Every Man Needs a Chainsaw

DEPRESSED. That is how I feel this morning. Last night we were hit with a HUGE storm that had extremely powerful winds. I knew that it was getting bad outside as the flap on our doggie door started blowing inside the house. As Joe stood and watched out the backdoor, he let me know that our fence had just been knocked over. I ran to look and noticed that part of our tree was gone. He immediately ran upstairs, got Scarlett out of bed, and we all got into the hall bathroom.

Once the storm kind of subsided, Joe went out to assess the damage. He originally thought that the tree had landed on his truck. Thank God that it didn't! We were mostly expecting hail damage, so he had put a tarp over it. Now those tarps are covering up the big section of fence that was knocked out. The fence company is supposed to be out later today to put up the orange safety netting to keep people out. We've got to be very careful about this open access to our backyard since we have a pool.

We are very fortunate to have out neighbor Randy. He and Joe were both out with their chainsaws cutting up the tree and moving it to the front. It had to be done last night as the tree was obstructing the back alley. They worked for about 3 hours getting this done.

Luckily, we do have our child safety fence between the house and the pool. This way our dogs can still go in and out of the their dog door without running into the street.

Now we have to cut the rest of the tree down. It's very lopsided and has the potential to fall over again. This happened to our neighbors across the street a year or so ago. We'd rather be safe than sorry.

I'm sick about the fence, but I'm way more upset about the tree. You can replace a fence, but it takes about 20-25 years to get a tree the size of the one we had. We've also spent the past 4 years trying to make our backyard an oasis.... a beautiful place to relax. When we moved in here all that was back there was the pool, concrete, dirt (where grass should have been) and 2 trees. At least one tree made it! We've also worked hard to block the view of the houses behind us. We love our neighbors, but we really don't want their house to be a part of our view.

I'm very thankful that nothing else was damaged (like our house!!!) and that no one was injured. Things could have been a lot worse!

Last night's pics of the damage:

Pics from this morning:

I think we've decided to cut the tree down, but leave the base of it at table height and start looking for a round table top to mount on top of it. At least this way we'll have a part of our beloved tree left and a sitting area out back. Also, notice in the picture above of how nothing else was damaged. The only other "damage" we had was part of the chaise lounger bent forward.

So far so good!

Scarlett is adjusting to Troy very well. She wasn’t very excited at the hospital or even the past few days. She’s mostly just ignored him but looks every once in a while and has smiled a couple of times. She has pushed him in the swing and has started showing more interest when he is being fed or if one of us are tending to him.

One “funny” thing that happened the other day was when Scarlett was eating her very first grilled cheese (thanks for that tip, Natalie!!) when Troy started to cry in the swing. I went to check on him and then heard her start crying. Joe was at the table with her and I asked him what was wrong. His only guess was that when one cries, they both cry. HUMMM…. Hopefully no one will be crying at all!

Troy is a really good baby. He likes to be held a lot and mostly just eats, sleeps, and poops. Our main handful is Scarlett. Since I had a C-section, I cannot pick her up for a few weeks. This makes me sad especially when she puts her arms out to be held or grasps onto my legs and won’t let go. Joe has had to make Scarlett his first priority since doing most anything with her requires her to be picked up….. picked up to be put in the high chair or taken out, picked up for a diaper change, picked up to be put in or out of bed, etc. We’re making it work for now, and I know it’s not forever. My mom is back for a couple of days to help us which is great! Joe had appointments this morning, so I really needed someone here to watch Scarlett and do all the things that I can’t.

Punkin and Peanut are adjusting well too. Punkin doesn’t care about any of them. He’s old and just wants to eat, sleep, and be left alone. Peanut has been dying for the past year for Scarlett to pay some sort of attention to him. He loves it when she pets him (which isn’t often) or just grabs his tags and shakes them. Scarlett and Peanut now play fetch together. Joe throws the ball, Peanut goes to get it, Scarlett then takes it away from Peanut and gives the ball back to Joe, and it starts all over again. If Peanut won’t go get the ball, Scarlett goes after it herself! This is fun to watch as Scarlett laughs so loud watching Peanut run after the ball.

Before I forget, I wanted to let you all know that Scarlett’s test came back from the Urologist free and clear of any infection!! Hopefully everything will stay this way. She will have to have her major testing done again in September. We’re praying that she has grown out of the kidney reflux or that it has greatly improved.

Troy Michael Farner

Troy Michael Farner was born on May 29, 2009 at 8:00am weighing 7 lbs 5oz and 19 ½”. So far everything has gone great! Scarlett has been at my mom's since Saturday and is coming home today. We miss her so much and can't wait for her to get back to us!!! I think things will get very interesting upon her arrival. I'm sure I'll have lots to say in the weeks to come....

My family

Scarlett kissing Troy :)

GranJan with her grandbabies -- I just love this picture!

Troy in the outfit he wore home

Getting ready to leave the hospital

Joe and Troy

Home at last!

Memorial Weekend

We spent this past weekend together as our final weekend as a family of 5. That would be me, Joe, Scarlett, Punkin, and Peanut. I had a list of things that needed to be done around here, but none of that got done. We played and rested and did fun things. Hopefully the things on my to-do list can get done before this baby gets here. If not, oh well…

On Saturday we took Scarlett to her friend Makenzie’s 1st Birthday Party. She had so much fun! I knew that she probably would as Makenzie also has a wagon and she has a swing set in her backyard. Scarlett LOVES to swing, so I’m thinking we need to get her a swing for our yard though we don’t have one place to put it. The local parks will probably have to work for now until we can figure out a more permanent solution for her and her brother.

See what I mean.... we need one of these in our yard!!!

Wagon ride with Makenzie. Check out Makenzie's cute shoes!!!

Walking around the kitchen on Memorial Day


Opening (and closing) doors... one of Scarlett's favorite things to do!

Other than procrastinating about cleaning and organizing around here, I haven’t done a whole lot. Last week was my last day to go into the office for a while. I’ve still been working from home which I will continue to do through my “maternity leave”. That starts on Friday, and I am SO READY! Seriously, I haven’t had energy since about 2 months after Scarlett was born. So, in a 22 month time span, I’ve had energy in 2 of those months. I’m ready to get back to normal…. I’m not sure what “normal” is at this point, but I would like to be at a point where I don’t need to nap 2-3 hours a day!!

I’m not sure when I’ll be back to blogging after this post. I guess it will depend on how I feel in the next week or so. Stay tuned!

Cherry Madness

Scarlett went to one of her little friend’s 1st birthday party this weekend. It had a Caribbean theme, so I tried to dress her as appropriate as possible. We took this picture beforehand.

Yes, she’s standing and not holding on to anything! She’s not walking yet, but is really trying. She usually takes 2-3 steps and then falls. I think she’ll be on the move very soon!

While we are at the party, they were going to play the Little Mermaid for the kids. This is one movie that we’ve been thinking about getting, so I was interested in seeing her reaction. Well, there was another little girl there (age 2) that wanted to watch Finding Nemo. If any of you have picked up on anything from this blog, Scarlett LOVES Nemo, and we just about have the entire movie memorized. Here she is (once again) mesmerized by Nemo.

The party was very close to a Central Market, so we stopped there on our way home. For any of you that have never been, it is probably THE BEST grocery store ever! Their fruits and vegetables are always super fresh and there is always a huge selection. We were mostly going just for that as this is not the place you’d want to buy something like milk. It’s about $5/gallon there vs. $1.50/gallon at our local Kroger.

One thing that caught my eye in the fruit section were these beautiful red cherries. They were huge! So you know, cherries are not something that I usually buy. I had never even eaten a fresh cherry up until about 3 years ago. I obviously did not look at the price/lb. very closely or when we were checking out. If I had, this would not have been one of my purchases. On Sunday, we were on our way to Target, and I started reviewing my Central Market receipt. I almost went into convulsions when I saw that I had paid a total of $10 for 1.43 lbs of cherries!!! It wasn’t like this was a very large bag either. They were very large cherries in a small bag. Anyway, I told Joe that I hoped they were good and that we better eat every single last one of them. I finally washed them last night and took my first bite…….. OMG! The best ever! I’m so glad that I didn’t pay attention to the price or I would have missed out. So, if you’re at Central Market anytime soon, take the plunge and splurge on some cherries. They are so worth it!!!!

We are on the FINAL COUNTDOWN as far as our little boy’s arrival. As of right now, we’ve got less than 11 days to go! We are working on getting everything ready for his arrival…. Like washing the lining of the infant car seat that Scarlett used and bringing the swing down from the upstairs closet. Scarlett rediscovered her swing this morning and wanted to get in. She still loves it but is obviously way too big for it! I have a feeling that she isn’t going to be very happy about having someone else use it…..

Mother's Day and 1st Pool Day

Last weekend I celebrated my 2nd Mother’s Day. It was great even though it did not go as planned…. We had originally planned on going to Pittsburg on Saturday for a meeting and to fish. My mom was going to meet us and keep Scarlett for the night. We were then going to stay at a B&B and then head to Atlanta the next morning to have lunch and pick Scarlett up. It was kind of like our last weekend away before Baby #2’s arrival.

Unfortunately, Scarlett came down with a pretty high fever on Friday night. We got it down pretty quickly with a cold bath and Tylenol. The doctor on call did agree with us and thought that it might be a reaction to one of the shots she had received at her 1-year checkup. BUT, we needed to go in if she was still running fever the next morning in case there was an issue with her kidneys. It wasn’t high, but she still had a fever the next day. Luckily, our doctor’s office has Saturday hours. So, we made an appointment and canceled our plans for the weekend. This worked out GREAT for Punkin and Peanut as they would not be at the kennel.

The doctor on call couldn’t determine if it was a reaction to the shots or not, so they had to test her urine. The initial tests came back clear. They didn’t think it was her kidneys, so we were very relieved. Scarlett felt great the rest of the weekend. We mostly stayed in and relaxed.

The doctor’s nurse finally decided to call us at 4:45pm on Monday afternoon with the test results. The lab did find something, so they wanted her on a super strong antibiotic for the next 4 days. I called the pharmacy to make sure it was ready before Joe went to get it, but they didn’t have it. I guess it’s not very common as 2 other pharmacies were out also. They finally located it, so Joe went to get it. We were both extremely shocked by the price of this…. Over $100 for a tiny little bottle of antibiotics, and of course, there was no generic available.

This insane price tag put me into complete orbit. I mean was it really necessary to prescribe something for FOUR DAYS that cost this much???? After lots of thought and unable to wind down to go to bed, I sent an e-mail to our Urologist’s Nurse Practitioner. Let me tell you, there is nothing better than a doctor’s office that uses e-mail to communicate versus leaving messages and getting caught in their never-ending web of phone options. I explained our situation and asked their opinion. Well, they wanted to see Scarlett and they wanted her on this same prescription for 10 days….. not 4 days. So, I canceled our appointment with her regular doctor, and we’re going to the Urologist in a couple of weeks to get retested and make sure that everything is A-ok.

Just know that Scarlett has been feeling just fine since Saturday around noon. Her fever very well could have been caused by one of the shots. Who knows! She feels great and isn’t acting sick. We just have to make sure everything is ok with her kidneys.

I’m doing pretty good too. I’ve been overly tired, and sleeping at night is NOT FUN. I can’t get comfortable and sometimes just can’t sleep. This morning I woke up around 4:30am and ended up lying in bed until 5:30am or so. I still couldn’t sleep, so I just got on up and started my day. I got to my office pretty early and started cleaning. I hadn’t cleaned in there since before Scarlett was born, so there was lots to do. I had so much trash that they had to get a pallet and pallet jack to haul it away. I dusted everything and asked the cleaning lady to please vacuum before she left. When I left the office I felt like a huge monkey had been taken off my back!

When I got home, I took a nice long nap. I felt much better after getting some rest and awoke to find a nice clean pool out back. A part had broken off our pump a few days ago, so it was looking a little icky out there. Fortunately the part came in and Joe had everything looking beautiful. Though it was a little chilly getting in, it felt great! Scarlett wasn’t extremely happy about getting in either, but she got used to it very quickly. You'd think she was an Aquarius with her love of water. We had a great day!

This last picture is my most favorite. She kept on splashing, laughing, and sticking her tongue out. :)

Milk and Sleep

We took Scarlett in for her One Year Checkup this week. Everything is great! She was the fussiest she’s ever been at the doctor, but maybe that was because it was right in the middle of her naptime. How was I supposed to have known that naptime would start at 2:00pm daily when they had me make this appointment 6 months ago??? I did try to change it, but her doctor is booked through August.

One major change that he made with her is eliminating formula and starting milk. This was GREAT news! When we got home, I cleaned all of her bottles and packed them up along with the bottle sterilizer and bottle warmer. She’s now drinking milk on her own out of her sippy cup. It is so nice to have that bottle warmer and sterilizer off my kitchen counters! My kitchen feels somewhat clean. Too bad this feeling of “cleanliness” is going to end in less than 30 days…. Baby #2 will need those same items. So, we didn’t pack them too far away….

Of course Scarlett had to get shots, and she was very tired after her appointment. We ended up having to wake her up before she actually got up which is something we don’t usually do. Why would anyone want to wake a sleeping baby? So, before we woke her up, I got a picture of her sleeping. I have tons of pictures of her doing just about everything BUT sleeping as I never want to wake her up.

It must be my week to get pictures of her sleeping because I got this one of her earlier today on our way back from running some errands.


Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!!