Casey Bishop!

This morning my alarm went off at about 6:45am. I shut it off, then I realized that I no longer set my alarm, since I just sleep until Audrey wakes up. So I looked back at my phone and saw that it was not my alarm, it was a call from my friend Casey.

Casey and I went to college together. We met in the dorms my sophomore year and ended up roomates the following 2 years! She grew up in Stewartville, but post-college ended up in Rochester, until last year year when she moved to Kansas to be a teacher (she decided to go where the jobs were!).

There was a message on the phone. I was pretty nervous to listen to it, no one likes getting calls in the morning, you can almost assume something is wrong. The message was from Casey's mom asking me to call her. Ok, now I'm very nervous. Expecting the absolute worst, I called Joy back.

Joy was in Witchita, Kansas with Casey, who had just been diagnosed with a form of leukimia, acute promyelocytic leukemia.

Casey had been feeling icky for a few weeks and had recently fell into the wall at home. Her family persuaded her after the fall to go to the hospital . A few friends drove her to the local ER. Turns out her platelet count was very low (platelets keep blood from getting too thin) and they found bleeding in her brain. The bleeding is healing itself and is no longer a concern, but led them all to the diagnosis of APL. She got some platelets infused and was airlifted to Witchita. I dunno how her mom got there, perhaps drove overnight, but Casey wanted her to call her MN friends ASAP! I ended up being the one that answered the phone so quickly friends were notified (aka Kelsey and Heather).

So, let the praying begin!!! She will be in the hospital for 6 long weeks, ick ick ick. Joy said she'll be on 2 meds, one being an oral chemotherapy drug and she will lose her hair. Apparently and understandably, Casey Jo is having a rather emotional day. I called this afternoon, but luckily Casey was getting some much needed sleep.

I just thought I'd blog about it if anyone out there would say a prayer for my friend. I was reading about this cancer and the numbers look great in terms of recovery. APL was discovered in the 50s and back then there was no cure. Sure makes me aware and grateful for cancer research, otherwise my friend wouldn't have a chance. But now they've found treatments that are successful.

Well Case, if you're reading this, I'm so sorry you're sitting in that hospital bed insted of getting ready to come home. It sucks, big time. I wish I could be with you right now. But your friends here are thinking of you all the time and praying fervently for you! May God pour out his peace and strength on you and you deal with these long weeks ahead. May he allow the medication to rid you of those dangerous cells and make you heathier than ever! I'm really mad at cancer right now, but thankfully, I know the God who is King of the Nations yet cares deeply for each one of us and hears our voice. He can do anything!

Love you Casey! Talk to you soon.

PS: Casey has a caringbridge site: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/caseybishop

Some New Pictures

I don't have a ton to say, just thought I'd put up some new pictures :) I've spent the past 2 weeks working, so I'm feeling free now! I got the house cleaned (after like a month since the last cleaning, sick!) and got the place Christmas-ified. Thanksgiving lunch was so good, thanks to my Gran E. who makes the yummiest turkey! Thanks Gran! I had to work, but got to see my family for a couple hours.

I noticed last night that Audrey's 2nd bottom tooth is coming in! Two little teethers now. She has a horribly snotty nose right now! Poor girl, she's a bit miserable and taking short little pathetic naps today. Oh well, it'll pass. She's making little crawling motions. Like she'll get up on all 4s and move her hand then one leg and then collapse to her tummy, then do it all again. She LOVES to stand and will actually balance for a few seconds. It's a lot of fun to watch her try to figure out how to move around. I finally ordered her a car seat through Sam's Club. I hope we like it! It was such a hard decision. We got two, one for each car. Oofdah. She's outgrown her baby car seat, it goes up to 22lbs and that's what she is!

The plan is that Chris and I are going to The Blind Side tonight, I'm excited!

Well here are some pics....

My precious girl.

Chris putting up an ornament!

My silly ones!

The famous felt chicken ornament, this one's for you GRAN!!!!!

Well, I'm glad I could leave you all with this nice picture of me. Heehee. I feel like a boring writer, blah blah. Bye.

A 7mo. Baby with a Lil' Tooth!

Hello faithful readers who are still bothering to check my blog even though I rarely update. With facebook as it is, I feel like everyone already knows my life and I have nothing to blog about that you don't already know. (Except for you dear Gran E. since you don't have facebook :)
Oh, let's just start with today. It was wonderful. I just got a simple day to hang out with Chris and Audrey. It started wonderfully. My sweet husband gets Audrey on Saturday mornings and puts her down for her first nap, all before I even get up! I slept until 10:30 today! Any other day and I'm up by probably 7:30-8ish. I'm okay with it, but it's never easy and I hope Chris knows how much I appreciate him doing that for me! So, Audrey took her 1st nap from 9a to Noon! Oofdah, that was nice! Chris and I just hung out in our jammies until then, fun fun. I love Saturdays!

Then we ate lunch here at home when Audrey woke up. We try to eat with her otherwise she freaks out that we're eating and she's not. Then we went to Walmart and Target to get various things. This was somewhat exhausting for me. Nothing worse than croweded stores, ugh. Sooooo many people at Walmart.

We also went to look at a house, which we do from time to time. I think looking at houses has become a bit of a hobby. When we started, over a year ago, I didn't know much. I still don't know much, but I know a lot more and have strong opinions on many things having to do with houses. Chris and I have it pretty much down as to what we want in a house/yard, but then again, we change our minds every so often. Anyhoo, then it was time for Audrey to sleep again. She slept from 3p-6p! Wowee! She was a textbook baby today!

At 6p we went and had supper at Tinns, it's a yummy sandwhich place by Sam's Club. Then we went to the mall and strolled around. Audrey lasts a long time in her stroller just happily people watching :) We ran into Susan and Denny (My aunt and uncle) at Pennys! Fun fun. Audrey was glad to see them. She stared Denny down as she does with most men, haha. Susan gots smiles outta her.

Then we came home! We played with Audrey for a few mintues, then I gave her a bath, read her 2 books and off to sleep she went. She goes down to bed so well. All we do is put her in her crib, she grabs her little bunny blanket, rolls to the left, puts her thumb in her mouth, and closes her eyes. Sometimes she plays around a little and then goes to sleep, but she never cries. She does cry when she wakes up sometimes, but whatev.

So, there's my nice day. What else to say....Audrey got a bottom right tooth, her first! I was at home telling Chris about a baby I know, who is Audrey's age, who has 2 bottom teeth. I was holding Audrey when I said it. Just for fun I felt her gums again, like I do everyday, and lo and behold, a sharp little white tooth was poking through! She had a rough couple days. I could tell she was hurting a bit and she woke up once in the night for 2 days. Tylenol seemed to help quite a bit. Now, she seems back to normal.

I'm still making her food. She's eating carrots, peas, squash, sweet potatoes, pears, peaches, apples, and bananas. I tried beans, but they were so disgusting, I couldn't give them to her. They tasted like mushy water. I'd probably have to buy fresh beans in order for them to taste better. So far, over the month I've been making her food, I have save $68 appoximately. So that's pretty cool. However, I discovered that the peaches and pears would be slightly cheaper to buy packaged. Maybe I bought the fruit at a high price, but they were just too expensive and didn't make enough food to beat out the store price. Everything else by far was cheaper to make at home. So, maybe if I find peaches/pears on sale, I'll make them again.

Chris and I are still workin' away, Chris everyday, me not everyday, but lots this past week and the week to come! I miss my fam when I'm at work! Things are ok there. We're being set up with mentors, us newer peeps. My mentor is a super neat lady. She's really really interested in making me feel good about the unit and my job. She's really encouraging and loves to hear whatever I have to say. I was hesitant at first, but now I think it's a pretty good idea. It's nice to have someone who specifically wants you to approach them with any questions/concerns.

I think IBM could use a mentor program! haha. Chris is left to fend for himself day-by-day. I'm so proud of how hard he works. It's a tough job, but he never gives up, despite the minimal guidance and availbe people to answer questions.

I basically get begged to ask questions and learn, but Chris has to beg to get his questions answered, something's not right there.....hmmmm.

Ok, here's some fun pics of sweet Audrey Joanna, 7 months old now!

Thanks for reading!

Audrey Loves to Stand!

A Happy Girl :)

Bottom right! (Her right)

Audrey is quite perplexed by this doll.

"I love bubbles and bathtime!"

Baby Food!

Why is Audrey Jo so happy you ask?

Because she got to eat her first real food, something other than formula and rice cereal!

I decided it's time to start the fruits/vegetables. I had thought of making them myself and thoughs of just buying them. There are pros and cons of both and I really hadn't made up my mind. Then, I was at Brice's wedding and his photographer (Hi Jen!) and I got to talking about a mutual interest, our 6 mo. olds! Jen told me about a website that helps you figure out making baby food at home. I decided to check it out. After reading a bit about it I discovered that all it really is is getting the food clean, cooking it (if necessary) and finding a way to get it smooth. So, I went out and bought carrots, bananas, apples, and peas. I already had a blender, steamer, and ice trays (to hold the frozen baby food) and freezer bags, so I started makin' it!

Carrots: Were hard! I think I could do it better the second time. You have to peel them, cut them, and then I steamed them. I couldn't get the blender to blend them so I put them in my food chopper thing to make them smaller. This was a messy annoying process. Then I realized if I added more water the blender could handle it. Then I had a beautiful bright orange smoothie! Then you place the food in ice trays to freeze into nice portion sizes which you take out as needed. Audrey tried carrots today for the first time, she seemed to really like them!

"I love my carrots!"

Bananas: Super easy! Just peel and blend! It was actually kinda fun and like a 1/4 of the time over the carrots. These were Audrey's first taste of something other than rice cereal and she seemed to like them, then she started to shudder with each bite! I realized they were a bit much for her, so I started adding a little cereal with each bite and now she's fine!

"Oh goodness, something with flavor!"

Bananas!

Peas: Also pretty easy, somewhere inbetween bananas and carrots. I bought them frozen, I wasn't about to break open actual pea pods. So I just cooked them up, put 'em in the blender and added water and there you are! They were a lovely shade of green.

Audrey hasn't tried peas yet, but probably next week!

Apples: Not as hard as carrots, but it took some time. I had to wash the apples, peel them by hand and cut them in little tiny pieces. Then I put them in the steamer and finally blended them! Then I realized I made applesauce. I don't know why this didn't occur to me earlier, probly because I hardly cook a thing, but there it was, real life homemade applesauce (but with no added flavors of course). I had plenty of food from the other ones I made, but little did I know, only 5 apples makes not much sauce. So, it I were to do it again, I'd probably buy like 15 apples or something. Also something we'll try next week! Yum!

Steamin'

Applesauce for Audrey!

This was something I was able to do in one day, using Audrey's naps to finish it all. So, it was a timely thing, but I made a lot and put it all in freezer bags. I estimated that it'll last about a month and 1/2. Here is the frozen deliciousness! (Minus the apples, they were still freezing)

So, I did this for 3 reasons, to see if I could, to give Audrey very healthy baby food, and to see if I would save money? I found I can do it, Audrey seems to like it and I like that I'm giving her healthy stuff, and I did save money. But, is the money saved worth the time spent? I am not sure. I spent ( and this is an approximation and I've rounding off the numbers for simplicity) $6 on the vegetables/fruits that I made, but used up about 3 or 4 hours making the food. If I were to have boughten the same amount of pre-packaged baby food (Walmart's Parent's Choice brand-the cheapest one I've seen) I would have paid about $16. So I would have spent only $10 more and saved the 4 hours. So, I dunno, is it worth it? Over the course of a few months the savings will be more significant. I dunno, I think I'll give it another try with some new fruits/veggies. It would be super easy to just go buy some and then they're all packaged up nice for ya, but there's also a very productive feeling about doing it myself. Either way, I'm fine with it and I know Audrey will be fine too!

Thanks for sharing in my baby food making adventure :) Until next time...

Audrey and I after she ate her carrots, I think she is glad :)

Happy Anniversary Christopher!

Chris and I are celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary today! Happy Anniversary sweetheart! I love you so much! Here are some pictures through our years together.

Fall 2004. Our 1st pic. together, not official yet :)

Fall 2005, already engaged!

October 21st, 2006! Our wedding day!

October 21st 2007, 1st anniversary.

October 21st 2008, Ok a bad pic, but it's all I have!

Our 2nd anniversary! I was nauseous, being pregnant with Audrey!

October 2009! 3 years together!

I love you! And I'm so blessed to be your wife :)

Blogging For a Lack of Something Better To Do?

It's a rare thing when I have no housework to do, no calls to make, no baby to care for, and no one to talk to.

Audrey is sleeping in her crib, for 2 hours now, Chris is sleeping on the couch, laudry is going, garbages are changes, dishes are put away, everything is picked up, I have thoroughly done all I can do on facebook, blogs are read, back account checked, devotion time done, and what else...I dunno. I seriously have nothing to do! It's amazing! It'll all change real quick, but I'm enjoying sitting here at the table by myself doing nothing especially productive.

This morning Mom, Audrey, and I went to a giant baby stuff sale at the fairgrounds. Mom found a nice Land's End diaper bag. It was only $5 so I got it. Mine was getting too small for Audrey's increasing needs, i.e. toys to play with, bowls, spoons, etc. So, I had fun packing that up. I like being organized. Then we went to Khols, Mom bought more things for Audrey :) She got her a cool toy that Audrey played with at Carlos O Kellys while Mom and I ate. Then we came back to my place and Mom left shortly after. Chris came home around that time from work. He has to work 4 weekends a year.

Oh, Chris and Audrey are both up now....like I said, I knew the peace would be short lived, but it's ok, cuz I like them both a lot :) heehee.

Well, my aunt Susan is watching Audrey tonight! Chris and I are going to a movie. I've craving movie theatre popcorn!

Sitting up, Rolling over, and Other Happenings

Ok, I'll do a little update....

Audrey Jo is 5mo. old! She's achieved some new things lately. You know about the rice cereal thing; that is still going well. A day shy of 5mo. Audrey officially sat alone for several mintues! Then one night later at some point she flipped from her back to her tummy in her crib. I found her in the morning on her tummy! It was hilarious! Now she does if often and really well. But not yet on the floor while she's playing, I guess she prefers her back when she's playing and her tummy when sleeping. Now when I put her in her crib, she grabs her little bunny blanket, turns on her left side, puts her left thumb in her mouth and the blanket to her cheek and shuts her eyes! It's so cute. I sucked my left thumb too. I'm not sure if this is good or bad, but what can I do about it?!

A 5 mo. old baby girl :)

Licking the bowl clean!

My first bath in the big person tub! Sitting up!

My first roll over to my tummy!

My Great Grandma Mary and Grandpa Gale went to Alaska and got me this cool hat! I love it!

So Audrey is just a blast. I love taking her to restaurants and watching her so interested in everything on the table. We tried her out in a high chair with a toy in front of her on the table, she did pretty good. She wants everyone's food! She's just a fun girl! She giggles more easily and "talks" a lot, especially for Chris. We just started noticing that she's kinda hitting things, like wacking toys and surfaces hard with her palm, haha, what a goof.

Well, I like talking about Audrey, but in terms of Chris and I, were are also just fine. We're both having jobs issues and would like new ones, but we shall wait and try to be patient and content for we know and trust the One who has a plan. We're having fun being parents and watching our beautiful daughter grow. We love sharing her with people and seeing how much she is loved. We so appreciate everyone who helps us with watching her and such, you know who you are! We joined a small group at church and that, so far, seems like quite a great thing. I'm also going to start going to MOPS (mother's of pre-schoolers). The moms meet together and there's child care for the "Moppets" as they're called. It's at my church, but not limited to members of our church, so we'll see how that goes tomorrow. Chris and I are also in a co-ed softball league. I have to miss a bunch of games, because of work, but I had a lot of fun in the ones I was in! It's fun to do something like that with Chris.

Ok, I better leave it at last before Audrey wakes up and you all get intimidated by the blog's length!

~Brianna

Baby Food!

Today it's recommended to start baby's on solid food, or rice cereal that is, inbetween 16-24 weeks of their lives. Audrey is 20 weeks, so she falls in that category. Here are some other signs your baby is ready to start eating a bit of cereal. They are interested in the food they see you eating-Audrey watches with great interest when we eat and tries to grab it from our silverware and put it in her mouth. They are at least double their birth weight-Audrey was 8lbs and now she's 17lbs. They are waking up at night and seem hungry when they were previously sleeping through the night-Audrey used to sleep through, now she wakes up. The baby can keep food in his/her mouth w/o pushing it right back out (this is a reflex that disappears with age).- Well I didn't know about this one until we tried feeding her. So yesterday we fed Audrey about 2 tsp of rice ceral mixed with a little formula to make to thin. She gobbled it up! Swalled it right down. I think we'll just do it once a day for now, like after her afternoon bottle. She still got up last night though, so I don't know why she's doing that. Anyhoo, here are some pics of Audrey's 1st bites ever!

Fun spoons we get to use now.

She liked to grab the spoon and help

Look at me guys, I'm a big girl!

Yum!

Happy Birthday Chris!

Today is my husband's 25th birthday! I love you sweetheart. I hope you have a wonderful day! I

am very very glad you were born! :)

A great husband!

A great new Daddy :)

Happy Birthday! xoxoxoxo!

14 Weeks

****I just put Audrey down for a nap, her morning one. Usually I take a nap too, but I actually didn't feel incredibly tired so I thought I'd stay up and do fun computer things. Also, I've been having such a hard time falling asleep at night, so maybe skippin' the nap will help.
****Audrey has been such a blast this week. I worked the weeked and Chris had her the whole time, overnight. At some point over the weekend, she gave him her first little giggle. Then yesterday my mom got her to giggle, and I got one outta her this morning! It's so fun to see her react that way. She's also now grabbing things. In her exersaucer she grabs the toys and if I put a toy on her tummy she picks it up and puts it in her mouth. She also reaches her arms straight up to reach for our faces when she's laying down. When I go to get her out of her crib she sees me and opens her mouth in a giant smile and wiggling her arms and legs like crazy. It's so fun to see her recognize us and get so excited about it! She has some new squeals and cooes as well. She grabs her feet sometimes and is not rolling over yet, but seems to try sometimes. She holds her head way up now and get her whole chest off the ground. She falling asleep for naps easier as well. Her new thing is that she's been sucking her thumb. I just put her down and she spit out her pacifier and put in her thumb! Also now it's harder to read to her cuz she grabs the pages! She's such a fun girl and we love her so much!
****Audrey has now decided that she doesn't want to nurse anymore. She only wants it from a bottle! What a stinker. Now I have to pump all the time cuz I really want her to have my milk. She gets my milk most of the day, but maybe 1-2 formula bottles as well. Sorry if you didn't want to know all this :) She's also drinking 6oz now! So, I went out yesterday and got a bunch of big bottles, now that we need more of them! It's quite a system pumping, washing bottles, filling bottes, washing bottles, and so on and so on. I think I've become quite efficient. Chris does it too (makes bottles and washes them, not pumps, hahahahahahahahahah).
****My mom and dad and Chris and Audrey went to down by the riverside to watch Gene's band play (a family friend). I guess when Audrey heard the loud music she grabbed onto Chris and buried her head down on his shirt :) She didn't cry, but just layed there, hanging on, as if to say, " Daddy, keep me safe, I'm not sure about this loud noise!" Then she took a nap on her Grandma and woke up and had lots of fun looking at all the people and the trees :) I wish I would have been there! (I was at work) Chris had a good weekend with her, I think. He had to get up once at 4am to feed her, but he said it wasn't bad. He is such a good Daddy and takes such good care of her.
****Our blogging/facebook stuff is being highly monitored now at work so I won't really talk about it, but I'd have 4 shifts back and it's been as good as expected. I'd rather be home, it's hard to leave Audrey, but it's been going fine. Both Great-Grandma's have had a turn at watching her before Chris gets home. We're so lucky to have so many wonderful family members in town! I'm so grateful to all of them and all their help! Grandma Mary also came over one day to watch Audrey while I had an appt for my gallbladder.
****So, I do have stones in my gallbladder due to pregnancy and that was the cause of my severe pain. I can't remember if I've talked about this before. I won't get into it, but let's just say worse pain of my life or maybe even with giving birth, thought I was dying, and turns out it's a gallstone. Wow, so much pain for such a little thing. So, I met with a surgeon and he says I can call him up when and if I want surgery to get the gallbladder out. I haven't had an attack in a while, so maybe it's over? Please!
****Oh what else...my friend Casey went back to Kansas (I miss you!) I'm glad I got to see her a few times this summer, although I wish it were more! My dear friend Cara is coming home from Ohio this week, for a few days! I'm so excited to see her! She was here when Audrey was like 3 weeks, so she'll be amazed at how big she's gotten!
****Yesterday was a lot of fun. My mom came over and we went to a Chinese buffet, Target and back to my place. Audrey was fun and giggled for her grandma. Mom bought Audrey a floating pool thing. Audrey can sit in it and float! It has a shade over it too :) I got her a suit and "lil swimmers" which are diapers for the water. We're going to camp this summer so I thought I'd try it out and see if she can handle the lake... Later we went to Tinns with Mom and Gavin and back to their house to play outside. Mom, Dad, Chris, Audrey, and I went on a walk to the Dietzman's house. Cheri, Kirk, Danae, her b/f Mike, and 2 of their little cousins were there, some swimming, some not. We chit-chatted for a bit and left before Audrey got hungry. Then Audrey went to bed at 10:30 and got up a little before 7:30 (almost 9 hours, I like it!)
Okay, I better add some pics and wrap this up!

Sittin' in the bumbo seat!

On my tummy, makin' spit bubbles

Playing and giggling with Daddy! (I threw up on his face this morning, haha!)

I grabbed my puppy and now I'm gonna eat him

My little swimmer

The bottle mania

Grabbin' another toy

My cool new glasses my uncle Jay got me (Gavin's good friend)

Hope you liked the update :)

Today I have to go back to work and this was my mom's blog...

To my sweet daughter Brianna
I know today will be hard for you as you return to work after having 3 months off. I have been praying that you will be able to adjust as you venture back to the workforce, and step away from your precious little girl. I'm glad you and Chris have set your priorities on what's best for Audrey and have chose to only have you work a few days a week.
Your children will thank you both for being there for them.
I hope all goes well on your first day back to work, I'll pray it does.



Last night when Audrey and I were snuggling she told me
a few things that I should mention in my blog... Here's what she said,

" Mommy, you take such good care of me and even though I will miss you a few nights a week, I feel especially blessed to get to spend time with my daddy...just me and him, it's all good.
So dont you worry about a thing, my daddy's got my back and all my friends and family will be happy to hangout with me every now and then until dad gets home from work.
I'm excited for Kellie to be with me today for a few hours until dad gets home. Then I get to see my Grandma at daddy's softball game, we will "chill" and watch daddy hit the ball hard.
Before you know it you'll be back home and checking on me as I sleep all cozy in my bed. Daddy will tuck me in and make me comfortable so I'll sleep the whole night through !
Be sure to give me a kiss on the cheek before you slip into bed with daddy. I hope you have a good night at work tonight mommy... Cant wait to see you in the morning, hugs and kisses
I love you", Audrey

Thanks Mama for helping me feel better about everything. I really appreciate knowing you're praying and thinking of me :) I love you!