Halloween

We had a lot of fun this Halloween, despite the fact that I still feel crappy.

We took Will to a local pumpkin farm to choose a carving pumpkin. I managed to get one picture and then my camera ran out of power.

William was pumpkin crazed!


Paul helped us carve the pumpkins. Will helped by coloring.

David, Kathy, and Adam were all down visiting over the weekend. Erin took Adam out on Saturday with a big group of friends. Adam dressed as a CareBear.

Paul and Grandma Rhonda took Will trick-or-treating while I stayed behind to hand out candy.

They managed to go down one block before the rain started failing too hard to continue on. Will still ended up with a full bag of candy.

I've been trying my best to ration the candy so that he doesn't become sick.

Questions without answers...

I have been asking myself a lot of questions lately that seem to have no real answers.

The top one on the list is why does being pregnant make you so sick.

So far I have come up with a lot of sort-of answers, but nothing that seems like a finalized one. The best that I can do so far is that it is natures way of protecting a growing fetus from anything dangerous that you might eat. Of course, most of us don't run around eating raw shell fish and soft French goat cheese on a daily basis.

At this point I would be happy if plain old water didn't make me sick.

Another question that I was pondering is why hasn't western medicine come up with a better way of treating morning sickness. Right now the medicine of choice is an anti-histamine, which makes you very sleepy. As anyone who has been pregnant will tell you, being pregnant already makes you tired. This extra sedation does not help when trying to keep up with a house full of laundry and a 2 year old.

So, after much thinking I have decided that no answer is really enough for these questions. And if you come to my house in the next few weeks do not be surprised if you find dirty clothes every where, nothing to eat but soda crackers, and me asleep on the couch.

News

Well, I have news for everyone.

If you haven't already heard I am pregnant again. I am officially 6 weeks along and the projected due date is June 5th.

Now, for all of you hyperventilating into a paper bag right now, I have discussed everything with my doctor and she feels like this time we can take steps to prevent some of the problems that I had last time. So, just relax and try not to worry.

So far everything is going well. I am sick as a dog right now which is considered a sign of good growth. However, I have decided that this will be the last time that I do this, because of the sickness.

Yard Sales and Costumes

We finally had our yard sale this last weekend. Mom and Dad brought some of their junk so we had lots to sell. Even though it was so late in the season we had quite a few people come by.

Will was a big helper. He helped grandma put signs on the larger items.

Later in the day mom showed him how to blow dandelion seeds. (Thanks Grandma... I'm sending you the weeding bill.)

Overall we had a great turnout and made a bit of money.

We've also been making trips to all of the local thrift stores in preparation for Halloween. Since William will only wear a costume once and then grow out of it I didn't want to spend a ton of money this year.

So far we have found a few contenders.

This one is a black cat. It's a little too short for him, but he likes it.

This one is a dinosaur/dragon. He keeps saying that he wants to be a dragon this year.

This one is my favorite thus far. It's a chicken!

Here's some video of him in the chicken costume.

I think maybe he can be the dinosaur/dragon at daycare and the chicken for Trick or Treat, since the chicken is a warmer costume.

Fairs and Fires

On Saturday we went to the Utah State Fair. We spent 4 hours walking around looking at the animals, home goods, and art exhibits.

William really liked the animals, especially the chickens and other poultry. I held him up so that he could see some baby chicks that they had in one of the cages.

One of our favorite things at the fair is the giant butter sculpture. We didn't realize it before (mostly because we weren't paying attention) that Paul's cousin Matt is one of the sculptors who make these butter creations each year. The only reason that we know now is because we caught it on a local news story one morning.

Here is this years 700+ pound sculpture of two cows and a goat eating ice cream.

These cows are as big as a full grown man!

This was the information card that they had out next to the sculpture. It has a picture of Matt and the other sculpture who worked on the display.

On Sunday Will and I spent the day at Grandma and Grandpa Noble's house. They had been out of town for over a week touring the west coast. Grandma and I took Will to play at the park for a bit but it was really hot and windy so we cut that a bit short.

Late in the afternoon we noticed that the foothills west of their house seemed to be on fire. As the day went on the cloud of smoke kept getting bigger and bigger. After dark you could see that the entire mountain was ablaze. It was starting to get really low and looked as if it was going to start overtaking the town of Herriman, which is just on the other side of the highway from Mom and Dad's house. We stood out on the back porch and watched the flames spread from hill to hill. The fire was so big that we could actually see the flames without using binoculars.

When the news came on we learned that the fire had been sparked by a machine gun training exercise at a nearby military firing range. Since the wind was blowing so hard (up to 50 miles per hour at times) they were unable to put it out and it had spread off of the training grounds and into the nearby scrub brush.

I didn't have a good angle to get pictures with my camera so I've posted some of the shots from the local news website.

This was the view from across the valley just before sunset.


This one must have been taken from somewhere just west of Mom and Dad's house because this is pretty much what we saw.

These are some of the local residents who were evacuated from their homes.

The news reports this morning said that in all more than 1200 homes were evacuated and at least 4 large homes have burned. They still do not have even a percentage of it contained, but at least the winds have died down this morning.

The only good thing is that no one has been injured thus far.

Like I need a hole in my head.

This morning I had my CT scan at the ear, nose, and throat doctor's.

The first thing that happened when I got there was a very nice assistant took me back to an exam room and proceeded to spray a combination of Afrin and Lidocaine up my nose. For the next 10 minutes I was told to sit there and wait while the entire front half of my head went numb. The only good thing was that the Afrin opened my breathing passages more than they have been for the last 3 years.

It's weird to all of a sudden be able to breathe again.

Anyway, after that I was escorted to the CT scanner, where I had to sit perfectly still with my head strapped a chair. That was probably the longest 40 seconds of my life.

Then there was more waiting while the doctor read the scans.

He finally came in to show me what my head looks like from the inside out.

(For all of you waiting with baited breath, yes, I do have a brain in there.)

He showed me the images of my nasal passages and even my untrained eyes could tell that my septum is severely deviated. Turns out that I also have a bone spur getting in the way.

So, the doctor recommends that I have surgery to straighten things out and remove the spur.

The only problem is that I used up all of my paid time off to go to all of the doctors appointments. It will be at least 2 months before I have enough built back up again to take time off for surgery. Not to mention that I will need to have some time off saved for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

Sigh...

At least now I know why I've been having problems.

As I was sitting in my chair working on a crochet project tonight I was looking at the hook and thinking about the ancient Egyptians. When they would mummify someone in ancient Egypt they would use a small hook to extract the person's brain through their nose. I started to think that if I got a small enough crochet hook and wiggled it around up there I might be able to fix it myself.

Either that or might end up giving myself a full frontal lobotomy.

Maybe I will let the professionals handle this one.

When good cats go bad...

We officially own the worlds dumbest cat.

His name is Doofey.

Last week I left a crochet project out on the kitchen table. When Paul got home he found Doofey attempting to eat my project.

That stupid cat had managed to swallow more than 6 feet of cotton yarn!

Paul pulled most of it back out (YUCK!!) but Doofey has been sick ever since.

On Sunday I finally broke down and took Doofey into the emergency vets office. They did x-rays and gave him medicine to make him feel better. However, they were unsure of whether there was more yarn left in his system. They wanted to keep him for observation and more x-rays, at a possible cost of $700-$1000.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love my cat... but that is a stupid amount of money to spend on him.

I told the doctor that I would take him home and monitor him there. I also promised to take him in to our regular vet on Monday morning so that he could have another x-ray to see if anything had changed.

I then paid the emergency vet $350. (YIKES!!)

Yesterday morning I called our regular vet and told them that Paul would be bringing Doofus in for more x-rays. I also figured it was also a good time to get Butters updated on his shots (since the groomer doesn't like getting rabies from an angry Butters when trying to trim him). The vet said that we could leave Doofey with them for observation and x-rays, and bring Butters in that afternoon for his shots.

So... yesterday afternoon I took in Butters for his shots and to pick up Doofey. The doctor showed me the new x-rays of Doofey. They were still inconclusive as to whether there was more yarn in him. They informed me that the only way to know for sure would be to do an ultrasound, which would cost about $350.

At that point I started to think that maybe I would just help Doofey go into the light by hand...

Anyway, I told the vet "no" because it cost too much and thanked them for their help. I then wrote another check for $300 to the regular vet for everything that they did for both cats. (DOUBLE YIKES!!!)

So, now everyone is back home. We are still on watch with Doofey. I did confirm that there is yarn in his system last night, because I found some in the box. (SUPER EEEEWWWW!!)

All of my yarn is safely stored away in drawers now.

Paul says that if Doofey survives this he's going to kill him.

At this point I might help him with that...