The New Addition

If you read my goals list in the last post very carefully, you might have noticed baby #2 on there.

Well, apparently I'm better at this goals stuff than I realized because my 1001 days haven't even started, and I can already cross that one off my list.

Here she is:

Her name is Brother CS6000i, and I love her! I have Santa, Matt, and Matt's parents to thank for bringing her to me for Christmas.

I've always liked sewing, although I'll be the first to admit that I'm not very good. I took a sewing class in high school and somehow all of my projects turned out...badly :)

I used Megan's sewing machine for a few months while we were still Utah to make some awesome baby crafts, but moving 1,200 miles away from her made me realize it was time for me to get my own.

Now that I have this great machine, I intend to expand my sewing skills and make some awesome stuff. Wish me luck!

(And speaking of Christmas, I'll post all about ours next time)

101 in 1001

I've never been very good at setting goals, so this is me turning over a new leaf in a new year!


Objective: Complete 101 goals within 1001 days


Start date: January 1, 2011
End date: September 27, 2013


BOLD means completed
italics means in progress

Food

001. Try 20 new recipes (1/20)

002. Host 1 dinner party

003. Bring dinner to a friend

004. Make Christmas cookies for all my neighbors

005. Cook Sunday breakfast 4 times (0/4)

006. Make dessert for dinner
007. Have a picnic
008. Give a huge tip to a good waiter
009. Try 15 new restaurants (4/15)
010. Make pasta from scratch

011. Decorate a cake

012. Make an entire Thanksgiving or Christmas meal

013. Plant and maintain a garden for 1 summer

014. Eat foreign food at 3 different restaurants

015. Try 5 new recipes for homemade ice cream

016. Keep a food diary for 2 weeks

017. Bake homemade bread

018. Make my own salsa

019. Take a treat to a family 6 times (0/6)

020. Make chocolate pudding from scratch

021. Make Matt’s favorite almond-dipped sandwich cookies

022. Create my own recipe

023. Try a Julia Child recipe

Family

024. Live somewhere new 2/24/11

025. Buy a house 2/24/11

026. Baby #2.

027. Take the 40-day Love Dare
028. Go on 10 dates with Matt
029. Have professional family pictures taken
030. Surprise Matt, big or small, 5 times (0/5)
031. Select someone from an Angel tree each Christmas (0/2)

032. Have FHE at least once a month for a year (0/12)

Mommyhood

033. Write a letter to Colin on his birthday
034. Take Colin to story time at the library
035. Take Colin to the zoo
036. Get Colin completely potty-trained
037. Let Colin pudding paint

038. Make a photo book for each year of Colin’s life

039. Blog about Colin’s progress once a week for a year (0/52)

040. Get a picture of Colin sitting on Santa’s lap every Christmas (0/2)

Physical

041. Run in 3 races (0/3)
042. Work out 4 days a week for 1 month (0/16)

043. Do swimming lessons with Colin

044. Use my jogging stroller to go jogging once a week for 1 month (0/4)

045. Reach my goal weight

Travel

046. Have a girls weekend trip

047. Take a spontaneous weekend trip

048. Attend a temple in a foreign country

049. Go on another cruise

050. Visit Nauvoo

051. Go to Dallas 2/11/11

052. Go to Chicago

053. Go to Disneyland or Disney World

054. Go camping

055. Go to the beach

056. Go to 4 new states

057. Visit Liberal, Kansas

058. Visit Buck and Niki

059. Take a trip to a tourist site in Oklahoma

Crafts

060. Make a Christmas stocking for Colin

061. Try 10 new craft projects (0/10)

062. Sew something from a pattern

063. Make and sell car seat covers

064. Make 2 other crafts to be sold at Western Auto

065. Start and finish a quilt

066. Learn to crochet

067. Make Colin a Halloween costume

Personal

068. Do a DIY

069. Pay for the person behind me in the drive thru. 

070. Collect 5 more Willowtree Angels (0/5)

071. Read 20 books. (2/20)

072. Send 15 pieces of snail mail. (0/15)

073. Send someone a postcard

074. Not make any clothing purchases for 6 weeks

075. Buy and not kill a plant for 1 year (0/12 months)

076. Give blood 10 times (0/10)

077. Rent and watch 2 foreign movies with subtitles. (0/2)

078. Do my hair 7 days in a row (0/7)

079. Have 4 girls night outs (0/4)

080. Play in the rain

081. Not go on Facebook for an entire weekend
082. Go to the range and shoot a gun

083. Have a garage sale
084. See a sports game

085. Plan a surprise party
086. Eat dinner by candlelight

087. Send 5 "happies" (unexpected gifts) (0/5)

088. Watch 26 movies I've never seen starting with each letter of the alphabet

A

Bounty Hunter

C

D

E

F

G

H

Inception

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

089. Send a book I’ve written to a publishing company

090. Get an adventurous haircut 1/11/11

091. Go fruit picking

092. Go on 3 double dates (0/3)

093. Start a business to edit college papers

094. Host a baby or bridal shower

095. Read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover

096. Learn a new song on the piano

097. Buy a set of fine china

098. Have my hair professionally dyed or highlighted

099. Go without TV for 1 week

100. Paint stripes on a wall

101. Inspire someone to start a 101 in 1001 list

The Oklahoma Update

Although I have visited Oklahoma many times since Matt and I have been married, the knowledge that I am now living here has given me a new perspective.

The following observations are things I have learned in the one week I have been living here:

• Most people here have a relatively strong accent (which I had noticed before), but I realized that I probably sound funny to them. I had someone tell me on Saturday they could tell I wasn't from around here...
• When I ask "where is that?" instead of measuring the distance in how many minutes it takes to get there, it is measured in miles. 
• Everything is measured in miles because you do a lot of driving whenever you want to go somewhere, and you almost always drive on a highway or freeway to get to your destination. 
• I learned on my first visit that there are some strange city names, but I continue to hear more and more of them. Okmulgee, Pawhuska, Tahlequah and Okemah just to name a few.
• There is a Sonic Drive-In on practically every corner. But who doesn't love Sonic? Especially during Happy Hour. (Sonic's headquarters are in Oklahoma City)
• People here are wimps when it comes to the cold. It was in the high 40s last week when I was talking to a girl in town about how cold it was that day. She told me she was freezing, so I told her it was probably because of the short-sleeved shirt she was wearing. I don't think she appreciated that comment so much...

Things are going well, but we're still working on organizing all of our boxes and unpacking the things that we'll need in the next several weeks. Here's a glimpse at what we're dealing with...

This is the spare bedroom where we're keeping everything
we won't need in the very near future

Today is Matt's first day at his new job, and when I talked to him earlier he said he is loving it. Everything is going well, and it will continue to get better as we become more established. This is the start to a great adventure!

One Busy Weekend

Remember in the last post when I said Colin hadn't been feeling well? Well, I didn't know how right I was until he was admitted into the hospital later that same night.

Not long after I blogged about his 2-month appointment and his immunization, I noticed he was really hot. I had him wrapped up in a blanket, so I blamed it on that. When Matt got home from work he noticed it too. We took Colin's temperature...102.3. I immediately called the on-call pediatrician who told me to give Colin some medicine and call him back in an hour. Fevers in children younger than 3 months, who show no other symptoms, can be a sign of a serious infection, so the doctor didn't want to take any chances. The hour went by, but at that point his temperature was still 101 so to the urgent care we went.

The time we spent in the urgent care was awful. If you ever think watching your child get immunizations is bad, never watch your baby get a catheter for a urine sample or have blood drawn out of a vein. Colin screamed and screamed while two nurses, a doctor, and Matt held him down as they tried to get blood. They tried both arms and an ankle without success, so they ended up just doing a heel prick.

By about 11 we were taken up to the pediatric unit of the hospital where there was only one other kid, so we got lots of attention. At this point they checked his vitals and did a respiratory panel to check for 8 common viruses.

Colin did relatively well through the night, and his fever went away, but when they took another blood sample on Saturday morning they found out his white blood cell count was even higher, so the doctor wanted to perform a lumbar puncture to remove a small amount of spinal fluid to test for serious bacterial infections like meningitis.

I consider myself a pretty optimistic person, so even though this whole ordeal was heart-breaking and stressful, there was one thing that could make me smile.

 Did you have any idea they made hospital gowns this small? :)

After the lumbar puncture, they had to start an IV in order to give him a dose of antibiotics. They wrapped the IV and strapped a board on his arm in order to keep the IV in place. It looked like he had a little cast...

Throughout his hospital stay, Colin had tons of wires all over him. Here he is showcasing the leeds monitoring his heart rate. I also have to give a shout out to Megan who spent all day Saturday at the hospital with us AND brought us breakfast and dinner that day. Megan ROCKS!

All of the cultures they took had to be monitored for 24 hours to see if any bacteria grew. So even though Colin was feeling a lot better by Saturday night, we were forced to stay in the hospital until Sunday around 3 PM. The whole experience was no fun, but we made it through and got out of the hospital just in time for Colin's baby blessing!

We had it scheduled to do during church that day, but since we missed church, we rearranged to do it at the house of my cousin and his awesome wife. (Thanks Tim and Becky!)

A bunch of my extended family and several friends came to help us celebrate. I really wish I had gotten more pictures, but as you might have guessed, I was a little exhausted and stressed. I did manage to at least get a family picture though.

And because I hadn't managed to get a picture of Kim holding Colin yet, I got one of those too. Here you go, Kim!

And if a hospital stay and a baby blessing weren't enough, we moved the next day. I was a little anxious about taking Colin on a plane, but he seemed to be feeling a lot better, so after we finished packing and loading all of our stuff in our two cars and trailers, Colin, my mother-in-law, and I boarded a plane headed for our new home. 

 He did well on both flights and slept most of the time.

Sorry this post was so long, but like the title says...it was one busy weekend.

2 Months Old!

It's true...our baby is 2 months old! (and 1 day now)

We went to the pediatrician this morning for routine immunizations and found out his current statistics.

weight: 11 lbs 12 oz (49th percentile)

length: 24 inches (83rd percentile)

head circumference: 16 inches (54th percentile)

That means he has gained about 3.5 lbs and grown 4 inches in the last two months. He is very average in everything but length. Looking at these statistics, it all makes sense as to why it's hard to find clothes that fit him...most of his 0-3 month clothes are pretty baggy on him and almost too short.

He did pretty well with the immunizations. He only cried for a few minutes, which I expected not only because he was getting shots...but because has been a lot fussier this week than usual. He was around a lot of sick people last week during Thanksgiving, and since his ears looked normal, Colin's doctor just said he probably has his first cold. I think it probably started on Sunday evening, so I'm hoping he recovers soon. Instead of waking up once a night like he had been, he has been waking up an average of 3-4 times a night for the last several days. 

We have the majority of our stuff packed up and ready to go for Monday, and we'll be spending our weekend finishing all of that up. 

I'll be sure to give an update next week after the big move!

My Baby, the TV Addict

I think these pictures say it all...

If he is cranky, as he usually is in the evenings, when he catches sight of the TV, he forgets about what was upsetting him. The second picture is my favorite...he was really enjoying the Christmas celebration at Rockefeller.