Wednesday, March 28, 2007

update

thanks to carrie (who is back from her trip - i thought she wasn't getting back until april 1 for some reason...oops! and a great big ginormous congratulations to you also!!!) for reminding me to update on rhys.

his fever finally broke 2 days later. a few days after that he got a runny nose which he still has. it is accompanied by a delightful cough :( this has meant that while irene is on track off, we haven't gotten to go to the bay area or do anything really cool b/c i don't want him to get the rest of the world sick. oh, but we DID go to the snake museum - THAT was cool! we went w/mom's class. i have some pictures - i will get them off one computer and onto this one soon.

so that's the very brief update :)

Monday, March 26, 2007

psycho weather

saturday found us with lovely warm temperatures here in the mid 70s. we were wearing shorts. putting on sunscreen. we were in flip flops. irene and rob went on a 7.2 mile bike ride.

sunday found irene and me at raley's selling girl scout cookies with wind, overcast, chilly weather. it was probably in the 50s, so not freezing.

this morning was very sunny. crazy wind started up around 10:00. by 12:30, we were watching all sorts of crazy things blowing down the street behind our house at a very rapid speed. at 9:00 pm, we noticed that it is S.N.O.W.I.N.G.!!!?!?!

global warming? nope. no such thing.

on another note (while it's still March 26th in Flower Mound, TX and in Northglenn, CO)...


HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEBBIE AND JEREMY!!!!

isn't it cool that rob and i both have siblings born on the same day? rob's sister, debbie ALSO shares *another* special date with me -- she and chuck were married on MY BIRTHDAY! too groovy, eh?

we don't get to see debbie and her family or jer and his nearly often enough. I hope you both had wonderful days. i'm so glad to have you both in my life.

ooxoox!


Saturday, March 24, 2007

a picture

this is 14 days after we met. the clock had just turned to midnight, so technically, i was 21. that was 15 1/2 years ago - holy cow! it truly doesn't seem like it's been that long. isn't he handsome? and my oh my! that is one turquoise sweater i am wearing!! :) this was in my first apartment. i had a very small bedroom - my roommate and i were going to switch every semester. it didn't work out that way. i spent way more for my tiny room than i should have - ah well. the following summer i moved in with someone who became one of my best friends :) she and i lived in 3 different places together. the last house we rented it was judy, leah, rob, and i. it was a groovy house in novato. the most fun place to live though, was in rohnert park on barbi lane. yes, it's obscene that we lived on barbi lane, but it was acute litttttle house with only one bathroom. we had a whole lot of fun.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Reasons Irene loves her daddy


Rob and Irene rode 6.4 miles along the Truckee River on Saturday. They both had a wonderful time. I really love this picture of them - both with their helmets on, Irene looking a little tired, Rob looking happy, the river rapiding (like that word? rapid-ing? heh). oh, and that's the hilton...er...the grand sierra resort (it bought the hilton) in the background.



i can't remember what this cache was called - cache head maybe?


this is a cool shot of rob and irene's bikes.

and now, on to important things!! irene did this in the car. i've kept all of her spelling. my special favorite is the spelling of video :D

things about my dad

1. he trise new things

2. he likes to ride his bike

3. hes funny

4. hes nice

5. his name is rob

6. he goes geo cashing

7. he fixes my bike

8. he plays softball

9. he plays vedio games for us

10. hes the best daddy in the world.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

a few pix and update

here is rhys yesterday:

a closer up picture - clutching Jumper.

and here he is today with his brand new "glub" from his daddy. rob also has a new glove. irene had a playdate, otherwise she would have gone w/rob and gotten a new glove as well (she's bigger and needs to try them on).
the catch!
the throw!

so, it would appear that he's feeling better. he had a low grade temp most of the day, but he wasn't lethargic which was a HUGE improvement. Also vastly improved was the amount of sleep we both got last night. phew!

thanks for the love and light and well wishes. they helped!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

he's got a fever (and sadly, a cowbell won't fix it)

poor baby rhysie. okay, so he's not a baby. in fact, dadgummit, i can't even say he's 3 1/2 anymore. he's much closer to 4 than that. ack! anyway, i'm not writing about that. rhys has a fever. and stomach pain. he's miserable. this started yesterday, around noon. he was suddenly heating up. he'd been happy and delightful up until the point that he started getting hot and having a tummy ache. i am fairly certain that what he is dealing with is the same thing that put him in the hospital dec 12/13 2005. at that time, he wasn't nearly so verbal as he is now, so i didn't know anything except i'd never heard him cry the way he was crying and i'd never seen him have a wild look in his eyes like a trapped wild animal. it was damned scary and probably ranks among the worst 2 days of my life. the first hospital said he had juvenile diabetes. he didn't. but we didn't find that out until later - at another hospital. he'd just had severe cramping and a fever which caused his blood sugar to rise.

anyway, now he can tell us what is going on - though, when he has a fever, it's hard to understand him b/c he's so sad and pitiful. i ended up sleeping in rhys' room. although, is it really sleeping when i was awake every time my body started into REM sleep? not so much. we're keeping rhys hydrated (he still has tears when he cries and is still peeing) with some traditional medicinal's children's tummy tea. we're doing our best to let the fever do the job that fevers are supposed to do (though last night i did give him some children's ibuprofen when it was 102.8 so that he could sleep a little better for a bit), and again around 6:00 am when it was 102 for the same reason. it's in the 102 range now, but it's easier to handle during the day. at 7:00 rob and i switched. i don't think rob got much solid sleep either, but he switched anyway and played mario with rhys while i went to bed and slept for a solid 3 hours!

as an aside, while up last night, i DID get to listen to more of Joshilyn Jackson's Between, Georgia. I bought and read it when it first came out, but i decided, after Joss saying that she had done the reading of the audiobook, that i wanted to get it. so i got it and it's WONDERFUL WONDERFUL WONDERFUL!!!!! it's so cool to get to hear the voices as she hears them and she does the most amazing job ever. you should go and get it from iTunes or wherever else you might get your audiobooks. or, if you don't like audiobooks, go and get the hardcover. it's not yet out in paperback. but i believe that gods in Alabama is!

mom took irene yesterday afternoon so that she could have some fun instead of not having quite so much fun here while i worried about rhys and tried to keep him happy. irene had a wonderful time. they planted beans and rhubarb and made a big fleece pillow together. ken made hamburgers and there were gummy bears for dessert. she was in heaven. it was just what she needed.

today she and rob are riding bikes by the Truckee River and geo-cache'ing. i printed out the geo-cache try-it from the Central New York Girl Scout Service Unit so that maybe they could do that together. we don't have any geo-cache try-its in our service unit (i'd link that, but it's a .pdf file). maybe that's what irene can do for her bronze award when she's a junior. we'll see. i might be putting the cart before the horse. anyway, hopefully they are having fun. rhys is dozing on and off, drinking his tea when i offer it, and sometimes being very sad.

hopefully he will be okay tomorrow b/c rob and i are supposed to have our very first night away from both kids on monday...if he's still sick tomorrow, we'll have to cancel b/c my cousin doesn't need to get her two boys infected w/whatever this is that rhys has.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Sunday in the Park with Rhys

and, b/c i haven't put a video w/rhys on in a while, here he is. he is in total and full pretend mode these days. at this park, it was all about pac man and b-doing woods.


at home, we're playing a whole lot with Jumper and Jumper. Jumper is a Lion and Jumper is a frog. it's pretty funny. they are little stuffed animals. we do LOTS and LOTS of pretending with them. The frog has magnets in his feet and hands so he can grab onto most everything. the lion is little and from WWF, i think. he's had it since he was a wee babe, but wasn't interested in it until just recently.

man i love my kids!

The Irene Art Show

irene has always enjoyed art. always. since we first gave her some pens and pencils when she was 1, i think? maybe younger? we did playdough before that. anyway, it's always a joy to me to watch her creating. i don't think i have any of her early painting scanned - she was a full body painter. Bob (Gramps) made an easel for her for her 2nd b-day and b/c we had a fabbo patio and covering in rohnert park, we were painting all year long. sometimes inside, mostly outside. sometimes at 7:00 am we'd be out there - or she'd be out there. creating her masterpieces. she likes to use the whole page. rhys, on the other hand, is a minimalist. he likes tactile things, but doesn't do it in quite the same way. i wish he'd enjoy painting etc more and really get into it, but it's just not his thing in quite the same way that it is for irene. he has fun with it, but is done quickly and wants to wash his hands, thank you very much.

anyway, yesterday, irene did an art lesson - similar to on PBS. please don't mind darth vader who was taking the video. a bit later, she did a lesson with rhys and they did dinosaurs.




i hope this works. i don't remember exactly how i did this the last time.

edited on saturday to say - i have no idea why it wasn't allowing comments. it will allow them now.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

M is for...

museum - i miss going to museums. when i lived in spain, i went to the prado weekly for a class. i loved it. while traveling through europe, i went to a number of museums.

money - a necessary evil.

mom - i've got three of them :) mom, moni, and pat.

mama - that's me :) i always thought i'd be mommy, but i'm definitely mama.

music - i love music. i'm not very good at always remember the name of the song, and sometimes not the name of the groups, but i do love music.

moni - my stepmom. she and my dad live in redlands. we don't see them often enough. one of irene's middle names is for her (it's her middle name too).

matthew - my baby brother - can i still call him my baby brother if he's going to be 28? sure. why the heck not?!? i adore him totally and completely. he's engaged to another M -- Michelle. they are great together and are fantastic w/our kids. we don't see THEM often enough either!

martinez - my extended family. part of the reason i wanted to learn spanish was so that i could understand what they were saying about us kids - giggle.


math - hated it. am still not overly fond of it, but i am trying to fake it til i make it b/c irene likes it.

mermaid - i wanted to be a mermaid when i was young.

Ms. De Haan - that's what i go by when i'm teaching.

mess - i hope someday to not be messy. not cluttery. it's something to strive for.

major - i had a double major in college - spanish and psychology.

mac - we've been an apple family for a reallllly long time. mom and ken have had apples since the apple 2. rob has one of the groooooovy macs and i have the titanium laptop.

magic - i absolutely believe in magic and magical things.

mcrae - mom and ken's last name.

mythology - i really love reading mythology. i used to be quite versed in it all. i'm less so now, but looking forward to revisiting it with irene.

mean - i do not like it when people are mean. i don't like myself when *I* am mean. it does happen sometimes.

meerkats - meerkats are just really fun to watch.

melody - melodies will often get stuck in my head, but what i really love singing is the harmony. i was a second soprano in high school and loved singing harmony.

menopause - why didn't i hear about THIS in 6th grade? i didn't really realize that it could be a difficult time until i was in college and my mom was going through it.

menstruation - while it is a pain (sometimes literally), it is also something to celebrate.

meringue - how funny is it that i only just now found out that the way i THOUGHT this word was spelled is actually the DANCE merengue - d'oh! i like meringue cookies. my gramma schoenmann used to make them every christmas.

microbrews - so much better to me than things like bud, coors, michelobe

midnight blue - my favorite crayola color

midwife - i loved my midwives. one was our doctor's wife. she helped deliver rhys and was my main midwife through both pregnancies.

(The) Milks - what irene called nursing

millenium - rob and i spent the millenium with our 9 day old irene. each time she woke up to nurse, we'd turn on the tv and see who was celebrating. we watched celebrations all over the world.

mischievous - yes, i have been this. and am getting my paybacks now from the occasional mischievousness from my own kids.

malaprop - oh, i have often had some interesting malapropisms pop out of my mouth.

mispronounce - people nearly always mispronunced my maiden name - it's schoenmann. pronounced SHANE-mun (i don't know where to find the schwa on my computer - so mun is pretty close). in german, there is an r sound to it. people also misprounounce my married name. and often, people mispronounce kristen too. kirsten, kiersten, christian, etc. :)

mosquito - i am a magnet to the lovely critters. the only times i was not bothered by them was when i was pregnant and when i was nursing. that's all. other than that, i am the magnet. THE magnet. oh my. i can remember going on a camping trip w/my dad when i was 5 - we went, as i recall, to every state west of the mississippi. anyway, at one point, i had pink polka dots all over me due to the calamine lotion.

moon - i love the moon. we call her Miss Moon here at our house.

mud - mud is absolute fun. i got in trouble when i was little for making mud pies against the house. oops. mudpuddles are the best to splash in too.

(the) Mummy - LOVE this movie! it's also the first movie that rob got a credit in - i think that's right - he'll correct me if sleepy hollow was before the mummy.

multicultural - i wish that our school were more multicultural.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

L is for...

our technical difficulties are happily over (KNOCK ON WOOD!) and so i'm going to do another WORDPLAY letter - want to join in? it's fun and i will endeavor to be better at finishing the alphabet.

love – love is all we need *beam*. really. it is, isn't it? what is life w/o it?

liberty - seems to me that they are slowly being taken from us.

life - life is for living. i need to be better at living life to its fullest

lava - we got to see the real deal when we were on the big island

llama (that’s yyyyyama, not LLLLLLLLLama ;D) - they are fun to watch

label - label is one of those words that just doesn't ever look right to me. anyway, back to labels...while they can be useful, sometimes they are overused and they don't tell the whole story.

La Mancha - when mom, jeremy, and my gramma came to visit me in Spain, we went to the south of spain and went along the same route as don quixote and sancho panza. yes, it's true, they were not real people, but rather, fictional. we started in madrid, went through toledo, ciudad real (i believe), córdoba, and granada.

lactate - something i did for more than 5 years of my life between the two kiddos. i heartily encourage any pregnant moms to nurse nurse nurse your babes. it's not as easy to do in the beginning for everyone, but SO well worth it - and SO SO SO much cheaper than formula.

lake perris - where i camped w/my family for many many years. we lived (moni and dad still live) in redlands and perris was really close. it was so fun. there was some hiking, lots of bike riding, playing cards, tents, junior rangering, etc. it was wonderful fun. for many years, we had our thanksgivings there.

lake tahoe - close to where we live now. we went camping there last year - we were at emerald bay. we're hoping to do more camping there this year.

lambs - i love lambs. they are so cute and such little lumps. pat and bob had lambs and sheep for several years. the first year, we named them hor d'ouerve (sp?), almuerzo, and dinner. as i recall, pat switched them out when they were harvested.

landlocked - what we are now that we live in nevada...

languages - i am, after a fashion, fluent in spanish, i am passable w/italian and can sign okay.

Lagunitas - yummmmmy beer! Lagunitas IPA is one of our favorites. when we lived in petaluma, we passed by the brewery nearly every day.

laughter - another thing that i can't live without. i love listening to my kids belly laugh. rob's laugh makes me happy. from my papa holloway i inherited the thing where i try to tell a funny joke, but can't get through it b/c i'm laughing so hard i'm crying.

lavatory/laboratory - when i was a kid, i couldn't figure out why people were calling the bathroom a laboratory.

left handed - i am left handed. rob is left handed. i have hopes that maybe rhys is. irene is definitely right handed. at one point, 3 of the 4 of us living together were left handed - and two of us were dating left handers. i married mine :). it's something i notice right off with people/kids/movie stars when they are writing. do right handers notice that? not quite so much i think.

left wing/liberal - this is me. left wing and liberal. it's not always easy now that i'm living in concervativeland.

lemon - i love lemons. L.O.V.E. them! fresh lemonade? oh my DOG is there anything better on a hot summery day? i don't think so.

lemonade - see? lemonade. i like it so much, i wrote it again. YUM. fresh squeezed really is the very best.

and while we're on the subject, how about Lemonheads! love them too! they are sour, they have a good crunch. i'm puckering right now just thinking about it.

level - am i? usually i'm levelheaded, but sometimes i lose it.

license - i finally got my actual license when i was 17. yes, i did fail it the first time. i had psyched myself out. i had to wait in my car for what seemed like an eternity waiting for the examiner to get to the car. in that time, i just totally and completely freaked myself out.

light - i really need light. it makes me a happier person. i'm hoping the new flourescent lights that we're going to get are truly going to be more true light than blue light.

lydia - my dear friend in norfolk with a lovely and funny husband and two amazingly darling children. we got to spend almost an entire week with them last summer. it was beyond wonderful. i miss her very very much.

library - i don't utilize the library nearly enough. partly b/c i like owning my books. but i do take the kids to the library. sometimes more often than other times.

log cabin - we've made several log cabins during our Romig Women Quilting weeks.

lost - i lost my brother once when i was 8 and he was 2. i will never ever forget that feeling. it's not a feeling i ever ever want again. and also LOST - the tv show. i enjoy it, but not nearly as much as rob.

lace - it's pretty. when i was in venice, i went to burano, the lace island. it was really cool to watch them tatting lace and seeing the amazing things they made there. way cooler (to me) than murano - the glass island.

lie/lay - dude, i always get these mixed up. telling me that lay takes a direct object doesn't really help.

lips - soft, lovely.

literacy - i think that literacy is very important. i was part of head start for several years - family literacy was (and probably still is) a main focus. we worked very very hard at it. while in college, i did a paper on literacy for my business class - figuring out ways of getting seniors involved with young kids to enhance literacy.

loop - i am not always in it.

loquat - my aunt and uncle in redlands had a loquat tree. i could eat loquats for hours on end. they are yummy and juicy and delicious and have really cool seeds.

lush - what a great descriptive word this is.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

we are experiencing technical difficulties

argh! our modem died. we have one that should be shipping soon. we are occasionally able to borrow some bandwidth, but don't like doing it. it also doesn't work very well.

if you're wondering why ROB is able to update HIS website, it's b/c he goes to work and DOES have access.

so, i haven't responded to comments, i haven't gotten much e-mail, and i haven't been able to comment or even GO to very many blogs since saturday night.

hopefully i'll be able to post sometime soon.

fingers crossed that this posts and doesn't take all night.