She's a Trooper

We hit the mark of Kaylee wearing her helmet 23 hours a day yesterday. And I just have to say she's a real trooper. No crying when we put it on and she doesn't seem to mind at all. She wore it all night Monday night and slept like a dream. Tuesday night was a little rough, but we think her having trouble sleeping may have been a combination of things - a nasty little cough she has and not being able to find a comfortable spot to sleep. But, then last night, even after a full day of wearing the helmet, we were back to a a normal sleeping night -- where everyone sleeps through the night!

Its been a little adjustment to our normal routine. She has a little more hair than the average child her age and the poor thing sweats quite a bit. Thanks goodness we're going to be doing this in the middle of winter and not summer! We get to take it off for one hour each day. During that time, she gets her bath and the helmet gets cleaned too. We check for any areas on her head where the helmet could be rubbing and put lotion on to prevent chaffing. Otherwise, eating, playing, and sleeping aren't really affected at all. We can take the helmet off briefly to change clothes or if she's not feeling well. We take the opportunity in the morning when I get her dressed to clean the helmet again and get her hair dry before we head out the door to daycare.

One of the concerns of this experience has focused less on how she's doing, but how other people are perceiving her. Cranial remolding helmets are becoming more common in their usage. And I'm sure most people have seen children wearing them. Our first experience out and about (for a significant amount of time) was last night when we went grocery shopping. First, a disclaimer - our little girl is a ham. She's a happy kid that is smiling about 85% of the time - and wearing the helmet there is no difference. We went through the store with her smiling and occasionally waving to many of the shoppers. The general response is usually something like "What a sweetie!" and "How cute!".

Since it is a big concern of mine, I couldn't help myself last night thinking whether or not these people were paying more attention to her because she has a helmet on. There were only a couple of people that specifically mentioned her helmet when they stopped and I know I need to not let things like that consume my mind. Like we've said before she's our sweet, little, perfect girl regardless if she has a helmet or a paper bag on her head. She responds to people no differently so I need to do the same. I think we will all be learning some life lessons over the next couple of months.

Slacker

So I've been slacking at my blogging. We've been pretty busy the past couple of days, I'm just not sure if anyone is really interested in what we've been up to.

Summer is our busiest time at work and that seems to be what we're scheduling our lives around. That and softball, of course :) Between playing and coaching, I'm off and running 3-4 nights a week. Ron's been a real trooper and hasn't complained. He's even made it to a few of the games.

At any rate, I'll make a conscious effort to fill you in on the rest of our exciting lives tonight.

Time Warp Tuesday

We're not going way back today...just a few days over 6 months ago. Can anyone guess what I'm referring to?

On Sunday, Ron and I were officially married for 6 months! Where does the time go? We can't hardly believe its been that long ago.

Happy Anniversary Stephanie and Greg!

Wow---five years already? Best wishes to the funnest couple we know!

Spring Clean Up

What a warm, wonderful weekend! We spent the majority of Saturday and Sunday working outside in our yard. It's spring cleanup in Champaign, which means the city is picking up all lawn waste for free. Saturday was devoted to the front yard, and I have to say, its looking pretty nice after getting raked. Our trees in the front yard are always dropping limbs and branches - it was in desperate need of picking up after the winter. After getting some of the old, dead grass out, Ron put some more grass seed on it, and hopefully, it will fill in nicely. We have a rather shady yard, and growing anything is turning out to be quite a task. This afternoon we started to tackle the backyard. We live in a neighborhood that has quite a few pine trees. There's four in our back yard and four others on our neighbors side of the fence. So, in addition to being rather shady, we also have quite a few pine needles to clean up. We used up all the yard bags we had, and we have more than half of the backyard to go yet. Let's hope next weekend is this nice too! Until then, we'll be soaking some sore muscles. Raking and dethatching our yard has definitely used some muscles that haven't been used in awhile!

Playing Catch Up

All right, the Monday madness is about over, so I can fill you in on some of our *exciting* weekend. Well, exciting for me, maybe not for you. We did head north on Friday, and although we didn't get a really early start, we made it to my parents house a little before 9 pm. Everyone but dad was asleep. That's right...Stacy fell asleep with Madison when trying to get her put to bed for the night, Erik came back from Canada with a cold, so he went to bed early, and mom & Melissa fell asleep watching basketball. (Not that I blame them, the big ten teams didn't really wow us that night.) Remember hearing "early to bed, early to rise"? Well, after getting some much needed rest, everyone was up bright and early Saturday morning. Madison got to open her first birthday present of the day after breakfast. Little did we know that this would be the only present she would feel like opening. By the time her party rolled around, there were too many people and she was much more interested in other things that were going on. Saturday morning was spent running errands and taking some decorations to my aunt's restaurant where the birthday party would be later that afternoon. The girls managed to squeeze some small naps in during the afternoon while the guys did some target shooting.


Aunt Melissa was in charge of bath time and look what happens...

The birthday party was a lot of fun. There were so many fun photos from the day, I made a short slide show (below). Madison got some great gifts. Lucky girl! Saturday evening we were all pooped out again. On Sunday morning, we did some relaxing. Mostly prepping ourselves for a big turkey dinner that my mom fixed. Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and head back to Champaign. I almost had a stowaway in my luggage that I found when packing, but her mom would probably miss her, so I had to take her out. What a great weekend--I got to spend it with my family!

Blogging Hiatus

Things have not slowed down since my last post. Easter day was packed full of activities. We were lucky enough to spend time with family and still get everything done that we needed to before we left town on Monday.

We hit the road early Monday morning for Columbus and its been nonstop ever since. Why are you in Columbus you might ask...well, this is one meeting that Ron and I actually get to attend together. Yay! We are at the North Central Branch meeting of the Entomological Society of America, that's insects for those of you that don't know. This is the meeting that I helped plan and coordinate and have put countless hours into . I'm so glad it will be done tomorrow. No, really. I'm ready to have my life back. All in all, it was a really good experience and I got to get the know some of the inner workings of the society. There have been many good talks and posters on entomology research around the north central states and we've been able to see quite a few colleagues. With everything going on, I haven't had a lot of time to blog, not that a lot of people would be interested in what we've been doing this week.

Second Verse Same as the First

Wow, another weekend gone by. Where does the time go? Out the window, that's where! We were busy as usual this weekend. I'll spare you all the details, but this Saturday included working in the INHS Mobile Science Center at an open house, Illini Basketball, house cleaning, laundry, and of course, working. That's right, brought my work home with me. Not only dug it out on Saturday, but Sunday evening too. Lucky for us, my parents brought our darling dog back to us on Sunday. She was happy to see us, but by evening, she was moping around the house missing the other dogs.

Big news from the weekend......Ron and I are test-driving a mini-van. Well not really, its the rental that we have while my Escape is in the shop. Hopefully, I'll get my wheels back soon. For all our friends out there, we can positively affirm that we will never own a mini-van. If you guys are lucky, I'll get a photo of Ron driving it around town for you, otherwise, you'll just have to use your imagination.

I'm in Madison this evening through Tuesday night for the Central Plant Board meetings. Tomorrow with be a day full of presentations, information, and networking. I'd say this week is well on its way.

Heading North

Sunday morning rolled around way to quickly for my tastes. After packing for a week of meetings and workshops, I headed north to the Michigan State campus, leaving Ron up to his own devices. From my understanding he spent some quality time at Farm and Fleet and drove out to his uncle's house in the afternoon. Two things I know rank up on the top of his list of things to do......

It was....computerless Wednesday

Not really, since I was at work all day, but for the first time in weeks, I didn't bring my laptop home. Or any work either. Not that I didn't have any, it's neatly piled beside me on my desk today. We had bible study at church last night and then Ron and I went home to watch some of we like to call "crap" tv before going to bed. "Crap" tv falls under the category of those reality tv shows that just keeping taking over the networks. Don't get me wrong, we're addicted to a couple of those ourselves....The Biggest Loser, Ice Road Truckers, The Deadliest Catch to name just a few. Remember the good old days when shows like the Cosby show were so popular? Wait, I don't want to get on a soapbox on how how the different media forms (tv, radio, video games) are shaping our future..........

I just wanted to let everyone know we survived the night without using the internet, checking email, and writing on the blog. I don't think I'm going to try to two nights in a row though.

I May Be Losing My Mind

Well, not really, but I've felt like it the past couple of days. Its crunch time at work -- major reports are due and I'm hitting the peak of program planning for our regional meeting. Things at home are slowing down slightly, but only enough to make you realize how much extra time you would like at home before darting out the door to the next thing that needs to be done.

Friday night as I was beginning to fall asleep, I thought of a great topic that I wanted to include in the blog. However, I was not going to get out of my warm cocoon of blankets and pillows to grab to the laptop and put my thoughts down. I really should have. I can't for the life of me remember what I wanted to blog about. What I do remember is what I wanted to title the blog - "Things Change" - and the overall sense of my thoughts was comparing things of when I was younger to what they are now. I was hoping that over the course of the weekend, my line of thinking would return or there would be that certain item or word that would trigger my memory. I must be losing my mind. It feels awful that I can't remember what I was thinking about. You will have to keep your eyes out for a future post in case I ever remember. I laugh to myself, because I was so happy that I was finally going to get out of my blogging rut and share something besides photos. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.Will I get out of bed next time and type it all out? Probably not. Its so warm and cozy in bed, and I do so cherish my sleep.

I love 3-day weekends!

Yep, that's right. I have today off from work. Yay for President's Day! Most people have to go into work today, but I'm one of the lucky ones that get to sleep in, or at least I would have if Abbey would have had the decency to sleep in too. So instead, I was up early making plans for the day. I have to admit though, right now I'm not any more motivated to clean the kitchen than I was yesterday. I've been making small progress getting the house picked up, but not nearly to the extent I would like. We've been busy this weekend, so I didn't get all the time I intended to work on the house (I'll also admit that it felt pretty good to take a nap yesterday too!).

We also spent time this weekend running errands around town, paying bills, and overall getting caught up on some things with been drastically behind on. Barb has been in the hospital since Wednesday afternoon and its looking very good that she will be able to go home today. Hopefully the doctors have figured out what has been making her sick and unable to keep food down.


Abbey hates the vacuum cleaner; she spent some time outside Saturday morning moping while I cleaning. It actually looks like a spring day, and it was fairly warm for a couple of hours.

I'm putting cleaning the kitchen on my to-do list as well as getting some of our wedding stuff organized and boxed up. I'd love to be able to get our spare room in order, but that may just be a little too ambitious for today.

Abbey is going spend her day sleeping - What's everyone else doing today?

Wow...its that one day a year when love is filling the air. Chocolate candy, red roses, and mushy cards. I hate to disappoint my loyal blog followers, but Ron and I are not celebrating Valentines Day this year. What!?! you may ask, are you thinking? You're newlyweds! We are in fact celebrating a holiday today, but in our house, its Valentimes Day (corny, I know). What is different about this holiday you wonder? Well, no mushy cards for one - And its not that I don't like those mushy cards (Ron will tell you, I've kept all the cards he's every given me). In fact, the very first Valentines Day card he gave me had 2 turtles on it and has something to the effect of "breaking out of ones shell", I can't remember the specifics. What I do remember about that very first Valentines Day is that he got me a pair of brown gloves with a number "3" on them (from the gas station) as a joke.....well the joke is on him, I still have those too. Anyway, back on task. We've been so busy lately that neither of us have had time to pick up a card for the other. I did however order him a gift off of the internet (that still hasn't shown up yet). We're going out to dinner tonight or sometime this weekend to celebrate our first Valentine's Day together, so you hopeless romantics out there shouldn't be worried!

Another weekend gone

Where does the time go? This weekend felt like it was over before it barely got started. We managed once again to pack quite a few things into the last two days. While Ron was at his mom's Friday night, I worked on cleaning our very dirty house and our very dirty dog. I didn't get too much accomplished with the house, but Abbey is squeaky clean and smells great!

When Ron got home on Saturday morning, we went out for breakfast and then to run errands. We ran into one of Ron's friends from SIU when we stopped at Barnes & Noble. It was great to catch up with Hannah and also meet her son. Unfortunately Barb has been feeling a little sick the past couple of days. We took her to the hospital later in the day, but good news, she's feeling better and its looks like a trip to the doctor may have done the trick.

Sunday morning was spent at church, and this afternoon we spent working on projects. Ron finished up a poster for the Illinois Soybean Association meeting and I worked on Madison's birthday present. Still a long way to go for me, but I good start I think. This reminds me that I'll have to post a picture of my latest project I finished later this week.

This week is starting as busy as last week ended but I'll have lots to share!

Let's Celebrate!

As pointed out by my loving husband today, February 1 marks our 2-month anniversary as a married couple. All right, quit your laughing at us, we've never really had anniversaries to celebrate before. We were together almost 4 years before we got married and never really had a "true anniversary," (a long story, but the short, short version- we had differing ideas when we "officially" started dating, so no real anniversary, but hey we turned out just fine!)So, I'm going to celebrate these little things whenever I can. Why not? It's just one more thing to be happy about in life.

This, in addition to today being the "go red for women day" that kicks off Heart Disease Awareness month, made me realize that there's a lot of causes that are designated to this second month of the year. I did a little google search and here are just a FEW that I found:

American History Month
Black History Month
Body Awareness Month
Canned Food Month
Electrical Safety Awareness Month
International Twit Award Month
Library Lovers Month
National Cancer Prevention Awareness Month
National Children's Dental Health Month
National Grape Fruit Month
National Parent Leadership Month
National Snack Food Month
Pet Dental Health Month
Responsible Pet Owners Month
Return Carts to Supermarket Month
Sinus Pain Awareness Month
Termite Awareness Month

What are you celebrating this February?

A Day of Thanks....

No, its not Thanksgiving, but I'm just feeling a little thankful today. While we've had a very busy past couple of days, there's been a lot of good things going around. Let's start off by thanking my parents, who drove down to Champaign to see us. And not only that, they brought us food! Well, I'm thankful for having such wonderful parents, but for those of you that haven't had the opportunity to have my mom's cooking......you're missing out. We're talking about some GOOD food. We have in our refrigerator: ham, mashed potatoes, chicken casserole, cheesy hashbrown potatoes, and chili. Oh yeah, don't forget the peach pie on our counter. It's been awfully nice coming home from the hospital and not having to cook or stop by McDonalds. What else are we thankful for? Well, Barb is doing much better and will soon get released from the hospital. A slow recovery process, but one that is making leaps and bounds every day. The cards, thoughts, prayers, and visitors have made such a difference in keeping all of our spirits up. There's just so many other things, but I'm going to have to cut this short for now. The dryer just dinged at me and I need to get some more laundry done before we head back to the hospital.

One day at a time

Not much new since the last post. Ron's mom continues to make strides after her surgery. I thought it might be easier to take a post from Barb's CaringBridge site that Ron keeps up.

Hello all-

My apologies for not updating for the past couple of days, we have had a few ups and downs. On Monday we met with Mom’s oncologist and found out that the cancer was in a larger area than they originally thought, so it is very likely that she will have radiation and chemo again. We are all trying to stay positive and as I have said before, we are just taking it one day at a time. Right now we are just focusing on her getting her chest tubes out and getting stronger so we can move on from there.

The good news today is that Mom finally got moved into a regular room! They took her off the medicine that was keeping her blood pressure up and she did fine on her own. If you would like to stop by or if you would just like to give her a call, she is now in room 8868. I will update again when there is more news.

Ron

Ahhh.......Friday

What a long week it's been at our house (or should I say not at our house). We've spent the majority of the week at the hospital. Ron's mom, Barb, had surgery on Wednesday. This surgery was for a lobectomy of the upper lobe of her right lung. The surgery went okay, and Barb is continuing to improve each day, although very slowly. We are still awaiting pathology reports to learn more about the tumor that was removed, but are focusing on recovering from surgery first and foremost. Our new "motto" is to take it one day at a time. Ron keeps a website updated for family and friends to keep in touch with Barb and also to keep up on her condition. We encourage people to visit her Caring Bridge Site.

Wacky Weekend

Well, another weekend gone and once again, filled with activities. Friday night we met some friends at Papa Del's in Champaign for some pizza and catching up. It was great to meet up with David & Jamie, Rob & Mary, and Dawn & Doug. We all had been busy in December with lots of travels between us. The food was great, but the conversations was even better.

Saturday started with a haircut for me. After more than a year of letting my hair grow out for the wedding, it was more than past time for a change. I love a good haircut. We also managed to drop some clothes off at goodwill (finally got the closets cleaned out - yay!) and picked up a new mattress at slumberland.

We topped our day off with a trip to the new Jupiter's with Doug, Angie, and Noah. A little tip for those of you thinking about heading out there on Saturday afternoons. Its swarming with kids. Noah had to wait in line forever to play games (and so did we). After a few rounds of air hockey, skee-ball, basketball, and other games, we sat down for some pizza. The game area had thinned out a little after dinner, so Noah was able to get in some Big Buck Hunter and we spent the rest of the tokens. The five of us topped the night off with a trip to Dick's Sporting Goods.

After spending the majority of the weekend running around, we followed Sunday morning church with a Sunday afternoon nap. It was great!

Spring Cleaning in January

The warm temperature earlier this week (65 degrees in Champaign on Monday) inspired some early spring cleaning at our house. Okay, it wasn't so much the temperature inspiring me as the fact that our house is a complete wreck. We've been on the move since the wedding and haven't been home long enough to even dig out any of the wedding gifts. Stack on some Christmas gifts and add a pile of shower gifts, and the guest bedroom is in shambles (We won't discuss how messy and disorganized the rest of the house is). I'm just hoping to get it livable by the weekend.

Today marked the beginning of the Crop Protection Technology Conference, so Ron will be busy the next 2 days. Its not quite the same as the Custom Spray Operator's School of the past, but a good opportunity to get some current information and meet with the industry reps he works with. I'll be heading to Springfield on Friday to speak at the Specialty Crops Conference. That's a first for me; I'm used to the corn and soybean folks at the Crop Protection Technology Conference.

We weren't the only ones enjoying the warm weather at our house. With all the rain we got on Tuesday, Abbey decided to do a little digging around in the backyard. At least she didn't roll around in the mud, but I think she's trying to nose out an escape route under the fence.

Dirty Dog !