Saturday, December 27, 2008

Japan-Day 9

View Photos Here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mommydanna/JapanDay9?feat=directlink

With only one day to go before we leave for the big ski trip, Gracie is on day three of a 102.5 degree fever. John and Karen's doctor speaks really good English (in fact he trained at Yale in the US) so we decided to take Gracie to see him. We took Gemma along as well because her cough was not sounding too good either and I was a little nervous about giving her the over-the-counter cough medicine, especially since I couldn't read one word on the label and had no idea how much to give her!

The doctor's office is tucked away on a narrow street packed with shops and markets. Karen had to drop us and wait a half an hour for a place to park. The doctor's office was very busy with lots of sick children so the receptionist was really thrown off when we just walked in with no appointment and no medical cards! They were very kind however and after I filled out some paperwork and declared that I was going to be a "cash customer", they were able to create charts and make room for both girls.

We waited in the lobby for about 45 minutes and when they called our name we were led past a curtained doorway and asked to remove our shoes. We were all provided with slippers and asked to be seated again while we waited our turn. When we finally got in to see the doctor I was relieved to hear him speak very clear English. He got right down to business, we discussed their symptoms and he asked me "what I wanted to do"! So, I told him I wanted an expectorant to thin the fluids so they could have a more productive cough and I wanted antibiotics for Gracie in case whatever this was turned bacterial on me. I told him she had only had one antibiotic in 8 years and that I wanted to let the fever do its job for another day or two but that we were going on a ski trip into the mountains and I wanted to have the antibiotic with me in case she would need it. I asked him what he thought about that and to my surprise, he totally agreed with me! He recommended letting the fever go another 2-3 days! He asked me about Gemma and I told him she had NEVER been on an antibiotic and I didn't want one, I just wanted the expectorant. He checked her out and agreed that was all she needed. He wrote out the prescriptions, we paid our bill and went on our way! Obviously I was VERY nervous about going to a doctor in a foreign country but it turned out to be a very positive experience!

In Japan, people where a mask when they have a virus so as not to infect others. Our kids had been coughing so much we were worried we were offending people in public so we purchased some masks from the drugstore and tried them out. Luke loved his but Gracie didn't like the smell of hers. Personally I think it's a great concept that should be used in the schools for grades K-4 when kids are less efficient at covering their mouths! I think I will buy a box or two to take home and perhaps we'll start a new trend at St. John school!

Friday, December 26, 2008

Japan-Day 8

View Photos Here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mommydanna/JapanDay8?feat=directlink

The kids and I had a pretty quiet day today. Gracie has come down with flu and spent the entire day in bed with a fever. I helped Karen get her new I-Touch up and running, as well as her new terabyte hard drive and USB port replicator. We installed I-tunes and Picasa and made some practice runs at uploading and syncing music.

Scott ventured out with John on a 15 mile bike ride (one way) to a local brewery. They bucked some serious cold, head winds on the way out but then flew home after enjoying a nice lunch.

Gemma took some pictures at the grocery store with her new camera. She was fascinated by all the fish.

I stopped at the drugstore and had an interesting experience trying get help finding some medicine for Gracie. The shelves are stocked so similiarly to a US drugstore that you can practically find the product by location and the color of the packaging. Once I got into the general vicinity I was able to ask the pharmacist for a recommendation on brand and ingredients. The Japanese can take their children to a doctor for free for the first 5 years so they don't tend to buy over-the-counter meds at a drugstore. Consequently, there isn't much of a selection but I was able to find some "vicks type" chest rub and what I "think" is an expectorant!

I also picked up some Japanese baby food snacks. Again, it's amazing to me how they have such similar "concepts" but totally different products and manufacturers. So it's not like they have Gerber baby food with a Japanese label, it's almost all totally different, just organized in a similar fashion. You do see some US brands (the big ones) but not as many as I expected to see.

Japan-Day 7 Christmas Day

View Photos Here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mommydanna/JapanDay7ChristmasDay?feat=directlink

Japan-Day 6 Christmas Eve

View Photos Here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mommydanna/JapanDay6?feat=directlink

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Japan Day 2-Jet Lag Sets In

See photos here:http://picasaweb.google.com/mommydanna/JapanDay2?feat=directlink
We woke up early again today (4am) but Scott and I did not feel right. When I described my symptoms (off balance, weak, headache, fluish, drowsy) Scott informed me that THIS was "jetlag". I felt so great the day before but several people warned me that the effects of jetlag usually set in a day or two after arrival. I'm glad I had the warning because otherwise I'm afraid I would have thought I was dying from some strange Asian flu!

After breakfast, Scott took the kids to the park across from our house and I stayed behind to clean up the house. Later, Karen picked us up and took us to downtown Tama to a local Soba shop for lunch. This is John and Karen's favorite local "hole in the wall" spot for great food and it was AWESOME! I kept thinking "if we were regular tourists we would never have found this place"! I loved listening to Karen, John and Shawn speak Japanese to the locals. John finally had to look up how to say "little brother" so he could introduce us.

In the restaurant, an older Japanese man was completely enthralled with Marshall. He took him from Shawn and held him the entire time we ate. They don't get to see little bald, blue eyed "Gaijin" babies in this neighborhood very often!

After lunch, John, Shawn, Scott took the kids to the park near their home and Karen and I went shopping in downtown Fochu. THAT was quite and experience. I was so amazed. The Japanese are just as exploited by product marketing as we are! They have their own pop stars, their own popular cartoons and their very own Japanese Disney characters. I was also struck by their fashion trends. They are similar to the US trends in some ways yet so different in others.

I wish I could explain the parking deck at the mall. It was the most futuristic thing I've ever seen. In Japan their is no space so everything has to go up or it has to go down. After driving about 4 stories underground we parked in a little space that reminded me of driving into a car wash and then the van was whisked away and filed like a record in a juke box!! You can see a video of a similar one here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB1N68KYZ7E

Everything in the grocery store is HALF the size of things in the US. Boxes of cereal, packages of bacon, boxes of laundry detergent, packages of toilet paper..etc. Even the shopping carts and the silverware! But guess what I DID NOT see??? Overweight people! I mean never. Once in a while you might see a slightly chubby person but never a morbidly obese person. It really made me wonder what about this culture keeps them thin? Is it portion sizes? Is it the fact they walk and bike more? They seem to have access to plenty of processed junk food and there is no shortage of carbs (they eat rice with every meal!). Karen said that as more and more US fast food restaurants open up (McDonalds, KFC, etc) they are starting see more overweight Japanese.

After shopping we had a nice dinner at John and Karens and our whole family crashed on their couches until 6am when John brought us back to our house.

Friday, December 19, 2008

First Day in Tokyo

View Photos here:http://picasaweb.google.com/mommydanna/JapanDay1?feat=directlink

Flights all went really well.

Very short connections....de-icing the plane in Omaha almost made us miss our flight in MN......plane was late into Portland but luckily so many passengers were flying to Tokyo they held the plane for us.

The first thing we noticed was that almost everyone on the flight was Japanese. The next thing we noticed was that everyone was so quiet on the plane (mostly Japanese)....Scott explains that when you put 125 million people into an area the size of California but they can only occupy 20% of the land because of the mountains, people are forced to respect each others space.

Airplane bathrooms are amazinglyl clean.....no wet floors (from male drips) or pee on the seats. People actually wipe the sinks after themselves.

Half way into the trip I looked up at the GPS monitor and noticed we were flying over Anchorage Alaska (my birthplace) and it was -75 degrees! I started to get a little stir crazy at about the 7 hour mark.

Every seat on the plane had "on demand" video with games, movies, maps, shopping etc. Wouldn' have even needed the IPods!

Japanese passengers loved Marshall. Kids did REALLY well.....took walks around the plane, watched movies, ate, slept to pass the time.

Got right through customs-they didn't even open our suitcases! NWA lost one of our bags (the girls clothes) but it arrived 24 hours later.

JOhn picked us up at the airport and we took a 90 minute bus ride though downtown Tokyo to Cho Fu train station and Karen met us there with their van. The house we are staying in is owned by The McBrides (teachers at ASIJ) and is very large and "American" by Japanese standards. Mary and her husband were heading back to the states for the holiday but we were able to meet her and get instructions on the house.

There is no furnace in the house, just kerosene heaters in some rooms. Sliding doors in every room to keep heat in...so hallways and staircase are very cold! Heated toilet seat in master bath-bonus!! Floors are very cold.

First night Luke got the "seal barking cough". Gemma got up at 1am and couldn't sleep so I ler her watch a movie and went back to sleep with Marshall. Everyone else was up by 5am.

We spent the first day at ASIJ.....kids participated in Aunt Karens' gym class-4 times!! Luke attended the kindergarten class and Gracie went to the 3rd grade class for a while (Gemma stayed behind to be a helper for Aunt Karen). We all met for lunch in the school cafeteria where I discoverd that they are vermicomposting! They composted almost 2 metric ton of trash last year. There are 6 tumbler type bins behind the gym. The project is being managed by one of the elementary school class rooms.

We met lots of kids and had fascinating fun "interveiwing" them to learn what nationality they were, what other country they had a home in and where they were going for Christmas break. Gracie made a friend in 3rd grade who happens to live just a couple houses away from where we are staying. She was thrilled when the door bell rang later and "Daniella" invited her and Gemma over to her house to play!

Had dinner at John and Karens house (saw their house for the first time)then karen took us home on her way to pick up Shawn at the train station. Everyone woke up at 2am again but we were able to get them back to sleep until about 4am. The first day we felt great but the 2nd day Scott and I are really feeling the "jetlag". Felt like I was getting the flu! I am simply amazed at how hard it is to stay awake in the evening!! I fear we will hardly remember our first night at John and Karen's house.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Almost Packed!

Whew!....I was feeling a little light headed and I then I realized I haven't sat down YET today! Just when I was patting myself on the back about how everything was falling into place and how I might actually get us packed up early.......I was greeted this morning by projectile vomit and "pink eye"!!! The vomit was compliments of Marshall and Luke has come down with pink eye (which he decided to share with ME!) For some reason I'm sitting here smiling and not really feeling very stressed. Go figure!

Our plane leaves Lincoln in 33 hours. Scott is totally packed (of course), I am 75% packed, the girls are 50% packed and I haven't started yet on Marshall and Luke. Oh yes and we have one entire suitcase full of Christmas gifts and things for Karen, 100% packed! We purchased three new suitcases for this trip and I'm feeling tonight like we should have gotten four! The good news is the weather in Tokyo will feel like a heat wave compared to Nebraska. Apparently our "deep freeze" made national news because I got a call from Marcy in Florida asking if we were OK (tongue in cheek of course)! This morning's temperature was -4 with a -27 degree wind chill. Tokyo is in the 50's and 60's during the day and 40's at night so that will be a welcomed change!

We had a wonderful Christmas dinner last night with Scott's parents and our nephew Shawn out at the farm. Arlene served dinner in the dining room and afterward we opened presents so it really felt like Christmas. It was nice to have that time with them before we leave.

By the way...I still don't have my laptop back from the big crash so can't post any photos yet. Maybe John will let me upload a few on his computer in Japan so I can share some photos with you while we're there.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Count Down to Tokyo!

Gemma left a large magnet sitting on my laptop for several hours and it completely erased my hard drive!!! Consequently, I haven't had much access to a computer (I'm typing now on the kids' "slower than molasses" PC- I see now why they are begging for a new computer!).

I've been wanting to get on here and announce that we are going to spend Christmas in Tokyo, Japan this year!! Most of you know Scott's brother John and his wife Karen have been teaching at the American School in Japan for the last 30 years! They have a home here in Seward they enjoy for about 10 weeks in the summer and 2-3 weeks at Christmas time but otherwise they LIVE in Japan. Scott's been over a couple times and lived there for 6 months as a student teacher.

We've often talked about visiting John and Karen but could never decide on the best time of year to do it. Well, THIS is the time!! We are leaving on December 17th and will spend Christmas and New Years (and our 11th anniversary) with them and return on January 2nd! The big bonus is that Ben and Shawn (our nephews) are going along as well. Shawn is a student at Concordia here in Seward and Ben attends Wichita State in KS. This will be traveling "home" for Christmas break for them.

By the time we pulled the trigger and purchased the plane tickets, the one-stop flights were sold out, so we first fly an hour and a half to Minneapolis, then 3 hours to Portland and then 12 hours to Tokyo!! Between flights and layovers the trip will take approximately 19 hours. Then with the 15 hour(ahead) time difference, we will actually be arriving into Tokyo at 4pm the next day!

Our children are well traveled but they've certainly never taken this long of a trip. Heck I've never flown this far! So we'll load up the I-Pod and the I-Touch with movies and bring playing cards and checkers and storybooks and whatever else we can think of to entertain ourselves....and then just PRAY! The good thing about traveling with 6 people is that we'll pretty much take up an entire row on the airplane, so at least I won't have to worry about my 10 month old crawling across some stranger's lap!

We've decided to ask Santa to come to our house in Nebraska and just make a quick stop in Japan with a present or two since we won't have room to pack all those presents and bring them home on the airplane!! And that will have to do because with the value of the dollar weakened against the Yen, there will be no last minute Christmas shopping in Tokyo!

And by the way, because of this trip you will NOT be recieving a Christmas card from the Seevers this year. I'm hoping to send out "Happy New Year" cards at the end of January!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Home From San Fran

The WAPF Conference was awesome!! To my friends back in Ohio.....did you know the 2009 conference will be held in Chicago?? Remember, you don't have to be a member of the WAPF to attend! (I'm talking to all you Farm-To-Table friends!) Reserve November 12-15 on your calendars now!
It's taken me a whole week just to settle down and begin processing all the information. Between the many lectures, the information at the vendor booths and the conversations at the meal tables, it was ALOT to take in!! On top of all that knowledge was time spent visiting with old friends and making new friends. We dined 3 times a day at tables of 10 so there were always fabulously interesting new people to meet.
Gracie did wonderfully and would often rush me through the meals so she could get back to the children's programs. She was in a different room than Marshall but would frequently check in on him for me. I was very proud of how mature and outgoing she was. Gracie also impressed me with her poise and her courage all weekend as we navigated through the airports, the cab rides, the subway and the city. I couldn't have done it without her!
Our roommate, Sue Kirkpatrick, from Lincoln, NE was a gem. Not only was she a GREAT roommate (lots of fun and easy to be around) I consider her a new friend. We have a lot in common and I look forward to seeing more of her and meeting her husband Tom.


Here we are at the Rainforest restaurant on Fisherman's Wharf.

This is Aunt Karen's mom, Marilyn. She drove herself downtown, parked in a parking garage and walked about 20 blocks to Chinatown to meet us for dinner. After a wonderful meal and two glasses of wine she shopped with us, showed us around downtown and then walked back to her car. What's the big deal you ask?? She'll be 85 years old in May!!

Here is Gracie on the subway train at 11pm at night!! After a $56 cab ride to Fisherman's Wharf we decided to take the $5.35 train back to the hotel!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

San Francisco Here We Come!

This time tomorrow evening Gracie, Marshall and I will be having dinner at the Empress Of China in downtown San Francisco! The Empress of China is lauded internationally as one of the world's most beautiful Oriental restaurants and is located in the largest China town outside of Asia.

We are traveling to San Francisco for the 9th Annual Conference of the Weston A. Price Foundation, which we have been members of for the past 7 years. This year's conference is titled "Life In Its Fullness: Nutrition for Mental and Emotional Health". Doctors, nurses, nutritionists, dietitians, parents, students, food writers, food providers, farmers, public servants, teachers, patients, activists and agriculture professionals gather from all over the world to learn the latest on a variety of health and healing topics!!

The conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency near the San Francisco airport. We're excited to be sharing a room with a fellow WAPF member from Lincoln, NE (Sue Kirkpatrick) whom we met this past summer.

Gracie will be participating in a new children's program that will run concurrently with the adult daytime sessions. We hope to visit Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 on Sunday afternoon. Karen Seevers' (my sister-in-law) mother lives in San Francisco and has graciously offered to be our tour guide. Looks like it will be in the high 60's each day!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

School Photos

The school allowed me to bring Luke and Marshall on picture day. This gave us 4 nice photos with matching backgrounds! This is the last photo of Marshall's "gummy smile". His two front teeth erupted almost immediately after these were taken.
Luke-4
Gracie-8 1/2
Gemma-6 1/2Marshall-6 months

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Thursday, October 23, 2008

The Drakes and The Worms!

Some good friends of ours from Ohio visited recently, you may have seen their RV parked in our driveway for a few days. Jonathan, Heather, Nadine (3.5) and Samson (8 mo.) Drake are "shopping" for a new hometown. Fed up with the rat race of urban Cleveland living, they recently quit their jobs, sold their house and all their material possessions, bought a really nice RV and decided to spend the next year of their lives traveling the country in search of a small community that is more in line with their values.

After I picked my jaw up off the floor and they answered a thousand of my questions I was truly inspired by their story. After they left I stumbled onto a video that really affirms their choices and convicts some of mine. You can see it at http://www.thestoryofstuff.com/. But beware, you may end up with a stomach ache after watching it like I did!

The Drakes are fellow members of the Weston A. Price Foundation so it was an absolute pleasure spending three days with people who eat the exact same way we do! I will rendezvous with them again in November at the foundation's annual conference in San Francisco. You cannot imagine how it "fills my bucket" to be with people who understand our lifestyle! And even though I introduced them to the dietary principles of the WAPF, they have actually embraced them and incorporated them to a larger degree than we have!

Oh yeah....so now about the worms. Heather and Jonathan eat totally organic and had been composting all their kitchen trash for their garden back in Ohio. The method they used is called "VermiComposting" whereby you basically feed your scraps to some pet worms and they happily poop out some of the most nutrient dense fertilizer on the planet. When they were ready to leave Ohio they decided they could not leave their loyal "vermies" behind and decided they would compost all their kitchen scraps even while traveling in the RV.

Now I've since learned that Vermicomposting containers should have very little to no smell and are always kept indoors during the winter in colder climates. So it wasn't totally absurd to think they could manage these critters in the RV. However Jonothan apparently forgot to tell Heather she was supposed to "bury the scraps" as opposed to plopping them on top each time and an annoying smell ensued. After much discussion the Drakes decided to part with their little vermicomposters here in Seward and so the Seevers are the proud, new owners of an organic WORM FARM!!

Now don't laugh because if I can keep them alive, you'll be calling me next spring for some black, earthy-smelling, nutrient-rich, organic fertilizer for your garden!







Sunday, July 27, 2008

Scott's Press Release


Check out the nice article on Scott at the Concordia University web site at http://www.cune.edu/about/5297/topstories/13140/.
I LOVE this picture of him!!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Tennis Camp



The girls really enjoyed tennis camp this week. I was so proud and excited to see them enjoying the sport I love so much! It makes me want to dust off my rackets and get back out there. I think Gemma and I are ready to take on Scott and Gracie! Luke wanted to do camp really badly but they didn't have enough 4 year olds so he had to sit out this session.



















Sometimes Gemma likes to "day dream" while waiting for her turn.













Gracie demonstating the art of "ball pick-up".








Excellent follow through!! 2009 Cornhusker Games 10&Under Girls Champion?

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Chickenpox-Update

Good news! We got the lab report back on Luke and he DID in fact have the chickenpox! The doctor called and explained that the spot he chose to swab must have been a bug bite! Marshall is scabbing over quickly so hopefully we'll be able to get out in public by the 4th!! Whew! Glad that's over!

Monday, June 30, 2008

Chickenpox

Luke had some spots a few weeks ago that Grandma and I thought were surely the chickenpox but the Dr. said they more likely bug bites infected with impentigo. He even sent a "swab" off to the lab but it came back negative. HOWEVER, two weeks later Gemma developed the same type of spots covering her entire body! There was no doubting in this case. Then about a week after Gemma, baby Marshall developed a hand full of spots and is currently in the active phase of his virus. Gracie had one vaccination for chickenpox so we don't expect her to get it. Meanwhile we took Luke in for the IgG Antibody titer to see if perhaps he did in fact have the chickenpox a few weeks ago(we all think he must have). We are still awaiting that result to determine for sure if we are done, or if Luke is next!

As a family who chooses not to vaccinate, the chickenpox is an event met with mixed emotion. On one hand we are relieved to have the virus while the children are young and we'd rather have it in the summer when the kids don't have to miss any school. On the other hand, there is no convenient time to be quarantined. The week of 4th of July when cousins are in town would not have been our first choice.

The good news is that the infections have been a breeze. Gemma only had two restless nights and barely acted sick during the days and Marshall is maintaining his happy disposition, seeming hardly bothered.

Making the decision not to vaccinate our children was by far the most difficult decision we've faced as parents so far. We are so grateful to Dr. Sherri Tenpenny of Middleburg Heights, OH (Cleveland area) for her guidance and support. We thank her for her boundless energy and her tireless and courageous effort to encourage parents to make an informed decision about vaccination! Learn more about her work at http://www.sayingnotovaccines.com/.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Scott Is Changing Careers!!

Well, after 10 years in the medical industry Scott has decided to make a huge career shift. Effective July 1st he will be the new "VP of Enrollment Management, Student Services and Athletics" at Concordia University here in Seward! (http://www.cune.edu/)

As many of you know, Scott left teaching in 1998 to start our company, Galaxy Medical Products. After 6 successful years of growing Galaxy, we sold three fourths of that company to Universal Hospital Services (http://www.uhs.com/) in 2004. We hired Brian Emich of Copley, Ohio to run the one fourth of Galaxy that we kept, and Scott joined the UHS team to help assimilate and further develop the Bariatric and Specialty Bed product lines.

Scott enjoyed 4 exciting and successful years at UHS traveling all over the East Coast and Midwest, but with the arrival of our 4th little one and the promise he made to himself in 1998 (to eventually return to Lutheran education) tugging on his heart, a career change became imminent.

Scott is just thrilled to be returning to his alma mater at such an exiting time in the school's history. The position will be a new challenge but as with all things, I know he will be hugely successful! The timing of it all was amazing and most certainly part of God's divine plan for our lives. And the kids couldn't be happier to have Daddy home every night for dinner and bedtime stories!

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Colorado Trip April 24--Click here for photos!

So, I'm about 5 weeks post partum and feeling a little hormonal right?. I kept saying "one of these days we're going to get in that van and just head West! I was crawling out of my skin and needed to get away. Scott was out of town on business so I called him and asked if he could get a flight into Denver instead of home into Lincoln. I proposed that the kids and I would make the 7 hour drive over to Denver, pick him up at the airport and head up into the mountains for the weekend. He agreed so after I researched a place for us to stay in Estes Park, I started packing for all 6 of us!

So the 7 hour drive turns into 10 because I have to stop and nurse Marshall every so often but Scott's flight was delayed into Denver so we still made it with time to spare. So much time that we headed into downtown Denver and paid the Cherry Creek Mall a visit. Whoa!!! What a mall. I've decided Denver is my new favorite city!

Estes Park was incredible and we can't wait to return. The Rocky Mountain National Park was just what the Dr. ordered for my foggy post partum brain! We had a fabulous time and returned home feeling refreshed!

Gemma's Kindergarten Class Video

Be sure to click on "Watch In High Quality" for a better picture!

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Norm Schulz

You'll notice to the left I've started a new label called "Only In A Small Town". This is a place to file all the things which have happened to us since we moved here that have made us say just that. And I mean this in a positive way. I only hope I can remember everything from the beginning because I'm sure we're already taking some of them for granted.

So here is my latest......Today I was trying to call Union Title. A man answered what was obviously a cell phone so the conversation went something like this, "Hello?". I say, "Oh, I'm sorry, I must have the wrong number". He says,"Well who are ya tryin' to call?". I say, "Union Title in Seward". He says, "Oh, well let's see, I think they have a new number now". I say, "Mmmn, they left me a message today and this is the number they gave me". He says, "No, I'm pretty sure they have a new number....hold on here, I think I have it". (as I'm fighting the urge to just hang up the phone, I look it up in my own phone book and realize I did mis-dial by one digit).....so I say, "Oh, I see here in my phone book, I did mis-dial by one number." He doesn't hear me say this because he's off looking for the number! Finally he returns with the number and I interrupt him and say, "Ah, ya know sir, I'm sorry, I looked it up and I did mis-dial by one digit. I'm so sorry to bother you". As I'm about to hang up again, he says, "Oh that's OK, this is Norm Shultz and I'm just out here at the lake.....it's no problem at all!". So trying not to laugh out loud, I say, "Thank you sir, you have a good night"! I'm not sure I know Norm Shultz, but he sure sounded like he knew me!

You see, when I dialed a wrong number back in Ohio I would usually say, "I'm sorry, I have the wrong number" and just hang up the phone. But you can't do that in a small town because #1-everyone has caller ID now and #2-there is a high likelihood that you'll eventually run into Norm Shultz in church on Sunday! :>)

Monday, March 24, 2008

Happy Easter!











After church we had a very nice day at Grandma and Grandpa Seevers' house. Grandma cooked a fabulous meal and Scott hid eggs outside for the kids to hunt.










Monday, March 10, 2008

Marshall Is Tongue Tied???

OK.....so after 3 weeks of suffering with sore nipples I'm just beside myself. This being my 4th kid, how can I possibly go see a lactation specialist? How embarrassing!! But today was the last straw. He was absolutely killing me! I knew something just wasn't right but I couldn't figure it out. So today I packed up Marshall and drove to Lincoln to see a lactation specialist who also happens to be an MD. She took one look at Marshall and said, "Oh, here's the problem....he's tongue-tied!"

You know that little piece of skin under your tongue that connects your tongue to the bottom of your mouth? Well, in some babies that skin is so short or so far forward, it keeps the baby from getting the right "latch", causing severe nipple pain and inadequate milk production. So, before I could say "boppy pillow", the Dr. took Marshall and snipped his little "frenum" (it's called a "lingual frenotomy")!!! The procedure was really fast and I think he was more mad about being swaddled so tightly than the procedure itself. Afterward, the doctor immediately put him back on my breast to soothe him and because the sucking helps stop the bleeding. I never did see any blood.

It was simply amazing. He latched right on and I could immediately tell a difference. I couldn't wait to get home and nurse him again to make sure it wasn't a fluke. I am sooooo relieved! The moral of the story??.....That toe curling nipple pain IS NOT supposed to last beyond the first week!! If it does, something is not right!-even if it is your 4th kid! See a lactation specialist!

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Scott Turns 41!

Scott turned 41 today! He said all he wanted for his birthday was an in-the-ground basketball hoop for the driveway. So knowing nothing about basketball hoops (or basektball for that matter) I set out to find him one.......3 days before his birthday! (I was a little busy with Marshall up until then.)

After an hour of frustrating internet research (did you know basketball hoops range in price from $400 to $4000?!) I enlisted the help of Scott's cousin, Phil. He recommended the Bison brand name and a place called "Scheels" in Lincoln. The salesman from Scheels quickly helped me select a model over the phone and by noon on Wednesday I'd bought a basketball hoop I had never seen!

I was pretty proud that I was able to negotiate same day delivery. I thought for sure everything would fall into place and I could have it in the ground before Scott returned from his trip. I called our landscapers and asked if they could send someone up to dig a hole and pour some concrete. There was one small problem.......the ground is still frozen and a winter storm was on the way. Uggh! Details, details....

Oh well, the kids did a great job decorating the boxes in the garage and Scott was thrilled anyway. He'll tell you he's glad it worked out this way because now he gets to select exactly where it will go on the driveway! Oh yeah....more details. :>)

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Link to Album of Marshall at 2 weeks

Here is a link to see an album of Marshall at 2 weeks and 2 days!! He's changing so fast! Who do you think he looks like?
http://picasaweb.google.com/mommydanna/MarshallAt2Weeks

Here are some more misc. photos including the girls ready for "crazy hat and sunglasses day" at school:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mommydanna/MiscKids

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Marshall-Day 11 My First Blog Post


I finally figured out how to set up a blog so this will give you a chance to peek in on the Seevers family at your convenience! I will try to post some updated photos soon so check back!
Marshall is 11 days old today and still sleeping ALOT! I have to wake him for almost every feeding. The only time he cries is when he's having his diaper changed and sometimes when he's getting a little "too much" attention from his siblings. Gemma wants to know why he stops crying whenever Mommy picks him up.
Scott is back to work this week but won't travel until next week (thank God!). He did such a great job of taking care of ALL of us over the past week, I wish he could be home all the time. Although it did help that we had several gifts of meals delivered by family and friends!

The girls are just crazy over Marshall but fight constantly over who held him last, who held him longer, who gets to hold him next etc... Meanwhile, after being potty trained since age 2, Luke has suddenly begun wetting his pants during the day. It's a loud and clear "hey, what about me!?"
As for me, I'm recovering slowly by my standards but feel a little stronger every day. My workout partner, Laurie, is patiently waiting for me to return to our exercise routine. I'm trying to figure out how I will nurse a baby every 3 hours for the next 8 weeks, put three meals on the table, be taxi to the girls, fulfill church obligations, be a companion to my husband, work out, keep up with laundry and clutter and not park my 3- year old in front of the TV!! I guess standards will be dropping at the Seevers house for a while!
Here are some photos we took at the hospital: