How Did I Get Here?

This morning, I woke up in the most beautiful hotel in America (in my opinion). At 5:30 a.m. I began my day in Nashville, TN, in the Opryland Hotel. Things started off so smoothly, we attended our convention until around 11, tore everything down, got it ready to be shipped back to California and headed to the airport for a 5 p.m. flight to Indianapolis. When we checked in, there was an earlier flight to IN that flew through Atlanta but arrived at the final destination around the same time as our original flight, so we decided to stick with our initial plans. Little did we know we should of followed our gut instinct to fly through Atlanta. We finally boarded our flight to Indianapolis via Cincinatti. After a longer flight than I thought it should be, the pilot announced there was a storm in Cincinatti and we had circled for so long we needed to stop for fuel, in Louisville, Kentucky. We were worried we would miss our connection as it left at 8:00 p.m. and we were still in Kentucky at about five to. When we finally got to Cincinatti, to make a long story short: we missed our connection, there were NO MORE connections until 8:00 a.m. the next morning (our training session was to begin at 7:30 a.m.); our luggage was waiting for us in Indiana because it had been placed on the earlier flight because we checked in so early; because of the storm and all the delayed flights there were no rental cars; needless to say as I FINALLY go to bed tonight, it's 11:30 p.m. in Erlanger, Kentucky, i'm sitting in an old, run down Holiday Inn with no pajamas, no food, nothing except a t shirt given to me by "Sky Team" and a little overnight package with one serving of toothpaste (which I will save for tomorrow morning) and a funny little tube of deodorant. Good thing is we decided to reschedule our training session and I will board a flight to Salt Lake City at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow. Another good thing is I wasn't travelling alone today. I had a very good colleague traveling with me from the Nashville convention and she'll head home to Green Bay ,WI tomorrow as well. Sleep tight everyone...

Eating Leaves...

So, here's the story with this picture. I was out of town, my mom put Ryker on the lawn by the flowers to take this picture to send to me. She called me and told me that while she was trying to take it, he had ripped a leaf of a flower and eaten it. She said she tried to get it out of his mouth but he swollowed it. I said it was no big deal, he eats a lot of stuff he shouldn't, he'd be fine. Soooo... the next day, I get home and pick him up from Shelly's (his most favorite baby sitter). She said he'd played outside, ate a really good lunch and just woke up from his nap. I held him and his head felt sooo hot!! She said if he had a fever it had to have just hit. I rushed him home and took his temperature, it was 105 on my thermometer. I took him right over to the clinic and it was the same there. Long story short he only had a head cold BUT my mom was insistant she poisioned him with a flower leaf. She was so upset. Can you believe that coincidence?? His fever broke later that night and didn't come back, isn't that strange?? Anyway, this is the picture that accompanies that story...

Park Photo...

Our Future Football Star

Updates...

Most people have probably given up on reading my blog. I'm sorry and I'm embarrassed.

I'm spending this night in Denver, Colorado. I've had a pretty busy month with work travels. I was in Wisconsin, South Dakota, Iowa, Alabama, Colorado today, Nashville Tennessee on Saturday and Indiana on Tuesday of next week. (Breathe...) Then, it settles down. Just in time to spend a long weekend at the lake, celebrate Ryker's first birthday and get ready for Ryker's next surgery. Most know that we were scheduled to have our next set of procedures done on June 19th. We had an appointment yesterday with Dr. Grimmer, Ryker's ENT. Turns out, the tubes in Ryker's ears are fixing to fall out and will need to be replaced. The bright spot is, Primary's will get all of the doctors together to perform surgery at the same time so Ryker will only have to be put out once. The dark spot is all the ENT's are out of the office on the 19th so surgery will have to be posponed until July 2nd. This procedure should be a bit easier than the first. Dr. Siddiqi, the plastic surgeon will repair the soft palate, Dr. Yamashiro, the orthodontist, will remove and replace the hard palate prosthesis, and Dr. Grimmer will replace the tubes in his ears. I'm worried about his recovery, having him on pain meds last time was miserable, but this time he's eating more solid foods (or at least trying) so i'm afraid that will be tough. I'm sure it will all go well. Ryker is one tuff little man. I can't believe that he is going to be one. This past year has flown and I wouldn't trade the trials and changes this last year brought for the world, I know thanks to all of it, I've grown more than I ever imagined I could.

Let see, what else... Cazley is nearly done with school and has been dancing like C.R.A.Z.Y. the last few months. She loves dance. I'll have to figure out how to post video because she took a ballroom dance class and she and her little partner are fantastic. It's so cute, just like a mini 'Dancing with the Stars'. They have performed in a handful of competitions and won a bunch of trophies.

Scott is still working hard. We've been pretty lucky with such hard times all around us, he hasn't spent much time 'out of work'. (Knock on wood.) We've really been blessed, even the couple weeks he was home with no work from his employer, he kept pretty busy with side jobs and odds and ends. He kept pretty busy keeping the house clean too!! That was nice while it lasted. I'm happy to have him back on the job though.

Well, I guess that's all for now...

Ryker dumped the dog bowl full of water all over himself

Bath time is the BEST TIME!!

Ryker with his plastic surgeon Dr. Siddiqi

Ryker with his orthodontist Dr. Yamashiro

I feel so bad that I am so behind on my blog. I didn't really realize that so many people liked to read it, until I haven't posted for a couple months and everyone wants to tell me about it. Over the last few weeks, i've realized that it is a nice way for family so far away to maybe feel a bit closer.

The last few months have been nice. I haven't had to travel much for work so i've been able to spend a lot of time with Ryker. He is getting so big. He has 6 teeth coming in now and boy are they sharp. He is beginning to want to pull his knees under his little body and push himself forward, usually this results in his forehead being shoved across the carpet. We're working on our eating habits and Ryker loves his freeze-dried yogurt bites.

We had a consultation with our orthodontist, Dr. Yamashiro and also, our plastic surgeon, Dr. Siddiqi at Primary's a few weeks ago. They were both so happy with how Ryker's cleft repair is healing. Dr. Siddiqi asked to take pictures for his photo album. We are preparing now for our next surgery. Ryker will have his soft palate repaired and his prosthesis removed and a new one replaced on June 19th. I can't believe he will be 1. This last year has been so full of ups and downs but has gone so fast.

Ryker recently took his first airplane trip. I'll post pictures as soon as I can get them. I didn't take my camera but my mom did. My grandfather in Alabama had been sick for a while and so my mom and dad and Jyl and Ryker and I were planning to take a trip back to visit the middle of this month. We had been busy making flight reservations, hotel accommodations and everything else when my mom and dad got a call late on Thursday March, 5th that my papa jess had passed away in his sleep. It felt a little overwhelming. It wasn't necessarily unexpected but deep down I wasn't prepared. It had been almost 9 years since I had last seen him and I was really looking forward to our visit later this month. Now, all of a sudden we are packing our bags to make a quick trip for his funeral. We flew down late, late on Saturday night. Luckily, Ryker slept the whole time. We arrived in Birmingham, Alabama at around 11:00 on Sunday morning. We made a quick stop at the hotel and then at the Wal-mart to buy Ryker supplies. After that, we spent the rest of the day at papa's house. It was nice because almost all of our family was there, minus 3 cousins, it was the first time in over 20 years we were all together in the same place. Ryker was such a good boy and loved all the attention. The next day and a half were a whirlwind. Once the commotion settled down and everyone started home, we got to spend a few quiet moments at the cemetery before we came home. This was the most peaceful time. I am so lucky to know that even though I didn't get to tell him good bye, he knows that I loved him and missed him, and missed the time we didn't get to spend together, we'll be reunited again.

The flight home was late afternoon, Ryker slept the first half and then for the last two hours, he sat on my mom's lap with big earphones on, watching Madagascar 2. It was so funny. He didn't even mind the big earphones on. It was a great trip. Ryker did better than expected and the time we got to spend with our family was priceless. I hope they know how much I love them.

I swear i'm going to try to update more frequently. TRY being the keyword.