4Th of July

Our 4th of July was alot of fun. We started out by a trip to Wisconsin a few days before to stock up on fireworks and boy did we stock up. We spent waaaayyyyyyy to much, so much that David wouldn't let me see the cash register for the total. Let's just say that we are now a "frequent buyer" and got a special discount card.

We had a bar-b-q in the front yard with the Stauners, we had steak, corn on the cob and even homemade ice cream. Finally it was dark enough to start the firework show and all the other neighbors joined us to watch the show. We had some really good ones and even some that went crazy and almost took out a few cars. Jenna did great, she watched most of the show and didn't cry or get scared at all. We were sad that Kayla and Becca missed a good show but we have nextyear to look forward to. I even took a picture of the mess in the street and the pile of trash of exploded fireworks.

Our trip to the Davis family reunion

We are back from our trip and finally getting caught up on our sleep. We had a fun but very busy trip. We arrived in Little Rock, Arkansas on Thursday, met at the airport by my mom Rosemary and step-dad Bill. Their house is a little bit of a drive from the airport, about 2 hours so we got our bags and headed for the house. We stayed at my grandma's empty house around the corner from mom's house, it's a cute little summer type cottage. Arkansas was it's usual steamy climate, hot and humid.

After getting to the house and unloading we headed to see my grandma and her husband. Grandma was very excited to meet Jenna. It's pretty cool that she got to meet her great-granddaughter. Friday morning David went for a walk and had quite an experience, he met some of the local dogs lets just say, give him a call and he can tell you all about it, it's pretty funny actually. After that we ran some errands and found a gym so David could work out.

In the evening we headed to Vian, Oklahoma for the Davis Ice Cream Social (picture to the left is Myra, Jenna, Me & Becca, Aunt Peggy in background, other picture is Grandpa Benson having trouble getting that picture to load, it will follow). There Jenna and Becca got to meet more relatives, Great-Grandpa Benson and several Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and many other family members. We had some yummy homemade ice cream and then went to Uncle Jim's for more homemade ice cream, French Vanilla and White Chocolate Raspberry, it was soooooo yummy.

Saturday we went to "The Rock Shop" (pictures above) and wondered around and Becca enjoyed looking at all the different rocks and marbles. Jenna even had a play in a rock pile. Jenna got to visit with her Great-Grandma some more.

We stopped for a yummy lunch at The Shack. On the way back we stopped at Nimrod Damn for a "Damn tour". David and Becca walked to the bottom of the river for a closer look and had a great time on their hike.

After we got back David and Becca went for a ride on the Quad and Becca had a blast, squealing at times from the speed, it was pretty funny. Saturday night we headed to Oklahoma again (2 hours away) to spend the night to prepare for the reunion. We went to Uncle Jim's again and had more ice cream (in case you haven't figured it out the Davis family is known for ice cream and eating) .

Sunday morning was the reunion and man o man was the line long (picture below) for lunch but there was as usual a big table of food. After everybody ate they began the usual introduction of family members. Grandpa Benson is one of 14 children (remaining brothers and sisters are pictured below) of the Davis family and several of his brothers and sisters had large families.

After the reunion was over we headed back to Arkansas so mom could make her famous BLT'S for David. Monday we woke up and headed back to my Grandma's house so we could say goodbye then headed back to the airport.

Father's Day

It appears that David had a nice Father's Day. He got to sleep in and for David, 7:30 was really sleeping in. The kids and I gave him a t-shirt custom embroidered that says "Daddy's team" that has a Chicago bear for each of the girls with their names below it and a gift certificate so he can get those big muscles massaged (he says he won't use it but hopefully he will, it wasn't cheap, wink, wink). I made him a yummy dinner of stuffed shells and garlic bread and even had enough to share with the neighbors.

School's out!

School is out for the summer for Kayla and Becca and they start the first two weeks with us. They have watched movies, swam and played on the slip-n-slide so far. There day is not all fun though, Kayla practices her viola for 30 minutes and Becca reads one book every day and practices about 5 spelling words a day.

Monday Kayla leaves for Camp for a week while Becca gets a special trip with David, Jenna and I to the Davis Family reunion in Vian, Oklahoma and also a visit to my parents and grandma in Plainview Arkansas. We fly out next Thursday for our trip which is followed up by a yummy ice cream social on Friday and reunion on Sunday.

This will be an exciting trip as Becca has never been to the reunion or met the Davis's (my step-dad's family) and Jenna will be introduced to the family as well as her Great Grandma for the first time.

Roll over

Our little Jenna is getting so big, today she rolled over for the first time, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke I put her on her back and she rolled over two more times after that. Not bad for being only 4 1/2 months old. She is also now holding her own bottle and starting to enjoy some cereal. Just wait until she gets her first taste of some vegetables.

Back to the doctor for little Jenna

Poor little Jenna woke up this morning sounding terrible. She has a stuffy nose, runny nose, cough and is sneezing. I called the doctor this morning and they were concerned about the congestion and cough so they wanted to see her again to make sure her lungs were clear. The doctor listened to her lungs but said they were OK. The doctor gave her some medicine for her cough and congestion and another antibiotic just in case she gets a fever again to start her on the antibiotics right away. She has been a little fussy but sounds better after having some nose spray. Keep your fingers crossed that this passes really soon.

One Sick baby

We had our first of two ER visits this weekend with Jenna she has an infection of sorts. They are not sure what it is of course because they just do not know what to do with infants still. So they drew blood, put a catheter in, and gave her shots of antibiotics that aren’t helping. Kayla and Becca had gone next door for a birthday celebration so they just brought their pajamas with in case (we have the best friend/neighbor EVER, and I’m not just saying this because I sent it to her too, she really is awesome and we would be lost without her). Becca of course didn’t want to stay so when we got home at about 12:30am, I had to go get her and bring her home. Kayla stayed. That was the first trip tonight.

Then about 3:45 am Missy had to take her back to the ER because her fever was over 101.5 again. They only gave her more Tylenol and changed the antibiotic. Gee whiz Olly, we could have done that from home. But anyway, she is not doing so well yet. She still has a high fever but is at least sleeping right now and is still eating about 1/3 of her normal intake but the important thing is she IS EATING. I had to stay home this trip of course because of our neurotic daughter Becca not wanting to be without us and Jenna (although annoying at times, Becca absolutely adores Jenna and won’t let her out of her sight…LITERALLY. Jenna has awesome sisters).

So that is where we are for now. No news. No updates other than Jenna is very sick with high fevers, lethargy, and screams of pain that cannot be identified, with the cause being a possible infection somewhere including her ear. They gave her Rocephin (info below), But I am a little concerned at the dosage of 300mg for a 4 month old, which was mixed with Lidocaine because the antibiotic burns. Indications appear to be for lower doses but I could be misinterpreting the data on no sleep.

If there are any updates, I will let you know.


http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/ceftriax_ids.htm
http://www.drugs.com/rocephin.html

Ode to Argent

Well as of May 25th, I am officially unemployed from Argent. It was good while it lasted, almost 5 years. I was a little unsure of working there at first but after the first few months and the money flying in I had to agree I made the right choice. The first two years were very profitable for me as an account manager, several months hitting the top 10 account managers. The mortgage business has been rough and only going downhill in the past 3 years so as they say all good things must come to an end.

I had the chance to attend many fun events put on by Argent. I got to go to a rooftop Cubs game on my birthday (game just happened to be on my birthday, not that they had it for my birthday), I got to see Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray, David Spade comedian, Erica Badu, and also a famous comedian from Mad TV who's name escapes me at the moment. I was also lucky enough to win tickets to Chicagoland Speedway to watch Buddy Rice and Danika Patrick, Indy Car racers sponsored by Argent.

I am lucky enough to say that I made some good friends while working and even though my employment has ended the friendships have not.

Jenna's Friends

Jenna has some new friends, Calvin and Olivia. Jenna has fun with both of them and everytime she sees Calvin she gives him a big smile. Jenna and Olivia like to play on the floor and hold hands and sometimes kick eachother. Calvin has a new girlfriend now with Olivia.

Backyard Friends

I know it's kind of silly to do a post about birds and a chipmunk but I just enjoy them so much. Since I was born and raised in California there really is not a wide variaty of wildlife in the city so I think I enjoy nature more since moving to Illinois. We have a large post in the backyard with several different bird feeders so I can look out the window and enjoy the birds. We usually have a Cardinal family, Redwinged blackbirds, Woodpeckers, Sparrows, American Goldfinchs, and a Wren who doesn't show is face much but only his song. Yesterday we had a new friend on our feeder, it was a Rose-Breased Grosbeak (black and white bird with read chest top left photo). It was really cool to see something new. We also have a chipmunk that cleans up what the birds drop.

Mother's Day

We woke up on Mother's Day a little cold.We were camping in the trailer and ran out of propane so we had no heat and of course it was down to about 45 degrees. We quickly got dressed and went to Jan's camper to warm up. So since we were out of propane we decided to cut our day short and head home. I got a loving call from Kayla and Becca to wish me a Happy Mother's Day. David and the kids gave me a gift certificate for Mario Tricoci. I will be using my gift certificate for a pedicure and a massage and after I am all relaxed I had requested dinner at my favorite place, El Puerto so we will be having dinner with the kids and Jan this Sunday. It was a great Mother's Day, especially since this was my first "official" Mother's day.

Pearl Lake

We tried out a new camping spot last weekend and we didn't get warm fuzzes from it. We were in the back 40 in the dandelion patch. We had never seen a campground with so many rules as well as a very large rule to pick up the dog "crap", yes you read it right, that is exactly what the rule list said.

David and I were very excited about one thing though, me being from California and David living there for many years you tend to find your favorite fast food places and when David was driving to the campground what to his eyes he found a Del Taco. Del Taco is way better then Taco Bell and they have yummy french fries. So of course the next day we had to go for lunch and I even got drive thru for the ride home.

And of course it wouldn't be camping without the balsa wood airplanes that burned in a fiery crash. The kids had fun climbing the rock pile and collecting rocks from the large pile in the back 40 where we were camping.

Our crooked girl

We noticed that Jenna had been turning her head to one side so on her latest checkup we asked the doctor to check out Jenna's tilted head. Jenna has what is called Torticollis(pronounced torta-collis). In english it is the muscles in the neck that are stronger on one side then the other. We caught it in time and with a few months of therapy it should correct it but for a time Jenna might need to wear a miniature neck brace.

1st Camping Trip of the Season

It is finally camping season again. Our first trip was two weeks ago and we have another planned for this weeked at Pearl Lake. We have never been to Pearl Lake before so we can only hope it's as good as the others we have been to.

The weather was perfect, it was about 75 degrees durring the day, we all even got a little sunburned. The highlight of our weekend was the cheap balsa wood airplaines that eventually ended up stuck in the tree. Danielle found a clever way to get it down though from parts from the bolo toss game.

Little Piggy

Jenna had her 3 month old checkup and she is becoming a little piggy, gaining 2 pounds since her last appointment. Jenna now weights 11 pounds 1 ounce and now is 22 3/4 inches long. She is finally started to fit into some of her closet full of clothes.