So Long Derby, Introducing Pearlie

My precious Derby finally had enough of my crazy driving and gave out last week. Of course this had to happen when Ryan was at state wrestling in Salina and I was in Wichita, 35 miles from home. Thankfully a co-worker felt pity on me and gave me a ride home. Derby has been a great car and will leave me with many precious memories. We brought her home in 2001 with just over 28,000 miles. She gave out in 2009 with almost 189,000 miles. She has been through a nasty hail storm that broke out the windshield and left many scars. She survived being rear ended by some nut in Wichita, and by me and Ryan in the driveway (the huge dent in the side occured in our driveway). She has seeen many places in her day and has carried many people, but my most precious memory is bringing home our baby girl from the hospital.
If luck will have it Derby will be up and running again in the near future and at that point I hope to find her a new owner that will adore her as I did. If you know anyone interested let me know. She is a real gem; a diamond in the rough.





I wasn't much in the mood to car shop because I really didn't want to replace Derby. I let Ryan do the researching and was pleasantly surprised with the results. I test drove a 2006 Grand Prix and decided she would be a fine work car. She has some big tires to fill but I think Pearlie is up for the challenge.

Augusta highlight

Augusta has a very nice park and walking/bike path that Madelyn and I frequent in the warmer temps. Last week Madelyn and I took advantage of the warmer weather and went for a walk/bike ride. I walked Jack (or more like he walked me) and Madelyn rode her bike. About 1/2 way into our walk the wind changed to the north and it became quite chilly. We had to cut our walk short and head to the house. Madelyn didn't even get to play at Play Park Pointe and that is usually the highlight of her bike ride. I'm sure we will be going back again soon with spring quickly approaching.

The view on our walk




Madelyn and Jack, our wonder dog. He is short but makes up for it in weight.

Thank goodness for this convenience. It is inevitable at some point on our walk Madelyn has to use the bathroom.

Puzzled

Madelyn really enjoys putting together puzzles and recently her Gramma Muhlig discovered this and bought her a 100 piece puzzle. Ryan, Madelyn and I sat down yesterday evening to work on the puzzle.

This is what the completed puzzle is supposed to look like:


But this is what our finished product looked like:


And the other pieces were not in the box and nowhere else to be found....hmmm....that is puzzling.

Love you Gramma Muhlig!!

Valentines and P/T conference

Madelyn's school Valentine party was this past Wednesday since the kids are out of school Thursday - Monday. I went to help out, as I do with all the parties. The kids enjoyed opening all their Valentines, eating a sugar high breakfast of donuts, cupcakes, candy and Kool-aid and then story time. The party started at 8am and I was heading out the door by 9:00am. Short and sweet.





Thursday evening Ryan and I went to Madelyn's parent/teacher conference. Mrs. Olson had nothing but good things to say about Miss Madelyn. She said that Madelyn is learning how to read and will soon be learning addition and subtraction (seriously, I don't think I learned that stuff until 3rd grade). We asked about her talking too much because a couple times a week Madelyn comes home and reports that she got in trouble for talking. Mrs. Olson said that she doesn't talk any more than any other kindergartner and when she asks her to be quiet she always obeys (is this my kid?). I guess Madelyn just likes to tell on herself. Mrs. Olson said that Madelyn gets along with everyone and is kind to all the kids. At recess Madelyn plays hard with the boys and sometimes the girls. Mrs. Olson said that she still enjoys all the stories that Madelyn tells about her family and she can tell we do lots of fun things with her. We were very pleased and proud to hear all good news at the conference.

Valentine's Day - Madelyn bounds into our room just before 8:00am and wishes me a Happy Valentine's Day. I asked her to let me sleep in a little longer, so she runs into the living room to find her Valentine surpise. I hear "WHOA! AWESOME! COOL!" Which was her reponse to the Valentines her daddy picked out especially for her. She then comes running back into our room to report what she got (as if I didn't already know). She then brought me my Valentine that she picked out just for me. I was quite pleased with my beef jerkey, heart shaped tin full of hershey kisses, and purple glitter nail polish. I asked her to give me a few more minutes of sleep and she kindly obliged. Then I was reminded of the nerf pellet gun her daddy got her for Valentine's Day when I hear something hitting our bedroom door over and over. That was the end of my sleeping in.
Madelyn and I spent our Valentines Day going out for lunch, to pottery class and grocery shopping. Ryan spent his Valentines Day with a bunch of testosterone raging wrestling boys. I would say I got the better deal.

Economic Crisis

In a society where many people are trying to keep up with the Jones's the economic crisis is hitting people hard. Budget cuts are happening every where and people are getting laid off every time we turn around. People's houses are going into foreclosure because they can't make their monthly payments. Banks aren't able to give out loans to every Tom, Dick and Harry that applies.

We too have felt the ill effects of the failing economy. As someonne that works in the social service field and is married to an educator we know all too well how the failing economy works, as these fields are usually the first to take the cuts in Kansas. We are grateful that we both continue to be gainfully employed.

We are not a wealthy family, and never will be, we live comfortably, but that is because we (mostly Ryan) have worked at it. We live in a modest 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house (that I refer to as a cracker jack box), that will be paid off in six years. We have never purchased a new vehicle and we always pay our vehicles off within three years. I actually drive a car that has over 187,000 miles on it, although she looks like a derby car, she faithfully gets me to and from work. We have the cheapest cell phone without all the fancy bells and whistles and we have the most basic cable offered. We do not use credit cards unless they can be paid off the next month or we get 0% financing and we have it paid off before that ends. Our savings accounts, IRAs and Madelyn's college are always paid first.

I'm sometimes envious of people that have the huge houses, fancy vehicles, cell phones with all the bells and whistles and other cool toys and gadgets. I look at them and wonder how they are doing it when I know that some of them make the same or less than us. Then I'm reminded that we are not the norm, we are a small majority of Americans that live within our means. It is sometimes hard to swallow when people have all the fancy, cool stuff but can't afford to pay for it and that is one of the causes of the current economic crisis. Too many people live beyond their means and too many people rely on credit to live. The economy was bound to take a plunge eventually. I just hope it doesn't bring us down with it.

.......Stepping off my soap box.

Ground Hog Day

It seems like the last few weeks we have been living the movie Ground Hog Day. We seem to be doing the same thing over and over. Nothing too exciting has happened in the last few weeks. This is usually how our weeks go....
Sunday - Church, grocery shopping every other week, maybe some house cleaning and family time.
Monday - work and used to be gymnastics class every evening but Madelyn traded in her leotard for a swim suit. For now, anyway.
Tuesday - work and Madelyn's swimmning lessons at the Y.
Wednesday - work and then Church night. Madelyn goes to Awana from 6:30-8:00pm and Ryan and I and another couple go out for dinner and drinks. Although the past couple weeks I have not gone because I haven't felt the best.
Thursday - work and then usually a wrestling meet, if it is at home or relatively close.
Friday - work and then out to dinner with friends or just us three. However, this Friday Ryan was at the Rose Hill wrestling tournament so Madelyn and I were in Rose Hill after eating out.
Saturday - Sleep in as long as Madelyn lets me (usually by 8:00am she is waking me up), maybe clean house, spend quality time at a wrestling tournament, and Madelyn's pottery class. Ryan usually gets home late from the tournament so Madelyn and I have a day for just the girls. If there is a good movie out Madelyn and I usually go to a movie. We have been to almost every animated movie in the theater since she was two.

Then Repeat.....

Only One??

As a parent of an only child I often receive comments or opinions about choosing to only have one child. Most times I don't feel like getting into details of why we chose to only have one child and ignore their comments and move on. But, there are other times when I feel like I need to defend our decision. The thing is I think it is rude of people to push their opinions about why I should not have an only child when quite frankly they have no clue of the reason.
Well today all my blogging friends get to hear my explanation.
To give a little bit of history, Ryan and I dated for quite some time before we got married. All the time we were dating neither of us wanted kids; it just never was a strong desire for either of us. Well, about two years into our marriage I changed my mind. I guess my maternal clock started ticking. It took a bit of persuading but before long Ryan was on board with having a child too, one child, not multiple children.
We were blessed to get pregnant quickly but unfortunately the first two pregnancies ended in miscarriages. Both, were equally devestating to us. After numerous doctor's visits, being poked and prodded and genetic testing it was determined that I had a progesterin deficiency. I had to take progesterone supplements the first trimester to maintain a pregnancy. Thankfully our third pregnancy was a success, however, not without a few bumps along the way. The first trimester I had to get my blood levels checked every two weeks to make sure my hormone levels continued to rise. Around 20 weeks into the pregnancy we chose to have the AFP blood test, which is just a screening to determine if our baby had a risk of having Downs Syndrome or Spinal Bifida, among other birth defects. Unfortunately the test came back positive for Spinal Bifida. My doctor ordered a level II ultrasound to take a better look at our baby. We had to wait almost two weeks for that appointment and it was the longest, most stressful, worrisome time of our lives. We prayed, and prayed, and prayed to have one healthy baby. On January 9, 2003 (that date is forever engraved in my mind) we went to the level II ultrasound with a great fear that something may be wrong with our baby. Fortunately God answered all our prayers and we were told we had a healthy baby girl. Later on in the pregnancy I developed gestational diabetes and had to monitor my blood sugars several times a day and adjust my diet accordingly. Towards the end of the pregnancy I was scheduled for several non-stress tests to see how well our baby was doing inutero and how well she would handle delivery. On May 29, 2003 our baby girl decided to make her grand appearance on our 4th wedding anniversary. The labor and delivery didn't exactly go smoothly to say the least. But in the end she was worth it all.
We knew we had been completely blessed to have the one, healthy baby girl we had prayed for. We know we can't make deals with God, but he gave us what we asked for so why would we want to tempt fate? That being said, despite the fact that the pregnancy and delivery were extremely stressful for us that is not the only reason we chose to have only one child. We also know that we can provide much more for one child than we can multiple children. Madelyn doesn't lack for anything, especially our time and attention. She is one very well loved child.
People have made comments that we are being selfish by not providing her a sibling and that it isn't fair that she won't have a brother or sister to lean on if something should happen to us. Well, there are no guarantess that siblings will have a great bond and are going to be lifelong friends. I could give you several examples where that is the case. Also, if something tragic were to happen and Ryan and I were no longer here I have complete faith in our immediate family to provide Madelyn with the love and support she will need. I also believe Madelyn will have very dear friends in her life that will be there for her.
I often times get the "itch" to have another baby, but that itch is only for a baby. I love babies and if they would stay that way forever I would have twelve of them. But quite honestly I'm not a huge kid fan and sweet, chunky babies grow into sassy, frustrating kids. Also, Ryan is very adamant about wanting only one child. Although he changed his mind about not ever wanting kids, I know my limits. We are a family of three and that is how it will be....

And why would we want another one when we already made perfection(quit rolling your eyes!!!).