Uncle Beat-Down

Sorry that it has been almost a week since we posted something new. I guess I have been recovering after a busy week last week. We are doing well. Brad has been super busy with school. Less than three weeks left until the semester is over. We are just hoping that this baby doesn't come early and distract Brad's finals. I'll need him around when the baby comes. We went to the outlet mall last night to get John some bigger pajamas from the Carter's outlet. We also made a stop by the Footlocker outlet and Brad got 3 pairs of shoes for about $28. They are pretty sweet for $28.
John is such a toddler. Some days he is the best kid. He is kind, loving, and helpful. Other days he is terrible, emotional, and destructive. Most days he is patient with a slow moving mommy who just wants to lay down and sleep. When his patients runs out he is super clingy and emotional. Rachael and Jordan have been very helpful. We have gone over to their apartment a few times this past week and John has loved all the attention he gets from them. Jordan has taught him the words "beat down". When ever John is naughty Jordan will ask John if he wants a beat down. John will say that he wants a beat down and Jordan will pick him up, causing John to break down in tears. Now John will walk around saying, "Jordan beat down, no no beat down." We are trying to change Jordan's name from Uncle Torture to Uncle Beat-Down.
I am getting more and more pregnant and tired. This pregnancy has flown by for me so far. I have a hard time thinking that I am 34 weeks already. Last time John came at 36 weeks, so if I can go farther than last time I will be doing good. I am hoping that the baby will decide to come when my mom, grandma, and sister Lizz come down in May. We'll see how well wishful thinking works. I have no true expectations.

Well, time to get Brad to school. Have a great day!

Date Night

After a crazy weekend Brad and I went on a date last night. We probably would have just taken the night off and stayed home, but we had already bought tickets to see the Celtic Women weeks ago and we wanted to get our money's worth. Brad has been really busy yesterday and today with two big tests so the timing wasn't very good. I was really glad that he was able to forget about them for the night and just have fun. We really enjoyed the show. Our favorite was the fiddler who jumped and danced all over the stage. We called her the little rabbit because she would always bounce as she was going off stage. Rachael and Jordan watched John for us. Thanks Dordy and Achael!! John woke up early this morning looking to see if you were still here and was a little disappointed that mom and dad had come back. I think he loves you more than us lately.

Thanks to all of those who have called and checked up on Brad. He is fully recovered except that is esophagus is a little sore the past couple of days. I think the pictures we posted were scarier looking than it actually was. It is nice to know that so many people care about us. Thanks!

Crazy Weekend!!!

Since some of you wanted the update, here is the story. It is a bit long but there are funny parts.
Part 1:
We have had one crazy weekend. My sister Lizz has been down visiting and we have tried to have a lot of fun with her while she was here. We did some shopping, went to the mall and the zoo, had pizza/Wii night at Paul's house, and had a BBQ at our house. In between all of the fun we played the Wii and slept. We were pretty tired after everything but very glad that she came. Lizz had never been to any zoo before and we had never been to the zoo in Boise. John had his first experience bowling and with help his score was way better than mine. We are very glad that Lizz came for the weekend.
Part 2:
At the very end of the busy weekend we had a BBQ at our house with my siblings and their families. Brad and I made some pork country style ribs and chicken. Everyone one else had brought some super yummy foods and we were all excited to eat it all. During Brad's first bite of the ribs he got a lodge. The piece of pork decided that it didn't want to be eaten and held on to Brad's esophagus and wouldn't let go. Brad tried everything he could think of, everything he read on the internet, and everthing his dad told him to do to dislodge the pork, to no avail. Brad was unable to even get water or saliva down. We had Jordan and another friend, named Ritch, come over and give Brad a blessing. By the time they came over the food had been lodged for over 6 hours and was showing no signs of moving. We decided to just try and get some sleep and maybe sleep would help Brad's esophagus relax. Yesterday morning we woke up and Brad went into the Student Health center to see if there was anything they could do there for him. Unfortunately the only option was to go into the hospital and have them take care of it. Brad had to be sedated while they pushed the pork through. They found out that Brad has what is called Esophagitis and Stricture and had to stretch his esophagus out. Apparently esophagitis is when stomach acid and digestive enzymes reflux into the esophagus causing the tissues to become inflamed and ulcerated. Stricture is when scaring develops by recurrent inflammation and the underlying tissues become fibrous and narrow. Thanks to this narrowing a large piece of food (pork ribs) can completely block the esophagus. The treatment is antacids to be used after eating and bedtime and dilation of the esophagus every few years. So that is the long and short of it.
Brad nor I have ever been sedated in the hospital before. When Brad woke up from the procedure he was being so funny. I wish that I had brought the video camera so I could have solid evidence on his recovery. He would wake up and ask me a series of questions or make statements and then fall back to sleep. He would wake up again and ask me the same questions. This repeated every 5 minutes for the next hour and a half. I was laughing so hard every time he woke up. After a while I just told him that I would answer all of his questions when he woke up from his drug induced sleep. One of the statements he would make was to tell me that he put the camera in my purse and that I should take pictures of him. I took a couple but he looked like this for most of the time we were in the recovery room so I didn't retake the same pose. In the recovery room Brad woke up and told me that he just had a dream about washing his hands and then fell right back to sleep. At one point he tried to intertwine his fingers and it took him a little while to get his fingers together. Unfortunately he didn't get it quite right. I just had to get a picture of that. On the car ride home he looked at his shirt and asked me how he got his shirt on. I reminded him that he put it on before we left the hospital. He always looked surprised every time he woke up to see that the procedure was over, that we were in the recovery room (Man, I don't even remember falling asleep. How long did it take? Did you already talk to the Doctor? How did I get this water?), the car (Did I walk to the car? No, you were wheeled out to the car.), back home (Did Lizz leave already?), in his bed (Did I take my clothes off? Yes Brad, right before you crawled into bed). When he finally woke up a few hours later I had to repeat the answers to all of his questions again. All of those questions he repeated at least 8 times. It was quite a funny day. Since Brad has to get this done every few years, I will definitely be bringing the video camera to the next one. We have some pictures of the procedure but I didn't want to put them up (Brad did) because they are gross.

Brad is fully recovered and happy to be able to eat food again. He went almost 2 days without it. Hope you are all doing well.

Forgive me Doctor, For I Have Sinned

I have to confess. I have been naughty when it comes to eating lately. Last night during the Biggest Loser Finale I had pizza and brownies. My doctor keeps cautioning me against gaining too much weight. When I got back from northern Idaho the doctor asked me if I had been gaining more weight than usual or if I though I was retaining water. Although I am glad that I haven't been retaining water yet, I have to shamefully admit that I have been using pregnancy as an excuse to eat junk. The truth is that I know that once this baby comes I am going back on weight watchers and I have to eat good. After John was born is when I gained most the weight last time. I won't do that this time. I guess I need to stop goofing off and eat better before the baby is born. At least I have some budge room with all the weight I lost at the beginning of the pregnancy. Well, that is my justified confession. I am sure that every other pregnant woman has said the same thing.

Getting Fat and Still 8 Weeks to Go!

For those of you who want to see the progress so far. I feel bigger than I look and I am way more tired than I look too. We will keep posting pictures of the belly progress until this squirmy one comes.

Repetitious Prayers

I just had to share this funny story. Tonight when we were putting John down for bed we were saying prayers. It was my turn to say them and John will usually repeat the last word of each sentence. Tonight when I was saying "We are thankful for this day" John finished the sentence for me by saying "day" at the same time I did. Brad and I just started to laugh. I guess my prayers are getting a little repetitious. Thanks to John for showing me just how repetitious they are.

Also earlier today John saw my bare pregnant belly and pointed to it and said "Gross". Kids are just so honest it hurts sometimes. Whoever said that pregnant bellies are beautiful is wrong, they are gross. John says so.

Mascot Bloopers

I am not sure that all of you know that I was a high school mascot. Go Vikings!! Anyway, I saw this video and I felt their pain of trying to impress the fans often at our physical expense. I hope you all enjoy this video as much as I do.

Funny Talk

Lately John has been saying the funniest things. Maybe they are just funny to Brad and I because we are his parents and everything he does is flippin' cute. Some of my favorite sayings are "Non't" I think it is a hybrid of "No" and "Don't". Sometimes when Brad is rough housing with John, he will get frustrated and scream at Brad. We have been trying to teach him to say "Don't Daddy" or "Stop Daddy" but it has just turned into "Non't" every time he wants to say "no".

Also when he wants you to follow him some where he will say "Come 'ere" with an enticing inflection in his voice. I laugh every time.

Another saying is "Oh Yes!" It is so funny coming from a toddler voice. We first noticed this when we were up at my mom's house and we asked him if he wanted waffles for breakfast. His reply was "Waffles? Oh, Yes!" We try and get him to say "Oh, Yes!" as much as possible for other people because it makes us laugh. I am sure there are many other things that says that are funny, but my pregnant mind will only let me remember three at the moment. Man I love being pregnant...........

Hope you all are doing great! We are going to the park today to enjoy the 70 degree weather. I really love Boise!!

Have a cool day!

Fun Toys

Brad's sister Hannah sent over some awesome toys to help John get through the transition with the new baby. We should probably wait until the baby comes to bust them out, but then I wouldn't get to play with them as much. She also sent over some super cute outfits for John and the new baby. Thanks Hannah!! The first toy is an awesome rocket ship tent. We were going to wait until his birthday to give this to him but he had a play date and we needed something to keep two toddlers entertained for a couple of hours.

This Rocket is so flippin' sweet. We are going to invite all of the toddler's that John knows to come over and play in it! It takes up our whole living room, but it's worth it. Plus, we can just take it down whenever we want.

The other toy that she sent over has occupied John's attention constantly since we opened it. He tries to power through all his meals so he can get back to playing with it as soon as possible. I also have to admit that it has kept Brad and I almost as busy too. It is the coolest Castle toy that has ramps and balls. John won't let us just sit on the couch while he plays. He insists that it be a family toy and will ask us to play whenever he thinks we look too bored.

Thanks Hannah for all the awesome toys!!

New Tricks

John sure learned some new tricks when we were up at my mom's house for 10 days. Among counting and constant ABC songs John learned the art of opening doors. Until now he could only open the doors with lever handles but now he can open doors with round door knobs. Oh Joy! After an exciting nap time, when John learned he could open the door, we took a trip to the store to get door knob covers. I think that was the best $2 ever spent. John was distraught and Brad and I were leaping with joy when John finally realized that he couldn't open his door and come out. Whoever invented this has my deep gratitude. Well, that is all the excitement around our house. You can tell we lead exciting lives. Hope you all have exciting days too.

Spring Break and Coeur D' Alene

Exciting News!

As you may have guessed, I got into my program here at BSU! Yea! I am really excited. They only take people once a year and this year they have had a record number of applicants. I get one of the 23 or so spots. I have been getting all the paperwork in order for this and will be double checking that everything is turned in on time and correctly. I would hate to have my spot taken by another person on the list. I was super excited and had my shouting, jumping, hand waving, and jumping chest bump...with the wall. I wish Marissa was here when I found out.

Speaking of which... Marissa has been at her mothers house for the last week and a half. I couldn't post anything about it because she was going to be part of the surprise for her grandmothers 70th birthday surprise party. It worked out wonderfully. I wish I could have been there. I had to work though. I am eager to have Marissa back with me on Monday. It has been a LONG week. It only took a day for me to start missing her and its gotten worse every day she has been gone. I love her to death and i'm counting the hours till she is back home. (23hours 20 min.) I can't wait to see all the things that John has learned while he has been away. Marissa tells me every day what he is learning and how cute he is. I miss him tons. It will be good to put him back on a schedule though. He seems to be getting spoiled up there as usual.

I just had to tell everyone the news. This has been a blessing to our family for me to get into this program and I am really excited and ready to jump right in. As always, I hope the best for each and every one of you.
-Brad-

Fast Times at Hughett High

It's Offical, our kid is cute and smart. We have been having tons of fun playing with John and teaching him. He can recognize any letter of the alphabet and constantly reminds us of it. Anywhere we go he will tell us the letters he sees. He is now counting to 13. He's had to work on the 11,12,13 because most toys or flashcards ect... only go up to 10. Marissa and her mom thought up to use the stairs as numbers and count as you go up them. It was creative and worked except for the number 11. I guess he doesn't like that number so he doesn't say it. He knows its supposed to be there but doesn't want to say it. Oh well. He is very cute with his cousin Kalie. They has so much fun playing with each other this week. John would try and get her attention by sitting next to her and saying hi. She didn't look. So he put his head to the side in his cute way and said hi. Didn't work again. So he leaned over and said hi. Didn't work. So he laid down in front of her on the ground and said hi. That seemed to do it. ha ha. He is also doing this thing now where he crooks his finger and says in a fun voice "come ear," if he wants you to come with him somewhere. He is super cute. His new enzymes he's using are working great. We are even a little under the recommended dose that the doctor put him on. That is exciting for us. The last ones were not working well this last couple of months.

I noticed that my last HUGE post was not commented on very much. I forgot that people don't want to read a novel when going to blogs. So here is a small thing on us. The baby in the belly is very active. Marissa is getting kicked tons by this little active guy. I am doing good. I had some tests this week and did really well. That's all I am going to say. Don't want to make it too big. Hope all is well.
-Brad-