Quilty Goodness

[ty] 30 July '07

Last night as JD, Myself, and our friend Jeff were watching a movie we heard a scraping/knocking on our front door. JD got up from the couch to investigate. She had only opened the door partway when she stopped and said "There's a bunch of toilet paper out here. With a note." Exchanging curious glances Jeff and I stood up to protect Jordanna in case there was foul play afoot. Returning with a sheet of paper in her hand she started reading the note.


Dear Mr. Sprayberry,

In honor of your completion of your initiation year at Canyon del Oro High School a select few of your favorite students would like to present you with this toilet paper. At first thought this toilet paper was going to be used creatively to decorate your yard. However, after consideration of your amazing coolness and teachers salary, it was decided that you would have better use of it in your house instead of on your house...trees...mailbox...etc. We hope you will enjoy its quilty goodness for many months to come. Best wishes for your many teaching years to come.

Your favorite and most amazing students,

A*
S
J

(*obviously I'm not putting students' names on the Internet)

Propped into my door I found...

Some of you out there may have heard me complain about teaching here in AZ. The pay sucks, the resources are scarce at best, and the state spending on education ranks 49th in the country (Wassup Mississippi!!). That being said, after spending my summer hanging out with my friends and my kid I'm getting antsy to get back in the classroom for exactly one reason. The kids rule. They are good students, they make teaching fun and I really love them. How can you not when they so courteously leave 80 rolls of quality TP on your doorstep?

In other news, nubby and I went hiking last friday and here's a link to a new baby video.

Irony and You Have to Be Kidding Me

[jd] 28 July 2007

Do you remember the good old days of automated phone menus? Press 1 for customer service and the like? Now a days everyone has some annoying voice recognition program that usually reduces me to screaming at the phone 'I said yes! YES! Oh, for god's sake REP-PRE-SENT-TA-TIVE'. So I was navigating my health insurance call center because I was trying to get an approval code to go see a therapist. After going back to the main menu two times, I finally found the right sub-menu to get to mental health. For the first time they offered me the option of pressing a number or speaking my option. By this time I considered myself to be a UHC menu ninja, so I clearly spoke 'mental health' instead of pressing 2, at which point a soothing voice comes on the phone and says, "Thank you, goodbye", then hangs up on me.

I am thinking this is a pretty funny story, when my friend Missy starts telling me about her ridiculous day, which was one of the most ridiculous days I have ever heard of. Without getting into details that aren't mine to share, Missy was with her daughter Lilly at the Childrens' Hospital of Philadelphia (Lilly is okay). After determining that the pediatric ward they were in did not have rice cereal or bananas to feed Lilly (when starting babies on solid food you are only supposed to add a new food every week or so), she went out to the car to get some of their baby food. When Missy gets back, she asks the nurse for a baby spoon. The nurse looks her in the eye and says, "You would think we would have those here, wouldn't you?".

Gratifying

[jd] 24 July 2007

I am home digitizing high speed video today so Ty can go up to work and get some prep for the school year done. Cayden has been slowly drifting off to sleep in the lazyboy next to me. I got up to put on some diaper laundry, and caught his eye from across the room. He looked at me, gave me a huge smile, and closed his eyes.

A Visual History of the Last 2 Weeks

[ty] 23 July '07

We went out to one of Jordanna's field stations up in the Catalina mountains. It was very pretty and there were many large and/or dangerous bugs. Our whole goal was to film the night feeding moths and after setting everything up it began to MONSOOON so we had to pack up and leave. The MONSOONS have officially come to Tucson and they are...ridiculous.


I suppose this photo doesn't really convey the impressive industry shown by these particular ants. The hole they have here to their nest is about the size of a quarter and they all run in and back out of it at breakneck speed. I tried for about 10 minutes to follow just one ant but its impossible. So I put a rock near the entrance instead and watched complete pandemonium break out.


This guy was awesome. He's eating that green plant stalk and feeding it in with his two front legs. Just like Bugs Bunny used to eat carrots he feeds its straight into his maw and devours it like some kind of armored sawmill. He's about as big as one of those pink school erasers. And his name is Rolf.


Self-potrait of Baby and Baby-Daddy.


One of the jobs I've been putting off for months now is trimming out the front door. The main problem is that the drywall we put up brings the level of the trim about 3/4 of an inch away from the frame. Not too bad in of itself, but the mortar and cement crap all around the original framing makes it unevenly spaced. So anyway, last Friday I finally sucked it up and fired up the table saw to rip furring strips (seen here on the couch and the door) and attach the trim.


And after all my bitching and whining about mortar and furring strips it took me all of 4 hours start to finish.


So we did some online research and apparently one of the most sought-after professions in the 21st century will be Polynesian Dancer. So we raced right out and bought a starter kit to get The Nubby going on his career.


Jordanna as she devours the newest Harry Potter book. Purchased at noon, she was re-reading the ending before bedtime. Apparently the books were flying off the shelves at 15 per second in the UK.

So there's our last week or two in the desert. We came close to breaking the record for consecutive days over 100 degress (something around a month or so, I don't really pay attention because it makes me sweat to think about it), Cayden starts daycare next week and I bought a grill book because its too hot to cook indoors.

The Sound of Silence

[jd] 23 July 2007

I realize there have been very few posts lately. Two weeks ago I developed some really gnarly post-partum anxiety. I shot awake just as I was drifting to sleep with a true, emotional understanding that I was going to die. This sparked an fantastic panic attack which kept me up half of the night. The panic attacks continued, slowly decreasing in intensity for about five days. Then it hit again with renewed vigor, making me too sick to eat for a couple days last week. I am a very hormonal creature, and any stressor (anxiety, too much booze, every flu, dehydration, etc.) sets off the same physiological reaction. I get a numbness in my chest, tingling in my arms, severe nausea, etc. These attacks haven't been my garden variety anxiety, which Ty and I are adept at handling. They have been sheer, unreasoning terror. Understanding they are hormonal helps, and our discussions / attempts to deal with them have led to some pretty entertaining asides.

Last week, Ty was researching tinting the windows on our station wagon to prevent the whole thing from heating up to 130F when parked for ten minutes at the store. He came home and told me everything that he found out, then our conversation drifted to what we are going to do about my recent 'problem'. We were having a very earnest and productive discusion about options when he looked me straight in the eye and said, "I am not completely againt tinting, I just want us to exhaust the other options first". When I burst out laughing, he looked a little offended until I told him he had said 'tinting' not 'drugs'.

In my research to look at dietary aides for anxiety, a couple sites recommended B vitatins. I was intrigued by this, because in the process of getting diagnosed with gastroparesis (the stomach disorder I had from 2003-2005), the first time I went to see the gasteroenterologist he had me tested for a vitamin B defficiency after hearing the above symptoms. I have been very lax about taking my vitamins since I had Cayden, so I went out and purchased a B100 supplement. Two days later I was pumping at work and this happened:


Now I always get yellow pee within 12 hours of taking a B vitamin (although it took almost 2 days this time), but this was completely unexpected. I called the lactation consultant at our delivery hospital. She told me to throw out the milk and stop taking the supplements (I am not supposed to imbibe more than 100% B6, and that supplement had 5000%), but gave me the number of a post-partum depression support group. The people that run it are really sweet and it is totally free. I will be going Wednesday night at six, and have high hopes that it will help. Other than that I am eating lots of eggs (the lactation consultant said DHA helps), sleeping a bunch, and leaning on my incredibly supportive hubby. So, sorry about the silence and thanks for listening.

Blog comment spam is funny AND grammatically correct

wow ur sprayberry..this is ur best friend from school akeem McGruder... what was my nick name

5 Nights and Counting

[jd - 13 July]

This morning marked the fifth time in a row that Cayden slept through the night! Granted it was only 7 hours, the previous 4 nights he had slept 8 to 8 1/2 hours. Even so, I'll take it! I haev two friends with babies who are 4-6 weeks older than Cayden. Each of them told me that the first time their babies (Ian and Lilly) slept 8 hours they woke up in a panic. I laughed at them, thinking they should be grateful for how much sleep they got. Of course, I woke up Monday morning leaking milk everywhere and ran into Cayden's room convinced he was dead. However, on the second night I was grateful for the extra sleep. Cayden is also sleeping in his big boy crib (I'll add a picture to this post when I get the camera to talk to my laptop) as af 5 days ago. Apparently all he needed to sleep longer was to stop kicking the sides of his bassinet, go figure.

Cactus Babies

[ty] 5 July '07

Once the sun had set yesterday and the ambient temperature had fallen below aluminum's melting point we went out to PCC's campus with our baby buddies to watch some fireworks.



It was beautiful out there and to commemorate their existence our sleeping babies assumed the likeness of a cactus. Very strange. But very cute.

Our friend Kristin and her baby boy Ian

Ian's papi, Jamie

The world famous cactus babies

So we had a BBQ, watched some fireworks, and then sat in traffic for an hour trying to get home. Part of the problem is that the city of Tucson parks a peace officer at every major intersection throughout the city on the fourth of July. They sit, kind of hidden, waiting for drunken fools to weave their vehicle unsteadily through a red light and then pull them over in the middle of the intersection. Brilliant. Luckily the entire city is engulfed in a massive traffic construction project presently so there are only a few roads to choose from.

Extra! Extra! Tucson Baby Looks Left and Right!

[jd] 5 july 2007

Cayden has become a master of head control in the last couple days. He has been able to hold his head up in wobbly spurts for an increasing length of time over the last month. Today he was sitting in the lazy boy, lifted his head, then turned it left and right several times looking around the room. I like to think he was looking for me (Hey! Where did that boob go! Some of us are hungry here lady.). As brandy new parents we find this development vastly entertaining and exciting.

We also found out at his doctor's appointment on July 3rd that he is 13 lbs 14 oz, and 24 1/2 inches long. His weight gain appears to be slowing down but he is getting long! He is going from Monster Baby to String Bean Baby. Although I doubt many string beans have quarter inch deep creases at their wrists.

Stealth bumps

[jd] 5 July 07

Tyson and I have many words we could use to describe traffic planning in Tucson. All of them kind, I swear. For example, they are widening the highway and decided to close every exit through the main portion of the city. Every exit. For three years. BECAUSE THEY ARE SMART. Today on my way to work, brashly speeding along at 25 miles per hour, I practically destroyed my undercarraige on a speed bump. A speed bump with no signs and no paint. Just sitting there in its plain asphalt form waiting to spring on unsuspecting volvos. Because the point of speed bumps isn't to slow people down, it's to scare the crap out of them.

The Palo Verde Boring Beetle

[ty] 2 July '07

I found a bug in my tub today.

For those of you not in the know I'm home with my son all July until the school year starts back up again in August. This gives me lots of time to take care of Cayden and occasionally get some housework done. Our friend Gaspar is coming into town tonight so I was cleaning out the plants we stashed in the tub during our trip home. As I picked up one of the smaller pots I noticed a very still bug on the floor of the tub. A big bug. So being a trained biologist I fell back on my wealth of knowledge and experience and reached out and poked it. For the record I didn't actually scream like a little girl when it counter attacked, it was more of a war cry.

Anyway, I ran into the kitchen, grabbed a pyrex bowl and trapped it in my tub. And there it sits. Until my wife gets home and congratulates me on my conquest.

Here is a picture of the bug. Now, before you say to yourself "Well, maybe I'm no ninja but at least I'm not afraid of bugs", this picture is ACTUAL SIZE. I'm not kidding. Put your thumb and forefinger up to your monitor. This bug (whom I have named Sergei) is gigantic. I'm going to start riding him around town to do errands. According to the Infallible Internet he is one of the largest insects in North America. Sergei in particular. Did you check out his spiked collar of doom? His gnarly pincers? He and Cayden will grow up together and be best friends. Nobody will mess with my kid when he shows up on the first day of school riding this beast.



Here's to you Sergei.