HAPPY BIRTHDAY IAN!

Yes, ladies and gents, today is the day. One year ago, on this very day, Ian was born.
I can't tell you how freaking excited I am. We've been so blessed to have him in our lives.

Dan and I woke up this morning and sang Happy Birthday to Ian, but tonight is when he will get to eat cake and open his toys. It will only be us 3, but it will still be fun. Ian had his birthday celebration with Dan's side of the family on Easter, and he will share a birthday celebration with his Uncle (my brother) next weekend.

There will be more pictures to come, but I figured I start you off with an Ian appetizer. This was after singing happy birthday to him this morning. Check out that bedhead

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As promised, here are a few more pictures of the big day.

Hope you had a happy Easter

I know we did. Ian had an appointment with his pulmonologist (lung doctor) on Good Friday, and he gave us the green light to turn Ian loose in the wild (ie. to attend large family gatherings). So what did we do? We packed up the car and headed to Dan's hometown.

Dan's family is big and there were tons of people that got to meet Ian for the first time. It was very exciting.
It was also exciting because Sunday was Dan's birthday. I won't tell you how old he is, but I will say that his age no longer begins with a 2. I'm sure he won't admit it, but I think the best birthday gift he received was to be able walk around his hometown with his little boy in tow.

Everyone got together at Dan's grandmother's house after church and they had a birthday cake for all of the March birthdays (Ian's birthday is in March as well). Everyone sang happy birthday, and Ian smashed his hand into the cake. It was great.

Here are a couple of pictures. **Note: I took a lot more pictures but there are other people in them, and I don't like to post pictures on the web of others when they haven't given me their permission.


I love, love, love this picture. Sometimes the candid shots come out better than the planned ones.


Dan and Ian playing in the hot tub at Ian's paw-paw's house.
We forgot our swimsuits, but next time we are all diving in.

Back down memory lane

March 21st.

I don't know if I'll ever be able to think of that date in the same way. March 21, 2007 was the day that I found out my pregnancy would be a difficult one.
The day started off normal enough. My cell phone alarm went off at 6am, which was the time I usually woke up to work out, but on that morning I decided I didn't feel like exercising. I had stayed up late the night before and I had my 24 week appointment at 9am so I figured I would make it a lazy day and sleep in.

I got up around 8, showered, dressed and hopped in the passenger seat of the car while Dan drove me to the appointment. He was so great about that. He never missed a doctor's appointment. He was already a proud Papa. We had found out a few weeks prior that we were having a boy, and I had been feeling him really kick for the past 4 weeks. It was an exciting time.

When I got to the doctors office it was business as usual. The nurse had me do the same, stand on the scale, pee in a cup, and let me take your blood pressure routine, but when she took my blood pressure, she made a funny face. The nurse left the room and went and got my doctor. When the doc came into the room, we went through the usual routine and she told me how things seemed to be going well, but she noticed my blood pressure was pretty high. She wanted to have the nurse check it a couple more times, but if it was consistently high, she told me she would have to put me on blood pressure medication.

I started to cry.

I'm normally not a crier, but I was convinced that I had done something horribly wrong, and the only way I could express all the emotions running through me was in tears. But, Dan and my doctor consoled me and my little outburst was short lived. After that, I was ready for action. What did I need to do? Did I need to change my diet? I was eating pretty healthy stuff, but I was ready to make changes if needed. The OB told me that if it was just high blood pressure, I just needed to take the blood pressure medication, and they would keep an eye on if for the rest of my pregnancy. She said the only thing that would signal a major problem was if they found something like protein in my urine.

Cue the nurse. I had a substantial amount of protein in my urine. Now I won't pretend to know all of the medical jargon or attempt to give you an exact definition of what that meant. What I can say is that I walked away understanding that my kidneys weren't doing their job to the best of their ability. But I was still ready to do whatever I needed to make things right. I was CONVINCED that I could do something to fix this problem, but my doctor gently assured me that, no, I wasn't doing anything wrong and she explained that from here on out the goal was to keep me pregnant for as long as possible. They would monitor me overnight in the hospital, and if my blood pressure came down I would be allowed to go home, but I would be on bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy. If my blood pressure continued to rise, I would still be on bed rest for the rest of my pregnancy, but it would be in the hospital.

It was about that time that one of us, I can't remember if it was Dan or me, asked the doctor just how serious this condition was, and she said "I'm going to say this only once, because I don't want you to become overly worried. You know how women used to die in childbirth? This is the condition that caused it." She then explained how far the medical field had come and that I was going to be well taken care of. I loved my OB and really appreciated her honesty. She really helped me put things in perspective.

I have to pause right here and say just how great Dan was during this time, and the difficult days to come. He was my rock, in the flesh, to lean on. I'm sure he had a host of emotions that he was trying to process, but he selflessly put them on the back burner to tend to me, and I love him all the more for it. He's the best.

Now, I could bore you with the details of my extended hospital stay, but I won't, because this post is long enough, and honestly some of it is still painful to remember. The short version is, my blood pressure couldn't be controlled, as a result Ian wasn't getting the nutrients he needed from me, and I had to have an emergency c-section 5 days later.

The silver lining in that dark cloud is that here we are a year later, and we have a happy NICU graduate who brings a smile to our face every day without fail.

Thanks for taking a trip down memory lane with me. Hopefully, I didn't depress you along the way :)

I love The Internet

They don't call it the information highway for nothing. Anything and everything thing you want to know can be found on the Internet.
Need a recipe for banana bread? You can find it on the Internet. You want to know how a hybrid car works? You can find out on the Internet. You want to learn about quantum physics? Yep, the Internet.

Today while I was taking a mental health break at work, I decided to browse around on the web. I stumbled across an article with the title "How to Eat More and Weigh Less". Intrigued, I clicked the link to see what it had to say. The article discussed a diet plan called Volumetrics. You can read the article for yourself, but I'll try and summarize the concept.

So every piece of food has an "energy density" that can be calculated. The categories for energy density are: very low, low, medium, and high. The goal is to eat more of the very low energy density foods and eat a small amount of high energy density foods. Ok, that part is pretty straight forward, but here is where it gets a little complicated.

According to the article, in order to calculate the energy density for your food, you need to find out the weight of a serving of the food you are eating in grams and then divide that by the number of calories in the serving. So by now, you're probably thinking "Who has the time to calculate all that crap before eating?"
I thought the same thing, but thankfully the author lists some of the categories of low energy density foods (the ones you want to eat a lot of) and high energy density foods (the ones you want to eat a little of). Some of the low energy density foods are : vegetables, fruits, lean meats. Some of the high energy foods are: chips, cookies, and high-fat meats.

Still with me? Good, because this is where your life is going to change forever. What this Volumetrics diet has revealed, is that the secret to getting to a healthy weight is to eat MORE fruits, veggies, and lean meats and to eat LESS cookies, chips and high-fat meats.

This is ground breaking! Who knew?! With the obesity epidemic in America, you would think people would do more to get this message out, but it was only by the grace of God that I stumbled onto this article. If I hadn't happened to click on this link how would I have ever known the truth?
However, there is good news. I have now shared with you (the 3 people that actually read this blog) how to be healthy. It is now your responsibility to pass this information on to others.

Together, we can make this world a better and healthier place.

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*Note: Just in case you hadn't noticed, there is a hint of sarcasm in the post above

Where is that soap box?? ...Ah, there it is

So it's been reported that the Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, has been involved in a prostitution ring. It's been covered non-stop by all the media outlets and everyone is expressing their disappointment and disdain in regard to his behavior.
The thing is, his behavior isn't surprising. As a matter of fact, it is to be expected. Why? Because this is the standard of sexual ethics that we have set up for ourselves. His behavior, and others like it, in my opinion, is the result of our sexual revolution.

Sex is no longer held in high esteem. It's been put on the same level as food, shelter and clothing. A basic need, if you will. We've divorced sex from love, commitment, and intimacy. We've approved casual, commitment free sex as a right of passage and say "As long as it's protected, there is no harm."
We no longer value self-control. It's a "Do whatever feels good" society. We want instant gratification, and by God we are going to get it.

So when our society decides to detach sex from anything meaningful, when we look at it as simply an itch to be scratched, why are we upset when a politician does the same? I mean, for all we know his wife wasn't meeting his needs, sexually, and him going elsewhere for gratification is equivalent to dining in a restaurant versus eating at home.

Obviously, my last statement was a bit tongue in cheek, but hopefully you get my point. I'm really not trying to come off as self-righteous or holier than thou. I just want to suggest that if we want better from our government officials, maybe we should expect more from ourselves.

Just call me Mr. Monk

For those who don't know about it, Monk is a TV show about a brilliant private detective, named Adrian Monk, that suffers with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). One of his issues is germs. He avoids human contact if he can, and always has a handy wipe available just in case he comes into contact with a large amount of germs.

You know, I think that guy is on to something.

Over the past few months I have become obsessed with germs. During Ian's stay in the hospital, the doctors impressed upon us the importance of handwashing to keep Ian healthy. Just going along in our everyday life we come into contact with millions of germs, and once we touch someone else those germs are transferred. We didn't want any sick germs, as I call them, making their way to Ian so we needed to be careful.
Umm, yeah.....I may have taken those instructions further than they intended.

I no longer look at things the same way. I analyze the germ potential of everything.

I submit to you Exhibit A: A Grocery Shopping Cart
To most, this is a handy tool to used to stash and transport a large amount of groceries.
Nope. To me the handle on a shopping cart is germ heaven. Hundreds of people touch that handle and only God knows where their hands have been. You know that crazy lady you saw at HEB scrubbing her shopping cart with anti-bacterial wipes? That was me.

Exhibit B: Money
Have you ever thought about how many hands have touched the $20 bill you have in your wallet? Seriously, think about it. The $20 bill could have made its way here from clear across the country and come into contact with thousands of grimy, germ-filled hands. Plus, people put money in the strangest places. Some women keep it in their bra, sometimes people put money in their shoe...Oh, the horror!

Exhibit C: Children
Oh sure, they're cute and cuddly and loads of fun, but they are also little germ incubators. They cough in their hands, wipe snot from their noses, and place their hands on every possible surface and in every crevice of their tiny little bodies.

And the list goes on. Computer keyboards and mice. Telephones, door handles, elevator buttons, ATM's, these germs are freaking everywhere man.

Oh, and every time I see someone "wash" their hands by slapping a little soap on and immediately rinsing, I just want to yell "You call that washing your hands? All you did was get your hands wet." Meanwhile, I'm over here silently humming the alphabet song to ensure that I'm scrubbing my hands for at least 15 seconds, and at the same time inspecting my fingernails to make sure dirt isn't hiding out underneath them.

*Sigh* I may need therapy