Just RK

First off, for all you in C-U, yes, we know...we could have stayed with so many of you. Thank you. We appreciate it. But last night had an odd set of things on the schedule, so a motel worked better in the plan. So we thought... Here's things I learned, or remembered, from our stay. I thought some of you might find it helpful this travel season. We can't all be like Jen and stay in the fancy places. 1. If you're traveling with 27 10-year-olds on a baseball team, do us all a favor and give them the "common courtesy" speech about public places. (This could be another post completely.) Try to have a plan so that they are not running up and down the walkways at midnight screaming at each other and banging on random doors to "try" to find their room. It is NOT ok for the chaperones to sleep in one room and allow all the kids to run free all night. Sorry, I'm a killjoy, but come on. When did we stop teaching respect of other people in such a communal envi

We're coming in late tonight and will be around for the weekend with some stuff to do and some free time. FYI... didn't want anyone to be upset that they didn't know we were coming! Nothing like short notice, right?

Blah blah blah....queasy, not sick, just icky. Blah blah blah...don't know when I'm due, dr appt in a few weeks. Blah blah blah....therapies, meetings, work, diapers. And oh yeah... We sold the house!!!!!!! Thank you, Lord!!

Little Miss Braska Bear decided to spring something on her daddy. Take a look. Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

In case you do, I know of a cute little place in Champaign, Illinois, with a pretty blue pool. Pass the word, people. We need to sell this place! It's been on the market 3 weeks, we have some interested parties, but no offers yet. I know I'm impatient, but really... let's find a buyer!! Can't you just see yourself relaxing there while the kids play? Or maybe you wanna float in peace while the kids are at school??

1. Snapshots vs portrait... I like them both, but so far we've had better snapshots of Braska most of the time. The portrait thing tends to make her just stare at all the crazy people trying to make her smile and shaking things in her face. Since I post about a zillion pics on her blog, I'll just re-share one of my faves...even though it was close to 19 months ago. 2. Crazy thing last month? Well, that might be packing an entire house and moving in two weeks time. (With alot of help!!) There might be a few other crazy things, but I'll keep those to myself for now. :o) 3. Current must-have food or drink? I am loving my Diet Caffeine-Free Dr Pepper about now. And for food, I'm on a frozen waffle kick again for breakfast. Weird, I know. 4. Last movie I saw was Fool's Gold, on Sunday afternoon. It was ok, kind of funny in places, kind of over the top in others. But since we watched it in Cindy's home theater that ROCKS, all 80+ inches of screen in my coz

I got a few more boxes cleared out. The kitchen stuff is done, and I found a place for all of it. Even if it doesn't all fit in the kitchen itself. The kitchen and pantry spills out into the "dining area" that isn't. At least there's some open space now. There are 3 boxes left there that need to go to storage with the 42,000 others that are already there. The clearing gives free path to the deck and our little sitting area. It's nice to sit out there in the evening...well, when it's not still 88 at 9pm. We can stand on the deck and toss bread to the ducks and geese in the lake. Not a bad deal.

Last night it was out on the town for me. I was invited to go to a mouse race fundraiser by Adrienne. She's the leader of our local DS group in St. Charles County and I knew of her on DownSyn actually even before we moved here. So last night I met her for the first time, and then met her four friends who also came to the event. And all these fine ladies have kids with DS. Handy, eh? And I was the youngest....that's a new position for me, for sure. This is Carolyn, Becky, Allison, Adrienne, and Jane. (Not sure of spellings...sorry if I got any wrong!) Pardon the grainy pics, Motorola Q--not the best camera, but not a bad PDA phone. The event was to benefit a family, specifically two young boys whose very young dad died suddenly two days after the youngest was born. This is that one...Anthony, named after his dad. He has DS too! He's 8 months old and A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E. The fundraiser was to benefit the education fund for these two boys. There were appetizers, drinks, a silent a

Before I forget... Christina gave me a very nice award last month that I never acknowledged here! Thanks a ton, Christina. It's always so darn nice to be thought of!! Get up here to St. Louis for a visit! _______________________________________________ We're back, kids!!! Let's have a record response this time! Here's the lowdown if you're new to the fun..... 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 starting at the beginning again... just plain old random. 1. Are you a snapshot or portrait person? Let's see your current favorite pic! 2. What's the craziest thing you did last month? (You

If Braska continues with the eye watering and nose running and rattling wet cough, she's gonna just soak into the floor and disappear I think. That girl's gooey. Now, granted, she doesn't drool, even now, and that's good. Drool gets to me for some reason. The good news is that she slept better last night thanks to our pals ibuprofen and benadryl. All night. We all slept all night. How spoiled we've been!! Let's hope it continues, though. We saw her new pediatrician yesterday for a quick meeting. I like her, and I think she'll be willing to do whatever we need for Braska, so that's what's important. We actually go in tomorrow for a before-the-weekend check on Braska's cough, but we'll see her associate since she's out. BTW... Stay tuned for the return of Random Questions next week... are you ready?

Last night Braska had some trouble initially, but M was nice enough to take her so that I could go to sleep, and he returned to bed sometime a little later after she was snoozing in her bed. She slept from about 11 to 4:30am, which normally would be a bad night for her, but after the last few, that's pretty good. I brought her in to our bed at 4:30am hoping she would snuggle up and go back to sleep, even if I couldn't. She was so restless, but she slept for bits here and there. She just thrashes around with her eyes closed like she just can't get comfortable. For her, that's especially weird, because when it's time for bed, she's like a stone. She zonks out in the position she lands in and doesn't move much at all. She has had two short naps this morning, one that I got to snooze during as well. The other was on my lap, so I just managed to get some work-work done with one hand since the laptop was next to me on the couch, so as not to disturb her. W

Braska's been running a fever the last few days, on and off, but getting up to 100.4, which is way more than she's ever run for teething. She seems to be ok for the most part, a little snotty, but just a tad, and sometimes clingy, but also minimal. The problem lies in the sleeping, or lack of, that she's doing. Generally, she's a peach in the sleeping department. When it's time, we say our "night nights" or thank you prayers for our blessings and ask for good things for those around us and far away, then when I say "Amen," she dives for the bed. This is the routine at naps and night. But the last few nights, she's been not wanting to go to bed, fussing (in a pathetic hoarse voice) and waking up numerous times just screaming. Last night she ended up in our bed, which is a big no-no in my book, largely because I can't sleep a stitch if she's in there. And that was the case. When we tried to put her back to bed after she fell asl

Here's a few more pics of the apartment, still a work in progress. Our bedroom. Man I love that bed...so comfy. One of my favorite places, the laundry room/closet. Our house had the laundry in the garage, and I'm loving having it right in the middle of the apartment. So darn handy. I'm keep ing up with laundry better than ever. And the office... yeah. When I need to print or scan something to email, I set my laptop on the highchair and connect to the printer. It works, but I kinda miss my office.