Angels in the World

Tonight I took my mother to Urgent care to see about a possible blood clot. She is doing fine at the moment and will get further tests tomorrow. While we were getting her prescription, there was a 14 year old girl who had recently had a heart valve transplant. She collapsed and became unresponsive. He father was screaming and crying for someone to help her. A nurse came immediately and within a minute there was a group of people around her getting her stabilized and calming her father. At the point we had finished retrieving our prescription she was breathing and able to open her eyes. By the time we left the parking lot the ambulance had arrived and they were placing her inside.

These are moments when I am awestruck by people in the health care field. They are truly amazing. I know everything they have done for my little one and I wanted so much to hug that father and tell him I knew how he felt and that one day he too would take his angel home, just like we did. If there are angels in the world, I think most of them must be in the health care field. Tonight as I get ready to sleep in my bed at home I am thinking of that family and sending them my love and best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Halloween

I just glanced at my blog and was astonished to see how long it has been since I've posted. With twitter and facebook out and about, it is hard to keep up with a blog. Sometimes it is difficult to figure out which of the excited things in your life is worth writing about. :)

So here we are and it is Halloween. I was laughing at all of the places we've been to and things we've seen over the past several months and realize that I am going to have to do a flashback blog about what has transpired over the past several months, but for today we will focus on Halloween. To be honest, Halloween is my all time least favorite holiday. I could easily live without it, but once you have a kiddo it becomes more of a priority. Last year, we went to the Leesburg Parade, but this year, since we are now in Fairfax, we needed a new plan. Hence we have, Mall-oween. Basically, you do your trick or treating in the Fair Oaks mall. The nice part is that you are not worried about spiked candy or unfriendly neighbors, the downer is the sheer number of people. It looked like the day after Thanksgiving. Although, Stephen swears there were more people than that. Noah loved it and by the 3rd store and gotten into this say, "Trick or treat," smile and someone will give you candy. Personally, I liked the vendor coupons that came with his candy. It was nice.

Noah decided to be a fireman this year and we introduced him to painting pumpkins. He is now in love with painting which is good because he will be making several Christmas presents this year and it is better when he is excited about them. I must say that Halloween was very fun, but I am still glad it is over.

Friends and Fireworks

20 years later and here we are. I attended my 20 year high school reunion last week and it was very fun. Honestly, it was great to get in touch with people I haven't seen for a while. Several old friends couldn't make it which was a bummer, but we still had fun. The person next to me is Lee Ann and she and I have been friends since 8th grade. I only get to see about every other year and I loved being able to spend time with her.


For the 4th we drove down to Wakefield, George Washington's Birthplace and had a picnic. We used to do this all the time when I was a kid. Noah enjoyed his learning about toasted marshmallows. This place was perfect. It is right next to the Potomac River and had some wonderful woods to explore. It was also incredibly clean. Can't beat that!

We took Noah on a hike through the woods and he decided that a good hike needs a big stick to cart around. But after awhile...Noah decided that riding on Daddy's back is a must better way to hike. But did you know....
you ride on Daddy's shoulders too. These are the great parts of getting older. I miss the infant, but toddler to preschooler is even better.

We have also begun potty training and although I know it is common to take a picture of your child and their first poop in the potty. I decided that is there is a limit to my wanting to capture every moment of Noah's childhood. I do have to say though that potty training is much easier than I had initially feared. Hopefully, transitioning from pull-ups to underwear will go as smoothly.

Turning 2 and deja vu

My munchkin is 2. He had a wonderful birthday. We began celebrating on Saturday with a day of presents and a fun chicken and dumplings dinner. Noah LOVES chicken. We even got him a birthday cake. This year he got a big wheel that looks like a motorcycle, a pirate ship, a Little People airplane, and a kitchen. He loved all of them. We ended up opening them over the course of the day which made for the perfect amount of excitement without too much overwhelmingness.

On Noah's actual birthday, March 3oth we went to the National Zoo. Noah thought this place was amazing and loved seeing all the animals. He ran through a large part of the zoo. His favorite animals were the pandas, and the birds. He really wanted to see Melman, but all the giraffes were sent to FL while the zoo is creating their new Elephant habitat. It was so much fun to spend the day, just the three of us. It happens so rarely these days.

Noah thought the birds were amazing.

Noah and Mommy with the seals. It is very rare to get a photo of Noah and myself. I thought this one wasn't too bad.


My boys....they are the best in the world!
We were very excited to see the new gorilla. Mommy gorilla even stopped to allow photos to be taken.


Noah liked to snuggle up to the Panda statue.

On Saturday, we got together with several of Noah's friends at the park and ate cupcakes. Sadly, the weather wasn't the best - very windy. Noah enjoyed playing in the park especially on their wooden fire engine. I will have to post some follow up photos. I haven't gotten them downloaded yet.

During all this Noah picked up a runny nose and after two weeks ended up in the hospital again. Luckily this time did not require trips in a helicopter and incubation. So we learned the joys of entertaining a two year old that is strapped to an oxygen pump and an IV drip. Thankfully, he is home now and back to his same old self. Now we need to return to potty training, but need to find time at home to do it.

Discoveries

Noah is growing so fast. I look at little babies and realized mine is no longer a baby, but moving quickly into kiddom. For the last month, Noah has been on an endless search and discover mission.

We didn't think it would ever happen, but we finally got snow. Noah thought this was brilliant.


He started his snow journey by helping our neighbor Kurt clean off his car. I am sure Kurt was concerned about the hood of his car, so Noah swept off the lingering snow. Next he decided to get started early with helping his father shovel snow. Luckily they make shovels in his size.


Although this was Noah's second Valentine's, I am pretty sure he doesn't really remember the first. This year I stole an idea from "Jon and Kate plus 8" and gave Noah a Valentine's backpack that had some toys and books and a candy heart inside. Noah walked around with his backpack on and was sure this meant we were going somewhere.


As the weather finally got warmer, Noah found out the sunroof in Mommy's car opens up and you can climb out it, if someone is there to help you. This was a good 1/2 hour of fun entertainment and he even abandoned "driving" the car.



While over at a friend's house, Noah also found out the if you have a large dog crate, a new playground is born.


As many of you know, my son is a guitar hero. We got him a guitar for Christmas and life was good until we went to Costco and discovered the Fender. We did not buy him the Fender, but it was fun to play with.
Noah got a hold of the camera that is in my purse and took his own photograph.




Lastly, I love it when my "boys" take a nap together and it doesn't happen very often.

Just like many of my friends, the discovery of Facebook and Twitter has pushed my blog to the back burner. The other factor is the sheer number of photos I take and sorting through them. Take heed I will be writing more often and still posting my pictures. Who knows what is to come....

25 Random Things

A friend tagged me with this and I thought it was fun, so I'm adding it as a blog entry. Truth is I didn't think I had 25 things to share, but low and behold.

1. I am crafty---cross-stitching, quilting, knitting, scrapbooking, (soon to crochet).
2. I am a die hard Redskins fan...even when they are losing. I have clothes and everything.
3. I am very opinionated about Politics/Religion/Spirituality...I just don't share it with many people.
4. My dad died when I was 21 and I miss him very much. My son has his eyes.
5. I love all things sweet, but I hold a special place for COTTON CANDY!
6. Becoming a teacher was one of the best decisions of my life. Teaching and I are well suited and I enjoyed it everyday.
7. My first hero was my grandfather. When we would sit together and read the comics he could read what Woodstock said in "Peanuts." I thought it was amazing and he told me it was the special line in his glasses.
8. I remember the day I learned to read. It was Richard Scarry's Biggest Word Book Ever.
9. I used to live in Las Vegas, NV. I loved it there.
10. I have never loved anything the way I love my son.
11. My husband is a beautiful man and most days I'm not sure why he picked me, but yeah me.
12. I can sign although not as well as I used to.
13. I have more craft projects then I have years left to live.
14. I am secretly a goth chick who digs vampires.
15. I have played the clarinet for 26 years.
16. I am an oil painter, but not a terribly good one. My mother is much better.
17. One of my favorite presents was the year, my husband agreed to be my gopher and I got to sit all day and cross-stitch while watching the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Needless to say that was before Noah.
18. I spent my 30th birthday at the zoo.
19. When I was able to bring my son home from the hospital, he weighted 4lbs 7oz. I held him for 3 days straight because I was afraid he wouldn't know who I was.
20. I graduated from Longwood University and met two of my best friends there.
21. When I was 2, I beat up the little boy next door for taking my big wheel.
22. I play with the Loudoun Symphonic Winds.
23. One of my favorite things to do is get up early in the morning, grab McDonald's and go have breakfast in the park. My dad and I used to do it all the time.
24. I love photography and wish I were a better photographer.
25. My idea of heaven is an endless array of great food, books to read everywhere, craft projects to do and nothing but time.

2009

Wow has life been busy. I realized this morning that it has been a month since I blogged last and Christmas is now behind us. We had a lovely Christmas this year. Everyone managed to get things that they really appreciated. I made the Grandmothers coffee table books of Noah, which I was rather pleased with in the end. My mother is hinting at a future yearly library and would like a calendar. I got a new lens for my camera and a tripod to properly test out my newly developing skills. This should help with my overall interest in taking nature shots. What can I say I like bug pictures. Stephen was upgraded to the lastest IPOD has to offer. He is becoming our main Mac guy. And Noah....."is gonna be a rock star." (thank you Nickelback :)

Noah is now full equipped with a piano, drums, guitar, and a harmonica. I think he might be a little into this music thing. The guitar and drums ranked as his favorite gifts by far.

Right after Christmas we left for Houston to visit Stephen's family. It was probably one of the most relaxing visits we have had there in a long time. Last year we spent our visit in the hospital. The weather was a fabulous 65-70 degrees and we enjoyed every second of it. Especially at the park with that is next to my Mother-in-law's house. It was a fabulous park with ducks and a soccer field. The kids has a wonderful time.

This dog was even nice enough to let me play with my camera lens and see what it could do.



I also managed to finish up the last of my dishcloths and I finished the book Twilight. I have talked to several people who did not care for the book, but honestly I can't put them down. I have been this excited over a book, since Harry Potter. I even dragged Stephen out with me to see the movie. It made for a great end of vacation date.

Ah, so the Christmas fun is over and the New Year has begun. This year is the "Year of the Purge" for us. So wish us good luck as we more that get rid of the unwanted in all aspects of our lives. I'm starting in the kitchen.