OK Pictures from 2 weeks back

A with my father

My parents, me and A out for my b'day dinner

Right after bath time

Hanging out with Grandpa Jeff

My mom's cousin and A. He has a grandson essentially the same age with a very similar name.

Us on the plane after landing in Chicago.

A Busy Week Looms...

We are sitting here on a Sunday with a busy week ahead of us.  It is sure to be a busy week, we're just hopeful that everything turns out as we would like it.  We know that it will all turn out okay in the end, but there are things going on now that we'd really really like and having them turn out okay now would be helpful for both of us.

First and foremost is Chris's step-sister Kelly.  Kelly is 17 and on Friday went into liver failure.  She was flown from Little Rock to St Louis to have a liver transplant Friday night.  They have no idea what caused the failure and she is only deteriorating as time goes on.  She must have a liver by Tuesday or Wednesday according to the docs, and that's not far off.  We are only four hours from St Louis, so if we need to make a trip down there to be with her (or his mom and step father) we plan on it.  Chris has the time off from work if necessary, so we could even make a (long) day trip out of it if necessary. 

Next up, is a possible trip to Tennessee to interview for me.  I interviewed (and wrote a bit about it in my last blog) over the phone and haven't heard back yet.  The company wants to do interviews the first and second weeks of August, so I know that a trip there is coming up soon, provided I made the cut.  I'd really really like the job.  I haven't heard back about not getting it (and the interviewers promised to not leave me hanging) so we still have hope.  Depending on interview time we may have to stay overnight somewhere and Chris may come with me, or we may leave A with Chris and a bottle (which she has yet to ever successfully take really)...we shall see and worry about it when the time comes though. 

After that, it is the last week of the summer term for Chris.  If he manages to be at UIC this week he's got a lot on his plate.  The students will do labs Monday through Wednesday, and check-out of the labs.  Then he has to get them cleaned, check locks and reset drawers in two weeks time.  The building project he has had going on since December is also supposed to be ready, so he needs to be ready for rubbing elbows with the higher ups in the College and University (dean, president, etc) while trying to get the lab ready for classes that start the end of August.  Hopefully he'll get some more help as his one full-time person is out on sick leave right now and his summer help is going to need to go back to school. 

Oh and, Chris had an interview with the water treatment plant this past week.  He wasn't impressed by the plant, but it may have better hours and better pay.  He would at least then be able to get a counter offer from the University, or a new job, if he gets offered. 

That's what may come this week...as for what happened last week.

Monday Chris had the interview.  I went to the cafe with A and we met Laurie there.  Laurie was shocked at how big, alert, and strong she was.  I managed to snap this pic of her on Laurie's shoulder. 

Wednesday of last week I did venom testing at the allergist's.  They gave me the scratch test and then five rounds of intradermal tests.  Each one had to sit for 15 minutes, so it took all morning.  I'm not allergic to: Honey Bee, Wasp, White Field Hornet, Yellow Hornet, or Yellow Jackets.  Then since those tests didn't show anything they wanted me to do a blood test as well.  I've got bruises up my arm still that make me look like a bad user of some form.  The lady doing the test and I had an interesting conversation towards the end.  She said, "Well it looks like you aren't allergic to anything."  I told her "That based on the test results we could only say that I more than likely wasn't allergic to the five things."  She informed me that those were the most common things to be allergic to when stung.  I told her that was fine, but that didn't mean I couldn't be allergic to something uncommon, and let's face it, with my track record, I probably had something uncommon sting me and cause the reaction.

Thursday I got to go for a run.  I haven't ran since last fall, so it was nice to get out.  It was HOT and humid, but it was great to be out.  I left A with Chris and she stayed asleep for the most part he said.  I even got sore, which means I'm at least a little out of shape.  I didn't go very far, or do it very fast, but I went and I get to go again.  I'm actually planning on going again in a few hours, once it cools down at least a little.

Friday night A and I went to a bridal shower for one of my friends from church.  She is a part of the more "active" group of people -- the ones who play volleyball in the winter, softball in the summer, and do the Friday Night Sports, so at the shower I got to catch up with several of my friends that I haven't really seen in a while since I wasn't able to play vb this winter (worked too much) and haven't been out to Friday Night Sports (since I had a baby and wasn't really cleared to play until about a month ago, and I haven't really been here since then).  Chris dressed her in a tutu and we got to put a bow in her hair.  She doesn't seem to control her hands much, but she sure had the best aim in knocking the bow out of her hair.  :)  Here's a picture of us dressed and ready to go:

For the A update:  She's working really hard to sit up by herself and turn over from back to front.  She can do both about halfway -- she can turn on her side and sit up to about a good crunch level.  She is still eating, sleeping and pooping like a champ.  Well, she has decided that she doesn't like naps, so that makes her a LOT more cranky and less of a sleeping champ.  Chris and I are learning ways of lulling her back to sleep (or getting her there) to make her a champ again.  We are also reading a lot.  The Borders by us is going out of business so we got The Lorax and The Sleep Book to help us expand her library.  Chris really wanted The Sneetches, but it wasn't there when I went on Friday.   Here is a random picture of her from the week:

I suppose that is about it.  I've managed to get this all done with A asleep, so I should probably go get ready for her to wake up.  I hope all is well with you, and that you aren't melting.  

Impromptu Meet the Family Trip

Well this past week and change A and I went to OK to visit family.  We originally were there since Bill was coming in from Germany, John and Lauren were coming in from San Fran, and Isaac, well, he was around since he's moved back to OK.  And naturally, since I had the new baby, I also needed to be in town to show her off.  A list of people that we managed to meet while there:

Bill, Cathy, Mathias, Grace (the Germany clan)
Grandma and Grandpa Sehorn (Chris's dad's parents)
Grandmother Godfrey (Chris's mom's mom)
Susan and Jeff (Chris's mom and her husband)
John and Lauren (my brother and his wife from San Fran)
Isaac (my brother)
Melinda and Clark (good friends of mine that went to dinner with us for my b'day)
My dad, his wife Susan, Susan's son and girl friend
Francesca, Steve, Dakota, Wyatt, Brittnie, Jay (Mom's husband's daughter and her clan)
Steve M and his son Caleb (best friend of Isaac who mom considers one of the family)
Harlan and Lou Pinkerton (cousin and wife of cousin of my mom)
Marjorie (a cousin of my mom's)
Charlotte, Jason, Anson and Christian (my cousin and her family that live in Kansas City)
Ben and Kathy (my aunt and uncle)
Tom and Mary Anne (my dad's cousin and her husband)

Yeah, so we met all those people, often more than once in about three days.  Can you say overload for both of us? 

We had a great trip and A did fabulously on the airplanes.  She is quite the traveler already and so we're hoping that trend continues as she grows. Everyone who sat next to me was amazed at how well she did on the flights, so that's nice. 

Today we went for A's 2 month well baby check up.  She continues to be in the 55-70 percentile and well proportioned.  The doctor said that A will probably be turning over soon, and has the back legs for the crawling already going, so that's probably not far behind either.  We also got the first round of shots so A is incredibly fussy today.  Our friend from Minneapolis, Heather, came down, and she's been helpful in dealing with that. 

Yesterday I had a good interview with a German company called Wacker.  They are opening a site in TN in 2014 and I'd really like the job.  Any prayers, well wishes, etc would be appreciated.  It would necessitate a move to Germany for about a year for training for me, but then we'd be moved back to TN to help start-up the company.  :)  The next step though is a face to face interview in TN the first or second week in August.  So here's hoping that I make it that far! 

This coming Monday Chris has an interview with a water treatment plant nearby.  It would be better hours, better pay, and what he hopes is a better environment to work in.  Hopefully he gets it as he hates working at the university a little more each day.  It has gotten so bad that on Tuesday when he picked A and me up from the airport he wasn't really able to enjoy seeing us because he had such a bad day at work.  He was happy to see us, but he didn't really show it at all simply because he was in a foul mood. 

We're weathering the weather fairly well I suppose.  We have to keep our ac's running, and they aren't really designed for that.  Thankfully we're over half done with summer, and hopefully August won't be nearly as hot as May, June and July have been.  I'm not going to hold my breath for that, though holding my breath may give me cleaner, better air than breathing right now.... 

I'm off to lay down for a bit as Heather has got A to stop crying, I think they are both out in the recliner. 

pumpkin muffins

Chris wanted pumpkin muffins since it is cool enough to bake and not drive up the energy bill.  I couldn't really find something good, so here's a nice simple recipe that I did.

1 C brown rice flour
1 C Sorghum flour
1/2 C tapioca flour
1 TBS gum
2 tsp baking soda
1 c sugar
cinnamon
ginger
cloves (just a shake)
2 TBS vanilla
1 15oz can of pumpkin purree
2 eggs

2/3 C of butter
(add water if the dough looks too dry)

Topped with a cinnamon/sugar mixture, but you don't have to do that.

Mix up the dry ingredients.  Add the moist ones in order.  Put in muffin tin.  Bake 18ish min at 350.

In other news...

A is holding her head up extremely well.  She rarely does the bobblehead thing anymore.  She's also very curious about things.  She wants to be held and explore things that way, but wants to see and do what Chris and I do.  As Chris puts it, she "wills" her way to what she wants -- she looks really hard at it and then we move her there.  Her newest feat is sleeping about seven hours at a time.  She'll go down about nine and then wake up about 430, so we're lucky.  It freaked me out the first time she did it, but Chris and I are very grateful for the sleep.  She is also starting to jump along with you when you pick her up over your head, this is actually one of her favorite activities.  We also put her in the jumper/swing thing and she kind of is getting the hang of it, but it will just take more practice I think. 

This past week has really been uneventful.  We had people over for games on Friday and just chilled the rest of the weekend. 

Happy Independence Day!

For the fourth my mom and Bill came up for a visit.  In reality it is to see A, but we'll take it, it is always nice to see family and get a little bit of help doing stuff around the house.  A continues to nap well as long as she is cuddling with someone.  She seems to be an equal opportunity cuddler as well, so if you need a napping buddy, she's your girl.  Here is a picture of Chris and me hanging out on the couch one day. 

Today we went to the MSI and saw the Body World exhibit.  It was Mom's first time to see the bodies, and A's first time to not be in utero to visit the museum.  A was very patient and hung out in her sling, while mom read all of the different placard throughout.  The coolest things from this body worlds were the animal plastinates.  I'd never seen any of them before and they are just interesting to me.  My zoo girls would understand the fascination, but they had a plastinate giraffe in the entry way to the museum.  We didn't really have time to see much else at the museum, but that's why we're members -- so we can go for free and not feel pressured to see it all in one day. :)  Here are a few pictures though:

Other than that we just did house improvement things for the fourth, oh and we watched some fireworks from our balcony.  I actually made some slings to carry A in while Chris and Bill worked on the UV tinting for the door and mom occupied A.  They are GREAT and much more comfortable for me than the backpack carrier we got.  I switch sides every so often, and at the end of the day my back doesn't hurt.  Everyone always asks me if carrying A in either the backpack or slings is a comfortable thing, my response has become, "Well, I carried her there for about nine months, at least this way its only a few hours," and we both laugh and go about our separate business.  The other really cool thing with the sling though is that I can nurse A in public without much exposure of me (provided she cooperates) to the general public, so I don't really need a nursing cover if I've got her in the sling.  I found that out today at the museum. 

In terms of A: we're getting a lot more noises out of her for simple things.  She makes different sounds and is smiling a lot.  She has her toothless smiles that do brighten up the day and make changing that dirty diaper not so bad, though occasionally if she's worked really hard, she kind of gets upset that we change the diaper.  Cloth diapers are still going well.  She really really loathes the heat, so we're running our AC more than we ever have, at least since we've been here in Chicago.  Really we need a dehumidifier more than an AC sometimes, but that's not really a good idea for our place.  A didn't really seem to mind the fireworks until we got several from several locations.  She still likes to look at stuff with lots of contrast, so I think she enjoyed the museum.  She isn't sleeping as much, so we're able to read more and play a bit more. We have more good days in a week than bad ones (days when she is inconsolably cranky, but most of the time turning on the air helps the crankiness exponentially), so that's encouraging.  Hopefully June will be the hottest month of the summer, but I won't hold my breath about that. 

As always it seems, I'm cutting in to my sleep time, but think it is worth it to kind of keep a record of A this week so that I can look back on it and see things.