Curtiss and Maggie Bradford Family

Coming Soon

2011-04-09T18:25:00.000-06:00

I have every intention of including the newest addition to our family on this blog, but this already crazy lady is now crazier than ever now that I'm chasing after Declan AND trying to keep Keeli happy. So until I get like 30 uninterrupted minutes, or possibly six 5 uninterrupted minute increments I can only hope that this will tide all 2 of my faithful readers over. Are there even 2 of you left anymore? Ha, probably not, but that's what I get for being an undedicated blogger.

Happy Birthday Boogerbutt!

2011-03-27T16:49:00.000-06:00

I don't know what has happened to this last year, but it has literally flown by! It doesn't seem like it's really been a year since Declan arrived, so tiny and fragile, into this world. It seems like just 2 or 3 months is all it's been since I was rushed out of Blanding, scared out of my mind about what was going to happen. Then after 1 EXTREMELY uneventful week, all hell broke loose and I went into labor for the next 3 days, only they told me at that time I wasn't in labor. I still shake my head in annoyance when I think about them telling me that. I remember about half an hour before I actually had Declan, telling one of the doctors that I was done, and I wasn't doing this anymore and if I'm not really in labor he needed to stop the contractions. He looked at me and said, "No, you're not done. We have to wait this out." to which I gave him a glare and said "Then I"m having a baby now!". I got wheeled down the hall into the delivery room where I looked all around for that doctor and said, "I TOLD YOU I WAS DONE!". Apparently I'm a super-hilarious person when I'm delirious from pain and lack of sleep because all of the doctors involved kept laughing at all the stuff I said and did while I was in there.

"Geez Mom, shut up already!"

Anyway, enough of the nostalgic crap, we have new things to talk about! Declan got to celebrate his birthday with his very own cupcake! We went over to Mike and Denise's and had a "Caterpiller of Cupcakes" that were provided by Danielle and her fabulous cake decorating skills.

So dang cute!

As you can tell, Declan thoroughly enjoyed his cupcake.

So somehow in this deal I got to be the mother of a one year old, and that is just INSANITY. I definitely don't feel old enough for this status, let alone old enough to be the mother of two, which will very soon be the case. I guess what they say is true: "Time flies when you're having fun". Well I must be having a blast then! We love you Declan! Happy Birthday!

Beating My Own High Score...

2011-01-20T18:56:00.001-07:00

I'm sure I'm on the list to be nominated for an award for World's Worst Blogger, in the category of "Plenty of Free Time Yet Still No Blog Updates". I officially apologize and have every intention of doing better at keeping this thing updated. But that's the thing about an "INTENTION", I'm not legally obligated to actually follow through, so there's a very good chance I won't. (Insert Evil Laugh for finding the system's loophole) Now as far as this update, grab a coke, it's sure to be lengthy.

I'm almost positive that you aren't going to be able to tell in the picture above what secret I've been keeping. (I'm pregnant)

"WHAAAAAAAT?!?! AGAIN ALREADY?!?!"

Yeah yeah yeah... Again already. Save it cuz I've heard it all already. Yes, we know what causes those things. Yes, we know what birth control is- we were married for 2 years before I had kids so yeah, I know how to use it. No, I'm not planning on having another kid next year again, this one was a total shocker anyway.

One theory as to why we are going to be blessed with "Irish Twins" is that a lot of thoughts had been circulating about the length of my pregnancy with Declan, along the lines of ladies being jealous of my stretch-mark-less belly, and my lack of having to push anything more than 2 lbs out of my body. Well, all I have to say to you individuals is, Touche to your power of thought. Haha that makes me sound really bitter, which I'm totally not. We are very, very excited about this baby. And I'm happy to inform all the ill-wishers (who I am fairly sure I invented in my head) that there are still no stretch marks, so suck it. Haha!

This time around, I started out only cautiously optimistic that I'd have a normal pregnancy. So far, as the title implies, I'm beating my previous record by 4 weeks. Yaaay! It's been a pretty bumpy road for us trying to keep this kiddo inside longer. I've had a Dr.'s appointment every single week since I was about 20 weeks, and one every 2 weeks before that. I'm 31 1/2 weeks right now, so that consists of me seeing A LOT of the inside of exam rooms. The basic diagnosis for me is an incompetent cervix, which was still not caught in time to be taken care of this time around. The incompetent cervix is really just part of it though. I have given a Self-Diagnosis which I like to call a BHU, or Baby Hating Uterus. When Declan was born, he was in like the 10th percentile for his gestational age. This baby is in the 11th. The theory given for this is that my body produces bad placenta, and it doesn't produce enough nutrients for the babies to distribute them evenly throughout their developing bodies. I have also been sent up to U of U Hospital this time around for my amniotic fluid levels being low. Clearly these babies are right to try and get out of there as soon as they can! It's not a fetus-friendly environment in there! I only had to spend a day in the hospital for my fluid levels though, so I'm home now. That was actually over Christmas that I got sent up there, so poor Declan had to spend his very first Christmas morning in the OB-GYN Emergency room at U of U. Fortunately, he doesn't care at all.

I had yet another ultrasound yesterday, which revealed some rather annoying news. My cervix doesn't look like it's gonna hold out much longer, so I'll most likely be having ANOTHER preemie. I am "actively" trying to prove them all wrong and stay pregnant longer, but I guess it's not really up to me. When I say I'm "actively" trying to prove them wrong, I mean I am as INACTIVE as I possibly can be. The more I lay flat, the better chance I have of staying pregnant longer. Yep, bed rest again! I'm becoming such a pro at it! I can tell you how I feel about almost every commercial on TV at this point. Luckily, I have Declan to keep me from going TOTALLY insane. Okay, that is not true, this kid makes me CRAZY, but in the best way possible.

He is hilariously entertaining and I spend all day laughing at the weird things he does. He is so dang clever, too! When he was first born, all the experts in the NICU said he would take about 2 years to catch up developmentally. He's 11 months old right now and can do almost everything that any other 11 month old baby can. He can crawl, climb, walk along furniture, say mama and dada- among a lot of other baby chatter, pull funny faces, "sing", feed himself finger foods, and sleep through the night- most nights anyway. Occasionally, I have to get up and make him a bottle in the middle of the night.

This picture makes it look like he is crying, but that's just him "Going Nuts". He clenches his jaw to the point that his whole body tenses up and he shakes his head back and forth. It's so funny, and most of the time we can get him to do it just by saying "Go Nuts!". Sometimes he doesn't care to do it, and other times, you can just catch him "Going Nuts" at his toys or off in a corner somewhere.

The other night we were just sitting around at home and Declan was going about his usual business of destroying my front room with all of his toys when all of a sudden we spied him on a rather adventurous climb. This kid has never climbed stairs in his life but he somehow managed to climb up that little blue chair onto that ottoman. He sat up there so proud of himself! He has not attempted the climb since or before then, so he must have just wanted to prove to himself that he could make the daring ascent just once. He's even been at Mike and Denise's since then and not even cared to go up their two steps into the kitchen. What a weird little butthead!

He absolutely LOVES sitting up on the top of the couch like this. A lot of the time there's not even anything up there for him to play with and he's still content. Lately, he enjoys banging his head on the wall behind him.

I'm pretty sure that's a tube of Lanacane he's chewing on here... Cuz we're good parents... Like I said, he prefers non-toy items the very most.

Heater vents: another current obsession of Declan's. He loves to put his face over the vents when the air is blowing out of them, and to bang on them when they're not blowing.

Curtiss and I are parents to the world's smallest moocher. Okay, I'm sure a lot of parents feel that way, but it's still so funny how he can totally reject food that is meant for him and the next second act ravenously hungry at the sight of our food. Doesn't he make that spaghetti look delicious? Chef Boyardee would be lucky to have him as their spokes-baby!

Chef Boyardee better watch out, though, because Pampers might just snatch him up before they can get to him! Don't you think this kiddo could have a career as a diaper model? Ha!

So this is basically how our life has been lately. We've been incredibly busy doing nothing whatsoever. It's been crazy, sometimes boring, and super hilarious around here. Oh, and before you all strangle me, I suppose you would like me to tell you if I'm having a boy or a girl this time around... Take a wild guess!

If the Shoe Fits...

2010-11-09T17:08:00.013-07:00

Let me just start out by confessing that I love shoes. No, really. I LOVE shoes. Here is a quick peek at my collection of heels. On the other side of the closet are shelves that hold my boots and tennis/outdoorsy shoes and a box for my flip flops. Don't you judge me... I would go as far to say that as much as I love shoes is as much as I hate throwing useful things away. For example, a few years ago, I had bought a pair of shoes from one of my favorite places in the world, Payless. Cute shoes+ low prices= happy Maggie! They were a really cute, shiny, black stiletto that cost me like $12 bucks or so. I wore them to work one day, and then when I came home, knowing that we had a naughty puppy at the time, put them in my closet so they weren't sitting out for him to chew up. He got to them anyway, and the shoes that had literally been seen in public on my feet one time were pretty much ruined. He didn't shred them or anything, he just dented the crap out of the surface of the shoes. And then a couple months later, the dumb dog had to go and die so I can't even properly resent him for it! In my mourning state, I spent like $50 on a leather repair kit trying to salvage the shoes, but they were never the same as before "the incident". This is what the poor, darling pair of shoes had become.

I could never quite bring myself to throw them away. I knew in my heart I'd be able to resurrect them somehow. So into a box they went, awaiting the same fate as Walt Disney's body allegedly awaits: to be brought back to life by some miraculous new discovery. Then suddenly, the other day it hit me: I could paint them back to life! I got out the shoes, and some acrylic paint and mixed it with some fabric medium so that the paint becomes more pliable and less prone to cracking off whatever surface to which it's applied.

If you want to try this technique, make sure if there are any rough spots on the shoes, sand them down with a moderately fine grit sandpaper. Also, make sure that you have cleaned all the surfaces of your shoes that you plan to paint, and wipe it all down with an alcohol pad. Since I had already tried to salvage the shoes before, I had taken care of the rough spots previously. As a side note, shoes have more sneaky little crevices than you'd ever guess offhand, so make sure you sand these spots too.

The first coat was pretty scary looking. As you see, I managed to recreate the same color as Ross's "Spud-nik" costume from that one Friends episode, the one with the Halloween party. Yep, that is Space-Doodie Brown!I applied a few more coats to get it even. In between coats of paint, you'll also want to sand down any spots where the paint seems extra thick. It's a lot easier to keep on top of it between coats than it is to fix it all when it's done, so if it seems tedious or annoying, just think of all the money you're saving making your own custom design shoes instead of buying them!

The next step, I find very important in the process of completing almost every craft I attempt: I get really impatient and try to find a way to speed up the boring parts. Sometimes, it's very much to my detriment that I involve this step, yet I do it faithfully. Have you ever heard the phrase "it's as thrilling as watching paint dry"? Well, watching the paint on my shoes dry was... exactly that thrilling. So I improvised. This happened to be one of the times my impatience paid off.

That's a MUCH nicer shade of brown, isn't it? The look I was trying to create was brown and pink zebra stripes. As it happens, I do not own any shades of pink acrylic paint, due to me not needing to craft with such a girly color (I suppose I should add in the "yet" clause. I haven't needed it yet. WINK WINK!). This being so, I had to create my own shade of pink using two other colors, Berry Wine Red, and Antique Ivory. Yeah, I'm sure you noticed that the color brown I used was called Coffee Bean, so I've got Berry Wine and Coffee Bean paint going on the same shoe. Don't tell my bishop! Haha!

In what I'm sure was my very first attempt ever to draw zebra stripes, I was terribly unhappy with the results. There was no way I could pass these streaky blobs off as anything close to a zebra.Paint and sand, paint and sand.... My next ingenious thought was to use a stencil. As I have zero zebra stencils lying around, I went online and googled an image of zebra stripes and cut them out. I then proceeded to strategically paint the stripes with a stencil.

Hence, failed attempt #2. Zebras all over the world are probably ashamed of me by now. I figured I'd give it one last shot before I gave in and called my sister, Brianne, and have her paint the stripes for me. She has an uncanny ability to draw zebra stripes. She painted one of the walls in her bedroom with giant stripes, and it looks amazing!

If at first you don't succeed... I FINALLY got it right! Or at least, I got it close enough. At this point, you'll want to make sure the surface is really really smooth so you can add a clear coat and the shoes won't end up looking lumpy. Take painters tape and tape off anywhere you don't want clear coat. Make sure you stuff newspaper on the inside too so you don't spray in there.

Now, take them outside and spray a VERY light coat of clear gloss enamel over the entire shoe, and make sure you get the undersides where the shoe starts to curve into the sole on the bottom. You'll probably want to hit them with about 2 or 3 coats of gloss, allowing plenty of time in between coats so it can dry. Be sure not to spray it on so thick that it drips, because then you'll have to do more sanding. Remember that the lighter the layer of gloss, the more pliable the shoe will be in the end. If it's one big thick layer, the gloss will crack off while you're walking and likely chip the paint off too.

Here is my end result, and I am very pleased with it!

I'm not entirely sure how weatherproof this technique is, so I'll probably abstain from puddle jumping in these shoes. At least for a little while... :)
Not too bad for a pair of $12, originally black, puppy chewed shoes, right? Especially when you consider that I looked all over the Internet trying to find a pair of shoes like these to copy, and I could only come up with the same ol', same ol' black and white zebra stripe shoes, and most of them cost well over $100! The pair that I modeled the stripes from were on sale for $150, marked down from $280. Yeah, let me hop right in my Ferrari and drive over to buy those...

I think this may encourage me to start buying ugly shoes on purpose, just to see what I can come up with!

Family Reunion

2010-06-26T17:57:00.006-06:00

Last weekend Curtiss, Declan and I headed up to Tooele for the Wright Family Reunion. Not many people know it, but this particular group of Wrights is a very busy bunch! I felt like we just went from one activity to the next, with hardly any time for rest. Oh, and we ate what seemed like every 45 minutes! I'm definitely not complaining about that, but I'm still trying to get my metabolism to catch up to this week! We did a lot of fun things, like swimming, bowling, eating, 18 trips to Wal-Mart, more eating, not napping, basketball, shopping in SLC with Monty and Cindy, more eating, family pictures, and there was even mini olympics for the kids. Friday morning the whole fam went out to the shooting range and shot tons of guns. Curtiss and I didn't make it up in time for that, we were still in Blanding. I've gotta give it to this family though,
if it had been my family shooting guns, there wouldn't be targets. We are all very opinionated and stubborn, so there might have been some gunshot wounds healing at this point... I'll be the first to admit, sometimes I will argue something I know is wrong, just for the sake of having an argument. This drives Curtiss NUTS. But it's bred into me, I gotta argue! I really think I might make a decent lawyer with this trait. Maybe someday we'll see! Anyway, Saturday night Monty & Cindy and Curtiss and I were pretty burned out by all the long preceding string of activities we had been participating in so we decided to skip out on the mini olympics and go to Wal Mart to buy some church clothes since we didn't pack any and Grandpa Wright had requested everyone go to church that day. I guess being the head of that whole group of people, he deserved that much as a Father's Day present. Well, Curtiss and I ran into Monty and Cindy at Wal Mart and we all conceded that there were no decent clothing options for us church-goers. I swear, Wal Mart lets me down more and more lately! I'm getting really close to boycotting it all together. So we decided to go over to Salt Lake and go shopping. This turned out to be a ton of fun! The four of us act so retarded in public I'm surprised we're not banned from anywhere at this point! There's hardly a moment where we're not all cracking up over something another person said or did. It's the best! If they ever move away I don't know what I'll do! So after we got our outfits, we headed back to Tooele and went to Wal Mart for like the 38th time. For some reason, we were all wearing Aeropostale brand shirts, so we felt like a big walking advertisement for the store. I'm sure people noticed. The cashier at Wal Mart did for sure, and said something about it. We had a plan the whole weekend that Saturday night we would go have midnight dinner at Denny's, so we headed in, stood inside for about 20 minutes, played the claw machine, and left and had Carl's Jr. instead. Equally delicious! The next day, after church, we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house and had lunch. We had a good time finally just sitting around relaxing before everyone left. Curtiss's cousin, Miles, and his wife Kendra had their little boy Owen there and we got some really cute pictures of him and Declan sitting next to eachother. These two boys were due May 9th and May 10th, but as you know, Declan sorta jumped the gun on that and was born in February. Owen was born at the end of April, so neither of these stinkers quite made it to May. They're both doing really well though, and super cute!They look like they're conspiring against everyone. I think Declan's the brains of the operation. He's been around a little longer so he knows the deal. He's giving Owen the scoop and you can see Owen is taking it all in. You know what they're doing tonight? Same thing they do every night. Tryyy to take over THE WOOORRRLLD!! Or maybe just pooping their pants.As for the family pictures I mentioned, all of the ones with the entire family are still on a DVD on their way in the mail to Denise, so I don't have them yet. We did manage to snap a few of Declan with his first cousins while the photographer was busy with some other groups around the garden where we were taking the pictures. I'll go ahead and post all of them, so that by seeing every single one, you can get the general idea of what it would look like if all seven kids were looking in the same direction for even a split second.

Good job Declan for maintaining a sober composure throughout! He never once succumbed to the peer pressure that was constantly brewing around him to not look at the camera and play around with any of his cousins. Even when Mikah looked like he was about to attack him, he held his ground and stayed photo-ready.

Confession

2010-06-04T12:09:00.003-06:00

Dear Blog,

I am terribly sorry I have been neglecting you as of late. It's not that I don't have anything to say, in fact, quite the opposite is true. It's just that SO much has been happening lately that putting it off seems easier. I understand that mutiny is afoot and that if I don't put some pictures up of Declan, his fans will soon murder me.

Truthishly, I must tell you that there's someone else. Facebook is a lot easier to talk to. I know it doesn't make it right, and this must hurt quite a bit, but you had to have seen it coming. I won't make empty promises of not seeing facebook anymore, that's just not fair to do to you. In this day and age, you have to be able to understand, I can have two loves. Maybe more! Time will only tell what other ways I can connect to my friends online. MSN Messenger was my first, and I know you OR facebook will certainly not be my last. I've already all but broken it off with Messenger though, since facebook has its own chat system. I haven't emailed a friend just to chat in ages. In all actuality, my email account is overwhelmed with unopened messages that range from spam to forwards. Secretly, neither you OR facebook knows about my love for texting. But I have yet to twitter or skype. At least you can take comfort in that.

Somehow, I'll make it up to you. I will soon post an update about Declan. Maybe not today, as I have a date with facebook. I know that must hurt, but facebook has helped me neglect who knows how many hours of household cleaning! That's very important to me! Please blog, don't go. You mean so much to me. You are a much more stable form of online communication than facebook. You let me type as much as I want for one post. Facebook only allows a limited number of characters. I remain torn between you two, yet unable to give up either one of you.

I remain still yours,

Maggie

Our Sneakret

2010-04-18T12:19:00.005-06:00

Curtiss and I have a very sneaky secret, hence, the Sneakret title. As you may have heard- or for the now 6 people who read this blog, you may have read- we were supposed to bring Declan home last Monday, but due to an apnea episode, we were unable to do so. As we were driving down the freeway that day, the hospital called us and said that we were all probably right about the immunizations that caused him to stop breathing that night, and they wanted to give him about 24 hours to make sure. So we continued home, and the next day, headed back up again. We were all set to take him home, when early Wednesday morning, as we were getting ready to go up to the hospital for what would hopefully be the last time, we got a call from his nurse telling us that he had ANOTHER episode just fifteen minutes ago! UGH! Declan must have been getting stage fright! So we waited for the Neonatal Doctor and Neonatal Nurse Practitioner to come and do rounds on him and give us a new estimated discharge date. Their prognosis was to give it another 24 hours to be safe. With yet another looming deadline, we decided to try a new approach with him. We were no longer telling Mr. Declan that we were going home to Blanding. We told him we were just going out to get pizza. Who can blame the kid? He's practically institutionalized; the hospital is all he's known his whole life so far. Blanding is way far away from that, PLUS, there's no pizza place here really! Poor guy! Well, the pizza trick must have worked, because he's home with us! We snuck him home Thursday afternoon, and told as few people as possible that we were going. None of our parents even knew. This was halfway because Declan coming home is a freakin' good surprise for them, and halfway because if we told everyone he was coming home and then we really didn't get to, that's a lot of back-explaining that we didn't want to have to deal with. So, sorry if you weren't in on the Sneakret! I think Declan caught on to us though, because when we finally got home, I was feeding him and he had another episode on me. I'm not really sure how long you're supposed to wait to see if they recover on their own before you step in and stimulate them, but I didn't really want to wait and see IF he decided to breathe on his own. Everything is okay with him still, but he's done that to us two or three times now. The way the medical field categorizes the episodes is, it's considered a Grade Zero if he recovers on his own, Grade 1 if you have to stimulate him, Grade 2 takes a little more stimulation, Grade 3's and 4's require you to actually breathe for him and so on... I'm pretty sure he's only had Grade 1's at home so far, but I'd still put them as like Grade 24 on the scary-scale. He's currently on a very low flow of oxygen as well as being hooked up to a monitor that tells us what his blood oxygen level is as well as his heart rate. He's supposed to be at 85% or higher oxygen saturation, and if it drops below, the monitor makes the most "pleasant", shrill series of beeps you can possibly imagine. It's sort of nice, because then we don't have to sit and stare at him and wonder if he's breathing or not, but unfortunately, it's not 100% accurate, and if he wiggles and bumps the probe, it will make the alarm go off. Lovely! And of course, he's not one of those corpse babies, so he moves quite a bit, and the alarm goes off every few minutes all night! LOVE IT! Declan himself is a very mellow baby; he rarely cries at all, he just lounges around all day not really requiring a ton of attention, except diapers and feeding every once in awhile. He sleeps all night, except when I have to wake him up to feed and change him. I'd be the luckiest mom ever, getting a ton of rest with my newborn baby, if it weren't for the freakin monitor going off all the time!

Now we get to be full time parents, and even though it's a lot of work, it's definitely better than just visitation rights on the weekends.
We get to do all the fun parent things like change thousands of very poopy diapers, give the smelly little guy baths, and feed/burp/get spit up on. Add getting woke up by the monitor every 5 minutes at night and we're living the dream life now, haha!
Thanks to Grandma Sheron for the cute bassinet, to Alicia and Andy for the little hooded towel, and everyone else for all your support and gifts! I'll be sure to post lots of pictures of him using all of the stuff you've all given us. Aunt Sophie, I owe you big time for all the things you made for his nursery! I'll post the pictures soon!

No Baby Yet...

2010-04-13T12:15:00.002-06:00

This weekend was quite interesting... Saturday afternoon during our visits, the nurses told us that we could probably take Declan home that weekend! This had really blindsided me, and I had brought up absolutely nothing for him! I had a car seat there and that was really it! Curtiss and I rushed around trying to get our CPR and Discharge class completed, as well as making sure we had clothes and diapers and blankets and everything needed to be able to take him home. Aside from all that craziness, we also got the chance to room in with him on Saturday night, meaning that we got to stay in the hospital in one of the parent rooms in the NICU, so we got the chance to be with him full time, but the hospital staff was right outside the door if we needed. That went really smoothly. Declan is such a good kid! The only issue we had was that the stupid monitor kept going off saying that he was high-saturating from the oxygen intake. This isn't a cause for alarm, he just needed less oxygen than he was on, and it beeped SO MUCH. He will be going home on oxygen and the monitor, so I guess I'll have to get used to that, as well as learn when and how to turn the oxygen down when he needs. He turned 2 months old on Saturday, so that means he got immunized! They gave him 3 shots on Sunday, and he was SO GROUCHY the rest of that day! It was so sad! He never cries, but he was so uncomfortable that he just kept crying that afternoon! So we were all prepared to take him home Monday morning, but I had been telling everyone that we were taking him for sure unless he had a bad night on Sunday, and lo and behold, he had a Grade 1 A & B. The nurse had to stimulate him to get him to breathe again, and he also kept falling asleep every time she had to feed him. This feeding issue continued through Monday, and he's starting to get over it and eat normally today. So, unfortunately, he is there for another little bit, but I really thought it was going to be too soon to send him home this weekend, and that's just fine! We don't want him home until he's ready! I'd much rather him have that one last apnea episode with the nurses than with me! So anyway, unless I post otherwise, Declan is still in the hospital! We'll let you know when we're all home!

Sorry!

2010-04-02T15:32:00.003-06:00

I was recently informed that if I don't update my blog and let everyone know about Declan, I will have a revolt soon. So to all of my loyal readers, I'd like to publicly apologize! In my defense, there really wasn't a whole lot going on with Declan for awhile, not to mention, MY LIFE IS CRAZY LATELY!! I haven't had a weekend at home since January! We're on our way back up to see him tonight, pretty much as soon as I finish this entry!

Well, last weekend was pretty eventful. I got to try breastfeeding him a bunch of times, and he is so pro at it! He's still too young to eat that way, but he is really good at latching on. He just gets really tired really fast- they equate breastfeeding to someone his size and age to someone like you or me doing aerobics, it's a lot of work for him. So he gets really eager and excited about trying to eat and latches on, sucks for just a minute, and then has to take a break. Sometimes he falls asleep. It's all very good practice for him! We're going to practice some more this weekend and right before we leave, they will let Curtiss feed him his first bottle. We're guessing he will do well with that since he won't have to suck as hard.

He is no longer naked! They have been putting clothes on him for a few days now, and he looks so cute! They turned the temperature all the way down in his isolette and made sure he maintained his body temp, and then last Monday or Tuesday (I don't remember for sure) they put him in an open crib! He's just like a normal baby now! Well, except half the size and he has a lot of wires and tubes still. He's on 1/2 a liter of oxygen still, but it's looking well, and he has all the temp probes and the oxygen pulsometer hooked to him still. We are bringing up a car seat this weekend to fit him for it, and we expect he'll be 5 lbs when we get to take him home.

The nurses said plan on bringing him home sometime in April, so we're looking at like 3 or 4 more weeks is all! The biggest thing we're facing right now is his a's and b's. He has to go 7 days without an episode. They're getting significantly fewer and further in between, but he still has a few now and then. Let's see... Oh! He's 4 lbs 5 oz as of last night! And I promise I'll try to keep up on this better! I can't handle a revolt! :)

Chubby Baby! (Almost)

2010-03-14T22:24:00.006-06:00

As per usual, it's Sunday night and we have just gotten home today from our weekend visiting Declan. We had a pretty good weekend with him, nothing too eventful, which is probably a good thing considering the fact that he scared me half to death last weekend! This past Wednesday he turned a month old! I still can't believe that we've had him that long! In fact, this whole ordeal is going a lot faster than I thought; he'll be home before we know it! This Friday, he hit the 3 lb mark. Since he's pretty much doubled his weight in the month he's been alive, he's starting to look almost chubby, it's so cute! Of course, the only babies Curtiss and I see are all in the NICU with Declan and most of them are preemies too so he looks normal sized to us, and any amount of weight he puts on automatically shows. He's starting to get some chubby cheeks though!

If his cheeks keep filling out like that, it won't be too long before he starts looking like his mom when she was a kid... poor kids that have to suffer with these cheeks...
Right now, he's still fighting that infection, so he's on antibiotics for just a few more days. The blood cultures came back and he did have a blood infection, but it's not RSV, Influenza or ROP, so it should be nothing we have to worry about. He had another Grade I A&B episode this weekend, so they decided maybe his body was focusing too hard on fighting the infection so he has a harder time remembering to breathe, so they upped his oxygen flow. He is still on the nasal cannula, but it pumps 2 liters of oxygen instead of 1 liter. This should hopefully keep all his airways open so his body doesn't have to try so hard to remember to breathe for the time being until the infection is gone.

They checked his head again and the bleeding is not gone, but it's definitely lessened, and they will check it again in a few weeks and they think it should be almost all the way healed by then. His eye exam was Friday morning, and though his eyes are still premature, they don't see anything wrong with them at this point.

Other than that, we're just waiting for him to get over his apnea and to get fatter so we can bring him home!

Ups and Downs

2010-03-08T12:35:00.004-07:00

This weekend visiting Declan started out pretty typical. My mom met us at the hospital this time so she could see him again. As she stated in her comment on the last post, he just keeps looking better and better! He is filling out a little and he has less and less extra skin all over himself. His skin still is pretty baggy in some areas, like his shoulders and knees and elbows, but he's looking so much better!

He's to the point now where we can hold him once a day, but Friday night he was sleeping and we didn't want to bug him, plus we were very tired from our long drive. Saturday we went in to see him a couple times, and even brought him a few more visitors! Jocelyn came in the afternoon, and then we went to go have lunch with her. Then we met Curtiss' grandparents at the hospital so they could see him again. I took Grandpa in first, and we went back to his little "cubicle", but when we got there, Declan was gone! In fact, the whole little room was empty, including Declan's cubicle-mate, and the nurse was clearing out some more stuff! Confused, I asked what happened to my baby, and she said, oh, he just got moved to Room 3! That means that he is stable enough to need less attention from the nurses. In Room 2, there are 2 babies to a nurse, and in room 3 it's a bigger, open room where there are about 6 babies and anywhere between 1 and 3 nurses at a time. We're very happy about this new promotion for him!

It was in this room that the "mean nurse" forced Curtiss to change Declan's diaper. Last week, when we were doing his cares one of the nights, the nurse tried and tried to get Curtiss to change him, but he refused. Curtiss and I then came up with a deal that once Declan reached 3 lbs, he would change him. I don't blame Curtiss for being scared, it's pretty terrifying! But I think holding him is a lot scarier! This time though, the nurse made Curtiss do it, and to everyone's relief, both Delcan AND Curtiss survived the ordeal. Nobody even got peed on, so that's always a plus! After that, we decided we would hold him, since he was awake.

For some unwritten reason, I always go first when we hold him, so as per usual, he was nice and comfy in my arms. Apparently a little too comfy, because a little while into it, Declan started having one of his apnea episodes. They like to keep his oxygen saturation levels at about 92-96%, and a lot of the time when we're holding him, he starts to high-sat, and his levels go clear up. While not ideal, it means he's happy, so I don't mind seeing those numbers for just a minute. But this time, he started to de-sat. His saturation level went down to about 60%, then 50%, then dropped clear down into the lower 40% levels. This was way too scary. Of course, the nurse is right there to intervene if she needs to, but holy crap Declan! Don't do that! He came back up and was fine for me. But about 10 minutes later, he did it again! This time it got down to like 36%, and it triggered the bradycardia too and his heart rate started to drop too. That is not okay with me! I was so scared I wanted to throw up! The nurse came and tried to stimulate him, by patting his butt and flicking his heel and touching him with her cold hands, anything to get him to snap out of it. It was fine in the end, and it only lasted like 45 seconds, but it felt like an hour!

Needless to say, she put him back in his bed after that, and that was fine by me! I seriously don't think I could have sat through another episode like that. Curtiss and I were pretty shaken up by that, and I may very well have given myself an ulcer over it all. The next morning when we went in to say goodbye for the week, we noticed that his head had an iv sticking out of it, and the bag they use to help him breathe was laying by him. The nurse said he had a bad night and they actually had to breathe for him once. They are thinking that he is reacting to some sort of infection, so they checked his blood cultures to see what is going on, and in the mean time, they are going to be giving him antibiotics through that iv in his head. The blood work results should be in during the next few days so we'll let everyone know what is happening. I didn't get any new pictures of him this weekend since most of the time he was sleeping, and then I didn't want to have to look at his poor head with the iv on top. Way too sad!

They have been taking the spring pictures of all the babies, for the bulletin board in the NICU, so here is my favorite one!
This morning when Curtiss called the hospital, he was up to 1220 grams, so about 2lbs 11oz, and had a very good night, with no cause for alarm! He'll be on the antibiotics for 1 or 2 more days. Hopefully, things keep going well with him, because I can't take another scare like that. He already caused enough commotion before he was born, and quite a bit after, so he just needs to be good. Geez Declan! Just because you get promoted to room 3 doesn't mean you get to quit breathing!

Our Little "Fatty"

2010-03-01T14:38:00.006-07:00

Ever since Declan was born, it seems that my blog has gone viral (in Blanding). Now I have this constant blog-entourage of people (in Blanding) who anxiously await my next post. So for all four of you... here is this week's update. :)

In the NICU they do a weight of all the babies at 9:00 every night, but they do a full out weight+ length+ head circumference each Sunday night, so rather than going by the fluctuating weight they get every night, we like to get a nice average from the Sunday weighs. It will give a better view in the bigger picture as to what he weighed at what point during his stay in the NICU. This Sunday night, he was up to 2lbs 5oz! That's 6 oz past his birth weight, not bad right? Pretty soon we'll enroll him in his Sumo Wrestling classes since he's getting so huge.Everything else is about the same with him; he's still having a few Apnea/Bradycardia episodes while he sleeps, but it helps if they lay him on his belly or his side. He doesn't like to be on his back too much. The A's & B's (Apnea & Bradycardia) means that he's still getting his caffeine doses, but they have now upped the dosage since he has grown a little. He's still at 19 ml's of breast milk every 3 hours, fortified, so he gets 27 calories each time. Other than that, he will be at 32 weeks Gestational Age in about 2 weeks so I'll get to try feeding him then!

As far as his discharge date is concerned, a lot of people have been asking what the deal is. There's no certain weight he has to be at before he is released, it's more of a Criteria list that has to be completed. Most of the infants in the NICU will go home around their due date as long as they meet these things.

All major problems requiring in-hospital medical care have been resolved.
Able to keep body temperature normal, and gain weight in an open crib.
Able to take all feedings by breast or bottle, and take in an adequate number of calories per day.
Gaining weight on all breast or bottle feedings.
Parents feel comfortable taking care of their baby. (For this they will let Curtiss and I stay one or two nights in the hospital in one of the parent rooms where the medical staff is close if we need them)
Not experiencing any apnea-pauses in breathing-causing bradycardia-slowing heart rate- for at least 7 days.
Not requiring oxygen.
Have completed eye examination needs from the Opthamologist.

So far, it's really too early to tell if he'll get to come home on or before his due date, but we're hoping things keep going well for him and that his A's & B's stop so he CAN get a real discharge date!

Curtiss caught Declan in the middle of a big yawn in this pic

We now get to hold him once a week, so we pick a day every time we go up. This week, he was wide awake on Saturday, so that's when we chose to hold him. He gets really happy when we hold him too, you can tell because his oxygen levels go up and the alarms start beeping because he's high-saturating. He also starts waking up and looking around every time he hears our voices now. It's so cute!

Can't Get Enough of Declan!

2010-02-23T13:00:00.005-07:00

This weekend was such a good one! Curtiss and I got to hold Declan! Friday night when we got to the hospital, we had another one of those perfect timing opportunities. They needed to change his diaper and his bedding, so they let me change him, and while the nurse changed his bedding, Curtiss and I took turns holding our baby! It was so awesome/scary! We got to hold him again Sunday afternoon too, so we got a TON of really good pictures!

Check out Declan with his dad, doesn't Curtiss look proud?It might just be gas... but we'll pretend he's smiling :)

He loves his binky! Which is really good because that means he should be easier to feed once he's big enough. They said sometimes it's harder to feed babies like that because up to that point, everything that has been put in their mouth was somewhat torturous, so it's hard for babies to feel like something going into their mouth is a good thing.

Happy family!

Oh, and I lied about his oxygen. I misunderstood the nurse when she called me the other day. He now has a really small tube going across his face to give him oxygen. Like what Bella had in Twilight at the end :) It's a nasal cannula, and what they're doing is tapering down his oxygen saturation until it's about as saturated as what we breathe. They're also reducing the humidity in his isolette little by little so that he can get used to outside air and then he can be in an open crib. That will take a few weeks, since that part is about getting his skin accustomed to less humidity. He started out at like 90%, and now it's down to 60% humidity.

They also told me a little about his head ultrasound. He does have a Grade 1 bleed on both sides of his head, which is the least severe bleed possible. It's not in any major area of his brain, so it won't affect his development or thinking or muscle coordination or anything, and they expect it to heal on its own. They will ultrasound him again at 30 days to make sure it's either stable or healed. They said potentially, there is a very very very slight risk involved, but they said really not to worry. I guess I have to trust the experts!

Other than that, he's tolerating his feedings really well, they keep increasing them and fortifying them so he can turn into a chubby baby soon. He's still having a little apnea every once in awhile, but he recovers all on his own every single time, and he will just grow out of it soon. To help, he' still getting caffeine to stimulate his brain.

He is now gaining weight! Sunday night when they weighed him, he was up to 2 lbs! He dropped down to 1 lb 12 oz, so this is is quite a bit of weight for him! He's now past his birth weight! He has also graduated up to the next size of diapers! These new ones are really big on him, but I guess he got too chubby for the old ones to wrap around him. Assuming all goes well and he gets released on May 9th, we still have 11 more of these weekend trips up there!

Two Posts in One Day?!

2010-02-18T15:32:00.002-07:00

I know... This is unheard of on my blog, to have 2 posts in one day, especially when you look at my track record of getting MAYBE one post a month, but I have WAY exciting news about Declan's progress! The hospital just barely called me and they said they have taken off of his CPAP! No more Scuba Gear! He is officially off all of the IV's, even the one in his foot! Now there is just a flow of oxygen into his isolette so he doesn't suffocate. The nurse didn't have the results of his head ultrasound, but I'm guessing it turned out okay otherwise that would have been on her agenda when she called me. He is still just a little jaundice, but so many babies are when they are born, full-term or not, but they said it usually peaks when they're about 10 days old and then they're fine. She didn't say anything about the apnea this time, so who knows? They are going to start adding a supplement to the milk to make it more fattening for him, because he's so small that he can't eat a big enough amount of milk to be able to get enough calories out of it. So he should start gaining weight soon! All in all, I can't wait to see him tomorrow, since he should no longer look like a cyborg- half human, half machine... haha. I'll definitely be taking more pictures since we'll be able to see his face!

Declan Update

2010-02-18T09:44:00.003-07:00

I'm finally back home this week, which is really good because there is a TON of crap I need to get done here, but it's really been hard for Curtiss and I to be away from Declan like this. He's obviously in very capable hands, it just sucks to not be able to see him. We still get updates from the hospital though, and yesterday they called to inform me that he is off the IV! That means he will be entirely reliant on milk to get his nutrients, and they will be upping his feedings soon too! They didn't say whether it was going to be an increased amount or just more often, but either way, that's so good! He still has a line going into his foot just in case they need to give him any medicine, such as the caffeine they regularly give him to stimulate his brain to tell his lungs to remember to do their job. He still keeps having a few instances of apnea where he'll stop breathing for just a few seconds, but that's very common when babies are born so young like him. He should get over it in just a few weeks, but until then, they jack him up on caffeine!
Today they will be doing an ultrasound on his brain, just to make sure everything looks okay up there. Sometimes with preemies, their brain kind of gets overworked having to do all of the things that a full term baby has to do and the blood vessels in their head can burst, resulting in kind of a stroke. As long as everything looks good today, they won't be needing to do another ultrasound. Still no word on whether or not he gets all those stupid tubes off his face, but they're obviously helping him so I won't complain.
We're on our way back up there tomorrow as soon as Curtiss gets off work! I can't wait to see him again!

Flex

2010-02-15T17:16:00.005-07:00

So when Maggie and I were going to Las Vegas last year we noticed an odd amount of Ford Flex's on the roads. We then decided that whenever we see one we would hold our arms up and 'flex'.
On our way home from up north today we happened to pass one and both of us 'flexed'. There happened to be only one older gentleman in the vehicle wearing a ball cap and when he passed and we did our thing, he looked at us so weird?! It was super funny to us, and then we started thinking, we wonder if anyone we do that to is like, 'what the crap?' and then a few miles down the road it hits them, the light bulb comes on and they just start laughing to themselves. We pictured that older guy sitting in his car a few hours later just laughing cuz of our little joke. Anyway I find that hilarious! So from now on if you see a flex on the road, you know what to do!!!

On another note, what is with prairie dogs being out already?! I saw so many between price and I-70 and then again between I-70 and Moab??!! They were everywhere?!?! Mind boggling!
Thanks for reading, I'm Curtiss Bradford, and you stay classy everyone!!!

More About Declan...

2010-02-14T12:09:00.004-07:00

Yesterday when Curtiss and I were showing off our shiny new toy, Declan, Curtiss was able to get a few pictures of his whole face without his scuba gear so we can really see what he looks like now! He's still got that feeding tube in for these pictures, but that's ok, it looks like he's just sippin' on something delicious through a straw, haha.
But then... they dimmed the lighting just a little bit more... he opened his eyes for Curtiss! As of right now, this is my very favorite picture. Curtiss and I were talking and we think we love it most because it makes him seem like more of a real baby to us and not just something we like to go see, we guess. For now, he's got the scuba gear back on, and he really won't be opening his eyes unless it's real dark like that again, but I'm so excited they were able to get a picture at that exact moment! And for those of you who, like me, get excited about how little everything has to be for Declan, check this out! This was his very first blood pressure cuff. It doesn't fit him anymore so they gave it to me! I can't wait to get home and start putting all this tiny stuff into his scrapbook. I know one day when he's all normal sized it's going to be amazing to look back on it all!

"Board"

2010-02-13T19:33:00.006-07:00

So this is my first post on this blog but it is well worth it. This morning Maggie and I were at the table of her Grandparents, eating a delightful bowl of Rice Krispie Treats Cereal, discussing business, when out of nowhere I noticed this........ This appears to be some type of board on the roof across the street. So me being me I start thinking of all the different things like how it got there and so on but instead of asking Maggie's opinion I just say, "Ah! that is where I put that board!" But I did it in such a way that for no reason Maggie and I just started busting up laughing! After that we starting talking about how it got up there, here are some of our theories......

Some poor, short fat kid (don't know why that physique) was playing with it, throwing it in the air when it went too far and landed on the roof. (you all know at one time or another one of your toys got stuck on your roof!!!)
Right before Christmas Eve, the father of the household told his kids that they were bad and Santa wasn't coming this year so he put the board over the chimney. Later that night when Santa landed on the roof and when took his leap down the chimney he found himself stopping abruptly before ever entering the confined space. Of course this didn't make Jolly Ol St. Nick very happy. With an outburst of rage, Santa angered, threw the board on the other side of the roof and continued on his mission to get back at the dad for boarding up the chimney.
There is a hole in the roof and they were too poor to patch it, so they just nailed that board there.
It is some secret hatch, leading out of a child's bedroom.
It was as close to a Frisbee as someone could get.
the family couldn't afford lumber for their child's tree house so they told him to save up his money and look for scrap pieces of wood. They gave him that piece as a start. Being an anxious little boy he wanted to start building his tree house. So little Timmy (that's his name for now) climbed the tree and nailed on the first board to his tree house. Proud of what he had just accomplished, he stood out on the branch that held his board. Poor Timmy didn't have a chance when that one nail gave way. Two broken bones later there lies the board on the roof, a sad reminder of the start of something that could have been beautiful!

Anyway I won't bore you with anymore lame stories that Maggie and I came up with. I just thought you all might want to live a moment in our shoes and how we think. Weird enough as it is, we pretty much have the same personality and sense of humor. Maybe that is because of 3 years of marriage and 3 years of dating.....Who knows?!

If you guys have any ideas or suggestions about why or how that board got on those people's roof, you should leave a comment!

Declan Got a Promotion!

2010-02-11T18:27:00.004-07:00

Today when Curtiss and I went to go see Declan, they told us he had been moved to a different room. Here at University Hospital's NICU there are different rooms for the babies depending on the care they require. Yesterday he was in room 1 where they put all the babies who have been admitted and need a lot of attention while they're being hooked to all the necessary machines a lines and stuff. When we went to go see him the first time today he had been put in room 2 which is purely for babies with very low birth weights. That means that there is nothing wrong with him, he is just here because he's little! So really the goal is to fatten him up! We've been working on sneaking him cheeseburgers to accomplish that. JUST KIDDING! They said he was just starting to get a little jaundice this morning but it wasn't even full blown so they stuck him under the photo therapy lights to perk him up so that's why in this picture he is wearing that little mask over his eyes. He's just in his own little tanning bed there! Actually we've been calling him our little scuba diver since he has those oxygen tubes. Those tubes are actually for CPAP. That means there are prongs putting slight pressure against his nose which encourages all of his passageways and his lungs to stay open, and the tubes just provide a direct flow of oxygen to him. He's still breathing all on his own, this is something they do to all of the babies born at less than 30 weeks gestational age or less than 1000 grams. Declan was 1 lb 15 oz, or about 880 grams.

The first time we were visiting him today, we happened to be there at the exact right moment, because they had been working on him a little bit and then asked me if I wanted to change his diaper! I was mortified and excited all at once, but I did it! That means Curtiss and I got to touch our baby for the first time! I was so scared I was going to break him in half, but I did it! He was very squirmy and the nurses say he gets that way a lot because he doesn't know what to do with all that free space, especially since my water broke and he had to hang out with even less space for almost 2 weeks. I have a theory that besides that, he's just a squirmy baby. He was always beating me up on the inside before he was born. I told them they should give him some chocolate milk, he used to go NUTS when I'd drink it!

When we were touching him they told us the babies really like it when you put your hands on him and apply firm pressure, rather than soft, petting touches because that's what they're used to and it calms them down. It was really hard when we were there to not just pick him up and hold him but we refrained. We should get to hold him in a few weeks though and I can't wait!They let me keep one of the same size diapers that he wears so we can always remember how itty bitty he was when he was born. As small as these are, they still kind of drown him!

Today they also started feeding him through his feeding tube rather than through the iv, so I really do have to help take care of him now. I have to make sure he has enough food to help him grow! Right now they feed him with a syringe hooked to the tube. If you can see the tiny bit of milk at the top of the syringe, that is enough to feed him almost twice! They started him out at 3 cc's of milk per hour to see how he takes it. If it stresses him out to much they will hold off and he will continue to be fed through the iv. I guess he took it well because they gave me a whole bunch of syringes and cups to fill up for him! Right now I think the plan for Curtiss and I is to make sure I pump enough for him to be able to eat well until at least next Friday, and we will both go home on Monday and be right back up Friday evening. It's going to be hard to leave Declan, but honestly there's not a whole lot I can do for him besides make sure he has a lot to eat. The nurses watch him 24 hours a day and know how to handle any situation and I completely trust them. And really, it will have been over 2 weeks since I've been home, and there's a lot I need to be doing there. It's not like I expected to have a baby at home before May anyway, assuming he would have gone full term, so I need to finish getting ready for him!

The Saga of Declan Bradford

2010-02-10T18:17:00.005-07:00

Monday, February 8th started out as a pretty boring day, as per usual in my bed-rest prison. I was a little more anxious than usual, but I assumed it was because Curtiss had gone home for a few days to get a few things done around the house and bring me a more normal seeming wardrobe. In his haste to pack when he heard I had to be flown up here, my suitcase was filled with some very interesting pieces of clothing. Backing up just a little, we had both planned on this all being for the long haul and it just didn't make sense for him to be up here staring at me doing nothing day after day week after week as my condition was so stable, but I just didn't feel like I wanted to be without him my second week here. I broke down and cried almost all Saturday night knowing that he'd be gone that next day for 5 days, and I finally decided I couldn't handle it, that I'd need him sooner. I thought long and hard about what's the most I can handle him being away, and for some reason I instantly felt better when I told him he could go home but I'd need him back Tuesday.

Monday night at about 7 I started feeling contractions about a half an hour apart, and at about 10 they were getting closer an closer together. Obviously at 27 weeks the goal is to keep the baby in as long as possible the nurses hooked me up to monitors to check and make sure everything was okay inside. One of the biggest risks you face when your membrane ruptures is infection since there is no longer a barrier between the baby and the outside world anymore, so I had to be under close watch for any signs of infection manifesting in me. One theory behind my contractions was the possible infection, which triggers labor because my body would know to get the baby out before he was harmed by it; the other was that because there was such a decrease in amniotic fluid that my uterus was getting irritated and contracting as a reaction. So all Monday night I was unable to sleep for more than 15 minutes or so at a time between contractions, and some of them were so bad they made me lightheaded and I would pretty much pass out. A doctor came and checked me that night and said I wasn't dilated at all but they'd still like to watch me. After pretty much no sleep whatsoever, Tuesday morning at about 4 another doctor came and checked me and I was dilated to 1 cm which could mean nothing, a lot of women can be 3 or more cm dilated for WEEKS before they deliver. They made me go over to a room in the labor and delivery unit so I could be more closely monitored. I was still having contractions, but because of the whole water breaking/don't infect the baby thing, they didn't want to use whatever device it is that lets them see how strong the contractions are. So pretty much they could only see from me pressing the button on the monitor that I was having a contraction, they didn't know the intensity or anything about my contractions, which made me feel like they didn't really believe me. That was a pretty terrible feeling. I felt like maybe they thought I was just trying to score some pain medication by pressing the button every 6-8 minutes. And worst of all, they wouldn't let me eat or drink anything for so long! At about 6 they let me have some grape juice and a sprite and then at like 8 they said I can eat whatever I want, because I'm probably not going into labor.
By the way, those bulges on my stomach are NOT my pregnant belly; I never really got a chance to look pregnant, and the baby inside was so small that they had to put washrags on top of the monitor things to press them closer into my stomach so they could pick up the baby's heart rate more easily. Tuesday night was a VERY long night, the contractions just kept getting worse, the stupid girl next to me in the room was so annoying because she kept asking for more pain medication like every 20 minutes I swear, and they kept giving it to her! She was about 33 weeks pregnant with her 2nd set of twins and I had met her a few days before in one of my non-stress tests and knew she was one of those people who loves pain meds just a little too much.

Curtiss, Laura and I nicknamed her White Trash Twin Prego, or WTTP for short. Seriously, she asked for an epidural when she was dilated to a 3! She had been at a 3 for over a week! And her water hadn't broke yet! She kept telling the doctors and nurses, I can just really feel my contractions right now, I just need more medication to make me not feel them as much. Meanwhile, on my side of the curtain, I was feeling EVERYTHING, and they didn't really want to even give me Tylenol in case it was an infection that can mask the fever that might come with it. Curtiss and my mom spent that whole day with me and then took turns going back to our real room to sleep while the other stayed with me to monitor how often the contractions were. It got to the point where I refused to look at the clock because I knew at 7 minutes another one was coming and it was just too much to bear. Wednesday morning at like 8 when the doctor came in to fill me in on what the plan was for me, I had been having the most intense contractions so far and had basically given up on them giving me something to stop the contractions and letting me go back to my room. I told the doctor I was done and he looked at me and bluntly said no you're not, you've still got awhile and I said no I don't. I'm not doing this anymore. My mom went and got Curtiss from the room at like 8:30, and I was at the point where had no more physical strength to do really anything for myself. the contractions were now a minute apart and pretty much the worst pain I had ever felt but all I could do was lay there and try to breathe through them. They checked me again and the doctor said Oh! She's at 5 cm and I can see a head! We need an epidural right now! By then I was basically limp as a dishrag and thought whatever, epidural sounds good I don't know if I can even push at this point. My mom tried to talk them out of it but I wasn't aware to be able to feel strongly one way or another. They carted me down the hall to the delivery room and I had to have Curtiss and the nurses and doctors do pretty much everything. They told me I would need to sit up to place the epidural but by the time they sat me up I told them WAIT I might have to push! They said I couldn't because I was only at a 5 and I had a long way to go before I could push, but for some reason they laid me back down and checked me again and I was at a 10! I said OK I have to push! They said wait you can't we're not ready! They were all still putting on gloves and setting everything up. I was so not interested in what they had to say about that, he was on his way, regardless. I really think that if I hadn't used all my physical strength fighting through 39 straight hours of contractions, I might have been able to handle the delivery a little less like a savage, but the only strength I could muster was- according to the witnesses present, the most blood curdling scream ever heard to mankind. At 9:35 and before I knew it, he was out and my whole body instantly felt awesome! They showed him to me for just a second before he was passed to the professional hands in the Newborn ICU and I couldn't believe how fast it all happened between the worst pain of my entire life and that moment where I felt the best relief and got to see my baby. It so made it all worth it. Curtiss and I are now the proud parents of a 1 lb 15 ounce little boy named Declan Bevan Bradford. It's pronounced like deck-lan, by the way.
Because he's so premature he has to be hooked up to all that stuff, but oddly enough it doesn't bother me to see him like this. Curtiss and I have so much faith that everything is going to work out just fine for all of us. They estimated that he's about 14 inches long, but with preemies they don't like to put them through the stress of stretching them out to measure them. We went to see him this afternoon and I was way scared he'd look like most preemies look, sort of reptilian, but he is perfect. The dose of steroids they had given me to promote his lung development helped a lot, and tonight at about 6 they were able to take him off the ventilator and he is now breathing on his own! It will still probably be a few days before we can touch him, but I'm really excited about it! I still have yet to fall asleep, for even a nap. I don't know if it's because my body has forgotten what that's like or if the delivery process just gave me a whole new days worth of energy. Curtiss has taken a nap or two since then, but that's totally understandable since his wife has just given birth. All in all, I feel so awesome, other than my stomach is so dang sore from basically doing crunches for 39 straight hours, I walk like I should be in a senior citizen home, but the fact that all of it is over and we got our baby out of the deal is the best feeling in the world! I know I couldn't have done it without my mom to be my cheerleader and Curtiss as my coach/second set of muscles!

Bedrest for Peepants

2010-02-08T14:45:00.005-07:00

Last Friday I was having a dream that I was peeing the bed... it's been 10 days and I haven't stopped. Let me explain. I really thought maybe my baby was laying on my bladder wrong and I really was peeing my pants, but then a few hours later, I still was, even though I had felt the baby moving around and he was nowhere near my bladder. So I called the clinic on my lunchbreak and they thought maybe it was a UTI or something but that I should probably get it checked out. A quick peek inside let them know that it was my water that had broken! At 25 weeks! Really at that point in my pregnancy that was the furthest thing from my mind that that was what it could be! They let me know that I would not be going home that night, but would instead be flown up to the University of Utah Hospital where I would stay until I delivered. Originally, my due date was May 9th, so that is a really long time to be away from home. Once I got up here they told me that they really won't keep me pregnant past 34 weeks, which is still 8 weeks in the hospital, but it puts my due date now at March 28th. For now I'm just wasting time in my room doing pretty much nothing but being monitored!Needless to say we have a lot of time on our hands right now... Just waiting on the baby!

And for no good reason EVERY SINGLE OUTLET IS UPSIDE DOWN! WHY?? I have nothing to do but stare at them all day!

Mystery Solved!

2009-12-09T16:44:00.005-07:00

Curtiss and I just got back from our 2nd ultrasound for this baby. I told the Tech when she started that I wanted to do everything possible to be able to tell what it is today, even if I had to stand on my head! It only took about 2 minutes to be able to see the little guy's third leg though! That's right! It's a boy! (Sorry Teagan, that means it's not a tiger either...) He was actually a lot more shy about us seeing his face and profile than he was about us seeing the little Homie and his Friends. We had a really hard time getting him to not be face down so we could see his face, but just as she was about to give up, he looked just right and she snapped a shot of his profile. And yes, I'm sure it's Curtiss's kid, because he was a turd about it all!The due date is still May 9th, thank goodness I didn't get demoted again. I couldn't handle the depression of catching back up to where I thought I already was again!

From Sugar to Mooch

2009-12-08T11:51:00.005-07:00

We recently downgraded our dog's size... That is, we had my little brother EJ's red heeler, Sugar, living with us since he is living with my mom again and they can only have one dog at their house. Sugar is a really good dog, fully trained, and just like her name, super sweet, but she kept running away. We never got too worried, because she would just end up back at my mom's where she knew EJ was. I think that was a meant-to-be pair, because that's pretty much how EJ acquired her in the first place. He was living in an apartment in Aspen, Colorado and the people who lived there before her had the dog first. She kept running away from them and ending up back at her old home. So, after this happened three or four times, they finally told him he could keep her. He has moved two or three times since and she goes with him everywhere, despite the draw of the old familiar apartment. Since we're not one to fight destiny, the solution was decided, we would trade dogs! So now I have my family's chihuahua, Mooch; and EJ has his beloved Suga-baby. Mooch doesn't know as many tricks or anything, but she's way hilarious. The reason I call her Mooch is because that's pretty much all she does. She has a way of making you feel guilty for not sharing every bit of food with her. She stares at you with her huge bug-eyes and will throw a huge fit if she finds out you didn't share. We get along great, because both of us HATE the cold. Since it snowed, she hardly eats or drinks any more than she has to because then she'll have to go outside to go potty, so she spends pretty much all day long sleeping on my warm bed. And since she's part gopher, she burrows. Her favorite spot to sleep is by my knees, clear under the blankets. Weird huh! She's also part pineapple, because she is not a very cuddly dog. She'll sit by you forever, and you can pet her for days, but holding her is a different story. She sticks out her spiny little legs and almost refuses to cooperate in being cuddled with. The first night we had her, she had been sick for a couple of days so we weren't sure we wanted to take the chance of her pooping on our carpet all night long, so I decided to give Curtiss some practice with a diaper. She hated this pretty bad... It made her waddle, and I think it also made her scared to poop at all, so it worked out. She is all better now, so the diaper thing won't be happening again we hope. Hopefully my baby won't have a tail, because cutting out that hole was pretty hard. Those diapers are thick!

Christmas Time!

2009-12-01T21:19:00.016-07:00

I'm not usually one to get very excited about Christmas, but Curtiss and I have been wanting to watch the Grinch (the Jim Carrey one) since Halloween! It's not that I'm ultra excited for Christmas itself, it's just the Christmas Season that I've been anticipating. Maybe it's because I'm anxious for it to get colder so I can wear big ol' hoodies to hide my ever-expanding belly... Either way, by 8:30 in the morning the day after Thanksgiving, I had already put up all of my Christmas decorations throughout my house! The next day, Curtiss, Monty and Cindy, and I loaded up and went on the mountain to go tree-hunting. Due to my limited lung capacity since this baby is scrunching up all my insides and pretty much collapsing my lungs, I had Curtiss cut down one of the first trees we saw. As usual, it looked a lot better/straighter/bushier in the forest and not so much in my living room. Once we got it cut and put into the stand, it looked so silly and small in my house! I was so sad I would have to have such a puny Christmas tree, so I put it in my dining room, and it looks really pretty and proportionate for that size of room.

I think this tree would have looked perfect in my house... but I couldn't convince Curtiss to let me cut a hole in the ceiling to accommodate.

Doesn't Monty look like a tree monster?

When I got home from work on Monday, I got home from work on Monday, I found out that Curtiss had cut me a new tree! This one is perfect size and it looks really good in my front room. I love it! And the best thing about real Christmas trees is the smell! All of my trees smell so good!

As if I didn't have enough trees in my house, I decided for one last finishing touch... I cut some branches off of the extra stuff we cut off and put them in this jar in my kitchen. Now I have pine tree smell in every room!

My First Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T11:34:00.005-07:00

In all my life thus far, the occasion has never arisen that called for me to roast a turkey by myself. I had no idea how to gut it and stuff it, due to the fact that my mom always handled this when I was little. I knew it had to be done early in the morning so the turkey could cook pretty much all day, but by the time I was old enough to learn how to do this process, it seems like my priority at that point in the morning was to continue sleeping. So this Thanksgiving, I was determined to overcome my disillusion that the turkey waltzed its way into the oven, pre-stuffed, and came out looking that delicious golden brown. At the crack of dawn, 7:00 am to be exact- and yes, this is the crack of dawn to one who is pregnant and determined to sleep in as much as humanly possible throughout the pregnancy, knowing that in a few short months, all hopes of ever getting sleep ever ever again is indefinitely diminished- I willed myself out of my warm and cozy cocoon of blankets and attempted to prepare the bird for its descent into the oven. Unfortunately, due to the pregnancy issue and not being in a very good state-of-body to deal with much that is considered remotely "gross", so as I opened the package that contained the turkey, I was not prepared for the "bloody show" that emerged from the turkey. It really didn't help that I'm not really used to preparing food that still looks like the animal. It was at that point that I found I needed my mommy. So, a few minutes later, in came the re-enforcements. After she helped me get the turkey fixed up and into the oven, I was able to finish cooking the rest of the meal throughout the rest of the day, along with the help of a few naps here and there. All in all, it turned out really well, and Thursday was really good practice for Friday's Thanksgiving Part 2. The Bradford's' always do their Thanksgiving dinner the Friday after, so luckily, my stomach was pretty stretched out from Thursday and ready for the next day!
One of the best things about Thanksgiving is PIE!!! I so meant to take a picture of the beautiful Pie Table, but it got eaten way too fast! We had 8 different kinds of pie on the Thursday Thanksgiving, and they were all so dang good! But if you know me, I'm OK with any holiday that revolves around food!

Not Swine Flu!

2009-10-12T11:03:00.007-06:00

Last month Curtiss and I took a trip down to San Jose del Cabo, Mexico. We considered it our super delayed honeymoon. But while we were down there I got so dang sick! I thought, crap, I got swine flu or something... and I stayed sick for a few weeks after. I kept thinking, Oh, I'll get over it, I don't get sick! But then the heartburn kicked in. I've had heartburn like twice in my life before, so it was really weird for me to be getting it after almost every meal. So after many home pregnancy tests as well as a professional medical opinion to confirm it, sure enough, I'm pregnant!

All I had to go by was the day I got sick, so by the time I was at the Doctor's appointment, I assumed I was only 3 weeks pregnant. Michelle Lyman got her little wheel thing out and said, guess again! She guessed that I was about 13 weeks, and I thought, Sweet! I'm 7 weeks from being halfway done! BUT... The next week at my first ultrasound, they demoted me back to 9 weeks. Bummer, but I guess that gives me longer to prepare everything! I already feel like there's way too much to do but so much of it has to wait anyway. For now my estimated due date is May 9th of next year. I'm sure this is subject to change.

As for the Mexico post, that will have to wait until I don't feel the urge to vomit to think about anything to do with that trip or that country. It seriously does give me way bad pregnancy sickness to think about anything that we did or ate or smelled while we were there. It's so weird. I'll have to have Curtiss post the pictures and skip past that post indefinitely.

For those of you who have any idea how to interpret ultrasound pictures, here are a few. Mostly when she was doing them, she was pointing to everything on the screen and telling me what it was and I was like, oh... yeah... I see... But really I had no idea what I was looking at.

In this one, it kind of looks like a monkey to me. The little circle thing above its head is the yolk sack.

This one shows the baby's heartbeat. It was at 176 at one point and then it jumped up to 178. Excitable little thing!

I guess this means my monkey baby measures up.
I'm glad this one was labeled because its legs look dang weird. It was kicking its legs during this shot so it looked like it was dancing! Someone should probably tell this kid that both of its parents are white. White Man's Disease is the number one killer of rhythym.

The Dazzling Life of a Recessionista

2009-08-25T10:06:00.008-06:00

Lately, Curtiss and I have been trying to live a lot more frugally. It's been hard! We were discussing some of the things we pay for every month that we really could live without, and I then made us a tight budget. We've always had a pretty loose one, but you never know what will come, so we decided we needed more structure. For one thing, we stopped eating out. This has been a big adjustment for us, because it is pretty hard to cook for just two people! We limited ourselves to once a week, and I told him I would have $15 at the beginning of every week for restaurants. If we used it, oh well, and if we didn't, it went into a jar. Since that day (which I think was in June) we have eaten out zero times! It has saved us so much money! Of course we occasionally will dip into that jar and take out 2 bucks to go get drinks, but I think we deserve a little bit of a reward!

But now... I have to cook EVERY SINGLE NIGHT! Not that I mind this so much, but it is hard to keep coming up with new stuff to cook! I really do love cooking, but I don't want to do it all day! So now I watch a lot of Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals. She is awesome because for one, she's a dork like me- except sometimes I get a little embarrassed for her because she really is a HUGE dork :) and she doesn't use a lot of ridiculous ingredients, and the obvious, her meals only take 30 minutes to prepare! We have also limited ourselves to $75 every two weeks for groceries, so sometimes I'm forced to get REALLY creative... Gummy Bear Casserole, anyone? Lol, not that bad. Usually :) !

In doing this, not only have I become part of one of the newest trends, the Recessionistas, who make living poor being cool, I have also come up with a bunch of new recipes, like this one for Lasagna Spirals. If you've ever made Lasagna, I'm sure you know how big of a process it is. Especially if you're like me, I usually make my own noodles because they're so much better, and can be cheaper sometimes. But I have made these a few times now and it only takes 40 minutes tops. If you pair this with a salad and bread sticks or garlic bread, I swear your husband will love you forever! And, Oh My Heck, if you're a guy and you make this for your wife, I'm pretty sure she'll let you get that gun! Or whatever it is you want! ;)Lasagna Spirals
olive oil
10 lasagna noodles
1 lb ricotta cheese (I'm pretty sure you can use cottage cheese if you want, but I just usually have ricotta on hand anyway)
1 package chopped, frozen spinach, thawed and drained (squeeze out water)
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded (I use Italian Blend cheese, because it adds so much more variety with all those different kinds of cheese!)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
6 basil leaves, chopped (my guess is that you can just use Italian seasoning, like oregano thyme, basil, etc. but I have a TON of fresh basil)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 garlic clove, minced (fresh is better, but use garlic powder if you don't keep fresh cloves on hand)
Salt & Pepper- like 1/2 tsp each
1 jar of Spaghetti Sauce - here's where I cheat :)
1 small can mushrooms, drained (or use fresh mushrooms if you can afford them!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add olive oil. Cook noodles 7-8 minutes or until done. Drain.
Mix ricotta, spinach, half of mozzarella, basil, egg, garlic, salt & pepper in a bowl. Add mushrooms and mix.
Spread 1 cup spaghetti sauce in the bottom of a baking dish. Spread each noodle with a layer of the ricotta mixture, then roll up and place seam side down into the dish. Top spirals with remainder of spaghetti sauce and Parmesan cheese and sprinkle the remainder of the shredded cheese to top it all off.

Bake for 10 minutes or until all the cheese on top looks melty and delicious.

If you'll notice, this recipe is completely meatless. Well, at its debut to our dinner table, Curtiss noticed this. Last night when I made this again, I fried up some ground beef with a chopped onion and mixed that into the ricotta mixture. He loved it! Of course, after I cook ground beef I rinse it off because Kim told me that if you have I think 85% lean ground beef (which is cheaper than say 95% lean) you can cook it and rinse it off and it then becomes like 97% lean. Now I'm obsessed with it! It doesn't alter the taste at all, just make sure you don't season it before you cook it or else all that flavor will get washed away!

Enjoy!

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-05T18:25:00.007-06:00

This weekend, we got to take a break from all the overdramatized Michael Jackson hype and have a really fun 4th of July. The 4th is seriously my favorite holiday of the year, and it's about the only fun weekend that Blanding has to offer! We were out at the Midnight Madness softball tourney until like 2 am on Friday, and then we had to be up pretty early on Saturday. Curtiss got volunteered again to pull the float for Recapture Metals in the parade, and he spent all day Friday getting our big sexy truck all shined up and parade worthy. After that we went to the booths down at the park and Curtiss and Justin entered the Horseshoe Tourney, so I got to spend about 3 hours in the hot sun watching them chuck horseshoes.

Check out the stance on this guy, he's all profesh! I'm not for sure, but I bet he got a double ringer right then! He ought to give horseshoe-huckin' lessons!

I think this was their last game, and I FINALLY found some shade nearby. So while I was recovering from probably near heatstroke, I got this great view ... :) I guess there was some really intense players out there, but these guys did really well. We then went home and celebrated with a team nap! And then....

FIREWORKS! I absolutely LOVE to go down to the super-overcrowded park and listen to the cover band made up of middle aged men that play all sorts of old cool songs until the fireworks start. I love seeing all the people that I haven't seen forever, and some of the ones that I see almost every single day, and even though parking is a mess and you have to park FOREVER away we still tote blankets to sit on. It's chaotic, yet somehow relaxing too. Then the fireworks started and I must have said during every single firework almost, that I love that kind. Curtiss finally said, I think you just love every one of them! No argument there! It makes me really sad to think that next year I won't be able to spend the 4th with him since he'll be in Afghanistan. I'm determined to have a good time anyway though!

After the fireworks we went and chilled with a bunch of friends we havn't seen in forever until insane hours of the night. It was tons of fun. Did I mention how much I love the 4th?

Tony & Jocelyn's Wedding

2009-05-28T09:18:00.004-06:00

This last weekend Curtiss and I went up north for his cousin Tony's wedding. They got married Saturday in Jocelyn's Grandma's backyard, in Provo, and it is one of the most amazingly pretty backyards I have ever seen. She said her and all her cousins used to talk all the time about getting married or having their receptions there, and I can totally see why!

Isn't May the most perfect month for a wedding? ;) The strikingly handsome couple got to spend the weekend together, but Tony is in the Navy and had to fly back to Florida first thing Monday morning. He gets to come back for another weekend visit to his wife in September for Labor Day. I believe she will get to go live with him in November. Ah, the life of the Military Wife...

2 Years Already!

2009-05-15T17:19:00.004-06:00

This last Monday was our 2 year anniversary. Curtiss and I agreed that we wouldn't get each other anything because for one, we're dang poor - join the club, right? - and for another, we're going up north for Tony and Jocelyn's wedding at the end of the month and I told him we can buy each other something that we want up there. So it really was just an ordinary day for me. We went to work, came home and we were sitting on the couch doing pretty much nothing and someone was at the door knocking. Cute Curtiss had flowers delivered to me! He said they were supposed to be delivered to my work, because I think he secretly loves embarrassing me, but "unfortunately for me" Bailey was running late so they came to my house! I am not sad at all about that twist of fate! They are so pretty and you can smell them as soon as you walk into my house. I have been trying for like a week now to get the pictures off of my stupid camera so I could post them, but my computer acted like they didn't exist, even though I could see them on the camera, and it was just retarded and now they're completely gone... SAD! So now the flowers are all wilted and not cute enough to take a picture of, but too cute to throw away, so you'll just have to imagine the prettiest bouquet of flowers ever. Regardless of picture proof, Curtiss is a super sweet guy to me, even if he does live for embarrassing me!

New Mommy!

2009-04-24T21:53:00.004-06:00

Sorry for those who got faked out and assumed the title was implying that I have anything to do with the New Mommy! It's actually about my cat, Riley. She has been ENORMOUSLY pregnant for the past few weeks and today I was standing outside on my lunch break and talking to my brother-in-law, Justin. Well, Riley came walking by, and she looked pretty disgusting, and she was still pretty fat, but her belly was lower, and pretty floppy looking. So we spent the next few minutes walking all around my house looking for an abandoned pile of kittens. You'd think they would just be somewhere in my shed where I feed them, so we decided to look a second time. Up on the very highest shelf, we heard some rustling in a box. So we pulled it down, and sure enough, four baby kittens!

They're so cute and ugly! They look like little hamstercats, and I just want to hold them and squeeze the living crap out them! I know I'm not supposed to though, so I'll just stare at them for awhile I guess. I thought Riley would be all mommish about it and not let me near them, but she's super chill about it all. She let me get up close and personal while I snapped some pics, and she just lays there while I'm in the shed. It was almost like she was getting jealous that I was paying attention to the kittens than her, because she hopped out of the box and kept trying to make me pet her, but like I said, she's still pretty gross. I guess that's what's not good about puffy hair cats, they look really pretty, but their fur can get pretty nasty if it's not taken care of.

Here's a picture of the proud new mom! She kept trying to come and sniff the camera though, so this isn't the greatest picture, you can't tell at all how pretty she is. As for my other cat, Peaches, she's M.I.A... She and I don't get along that great anyway. Riley is a lot more social, and she comes when you call her. I think she might be part dog actually! Well, anybody want a kitten in a few weeks?

It's Finally Really Spring!

2009-04-22T20:34:00.006-06:00

I'm so psyched it's finally spring! Spring and summer are my absolute favorite times of the year, because I love being outside and seeing everything come to life! I love being able to go to the mountain if it gets too hot down here, which in my opinion, is very rare! The last really good week of weather we've had here was the last week of winter, and spring hit and the wind took over! One week ago, it was just blowing and blowing and it actually started snowing! Literally 3 days later, I got sunburned out on a fourwheeling trip! I guess that's Utah though, if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes, it will change! For the past several weeks there have been some itty bitty plants sprouting out on the north side of my house. Since we bought this house and moved in last summer, I missed all the new blooms, and I had no idea they were even there til now! I kept watering them though, and cleared all the weeds away from them. For like a week now, there have been tiny little buds on them and I have been anxiously waiting for them to bloom so I could see what they are! They're a type of bulb, so I figured they were irises or flags or something, but I could never tell until they bloomed. Just this morning I was out watering them and still completely perplexed as to what they are. I came home this afternoon and about half of them are bloomed! It's amazing how fast it happened! They're poppies! And they're so pretty! I had to snap some pics! Did I mention I love spring?

Firsts

2009-04-21T19:03:00.005-06:00

1. Who was your first date? Curtiss! It wasn't officially a date though. He asked me if I wanted to go ride 4 wheelers to the top of the mountain with him, Tony, and Dave. He put a pillow on the back of his 4 wheeler, but told me I could pick who I wanted to ride with. Smooth right? I rode with him!
2. Do you still talk to your first love? Yes, it's Curtiss!
3. What was the first time you drove like? Mortifying! I had to drive a stick shift car and I wasn't very good at it. I drove out to the old dump and had to turn around on a way narrow part of the road and I was so scared to let off the brake and the clutch because I thought I might pop the clutch and it would jerk the car and make it roll down the cliff!
4. What was your first job? In high school I was a tutor for kids at the middle school.
5. What was your first car? Chevy Cavalier
6. Who was the first person to text you today? Danielle
7. Who is the first person you thought of this morning? Curtiss! He has been gone since Easter and I still have 8 more days without him! I miss him!
8. Who was your first grade teacher? Mrs. Armstead, at Widefield Elementary School in Colorado Springs.
9. Who was your first best friend, and do you still talk? Nidia Jonesdoza probably knows enough about me to get me into a lot of trouble, but I haven't hung out with her in forever! It's probably because we live so far apart. I think it's a full 2 blocks from my house to hers. Right now, I spend quite a bit of time hanging out or texting Laura Palmer though. We have a secret sisterhood. ;)
10. Where was your first sleepover? At my best friend at the time, Dani... somebody's house in Colorado Springs. When I was like 4 or 5. I should look her up!
11. Where did you go on your first airplane ride? From a dinky little airport in La Paz, Mexico to Ensenada, Mexico. We sat first class, which sounds awesome, but it was a Mexican airline, so it was like a school bus that happened to fly.
12. Who was the first person you talked to today? I think Justin came over to use my computer this morning.
13. Who's wedding were you in for the first time? My brother Patrick's. I was a server girl and I bet I thought I was pretty awesome.
14. What was the first thing that you did this morning? Checked my email to see if Curtiss had written me yet. He hadn't :( but later he wrote me the longest email ever! I was stoked!
15. Who was the first concert that you went to? Uh... Use Only As Directed. Does that even count?
16. First tattoo? Don't have any.
17. First piercing? My ears.
18. First foreign country you have been to? Mexico.
19. First movie you remember seeing? The Little Mermaid. Still my absolute favorite! Laura will probably pick the same. "Hands up!"
20. When was your first detention? I actually never had detention! I did have, like Alicia said, those poker chips. I got one taken away once, because all of my class in 4th grade was being naughty so the teacher took away one of everyones. I know I was being good so it was pretty traumatic.
21. What was the first state that you lived in? Wyoming for the first 2 years of my life
22. Who was your first roommate? You mean like my little brother when I was tiny?
23. First funeral you attended? Leora Clark, this little old lady that was a friend of our family. My family basically adopted her and her husband, Moe, in Colorado Springs. Their kids didn't want anything to do with them and we became really close to them and they ended up moving to Blanding with us.
24. Who was your first kiss? Curtiss!
25. What is the first thing you do when you get on the computer? Check my email and if I have time I will play free cell. I'm addicted to it!

Miss Us Yet?

2009-04-19T22:09:00.008-06:00

Curtiss has 10 more days until he's home from Azerbaijan and I'm sure if he doesn't miss me, he at least misses Grizz. Look how big he's gotten! I bet he'll be so excited to see you! We both miss you a lot! (I bet I miss you a lot more!)

Smile Curtiss!

2009-04-18T02:36:00.017-06:00

This is the most recent picture of Curtiss and I, although I'm no longer blond! Well... My hair isn't anyway... hehe. Literally, the day after this was taken, I colored my hair brown. This is also the closest that Curtiss will come to smiling in a picture unles he's showing off on his four wheeler!

Beat Ya To It Laura!

2009-04-18T02:19:00.007-06:00

Laura Palmer and I have been talking about starting our blogs forever now, and I seem to have time on my hands these days so I decided to just have at it! Curtiss is in Azerbaijan (yes, it's a real country and Curtiss didn't just make it up, lol) for National Guard Annual Training until the end of April, so here I sit, all alone in my empty house except for my puppy, Grizz. He's about 8 weeks old and pretty naughty. I swear he may very well be the weirdest dog ever. If my camera were in this country I would post the pictures of him when we very first got him. He loves to chew on peoples pant legs more than anything. I'm in the process of teaching him to stop, but I'm not able to work with him as much as I'd like since I'm at work all day. Right now I'm livin' it up like I'm single again, which is mostly just boring, but at night it's scary. It's hard for me to fall asleep by myself so here I am at my computer listening to music so I don't hear any other noises and freak myself out. I'm also doing laundry to further assist the deafening silence. What an awesome life, right? 11 more days and I get my Curtiss back though! Yay! Now... Tag! Laura, you're it! For every week that goes by that you haven't started your blog you have to make me some of your ultra-cheesy broccoli cheese soup! Lol!