Monday, November 24 entry It was a weekend of birthdays. Brother Kyle turned 19 on Friday, and Keith's birthday was yesterday. He turned 23. We celebrated on Saturday with lunch at PF Chang's and a trip to Centennial Park with Owen. I originally lined up a babysitter thinking that Keith and I would go out to dinner and a movie or something celebratory like that, but he insisted that Owen join us, which is okay with me. And since the weather offered up a 70 degree day in November, we jumped on the opportunity to spend more time outdoors. The Centennial Park is right in the middle of downtown, and has a duck pond, an airplane, a life-size replica of the Parthenon, and lots of sculptures, among other things. We played ball with Owen and walked all over the place. Owen loved the ducks, and screamed when we tried to move on to other parts of the park. We spent a good three hours out and about at the park, and he was so worn out after that! So that was our birthday celebration. On his actual birthday, Sunday, I made him homemade muffins for breakfast, chili and birthday cake for lunch, and then he had to work at 2PM. After he left Owen and I hung around the house and watched football and napped, and that was Sunday. So the weekend has come and gone, and this is a short week for me. Two and a half days this week at work, and then we're off to Texas for Thanksgiving. Where has the year gone? I can't believe this time next week will be December! Time flies when you're having fun!
Keith and I finished up our will on Friday. We just need to sign it and make some photocopies and we will be ready for whatever happens next! It is kind of sad trying to think about how to provide for your child if you're gone, but I think it is so important to have a will in place, a good, solid legal will with specific wishes and a good executor. I think we've finally got all of our ducks in a row. So I'm thankful for that. And while I'm talking about the will, let me do a little plug for LegacyWriter.com. This is where we made our will. It is $19.95 per will (couples get a discount), and it is endorsed by Dave Ramsey and other legal and financial institutions. You enter some basic information and it essentially builds your will for you, with specific guidelines and laws for your state of residence. I thought it was great, and the finished product looks wonderful. So there's that.
Sometimes I am so sad living far away from family and friends, and then sometimes I feel content with life. Last night I spent a couple of hours on the phone with Betsy and now I am feeling rejuvenated. It is amazing the years we've spent together being best friends! As best as I can figure, we've known each other for around 12 years. That's a long friendship, and it has been fabulous!
Today is our Thanksgiving luncheon at work, so I better close this up and get to work this morning, since the entire afternoon will be spent chit-chatting over piles and piles of food! Happy Thanksgiving, and pictures to follow of our park adventure. 11.22.02 everyone has an opinion. Tuesday, November 18 entry Never a dull moment in the Foster household. Saturday night Keith came home from work with this:
He ripped his hand open on a wingnut at work, sat in the ER for 3 hours, then drove himself home one-handed. When he walked through the door, his entire hand was bandaged up to his wrist. He spent the rest of the evening throwing up (he's not good with blood and gore - even the sight of his own injury made him sick). His hand looks terrible. Like, pulpy in the middle. Of course, we were supposed to close on our refinance on Monday. Since Keith injured his right (said, dominant) hand, he had to sign a special waiver that said something to the effect of "I'm signing these documents with my non-dominant hand due to injury." His signature is a little scribbly line on the closing documents. Pretty funny. He should have just made a little "x" on the line for all his signature is worth. This injury has restricted all diaper changing ability, as well as carseat buckling ability, bathing or clothing baby ability, so Owen has become my sole responsibility until he gets at least partial use of the hand back. Never a dull moment. 11.18.02 there were no entries on this date. Friday, November 14 entry Wednesday was Owen’s 13-month day. I wanted to update with all the latest, but we spent the entire afternoon at the doctor’s office with a very sick little baby. He stared getting cloggy and stuffed up Monday night and was throwing up, and he didn’t sleep much that night at all. Keith and I took shifts with him on the couch so he could sleep propped up, and hopefully breathe better. Tuesday he continued to worsen, and by Wednesday we decided he shouldn’t be at daycare. So instead of dropping him off at the sitter’s, Keith dropped him off at my work around 130PM, and I took him on home. He looked so bad, though, and was so hot that I just stopped at the doctor’s on the way home to see if they could squeeze him in. They didn’t have any appointments available but he looked so rough and felt so hot, they had me bring him in anyway. He was running a fever of 100.3 and was wheezing badly. His nose was pouring, he was coughing horribly, and to top it all off he hadn’t slept well in days. The doctor told us after examining him that he has yet another ear infection, so she gave us a referral to an ear specialist to see about getting tubes put in. She also gave him a breathing treatment. Well, actually I gave it to him. I had to hold him down and push this mask down over his mouth and nose so he could breathe in the medicated steam. He hated it and screamed and cried the entire time, pushing at my hands and writhing around. It was almost impossible to keep the mask right over his face, but I think he got most of the medicine in him. Especially since he was taking such huge breaths to scream! After the breathing treatment, she still didn’t like the sound of his lungs, so she sent us next door for a chest x-ray. He didn’t like that, either. I had to hold his arms pinned out to the sides, and push this little lead disk down over his boy parts. We went back over to the doctor’s office, and she glanced at the x-rays and said it looked like he may have something virile in his lungs. She was going to send it off to her radiologist to get formal results, and we haven’t yet heard back from her. The last indignity of the day was a shot in the thigh of the strongest antibiotic she had. We left with two prescriptions, to add to the two we are already giving him daily. Today, Friday, he is finally showing some marked improvement in the way he feels and acts. He had been so lethargic all week, he has just wanted to sit in my lap and look at books, or even just lay there while I watch TV. We’re starting to get back into our regular routine, though. I put a Vicks vaporizer in his room that seems to be helping him, and he has slept in his own crib for a couple of nights now (which means I can sleep in my real live bed!). My poor boy, I just hate it when he’s ill. I’m actually looking forward to meeting with the ear doctor to find out more about the tubes. I don’t want him to have to surgery necessarily, but if it would stop his constant ear infections, it will be worth it in the long run.
That has pretty much been our week. I’ve been leaving work early every day to get home by 130PM, so Keith can be at work by 200PM. Owen’s been too sick to go to the sitter’s. Times like these a boy just needs his Mommy and Daddy. So I’ve had a pretty easy week at work. The weather has stopped cooperating and it is now both cold and rainy, so that’s no good. I had weekend plans of a pow-wow down in Tullahoma, where Native Americans were displaying crafts, tools, foods, and doing presentations and music, but I do believe we’ll be rained out. It is supposed to pour all weekend long. So I guess we’ll stay in. Owen doesn’t need to be out in the cool air, anyway.
Since I didn’t get to do a formal 13-month letter for Owen, I will at least post the most recent pictures of him here. These first ones are during his evening bath last night, which he loves. You will notice his new head bruise from walking into the door jamb yesterday morning. And here is Owen playing with blank CDs, which is a new passion of his. He likes to slide them under doors and stack them up on his fingers. The buttcrack is completely unstaged, and was so hilarious that it warranted an immediate picture. Buttcrack, the new cleavage. Even in a diaper.
More later. 11.12.02 it amuses me how babies aren’t burdened with the stigma of tooting in public Monday, November 10 entry Have you ever Googled yourself? Like, gone to google.com and typed in your own name, just to see what comes up? Maybe to see what that person out there who shares your moniker is up to? Or maybe even to see if there is anything written about you floating around the worldwide web? I’ve heard of this before, and I was reading another online journal the other day where the writer mentioned being Googled by a potential employer prior to his hiring. I decided to Google myself and see if anyone was out there sharing my name, and if they were up to anything interesting. Oh boy, if only I had known how famous my name is! Suffice to say there is another person out there with my name who lives a much more... interesting life than I do. Give it a try, see who shares your name! And if you know my first and last time, Google me and see what happens. I promise you, whatever comes up is not me. (Warning: Not for the faint at heart! Or children.) 11.10.02 there were no entries on this date. Friday, November 07 entry I uploaded the remainder of the Halloween pictures. You can look at them here, but beware, it is graphic intensive and may take a few seconds to load. I personally think it's worth it!
I booked our air tickets to Texas this week. Owen and I will be flying down to see my family for Thanksgiving. Keith has to work through the holiday, so he will be staying at home. No turkey and dressing for him! It is always more difficult to fly without him, too, because Owen plus all of his travel gear requires more than two hands. But we've flown before without Daddy, so we can do it again. My child has flown so much in his one year! At least five, maybe six trips. And he's only been Screaming Baby On Plane twice. Not too bad. I'm excited to take him to see family because he's at such an interesting age right now. He is trying to say different words, imitating Keith and me. Last night I was talking him through a diaper change and he kept repeating poo-poo-poo-poo and socks-socks-socks, but socks sounds more like dots. He also says pink, but not in reference to the color. I mean, he couldn't pick out something that was pink. He just likes the word. Just like a little Steven Tyler. Eep.
No Keith this weekend. He has to work both days. But Owen and I have plans. We must attend a Pampered Chef party tomorrow. I believe my child is the guest of honor. He is always the center of attention with the girls from work, so I am expecting nothing less tomorrow. The Titans are back from their bye week on Sunday, so another exciting game day! Good thing there's a game on, because we won't be playing outside this weekend for sure. It is pouring and cold, supposed to continue until at least Monday. Blah, winter is coming. 11.05.02 big congratulations to my cousin shane on his new baby girl, brooklyn grace, born 11/02. brooklyn is the fifth great-grandchild[...] Sunday, November 01 entry Finally! Pictures! And lots of them! I have to start out with The Boy as a Lion.
It's been a good weekend. Keith was off Friday, Saturday, today, and he's off Monday. I can't hardly believe it, but it's been fun. We cleaned out the garage and gave the house the deep cleaning that it's been hurting for. It's nice being together as a family, finally! We've spent most of the weekend playing with Owen. We've played so much football with him that now he throws the football down, raises his arms up and says "DOWN!" which means touchdown. It's so cute.
On Friday we got a package in the mail:
What is that?
It's alive!
Just kidding, we didn't get him in the mail. It would be nice if it was that easy, though.
We have an appraiser coming out this week to look at the house for our refinance. We refinanced for 3 years. Might we only be here for 3 more years? I guess anything is possible. It would be hard to leave my Titans, but it would probably be worth it in the end.
I have many more pictures to share. I uploaded about a zillion this weekend. Click here for shots of our trip to the local Civil War battlefield, and here for some random pictures of Owen doing cute thing.
I leave you with some shots of the city from my window at work. I have the best location of anyone, I'm telling you. You can see downtown from my window. Nashville in the fall, it almost doesn't get any better than this!
11.01.02 there were no entries on this date.
