Posts Tagged ‘happenings’

Indigo is a great napper. She’ll sleep about an hour and a half at a pop, twice a day. She’s nearly always in a great mood when I go and get her. She usually squeals when I open the door, and immediately hands me her blankie and her bear. I’ve come to expect this.

But this afternoon was different… She slept her nap, and I went in to get her. I was greeted by a happy girl, who was happy to hand over what she had in her hand. The light was low, but I could tell that this was neither her blankie nor her bear. Oh no, not those at all. It was her DIAPER. Yes, my darling daughter has learned to take off her diaper. Dear God, am I in trouble.

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, Indigo is cloth diapered. Up until recently she’s shown only a passing interest in the velcro tabs, but I guess today was the day that her curiosity got the best of her. The fact that she was in just a t-shirt and her diaper clearly did not help matters.

Oh, I didn’t mention? She had pooped… a lot. It was everywhere, and it was clear that she was playing with it, too. Luckily, The Boy was home, and we were able to divide and conquer. I cleaned her up, which was not easy, especially her hands and under her nails, while he hunted down the turds and stripped down the crib.

The silver lining in this all is that she now poops like a big girl and we didn’t have to contend with a big pasty mess. I suspect that we may find a rogue turd at some other point in time, but that goes with the territory, I suppose. My only regret is that we didn’t take any pictures of the crime scene.

Dear LOST,

I can’t believe this time has come already. You’re leaving me after all of these years. I know, I know… you’ve been warning me for over a year now. No matter how much they try to prepare themself, a person can never be ready for when that time actually comes.

Our relationship started suddenly and moved way faster than I ever expected. You see, I was two weeks from my wedding, my WEDDING, and I was stuck at home sick with strep throat. You swept me off my feet, LOST. The Boy, also sick and homebound with bronchitis, was also there during that time. He was drawn under your spell and fell as hard as I did.

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the summer before the start of season 3. We had seasons 1 and 2 on DVD and figured and were ready to commit ourselves, but even we couldn’t predict how drawn in we would be. We were dedicated, LOST. We watched you for 8 hours a day – like it was our job! We were hooked on you, and there was no turning back.

We’ve had lots of ups and downs together. We’ve had to say goodbye to some really good friends over the years. I mean, you taught me not to get too attached to anyone, but Sayid, Jin, and Sun in one episode!?!? We laughed at Hurley’s bumbling ways. We cheered as the Oceanic 6 came home, and swooned as Sawyer and Juliet settled down together in the 1970s-era Dharma initiative. Speaking of Sawyer, we saw him shirtless… a lot. Thanks for that.

So, what will tonight hold for us? What questions will get answered? Will the Man in Black finally escape the island and bring down hell on earth? Is Jacob full of crap? How does Desmond play into this all, in both realities? There are so many questions, LOST, but no matter how much I learn tonight, I know that you’ll leave me wanting more like only you can.

Regardless, I wish you a fond farewell tonight. I hope you enjoyed our time together as much as I did.

All My Love,

-chrysanthemum

Now is as good a time as any to share the story about how Indy came into the world and into our lives:

I was scheduled for induction on Tuesday, April 7th, because my doctor was concerned about Indigo’s size. She was measuring quite big in the growth ultrasounds. We got to the hospital bright and early, only to get sent home due to a huge influx of deliveries. We were low priority, and they had several deliveries and one emergency. There simply were not enough nurses on hand. We just got bumped one day, so it wasn’t a big deal. I had only slept an hour the night before because of my nerves, so my doctor gave me an Ambien and sent me home to rest up.

Needless to say, I went into labor on my own that evening while The Boy and I were out getting dinner. I was getting sharp contractions compared to the Braxton Hicks I had been feeling, so I knew this was the real deal. I called my doctor because I was afraid if I took the Ambien I wouldn’t be able to wake up if labor picked up… I’m a really hard sleeper and was afraid that I would give birth in my sleep or something ridiculous like that. She assured me that the contractions would wake me up when they got stronger, and they sure did!

At about 3 AM, we headed back into the hospital just a few hours before we were scheduled to be there. We would not be denied again! My water broke a couple hours later (time got to be a blur for me). The contractions got more painful after then, so I opted for some pain meds. They put the order in for an epi shortly thereafter.

I had a really rough time with the epi. The first time, the anesthesiologist didn’t numb the area well enough and the pain was just awful. This is the only time through the whole process I freaked out. I was sobbing from the pain and yelling. He kept telling me to describe what I was feeling; I kept telling him it felt like someone was stabbing me in the spine. Dipshit. He didn’t have the best bedside manner in the world, and was losing his patience with me. I think he was also pissed at my OB, because she made him do it before his rounds in the AM, and he wanted to do it afterwards. In the middle of all of that, I was having contractions, so it was not going too well. He eventually said he would come back. In the meantime, they gave me more pain meds and the second time he tried, it was a piece of cake. Hooray for Stadol!

The nurse then asked me how my last contraction felt, to which I replied, “I had a contraction?” I couldn’t feel a thing on the lower half of my body. Between the epi and the pain meds, believe it or not, I SLEPT through most of my labor, and even while they were stitching me up after my c/s. This picture of me looks like I’m toughing out a contraction, but in reality, I’m fast asleep!

In the end, I ended up having to get a C-section because the Indy was going into decel with each contraction. We would watch the contraction and her heart rate dropping on the monitor. We’d count down from five,  then a nurse would run in and check me. After a while, my doctor wanted to get the show on the road.

I was actually fully dilated and ready to go, but the epi was too much and I couldn’t feel myself pushing (and really wasn’t doing a good job of it). Turns out that the umbilical cord was short, so she couldn’t drop properly. When I had a contraction, it would stretch and constrict the oxygen getting to Indy. It wasn’t an emergency, but was really close to being one. A quick procedure and some tugging sensations later, our little girlie was out and raring to go at a solid 7 lbs 15 oz.

Once out, Indigo was fine. The Boy went with her to the nursery where they cleaned her up and did all the things they do. A short time later, I was finally able to hang out with my little girl.

I will say that I am glad that I went into labor, had my water break, and progressed all the way on my own. With a exception of a couple of bad days, I recovered really well. It took me quite a while to get my strength back, but before too long, I was back in action.

This fall marks an interesting transition for me. As you may or may not know, I have been teaching at a local university for the past few years. The past two years I enjoyed a full time appointment, filling in some departmental gaps. I loved it, and had the opportunity to really get to know my students, some of whom had me three or four times for various classes. I got to watch them go from unsure freshmen and sophomores to confident seniors ready to take on the world. Well, most of them, at least. Next week, I get to see many of them graduate.

This arrangement meant I was fortunate enough to have a lot of time home with Indy over this past year. My schedule was such that I only had to be on campus a couple of days a week, which meant lots of time for the wee babe and me. My mom watched her on the days I worked, which was great for her, too.

Union rules dictate that I can only teach two full time appointments every seven years. This means that I have to wait another four years to have this opportunity again unless a full time position opens within the department that I can interview for. What does this mean? Back to part time I go, teaching one night a week.

So why bittersweet? Sure, I’ll have all my days free to hang with Indigo, which I’m so grateful for. I love my time with her; she’s hilarious and keeps me entertained all day. But, I’m only teaching one course, so I won’t have that opportunity to make the connections I had with my students, which makes me a bit sad. Sure, I can still impact their lives, but not to the extent as before.

So, to my graduating seniors, best of luck to you in all that you do. I’m proud of you and look forward to seeing your successes. But most importantly, to my favorite little girl, I look forward to all the fun we’re going to have this coming fall.

So, what’s been so important to keep me from my blogging life these past couple of years? Well, you see, it went a little something like this…

It all started when two people fell in love:

Then there was this, aka baby Wicket:

That ended up with this… well, more like the second one:

Who quickly wrapped her daddy around her finger:

And grew into this (and continues to grow despite our begging her not to):

Meet Indigo Rose, the newest addition to our little clan. She’s a sweet, funny, loving, mischievous little beam of sunshine. You’ll be seeing a lot of her, I suspect.

After a long hiatus, I’ve resurrected this blog. These past few years have been quite eventful. Those of you who know me are fully aware of the changes in my life.

Those of you who don’t… watch this space to get the scoop!

I got a phone call today that I wish I didn’t. The wife of my friend Chris, who was one of my closest friends when I lived in California, called me to let me know that he passed away. He was traveling for business, told to her that he wasn’t feeling well and was going to take a walk. She didn’t hear from him for several hours and had the hotel look for him, where they found him in the room. He was already gone.

The cause of his death isn’t known yet. They ruled out seizure (he was epileptic), aneurysm, heart attack, and several other things. I just hope for the family’s sake that they figure out what happened.

The worst part? They were expecting their first child in a couple of months. Life can just be so unbelievably cruel sometimes.

I’m clear on the other side of the country, so it’s hard for me to process. I’m heartbroken and shocked nevertheless.

Where ever you are, my friend, I hope you are at peace. I love you, buddy.

I’m sick for the second time in a month, this go-round worse than the last time. It’s tracking just like my last trip through flu-ville, so I at least know what to expect. This hacking cough is just a bit much, though… and my nose is chapped from blowing it so much (TMI, anyone?).

There’s not much I can do… loads of people have had this thing twice, even The Boy. Thank goodness that he is so good at taking care of me.

Like we didn’t have enough to do this fall, we will be hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year. We’ll have the fam over, a total of 14 people and as many as 4 dogs… a full house to say the least. We’re excited to have everyone over, but were concerned about where everyone was going to sit for dinner. We have a table that was generously given to us by The Danza’s before they moved into the city, but it’s not nearly big enough and also pretty wobbly with the leaves in place. What to do, what to do…

Enter our good friend Mike, who makes custom furniture and promised us a table as a wedding gift. We talked styles and he went out and got the materials for the job. The Boy and I generally let the experts drive a lot of the creative process in situations like this, because they’re the experts and usually come up with way cooler ideas than we ever could. We basically showed him a picture in a magazine that we liked, told him we’d like to bring the outside in, and cut him loose.

We went to visit him and the shop this weekend to check out the process, and were amazed by what we saw… speechless, actually He went out and bought a single slab of wood, essentially a cross-section of a tree. His design was inspired by a designer named George Nakashima, who was an amazing furniture designer and a generally interesting guy. My favorite quote that I read by him:

A tree is perhaps our most intimate contact with nature. Each tree, each part of each tree, has its own particular destiny, its own special yearning to be filled.

But I digress… we saw the nearly finished tabletop, and it is badass. It’ll be done for Thanksgiving (in truth, we were told to expect it “late Wednesday night”), and I can’t think of a better way to break it in than having a meal with our family. Did I mention that it’s about 9 feet long?

Check out the tabletop as it was on Saturday night. If you look closely, you can see Mike and even Bobo:

Thanks, Mike. You (of course)rock and we love you!!

Having settled into our house for a year, we have identified some work that we need to do and have put into motion a plan to improve our house. One of those things is spray insulation under our great room. It gets really cold up here in the Ewok Village, and we were sick of freezing our butts off in our favorite room in the house.

We called a few places for quotes, made our decision, and made our appointment for them to come do the work… this morning. They were to arrive between 8 and 9 AM, so I was ready for them. At around 8:30, I heard a horrifyingly familiar noise… the BEEP, BEEP, BEEP of a truck backing up, followed by the revving of a large diesel engine, quickly followed by the loud scraping noise of metal on pavement.

Yep, you guessed it, my internet friends, the truck got stuck on the driveway, just like our U-Haul did last year when we moved in. After a few hours being stuck and doing all of the futile things we did last year to get our truck unstuck, they finally gave in and called the boss and for a tow.

I wandered down there when I saw the tow arrive to find two of my town cops blocking off traffic in both directions (I think it might have been everyone on duty this morning), and the tow truck driver putting a chain around the tree. At this point, all I could say to myself is my God, they’re going to pull down a tree. I was also fighting the urge to laugh my ass off in front of them. Anyways, when the truck driver turned on the winch, all that happened was is that the TOW TRUCK STARTED GETTING PULLED TOWARDS THE TREE!! No truck rescue, no downed tree, just a sliding towtruck, chocks and all. After a little more finagling, they managed to get the truck free.

This is where it gets good…

At this point, I expect the owner to tell me that they’ll be back tomorrow with a different truck, but no… He says this: “I’m getting that goddam truck up that driveway.” He jumps in the truck, backs up the street at the proper angle, and guns the thing. One quick scrape, but the truck cleared it… until the wheels started spinning on the leaves on the steep part of the driveway. He backs down the driveway, cutting his wheel at an angle that made us think that the truck was going over on its side. I swear that truck was nearly at its tipping point. Admit defeat at this point? Hell no! He backs up the street more, guns the truck even harder and goes for the driveway. He clears the steep part, gets stuck a few times, adjusts, spins his wheels, adjusts, spins some more making smoke like I’ve never seen, and then HOLY CRAP, he makes it up!!

While this is going on, I turn to the two workers who were staring at their boss in disbelief. “He’s a stubborn guy, eh?” “Yep.” “Does he do crazy stuff like this often?” “Yeah, but nothing like this.” The guy who was driving the truck when it got stuck in the first place, looking terrified, says “I’m afraid to go back down.” I can’t say I blame him. The boss tells them how to drive the truck back down and leaves them to do the job. They two workers were sweet and polite. I offered to buy them lunch, but they wouldn’t let me. I’m going to have to write a nice letter of thanks to the company.

How did they do, getting down the driveway, you ask? I’ll have to let you know… they’re still here working!

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UPDATE:
The guys finished and got the truck back down the driveway with no issues. The way down is always easier. I bet they’re glad that this day is over!