Bumpersnicker

So some time ago I purchased some pro-life bumper stickers and put one on each of our cars. One was more inflammatory than the other: "It's easy to be pro choice when you're not the one being killed", and it had a picture of a baby with it. I put that on Dean's car, which was mildly concerning to him, because of his being in the army. You can't make waves in the military, so he was worried what people might think/say/do. The one that went on my car says "I have noticed everyone who is for abortion has been born"-Ronald Reagan. They both have gotten rave reviews from many people. So, we recently sold Dean's car in anticipation of buying a larger vehicle for our growing family. It sold in about a day on Craigslist, by the way. So, we had to scrape that one off when we listed it. So he's been taking my car to work this week. So, a new obnoxious person at work, who happens to be the EO person (equal opportunity) informed Dean that the bumper sticker on MY car (the Ronald Reagan one) was offensive to someone and that it "needed to be covered up" when he was at work. (He is the boss man at the facility here, by the way). He's only been back at work for about a week, now, and she informed him of this about his second day back - probably after she first noticed it.

He was awfully upset by this, which makes him want to not be in the military any more "I'm not allowed to have an opinion!" he says. I told him that was ridiculous, that someone should take such offense to the sticker, since it's really not an inflammatory one - except perhaps for people who've had abortions. The EO person is most likely the one who is offended by the sticker, since she's new and apparently hadn't seen the one on his car. Anyway, I was fuming and wasn't about to just let it go. I suggested that he let the offended one file a complaint and go from there. Although, his NCOIC (non-commissioned officer in charge) was nervous about it, as was the other captain. So, Dean finally brought it up to his commander, a Lt. Col in Virginia. She told him in no uncertain terms NOT to dare remove it. She is my kind of person! She says what she thinks and doesn't take crap from anyone. So, we feel empowered, and for the time being at least, the sticker remains. We are looking forward to putting a (pro life) Mother Theresa bumper sticker on our next vehicle, which we hope to get soon. I'd like to see someone get offended by Mother Theresa.

A Taste of Home

A few weeks ago at church we noticed a couple visiting their son, a young marine. They looked like they were from "back home", the southwest. So I chatted with them, and sure enough they are from Paige, AZ and were visiting Josh before he shipped off for a deployment. We invited them to have Sunday dinner with us (hoping we had something respectable on hand to serve). He is the president of an LDS branch there. They were wonderful company, and we shared many laughs. Navajos exude humor, and they've raised a bunch of sons and had some hair-raising stories to tell, including about Josh. As soon as he brought them in from the airport, he had all the fixings for his mom, Marilyn, to make Navajo Tacos for him and his buddies. I don't blame him! What I wouldn't give for an authentic Navajo Taco! President and Sister Bryant are well traveled and knowledgeable. Thomas is a contractor in the area and keeps busy with that and his duties in the gospel. It was a treat to get to know them, and feel a bit of kinship from the part of the country that we call home and miss. We took a picture, but blogger or the internet connection isn't letting it happen right now.

Where to begin

Dean had his surgery, then developed a clot. Great. He had a near-constant fever that would go up and down along with some nausea and generally unwellness until he finally called the surgeon on Sunday, four days after the surgery. The surgeon was concerned and had him come in. The surgical site looked good, no signs of infection. He said the only other reason for a fever that long after the operation would be a clot. So he was to take a full-strength aspirin and we were to call again the next morning if the fever hadn't resolved. So, sure enough, we went in again to Wilmington - an hour away. The surgeon sent Dean to a vascular surgery clinic to have an ultrasound, where they quickly found the clot in his calf. He's on coumadin to prevent any new clots, and self-administered shots to help break up this one. And he's finally now not really having the fevers, and doesn't need to take the percocet around the clock any more, but it is still uncomfortable and when he walks much it hurts, as it did going to church today, and to a wedding reception last night.

In other news, the boys and I won't be able to go to Korea with Dean. What a bummer. He's been given a few more options, but none are desirable. He could go to Riyadh, the capitol of Saudi Arabia, to do public health stuff (such as checking the swimming pool water and microwaves for proper-ness - I don't recall any such classes in vet school, hmmmm), take care of whatever working dogs need care, and food safety. Yeah, not so appealing for him, not to mention that apparently the climate is much like that of Phoenix, AZ, which is most unappealing to him. He's been emailing with the guy currently there (it has to be a man, which makes the position harder to fill, as most new vets these days are women), and that guy says the position is a "diamond in the rough". It would be tax-free pay, but that still doesn't take the sting out of the rest of it. Another possibility would be to go to a unit in Georgia. That is even more unappealing because he would spend the whole time training (in the "swamp" of Georgia - miserably hot and humid) for a deployment. That one is certainly crossed off the list. So, that leaves going to Korea by himself, or Riyadh, either one for a year. The commander in Korea is expecting him anyway, and it would be a nice job with lots of learning experience for him, namely to be the CO's assistant in planning and operational stuff, with some occasional veterinary work.

So, what about me and the kids? I've always thought we'd just stay here if we had to be separated, like when he was supposed to deploy a few months ago. But, since he would be leaving in the summer, it seems like a good opportunity to just go back to Ramah, NM for a year (my home town, of about 400 people). There, the kids could spend a lot of time with all their grandparents and cousins (some of whom are in Albuquerque) and experience all the stuff I did as a kid, like real snow, going on the ranch to find a Christmas tree, and care-free summers. But, in such a small town, there's not much of a rental market. As an autonomous adult for more years than I care to admit, I don't wish to live with anyone, namely the folks. That is not to mention that they are settled in their house full of stuff and wouldn't really have room for four extra people anyway. So, they are asking around, as there are a couple of old vacant houses just being used as storage and such. It would really be nice to sock away and save during that time, living the simple life. If nothing else perhaps we could move to Albuquerque, or just stay here. If I did that, though, I'd probably want to put Kyler in private school for kindergarten, as his birthday is Sept. 2, so he just misses the cutoff. There wouldn't be any socking away if I did that, but at least he'd start school on time instead of having to wait a year, which torments my soul. There wouldn't be any such options in Ramah. I'd probably be better off putting such money away for college for him, but it really bothers me that he'll be a year behind in school. That's a sore subject for me. Dean and I were both August babies and excelled in school. Hunter was a premature Sept 9 baby and started the year he turned 5, and was a "role model", said his teacher, not to mention at the top of the class academically.

We have tried out my Christmas presents, including a new popcorn popper from Dean, which was what I had asked for. It's an air popper, which I wanted. I always lusted after one as a kid, and my mom always said "no". Although my younger brother Curtis says they had one for years - must have been after I left. We all love it, and it's fun to watch it pop - just ask the boys. I also purchased a new digital camera online from Staples right before Christmas. Then I opened the present from my mom, which was a similar camera. What a dilemma! I had actually thought that I should hold off a bit to buy one. Then Staples solved my dilemma by sending an email saying I didn't qualify for the rebate that had been advertised with the camera. What? You suck Staples, so I'm sending it back and keeping the one from my mom.

I finally found a perfect bed for Hunter. I've been looking for years it seems, to find just what I wanted at the right price, namely solid wood, with drawers beneath, on a platform, with a bookshelf headboard. It was on lejeuneyardsales.com, where I've looked numerous times - and finally got lucky. He loves it, and it's perfect, especially for $150. I even got the guy to deliver for $20. It has a cubby, which they've already been in apparently, as there's a pillow in there. I used to like to crawl in small spaces as a kid for fun. Hunter likes to read before bed, so he can put his books on the shelf. I just need to get a clamp lamp or something for light. A regular lamp wouldn't survive in their room. There was a matching dresser as well, so I got it and soon we'll get rid of the behemoth dresser that I hate. I found a race car bed for Kyler at a yard sale several months ago. I hate when people say to "make an offer" on an item. I have no idea what they're looking for. $10? $100? So I offered $10. The guy was taken back, but talked me up to $15. I would have paid more, but the sign said... He even delivered for free. I swear someday we're going to own a truck again. I hate not having one. Of course Kyler crawls in bed with Hunter nearly every night, so the race car doesn't get much use.

Notice that there are two bumps in Hunter's bed, and no one in Kyler's.

So, I took a break to run around and take a couple of pictures of the beds and my new haircut :) I had put away the new camera we bought to get it ready to ship back to Staplessucks, and haven't gotten into the new one from my mom yet. So, I started looking for the "old" one that we've used thus far. Yesterday I took it away from Kyler as he was messing with it, which he has done much in the past. Santa even brought him his own little digital camera so that he would have one to mess with. Santa brought one for Hunter as well. Naturally, Kyler doesn't know where his is, so he still messes with everyone else's. So I looked on top of the tall bookcase where I had put the camera yesterday, but it wasn't there. I asked Dean, and he did the exact same thing with Kyler yesterday, even putting the camera in the same place. This kid is making me crazy. He defied us both. So I looked around and found the camera under the desk in the guest room, with the battery cover broken off. So it's no good now. I called up my bff the other day and told her I would mail it to her, as she didn't have one, and it still worked just fine. Now, with that door broken off, the sensor won't be activated to power it up and it's worthless. I am so upset. I'll say that it is a good thing for Kyler that he's in bed right now. I am so tired of him being so destructive. I wish we didn't have so many appointments for Dean tomorrow, because I would keep the boy in his room for the day. So, perhaps the rest of the week, when we are home, he will get to spend all his time in his room, thinking about not being so destructive. I've had it. He needed a new bed because he d-e-s-t-r-o-y-e-d his last one. To smithereens. It was one of those tubular metal toddler beds. It went out in the trash, and he had a crib mattress on the floor for a long time until I got the car bed. Anyway, hopefully by this time next week he'll be a new boy. I know most people's blogs are about how wonderful their supposedly-perfect children are. Yeah, I'm happy for you, but you won't find that here. I will say that most people's kids that I'm around act much like mine, so I'm pretty sure they are all normal, but being so destructive is not acceptable.

Home Again

Dean finally had his knee operated on on 12/30. It was injured in the summer compliments of Army combatives, and all this time they've had him going to useless physical therapy that clearly wasn't doing him any good. There were broken chunks of bone and cartilage floating around in the joint which were causing further damage all this time. One of the tendons that holds the patella in place was torn, so when Dean was anesthetized the surgeon moved the patella around, and could see how it had clearly been dislocated upon injury. He replaced the torn tendon with a "new" one from a cadaver to help keep the patella in place. He also fixed up the cartilage and bone and took out the floaters. It took about 2.5 hours. Some generous and kind hearted friends took Hunter and Kyler for the day (starting at 4:30 am) so that I could take Dean to Wilmington and be there with him. He was released on the 31st mid afternoon. Around 10pm it started hurting more and more and his low grade fever started rising again. We called the nurse advice line at the naval hospital and didn't get any good info (the surgereon must have been revelling in the new year, as he didn't answer our page). So I called the ER and a useful guy named Tony answered and gave some good advice, namely to double the percocet, so Dean proceeded to sleep pretty well overnight. Dean will be convalescing for a month at home. He wears a gigantic brace on the leg. So that's how we rang in the New Year. I actually went to the neighbors' party with Hunter and Kyler for a little while, and was taught some dance moves by an older black guy, ha ha.

the Daily Grind

Ahhh. Another day. It seems like so many things happen in a day, yet they aren't significant enough to write about... Tristan is growing and developing just as he should, and it is so fun to watch. One day he wasn't really grabbing for things with his hands, and the next day he started. Now he has those "powerful urges" to grab everything remotely within his reach. He slaps at it, whatever it is, or grabs it, or scratches it. I have to keep his nails clipped to not be clawed daily. I took him to the doctor for his four-month appointment, although he was more like five and a half months. He finally got his first set of vaccinations. Before we knew if he had hemophilia or not, while he was still in the hospital just after birth, they were of course poking and prodding him with the usual battery of tests, including taking blood to test for hemophilia. Finally, Dean said enough, and wouldn't let them stab or stick him any more, hence no vaccinations in the hospital (hemophiliacs should have pressure held on needle sticks for five minutes afterward, but of course no one at the hospital knows that). His doctor never mentioned anything at his next couple of appointments, so he still didn't get any vaccines. Anyway, this guy (a Navy captain, no less, an O-6) who just saw him was enthralled with him, and kissed him more than once. It was so sweet. He is indeed a sweet little guy and we all love him to pieces. He has been rolling over I think since just before he turned four months. He doesn't roll around, just over once. He is finally taking infant cereal. He didn't think much of it for some time, but tolerates it now. He has been hungrier lately it seems, or at least draining me thoroughly. He loves to smile and wins people over all the time by smiling at them, and even laughing when Kyler plays with him. He also has his two bottom teeth, and uses them to let me know when he is done nursing. I need to put a stop to that before it becomes a habit.

That Kyler. He is something. This morning I gave him a kiss on the mouth. He slipped me the tongue. I was so shocked that I hooted and hollered and made a lot of noise. He thought it was great and laughed hysterically. I won't be kissing his little mouth any more. He is a doll, though, and full of fun and mischief. He is noticeably taller and thinner to me by the day almost. His pants are loose on him and his cheeks are losing the baby fat. He likes to help with things around the house, like a little cooking (stirring on the stove), vacuuming with the hose, wrapping presents, etc. I worry about his teeth. He gets into so much candy and whatnot, and is not obedient about brushing his teeth. When I go after them they sometimes bleed.

Hunter is thoroughly enjoying his time off from school right now. He is getting addicted to one of Dean's computer games, Age of the Empires or something like that. It is an involved strategy game. Dean's hard work of grooming Hunter since he was small to enjoy games is paying off. Hunter can actually play those games with Dean, and board games of the same strategy and complication. I have no interest whatsoever in such games. I'm more of a Scrabble or Apples to Apples kind of girl. Hunter had tubes placed in his ears today, for the third time in his life. A lot of thick fluid came out, so once again it was warranted.

Dean is up to his usual tricks, ha ha. Actually he had today, Tuesday the 22nd, off of work. He is on tomorrow, then off the next few days. We certainly enjoy the time off he gets in the army. He said the other day that he is much less stressed than he was in private practice - at any of his jobs, and he works fewer hours as well. Of course he makes far less money, but it has been well worth the change to the military for so many reasons. We don't know how long he will stay in the military. He could be done after his three-year commitment, or he could make a career of it.

I have hesitated to say that we may go to Korea in the summer for his next assignment, as nothing in the military is definite until you are traveling to your new assignment with your orders. He has been penciled in for an assignment in Korea for a few months now, and we were all hoping/expecting to go. We are not sure if we will be able to accompany him, though, only because Hunter and Tristan have hemophilia. The medical facilities there would have to be comfortable taking us. All that we really need is available "factor viii", which is what they are deficient in (which means that their blood doesn't clot well when they have a bleed, or a procedure such as placing tubes, or surgery). It will likely be months before we know anything for sure. If we can't go with him, he'll go unaccompanied for a year, or possibly get assigned somewhere (undesirable) here in the states. Dean is scheduled to have his knee operated on in the near future to fix the meniscus or ligaments or whatever is damaged (from the army combatives course in the summer). The recovery time will be three to six months.

I am always busy, yet hardly seem to get much done. I bought a new digital camera recently, and have taken a few pictures with it. I still need to read the manual to figure out all it's capabilities and to learn how to get the pictures on the computer. I spent a lot of time researching cameras on Consumer Reports and from online reviews, so hopefully I got a good one, at least for the price, which was fairly inexpensive.

Last night we decided to use one of the gift cards we've received in the last year and go to dinner, to probably my favorite restuarant the Olive Garden. I guess it's been a while since we've eaten there, as there were a lot of new things on the menu, and the prices were noticeably higher. It was delicious as always. Dean had the ziti, and actually said that mine is better. I tried it, and agreed. It didn't have meat in it, though, so my sausage of course would make it better. I had the braised beef and tortelloni. It melted in my mouth - oh, sooo delicious! Hunter enjoyed his ravioli and Kyler had fettuccini alfredo.

After seven years of PTSD, I have started trying to make Christmas candy again. When we lived in Colorado, I worked with the Young Women at church, and some of the other ladies had "no fail" recipes for making different kinds of candy, and for an activity one week, we made them at the church. Well. We went to my parents' home for Christmas that year and I attempted on my own to make one of those no fail recipes. About three batches of it went in the trash, and I've never tried since. So this year I decided to find recipes that don't need to boil or need any specific temperature. Dean's brother Dusty has said before that he makes microwave fudge. I figured if he could do it, maybe so could I. He's given me a recipe book before (1001 Fast Easy Recipes) that has several easy candy recipes. So, I've made several batches of different types of fudge, and even some toffee that only had to boil for 7 minutes (no thermometer or ice water needed). It all worked out well. The toffee actually must have gone just over seven minutes, as it went from just right to starting to caramelize/burn in a few seconds, but it wasn't ruined, and still had a wonderful flavor, so I call it a success! I'm so excited! We'll see if I'm still so excited in a couple of weeks when I step on the scale!

We had a Christmas party last weekend. It was a lot of fun. I went the easy route and had the guests each bring a food item, so that made it pretty easy on me. I threw some frozen meatballs in a crock pot with salsa and grape jelly as I learned from Aunt Linda, and they were a hit. I also put together grape juice and ginger ale, which she recommends, and it was also well received. I made some crescent rolls, rolled up with cranberry sauce and ham, which were ok. There were lots of yummy things to eat, and we did a white elephant gift exchange. Those are always entertaining.

We are enjoying this wondrous time of year, and wish you a Merry Christmas!

Side tracked

I got side tracked with the old guy in the swimming pool in the last post. So here's more of the trip, mostly from pictures. I didn't think to take a picture in Havre de Grace, Maryland of my college freshman roommate Emily and her hubby and baby - who was born a few weeks before our Tristan. We hadn't seen each other since 2000, when we both graduated from the University of New Mexico. It was fun to see them. Our boys very much enjoyed their baby's toys. We saw them on the second day of the trip. We did a drive by of Edgar Allen Poe's grave in Baltimore, MD. It was rainy and we didn't feel like dragging the kids out of the car.

I did manage to get a picture of Dean's cousin on his mom's side of the family. Nora is in red. She and Dave (the camera man) have a lovely home that they have remodeled beautifully, and a fun little guy named Jack. We saw them on the other side of Connecticut on the way back down.
They are trying to live a vegetarian and even vegan lifestyle, which I admire. They served us some delicious holiday-type breads and vegies with a fantastic hummus that was reddish with fire roasted red peppers. Yum. Satisfying and tasty.
Here is one of many lovely churches that we saw.

We drove a few miles past Uncle Jerry's home in CT so I could say that I had been to Rhode Island.

We spotted this on the way to R.I.

It was like home sweet home for the boys in the hotel room - snuggled up together, and worn out from all the adventures...

On Saturday night, we stayed with my cousin Clint and his wife and their sweet little boy in Lorton, VA. Kyler must have been carsick by the time we got there at 10pm. Neither of the boys has ever been carsick to my knowledge. He had said one time in the car that his tummy hurt. So as we were getting ready for bed and had the air mattress all set up and sheets and blankets on it, he said something about Baby and throwing up. Dean and I went to investigate, and Baby was indeed covered in mass quantities of gray vomit, with chunks, as were the bed linens. Dean and I were trying to wrap our minds around how this could have come from Baby, who has only ever spit up breast milk. Finally it dawned on me that this couldn't have possibly come from Tristan - something would have been very wrong with him if it had. I asked Kyler, and sure enough he was the source. Mystery solved, but then we had to bother my poor cousin, who had just returned himself from New York with the family, for more sheets. I didn't manage to get a picture of them either. We went to church with them on Sunday, which was nice. Then we headed for home! It was a lovey trip, but it is always so nice to get back home!

Thanksgiving

Two years ago when we lived in Astoria, OR, we had Thanksgiving together as a family, just our family, which was ok. Just ok. Dean and the boys spent the morning trying to catch tasty creatures from the sea, and I spent the morning slaving away in the kitchen. Then we sat down for the big meal, and thirty minutes later it was all over. I decided I didn't want to do that again. It is hard living so far from family that we can't get together very often for the holidays. Last year we drove to Florida and met up with Dean's family near Disney World, and even went to the magic kingdom on Thanksgiving day. This year we decided to drive to Connecticut and visit Dean's uncle that he hadn't seen for probably 15 years. I had not ever been to New England, so there was lots to see. It was surprisingly much like Astoria, with many older Victorian homes. There were old, beautiful, stone churches galore, which I love to see. We spent two days driving each direction, for a total of about 700 miles each way. We stayed the first night in Washington, DC in a hotel close to the capitol. We toured the Mall in the evening. It was dark, so it was pretty cool to see the monuments and memorials in the light of the street lamps.

The next three nights we stayed at a hotel in New London. Dean took the boys swimming in the pool once, and I took just Hunter one time. While I was in the pool with him, an old man was in the water. He wouldn't leave Hunter alone. I just didn't know what to make of it, and my mother bear sensors were on high alert. He kept asking Hunter questions - must have been hundreds of questions. They seemed more or less friendly and innocuous, but with all those questions, he got out of Hunter his first and last name, what Dean does (military, etc.), our family makeup, our religion and more. I would tell Hunter to swim, to do a down-and-back, that there wasn't any point in being in the pool if he wasn't going to swim - so he would when I told him to. But this guy just wouldn't stop asking him questions when he'd swim back. I didn't know if he was just a lonely old man, or if he was hoping to molest/kidnap Hunter if he could get him away from me, or what the heck he was up to. He asked him so many questions that Hunter couldn't get away to swim in the pool, except when I stepped in and told him to go swim. That was what bothered me so much. Hunter didn't go to the pool to answer questions from a stranger, to the exclusion of swimming. But while that guy was there he couldn't do anything. Hunter is pretty trusting of people and would get pretty close to him in the water in order to hear and answer. That made me nervous, too. I do NOT teach my kids stranger danger because it makes no sense (read the book Protecting the Gift to learn much better things to teach children). I also don't force them to be polite or affectionate to anyone they aren't comfortable with (that book says that doing so shuts off their danger instincts).

I asked the guy a few questions to slow his torment of Hunter. He's Catholic, but no longer practicing because he decided the church just wanted money. He's Polish (as was Dean's Grandmother whose home we visited that Uncle Jerry now lives in), and a retired engineer. He never said a word about his family; he wasn't in the pool with anyone, so I don't know if he was in the hotel with anyone, or visiting family or what he was doing there, or if he is a child molester. He was from another part of Connecticut. Finally another family came to the pool and this old guy got out, got dressed in the bathroom, then put on his hat and floor length fur coat, (which also weirded me out) and left. I kept a close handle on the boys the rest of the stay in the hotel, not that I wouldn't have anyway.

So, in discussing it with Dean, he pointed out a few things. He says Polish people are very friendly - and he would know. (On a side note, the first time I took Dean home to meet my parents my dad told Pollack jokes). He also explained that New Englanders are very talkative, just like Dean's late father Norm. So, maybe that was just it. Maybe he was just a friendly, talkative old gentleman. I guess we'll never know. I didn't necessarily get any bad vibes from him, but it weirded me out that he wouldn't let the boy swim! He totally monopolized Hunter's pool time.


Grandpa Norm's old stomping grounds, where we visited Uncle Jerry.

Becky and the boys in front of the submarine in New London, CT.

Hunter and Kyler at the controls on the submarine.

Dean, Hunter and Uncle Jerry in Preston, Ct.

I'll post more pictures when blogger will cooperate and let me :)