Monday, April 16, 2012

We Got It!


The earnest money has been dropped off and the paperwork signed. Now we just have to wait 20 to 30 days for closing to take place. I am not going to post a picture of the house until after we close. Just being superstitious or paranoid I guess but still with the market the way it is out here right now I don't want to jinx anything before our names are officially on the closing papers and we have the house keys in hand. Glen and I are once again home owners.

I can say that the house is approx. 3000 square feet if you count the garage and it sits on a big lot (unusual for out here).

Wish us luck and a speedy closing.

Lori





Saturday, April 14, 2012

Belated Easter Egg Dying and Other Tidbits

Norah loves dying Easter eggs.
 I need to go scoop up some more egg dying packets while they are on discount. Usually if we are going to boil eggs we go ahead and let her dye them no matter what time of year it is.
There have been no repeats in the seizure department. We did start her on some supplemental vitamin D and she has been getting Tylenol most nights before she goes to bed, just as a precautionary measure. She already gets a multivitamin and fiber gummies each day. Her bed is still in our room pushed up against ours. It will most likely remain there till she's 30. We are being very careful with bath times and do not ever leave her in a room by herself. We have an appointment for Monday at the neurologist. Hopefully they can let us know if this was a one time thing that really is not explainable OR that she has epilepsy and we can get her started on whatever medication that she needs to make sure we control it to the best of our ability.
We have put in a bid on another house. It is HUGE y'all! It is also an excellent price per square foot for this part of the country. The owners are meeting with their real estate agent tomorrow and we should know by noon or 1 if they have accepted our offer. Poor Glen had to go look at the house and make the offer by his self as I was at work and could not get off. I got to actually look inside the house today because they were having an estate sale. He did a great job. We bought a little table and chairs for Norah from the sale. They were perfect for her and Glen thought that it would be neat if we get the house to have something from its previous owners in there with us. From what we know of them they were good people that loved their children. Kind of a nice thing to know about the place we might be raising our child in. Good energy or karma or what ever you want to call it. I am all for it.
In other news I am being trained to be charge nurse so that the regular charge nurse can have a day off once in a while. I was on my own Friday. Things went well but it was hectic. We only had two rooms going and I was still making endless phone calls trying to juggle patients and surgeons. Someone would run late, which throws off the whole schedule of things, especially when you have many different surgeons working one right after the other in the same OR. It all worked out in the end and even though it made my brain hurt i think I may kind of like it. Now it's just a matter of learning more about who usually runs late, who prefers to work with whom, who I can trust with very little supervision to do what needs to be done and who I need to constantly check up on and give instructions to. I received lots of good feedback from staff and physicians. That means a lot to me. I want to make sure that they can count on work being a good place to go not a drudgery. We may work our butts off but we can have fun, get along and help each other out at the same time.
 I should have used all mason jars for the egg dying. They seem to work the best.
 This was her favorite egg. Pink! I am shocked!
 She was telling me about the colors of her eggs here. We are starting to notice her saying more words that Glen and I can understand without her having to sign them. There are even some that we can understand with our backs turned to her. YEAH! Progress!
 Careful sister, those eggs are hot.
 We had to add a little glitter of course.

Glen made this one. Hahahahaha!





 

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

SAM and Easter crafts Part 1



Norah is doing well. We are still trying to get into the First Time seizure Clinic at Children's Hospital. Apparently they don't consider it as big a deal as we do. I hope everyone had a Happy Easter. We had lots of fun this last weekend before and after Norah's event.


 We made some Easter bunny crafts.
 Saw a BBQ truck shaped like a giant metal pig with sunglasses on.
 Went to the Seattle Art Museum on Thursday. The first Thursday of the month here is known as "Free Thursday" A group of the museums and other attractions have free admission on that day. Yeah! We love free.
 They had cars hanging from the ceiling.

 Cool masks.
 The alligator one in the back has an umbrella hat on.


These things are called the Catepillar Men. This is an acurate representation of my personality when I don't get enough sleep.
 
More to come.
 
Lori

SAM Part 2

More from our day at SAM (Seattle Art Museum).

 Doesn't it look like she or he is serving up a tray with some candy peeps on it. Have I mentioned that peeps are my favorite Easter treat. Especially if they have been in the freezer.
 This isn't a very good picture focus wise but I love the light that was coming in through this window.
 Glen and Norah being art critics. Really? This is art.
 They had a room where they were playing music. Vinyl record music.
 This HUGE rat is sitting on a guy who is in bed. I'm not sure what it is supposed to represent but it's pretty funny and interesting to look at.
 This was made out of a whole lot of what we thought of as dog tags. Each had a name on it.

 This guy was toiling away.
 Rat booty!
 Cardboard boxes hung on a wall. Art? or the symbols of someone being a genius to get a grant to hang dirty cardboard up on a museum wall as art? Hmmmm? I wonder.
 Hey, We know that guy. Pretty sure he didn't wear lipstick.


Lori

Friday, April 06, 2012

Not Your Typical Friday



This morning I was awoken by Glen yelling that Norah was having a seizure. He had heard her make a really guttural sound and went to check on her only to find her face down in our bed in the middle of a tonic clonic seizure. It only lasted about 2 minutes but was the scariest thing that I have ever seen. Seeing people rolling into the OR with their chest cut open and someone massaging the heart isn't scary to me. Seeing Norah have a seizure scared me to death. Glen and I are both still, even late tonight a little shaky. We called EMS, they were here in under 2 minutes (; . By the time they got here Norah was breathing again but was exhausted and not very responsive at all. They checked her out said that they could take her to children's hospital or we could stay home or take her to children's in the car. We opted for us taking her in the car. There was no way, with her other issues, either one of us was going to be happy at all until a doctor checked her out. We put a sweater on her, grabbed some extra clothes and took off for the hospital. They got us right in and gave her the once over. You could actually see her coming back around out of the seizure. At first she was really groggy and not super responsive. She just layed there in my lap and stared at the TV. By the time they discharged her she was climbing up over my shoulders, pulling on my hair and doing her usual constant level of vocalization. She continued to improve all day, ate lunch like she was a farm hand, and played hard till bedtime. She has no idea what happened because she started seizing in her sleep and didn't wake up till we were on our way to the hospital. They aren't sure if the seizure was brought on by fever since she has not had any cold symptoms recently but she still got a dose of Tylenol before sending her off to bed (which is now pushed up against our bed, just in case) for the first of what looks like will be the usual 102 times before she actually goes to sleep. Follow up will be in about 3 to 4 weeks probably.
We can't even fathom what life without Norah with us would be like but today sure did bring up a lot of "what ifs". We are very fortunate that it turned out as good as it did. I hope to NEVER see that again.
Big thank you to Melissa! You are always the calm voice of reason and experience. Love you.

Lori

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Roman



Did someone say tuna?

Sunday, April 01, 2012

April first - headlights, doughnuts and mermaids


Two posts in two days! Wow! I'm impressed.

Norah loves wearing this headlight around the house. She goes around blinding everyone. Its like being under interogation by an incredibly cute investigator.



 Since Norah is going to be on spring break this week we made a trip to the craft store and bought supplies to make several things this week to help keep her entertained. Yesterdays craft was clothes pin mermaids.

 This morning Glen went out and got doughnuts for breakfast. He found these super cute bunny doughnuts.
 
In other news... we found another house to go look at. We will not know for sure if it meets our needs till we can get inside and snoop around. The lots here are so small and mostly on hills, which makes them seem even smaller. It is however close to Norah's school and my work so we may have to make some concessions on lot size, especially since with gas prices the way they are it costs 100.00 to fill up the truck.
 
Lori

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Grandparents/Special Person Day

Friday was Grandparents/Special person day at Norah's school. Since Norah's Nana and Popi are back in Arkansas, Glen and I stood in for them to represent our girl. Nana and Popi did send Norah the beautiful blue shirt that she has on (sorry Nana it is still to cold here for the flip flops) and they also sent some money for Norah to buy something at the schools bake sale. We made Norah a lanyard with a picture of Nana and Popi on one side and Boo on the other. She loved it. She had to show everyone and talk about her Nana, Popi and Boo.


 We made milk jugs into catchers to play ball with.

 Now we are on spring break for the next week. Yeah!
By the way squirrels like Bugles! FYI

Also we did not get the bid on the house. ); So we are still looking. Glen is driving me nutty about not getting that house. If I had known what the aftermath would be I would have offered whatever it took to buy it. Pray for me to retain what little sanity I have left. Don't worry about Glen's he lost all of his long ago.

Lori



Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Waiting.....sort of patiently


Still no word on the house offer. We were supposed to hear one way or the other today. Hopefully tomorrow.

Lori






Sunday, March 18, 2012

Tooth Drama





Norah has lost another tooth! Well....Norah pulled her loose tooth out at midnight last Wednesday while she was up roaming the apartment as usual (see any of the many posts about Norah's sleeping habits) and proceeded to scream bloody murder for an hour (Sorry neighbors ): ) until we could get her calmed down and convinced that she was actually ok. She has already lost two teeth so I am not quite sure why this one tiny little tooth created such drama as to rival the Kardashian wedding fiasco. By morning she was fine, even wanting to show everyone at school her newly missing tooth. Her parents on the other hand were exhausted as usual (once again see any post about Norah's sleeping habits).

In other exciting news. We have put in an offer on a house here. We will not know until after Tuesday if it will be accepted by the bank (the home is a forclosure) but we made what we feel is a good solid offer. The location is perfect for Norah. It is the last house on a dead end road and can eventually be completely fenced in so that Norah can have the freedom to roam the grounds at will, without having traffic nearby to worry about. There also seems to be enough square footage so that we can all spread out. This apartment is really a pain in the butt. We are constantly bumping into each other and I can not remember the last time that I have showered or used the facilities without an audience. I don't know how goldfish do it. Being constantly on display sucks rotten eggs.

Wish us luck.

Lori



Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Trips


We have been traveling here lately. We all went back to Arkansas to see family and friends and take care of some business. We still have not found people and services here to replace all of those back home. Those relationships took us 20 years to cultivate and we came to rely on them heavily as it turns out.
It was so nice to see my parents, my brother and his wife and Boo and Jess. Norah was so happy to see everyone and even forgot her usual sibling rivalry with Boo for the time we were there and just wanted to hang out and play with him.
We also got to visit with my friends from work. I REALLY miss them.
The trip, although short, really took its toll on both Glen and I. We have been fighting fatigue and almost mono type symptoms since we got back to Seattle. Apparently we caught some kind of bug at some point. Hopefully it will pass soon. Norah was not affected, thank goodness. Although the day after we returned home Norah came running out of the bathroom and tripped smacking her face on the door frame of the bedroom. She ended up with a bump on her forehead, a bruise on her nose and a nose bleed. She also slightly sprained her wrist while trying to catch herself. Luckily none of her injuries were serious and she is just fine now.
We are still looking at houses in our area. Just starting to get an idea of what is available. We are still working on saving our down payment and should be ready to get pre-approval by June or July. Glen and I always try to be cautious when it comes to financial matters or big decisions ad buying a house out here is a major one.

 Norah, Me and Mom
 Boo and Norah
 Norah and Aiden (friends from Arkansas)
 Boo and Norah watching TV together.
Another one of Norah's many do-it-herself outfits. To Funny!
 
 
Lori

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Lazy Saturday



Not really much going on today. We walked a couple blocks over to look at a house that has recently come up for sale. Then over to Starbucks to get some crack, also known as the Venti Chi Tea Latte with 2 pumps of pumpkin spice. Norah has been playing with her toys, Glen made fajitas for linner (lunch and dinner) and we both managed to get a short nap. Seems like it is turning out to be a pretty good day. Here are some random photos from recently around here.


 "Fashion Disaster" day at school. Norah was not real sure about leaving the house dressed like this.

 Norah showing off her outfit she picked out and that she did her own hair. I think she used a half a bottle of conditioner to slick it back.


Lori