ColoradoAdventures

One year ago

2010-06-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's hard to believe that it has been a year already. One week ago this week we received the diagnosis that our daughter is Human Growth Hormone Deficient. I just read the post from last year at this time. (If I knew how to link it, I would. If you want to read it it is dated 6/27/09.) The post reminded me of all the fears and uncertainty we faced at that time.

One year later and we are sure that we made the right decision. Giving her this medicine is what is best for her. Since she started the meds last August she has grown 3+ inches. The doctor was hoping for 3 inches, so in true Campbell form she is over achieving.

We have progressed in giving the shots. Aaron and I are much more experienced now and as a result she gets fewer bruises from these. Also, she has started giving herself her own shots. One year ago we were crying over this prospect. Now it's really no big deal anymore.

In light of Campbell's diagnosis and treatments we have been paying much more attention to Caleb's growth as well. We had a bit of a scare last fall when he fell on the growth charts. However, he has grown the same amount that Campbell has these past 9 months. So far, all looks good for him.

6 Months Later

2010-02-27T20:36:00.000-08:00

Campbell has now been on her medice for 6 months. We went to her 6 month follow-up the other day. What a difference 6 months can make.

In those 6 months she has grown 2 inches. In the 2 years prior to those 6 months, she grew 1/2 inch. Amazing difference!

The doctor was very pleased with her growth. He said that was the perfect amount for her to grow in that amount of time. Her blood work all shows that everything is working as it should.

The only issue he saw was that while she did grow taller, she did not gain any weight. We are now pushing extra calories down the kid. Aaron and I have had to let go of some of our healthy food only rules. While we still make sure the kids eat a very healthy diet, we have to let some more high calorie foods in for her. I don't stress the no sugar cereal rule as much. If it's chocolate soy milk instead of plain that she will drink, then she gets chocolate soy milk. We have realized that we have taught both kids to eat a healthy diet and they mostly choose these healthy foods. It's ok for them to have some "junk" food.

The good news is that the shots are worth it!

2009 In Review

2009-12-30T17:26:00.000-08:00

Aaron has had a good year. He started the year still contracting. In March he transitioned to a full time position with benefits. He really enjoyed the job. However, in the fall he was able to transfer to a new position within the same company that is an even better fit for him. He loves the job. He has interviewed for a management position for the office and will find out next week if he gets the position. He traveled to San Diego once per month the entire past year for Navy Reserve training. He is currently training for his first marathon.

Darla has had an interesting year. The year started with me not working. I did a two month contract position in April and May. I was able to spend the summer at home with kids. We had a great time just hanging out. I started a new job at the end of August. I was scheduling natural gas flow for a gas transportation company. In the middle of December I was offered a new job. I will now be the Manager* of Donor Services for Girl* Scouts. I start the new job in January. I also ran my first 5k this year. Campbell and I ran it together.

Campbell probably had the "biggest" year of all of us. She started her last year of elementary school. She did her first season of track at her school. She ran her second season of cross country. She ran her first 5k. She went through HGH testing, had her first MRI, and started Human Growth Hormone treatments. As a result, she has actually grown this year. We have had to purchase her new clothes and shoes because she needed them. This is new to us. Lastly, our sweet girl has started her last year of elementary school.

Caleb has grown up a lot this year. He started the year going to pre-school part time. He then went to school full time for two months while I did a contract. He then spent the summer at home full time with me. He started school full time again in the fall when I went back to work. He transitioned through all of these changed smoothly. He has learned all of his ABC's and counting. He can spell his name. He can now draw things that are actually recognizable. He is growing up so fast.

We did not get in as many trips as we had hoped, but we did do a couple of fun trips. We started 2009 with great friends in SC. There could be no better way to start the year! In June, we had a great camping trip at Great Sand Dunes National Park with the Lawrence family. In September, we had a fun camping trip with just the four of us in Buena Vista. We hike in Cottonwood Pass and to Maroon Bells while there. In October, we did a weekend trip to Albequerque, NM for the Balloon Festival. That was a great trip and I reccommend it to everyone!

We tried snowshoeing this year. It was fun, but a lot of work. We attended a "beach party" in the snow. We tried some new local hikes. We found and spent some time at a local pick-your-own farm. We went to museums her in the Springs and in Denver.

We also had some visitors over the last year. Poppy visited a couple of times. Nanna visited for a couple of weeks during the summer. Grandma Roxie, Aunt Amanda, and cousin Landon also visited for a few days in August.

We all had a good 2009 and are wishing you all a Wonderful 2010!

Halloween 2009

2009-11-06T20:30:00.000-08:00

I made both of their costumes this year. We had a gypsy and a wizard. The neigbors declared Caleb's cosutme the best.

An Odd First

2009-11-05T19:07:00.000-08:00

The other day we experienced an odd first in parenting our daughter. This is something that most parents would consider definitely not odd. In fact, most parents probably would consider this to be a huge pain. What was this first? We actually went to the store purposely to purchase pants for Campbell. We bought these pants because she needed them, not because we were tired of seeing her in the same pants and decided to get something new.

She went to the doctor last week for her first 3 month follow-up appointment. She weighed in at 55 pounds and measured 49 3/4". This is a growth of 1 1/2" and 2 pounds.

Happy Birthday, Kiddos!

2009-11-04T21:31:00.001-08:00

It's been awhile, so I'm just going to post a Happy Birthday pic of the kiddos. This picture was taken during our trip to Albequerque on October 10th. Happy 4th, Caleb! Happy 11th, Campbell.!

A Camping Trip

2009-09-13T07:43:00.001-07:00

The kids are in school. I have started work again. Aaron seems to always be either at work or at "the Navy" as the kids call it when he is on reserve duty. I had a 3 day weekend for Labor Day. Aaron and Campbell each had 4 days off. We decided to take advantage of the breaks and go camping for the weekend.

We went to Buena Vista which is about a 2 hour drive from home. I didn't get out of work until 4:30 on Friday, but I had packed everything the night before. When Aaron and kids got home they put it all in the truck so that when I got home we just hopped in the truck and drove.

We set the tent up in the dark that night, but that's always part of the fun. The kids seem to think it's more fun to set up the tent in the dark rather than in the light. Saturday morning we woke early and headed into town for breakfast. After breakfast we headed over to Cottonwood Pass. We found some great campsites by Cottonwood Lake that we are going to remember for next summer. We did a great hike by Cottonwood Lake. We had a ton of fun.

On our way back from the pass, a bolt fell out of Aaron's truck. Of course the thing is going to fall apart, it's paid off. Anyway, he was having issues with the truck shiftin. We couldn't get it to stay in park. So when we got back in town we had to go to the parts store to get some tools to try to fix this problem. After about 2 hours in the parking lot, we got it fixed and the truck is working great now.

We spent the evening at the campsite cooking great food, roasting marshmallows, and just hanging out with family time. Sunday morning we woke up and had pancakes that were cooked on the campfire. Yummy!! That morning we spent hiking to Marroon Bells. It was another beautiful hike! After a couple of days of hiking we were tired and had some sore muscles. We decided to go to the Mt. Princeton hot springs to swim for the afternoon. It was the perfect way to spend the last afternoon of our camping trip. Monday morning we packed up and headed home. It was a fantastic family weekend!!

Our Advanced Child

2009-08-31T20:20:00.000-07:00

We just got Campbell's state test results in. She scored Advanced in both Writing and Mathematics. That is in the advanced range for kids her age. We are beyond thrilled about these scores. Especially in Mathematics. She is not a fan of the math and if she struggles in any subject, math is it.

In Reading she scored Proficient. Not sure why she didn't score advanced in that but oh well. We think that she was just completely tired of all the testing. It was the last of the tests that week. We are very, very happy with our smarty smart girl.

A "Free" Experiment

2009-08-17T20:36:00.000-07:00

Last week was Campbell's last week of summer break. I wanted to make a great week of it for her, but didn't want to break the bank in doing so. I felt it would be a good time to see what I could find around town that we could do for free. The experiment worked great.

On monday, we toured a candy factory. We got to go in the back and see how they made the different candies. During the tour, we also got samples of the candies that were being made. The tour lasted about an hour and the kids loved it.

On Tuesday, we went to the Pioneer Museum downtown. I was thrilled to find a museum that had free entry. It had some really interesting items and displays. The kids really liked seeing the doctor and dentis equipment from the 1800's. Caleb also loved all the guns. Outside, there were some statues and a huge gazebo. We spent about an hour out on the lawn just playing in the gazebo and around the statues.

On Wednesday, we toured the Olympic Training Center. I wish we had done this sooner. We probably would have hit it more than once over the summer. It started with a short movie which was just some highlights from the most recent olympic games. After the movie we headed out for the tour. We got to go into the gym where gymnasts and boxers train. We also got to tour the shooting range, the weight room, and the wrestling gym. We did not get to go in the pool area but we got to see it through the window. After the formal tour we got to take our time looking at the statues. The kids had a blast running around the statues.

Campbell had a sleepover here Wednesday night, so Thursday was spent here at the house playing with her friend. We also spent some time at the pool. Technically we pay our monthly fee for this, but we can swim whenever we feel like it.

Friday it was raining. My initial plan had been to go downtown and play in the water park. Since it was raining, that was out of the question. Instead we went to the mall and played in the play area for a bit. We also spent the afternoon cleaning the house.

All in all, we had a fantastic week and it was all free! I had to really search for these things to do which is disappointing. I'm sure there are more fun things out there that we aren't doing because we don't know about them. I will have to do more research and find them.

5th Grade

2009-08-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

Campbell started 5th grade today. She enjoyed her first day. She and her classmates all had the same oppinion that the teacher is a bit strict. The teacher she has right now is a substitute. Her regular teacher is on maternity leave until the end of September. I think it's great that they have a stricter teacher this year. I also believe that they do that on purpose. They are preparing this group for middle school.

Speaking of which, I am in complete denial that middle school starts next year. Campbell seems too young for middle school. My least liked years of school were in middle school, so I'm sure that doesn't help with my anxiety about my sweet girl heading there. I am just going to live in this denial for the next few months.

15 Years and Counting

2009-08-11T19:23:00.001-07:00

On August 5, Aaron and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. We chose to celebrate on Saturday night. That was when we were able to get a great babysitter. So we made a reservations and headed out to dinner. Aaron has lost a good bit of weight since moving here so had to wear his dress blue uniform to dinner.

We decided to go to a place called Cliff Palace in Manitou Springs. It was a great location. We arrived a little early so we decided to have drinks on the front porch. It was fantastic, but the best was yet to come.

We headed inside for our dinner. We got seated and ordered our drinks. Once our drinks arrived we ordered our meal and were then informed that the gentleman at the table behind us had paid for our drinks. Later we were informed that our entire meal had been paid for by the gentleman at the table next to ours. How fantastic is that! We had an entire meal at a 4 diamond restaurant paid for by someone else.

By the way, the food was fantastic! Since moving to Colorado we have pretty much stopped ordering seafood because it's always frozen. I made an exception here though. There seafood is flown in and is never older than 24 hours and never frozen. I had lobster and scallops. The food was fantastic!! Aaron had lamb and said it was extremely good as well.

After dinner we headed to downtown to a pub our babysitter had reccomended. As soon as we walked in, we knew it was a great place. There was a man playing the piano. He did not dow the singing, however. Each of the patrons had a song book and the patrons did the singing. It was a ton of fun!! Again, our drinks here were paid for as well. It pays to go out with someone in uniform. All in all, it was a fabulous evening!

Weekend with Poppy

2009-08-11T19:12:00.000-07:00

Poppy came to town to visit over the weekend. The kids and I picked him up in Denver on Friday morning. That evening we had great grilled food for dinner. We then took a quick walk up the street to treat ourselves to some gelato. That's always a yummy treat.

Saturday morning we took a nice walk to get coffee and breakfast. After breakfast we went up to Woodland Park to the Dinosaur museum. We had a great time there. The kids had a great time. Caleb always loves dinosaurs. The museum also had an exhibit on Darwin. Campbell loved the exhibit.

After the museum we decided to do a small hike. We took Poppy to Helen Hunt Falls. It was a great day for a little hike. We ended the morning with lunch. It was a great time! Unfortunately, the day had to end early. Poppy had a high school reunion to get to and Aaron and I had an anniversary dinner.

15 Years

2009-08-05T19:20:00.000-07:00

Today Aaron and I celebrate 15 years of marriage. Very hard to believe that we have been together that long. We are getting old!! We will go out Saturday evening for a lovely dinner just the two of us. (And it's raining today, just like it was 15 years ago today.)

Going Well

2009-08-04T12:53:00.001-07:00

The shots are going well. Campbell seems to be doing extremely well with them. After just 4 shots, she no longer tenses up when it's time for the shot. She just lets us know where she wants it and sits patiently for us. It is getting easier for Aaron and I, though we do still tense up. We worry about hurting her with the shots. It is the oddest feeling to give your child an injection. I think back to the shots she had has an infant (and the newborn IV). At that time, I remember wanting to cry for her. Now here we are 10 (almost 11) years later and we are giving her shots daily. It seems very surreal.

We are all getting use to this though, and are hopeful that she will begin growing soon. She is really paying attention to her body right now and feels that every thing she feels means that she is growing. We shall see. We plan to measure her on the first of each month to monitor her growth.

And the Journey Begins...

2009-07-31T09:00:00.001-07:00

The shots have begun.

All is good!

2009-07-28T07:49:00.001-07:00

We got Campbell's test results last night. Her Cortisol levels came back perfectly normal. Her MRI was clear. The doctor said her pituitary gland was slightly small, but nothing to worry about. The best news is that there are no tumors anywhere in her smart little brain. That was the biggest concern.

Tomorrow we head to Denver to learn how to torture..er..I mean give her shots. She is ready to just get this started.

Crackin' Me Nuts

2009-07-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

Caleb has come up with a new saying. He is combining "driving me nuts" and "cracking me up". He says "Crackin Me Nuts". It's hillarious!

July 29, 2009

2009-07-23T13:53:00.000-07:00

The medicine and pen are in. The alcohol swabs are ready. The sharps disposal container has been purchased. The training session has been set. On July 29 we have our training session to teach us how to give Campbell her shots. That will be the day we start her human growth hormone shots. Now we just need to get a growth chart made and some stickers. The stickers are to help us track on the calendar wether she has had her shot or not that day. We plan to take a picture of her every month on the 29th next to her growth chart so we have a visual keepsake of her growth.

Testing Complete

2009-07-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

Friday was the last of Campbell's testing. She had to have her Cortisol levels tested. This involved a dose of medicine and then 4 blood draws (one every 30 minutes). The other test was an MRI. They wanted to look at her Petuitary gland to make sure that all was normal with that.

She did fantastic during the MRI. The test lasted for 15 minutes and she had to stay perfectly still the entire time. Her head was put in a cage-like helmet. She was then moved inside the MRI tube. She did not freak out at all. The techs working with her said that she did better than most of their adult patients do. She followed all the instructions perfectly and laid completely still.

For their pediatric patients, the techs take pictures specifically for the kids to take home with them. Campbell now has the MRI pictures of her brain.

We are now just waiting for the results. Her injections will most likely begin this Friday. Our new journey is about to begin.

Surprise Parade

2009-07-19T19:03:00.000-07:00

Aaron is currently on his 2 week Reserve duty. Luckily this year though, he's up in Denver. He was able to come home today for a bit of family time. We headed to the giant baby store to get a baby gift. I then suggested we head downtown to play in the water park and walk through the shops.

When we got downtown, we noticed some tents up. We were pleasantly surprised that we had apparently run into a festival we didn't know about. We found our way around to some parking and started walking towards the park.

On our way we noticed a nun twirling in the street with a brightly colored umbrella. Aaron and I both thought this strange but hey, we were on our way to a festival. To our surprise, we found there was also a parade. The kids were thrilled! They love parades. Then Campbell commented that there were a lot of rainbows in this parade. Yes, yes there were.

Being the liberal parents we are, we didn't panic. We just let our kids enjoy the "rainbow" parade. It was a fun surprise for our family day out. Oh! and we did get some water time in. It rained on us at the parade.

Some Pictures from Nana's Visit

2009-07-15T14:02:00.000-07:00

Two Weeks

2009-07-14T19:49:00.001-07:00

Nana was here for the past two weeks. The kids really enjoyed spending some time with her. While she was here we went to Cripple Creek for Donkey Derby Days. We also went to Indpendence Pass on the 4th and had lunch in Aspen. Finally we took her into Denver to the Nature and History Museum. Those were our big outings.

We also spent a lot of time playing board games with Nana. Campbell loves to play board games with her Nana. The kids also took Nana to a movie. We went to the farmer's market and did some shopping.

The kids and I took her to see the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. She has wanted to see the Cliff Dwellings since she was a little girl about Campbell's age. We finally got her there, so she was very happy.

She is now at home. Aaron is in Denver doing his 2 weeks of AT. The kids and I are just hanging out at home. Summer is now officially her in Colorado. It was nearly 100 degrees today.

How's that for a quick update?

Happy 4th of July 2009

2009-07-05T13:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the 4th of July. We started the day by taking Nana (she's visiting) to the top of Independence Pass. We had a wonderful walk and saw some beautiful sites. After our little walk we went into Aspen for a quick brunch. We lucked and were able to see the parade while we were there. We didn't go see fireworks last nights because of rain. We just watched them for our bedroom window. Hope you all had as nice of a day as we did.

Father's Day

2009-06-30T06:20:00.000-07:00

Father's Day this year was spend on a short, easy hike up Helen Hunt Falls. It was a beautiful day and the falls were great. After our hike we had lunch in Old Colorado City. We ended our day with a walk through Rockledge Ranch. This ranch is an old period ranch with everyone in period costumes. Campbell loves these types of historical places. It was definitely a great family day.

Mother's Day

2009-06-28T18:15:00.000-07:00

For Mother's Day this year we went to the Denver Botanical Gardens and had a great time!!

Something Fun

2009-06-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago we took the kids camping. We went down to The Great Sand Dunes National Park. We went with some friends of ours. We had a great time!

These Kids!

2009-06-25T20:02:00.000-07:00

This is another health related post. This is for Caleb though.

First, Campbell is the child who needs to be reminded each day (more than once) to brush her teeth. She's 10. You would think she wouldn't need reminding anymore, but she does. She really hates to brush her teeth. She rolls her eyes when I also remind her to floss, even though I was nice and got her these really cool kid flossers. Even with all of this she has never had a cavity. She does not have any space in her mouth for her teeth, but she has never had a cavity.

Caleb, on the other hand, loves brushing his teeth. He walks around with a toothbrush constantly brushing his teeth. He as no fewer than 3 toothbrushes around the house for convenient brushing. He gets very excited when he gets to choose a new tooth brush. He was over the moon with the new flossers I found for the kids. He takes his teeth hygiene very seriously.

Neither kid ever went to bed with a bottle. They have both had their teeth brushed since there first teeth appeared. They don't get a lot of sweets. They both drink more water than juice or milk. When they do drink juice, it's watered down. They both get daily vitamins. Caleb had a pacifier but it was never dipped in anything to make it sweet. These are all the things the pediatric dentist say to do. Also, both kids have the same parents and have been raised in the same house.

Wednesday we went to the dentist. Campbell's teeth were perfect, albeit crowded. She had no cavities. She is nearly 11 and has no cavities. The dentist was ready to throw a party. Until he looked at Caleb's teeth. Somehow, he has six! cavities starting to form. They are on his molars. He has had these molars in his mouth for less than 2 years. Two of them have been in there less than a year. How on earth does he get all these cavities? The dentist said it happens. It's most likely something that happened in utero (no guilt there). We will have his teeth painted to try to prevent the cavities from actually getting worse. They are not at the point where the need to be filled. We will have to keep a very close eye on his teeth. The dentist said that his permanent teeth will most likely be fine, but we will watch closely as they come in.

Apparently this is the summer to test us as parents.

Parenting is Hard

2009-06-24T09:53:00.001-07:00

Ok it's been a long time since I updated, so I will start with the most recent update.

On June 5 we took Campbell in for Growth Hormone testing. She had to have an IV. When it was first insterted they gave her one hormone test. Every 30 minutes for 2 hours they withdrew blood for testing. At the 2 hour mark they gave her another medicine. Again, every 30 minutes for 2 hours they withdrew more blood. The entire test took 4 hours. They were testing the blood for growth hormone levels.

We got the results on Monday. They were hoping to see her levels spike over a 10.0 just once. (Kids normally run at a rate of 20-30.) Her highest level was a 9.1. Out of 8 blood draws her highlest growth hormone level was 9.1. The conclusion is that she is growth hormone deficient. She does not produce enough growth hormone for her to achieve a full adult height. Without any intervention with the levels they way they are, she might reach 4'9". That is a tiny person.

Last night we met with the endocrinologist to discuss options. We wanted to know pros and cons of treating as well as pros and cons of not treating. The biggest and probably most important thing for us that we learned concerned her health as an adult. If we do not treat her now there is a 30% chance that as an adult (in her 40's to 50's) she could suffer heart problems, immunity problems, bone density problems, as well as others.

As parents, we feel it is our responsibility to help her become the healthiest adult she can be. Because we know that some of these health issues exist on both sides of our families, we want to do all we can to help her avoid some of these. For this reason we have decided to move forward with growth hormone treatment.

This is not something we go into lightly. This is a huge commitment. We will be injecting our child with growth hormones (a banned substance in sports) six days per week for the next 8 years of her life. Campbell, being the child she is, worked out the formula to figure out how many shots that is for her. It's over 2000 shots of growth hormone. We have to get special wavers for her to participate in sports in high school. (If they ever did a drug test on her, she will come up positive for performance enhancing drugs.) If she is ever to go into the military we have to prove tha this is a medical necessity. (It is. She's not even considered in the grey zone. She is most definitely deficient and meets every criteria for medical necessity.)

Monday evening Campbell shed a lot of tears. Aaron and I held back our fears so that we could comfort her and not let her know how frightened we were of this diagnosis. After our discussion with the doctor last night, we all feel much better and are ready to move forward.

She has 2 more tests to take, probably next week and then we begin treatment. The first test is another hormone test to make sure she is producing cortizol (sp?). The second one is the one that scares me. Not the test itself, but what they are looking for. She has to have an MRI to make sure that she does not have any tumors on her petuitary gland. Any speak of tumors anywhere in her brain freaks me out. The doctor said that she is not showing any symptoms (besides the deficiency) for either of these issues. They just have to perform these tests as part of protocol.

These treatments will begin in July or early August. The doctor expects her to grow 3 inches over the next year. Usually she grows only 1/2" in a year, so 3" is pretty significant for her. We will keep you updates as we move forward with this.

More Campbell

2009-04-28T20:53:00.001-07:00

Campbell has started the spring track and field series at her school. They practice once per week and have 3 track meets. Last night was the first track meet. Campbell chose to run the 800m because it was so cold yesterday. At run time it was 40 degrees. Those kids were so cold. As were the parents. Hopefully the next two meets are much warmer.

Even with the codl weather Campbell did a good job. Her official time was 4:49. That's twice around the track in less than 5 minutes. That's not too bad. I do need to make sure that next week she moves herself to the front of the start line rather than standing in the back. She has to maneuver around all the slow kids which slows her start. She can easily take of 10 seconds by starting in the front. She did a great job passing all those kids that are taller than her though.

In other Campbell news...We saw the endocrenologist again. She had grown 1/2 inch in 6 months. I was thrilled with that. There have been times when she only grew 1/2 inch in a year. So this seemed really good to me. The doc wasn't so happy with it, though. He was wanting to see an inch in 6 months. I had to inform him that she has never grown an inch in a year since she was a baby. This did not make him happy.

It turns out he wants to have some more extensive testing done on her growth hormones. The test is called a Growth Hormone Stimulation Test. She will have to have an IV in for 4 hours. They will push 2 medicines through the IV. If her HGH reacts then she is fine and nothing further will need to be done. If her HGH doesn't react then we have some decisions to make.

If it doesn't react then it means there is something wrong with her HGH and we may have to consider growth hormone therapy. Aaron and I are not to keen on doing this. The only reason that we would is that the doc said the hormone deficiency could negatively affect her heart and bone health. The test will be done in June.

A Basin Party

2009-04-26T22:08:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we headed up to A Basin (Arapahoe Basin) for a party. One of Aaron's friends has a party up there every year. It's for a couple of guys' birthdays. They have apparently been doing this for 5 years. They rent a parking area at the base of the ski slopes and just hang out and drink and eat all day.

This was our first year going. As such we didn't know exactly what to expect. The party was no Bradoween but we had a good time. If we go next year, we will definitely take skis so that we can also ski during the day. The party is called a "Beach Party" so we did at least take buckets and sand toys for the kids to use in the snow. They had a great time and so did the kids at the party next to ours. They thought our toys were the greatest.

Next year, we will also remember the sun screen. We all came home with burns on our faces this year.

The Brown's Petri Dish

2009-04-19T11:19:00.000-07:00

I suggest everyone stay away from our house for a few days. We are full of all sorts of nastyness. Last week Caleb started with a cough on Tuesday. On Thursday, he was running a fever. Friday morning he was diagnosed with pneumonia. This is a kid who never gets sick. In fact, this is only the 3rd time in his life that he has been on antibiotics. Yet, he gets pneumonia. We have kept him quarantined in the house all weekend.

Fast forward to Saturday. I have been coughing for a couple of days. On Saturday night I started running a fever. I have been off and on all day with a fever today. I also started taking some Echinecea/Goldenseal drops. I was told that they are a natural antibiotic. Since there does not seem to be an urgent care open today I though I'd give them a try. I started them yesterday, and less than 24 hours after the first dose, my ear and jaws no longer ache. This all natural treatment may be a good way to go.

Aaron has a scratchy throat. Campbell seems to be fine. I am getting ready to spray Lysol all over this place. Also, the snow has stopped and the weather is beautiful. Time to open the windows.

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

yes...It's snowing!

Changes

2009-04-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

In January and February, I interviewed for a job. After three interviews they decided to hire someone else. At the beginning of March they called and asked if would do a contract position for them. I met with them again. I was told last week that they would indeed hire me to do the contract. I just received the contract so can now make the announcement that I am going back to work.

The job will only last 8 weeks, but it is something. In these economic times you take what you can get. Also, it is a job I know I can do and can do well. It will definitely be different getting up and going to work in the mornings. I have not had to do that in two years. I mean I worked, but I worked remotely from my home. I did not need to get dress, brush my hair, or even brush my teeth if I didn't feel like it. Now I must get up and look presentable before I walk out the door in the mornings. It is also a one hour commute each direction, so I will have to get use to that as well. I better make sure my coffee pot is set to brew at 6am.

Caleb will be going to "school" full time during this period. He has been going to preschool since October so he is comfortable with this center and his teachers. He will just have to get use to taking a nap after lunch instead of coming home. Luckily, most days Aaron will be able to pick him up shortly after nap time so that shouldn't be too bad.

Campbell is the trickiest. All the afterschool care programs are filled and she would only need to be in them for 30 minutes at most anyway, so we have had to be creative with our schedules to make it work for her. We think we have this figured out. Will report later on how it's working.

Aaron's work schedule won't change too much. He will still go in at 6am and leave at 2:30. He will be responsible for all the afternoon childcare pickups. He hasn't had this responsibility consistently since I was in college when Campbell was just little. He will also be responsible for dinners since I won't be home until after six.

These next 2 months will require a lot of juggling on all of our parts, but we will make it work.

April Fool's

2009-04-05T15:50:00.000-07:00

Today is April 5. It is snowing again. It has snowed every single day of this month so far. I am so over the snow. I want it to warm up already.

In other news...On April 1, Campbell started track practice. I can't wait for her meets. The first two races she has to run the mile. The last meet she can choose between the 400m and the 800m. Can't wait to see how she does.

Hopefully it won't be snowing on those days.

Snow Shoeing

2009-04-01T12:50:00.001-07:00

BLizzard 2009

2009-03-29T21:28:00.000-07:00

Just a couple of months before we moved to Colorado, this section of the country was hit with a blizzard. The remnants of that blizzard were still on the ground when we arrived two months after the fact. This led Campbell to believe that she would get to see a blizzard.

She had read about these blizzards in her story books. She thought it would be great and exciting to live through one of these tremendous storms. Aaron and I were not so much looking forward to these types of storms. Lucky for us, the past two winters have been fairly mild. We have seen our fair share of snow and cold but not a true blizzard. That is until this last Thursday.

The weathermen started predicting the storm on Sunday. They said it would hit Thursday afternoon and last for about 24 hours. Now we all know that weather forecasts aren't always completely accurate. I made sure we had fun things to do during the storm, but didn't really panic about it.

Thursday morning the snow started at about 11 am. I decided to make a quick trip to the craft store. By the time we arrived back at home at 1 pm the wind was also blowing and it was what they call white out conditions. That means that there is no visibility. At this point we were in a blizzard. Campbell went to stay the night with her best friend who lives about 3 blocks from us. The weather was so bad that I would not let her walk over there. I drove her.

Normally Aaron makes the drive home from work in 30 minutes or less. Thursday it took him nearly 2 hours. Along his trip home he was a good samaritan and helped push two vehicles up a hill. He was not dressed for this. He didn't even have gloves with him. He also got to experience 60mph winds blowing his truck on icy roads. He is now researching 4x4's.

That night we listened to the wind blow. We also watched the snow blow into drifts. Thankfully we did not lose power unlike those South of us. The blizzard conditions lasted until about noon on Friday. Then, the sun came out and by 5:00 that evening the roughly 12" of snow we received was about half way melted already.

I grew up in Montana so this does not rank as one of the top worst storms I've been through. However, it was the worst the rest of my family has been through. It was also enough to close down a lot of businesses around the city. Even the military bases here were closed for the day. I would say that since April is right around the corner we won't see much more snow, but this is Colorado.

Prelude to Springs

2009-03-16T09:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was such a glorious day. It was so sunny and warm. Campbell wore a tank style dress and got a bit of a sunburn! It's not really a burn more just some lovely pink shoulders. We do neet to get the sunscreen out though.

We spent a couple of hours at the zoo. After that Campbell spent the afternoon outside playing with "friends". That's what Caleb calls them. He doesn't care if they have actual names. They are all just called "friend". I had the kitchen window open and it was glorious to hear the sound of the kids playing in the backyard.

I know that it is only March and we are surely in for some more cold weather. But, it is so nice to have this weather. It is suppose to be in the 60's to 70's all this week. We have many walks and trips to the parks planned. This bit of nice weather gives us a glimpse at the spring and summer go come.

Spring is Springing

2009-03-14T19:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday while doing dishes I looked out the kitchen window. Not only did I see a beautiful view of Pike's Peak as usual, but I also a robin in the tree in our back yard. Robins are a sure sign that spring is around the corner. Later in the afternoon I looked in the flower bed in the front yard. To my pure delight I saw the little green leaves of tulips! May favorite flowers are tulips, specifically white tulips. To me they represent a clean, fresh new beginning. They also represent spring. With these two sightings I declared that it was time to get ready for spring.

Back in the fall as I was getting the last of our house unpacked I noticed that one wall in particular was very bare. I went to the store and found some nice sconces but I was missing a picture for that spot. That's when I had a moment of genious. I do get these every now and then. I decided that each season I would have the kids paint a new picture for the spot. I give them each a 8" x 10" canvas and let them go to town. They can use any medium they choose (paint, crayon, oil pastels) and create a picture for the spot.

Yesterday, I decided it was time to do the spring pictures. They both decided they would use paint. They both also wanted the same colors: red, green, and purple. Campbell painted an impressionistic English garden. Caleb painted an impressionistic (is that a real word?) flower. Now the walls are ready for spring.

The Arts

2009-03-08T08:49:00.000-07:00

Denver has this great program where some of the organizations have a free day for Colorado residents. The art museum happens to have them on the first Saturday of the month. That also happens to be the weekend that Aaron has drill in San Diego. The kids and I decided to go check it out yesterday.

We drove up to the big city and suprisingly found parking. Parking is my biggest worry when we go to Denver. There are plenty of parking garages but getting into them can sometimes be a trick with all the one way streets and such. But we had no problem yesterday.

We ended up spending about 2 hours walking through the musuem. This is why the free day is nice. The kids are usually done after 2 hours. (And by kids, I mean Caleb. Campbell could spend much more time walking through.) We made it through the first building and through the children's play area in the second building. Next month we may have to try it again and hit the other 6 floors that we didn't make it to this time.

After the museum we hit the mall for some shopping and lunch. Once we started home in mid afternoon we were greeted with a not so lovely surprise. It was snowing! Visibility was maybe 100feet at good times. I was very glad when we made it home safely. We did have a great time out yesterday though.

Rainbow Fun

2009-03-06T21:44:00.000-08:00

I saw this idea for a rainbow cake on the internet the other day. I thought it would be a great activity for me to do with the kids. It was a whole lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it. I didn't get the recipe for the icing correct. (It still tasted good, it just didn't look as good.)

Hiking and a Picnic

2009-03-02T08:18:00.000-08:00

We had a beautiful day here in Southern Colorado yesterday. Today and tomorrow it will be even nicer. This is one of the few times in regards to weather that we are happy to be here rather than in Carolina. How funny is it that we have beautifuly hiking weather and they have snow?!

We decided to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather and go for a hike. Also, Caleb has been bugging me for weeks to go on a picnic. We decided that we could take care of both in one day. We packed our lunch and headed to the mountains.

We went to Manitou Springs which is just a few miles south of us. It's a small, quaint town that is fun to just walk through. They have some really cute gift shops. The whole area around the town has some great history and hiking trails.

We headed to a trail just above the town that use to be a railroad. The rails are long gone but the trail is still there. The trails offers 5 tunnels to hike through. The kids love to drive through all the tunnels here in Colorado so we figured they would love to hike through some as well. This particular hike is a shorter hike. Total round trip mileage was 2.2 miles. The kids did really enjoy the hike. Although, Caleb was worried about bats and made sure to remind us that we had to be super quiet in the tunnels so that we wouldn't wake the bats. There was no convincing him that there weren't actually bats in the tunnels.

We ended the hike with a lovely little picnic. It was a great way to spend a late winter afternoon. This sunny, warm weather is as unexpected here in March as snow is in South Carolina in March.

It's been awhile....Again

2009-02-23T20:09:00.000-08:00

OK. Let me give you a new update.

Caleb has been doing well in preschool. We have had a few days where he has not been the most well behaved child. We have learned that this is the course with him. He will be really good for a long string of days. Then suddenly he gets bad, really bad. Then he turns nice again. We just have to remember to always be on him and not let him get away with anything. His newest thing is to answer "pee pee" to everything you ask him. Apparently the funny "pee pee" jokes start young.

Campbell has been doing great. She has passed all of her division facts. There are only a couple of kids in her class that have achieved this goal. She did shed a few tears learning these, but she learned them. On the flip side, she totally understands and loves probability. She has started her strength training classes. She is the smallest in the class (ages 10-16) but she hangs in there with everyone else.

Aaron is also doing well. He has been contracting for the last 9 months. Next week he gets hired on as a full time employee with the company. It will be nice to have that security back. He has been building a bed for Caleb so has been back in the wood shop again. He does enjoy spending his time out there.

As for me, life is alright. I am still not employed. We are just taking that one day at a time. I would like to do something at least parttime. In the meantime, I am looking at going back to school. I'm not sure what exactly I will do yet ( a master's degree or another bachelor's) but it looks as though it may be time to hit the books again.

As a whole, the family is doing great. We have spent some time at the museums, zoos, and outdoor activities. Life is seemingly busy right now but we are just enjoying our time together.

Pictures fromYesterday and Today

2009-02-05T18:10:00.001-08:00

Park

Zoo

Teeth and the Park

2009-02-04T16:35:00.000-08:00

Campbell had another appointment with the orthodontist today. She has been seeing one since she was 6. The poor child has big teeth and a small jawline. The orthodontists have all agreed to just pull teeth and wait to see what happens. As teeth come in, they pull the next teeth in line on top and bottom. She gets four done at a time. At 10 years old, she has only lost 2 teeth on her own. The rest have all been pulled. This tactict has been working, though. Her teeth are beautifully straight. The bite is a bit off and will have to be corrected with braces in 2-3 years. But, we are preventing majorly crooked teeth so the bite will be much easier to fix (and quicker and cheaper). She does not need to see the ortho for another 6 months unless she gets new teeth coming in. Yeah! We might actually have ortho insurance by then.

The weather was so beautiful today, in the mid 60's. We decided it would be a good day to check out a new park. We went to a little park that is a bit out of the way for where we live. It has a whole train set up, though so we had to go. The park wasn't as cool as we had hoped. We still had a great time, but we were hoping for a bit more. I snapped a few pictures. Hopefully I got a good one for Valentine's cards. We'll see.

We ended the afternoon by going to the pet store. The kids love to walk through and look at all the animals. It's like a mini zoo to them. All in all it was a great day!

Small Update

2009-02-02T19:26:00.000-08:00

I have done two interviews with an organization now. I have spent a total of 6 hours interviewing at this one location. I hope I get the job. I would love the job and think that I could do really well at it. It would mean a commute of about 50 miles each direction, but we can deal with that.

Aaron is also in the process of getting a new job. It's actually not a new job, he will just transfer from contractor to permanent employee. He could stay as a contractor and make more money, but in todays who's-getting-laidoff-now employment environment, being permanent staff is a little more secure. Those contractors get cut first. This transition should be completed at the end of this month.

Caleb is doing very well in preschool. Although when he and two specific other little boys get together, there is trouble. The three of them feed off each other, so when one misbehaves they all do. He is growing up very quickly and becoming such a little man. He went with his dad this evening to get a haircut. He was so happy for this little outing with his daddy.

Campbell is of course just as sweet and smart as usual. She has been having issues learning her division but is making progress. On the flip side, she had absolutely no problem with her probability homework tonight. She is also growing up way to fast.

Well, there you go. It's not much of an update but it is an update. Hopefully soon we will get back to our regular schedule of traveling and hiking and just exploring our little part of the world.

Awards

2009-01-26T08:13:00.000-08:00

Second quarter ended the second week of January. The end of a quarter means it's awards time again. We received a note stating that Campbell would be receiving an award. Last quarter she got the Spanish award. We were curious as to what the award this time would be.

We were surprised to see her win an math award. Apparently she now knows all of her multiplication facts. We are very proud of this accomplishment. She and I spent hours and many tears (hers and mine) over the course of the last year learning these. She is a smart kid, but math is not her thing. This is frustrating for me as I find math fairly easy. I guess this is the difference between an analytical person and an artistic person.

We were much less surprised to see that she had also won the writing award. The child can write. She has the ability to draw you write into her stories. In fourth grade she can paint a picture with her words. Her teacher is amazed with her ability to do this. Apparently most 10 year olds don't write this well. She should be able to write will with all the reading she does. She just complete the Little Women book. The version she completed is the large version (not the one with information removed for kids to read). The book was 754 pages. She read the book in less than a week.

We also received her report card. Again she did very well as usual. The only thing she needs to work on is her attention to detail. The teacher said she is a great student, but needs to learn to take her time and pay attention to the details. We are very proud of our smart girl.

First Hike of 2009

2009-01-18T19:17:00.000-08:00

This weekend we were able to get in the first hike of 2009. The weather was absolutely perfect for hiking. It was 55 degrees here so we headed over to Cheyenne Mountain State Park. It's only about 20 minutes from where we live.

The hike we chose was a simple 3.29 miles. Along the hike we saw pleanty of "prairie dogs". As a girl who grew up in Montana, I will never understand why they call these things praire dogs. They are just gophers. We also saw some deer. One group of deer was no further than 15 feet away. They were definitely not scared of us.

There was a little bit of snow on the hike. It was mostly dry, but we didn't run into some of the white stuff. The biggest issue was mud. We all came home with our fair share of mud on our feet.

It was a fantastic day to get our first hike of the new year in.

Employment Woes

2009-01-13T17:33:00.000-08:00

Some of you may know, some may not. I am no longer working for Tech. The found someone to work locally in the office. Obviously, me living in Colorado was not conducive to working in the office in Greenville. Anyway, I have been job hunting.

Back in November I submitted my resume to two organizations. I interviewed with both organizations and was offered the job at both organizations. The pay was the same at both places as was the position. One was an hour commute. The other was local. I took the local job. I was to begin working the first week in January.

It turns out that due to the economy the will not be able to employ me. The other job has also already been filled. Therefore, I am unemployed. Hopefully this won't last long. I have submitted my resume to several other jobs today. We don't necessarily need the money. My working just gives me peace of mind in case something to happen to Aaron's job. It just gives the peace of mind to keep me sane. In the meantime, I plan to take this extra time and organize this house. I will be making a few bucks by selling a bunch of extra stuff we have just hanging around here.

Christmas in Carolina

2009-01-13T17:19:00.000-08:00

Ok. It has been way too long since I updated. I will start with our Christmas.

We had our family present opening on Christmas Eve this year. We were to be traveling on the 25th so this worked better for us. The kids both had a terrific time. Caleb really understood the concept of opening the gifts. Although, he still wanted to play with every gift before he went onto the next one. To say the least, this took up some time.

Favorite gifts: Aaron built Campbell a bed for her dolls and I made the bedding to go with the doll. She was absolutely thrilled!!! I also made her and her dolls matching batrh robes. These were also a big hit. Caleb loved the stick horse that Aaron made for him as well as the doctor kit that he got.

We made it a very relaxing day. Aaron worked half the day then we opened dinner and had pizza for dinner.

Christmas day we flew to Atlanta where we got a car and drove to SC. We spent 4 days in Charleston. We visited with Aaron's family, did some sight seeing, and just relaxed. We went to Ft. Sumter one day. Aaron and I had lived in Charleston for 2 years but never made it out to the fort. So glad we did on this trip. We also spent some time on the beach one morning. We visited the Charleston Tea Plantation and Angel Oak. Lastlyk, we spent an afternoon walking through downtown Charleston and visiting a couple of old houses.

We left Charleston and went to Charlotte to see Adam and Laurel. We were hoping to see the new baby as well, but he had not yet made his arrival. We visited for a couple of hours and then went to Greenville. Upon our arrival in Greenville, we dropped Campbell off with her friend. She was thrilled to be having this sleepover. Aaron, Caleb and I went to dinner with James K. and his daughter. We then spent a couple of hours with the K family. It was really nice to catchup.

On New Years eve we went to the jewelery store to get my birthday gift. I then had lunch with the ladies from the office. It was great to visit with them all again. That night we spent New Year's Eve with the best people. I LOVED hanging out and visiting with Michelle, her family, and some other friends from our days in Greenville. I can not think of a better way to bring in the New Year!

The next morning we went back up to Charlotte where we were able to see the new nephew who made his arrival early that morning. It was a great way to top off our Carolina Christmas vacation.

North Pole

2008-12-15T18:14:00.000-08:00

We were looking for something Christmasy to do with the kids this last weekend. After doing some research, we decided upon Santa's Workshop in North Pole, CO. This place is about 30 minutes from us. It's basically just a North Pole themed amuzement park. They all sorts of little rides as well as shops. They also have a post office. A few of you will be getting post cards from us. Be sure to look at the postage stamp. Your kids will find this very cool.

We all had a great time. Luckily the weather was in the 50's so we didn't get too cold. We did not visit with Santa in his house. The line was entirely too long. We were not up for that. The kids had a lot of fun though. Caleb did not like the roller coaster. It was the only ride he cried on. Campbell did not like the space shuttle ride. She almost cried on that one.

We spent nearly 4 hours at the park. Caleb was so exhausted. We barely go in the car before he was asleep. We followed the park excursion with a nice lunch in Manitou Springs. Caleb did not wake up for lunch. He slept through the shift from car to stroller and the entire lunch.

That night we sent Campbell to the Tween Night over at the Y. This is the first time that she has gone. She had a blast and requested to go again. They have the night twice per month. We will probably send her once per month. We may also try out the Parents Night Out. Caleb is old enough and potty trained. Aaron and I might actually get a dinner by ourselves once a month.

Holiday Program

2008-12-13T21:52:00.001-08:00

Last night Caleb had his very first holiday program at his preschool. He attends preschool at a Luthern Church so I'm sure you can imagine that the songs were religious in nature. His class sang three songs. The first two I had not heard before, but they were cute. The last one was "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".

Caleb did not sing during his songs but he was dancing. He was full on rocking it with tongue out and all. This was during a song called "My Gift to Jesus". Definitely not a rock and roll song. Caleb likes to rock and roll though. It was a very cute little program.

On a side note, a bunch of parents and grandparents need to learn some manners. After the program we had to stress to our children that we did not want to ever see them behave the way some of these adults behaved. They were pushing and shoving people to try to get the best picture of their kid. One woman was waving her arms around trying to get her kids attention. In the process of doing this, she was totally in the way of other people trying to see their kids. People were also talking throughout the entire program. The teachers were trying their best to keep the kids quiet all while these parents couldn't shut their traps for a 30 minute program. Rant over.

Busy

2008-12-07T20:30:00.000-08:00

So, it's been a while...

We have been busy so I will just give you a quick recap. My brother and sister and nephew came into town for Thanksgiving. It was good to have them here for a few days. While they were here we went to the Pro-rodeo Hall of Fame. That was my brother's one request. The boys hated the statues. We also took all the kids to see Santa. Caleb and Landon were both afraid at first but quickly warmed up. Caleb had Santa laughing with all his talk about monkeys. The child has a lot to say about them because he is one.

On Thanksgiving we also had our friend Angie over for dinner as well. Of course we all ate way too much, but what else do you do on Thanksgiving. My family left on Friday morning. The kids and I did some shopping but didn't really find any great deals.

We got 11" of snow on Sunday. Aaron decided we should go hiking. We headed over to Garden of the Gods. The odd thing was that though we already had 8" at our house there was only maybe 2" over there. Oh well. We did a small hike through the park and then did lunch in Old Colorado City.

Aaron's brother was came to visit on Monday. He was here on business and stayed with us for 2 nights. The kids were thrilled to spend some time with their Uncle Pooky.

Aaron has been out of town for Reserves this weekend, so the kids and I were on our own. We spent Saturday afternoon shopping in Denver. That evening we went to the Parade of Lights in Downtown Denver. We had a great day. It would have been nicer with Daddy but what can you do?

Today we just hung out. Campbell had a little girl over for a play date. Other than that we just did housework.

So, now you are caught up on us. I'll try to keep up better in the future. No promises though as we are trying to get ready for Christmas and the traveling that we have planned.

Delayed

2008-11-21T08:06:00.000-08:00

This is a word we are not use to hearing about our dear daughter. She was born 5 weeks preterm but hit all of her milestones ahead of full term babies. She was walking by the time she was 10 months old. She was speaking in full sentences by 18 months. She could sing her abc's by 18 months. She was reading by age 4. At age 10 and in the 4th grade she is working on a 9th grade reading level. She is anything but delayed.

She has always been a tiny little thing. Previous to this year she was estimated to be between 5' - 5'2" at full adult height. That changed at this year's well baby appoint. (Yes, I still call it a well baby even though she is clearly not a baby anymore.) This year she had dropped on the curve and they said that at this rate she will only reach 4'9". Panic set in and we agreed to see the ednocrinologist.

Three weeks ago they ran all sorts of blood tests on her. They also did a bone age scan. This scan is just an x-ray of her left hand and wrist. From this scan they can tell what age her bones are. Apparently, bones are not necessarily the same age as the person is cronilogically. Yesterday we got the results back.

6 years 10 months. That is the age of our 10 year old daughter's bones. The good news with this is that she is the size of an average 7 year old so she is tall for her bone age. While this is the best news we could have received and what we were hoping for, the doctor is still concerned. He normally sees a bone age that is 1-2 years behind the cronilogical age. Being 3+ years behind is slightly worrisome for him. We now have a choice to make.

Her IGF-1 (human growth hormone in the liver proteins) level was at 91. Normal levels of this hormone in 10 year old girls is 120 or greater. Deficient levels in 10 year old girls is less than 60. So as you can see, she falls right smack dab in the middle of the gray area. She is neither deficient nor normal. We have to decide if we want to put her through further hormone testing or just let things go.

The hope is that with no intervention, she would reach her full expected adult height of 5'5-5'6 three years later than her peers. She will go through puberty three years later than her peers. (She'll be the flat chested girl all through high school.) The fear is that if we do nothing it affects not only her height as an adult but her ability to have children of her own (many, many, many years from now) as an adult. We still have a bunch of research to do to see if this is something we really need to look into. The height is not our main concern at this point. Even without intervention we are certain that she will hit 5' at a minimum. Our concern is other health issues that may be affected.

This whole "delayed" issue is certainly new territory to us.

Crafty

2008-11-11T09:07:00.000-08:00

Aaron and I have decided that we are going to be a bit more crafty with our gift giving this holiday season. He is putting his woodworking skills to use and I am putting my sewing "skills" to use. We are just trying to be a bit more frugal and show the kids that it is about what comes from the heart not the pocketbook.

Aaron has been working on a stick horse for Caleb. It's going to be very cute. He is also working on a couple of doll beds for Campbell. It is what she wants for Christmas. He has been able to use all wood that is just lying around the garage so no real out-of-pocket expense. He did have a to purchase a $3 dowel for the stick horse, but no big deal.

I am making super hero capes for the little boys in our lives. I am making matching pj's and robes for Campbell and her (4) 18" dolls. She will be thrilled with these. I will be making bedding for the beds that Aaron is making as well. I am also making a quilt for my secret santa person. Hope they like it. Once those projects are finished we will have to see what else we can get to. Caleb has requested a space alien quilt, but we will have to see if I can get to that for him.

Campbell has also gotten into the crafting goodness. She has learned how to make pillows. Two of them are already completed. She also has a couple of purses she would like to make. Finally she wants to make a stuffed animal for her brother. Hopefully we can get all of these projects completed in time.

Family Traditions

2008-11-05T13:51:00.000-08:00

On Monday, Aaron flew to Atlanta and then drove to Montgomery, AL. He was attending the commissioning of his cousin Brian. Brian was being commissioned as an officer in the US Air Force. Aaron got to swear him in.

History

2008-11-05T07:56:00.001-08:00

Our kids have seen a very historic day. This is something they will be able to tell their children, grand-children, great grand-children, etc. Like so many people have said, we were all told as kids that we could do anything we wanted, even become president of the US. But, when you looked at that poster that is placed in every classroom across this country, all the faces looked the same. Sure they had different hair colors and styles. Some were heavier than others. But, every single one of them had the same color skin and they were all men. Now that poster changes.

I've been trying to explain to the kids how incredible this really is. Caleb doesn't really care. Campbell doesn't quite get it. She understands that it's the first time. I think part of her not quite understanding the significance is her life. She, unlike myself, has grown up in a very diverse lifestyle. She has friends of all colors. She has never really known a world where prejudice is allowed in our household. She's been around it, we just have sheltered her from that and made it clear to her that everyone is created equal no matter what. Apparently that has worked. As she studies more history I think it will start to sink in. I may make a trip to the library today to get her a book on the Civil Rights Movement.

All in all, today I can say that I am very glad that my kids are American. Yes they can!

Short Stature

2008-10-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

At Campbell's well-baby appointment this month the doctor was slightly concerned about her height. It seems that she has only grown an inch this last year. They worry if kids don't grow at least 2 inches per year. The doctor gave us a referral to the endocrinologist.

Today we had that appointment. The endocrinologist said that there could be any number of reasons or no reason at all. The least likely is Turner's Syndrome. He doesn't see any other markers besides the short stature for TS. Other reasons include thyroid problems, growth hormone deficiency or slowed bone age. We are hoping for the slowed bone age. That would mean that she is just a late bloomer.

We had a series of test done today. She had 5 tubes of blood drawn. She was not thrilled with this. She also had an x-ray of her hand done. This is for the bone age test. We should have all results (except the TS kareotype test) back within 10 days. We are all hoping that the bone age test shows that her bones are only 7-8 years of age and not 10 years of age.

As an aside, the little girl who had an appointment right before us was named Lenna. That's Campbell's middle name. Campbell found that to be very cool.

Pre-School

2008-10-28T13:05:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Caleb became a pre-schooler. He will be going to a Luthern church down the street from us. He attends Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings from 8-12:30.

He was excited to go play yesterday. Although, he did say that he was excited to "dance like a monkey so my friends will laugh at me". Yes, he is always a clown. He takes after his father for sure.

He had a terrific first day. The teachers said he did very well. They commented on how well he speaks and that he didn't let any of the other kids bully him around. He gets a hot lunch there and ate all of his lunch yesterday. He did, however, refuse to use the potty at school. At least he didn't wet his pants. He just waited until he got home.

Hopefully the rest of the week goes just as well.

Ten

2008-10-27T09:35:00.001-07:00

It's hard to believe that she surprised us with her early arrival ten years ago. It feels like yesterday.

The Delight

2008-10-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

Last week we had Campbell's parent/teacher conference. Both her regular classroom teacher and her Gifted and Talented teacher said that she is The Delight of the classroom. They could not say enough good things about her. They don't use the A, B, C, D, F scale here. But if they did, she would have received straight A's. We also learned that she is not only one of the top students in reading but that she is also one of the top students in math. We are so very proud of her accomplishments. She has worked really hard to catch up with the math standards here in Colorado. She is definitely our smarty-smart girl.

Weekend Before Last

2008-10-20T12:10:00.000-07:00

Weekend before last, we found ourselves in an unusual position. Aaron was off work and Campbell was out of school. I was able to take the day off from work. With all of that, we decided to take a mini-vacation. Friday morning, we got up early and headed for Mesa Verda in southern Colorado.

We made it to Durango at about noon. We were going to take the kids on a train ride but discovered that the train rides started at 9am and lasted all day. We decided instead to tour the train yard. The tour lasted about 1 1/2 hours and we got to walk through the train yard and the workshops. By the time we finished walking through all of this, Caleb was filthy! His hands were black. He also managed to ruin my khaki pants with the black. Take my advice, if you ever go to a train yard do not wear khaki!

After the tour we headed to Cortez to our hotel. Saturday morning we got up early and headed to Mesa Verde to walk through the ruins. We spent the morning walking through these ruins. The two hikes we went on we had to climb ladders to get to. It was an amazing place and if you ever get a chance to go, Go. We ended our morning there with a picnic lunch.

That afternoon we headed down to Four Corners Monument. At this place Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado all meet at this one spot. All four of us were able to stand in a different state at the same time. We expected more, but alas it was just the little monument. We spent about 30 minutes there before we headed back to Cortez.

On our way back we saw a sign for a winery. We followed the sign and made our way to this cute little winery. We spent about an hour tasting wines while the kiddos played in the gardens. We've never done this before but we had a good time. We were worried the kids would get bored while we were there, but they seemed to have a good time as well.

We made it back to Cortez for dinner. Aaron took Caleb to the potty and made a horrible mistake. He decided to hold him up to the urinal rather than sit him on the potty. Let's just say that Caleb needed to more than just pee.

We ended the evening by watching a documentary on Former President Carter and eating ice cream. Hey, we make learning fun! We headed home Sunday morning with sick child. Campbell woke up at 4 in the morning vomiting. We had to stop more than once on the way home to let her empty her stomach. Poor kid.

Marathon, Party, & Maze

2008-10-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a very busy day for us. We started the morning with Campbell's marathon mile. We had to be to Denver by 8am which meant leaving here by 7am. We are normally not up this early on a Saturday morning so that was a stretch, but we left here at 20 minutes until 7. So we did good.

We got Campbell all checked in and then had to wait for her to run. The race didn't start until 10 so we just did some walking downtown. She ran her race and ran it in 9:25. That was pretty good considering the number of people in the race. There were so many kids. Next year I think they need to seperate the race into age groups. It would prevent kids from being blocked in by the 500 kids in front of them.

We also did a birthday party for the kids on Saturday. Most of our friends are up in Denver so we decided to do a bowling party up there. It was a lot of fun and we had a great time! We had a lot of good friends show up and we enjoyed their company.

I think something was working against poor Caleb though. He has talked about having a baseball party for months now. Last week I ordered the cake for him. It was a baseball field with a baseball on it. The perfect cake. When I went to pick up the cake Friday evening, we instead got a basketball cake. The decorator was already gone so we had to take what we got. (Although, I threw a fit and got the cake for half off.) Then, on Saturday we went and got the kid a balloon with a baseball on it. Just as we walked out of the store the balloon popped. We got a new balloon and headed to the bowling alley. As soon as we go there the new balloon popped. At least the baseball decorations I go worked out well.

After the part we headed over to the corn maze. It was fantastic to walk through the maze in the evening with the sun setting. By the time we left it was dark. It was a really nice way to end our busy day.

Annual Updates

2008-10-13T18:22:00.000-07:00

Today the kids had their yearly well-baby appointments. All went well. They are both small but healthy. The doctor is sending Campbell to an endocrinologist (sp?) to make sure that everything is good with her. She is very tiny so the doctor just wants to make sure that all is good. She also wants us to try to break Caleb of his "W" sit and get him to sit criss-cross style.

Campbell's Stats
47 1/2 "
49 lbs 4 oz.
BMI 15 1/4

Caleb's Stats
35 1/2 "
27 lbs.
BMI 15

Three!!

2008-10-13T09:44:00.001-07:00

Phone Call from the Teacher

2008-10-09T08:02:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was the school. My first thought was that Campbell had another headache and needed me to bring her some medicine. (This has happened twice this year. I'm thinking it's time to get her eyes checked again.)

When I answered the phone it was actually her teacher. She told me she was calling about Campbell. Now, my first reaction is "but she's a good kid. What could she have done?" Turns out she did nothing wrong. Instead she was calling to inform me that Campbell had received a 100 percent on her math test last week. She got to go to the office to get a high five. This school is definitely all about the positive reinforcement and making sure that parents know the good as well as the bad.

Campbell's goal this year has been to do well enough in math to possibly get into Gifted and Talented for math next year. She is well on her way!!

233 Years of Tradition

2008-10-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

October 13 marks the 233rd birthday of the United States Navy. To mark this birthday we at the Brown household had ourselves a Very Navy Weekend.

Friday evening Aaron and I got ourselves all gussied up. We then dropped the kids off with family for a sleepover with Cousin Anna. We then headed to downtown for the Navy Day Ball. The venue was decorated nicely to include an ice sculpture of the Navy Ram with falcon feathers in his mouth. There were also blue and gold M & M packets. It was all very cute.

There was a huge turnout at this party. There were 68 men from the 1951 Naval Academy class in attendance. As is tradition, the oldest and the youngest Navy member in attendance cut the birthday cake. This year, the oldest was a 90 year old man who survived Pearl Harbor. The youngest was an (barely) 18 year old girl on the Naval Academy cheerleading squad.

After the cake cutting, the Naval Academy cheerleaders held a pep rally for us. (The Navy vs. Airforce football game was on Saturday.) It was very cool to have them show up there. They took time out of their evening to come do some cheers. It was also really nice for them to see a great mix of Navy personnel (i.e. retired, active, reserve, enlisted and officer). I think they had as much fun as the rest of us.

We ended the evening by going out for sushi with some friends. We had dinner at the ball, but there just wasn't enough on the plates for any of us.

Saturday morning there was no time to sleep in. We had to be up by 8 even with our slight hang overs. (Note to self: Don't drink champaign after drinking wine.) Aaron made breakfast for the two of us and two of our friends who had stayed over. As soon as breakfast was over, I went to get the kids while Aaron started packing the truck.

We attended the Navy vs. Air Force football game Saturday afternoon. Before the game, though, we did some tailgating with a bunch of our Navy friends. We grilled hot dogs in the back of the truck. After filling our tummies, we headed in for the game.

Aaron and I lived in Baltimore for three years. During that time we never once went to a Navy football game despite the fact that Annapolis was only 30 minutes away. This was our first game and we had a blast. Caleb did not like all the noise, although, he was able to take a short nap even with the noise. The game ended with Navy on top! Yeah!

Contractor Layoff Pros and Cons

2008-10-02T07:01:00.000-07:00

Aaron spent the last two weeks in Rhode Island. He was doing his Officer Training School. About halfway through the second week of OCS, his boss here in Colorado sent him an e-mail. The e-mail basically told him that when he returned from RI he would be out of work for at least a week and most likely two weeks. This sucks because it means he will not be earning a paycheck during that time. That means that for the next two weeks I am the primary breadwinner for the family. Now, my paycheck means we can pay rent and eat for two weeks but that is about it. Lucky for us we thought ahead and put money in savings for just these cases.

Being the analyst I am I decided to put together a pro/con list for this layoff. So, here we go...

Pros:
1. I have a manservant. (He has already done the grocery shopping for me.)
2. I don't have to get dressed until noon. (Usually I have to be dressed to take Campbell to school.)
3. I have someone here to help entertain the boy child.
4. I can actually go get my eyebrows waxed by myself.
5. He will have time to build some holiday gifts for the kids.

Cons:
1. We will be together all day everyday during this time.
2. I will watch more than my share of shoot 'em up and/or alien movies.
3. I'm sure my schedule will be adjusted and readjusted.
4. Oh, and he won't be earning a paycheck!

As you can see, we are trying to remain calm and humerous through this time. It is always stressful to have the main breadwinner lose his/her job, if even for just a couple of weeks. We (and his bosses) are optimistic that he will be back to work as early as Oct 6 or as late as Oct 16. These are the things you deal with as a contractor.

8:55

2008-09-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

This week was her third and final race of the cross-country season. She definitely went out in style. She ran the mile in 8:55.

9:48

2008-09-22T17:57:00.001-07:00

Ok. So this kids is fast. This week she ran a mile in 9:48. I have problems running a 10 minute mile and she's running faster than that!

10:20

2008-09-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

Lolo ran her first cross-country meet tonight. Her age group had the option of running 1 mile or 1.5 miles. She chose to run 1 mile. She has two more meets and will run the 1.5 at one of those. This was a true cross country meet. She has run 3 marathon miles. During those runs, they run on fairly flat courses. This course had some elevation changes. She said that the up-hills were dificult. She was still able to run 1 mile in 10:20. That is pretty good for such a little girl.

The Greatest Gift

2008-09-11T10:42:00.000-07:00

I love my father
I really really do
But I can’t find the perfect
Gift for him from me to you!

I looked in all the stores for it
I really really did
But I couldn’t find the perfect
Gift with money from a kid.

I even tried a frog and I even
Tried a dove but today I learned
A lesson that the greatest gift
Is love!

Author Campbell L. Brown

Operation Relaxation!

2008-09-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

After our onslaught of visitors over the summer and our camping trip, we were ready for a nice relaxed weekend. That is what we did this past weekend. We went out to breakfast and walked through a nice outdoor shopping center with our coffee on Saturday morning. While the boys napped Saturday afternoon, the girls went out to lunch and did some shopping for some wonderful mommy/daughter time.

Sunday we all slept in and just spent the day around the house. We did some cleaning. Aaron mowed the yard. We also started getting Aaron's stuff ready for him to leave next weekend. He leaves Saturday morning to go to Rhode Island for Officer Candidate School. It was nice to have a relaxing weekend with just the four of us.

Labor Day Weekend

2008-09-08T09:28:00.000-07:00

Ok. I know I'm a week late on this one, but we have been busy.

Over Labor Day Weekend this year, we went camping and hiking near Winter Park, CO. Some friends of our went as well. We had 4 adults and 3 children camping in tents. It was really a lot of fun.

Our friends had been to the campsite before and suggested it. As it turns out, this site is not a marked site. It is just a spot in the woods. We went up the night before our friends and it took us a bit to find the site. The problem with finding it was that the road that was marked on the map didn't actually exist. We took a nice "scenic" drive up the mountain in th dark. Luckily we ran into some guys who were leaving the mountain. They explained that we were way out of the way of the campsite. To make a long story shorter, we eventually found the site and set up our tent via headlites.

The best part of the site was that it was completely in the woods but only about 5 miles from town. We were able to get up and go into town for a warm breakfast and coffee. After our breakfast we went back out to the campsite where we reset our tent (in a better location) and unpacked and organized. Then we went on a lovely 2 hour hike. By that time we were ready for lunch. We had lunch in town that day. We also walked around the shops in town. Our friends weren't scheduled to be to the camp until around 5 so we were just killing time. We were even lucky enough to get a nice nap in the woods.

That evening we went to a local rodeo. This was a very small town so the rodeo was definitely small town rodeo. It was reminiscent of the rodeos I went to every summer growing up. Campbell even got to participate in the rodeo. She entered the "Calf Scramble". The object of this was to pull a ribbon off of a calves tale. All children aged 6-12 were able to participate. They ended up with about 50 children vs. 10 calves. It was quite hillarious to see these kids running after the calves. Campbell did not get a ribbon but she got a t-shirt prize anyway. I guess she was just too cute in her skirt running after the calves. Her first words to us as she came back were "I got knocked over by a cow!"

The rest of the camping trip was your average camping trip. We made pancakes, eggs, and bacon over the fire (after roasting marshmallows for the first course of breakfast). Aaron made Frogmoore (sp?) stew over the fire during a rainstorm. We went on a couple more hikes. (We hiked about 16 miles over the course of the weekend.)

We had a fantastic weekend! Though we did learn that while all four of us can fit in a three man tent, we really do need a slightly larger tent to be a bit more comfortable. The kids had a great time and really enjoyed sleeping in the tent. It got very cool in the evenings but we came prepared for that so all was good. This is definitely something we will do again!

And it only took us a week to get everything put away!

There is something fishy going on here.

2008-09-02T20:49:00.000-07:00

When we moved from SC a year and a half ago, we promised Lolo that we would get her a fish. Both kids have been asking for a puppy. In fact while we were in MT we went to the local fair. An old friend of mine put Caleb up to asking me to buy him one of the puppies they had for sale. I quickly shot down that request.

At this point Aaron and I are not interested in having pets. We did decide, though, that we could get the kids some fish. We went over to the local pet store this evening and picked out our new fish. Campbell chose a Betta fish. She named him "Snowball". Caleb got three small fish. He named them "Spaceship", "MonkeyMonkeyMonkey", and "Tree". Both kids are really excited about their fish.

Hopefully I don't jinx myself

2008-09-02T14:39:00.000-07:00

I'm hoping I don't jinx us here, but I think we can say that we are done with diapers. Dubba-Do has been mostly in underwear for the last week or so. He has not had any accidents. Even when we have had him in pull-ups he asks to go potty. While on our camping trip this last weekend, he refused to use his pull-up. He insisted on "pee in the weeds". He has a hard time getting his pants down and/or getting up on the potty by himself; but he tells us whenever he needs to go so we are happy to help with the process. What a big boy he is!

Landshark Tag

2008-08-28T07:35:00.000-07:00

When we left Greenville our smarty-smart girl was doing the final testing for the Gifted and Talented classes. The teacher told us it was more of a formality and that she would be accepted. She did not get to participate because we moved. Fast forward to the end of this last school year. She had been accepted to Gifted and Talented in Littleton. They were working on her IEP (Individual Education Plan) when we made the decision to move to the Springs.

The other night at the back-to-school event for her new school we sought out the Gifted and Talented teacher. We spoke to Ms. R and asked her what we needed to get our girl in the class. She asked us to bring her the paperwork from Littleton and she would make some phone calls. The next day I dropped the paperwork off to her. The day after that she called to inform us that our girl was indeed accepted to Gifted and Talented (TAG) for reading. Now while the rest of her class does their regular reading she leaves to go to her advanced reading. To make us even more proud, there are only 6 fourth graders in her school who qualified for Gifted and Talented in either reading or math. She is one of those six.

Now on to the Landshark. Yesterday, Campbell had her first practice for the cross-country team. That's right, the elementary school has a cross-country team. They meet once per week for seven weeks for practice. They also have 3 meets. She is very excited to start this activity. In the spring they also run track.

Fourth Grade Math

2008-08-25T18:06:00.000-07:00

Tonight Campbell brought us her math homework. She was having a difficult time with one particular question. Aaron and I both struggled with this particular quesiton. We thought we knew the correct answer but didn't want to lead our child astray.

Living in the day and age we do, our first step was to Google the question. We had to laugh at the results. There were no fewer than ten blog posts regarding this particular 4th grade math question. Apparently we are not the only college graduate parents who can't do 4th grade math.

Also, how funny is it that we can find this information on blogs using Google? When we were in 4th grade none of this existed. Our parents just had to struggle through these questions.

Freedom!

2008-08-24T09:42:00.001-07:00

For the past 5 weeks we have had people staying in our house. First it was Aaron's mom then my mom and nephew. During their stays we had other visitors scattered in as well. We LOVE having visitors. We are always happy when the grandparents can spend time with the kids. We just didn't schedule very well this time. We didn't even have one day of a break between visitors. Yesterday, the last of the visitors left.

To celebrate, we stayed the night up in Denver on Saturday. That wasn't the plan but that's what happened. Aaron had reserve duty this weekend. Since moving to the Springs he now spends Reserve weekends in Denver. Because the Navy pays for the room, usually he has to share a room with some other sailor. For some reason this weekend he got a room to himself. So we made a family night of it.

The kids and I headed up for the evening. On the way we stopped to get Caleb some new shoes. The kids is constantly growing out of his shoes. Hopefully, one day his height will catch up to his feet. Lucky for him we found shoes with spaceshuttles and planets on them. He still loves anything space related, so was thrilled with the shoes. He even wanted to sleep with them that night.

We ended up doing dinner with a bunch of people from Aaron's new unit. When he was commissioned he was moved to a new unit. This was the first weekend with the new unit so they had an afterhours get together. It was nice to meet the people from the new unit. The kids don't get to see a whole lot of Navy so it was good to have them around a bunch of people in uniform for a couple of hours.

After dinner we headed downtown to walk around. If you've been living under a rock then you probably don't know that the DNC is in Denver this year. The convention actually starts this week. We didn't notice anything really different about Denver except the police presence. There were more police than non-police...on foot, on motorcycles, on bicycles, in cars. We even ran into a group of about six at the coffee shop in full riot gear. I guess they were prepared. About the only action we saw them get was turning on their lights for the kiddos. It was a nice walk through downtown, though.

Give us a week filled with more family nights like this and then we will be ready to start planning for more visitors.

Meeting Great Grandma

2008-08-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

While we were in Montana getting my mom and my nephew, I took the kids to see my grandmother. This was the first time Caleb had met her. Campbell has met her before but doesn't remember as it was about 6 years ago.

Grandma Ruby is now 85 years old. She is suffering from the effects of hearing loss and alzheimer's (sp?). She may not remember this visit but at least I got that picture of the kids with her.

She seemed very happy to see me and the kids. She even proudly showed us her picture wall where the kids pictures were. Grandma has had this wall for as long as I can remember. She is not the type of person to have nick nacks. She does not have pictures in frames sitting around her house at all. But the wall in the hallway between the kitchen and the bedrooms has always had pictures haning on it. Each of her 4 children has a framed picture on the wall. Below each of the framed pictures are pictures of the grandkids and great grandkids. She may not remember where she parked her car or even if she has one, but she can name each child in those pictures.

Living the Dream

2008-08-16T21:15:00.000-07:00

This morning Caleb was sitting in the living room playing with something. Aaron walked in and asked him what he was doing. Caleb's response? "I just living the dream." I don't know where that came from, but apparently life as a 2 1/2 year old is good.

In other Caleb funnies...He has been into singing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm". This farm rarely has animals, though. Caleb likes to add other things like cookies, cars, rain, etc. to the farm. Today he added "a na*ked". (He calls his boy parts his "nak*ed".)

I have a feeling that once this one starts school we may be getting some calls from the teachers. He has an imagination and likes to be a clown. This may not be the best mix. Lucky for him he's cute!

Speaking of School

2008-08-15T13:41:00.000-07:00

My first day of school was actually in the first grade. I did not go to kindergarten. We lived out in the middle of Nowhereville, MT. The school where kindergarten was offered was twenty miles from where we lived. For this reason, our parents could decide whether we attended kindergarten or not. My parents chose not to send me.

The school I attended when I did go to school was also out in the middle of nowhere. It was about a half mile from our house and yes, I did have to walk in the snow. I even had to walk, or hop) when I broke my leg. It was December when that happened so there was definitely snow on the ground. Not a fun time.

Anyway, that wasn't suppose to be the story. The school I attended from first through sixth grade was very small. When I say very small, I mean very small. The school had two class rooms, an entryway, and two bathrooms. All grades were taught in the same classroom. There was also an apartment out back for the teacher to live in.

Out front, there were three large pine trees that formed a semi-circle in front of the flagpole. These trees provided a great windbreak from the cold, Montana winters. We were required to go outside for recess no matter what the weather was like so we used this shield a lot.

Campbell loves my story about the moose, so here's the story. One day when I was in 5th grade we were all sitting in class when the teacher excitedly told us to look out the window. To our surprise a bull moose was looking in the window at us. Yes the story is real. That's my very own "Northern Exposure" story.

Two weeks ago I had to go up to Montana to get my mom and my nephew. While there I took Campbell over to the school I had attended. The school is no longer open. It closed the year I went to seventh grade. I was able to get pictures of her standing in front of it, though. The swingset (which was red) is now gone. Also, the monkey bars that were installed when I was in second grade are gone. The building is still standing though and brings back oh so many memories (good and bad) of my childhood.

Pictures in Time

2008-08-14T13:08:00.001-07:00

What a 4th Grader Looks Like

2008-08-14T10:44:00.001-07:00

Feeding the History Junkie

2008-08-13T15:17:00.000-07:00

Campbell loves anything to do with history. It's her favorite subject in school. We like to take every opportunity we can to feed this addiction of hers.

The first weekend in August I had to go up Montana to get my mom and my nephew. They are staying with us for about three weeks. Having grown up in MT and studied MT history I knew that there would surely be something that I could take her to see. I thought about going through the Lewis and Clark Caverns. Caleb is not a huge fan of tight, dark spaces though so that was out. I decided instead to take her to the Battle of the Little Big Horn Monument and Park. Some of you may know this better as Custer's Last Stand Battlefield.

I gave Campbell a brief history on our way to the Park. Once there, we first looked at the National Cemetary that is located there. We also looked through the museum (which seemed much smaller than I remembered). We then took the driving tour around the battlefield.

The battlefield is marked with headstones in each location where a body was found. The stone is marked to indicate whether it was a Cavalry Soldier or an American Indian who had died in that location. It was a really interesting tour. The last time I had gone when I was younger than Campbell there was no driving tour. Campbell really enjoyed our 2 hour visit to this park.

4th Grade

2008-08-13T08:06:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the day that Campbell starts 4th grade. I have no idea how she became old enough to be in the 4th grade. A friend and I were talking the other night. We both remember the day Campbell started Kindergarten. It was such a big day for her. She could not have been more excited to begin her school career. There were no tears from parents or child when she started Kindergarten.

This year might be different. It seems as though she is just growing up so fast. She only has two years (this and next) left in elementary school. Next year will be a year of preparing her for middle school. I can not even believe that this child of mine is nearing middle school. We're just
going to ignore that fact.

Campbell is thrilled that summer break is over. She is the type of child who starts counting down to the first day of school on the last day of school. She would be a perfect candidate for year round school.

Yesterday we went to the back-to-school event. We got to meet her new teacher, Mrs. K. Mrs. K is actually shorter than I am. This is good for Campbell. She has yet to catch up with her peers in size. I fear that will never happen. It's good for her to see that other people are short as well. Mrs. K also seems to be very strict, not mean, just strict. This year is about teaching these kids responsiblity.

The school is terrific! The staff really believes in their motto "Reach for the Stars". Each student is given a punch card. When the student is seen doing something positive they are sent to the office to get a punch on their card. Once they reach 25 punches they get to choose a prize. Talk about your positive reinforcement.

Tomorrow morning we make that walk to the first day. Campbell has her first day breakfast menu planned. She also has her first day out fit picked out and ready to go. She is ready to start the year as a 4th grader!

14 Years

2008-08-06T16:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Aaron and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. I don't know how we have survived each other for all those years, but we have.

ALIVE!

2008-07-30T14:33:00.000-07:00

We are indeed alive. We have been super busy around here. On the 21st Nana came for a visit. She has been having a great time with the kids. On the 24th, our friend, his girlfriend, and his two kids arrived. They were here until Sunday evening. We had a great time visiting with them. Aaron got his commission on the 25th.

Speaking of the commissioning, the ceremony was fantastic (besides the MC who had a difficult time reading). Aaron was one of four people who were commissioned that evening. We held it in an old house in Littleton. The house and grounds were absolutely beautiful. The Denver city skyline served as a backdrop for the ceremony. After the formal ceremony (the MC showed up late) was completed we had food and drinks.

Two of the people who were there to celebrate with us have been our friends since Monterey. That's 15 years of friendship. It's hard to believe that we have known those guys for that long. It was fantastic to have them share in this moment with Aaron, though. Aaron's parents and brother were all able to make it as well. Aaron's family purchased him his officer sword as his gift. He was really surprised and very happy. He though he was going to borrow his dad's sword but instead got his own.

The whole evening was really a lot of fun.

Maybe Not

2008-07-16T21:57:00.000-07:00

Now they are saying that the lion may have been a large dog. A dog that looks like a lion? and is is as big as a lion? I hope I don't run into this lion/dog anytime.

A Lion? Seriously?

2008-07-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

Lion on the loose in El Paso County
Story By: Bea KarnesSource: AP
Colorado Springs Published 23 minute(s) ago
Reverse 911 warning goes out in the Falcon Hwy. and Log Rd. area.The El Paso County Sheriff's Office reports that a lion has been spotted in Eastern El Paso County. Big Cats of Serenity Springs is in the vicinity. It's a sanctuary including lions, tigers, ligers, cougars, leopards, and servals. Serenity Springs reports that all of its cats are accounted-for.Residents are encouraged to remain indoors with their pets and report any sightings by calling 911.

This location is about 20 miles due east of where we live. I guess we are having an indoor day today.

Mustang

2008-07-13T14:12:00.000-07:00

Aaron spent his first drill weekend as an officer. Last week he signed all the paperwork that deleted him from the enlisted ranks and added him to the officer ranks. He said it was very strange to have people soluting him and calling him sir. He kept looking around for the officer before realizing that it was him. I guess after 10 years of being the one who says sir and solutes first, it take a bit getting use to being soluted and called sir.

For those who don't know, in the Navy when someone receives a commission to go from the enlisted ranks to the officer ranks they are forever reffered to as a Mustang. Someone who came in directly as an officer or through the Academy and never spent time in the enlisted ranks does not receive this "title". Aaron proudly accepts being a Mustang.

Stars and Stripes and Stars

2008-07-08T08:01:00.000-07:00

On the 4th we went up to Parker to spend the evening with Aaron's cousin and his family. M & T were nice enough to grill us some burgers and dogs. Is there anything else to eat on the 4th? The kids all played in the pool and the sandbox. They all had a great time. The three of them really are cute together with all their blue eyes and blonde hair.

We ended the evening with a fireworks show in Parker. We were lucky enough to have front row seats. It was a really nice display. The fire truck had to put out 3 fires. The ground here is very dry. We had headphones on the kids so that the noise wouldn't bother them. Caleb was completely mesmerized by the fireworks.

Now to the other stars. I am working on making a quilt for Aaron. I am doing this as a gift to him for his commissioning. I am taking his enlisted uniforms, cutting them up and making a quilt. I must let you know that I have never made a quilt before so this is quite an endeavor. Wish me luck!

Donkey Derby

2008-07-03T19:12:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we packed up the kids and took them to Cripple Creek. Cripple Creek is a small casino town about an hour from us. Every summer they have three weekends of Summer Fest. Each weekend they have a different theme. The theme this last weekend was Donkey Derby Days. They were having a donkey race (we missed it) and a bunch of other activities.

Our first stop when we arrived was the miniature pony rides. Each kid got to pick one pony that they wanted to ride. Caleb got the smallest pony, so small in fact that Caleb and the pony were the same height. Campbell picked one that was a regular pony, not a miniature. They were both very excited to be on the ponies. Though, I don't know who decided the pony ride location. It was directly across the street from the fire house. During our kids' rides the fire trucks had to leave the fire house. Not a big deal, except that they decided to use their horns, despited the fact that the road was closed because of the festivities. The horn didn't faze Caleb's horse thankfully. But Campbell's horse spooked and started hopping around. Campbell was bucked off in this process. Luckily, the man charged with staying with her during the ride was on top of it and caught her. All ended well.

After the ponies we went to the petting zoo. I don't know what it is around here, but they call these things petting zoos but there is always only one animal variet to pet. Also, 3 of the 4 that we have been to have been goats. Once they got to pet rabbits. Anyway, they went to pet the goats. They had baby miniature goats that were small enough even Caleb could hold them. Although, he didn't like it because he thought they were eating him. They were actually only licking him.

Campbell then went for a donkey ride down the street. Caleb and I stayed behind and visited with the baby donkey and the llamas. Once she returned we headed down the street to get our lunch. Aaron got his sausage dog. Campbell had a hamburger, and Caleb had a hotdog. I ate Campbell's leftover hamburger and Caleb's leftover hotdog. The kids also got some face painting done.

At noon, they had a parade. We sat through that. It was just like any smalltown parade. There were a bunch of old cars. The Shr*iners were there. At least at this parade they threw out candy. This was Caleb's favorite part of the day. This kids loves candy, especially chocolate. After the parade we headed home.

Too Good

2008-06-26T06:20:00.000-07:00

We knew that things were really going to smoothly for us right now. Something had to happen. Yesterday it did. I logged into work and checked my e-mail. That's when I saw it. It was the e-mail letting me know that my working from home gig is coming to an end. They will start advertising for the position on July 7. From there I will have 2-3 months of work left. They have decided that they want someone inhouse for my job.

I am a little sad. Not only did I enjoy workinging from home, I really enjoyed the job itself. The job was challenging but not too challenging. I felt that I was doing some good and using my talents. I also enjoyed working with the people in the office. I was the youngest in the office but there were some really great people in the office to work with. Now we just need to figure out where I go from here. What is next on my plate?

Bridge and Park

2008-06-23T20:21:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we took the kids to the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park. It was a lot of fun! This is the largest suspension bridge in the world, or so they say. the bridge was 1053 feet above the Arkansas River below it. Campbell was a bit nervous walking across the bridge. She has a bit of a fear of heights. Cars are also allowed to drive across this bridge. So as you are walking across cars may drive across at the same time. The cars really make the bridge sway.

The kids got to pet goats. I grew up with goats so this is really no big deal to me, but my kids seam to think that goats are the bomb. While in the little petting "zoo", which was only goats, I got yelled at. You see, there was a cute little donkey right next to the fence where I was squatting. I stuck my hand through the fence to pet him. Apparently you are not allowed to put your hand through the fence to pet the donkey. You can however put your arm over the fence to pet the donkey. Semantics I guess. Whatever...

After petting the goats we walked through the wildlife exhibition. They had buffalos and elk in fences for your viewing. I got yelled at again because I apparently got too close to the fence while taking a picture of the buffalo. These people may want to put up signs listing these rules.

The kids also got to ride on donkeys. They were both thrilled beyond belief. Aaron and I thought that Caleb would get scared and freak out. He did not get scared at all. He followed the donkey guide's instruction perfectly. While going up hill he was to lean forward and while going downhill he was to lean backward. While leaning backward Caleb tilted his head back as well. He was going to make sure he was definitely leaning backwards. It was so very cute.

After the donkey rides we went and had lunch. As is usual fore these types of places, lunch was way too expensive. Next time we will pack a picnic lunch. On our way to lunch Campbell fell off one of those parking cement blocks. She was using it as a balance beam, but she forgot to balance. She really gauged her leg on that fall.

After lunch we did some gold mining. The kids did get some fool's gold. We then went for a ride on the horse drawn wagon. This ride ended way to soon for Caleb. I think he could have stayed on that ride forever. It was naptime, so he probably would have fallen asleep in another 10 minutes. We had three more rides to complete though.

We headed over to the skyride. This is a little car that is suspended over the gorge with a cable. You ride the car from one side to the other. The views from the skyride were incredible! Once we reached the other side of the gorge we headed over to the elevator. The elevator ride takes you from the top of the gorge to the bottom of the gorge. It is set at a 45 degree angle and takes about 5 minutes. Once we reached the bottom of the gorge we were allowed out to view the Arkansas River up close. We then headed back to the top.

Once we got back to the top we headed over to the last ride. The last ride was a carousel. Every good amusement parks needs one of these. We dutifully put our kids on and let them ride. Once that was done we headed back into town to the Abbey.

Aaron has joked periodically that when Campbell hits 12 we are going to send her to the convent. This trip to the Abbey was not part of our search for the perfect place to send her. Actually, they have a winery so we were going to do some wine tasting and purchase some goods. We were lucky enough to stumble upon an art festival that was also taking place. It was a small art festival, but it was nice to walk through and we got to listen to some nice jazz music. We ended up purchasing 2 bottles of wine for our enjoyment.

School Mascots

2008-06-20T17:23:00.000-07:00

The school here in Colorado Springs will be Campbell's third school. That means 3 different mascots with three different school colors. In SC she was a black and puple Paris Panther. In Littleton she was a green and yellow Runyon Ram. Here she will be a blue and silver Academy End*eavor Astronaut. An Astronaut! Isn't that the coolest mascot?! I am so excited. I grew up as a Bulldog. I always thought that was kind of a boring mascot. I think that an astronaut is a very cool and unique mascot.

Pizza, It's What's for Dinner!

2008-06-19T10:27:00.000-07:00

Campbell has been begging me to do homemade pizzas for dinner. She loves to do these. So the other night I relented. (It is fun, but with a toddler it can also be messy.) Caleb ate more of his sauce than he put on his pizza. Campbell of course made a beautiful flower design with her pizza. Caleb just dumped everything on there. He started out with 6 pieces of pepperoni, but only 2 actually got cooked. He ate the others.

The Crazy Neighbor

2008-06-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

Everybody has one of these right? Please tell me everyone has one of these and it's not just us. In Greenville it was P. If you haven't heard the story you will have to ask Aaron. It really is quite humerous.

Here apparently it is A. Last evening around 6:30 or so someone frantically rang our doorbell. At the door is a woman who looks very shaken and asks Aaron if she can hide in house for a few minutes. Aaron being the gentleman he is assumes she's running from an abusive boyfriend/husband and lets her in. At this point he learns that she is in fact hiding from the police. We learned that she lives down the street with her mother and her family thinks that she needs help. Oh and...she's and addict!

I took the kids upstairs. I figured a bath was a good excuse to remove the kids from the room. Aaron let her downstairs so that she could make a phonecall. She was calling a friend to come pick her up. While Aaron was trying to figure out a polite way (always the gentleman) to get her out of the house, I was planning escape routes should things turn bad.

Her "friend" changed his mind about picking her up part way through their phonecall. I guess all the talk of just wanting to have um...relations was too much for him. After some encouragement from Aaron she decided she could just go home. She was here for about an hour total. Once she was gone, we went through the house and closed and locked every window and door in the house.

We thought we were done with the situation. That was until this morning when I went downstairs to do some work and to straighten up. On the couch I found her jacket and her purse! I dreaded the doorbell ringing all day. While I wanted her stuff gone I just didn't know what to expect. By the time Aaron got home, she hadn't shown up for her stuff. Aaron carefully went through her purse until he was able to find her address. He took the stuff down to her mom. And guess what? Last night after she left here she was.....committed.

Does this stuff only happen to us????

Father's Day

2008-06-16T19:19:00.000-07:00

We had no specific plans for Father's Day. Daddy already had his gift (his leather club chair that was a birthday/Father's Day gift). The kids gave him their card and we decided to head to the coffee shop for breakfast.

Aaron and I thought that it might be fun to take the kids swimming in the hot springs. Aaron jumped on his computer to research the springs. The only two near us both had a "clothing optional" policy. We decided that subjecting the little ones to old man parts would be more traumatic than fun. We opted instead to go to Bishop's Cas*tle. This castle is built by one man. He purchased his plot of land and decided to build a castle.

With coffee, doughnuts, and pumpkin loaf in hand we headed South. The drive was beautiful. We went through the green mountains with the sun shining. The only part that wasn't green was where last years forest fire had burned a bunch of trees. Other than that couple of miles, though, it was a really beautiful drive. The drive lasted about 1 1/2 hours.

When we arrived at our destination both kids were thrilled. Caleb was busy pretending he was the King and Campbell of course had her imagination going with her being the princess. Even with a slight fear of heights Campbell climbed to the top of the turrets like any good little princess. It is really amazing that this man has accomplished as much as he has with the castle. He does all the work himself. Most of it is paid for by himself, as well. He does accept donations but he does not charge an entrance fee.

We spent about an hour at the castle and then decided to find some lunch. We ended up having Caleb's favorite "noodles". Anytime you ask him what he would like to eat the answer is usually "noodles". After our lunch feast we headed home.

We had a really wonderful day. (Even if I did ended up getting super sick after lunch. It must have been those mushrooms.)

Caleb Has a Rough Morning

2008-06-13T21:25:00.000-07:00

About a week ago Caleb had a small rash in his right armpit. By the time the weekend was over the rash had spread to his stomach and down his leg. Monday morning I took him straight to the pediatrician to have it looked at. She informed us that it was indeed a rash and she didn't know what could have caused it. (She had to go to med school to tell me that?) She did feel that it was an allergic reaction, however. In light of that she gave him a referral to an allergist.

This morning he had his appointment. This doctor said it could be an allergy or just a sensitivity or possibly eczema. We still do not have an answer. He was given allergy tests. To do this they marked his back with purple marker to know where each test was to be given. They then poked his back with littl plastic sticks. The sticks had the allergen on them. We had to wait 15 minutes for the test. He didn't react to anything (except the histamine which he was suppose to react to). He was given 17 tests and they all came out negative. He was a trooper through the first 10 pokes. It was the last 7 that sent him over the top.

The doctor then sent us over to the lab to get a blood test taken. Apparently the blood test is more sensitive than the skin tests. To say the least, Caleb was not at all thrilled with this test. He announced "Not I like doctor drink my blood". Apparently he thought she was a vampire. We had to assure him over and over again that she was not drinking her blood; that they were putting it in a machine. The girl then put a bandaid on the site. He didn't want her to do this so she told him she had to so his arm wouldn't spring a leak. It worked, but it took me forever to convice him that it was ok to remove it. He instisted that his arm would spring a leak if I took the bandaid off.

We are now waiting for those results to come back. They should be in on Monday. Until then, we have to give him a daily oatmeal bath. We were also given a prescription cream to apply twice daily. If the test comes back negative for allergies we will be on our way to a dermatologist to make sure we are properly treating eczema.

Does Life Get Much Better...

2008-06-10T11:08:00.001-07:00

This is Mommy's new office.

This is my work view.