Tuesday, August 4, 2009

I feel this is not working

I am just not a good blogger. I was never a good writer (my english teachers tried to tell me I really sucked at it without being nice.) and I am just too busy to post everyday. I can't even keep up with my scrapbooking. I only take pictures when the moment strikes me and that does not happen often. When the kids are older it may be easier but I think I'll stick to sending out pix every now and then, and keeping in touch on facebook. Thanks for the support.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Free time does not exist




It's been over a month since I have blogged. Life is just so busy. Randy and I try to run as much as possible, but it only amounts to 2 to 3 times a week. When the weather is cooler, I may start running in the morning. I am still so tired, it is hard to get out of bed in the mornings.


The kids are doing well. Jordana has been taking swimming lessons but is on hiatis because her teacher was away. She still won't dunk her head. Kara is growing like a weed, she has her bad days, mostly because of teething. She LOVES solid food and almost never wants a bottle, and she loves school. Jordana love school too, taking music class and gymnastics. She also likes to run around with my bra on. What a weirdo!
I am looking forward to some time off in September.....

Monday, June 22, 2009

Life unscripted, tragedies and all

Since my last post, things have been bad and good. The girls are ok, Kara is teething very badly, causing her to be cranky and have a lot of diarrhea. She slept thru the night 3 times in the last week, so there has been progress.
Sometime after the last post, I received work from my friends from high school, that one of my classmates lost her 3 year old daughter. The pain I felt when I heard that was almost too much to bear. No mother should ever have to bury her child.....no matter what the age. I am not sure of the final cause of her death, but there was double pneumonia and E. Coli. Awful and tragic.

I made it thru my 10 days stretch and setted into my 4 day weekend, then, BOOM, just when I was starting to get up from the last kick in the gut, I was kicked down again. The 17 year old son of one of Randy's best friends (his business partner's brother), was killed in a car accident early saturday morning. Gerald, the dad, was in DC when it happened. If this is God's way of population control....I'm becoming an athiest.

Tonight, Randy was at the wake when more disaster struck. One of Christopher's football team mates was leaving the funeral home, turning onto the 2 lane road, when he was t-boned. Randy's partner Jesse was outside taking a cigarette break when it happened. It's a good thing, because the truck was on fire. Randy looked outside with everyone else and saw Jesse smashing the window in to get the kid out. As Randy ran outside to help, he saw Jesse pull the kid out and not 30 seconds later, the truck blew up. Jesse saved this kid's life. He was burned pretty badly and was life flighted because the nearest hospital was too far to drive. Jesse has some cuts and minor burns but will be ok.

Please let this be the end. Our hearts need time to heal.

Friday, June 12, 2009

New leaf...turned over...




Randy and I started to walk/run. We are really out of shape. Pregnancy caused me to be LAZY!!! We go out on the mornings that I am off. We've done a lot more walking, than running, and I always end up with a headache after...but we are determined to keep it up. This morning we saw around 30 turtles under the walking bridge on the green belt. A few of them were huge!!! We also saw a snake. The snake didn't scare me, Randy grabbing my arm did !!! Today we may have over done the distance, we think we went 2 miles (I left my pedometer at home). On Tuesday, we will go back to 1 mile, with the goal of running more of the mile each time. I am hoping to lose the extra 10 pounds sitting on my belly. Hopefully Randy will lose weight and his sleep apnea and snoring may disappear (wishful thinking). We are also hoping to increase stamina so we can keep up with the kids!!!


Kara is teething badly, which has caused her to be a poor sleeper yet again.....will I ever get 8 hours of sleep again?

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Princess Kara...


Kara is so funny sometimes. She is generally a good baby, but her experiences with teething are a bit worse than Jordana's. She seems to be more sensitive and she currently has some sort of blister on her gums. It doesn't seem to bother her and her appetite has not waned. She just seems to cry a bit more than usual. She also has woken up earlier in the morning than usual. She'll fuss and cry, then she'll look at you and this big grin shows up on her face. She can be a bit dorky, but we love it!!!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Saturday in Waco....







We went to visit BeBe in Waco on Saturday. It took about 3 hours to get there with one stop. Kara slept most of the way and Jordana watched Ice Age an Ratatouille on the DVD player. BeBe was very excited to see us. She got a "pink slip" from the nursing home for a day pass, so we wouldn't have to go to the nursing home. Jordana was a bit hesitant at first, but she was a trooper and gave BeBe a hug. She took an instant liking to Aunt Debbie, who sent her home with a bag of toys.
(Jordana takes horrible pictures....she says CHEESE and closes her eyes or looks away.) Kara was great the whole time, but fell asleep the second we clicked her buckles in her car seat. She was exhausted. She sat in the infamous rocking chair that BeBe's grandaddy made for her. I have pix of Jordana in it.
The drive home was ok. Kara was a bit fussy, due to her teeth, but we stopped in Magnolia for dinner and headed home. Both kids were in bed and out like a light!! It was a long day but a trip that was overdue. BeBe needed to meet her second Great-granddaughter!

Friday, May 22, 2009

Life returning to normal...

By Wednesday, the world has almost righted itself. Kara woke up fever free. Although Jordana had a fever on Tuesday night...totally random...she was fever free on Wednesday as well. Both went to school...I got a hair cut and ran some errands. NORMALCY!!! Kara is still not sleeping thru the night but at least it is not a 3 hour ordeal. She still has not crawled yet. She tries so hard but give up easily and cries...hope this is not a glimpse of her future personality. Jordana did everything early and quickly (except potty training) that I took it for granted. As for potty training....we have enlisted Primrose's help. We send Jordana to school with undies and plastic panties...and let them do the work. Jordana did great on Wednesday....then proceeded to poop in her pants at home Wed night, right after Randy asked her if she needed to go potty. Yesterday, she had a pooping accident in school but woke up dry after her nap. Last night she peed on the potty and was accident free, but woke up with a dirty pull up. She peed in the potty this morning.....things are looking up. I am a bit worried about the weekend, with Randy being alone for 4 days while I work. We'll see.
As for other things, currently reading Mary Higgins Clark new book, tried to catch up on sleep and scrapbooking (failing miserably there). I was sad to hear of the horrible fire at Gallery furniture last night, but I know Mac will recover. I'm glad So you think you can dance is back...but I hate Sonia!! I thought she was going to have a BIG O right there on TV last night!! Hope all is well in your world!!!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Monday crappy Monday...


It started with a 3 am wakeup call from Kara...and again at 5 am. Jordana woke up and insisted on wearing underwear. Randy believed her when she said she would pee pee on the potty. Within an hour she had peed in her pants, which I discovered 2 minutes before I tried to walk out the door. So I had to stop and change her. I got to work...and had a tech call in within an hour of me starting my shift. Then I get a phone call from Primrose...Kara has 101 fever. Argh!!! Randy picked her up and I called the dr...just in time for them to start lunch. Randy was able to get an appointment at 5:15, which means I had to leave work early. So I worked until 5:30 with no lunch break, then went to get Jordana. On the way to Jordana's school, a rock hit my windshield and chipped a large portion out of it. After getting Jordana, we had McDonalds for dinner And Kara was finally seen after 6 pm. Kara has a double ear infection and she is on her third course of antibiotics. She is home from school on Tuesday. Last night was no better, she woke up at 2am and was in and out until 7am when she woke up to be fed. What a crappy day....the only bright point was picking up Jordana and finding her in a pair of pipe cleaner glasses making her look like Harry Potter. she wore them all the way thru dinner!!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Kara inherits the Dorfman ears...

Seems like Kara has the weak Dorfman ear parts. It started on Saturday. Kara always runs a fever because she has teeth coming in but Saturday her demeaner was a bit off. By Sunday, she was very whiney. At dinner time she cried for what seemed like no reason at all. We finally got her to sleep and she woke up at around 10:30 crying. After I fed her she went back to sleep with a dose of Motrin but at 3am she cried...and cried for 2 hours. Randy took her to the dr on Monday and found out she had a ruptured ear drum. I've done it twice before, I know how painful it is. My dad has bad ears too. Sorry Kara. After some antibiotics (oral and drops) and motrin around the clock, she seems better. I only hope the bacteria is not resistant to the antibiotics...since I read an article that there is a stain of ear bacteria that is resisitant to 18 different antibiotics. Kara will probably need tubes too...but they worked out great for Jordana, so it doesn't bother me.


We tried to crash potty train Jordana this weekend...and failed miserably. This girl just likes sitting in her own poop!! So we took away the underwear that she was wearing over her pull up and told her they were for girls who pee pee on the potty all the time. She will not get them back until she is ready. She just doesn't seem to understand what they are for.


Randy took Jordana fishing on Sat night. He bought her a little girls fishing rod. She loved it. She even petted the fishes (5 of them ) before they were thrown back. What a Daddy's girl.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Time to catch up




So I am the worlds worst blogger. I haven't updated in over a month. Maybe that is because I am beyond busy. I have been booked solid for over a month. Easter, Passover, Creative Memories Celebrations, CKC and work have sucked up all my time. I had inventory a few weeks ago and it was bad...again. I feel like Walgreens is setting me up for a bad inventory by underestimating my shrink all year and the huge amount of coupons we accept. In the past month, I transferred out one employee and transferred in another...so far so good. I received a new fridge and have still not completing the transition because we are so busy filling Tamiflu rxs for the swine flu....which was completly overblown. I have had some fun times, Creative Memories Celebration at the George R Brown where I finally completed my Door county peek a boo album (only 1 ½ years later) and 5 pages. The following weekend was CKC, where I took WONDERFUL classes. Looking forward to applying my new knowledge to my pages. then there was the issue with my computer. Couldn't do anything but email and surf....couldn't download from the web or use my itunes or Sillhouette software. Thanks to Danny Delany for fixing it for me....now I just need to get the laptop up and running so I can take it to crops....I have a dead network card in there...waiting for my netgear to arrive from ebay so I can connect again!! Once I jumped that hurdle.....the kids got sick...then i did. Jordana was diagnosed with walking pneumonia and Kara has an ear infection. Days home from school, antibiotics and nebulizer treatments has wreacked havoc on our schedule. Then I started feeling crappy. Saw the dr yesterday...good news, it's not the swine flu...just a virus. Oh, and Kara is teething so her sleep patterns are all messed up. Add a wonderful visit from my cousin and Aunt and holidays, and my dance card was full!! So here are a few pix from the last month and I will try to update more often. And to Holly F and her family...so glad everything has worked out...Love from Houston.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Smile


Who could resist this face??

Friday, April 3, 2009

Life is flying by...







Here are some pix from the last 2 months, Jordana at the rodeo and Kara at the children's museum. Kara will be 6 months old on the 13th. Time flies!!
Speaking of time, I just watched the last episode of ER. For 15 years, this show has been my Thursday night reprieve. Starting at CW Post, when the show premiered, I remember watching it with my roomates after Friends. In pharmacy school, it was a tradition on Thursday nights to watch Friends, then ER, then go out andhave a few drinks. We would test each other about the medical storylines and try to catch a mistake...we never did. (unlike Law and Order, where mistakes regarding drugs are always occuring). After moving to Texas, I watched it when I lived alone, when I lived with Randy and after we got married and moved into this house. For 15 years, ER was one thing I could count on. Michael Crichton created a masterpiece that withstood the test of time. I will miss his books and his TV show and the great drama that was. I hope one day to own all 15 seasons on DVD so my kids can watch one of the shows Mommy grew up with. Thanks, NBC, for keeping with it for 15 years.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Results of the bloody incident..


I forgot to update on the bloody incident. the blood came out of Randy's and Jordana's clothes and here is a pix of her bruise... It was gone within a week... I was waiting for a call from CPS when we brought her to school!!

Tired....


That about sums me up in one word. As you can see, I have not been a good blogger. I am so tired. No matter how much sleep I get, I am still tired. At the end of the day, I just want to go to sleep. Is it just a side effect of being working mom of 2? Or is it something more? I won't be able to determine what it is until Kara is sleeping at night. It is currently 5:23 am and I have been awake since 3am. Kara is screaming her head off. Even though Randy and I are switching nights and still are sleeping on the air bed....it's not enough sleep for me. I can't remember the last time I slept more than 5 hours. There was ONE night when Kara slept from 9pm to 6am...but my body is so used to getting up, that I kept waking up.

The good news is that I have received more pharmacist help at work. I have a new supervisor and she took care of it right away. Although there is nothing permanent, just floaters at this time, it has made it a bit easier at work, especially since I have inventory in a month. Last years inventory was a disaster, so I am hoping to be redeemed this year.
This pix is a rare moment when Kara is peacefully napping in her bouncer.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

The bloody incident


I was at work (hell) last night when Randy called. He seemed calm and I asked how his night was going. He said it was fine until Jordana had a little fall. I pictured her falling down the stairs but he said no. She was running into the dining room and she fell...her nose broke the fall, when it slammed into the base of the table leg. Randy immediately picked her up and she, of course, started balling. then the blood started flowing. Luckily it was just a nose bleed and not a surface wound. Randy said there was blood everywhere, which probably scared her even more. It was about 8:15 when he called me and I talked to her on the phone. She sounded ok but her voice was scratchy from crying. She was eating a cracker, which she thought was a cookie...so she felt all better. Randy and I checked on her constantly last night and she was fine this morning, with no visible scars from last night. Only bloody pj's which I hope Shout is working it's magic on. I think she took 10 years off Randy's life!!!

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Kara sleeps


Kara's new formula seems to be helping her tremendously. She is not sleeping thru the night yet, but she is sleeping better. She seems less colicy and is eating alot more. Most nights, she'll eat 8 oz at 8pm and sleep for 6 to 8 hours....too bad they are so early in the evening and we can't cash in on it. We are slowly weaning her off her middle of the night feeding..she is down to 4 oz. She still does not nap well, doing so in 30 to 35 minutes spurts during the day...but even the teachers at daycare have noticed a difference...and they adore her. They call her Care bear!
I may be sleeping a bit better but work is still a nightmare. I had to fire someone and quickly hire someone else.My new hire is smart and will do well. I just hope the volume doesn't drive him away!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Conversation with a 3 year old

M: Jordana, your pj bottoms are almost too short for you! You are going to be tall like me.

J; I don't want to be tall!!!

M: Do you want to be short?

J: NO!!

M: Then what do you want to be?

J: I want to be Jordana Kerth!!!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Jordana turns 3!!



Jordana's 3rd birthday was on Friday and we had a birthday party on Saturday, complete with a bouncer, hotdogs, great weather, friends and tons of fun!! Jordana woke up with a very snotty runny nose. Great timing. I spent most of the day chasing her around with tissues. Here are some snapshots!!








Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Sleep training

It is 3:30 in the morning and Kara has been crying for over an hour. Dr. Nelson told us it was time to un-spoil our child. No more rocking to sleep, no more picking up every time she cried. So after her 2am bottle she went back to sleep....for 15 minutes. Then the babbleing began...then the crying. Her cries are not as hearty after an hour and I leave the room when she does, and come back when they stop...hoping to teach her that not-crying is good. After the first 15 minutes I went to check on her...and found her lying in a huge puddle of spit up! Poor thing. After rearranging her she cried for like 45 more minutes. It is now 3:34 am and she seems to have conked out. Let's see how long this lasts. Dr. Nelson told us that the formula could take a full 2 weeks to take effect....her GI tract needs to adjust to it. Off to bed I go....I hope.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Time for some changes







We have made some changes in the Kerth household. The first is Kara's formula. After a few weeks of sleepless nights and a constantly crying child, we were at our wits end. On Friday I ran into an old tech while I was shopping for a baby gift at Target. Turns out she had a little boy on 10/29. We talked and it seems he has had colic and feeding issues too. She told me that she ended up with Alimentum. She tried Nutramigen but her son got diarrhea from it. She said it did seem to soothe his stomach. When she tried Alimentum, his diarrhea stopped. I have been avoiding this route because Nutramigen and Alimentum is twice as expensive as the Gentlease, which Kara has been on since she was 3 weeks old. We switched on Friday with a label promise to see results within 24 hours. We decided to do Nutramigen because it is a tiny bit less expensive, and we discovered it smells really bad! I was worried she wouldn't eat it because there is like no sugar in it and reports on the internet state many babies don't like it, but Kara didn't miss a beat. But I was sorely dissappointed when Kara kept me up ALL NIGHT on Friday night. I came downstairs with her at 5:30 am, and promptly fell down the stairs with Kara in my arms. I was able to protect her but I bruised both feet, skinned my knee and banged my arm. Randy heard me yell and got out of bed to help me. I went back upstairs and cried myself to sleep. It has been too much for me.
My parents watched Kara when Randy and I went out yesterday. She cried the whole time and barely ate. After we got home, she got a bath and slept until 11:30. After her bottle, Randy took her upstairs and she slept until 2:30, ate and slept until 7:30. We are about 36 hours in to the change. There is hope...

The other change in the Kerth household is our money issues. Randy and I saw Dave Ramsey yesterday. I had been reading his books and I had implemented a budget for our household. I got what he had to say right away! I decided I was the Nerd and Randy was the free spirit. After seeing Dave live yesterday and hearing what he had to say , I think Randy finally got it. He agreed with my nerd/free spirit tags!! So, according to Dave, we are going to become WEIRD!! We are cutting up credit cards, cutting out all unnecssary spending and sticking to a tight budget. I hope to be able to pick up overtime to make some more money, but right now I am too exhausted. We hope to be out of debt within 2 years, except the house. So, no more vacations, no more buying junk, no more eating out....we are going to be weird...and weird is good. Weird will be GREAT when we are out of debt and actually have money in the bank. We will not be slaves to the banks anymore!!! Anyone want to buy a pool table?

Friday, January 16, 2009

Some pix from the past month..











Blog Slacker....


So Iam a blog slacker. It's been over a month since I have posted. Time has slipped away from me. Could it be because I have a 3 month old, a 3 year old and have gone back to work? Kara is still not sleeping thru the night. She gets up to eat once and usually one other time. But during the day she is adorable. She smiles alot and is eating better. Her colic has subsided but she still has some crying bouts once in a while. At school yesterday, she rolled over from her stomach to her back.
I went back to work on December 15...and have been miserable. It is so busy, we cannot keep up. I am getting tired of it. There is no down time...ever. I have lost both my interns and do not have any extra help anymore. Most days I dread going to work. I never thought I wold be in this place again. If it weren't for my awesome staff and most of my great customers.....I don't think I could do it.
The holidays were a whirlwind. Jordana was overwhelmed again with the amount of presents. We have a few she didn't even open...they'll make good birthday presents!! I'm kind of glad life has returned to normal.
Last weekend I went to a weekend retreat and got 20 pages done. If I didn't have these retreats, I would never get any scrapbooking done!!! I am looking forward to CKC in April. My next retreat isn't until August....boo hoo!!
Jordana is as onery as ever. Yesterday, when we were getting out of the car...she said..Mommy, I need something for in my mouth. Translation...a paci or a lollypop.
I find it harder to take pix. Jordana is older now and she gets into everything. I can't leave the Nikon laying around for fear she will get into it. By the time I grab it, the moment is gone. I hope to be a little quicker on the draw to get some great pix.