tag.

Cousin Hailey, this one is for you. And yes, it is only 4:45 in the morning. I have a ridiculous earache. Don't only children get earaches? I am doing this only to abide the time until the excedrin kicks in. I think it's Toledo. My immune system has been under attack since we've been here. I've never had this many sicknesses in such a short period of time in all of my life. Maybe I have some terrible auto immune disease. ew. Let's hope not.

What were you doing ten years ago?
so, like cousin Hailey I don't have that good a memory! luckily I keep an insanely good and detailed journal. ten years ago today I got in a car accident with my friends matt, ben, and scott. We were driving to a fireside at the Marriot Center.

five things on my to-do list today
1. go to walking group
2. serve missionaries lunch at their zone conference
3. update blog. again.
4. change diapers. feed baby. read him books.
5. ummm. so maybe that's it. wow, my life is easy. oh wait, we may go to the zoo today! I'll post pictures if we do.

Things I would do if I were suddenly made a a billionaire:
umm, put it all in investments and high interest accruing accounts. right now we have no need.

2 of my bad habits:
1. biting my fingernails
2. inability to remain quiet. I cannot control my mouth. I voice my input, opinion, anger, happiness, and /or response no matter what and in every situation.

5 places I have lived:
1.(holy) Toledo, OH
2. Rexburg, ID
3. Moscow, Russia
4. Tver, Russia
5. Provo/Orem, UT

5 Jobs I have had:
1. 4 AM snow shoveler (in Rexburg, ID) and I LOVED it.
2. Grounds worker. I love love love to mow lawns.
3. GAP employee. five years strong. I couldn't give up the discount.
4. Jr. High Science teacher/ High school Biology teacher.
5. MOM.

5 Things people don't know about me:
1. I, like kenna s., loathe, more then anything, to be shhhhed. It happens a lot in the temple. Kent and I DO NOT have temple voices when together (or alone for that matter).
2. I crave people and talking. I get really crabby if I sit in my house all day without real people contact and interaction (and, no, zeb does NOT count as a person). Thus the reason that I attend EVERY walking, cooking, book, and play group there is! and sign up to serve missionaries lunch at their zone conference.
3. I actually really really loved being pregnant. and with that said, I really don't like newborn babies, at all. Even my own when he was that age (but I am pretty sure everybody knew that).4. I was so embarrassed to be bringing a "boyfriend" (kent) to my family reunion (above picture) that I told everyone that he was my cousin justin's (he was living with us at the time) friend.
5. kent and I both have such detailed journals that from the day we became best friends (back in 1997) everything we EVER did together is RIDICULOUSLY well documented.

I tag my new blogging friends... molly and alicia, and then my old blogging friends.... jill, and cyndi e (you have been blog stalking for awhile now so I consider you an old blogging friend).

tribute to the Prophet.

My mom sent this to me in an e-mail! I like Glenn Beck and loved this. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.

3 posts in one day! can you tell that the wind chill is -17 and I just am not in the mood to venture out today? even for errands. I am going slightly stir crazy though, and regardless of the temperature I have a full day of activities planned for tomorrow! The big snow blast isn't supposed to be in until tomorrow evening.

This morning zeb ate all of the leftover potato soup that was intended for MY lunch. Luckily I love him. Shortly after the feeding he urped carrots up all over my sweater. boo. So I put on my sweatshirt. After his nap we decided to read his favorite books ("that's not my monster" and "feely bugs") when I smelled a rancid smell. He was sitting on my lap so I picked him up to check his diaper. No need to take a peek inside. He had diarrhea. and he had it on ME. yep, that's right, he pooed on me. I changed him (only his diaper needed changing. somehow he got his excrement on me but not on any of his own clothing) and put my sweatshirt in the wash. We continued to read and he got bored so we decided to play. I will take partial fault for this next occurrence. After much thought on his diarrhea and vomit from this morning, I deducted that he was probably getting a tooth. The only way I can get him to open his mouth long enough to check for teeth is by hanging him upside down. I did this and found a swollen gum. He is indeed getting tooth number seven. I repositioned him right side up and brought him close to my face to see if I could get a better look from another angle. The picture should explain exactly what happened. Zeb could not figure out what I had all over my face. Luckily he eats solids now so the urp kinda stuck. It wasn't running into my mouth or nose all that much (which is also why I had the time to take two pictures). He thought it was hilarious.

book reviews

I finished reading The Devil in the White City. The parts of the book that I read were enthralling. The book is split into two stories (both true) happening simultaneously, one about a serial killer in Chicago and the other about the history of the Chicago World's Fair. I was FAR more interested by the serial killer portion of the book. Maybe I'm slightly morbid. About a third way into the book I just skipped over the world's fair chapters and went straight to the story on Dr. H. H. Holmes. It was a little creepy and I loved it.

I am actually not quite finished with Peter and the Starcatchers, but I thought I'd post on it anyway. I love it. It is YA and makes for an easy quick read. With little Z, young adult novels are really the only type that I can read in a short enough period of time that I don't forget what happened at the beginning of the book. It precedes the traditional Peter Pan story and tells the of how Peter became Peter Pan. It's just a wonderful story and is the first in a series of three. I love when good books have more to follow! I can't wait to go and check the others out.

sleeping kent and happy zeb

part I of post. "sleeping kent"

I have this nasty head cold that seems to worsen beyond explanation right as I lie down to bed each night. Kent falls asleep relatively quickly and I am left to battle breathing. Two nights ago I got up to take another decongestant and decided to get some reading done while it kicked in. When I got back into bed I semi awakened Kent. Here is the conversation that ensued.

Kent: It's so cool
Leisy: What's so cool?
K: It's just so cool!
L: What is?
K: the Uterus
L: whose uterus?
K: the cross section of the uterus
L: whose cross section?
K: the cadaver's
and then he just started mumbling. I feel bad for him. He can't even rest from school while he's sleeping! Oh, I don't think that the cross section of a uterus looks all that cool.


part II of post. "happy zeb"

We went to zeb's pediatrician yesterday (we actually saw the resident, Anosh from Syria, because Dr. Badik is on maternity leave) for a hospital follow-up. He is completely better. The doctor said his lungs sounded 100% clear! HOORAY! no more breathing treatments! no more waking up all night! I think that I am happier than Zeb.

my healthy happy rugrat is back!

Gone are the days of slacker motherhood. It has come to an expected although dreaded end. Sure, I can still deposit the rugrat on the living room floor surrounded by his toys, but there is no longer the guarantee that I can find him in that same location when I return from my lickety split trip to the bathroom. This morning as I made myself a piece of toast and washed some of the leftover pots and pans from yesterday, I documented his first journey down the hallway. He is surprisingly quick and nimble with those chubby little legs and that portly belly! the last picture was a surprise to me. I thought he was headed to his bedroom, but upon return from the last pot I found him in quite the precarious position. It is a good thing that Kent deep cleaned the bathroom yesterday.

Gordon B. Hinckley 1910-2008

What a wonderful wonderful man! I miss him already! I sure am glad that he finally got to join his wife.

"Let us all try to stand a little taller, rise a little higher, and be a little better."

-President Gordon B. Hinckley, fifteenth prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

check out those rosy cheeks.

so, little z does SOOO much better at home with his breathing treatments! and I would like to thank baby einstein and laney and taylor for that! For Christmas they gave us the DVD player that allows us to watch baby Einstein! We would be in utter despair without that lovely gift right now. Not only does he allow us to stick the nebulizer in his face while being entertained, but he will sit still in his swing and can actually breathe because he is in an upright position for a period of time longer than two minutes!He is doing really well! I don't think that he would have even woken up last night if we hadn't made him get up every 3 hours for treatments! kent and I are POOPED! it's like having a newborn again (eww!!).

we couldn't escape the curse!

It finally caught up to us. All of the first year med students with kids have been cursed with terrible illnesses and we were not spared. Hopefully this is the end of hospitalization for all of the little boys!

Zeb has RSV. boo to rsv. Respiratory syncytial virus: It affects babies the worst, especially those under six months. Most toddlers get it but it doesn't advance to the lower respiratory tract. Really it's just a bad cold. Adults and older children carry and pass it but show no symptoms and it's the number one cause of pneumonia in babies under 12 months. I'm glad zeb's didn't progress that far! and apparently he shouldn't be of too much harm to all of the rugrats he came in contact with this week. Just no babies under one or really old people. oh, and here's the blurb I found on the CDC's website about prevention of rsv; "As the virus is ubiquitous in all parts of the world, avoidance of infection is not possible". kinda discouraging, huh?

With Zeb, it all really started yesterday. The poor little guy just couldn't breathe on his own without his chest working pretty hard so I went to the pediatrician's office where they gave him a breathing treatment. It helped, but not as much as it was supposed to so they had to give him another one right away. I guess if the doctor's office has to administer back to back treatments then they are forced to admit the baby to the hospital. I am really glad that we went in when we did!
Kent was in dissections and I told him to get as much done as he could and then head over to Toledo Children's Hospital. I knew it would take awhile before we got admitted and all settled in so I wasn't too worried. I am a relatively calm person when it comes to things like this. Little did I know what was in store for my poor innocent sweet little boy. It was HELL. He really hated the breathing treatments but his crying didn't bother me because I knew it wasn't hurting him. He just didn't like the cold aerosol or the noise. It was the following procedure that was more like torture. They made me hold him down (his arms and face) and then they shoved these awful tubes up his nose and down his throat. He SCREAMED and FOUGHT and WRETCHED and HEAVED as they sucked all of the sputum out of his lungs and air passages. They had to go in through both nostrils repeatedly. I closed my eyes and tears just streamed down my face. Because he resisted so much there was lots of blood coming up with the phlegm. They did it a total of six times while we were there! I refused to be present for the other five sessions. Kent did four of them and I made a nurse hold him when Kent had to go back to school. I just couldn't watch them stick those tubes down his nose. He actually slept really well and made the best possible progress through the night! They discharged him today at two after a final torture session. Thank heavens Kent could make it back from classes for the final "hold down".

They sent us home with our very own nebulizer for keeps! Because of my family history of asthma (dad and daysa) they said he may need it more often with other colds he gets. We have to give him treatments every four hours for the next 2-3 days. I got lots of practice on daysa (my little sis) when she was younger so it shouldn't be too rough. They even sent him home with a cool little turtle/dragon mask!
Although our experience was by no means pleasant, some good things came of it! The munchkin will now actually stretch out his arms to come to me! I think things were a little traumatic and he realizes I'm not so bad after all. Plus, we got to meet some really great people. We had a 2 month old little boy roommate this morning and we got to talk with his dad, Antoine, quite a bit. plus, one of the respiratory therapists was Russian! She sang Russian lullabies to Zeb and we got to have a great talk about the church! we also had a great nurse who asked lots of questions about the church as well. Meeting new people is one of my favorite things ever! let's hope it happens under better circumstances next time. oh, and how could I forget?! we got lots of free expensive diapers.
here's Zeb reading his favorite book. His favorite page is the "bumpy paws" page. He'd scratch at the paws forever if we let him.

New Dinner Recipe

I finally feel back to real life and completely settled in this week! I'm totally better and finally used to kent being gone all day again! I am also back to trying to find new food choices for the dinner table. I really don't like Italian food but I know Kent loves it so I thought I'd give this recipe a whirl. It's a lower (not low) fat manicotti recipe that was pleasantly quite simple and pretty tasty. It got a 7.25 on the do-over scale (for those of you unfamiliar with the scale, anything over a 5 is a do-over). I had NEVER attempted anything of the sort before this evening and I would still classify it as easy.

1 container skim ricotta cheese (it's by the cottage cheese)
1 cup part skim mozzarella
1/3 c Parmesan cheese
3 egg whites, slightly beaten
1 container frozen spinach (thawed, chopped, and well drained)
2 cloves garlic (it needs to be cooked. I just used the preminced in a jar kind so no cooking is needed)
1 *can marinara/spaghetti sauce
1 package manicotti (cooked, drained)

While boiling manicotti (11-13 minutes) mix together 1/2 of Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses and all other ingredients. Drain manicotti and run under cold water (so they can be handled). I only ended up with 10 out of the 14 shells escaping unharmed but 14 would have been too many anyway. Fill the shells with the mixture. The recipe says to spoon it in. YEAH RIGHT. I just used my hands. Place in a greased pan and cover with the can of sauce. Cook 25-35 minutes. Sprinkle with remainder of cheeses and bake five more minutes.

*This Dei Fratelli pizza sauce is possibly the most delicious marinara/pizza sauce I've ever had. I don't even like tomatoes and I could eat it by the spoonful. I have only been able to find the sauce at Meijer. Incidentally Dei Fratelli is a Toledo based family run business. I'm all about shopping local.

thank heavens for house calls!

Little Zeb has a cough again (I swear the original cough never really went away) and he's a little wheezy this time around so I've been worried. He sounds like the broken squeaker penguin on toy story. Lucky for us our home teacher (steve weber) came by this evening and brought his equipment to check Z out. Hooray for home teacher doctors.
It seems Z has a cold. Just as we suspected...nothing fixable. When I'm sick and there's no solution I am okay dealing with it! I hate when we just have to wait it out with zeb! I get all paranoid thinking that he has RSV or Pneumonia or something worse like Ebola. He's still full of smiles and quite active so we'll just have to keep an eye on him and try to get him to sleep and to stay hydrated (lots of Gatorade, right dad?). The pediatrician told us that the average baby gets sick 4-10 times their first year. That means we may not even be halfway there yet. let's hope this is our third and final bug.

the mover

Here's the little guy doin his stuff! He's been a little wheezy this weekend but it hasn't seemed to slow him down :)

Sunday Shmunday!

My rugrat is so fabulous. He just gets more and more fun everyday! He is now totally mobile. He isn't crawling but he moves across the floor in a fashion similar to that of that dance move "the worm". I'll try to post a video tomorrow! It's adorable. He is talking, playing, eating real food, reading books, and just being cute. This is what I wanted when I signed up to have a baby!In other news, it's FREAKING freezing here. I absolutely love it. Here is a little blurb from the news today!
"NBC24 Meteorologist Michael Schlesinger says the arctic blast will be here for the next two days bringing wind chills of minus-10 to minus-20."
It reminds me of Russia. Just the feel of it makes me feel like I am back there! We nearly froze to death my first winter there! The bitter stinging humid wind is INSANE! I love it. It makes your nose hairs frost over! and sends chills down your spine as it sinks into the bones. I crave it! Is that weird?!?! This is a picture of my favorite city (tver) and one of my favorite views! Winter on the Volga.

The Annual Medicine Ball

(Some of the pictures are stolen from other blogs. thank you picture takers!)(this picture is one I took of the two of us! sorry about the weird angle!) Tonight was the medicine ball! They have this big semi-formal dance for all of the med students and "dates"! There was a nice dinner and then a giant dance. It was so much fun!! My neighbor got a chi for Christmas and we learned on Youtube how to curl our hair with it so I did that for the big event! We had such a blast dancing! I was grateful that nobody was fabulous at dancing and many were drunk so Kent and I only looked like semi-idiots as we danced away! I know, this is quite the hot picture of the two of us dancing. I'm not sure why I'm even posting it. you all deserve a little giggle for the day.
This isn't my favorite picture (to the left) but it will have to do since it's the only one that I got! We were all together except for the girl on the very end with the tube dress on. I have no idea who she is. This will definitely be a tradition! It felt just like high school! we laughed so hard on the dance floor! we were all sweaty and nasty and there were some pretty funny dancers out there. We all bailed early to pick up our rugrats! Our neighbor Ellen was wonderful enough to watch Zeb for us! She lives here at Heather Hills so it was extremely convenient.

jan 17

I have a rash. And it's all over my body. This picture doesn't do it justice. I actually think that it's eczema. It's miserable and I have NO self control. I just sit and scratch and scratch and scratch. Let's hope that it goes away.

I had to take the rugrat to get immunized today by MYSELF. Kent usually comes with me so that he can hold Zeb down while the shots are administered and I can stand out in the hallway. I enter only to hold him when the evil nurse is finished. I was pretty nervous about being the one to hold Z down today. In the car I told him that I didn't want to do it but I had to and I'd appreciate if he didn't scream too much. He didn't shed even ONE tear! He whimpered once but then took his binkie and put his head on me! It was so painless (for me anyway)! Here he is just a few minutes after the visit.

I need help....

Last night we had book club at my house and had a planning session. We came up with quite a lengthy book list and I want to schedule the next five months to carry us until summer. The problem is that I don't know which books to choose! I know most of you blog readers aren't in the book club here in Toledo but I could still use your help narrowing down the list, especially if you've read any of them and think they are fabulous or terrible/inappropriate. Plus, the list may be a good reading list for you too! Those of you participating in the book club, I need your help as well! so, to all: Cast your votes for the two you like best and/or want to read the most, plus any "don't read" votes. and if you have any other great suggestions, I'm all ears! Thanks for your help!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon
Book Thief Markus Zusak
To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee
Devil in the White City Eric Larson
Peter and the Starcatchers Dave Barry
My Sister's Keeper Jodi Picault
Ghost Map Steven Johnson
Hot Zone Richard Preston
Angry Housewives Eating Bon-bons Lorna Landvik
Not Without My Daughter Betty Mahmoody
Finer Points of Sausage Dog Alexander McCall Smith
Twelve Little Cakes Dominika Dery
The Oath Khassan Baiev
(the last two are two of my favorites!)

I'm going to try and read all of them anyway! I absolutely LOVE having a good book to read! plus it gives me something great to do now that the big freeze is settling back in over Toledo (the news people call it the Arctic Blast)!

Nine point victory in Michigan!

I'm glad the race is being kept interesting! I'm excited for "Super Tuesday". Hooray for Mr. Romney.

Happy Birthday Dedyshka!

hip hip hooray! too bad we aren't there to celebrate. We'll have a party here! Thanks for being such a wonderful Dad and Grandpa. We hope you are around for many many many more years (or that if you aren't that you leave us lots and lots of money). :)
Happy Birthday to the geekiest, yet somehow manages to be the coolest, dad in the universe!!

who is your candidate?

Really, no matter what I do I come out with the same 2 answers on the quizzes for my top person. I guess that means they are working huh? I've been trying to take as many as possible. It probably isn't the most accurate way to decide my vote! :) I sure have a whole lot more research to do though! On some of these issues I'm still a little befuddled.

quiz
QUIZ 2
quiz 3

300th POST!!!!!!!! all about our rugrat.

We have reached a blogging milestone with our 300th post! It is of course all about Zeb.
Here he is on his hands and knees just begging to move forward. We've already run into a few problems with a baby incompatible home. I'm afraid that the crawling is going wreak havoc upon our household. I can't believe he hasn't shocked himself by gnawing on our electrical cords or singed his flesh by pulling my straightener onto his face!!
but really, don't we have the cutest baby on this planet? Zeb has been the most ridiculously adorable baby this week while I've been ill! As I've gone through the past 299 posts I've realized (which we've really known all along) that this blog is just a way to shamelessly post his accomplishments and cute little photogenic face! Our original intent for this blog was to keep friends and family up to date on our little family while we are so far away in (holy) Toldeo! I think that you are mostly updated on Z! Kent and I haven't changed much in the last six months so I guess it works out. Let's hope we can all last another 300 posts!

He LOVES mac and cheese

He definitely has my tastes thus far! mac and cheese and pizza are his favorite foods. I remember Hailey saying that Jack loved mac and cheese so I thought it was a good next step. He is obsessed. He'll eat an entire pack of the single serving stuff!!! You can see his top little teeth in this picture as well. I'm pretty sure he's going to have a huge gap between them. His superior labial frenulum (that thin stringy thing that connects your lip to you gums/jaw) connects very low and may cause his teeth to gap. He may have to get it snipped!

If I'm not feeding him fast enough he'll do this little trick. He'll make little fists and then shake and tighten his entire body. It's very humorous. I was very pleased that he did it for the camera. He is quite the photogenic little creature. He must get that from his auntie Metta.

Zeb's new family!

They are new to him anyway! Zeb had quite the adventure and met a plethora of new and friendly faces over the holiday break! unfortunately we didn't get all of them on camera, but I'll post some of the ones that we did capture. he really loves people and enjoyed himself immensely! he did ralph all over his first cousin, once removed, tanner! but he loved his great aunt donna!

He and jack-jack hit it off with the cleaning supplies.



The picture with all of the Popsicles is of Zeb and his cousins, Marissa, Krystal, and Aaron. In the car he's hanging out with his other cousins Ethan and Hanna











He loved his aunties Metta (who was diagnosed with chicken pocks/shingles the very day this pic was taken!), Daysa, and Laney! And here's the rugrat with his auntie laney (again) and uncle taylor. Because the rugrat really has no preference of one person over another we couldn't ever figure out if Z mistook Laney for me! Perhaps in June he'll love me more and we'll see how it goes :)

illness and politics.

Update (for those of you who care):During the day I feel fabulous. I think for sure the little bugs have vacated my body, but every morning when I wake up and I feel like they have relaunched an attack. Now I have that terrible cough that won't allow you to sit still longer than five minutes. If I try to stifle anything my eyes start watering and my body heaves out the coughs. Then the cough scratches up my throat all over again. My voice is at about 25%. I am definitely on the up :) and neither Zeb nor Kent are showing any signs of illness! I really want to go running so I hope I am totally better by tomorrow! My attempts to run yesterday were greeted by a very angry throat.

The Michigan primaries are on the fifteenth! just a few short days away. I am so tempted to drive up over the border and see if I can find the candidates! I know that Mitt will be in Hudsonville, but it's nearly four hours away from here. I can't find the exact locations of the other candidates. All of the politics get me so excited! and then so anxious at the same time. On the republican ticket I really am pulling for Romney, but it looks like it's going to be a crazy race. I am excited to see what happens once Guilliani starts campaigning in the bigger states. I just don't like Huckabee...at all. I'm afraid he's too much like Bush. I strongly believe we need a big change and Huckabee is not the force of that change. I'm trying to separate myself from the bias I have towards Romney, but after reading issues and watching debates, I really do like him the most. I still don't like Hilary and I'm not sure I can change that! Right now I'm trying to learn as much as I can about Obama and Edwards.
Sometimes I just wish we could just have the big convention (scheduled in August) tomorrow and then I could focus my energies on choosing one of the two candidates! one of my favorite sites to look at is cnn.com. They have up to date info on everything, and they have it so that you can look at all candidates' positions on the same time about the same issue. Basically it's a candidate comparison (although not entirely comprehensive).

I'll post some Zeb pictures later today (I know that's the real reason you all look at my blog!).

ahhhh (silently)!

The worst has finally arrived. My throat feels awful. Still cheese grater bad. You can kind of see the redness in the pictures. Plus, when I swallow, it now feels as though a golf ball has lodged itself down there. And to top it all off, to make matters the worst imagineable, my voice is gone. Last night at cooking group it was nearly gone and hard for me to talk. Kent wasn't here this morning to talk to so I only realized that it was totally gone when the sister missionaries called. I answered with a "hello", but nothing came out. I tried desperately to get out a squeak and finally mustered out a "hey". Sister Dickson just laughed and said "I guess that means you probably won't be able to come teaching with us tonight, huh?" They had dinner with us last night and knew my voice was on its way out. This happens every year-never fail. I think Zeb is starting to wonder why I'm not talking or singing to him or reading books like usual. He keeps giving me these funny stares. I just hope that it's back soon. I HATE not being able to talk. I've been running errands today and I probably seem so rude...not chatting to anybody or saying thank-you. I'm going bonkers!!!!