Shake the $ tree for me

The $ of gas means I will be enjoying my backyard as the only alternative to being in my house this summer. We have a trip to TX planned sometime in June/July and I am fretting about how much it will cost us round trip. Should I add a second mortgage to cover the charges? Okay so it isn't that dire....yet. The price of everything is up. I am shopping at the commissary on base now even though it is a longer drive than Walmart just to save a few bucks. If someone had told me in high school that I would become a coupon clipper I would have laughed. Not laughing now.
Not to mention the pandemonium at your local Walmart on payday is nothing compared to the commissary any day. If your lucky you might even run into a wife that thinks she can pull her hubby's rank on you over the last box of cereal. Oh yeah, it has happened.

Starting to look like J is going to be out of the military sooner rather than later. He has been diagnosed with exercised induced asthma. His brother has asthma but J never had a problem until about a year or so ago. All of a sudden the man can't breathe after he works. J is not the type to sit still either. He has to have a million projects and run 90 to 0 just to feel like he is functioning. He is the polar opposite of me in that respect. I hate stress and he thrives on it. The Doc told him that it is easy to manage his asthma. He just has to take his new handy dandy inhaler before he does anything extraneous. That dos not work out so well with deployments. Can't really tell the people shooting at you to give you a 20 minutes head start per Dr's orders. If the military cannot deploy you what good are you to them?
So everyone pray that J gets a great job quick so our little family stays financially sound!

RIP Lily

The introduction of our newest family member has been bittersweet. More sweet than bitter. Another child brings more stress to a household. I think we have handled it very well but it caused a very hard decision to be made. My Siberian husky Lily had to be put to sleep. She was aggressive towards Rory and we had always kept them apart but one night last week she finally made a move. The ticking time bomb went boom. She did not even touch him but you could tell she really wanted to. I felt like a monster but I have to protect my babies. We thought about giving her to a new family but with her aggression problems it really was not a good idea. What if she bit someone? Besides the legal liability I would feel awful. We had tried animal behaviorists and they told us she was pretty much set like she was. The thing that makes me so mad is she was not always like this.

When J joined the USAF and we moved to our base we could not find an apartment that we could afford and have pets. We left her in my father's care. Bad idea. He allowed his Dalmatian and Lily to fight. Knock down drag outs that required stitches for his dog every time. You would think the price of vet bills would make him try to keep them from fighting but no. He didn't even tell me what was going on so I could try to make different arrangements. My nice sweet baby girl was turned mean.

At least she will no longer be bothered by her seizures. I stayed with her until her heart stopped. One of the hardest things I have ever done as a pet owner.

Back from the brink

Finally back. Finished with pregnancy. No more labor and delivery. Life can return to some sort of normal. Of course normal for me now is way different that when we last "talked". I am now a mother of two not one. My son is no longer the baby in the house. He will always be my baby but he is also a big brother to a sister. He does okay with her. He tries to play with her a little too rough, can get a little jealous from time to time, and over excited. All to be expected. He is very sweet and loving to her so we breathe a sigh of relief. He likes her, he really likes her!

Here is the doting daddy. Still a little unsure when they are this size but he is coping. Since she is his daughter he says it is easier.

Two weeks old. So far I hear from everyone that she looks like me. We will see if she continues to do so or if she changes. It is only fair that she look like me since Rory looks like J's clone.

Clio is the best babysitter.

Where art I?

Spell check is not working to if I left a typo then, sorry.

Yes I know I have been absent for a bit. I used to post everyday and now I am lucky to post once a week. Could it be the intense nearness of my due date? Maybe the joy of having J home again? The exhaustion of keeping up with a toddler? Nah, I am just lazy.

Seriously though, all of those things have factored into my disappearacne. The list of projects that have to be done before Lorelei arrives is staggering. I think it was easier the first time around when I did not have anything baby related and just went out and bought it. Now it has to be found, checked, sorted, laundered, assembeled. Then there is the nesting issue. I did not do this with Rory and anyone who has been to my house will tell you that if cleanliness is next to godliness than I have fallen from grace. Not saying I live in a total sty, just that I am not one of those hands and knees, make it glisten types. Lorelei appears to be that type. I have used magic erasers on every wall, baseboard, and animal (j/k). Make the madness stop!

J has been wonderful. He always is wonderful so that may not be too shocking except that he has put up with a bit more than usual. Take for example his hormonal wife. Lets just say I have been a little flustered and stressed. My new hobby was taking chunks out of innocent bystanders. J has a way of making me see how I am acting and laugh it off. Rory has been more than a little attached to Dad. Not quite over that long seperation but he is getting there.

Speaking of the rugrat he is very intrigued with the baby in mommy's tummy. I think he is a bit confused though. If you ask him where the baby is he tries to lift up his own shirt to show you his stomach. He is sure that Daddy and Grandma have one too. He is only two so we try to cut him some slack.

Fire bad

I should have known when Rory was around a year old that he was going to be fire curious. One of my friends was holding him at a party I was having and did not spot the candle on the counter behind her. Rory poked the flame. No damage at all thank the lord. Flash forward about almost a year later and not so lucky. Twice.

Recently Rory was trying to fiddle with something ( I was not present so do not know what the something was) and J had to quickly remove him from danger. Unfortunatly J's quick thinking did not include dropping the lighter he had been using to start a fire in the fireplace. The warm metal tip brushed the top of Rory's ear. The burn was very minor but still hurt like nuts I am sure. We did all the burn remedy stuff and lots of triple antibiotic ointment. Healed beautifully.

The previous Friday night we are all watching television together in the den with a nice fire in the fireplace. Rory was playing and happy and then chaos. The bottom of the fireplace has a decorative grate with a star pattern repeated in it. Rory starts screaming and I am looking his whole body over when I notice said start on the back of his left hand. From his wrist to the middle knuckle on his middle finger was red and starteing to swell. Immediately we set him up with a cold compress (advice I later found that is given by the Mayo Clinic) and some tylenol for pain. To make a long tragic story short we ended up with some little blisters as the most extreme part of the damage done.

Still treating it but he seems to care less what we do. This is what concerns me. I hope he learned something because I do not think my blood pressure can take it. I swear I am that childs shadow now.

Rory in Retrospect

In about two and a half months I will once again experience the blessed event of bringing life into the world. Before I welcome my daughter I decided to revisit the last two years with my son.

7 month 3D sonogram

November 1, 2005
7 pounds 7 ounces, 21 inches

asleep on mom

my two favorite men

halloween 2005

late night bottle with Grandma Conroy

1st bday

15 months old

Sittin in the sunshine.
20 months old

Checking out his new house last summer.

2 years old

Science Center

J and I took Rory to the Science Center in St. Louis. J is really into science and technology so of course he loves to go. We have actually been several times in the last four years and yesterday was the first time Rory was old enough to do more than admire the scenery as it passed him by.
I think he enjoyed just being able to run from exhibit to exhibit more than anything else. There was one booth that was supposed to show how a telephone call when from one receiver to another. He just liked talking on the phone. As we left he waved at the phone and said "Bye bye". Actually come to think of it I think he said bye bye to everything we passed. We learned a lot together though I doubt all of it was what they intended. Like that it would cost $2.3 million dollars to launch Daddy and Rory into space. Anyone got that laying around?

This is painted on the wall just as you get to the big (scary) bridge that crosses I-64. There are little models of man's different adventures in flight hanging down from the ceiling. I think it is just very pretty so I took a picture.

Rory's favorite place in the whole center was this little table. The blocks were supposed to help model how engineers work. Nothing we built was very practical but it only fell apart one or twice.

Isn't he just too cute? I am not looking forward to him growing into the age girls start to notice him. Or even worse when he notices back. *gasp* If you are wondering what has his attention keep scrolling down...

This thing is huge! Is suspends from the ceiling and uses giant croquet balls as marbles. They swirl and spin flying around the room on a metal track. It is very cool to watch as you can see by the picture.

What is an adventure without giant hissing cockroaches! I like them best when there are two panes of glass between us like they are here.

And here we are back where we started at the engineer building table. It was the best thing in the whole day as far as Rory was concerned. Mommy and Daddy were just happy to sit down by this point.