A Dream Come True

[ty] 30 Sept '07

Saturday night my friends Zak and Brian came over and we played through the first 3 levels of the new Halo 3 videogame together. Mind you, Zak lives in Seattle and Brian lives in Portland. We played cooperatively through the campaign over microsoft's X-Box Live service. This may not sound like a big deal but it truly is the realization of a life-long gamer's dream. I have spent no small amount of time chauffeuring electronic equipment both near and far in order to play cooperatively with my friends. NO LONGER.

Not only does the new Halo have some beautiful graphics but it also allows you to go back later and watch your exploits in a specially designed "theater" mode. From said theater mode I downloaded a couple of screenshots of our madness.

Sor driving, B-Bri on turret, Zip on shotgun.

A classic case of hit and shoot and run. Note the blood spatter :)

His wingman long gone, his driver dead under the vehicle, Bri
stays with the sinking ship. Which happened, like, 2 seconds later.

You never leave your wingman!

Tyson's Mitch Hedberg Imitation

"Stumpies, how many strikes until you're out in baseball? Three! That's right!"

"Stumpies, how many periods in a wrestling match? Three! Right again!"

A little piece of me will always live there...

[jd] 26 September 2007

We just got back Monday from a fantastic trip to Seattle, other wise known as 'the city of bearable temperatures'. Cayden and I went last Sunday so I could spend a couple days working in my old lab. Kendra watched him in the mornings and he came to lab with me in the afternoons. As the cutest baby on the planet, he was a hit. And naturally he chose those three and a half days to learn how to shriek. By the time Daddy showed up on Thursday he had perfected his Teradactyl mating cry.

Seattle was good to us in our seven years there and we have missed it desperately since moving to the land where you can fry eggs on your hood. Being back was wonderful. As my plane descended into the mist, the pilot came on the intercom and said Seattle was 55 and rainy. And I thought, "of course it is". Nubby and I picked up Tyson on Thursday afternoon, and we drove straight to Pike Place Market for two Seattle essentials: fresh donuts and a trip to spice guy. Thursday night was George's co-ed bachelor party, which ended for me with Nubby getting thrown out of his very first bar. Daddy was so proud. For George the night ended in a gin-haze. Tyson and Zak were driven home by our friend Kevin and as they were waiting to pull out of the parking lot, a trio of girls at the end of an equally entertaining evening trounced by. My husband, being a gregarious guy, stuck his hand out the window to high five them. The first two slapped his hand, but the third grabbed it and started tugging on his wedding band while shouting, "It's a marraige ring! It's married". Tyson hurriedly made a fist and pulled his hand in the car, trying to imagine how to tell me he lost his wedding ring to a drunk bimbo downtown.

Compared to Thursdays excitement Friday was rather tame, and we were in bed by 10. I, however, was up two hours later with cramps. I got a hot water bottle and tried to go back to sleep. The rest of the night passed in a blur of new hot water bottles, puking in a bucket, and making Tyson get out of bed to pick up Nubby and place him on my boob to nurse. I finally asked Tyson what time it was. He said 6:15 am. I asked him which side your appendix is on. He said the right. I told him it was time to go to the hospital. I later found out he thought I was being a hypochondriac, but he imediately got up and got Nubby dressed and put us both in the car. Eight hours later I was in surgery and Tyson was off to perform George and Beth's wedding ceremony. The procedure went pretty well. They were able to do it laparoscopically, which means a much less complicated recovery. I wasn't able to nurse Nubs for 24 hours, so he was on formula briefly. Like the little champ he is, he ate readily and didn't give Daddy too many problems. Ty brought him by to visit me Saturday night after the wedding. Nubs did well until he realized he was sitting next to my boobs and collapsed onto my chest, grabbing at my gown and crying. Once we turned him around and he couldn't see the boobs, he stopped crying. That's because he has the attention span of a peanut.

Ty spung me from the hospital on Sunday morning and brought me back to Zal and Kendra's, who had a potluck for us that afternoon. Much like our going away party we found ourselves looking around and thinking, "What did we do to deserve this?". It was amazing to be back and surrounded by people we loved. Seattle will always be a home to us.

Nubby Represents

[ty] 17 Sept '07

Despite the monsoon of allegations and press surrounding Bill B. and the Pats my son knows what's up and happily represents in the name of New England.





We also had a wonderful visit from Grandpa Spray II who lives in Vegas and hence enjoys the ability to fly down after work on Friday and head home Sunday afternoon.





Bathtime brought to you by the number 2 and the letter O.


So thats a quick pictorial update of the last week or so at Casa de Sprayberry. Right now Jordanna and the Nub are in Seattle wearing denim and sweatshirts while I swelter in the chill autumn upper 90's of Tucson. I head out Thursday to attend/officiate the celebrated Wang Clan Thang as our good friends George and Beth make their union official in the eyes of the state.

JD called me to let me know that she had safely arrived and the first thing she said to me was "I'm where you want to be." Beeatch.

More pics later. Check out the video of Shark-Baby attack...

To eat or not to eat

[jd] 13 Sept 2007

So all recommendations say not to feed your baby until 6 months. Most doctors will say 4 months is fine. The research on the topic is disjointed and inconclusive, suggesting that babies are ready somewhere between 4 and 6 months. Cayden has been showing some signs of being ready since early August, so I just wanted an answer! Eventually Ty and I decided that we would put him in a high chair while we were eating, and start feeding him if he showed interest in food. He has been watching us eat, and last week we decided to put a couple of chunks of banana on his tray while we were having dinner. Mind you, this child has put EVERY OBJECT HE TOUCHES in his mouth since mid-July. He threw the banana on the floor, rubbed it on his shirt, rubbed it on me, and stashed it behind him in his chair. In short, he put it anywhere but his mouth. Because that banana? Clearly not edible.

This is the hunger that never ends

[jd] 10 Sept 2007

While Cayden is not off the charts, he is a very big boy. The other day at target, another mother asked how old he was. I replied that Cayden was 4 1/2 months old, and how old was her little boy? 8 months? No, that boy was 14 months. Next to Cayden, most babies look 2-4 months younger than they are. And where does all this healthy chub come from? My boobs! The consequence of our robust child is that I am already below my pre-pregnancy weight. Of course, my pre-pregnancy weight was 3-5 lbs less than I like to weigh. We set a hard and fast line last night. If I drop below a certain weight (one that has in the past had negative effects on my health) I am going to wean the little bugger. I don't really want him on formula, so I am eating constantly in an attempt to keep up. This is my incredibly verbose and obtuse way of saying I'M HUNGRY.

Update

[jd] 6 Sept 2007

Yes, I am still having depression/ anxiety issues. This past weekend SUCKED (from an anxiety perspective, from a family perspective we actually had an awesome weekend. Pictures of the succesful outcome of our goodwill trip forthcoming. I love goodwill). Yes, I am getting help. I found a great counselor, we are totally on the same page, and my insurance gives me unlimited visits for a year. I have been getting emails and notes from many of you and I love it and it helps, even if I don't write back right away : ). I don't want people to worry, or to be embarassed. I'm not ashamed of it. I wasn't embarassed when I had gastro, I can't see why I should be about this. Anyway, I know some people have been curious about how it was going, so I thought I would let you know. My bad days now are much better than my bad days in July, so I think the intensity is decreasing. Whenever I go a week or so without any bad days I get really excited, because I think it is all over. Then when one bad day comes, it turns into 5 because I am depressed about having another attack. Such is life. I can't complain too much. I have a fantastic husband, a good life, Jeff and David are great, and our new friends Kristin and Jamie have been another welcome source of support. Plus, when I bring Cayden over to see them he and Ian interacting are always good for a laugh. Yesterday they got involved in the slowest, lowest power tug of war match I have ever seen ('dude, that hat is totally mine once I figure out how to get two hands on it').

Fistful of Stumpy

[jd] 5 Sept 2007

I had Cayden on our bed while I was getting ready yesterday morning, and Stumpy hopped up to join him. When I came out of the bathroom, Cayden had a fistful of fur/ loose skin and was trying to figure out how to drag it into his mouth. Toku (aka stumps) was twitching his tail, but otherwise completely ignoring this indignity. I think he may be the most tolerant cat ever. He got his sutures out yesterday and was pronounced in excellent shape by the vet. He is mobile enough that he has already escaped the house three times, so I think he is feeling okay. Once he grows in his fur, he will look almost normal again. Almost.

My First Ever Break-Fast

[ty] 31 Aug 07

Well I'm finally done with my zany lemonade/maple syrup fast. All told it lasted from Sunday afternoon to Thursday afternoon. 4 days of quasi fasting. Very interesting. My highlights:

1) For most of Monday I felt lightheaded and floaty like when opiate painkillers start to kick in.

2) Evenings were the hardest time. You get home from work, drop off your bag, lose the shoes, and...have a snack. Very difficult.

3) As time went on I certainly found that I desired food less. Breaking the habit of eating when you're hungry was easier than I thought it would be. I had lots of energy though, especially in the mornings.

4) Unintentionally I lost 8 lbs. From 178 to 170

5) I slept a lot. 9pm-6am for 3 days. Usually I'm 11pm-6am.

6) On Wednesday I tried to do a salt water flush where you drink a liter of very salty water very quickly which doesn't get absorbed by your GI (b/c of the salt). Nothing happened. My stomach happily shnorked up a liter of sea water in under 3 minutes. Hmm.

7) When I got home yesterday I made and ate 2 waffles at which point ALL the blood in my body rushed to my stomach and I almost passed out.

Other than that I seem to be fine. My muscles, especially my legs, have been very sore since tuesday which I'm thinking might be toxins flushing out. Next week I start pre-season conditioning for wrestling so food will be a necessary thing. I had some pasta for dinner last night and a banana/PB smoothie for breakfast this morning. Bean and mushroom soup is the plan for lunch today and by tomorrow I should be fine to go back to a normal diet. Although that pretty much is my normal diet.

So it was an interesting experiment. For my next trick I'm going to learn to walk on my hands.

Nubby Learns to Laugh

[jd] 27 August 2007

Before I post this video, no we don't have our baby naked all the time. He just happens to be very cute when naked, so we have a lot of naked pictures. Onto the goods... Cayden has been letting out the occasional short single laughs for the past couple months, but not any real strings of laughter. Over the past couple days we have been more successful at coaxing some out of him:

Master Cleansers of the Universe

[ty] 26 Aug o7

I'm about to embark on the controversial "Master Cleanse" diet. Now just so that there's no misunderstanding I'm 33 yrs old, 5'10" (1.7m), 175 lbs (80kg) and perfectly happy with my weight, body, and proportions. What I'm not happy with is the idea that the average American male is carrying around up to 30 lbs (15kg) of undigested food in his colon. That's really not ok.

The basic idea here is that you fast for 4-10 days drinking nothing but a home-made lemonade with syrup and pepper in it. The syrup provides you with enough calories to operate and the cayenne pepper is for flavor. After the first day or two what's already in your intestines clears out. After that the acidic lemonade loosens the accumulated "intestinal plaque" from your colon and, combined with a laxative tea and salt water flushes, you supposedly clear out toxins and junk from your body. That's the theory anyway. My personal Pharmacist/Yoghini (Kev G. for those of you in the know) has walked this path himself and recommended it to me.

Mind you I am certainly not of the opinion that I, currently, have that much undigested food hanging out in my viscera. Rather, I'm curious what I have inside me that could be cleaned out. I've been eating relatively well since marrying an intestinally challenged hippy-chick so I'm not on the McD's crew but I do live in America and I don't chew my food well. So hey, maybe I'll get back that toy car I swallowed last winter.

At any rate. I ate a PB sandwich with some hashbrowns for lunch today and nothing since. I've been mentally preparing myself for 2 weeks now and shopping around for organic lemons. Today I found them at a good price and I assumed it was a sign so I'm off and running.

In other news Jordanna found an awesome hat for nubby that I'm keeping him in till he's 15. I put up some more nubby pics on our website. Go here.

Nubby in his new Sassy-Hat

We went "Blacklighting" with our friends Ruben, Anna, and Jamie last night. Absolutely amazing. More pics of my burgeoning beetle collection coming soon.

Ok, the time has come to test Blogger's new video function.


Just a few of the beetles from last night.

Stumpy meet Nubby, Nubby meet Stumpy

[jd] 24 August 2007

One bizarre side effect of Toku's accident is that he is way more interested in Cayden now. I had both of them on my lap the other day and Toku kept reaching out to sniff Cayden. Cayden responded by whacking Toku on the top of the head and trying to pull off his ear. Happily Cayden's ability to clench and unclench his fist is sketchy at best, and he ended up making a vague scratching gesture on Toku's head. Toku didn't seem to mind this at all, which I find strange because he still has no skin on his head. I can only assume the scab is itchy and Cayden's ministrations felt good, because he kept purring the whole time. All in all Toku is healing faster than I would have thought possible. Six days post-surgery he is almost entirely off pain meds and trying to sneak out of the house already. He will get his stitches out next week, which means his cone can come off, which means he can clean his skanky butt, which will make everybody happy. We had a great understanding with Genghis. When ever he was hurt, the first thing he did when you pulled off hte cone was clean his butt. You had just enough time to wash the cone before he moved on to attacking stitches, and then you could slap it on and everybody would go about their day just a little bit less smelly. Toku, unfortunately, has not mastered this concept. We will keep you updated on his progress, but all in all we are as pleased as we can be with our three legged cat.

Our 3 Legged Cat

[Ty] 20 Aug '07

You may be saying to yourself "but you guys don't have a 3 legged cat." And up until Sat you would have been correct. No longer. This weekend our cat Tokugawa had his front right leg amputated.

It all began innocently enough Saturday morning when I saw Toku heading into the house and I stooped down to give him some love. As a trained biologist I quickly noticed that not only could I see his skull through the hole on his head but his front leg was dragging behind him in the dirt. Needless to say we were loaded into the car and headed for the vet in under 5 minutes.

Now I have seen more than my share of animal viscera and have personally skinned and stuffed a number of mammals. His wounds were clearly at least couple of hours old and possibly as many as 12 in addition to being the worst wounds I have ever seen on a still breathing animal. Now keep in mind that I found him trying to get into our backyard slider. We have a 5 foot fence that the cats have all learned to climb. Somehow he hauled his seriously busted ass home from wherever he got hurt and scaled our fence with only 3 legs. Instead of using the front door. Damn cat.

The vet was of the opinion that he had been mangled by a fan belt and I was inclined to agree with her that something mechanical got a fast unexpected hold of him. The wounds all had pretty clean edges and if a coyote had done that to him Toku certainly wouldn't have been able to escape.

At any rate she gave him a very positive prognosis for surgery and we decided to proceed with the insanely expensive operation, the alternative being putting our otherwise perfectly healthy three year old cat down.

Jordanna picked him up from the vet today and he's been drunkenly stumping after her all evening allowing himself to collapse at her feet in a furry medicated pile whenever she holds still for more than a few minutes.

Below are a few pictures of him today for the strong of constitution.

Delyaed Notice

[jd] 16 August 2007

Pics of July in Tucson are up at our website here. I need to reset the white balance on that camera, sorry about the bluish tint. I am sure I will get around to fixing it some time before Christmas.

Things That Scare Me

Bargain basement laser eye surgery

Big Ugly Grubs

[ty] 11 Aug '07

Today I was slaving away in my yard trying to undo some of the burrowing damage my idiot dog has done. As I was moving a couple of flagstones I noticed what appeared to be a couple of very large larvae. Turns out thats exactly what they were. Grubs. Big, ugly, grubs. With some pretty gnarly pincers.

If you reckon you're made of pretty sturdy stuff there's a video of their leader trying to attack me here.

In other news I started school Thursday. So far so good. Kids are fun. Am I ready for the school year you ask? I think this speaks for itself...


And of course the latest update on Nubby.

Nubby is very very cute, no?

And here are two more movies of him working his new Jumperoo.
Jumperoo 1
Jumperoo 2

Dirty Dirty Coffee Monkey

[jd] 9 August 2007

I know the school year has started because Ty kissed me on the cheek this morning while I was sleeping and said, "Have a good day. I took all the coffee". Um, oxymoron?

In other news, Cayden started daycare and then went 6 days without pooping. When he finally exploded, it was at daycare. Good boy!

Feel Good Movie of the Year

[jd] 2 August 2007

Apocolypto certainly doesn't earn that award. I am steadfastly ignoring this masterpiece of Mel Gibson's as I type. I think that man needs therapy to work some stuff out. I think I might too at the end of this movie.

Update: I am waiting out this movie in the guest room (we are at JP's). It was threatening to bring on another panic attack. Happily I have been doing better the past two weeks. I have been going to a postpartum depression support group which has been really interesting. It is a bit intimidating, because the majority of women there are taking meds and some have been there for over two years. I am not anti-med, I just have always been anti-med for me (although this experience has definitely been mind opening). And, the idea of feeling this way in two years is intimidating. But, I have had many neutral days the past couple weeks and a couple downright cheerful days. Not so bad all told. In general I am feeling very hopeful about all of this. Going to the group does help, the women that go are really sweet and there is something cathartic about sharing experiences.

Anyway, several people have called to see how I am doing so I thought I would post an update. One thing I am incredibly grateful for is that none of my negative feelings are directed towards Cayden. I know that happens to some women, and I think that would make it even harder to deal with. Happily snuggling Cayden almost always makes me feel better.

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?".