October 4, 2009
Fall has arrived in Arizona. Fall is a big deal in Arizona because when you go through a summer of Arizona heat, the fall is a very welcome season. We have already planted the winter grass and gotten out all the fall decorations. We are all happy to be enjoying the cooler temperatures. We broke down and had some professional pest control people come out and treat the house to combat our ant problem. It seems to have worked. We haven’t seen a single ant since they came.
It has been over a month since Lori’s surgery and she is doing well. Lori went back to see the surgeon this past week who lifted her restrictions. Lori can now do whatever she wants as long as she uses common sense and it doesn’t hurt her back. Lori is going to remain off work for one more week and then go back to work with half shifts the week after that before returning to a full day. The doctor said it is not good to wait too long before going back to semi-normal activities. The doctor also said that Lori is not going to be able to go back to lifting heavy things or doing any very back stressing activities for the rest of her life.
Lori took a trip to Target all by herself yesterday and drove for the first time in a long time. She said it was weird to be able to drive and to go some where all by herself.
Very Vayden
HAPPY BIRTHDAY VAYDEN!!
Our little Vayden has been with us for a whole year. It is hard to believe. It is also hard to remember life without her in our family. She is now a little one year old. Vayden is settling back into her normal routines. She had a couple of really clingy days with Karl and would not let him even set her down. She is walking all over now. She often plays in her own little world moving things around and talking to them. She now gets scared by some loud sounds. For instance both Lori and Karl have called out for Christian when he was in another room and she was startled and ran crying to the nearest parent. A sudden sneeze or other unexpected noise can startle her too. We have started using the DVD player in the Sequoia as means to keep Vayden happy in the car. She seems to really like watching her videos while driving. This is evidenced by her screaming when we have to park and the DVD player goes off. It came in real handy on Friday night when we were returning from going to dinner and doing some Halloween shopping and go stuck on the freeway for over an hour do to a “police situation” up a head of us. That most likely would have been an hour of crying but not for the DVD player since Vayden does not like to hold still in the car. Her father can relate. After an hour of standing still on the freeway, Karl wanted to throw a tantrum too.Our little Vayden is going to be a bee for Halloween. Vayden shoplifted a refrigerator magnet this week. We were looking at them and Vayden must have pulled one off and it fell into her stroller. We found it the next day in the back of the Sequoia where it must have fallen out of the stroller. We bought her a bunch of animal refrigerator magnets to go on the upstairs refrigerator in the loft. She loves pulling them off an even putting them back sometimes.
Vayden still enjoys going to Chase field. Karl, Christian and Vayden went to a Saturday game to collect some Mark Reynolds bobble head and Vayden went with so Lori could rest. She is a hot dog loving, hand clapping, loud little fan who seems to enjoy and feed off the crowd’s excitement.
Completely ChristianChristian and his Badgers lost last week to the Horsemen 18 to 12, but won this week against the Jr. Devils. While on defense, Christian recovered a fumble and secured a turnover for his team. This week Christian was issued a duffle bag by his team with the team logo and his name on it. He is pretty jazzed about it and wants to take it to Indiana on his upcoming trip. Christian recently got a free puzzle at a Diamondbacks game and now has an interest in puzzles. We bought him a couple puzzles and set up a folding table in the living room to work on one of them. It seems that his parents are now addicted to trying to complete a 1000 piece puzzle and Christian has lost interest.
Family Stories
The Smell
Lori likes to tell this story and finds this one entertaining. Karl has a pretty sensitive nose. Given its size, I am sure no one finds this surprising. Karl is sometimes bothered by cleaning solutions or some of the fragrances Lori uses to make the house or her car smell good that no one else takes offense to. One particular day Karl continued to smell a foul odor that smelled like poop. It was ever so slight and he could only get a wiff of it now and then. Throughout the day Karl continued to smell it. He would smell it in different rooms and it was driving him crazy trying to locate the source. He could not determine where it was coming from. Because he continued to smell the odor wherever he went he thought to check his shoes, he washed his hands and finally took a shower. He went back to work at his desk and the foul scent returned. Because the scent was slight, no one else seemed to be smelling it and Karl though he was going crazy.
That morning Karl had taken Roxy for a walk. Roxy did what she always does on a walk, she pooped. Roxy can have just pooped right before we leave on a walk and regardless she always takes the opportunity to poop again on a walk. Karl was wearing cargo shorts that particular day and pulled out the zip lock bag and paper towel that he carries for just such and event. There was nowhere to throw the poop away at the time so he put it in the side pocket of his cargo shorts. He then carried the zip lock bag with him all day. After he showered he put back on the same pair of cargo shorts. It was not until Karl had been pestered by that slight stink the entire day that he finally realized where the smell was coming from.
Note from the Editors
Be sure to check out the photo addendums attached to this week’s edition.
