Thursday, October 30, 2008

And the answer is...

A hairless ape (or chimp if you prefer). It is laying upside down in the picture, on top of a large paper bag. I saw it at the St. Louis zoo. He looked sad.


Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Pumpkin Patch

We had a great time...albeit a short time...at the Pumpkin Patch on Saturday. i wasn't up for much but I wanted to get the girls out to enjoy the day and, of course, get some pumpkins.

Ankica went NUTS when she saw all of the pumpkins. One of her friends gave her a pumpkin a few weeks ago and it has been her "baby" ever since. Imagine her surprise that there were so many sizes and varieties of "babies" out there!

Lillian...well, she just loves to walk. Fast. In various directions.

Kacie is totally rocking it with her camera and taking the time to edit with Picassa. Check out the girls with their orange "babies".










Monday, October 27, 2008

Update

Not much to tell right now...other than the fact that I now know what it is like to have an MRI done. An interesting experience for sure.

The doctor's office called and said the MRI was inconclusive so I am being referred to a gastroenterologist and they will call me tomorrow with my appointment.

I am still a bit yellow (okay, I am jaundiced, but is more fun to say that I am yellow) and I feel worn out. I have to eat bland food, when I have an appetite, and I have lost any craving for just about anything.

Good news...my weight is down to almost what it was after my gall bladder surgery. (Less than the price of gas :-) And I have little or no pain. So mostly good news I guess, except that I don't know what is going on.

And...I'm yellow...

Saturday, October 25, 2008

So my problem is...

A blocked duct between my liver and stomach. Yup. Surgical procedure required. Woo hoo.

A few weeks ago I had back pain that I contributed to stretching too much to reach toys and snacks for the girls on our trip to Virginia. But then it started to feel like the pain I had with my gall bladder attacks. So I was suspicious. It got really bad last Saturday and I decided I needed to go to the ER. No luck with that. We weren't going to get seen before I could go to the acute care clinic so we just went home. I didn't fall asleep easily but I slept well when I finally did fall asleep. Sunday was a great day and I even got some grocery shopping done. Mostly, I took it easy.

Then Monday morning I had a horrible attack, what the PA called an esophageal spasm, my chest muscles seized up and I couldn't breathe very well. I hurt for a few days, with sore muscles from the spasm but then felt pretty good on Thursday evening. I woke up on Friday morning and confirmed what I noticed the night before. I was YELLOW! Yup, jaundice. So I called the doctor, got in to see my primary physician at 11 am and was in the hospital getting a CT scan of my liver at 2pm. So, if I can stay okay this weekend, I will be lined up with an MRI of the duct on Monday. The doc wants to see exactly what kind of blockage we are dealing with. Then at some point, clear up the blockage.

Not fun, but at least we know what the problem is and I am getting it fixed. Unfortunately, just in case something happens this weekend, we weren't able to get Julia for our annual pumpkin carving festivities before Halloween. I guess it will have to wait until after!

On a lighter note (literally), I have lost a good bit of my appetite and therefore, a few pounds in this process also :-)

Thursday, October 23, 2008

And the answer is...

It is an automatic waterer for cattle. This particular one was brand new in the photoperiod barn when the barn was built for my advisor and our research.

As you can see in the photo below, it quickly became well-used :-) I just had to include a picture of some of the calves that we had in the barn for a while!




Check back next week for more fun!

Monday, October 20, 2008

A very pretty blog!

Apparently there is a blogger's choice awards and while I was perusing Cake Wrecks, I saw that she won the Humor award and I wanted to see what else was out there.

I found a blog that blew me away. It is blog of what can only be amazingly high dollar wedding photographers. The pictures are AMAZING! And the slideshow of an Indian wedding that is posted on October 13, 2008 is so pretty...it really brightened my day...the music and the beautiful pictures...ooooh....ahhhh :-)

Saturday, October 18, 2008

The United Tour

Last night, Loran and I went to see Steven Curtis Chapman and Michael W. Smith's United Tour in Atlanta. It was amazing! It was so cool to see them on stage together. We really had a good time.

By the way, I wrote somewhat of a review (not a typical music review, more of my impressions and thoughts) and published it on Associated Content. So go to the right side of this page and click on my Associated Content link.

Loran is going to write his own impressions of the concert and publish it later today probably, so go check his out soon too!!

Enjoy your Saturday!

Friday, October 17, 2008

Where is home?

I have lived quite a few places since I turned 18 and most of that time, no matter where I was actually residing, I considered "home" where my parents/family was.

I suppose I still do, to some extent, think of my parents house as "home". But now that I have a family of my own, "home" has extended a bit.

I dislike the uncertainty with which we are currently living our lives. Since before we were married, Loran's bosses have been saying we will move. And they still are saying it, with no definitive date set. And with a new administration around the corner, I doubt anything will get settled in the near future.

There are times I when I get so frustrated with the whole thing that I guess I just stop living my life where I am, right here, right now. I want to get "settled" somewhere so badly that I forget all of the wonderful things (and people) that are in my life currently.

I have a wonderful extended family that keeps in touch all the time. I have good friends here and a support network that I know that we could count on in any situation.

I cried last night watching Abby leave the E.R. Is that weird? After 10 years of regularly seeing people, I suppose you get attached. Or maybe I am just really hormonal. Who's to say?

Ugh, at least the girls are getting back to themselves. It is amazing how everything can be thrown off when the babies don't act in their "normal" way. But then again, what is normal, right?

Sorry for the rambling. I am homesick, but I struggle with the fact that maybe I should spend more time making meaningful friendships here, for however long we ARE here.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

And the answer is...

TWO fish tanks :-)

In the front fish tank there is a female beta fish (short top and tail fins) and in the back tank there is a male beta fish.

When I was working on my Ph.D. in Illinois, some of the lab staff and I tried to breed some fish. But the male attacked the female and someone suggested getting them used to each other by putting the tanks together.

It didn't work :-( Experiment failed. Oh well!

Thanks for guessing!

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Four responses to four questions

I got an email recently and was in the process of responding via email when I decided that I needed a reason to blog again.

So here is my response. (For you, RJM)

A) Four places that I go to over and over:
Church
Walmart
Grocery store
Ft Benning

B) Four people who email me (regularly):
My husband
My sister
Jawan
My Dad

C) Four of my favorite places to eat:
Cici's Pizza
Olive Garden
Red Lobster
China Buffet

D) Four places I would rather be right now:
In Wisconsin
On a cruise
Touring Europe with just my honey
Anywhere that is actually get colder this time of year

E) Four TV shows I watch:
ER
Heroes
Lost
Battlestar Galactica

And the answer is...

Yes, my friends, it is a portable milking machine!

We were doing a research study where cows were being milked 3 times a day instead of the normal twice a day and therefore the milking machine was hauled out rather than sending the few cows we had down to the milking parlor.

How is that for useless information!




Wednesday, October 8, 2008

"What is it?" Wednesday

I have noticed that a few of my friends have 'Wordless Wednesday" posts. When I was going through some old photos, I thought I might do a string of "What is it?" posts and well, it works best on Wednesday :-)

So, this one is a bit easy but, can anyone tell me what it is?

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Lillian's New Adventure

Lillian is now big enough to face forward in her carseat! Her first official trip anywhere in the jeep was to the grocery store with her Daddy. We just HAD to document it!

Meanwhile, Ankica was sleeping...good thing, because she would have been jealous!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Has anyone seen it?

Has anyone seen the movie Fireproof yet? I am curious to find out the consensus opinion. I want to see it, but things being what they are, I am afraid it will have to wait until it comes out on DVD.

Paul and Lori both recommend it. But then, I 'm not surprised :-)

Let me know if you have heard anything, positive or negative, or if you have a first-hand opinion.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Loran is published!

Check out the link on the right for Loran's Associated Content...he now has some of his song lyrics published. I thought it was brave of him to put some of it out there for all to read. I am so proud!

I had a hand in the lyrics for the freemartin cow :-) Believe me, some of our phone conversations when we were "dating" got strange!

I can't wait until his next article gets published...it is about home safety. It was so well-written that I just want to show it off for him!

Time to get to making supper...later folks!

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

The new addition to the blog

So I am finding all of this cool stuff to add to our blog. The newest thing is a playlist.

It has some important songs to me, including the song my sister Heidi sang at our wedding, How Beautiful. What I can't seem to do, however, is get the song that Loran sang at our wedding onto the playlist.

So here is the YouTube "video" of it. I hope that I can eventually figure out how to get the downloaded MP3 onto the playlist or something like that but if I can't, well, it is here anyway!

Lillian jamming



Lillian loves to dance when Loran plays. Well, dance might be too strong of a word for this video :-)

Pig tails

Ankica finally let me put pig tails in her hair!