A day in our life - January 19, 2011

8 AM

Every morning I wake up to this beautiful face, having a family bed is the best! Tyler is 1 year and 13 days old today.


8:30 AM

I cook breakfast while Tyler dances to his cooking Elmo. We alternate between him dancing on his own while I cook, and me holding him and dancing together.

9 AM


Tyler and I eat breakfast together while Daddy (my husband Mark) gets ready for work. Eggs, bacon, and homemade apple banana bread from the night before, YUM!

9:30 AM


Time to take Daddy to work, and Tyler isn't very happy about being put in the car :(

10 AM


Once we get back home it is time to do the dishes from the night before and take out the trash. Tyler LOVES turning the water on and off!

10:30 AM


Time for a nice bath together and to have cuddles and some milk.

11 AM


Time to start on dinner since it has to cook for 6-7 hours in the slow cooker. Tonight we will be trying out a new recipe... chicken curry on rice! Tyler loves to sit on the counter and help, and eat some of the vegetables we cut. We got this slow cooker over a year ago for Christmas, and this was the first time using it. I will definitely be using it a lot more after how well this recipe turned out and how easy it was to make!!

11:30 AM


We take a break from cooking and cleaning and play together in his play room.

12 PM


We take a break to snack on some garbanzo beans, and I enjoy a nice glass of ice water...until Tyler starts putting garbanzo beans in my cup. I get him his own glass of water to put the beans in.

12:30 PM


After some cuddles and milk Tyler falls asleep for a nap, and I check Facebook for a bit.

1 PM


Still sleeping so I fold some laundry.

1:30 PM


Tyler starts to get restless and it is a bit early for him to wake from his nap. After some milk and cuddles he settles back down.

2 PM


Tyler is still napping so I decide to walk right down the street and check the mail. On the way back I snap a picture of our new house we just bought about 7 weeks ago. Then I check on the guinea pigs in the back yard.

2:30 PM


STILL napping so I have some baby cuddles and take a few pictures. Mama's milk sure work wonders for long naps!

3 PM


Finally awake so we have some more milk and cuddles. I play silly tickle games to make him smile.

3:30 PM


I push him around the house in the SmarTrike his Grandma (my mom) got him for Christmas.

4 PM



We play on the backyard porch with a bowl of water and his cooking dishes. We also drop rocks of different sizes in to see what kind of splash they make.

4:30 PM


We change Tyler's clothes and get ready to go pick Daddy up from work. Tyler loves brushing his hair.

5 PM


Time to go get Daddy! Tyler is all smiles this time around :D

5:30 PM


Once all three of us get back home we play in Tyler's room some more while dinner finishes cooking.

6 PM

After 6 1/2 hours of delicious smells it is finally time to eat dinner! Mark isn't feeling well so he lays down for a bit while Tyler and I eat together. This chicken curry on rice was AMAZING and we will definitely be making it again!

6:30 PM


Mark is feeling a little better, so we decided to all take a nice relaxing bath in our jacuzzi tub together.

7 PM


Tyler hangs out with Daddy while I make some bread in our new bread machine. It unfortunately didn't turn out this time around. We are still learning how to use it, and shall keep experimenting with it!

7:30 PM


Tyler helps me make some homemade ice cream for dessert. He had a blast stirring the mixture!

8 PM


Mmmmm homemade chocolate peanut butter ice cream. It turned out wonderfully!

8:30 - 9:30 PM


Mark and I watch a couple episodes of "Primeval" on our projector (this picture was taken of the projection off our living room wall). Tyler alternates between having cuddles and milk, and running around playing. He also plays peek a boo under the blanket we are using.

9:30 PM


Tyler falls asleep nursing during one of the episodes and I put him to bed. Mark and I watch more episodes and spend time together until we join Tyler at 11 PM.

Screaming Bloody Murder, Guns Drawn

Last night was quite an eventful night to say the least. It all started at 4:30am when my husband and I were awoken from a dead sleep by the nonstop screams of bloody murder coming from our next door neighbor living in the unit connected to ours. We live in a fourplex if you were wondering.

This woman and her boyfriend moved in about 2 1/2 months ago, and we have had problems with them ever since. Mainly constant yelling and fighting at random hours of the night, or really loud sex at various sleeping hours up against the wall dividing our bedroom from theirs. Last night though, was a whole new level of crazy.

As we were woken up by these screams, I was sure something horrible had to be going on. Maybe her boyfriend had finally had enough of her loud mouth and was killing her. Or maybe someone had broken in and raped her. All these horrific things were racing through my mind as I asked my husband if we should call 911. He said yes and we fumbled around our bedroom searching for one of the cell phones. I dialed 911 and the dispatcher answered immediately and asked the address of our emergency. I gave him the address and explained what was happening, and he told me they would send police over right away.

At this point it seemed like forever for the cops to get here. I tried checking the call history to see how long it had been, but apparently 911 calls don't show up in the call history on cell phones. The whole time our neighbor continued her blood curdling screaming and sobbing. As I listened closer though, I didn't hear another person other than her over there and started thinking maybe she was just overreacting as usual to god knows what.

I am guessing it was roughly 5 minutes until the cops showed up. They quietly drove past our house and parked a few houses down. Our neighbor was taking a quick 10 second break from her screaming, but quickly started up again. Once the screams continued two police cars backed up and pulled into our driveway. A third police car came very soon after. While I peaked out my upstairs bedroom window I saw two officers sneaking up to the front door, using our car for cover, guns drawn.

The cops banged on her door and told her the police was there and she needed to open the door. All the while she kept screaming and screaming. They yelled to her that they were going to come in if she didn't open the door, and one of the cops ordered a few more to go around back. By this time there were 5 total police vehicles lines up on the street in both directions from our house. As the screams continued I heard one of the officers radio in for an ambulance, and another officer keep telling the neighbor to come downstairs and open the door to talk to them.

Finally after about 10 minutes of this, she comes down stairs and lets the police in. While they are talking to her inside another police vehicle along with a sheriff's vehicle and a fire truck pull up. The ambulance arrives shortly after and 3 paramedics calmly walk inside carrying their equipment. As the paramedics do their thing inside, the 7 police officers that have arrived throughout this ordeal stand in a circle out in the driveway and quietly talk amongst themselves. As I continue watching out my window I see one of the paramedics, a younger man who appears to be not as sure about himself as the other seasoned paramedics, comes out and unloads a stretcher and slowly wheels it up to the door and goes back inside.

The paramedics are inside for about 15-20 minutes, and all the while the officers stand in their circle talking and laughing. When they were done with their evaluation the paramedics walked back out, talked to the cops for a couple minutes and then packed up the ambulance and left. The officer that talked to the paramedics went inside and soon after came back out with my neighbor following him, wearing pajamas and texting on her phone. She got in the police car and everybody left.

This whole mess took about an hour, and judging by the way the paramedics and police officers were acting after they initially got inside to talk to her, and by the fact my neighbor came out texting on her phone I think I was correct in thinking she was just overreacting as usual to whatever arbitrary drama is currently going on in her life. It was clear by the end that there was no emergency. I just cannot fathom how she can think it is acceptable and okay to react to anything short of an emergency in the manner in which she did.

My husband and I finally got back to sleep around 6am. Come 7am, my neighbor and her boyfriend arrived back home, and what did they do? As soon as they got out of the car they immediately started yelling and fighting outside and going on about how so and so is "acting like a f***ing c**t". Then her boyfriend proceeded for the next 45 minutes to yell near our window at their worthless little dog who ran away, because guess what? They never use a leash on it when it is outside and just let it do whatever. This is about the third time in 2 months it has decided to take off while unleashed outside, and the first time this happened it ran out in front of my car when I was coming home one night and I nearly ran it over. Seriously, how dumb and clueless can you be?

Back in Action (I hope)

Man how time flies! It has been about 4 months since I've done a post.

Today mark's the day Tyler turns 7 months old. I just cannot believe my tiny belly fish has turned into this crawling, screaming, laughing, pulling himself up on everything, adventurous little person.




So, what new things have happened in the last 4 months you ask? WELL, my husband and I are currently in the process of buying our first house. It is an amazing four year old, 3 bedroom 3 bathroom, 1850 square foot house, and it sure as heck beats the tiny 750 sqft apartment we currently live in. I mean come on, we cannot open the refrigerator and the dishwasher in our current kitchen at the same time, nor the dishwasher and cabinet under the kitchen sink at the same time. Can you say tiny! So we are very much hoping everything with our loan goes through since we are scheduled to close on the house sometime between the end of this month and September 13th.

Hmm. My husband and I got a pair of guinea pigs. They are both boys and they were an early birthday present for my husband's 22nd birthday!



Coco Mocho showing off his awesome colors!


Hamlet and Coco Mocho in their temporary box cage when we first got them.


Oh, did I also mention that I have recently become addicted to entering free blog giveaways? I have discovered just in the past two weeks, that there are literally hundreds and hundreds of free giveaways on various blogs. I never knew! Just in the last 6 days I have won FOUR different giveaways. Talk about a good start to the month!

I also discovered just last night that you can sign up with a site called Sponsored Tweets and get paid for your tweets! It is very quick and easy to get started, just requires a name and email address and no strings attached. Feel free to check it out here and sign up if you wish.

I will update everyone on some of the really awesome giveaways I come across that way you can participate as well. I hope to get back into blogging and not go months in between posts again. We are under a lot of stress with the house right now though, so we will see how it goes.

Wisdom Teeth

Yesterday I had my wisdom teeth surgically removed. I ended up having to go to an oral & maxillofacial surgeon since I requested IV sedation and my dentist is not currently licensed for that. Let me tell you, the IV sedation is definitely the way to go!

When I went into the room where they did the surgery the nurse had me lay down in the chair. She then put a blood pressure cuff on my arm connected to a machine that automatically took my blood pressure every few minutes. She also attached a band around both wrists and one ankle that was hooked up to the machine to monitor my heart rate.

The laughing gas mask was put on me and I immediately began to feel very tingly and funny. Oh laughing gas, that's some good stuff. After a little bit the doctor came in and started my IV, first to give me some fluids to help with dehydration since I wasn't allowed to eat or drink 8 hours before the surgery. They let me sit there with the laughing gas and IV fluids for a while, and then the doctor came back in and did something to the IV.


(The awesome doctor Kevin Rethman who took out my wisdom teeth. You can find him at http://www.kevinrethmandds.com/index.html)

Next thing I know the kind nurse was telling me it was time to wake up and that I did really well. I didn't even remember going to sleep, or even becoming sleepy at all! I was so confused and didn't know what was going on or where I was. I kept feeling me chin and bottom lip which were both swollen and completely numb. I very much wanted her to leave me alone and let me go back to my peaceful slumbering, but she told me to try and keep my eyes open and wake up. I could barely control my body, especially my head and arms. I was also looking all around wide eyed and confused. It was all very weird and hard to explain the sensation.

After I was awake enough the nurse helped me walk down the hall and put me into a wheelchair. Then they called Mark back and went over the instructions on how to take care of me for the rest of the day and said the doctor would call that night to see how I was doing. I remember they handed me a pack of gauze and a syringe and I just stared at it confused not understanding what it was for. I thought they were giving me a syringe of medicine to inject into myself at home for some reason, but the nurse told me it was just to irrigate the tooth sockets starting in a few days.

Once Mark was given all the instructions the nurse wheeled me outside and helped me into the car. My mouth and tongue were so dry. There was not a single drop of spit in my entire mouth. Oh how badly I wanted something to drink, but I had to bite down on the gauze for an hour before I could take it out. I had Mark feel my tongue and he was shocked by how dry it was! In the car Mark handed me an envelope and a pen. Not understanding I just stared at them confused. He told me it was to write stuff down if I wanted to communicate, and I immediately started laughing at his response. I am not really sure why this was so funny, but it certainly was at the time!

Today I am really sore and my jaw is stiff and hard to open. I am on Percocet but have only taken a couple over the last 26 hours. I'm supposed to take it every 4-6 hours as needed, but the pain isn't super terrible or anything. Most of the time ibuprofen is working just fine. I also pumped 17 5-6oz bottles in the 2 weeks before the surgery that way I can give Tyler breastmilk in bottles while I'm on the Percocet. I doubt anything would happen if I nursed him while taking it, but since it is a narcotic I would rather be safe than sorry.

My bottom sockets are also oozing blood, but I was told they might do that for a few days. Still really nasty though having the constant taste of blood in my mouth. Yuck! I am living on yogurt, applesauce, ovaltine, and will have some tomato soup later. It really just isn't doing it for me. I hate not being able to eat real food, I'm hungry all the time! Boo!

Overall everything has gone much better than I thought. I was so afraid in the waiting room, dreading every second for them to come out and call my name. I was also really afraid for some irrational reason that I was going to die while under the anesthesia. Two nights before the operation I was laying in bed going to sleep and holding Tyler on my chest wanting to have as much cuddles as possible before I died. Silly me :P

The Birth of a Second

Last night I had a beautiful dream. In this dream I was giving birth to our second child. It was much like our first birth with Tyler, at home in the birthing pool with my midwife present. It was so peaceful and calm.

The lights were dimmed, and as the baby's head came out there was no fear. Pain, yes, but no fear. With Tyler I was so scared as his head was coming out, but in the dream there was just a calm endurance of the pain. Once the baby was out my midwife Paula went to get Tyler, who appeared to be about 3 or 4, to meet his new baby brother. We hadn't known with this second baby whether it was a boy or a girl until the birth. Tyler hadn't been watching the birth but was upstairs playing in his room waiting to come meet the new baby when it arrived. He was so gentle and excited to see the new baby, and lovingly kissed him on the head as he stood on the outside of the pool, while I was sitting on the inside holding the newest member of the family.

While I want to enjoy my almost 3 month old for a few years, I am so excited to add another member to our family and see how Tyler is as a big brother. It's hard to imagine my little baby as a big brother, but one day he will be one. My birth experience was so beautiful and wonderful that I cannot wait to do it again. I am also so curious if our next precious bundle will be another beautiful boy or a little girl. I don't care which I have, a second boy or a girl, either will be excellent and greatly loved.

"I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past." - Thomas Jefferson

Family Fun

It has been a busy last few days. My sister Vicky, step-sister Marci, and my step-dad Don all drove down from Oregon Friday to visit and see baby Tyler. It was the first time Don and Marci had seen the baby, and the first time my sister had seen him since he was about 2 hours old. It was so much fun seeing them all again, they have only been gone half a day and I miss them already. Some of the fun things my husband and I did with them while they were here were:

- Ate at a couple different restaurants, one of which we all walked to.

- One of my (and Marci's) old friends from high school drove from Mesa and spent a night with us.

- Went to the mall and bought the game Apples to Apples. Mark bought some nerd book.

- Played Apples to Apples for an hour.

- Played Apples to Apples for an hour.

- Played Apples to Apples for an hour.

- Played Apples to Apples for an hour.

- Played Apples to Apples for an hour.

- Played Apples to Apples for an hour (Count 'em, that's 6.).

- Bought and played the amazing game Jenga Max. Such an incredibly fun game!

- Looked in some stores at the square while my husband was at work, and bought an insane amount of goodies from a candy store. Well, my sisters bought an insane amount. I only got some jalapeno peanut brittle (see below.)

All in all it was a very nice visit, and I can't wait to see them again!

In other news, the king mattress Mark bought for us finally came today. I am so excited about this upgrade (used to have a full) and our little guy will finally be able to sleep with us full-time. He's only 11 weeks old but every night I wake up either falling off the edge or smashed between him and Mark to where I can't even roll over. Looking forward to our first night on the king mattress!

The jalapeno peanut brittle I got for Mark and I to share is so tasty. I'm thinking about making some of my own and looked up some recipes for it today.
Here's the one I'm thinking about implementing:
(It originally had green food coloring in it, but who wants green peanut brittle? yuck!)

Ingredients:
1/3 cup fresh jalapeno peppers, cleaned, finely chopped
(no seeds and no white part)
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup raw peanuts
2 tablespoons butter, divided
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Yield: 1 lb.

Directions:

Grease a 15 x 10-inch jellyroll pan. Set aside. In a skillet melt 1 tablespoon of the butter; add jalapenos and peanuts, and cook over low heat until peppers are soft. In a saucepan, combine sugar and syrup and bring to a boil over medium heat. Add jalapenos and peanuts. Stir well, and cook until mixture reaches the soft crack stage on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat. Blend in remaining 1 tablespoon butter, vanilla extract, almond extract and food coloring until well mixed. Sprinkle baking soda evenly over the cooked mixture and stir well. When foamy, pour immediately onto the prepared jellyroll pan. Spread out into a thin layer. Let cool on jellyroll pan until until brittle and cool enough to handle. Break into irregular pieces. Store in an airtight container.

I'll let you know how it goes!