Just RK

Many of you may have seen my husband's post about his long-lost love, the big, fat, solid chocolate bunny of Easter past. (If you haven't seen it, it's TOTALLY worth a read...great post.)We have looked all over, trying to find the right kind of solid bunny. They just don't make them like they used to....really, they don't. So in order to try to make all his Easter dreams come true, while Cory and Mary were here visiting last weekend, Mary and I formulated a plan. We got the biggest hollow bunny we could find and lopped off its bottom (the actual bottom, not the anatomical bottom). After creating what we thought was the perfect mix of premium chocolate candy-making ingredients, cooling it to what we thought was a proper temperature not to melt the bunny shell, and collecting the proper tools, we commenced filling. It took alot more than I thought it would to fill that hare. We had trouble seeing what the level of the chocolate was inside. So Maglite came to the resc

What a crazy trip this was! And what a rude way to introduce Zoey to our road trip adventures! No, we didn't have any legal problems, auto breakdowns, or accidents. It was just kind of a comedy of errors for 36 hours straight. I will spare you the details of all the little frustrations. Be very glad. We started out at 9 am on Wednesday, stopped at one of my offices on the way out of our area so I could take care of an install that needed to be done, and headed to St. Louis. Braska had her blood drawn at Children's (not even flinching, no tear, no pout, no whimper...amazing), we had some good taco salads in the cafeteria, found out we'd not be seeing the dietician as hoped, and moved on. At St. John's, we got Braska's back-up pair of glasses and had her main pair repaired, complete with new ear pieces for a better fit. Then we headed out to Lake St. Louis for a quick stop at my brother's house and a hug for Braska from Auntie Skye. We took off for Columbia, Misso

~We had a great Easter...friends Cory and Mary came to visit! The first time we've ever had friends come from far away to JUST visit us (mostly...there were a couple other lucky people to get to see them.) We felt very very special! ~We're headed to St. Louis in about 10 minutes. Picking up glasses, doing labwork, maybe seeing the nutritionist, and making a quick jump to Columbia for a drop off of Braska's too-small clothes and meeting two new babies...Lillie and Millie...not twins, both friends of ours, but they don't know each other. And they live like a mile apart! We'll have to orchestrate a meet-up! ~I have so many post ideas I want to deal with, but I'm even worse with time lately than ever! Maybe when I get a chance to be home for more than 10 days straight! ~And the best news....I've found a little "travel assistant" named Zoey who is a total God-send! She's traveling with us to help occupy Braska in the car and give me extra hand

The Random Questions process ~Choose one or all of the questions to answer. ~Either respond with a comment to this post with your answer or put up a post on your own blog for a full response. ~Don't forget to include any funny or interesting story to illustrate your answer in action. ~Be sure to leave a comment on this post to let us know where to find your post so we can come check it out! Round 6-- Truly random!! I've just got some weird stuff bouncing around in my head today, so enjoy! 1. How's your closet? Do you use all the same kind of hangers? Wire, plastic, or wood? Do you hang everything in the same direction, like all shirts facing the same way? 2. Are you a channel flipper or a commercial watcher? OR do you get up and do a quick task during commercials? OR are you a DVR addict who never watches a commercial because you never watch shows as they actually air? 3. Have you ever looked at your house after a holiday and truly debated just packing a suitcase and

This past weekend, my parents were here along with two of my sisters and one brother. We played some games, Mom spent lots of time with Braska working on eating, as she has lots of patience with such things, and a good time was had, at some point, by all. While we were playing a game on Saturday night, Mom was getting Braska fed and ready for bed. She got her settled in bed and came out to clean her glasses from the constantly sticky smeared state they are generally in. Suddenly there is an "uh-oh" that comes from the kitchen. I knew she was cleaning the glasses and I just instantly dropped my head, chin to chest, and began to plan my packing plan for another trip to StL pronto. She came into the family room where we were and showed that one of the nose pads had come off, and the absolutely ridiculously tiny screw that was supposed to hold it in was missing. It apparently fell out while she was rinsing them over the sink, and as it wasn't visible in the sink, we kne

There's so much I want to say about this, but I'm so tired. This has been such a challenging week for me, and yet, I maintained pretty well through it all. I look back at the post from earlier in the week and I sounded more frustrated than I felt, and that's strange to me. I don't want to sound like a complainer. This morning I thought out loud that maybe I'm supposed to be learning some about patience this week since it's been all about waiting. And I'm still waiting... To recap, we went to StL on Sunday night to get a jump on getting Braska's glasses repaired or replaced on Monday. Then Monday was spent calling the doctor's office and waiting for a return call that didn't come. Tuesday we went to the doctor's office, went to the optical store, and went home to the in-laws' to wait until the replacement pieces (temples) came in on Thursday. Tuesday night I waited most all night for Braska to fall asleep and therefore waited most

The Random Questions process ~Choose one or all of the questions to answer. ~Either respond with a comment to this post with your answer or put up a post on your own blog for a full response. ~Don't forget to include any funny or interesting story to illustrate your answer in action. ~Be sure to leave a comment on this post to let us know where to find your post so we can come check it out! Round 5--Travel! It's almost springtime, and we're all thinking about where we'd like to go for a little R & R. 1. Do you prefer traveling by car, train, plane, or boat? 2. Are family vacations or yearly vacations of some kind a part of your regular schedule? Where are some places you've gone? 3. What's your favorite travel memory? Maybe a trip as a kid, road trip in college, honeymoon? Could be good OR bad... 4. Have you ever traveled in the back seat of a station wagon, like the old kind that faced backward? 5. Where to you hope to go this year or the nex

As my friend Kari at Chanelle and Tristan likes to measure things by how many sleeps are left before something happens, it appears that we have one more sleep til we go home. The temples for her glasses didn't come in today, at least when I called for the third time this afternoon to check before coming back to the house from Children's, they still weren't in. So here we are again, one more night. Thank the Lord for in-laws willing to share their empty nest with open arms. They might not admit it, but it's only because Braska's with me.

A full night of sleep is a beautiful thing. Man, I'm so spoiled with this usually good sleeper kid I have. Last night was back to the norm, down peacefully and out for the night. And that was both of us, thank goodness. Today we head to the GI for a g-button check-up and then check in to see if the parts for her glasses are in. If they are, we're done with this trip to StL. I'm really praying we get to go home today. I'm ready to be home.

Braska's sick. If you're up to date on her blog , you probably got the message. I don't know how people do it that have lots of sicknesses and issues that mess with the kid's sleep patterns! The norm for this kiddo of mine is that we have the night-night routine, p-jammies, kisses to Daddy, thank you prayers for all our blessings, and then I simply put her in bed and she's still and out within minutes. That's how it's been every night since she was about 2 months. Sure, there was the period in there between 2 and 3 months when we still had to do feedings at night via the NG, but she didn't wake up for those. We've been sleeping peacefully through the night at our house since immediately after surgery at 3 months. I know that's a HUGE blessing and not the norm, from what I hear, but I like it alot. Last night I put her down in the normal manner here at the in-laws' place, in her pack n'play that she always sleeps in here. She went d

If you're in a hurry...today went better than yesterday. Thank you, God! Braska's take on things, complete with pics, will be up later today when she gets up from her nap and is ready to tell her story. For you detail addicts... We got up, fed, dressed, and headed out for the 40 min drive to Children's. On the way, I debated, sometimes outloud with myself, whether or not to call again to tell them I was coming. I weighed the element of surprise with catching a possible open appointment slot if I talked to them first thing. I decided to call for an appointment, so I did, and waited on hold for just long enough to change my mind. Then I called back, bypassed the appointment option, and got a hold of Debbie, the same girl I talked to twice yesterday. I told her I hadn't gotten a call back, and that I really needed Braska to be seen today, so I was already on my way. I told her I would see whoever was free if Dr. S wasn't available. She said calmly that Dr. S

If you haven't seen Braska's admission , the girl is in the princess dog house for breaking her glasses. So last night we got to my in-laws' house (St. Louis) at about 9pm. The idea was to be here in town so that we could either be seen by the optometrist to get an updated prescription or get the ok from him to go ahead and get a new pair of glasses with the same one. The reason the prescription is in doubt is that she has been crossing even with her glasses on over the past 10 days or so. This has been described as an indication that her prescription might need to be updated. So I was planning on trying to see them this Thursday when we were already scheduled to be at the hospital for appointments. Her disabling of the glasses simply exacerbated the need for an appointment, or at the very least, phone contact. This morning we got up, I called the Eye Center at 9 am, left a message for Dr. S, the optometrist we saw two weeks ago. I wanted to know if he had done an exa

The Random Questions process ~Choose one or all of the questions to answer. ~Either respond with a comment to this post with your answer or put up a post on your own blog for a full response. ~Don't forget to include any funny or interesting story to illustrate your answer in action. ~Be sure to leave a comment on this post to let us know where to find your post so we can come check it out! Round 4--Media --How reliant are we? Make sure you don't miss #6. 1. How many TVs are in your home? All hooked up to cable/dish/etc? Have you gone HD? 2. Do you have any VCRs in your house still or are you full DVD? 3. How many computers are in your house? All hooked up to the internet? How many video game systems (i.e. XBOX, Wii, etc.)? 4. What age is ok to have a TV/computer/game system in the child's bedroom? 5. Do you have DVD players in the car? 6. The big one.... Would you be able to take a media/technology break, like a day without? How long could you do it? ________________

I had a big long post about this, but then I realized not everyone cares or knows the lingo, so I'll try again to be straight and simple. (Yes, this is the short version.) We found out this week that our health insurance will be changing by the end of this month. Not because we want it to, and not for the better. M's employer has recently merged (supposedly, although it's more like an acquisition) and unpleasant changes abound. We've been SO blessed by the coverage provided through this job over the past few years, and I'm thankful for that. It's just really unfortunate that the positives of the job are starting to be outweighed by the frustrations. In our area, there are two options for health care and insurance pretty much. If you have Insurance #1, you go to hospital/health system A. If you have Insurance #2, you go to hospital/health system B. I've never seen anything like it, in all my years working in medicine. I've worked in both systems h

I realized today that I have not been outside of the walls of this house since Tuesday night last week when I got home not feeling well. That's almost a full 7 days inside. Wow...how times have changed around here. The fact that it doesn't so much bother me is a whole other story. Granted, 4 days of that I was in bed, so maybe that makes a difference. Just to show I can still put on shoes--slip-on, nothing too challenging just yet-- I took mail to the mailbox in the midst of our current snowstorm. Check me out with my adventurous bad self.

The Random Questions process ~Choose one or all of the questions to answer. ~Either respond with a comment to this post with your answer or put up a post on your own blog for a full response. ~Don't forget to include any funny or interesting story to illustrate your answer in action. ~Be sure to leave a comment on this post to let us know where to find your post so we can come check it out! This round is focused on home life. I always find myself very interested in what others do when they're not "doing" anything. Weird? Maybe...but there's a reason reality shows are so darn popular! 1. What happens at your house in a given weekday evening? Who’s doing what? (Mom, Dad, and kids--together or separate.) 2. How are the chores divided up in your house? Who does what when it comes to laundry, cooking, cleaning, yard work? 3. How often do you have time with you just you and a spouse, even just a little time here or there? What do you do with that time--talk, work, plan

I'm feeling some better. A good 96 hours of a "24-hour" stomach flu. NEVER have I experienced such a thing! I'm still not brave enough to leave the house, but at least I got to hug my baby precious today! She didn't even miss me. Hrrmmmph! You guys have been too nice with all the well wishes and flowers and cards!!! Ok, so maybe I'm still delirious...I think the flowers and cards were just in my head... I'm not really eating yet, so ya know...blood sugar issues affect the brain. I'll be back very soon with Round 3 of Random Questions. Get ready and stay tuned!