Live life to the fullest

I don't quite know what to say, except to ask for your thoughts and prayers for the family of my friend Melinda. It is so unfathomable to me that someone my age would be taken from her husband and two year old son by such a menacing foe as ovarian cancer after only a three month battle. I know life isn't fair sometimes, but this really sucks. A two year old will never get to know his Mom. This breaks my heart into a million tiny pieces to think about.

Hug your loved ones extra tight, and make damn sure you are squeezing every ounce of life you can out of every minute of the day because you are blessed to be able to.

You fought hard Melinda and your loss will leave a hole in many hearts. God bless.

Things to do in Denver when you're stuck there three extra days

Or, why I don't travel at the holidays.

It started okay-the roads were passable to get to the airport despite the new snow.

The line at the counter was L-O-N-G, but with the lap infant, I couldn't do curbside check-in*. but we had plenty of time. Then the delays started. Little S and I eventually arrived in Denver, albeit a few hours after we were due in, and approaching 10:30 p.m. with a very tired baby.

Friday arrived early despite the late night. It was Aunt A's big graduation from Culinary school. So we got all gussied up and headed to the Colorado Convention Center where all of the students had to present portfolios of their wares to be evaluated and for potential employers to check out. Aunt A had a most delicious and innovative peanut butter and jelly cake along with the best cookies I've ever tasted, among other things.

 

Then-graduation

Which Little S decided was boring, but not boring enough to nap without a fight. So, technically we missed the diploma handing part, but Aunt A has forgiven us.

The next morning we had a brunch with one of my High School BFF's. We hadn't seen each other or even talked in over 10 years. We heard stories of each other's lives occasionally through a third friend whose parents kept in touch, but thanks to the miracle that is Facebook, we reconnected just in time to discover she lives in Denver and to set up a time to get together. She has an adorable 18 month old who shared her toys with Little S

 

Had some mutual chewing time

Let herself get investigated by the baby

 

And gave her a big kiss good-bye

We don't plan to let 10 years go by without seeing each other again!

We ended the day by gnawing on our new Christmas presents

And, it pretty much went downhill from there.

When Little S was having tummy troubles, not sleeping well and started Sunday with a diaper running over, that pretty much painted the picture of the next few days. An overview

• She topped that off with projectile vomiting a few hours before we were supposed to leave, and on the way to the airport. (but it didn't seem to be bothering her)
• After spending almost an hour in line, my flight to Portland got canceled due to the awful weather back here. The next available flight was Tuesday morning.
• I managed to get on a Sunday night flight instead with a layover in Vegas. After checking, checking, checking all day, it looked like it was a go. Get dropped off and the family hits the road to drive to WI.
• Call them about 20 minutes later to have them turnaround and get me because now that was canceled too. Pick up my previously checked in luggage.
• Call Southwest. Next flight they can get me on is Wednesday afternoon.
• Book a rental car because my parents need to drive back to WI the next day. Aunt A books herself a flight so I have somewhere to stay.
• Get rental car. Red Ford Mustang! This will be fun for two days. Look super sexy as I wrestle the car seat into the back of the two-door.
• Keep an eye on weather. Manage to find non-stop flight on Tuesday night that I can get on. Change Aunt A's flight also.
• Get stomach flu. Two hours later, Aunt A gets stomach flu. (After getting Little S to sleep for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you)
• Despite what it feels like, don't actually die.
• Pack still kind-of-sick Aunt A, questionable feeling me and happy Little S into car for airport. Lament not getting more use out of Ford Mustang.
• At airport, discover Aunt A's flight is now 2 hours delayed and she will miss the last bus of the night to get home. Try and figure something out for her.
• My flight gets delayed 15 minutes. No big deal. Except we're schedule to leave at 7:05 and there's a flight leaving out of the same gate at 7:00. WTF? Bad math people? Ours will board after theirs.
• Which of course means 7:45.
• Happily end up with an empty seat between me and the guy in the window seat.
• Notice we aren't going anywhere.
• They finally announce that they're holding the plane for 7 passengers who just landed and need to make a connection. Put off feeding and trying to get Little S to sleep because I know we'll have to move.
• Wait some more.
• 45 minutes later, the last people get on the plane and we push back. Hallelujah! I'll be home yet!
• It's now way past bedtime and little Miss S would much rather LOOK at ALL the PEOPLE and Smile at the flight attendants who are loving on her then think about sleeping. Two hours and lots of fussiness later, she finally gives up and falls asleep.
• Spill Sprite on Little S' head. She wiggled at the wrong moment,
• Land. In. Portland!!!! Greeted by Big S who we are VERY happy to see.
• Eventually get luggage and get Little S to bed at about midnight.
• Find out this morning that it could have been worse. My sister (Aunt A's) flight ended up getting even more delayed so she didn't end up landing until 2:00 a.m. and getting home at 4:00 a.m. (thanks to a gracious stepbrother who made the trek to Chicago for her!)

And that dear readers, is why if you ever hope to see this family at the holidays, you're gonna have to come to us.

Happy trails...to you, until we meet again.

We've had the perfect roommate for probably 6 years now. He was "handed down" from another set of friends who were pregnant and needed to do some remodeling for the baby, and he was losing his room. Plus, I think babies kind of freaked him out.

When we bought this house, he came with us. Setting up in the non-bedroom bedroom downstairs. He was finishing up classes and eventually got on to forest fire crews in the summers. The last few years, he was gone more than he was here. Fire work meant at best he was home a few weekends during the summer. Then during winter he went back to his family in the great state of Wisconsin. When he was here, I rarely saw him upstairs. He was pretty content with a video game or a remote control. Him and Steve got along great and shared a love of the History and Military channel in the Man-cave.

The dog ADORED him. She pined away every time he left, whether it was for 5 minutes or 5 months. He played ball with her in the backyard, brought her lots of toys, treats and attention. Despite her love for him, I think he was a little nervous to come back this last summer, knowing there would be a baby in the house. But, he knew if it was rough, he could always spend more time at the bunkhouse where the fire crew stays during season instead of coming back down the mountain on weekends. Lo and behold, Little S helped educate him in the way of the baby. She wasn't up all night crying,  nor fussy if conditions weren't quite right. She's been a pretty go-with-the-flow kind of gal. And before long, they had a pretty special bond. She would see or hear him and she would just LIGHT UP! He got a pretty big kick out of that, and has gotten to pretty much watch her grow up from birth to 7 months. He started getting her little gifts as often as he got stuff for the dog. Including some awesome books, AND, the tiniest Smokey Bear T-Shirt and stuffed bear he could find for her.

Today is a sort of sad day. He packed up all of his possessions and pointed his truck East.  Unlike earlier years, this is it. He likely won't be back next summer. At least he's in Wisconsin, where one set of grandparents are located, so hopefully we'll get to see him every once in a while that way. And of course, we hope that the forces align to somehow get him out here again. Otherwise, there will be a very sad dog and no more photos like these:

So good bye for now Faas. The house is much too quiet without you. We'll keep the room open for whenever you can come back.

Thank Snow!

Wow! I was skeptical that it would amount to anything, but I woke up to a dusting of snow out back and a little more coming down. So we were very excited to go out into it and bundle Little S up in her special winter outfit that Big S got me for my birthday*. It's so cute, I just giggled and giggled about how cute she was

So I bundled her into her stroller with a blanket and the weather cover for our morning walk. It started with the stroller leaving tracks on the sidewalk, but it didn't take long until we had practically blizzard conditions, blowing snow and low visibility. It felt like being on the mountain. After a few blocks, I noticed there was enough snow that the stroller wasn't even leaving tracks anymore. How rare for Portland!

After waffling the whole walk about whether or not to go to church, I figure if I can drive to go skiing, I can make it to church in this dry snow with 4 Wheel Drive. Ha! I get in the truck, hear that they've just said that chains are REQUIRED on ALL highways in the Metro area. And, there are a lot of cars coming down our street, which happen when there is a wreck at the intersection down from us. That's enough for me to pull back in the driveway. So, for entertainment we head down to the intersection to check it out. Wow! Bumper cars. The street is a blind hill leading to an intersection and it's now solid ice. We're trying to help any way we can, pushing stuck cars, Big S gets some flares to try and close the street, to no avail. I go down HARD on my tush trying to help out a lady who was hit and then her car slid into the car that hit her. OUCH! It still hurts.

There was really nothing we could do, so we came home to warm up and get some "first snow" photos with Little S. There were so many good ones that Dad took (he's good), I had to share them this way again.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Surprisingly, it's still coming down every once in a while and definitely still BLOWING! Big S says they sanded the slippery hill so there goes that entertainment.

It's supposed to stay COLD all week, and a chance of more snow or freezing rain coming in later this week. I'm glad I braved the rain and crowds to get groceries on Friday. Hoping I can get to the airport on Thursday though! Time to go do some baking!

*I fell in love with the picture of the outfit last year. It got me really excited about being pregnant. I even cut out the photo and put it on the door of what would be the baby room. The fact that he remembered a year later and bought it was so fantastic.

Save handmade and local toys!

Act now to save handmade toys!

Liz and Kristen of Cool Mom Picks are spreading the word about the soon-to-go-into-effect Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act, and the disastrous effect it will have on small toymakers, artisans and crafters:

With this act going into effect February 10 2009 so many people we love will be affected: Moms who sew beautiful handmade waldorf dolls out of home, artists who have spent decades hand-carving trucks and cars out of natural woods, that guy at the craft show who sold you the cute handmade puzzle--even larger US companies who employ local workers and have not once had any sort of safety issue will no longer be able to sell their goods. Not without investing tens of thousands of dollars into third-party testing and labeling, just to prove that toys that never had a single chemical in them still don't have a single chemical in them.

Take five minutes and act now -- it only takes a moment to write a letter or to find out more. Cool Mom Picks has created a Save Handmade resource page that has all the info you need, including a link to a sample letter to send to your representative.

Also, grab the Save Handmade badge and place it on your site linking back to http://www.coolmompicks/savehandmade. Let everyone know!

All content lifted from Asha Dornfest of http://www.parenthacks.com
For a good cause.

NaBloPoMo was no help

Clearly I'm not hip to the 21 days to a new habit b.s. 30 days of blogging still did not a blogger make me. Cut me some slack, yo. I've been working on Christmas presents. So here's the stuff you've been asking about and some other randomness too.

Last weekend, nearly 7 days ago already, Grammie and Grampie Korpi came for a visit. The Patriots were practically in town playing the Seahawks up in Seattle. Big S and his Dad went up to watch what should have been an easy victory.  Two days of grandparentness and I only managed to get one picture.

 

That's Sofia in her game-changing outfit. The team had been losing until I put her in her Patriots sleeper. Then they won. Coincidence? Not likely. The correct explanation is that our child has super powers of course.

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This goofball

 

the one trying to lick the spilled sauce out of the inside of the bag, in case you thought maybe she had the bag on her head to stop hyperventilating or something. And no, we did not put the bag over her head. That was her ingenuity. Anyway, it turns out she's figured out how important Little S is.  I ran furry S and little S over to the dog park, which I've done many a time before. This morning, there was a dog a little too interested in Little S and Furry S told him to knock it off, this was her possession! She was defending Little S. Maybe it's because Little S is so tasty at times, or maybe it was the treats in the stroller, but Little S definitely has a 4 legged protector. And future partner in crime.

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It's about time.

7 months already! (plus a few days)

Good-bye Kitty

aka New Kitty, Grendel, Chunkus

Born: ?  Died 12/8/08

Kitty lived in many places; Oak St, Alder St, SE 80th, Flanders and in his final home in Rose City Park. At every place, he won friends with his easy-going personality and need to be petted. He was a favorite of many a neighbor and passer-by who would stop to pet him.

Despite being diagnosed with Diabetes a few years ago, he was still the happiest kitty around, easily tolerating the nightly shots and thinking it was a great excuse to get more pets. He didn't care who it was, dog, new person or baby, he wanted you to know that he liked you.

We were fortunate to get one more week with him after his cancer diagnosis. He still never complained, and we made sure that his last week was filled with warm laps, attention and as many pets as we could offer him.  Coming home from work, the house will lack the sweet "Meow" that he offered asking politely for food, pets, attention, and especially the tuna can lid!

We're lucky to have had such a sweet cat in our life, and I know that now Ellie has a familiar furry friend to pal around with on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge.

It can't always be sunshine, rainbows and puppy dogs

Well, I thought tonight's post would be a eulogy for New Kitty, but fortunately, that's not the case yet.  However, we did find out that his weight loss, then apparent weight gain is almost certainly cancer. The weight gain was actually just his abdomen filling up with fluid as a side effect of wherever the cancer is. They couldn't pinpoint it because there was so much fluid, the couldn't see all of his organs well enough. So, they drained the fluid and he's on a diuretic to try and help him rid excess that builds up again. He's back home in kitty hospice care. It's unfortunately only short-term. It's not likely he will make it until the end of the month. For being such a big cat, he's actually skinny and with a massive loss of muscle tone as a result of the cancer. But, he's at his home. He seems happy and comfortable, and we'll know he got as much pets and love as possible until the end.

Making the day even darker, Steve's friend from back East, Amanda, has a daughter a few months older than Sofia named Hazel. Hazel's been sick for a while and after getting the run around on several occasions, they finally found out that she had a little round battery lodged in her esophagus. Leaking battery acid. For almost a week. She's spent 6 days in PICU unconscious and on a ventilator. After some very scary moments, it looks like there is hope. It's heartbreaking, but I hope everyone can visit hazel's web page and read the details if you are inclined, and if not, at least drop them a line of support, prayer, thoughts, anything. It has been incredible for them to know that they are supported by people everywhere, people they haven't even met, who care about Hazel and are hoping to the ends of the earth that everything will be okay. Amanda also has learned that while Hazel's case is extreme, the injuries from button batteries are on the rise because they power music playing/voice recording greeting cards. So don't send one to any family with small children. And I know we'll be going through all of our appliances and anything with a battery like that will get locked away or duct taped.

We're hugging Little S extra tight this week.

Baby's First Tannenbaum

Welcome to the final day of NaBloPoMo.

We set out today, not quite into the woods, but into the wilds of Clackamas County and our favorite tree farm for the chopping of Little S' First Christmas tree. It didn't quite seem right that it was mid 50's, some sun and not raining. This adventure usually involves cold, rain and mud-at best. I guess we'll go easy on her first trip.

She found one that was just her size at first

We convinced her to let that one grow big and to find another one. We found one, made sure it was the BEST one there* and the Papa S wielded the blade O'Christmas Tree death.

Checking one last time to make sure the boss approves

Victory over the Doug Fir!

The tree farm also has sheep. Kids can feed them. We held off on that for this year, but we did make sure to expose the little city girl to them

The farm also sells lots of lamb meat... There's a conversation I don't look forward to.

Gazing off towards Mt. Hood (which didn't look nearly that tiny in person)

It was a great afternoon.

The evening, it left a little to be desired. Poor little dear is constipated and kind of in pain as a result. We're hoping some apple juice will do the trick. It is NO FUN to see your baby hurting and not be able to do anything about it, as I'm sure any mother can attest to.

Here's the final photo of NaBloPoMo. I think it's been good and hopefully will result in more regular postings in the future

.

*How come on a beautiful afternoon it only took us two passes by all the trees and we actually AGREED on what we liked, when on a rainy day, we walk around, and around, and around and neither one of us thinks the trees the other person is choosing is "the one", and finally we're just frustrated enough that we both give up about the same time and tell the other person just to pick one and get on with it? And it's always fine when we get it home? I'm sure it will be even more fun when kids are giving us their opinions.

More outdoor fun

I realized a while ago, pre-baby, that if there were no other obligations on my time, I would spend all day cooking and being active. Having these multiple days off in a row is allowing me to get back to that happy place and figure out how to do it +1.

For the third day in a row, we got out for a nice little morning jog, where Furry S was a little pokier and I was noticing some muscles used the day before were letting me know they were there. And, to really seal the deal, we topped it off with another hike at Tryon Creek State Park. This beautiful park is also within city limits and has some paved trails, some equestrian trails and lots of great hiking trails.

This time we were joined by Jacki & Blaze and Amber.  (Amber was doing the photographic honors)

It was surprisingly warm, and hiking at a good clip, we managed to work up quite a sweat. It was like a real 90 minute workout. Again, the extra weight on my back helps with my strength training/hill climbing.

 

After a nap (both of us!) we did sneak out to do a little holiday shopping. More decorations and "stuff" than presents, and Little S LOVED the light decorations. It's getting me excited to get the tree up for her enjoyment.

Tomorrow is the last day of NaBloPoMo. Hopefully we'll go out on a high note!

Hiking-not shopping

Ahhh... today was perfect! Right down to getting most of the Thanksgiving dishes done!

Kilroy Little S was here

 

This new trick meant that she had to pull this off

Yep-pulling herself up to almost standing. I think it was a fluke. She started seated in the corner of the crib when I looked again was gnawing on it in this crazy kneeling/standing position. Soon after the photo, she got really upset and I think it was because she was stuck and couldn't figure out how to get down. Considering she can only sort of sometimes pull up to sitting, I'm not too worried.

What better post -Thanksgiving day activity in the Northwest than a little hike? Much better than braving the crowds and buying things I don't need anyhow. So, Little S, Furry S, Faas, Scott and I loaded up the van to meet T and her furry friend for a mostly dry hike.  I learned I'm not the power hiker I once was. But slapping an extra 20 pounds on my back going uphill will help remedy that quickly.

(No, we weren't hiking at night, it's just a heavily forested with overcast skies background)

 

 

 

It will be great hill training and every hike, my pack will weigh just a little bit more...

Despite an evening with a rather fussy, nap-refusing little girl and Big S missing out on the fun all day by having to work 12 hours, I would still give today a big

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

It was very happy here. Our friends T and Don came over and sang some lovely duets and entertained Little S

while I finished cooking and while Big S was out back frying the turkey. Usual suspects Jim and Lisa joined us and the basement denizens Faas and his buddy Scott surfaced for food and more food.  We'll be eating leftover stuffing and mashed potatoes for a few days-yum!

My food highlight was the pumpkin pie that came out very tasty, especially with the suggestion of cinnamon whipped cream from Aunt A. I don't even like pumpkin pie, but this came out tasty enough to make me change my mind. The meal highlight was when Little S was trying some of the unadulterated squash and mashed potatoes. Not that we managed to get a good photo of it, but let's just say her facial expressions burned a few calories for everyone as they laughed. Not her favorite Thanksgiving food items!

 

There is so much to be thankful for this year. Topping my immediate list is the new addition to the family, who enjoyed her first Thanksgiving and who is now sleeping blissfully. Ahhh...  Thankfulness.

Post or Food

I can't do both thoroughly, and since I have no new pictures, I'll keep it short. Off to go prep for tomorrow's feasting. It will surely result in lots of pictures tomorrow.

Stop the merry-go-round!

I realized that the best way to describe my life right now is like one of those merry-go-rounds on the playground. Someone has got it spinning really fast, and you're holding on tight so you don't go flying off. The only way off before you hurl is to wait for it to slow down a little and then you can jump off. I'm really looking forward to four days of a slower merry-go-round so I can explore the REST of the playground. Because come Monday, the grown-ups are spinning it around again. And you know how much faster they can make it go.

Here's all the fun I've missed while I was working too long.

Dad and Daughter enjoying a dry fall day in the new backpack Dad got for Little S

And, after the unsuccessful high chair trip on Sunday, Super Dad got it today and put it together and everything. It was road tested tonight

I missed the actual first meal in it because I was out for a slow jog while dragging the dog behind me. But, at least I got out!!! And you got to see some more photos.

must...post..

too late. Long day at work. Too tired to post intelligibly.

changing my expectations

After ending today very frustrated, I realized that I STILL haven't mentally adjusted my pre-baby expectations of what a day looks like to my new reality. And continually having discord between expectations and reality kind of sucks. Don't get me wrong, today was great and much fun with Little S and Dad, but I had hoped to:

go for a little run, go to church, finally get back in the pool, get to the store, prep and make pizza and maybe, start on the pie dough. Plus taking care of the baby.

My reality?

Don't get out of bed until about 9:00 because Miss Sniffleupagus is only barely asleep, and if I move, she wakes up and I really want her to sleep to help try and tame the sniffles, PLUS we were up for about 2 hours in the middle of the night working on her putting herself back to sleep.

So, mentally make the run shorter and shorter. By the time she's dressed and I have clothes picked out, realize the best I can do is a 15 minute dog walk before church, and even that will make me late. Get to church late. Miss S stays awake, wiggling and bouncing through the whole service, not going to sleep until the last hymn. (Why she can't sleep through the sermon like everyone else?)  So, stay at church extra long while she sleeps. Have an enjoyable time passing her around the teenage girls, but by the time that's over, there's no time to feed her and get to the pool. Adjust my plan for the day and figure I'll hit the pool later. Another big nap for Little S, and all that's left is time to go to the store and get a high chair. Find the one we want and it's probably* sold out.  By the time pizza's made and baby and I have eaten, it's bed time.

So, maybe it's expectations, or maybe I just REALLY need a workout. It seems the workouts keep getting written off by the more pressing demands of this new reality. I'm sure they aren't gone forever, but it turns out it's something I'm missing right now.

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On the other hand, today was so much fun with Little S. She is such an engaging baby, ready to gaze at and smile for anyone, no matter how tired she is. Her progression towards crawling is moving ever closer to it actually happening. She had some forward progress today, and she can pull herself forward. She's able to sit up for so long now, and she loves it! And of course, she continues to be cute  

Wearing her Sunday best  

*probably sold out? Well, there were no boxes on the shelf, and it pretty much looked like all stock was on the shelves. So we ask, is this it? The 12 year old Jonas Brother wannabe employee tells me that "we could check back later tonight because they don't have anyone working in the back, so, we would have to wait 2-3 hours to have someone look back there? "WTF? Seriously? You can't even have someone check for stock in the back? What kind of customer service is that? It would be far better to just lie to the customers and tell them you're out, then that story. And how miserable is this poor little d00d going to be when it really sinks in that he works at B@bies R Made in China Us? So not the place to pick up chicks.

21 days to a new habit

I've always heard that if you're trying to create a good habit, you have to do it for 21 days in a row to make it a habit. So, I've posted something for 21 days in a row now. Is it a completely ingrained habit to post something every day? Not yet. I almost forgot tonight.  We'll see how it's going after 30 days.

It was a long day, up at 5:30, drive for 2+ hours, give a sometimes brutal training for 5 hours. Spend another hour plus wrapping up and debriefing then 2+ hours home. At least I could see clearly on the way home. The fog this morning was so thick, it threatened to envelop everything around you. Kind of cool, if you're not traveling almost 70 MPH on a freeway, hoping for no surprises. Thank goodness the long weekend is within view...

Friday Fun

I had most of the day off, so errand running did we go. Well, first we actually went running, a great start to the day. Then, on to the vet to get the stitches out. On the drive there, both S's dozed in the sunshine   (I know you can't really see Little S in her seat, I promise she was napping)

Unfortunately by the time it was all over, we couldn't make it to book babies with Little Miss A like we had hoped to. Hopefully another Friday soon.  After some working for Mom and eating and napping for Little S, we were off to brave the pre-Thanksgiving grocery crowds. Little S was helping when we got home by pulling things out of the bags. What was the most interesting to chew on?   

The bag of chocolate chips. Of course.

Once that got boring and dinner needed to get made, she tried to wash up for dinner, sanitary child that she is. One problem  

the animal water bowl is probably NOT a health department approved hand washing station. It's still fun to play in 

and,  the floor probably benefited from the extra cleaning there too.

Four words wrapped up our first mommy-daughter day in a while.

Dinner. Green Beans. Notsomuch.

Sick of baby pics yet?

If I'm going to post everyday, you're going to have to tolerate more baby photos since for the next few weeks, all I will do is work and put the baby to bed. Oh well. It will lead to a time when I'll get extra baby time someday.

She is very advanced. I put the bowl of acorn squash down and she grabbed the spoon and put it in her mouth.  

 

When I refilled her bowl-because she was wearing it, not because she ate it, I thought I'd try for a repeat performance. After some coaxing, I got this instead

 

Oops-wrong end of the spoon. There goes my advanced theory. It's now replaced with the, "if I can grab it, it's in my mouth" theory. That one seems to bear out MUCH more often.