B.J.'s digs

Last one for tonight ... here's some pictures of B.J.'s room and the Jamison's house. His room actually doubles as the family room, so privacy is scarce, but they seem to adore him (what's not to love, except the unmade bed) and he seems fine with the arrangement!

(Oh you want to see/hear about Darah, you say? Well ... you'll just have to wait. I'm saving the best for last, or maybe just for tomorrow.)

And the zoo goes on ...

Mama, Daddy and baby giraffe sharing a meal - haven't we always known that having dinner together is so important to a family??


Elephants are just ... strange, aren't they?



This was my favorite part, I think - the polar bear. He looked so weirdly unnatural swimming around with those big paws and all that fur - should have been lumbering around on land instead! He's playing with ... 1/2 a big rubber ball in the second one - as easily entertained as a small child with a big box!!


And THIS was definitely the funniest thing we saw - wish I would have been quick enough to get it on video. I choose to believe the one on the right was the male - he was tenderly and gently grooming all the nits and dandruff and whatever else out of his girlfriend's hair, when suddenly he grabbed her face with both hands and puckered up to kiss her right on the mouth. Her reaction? She elbowed him right in the chops and sent him over backwards!! Great stuff!

On the way to the zoo and beyond

Who are these goofballs?



At a stoplight, B.J. jumps out of the car (he was driving) and roots around in his trunk for what seems like forever, only to come up with ... sunglasses for all of us.
Happy day.


A couple of the cutest animals we saw ... NOT!






And the scariest one of all ...

Zoo videos

Friday we went to the San Diego zoo. More pictures to follow, but I love these two videos! The first one is of a noisy flamingo fight - I just caught the end of it but it was quite comical!





This one starts with a monkey of some sort napping under a leaf, and progresses from there ...

Not the best start to our trip ...

So we've figured out the way to be the first one off an airplane ... although I wouldn't recommend it. As we started our descent into San Diego, Greg very suddenly developed an excruciating headache right above his left eye. He was in more pain than I think I've ever seen him - I seriously thought he was having an aneurism and so did he. So one of the longest days of my life begins ... although I have to say the Lord and I had a quick conversation right before I completely freaked out. It went like this: "Angie, what's the worst thing that can happen?" "Well, I guess he dies and goes to heaven to dance with Jesus." "Exactly!" "But it would be horrible for me ... but then again, You would carry me through it, wouldn't You?" "Yes I would." From that point forward, I had a great sense of peace - I was still concerned, and scared of course, but I was calmer than I would have ever thought possible.

They had paramedics waiting at the gate, and they wheeled Greg up the ramp in a wheelchair with a bag of ice on his head. (You know how those ramps are uneven? There was one uneven spot the paramedic rammed so hard with the wheelchair he almost catapulted Greg right out of there! Poor guy - he just moaned.) They hooked him up to an EKG machine ... and got an abnormal reading. So they glued on 12 more leads and tried it again ... still abnormal. At this point they strongly recommended he be transported to the hospital and called an ambulance when I agreed.

As we were racing (literally) for the front door of the airport (I think this guy should have chosen a NASCAR profession), I heard someone yell "MOM!" and I turned around to see B.J. We thought he had to work all afternoon and were expecting to take a shuttle to the hotel - he decided to surprise us and I about broke him in half hugging him I was so glad to see him. [He said he was waiting and waiting for people to start coming off the plane, then he sees this pitiful guy coming off in a wheelchair and thought, "Who's the LOSER with the huge ice bag on his head?? Oh my gosh that's my DAD!!]

Anyway, once we got to the emergency room, they did another EKG. More multiple sticky things glued to his body. Also comes back abnormal. (I'm a good snoop when I need to be ... I was reading the printout as it was coming out of the machine and it said all the same stuff as the one at the airport.) Finally a doctor comes in, basically dismisses the headache as a sinus problem, and decides to send him on his way. Meanwhile Greg is still half-crazy from the pain in his head - he wanted to say to the guy, "But can't you see that icepick sticking out of my eye??" I asked the doc about the EKG's, and he said, "Oh those paramedics aren't doctors, they really don't know how to read those things. I wouldn't worry about it." O...K? I guess I'm relieved?

About a half hour later, doc #2 comes in (it's a teaching hospital, yippee) and says that his symptoms are not typical of a sinus problem that sometimes can occur on an airplane descent, and he wants to make sure he's not having a brain bleed by doing a cat scan. Hmmm. A little more worried again. (Understatement of the year.) He gets a pain shot that has little effect, except to cause him to break out in hives all over his body.

A couple hours go by. Greg passes the time by peeling all the little EKG stickers off his body and watching each spot each turn into a huge raised red hive. Doc #3 comes in, and says they've had a couple of traumas come in so they took precedence in the cat scan machine. Should be any time, she says. I ask her if she could look at his EKG's just to be sure all is ok. She says she will. We never see her again.

Another hour goes by. The cat scan finally happens. Doc #4 comes in as we are praying together, and says that the cat scan looks ok to him, but the radiologist still has to read it.

Another hour. Brandon has played with all the equipment, looked in all the drawers, turned the 1000-degree spotlight hanging from the ceiling on and off pointing in every possible direction (including directly into my face). He's officially bored but hanging in there, and I'm still very glad for his company. His girlfriend Darah brings us dinner ... awesome pizza, and very welcomed because it's now something like 7 p.m. and we haven't eaten anything except pull-and-peel licorice and peanuts since breakfast.

Doc #4 comes back. The cat scan was negative. Good news!! Except ... they are still very concerned because of the sudden onset of the pain and the fact that he still has a horrible headache that there could be a brain bleed. Apparently the cat scan rules it out 90%. The only way to know for SURE is to do a spinal tap. For those of you who knew us in 2000, you might remember when Greg was in the hospital with a virus that they were afraid was meningitis, and did a spinal tap then. It leaked, and he got the most horrible headache of his life (until today). So not surprisingly his reaction was: "I'M NOT HAVING ANY SPINAL TAP!! I'M GONNA DIE SOMETIME AND TODAY'S AS GOOD A DAY AS ANY!" The doctor explained that it was his choice, but then ran down a list of about 74 symptoms and said that if he experienced any of them during our vacation he needed to get to a hospital immediately. I was quiet ... then looked at the doctor and said, "Can you give us a minute?" He left, and I had a little talk with my dear husband that went something like this: 1) I'M not ready for you to die today. 2) It's going to be a miserable and scary vacation if we (I) am worrying about you all weekend. And the kicker: 3) What would you do if it was me? He sort of slumped over like the Gecko in that commercial does, and said, "Hold you down on the bed and make you have the spinal tap." I said, "OK then." And went and told the doctor he'd changed his mind. :)

The doctor came in as we were praying again, and said "Don't stop praying on my account." He got the kit ready (those needles are FREAKY long!) and, making conversation, asked what we were doing out here. We told him our son was doing an internship at a church called the Rock. He started laughing - turns out he not only goes there, but was going to recommend we go if we had a chance on Sunday. To make it even more of a "coincidence" he is in the application process to volunteer for Pebbles Pathway, the VERY ministry B.J. works in at the church. Suddenly we felt much more comfortable and were immediately grateful for God's grace and mercy in sending us this fellow believer to see us through to the end.

Spinal tap over, not too bad. (For me anyway.) Another hour. Comes back negative, PRAISE THE LORD!! Now we know for sure it's not a brain bleed, and the official explanation is this. Apparently, at altitude all the air goes out of your sinuses. Once the descent starts, the air floods back into them. Well, Greg seems to have filled up with snot while we were up there, and there was no way for the air to get back in, and his sinus cavity ended up pinched shut. Yow. Very very painful, but not life threatening. We were so relieved ... and then I said once again, "Could you look at his EKG before we go? Both of them were abnormal." He hadn't even known about that - he went and got it out of the file and was back in about two minutes flat. His first question was ... "Do you have a cardiologist?" "No." "Well you need to find one and get an appointment as soon as you get home." I was so tired by that time I didn't process everything very well, but evidently there is some sort of electrical problem (ultimately solved by a pacemaker if necessary) that is going on - he has no symptoms but it sounds like it was a merciful and gracious God-thing that we found out about it and that I kept bugging everyone about it. SO he has an appointment with a cardiologist next Wednesday.

We got back to the hotel at something like 11:00 San Diego time (1:00 am here) ... whew. God was amazing throughout the whole thing - other than a foot that just kept bouncing up and down of its own accord I really felt calm and peaceful the whole time. Brandon was awesome, Darah was sweet and helpful (not the way we expected to be meeting her, that's for sure!), and God sent us that amazing doc to finish out our day.

All's well that ends well, right? Once again, can we have some fun on a vacation or WHAT?????????? Let me just say that it was all good from there ... I'll start the journal of the rest of the trip tomorrow. Thanks to all who prayed while this was going on - we definitely felt them.

This one's for you Darah

Off we go to see this wonderful child - I've missed him so! We plan to come home with lots of good pictures and video ... back with you next week!

It has begun!!

Packing ... again. I've got a good start, good enough to leave on vacation without worrying that I won't get done! Plus I've got lots of good help coming the week after we get back, so this pile will grow and grow and grow and before I know it we'll be done! Right??

Mason walks!

Check out this talented boy - his mouth is like an extra hand!! He cracks me up with his hats - and it's the only word he knows. Kind of odd, I agree, but very cute ... couldn't get him to say it for the video, next time maybe?
Also his shorts crack me up ... they look more like capris because he's so fat that's the only way they can get them big enough to fit him around the waist! Chubby boy!!

Focaccia Bread

Yummy, easy bread recipe!!






2 3/4 c flour

1 t salt

1 t sugar

1 T active dry yeast

1 t garlic powder

1 t dried oregano

1 t dried thyme

1/2 t dried basil

pinch ground black pepper

1 T vegetable oil

1 c water

2 T olive oil

1 T grated Parmesan cheese

1 c mozzarella



In a large bowl, stir together the first eight ingredients. Mix in the vegetable oil and water.



When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes.



Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Punch dough down; placed on greased baking sheet. Pat into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle. Brush top with olive oil. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and mozarella cheese.



Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve warm.



** My tips/variations - I only use 1/2 t of oregano because we're not overly fond of it. I use my kitchen aid mixer to do the kneading (don't want to burn a calorie if I don't have to!). I usually prepare a mixture of olive oil and spices (kosher salt, oregano, pepper and basil are what we like) to dip the bread into. Good stuff!! I've also discovered that putting my bread in the oven with the light on (only - no heat!!) makes it rise very nicely.

Video problem??

I've had two people tell me they couldn't get the video to run - has anyone been able to watch it besides me? It works fine on my computer, but if no one else can see it, well, that's sort of useless, isn't. Since I took the silly video in the first place! Let me know - thanks.

Fun shots from this morning

Who do you think these kids are? Especially the one on the right? Will it blow your mind to tell you it's Christa?? Is that not the spitting image of Lexi?! I took a picture of an old picture, sorta cheating, trying to trick you, it amused me.


Here's Lexi's award certificate from her first real hair cut, complete with locks of hair! Guess Christa agreed with me that the home hair cuts are not for us. :)


Here's Lexi trying to squash her breakfast (puppy chow - see video below :) with a squash.


The remains of the spaghetti stain on the carpet ...



And ... drum roll please ... what a roll of toilet paper looks like after the terrible-two-year-old has completely unrolled it onto the floor and Mommy has rolled it back up. Very patiently and happily I'm sure.

VIDEO POST!!

I'm so excited! Thanks Shannon! I figured out how to post a video on here ... this one's not expecially remarkable, but trust me I'll be looking for good ones from now on! Kinda weird - the sound seems to lag behind the video itself, but still cute. :)

Spaghetti Sauce and Suspicious Flushes

Last weekend Brenda and family brought Christa some dinner from Fazzoli's - yum yum. The container made it into the trash yesterday, still a bit saucy. While Christa was in the next room checking her e-mail, she asked Lexi what Mason was doing. "Sleeping," she says ... to which Christa freaks out, thinking maybe he's bonked his head or is choking on something ... she runs in the living room, and lo and behold, messy Mason has retrieved the pasta container from the trash, and is posted up to it on all fours in the living room (on the carpet of course), his head buried in the bowl, licking it clean. Sauce everywhere - sure wish I had a picture of that one!!

Recently, Lexi was on the potty (she spends a lot of time there these days!!), and Christa heard it flush. Since they have a rule about not flushing unless she "puts something in the potty," Christa said, "Lexi, did you put something in there?" Lexi said, "Yep, FARTS!! And I flushed them all away!!"

Mullets and messy grins

So Lexi got a hair cut ... actually Christa just cut her bangs ... it really doesn't look this bad most of the time, but a trip to the salon may be in order, what do you think?




And Mason, after eating at least three handfuls of sand ... again (see previous "Lexi eating sand" post), you would think once would be enough but we finally had to take him away from the sandbox!! The funniest thing was, instead of trying to spit that nasty mess out, he just kept chewing and swallowing!! Poor kid probably pooped a sand dollar the next day.

And this is just cute ... classic Mason. Happy happy - especially after a meal!

Brandon Wins the Marathon!!

Well, not really, but it sounds good, huh? He ran a half marathon yesterday, with, according to him, not much training, in 2 hours and 3 minutes, and came in 2,438 place!! Woo hoo!! He even got a medal!! I think he said there were 6000 runners, so that all sounds pretty good to me. :) Here's his summary of how he feels today: "Knees = not bad, left one is a little sore, they were both pretty bad yesterday, but better today. Other than that, just a few blisters and a little soreness. Not bad for the minimal amount of training I did =)"

He said he may get a picture e-mailed of him running the course, and will send it on to me to post if it happens.

New house pictures

Here's a few pictures of our "new" house - I totally forgot to take a picture of the front outside!!

This one is taken right outside the sliding glass doors of the dining room - nice big deck and fenced yard! The house backs up to Harold Street, and if you could pan right about a block across the street you would see Christa's house!!


This is the living room - love those bookcases! We negotiated a big carpet allowance, and hope to have all new carpet installed before we move in.


My favorite part of the house [sarcasm intended] ... we'll be changing the wallpaper and light fixture right away! I do really like the built-in hutch thingy though.


This is a not very good shot of the family room in the basement. Nice walls, huh? :)


And finally, the kitchen. I'm going to be really happy with all the counter space and cabinets - there's also a pantry on the other side by the refrigerator.

We're moving!!

We bought a house! The negotiating process was not much fun - the other agent was a bit difficult. But when it's all said and done, we'll be the owners of a house about 1 1/2 blocks from Christa and family in Olathe! Our closing date is September 8th, and with a trip to San Diego between now and then it'll be busy getting everything done. So I'm making excuses now if I don't get this updated much for awhile. :)

We have the kiddos overnight tonight - J is out of town, and Christa has to work. Darn. They're both sleeping now - we put them down for late naps about 4:15, and it's now 6:00. I'm wondering how long to let them sleep ... don't want them to be up too late tonight!!

A new favorite game with Lexi goes like this:

Nini: Once upon a time, there was a little girl named ...
Lexi: Lexi Grace Kuchta!!
Nini: And she had a brother named ...
Lexi: Blankie Pink.
Nini: Lexi Grace Kuchta and Blankie Pink loved to play in the ...
Lexi: Mud!!
Nini: And when they play in the mud, they get very ...
Lexi: Dirty!!
Nini: After they play in the mud, they like to go to the ...
Lexi: Garden.
Nini: And while they're in the garden they ...
Lexi: Pick some flowers!!
Nini: And those flowers are all different colors, like ...
Lexi: Pink, and green, and red, and green, and BLACK!!
Nini: And after they play in the mud and the garden, they ...
Lexi: Take a bath!!
Nini: Because they got very ...
Lexi: Dirty!!
Nini: And while they're in the bath, they play with ...
Lexi: they toys!
Nini: and they also get clean with ...
Lexi: Bubbles!!
Nini: And after they take a bath, it's time for ...
Lexi: Bed!!
Nini: So they say their ...
Lexi: Prayers
Nini: and go to sleep. And they all live happily ever ...
Lexi: after! The End.

Of course it's different every time, sometimes funnier than others! The mud is always inserted somewhere, as is the bath. What a hoot.

Well I suppose I better wake the sleeping beauties and feed them some dinner. Pictures tomorrow, I promise!!

Insomnia

So it's 2 a.m. and I'm wide awake. Which really stinks because I was so tired I could hardly stumble to bed at 10 p.m., and tomorrow (well today I guess now) is going to be a busy day! Maybe I was feeling too guilty about neglecting all of you to sleep?

Exciting news - we looked at houses yesterday, and will probably make an offer on one today. It's only a couple of blocks from Christa and family and from my folks, which will be wonderful. I miss being close enough to bug them anytime I feel like it!

Funny story - we were looking at houses in a new subdivision, construction going at full speed everywhere. (OH MY GOSH the water softener just kicked into (LOUD) recycle mode and scared me half to death!!!!!!) Anyway, this house looked to be almost done, and the garage door was part way open, so we walked over to look at it. Greg grabbed the garage door and started to lift it, and we heard this scuffle and saw a ladder wobbling and a little man ducking and hollering - he had his ladder set up inside the garage, and was up at head level facing the top of the partly-open garage door, working on the automatic opener! When Greg yanked open the door it practically decapitated the poor guy - he was yelling in Spanish and Greg was apologizing like crazy - once we realized he was ok, we cracked up laughing!!

Anyway, we didn't pick that house. :) The one we like is about 8 years old, and needs new carpet (which we hope to negotiate for) and a little bit of other work - like covering up the hideous wallpaper in the kitchen/dining room - but it's a great floorplan and has a fenced backyard, nice deck, and sprinkler system. And it's less than a block from a nice community playground. So yes, basically we're buying a house with the babies in mind, but what did you expect?? I'll try to get some pictures when we go back today and put them on here tomorrow if the deal goes through.

Random Hobbit Hollow stuff - here's a picture of our mama deer and her two babies - we have enjoyed watching them romp so much this summer! Of course they have basically decimated our garden, but oh well.



Speaking of gardens, remember that squash I was trying to identify awhile ago? Well I started obsessing on it a couple of days ago, and found a picture on the internet that matched - it's a "yellow crookneck squash" and I have been letting them get WAY too big! Basically they were turning into gourds by the time I picked them. So I'll try picking them earlier and see if I can make anything decent with them!

Lexi is doing a great job with potty training - she is so proud and pleased every time, she yells, "Come quick, I did it!!" Very cute. She has started inserting the word "new" in all kinds of random places ("I want my blankie on my new head" - what??) and told Christa the other day, "Mommy you have a big big nose!!" The girl always makes me laugh.

I must try to sleep. This is ridiculous.

40th Birthday Roast

So my "little" brother Chris turned 40 last week - his wife Amy threw a surprise party for him, and everyone was supposed to "dress like Tharp." You have to understand, Chris never misses an opportunity to get into a costume, so we all had lots of memories to choose from. There was lots of camoflauge, bowling shirts, and a couple of guys in tablecloth dresses - I'm not sure I ever got the whole story behind it, but evidently Chris dressed like this to "honor" an outgoing VBS director at his church, and one of her past costumes must have looked something like this!

His friends met him at the door with a wheelchair, and after we enjoyed some great food together, we roasted him. I think he was surprised, and we all enjoyed telling stories on this crazy guy. Here's a few pictures from the event:





Here's his cake - very cool - and a picture of the whole crew. Very fun night.

Poop week, revisited

This one goes in the Tot Lot Hall of Fame, for sure. This little guy's name is Jayce.



He cried pretty much all week. Look closely, and you'll find the tracks of his tears ... that is, if you can get past the bottom lip! :) He was my buddy, and a very earnest young man. He started every sentence with: "But Miss Angie, I have to tell you something ..." and somewhere in every conversation we had he told me "But Miss Angie, I just wanna go home!!" Almost every time he was in time out, his time had to start over because he just COULDN'T STOP HIMSELF from talking.

About mid-week, I found out from his Big Sister, Rachel, that he had pooped his pants twice that day. Deja-vu?? For me too! I thought for sure Week I was the end of the poop fest. But no. I told her that from now on, she should come get me to clean him and the mess up, because it wasn't in her job description to do that. The next day, during naps ... well suffice it to say he tried to clean up after himself and I'll just leave it to your imagination from there. Later that evening, during free play, on the playground ... yep, again. By now it's taken on the consistency of pudding. Yikes. (Sorry but you need to know that to appreciate the end of the story.) Another clean-up, with him in the shower this time (I just pitched all his clothes, it was all I could handle by that point). After all was finished, I walked back towards my room, and found Diana (the Bible teacher) and Brooke (the pseudo-nurse - more on that later). I told them what had just happened, and that it was the fourth time in two days, and Brooke said, "Oh, so I guess I should stop giving him a laxative twice a day now?" OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!! Apparently his mom sent the medicine with a note to stop giving it when his poop got runny, but due to the shortage/underqualifications of staff none of us communicated with each other this VERY IMPORTANT piece of information!! His Big Sister knew he was getting medicine twice a day, but didn't know what it was for, I didn't know he was getting medicine at all, and the nurse didn't know he was pooping his pants!!

Having said all of that, it was truly remarkable to see Rachel, his teen-age Big Sister, lovingly cleaning him up and caring for him - she was absolutely the hands and feet of Jesus to that poor little guy!