Wordless Wednesday

Chew & Swallow

So, I have to eat my words this morning. For the last 11 years Shelby has been moving this box of junk treasured childhood toys all around the world and for the last 11 years I've been making fun of him for it. It's a box of old, dirty, half busted Transformers, Micro Machines, Ninja Turtles and other old boy toys from when he was a kid.

Over the last decade Shelby has insisted that one day our son will have fun with these toys. I have insisted our kid is not going to want to play with his busted up toys from 20+ years ago. We've agreed to disagree all this time.

So Colin is really into the Transformers movies right now and asks to watch them with Daddy all the time. So Shelby got his box of stuff out and started going through it this morning. Colin was far more excited than I thought he would be. He was dancing around the box saying "these toys for Colin?!" in his cute little innocent voice.

He sat patiently for a long time as Shelby pulled each toy out and brushed off the dust and dirt. Now Colin being excited doesn't mean a whole lot, considering the kid gets excited over a paper towel roll or a plastic bag if he thinks it's a toy for him. Despite the dirt the two of them had fun and Colin ate up the whole "Daddy's toys from when he was a little boy" thing. He kept saying over and over "These my Daddy's toys. My Daddy is a little boy just like me!" Daddy is pretty much the center of the universe in case you didn't know, Colin's whole world revolves around him. So Colin loved that the toys were from when Daddy was a little boy, just like him.


One good thing about this box of junk memories was Shelby also had lots of his baby teeth and some pulled adult teeth stored in an old film canister. Ewwww. I can't say a whole lot, I had my baby teeth in a cute little teeth container for several years and it's entirely possible they are still floating around here somewhere. I'm not sure if I finally tossed them in the last move or two or not. (Note to self, must toss baby teeth if discovered in packing process this time around.) BUT Shelby's teeth were full of silver fillings and were all beat up from being tossed around the box. So I took the opportunity to gross out my son and make it work to my advantage. I showed Colin the teeth and he didn't know what they were. I explained to him they were Daddy's teeth from when he was a little kid, and since he didn't brush them good twice a day, the sugar bugs got them and they all fell out and look how nasty they are. Colin was totally disgusted with this idea. So then I asked Colin if he was still going to fight and have a fit about brushing his teeth twice a day and his answer was no. We'll see if he remembers tonight when it comes time to brush before bed, hopefully it works!

The Goetzman Report

Can you believe it is almost MARCH? Seriously, this is ridiculous. I know I've been a bad blogger lately, so here is the latest in the saga of our life.

I'm officially off of sub status and on payroll as of last Monday for Sure Start (the DoD school equivalent to Head Start in the States). Even though I've been doing this job since November, October maybe even, I've been a permanent sub in the position until the girl I took over for could resign and the slow HR office processed that and then publically advertised the job (even though they had no intention of hiring anyone else) and then officially offered me the job. Once I accepted it they took another two weeks to actually process me in their system and start paying me as a full time employee instead of a sub. I didn't mind in all honesty, the sad truth of it is I made more money as a sub than I do in my new position. Funny they call it a promotion, my paycheck seems to make it look more like I was demoted! LOL I love my job though. It takes a special kind of crazy to teach 18 four year olds all day!

Shelby has changed jobs too, kind of. He's moved from controlling traffic to an office and is in charge of the training program for air traffic at this base. The hours are supposed to be nice, but I've yet to see an 8-4 M-F work week. It's kind of dumb they even put him in the position, since he has to move in a couple months, but I've already told you the military's theory on things that make sense. He's been busy getting settled in and straightening up some of the loose ends that he came in to. Hopefully his hours start to cut back and be more "normal office hours" soon.

Our last glimmer of hope for getting to stay here in Germany was our humanitarian request that we submitted a few months ago. We had been anxiously waiting to hear the decision and finally got it just recently. Aaaaaaaaaannnnd...you guessed it, another no. Basically they said my infertility is not their problem and no we cannot stay here because of it. Jerks. We realize it isn't their problem, but the fact of the matter is we have spent thousands of Euro on fertility treatments here and we have a relationship and are still working with the doctor here. To leave would be a huge loss. Additionally it costs the military an obscene amount of money to move us to another continent and pay movers on both ends to pack up our cars and crap and ship it across the ocean. So it seems win win to just leave us alone here for a while longer. But that makes sense, which pretty much means there is no way in hell our government would even consider such an idea.

So now we prepare to move this summer. To an island! Wait, before you get all excited let me explain. It's a tiny little island in the Azores called Terceira, which is one of nine volcanic islands about 900 miles west of Lisbon, Portugual. The whole damn island is 12 miles by 20 miles! The weather is pretty moderate year round with temps in the 70's and constant wind. The water is also pretty cold, so while you get to VIEW the beach every day, GOING to the beach is a whole different story. We are excited for the opportunity and know it will be QUITE the adjustment from living here in the heart of Europe. The travel opportunities will be much more limited than we are used to, but we'll find stuff to do. Shelby can't wait to take Colin camping and fishing. I'm looking forward to whale and dolphin watching. I'm not looking forward to cleaning out the house. We have crap everywhere. Seriously, no three people should have this much crap. My house doesn't look like an episode of Hoarders or anything, but I'm kind of a packrat. An organized packrat though. I have this illogical fear of needing something I have gotten rid of after it's gone. Case in point, baby clothes. I sorted through so many 2T clothes today and I love them all. It literally PAINS me to put perfectly good name brand kid clothes in a yard sale pile. My head tells me it is ridiculous to hold on to a ton of clothing that no one will wear for at least 2-3 more years, and to move said clothing around the world with us waiting for someone to grow into it. But the cheap ass in me hates to part with it for fear I might need it later on (you know like in 3 years!) and have to pay for it again. LOL It sounds insane when I say it outloud, but you totally understand, right?

Speaking of baby clothes...we are back on that roller coaster. After our failed October cycle we had to wait until December to try again with our frozen embryos. December was no good because we were going to be on vacation when I needed to be getting embryos transferred, so we decided to wait until January. January turned out to not be so good either with Shelby going TDY to Biloxi for two weeks and stuff, so here we are in February. On the 17th I had two embryos transferred and hopefully one (or both) of them will take up residence. This one looked really good, multi cell, nice even size cells. It's the one we are hoping will get the job done.


This one was not so good and likely didn't survive too long once placed in my uterus. It was only 6 cells, and you can see the large variation in the size of the cells, which is not a good thing. The doctor said this one probably will not make it, but they transfer anyway because you never know what will happen, and it's against the German law to destroy an embryo.

I can go for a blood test this coming Friday (March 2nd) so please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Should this round fail, we do still have two more frozen that we could transfer right away. Which is a good thing, but I'm hoping we don't have to use them until much later, like when it's time to start working on kid number three.

So that's pretty much the scoop on us at the moment. I've already pre-posted Wordless Wednesday for this week (it will show up right on time on Wed) so I promise I won't leave you hanging again this week. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Karate Kid

Today was Colin's very first karate class and he was SUPER excited. This morning in the car I was reminding him that after preschool today he would get to go to karate class. He asked me if Master Crane (from the movie Kung Fu Panda) would be there. He was very eager to kick and punch but had some trouble containing his excitement and sitting and waiting for his turns. He wasn't bad, but he wasn't a model student either! LOL

But I have an excuse!

I know, I missed Wordless Wednesday two weeks in a row...sorry. It's been a tad hectic around here. We've all been sick for weeks. Colin got a cold about three weeks ago and it has been hanging on pretty good. I caught it two weeks ago and this last week has been really miserable for me. Last week Colin's cough was awful so I took him to the doctor on Thursday to have him checked out. They said he just had a virus. On Tuesday morning he woke up at 5:30 AM crying his ear hurt and asking me to clean his ear and I knew he had to have an ear infection so it was back to the doctor that afternoon. Sure enough, sinus infection and an ear infection.

I was feeling like death myself the start of this week but it never felt like a sinus infection so I skipped the doctor. Tuesday morning Shelby woke up feeling really lousy too and very congested so after he took Colin to the doctor they both came home to rest and recover. Wednesday morning Shelby felt awful so he went to the ER. I had to chuckle a bit because I thought he was being a tad dramatic. I had been dealing with this awful cold and cough for a week and going to work every day (keep in mind my work entails 18 4-5 year olds!) and coming home to cook and take care of things as usual. Shelby wakes up with a bad cold and doesn't even have it 24 hours and hasn't worked since his symptoms started and went to the ER. When they sent him home with cold medicine and told him he had a cold he was ticked, and I refrained from saying "I told you so." Thursday he could barely get out of bed or open his eyes the pain and pressure was so bad. Today he went back to the doctor who determined he does have a nasty sinus infection and now he's on an antibiotic and hopefully will be on the mend. I started feeling slightly better yesterday, and today I'm feeling a little better than yesterday, so I think I'm moving in the right direction. As a result of all this sickness we haven't been doing anything fun or photo-worthy. My February photo file is virtually empty! So my apologies for the lack of updates and photos, there hasn't been anything good to share.

We have been keeping Kleenex in business this month!


Shelby's stash of meds...


The current supply for Colin and I....pitiful!

Freebie

I forgot about Wordless Wednesday...sorry! I'm sick, Colin is sick, and I've not accomplished too much this week. Here is a picture of Colin and I making Valentine goodie bags for my kiddos at school. He loved helping me put the candy in the bags and was very good about not eating it. :)

Knock Out

Colin has finally been doing well here and there at school and getting more stamps on his behavior chart. Today he earned his 8th stamp, which gets him a trip to the toy store to pick out a new toy. Since he was getting to choose a toy, Shelby and I went together to pick him up from school so we could all go to the store. We showed up right as his teacher was about to call us to let us know that he had just been hurt. The kids were playing and he and Miss Amanda's daughter collided. Colin's teeth v Lily's head and Lily's head won. Amanda said there was a terrible noise and then blood and now Colin's two front teeth were wiggly. He barely cried until he saw us, then he played up the drama. Despite the blood he didn't seem too bad, but I wanted the ER doc to check him out just in case. Off we went to the ER and the doctor said he'd be ok. They don't really seem to be too concerned about baby teeth, not nearly as concerned as me anyway. She said it didn't appear to have damaged the adult teeth up under there and he didn't appear to be in too much pain like it had done nerve damage or anything. She said in time the gums will firm back up and the teeth will wiggle less. She said they also may turn grey (say WHAT?!) and that is normal. Let's just hope that doesn't happen! I should mention I've been wanting to get family pictures taken in the snow by this particular red barn since last year. Our lack of snow this year has made it impossible to have them taken and I had JUST made an appointment for tomorrow since we had a little bit of snow the last few days. Of course I had to cancel pictures because I didn't want a fat lip in them. So we spent our Friday evening at the ER, then hit up the toy store (because you KNOW my child did not care if he still had teeth or not as long as he got his toy), I blew my diet on Captain D's for dinner. Way to kick off the weekend!

BTW yes I know his teeth look gross in this picture, I let him get away with a very pathetic, gentle brushing this morning since I'm sure they are sore.

Wordless Wednesday