Aspiring poets, Unite!

Okay, I found it. Written during a slow day in the Admissions office at Simpson College back in 1999. We went around the room and each had to contribute a line.

A Summer in the United Arab Emirites
by Erin P, Eric B, Amy M, Ruth S, and Andrea B

The zither drones lightly across the plain
And breaks the peace like shattered rain
It fills my soul with great disdain
And causes my heart to ache and wane
Provoking the moon to sob in pain.

If only I could stay here more!
Hidden from hoary heads galore!
I'd immerse by brain in old folklore
And twist and turn behind this gloaming door.
I'd worry and burn and fret no more
At the zither's dreadful roar!

Just goes to show that college people will take any opportunity to show off their million dollar education. And $10 words. Funny, I should do more of this. Any excuse to use that huge Thesaurus I got for HS grad.

I love Haiku

Saw this on a t-shirt:

Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don't make sense
Refridgerator

Made me laugh a bunch. Jered, do enjoy! Remember the poem we did in the office with Eric? "A Summer in the United Arab Emirites." I have it written out somewhere. I'll have to find it. Ruth would crack up, too.

So, what good is health insurance . . .

. . . if they don't cover health related things? For those of you who have been on the edge of your seats waiting with us to hear about the outcome of the dental/medical appeal, we finally heard . . . they "voted to decline our request to have the dental procedures covered by the medical plan." Our last ditch effort has been voted down. We got the letter on Sat. and I really didn't want to have to show Kev but obviously I couldn't just leave town and take the letter with me. Eventually he'd wonder where I was. The trustees actually had the audacity to say in it that "it was with much deliberation at both the July and August trustee meetings" that they voted to decline us. As if that really makes it better . . . taking 2 months more of our time and Kev's un-comfort to pretend to give a flying fig about our situation. In case you can't hear it in my tone, there is much rancor floating around about the insurance profession these days . . . sorry Kim.

Anyway, we're just going to have to get the teeth pulled and partial dentures ourselves, with the pittance they call our dental coverage. All the other stuff . . . the scaling and planing and whatnot . . . will just have to wait. Kev was pretty much convinced not to do that stuff anyway because it seems an exercise in futility to scrape and pretty-up (with much more pain and discomfort) teeth that will be leaving us eventually. But at least with the partials he will be able to eat a sandwich without a knife and fork again. We've taken to carrying them in the diaper bag just in case we go somewhere and forget to ask for them.

Thank you once again, bottom dollar. Even in Wyoming. I guess we'll just have to trust that God will provide the money in another way instead.

One month old . . .

. . . and obviously the great big world is still too much for me. Better to just cover my eyes and go back to sleep. It'll be there when I wake up.

Going rate for impatience -- $190

Ever do something completely innocent and wind up having to pay a pretty penny for it? That's how I finished my day yesterday. Here's the backstory . . . because there always is one -

Because I knew I'd be having a c-section again, I took off my wedding ring back in April, when I could still get it over my swollen knuckle, so they didn't have to cut it off in the OR. They use cauterizing (sp?) instruments and didn't want me to spark and catch fire on the operating table. I didn't want them to remove the ring because they aren't interested in saving the piece, just getting it done and I didn't want it all mangled. So, I haven't worn my ring since then. I gave it to Kev to put away in his dresser so I didn't lose it in with my costume stuff.

Fastforward to yesterday. Kev came home from work and asked if I'd tried the ring to see if my hands have shrunk back down so I could wear it again. I said no so he got it out and I tried it. It slid on almost all the way so of course I pushed it the last 1/2 inch onto my finger. Wahoo, I got it back on! Then I noticed that I was feeling my pulse pretty good in that finger and the skin was starting to look like link sausage. I tried to back it off but it wouldn't go. My parents were coming to supper so I just left it on and tried not to think about it while I got supper ready. By the time they arrived I couldn't stand it anymore so Kev got out the vaseline and slathered it all over my finger and tried to pull the ring off but it felt like he was taking the knuckle and all. I stuck my hand in the freezer, up against the fan in the back where the air comes out, but that just made my arm hurt and wasted the electricity to run the fan. I tried an ice pack wrapped around the whole finger but that was starting to burn my hand so I gave up on that. I finally couldn't take it anymore so I called a jeweler in the mall to find out if they had the ring cutter. My dad took me up there and they cut the ring off. What a horrible sight . . . not only did he have to cut thru both bands of my beautiful ring which is a solitare and a wrap soldered together but he then had to bend the two cut ends almost straight up to pry it off. I should have taken pix of the ring for posterity but I forgot my camera and the ring guy didn't have a polaroid or camera phone or anything. My dad pointed out that it was probably a good thing that I didn't have lasting proof of what had to be done because Kev would NOT have been happy to see it. So, all I have is this photo of my finger, post-release, and today the bruised knuckle and redness that is left over. And it still feels like a sausage. Oh yeah, the cost to have the ring sized and put back together so I can wear it -- $190. I guess I should have just waited a few more weeks before trying it on. I think I would have had to have it sized anyways but at least we would have known about the expense and it wouldn't have been necessary immediately. Grrrrrr!

Josiah's dedication visit

Sorry there hasn't been anything from me in a week or so. Kev's dad and Marilyn and grandparents were here visiting to see Josiah and attend his dedication service at church. We had a great visit, and hope they did too, and we got show them all around WY . . . at least our little corner of it.

They brought "big sister" gifts for Gennie including some handmade quiltings from Grandma and a Cabbage Patch Doll . . . one of the originals from 1968 . . . and a Dora the Explorer Fairy Carriage.

Josiah never had to be put in his swing . . . there were open arms all over the room!

Grandpa's birthday was during their visit so we all went to Cruel Jack's for a "meat and potatoes" dinner. He couldn't get over how big the portions were and ended up sharing his birthday cake with everyone.

My dad got to do the dedication for Josiah like he did for Gennie. Thankfully he was only 3 weeks old and didn't honk Grandaddy's nose in the middle of the prayer like she did at 5 months.

We had a bbq at my parents' house after the dedication service and made Buffalo Burgers and Kronsky's for everyone. A big hit! Had to take a few pix of the whole fam for Josiah's scrapbook, of course.

We had to get a "Four Generations of Anderson Men" photo while we had them all together. We hadn't seen Grandma and Grandpa since Gennie was 3 weeks old and we moved here from CA. Another great scrapbook page in the making.

Then we took a drive out to the Gorge and had a picnic by the Red Canyon overlook. It was a beautiful day so we took Maggie too and let her run about chasing the lizards and rabbits. Fabulous week!

Portrait Saturday

Last Sat we took the kids to the "blue park" (because of the blue play equipment) to do Gennie's 3.5 year old portraits. Kev hardly complained at all . . . I was so proud of him! He usually give me such crap about doing pictures so often . . . yeah, often, or every 6 months . . . so I usually try to just take Gennie and do it myself but since I can't drive again yet I needed him. I didn't want to wait any longer to do it because they are already late but having a baby kinda throws everything off.

She did all of her own posing . . . apparently she's been on a few shoots with me . . . and had a pretty good time, although it got hot the longer we were out there and she started the crankiness toward the end. Then she decided she needed a treat for being so cooperative for me and announced that we were going to "Old McDonald's" for lunch . . . she doesn't know the difference between the restaurant and the kindly old farmer with overwhelming animal noise on his farm.

My two faves are the top two so most family will get those in one size or another. She doesn't look like a toddler anymore . . . she looks like a little girl and it's killing me!

Our little pea

Here's the shirt my mom found for him. I love it! I still can't decide which photo to put into his announcements, but I have to decide soon so I can get them sent out seeing as how he's almost 3 weeks old. I guess it doesn't really matter when you send them but I'd like to be able to cross that off my to-do list and move on to the next thing.

first photo shoot

Had to take a minute . . . well, about 30 mins . . . yesterday to take his first portraits. Kev was home for lunch and was laughing at me because he didn't think the kid would sleep thru for me to get all the shots. Ha! By the time he left to go back to work I was done . . . and had 74 photos to choose from! Kev says the kid doesn't stand a chance . . . by the time he goes to school he'll be so sick of having his picture taken! Now I just have to decide which one I want to be his birth announcement, although I think I'll take a few more tomorrow while we do Gennie's 3 1/2 year portraits. He has a special little peasoup shirt that my mom found that would be perfect for the occasion. I wasn't into baby portraits when we had Gennie so I don't have many like this from her first few weeks . . . I didn't start doing her portraits until 2 months old. But already he is looking like her, just much smaller.

Don't worry Nana . . . and everyone else . . . these will make their way in printed form to you all in the next few weeks! Hope you like them!

banner

Just FYI, the new banner photo was taken by Gennie! She set up her blocks for her own little photo shoot and painstakingly arranged them just right then took about a million photos with her little FP camera. Most of the photos were dark but I absolutely loved the colors in this one. . . even tho it's a little blurry. I can't wait to see how her photos progress as she gets older!

My Boys

swings and softball

Here's a few pix from this last week while Kev's mom and stepdad were here. Gennie got a new swingset from some friends at church . . . well, again, new to her . . . and Pat helped Kev get it put together so she could play on it while they were here. Then on Tues nite we all went to the last softball game of the season for our team. Josiah was truly impressed as you can see. The wind came up worse than ever this summer and we all got sand-blasted but he was comfy under his blanket. I was really worried about him getting an earache but it seems he made it thru unscathed. Everyone thought we were crazy for taking him out at only 5 days old but I was soooo tired of sitting at home "recovering" . . . read, "sitting on my butt" . . . that I had to get out of the house. Plus, I didn't want to miss Kev's last game of the year. Now we inly have to wait for Mother's Day next year for the softball season to start again!

more Josiah photos

I've been trying to get these photos to load for 3 days now. I was trying to add them to the previous post but gave up on that because this computer is so darn slow I'll just post them now.

The little guy slept really well, considering, the first 2 nights home but has really given that up now. We're trying to get used to the fact that Kev has to go back to work next week so I've been staying up with Josiah mostly. Kev gets up to get the bottles and diapers, etc, but then falls back asleep while he eats . . . I totally appreciate his help and can't blame him for sleeping because I would be doing the same if the positions were reversed. Last night Josiah was awake almost the ENTIRE night . . . I slept between 3am and 4am and that was it. Grrrrrr. Then at 6am just as the light was coming into our room he fell asleep and slept for 3 straight hours . . . just in time for Gennie to be getting up. I think his bio clock is just mixed up . . . can't wait to get it right! We have him in a bassinet in our room for convenience right now, at lease until he is sleeping thru the night. Gennie did at 3 months so hopefully he'll be that kind to us, too.

Okay, so no photos this time. Something is wrong with blogger right now and it won't post photos for us. Rahhhhh. More to come once I get this figured out.