Happy Birthday Tyson!

Excersing

Family Portrait

Simple Math

Tucker
+
ready to be awake
+
ability to turn DVD player on
+
having a DVD in the player
=
4:45 am wake up call

Yeah.

The planets aligned

Well it's been one heck of a bummer weekend around here. Somehow all the planets aligned just so and all four of us have been bitten by the allergy bug. Not that having allergies is unusual for us, it's just that normally they don't hit so hard AND all at once. To be blunt-it sucks.

To add insult to injury, it has been raining since Thursday night. Great for my yard and bringing forth of cooler temperatures, not so great for my kiddos who HAVE to expend energy and my dogs who track in muddy paw prints. It's a mess.

Last night though is when this miracle of maladies (so doesn't makes sense but I'm going with it) came to a head.

You see, Stuart has sleep apnea and has to sleep with a C-Pap.

Sleep apnea is a common disorder in which you have one or more pauses in breathing or shallow breaths while you sleep.

Breathing pauses can last from a few seconds to minutes. They often occur 5 to 30 times or more an hour. Typically, normal breathing then starts again, sometimes with a loud snort or choking sound.

Sleep apnea usually is a chronic (ongoing) condition that disrupts your sleep 3 or more nights each week. You often move out of deep sleep and into light sleep when your breathing pauses or becomes shallow.

This results in poor sleep quality that makes you tired during the day. Sleep apnea is one of the leading causes of excessive daytime sleepiness.

He was diagnosed while still in the Air Force and luckily got his C-Pap during that time too. It started with just the nasal mask and then progressed to the full mask.Why do you need to know this? Well, because Stuart snores. Like really, really bad. We're talking full on, bed shaking, have to poke him in the shoulder to get him to turn over, can't hear a tornado warning over it bad. (He claims that I snore too but I don't know how he would know this seeing as how nothing can be heard over his snoring, but whatever) When Stuart got his first nasal mask it took a lot of getting used to. First, he attached to the machine by this huge tube and so he can't really turn and move normally without adjusting the tubing. Secondly, with just the nasal mask he was still able to breath out of his mouth and with all that positive air pressure going into his nose, his snoring got exponentially louder (I didn't even realize that this was possible). After getting tangled in the tubing and having one too many pokes from me to close his mouth, he would give up and take the whole contraption off. A week or so later he returned home with the full mask and my life was changed forever. I am so not even kidding.

See this full mask covers his nose AND mouth. Which means I can't hear him snore. I can not tell you how amazing that first night of sleep was. And apparently it did wonders for Stuart too.

So we've been going along now for months, sleeping soundly (well semi-soundly because although you can't hear Stuart snore, you can hear the hum of the machine) when last night hits. See, there's a point to this story! Since we're all filled with snot and can't really breath thru our noses, Stuart decided to forgo his C-Pap and just sleep unaided. BAD IDEA honey. Lord have mercy if I almost didn't get out of bed and go sleep on the couch. I guess all these months of C-Pap sleeping have helped me forget the level to which my handsome husband snores. It's bad. Really, really, really bad.

So here's to the planets un-aligning today. Otherwise it's going to be a really, really, really long day.

Shout Outs:
Crayons-always good on a rainy day.
Kleenex-so nice and soft.
Benadryl- yeah.

A day in pictures

I Remember

I remember getting up so stinkin' early so that I could get to SAC in time to get a parking spot.
I remember taking a cat nap in my car and listening to other drivers park around me.
I remember my first class-actually I don't remember it, but ah well.
I remember going to my next class and there was this weird note that classes were canceled for the day.
I remember seeing dreary faces as I walked back to my car.
I remember checking my phone and having 20 missed calls (all from my mom).
I remember turning the radio on and pulling over because I couldn't wrap my head around what was being said.
I remember being huddled around our small work tv.
I remember the horror on my face.
I remember trying really hard to think that this was NOT the end.
I remember our boss sending us home; we weren't going to get any work done that day.
I remember staring at the tv for hours at home.
I remember crying and crying and crying.
I remember calling in sick to my other job for no other reason than I couldn't get off the couch.
I remember having to call my old roommate to deal with getting our deposit back. (AND 9-11-81 was her birthday)
I remember thinking that this would be a day that I could honestly say changed the world.
I remember.

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
Luke 1:76-78

Table for Two

Child: Um, I wanted to see what the wait time was.
Me: Are you needing to be seen by a doctor?
Child: Um, no, well kinda. My mom wants me to put her name on the list.
Me: Is your mom with you?
Child: No, she's at the house getting ready. She just wants me to put her on the list.
Me: Sweetheart, we can't put your mom "on the list" without her being here. How did you get up to the hospital?
Child: I rode my bike.
Me: Did anyone come with you?
Child: Um, no. My mom let's me ride wherever I want to. {I'm seriously supposed to know this}
Me: Well, you need to go back home and make sure that when you come back you are with your mom. And please be careful going home.

Note-the ER is not a restaurant. We can't put your name on the list so that your room is ready when you get here. And also, children should NEVER ride their bicycles alone to the ER to put your name on the list.

Full House

It took precisely 3.7 minutes for my house to go from perfectly perfect
to
the boys are home again.

Conversation

Labor Day

Four years ago today I was going to have a baby. I mean, I was going to have him. There was no way that I was going to go one more day. It wasn't possible. There were not enough words to describe how ready I was to have him; and just as few words to describe how ready I was to not be pregnant anymore. Don't get me wrong, I loved my pregnancy. I had one of the best and drama-less pregnancies a girl could ask for. Well except for the whole SVT at 32 weeks and having to have my heart restarted thing, but that was no biggie. Ha!

So, there I was, September 7, 2005-my due date-and I was going to have him.

And then I woke up and it was the next day. And there was still this giant mass attached to me known as my stomach. And I was 40 weeks and 1 day.

Now I have a little bone to pick about that. Why are we always told that the length of gestation is 9 months? 9 months is only 36 weeks. That's a whole 4 weeks less than 40 weeks. (Here is where Stuart would tell me that technically a month has 4.2 or 4.3 weeks in it not just 4; so technically women are only pregnant for 9 months. And then I would lovingly give him a look and maybe hit his arm and tell him he just doesn't understand what it's like to be with child for almost a year AND that beauty happened to be HIS son. Ahem.) So this whole 40 weeks/9 months thing is bogus NOT TO MENTION that you actually go PAST your due date and so you can be pregnant for MORE THAN 40 WEEKS (aka 10 months).

I wake up on September 8, 2005 and come to realize that the world is just not fair. And my doctor is not fair for not inducing me so that I could have that child that I had been carrying around for 10 months. And that child was not fair for not making more of a ruckus to get out. And my goodness if I got the wrong drink at Starbucks that day and it took all my energy not to unload on the barista.

Back to labor day though-mine didn't actually come for 10 more days. That's right. My darling (almost 4 year old) was 10 whole days late.

So here's to you and yours on this Labor Day...don't do anything that will require a trip to the ER!

Dust balls

Do you know what it's like to be in a house all by yourself??
It's quiet.
And clean.
And empty.
And you can run around in your underwear and only worry about someone knocking on the door to see you.
And you can eat on the couch and not feel bad because you told your kids they couldn't.
And you can go to the bathroom by yourself.
And you can watch non-cartoon television.
And you can watch the new dust balls form and know that they aren't going to get thrown around by cars.
And you can...be by yourself.

But I do miss them, just a little bit.

Just Me

This weekend, well this afternoon actually, Stuart and the boys are going to SA for Labor Day weekend. I have to work. So I am going to be here all weekend BY MYSELF. What's a girl to do?? (Besides sleep all day and work all night)And this little guy? This little guy is going to be FOUR in 14 days!!

Butter

Tyson: Mommy, can I have more butter?
Me: No, your raisin bread already has butter on it.
Tyson: But it all melted.
Me: That doesn't mean that there isn't any butter on it.
Tyson: But it's all melted!
Me: I know. Maybe you should have eaten your bread before all the butter melted.
Tyson: But mommy! I really need more butter.
Me: Booger, I promise you that you are going to be just fine with the amount of butter that you have.
Tyson: But there's no-more-butter.
Tucker:Here go Tucker. hands Tyson the butter (Tucker calls Tyson Tucker)
Me: Tucker, you can't get the butter out of the fridge. But thank you for thinking of your brother.
Tucker: Tucker (meaning Tyson) more butter now.
Me: Oh forget it.

And in precisely 10 minutes they will be trying to pull each other off the couch.

Stuart

Last night my co-workers and I were talking about another one of our co-workers whom just had a baby. It started off with babies, then led to pregnancy, followed by birth stories, which was preceded by husbands and ended with proposals (one of my co-workers claims that she WILL be proposed to at a baseball game but she first has to find a boyfriend and then he has to KNOW that that's the correct way in which to promise his life to her...if she only knew!). Anywho, all this chatter made me start thinking about Stuart and all his little nuances. Funny man I married.

• Stuart does not watch sports. Not a lick of 'em. We don't even have ESPN programmed on our guide because we seriously DO NOT WATCH SPORTS. Unless the Spurs are in the playoffs and then he might glance up while I am shouting at the tv.
• Stuart is actually pretty shy. The man can fit in pretty well anywhere we go but if left to his own devices he would rather be a wall flower.
• Stuart used to be bleach blonde. So.stinkin.cute.
• Stuart can take apart and put back together anything. I am so not kidding.
• Stuart has this amazing way of diffusing situations. Particularly situations regarding my hot temper. And those that involve Tucker putting Tyson in a choke hold.
• Stuart really enjoys beer. His favorites are Boddingtons, Guinness, Young's Double Chocolate Stout, Bass, and those that are handed to him directly from a brewery.
  
• Stuart's one weakness include but are not limited to: ice cream, Oreos, chips, cookies, french fries, onion rings, fried cheese and cheeseburgers.
• Stuart has this desire to fix everybody's anything, whether you ask him to or not.
• Stuart can find anything on the Internet.
  
• Stuart ALWAYS looks for a better deal.
  
• For our 10 year anniversary (12/28/2012), Stuart wants a full set of tools with his initials engraved in them.

Shout Outs:
63 degrees!!!