13 Years and Counting...

Today marks the 13th anniversary of the day that Wes and I started dating. Yup, for those of you who didn't already know, we are high school sweethearts. We started dating when I was a freshman and Wes was a sophomore. Wow did I love that boy, and wow do I love this man even more. We have been through so much together, both good and bad. There truly isn't much I would change. Everything that we have been through has made our relationship and our love that much stronger and deeper.

One thing that I will never forget is when we went for pre-marital counseling with the priest at our church that we hoped would join us as husband and wife. She said something like "I have never married a couple as young as you two are." (We weren't THAT young. We had finished college and already been together for 7 years) I saw this as irrelevant. Then she asked, "You have never dated anyone other than each other. How do you know that you want to commit yourselves to each other for life?" My answer- "Correct, he is the only man I have ever dated, but I have had plenty of relationships." This elicited quite a strange look. I continued, "Neither of us is the same person that we were when we began dating in high school. We have evolved several times into different people. The only difference is that we did it together. We grew up together and because of all of the different people we have been and all of the different relationships we have had I am perfectly sure that I want to commit myself to this man for life." I may be paraphrasing slightly, but not much. That is what I said in a nutshell. She loved my take on our lives, love and relationship and said that she was happy to marry us.

I digress. Today I feel very blessed that the super cool track-team captain asked me to be his girlfriend. Truly, we are lucky to have found each other and to have chosen to commit to one another.

Our New Addition

We are getting a new puppy. What did you think I meant?

We have a 7 year old Golden Retriever, Maggie. She was my first baby. Almost 7 month ago we had to put our 5 year old English Bulldog, Bettis to sleep. It was terrible and still makes me sad everyday. He is greatly missed. I knew that we would most likely get another dog before Maggie passes on (which will hopefully be a long long time from now) because Wes and I both love dogs. We hadn't really talked much about it because we were both missing Bettis so much.
Fast forward... Wes took the interior cushion of on of my dad's boats, which his dad is purchasing, to this place that recovered the seats for one of his other boats. These people happen to also breed Shih Tzu puppies and happened to have a litter of puppies about 2 weeks old. Wes fell in love with them. When we have talked about getting another dog, he has always talked about another Bulldog and I've said we have to wait until the kids are older because frankly they are big and dumb. Never did I think this man would ask me for a Shih Tzu. After much deliberation (Wes is impulsive and I think of every possible scenario/problem that may arise) we decided not to get the puppy. The next day it became clear that Wes really really wanted her so we went to look at the puppies. Of course that meant we were going to adopt her because I would obviously fall in love with her. We put down a deposit and she is ours. She will be getting her shots this Tuesday, May 25 (also mine and Wes' dating anniversary) and we might be able to get her after that. We are really excited and can't wait to bring her home. Wes has already gotten her food and water bowls, puppy food, a harness and leash and toys. He is super excited! Below are some pictures of our little Stella.

Stella sleeping on her brother.

Me holding Stella

Two sisters and their little brown brother

Three cute pups!

Stella and her sister

We are certainly in for an adventure training this puppy and integrating her into our family, but we are very excited and (sort of) ready for the challenge!

Hand, Foot and Mouth- Oh My!

This week has been quite eventful (read crazy and exhausting). Monday morning Carter went off to school feeling and acting absolutely fine. We got a call in the early afternoon that he was a little warm (about 100.5) and acting lethargic. Wes went to pick him up and took him to the pediatrician, as we are fairly paranoid (ok I am fairly paranoid) about the fluid behind his ear and him developing an ear infection. After examining him and finally looking into his mouth, the doctor declared that Carter had hand, foot and mouth disease. He only had a fever once and the sores remained only in his throat. The sores tend to spread to other parts of the body, mostly hands and feet, in younger babies and toddlers because they tend to put their hands and feet in their mouth and then touch other parts of their body, which spreads the sores. Since it is a viral illness there is no medication to treat it. Just treat the symptoms. Of course HFMD is highly contagious. Translation: Owen is going to soon have HFMD also. Owen had a routine follow-up ear check at the pediatrician on Thursday to make sure that the ear infection that he had two weeks ago was gone. He had been extremely fussy so I was worried that the ear infection had lingered or he was starting to exhibit symptoms of HFMD. The pediatrician (not the one we normally see, his partner) examined him and said that he was fine. Fussiness was chalked up to teething. Last night at around 10 Owen woke up screaming with at 101.9 degree fever. This morning Wes looked into his throat with a flashlight and discovered... you guessed it, white spots. Owen now also has HFMD. Here's hoping that his sores don't spread either and it is short-lived.

We Should Do This More Often...

Meaning that I should write blog posts so you can read 'em. I can't believe it has been so long since I have posted. A lot has been going on and I've just felt too emotional to write. Usually writing is a great outlet for me, but I have come to realize that sometimes it isn't the appropriate outlet. That being said, I'm back. I'd say a bullet-point style update on all members of the family is in order.

Wes:

- He is training for a tri-athalon. He is a runner and has completed a marathon, so that part shouldn't be a problem. Next he started biking, but that doesn't come as naturally to him as running. Swimming. That is the part making him nervous. He has improved a lot since starting his practice at the Y, but still finds it the most difficult aspect. I can't do any of it well so I'm impressed already.

- He has had some changes at work. Confusing and difficult to explain. Basically he is now helping to manage 4 companies instead of just 1. Same job, same goals, just a bit of reorganization. Also, he is the owner of one of the companies. I am very proud of him.

Dara:

- As you may know I have had chronic kidney stones since I was pregnant with Owen. My most recent battle with my kidney has been going on for about 6 months now. I had quite a few tests ordered by my urologist. He found something minor, but nothing that really explained the stones. He referred me to a nephrologist. At my second visit I was told that my citrate level was dangerously low. Normal people should produce 600-750 mg/day and my level was 124 mg/day. He put me on a medication to hopefully increase my citrate level. It is a powder/crystal substance that I have to stir into 6 oz. of water and drink once a day. It is gross and makes me very nauseous. As of right now I am passing another stone and in a great deal of pain. The problem with the citrate deficiency is that it alone causes kidney pain when the level is so low because my kidney is working way too hard to do its job. Citrate is an element in the kidneys that is supposed to bind to waste and help remove it from the body. Since I don't have enough of it, my kidney is essentially trying to use what it does have to remove waste. The result is pain and the formation of kidney stones. I have a follow-up appointment with my nephrologist on Wednesday. I have lots of questions for him.

- I am starting back to work part-time on Monday. I am so not ready. I set the date maybe a month or so ago and now it is almost here. I will be going back to the same job I had before Owen was born. It is nice to have the flexibility to start out part time and very nice that I will be working with family. I went back to work half days after my maternity leave after Owen was born, but quickly realized that it wasn't going to work out. Owen was so sick and his health care was a full time job. I am so lucky that my mom is going to be watching him. He is doing well, but I still have so many issues myself with him having been so ill. We all went through so much and it is just not something that is easy to get over. I trust my mom implicitly. She loves him and he loves being with her. Most importantly, she knows what happened to him and what dangerous signs to look for. I don't expect that anything will happen, but if it did she would be about as likely to know it as me. My boys and I are very lucky to have her. Even still, it is going to be so hard for me to leave him. This is a huge life change and I don't do so well with change.

Carter:

- A few months ago he had his regular appointment with the ENT. The doctor found that he had 60% fluid behind his right ear, which is the one that the ear tube has fallen out of. The doctor thought it may be as a result of allergies and put him on an allergy/decongestant medicine. He was on that for a month and just recently had his follow-up visit. He had a sinus infection, which we had no idea about because Carter very rarely acts sick. His nose had been runny, but we attributed it to allergies since he had no fever, wasn't acting any differently and hadn't complained of not feeling well. When the doctor examined his ears, he still had at least 60% fluid in the right ear, if not more. Off to the Audiology department he went for a hearing test, which he passed with flying colors. All of the results were above normal. The doctor told us to discontinue the allergy/decongestant medication since it didn't seem to make a difference. Since his hearing is fine all we do now is wait and hope that ear doesn't get infected. If he starts having infections again, or if he gets a really bad infection he will need to have another tube placed. The doctor said if that occurs they will also take his adenoids out at that time. I am praying we don't end up going down that road.

- Carter had an ongoing issue with one of the other boys in his class at school. He has known this boy for a long time, as he went to the last school Carter went to as well. This child, we'll call him Joe, used to be the quietest little thing. I think while Carter was at the last school I heard Joe talk maybe twice. Fast forward to the past month and Carter started coming home telling us that Joe was saying bad words at school. I talked to the teacher, director and owner about it. Sure enough, just about everyday Joe was swearing. Mainly words beginning with F and D. Carter repeated each of the words once, not knowing what they meant and not even knowing they were bad words because he had never heard them before. The F word was repeated early on on the playground. It happened right before I picked Carter up from school. When his teacher told me what he had said I almost fell over. I had no idea where he had heard that word. I was appalled. First of all that my son, my four year old son had said that word and secondly because I was thinking "oh no, this teacher thinks we talk to him like that." Luckily she had heard Joe say the word on the playground and Carter repeated it right afterward. Mystery solved. Carter was disciplined. I explained to him that we never used that word, it is a very bad word, etc. I explained further that he knows a lot of good words and he should use those words to express himself. I also told him that he should never say a word if he doesn't know what it means because it might be a bad word. Problem solved, right? Wrong. For a while he came home telling us that Joe had said bad words that day. Each time I told him that those words were very bad and that when Joe talks like that Carter should tell him he doesn't like it and walk away. One morning at home he had asked Wes for something and Wes said no. Carter started to have a tantrum, which included the use of the D word. Again he was punished and again we explained why we don't talk that way. Also, I marched into school that morning on a mission. I was not going to have Joe bullying my child and I did not want my child going to school (a private preschool that I pay for him to attend) everyday and hearing that kind of language. If I don't talk to him that way at home I certainly don't want him hearing it at school. The situation escalated. When the school had a conference with Joe's parents they seemingly had no idea where he had heard such language. Right. It didn't stop after the conference and as of the beginning of this week Joe was removed from the school, allegedly through mutual agreement between the parents and the school. I don't really care how it happened, I'm just glad that Carter isn't having to deal with it anymore. I also feel bad for Joe. He is also only 4. He is learning that behavior from somewhere and it makes me sad. It really is a shame that some kids grow up in environments where molding them into strong, healthy, happy individuals is not a priority.

- Carter will be moving to the pre-K class at school somewhere around the end of June/beginning of July. We are very excited and think it is going to be really good for him. I can't believe in just over a year he will be off to Kindergarten. My baby is growing up so fast!

Owen:

- What can I say, Owen is Owen. He will be 21 months old at the end of this month. Health-wise he is doing great. We have no specialist appointments until September. He is very active, running around after his brother, climbing everything in sight. He is funny. He loves to make people smile and laugh. His speech has exploded. He has so many words and is saying new ones every day. He will repeat anything on command. He loves to be read to as well as to look at books on his own.

- He is a bit of a picky eater. Well maybe that is too harsh. I remember Carter going through a stage around this age where he was not as willing to try new foods. Owen usually will eat either a really good lunch and then a mediocre dinner or vice versa. He also doesn't have all of his teeth yet, so if his teeth are bothering him he is more likely to be picky. We are working on it. He is gaining weight, so no problem there. The pediatrician is not at all concerned and sees it as a phase.

- Owen is going to be 2 at the end of the summer! How in the world did that happen?!?

Thank you for reading. I am back in the game and am going to be a better blogger, I promise!