a flag and a salute...

My first head cold of the year has arrived. I don't have much of a voice, so I've been telling Isabella for the last couple days that she has to be a really good listener because it hurts my throat to talk. This has prompted her draw many pictures to "help me feel better". The last one, was in her words, a picture of me after I fell down and spilled coffee, and there was bleed (blood) everywhere. How comforting. 

All four of Isaac's appointment last week, went really well. He is going to have a tonsillectomy on Tuesday of next week. The plan is that he will stay one night in the PICU and one or two nights on the recovery floor. I've heard that recovery from a tonsillectomy is horrible. But really, can it be that much worse than having your skull cut open and put back together? I guess we'll find out. 

His CT scan was perfect and his skull is looking very good. I finally got a chance to see all of the many pins in his forehead--kinda cool. 

Just for some added fun, I gave in and agreed to let my mom take me to urgent care Thursday night. After four days of an on again, off again migraine, I couldn't take it anymore. And by that I mean, I missed book club to go to the doctor. Desperate times call for desperate measures. The doctor told me, "I looked a bit dry", I wanted to assure him that I use my Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizer every day, but he didn't seem like one who is receptive to sarcasm. I got an IV full of a lovely concoction. I've never been drunk, but I'm pretty sure the way I felt, was close enough. Then, I threw up in my mom's car. Awesome. Now, a note to all of you people with clean cars: guess what, you're car would have gotten vomit all over it. But my mom's car was stocked with grocery bags, so we were good to go for several more rounds of puking. Thank you very much. 

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Some people may think this is really weird, but, I took pictures at my grandpa's funeral. There were at least one hundred and fifty people there and I knew my grandma would want a way to remember all of it. Also, people don't tend to talk to or hug the person holding the giant camera. And that made it much easier on me. I definitely didn't want to talk to anyone and I don't like hugging people I don't know. 

I just finished watching season one of Downton Abbey, so I'm into fancy up dos right now. I should have taken a picture of the back because I received many compliments on my hair.  

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After ballet, Isabella said, "Mommy, I think I'm changing my name to Ariel. Even though I'm not a princess." 

Isaac made his own little play corner. Don't ask to borrow a book. I don't let people touch my books.

Isaac started saying, "bub-ble"! He also started saying, "ma-mum"...remember, that's all I hoped for? Now that's pretty much all he says. And he tends to yell it at me.

signing, "bird"...

A few more thoughts concerning The Bachelor: 


--What is with running and jumping on your boyfriend every time you see them. If you do that, you're weird. Although, maybe I should try it. I'll take a running sprint down the hallway and jump on Walter when he gets home from work tonight.
--How can one say, with a completely straight face, "this is my boyfriend, Ben", when you know he's dating three other women?

And lastly, I'm now blogging for Andrew, so check out his blog at, Grooms Are People Too.

life goes on...

I so desperately want to be in Columbus this week. My grandpa's funeral isn't until Saturday, and unfortunately, Isaac has three major appointments this week, all of which we've been waiting several months for, so I can't reschedule them. Tomorrow morning he has a CT and MRI, which will require general anesthesia. I wouldn't typically be nervous about these but Isaac is unpredictable when sedated. He's on a three day steroid treatment to help in avoiding another laryngospasm. Wednesday morning, we meet with a new ENT and I will not leave that office until we have a tonsillectomy scheduled. I'll be annoying and follow the doctor around and sit next to him while he eats lunch and whisper in his ear, "tonsillectomy" over and over again. Then, Friday morning, we have an appointment with the plastic surgeon to review the CT results. Today we went to PT. It was rather unpleasant. Apparently a break from therapies has not had a positive effect on Isaac. Last week at speech he sat and stared blankly at the wall with his mouth hanging open, and at PT he just cried. It was fun, let me tell ya. A few hours later he had a tantrum about something, not even sure what, and screamed so much that he threw up. Yep, it's been a fun day. Oh, and in between all of that I got a migraine. I'm better now, but I can't wait for Walter to get home. 

Two pictures taken by Josh

Right about now, I'm feeling sorry for Strawberry Shortcake...

And right about now is when I'm going to make a confession. I watch The Bachelor. I know, that's really lame of me, but I can't help it. I've made some interesting observations...

-I just want to know, is it a rule that the girls wear bikinis? I mean, really, does anyone know? Because, I'm just thinking, if I'm going to jump out of a helicopter, into the ocean, I don't want to have on a bikini . 
-What is the deal with wearing a scarf while on a tropical island? That is so weird! Who does that? It's hot and humid, and you're wearing a scarf. That doesn't make any sense to me.
-Add to the scarf craziness, extremely short, shorts and dresses. Would you want to ride a bike with a short skirt on? Not me.
-Maybe I'm just jealous, but doesn't it look like all the girls this season have breast implants? By the way, I'm totally not jealous, I've had my taste of bustiness from pregnancy and breastfeeding, and I'm happy they disappeared, or, as Isabella announced loudly, in the bra section of Nordstrom, I got new "nurshes". Leave it to your four year old to state the obvious.
-The obsession with helicopters is a little insane.
-What is up with deciding you can accomplish anything together just by jumping out of a helicopter, off a bridge, off a mountain, etc. You name it, they've jumped off of it. And they all say the same thing afterward, "Now that we've jumped off that ridiculously high (insert object), I know that we can do anything together. This means that our relationship will truly survive and we're meant to be together." Sure, keep telling yourself that.
-How boring is Ben? Has he said anything remotely interesting this whole season?
-Did you see the girl last week who was trying to coach Ben through their first kiss? What was up with that? I mean, we all know, the first kiss is forgettable, at best, but just get it over with and move on to the good ones!
-I am surprised, once again, that twenty-five women can instantly fall in love with one man. Something just isn't right about that.

Okay, now I need to go finish the episode from yesterday.

'bout half

This morning my grandpa's long fight with pneumonia, lung disease, and congestive heart failure ended. Just a few weeks ago, he and my grandma celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary. Can you imagine being married for sixty years? And they weren't even tired of each other yet!

I'm really close with my grandparents. My sister and I used to spend a few weeks each summer at their house in Columbus. Every year, I couldn't wait for those weeks. They were the best. I spent countless hours sitting on their front porch reading. My grandpa sat there too, just watching the world go by. And every Friday night he'd say, "Sierra, are you going to yard sales with me tomorrow?" "Yes, I'm going." "Well, you better get up early." My grandpa definitely did not believe in sleeping in, especially on yard sale day. My sister and I would climb in his truck and we'd drive up and down High Street, yelling out signs for yard sales.

My cousin Nikki would come over and stay with us too. That's when we would really drive grandpa crazy. We had water fights that somehow involved us running from the back door of the house, through the house, to the front door, and off the porch to attack someone. He didn't appreciate the trail of water we left behind. Then we'd go upstairs and play with the adjustable beds that former Governor Rhodes handed down to my grandparents (my grandma worked for the Governor for many, many years). We loved pushing the buttons to make those things go up and down, up and down. And my grandpa, who was inevitably downstairs watching TV, would yell, "you girls better quit it!"

I call my grandparents a lot. I used to call them more often, when I didn't have to time phone calls around the happiness of my children. Every time I talked to my grandpa, I'd ask him how we was doing and he'd say, "Oh, 'bout half." Every time. I think I'm really going to miss hearing that.