Peanut's Big Adventure

Peanut made a break for it. She took off, and we did not notice that she was gone for quite a while. Needless to say, we felt like the worst pet parents ever, especially since she did not have her tags on because they broke a year ago. I will be going very soon to get her a new one. Anyway, I drove around the subdivision for an hour or so, but nothing. After dinner, Andy and I drove around more and hung lots of signs. Our biggest hope was that someone saw her wandering around and took pity upon her. She is very docile, to say the least. Our signs paid off! The postman called us around one today and told us that someone had mentioned finding a dog yesterday, but our signs were not up at that point. Luckily, he put two and two together and now she is home. Meagan and Nati have been giving her lots of love. We were so scared as to what would happen to her, but it all turned out OK.

Our blog is looking good (it was time for a change!)

As long as I have been using this, you would think that I could figure out how to change a few simple pictures. I had to ask, but now I have a snazzy picture of my alma mater to show for it.
So, thank you April!

An early holiday

I love that my girls go to school across the street from my job! It is awesome to be able to run over there when I need to (or want to!) Today was the annual Thanksgiving lunch. I was very excited to a)get to be with my girls, and b) get to try all of the great food the parents brought. There was a little bit of everything. Several of the kids had no interest at all in the food since many of the dishes involved veggies, but I loved it. My girls, of course, devoured everything. I wish that I had the patience that the teachers at that school have to deal with toddlers/preschoolers all day, everyday. The kids are so well trained at this point; children seemingly thrive on routine.

Lots of fun today! Best part is that I don't have to go to work for 5 days.

Trying the room share thing again

A few months ago, Meagan wanted Natalie to sleep in her room with her. I am all for it, but only if they actually sleep. It didn't work well back then, but last night Meagan begged Nati to sleep on her trundle bed again. Nati went back and forth between being excited and sad, but ended up just fine. They slept until 7, but didn't bother us for an hour, so all is good. I did hear them, but as long as they aren't screaming, I can go back to sleep. I love watching them grow up and depend upon one another. 5 years ago, when we were trying so desperately to acheive a pregnancy, we were afraid that we would only be able to have one child, if that. When Natalie decided to come into the scene, we honestly felt like we were part of a miracle. I still feel that way in some ways now. She is this hilarious little creature and Meagan loves her fiercely. Being a sister is a large part of who Meagan is as a little person. Since Natalie is so goofy and says funny things, we have all learned to just shrug our shoulders and say, "OK, Natalie!" Meagan will say, "Mommy, this is one of those times where we just say, 'OK, Natalie!'" Natalie has begun saying it too, with the full shrug of the shoulders too. We are not sugar coating having kids 19 months apart; it is difficult. Really difficult. But, wow is it great now.

Our newest obsession

Andy and I go through odd obsessions with different foods. At one point it was sushi. Later it was Banana pudding. We must have hit 25 different bbq joints just looking for the best banana pudding ever. Currently, it is cupcakes. It started with my brother's wedding in San Fransisco, but then we realized we could find some good ones here too. There is a place in Lakeline Mall that Andy and Meagan love. We also found a great one down on South Congress last weekend, a fairly well known place called Hey Cupcake that operates out of an Airstream trailer. Today Meagan and I stopped at a place near my job that I have seen called Cuprimo. Yum. They had mini cupcakes that are for sale only by the dozen, but they are great. I have always liked Pumpkin, and my favorite from Cuprimo (I could taste three since they are relatively small!) were the pumpkin chocolate chip. Meagan loved the Black and White.

Medical bills stink.

They really do stink. Not fair at all. We got a very scary looking bill from California yesterday (Yes, it has been 2 months, but we just got it???.) The good news is that when I went on Blue Cross's website, it appears that we don't have to pay a cent for the little escapade 2 weeks ago. The bill, for 2 hours in the ER, was $2,500, but it says we don't have to pay anything. Somehow I am a bit leery of that, but it looks good.
Today Natalie and Meagan are coming over after school to play with one of my English as a Second Language Learners. Katherine has agreed to speak Spanish to Natalie so that we can reinforce what she has been learning in class. I was kind of upset because I thought that Natalie had not learned anything lately in her class, but she has been counting in Spanish (of course,not in order!) and saying "Como Estas?"

Meagan has her future all planned- check it out!

Well, I guess if she is married at ten, we won't have to pay for college!

Leftover traumas

Natalie had the seizure in California in a Sushi restaurant near my brother Brian's house. Now, unfortunately, I can't handle the idea of going out for Sushi. Then, the next seizure happened in Walmart. I haven't been able to set foot in that store. I really hope that if she has another one, it will not be in a place that I really like.

Obama...Irish??? Funny stuff.

Here are two versions. The second one is better in that you can actually understand the words, but the first is nice because of the video.

And she likes to do things HER way...

Natalie put on Meagan's Hannah Montana sweatshirt...in her own way.

Field Trip

My National Junior Honor Society group took a field trip to the girls' school yesterday. It was fun for everyone. I have a whole new admiration for preschool teachers. It is hard work! Their behavior is good, but there are other problems...like needing to go to the potty, wiping noses, etc. My students were wonderful!
I found out today that the neurologist wants Natalie to have another short EEG test. I am not too thrilled about trying to get her to stay still. I figured we would have to do something more now that she has had her third seizure.

Natalie is doing better

Both Meagan and Natalie are still not totally well, but at least no one is having a seizure. We spent a nice portion of the day outside. The girls had a birthday party at a local park and it was lovely outside. It was probably around 75 and we had great time. Last night we went to the Austin version of Chinatown. The grocery store there is as big as a typical grocery store and the girls were very interested in what they had there. Natalie, I think, thought it was an aquarium because of the big tank of live fish. Meagan was thrilled that the newspapers were written in Chinese. She takes Chinese classes at school and was jumping up and down when the Chinese newspaper had a photo of her favorite person, Barack Obama.
I am taking my honor society students over to the girls' school on Tuesday. Our students are going to be doing an art project with the little kids. I think everyone will have fun.

Photos from Election night at Elizabeth and Brian's house

The girls with their friends Lexi and Jackson.

my poor baby

It has been a hard 24 hours for us. Natalie had her third febrile seizure last night. She had no fever at all at 4 PM and I ran to Walmart to pick up a few things. She did the same thing as before; the fixed stare into nothing. When the paramedic took her temp it was 103, so it had spiked very fast. We went to Dell Children's Hospital and she was better very quickly. Despite having had an BIG adult dose of Valium, she was walking around and singing. She even complied with the chest rays and urine collection, something that is always a gamble with a young three year old. Now that we know what is going on, though, we don't have to deal with the mess of the ICU and a hospital stay. She loves her purple gown and does not want to take it off this morning. You would never know that anything was wrong with her by the way she is acting, but we know that is normal for children. I am finding this all very difficult with worrying about her, my job, and Meagan. Luckily, her teacher just took her to their house last night and Meagan did well.

Happy, happy day

God Bless America.
With the one major exception of one certain vote in California election day was sweet.

It was a fun night!

The photo below is of our cutie little next door neighbor, Shaunak. He is almost 2 1/2 and is the most adorable little boy. If we leave our door open, he will just walk in. I have had a few little suprises from this- one day I was helping Natalie change her clothes in my closet (nowhere near the door) an all of a sudden I heard someone talking to themself in the bathroom. I looked over and there he was!

We had a great night last night. We were all very impressed by our friends Jay and Suzanne who take Halloween very seriously. Not only did they have a pinata and sound effects, but they also had a light projector for the garage door and strobe lights for the rest of the yard. The girls made us walk quite a while so that they could see Mr. Joe, my friend from work. He had stickers for them in additon to the candy! The photos above were from the very end of the night, sitting on Chris and Paula's driveway. Natalie was fighting to keep her eyes open.