Seasonal Allergies

Jay and I are quite a pair right now. His allergies this spring have been horrible – the worst I've ever seen him deal with. He's had some sort of snotting/snorting problem since the first part of March. It finally caught up with him last weekend…his ear started to hurt. Monday morning he went to the doctor and found out he had (and I'm quoting the doctor here ) a raging ear infection. $75 later he is hopefully on the road to recovery. Jay can now sympathize with poor Lawson…pressure in his ear, can't sleep through the night, and just plain doesn't feel good.

I had been feeling fine until Sunday morning – I had managed to escape all allergy issues up to that point. I woke up with a sore throat and it progressed from there. My nose is so stopped up I can't breathe at all. Since I can't breathe through my nose while I'm sleeping my mouth is wide open. I don't know how many times I've woke myself up because my snoring was so loud.

Last night, once again, I woke myself up snoring. Then I couldn't get back to sleep because Jay was snoring. Since he'd been having such a hard time sleeping I didn't want to wake him up so I moved to the couch. I watched a little TV and then went back to sleep. At 3 am Jay woke up and said he could hear me snoring on the couch. I kept him up for awhile with my noise.

We really need to get over our stuffed up noses or I'm afraid we're going to end up on those sleep apnea machines!

A Lesson in Economics

Cade had saved the last of his birthday money to buy the Lego Pirates of the Caribbean game that came out Tuesday. The Lego games are huge hits around our house and he had been anticipating this for several days. I went to Springfield yesterday for the follow-up on my oral surgery back in March. I had just enough time to power shop for groceries, swing by Joanne's (my new favorite store) and then blow through Target looking for this game. I had to be back in time to get ready to go to Baccalaureate that night. At first I thought Target was out of the game, but I searched a little more and found 3 games left. I quickly grabbed an employee and got the game. I also got a free Lego set of Captain Jack and a couple of other unrecognizables that I assume are in movie #4 (which comes out May 20th if anyone is interested…Cade and I are). By this point I knew that I would only have enough time to get home, get ready and then leave again. And that is where the predicament of today's post started….

Cade knew I was looking for this game. He expected me to bring it home. I knew if I got home with it but he only had a few minutes to play it, that would make him crabby. I also knew that if I told him I had it but he couldn't open it until after Baccalaureate that would just be cruel. Cade and I don't handle anticipation well. We both like to know what's going to happen in a movie before we watch it. We still watch it; we just have to know how it's going to turn out. I also read the back of every book I ever read. I try to resist, but I can't stand it. (Any clues on why this whole adoption/infertility wait has been so hard? There's no book that I can read the back of!). So anyway, I knew that kind of anticipation would be physically painful for Cade – really, I'm telling you neither of us likes that feeling of anticipation. And Baccalaureate is long enough for the adults…can you imagine how tortuous it would be for a 9 year old knowing he has a new video game in plastic at home? That's child abuse!

So since I'm such a model parent guess what I did….yes, I lied. Actually I asked Jay to lie for me. He was supposed to tell Cade that Target was out of the game and we'd get it Thursday. Then the whole way home I wondered what I should've done. How do people who vow to never lie to their kids handle these sorts of things…then I wondered if me lying about a Lego game will someday cause him to become hooked on drugs or cause other behavioral issues. When I got home Jay hadn't lied to Cade – he forgot about the whole story I had came up with so I had to do it. Cade was very disappointed. Later I asked Jay what I should've done. Jay said that I should've told the truth and then disciplined him if/when he threw a fit about having to leave the game or if he got impatient at Baccalaureate. I'm sure Jay is right, but it wasn't that I didn't want to discipline him – I seriously thought it was cruel to say "oh, hey Cade here is the game you wanted now we have to get in the car drive 20 minutes to sit through a long church like service and then you might get one hour to play it when we get home". I still don't know what was the right answer in this situation…..

But here is where the economics lesson came in. I told Cade that Target was sold out and that I'd call the Wal-Mart's around home on Thursday to track down the game. Once you start lying there is just no end to it! He wanted to know which ones I was calling and what order…again more lies! Finally I got away from him before lightning struck me down and I went to get ready. A few minutes later Cade came in our room and said that since the stores were selling out he might not have enough money to buy it. I was only about half listening to him while looking for something to wear but I asked why he thought that. He said "well, if there is only one left then the price will go up and I won't be able to afford it." That got my attention. Somewhere in the back of my mind I was grasping at a memory…where have I heard that before. Ah yes, here it is….those long forgotten Ag Econ classes…Cade was talking about classic supply & demand. Where had he heard it?

I went to tell Jay about the brilliance of our child (even though Jay later had to help Cade get the first button started on his shirt). Jay acted nonchalant about the whole thing "oh, yeah we talked about Supply and Demand the other day".

Ok…I'm the one with the Ag Business degree and I sat through hours upon hours of Ag Econ classes….Cade's knowledge is close to surpassing mine on this subject. I'm going to have to start studying up on some things if I want to continue to be able to converse with those two. Can you imagine 9 more years of these conversations as they go back and forth to school? Guess that's what I get for lying….

Mothers Day

Mothers Day for the last several years has been a complicated day for me. Yes, I am a mother, but….I really don't know how to describe it. Even though I know I'm still as much as a mother as someone with a gaggle of children, sometimes I feel like ½ a mother. Like there is this big area of unfinished business in my life. And I know that there are thousands of women who hurt so badly on this day that I also have survivors guilt. Like I can't be happy and celebrate MD because I also hurt for those women who don't have any children. Then I feel guilty for the fact that I am a mother at all. It is such an odd day for me – and I'm sure it's that way for just about anyone who has gone through infertility. I'm just so thankful we go to a church that doesn't go overboard on MD. I've heard horror stories of church's where they do baby dedications on this day. I know it's a happy day for those parents, but oh my goodness. I would imagine most infertile couples would completely skip church that day. What a horror for them. Then 5 years ago my whole family life changed the day after Mother's Day so that has not helped my attitude towards this day for the last few years.

But, this year was ok. Actually it was the best MD I've had in quite some time. Not that we did anything special – I think it was the fact we didn't do anything. There have been years where Jay has tried to keep me busy so I didn't think about things. This year we stayed at home and caught up on laundry. It was a nice change. I didn't think about all of the other stuff in the days leading up to yesterday. It was a great feeling to be free from some of that junk. And I enjoyed the day just being at home with my two favorite boys.

Jay is such a great husband/dad. I used to work with a guy that when asked what he did for his wife on MD he'd say "nothing, she's not my mother". I'm so thankful that Jay doesn't feel that way. It is important for a child to learn from their father how to treat their mother. Jay does a great job of making sure Cade knows this. I'm so thankful for Jay!

Yesterday I woke up to pancakes cooked by Jay and Cade. Then Cade gave me the gift that he made me at school. It was a coupon book with different things in it. Jay and I got a good laugh out of them….Pick up the house, Make your bed, Let you watch the TV for one whole day, Leave you alone…and our absolute favorite – Try to wash the dog. Charlie is an outdoor dog so he never gets a bath. We never wash the dog. We asked Cade why he put that one in there and he said it was time for lunch and he had to finish so he copied it from someone else. Jay teased Cade and told him he was writing coupons that he couldn't cash.

The rest of the day I piddled around and helped Jay with the laundry. Normally I'm the head laundry person, Jay helps but I'm usually in charge. It was nice to not be in charge for a change. I sat outside and read and took a nap and then worked on another purse. It was a wonderfully uneventful day!

Happy Birthday Jay!

Yes, Jay is a Cinco de Mayo baby, but sadly he's never celebrated with a Mexican Fiesta.  Next year his birthday will be on a Saturday so make plans now - Mexican at our house!  This year he is having take-out Chinese.  Things have been a little hectic this week and once again I've turned our family room into a sweat shop....I was going to make his favorite - Sweet & Sour Meatballs but they are extremely labor intensive.  It's more of a weekend meal when I have more time.  So instead he's getting Sweet & Sour Chicken and a raincheck on the meatballs.  But he knows I love him anyway! 

So in honor of 34 years I'm reposting one of my favorite pictures.  This was from 2007 - Cade's first year of Coach's Pitch

And Jay - It's time to put away the "you're older than me" jokes for yet another year.  I know you love those 47 days of the year when I am older than you, but that time has drawn to a close.  We are both equally old now!   

Some more adoption humor...

As you know (because I've talked it about in the last several posts) I'm working on a new profile book.  I'm about 90% done with it.  I need a few more pictures from this coming weekend and I should
be able to wrap it up.

A couple of weeks ago we said yes to having our profile shown to a mom who's not due for awhile.  I have no idea when she was going to look at them and since her due date is so far away I'm not really expecting an answer very soon.  But at times my mind wanders and I'm very curious if she has made a decision.  I'm not going to email the agency because the second I do that they always phone in with their decision and it's never us.  So I'm just waiting and wondering on occassion.  But this one has not tore me up the way a lot of the others do so that is a welcome change.  Today though I was a little curious.  In a roundabout way I decided to get some info from our caseworker.  I told her I had our new profiles almost ready and needed to know how many to order.  I was really hoping she'd read my email and I'd get a phone call back saying DON'T HIT THAT ORDER BUTTON....you've been picked but we were going to wait a little closer to her due date, etc.  Do you think that's what happened today?

No, it wasn't.  Instead I got an email back that said  Why don't you order 4 or 5.  Yeah, sure...I'll get right on that.   

Our weekend....and more profile pictures....

After a wild night at Prom (we left at 10 pm wooo!) I went to Sheldon on Satruday to get some profile pictures.  Jay went to a farm auction that was down the road and then a cattle sale on Sunday.  I think he enjoyed his free time while Cade and I were gone!  Poor Cade kept asking me how many more pictures did he have to take?  I've done a lot of internet research on profiles and one bit advice I got was to keep your pictures new.  Don't use a picture if it looks really dated...like not even your wedding if it was over 5 years ago.  So in keeping with that theme I'm trying to use pictures taken within the year.  I snuck in a couple of vacation pictures but they were still within the 5 year time frame.  And with Cade it's even more important to keep the pictures new.  He changes overnight so I don't want the families looking at our book to think Cade is still little and we walk in with a giant 9 year old.  That meant I had to redo all the pictures we had with Cade and our parents.  But we had a good weekend, got to spend some time with Avery and Lawson and I got some pictures of them also.....

Papa Kerry got a new tractor this spring.  I thought his last one was big, but this one is enormous!  Unfortunatley it was too wet to do anything this weekend, but Cade got to ride with him when he pulled it in the barn.  I got a laugh though remembering what we used to do when we were kids....Dad would pick us up at Kathy and Clints on his motorcycle.  Charity would ride in the front and I'd hang on for dear life on the back.  No helmets.  It was the longset 1 mile ride home.  Or we'd hang onto the side of of tractors without cabs bumping along the road.  You'll notice in this picture that Cade's seat has a seat belt.  When Dad started the tractor Cade asked where his belt was because he couldn't find it.  Dad told him he didn't need it because they were only going about 10 feet....things have changed a lot through the years!  Thankfully the importance of farm safety is one of them!

 Mom and Cade....You can tell Cade was hot in this picture, his cheeks are red and he was done with being the subject of a photo shoot! 

Avery's cat had baby kittens sometime around Easter.  Here they are checking them out.  It looks like the Mama cat is ready to swat anyone who is brave enough to stick their hands in the box.

I wanted to get a picture of me with Avery and Lawson.  It's really hard getting two little kids to photograph well.  I love this one because of Lawson's hair.  Finally on Sunday I realized what his nickname should be...Chuckles as in Chuckles the Clown.  He has some wild hair!

Lawson loves tractors!

And who doesn't love a baby squat?



Prom 2011

This past Friday Jay and I went to Prom at the Pythian Castle in Springfield.  We usually go every couple of years...typically it's a cheap meal, there are other adults to talk to we don't see very often, and it's a fun occassion to get dressed up.  Actually typing that makes me feel a little pathetic....we have to go to a school dance and listen to horrible music to have a social life???  And yes, I just said that the music was horrible.  I'm officially old.  When I went to my Senior Prom 16 years ago I would've never dreamed I'd admit that.  The music was too loud, I couldn't understand the words and all the songs sounded alike.  We stood at the wall with the West's and talked about the good old college days and how they don't make music like they used to.   We sounded like we were in our 80's instead of just our early 30's.  When we weren't talking about the good old days we were looking and updating Facebook on our phones.  Is that not ironic?  But the kids looked like they had a good time, that's the important thing....and my ears will eventually recover.  I think the most used word by the adults that night was "Huh?" 

I felt like such a Prom Nerd asking Julie to take our picture...an adult (who does not have a child there) who has a camera at prom might be considered creepy or weird.....but it's for the profile!  You sacrifice all your pride when working on a profile book - you have to ask someone to take your picture over and over until it looks right.  Thankfully all of our photographers have been very patient with us (Thanks Julie!).  The adults on the other side of the room probaby thought what weird-o's.....If only they knew...

And here we are at Prom 2011.....