Thanksgiving family pix

Thougth I would post this family pix from Thanksgiving

Snowflakes and smiles...

Wednesday it snowed. It is only the second time since I moved to Houston. I think it is the 3rd time since 1986!! Jordana knew what the snow was and Randy let her play a bit. He gave her a snowball...it didn't last too long!! By morning most of the snow was gone but it was still chilly!!

Randy snapped the pix of Kara in the morning before school. Kara likes to have her face touched and it sends her to all smiles!!!

Catch up...

So things have been crazy..but they are finally getting better. Kara has turned a corner with her fussiness. Saturday my poor parents and sister baby sat while we went to a baby shower. Kara cried for almost 3 hours. Poor thing was exhausted. Sunday night she had her bottle at 7pm and then a bath. I wrapped her up in 2 blankets and cuddled on the couch for a bit. She fell asleep by 8:30 and slept until 3am. (I didn't). Then she ate and slept until 7am. Wow!! Monday she started school (daycare) and did well. Everyone is amazed at how small she is! Monday and Tues when I picked her up, she was asleep in her crib. There are still moments of fussiness but they are starting to fade. I sneak a bit of gripe water into her early evening bottle and it seems to help. She is off prune juice because she is pooping almost every day now.

Saturday we took the kids for pictures. Jordana was a turd. It took 10 minutes to get her to stop crying. After we wiped the tears and boogers away, the photographer went nuts trying to get her to smile. She did a good job, bless her heart! I have posted one family pix but the rest are secret because of the holiday cards and gifts!

Thanksgiving was fun, Jordana ate really well, which surprised the heck out of us!! We went to my moms and ate there with her british friends. They have been here 8 years and it was their first Thanksgiving!!!

I go back to work on Monday...boo hoo...just in time for the holiday craziness. I am so not looking forward to it. I am ready to go back to work but not ready for 600 a day. My supervisor is out on maternity leave so I have to one to bitch to!!!

Another party....

Seems like we go to one every weekend!!! Reagan Weaver's 4th birthday party was on Saturday. We drove down to Pearland to celebrate. It was cold!! After Jordana finally got comfortable enough to go play, she had a blast. First she played on Abby's little slide. She stood at the top and surveyed her kingdom. Then she discovered the 'rock wall'. We have this piece for our playground, but have not installed it because we thought Jordana was not ready. Well..she is now. She conquered that thing in less than 10 minutes and never fell once. I stood behind her in case she did fall...but she didn't need my help! I guess Randy will have to install the rock wall for Christmas!!!

I took of pix of Randy and Kara in a rare moment. Moments when Kara is not screaming are few. We seem to go on a 2 day cycle. She sleeps all day, has an ok night, then is miserable the next day. She screams for hours at night and then sleeps ok at night. Then the cycle begins again. Today is her sleep day. She's already slept through a feeding. We don't wake her to feed her because she is so deprived of sleep, she has huge bags under her eyes!! Of course she will only sleep really well if she is being snuggled. Put her in the bouncer or basinette or swing and she will only sleep 30 minutes. Randy and I still nap during the day when we can.

I NOT take a nap!!!

Things haven't changed much...still little sleep, lots of crying. We've changed formulas so now Kara is eating less with each feeding. I don't know if the new formula is heavier, making her eat less. The crying spells are now only at night and there is some more wakefullness during the day. Some nights are good (in bed by 10:30), others not so much (in bed at 12, waking 2 to 3 times at night). We made it 2 hours at Chapman's party on Saturday before the crying started. Jordana had fun sitting on Brennan's giraffe. We got a chance to catch up with old friends.
Sunday after lunch, I suggested to Jordana that we go upstairs to read a story (code words for naptime). Usually if I convince her to read a story, I can put her down for a nap without a problem, as it is the natural progression of things. As we walked up the stairs she started whining...NO I NOT take a nap. Did I say anything about a nap? I'm being outsmarted by a 2½ year old. We got upstairs and I let her go into the game room while I sent an email. I didn't turn on the tv or anything. 10 minutes later, as I came out of my office, Jordana was passed out on the couch with a handful of stickers. She had snuggled with a extra pillow that has been lying around. No nap huh?

Halloween

Halloween was a success. Jordana loved it so much, she asked to go trick or treating very day for 3 days!! We stopped at the Kerth's cul-de-sec party first and then Randy took Jordana around our neighboorhood while Kara and I gave out candy.

Fussy time...not fun time...

Anyone who says the first few weeks of a babies life is like a honeymoon is a LIAR!!!! Kara's fussy time starts around 8pm and usually ends around midnight.....except the night Randy went out of town and she cried until 2am (last night). I spend the whole day in and out of bed sleeping on and off until 1:30. I am not a happy camper. feel like I have tried everything. I don't want to create bad habits, like requiring me to rock her to sleep, or using the bouncy seat or the swing. Jordana was a horrible sleeper until she was 7 months old. I was a zombie and borderline depressed. I don't want to go there again. Jordana has been thankfully) sleeping thru these loud nights. Her only issue right now is potty training. She desperately wants to wear undies, cries when we don't allow her to (when she is sleeping), but won't tell us she needs o go potty until it is too late. We will be staying in this weekend and going potty every 30 minutes. I hope the crash course will work!!

Too tired for words

The past 2 weeks have been a blur. Kara has her days and nights mixed up and she is having pooping problems. She has not had an 'unassisted' poop since last Sunday. She likes to poop at 1AM, so we have to wake up to help her along. Otherwise, I am afraid she will hurt herself.....not to mention the 2 hours of crying that could go with it. She is still sleeping her best between 6am and noon....so I usually don't roll out of bed on the weekdays until 11am. We are going to try to get her into the md this week for a weight check and to see about this problem. I have no idea how long it could last. I am still not feeling 100% either, constant lower back pain has been slowing me down. Maybe my OB will have an answer for me when I see him tomorrow.

Here is a conversation I had with Jordana the other day:

Me: Jordana why do you have to touch everything? (after she brings me an open bottle of Mylicon drops, that was closed before she touched it)
Jordana: I don't know.
Me: You are impossible!
Jordana: I NOT IMPOSSIBLE...I Jordana Kerth!!!

She's finally here...

We welcomed Kara Paige Kerth into the world on 10/13 at 10:20 am. She weighed 8 lbs 5 oz and was 20 inches long.

My labor started on Sunday but really started to intensify around 5pm. We ate dinner and put Jordana to bed and called my father-in-law to come over. By 1 AM I was admitted to the hospital. I quickly got my fluids and my epidural. Of course my doctor was on vacation, so the covering doc came in around 6am to check things out. He had am surgery and they started pitocin after he finished since my contractions seemed to slow down. Once the pitocin started, we were moving!! I pushed for about 10 or 15 minutes and there she was!! Since they had stopped my epidural so I could push, I actually felt her being born (and because she was so big). With Jordana, I guess I was too numb or she was too small. It was a strange feeling. I was so tired. When I got to my own room I slept for about an hour and was woken up by the worst contraction I had ever felt. Since I didn't have my epidural, and I didn't know that I was still getting pitocin....I was pissed. I called the nurse for some pain pills. I really didn't want them because they make me sick and I had alredy thrown up once from the epidural. I had a phenergan shot earlier and it helped me. The nursery brought Kara in and I sent them away. The pain was so bad I was shaking violently. I cried myself to sleep.

I really wanted to breastfeed Kara, since I was unable to do it for Jordana. Once again, the lactation consultant never showed up at the hospital. I knew I had a few days to decide. The first night we were home, Kara slept from 11pm to 5am. The second night, 12 pm to 6am. I have decided not to breastfeed because she is sleeping so well.. I know it is selfish, but Jordana kept me awake for 7 months. I was a zombie and had to take anti-depressants. I really don't want to go through that again!! Of course the minute I made that decision...my milk came in. Boy does it hurt.

Jordana seems to be taking it well. She stared hugging and kissing Kara right away. Whenever Kara cries, she says "it's ok baby". The only problem is there have been some incidents of un explainable crying. The past 2 nights, Jordana has become beligerent and when we try to sit down to dinner, she starts crying for no reason. Randy and I are at a loss. She refuses to listen to us, to the point where what she is doing might be dangerous (standing on kitchen chair) or completely disrespectful (yelling back at us). And when we confront her, she startes blubbering. It breaks my heart and I want to cry with her, but there is just no reason for it. We only hope it is because she is still suffering from strep and may be hurting. We have a birthday party tomorrow, so we'll see how she handles that.

Jordana and the corn on the cob....

Randy made corn on the cob with dinner the other night. He sliced off a bit for Jordana. During dinner (which we have made huge leaps and bounds with dinner time behavior), Jordana saw us eating off the cob...and she insisted she try it. Sure, why not? The first bite was unsuccessful...Jordana didn't use enough force. A few minutes later she tried again...and got a good bite. She wanted more so we gave her the cob that was left over. Jordana went to town on it for like 10 minutes, saying "I did it" all the way.

We were cracking up!!

So we are still waiting for baby to arrive, but at least now we have cable!! Just in time for me to watch the tear jerker CSI season premier last night. I know the hormones pushed along the tears, but I cried alot. It was a good farewell to Gary...he will be missed. I know he screwed up so hopefully he can get his life back on track! Today, we are awaiting Comcast's arrival again because we are still having trouble with the HD DVR box. After our cable was restored yeserday (which took all of 2 ½ minutes to do), the HD box would not boot. After calling Comcast, I took it down to trade it out and got a brand new Cisco HD DVR. It worked great....until I tried to watch a premium channel. After 4 different calls to Comcast, they finally agreed to send someone out today. Still waiting....Luckily we were able to get the premiums in other rooms, and we caught up on Entourage last night. LOVE that show!!!

Still waiting...

Jordana was a week early and came 2 days into my week off I planned on having before she was born. This baby is taking her sweet time. Thankfully I am on disability instead of using precious vacation time. I've had some pains, but they are inconsistent and usually go away when I get up and walk around...must be Braxton hicks. I'm a little concerned because I was at 3 cm last monday. I am not sure where I am at now and my MD is out of town until next Monday. I trust the MD's on call at the hospital. If this was my first baby I might be more concerned, but I know what to expect, and I know the Md is just there to catch the baby!!! I have been VERY tired. Yesterday I got a mani/pedi, ran to the dry cleaners, Office Depot and the PO and then came home. I was gone like 3 hours....and was exhausted. I laid down for a bit, and had some pains. They went away when I got up. Yom Kippor starts tonight.....another reason why I will probably go into labor tonight!!!
We still don't have cable, hopefully that will be solved tomorrow, especially the much anticipated season premier of CSI is tomorrow!!! I am at my wits end with Comcast. Everytime I call I get a different answer and a different level of service. Because I have an appointment scheduled tomorrow morning...I bet I go into labor tonight.... Channel 11 news at 6 will be doing a blurb on Comcast, with them trying to explain why their customers have no service. I can't wait to hear this!!!

A horrible accident...

Yesterday I picked Jordana up from school early to get her a hair cut. On the way I was at a light when police cars and fire trucks tore by me. As I headed down the road, traffic was at a standstill. I was pretty close to the turnoff for Jordana's school, which is at the front of a subdivision, when I realized all the police were headed to that intersection. I could not get to her school. Feeling a little panicky, I managed to find another entrance to the subdivision and wound my way through it to the back entrance to the school. Everything looked alright at the school, but the intersection was flooded with emergency vehicles. I saw children sitting on the side of the road with cervical collars on, and many of the staff members of Jordana's school sitting with them. I parked quickly and headed into the school. Once inside, I asked the first teacher I saw what was going on. Another daycare's bus, headed from a pickup from an elementary school to the daycare facility, just about a mile down the road from Jordana's school, was hit by a truck that ran the light and flipped over. I was told many of the children were not wearing their seatbelts. I ran (as fast as my pregnant ass would let me) to Jordana's classroom...only to find them outside, playing...not at all upset at the commotion happening right in front of them! That's when the news copters showed up. Jordana and I went to the car, and as I was strapping her in, I saw the bus. It was lying on the side where the door is, not the drivers side, and the back doors were open. I saw many of Jordana's school's teachers and administrators helping out. We left and still got the hair cut. I found out on the news, that 7 children and 2 adults were taken to the hospital with minor injuries. The truck driver was given a citation. Because the van was just accelerating off a red light, damage was minimal. The rest of the kids walked away. It could have been so much worse. The teachers at Jordana's school assured me, that would never be a concern for the buses because all children riding the buses were required to wear their seat belts. That is non-negotiable. The accident shocked me but I am relieved...I was so scared for the kids and their parents. I hope I never see something that that again. Hug your kids tonight.....

Officially off work...

...let the waiting begin! Today was my first day of maternity leave. When we saw Dr. Stern on Monday, we found out I was 3½ cm dilated and the baby has dropped considerably. My BP is up a little, and with the swollen ankles (which are already thinner from being off them one day!!), we were able to get me out of work with "gestational edema". So now I won't go into labor at work. My first day started out pretty bad...
I had an appointment with Comcast to re-install our cable line today. It was the second time I had an appointment for this. By noon...no word. So I called Comcast and sure enough.."there is no appointment in the system for you". I lost it. The guy I talked to was of no help and said he couldn't get anyone here until NEXT Friday. No can do, I want to speak to a supervisor. They are all in a meeting, call back later. ARGH!!!! In the mean time I called AT&T and signed up for uverse. We will save over $100 a month, but can't get an install until 10/21. That's ok. I am looking foward to recording tv that I can watch in any room...not just the room I recorded in. That's an advantage...when you have kids, they never want to stay in one room for long!!! Bad news is we need a box for every TV (6 of them). With Comcast, we only needed boxes on 4 tv's, the rest we just hooked directly into the wall. But even with the 2 extra boxes...it's still cheaper. I called Comcast back and asked for a supervisor. While I was waiting, the agent asked me what the problem was. I told him we had a line down. He says "We can fix that this week". I was flabbergasted! Why didn't the other guy tell me that??!! Outside repairs are priority right now. If that is the only problem...we can do that this week. So he has me hold for his supervisor...and then when he transfers me...her VM picks up!! I still havn't heard back from her.
Then I spent the rest of the day determining what health insurance to sign up for. Cigna dropped Walgreens for next year. Our new choices are the Walgreens PPO, Aetna and a new CDHP. After hours of calculating and pouring over old claims and calling Mediclaim twice, I have decided on the CDHP. It will take less out of my paycheck, but cost more when we visit md's. That is ok, because I can claim that on Flex Pay. As long as we don't have any major catastrophes, we should save money next year on health care. It won't seem like it becuase it will cost a little more per visit, but the deduction from my paycheck will be MUCH smaller. I spend all day explaining customers health insurance to them...and I needed to have someone explain it to me!!!

Slowly returning to normal....

We finally got power restored on Wednesday afternoon. Things seemed to be up and running well...thank goodness. Our tempermental air conditioners both kicked on and started working and all our appliances are in good working order. We had to reset our water softener.....especially when we discovered that the transformer box had been compromised....but we were able to fix it without a service call. There still is no cable...but that will require a service visit because it was attached to the pole that had to be replaced. We requested the service but we are still waiting. I have been able to keep up with (most ) of my shows on-line. The house is almost back in one piece (execpt the garage, which is always a disaster), and the dining room, which Randy turned into a temporary office. He will need to relocate back upstairs.
Jordana spent her first night in her big girl bed last night and did well. She is currently napping in it right now. Considering how bad of a day we had yesterday...I'm surprised it went so well. We took her to get a haircut yesterday...not something new...and she had a total meltdown. We left without the haircut. She carried on for over an hour. After I put her down for a nap, she slept 3 hours and woke up and said, "I want a haircut". I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. We decided not to go back out...and it is a good thing we didn't, she had another meltdown at dinner. She refused to sit with us and eat. We are not allowing her to be the wanderer that she is during meal times and it has not been easy. After Randy and I finished, we put her in her PJ's. She started crying again and said she wanted dinner. We made her sit at the table and eat. She scarfed down her dinner like she hadn't eaten in a week. She was in a better mood, so we decided to try the big bed. She was asleep rather quickly. She tossed and turned a bit, so I pulled the comforter off, and we didn't hear a peep from her until 7:30 this morning. (we set up the new video monitor we got for the baby so we could keep an eye on her). Today she was in a better mood, but is still not too keen on the hair cut. We may try later this afternoon.
The bad news I have is that I may have lost my computer. It was running fine after the power was restored. I watched 3 hours of TV on it on Friday night. Yesterday, when I went upstairs, the battery backup was screaming. My computer was off. I rebooted the backup, only to hear it screaming again a few hours later. So I shut it off. This morning, I plugged the computer into a power strip and rebooted....and it won't boot. It has been doing this repair thing for a few hours. HP said it may take a few hours to complete, but I see no progress. Of course the battery company is closed on the weekend. I feel that their product caused this problem. According to the warranty, they will replace damaged batteries and computers...but that will not help me if I lose everything. This will be the 4th time in 5 years that I have had complete computer failure. If they replace the computer....I'm getting a DELL!!! It will take me weeks to get everything back to normal. So if correspondence is slow from me...you know why.

Progress....

Yesterday I called Centerpoint. I wanted to report the lack of progress on our power pole. The operator said she would re-enter the work order. I came home from work and found this. Why didn't I do this days ago??? By the time it was dark out we had a new power pole in place. the lights flickered for a few minutes....but no power. I know the pole is not the only source of damage but it was the biggest. It brought workers to our subdivision quicker that the web site promised (website said SUNDAY!!!) and they are back again today...hopefully working on the rest of the problems. Watching them work was interesting. The down side....they tore down our fence, drove their trucks right into our backyard and tore up the grass and curb on the side of the house. Centerpoint told us to file a claim but we cannot do it until next week, as the claims office is closed to allow the workers to help out in other areas. There are still about 580,000 people without power....13,000 of them in my zip code alone. This morning they came back and propped up our fence and then left....I only hope to hit the other areas that are not working...to complete the job and get us power. It's been 12 days.....

The last to get power....

I am officially the last person on this planet to get power....and I still don't have it!!! My employees who didn't have it, got it last night. Jeff got it today. My zip code says "after Thursday". There are alot of days after Thursday!!! There has been NO Centerpoint activity in my neighborhood, let alone in the backyard where the pole is down. There are 13000+ people in my zip code without power. According to the Centerpoint map, it is one of the largest populations without power. So why aren't they working here first!!??? I am tired of hand washing dishes, stumbling around with a lantern, tripping over extension cords, having the generators trip, spending god awful amounts of money on gas, sweating in my sleep and having to pay for laundry (45 to have 3 loads washed, dried and folded). I will NEVER EVER go camping!!! Not to mention putting makeup on in the worst lighting possible and having my skin break out because the water softener has been out of commission for 11 days, showering at night so I can have some control over my hair in the morning....and having to watch my tv shows on the internet way after everyone else has seen them. I have seen the life I could have without power....and I never want to do this again!!! Those of you with air conditioning, cable, lights etc...be thankful.

Things I have learned from the storm...

Tree roots and the sprinkers that it ripped up
.


The "clean side" is just as bad as the dirty side...just less flooding.


Living in a forest has it's down side...during a hurricaine.


I can live without electricity (as long as there is a generator)...but not without water.


Insurance companies suck...filed a claim a week ago and have not heard a peep from them.


Neighbors can surprise you.

So can landscape companies...Aaron got a quote to remove his falling tree....$6500....he then found someone to do it for $1500. Some people have no shame.


Jordana says "oh my gosh" alot.


I'm glad I work....I could not be a full time mom.


Jordana thinks the bread at Outback (the pumpernickel kind) is "Chocolate bread".


My Palm Centro is WONDERFUL....kept me online and with email all week.


My dogs drive me crazy when I am cooped up with them all day.


Braxton-hicks contractions are not fun....especially when they happen the day of the hurricaine and you don't know if there is a hospital with power anywhere...let alone clear roads.


Traffic lights are a GOOD thing.


I discovered the joy of watching TV on the internet ( I was able to watch BONES from Wed night)


2 Generators are better than one....especially if you have DSL and your phones work!!!


Swollen ankles are NO FUN!!!


Jordana LOVES taking showers now...we do it every night before bed (since I am not comfortable giving her a bath at night with no lights!!!)


Most of my customers have been understanding....which make me love my store even more. then there are those who are not regular customers, and are just using us because everyone else is closed, and think their problems are the only problems.


Walgreens shocked me by providing gasoline (free) for its employees when the local tanks were empty, and lunch for 2 days. Oh and blowing OT and budgets out of the water.

I may feel like I have it bad...but there are others who have it worse:
Angela who lost her entire roof...and her house
Jeff who has no power or generator, bad roof damage...and some nasty neighbors
The residents of Galveston, Boliver, Jamaica Beach.....who lost everything
The power workers who lost their lives trying to restore power to the city

I am grateful for
no injuries (except Randys wasp sting and my dads busted up leg)
No major damage to homes for my family
The animals of Moody gardens, the Aquarium and the Zoo making it through the storm unscathed
The cold front which has made it more bareable the past few days.

Hurricaine Ike...the aftermath

It has been 8 days since Ike made landfall here in Houston....probably the longest 8 days of my life. The pix you are seeing is just some of the damage to my home. I'll give you a play by play.

Friday: We closed the pharmacy at noon. I headed home to finish preparing. Randy got all the projectiles brought in or tied down. We moved Jordana into our room and settled in for the night. The rain and wind started around 6 pm...not enough to worry about. We lost cable around 10pm, and switched to our little camping tv. We finally went to bed around 1 am. According to the clock in the kitchen, we lost power at 2:52 AM. During my many trips to the bathroom during the night, I heard the wind and rain. Although it was very loud, I wasn't too concerned by it.

Saturday: Randy woke up and took the dogs out. I stayed in bed, not realzing that what woke Randy up was the sound of a tree falling. By 8, Jordana and I were up, trying to get breakfast. The rain was still coming down and the wind was still blowing. I turned on the mini tv to see where the storm was. At this point, it was a category 1 and the eye was almost non-existant. We were expecting it to end around 4pm. Around 9am, I was in the bathroom in the master, when I heard a loud screeching noise and a thunk. Randy was still outside surveying the damage. I didn't realize what was going on until now. I peeked out the master window.....and saw branches....that were not there before. I also saw a guyser of water. Jordana and I got dressed and ventured outside. We could not walk out the front door...there was a tree laying on the path, our neighbors tree. We went out the side door and walked around the front. I saw 2 trees down, one laying across the front yard and into the street, blocking traffic, and one laying parallel to the front of the house. There was water spraying everywhere. Turns out that the first tree that fell, the one in the street, took the sprinkler system out with it. Randy and our neighbors desperately tried to find the bypass to shut off the sprinklers....but discovered we did not have one. We were forced to turn the water off. Luckily, Jordana and I took a shower on Friday night with the anticipation that we would not have power on Saturday. We went over to a neighbors house (aaron and Sharon) for a bit so Jordana could have some play time with Chloe and Alyssa, and the boys could survey the damage. They had a tree that was leaning and holding on by the tap root...and hovering over their master bedroom. They also had a flood in their backyard..whick I promptly fell in and twisted my ankle. We stayed for a bit and had some food and then went home. Turns out our new neighbors who just moved in a few weeks ago....are tree experts. Mark was already out there with his chain saw, clearing the road. He was just grateful that his tree didn't crash through our house. I put Jordana down for a nap and took one myself. At this point, Randy had the generator up and running to keep the fridges going. He had also installed a window unit air conditioner in the living room, which was turned on low at this point. The generator was in the backyard under the patio covering to keep it dry. Half way though our nap...I woke up to this beeping noise. I got up to investigate...it was the CO detector...the one I forgot we had. The air conditioner was pulling the CO from the generator into the house. Without that detector....I don't want to know what could have happened. I texted Randy (cell service was very spotty) and told him to get home....he was across the street. He moved the generator and we got out of the house. At this point our amazing neighbors had started the clean up, even thought it was still raining. We all helped with each others yards...Mark with the chainsaw...cutting up the fallen trees. I took pix for the insurance co. Marks tree ripped up our front walkway, the sprinkler was totally shot and I found a water leak in the window box on the kitchen. We had a neighborhood BBQ for the evening, Jordana and I took a shower at the neighbors house (thanks Clay and Suzanne) and called it a night. Luckily....there was a cold front moving in.

Sunday: Randy worked hard with the neighbors to get the sprinker pipes repaired. We had the water on by late afternoon. Thank goodness. We won't be running the sprinklers anytime soon.....We spent the day sitting around, hanging with neighbors and watching TV. Jordana watched movies on a little TV hooked to the generator. We discovered that a power pole in our neighbors back yard (we share a backyard fence) had fallen and was leaning on the fence. Ceneterpoint told us that they would fix the pole by Wed.

Monday: more of the same....no power at work, no daycare....more movies, naps, BBQ's with neighbors....Randy watching football at Rob's house on Direct TV with our generator. Centerpoint delivered out new pole.

Tuesday: more sitting around, watching movies, learned the store had a generator but I had no employees...so I didn't open the pharmacy. With the cold front, we opened all the windows and turned off the air cond.

Wed: back to school for Jordana and back to work for me. Closed the store at 7pm...not a peep from Centerpont about power pole. Jordana was "cold" so we sent her to bed with fleecies.

Thursday: Supposed to be my day off..but since I missed Mon and Tues...decided to go in. Jordana woke up HOT! She had a mild fever (99)but I thought it was the fleecies. She was in a good mood. Took her to school and barely made it out of the parking lot when they called me to come get her. Her fever was 102. I took 2 load of laundry to the wash and fold (not going to be done until Sunday!!) and went back to get her. Took her home and went to work. Filled almost 700 rx's....second busiest in the district. Beat all the 24 hour stores. Came home...still no power...parents got theirs on thurs night. Was told by centerpoint Monday was our day.

Friday: Jordana still had fever. Randy took her to the md and I went to work. Jordana has strep throat. Randy took her home and her fever spiked to 105. He managed to get it down after she cried her eyes out for 15 minutes. Work was a bit better....the chaos was more controlled. Randy got a second generator so now we have more power, but are burning more gas.

Saturday: Jordana still has fever but in better spirits. Randy went to do some work....discovered traffic is HORRIBLE when half the lights in town are out. Jordana had a meltdown after a 30 minute nap and cried for over an hour. Then she was fine. Daddy came home and played outside with her while I napped. Found out we will not get power until AFTER Thursday the 25th. Not ON Thurs...after Thurs. Parents got cable back today. The cold front is leaving....and I am slowly losing my mind.

Remembering...

Although I suffered tremendously today at work, it was a bit of a blessing, because it took my mind off the real meaning of today. It's been 7 years and the pain is still there. I still hurt for my family and friends who suffered emotionally and physically on this day, and I remember the panic I felt being so far away and not being able to reach anyone. I may not be in NY but I will always be a New Yorker. I think this day, 7 years ago, made Randy and I realize that there was no one else for us...and we were engaged in less than a month. The events of the day helped my dad in his new job, and brought my family to Texas, right around the corner, instead of a 3 hour flight away. Although there were some good that came of it, it is still a day I wish was just another day on the calendar. It would just be the birthday for my tech, Janet, and the anniversary of a hurricaine in Texas, instead of the worst day in US history. Love to all my family and friends, whereever you are and whatever you are doing...and always remember.

Sometimes it is ok to be a follower...

especially if it is on my blog!! Click on the follower link on the right side and become one!! I'd love to know who is reading my blog!!!

Here comes Ike!!

Looks like this time we will have direct hit from IKE, unlike the last time, when the wind barely blew over a beer can. We expect to feel the winds beginning late tomorrow afternoon. I am going to work and we still stay as long as we have power, but I have no intention of going on Saturday. It has been absolute HELL at work. Today was beyond busy, and we had no fax line, printers jamming up and non stop prescriptions. Becuase of all the computer problems and the approaching storm, the warehouse from TUESDAY is still on the floor, not put up. My inventory is destroyed. By 5 pm, we were telling people the next day for their prescriptions. It was so bad, the nurse practitioner, who works in my in-store clinic, was not busy and came over and offered me help. I threw her into the fill station, gave her a crash course and she stayed there ALL DAY. What a team player!!! I will be sure to tell her boss how helpful she was. She didn't have any patients until around 6 pm. She never took a break and ordered pizza for all of us. Any suggestions on how to thank her!?? My only hope is that Sunday will be dead and we can catch up (as long as we have power). Jordana has no school tomorrow and will probably spend the day with her Aunt Courtney.
So communication may be non-existant for a while. We are only worried about the winds, flooding is not an issue where we are. this area didn't flood during Allison, and that was a 500 year flood...so we should be ok. During Rita, we lost power for about 5 hours (I was 5 months pregnant then). We expect to sit in the dark for a while and we have a generator and an air conditioning unit. We will camp out in our master bedroom to stay cool and hope for minimal damage. Randy will board up tomorrow if the winds are sustaining. If they are gusts, we may not bother. Tonight we bring in all the projectiles, the wind chimes and bird feeders (we have a ton of them) and Jordana's swings and toys. I will be emptying out the hall closet in case of tornados, and we have a ton of flashlights and candles.
That's the plan, wish us luck, and track the storm at www.weather.com
We'll see you on the other side!!!

hell at work...it's the only way to describe it...

Monday started out without a hitch. We were upgraded last Monday and the computers have been acting a little cranky. Afer multiple calls to the help center...things seemed to be a bit better. I went to lunch, got an interstore, and went back to finish my shift. That's when all hell broke loose. By 4:30, right in the middle of rush hour...my computers gracefully slipped into central mode...not a good place to be. We rebooted everything, but to no avail. After calling the help center and a call was promised back, I realized that the phones were dead to incoming calls. I called the help center back and together we tried to reboot the sever. No luck. They decided to send DTR out. When the DTR tech called me (turns out he was home eating dinner and he lived in my subdivision!!!), he told me we probably will lose the drive and have to be recloned. NO!!! I've been at this for 10 years and I have never had to be recloned. It is a pharmacy managers nightmare! Becuase we were already crashed, we could not even prepare for it. when I left at 8:30, the work was still being done.

Tuesday morning, we started with a fresh server and almost a brand new work queue!!! There was like 30 in there....never happens at my store!! We were trucking along, trying to catch up with the 100 scripts that we couldn't process on Monday night. At about 11 am, the computers started acting up again. I called the help center and found out that the central server was down. ARGH!!! This time we had to wait for the central server to be repaired and that was out of our hands. My Sr. Tech and I went to a meeting and we got back to the store around 4pm. The computers had just come back up but they were still some problems. the pharmacy was a complete disaster. I stayed until 5:30, when I left to meet Randy for dinner with Jordana. He sent me this picture while in route. the only high point in an otherwise dismal week.

I took today off to rest and the floater called me this morning and told me "She couldn't take it". I told her to call the store manager to help out. I am SOOO not looking foward to tomorrow!!!

Car damage repaired

Oh yeah, the damage to my front fender is gone thanks to Danny D!! He worked his magic and got all the paint off. There is still a little dent, but you can hardly notice it!!! Thanks Danny!!!

Mommy and me weekend

Jordana and I spent the weekend together. Randy went to the deer lease to do some work. Saturday we did some shopping. Jordana picked out a new Clifford book at Border's as well as a new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD, which she watched right away in the car!!! Then we went to Ulta where she picked out some new bubble bath.....she asked for purple right away. This girl LOVES purple!!! Then we had Panera Bread for lunch (YUM!!!) and we both went home for naps. Jordana slept 3 hours!!!! I was exhausted from our little morning excursion. We stayed in the rest of the day watching movies and playing. Today we spent the day with Grandma, Poppa, Aunt Barbara and Uncle Jeff. Jordana went to the park with Grandma and Aunt Barbara, while Poppa and I took naps while watching the dismal Texans game.
This pix was taken a few weeks ago but this is a common scene from the backseat of my car. Jordana LOVES her stuffed animals. When she is tired, she likes to snuggle with them in her car seat and watch a movie. I think it is adorable! You can see she still has a paci problem.
This week starts my 10 day stretch and we await to see what IKE will do, if he heads this way, I may get the weekend off after all!!!

Happy Anniversary!!

Today is Randy and my 6th wedding anniversary!!! I can't believe we've been married for 6 years. In 6 years we have become a family of (almost) 4. It's been an eventful journey with many more wonderful stops on the way. I can't believe I found such a great guy to do all this fun stuff with!! Although we are more opposite than similar, we complement each other (most of the time) and get along like we've known each other all of our lives. I can't wait to see what the next 50 to75 years holds for us!! Happy Anniversary sweetie!!

Welcome to the blog world Shanna!!

My friend and fellow Boilermaker has been bitten by the blog bug and has a blog now!!! Check out her blog link!!! I think Shanna and I are going to start a support group for moms with toddlers addicted to paci's!!! Anyone want to join??!!!

Oops....

So I had a rough morning. Afer working 9 straight days and heading to my 10th, I was practically asleep at the wheel. I stopped at McDonalds for breakfast. After paying, I rolled up to the first window to get my food...and promptly side swipped the stupid yellow pole. Sad thing was, I was too tired to care. Randy and I think it's just surface damage, but the yellow paint is so unattractive. There is a slight dent, but not enough for me to care. Besides, it matches the dent on the tailgate that I got when I backed into Randy's truck last winter when his tailgate was down. Randy may take the vehicle to
Hamilton next weekend and see if Ben's guys can work a (cheap) miracle on it. Since Randy and I have such a special relationship with Ben, little things like this don't bother me as much as they used to. Why get mad when it was my own fault?

So now I am off for 4 days...one of them being Randy's and my 6th wedding anniversary. We have no major plans since I am a barge with 2 legs attached. That is ok with us!

My heart goes out to Kelly. Check out her blog to read about the hard decision Ryan and her had to make regarding one of her foster children. I don't envy their situation and wish them the best...no matter what the outcome.

Someone got a promotion.....

and it is not me! Jordana is moving up to preschool!! We received a letter last week that they would start her out a few hours a day. Today, when Randy dropped her off...she went right into the preschool class. When I picked her up, she was back in EPS 1....so I don't know how it went, but according to her daily sheet, Jordana went potty!!! I figuered being with the big kids would encourage her to use the potty.

Some of her new things include..."I love my kitty cat" followed by a smothering of Patches...or an attempt to pick him up. Patches is such a good sport. He may yell every now and then, but he tolerates her. Jordana is obsessed with Mickey mouse clubhouse. Luckily it is on Demand. they are about 10 minutes long and we use them to encourage her to eat (she is still not a good eater). Her favorite thing to say is " I need to watch ONE MORE Mickey mouse". Randy tried to put on some other Mickey Mouse show yesterday, but he couldn't fool her. She said "No Daddy, I want the Mickey Mouse CLUBHOUSE!!!"

As for other happenings...I went to a scrapbook retreat this weekend with Katrina and got 3 mini albums done from CKU and about 20 pages. I am happy with the work I did and am now motivated to catch up!! .....(after I find my desk). Randy laid a new wood floor in the dining room and used the old wood floor in the front hall closet. Now, 6 years later, the only old nasty carpet left is in the master bath. Only we see it. Thank goodness because it is beyond nasty!!! I am still on target for a mid October delivery. I expect to end work on 10/08 depending on how dilated I am. We see the Dr. tomorrow and we'll see what he says!!!

I am wishing all my teacher friends good luck and a great school year (Katrina...it WILL get better!!!).

No wind damage...and a garage sale...

So the "hurricaine" was hardly a tropical storm. We kept Jordana home from school because we didn't know how bad the weather was going to get. I went to work at 2pm, just as the weather started to clear. We got our butts kicked.

Randy and I had a garage sale on Thursday. It was hot out. We made about $300 on Thursday. We still had a bunch of big stuff left, so we had the sale again on saturday morning. In all , we made about $500. We didn't sell any of the big stuff, again, but we sold stuff we otherwise would have thrown out. So now we begin the treks to purple heart and the ebay sales.

Jordana was playing in the backyard and decided to go for a swim...fully clothed. Who needs a bathing suit?

Hurricaine's a comin'......

So Edouard is on his way (why is it spelled like that?) As of right now it is a tropical storm over New Orleans. We expect it to hit the Texas coast at Galveston early tomorrow morning., and Northwest Harris county around 11am. We have no idea what to expect. It should be a category 1, but we are looking at a direct hit. Rita didn't hit us directly, we only got the outer bands. We are a bit worried that it will be like Allison. Allison was a tropical storm, but it was a very slow moving storm that dumped a ton of rain on us, left, and then came back and dumped more rain on us. I am expected at work at 2 pm tomorrow. We'll see.....

Success at the Dr.'s office...finally

We have taken Jordana to the Dr. 3 times for her third hepB shot. Every time we have gone, she has spiked a fever. I swear she can do it on command! This time, we made an early morning appointment before school and loaded her up with Tylenol before we left. She had 98.6 when we left the house and 99.3 by the time we got there. The Dr said it was low grade and since it was a forehead reading, it was ok. Now Jordana is freaking out. She is climbing up my neck and won't let go. So I laid her down and was practically lying on top of her. She wouldn't let go. The nurse was like, don't move.....done! Jordana didn't even know what hit her. With me lying on top of her, it kept her arms restrained and her struggle to bury herself in my neck distracted her. It was over before she could react. Not a single tear shed!!! She got a sticker and donuts for breakfast. By the time she got to school, her snoopy bandaid was on her forehead!! I gave her some Ibuprofen just in case, and left her in the care of the music teacher. When I picked her up at 4, she was having a grand old time. We are free and clear until she is 4......yes!!!

This pix represents the new best seat in the house. Randy bought this recliner and we are all always fighting over it. Jordana watches cartoon afer school one day.

Catching up...

Things have been crazy around here. We are slowly getting our house back together. We have a working air conditioner, all the rooms are now painted and the birds are gone. Randy has some painting touch ups to do where we had cracks sealed in the dining room, game room and stairway, but the majority of the repairs are done. Jordana's room is finished. I will be taking some pix soon to show them. We hope to start having her nap in there soon.

As for the 4th, the fireworks were a bust for Jordana. In the morning, there was a parade in our neighborhood that came right in front of our house. The firetrucks and antique vehicles didn't scare Jordana, she just waved and ran to pick up the candy the threw at us. As for the fireworks, they seemed exciting for Jordana when we talked about it, but when the time came to see them for real, they literally scared the poop out of her! We took her outside and she sat down next to me. While Randy was setting some up in the street, Jordana started hearing the ones in the neighborhood. She started climbing up in her chair and told me she wanted to go inside. I tried to get her to sit in my lap, but when Randy set off the first firework.....she was a mess. We went inside and I sat on the couch with her...and smelled poopy diaper. Jordana was so scared she pooped in her pants!!! Poor thing.

Today I worked 12 hours (nice for the paycheck...bad for me). I was short a pharamcist and a tech and had to work a double. Not fun. By 8 o'clock, I was ready to go home. One of my poor techs had a root canal this morning and stuck it out all day with me. What a trooper. Hopefully tomorrow will be better....

Wonderful silence!!

The birds are gone. For the bargain price of $102, we have eliminated the birds (humanely) and capped the fireplace. The silence is wonderful. The cats are disappointed...but they'll get over it. The house is slowing coming together. Garage sale date has been set. Walls are painted, pictures and mirrors are making their way back on the wall and Jordana's room is almost finished. I think we will start having her nap in there this weekend. The only hurdle...we need to find a local chapter of Pacifiers anonomous. Jordana is way hooked on them. The past 2 nights she has woken up crying because they fell out of the crib. They fall out all the time but it never bothered her. I think maybe she is starting to figure out the baby thing. Last night, while changing a poopy diaper, she pointed at me and said "my mommy", then pointed at my belly and said "not the baby's mommy". Uh oh......

Potty training....

Not going so well, but makes for some cute photos!! Spending the weekend with Daddy sure tuckers Jordana out!!!

Disaster area.

There is no other way to describe the state of my house. A complete and total disaster. We will not be having house guests for a while. It started with the mess in the bedroom, from the leak, then it followed upstairs when we had to empty the attic closet into the game room to stop the flood. Then my office was affected when I came home from CKU and decided to revamp my office and purge the stuff I don't use. Then the mud room and utility room and guest bathroom, because the painters were coming. So as of today, the master bedroom is back in one piece, Jordana's bedroom and bathroom is painted and so is the mudroom area. The cracks in our walls, including the hole at the bottom of the stairs where the fish went thru, have all been fixed. Randy has been cleaning the master and rearranging furniture. He finished Jordana's new bedroom but we need to get the carpet cleaned before we completly move her in. My office clean out has been a slow process....but I am 6 months pregnant. I have to take lots of breaks. After we finish downstairs, we are going to rearrange the stuff in our 2 attic closets. The final solution....a garage sale to get rid of all this crap we have accumulated over the years. I hope to do this in late July or early August. I have a ton of scrap stuff to sell, 3 computers and lots of random stuff (including 4 boxes of hangers!!!) Of course we will not be selling much baby stuff....just some stained pieces and some old toys.
I hope to post some pix next week from CKU and a few of the family.

Ahh.....relief!

Today, I got goose bumps. it was not from hearing or seeing someting....or some reaction. It was from the new air conditioner that was installed downstairs this morning. Finally....11 days later. Now if we could get the master bedroom back in order.....

Still waiting.....

So we were approved for the new compressor from the warranty company but we don't know when we will get it. Still living in the guest room. The insurance company is taking their time filing a claim...hopefully we'll get some answers next week. They are covering their asses...big blunders tend to make people worry. We should be getting our policy fixed to where it should be. Me...I'm just tired all the time. This weekend I will be preparing for my retreat...don't want to go unprepared. Good thing I don't have to fly anywhere....

It will all end soon, I hope

We are going on 5 days without air conditioning downstairs. We found out today that we will get a replacement unit for the outside, but it has to be shipped and will take a few more days. We have to pay for a new slab and disposal fee but it is a small number. We should get some rain tonight so it should cool down a bit. As for the bedroom...we found a new snag. When reviewing our homeowners policy, we discovered that our coverage practically doubled in Feb when they renewed our policy. We didn't double it. This caused a $5700 deductible. We don't own a $500,000 house. ( I wish...) When we contacted the ins company, we got a big 'oops, our bad' from them. They are working on fixing our coverage to reflect the true value of our home, which will lower our deductible. They came back with a number which is still to high. We should have an estimate from them on the damages by the end of the week. I have to work this weekend, which may be a blessing for me....air conditioning at work!! CKU starts on Wednesday and I have been having trouble looking foward to it with all that has happened. I am sure when I start packing on Tuesday night, I will start to get more excited.

And the drama continues...

So this is not the Memorial day weekend I had in mind. It turns out our compressor has blown in the downstairs air cond. It was so bad, it kept tripping the breaker. So we called the warranty company and told them we could not wait until Tuesday. We managed to get our appointment moved up to tomorrow, even though it is a holiday. We are expecting a fight. They are going to only want to replace the compressor, while we believe (and so does our friend) that we need a new air conditioner. So it's been a rough weekend. We spent yesterday shopping for Jordana's new room, buying bedding and bathroom stuff and storage units. I pulled out all Jordana's clothes and sorted them into totes based on age so we can store some away. Basically we spent our whole day out of the house or upstairs. We slept in the guest room. When I woke up this morning, I was very sore from all the walking, se we decided to stay in. The downstairs was bearable this morning so Jordana watched movies while I relaxed in the recliner, cutting coupons and reading the paper. This afternoon we moved upstairs. I was thinking, one more day of this and I can sleep in my own bed and enjoy the entire house again. Then I went into the master bath to brush and wash. As I was walking out into the master bedroom, I heard the dreaded noise no homeowner wants to hear...drip, drip. I look up to the cathedral ceiling and see water dripping. Not only is there water dripping, but the paint has been strained so much, there was an actual blister on the ceiling. I turn the light on, and see the lower corner of the bed is soaked, as well as the dog beds on the floor. I am thinking to myself, what now!!??? So Randy goes upstairs to investigate. Turns out the upstairs unit is being so overworked, the drainage pipe or whatever, has become clogged, causing a flood. 2 of Randy's files boxes that were in the attic are water logged and one of mine. So this has happend to us before, with the downstairs unit. We had to re-sheetrock 2 rooms, including the dining room wall, which we had just finished repainting a few months prior to the incident, as well as the ceiling in the room that is now my office. Normally, we would shut off the unit and move Jordana downstairs to sleep with us....but since we have only ONE WORKING UNIT...we are stuck with the bucket solution until tomorrow. Hopefully the bucket won't overflow and the ceiling won't cave in and ruin our (moved) EXPENSIVE bed!!! So we popped the blister to let out as much water as possible and we discover there are 3 leaks. The sheetrock is destroyed. We had to turn the fan off to prevent it from shorting out so now there is stagnant air in that room. Now we get to bring in the homeowners insurance and they have to duke it out with the warranty company....technically it is their fault. If they had sent someone earlier...this wouldn't have happened. When they say older homes have character....is this what they mean?

How does it know?

How does my downstairs air conditioner know that it is the Friday of a holiday weekend? Or that it is a friday at all??? This inanimate object with no brain seems to know when to crash. It is currently 81 degrees downstairs and 77 in the gameroom upstairs. It is comfortable in the upstairs bedrooms because the upstairs unit is working fine (actually, it is working overtime to cool the upstairs becuase the thermostat is in the game room) but the down stairs is not comfortable. We have the fans blowing in every room, kicking up dust from far corners. And it is Friday, of a holiday weekend. Luckily, we have a friend. One who will be here at 9am tomorrow and is HVAC certified. Hopefully he can fix it until Tuesday...when we call the warranty company and pressure them to replace the unit. They come visit us at least once every 2 months. And it is almost always on a weekend!!! They have already replaced our upstairs furnace and upstairs coil in the air conditioner. The next logical thing would be to replace the downstairs unit. It is 20 something years old afterall!! No one ever said warranty companies were logical!!

Rough week...

I don't know what it is, but this week is killing me. I am sore everywhere, especially my back, my skin is a wreck and I am so tired. It feels like the first trimester all over again. Luckily, I don't have to work the weekend. The bad news is that this is the last week I have extra pharmacists at work. Because I have a graduate intern, I have lost my 3rd rph on Tues and Wed. And to make matters worse, on of my techs, Mariana, is moving back to Costa Rica. I don't blame her. The Texas pharmacy schools don't recognize her amazing potential as a pharmacy student, so she is going home to attend pharmacy school and be with her family. She will be missed. The good news is that I don't have to work 10 days next week. I have monday off and I took the 4th off to attend CKU, so I only have to work 8 dyas in a row. I am starting to look foward to 4 days of scrapping, shopping and being with my good friends Karen and Jane. It's amazing how close we live to each other, but our busy lives keep us from seeing each other as often as I would like. I hope CKU is fun!!

Drumroll please....

I know, it's a bad picture. Maybe we'll get better ones at the 3d ultrasound. Although you can't see it in this pix....this little baby in my belly...is another girl! Jordana is going to have a little sister!!! Randy and I are excited! And the best part...this little girl has a full wardrobe already!!! We are totally clueless on names right now. Jordana was easy...but we have not been thinking about it, but we will now!!! Most of Randy's friends and many of my friends are parents of multiple girls. We just joined the club!!!

What a cute present!!

My sister sent me flowers for mother's day and they came in this box. The box was sitting by the garbage cans to go out, and Jordana pulled it out to investigate. Next thing I know, she is crawling in it. What a goof!!!

Sprained wrist started a bad day...

I started my day off badly. I dropped Jordana off at school. As I was stepping off the curb to get into my car, my (bad) left ankle gave out. I stepped foward to catch myself with my right foot, and landed on the speed bump in the parking lot. Since it wasn't level, down I went. I landed on my hands. I banged up my palms and tore the cuticle on my left big toe. My wrist hurt for a bit, but my toe hurt more. I went home after another Daddy helped me up (so embarrassing to have someone see me fall flat on my ass), and cleaned up my toe. My wrist felt better so I continued my day. I took the cats to the vet, where ziggy puked and pooped in his carrier before we even left the subdivision. Both cats received clean bills of health, high praise from the vet on their beauty and health, and received no shots. Patches still growled at the vet a few times. I came home, threw ziggy in the sink and cleaned up the box. Then I took a nap. When I woke up, my wrist was starting to feel sore. I picked up Jordana to go to the Dr. for her check up...and she had a fever. Apparently there is a virus in the daycare that is causing mild fever, sore throat and diarrhea. (the older kids are experiencing a round of chicken pox). So Jordana did not get any shots either. We met the new doctor at the clinic today...and loved her. Jordana is 36.5 inches tall and 22 pounds. Although she is skinny, she is following her percentile curve nicely. Considering her Grandaddy is almost 7 feet, her aunt is 6'1" and mommy was 5'11" in the 5th grade and was 95 pounds when she got married...she is all genetics.
At this point, my wrist is killing me, I can hardly pick Jordana up. We went to McDonalds for dinner (where I changed Jordana's diaper and found...yep. diarrhea) and I headed to the mini ER. There was no other patients there....we were taken care of right away. After a few x-rays, the Dr. determined that there are probably no fractures ( the radiologist will double check tomorrow) and it is just a bad sprain. So they bandaged me up and sent me home. It's not easy being a mom with a sprained, bandaged wrist.
I wanted to go to the Amercan Baby Faire tomorrow but we will have to see how Jordana feels in the morning and how my wrist is. What a day!!

Blood tests....normal!!

Last week I had some blood drawn for the trisomy and spina bifida test. With my sister having spina bifida, any children I carry have a higher chance of beign affected. We missed the window for the test when I was pregnant with Jordana becuase my due date was incorrect. We confirmed a normally formed spine during the 3-d ultrasound at 28 weeks. We were able to do this because my brother has clubbed foot, increasing the chances our baby may be affected., allowing us a 3-d ultrasound covered by insurance. This time, we were able to do the test. I got the results today and they were 'perfectly normal". On May 20th, we will find out if we are having a boy or girl!!

inventory revisited....and a fussy 2 year old

I didn't ace inventory. For the first time in 10 years, I blew it. The extra order....was an order we received that was posted late. Guess my staff an I have our work cut out for us.

On a family note...Jordana has had a rough couple of days. She was whiny, fussy and unco-operative. She has not eaten in our presence (but she eats her school food!!) Tonight, after I came home from work with dinner from Taco Cabana, she tore herself away from Ratatouille to eat something, finally!! She ate a huge portion of beans, half of a tortilla and some pudding for dessert. Then she (happily) took a shower with me, got in her PJ's and went to bed (although a bit late). Maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel!!!

Inventory....aced!!

So my day started rough. I worked 13 hours yesterday and had to be at the store at 6am this morning. It was early!!! When the numbers started to come down....it did not look good. W were going to take a hit...5 figures. I was flabbergasted. I was going to go home and crawl into a ball and cry. Then this conversation occured when my store manager came back to the pharmacy

Mr. Martin: looks good
me: are you nuts?
Mr. Martin: guess you didn't hear the good news?
Me. NO!!
Mr: Martin: They found the missing money. We were billed for someone else's warehouse delivery in January. The DM found it. We are going to have to fight for it but it means your looking at a pick up...and positive shrink
(For you non- retail people...this is good.....negative shrink means missing money and lost profit)

WOHOO!!!

Scaredy cat...uh dog...

Saturday night/ Sunday morning a storm blew in. Hollie is desperately afraid of thunder. Usually she tries to climb in bed with us, scratching the heck out of us and keeping us awake. Randy shooed her away and she decided to take refuge under the bed, where she stayed all night. Scaredy dog!!!

It's too early for this heat...

It was 87 degrees today. It's only April. Why do I live here again? Oh yeah, no snow, no state taxes, more home for the buck. but I guess there are some trade offs. Record high temps in the summer and electric bills in the stratosphere. I guess I should be thanksful that we have 2 air conditioners and I work inside all day.
Speaking of work, I am stressing a bit....I have inventory next Tuesday. Although I have always had a good inventory (there was that one bad on where it turns out the RPh was stealing, and the other time when I had only been the RXM for 3 days), it still causes me anxiety. It's like part of my report card. It's amazing how in my personal life I don't give a crap what people think of me and I stopped jumping through hoops to make people happy and be my friend years ago, but at work, there are many times where I wonder how I am doing, what the higher ups think of me. Although I hate jumping through the hoops, I still do it anyway. It is especially stressful since we were down 1 script for march, and down 7 scripts the first 7 days this month...for the first time in 4 years. Anyway...wish me luck.

Jump party!!

We went to Brennen's 4th birthday party on Sunday. Jordana had a blast but she got tired fast!!! On the way there, I turned around and saw that Jordana had taken her shoes and socks off. for some crazy reason, she put her socks on her hands! Maybe they were cold. What a goofball!!!

Still feeling the effects of the pulled tooth

I braved work yesterday, and promptly puked before the pharmacy even opened. I struggled until 2pm, because we were short handed. Then I went home and slept. I woke up at 4AM with a migraine. My gums don't really hurt anymore and the nausea had subsided since I stopped taking the codeine, (I am just taking Tylenol now), but I still have a headache. I am able to control it if I dose every 4 hours. I will go to work tomorrow, because I am off this weekend. I hope to back to myself soon!!!

I am the same, with one less tooth...

So I was having tooth pains this weekend. I called the dentist on Monday and made an appointment for Tuesday. Remember I am 3 months pregnant. When I got the the office, My wonderful dentist, Dr. Woody Barksdale, took one look at it and said it looked abscessed. It was very dangerous for the baby. So he wanted to schedule me for an extraction next week. Then he took an x-ray....and got serious fast. He asked me if I could stay and do it today. I was a little freaked out, and not at all prepared.
For those of you who have know me a long time, you know I have had dental problems for years. I was given tetracycline as a baby to treat high fevers. In the 70's, it was unknown the damage tetracycline causes to calcium containing substances, such as teeth and bone. Luckily, all that was damaged was my teeth. I had severe staining and my teeth were very soft, causing multiple cavities. I had my wisdom teeth extracted my senior year and for graduation, my parents paid for a cosmetic procedure that would perfect my smile. I have had over 100 shots of novacaine in my life and 1 root canal. Needless to say, my trips to the dentist are always filled with anxiety.
Dr. Barksdale was more concerned about the baby. The poison in my jaw could hurt the baby if it made it into my blood stream. The tooth needed to go now. So he called my OB/GYN to clarify what I could have and promptly shot me up with novacaine. The tooth was out in 10 minutes and I was on my way.
So now I am properly drugged up and feel like I was punched in the mouth. The icing on the cake? My dentist called me at home tonight to see how I was feeling. So I am the same person I was this morning, just with one less tooth.

Walking with Dinosaurs

Mom, Barb, Jordana and I went to see Walking with Dinosaurs at the Toyota center today. We were a bit late because we didn't know the Mckinney street exit was closed, but we saw enough. Jordana was a little freaked out by the music in the first act, and she buried her head in my neck. When there was quieter music, she was very interested in the dinosaurs. After intermission, when she had a snack and juice, the second act was much better than the first. Although she buried her face a time or two, she still peeked. Even the T-Rex didn' scare her that much. It was very cool and very realistic. I highly recommend it, even if you don't have kids. Here are a few shots of the action.

Facebook

Ok, so I finally decided to join Facebook. If you are using it, find me and send a message. I think it is better than Myspace. Barbara uses it and is happy with it, so I am catching up with the cyber-Jones'!!

Another layout

Here is a layout of Jordana with my best friend Lisa, when she visited last winter. Although Jordana would not co-operate by smiling, she still had a great time with "Aunt Lisa". I hope she visits again soon!!! Double click on the pix for a closer look.

A few Holiday layouts

I am slowly getting my scrapbooking caught up. I have a bunch of pages done but they are not in albums yet. I thought I'd share a few holiday layouts. The brown one is from the car ride home from Hanukkah at Grandmas. Jordana was buried under her new stuffed animals in her car seat and was watching a movie. She paused to grin for the camera. The red ones were taken a few nights before Christmas when Aaron, Sharon, Chloe and Alyssa stopped by to exchange presents. We gave the girls these huge coloring books and they were in this huge bag. Jordana was peering in the bag and Chloe says "Jordana, do you want to get in the bag?" Jordana said "yes". I put her in and she had a blast!!! You can double click on the pix to get a closer look!!