him too. It made me laugh because as Jaron took off, another nursery worker said, "We have an escape artist." Then other kids tried to leave with him. Leave it to my son to instigate a "nursery-break."

success!!!!!!!!!!

as you can see by the video below, i have finally had success in posting this video off of youtube. this is an homage to one of the coolest planes ever, set to a song by one of the coolest bands ever. as you watch the video, you will see what looks like an orange space suit. that is the flight suit the pilots had to wear because the sr-71 flew at such high altitudes and at such high speeds. enjoy.

Jaron and Lara

Jaron meeting his baby sister

I wondered how Jaron would react to the arrival of his baby sister. I did not know if he would be jealous or treat her like he treats his cousin Heidi (wants to hold her and give her loves). The answer became very clear as soon as he stepped into my hospital room for the first time. He had not seen Dave and I since he went to bed the night before and he did not care, Lara became his whole world as soon as he laid eyes on her. Jaron immediately pointed to Lara and stuck out is arms to hold her. It was sooo cute.

Jaron all over Lara in the hospital...not mommy and daddy

I wondered if his love for Lara would change after we brought Lara home from the hospital and he realized she was not leaving. It's been over a week and he continues to shower her with hugs and kisses, wants to hold her all the time, feed her his food (still trying to teach him that she's not big enough for his food yet), and give her his toys to try to cheer her up when she's crying. When he wakes up in the morning, he wants to see her. My mom tells Jaron that Lara is still sleeping, so he must wait. But as soon as he hears Lara crying, Jaron is pounding at my bedroom door trying to break it down to get to her. Jaron would be happy to hold Lara all day long, which is funny since most kids only want to hold a baby for like 30 seconds and then their attention is elsewhere.

Jaron holding Lara after we came home from the hospital

I love watching Jaron interact with Lara. It's so cute and I don't want to discourage the love he has for Lara by not letting him see her and give her loves when he wants. I can see when Lara gets older, Jaron wanting to play with Lara all of the time and Lara telling Jaron to leave her alone. Lara is already trying to tell Jaron to leave her alone.

Jaron kissing Lara

new post

i was a little surprised at the lack of response to my last post, but then i realized that no one comments anyways. no shirley, it does not come from a movie you should know. it comes from the depths of my own mind. i know it is probably mediocre writing, but thats okay because i'm not chris (i don't mean that in ANY sort of negative way, just saying that i don't plan on ever writing a book, unless its like a drug reference book for other medical professionals, like a database of psychotropics and the most recent research about they're safety).

so corrina and i celebrated our 4th anniversary yesterday with little fanfare. i was gone at school and the pharmacy for most of the day but once i got done there, we were able to go out to dinner (without the kids, thank you grandma) and have some much anticipated steak. for those who don't know, while pregnant they say you can only have steak fully cooked (well-done) because of threat of bacteria, etc. Unfortunately well done usually tastes like charbroiled leather so we pretty much abstained for the 9months. since it was our anniversary, we went out to eat at a steak house and got the filet mignon cooked medium. oh so delicious. its hard to believe that 4 years have already passed and all the experiences we've experienced together.

oh yeah
i'm still trying to figure out the whole posting a picture thing. i think i've discovered that if you move the picture in the post fter its been uploaded, you can no longer click on it to view it larger. i was experimenting and uploaded some photos (i've deleted the post, it was just an experiment) and even tho i uploaded them size large, the only one that was linked was the one i didn't move. also, does anyone know how to post more than 5 pictures in a single posting?

Code Blue

"Code Blue! Code Blue! We have a major situation on our hands. Dispatch 'Emergency Response Team Alpha', 'Strike Team Charlie', and 'Containment Team Omega'. Once they're done, send in The Cleaners to make sure there's no residual issues."

"Are you sure all this is necessary, sir?"

"I've never been so sure of anything in my life; not even proposing to my wife. If we don't get this under control, we could have a major global crisis on our hands."

"But, sir, the last time ERT Alpha, ST Charlie, and CT Omega were called in on the same mission was back in '67 for the Bucharest Event. And The Cleaners have never been called in for a live mission, they've only been in training. Are you sure they are ready?"

"What do you think they have been training for, Lieutenant? This is a hundred times worse than the Bucharest Event, or any other event we could have anticipated. This is exactly the type of situation that The Cleaners have been formed and training for. But the ERT, ST, and CT must mobilize immediately if we are to have any hope of handling this situation. Can you imagine the backlash if civilians were to catch wind of this?"

"I'd rather not, sir."

The Birth Story of Lara

Ok...so here's my story for those who would like to know. Monday night, Dave and I went to the hospital because I thought my water broke. The hospital checked, no water broken; however, my blood pressure was high and unstable. The nurses called my doctor, my doctor wanted to admit me to the hospital and induce me in the morning if I did not go into labor on my own during the night. I told the nurses I was going to go home and come back in the morning if I did not go into labor by then. The nurses called my doctor back, my doctor wanted to speak to me on the phone, the nurses could not get the phone line transferred to my room and my doctor ended up showing up at the hospital after midnight to talk to me. My doctor explained that she was going to wait to induce me because she knew I really did not want to be induced again, but she did not want me to go home because my placenta could detach due to the high blood pressure and there would only be a matter of minutes to get Lara out safely. She told me I would be putting my life and my baby's life at risk if I left. I asked her what she really wanted to do then. She told me she wanted to give me some blood pressure medicine and break my water if I did not go into labor within an hour or two after that, then she would induce with pitocin. I said ok, and I was admitted to the labor and delivery department around 1:30am.
Dave ran home to get my mom and meet the person who was going to stay the night with Jaron. While Dave was gone, the nurses gave me an IV. They had a hard time (it took three nurses), but they finally got the IV in just before Dave and my mom showed up. I had Dave give me a blessing while we waited for the doctor to come back in. While we were waiting, I started having contractions between 5 and 10 minutes apart. My doctor ended up breaking my water at around 2:30am and not giving my blood pressure medicine until after I delivered Lara. Before she broke my water, she checked and saw that I was dialated between 4 and 5cm. By 3:30am, my contractions were less than 5 minutes apart. I decided to sit up to see if that would help with the pain, instead my contractions immediately went to less than a minute apart. I asked for Nubane (pain reliver shot) and when the nurses had not come back in what I felt was enough time, I demanded Nubane. Dave sent my mom to the nurses station, and soon after the nurse came in to check my dialation. I was dialated between 6 and 7cm, so I was given Nubane. I delivered Lara at 5:36am. I don't remember much between the time I received Nubane and when I delivered because the Nubane makes me sleepy. I remember a nurse checking me and then telling me to let her know when I felt like pushing. Then I was told I could push and 2 to 3 contractions later, Lara was born. Dave got to catch Lara as I delivered her and he also cut her umbilical cord. He was really excited and I thought it was wonderful that Lara was caught by her Dad and then given to me.
As soon as she was born, my doctor said Lara was a big baby. When the pediatric nurse went to weigh Lara, she asked for guesses as to how big Lara was. Some guesses were made, I think Dave said 10 pounds, someone said 11 pounds, and the nurse set the scale to weigh in pounds first (usually they weigh in grams first) so that everyone would know immediately. What a shock when the scale said 11 lbs 15 oz! So, since I keep being asked, I had her vaginally and no epidural.
We are so excited to have Lara in our family! We are excited to watch her grow and see her personality develop.

Lara and I right after she was born

This is what a 11lbs 15oz 22in baby looks like

Proof of her weight

Look how long her foot is!

Daddy giving Lara her first bath

more photos

here are some more random photos that some might find enjoyable

photos of jaron

here are some random pictures of jaron:

this is jaron mackin' on the ladies the first day of nursery

i love this face

one of the few times a smile has been captured on film from this boy

jaron's first pumpkin carving experience

he loved this pumpkin

first photos

because there has been much anticipation for pictures of the huge baby, i have selected a few to post here. corrina might choose others and we will eventually get all of them on costco photocenter to share.

this is a picture of me cutting her umbilical cord

this is photographic evidence that lara weighed 11lbs 15oz

for those that were wondering, this is a whole lot of placenta (what, you didn't think i'd get a picture?)

and these are the first family photos

see how jaron is loving on her already?

video

this is a new attempt to embed a video, this time taking the code from my afore-mentioned myspace page and after reading the blogger help on posting video. i still haven't got it fully figured out, but i'm getting closer to being able to post the one i really want

Monty Star Wars
..

knock your socks off new post

prepare to be amazed at the amazement of this next amazing post. ok so i don't really hve a post to knock your socks off about. i could share corrina's birth story, but maybe i should leave that for corrina to publish :-). it had been a few days since i last posted and i felt obligted to make people aware that i still exist. still trying to figre out how to embed video from youtube. i've never had a problem on myspace (which i no longer use)

rumination

is anybody even reading this blog? i haven't received any comments on my last few posts and i'm beginning to wonder if people even care or if i'm just boring. i guess you could call me a feedback-monger, but i want to know what people think

Baby Update

I went to the doctor on Tuesday. She said that I was dialated to 3 cm, 75% effaced she could not feel Lara's head because it's so far down in my pelvis, and that I could go into labor at anytime. We were excited, especially me since I had hope that I would not have to be induced this time around. However, since my appointment, I do not feel like I've had much progress. We keep hoping I will go into active labor, but it's been 3 days and nothing...I think. I've been trying different suggestions to try to jump start labor, but it seems like the more I try, the less I progress. I guess I should be more patient and just let things happen...but I hope it does happen soon so I don't have a 12 lb baby and for Dave's sake. I think he has been a little absent minded since we went to the doctor...more focused on me going into labor and not paying attention to what is going on around him. Pray that we'll hve this baby soon =)

post election

i was going to make a post with regards to the elcetion but i have been so mentally and physically drained, i can't bring myself to do it. i'm just glad its over and there have been some wins and some losses. lets just get back to our lives and hope for the best.

the quotes are all famous psychologists. maslow is famous for his hierarchy of needs and self-actualization. zimbardo is famous/infamous for his stanford prison experiment. piaget was influential in child development. and erikson was big in personality theory and self-identification.

the new microsoft?

as i was loading trucks this morning, i started wondering if google has become the new microsoft. it almost seems that nothing can be done on the internet without the use of a google product. the google search engine, google toolbar, google maps, google earth, google news, gmail, blogger, and even the new google chrome. and how did google get verbified? (ex: if you're looking for something, just google it) and now its not just this, they are delving into the world of mobile communication with this. with all these applications, could google gain a monopoly on the internet world, and if so, how do they justify this when their unofficial motto is "don't be evil"?

p.s. prepare for a knock-your-socks-off post-election post. it is already in the formation stage in the brain of the dave

the quotes

if anybody has been ever so slightly curious as to who all these random people i've quoted on this blog, i thought i would open it up to let people guess what the connection is. corrina will get it immediately, so she's not allowed to guess :-)

random ramblings of randomness

in an effort to teach myself the ways of the blog (or is it like the ways of the force: an apprentice must be taught by a master?) i have made several attempts to post an interesting video i have found on youtube to practice the art of videoposting. the concept is simple, find the video, copy the embed code, paste code into blog. the execution is confounding me. i find the video, i copy the embed code, and yet when i paste said code into blog, only a short portion of the code is pasted. i try to scroll thru the code on the youtube page, and it is missing there as well. i have tried it with two different videos. stunning conclusion to follow?



frequently at ups we ship packages containing hazardous materials. every hazmat package has to have diamond hazmat labels, hazmat shipping papers, and orientation arrows. there are certain classes of hazmat that are completely prohibited in the ups system. one of which being spontaneously combustible. as a loader, the only step between me and the customer is the driver so i am basically the very end of the chain. yesterday i see a package with diamond labels on it so i immediately look for shipping papers. there are none so normally it gets sent down to the clerk for him to fill them out. but then i look at the diamond label and discover its from the aforementioned prohibited class. i immediately stop the belt and call the supervisor over to take care of it. the ridiculousness of it is, this is the second time in just a few months where a prohibited hazmat package, without shipping papers (just to make things worse) has made it all the way to me and almost on the truck. that means the unloader never should have taken it off the truck, the scanner should never have scanned and p.a.l.'ed it, the sorter never should have put it on the blue feeder belt, the splitter at the head of the blue belt should never have pushed it to my side of the belt. but more than that, this package came from florida! it never should have been accepted by ups in florida, it never should have been put on the feeder truck in florida, and it never should have come across country to chico. this is a major dropping of the ball that has inccurred some heavy safety violation fines. and to think it has happened twice!!!

Lara's Stomach

The EFW weight in grams equals around 10lbs!

Lara's Femur

This due date is sooner that her head measurement.

Lara's Head

This is Lara's head. Note what the estimated due date is based on the measurements.

Holy Baby!

Today I had an ultrasound so my doctor could try to get an estimate on Lara's size (since Jaron was 9lbs 15oz, she wanted to not be as surprised). As the ultrasound doctor was taking measurements of Lara's femur, he stops suddenly and asks how tall I am. I'm 5'7", but I'm the shortest in my family. He looked quit surprised when the weight showed up on the screen. My mom made a comment about the ultrasound weight being off when she had me, it said I was under 7lbs and I was 7lbs 90z. The doctor then says that this baby will definitely be over 8lbs, and that according to the ultrasound, she's already 10lbs! The thing is, I'm not due for another 2 1/2 weeks...that's a lot more growing potential! The doctor explained that the measurements can be off by up to 25%...which means Lara is currently between 8 1/2lbs to 11 1/2lbs. We'll find out for sure when she finally comes.

Prop 8

i don't desire to fill the annals of this blog with politics. but there is just too much to say about it. the following was sent to me by my sister and if it doesn't outrage you, either you have no soul or you are already planning on doing it to someone else.

"My friend and former co-worker, who lives in the Orangevale/Fair Oaks area, just sent me this picture. This was done to her house and truck (that's a yes-on-8 sign on the back) late Saturday night with spray paint.Whether you agree or disagree with "Yes on 8," vandalism is NEVER OK. It doesn't help your cause any and just makes you look petty, childish, vindictive, criminal, degenerate, cruel, and callous (should I go on?). In this country shouldn't we be able to voice our opinions, stand up for our beliefs, and promote morality without fear of being attacked?

And for the record, yes, having less divorce is an excellent way to protect marriage and the family. But A) last I checked, divorce was not an issue on my ballot and B) me, my church, and other organizations are already doing everything we can to strengthen marriages. "

Blessings

When we look at our lives, we see that we have received many blessings. Dave and I have noticed we've received many blessings in our marriage since pretty much the first day we were married, and the blessings just seem to keep rolling in. When we had Jaron, we were able to borrow many of the items we needed from other family members. This time, we are not so fortunate. But this has not stopped us from receiving what we need and/or want.
When I was attending the baby and me classes, that our local hospital offers after you have a child, I met several other moms that I ended up keeping in contact with. One mom is Shannon. Shannon and I would go on walks together about 2 times a week until the doctor told me I couldn't do that anymore. Now we have play dates for our kids when we can. Shannon has a daughter that is about 6 weeks older than Jaron, and she knows that Dave and I want to have 4 kids (eventually). When I found out I was pregnant again, she told me she was saving her daughter's clothes to give to me whenever I have a girl. She has now given me the clothes she has saved and an infant carseat, baby swing, and jumperoo. I'm so greatful that we did not have to buy these things as it can get costly.
This week, we found out the crib we have was recalled. Our crib had an attached changing table, dresser and bookcase. We loved it and were sad that it was too costly to replace with a similar style crib (it would cost us an additional $300-400). I had been looking at how much it would cost us to buy a changing table when Shannon called to see how I was doing and to tell me how her trip went. I told her about what had happened with the crib recall and that the type of changing table Dave and I wanted would cost more than we were willing to spend. Shannon then tells me that the changing table she has she no longer uses (and it was the style we were looking for) and she would love to give it to me, but she needed to make sure her husband was ok with getting rid of it. After she talked to her husband, she called and said he thought it was a great idea to give it to us. Today he dropped it off for us too!
We want to thank Shannon and her husband Jeff for helping us out so much. We owe them big time for the blessing they have been in our life.

to blog or not to blog?

i have to say i'm grateful to my wife for starting a blog and using it to update friends and loved ones about our life. now i don't feel the obligation to do it myself. she's much better with the details than i am anyway. now i can dedicate this to spill my mind on any topic i so choose. we'll see what comes up.

i work for ups loading delivery trucks erly in the morning. it can be tedious at times and the mind has plenty of opportunity to wander and ruminate. one morning recently i was pondering on the current state of the election and i had a thought about obama's economic plan and what some commentators call "trickle up poverty". for those unaware, obama plans to "spread the wealth around" taking tax money for hardworking families and giving it to those that don't because apparently obama thinks socialism will work this time around. i realized that all this plan will do is encourage mediocrity. why should i work harder when they're just going to take all my money and give it to those to lazy to work for themselves. and then i took the thought a step further and realized that's exactly the union mind set. in a union situation, you don't get raises or promotions based on merit, it is completelty based on seniority, so there are no benefits to working hard. then i realized who one of obama's strongest supporters: the international brotherhood of teamsters, headed by jimmy hoffa's son, james hoffa. (sound like a mafia?, it should jimmy had strong mafia ties. why else do you think he is still missing today?) oh the joys of union politics.

Jaron was all bundled up to go on the walk for the Alzheimer's Association.

A Beginning

I've never blogged before and I'm not sure how long I'll keep this up, but here's a start. Dave and I have been married for almost four years. We moved to Chico, Ca July 2006. Just before we moved we found out I was pregnant with our first child, Jaron, who was born March 2007 at a whopping 9lbs 15oz, 21in long. He's a little firecracker and a wonderful addition to our family. I am currently pregnant with our second child, Lara, and I'm due in 3 weeks. Looking at genetics, I expect at least a 9lb baby again. Dave likes it that we have bigger babies because he does not feel he will break them when he holds them.
Dave is currently working on a degree in Psychology at Chico State. He has 3 semesters left, then we hope he will be moving on to Pharmacy school. He's busy working at UPS, taking 16-18 units at school, being the Secretary of Psi Chi, and church callings. We enjoy the time we are able to spend together. Someday life will be a little less chaotic...we remind ourselves that life is a journey, not a race.
Well, that's about it for now.

ruminations the first

as the first delving into the world of blog, i feel the obligation of publishing one of three things: 1) a background of myself, 2)a statement of purpose for the blog, or 3)some profound statements to make a lasting impression. i must apologize in advance for fulfilling none of the three. myself will be revealed in time as pertinent facts become pertinent, i wouldn't want to bore. i have no purpose of this blog except as way of communicating whatever ruminations come to mind. thirdly, i have no profound statements. it isn't even forseen if this blog will make it past this series premiere and if a network will pick it up for the regular season.