Back Home

We left pretty early yesterday (Saturday) morning (1:00am) to avoid the weather in Milwaukee and got back home in time (1:30pm) for the kickoff to the Iron bowl.  Ben has had a spot of fever here and there for the past two days, but both he and Jet slept for much of the drive and were real troopers by letting me drive right through.  Linda had made some leftover turkey into a tasty vegetable stew, which hit the spot after a long drive home.  I put the Thomas table together after the Iron bowl and organized all of the trains and track for Ben.  Ever since then, Ben has been just in the most unbelievably happy mood.  I bet if we left Ben alone, he would play with the trains for the entire day.  Jet also dressed him in Thomas PJs last night and Ben has just been beside himself full of excitement.  It truly has been like Christmas morning for Ben.  Such happiness.  Such joy.  It has been almost as fun for us to watch.

With so much that happened over the past week, there are so many people that we need to thank.  First and foremost, thanks to Dad for letting us ruin his house for one full week and still make breakfast for us every day.  I don’t know how, but I think he really enjoyed having us over for company.  Thanks to Kristin and Bryon for letting us interrupt them on a daily basis by hanging out at their house and bugging them.  We were amazed at what a good time Ben had over at your house (especially with Sam) and surprised at how quickly he has picked up new habits (screaming, running around in circles, etc.).  And a final thank you to everyone that hosted us and fed us during our stay (Janette and Jeremy, Jack and Kathryn, Dad, Kristin and Bryon, … the list goes on and on).  You really did give the most bang for the buck during our brief stay.  Thank you all so much and we look forward to seeing you in just a couple of weeks for Christmas.

Hitting The Road

It seemed like I spent all day yesterday cleaning up after all the messes that Ben made, but that is neither here nor there as I am now about to hit the road.  After my tremendous oversight of not checking the weather forecast the last time I drove from Milwaukee, which resulted in us getting caught in a blizzard on New Year’s Eve and getting stranded in a hotel in Rensselaer, Indiana for the night, I am pleased to report that there is nothing but sunshine ahead for the drive up I-65 today.  Has it been almost a year since then already?  Gosh, time goes by so fast.  I see that the temperature in Milwaukee is 14 right now … Yikes!  At least the forecasted highs are 40 degrees for the next week … that shouldn’t be so bad, right?  Anyways, we are looking forward to seeing everyone up in Milwaukee later today.  Hooray!

Days Ahead

Crud.  It was 21 degrees out when I was driving to work this morning and it will only get to the 50’s today.  Maybe this is nature’s way of preparing us for the cold temperatures up north.  So what’s the countdown at now, three days?  We were originally planning on leaving Alabama on Sunday, but Jet is working on switching her work schedule around so that we could leave on Saturday.  We are still planning on staying until the following Saturday, so that will cover us for Black Friday if anyone is interested in participating this year.  I see quite a few Black Friday adsalready up for Pennys, Kohls, and Target, among others.  I don’t have the same anticipating this year, however.  Maybe I’m getting older.  Maybe I’m getting wiser.  Likely the former than the latter.  We have a pretty open schedule for our entire time in Milwaukee, so if you want to plan something during our stay, let us know about it and we will try to accommodate.

Oplatky Covered

Not much to report on today.  Both Jet and Ben are recovering from a cold; Jet has felt miserable at times and has taken a lot of over-the-counter drugs while Ben simply has an occasional cough.  We did not do much over the weekend except watch the start of the Alabama game (only Ben and I) at Donald and Linda’s house and the Packer game over at our Wisconsin neighbor’s house.  Our Wisconsin neighbor had made BBQ sandwiches to enjoy the Packer game too – they really didn’t have to serve us anything to enjoy how the Packers played.

We are really looking forward to the drive up to Milwaukee and have been listening to the Mix (99.1 WMYX) for all Christmas music over the past few weeks over the Internet.  There is yet to be a radio station down here that I am aware of that plays Christmas music.  Staying in the Christmas spirit, I have ordered the Oplatky again this year from the Polish Art Center (located in Michigan) and it should be arriving at Kristin’s house in the next week.  Another box of 100 wafers so it will definitely be plenty for all on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Children’s Hospital – Results

Just wanted to follow-up our last post with the results from our visit to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham earlier today.  I was a bit nervous when we arrived because we had to report to a specialty clinic, but didn’t know until we got there that it was the leukemia clinic.  Ben had a lot of blood drawn, but it was only 1 hour from when we arrived till we were on our way out.

As it turns out, Ben’s pediatrician was concerned about the low iron in his blood and his monthly fevers and wanted one of the specialists in Birmingham to look at Ben and confirm whether they were related or not.  They are not … what a relief!  It turns out (and confirmed Ben’s pediatrician’s diagnosis) that Ben has 50% hemoglobin A (common in the US) and 50% hemoglobin E (common in SE Asia).  What is happening is that the hemoglobin E results in smaller red blood cells and is associated with lower iron in the blood.  The doctor mentioned that hemoglobin E sometimes makes it look like there is an iron deficiency even when there isn’t … but this is not the case with Ben. 

So with Ben having an iron deficiency in addition to the hemoglobin E, he gave us a prescription for Ben to take iron drops until his iron count gets back to normal.  That could take a month or so and we don’t look forward to having to give Ben iron drops several times a day.  Once Ben has his iron back up to where it needs to be, then he can take regular vitamins to help keep him there.

Birmingham

What a whirl these past few days have been. All we can think about these past few days is Kristin and Bryon … we hope the worst has past. Ben appeared to be getting sick again this week as he was not in the mood to eat much on Tuesday. On Wednesday he had a high fever for most of the day, but in a wonderful twist, he appeared to be 100% over it yesterday (Thursday). Unfortunately, it appears that Jet came down with a cold yesterday and felt miserable last night.

Yesterday morning Jet had a group of 8 mothers (accompanied by their children) over for a pottery party. I had never heard of this, but Jet said it was a great event and they all helped to clean up before they left. Too bad they didn’t make much of a dent in the large ice-cream pail bucket of left-over Halloween candy.

I had been putting off going to the dentist for my bi-annual cleaning since returning from Thailand … not because I feared going there, but because I just haven’t had the time. We have wanted to try a new dentist that was in town (Oxford) because it would be closer than our previous dentist (in Anniston) and hopefully a little better. Our previous dentist office was using equipment that was about 30 years old (and the interior design to match) and the dental hygienist was just plain rough on your mouth and always made you bleed. Well, Jet gave me a number for an office in Oxford and I called on Wednesday to schedule an appointment. I was expecting that the earliest appointment available to be in December and was a little concerned when they had lots of openings that day and on Thursday – why would they have so many openings? Anyways, I had my appointment just after class yesterday. What a great experience it was. All new technology. Brand new facilities. And probably the best dental hygienist I ever had (“Cathy”). She was so gentle and had so many tips for me and information to share about my mouth that no one bothered to share with me before. Even more, she had me snickering almost the entire time I sat in the chair. She was good fun. Needless to say, Jet now has an appointment scheduled with them on Tuesday morning. One thing that did come up is my wisdom teeth, which I still have. It might be about time to get them out (at least the uppers). They are not causing any problems now, but will eventually have to come out. They say it will be easier now than in 10 years – and easier still if I had it done when I was 18. Anyways, I will have to see how the insurance will cover this (will they cover it?) and perhaps have something scheduled before Christmas.

Ben has been both a lot a fun and a hassle over these past few days. He really likes to test Jet’s patience by doing things that he shouldn’t and fussing over things (snacks, toys, etc.). It got the best of him last night as the past few days Ben has liked to bounce up and down on our sofa-chair in our living room. He has had such a good laugh before doing it and much to the chagrin of Jet. Well last night, Jet and I were across the room from him when he decided to get on up and start bouncing again. Ben lost his balance on his first bounce and went over the edge of the chair landing end-over-end on the top of his head. What a scary sight that was! Ben cried for a few minutes and thankfully that is all that was. I don’t know if Ben learned his lesson, though, because bounced all around on our bed before we put him to sleep last night, coming very close to the edges, this time, to both Jet and my chagrin.

Ben has also been fun as he loves everything trains right now, especially Thomas and friends. To get him to eat some food over the past few days (he has been sick) we had him watch Thomas video clips on the Thomas Website. Earlier this week we watched our latest DVD that we recorded with our camcorder and to our surprise, Ben wanted to watch it with us. I just wonder what he thinks about seeing himself on the TV, though. He knows its him because he can point and say his name, but he looks a little confused watching as well. And about Ben saying his name, he says it like everyone down here – “Ban” not Ben. Yikes!

Ben has been very attached to his pacifier and Buddy, his teddy bear, which Ben calls “me” or “bear” in Thai. This has been for the past month when he had that rough 3-day fever spell. I just wonder when we will be able to get Ben to shake these. Ben has been with his bear since he was born … what would we do now if something happened to Buddy? Ben also does a new thing that Jet doesn’t like. Anytime Ben gets surprised or excited, he will open his mouth down as far as he can and ends up with a real goofy look on him. It’s funny to watch. Soon enough though, soon enough.

So what’s with Birmingham for the title? Well, this morning we will be heading out to Birmingham to children’s hospital for Ben. Ben’s pediatrician had noticed both before and after we returned from Thailand that Ben had very low iron in his blood. To get a better idea of what’s going on, she wants us to take Ben for some tests in the big city. We originally had the appointment scheduled last month, but it was during one of my classes, so we rescheduled it for a Friday when I would be free to go. Hopefully there won’t be any problems.

Peanut Pershing

Is there another treat out there that by the mere mention of its name, I begin to drool?  And I never stop at just one.  I stop when there are no more.  And I wonder why I always gain weight when I am back in Milwaukee. 

We had a pretty enjoyable weekend down here in Alabama.  On Saturday we put up the Christmas decorations.  The weather was good and we figured that we would not have that much time to enjoy them here anyways, so why not put them up?  Besides, we put them up about a week later this year than last year.  That’s good, right?  We got all of the decorating done in the morning so that we could watch the Alabama game in the afternoon.  What a nail-biter that was!  The most memorable part of the game was when I got a phone call from Bryon late in the 4th quarter asking me to bring back an Alabama sweatshirt for him.  That is just too funny.  The last time Bryon called me was two years ago when he asked me to bring him back an Auburn sweatshirt.  I reminded him of this and he just said that Auburn stinks this year.  What a fair-weather fan he is.

I took Ben to church with me again yesterday (Sunday) and he behaved pretty good again.  I had him sitting on my lap and he was like a swivel going back and forth checking out everyone else and all of the other kids at the service.  For lunch our Wisconsin neighbor Dan cooked up a large package of brats that Dad brought down with him last month and they were delicious.  Too bad the Packer game didn’t have the same pleasant aftertaste.  What a painful game that was to watch.  The only thing enjoyable was the 3 minute stretch when we ran back an interception for a touchdown followed by a punt return for a touchdown.  The missed field goal at the end was just the icing on the cake.

After the game, I rushed back across the street to our house to help Jet with her last preparations for our dinner guests.  It was a Thai guy (“Opal”), his Alabama-native wife (“Janet”), their son (“Jensen”), and Opal’s mother.  They were absolutely great company and a lot of fun to be around.  It was funny to see how both Ben and Jensen were very shy at the start, but were so much alike running around, talking and playing for the next few hours it was unreal.  Jensen is about a month an a half older than Ben.  Both Opal and Janet work during the week (Opal is finishing up training for being a manager at the local Cracker Barrel) so we hope that they can make time in their schedule to hang out with us more in the future.

Pizza Night in Alabama

We had the neighbors over for homemade pizza last night and it turned out to be a great event.  Everyone enjoyed making (and eating) pizza, while Jet made cookies and I made fried apples (with ice cream) for dessert.  It is just nice to have company over sometimes, isn’t it?  There has not been much else happening this week – Jet, Ben, and I had a family picture taken on Sunday night while Jet is having Ben’s holiday pictures taken today.  All this week Jet has been helping out her friend (Amber) at her home photo studio with all of the picture appointments that she has.  As you might imagine, it gets pretty busy this time of year for picture taking.

We do not have much planned for the next few days.  Jet works tonight and our Wisconsin neighbors invited us over for some beef tenderloin that they are grilling for dinner.  Jet mentioned the idea earlier this week of visiting Mt. Cheaha (highest point in Alabama, about 30 minutes from our house) on Saturday (tomorrow).  We might just do that since the weather has been fantastic lately (upper 70’s for the past 2 weeks) and the fall colors have finally began to peak.  If we do go, it should make for some great pictures.  On Sunday, our Wisconsin neighbors invited us over for the Packers game, which is noteworthy since our schedules have been so busy the last few Sundays that we haven’t watched a game together in some time … perhaps last when they were 3-0 heading in the Dallas game.  Hmmm … maybe that is why they have been losing so much lately.  Right after the game, Jet will be cooking Thai food for some friends for dinner.  This is the family that I met at their wedding just before we left for Thailand.  The wife is American (from Alabama), the husband is Thai, they have a 3 year old son, and the husband’s mother (also Thai) will be here.  I am really looking forward to it because they seemed like very nice people when I met them.  I heard that the Thai husband has changed jobs from being a manager at the Outback to a manager at the Cracker Barrel, so I am sure Donald and Linda would like to meet them too.

Looking ahead at Thanksgiving, we will likely drive to Milwaukee (and arrive) on Sunday, November 23 and leave around Sunday, November 30.  If that holds, the countdown stands at 15 days!  That will be here before we know it.

Election Day

Well, the day has finally arrived and I couldn’t be more excited … no more campaign ads!  The real excitement is that it will be the first time that Jet is able to vote.  I will hang around until Jet and Ben wake up this morning just so that I can be there as Jet casts her first ballot.  Since Ben has been getting up a little earlier lately, we should be out voting not long after polling opens at 7:00am.  We were planning on having a pizza party this evening to celebrate, but since Donald and Linda will not be in town, we are thinking to postpone.  Who knows, maybe we’ll just go ahead with it anyways.  Besides, I kinda have the taste for pizza.

Daylight savings has gotten us all messed up.  I usually arrive at JSU at 4:00am or even 5:00am every morning, but yesterday I ended up going to work at 3:00am.  Heck, I am writing this post at 3:00am right now just to do something because I can’t sleep and I will not leave for work until after I vote this morning.  I hope that it will not be long until my body adjusts to the time change.  I remember not all that long ago when I looked forward to daylight savings in the fall because of the “extra” hour of sleep.  Whatever happened to that?  Jet’s and Ben’s schedule has also been off as we are not sure when to put Ben down to sleep (8:00pm still?) and when Ben should get up (6:00am the last two days).  That may have more to do with Ben being sick right now than with daylight savings, though.

Speaking of Ben, it seems that he has turned the corner once again on his sickness.  It was about 3 days long again that he had it, but it was a little different this time as he had some congestion and (besides not eating and running a high fever) played like he wasn’t sick at all.  Let’s just hope that this latest run is over, though.

Well, what to look forward to this week?  On Saturday we were thinking of going to Atlanta for some shopping and Aussie Rules, but since they have an off week this Saturday for playing Aussie Rules, we may just stay at home and decorate for Christmas.  I looked at my posts from the last two years and noticed that we decorated for Christmas the second week in November in 2006 and the first days of November in 2007 (Jet’s mom was in town), so it may be just fine to split the difference and do it after the first week in November this year.  Besides, Jet has been bugging me about wanting to listen to Christmas music for the past two weeks.  Speaking of Christmas music, I heard the first Christmas song on the radio yesterday (Mannheim Steamroller – “Deck the Halls”).   I also received a strange voice mail on Saturday of a Christmas song that sounded as if it was coming from a radio somewhere in Milwaukee (on the Northwest side, 116th street perhaps?).  I guess if it’s after Halloween, Christmas is fair game everywhere now.

Week In Review

Because of the lack of posts, you can imagine how busy things have been here over the past week. At least we have some pictures to document some of it! I took Ben to church with me last week Sunday for the first time. Maybe it was the large, strange environment, all of the people that were there, or all of the singing, but Ben just sat still on my lap for the entire service. Ben was certainly not himself, but I was glad that I didn’t have to watch the service from the “quiet room”. After church, I attended the initiation ceremony for the student organization I am the adviser for in Jacksonville, then rushed back home to attend two different fall festivals. Ben had a blast at them as there were a lot of games for him to play and lots of candy to pick up. The weather was great for walking around too, so it was a very good day for us all.

This week at school was busy as usual, in addition to my usual work and grading, I found time to give our department’s Website a complete make-over while inching extra time to (almost) finish three different research papers. A busy week indeed. Things only ramped up as the weekend approached. On Thursday night while Jet was at work (I know, the day before Halloween), I carved our pumpkin with Ben (well, Ben watched) at Donald and Linda’s house. I kept it simple, but a little scary. Not sure if I accomplished that, but you can see it in one or two of our trick-or-treating pictures. We then baked the pumpkin seeds and I have been enjoying them ever since – tasty.

I had a student thesis presentation on Friday afternoon at JSU and had to rush back in time to get ready for trick-or-treating. As you can see, Ben was a dragon this year while I dressed as a “real” doctor. We only stuck to the houses in our neighborhood for trick-or-treating because we ended up talking to each of the neighbors for a few minutes at each stop. It didn’t matter that we only made about half of the houses we went to last year as each house literally gave us several handfuls of candy. Our final haul was a HUGE bag full of candy – an amount that I would have never gotten even if I had stayed out 12 hours collecting as a kid in Milwaukee. It was easier getting candy this year as there were less trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood and our neighbors didn’t want to get stuck with candy. Now we are stuck with it. Note to Josh and Ty … you don’t have to save your “non”-chocolate candy for me as I have plenty here.

Yesterday (Saturday) we had our neighborhood yard sale that I helped organize (e.g., passing out fliers, hanging signs, etc.). About a dozen families participated and we had some good traffic. The funny thing was that we had advertised our sale from 9:00am – 1:00pm, but the most people came at around 8:00am. It was a good thing that a few of the houses that participated were already set-up by then. Jet and I ended up bring our stuff to sell over to Donald and Linda’s house and we just hung out with them the entire time. Jet sold a few of the hair bands that she brought back from Thailand and a couple items of clothes for about $30. Well, that was $30 that we didn’t have at the start of the day. Hearing from a few of the other neighbors, they did pretty good and had a good time.

It must be that time of the month again because Ben was not eager to eat much all day yesterday and had a fever last night. It may be something else this time as he seems to have a bit of congestion now, which is different than the last few times when he was sick. Maybe it was the couple hours that he was out trick-or-treating on Friday night or all morning spending outside with us at the yard sale. Whatever how he got sick this time, hopefully it will pass soon. We were planning on getting a family picture taken later today (Sunday), but we will see how that goes as it will surely depend on how Ben feels. As for the week ahead, hopefully it will slow down a little bit, but as Thanksgiving is approaching and the semester is winding down, I doubt it.