The BIG move

Getting ready for the big move…well not really haha. Even though we aren’t having another child any time soon we are preparing for it in the long run.  My office currently is shared by an extra bed.  We have decided to rid the house of the extra bed and move our baby girl into the bigger room so when we have a second child, they will have the bigger room to share. 

We want to get her used to her new bedroom because she currently isn’t aloud in that room.  So this plan is happening in phases… over the next couple months!

PHASE ONE: Remove the extra bed.  This will happen later this week.  Kate and the kids are coming up to stay this week and then my parents are coming up Thursday and will take the bed home with them on Sunday.  You may ask where is our family going to stay when they come up…well we have decided that we are going to buy an Aerobed for them to stay on when visiting.  Our house just isn’t big enough to have an office and kids room and extra bedroom.  The Aerobed will be blown up in the office when we have company.

PHASE TWO: Paint.  I haven’t decided for sure on this phase but I'm pretty sure I’m going to paint the bedroom before moving Kiersten into the new room!

PHASE THREE: Swap Kiersten and the office.  This sounds easy however Kiersten’s toddler bed is the crib converted into the toddler bed and it won’t fit through the doorway…so I will have to disassemble the crib and reassemble it in the new room. So this phase will take probably just as long as the painting phase!!!

Anyhow thats my new adventure and plans to happen over the next few months! It will keep me busy I'm sure!

Worst Case Scenario...RULED OUT!!

So the last post that I wrote was a little emotional, so here is the current update! I went to my primary care doctor on tuesday and she sent me directly over to the hospital to have my MRI scan done of my brain. She called me about 5 hours later and informed me that everything looked good on my MRI scan. So worst case scenario, which i didn't mention in my previous blog, of a brain tumor, is ruled out. It really had me terrified, I tried to stay sane for a week, with many tears shed while i was falling asleep at night So i'm happy to have the MRI done and the test results back, to relieve the stress.
So the optic nerve swelling isn't normal, so I'm being referred to a neurologist, to see what else it could be. My primary doctor said it most likely a condition called pseudotumor cerebri, which is a hormone related condition that can cause your body to make to much cerebral spinal fluid. We will see what he says and go from there...either way, its not a brain tumor, so that relieves my mind!

Lolipops...

This week I have alot on my mind, so this post is mainly for me to just get 'stuff' off my mind. To write my thoughts down without having to talk about them.
The last few days I have really been "looking" at my life and my family. I know most days most people go about their daily regimen and don't stop to think about all the little things that are in your life, I do this most days, however something happened this week that has me really reflecting on my life and everything in it. I'm trying to enjoy every minute or second of it. Last night my daughter wouldn't sit in her highchair to eat dinner, so I got to feed her every bite as she watched her "nochio" (pinochio) on tv. Last week if she wouldn't sit in her highchair....she just wouldn't eat. But this week, every bite I fed to her and watched her come at me with wide open mouth from across the room and I enjoyed every minute of it. She may not do this forever right!!
Well today... it really had me realize how lucky I am. Something as simple as a lolipop, is what really made me sit down and write this. I worked all day and stopped at the bank on the way home, and sure enough...the bank teller must have heard me say something to kiersten in the back seat...because she sent me my reciept....and a sucker for Kiersten. I know this sounds silly, but it totally reminded me of when I was a kid and they would send me suckers. We as kids used to beg mom to tell them we are here....we want a sucker. It was just something we looked forward to every time we went to the bank. I just had to giggle when this role was reversed and i'm now the mom...handing a sucker back to MY daughter. She loved every second of eating that sucker and begged me for another one when we got home. Unfortunately, She will have to wait until the next time we go the bank drive through. Hopefully this will be something that she remembers and one day will help her reflect back on life and remember that the smallest of things really really really do matter.
You may ask me why i'm writing this oh so sentimental post... Well I'm not going to go into details about the situation at this moment, Because i'm praying for it to be absolutelly NOTHING, however, It could be something huge that will change our lives forever.
Okay okay... i can't stop writing.
I went to the eye doctor and was diagnosed as having bilateral optic nerve swelling. I know so whats the big deal right. Well....long story short, optic nerve swelling is caused by increase in your intracranial pressure. I'm not going to elaborate on this.... you can look up stuff if you really want to read about optic nerve swelling. Anyhow I was referred back to my primary care doctor and I go see her this Tuesday. My eye doctor recommends that I have an MRI of my brain, and a lumbar puncture done to check my spinal fluid pressures! We will see with time what this shows. I'm trying to be posative and hoping that nothing comes of it, however I've also researched all about optical nerve swelling and there isn't many "good" things it could be. So i'm keeping my fingers crossed and will keep everyone updated as I find out more information. I'm praying for the best but fearing the worst at this time. I don't really want to talk about any of this, so if you see me and want to ask questions...fine but i'll probably get teary eyed...and i don't know much more about it that i've written her.
So thanks for listening... it always has helped me to journal about things and I mainly do this for myself. My online "journal" just happens to be public!!

New Program….

So call me crazy but I love finding a new program that works well with the blog and such.  First I found Live Writer…. a long time ago which i just type in on my computer…don’t have have the internet…and then I upload my blog to the blog site.  Makes it much easier and very user friendly….

But NOW…. i’ve found an amazing program made by google.  Its called picasa and is a photo editing program.  Anyhow as soon as I upload my photos to my computer from my camera… I can open picasa…which organizes my photos and i just select the photos i want to add to my blog…. and click “blog this” button.  And voila… my photos are sent to my blog site.  So what this means for you is that you will get lots more photos…but less writing…because it doesn’t let me write in picasa…which is fine cause everyone just wants to see photos anyways, right!?

Anyhow if you blog and haven’t tried this photo program… its a must have… you can get it online at google!

Happy 2nd Birthday Kiersten

Christmas with Kiersten 2009

The Holidays….

The holidays were SOOO nice this year.  We didn’t travel much, and I actually love it.  I know our families miss us on Christmas but it was so nice to wake up in our own house for Christmas this year!  I think we stayed home for Christmas last year but I don’t remember.  I was just so amazing watching Kiersten this year.  Obviously Christmas last year wasn’t as memorable…..she was so into Santa, the Christmas tree and the gifts this year.  Every morning it was so nice to see the joy on Kiersten’s face when she would say “lights” and point to the tree….she LOVED it every day that we turned the lights on on the tree.  She also loved to point to the Santa ornament on the tree and say tell us that it was “Santa”.  Christmas was definitely better with kids!  Can say that the holidays are so much more refreshing when kids are involved.  Hear is a picture of our family with Santa.  Kiersten would not sit on his lap by herself so we got a family photo…  And as you can still see…she was terrified!

Christmas Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

Once again, the holiday season is upon us. With that said, it means I have to write my holiday letter. I always said I wasn’t going to write this generic letter, however this is the 3^rd year I have written and I actually enjoy it. It makes me slow down for just a few minutes out of the year and reflect on where our family has been and what we have done throughout the year!

To start the year off in January, our daughter turned 1. We celebrated the occasion in Horseshoe Bend and it was an amazing event (that she will never remember J). All the family was there and it was a very nice get together. Thanks to everyone who came! This year, we didn’t have too many travel adventures! We only went down to Boise a few times, which isn’t nearly enough. We did get down to Orofino a lot for weekend trips, which is always fun.

Our most memorable trip down to southern Idaho was our 4^th of July camping trip. We had the most amazing time down there for 9 days! We camped and ate and ate, and ate some more!! Haha. The guys did salmon fish and we ended up bringing lots of fish home. George’s parents and brother and his family came up so we had all the kids together for a week. They really enjoyed each others company and Kiersten learned a lot from her cousin Carson, like how to fill her shoes with dirt and SOOO many great facial expressions. We had the luxury of staying in the camper that we bought last year, while the others stayed in tents! This year we went camping a lot and next year we hope to go even more! I could spend every weekend in the camper out of the city if we didn’t have anything else to do!!

In September we had a great time heading to Orofino for the LumberJack Days and County Fair. I have only been back during fair days once since high school graduation so it was something that I was looking forward to and also looking forward to taking Kiersten too. Kiersten got to ride many rides, the carousel was her favorite, and she got to see all the barn animals. She liked the cows the best and was scared of the snorting pigs!

On to some not so memorable events… In June Kiersten had to have surgery to put ear tubes in. She has had a ton of ear infections, and the tubes were such a blessing, however it was hard for her because she didn’t know what we were doing to her, and George and I felt horrible. With that said, just this last week we had to go back to the ear doctor for her 6 month checkup and found out that her left ear tube has already fallen out! I’m hoping that she will not have to have it again, but the odds I think are against us since she has allergies and she already has fluid behind her eardrum. We will see with time. Another slightly difficult time this year was when we moved her into a toddler bed in August. She loved it because she could get out of it anytime she wanted. At first it was hard to keep her in it but after the first few horrific nights she has become accustom to her new bed. She has now become an early morning person though, and I am not too fond of that.

I can’t write a letter without talking about hunting season. George had a great hunting season. He was down in Tensed almost every weekend. The camper became his weekend Home. He enjoyed every minute of it, although he didn’t get a deer. He did however go to Riggins with all the guys for one week, and he shot a bull elk down there. It must not have been very big, because has never bragged about it or showed me the horns. Either way it gave him plenty of GUY time. While George was gone hunting most weekends I stayed home with Kiersten and took up a long lost hobby of mine. I re-taught myself how to crochet again. I decided that I would start selling my crochet hats and it has become a busy little online business/hobby. It’s been a great thing to keep me busy, and George really liked it as well. Since I didn’t complain as much as normal about how much he was gone.

Beyond all those fun PLAY things we did throughout the year, we still have to work. George is still with Boise Cascade and really enjoys it. He took on selling a new product this year and has been traveling for work a bit more. He takes week trips into Montana every few months and he also got to visit Reno for 3 days this year. I am still working at Kootenai Medical Center, and I also really enjoy my job. I took on a new role at the hospital in the middle of this year, It is called Admit and Discharge Nurse. So I see patients when they first come into the hospital and get them settled in and I also help patients discharge out of the hospital on the day they go home. I really enjoy it because it isn’t as stressful as working the floor but I still get to do patient care and most of all get to visit with patients.

This year has been a busy year between work and play and watching Kiersten grow up. We have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it and I hope you have enjoyed yours as well. We are looking forward to what 2010 has to bring us and we want to wish your family a Happy Holidays! Take care and we hope to hear from each and every one of you throughout this next year.

Happy Holidays,

The Drakes

Wow…been a long time…

Okay, So I knew it had been a while since I shared our lives with everyone. However I didn’t realize it had been almost 2 months!  Time sure does fly these days!  Well the last couple months we have had some great time.  We spent a lot of the summer in our camper and loved it.  Still didn’t get to go camping at some places we wanted to.  We promised Bret and Tami that we would make it down to the potlatch area this summer and NEVER did.  I swear next year we will!  I really want to go camping down there and see where George spent his high school days!  I know silly but he talks about all these places they went growing up and I’ve never seen them, and I hate that.  Anyhow next summer, I PROMISE.
So as of my last post Kiersten got moved to her toddler bed.  She loves her toddler bed and she still sleeps through the night, which is great.  However, now that she can get out of bed on her own, and open the door on her own, she likes to come into our bedroom at 6:30 am.  I’m not so fond of that wake up time, since she used to sleep in until 8.  I am however getting used it! She is converting me to a morning person, if that is at all possible!  So with that said, I have a new found love… and that is French Pressed coffee.  If you haven’t tried it… do because its the best.  I have never liked drip coffee and I still think it is nasty!!
So in the last few months we have had a few doctors appt: First Dentist appt, follow up eye doctor appt, and of course the normal well baby checkups. I think I already talked about her eye doctor appt.  The doc said she thinks she will only have to wear glasses for another 18 months and we moved on to wire rimmed cute glasses. I’m sure there is pictures in here that I'll post!
Dentist appt. Kiersten's peds doctor was a little concerned about Kiersten’s right upper tooth because it hasn’t come in all the way…or its shorter than the other front tooth.  I’m glad to say that its only because she sucks her thumb.  The dentist wasn’t that concerned.  He did say in the future… we really will have to work at getting her off her thumb, (sounds like an addict haha)  Anyhow not now, its to dependable to get her to sleep haha.
Well baby checkups:  Not sure which ones we have had lately since the last posts…however she is growing up and doing fine.  She says a million words now!  Anything you say, she will repeat or attempt to repeat!  My favorite is when she says I Love ya!  It is the most adorable thing… I may have video footage to put on here I'm not sure.
In September, Kiersten had her first hair cut, and went to her first fair days in Orofino.  It was a lot of fun! And I have a million pictures from the fair.  She got to ride rides, and see all the fair animals!  She even would pet the pigs…well sort of.  Petting consisted of touching it really quickly and then running to the other side of the barn isle!  It was cute and a great experience for her. she really wanted to pet the cows…for some reason she loved them, but their butts were to the fence so we couldn’t .  We may have to visit Great Grandma Drakes house to see the cows next time in Boise. (i think they still have them)
Her first hair cut….haha I’m laughing just thinking about the experience we put her through.  So Grandpa has a ROBOCUT (flobee).  If you don’t know what this is…its a way to cut your hair with a cutting mechanism hooked up to the vacuum.  Okay that sounds crazy in itself.  However, It really does work!  At first, I'm sure she was thinking…wow these people are crazy. But after she got the hair cut she would go over to the vacuum piece and put up to her head like she was cutting her own hair.  She must not have hated it that bad!!  And it was great because it got rid of all her baby fuzzy hair and mom didn’t have to grab a pair of scissors.
Okay so now that I’ve wrote a book, we can get onto the pictures!!

 

Kiersten at the parade…

Looking at the pigs from a distance!!!

Finally got the courage to touch the pig!

Riding in the dump truck with grandpa at the OCI auction!

Horses were her favorites! But she also rode the wale, car, and rescue copter.

And now on to the haircut…

I forgot to get an After shot…but her hair is much better!! Not as fuzzy like baby hair anymore!

Big Girl BED….

So I think there are alot of updates…however the biggest and most important is that kiersten is now in a toddler bed!  She was sick again and before she got sick we thought about puting her in the toddler bed but the month long illness put going to the toddler bed off.  But now that she is better…we are doing good in the toddler bed.   The first couple days were a little tricky.  She didn’t really want to stay in it, it was more like a toy that she could get in and out of!  But now she is sleeping through the night (actually night time has been great from the beginning).  Its nap times that are a little tricky.  she gets up about 3 times before she stays in bed and sleeps…


So with Kiersten sleeping in her own bed…and able to get in and out…sometimes it doesn’t work out so well.  The other day I put her in for a nap.  She cried for a min but I figured she had fallen asleep. I waited 20 min or so and went to check on her and this is where she was… fast asleep!

Her newest thing is she loves to have her life jacket on…she runs into everything with it. Its pretty funny.

Oh her new words… I LOVE YOU! Sound more like “ i luuuhh  yaaah” but its cute!  She actually told me over the phone on my way home from work that she loved me!