What a pair...

Last week I brought Payton to have a repeat blood test. They had to stick her in the arm this time, and I was anticipating the scream fest that we had last year. But that little munchkin didn't make a peep. She didn't move or make a sound. Good girl!! I was impressed, considering two of us were holding her down and a third was sticking her. The doctor's office called to tell us that her bloodwork is consistent with iron defiency anemia. Looks like we are probably in for the long hall with replacement iron...

Well, for those of you that I haven't talked to I have officially "popped" a big belly. By the time I leave work I can barely get into the car I am in so much pain. That isn't easy when I have to go and pick up a toddler who almost knocks me over when I get to daycare! By the end of the day I am pretty much done. Last week Payton was playing with her blocks on the living room floor and I couldn't even sit down on the floor to play with her. If I do make it down, I can't get back up. And I still have 3 months left! I went to the doctor today and my BP is still doing great 110/70, baby heartbeat is 140. Now I would SWEAR that I have gained 20 pounds in the past month with the pain and pressure I have been having. Turns out I have only gained 2 pounds. My doctor checked me out and the good news is that everything is looking normal. So I am back to see him in 3 weeks for my glucose challenge test. Such fun...

Well, as for the other sad partner in the Steward house... Brian broke one of his toes on Saturday. I have seen some sick things, but that little toe hanging off his foot sideways was totally disgusting! We thought it was just dislocated, but after I attempted to "put it back" (I still can't believe he wanted me to do that!) and it was still dangling there we made a trip to the ER so the doctor could pop it back in place. Well, it wasn't dislocated, just broke completely in half. So now he is sporting a fancy (by fancy I mean hideous:)) new shoe and he is all taped up. We are a sorry bunch, poor Payton has a couple of gimps for parents right now!

Payton is 2 Years Old!!

Payton turned 2 on Friday. I can't believe she is 2 already! Time goes too fast! I took her to her 2 year well child check-up on Friday and she was SO good. She had a flu shot and Hep A vaccine and didn't even cry. She let Dr. Katy examine her and didn't make things difficult. The pediatrician puts flouride on her patients teeth every 3-6 months so Payton had that done as well. Again, she did great. We then had to go to the lab so she could get a hemoglobin and lead level drawn. Last year she screamed when we did this. This time she actually laughed and held her other hand up to the tech once the bandaid was on. She wanted to do it again! Crazy girl. Last year Payton had a low hemoglobin and we had to go back for a few more blood draws (they took us into the back room to hold her down:( and she took iron drops for 3 months. This year she eats well and is crazy about meat so I thought we would be great. Well, the nurse called and her hgb is even lower this year at 10.2 (last year she was 11.5 I think...). So we are back on iron drops and have to go back later this week and then in a month for more blood work. I shouldn't be surprised, I have had anemia problems all my life. I was hoping that Payton wouldn't have that trouble, but it looks like she will. I just hate those iron drops, they smell like a rusty pipe and they can stain her teeth. She isn't too thrilled with them either. Oh, well. We will just have to deal with it... Oh, her stats are: weight 25 pounds 11 ounces (30 percentile), lenght 33.5 inches long (45 percentile).

My parents and my older sister Nicole and her family came for the weekend. We had the usual cake and presents. Payton got a new kitchen from us and Val and Nick. She LOVES that thing! We put it in her bedroom and she actually played in her bedroom all weekend long! She also go a few new baby dolls. Aunt Nicole and Uncle Jason gave her one that cries and laughs. So she is always saying "baby crying momma". Guess we will have to get used to that! Nicole and Jason are her Godparents and they also have her a Precious Moments 2 years figurine. It us just beautiful. She got a ton of new clothes too. Those toddler girl clothes have got to the be the cutest ever:)

She is getting SO good with her words. Although Grandma and Grandpa are "yammy" and "Papa"! She was standing on her chair at breakfast this weekend (she rejected her booster seat) yelling "WANT MORE SAUSAGE"! So cute:)

The Cutest Witch on Mossy Creek Drive...

As you can see, our Payton was the cutest little witch tonight. Brian took her out to a few of the neighbor houses. We had to show her off of course. They got a kick out of her! She then proceded to eat some candy, we bribed her away from her trick or treating pail with a nice warm bath. It was 29 degrees out there tonight!

Well, we have a new Godson! Our friend Amy had a baby boy on Monday. Jonah Christopher weighed in at 9 pounds 9 ounces! Can't wait to see photos:) We are so happy for them. Olivia is going to be such a great big sister! Amy is doing great too.

Tomorrow Payton has a little friend from down the street coming over the play. Ava is a couple of months younger than Payton and her mom and I have been talking about getting the girls together for a while. We will see if they can share:) It should be fun.

Painting fools...

This weekend Brian and I decided to finish some painting projects that we have been thinking about for a LONG time! We finished painting the baby's room. It is a really nice yellow. Not quite as bright as Payton's old room in MA! All of our crib stuff is blue and yellow with the moon and stars. That yellow just looks awesome with our wood trim. We even hung curtains... my family is here this weekend so we figured we could give them some privacy:) We decided on a green accent wall in our bedroom. It is a dark almost olive color. Which our gold and green bedding and red drapes and pillows it looks awesome!!! We now have to start Payton's room. We have the paint, it is called dancing green from Sherwin Williams. It is a darker lime color. Thanks Jeannine! She had some leftover from her house and it is the perfect color to go with Payton's bedding. We officially took out her crib this weekend too. She hasn't slept in it for about a month. It looks so weird in there without it!!!


Oh, for those of you thinking "what is the pregnant lady doing painting?". My doctor told me that as long as we stick to latex, water based paints I can do whatever I want. He said I could go over to his house to touch up his walls if I wanted to. ha ha! The green paint in our room Brian felt had a stronger smell to it so I wasn't in on that one. Not that I am complaining:)

Obsessed...

Here is a photo of our new sofa. We love it! We were a little nervous about how it would fit in our living room, but it fits great. And we still have our other sofa and ottoman in there until my family comes next week. We are going to put them to work moving furniture into our family room:)

Okay, so we are obsessed with coming up with another girl name! It seems like the couple of names we thought were the best just don't seem right anymore! We like something different every day. Thank goodness we have 4 months to come up with something. Payton was easy for us to pick out because we love that name so much, so hopefully we will be able to find one that we like just as much:) There are so many great ones to choose from. We seem to like the more uncommon names, so hopefully our girls won't mind that! I am looking forward to driving my sister Nicole crazy once we have it picked out, we aren't going to tell anyone. She is rooting for Addison Nicole... not one of our favorites by the way:)

Oh, and I am also SO obsessed as to when our great friend Amy is going to have our new god-baby! She was due on Monday... no word yet. You are driving me crazy Aim! Although if you haven't had the baby yet, you are probably feeling way more crazy than I am:)

and the baby's name is.....

We asked Payton what her little sister's name should be tonight after dinner. She replied "cookie"! I guess we'll keep searching.

Payton's first swim...

Well, Payton started swimming lessons last Saturday. She did okay. Brian went into the pool with her, no maternity suits for me! She whined a little for about 10 minutes, but she eventually eased up her grip on Daddy. We go for a half hour every Saturday into December. So she has plenty of time to get used to it!

We got a call today that our new sofa is in! I am thrilled! We just have to call and set up delivery. Hopefully soon!

Well, as some of you know our neighborhood babysitter moved in August. She is the first actual teenage babysitter we ever used to Payton, so we were really sad to see her go. She was a great girl. We are going out to dinner with friends on Saturday and I thought I would try another gal, she is a college student, that our neighbor uses for her kids. Well, she moved about 30 minutes away to be closer to her school. My neighbor was sad about it too, she was the last one on her list too:( So we are stuck with no babysitters around here! I hate to use someone that I don't know anything about. I liked to know that my sitter has parents very close that are always home while they are sitting for us. Oh, well. There is a new teenage girl just down the street... I will have to get in with her parents I guess. And our little sweetie is coming out to dinner with us:)

Baby number 2...

We had our 20 week ultrasound on Friday. My BP is still awesome so I don't have to go for another 5 weeks. My doctor said I am about to get very popular at the office because I will have to start coming a lot more often after the next visit. And we will get one more ultrasound before it is over just to make sure that baby is doing well. After all my troubles with Payton he is keeping a close eye on me. I do BP checks at work so I can see a trend in any changes there and call him. We didn't have an ultrasound after 20 weeks with Payton, so that will be fun. Everything looks good and SHE was just moving all over. So precious. That's right everyone, we are having another baby girl! We truly didn't care which way it went with the boy/girl thing. We are just thrilled that Payton is going to have a little sister to play with. Growing up with 2 sisters both within a couple of years of me was so nice. Now we don't have to feel guilty with all the pink/purple stuff we have or are yet to buy! The only thing that would have been just fantastic to have a boy is that we had a name all picked out. Girls names are so much harder... now we will have to start thinking:)

Big day for Payton!

Yesterday was Payton's first haircut, at the salon. I have trimed the back a couple of times to even it out. Thank goodness for that curly hair. It is so forgiving! I took her to the salon and stylist that I go too. Lately she has been saying "owie!" when I am combing her hair. The ends are so tangled in the morning and after her bath. So we went and although she refused to put the cape on and she had to sit in my lap, she did wonderful. Wendy was actually able to cut it all, and even to boot! Payton really didn't move much. Her treat for being so good was a ring pop that Daddy bought for her. I didn't know they still made those lollipops shaped like a huge gem ring, but she LOVED it. The only other time she has had a lollipop was when Brian brought her into the liquor store and the sales lady gave her one. She was a sticky mess, but so cute!

And then last night she actually slept in her toddler bed! She slept that whole night through the first night we put her in there, but not since. That was over a week ago. She hasn't even fallen asleep in there again until last night. We are so proud of her! She didn't wake up once, she actually slept until 7:30 this morning. AWESOME! Lets hope that it wasn't a fluke again this time!

Yeah for the pumpkin lady!

I received a call from one of my neighbors last Friday telling me about a woman who lives on a farm here in Owatonna that does outdoor decorations. She has pumpkins, hay bales, corn shucks, indian corn, gourds.... She will deliver right to your door, the prices are good, and the best part is that at the end of the season she will come and pick it all up and dispose of it for you. I was thrilled! We love this time of year and honestly what do you do with a hay bale when you are done with it? I gave her a call and she just dropped off our order. She delivered to most of our neighborhood today. She was going to set is up for us even, but I told her that we would do it. We have to make it a little fun:) Hopefully it won't rain before we can get it done. I am super happy! We will have to take a photo of our handiwork. Although, she did give me tips on how to arrange everything.

Sorry it took us so long!

So we have been back from NE for a week, and I am finally able to sit down and blog. Although Payton will probably be hounding me soon!

We had a great mini-vacation in NE. We got there on Thursday night and were able to stay with David and Sarah, and our friends Nick and Andi (along with their 2 year old son Alex) had dinner with all of us and we had a great evening catching up. Nick and Andi were actually here in MN in August, so it was so fun to see them again so soon.

Friday we were running all over the place. We had lunch at our favorite bar/grill with Bryan and Ronni, Mark and Kelly, Sarah and David, and us. Did I mention that there were 3 babies under 6 months and 2 toddlers along too. It was chaos, but in a good way. I think I am relaxing, because I didn't feel stressed at all. Although I am sure our waitress did! We then were off to drive to Dracut and look at our old house and neighborhood. Still looks the same. Then we were able to visit my good friend Lori. For those of you that haven't heard me talk about her, she worked with me on nights at Lowell General and she also babysat Payton 1 day a week so that I could sleep after my shift and Payton would not have to go into daycare. She was a godsend!!! Anyway, her girls are in 1st and 2nd grade now. They seem to have grown so much in the last year! Payton had a ball playing with them and Lori and I were able to catch up. Our other friend and former co-worker Carrie also came over with her almost 2 year old son Kiran. She is also pregnant with number 2. Small world:)
From there it was to the Deluca's for pizza with the Halls as well. We had a fun visit. Matt is only 2 months younger than Payton so they have all the fun toys and a toddler proof house:)

Saturday was the day of rest we like to think. We just hung out with David, Sarah and Ian (2 months) and went for a huge seafood lunch. I ate myself sick! It was totally worth it! It was nice to actually spend some down time with them. Payton sure does love all the babies. Although I think she was making Sarah a little nervous with all the hugs and kisses she was trying to give Ian:) Saturday evening we went over to Bryan and Ronni Cavener's house. Little Jill is almost 6 months, and she is just a doll. Payton got a kick out of her too, and I must say that Jill got a kick out of Payton. Payton was doing her usual hug and kiss routine and Jill was looking at her like "who is this girl", and "why can't I get around like that". So cute. We had out annual take-out food/scary movie fest that we try to do every fall with the Caveners. Keith and Jean Huie joined us too. They look great and we had a fun night. Although I would NEVER recommend Wolf Creek to anyone!!!

Sunday morning Bryan and Ronni hosted a brunch for us and all our friends made it! We had 10 adults, 3 toddlers, 3 babies and 2 unborn babies. It was so overwhelming to know that all of our friends really cleared their weekend to spend as much time with us as possible. We didn't expect that, but truly appreciated it. We went out visit everyone that we missed, and we were able to do that and then some! It really didn't feel like it had been over a year since we had been there. Thanks to everyone who hosted/visited us while we were in town. We miss you all.

Oh, by the way, Payton did awesome. Other than the first night of crying she was great. Both plane rides were great. Although on Saturday night when we were at the Caveners and Payton started to scream, then Jill started to scream I thought we were going to be in for it. But they both settled down and we had a fun adult night!

We aren't sure when we will make it back again, so we were able to fit a lot into just few days. We really do have great friends in NE. They are the one sad thing about coming back to MN. Although we were glad to get back home:) Now we are working on getting Payton into her toddler bed... not going too well. Any pointers??

That stinker, literally...

Last night was Payton's bath night, but we were out at one of our church classes and didn't get home until after 8pm so we decided to put Payton straight to bed and I would give her a bath this morning. I think Brian loved that one, he didn't have to help! And that girl slept until almost 8am. I loved that! Anyway I got her in the tub this morning and I get carried away with the bubbles! Brian usually fills the tub and puts a good amount of bubbles in, not too many. Payton loved all those bubbles this morning. Probably because she made a deposit into the tub and mama couldn't see it until it was time to get out. That girl pooped in the tub. She has only done that one other time that I can remember! I guess I wasn't thinking that she usually does poop in the morning. So I had to clean the tub and she was not happy that I didn't let her help rinse it out like Daddy lets her. Serves her right! And then the stinker refused to put her diaper on until she sits on her potty for quite a while. Of course doing nothing in the potty. Gotta love kids.

We are leaving for NE tomorrow. I am so looking forward to a plate full of seafood!

New sofa

As most of you know when Brian and I bought this house we had our builder finish the basement for us. Although it took 6 MONTHS to complete it really did turn out great. We have a spare bedroom, full bath and a huge family room down there, as well as a good size storage room. And in the family room other than one chair, our eliptical, and a couple desks for the compter and sewing machine it is totally empty. Anyway, I have been after Brian to agree to let us move our current living room furniture down there and buy new for the living room. I think Brian really wanted to just get new downstairs. We have been sorta looking slowly, and last weekend we sucked it up and bought a sectional sofa. We debated the sectional, but our living room is really large and it is the perfect set up for in there. Anyway, Brian is a little nervous about the size of the sofa I think! The sofa is 14 feet long:) We decided on microfiber after my sisters just rave about it. So anyway, in 8-12 weeks we will have our massive sofa delivered. I will have to post photos when we get it! Now my only stress is whether or not our sofa and loveseat will actually fit through the door to get downstairs! Brian of course isn't worried about that part! We had a sleeper sofa at our last house that was such a trial to get into our attic that we sold it with the house... ha ha...

First class...

Well, Brian and I have decided to become members at a Lutheran church here in Owatonna. Last night was our first new member class. There are 5 in all. It gives us all a chance to meet some of the staff and to get a good feel about the beliefs of the church, and meet other new members. There are about 30 of us. They have their nursery open which I was nervous about at first, you know me:) But the class is only 1 1/2 hours and Payton did GREAT. She was running and climbing all over the place apparently. She loves to climb on anything! When we are at my sister Nicole's she climbs the ladder into the top bunk. Didn't know she could do that until Brian walked in on her already half way up! Gotta keep a close eye on that one:)

I am feeling pretty good. I think that I am already feeling some movement from the baby. I love that! My headaches are still here, and I am trying to not use Tylenol too much.

I hate work (this week anyway!)

Our cardiology nurse at work is on a 3 week vacation and I am the only other nurse in our entire clinic that knows how to do her job. I trained with her this spring knowing that I would fill in. I really don't like it at all! She is coming back next Wednesday and I can't wait! I miss my chemo patients! I leave my desk for lunch and in that hour 5 different things that need to done are waiting for me. I don't know how she does this job daily! I don't have enough time in the day to get it all done. Today is supposed to be my day off, but I have to go in this afternoon to do a few stress tests. Apparently I am the only one (other than the nurse on vacation) that knows how to do them! ARGH!

Okay, enough venting. Just a few more days! Things at home are going well. I am starting to feel uncomfortable, probably due to the growing belly. My doctor tells me that I will probably be more so this pregnancy because my body has been through this before. I am starting to have a little more energy. Although by 9:30 pm I am pooped.

Well, Payton is grabbing my hand to come with her. She is having a crabby morning...

Hello Moto

Its official, I am now a Motorola employee. Things will gradually be changing over in the next few months but day to day operations should be business as usual.

Wedding Weekend

My sister Val got married last weekend in Green Bay. We had a very good time, her new husband is just wonderful! Payton did very well! She was the cutest thing ever! I can't tell you how many people came up to us at the wedding to say how beautiful she is. Which we already know of course! During the entire service she just wandered between Brian and I. My sister Nicole ended up carrying her back down the aisle. I walked right past her hoping that one of the mom's would grab her. No such luck:) She loved the dancing! She was so pooped by the time we left.

I had my 14 week appoinment with my doctor today. Have I mentioned that I just love my new OB? Well, I really do. He has a great sense of humor and of course he is a really good doctor too. Next appointment we will hopefully find out the sex of this little person. He told me to think about whether or not I wanted to know. OF COURSE WE DO! Brian will come with and finally meet the doctor and see that baby. First time I heard the heartbeat was today, and I will say it was just as cool as with Payton. My blood pressure remains excellent 110/60. So I can wait 5 more weeks before I have to go back. My headaches are still a nag, but it is better than nausea...

Headache woes...

Well, I am over my 12 week mark in this pregnancy and I think that my nausea is passing now. With Payton I was still pretty sick at around 17 weeks, so this is awesome! Although I have been having headaches daily. I NEVER have headaches. Not even with my first pregnancy. My blood pressure is doing great, actually it is low for me. So it is just those damn hormones that are pulsing in my head. Better than nausea, so I really can't complain (too much that is:)).

We got another lovely note from Payton's teacher again today! She is really trying to test her limits. Man, it would really stink to be a teacher in the toddler room! Can you imagine 6-10 toddlers at once? Those gals are saints!

We are off to WI this weekend for my sister Val's wedding. It is going to be outside, so hopefully it will be nice weather! I am STILL searching for shoes for Payton, she is a flower girl. I still have a few days...

Terrible 2's???

Over the weekend Brian and I noticed that Payton was being very defient (?) for her anyway. She usually is very good about listening when we ask her to put something away and that sort of thing. We are still struggling with the holding our hands in public and on the street, but that we aren't too worried about. Although as my belly gets bigger is may be harder to scoop her up when she plants her butt in the middle of the road! Anyway, on Tuesday I picked her up for daycare and the toddlers were just coming in from outside (Payton loves to pour sand over her head and of course that day her head was just loaded! We HATE that!) and I heard her teacher saying "Payton, we are going this way... Payton over here..." Oh, boy. They always give us a little "report card" for the day letting us know how she ate, slept, played, diapered. On this particular day at the very bottom is said "Payton was very sensitive today and would not take direction and listen to her teachers." Of course is sounded all nice, but basically her teacher told me that she could go in the opposite direction of the class, sit down and refuse to move, just not listen in general. This is a new thing at daycare. That stinker! Of course she isn't even 2 yet, and this sort of thing isn't unusual for them, but it is frustrating for us.

The county fair is in town this week, and for all of you that have never lived in the Midwest, the fair is HUGE! The Steele County Fair is actually a really big and nice fair. The town basically shuts down and families are there every day. It is funny. Yesterday Payton went to the fair with daycare to look at all the animals and that sort of thing. They tell me she did great. Thank god! I was worried about her after Tuesday! We will have to make it out there over the weekend. It can't be known that we didn't go to the fair! Some of my patients tell me that our fair is the best around and they save their fair going time until the one in Owatonna opens! It is so funny!!

I hate construction!!!

As we have posted before the lot next door is being developed as we speak. They are working on the foundation and that huge mixer they have usually wakes us up every morning. Our bedroom and Payton's bedroom are on that side of the house. Usually they are going at around 7am. So that isn't too bad because we are usally getting ready for work, and if I am not working that day I usually am up anyway because if I don't eat something the second I wake up my stomach rejects me the rest of the day! Anyway, yesterday we had to work and they weren't working at all. So of course this morning there was a LOUD delivery at 6:15am! Of course Payton woke up, who in the neighborhood didn't... So I am hoping that it will rain today so that Payton will actually be able to take a good nap this afternoon. That has been another issue!

We had our friends Nick and Andi over this past weekend. We were THRILLED to see them! It had been over a year. And their son Alex is not the baby we remember:) It was so nice to spend time with them. Although now we miss them more! We are really looking forward to our trip to NE this September now! Here is a couple photos of the kids at the park...

Payton's new shirt...

So now that most of you know the "big" news we can finally fill you in on the details. Our baby is due on February 28, 2007. Or so we think... he he. We were totally unsure of dates and my new OB assures me that he can get within a week by ultrasound. So after some blood work and a couple of ultrasounds we are right on target for that due date. This pregnancy feels pretty similar to Payton's so far. Although the morning sickness started earlier. It doesn't seem too bad yet... I seem to have some little "tricks" that are helping. And I am WAY more tired. Thankfully Payton has been a good girl for us:)

Well, Payton is calling. Seems she just went "poopy"! ha ha...

Good Girl!

We are starting to get more into the potty training lately. Payton went number 2 on her potty this morning! I was THRILLED! I had to call Brian and work and let him know! ha ha...

All is good here. I have been sick with a sore throat and fever the last couple of days. But today seems better. Thankfully Payton has been a little angel for me. Yesterday she took a 5 hour nap! What is up with that! I had to go in there and check on her to make sure she was okay! Just tired I guess.

One year ago...

...we were on our way from Massachusetts to Minnesota.
The last year sure has gone by quickly!

Night-time woes...

Well, Lisa since you are having such a good time with your girls at night, we are regressing with the night time sleeping! Payton does just beautiful going to sleep. We get into her pjs, she loves to brush her teeth and then gives me a kiss says "bye-bye", waves and walks right into her room with Brian and after another hug and kiss from him she is out. She usually is great and sleeps until about 7am without a peep. Lately she has been waking up at least once and then decides at 5am (every morning) that it is time to get up. We usually let her cry a bit and if she doesn't go back to sleep, then we go and lay next to her crib for a few minutes until she calms down. She plays her fisher-price aquarium a few times and then she is asleep again. I know it isn't horrible, but the 5am thing every day is getting old! That stinker! She has had an nice cough and a cold for about a week. It seems that every time we are away from home for any length of time she seems to miss us at night or something. This started when we got back from vacation. Hopefully it will be over soon and she will get back to normal!

On other news, they are finally developig the empty lot next door. It is the only lot on our street that doesn't have a house on it yet. Although there are still a few that haven't been sold. So it looks like we will be living with the windows closed for a while. I hate that dust that gets into everything!

Hooray for Payton!

Well, as a lot of you know we have SLOWLY been introducing Payton to potty training. She gets put on the potty at daycare several times a day so we decided then that we should start trying to do more of it at home. She has never gone in the potty at daycare. She loves to sit on her one at home. Last night when we were getting her bath ready I asked her if she wanted to sit on the potty. Of course she did, she loves to use tons of TP! ha ha. She is so silly. She was on there for all of 5 seconds. And when she stood up we couldn't believe it. That stinker went on the potty! She was probably thinking "what is the big deal guys, don't you do this all the time?". We were thrilled. Probably just a fluke again, but we will take it!

busy, busy, busy...

We have been home for a little over a week (and we have all had a cold that entire time) and Friday we leave for WI. We just finished unpacking from our vacation to the UP! My younger sister Val is getting married next month so we have to do some celebrating for that, and Nicole's baby Jacob just turned a year old. So another birthday party:) Payton always has a lot of fun over there. All those toys that aren't hers!

We have been meaning to get tickets for New England for the fall and finally booked them this week. So everyong in MA and NH, we will be there September 21-24. It was fortunate that we were able to book a non-stop flight. So we can strap Payton in her carseat and she will be good to go until we get there. Hopefully!

This weekend was a scorcher in MN. We were thrilled yesterday to finally be able to open the windows in the evening again. I just love that fresh air:)

We also heard this week that our friends Nick and Andi from MA will be making the trek out to MN to visit the beginning of August! YIPPEE! Nick has family here in MN so we luck out:) We are so happy about that! We haven't seen the majority of our friends out there in almost a year. Lots to catch up on guys! Our good friends Mark and Kelly had their baby girl Jillian last week. Congrats guys!

Motorola

Tina mentioned it a little while ago, but here's the whole scoop on Motorola buying NextNet...

NextNet has been around for about 5 years but a little over a year ago they were puchased by Clearwire. Clearwire is basically an ISP so they would buy NextNet hardware to build out their networks but NextNet could also still supply their previous customer's with hardware as well. NextNet was considered a "wholly owned subsidiary". Craig McCaw is the owner of Clearwire...he's some billionaire who had originally started up what was to become AT&T wireless or something. This was good for NextNet since there was plenty of money to put into the company to make it grow...and it has. There are probably at least 15 new employees since I started and for a company of about 130 that's pretty good!

Now comes Motorola. They've been buying up a few companies to get into the WiMax business but none of them have really been proven and don't have any real number of users. The NextNet equipment doesn't quite adhere to the WiMax standard, but the technology works and there is a large paying customer base inplace. So Motorola found this attractive and can get into the market right away. Clearwire gets a good deal out of it because in addition to Motorola investing in Clearwire, Intel is also on board for twice as much investment as Motorola. The idea is to get the few technologies Motorola has been acquiring together to get a product that can do it all. So Motorola gets a pretty good deal by acquiring the technology, Clearwire gets a pretty good deal by having large investors to expand into more markets. NextNet...well, nobody's convinced that the deal is all that great for NextNet. There are concerns over relocation and consolodation, but Motorola assured us that there are no plans to move anyone [yet]. Everyone will be retained and will be kept at their current salary levels (except maybe some of the big-wigs...they might get a sweeter deal). The benifits will get a little better but the details haven't been brought around yet (401k match of 6% for instance).

The close date should be in about 30-60 days, so by September we will be Motorola emplyees. I don't expect too many changes at first, but we will have to implement new policies and procedures and I expect some documentation changes such as ECO's. We probably won't get free pop any more either! There were a lot of concers from those who have stock options (not me). Sounds like they're getting a little screwed in the deal but that's primarily due to government regulations since the Enron scandal.

So, that's it in a nutshell. I went from a large company to a small one back to a big one! I checked the websites and Motorola has fewer employees compared to Raytheon (63000 vs 80000), but Motorola is a $30 billion business compared to Raytheon at $20 billion.

As a side note...when I was finishing up at Tech I wanted to work for Motorola.

Then and now...

These photos are of Payton during our summer vacation at the lake, last year and last week. She has changed a little:)

Our Vacation...

We just got back last night from our week at the lake...

We had such a nice vacation. The weather was good enough for Brian to get in some water-skiing and for Payton to play in her pool. You didn't think our princess could handle that chilly lake water did you?! ha ha... She actually was loving the pool so much she cried when it was time to go in. That is a new one. Payton made it through several boat rides and this year she seemed to enjoy them a little more.

Our good friends David and Sarah (link at right) had their first child Ian Alexander on the fourth of July. What a great birthday! Dave had called us at the lake while Sarah was still in labor just to keep us posted (the lake house doesn't have internet) and I was OBSESSED with how everything was going! We were so happy to hear from them the next day and Sarah and baby were doing well. Congrats guys!

Brian got some interesting news from work. He got a call on Wednesday telling him about an all employee meeting that day and the 1-800 number to call in for it. He was on the call for about an hour to learn that his company NextNet Wireless is being bought by Motorola (sorry if I didn't spell that right)! He has several meetings this week which I am sure he will update on. Not sure right now what is happening. I was teasing Brian because while we were in college he always said he would like to work to Motorola. Guess he is going to get that wish!

Payton now has 2 new favorite words, grapes and cookie. Always about food right:)

Payton's parade...

Here are a couple of photos of Payton from her 4th of July parade at daycare today. It was pretty cute. She had a good time:)

We are leaving to the UP in the morning to spend a week at the lake. We are really looking forward to it. Should be fun. I just found out that one of my friends from high school will be in town. I haven't seen Laurie in over 7 years I think!

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

Hard at work...

We have been busy around here lately. Over the weekend we were able to get a little more landscaping done on the east side of the house. Brian really wanted to get the landscaping in around the air conditioner and the gas meter to cut down the amount of hand trimming he has to do. We did manage to get that done and planted a miss kim lilac bush and an evergreen shrub. It turned out great. On Sunday I decided that it was time to start painting the kitchen. The white was starting to get old. I finished about 2/3 of it now. It is a really nice warm brown/gray color. It looks great with the 2 red walls in there. It is funny how a coat of paint (or in our case 2-3 coats) can really change a room!

Payton has decided that 5am is a good time to start waking up. Yesterday Brian actually just took his pillow and laid down next to her crib and she did lay back down. Today she actually slept until 7am. That was HUGE! The early sunrises are not making it easy for her to go back to sleep!

Last night we were working on getting Payton to say her name. Right now she says Paytee. Super cute I know, but when we asked her if she could say Payton she just nods her head. I wasn't sure if she was just nodding for the fun of it, so I asked her if she could say alligator. Now mind you that alligator really is not a work we say around here and we have never heard her attempt it. She didn't nod, but said actually said alligator. Or something very close to it!

Mackinac...

Here is Payton on the porch of the Grand Hotel, and down on the lawn.



We had a really nice weekend and were able to see most of our families too. The weather was great and Payton slept great. She did have an aversion to the high chair that the hotel had, but we were able to deal with it. We stocked up on fudge and bought a few things. All in all it was a perfect weekend in Mackinac!

Please be good....

Today we are leaving for a weekend with Brian's family at Mackinac Island, MI. We are stopping to see my sister Nicole on the way there and my sister Val on the way back. Just to break up the 10 hour drive. Last time we took Payton on a road trip it was to Milwaukee for Mother's day to visit Brian's grandma. She was an angel! I am thinking that we really lucked out that weekend. She wants to be so independent, which is great, but very frustrating. Like when we are in a parking lot walking to the car and she wants to "push" the cart amongst the traffic. Mind you it is a full size cart and she doesn't even reach the handle yet. Yesterday I tried to take that job over and she looked at me like "what you you doing mama, I've got it!" Or when we are in the library and she thinks she is so funny to run around laughing as I try to quickly pick out some books and videos for her. Then she throws herself down on her butt so we won't leave. She seems to love the library! It is funny now, but I will say that yesterday she was on my last nerve! Especially as I was scrubbing spaghetti sauce out of my dining chair cushions... why didn't they have that same style table without the cushions?!

She redeems herself quick though. I took her out of her chair and she reached up, gave me a big hug and said "hi" with the biggest smile you have ever seen. She knows how to work mama...

You know your child rules your every thought when...

your husband asks you during dinner "If you could marry a Wiggle, which one would it be?" And if you don't know what a Wiggle is, you are totally missing out!!! ha ha... By the way, I picked Anthony:O)

New Patio

Its only been 10 days since I first called for an estimate and the patio is already finished. Those guys did quick work at a reasonable price. I don't mind doing work myself, but this was probably a little over my head. I did add the stairs myself. Now we have a place to put Payton's sandbox, our fire pit, and a vegatable garden in the corner.

More of the cutie

Here's Payton in the outfit my mom bought while she was in San Francisco a year ago...she finally fits into it.

Blowing bubbles...

Here are a couple of photos of Payton from the weekend. She can't get enough of playing outside and she really loves blowing bubbles. She dragged her bubble pail over to my mom every chance she got!

What a cutie!

Well our little Payton is just too cute with the talking! You swear she is just having this deep conversation with you and I can only understand bits and pieces :) Her big thing now is sit down "it tow", "poopie" for you know what, and "bankie" for her favorite fleece blanket. Of course she says "daddy" all the time and Mama only when she is upset... figures! We actually got her to use her pink fleece blanket last week. For all of you that have seen Payton with her blue or yellow blanket understand what a HUGE thing that was for us! I finally have a backup "bankie" at home! Her yellow one is usually at daycare unless it is home to be washed. She has actually stared into our washing machine and cried when she sees those blankets in there! She is so silly. We brought her to get her photos taken on Saturday. She smiled only once and I was so upset that we drove to Rochester for these photos and she wasn't cooperating, but let me tell you that they took some beautiful shots! I couldn't believe that she was able to get such cute photos. We payed a bundle for them, but they are worth it! When we get them I will post a couple. We also picked up Payton a new sandbox. Our patio will be ready for it by the weekend. Can't wait for her to try it out!

Yeah Memorial Day!

My parents came in last night for the weekend. It is going to be in the 90s by Sunday. Finally a dry and beautiful Memorial Day! We are having our patio done this weekend. The company that we are using (it is going to be concrete) have jobs starting next week and decided that if we are okay with it they will get it done this weekend. I am THRILLED! I really want to put a sandbox for Payton out there, we just bought an outdoor fireplace, Brian built a raised garden bed for me that I really want to get started on, and it will be a much easier place to grill... For all of you who have never been in MN it is SO windy. Sometimes out deck has so much wind whipping through it it is difficult to keep the grill hot! The patio will be between our deck and our garage so it will be sheltered from the wind some. The wind is great when it is super hot out though!

Well, we will post photos when it is done. Happy Memorial Day Weekend to you all! Happy Anniversary a little early Allison and Steven! Hard to believe it has been 2 years already!

Blog Hopping

Its starting to take a lot longer to check everyone's blogs now that even more people have them (and update them!). I wonder how much time could be wasted in a day just blog hopping around from all the links on people's blogs. Checking out links to other people's blogs and their links and so on. Of course there will be some dead ends like hitting Sonja's website if you don't have an account (just got mine this week...whoo hoo!) Maybe I'll try this when I get a slow day...might not be until November the way things are going (but being busy is good).

All Done!

Here is the finished front yard. We put down almost 3 yards of rock yesterday. It looks SO nice! But it was a lot of work! We are saving the back yard landscaping until next year.

They Might Be Giants

Remeber them? They had songs like "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" and "Particle Man". Well, the other day, Payton was watching one of her favorite cartoons, Higglytown Heroes, when I noticed on the credits that They Might Be Giants does the theme song. Its a little better than the usual cartoon song and once I made the connection it sure sounds like them.

Payton is getting so big!

Since I am on a roll with the photos I thought that I would put a couple of Payton. You can really tell how much she has grown since we moved here, which was 9 months ago! She just loves to look out the windows! And now she finally can without standing on something!

Photo update

Here are some photos we have been meaning to post. The first two are our new yard, and the third one is the week we moved in. We now have the yard and driveway finished to our newly paved road. So it looks much nicer! We just need to add one more plant on the side and then the rock in the front. It sure is difficult to work on the landscaping when you have an 18 month old running all over the place! We had fun doing it though. We did come home to a lovely Purple Ash tree in our front yard yesterday too.

Landscaping

We worked all weekend on landscaping the front yard. Got most of it done too! We pulled up the grass, which was the hardest part, put edging in and planted 10 plants. We'll have to get a load of landscaping rock to put in the beds, but that won't happen until next wekend. This weekend we're heading to Milwaukee for Mother's day to visit my Grandmother and my parents. I was able to plant a tree last night before the rains came. Its a Discovery Elm, which is disease resistant, grows quickly and is pretty hardy. Its probably close to 10 feet tall right now but rather spindly. We need it mostly to shade the deck in the late afternoon/early evening, but it'll be a few years before it gets big enough. The city is also planting trees along the street so by the time I get home tonight there should be a tree out front. We will work on the rest of the yard a little at a time from now on...need to plant more plants around the house and more trees out back. The patio might be the last big project for outside this year although I would like to get a few plants in around the deck. I'll get some pictures up when I get a chance.

Soggy Weekend

We had a total washout this weekend! It has been raining for 3 days... Tomorrow is supposed to be better.

Although the weather was rotten we were able to have a good weekend. Brian's birthday was Saturday and we had a babysitter and went out to dinner and a movie. We helped a friend of mine move into her new house and tried our best to entertain Payton knowing that she would have loved to be outside... This coming weekend hopefully will be better weather wise and we can start our landscaping in the front of the house.

I am going to be starting a quilting class with some friends from work. One of our co-workers works at a quilt shop on Saturdays and she is going to do the class for us. We had a ball at the quilt shop on Saturday picking our fabrics. We are all doing the same pattern, but we all are choosing our own color schemes. How overwhelming all that fabric is! I started a quilt a few years ago now and hopefully this will get me going to start working on it again! I am looking forward to it!

Happy Monday!

Tuesday Morning Quarterback

I just discovered that Gregg Easterbrook's Tuesday Morning Quarterback (TMQ) is back on ESPN.com. A few years ago he was abruptly fired from ESPN due to some comments he made on his personal blog and has spent the last few seasons on NFL.com. His comments were about violent movies and Jewish executives, specifically Michael Eisner then CEO of Disney which owns ESPN. I guess now that Eisner is no longer the CEO its ok to bring back TMQ, they even put his archives back. It seemed a little strange that TMQ was removed in the first place since there were quite a few degrees of separation between his comments and his job at ESPN.

Just thought I'd inform yoose guys in case you're looking for TMQ in August. (only 4 more months 'till football starts!!)

Is it Monday already?

We had such a good weekend I am SO sad that the week is starting again! We were able to spend a lot of time outside, Payton did NOT want to come in last night! She climbed into her stroller and would not get out. Two rounds around the neighborhood and a little whining and we got her out! It is nice to be outside and see all the neighbors out and about. Everyone was mowing their grass and playing with the kids. It was great! We went up to the cities to see Jeannine and my good friend Katie who came up for the weekend. Payton had a ball playing with Jeannine. It was nice for Payton to finally meet Katie!

Well our weekend ended sort of strangely last night. Payton has had a runny nose for the past few days. And a little cough, of course. It seems like it may be an allergy thing. Then last night she started to cry around 1am. She wouldn't settle down so I went in there and she seemed fine until the vomitting started! So needless to say that Mom was up for hours. Even after she finally settled down I was so wide awake it is tough to get back to sleep. This morning she is doing great. Who knows... this kid is always sick! That is my only negative thing about daycare! I guess it is now or when she starts school right!?

Bunco...

Ever heard of Bunco? It is this crazy dice game that you need 12 people to play. On Friday night I went with my neighber to play at her friends house. They apparently play once a month on a Friday and rotate houses. They have 12 "regular" ladies that play and then a list of substitutes in one or more of the 12 can't make it. Because of the way the game works, you play with 6 teams of 2, you can't play without the full 12. It was a new experience for me! 12 loud women drinking and playing bunco... it was a great time! I am officially on the "sub" list! Strange, but fun!

We had a nice weekend. As Brian already wrote we have been pricing out things for upgrades in the yard. Sunday we were able to go to Minneapolis and have lunch with our good friend Jeannine. She is our family here:) We went an AWESOME german buffet and stuffed ourselves with some great food. Payton was so pooped out yesterday morning! She didn't want to get up! She has some sort of bug I think. She is working it out... literally! Thank goodness she is drinking a lot! And her appetite returned in full force last night at dinner!

Gasthof zur Gemütlichkeit

Jeannine asked if we wanted to go to Gasthof zur Gemütlichkeit for Easter Sunday brunch. We had been there before with her and quickly agreed that it would be a good thing to do. It was fantastic! Everything on the buffet was great as was the beer. There were accordians playing and people having fun. Payton was entertained by everything around us, at least for a little while. Everyone had a good time and we know what we're doing for Easter next year already!

Here's the menu...
Entree's:
Turkey * Smoked Ham * Sauerbraten * Smoked Sausage * Wienerschnitzel * Chicken Breast in a white wine sauce * Eggs Benedict * Deep Fried Walleye strips

Accompanied by:
Salad Bar * Mashed Potatoes * Gravy * Spatzle
Sauerkraut * Red Cabbage * German Potato Salad

For Dessert:
Black Forest Cake * Stawberry Cream Cake * Open Face Apfelstrudel * Belgian Waffles with all the trimmings

Yard Work

The weather has been pretty damn nice lately so that makes it time to do yard work. I've raked a bit but I don't think I'll get the whole yard done...oh well. The grass is starting to green up so Saturday I'll put down some fertilizer. Fortunately the weather looks good on Saturday with rain on Sunday. That means I'll be mowing the lawn soon. I got a new mower at the end of last season, I just have to remember to put oil in it before I use it (gas too!). We also need to get started on the landscaping. We'll hit Lowe's this weekend to see what's available. I also plan on putting a fairly large tree in soon so I have to decide what to get. This tree is going to provide some shade for the deck but I don't want it to be too dense...just light filtering. We'll take it slowly and get a little done at a time so we don't get burned out.

Back again...

We were in WI over the weekend for our neice's 4th birthday party. Payton had a blast! She loves all the kids and gifts. The first night we had a tough time getting her down to sleep. The dreaded pack n play is not her favorite. And after the 5 hour car ride she just didn't want to settle down. We eventually brought her in bed with us (which we NEVER do) and she slept great. We however slept horrible! The next night she didn't even wake up! Who knows... She is starting to transition into the toddler room at daycare next week. She will spend one week going over there for a couple of hours in the morning, but still spending the rest of her day in the infant room and then the second week she will spend 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon with the toddlers. The third week she leaves her baby friends behind to make the permanent transition in the "Yellow Room". With the toddlers she will have her on cot to nap on. Good luck with that one! I am hoping that she will do good with that and then it will make it easier for us to transition her to her toddler bed. She is ready for the more structured day that the toddlers have. I know she will just love it.

Jamaica Mon!

We arrived home from Jamaica late last night. We had a great time! Apparently Brian and i were "Jamericans" this week because it was our second trip to the island. Although Payton didn't really start to feel better until Wednesday. We were doing the daily phone call to check in, but I was worried about her. That was the only damper on our entire stay. She started eating again on Wednesday night to all of our relief. I thanked Betty for making her all better by the time we got home! She seems to be back to her old tricks this morning!

Home sick again...

Well, I should have kept my mouth quiet! Payton developed a fever and stuffed nose yesterday. I took her to the doctor (we are leaving on Sunday for Jamaica) and she seems to just have a virus. Her appetitie has been poor the last couple of days as well and yesterday afternoon and evening she really ate nothing and just sipped on some juice. So this morning she woke up with the dry heaves (YUCK!). Brian was home this morning with her and I left work to be home this afternoon. She seems to do better the longer she is up. Then after her nap she is terrible again. She just whines and shivers. Thank goodness that she is drinking just great! Hopefully this is just one of those 24 hour things!

The big 3-0

Well, yesterday I turned 30! Brian is teasing me that he is no longer married to a woman in her 20s. Nice huh? I have been busy taking an Oncology class in Rochester at the Mayo Clinic this week and getting up at 4:30am for a couple of days really caught up fast! I guess I do feel older:)

Payton has been just a little stinker eating lately. One day she eats everything in sight, the next night we can't get anything in her for dinner except a yogurt. I know it is normal, but it sure does frustrate mom! Here is a photo of her brushing her teeth before bed... now who could get upset at that sweetie I ask!!??

Playing outside...

Well we were able to take Payton outside to play in the snow today. It is in the mid 30s, but the sun is shining and the sky is totally clear. We still have snow so we had to enjoy it. We pulled her around the yard in her little sled, and she actually only whined for the first couple of minutes. They she seemed to enjoy it. Although I think that mom and dad enjoyed it more!

More snow...

We are currently getting our second snow storm of the week (it isn't too much snow, about 8 inches for each storm). Last week we were in the 40s-50s daily. On friday I pulled into our driveway are realized that we had no snow in our yard. The kids in town must love no school for 2 days in the same week! Lucky for me my 2 days off this week happened to be on the same days as the snow. We get a lot of drifts here in MN with that wind. BRRRR.

I am happy to report that the Stewards (all 3 of us!!) are finally healthy! It has been a couple of months since all 3 of us were without a cough, sniffles, sore throat..... I shoud knock on wood! Brian and I are on vacation in a little over a week!

Quiz we stole from Lisa!

This was cool Lisa so we are giving it a go:)

Tina:
4 Jobs I've had:
1. Registered nurse (Lowell General Hospital, District One Hospital, Owatonna Clinic)
2. Lab Tech- Saints Memorial
3. JC Penney sales associate
4. Tilden Mine summer student employee
Brian:
1. Quality Assurance Engineer
2. Electrical Design Engineer
3. Co-op, IBM
4. Golf Course Ground's Keeper

4 movies I can watch over and over:
1. While You Were Sleeping (my favorite too Lisa!!)
2. Never Been Kissed
3. Old School
4. Harry Potters
1. Old School
2. Matrix
3. Die Hard
4. Office Space

4 Books I can read over and over:
1. Harry Potter series
2. Anything by Judith McNaught
3. Pride and Prejiduce
4. Anything by Mary Balogh
1. Read...what's that???

4 Places I've lived:
1. Owatonna, MN
2. Dracut, MA
3. Lowell, MA
4. Sunderland, MA
1. Same as Tina

4 Places I Want to Live:
1. Appleton, WI
2. Really anywhere in the Midwest, oh wait a minute we are already there!!!
3.
4.
1. Anywhere Tina is! :o

4 TV shows I love:
1. According to Jim
2. Survivor
3. Two and a Half Men
4. Lost
1. Good Eats
2. Mythbusters
3. Lost
4. This Old House

4 Highly Regarded TV shows I've never watched a minute of:
1. Sopranos
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. NCIS
4. Without a Trace
1. American Idol (proud not to have seen this!!!)
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Without a Trace
4. Skating With Celebrities

4 Places I've Vacationed:
1. Las Vegas
2. Orlando
3. Jamaica (and we are going back in a few weeks:))
4. England with my orchestra in high school
1. Las Vegas
2. Orlando
3. Jamaica
4. Washington DC

4 Places I Wish I Could Vacation:
1. Hawaii
2. Italy
3. Australia
4. Spain
1. House boat on Lake Mead
2. Yosemite
3. Austria
4. Anywhere Tina is! :o

4 Favorite Foods:
1. Mexican, NO BEANS
2. Pancakes
3. Brownie, rice krispie treats
4. Pizza
1. Mexican, lots of beans!
2. Pizza
3. Chili
4. Steak

4 Sites I Visit Daily:
1. Friends' blogs
2. yahoo.com for email
3. target.com
4. Pottery Barn Kids
1. blogs
2. Mining Journal
3. Detroit Freepress, Lions
4. yahoo

4 Places I'd Rather Be Right Now:
1. on vacation anywhere!
2. at the hair salon getting my hair done (it is so long! I am going in the morning!)
3.
4.
1. at the dentist
2. getting a prostate exam
3. getting a colonoscopy
4. at the dentist while getting a prostate exam followed by a colonoscopy!

Interstate

I watched a show on the History Channel the other day about the interstate highway system (its the 50th anniversary don't ya know) and it got me thinking: who do we know that doesn't live within 20 minutes of an interstate? Of course you have to rule out everybody in the UP that we know. But since leaving the UP, I haven't lived further than 20 minutes from an interstate (I'm including metropolitan loops such as I-495). And I've lived in six different residences in that time. Tina's sister in Appleton is proabably more than 20 min, but not much more than 30. Scott might be just far enough north of Duluth to be outside of 20 min too. So, if you live far from an interstate, tell us about life on the "back roads".

This may be my favorite snapshot of Payton!

Sorry it has been a while!

We have been busy around here! My sister Nicole came out with her 2 youngest kids for a long weekend. We had a great time. Although next time I think Brian my consider going to see Nicole's husband Jason and get away from us ladies! He did have our 8 month old nephew here, but it just wasn't the same:)

Payton is keeping us on our toes around here. She is really into the tantrum thing when we are in public. She starts out awesome, but when she is ready to leave she is just DONE! Just love those screaming kids with parents wrestling with them as they throw themselves on the ground don't ya! ha ha... She really isn't bad, just a couple of times she has been just awful. Gotta love toddlers!

Work has been just wonderful for me! I love the new job! I can't remember a job that I have actually enjoyed going to until I starting working with Oncology. Giving chemo isn't easy, but it is SO rewarding! It helps that I really enjoy my co-workers.

Brian is always busy at work which is probably why he hasn't blogged in a while, but he is doing great. He and Payton are getting over ANOTHER cold! This one was pretty bad for both of them. I never got it though, knock on wood!

Sorry again we haven't been writing lately... We do enjoy reading everyone elses though!

Finally getting healthy again...

Last week we were able to make it back to Negaunee to visit for a few days. My parents just built a house so that was exciting. It is just beautiful. We unfortunately were getting sick with colds and by Sunday all 3 of us were pitiful! Payton and I actually were both home sick on Monday from daycare and work! Yesterday we were doing better, but Payton has been having a REALLY tough time with her molars coming in. She had a horrible day at daycare. She didn't eat much, cried a lot and was just crabby! She was good last night and today she seems to be getting back to normal. Tough week for the Stewards:)

Gas money has to go somewhere...

<sarcasm>Its good to see that the oil companies pass along the extra cost of oil (and then some)onto the consumer so that the companies can have record profits.</sarcasm>
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060130/bs_nm/
energy_exxon_earns_dc

Thank goodness that is over...

I took my classes and received my certification in Advanced Cardiac Life Support this week. Even though I am working at a clinic, it is not attached to our hospital here in Owatonna and in our department we give some pretty nasty medications (chemo) so we have to have out own code team. (aka. the RNs in my department and our internal medicine docs) So they sent me to Rochester to take the classes. Our clinic is part of Mayo Clinic so I had to go take it with other Mayo staff. I was super stressed about it. Not only did I have no clue where I was going (the Mayo Clinic is HUGE) I spent 2 days in class then a pracital evaluation with instructors and a written test and a cardiac monitor rhythm test. All in all is wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be and I did well. I am just SO glad that it is over with!!! Now I have 2 years before I have to do it again:)

Can't wait for Daddy to get home!

Well, Brian has been in South Dakota for work since Sunday. We were doing great here until last night... Payton woke up around 3:30am crying and after a couple of minutes I knew she wasn't going to stop so I went into her room, and the poor thing was sick! At first I thought she was just yawning... several hours later and a clothes change for her and mama she seems to be doing a little better. I think it really freaked her out to throw up. That poor baby. Last Friday when I picked her up for daycare they had told me that a couple of the babies were home sick that day with vomiting and diarrhea. We just have the vomiting so far... She has not really eaten anything today, I feel bad about that. But we we tried just a cracker and water/juice and out it came again. She isn't interested which makes it easier. Brian will be back this afternoon, thank goodness! Mama is pooped! And I'm sure our little sweetie will perk right up when he gets home!

That "New Car Smell" might just kill you!!

I guess now that car emissions are cleaner and people don't smoke as much they have to find the next best thing to kill you.

http://www.ecocenter.org/releases/20060111_autotoxics.shtml

Look at the cute girl!

Steelers vs. Colts

That was a crazy game! I'm sure anyone who's interested either saw the game or has read about it. The final 5 minutes were a combination of some unlikely events that kept the Colts in the game. The Bettis fumble at the 2 and Manning's overturned interception and the missed field goal are getting all the press today. What I'm interested in happened with about 11 minutes left in the game...an apparent false start by the Steelers on 4th down that had players on both teams jumping up and down and crossing the line of scrimmage. The refs stopped play without throwing a flag, had a conference, then said that there were no penalties on either team! Replays showed that there was a false start but it was missed by the refs. They apparently didn't know what was going on so they did a "do over". The Steelers converted the 4th down and ran a bunch more time off the clock. I think that missed call really hurt the Colt's chances for a comeback since there wasn't much time left. I wanted the Colts to win originally, but they were outplayed by the Steelers, so the best team won.

Our little girl

Our little baby is offically our little girl! She is totally losing that "baby" look and is looking so big! She is walking more than crawling now. She is trying to break into a run, but she isn't quite steady enough yet and she just falls on her butt or her hands. And she is doing so well with her sippy cup that we have not given her her bedtime bottle and she didn't seem to mind at all. Although some days are better than others, so she does still get that bottle if she seems to want it. And I think that putting her into daycare more days a week has totally helped us along with the table/finger food. We stopped at Wendy's on our way to my sister's house over New Years and she snatched Brian's hamburger from right in front of him and gobbled it up! Who knew she liked hamburgers!? She is just the cutest darn thing!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all! We spent the weekend at my sister Nicole's bringing in the new year with friends and family. It is SO nice to be able to drive there for the weekend! Still not used to that!

Things have begun to settle down. We are taking Payton to the zoo this weekend. Her first trip to a zoo. Hopefully she will like it! We will... The end of this month is Brian's holiday party for work and we are for the first time going to have someone other that close friends/family babysit Payton for us. Hopefully. I am going to try and get our neighbors teenage daughter to come over for the evening. This is a huge hurdle for me! She is a very nice girl, and she sits for quite a few of our neighbors. And she lives directly behind us! Doesn't get much better than that. I need to call, hopefully she will be available:)

We are also trying to plan a trip to Jamaica at the end of March with my sister Nicole and her husband Jason. They already have their trip booked and we hopefully will have ours soon. Thanks goodness for Grandma Betty! She is going to come and watch our little sweetie for us.

Hopefully you all had a great holiday season!

Hello Again...

Well, things finally feel back to normal! I am now working by part time schedule again. I will be working 3 days a week on average. Which is just perfect! I really love my new job! I love the work itself, the patients, my co-workers... So that is going well.

Payton has been on iron for the last month because she has low hemoglobin. She had her blood drawn last week just to check up on it, and she is still low. I brought her in this morning to have more blood drawn. They are doing more tests this time to check it all out better. Poor baby! She actually had to have her blood taken from her arm instead of her finger. She was NOT thrilled! Hopefully this couple more months on iron will do the trick. She has had a cold and cough for a couple of weeks, the doctor says it is a virus. She just can't seem to get rid of this one! The poor kid is up coughing at night. Last night she actually slept the whole night through for the first time in a while. The good this is that she seems to not be too bothered by it in the daytime...

Crazy, Crazy, Crazy!

Well, I now have a new found respect for mom's that work full time! I am only working full time for 2 weeks and I feel that our home is in shambles! I now have a hour lunch (pretty nice for a nurse:)) and I am able to go and visit Payton at daycare. So I really don't feel too guilty on the mom front, but man this past weekend I felt that I had to do SO much to get ready for Christmas. I am working all this week too.

Payton is doing great at daycare. She is actually napping well and eating even better. She popped her 7th tooth this weekend. She as been super crabby with this teething right now. Which is totally new for her! That and we think she may be having a little growth spurt, she is eating us out of house and home! Which is, for all of you out there that have taken care of my daughter, totally new for her too! Usually she could care less about food.

Well, work is going well. I have the cold that Brian and Payton had last week, and we are almost ready for Christmas. My parents are coming out later this week. Should be a fun holiday with our crabby girl:) Happy Holidays to everyone!

I'm back

Made it back without any major incidents on Saturday. Our flight leaving Tokyo was delayed by an hour for a mechanical problem but since I wasn't catching a connecting flight it wasn't a big deal. The 747 I was on must have been the oldest aircraft I have ever been on. I'm sure it is just fine mechanically, but the inside needs some updating. I'm sure its not too cheap to gut the insides of these beasts to make them more modern. The 747 is definitely the mother of all jet airliners. The thing is huge! The new Airbus A380 which is coming out soon is similar in size to the 747 but it has two levels of seating for the whole aircraft. This will allow many more passengers of course. But I think it may be too big....the 747 is the right size for the job. Ford made the Excursion for a few years to compete with the Suburban. The Ford was a bigger hoping that would attract more customers, but they didn't come. The Excursion only lasted a few years. The A380 may suffer the same problem. The 747 does its job very well and a bigger jet may not be able to displace it as the mother of all jetliners.

Anyway, its good to be back. Payton put on her little show for me...walking for me shortly after I got home. Very exciting! Its good to be back on American food and relaxing at home. The next trip will be too soon I'm sure.

Airplanes

12/10/2005 6:00 pm CST

Here I am at 38000 feet again between Singapore and Tokyo. I'm in the exact same seat I was in last week. This flight is quite full so I have someone next to me. That's no big deal because I'm not planning on sleeping anyway. I've got to try and get back on central time.

The flight from Malaysia to Singapore was on a 777 and now I'm on an A330 again. These planes are very similar in size and capacity but there are several difference. The most obvious is the seating configuration. The 777 has 3-3-3 for 9 total across while the A330 has 2-4-2 for 8 across. Not a big deal just one more middle seat on the 777. Here's where the differences are really noticed...the seat comfort. The A330 does not have very comfortable seats. They sit very upright and don't recline as nicely as the 777. The 777 also has better legroom. Now this may be specific to whichever airline you happen to be on, but on Singapore Air, the 777 has much better legroom than on a Northwest A330. I could stretch my legs straight out on the 777 without a problem. I can't do that on the A330...my shins hit the bottom of the seat in front of me. On top of that, the control equipment for the interactive video is under each seat further reducing legroom. I didn't notice where the equipment on the 777 was located, but it wasn't under my seat. I just thought I'd mention this to anyone thinking of buying a jet and starting their own airline.

How did she do that?

Today after Payton's nap I went into her room because I could hear her "talking". She was just laying on her back sucking her thumb. I had some laundry to put away and she seemed to be still waking up so I put her laundry away and she was still laying there. That is weird for her. Usually if I let her wake up more she starts to crawl to the side of the crib and stand up. When I went to get her I noticed that her leg was through the slat of her crib up to her knee and she was just banging away smiling. She wasn't smiling long... I don't know how she got that little leg through there, but I had a hard time getting it out! She was just screaming. I had to pull the entire crib away from the wall and really wiggle and push that sucker through!! She is no worse for wear, but man, that leg was stuck!! Silly girl!

Daddy comes home tomorrow, and I think Payton will be SO happy to have him home! She has only had me to play with:) I know I will be happy!

You know you are SO lucky when...

your husband is on the other side of the globe and you recieve a HUGE bouquet of flowers from him!

Durian

du·ri·an Pronunciation: 'dur-E-&n, -E-"än also 'dyur-
noun
Etymology: Malay
1 : a large oval tasty but foul-smelling fruit with a prickly rind

That's the Merriam-Webster definition...now here's what I think.

The first thing you might notice about the durian "fruit" (and I use the term fruit loosely) is that it looks like a weapon. It probably could be used as a weapon because it is quite hard, but what would do your opponent in is the smell! The thing stinks to high heaven!! Its difficult to describe but someone said it smell like propane...I guess that's close enough. If you can tell from the picture, its made up of pods on the inside. These pull right out without resistance and is the part you eat. There's a thin membrane that hold in the "meat" which I can only describe as having the consistancy of warm sour cream. Once you bite into it it will kinda start to ooze out. I don't particularly care for creamy fruit. The flavor is also quite awful. Again, no real good way to describe it...just plain awful!! Now, your've disobeyed the warning signs: prickly rind, really smelly, weird texture, tastes bad...now one last thing. Once you eat it, you continue to burp it up for quite awhile after, depending on how much you ate. And the burps taste just as bad as when it went down. I only took two bites of this thing and I was burping for about an hour. Some of the Malaysians I was with just kept eating the stuff...they can have it!

New Acheivement...

Payton has had a busy weekend! My parents are here to keep us company and as you read in the couple previous blogs Brian left on Friday morning around 6am. He was not gone even 12 hours and Payton walked on her own! I was so happy to see it, but so sad that Brian missed it! Thank goodness mom and dad were her to share it with me! She took a couple of steps on her own while holding on to a book over her head, I think she though it was my moms hand! Then I ran and got the digital camcorder and got her walking about 3-4 feet. Same thing, with the book up over her head! I told Brian that now I just need to get her potty trained and talking before he gets home! Yeah right! I am not that crazy!

I've arrived!

Finally!!!
I am at my destination of Penang, Malaysia. I'll be here for the next five days visiting our contract manufacturer. I have various things to discuss with them as well as tour the line and hopefully visit some of their suppliers in the area. Since I'm in quality its my job to make sure they're doing things correctly. Fortunately they are very capable and willing to do just about anything we ask.
Here's how the rest of the trip went....
I arrived in Singapore around 12:30am local time. They have a transit hotel right in the terminal so you don't have to go through customs. You don't get your luggage either, but if you packed some clean undies and your toothbrush in your carryon then things will be just fine. The connecting flight diddn't leave until 11:00am so I had some time to take a shower and get some rest. Of course, resting isn't all that easy when your body thinks its 10:00 am! I managed to sleep a couple hours so today I'm not too groggy. The flight ot Penang was only a little over an hour from Singapore. Too bad it couldn't have been all in one day rather than the long layover in Singapore. Penang is hot, humid, and tropical as you might expect being about 5 degrees north of the equator. So far its not altogether unpleasant, but I've only been here a short time and haven't really seen much yet.
One of the guys we're here to see is taking us to dinner tonight, so that should be interesting. I've got a few hours before that happens so I think I'll try to rest a little.

Lots of miles

Its just after 8:00pm central time on Friday 12/2. My first flight left this morning after 10:00am...there were delays. I was supposed to leave at 9:30. Fortunately they held the connection to Tokyo in Portland. I don't imagine there are too many flights availabel if I was to miss it. I am currently at 38881 feet traveling at a ground speed of 536 mph with 2920 miles traveled and 2032 miles to go...about 4 more hours. I know this because this is a fairly new plane (Airbus A330-200) that has an interactive screen on each seat so I can get up to the minute stats on the flight.

The total flight time to Tokyo is somewhere around 10 hours. There's a brief layover then another 7 hours to Singapore...same plane, same seat. The on demand movies have helped pass the time nicely. I watched "Wallace and Gromet: Curse of the Were-Rabbit" and "The Dukes of Hazard". "Dukes" was alright, but a bit off the mark if trying to be like the tv show. I thoroughly enjoyed "Were-Rabbit" and would recommend it to people of all ages. It was a very clever movie with some great animation. The meal on the plane was quite good...chicken with redskin potatoes and green beans. It also came with shrimp cocktail, chocolate cake, and wine. They also came by with ice cream sandwiches not too long ago. The treatment isn't too bad on these international flights.
The flight isn't all that full so I dont' have anybody sitting next to me. I can get more comfortable by resting against the window and stretching across the seat next to me. I think I'm going to try and get some rest now so that I'm not a total zombie when I finally get to Malaysia. They are 14 hours ahead so it might be a difficult adjustment.

New Job!

I was officially offered the position that I recently interviewed for yesterday! Although the pay isn't as nice as the hospital, the clinic hours are unbeatable!!! They are open 8-5 Monday through Friday. I will be working in infusion therapy 5 days every 2 weeks. Payton's daycare has room for her so she will be happy to stay put! I start in December 12. The first couple of weeks I will be full time just to get all the general oreintation over with. Unfortunately I had to quit my ER job. I felt good about taking the new job (Brian and I talked about it a lot because Payton will be in daycare more and I will be making less money per hour) but I really had a great manager at the hospital and I hated to let her down! She was understanding and knew that I needed to do what is best for my family! So we won't have any more scheduling conflicts over weekends when Brian is out of town! I am really looking forward to starting!

My parents are coming down this weekend to stay with Payton and I. They initially were going to babysit for us, but since I quit yesterday(I didn't have to give them 2 weeks because officially I was still orienting) I don't have to work this weekend! They are coming anyway because I am going to be lonely! Brian leaves for Malaysia for work on Friday and he will be gone about 9 days! Jeannine I am still counting on our slumber party:) It will be an interesting trip, and I am sure Brian will Blog all about it!

We have our Christmas tree up and all our decorations! I love this time of year! Minnesota is cold, but we don't get too much snow!

When it rains, it pours...

I received a call from Payton's Pediatrician today. Her hemoglobin is a little low, 10.2. 12 is the lowest they really like it to be. So of course Payton will be having to take iron drops twice a day for 3 MONTHS! She will be having her blood drawn again in a month to see how she is doing. Looks like she is going to take after her mother (I have iron defiency anemia). Poor thing!

Here We Go Again...

I took Payton for her 1 year well baby appointment today. Turns out her right ear has an infection. Not sure if it is new, or if the infection last month never completly went away. She has been fussy at night lately which isn't like her, but other than that she seems to be fine. So I guess it was a good thing she had her appointment today. She is starting Augmentin today. Hopefully this will kick it! She grew an inch since September! She is 29 1/2 inches long which is 60% for height. She is 22 pounds and 2 ounces, which is 70% for weight. She had a couple of shots, screamed her head off, had some blood taken, screamed some more, and had some wax removed from her right ear so her doctor could see better and of course... more screaming. So all in all it was a tough morning for the little sweetie! And the best part of the morning was when her doctor told us NO MORE FORMULA NEEDED!!! I am thrilled! She has been getting mostly whole milk, but to have her doctor say that was great for me anyway! The sippy cup bottle thing is still a struggle, but we are going to do some tough love with that one! By the time she goes for her 15 month appointment there will be no more bottles!

Oh, I bought Payton her very own toothbrush today! I am sure she will be so happy to use it! Ha Ha!

We are one our way to Negaunee for Thanksgiving for the first time in 8 years on Wednesday. Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!

Gas

Gas is now $1.99....whoo hoo, what a bargain!!!

Daddy's Weekend!

This weekend is my first Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening shifts to work! Brian is going to be spending a lot of quality time with Payton:) I have not worked evenings since she has been born so it should be interesting. Unfortunately for Daddy she is in her best moods during the day! She of course has a stuffy nose constantly these days, love daycare!! So she has been waking up a few times each night when she wants to suck her thumb and she is so stuffy it is tough to do! Poor thing! Thank goodness she seems to only want to suck her thumb at night!

Oh, the interview went well. Hopefully I will hear something soon. It is a great job, but who knows what they think about my qualifications. They were totally not giving any indications last night! But fortunately I do have a job now that I am constantly learning new things and I will hopefully only become more comfortable there. And you can't beat the daycare thing, only 1 1/2 days every 2 weeks. We'll see what happens with this new job though. It would be fantastic...

First Step?

This was taken as Payton was standing playing with us. Just as I shot it she took a step with her left foot. Brian says she was just "making an adjustment" while standing. But lets give the baby some credit:)
Here is another photo of the sweetie. Her hair is getting long as you can see!

New Job?

As you all know I have recently started working at a local Emergency Room. I have been there about 5 weeks or so. I have been seeing a doing a lot of new things, which is really good, but I am really not that happy. A couple of weeks ago I had a patient situation that was VERY difficult and I wanted to quit! I have been having a hard time with certain aspects of the job (I won't go into the details) and I am beginning to question if I can really do it. The great thing is that they are paying for me to get certain certifications that are very useful, and it is AWESOME experience. And it may be SO easy to ease into a Per Diem job. So much to think about, that and I don't have any other offers on the table.

Then... last Friday I got a call from the Owatonna Clinic (they had called me when I first started looking for a job, but they wanted a nursing supervisor full time. NOT FOR ME!). I had a phone interview about 6 weeks ago just in case something came up that they thought I may be a good fit for. Well, they now have 2 openings for RNs in their infusion therapy department! They are only open 8-5 Monday through Friday with no weekends or holidays! They do outpatient chemo and IV therapies. HELLO, HIRE ME! I love that stuff! I have an official interview tomorrow. I could work 2-3 days a week and be home every night, every weekend and every holiday. Payton is already in a great daycare so that isn't even an issue. I hope I don't screw it up! Wish me luck...

Oh, Payton is doing great. She is still fighting the sippy cup though... Any ideas moms out there?

You know you're a daddy when....

...your 12 month old daughter is eating a cracker and you think its the cutest thing ever!

Payton's First Birthday!

We had Payton's first birthday party over the weekend! She got SO many wonderful gifts. Thank you all!!! We had 15 sleeping in our house! And we all fit nicely. Thank goodness our basement was done in time. Payton enjoyed her first taste of cake. We stripped her to her diaper! You know me, has to be the easiest way to get her clean again! And you all know that I would never risk an outfit:) She was SO cute! She is walking behind her little push toy like crazy now. She also got a learning "house" from us that she seems to love. A lot of new fun stuff! Thanks again everyone. I will be sending you all the Snapfish album as soon as I can get my act together and get it done!

Almost Done

The basement is really starting to take shape. A lot of work has gone into it this week and its just about finished. The walls were painted, the trim, carpet and doors installed. All of the lights are now in which really makes a difference. I think the lighting in the family room really turned out well. We have a total of 10 recessed cans on 3 separate circuits. I'll eventually add dimmer switches for more "ambiance". The bathroom won't be quite finished for the weekend, but at least the shower works...no toilet though. We'll have plenty of room for all the guests in town for Payton's birthday party. Some will be sleeping on the floor (airmattress), but at least there's new carpeting.