Feeling Better

This is Lorelei about 15 minutes ago. We saw her PCM this morning (who I just love, Maj. Clegg is wonderful!) After discussing everything, and finally getting a peek at Lorelei's eyeball we've decided on a course of action. There is a chance that there could be a slight infection. As Lorelei was screaming, a green booger flew out of her nose. Since Maj. Clegg saw green snot (a sign of a sinus infection) she said she was justified in prescribing some anitbiotics. Even though it was just a tiny booger and not snot dripping everywhere she that was good enough for her. So we are starting Lorelei on a course of augmentin. We're hoping though that this is just a bug bite. The doc said this is a common reaction to bites around the eye. And we have some very tiny spiders here that can bite, but you won't be able to see where. The other thing that should help is that we've increased her dosage of benadryl. The ER doc said 1/2 tsp every 6-8 hours. Our doctor thought that sounded low, so she calcuated it based on her weight and she can take a whole teaspoon every 6 hours. Because it's the weekend and the base just has a clinic I've already been authorized an ER visit if her eye gets worse. We'll just have to wait and see and hope that she responds well to the meds.

More Pics

I took these right before Lorelei went to bed tonight. About 2 hours after I took the first picture. I just checked on her a few minutes ago, and the swelling is slowly getting worse. Her eyelid is so tight you can't see her eyelashes anymore except for the barest of tips in the inner corner of her eye. The swelling is also extending beyond her eyebrow (as you can see in the to picture) to well above it and it is creeping toward her temple. She is sleeping good right now, and her eye isn't warm to the touch at all. I'll re-evaluate her in the AM. She may not go to the ER but she will definately go see her PCM for a second opinion. I'll keep everyone update via the blog. If something major happens I will call mom on her gov. cell and have her start the phone chain.

Remember This?

This is what we've been dealing with all day. Hopefully the benydrill (which is what the ER docs are recomending) will start working. Otherwise tomorrow it will be back to the ER.

Tubby Time

Start Your Engines!

Now everybody rev up your internal engine...get into the spirit of things.

OK, the 500 mile challenge officially started on Sunday. I have Jennifer (and from what I can tell from Alan's comment) and Alan participating along with mom and dad. Sara, I am challenging you, too. I have an extra pedometer for you. This way you can really get competitive with Josh and be a sexy beast when he gets back. :)

Sunday and Monday I logged in 10,884 and 9,065 steps respectively. Monday was my kick-ass day. 20,094 steps baby!!!! I was doing some heavy house work and taking some of Dad's advice. When I was putting away clothes, instead of loading up the basket and making one trip per family member to put away, I was only taking 2-3 items at a time and making several trips. All those little trips add up!! So, so far I have logged in 20 miles. Now, you guys have a chance to catch up! I got my portable EEG put on today so until it comes off on Friday, all of my walking is either going to be in the house or in the backyard.

To calculate your miles, we're just going to use the average. 2000 steps to a mile. You get take it to the 10th decimal place. (ie- 10.2 miles) E-mail your weekly miles and I'll post everybody's progress no later than Tuesday.

Good Luck!!!!

If I were Brian, where would I be?

I have been thinking on this one for a while. So, just where has Brain been? I couldn't tell you all the countries (becuase it's too hard to keep track of) but I can tell you how long he's been gone.

We signed into LRAFB November of 2002. In that time Brian has had 13 deployments/TDY's. Including the current one in Alaska. His TDY days number 53 and his deployment days number 719. Since there are 365 days in a year, that puts him 11 days shy of having spent 2 full years in the desert.

Let's break those 719 days down even further to put it into perspective. A soccer game lasts 90 minutes. That's equal to 11,504 soccer games. It takes about 10 minutes to read Houston a bedtime story. Brian has missed out on 7,190 minutes worth of story time.

719 days is the same as 17,256 hours, or 1,034,360 minutes, or 62,061,600 seconds that Brian has spent in a war zone.

For anyone who wants to complain about their spouse being gone on business (mom is exempt...she's put in her time and then some), think about all that time that Brian has been gone. And he hasn't been gone nearly as long as some guys have.

Competition Time

I have signed up for this years annual Family Circle Walking Challenge. But I was thinking today that I need to make this challege a little more fun. This past 7 days I walked 34.7 miles. At that pace it is very easy to walk 100 miles in 3 weeks. Here the challenge to all my family and friends out there.

Let's all put our pedometers on and see who can log 500 miles first. To give everyone a chance to read this post and get a pedometer (Wal-mart sells them cheap), let's start the competition on Sunday, the 25th.

Let me know who all wants to participate. I'll figure out a really cool prize for the winner.

You Know...

Family Portait

Bye Bye Birdie

We left Friday night/Saturday morning for Texas (Mother's Day weekend) and my friend, Sara, watched the dog for us and was also kind enough to be on bird patrol. When she came over Saturday she looked at the nest and it was very very empty. So, being the sweet wonderful person that she is, looked around for any dead birdies. (remember, the nest was built about 6 feet above a concrete pad). No dead birdies. When we got back Monday afternoon the nest was still empty. The babies are no longer babies, but big grown up birds who have officially flew the coop.

The really dusty pictures are the back windshield of Brian's Mazda RX-7 that he is rebuilding. (when he gets around to he will be posting pictures/updates of his project on his blog Crowdaddy's World). Anyway, using my most superior deductive skills I have deduced that these markings were made my baby birdy wings. The car is next to the nest sight. They look like wing prints to me. I figure that this is where they practiced before they took out on their own.

Now that the nest in empty I did remove it an throw it away. Brian really needed to get to his ladder. We learned that unless the nest is dirty with fleas, mites, or other yucky bugs the mama will lay another clutch of eggs (that would be the technical term) pretty much as soon as the babies leave the nest. We really didn't want to do that. Sorry mama!! She should have her new nest built by now. I caught her and the daddy bird having sex in the front yard. I had the camera with me, but by the time I got it set to video mode, the daddy bird had already left leaving the mommy bird going, "wait, that's it?"

Odds and "Ends"

These are my tomato plants in their new big containers. This is to protect them from gophers. I am looking forward to yummy tomatoes this fall.

These are the birdies as of yesterday. Getting so big and very cramped. They have taken to taking turns being "King of the Mountain". Today I finally saw their chests and they are just starting to get their red feathers.

My mother will fully appreciate the humor of birdie bottoms.

Sitting Pretty

Well, prettier than they were just a few days ago. Out little babies are starting to look like real birds now. They are also getting more restless! They keep trying to stand up and move around. We're just hoping that they don't fall out of the nest. Mama built it in a very safe place. Safe from predators, and the elements. But, it's also about 6 feet above a concrete floor. Hopefully we won't be finding any broken babies. From what I can figure out (based on a guess from when they hatched) they are some where around the 10-14 days old.

This is mommy bird out looking for food to feed her babies...again.

This is daddy bird with, yet another, mouthfull of food for the little ones.

Bobble-Head Birdies

The title explains it all.

Family Time

Here are some pictures we took while Robert and Kay were here.

It's Official

I've counted all the hanging chads and partial punches and have reached the official count of the baby birds.

There are 4!

Mary, Mary, quite contrary.

I may not have an silver bells or cockle shells but my garden is coming along very nicely. Even if it is a bit uncoventional.

The roses are covering almost twice what they were last year. The hope is the as I tie back more sections to the lattice that by the end of the season we'll have the whol thing covered. It's even growing enough that I have started tieing back sections around the corner.

This is my little blueberry plant. I am not expecting to get any fruit off of it this season, but hopefully it will thrive and maybe start bearing fruit next season.

Yea! My first little strawberry plant!!

Houston doesn't agree with me, but I think my little tomato plants smell so good! This weekend I will be getting three big plastic pots from Wal-Mart along with some tomato cages and lots of potting soil. I will put two plants in each pot and then hope for the best. Maybe if I'm lucky I will have some tomatoes to bring to Nebraska.

I don't have any pictures right now, but the rhubarb is also doing really well.

For those of you wondering, my uncoventional garden is being grown in pots and bags because of the horrible gopher problem we have. If anyone has any suggestions on how to get rid of them, please let me know. Just remember that any remedy has to be safe to use around pets and kids. (We can't use poison bacause Shiloh tries to dig up the gophers when she smells/hears them)

It's a...baby?

A few days ago our robin sqatter became a mommy. She must have laid another egg or two since I first photographed it, because (to me anyway) it looks like there are at least 2 babies in the nest.

I'll take some more pictures in a few days so everyone can see the progession. Lorelei thinks it's really neat when I pick her up so she can peep into the nest. It freaks Houston out. He'd rather have a spanking and be sent to his room than look into the nest.

For those who may be wondering, no we are not touching the nest. Although, it probably wouldn't be a big deal if we did. Here is something I learned when I was researching the life cycle. Birds are really stupid!!! It was thought that if you touched/moved the nest the birds would abandon it. Not so is what people are thinking. From what has been observed is that the parents memorize the nests surroundings, not the nest or even there babies. So if you move it, even a tiny bit they can't find it. One such instance is that a mom laid her eggs and they hatched. She was feeing them for about a week when a storm happened. Now at this point in time, she had invested a lot into her little brood. The tree that they were in was destroyed but amazingly the nest and the babies survived. So, the nice homeowner's carefully put the nest in the tree next to the downed one. Even though the mommy bird could hear her babies crying pittifully for food and warmth and comfort from her, she couldn't find the nest. She saw her nest, but because it was in a different tree she figured it must belong to some other bird.