Playing Trick or Treat

This year (as in all years), our kids dressed up for Halloween in whatever costumes we could get handed down for free.  We had a mighty Clemson football player:

And an adorable sweet little monster girl:

We figured after our quick road trip last night, and the sheer amount of work we have to do in the next week to get our house on the market, that this would be a good year to opt out of the traditional trick-or treating schedule.  So this afternoon, we took the kids to our church for a youth-run fall festival.  And the kids loved it.

There were a bunch of games that Nathan could play (and he played all of them, a couple of times each) -- bowling with a tennis ball into water bottles, fishing for prizes over a wall, a wheel of fortune type game, some swimming rubber ducks to choose for prizes, etc.  They also had a jar of skittles, and the kids could guess how many were inside.

He insisted there were "S" skittles inside.
Clearly we need to work on the difference between letters and numbers.

Also, since he wasn't a fan of wearing his helmet, we let him get his hair spray-painted orange.  We'll see if that comes out sooner or later than the marker we took to his cheeks to give him some football player eyeblack.  Oh yeah.  Parents of the year what.

Anneliese got lots of compliments and hugs for her adorable monsterousness and bright blue eyes.  She modeled Nathan's football helmet, pretended to eat some still-wrapped candy, and got her face painted to girly up her outfit a bit.

But the best part was getting to go to everyone's car trunks and say trick or treat to get candy.  Nathan considered this one of the games, and he kept asking to go play trick or treat again.  :)  So on the way home, we made two stops at friends' houses and let him "play" trick or treat with them too. 

Happy Halloween from our star football player and our little monster!

For more pictures of Halloween, click on Nathan and his new flashlight, below.

by mgoetts

Goodbye Sucktober

Not gonna lie, this has been one of the hardest months of my life.  The last few weeks have been dark and frustrating and overwhelming for me.  We have been hemorrhaging money, close to seven grand in just insurance deductibles -- between the robbery, the toilet flood, and Anneliese's hospitalization -- although the vast majority of that is medical and will come out of our healthcare savings account, which thankfully is well-funded.  But still, I've just been feeling like I can't get my head above water.  Simple things overwhelm me, and things that should only be minor irritants have been pushing me to tears.  The only real non-sucky thing to happen this month was Anneliese's turning one, but even that was a little bittersweet for me (and also, if you'll recall, happened amongst a flood of tears). 

So basically we've started referring to this past month as Sucktober, and we won't be sad to see it go.  But it's now the 30th, and things finally seem to be on the upswing:

Our home repairs are imminent. After a bajillion phone calls between us, insurance adjusters, and multiple sets of contractors and repairmen, the damage caused by our toilet flood is finally scheduled to happen this week, and by next weekend we should have more than one real bed in our house, and have access to more than one potty.  It's going to rock.

They got the bad guys who robbed our house.  Despite that, it looks like the stuff they stole won't be recovered.  But, again... it's just stuff. We're replacing it slowly but surely (thank you insurance), and the burglars are having their days in court.  I toyed around with going, but decided that looking the punks in the eye wouldn't help me stop picturing strange thugs rifling through my house and my stuff, or give me any closure.  So, we decided to let our written report stand as our victim testimony instead.  Even without the recovered property, I'm glad they got caught -- I hope it means they're less likely to try to steal from someone again.

Anneliese is healthy.  She's had a fussy few weeks, but whatever virus so severely dehydrated her seems to be gone.  And all the rest of that stuff is just trite details compared to having a healthy baby.

The BIG news: we made an offer on a new home yesterday!!  The new house is beautiful, on a whole acre of land (a whole acre! still close to Raleigh! this is a very big deal for me), and the layout is maybe even better for our family than what we have now (something I had been worried about having to compromise on).  It's a short-sale, which means the sellers have it listed for less than what they owe on it.  So the seller has accepted our offer, but we still need their bank to approve it, which could take a couple of months.  But we're cautiously optimistic that this could be THE house (hence, going blog public about it) and we're very very excited to get our hands on it, renovate the crap out of it, and make it our new home.

I'm going to be thirty in two days, and I'm going to celebrate it tonight!  My awesome-of-awesomest sister planned a birthday dinner and celebration for me in Charlotte, and a whole host of my favorite people will be there to help me ring out Sucktober and ring in a new decade.  Update 10/31: So, clearly I didn't finish this blog post yesterday.  But we celebrated!  And it was fun! 

No, really, my sister is awesomer than yours.

We managed to laugh, drink, sing, and set off a smoke alarm at my mom's house, see a terrible/amusing movie at the best theater I have ever been to (also a bar and a dance club!), get evacuated out of the epicentre due to what we think was a fire alarm (let the record show: Ashley chugged Mark's beer on the way out of the theater, and John had to stop and poop #classymatchmadeinheaven), and got to check out lots of inappropriate costumes while drinking mystery beers in downtown Charlotte.

Two of my favorite guys -- Mark (duh) and David

It wasn't nearly as insane as this paragraph makes it sound, but it was a great fun night with lots of laughing and general merriment.

So there, Sucktober.  Peace, out.

Sound of Music Week

I might have mentioned once or twice that I kind of like The Sound of Music.*  And by kind of like, I obviously mean it's the best movie ever made of all time, ever.  I won't enumerate the reasons now, because that's a blog post that might never end.  Suffice it to say, it's awesome and amazing in plot, writing, music, scenery and life-alteringness.  True story.

Anyway, this week I have been in my Sound of Music happy place.  (No, unfortunately not Salzburg.  Although I have made that pilgrimage, don't worry.  Maybe more than once. And maybe my sister and I reenacted the majority of the Do Re Mi montage in various places around the city while making Mark take pictures of us. Maybe.)

On Tuesday, Mark took me on a date to see the movie... in the movie theater.  It was digitally remastered and it looked and sounded beautiful on the big screen.  I watched it for the first time in HD on television a few months ago, and even then, at home, I saw things I had never seen before.  But on the big screen?  Oh wow.  Just... wow.  And even though before this week I would have sworn nothing sounds better than Julie Andrews singing a song (what sounds better than Julie Andrews? I mean really), but it turns out Julie Andrews in surround sound makes her even awesomer.  It had been a long time since I watched the movie from start to finish with no interruptions, and I loved it.  Such a good date. 

Mark was totally tolerant of my crying at the sweet parts.

Then yesterday, as no less than fifteen people reminded me, the entire cast reunited on Oprah for the first time since the movie came out in 1965.  As promised, I had marked my calendar weeks and weeks ago, and informed my dvr, and watched it tonight.  It was awesome.  One of the fastest hours of tv I have watched in a long time (even with pausing for pizza refills. don't judge).  So cool to see the behind-the-scenes stuff.  So touching to hear Julie Andrews talk about her ordeals when she found out her vocal cords were permanently damaged.  So neat to hear about other fans' attachment to the movie.  So fun to hear the cast memories of filming it.  And is it just me, or is Christoper Plummer still kind of hott?  I loved it.

Another Nathan was totally tolerant of my crying at the sweet parts.

Ahhhh, Sound of Music.  I'll never quit you.  Never.

*I don't really need to link to that, do I?  Also, the imdb movie description makes it sound so lame!  They should go with my version: the best movie ever made of all time, ever.  I stand by that statement.

Nathan Loves Letters

Nathan's favorite thing to play with these days is a big bucket of foam bath letters.  (Which, incidentally, he outside of the bath.  Mostly because he doesn't bathe that often.  Conveniently, I currently have an excuse for that, since we are down from three bathrooms to one, and well... apparently going upstairs would be too hard?  Just go with it, ok?  The lack of kiddie bathtime is because of the flooding.  Really.*)

Anyway.  The letters.  Nathan loves these things. 

He likes to hold them up one at a time and ask what each one is, and what words they're for.  And he actually remembers a healthy handful of them!  N is for Nathan, A is for Anneliese, S is for sister, F is for Frank (one of his school friends), 3 is for Nathan is three, etc.

He thinks it's great fun when we spell out words and talk to him about what they say.  And he recognizes a few -- like his name.  (Yes, yes, we have moved beyond the days of only being able to spell Clemson.)  A few weeks ago, he and Another Nathan spent one evening playing some version of word scramble that kept him both of them amused for close to an hour.  And then he latched on to the game for the forseeable future, apparently.

I maked a really big word! Does it say Another Nathan?!

Maybe when the house remodels/repairs are done and we have our other bathrooms back, we will take lots more baths** and Nathan will practice his spelling in the tub instead.  And maybe we'll find the bucket these letters originally came in so that  our children can end their love affair with the cardboard box*** already.  Maybe.

*Not really.
**Probably not.
***Definitely not.

Why I Secretly Love Mondays

It's Monday.  I secretly love Mondays. 

Don't hate me, all you people out there with real* jobs, ok? I remember what that was like and I promise I didn't hate Mondays when I was in those shoes either.  Sometimes the weekends feel too short, and I get that.  But there's a whole host of reasons Mondays are awesome and make me feel happy:

1.) A fresh start.  Who doesn't love a fresh start?  I feel so optimistic on Mondays, like this is the week I will get dinner made at a reasonable hour every night, my house will stay somewhat straight, and we won't run out of clean underwear before I get to the laundry.  Mondays are breeding grounds for optimism.  True story.

2.) New groceries.  (When I actually get to the store on Monday mornings, that is.  I'm getting better at it.) A fully-stocked kitchen is fun.  All the options for dinners this week listed on our fridge whiteboard are still available for the making.  Also, the oreos aren't gone yet.  Oreos = Monday WIN.

3.) Handbells.  Brace yourself: nerd alert!  I have bell rehearsals on Monday nights, and I secretly love bells.  More than I want to admit.  Music is fun.  The people in bell choir are fun.  Bells make me happy.

4.) Oh, the lists.  Mondays are when I sit down and figure out everything I'm going to get done in the week.  And I make lots of lists: a list for each day, then sub-lists for things like groceries and cleaning (and reasons I love Mondays, duh).  And I'm naive optimistic enough (see #1) to believe that everything on those to-do lists will get crossed off.

5.) Spiritually content.  After worship on Sundays, I am almost always happier and relaxed and feeling less selfish than I was beforehand, and it definitely lingers into most Monday mornings.  Feeling close to God, and happily loving the people around me -- that's a good way to start the week.

6.) Snuggles from Anneliese.  Because Nathan is in preschool on Mondays, it's one of my mommy-daughter mornings.  Today I waited til after I dropped Nathan at school to do Anneliese's morning nursing, and we sat and rocked and giggled and cuddled for almost an hour.  Nonproductive?  Sure.  But totally worth it.  (And did you miss the part where non-productivity doesn't bother me as much on Monday mornings?  Optimistic about getting stuff done, remember?) 

Mondays are prettier with Anneliese :)


7.) Still almost a week until football again. The moods in our house are somewhat (ahem) reliant on how Clemson plays on Saturday.  That W or L has a larger-than-appropriate effect on Mark's mental state.  If they win, Monday is still very much a high day, and it will last until Friday at least.  If they lose, most of the really bad grumpiness has worn off, and he's in a healing process -- still frustrated, but starting to look towards next week's game.  Which is still lots and lots of days away.

8.) Classwork.  I am taking a theology/doctrine class on Tuesdays, and inevitably I am always behind in the assigned daily work after the weekend, so lots of Monday afternoons are spent reading and studying.  Which, since I don't have to do it (unlike college), is actually kind of fun.  It doesn't hurt that I really like the class, I'm learning a ton, and there are lots of really bright people who make the discussions really great.  Basically studying on Mondays makes me feel smart, not gonna lie.

9.) Family dinners.  It doesn't always happen, because of Mark's work schedule (read: my occasional housewifery slackness), but Mondays are one of the nights when our evening activities (bells! I love bells!) start late enough that we can have dinner together as a family first.  So usually we can sit down and eat and talk.  These days, that mostly means talking to and about Nathan.  But I'll take it, because having my whole family sitting down together to share a meal just makes me really happy.

10.) Google reader is chock full o' goodies!  Not that many people post over the weekend, and I do catch a healthy handful of updates on my phone, but there is still lots of good stuff to read on Mondays mornings.  I love sitting down to catch up on all the cheesy celebrity gossip and updates from my friends' blogs about their weekends.

And this Monday, today, is special (special? or something) because it marks the beginning of the last week of my twenties.  One week from today, I'll be thirty!  Which kind of makes me feel old, but probably makes my mom and dad feel even older, so I'm ok with it.  :)

Happy Monday!

*{Insert comments here about how being a stay-at-home-mom home executive is a real job, yada yada yada I KNOW.}

Daily Daddy

Mark likes to take afternoon naps.  Wait, I didn't say that emphatically enough.  Take two: Mark really and truly loves and shamelessly adores afternoon naps.  Really.  And truly.

When he's not working, he tends to spend the kids' naptime napping himself.  To which I say, more power to him.  (Did I mention it makes him really happy?)

Last week he fell asleep on the couch and all the, um... technology there on his tummy made me laugh.  We can't unleash ourselves, even for naptime, apparently. :)

Your daily Mark: Naptime! (Not just for kids anymore.)

PS - Those jeans! Those hips! This daddy is hott!

Or We'll Take Away Your Papers

And falling squarely under the heading of "sentences I never though I'd utter" is the most recent of odd parenting statements in our household:

Ok Nathan, it's time to go night-night.  Do good sleeping. No crying.  If you cry, we'll have to come take away your papers.

Yeeeeah.

Nathan went to the Lazy Five Ranch when he spent the weekend with Grandma (when Anneliese was in the hospital) a few weeks ago.  He came home with some brochures he's been very attached to.  Like, I want to *snuggle* with those papers very-attached. 

So, he's been snuggling with his papers.  Unless he has one of the night tantrums we've been dealing with of late, in which case... we take away his papers and he doesn't snuggle with them.

early-morning Nathan... snuggling with his papers

We didn't realize how crazy no crying, or I'll have to take away your papers sounds until we had a few non-parents around at bedtime to point out that our family is nuts.  (And if anyone out there has suggestions for how to end our pattern of night tantrums besides taking our child's papers away, we're open to help.)

My New Fair Favorites

It's state fair time again!  I love the fair, in all its cheesy redneckity glory.  And today I found a whole host of new reasons to love it.

My new favorite...

...Animal to listen to Nathan talk about:

Patches! (His first pony ride!)

...Reason to love my Medela breast pump:

it's not *quite* this industrial

...Way to pamper a cow: 

haircut *and* a blow dry

...Freebie giveaway booth:

trashy romance novels... oh  yes, they went there

...Way to spell colossal:

Why are fairs such breeding grounds for terrible English?

...Kids game to be jealous of because it doesn't exist for adults:

Seriously, how awesome and fun does that look?



...Kiddie-ride face caught on camera:

half terrified, half enthralled

...Daddy-daughter midway picture:

...Treat to share with Nathan:

fried snickers -- last year he wouldn't come near it

For more pictures of our morning at the fair, click on Nathan and Daddy with the helicopter* below.

by mgoetts

*Don't say helicopter, Mommy, say police helicopter!

Fall For Anneliese

In case you haven't gotten enough of Anneliese yet this week, here she on the golf course. Which Mark and the kids frequently commandeer as our own backyard in the evening hours.  Which makes for pretty pictures (remember Nathan?)... especially in fall.

Your daily Anneliese -- golfer chic

(Well, as fall as it can be when it's still warm enough to go pantsless.  And the leaves haven't yet changed.  Ok, ok, check back again in a month for fall pictures.)

Birthday Celebration

Ok. So I know Anneliese's birthday was almost a week ago, and I still haven't posted any pictures or proof that we celebrated in any way.  But we did.  We totally did!  I just didn't have pictures until very very recently* (have I mentioned our camera is broken in the last five minutes?)...

Our friends again-heroes the Chamblees let us have a little gathering at their house (since ours is still a huge distaster) to have some cake and celebrate Anneliese's turning  a year old.  Nick and Barbara came too, and so did Another Nathan.  And even though Anneliese was fussy and unhappy for lots of the evening (she still wasn't back to her normal sunny self after being in the hospital last weekend), everyone just took it in stride and loved on our birthday girl anyway.

This picture pretty exactly captures how Anneliese felt about her birthday cake (although she did eat a little when I fed it to her off a fork later):

And this picture pretty exactly captures how Nathan felt about getting some birthday cake (you can see exactly how Anneliese feels about a sippy cup of cow's milk there in the background):

She did find a few real smiles when Mary and Hayes pushed her in the swing in their backyard:

And she perked up substantially the next day when Nathan helped her open a few presents (that frog she's holding is Hattie.  We already love Hattie):

It was a simple and easy (minus the crying) celebration, with the handful of people who are most important to us here in Raleigh -- they're really our family here.  So glad they were all on hand to help us celebrate our little lady.  They made us feel so loved (as always).

Happy Birthday, baby girl. In twenty years, it will be hilarious that you screamed about your cake instead of making a huge mess gobbling it up.  I promise.

For more pictures of Anneliese's birthday, click on the birthday girl in the swing, below.

by mgoetts

*And many many thanks to Mary and Another Nathan for capturing my daughter's first birthday celebration on camera.  :)

Playtime at the Landfill

We found kind of a fun little park and playground a few weeks ago.  I say "kind of" because... it's at a landfill.  Weird? 

And it's not sort of in the vicinity of the landfill.  It's at the landfill.  You have to drive around the landfill (all the way around) to get to the playground.  As you're playing, there's a huge hill behind you that is... the landfill.

I was trying not to be grossed out, because the playground is clean and new and has fun things like a kiddie rock-climbing wall, a big maze of ropes, and a bunch of slides and swings.  Pretty much everything I would have wanted in a playground when I was a kid.  (Plus mommy bonuses like picnic tables, lots of benches, and a clean place to potty.)  But really, it's still... at a landfill.

(Can you tell I'm having a little trouble getting past the landfill thing?)

Our tall girl, swinging... at the landfill

The kids didn't seem to care, though.  They had fun swinging and climbing (well, in the case of Anneliese, eating mulch while watching Nathan climb).  They went down the twin slides together (so stinkin' cute).  And they made a huge racket on this big musical wall (one of the cooler things at the playground, in my completely dork-biased opinion).  There were drums on one side, and big bell spheres on the other (you just swing the metal music notes to hit them.. it's not quiet). 

Two future band geeks... at the landfill

We spent our whole time playing and picnicking, although Mark was pushing hard to climb to the top of the landfill and look over the edge.  There were signs pointing us to an observation trail of some sort.  Um, ew. I don't think I need to observe all of wake county's mountains of garbage.  We'll save that for next time (read: next time I'm not there).

But the kids had fun playing together, and we needed a good family evening away from the house (this was post-flood, pre-robbery).  Even if it was at the landfill.

Happy Things: Grocery Store Edition

Here's a post that will make a few of my friends (the gals of Chiles100) proud of me... Five things to be happy about yesterday while grocery shopping.

1.) Awesome parking space with non-gimpy grocery cart lingering nearby.

2.) Pumpkin and cranberries on sale -- Anneliese will be eating seasonal purees this week!

3.) My favorite (speedy, super-friendly) check-out lady...

4.) Who asked where my pretty baby was and said she missed seeing her sweet smile (bonus 4b: because I was shopping blissfully alone)...

5.) And then carded me for my adult beverage purchase (that's right, I'm young* and hott).

It's the small things, you know?

*Remember, I'm not thirty yet! (Still saying this as often as possible for two more weeks.)

Happy Sibliversary!

A year ago today, my two little ones met for the first time.  I clutched Anneliese close to me, for fear that Nathan wouldn't be gentle enough.  Nathan gave her a slobbery kiss, then proclaimed it's dirty. Good times, good times. 

I was so worried about how they would take to each other.

I needn't have worried.

Now they're hardcore besties, experts at playing together, and know how to communicate with each other better than any of the rest of us can do with either one of them.  I love hearing Nathan babbling along in Anneliese's language.  I love the way he can coax a giggle out of her when everything else is making her grumpy.  I love the way her eyes and head follow him across the room, staring in adoration as he explains his trucks or his books or whatever pearls of wisdom he sees fit to share with her in that moment.  I roll my eyes when we're in the car and he tells me "no Mommy, I talking to Anneliese," but secretly I love that too.

One of the biggest surprises for me in parenting two children is how happy seeing them together makes me.  I can't... I just... oh man I love them so much.

I hope they always treasure each other as much as they do today.  Or more.

Happy Birthday, Anneliese!

I can't believe our little lady is one!

Your daily Anneliese -- the birthday girl!



She was decidedly less sunny than this during her birthday festivities tonight, but that's ok. We'll have pictures from that celebration as soon as Some People (*cough*MaryAnotherNathan) share what they took on their (non-broken) cameras.  In the meantime, Mark and I have a birthday date, so happy birthday to Anneliese, and to all a good night. :)

Anneliese's First Year

This is the last day of the first year of Anneliese's life.  Right now my baby girl is snuggled down in her crib, and when she wakes up in the morning, she will be a one-year old. 

A year ago tonight, I was in labor.  And I would gladly do it over again (gladly! I had an epidural, remember?) if it meant I could re-live this first wonderful year with Anneliese.


(If you can't see the embedded video, click here to watch it on YouTube.)

Tomorrow starts her second year.  And I'm excited to see what it brings.

She's Secretly Wii-eally* Glad We Got Robbed

We're out of the hospital.  We're back in Raleigh.  We have a new computer (which, thanks to Mark's compulsive backing-up habits, already has access to all our pictures and files). 

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago (obviously) because I thought it was funny that Mark was trying to play wii while holding a baby.  Probably a daddy fail, but a funny one.

Your daily Anneliese -- I don't think she'll miss the wii.

Our sweet baby girl is doing much better.  Still feverish (now new and improved! with a rash!) but she's eating and drinking and peeing, so that's good enough for me today. 

Thanks for all the encouragement and prayers for Anneliese.  I'm so ready for her to get back to her sunny self (with or without the eye-rolling)!

*That pun's for you, Katie.  :)

Bad Things May Come in Threes, But Good Things Come in Tens

Because my week from hell wasn't hellish enough already, because God clearly thinks I can handle more than *I* think I can, and because bad things apparently really do happen in threes...

1.) Our house flooded.
2.) We got robbed.

and now...

3.) Anneliese got very sick and spent the weekend in the hospital.

I was planning to be in the Lake Norman area for a church retreat this weekend.  Anneliese hadn't been feeling great for a couple of days -- loose gross poops, fever, seemed puny -- but I assumed she was well enough to stay with Mark's mom as originally planned, even if I had to stay with her for the first night and go to the retreat a little late. 

But by the time I got to Huntersville on Friday afternoon to drop the kids off, Anneliese's fever was really high, she was refusing food and drink, and she hadn't managed to wet a diaper since that morning.  I took her to an urgent care, assuming it would be a quick earache diagnosis or something, pop some meds in her, and get on my way to the retreat. 

Um, no.  They sent us to the ER.

After lots of tests and swabs and several chest and belly x-rays (note: you do not want to know how they do chest x-rays on infants; it's horrifying), they pretty much determined she just has some kind of virus that took a lot out of her, and dehydrated her quite a bit.  She perked up substantially on some iv fluids, so we went home with instructions to follow up in the morning.  But Saturday morning her fever was still high and she was back to not eating/drinking, so the local pediatrician we saw wanted to admit her to the hospital.  I dug in my heels (stop rolling your eyes, you're not really surprised, are you?) and he agreed to give me a chance to hydrate her at home, even if it meant syringing fluids into her throat to get her to drink something (which I wasn't above trying).  But. When I did that, she threw it right back up.

Hydration FAIL. 

So, Anneliese was admitted to the peds unit.  And that's the story of how I spent my church retreat weekend in an out-of-town hospital with my sick baby.

I'm overwhelmed.  I feel like I reached the limit of what I could handle days ago, and this latest curveball has actually been the hardest one of all three.

There is something sad and horrible and heartbreaking about seeing your baby in a hospital gown, hooked up to tubing and machines, crying and miserable.  We went through this with Nathan, and I had hoped not to ever do it again. I might or might not have spent a chunk of the weekend crying right along with Anneliese. (Don't worry, I kept it together in front of the doctors and nurses and almost everyone else.)

But.  I'm sick of being stressed.

So because it's 10/10/10, I've decided that this whole bad things in threes thing is for the birds.  I hereby declare that good things happen in tens.  Hey universe! You don't like it?  Kiss this.

Ten Good Things About This Whole Crazy Mess:

1.) Anneliese is making good progress.  Last night when she cried real tears (as opposed to dry sobs) I was so happy I cried a little bit too.  Her fever has broken.  She wet through two diapers last night.  She has kept down several rounds of pedialyte.  As of this morning, she is sitting up on her own for short spells.  And she just ate her first solid meal in days (and then promptly fell asleep).

2.) Nathan is in good hands with Mark's mom, enjoying his weekend with Grandma.  In a way it's actually good that we're out of town, since I have been able to just concentrate on Anneliese, knowing that we already had full-time coverage for Nathan this whole time anyway.

3.) My dad has been a Godsend all weekend.  He was at the ER with Anneliese and me for hours on Friday night, has been running errands for us, and welcomed us to use his house as our home base.  He even showed up at the hospital this morning with Starbucks and his computer on loan to me for the day.  I promise you he had different plans for his weekend.

4.) I hate hospitals, but this one rocks.  I slept in a real bed last night, and now I'm sitting in a huge window seat (which could also convert to a bed if we needed it to), I have a lovely view of trees and the streets of downtown Huntersville, I have a fancy dvd player, mp3 docking station, big flat-screen tv, mini-fridge, on-demand room service, and easy wifi.  Between the hospital amenities and my dad's laptop, it's more than I'd have at home right now anyway.  (You know.  Because we got robbed.  Yeah, that.)

5.) Anneliese's foot IV is super.  Anneliese's right arm is bruised from the IV in the ER Friday night, but using her left arm was a last resort since she needs to suck that thumb for soothing purposes.  So two very patient nurses made three attempts (and called in the help of a nicu specialist who's used to teeny tiny veins) to put the IV in her wrist, left foot, and then eventually her right foot.  It requires a crazy boot contraption on her leg, and definitely took those nurses considerably more time and effort than just using her left arm, but they were so so accomodating (also I think they didn't want to hear Anneliese scream all night any more than I did if she couldn't get to her thumb).

6.) Our church family loves us.  Mark is back home in Raleigh, and he has gotten a handful of calls and emails from people and pastors to see how he's doing, and get updates on Anneliese.  And because of that church retreat I'm now missing, one of our pastors is in town and could come by the hospital to visit and pray with us yesterday.

7.) Our friends love us.  I have officially lost count of the texts and facebook messages and emails and phone calls from people who care about my baby girl.  I'm humbled and grateful for all of you people who want to take care of my family. It's amazing.

8.) If we had to be in the hospital away from home, I'm glad it's here in Huntersville.  Where we know people. My friend Betsy came by with cook-out burgers and shakes last night, and having her here was such a welcome distraction from the tears and stress and general hospitalness.  And our night nurse was someone Mark and I have known for years, who gushed over Anneliese in all the right ways, telling me how beautiful she is even though she's all pale and sickly and sad.  Hometown heroes ftw!

9.) My mom is in St Croix, which at first was sad for me (since obviously when you have a sick kid, you want your mom, especially when your mom is a physician), but now I'm happy she's there.  She's visiting Brad and swimming ten miles today (yes, you read that correctly) and I'm proud of her for doing it.

10.) I have gotten more Anneliese snuggles in the last few days than I know what to do with.  I hate that she feels sick, but I will gladly hug her if that's what makes her feel better.  Hug her and never stop.

Nothing else stressful, ok?  I'm done.  No, seriously.  For real this time.

Update: for more pictures of Anneliese at Presbyterian Hospital Huntersville, click on the miserable baby in the ER, below.

by mgoetts

Twelve Months: Beanie's Due Date, Revisited

This non-house-, non-flood-, non-robbery-related post is once again brought to you courtesy of the public library.

Anneliese isn't one yet. Not technically. She could have been one today, but.... she was (brace yourself, I haven't mentioned this in almost a year, but you can stand to hear about it now, right?) six days late.* One of these years, my kids' due dates will roll around and I won't think twice about it, or remember that for nine months, it was the date.

This is not that year.

Anyway, instead of Anneliese turning one today, she's... not. But she's a year old, gestationally, right? And that's old enough for a one-year update. So... here you go.


She's gorgeous. Is it getting tacky how often I mention this? I can't help it. I don't understand how she is so beautiful. How those eyes shine so bright. How that dimple makes my heart melt. How that grin makes everyone around her smile. I know I'm supposed to think she's the prettiest baby to every walk crawl sit on this planet, I'm her mommy. But I think even if I could be objective, it might be true.

She's flexible. This is a new thing in our family. I'm not sure if Anneliese is just hard-wired to be more go-with-the-flow than the rest of us, or if our own tightly-wound-ness just doesn't leave her much room to be too picky. Either way, she is pretty easy to have on the go, pretty easy to feed whatever we have on hand, pretty easy to handle switch-ups in her meal and sleep schedules, pretty easy to handle new people (finally!), pretty easy to have around in general. She's patient with us, slow to anger, and quick to laughter. I kind of want to be more like that when I grow up myself.

She's feisty. I don't think she has quite the outgoing personality of some other Bumgarners I know (ahem), but she's certainly the more, um... spirited of our two children. She's very happy, as long as she's stimulated. But she doesn't handle boredom well, and doesn't mind voicing her displeasure when she's had enough of being patient. Fortunately she's fairly easy to keep occupied (see above: flexible) and she has a big brother who is happy to oblige with (certain) toys, hugs, kisses, tickles, books and babbles. I've said it before, but it warrants saying again: there is almost nothing better in the world than my two babies playing and laughing with each other. Those people who said there's no greater gift than a sibling? I think Nathan and Anneliese probably agree.

She's a snuggler. And I praise the Lord for the sweet weight of her head every time she rests it on my shoulder. I freeze and don't move, because as long as my baby is hugging me, everything else in the world can just stand still and wait while I kiss her fuzzy head and smell her sweet slobbery baby smell. She's still nursing once a day, which means I don't have to give up that twenty minutes of having her in my arms every day just yet. Thank goodness.

She's slow. Still not crawling, still not walking. But she rolls over and over and over in her crib. And she can get up on all fours and rock back and forth when she's on a soft surface (like a bed). So we're calling it progress, and as long as we have progress, it can be as slow as she needs it to be. And hey, the more verbal she gets before she's mobile, the less babyproofing we have to do, right?

She's friendly and social. She has a sweet smile for almost anyone she sees, she likes to babble and giggle and laugh, and she's a decent communicator. She knows a handful of words that she uses regularly (mama, dada, ball, nay-nay, go, kkk -- that means truck) and she's got the no! head shake down pat. She wiggles when she hears music, she is starting to wave to people more consistently, and she claps and wiggles her feet when she's happy.

She's growing. As of this week, she's 18 lbs 8 oz (13th percentile) and 32.25 inches tall long (still off the charts.. too bad she's not shaping up to be much of an athlete, she has the physique for it!)... Her head is measuring on the smallish side, and we think she might have a little flat spot from sleeping in the same position all the time (we'll know more after her checkup next week), but right now we're just glad she's growing well!

But she's still our baby girl. Sweet Anneliese, I can't believe that a year ago today I was staring at my huge belly, wondering when I'd get to meet you. Daddy and I stand in awe at what a beautiful and happy child you've become. We love you. More than you know and understand, we love you. Happy due date, little Beanie.

*No, I'm not bitter. I'm actually loving being able to hold my kids' late births over their heads for the rest of their lives. That, and the fact that they both pooped inside me. Just sayin'.

In Which Life Kicks Us When We're Already Down

This retro-dated post is brought to you by my fancy droid phone, and the Cameron Village branch of the Wake County public library system, internet terminal number eighteen. 

Why, you ask?  Because I don't have a computer.* 

Why, you ask?  Because in case last week's flood wasn't enough, our house got robbed this morning.  And no, I am not kidding.  Not even a little.  I feel like a weird statistic.  Houses getting robbed... that's the kind of thing that happens to other people, right?  Apparently not.

It happened in broad daylight, in the half-hour when Mark left to go get the kids from preschool/mmo (I was doing farm deliveries).  Which is creepy because they had clearly been watching our house.  Which makes my stomach churn a little.

Along with our laptop, they also made off with our still-feels-new wii, our still-feels-new tv, some jewelry -- all the normal things you expect to get taken when you have a house robbery.  Fortunately our neighbor was home and saw them, and got the make/model of the car and the first digits of the license plate number, which means they got the bad guys (and a house full of could-be-stolen stuff, some of which could be ours, but no word on that yet).

You know how you sometimes have those weeks when you're overwhelmed with life and you're already crumpled on the ground crying?  And then life kicks you in the ribs and makes things worse?  Yeah, we're having one of those weeks. 

My plan was to wait and write about this when I could make light of it.  (That's my general rule of thumb.)  But, let's face it, that could be weeks months next year.  So I'm just laying it all out on the table right now: this sucks.  I can't find a way to laugh about it yet.  But I'm telling the internet now so that I can get on with celebrating my precious baby girl turning one seven short days (a week that will feel shorter this year than last year, for sure!) and tell the internet about that for the next week instead.

And in the meantime, if you're the praying type, I have some material for you:
- Our sense of violation.  We want to feel better and safe in our own home.
- Mark is shaken up at being the provider of a family who now feels vulnerable. Pray for him especially.
- For the cops and detectives working on our case, who have been kind and wonderful.
- For our stuff to find its way home.  I'm not getting my hopes up too high, since it's pretty rare for home burglaries to result in reclaimed property, but I would love to have our computer back (maybe with the hard drive not wiped out) and some pieces of jewelry that hold far more sentimental than monetary value.

We are safe. Our children are safe.  Bowden is safe.  And the rest is just stuff, right?

*And as much as I love my phone, I'm sick of typing on it, and couldn't bring myself to finish and publish this away from a real computer.

Fall Purse

Yep, I'm writing about the mundanity that is... my purse. 

The reasons you're being thrilled with this minutiae are twofold.  First, because my bloggity friend Mary changed out her purse and reminded me how much I love a good seasonal purse change. 

And second, because emu chided me today for needing a purse that zips closed since I now have a daughter who will be curious about mommy's bag.  And as much as I want to believe that Anneliese will be exactly as uninterested in my bag as Nathan was (and exactly as much of a rule-follower as well)... um, she's not.  It took about thirty seconds of sitting on a bench next to my purse for her to prove emu correct (to my chagrin) -- I need to be using one that zips closed.

So I went from this fun springy plaid button-closed bag with the perfect amount of pockets:

To this fun autumny striped zip-closed bag with an awesome shoulder strap:

And in the process, I realized my purse probably needed cleaning out anyway.  (Side note: I probably should have realized that a few weeks ago when I went to a bar for some karaoke fun, and I managed to drop some wipes and a bib out of my purse, then had claim them as my own when the bartender picked them up. Mommy buzzkill what. -sigh-) 

Seriously, my purse's contents totally scream I'm a mom!!  Which is ok, I guess.  It's better than hauling a diaper bag everywhere.  But it needed to be reined in a bit.  Here's what I found inside:

(Maybe it's an excuse to make a list.  Maybe.)
- my wallet
- 2 pens
- 2 hand sanitizers (which I carry around only to make myself look like a good mommy; I can't remember the last time I actually used them)
- Target gift card with nothing on it
- Cloth pouch holding still-worth-something gift cards
- Reciepts for stuff I thought I might need to exchange
- Extra diaper
- Pack of disposable wipes with only one wipe left inside
- 2 bibs
- 3 baby spoons
- Tupperware container full of puffs
- Foam letter J (because of course I have a J in my purse)
- Passport (probably should put that away now that I have a driver's license again)
- Wet bag for a potential diaper change
- Camera battery (for the camera that's now broken)
- 2 whole crayons and 1 broken one
- Clip for my church name tag (but no sign of the name tag itself)
- Pair of dispoasble contacts (in case I lose my glasses? why is this in my purse?)
- Cell phone, not pictured because I used it to take this picture (because, again, our camera is broken*)
- Raisins (no mom-purse is complete without them)
- Fruit gummies
- Ear bud headphones (I've been wondering where I put those!)
- 2 old grocery lists
- List of people who annoyed me a church a few weeks ago (don't judge) (ok, I totally wrote it during the sermon; you can judge)
- Board book from a chick-fil-a kids meal
- 1 cloth wipe (baby washcloth)

Wow, the changing of the purse is quite The Event, huh? Pictures and everything.  (My life is full of meaning and purpose.)  Clearly I am reveling in dealing with something small and menial today -- I needed that after this weekend.  Happy Monday indeed.

*Mark, do you feel guilty yet?  About the broken camera?  Which you broke?  Which was an accident but is still broken?  Just curious.  ;)

Soggy

So.

My house is soggy.  We're recovering from a little flood-thing last Thursday morning. 

You'd think we could blame TS Nicole, which has caused days and days and days of raining here in our little corner of the universe.  But actually, it's far less glamorous than that: our main floor toilet leaked.

Except, leaked doesn't really describe it well.  Leaked makes it sound like a trickle of water came out onto the floor and we had to sop it up with some towels.  Um, no.

What actually happened is some line in the toilet failed, burst open, and water flowed out of it for hours and hours and hours.  While we were all sleeping.  Mark came home from night shift, heard water running, thought it was a little weird since the rest of us were all still in bed, went to turn it off, and found... a mess. 

Our main floor bathroom was totally wet, including the cabinet and wall, which wicked water right up.  Lots (and lots and lots and lots) of water went into the floor vent for our heater/ac, which filled the ducts until they burst into the guest room below. Taking out about half the ceiling.  And lots of insulation.  And the bed.  And then kept flowing until the whole floor was covered and those walls had wicked water up too.

At one point, when I got brave enough to go downstairs, I found Mark sloshing through standing water in our guest room, completely exhausted after working all night and trying to move furniture into dry zones, covered in bits of wet insulation material, shop-vaccing away. That's when I knew it was bad.  And the sinking feeling got worse when I walked across what I thought was a dry patch of hardwoods, and water squished... under the flooring.  Awesome.

Can I just say right how seriously scary it is that water can cause so much damage, so quickly.  Wow.

So we have spent the last few days dealing with insurance (which thankfully is covering the repairs and rebuilding, praise the Lord) and having a water extraction company (yep, that's a real thing) in and out of our house.  They've been pulling up flooring, tearing down sheet-rock from the walls, removing soggy ceiling and insulation, and hauling away two trucks' worth of stuff that is wet and damaged beyond hope of repair or drying out. 

Our TWO haul-away trucks

For the stuff that just has to dry because it can't be replaced (like the cement slab under our floors), they brought in big fans and fancy dehumidifying machines which are extremely loud and extremely hot.  Our main floor bathroom registered 105 when they came to check moisture levels this afternoon.  I'll say that again: one hundred and five degrees.  In our bathroom.  But the machines are doing their job, so... whatever.

Our rec room, normally ...and now

Our office area, normally*... and now

The kids' bathroom, normally... and now

I can't find a picture of our guest room how it normally is, but I promise it doesn't usually look like this:

Our guest room, now

I'd like to say that I've been a good sport the whole time.  But really, I've had a few (ahem) moments of acting like a baby.  But I'm trying.  I am. 

I'm trying to remind myself that even though the red tape is obnoxious, I'm grateful that insurance is covering the repairs.  Even though the only flooring that's damaged is what we've recently updated anyway, at least all the new flooring isn't damaged (the new carpet in both kids' rooms seems to be ok).  Even though the fans and dehumidifiers are really loud, it causes enough white noise that the kids (and therefore I) have slept past ten for two days in a row.  Even though they are really hot and we can't use the a/c (seeing as the ducts are full of water), at least it's a gorgeous, windows-open kind of weekend anyway.  And it's sort of funny that they literally evaporated the pee right out of a bag of wet diapers.  Right?

However, I'd be lying if I said I hadn't cried.  Or bickered with Mark.  Or let a movie babysit my kids (twice).  And that I can't stop thinking about the massive home improvement tasks still in front of us.  (Have I mentioned recently how I can't stand the home improvement process?) 

But for now, it is what it is.  I can't control it, I can only control how I react to it.  So I'm trying to be a grownup.  And you know what?  Thanks to an at-home date with Mark, a trip to a new playground with the kids, two DQ runs by Another Nathan (bless his patient soul), and again with the sleeping late, we had a pretty good weekend despite the Great Goettsch Flood.

And maybe tomorrow will be the day things dry out. Say a little prayer for my soggy sanity, ok?

*Normally in this case meaning a year ago, which is how old this picture is, in case you can't tell by the tiny baby version of Nathan standing there.