The Life and Times of the MontyG-3...make that 4!

Carol Loves Horses!!!!

2011-11-30T20:19:00.000-06:00

So we have discovered that Carol absolutely loves horses! I think it started with her first horse ride at my brother's house this summer- she laughed the whole time she was on the horse and then cried pitifully when we took her off. She is always riding our wooden rocking horse, too.

Well, when we got together with Montgomery family for Thanksgiving, one of Daniel's cousins was showing video on the TV of her doing barrel racing. Carol's reaction is absolutely priceless!!!!

Carol Talking!!!

2011-10-16T16:44:00.000-05:00

Carol has started to talk so much!!! Here are some video snippets!

Carol saying bye bye!

Saying Mommy and Please! This video is actually about a month and a half old, when she first started saying words.

Cute girl walking in shoes and looking at photos!

Saying Bubbles!

Saying Emma!

Random Pics

2011-09-09T18:24:00.001-05:00

So I uploaded a lot of pics from this summer that have been waiting patiently on my computer to make an appearance. Enjoy!!

At the Zoo!

Emma's imitation of a flamingo!

Carol's first carousel ride!

Yummy and messy blackberries!

Don't YOU want to come swimming with me?

At a birthday party, Emma got all glammed up!

Carol LOVES to play with her babies!

Yummy Snow Cones!

Yes, she was sound asleep standing up....well, propped up!

Emma helped her little sister get dressed up

Sweet Senna and Emma

All the babies wanted to join the big girls!

Yogurt with a spoon!

Beautiful Emma

Carol sported several big bruises and black eyes this summer....hence another reason why I haven't gotten her 1-year pictures yet!

On a wagon ride near Nana's house

At Ronna's Surprise 40th birthday party, Daniel and his praise band had a little bit of country in them.

Playing the piano!

All dressed up and ready to go!

Too much fun at Dr. Yee's office!

4th of July swimming party and blue-icing cupcakes

Still loving that baby!

With G-daddy!

Pooped with a Purse!

Emma turned 5 years old!!!

Ready to go with our purses!

The kiddos at Carol's daycare, Miss Angela's house!

My birthday cupcake from the Hollands!

Daniel and his praise band at the Friday Night of Praise event

Carol's helping out at On The Border

Fun at Chick-fil-A!

Fun at On The Border! (Emma with a lime in her mouth!)

Grocery shopping one early Saturday morning

Carol JOY at Miss Angela's house.... I love getting these text messages with sweet pictures!

Exploring The Rangers Captain pillow pets at Target

Super Secret Sister Hideout....."Hello, is anyone out there?"

Yay for Snoopy!

At the LCCS football game

At Mr. Rick and Miss Mary's house on the lake

Teletubbies!!!

2011-08-31T22:19:00.000-05:00

For the first time, we put Teletubbies into the VCR for Carol. Now, I will have to admit, Teletubbies is extremely annoying...for adults. But for toddlers, it is great. She loves the picture of the laughing baby that comes up in the sun (that's what is showing at the beginning of the video below) and will dance with the Teletubbies. Now, she will turn on the TV and sit in her Elmo chair, anxiously awaiting their arrival if you mention it.

Here's her first taste and precious response for the Teletubbies!

Visit to Houston!!

2011-07-22T23:00:00.000-05:00

We took a quick 3-day trip down to Houston (or being specific, Tomball) to visit my brother, Em, his wife Jennifer, and all of their horses, dogs and cats! We left on July 7 and celebrated Emma's 5th birthday on Saturday, July 9 before driving back home that evening. One of the highlights of the trip was going down to Galveston beach on Friday with both Em and Jennifer. We had a blast!!

On the way down to Houston, we stopped for ice cream and Carol loved it!

Thursday evening, we celebrated both Emma's birthday and Jennifer's mom, Marilyn's birthday!

Off to the beach!!
The girls played at first in the sand while the adults set up camp...complete with a HUGE SPF 50 tent and umbrella my brother had bought for the occasion and many more to come!

How many Aggies does it take to screw in a beach umbrella? Only one as long as he has a Commodore brother-in-law to figure it out! ;)

Napping peacefully in the SPF 50 tent!!

Camp for the day!

Of course, you have to bury people in the sand (or mud, in Galveston's case)!

Carol helped by watering her daddy!

Then it was Emma's turn!

Ew!

On Saturday morning, Emma and I first helped Uncle Em feed the horses before breakfast!

then we headed inside for a birthday breakfast!

Then we headed back outside to ride some horses!

While Emma had a good time, Carol was just yearning desperately to ride with her. So when we put her on with Emma, she just immediately smiled and laughed. This girl has no fear it seems like! Here also are some videos of both girls riding (you can hear Carol laughing) and getting Carol off the horse (which she did NOT want to do!)

After heading up I45, we stopped at a soda shop in Mansfield for food and ice cream!

Easter Weekend!

2011-06-10T22:42:00.000-05:00

So this year marked Carol's first Easter! Last year she was born the day after Easter, and since Easter was later this year, it's her first! We had a lot of events, and our friends Cheri and Mark Ryan where in town from D.C. so of course, we had to show off Fort Worth!

Here's pics from the busy weekend!

Easter Egg Hunt at Church:

Hmm...who is this character???

Yep, don't like him!

Moody Family Easter Party:

Carol and Daddy (she got the bump the day before when she fell on the sidewalk!)

Emma and the Easter Bunny

I still don't like him!!!

Mommy and Carol

Listening to a story while the eggs are being hidden....yes, Emma does have her basket ON her head.

Carol walked over on her own to sit in Connor's lap! She recognizes a big brother when she sees one!

Baskets make good hats when you interested in the story!

The kiddos

Hmm...what is this???

I like this!!!

Four generations of Moody women!

Playing checkers with Mr. Mark at Cabellas

Botanic Gardens:

Taking a ride!

Sisters!

Mommy and her girls!

Mark and Cheri

Showing Emma that yes, a long time ago, Mommy could do gymnastics, too!

Emma trying it out!

And for comparison, because it is fun!

What's Up?

2011-06-06T16:35:00.000-05:00

So yeah, I know it has been a LONG time without an update....SO much has been going on in our household, it's crazy. I promise I'm going to get up Carol's 12 month picture (taken at 14 months....... ;) ) but here's a lowdown of what's been going on since my last post:

- Carol did turn ONE!!! On the evening of her birthday, though, she started to run fever again so her one-year well visit the next day turned into a sick visit. She was diagnosed with her fourth case of strep (babies are not supposed to get strep....) and another ear infection. So I called her ENT and the next week, she got ear tubes put in on the 14th. She did AWESOME. When they are ready for you, you take your child back to a room where they give a mild sedative through a nose spray to calm them down before they take them away from you. Several of the kids in the room at the same time where hyper or crying. Carol? She was completely mellowed out, just sitting in my lap with her pacifier, and her arms just dangling to her side. The nurses came by and said "That's how it is SUPPOSED to work!" She did great- a few minutes later we were with her in recovery and then on our way home!

And as an interesting comparison, here's Emma before her second heart cath when she was about 9 months old, versus Carol at a year above:

Yeah, we've been in that hospital a lot!

So then, when we tried to get to her well visit a month later on May 10th, guess what? Yep, sick again. She had coughed a little bit in the night the week before, but then on Mother's Day she threw up all over me (what a great present, huh?) and then ran fever the next day. So her well visit was again a sick visit. So yep, fifth case of strep (babies aren't supposed to get strep!!!!!!!) and on a whim, Dr. Yee did a test for Whooping Cough/Pertussis. Yep. It came back positive. So the highly contagious disease that she has had vaccinations for? At her age, the vaccines are about 85-90% effective. But if there's one thing we have learned, we defy ALL percentages and good bets when it comes to health in our family! So Carol was in quarantine for about 10 days, got a nice call from the Health Department (tell me, why are you scolding me for having her out in public BEFORE she was diagnosed?? How were we supposed to know!), had to notify anyone we had been around the last two weeks, and all of us had to get on preventative meds. But, can I tell you how awesome it was to finally get our sweet Carol Joy back a few days later??? We are praying that this was maybe an underlying cause to her sickness- she is back to being the sweetest baby girl that we have one seen in spurts for the past few months! She is living back up to her middle name! We finally, finally got her well visit in last week at 14 months! I'll post again with all of her stats, etc.

- We did celebrate Easter with all the traditional events- Easter egg hunt at church, Moody family get-together, big Easter services at church, and this year, our friends Cheri and Mark Ryan were visiting us that weekend too! Cheri was one of my closest friends at Vanderbilt and was a bridesmaid in our wedding. Church was huge this year since not only did Daniel have to be at 3 services as the worship leader at our church, but this year, since I am playing piano for the traditional service, I had a lot of responsibilities too with our Easter music Cantata. Easter will also be another additional blog!

- In the midst of all of this, I also started teaching up at LCCS again! I had committed to teach for a high school teacher who was going on maternity leave, and I got called in on April 21st. So for about 6 weeks I taught Physics, Algebra and Statistics....well really I just monitored Statistics (it has been about 13 years since I took it in college!). It was a lot of fun being around the students again as well as all of my teacher friends! I had really missed the constant relationship!

- Emma also had her first dance recital in May! She did AWESOME! We were a little concerned she would have too much stage fright, but she was SO excited she was jumping up and down on stage, waiting for the lights to come on! Again, another blog to come soon! Here's a sneak peek!

-Emma also had her end-of-the year Pre-K Celebration on May 19th. She and her friends did such a good job!! Again, another blog coming! I can't believe my little girl is starting Kindergarten next year!!!

-One of the biggest developments of the past month or so has been my plans for the upcoming school year. About March, we decided that I would go back to teach. I have been blessed by this time at home with Carol, but I was feeling the itch to do something again. I miss teaching, miss students, miss being around people! I'm also ready to get out of debt, so the extra income would definitely help. So I started looking around. Although I would be open to going back to LCCS, I didn't feel led that I was supposed to go back there, and really there wasn't a position open that I was interested in or qualified for. I really felt like the Lord was leading me elsewhere, to a new adventure. I started looking around, but didn't really see anything open at any of the major private schools in Fort Worth. So I just blindly sent my resume to HR departments in case something opened. Well, I got an email a day later from one school, who was about to close the 8th grade science (Integrated Physics and Chemistry- basically a semester of Chemistry and a semester of Physics) position and offer it to someone when my resume came through. In the period of a week, I had two phone interviews and a day long interview at the campus where i met with I think everyone under the sun as well as taught a class. I felt at home at the school and felt like the opportunities and stability that it would offer would be a wonderful opportunity. So when they called to offer me the position, I accepted! So I'm going to be teaching at Trinity Valley School in Fort Worth next year. They have amazing benefits (especially medical, something that is SO important in our family - I don't think we have ever had this good of insurance!), pay on a public school scale, they will reimburse any cost if I want to work on my doctorate and one thing that is really important for us-- I'm only teaching ONE prep. Those of you who aren't teachers might not realize how awesome that is. I've always taught 4-5 different classes... only have one (that I teach 5 times a day) will help give me free time at night to be with my family. Eighth grade will be a new challenge, but I'm excited for it! I start new teacher inservice on August 2. Emma will still be at LCCS- we love Lake Country too much! We have a couple of ideas for Carol that we will be pursuing! One thing that I think was a confirmation in my heart is that after I accepted the position, I was praying that I could easily find another Believer on staff. I've worked in the secular world before and that doesn't worry or bother me at all, but it would be nice to easily connect with someone with a similar background. Well, I was looking at the TVS website at the other 8th grade teachers, and the math teacher (who I was only able to meet for a short period) said on her little info paragraph that she leads college Bible studies at her church. So I looked her up on Facebook, and saw that she was a mutual friend of one my closest friends. Turns out, she and her husband are some of the College Pastors at my friend's church and she said that this woman is one of the biggest Prayer Warriors she knows! And she'll be down the hall from me! Yay!

So that's what's been going on here-- like I said, I will update more posts later!

Emma Stories!

2011-04-12T22:47:00.000-05:00

I know I write a lot about Carol, but of course, I have many stories about Miss Emma Rose Montgomery, too!

- We are snuggling in bed one morning and Emma is telling me about her dreams. (I never know how many of these "dreams" are real....I have a feeling many are made up on the spot. ;) ) But she tells me, "Mommy I had FIVE good dreams last night and THREE bad dreams." I said "Well, that's a lot of dreams!" And Emma replies "Yep, that's EIGHT dreams." The math teacher in me was very happy to say the least!

- We have a "candy bag" in the pantry. It usually holds some old Halloween, Christmas, Valentines, or Easter Candy. :) Emma is a sweet-a-holic. So I look for it one night in order to fill up her Easter Eggs for her class party with the special Easter candy I had just bought. But, the bag is missing!!! Where do I find it? In her "secret" hiding place, underneath Carol's crib. The entrance to her hiding space was ingeniously hidden by our big Clifford the Big Red Dog and our big stuffed Horse. I think she had gotten it down during one "rest time" where Carol was asleep and I was either laying down or taking a shower and she was supposed to be lying on the couch watching a movie. Little sneaker.

- As I was taking a shower today, she was sitting on the bathroom counter, and had turned on the water and pulled up the stopper. She was just playing with the water, not making a mess. As I am getting ready, I notice that she has put her feet in, too. I thought, no big deal. Then she gets the towel and starts drying off her feet. I ask her what she was doing and she replied, "Washing my feet, like Jesus did".

Carol Joy's FIRST Birthday Party!!!

2011-04-11T20:49:00.000-05:00

We had Carol's first birthday party last Saturday, April 9th at my Granny and Grandaddy's house. It was a great time with family, especially for my grandparents to have so many visitors there!

Hmm..Granny, what baby is this?? (Her cousin Evan!)

Aunt KK, I LOVE to eat!!!!

Mommy, what is this hat?

Ooooh...baby doll on the floor! Oh wait, this one moves! It's another cousin, Cage!

I want to hold him, Granny!

Hanging out with Cousin Chandler

Granny and G-daddy started singing Happy Birthday to the video camera, and Carol immediately turned around and started smiling and clapping!

Silly Old Grandad!

My beautiful sister and handsome Daddy....good looks run in the family.

I actually was going to (try) and make her birthday cake...and I did actually bake the flower cakes...I just ran out of time to decorate! Luckily, Brookshire's came to the rescue at the last minute!

When everyone started singing Happy Birthday, she just smiled and laughed and just looked around at everyone...she knew it was special just for her!

Hmm...Daddy what is this string on the side of your head??

What, you aren't supposed to pull and snap that string???

Silly Connor, this doesn't go on your nose!

Now Chandler and Connor are getting into the fun!

Cake time!!!

OK, frosting in my ear is NOT fun.

Presents!!!!

Look what I got, Mommy!

Giving G-daddy a kiss!

As soon as we turned off my Grandparent's road, I hear this sweet little snore in the backseat. It's hard work to party like that!

Jabbing and Dancing

2011-03-27T17:48:00.000-05:00

Carol is so much more verbal than Emma was at this age- you can have whole (nonsense) conversations with her. Sometimes, as this video will show, she'll just talk to ....anything! But like her big sister, she loves music and will start dancing easily! In this video, she first just jabbers away and then starts dancing to the music from her car (lovingly called Beep-Beep by its first owner, Emma Rose)

Peek-a-boo! (x2)

2011-03-27T17:44:00.000-05:00

Like I mentioned in a previous post, Carol loves to play peek-a-boo! Here's another peek-a-boo moment provided by Miss Carol Joy Montgomery!

Monkey Bars!

2011-03-23T11:53:00.000-05:00

It has been fun to watch each spring/summer to see what new skill Emma picks up at the playground. Last fall, it was sliding down the pole and climbing the little rock wall. This spring so far it has been the monkey bars! Look how well she is doing!

And also some pictures!

Pretty amazing for a little girl who still has wires in her breastbone!

Peek-a-boo!

2011-03-20T22:11:00.000-05:00

Carol LOVES to play peek-a-boo. We don't remember Emma playing it that much, but you can get Carol started almost anytime. She plays peek-a-boo around a corner, under a blanket (as she did on the changing table today!)...even behind my laptop screen as I type!

In February (that would make Carol 10 months old) we caught Carol playing peek-a-boo with her daddy while he was in the bathtub. I situated myself in the closet so not to disturb the game while also only getting only Carol on the video. :) (Daniel gave me permission to post this...it's just too cute!)

Carol Joy is Ten...Make that Eleven Months Old!

2011-03-16T20:56:00.000-05:00

We've been battling major bugs in the last two months, so even though I did take Carol's 10 month picture on time, I never posted it! So here is 10 and 11 months!

So in the last two months...

....you have had two more ear infections, two cases of strep, and RSV. Needless to say, it's been a rough period of time! You seem to be on the mend now, and you have an appointment to get ear tubes (yay!!).
...right when you turned 10 months, we employed the "cry it out method" to try and get you sleeping through the night. We put you to sleep in the pack-n-play in the living room one night. You cried for about 30 minutes that first night, but put yourself back to sleep....and you haven't cried since! It only took that one night! Yay!!! You now sleep 7-6 pretty regularly, only occasionally waking up a little earlier or a little later.
...around 10 months you were really cruising around the furniture, and it would just make your day when you took someone's finger to walk around. You just thought you were hot stuff!! Then, you started taking one step, and finally on the day you turned 11 months old you took several steps in succession to your Aunt Ronna! (and it has been non-stop since then!)
...you love to put stuff in your mouth! :) Especially your sister's Barbies. They must taste exceptionally good.
...you weigh over 20 pounds now! This is pretty amazing considering that your sister didn't weigh that much until 18 months old!
...you have made the transition to 12 month clothes! You have a very cute pudgy belly and legs, although I assume you will start to lose that now that you are a walking machine!
...your hair has finally started to grow a little bit! You have a few wisps on the back of your head...still not much on top, though! You play with it sometimes when it bothers your ears!
...you love to eat (when you feel good, that is!) You will often eat 2 tubs of food at a time....blended fruits and cereal are your favorite, along with anything with sweet potatoes.
...you are such a joy....living up to your middle name. You laugh constantly, especially at Emma. You have some sounds that you make consistently...namely "Ah-Da" and "Ah-Doh". You love to blow kisses "muuuah", and will wave bye-bye. You also love to play peek-a-boo!

...as I was reminded the other day that your big sister was having her 4th heart surgery at this time in her life, I am so thankful for your healthy life (even with all the strep and ear infections!). You bless our lives so much, and we can't imagine our family without you!

Dancing in PreK!

2011-03-11T11:24:00.002-06:00

One day last week when picking up Emma from school, she and her classmates (and some older siblings!) were having fun, dancing and singing to one of the praise songs they often do in class. Enjoy!! (My phone only takes video for a minute at a time, so there's two videos in succession)\

Yummy Food!

2011-02-22T12:56:00.000-06:00

So my friend Kyna posted some recipes that she is using from this website called Gina's Skinny Recipes. Since I have started again on Weight Watchers, I decided to actually meal plan and try some out. Wow...they were good. Here are the ones we tried in the past week:

Crock-Pot Chicken Santa Fe- super easy and super yummy!!! I used the leftover chicken and put it on top of salads for lunch!

Arroz con Pollo- oh Lordy....this was a favorite with everyone! It took a little bit longer to cook than I originally planned, but it was worth it!!! One of my all-time favorite things I have ever cooked, I think. Yes, it is that good.

Pork Chops with Mushrooms and Shallots--- easy, yummy! and I made it with Oven Roasted Cauliflower--- now, I don't think I have ever liked cauliflower, and I have never cooked it before....but this was yummy! Even Emma kept getting more cauliflower to eat!

This week we are trying: Slow-cooked Sweet Barbacoa Pork with Chipotle's Cilantro Lime Rice; The Skinny Tuna Melt; and then something I saw on Kitchen Boss (on TLC, Buddy from Cake Boss cooking other food): Roasted Rosemary Chicken.

I will say, not working full-time does allow me to have energy to cook more- something I love to do!

Emma's first year video

2011-01-23T18:07:00.001-06:00

I closed out my myspace account a couple of weeks ago, and went through all of my blog posts on there before I did. My myspace account is what I had during Emma's first year, as well as our Carepages account (carepages.com page name EmmaRoseMontgomery). I came across the embedding of the video I made at Emma's first birthday, commemorating God's goodness through her first year. I wanted to make sure that I didn't lose the link, so I'm posting it here again, for posterity sake.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And just as a reminder of God's goodness...almost 4 years after her last surgery..

Emma's Bed Friends

2011-01-23T18:02:00.000-06:00

Emma has really gotten into the habit of making sure she has PLENTY of friends to go to bed with at night, and she makes sure they are very comfortable. Here's the scene from the other night:

As you walk in, notice that baby doll has a nice floor pallet and is covered with a blanket.

Then notice the big horse/Elmo chair "tent"...

Open up the tent to reveal...

Eeyore is tucked in his tent, complete with blanket covering!

Ski Trip!!!

2011-01-21T22:11:00.000-06:00

Over the Martin Luther King Jr holiday we went on the annual Montgomery family ski trip. Well, I say annual but I haven't been on it in 7 years!! (pre- pregnancies and pre-torn acl but not a problem with my huge knee brace!) This time we went to Crested Butte, CO. Here are the highlights!

Hard to tell, but both girls are "reading" their books in the drive!

On the way to the first lift!

You have to stop and eat some snow, of course.

Ski bunny.

Up the first lift with granddad and dad!

Realizing that maybe a true run on the first time skiing is not the best idea.

Heading to the bunny slopes, riding the magic carpet up!

Doing the pizza!

Whoa!!

Carol wishes she could go skiing....let's work on walking first!

Trying another run

David and Zeb

Zac

David, Zac, Zeb, Daniel, and Val were trying snowboarding for the first time....so they were in this position....a lot.

Finally!!! Snow!!!

Trying to play Go Fish with the cousins

Here are some videos of skiing/snowboarding....

Emma:

The snowboarders....trying....Daniel (with Val in the light blue jacket in the background)

David trying....and crashing!

Carol Joy is Nine Months Old!!

2011-01-08T12:07:00.000-06:00

Where did the time go??? You are 3/4 of a year!

...you still have your dark blue eyes, and your hair is finally starting to "puff" out a little bit.
... you weigh 19 pounds (50th percentile), are 27 inches long (50%), and have a head circumference of 47 cm (over 99%....just like your sister!)...considering your sister didn't weigh that much until over a year old, you are doing good!
... you got your first tooth on Christmas Day and now have two teeth-- both on the bottom middle.
...you started pulling up on Christmas Eve and now would much rather be standing than sitting. You even have stood on your own for a few seconds! You are cruising, and ready to run after your big sister. I definitely think you will be an early walker. You also can easily get into a sitting position from laying down.
.... you sleep about 10-11 hours at night, with one feeding in there around hour 7-8. When we come to get you out of your crib, you are usually standing up at the railing, waiting for us to appear, and then you are so happy to see us that you bounce up and down really fast!
... you love to eat your solids (except bananas....even when it is hidden in a mixture of fruits you can taste it and show your displeasure!). You are starting to want to feed yourself almost exclusively. Your first "real' meal was a turkey hot dog, mashed potatoes, green beans and some crescent rolls. You also love vienna sausages, teddy grahams, crackers, and peas.
....although you didn't quite understand what all the fuss was about, you had fun playing with the tissue paper during the present opening. You got a new toy that you can pull up and stand next to, as well as a new diaper bag (you were very excited about that present....ok maybe mommy was just a little more). Your sister picked out a soft pink bunny for her present to you.
...you LOVE your big sister. Whenever she comes into your view you immediately smile and start trying to get to her. For the most part, she LOVES being around you, too. Sometimes though you get in her way or cry too much in the car. :)
...But really, you cry very little. Only when you are hungry...and as soon as you see a bottle you start lunging for it and put it into your mouth. You can even hold the bottle up or the sippy cup up in order to drink from it, although your arms get tired after a while so we have to help you.
...you smile all the time---you completely fulfill your middle name! You love to clap, play in the bathtub, and are very ticklish on your neck and your upper back.

Goodbye 2010!

2011-01-01T07:34:00.000-06:00

Well, it is 6 am on New Years Day, and I am up unfortunately, watching Carol play in her playpen (fortunately!). So this seems like the best time to do the review of the past year!

Daniel continued working at Excel Lawn as the supervisor of the Lawn Care side of the business as well as the music director at Silver Creek United Methodist Church. Originally hired as the choir director for the traditional service, Daniel was able to expand his job in April to be worship leader for the contemporary service as well (which is more up his alley and the style of worship he is more accustomed.) He has really enjoyed this additional service, creating a worship band that includes his cousin Andrew on the drums, his brother Jeffrey with backup vocals, and my cousin Tim on the guitar. His piano and worship skills have definitely improved over the year! In April Daniel also served as the stage manager for the production for the TCU Opera. Not only did he do a lot behind the scenes, he was also able to sing two small roles. The only negative was that the production was the week after Carol's birth and so it was extremely hard for him trying to balance life for those two weeks!

In late July, Daniel started suffering from constant headaches and dizziness. Thinking he just had a bad sinus infection, he went to the doctor who ordered a CT and eventually an MRI. Those tests revealed the presence of an arachnoid cyst in his brain, approximately 3 cm x 8 cm x 5 cm. While trying to get over the shock of the diagnosis, we learned that these cysts are usually present at birth and slowly grow but usually never present any symptoms and are only found by chance. He visited a variety of doctors- neurosurgeon who diagnosed that the cyst was not putting extreme pressure on his brain, an opthamologist who concurred the pressure diagnosis, allergists, two ENTs, and finally a neurologist (oh, and an emergency room visit and ambulance ride after he showed signs that scared us thinking he was having a stroke). Finally the neurologist gave us some hope that he has seen these symptoms before, and yes, they were due to the cyst but that it would not help to simply drain the cyst. He got Daniel on some medicine to help the symptoms. It helped wonderfully at first, and Daniel had a few "normal" days! But now the headaches have returned, and both symptoms come roaring back under certain situations, like stress. He occasionally forgets to take his medicine, and everything comes immediately rushing back, so he knows that the meds are helping him quite a bit, just not 100%. He has another appointment in January with the neurologist so we'll see if there is a different med regiment we can try and what the long-term outlook will be. He has two side-effects of the medicine- he often feels "tingles" in his extremities like they are falling asleep and the more extreme side-effect-- carbonation tastes terrible! This has been terrible for a faithful Dr. Pepper a day drinker (you should see some of the faces he makes when he tries it because it tastes so bad to him!) , but he is handling it. Occasionally he can handle a sip or two ...but that usually corresponds to those times he forgot to take his medicine. :)

As for me, I started off the year still teaching at Lake Country and serving as the academic coordinator of the secondary school. I love teaching and love my students but after Carol's birth, we felt that that chapter of my life was coming to a close and a new chapter was beginning. So after I got my students through the AP exams, I officially became a stay-at-home mom. (kinda). Speaking of AP exams, my AP Chem students did ok-- had one 5 and several other 4s and 3s....not my normal success rate, but pretty good considering I wasn't there the last month and didn't finish the material with them. My AP Calculus students were amazing! We were able to finish the material before I left and they reviewed their little hearts out and they ALL passed the AP exam! I was so excited and proud! But the summer brought a new stage of my life. I actually started taking classes at UTA in chemistry over the summer for a variety of reasons-- to keep my mind active, to see if there was a degree I might want to eventually pursue in chemistry, and to have health insurance for the girls and I, since we are unable to cover Emma privately with her health history. I took one course over the summer and two in the fall and although it was crazy busy, I really enjoyed the information. We are still trying to decide what exactly the future holds, but it has been fun being a college student again! I also started playing piano at the traditional service at church, and that has definitely stretched me. Just when I starting to feel confident in my playing abilities, the Christmas season arrived with the big Christmas cantata. Let's just say this was my first experience really "accompanying" a choir on several pieces and I practiced a lot. It wasn't perfect but I was pretty proud of myself when it was done. I also have done a lot of tutoring up at LCCS in chemistry with some of my former students, so that has been nice keeping in touch with them. So I've been pretty busy "staying at home". In the Spring I am only taking once class one afternoon, so things will hopefully slow down a little bit.

Emma has grown up so much over the past year! She started the year spending 3 days in day care and 2 days in Pre-K at LCCS and in the fall has been in Pre-K for 3 days a week and with mommy the other two days. She is ready for Kindergarten, though!! She loves school, her friends, and her teachers. She has started to recognize sight words when we reading and I think it is only a matter of time before her reading takes form. Her handwriting and drawing skills have also increased ten-fold this year. She can write her name and Carol's name without prompting and we have written many things with spelling help from us-- just tell her the letters and she will write them. Her drawings have actually taken form too - you can recognize for the most part what she is drawing. I love her pictures of our family that she has drawn! She has also started to color "inside the lines" which I didn't realize was a big deal until I had a child! She loves to run, jump, ride her bike, climb, and dance. She took a little mini-dance class over the summer at the dance studio that I went to as a child and absolutely loved it. She is now taking ballet one day a week at Lake Country after school, and we often have ballet class at home with Emma as the teacher. She loves to help cook and bake, and has really started to play with her Barbies and coming up with stories for them (oftentimes including a wedding of some sort!). She also LOVES to play dress-up. She has quite the collection of dress-up clothes thanks to birthdays, Christmas, and Thrift town. She would rather have on a princess dress than anything else. She loves to go to the movie "bthater" to see a movie and of course, eat popcorn with M&Ms. She has also finally grown into her age with respect to clothes. For all of her life, she has been several sizes behind and just a small girl. However, this year she has grown a lot-- she is now wearing 4T-5T clothes and while still skinny, she is long waisted like her parents. Her hair was getting long, but unfortunately, a major self-hair cutting incident over the summer required us to chop it pretty short. It is starting to grow back now, and she desperately wants it to be long again! She is starting to want to wear bows in her hair everyday and lets me put up her hair without complaint!

Of course, the biggest news of 2010 was the addition of Carol Joy into our family, and I can't imagine not having her here with us. After coming into the world in a stressful, but quick way, she has blessed our lives tremendously. She lives up to her middle name like no other child you can imagine-- she loves to smile, to laugh, and only cries if she is hungry. She is so sweet-natured and easy to care for. I would say the only thing that is not easy with her is that at almost 9 months she is still not sleeping through the night and feeds at least once. But hey, we can handle that considering what Emma's first year was like! Now she army crawls everywhere, but wants to be able to walk. She pulls up everywhere and would much rather stand if possible. She zooms around the house in her walker, and will play on her own for extended periods of time. She will also put herself to sleep at night in her crib for the most part, and finally got her first tooth on Christmas day. She loves to eat solids and now would prefer to feed herself if at all possible. I think she is almost 20 pounds already, a weight that her sister didn't reach until almost 18 months of age. Christmas was a special time--- I found that having a child with a middle name of Joy is WAY to much fun! She lights up anytime her big sister comes into the room, and they have a special relationship. Emma always wants to hold her and talks to her in their own special language. I'm excited seeing how much fun they will have playing together-- and even more excited to see that those play times will be here before we know it!

As a family, we did take our first family vacation to Arizona in August for the wedding of a high-school friend. It was a long trip, but the girls did great. We also enjoyed the Texas Rangers' run to the World Series. As long time Ranger fans and season ticket holders, we were able to go to one game of each of the three series leading up to the World Series. Daniel and I went to the very last game, and although the Rangers didn't play great in the World Series, it was still such an amazing atmosphere and a lot of fun. And hey, not many people can say they attended a game where someone won the World Series!

So that's 2010 for us. We look forward to much more fun in 2011. Carol's done playing in her playpen now, so I better go take care of her!

Christmas Portraits 2010

2010-12-27T22:51:00.000-06:00

So I had the realization that with Emma, I had her picture taken at 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, etc. Carol? We had some taken at 1 month....and now she is almost 9 months old! Poor second child!

So for Christmas I took both girls to have their pictures taken! Here are some of the good shots!

Carol Joy is Eight Months Old!!!

2010-12-27T22:40:00.000-06:00

So this post is a little late considering that Carol turned 8 months old on December 5th, but the picture was taken at the time:

Look at that pudgy belly!

Look at those rolls!!!

Emma helped.

Unfortunately, it has been too long that I don't remember her advancements during this month, so the 9 month blog will have a lot of stuff! I do know that she still has blue eyes, and at this point still had no teeth!

Our Little Model!

2010-12-09T16:24:00.000-06:00

Last August (actually on my birthday!), both girls participated in a photo shoot for Cook Children's Medical Center. Well, they just revamped their website, and guess who is on it!! Emma Rose!!! I couldn't find any pics of Carol, maybe they will show up in one of their magazines in the spring... who knows!!

Here are some of the links I found:

https://www.cookchildrens.org/SpecialtyServices/Rehabilitation/Pages/default.aspx#4

https://www.cookchildrens.org/ForPatientsFamilies/MedicalCenter/PatientInformation/Pages/Concierge.aspx

https://www.cookchildrens.org/ForPatientsFamilies/MedicalCenter/Financial/Pages/default.aspx

https://www.cookchildrens.org/ForPatientsFamilies/Programs/Pages/default.aspx

Yay!!!

What are you thankful for?

2010-11-21T20:02:00.000-06:00

In Sunday School today, Emma's class was using the word "Thanksgiving" to talk about what they were thankful for. Meaning, they came up with things that started with the letter "T" that they were thankful for, then "H", "A", "N" and so forth through the word thanksgiving.

When they were on "T" kids had talked about toys, trees, trains, etc. When her teacher asked Emma what she was thankful for that started with the letter "T" Emma replied....

Toilet Paper.

Yes, that is something to definitely be thankful for. :)

Operation Shoebox

2010-11-18T19:08:00.000-06:00

As a Christmas tradition, Daniel's mom (Gigi to Emma) takes Emma and her two cousins, Zac and Zeb, out to Walmart to fill up a Shoebox for Operation Shoebox. This organization sends out shoeboxes full of goodies to needy children at Christmas. Emma filled her shoebox with a pink doll, a pink baseball, a pink play microphone, a toothbrush, crayons, and a disney princess pink cell phone (and candy, of course). She also wrote this letter, with spelling help from her granddad.

Translation: "Hello! My name is Emma. This box is just for you. It has a lot of candy and stuff. Jesus loves you. I hope you like your doll. Emma"

Random Videos

2010-11-16T22:20:00.001-06:00

So here are some random videos from my flip camera from the past few months for you to enjoy!!

Carol when she first started to crawl...trying to get to the camera! October 28 (6 and a half months old)

Carol with her "rap" impression while Trick-or-Treating (with help from Dad)

Emma enjoying the last dip in her "pool" for the fall....it was chilly! And her daddy messing around with her! October 26

Emma loved to spin Carol around in the exersaucer...and as you hear, Carol loved it too! September 2010

Emma was part of her first dance class this summer at my old dance studio! Here is the end-of-session little performance!! Emma is at the end of the line on the left. August, 2010

And finally, some of Emma swimming over the summer underwater!!!

Carol Joy is SEVEN months old!

2010-11-16T09:13:00.000-06:00

...you are getting so big! You have a pudgy belly and very very pudgy thighs...mommy is not used to that!!
...you LOVE your solid foods. You especially like sweet potatoes and prunes. You have taken longer to accept fruits...you would rather have your veggies!
...you sit up easily without a problem.
...you started crawling!! Watch out world!!!
...you put everything into your mouth. I mean everything.
...you decided you were tired of your exersaucer so we got out the walker. This is a new and fun experience for you....walking around the house chasing after your sister!
...your sister is still one of your best friends. She always makes you laugh and smile. When we pick her up from school, you lean forward in your carseat as much as the straps will let you in order just to look at her.
...you still have blue eyes. Weird, I know.
...you are starting to get glimpses of hair. Just little wisps here and there. :)
... you are definitely using your voice more to make your opinion known.
...you are still not sleeping through the night. I think you like mommy and daddy's company too much.
...you are an expert with your pacifier. When it is on it's "leash" attached to you, you play with it all the time. In your sleep you will reach for it and put it into your mouth.
...you had your first Halloween! You were a very cute Eeyore...although you didn't know what the fuss was all about.
...you still live up to your middle name of Joy.

Playing with our tongues

It took a couple of tries to get our monthly picture....you wanted to play with the sign and put it in your mouth!

you love to swing at the playground!

Beautiful Joy!

A joyful Eeyore

Visit to Barney at Chuck-e-Cheese

Walking around!

Car Button

2010-11-10T20:38:00.000-06:00

More and more I am convinced that my daughter is a genius with an amazing memory. (I know I'm biased like all parents are.)

Today after picking up Emma from school we were going down Boat Club Road. All of a sudden we could smell a skunk that had let its juices flow. After we both gave the obligatory "eww" sound, Emma told me "Mommy, hit the car button!" I was like "car button?" and then she pointed to my dashboard and I understood. I had told her once the meaning of this button several months ago.

So I hit the "car button" to help keep the skunk outside!

Hallelujah!

2010-11-03T20:25:00.000-05:00

Last night we were out late with family so Emma didn't get to sleep until almost 11 o'clock. Because it was raining and he didn't have to get crews out, Daniel was able to take her to school late after she slept in.

Apparently, when they arrived, all of her classmates were on the carpet and they had just prayed. One of the things they pray for is all their classmates who aren't there today- specifically if they were sick that they would feel better, etc. Since she wasn't at school yet, they prayed that Emma would feel better soon. Just a few minutes later, in walked Emma with Daniel. Almost immediately, one of Emma's closest friends ran over to her, raising her hands and spontaneously yelled "Hallelujah!".

Even the youngest need to know prayers are answered!!!

Sisters....Part 2!

2010-10-28T00:05:00.000-05:00

I just KNEW I was forgetting a story on my last post!!!

We were over at Daniel's parents house when Daniel started tickling/wrestling Emma on the floor. Carol was sitting on the couch with her granddad, and when she saw Daniel "attacking" her sister and her sister squealing, she just broke down crying and upset. Daniel stopped and both sat up and looked at Carol...and she immediately stopped crying and started smiling again!! She didn't want anyone (even Daddy) wrestling with her big sister!!!

Sisters!!!

2010-10-27T22:01:00.000-05:00

So we are starting to witness the first evidence of sisterly love (and aggravation) between Emma and Carol. This is whole new territory for me. Yes, I do have a half-brother and half-sister, but they are 16 and 14 years older than me respectively, so I am basically an only child. (Although I have many memories of being held upside down over the in-ground couch by my feet by my older brother....) So having two children is totally new ground for me in so many ways. Daniel is the middle of three boys, so he's a little more familiar with the sibling relationships.

First, Emma is GREAT around Carol- she really loves her so much. Sometimes if I am sitting on the couch with Carol when Emma wakes up and walks in, Emma goes to Carol first, not me! And Carol LOVES her big sister- she always smiles and gets so excited to see her, even when Emma is squishing her, hugging her, kissing on her, trying to carry her around! But...sometimes the sister-sister relationship can hit a few snags...even now:

- A few weeks ago I got two of Emma's old baby toys out of storage for Carol to play with since she is sitting up by herself now. Good thing I got two and not just one because Emma just had to play with one, too. After a few minutes, Emma took Carol's toy away from her and started playing with it. Carol looked at her and then just started crying big boo-hoo tears! We gave Carol the toy back and she was immediately happy again!

- In the bathtub last week, both girls were getting their baths at the same time. Now Emma has this over-dramatic flair whenever she has even the slightest of boo-boos. She had a small, almost invisible scratch on her foot and you would have thought it was the end of the world when she got it wet. She cried and cried, even though she was holding it outside of the water and was dry again. As she is putting on this show, Carol is just watching her and then starts to giggle...and a little bit more...and then full out laugh while watching Emma just cry. Apparently she thought it was a little bit ridiculous, too!

- Yesterday, Emma told me "Mommy, I'm tired of having a sister." Well I hate to break it to you....

- If I am cleaning our bathroom/bedroom, I put Carol in the Johnny-Jump-Up. It's one of the few doorways that actually has molding on it that we can use in our house. Emma loves to use it as a swing. I'll pull it up high enough that Carol's feet aren't touching the ground and Emma will swing her on it. Carol just laughs and laughs! (It's an extra-wide door opening, don't worry!)

- Emma has gotten in the habit of getting a doll or two after we have put her in bed (sigh....) and places them on the floor with a small pillow. She then gets a blanket or two (or three or four....sigh again) and makes sure to cover them up to tuck them in. I've even gone in and her horse and Clifford that are longer than her are sometimes tucked in their own little floor pallet. Well, last night after both had fallen asleep, I went to check on them. Emma had two dolls on their pallets in the floor, all covered up. When I checked on Carol, I saw that Emma had climbed up the crib and covered her sister with a blanket, being careful not to cover up her head. She had tucked in her sweet sister, too!

I can't wait to see what the next years bring about!!!

This one is a little dark, but Emma wanted to feed Carol her bottle before school this morning:

Reading in the bathtub!

Carol Joy is SIX months old!!!

2010-10-05T19:45:00.000-05:00

Life got in the way of the 5-month update...so here's months 5-6!!

...you weigh 16 pounds (50th percentile), are 26 inches long (a little over the 50th percentile), and have a huge head (above 95th percentile....not surprising considering your genes!). You are actually going to change into 6-9 month clothes when you are 6 months! (Big sister NEVER did that "on time")
...you have the cutest rolls on your legs!
...you still have your blue eyes!
...you roll over, sit up, and "inch" along on the floor, trying desperately to figure out this crawling thing!
...you went on ANOTHER trip (such a traveler!), this time on a car trip with mommy, daddy, and big sister to Arizona for a friend's wedding. You did ok...you liked it best when mommy or daddy pulled your car seat up to the front seat to feed you!
...you started eating solids, and you LOVE them! So far, rice cereal, oatmeal, mixed grains, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, mixed veggies...and mommy is actually making homemade baby food for you so you are spoiled!! You love to try and grab the spoon as you sit in your bumbo while eating.
...you go to sleep sometime between 7-8 and then wakeup to eat in the 3 o'clock hour. Then you go back to sleep until about 6:30. Mommy is really ready for you to sleep through the night. :)
...you had your first sickness. :( An infection in both ears. You weren't a happy camper. But after two rounds of antibiotics, you are back to your normal joyful self!
...you live up to your middle name. You are always smiling, laughing, and making those around you fall in love with you.
...you now sit up in the shopping cart at the grocery store and make eyes and smiles to all of the people around you. You also try and eat mommy's shopping list if she isn't watching. ;)
...you gained a new Moody cousin, Evan James Karnes, to play with!
...you LOVE to jump up and down and bend those knees. You love doing it in your exersaucer, and are starting to get the hang of how to do it in your johnny-jump-up. You just want to move, move, move!
...if you are laying down in bed or sitting in your carseat and see someone, you start kicking your legs as if there is no tomorrow out of pure joy and excitement!
...you attended your first LCCS football game!
...you LOVE your big sister and she loves you back. You start laughing when she talks to you in her own special sister language, and are so happy even when she is hugging you (really!) tight.
...you easily pick up items and put them straight into your mouth. You are an expert at getting the pacifier at the end of the pacifier holder/ribbon and putting in into your mouth.
...you have started taking baths in the big bathtub (sometimes with big sister) and you love it! You love to splash the water and watch the water fill up the bathtub.

All About Me...from the lips of Emma Rose

2010-09-26T22:18:00.000-05:00

Each child in Emma's PK class gets to be "Student of the Week" for one week during the school year. Next week it's Emma's turn and she is very excited. She was singing "Student of the Week, I'm Student of the Week" around the house tonight.

As part of her "assignment", we filled out a poster sent home that is "All About Me". At the top, Emma wrote her whole full name (with some help on Montgomery-- that's a doozy for a 4 year old!) and then I filled out the rest as she answered each question.

So here's All about Emma in her own words (I think you might see what was on her mind the moment we were filling it out). Her answers are underlined.

Fascinating Facts About Me:

I am 4 years old.
My birthday is July 9.
I am in this grade: Pre-K (she had to have a little help on this one...she first said "little school")
My teacher is Ms. Laxson, Ms. Ackley.
I get to school by Mommy's Car (a little help here, too-- she didn't quite understand)
These are the members of my family: Daddy, Mommy, Carol (sorry Gabby cat)
When I grow up I would like to be: A Princess.

I show others I care by...Give them a hug and a kiss.
I am a star because I can read. (Well...we are getting there!! She is recognizing the little words that they have been working on in class like "my" and "the")

These are a few of my favorite things:

Color: Dark Pink (apparently just pink wasn't a good enough description)
Animal: Ducklings (yes, ducklings, not just ducks...I think the episode of Wonder Pets she had watched before church was still in her brain).
Food: Candy (I sadly wrote that down...and then asked her what other food she liked) Mexican (that's my girl!)
Book: Princesses (i.e. any book about a princess, specifically Belle, Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Mulan or Pocohontas)
Sport: (long pause....) Ball. (why choose just one?)
Things to do in school: Play Princesses
Thing to do at home: Dress Up

Three Super-Cool Facts about yourself:
1. I can Dress Up.
2. I can put on hats.
3. I can play weddings.

And then the picture she chose to attached is one where she is dressed up in a fairy outfits, complete with wings.

We definitely have a little girl on our hands.

I love you my princess!

Chocolate Chip Cookies!!

2010-09-14T20:22:00.000-05:00

So (unfortunately), I found a great chocolate chip recipe off of allrecipes.com. It got like 5000 recommendations, so it is pretty good. Here it is:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 package instant vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
1 tbl vanilla extract
2 cups milk chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar using a mixer. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips. Drop cookies onto cookie sheet
3. Bake for 10-12 minutes in the preheated oven.

Hints::
- start checking the cookies at 9 minutes. if the edges are starting to be brown, take the cookies out-- it will continue to cook on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes.
- I have found that these are even better on the second day, after spending the night in a ziploc bag. They get moister that way.
- The cookies won't expand or flatten out while cooking, so shape them how you like-- I go ahead and flatten mine out on the cookie sheet.
- Luckily, I don't have instant vanilla pudding mix in my pantry all the time, so I can't make these as much as I might want!!!

Update on Daniel...

2010-09-04T17:49:00.000-05:00

Well after this week's events and today's emergency room visit, I needed to give a quick update on Daniel's health.

Since seeing the ENT a couple of weeks ago, Daniel has been on a steriod regiment while taking all of these tests to identify what exactly is causing his headaches and dizziness. He took a hearing test as well as a balance test, during both he got extremely dizzy. He had actually gotten to a point where he could go through his day and survive, I guess you would say. We were even able to drive to Arizona for a friend's wedding.

However, last Saturday, things took a sharp turn for the worse. Since then Daniel's dizziness and spinning have been non-stop to a point that he cannot function for periods of time. He had to come home from work early several times this week and just lay in bed to get through the rest of the day. Even when he just turns his head, the room starts spinning uncontrollably.

This morning when he woke up, he said things were different, not in a good way. The best way he could explain it is that he felt outside of himself. He was trying to just watch a movie with Emma and had to go lay down on the bed. I went to go check on him and to tell him that I was going to take the girls to the zoo (since the weather here is beautiful!). As we were talking, all of a sudden he said that he was numb on the right side of his face and down his right side through his hands. Then he literally lost all motor control of his head, and it rolled from one side to the other with no impulse from Daniel. I immediately called 911, thinking maybe he was having a stroke or something. He never lost consciousness but even tually the numbness spread to his left arm and hand. He also started shaking uncontrollably, probably due to shock. Kristen and Summer came over to take care of the girls immediately while Daniel and I went to the hospital in an ambulance. Blessedly, Summer had Emma playing in her room with the door closed so she didn't see daddy being wheeled out. I told her that Daddy's head was hurting even more (she's been very aware that he has been sick and hasn't been able to play with her as much as he normally does) and so mommy was taking him to the hospital in an ambulance to have the doctors check him.

At the hospital, they drew blood samples, and all of his vitals looked good. He got another cat-scan to make sure his cyst wasn't leaking or growing. Laying down in a dark room helped Daniel a little bit, and he eventually did regain feeling in his arms. They did give him a medicine through an iv for headaches/nausea as well as a bag of fluid. All of his tests showed that he did not have a stroke or anything that would be of immediate danger. Basically we got a diagnosis of exclusion- knowing everything it wasn't. The doctor (named Dr. Disney by the way which we thought was unusual!) basically thought that the numbness was just a manifestation of bad side-effects of whatever is causing all of Daniel's symptoms. He told Daniel to rest, gave us a prescription for the headache/nausesa medicine and told him to call his ENT when their office opens on Tuesday (argh Labor Day).

Once we got home, Daniel ate a little bit and then needed to go lay down and slept for several hours. When he woke up, he was back to the "status quo"-- nonstop spinning and headache like he has been feeling for the past week. So we'll keep our eye out for any additional symptoms and prayerfully, we are close to a diagnosis this week now that his tests are pretty much complete.

Thank you again for all of your prayers. We are pretty exhausted over this all, but thankful because we know there are many things that are worse.

Yellow Light

2010-08-30T21:16:00.000-05:00

So when I picked up Emma from school today, one of the questions I had for her was whether or not she took a nap during naptime. She said no, that she got in trouble during nap and had to move her mat. AND she got her marker moved from green to yellow for the 1st time. (Momentous occasion!) When I asked her why she got in trouble she replied..."I was just playing with Arabella during naptime."

And so school begins!

Carol Joy is 4 months old!!

2010-08-09T23:28:00.000-05:00

Wow!! Can you believe it???

... you had some growing pains this month with waking up repeatedly in the night to eat, but you have gotten back down to your sleeping schedule of around 9pm- 5am.

... we switched out your 0-3 months clothes for 3-6 months! It was so fun getting out your big sister's old clothes and reliving those memories!!

... we haven't had your 4 month appointment yet, but I think you are around 12 pounds. You bulked up some more this month!

... you are fully a formula baby now, and at the end of this month we introduced rice cereal into your formula-- you gobbled it all down!

... you roll easily from your tummy to your back....and you often wake yourself up at night because you have rolled to your back and you can't get back! But mommy just comes and rolls you over and you go right back to sleep!

...you moved into your room this month! You and your sister now share a room- for what will probably be years to come! I will sometimes come into your room in the morning and you and your sister are just "talking" back and forth to each other as your sister has climbed into your crib to keep you company!

... you smile and laugh ALL THE TIME! you love it when someone smiles at you, the only time you don't give one back is when you are hungry!

... you have started to grab and reach for things, and have discovered your mouth and your feet!!

... you really like to stand up (with help, of course!). We think you will be a walker, chasing after your sister before we know it!

... you are pretty laid back! You don't mind just watching mommy in your bouncy chair!

... you went swimming for the 1st time! Overall, you like it ok...just wait until next summer!

Good news!

2010-08-05T12:41:00.000-05:00

So we got good news at the neurosurgeon today! Yay!!

- Daniel definitely has a large cyst in the back of his brain. The surgeon said it was a pretty big one, and he's probably had it since birth. It's pretty amazing to see on the CT scan and MRI how big it is...
-...but it doesn't seem to be adding any undue pressure on his brain. The ventricles in his brain are not ballooned or misformed, and his skull is not thin (due to pressure on it).
- The dr thinks Daniel's head issues are completely sinus related. Both of his sinuses have blockage, especially the right side. He also thinks Daniel has a vertigo problem that can probably be helped with some particular exercises.
- He has sent Daniel to see an ENT to get his sinuses cleared out (which might involve an outpatient surgery to clean them out surgically) as well as an opthamalogist to check the pressure of his brain against his eyes (to check to make sure there isn't extra pressure from the cyst).
-Once he has those taken care of, we'll go back to the neurosurgeon and re-evaluate his symptoms. At this point, he doesn't think draining the cyst would make any difference. Daniel will get another MRI in 6 months-1 year to just see if it is growing right now.

So we are relieved, to say the least! Thank you for all of your love, support, and prayers. While we are not out of the woods yet, and Daniel is still in constant pain due to the headache, we feel so relieved right now that it was not worst-case scenerio!

Arachnoid what?

2010-08-03T15:16:00.000-05:00

Over the past 3-4 weeks, Daniel has experienced a constant headache and some vertigo/equilibrium problems. He would get really dizzy if he moved quickly, bounced Carol up and down, or even while watching the bright colors and movements of Beauty and the Beast for Emma's birthday. So he finally went to the doctors last week, thinking he just had a really bad sinus infection.

He saw the PA at the clinic, and she not only got him some antibiotics for a slight sinusitis problem, but she ordered a cat-scan just to check stuff out. On his cat-scan there was some shadowing and an MRI yesterday confirmed that Daniel has an "arachnoid cyst" on his brain stem.

An arachnoid cyst is a fluid-filled sac that is located between the brain or spinal cord and the arachnoid membrane, one of the three membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord. It is usually a congenital birth defect, one that goes unnoticed in most cases because it never gets big enough to cause symptoms. So Daniel has probably had it since birth, and it has slowly been filling , until now where it is now approximately 8 cm by 3 cm in size. Typical symptoms of an arachnoid cyst around the brain include headache, nausea and vomiting, seizures, hearing and visual disturbances, vertigo, and difficulties with balance and walking-- all signs he has shown except for the vomiting.

Untreated, arachnoid cysts may cause permanent severe neurological damage when progressive expansion of the cyst(s) or hemorrhage injures the brain or spinal cord. Symptoms usually resolve or improve with treatment. So obviously, we want treatment! Daniel will meet with a neurosurgeon in the next few days, one that my dad knows and recommends through Arlington Memorial Hospital. Treatment will involve surgery of some sort to drain the cyst and possibly insert a brain shunt to keep the cyst from building up again.

The good news that we can see through this diagnosis is that it is treatable, and it explains all of Daniel's symptoms, some now that he looks back in his life and sees that there are many times he was probably experiencing symptoms unknowingly. He has often had equilibrium/vertigo and numbing of appendages issues, so maybe this is partly to blame for a lot of those.

As we step into this new medical challenge in our lives we would ask for prayer in the following ways:

- wisdom of how to proceed medically
- peace for our hearts and spirits as we face surgery
- peace against feelings of "why us"- I especially struggle with this. We know that God uses medicine and surgeons to bring healing- a lesson learned through Emma's four heart surgeries. However, on top of Emma's health problems and a slew of other medical issues and rough times in the past 4 years, it is hard not to fall into the trap of "it's not fair!" or to get completely discouraged.
- wisdom to know how the recovery will affect Daniel's ability to work and my ability to stay home with the girls- just so many unknowns at this point.
- wisdom of how to tell Emma when the time comes. She's a smart cookie, but luckily we just had a positive experience for her at the hospital with Carol's arrival- we don't want a hospital to be a scary place for her since it will continue to be a constant presence in her life. We also want things to be as normal as possible as her new school year begins.

As plans are made and we meet with the specialists, we will keep you updated!

Montgomery Family Pictures!

2010-07-15T15:24:00.000-05:00

We took professional family shots in June at my Grandparent's house in Weatherford. They turned out great!!

Carol is THREE months old!

2010-07-15T14:38:00.000-05:00

A little better late than never...

Carol Joy is 3 months old!

... we stopped nursing, and wow, have you chunked up since then! (Well, chunky for a Montgomery girl baby!). You have gained a double chin and small rolls on your legs!

... you are smiling all of the time! (but not in the above picture...you had just woken up!) You live up to your middle name of Joy!

...you love to babble and talk to all of us.

...your eyes are still blue....hmmm....we always thought that there was no way we could have any children who weren't brown hair and brown/hazel eyes, but so far you are breaking our expectations! They haven't changed in the slightest, so we'll see what the next few months bring!

...for the most part, you sleep until 4-5, eat and then sleep again for another 1-2 hours. However, the last couple of weeks of this month, you have been a VERY loud sleeper, keeping mommy awake although you don't remember it at all.

...when you do wake up to eat, I love laying you down on the changing table and watch you slowly wake up. After stretching, you finally open your eyes and see me...and reward me with the biggest, happiest smile, like I just made your day!

... you can claim at least one thing that you did before your big sister: you flew on an airplane this month! You joined mommy and nana on a trip to Pittsburgh to see a friend get married. You were an excellent traveler! In fact, on the way back, you fell asleep as we were lifting off in the air, and stayed that way until we deplaned. We were able to strap your carseat into the seat next to us on the way home, so that helped!

In Heaven....

2010-06-22T21:07:00.000-05:00

The other day as we were driving home from Daniel's parents' house, we passed a cross marker on the side of the highway, probably at the scene of an accident. Here's the conversation that followed between Emma and myself:

Emma: Did you see that cross mommy? Do you know what that is for? It's to remind us that Jesus died on the cross for us.

Mommy: That's right Emma

E: Mommy, why did Jesus die on the cross for us?

M: (trying to figure out how to answer this in a theologically correct way for a 4 year old!) So that we would believe in Him and go live in Heaven with him.

E: Like Aunt Carol is in heaven?
(Side note: Our Carol Joy is named after Daniel's Aunt Carol who died five years ago from cancer; obviously Emma never met her)

M: Yes, just like Aunt Carol in heaven. Won't it be fun to meet her one day in heaven?

E: Then Baby Carol could meet Aunt Carol! But she wouldn't be a baby anymore, she would be big like me. Aunt Carol's going to live with Jesus for a long time, isn't she?

M: Yes, a very long time!

So precious!!!

Emma Rose's first year of school!

2010-06-15T22:07:00.000-05:00

We finished up Emma's first year of "school" last week. She attended LCCS Pre-Kindergarten with Mrs. Laxson and Mrs. Ackley on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Then she attended Primrose School/Daycare on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays with Mrs. Rusk and Mrs. Lunsford.

Although it was hard to drop her off in the morning at Primrose, I am so thankful for the social, physical, and academic progress she made at both schools. She has come so far, and I look forward to seeing her to continue to mature next year, when she will be at LCCS on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and with mommy the other days!!

With Mrs. Rusk and Mrs. Lunsford at Primrose

With Mrs. Ackley and Mrs. Laxson at LCCS (she wouldn't take the picture without me, and of course I didn't put on makeup that morning....ugh)

Carol Joy is TWO Months Old!!

2010-06-15T22:02:00.001-05:00

June 5, 2010-- Two Months Old!

The best smile I was able to catch on camera...she smiles a whole lot bigger when she doesn't see the camera!

Working on those neck muscles!!

Sweet Carol Joy...

...you are 9 pounds, 4 ounces in the 10th percentile for weight

...you are 22 inches long in the 25th percentile for length

...you are in the 50th percentile for head circumference.

...you are right on track where your big sister was in size except for the head (she was over the 100th percentile!)

...you go to sleep for the night somewhere between 7pm-8pm and wake up somewhere in the 3 o'clock hour to eat, and then again at 6 o'clock.

...you are eating about 3 bottles a day after nursing with mommy...you need the extra nourishment to grow! But during the night it is just you and mommy!

...you survived mommy's last after-school inservice and cleaning out of mommy's classroom. You slept quite a bit on your playmat in her lab! Must have felt like a familiar place!

...you started to smile at mommy, daddy and sister!

...you were blessed by many special gifts from showers at church and LCCS.

...you are a sweet, easy-going baby. You only really cry when you are hungry or when you have gas. You will just go to sleep on your own when placed down in your bassinet.

...you are still wearing newborn clothes and diapers, and some 0-3 month clothes.

... you love swinging in your swing and laying on top of the changing table, looking at the light coming through the blinds.

...you are loved and an irreplaceable part of our family!

Emma's annual cardiology appointment...

2010-05-27T20:02:00.000-05:00

So today was Emma's annual cardiology appointment....at 8:30 in the morning at the downtown Cook clinic. Obviously, I made this appointment before I had two children and knew what it would take to get us all dressed, fed, and out the door. But, amazingly we did it! (I won't tell you what time I started this morning to make it possible for me to actually fix my hair and put on makeup, too!)

Emma was such a trooper! She did so well during her EKG, pressure readings and echocardiogram! She was amazing...so much easier now than when she was 1-2 years old! Here she is with all of her "stickers" during the EKG:

With her oh-so-attractive "dress"

Taking the opportunity to read while we wait!

Being so good while having her echo...and watching 101 Dalmations! You can see some of her heart chambers on the computer screen! It's much easier for me now to tell the different structures of the heart than when she was a baby!! Not only has the heart grown just slightly :) but I've had more experience now!

So we got good news and not-so-great-but-not-a-tragedy news.

Good news: She looks great and doesn't have to come back for a checkup for TWO WHOLE YEARS!!!! She will be finishing kindergarten before she goes back!

On the other front: this was the first time since her first year that Dr. Readinger talked about the real possibility that she will need an additional surgery when she is older. If she needs it, she would be a teenager probably. There is a piece of muscle below her bicuspid valve (which is a defect in itself because the normal heart has a tricuspid valve). If it grows as she grows, there will be a resulting stenosis (sp?) or narrowing that will restrict blood blow and she will need surgery again. But he said that sometimes it grows in situations like hers, and sometimes it doesn't. So we'll be praying over the next 10 years or so that it stays small!! And anyways, who know what advances will be made in medicine in 10 years!!

Carol Joy- One Month Old!!

2010-05-17T15:58:00.000-05:00

Carol Joy is One Month Old!! (Ok, really she is 6 weeks old today...I'm just about 10 days behind. :) )

At birth: 7 pounds 2 oz; At 1 week: 6 pounds 10 oz; At 3 weeks: 6 pounds 10 oz (argh); At 4 weeks: 7 pounds 4 ounces (wow! amazing what a little formula supplementing will do!); At 6 weeks: 8 pounds 1 ounce (still not as big as Emma at birth!)

I'm not so sure about this, mommy!

Ahh...the pacifier is so good!

Umm..mommy? I think I'm done.

Sisters!

With her g-daddy (great granddaddy)

It was such a precious month, a precious "normal" time that I didn't get with Emma Rose since we were at Cooks for her first month. Although I was (and am!) exhausted, and at that point really recovering from the c-section, I am so thankful for this special time. Things that I really noticed and pondered:

- It has been weird for both of us to get used to picking Carol up from under her armpits at this age! Because of Emma's surgery and healing breastbone that was cracked open, we weren't able to pick her up that way for over 6 weeks and then again when she had her surgery when she was almost one. I still put Carol into her car seat or in and out of her swing like I would have with that restriction. It's almost second nature to me than under the arms!

-The diapers!! You might laugh at this, but I have been AMAZED at how many diapers she went through during the first few weeks. You have to understand that Emma had catheters and not much to eat the first couple of weeks! Luckily, Carol has slowed down the production recently. :)

- It has been such a blessing to me to nurse Carol. I wasn't able to with Emma- my milk just never came in. Now I can realize that during Emma's few days at home, she just wasn't a strong enough nurser to get the milk in. I just didn't realize that it was a weak because I didn't have anything to compare it to. But oh, Carol has it down! Blessedly, we got past the first uncomfortable weeks and now we are pros (and she is finally speeding up, too!). She is still eating every 2-3 hours like clockwork, even at night. Hopefully as she puts on more weight she can go a little bit further at night....soon. :) It is such a precious time and bond, though and I am very thankful for the opportunity to actually provide for the needs of my child.

- Carol is looking more and more like Emma as she fills out in the face. She is still so tiny, though! We had 0-3 month clothes saved from Emma because that's what she went into immediately. What a difference a pound makes! 0-3 months fall off of Carol, still! So she is looking stylish in newborn clothes before going to the hand-me-downs (get used to it, kid!).

-Carol is tracking really well and working on her focusing. She definitely knows my voice! Emma is such a good big sister- she always asks to hold her (but it only lasts for about 10 seconds or so!) and wants to carry her around like her baby dolls. She kisses her all of the time, and is so helpful making sure Carol has her pacifier, especially in the car! She loves her little sister!

Carol Joy's Birth Day!

2010-04-24T21:19:00.001-05:00

While the memory is still fresh, I wanted to record as much as I could remember about Carol's birth. This is a long post, but good to have to remember by! I don't think I was too graphic!

A time-line of Carol Joy's Birth Day!

After a long and difficult pregnancy that included intense, all-day, get on prescription meds morning sickness until after 20 weeks, resisting the urge to find out if we were having a boy or a girl, a hospital stay in December due to bleeding/slight tear in the placenta, major Braxton-Hicks starting at 32 weeks that required monitoring in the hospital on top of all of the normal, exhausting, aching side-effects of pregnancy, I was actually feeling really good leading into the last few weeks of my pregnancy. I was amazingly more comfortable and had more energy at 9 months than I did at 7-8 months. I was really thinking and planning on working up through my due date and wasn't anxious or deperately desiring to give birth early any more.

My due date was Friday, April 9...the Friday after Easter weekend. Easter weekend was a big one in our family-- the annual Moody family get-together on Easter day on top of all of Daniel's responsibilities at church as the choir director there. So I really needed to get through Easter for the sanity of my family! Both Emma and I had Good Friday, April 2, off from school, so we enjoyed the day together and celebrated one of our last Monty-G3 days together with a special Chuck-e-Cheese lunch with Daddy, along with a great nap for Emma and mommy in mommy's bed (always a sweet time of snuggling!). Easter came and I felt great-- at our family get-together a lot of people couldn't believe that I was due in 5 days! For some reason, the only time I can eat whatever I want and not gain a lot of weight is during pregnancy. I put on about 35 pounds with Emma, but I swelled tremendously with Emma- having a July baby will do that, I think. I lost so much of it almost immediately as the swelling went down. For this pregnancy, I had gained 26 pounds, and looked smaller at 9 months than I did at 6 months with Emma because I had almost no swelling this time. On Easter evening, we even had the energy to make it over to Daniel's parents house for dinner and fellowship outside on the porch.

MONDAY, APRIL 5:

Because I was again off from school (yay for Easter Monday holiday when you teach at a Christian school!), I let Emma (and myself!) sleep in before I took her to daycare. I had a doctor's appointment that afternoon and needed some time to myself to wrap up my maternity plans (and also get that last minute pedicure as a treat!). Emma came in around 8 and I had gotten us up, dressed, and on our way (after stopping at the donut shop for a treat for Emma) around 9. When we got to her daycare, our normal procedure at this stage of my pregnancy was for me to grab hold of her in the car, but she would jump out and I would guide her to the ground beside me. This morning, however, I just wasn't aware of my surroundings and as she jumped, I automatically took a step back to give us more room for her to land beside me. Well, I didn't take into consideration the curb next to me, and when I stepped back, my foot slipped and we were quickly falling to the ground. I landed in a sitting position, and Emma landed next to me (not on top, thankfully!) and I was able to cushion her fall a little bit... I definitely got the brunt of the impact.

Well as any mother will tell you, your instinct steps in and you are only concerned about the well-being of your child, so I immediately took a crying Emma in my arms and ignored the (literal) pain and soreness in my bottom. We sat for a while on a bench inside while she settled down, and went into class fine. I was getting pretty sore by that point, but wasn't bleeding or anything so I decided to continue with my day and just keep an extra eye out on my body. I was still feeling movement of the baby, which was reassuring.

I treated myself to Grandy's for breakfast while working on AP Calculus plans. When I was done I was extremely sore and took some Tylenol for the aches. When I went to the bathroom, I had some bloody discharge just like I had in December, so I called my doctor's office to see if I could come to my afternoon appointment early and wait to be fitted in to see my doctor. They told me to come on in and I called Daniel to let him know what had happened. He was just on his way to go to the opening day of the Texas Rangers but being the amazing husband that he is, quickly passed on those plans so he could come to the doctor's office with me. (We do have season tickets so there will be plenty of games to see!)

I got to my doctor's office around 11 and was preparing to wait for a while until I could be seen. However, I was quickly called back by a nurse and told that my doctor wanted me to go ahead and go to Maternal Observation to get on monitors. My doctor's office is attached to Harris downtown, so it was a quick walk through the cafeteria and up the elevators to maternal observation, and that's where Daniel met me. My doctor also happened to be on call that day/night, again why she went ahead and sent me over, and I was very glad to hear she was on-call! After getting the all-important insurance information from me (ugh), they got me hooked up to the monitors about 11:30.

There is no more comforting of a sound when you are pregnant than the sound of your baby's heartbeat! The baby sounded great, but the baby was still really high, hadn't dropped at all, although I was dialated to a 1. This was weird to me because with Emma, even 3 days before I went into labor she was high and I wasn't dialated at all. The nurse mentioned that this baby was up in Canada, meaning the baby had a long way south to go before coming home!

At this point, they took a lot of blood work to run a test to see if the baby's blood cells were intermingled with mine. If they were, that meant that the placenta was torn and we needed to get the baby out. But, this blood test could take up to 6 hours to get the results, so we settled down for a long afternoon on monitors. We watched the Ranger game on TV instead of live! I was getting immensely sore due to the fall and we changed my positions a lot during these hours. I was able to get some pain meds, and that helped considerably. During this time I did make the painful decision to go ahead and call in my maternity sub to start the next day. I love teaching, I love my school, and I love my kids so this was a very emotional decision for me, especially realizing that this meant I was really done not only for the school year, but for (prayerfully!) several years to come. I'm ready to be a stay-at-home mommy, but it was still an emotional decision to make! I'm also slightly stubborn and I had a goal in my brain that I WAS going to last through my due date...well God had other plans!

During this time, I had a few Braxton-Hicks but nothing major. Then around 3:45 I had one that still wasn't as intense as I remember real contractions being but it was definitely more intense. Daniel said he could tell in my face that it was stronger. Well, the nurse came in and suggested I use the bathroom and change positions to see if that would help. As I got up out of bed, two things happened at the same time: the Rangers came from behind and won the game in the 9th inning, and my water broke! Daniel had to watch the replays to really see how they won the game!

The nurse commented how long it had been since she had a patient whose water broke on its own, which was weird to me since my water has broken naturally now with both girls! Although this was different because I wasn't laboring at all when it happened- I was definitely in labor with Emma when my water broke!

So it hit us that yes, we were going to see our baby in the near future! It was a very surreal feeling and it felt so sudden. Because Emma came 2 days after her due date, it was weird to be having this baby a few days early. Daniel and I just kept looking at each other, smiling and laughing about the joy that was about to come. It was a special moment just anticipating the arrival of our little boy or girl! I think you go with the flow a little bit more with your second child, so we hadn't even discussed who would be in the delivery room with us, etc. We also talked that even though most people thought this was a boy (especially because my pregnancy was so different), we really had no idea! We also commented that Emma was born on the day of the World Cup Finals in 2006 and this one would probably be born on Baseball's Opening Day. But no, we weren't going to name our child after a Rangers' player as some of our friends suggested! I was still not having labor pains (which again was weird to me) so we both happily called our friends and family to let them know! Blessedly, Daniel's dad had just arrived at DFW airport from a mission trip to Africa around 2:30 that afternoon- so I kept my promise and held off having this baby until he got back (barely!!).

So eventually I got sent to a delivery room, and by this time Emma had arrived with her Aunt KK (my best friend, Kristen) and she was SO excited that the baby was coming. She was also excited that she was finally going to be able to open the gift that she had spied in the back of my car a few weeks earlier, one that was her big sister gift for the hospital.

I still wasn't in full labor, just having minor contractions that I barely felt. But I got all "hooked" up- IV, etc. My doctor had already approved an epidural since this was my second delivery, so I decided, why not? Let's go ahead and do it! With Emma, my labor and dilation actually sped up once I got the epidural, so another reason to go ahead with it. While we waited for the anaesthesiologist, Emma opened up her present to find Candyland, a viewfinder with many Disney Princess reels, and a Disney Princess etch-a-sketch. She was excited! I also had several bags of fluids put through my IV to make sure I was fully hydrated. The fluid was cold though, and it is such a weird feeling having that cold fluid start running through your veins. I was shivering uncontrollably quite badly and had to have some extra blankets!

I couldn't believe how quickly the anaesthesiologist arrived-- but my nurse said that on weekends (when Emma was born) there is only one on call and right now there were two hence my wait time was not over an hour like previously. So Daniel stayed in the room while I got the epidural. I really think epidurals are more painful for the people having to watch it (i.e. Daniel) than the ones getting it. The hardest part for me is getting up into the sitting position, facing the side of the bed and sitting Indian style! It's hard to do that with a big preggo belly! Once I got the numbing shot, I really didn't feel anything but knew the needle was pretty daunting by the faces that Daniel was making in my side vision! The epidural went in fine, and we were on our way to numbness at 7:00.

After the epidural was in and starting to work (it takes about 30-40 minutes to feel the full effects of an epidural), I not only had a catheter inserted, but my doctor also came in and put monitors directly on the baby's head and next to him/her. This was amazing to me-- she literally reached up and put an electrode on the baby's head! The head one got a more accurate reading of his/her heartrate and the other was put inbetween the baby and the uterus wall to get a more accurate reading of my contractions (which again weren't really full out contractions yet). She also started a flush because when my water broke, there was mirconium in the fluid (i.e. baby poop!), and wanted to flush out any remaining mirconium. Since my contractions still weren't active, she also started me on pitocin to start my contractions. I was measuring at a 2 by this point, but the baby was still really high.

So all of this got set up and we settled down for the long haul. Emma hadn't had dinner yet, so Daniel took her and Aunt KK down to the cafeteria to get dinner while my parents stayed with me. Then all of a sudden my nurse had me rock over to one side for a few seconds and then rock to the other side. She also put a oxygen mask on me and really directed me to take long deep breaths. I did as I was told but could tell she was worried about something. I asked if something was wrong and she said the baby's heartbeat and dropped and she was trying to get it back up. They paged my doctor and when she arrived just a minute later, the heart rate had come back up. Apparently the heartrate had dropped to the 50s (normal baby's heartrate is 130-140). They stopped the pitocin, and my doctor observed for a while, and told me that for some reason the heartrate had dropped, but it was back up and she didn't forsee it happening again. She also told me that I was in a race with the woman next door- we were both at about the same place! She told me to relax and she left the room.

Well, almost immediately after she walked out, the nurse had me start rocking to either side again and yelled out in the hall for someone to get Dr. Williams again. The heartrate had dropped once again. Dr. Williams came in and immediately I could tell a change in her face, the concern and worry. She watched for a few seconds and then gave the diagnosis-- "Csection...stat".

Immediately she left to go get scrubbed and the nurses started unhooking me from all of the oxygen, IVs, monitors etc. I couldn't believe I was going to have to have a c-section. I had such a great labor and delivery with Emma and the thought of a c-section had never even crossed my mind. I was really in disbelief, and then it hit me how fast everyone was moving...and what that "stat" meant. My dad had called Daniel when the heartrate started going crazy, so he was luckily just coming into the room as they were wheeling me out. I didn't get to say anything to him, but I did get a glimpse of him.

They were quickly wheeling me into the operating room- I remember seeing the sign on the door as we went in and that freaked me out even more than I already was. Right as I got into the OR I asked the question (thinking I probably knew the answer but dreading it all the same) whether my husband was going to be able to be in here or not. He wasn't. From his perspective, he was walking behind us when a nurse tersely told him he couldn't follow us anymore. Needless to say he was shocked and not the happiest of camper!

When we got into the OR, I remember seeing everyone moving so fast and seeing my doctor getting her gown on, mask on, etc. They wheeled me over to the thin operating table and asked me if I could move over as fast as possible. Epidural or not, I think I moved pretty quickly-- the nurse even commented on it!

One thing that has always freaked me out about watching c-sections on Baby Story on TLC or seeing friend's pictures after a c-section delivery is the way the table is set up. It is a thin table, with extensions for your arms. It always reminded me of the type of table you see portrayed in movies for lethal injections. They strap your arms down and get ready to pump drugs through your system! So yeah, that thought reappeared in mind at this point...not a good thing since I was really starting to be really scared and freaked out and feeling alone.

In thinking back, I honestly thing this was the most scariest experience in my life. Now, the night that Emma was admitted to the ER and we didn't know what was wrong with her and they were bagging her to give her oxygen is definitely in the #2 position, but I think this edges it out just slightly. I think now having been a mother and coming so close to losing my precious baby, and knowing how much I love her and how my life would be incomplete without her made the fear of the possibility of losing this one intensify. And also, on a personal note, I gathered that they were going to have to put me under general anethesia and cut me open...which was a scary thought on a self-serving level, too. As the anaesthesiologist put another oxygen mask on me, I just started praying outloud, through my tears that were definitely coming down at this point.

So my right arm was strapped down but the left arm extension wasn't put in place yet so my last memory of my arm is just holding it up! They put the protector/shield sheet up in front of my face and the last memory I have is this interchange (which is now quite funny to me...now.) Anaesthesiologist to my doctor: "Don't start cutting yet, she's just numb she's not out yet" (my epidural still hadn't had time to fully work!) My thoughts "Yes, please don't start cutting yet!"...and then I was waking up in the recovery room.

Looking back, I am honestly amazed how fast things went. I remembering seeing all of the nurses, doctors, etc in the OR and how quickly and efficiently they were working from my prospective. Honestly, from the time my doctor called for a c-section it took a minute to get me on my way to the OR, and then I was only awake in the OR for 2 minutes at the most. Daniel said that after they whisked me out, it was less than 5 minutes before a nurse came back to tell them "The baby is here....It's a girl!" (Daniel, even in his state of shock, was able to ask how I was doing! The nurse said I was doing fine!)

Sweet Carol Joy Montgomery was born at 7:44 pm on Monday, April 5, 2010 (Easter Monday!). She weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces and was 20 inches long. She had great apgar scores upon delivery and my doctor could find nothing physically wrong that might have caused the drop in heartbeat. The cord was fine, placenta was intact, everything was healthy.

While I was still being taken care of, Carol did get taken to my labor room where Daniel and my family were gathered. We have two great videos of Carol's appearance to my family, Daniel holding her for the first time, Emma holding her for the first time (they were the only two to hold her that night), and the formal announcement of her name. I'm so thankful for those videos so I could watch at a later time since I was knocked out at the time!

We also have a short video of Emma announcing that she has a baby sister...and the joy on her face is so precious! She was so excited...almost immediately after Daniel picked her up she was asking if she could hold the baby!

Carol Joy is named after Daniel's late aunt, Carol Shelburne. Aunt Carol was everyone's "favorite aunt"...at least that's what she insisted to all of her neices and nephews! Daniel's mom is one of 8 children, and Carol was the youngest. She never married, was an elementary teacher, and LOVED all children. Unfortunately, she passed away from cancer five years ago this May. Not only did I really like the name "Joy" for a middle name, Aunt Carol was full of joy, so the middle name seemed appropriate. (And you can't have too long of names when you have a long last name! hence Emma Rose and Carol Joy!) While we had told several people of our names for both a boy and a girl, we hadn't told Daniel's mom the girl's name. We wanted it to be a surprise blessing for her if the baby ended up being a girl, and her reaction that we caught on video brings tears to your eyes.

So...back to me! They ended up taking Carol up to the nursery so I could come into the labor room for recovery. Only one person could stay in the room with me at a time as I came out of anaesthesia, so most of our family left except for my parents, Emma, and Aunt KK (my father-in-law was extremely jet lagged by this point and needed to get some sleep understandably!). I think Daniel was by my side when I first started rousing awake...but honestly I'm just not sure! It was so blurry! I was also shaking uncontrollably again as I was coming out of anaesthesia. I do remember Emma coming in and giving me a kiss and she could see that I was ok before going to Aunt KK's house to sleep. And when I saw Kristen I vaguely remember telling her what to tell my sub for the next day.....I claim light-headedness due to the anaesthesia on that one! I also remembering having to ask my nurse about 3 times whether we had a boy or girl. "You said it was a girl...right?" -- that sort of conversation! I do remember asking about her apgar scores....where that came from in my medical knowledge I don't know. I also remembering asking if her heart sounded healthy. My doctor did come in to talk through everything with me about what went on, and why she decided for the emergency c-section. Blessedly when I saw her again in two days at the hospital she sat down and said "Well, let me answer any questions you have because I am sure you don't quite remember everything we talked about immediately afterwards!" Totally true!

She said that the combination of reasons led to her decision to take the baby as soon as possible. The mirconium, not really knowing if my placenta was still good due to the fall that morning, the heart rate dropping, and the fact that I was no where near close to delivery all factored into the decision. She did say she was worried, and so I'm glad that I was at the hospital and able to get such quick care and safe delivery, even though a c-section was not want I had desired. She didn't think the fall started the process, she believes that Carol was just ready to come out on that day that just happened to coincide with my lack of balance. She did say that there should be nothing to keep me from trying a VBAC if we have another child, especially since Emma arrived the normal way. There was nothing physically keeping Carol from being delivered normally.

Eventually I was conscious/stable enough to be moved to my recovery room with Daniel and my mom joining me. Once I got settled there, I was finally able to see my baby girl. I didn't get to see her precious face until after 11 that night...but the wait was worth it! Immediately the love a parent has for a child swept over me! I thank God that he blessed us with a healthy baby girl. It still is hitting me sometimes that A) I am the mother of TWO children now and B) I am the mother of TWO girls! In the Montgomery family line those girls are just so rare, you never would have suspected that we would have two!

So obviously, Carol's arrival was not as we dreamed/expected/planned. We didn't get that moment together of just us finding out if it was a boy or girl. Daniel didn't get to actually be in the delivery room or cut the umbilical cord. I didn't get to experience in person Emma's first glimpse and holding of her baby sister. (Again, SO thankful for the videos, though!) We didn't get to announce her name together. And man....I really wasn't expecting to have the recovery pain that I have gone through with a c-section. I used to think before Emma that I wanted a c-section...it didn't seem as scary as actually pushing a child out. But after Emma's birth and especially now....that's the way to go if at all possible!

Even though we have these regrets, there are so many things to be thankful for:
1. We have a healthy, perfectly formed baby girl.
2. Carol had an echocardiogram read by a cardiologist at Cooks and everything was formed perfectly.
3. We have been able to spend Carol's first weeks at home and not at the hospital.
4. With Emma, I had an easy pregnancy/delivery and then her first year was so so difficult. I would much rather go through a difficult pregnancy and delivery process like with Carol and end up with a healthy child than have to go through the pain of watching my child suffer again. I would much rather take it on myself.
5. If I hadn't of fallen, we wouldn't have been at the hospital when my water broke. Daniel would have been at the Rangers game, and I probably would have been driving around with Emma.
6. I didn't have to go through hours of labor before having a c-section. In fact, I didn't labor at all. The only time I was really uncomfortable is when my doctor put the sensors on Carol's head because Carol was still so high up in my belly.
7. If I had labored and given birth in the middle of the night, both Emma and my best friend wouldn't have been there to experience the exact moment of her birth. Having my daughter there and experiencing that first-hand is precious.

As we (try) and settle into a routine, I am so thankful for the memories and experiences I really am experiencing for the first time with a child at home. I am able to nurse Carol, which I wasn't able to with Emma which was so important to me to be able to provide for my child. I'm still waiting for that darn umbilical cord to fall off so we can give her a bath - Emma's cord was cut off and used as an IV site at Cooks. Just different experiences that in some ways I feel like a first-time parent....with a 3 year old! Emma loves to hold and kiss "Baby Carol"...except when she is whining and that's when she is happy to pass her off to a parent!

Both of my daughters are precious gifts of God to me, and I am so thankful for them both.

Now...we might have to get a dog for Daniel so that he can have someone to wrestle with since he still hasn't gotten that boy...yet! :)

Punk'd????

2010-03-27T20:54:00.000-05:00

So something extremely odd happened to me today....honestly one of the oddest things in my life...I really thought I was on a hidden camera, Candid Camera, Punk'd tv show.

Emma spent the night at my parent's house last night to give me a little break (Daniel is in the middle of 4 nights straight of late practices either for church or for the TCU opera--today was 12 hours of rehearsal. ugh.) So this morning I got to sleep a little bit, do some school work and then got my haircut--trying to get things done before this baby arrives!!

Well, I was heading to their house after my haircut and stopped at the MickeyD's at 20 and Hulen to grab some lunch on the go. In their drive-thru, they have 3 windows. The first two windows are for face-to-face ordering...you know they take two cars' orders at once and then you pick up your order at the 3rd window.

I ended up being positioned at the 1st window. Normally, I don't really notice who is taking my order/money (admit it, you don't always notice either) but this 19ish guy had some distinguishing features...it was just enough to catch my eye and really look at him, and he seemed to be kinda laughing under his breath at something. When I got done ordering, the woman in front of me ordering at the 2nd window was not quite done, but I scooted up a little bit so I wasn't face-to-face with window #1 anymore.

When she is paying, the guy helping her sticks her head out the window....and it was the same guy who took my order. But I was too far up to really look back at window #1. So I was like...did he really just run up to the 2nd window to take that order or are there twins working here?

So the woman finishes and goes up to the 3rd window. As I drive by the 2nd window, the guy just gave me this really cheesy smile and wave as I drove by...and yes I looked because I wanted to really see if it was the same guy...and it was--distinguishing features, remember?

So the woman is getting her order at the 3rd window and by this point I am in between the 2nd and 3rd window. The guy helping her sticks his head out of the 3rd window to give her the food and...

...IT'S THE SAME GUY!!!

So at this point, I can't look back easily at the previous 2 windows. I honestly think..ok in a few minutes I will be signing a waiver for this hidden camera stunt to be on TV...

I drive up to the 3rd window. The same guy hands me my food. I am giving him an incredulous look and he starts laughing. I was like "Ok..." and point back to the previous two windows...

He laughs really hard and says "Yeah, its true...we get good laughs all day about it."

TRIPLETS.

At this point, I can look back and see his two brothers with their heads out their own windows. He laughs and says that they switch it up so that they can each get a good laugh at the final window.

I laughed all the way to my parents house.

37 weeks, 3 days....

2010-03-22T20:52:00.004-05:00

....and baby #2 is still happy camping out and making mommy uncomfortable!! But, I've been able to get my maternity plans done, things are pretty much ready at the house, so I feel prepared whenever it happens- either tomorrow or in 2.5 weeks!

My appointment today went fine- one pound weight gain, blood pressure still in the 120s...although I have finally started to swell in my ankles. It's been so nice, though-- with Emma I was swelling badly by 6 months. Now I've made it 37 weeks without considerable swelling! It helps being preggo now and not in the middle of July!

We have neutral colored onesies, the changing table is all ready, baby swing and baby car seat cleaned and put back together, cameras charged, bag packed for the hospital, and Emma's big sister gift ready in the car! Now I'm getting excited!

Emma and I did get some mommy/daughter/baby bump photos...so enjoy!

I love beer!

2010-03-22T20:39:00.002-05:00

Catchy title, huh? Caught your attention??

So cute things Emma has said lately...

... tonight we were snuggling on the couch after her bath watching the very end of a Star Trek episode. She called out to the TV "Get outa here, Captain man with no hair!"...refering to Captain Picard.

... we were at Chic-fil-a last week during Spring Break and she was playing in the play area. I look up, and see her lying down on a bench in the play area with a little boy about her age, leaning over like he was going to kiss her! I run in there before anything happened and asked her what was going on? She replied "we were playing Sleeping Beauty". So yeah, had a little talk on the way home that her daddy is her only prince right now and she doesn't play Sleeping Beauty with other kids or other boys.

... we have been working a lot with Emma lately about having "a good attitude"-- meaning, obeying the 1st time, not whining, complaining, etc when she doesn't get her way. At the mall a couple of weeks ago, she didn't get to play in the indoor playground after our stop because she didn't have a good attitude (it was very hard for mommy to stick to her guns when she collapsed in tears on mommy's shoulders). So for the next week, she talked about how she wanted to go back to the mall and have a "good attitude" so she could play. (and we did) Well, last week one day I picked her up from her daycare and the first thing she told me in the car is that she did not have a good attitude during nap time today for her teacher. I asked her why and she said that she was not laying still and taking a nap like her teacher told her to. Eventually her monkey had to sit by himself at a table because Emma was "not having a good attitude". It was really cute-- like she had to get it off of her chest as soon as she saw me, and knew that she had disappointed her teacher. The next day she was at daycare she immediately told me when I picked her up "Guess what mommy, I had a good attitude today for Ms. Lunsford!"

and finally....

... last week during Spring Break, Emma and I went to Target and got mommy, daughter, and baby bump pictures made on the cheap (but they turned out really well!). Afterwards, she got to have a pretzel and go visit Elmo..a common occurrence when we go to Target (although she looks at the baby dolls and Princess more than Elmo nowadays). And then I had to get a few things from the grocery side (I wish the Target by us was a Super Target!!!). When we were getting back to the car, she starts singing in a very loud voice "I love beer...beer, beer, beer...I love beer!" I asked her...you mean your bear? you love your bear? and she said "no, I love to drink beer! Don't you like to drink beer, mommy?" I told her no, and that she doesn't either. She said "yes, I do!! I love beer!" I asked her when, really had she ever had beer to drink. She immediately points to the cup that came with her pretzel.

I forgot that I had gotten her ROOT beer to drink.

35 weeks and 4 days...

2010-03-08T20:07:00.002-06:00

What a week it has been!

A week ago Saturday, I woke up having my body finally given in to the cold I've been fighting. Well, by Monday I had no voice and had no voice basically all week..except when I was talking in bass tones. On Wednesday morning I woke up with extremely strong Braxton-Hicks contractions that lasted all day with no let up. After following my dr's advice and laying down for an hour that afternoon, I was still having them--- 10 during that hour long period. So down to the hospital did we go to maternal observation just to make sure that nothing else was going on.
So hooked up to the machines did I go, and I did feel a little relief that yes, the contractions were showing up on the monitor, but I had no other signs of labor. I had a slight 99 fever, so my doctor who happened to be on call thought that maybe my illness or slight infection started up the contractions.

So I continue to have the BH all day long until the real stuff comes along. I almost always have one when I stand or walk. Yesterday, after a nice 2-hour nap I felt energized, so Emma and I went to the grocery store. About 30 minutes into our shopping trip, they were so bad I was having to lean heavily on the shopping cart and force myself to walk! By the time we got back to the car I was exhausted! I never had BH while carrying Emma so this has been a shock to my system!

Today I did have another regularly scheduled appointment with my doctor (down to every week appointments!). She did a full checkup and no other signs point to real labor. She said now that the BH had been triggered, I'll just probably keep on having them until the real ones kick in- but that if they did, we wouldn't try to stop labor at this point. She said she wouldn't be surprised if I didn't last all the way to 40 weeks, she wouldn't be surprised if I didn't last until 36 weeks even...just to be ready for anytime now. With Emma, I had an appointment 3 days before going into labor on my own, and I showed no dilation and Emma hadn't dropped either, so I think it will be a quick "let's get on with it" labor again. However, I am preparing myself that it might be another 4 weeks of just getting through the BH and the baby still doesn't come until the beginning of April!

Just to be sure, though...I did pull out the infant car seat, rocker, and bed-side crib and all of those fabrics are in the washer, so we'll be ready!!!

3 random thoughts that are irritating/funny/make no sense...

2010-03-05T20:59:00.002-06:00

1. I went through the drive-thru of Wendys the other day and ordered a cheeseburger. When I got up to the second window to pick up my food, that's where they had a sign that due to freezes in Florida, tomatoes would be served only upon request. Of course I requested them to which I got a slightly aggravated look. Hey...if you had posted the sign when you ORDERED (what a concept) I would have told you sooner. And yes, I drove back around just to make sure I didn't just not see it before.

2. It is slightly irritating that a website that you visit often all of a sudden doesn't work like it has in the past. In the past when I go to the blogger website, I don't have to sign in everytime because the nice little "Remember me" option. All of a sudden, even when it is checked, I am having to re-enter my email (which is long....montgomery is a long name to type over and over!), remember which password goes to this account....even when remember me is checked!!! A small inconvenience, I know...but still aggravating!!

3. This evening Emma and I had a "date" at Ridgmar mall. She tried on Easter dresses (petticoats and all...such a girly girl!), we ate in the food court with all of the teenagers, she played and ran on the indoor playground, and we ended the night with an (overpriced) M&M cookie. A great evening considering I haven't had much energy or felt very well in the past week to spend quality time with my princess. When we were driving around the mall to go home, I noticed something.....ironic. In a strip shopping center behind the mall there is a Weight Watchers storefront for meetings. What is ironic, is that on one side of the Weight Watchers is a bar-b-que restaurant and on the other side is a Catherine's Full Figure Clothing store. Now THAT is ironic to me.

33 weeks and 4 days...

2010-02-23T19:39:00.002-06:00

So when my ob was just kinda talking to herself at the beginning of my appointment today, "now how far along are you?" as she was checking my computer file, she said "you could probably tell me exactly". To which I responded "33 weeks and 4 days". And yes, I was exactly correct. :)

Overall, the visit went well. I only have one more 2-week appointment before I start going weekly. crazy!

The only little hiccup was over weight gain. After only gaining 19 pounds over 32 weeks, I all of a sudden gained SIX in the past two weeks. She was starting to get onto me a little bit when she checked my legs for swelling and then said "aahh...so that's where those six pounds are coming from...well, it will be nice because it will go away almost immediately!" So yes, my swelling has started again.

Back story: I swelled A LOT with Emma. At before 30 weeks I couldn't wear my rings, and by this time I was in full chipmunk, only wear flip-flop mode (one of the only nice things about being preggo in summer time!). So I was really proud of myself this time through-- ring still fits easily and no noticeable swelling in my legs. Until literally, last night. Last night when I took off my socks I was shocked by the unmistakable indentions from the bands. And then yes, I had some fun that only swollen preggo women get, making indentions in my canckles and watching them stay in. (Come on former preggo women, you know you enjoyed freaking out your husband by doing that just a little bit.) Today, I noticed my socks becoming a little bit more uncomfortable as the day went on so yeah, the swelling wasn't too surprising to me.

My dr's advice? Try to lay down for a while each day (Daniel's been helping me do that lately...or insisting that I do that once I get home from school!), increase my water intake (I feel like I drink A LOT already...but I'll completely cut out everything else except water for the next few weeks), and cut down on my salt intake. When she talked about salt she proclaimed doom over my Texan soul....you need to cut down on salt-heavy foods like Chinese and....gulp... MEXICAN.

Now does she not know that for pure Texans, Mexican is like the sixth food group that you must consume at least 3 times a week? Now for you non-Texans, that doesn't mean we go out and eat Taco Bell or at a restaurant that often...oh no...I COOK Mexican regularly ...it's one of my favorites.

So in order to try and keep from swelling up like a chipmunk on steroids...I will *sniff* do my best. All I can say is that I hope that someone brings Pollo ala Mexicana from El Paseo to me once I deliver..... oh what sufferings I must endure. :)

33 weeks and counting!

2010-02-19T21:14:00.003-06:00

Just a quick update on Baby Montgomery#2!

No, we still dont' know if it is a boy or a girl. I can't believe I will make it the whole time without knowing! We have names picked out, so we'll see once he/she arrives if the name "fits". Emma told someone yesterday that she wants a baby sister, and if it is a boy they could take him home instead of coming home with us. Oh my. But she had a good time with Kirk and Janice Holland's 10 month old boy tonight...so I think we will be ok. :) I have registered for both boy and girl stuff, with showers being planned after the birth. We have enough to bring the baby home, and really...how much do you REALLY need at first? We just have to make sure that the baby carrier hasn't been attacked by bugs in the garage...but I think it is ok.

I had another appointment with Dr. Thigpen, our high-risk pregnancy doctor on Wednesday. Everything looks great from my little bleeding/tearing episode in December. I never had a sonogram this late with Emma, and it was amazing to see how much more defined all of his/her features were! You can really see his/her eyes, nose shape, and mouth curve! He/She had his hand over his face (just switching to "he" for ease sake...) and at one point stretched it towards the sono wand and you could count and really see all 5 fingers. It was like he was saying "hello out there!". They take a lot of measurements at this sono than just a regular sono and all of his size measurements were reading about a week further along than we thought! Although I will keep 7 weeks in my mind so that I don't lose my sanity wishing for sooner, 6 weeks would be nice schedule wise-- an Easter baby perhaps! He was weighing in at 5 pounds already from all of the measurements they took. We'll just see!

Dr. Thigpen then came in to do the echocardiogram. Again, it is AMAZING to me that I was looking not only at my baby's heart, but we could see all of the 4 chambers, the fully formed walls of the chambers, the flow of the blood through the chambers and yes, a fully and perfectly formed aorta! Again, technology is amazing sometimes. So Dr. Thigpen told me to stop worrying about the heart and start worrying about how to pay for college! He discharged me from his care and when I said that made me happy, he tried not to be offended (not really! He says he likes it when he gets to discharge people from his care!) .

Not 15 minutes after I left his office estatically, did I get the news that a friend's 7 day old sweet baby girl passed away that morning from lung/neurological problems. We grieve with the Bassett family (please keep them in your prayers). Again we are reminded of how close we got to losing our Emma Rose, and how blessed we are by her existence. We might have had a hard first year and complications still after, but at least she is here. I am reminded that we don't know why God calls some precious angels home and why some are given additional time here. Why was Emma spared when we know of many that are called home so early? Only God knows and we must trust that His glory will be revealed through the miracles and the "losses". I think going through our experience and seeing other's experiences just makes you so thankful for the gifts we have been given, for health, and for family.

Onto less deeper thoughts...I am carrying baby pretty well. My weight gain has been really good- only 19 pounds so far! I only gained about 30 with Emma so hopefully I'll stay below that mark again (don't worry, I'm definitely eating for two! For some reason pregnancy is the only time I DON'T easily put on weight when I eat and eat!). I'm not swelling this time like I did with Emma at all-- I'm still easily wearing my ring! The winter temperatures have definitely helped with that aspect. I was already chipmunk-looking at this point with Emma! I have definitely felt sorer sooner this time around. Most days I'm sore from the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep. And yes, the waddle has definitely started (some days more pronounced than others!). One of the hardest things about this pregnancy is the energy issue. Not only am I following Emma around in the evenings after teaching all day (although I am getting better about laying down once we get home from school, letting her watch a movie before I start dinner- sometimes a TV babysitter is ok right now!) but at this point in my first pregnancy the school year was almost finished. It will be most definitely harder working/teaching up to my due date. I'm sitting a whole lot more as I teach, which is REALLY weird for me to do (I'm usually walking around a whole lot more), but hey, what can you do? Right now I am really pushing my two AP classes to finish as much material as possible before the baby comes. My AP Calculus class is in good shape- we should finish right after Spring Break. AP Chemistry just covers a whole lot more material, but I switched the order of material around at the beginning of the school year so we just finished up all of the "new" material, and they next few units are 90% review from last year, with just a few new concepts here and there.

Well, it's 9:45 on a Friday night and yes, bed is calling my name. Ahh...getting older and being pregnant!

Out of the mouth..

2010-01-30T19:15:00.003-06:00

Scene: Car Ride, this afternoon

Emma: Mommy, I dropped my bear!

Mommy: Well, I can't reach it right now, you will have to wait. Next time, you need to hold on to him.

Emma: I couldn't hold on to him.

Daddy: What were you doing with your hand?

Emma: Sucking my thumb.

Mommy: Well, how about the other hand? Why couldn't you have held on to the bear with your other hand?

Emma: I was picking a booger.

A worthy reason.

2009 in review...

2010-01-01T10:11:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I do realize that is has been since JUNE that I updated the good old blog. Busy summer, followed by months of bad morning sickness and a virus on the computer just didn't put the blog on the high priority list. Maybe this should be a New Year's resolution????

But first, let's look back on 2009 in the Montgomery household as I look to 2010, praying that it will be a great year...

(Side Note...blogger was being INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING and wasn't letting me move photos around. So all the photos are at the end, it totally messed up chronological order.....AAARRRGGGHHH)

January:

-Unfortunately, 2009 started off on a bad note when I came home one day to find that we had been broken into. They demolished our back door and stole our computer, video camera (with all of our video from Christmas), safe deposit box with Daniel's passport, all of our social security cards, a letter I wrote to a future child on my wedding day, and my in-laws slides of their wedding day. They also took my pillow case (?) and ransacked our bedroom and closet looking for valuables (not that we have any...). They also took our supply of batteries. Hm. Blessedly, they didn't look in the kitchen to take the only other object in our house worth much, my digital camera. They also didn't do any other major damage to the house, so that was a blessing. We never filed with insurance (although we did have the police come) since the deductible and the increase in our homeowners that would result was more than the value of what was stolen. We were blessed, however, by the generosity of friends and family during this time. Two donations helped pay for replacing the back door and my cousin generously allowed us to use her old desktop. Blessedly, my passport was in my purse for a different reason (see March), we closed/open all new bank and credit card accounts immediately, and after careful monitoring of our credit reports and putting alerts on them, we seemed to have gotten past any identify theft for the moment.

-Daniel also went on his annual brothers ski trip and had a great time, and we saw my brother show his Palamino, Foxy, once again at the Fort Worth Stock Show.

February:

-Kinda a boring month, but I did finalize all of my Texas Teaching Credentials. I am finally fully certified to teach 7-12 grade Mathematics and 9-12 grade Chemistry with an additional endorsement in gifted education in the state of Texas.

March:

- I led a wonderful group of LCCS students to San Sebastian, Spain for a mission trip over Spring Break. I had never been to Europe before, nor been on a flight oversees, and I had a blast! It was exhausting, and had one frustrating evening episode with some over-friendly fellow residents at the hostel, but overall it was an amazing trip!

April:

- In preparing to be the star wide receiver (hah!) on the senior/staff Powder Puff football team, I caught a pass, jumped up to celebrate my amazingness, and came down in a heap. Yep, tore my ACL celebrating. Blessedly, it was not a complete tear (I had problems with the same knee in high school), so I was able to avoid surgery and just go through physical therapy. It happened on April 9, 2009, which is kinda ironic (you will see why in a few months). It did however, derail my plans on running a 5K last year (I was almost ready!), well that and another reason that again, you will see in a few months.

- Daniel started singing with the choir at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in downtown Fort Worth. It was a nice extra paying job, and he enjoyed singing with quality singers again.

May:

-Finished my 6th year teaching at LCCS (yea!!). Had two AP classes, who did amazing on their AP exams. My AP Calculus kids had a 100% passing rate (yes, there was only 4 of them, but still, I was proud! Half of them scored 5s!), and my AP Chemistry kids had about a 70% passing rate (including my first 5 in Chemistry!).

June:

-The start of a busy summer for us! Daniel turned the big 3-0 on June 29. We had several friends over, and then the boys played some poker. It was a fun, easy evening of fellowship.

-Daniel and I also celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary on June 9- time flies!

-We also took a weekend trip with Aaron, Ashley, and Henley Gentry to a lake out in east Texas. Emma and Henley had a great time playing together in the "cabinet" ...ie cabin. A lot of swimming, eating, and even some putt-putt!

-Daniel formed a group of singers called "Fifth Octave" with singers he had met last year in a production. They put on a full-scale recital at TCU in June- it was great!

July:

- Our precious Emma Rose turned 3 years old! With her 3rd birthday came potty training (yeah!) and disappearance of her "wis"...ie. pacifiers. Of course, she immediately discovered that she could suck her thumb instead....so I don't think this is quite the victory I had hoped for.

-Emma also had a great report at the cardiologist....everything looks great! In fact, after our annual echocardiogram next summer, our cardiologist said he probably would only need to see her every 2 years instead of every year! Yea!!!

-Daniel traveled for almost 2 weeks with the St. Andrew's choir to England for a choir tour.He had a great time, and it was weird for him to travel to a foreign country without being responsible for LCCS high school students on a mission trip! (We've never been out of the country without them!)

-While Daniel was in England, I got to call him to confirm the news that we had suspected....our little family was going to expand to include another baby! It was hard waiting until he got back to start spreading the news, and just not to be able to see him when I told him (although we were pretty sure when he left). Baby Montgomery #2 is due on April 9, 2010. See the description of April's happenings to see why this date is a little ironic. This baby is definitely a different experience than the first time around. I had MAJOR sickness up through 18 weeks or so, all day all night, although I never actually threw up. Just really, really, really bad nausea. So bad, that I did have to get on medicine to get through the work day. But blessedly, that has finally passed!

August:

- Laura turned the big 3-0! At my birthday dinner with friends, we let everyone in on our upcoming addition! Daniel did get me a Wii and Rock Band, because we all know that I am a rock star in disguise!

-August began another year of school- my 7th one teaching at LCCS. It is a little weird considering that my little cousin is a senior this year and I was in 7th grade when he was born! Also weird considering that these seniors hadn't started kindergarten yet when I graduated high school! (getting old....) Not only did I start LCCS, but so did Emma! She is in the 2-day pre-kindergarten class for 3-year olds and LOVES it! It is so much fun having her go to school with mommy! We have to make our rounds when I pick her up from her classroom to make sure she sees all of the people who have seen her grow up! (and me grow up!) She also goes to our local Primrose School the other 3 days, so this has been different for her (and us)....to go somewhere all 5 days of the workweek.

- When Daniel returned from England, he started his current position as the Choir Director at Silver Creek United Methodist Church in Azle. It is a small, country church, and Daniel had to get used to leading people in hymns rather than praise songs, but we enjoy the people and the fellowship!

-To wrap up our summer, we did two major renovations to our house (since house prices are falling and it looks like we will defintely be here for a while). We replaced all of our carpet in our living room and hallways with cherry hardwood laminate. They look great, and make the space seem bigger, but you do have to sweep them more regularly-- cat hair shows up immediately! We also replaced all of the yucky laminate floors in our bathrooms and laundry room with tile, and also replaced our laminate kitchen countertops with tile, complete with tile backspash and an extended island that makes it into a breakfast bar. It looks great!

September:

-Not much happened, just life! (and morning sickness....)

October:

-For Daniel's birthday, I gave him 4 tickets to the big U2 concert at the new Dallas Cowboy stadium. Daniel, his dad, his brother Jeffrey and I went and had a blast! Not only is the stadium a sight to behold, but the concert was AMAZING. A wonderful experience!!!

November:

- I had my first appointment with the high-risk pregnancy doctor this month, to check for birth defects. It was amazing seeing an echocardiogram being performed on a 20-week old fetus! We could see all of the chambers...wow. Everything looked good at that point, however Emma's defects are ones that are very hard to identify in the womb, so I will go back at 32 weeks for another checkup and sonogram/echocardiogram.

-Emma had her first school "performance" for Primrose's Thanksgiving feast. She was a very cute pumpkin and knew her songs perfectly, but as soon as she went on stage with the rest of the kids and saw all of the parents, she broke down into complete hysteria. :( So, she finished the performance in mommy's lap while I sang the songs for her! Oh well, many more years to come for stuff like that!

December:

- December brough our annual Jones get-together at my brother's house in Houston. Unfortunately, Emma started coming down with an ear infection and was up for about 7 hours the night before our family portraits were going to be taken! So we got a few big family portraits in (she was such a trooper- I think at least one looks fairly decent of her) before taking her to the emergency room down there. She did have a major ear infection (her 3rd in about 6 weeks) and some congestion in her lungs. But it was amazing what some drugs and a nap will do- she was a totally different Emma by that evening, the Emma we know and love! We did end up taking her to her ear specialist since her tubes had fallen out over the summer. Her ears looked fine by that point although her adenoids (sp?) could probably come out. She did however, still have a raging sinus infection. We got on a different round of antibiotics and will see him again in a few weeks. He thinks she might need to go to an allergist and have her sinus cavities cleaned out surgically, and he would take out the adenoids at the same time. We'll see how that comes about in January.

-If that medical adventure wasn't enough (because this is our family afterall...) I was admitted into the hospital for about 30 hours of observation after I had some bleeding. The sonogram revealed a possible slight tear/seperation in the placenta, but baby was doing great and when I had a followup visit today, the doctor didn't seemed worried. I don't want to go back to the hospital though, until I'm in labor (which I don't want anytime soon little baby!).

-Daniel organized and produced his first Christmas cantata at church. We had a great little choir of 16 voices and it went great!!

-And of course, we celebrated the beautiful white Christmas in Texas this year. What a treat!

Moody Family Christmas

Emma enjoying the snow on Christmas Day

Emma's offering to Santa-- including a vitamin (she was very insistent)

The Monty-G 3

So what does 2010 hold for us????

Obviously the biggest addition is the one in my belly! We are bucking the trend and don't know whether Emma is getting a baby brother or baby sister. It is so amazing to hear her talk to my belly and rub it very carefully! She loves playing with her baby dolls - I think she is going to be an amazing big sister! So I am at 26 weeks today, so hopefully only 14 more weeks to go!

May you be blessed in 2010!

PHOTOS:
Emma's Thanksgiving Party at LCCS

Emma dressed as a pumpkin before her big Thanksgiving Performance for Primrose...right before she broke down in tears... :(

Halloween: Our beautiful little princess (it was cold that day!)

Practicing to be a big sister at the Pumpkin Patch with Ava Grace Huntley

The Montgomery Family at the Pumpkin Patch October

Enjoying Hot Cocoa at an LCCS Football game!

Daniel and Laura at the U2 concert at Cowboy Stadium, October

On our way to the U2 concert

Baby Montgomery#2!

Emma, our Rock Star in the making (she gets it from her mom...)

Emma's first day as a student at LCCS- August

Emma and Mommy at the Zoo- July

Living Room Floors after:

Living Room Floors Before:

Emma's 3rd Birthday- July

Receiving the hard-worked for accreditation certificate for LCCS- July

Our little princess- July

Emma Rose- July

A New Hat at Wal-Mart- Summer

Go Rangers!!! Summer

Emma and Henley at the "cabinet"-- June

LCCS Mission Trip to Spain, March:

Cooking on a Hot Day-- May

At Spring Picnic- April

Easter

At Stock Show- January

With Uncle Em and Foxy at the Stock Show- January

special hat...

2009-06-29T17:17:00.002-05:00

Emma found a special hat in the freezer aisle in walmart. I promise, she did it all by herself. And we took a bath when we got home. :)

Emma and her friend, Jesus

2009-06-24T10:55:00.002-05:00

(first, before I really start the "blog"... yes, I realize it has been over two months since I last blogged. Aaahh!!! Life has been crazy with the whole torn ACL-rehab, AP exams, end of year stuff, etc. We also were gifted with a computer that actually works so I can actually do stuff on the Internet now! I will try and catch up over the next few weeks!)

So lately, Emma has become fascinated with God and Jesus. Some insights:

- she loves to read from the Bible before her naptime. Her favorite: David and Goliath. She really laughs at the picture in her picture Bible of David with Saul's armor on. In her words... "That's silly!" And she does a great impersonation of the whale spitting out Jonah.

- I have come to realize how much she picks up on ...and learned I need to be more careful about what I expose her to! For example, I had the radio on the other day and Kelly Clarkson's new song came on. After about two bars, Emma turned to me and said, "this music is in your car!"...and yes, I have the CD in my car. We were listening to a praise CD in the car the other day and all of a sudden she blurts out - "This music is about Jesus!" She picked up on his name in the song. So now, she often asks to listen to "Jesus music" in the car. What is so precious is when she starts singing along to the songs! I can't believe she has picked up on the melody and lyrics so well!

- We have talked about how God provides our food, clothing, toys, etc. Well, again, in the car (most of our deep conversations happen in the car...don 't know why) one night she points to the white truck in front of us and says "he needs to thank God for his white truck...God gave him his white truck"

- And then the tricky question....I have the "Jesus music" in and she says...this music isn't about Jesus. And I say, "it's singing about God". And she says "God isn't Jesus, that's silly". So I tell her "Well, God and Jesus are the same person." Really, how do you express the idea of the trinity to a 3 year old?

- We were on our way to church, and Emma was excited because "Jesus was going to be there". So I say, "Well Jesus is everywhere- at church, at home, outside, and in our hearts".....pause to think about that. We pull up in the parking lot and she says "Jesus isn't here....I don't see his car!" and before I could respond she corrects herself and says "No..Jesus doesn't drive. He walks."

-Finally, the sweetest of them all. We were driving home listening to "Jesus music" and all of a sudden she says to Daniel and I " Remember when....Remember when I was a baby?....and Jesus came and took care of me?"

Yes, Sweet Emma Rose. Jesus did take care of you through all of your surgeries, the sleepless nights, the doctor's visits. And he will continue to take care of you, for He loves you greatly.

Football Injury....

2009-04-16T21:24:00.002-05:00

So it's a little ironic, I think.

I was a competitive, stunting cheerleader all though high school. Worst injury: black eye.

I make one catch in the first powder puff football practice at school. I celebrate, turn and jump to be an aggressive defenseman. ...

... a crumple to the ground in a heap of pain and throbbing of my left knee.

In high school, I twisted my knee twice: skiing and playing basketball. I was hoping this was just the same.

But after a weekend of pain, and no reduction of swelling, things weren't looking too good. I took Tuesday off and went to the doctor who ordered an MRI. I got the news back today, and here's what was diagnosed (as best as I can read from my notes when talking to the doctor):

1. High grade partial tear of the ACL
2. Major Bone Bruise (Contusion) on the Conduils (sp?)
3. Fracture from impact on the posterior corner of the tibia.
4. Fracture from impact on the interior corner of the tibia.
5. Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) sprained
6. Patella has been shifted to the side.
7. Moderate Joint Effusion (i.e. fluid in the knee and lower leg)

Yeah.

She kept on going, and going, and going...it was like my problems were never going to end! So I have an appointment on Monday afternoon with an orthopedic surgeon. I'm supposed to use crutches (ugghh...so much pain).

Oh yeah, and Emma has been up for the last three nights in the middle of the night for a couple of hours. When it rains, it pours.

So that's it. More updates later. To bed and rest (and pain meds) for now.

Stupid Football injury. :)

Jesus Loves Me!

2009-04-01T21:06:00.005-05:00

This video is a few weeks old, but it is pretty cute! It kept me company on my camera while I was in Spain!

Ola from Spain!

2009-03-16T15:44:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone! It´s 9:45 pm here in San Sebastian, Spain...and 3:45 pm back home in Fort Worth! Just wanted to let you know that we are having a great time. Don´t forget to check the blog: lccsmissions.blogspot.com. Unfortunately, I´m not able to use all the wording that I want for a variety of reasons, so my updates sound ambiguous, but we are doing great!

Off to Spain!!!!

2009-03-10T16:30:00.003-05:00

Well, the arrangements have been made and it is time to head off to Spain!!!! I can't believe it is already time to go! We leave out of DFW around noon-- Newark first, then the long flight to Madrid. Go through customs (my favorite thing since I have such good memories of it in Miami.......sarcasm.) and then a commuter flight from Madrid to San Sebastian. San Sebastian is on the Atlantic coast of Spain, very close to the Northern border with France. We might even get to drive into France one day!!! The hardest thing will be being away from Daniel and Emma for so long. :( But I have a lot of pictures to take with me!

We set up a blog site for all 3 mission teams from LCCS this year. We all will be updating it so you can find out what is happening on 3 different continents- Europe, Asia, and South America!! How cool is that! Anyways- check it out at lccsmissions.blogspot.com. Thailand is checking in at the airport right now, we leave tomorrow morning and Peru is leaving tomorrow evening. I'm so excited to see what God will do through all of the teams!

On another note, Emma had an appointment today with her Pulmonary specialist, Dr. Dyson at Cooks. It's weird because we haven't been to one of the specialist clinics in 9 months! (Weird in a good way, of course) Anyways, we were checking up on her tracheomalcia, because she can still get pretty raspy and wheezing, and she should have outgrown it by 2. He said that everything is still pointing in that direction, but that it was unusual that she hadn't outgrown it. He said that the kids that don't usually are CHD kids, but its because an enlarged valve or artia is pressing against the trachea. Anyways, we did have a chest x-ray done while we were there. It was actually kinda cute-- at first, Emma really didn't want to have to sit for the x-ray. Luckily, she's big enough now that we don't have to hold her flat down to take it. The tech showed her the big camera but still Emma didn't want to sit on the table. Then I told her that she could have her lollipop after the pictures were taken, and she didn't have to wait until we left the doctor's office. Well...she just hopped right up on that table, and even smiled and said "cheese" as they took the pictures-- even with her arms being raised sabove her head by the tech! She did awesome. So the chest x-rays looked ok, which is good news. We decided to wait a few more months until the summer to see if she will outgrow everything. We have an appointment to see him again in July. If she still has symptoms, we are going to do another outpatient procedure where they sedate her, and then send a probe down her throat to look at what is going on. He said that if the symptoms are still there, ti could very well be that she has some scar tissue from a breathing tube that will need to be lasered off to get rid of the symptoms. Obviously, her growth and activity levels have not been affected by this, but she would forever sound like our little "monster" if that is was causing the raspiness and we didn't remove it.

So not terrible news, not great news, just ok news. It was our decision to wait until the summer because we are just not at the point where we are ready to subject her to another procedure right now. Both for her and us, I guess you could say!

So that's all for now...gotta go pack!!! :)

Addicted to facebook?

2009-02-15T20:03:00.002-06:00

You may or may not know that I am going on a mission trip over Spring Break with my school. We are going to San Sebastian, Spain to work with missionaries over there with the Basque people. We are helping them make contacts with high schoolers in the area. I have started to get very excited about it- I've never been to Europe! Daniel and I were blessed to lead a trip to Panama in 2005, and he went to Argentina in 2006 and South Africa in 2007. (I was taking care of Emma those years- both inside of me and out! :) )

Anyways, one of the ways that we prepare is to fast two things for 40 days beforehand. Kinda like Lent for all my Catholic/Episcopal/Anglican friends. We are fasting one food and one activity. I will be getting a MEGA Dr. Pepper in the airport. ;)

My activity has been Facebook. I have gotten to really enjoy Facebook because I have caught up with so many friends from elementary school, high school, college, family, and beyond. Sometimes I get so caught up in my little circle of teaching and family, I cut myself off from others. So anyways, it has been really, really weird these past couple of weeks not accessing it. (Although it is easier when you don't have a computer at home anymore, and Facebook is blocked on my computer at school!) I feel so out of touch--which in the way a fast is designed, it helps me refocus on my relationship with God, my husband, my child.

But this is not a serious post. I found this article on the web a few days ago. By now, I don't remember who posted this or where I got it from, so I apologize for the lack of citation. Please forgive me English teachers. However, it is not mine--so no plagarism problems here.

Pretty much everyone I know has a Facebook account. I use it for emailing, messaging, sharing pictures, and more. That sounds pretty reasonable, right? Well, Facebook has a way of creeping from something useful into a major contributor to carpal tunnel, burning eyes, procrastination, and mindless clicking.
Haven't seen people you went to high school with in ten years or more? With Facebook it's no problem. Since you can view everyone's friend list as soon as you connect with one person, the floodgates open, and you're back in your hometown, for better or worse.
Want to see what people are up to but have no interest in really talking to them? No problem with Facebook. If someone has an open profile you can click around on their page like you are their BFF, seeing all their pictures, friends' comments, and status updates. You can locate exactly where someone is and how they're feeling today in 3 minutes or less.
Got something to promote? It's no problem with Facebook. Set your favorite site as your status, create a link to your project and your friends will surely check it out. Got a new business? Create a Facebook group and your friends can join and keep in contact with all the updates of your company.
Ok, obviously I am a Facebook user. I enjoy seeing a picture of my friend when I send them a message. I am a fan of the status update. I even like notifications and am only mildly concerned when I am friend-requested by a total stranger. I enjoy clicking through pictures of my long lost friends' houses in the suburbs and seeing their kids covered in spaghetti. It's sort of exotic to a country girl transplant like me.
So here is the problem, well, my problem. And I am assuming I'm not alone on this one. I'm on Facebook all the time! I go to the site not even conscious that I am going to it. I turned on my computer this morning with the intention of opening Word first thing, and where did I find myself? You guessed it. Facebook. I am addicted! Admitting is the first step to recovery (bankers take note). Sign me up for Facebook rehab.
Pope Benedict XVI has warned us about getting in a pickle with Facebook. Now I'm not one to go around quoting any kind of Church, especially if you knew the extent of my Catholic grade school story, but this was sort of interesting. The Associated Press brought us his thoughts about how Facebook (and MySpace, a whole other topic mostly about kids and bands) can foster friendships and understanding, but warns that they also can isolate people and marginalize others. Benedict welcomes as a "gift" new technologies such as social networking sites, saying they respond to the "fundamental desire" of people to communicate. But he warns that "obsessive" virtual socializing can isolate people from real interaction and deepen the digital divide by excluding those already on the sidelines. He urges producers to ensure that the content respects human dignity, and of course the "goodness and intimacy of human sexuality."
What about burning eyes, carpal tunnel, hunched shoulders, stiff hips, and monkey mind? Those issues are more interesting to me as a health, yoga, and psychology geek.
I would friend-request the Pope. What would his status updates be? "Slipping into Prada loafers getting ready for mass."
So here I am, busted by the Pope! On one hand, he's got a point. Cyber-bullying is not a joke. The horrific suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier from Missouri in October of 2006 was the direct result of her former friend's mom taunting her through MySpace. Being a teenager is hard enough. I can't even imagine what kids go through now. There are so many new ways to torture each other. I know a few teens in NY that have problems with teasing each on Facebook too. It's a mess.
I'm sure adults have had problems with taunting and other social blunders on Facebook too, but the majority of problems adults face is just plain over-use. Let me reference my "25 random things." If you're a Facebook user, you are well aware of the "25 random things" that have been going around in the last few months. Maybe you've written yours. Or, maybe you think you won't get pulled in. Good luck.
I should be writing at this moment. July 1st deadline will be here soon. FB is one big distraction really, but I do firmly believe in its usefulness. And its ability to deliver BlockBuster-esque horror, comedic, and dramatic episodes in the disconnected yet intimate way only the modern web experience can.
Correct me if I am alone on this one, but the reality of our lives displayed on Facebook splattered with debauchery is a big part of the fun!
I've come up with some warning signs here. This may be the start of developing a support group for Facebook addicts. The group will be listed on Facebook, where you can become a fan of the group, add pictures, look at pictures of other cute people who are in the group, and write on the wall.

10 warning signs that you may be addicted to Facebook
1. Facebook is your home page.
2. You update your status more than twice a day.
3. You have over 500 "friends" half of whom you've never actually met.
4. As soon as you step away from your computer you're on FB on your phone.
5. You are a FB stalker. You qualify as a FB stalker if you
a) click on someone's profile more than once a day even if they haven't messaged or tagged you in a photo.
b) have dragged and dropped more than 3 FB photos (not from your own profile)
c) actually go to a place mentioned on someone's page in hopes of seeing them in real life...creepy!
6. You change your profile picture more than a 12-year=old girl.
7. You have checked your FB page while reading this article.
8. You clean up your "wall" so it looks like you spend less time on FB.
9. You are a member of more than 10 groups and respond to every event invitation "attending" even if you have no intention of going.
10. You change your relationship status just to mess with people.

Luckily, I do not exhibit any of those signs!

Emma....the photographer

2009-02-13T20:40:00.003-06:00

Emma has become obsessed with taking pictures with my camera. Here are some of her better shots!

Fridge letters (notice the finger in the bottom left corner!)

Who wouldn't want to take a picture of the trash can?

Or perhaps the trash inside a trash can?

A blue ball.

Our friend George.

Sometimes, she doesn't realize that the camera is facing the wrong way and we get self-portraits.

Once she took the picture of the mop bucket, though...I took the camera away.

Update on life.

2009-02-13T20:16:00.002-06:00

We don't have too much of an update on our lives at this point. We haven't heard back from the police, and at this point, we don't really expect to. Unless something comes up with identity theft issues, we are not going to claim the break-in with our insurance, because between the deductible and increase in premium, it is just not worth it right now. We have been uplifted by the generosity of our friends and from those we never would have expected it. We were especially touched by two letters (real, snail mail letters---those are the best!) that were so encouraging to our spirits- one from a college friend and one from a former student. Their words and giving spirits meant so much to us.

The office is still a mess....it's like we can't get ourselves to face the disaster that was created. Maybe this weekend. I need to get taxes underway, so I really need to do it soon.

The night of the break-in, we finally ended up at my parent's house to sleep and spend a couple of days until we could get a new door. Friday night, we played the piano and Emma was, of course, very interested. We danced and sang and had a great time. Here's Emma playing at the piano with her Nana:
And then she was very curious to figure out how this piano-thing worked! (just like her mommy in that regard!)

Daniel decided to go ahead and go on his annual Montgomery-brothers ski trip at the end of January, and the day he left, I came home from school to this:

Emma was given a special green bath crayon by my best friend. We thought it was just like her other crayons, but nope...it's soap that turns the bath green! She has enjoyed it so!

I was blessed to have two days off due to icy weather, and spent those two days cleaning, cleaning, cleaning! Emma helped...occasionally!

I also took my last tests for Texas licensure two weeks ago. I'm still waiting for the results, but I should be licensed to teach 8-12 mathematics and chemistry with a gifted and talented supplemental certification. Phew.

This past week, Emma has not fallen asleep!!! She is staying up until 10 consistently...even when we are putting her to bed at a normal time of 8! She isn't getting up and playing (for the most part) she just lays there...and doesn't fall asleep!!! Then she keeps on getting up at the same time (7 ish). Poor girl....poor mommy and daddy!

OK....those are the random thoughts for the evening!

Stock Show!

2009-02-13T18:20:00.004-06:00

Two weekends ago, while Daniel was skiing with his brothers in New Mexico, Emma and I headed to the Stock Show with Mom and Dad. We were able to see my brother, Em, compete with his palomino, Foxy, and then we checked out the rest of the grounds for a few hours! Of course, Emma wore her new cowboy boots she received from her daddy at Christmas!

Waiting for the pony ride, getting a prime seat to watch the action! (No, we did not spend $10 for a picture....)

We did, however, spend $10 for the neccessry Cowboy hat from the Stock Show. Pink (of course), witha princess tiara on top.

She rode this truck ride all by herself! What a big girl!

At the petting zoo, she really liked the chicken!

...and the goats, of course! It was great to see that this year, she was really interested in petting the animals and feeding them. Last year, she was a little scared of them!

Uncle Em waiting to show Foxy!

At the 4H barn, looking at all of the animals!

...and seeing Foxy up close with Uncle Em. Notice Emma's expression on seeing Foxy eat the carrot! (Not that I blame her....)

We were robbed! Literally, unfortunately...

2009-01-19T22:59:00.000-06:00

So here's the latest saga in our lives:
Thursday (1/15) afternoon, I arrived home at about 5:30. The front door was closed, but unlocked and so I just thought to myself "Daniel must have been in such a rush to get out the door this morning with Emma that he didn't lock the door. Good thing no one came in and stole anything." This thought came because the TV that Daniel's brother gave us was still sitting in our living room. I put everything down, and thought it strange that our cat didn't run out to greet me like normal. So I start walking to the back of the house, and when I arrived at the back, I saw that the back door was wide open, and the glass enclosure that housed the blinds on the inside of the door was on the floor. I immediately turned around, not stopping to even grab my purse, and walked out the front, got in the car and called Daniel as I drove away.
So I drive to the elementary school near our house and call 911 while waiting for Daniel to arrive. I can see the back of our house from the parking lot, and yep, our back door is just wide open. (Our house backs up to a greenbelt, or pasture land.) Eventually, my best friend Kristen arrives, and Daniel with Emma. Kristen takes Emma home while Daniel and I wait for the police so that they can clear the house. The police arrive and check out the house. We believe that they broke in the back, then unlocked the front to carry stuff to a vehicle. We check out the damage, file a report, and have the crime lab come to try and lift any prints.
Here's the lowdown:1. They took our computer in the office, as well as our videocamera that was charging in the office. Hence why I haven't updated facebook--no computer to do it on. For some reason, they found my old laptop that weighs about 25 pounds, runs Windows 98, is missing the 'm' and 'y' keys, and can't read a USB drive....and left it behind. (I don't know why---I'm sure you can probably get at least $25 for it now adays. :) ) So I was able to find an extra ethernet cable today and we are re-connected to the Internet ...but that's about all you can do on this laptop! But, unfortunately, the last time I printed off photos was August, so the only photos we have since then are the ones I have uploaded to facebook and/or our blog. Also, the disc in the videocamera was from Christmas, so we have lost those memories, too. They did leave our printer in the office, but trashed out the room pretty well looking through bills, statements, hunting for stuff, etc.
2. They also hunted throughout our room for valuables- under the bed, between the mattresses, in Daniel's dresser drawers, etc. They also trashed our closet trying to find things. They found our little fire safe box that had all of our social security cards, Daniel's passport, Emma's birth certificate, car titels, etc. It also had two very meaningful things on a personal note- the slides from Daniel's parents wedding photos (we made printed copies for them a couple of years ago, so at least they have those prints), and a letter that I mailed to my future daughter on her wedding day...mailed on my wedding day. They also found a jewelry box in the closet ...but it was from my childhood and only had kids jewlery in it. (They must have been disappointed there!) They didn't find my real jewlery- the like 3 pieces of worth that I own. Note to self: don't hide the safe box in an obvious location...use the kitchen or something!
I also discovered on Saturday night (our first night back at our house) that they took my pillow case! Arrghh. That means they touched my pillow. They also took our collection of batteries in the laundry room.
What they did not take: TVs, DVDs, and they must not have even walked into the kitchen because my digital camera was sitting on the countertop charging. My passport by a miracle is up at the school. I'm going on a mission trip to Spain with the school in March, and normally I just turn in my number in order to buy the tickets. But I had it out for another reason this Christmas, so I just turned in the whole thing instead of writing down the number because I was slightly lazy. Thankfully that means my passport is safe. Also, I had our wedding license out for the same reason this Christmas, and just hadn't put it back in the safe yet, so we still have that. Oh...and GABBY!!! (our cat!) She was hiding behind the office desk and scared the police officer with her eyes glaring out- she was freaked out, but in good shape!
What we have done: closed out all of our credit card accounts and got new cards, called Dell and got our serial number for the computer to report that, closed our checking/savings account and opened new ones, put fraud alerts on Daniel and I's social security numbers with the major credit bureaus (I couldn't do Emma's number...I guess she is too young? Anyone have advice on that?). I have gotten a new copy of Emma's birth certificate and we will go get new social security cards on Thursday. Daniel handled getting a new back door, and that was installed on Saturday.
On top of all of this, throughout this weekend Emma has come down with a terrible ear infection- the worst one that I can think of (and she has had her share). She hasn't really slept more than 30 minutes at night since Saturday. It's a little bit more pitiful when she's at the point that she can tell us that her ear hurts and "I want my mommy." She has run a fever pretty much since Sunday morning, and it really hasn't broken as of tonight. I was on the phone with the pediatrician's office about 3 minutes after they opened this morning, and was able to see one of the doctors in the group 15 minutes after that. We are on several medicines now (including the dreaded nebulizer again....the bane of my existence...but at least we just have to do it 3 times a day, and not every 3 hours- night and day- like we did her first year). Blessedly, this is a weird week at school (no school on Monday, short classes tomorrow so that we can watch the Inaguration, and then most of the high school leaves on Thursday at 10 for the state Texas Youth and Government conference, and field trip for those remaining on Friday). So I have taken off tomorrow, and was already planning on taking Thursday off as a gift for making it through accreditation last week. So hopefully we can get Emma and our house back in order soon. (Oh, and on another note...I hate getting hit with the "prescription deductible" every January....spent $175 on copay and prescriptions today! But I am thankful to have health insurance...I have thankful to have health insurance...)
Oh, and did I mention that our VCR broke tonight? With one of Emma's favorite movies (101 Dalmations...or the Pongo movie as she calls it) stuck inside??? Good week. Good week.
So, we are praying that angels are surrounding all of our idenity theft issues---any other suggestions of things we should do anyone? Unfortunately, unless the ID theft causes problems, it is not worth claiming the break-in with our homeowner's insurance due to our deductible and how much it would raise our insurance rates. But that means that I have no idea how we will replace the computer and video camera- we won't at this point unless God provides another way. Every extra penny is going towards paying down our debts, not taking on new ones. A need? No....just convience and memory makers.
So I think that's a wrap. It could have been a lot worse, and hopefully, it won't. They didn't damage the house, except for the back door. I'm still a little uneasy at night, but I am praying for God's peace to reign in our house and our hearts. I'm sure they had to have been disappointed by the lack of expensive items in our house to take!!!
Oh, and if anyone has photos of us from 2008, would you email them to me? d_l_montgomery@sbcglobal.net. Thanks!

I did it!

2009-01-14T21:52:00.002-06:00

So, as I mentioned in the previous blog, one of my goals for 2009 is to run a 5K race. I have been training pretty steadily since Thanksgiving (got a little off due to strep before Christmas, but getting back slowly). Anyways, tonight, I really didn't want to run on the treadmill, but I made myself. Warmed up walking for 2 minutes, then ran a mile. Walked another 2 minutes, ran another mile. Now, this second mile is most definitely harder, but I had done this run on Monday so I was like...don't be a wimp..you've done it once, do it again! The last quarter was killer but I did it. And then this crazy thought came to my mind as I was finishing (must be the oxygen depravation)...why don't you just try and do a total of running/walking of 3.1 miles = 5K? Just for kicks!

So after the second mile, I let myself walk back down to normal and ran another .76 miles (yes, .76 not .75...believe me, that hundredth of a mile is meaningful to short legs!).

I did a 5K in 37:37!!!!!

Now, yes, I was on a treadmill which is not as hard as running outside. But I have found that running outside is easier for me because there is something to keep my mind occupied. In the garage, I continually run toward this dot on the garage door but never quite get to it. Crazy. Outside, I can look at houses, cars, people, etc. The mind is definitely my weakness when running.

So yeah! You must understand that I have EXTREMELY short legs. My best friend Kristen (who is 6 foot) and I wore pedometers for a couple months at school. We would walk the same distance to the other building, but I would have taken twice as many steps as she! I always have to get my pants hemmed! It's like a built-in expense to buying the pants. So this is a big accomplishment! The other two times in my life that I have really gotten into running I lost 30 pounds one time and 20 pounds the other. (Unfortunately, gained the 30 pounds back through the first couple years of teaching and the 20 I still don't have, but was primarily Emma pregnancy/stress weight.) So I am trying to be diligent in not only running, but also what I eat and drink. so here's to being healthier!!

And here's to the hot bath that awaits my aching legs.... :)