Recent pictures of the girls

These are far from impressive shots, but I figured the family out there was tired of seeing text and not faces. ;)


Here's Janie with her pony. She named her Princess Strawberry Beautiful.



Here's Clara. Nothing in particular going on here.

Tubes went well

We got to the hospital yesterday at 6:15am, and we were both pretty tired. Dana was pretty worried, but brave. We played toys and waited for the nurse to call him back. Eventually, they gave him some tylenol and something else that made him loopy. He was pretty funny. While we were waiting for the doctor in the little triage room, Dana saw SUPER WHY come on the TV. Evidently, he was frustrated with his inability to see straight, because he made goggles around his eyes with his hands to see better. The nurses and I were cracking up. Dr. Barnes, our new ENT, came to talk to us and before we knew it the whole thing was over. It's a pretty quick procedure. We were in and out of the hospital in three hours flat, our shortest time yet. Dana was a little dizzy for awhile, but over the course of the day he went back to his normal energetic self. I'm so thankful I got to go with him this time. There aren't a lot of times when I get to have uninterrupted snuggle time with Dana.


Dana at 5:45am ready to go, with is Ducky to make him brave


Drawing on the floor in his room at the outpatient unit


Dana, beginning to feel pretty loopy, on his way to triage


Again... loopy, heading for triage


Back home again, resting with Daddy

Three times a charm

Well, the ENT scheduled Dana for tubes on Thursday. The left ear drum has negative pressure, so much that his ear drum was sucked in against his bones. The right ear drum was bulging and filled with fluid (thus the pain). In both cases, his eardrums aren't allowed to vibrate correctly and it's resulting in hearing loss. Thankfully, the hearing loss is temporary. Somehow they can test his choclear (sp?) nerves and they said his long term hearing should be fine.

Please pray for Dana, if you think of him. He's really anxious about the tubes and about the whole ENT thing altogether. Despite multitudes of gummy bears and lots of jokes, Dana didn't like his doctor. Although he's been through all of this a few times, he's totally forgotten about it and he's really worried about people poking and prodding in his painful ear.

And... if you think about it pray for Matt. He came home today feeling sick too. I'm thankful that I got over the worst of it before they got into the worst of it.

It's that time again...

Clara has a 102.4 fever, goopy infected eyes, sore ears, and a horrible croupy cough. Jane is lethargic, coughing and clingy. We've all been sick, but for some reason, the girls are getting worse instead of better. Dana has an ENT appointment tomorrow, due to his recent terrible ear infections. He has some residual pain, which doesn't really have an explanation. After two tube surgeries and two years of very few ear infections, it's back to the ENT we go. Poor kids. I think we'll have to try to squeeze the girls into the pediatrician either before or after Dana sees the ENT. Sigh.

WARNING MEN: ovaries being disussed below...

I also seem to be getting a series of ovarian cysts, probably follicular cysts, if my guess counts. Every month, just around the time I should be ovulating, I have pain on one side or the other, and only for half a day. I guess the pain is from the cyst rupturing. There are other symptoms too, but I'll leave it at that. I think what happens is that the follicle that surrounds the egg is supposed to rupture at ovulation and release the egg. In some cases, the follicle doesn't rupture, but builds up fluid and then eventually ruptures, causing pain and messing with your hormones (Matt can attest to this). This is supposed to be pretty common in women under 40, so it's no big deal, but I'm curious to see what my midwife says. Usually, they put you on birth control pills, but that's the last thing I want to do.

Other updates:

We closed on a mortage refi on Thursday! Our house appraised for 130,000 and we were able to take out a bit of money to pay for work on the house. We have people lined up to replace the roof, build a fence and deck, tear down two nasty trees, and level part of the back yard. We also need to hire someone to repoint the majority of the foundation, finish the laundry room, and trim out the rest of the house. In short, we're finishing this baby! And I want you all to know that when we finally finish the last project, we'll be throwing the biggest party the Monahan house has ever seen and you're all invited. ;)

We did sell the Bosch craigslist washer/dryer set for a profit and we got a GE frontloading set with much better capacity and cleaning power. We got a great deal and only spent $150 over the amount we got for the Bosch set. No more upheaval in the laundry room, at least not for awhile.

I promise I'll post kid pictures soon. I need to find our camera batteries. I have a feeling they're in someone's toys...

Thanksgiving Menu

I love Thanksgiving, and now that I'm responsible for cooking the meal, I love planning out every detail. Here's what we're having.

Turkey (stuffed with garlic, sage, apples, and onions/breast lined with garlic and sage)
Stuffing (cooked outside of the turkey)
gravy
skin-on mashed potatoes
cranberry-apple sauce (Katie-style)
sweet potato casserole
potato rolls
(sorry Katie, no green bean casserole this year... you're not here to eat it)
wine
sparkling cider

pumpkin pie
cranberry apple pie
pumpkin bread

Mmm. I can smell it already.

Last night

we were at the light on Main and Broad and a shiny, hopping, hooptie pulled up next to us. The guy in the driver's seat was really getting his groove on. He was practically hopping himself, pantomiming the words and in a hip hop trance. Matt and I couldn't help staring and smiling. Then, Janie's little voice breaks the spell... "That boy really likes his music!" Amen.